May 22, 2002

Allright, this page goes up in a flurry due to my sister's pleadings. Unfortunately, not a lot of exciting things to report, but now that I think about it, I don't think there has been yet! I think you may be in for a "more style than substance" type of page here, so my apologies in advance. At least you get to enjoy some more pics!

Let's see, oh yeah, how 'bout letting you know what I did for my week vacation? Well, maybe it would be best if I explained why I had one in the first place. You see May 1st marked International Labor Day and many, many employees here enjoyed a few days off with pay, and thankfully, this included teachers!! Here though is another example of an approach to things that is hard for someone like me to understand. Instead of simply giving you the days off during the work week, it's common practice to work regular hours the weekend before to "make up" for the time lost in having a holiday in the first place. Do you see what I mean here? You have to work on your normal days off to enjoy days off when you are normally working! It's pretty crazy, and for me a bit annoying as I had to attend class the entire weekend before.

Anyway, on the first day off I made the mistake of doing some clothes shopping in the malls located on Wangfujing Street. This was a mistake because it seemed almost everybody in China was doing the same thing! Never in my life have I seen so many people packing the streets and the stores. I could hardly move around, and it made shopping even more unenjoyable than it usually is. One interesting point is the difficulty I had in getting a pair of shoes that fit me comfortably. Either the stores didn't carry my size, or if they did, the shoes were uncomfortably tight on my feet. Really frustrating considering I only wear a size 10 or 10.5. Visitors to China, you have been warned! :) On a more pleasant note, I took some time to do some biking around the city and made a visit to the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park. Getting there was no "walk in the park" (sorry bad joke) though as I got lost and then even more lost after asking a couple locals for directions. Some people have questioned my belief that these men purposely gave me wrong directions, but I am almost 100% certain they did. Why? Well maybe it's because they told me to take the opposite direction from the street right in front of them that led almost directly to the park! Maybe they weren't THAT local you ask? Well, I doubt they traveled very far to drink cold beer under the shade of a tree located in front of a series of large apartment buildings. I would just love to have the opportunity to "help" them out some day! OK, moving on, the park was pretty cool, but I was dog-tired from the extra 1 hour of riding my bike and I just didn't have the energy to see all of it. What I did see though was interesting and worthwhile, and I even got an admission discount by showing my student ID card! Not too shabby! The park itself is basically a representation of the 56 nationalities, their architecture and customs, and it was interesting to see the differences between them. While I was there I met a couple students one of whom was named Tweezers (don't ask), and the other Zhao Xin. he-he They were cool to hang out with and we all seemed to enjoy each other's company.

The rest of my vacation involved more biking and seriously cleaning up my apartment. There were dust bunnies greeting me every time I came home and was getting pretty sick of it! Beyond that, it was pretty low key and definitely refreshing.

Socially, I have been run a little ragged on the weekends as it just seems that the concept of time is lost in the process. A couple weekend's ago, my friend, classmate, and fellow teacher, Mike and I emerged from a disco named Vic's at about 6:00 in the morning. Both of us stepped out of the doors and were nearly speechless at the sights and sounds before us. A morning sky, people walking their dogs, other bleary-eyed partyers milling about, and birds whistling in the trees. It was almost surreal. Needless to say, I was worthless the next day. Beyond the literal pain involved after the process, I have met some cool people during these times and am enjoying going out more than I did back home....in fact I actually find I am dancing more than I ever did back home too! And this despite my possibly incurable White American male syndrome! Hahaha!!

School is still going well and I have long since accepted the fact that I am light years away from being at the head of class. Still super tough and the material is still being thrown at us at an unbelievable pace. Dong Laoshi is a great guy, and I respect him a LOT for doing what he does as well as he does, but despite this there are some things that he does that are entertaining and sometimes even a little frustrating. For example, when I or anyone else asks for an explanation in English for some whacked-out Chinese language concept, his answer can sometimes be "Don't worry, you just know." Now what does that mean exactly? If we just know, we wouldn't be asking in the first place right?!?! Ha-ha!! Can you imagine how many times my eyes have rolled after hearing that one? Anyhow, second to the infamous "You just know." answer to this type of question is his "Chapter #XX" where XX is the number of some future or sometimes, although rare, past chapter in one of the books. Yes, it can sometimes be a bit ridiculous, but it's an accepted thing and just as often Dong Laoshi makes great efforts at helping us understand things. Another common expression he uses to define the learning process as a whole is done with his hands where he makes each one step by step climb higher than the other one. Hard to describe in written form, but I bet all of us in class have it down pat. I just want to sum up this take on my teacher by saying that I have never had one with as much enthusiasm for what he is doing than this man does. Gold stars and blue ribbons for Dong Laoshi!!

Soon I will have to figure out just what the heck I'll be doing after the semester is over. I am almost convinced that I need to study the language for at least another 6 months before feeling good about living here, so the question becomes what is the best way? Do I sign up for another semester, teach in a smaller city that has even less English resources, or do I work for a Chinese company and get going that way? I just don't know at this point so stay tuned. Well, that's it for now, and Jeny I hope this makes your morning. :)