Adventures in Guangzhou!

June 22, 2007

Wait...What Just Happened?

Woah. Two years has officially come and gone and I can't even begin to try and write about everything going on right now. I took an amazing trip to Korea that I have yet to blog since it's been so hectic. I taught my last day of class today and over the course of the week had four different students break down crying that they'd miss me. I have packed up everything I can to take home. I have given out a number of gifts and received even more thoughtful presents from others. I am taking off tomorrow morning for Sichuan Province and Tibet and will only have 24 hours in Guangzhou at the end before returning to the States around July 20th. I'm about to shut off my computer for the last time in my apartment so, for now, this is it. I plan to blog my Korea trip from earlier this month, the trip I'm about to take, and then a couple of entries about re-entry to the States before shutting down this project. It's been a heckuva ride--thanks to all who are still checking in...

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May 25, 2007

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Without actually going through every moment of the last few weeks, there have been a lot of changes a-brewing. Sometime around the first week in May I interviewed over the phone for a job, was made an offer, and decided to accept the position. I officially have a job for the next few years! It turns out I'll be working as Program Director for Princeton in Asia, the same organization that sent me here.

I was excited to get the offer and then slightly overwhelmed to find out that they wanted me to start work, in a way, a few days later. I had to Princeton to be there for the PiA orientation, a four day information and fun carousal, in order to meet and get to know all of the folks I would be managing for the next few years. Yeah--big change. Meanwhile, I received this news while I was up visiting friends in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province. It was a little crazy to think that the next time I saw some of those folks, we would all be in the States, since they, too, were leaving at the end of June. So I took a few minutes away from our goodbyes, booked a flight in conjunction with the home office, and I was set to go a couple of days later.

My experience in the States was whirlwind. I got off the plane and was met by my loyal parents who shlepped all the way out to Newark to pick me up and ferry me down to Princeton. We had dinner and then it was straight to the office where we all worked until 3am. I was up the next morning around 7:30am and straight to work again until the wee hours of the morning. There is an incredible amount of work that goes into the orientation weekend and only a few people to actually do it, so I was glad to be around to contribute. The new fellows? They seemed like great components to the next chapter of PiA-ers. I was impressed.

Other than almost killing myself while playing ultimately frisbee and learning a new drinking game with the young-uns, nothing else too exciting happened. It was all too surreal to take it all in because I got on to the plane the morning after it ended and slept 14 straight hours to Tokyo, followed by another 4 back to Guangzhou. All of a sudden, I was back in China.

Other than that, the only noteworthy moment in China the last few weeks came while I was eating dinner the other night. I was catching a quick bite to eat near the place I pick up a bus to go tutor, and my eyes drifted out to a dozen or so men in uniform who formed a semicircle near a bank entrance. Eager to fit in with the natives, I joined the throngs of people peering in to see what they were doing. He was speaking in Cantonese so I can't be sure, but a man in tattered clothes was going ballistic at the bank tellers and the men in uniforms were there to regulate.

They let him yell for a while until the head guy gave the nod and all of a sudden they all converged on him, hitting and kicking him as he flailed his arms. They disappeared with him into a van right outside and he was driven away in a flash. Now, I have no idea what it was all about except to say that the man had done nothing physically wrong in that time to warrant getting beaten and thrown in the back of a window-less vehicle. It was a small reminder that despite the shiny skyscrapers, sparkling subway, and ever-increasing western food options, China still has a ways to go.

Meanwhile, I continued on with my meal and went off to tutor the my boys for the last time. With the American International School finishing earlier than Chinese schools, my services were no longer in need; so, with a handful of bittersweet goodbyes, I bid farewell to the two boys and two parents who had become a surprisingly large part of my life in Guangzhou. As I said before, it was time for changes and this was the first of what I know will be many goodbyes over the next month or so.

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April 18, 2007

Cards, Comedy, and a China First

A couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from my sister's first grade class in NY. They had been studying China and its language, history, culture, and food and wanted to ask a so-called "China expert" some questions. I promised to do my best and, luckily, they didn't throw me any major curve balls. Though I didn't know the exact year they started building the Great Wall, I was able to name the last emperor from the Qing Dynasty and explain the difference in education styles.

My sister can elaborate more, but she mentioned a few excellent remarks after I hung up. For example, they wanted to know the following: was I Chinese, how come Ilana didn't look Chinese, was she sure I was really her brother, and other scholarly gems. I suppose it makes sense when you're seven years old--someone in China should be Chinese.

Anyhow, in true first grade form, all of the students took the time to write me a thank-you card. They sent them in the mail about a week ago and I just got them today (which is record time for China Post). Reading the cards all done in crayon, I was struck by the genius of the first-grade mind. A few of my favorite lines:
"Dear Ari, How is China? Thank you."
"Dear Ari, Thanks for the answer."
"Dear Ari, Thanks for talking to us. Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love Love."
"Dear Ari, I barely have any space on this paper to say thank you." [it was a huge piece of paper]
and my personal favorite-
"Dear Ari, What is your best friend's name?"

You gotta love the thought process of a first grader. The cards also reminded me of a short piece I just read in a recent edition of the New Yorker that my sister sent me (thanks, Ilana!). Simon Rich is a great writer and he did a little article entitled, "The Wisdom of Children," which really made me laugh. It has nothing to do with China, but the first part goes as follows:

A Conversation at the Grownup Table, as Imagined at the Kids' Table

MOM: Pass the wine, please. I want to become crazy.

DAD: O.K.

GRANDMOTHER: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.

DAD: Me, too. When it was over, I had sex.

UNCLE: I'm having sex right now.

DAD: We all are.

MOM: Let's talk about which kid I like the best.

DAD: (laughing) You know, but you won't tell.

MOM: If they ask me again, I might tell.

FRIEND FROM WORK: Hey, guess what! My voice is pretty loud!

DAD: (laughing) There are actual monsters in the world, but when my kids ask I pretend like there aren't.

MOM: I'm angry! I'm angry all of a sudden!

DAD: I'm angry, too! We're angry at each other!

MOM: Now everything is fine.

DAD: We just saw the PG-13 movie. It was so good.

MOM: There was a big sex.

FRIEND FROM WORK: I am the loudest! I am the loudest!

(Everybody laughs.)

MOM: I had a lot of wine, and now I'm crazy!

GRANDFATHER: Hey, do you guys know what God looks like?

ALL: Yes.

GRANDFATHER: Don't tell the kids.

Anyhow, back to matters of the China variety, I had a noteworthy bus ride the other day
which proved to be a China first. I was sitting on one of the few older buses left in the city with wooden benches, big sliding windows, and no air conditioning, just half-reading the newspaper and half-daydreaming. We were stopped in a long traffic jam in an area with a lot of construction on the right side when I happened to glance up.

The guy sitting two seats up and across from me looked around at everyone on the bus and then in one swift movement, grabbed a pocketbook and package sitting next to a woman in front of him, pushed open the window, hopped out the window, landed on two feet, and sprinted full speed in the opposite direction. It was a pretty incredible feat--before I had even registered what he was doing, he was completely gone.

Not surprisingly, it caused a major commotion. Everyone on the bus was shouting, heads craning out the window to catch a glimpse of him running. The woman who got robbed was hysterical and the bus driver seemed to be amused by the whole situation. All I could think was, man--that took guts. He's got to be pretty desperate to pull a stunt like that because so many things could have gone wrong. What if the bus had started moving? What if he caught a foot on the window sill on the way down? What if he didn't land on two feet? What if the window didn't slide open quickly enough?

Chinese people always talk about how Guangzhou is such a dangerous city but until yesterday I had never actually seen a crime, other than the standard traffic violations. It doesn't change the fact that I feel completely safe here, though I suppose in the future I will be more diligent about keeping both straps of my bag on at all times. Then again, I'd laugh if a Chinese guy stole it. What's he going to do, sell my Chinese flashcards?

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April 3, 2007

Why This Night Was Different

Last night was the second night of Passover, one of my favorite Jewish holidays of the year. While it's always a bit sad to be away from family on days like these, it presents an opportunity to make it special in a different way. Passover is one of the three pilgrimage festivals in the Jewish tradition and commemorates the exodus of the Jews from enslavement in Egypt. For the second year in a row I decided to hold a seder, the ceremonial meal held on the first two nights generally accompanied by a whole lot of food and wine.

One of the tricky things about this particular holiday is that there are about a million different rules and traditions regarding what you can and cannot do/eat/say/drink. I mean, I guess all of organized religion centers around those sorts of things, but Passover is ripe with symbolism and ritual minutiae. In order to help me in the gargantuan task of putting together a respectable seder, my parents went out and bought a boxful of essentials including matzah, soup mix, pickles, passover cakes, muffin mix, and a whole bunch of other goodies for the holiday. I was so excited to get the package... but it never came.

The Chinese mail system is generally reliable if not timely, but this time it really let me down. However, the show must go on! With the help of Kelly's cooking expertise, my mother's recipes, and some inventive ingredient-substitutes, I began to put it all together. Much like last year, I gained that much more respect for the Jewish moms who manage to throw together massive meals for hordes of people at the drop of a hat. I was cooking for two straight days and barely had time to make it all work. Though in my defense, I think this task would have been exponentially easier with access to a regular-sized oven and/or four burners on a stove.

On Monday night my six closest friends came over and I acted as head of the house to run the ceremonial meal. A few things stand out to me as highlights every year at the seder: number one--the afikoman. According to tradition, the master of the house breaks off a piece of matzah (called the afikoman)and hides it somewhere in the house. After the main food section of the night, the service cannot continue until someone has found the afikoman and it is consumed by all as a dessert, of sorts (yum! matzah!). As a child, this is always one of the most exciting events of the year because the winner gets a prize and you have free reign to run around the house searching high and low for something your parents intentionally hid from you. It's genius.

This year the search was a frenzied effort by everybody that went through every room in my (not-so-large) apartment. People were throwing drawers open, knocking books on to the ground, tossing blankets over shoulders, and generally causing mass hysteria. My roommate might never forgive me, either, since I hid it in his room in between a couple of sweaters (that subsequently got thrown to the floor). I'm not sure what it says about me or my friends that for about ten minutes we all acted like a bunch of eight year-olds, but it was pretty fun.

Number two--the wine. I'd like to shake the hand of whoever put together the haggadah, the book that leads all participants through the correct order of events for the seder. Before anyone has had any significant amount of food, they are required to drink two full glasses of wine. I don't mean little sips, either. I'm talking about chugging a full cup of wine in one go. This serves to loosen everyone up and make them less antsy about having to wait through several readings and rituals before getting to the main course. It also gets everyone of age really psyched about the night and makes the singing that much more inspired.

Number three--the food. I guess I'm pretty transparent by now but I'm all about the food. In almost every situation. And Passover seder food is amazing. While I can't say I'm a huge fan of matzah (can anyone be excited about floor and water baking for no more than eighteen minutes?), you crush the stuff up and add a couple of eggs and some oil and you've got the makings of matzah balls--one of the greatest additions to chicken soup. For my seder we also cooked up (from scratch) some herbed potatoes, broccoli tossed with a red wine vinaigrette, tsimmes, charoset, soy-honey chicken, coconut macaroons, and even a flourless cake. It was glorious.

By the end of the night we had each gone through at least four full cups of wine, done some rowdy singing, and each read about why that night is different than all other nights--the fundamental question of Passover. Out of money and energy, I couldn't possibly prepare another seder for the second night. Instead, I headed over to the Chabad synagogue here in Guangzhou, a branch of Hasidism (a form of orthodox Judaism) that is known to Jews worldwide for providing services and venues for anybody in need.

I have always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Chabad. To sum it up, I love the fact that they are so hospitable, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. It's great to know that almost wherever I am in the world I will always be welcome among strangers for a meal and religious worship. I also very much respect the fact that they don't try to convert non-Jews. On the other hand, they have a habit of always making me feel like a bad person for not participating more and being a "bad Jew."

Regardless, I headed over and sat down at a table with a bunch of guys roughly my age studying Talmud, commentary on the Jewish bible. Chabad in Guangzhou is a small community made up mostly of businessmen from around the globe. At the dinner last night I heard a only couple people speaking English, but handfuls speaking Russian, Spanish, French, and possibly German. Overall though, the common language was Hebrew. As I've said before, my Hebrew used to be not half bad, but since learning Chinese, it's taken a serious back seat. My brain was in serious pain last night trying to construct even the most basic sentences. This, in turn, made me feel even more inferior as a Jew there since everyone else (and I mean everyone) was fluent.

Having never been to a Hasidic seder before, I wasn't sure how different it would be from the ones I grew up with. Luckily they were using a haggadah with an English translation so I could follow along without a problem. Unlike my family seders, the entire thing was done in Hebrew. This isn't a big problem but as is traditional, people around the table go around reading a paragraph at a time, especially in the section recounting the story of the exodus. I actually felt legitimately nervous when it came to my turn and I think I was sweating. I felt like the eyes of every Hebrew teacher I had ever had were staring at me as I tried to read at a regular pace. It all happened so fast that I'm not sure how I did, but I guess no response was the best I could have hoped for from my table-mates.

Also, as luck would have it, I somehow ended up in the alcoholic section of the table. There were about fifty people there in all and a good number of people were using non-alcoholic grape juice instead of wine. I'm not quite sure why, but I was wedged between two orthodox guys originally born in NYC who were quite intent on drinking wine. Apparently it is also orthodox tradition to not only fill the glass most of the way, but to actually fill it up past the brim so it spills a bit, thereby showing that you're drinking a full cup. And since I was certainly not one to argue with tradition, our corner of the table put back a serious amount of wine. We even had a little laugh after I noted that it must be the American way (the Russian guys next to us stuck with the grape juice).

Though I did feel a twinge of guilt at the end of the night when the Rabbi told me he hoped to see me again soon, I'm definitely glad I went. From a cultural standpoint, it was a heckuv an experience. It's also just nice to be in a foreign place with something that is magically familiar to all. I don't know how many countries were represented there last night but it seemed that everybody knew the same melodies and banged on the table in rhythm along with everyone else. Though I think I may always have some questions about a lot of the religious elements of Judaism, I know I will never shy away from the cultural aspects of the faith.

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March 23, 2007

Mayday! Mayday!

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a rock concert here in Guangzhou. One of my best students from last year took a few hours out of her non-stop studying to invite me out for the show. The band, a young group of five Taiwanese guys, has the Chinese name "wu yue tian," which literally translates to "fifth month day," or rather, "May Day." I found this a little funny right away since that is, of course, the international distress signal. I explained this to Carol, my student, but she didn't understand why. Well, I didn't either until I just looked it up. It turns out that mayday comes from the French m'aider, which is shortened from venez m'aider meaning "come help me!" See? You learn something new everyday.

Anyhow, I had to jet out from my last class and meet Carol at the subway around 3pm in order to start our trek. It turns out the show was not a public performance, but rather a special gig for university students to showcase their new album and upcoming public performances. The show was way out at what's called "University City," a large area in the southeastern section of the city, where about five different local universities all have campuses for their freshmen and sophomores.

Though we could have taken a long bus to get there, we opted to take the subway instead. I'm not sure if we made the right choice, but we did end up having to switch lines twice which was interesting. The stop for the southern section of University City is located on Line 4 of the GZ subway system, a new line which opened up January 1st of this year. It was my first time in this part of the city and I was curious to see what it looked like.

Making our second transfer on to Line 4, there were a few stark differences that immediately stood out to me. First, the subway car itself. In Lines 1-3 there are English translations of the stops or, at the very least, perfect pinyin romanizations of the Chinese. In addition, on all three of those lines they make announcements in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Not so, there on Line 4. Half the of the roman letters were pinyin but half were some bizarre pronunciation system unlearned by me. There were no English announcements and certainly no English-speaking employees.

The second difference was the people. Given that Line 4 services University City and other far-reaching locales, I guess it shouldn't have been too surprising that most of the people on board were younger college kids and poorly dressed workers. Not only that, but for the first time in ages, I noticed a lot of people staring at me. On the other three lines people tend to be slightly better dressed and accustomed to foreigners, probably due to the concentration of wealth and business. More often than not I am still the only foreigner on the train, but nobody looks at me like I'm on display. Not so on Line 4.

The third difference was the exit out of the subway. After we got out of the train car and walked up the escalator, I was shocked to see what was outside--a whole lot of nothing. Whereas in other areas of the city you exit to towering skyscrapers, chaotic traffic, and tons of people, over there you walked out into what could have passed as farmland. I looked a little farther down in each direction and saw the vague outline of university campuses, but the stop itself was pretty isolated. It was actually really cool.

So onward we walked to the South China University of Technology. It was apparent right away that we were not the only ones that had heard about the special concert. There were tons of people flocking out of the subway and many more exiting buses. As we arrived at the main gate, the first step was to locate our tickets. Apparently they were given out to the college students for free but outsiders like us were scalping them from uninterested students. Carol's cousin secured one seat for her and then we found another guy who would sell to me. He started to explain some caveat about my ticket but Carol pulled me away in search of her cousin. Fair enough.

We found her cousin and joined her friends in the waiting line. The first thing I thought was that half the campus must have skipped class in order to wait on line for a good view. The line to get in the gates snaked, literally, around almost half the campus. There were thousands of people there easily and I was very curious to see how long that many people would wait in a line. Well, it didn't take long for various "sub-lines" to branch off from the main line, quickly creating mass chaos. It was nice to chat with Carol's cousin and her friends but when the line finally started moving I told them to grab hold of me and not let go until we were inside. Sometimes, size has its advantages.

After an hour and a half of standing, we finally made our way to the gate and the ticket checkpoint. I had no problem initially getting in but I was slightly concerned about following the rest of my group into the special student section up front. This section was reserved for University of Technology students while the back section was reserved for other university kids and outsiders. I thought I would have to be relegated to the back but I should have known better. I guess in the end I just used my secret/invisible "foreigner's card" to get in. In other words, they were temporarily mesmerized by my white skin and let me in without a single question. I wasn't too surprised--in the entire area of roughly 10,000 fans there was not a single non-Chinese person there besides me.

We hustled in and grabbed seats. Well, actually, the seats weren't seats at all, but rather standing space in a giant open field. The place was mobbed and, not surprisingly, the crowds were not shy about pushing. As I jockeyed for space close to the stage, I had to fight off a number of people all trying to shove me out of the way. Just imagine what it's like in the States and then imagine it in a situation where pushing is not rude. Oy. Anyway, I boxed out like an all star power forward and made room.

Eventually the sun went down, the lights went up, the concert started, and people went nuts. It's always exciting to be at a concert when the crowd and the band is really into it and this was no different. I would say that Mayday's style was some sort of combination of the Beatles, Guster, and J. Geils Band (without actually being as good as any of those groups). They were a fun pop-rock group that really got the crowd into the show. I could follow some of the slower songs but was forced to rely on Carol for translations of most of the other tunes. Some of them were laughable (e.g. a hard-rock sounding song about puppy love) but overall I really enjoyed it.

The trip home was a major test of claustrophobic inclinations, but I guess the mass exit of every major public event is the same way. I did survive the crowds and went to bed very pleased with the experience. The next day I even went out and bought their CD--consider me the newest wuyuetian fan.

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March 15, 2007

When It Rains, It Pours...

...or is just extremely humid, in this case. We've reached that time of year when there is so much moisture in the air that the stairs inside the building become wet. We've reached that time of year when you go to sleep at night and your pillow feels like it was out in the rain because it's so damp. We've reached that time of year when it takes jeans approximately a week and a half to dry since they're so heavy with water after a washing. And we've reached that time of year when it doesn't exactly rain but yet it's gray and misty everyday, with just a hint of an actual rain storm. Hey, it beats having monsoon season, right?

Going along with the theme of this post, I've had some major technological difficulties in recent days. I've been chain-watching a ton of "West Wing" episodes in the last few weeks and I think President Bartlet put it best when he said that "the worst problems always come from the things we take for granted." Sure, he was referring to the cleanliness of beef products, but I think deep down he really meant my computer. My trusty G4 powerbook is currently out of commission, and potentially on the way to becoming a really grandiose coaster.

Something as simple as plugging the power cord into the computer--an action we've all done hundreds of times--may be the end of this computer and I'm still reeling in shock. I guess it put it in at juuuuust the wrong angle and pushed at it with juuuuuust the wrong amount of force and voila--it's busted. Now in the States this would be a problem but not a catastrophe. I'd reluctantly trudge out to one of dozens of Apple Stores in the area, shove the machine in front of a so-called "genius," and get the thing fixed. But here? In China I have learned that things are never so simple.

First I had to enlist Kelly to look up the address online for the one and only authorized repair shop in the city. Tucked away on the 7th floor of an unmarked building, my confidence was waning. After waiting in line (and boxing out two ladies who tried to cut me in line), I attempted to explain the problem to the guy at the counter. Forunately, he understood the problem despite my lack of Chinese vocabulary for things like "cord," and "power source." Unfortunately, I didn't have my entire hard drive backed up. We had a conversation that went something like this:
Him- Do you have important data on your computer?
Me- Of course.
Him- Is it all backed up?
Me- Unfortunately not.
Him- Well we can't take it unless you have it backed up.
Me- I understand, but how can I back it up when my battery's dead and power charger can't be connected?
Him- You can't.
Me- So what do you suggest I do?
Him- Back up all of your data.
Me- But I can't do that.
Him- Correct.

We went back and forth like that a while longer until I decided that my computer was not getting fixed in Guangzhou. On the way back to my apartment, I stopped by one of the other Apple authorized resellers and inquired about the price of a new charger (which I would need to buy at some point in the future). They quoted me a price approaching $200 which I couldn't even believe. I started to bargain with them but walked out almost immediately. And, naturally, to make matter even worse, on the bus ride home I took out my iPod and noticed that one of the earbuds was broken. Perfect.

So on and on I went, trying to figure out how in the world to go about getting my computer fixed. In the process of my research, I discovered that I managed to buy my computer about two weeks before they took my model off the shelves. So, despite being only three and a half years old, they've virtually stopped making any of the parts anymore. I suppose it makes sense but it made me really mad that they wouldn't have told me at the time--hey, why don't you wait ten days and buy the new model? It will look a little better AND last longer! Oh well.

It became clear pretty quickly that I was going to have to cross the border and get assistance in Hong Kong. I figured there would be several options for Apple stores in HK but actually they too only have authorized resellers. Something about Chinese government regulations? Who knows. Anyhow, I found out where the repair place was and headed out with my fingers crossed. Though also tucked away on the 20th floor of a building in Causeway Bay, the employees spoke English and managed to look up which parts needed to be replaced. Though the woman helping me had to check with her supervisor whether they could still acquire the part I needed, she did take the computer from me and said to come back in two weeks. Right now I am cautiously optimistic but I really don't know.

What I do is that my entire day to day existence changes without my computer. It's scary. What did we do without them? I don't compulsively check my email. Job searching seems almost impossible. Powerpoints are automatically left out of lesson planning. My knowledge of world news goes down to a single check of nytimes.com a day. My level of Yankees news goes down to almost nothing. On the other hand, I played football today with some of my old students for twice as long as I may have otherwise so maybe it's a good thing. No reason to be attached to the computer all the time, right? God forbid I ever get a blackberry...

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March 6, 2007

Resolutions

There's nothing better than the feeling of being home. I don't necessarily mean the feeling of sitting around the building where you sleep, but rather the indescribable perception that you are where you belong. After more than a year and a half in Guangzhou, it is absolutely and unequivocally my home. That's saying quite a bit. I haven't spent this much time in one place in a long time and it feels great. I know the people around me. They know me. I know my surroundings. And most importantly, I feel completely comfortable here.

This feeling is nothing new, really, but you always forget about it when you're away from home. When I was little, I remember feeling this way in West Hartford after a long day trip to New York or Boston. In college, I remember feeling this way at Wesleyan after a weekend road trip to a friend's university. I always feel it when I return to the Vineyard. And now, after a three week trip around Southeast Asia, I'm relishing it in Guangzhou.

Though the trip was unforgettable, it wasn't home. I couldn't walk down the street in Laos and have a shopkeeper say hello to me. I couldn't go to a restaurant in Thailand and have the waitress ask if I wanted the usual. I couldn't jog out to the football field in Malaysia and be greeted with the smiles and jokes of old teammates. I couldn't go to the market in Singapore and have the fruit woman ask us where we've been. So, to be brief, it's nice to be back.

For my first week back in the classroom, I had my students think of new year's resolutions for the new lunar year. Though this is a surprisingly western phenomenon, I think they got something out of it. I got the usual responses of "I want to improve my studies," "I want to make some money," and "I want to get taller," the latter of which caused me both laughter and confusion as I tried to explain that it wasn't a resolution; but, as always, a few students caught me off guard. I had one bright young girl tell me that she wanted "to learn how to look at the world in a different way," and another tell me she hoped "to help those more unfortunate." If we all made resolutions like that, can you imagine how much better the world would be?

Anyhow, my first week back was also highlighted by a visit from my friend and PiA mentor, Professor Lynn White. Though busy writing a new back on his sabbatical, he and his wife made their way up to Guangzhou from Macau and treated Nick and I to lunch. As both an overwhelmingly intelligent guy and a China scholar with close to thirty years of travel experience here, it was great to chat for the afternoon. Spending time with such an incredible person, it made me wax philosophical a bit about what my life could be like if I went the route of academia.

I think many students at good liberal arts colleges consider this for at least a brief period of time because education and academia is all we know when we graduate. The romantic notion of the professor in a tweed jacket surrounded by stacks of books and research materials is an attractive one. In reality, nowadays it's a tough road to make it as a professor, but it's still nice to dream. I'd give almost anything to get paid to teach curious, intelligent students, research interesting ideas, travel the world, and simply learn. While it can be done at the high school level, it's just not the same.

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January 26, 2007

Big Brother Returns?

I had a form handed to me by our liason in the school office yesterday which is a bit out of the ordinary. At first I didn't think much of it but the longer it sits on my desk and the more I stare at it, the more uncomfortable it makes me. Last year I wrote a blog when I discovered the close-circuit cameras in the classrooms here that are seemingly recording my every move. Those cameras could not possibly be for the strict purpose of spying on the foreign teachers (since they're in every single classroom), but they certainly provide the ability for someone (who?) to be checking up on us.

The form I got is titled "Request Form for Travel" (in both English and Chinese) and goes as follows:
Request Form for Travel for the foreign teachers of The Affiliated High School of SCNU
Name-
Travel Destination-
Travel Period-
No. of Days-
Contact Telephone Number at Travel Destination-

I hereby assume full responsibility for the travel and release The Affiliated High School of SCNU from any responsibility.

Signature-

Reminder: All travel (for other cities away from Guangzhou) request should be submitted to School Affairs Office one week before the holiday.

When the secretary gave it to me I asked her for a quick explanation and she seemed mildly embarrassed. She said that they simply wanted to be able to contact us in the event of an emergency, which is a perfectly legitimate reason; however, as I walked away, I immediately realized how ridiculous that was. This year the school has been a bit forgetful, shall we say, when it comes to informing us of scheduling changes. We've shown up a handful of times when classes have been canceled and been away when we were supposed to be teaching. And that's fine. It's actually to be expected when you're teaching in China. But it brings me back to the initial question--why?

In the year and half I've been here, I have never once had to fill out a form or even tell anybody where I was going. As long as I was in the classroom when I was supposed to be, everyone was happy. And since there are no official government restrictions on where I'm allowed to go (according to my residence permit), I am speechless. I suppose I do have to allow for the possibility that the Guangzhou municipal government has changed policies for the schools out of nowhere, but I haven't heard anything about that scenario.

In all likelihood, the form means nothing and will simply get filed away amongst a mountain of paperwork, but the fact that it's worded as a request allows for the possibility that sometime in the next few days someone will approach me and tell me I'm not allowed to leave. I'm not quite sure what I would do in that situation, but having already purchased plane tickets for the upcoming spring festival holiday, I am definitely leaving one way or another.

It's also interesting to note that the form is both a request form and liability waiver wrapped into one. Maybe I'm reading into this too much but it may reflect a growing concern and need for all official groups to watch their backs in terms of avoiding litigation. The law system in China has a long way to go, but it's definitely becoming more and more legitimate all the time, with both domestic and international pressure. There was a clause added into my contract last spring that requires me to inform the office anytime I have an overnight guest. This also came as a surprise and was explained to me as a safety precaution mandated by the government, presumably to give schools the right to fire someone if they start bringing home prostitutes or something like that. Regardless, it has been conveniently forgotten by both me and the office.

So once again, why? I quietly showed the form to a few coworkers who initially laughed at it and told me that I'm allowed to do whatever I want and that I should ignore it. I was starting to entertain the possibility until one of the senior members of the English faculty saw the form in the cafeteria yesterday. He was also chuckling and remarking how ludicrous it was until he asked an important office worker (in Chinese) whether it was necessary. She gave him a serious nod and mumbled something to him that was incomprehensible to me. This response seemed to be enough for him and he proceeded to hand me the paper and instruct me to do it. Strange.

I've decided that I need to look at the glass as half full and simply assume that they're concerned about our well being and would like to be in touch with us if something comes up. I have already passed along the fact that I have no idea what my contact phone numbers may be but that I'm always on email. They seemed fine with that. With no real control over the situation, I choose to believe that the form is rather meaningless and that Big Brother is not trying to keep a short leash on me. We'll see how it turns out...

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January 16, 2007

The Bridge

After a bit of blogging hibernation, I've decided to get my act together and start writing more. Special thanks to my sister for blogging the family vacation and for my family in general for shlepping all the way out to China once again. It was a heckuva trip and always a treat to have visitors, especially those named "Mom," "Dad," and "Ilana."

So I was somewhat inspired to write when my roommate and I were walking around one of the central business districts in downtown Guangzhou. We were headed from a restaurant to a bar in an area that happens to have arguably the nicest five-star hotel around. As such, this stretch of road has a number of western restaurants that cater to the high class business crowd and the small number of foreign English speakers.

Nick and I had just finished a highly anticipated meal at a place creatively named, "The Mexican Restaurant," which happens to be located right above "The Italian Restaurant." It was my first time eating at this Guangzhou institution and I could not have been more disappointed. Other than the tasty Mexican food I had in Hong Kong a couple weeks ago, this was the only Mexican food I'd had in over a year and a half.

The problem, we decided, was that expectations were simply too high. When you order western food at a restaurant in China, it is almost never what you wanted or expected, simply because they have no idea how to prepare it. I assume it's much like Chinese folks getting Chinese food in America--it's just never right. But you're usually prepared for the pizza to be crappy at a place called, "Western Food King." When you get a burrito at a place that bills itself as specializing in Mexican cuisine, you don't expect to find carrot, cucumber, or ketchup inside (not to mention the lack of salsa or real guacamole). I almost cried, but I digress.

On our way to drown our sorrows at one of the local joints that serves as a close approximation of a sports bar, we were forced to cross a well traveled pedestrian footbridge. Walking across as I've done many times, Nick and I were talking about how ridiculous it was for several reasons. Just to clarify, this is a footbridge in one of the nicest, richest, most highly traveled areas of the cities (at least where foreigners are concerned):

1) At both ends of the bridge, there are usually a handful of policemen standing or sitting around. What I can't quite figure out is, what are they doing there? The bridge is one of the few guaranteed locations where you can always find street vendors peddling black market DVD's, necklaces, CD's, and watches. It just makes me laugh that the guys with the merchandise are in direct view of the cops but neither side ever seems to acknowledge the other.

2) If you want to buy drugs in Guangzhou, this is the place to do it. It perpetuates a sad stereotype, but there are always, and I mean always, a couple of African guys that try to sell hash to every white person that walks by. They're not too subtle about it either, generally shouting things like, "I've got great stuff here!" or "Hashish? You looking to buy??" Again, in full view of the police just laughing and joking around.

3) Given the expensive restaurants, bars, and hotels in the area, it's not surprising that there are a lot of people with money walking around. For this reason, the bridge is also guaranteed to have swarms of homeless migrants begging for money. This would be okay if they just sat on the side with a bowl out like most do; unfortunately, they've found that the most effective way of getting money is to send their 3 and 4 year old children to run after people, tugging on their clothes with one hand and holding a plastic bowl in another. Not only is it sad that parents use their kids in this way, it's also extremely intrusive and rude. What I realized the other day is that I am completely desensitized to the whole thing. Instead of ignoring them, I now pretend that the bridge is a football field where I'm running the gauntlet to pass the little kids, throwing fakes this way and that, even using oncoming foot traffic as blockers. The parents seem to find this funny though, so I guess we all win.

4) Again, due to the money and foreigners around, this is also the place to go to pick up a prostitute. You can always pick them out even before they say anything because they generally stand in groups putting on makeup and always have on really trashy high heels (I guess some things are universal). No matter how many times I've been asked, I always feel really awkward. Part of it is that they never have good English skills and always end up propositioning me with something like, "You like massage?" with massage pronounced "ma-sa-jee." I usually just start laughing awkwardly, whereas Nick has adopted the strategy of just awkwardly shouting an incoherent, "aaaaaaaaaaah" before they can even spit out the three words. We make a great team.

So all in all, the bridge is always an adventure. Just picture walking up the stairs past the watch guys and the hookers, only to start running past the homeless kids using the drug dealers as blockers and hurdling over the pirated DVDs, juking at the last second to avoid running into the police. Gotta love it...

In other news, January officially represents The Mustache Challenge of '07, when starting back on January 1, Nick and I both decided to cultivate our facial hair and see what sort of 'stache we could grow. The mustache contest is actually quite common, as I'm coming to learn, and people generally find it to be pretty funny. Now, I'm not quite sure when the mustache abandoned pop culture for younger people, but it was probably back when I was starting to learn how to read. Ever since, it's been more of a joke than anything, at least up in New England. It looks fine on most older people, but the younger you are, the more questionable it is.

And this is why, of course, we decided to do it. Being in China, everyone looks at us strangely to begin with, simply due to the color of our skin. Since I will most likely never do it again, this seemed to be a golden opportunity. Having grown facial hair last year for the first time, I was anticipating an awkward, itchy stage, only to be pleasantly surprised. Sure, it looked dumb, but it didn't itch like having a beard did.

We were both curious to see what our students would say and it actually took them almost two weeks to say anything. I mean, all white people look alike, right? The first kids to say anything were actually former students of mine from last year. I passed by two of my favorite boys who said, "hey, you have the..." not knowing the word for mustache. I asked them what they thought and they both said, "it's very handsome and manly." This response was expected, as Chinese guys have a tough time growing any serious facial hair beyond the one or two frighteningly long mole hairs. Next day I saw one of my female students from last year who also noted the addition above my upper lip. When I asked her what she thought, she said "it looks very bad." Hmmm. Well, at least she's honest. My favorite response though so far comes from a current student who looked at me as I walked through the door and questioned in disgust, "What happened to your face??" Classic.

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December 15, 2006

Recommendations

Though it seems like ages ago to me now, we are once again approaching the deadline for college applications in the U.S. While my own experience in the undergraduate college application dates back to a good eight years ago, it was only two years ago that I was living and breathing applications back at Boston University in the office of admissions. For a while I was left out of the process entirely, but this year I have been ambushed with a deluge of recommendation and editing requests. I guess I just can't escape!

I am more than happy to help my Chinese students here attempt to decipher the quagmire of the American system, but there are a few things that either don't exist in Chinese etiquette or have been largely ignored by my students. I can't count how many times I've had students come up to me and say (not ask) "I need you to write me a recommendation for tomorrow." Tomorrow?? Wow. Now, having been a student myself and found myself in dire circumstances requiring a letter of rec for jobs, grad school, etc., I know the pressure they are under. However, when I've put a professor out to write a letter in 48 hours, I literally begged for it. It's not pretty, but it's sort of what you have to do. I remember my teachers in high school announced that they required four weeks notice for anything. Maybe my mistake was in not saying anything.

The other thing is that I guess the tangible thank-you doesn't really exist here either. I was always taught in the States that when a teacher (or anyone else) goes out of their way for you to write a recommendation, you give them some sort of gift to show your gratitude. A book. A gift certificate. A pen. Something. Here I get a sincere vocal thanks but that's about it. Now don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining that the kids don't shower me with gifts; rather, I think it's an interesting cultural difference.

As I've mentioned, teachers here are very close with their students. Head teachers, the closest thing to a homeroom teacher and/or advisor, follow their kids for all three years of senior middle school until they finish the college entrance exam. They go on day trips together with the class on the weekend. They check in on them at night in the classroom, even when they're not on duty. They're almost like an extension of the parents, especially for the large chunk of students that live on campus. So in this respect, it's almost like asking your dad to take care of an errand for you--you thank him, but you certainly don't go and buy him a gift (though I'm sure parents would appreciate that). I guess it's just expected and assumed to be part of your responsibilities as a teacher.

In this sense, I'm very happy to help and excited to see the results in a few months. I have a bunch of students, both from this year and last, that I'm really pulling for to get into top schools. It's tough though, and I know that they're not holding their breath. Participating in this whole process with my students has also made me realize that I'm just another teacher at the school. That may seem obvious to people reading this, but it's actually a major accomplishment that I've been striving for the past year and a half.

When I walk around campus, it's very rare that any students stop and stare at me. Instead, I get a smile and a hello from current students and former students alike. Co-workers do not interrogate me anymore about my personal life and history. We don't have awkward conversations about obvious cultural differences. Instead, I now get questions like, "how come you didn't play basketball yesterday?"

This also extends to the city as a whole. Though some people may still stare at me, I really don't notice anymore. If I happen to lock eyes with someone on a bus, I stare right back. I am probably more comfortable than I should be throwing elbows to get on the bus. Getting around the city is second nature now, using either buses, taxis, or the subway--I barely have to read the signs. I know exactly where to go for whatever I need, yet I am still discovering new and fun things (who knew there was such an amazing arcade at the top of Grandview?).

Though my Chinese is still miles away from being fluent, I am fully functional. I don't let cashiers give me ripped bills for change because I joke with them and ask them to change it. I can order the house special at a restaurant. I can shoot the breeze with the ladies in the copy room enough to know when they're poking fun at me and Nick. I can't understand a whole Chinese movie, but I can read the schedule to know when they'll have English subtitles!

All in all I think I've settled in and assimilated into a part of both the school community and the city as a whole. It feels great to be so comfortable in what used to be so foreign, but there a couple downsides as well. My tolerance for the basic conversations with strangers is almost non-existent, e.g. Can you use chopsticks? Your Chinese is amazing! How do you get around the city? Have you ever heard of mid-autumn festival? etc. I also have to watch myself when I respond to students who ask the same questions that I've gotten millions of times: no, everyone in America does not like George Bush; yes, I know how to say "hello" in Chinese; no, it is not acceptable to copy your classmate's homework; yes, high school students in America have boyfriends/girlfriends; etc.

I guess since I feel right at home here, I just assume that others will view me in the same light. Unfortunately having white skin automatically precludes me from ever being just another Guangzhou citizen. That's a tough realization to swallow, but I knew it going in. I'm just happy that I've come as far as I have...

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December 2, 2006

Gaydar

In Chinese class a couple of weeks ago, we were learning a grammatical construction that roughly translates to "my [adj] [noun] is not only [adj] but also [adj]." It was pretty basic and actually the second such construction I had learned in Chinese, but the more the better, right? My class is small enough that the teacher goes around and asks everyone to come up with an example and say it out loud for the class. Basic stuff.

The example she chose was for all the guys to say, "My ideal girlfriend is not only [adj] but also [adj]." It seemed like a decent enough choice--relatively funny, not too boring, etc. We started going around and I think I said something silly like, "My ideal girlfriend is not just attractive but also rich." It got more and more complicated as we went along because you weren't allowed to repeat any adjectives.

As we got to the back of the room, I suddenly realized that there was a potentially awkward situation coming up with one of the Thai students. Klahan is a guy in his younger twenties that came to Guangzhou to learn Chinese in order to expand his father's import/export business from Bangkok. Though I've only talked with him a handful of times outside of class, he was definitely one of my favorite classmates due to a quick wit and interesting sense of style. Oh yeah, and he's very gay.

Okay, I don't know that for a fact, but he fits virtually every stereotype I can think of for an effeminate homosexual man--he dresses gay, he talks with a gay affect, he walks gay, and he has never ever mentioned females in any context other than family. Put it this way, if he comes across as obviously gay in my book, then he's almost definitely not straight. Though far from being an expert, I honed my "gaydar" a bit during my four years at Wesleyan and feel that I can usually pick out the easy ones.

I was curious to see how he'd respond to the question and he didn't disappoint. When the teacher got to him, he simply answered (in Chinese), "I don't know."
Not one to give up, our teacher pushed the issue a bit further. "Well do you have a girlfriend right now?"
"No."
"Well... have you had a girlfriend in the past?"
"Not exactly."
"Oh, that's okay! You will someday."
"Umm, I'm not really worried about that."

This just goes to show once again that Chinese people seem to be a bit behind when it comes to discerning whether or not people are homosexual. They just don't seem to be able to pick up the more obvious signs. I'm guessing this has to do with the complete repression of gays and lesbians in Chinese society and the fact that it was still illegal to be openly homosexual up until about ten years ago.

Along these lines, I also find it somewhat ironic that Chinese people tend to be pretty homophobic, despite being quite a bit more openly affectionate than American guys. It's very common to see male friends walking around here arm in arm, arm around shoulder, or even holding hands. I see guys sitting on each other's laps all the time and giving back rubs while on the bus. Yet if you were to ask the average guy their opinion about gays, they would most likely tell you that it was sickening, much like their American counterparts.

Besides the issue of gays and lesbians here, I've noticed that there is still a fair amount of sexism and gender norms in Chinese society that seem mostly unintended. Perhaps it is once again the Wesleyan in me that still has an internal alarm that goes off at the first sign of this sort of thing, but my Chinese textbook is appalling when it comes to gender norms. In every dialogue, the male speakers are overwhelmingly dominant. The man talks about going to get a job and the girlfriend talks about raising children. The male students talk about training for the big football match and the girls talk about going over to cheer them on. The boys play with basketballs as children and the girls play with dolls. I started to bring this up to the teacher but my vocabulary was definitely insufficient to convey my point. Plus she probably wouldn't have known what I was talking about.

In a totally unrelated note, I'd like to give thanks for the fact that I live on the second floor of my twenty two-story building. Not only is it nice to get the exercise of walking up (not too many) stairs, but we also never have to wait for the elevator, whose lines are sometimes out the door. The elevators frequently break down as well, which seems mildly disconcerting. I feel that I am often gambling with my life when taking elevators here--you never know if, when or how they were ever examined and certified. The other day I came down and the doors of the one of the elevators was open. Inside I saw a couple of workers replacing the chain for the elevator car...that had almost rusted away. Scary.

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November 24, 2006

Preston

November might just be my favorite month. For the last two years, November has provided me with an unanticipated two week-long vacation in which to travel to new parts of China. It is the month of my birth. And it is also the month that includes my absolute favorite day of the year-- Thanksgiving. As I wrote about last year, Thanksgiving is one of those tough times to be out of the country. Even in a westernized country like Germany, a good friend of mine noted that "Thanksgiving here sucks--they don't give a crap," or something to that effect.

Well they don't give a crap in China either but luckily I am surrounded by a small but dedicated contingent of Americans who are willing to go all out for the best day of the year. Last year our meal transcended my greatest expectations, especially due to the tasty morsels of Norbert, our turkey imported frozen from Utah.

For a number of reasons, I was worried that we couldn't possibly reach the same level of excitement and satisfaction as last year. Isn't that always the case? When you do something the 2nd time around, it has lost the whole novelty factor. When you do something for the first time, you have nothing to compare it to and thus it's difficult to be disappointed. In addition, we didn't have the immensely talented Diana Lin to do the turkey so it was the first time on our own.

Despite my concerns, Thanksgiving was the incredible binge night that it should be. Though missing my family and my best friend's family's feast as is traditional back in West Hartford, Thanksgiving '06 was just as great as last year, if not better. Kelly took full control of Preston, our 14 lb. turkey imported frozen from North Carolina, and roasted a very tasty bird. I know very few expats in China who can claim two Thanksgiving meals complete with roast turkey, homemade stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, salad, various vegetables, fresh baked bread, homemade cheesecake, homemade pumpkin pie, and enough wine to drown several Chinese people. It was amazing.

Nick and I both lamented that the only thing that could have made it better (besides family) would have been American football. In a moment of pure genius, Nick contemplated trying to hire 22 Chinese people to play a game for us outside the window, but we figured it would take too much time to explain the rules. Maybe next year...

Thanksgiving also come right after my birthday which was a ton of fun. I brought in my 26th year along with most of my closest friends at a meal with tons of tasty Indian food. As fate would have it, Kelly and I actually share a birthday so it we were also celebrating her 24th. While many people have tried to convince me that I'm old or that I'm now in my late twenties, I'm not hearing a word of it. I'm loving twenty six so far and I can't really see it getting any worse. I have another eight months or so to explore China and the rest of southeast Asia before returning back to friends and family in the states. I really can't complain.

Of course there is the whole matter of what to do with my life once I return to the states. I've reached the point now where I really do have to address that issue directly as opposed to just in passing as an ethereal concept. As such, I now pose the following scenario to anybody out there in the virtual world reading-- you're 26 years old. You have two years of experience traveling around China. You have a decent handle on the Chinese language but you're still a long way from fluent. You have a masters degree in history and education but you're not sure you want to go back to teaching. You're not crazy about working for corporate America. You're a good problem solver but you get antsy sitting behind a desk for too long. What do you do?

If anyone wants to check out some pictures from birthday and Thanksgiving '06, click on the following link or click on the flickr badge to the right...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/72157594401684508/

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October 24, 2006

Reeducation

I find that in the last few days I have been undergoing a reeducation on several different levels. I'm sure there has been copious amounts of research as to why the brain forgets things, but I simply don't get it. One can spend hours and hours learning something, but yet sometime in the future, be it a few hours or a few decades, you will most likely forget it. Why is that? I am quite jealous of those few special folks out there who have photographic memories and retain large sums of information at the drop of a dime.

My reeducation began a few weeks with my tutoring. Last year, I was working with two Korean boys to help them with their basic English to get admission into the American International School of Guangzhou. The boys did gain admission, which it turns out has been a blessing and a curse. As ELL (English Language Learners) students, they are hardly at the level of a native born English speaker, yet they are expected to perform at such a level in the classroom--not an easy task.

So this year I have been working with the boys on their homework, be it editing essays, explaining texts, or basically answering questions. Recently I have been reading Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Inidians" with the younger boy. First off, what a read! I went through a few of her books when I was younger but only remember seeing "Ten Little Indians" on the stage adapted as a play. The book is great but certainly not easy for a 13 year-old who has never really read English literature before.

It's been a challenge to try and explain not just the vocabulary, but also all of the literary terms. I mean, really, how many people can *actually* explain the difference between a simile and a metaphor? But even more difficult is explaining some of the western cultural things that we all take for granted. For instance, the first person to die in the book remarks that he thinks the legal life is too dreary and that he is for a life of crime. He then raises his glass and downs a mouthful of poisoned coffee. The teacher's worksheet asks the students to explain the black humor of the situation.

After some rumination and dialogue with coworkers, I've decided that it must be a completely American (or at least Western) concept to regard human suffering as "absurd rather than pitiable," or to consider our existence as "ironic and pointless but somehow comic." Somehow I don't think Confucius was quite on the same wavelength. I tried every way I could think of but no matter what I said, my tutee just didn't find it funny.

The older boy is in his freshmen year of high school and is immersed in the world of Biology. This has been a serious test to my memory when he asks me questions like, "does facilitated diffusion still count as passive transport if it uses the energy of embedded proteins in the phospholipid layers of a plasma membrane?" If he said it fast it would almost sound like a foreign language to me. Yet as any teacher will tell you, the best way to answer a question is often to force the student to answer his/her own query. So I ask him to define each term, sometimes going back to the book, and in the end he figures it out himself. Good thing, too, since it has been approximately ten years since I studied that stuff. I will say this, though, I had SO much fun helping him design his "edible cell." Is there anything more fun??

Reeducation has also found its way into my Chinese classes, as I have found myself rememorizing characters that I had seemingly learned earlier this summer. I know that you will slowly but steadily lose any foreign language if you don't use it, but Chinese seems particularly prone to this with the extra wrinkle of characters. It's embarassing to stumble over a character from months ago, especially when the teacher explains that it's a simple combination of fifteen strokes. Sure it is.

To go along with my earlier entry on lifelong learning and the educational cycle, I have a small reeducation story regarding a staff member here at my school. There's an older woman in the copy room that always smiled while helping me last year. It was common for her to make side comments to the other women in the office as she put together my handouts (they *never* let you use the machine yourself), at which point they'd all laugh. This year I was determined to listen in and figure out if they were laughing at me. Unfortunately she switched over to Cantonese once she figured out my Mandarin had improved so much. But that's besides the point.

This woman sits in the copy room all day and insteading of gossiping or listening to music, as I expect many workers in the states would do, she diligently spends every free moment practicing Chinese calligraphy--a painstaking process. As such, she spend countless hours attempting to improve her strokes and make her artwork more beautiful. I inquired as to why she was working so hard and she told me that she was trying to learn this skill and be able to show her work to others, as well as teach those who wished to learn. Wow. That's pretty impressive coming from someone who could just as easily never study anything ever again. I only hope that I will also be eager to learn new skills forty years from now.

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October 17, 2006

The Jetset

This past weekend I think I officially entered the realm of the jetset. The American Heritage Dictionary defines jetset as "an international social set made up of wealthy people who travel from one fashionable place to another." I'm neither wealthy nor is Guangzhou especially fashionable, yet I can now say that I went to Hong Kong for a dinner party. That's pretty fashionable, right?

Some of my friends were holding a bbq and 1980's-themed danced party so I decided to head down at the last minute on Saturday. After all, who can resist the draw of Wham and Duran Duran? As it stands, it's extremely convenient to head down to HK, simply by taking the train down to Shenzhen, walking across the border, and hopping on to KCR (the light rail that goes down into the actual city). As expected, it was good food and good company which makes for a splendid night. As I was on the train returning on Sunday morning, I had one of those metacognitive moments when I realized once again how lucky I am. More on that in a second...

Crossing the border on the way back into the mainland, we had a couple of interesting thoughts regarding the customs process. First off, the form you have to fill out seems distinctly Chinese in a few ways. The space for your given name is really only enough to comfortably write about five letters, yet they require you to write your first and middle names there. Basically, you have to write as small as possible and squeeze it in so that the whole thing becomes incomprehensible. Furthermore, the space provided for your Chinese address has in parentheses the English, "Hotel." In other words, they expect that all foreigners who come in are going to a hotel. The concept of a foreign national is just a bit too much to consider, apparently.

The other noteworthy realization, which I've noticed every time I've been to and from Hong Kong, is that for some reason the process of checking in or out on the mainland side *always* takes twice as long. I can't quite figure out why because it's always the same number of people walking from one station to the other, but somehow the lines go on and on and the customs officials seem to take much more time, without actually scrutinizing the passports any more than the Hong Kong side. I have no answers for this one.

Once back in Guangzhou, the good thought/feeling I had about my place in the world was amplified even more at dinner. There is a side street right near my school where I often walk to go to restaurants or the 7-11. Every once in a while I'm walking back to the school gate, look up, and am just amazed and where I am and what I'm doing. Sunday night was one of those nights. For some reason this little street seems quintessentially Chinese for me: it has a bunch of really good, inexpensive restaurants, it's a little bit dirty, there are always people selling fruits/vegetables/flowers/bbq on the side of the road, there are a handful of slightly over the top flashing neon signs, and, perhaps most importantly, I've never seen another white person there in my entire time here.

Part of me worried a bit about hitting the proverbial "sophomore slump" in my second year abroad, yet it's times like this past weekend when that seems completely unfathomable. I am lucky enough to teach some of the brightest young minds in this entire province. I have the luxury of taking a train on a whim and ending up in Hong Kong, one of the coolest cities in the world, in under two hours. I live in arguably the most vibrant city in southern China where there are spots like the aforementioned street in which I can walk into a restaurant and have the waitstaff greet me with, "Laoshi hao!" or "hello, teacher!" In other words, I'm a lucky guy.

On a completely unrelated note, I saw an absolutely bizarre sight last night that still has me perplexed. I was walking out of the grocery store with two friends when we happened upon a rather peculiar individual. Now, this grocery store happens to be contained in the basement of what is billed as the largest mall in all of Asia. The mall is extremely high priced and has all of those stores that I have never heard of but carry high end clothes, leather, electronics, etc. So anyhow, we're walking out the side entrance and we see down the sidewalk a man dressed in a nice suit crawling along with his head down. Umm, huh? All three of us sort of paused and stepped on to the road in order to let him pass. He didn't look up once; just continued to drag himself along through puddles and dirt. None of us had any idea what to say or do so we let him go without a word. I still can't figure it out though--clearly he's not homeless if he's dressed in a nice suit and shiny leather shoes. He didn't appear to be injured because he didn't even attempt to look up at us. So, basically, I have no idea what was going on. Life in Guangzhou--never boring!

On a small technical note, thanks to the know-how of illustrious PiA-er Even Pay, I have now added a link directly on the side of my blog to my pictures website. I recently uploaded the rest of my pictures from the summer in Beijing, as well as a handful of shots from my recent trip to Hainan Island. Enjoy!

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October 3, 2006

Language Study, the Return

It didn't take long. By the end of the summer my brain was fried and I needed a break in a major way. I was ecstatic to be moving back to Guangzhou and starting up a new school year. I was excited to get into the swing of teaching. I was amped to not have an overwhelming number of characters to study every night. I loved the prospect of not waking up at 7:15am everyday to get to class.

It didn't last long.

Apparently my brain gets bored easily because after about four days back in Guangzhou, I was dying to be back in the classroom. I think this is due to a couple of different reasons-- Partly it was because I started to recognize how I had, actually, made progress and wanted that to continue. Partly it was because I also realized how long I still have before I can be considered competent. But mostly it was because I was, and am, just a big dork and am addicted to school.

Before my classes started over here at the high school I ventured over to the university next door to sign up for evening classes again. Last spring I enrolled in what turned out to be a surprisingly useful course about oral Chinese and I wanted to continue. I figured this time around I could convince the instructor that I could actually read and learn characters and mold the course a bit more how I envisioned it. Unfortunately I got to the office and was promptly told that there wasn't enough demand so they cancelled the night classes. No demand? I know, that's what I was psyched about--another two person class! So it was back to the drawing board.

I contacted my teacher from this past spring and asked if she had any friends who were interested in making some money by tutoring me. Being a grad student at the university, I figured she could get me at least a few names and numbers. She came through with one for me which I figured was enough. At this point I had my own textbooks and figured I just needed someone to look over my shoulder and pronounce the characters I didn't know.

The first meeting I had with my tutor was a bit awkward as for some reason she expected me to be paying her an absurd amount of money for her services. She wanted seventy five kuai an hour which some businessmen might be able to afford, but not on my salary! I also happen to know that the best campus job she could get would pay somewhere around six or seven kuai an hour so I didn't feel bad about offering thirty five. It's not like she was going to prep for it or anything.

Anyhow, we had three lessons over the course of those first two weeks and something was just lacking. I was frustrated with what felt like a lack of any progress and didn't know how to solve the problem. After some meditation on the subject, I decided that I was discouraged by the realization that there was no way I could continue to improve at the same rate when I'm teaching. Clearly the only way to improve at the same level as an intensive six-hour-a-day language program is, well, to enroll in another intensive six-hour-a-day language program.

Now, obviously, that wasn't an option for me so I decided to bite the financial bullet and do the next best thing. The university next door offers day classes for foreigners that meet every morning from 8:30am-12:00pm and despite the absurd price tag, I registered. Thankfully I managed to finagle a deal with the director to pay in monthly installments since I'm teaching here on a Chinese salary and, this being an institution that is all about making money, he was down. While I would only be able to attend about 3/4 of the classes, I just knew that I needed to pile on as many hours as possible in a formal classroom setting. I needed a trained teacher and classmates.

I didn't quite know what to expect on my first day, but as I began the walk to class, it occurred to me that once again, for the 22nd or 23rd year of my life, autumn rolled around and I was heading back to the classroom. There was an article recently in the New York Times about how the start of a school year is like a fresh start and how those outside of academia are lacking this opportunity every year. I couldn't agree more--I feel very liberated and excited every fall walking into the classroom, ready to take on the challenge of a new subject or theory. It works perfectly with my heritage as well. New Years may be January 1st, but as a Jew, I can't help but identify with the holiday being sometime in September. It just makes sense.

Anyhow, once I entered the classroom, I was somewhat surprised to see that I was one of only three caucasians. The room was filled with a mix of Korean, Thai, and Indonesian twenty-somethings, rounded out by two Russians. Woah. Again, I shouldn't be surprised. If you're American and come to China to learn Mandarin, you certainly don't come to Guangzhou--you go to Beijing or Shanghai, certainly not to a Cantonese-speaking province.

The classes themselves are fine, but definitely a far cry from what I was doing this summer. I am in the B level class, basically the intermediate level, and that seems appropriate enough. However, out of a class of twenty five or so, only about eighteen show up everyday and of those eighteen, only about eight actually seem capable of speaking up. At first I was put off by this, but the teachers recognize everyone's level and really only call on the eight of us so it makes it feel a lot smaller. A bunch of them are miles ahead of me in terms of their writing, but that's really not my purpose in attending class. If I can improve my speaking and reading and pick up some writing along the way, that's just fine by me.

A few things about the structure of the class really stand out to me. First, the student ID I got makes me laugh every time I see it. In the states we get a laminated ID with our picture that also tends to function as a dining card, laundry card, library card, and potentially also as a key to buildings. My student ID here is this little pamphlet in which they glued in my picture, wrote in my name and gave it a few official looking stamps. In the words of my new roommate Nick, you could rip out my picture, put his in, sharpie in his name, and no one would ever know the difference.

Second, my teachers both do this thing where everytime they hand back our homework notebooks, they make an announcement about who did a good job. This could be a good idea, but the way they do it, they go in rounds. The first few names are the top. Then they pause and say that slightly worse were the following. Then there is another tier below that. Then they basically say that everyone who's name they didn't mention did a poor job. It seems to follow the pattern of my high school when after every exam they post a list on the wall of everyone's name and their score, from highest to lowest. In other words, it's public knowledge just who screwed up and who didn't--a far cry from the privacy of grades in the states. Sure we might ask each other, but generally it's not up on the wall.

Third, we "conveniently" learn about Chinese history and culture in almost every lesson. This could be really interesting, except that we everything we get really fits more under the banner of not-so-subtle propaganda. Everything is about how China has the richest history, has the most beautiful sights in the world, has the best food in the most varieties, the friendliest people, etc. Now I suppose if I were learning English in the states I would also be fed something similar about America from ELL textbooks; however, I can't help thinking that it would transcend this level of inordinate opinion regarding China's merit and superiority. Sometimes it's just a bit much.

I have a little time to rest my brain again though as this week is my first vacation of the new year. Woohoo! While last year I braved the crowds for a whole week through Hangzhou and Shanghai, this year Kelly and I decided to have a bit more of a relaxing week and are heading off to the beaches of Hainan Island tomorrow. The place is known as the Hawaii of the East so I have high expectations. Then again, having never been to Hawaii, I guess I'll be happy with just about anything...

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September 9, 2006

New Things

I have finished one week of my second school year here in Guangzhou and I must say that it has been great. One of my fears in deciding to stay for a second year is that this year would be somewhat boring. I worried that the novelty would have worn off and that everything would be old hat--no mystery in making my way around the city, no excitement walking into class for the first time, no wide-eyed stares from my coworkers, etc. I have been pleasantly surprised though as a number of new experiences snuck into my daily life over the past seven days.

I thought that I had more or less been to all of the major sites in Guangzhou after last year but David, my good friend and coworker, proved me wrong on Tuesday. He invited me to play basketball with some of his friends which I gladly accepted. I figured we would play where we usually do when we go off-campus (a court in a health club down the road) but I was wrong. It just goes to show that anytime you expect something or depend on something to be the same in China, you are mistaken. But I digress.

We headed off on to the highway to the outskirts of the city (which I sometimes forget is ginormous) and lo and behold I see a massive stadium rise up in the distance. My fellow passengers informed me that this was the athletic stadium and training complex which was built three years ago for the Chinese olympics. If I understood them correctly they have a big competition around the country every few years that serves as a national championship of sorts. In true China style, this facility was over the top, graying from air pollution, and looked sorta bizarre.

Since we arrived a little early we drove around the whole area and saw the provincial training facilities for all of the top athletes. I learned that anybody who is truely a top level prospect for any sport is pulled from school and trains full time. This includes young and old and means that the kids either make it professionally or are kind of screwed. I pointed out that the lack of education for those who don't make it is devastating and they just sort of shrugged. Sure, it's less than ideal, but I guess it's just one less kid competing with their kid for a spot in one of the better universities.

The basketball itself was pretty unexceptional (we got worked around by a bunch of high school kids) but the experience as a whole was well worth it. And speaking of new sports experiences, I had a fun adventure with my football buddies after we played this past Wednesday. China was playing Singapore in a qualifying game for the 2007 Asia Cup and the captain of my squad decided to have people over to watch. I went over to his apartment once last year but left after a little while because I really just couldn't communicate and was tired. This time it was a *completely* different experience.

For the first time I saw my teammates as what they really are--good friends who like to sit around telling jokes. As we waited for the game to start we sat outside the flat just chatting and enjoying the early evening breeze. I think these guys' idea of paradise is to play football as much as possible and sit around afterward making wisecracks--a concept that I must admit appeals to me in every way.

The game itself was only noteworthy in that China missed about half a dozen golden opportunities, but what was noteworthy was that I felt like I really belonged. As usual I couldn't understand everything they were saying, but I could follow quite a bit and managed to contribute some commentary of my own during the game. In some ways it's depressing to think that my Chinese is still closer to not understanding a word than it is to being fluent, but I have made progress. And I'll continue to improve, even if it's only slow and steady.

After the match (an embarassing 0-0 tie) I went out with four of the guys to get some dinner. I figured that we would just grab something quick but once again my expectations were wrong. We went to a little hole in the wall joint that served seafood and ordered up this porridge-like creation in which you choose what goes in the broth. I went with Mr. Huang to view the possibilties and tried not to act surprised when he chose. The shrimp swimming around in the bucket didn't freak me out, but the frogs did--once we chose them and the guy slammed them down on the sidewalk to kill them. Yum!

I got over the shock though and it tasted great. I thought that we'd take off right after we finished but that's when they ordered beers. Hmmm. Being a Wednesday night I figured that we'd have one or two and then had home but once again, it was not to be. They told me they were going to teach me a ppopular Chinese drinking game and without letting them finish I told them I already knew how to play. I was betting on the fact that they were going to play the dice game (pretty much the only game they play in bars here) and I was right.

The dice game is a basic drinking game where each participant gets a cup with five dice. Each person shakes the cup up and looks at his or her dice without showing anyone else. Someone then starts the "bidding" in which you wager how many of a certain number there are (e.g., nine 4's in total). The next person either has to up the number of dice or the number being wagered (e.g. nine 5's or ten 4's) or call B.S. If someone class B.S. then everyone shows their dice and the person who wagered has to drink if wrong. If the number on the table equals (or is greater than) the wager, the person who called B.S. drinks. I'm making this sound complicated but it's about as basic as it gets.

Anyhow, it's a fun game and not all that difficult so it was easy for me to wow them with my skills. About two hours later it was time to go home so we had to end the game. The way they decided to do it is that if you were wrong on a wager or call you stopped playing, survival style. With a bit of luck I ended up being the last man standing, after a standoff with Mr. Huang. This was pretty satisfying both because I like winning and because it won me that much more "street credibility" with the guys. On the way home they told me that I was fun to go out with and that we needed to do it again. I can't even imagine what adventures may lie in the future with these guys.

And to top off the week of new experiences, we had our school banquet yesterday to celebrate the start of the year and Teacher's Day. While this was not my first banquet it was definitely a new experience. While last year we had the banquet only with our school, this year the powers that be decided to have it together with the three other schools that are loosely affiliated with ours. As far as I understand it our Hua Fu is the main branch and the top school while the others are almost like satellite campuses for those that weren't good enough to get into our school.

Whatever it is, there were a ton of people at this thing. They had to move the banquet to a restaurant in Foshan, a neighboring city, because there was no establishment in the GZ that could hold so many people. In all I'm told we were a party of over 1000 people with hundreds of different tables. The restaurant we went to was just as big as I anticipated and the food was pretty decent. I also enjoyed it because this time I knew exactly what to expect and went around toasting all of my friends and coworkers, as is tradition. I drank enough cheap red wine to get a whole table of Chinese people drunk but walked away at the end of the night with only a small buzz. I love this place.

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August 30, 2006

Adventures in GZ, Take 2!

After a fun night of dinner, dessert, drinks, and dancing (the Four "D"s) with the new PiA fellows in Beijing, I headed home, napped for a few hours, and got up to begin the long trek home. Now moving has never been one of my favorite things to do, and in this case I was a little bit concerned about my first domestic flight in China. Add it all up and you've got one heckuva an annoying day.

Luckily my language program organized a driver to take me to the airport so I didn't have to worry about that. I had had a few exams at the end of the last week to assess my progress but as it was, this ride seemed like the ultimate final exam. I had a forty minute car ride to chat with a Beijinger who spoke no English. I could have sat there silently counting away the kilometers, but I decided that it was time to step it up. I won't lie and say that we conversed deeply about literature, politics, and the meaning of life, but I did manage to have a meaningful conversation with the guy about his job, his family, traveling, studying Chinese, and being an expat in China. It was nice.

Once at the airport, the stress of traveling hit home when I remembered that I had two ginormous bags to check and one slightly oversized carry-on. My ticket clearly stated that I was only allowed to check one bag under 20 kg so as I waited in line I tried to work out the Chinese in my head for how to convince them the excess was okay. The excuses I came up with ranged from "but I'm a famous American singer!" to "but these bags are filled with teaching materials--don't you want the Chinese youth to improve their international stature with English?"

I got even more nervous when a foreigner in front of me had the same problem and was told that she couldn't check two bags. She started throwing a fit in English and just like the guidebooks say, everyone simply stared. For her the end result was simply "bu xing," or basically, "can't do it." I figured I was going to have to finesse this one big time but as I stepped up, the guy behind the counter barely even looked up. After he tagged the first bag I simply threw the second one up and he tagged that one too without a word. I grabbed my boarding pass and walked away, not having said a single word in English or Chinese. Sometimes you just never know in China.

Next step was the security check. I was curious as to how the recent events in England would affect the Chinese and I got my answer. As I stepped up to the conveyer belt, I informed the lady (in Chinese) that I had a laptop in my bag. Did she want me to take it out and turn it on? No, sir. How about the iPod in my pocket. Is that a problem? Nope. Okay then... My bag went through the x-ray and I passed through the metal detector without a sound. As I went to pick up my carry-on once again, one of the workers asked, is this yours? I said yes. She then proceeded to tell me that she needed to open up my gatorade to make sure it was safe. I took this opportunity to make my first wise crack in Chinese and responded, "Why, are you thirsty? You should drink more when it's this hot out." She was amused.

The flight itself was fine. I had a seat in the front row of the economy section and managed to finagle my way into getting some service from the business class flight attendants. I think I actually slept for most of the flight so in that respect, I guess I give China Southern Air two thumbs up. Unfortunately I think my friend Seiji said it though when he noted that once you fly domestically it's tough to go back to the train. It's tough to argue with a 3 hour journey as opposed to a 25 hour journey. Hmmm.

Touching down in the GZ airport felt a bit weird. I had a slight sense of deja vous but at the same time, it was something totally different. It was almost exactly a year ago that I arrived here after a marathon 24+ hour trip. That time I was with my roommate, who has now left China to begin grad school. That time my school picked me up and took me to my new home. That time I didn't speak a word of Chinese. That time it was all a mystery as to what the next year would hold for me. This time I arrived myself and found the public bus back into the city by asking one of the employees in Chinese. This time I got back to my school and waved a hello to the guards at the front gate who know me quite well.

It's feelings like this that are strange, hard to explain, and surreal. I am now the veteran PiAer for southern China. I'm the guy that's supposed to know how things work, where to go, how to get there, and what to do once there. My new roommate is arriving tonight with little to no China experience and will likely look to me to show him the ropes. The problem is, I'm not sure I know how. Last year I had two or three different people that I would call anytime I didn't know where to go, what to do, etc. This year there are going to be people calling me. I guess I just hope that I can help out.

In talking with the two Yale-China fellows who are also starting their second years, we all agreed that we didn't know the city nearly as well as we'd like to and that we wanted to explore more, find new awesome restaurants, and make more local friends. A lot of these things were almost impossible last year without language skills but hopefully that has all changed. As I begin this second year abroad in China, I have no idea where it will take me, but I do know that I'm as excited as ever to be here and I can't wait to see where it goes.

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August 24, 2006

Weak Sauce

With only a half a day of classes and 36 hours left in Beijing, I guess it's time to reflect back on my summer a bit. Unfortunately my grand plans of site seeing and photo-taking were put on hold earlier this week when I caught the cold that my entire school is now suffering from. It seems that the Chinese Mother Nature awoke with a start this week and realized that it was no longer appropriate to be providing hot summer weather. Thus, without warning, we have been subject to some alarmingly pleasant days--a cool breeze accompanied by mildly clear skies. The downside is that the change of seasons has given everyone one of those annoying colds that's just bad enough to make you feel unpleasant.

Regardless, I plugged on with my studies. In truth I procrastinated a bit by being immersed in a good book (anybody read Murakami's "Kafka on the Shore?" Good stuff.) but I found some time to review as well. As I've said, after being subject to so much classtime over the past two months, it's really hard for me to say how much I've learned. I keep crossing my fingers that it's more than I think and today I had a moment that suggests I might be right.

In between classes I was checking the Yankees score online when one of the teachers I'm friends with asked me for some help. She had gotten an email from a former student (written in English) and didn't understand it. Before I knew it, I was translating various phrases and sentences for her, elaborating with my own ideas... and she understood me! I have no doubt that I butchered the grammatical constructions (and if asked to write the translation in characters I would certainly be at a loss), but she got the point. And when it's all said and done, isn't that what it's all about?

I think the true test still lies back in Guangzhou with my coworkers, though. My biggest fear is that I'll get back and they'll ask how my summer went, I'll tell them, and then I'll have no idea what they're saying to me in response. I'll give them the same blank stare that I gave them last September and they'll chuckle to themselves about how foreigners never master Chinese. The worst part is that they're not too far off. Though I'm not exactly in the most distinguished of language programs, there are students here who have been studying for over five years that not only lack true communication skills, but also have major flaws in their basic pronunciation and tones. Five years. If I have issues like that in five years I think I'm going to start learning Italian instead. No matter how you slice it, Chinese is tough. I know I've made at least *some* progress though and I guess that'll have to be good enough for the time being.

The school offers everyone a "transcript" and certificate at the end of their study and today I got mine. I opened it up and almost laughed out loud. Lets just say that I'm glad that I've long graduated and that I don't actually need it to try and get credit with it. I can picture the quizzical look of the lady in the Wesleyan Registrar's Office who would scrutinize the form for about 7 seconds before handing it back to me and saying, "Sorry honey but I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this." My official transcript consists of a handwritten half page with exam scores and attendance hours, mostly in Chinese. At least I took my exams though. I have two friends who never got around to taking three of their four tests and received scores ranging from 85-92 on them. Not bad! Naturally this is going directly up on to my fridge back in Guangzhou.

The highlight of the day though was actually in my afternoon reading class. Back at the beginning of July I got placed into a reading class for students who could speak decently well but had never studied characters before. There were only two of us and the other girl was far and away more advanced than me. I decided to stick it out though and I'm sure glad I did. While I couldn't understand a lot of what was going on in the first few weeks, eventually I "caught up" and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my teacher. A native of northern Hebei Province, she has been in Beijing for a few years now working on a PhD in classical Chinese literature. The bonus here is that she knows the etymology and breakdown of almost every character which is a HUGE help for me when trying to memorize those squiggles.

It's just been the two of us these past few weeks (the other girl left) and we've developed an amusing mother/son sort of relationship in which she asks if I've had my vegetables and I complain about having to get up early everyday. She is very interested in learning English so after class a few times a week I've helped her decipher various essays and answered questions for her. Like most Chinese, her reading comprehension is pretty solid while her speaking lags really far behind.

Today in class she was attempting to explain a phrase that seems to be the Chinese designation for something akin to "that sucks." It took a lot of elaborate explication (in Chinese) but after a while I felt I had a good handle on the nuances. As I paused to write down the definition in my notebook, she says in almost perfect English, "It's like saying that something is 'weak sauce'." I figured I must have misheard her so I asked her to repeat it at which point I almost fell out of my chair laughing. In the course of one calendar year here, I have never ever heard a Chinese person utter teenage/young-adult American slang like that. We both had a serious laugh about it and I decided to use it as a teaching moment and explain (to the best of my ability) the derivation of a phrase like that. It was hilarious.

Other than that, my football team hit an obstacle in our last tournament game as we dominated the first half against the Italians but decided to let them score 6 unanswered in the second half to lose by two. Ugh. My last match is tonight against a team of Argentinians. I fear they will go Diego Maradona on us and send us home packing. Of course in my case that sort of works out okay because I do need to pack up tomorrow before flying back to GZ on Saturday...

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August 20, 2006

Forbidden

I have officially reached one week and counting until I will be back in Guangzhou. Where did summer go? It occurred to me the other day that while I am not here in Beijing as a tourist, there are still a handful of places that I haven't seen yet and I have no idea when I'll be back here. Thus, with only 6 days left (and 6 days worth of homework) I resolved to cross at least a couple of those destinations off my list. First and foremost, I headed off to the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City, named for the fact that it was off-limits to citizens for over five hundred years, is the compound centered in the exact middle of Beijing. It was here that the Ming and Qing Dynastic regimes ruled over their empires and made decisions affecting millions of commoners. I had heard mixed reviews for this particular destination so I really didn't know what to expect. After taking the subway to Tian'anmen Square, I followed the throngs of people heading under the (in)famous portrait of Mao and through the massive gate.

The first thing that struck me, after I managed to finagle my way into a student-priced ticket, was the sheer size of the place. When you look at it on a map it looks relatively big, but this place is ginormous. Upon walking through the Meridian Gate into the main section of the compound, you are met with a wide open space that supposedly held an imperial audience of 100,000 back when the Emperor addressed his royal subjects. Unfortunately, much like a ton of the city, some of the premier buildings were under renovation prepping for the olympics so I didn't get to see a few of the more famous buildings. For instance, the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the largest structure in the Forbidden City was completely covered by scaffolding.

That aside, the architecture was what I consider stereotypically "Chinese" and very homogeneous. The sheer magnitude of everything was stunning, though I wasn't all that impressed with the basic aesthetics of it. I guess I've already seen quite a few buildings built in this style. What was interesting is that most of the Forbidden City follows the strict regulations of "feng shui," thus, buildings are framed by gates, steps are all counted and synchronized with the surrounding buildings and balconies, and in general their is a point-counterpoint layout sense to everything. Unfortunately you aren't allowed into virtually any of the buildings so you're stuck admiring from afar.

One thing about walking around the grounds is that you sweat like there's no tomorrow. Since you are out in these wide open spaces, you are at the mercy of the humidity and sun (shining through incredible pollution, of course). I think I drank about two and a half liters of water in the three hours I was there. Overall though, I'd say the experience was mediocre. The coolest parts for me were the little things that weren't important enough to warrant a plaque, e.g. the ceilings of the smaller gates, the smaller gardens, and the small marble bridges spanning streams and ponds. Unfortunately with so many people there, it was hard to stand there and admire it all without getting stampeded by the herd. If you like architecture and Chinese history though, you may be more entranced than I was.

After walking around for so long I went back out through the south gate and crossed "Chang'an Jie" (the "Long Peace Street") into Tian'an Square itself to have lunch. This, too, is simply massive and I enjoyed the sheer size of it all. I strolled around for a bit and then sat down near the "Monument to the People's Heroes" to eat my noodle lunch. Not surprisingly, the police presence in Tian'anmen is enormous. There is a huge force of clothed police and an uncertain number of plain-clothes cops patrolling the entire area, not to mention the surveillance cameras mounted on the light fixtures. As I slowly slurped up my lunch, I tried to imagine the protest in '89. Supposedly there were upwards of close to a million students that filled the square and while it is almost 440,000 square meters, that is still a ridiculous number of people. What's also amazing to me is that they marched all the way down from the universities-- which is not close. I tried to imagine their reactions when they saw tanks and soldiers rolling in and eventually opening fire. It must have been horrific. Before I left the square I tried to see Mao's frozen, formaldehyde-ed body but sadly it is not open for viewing during summer afternoons. Oh well. I'm pretty convinced it's a fake, anyway.

My final anecdote from the experience relates to my cab ride home. At this point I've gotten used to the thick Beijing accent amongst drivers (everything ends with a "rrrr" sound) and have grown accustomed to basic chit-chat, but this cabbie threw me for a bit of loop. I told the guy my destination and was daydreaming out the window when all of a sudden I felt a hand on my leg. Stopped at a red light, my eyes shot back to the driver who had a goofy smile on his face. Without a word he started running his hand up and down my lower leg! I asked him what he was doing and, to my relief, he said that he had never seen body hair like that before. I started awkwardly chuckling which he took as a green light to go on with his tactile exploration and before I knew it he was feeling my arm as well. I told him I was special (hey, my mom always said so). What's funny is that if I understood him correctly, he told me he really wished he had my type of body hair. Now if only I was sporting my Jew-fro as well... Other than that, I am unsure how my brain is going to survive another week of class but I see the light at the end of the tunnel so I will do my best to push through.

Oh, and go Yanks.

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August 13, 2006

The Beat Goes On

... and on. I'm now starting the 7th week of my language study program and I must say that my brain is officially running on fumes. I think when I get back to Guangzhou I will have a much deeper sense of appreciation for the amount of work and classtime my kids have everyday. 6-7 hours of classtime as well as an hour or more of homework every night is killer. Just in case it was in doubt, I can now say with full confidence that Chinese is a really hard language. Have I learned a lot? I certainly hope so but at this point I have NO idea.

I guess the end is in sight though and that means my summer tenure here in the nation's capital is winding down. I think my experience has been affected by a few different factors but overall I have to say that I continue to be unimpressed. I am extremely curious to see how much more progress they can make before the olympics in 2008. I have no doubt that the olympic facilities will be done in time and that the games will run smoothly, but what about the rest of the city?

Right now the streets are a complete mess and that's no exaggeration. It must be in part due to the massive construction and large number of cars, but it's dirty everywhere. I thought Guangzhou was dirty but I hadn't seen anything. We had another day of sun today, which was awesome, but that still only makes three days of something resembling a blue sky (in over six weeks). I read once in a magazine an author jokingly asserting that China's penchant for smoking cigarettes will do more for their population control than the One Child Policy ever will. I think you can change this now to say that simply breathing the air in China will do more for the population control than the One Child Policy. Sad, but true. The building I have class in went up about a year and a half ago and started off white. After only this short time period, they are being forced to repaint because the exterior is now grey, bordering on a muted black.

All that being said, Beijing isn't the capital for no reason. I went with my friends Kelly and Dan to a remote section of the Great Wall and did a 10k hike last weekend which was incredible. The sky wasn't all that clear but it was still breathtaking. Both times now that I've trekked out to the wall I've had similar thoughts: first, I wonder if everyone laughed at the first emperor who told his royal subjects that he was going to order the construction of a 6000+ mile wall. It seems like a ridiculous concept but it certainly puts in perspective the sheer man power that China (still) has at its fingertips. Second, I wonder what the guard in the watch tower thought when he saw Khan leading a massive army down from Mongolia. Sure, the kingdom might survive but the guard sure is in trouble.

I have also treated myself to another Beijing specialty-- kao ya (Bejing roast duck). A solid crew of us went this past Friday and it lived up the hype and then some. Kelly had been to a place somewhere amongst the "hutong" (the older neighborhood with the narrow winding lanes of homes and shops) so a crew of us went in search of this famed eatery. It really was lost amongst the historical hutong so it took us a while but was well worth it. What's sad is that the government is trying to tear down these areas as quickly as possible in order to make way for sparkling new high rises. As far as I understand it, foreigners find this much more objectionable than the natives, but still.

Another thing that Beijing has (that Guangzhou is lacking) is a very lively, self-sustaining ex pat community. I can't decide if this a good thing or a bad thing, but for the moment it's okay. Not only can you get almost kind of food in the world, you generally don't have to go looking too far for it. In GZ you can get almost everything but you definitely need to know where to look. I have also discovered that Beijing has quite a few alums from my alma mater and I have been very happy to attend barbeques and happy hours with old friends and acquaintances. Again, this is nice for the here and now, but I don't think I'd like to live in that sort of environment. Might as well stay in the U.S., right?

Another benefit of the strong expat community is the presence of various athletic opportunities. I've been playing football (read--soccer) twice a week here and am actually iin decent shape for the summer which is nice. Last week the owner of the pitch we play on informed us of an upcoming tournament. Hmmm, tournament? Count me in! I was pleased to discover that I was not the only one around with an insatiable appetite for competition. Of course it wasn't until after we signed up that I stopped to think about who we'd be playing. We really had no idea but I had a sneaking suspicion it wouldn't be easy.

I was right. We had the first round of play on Saturday and faced two really solid teams. We had the luxury of playing the first team after they had already had one match and, without any subs, they were pretty exhausted. The five guys they did put on the field were five pretty big and highly skilled guys from some Arabic-speaking country. They weren't too pleased that we had four subs to run them down but that's the way it goes. We dominated most of the game but ended up escaping with a 5-4 victory.

The second game was, well, not quite as successful. We were feeling relatively good about ourselves heading into the match but our hopes were dashed by an even better opponent. This time it was a group of Chinese that barely seemed to exert any effort in running us around the field. Despite their advantage, we went into halftime only down 4-6. Then it fell apart. I'm not quite sure what the final score was, but lets just say that it wasn't close.

We were hanging our heads as we walked off the field but we were somewhat encouraged to find out from a spectator that the team includes at least three former national team players. I'm pretty sure my intramural team from college could NOT compete with these guys. As we sat down to take stock of our chances, we looked around and discovered that this was Beijing's own little World Cup. We defeated the Middle East, lost to China, and still have Africa (whose team includes a former national team guy from Nigeria), Hungaria (a bunch of older businessmen), Italy, and perhaps one more. As for us, we span the globe so we settled on a team name of "Lao Wai," or "Old Foreigner," which is how Chinese tend to refer to white people when they see them in the streets. Wish us luck this weekend.

I'm glad that with my busy schedule of Chinese class, football, and food that I don't have too much time to think about what's going on in the rest of the world. It looks like China might just be the safest place around. I just hope everyone has peace on their minds and that the people in this world can start to put some of their differences aside. That shouldn't be so hard now, should it?

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August 1, 2006

Hard Times

I feel compelled to write a short blog regarding the current events in the Middle East. These days it's beginning to feel more difficult than ever to be a Jew and there's no visible light at the end of the tunnel. Though I am very far away from the current conflict in northern Israel and Lebanon, no Jew is ever truly far removed from the situation and even I am feeling the strain. How can we even begin to construct a viable peace agreement, given the awful transgressions on both sides?

It's becoming increasingly clear that Israel is pushing too hard and overusing their military strength in order to cull as much of Hezbollah as possible. However, I'm not entirely sure I see the alternative right now. I will be the first to admit that it is slightly problematic to keep an unbiased perspective on the situation as an American Jew, yet doing so is almost more important than an outsider being impartial. Israel tends to be under a microscope for all matters of international relations, and for good reason. With the Middle East as volatile as any area on Earth, there's a great deal of pressure on Israel to make thoughtful, responsible decisions.

But how do you make rational decisions in the face of government sponsored terrorism?

It pains me to think that Israel is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Lebanese and that the efficacy of the killings is questionable at best. Hezbollah will simply retreat for a short time after a cease-fire is achieved and return in the future. Meanwhile, with every day and every death, Israel alienates and angers the Arab world to the point where I can picture lines around the block to sign up for Hezbollah and Hamas. This, in turn, creates a lose-lose situation in which Israel feels it necessary to overlook the general international consensus. It seems that they are often held to a higher standard than other countries but that's not the issue--all countries should adhere to higher ethical standards. Rather, the issue seems to be finding the right balance between the classical realism of protecting state interests and the more optimistic approach of adhering to international aspirations for peace in the region.

But would the benefits of stepping back and standing on the moral high ground outweigh the fear and harassment of constant terrorist attacks?

It seems that much of the world inadvertantly neglects to remember why there is a State of Israel in the first place, yet it has only been a little over a half-century since the nefarious horror of the Holocaust. A lot has changed since then but it will always stand as a stark reminder that Jews are different. As Elie Wiesel reminds us, people of the world must never forget. I am not trying to suggest that the rockets landing in Haifa and the Golan are akin to the slaughters from Nazi Germany. On the contrary, I feel that it's important to keep in mind that there is a great deal of irrational hatred for Jews around the world. Unfortunately, Israel seems to be fed up with this malevolence to the point where they too are contributing to an unnecessary loss of life.

But is it possible for both sides to agree that violence simply begets more violence?

Once again I find myself in an awkward position as an American Jew living abroad. My friends here from other European and South American countries seem to be looking to me to explain or somehow expound at least a modicum of America's response to the conflict. While I think Condoleeza Rice comes across as both ignorant and pompous when discussing the birth of a new Middle East, I think it's clear that there need to be some changes in the region. Israel has been in some sort of war or battle at least once a decade since its inception. And that's not even mentioning the thousands of years of previous strife in the area. America, as reigning superpower in the world, is responsible for attempting to broker some sort of peace resolution.

But will they ever look beyond their own self interests and focus on the root of the issue?

I have a few Chinese teachers and friends here who know I'm Jewish and ask me to explain what's going on. This is, sadly, a very telling reflection of the events, as I'm forced to use my elementary vocabulary to explain one of the most heated and complex problems in history. My explanations tend to center around the basic idea of both sides killing people. Not surprisingly, they don't get it. In what is truly a sino-centric society, most Chinese can't explain even the most primitive differences between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It's hard for me to render these age-old differentiations comprehensible in any sort of way. They, in turn, process the current events in only the most elementary sense- Israel's killed way more than the other side.

But is there any reason for them to think differently?

The bottom line for me right now is that I want the whole thing to stop as soon as possible. Much as I oppose everything about the war in Iraq, I hate the fact that young Israeli men have to go and die in the battles up north. I hate the fact that there are innocent people getting killed in Lebanon and innocent civilians under fire in Israel. I hate the fact that the gorgeous countryside up north is being ravaged by soldiers on both sides. I hate the fact that I have friends living in Tel Aviv who are actually within missile range. I hate the fact that I've been to the border with Lebanon and can picture Israeli tanks rolling over the hills, getting fired upon by Hezbollah fighters. I hate the fact that there are no answers for the questions I've raised. I hate the fact that my sister is only a short bus ride away in Jerusalem. And I hate the fact that I can't even foresee any sort of realistic solution for the near future.

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July 30, 2006

Quirks

As I've mentioned many times in the past, China is a land of contradictions. As such, it's extremely difficult to generalize about almost anything. However, I've decided that I can claim one universal fact about this country and it relates to housing. Every single apartment or house I've been to thus far seems to have some sort of quirk. It might be a big thing or it might be a little thing, but it's always there somewhere.

In my apartment back in Guangzhou, the washing machine does this thing where it will stop mid-cycle and you have to open it up, rearrange the clothes to be more evenly distributed, and then start it up again. Not a big deal, but it's always there. Our DVD player also doesn't like to work if it's at anything other than a perfect horizontal level. That takes a bit of balancing at times but it works out. Finally, to get hot water in the bathroom, not only do you need to have just taken a hot shower, but you also turn the faucet the opposite direction of every one I've ever used in the states. Again, nothing major, but quirks nonetheless.

One of the Yale-China apartments in Guangzhou has a weak power circuit so it's constantly a fun game to see how many appliances you can actually turn on before the fuse blows. It's impossible for two people to shower at the same time because the second you turn on both water heaters, you blow a fuse. In like manner, you can't have both bedroom air conditioners on while someone tries to shower. You'll blow a fuse. They also have a sink in the kitchen that sometimes decides to leak on the floor. Other times it's just fine. The bedrooms also only have one power outlet each. My favorite though is the television that takes about fifteen minutes to warm up before it will give you a clear picture.

In my friend's apartment in Kunming, there is a complicated system of circuit breakers that you need to flip on and turn in order to get hot water. And even when you do everything in the right order, it oftentimes doesn't work anyway because it's all related to solar power cells on the roof of the building. It's sort of an all or nothing proposition--either boiling hot or ice cold. In one of the PiA apartments in Wuhan the water shuts off from 11:30pm-6:00am. This is not a big deal except when you need to do some serious business in the bathroom and you can't flush. There's a bucket that can be filled and used to flush but if more than one person has to go, it can get ugly. What's funny is that even when the water is on, you need to manually hold down a button to fill up the tank to get enough water to flush anything other than a #1.

One of the PiA apartments in Hangzhou had this thing where the bathroom was so small that the shower faced directly towards the wooden door, about 4 ft away. You had to sort of angle yourself away from the door or else you got a small flood in the kitchen. So what ends up happening is that toilet gets soaked and if you need to sit down after a shower, it's a very cold experience for your rear end.

And even the few high class apartments I've been in tend to have small quirks as well. My friend Meggie in Guangzhou lived in a very expensive high rise located in a premier area of town. It was extremely nice inside but was hardly devoid of quirks. There was a toilet seat in the guest bathroom that liked to come unfastened when nudged in the wrong direction. There was a light fixture that was able to move up and down from the ceiling...except when it decided not to. The best though was the front door. In order to actually close and lock it, you had to pull up on the handle and then slam it with your shoulder. Otherwise it just bounced right back at you.

My apartment here in Beijing is no exception either. Though it can be classified in the category of "Unnecessarily Nice," it has a handful of quirks up there with any apartment I've seen thus far. The shower is a really nice feature of the bathroom, complete with a granite-like floor and glass shower door. The only problem is that eveytime I use it, it leaks out on to the floor. I've put a towel down on the floor to soak it up but what's weird is that I never know which side will get wet. Sometimes it's only the right corner. Other times, the left. And sometime, just sometimes, it's both. The air conditioner in my bedroom is also a bit weird in that it really only seems to have one setting. Most ACs in China have a digital remote in which you can move the temperature up and down. Everytime you change it, it beeps and adjusts accordingly. Well, mine beeps alright and registers the change on the remote, but I'm not convinced the temp every changes. However every once in a while it makes a really loud noise in the middle of the night and blows out a gust of cold air. At least it works.

The biggest quirk of my home here in Beijing is the kitchen light. Sometimes it just doesn't go on. I've cooked many a meal in the relative dark which makes me feel primaeval or something. So basically I leave the switch in the on setting and just hope that it comes on and stays on. Right now I'm in a period of "on" which is great. I feel like I should cook up a week's worth of meals for when it inevitably goes off inexplicably in the near future. Ah well--all part of the adventure.

Besides the various anomolies here, everything is going well. I've reached the halfway point of my language program and that's a little scary. I'd like to take stock and see how much I've learned but I still have no idea. I hit a bit of a wall this past week when I felt like my brain shut down a bit, but I suppose everyone goes through that at some point or other. Again, I have managed to get out a bit and even found myself at a Wesleyan alumni get-together last night which was great. And since I'm halfway done here, I figured it's time for some pics. Click on the link to see some shots from the Great Wall, the acrobats, the soccer match I went to, and some other random pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/72157594214781834/

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July 23, 2006

Blue Skies?!

Walking out of my apartment on Friday morning, I had to rub my eyes a few times to see if I was dreaming. Lo and behold, you could actually see a blue sky! It's amazing how much this improves both my mood and the appearance of the city at the same time. I almost didn't want to go inside for class because it was so nice outside. Given that it was the first day of sun and blue skies in about three weeks, it seemed like a shame to waste it in the classroom. Unfortunately, that's the way it goes when you're in a summer language program.

The past week has pretty much been more of the same and I'm still unsure of how much I'm retaining from this experience. I get approximately forty new words everyday and I really do think it's impossible to fully learn all of them in a single night. The textbooks are set up in order to have as much repeat exposure as possible, yet when we keep moving through new chapters all the time, it's tough. My apartment is now full of various textbooks opened up to different exercises and readings. Surrounding the books are mountains of flashcards separated into three piles: "Don't Know," "Definitely Know," & "Questionable." The Definitely Know pile grows everyday, but unfortunately so do the other two.

I have mixed feelings about the overall quality of my program, but I have to say that I am pleased on a few levels. First, I don't have a single class larger than 4 students. That's definitely an ideal way to learn--not small enough to feel like you're under a microscope every second, but not big enough to feel like I'm not getting any attention. Second, the name World Link is definitely not a misnomer. Though there are certainly a huge chunk of students from the states, my circle of friends here includes one Englishman, one Chilean, two Germans, one Canadian, one guy from Switzerland, and one American. My class consists of one Englishman and two Japanese. Needless to say, we have some pretty interesting conversations.

Besides the classwork, I have been playing a whole bunch of football. I was super proud of myself for bargaining down a pair of indoor-style cleats from 400 to 70. However it came back to bite me as I got two major blisters from the shoes. I hate playing with blisters but that's just the way it goes. We have been playing an Americas team vs. Europe and have had some heated competition. We got embarrased once but have split our other matches. I think it's high time we challenge them in basketball but they seem reluctant. Oh well.

And on the subject of football, I went to my first China pro game last weekend as Beijing downed Shenzhen 2-0. It was definitely an interesting experience. Not knowing what to expect, I tried to prepare myself for anything. The night started off with a serious trek out to the western edge of Beijing as their usual home stadium is currently under renovation for the olympics (along with just about everything else). Once we finally got there, we found a small, yet spirited crowd cheering on their boys. There was a complete lack of beer but yet an abundance of police waiting to pounce on any hooligans. Professional sports without beer? It took a little getting used to.

The game itself was... interesting. I'm somewhat confident that my intramural team from college could have competed decently well with them but it was still fun. We had a field day in the stands trying to decipher the various trash talking. The most common imprecation was repeated over and over to the point that we felt like suggesting something new to the crowd. We kept hearing "Sha Bi! Sha Bi!" which, when spoken in the right tones, is a derogatory term for female genitalia. I guess sports fans around the world are always that classy.

Besides the soccer game, I also got out of my apartment for a few other occasions. First, I got to see my buddy play some music at a small bar near the Forbidden City. I'm not quite sure what it is, but recorded music just pales in comparison to live music. It must have something to do with the timbre of the sound waves and the vibrations, but it's so much more exciting to see someone play live. He played a set of just acoustic punk rock and it was awesome. The next morning I got up bright and early and headed out to Tian Tan, the Temple of Heaven.

The temple is interesting for having such cool architecture, but it's also interesting from a historian's point of view. This enormous complex was built back in 1420 for the emperor to pray only twice a year. Meanwhile, nobody else was ever allowed to enter--even when the emperor was there praying for the harvest. Talk about a waste of space! I can't even fathom the time and money that went into constructing and maintaining the temple for what amounted to about an hour of face time every year. Unbelievable.

Other than that, the beat goes on. There are only about 300 characters waiting for me on the table right now...

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July 16, 2006

Thoughts

I now have two weeks of class under my belt and I think it's safe to say I'm learning something. I guess the real test will be once I return to Guangzhou, but overall I guess it's going well. It's a bit tough to try and shove so much information into your brain in such a short period of time, but it's certainly worth a try. I have been so busy with class and homework that I haven't gotten out all that much, but I think I'm starting to get a good feel for Beijing... and it's much different than Guangzhou.

First off, I didn't think it was possible, but I'm pretty sure the air here is even worse than down in GZ. It may just be that I came here straight from the states or that the weather has been particularly bad these few weeks, but I've only seen the sun once and only seen a hint of blue sky on one occasion. Other than that, it's grey, hazy, and polluted like crazy. On the upside, the temperature hasn't been nearly as smoldering as I expected. Again, I don't know if this is typical, but we've had some semblance of a breeze almost every day. Even if it only disguises the humidity for a brief moment, it's still nice.

Second, Beijing public transportation is suprisingly awful. For a city that is hosting the olympics in two short years, the subway system is remarkably inadequate. I believe they are in the process of adding a bunch of lines and expanding the frequency of trains, but right now it's horrendous. For starters, I can't even figure out the ticket system. Much like in Guangzhou, you pay more depending on how far you're going. But unlike GZ, there are no kiosks with digital maps to show you exactly how much to pay. I tried to decipher a sign but it made no sense to me. Instead, you wait in a long line and buy a paper ticket. Some attendant then tears your paper ticket in half when you walk down the stairs. I don't know how this could possibly be more efficient than a card or token system but what do I know. What's even more incredible is that even once you get down the stairs and figure out where to go, the subway cars themselves are incredibly outdated. There is no air conditioning so you basically have to hope that the fans are working. If they're not, you're in for a hot/smelly ride. If they are, it's only mildly more palatable.

I've only taken the bus twice but I can't say it was much better. I think the buses are much more far-reaching; however, they are also not super convenient, at least where I am. This pretty much amounts to a ton of walking. Usually that wouldn't be a big problem, but in Guo Mao (my part of the city), almost half the sidewalks are under construction right now. There are so many buildings going up in the central business district here that there is huge construction pretty much anywhere you'd want to walk. It's annoying dodging cars and bicycles everyday, but I guess that's just a way of life.

Another interesting difference between here and GZ is that people seem to be much more used to foreigners. I guess there are probably quite a few more up here but it's sort of funny. My friend Dan has really good Chinese and used to get enormous compliments anytime he spoke in Changsha, his former home in Hunan Province. Over here, they don't give him a second look. They *expect* you to be fluent. Last night I was in a restaurant and managed to not only read a bunch of the menu, but also use one of the phrases I recently learned in class with the waitress. She was unimpressed.

I don't know if this a difference, but despite being comparatively well educated and cultured here in Beijing, people are still remarkably China-centric. I mentioned something to one of my teachers about everything going on in Israel right now and she had no idea what I was talking about. I watched the news on CCTV-9, the English language channel here, and it only got a small mention, sandwiched in between news of a rainstorm here and a new business deal in Hong Kong. It's really not hard to see why people have a very insular view here because they get fed nothing but China China China all the time. And what's painfully obvious to me as a foreigner is that it really is monitored and censored by the state. Not only do you not hear bad news, but you may have seen the article in the NY Times last week that publishing breaking news (without permission) now carries a hefty fine.

On a separate note, learning characters has definitely given me a new perspective on things. As a good friend told me, learning how to read and write here is like learning a secret code... that millions of people know. A lot of those little squiggles really do carry meaning so it's interesting to piece them together now, especially for words that I've known for months. It's almost like walking around a city and piecing together sections of a mental map--I can now look at some signs and figure out exactly why they use a certain character.

I'm still in the basics of reading and writing but that's just fine by me--there's a lot for me to catch up on. Furthermore, a lot of the more basic characters have some really interesting meanings: hao, the character for good, is actually a compound that combines the characters for woman and son (i.e., a woman together with her son is good). Along the same lines, the character for peace is a compound of a woman in a house. The character for taking a rest is a compound of a man up against a tree. You get the idea. Of course it also makes me chuckle to discover that the character for bed is actually a compound that sort of means "wide piece of wood." Doesn't sound too comfortable to me but, again, you get the idea. So basically I am spending hours just trying to decode these characters and find logic/meaning in a system that up til now has appeared to be completely random.

I am not being a total recluse though and have gotten out a bit this weekend. Friday night I saw a performance of Chinese acrobats and it was stunning--really defied any words. My favorite was probably the guy rolling around about twenty feet up balancing precariously on top of a few of his comrades' heads, flipping small bowls from a board on to his head. Picture that, if you can. And tonight I am heading out to catch my first Chinese Football League match (read: soccer). I'm not expecting a super high level of play but I am extremely curious to see the culture of it all. Will people be yelling and singing all game? Will they be downing lots of beers? Will there be a big police presence? I'll soon find out.

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July 11, 2006

Beijing

I've (more or less) surived my first week here in the people's capital and it has been a rollercoaster of a ride. There are a billion things for me to write but I'll try to keep this entry at a reasonable length. First off, the trip here: It took me a ridiculously long time to actually get to Beijing from Hartford but, luckily, I managed to sleep for most of the long flight between Detroit and Tokyo. I think that probably added to my horrendous jetlag but waddaya gonna do. Anyhow, I arrived Sunday night and made it through customs by about 10pm. After getting my stuff, my language program picked me up along with two other guys and we headed off to the city center.

I had signed up for a dorm room single but as it was, they were overbooked so they had to put about 50 of us into a hotel for the first week. Though some may have had illusions of grandeur, I knew better. We walked into a predictably dingy hotel and I made my way up as quickly as possible in order to get to bed. I dozed off by midnight but managed to wake up of my own accord at 3:30am--the first of about six mornings in which I woke up at an ungodly hour.

A bunch of us made our way over to the academy early on Monday morning in order to go through orientation, take a placement test, and start right in on classes. Now I knew before I got there that this program was hardly well reknowned. I knew it was more or less a business rather than an educational institution, but it happened to be the only game out there at a decent price and with flexible start/end dates. So there you have it. I expected some sort of campus or affiliation with a university but I was wrong on that one--it turns out the classrooms are on the fifth floor of a huge high rise building inside a ritzy business complex not-so-aptly named SOHO. It is located in the Central Business District of Beijing which means it's a pretty nice area, though super expensive and super new--not really my cup of tea.

The orientation was a standard sort of introduction lecture, though I thought it was telling that the director of the program opted not to read any of the rules from the handbook (e.g. don't bring alcohol into the lounge, no outsiders, etc.). He literally said that they weren't that important. Interesting. Anyhow, afterwards we took the placement test which really was one of those nightmares you have when you're a kid, one of those ones where you show up to take the test and can't even read the exam. In this case, I struggled to recognize every 5th character which meant I didn't understand a single sentence on it--not even where to write my name.

This was the first indication that I was going to have an extremely frustrating first week. It turns out I inadvertantly screwed myself but not having formally studied beginner's Chinese. After a year in Guangzhou and one semester of oral Chinese, I can get around decently well--I can bargain in stores, order some food, use transportation, etc. However, since I never studied characters, my readiing is waaaay behind my speaking, which is even miles ahead of my almost non-existent writing. This is a problem. I was not entirely alone in this situation and after doing much better on the speaking portion of the test, I got placed into an intermediate level class of interesting distinction.

When we all got settled and organized, it turns out I was in a class with five other kids, all Chinese-American. They also lacked anything in the way of reading or writing, however they had all had twenty some-odd years of speaking with their parents. Guess who was not quite at their level of speaking? That's right--the caucasian!

We have 6-7 hours of class everyday split into four different catgeories: reading (in reality, more like writing), speaking (more like reading), comprehension (more like speaking), and listening (more like comprehension). At the end of each session I felt like half of it had passed me by. There's no doubt I was learning quite a bit, however, I couldn't help thinking there was a better way to be going about this whole thing. I went to talk to the head teacher and he was immediately willing to switch me down to a lower level reading class. I hated feeling like I had given up, but that's the way it goes. Naturally I walked into the new class and was immediately bored. They were doing absolute beginner's stuff, going around pronouncing basic words like "ni hao." Umm, yeah, I think I know that one. So it was back to the drawing board.

I went back once again and chatted with the head teacher. He moved 3/4 of my classes starting this past Monday to a class of advanced beginners, a group that had started about 6 weeks ago, and it was great. Of course the 4th class turned out to be a bit of a disaster again (it's clear to me that the woman has never been at the front of a classroom before) but I successfully lobbied today for her to be replaced. I'm hoping for an improvement tomorrow.

And to top it all off, due to overbooking, we had to have our first week of classes about 15 minutes away at a satellite campus of Qinghua University, which was conveniently under construction during class time (can you hear the jackhammers out there in the states? I wouldn't be surprised). Starting Monday we were back in the academy classrooms (a HUGE improvement) and also moved out of the dingy hotel into the apartments. I was "upgraded," most likely in attempt to silence any complaints, and it worked. I have a swank new apartment to myself and it's pretty cushy.

Despite the 6 hours of classtime, 2 hours of language exchange with our Chinese partners, and 15 minute walk to and from my apartment, things are going well. I'm definitely learning at least something (hopefully more than I realize). I'm enjoying my classmates (a smattering of folks from around the world). I hiked a huge section of the Great Wall (just as breathtaking as you'd think). I had some high-class Beijing Duck (yum). I found my way onto a football team (now if only I were in shape). And for the first time, I'm beginning to be able to read a restaurant menu without any assistance. That's a huge score.

Posted by awolfe at 8:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 1, 2006

Unique

Over the past two weeks I have been to 4 major cities (Boston twice, New York twice, DC once, and Hartford if that counts), 2 games at Yankee Stadium, 1 beach island (MV), and 1 wedding. I've eaten exorbitantly large meals, stood in "civilized" lines, watched a ton of baseball, and seen friends from high school, college, grad school, and the vineyard. I am completely exhuasted but trying to rally in order to pack up my life once again for another year.

It was great to be back in the states for a couple of weeks though it was exactly what I expected: surreal and hectic. It's tough when you try to fit in a year's worth of activity into 15 days--there's just no easy way. It was even stressful at times, as I had to organize around schedules and compromise between having fun/relaxing and doing as much as possible. And of course the entire time I kept looking around thinking, did I really just spend a year in China? Did I really? I think so, but yet... now I'm back where I grew up. It's a weird feeling.

I had many different thoughts, realizations, and minor epiphanies while I was home and I'll see if I can explicate a few here. First, my initial reaction coming off the plane was true--people in America are grossly overweight. It's really no wonder, given that our portions are double or triple something comparable in China. Furthermore, we drive everywhere. And if we're not driving, we're getting a ride on the subway or bus. I think my generation (at least the population on the coasts) is quite a bit better with exercising, but we are definitely a lazy society. It seems a bit bizarre to say so, but I felt like I could see America in slow-motion decline. We're used to everything being easy and available and I'm not quite sure how we will respond if and when that changes.

Second, there is so much about America that is unique to the rest of the world. 12 hours after touching down in the states, I was at one of the most famous sports buildings of all time: Yankee Stadium. Besides baseball itself being so traditionally American, the entire culture surrounding baseball is completely unique. At the game there were dozens of commonalities: people wearing baseball caps, drinking beers, shouting (the same things in unison) at the umpires, doing the 7th inning stretch, cheering at the appropriate times, clapping in certain patterns, etc. It was amazing. I think to someone Chinese it would appear that we had all gone through training before getting our tickets. And in a way, I suppose the socialization of living in America is a form of training.

I also had a chance to visit some of my good friends from high school and college and we participated in another expressly American event- playing drinking games. I think other countries have a number of different imbibing games, but I think the U.S. takes the cake. There are scores of different drinking games that almost every college kid knows involving various combinations of alcohol, cups, cards, tables, and motions. I really don't think it exists anywhere else in this capacity.

Third, my hometown in beautiful. Having grown up and lived in W. Hartford for 18 years, I didn't have all that much to compare to. Sure, I had traveled to major cities and town around America and even abroad, but I never really stopped to look around my own surroundings. The fields, flowers, and trees in West Hartford are gorgeous. There are a plethora of (free) parks with facilties for baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, football, and even golf. The architecture of the houses are also gorgeous. They are all different shapes and sizes. They are different colors. They have well maintained lawns. More than anything else, West Hartford is amazingly clean! Put it together and it equals a great town. These things simply do not exist in China.

Fourth, I missed the diversity of the states. Riding the subway in Boston or New York City, I could see approximately a dozen different languages in newspapers. I saw people of all colors. Walking around the cities I heard many different kinds of music played by people on the streets. Once again, these things simply do not exist in China. The government does not allow for very much public perfoming, especially un-supervised. And with a predominantly Han-Chinese society, it's rare to see anything other than your stereotypical Chinese face. In reality, of course, there is an incredibly diverese array of Chinese ethnicities, but for some reason it doesn't seem to compare to the different faces you see in America.

Lastly, I felt an unexpected measure of pride when introducing myself to people while at home. I think I forgot that what I'm doing is relatively unique and somewhat daunting to many people in the states. While I don't think I'm taking this opportunity for granted, I do sometimes forgot just how special it is. People almost always did a double take when I said, "I live in China," or "I work in China." They were very interested and curious to hear my thoughts. That made me even more excited to get back and get going for the second year.

I'm not quite sure how much blogging I'll be able to do over the summer but I am going to try. I head to Bejiing tomorrow morning and upon arrival begin studying Chinese 7 hours a day. I think it's going to be pretty exhausting but ideally worth the effort. Wish me luck...

Posted by awolfe at 9:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

June 20, 2006

In Reverse

After almost 29 hours of traveling, I am officially back on U.S. soil. It took a short ride with a kid booting the back of my seat, a long ride with an obstructed view of the movie screen, and another short ride with a bunch of loud, obnoxious businessmen, but I made it all the way from Guangzhou, China to Hartford, CT. It is great to see my family and friends but it has to be one of the most surreal experiences of my entire life.

One of the biggest concerns in doing PiA is culture shock and readjustment to a foreign environment. While I had a few minor instances of increased frustration or homesickness during my first year, I don't think I ever went through something that you could really call culture shock. I didn't have too much time to consider it before I left, but I think that coming back is almost more difficult--something akin to reverse culture shock.

Reverse culture shock is a well documented condition, but one that may be overlooked by most. After all, you are returning to the familiar. There is no alien culture to acculturate to; there is no radically new milieu in which to experience. That is, not on the surface anyway. As I sat in the front of the car driving back into my hometown, I found myself staring out at the storefronts and street signs. It all looked more or less the same, but there were minor differences here and there. Was that sign always red? When did Subway put in a shop there? What happened to the bank? etc.

Despite the small changes, I almost feel as if the past 10 months was a dream. If I didn't have the pictures and emails and blog entries, I might be able to convince myself that it's all made-up. One of the difficulties in being home is seeing people who ask the obvious question, "How's China?" The problem is, how in the world do you answer that question? I remember back when I was in Israel for the first time, we were prepped on receiving this sort of question. What they told us was that it's impossible to convey all your thoughts and feelings from the entire abroad experience; therefore, instead of trying to answer the question with an all-encompassing response, just try to pick one small vignette in which to share or one highlight. This seemed like good advice once again, but I find it hard to even pick a highlight or a single story.

The whole thing is great, interesting, strange, boring, exciting, challenging, easy, informative, predictable, and unreliable all at the same time. Thus, in true China form, it's one big contradiction. At this point it's comforting to know that I will be going back so soon, in order to gain more knowledge and experience. Perhaps that will enable me to formulate a better response to that question, "How's China?"

Stepping off the plane in Detroit on my connecting flight, I had a few observations right off the bat-- first, people in America are overweight. My students used to make comments like this and I would go out of my way to say they were wrong, but they might just be on to something! Walking around the airport, it looked like everybody was carrying around quite a bit of added weight. Not that everybody was obese, just not quite as fit or as thin as in China. I ascribe that 100% to diet and exercise. Most Chinese people eat better and bicycle/walk much more than the average joe in America. Second, I felt very short. Though I never felt really tall in China, I felt as if everybody was towering over me in Detroit. I'm not quite sure what accounts for this, but there's nobody in the states that would try to convince me to play center on the basketball court. Third, America is incredibly diverse. I guess I just got used to staring at predominantly Han-Chinese faces for 10 months and forgot that there are more heterogenous societies out there. As such, nobody was staring at me as I walked by. That may have been the biggest shock of all--I was back to being a dime a dozen! As I sat down in the airport cafe to have only my 2nd hamburger in the last 10 months, I began to think about a few other things.

There are several situations from the past in which I had to say goodbye to people and make a major transition in life (e.g. graduating high school or college, moving to China, etc.). However, I can't recall a single instance in which I had to say goodbye to a number of people who were leaving while I was actually going to return. Usually everybody was moving on so there was a sense of accomplishment or excitement for the next step, of sorts. However this time, I had to say goodbye to a number of good friends, but yet I'm going to be right back in a few months. Guangzhou is going to be amazingly different when I return in August and once again I have no idea what to expect. The first time 'round, I expected it to be difficult; to be a strange time living experience. This time? I hope to foster closer ties and relationships with my coworkers. I hope to my Chinese drastically improves. I hope to discover all the sights that aren't in the guidebook. But will it work out this way? Who knows.

As I spend the next couple of weeks spending time with family and seeing friends around the eastern seaboard, I hope to record a few more of my thoughts about this short intermission from China.

Posted by awolfe at 11:24 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 29, 2006

Moments

While I am hardly a "martyr" for coming to China through the incredible opportunity of PiA, I did have to give up a few things before moving overseas. I think all of us had to sacrifice certain objects and parts of our lives in order to become fully immersed in the foreign world. Most of these things are obvious (e.g. leaving friends and family) but some are more unforeseen (e.g. baby dill pickles). I consider myself rather lucky so far this year in that my family got a chance to come and visit, my oldest friend in the world was here for a week, and of late I have experienced minor miracles such as the discovery of Heinz garlic dills and the live-viewing of a Yankees game. Unfortunately, there are certain things that cannot be replaced.

Part of the fun of being here in China is not only exploring the culture, learning the language, and expecting the unexpected, but also creating the familiar out of what's available. This can mean a number of things--it can mean rallying a group of people to take over a bar in order to watch baseball; it can mean using "Great Wall" wine in lieu of "Manischewitz" on Passover; it can mean improvising in order to cook Western delicacies. Kelly recently went out of her way to cook 7 layer bars, one of the ultimate American desserts. In the U.S. this would only entail a single trip to the supermarket. You could pick up everything you needed and pretty much dump it into a pan in the oven. Half an hour later, you're all set. In China, it's not so simple.

Kelly had to look up a recipe for butterscotch because butterscotch chips are nowhere to be found. She had to manually chop up some chocolate bars in order to create chocolate chips. She had to sample a few kinds of biscuits to find a suitable replacement for graham crackers. She had to consult the calculator on her computer to figure out the exact celcius equivelant for the mini-oven. It was a major success and certainly created a real sense of accomplishment, but it wasn't easy. It was a very "T.I.C." moment, as Anastasia would call it (This is China).

When I accepted the Guangzhou post a year ago, I was 100% excited. I accepted that I would have to leave certain things behind and adapt to a new environment--it was inevitable. However, I also knew that there would be at least one moment during the year when I would miss being in the States. This past weekend was the 25th Reunion Anniversary of the Wesleyan Spirits, my old singing group from college, and I was about as far away as I could have been.

My father surprised me by heading to the reunion concert in my absence and he called me up from his cellphone. At first I was a little confused since I couldn't hear him that well but then I realized why--his voice was being drowned out by music and applause. I got to listen to almost the entire concert over the phone which was an incredible feat of modern technology. I also got to talk with some of my best friends which was incredible. In a very weird way, though, it almost made this weekend even harder. I heard some of my closest friends singing together on a stage that I should have been on. I heard them sing one of my old arrangements. I heard someone else sing one of my old duets. I heard them laughing and goofing around just like I would have been.

For the rest of the day I was just downright sad for the first time since I left Boston last August. I wasn't at home with my family for Passover but I managed to hold my own seder here in GZ. I wasn't at the Siegel's house for Thanksgiving but we managed to rally an incredible feast here. I wasn't able to watch the Yankees playoff games with my dad but I managed to follow it online and get periodic updates from him over the phone. This was the first time that I could not at least improvise some sort of replication of the event and it was tough.

I felt a bit like Alexander right in the thick of his terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. After I got off the phone with my dad at the end of the concert, I headed out to tutor, only to be caught in a major downpour. Of course one of my kids didn't do his homework for the first time all year, thereby ruining my lesson plan and forcing me to make something else up on the spot... for an hour. After I finished that I went to Chinese class where my Chinese teacher asked me every single word that I did not know. I had memorized about a hundred phrases the day before but she didn't touch on any of those.

By the time class ended I was tired, hungry, and wet. Kelly and Diana heard about my day and invited me over for dinner. After waiting about thirty minutes for the bus that is scheduled to come every five minutes, I headed over the river to the university. Once I finally made it to their apartment, I couldn't believe my eyes. Inside there were balloons, a table covered in delicious-looking food, and a big ol' sign that said "Happy 25th Birthday, Spirits!" That's right, there was a celebration right here on the Pearl River Delta to celebrate 25 years of singing and brotherhood.

I guess the moral of the story is that there are certain things that are irreplaceable but that other things come along to make up for them. I missed a chance to see some of my good friends who are usually scattered across the globe, but I had a really fun night with two of my newer friends. I missed out on being a part of the 25th chapter of the Spirits story but I created some unforgettable memories of my own that will always be a part of my China experience.

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May 23, 2006

Firsts

This past weekend was another weekend of momentous firsts here in Guangzhou. I have been riding the "pickle high" for as much as it's worth and have already finished two jars. At this rate I will finish all nine before I even leave the country for the States. But I digress. I didn't think it could get much better than pickles but this weekend saw the invasion of a whole bunch of Yale-in-China fellows to our lovely home here in GZ. There were 4 from Changsha (plus 1 former PiA boyfriend) and 1 from Hong Kong (in addition to her boyfriend). Add that to the 4 Yalies here and the PiA-ers in tow and you had about 14 or 15 of us rolling around the city searching for fun.

Luckily with a group of smart, funny, talented kids like that, fun was never far away. Some minor highlights of the weekend include playing the "Share the most mundane moment of your day" game (much funnier than you'd think) and one of the most competitive games of Trivial Pursuit I've played in a while. The Elis all enjoy competition and I can't say I've ever been one to shy away from it so it worked out quite well.

Though the various card games and board games were enjoyable, they were only a bonus to the best parts of the weekend. I mentioned last week that I brought out the frisbee for the first time and was inspired. Well, the Yalies were of the same mind so we set out to throw the disc for a while out on one of the fields of Sun Yat Sen University. We found a nice open field with a bunch of students lounging around playing cards and chatting. It felt so normal to be throwing the frisbee around with a big group out on a college campus... until campus po-po shut us down. That's right--somebody must have called 911 to report the danger because a university police officer rushed over after we had been playing for a half hour. He proceeded to inform Kelly and Diana that while the field was there for the students and faculty to enjoy, it was not to be stood on. We looked around and saw various people walking across the field, laying on the field, and sitting on the field, but apparently the light jogging required to catch an off-the-mark toss was unacceptable. My favorite part is that he did say it was okay to sit down and play frisbee. Just picturing that was worth a laugh. I wondered if I could organize a whole game of ultimate that required all participants to sit down.

After our frisbee was cut short, we headed back to relax at Kelly and Diana's apartment. There I saw an unbelievable documentary which I highly recommend to all of you. Dan, one of the Changsha fellows, brought a copy of his brother's movie that was premiering this weekend on HBO called "Baghdad ER." It is a film that follows one of the medical units in Iraq caring for (mostly) U.S. and coalition forces. It was not done with any string political slant, but rather to show the horrors of a war that (I believe) we should never have started in the first place. It's extremely well done and when it ended, my first thought was that I wished it had been longer. For those of you with HBO, check it out as soon as possible. For those of you without it, track down somebody with HBO and make friends.

After the movie we mobilized for dinner to the Irish pub "Paddyfields." The Changsha contingent rarely gets any form of western food so it was a treat for them to have our meager offerings here in GZ. I myself had not been there since Halloween so I was looking forward to some western cuisine. After looking at the menu I felt I owed it to myself to have a big burger and a Guinness. I was not disappointed. My first restaurant hamburger in China was incredibly tasty and well worth the hefty price tag. The french fries also hit the spot, right along with the onion rings we shared for an appetizer. Mmmmmm. Fried food.

While this was a momentous occasion, it paled in comparison to our post-dinner plans. Andrew led us over to an honest-to-god western-style bowling alley! I can't say that I'm an avid bowler or a bowling enthusiast by any stretch of the imagination, but who doesn't like to bowl every once in a while? The whole experience was very funny though and very indicative of a western activity done in China. First off, they gave us shoes and did not require our shoes (or anything else for collateral). In the states, that alley would have lost all of their bowling shoes in about two days. Second, we got to our group of lanes and had a bit of trouble entering names into the system (though I was eventually amused by "Arster," and "Dianimal"). Next we went in search of balls. While U.S. bowling alleys rarely have top of the line offerings for the casual bowler, we had some slim pickins. There were a bunch of balls around but all of them either had bizarre finger configurations, were too heavy, had huge chunks missing from them, or were just super super dirty. We picked a few though and got under way. Unfortunately, our particular lane was a bit finnicky. After two frames it stopped lowering new pins. We called over the attendants and they seemed to fix it but then after the next toss we were back to square one. This went on and on for a little while until they called over one of the technicians.

Now in the states if your lane is not working correctly, they probably just shut it down and move you. But here in China, they sent a guy right down into the pin-moving mechanism and he manually pushed the thing down. Nobody told us to stop throwing balls or told us when it was okay to keep going. Eventually we decided it was safe to roll again but the problem kept occurring. Though the man was helping the pins down, sometimes the machine would release too early (i.e. from too high up) and you started the frame with only 7 pins on the ground. Hmmm. Eventually they did wise up and move us to a new lane, but it was pretty entertaining all around. I wish I could say that I channeled the spirit of "The Dude" and was in top form but in reality I only broke 100 once... and that was because I got a strike on the final frame.

I didn't think it could get much better than bowling but I was wrong. We finished up at about 11:30pm and I figured we would make our way home but Andrew had a grand plan. We walked over to Elephant & Castle, the local western sports bar and waited to the side while Andrew made some inquiries. E & C is known much more for it's football and rugby offerings than anything else, but we reasoned that if they had a satellite, they might just be able to pick up some U.S. sports. Specifically, we were hoping for Saturday afternoon's matinee at Shea Stadium featuring Pedro Martinez against Mike Mussina--the 2nd game of the Yankees v. Mets series. I didn't think there was a chance but Andrew worked his magic and I actually got to watch a live Yankees game!

And thus we entered a surreal world of beer, baseball, darts, and a projection screen TV. Sure, if you looked out the window there were neon signs in Chinese characters. However, with a menu offering fries, wings, and pizza to keep you company along with the sparklingly annoying commentary of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, it sure felt like home. It also worked out nicely that there were two bigtime Mets fans and two diehard Yankees fans to trade barbs throughout the game. I almost forgot how to trash-talk but rest assured, it all came back to me in a tidal wave of slang.

The first pitch was thrown at a little over 1:30am for us and we all got comfortable in our seats (assuming it was not our turn to throw darts in the ginormous 4-way team game of cricket). The game moved along a bit slowly but I was loving every second of it. Sure, they were in Queens and not the Bronx. Sure, Pedro was shutting down Yankees hitters like it was nobody's business. Sure, it quickly became reeeeeeally late at night. But this was Mets v. Yankees, live in China! I lost a bit of inspiration when the Yankees went down by 4 runs approaching the top of the 9th. Somebody must have known I was watching though because the Yankees staged an improbable comeback against an All-Star closer and ended up winning in 11 innings. We were probably some of the only people still awake in Guangzhou by that point, a little after 5am, but it was well worth it.

I woke up the next morning and honestly wondered if it had all really happened. Did I really drink Guinness last night? Did I really use a hot green bowling ball with a golf-ball sized chunk missing? Did the Mets really bring in Wagner in a non-save situation, only to have him blow the game? I'm pleased to say the answer was yes, all around.

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May 19, 2006

The Pickle Odyssey

Whenever you live abroad for an extended period of time, there are certain things that you miss about home. I'm not talking about the obvious things like friends and family, but rather the unexpected ones. When I spent my first summer in Israel, I missed orange juice like crazy. When I was in Scotland I missed singing with a passion. So far in my tenure as an ex-pat in China, there are a few things I've been craving. As I've mentioned a few times, baseball is towards the top of my want-list. Warm weather means baseball and the Yankees to me and since it's never cold here, well, you get the idea. English literature is also towards the top as Barnes and Noble has yet to hit Guangzhou. The offerings here for contemporary English fiction are few and far between, not to mention ridiculously expensive. I'm almost embarassed to say, though, that what I've missed more than anything else is non other than your basic kosher-style baby dill pickle.

Anybody who has ever lived with me knows that pickles are a staple in the "Ari Diet." When I'm hungry for a snack, I tend to wander into the kitchen, open the fridge, grab a pickle, and munch down on it as I look for further nutrients. Even after I locate the snack of the moment, I tend to go back for another exit-pickle as I leave the kitchen. Pickles have almost always been a standard garnish in any of my meals. I'm not saying I have Penne Vodka topped with pickles, but they have been almost ubiquitous.

Naturally I looked for pickles when I first arrived and was disappointed by the offerings. There were various brands and denominations of gherkins and even a few jars of sweet pickles (gross) but not even a single normal-sized dill pickle to be found. My friends here quickly heard of my plight and did their best to appease this somewhat bizarre yearning. Diana brought me back a jar of pseudo baby dills from Vietnam but they were pickled with slightly different spices. Meggie offered to look up pickling recipes and help me do it from scratch. Anastasia, PiA Executive Director extraordinaire, heard of my lusting and spent an entire afternoon searching in Hong Kong but to no avail. Kelly did one better and brought back a genuine jar of baby dill pickles all the way from the states and it was all I could do to not eat the whole thing in one sitting. That jar became a treasure chest for me and each individual pickle was relished. Sadly, it was not a magical jar and it was gone all too soon.

One of my projects for the vacation a few weeks ago was to learn all the Chinese necessary to ask about special ordering pickles from one of the few western-import food stores here. While I never quite got around to it, a friend did inquire for me and they said that it was certainly possible. This news made my mind swirl. What brands were available? Could I special order a whole case or would they only procure a few jars? Would they be able to obtain those spicy dills I got addicted to last year? The possibilities were seemingly endless.

Two days ago Kelly and I decided to make dinner together and we put guacamole down as our appetizer. Guac' is another western "delicacy" that impossible to find in Guangzhou, but not all that difficult to make from scratch. There is one supermarket in the whole city that sells avocados at a reasonable price and it's not all that far away so they're easy to get. Obviously tomatoes are everywhere, along with onions and garlic, so the only things we had to buy special were the lime juice (limes are impossible to find), tobasco, and worcestershire sauce (Kelly's secret ingredient). We were all set to have guacamole and some curry Wednesday night until we realized that we had no chips. Tragic!

Now chips are a whole different ballgame over here. Pringles and lays are everywhere (though in somewhat bizarre flavors like "hokkaido crab" and "cucumber") but tortilla chips are sometimes tough to locate. They only seem to stock them at one or two of the western food stores and you never know what the availability will be. Anyhow, Kelly offered to trek out to Oliver's, one of the foodstores, and grab a bag.

As I walked into Kelly and Diana's apartment, I was made to close my eyes and informed that there was a surprise for me. I had my fingers crossed for the hint-of-lime tostitoes but I was definitely under-shooting this time 'round. I walked in, opened my eyes, and saw none other than NINE jars of baby dill pickles!! I was speechless. I almost shed a tear. I wish someone had captured the moment on film. And not only were they real American pickles, but they were straight-up Heinz kosher baby dills! Kosher dill pickles in Guangzhou, China? I guess stranger things have happened. It turns out that Oliver's was randomly stocking the item and Kelly seized the moment, buying their entire selection, sans three jars that she didn't have the hands for.

As I opened a jar and chowed down on the incredibly tasty treat, I began to wonder a bit about why it felt so special and why I missed them so much. I think the answer has a few different dimensions. First is obvious-- I like the taste. Pickles taste good so naturally I would want to have them. Along the same lines, I have a weird consistency-thing where I tend to like foods that are crunchy (nuts, pickles, etc.) and shy away from foods that are gooey (yogurt, bananas, etc.). But it has to be more than just that, right?

Second, is the concept of the familiar. Eating baby dill pickles has been a quotidian event for me and I certainly felt its absence. It is something I know well, used to depend on as a standard food item, and something that used to be a regular part of my day. Third, there's something of a cultural connection. Pickles are what I consider a kind of Jewish food along with things like bagels, kugel, and gefillte fish. Sure, others have taken pickles and modified them in various ways, but I think back to the histories I've read of the old New York Kosher delis and the large pickle barrel was always in the picture. Fourth, the human sense are extremely potent. It is well documented that music can elicit certain memories and feelings with people. I would argue that food is the same way and baby dills make me think of my apartment last year in Boston, of eating at various delis, of Jewish-holiday festival meals, and of Weshop, the Wesleyan campus market.

Whatever it is, I could not be happier. While it may only seem like a small detail to most, my quality of life here in Guangzhou just went up by leaps and bounds. That being said, I'm off to grab a pickle before hitting the soccer field.

Posted by awolfe at 4:39 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 17, 2006

Cheese Pizza in Paradise

Though today is raining in Guangzhou, the past two days have been an absolute paradise. We got a brief respite from the heat and humidity and were lucky enough to have sunshine, a cool breeze, and temperatures in the high seventies/low eighties. So nice!! I celebrated on Sunday by having Mother's Day dim sum (Happy Mother's Day once again, ma!) and then heading out to Shamian Island for some good old fashioned frisbee. Though I brought my frisbee with me back in August, this is the first time that I've actually had a chance to use it! Once I got the rust off my throwing arm, I was right back in the groove and loving it. Frisbee seems to be one of those all-American sort of activities that brings me back to college, good weather, and relaxing afternoons.

Besides being Mother's Day, Sunday was also actually International Austin Powers Day. Diana decided that since I had Passover and Kelly had Easter, she was feeling left out. The end result? Austin Powers Day. Diana cooked up vegetable samosa's, wheat crust pizza (from scratch!), mashed potatoes, and some other goodies. And, of course, we watched Mike Myers' modern classic. It was a really good meal, and only the second time I have had pizza since coming to China 9 months ago. Crazy.

Speaking pf pizza, my best student recently won a regional writing competition and got a 2000 kuai cash prize to go along with some chicken spices from a sponsoring company. What does that have to do with pizza, you ask? It's quite simple. 2000 kuai is about $250--a HUGE amount of money by Chinese standards. She was a bit disappointed to have been passed over for the grand prize, 6000 kuai and a 3 day vacation to Singapore, but 2nd prize is nothing to be embarassed of! She wanted to celebrate so we agreed to have lunch together yesterday. Though she selflessly wanted to spend some of her winnings on treating me to lunch, it was obviously much more appropriate for me to treat her. I asked her where she wanted to go and she said Pizza Hut. More pizza? Sure!

I had never been to Pizza Hut before but it has always intrigued me here. Whereas Pizaa Hut in the states is sort of low-end, greasy, cheap eatery, it's actually a real high class joint in China. There are fancy plates, well-dressed staff, and an extremely overpriced menu. But hey--pizza is far from ubiquitous in these parts so I was certainly willing to give it a try. We ordered two of the small 9 inch pizzas, one veggie and one spicy chicken. The menu suggested that each pizza would feed 2-3 people but I knew better. In American terms, these were individual-sized pan pizzas! When the waitress brought them over I was pleasantly surprised. They looked similar, smelled similar, and appeared to have a similar amount of grease. Though I had heard their pizza tasted radically different here, I think I have to disagree. It was far from exactly the same but the only thing that was noticeably different was the tomato sauce. Overall it hit the spot and I will definitely go back, despite the high price tag.

Meanwhile, I still have no internet in my apartment and it doesn't look like I will until September. This is no disaster, but it just makes life a little bit more difficult every time. This past Monday Steven and I had to give a presentation to a group of students traveling to the U.S. about cultural differences. Putting together the powerpoint turned into a minor fiasco because of transfering information and graphics, etc. But really what annoys me most is the lack of baseball news and highlights. MLB is obviously in full swing at this point and I'm feeling extremely out of the loop. I did, however, just read that the Yankees came back from being down 9 runs last night. That makes my day.

I hesitate to say so with certainty, but I think I actually have a new roommate for real this time! Though I haven't heard for sure, I did get a quick note from PiA that they completed their long and arduous search for Steven's replacement. For a short time there it looked like I was going to get a female roommate but I guess that never materialized. Either way, I'm excited to meet the "newbie" and show him around. Nick, if you're reading, get psyched because Guangzhou rocks.

This news of a new roommate is one of many indications that this school year is winding down, and winding down FAST. I am currently midway through my last full week of teaching before doing a week of review and then giving final. Crazy! Where has time gone? It's now a full year ago that I graduated from BU and got my masters. My sister actually graduates this week with her masters (congratulations, Ilana!!) so the entire Wolfe family is now officially overeducated. But I digress. I am getting super excited to get back home for a few weeks. I plan on gorging myself with high-fat American foods and watching baseball and sportscenter non-stop. I suppose I'll squeeze in some time for friends and family, but we'll have to see.

My Chinese course is also winding down which makes me sad. I am really enjoying the class and my teacher has been wonderful. I had a very satisfying moment over the weekend when I went to buy a flash drive from the big computer parts market down the street. I was asking around to check on different prices and finally found one that started off with a decent price. Of course I had to bargain down from there though so I had to kick my Chinese into overdrive. Though I'm sure I still got ripped off somewhat, I did manage to tell them in Mandarin that I was a poor student without any money and that they needed to lower the price. We jawed back and forth a bit but finally the lady caved and sold me a 2 gig drive for the equivelant of about $55. Not bad. Everyday though I am getting more excited to study full-time this summer. I am all set to be in Beijing from July 2-August 26th, studying about 45 hours a week. It'll be exhausting, but it's just what I need.

Finally, on the subject of Chinese, my (American) friends here have given me a new Chinese nickname which I find particularly amusing: "pangzi," or "xiao pangzi," which roughly translates to "fattie" or "little fattie." I love the idea of this catching on to the point that my co-workers here start calling me fattie. For some reason that would just make my day--I would laugh uncontrollably everytime.

Posted by awolfe at 5:12 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 12, 2006

Health Check

In the continuing adventures of Ari in China, today I went to my first health clinic. Nope, I wasn't sick but rather I had to get government authorization that I'm still physically fit enough to work here. It sort of makes me laugh. I was slightly nervous about the conditions and sanitation of the facilties but in the end there was nothing to worry about! It turned out to be a relatively quick and painless procedure, which is less than I can say for my physical and tests before I arrived in China.

Luckily I was not alone in this little jaunt, as Ms. Kelly Brooks also had to get "reauthorized" before getting the permit to stay another year. As we walked to the facility she gave me the nitty gritty details on what actually happens with the different forms and checkpoints. I should have known already but Hua Fu took care of all the details for me when I arrived and all I had to do was hand over my passport. I'm pretty sure that they'll do the same thing again but just in case, I got the full story.

Basically, we are both here right now under a foreign resident's permit in conjunction with the foreign expert's certificate. These will both expire in the next month so they have to get updated and extended. I suppose I understand but really--how does one lose one's "expertise?" If I was an expert before, what would have transpired in the last 9 months to make me no longer worthy of such distinction? Anyhow, once I get that certificate reissued it goes off to the resident's permit office which will just paste another sheet into my passport. This is all contingent on me being good and healthy though...

I think I detailed this back in August's blog, but before I left the states I had to have a physician fill out the visa application medical form. This includes such questions as "Are you crazy?" and "Do you have any contagious terminal illnesses?" The form also requires a chest x-ray, blood test, ekg, and a few other basics. Back in the states, I had to get the results notorized, the notorized forms authenticated with the MA state seal, and then all those forms together verified by the Chinese consulate. This whole process took a couple of days and cost a bunch of money, not to mention a whole heckuva lot of running around. And, in the end, my school never actually asked to see the final product here in Guangzhou. Oh well.

So today I set out to basically have all the same things done again, though this time I had the privilege of forking over almost 1/8 of my monthly salary. Great. I really had no idea what to expect in this whole thing but having finished it, I should've been able to picture it. Basically it was a health check factory: you arrive and wait in line to fill out the forms. After completing the initial forms you get in another line and pay the fee. They stamp your form, give you a special receipt and send you to a different line where you wait to go up to the part with the physicians.

Upstairs we got dropped off in a waiting room with one woman who checked weight, height, and blood pressure. Kelly and I had been munching on some skittles as we walked up the stairs when another foreigner mentioned that we were supposed to be fasting. Umm, oops? The first question they asked us was if we had eaten breakfast. My mother would definitely assert that skittles do not qualify as breakfast so we said no.

After we completed step 1, a doctor came and ushered us into room #2 which was kind of odd. One at a time they had us lay down and pull up our shirts, at which point they poured some goo on our stomachs and used some kind of device to look at our organs on a tv monitor. I guess they found them all in the right place because I got the big checkmark and a shove in the direction of room #3, the EKG room. The EKG took approximately 30 seconds to set up and then about 5 seconds of actual testing. Again, I guess my heart was acceptable because before we could get comfortable we were ushered out once again.

Room #4 was the X-ray room which I guess I was slightly apprehensive about. I gotta say though, before I had a chance to really think about it, they had say me down and taken the picture. It literally took about 15 seconds to walk into the room and sit in the x-ray seat and then about half a second for them to take it. They didn't position me, give me instructions, or really say much of anything. Luckily I don't have TB and was sent off to the next stop. I did have the notion that if I did have TB it would be completely China's fault and thus I should not be held responsible. Am I wrong?

Anyhow, room #5 was the actual doctor who must have spent a good 45 seconds listening to my body through the stethoscope. I asked, "mei wenti ma?" (no problems?) and he cheerfully responded in English, "Normal!" Okay then. It was off to room #6 and the eye test. They had a standard vision chart and a colorblind test. I aced the first part and pretty much guessed at the really small letters but Kelly told me I got them all right. Sweet!

Last stop was the only one I was dreading-- giving blood. They needed two vials of blood to test for HIV and syphillus so they had two nurses sticking people as quickly as possible. I guess when you do it a gazillion times a day you're good at it though because I sat down and two second after they looked at my passport they had already started filling up the first tube. It hurt a bit but it was definitely a nice new clean needle so that was nice. Nothing but the best for us here in the rich city of Guangzhou! I shudder to think about doing this exam somewhere in the rural countryside.

So that was that. I went through the conveyor belt and got fully checked in about an hour and a half. All in all, a relatively painless experience! Now if my residence permit application could be just as problem-free...

Posted by awolfe at 6:00 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 8, 2006

Blogging Delinquency, Part Deux

Ahh yes, my PiA blog. Have I fallen into the Zhujiang River never to be seen again? Nope. Sketchy Chinese internet strikes again! For no understandable reason, the connection in my apartment building has been down for the last 6 weeks or so. This makes blogging extremely difficult, especially given my penchant for long-winded musings. So, in an attempt to catch up to the present, here is a whirlwind update on the last month or so. Maybe I'll write without pronouns. That'll probably speed up the process...

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...

Posted by awolfe at 5:10 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 1, 2006

Visitors, Ankles, and Question Marks

Just when I thought Steven and I would have a boring week alone, we received a visit from 2nd year PiA veteran Ellen, all the way from Japan. Ellen finished up her tenure teaching at a Catholic Girl's High School and wanted a taste of the wild and crazy world of China before heading back to the states for graduate school. I am always excited about visitors so we cleaned up the futon and awaited our guest's arrival.

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...

Posted by awolfe at 11:40 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 28, 2006

Boudy

As I mentioned before, I decided to up the ante this semester and enrolled in an official Chinese course at the university next door to my high school. Despite being a beginner's class that has had three different teachers and a revolving door of students, I have definitely enjoyed it thus far. We even had our first test last week (I got a 94! Yes, I am patting myself on the back) in which I was forced to learn about 40 Chinese characters. At this rate it should only take me about 576 years to become fluent. Anyway, it's always a surprise who will be there but there are three of us who have been to virtually every meeting: me, a friendly Korean lady named Nancy, and a young Lebanese business man named Boudy.

Boudy always has a smile on his face and was immediately cracking jokes with both classmates and teachers right from the start of the first class. I think it's safe to say that I liked the guy right off the bat. There was another Lebanese guy named "Ali," (not to be confused with "Ari") who had been attending classes as well and the two of them used to chatter away in Arabic when something was unclear. Boudy speaks great English but Ali sometimes needed some help in his native language. I enjoyed learning some basic Arabic from them and found it interesting to compare basic words to their Hebrew counterparts.

Maybe it was unnecessary and maybe I was making something out of nothing, but I intentionally refrained from admitting my knowledge of Hebrew, my Jewish roots, and my travels to Israel and the Middle East. Beyond basic history lessons, experience has taught me that people around the world are not always so friendly to Jews (e.g. the time I wandered into a Parisian pub with neo-nazi propaganda on the bar). China feels eons away from antisemitism (hell, they think we're all rich and brilliant) but something in my gut told me to keep it to myself.

Regardless, we moved on in the class and I got to know Boudy a bit better. A couple weeks ago we figured out that he lives in the exact same complex where I tutor every Sunday. We made tentative plans to hang out sometime and I made a mental note to call him sometime after I finished. This past Sunday I finished giving lessons and was craving some food. I was going to just grab the bus and head home but I remembered Boudy was around. As it was around dinner time, I figured I'd give him a ring. It turns out he was heading back to his place with a business associate and would be there in 10 minutes. Sure, I'd wait.

Boudy rolled in with an older fellow named "Muhammed" who spoke about four words of English. Acting as interpretor, Boudy introduced us and explained that he was doing business with this guy, locating materials here in Guangzhou for the guy's three clothes stores back in Lebanon. They finished up and then Boudy and I headed out for some grub. I would have been happy with anything but Boudy wanted to play host so he took me to a place that advertises itself as a Turkish bbq joint. He quickly clarified that in reality it's a restaurant offering basic Arabic food and not really just a Turkish place. Either way, I was excited for Middle Eastern food. One thing I learned in Israel is that the food sure is tasty in that part of the world--very unique as well.

Boudy ordered up a feast in Arabic and we sat chatting while waiting for food. I asked him the basic question you ask a foreigner in China: What brought you to China? For me of course the answer isn't all that exciting--I wanted a new adventure and a new challenge. For boudy, however, it is much more complicated. He sort of laughed and asked me if I wanted to the whole story. This only piqued my curiosity further so naturally I asked for the whole 9 yards. He obliged and I was fascinated:

Boudy, given name "A Halim Bdeir," grew up in a small town in northern Lebanon amidst a family with three brothers. After attending university and studying business, he was obliged to spend a year in the military along with every other citizen in the country. Apparently he started in his first week and hated it right away. Having worked in a few high profile clubs while getting his degree, he made a few friends that you might consider VIPs. He made a couple of calls and managed to arrange a skiing "accident" where he could get sick leave to recoup. In reality he had an old ACL injury from basketball but it was good enough. The plan worked to perfection and he was given 6 weeks recovery time.

In that time, Boudy spoke to his cousin who was working in Dubai. He encouraged Boudy to pick up and relocate, promising to introduce him to some people who might give him work. Knowing that the government would forgive any required military service if you were abroad for five years, Boudy made the move. He got hooked up in the club scene once again and quickly made a name for himself as an excellent bartender and then manager. Being such a great people-person, he got a position as a mid-level manager at a high profile club hosting parties for movie stars, professional athletes, and rich moguls. In a word, he was living the life.

Before he knew it Boudy was surrounded by every vice you could think of: alcohol, drugs, women, cars, gambling, etc. He was getting paid big bucks by some of the major players in the gulf oil industry. He was good at what he did and made many connections in the process. His family, on the other hand, was not too happy with him. Without going so far as to tell him to come home, his father voiced his disapproval. Boudy was living a very non-Halal lifestyle.

Boudy explained to me that in Islam there are two basic categories for things: Halal and Haram. Halal is everything that is accepted, everything that is healthy, everything that is beneficial for both you and your surroundings. Haram is just the opposite. Not surprisingly, the nightclub lifestyle isn't exactly Koran-approved. After a couple of years, Boudy started to realize that the Haram lifestyle was catching up to him. He was making a ton of money and yet somehow spending even more. He was happy partying yet unsatisfied. Eventually bad things started to happen: a minor injury here, a small car accident there. Then they started to increase in severity: a friend getting beaten up, a bank reposessing a car. Finally, a good friend was killed in a DUI. Boudy wanted out.

He headed back to Lebanon, taking leave from his job and talked with his family. One of his older brothers suggested he get out of the nightclub world and start using his degree in business. He promised he could get him a job. Under serious time constraints, Boudy blindly agreed to take a position with his brother's import/export firm. The job? Working with suppliers in Guangzhou, China. He knew nothing of the language, culture, or history but decided that he needed to turn his life around. He wanted to live a more ethical life, a more satisfying existence. In a word, he wanted to be a better man.

While it was tough to leave the huge salary, the parties, and the flashy lifestyle, Boudy said that he felt better overall. After he poured his inner thoughts out to me, I felt I had to "come clean." I told him about my background and about my own experiences with Judaism. I told him about what I like, what I don't like, and about my own struggles to live as a good person. I really was slightly nervous admitting to him that I'm Jewish but he wasn't even slightly phased. It turns out he dated a Jewish girl for a long time in Dubai and had no problems with them. Much like most of us, he wants all people to coexist in peace and thinks that there must be a way.

By the end of dinner I was almost speechless, Boudy is one of the friendliest and most interesting people I have met in a long time. I venture to say that I have myself a new friend here and I look forward to hanging out with him again.

Posted by awolfe at 3:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 21, 2006

Whirlwind

Todd and Nancy officially left this morning after a whirlwind tour of China. Major props to them for not only getting all the way out here, but also for making the most of their time. They rocked Hong Kong for two days, Guangzhou for 3 days, and Wuhan for 2 days. That's a major chunk of China experience right there and I hope they enjoyed their time. While it is impossible to for me to explain everything that they saw and did in their time here, I will give a few highlights.

Monday night- arrival, semi-sketchy unlicensed taxi back to the city from the airport, home-made fried rice & dumplings, and local beer. We chatted late into the night and I gave them the basics of being a tourist in a country like China.

Tuesday- Teaching, Qingping Market, gawking at scorpions and monkey skulls on sale, drinks by the river on Shamian Island, Sichuan hotpot with the Yalies, and more lounging. Todd and Nancy slept in but got up just in time to join me for lunch out on the town. After some tasty Uigher noodles, we walked around shipai, my district in Tianhe, and took in the sights of the city. They were good enough to come to class with me after lunch and actually did some teaching about American law! They detailed the famous case of Queen v. Dudley and asked the students if they thought the people there commited murder. It went so well that I decided to use their lesson the rest of the week! After that I took them through the obligatory wild section of Qingping market where you can buy snake skins, tiger claws, and other ridiculous and disgusting things. We ended over in the peaceful section of Shamian though and chatted at a little cafe. Kelly and Diana met us for hotpot and we singed our tastebuds with some yummy meats and vegetables in spicy broth.

Wednesday-Thursday- Off to Hong Kong. I woke up at the crack of dawn to teach (that's 7:30am to you folks in the real world) and saw Todd and Nancy already up. It seems the jetlag gods had frowned upon them the previous night and they were unable to sleep. So, instead of wasting the day away, they decided to head to Hong Kong for a few days while I taught in GZ. I wish I had gotten to show them around HK for as much as I know about it, but alas it was not to be. I dropped them off at the train station, waved goodbye, and hoped that they could figure out how to make it back to my apartment in a couple of days. As per my recommendation, they stayed at a hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui on Kowloon and saw the city from there. I think they got to see most of the big tourist sights and markets in those few days, which is pretty amazing given how big Hong Kong spans out.

Friday- Hunan Food, train stations, St. Patrick's Day celebrations, and sleeper cars. My guests made their way back after an inadvertant tour of the area and David joined us for a huge meal of Hunan food before our train to Wuhan. David is an excellent host and joined in on the bubbling conversation as we recounted funny travel stories. Our stomachs full and our bags packed, we headed to the train station where we met up with Kelly and the masses of people leaving the city on a Friday night. Let me just say that the main train station here in GZ has gotten a MAJOR face lift! There are signs! Rooms are lit up! It's no longer a guess as to where you need to go! They haven't gone so far as to have air conditioning in the waiting rooms, but the place looks eons better than it did the last time I was there. So we settled into our section on the hard sleeper car and drank a few bottles of Guinness in honor of Kelly's ethnic holiday. Oops--I meant to wear green.

Saturday- Tasty food, unfathomable enigmas of nature, Chinese metal bands, the Only Bar, and good company. We arrived in Wuchang bright and early and Tyler met us at the gate, excited to have visitors. We each got a bowl of "reganmian," or "hot & dry noodles," a Wuhan specialty. Yum. I could eat that stuff all day. Anyhow, we made our way back to his apartment where Rena, Tyler's girlfriend, was visiting from the states. We chatted for a while and then Kelly and I napped while everyone else went out to explore. Eventually we had a feast for lunch (where I ate myself silly) and headed off to the East Lake Park. Last time in Wuhan I saw a sign for an unfathomable enigma of nature and was intent on finding it this time around. Well it was there alright, and I must say I am puzzled. Lets just say that it involves UFO's, mountains, plants, and unanswered questions. After that we managed to walk a path through the park that led us astray for about an hour, but eventually we made our way out. After that we went out to grab some food and catch some live music at the Vox bar. The food at dinner was great but that wasn't the real story. About halfway through the meal we see the lady in charge run down the stairs from the 2nd floor and get on the phone to call somebody. We asked Kelly if she could understand what was happening and she said it was either a fire or a fight. Either way, I was somewhat nervous and very much intrigued. We began to hear screams and dishes breaking as well which just added to the confusion. About five minutes later we saw a bunch of guys walking down the stairs covered in blood and unable to walk. It was intense. As the police sirens got closer, they quickly shuffled the guys out the back door and that was the last we saw of it. Weird. The Chinese metal band was... interesting. They weren't too stellar musically and we couldn't hear anything so we headed across the street to the Only Bar, conveniently located next to a bunch of other watering holes. We chatted there and eventually headed back to Tyler's to watch some "Drawn Together."

Sunday- Breakfast buffets, markets, Taoist temples, english lessons, adidas stores, and train rides home. We woke up late and were hungry. I decided to try and help Tyler prepare a big breakfast for everyone so we went out and bought some eggs, peppers, garlic, onions, and pastries and cooked up a big meal. He even had some bacon so it was a straight-up American-style breakfast... except for the fact that we were using chopsticks to eat scrambled eggs. After breakfast we lounged around and packed up, though not before barely averting a minor disaster involving a lack of water pressure in Chinese bathrooms. Lets just say best friends come through in the clutch and I owe Todd bigtime. We toured the Taoist temple in the area and tried to save Kelly from the multiple people there who tried to get some free English lessons from her. I guess that's the risk you run when you are almost fluent in speaking Chinese as a native-English speaker. We made our way to the hectic Wuchang train station and had a nice meal before heading out. I can safely say that Tyler and Mallory are holding down the PiA fort well in Wuhan and that whoever ends up there next year is in for a treat.

Monday- Dimsum, naps, trinkets, food, and scotch. We got back at 6am to Guangzhou and decided that we should take advantage and go get the freshest dim sum available. I must admit, it really does taste better that early! I can't say I'll be setting my alarm for 5:30am on Sundays, but it sure was good! We headed back to my place, showered, napped, and then headed out to buy some souvenirs for friends and family. As per Kelly's recommendation, we headed out to Haizhu Guangchang, an area of the city I had never been to. It was definitely a tourist's dream as you could buy almost anything China-related for dirt cheap. I did my best bargaining for them and eventually we made our way back to Tianhe. On a side note, I finally purchased a new pair of cleats which is very exciting. I can finally retire my one-size-too-small Pumas that I have been using for approximately 9 years. May they rest in peace. We had a quick dinner of noodles and I was off to class. After learning some Chinese I came back and we chatted for a few more hours before heading to bed. We were all pretty exhausted and they needed to be up at 4:45am to catch a cab to the airport.

This morning I woke up with them before sunrise and saw them off, or at least I saw them to the taxi. As I haven't heard from them, I assume they made it there just fine and are currently in the air heading back to the States. I love having visitors, especially those I have known forever, and it was certainly a treat having Todd around. For all the rest of you, come visit! I may even have some pictures up in a few days.

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March 17, 2006

Best Friends & New Roommates

My oldest best friend in the world is officially in Guangzhou and that is super exciting. The illustrious Todd Siegel, my partner in crime since 2nd grade, is here with his awesome PiA-alum girlfriend and I am doing my best to show them the town in the limited amount of time we have. I picked them up at the airport on Monday night and bargained my way to an only mildly overpriced cab ride back into the city. At least the guy understood me when I said "uh uh--that's hella expensive."

So we chatted into the early morning Monday night and just caught up on things. I am extremely impressed by both Todd and Nancy being in the world of law, working serious with serious law firms in Connecticut. I have always considered Todd to be one of the smartest people I know and this has never changed. I know that he will do quite well for himself.

Todd's arrival works out really well in terms of timing because I was just starting to have some minor pangs of missing things home-related. I have officially been out of the country longer than I ever have before (7 months now) so it's nice to have an injection of the familiar. Todd knows me arguably better than anyone and from our days back at Solomon Schechter Day School to our adventures at Wesleyan, Cornell, or University of Edinburgh (where we both studied abroad), we have no shortage of ridiculous stories to reminisce about.

We had a tough time figuring out what to do this weekend but finally settled on heading up too Wuhan to crash with Tyler and Mal, the PiA rockstars there. Todd and Nancy decided to do a midweek Hong Kong trip in order to see the pinnacle of organization and modernity. It only seemed right to bring them to bring them to a city like Wuhan, the pinnacle of chaotic construction and progress towards modernity. If nothing else, the food rocks. Kelly decided to join me for the weekend adventure so the 4 of us are going to head out tonight on the sleeper train to Wuchang. Hubei Province- be aware.

I also got (semi-) official notification of my new roommate for next year which is very exciting. Steven is moving on to bigger and better things getting a masters in East Asian Studies from Berkeley so I get a rookie come August. I am unclear on whether or not he has accepted the fellowship yet, but from what I'm told he is a very cool guy. Here's hoping that he likes beer and movies! Matt, if you're out there reading, come to Guangzhou--it's awesome.

Finally, just a reminder to all of you out there who didn't make it to the end of the last blog that I now have a CT phone number that will reach me here. Feel free to call 860-967-3764 anytime, assuming it's not 4am here like someone did last night...

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March 10, 2006

Delinquent Blogging

Okay, so I have been extremely delinquent in updating my blog--it's true. What gives? Well, It took me about a week to recover from the wild adventure of rural Hunan. After that the new semester began and I had a bunch of work to do. Then all of my expat friends started to return from their respective trips and they had about a gazillion stories to tell: being overwhelmed by portion sizes in American restaurants, getting chased by prostitutes leaving a Thai beach party, participating in an Egyptian-theme party, running into high school classmates in Taiwan, etc. So I got sidetracked and then had to play catch-up with my extensive journals from the trip. I am officially done with that though and will use this entry to serve as a collection of mini blogs in order to get back to the present. Enjoy...

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.

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January 21, 2006

Hunan or Bust

I have weeks worth of stuff to write about but about 5 minutes to do it. In the words of Inigo Montoya, "let me explain. 'twill take too long--let me sum up." I gave all my exams and magically managed to correct them all in the same week. Ugh. It was a bit of an adventure figuring out how to enter grades but in the end we just had to hand in a sheet. Excellent. PiA-ers invaded in a fun way and it was a blast showing Tyler, Rena (his g-friend), Andy, Christi, and Jenny around the city whenever possible. Andy and I headed to HK for a few days and had a blast staying with the Yale China girls and exploring Mong Kok, Soho, and the outer edges of the New Territories (who knew Hong Kong had such good hiking?!). I am about to take off for two weeks of backpacking around Hunan Province with David, my friend and coworker here who was born and raised in that area. Before I take off though, I can officially announce now that I am staying in Guangzhou for another year! It was a really tough decision but I know it's the right one. There's far too much keeping me here and I am excited about doing a summer language program and getting my Mandarin to an acceptable level. I should be back around the 6th or 7th, and will inevitably have a gazillion things to write about. Until then, xin nian hao...

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January 20, 2006

Off to the factory

The night before my departure for Hunan, I planned to have dinner with my friend Meggie. She called me in haste at about 5 o'clock and told me that we were heading out to the leather factory for dinner. At first I thought this was the name of some hip new restaurant, but no, no--we were heading out to a real leather factory. How, or, why, you might ask. Good question.

About two months ago Meggie had a bunch of friends over for dinner and along with the usual suspects was a woman named Alice. I enjoyed chatting with Alice that night because, though born in China, she did her undergraduate and graduate work in the Boston area. We reminisced about Italian food from the North End, the inefficiency of the T, and about pleasant baseball-filled autumn days. When I asked what she did, she responded dispassionately that she ran a sweatshop. I thought that this was her dry sense of humor talking but I was wrong.

Alice does indeed work supervising a leather goods sweatshop, preparing to take over completely for her father when he retires in the near future. Seriously. The factory was having a big New Year's festival dinner before all the workers left to go home for the holiday. She invited Meggie, who in turn invited me. Dinner in a sweatshop? Why not.

While the factory may technically be in Guangzhou, it was hardly city proper. We took one of the subway lines to the end where we met up with two other friends of Alice who were heading out as well. We shared a cab out to the grounds and it was a solid 100 kuai. That is A LOT of money. I don't think I've ever paid more than 30, to put that in perspective. The road by the factory even had a major ditch in the middle and the cabbie did not seem all too pleased to be trekking out this far.

I didn't really care all that much though because I was engaged in a very stimulating conversation with Alice's friend who was born in Hong Kong but educated at Stanford and Cornell (he's no dummie). He told me about his business of exporting and I told him about the mission of the Princeton-in-Asia program. If this was any indication of the rest of the night, I was pretty excited!

I thought I would be the only Caucasian in attendance though and was not crazy about the inevitable stares, but I was wrong. Though all the employees certainly did stare as I walked down the floor to the V.I.P. table up front, I sat down next to two older white gentlemen who had already started the obligatory drinking of baijiu. Ugh. One was a businessman in GZ and the other was a factory manager outside of Shenzhen.

Meggie seemed to know one of them and did not look too excited to renew acquaintances. I consider Meggie a good judge of character so I was starting to lose my vigor for this experience. Regardless, we were there and the night was rolling on. Before any food even reached the table, the entertainment commenced.

I guess I use the term "entertainment" loosely though, since this consisted primarily of employees performing crap karaoke of outdated Chinese pop songs. Now that's rough--not even current Chinese pop? They must have gotten the bargain edition of the karaoke machine. I tried to make polite conversation above the cacophonous din but I was having a tough time as the speaker was right near me left ear.

The food started to arrive though and that put the singing on hiatus, which was excellent. It seemed a bit bizarre to be served nice-looking festive dishes in a dingy employee's cafeteria, but hey--this is China; things are different. The food was pretty good, mostly because it was spicy. I certainly wasn't going to complain but I was very surprised about them serving very un-Cantonese food.

The night progressed with the obligatory toasting and gorging on tasty food. Things started to get more exciting though as they started the raffle. Alice's father was following the tradition of giving away some new year's presents and had a massive raffle that all employees participated in. As the V.I.P. guests, we were not left out of the fray. And wouljda know it, they called my number!

I got pretty excited... until Meggie informed me that every single person there was going to "win." Huh. And here I thought my luck was coming through in shining colors. I got even less excited when I saw my prize--a leather handbag and a leather vest. Ummm, just what I always wanted? Meggie lucked out though and won a full leather jacket that fit her perfectly. What a score!

Eventually the festivities began to wind down and I figured we'd head back to the big bad city. Not so fast, though. Alice proceeded to take us on a tour of the facilities, showing us the showroom, the offices, the factory store, and a view of the workrooms. Wow. I got to see leather jackets that would be shipped out to companies like Timberland and that will be sold in stores like Macy's. We also had a field day in the show room as we played around trying on all the ridiculous things hanging up. I mostly watched, but we forced Meggie and the other ladies to model some of the jackets and skirts which was entertaining.

Inside the factory store, Meggie almost convinced me to buy a leather jacket but I just wasn't quite sure I could pull it off. I don't exactly scream Harley rider, ya know? It was fun to imagine for a little while though. And hey--if I ever decide to change my mind, Alice can hook it up for super cheap. It was pretty interesting though as she told us to watch out for rats as we went into various rooms. This was the real deal--a true factory, similar to those that millions of Chinese work in everyday.

On the ride home Meggie crunched some of the numbers and figured out that the workers are getting paid roughly 1.5 kuai an hour. That works out to about 20 cents an hour. And the thing is, that's a pretty good job to have for a lot of people. If an employee decided to quit due to poor conditions or benefits, his or her job would be snatched up in a heartbeat. I think that's one of the problems here in China--there is such a surplus of human resources that there's always someone ready to work any job. I don't know what the solution is to that but I think it has to start from the government.

Anyhow, I got home late, threw some stuff together for my big trip, and went to bed dreaming of spicy Hunan food...

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January 10, 2006

Madness!

It's madness here! 360 exams to give! 360 exams to correct! 4 PiA-ers coming to town over the next week! Hot weather one day! Cold weather the next! Five days to make a decision about next year! It's madness I tell you!!

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January 6, 2006

The Wolfe Family Invades, Part Deux

Hi everyone, Ari here once again. So far it seems like everyone immensely enjoyed my sister's guest blog so, back by popular demand, here is the last few days as observed by one Ilana Wolfe. I want to thank my sister for taking this task on, especially since I am now buried in pre-exam madness with my kiddies. I'll write more when I get a chance, but my brief take on the family vacation is that Hong Kong is far too "civilized" to be a Chinese city, that Chenjiaci here in GZ is awesome for ridiculous pictures, and that Lantau Island is absolutely gorgeous. Until next time...

After eating some delicious latkes with the Yale kids and David, a friend of Ari's who teaches English at his school, we all went out for Hunan food. David, who is originally from Hunan Province, did the honors and ordered not only our food but also a private room at the restaurant. What was the number of the room you might ask? Well, it wasn't 18 or 7 or any other lucky number in Judaism or the West. No ladies and gentlemen, the number was 666! [editor's note: 6 and 8 are lucky numbers for the Chinese. Avoid 4 at all costs though...] This caused a little too much laughter and hopefully David was not insulted by our reaction. The dinner was delicious and the spice (as Hunan food is traditionally very spicy) did not cause too much harm. The greater commotion was actually caused by the duck head sitting on the platter in the middle of the table and the discussion about Komodo Dragons. Better watch out . . . Anyway, after dinner the Wolfe parents went back to the hotel to pack for the big trip back to Hong Kong the next day and the Wolfe children, along with the Yale kids, went out for a little K-TV. What's that you might ask? It's genius, that's what it is. K-TV is karaoke in China and we sang very well, even considering the alcohol that we just HAD to consume in the process. [ed. note: the best part of KTV is the videos they play during the songs. It's basically stock footage from 1970's B movies that have nothing to do with the songs. Brilliant.]

The next day the Wolfe clan hit the Gunagzhou east train station and boarded a train headed back to the SAR. Mysteriously, our train tickets cost less to travel to Hong Kong than they did from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. Well, that's China for you. As the train pulled out of the station, I wondered if Hong Kong would seem different to me. I had now seen "real" China, with its busy streets, high rise buildings, and total lack of English and the west (except for Starbucks). We had been basically the only white people in town for a week, so would I feel overwhelmed by the handful of westerners walking around the city now? Hmmm . . . After checking back into the hotel on Kowloon Island, we decided to take a walk to Kowloon Park. "Oh my god, white people. How am I going to handle this?" This was Ari's joke as we continued to explore Hong Kong. [ed. note: I also wondered aloud if they knew how to use chopsticks] Although the walk to the park took only ten minutes at the most, I swear there were at least ten white people, as opposed to the two or three that we saw earlier in the week. But more importantly, I finally got to see some Kung Fu in the Kung Fu corner of the park. A week earlier Ari and I had explored the area and found some "dangerous" art in the sculpture garden, but there was a blatant lack of Kung Fu in the so-called Kung Fu corner. There really IS truth in advertising in Hong Kong! Our outing had to be cut short though because it was Saturday and New Year's Eve. The trip back from the mainland had tired us out, so we all rested before a delicious meal at Fat Angelo's, a fun Italian restaurant right in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui. Much like Christmas Eve, we hit the streets after dinner and followed the hordes of people milling around. I had never seen so many people peacefully obeying traffic laws or wandering with no destination in mind. People were out just to be seen and see the lights of the islands. How odd. But when in Rome . . . well, you know. So, the Wolfes wandered the streets too and then finally settled into an Irish Pub where we would ring in the New Year. I mean, where else would you go in Hong Kong, but an Irish pub? As we enjoyed some drinks, a Celtic band played, and we counted down to 2006. [ed. note: I randomly ran into PiA-er Heather Gilmartin at this pub. It's a small PiA world! What are the odds? I guess just about as good as running into your R.A. from freshmen year atop Victoria Peak, which happened one week earlier...]

We were up bright and early the next morning because we were heading to Macau. Macau! Because Hong Kong and the mainland are not exciting enough, we had to throw Macau into the mix. Unfortunately though, the ferries were all booked and the trip was not in the cards for that day. As it was the family's last day in the far east, we wanted to do it right. Museums were out and shopping did not sound so exciting. Instead, we jumped onto another ferry and headed for Lantau Island and the world's largest, seated bronze Buddha. Why a giant buddha? Why not, is a better question. As we pulled up to the Po Lin Monastery, the buddha greeted us up on a hill and I was blown away by the enormity of the statute. As we climbed the steps to explore, I was more and more amazed. The buddha was huge but peaceful, and seemed to be watching over everyone and everything. It was definitely one of the more amazing sights of my travels. We also walked around the monastery and enjoyed a fine, vegetarian meal in the restaurant. Before leaving the island, we felt compelled to follow the signs that pointed to the "Path of Wisdom." I could use some wisdom, so why not take a stroll. As we cracked jokes about not feeling any smarter, we suddenly came upon the real Wisdom Path. It consists of 38 wooden beams in the shape of the symbol for infinity. The Buddhist Heart Sutra is carved on the 38 beams which sit on the side of the mountain. This site was just completed and was not in any of our guide books, so we were both surprised and amazed when we happened upon it. Ari and I were also amazed by the views on the Lantau Peak trail that we began to hike. If there had been more time Ari for sure would have hiked the trail in its entirety and if I had been more prepared for a real hike, I would have been right behind him. Sad to leave such a beautiful place, we had to head back to the hotel and get ready for our long journey back to Connecticut.

Before leaving though, what is the most important thing that we did? Eat peking duck, of course! We had ourselves a real Chinese meal and had a waiter who knew eactly how much food (and beer) to order us. Delicious! While the food was great, I think we were all thinking about how it was the last meal that the 4 Wolfes would eat together for a long time. Ari was staying behind and returning to his adventures in Guangzhou while the rest of us had to get back to work and school. It was a great trip though and I know that Joel, Bonnie, and I were happy to have made the trip east.

Our final goodbyes were sad, but we had to begin our 30 hour journey back to New England. And, after a five hour stop over in the world's quietest airport (Incheon in Seoul, Korea) and a four hour layover in Atlanta, we made it back to Connecticut. In my mind, it seems that we were never even in China because it is so incredibly different from here. I can easily see though, why Ari is so happy in Guangzhou. People are friendly (aside from the staring), the food is great, and it is an exciting time to live in a booming country. Every passover we say, "Next year in Jerusalem." Maybe during the holidays we should now say, "Next year in Guangzhou."

Stay tuned for more of Ari's adventures, as I'm sure there will be plenty. Although we miss him over here, we know he's happy and doing it up right in Guangzhou. Holla!
[ed. note: thanks much to my family for making the trek out. It's not exactly a quick trip but they were troopers and made the most of it. I hope it is a vacation they will not soon forget. And I hope that Mao statue is currently being prominently displayed in my sister's room. On a separate note, Happy New Years to all! I hope everyone experiences nothing but health and happiness in 2006. I haven't quite finished compiling pictures from the adventure, but here is a taste...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03 (click on Wolfe Invasion)

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December 30, 2005

The Wolfe Family Invades

Wait, there are taxis in China? People exchange currency in China? There's weather in China? No, this joke has not gotten old in the week since we arrived in China. Or, it has not gotten old to the three members of the family who have just traveled east for the first time. China - it's like this whole other country, and Joel, Bonnie, and myself, Ilana, have now been been traveling around Hong Kong and Guangzhou for a week. Here are some of my (Ilana's) impressions and experiences. . .

Hong Kong was almost "Bizarr-o World," where I am "so strong" for wearing a tee-shirt in 70 degree weather and where our mother uses chopsticks to eat. Ari felt that the city was too western and that he was cheating because there was so much English around him. I questioned that because there were many fewer Westerners walking around than I had anticipated. The city itself is an impressive collection of brand new skyskrapers and high fashion stores. The subway was so spotless that you could eat off the floor. I think that the NY MTA could learn a lot about public transportation from the Chinese. While in Hong Kong, we visited the Hong Kong Museum of History, Victoria Peak, the Hong Kong zoo, and one of many markets. These markets are like the shuk in Israel (times ten) where you can find the oddest of objects, like magnets with Jesus on them or tank tops with English words that just don't make any sense when put together. We found random collections of chopsticks, tea sets, football tee-shirts, and crazy cellphone charms, like the Bruce Lee that I wanted Ari to buy. We also celebrated the first night of Hanukkah Hong Kong-style, and lit candles with the Chabad-niks in the middle of Santa's village (no joke) on Hong Kong Island. Yes, it is true, you can find Jews anywhere in the world. After these few days of being in what Ari told us was a bubble, where almost everyone spoke English, we hopped on a train for the mainland. My brother kept telling us that it would be dirtier, louder, and obviously more Chinese, which made me wonder what the Wolfe family had gotten itself into.

First impressions on China as I stood in the line in customs: "Do not bring any items into China that defile the Communist Party." Dorothy, we're not in Kansas anymore. This warning flashed across the screen in passport control in the train station and I suddenly felt nervous. Maybe we would be turned away from the mainland? Luckily though, these worries were for nothing and the whole Wolfe family breezed through. Gone were the (few) Westerners and we entered a new world. As I looked out the window on the way to the hotel I was amazed at the air pollution, tall buildings, and neon lights. Apparently the Chinese believe that bigger and brighter is just better. I kept waiting for pagodas and temples or buildings that were sterotypically Chinese, but I just saw miles and miles of city streets. The amount of construction in this city is unbelievable and it seems that Chinese progress is moving at a break-neck speed. There are slums directly next to brand spanking new high-rise buildings. It's odd to see this, especially considering that we come from a country that tries to preserve its (young) history and save as many historical sites and buildings as possible. But maybe we will take the Chinese approach in a few thousand years and look to the future instead of the past.

As we began to explore Guangzhou, the Wolfe family also began to confuse the population of the city, and we received quite a few long stares. Have these people never seen white skin before? All I could do was stare back and hope that everyone was satisfied in their viewings of a white family riding the subway in the city. Had we gotten lost somewhere or made a wrong turn? No, we were right where we were supposed to be. Ari took on the role of tour guide and gave us an excellent introduction to Guangzhou.

Stop number one: Qingping Market. Scorpions to your left and turtles to your right. What else could a girl want!?! Actually, Ari bought me exactly what every American needs . . . a small statue of Mao. [editor's note--what else do brothers give their sisters for the 3rd night of Hanukah? A Mao statue seemed like just the thing] That is the China that I had expected. Posters of Mao, soldiers patrolling the streets, declarations of love of the motherland everywhere. Obviously not the reality of modern-day China. Although, our next stop was a tea store, where saleswomen tried their hardest to sell us very expensive (and delicious) tea. This was more what I had in mind. We sat for at least an hour trying different brews of Jasmine and Oolong tea, finally finding one that was exactly to my mom's liking. After, we went to two malls, one of which is the largest in Asia. My favorite shop name might have to be "The Friendship Store." I'll take two friends please. Unfortunately, there was no sale on friendship and I walked away empty handed. Our last stop of this busy day was dinner with the Korean family whose children Ari tutors in English. This meal rivaled any that I had in Israel, where the food just kept coming out of the kitchen. The Wolfes had never eaten so much in one sitting, and we feasted on everything from tofu and Kimchi to tempura vegetables and barbequed meat. The family was very sweet and extremely kind to us and we were happy to have met them.

The next day was rainy, but we grabbed our umbrellas and headed out anyway. In Ari's attempt to show us all things Chinese, we headed for his favorite dim sum restaurant. This busy place seemed to be extremely popular and was packed at 10 am on a weekday. Ari's roommate Steven and PiA'er Wendy, who was visiting from Korea, joined us and the six of us were brought directly to a private room. We joked that they wanted to keep us as far away as possible, but Ari told us it was probably the restaurant's attempt to treat us as nicely as possible. Sure . . . I still think we scared everyone. Ari and Steven did an excellent job of ordering us a variety of different dishes and even got something vegetarian for our mom. We were all very satisfied at the end of the meal and decided it was time to see some Chinese historical sites.

The Chen Clan Ancestral Hall was our first stop on this historical tour. Here we entered the China that I had been waiting for, with unbelievable carvings, dragons, and Eastern courtyards. The buildings were quite beautiful, as were the sculptures, with which we endlessly amused ourselves. Hopefully Ari will post some of these pictures. . . Next stop on the history express train was the Mosque Dedicated to the Prophet, which we were turned away from because we are (shockingly?!) not Muslim. Without missing a beat we headed to Guangxiao Temple with its very large Buddha at the entrance. This was my first time in a temple like this, and Ari explained how to light some incense and say a personal prayer. The smell of incense was rather intense but so much more authentic than the sticks that all American college students think is cool to burn in our dorm rooms. After our walk around the grounds we headed for lunch. We luckily happened upon a vegetarian restuarant and ordered kung po chicken (with fake chicken), thai curry shrimp (with mock shrimp), spicy tofu, and an excellent eggplant dish. After this quick pit-stop, we headed out for some more culture. Stop number three on the history express was Liurong Si, the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees, where Ari and I climbed the nine story pagoda in the middle of the grounds. After breaking a sweat on this climb we decided to rest in Ari's apartment before heading out to the all-you-can-eat Japanese buffet. Delicious!

The weather was finally cooperating with us on Thursday and we decided to finally get out to Yuexiu Gongyuan, or Yuexiu Park. Strangley you have to pay to enjoy nature in Guangzhou, which made me greatly appreciate Central Park even more than I already do. But, before we even made it to the park we were lucky enough to be out on the street on Shamian Dao (Shamian Island), where our hotel is, just in time for the mid-morning exercises of the local elementary school. The patriotic, military style march began playing and the kids began filing out of the building into the small square in the middle of the street. As the music played and the kids stretched I saw a few soldiers walk past, making me feel as if I were in an alternate universe. Tradition is clearly very important to the Chinese and these children were probably doing some of the same routines that their parents had done years before. After staring and gawking for a few minutes, we did head out on the subway to the park. I was amazed at the enormity of the grounds and the different areas that we could visit. The first stop was Wuyang Shixiang, or the Five Rams Statue. It was very large, slightly odd, yet interesting nonetheless. After we headed to the memorial for Dr Sun Yat-Sen and climbed quite a few sets to stairs to the look-out near the top of the tower. Of course Ari and I entertained other visitors by posing for a picture for our parents with Ari looking totally disinterested and me pretending to strangle him. Brilliant! Unfortunately we had to leave this natural wonderland and head out to Ari's school because we were his special guest speakers.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, all four members of the Wolfe family are rock stars here at Ari's school. We were greeted with smiles, cheers, and declarations of, "Happy Hanukkah!" We visited two classes on Thursday where we answered a wide range of questions, covering everything from what our first impressions of Guangzhou and China are to why Jewish people are so good in business. I thought that it was a joke that Chinese people hold Jews in such high regard, but nope, they are serious. We were exposed to every stereotype imaginable and had only about five minutes to break their misconceptions. I'm not sure we were so successful, but at least it was a start. I was also asked an excellent question about the immigrant experience in America and also had about two minutes to explain how foreigners are accepted into Western society. Rather difficult to do on the spot. After these two classes we sat out on the bridge in the courtyard and waited for visitors to Ari's English corner. As his posters around school say, "Want to practice your English? Holla!" We had many guests and spent a while chatting with the students. The girls that I spoke to asked how I spend my free time, what I think about Chinese society, and wondered if I would consider settling outside of the U.S. They also explained that their society is still very, very traditional and that their parents tell them what to do and that they have very little choice but to listen. One female student explained her problem with this; she is told what to do, but is told that she needs to have her own opinions at the same time. How do these two things go together? This same student and a friend of hers also told me that they see Chinese society as being Americanized. I found this fascinating because a minute earlier I was speaking about tradition, but also because in the few days that I have spent here on the mainland, I find this country to be as far from America and the West as possible. Starbucks and McDonalds are the benchmark for these students, which to me only indicate the very beginnings of Americanization. Everyone in the family had equally enlightening and interesting conversations, and our dad especially, was very pleased to have had the chance to speak with the students. As Ari told us, in that hour, we learned more about China than most foreigners will in a lifetime.

Classes continued the next day and we answered more questions and asked some of our own. When our dad asked the class what they would bring with them from China if given the opportunity to visit America. The answers ran the gamut from "my favorite book," to "soil," to "Chinese culture." Fascinating. After a quick lunch in the teacher's cafeteria, where my dad was refered to as being "so strong" for wearing a tee-shirt in fairly warm weather, we got to celebrate the New Year Chinese-style in the individual classrooms of Ari's students. Again we were treated as rockstars and were forced (or requested) to sing, play games, and eat with everyone. Look for our rockin' version of "Let It Be" in a music store near you . . . Now we are making latkes for some of Ari's friends. I mean, what else is there to eat in China except for traditional Jewish food? Just kidding.

I'm sure Ari will finish the tale of the Wolfe family invasion of China. We still have a day left back in Hong Kong and hopefully a day in Macau. There's still time left to get into trouble . . .

As I end this entry I have this to say: I am quite impressed with China, Guangzhou, and mostly my brother. He has managed to learn a fair amount of Chinese pretty damn quickly, create strong relationships with his students, and make a huge impression on the faculty of the school. He has made China home, which is no small feat for a white kid from New England who knew no Chinese before September. I am quite proud of him and all that he has done here. Holla!

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December 23, 2005

"May Ghairstman!"

May Ghairstman! Maaaaaaaay Ghairstman!!
I bought a bunch of different holiday presents for people here and the only wrapping paper I could find was plastered with this phrase, obviously an entertaining butchering of "Merry Christmas." As per Steven's suggestion, I've decided to tell people that it's actually Norweigan. Ha!

The countdown has finished and the Wolfe clan officially arrives this evening. Crazy! That means I'll probably be taking a little vacation from blogging as I will be busy trying to make sure my parents don't get run over by renegade motorcycles. That said, my sister did threaten to write a guest entry while she's here so keep your eyes out for that. Otherwise, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, be it Hanukah or that other one. I will be happilly sipping my gin and tonica Sunday night at Chabad in Hong Kong. Until then...

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December 18, 2005

Even-Steven?

I'm feeling a bit like I've been caught in an old Seinfeld episode lately. I can't remember the plot of the whole thing, but basically Jerry feels like everything evens out for him--he throws $20 out the window and someone brings him $20 that they owed him; One friend is happy and content while another is frustrated and stressed; One thing goes up and another goes down--you get the idea.

So on the most concrete level, a couple of my friends here are applying to graduate school (thank *god* I'm done with that... for now, anyway). They have all been extremely worried about the process and I have done my best to help them out. After much toil and tribulation, I have two friends who are done and one who is still working at it. Okay so that's 2-1 but you get the idea.

Lately I have been playing like crap on the soccer field. I mean just embarassingly bad. I think I'm just in a rut but it's humiliating. I feel like everyone else on the team has been looking over at me thinking, "what's with this guy??" On the other end of the spectrum, I feel like NBA material on the basketball court. I've been playing really well and the other guys have noticed. I've started shooting a lot more, throwing ridiculous around-the-back passes, and rebounding like Dennis Rodman. It's fun!

Meanwhile, one of my Chinese tutors is completely m.i.a. She left for Hong Kong about three weeks ago now and I haven't heard from her. It was only supposed to be a quick 5 day trip so I'm a bit concerned. For all I know, she eloped or something and is never coming back. The weird thing is that I don't even know her last name or have anything other than a cell phone number for her. I would have NO idea how to track her down if she were in trouble. The upside is that I've saved a bunch of money by not having lessons and was thus able to buy my oven... which is great! I cooked some backed chicken last week with carrots, celery, onions, and mushrooms last week. Yum! I also made garlic bread which is always a plus. Garlic really does make everything better. Am I wrong?

In terms of teaching, we're getting towards the end of the semester which means the students are getting more stressed and that we as teachers have more work to do. I haven't officially written my exam yet but I know my kids are dying to know the format. Boy, I can barely remember high school finals. They seem like ages ago! Anyhow, even though I have a lot more work this time of year, the students have made it worth it. A bunch of students, both mine and Steven's, have invited us out to have meals with their families which is great.

On Saturday Steven and I had lunch with "Bonic," one of Steven's kids who also happens to be on the school badminton team. We went back to his home by Baiyun Mountain and watched some videos of his badminton matches. Very cool! I thought we were going to have a home-cooked meal but instead we went out to a traditional Guangzhou restaurant with amazing Cantonese cuisine. I tried mini water snake, pig's lung, and some other really tasty dishes. We literally ate for almost three hours, which is my kind of meal! Bonic's mother, in true motherly fashion, kept filling up my plate and telling me to eat more. It was genius.

After the meal we went and "hiked" Baiyun mountain which took all of about 15 minutes. It's more like a hill than anything else, but it gives a really cool view of the city which I appreciated. So yeah, we've got another few meals planned with various students and their families. In a selfish way, I'm hoping that the news spreads and that other families invite us out as well. Besides the obvious benefit of an amazing meal, it's great to get to know the students on another level and to meet their parents, see where they live, and learn about their history.

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December 13, 2005

Sandwiches and (not-so) lonely planets

The past few weekends I have been doing an ongoing lesson in my tutoring sessions regarding description. I took a page from one of my most memorable middle school lessons: how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I vividly remember Mrs. Dunn explaining the assignment and thinking that it would take about 5 minutes. Boy, was I wrong!

For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, this is a lesson in which you need to write down, in detail, how to make a pb & j sandwich, to someone who has never made one before. It sounds like a piece of cake but if presented well, the teacher quickly shows the student how much they're leaving out. For example, if the student writes step 1 as "slice two pieces of bread," the teacher needs to respond with, "how? with what? how big? I've never sliced bread," and so on. I thought it would be a fun exercise to try since I learned so much from it years ago.

The first issue though, was what to describe. They don't exactly eat pb&j here on a daily basis. In fact, when I asked Robin (the older Korean boy) if he knew what it was, he laughed and said he had never heard of a sandwich with peanut butter *or* jelly. Indeed. Okay, so what else? I thought about having him describe the process of making sushi but I didn't think I knew enough about it to guide him. After chatting with him about what kind of sandwiches he ate, we settled on a tuna fish sub. I have no idea if this is a common meal (or snack) for him, but he seemed excited about it so whatever.

I gave him ten minutes to write out draft number one of directions and he finished in about six, including roughly eight steps. I chuckled to myself and went to town on it. "How do I use a knife?," I inquired, "do I hold it by the sharp edge?" He started to figure out his shortcomings rather quickly and worked hard to correct his mistakes which was great. He was supposed to edit the whole thing for homework (which he did), but even after two one hour sessions, we haven't gotten past opening the can of tuna fish, and we're around step fourteen or fifteen. I love it.

On a separate note, I must give credit where credit is due. I think I mentioned before that I bought a "Lonely Planet" mandarin phrasebook in Dali when I was there a month ago. I was excited about my purchase... until I unwrapped it and discovered that it did not use pinyin, the standard romanization system for words here, but rather something completely different. Learning pinyin is not difficult, but it takes some serious time and I suppose they were aiming to please people who had no background in the language. For me though, this was a disaster. On a whim, I decided to email the company and ask them if I could exchange it for one of the earlier editions. Lo and behold, I got a personalized email right back and the coordinator promised me she'd do her best. I sort of forgot about it until today when I checked the mail and saw I had a package from Lonely Planet Australia. Woohoo! They came through alright, which is extremely impressive to me. They never asked for proof of purchase from me or anything (not that I had one, since I didn't get a receipt)! So thumbs up for Lonely Planet. Don't buy their 5th edition mandarin phrasebook, but support them whenever you can.

On yet another completely separate note, we had another soccer match yesterday. Once again I had no idea until I jogged out to the field and saw everyone in full uniform. Interesting. I didn't see another team around though--a bit odd. As we were warming up, I discovered that we were going to play the student team that won the school championship. I couldn't quite understand which side challenged which, but there was definitely some sort of challenge involved. We started off playing really well and quickly went up 2-0. The score was 2-1 at the half and I was feeling pretty good about our chances.

Alas, it was not to be. We sub-ed out two of our best players and the student team went to town, scoring another SIX unanswered goals. This, mind you, was humiliating to me. I hate losing anytime (have I mentioned that?) and I sure as heck did not want to lose to my own students! I was playing right fullback but since we had virtually no talent on offense (not to mention a serious lack of conditioning in the front field), I started running the length of the field playing both ends. I didn't score a goal but I did set up our 3rd score--too little, too late. Oy. Naturally, today in class I had several kids ask me what happened in a cocky sort of way. I told them we wanted a rematch.

Other than that, we are approaching t-minus 9 days until the Wolfe clan arrives in China. Wow. I hope they're excited because I know I am!

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December 11, 2005

The Perks

There are many perks to working through this PiA fellowship and I am doing my very best to take advantage of each and every one. The first is the apartment. Our apartment here was not exactly in top top shape when we arrived, but I have made it my mission to spruce the place up in a major way. We are lucky enough to not pay rent and still have enough disposable income to improve the place. Since arriving, I have purchased a chess board, wall map, sound system, couch, pillows for the couch, book case, new pots, new pans, and my latest investment--an oven!

I was inspired after our Thanksgiving meal to seek out an oven, especially after Ms. Meggie Lu fed me a couple other amazing oven-cooked meals. I should preface this story by saying that ovens are rare in China. Most homes and apartments do not have them. Most hotels and restaurants don't have them. Only the few western-friendly establishments around have ovens so there's not exactly a big market for them. I asked my friends where they procured their ovens and they told me about some mystical far off warehouse area where hotels go to buy appliances. With only a bus number and crude directions in hand, I headed out in search of the promised land.

After traveling on two different buses and two different subway lines, I finally found it. I was told that it would be extremely difficult to find the exact store with electric ovens, but I scoffed at the warning. I figured that if I got to the general area, it would be no problem. Well, ummm, I can't say they were wrong. This place was GIGANTIC! There must have been hundreds of mini shops all in this one warehouse area. I started to wander around and did not see any ovens. Hmm. I must have wandered for about 20 minutes until I decided to just head back. Naturally, as I was walking out, the very last store I walked into had 4 ovens in different sizes. I asked for the biggest one (not very big at all) and got psyched up to bargain. I asked how much and he said 200--fully 200 less than what I expected to pay. I must have balked for a split second too long because when I said 175, he responded in English with, "So cheap already!" I forked over two crisp one hundred yuan bills and happily walked out. I haven't cooked with it yet, but I plan to christen it this week with some form of roast chicken. Yum!

Another perk of this position is the amazing people I come into contact with. As I've mentioned before, I tutor two Korean boys every Sunday. Last week the mother asked me if I would like to have dinner with them this week. Home-cooked Korean food? For free?? Wild horses couldn't keep me away! So after our lesson today, I walked out to a dining room filled with an entire table of different dishes. We had kimchi, bulgogi, some sort of potato-vegetable pancake, some shrimp creation, seaweed and mussel soup, and what they translated as jelly fish. It didn't sting me, and it sort of resembled jellyfish, but I'm pretty sure something was lost in translation there. Regardless, it was all incredible. I feasted like there was no tomorrow and they seemed all too happy to keep filling up my plate. Then, of course, we had great fresh fruit for dessert along with chocolate cake, ice cream, and ginger tea. Yum!

Yet another perk of this job is vacation time. In less than two weeks my family will be here and I get a 5 day weekend for Christmas. About two weeks after that I get about three and a half weeks for the Chinese Spring Festival (their New Year). Woe is me--I don't know where to go or what to do! I can't decide whether to go somewhere random in China (Qingdao? Harbin? Lhasa?) or make my first international venture abroad (Chiang Mai? Singapore? Hanoi?). Tough life, huh? I'm hoping that some PiA-ers will start take advantage of our offer of hospitality here because lord knows I will be imposing on a heckuva lot of people in the coming weeks. I'm comfortable on floors though--doesn't take too much to make me happy.

I'm not quite sure if it's a perk or not, but working at the high school does make you a minor celebrity. Everyone knows us (even they aren't our students) and says hello when they see us. It's friendly in that way, which is great. The downside is that we are expected to be at almost all school functions, regardless of timing or content. There was some celebration this weekend that Steven and I missed for various reasons and I'm hoping we don't get any flack for it. No worries though--I think we'll make up for it with our end-of-the-year performance. There is a big to-do at the end of the month and we were convinced to give a short musical performance. Ha! I'm not sure what we're going to do yet but I have a couple ideas brewing...

Being the big fish in the small pond, I got the opportunity this past week to guest host one of the student radio shows which was a blast. We took turns playing different English songs over the P.A. system at the school and chatted about music in between. I played Martin Sexton, Guster, Jeff Buckley, Glen Philips, and even a tune by my good friend Sam Bigelow. Ha! I haven't gotten any feedback on the show yet, but I know I had fun so whatever. I might even do it again...

On a separate note, one of my brightest students here just impressed the heck out of me by reading through the entire Allegory of the Cave (Plato) in her spare time... in English. We had a conversation about the Matrix and the Truman Show and I thought she would appreciate it so I gave her the information on it. Knowing how busy the students here can be, I did not expect her to look through it for some time. Silly me--she's already finished it and begun analyzing it. The students here never cease to amaze me.

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December 7, 2005

Winter?

Just when I thought it was safe to walk outside with only short-sleeeves, we have reached full-on winter here in Guangzhou. Yesterday was approximately 45 degrees... and that was during the day! I have no idea how cold it got at night, but it was certainly not warm. My body was completely shocked at first by the onset of the cold wave, but I have survived thus far.

Hearing a forecast for cold weather, I took my tutoring money from last week and headed out to good ol' IKEA to buy myself a comforter. I could have bought one for slightly cheaper elsewhere, but I decided that this was not an investment to mess around with. I wanted quality, I wanted durability, and by god I wanted warmth! So I bought their next-to-warmest down quilt and lugged it home just as I could feel the arctic breeze blowing in.

I must say, I was absolutely dreading this cold front. All of the teachers had been talking about it for the last few days and all I could do was think back to last winter in Boston when my housemates and I were too poor to afford turning the thermostat above 55. In my mind I was kicking myself lightly--didn't I come here to avoid a real winter? What happened to being in a sub-tropical climate?? As I got ready for bed and put on a t-shirt, I was practically shivering--not a pleasant sensation.

I proceeded to burrow my way under the covers though and it was positively marvelous. The new quilt was excellent and I slept a blissful sleep. As I drifted off, I felt like I was in a different world as up to this point, my entire China experience has revolved around heat and humidity. Morning came around and I almost forgot the feeling of waking up on a cold day in a warm bed. It is great to be toasting under multiple layers of blankets and quilts with the cold air on your face. Is there anything as nice on a cold morning? Maybe it's a New Englander thing. Who knows. All I know is that I am embracing the change in weather.

Now, of course, getting out of bed is an entirely different story. I'm glad I bought a little rug for the side of my bed because there's almost nothing worse than stepping out on to a freezing cold wooden floor on a frigid winter's day. Regardless of that investment, it was a rude awakening. I wanted nothing more than to crawl right back under the covers and sleep for a few more hours. However, after I got over the initial shock of a Guangzhou day devoid of sweat, I started to acculturate myself to the new climate.

While it wasn't quite as cold today, it was still very much a winter day... and I liked it. The air was crisp and somehow masked some of the usual pollution. The cold weather has had the strange effect of finally making it feel like a significant amount of time has passed since I arrived. Up until now, it's been one long summer interspersed with minor flashes of autumn. This is a different worls. And since I know it won't ever snow here (I think it has once in the last 100 years), I'm perfectly willing to accept the cold for a little while.

Winter is often a welcome change in the northeast of the states too, at least for a little while. Winter means holidays, snow, vacation, skiing, big comforters, hot chocolate, christmas lights, fleece, fires, and possibly even days off from school or work. Sure, the novelty wears off sometime around the end of January (or the third major shoveling), but for a while there it's really fun! So right now I'm also in the honeymoon phase of winter and I'm loving it. I went for a run today with a long sleeved shirt on and it brought me back to my high school "indoor" track days of training outside in sub-zero temperatures. The air was cold but my body warmed right up as usual about a mile into it. The Chinese were looking at me like I was crazy for running in shorts, but little do they know that I used to run in shorts during blizzards. If Coach Butterfield can do it, I can do it.

After my run, I also decided to get back into the weight room for the second time in three days. It seems like soccer is winding down a bit so the free weights are a perfect substitution. The other day I was all by myself but today there was a student in there along with me. I started off with the bench press as usual (complete with a wooden bench--only in China) and he stared at me the entire time. After I finished, he walked over and attempted to put up what I had been doing. I could see this ending in disaster so I lingered around the area in case I needed to play rescue. Sure enough, the bar came crashing down on his chest on the very first rep so ran over to pick it up. I recommended that he maybe start a little lighter next time. If I knew the right Chinese words, I would have given him a lecture about safety in the weight room but instead I just walked over to do some lat pulldowns. I think he learned his lesson anyway.

The forecast calls for the weather to get back up to the mid-sixties in another few days and I venture to say that I'll miss the cold. We'll see. Either way, it's been nice for a little while. On a completely separate note, I have discovered a bread at Park n Shop, my favorite grocery store, that tastes *exactly* like a pretty decent challah. I can only assume this is a huge coincidence since there is virtually no Jewish influence in this entire country. Either way, I'm psyched and I plan on making it a part of my weekly shopping run. Yum!

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December 4, 2005

3 Month Reports & Presents

The calendar pages have flown by and I have gone past the three month mark here. As I said before, in some respects I feel like I've been here forever but in others I still feel like I just arrived. One of the responsibilities of being a PiA fellow is filling out an extensive report at the three month mark, detailing the experience thus far in terms of housing, working, traveling, eating, and pretty much anything else. These reports are used by the PiA office to assess our site, our work, and our overall level of satisfaction.

In addition, they are used by all of the new applicants at the interview stage to entice and recruit them for the posts. Though it took almost two hours, I actually enjoyed the process of filling mine out. It necessarily forced me to look back and reflect on my experience thus far. What were my first impressions? What was tough about the transition? What do I think about my environment? Not that I've forgotten already, but I did enjoy going back to read some of my first entries on this very website.

I must say that I think I gave the place a glowing review. I know that PiA has had mixed experiences here in the past few years, but I'm all about it. Sure, Guangzhou is hardly a mecca of culture, but my day to day existence is pretty amazing. I wake up late. I teach incredible students. I eat great food that costs next to nothing. I play sports with my fellow teachers. I take amazing trips to see different parts of China. I have an awesome apartment that I have truly made into home. All in all, not too shabby.

There is one section of the report that asks about what you can't find, a.k.a. what do you crave from home. Though it may be expensive, there are a number of international-food markets that have almost anything you could ever want from the U.S. or Europe. The only thing I could come up with? Kosher-style dill pickles. Baby dills, ideally, but I'd settle for almost anything. Back in the states (and my former housemates can attest to this), I used to snack on pickles daily. I'd walk into the kitchen, look in my pantry, walk to the fridge, poke around for a minute, and then inevitably settle on eating a couple baby dills. Once I discovered the "zingers," the baby dills pickled with hot peppers, I was truly sold. So yeah--that's the only thing I've been craving.

Truth be told, I have barely had any of the western food that is available to me. There are a couple expat bars where you can get burgers and other such delicacies, but I have yet to spring for it. There is also a pizza hut, KFC, or McDonalds around every corner, but I have yet to set foot inside any of them. I could definitely go for pizza, but I hear that it's overpriced and just not the same. Count me out. I'd rather spend 5 kuai and have an enormous bowl of steaming noodles any night.

Coinciding with the due date of the 3 month report was a visit by non other than Anastasia Vrachnos, Executive Director of PiA and one of the coolest people I've ever met. Though the visit was short, it was sweet indeed. Unfortunately I had to tutor for a few hours when she was around, but I managed to meet everyone just in time at a restaurant for a properly lavish dinner. One of the vice principals was there along with the two main heads of the English department and another random bigwig from the school. We had a great time laughing and eating, while chatting about how things were going.

I was complimented yet again for my prowess on the track and subsequently challenged to a drink-off of sorts with one of the head guys. Having never run away from competition, I was all about it. We switched from wine to beer and were off. I think everyone around conceded victory without much of a fight but that was fine with me--I didn't really feel like going toe to toe for 8 enormous bottles. I was informed though that it is considered an honor when someone fills your glass up to the very brim with beer. I'll have to keep that one in mind. As we continued to drink, it became more and more clear that the school sees Steven and I in the simplest of terms, the most convenient definitions: Steven is the intellectual and I am the jock. I find this pretty funny and have no intention of trying to correct them that Steven actually goes for runs most days of the week and that I also read and study in my spare time. I like the idea that they see me as an athlete and probably have lower expectations for my teaching and language skills. I can only pleasantly surprise them!

Anastasia also reminded me that I had to make a decision on next year in the near future. Oy. There's no part of me that wants to contemplate next year when I am enjoying the here and now so much. Basically I can stay right here in Guangzhou, move to somewhere else in China to teach, move to somewhere else in China to work at an N.G.O., move to a post in a completely different country (hmmm-Thailand?), or end my Asia experience and head back to the states. I am nowhere close to making a decision, but I know that the date will creep up on me before I know it. I must admit though--just the thought of readjusting back to the U.S. is overwhelming right now.

On a completely separate note, I received a couple of belated birthday presents which has been very fun. It can be my birthday for the rest of the year! I got some taco and burrito spices which I plan to put to very good use in the near future. I got a couple recent New Yorkers. I got a couple CD's. However, I got a package that absolutely trumps everything else I've received up to this point- an enormous package of Murdick's Fudge straight from Edgartown, MA. Vineyard fudge! Okay, so the stain stick from my mom was a heckuva lot more important in the grand scheme of things, but chocolate of this magnitude is hard to deny. It also made me nostalgic for summer, Long Point beach, goblers from Humphries, talls at the Newes, and singing--everything I love about the island. No matter where I am in the world, I think the vineyard will always be on my mind on some level. There's just something about that place...

Posted by awolfe at 11:24 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

December 1, 2005

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas

Long time no blog! I'm going to back date this to when I actually meant to write it since I've been so busy. I can't quite put my finger on anything in particular, but the last week or so has been non-stop. Teaching, lesson-planning, food shopping, cleaning, etc. all added up into a week devoid of writing. Not that I didn't have anything to say...

So Guangzhou is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. This is comforting, annoying, cute, and gaudy all at the same time. It's comforting because it reflects the passing of time, the presence of familiar Americana, and the fact that my family will be here to visit soon. It's annoying because much like the U.S., it's everywhere and it tends to lose the novelty factor after the third repeat of jingle bells at the grocery store. It is somewhat amusing to see all the employees in santa hats though. It's cute because they put up some lights, erect huge Christmas trees, and make at least a token effort to clean things up in the holiday spirit. It's gaudy because it's completely over the top. There's just too much. Everywhere. And over here I don't even see the tiny menorah shoved in the corner (out of politically-correct necessity).

At my English Corner last week, one of my students told me that she knew all about Hanukah. "Oh really" I exclaimed, "how is that?" "Why, from watching 'Friends'," she replied, "Ross is Jewish!" I laughed. So not only is America exporting authentic culture like the television series "Friends," but we're also educating the world on the diversity of religions out there. Too bad she couldn't remember anything except the fact that there's something called a dreidel involved. I promptly informed her that I made it out of clay.

While I have always known that Christmas exists outside of the northern part of America, it still seems odd to see "Merry Christmas" signs up on storefronts beside palm trees. Guangzhou is still hovering between the lower seventies and upper sixties which is just fine by me. I know that the PiA-ers up in Beijing and above the Yangtze River are starting to freeze their butts off so I have no problems with wearing short-sleeved shirts to work everyday.

Besides the sudden influx of Christmas decorations everywhere, it's been business as usual here in GZ. I have experienced some positive repercussions from my track victory, which is pretty funny. The first few days I walked into the teacher's cafeteria, everyone smiled and pointed over to me saying in English, "Superman. You...superman." My friend David would elaborate for me that they were saying how strong I was and about how I impressed all of them with my speed. I was also told that Mr. Huang, my defeated foe in both races, both somewhat distraught that I managed to take him down in both events. I would never say it to him, but there's a good chance he would have beaten me (at least in the 400m) if he didn't smoke. Whatever.

My big prize for winning both races and anchoring the relay was an enormous bag of hand towels. I don't know where they came up with this, but lets just say that I could probably go without washing another towel for the rest of the year. Umm, cool? I guess it's better than nothing. What's funny is that it was sort of a status symbol to receive my enormous bag of towels compared to most other people walking out with only one or two. I'm allowed to be proud, right? Final note on the track meet- I was talking to one of the teachers who doesn't have very good English and I'm pretty sure he said that my times were records for the meet. Now again, I'm not exactly going to tell my grandkids about running a 56 in the quarter, but it is nice to know that I made a statement.

Besides some minor basking, I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately. I just finished Murakami's "A Wild Sheep Chase" which is probably the most creative novel I've read in years. I wasn't blown away by the very end but it's well worth a read if you're looking for a book. In addition, I also finished "Freakonomics" by Levitt. This is another page-turner which brings up some very interesting ideas. Who in the world thinks to connect Roe v. Wade with crime statistics in the '90s? Anyway, the book is basically an economist's attempt to ascribe causation to various correlations in the everyday world. He comes up with some great theories, but as Dr. Fraser old us in Statistics last spring, correlation does not equal causation and there is only one very specific process in which to prove causation. Again though, well worth the read. Anybody have any suggestions for my next read?

Posted by awolfe at 11:37 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 27, 2005

Game Day

I won't exaggerate and say that the entire faculty was looking forward to the meet or counting down like I was, but I can tell you for sure that I was not the only one. While most teachers were excited to get out and get some exercise, there were a handful of us that were going out to win--between the guys I play basketball with, the guys I play soccer with, and teachers I eat lunch with, there had been a fair amount of good-natured trash talking. They all know I ran track in high school and college and they wanted a shot at taking me down. Mr. Huang in particular, a computer science teacher and by far the best soccer player around, was jawing quite a bit about both the 100m and the 400m.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I took the meet very seriously and was dying to win. Besides the fact that I just generally hate losing, I also wanted to represent myself, PiA, and the U.S. for these races. This, after all, is my sport. Sure I played basketball for years, soccer for a couple, and did TaeKwonDo for an entire decade, but if I had to pick, track & field would definitely be my best sport. It had better be, after all the hours I spent on the track freezing in zero degree blizzards or sweating away in one hundred degree heat. I'll be damned if I was going to let anyone beat me in my sport!

Now I can't say that I really gave my all in training for the meet. I did a handful of workouts, but I have so much else going on here that it was difficult to focus like I would have in the past. During high school especially, everything went on hold when it came to championship season. I ate, drank, and slept track. I dreamed about my races over and over again. I talked about the competition with my teammates at school. I ignored review sessions for tests in favor of spending more time on the track, even if it was only to cheer on my friends in a workout. In other words, everything revolved around that 400m oval.

I'm worlds away from that now but yet everytime I step on to the track to do a workout, I see flashes of it in my head. I have to say, I miss it. Not only do I miss the camaraderie of struggling through a tough workout together, but I also miss pushing myself to the limit. Once you graduate from university, the opportunities for competitive sprinting are more or less non-existent. Sure, I enjoy the challenge of a long distance road race, but it simply does not compare to the adrenaline of running the quarter mile.

Anyhow, ready or not, it was game day and I had to get ready to leave it all out on the track. I headed out about half an hour earlier than everyone else and took my time warming up. Though we have had a couple days of cooler weather, Saturday was back up to around 80. Well, at least I didn't have to worry about contending with the cold! I jogged a couple of laps and got a good, long stretch in. People started to filter into the stadium and eventually I walked over to join the crowd. I don't know if people thought I was being antisocial or not, but I was listening to my iPod while stretching and didn't really make as much small talk as everyone else.

One of my major concerns was locating a pair of spikes. Sure, everyone scoffed back in the U.S. when I told them I was considering bringing a pair of racing spikes, but here I was on raceday with only my trainers! At first I thought I'd be fine--that no one would take it seriously enough to wear spikes but I was dead wrong on that one. So a couple days earlier I went out in search of a pair to buy. I located a cheap pair but they were just a couple sizes too small for me. Damn my American-sized feet! Just when I was starting to panic, my friend David took me to the back room where there was a whole pile of spikes to borrow. After a few minutes of searching, I found two that were close enough to my size. Game on!

I jogged outside and saw that everyone was lined up and starting to do a big group stretch. Wow. One of the P.E. teachers ran us through a series of active stretches, which I found mildly ridiculous (click the link to my pictures below), and then we were off. I had been asking for a couple days about the order of events and no one had an answer for me. Sure enough, as I went off to do some pick-ups, I see the starting judges setting up blocks for the 100m. Well, at least there was no wait! I was excited to have the 100m first because I like having a warm-up race before my main event (in this case, the 400m). I figured I'd have a decent shot to place in top 3 or 4 for the 100m but since I never once ran the open 100m in competition, I had no real expectations. They set us up into lanes and I was slightly disappointed to have the outside line. When you're on the very edge, you sometimes can't feel where the other runners are until it's too late.

The starter called what I can only assume was "runners take your marks" because everyone started to get into the blocks. I only had a chance to take one practice start so my goal was to get out as fast as possible without falling over. The guy called what I guess was "set," and then I heard the gun. We were off! I must say, there is really nothing like the feeling of anticipation you have when you get into the set position. Your adrenaline is pumping. Your blood is flowing. You have a thousand thoughts going through your head and yet none, all at the same time.

I got out to a decent start but I could see that the two guys directly to my right got out ahead of me. No reason to panic though--the 100m is not won in the first 20m but rather the last 20. I remembered Coach Butterfield shouting out "relax!" to me. In a short sprint like the 55m or the 100m, if you tighten up while attempting to gain speed, you lose the race almost immediately. I was pumping hard and could feel my speed picking up. With about 25 meters to go I hit top speed and reached my coasting form. With about 10 meters to go, I pulled ahead and crossed the finish line about .2 ahead of Mr. Huang, my toughest competitor. Victory! I was pleasantly surprised to see that I ran 11.6, possibly a personal best in the event. It was more than I could have hoped for and I was feeling pretty good going into the next race.

I had no idea how much time I had in between so I got right into a stretch and combination cool down/warm up. Diana and Kelly came to cheer me on and came over to congratulate me on my win. I think they probably thought I was kidding when I told them I ran track and that they should come watch me race. Ha! It was great to have a cheering section though. After I thanked them for coming, David asked me if my muscles were tight and told me he had some Chinese medicine for me. Sure, why not? I rubbed some sort of ointment on to my hamstrings and was floored by the effect. It was some sort of icy-hot mixture that loosened my muscles up in a flash. Excellent!

After the women and senior division finished up the 100m, we went right into the quarter mile. I took my sweats off and approached start/finish. I was crossing my fingers that I would not be in lane 8 (the outside line in the 400m means you don't see anyone until the home stretch). Turns out I was worried for no reason because they weren't putting us in lanes at all. A waterfall start for the 400m? Umm, okay. After inquiring when I could cut in (right away) they set us up and fired the gun.

I stumbled a bit trying to cut in to lane 1 from lane 3 but I got off without a problem and took the lead right away. While it hurts like hell at the end, you have to go out with everything in 400m. You never have the energy and speed you have at the beginning of the race ever again. My strategy was to try and build an insurmountable lead in the first 200m and then hold on. I felt like I had a comfortable lead in the back stretch and attempted to accelerate into the turn at the 200m mark. About midway through the turn I sensed someone on my shoulder and could hear footsteps--a terrifying thing when you're in the lead. Coming off the turn into the final straightaway, I could not only hear steps, but could also see a shadow out of the corner of my eye. Aaah! I gave it everything I had but finally saw Mr. Huang right next to me with about 20 meters to go. Once again, I tried to stay relaxed as much as possible and just pump my arms and get my knees up.

We both leaned into the finish, but I knew I had him by a half step or so. As I crossed the line I strided out and hunched over with my hands on my knees. It had been almost three years since I raced the 400m and I forgot the pain that follows the end of the event. Not only is there tons of lactic acid buildup in your hamstrings and quads, but your brain also goes a little fuzzy due to the pain. It wasn't uncommon for me in high school or college to throw up and collapse for a few minutes after racing the quarter. Just part and parcel of the territory. When they told me my time I chuckled--56.2. That probably would have gotten me kicked off the team at Wesleyan, but what are you gonna do. At least I broke 60!

Despite the pain, I was psyched to have achieved my goal-- W's in the 100m and the 400m. It is quite satisfying to work hard for something and then have it all come together in the end. I also received hearty congratulations from both fellow teachers and students who were watching. The school track team was there as well and they came over to shake my hand which was nice. I had been chatting with them about racing over the past month or so and it was cool that they came early to watch (before their workout). Before my day was done, I was also selected to anchor the relay. At first I didn't think I could handle another race, but then David explained that it was more of a shuttle relay with a large number of participants-- you know, the ol' 16x50m coed relay. Luckily I got the baton with a comfortable lead so our team cruised to an easy victory, which was nice.

All in all, an excellent day on the track! After the meet, Meggie invited us over for a home-cooked Mexican dinner which was excellent. I brought David with me and I think he enjoyed his first taste of quesadillas. We feasted on Meggie's enormous meal and then headed out to see Harry Potter! I had high hopes since Book 4 is my favorite, but I have to say I was slightly disappointed. The book is way too long to include everything, but I was hoping for a bit more. Still fun though. And yes, you can buy it here on DVD already. Gotta love China...

For anyone interested in pics from the meet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/1409556/

Posted by awolfe at 9:54 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 26, 2005

Without Limits?

Friday had me wake up in a major Thanksgiving stupor, confused that I had to get up and work after consuming so much turkey the night before. I have to say, that's one downer here--that you don't get any time off for Thanksgiving. Then again, I just had a week and half-long vacation because my kids were away farming. Guess I can't complain.

After struggling through three lessons while dreaming of my leftovers in the fridge, I rushed out to the track to do one final pre-meet session. I warmed up, stretched, and did some pick-ups before jogging a few more laps to loosen up. Despite my best intentions, I was getting nervous for the faculty/staff track meet to be held the next day. All I really wanted to do was lounge on my couch and go to bed, but I had no such luck.

Steven and I were informed by Lisa, our foreign affairs liason, that we had to attend a ceremony Friday night. A ceremony for what? She had no idea. Hmmm, sounds... fun? Before meeting up to leave for said ceremony, I decided to continue my binge of western food and made up a huge bowl of pasta. I figured that I should bring it back to my high school & university track days and fill up on a ton of pasta the night before racing. Mmmm. Tomato sauce may be absurdly expensive here but it's well worth it.

Steven and I rushed out to meet up with Lisa who proceeded to hand us enormous gift bags, guest badges, and tickets for the opening ceremony to the International Tourism & Culture Festival, being held at Tianhe Stadium down the road from us. I immediately chuckled about how the addition of Macau makes it an international gathering. After I got over that, I began to dread the whole thing. Steven and I were less than psyched about this affair, given its potential for long-winded speeches in Chinese. We became even less excited when the bus rolled up, filled with various other westerners. I think I can safely say that neither of us have any desire to travel around with a massive horde of white people. It's frustrating to stick out like that and also annoying to have to have the same conversation with a ton of people: so what are you doing in China? how long have you been here? where are you from? blah blah blah. I don't mean to sound cynical, but the majority of foreigners here don't make any effort to learn Chinese, don't care to assimilate, and are generally not the type of people I'm excited to hang out with.

Regardless, we hopped on the bus and were off. The ride from my apartment to Tianhe Stadium should usually take around 15 minutes with light traffic. However, given the rush hour traffic and number of people going to this ceremony, it took upwards of an hour. Ugh. At least the bus was air-conditioned! We got off and joined the sea of people all heading to the ceremony. I had no idea what to expect but I was excited to get inside the stadium. Sure enough, when we got inside to find our seats, the place was brimming with people and excitement. Whatever this was, it was a big deal for sure. We were sitting 3rd row (almost) center which was also pretty cool. Even if it was going to be boring, at least we'd have great seats for the tedium.

I began to flip through the program on my seat as I waited for the festivities to begin. Again, whatever this was, it was going to be big deal. The ceremony was going to include the obligatory speeches by the bigwigs, but it was also going to include a 16-part history of Guangdong Province in song, dance, opera, acrobatics, and drama. Wow. I don't know too much about the ancient history of the place, but I do know that Guangdong has been at the forefront of economic reform and modernization over the past 25 years in China. I don't know how that translates into art, but I was getting curious to find out.

I get the feeling it was showy for the sake of being showy, but right from the get-go the ceremony was completely over the top. There were huge floats for different areas of the province, tons of fireworks, huge lasers, gaudy costumes, excruciatingly traditional music, and about a bazillion performers. I was almost too much in shock the entire time to enjoy it, but I will say this--the gong fu number performed by the Guangzhou Shaolin Gong Fu School was incredible. They put on an amazing display crowned by as musical performance from none other than Jackie Chan! Of all the times to not have my camera ...

The ceremony ended with one of the longest firework displays I have ever seen. It was completely ridiculous. I think I turned to Steven about 10 minutes into it and asked how many farmers in Tibet the cost of the ceremony would have fed. 10,000? 15,000? Just a guess. I'm not sure if I'm making this up in my head or not, but I have to say that despite the impressive length of the fireworks, they still didn't compare to comparable displays in the U.S. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but I think American fireworks are just bigger. Anyone with me on that?

Anyhow, before I knew it the night was getting late and I pretty much went to bed immediately upon returning back to the apartment. This was disappointing for a couple reasons. First, I wanted to go to bed early. Second, I really wanted to watch "Without Limits," the Prefontaine movie. We used to watch it before track meets in high school and I still love the movie. I decided that instead of staying up late, I would wake up the next morning and throw it in before the start of the meet in the afternoon.

It's no surprise that every single American runner in high school or university respects Prefontaine. What do you expect from someone who said stuff like this:
"Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative."
or
"You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement."
I honestly believe that you can't understand Prefontaine or his drive to win unless you are a runner. The same sentiment certainly exists in other sports, but running is just a little different. Competing in a race like the 400m hurts like hell. Your body is certainly not meant to endure that kind of punishment but people do it for the challenge. I do it to prove to myself that I can, as well as to test my physical and mental limits. Like I said, I think you need to be a runner to really get it. That being said, I walked out to the track Saturday with the line in my head from the movie where Pre says "Is there anything worse than being second best?" Hmmm. Can't think of anything...

Posted by awolfe at 2:35 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 25, 2005

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving to all! I wasn't expecting it, but I can officially say that I had an unbelievable holiday. I hope all the other PiA-ers faired as well in creating some Americana here in Asia. As the calendar pages continue to turn, I can't believe that November has virtually come and gone in the blink of an eye. That means I've been here for over three months now and that my family will be here to visit in less than a month. Crazy! Anyhow, details on GZ Thanksgiving '05...

Leading up to yesterday, I was definitely concerned that Thanksgiving would signal a lowpoint for me here in China. Everything said at orientation and written in the country guide suggested that people reach a 3 month dropoff in satisfaction and enter a new stage of culture shock around Thanksgiving. I can't really say that I've experienced any noticeable culture shock, but it was logical to me that if it were going to happen, this would be the time. Besides these forecasts, I was also worried that I would get really homesick here on the 4th Thursday of November.

For as long as I can remember, my family has been heading over to the same house for our Thanksgiving meal--the Siegel's. Todd, the middle Siegel child, is my oldest friend in the world and remains one of my best. I have always looked forward to Thanksgiving as a time to watch football over at their house, eat amazing food (7 layer bars. Mmmm.), laugh uncontrollably at ridiculous dinner conversation, watch fun movies, and generally not have a care in the world. I don't know about anyone else, but in my experience nothing bad ever happens on Thanksgiving. New Years always gets built up too much, Christmas/Hanukah is always too stressful for people, Passover involves too much ritual before eating, and even birthdays are kind of hit or miss. Thanksgiving is a given--you know where you're going to go, what you're going to do, and who will be there. You can't go wrong!

In the past six or seven years I have also developed an additional routine for before the actual holiday. Whether at school or in Boston, I usually managed to get home at some point Wednesday night in time to have a good home cooked meal with the fam' and then head out to the bars in order to meet up with my friends from home. We'd have a couple beers, see random high school kids that we hadn't seen since last Thanksgiving, and stay out late for no good reason. I would then wake up at around 7:30am or so, grab breakfast, and then meet up with the two Johns: Fraser & Castilhos, my two former track co-captains. We'd drive out to Manchester, park in the same lot as Fraser's cousins, then start to warm up for the Manchester Road Race, a Thanksgiving tradition in CT. It's about 14,000 people trudging through 5 miles (with one mile completely uphill!) starting at 10am and there are bands playing the entire way, as well as people running in costume. Without fail, these two middle-aged guys dressed up as the Blues Brothers always pass me right around the 4 mile marker.

After surviving the race, we'd catch up with old track and cross-country teammates. Another year, another race. I would also find out just how badly my old coach, now approaching 70 years old, beat me that morning (I swear that man is immortal). After wandering around and meeting up with people, we'd migrate back up to the cars and enjoy a beer or two with Fraser's family. I usually had time to shower and catch a quick nap before heading over to the Siegel's. All in all, it is an excellent tradition.

So this year I knew I would have to go without the high school friends, the road race, and the witty jokes at the Siegel's house. I had high hopes that I could have some sort of Thanksgiving meal, but I had my doubts as to what that would actually entail. First off, turkey does not exist in China. If it's alive anywhere, it's hiding from the public and probably has bird flu at this point anyway. Second, it's extremely rare to find an oven in anyone's house. They have them at some restaurants, but Chinese people as a whole don't cook with ovens, so how would we cook the bird even if we found one? Third, most of us have work on Fridays so would people even be interested in putting something together?

A couple weeks ago I was talking about Thanksgiving with the Yalies and got into a big argument. Kelly and I were adamant that if there was any possible way, we needed to locate a turkey. Everyone else said that chicken or ham was an acceptable substitute (I can just picture the horror on my mother's face at the prospect of a Thanksgiving Ham) but I wasn't going to have any of that. Thanksgiving means Turkey. Period. We chatted about the possibility of making a run to Hong Kong in order to procure a turkey and bring it back on ice. We also tossed around the idea of getting a store to special order us an imported turkey.

Last Sunday on my birthday we decided to try and firm up some plans for a Thanksgiving potluck dinner. Kelly and I once again insisted on turkey and Meggie Lu stepped up to the challenge. She called every store in the area that might have something and came back to report that it was possible, but that it would be pricey. In my mind, money was no object here--if there was any conceivable way for me to eat Thanksgiving turkey, I was willing to spend any amount. Oliver's, a small western foodstore in the city, managed to secure us an 11lb bird straight from Utah and it was game on.

Kelly and Diana have a small oven and so does Meggie, so I was hoping that between the two of them, it would get cooked. Lo and behold, they shoved it right on in and it just barely fit! Excellent. I volunteered to make mashed potatoes and found a good-looking recipe for garlic & chive mashed potatoes online. Once again though, there were some minor issues. Where in the world do I get heavy cream? Butter? Thyme? Chives? With a little help from Park n Shop and some friends I managed to pull it all together and spent about two hours making over 3kg of potatoes. In case you're curious, that is a helluva lot of potatoes. There was something a bit odd about mashing potatoes and garlic in an enormous wok, but whatever.

After picking up some wine, Steven and I braved the bus and subway holding huge dishes of food and headed over to Kelly & Diana's for our feast. People seemed to be giving us the standard looks of "who are those caucasians?" and "what are they holding?" I was so excited for the meal that I almost decided to strike up conversations with random people along the way just to show them my potatoes (I didn't). As we were walking from the subway to their apartment, I began to worry a bit. What if the turkey didn't cook right in the mini oven? What if other people didn't bring what they said they would? What if there wasn't enough food?? Those of you who know me well can attest to the fact that I eat quite a bit. Picture that multiplied by about five--that's how much I usually eat on Thanksgiving.

We walked inside and I almost couldn't believe my senses. It smelled like Thanksgiving inside! There was western food everywhere! When Meggie and Andrew arrived and everything was finally laid out on the table, I was speechless in a giddy sort of way. Steven made beer & soy sauce broccoli, as well as corn on the cob. Meggie cooked a pumpkin pie and brought bread. Andrew made a sweet potato dish. Kelly concocted a cranberry sauce and cooked an apple pie. Diana made gravy and a chicken-stuffing casserole. We had four bottles of wine. We had dozens of rolls. I was beside myself. I even had the honor of carving the turkey, affectionately named "Norbert" by Diana, which was really fun. Before I knew it, there were dishes being passed across the table, the clinking of wine glasses, the noise of forks and knives at work, and six ecstatic westerners eating an unbelievable Thanksgiving dinner in Guangzhou, China. Steven and I both agree that we have never felt more full after a meal since arriving in China. I must have had six or seven full plates of food and probably could have gone for more if I hadn't got distracted by our viewing of "Home Alone." The food here has been great but there's just something about Thanksgiving dinner that trumps everything else.

It may be a little cheesy, but I do like the idea of taking a bit of time to think about what you're thankful for on Thanksgiving. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but here is some of my list. I am thankful for:
-an enormous, delicious, and memorable Thanksgiving meal
-the faculty and staff here at HSFZ, that has been nothing but supportive and friendly
-PiA, for giving me this opportunity in the first place
-high speed internet in my apartment (a little selfish, but it's true)
-hard-working students, that make my teaching easy
-the new friends I've made here in China, both expat and Chinese
-Steven, for putting up with me on a daily basis
-my friends in America who have kept in touch and seem genuinely interested in what I'm doing
-my sister Ilana, for being all-around awesome
and last, but certainly not least...
-my parents, for being so supportive of me in this wild China adventure and in everything else I've done in my life

Here is a link to a couple pictures from the night, at the end of the section from my birthday.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/1409556/

Posted by awolfe at 12:23 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 21, 2005

You Know Your Students are Rich When...

...they all have personalized soccer jerseys for a basic school tournament. Yup, that's right. I headed out today to run and was confused when I saw four different teams on the two fields decked out in proper uniforms. After a quick blink, I realized they were all my students! After I finished working out I asked one of the teachers on the sidelines where they got them and they said that it was usually a combination of one student's parents fronting the bulk of the cost and the rest all contributing a bit to round it out. Wow.

I'm not talking about t-shirts with sharpie written on them either. These jerseys are waaaaay nicer than the ones my team has plus the students' are all personalized. Okay sure I didn't pay a dime for mine, but still. I inquired further as to whether each class bought new uniforms every year and the teacher said yes, with a couple exceptions. I can't remember if it's Class 2 or Class 3, but one of them consists entirely of the smartest kids from outside the city. Apparently they have a reputation for being extremely competitive inside the classroom but somewhat less capable on the athletic field. Given that they tend to come from families with much less money, they don't have high class uniforms like the rest. I couldn't help thinking to myself though--if there's a Chinese equivelant to "that's alright, that's okay, you're gonna work for us someda," these kids are definitely all over it.

One thing that is sort of cool about the school system here is that there is a healthy intra-school rivalry between all of the classes. Since interscholastic sports don't really exist like they do in the states, they get their competition within the school walls. It seems like every other week there is a schoolwide competition in a different sport that all classes have to participate in (at least in some capacity). They do swimming, jump-rope, basketball, soccer, track & field, and who knows what else. Very cool.

I mentioned that I was running around the track as this was all happening. Having written in a previous entry about the upcoming faculty-staff track meet on December 4th, this should not come as a surprise to anyone. What did come as a surprise to me today was finding out that it was moved to this coming Saturday the 26th! Oy. I had a whole workout schedule planned and everything (especially after finding out David did fifteen 100m intervals that day) but this sort of tosses that out the window. Oh well. I'm going to do my best and hope that I don't spontaneously combust after racing a 400m. It being a solid two or three years since I raced anything, I have no idea how my body will react. I have a sneaking suspicion it is going to be violently angry with me for putting it through that kind of pain. We'll see.

Besides the track meet, I witnessed an interesting conversation today between Steven and one of my football buddies (who doubles as the computer expert). The desktop computer in our study has been "acting up" so we called in the troops to deal with it. As he was reloading the system software, he was shootin' the breeze with Steven and it came up that Steven studied Japanese and lived there for a year in college. Our computer expert started going off in Chinese and I didn't catch it all at the time, but I did recognize "enough," "English," "Japan," "China," "Hitler," and "war." Wow. Not exactly chatting about the Yankees there.

After he left I asked Steven for a recap and he told me that the guy was explaining how he wants to learn enough English in order to tell all the westerners that they should hate the Japanese because of what they did during WWII; that what they did to the Chinese is what Hitler did to the Jews. Geez. I find this particularly interesting given the front page article that was in the NY Times over the weekend about the overwhelmingly popular comic books in Japan right now talking about all of Asia's problems are China and Korea's fault. There's a heckuva lot of hostility around and I tend to forget about it. What that tells me is that unless it's addressed there is bound to be a pretty serious conflict in this part of the world in the next decade or two. Scary.

On a happier note, I continued to receive birthday emails and cards which is fun. I suppose one of the benefits of being so far away (and thus in a completely different time zone) is that people are both unsure of when your birthday falls and that they're willing to just send greetings in the ballpark of the right time. Works for me! Birth-day can easily become birth-week and I'll be fine with it.

It occurs to me that I should ruminate a bit on hitting the quarter century mark. I have heard quite a bit about people even having a "quarter life crisis" upon turning 25 (which is funny because statistically our quarter life mark was probably a few years ago). Come to think of it, I even know a couple people that went through it. I can't say it's not legitimate but I think I managed to pass right on over anything like that. I am perfectly content in my life right now and have very few complaints. I am privileged enough to be exploring a fascinating part of the world, teaching excellent students, playing tons of sports, eating incredible food on a daily basis, and learning a cool new language.

I think part of it is also that I'm so far away from the familiar. In this way, it feels like out of sight-out of mind. I've never had a birthday in China before so it's very new and doesn't quite feel like a regular birthday. Like I said, shorts and sandals on my birthday? Unheard of. In the same way, I thought I'd really miss the New England autumn but I really didn't. That's not because I didn't want to experience it but rather because it's so far away and so different here that it doesn't feel like it actually happened over there in Boston or West Hartford. Sure my calendar says November 22nd, but it still feels like August or September to me! I guess that's both comforting and disconcerting at the same time. I'm not sure I can explain that any better. Regardless, life is good and I am excited for what will hopefully be a legendary Guangzhou Thanksgiving feast on Thursday night. More on that later...

Posted by awolfe at 11:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 20, 2005

Birthday, 2005

Today was my 25th birthday and I celebrated with as much gusto as a PiA-er in China can muster. It felt quite odd to be wearing shorts and sandals on my birthday, but who am I to complain, right? Not wanting to be totally worthless for class on Monday, we decided to start the festivities the night before. Saturday night, Steven and I had a quick dinner and then headed out to the Cave Bar where they have two for one drinks. A good place to start the evening, no? We then met up with the Yale-in-China kids who were right around the corner.

Yale-China happened to be having their annual conference this weekend, meaning that all 12 teaching fellows congregated here in GZ along with some trustee members, their director, and a few of the Yale-China law fellows. From what I understand, the conference included a lot of meetings, even more food, and a complete and utter lack of sleep. Good times. I am somewhat jealous that they have an opportunity to all hang out again. I guess that's the luxury of being part of such a small program. One of the things that made leaving PiA orientation so sad was that we all knew we'd never be in the same place again. Ever. With around 75 fellows spread all over Asia (East Timor to Kazakhstan to Japan to...) it's impossible to rally everyone. I'm hoping that at some point we can at least get all 15 or so of the China fellows together, even though we're quite spread out as well. China's huge. Seriously.

Anyhow, so we met up with the Yalies and proceeded to hop into a cab to go to some place for KTV. I don't know who voted for Karaoke but we were at their mercy so there ya go. It was both funny and a bit awkward to join a group of kids who knew each other so well and had been spending 24/7 together for the last few days. Besides being a fun night out, it was also a celebration for my birthday and for Kelly's birthday, one of the Yale girls here in Guangzhou who is not only a good friend of mine, but also happens to share the same birthday! Well, almost the same. She's a baby and only turned 23. Boy, twenty three seems like ages ago...

So we sang our share of karaoke, ate some food, and eventually migrated out to another bar for some late night celebrations. I think I hit my wall at around 2am and decided to throw in the towel. They were all fading anyway and I had no interest in another shot of tequila (eeew--whose idea was that anyway?). I woke up Sunday morning and was pleased to find several birthday emails in my inbox and two birthday cards in my actual mailbox. I was quite impressed--both momma Wolfe and my friend Lauren both managed to time their cards perfectly, sending them out around 10/31. Congrats! You guys rule. Yes, especially you, Mom.

I had a rather lazy morning and went out for a tasty lunch at one of my usual spots with Steven. After doing some grocery shopping, I headed back to my apartment to lesson plan for a bit. Yup, even though it was my birthday, I still decided to go out and tutor the Korean boys since I was away last week. Really, I just needed the money but it's fine--they're great kids. We had an "easy" lesson and spent a solid half hour playing "20 Questions" as I corrected their sentence structures. Most impressive moment-- Robin, the older one, got Yankee Stadium (the thing I was thinking of) after only about 11 questions. Wow.

I hopped on the bus after tutoring and came straight back to the school where I had to meet one of my students. Earlier this week Carol, one of my best students, invited me to a bbq at her house Sunday night. Hmm. I like bbq. I like free food. I like not cooking on my birthday. Of course! I told her I would love to attend, as long as she promised to sing happy birthday. She responded that she couldn't promise she'd sing, but that she would definitely yell happy birthday. Good enough!

So Carol and her father picked me up by the front gate in their rather luxurious Nissan. I don't know what model it was, but it certainly had a pretty big screen in the dash that had detailed GPS (looking for the closest KFC? No problem!) and also a camera in the rear of the car showing you where you're backing up. Pretty cool. I started chatting with the father and found out he is a professor of architecture at one of the universities here and also a member of the City Planning Bureau. Basically a V.I.P.

After climbing 9 floors to get to their penthouse apartment, I was impressed to see a huge two level home, complete with an extensive roof garden including tons of veggies and herbs. Very cool! I also met their other guests, two of which just came back from 5 years in Phoenix. Not surprisingly, they spoke very good English and we talked about the states for a while. They laughed about the American version of Chinese food and how their friends got freaked out when they served chicken complete with the head and feet. Mmmm!

Speaking of food though, from the moment I arrived until the second I left, it was a big ol' gastronomic feast. We started off with a soup with pork, apples, and pears, served piping hot. This was followed up by some sort of heavy bread with green onions (reminded me of naan bread) and an unidentifiable sauce for dipping. I couldn't really tell if this was the appetizer section or the main course so I was eating as much of everything as I could (while still being polite, of course).

I never quite figured out where the main course started and ended but that's just fine. Carol's dad grilled up some really good spare ribs, chinese sausages, and whole fish and I sampled everything. There were also some fishcakes and meatballs that were quite tasty. The woman who lived in Phoenix apparently also just got back from France and she brought a whole case of wine from some vineyard there. I heard them speaking in Chinese and apparently it was about 300 kuai a bottle (around $38) which isn't out of hand in America but it's a TON of money here. I don't have a real sensitive palate for wine, but it tasted pretty good to me! And, obviously, when there's alcohol involved, there is toasting. There were only three guys at the dinner including myself (and the women weren't really drinking) but Carol's dad did not let that stop him from cheers-ing everyone. He seemed happy to learn "l'chaim" as well.

After the bbq was finished, we went right on to some sushi that they brought in from a local restaurant. Again, what a luxury! Sushi is pretty expensive in the states and it's not cheap here either. They were amazed at how much wasabi I used and initially told me it would be too spicy to eat. Right. Chinese people so far seem to consistently underestimate both my tolerance for spice and alcohol. Have a little faith, ya know?

As we polished off yet another bottle of wine, Carol's dad decided to make it his mission to introduce various forms of Chinese spirits to me. He disappeared downstairs and came back up with about 6 different bottles of various shapes and colors. Oh boy. He went through each one and explained what region it was from, how strong it was, and when Chinese people usually drink it. Some of it was rice wine, some of it was whisky, and some of it was baijiu. I had heard quite a bit about baijiu before but this was my taste of the stuff. The rumors are true--it's vile. Not only is it extremely strong with a harsh aftertaste, but it also has an overpowering smell that kind of made me want to vomit. I drank it politely though and opted to return to the red wine. A word of advice though--if you can at all avoid the stuff, I highly recommend staying far, far away.

I didn't want to show up empty-handed to this party so I brought a handful of postcards I brought from home of CT scenery. They were super impressed with the pictures and at least acted honored to receive them. I almost felt silly giving them, but it was all I had. Carol did keep her promise though and yelled happy birthday to me, before giving me a gift on behalf of her family--a traditional Chinese fan with a picture of a famous painting on it. Very cool!

I was sorry to have to rush off, but excited because I was going to meet up with Steven, Kelly, Diana, and Meggie for a little birthday dessert. We were going to go out, but Meggie surprised Kelly and I with a pretty amazing chocolate cake. Despite being half asleep from their conference, they trekked all the way to my apartment for cake and presents which was awesome. All in all, it was a really fun day and I appreciate everyone making an effort both here and abroad. I will certainly remember 25 for a long, long time.

Attached is a link to a couple pictures from the weekend. There aren't too many and they're all annoyingly stamped with the incorrect date but whatever. Without further ado, pics from Ari & Kelly's birthday, 2005!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awolfe03/sets/1409556/

Posted by awolfe at 11:41 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 17, 2005

Packages

Getting mail in the U.S. is fun but it's even more exciting when you're abroad. This week was the week of packages and I have absolutely complaints about that! Getting mail here is sort of an interesting experience on a couple of levels. For whatever reason, our mail does not come to our apartment building like the rest of the tenants. Instead, our mail comes to the front gate in the back room of the guard's building along with the rest of the students' mail. I didn't know which box was ours for the longest time until Steven pointed out that ours is the only one without a lock on it and that it says "foreign teachers" in really faded English. I guess we don't rate having our mail protected from thieves.

Though we never ordered it, we seem to be getting a subscription to the "China Daily," the English language newspaper sponsored and run by the Chinese government. Needless to say, it's a skewed perspective of current events and poorly edited. So most days our box only gets stuffed with the latest edition of the daily and that's about it. Every once in a while we get someone else's mail by accident. That's sort of an occasion because then we get to give it back to the guards (great guys) and explain that it's not ours.

This week, however, I got a novel in the mail along with a moleskin journal. What a day! Having just finished Pete Hamill's "Snow in August," I was ready for a new read anyway. I've just started Haruki Murakami's "A Wild Sheep Chase," and so far it's a really intriguing read. Good stuff. Besides a book I also got a package of necessities from my parents (hi mom! hi dad!) including duct tape, stain stick, toilet sanitizer, and some cold medicine. They definitely came through in the clutch, given that most of my clothes now have small oil stains from splattering noodles.

The bar has officially ben set though. This morning I got a call from our foreign affairs liason who said I had a package in her office. This was a bit odd to begin with because usually the protocal with packages is as such- I get a package slip in the mailbox, I go get my passport, head across the street to China Post, hand over the slip, wait a random amount of time (it's been anywhere from 45 seconds to about 15 minutes), and then happily tear open my package as I head back across to the school. As I got to the office Lisa, our liason, launched into some apologetic story about how since it was a Fed Ex package they thought it was for the director of the school.

I wish I could have seen the look on the guy's face when he opened it up to discover home-made chocolate chip cookies from my friend Caitlin. I'm just glad he didn't eat any! It's actually incredible to me that you can bake cookies somewhere in Boston, package them up in some tuperware, throw them in a box, and three days later I can eat them in Guangzhou, China. Impressive. Chocolate chip cookies are pretty incredible but there are also rumblings of Murdicks Fudge coming through the international postal system. I think that may even trump home-baked cookies...

Besides packages in the mail, I also bought a whole bunch of packages this week at IKEA. That's right, folks--Guangzhou now has an IKEA and it is all the new rage. From what I've heard, it has had a line out the door since it opened about a month ago. I was a little hesitant to venture over there and fight massive crowds, but I decided it was worth it. Looking around my apartment, I realized that it really wouldn't take too much to make it a much nicer home.

As I walked into the store with my friend Meggie (always good to have female companions when shopping), I was pleased to see that it was only mildly bursting with people. Not exactly empty, but I could breathe so it was fine. Entering the showroom, I also noticed that it was set up in the exact same way as the IKEAs I've been to in America. I've always thought it was sort of weird how they make you walk through these fake living rooms and kitchens before you get to the stuff you actually buy but whatever. I more or less sprinted through and got to the section where you actually pick things up.

One laundry basket, two candles, one picture frame, two pillows, one wok, and one bedside lamp later, I was checking out. The highlight of the entire experience (besides everything still being so cheap) was that they had hot dogs and soft serve ice cream just like in the states! For one kuai, it was far too tempting to pass up. They even had mustard! Mustard!! I may go back just for a meal since it's so inexpensive. Gotta love it...

Posted by awolfe at 11:13 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

November 6, 2005

Gender

I'm not sure why it never occured to me before, but this past week I had an interesting realization about the exercise patterns of my students. First off, compared to American high schoolers, Chinese kids are in *much* better physical shape. It's rare to see any girls or boys that are overweight. They have three mandatory exercise sessions per day: the first at 6:30am(!), the second in between 3th and 4th period around 10am, and the third coming after classes end around 5:00-6:00pm.

The first two are actually somewhat laughable in terms of effectiveness (or usefulness) since they mostly involve waving your arms around in different patterns, marching in place, and/or doing some sort of active stretching, but they're way better than nothing. On a curious sidenote, two groups in my classes debated the merits of the early morning exercise sessions (for their talk shows) and both mentioned heightened levels of CO2 as a negative. Umm, what? Is there some bizarre quality of the GZ air that involves a dangerous level of carbon dioxide that disappears after morning rush hour? I'm stumped.

The sessions in the morning last around 10-15 minutes but the afternoon exercise period is much longer. This is when the sports teams practice and when everyone else has an opportunity to play pickup games of soccer, basketball, table-tennis, badminton, or simply run around the track. This is all well and good, except for the fact that I noticed the other day that there were only about 3 or 4 girls total running on the track or playing on the field. This would be fine if there were only 5 or 6 boys around, but in reality it is in comparison to ~350-400 boys running, jumping, throwing, hurdling, and kicking.

What gives? There was an intra-class soccer match the other day and I watched the second half with my football buddies. I asked why there were no girls participating and they said that girls don't play soccer. I asked if the ladies had their own team or match and I got laughed at. Similarly, there is a school basketball team but it is strictly guys. Every once in a while a girl shows up to play some pickup but even that's a rarity. I poked my head into the badminton court and saw a much higher number of girls playing, but they were still a distinct minority. Same goes for the ping pong area. So where do all of the girls go every afternoon? I do not know but I am certainly going to ask around.

I believe this is indicative of a much larger issue here in China that relates to socially constructed conceptions of beauty and health. Admittedly, this is a major issue in America as well, but I think it's even more pronounced here and addressed even less. Chinese girls are almost all extremely skinny and have little to no muscle mass. It's not that they can't build muscle or don't want to, it's the fact that society dictates that athletic girls are somewhat ostracized. If you're a world class basketball player (for example) it's a different story, but for the average female being built is not desirable. Similarly, there is a burgeoning problem here with eating disorders. According to what I've read and seen, teenage girls are becoming more and more prone to anorexia (not bulimia as much) and no one is addressing the issue. I'm afraid that it's going to take a number of girls to die before anyone takes notice. I'm thinking about trying to do a lesson bringing these issues to light, but I'm not sure how it would be received.

On a completely separate note, I had the most eventful cab ride of my China career this afternoon. I started tutoring two Korean boys (ages 9 and 12--they rock) in English on Sunday afternoons and was running late today so I hopped in a cab. The trip started off without anything odd--basic weaving and cutting people off in congested areas. It started to get interesting when we turned on to a busy four lane street (2 lanes each way). We needed to make a right turn about 100m ahead but a red light and bumper to bumper traffic prevented us...or so I thought. Instead of waiting (and thereby following basic driving rules) the guy swung out to the left into one of the lanes with oncoming traffic.

Now this isn't the first time I've been in this situation so I wasn't panicking at the outset. The thing is, 100 meters is a long way when there are cars coming straight at you. Usually if a taxi heads out into the opposite lane, it's relatively brief and he'll nose his way back into the correct lane after a couple seconds. Not this guy though. We went the whole way and then made a hard right across two lanes of stopped cars and went through the red light to complete turn. Wow. Okay, no big deal though--I survived unscathed.

About thirty seconds later, the guy was weaving around a bunch of other cars once again when he had to come to a screeching halt. In a curious decision, a short barefoot merchant attempted to pull his goods across the street on a rickshaw-like cart in the middle of blazing traffic. My cabby started swearing in Cantonese (I'm assuming) at the guy as he finished crossing the street. The path was now clear but my driver decided he had a few things to say to the merchant before continuing on. At this point he rolled down the driver's side window and started giving the guy hell. He pulled forward about 10 feet after a few imprecations but then stopped again in the middle of the road. By now there were a number of other cars who could not pass and were getting quite angry with us for blocking the way. My first thought was, "Man, this guy is going to make me late for tutoring."

In a flash, the driver decided to exit the vehicle and confront the other guy face to face. At first he just stood by the side of the cab and yelled down the road but then they both started walking towards each other, seemingly sizing each other up. Oh boy. By now my thoughts had changed from concerns on punctuality to fearing for the life of this merchant who was tiny in comparison to the driver. They both started pointing, shouting, and kicking some dirt around. Meanwhile, I'm sitting alone in the taxi getting honked at by the increasing number of cars behind us. I started to imagine a riot ensuing and began to look around for an exit strategy. Luckily I was not forced to do my best Jack Bauer imitation as the conflict ended peacefully. The driver got back in the taxi and drove off in a huff, without so much as glancing at the red light he went through. All's well that ends well though as I got to tutoring with about 30 seconds to spare.

I am very excited to be heading out on the road once again this week to explore some more of China. Having a random week-long vacation, I decided to brave the 25 hour train ride and head out to Yunnan in southwest China. My kids are all spending this coming week learning how to farm out in the pastures of Guangdong Province so I'm free of any teaching responsibilities. I was invited to join them but opted to head to Kunming instead. Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, is supposedly a beautiful little city (of ~3 million, heh) surrounded by picturesque mountains and significant populations of non-Han Chinese. I'll let you know when I get back in seven or eight days...

Posted by awolfe at 6:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 3, 2005

Jack Bauer, Saul Bellow, and a Marvelous Day

Okay, this is an entry that exudes random thoughts.

Steven and I recently finished watching the third season of 24 and we were absolutely floored. Sure, no television show is ever going to be as thought-provoking or stimulating as a good book, but 24 comes pretty darn close. Without giving anything away, I will say that the writers of the show went out of their way to keep the plot on a constant cliffhanger. They even managed to keep veteran viewers on their toes at all times with unrelenting plot twists and suprises. I will even go so far as to say that one scene almost made me cry. And I'm not a cryer. The moral of the story is that you should all check it out. In the words of Ferris Bueller, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking [it] up. "

Have no fear, I have not been wasting away all my days with American television shows on DVD. I think I mentioned it before, but my apartment came complete with a sizable library of English books which is a rare commodity in China. Though I have yet to put a major dent into the collection, I have gone through quite a few. Currently, I am finishing up Saul Bellow's "Henderson the Rain King." I haven't read any Bellow before this but I know he is one of the most accomplished American writers of the modern era. I must say, I have been quite pleased. The book is hilarious!

Henderson, the main character, goes on a spiritual journey of sorts in the form of an African safari. As a protagonist, he is everything that a stereotypical hero is not: he has a drinking problem, spends his money frivolously, leaves parties to use the firing range in his basement, and alienates not only both of his wives but also his children. Yet despite this all, he remains a likable character because he is real. He is driven by an inner desire for some type of truth and goes to great lenths in an attempt to find it. The civilized world has rejected his many ideosyncracies and thus he decides that he must leave the country in order to find "it" somewhere else.

While I did not leave the U.S. due to any kind of rejection, I can definitely relate to Henderson's desire to search. When he initially sets out on his odyssey, he has no idea what will fill the void. When all is said and done it turns out the simplicity and beauty of the plains are more than enough, especially in conjunction with the people he meets. China is a totally different world than America. While there are certainly similarities that transcend cultural barriers (we are all human, after all), the mystery and freshness of my life here really does put the grandeur of the world into perspective. Not that it comes as a surprise, but there's a whole lot to see, do, and learn out there. Beauty comes in many forms and sometimes where least expect it.

Finally, I received my first package yesterday and, after a minor miscue with the post office, it made me incredibly happy. Steve Roslonek, children's musician who wrote the werewolf song I used for my Halloween class, sent me his new CD entitled "Marvelous Day." I can safely say that this disc will become a regular part of my listening repertoire because it is excellent. Despite the fact that I'm almost 25, I still get incredibly excited by children's music. There's nothing like listening to "Marvelous Day" or "Let's Go Out and Play" when you get up in the morning. Trust me.

There also happens to be one track on the disc called "Bridge to Terabithia." The song is based on the Katherine Paterson book of the same name and remains to this day one of my favorite all-time books. I can still picture exactly where I was when I read the book for the first time as a 5th grader and how it was the first novel to make me cry. Yup, it's true. And I'm not a cryer! The book starts off with a kid training for a race--no surprise that it went straight to the heart. Once again, check it out if you haven't read it.

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October 19, 2005

China Wakes

I just finished the Kristof/Wudunn book "China Wakes," a modern history of China's international rise to power. This tome was written in 1994 by the married couple that was in charge of the NY Times Beijing Bureau during the late 80's and early 90's. They received the Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 and, after reading their first hand accounts of the event, it's no surprise as to why.

The book does a great job of illustrating various points through short vignettes and engaging character portraits. This method is great because they don't claim to be publishing truths; rather, they only write about (mostly) objective perceptions and personal experiences. I think this is incredibly important when dealing with China because it's such an unknown to any foreigner. Even speaking the language and knowing a fair number of native Chinese, Kristof and Wudunn were never 100% sure about a great deal of Chinese culture. This is both encouraging and depressing at the same time. On one hand, I don't feel so bad that there is still so much here that mystifies me. On the other, it tells me that even if I become fluent in the language and spend many years here, I will never fully understand my surroundings.

Regardless, the book was extremely informative. Parts of it are amazingly disturbing (e.g. the retarded Chinese man who was "eliminated" because the IOC was in town) and other sections are highly optimistic (e.g. the improvements in standard of living for peasants). Not surprisingly, the book meant quite a bit more since I'm here experiencing so much of what they write about. When he mentions the chaotic streets of Guangzhou, I can certainly relate. When she mentions the coming boom for Shanghai, I can verify it firsthand. I've decided to take a brief hiatus from China books though and have started the latest biography about Sandy Koufax. I mean who can resist a book on Jews & baseball?

In other news, there is an *enormous* dead rat outside my kitchen window. I noticed the other morning and it is truly disgusting. What Steven and I can't quite figure out is how it got there. We live on the second floor and the overhang is definitely inaccessible from the ground. This suggests that it fell down from a higher level but it seems to be in too much of one piece for that to be the case. The bottom line is that this is one of those "This is China" (TIC) moments. Our school is the equivelant of an Andover or Exeter in the U.S. and I just can't picture a rodent of unusual size hanging out by the kitchen window of the faculty there. Maybe I'm being naive.

Besides that, it's business as usual here. I did find out that I don't have to teach this Friday and I'm trying to figure out if I can organize a last minute trip up to Wuhan. Central China is supposedly remarkably different than the coast, so I would enjoy a look-see in those parts...

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October 16, 2005

Syrian Chefs and Chinese Hipsters

I had an excellent weekend punctuated by a couple different highlights. First, this past Friday was Yale-in-China-Diana's birthday. The illustrious Meggie Lu, a Wash U. graduate and current guidance counselor, organized a big group of kids to go out for dinner and drinks. We went out to a place called the "Orient Express" (I think) which was actually a Syrian restaurant. It wasn't cheap, but they had an option for an all-you-can-eat buffet which I took full advantage of. The cuisine was not only a nice break from Chinese but also quite tasty on its own. There was really good hummus, tabbouleh, curry lamb, garlic seafood, and some sort of meatball & eggplant creation which was amazing. The best part of all--there were pickles! Real dill pickles! I had almost forgotten how much I missed pickles until I had a bite of one. Then it all came rushing back.

Not surprisingly, I was still filling up my plate when everyone was finished. I love eating and tend to eat quite a bit, especially when there's good food around. I felt a bit silly since everyone else had to wait for me, but by god--I was going to get my money's worth! Mmmm. Good food just makes everything better.

After the feast we headed back to Meggie's apartment for drinks and a home-made two layer frosted birthday cake. Yum! Diana seemed pleased which was great. I think I've asked Diana about a billion different questions about Guangzhou (and China in general) since this is her second year here and she has always been incredibly helpful and outgoing. In other words, she is one of my best friends here and she rocks.

To top the night off, we decided to head out for some good old-fashioned KTV--karaoke. This was my first experience going out for karaoke in China and it was pretty entertaining. Basically you rent a room with however many people you're with and you then have free reign to pick whatever songs you want and to order drinks and snacks. I sat back and listened to many different Chinese pop songs performed by the Yalies, and then Steven and I tried to represent the U.S. by picking a few English tunes. As I was going through the list, I saw a ton of random songs and wasn't really taken by anything until I noticed "Power of Love." Huey Lewis and the News?! Heck yeah! I got all ready to rock out 80's style, grabbed the mic, stood up, and was crushed to discover that their "Power of Love" was some bogus version done by a different band. Sad. I thought I could redeem myself from that debacle by singing "As," the old Stevie Wonder tune, but unfortunately their version was kicked up about half an octave and was clearly intended for a female vocalist. Oh well.

The most amusing part of the KTV experience was going to the bathroom. At one point early on Steven got up to go to the toilet and came back laughing about as hard as I've ever seen. I pressed him for an explanation and after much hesitancy, he explained that there was a man in the room giving massages. Well, it sure seemed a bit out of place but I figured that it couldn't be *that* funny. A little bit later in the night I decided to relieve the ol' bladder and Steven followed behind me. I heard him mutter something about a 50/50 chance before opening the door to the bathroom but didn't think much of it. I walked up to the urinal, unzipped my fly and glanced over my shoulder at the fellow working the room, apparently the masseuse. As I started taking care of business, the guy comes up right behind me and starts massaging my shoulders while I'm peeing! Well I started laughing uncontrollably because of the absurdity of the situation; On the one hand I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible but on the other, my laughter was slowing the process down, thereby making it that much funnier. I had heard of this phenomena of the pee-massage but I naively thought I would be able to avoid it. As Steven was chuckling at my predicament, he managed to translate a few of the phrases the guy was spitting out while massaging: "hey boss, looks like there are a lot of attractive ladies for you tonight," "seems like fun out there, huh boss," and "nice to relax with some beers and women, ay boss." I think that speaks for itself.

Saturday night was marked by a lack of any sort of backrub while urinating and by my discovery of an awesome jazz club. After a little bit of research I found a joint called the "Blue Note," which purported to have live music Thursday-Sunday nights. I decided to check it out and met a very entertaining Swedish women in the process. The place was pretty small and had a very welcoming vibe to it complete with comfy seats, small tables, an extensive drink list, and obscure indie movies from the 30's and 40's playing on a big screen behind the band. The quartet performing was pretty awesome and did a few of their own songs interspersed with some classics. It was the first real music I've seen here and I was definitely pleased.

There were a few random ex-pats in the bar but there was an almost equal number of Chinese. You could tell right away though that these weren't your average Guangzhou-ans. They looked like the pinnacle of hip with their clothes, hair, and demeanor. In other words, they were jazz cats to the core and it was pretty cool to see the similarities to the U.S. version of the same sort of person. I will definitely be going back to this place and someone else also recommended a different jazz club to me so hopefully I have much more to discover about the Guangzhou jazz scene.

I found myself wondering--how difficult is it to become a professional musician in China? As far as I know, the government doesn't provide any funding for musicians (especially of the jazz variety) so you're pretty much on your own. How do they get training? How much do they get paid for gigs? Is there a big underground scene of musicians attempting to make a living from their craft? I have no answers yet but I hope to find out in the next few months.

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October 13, 2005

Day of Atonement

So yesterday was Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. I can't say I've spent too much time observing much of anything over the past few years, but if it's only going to be one day a year, this is the one. In a move of excellent efficiency, the powers that be decided thousands of years ago that Jews would have one day to atone for a year of wrongdoing--seems like a much better idea than the Catholic notion of confession. Every week? Who has the time! Anyhow, lo and behold there is a Chabad house here in Guangzhou so I decided to seek it out for services yesterday. For those of you not in the know, Chabad is an international organization of very observant Jews that seek to provide a place of observance for Jews around the world. Heading to Italy for Passover? No problem--just check online for the nearest Chabad. Hungry for a kosher sabbath meal in Beijing? No problem, just find the Chabad.

Chabad is nice because, so far as I can tell, they don't try to convert you into becoming a super-Jew. Rather, they are just happy that you're making any sort of effort. They provide the location, the materials, and the spiritual leader. Beyond that, it's up to you. So I copied down the address of the place and hopped in a cab right after my classes yesterday. For the most observant Jews, Yom Kippur is an all-day affair with services starting around 8am and not ending until around sundown. Keep in mind that you're also fasting for the entire thing. Ugh. Anyway, I rushed out to try and catch minchah, the afternoon service, and neilah, the concluding service. After some minor detours I found the spot and headed in just in time for the beginning of minchah.

In my insular thinking, I was expecting there to be a bunch of American businessmen there and maybe a couple of English guys. Silly me. A very nice man met me at the door and in hebrew asked if I wanted a tallis (a prayer shawl) and a machzor (a prayer book). My brain took a few moments to translate this, but I answered in the affirmative and the guy gave me his book and his tallis. I glanced at the translation of the hebrew in my hands and saw it was in French. Interesting. As I walked into the prayer room, I noticed that there were very few American-looking caucasians but rather a melting pot of various ethnicities. I saw prayer books in Hebrew/English, Hebrew/Spanish, Hebrew/French, and what looked like Hebrew/Norwegian. The majority of people there appeared to be of sephardic descent--Jews who can trace their roots back to the Iberian Peninsula. In other words, it was hardly Beth David, my parent's synagogue in West Hartford, CT.

It's been years since I had to use my Hebrew in any sort of extended fashion (I think the last time was ordering falafel in Paris) so it definitely took a couple minutes to clear some of the cobwebs away. My old Hebrew teachers from Solomon Schechter would probably be horrified at how much I've forgotten, but I choose to see the glass as half full-- I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the conversational Hebrew I understood and how I could even muster basic responses. What's really weird is that my first instinct when the guy handed me a prayer book was to respond, "xie xie," the Chinese for "thank you," as opposed to "todah," the Hebrew.

It was really comforting to be immersed in such a familiar environment. The Jewish world is apparently very small because despite the fact that there were people from all over the world speaking a multitude of different languages, we all managed to sing some of the same melodies to the herbew prayers. It was also nice to be slightly more competent with the language. Though I am making some progress with my chinese lessons, I'm still eons away from where I need to be. In the simplest terms, it was great not to have to think real hard about how to pronounce the words on the page. I also noticed that there are a number of grammatical similarities between Hebrew and Chinese. They're a world apart but apparently disparate languages can also transcend certain barriers.

After mincha we went right on to neilah, the concluding service. My family has the tradition of going to services for most of the morning and skipping out on neilah to break the fast with friends. This makes the day waaaaay easier because neilah is pretty tough. Whoever designed this service back in the day decided that you really had to some serious work for atonement because the concluding service is done entirely standing up (after a day without food). It's not easy. The very end of the service is pretty cool though because someone sounds the shofar, a ram's horn hollowed out and used as a musical instrument, with one long blast to signify the end of the holiday. I made it through and enjoyed a couple of pieces of cake provided the synagogue to break the fast. Not exactly my mom's kugel, but I'll take it.

I was planning on just heading home or finding a noodle shop around the synagogue for a meal, but a couple of the French guys in their late 20's found me before I left. They spoke almost no English and I don't speak more than two words of French so Hebrew was the common ground. I figured out that they wanted me to go out with them. Sure, I thought, always nice to make new friends. I foolishly assumed that we were going out for food, but it seems that these guys like to break fast over a few pints instead. So it was off to the "Cave Bar" where Carlsburg on tap is two for one before 9pm. Who am I to argue? I figured out that unfortunately they don't live in GZ but are only here for some business. Too bad, because they were a riot. I had to walk away after two beers though because otherwise I think I would have gotten far too inebriated to even make it home. Drinking on an empty stomach is not exactly the best idea in my mind so I went in search of noodles to end my day. All in all it was quite an experience and I think I will try to get back to Chabad at some point for another holiday.

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October 12, 2005

What a Difference a Week Makes

I got back to Guangzhou and figured that it would pretty much be business as usual--teaching, footballing, eating, etc. Those things are all here but I am also starting to notice a multitude of differences piling up. I was only away for a week but just in my little neck of this enormous city, there is a new sushi restaurant open across the street, a new clothes store down the block, a huge new neon sign at the club down the street, and what appear to be a completely different contingent of people hawking goods on the streets.

The coolest thing about returning to the city though, is that for the first couple of days here, the skies were clear! I could actually look up to the sky and see blue! At night I not only saw the moon but also several stars! Now of course by today it's pretty much all polluted up again, but for about 48 hours there it was excellent. What accounts for the brief respite? So far as I can tell, enough people left the city that there were probably significantly fewer cars operating on the roads. In addition, any factories in the area probably shut down for at least a couple of days. It seemed like everyone in GZ was on vacation last week, yet stores and restaurants were all open so I don't entirely understand how it works. Maybe the people working got overtime? Who knows.

The final change here is the weather. When I was in Hangzhou it was legitimately cool. I wore pants everyday and was forced to borrow extra layers since I only brought t-shirts with me (gimme a break--it was a bazillion degrees in GZ when I left). Shanghai wasn't quite as cool but it was still pants weather. I was fully prepping myself to re-enter the sub-tropical climate here and commence full strength sweating; however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that in only 7 days the weather cooled down a bit. Don't read that the wrong way--it's still in the 80's everyday. The difference is that the humidity isn't quite as brutal and I don't feel like I have to walk through Hades to get to class anymore. It does wonders for my overall happiness too. When you're not wilting in the heat, things just don't seem as bad.

On a separate note, I had to give a lecture today for my entire school. Let me rephrase that--I had to give a lecture today at which the entire school was invited. For better or worse, there were several activities going on today so I didn't have a packed house, only about 50 or 60. When all was said and done, I was pretty happy with it. I find more and more that I really like public speaking as well. I think my time with the Spirits and the Vineyard Sound has lent me invaluable experience when dealing with large audiences. My talk was about applying to colleges and universities in America and about what a typical day is like once you're there. I exaggerated a little bit to make a few points (e.g., me up at 8am during my Wesleyan years? not a chance) but for the most part it was legit. There is some level of fascination with American culture, especially at the high school age, so I think I kept their attention for at least a chunk of it.

At the end of the speech I allowed for a question & answer session. I was expecting a few queries like "what do you eat in the dining hall?" or "how often do you have exams?" but no. Instead I fielded a question from the same person who grilled me about Tiananmen. I had to respond to the following:
"I've read that many of the top Chinese students with undergraduate degrees are recruited by the best universities in America to do post graduate work in the U.S., thereby creating a major loss of human resources here at home. What is your opinion on this and do you think it's ethical?" I think I handled it okay, but I had never even heard this before. Anybody have any wisdom for me? I basically said that I thought most who did go to the US for masters or PhD returned to China to use it. I hope I wasn't lying. So much for questions like, "is it fun at American universities??"

I got paid again earlier this week which was nice (since I was pretty much broke). I had a major moment of reflection though as I recalled several conversations I had on the train back to GZ. Apparently minimum wage in China (i.e. for basic manual labor and even some waitresses, etc.) is right around 6 or 7 yuan an hour. That's less than $1 for sixty minutes of work. My salary is supposedly on the lower end of the pay scale for a foreigner as a native speaker of English, but I feel like I'm living like a king here. One of the guys I met on the train went to one of the best high schools in the city, went to a good university, has been working for proctor & gamble here in GZ for over 3 years, and still makes less than me per month. And this guy has to pay rent! I'm just realizing more and more how good I have it and it's somewhat conflicting.

I won't lie though. I did take a few bills from my wad and head out today to buy some speakers. I was inspired by Ian's apartment in Shanghai to pick up some good tweeters and a sub to hook up to my ipod and / or computer. It was an excellent decision too because I love the way these things sound and they can almost fill our whole apartment with a nice rich sound. Much like my realization about needing to be near water, I now also realize that music is inherently important to me. I love music and listen to something everyday so it's great to have a nice system to do that with. I think I will always make sure that I have some means to listening to music for the rest of my life. It makes me miss my surround sound system back in Boston. Hey 95 Oondeenay, you guys better be taking care of it! Next purchase for me: plants. Ian and Carmen's apartment is filled with some awesome plants and it really adds to the place. The question is, can I keep anything alive here with the Guangzhou air?

I am about to go to bed now and wake up for my first Yom Kippur in a foreign country. For those not "in the know," Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement and arguably the single most important day in the calendar year. It is customary to fast all day to facilitate your focusing on what you've done wrong in the past year. Though I'm pretty far away from the Jewish world of West Hartford, CT (or even Boston, for that mattter), I decided to fast nonetheless. I'm not sure I really buy into any of the prayer or ritual of the whole thing, but I still find the fast to be a very effective purifying device. I think it's good for everyone to step back at least once a year and think about instances where you've harmed the feelings of others or generally done something wrong. So if there's anyone out there reading this that I've sinned against, I wholeheartedly apologize.

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September 29, 2005

Foreign Experts

That's me!
It turns out that in order to get a residence permit here in China, a foreigner has to be classified as some type of foreign expert. After registering with the police upon arrival, HSFZ (our school) had to jump through a few more hoops just to get us the *application* for being a foreign expert. I was expecting a long comprehensive petition but it turns out the form was kind of a joke. The foreign affairs secretary of our school filled out the papers but had to ask us for all of the information. She wanted to know what my areas of expertise were so I said history and English. She responded with, "Is that all?" I got the feeling I needed to sound a bit more impressive so I added classical South Indian vocal music (a stretch), Georgian chant music (less of a stretch), track & field (not really a stretch at all), and political science (virtually a complete lie). She seemed pleased with these responses so I left it at that.

Lo and behold, after only three weeks of my application and passport being sent around the bowels of the Guangdong province, I got my foreign expert certification and residence permit! Sure my permit is only valid through May 15th and I'm on contract through the end of June, but I'll worry about that later (or should I say, the school will worry about it...). Anyway, one of the benefits of being a so-called foreign expert (and simply participating in PiA) is that we get invited to random formal banquets and celebrations. Tonight I had the honor of attending Banquet #3 to commemorate the 56th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. The Vice President (or whatever he's called) of the entire province was there along with a bunch of other bigwigs from the party. Once again I managed to avoid any long-winded speeches and get straight to the incredible food.

Before I get to the food though, I should mention that this was the first time that I felt like I was being fed communist propaganda. There was a nice thank-you to everyone for their contributions to the wealth and well-being of the city, but the keynote speaker spent all 5 minutes talking about how the party has been providing for all people since its inception. He described how for fifty six years now everyone from peasants to businessmen have benefited from their hard work. I think that may be a stretch. I still have a slightly bitter taste in my mouth from Faison's descriptions of the people in Tibet. What exactly has the party done for them, other than exile the dalai lama? I understand that this is the party line and that all officials are obligated to spread it, however, I'm curious if they actually believe it. Are their any government officials that truly are working to better the lives of all people or are they just in it for the power? Maybe the money? I hate to sound so cynical, but after everything I've read it's tough to have faith in such a controlling system. Then again, it's not very difficult to accuse the U.S. government of corruption and disservice either. Sad, but true.

These thoughts were fleeting, however, once I saw the buffet. What can I say? Sometimes I have a one track mind. We were at the Garden Hotel tonight, arguably the nicest hotel in the entire city, and the meal certainly reflected that. I didn't have anything too exotic, but the highlights included amazing sushi and sashimi, a great ginger pork, a veal w/ mushrooms concoction, some sort of meat dumpling, and the dessert. I don't generally have much of a sweet tooth but for whatever reason I went nuts tonight on the dessert table. It wouldn't turn the heads of any Italian chefs, but the green tea tiramisu was excellent. I also couldn't complain about the black forest cake. Mmmmmm. Those of you who know me well know that I take full advantage of free food, especially when it's tasty. Lets just say that as everyone else was done and they were beginning to take the food away, I was loading up my 4th plate.

I have one day of lessons before my first vacation and I am incredibly excited. While I may go delirious during the course of my 24 hour train ride up to Hangzhou, I know it will be worth it. I'm excited to see what is supposedly one of the most beautiful spots in China and I am equally excited to meet up with a whole crew of PiA-ers. Before my week of freedom, I had to come up with a new lesson for these last two days and I decided to do something fun, in the spirit of pre-holiday high school classes. After much deliberation I handed out a copy of the lyrics to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" with a dozen or so key words missing. The goal, after listening to the song, was to figure out what the words were. It was SO much fun. My kids egged me on to try the moonwalk and I obliged. I also laughed heartily as I tried to explain Vincent Price's pseudo-rap at the end. The funk of forty thousand years? Where did they come up with that??

This will probably be my last post for about a week since I'm leaving my computer behind on my travels. I can guarantee that I will have a plethora of stories to tell upon my return, assuming I survive the extended transit time. Special shout-out to my splendid sister Ilana-- Happy Birthday!! May your 27th year bring you joy, happiness, and a Yankees post-season berth. I pledge to consume at least one tsingtao in your honor tomorrow...

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September 27, 2005

South of the Clouds

I just finished reading "South of the Clouds" by Mr. Seth Faison, former Shanghai Bureau chief for the New York Times. This book interested me for several reasons. First off, Seth went to Wesleyan and it's no secret that I have a lot of Wesleyan pride. Second, the book is very well written (in my humble non-English major opinion) and has some really vivid description in it. Third, Seth was the keynote speaker at the final dinner of PiA orientation. Back in May we had a 5 day orientation down in Jersey to get to know each other and go over some basics such as safety, travel, culture, language, etc. On the final night we had a thoroughly preppy send-off in one of the nicest buildings on the Princeton campus, complete with a catered meal and open bar. But I digress.

I was excited to see that Mr. Faison represented Wesleyan well by showing up to the formal dinner wearing a suit jacket over a plain white t-shirt. Heh. He recounted his life story in brief and was a very captivating speaker. As a reporter in Beijing during Tiananmen in 1989, he saw one of the most incredible events of the last twenty years. Anyhow, his book goes into detail about his language training in Xian (the site of the terra cotta warriors), about his life as an itinerant journalist, and about his impressions of being a foreigner in China. Check it out if you're interested.

The book left me with two lasting thoughts:
1. Right now I certainly feel like an outsider due to the language barrier, however I don't feel that people are guarded around me or that they look down on me for being an American. Maybe I'm being naive here but so far people have (at least on the surface) been very friendly and outgoing. Faison talks about being shut out and looked down upon as inferior due to the color of his skin (not to mention the size of his nose). I'm wondering if I will feel the same way once I can converse better with my coworkers and random inhabitants of the city. I thought about it from an American perspective and unfortunately there is some level of the same judgement in the U.S. If someone is born abroad or is not a native speaker, there are a number of people who will judge them accordingly. According to Faison, Chinese people have a difficult time reconciling their culture's past with the events of the 19th and 20th centuries (not to mention little things like the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen). The result seems to be a national consciousness that is fiercely proud, yet also somewhat ashamed. Regardless, they are Chinese above all else.
2. I'm dying to go to Tibet. Faison's descriptions of Tibet are unbelievable and I think Tibet is now at the top of my list for travel destinations. It also breaks my heart to read about the treatment they get in the province from the government (and to some extent the Han Chinese, who think they are barbarians). It really is a travesty but it is unlikely that anything will change in the near future. The picture I have in my head of the Buddhist monasteries and the mountains are straight out of a movie--something that seems too beautiful to be real. The religion major in me is also completely intrigued by the Tibetan faith and practice. I would LOVE to spend an extended period of time in one of the temples there. Jan Willis would be so proud of me...

Besides the book, I also wanted to make a comment about inconsistencies in China. It seems that you simply cannot depend on things staying the same here, on any level. For example, today I went to use the sink in my bathroom and out of nowhere I had ridiculously high water pressure. It had been a solid trickle before this but now I'm getting blasted by the backsplash. What caused the change? I don't know. Speaking of water, it's always a crapshoot whether I'll have hot water in the shower. Sometimes it's scalding and other times frigid. I've actually come to enjoy the colder showers given how hot it is here and how I'm generally completely overheated from playing basketball or football. A few other examples: one of my students early on heard Steven and I say we really like jia zi (dumplings) and he decided to take us to his favorite spot. In true China fashion, it was gone--replaced by a cheesy looking clothing store. One of the take-out spots I frequent is also hugely inconsistent. Not only does the quality of the food fluctuate, but so does the price! While the sign says 5 yuan, sometimes I pay 6; other times 4. Why is this? Got me. At least my basketball game has been pretty consistent lately.

Steven and I ventured out to the Grandview Mall this past weekend (the largest mall in Asia--it's *enormous*) and Steven bought a digital camera. Despite three years of mandarin study, UNC did not prepare my roomate with essential vocabulary he needed such as "memory card," "rechargeable batteries," "megapixel," or "zoom," so it was quite an adventure. He was successful though and has used the camera several times in the past few days. If you're interested in pics of our apartment, in our adventures making jia zi with the Yalies, or in random city shots, check out the following link:
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=284251127642071670/l=61187536/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB Enjoy!

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September 26, 2005

I Shook Up The World!

Today I decided to wear my glasses instead of my contacts and I got some interesting comments. Most of the girls who spoke up seemed pleased and decided that I looked much more like a proper teacher. On the other end, all of the boys seemed disappointed. One even told me that he didn't think I should ever wear my glasses because I no longer looked like a "footballer." I had to smirk when I realized that I'm thought of as a "baller" here, to use the colloquial nomenclature. Ha!

It comes as no suprise to me, but I have decided that I am a much better history teacher than I am an English teacher. Not that my English classes are going bad by any means, but I feel so much more at home teaching history. We're on to World War I which I really do enjoy, especially in how it relates to WWII (Versailles as the thirty year truce--brilliant). This course I am designing has even given me the opportunity to explore some new aspects of media and American culture that I didn't know much about beforehand. The music from the teens is a riot and it's very cool to see aspects of jazz, brass band, and country in the pop tunes. I'm really excited to show them the transition to Big Band and vocal jazz in the next couple of weeks. If I'm feeling really daring, maybe I'll even teach them how to dance the Charleston...

I met with tutor #2 yesterday and decided that I'd take her on. "Cherry" is a graduate student in English at South China Normal University and is very sweet. She speaks really well and seems genuinely interested in tutoring me, though she is a bit shy and sheltered. She did her undergrad at Central China Normal U. in Wuhan and seems thoroughly intimidated by Guangzhou. I don't know where she gets her fears, but she has already told me that it's unsafe for women to walk around alone in Guangzhou. Ever. Under any circumstances. Now I don't doubt that you need to be careful in a big city like GZ, especially if you're a woman by yourself, but I think she's taking this a little far. She won't walk outside the gates of the University herself, event to head across the street to the convenience store. As far as Steven and I can tell (she's working with him as well), the first time she left the confines of the University was to come see our place at HSFZ last week. This big adventure was a trek taking all of three or four minutes, walking down the sidewalk. Steven even had to walk her back and it was during the day! I can't tell if this is indicative of Chinese women at all or whether she's just particularly scared. I'm trying to remind myself that there are inherent gender differences that I will never experience or even relate to, but I think she needs to explore more of what the city has to offer.

Regardless, she has much more of a structured plan for teaching me which I like. I think I may ditch my other tutor depending on how our first few lessons go. The downside is that she's so busy that she can only see me once a week. She told me not to worry though, that she would get me books and assign me daily homework. This I can deal with. I think I will be taking a page out of the Aaron Schwirian training manual and teach myself for the most part. I have been frustrated enough by my inability to communicate that I think I will be disciplined enough to get going on a more serious level. Sidenote- on my way to pick up the textbooks from Cherry this morning I saw another throng of students in military dress doing drills. I asked her about it and she said that all freshmen have to go through about 20-25 days of required military training at the beginning of college. Wow. I'm trying to imagine orientation at Wesleyan involving marching drills and M-16 training. Not surprisingly, I can't picture it. China isn't at the level of Israel with required military service, but it's definitely a lot more than the U.S. I'm wondering how the students feel about it...

Not that I needed much convincing, but my PiA mentor (and eminent China scholar) Professor Lynn White convinced me to head up to Hangzhou and Shanghai for the Chinese National Day Holiday next week. His descriptions and suggestions on what I could do in Eastern China are too enticing to ignore so I will be off on a 23 hour train ride to explore. Thanks, Prof. White! I'm hoping to rendezvous with a few other PiA kids along the way as well. Who's with me?? Lets go swimming in the West Lake! I'm not sure that's even legal but I'll figure it out. Sidenote- why is it called the National DAY Holiday when it's a week long? Got me.

Since I am starting to participate in rudimentary conversations with my coworkers here, they have decided that I need a Chinese name. Sure, I'll go along. Having no idea what to use, I asked for some assistance. The majority decided that I should be called "Yali," which means pressure, but that they shorten to "Ali" to sound like my English name. I like the idea of learning how to say "I shook up the world!" in Chinese and repeating it everytime I say something correctly. Way to represent the U.S., huh?

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September 22, 2005

We Have a Winner!

The international competition of who-can-send-Ari-snail-mail-first is officially over and we have a tie! The illustrious Ilana Wolfe, my older sister, came in at the same time as China-veteran and Wes-track alum Morgan Philbin. A close second (by around 12 hours) was the new university-administrator and Beantown resident Lauren Budd. Come visit and I'll treat you all to the finest meal 5 yuan can buy :) I actually had my doubts as to whether I'd ever receive any real mail given my lack of a true mailing address, but lo and behold it worked! I suppose three weeks isn't too bad given that it is traveling across the globe. My compliments to the postal system on both ends. Thanks to all who participated though. I suppose I can now open up the international competition of who-can-send-Ari-baseball-highlights-on-DVD-first competition...

I had my second language lesson today and boy was it a workout. My tutor really pushed me and I appreciated it. I can now successfully say numbers, times of day, days of the week, and a couple of other random things. As it turns out, my tones have been okay so far, but my pronunciation skills have been lacking. I don't know what it's called, but the u with the diacritic mark over it (the umlaut) is killing me. My mouth simply does not want to make that sound, but I'm working on it. In concurrence with the old adage that when it rains it pours, I now have contact info for a couple of other tutors, after I struggled forever to find one. Apparently it is the expat way to try out a few until you find one you really like, so this weekend I will be meeting up with #2, a grad student at the university next door. Her name is Cherry and she has entertainingly awkward English. Sounds promising...

One of my friends and co-workers has been after to me to play tennis with him for the past few weeks so I finally obliged today. I think I was asking for it when I told him at the outset that I really enjoy tennis (true) and that I play (barely true). So for the first time since gym class with Coach Coursey back in senior year of high school, I picked up a tennis racquet. I wish I could say that I staged a major Andre Agassi-like comeback, but that would be a lie. We ended up playing doubles with two other teachers and while I wasn't embarassed, I definitely got worked around the court quite a bit. I hit a number of forehand winners which was satisfying. Unfortunately I also hit an almost equal number of backhand shots that went straight up or behind me. Oh well. It was actually really fun though--I think I'll play again soon. The only annoying thing is that the court is right out in the open by the student dorms and I unwittingly drew a serious crowd just by playing. Not much I can do about that one though.

On a more serious note, Steven and I held our "English Corner" free-form conversation session today in which any student could show up and chat with us. As per the precedent apparently set by Melissa and Sonja, the two PiA-ers here last year, we had it out in the courtyard of the academic buildings on a very pretty little bridge. My side of the conversation was pretty tame as several students asked me about applying to American colleges, but Steven had a slightly more interesting conversation. One of his students asked him if he had any black friends and he responded with a yes. The students on his side were somewhat surprised and told him that they are all scared of black people. This is the first time I've heard it in such a direct way, but sadly, it is not the first time I've gotten that impression from the Chinese.

What I don't know is the true source of the fear. I'm guessing that some amount of American media infiltration is responsible, but it has to be more than that. Did an African or African-American commit some type of heinous crime here? I tend to doubt it, at least nothing that a Chinese had not done already. So what is it? This is an issue that I would like to explore further because I think it's indicative of an overall racial tension in the country. While the government would like people to think that everyone is treated equally and that no one is discriminated against, that's just blatantly untrue. At this point we are well aware of the various minority groups around the country that do not get the same opportunities in school, occupations, or religion. I get the feeling that anyone who is not Han-Chinese is generally starting out with a couple strikes against them before that at-bat even starts. Whatever it is, I am very curious and would like to find out more.

On a less serious note, Steven and I made a major purchase yesterday and coughed up the dough for a couch. It's not exactly a luxurious Italian leather foldout, but it should do the trick for anyone who wants to crash with us (not to mention making movie-watching more pleasant). We have a nice sized "sofa" here already, but it happens to be of the traditional-Chinese variety meaning it's all wood. I think our gluteus muscles will thank us for this one. The process of buying the thing was pretty painless, but figuring out how and when they would deliver it was more of a challenge. Or perhaps I should say IS more of a challenge since we don't actually have it yet. It was supposed to be here this afternoon but I got a call on my cell from someone speaking top-speed mandarin that apparently said it could not be done (or so Steven translated). Check with me at 7:30pm tomorrow night and I'll let you know if we need to go crack some skulls over at the Park & Shop.

As if I needed more to do, I managed to locate all four seasons of 24 on DVD and now I'm screwed. Those of you who watch the show know what I'm talking about. Those of you who don't, I highly recommend you check out season one. Just don't do it when you have anything to do for about four or five days in a row because I promise you will be unable to turn it off. A.C.-sorry buddy. Looks like I'm going to have to do seasons three and four in your absence, unless you want to take off a week of work and head over here. Let me know--I'll wait for that.

Otherwise, I'm trying to figure out what to do for my week off at the beginning of October. Anybody want to rally for a party in Hangzhou? Yangshuo? Let me know.

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September 20, 2005

And He's Off...

After much trial and tribulation, I finally located a language tutor (thanks, Meggie)! She's a tiny bit more expensive than I'd like, but at this point I was dying to start so it's a beginning if nothing else. "Maria" showed up this morning and went to work immediately. Even as we walked from the front gate back to my apartment, she was explaining the proper greeting in China (ni hao, obviously). We sat down at the dining room table (a.k.a. chess table) and she started writing furiously on notecards, all while lecturing me on the Mandarin language. Despite my knowing a handful of phrases and grammatical rules, I instructed her to begin at the beginning and she willingly obliged. What this meant was virtually an hour of me reciting the four basic tones of "putunghua" over and over again.

Ma, ma, ma, ma.
Ba, ba, ba, ba.
Ta, ta, ta, ta.
Na, na, na, na.
You get the idea. It was nice to finally start official instruction and I am definitely looking forward to studying. I think I'm starting just in time to circumvent any boredom and feed my brain at the same time. It's perfect! On the flipside, it's also incredibly intimidating to start a new language that is so foreign to English. I'm trying to convince my psyche that having studied a non-romance language such as Hebrew will help. Plus I do have a relatively decent ear to hear the differences in tones so that's a plus. At least I hope I do. I'm marking the day on my calendar: September 20th. I'm wondering how long it will be before I can actually participate in conversation at the faculty lunch tables. I'm shooting for October 20th to at least be able to explain to them that I'm making progress. Wish me luck.

On the teaching front, I finally started my history class which I am very excited about. I mentioned before that they gave me complete freedom to design a course so I'm teaching 20th c. American history through music. What a treat! They asked me how many students I wanted in the class and I told them that ideally it should be capped at 20. The head of the department sort of scoffed at that figure so I upped it to 30. He asked me if 40 was okay and of course I agreed. I guess I forgot that there are almost 700 kids in the Senior 2 class and that I'm here to spend as much time as possible with them. So apparently each individual section was allowed 4 students and competition was hot for each slot. I'd like to think that everyone was so interested in the topic and dying to learn U.S. history but in reality I think the novelty of the foreign teacher hasn't worn off yet. I'm not THAT naive. Either way, I was expecting at least a somewhat eager crowd.

As it happens, today was the big schoolwide jump-roping contest that coincided with my class, so half of them were absent. Great. I thought it was a bit funny to see high school boys practicing jump rope over the past few weeks but apparently they were in training. Interesting. The ones who did make it to class were definitely interested so I was excited about that. After I went over the syllabus, I lectured briefly about America at the turn of the century and then went right into the advent of jazz, as taught through a few recordings I have of Jelly Roll Morton. I had them compare the recordings to some Bach I played and they came up with some good observations. It was an encouraging beginning and while the course will be a lot of work for me, I'm totally psyched about it.

After class I had an interesting interaction with one of the students. One of the girls in the back came up to me and asked if we could avoid studying any additional jazz (this, after I assigned a homework reading about the proliferation of jazz in New Orleans). I was caught a bit off guard and asked her to clarify the question. She was a bit shy, but she managed to explain that she didn't understand jazz and that it made her feel uncomfortable. When I asked her why, she responded that she didn't like the lack of structure. Wow. I could be reading into that too much but it seems like a reflection of traditional Chinese society and the communist way. Regardless, I explained that I was of the opinion that understanding jazz was crucial to understanding America in the first half of the century and that we would be doing another two weeks on various forms of jazz. I hope I was not too rash in disregarding her complaint, but I think she needs to adapt. I guess one of the luxuries of being a teacher is that I have the final say.

On a completely different note, I had a really strange experience walking to the gym today after classes. After I finish teaching I generally head back to my apartment, drop off my stuff, change, and go right to the basketball court or football field. As I was walking over today (a 45 second walk) my ears perked up to the PA system. Let me explain- the school has a very loud public address system that they use for the bells signifying the start/end of class (think of the bells from the movie "Grease"). They also use it for announcements and to play music at the end of the midday break in order to give students time to wake up from naps and get back to the classroom buildings. Sidenote- whether intentional or not, this music is generally a very somber tune and suggests a mood of stop-having-fun-and-start-learning-immediately. There have been other seemingly random times when they play various other songs through the system but it's always in Chinese and I subconsciously tune it out. Today, however, was different. I heard the beginning of a song that sounded familiar. I started humming along with the intro to the song but couldn't place it. Finally the verse kicked in- "My Father's Eyes" by Eric Clapton. How random!?

On the sports front, I found out that I am now officially #18 on the football (a.k.a. soccer) team. The new uniforms are pretty snazzy and I feel proud to represent the school. Apparently we're sponsored by Umbro, or rather a reasonable facsimile thereof. I think we have our next game Wednesday but who knows. I think I'll just keep the uni with me at all times in case. Other than that, nothing else to report beyond missing baseball...

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September 17, 2005

Mid-Autumn Festival

This weekend is the Mid-Autumn Festival in China. While it took me a little while to get over the fact that it's still in the mid 90's and that we haven't had the autumnal equinox yet, everyone is definitely in a festive mood which is great. Someone tried to explain the root of the holiday to me and I caught part of the myth, but most of it went over my head. If I understand correctly, some angel was poisoned and went to live the rest of eternity up in the moon. The biggest part of this festival is that everyone eats a tasty Chinese desert called mooncakes, obviously related to the story. There are many different kinds of mooncakes out there and I have done my best to sample all I can. So far as I can tell, most are made of either red azuki beans or from lotus seeds, and are then flavored with any number of different fillings from cinnamon to egg. My favorite is by far the coconut variety. Mmmmmm. Sidenote- if I've already had 3 or 4 mooncakes, I wonder how many the country will consume this weekend as a whole. A billion? Two? It's a lot, that's for sure.

Last night the school held a Mid-Autumn festival party which Steven and I were both invited to. We didn't quite know what to expect, but we figured it would be a good time to bond with some of the other teachers and at least put in some solid face time. One of the younger English teachers gave us directions to where the party would be and we set off last night in search of fun. First off, I should explain that the party was held on campus. How convenient! It seemed a bit odd to me to have a party in the main office building, but what do I know? So we took the elevator up to the 5th floor, hung a right, and were met by quite a sight. The "room" for the party was a full-on social hall, complete with two disco lights, enormous loud-speakers, a large bar in the corner, a big dance floor, a stage, a projection screen hooked up for karaoke (obviously), and dozens of tables and chairs with food and drinks set out. Wow! I'm just trying to imagine my old high school having a secret party room where the teachers would go to drink and sing karaoke. I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist.

They told us 8:30pm for the start of the party so we figured 8:45pm would be a good time to show up. As it turns out we were fashionably early. Oh well. Regardless, they were very excited that we came, judging by their immediate efforts to give us drinks, fruit, and mooncakes. Sure, why not? I was pleasantly surprised to see most of my new football teammates there as well. They managed to inform me that I have a new uniform waiting for me on Monday when I play, which I'm very excited about. At first I thought they were mad that I hadn't washed the one I borrowed yet, but no--apparently since I am on the school team, the school bought me a jersey of my own. Excellent! Anyway, as the party got under way, they started to pressure us to sing karaoke. Steven wasn't that excited about the idea but I was happy to oblige. I mean I don't love karaoke, but when in Rome, right? We perused the list of possibilities and it turns out they had a small number of English standards. Steven and I settled on "Let It Be" and got up to do our best fab four impression. The crowd definitely loved us, simply for the novelty value. I even sang "Yesterday" as an encore.

The next guy that got up to sing started belting out a very somber ballad, featuring disturbing images of World War II on the screen. I asked one of the teachers if it was a famous song and she said yes. After a pause, she went on to explain that this year's Mid Autumn Festival was especially important because they were commemorating the the anniversary of when Japan invaded China in 1937 (or after the Mukden incident of 1931, depending on who you ask). I asked if there was still a bad feeling between the two countries and she responded that many Chinese were still very upset about the actions of Japan during the war. I knew this full well but I wanted to hear it directly. I have a bad feeling that things are going to come to a head again between China and Japan sometime in the not-so-distant future too.

Back to the party, we moved on to a few party games after the first round of karaoke. Steven was bold enough to volunteer to participate in the first contest, which involved trying to cut up the outer skin of some type of citrus fruit as quickly as possible into 5 sections. He put in a valiant effort, but sadly finished last. Have no fear--he has vowed to practice daily in order to represent the USA better next time. After this game there was another round of karaoke, after which one of the older teachers got up and gave a long-winded speech about the history of the school and how teachers are so important to China. I'm sure it was very beautiful but I'd never know because I only understood about six or seven words from his mouth, including "now," "tea," "four," and "a little bit." So basically Steven and I (after he gave up listening) began to make smart-aleck comments to each other about what he could be talking about. What can I say? Sometimes I amuse even myself.

I got the call to participate in the next game which was decidedly easier. This game involved two teams each running over to a bowl on the ground filled with water and ping pong balls. The object is to use chopsticks to pick up a ball and carry it back to your team's plate, relay-style. They were all immensely impressed that I could use chop sticks, and wouldn't ya know it? My team won! It's still a bit funny to me that our ability to use chopsticks is heralded by everyone we encounter. Is it really that big of a deal? Maybe I should put it on my c.v.... Steven and I got to play the last game together which was more or less team charades. One person sat in a chair with the mic (me) and attempted to guess what the other person was acting out (Steven). We made for a very good team, and he impressed them all with his ability to read the cue cards of chinese characters. After a little bit more cheesy techno music, the night came to an end. I think my first Mid-Autumn Festival is off to a great start...

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September 14, 2005

Game On

I am on a comfortable routine now of playing football Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, along with a solid regimen of basketball on Tuesday and Thursday. As I've said before, it's a great way to keep in shape as well as meet people. I now have a solid crew of guys that I know and have basic conversations with which is encouraging. One of the reasons that I enjoy playing sports with them everyday is that they play hard--they play to win. Despite the sign on the gym wall that says, "Friendship First, Competition Second," things can get intense. Don't get me wrong, we laugh and joke around quite a bit. However, when it really gets down to it, no one wants to lose. For those of you who know me well, you know that I absolutely hate losing (have I ever mentioned that?) and that I am very competitive in most sports. So basically I fit right in!

The downside of this is that we can get pretty physical and I have a steadily increasing number of minor nagging injuries: a bruise on the elbow, a jammed thumb, a cut on the shin, etc. It's far too early for me to be thinking, "I'm too old for this," yet I find myself thinking that I'm not as young as I used to be. It's fine when I play with the teachers, but there are a couple of guys on the school basketball team that can leave me in the dust when driving to the basket. And I hate it. I guess that's what I get for playing pick-up games with guys who play several hours a day and do suicides (wind-sprints) at the end of every session.

This being a football day, I headed out to the stadium field at the regular time and got ready to lace up my cleats once again. The first thing I noticed as I walked out was that there were lines on the field today. "How nice," I thought, "now we'll know when the ball is out of bounds." The next thing I noticed was that the bigger goals were out, as opposed to the smaller goals we had been using the other day. A welcome change, I thought--bigger is better, right? I get closer and see a couple guys who look like referees chatting. A bit odd, but whatever. I turn my head to the side and notice three people with video cameras. Huh. Next thing I see is all the guys sitting down putting cleats on... all wearing a similar looking uniform top. Interesting. I get over to them and one of the guys throws me a jersey. As I catch the shirt, I notice a different team warming up on the field. Unbeknownst to me I was the newest member of the faculty/staff soccer team and we had a game!

It turns out we were playing a match against one of the local corporations in Guangzhou who fielded a very good team. I sat out most of the first half as a sub but came in towards the end of the half and played out the game in my old position of left back. They had one guy striking that we westerners would call a "ringer" and I had the privilege of marking him. I am always up for a challenge so I went right to work. This guy wasn't very big but boy was he fast! Wesleyan guys, think of the two guys from Typhoon that used to zip around the field. Needless to say, I got a good workout. I am proud to say that he only got one shot on the goal and it went way far right.

Anyhow, we were down 1-0 at the half but scored early on in the second to tie it up. The rest of the game went back and forth and I played decently well but not great. I did manage to slide tackle on one ball and received a nice grass burn for my efforts. The game was eventually called on account of darkness again (a recurring theme) and it was a tie. I hate that. I would almost rather lose because at least then I would know that the other team was better. A tie is just...nothing! It was a ton of fun though. Sidenote- in the middle of the first half, the ref blew his whistle for no apparent reason. Everyone stopped where they were and faced the direction of the gymnasium without saying a word. I had no idea what was going on until I realized everyone was at attention for the lowering of the national flag. Apparently this happens everyday! Along somewhat similar lines, I was walking around the South China Normal University campus earlier today trying to find a language tutor and came across an ENORMOUS military exercise. I'm talking hundreds and hundreds of people in uniform all doing drills and shouting at the top of their lungs. It was a bit of a reality check for me, i.e. oh right--I'm in China, a communist country. Gotta love it.

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September 13, 2005

The International Language

Nope, not music. Not math either. In fact, I'm not even talking about love. I have discovered that the international language is actually sports! I mentioned in an earlier post that I went out to play football (a.k.a. soccer) with a bunch of the teachers but couldn't find them so settled on basketball. Well at the banquet the other night I was cornered by another group of guys who came up to me and said, "You must play football with us. We will play Monday." With an invitation like that, who could refuse? So I went out to the stadium field once again, and this time located the crew. Luckily I found room in my luggage when packing for my cleats so I could at least look the part. I sat down to lace 'em up and one of the guys came over exclaiming, "So professional!" Meanwhile, this guy had on a jersey, shin guards, cleats, and sweat bands. I was a bit concerned that I was going to have my keister handed to me playing with these guys, but I was pleasantly surprised. Apparently I really did learn something in my "Soccer Skills" course from 2nd semester senior year at Wesleyan! The rust wore off enough for me to score 2 goals which was one more than I scored in four years of intramurals at Wes. Fatal Attraction, eat your heart out! I was wasting away at fullback all those years! Yeah, right.

Anyway, just as in basketball, I found myself shouting English phrases out to my teamates that was most likely gibberish to them. Regardless, instinct dictated that I yell, "switch fields," "man on," and "settle," etc. throughout the game. A couple of the guys were interested in what I was saying and vice versa so I have started to learn chinese sports terminology and teach the English equivelants. I must say, it comes in even handier than phrases like "I would like to drink some tea." I wasn't quite sure what we were playing to but eventually I started to tire as the sun went down. At one point one of the guys came over to me and said "golden goal," signifying that next goal wins. Not a moment too soon, either, as I was starting to hurt. Both teams had a few solid opportunities, but eventually we had to call the game on account of darkness. I literally could not see the ball anymore unless I was dribbling!

I was getting all ready to head home when one of the guys came up to me and asked if I like to drink beer. Is the Guangzhou air polluted? Of course! Apparently one of the older fellows who showed up mid-game was the old executive principal of the school and he invited everyone out. So without even changing out of our cleats, we all headed out, the guys picking up their wives/girlfriends on the way. We rolled up to a relatively nice restaurant, all disgusting from two hours of football, but they didn't seem to care. We sat down at the table, and luckily one of the girlfriends spoke English well enough to do a little translating. The first question they asked me was, "Can you drink 3 bottles of beer?" Again, they underestimate me. I said sure. They asked if I could drink 6 and I said I didn't know but that I would drink as much as they would. So it began! We started the obligatory toasting and the older fellow treating us emptied his glass faster than I could say, "gam bei." At some point along the way he ordered food and suddenly we were immersed in an all-out feast! No complaints from me, either. The food was quite tasty and was northern chinese cuisine which I had not had very much of yet. It actually resembled American-style Chinese food which was cool. Though I gotta say, the food here puts that stuff to shame.

Anyway, we continued to toast and drain glasses throughout the meal, and once again I am proud to say that I was one of the last men left standing, so to speak. A few guys got good and drunk pretty quickly, but I was eating enough to soak up any amount of alcohol and thus continued to toast our host. Finally he cut us off and we headed out. I can't tell if I'm getting in really good shape from playing basketball and football everyday, or if I'm ruining myself by playing along with these drinkfest banquets. Either way, I'm having a great time! Though the language barrier was once again ever present, I managed to use my 5 phrases of mandarin and they struggled through a little English. We settled on the fact that I should play football with them much more and that a few of us would hang out and play PS-2. I didn't want to tell them that I'm not a big fan of video games so I agreed. It's nice to make a few friends among the faculty. They are great guys and I would never have gotten to know them without sports. And here you all laughed at me when I signed up for soccer skills back in '03...

I've been trying to figure out how to post some pictures and I think I may have figured it out. Try the following link:
http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=902121126576921071/l=59888435/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB
Again, my html skills are lacking so you have to copy and paste it (Steve, help?). Let me know if it works though. There are a bunch of photos from my first week here. I am also up on skype, at least for now, so please email me with your skype name if you have one! Hope all is well with everyone...

Posted by awolfe at 1:29 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

September 12, 2005

Banquet #2, etc.

I just reread my last entry and I have to say that it comes across as overly critical. I hate to have people think that I'm not enjoying myself here because I really am! The last 24 hours especially have been really great, starting with the Teacher's Day Banquet I attended. Last Friday was akin to appreciation day for teachers and HSFZ (my school) has an annual banquet to celebrate the occasion. I was expecting something similar to what Steven and I went to during our first week here but this was actually a bit different. On Saturday night, we hopped on one of a dozen or so buses and headed out.

For starters, there were over 400 people who attended this event! Every current teacher was invited, as well as all retired teachers in the area--we took over an *enormous* social hall in one of the fancy restaurants. Sidenote- all the fancy restaurants seem to have television sets in the dining areas, that are all turned on during the meal. Why is this? Anyway, since there were so many people it was more or less impossible to get everyone to arrive at the same time. There were actually groups that filtered in over the span of 45 minutes or so, making it unclear to me (at least initially) when the thing was going to start. Once it seemed like enough people were there, a man got up to make a speech. Steven and I got comfortable because one of the other English teachers told us to expect long, boring speeches over the course of the night. Luckily, before I even found a comfy position, applause rang out and the guy sat down! It was a quick "hello, thank you, and enjoy" all rolled into one compact speech--American dignitaries could learn a thing or two from this. At this point, the waitstaff went to work trying to bring a multitude of dishes out to approximately 45 tables at the same time. They began to bring around drinks as well and once again I was bracing myself for a marathon of "baiju" drinking. I dodged the bullet again though because they were pouring Zhujiang, my favorite local beer! Excellent, because now I knew I could hang with the big boys for the scores of different toasts. Anyhow, the food was excellent--even better than the last banquet. The best dish, by far, was some type of spicy curry frog served with pumpkin. Sounds a bit odd but it was *amazing*. I'm not sure I'd order it from a one star restaurant, but it this place was really good.

After people got their fill of food they began the toasting. Usually this starts with a toast for the entire table, followed by people walking around to the other tables to toast other friends and high-ranking school officials. Not to be outdone, I made a concerted effort to toast several of those teachers that have gone out of their way for me. I toasted "David," one of my favorite guys to play basketball with. I toasted the computer guy. I toasted "Howard," one of the heads of the English Dept. We were even introduced to the pleasantly inebriated Principal of the school who spouted off a few mandarin sentences before downing his glass of cognac. Naturally, we followed suit and toasted the man right back. I really enjoy the toasting custom here because it gives you a chance to think about all of the people who are important to you and all those that have helped you. If it were socially appropriate, I would have poured out a glass for all of my friends and family spread out over the rest of the world right now. I did teach several people to say "l'chaim" which they seemed to enjoy. They shouted "ganbei!" and I responded with "l'chaim!" Then we would reverse it. By the end of the night, most people seemed to have a nice buzz going. Once again, they brought out the watermelon and the whole thing shut down almost immediately. All in all, an excellent night.

The next day I got up early and met up with the Yale-in-China crew for dim sum. I'm not sure I ever had authentic dim sum in the U.S. so I didn't have too much to compare it to, but this stuff was really good. It's a little weird to me to have so much meat early in the morning, but I'm as carnivore as they come so I adapted quickly. I was lucky enough to have several guides show me the ropes of dim sum which was helpful--I would have had no idea what to eat otherwise. The Yale kids all speak very good Mandarin which puts me to shame and makes me want to learn immediately if not sooner. Anyhow, we stuffed ourselves silly and then went walking around the city. The highlight of the day was definitely Shamien Island, a small island accessible by footbridge from both sides of the river. This island was inhabited at some point by the French, the British, and several other western influences, making for a much different architectural landscape than the rest of the city. There are cute park benches, cool houses, quiet coffee houses, and some old "antique" shops. There are cars on the island but it's so much quieter than the rest of the city and has a very peaceful vibe to it--my kind of spot. After that, I took advantage of the superior bargaining skills of Diana Lin, and bought a cellphone! That's right--I am officially mobile. My number is as follows: 137-1936-2459. If you're calling from the U.S., you throw in 011-86 before that number to get me. Feel free to call anytime, just remember that it's a 12 hour difference :)

I capped off the day by going to get really good noodles with Diana, Kelly and Andrew (the Yalies) by Sun Yat Sen University where they all teach. The University campus is really nice and also situated in a really cool part of the city. I have grand plans to go back and use their fields for frisbee and soccer, whether they like it nor not. When all was said and done, I was thinking during the subway ride home and realized (maybe for the first time) that it is a huge honor and privilege to be here for the year. There is so much I want to see and do and, despite being a hot, dirty city, there are some really cool spots just waiting to be discovered. PiA really is an amazing opportunity and I plan on taking full advantage of it...

Posted by awolfe at 1:31 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 10, 2005

Contradictions

It's no secret that China is the growing world superpower, obviously the country to supercede the U.S., if they have not done so already. Given this amount of economic, political, military, and industrial strength, there are several inconsistencies I see to their domestic policies. Some of these thoughts are based on small incidents here and there, while others I have formed after more extended conversations with people. Admittedly, I am forming stereotypes and I will be the first one to say that generalizations are never all-inclusive:

1. China is a wasteful country.
I'm not sure that anyone can really argue this point, especially in the cities. As I have mentioned, it's pretty darn hot down here in Guangzhou and, thankfully, most places are air-conditioned. One thing I don't understand is why every building seems to blast the AC and yet leave their doors open to the outside. I'm talking about office buildings, schools, restaurants, and stores-- everyone leaves a large gaping hole to the heat outside, and you can almost see the cold air pouring out, much like opening the freezer door on a hot summer day. I can't help thinking that it's an enormous waste, especially given the number of people that are consuming energy here.
By the same token, China is currently entrenched in the throw-away generation. That is, recycling has yet to take off and most people don't seem to know what it is. Despite the fact that there are waste and recycling receptacles all around the city, the most common way to dispose of trash is to simply toss it down on to the ground. I may have mentioned this already, but if the city didn't employ a small army to constantly clean the streets, we'd all be wading through it up to our necks here. How long will it take before people change their habits? Obviously we still produce FAR too much waste in the U.S., however I think we have more of a grasp of how precious our natural resources are. Then again, maybe I'm being naive here. I do know that I can go running in Boston and not feel like I'm breathing down smog. The same cannot be said for any Chinese city yet.

2. China has seemingly illogical standards of respect.
The other day, Steven and I were invited to a student presentation recounting a school-sponsored summer trip to the states. It was held in a large auditorium where there were several teachers present and approximately 300-400 members of the student body. The students started their lecture/presentation to encouraging cheers and wide-eyed wonder at the photos on the screen of VT and the Green Mountains. They were attentive and interested... for about five minutes. After the initial novelty wore off, they got restless and began talking amongst themselves. I don't mean talking as in whispering quietly, either. I mean talking to the point where there was such a loud din in the room that I couldn't hear the presenters, and I was sitting in the front row! The teachers merely sat by and let it all happen without so much as a glance backward at the misbehaving students. I couldn't help thinking that if this were the U.S. and I was a teacher in there, I would have stopped the whole thing and waited for everyone to shut up, at which point I would have given the room the "you-think-I-won't-suspend-you-but-I-really-will" look. I was doubly shocked by this, given that students are, for the most part, extremely respectful during class.
On the flipside, I noticed some odd behavior by teachers the other day. I was at the gym playing basketball after classes with the students as I waited for the rest of the teachers to show up for our bi-weekly game. A trio of teachers showed up and started dribbling on the court and shooting on the basket that was clearly in use by the students for a pick-up game. They made no effort to say anything like, "It's time for the teachers to have the court," or "Hey if you don't mind we're going to start playing on this hoop--can you move to the other end." Nothing like that. I simply can't see that happening in the U.S. without so much as a comment to the kids. It seems strange to me, then again, we have no cultural standards that have been around for thousands of years. I suppose it's the case that teachers have always had the power and authority to do as they wish in China (minus, you know, during that small Cultural Revolution-thing). It's also interesting that sometimes it feels like we are getting the royal treatment from students, faculty, and staff. Other times it feels like we're a complete after-thought and that we're getting the shaft from the school. We have yet to figure out what determines the treatment.

3. China has yet to actualize any real protection of I.P.R.
Okay, I'll admit it--one of the things that I was psyched about before I came to China was that I'd heard I'd be able to buy any American movie on DVD for about $0.25-0.50. And yes, it's true. There are people who sell DVD's on street corners and even in some legitimate shops. The covers of the movies are clearly done without any care for accuracy or detail, and the spelling, grammar, and information on the boxes are always wrong. A small price to pay for such a luxury though, right? Well, I've actually found that it makes me somewhat uncomfortable and unsatisfied to buy and watch these movies since the quality is so inferior. Sometimes the music overshadows the dialogue. Sometimes the picture is so dark you can't tell what's going on. Sometimes it's just a really muddy picture and sound at the same time. I find myself thinking that I'd much rather pay a bit more and have there be a nice crisp picture and 5.1 sound (not that I have my sound system here with me). Am I quality snob? Maybe. I think it goes beyond that though because for some reason it bothers me that there is no protection for intellectual property rights.
The majority of people involved in hollywood are probably too rich to deserve any pity from this, but someone spent the time to write that movie. Someone spent the time to do sound on that movie. Someone put a lot of thought into the angles and the lighting (unless we're talking about "House of Wax" which was just downright crap). You know what I mean. Those people deserve some credit which they definitely don't get from the Chinese market. It goes beyond movies as well. I'm sure most people heard that the new Harry Potter book came out here in Chinese, months before the official translation was released. The cover looked exactly the same and you'd never be able to tell that it was unofficial except for the fact that apparently it had some sloppy syntax and muffed up minor aspects of the story. For a culture that has long respected the arts, it seems strange that acts like these go mostly unacknowledged by the bigwigs in the Party.

4. Chinese bars overcharge for beer in a major way.
Okay, a comparatively small issue here, but I don't get it! Beers here are generally comparable (if not more expensive) to going out in the U.S.--somewhere between $4-6 for a 12 ounce bottle of Budweiser. A Tsing-tao, probably the most popular domestic, is about the same or slightly cheaper. This is perfectly acceptable in America but completely ludicrous by the Guangzhou standard of living. In comparison, I can go to the grocery store/corner market/7-11/man-on-the-street and buy a 24 ounce bottle of Zhujiang beer (the tasty local brew) for the equivelant of about $0.26. Yes, twenty six cents. What accounts for this difference? I can't be sure, but I'm guessing that the places I have been to thus far have been targeting the small population of foreigners who are here on business or doing what I'm doing, and thus slightly more apt to throw down that kind of money. Not me--I can tell you that much. I think I will be embracing the tried and true method of "pre-partying" at my apartment before I go out in the future. On a side note, I found an Irish pub that serves Guinness. Thank the good lord.

Posted by awolfe at 4:49 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 4, 2005

P.S.

Postscript to the last entry...

Social Etiquette- There are several interesting differences over here that sort of make me scratch my head a bit. For instance, it is very common to see mothers or fathers with infants hold their kid up with the child's legs spread apart so they can urinate out in the open. This happens in public both off to the side and also right on the sidewalk. Interesting. It is also perfectly acceptable to hock a loogie anywhere in public, at the feet of anybody with the misfortune of walking by. That happens constantly and I've gotten used to committing evasive action when I hear someone commence the spitting process.

It's completely normal and expected for everyone to shove and elbow each other to get on/off a bus/metro, yet it is not okay for me to wear sandals in public that don't have a back-strap. Men smoke anywhere and everywhere (restaurants, bathrooms, banks, post office, office buildings, etc.) yet you will never see a woman smoking a cigarette in public. Teachers commonly wear jeans and tennis shoes to work, yet I can't take my shirt off while playing basketball because I have some chest hair. It's an interesting dichotomy and I have yet to figure out all the various nuances.

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