PD

If P. Dick thinks the clothes washing method in India is severe, he has never come head to head with a Chinese washing machine. These things will shred, stretch and maim! Usually they target your most prized processions: the scarf your sister gave as a going away present, the only bra that truly fits and is comfortable, the warmest socks you brought, or the only jeans that stay at your waist. Not to mention the machine doesn’t truly clean anything. The cycle is maybe a whole 30 minutes, most of which is a whirling dervish of spin cycles that are so violent it often unplugs itself. All of these wouldn’t be so bad if this country had dryers. They would mitigate the stretching and even burn off some of the filth. If you want something machine dried, you have to go to Thailand. Hug your machines and darn it, use the different settings! Go crazy. Use that hot water and switch it up, use the delicate cycle even.

I will build a bridge with badminton!!

Today I was rushing out of my apartment a little after 5pm. I realized I had forgotten to go to the store earlier to purchase items for my supper. The students usually get out of school at around 5:40 and it is always mass chaos at that time. I wanted to beat the crowd. As I ran across the school yard I saw that the headteacher from class 106 was playing badminton. I shouted hello and he waived me over. Oh boy. His English is hilarious because he always uses the wrong words. At least he tries right. He decided I would play him. I have only played badminton maybe twice in my life both at a teen. This was probably going to be hilarious. Then again if you have ever watched a Chinese person who was not on an Olympic team play any sort of sport you begin to feel you have a shot at beating them in anything.

I took my position after explaining I am horrible at badminton (I mean who really plays it anyway right?). We had a go and I brushed up on my serving. After a few volleys, in which I did hold my own, he passed his racket off to a women. We played for quite some time and it was enjoyable I have to admit. I made far more noise than she did. Then our headmaster came out onto the field. He is a very likable friendly sort of man, until you go head to head at badminton. He did kick my butt. He kept doing those fancy tennis moves like pretend you and gonna slam it then just tap it over the net. And I thought I was competitive. Another headmaster (this one is just over the English teachers and is always trying to intimidate me) came over and was also watching me make a fool of myself. Someone suggested he should play me but he refused. I think he was scared. The racket was then passed again. Did it occur to anyone besides me that I just played for people without a rest. And they wondered why I was so winded.

SO today was great. I built bridges through badminton!

On Importance

Today I sat in bed feeling wimpy,and mulling over this idea of importance. How does American importance differ from that of the Chinese? Also, how does it differ within ones society and even family?

In America it seems most people want to find an important job. But what jobs are truly important? Often I believe people get a job that sounds important i.e., makes you a lot of money. We have so tied making money with being important. I mean truly, movie stars make a ton of money but how important is their job. Instead of challenging people to think and imagine for themselves, movies allow us to escape and let someone else do all the thinking for us. Unless of course it is a great movie that gets your brain functioning. Although, I can’t say that I have watched one of those lately. (Perhaps I am underestimating the importance of escape.)

Importance is most often subjective, much to my dismay. I spent a year studying microfinance and believing that it was important. Other students in my class studied beer pong. Like I said, importance is subjective. If you sound important people leave you alone for the most part and admire you. You feel good about yourself.

Now I have a job which I rather laughed at before moving here and felt like it wasn’t really a great job, at least not my lifetime goal. Now I am having a whole new thought about it. Perhaps it is my own way of making my time here feel important. My job is not really about entertaining a mass of 7th & 8th graders, but it is truly a diplomatic feat. Most of these kids don’t have too much money which means they don’t travel. Our town is very small by Chinese standards and I may be the only white person some of them meet, at least for now. Who cares right? They are just punk kids and what I say won’t really change their view of anything. With any luck they have watched at least one English movie or TV show and that in and of itself concerns me.

What I find extremely interesting is that “children are our future”. If we, myself and the other foreign teachers, get this right we may be able to change some perceptions. We also interface with many of these kids parents. The wealthier (mainly government officials) ones want us to tutor their children and take us out for fancy meals. What a great opportunity right.

Now back to the States. Within my own family there are what feel like degrees of important. Some of my uncles have “important jobs” while others just have jobs. Granted they all provide for their families so in that sense they are all important. However, when I look at my own family I believe that many of my aunts have the most important jobs. Many of them stayed home and raised their children. All of the cousins are grown enough now that this is no longer necessary. I believe two of my aunts, in particular, have highly important jobs. One is a middle school teacher and one works in a state university but she is not a professor. She too “manages” students. I think they are both amazing and their jobs are truly important. They are shaping and guiding the minds and behaviors of the ones who will surpass us.

I didn’t move to China with any of this in mind, remember I just came because I had something else opening up. Perhaps I am just trying to justify my time here as important. I am not naïve enough to believe that my one year here will make some dramatic diplomatic impact in the next twenty years, but wouldn’t that be nice.

How to catch a cockroach

About three days ago there was a cockroach in the closet. He managed to escape as I was fumbling around trying to choose the correct weapon of destruction. He was rather large and I did not want to smear him all over the place. Once a pest has escaped, what are your options? I decided to check my bed every night in case he had crawled under my covers. I poked about here and there for a bit but with no luck.

It is very cold in my house so I almost have a hot drink of some kind. Many times it gets left on my desk. I guess I hadn’t finished a cup of cocoa and when I came home this afternoon I decided to dump it out and start fresh. Well, my long lost pest was floating in my cocoa. That put me off the idea of enjoying some chocolate and also of using that mug.

So, if you ever need to catch a cockroach, leave out a cup of cocoa. They can’t resist!

Rice wine WILL kick your ass!

So instead of being alone this evening one of the other foreign teachers joined our dinner party and I must say it was quite fun. There were many people there including three of our headmasters, three other teachers, a head teacher, and an assistant to our guest whose primary job was to make sure every one's glasses were always full and that toasts were happening ALL through the night. I of course wanted to make a good impression so I didn't turn down any drinks and I must say for a light weight I did pretty damn good. (Please do excuse any misspellings because rice wine is really just a shot of hard alcohol and I lost track.) Tomorrow I will face my students and all I can say is I hope I don't have a hangover.

Inside their heads

Tonight is another meal put on by one of my student's parents to thank the teachers for their hard work. It will probably take place at a restaurant. Too many dishes will be ordered. I will have everyone near me put things in my bowl that I wouldn't choose to serve myself. There will be MANY toasts, which means means a lot of drinking. The men will slowly turn bright red. They will also begin smoking near the end of the meal. But the best of all is I will have a few moments to myself to think and process. I will no doubt be in a room FULL of people but I will feel alone. There will be intervals of at least 20 minutes where no one speaks to me because well, we share no common language. We don't even share common gestures or niceties. Many times as I am sitting eating watching everyone around me I begin to hold their conversations in my head. It is amazing how when trying to guess what they are saying my true feelings or underlying thoughts come out. I realize that I feel as though I have nothing in common with these people. But alas, they are still people. I have lived with other people who didn't speak English but I have never felt the same way as I do here.

Perhaps it is because my country does produce propaganda against this one and I have succumbed to it.
Perhaps it is because their country was "closed" for such a long time and is still somewhat shrouded in mystery.
Perhaps it is because I live in a subdued state of fear because it is what was here long before I arrived.
Perhaps it is because their tonal language is hard, kind of like German.
Perhaps I don't understand their hand gestures.

Regardless of all of these things, I know tonight their will be awkward moments; I won't be as entertaining as they hoped; I will probably swallow at least one fish bone; everyone will leave full; and I will discover more about myself in this 2 hour dinner than I would if I stayed locked up in my apartment by myself for the next week.

disturbed

So this isn't the lightest note I will ever write and it is definitely bothersome.

On Saturday I stopped a pick pocket. I yelled at him and almost put my hand on his shoulder before I realized physical contact may not be the BEST idea. I was already standing less than two feet away from him and who knows, maybe he would try to grab my bag and shove me down. Who knows right? Anyway, I yell "HEY HEY. What are you doing???!!!!" He turned and replied (in English no less), "oh I am sorry" and then walked off. The guy whose bag the thief had reached his hand into didn't even realize what was going on. He was too enthralled in his girlfriend to even realize I had just saved his goods from being swiped because the whole thing happened in English. Pick pocketing is quite common here in our town and I think all of the other foreign teachers have witnessed it. Some have been able to intervene while others were too far off to do anything. The amazing thing is that the Chinese will just watch the whole robbery occur and never say a word. They will watch the guy swipe a wallet and just shake their heads in silence. They no not get involved.

Today I was invited to a teachers house for lunch. She lives on the 8th floor and I live on the 5th floor. As we rounded the 6th floor there was a man hurriedly taking off his shoes standing in his doorway (you always take off your outside shoes and put on house slippers whenever you enter a home because your outside shoes and absolutely filthy and you would have to clean your floors 5 times a day to keep them clean). Normally I would smile and greet the person but he was in no mood to smile and nod. I then heard a girl whimpering in the background and kind of giggled to myself. The man then slammed the door and I heard crazy loud thrashing and banging about. By this time we were on the 8th floor and my friend was struggling to get her keys in the door. The whimpering below had turned into full fledged screams and there was a serious commotion. My heart dropped, my gut hurt and I could feel tears trying to well up in my eyes. This girl was obviously being beaten probably for something as trivial as a poor mark on a test or some other seemingly ridiculous matter by our standars. The beating went on for a few minutes. Mind you I could still hear this all and they were on the 6th floor while I was on the 8th. My friend fumbled to turn the TV. We didn't discuss the incident.