Random Facts About China Part One

So, having lived here for six weeks (and also from visiting before), I have been gathering interesting random facts about China and Chinese culture.  As you probably can tell, I'm a big list person, so I thought I would start one.

1.China is on one time zone.  If you look at the outline of the time zone that China is a part of, you will see the typical strip of land, with the outline of China in the middle.  Everyone is on Beijing time, which makes it weird for people in the West, who should be three or four hours different.

2.  China doesn't follow daylight savings.  Our afternoon classes have been bumped up a half hour to let people get home before dark (at 5.30 during December and Janurary.

3.  Chinese medicine is based on a totally diferent system than Western medicine.  The whole internal temperature liked to spiritual energy thing.  Apparently a lot of it really works. 

4.  Chinese people sleep on wood boxes, for the most part.  Or with a slim, hard foam pad.  I have two slim, hard foam pads.  I am on the hunt for a nice foam pad.

5.  Chinese people tend to wear the same outfit for a couple weeks in a row.  They will wash it at night, but wear the same thing.  This is less true on the college campus, and the weather has been changing so people have putting on warmer clothes.

6.  It's rude here to talk with your arms crossed.  I do this when I teach, so maybe I should cut it out.

7. Weekends are not as reverent as they are in the States.  It's common to work on the weekends and there are very few 'weekend warriors."

8. Chinese women don't shave their armpits or their legs. 

9.  The 'comfortable' air temperature for houses and airplanes is ten degrees higher than the comfortable air temperature in the States. 

10.  Whenever the foreigners are playing sports, we draw a crowd.  We played a few rounds of volleyball and we had at least 20-30 people and children watching us play.  They just had an hour or two to stop and watch us play.  We played kickball afterwards in a field nearby and the same thing happened: 15 people showed us to watch us play.  It was almost like they texted their friends and said that some laowai (foriegners) were playing a weird sport and you should come and watch.  This happened in Tai'an as well, anytime we played games with the kids outside, we drew a crowd lined up along the fence.

This is good for now, I'll write more at a later date.  They will probably come in 10 list installments as I encounter them.

Yellow River Trip

One of the trips that Sias provides for its teachers is going on a hovercraft on the Yellow River and spending time in the park near by.  While the trip on the river wasn't terribly awesome, I did get to ride a horse and be in a hovercraft.  We got some pretty awesome pictures in the park.

This is a pretty awesome picture of Jon, who is a sophmore English teacher and coordinator of all the foreign teacher activites.  He went with us to the banquet (which will be my next post).

The Yellow River is filled with silt and it was also an especially rainy day that Saturday, so things were pretty muddy.  The hovercraft was pretty awesome and glided over all the mud and water no problem.  I think it was the first time I had ever been in one.  The tour guide said that having lots of Yellow river mud on your shoes meant that you would be prosperous.  My muddy boots are still in my room, I haven't cleaned them yet.  Those two facts are unrelated.

Halfway through the trip was a camp with all of these horses that you could ride for ten kuai.  They looked pretty healthy (not like other places I've seen) and it was pretty fun.  The woman wouldn't let me have control of the reigns, though.  She thought it was tood muddy and I might do something stupid.  I actually had worn my cowboy boots that day, so I was super prepared for horseback riding.

There was a lady selling pomegranates as well and they were pretty awesome.  It reminded me of the time we made pomegranate jelly out of all those ones sent by Nanny Gomez with Danielle.

After the ride was the park, so we spent two hours wandering around.  It began to drizzle halfway through so I ended up taking a nap on the bus.  But they did have these cool bell things that didn't actually make noise.

J.I. (one of the foreign students who lives in Peter Hall cause his parents work at Sias) taught Nick some break dancing moves.  Well, maybe one.  I just happened to get it on camera.

There is this huge statue of two of the early Chinese emperors that were built in the 1980s as a tourist spot, but it's pretty cool to to look at.  It makes for a nice park, and an awesome thing to take pictures with.  Erin did a great job of lining us up.

I just need a beard to match.  I already have the pensive look down.

There were a lot of rock faces that were fun to climb.  J.I. ripped a hole in the crotch of his pants because they were too tight and David hurt his heel jumping down from one of the higher rocks.  It does provide some cool shots.

All in all, it was a good day.  I was super exhausted afterwards, though.The rock climbing channeled my inner child (and a wayward youth spent climbing trees).

Things you shouldn't do with chopsticks

The first time I ever went to China, we were coached in Chopstick edicit.  If you have a bowl of rice, don't stick your chopsticks in it, that's what Chinese people do when they leave rice for their ancestors.  Don't use them as drumsticks, especially at a banquet.  Don't let the tips touch the table, always keep them on your plate or your bowl.  Never stick them anywhere inappropriate, the like.

Wellllll....  sometimes it's too much fun to resist.

Aaron and Winston are culture partners and because Winston and Jessica (my culture partner) are dating, we go on double dates.  Or whatever it is when only two out of the four people are dating.  A four wheeled date?  Half a double date?

This is Sarah, who is the teacher of the culture student program, who is now teaching sophmores that the culture program is done for the summer.  She's doing 'two fingers,' a ninja sign that the culture students made up when playing our favorite game called Ninjia Star.  It's like Big Booty only with ninjia signs.  It's pretty awesome.

This is Eileen doing wolverine, our shout out to Hugh Jackman in Ninjia Star.

Either a bumblebee or a new creature from the Star Trek universe.  (I had been watching some Star Trek movies before this dinner.)

I'm going to say this picture is the most attractive one of me, ever.  This also got the most laughs out of the culture students.  Erin is practicing her vampire fangs because she gets to play Bella in the upcoming Twilight skit for Culture Week.  And for those of you who know Erin (hi Erin's mom!), it's really ironic because we all hate Twilight with a fiery passion.  The fire of a thousand suns.  But they are doing a parody, so I guess that makes up for it.  A little bit.  Matt Hux is going to be Edward (hi Matt's mom!).  I can't wait to see it.

Faith jumped in on this action too, as a pretty convincing walrus.  An interesting note: that's Aaron in the yellow shirt before he shaved his head.  Good before and after of him in this blog.

There will more more, in the future, but I thought I would post these now.  I don't think they have been a major fau-paux (is that how you spell that word?) and I have been on my best behavior at the banquet I've been to. 

We just had our opening ceremony at Sias, and there was a banquet with the bigwigs of the university before hand.  Some of the foriegn teachers needed to go, so Jess and I volunteered.  It was a great idea, because there was a four course meal.  First was salmon and bacon with a quasi Ceasar Salad with REAL olive oil!!!  Next was a great tomato soup with cheesy garlic bread.  Then there was chicken and mashed potatoes and tiramisu for dessert!  And Jess and I got all dolled up to go, which was half of the fun part.

We have both volunteered to go to a banquet on Wednesday in Zhengzhou of university leaders and the govenor of Henan provience.  I have a feeling that will be more of a traditional chinese banquet (hello fish eyes and chicken feet) but it will still be pretty fun.  My parents (and Jess's (hi Jess's mom!)) taught me how to be polite and smooze, so why not practice and get some good food in the process?  I'll let you know how it goes.

Info Cards

So, I had all of my students fill out "Student Info Cards" so I can keep them straight and contact them if I need something.  Some of the students wrote me a note at the bottom.  Here are my favorites:

"I fancy perfection and pursue eternal happiness.  Perfect fantasy..."  Allen

"Hope Every class Happy!"  Heather (and every other chinese student says "I hope happy every day!")

"By the way, I like your hairstyle, like waves."  Maple

"Opportunities are not wait!"  Angel

"I hope I can learn how to write in English from you.  Esp, how to write the beauty essay."  Clark

"I like English firstly.  Then I like doing sports.  You are perfect."  George

"Hold fast to your dream
for if dreams die/go
life is like a broken-winged bird/barren field
that can never fly/frozen with snow."  Alexander

"In our life, we always meet some troubles, but there is a sentence that encourages me so much.  'Its like a web, sometimes.  You make it, you wait.  And something always comes.'" Lasia (girl)

"Yes, we can!!"  Cenny (girl)

"I believe I can fly." Karsa (guy)

"Do what I like, like what I do.  Interest is the best teacher."  Andy

"I hope u can find ur Mr. Right as soon as possible.  Good luck! (heart) Expect we can be good friends."  Cecilia

"I am a sincere boy."  Fisher

I also have a pretty awesome from my friend Erin's class, from one of her low level athletes.  Green 1 is her husband, Seth.  "Green 1 is very strong.  You would be fatter."  I think this is my favorite one.

It is interesting to note that in Chinese culture, cliches are encouraged and relied upon heavily.  Anything that is a collective saying or phrase is considered to have more weight than something you could make up on your own.  This idea is one we talk about in writing class to help them write in a western style.  I taught them the word cliche and what it meant after they all wrote cliches on their note cards.

I also asked my students to tell me a little about themselves and I got some interesting self assessments.

"I am an outgoing girl and willing to try my best to learn English Writing well!"  Brittany

"I am an easygoing girl.  I am patient.  I love smile."  Doris

"I'm not so confident and easy to be nervous.  I hope I can come over these."  Emily

"I'm bright and I like communicating with others."  Grace

"I am an outgoing girl.  I think my shortage is I am a little lazy sometimes, I will do my best to make full use of time."  Jessica

"I don't like talking.  I am a little shy."  John

"Hi Lane, I'm a diligent and honest girl and I love to spend time with dear family and friends.  However, there is also a self-esteem in my heart and it makes me a little ambitious and independent."  Joyce
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"I want to be a perfect man.  So I will try my best."  David

"I am lovely.  I like smiling.  Be kind and hope make more friends!"  King (girl)

"I am patient and careful.  I would try my best to do things well.  I love dancing.  I hope I can be confident and brave."  Alexis

"I want to be braver!"  Tammy

I think students spend a lot of time describing themselves, or being told about different types of people or virtues of what people should be like.  Something about the whole thing seems very cookie cutter and Chinese, but it's hard for me to articulate it (obviously).  It makes me want to sit in on their high school English classes to get a feel for where some of what they say comes from.

Chinese English is definately different than American English.  Its weird.  And makes for a good blog post.

Mid-Autumn Festival

So, we didn't have school on Wednesday because of the holdiay called Mid-Autumn Festival, which is a traditional Chinese holiday.  We ate a lot of these things called moon cakes, which are flaky pastry filled with different insides like peanuts, dates, red bean paste, egg, meat, etc.  I liked the peanut and red bean ones fine, but the other ones were kinda gross.

I'm not really sure exactly what the MidAutumn Festival is about, but I've heard two different legends so far.  Both have lovers that have been seperated and celebrating the moon reunites them.  I think.

We decided to go with the cultural students out to hot pot, which is my favorite type of Chinese food.  Its kind of like fondue, only with soup instead of cheese and everything gets cooked in the pot right in front of you.



There is the spicy side and the nonspicy side, and I have started embracing the spicy side.  They also provide you with some good dipping sauces, one being really spicy peppers and the other is a peanut and sesame sauce which is awesome.  There is a gas flame underneath the pot that keeps it bubbling and everything cooks pretty quickly. 

This is some of the stuff we put in the pot: sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, noodles, 3 kinds of tofu, meat, mushrooms, veggies, everything.  It's pretty awesome.

This is half our group, it was so big that we had to take up two tables.  From left to right:

Wayne, Neil, Faith, Jess, Sammi, Jacob, Jessica, Me, Eileen, Enoch's arms.

A couple of guys (Aaron and Neil) have now shaved their heads, which has been very surprising to some of the Chinese students.  I was thinking that maybe I could be next...  well, maybe not.  My hair has been pretty fantastic since I've been here so I'll keep my curls.

After toasting the moon, a group of us headed to one of the nearby amusement park to wander around.  I shot at baloons with a rifle bb gun and we rode a couple of really sketchy rides.  Again, most of those rides would be illegal in the states or condemned.  They are building a new one that looks pretty nice, maybe it will be done before the weather gets really bad.  I do have some good pictures, but that can be another post.

I'm now completely over my cold and back in action for most things.

All of the freshman teachers are now coming back from summer vacation and so I have a whole new host of people that I need to meet and remember the names of.  Many of them are returning teachers but a couple of them are new.  New people mean new personalities and so it will take another month before things really settle.  I'm always excited about new people, so hopefully some of them are fun to hang out with.

Hack, Cough

My body doesn't like moving to China.  Once I'm here awhile it doesn't mind, but the moving part is hard.

So needless to say, I got a cold the second day I moved here.  I recovered in a normal fashion, but it came back two weeks later as a sinus infection.

Luckily it wasn't bad enough to go to the doctor, one of people in charge of the foreign teachers had antibiotics that I could take. I wasn't the only person to come down with it, Erin and David also got sick.  Erin and I watched five movies over two days and filled up three garbage bags of kleenex. 

What to do when you are sick in China:
1. Drink lots of hot water.  Really really hot.
2.Turn off your AC
3.Get lots of rest
4. Go to the doctor and get an IV (no matter what your illness is)
5. Drink medicine tea by the bucket.

This is the medicine looks like this.

Well, okay, it's actually 999 medicine, but it took me a while to figure that out with the Chinese.  It looks like little molasses granules that disolve in water.  You are supposed to only add a little water and drink it like a shot of espresso.  It tastes okay but after five times it gets old.

There was something interesting about the medicine teas, though.  There are two types to treat the two ways the Chinese classify colds.  They determine your type of cold by your body temperature: either you have a 'hot' flu or a 'cold' flu.  I'm not really sure how the whole thing works, but it does.

I'm still blowing my nose, but I'm getting over it.  I hope this doesn't become a regualr occurence.

Vroom Vroom

One of my favorite things about living here are the electric bikes.  They are EVERYWHERE.  Instead of having a car, most people have electric bike and can fit all three or four members of their family on one.

This is a great example, even if its on a regular bicycle.  Chinese kids can sleep ANYWHERE.

So, I've been out on an electric bike twice now, once to go shopping downtown and once to ride through the country side.  Jess went with me both times, and the ride out to the country also included my Culture partner Jessica, some other culture students: Winston, Lisa, Faith and Aaron who is Winston's American culture partner.  We spent maybe an hour riding bikes and it was awesome!

Going through the countryside was really fun, even if it was pretty dusty.  Xin Zheng is a country town, so there was a lot of corn and something that is related to lotus root but not quite (Jessica didn't have an english translation for it but it grows everywhere).  Its super flat here too, so people have done this with regular bikes and its a nice ride.  Not like biking in Seattle.  Definately reminds me of Pennsylvania.

And always, the local livestock chowing down by the side of the road.  Maybe this is the cow that I get my raw milk from!

All in all, the whole thing is pretty awesome.  The rules of the road are pretty simple: 

1. Get out of the bigger trucks' way. 

2. Learn to love your horn. 

3. Sticking to the side of the road is optional. 

4. Driving the right way on the road is optional. 

5. Have a will ready.

6. What's a helmet?

7. Be fearless and it will be more fun.

Before my mother has a heart attack, its not too dangerous.  I never once thought I would actually die.  If you come and visit me (anyone), we will do this.  I would go riding every day if I could.  And the total cost to rent one of these puppies for an hour or two: 3 RMB.  $0.40  Yes, please!