Cost of Living

What is the cost of living in China?  What is a middle class salary?  When do people start becoming rich?  What is poor in China?  These are confusing questions that my old sitemate and I often wondered about. Currently Peace Corps volunteers get free housing, free medical care, and a monthly living allowance of about 1500 RMB ($220).  We are single university teachers who do not have a lot of expenses compared to our counterparts with families, mortgages, and children.  At our university, teachers receive a salary of about 3000 RMB/month ($440) plus bonuses. My students said that the tuition and cost of dorm rooms at our university has jumped from 3500 RMB ($550) to 6000 RMB ($880).  This rate is one of the lower tuition rates at our university since English majors will become English teachers.  If a student receives a non-teaching degree, tuition becomes more expensive.  Students are required to live in the dorms sharing a room with 6-8 people and pay the dorm fees even if they rent a place off campus.  One person meals cost anywhere from 1-6 RMB ($0.14-$1) which according to the students have increased in price by 1 RMB.  Showers cost 6-8 RMB ($1-$1.25).  Internet bars cost 2 RMB/hr ($0.25).  If a family has a car, does it mean they are rich or middle class?  If a family eats at KFC or at the chicken fast food places in the city, does it mean they are rich or middle class?  Meals for one person at chicken fast food places cost 15-30 RMB ($2.25-$4.40).   Are street sweepers, street vendors, and people who work in the supermarkets and restaurants, poor? From students I have heard for these jobs people make about 300-500 RMB ($45-$75) per month. Questions that I haven't been able to get a clear answer about are How much does it cost to buy an apartment?  How much is rent?  Many of the juniors and seniors who want to study and have 24 hour electricity will spend about 100 RMB renting one room that they will share between two people. It is really confusing.  What do you think?  Are Peace Corps volunteers in the lower middle class or upper middle class or in the rich bracket of China's salary class?  In Africa, it was clear that Peace Corps volunteers were in the upper middle class approaching rich.  In China, I am not so sure. Estimated RMB exchange rate used in calculations:  6.8 RMB/USD

Fair Wage?

My student's father was in the hospital over the summer, and she is looking for a part time job to help her family out and to cover school and living expenses.  She went to the local KFC fast food chicken joint and asked for a job.  Because of her school schedule she was unable to accept the 4.9 RMB/hr ($0.75/hr) part time job.

Bikes and Hair

Yesterday, I walked two hours looking for a guitar store that I thought I knew where the location was.  Apparently I had forgotten where I had seen the guitar store and could not buy the pitch instrument I need for my English Songs class.  After the long walk, I sat with the welcoming English majors, who have set up a booth to meet the new incoming Freshmen.  There are also cell phone booths where for 400 RMB ($60), you can get cell minutes, a cell phone, and a bike! The other day the dean of the English department commented, "You have a boy's haircut!" I replied, "Yeah it's cool." I wonder what the tone was behind the comment or if there was any implied meaning.  Was he just making an innocent observation?  Was he making a critical observation?  Was he making a judgment that I shouldn't have a boy's haircut but should be more feminine?  Was he implying that I represent the school and should look more professional? Many people have been commenting on my hairstyle.  My teacher friends say "Umm.. wow your hairstyle is cool."  The students say, "You're handsome."  Others say, "You look like a pop star."

Me the Great Doofus

Photoblog:  Early morning in Xian, the day I returned from the USA and now the photoblog's focus has turned back to China

 

The other day I made the greatest fool of myself.

 

In West Africa, one thing foreign visitors absolutely hate are little gangs of children jumping up and down, chanting "White person, white person, white person" in whatever local language they know.  In China in the smaller cities like mine, foreign visitors hate being stared at and randomly being shouted at by adults, "HALLO!  OKAY!!  BYE BYE!!!"

 

Guess what I did the other day.

 

I've been looking for the six new foreigners who are teaching at a local high school to invite them to our library and to Chinese corner.  Lo and behold after dinner while walking home, a tall white male walks by and what do I do?

 

I shout in the most excited, never seen a foreigner before voice, "HALLO!"

 

In his shock and annoyance of being shouted at again, he shouts back, "HALLO!"

 

I tried to tune down my energy and asked, "Are you a number 2 middle school teacher?  I've been looking for you guys everywhere.  I am an English teacher at the college."

 

"No.  I work for the oil companies."

 

"Where are you from?"

 

"France."

 

"Oh.  Je parle Francais."

 

"Oh you speak French and English."

 

"Well it was nice meeting you.  Enjoy your evening."

 

Doh!  I felt so Chinese shouting at him and even more Chinese because I looked Chinese and looked like a local who shouts HALLO at every passing foreigner who walks by.  Let's just stamp the word Doofus across my forehead.

Chinese Short Stories

I have been doing teacher homework where I have been reading and reading trying to find stories for my English short story class.  Last semester was pretty much a disaster where attendance in one class in the middle of the semester reached a low time self-esteem hitting low of zero students.  Ninety percent of the students out of three classes just stopped coming for the rest of the semester. 

 

What was I doing wrong? 

 

I have the class again but this time with juniors instead of seniors, and I will not be discouraged.  I will try to be all that I can be, a prepared teacher who has done her homework and planned a well thought out lesson.

 

This semester I have decided to compare Chinese stories with western stories that have similar themes. 

 

As I do my homework reading story after story from ancient China, with morals, happy endings and lessons on how to live life, how to treat your parents and the leaders of the country, I am having a hard time identifying with the characters, and often just want to stop reading and gouge my eyes out.  It makes me wonder, are the students also having a hard time connecting with the human behaviors in the western stories that reflect the raw reality and pain of life of people in a far away land? 

 

I think Lynn Holmes in her introduction to An Anthology of Chinese Short Short Stories selected and translated by Harry J. Huang, explains the difference between western stories and Chinese stories.  She writes, "...the purpose if there is one (behind Chinese storytelling): the expectation that each story will have a moral, a point, a positive value in our own lives or community."  In the multicultural society, she explains, "If fiction is designed to give us imaginative access to other selves, and since to be human is necessarily to suffer and to face the unpleasant, what we gain from our reading is an extra concentrated dose of simulated life."  There is quite a big difference between our cultures' literature.

 

I am hoping through this semester's class, I will be able to bridge the gap between the expectations of stories with morals and happy endings with stories that do not always show the rosy side of life, but the raw reality of it.  I hope that the students will be able to teach me about their literature and help me appreciate it more, and in turn I will attempt to help them appreciate and understand western short stories.

 

Wish me luck and stay tuned...  Will I drive all of my students away?  Will they keep coming to class?  What will I learn this semester?

Back Home (China)

I find it funny that one month back in the USA could change my attitude towards China. Two years ago I had a lot of patience for China, but one month in the USA and boom, feelings of frustration and argh hit.

When I first got to the gate in San Francisco full of Chinese people waiting to go to the mainland, I felt giddy. I was once again amongst short, black-haired people, people who look like me. I was once again Chinese, feeling like I belong because I look like everyone. I was once again amongst a language I sort of understand, can filter out, and can live in the silent isolated bubble of a foreign language. As a tribute to my last hour in America, I sat on the floor, something you NEVER do in China.

In Beijing though... boom...

I got so frustrated with it all...

• the signs that make no sense as I was trying to catch my plane to Xian
• the new terminal that is like two miles from the terminal I needed to be at
• having to squeeze on a crowded bus to get to the airport terminal
• the inefficient lines full of thousands of people
• getting an expensive zippo gift for the waiban confiscated because lighters are not allowed on checked baggage
• standing behind the travellers with their bags full of liquids, waiting as the security people ran their bags a million times
• waiting five minutes for women to finish in the toilets
• thirsty with only boiling water to wait to cool off

After a month in the USA, I lost my ability to wait. Somehow the time scale in the USA had speeded up my time scale thus losing my ability to be patient with the uncertainties and different time scale of a new culture.

Actually though, now that I have arrived back into the safety of my apartment, I feel better. Plus I received good news. I thought I was going to have to lesson plan all day on Sunday to start teaching on Monday. Of course in China, nothing is 100% certain. Nothing is 100% scheduled. Things change in an instant. Even though everyone told me to be back to start teaching on the 30th of August, guess what. Classes don't start till the 6th of September. Yay for me! Now I can relax, get over jet lag, finish knitting my sweater, and go on bike rides.

I am once again happy.

Driving and Horns

Driving an automatic car is like eating. You just do it without thought. It is like playing a video game except you don't need three extra lives coz you're careful. You've only got one life. Don't risk it by being a crazy driver.

Driving in America feels somehow simpler, easier, safer. There is an order to the driving that in China was hard to figure out. American people basically follow the laws. It feels ordered and safe like we are sheep being herded by a border collie. In China, the roads are a mess of confusion and noise making it impossible even after two years to make sense of the number of people going their own chaotic way.

Most of the time while living in China, I felt that the people are less individualistic following a mass order of things except when it comes to the road. In the USA, a major feature of our mass following culture is our cars. We may diverge from the mass with our individualistic thoughts, fashion, and politics but when it comes to cars we are united in our experience. In China, I feel that there is a mass following of fashion, politics, and thinking, a traditional culture where students' essays reflect one unified thought rather than something original or controversial; however, when driving, walking, or biking there is no mass order. Instead there is a huge population each taking their own mathematical random walk. Being on the road is hard to predict. In America as a driver I feel safer with the expected regularity of the roads.

What do you think the original purpose of a car horn was? They were used as warning devices. In America, they are used as "I'm mad at you." In China, they are used as warning devices. I feel a bit scared on bikes in America. In China cars will honk to let you know that they are there. In America, they silently pass and scare me. On a bike, I like being warned by noisy horns. On American roads, I feel a bit unsafe because of the silent moving killers.

China to Alabama

Wanting to have a nice closure and to say goodbye to a person I have gotten to know and have gotten close to over the past years, I decided to help my sitemate carry her luggage to Chengdu and keep her company for her few last days in China. She is one of the last of our group to close her service (COS) which could make Chengdu quite lonely.

The luggage though! Whew! The water distiller was HEAVY, actually not heavy but the weight was distributed on two tiny cords which cut deeply into my fingers that turned white with the weight. Her rolling suitcase was much heavier, but people helped her carry the thing up and down the train station stairs. We both had huge backpacks.

Note to COSing volunteers, try to take ALL of your PC stuff back to Chengdu during the COS conference! Or else suffer the consequences of having to lug books, a water distiller, a medical kit, plus all your own stuff. In the pictures do we look lighter? Yeah because in these pictures we have dropped off all the Peace Corps stuff. Were we such good sitemates that we even owned the same backpack? Nah... We traded packs so that she could pack her southern China basket that she will use to carry her future children in. We'll trade back our packs in a couple of weeks.

We left Gansu at 7 am on Saturday to catch a 1 pm train which was delayed till 2 pm. The train ride usually takes about 16 hours, but this time it took 34. The rains have been causing mudslides and we had to wait for at least 10 hours for the tracks to be cleared.

Luckily we had some great cabin mates, a family of four. It was fun. It was like having a host family. They fed us apples and seeds. We understood a lot of their Chinese and they communicated using gestures which is really rare to find in China. We played some oral English games to help the high school and college aged boys with their English. We played the same games in Chinese to help our Chinese. The mother even finished the collar of the sweater I was knitting for C, a going away present to the best sitemate ever. The mother taught me a new bind off method using a tapestry needle. So the 34 hours imprisoned on a train wasn't torture. It was a nice way to say goodbye to China, the loops that China throws you mixed with the learned flexible attitude of "Don't get mad. It'll all work out. Find a way to enjoy what's happening around you."

Here is the finished Plain and Simple Pullover pattern by Veera Välimäki. You can download the free pattern at the free knitting community called Ravelry.

On Wednesday we both left for the USA sharing the cost of a 5:30 am taxi to the airport. C's flight to Beijing was first, leaving at 7:30. My flight was next leaving at 10 am except after climbing two flights of stairs to board the plane, we all had to turn around and be driven back to the terminal. I followed the four obvious looking foreigners who were led by a non-English speaking airline representative back to the check-in counters going not through an exit, but through security backwards. The flight had been cancelled due to mechanical problems and we had to get new tickets. The foreigners were NOT happy because they were going to miss their flights back to Europe. We stood around the counter for thirty minutes trying to get new tickets. Everyone was stressed at missing their connecting flights and we were using customers who spoke English to help translate what the airline workers were trying to tell us. Eventually I heard the Chinese phrase, "Airplane. Good." We were handed our original tickets, ran back to the original plane, boarded it and I made my connecting flight. The others, doubtful. I am betting they got stuck in Beijing.

So...15 hours on a luxurious method of transportation compared to buses in China, I made it back to Alabama. Chicago was a hassle with 1.5 hours of immigration and customs. The lines were long.

It is strange being back. I think the reverse culture shock is greater than my home leave from Africa to the USA. Humans are so flexible. Habits and expectations after 2 years change. Just like how China was a bit overwhelming when I first arrived, the US is now overwhelming. The USA seems to be the same except that I am different.

One big thing that doesn't seem to be the same from two years ago is the number of people who are occupied with their cell phones. You don't see people's eyes anymore, and the noise is people talking on their mobiles.

There were lots of moments of ding.... "Woah that is strange. Woah my habits aren't American anymore."

Examples:

1. My seatmate commented, "Oh you don't want ice anymore?" My response was "Oh... there's ice?" I remember back in the day when I would drink every airline beverage with ice. After two years in China, I have forgotten about cold drinks and ice.

2. I was surprised that I could understand a lot of the Chinese announcements on the airlines and didn't mind if the airline workers spoke to me in Chinese first. I remember my first flight to China being super self-conscious about not being able to speak Chinese when everyone expected me to.

3. After four years of sleeping without a pillow, on a rope cot, and on a thin pad on plywood, I find the beds in America to be too soft.

4. Before I can remember to put the toilet paper into the toilet bowl, it is dropped into the trash can.

5. During my morning run, I knew that it was culturally appropriate to raise a finger in greeting to drivers coming your way, but it took me several cars before I felt brave enough to do it. It was like how living in Africa or China, I was sometimes too afraid to bargain even though I knew it was culturally appropriate. I find it funny that with a US custom I too would feel resistance to doing it.

6. Instead of dodging cars and people, during my run I saw only five cars, a frog, a turtle, a country mouse, kids and their goat moms and piglets and their moms.

7. Even though America has a huge car culture, Alabama seems empty compared to China. The streets are empty. The sidewalks are empty. Even the parking lots seem empty.

8. Waiting in the back room of the doctor's office felt extremely lonely. Unlike China, where at the doctors' you are always surrounded by people, always accompanied by friends and family, being isolated in a small room felt really awkward.

9. I am still Chinese in America. Because the doctor knew I was serving in Peace Corps China, I guess he assumed I was Chinese and asked, "So what part of China are you from?" It is the same question everyone in China asks me. I guess I will never escape that question.

10. I was surprised at how much information was given out by public announcements at the airport. "The plane is delayed because we are waiting for another plane to leave the terminal." I was surprised at how well people followed rules and would wait at yellow lines marked, "Wait here," instead of bunching around empty space. Or would stay seated with seat belts fastened until the sign was turned off.

Going Away Party

Last night we had a going away party for Caitlin with our best friends in China. These friends are the non-English teachers we go on hikes with, go on bike rides with, travel Henan with, play Mahjong with, and cook with. Pictures of them doing yoga at the Yellow River even made it into the China Peace Corps brochure. It was a crazy party!

First there was a wasabi eating contest which resulted in some pretty funny faces. Then when the cake was brought out, everyone got whipped cream smeared all over their faces. Then they wanted to play spin the spoon to see who would get cake thrown at them. Being the good Peace Corps volunteers we are who want to share American culture, we described the kissing game, spin the bottle. Maybe we should have held our tongues coz the next thing we knew, we spent thirty minutes acting like middle school kids who have never kissed anyone and who are super embarrassed and too shy to kiss anyone. We were laughing with tears streaming down are faces with the nervous energy of teenagers. Thirty year olds refusing to be kissed, to kiss, or eagerly saying, "No problem," running over puckering lips to plant a wet one on my sitemate's cheek to only meet a back.

The night ended with the pointing game, where the group counts, "One, two three," then point at the person who will get smeared with cake. No one wanted to play the game except for our group's funny man. Guess who got attacked with cake.

My Water Distiller

In Africa, using PC provided filters, and using a knife and fire we built a two bucket gravity water filter. Pour well water into the top bucket and wait till it drips down into the bottom bucket. Here in China, they lend us a high tech electric water distiller that leaves behind a visible layer of minerals and metals.

I would highly recommend cleaning your water distiller regularly. Why?

1. At the end of your service, if the water distiller isn't clean, PC will charge you money. Trying to clean a distiller with two year's worth of minerals and metals is not easy.

2. If you don't clean it regularly, your "clean" water will start tasting like the metals and minerals you think are being left behind.

It took me a whole day trying to clean a six month layer of mineral. I've got to stop being so lazy and clean it more regularly.

American Meal in China

What would you cook if you were preparing an American meal for your Chinese friends?

I have no clue. I feel like Americans eat meat, bread, cheese, mashed potatoes, salads and steamed veggies. I prefer stir fried Chinese dishes to steamed veggies. With no cheese, I feel anything I cook will be more Chinese than American.

I've been invited to several meals cooked by Chinese people. They prepared at least eight courses. If I was in America, I might prepare a lasagna, bread, and a salad. I feel that my Chinese friends will feel that my table is impolitely empty with the salad and peanut sauce over rice that I am cooking.

In Africa, the western dishes I cooked were no bake oatmeal cookies, pancakes, mashed tubers and spaghetti.

In China, there are a lot more ingredients in the supermarket, yet I still feel lost about what to cook. If I was in America, we would just have a Fourth of July BBQ. Bring on the chunks of meat and grilled veggies.

Three Men on Bicycles

As I was sitting outside eating an egg and tofu sandwich watching the playground, I saw three guys on road bikes riding round and round in circles like they were practicing for an indoor bicycle race. The men were wearing bike helmets. BIKE HELMETS! It was an astonishing sight. I have seen maybe two Chinese people wearing bicycle helmets and they were unique because they had fancy bikes, fancy outfits, and gloves. The majority of people in China do not wear motorcycle helmets nor bicycle helmets. While wearing my Peace Corps issued helmet, people's heads turn to watch me bike by, and they snicker. I was very surprised to see helmets on the playground. When I looked more closely, I saw that they were wearing the helmets backwards from how I would wear them.

Chinese American in China

During my first two days in China, I was lost and voiceless, but I was expected to understand, to talk, to order food like every other Chinese looking person living in China. The pressure drove me further into a hole of hiding. After only one Chinese lesson of reciting a pinyin chart for two hours, I was expected to go out into the streets of Chengdu and order lunch. LUNCH! Food was a simple need to fill my body with nutrients that would rejuvenate and re-energize. It was a simple basic necessity of life, but scavenging for food to fill my rumbling tummy was a task full of my own fear.

Instead of being an independent American, I took the easy way out and followed the foreigners. I fed off the hospitality and patience that their white faces of being outsiders gave them. Instead of being yelled at,instead of being hurried, instead of facing impatient frustrated waiters during the rush hour of lunch trying to feed a billion people, the foreigners were given smiles of sympathy and lots of sign language to indicate cost. Et voila, we were fed. The obvious foreigners and the hospitality of the Chinese people fed me. I didn't have to open my mouth to face the wrath of expectations, expectations that I would be able to understand and fluently speak Chinese just because I looked Chinese. I was an independent American turned into a non-obvious foreigner.

Looking like a Chinese person, I become invisible. I do not have to bear the burden of being stared at every minute of the day or bear the frustrations of being yelled at by complete strangers or obnoxious school children. HALLO! Bye bye! OH KAY! I am instead surrounded by the silence of looking like everyone else. In such a profound silence, I feel peace yet within the quiet, a deep sense of loneliness overwhelms me. I do not belong to this Chinese culture of high heels, flashy feminine fashion, ankle high nylons worn with sandals, of mothers and children, of conformity, traditional values, and harmony. I am an outsider. I walk in a bubble of invisibility and am astonished by the old people in the park doing Tai Chi with swords, old men walking their birds, and fathers holding their daughters over the roots of city trees to pee. In silence, I walk. I observe. I judge. I write about not belonging.

Not only am I alone because I am just another face among the billion, but I am also alone as the Chinese face among a group of foreign faces. I feel the comfort of the familiarity of western culture, the ease of communication, the cultural references, and being among like-minded people, but because of the color of my skin I become a curiosity.

Chinese strangers wonder, “Who is that Chinese person speaking such good English among the foreign guests? Is she their translator?”

Foreign strangers wonder, “Who is that Chinese girl sitting in the group of foreigners? Does she speak English? Maybe we should start speaking Chinese to her first. Maybe we should ignore her because we can't speak Chinese. Maybe we should compliment her on how good her English is.”

It's lonely and often frustrating always correcting everyone's assumptions, always shrugging in confusion because I don't understand, always telling people I don't speak a lot of Chinese, and always being Chinese when I am Chinese American. Instead of asking and finding out who I am, everyone's first assumption is Chinese girl. Why wouldn't it be? I look Chinese. It's isolating being Chinese but not being Chinese.

In America, the instances that I do not feel alone but feel like I belong, are the points in time when my skin color is totally ignored, ignored because we are just good friends enjoying a moment together. However, as a visitor abroad, a visitor in China where everyone looks like me, being able to ignore my black hair and dark skin is near impossible. To have moments in public where my skin is ignored is rare. Maybe everyone else in China is ignoring me, but I cannot ignore my skin, the skin that labels me as Chinese when I can't speak a lot of Chinese. Plus often in those public moments, when my friends are ignoring my skin color, all the strangers around us suddenly start noticing and start to stare.

In Africa, I was correctly assumed to be a visitor, not African. I didn't have to constantly correct people. In China, I am a great unknown with automatic false assumptions being shot at me from every direction. It is strange not belonging anywhere. I'm always in a land of wrong expectations, expectations to speak Chinese, expectations not to speak English, expectations to be Chinese, expectations not to be American. I am in a land of always correcting people. I've given up and just let whatever people think, think it! I am tired, so if you want me to be Chinese, then so be it. I have learned how to be the Chinese person you want me to be and have stopped correcting. I just nod and smile. Yep. Wow, my English is really good. Yep. Sorry you can't understand my Chinese. I must be from a different province. Yep. I'm not really from America. I'm one hundred percent Chinese.

You may be wondering, why does it even matter? Once people get to know you, false assumptions are thrown out the window replaced with fact. Ah, she is Chinese American born in Taiwan adopted by white foreign Americans. Yeah! Why does it matter? In the Tree House English Resource and Community Center I am a teacher, a friend, an advisor, a person to speak English with and a resource to learn about American culture. My skin color doesn't matter anymore. No longer am I incorrectly misnamed but am correctly factually labeled. I become a human being.

In the Tree House, it is true that I feel the most accepted and respected, feel like I belong to a community and don't feel like an outsider. It is a safe haven from false assumptions where the students have made my time in China less lonely. I am no longer an outsider and am more accepted without expectations, but I can't live in the Tree House forever. I have to leave, face the country of false assumptions, and face the invisible silent bubble, but I always know that I can materialize into an actual human being whenever I visit the Tree House. It is a comforting thought to visit a place where I am no longer lonely but actually feel like I belong.

from The Tree House Book by Women Writers

Tailor Made Skirt

Here is the wrap skirt I had made. I am quite happy with it. The new tailor didn't make a skirt that was too small. Plus the butterflies were right side up instead of upside down. The labor cost 30 RMB ($4.41) and then the fabric bought in Li Jiang, Yunnan Province was 60 RMB ($9). I was able to get a sleeveless shirt and a skirt made out of the cloth. I got a phone call from the tailor and will pick up the shirt and a sundress tomorrow.

The water came back on and I was able to do laundry and mop the floors. My house is always happier when the floors look clean.

I went to a bakery looking for shaved ice, covered with beans but opted for a custard cup instead. The bakery had air conditioning. I spent a couple pages writing about guilt and debt.

Tonight in the Tree House we played Taboo then ate at the Muslim cafeteria. A guy who works for the government sat with us and wanted to be our friends. Whenever I eat in the cafeteria, no one talks to me, but because my site mate joined me, we got a lot of attention.

Today's Tidbits

My final has been submitted and maybe it will happen in a couple weeks. I am doing my review this week just in case since no one has told us when finals will be.

The weather is getting warm and I just realized that I could use the fridge to chill water. How funny... I have spent two years in China and it is only now that I came up with that idea. I think it is because I never really thought my part of China was hot. It is nothing compared to Africa. Slowly my body has been adapting here and now I am taking two showers a day. Funny that since it is not hot, not at all. I guess I take two showers a day because my feet stink. The dust here is bad. I guess I could just bucket wash my feet.

I participated in senior group pictures today and realized that I am still angry with them for not coming to my class.

The creative writing zine is finished. Only thing left to do is to have a book reading while eating hot pot.

I was going to go see Avatar tonight, but it took too long to photocopy the zine. There was a long line. Many students were making photocopies of their final exams. I wonder how they got copies of them.

My bike ride today was excellent. I left at 7 am and the sun was high in the sky. I biked a paved road for about twelve kilos and then hit a dirt road.

I am reading Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin, and it is making me homesick.

Last thing I realized today is I am judgmental almost on the verge of prejudiced, maybe more biased than actually prejudiced. I hate that I am and am angry that I am. So why not stop? Good question.... I have to think and write about it some more.

Oh one more thing... Is it just China or is it everywhere? Big super big bug eyed big sunglasses are the fashion these days?

Toilet Paper

In China, the toilet paper comes in two sizes. The short size that would fit in a USA standard toilet paper holder and a longer size that is double the length. Why is the paper so long? Which roll should I buy, the short one or the long one?

Also, most of the toilet paper sold in China don't have the inserted cardboard tube. W.C.s in China usually don't provide paper. Well you can buy small packets of tissue at the entrance of public toilets for 7 cents. Also, most public toilets are not free, costing about 7 cents.

Restaurants have plastic dispensers that sit on the table, and you can pull out some toilet paper to use as a napkin.

What is hard about being a volunteer?

Peace Corps applicants recently nominated for a program, asked on their blog, "What is the hardest part of being a volunteer?"

For me it has been the stress I create for myself because of my personal reactions towards different practices within the culture. Every volunteer has certain things that frustrate them. They are not the same for everyone.

For me in Africa, I hmm.... didn't have many moments of frustration. Or have I just forgotten?

1. Catching students who cheat annoyed me.
2. aggressive sellers in the market and getting cheated by taxi drivers and merchants

In China, I feel like I have had many more moments of frustration:

1. catching students who cheat and plagiarize (I later realized that teachers here don't usually care and are not out to try to catch cheaters. It has sort of made it easier, but still I react negatively to cheating.)
2. not being told what I feel is important information (For example, not being told that a course I am teaching will have no final or grade.)
3. being told I am not allowed to do something like travel
4. having an erratic schedule that is full of unknowns with instant changes (For example, I often receive phone calls, "Come now." Drop everything and come now. It is important.)

Some people say that the hardest parts about being a volunteer are

1. too much free time
2. the slow progress of getting anything accomplished
3. having to redefine success because it isn't the same as it is in America

Maybe I have been a volunteer too long which is why I've learned how to deal with the above three reasons.

How do I deal with my frustrations? I talk about them, write about them, try my hardest to let them go, and sometimes go on a bike ride or a run. Usually a good night's sleep will wash away my stress.

Impossible Task Planning Anything

Students have been drawing vision maps, researching and learning about Western manners, making lists, rehearsing a role play to teach the do's and don'ts of a dinner party, building and painting pinatas, practicing Western dances, and a whole bunch of other activities for the past month or so. Now it is time to have the big events: a mock American dinner party with a small amount of food to practice Western manners and a nature festival celebrating the outdoors with games and dance.

No one knows when the Dragon Boat Festival holiday will be. Everyone knows the festival is June 16th, but will we have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off or will we have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday off? Plus, when will we make up classes by holding them on the weekend?

Next week is a HUGE unknown.
When teaching stops is a HUGE unknown.
When finals are is a HUGE unknown.

With so many unknowns how does anyone plan anything? You just do it, so the students picked dates, next Monday and this Saturday.

One day before the event, I got a text inviting me to be a judge for the English speech competition on Saturday.

SATURDAY? That is when we are suppose to have our nature festival.

What do the students do?

They re-paint the sign and schedule the nature festival for Friday evening, replacing the movie with pinatas full of candy and watermelons being eaten as fast as possible.

I sent a text asking, "When is the Dragon Boat holiday?"
I got a reply, "Don't know yet. Will let you know as soon as I know."

Living in China keeps you on your toes. Be ready to reschedule and don't get mad if you have already cooked a HUGE pot of spaghetti for a dinner party that has been moved to next week.

Breakfast Run

My early morning run was so so.... My black toenails were bleeding and the nail will soon be falling off. How did I get black toes? I went on a 7 hour hike with the wrong socks about a month ago.

Also, I was running a bit heavy. Last night we had a huge banquet with the English department because we got prize money from the school for participating in the choir competition. Still not clear about our ranking. Out of 21 departments, I have heard we either placed 2nd, 5th, or 7th, or in the second tier of groups. No one knows.

Here is a picture of my cafeteria breakfast snack guy. This morning I got a wedge of onion bread, a sweet potato hash brown cake, and a sesame ball filled with red bean paste. This morning he asked me where I was from and was shocked when I said America. I find that whenever I wear a headband bandanna, people stare, comment on it, or realize that maybe I am not from around here. Yesterday an English teacher said, "You look cool like you are from Brazil."

Sports Meet

Did you know that in August 2010, my city will be hosting a Gansu Olympic Games? Is that the reason today and tomorrow there will be a sports meet for students at my school? Actually, no that is not the reason. Every year across China, high schools, middle schools, and universities hold sports meets for their students to build character through exercise.

This morning I got up at 5:55 am and went out the door at 7:50 to grab a $0.14 a bread thing with a fried egg on top from the cafeteria. Then I went to the big dusty hard as rock clay playground. Hmm... I guess playground is the Chinese English word that the students use here. It isn't actually a playground where kids go and play, but is a big empty tan field with track markings dug into the ground.

The opening ceremonies had a parade and performances: aerobics routine, Kung Fu and Tai Chi demonstration, Taekwondo demonstration, and drumming.

Action pictures are really hard to capture.

Knowing which bad picture to post is also hard. I wanted to do a series of pictures with shades of red. I have a picture full of red costumes on drummers but it has missing body parts. Just needed to shift the camera a little to the left making it a better picture.

The photo I have decided to post is not a clear picture because I was a bit far and had to use the zoom, but the action is interesting. By the end of the performance one guy was jumping over 7 people. Plus I know the guy in the picture who is flying in the air. I've done Taekwondo with him.