Life here is not getting much better or easier, I would say, but it seems to be picking up the pace. When I think about how I still have 3 and a half months left in China, it feels like forever. However, when I think about it as less than 100 days (and even fewer working days!) then it really does not seem like much time at all.
This re-situation of my perception has really helped. Now it's not about how much time I still have to go to work, but it's about how much I still want to do before we leave! There is still so much China to see and do!
Dim sum! We still haven't done dim sum! That most quintessential of Chinese meal experiences among yuppies and hipsters alike, and we have not done it. To add much insult to injury, dim sum was invented in Guangzhou. We are in the very heart of dim sum town and yet have not tasted the forbidden nectar of teacakes and dessert dumplings. It's the name of my blog for Mao's sake! Such a cardinal sin has never been committed by a self-professed Sinophile.
Although, it is not from lack of trying. Last Sunday there was a valiant effort on the part of Laura and I. After trying (and failing) valiantly to raise the interest of our Chinese and our Foreign coworkers, the two of us set off for a restaurant personally recommended by our boss. It was intimidating and I was nervous, but I'd eaten at enough Chinese restaurants that I assumed I'd be able to figure it out.
Sadly, this was not a day of victory. The dim sum restaurant was just too big and too chaotic. Four or five stories, each with private rooms and also 600 seat dining rooms laid before us. I meekly approached the hostess and told her (in perfect Chinese, thank you very much) that we wanted a table for two. She grunted in an ironically disgruntled way and handed me a pink slip of paper. The paper had nothing on it, no English or Chinese, save for a large handwritten number 75. 75 what? 75 minutes until we are seated? Were we supposed to head to table 75? Perhaps room 75? Were there 75 luftballons waiting for us somewhere?
We moseyed around looking for the answer to this clue. There weren't really any numbers anywhere. Every area looked much the same as the last, and there were far too many people around. Stressful does not really begin to explain the situation. Before finally giving up, we discovered the room where they have all the "fresh" and "still living" food on display. Look what you can order! Most of it was fish, of course, but there were also snakes and some sort of beaver as well. Who wants to eat a beaver? Some Chinese family, apparently.
The big event at school last week was the parent-teacher day. Also known as "open lessons", every foreign teacher had three classes that were open for parents to come and observe. Of course, it couldn't be as simple as just letting them see a normal lesson. No, we had to once again come up with a very strict script, and then rehearse the hell out of the classes. Not only the teachers, but also the students, had to memorize all of the details so that the parents would be led to believe that every class is totally perfect and that every child is a total genius.
At this point, as I have made abundantly clear to everyone, I am pretty much completely jaded. I don't really care, and I'm sick of lying to myself and to the parents of these poor kids. However, for the Chinese teachers their entire careers and futures are literally on the line. It was a pretty stressful week despite my constant efforts to remain Joe Cool about everything. I was pretty heated at the time, especially the way Annie, one of the teachers, was treating me. But, now that it's been two weeks it's all sort of laughable. Maybe there's a benefit to waiting a whole week or two before I make another post. It's less writing for me, and also a lot of things that seemed like a big deal at the time don't seem so bad anymore!
Anyway, the schedules changed and re-changed, as per usual, and the number and variety of different things that were to be included in our open lessons also changed faster than I could blink. By the end of the week, each open class was almost like a little variety show. There was singing, dancing, and games. All of them like well-oiled machines.
The arrival of the open classes came without too much fanfare. I was ready for mine, and I had even mentally prepared for everything and everyone to disappoint me. Just as I had predicted, and regardless of my constant efforts to stop it from happening, all of the Chinese teachers really dropped the ball. They didn't have any of the materials necessary for the craft project we were doing with the parents. Oh well, I winged it like a total champ!
Instead of thanks, though, I get a chewing out from the aforementioned Annie. She asked my why my presentation was shorter than I had told her it would be, and why I didn't do a craft. My response was simply the truth, that the foreign teachers had been informed that the purchasing of the materials was the Chinese teachers responsibility, and that it was her fault that we didn't have the stuff. I even reminded her of all the times I reminded her to get them. Perhaps I have made an enemy in her, but really I don't see how it could have gone any other way.
I often wonder how the Chinese teachers perceive me. Sure I spend paragraph after paragraph talking about how I see them and how weird they appear, but what is the shoe like on the other foot?
I really wish that I had more insight into the matter, but I simply don't. It's so difficult to get into their heads. I think I probably stress them out, and they probably also think that I'm a uppity prima donna. Perhaps this is true to an extent, although I'd like to think that I am very patient with them. They must wonder why I get annoyed when the plans change so suddenly, or when they lie to my face and I catch them doing it.
What is it like to live in their world? I try to live a Chinese lifestyle here but I don't think a year is enough time. Sure I am getting used to a lot of the stuff, but on a primal level it is all just so foreign to me. Things that I take for granted as for being obvious, such as telling the truth or keeping a promise, are completely foreign concepts to just about everyone I interact with on a daily basis.
Deep down we're all just people though, I suppose. I really need to work on taking my experiences here for granted. Even the bad ones are a time for me to learn. Right?
We spent the day in Guangzhou on Saturday, and made sure to hit up a bunch of the places that we hadn't seen yet. We went to the Chen Clan Academy, which is a museum and folk art collection in an ancient building that used to belong to the Chen Clan. Back a few centuries ago, several different families who all had the last name Chen decided to pool their money and build a sort of halfway home or a guesthouse. The house was free to use if you were a Chen from anywhere in China or anywhere in the world. It got a lot of use from students and journeymen who had to come to Guangzhou to take various tests to get into various programs.
I think if it was the first place I had ever gone in China I would have been amazed. The building is beautiful and a lot of the art was stunning. The effect was somewhat lost on me because I have been to a lot of museums and folk-art places so far. Either way, for 10 RMB (less than $2), it was a great place to spend an hour or two.
The other big stop that day was Yuexiu park, the biggest municipal park in China. There was a whole theme park in there, and also this really big statue of some goats. The goat is the official symbol of Guangzhou for some reason. Since it is now the year of the goat, Guangzhou is having a bit of a bit year and the statue is even more of a tourist attraction than it usually is.
Our big day in the city ended at a Tibetan restaurant. I really would like to go to Tibet someday, but it is definitely off the table for this trip around the world. Way too out of the way and way too expensive! But a trip to a Tibet cuisine restaurant seemed like the best alternative.
The food was so good! Most of the dishes on the menu were either goat or yak. We had a bit of both, and both meats were totally delicious. I think my favorite dish was the spicy yak, but we also had these little yak burritos and they were equally awe inspiring. The burritos came with a sugary sweet sauce. Truth be told, it was one of the most expensive meals we've had in China, and it may have been a little too pricey for how much we got. The lack, if any, in quantity was definitely made up for in quality.
In the following week at school (37) was the very beginning of our Carnival month. April is a month where we focus our lessons on a theme. This year the theme is "All 7 continents", and so we will be doing a lot of fun geography lessons. I'm completely stoked, because I love geography! I also am a true believer in the idea that kids learn best when they are engaged. Language acquisition, especially, requires true interest and "real world" situations. I hope to spend a lot of time this month talking about travel, and showing off some of the amazing places in the world that I have been, and would still like to go!
Since there are 7 continents and 7 foreign teachers, we were each assigned one to "specialize" in (Leon got Antarctica. Sorry mate). I was assigned Oceania, which is really exciting. The kids are going to learn so much about surfing and coral reefs and conservation!
I really can't wait. Sure, the usual BS pervaded a lot of the week, but I was so engaged in preparing awesome lessons that Friday arrived before I even knew what hit me.
Saturday (yesterday) was another Guangzhou day. This time Laura and I decided to check out the Chimelong Amusemet park. The Chimelong resort is the place that has the amazing zoo and safari park that we absolutely loved back in October. We assumed that the amusement park would be up to those same standards, plus they boasted having 6 roller coasters!
Now, perhaps Cedar Point has spoiled me, but the park was an absolute failure. It all started off so well, too. We went in the south entrance and nobody seemed to be in the park! We basically walked on to the first roller coaster, and it was thrilling. It had a 90 degree free fall drop from several hundred feet. Apparently it is the tallest free fall roller coaster in the world.
We enjoyed the ride so much we thought we were in for an unforgettable day. It turns out that it was pretty unforgettable, but for all the wrong reasons. The frustrating habit of a lot of Chinese people to disregard lines was in full effect yesterday. This is something I can usually avoid or ignore in places like grocery stores, but when it is 95 degrees and we've waited 2 hours for a ride it is a completely different story.
There was also the unfortunate discovery that the "6 roller coasters" was actually 3. Their definition of roller coaster is apparently way different than mine, and they included things like a big spinning swing in their list. The other big "real" roller coaster had the distinction of having the most inversions of any ride in the world. The roller coaster was even called "The Ten Inversions Flip Mountain Roller Coaster". I was pumped to ride it, but was once again disappointed.
It was the bumpiest and most painful ride I've ever been on. If you've ever done the Mean Streak at Cedar Point, this was easily 10 times worse. I even blacked out for a minute from having my head battered so much. I wanted to count the inversions but I ended up just counting bruises.
After that disaster we were in a pretty sour mood and we decided to leave the park immediately. The rest of the day was spent at Zhujiang New Town right in the center of GZ. There was shockingly no pollution and the view of the Canton Tower was superb.
Once the sun went down we headed to the airport to pick up some very special guests. Laura's sister and one of her brothers is here to spend the week with us! We are so very excited to have some family and familiar faces here.
I'll end this post here, even though it doesn't sum up the entire week. It seems more thematically appropriate to group the entire Carol/David Kuznia China trip into one big post, which you can look for next week!
Less than 100 days left here, folks...
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