February 25, 2010 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China 10:01 am
“So did you eat anything weird?”
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
New Beginnings of the Same Old Things
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Remembering Home
Thursday July 9, 2009 Tianjin, China 10:08 am
Remembering Home Away from Home
Another Country
Chasing Trains
Great Wall
So I realized that I am terrible at blogging. I have a tiresomely long list of things to blog about, and therefore always put it off. But I had a few really good days lately, so I decided to make time to put down my experiences in writing. I hadn’t realized how long it has been. So many of these stories will be quite old, but hopefully still interesting.
When living abroad, in my opinion, remembering and keeping your own culture is just as important as learning and delving into the culture in which you’re living. So here are a few examples of that.
Last fall, I of course was closely following the college football season, as every American guy my age does. I found a way to watch games online here, so I would invite my other American buddies over to hang out, drink Dr Pepper from the import store and watch good old American pigskin games. It was a nice taste of home that was really needed. One of my good buddies here went to Tech, and another was from Ohio, so we definitely had a little of trash talking, which just made it more fun.
Holidays often seem even more important when you are away from home. Thanksgiving was a good one because most of my Chinese friends, and even lots of Europeans, didn’t know much about it. So we got to share our culture with them, which is a sweet reversal of roles. Our Chinese boss graciously allowed us to order a Turkey from an American restaurant here, and so we had turkey and gravy and stuffing! It wasn’t nearly as good as my Mom’s stuffing, but all things considered, it hit the spot nicely. We even finished it off with some cheesecake. I brought my laptop up so we could watch some football and educate some of the Chinese staff about our Thanksgiving traditions. So all in all, it wasn’t that different than a Thanksgiving at home except for the fact that I couldn’t see my family. And as you can see in the picture, we had to eat Thanksgiving dinner with chopsticks!! That definitely tested our proficiency.
July 4th was another holiday where we got to share our American culture. Mandi, another American teacher and I taught the non-American Westerners on our staff how to eat s’mores. We had a little grill on our balcony, and roasted marshmallows using chopsticks and made makeshift s’mores, which some Chinese cracker things to replace graham crackers. Everyone agreed that s’mores are delicious and a great tradition. We couldn’t have any fireworks because apparently they are illegal except during Chinese New Year, but we did sing the Star Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful. I had some good Belgian beer that I got in Beijing, and afterwards Mandi and I went to an American restaurant for a good ole American burger. It was a good 4th.
For my birthday my boss bought some cake and chocolate, and they sang Happy Birthday. One of the other teacher’s wife knitted me a neck scarf, which was really kind and surprised me. I made daily use of it during the brutal (to a Texan) winter here. It was terrible. A few times I biked home in 0 degrees F (-15 C)!! That’s bloody cold, especially on a bike! For the first time in my life I purchased long underwear, and used it. I don’t like it, but its necessary in those temperatures. It only snowed twice, but it was just painfully cold all winter. I went running in the snow a few times, which was actually fun. The worst was actually in March. The all-knowing Chinese government controls all central heating, and they decide that on March 15, the people no longer need heat. However, on March 24, it snowed. And we had no central heat. I was wearing all of my skiing clothes in my room, and watching my breath as I tried to type on my computer with ski gloves. Its not easy in case you haven’t tried it. Needless to say, this is one of the primary motivations for me moving to a southern and warmer city next year!
Also in the spirit of sharing my culture, I did a lesson about American football traditions. I taught about Midnight Yell, Yell leaders, football traditions, flyovers, and a few famous schools like FSU’s horse Osceola. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I think the students were a bit lost and a bit shocked that we made such a deal out of sports. Here sports are not a big thing at all, with maybe the one exception being the recent youth’s interest in the NBA. So to see a hundred thousand people in a stadium for just a weekly football game I think was quite hard for them to understand. Although I didn’t have nearly enough time to cover everything, I think they got a good taste of some important American culture. And I had a blast teaching it. I would rather teach football than the past perfect progressive tense any day!
I did another lesson on Texas culture which was equally as fun. I taught them about cowboy terminology and a bit of their history. I taught about a brief history of Texas, Remember the Alamo, our flag, flower, and a bit about Texas music, Texas jargon like yall, ain’t, I’m fixin to do something, etc, most of which I didn’t realize were Texasisms until I started traveling. I also showed them some rodeo videos, and they really got a kick out of mutton busting and calf roping. I also showed a video of the Aggie Wranglers. Again I think they had no idea how much culture we had, and they were really interested. I love talking about Texas!
Here are other assorted oddities/stories in no particular order.
Yesterday me, my Australian boss, and a few other teachers went to see where the Great Wall goes into the sea. We had to get an early start and catch the 6am train. However, since I had gone out with a few friends the night before, I uncharacteristically went to bed late. I must have slept right through my alarm, because my friends called me at 5:37 to see why I hadn’t arrived yet, and I got out of bed to answer. So I had 20 minutes to make the train. I was praying like crazy, and it was a total miracle that I sprinted onto the train as the whistle was blowing. The train itself was a cultural experience. They simply sell tickets until the train leaves, with no regard to the number of people or seats on the train. Consequently, the trains are frequently packed like cattle cars with people standing shoulder to shoulder in the aisles and you can barely even walk to another car because of all the people. It took us almost 10 minutes to walk from one end of the car to the other. Eventually someone got off and offered us some seats. The people next to us were snacking on bear and chicken feet for breakfast. Just what I crave at 6am in the morning! We went to Beidaihe, a famous tourist spot on the way, and my boss who is into geocaching led us to find our first geocache. It was quite exciting and we had a ‘first find’. Geocaching is when people hide things somewhere and post the GPS coordinates online so other people can find it. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching http://www.geocaching.com) It was good fun. Then we went to Qinhuangdao where the Great Wall meets the sea. It was really beautiful, despite the bad weather. It was my first time to see the Great Wall even though I’ve been in China almost a year now. We dressed up in some traditional clothing and got our pictures taken as you can see in the photo. When we tried to get the train home, there was an unbelievably ridiculous line of people waiting to buy tickets. We probably would have waited for several hours to find a ticket, to then stand on the train for 4 hours. Not exactly what we preferred to do. So I found a bus that was leaving now with seats, and we ran to catch it. It was pulling out of the station and stopped so we could run on. Another close call, but we made it. Then about halfway home a belt in the engine snapped and we had to stop for an hour to repair it. Thank God they carried extra belts otherwise we would have been stranded.
(continued July 13th 2009, 2pm, Tianjin)
A few weeks ago I went with some people from school to see the Shi family courtyard, a big house of a ancient powerful Chinese family. Then on the way back we went up the 450 meter (almost 1500ft for you Americans) TV tower to see the view. It was a rare clear day in Tianjin, and cool to see our school and house from the air.
Sometimes after my early morning swims, I stop to play what they locals call ‘jian zi’ with a bunch of old ladies. It’s fairly similar to a ‘birdie’ used to play badminton, but they use their feet to ‘juggle’ it like a soccer ball. We play in a circle, and the old ladies are surprisingly fit and nimble. They are very welcoming and friendly, and its quite fun. Speaking of swimming, a few times I have had some of the old men at the pool offer to pay me to teach them how to swim. I have declined so far for reasons of logistics and language, but perhaps this could be something I could pursue in the future. I think they rarely see someone who actually knows how to swim properly. At their request a few other teachers and I attempted to teach some of our Chinese staff at school how to swim, but they gave up after a few lessons.
Also at the pool, I have made friends with one of the lifeguards as she often asks me to help her with her English. She brings in some sentences and I just quickly correct them for her. She also asks me how to say swimming things in English. I don’t mind as its only a few minutes, and she is really nice. Occasionally she will bring me small gifts, I guess as a way to ‘pay’ me. I have had some chances to share with her. I think she is taking some kind of new lifeguard certification, and also coaching swimming somehow. She has introduced me to a few of the swimmers at the university here who also want to practice their English, and ask about swimming in the States. I have seen them practice a few times, and have learned useful swimming vocab from them. The Tianjin University swim team consists of a measly 5 people. That tells you about the status of sports here. Still nothing like back home. They are friendly and I enjoyed talking to them about swimming. Brings back lots of memories.
A few weeks ago, one of my buddies had to make a ‘Hong Kong visa run’ to renew his visa. So I decide to join him for a few days. I had my temperature checked for swine flu at the border, but had no problems. Hong Kong is another world from mainland China. I don’t think you can really appreciate it unless you have lived on the mainland, but its amazing. It was owned by the British until 1997, and was never under Communist rule. Its very cosmopolitan, and I didn’t feel like a foreigner at all. It was much cleaner and really felt like another country. There really isn’t much to see as far as tourism goes, but I hope to return to some of the islands near there that are supposed to be beautiful. One night we found a really high class rooftop bar on the 30th floor of one of the sky scrapers, that offers a view of the whole Hong Kong skyline. We went up to check it out, but then decided to eat first and come back. As food is really expensive in Hong Kong, we ended up just eating at Burger King, so there are none in Tianjin where we live. When we went back up, the lady asked us where we had eaten, and we laughed and just discreetly said we ate downstairs somewhere. The cocktails at this place were 100HKD, which is only about 14USD, but is VERY expensive for China. And they were quite exotic. My buddy had a cocktail with lemongrass and a chili pepper. I had one with passion fruit and blackberries. They also had some with wasabi and bleu cheese. It was quite a fun jaunt into the ‘high life’ for a short time. Other than the fact that I had stomach trouble during the whole trip, it was a nice respite into something more ‘western’ than mainland China.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Long Overdue Update - Part One
So here I finally am, updating my blog after almost 6 months! I am kinda ashamed it took me so long to write. But I have kept small notes of important things to remind me not to forget them. However, due to the sheer length of time and volume of interesting things, I’m sure I have forgotten some, or at least will not be able to capture the emotions that they sparked at the time. Alas, this is why I am angry with myself for being slow in updating, so hopefully in the future I will be more regular. This post will probably be somewhat scattered as it is a conglomeration of dozens of notes of small and big interesting happenings of the past few months of my life in China. Also the chronology of this post is not necessarily in order, so forgive me. Anyway, here it goes.
People
Encounters and interactions with people provide by far the most interesting cultural experiences. Here are a few ones that I thought were noteworthy.
Within the space of two days, I had two noteworthy taxi rides. Because they are dirt cheap here, and I don’t relish the even dirtier and cheaper buses because you have to stand like a sardine, taxis are the main way to get around other than my bicycle. If I know where I am going, I usually take my bicycle, but sill use the occasional taxi ride. In the hundreds of taxi drivers I have had in all my rides in China, I have had ONE who spoke English other than the words “hello” or “America” or “teacher”. This one guy had really good pronunciation and was actually able to hold a basic conversation. It was quite surprising, and upon inquiry he told us that he taught himself! Pretty impressive seeing as he probably has very little chance to practice. The second taxi ride was more interesting however. Upon using my basic Chinese to talk with him (this is a great way to practice new words and try to understand taxi drivers awful accents), I told the driver I was from America, was an English teacher, and liked China. He immediately pulled out his cell phone and proceeded to call his daughter and then handed the phone to me to have her try to practice her English with me. In truth, I felt kind of bad for her because I think she felt very embarrassed. She answered the phone in English, and had decent pronunciation, but seemed to freeze up, probably due to the awkward circumstances. I’m not sure if the driver was trying to ‘hook me up’ with his daughter, or just really wanted her to try to speak English to a native speaker, since MOST Chinese have never spoken English with a native speaker, even though they may have studied it in school for years. In any case, the driver was really friendly and smiled a lot. He said “Welcome to Tianjin” in English.
Another interesting English encounter happened in the elevator of my building. An old lady in the elevator turned to me one day and started speaking in really good English, with good pronunciation. She asked if I was German, haha. Not sure why, but even in Germany, people often confused me for German. I guess I have German blood in me somewhere. Anyway I asked her where she learned English, and she said she learned it in school BEFORE the Cultural Revolution and the Communist takeover. Meaning she learned it during WWII! Haha, I have no idea how much she had practiced it since, but she would have been an interesting person to pick her brain about the changes in China in her lifetime. Wish I would have had the chance to do so.
I have been swimming at the University pool here close to my house. On the first day that I tried out a new pool, I was struggling to ask for prices and times in my bad Chinese, when a lady came up and spoke good English and offered to help. She told me she had lived in America – in Dallas! Small world huh? She liked America, but missed China so moved back. Turns out this happens more often than you would think. Despite the developed country versus developing country, some Chinese decide to move back to China after living in the West because they miss their own language, food, family or any number of other things. I found this somewhat surprising when I first learned of it.
I went on a trip with a Chinese friend and another teacher from school to the Fragrant Hills near Beijing. They are the highest point near Beijing, where you can hike to the top and see all of Beijing. It was a good hike, and quite beautiful and green. It was a nice respite from the city, although even the trail and the top of the hill were really crowded. It was a lot of fun, but the most interesting part was when we got a little turned around on our way out and couldn’t find the bus station. We walked around looking for someone to ask (we were on the far outskirts of Beijing) and an American saw us and came up and asked if she could help us. I though her accent was pretty familiar, so upon asking, it turns out she was an Aggie!! The first Aggie I met outside of the Olympics! They truly are everywhere! And I never would have met her if we hadn’t gotten lost. Anyway, I asked her about an Aggie club, and she didn’t know of one. But it’s always exciting to meet Aggies.
At one of the pizza restaurants I have been to in Tianjin, I noticed a Bible laying on the table a few times, so I asked the owner about it. Turns out she is a Korean Christian. A few times we have talked about it and I let her read a few verses from my English Bible. It’s really encouraging to meet other believers.
I had a Canadian teacher from one of the other English First schools here move in with me for a month or two last fall. He was cool and turns out he is also a cyclist. It was a God thing, as it gave me someone to ride with. He has since moved out so I have had a large two bedroom place to myself for the past few months. I have enjoyed the quiet! Along a similar vein, one of the other new teachers at our school worked as a bike mechanic for a few years back in England. He loves working on bikes and has helped me with maintenance for my bikes. What a blessing!
Students
As any teacher knows, students provide lots of interesting stories. Well this is even more true with language and cultural differences. I’m sure I have forgotten some, but here are a few I remember. One of my teenager students invited me to go play squash with him. It was my first time to play, but it was fun. In talking to him I learned many things. He actually said he wasn’t a big fan of the Hu Jintao. I thought this was quite interesting, although I didn’t find out much more than that, and he isn’t the first Chinese person to tell me this. Apparently, his father is having trouble in work, so his whole family moved to Australia a few months ago to open a book store. He would finish his last year of high school there. His English was not bad, but I’m sure this would be a struggle for him. He said he was really excited because in his opinion the schools in China were not very good compared to the West.
In general, the stereotype that Chinese people on average are not very athletic is very true. If they play sports it is most likely badminton, ping pong, tennis or squash. And usually these aren’t played with intense vigor or competitiveness. There are exceptions however. I did find out there is a ‘Sports University’ here in Tianjin. Apparently China, not surprisingly, has a system where athletic children are chosen even at young ages and put in special athletic schools to train athletes. Makes the whole beating us in the gold medal count at the Olympics a lot less impressive if you ask me. While riding my bike around town one day, a random Chinese guy about my age rode up next to me and tried to strike up a conversation with me in English. Turns out he plays ultimate Frisbee and goes to the Sports University. Apparently they went to tournaments in Hong Kong and Shanghai, so I guess they are pretty good. He invited me to play with them, so I joined them a few times. It was fun. They were decent, but nothing crazy. I think an average college club ultimate Frisbee team back home would be better. But I enjoyed the company. I actually met another foreign ‘brother’ and we got along well. He has an interesting story. They also play soccer there, so hopefully if my parents can send me my soccer equipment, I can play once it warms up here.
One of my adult students invited me for dinner after my last class with him. Turns out his son studied computer science at Tianjin University here, and actually had the same class and the same professor that I was taking at the time. (I took a C++ class that an American friend of mine was teaching last semester) He wants to get a master’s in the US, so wanted to talk to me about American schools. He actually was looking at t.u. or A&M! I gave him my biased opinion, but did mention that t.u. has many more Chinese students than A&M. His English was good, and he was quite a talkative fellow. He was very open about China. He talked openly about Mao and how millions of people died, but also lots of good things happened. He knew that the media was state controlled, and that to get ‘the truth’ (his words), they had to use a VPN to read Western media. He agreed China isn’t as free as other countries. But he still thought life in China was good. He was the lead singer in a band and really into music, particularly classic rock. He told me his English name was Axl, after Axl Rose from Guns N Roses. But he was quite angered by their new CD Chinese Democracy, which interestingly enough, the Wikipedia entry about the album is blocked here. The album itself is also outlawed in China, supposedly because the title track talks about some banned movements here. I haven’t heard the song myself, but if you have let me know what you think. He was an interesting fellow, and I enjoyed my dinner with him and his dad, even though his dad poured me a whole glass of Chinese liquor called bei jiu, and kept trying to get me to finish it off. I tried, but that stuff is brutally strong and I couldn’t drink it haha.
Water Cube Adventure
Wednesday September 17, 2008 Tianjin, China 9:10 pm
Water Cube Adventure
The one major thing that I didn’t get to do at the Olympics (other than meeting Phelps or Nastia Liukin) was go inside the famous Water Cube. There were two reasons for this: 1) I didn’t arrive at the Olympics until the last day of swimming events and 2) swimming tickets were simply outrageously priced. The only way to get ahold of a ticket was to pay a scalper, and those tickets were running close to $1000 – way out of my price range, even for the Water Cube.
But I had a solution: I would come back to Beijing (the advantage of living in China close to Beijing) during the Paralympics to get into the Water Cube and watch some swimming. The ticket prices would be a fraction of the cost, and the main goal of seeing the inside of the Water Cube would still be accomplished.
So on my day off I set off to Beijing a day early to make sure I could get a ticket. I had the intention of buying my ticket directly form the ticket outlet instead of scalping it, which saves hugely on price. (though I would realize later it was impossible) I was going to stay one night in Beijing then see my event the next day. Through the help of a nice Chinese girl, I was able to successfully get on my train and to Beijing. All I had was an address in Chinese that a friend had looked up for me for where to buy a ticket. So I handed it to the taxi driver and off we went. My friend thought it was close to the station, but turns out it took over an hour and a half. Which was really unfortunate because as I go into the taxi I realized that I needed a restroom. It was a rough hour and a half. I finally arrived at what the taxi driver thought was the correct location, and went in. It took several minutes to find someone who spoke English, and they promptly told me that they don’t sell tickets there. I needed to go down the street about half a mile, but had to hurry because they closed in 10 minutes. After running down the street with my backpack, I rushed into the other bank breathing hard. The lady gave me a ticket and I took my spot in line. A few minutes later she came over and asked me for my passport. My heart dropped to the floor and I’m sure my face showed my disappointment. I did not have my passport. At first I thought I had simply forgotten it, and was kicking myself harshly. What kind of traveler forgets their passport? It was then I realized that my company had taken my passport to give to the police so I could register and receive my official work permit. This is only allowed to be done once you are in China and takes a few weeks. So I couldn’t have brought my passport anyway! I tried to give the lady my Texas Drivers License, but she said that would not do. I was starting to get really frustrated. Then she suggested that a Chinese person in line could purchase the tickets for me. This seemed like a perfect solution until I informed them I was looking for swimming tickets and she said they were all sold out. Argh! I figured I would just go by the stadium and try to scalp a ticket like I did for gymnastics before. By this time it was getting close to the deadline for when I had to check into my hostel, so I headed there first. Upon arrival, the first question they asked me was my name. And the second was one I was dreading: “Can I see your passport?” I told her the story and not only did she look skeptical, but she said I cannot stay in any hotel without a passport. The police will check and would shut down the hotel if they were caught. Now I was getting frustrated. She said if I had a copy of it that would work, but I would also need a copy of my visa – which was in my passport. After realizing that there was no way I could stay in Beijing that night, I took a casual dinner and got the last train back to Tianjin. Then returned to Beijing the next day and was able to scalp a ticket out front fro the swimming. So in the end it all worked out, thought it ended up being much more complicated than I had anticipated. The Water Cube is truly incredible. It is so much more stunning up close than on TV. And inside it is beautiful as well. I ended up sitting next to some Brits who were parents of one of the gold medalist swimmers! Pretty cool. It was cool to watch as they broke a world record! (paralympic) I learned about the different rankings of disabilities. Upon leaving the Water Cube, it had gotten dark, and while taking pictures (I took literally over 100) I realized that it changes colors on the outside! I got a picture (attached of me in front of it when it was red). It was a fantastic trip, and I’m so glad it worked out!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Other Side of the (same?) World
Monday September 1, 2008 Tianjin, China 6:15 pm
It has been a while since I have written unfortunately; I should have written sooner. Lets see if I can remember everything since my last post. On Saturday August 23, I had a field hockey ticket for that morning. Not having ever seen a field hockey match before, I was quite excited to watch and learn. The stands were only maybe half full, an interesting twist since the tickets were ‘sold out’. You may have read that this was the case in several events across the games, although of all the ones I attended, this was the only stadium that wasn’t full. Several minutes after the match started, I noticed whole busloads of Chinese school children arriving, which makes one wonder if they were sent to ‘fill seats’. It is not always the most fun to watch a game in which one doesn’t know the rules, so I went and sat next to some Westerners in front of me who turned out to be Germans living in Shanghai. They were also field hockey players, which means I hit the jackpot as far as people to help explain what was going on. Apparently Germany is one of the best field hockey countries in the world. They were great guys and made the match much more entertaining getting to speak English with someone. We watched two matches, China vs somebody and Great Britain vs Korea. It turned out that they were both quite exciting matches. The first one was very close and China ended up winning by scoring a goal on a short corner with less than 1 minute left to win. The second one wasn’t very close, but Great Britain scored lots of beautiful goals. After the match the Germans were very helpful (since they have lived in China for 5 years they spoke a good amount of Chinese) and invited me to eat lunch with them. We went to this small rooftop restaurant in a hutong in the backpackers district. He showed me a fantastic hostel that I will probably use when I go back to Beijing. We had duck and lotus for lunch, among other more ‘normal’ things. When I say we had duck I mean they brought out the entire duck on a plate, head and beak and all. I wasn’t brave enough to eat the head or face, but the duck meat was quite good. And I actually really liked the lotus, it is sweet and tastes almost lick a crunchy pineapple. Then we went to get foot massages, which incidentally were much better than the ones in Thailand. First they soak your feet in this tea with rose flowers in it. I think we both dozed off a bit; it was very relaxing. And it was perfect timing because they had a large flatscreen TV playing the synchronized swimming finals while we were sitting in lounge chairs getting our feet massaged. I think it cost about 40 RMB, or $6 for an hour massage! After that we stopped by a small Australian owned bar and chatted with some Aussies for a bit. The German guy had tickets to the field hockey final that night, so he left early. When I left a bit later, I found out he had already paid for my beer without even telling me. What a nice guy! I headed off to find some dinner, and by the time I finished eating I was tired and just headed home.
I slept late the next morning, then went to the ‘Silk Market’ which is not exactly as you might expect. It was a 6 story building full of little booths selling everything you can imagine, but mostly clothes housewares. Behind every booth lurked a very aggressive Chinese girl, who was probably around 17 years old, that were the salesmen for each booth. They knew English and often a few other languages, and were amazingly skilled salesmen despite their assumed low education. They would grab the arm of tourists to try to drag them into their booth; I almost punched a few of them after they grabbed me forcefully and were hesitant to let go. In America I think something like that starts fights and gets people hurt. I ran into a few guys from my hostel and we had lunch at a buffet that was only 78 RMB. ($11) The food was pretty good. I managed to escape the Silk Market without purchasing anything, although I did stop to see the fake iPhones. They were decent copies, but pretty easy to tell they were fake. Another interesting note is astronomically inflated prices at the Silk Market. A guy at the hostel told me that a girl first quoted him 1000 RMB for something, and he eventually bought it for 80 RMB. (no that’s not a typo) There it is all about bargaining, and these Chinese girls had mastered their art skillfully.
Afterwards, I headed to Starbucks to relax a bit and with the intent of journaling, but ended up meeting a girl from Florida and we chatted for a while. Then it was time for the Closing Ceremony to start, so we headed off in an attempt to find a place we could watch it in English. However the place was so crowded that we couldn’t hear the commentators anyway, but at least we got to see most of it. I thought it was quite spectacular, and I really enjoyed it. One of the coolest things was as we were leaving to go home, we heard these loud booming noises, and when we looked up we could see the fireworks from the Bird’s Nest. We were only about a mile away or so. It was really neat to see them live, although it wasn’t a great view through the buildings, but we got to see some. And here is where I also got my first experience with public urination in China. There were several kids that had stopped to watch the fireworks as well, and one boy, who was maybe 5 or 6, just paused, dropped his pants and relieve himself on a tree right on the street! He even proceeded to keep talking to his friends during the process, and when he was finished went right back to playing. What I assumed to be their parents were right their watching them and made no indication that this was abnormal or unacceptable! All I can do is just shake my head in wonder.
The next morning I packed my things and headed to the train station to go to Tianjin, armed with a piece of paper stating so in Chinese. I was a little nervous about the purchasing a ticket process, but the paper worked flawlessly. While waiting for the train, I met a guy who was maybe 18 who wanted to practice his English. He said he had studied it for a long time, but this was the first time he had ever spoken it to a native speaker. He helped me find the right track and got me off okay. The people in Beijing were always quite helpful.
The train ride was pleasant and I got picked up and taken to the school to get my luggage that I had left there during the Olympics. My school is on the sixth floor of an office building, and seemed to be nice, although at this point I only had a cursory glance as I grabbed my luggage and left. The driver took me to my apartment. I was actually pleasantly surprised here, as the apartmen was not only quite large, but was pretty good quality. And it had a real toilet!! The place was quite messy, but I have been cleaning it up. I spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting settled in. The next day was my first day of ‘work’ which just consisted of a few hours of orientation and asking tons of questions. I met my boss who I like and got along with well. I met a few of the other teachers, saw the classrooms and staff room. All in all I was satisfied with the school. I was a little nervous when I found out I had my first class on that Saturday. The next few days I went to work for a few hours to plan for mylesson as well as get more acquainted with the school, its methods and teachers. Each day I had a few observations of other classes of teachers, and slowly got the hang of how EF works.
(continued Sep 9 2008 6:50 pm in Beijing at ‘cottage and pizza café’)
Class Notes
I also began to learn my way around my street and figure out where the street food was and where to eat, which is most important of all! My first class was on Saturday, and it was kids ages 6 to 8 level 1. I had two classes at the same level, and the first one went quite well. However the second one is full of mostly boys, all who are rowdy and talkative and don’t even know enough English to understand when I tell them to be quiet. (I’m not sure if teaching has made me never want to have kids! Haha) But I survived, and the next day I have a class of older kids (9-13) level two, and they were much more enjoyable. They were much better behaved for one, but also they’re level of English was high enough so that I felt like I could actually teach them something. Teaching little kids “Blue, Red, Tiger, Lion” etc is not my really my forte I don’t think. I much prefer to teach them about the language, or nuances, or advanced vocab. This is why I found my adult class later that week to be my favorite. They are level 5, which means they know quite a bit, and of course they are behaved. They are highly motivated to learn English for whatever individual reason, and they soak up pretty much anything you say because its in English. I could talk about dust for and hour and they would all be on the edge of their chairs. It is kinda nice haha.
In fact, in one of my level 4 teenagers classes, they asked where I was from. I asked them if they knew of any States in America, expecting to hear New York or California. I asked them what the most famous State was, and they answered, “Texas”! Man was I excited haha. Even better, in my first adult class, I introduced myself and they asked what city I was from. So I told them Sugar Land, and knowing the meaning of sugar, they all got a kick out of that. After telling them what State it was in, they began asking questions, even things like when Texas became a State! So I definitely gave them a 10 minute quick summary of Texas history! And no spiel on Texas history would be complete without the story of the Alamo; naturally I taught them how to say “Remember the Alamo!” (Yes I really did!!) I got so excited I just kept talking. They were all very interested and asking lots of questions, (including about my Aggie ring, one girl thought I was married) but eventually I had to cut it short to get to the material in the book. But I told them we could spend a few minutes each class talking about Texas (since I love to talk about it) and they could ask me a question or two every week. I also showed them my cowboy boots, which they really liked as well. A friend back home said I should teach them how to Two Step, so maybe I’ll work on that.
(continued on September 11, 2008 at 1:06 pm in Tianjin, China)
Another interesting thing in class was when my level 4 teenager class, on the first day once I told them I was American, immediately began asking tons of questions about American politics, the war in Iraq, and the upcoming Presidential election. They asked me who I thought was going to win, and even who I was going to vote for. I couldn’t miss the irony in the fact that over here the ‘cautious’ and ‘very socially sensitive’ Chinese culture was asking me personal questions that would be considered somewhat forward to ask in our Western culture. Also of interesting note, most foreigners I have spoken with seem to favor Obama. Although this was sort of indirectly stated, because I did not get into in depth political discussions. I am not sure if it is because of Obama’s personality or charisma or more because of his policies, but it is interesting nonetheless. Hopefully I can find out more in depth in the coming weeks.
Another very odd question they kept asking me was how much money America was making on the war in Iraq. At first I thought they were just confused with the language, but after attempts at explanation and their repeated inquiries, I realized this was not the case. I tried to explain to them that America was spending billions of dollars on the war, not making money. But then they asked if anyone was making money on the war, and who? Were the oil companies making money? And I agreed that yes the oil companies were, but not the American government. And herein lies the confusion, as I soon found out in their next line of questioning. The further suggested, “But aren’t the oil companies set up by the government to make money in Iraq for America?” Once I realized their line of thinking I almost laughed, but it all made sense. I had to explain to them that in American, the government and companies are separate, (at least they are supposed to be, the current ‘bailout’ of banks and mortgage companies is beginning to cross the line in my opinion) and the government does not own or set up companies. I told them that this is a very important thing in America. You see, they were viewing the rest of the world, namely America, through Chinese eyes. (albeit 14 year old and only educated through 8th grade or so) In China many of the corporations are still state run, and so people may think of companies as being set up, owned and operated by the government, and (here is the key) make profit directly for the government. So when they look at what America is doing in Iraq, to their minds, America went to invade, then set up oil companies to get all the oil money for the US government! (now I know there are even some Americans who claim such things, but the American government does not ‘set up’ or own oil companies) What a fascinating insight into the Chinese mind, and it makes a lot of the animosity towards America much more clear when you understand that is how they see us. They don’t fully understand our democratic system (at least most of those who are not highly educated). Hopefully while here I can do what I can to dispel these misinformed notions and promote some truth about America and its foundational doctrines. (or what used to be its foundational doctrines…)
The other day in one of my classes of teenagers I planned to have people come write answers on the board (not with their name attached or anything). I had done this several times in Thailand and the students, even adults, usually enjoyed the opportunity to write on the board. However I was met with an entirely different culture here in China. I couldn’t get anyone to go write on the board. As soon as I mentioned the idea I could see their faces twist up in agony at the mere thought of such a painful experience. Through begging and prodding and many assurances that this wasn’t for a grade and it didn’t matter if it was right or wrong, I finally got a few of the more outgoing ones up there. But even then, they would just stand at the board for minutes, not willing to write anything down for fear of it being wrong. They were paralyzed by this overriding fear of being wrong. Even the smart students were not immune. Even in such a small task as writing on the board, I found this to be an interesting example of how the culture here is almost against individualism, and very much promotes going with the crowd and no one standing out. I guess part of it may be that there is so much pressure to succeed in academics that no one can bear the thought of being wrong, especially of anyone else noticing that. From conversations with my father about some of his coworkers from Eastern cultures, this appears to permeate adults as well. And, in many cases, may be a principle cause in the lack of innovation and creativity in many industries over here. They are extremely good at copying and reverse engineering, but they seem almost incapable of thinking outside the box, because it is not considered a desirable thing. Perhaps with more exposure to the west these types of thought processes are slowly changing.
Oddities
Dogs simply relieve themselves everywhere, and it is a challenge when walking down the street to avoid stepping in something smelly from a dog. There seems to be no desire to have clean streets or pick up after pets (although I’m not sure where else the dogs would go, as parks are few and far between, and grass is not plentiful) And this rule not only applies to canines, but apparently humans too!
I was warned about the baby nudity before I came, and now I have seen it first hand. Apparently diapers have not yet made it to China, and if you are under the age of say 3 or 4 (although I have seen older) the rule is that it is perfectly acceptable for you to relieve yourself right on the sidewalk. (both kinds, #1 and #2) Parents not only watch, but encourage this and will hold up their children so as not to spill on their shoes. Incredible I know. I am sure that this a large contributor to the overwhelming and awful smells that often accompany a walk on the street.
A small but strange oddity in my apartment is that of the three elevators (one rarely works) one only services the odd floors and the other only services the even floors (plus the first floor). So basically 12 floors share one elevator and the other 12 floors share another elevator. I have yet to discover the logic behind that move. Also on the topic of elevators, I have several times been in an elevator with a person smoking, which makes it difficult to avoid coughing on the loooong ride (slow elevators) up or down 18 floors.
The Chinese people for the most part have been very obliging and helpful. I have had several people offer to have me contact them if I ever need any help or have any trouble with something. People almost go out of their way to help foreigners, and I have really enjoyed the Chinese people I have met. On the other hand, when it comes to waiting in line or using the roads, that is a whole different matter. I have had little old ladies elbow their way past me in line. And on the street it seems as though “Every man for himself” is the rule. If two people are approaching a narrow part of the sidewalk from opposite directions, instead of one stopping to let the other by, they will both try to squeeze past each other at the same time. On the subway I often see men sitting while lots of women standing, which just seems backwards to me. Perhaps part of this is mere cultural difference, but it is still hard for me to understand the logic behind it.
Another fascinating ongoing project is reading all of the ‘Ch-English’ t-shirts that many Chinese (mostly young) wear. Most of them are phrases or sentences that don’t make any sense to an English speaker such as “Hometown lots spacey”. Some will not even make words at all but will just be scrambled up English letters. I saw one girl wearing a shirt that said “Rebel Yell for hugs”. (see phot0) Now I know most of these people don’t speak a lick of English and have no clue what their shirt says or the fact that it says nothing. But even if this girl did know some English, I think it is pretty much impossible that she knows what a “Rebel Yell” from the days of the Confederacy is. Much less how it has absolutely nothing to do with a hug! I think that is one of my favorites so far, but the search is ongoing for more humorous ‘Ch-English’. It is strange how young people here go out of their way to buy shirts with ‘English’ on them, because to them it is ‘cool’ or fashionable because that is what they see Westerners on tv and in the movies (and in person, i.e. me) wearing. At least that is my assumption of why they wear shirts with ‘English’ on them. Talk about exporting culture.
On the topic of dress, I have found that dress here is basically no different (other than the aforementioned oddities) than back home. People here would be very hard to distinguish from those back home based solely on their clothes. Business men wear suits just like ours. Young people wear jeans just like ours (maybe different brand names with undoubtedly different price tags, but the clothing is the same). I think already the world has pretty much shrunk to establishing a ‘global’ dress, which is basically what came out of the West. Everywhere you go the dress is basically the same, despite brand names. Only when you get way out into the countryside do you find people who still wear ‘local’ dress. It is kind of sad in a way that some culture seems to be lost by everyone adopting Western style clothing.
The other day, prompted by other teachers, I went to TGI Fridays (yes they have one here). I ordered ‘Fajita Nachos’ and they were heavenly. Real guacamole, real pico de gallo!!! (not sure how to spell that) Oh man I had been craving Tex-Mex and it was incredible!
So to close, (I know this is an insanely long post, but it incorporates almost 2 weeks worth of stuff) don’t think that I am not enjoying myself. I know many of the comments above seem negative (or gross). But to me they are merely interesting commentary on the differences (and similarities) in our cultures. In truth, I am having a blast. I realized the other day that I am literally living a dream. I have long dreamt of living and working overseas, being immersed in a culture and learning the language. Well I am doing just that! So I am happy and enjoying life, learning something new everyday. And everyday is an Adventure!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Sardines and Smells and Chinese Pride
Friday August 22, 2008 Beijing, China 7:49 pm
Sardines and Smells
World Record
Chinese Pride
Lets see, so Wednesday morning I needed to go to the US Embassy to get more pages in my passport. I finally accomplished a long term goal of filling it up! After three hours of wandering, I finally found the Embassy. Attempting to take the public transport system in Beijing is not my favorite thing. NO ONE speaks English, so I have to rely on showing the bus person the name of the stop in Chinese and let them tell me when to get off. I never thought I was claustrophobic, but being packed in like sardines with hundreds of other Chinese people is beginning to make me a little masochistic haha. And being cramped in and pushed and shoved and poked doesn’t only happen on the subway and buses, but in lines everywhere. It is definitely true that the concept of personal space is foreign to the Chinese mind. I am craving the nice open spaces of Texas! Then once I left the bus station I showed people on the street the address in Chinese and they just look at me like I just landed from the moon. Even if they did understand, since they know zero English I’m not sure if they’re directions would be very helpful anyway. I finally wandered around long enough until I found a Westerner who knew English, and they directed me to the British embassy, where someone finally could direct to the American Embassy, which was somewhat hidden. The brand new one that a bunch of Aggies helped to build doesn’t open until next month. It was good to hear American English again. In all my travels it was my first time to visit a US Embassy. I was actually pretty surprised because there were a lot of Chinese people working there, and seemingly pretty low key security. I only saw one Marine.
Also, another note about being cramped in with hundreds of Chinese is the smells. I have already discovered at least a dozen new smells that I did not know existed before. And none of them were pleasant. Many of the taxis have a strange odor, but I’m sure I will get used to it eventually.
I also had my first experience with the state run media today. There is an English daily newspaper published here in Beijing (it costs 1.5 RMB or 22 cents), and there was an article in it today really thrashing the West’s reporting on the bad air quality of Beijing for the Olympics. It was quite sarcastic suggesting that if the air was as bad as all the Westerners claimed it was, that athletes would be keeling over dead in the middle of their events. He blatantly said that the experiments that Western journalists did on the air were useless because they already made up their minds about the results.
Wednesday afternoon I was walking to a Starbucks to check email and journal when I was stopped by a strangely outgoing and friendly Chinese girl. It turns out she was trying to sell me some of her artwork so she could pay for her school. The are was actually quite stunning, and I felt only slightly bad for refusing. I ended up falling asleep at Starbucks. Then I headed off to meet up with my roommate (who I sold my extra track and field ticket to) to the Bird’s Nest for that nights track and field events. The stadium truly is stunning. It and the Water Cube are both so much more beautiful in person than on TV. That night we saw heats of the Men’s 800m, the Women’s Hammer Throw final (where a massive Chinese woman won silver), the Women’s 400m hurdles heats, Men’s 110m hurdle semis, Men’s Pole Vault qualifying, and the Big Kahuna the Mens 200m Final. The Pole Vault was certainly exciting to watch (aided greatly by the $6 binoculars I bought outside the stadium). But Usain Bolt stole the show again by smashing the world record and winning by over half a second. The Americans had a good showing with silver and bronze. There were several Jamaicans sitting in front of us who went nuts when Bolt won. It was surreal to be there and see a world record like that, then see the replay on TV the next day and be able to say “I was there!”.
Thursday morning I slept in and went off in search of some Olympic souvenirs. I found the official flagship store, and had and even crazier experience of being buffeted by waves of Chinese flowing in and out of this shop. I did end up getting a few things, but I have never seen a more inefficient system for consumers. Not only did you have to pick out your item, get a ticket from the employee, then go wait in line to pay, get another ticket, and return to get your item, but the cashiers had no concept of customer satisfaction. I guess capitalism is still pretty new to them. Despite lines of dozens of people long, the cashiers made no apparent effort to be speedy, and would turn to chat to each other while checking people out. It was quite frustrating, as in similar situations in the States, people get things moving pretty quickly. It was like the opposite experience to the one I had in McDonalds that I mentioned in my last post. I had similar frustrations with Chinese workers doing ticket and security checks at venues and subway stations. They make no attempt to speed things up even when thousands of people are waiting in line, and take their merry time. But I guess I shouldn’t complain as the venues have been safe.
Thursday night I met up with the Canadian family (who I happen to sit next to at the triathlon) whose son was competing in the modern pentathlon. They got me a free ticket, and helped explain the sport to me as we watched the last two of five events, the equestrian and running. They son Joshua Riker-Fox placed 24th out of 36 I believe. Still a good finish as it was his first Olympics. It was moving to watch how exciting and nervous his parents were.
Today I just relaxed and wandered around town with some Brits from the hostel. We walked through a small food market, where you can buy crickets, silk worms, and seahorses on a stick. Yes, none of that was a typo. I did not try any, as my previous cricket experience was less than satisfactory. The Brits tried the crickets, (which were actually quite large, so they must be a different species or something than the ones I had) and they said that they weren’t too bad. Also on the menu here is chicken and duck heart, as well as some other organ (our best guess was kidney or liver), all served on a stick. It made me miss home food J.
Another cultural note on the Chinese pride. All of the talk in the Western press about how this Olympics is a huge boost for Chinese national pride is not overstated. It is so true. The Chinese are stoked that they are beating the US in gold medals. (I know we are winning in overall medals, but here every tally is ranked by gold medals so that China is on top) I even had one Chinese guy ask me with a smirk on his face if I knew how many gold medals the US had, just so he good quickly remind me of how many more China had. On the more subtle side (or maybe not)… Nike put up large displays of mannequins wearing Chinese Olympic uniforms doing different sports in the one of the large, high end touristy malls here. I walked by it three times before I noticed that there are three sets of track and field athletes with a Chinese mannequin positioned slightly ahead of a mannequin wearing a USA uniform. I wonder if this was Nike’s idea or the Chinese government, but I found it quite noteworthy. (see photo)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Star Studded Beijing Olympics Day 1
Wednesday August 20, 2008 Starbucks in Beijing, China 2:19 pm
Wow, so much to say. So I have been in China almost 3 days now. I arrived on Sunday late afternoon and was met at the airport by an English speaking lady from English First, the company I am working for. She was quite helpful. Because I had my large bicycle case with me, there wasn’t room for all of us in the car so we took a train to Tianjin. We had a bit of difficulty finding taxis and then a train that wasn’t sold out. While waiting for the train, Luna took me to have Beijing duck, which was quite good. It is basically just sliced pieces of duck meat dipped in sauce and you put them in a rice tortilla, much like fajitas. The ‘bullet’ train went over 200 mph! We got to Tianjin and on the way to drop me off at my hotel, we passed a man peeing on the street. I guess Tianjin is more ‘real China’ than Beijing. The next morning I went for a run to scope out the area as usual, and Tianjin seems to be a beautiful city. People from the school picked me up again and we went to the police to register, as all foreigners must do within 24 hours of arriving in China, even tourists. While we were waiting, a man saw me and turned to me to try to practice his English. He was very kind, and it turns out his daughter who was with him is an English major. He gave me his name and phone number and told me to call him if I needed help with anything. I was certainly struck by the openness and friendliness of my first experience with local Chinese culture.
Then I caught the train back to Beijing in the afternoon and caught a cab to my hostel. The taxis here are really quite cheap here, although not as cheap as the 15 cent bus rides. The hostel is not great. The shower is pretty dirty, it doesn’t have a toilet, only a squatty potty, and the bed is basically just a metal slap with a blanket. (A squatty potty for those who don’t know is pretty much like it sounds, not a toilet but just a hole in the ground where one must squat to do their business. Also, not toilet paper.) It is not any softer than sleeping on an tile floor with a blanket. But I will survive. The guys at the front desk are quite helpful. My next trip was off to pick up my Olympic tickets, which proved to be quite simple. I already sold my extra track and field ticket to my roommate at the hostel. We walked around town a little bit and saw Tiananmen Square briefly, which was cool more for its history than its beauty. Lou, an English girl who went with me, really wanted a ‘local’ meal, since this was her first night in Asia. Having just come off from 6 weeks in Thailand, I was looking for anything but rice, but alas I went along with her. There would be plenty of time for the proverbial McDonalds later.
The next morning was yesterday, which was Tuesday. It was a most storied and incredible day. I got up early to go to the men’s triathlon event which it turns out was an over 2 hour bus ride from my hostel, but is still in Beijing. Just to give you an idea how immense Beijing is in land mass, I heard later that the city of Beijing is roughly the size of Belgium! And I thought Houston was large. I set out to find the triathlon venue with only my ticket and some scribbled Chinese from the guy from my hotel. I showed everyone on the bus and thought I was a goner until I miraculously found one Chinese person on the bus who spoke English (I was the only foreigner on the bus) who was also going to the triathlon. He was very helpful. Inside the even I sat next to some Canadians, who turned out their brother was competing for Canada in the modern pentathlon on Thursday. His mom said she might be able to get me some tickets. It was quite nice to speak normal English. The race was close, and I thought the Americans had a good chance since two of them came off the bike in the lead pack. But they couldn’t hang on in the run and in a thrilling sprint finish a German guy outran Simon Whitfield of Canada. I followed the Canadians back to the city and went to the Olympic park to walk around the stadium. I was really keen on finding tickets to the last night of gymnastics that night. Despite all the news reports about police cracking down on scalping, there were hundreds of people selling tickets on the street right next to the sign announcing that it was prohibited. It was literally a giant buffet line on the street of hundreds of local Chinese selling all sorts of tickets at ridiculous prices. But after some haggling I finally got a gymnastics ticket for 1700 RMB, or about $210! My quest was successful about 2 hours before the event started Considering the guy I had bought my other tickets from said he sold his gymnastics tickets for over $600, I was pretty pleased with my buy. I met a German guy on the street who was also on a quest for gymnastics tickets, and he was eventually successful as well. . I went in, grabbed some dinner and walked around a bit. Both the ‘Bird’s Nest’ Stadium and the Water Cube were more incredible in person than on TV. Truly beautiful venues. I was soo pumped as I walked in the stadium. Since I hadn’t eaten anything all day, I quickly ran to McDonalds for dinner, as it is the only option for food inside the Olympic Complex. Strangely enough, this turned out to be a great analogy for China. There were about a dozen registers and hundreds of people pouring through the restaurant to get food. I have never seen so many people at a McDonald’s in my life. Behind the counter were scores of employees rushing around to efficiently bring dozens of meals per minute to hungry and pushy customers. Here was a perfect example of how personal space as we know it does not exist in China. I thought it was a great analogy of China using its biggest resource, people, in a workmanlike almost Communist style to efficiently feed the masses. Maybe I am being over poetic about a simple trip to McDonalds, but I thought it was interesting.
This night was some of the most exciting gymnastic event finals: Mens Parallel Bars, Womens Beam, and Mens High Bar. I was particularly excited about seeing Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson on beam. There were some empty seats so I went down closer to get a better view of the Beam. On my way some other Aggies saw my A&M shirt and yelled out Gig’Em. I think they were class of ’96 or something. I chatted with them for a bit, then went down and ended up with just about the best possible spot to watch the Beam. I was right over the entrance where the athletes came in and out. The first time Nastia came out with her dad I yelled her name and she turned to look up and me and gave a small smile and smirk. Then after she won the silver I yelled out ‘Way to represent Texas’ and she turned to look up at me and gave me a smile and a wave. Oh man was I excited! J It was awesome to watch her and Shawn with the silver and gold. Man what a great experience. And American Jonathan Horton won silver on the High Bar. But this is by no means the end of my Star Studded day. I went with one of the Aggies I met out to where they film the ‘Today Show’ right outside the stadium. If you can find on the NBC website or Youtube or somewhere the Today Show from August 19, I am in the background a few times, most prominently right behind Tiki Barber’s head. Ya I know go figure, Tiki Barber, a running back who is the all time rushing and receiving yards leader for the New York Giants was an analyst for Track and Field and I got to see him from about 5 feet away. I came all the way to the Olympics in Beijing to see an American football star. Ironic. Even better though, was the next segment of the Today Show where American swimming star and 11 time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin was doing a cooking segment. After it finished not only did I get her autograph, but I got a picture with her!!! She was really friendly, and I felt like I was dreaming. Unbelievable. I am hoping to meet the two American gymnasts at the Today Show tonight. But again, don’t be fooled, there is more to this story. After all this excitement I finally headed off to my soccer semifinal match that night, which turned out to be a soldout game between Brazil and Argentina! Ronaldhino versus Messi. Since I purchased the tickets over a week ago, I didn’t know who was going to be playing, but turns out I hit the jackpot. And not only in who was playing in the game. I didn’t arrive until halftime, but up until that point the score was 0-0. Then less than 5 minutes after I arrived Argentina began their scoring spree and ended up with a dramatic 3-0 crushing of Brazil. But here is the kicker. As soon as I sat down in my seat, the guy next to me (who was Dutch) told me to look at the end of the row behind me. And yes, even though I could scarcely believe it, there sat Kobe Bryant, basketball megastar from the Los Angeles Lakers! I must have looked at least ten time before I could believe it. It was really funny too, because the NBA is huge in China, and all these people kept walking by to take pictures of Kobe, not the soccer game. He had a whole row of security guards along with almost 30 Chinese volunteers escort him out of the game. But the climax is that as he was walking out right behind me, I stood up and said “Whats up Kobe?” and stuck out my hand, and he shook it!!!! That means I got smiles, pictures, and shook hands with 3 Olympic gold medalists in a matter of 3 hours!! It still sounds crazy when I think about it. What a first day to the Beijing Olympics huh? I guess everything from here on will seem really quiet. Wow what a day!!
I had a real difficulty finding an empty taxi coming out of the soccer stadium. I began walking farther away and a Chinese guy offered to help and walked with me trying to flag down a cab. He also helped me dodge the crazy cars and bikes while crossing the street. The Chinese are very helpful and friendly. Back at the hostel that night I met a British girl who speaks 4 languages already and is here to work on her Mandarin. Pretty impressive at age 19.
Today I spent 3 hours taking buses the wrong way and asking dozens of people for directions who didn’t know English trying to find the American Embassy to get more pages added to my passport. But in the end I made it. Now I am at Starbucks to write down all my adventures. Man I must still be jet lagged because I am exhausted even though I slept late this morning. I have also developed a rather concerning sore throat, but I’m praying it will go away on its own soon.
On the Mandarin note, I have already learned 4 characters, and since during my day in Tianjin I saw 0 foreigners, I’m sure I will be quite immersed in the language.