Adventures in Guangzhou!

English Festival- So back in the beginning of April was the English Festival here at Hua Fu. There were huge banners up around the school encouraging the study of the language ("Lets all become fluent English speakers!!") which were accompanied by a bunch of lanugage contests. These ranged from the run-of-the-mill essay competition to the much more creative English-movie dubbing competition. Steven and I were invited, i.e. required to be judges for these events which was just fine, especially because I was unable to judge most because I was teaching. The one I did get to go to, however, was the drama competition. The kids had to write and perform a play in English. They were judged on overall quality, costumes, pronunciation, and staging. It was pretty darn interesting but I felt super uncomfortable for two reasons. One, there was one bizarre production that was taking place in 18th century Prague and involved an evil "Jewess." I couldn't understand any of the plot so I spent the entire time trying to think of the last instance in which I heard someone referred to as a Jewess. Two, in about three different plays the students made various references and allusions to Brokeback Mountain. Now I can't say that I wouldn't have made a few gay cowboy jokes myself if I had been in the states when this came out, but these kids really don't understand or respect the concept of homosexuality at all. It's a all a big joke and I was shocked at how the administration didn't bat an eye at the kids mocking gays so blatantly.

Passover- Back around the middle of April was the Jewish holiday of Passover. I decided that I wanted to have a seder, the festival meal, at my apartment and so I invited all my friends over. I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out but it was a smashing success. I literally cooked for two days and gained a new respect for Jewish mothers all around the world. And I gotta say, I was pleasantly surprised with both my matzah balls and charoset. Yum! Anyhow, I was the only Heb around so I was pulling solo on all the songs, but my friends got into it in ways I never imagined. Lets just say that their dramatic re-enactment of Chad Gadya was priceless and that Diana is still happily referring to herself as the Angel of Death. And Ilana--I made sure to point out the section about Rabbi Jose.

The Key Incident- About a week later I came back from class and found my cleaning lady locked out of my apartment. Strange, given that she has a set of keys...and was holding them in her hand. I was feeling a bit under the weather and wanted nothing more than a bathroom and bed but I was denied. In some strange course of events my keys did not open the locks either. Eventually Steven got back and his keys didn't work either. Bizarre, huh? After about an hour of poking and shoving the door we got the school office to send a few people out. It took somebody pretty much kicking it down while also drilling the lock off to get it open. Of course the second it opened, my key worked just fine. What?! I have no idea what happened but the whole thing was strangely suspect. Was someone from the school in there? What would they have been looking for? So weird. Anyhow, they replaced the lock and it was fine. I, on the other hand, was not. It turned out that I got food poisoning and spent the next 12 hours in my own personal hell of vomit, fever and hallucinating sleep. I guess it was bound to happen at some point but I was just surprised that it didn't happen in the first week but rather in the 7th month.

James- James, PiA-er from Singapore came through Guangzhou the next week to catch up with us China kids. James is a great geat guy and it was a lot of fun to catch up with him. It blows me away that actually left for his post the day orientation ended last May and has thus been away for a almost a year now. He has had a great experience though and highly recommends Singapore. It is now on my list of destinations. His visit also made me realize that I've been away for a while. We realized that they were doing teacher training back at Princeton at the same time we were eating our lazy lunch. That means that new PiA-ers are well on their way to heading overseas and that we are no longer newbies to the abroad experience. It's a little crazy to me that my first year is winding down already. More on that later...

Vacation- I just finished an amazing 7 day vacation in which I never even left the city of Guangzhou. Some of my friends went to Vietnam, others to Hong Kong, but I opted to stick around and be as lazy as I wanted to be. Kelly and I decided to focus on food and cook elaborate meals everyday and it was a huge success! We made gnocchi from scratch (thanks for the recipe, Lauren!), slow cooked ribs, made guacamole, chicken soup, wasabi mashed potatoes, bruschetta, rasperry vinagrette baked chicken, and several other tasty concoctions. I also watched a score of movies and have recently gotten myself addicted to the Sopranos. Since I have to wait for the second half of season 5 of 24, I opted to become immersed in the life of Tony Soprano. While it nowhere near as addictive as 24, it is an awesome show that is well acted and well produced. Good stuff.

Chinese- My Chinese class has dwindled back down to 2 people given the recent Canton Business Fair and that's just fine by me. Nancy and I have been working hard and we now conduct class almost entirely in Chinese. I finally feel like I am progressing and my recent test results confirm that feeling. I have also gotten the official go to study Chinese this summer in an intensive 8 week program up in Beijing. I will be a full time student this summer and I am very very excited. Call it the inner dork in me, but I can't wait to really dive in full time on the language. I have high hopes to return at the end of the summer as a very competent speaker. Wish me luck!

Home- After jawing back and forth with the school administration a bit, I finally got the go-ahead to head home for a couple weeks. They let me out of teaching a couple of weeks early and so I will be making a brief appearance on the East Coast at the end of June. My schedule is a little rough right now but I think I'll be in CT June 17-22, NYC 23-24, DC 24-25, Boston 26-28, and then MV for a day or two before heading to Beijing. I would love to see anybody and everybody so gimme a shout!

Thoughts- I have no idea when my internet will be up and running again so I just want to remind people out there that you can always reach me on my local number: 860-967-3764. I hope all is well in the various corners of the globe...