Weekend recap

Saturday
Vikey woke me up at 8:30 am to remind me about today’s radio broadcast. I woke up a couple times, at 4 am due to Richard’s loud talking and 9:30 to get ready. I heard lots of people talking in the hallway and then it got quiet so I thought people had left. Nope, at 10:30 am when I went downstairs, the hallway was filled with people, many of whom were wearing suits. Obviously, I had no idea what was going on. There were maybe 100-200 people in my hall just standing and blocking the way out.

I went to a housewarming with Rich, Hugh, Josh and Jenna. I met a lot of new people including Mike and Cindy who grew up in Des Moines. It’s bizarre how many people have ties to Des Moines. They’ve lived in China for 17 years now.

Sunday
I met up with Caroline to go Christmas shopping near the train station. At lunch, we were stared at by a Chinese beggar for the entirety of our lunch, maybe a good 30-45 minutes. After lunch, he started to follow us and so Caroline and I split up with Sharon and Wendy (our Chinese acquaintances) to distract him. It worked and we walked away quickly.

Jenna met me later for dinner and we watched a Korean movie and part of the Simpsons Movie. We also got delicious lamb sticks.

Oh China

A few days ago I was warning Jenna to avoid riding her bike in or near any puddles at my campus. “Why?” she asks.
“Oh because there’s sewage spilled everywhere.”
“And how did that happen?”
“Oh well they couldn’t fit it in the truck, so they spewed it on the ground.” This sounded very logical when I said it. Then I realized how absurd my life really is.

A few nights ago, I went to go get lamb skewers with Jenna at the corner across from my school.
Jenna- “Man, I will never be able to out hard-core the Chinese.”
Me – “Yeah” We watched for a few minutes as the couple set up their corner stand and start their fires for the barbeque pit.
Jenna- “He just walked through the fire.” Exactly.

Other absurd things that now seem normal:
-couches and branches in the middle of the street covering manholes where construction is happening (who’s really going to be stupid and run over a couch, right?)
-cars in the wrong lane…and on the sidewalk…and wherever there is enough space
-walking calmly into said traffic and expecting not to be hit
-foreigners drink free at certain clubs
-everybody is your friend…Hallo!
-Communist party members closing buildings instead of security closing buildings

Things I will miss when leaving China:
-eating family style and the food
-barbeque!!!! (lamb sticks and mantou steamed bread are particular favorites of mine)
-how everyone is always outside doing something
-only working 12-15 hours a week
-bargaining (or arguing in some cases)
-there are no drive thrus in Shijiazhuang!!!
-not understanding what’s going on and claiming ignorance when stuff happens
-working on my Chinese with cab drivers (see above)
-naps!! People will just conk out wherever they are after lunch, for example, at a counter manning a shop or under/on a statue or on a streetcart. It’s fantastic and I don’t know why Americans don’t have scheduled naps
-milk tea with boba

Bob

I have a new roommate, I discovered him yesterday after my shower. I named him Bob. You can’t tell from the picture but he’s tiny, about as long as my middle finger. It was funny because I had just been thinking about how nice the apartment is because I don’t have an infestation of cockroaches or lizards or snakes and then I open my bathroom door and he’s just chillin on the floor near my rug. One would think it would be too cold for lizards to still be around, but no. I still consider myself lucky because so far, he’s the only one I’ve found. And he’s not a snake or a cockroach. I had a harrowing experience trying to kill a mighty cockroach when I first arrived. I also heard that Josh had found a lizard in one of his shoes which would have scarred me for life if that happened to me.

I went to Mazzo cause Rich was making his second debut as DJ there. All the Shizzy folks were there so I went even though I had to teach this morning at 8 am. When I came back from the club, I was greeted by Bob again and this time I was able to shoo him out of my apartment. Now whether he will return to surprise me is another story.

Mystery fruit and politics

I ate part of a gigantic unidentifiable fruit on Tuesday. It was bigger than a coconut and heavy and green. It reminded me of jackfruit. It looked like a pear on steroids. My neighbor/student Lee Jung In brought it over and we attacked it with my puny paring knife. Then he ripped it apart because my knife just wasn’t cutting it. It tasted like a grapefruit. It’s called a Yowsa in Chinese. Not that I know what that is in English. I love the fruit here. I wish we had more of it in the States.

Now for today’s topic: American politics

Oh lord, if you want to see fear, you should have just seen me when I was talking about politics in my 8 am sophomore class today. All of the students became very serious and quiet and no one dared ask a question, until I changed the subject and talked about American society and the TV shows they watch here. One of my students wouldn’t leave me alone until I talked about it in class, so now it’s done and she can’t pester me anymore. Let’s just say that the first hour (or the hour that shall not be named) was intense. The second hour was light hearted and everyone started talking again because we did fun activities and I finally got them to speak mostly in English because I had a “trophy” for the person who spoke the least amount of English and I made them speak at the end of class. I told them they could pass it on to whoever was speaking in Chinese, so it traveled a bit.