The joys of life in China…

Monday was Chinese Teachers Day – I didn’t find out until Monday that it was a fairly big thing! I had students stop me in the school yard to give me gifts of food, flowers, a photo album etc. I also got a card and every student that has my phone number either called or messaged me that day (even my friends who are now in other provinces all over China for university). I had someone message me at 11:46 pm, she apologized for not messaging me earlier in the day because she had been busy but she wanted me to know she hadn’t forgotten me. How special.

Aah, and this is for you mom – you won’t believe it (because I can hardly believe it). Yesterday I went to the market to buy some ingredients for the ‘hot pot’ recipe that Karen taught me how to make. I got some tomatoes, tofu, ginger, bok choy, cucumber, cabbage, dried hot pepper and…AND I bought the fatties piece of pork fat that I could find on the market – it ended up still having pork skin on it (see picture). Aaaah, I never thought I would actually buy such a thing and the people at the market apparently didn’t either (as they seemed all confused when I pointed at the fat)…last time I had told them that I only wanted the meat and that they could try selling the fat (I had been all disgusted by the big slabs of fat with pork skin still on it, I remember wanting to become vegetarian by the time I left the market)…ahh what a few weeks in Chinese culture can do to you!

I am finally at the point where I feel like I know enough of the Chinese language to kind of get around and live around here. Ok…SO my Chinese skills aren’t that wonderful (YET…I am learning), but at least I’m now confident enough to go out and make a fool of myself in public – usually I get what I want/need. It is really quite handy to stand out in the crowd (white skin) as people expect that I don’t know their language. I was expecting difficulties when I went to the massage place all by myself the first time 2 days ago because all the masseuses are blind so I would not be able to use sign/body language. AAAAH, I was SO nervous as I walked in with my little piece of paper that had “I am here for a massage” written on it in Chinese words so that I could remember what to say. That’s the only line I knew but they understood and gave me a great 1.5 hour massage for $2. During the 1.5 hours they played a tape that had some Chinese kid saying/singing words in Chinese and then repeating them in English…all the blind masseuses whether sitting on the frayed and worn couch without cushions or busy with giving massages as well as all the other customers who were receiving a massage would sing the English words and I would in turn sing the Chinese words as I learned them…it was quite the experience – I keep hearing the songs in my head “Ye Ye, Ye Ye, Ye Ye, Grandpa, Grandpa, Grandpa…”. I like people who want to help me and who join me in the learning process!

Teaching is still going well – I really enjoy it and the students do too. I often feel so sorry for the students because they are in class for so long. I initially thought they were in class until 10pm but last night I heard the bell at 10:30pm (I had already been sleeping since 10ish because I was exhausted and when I heard the bell I thought it was morning already). Today I asked my students about it and I found out they are actually in class from 7am till 10:30pm + add to that a stack of homework. The students often get no more than about 6-6.5 hours of sleep a night…how can they possibly stay awake in class?? It’s a different way of life!