Adventures in Guangzhou!

Of course things in China are never easy so my directions from the train station turned out to be slightly inadequate. That's what a tonal language does to the unsuspecting! Steven managed to fetch Ellen wandering around the university next door as I went off to play basketball. (On a side note, we had our first bball home game of the spring last Friday and it was less than stellar. I would go so far as to say that we got our tushes handed to us by a bunch of guys who were bigger, faster, and better passers. I had class so I had to leave midway through the 4th quarter but as we were down by 28, I didn't feel inclined to stay for the conclusion. I hate losing. I really do.)

The illustrious Meggie Lu is officially back in Guangzhou after some minor surgery and organized a welcome-home dinner at a Taiwanese shabu-shabu place. For thos of you not "in the know," shabu-shabu is like hot pot, except that the meat is so thin that it cooks in about 15 seconds. It's great! Anyhow, I dragged Ellen out to dinner with us to meet some of the crew and to try some Chinese-style hot pot. Dinner was fun but I found it really interesting talking to Meggie about her time recovering in Taiwan.

A couple weeks ago the President of Taiwan made major headlines here in the mainland when he decided not to renew Taiwanese participation in the reunification council, a group dedicated to bringing Taiwan officially back into full mainland jurisdiction. His decision to abandon the council is almost akin to a call for independence which, in turn, is obviously a very dangerous proposition and quite the incendiary move in the eyes of Beijing. The China Daily, the state-sponsored English newspaper covered this and it was all over the television as well. They made it out to seem like people in Taiwan were up in arms about the President's decision and that citizens were very unhappy with the move, going so far as to vigilently protest the action. Riiiiight.

I asked Meggie about the actual response and she had no idea what I was talking about. That's right--people in Taiwan either didn't care, weren't concerned, or supported the move all the way. The Chinese media strikes again! I don't doubt that a majority of people in Taiwan would be happier with full autonomy. Though Taiwan used to be part of China a little over a hundred years ago, at this point there are very few people with any connection to the mainland. People don't have family, they don't have any known history, and they don't have the same feeling of Chinese nationalism that pervades the mainland. My students are all adamant about Taiwan being part of the mainland (in fact, a large number of them don't even realize this is in contention), yet none of them have any good reasons for why. Someimes I wish they could get a more informed opinion. Personally, I am of the mind that the citizens should dictate their own fate. It's kind of like the U.S. and England. Sure, we used to be English and had major ties back to the "homeland," but 100 years after the Revolutionary War, one of the only things in common was the language (and even that was evolving).

Anyhow, Ellen managed to survive three days here in the chaos of Guangzhou (chaos compared to Japan, anyway) and had very interesting comparative insights into my life here. She was a big hit at English corner, attended a few of our classes, and even celebrated her quarter century mark over some Thai-ish food. Happy Birthday once again, Ellen! And best of all, she gave me the most incredible gift a guy could ask for: the first 12 hours of Season 5 of 24. I am officially caught up with the exploits of the toughest man on television and would like to go public with my man-crush on Jack Bauer. If I had to pick one fictional character to go to in a time of crisis, it would definitely be him. In fact, I'd probably pick Bauer even if it were only to have a beer. He's the man. Of course now I am dying to know what happens in the rest of the season but I guess I'll have to deal...

In other news, I had my first major instance of a sports-related injury here in China. Playing basketball on Thursday I went up for a rebound and came down right on my teammate's shoe. I immediately rolled my ankle and went down in pain. Youch. I got up though and tried to walk it off. It didn't seem to be too bad so I decided to try and keep playing. Though I couldn't switch directions very quickly it seemed okay. Later that night as I was watching the resurrection of Jack Bauer back to CTU, my ankloe definitely swelled up quite a bit and I couldn't walk on it. Frozen peas to the rescue! I iced it for a while and it seems to be healing okay. Note to self- quite playing basketball in running shoes and go buy a pair of more appropriate footwear.

Finally, I am back to square one with the new roommate situation here. Apparently the first guy PiA selected turned down the post (!) and so now they're looking for someone new. Though I suppose everyone's situation is different, I am suprised that anyone would apply for a post and then decide not to do it. Who knows. Their loss though--Guangzhou grows on me more and more everyday, especially as my Chinese continues to improve (SLOWLY, but steadily). I can't believe it's now April as well. What happened to March? Either way, I am continuing to go about my business here and have another Chinese test coming up. Gotta hit the books...