Adventures in Guangzhou!

Feb 10-12: Steven and I got invited out to the outskirts of the Panyu district by one of Steven's students for a weekend at their new house. Biggest revelation here? The suburbs do exist! I saw actual houses, strip malls, and open spaces (possibly scheduled for future construction but whatever) which was very cool. We were treated like kings by the family and had incredible food, including an all-you-can-eat buffet with food from almost every continent of the world. I think I had 7 plates of rack of lamb while Steven ate some exotic bugs. Seriously.

February 19: Happy Birthday, Dad! Can you feel the impending excitement of Spring Training??

February 20-23: My students received letters from the students of my good friend and current history teacher, Lauren Giunta. We spent this week talking about what they would want to tell/ask American middle schoolers and I had some very interesting responses. More than a few proclaimed that they wanted to write about the evils of Japan. Great. So, of course, I forced them into an impromtu discussion about how many times they've been to Japan, how many Japanese people they know, how long it's been since Japan invaded China, and other questions along those lines. I think it would be naive of me to think that I completely changed their minds, but I did get them to at least refine their statement to, "I really dislike some members of the Japanese government." Baby steps...

February 24: We had our first away game for the soccer team this evening and it was nuts. We traveled to some school about an hour across the city and had a nice solid game. About 10 minutes into the game the foreign teacher from their school, an Englishman, substituted into the game amidst roars of support from the entire student body. Thinking it was only appropriate, I was assigned to mark the kid on defense. I'd like to think it was because they had more confidence in me to guard him than anyone else, but really I think they just thought it was funny. Anyhow, we were tied 0-0 going into the second half when I got substituted out, replaced by soime older senior member of the administration. Pete, the Englishman, promptly proceeded to score a goal on their very first possesion. I was pissed. I got back in the game about midway through the half and we were down 2-1. I was terrified that I had killed a Chinese man with about 5 minutes to go when I slide tackled on a free ball (totally legal) and absolutely took out one of their strikers. He was slow to get up and I thought he was done for but it was all good. We ended up losing 3-1 but more than made up for it by drinking ourselves into oblivion at the banquet afterwards. Pete and I sat together and chatted, eventually getting up to make various toasts around the room. When I got over to toast the other team, the guy I slide tackled made me drink two beers. On the spot. Lets just say we were a rowdy bunch during the ride home.

February 26: I saw an incredibly ridiculous commercial for some new gimic here that made me crack up. Basically they are marketing a device where you stand up on a treadmill-looking thing that vibrates really really fast. Supposedly the vibrations will make you lose fat and tone muscle just by standing there and shaking vigorously. All I know is that it looks absurd and I can't imagine anyone doing it. Just go out for a run, for god's sake!

February 28: Blood, and lots of it. No, not mine, but one of the dudes I play basketball with got wrecked today and it wasn't pretty. I taught a bunch of the guys here how to hold the ball with two hands on a rebound and establish your pivot foot in order to create space when you're double teamed. Well, one of the bigger guys was doing this and caught his defender on the nose with a swift elbow as he was turning. The guy dropped and was bleeding everywhere. Meanwhile, everyone is just staring at him, crowding him on the floor. In broken Chinese I tried to get everyone to let him breath and I ran and got him a towel. It turns out he was fine and that it wasn't even broken, but you could tell that everyone was in shock. Much like my slide tackle though, it was legal and it's just part of the game. It does remind me though that sports can be dangerous and that I shouldn't go nuts playing recreational bball.

March 6: I am a student again! It didn't take too long, though I am surprised I managed to go 8 months without being in class. I get bored when I'm not in class--sad, but true. Anyhow, I registered for beginner's Chinese at the university next door to my school and today was the first class. I was a bit surprised to only have one other person there on the first day, but that's just fine by me! Since then we've had 3 other guys add in, but it's still a nice small size so there is quite a bit of personal attention. I'm a little bit disappointed that the class is focusing most on speech but it will certainly be useful. It just means that I have to make sure I am diligent on my own to learn characters or else I never will. So far, I think I get a B+ for my pronunciation and tones and a D+ for character recognition. It's so hard, it really is. Anyhow, for three days a week, two hours at a time, I am officially a student once again.

March 8: My friend Meggie had to leave to go back to Taiwan for surgery. Hope you're okay Meggs! We miss you in GZ and hope to see you back here happy and healthy as soon as possible.

March 9: Modern technology is absolutely amazing. I don't know why it took me this long to figure it out, but for a small fee, I bought myself an 860 number (that's Connecticut for all those of you who aren't fluent in New England) that I can forward to my China cell phone. That means all of you now have NO excuse not to call me! Put me in your cell phone as "Holy crap, this calls Ari?" with the number 860-967-3764. Just remember that there's a 13 hour time difference. Ahead.