Recap of the Xmas festivities

I had a fantastic Christmas. The CCEPers had a Christmas party at Steph’s place two weeks ago and last Friday all the foreigners were invited to a party held by the government. The past two days, I’ve been treated to dinner by my school. My classes have given me apples or cards or some other kind of gift. I might be making dumplings on Monday with one of my classes. At least I hope I can go. I felt bad because this past Thursday I said I’d go and then I got the invitation to go to the school sponsored dinner which is compulsory. So I couldn’t go make dumplings. : (

The wrapped apples and oranges are popular gifts here because apples signify peace and security and oranges signify happiness. Tomorrow I’m going to Beijing to meet up with Jeremy, CJ and Michelle. I might meet up with Jenna and Aleks because they’re also going to be in Beijing. I think Steph and Kelsey might be in Beijing too, but I’m not sure. CJ is leaving for good on January 4th. It makes me sad. She’s also a really cool, chill person to hang out with. She’s moving on to grad school, so I guess it’s for the best, but I’m still going to miss her.

It still seems surreal that I’ve been here for 4 months now. I’ve been contemplating staying another year. I just really like it here. My Chinese is progressing albeit slowly and I’ve settled into a nice routine. Routine is a relative term in China as anything can happen at anytime. Classes are winding down and finals are beginning here. I’m officially finished January 18th, but the last day of classes is January 4th. Then I’ll be off until February 24th. I’ll be traveling with fellow CCEPers. We’re going to go to Harbin up north for the ice festival and then we’ll make our way down south to Hong Kong and Sanya, Hainan. Sanya is where the Miss World pageant was held recently. This is where Miss China was crowned Miss World. Another interesting fact to note, she was born in Shijiazhuang, where I live. How nuts is that?

I'm a teacher? What??

I now have confirmation that what I am teaching does not matter at all. Why? Yesterday while I was giving a final in my class, I had a student show up in the middle of it that I had never seen before. She asked me to give her a grade for freshman English. What she was telling me wasn’t making much sense so I told her to come back after class. She was a sophomore who had changed her major so she hadn’t taken freshman English because she was an education major last year. So she wanted me to give her a final and then a grade even though she’s not on my roster or ever been in my class. I talked to one of my bosses and she said I should do it. Hmmm…okay. So, there’s no need to go to class or participate or do anything other than show up for the day of finals and ask a random teacher for a grade??? How does this make sense? Oh that’s right. I’m in China. And yes, I’m giving her a grade today.

Handan and Xi'an!

In other news, I went to Handan and Xi’an this past weekend!! It was fantastic. Jenna and I went to Handan where Erin and Ben teach and from there we took the train to Xi’an. Pictures do not do the terra cotta warriors justice. We also visited a famous mosque in Xi’an. Xi'an is a great mix of old and new. I really liked Xi'an. Handan is nice because it's a small town and everybody knows each other. It seems like a nice place to teach.

Okay, I know I’m not in India but there are some things that are identical to how it is in India. First example: On a bus in Xi’an, the extra people standing in the aisle ducked to avoid being caught by the police. It’s illegal to have a packed bus and have people standing in the aisle. At least for a bus passing a checkpoint. Second example: Bargaining with vendors. They say, “Mingtian, wu kuai” meaning “Tomorrow, 5 kuai.” They say the same thing when you bargain with vendors in India. Tomorrow it’ll be that price. Of course they don’t mean it but it’s funny they say the same thing.

I got back from a very shady dinner with some old creepy Chinese men. I went with my friend because there was no way I was going to let her go alone. There was nasty Great Wall wine involved and some bizarre phone calls. The “tea master” would not let us leave and I just finally got up, put my coat on and said I have to teach early in the morning, which I do. I don’t know how we would have gotten out of there if I hadn’t done that. The tea master kept making excuses, “one more glass,” or “one more cigarette” to my friend. It was not that late, but late enough. I was tired and the whole American and Indian fetish is getting old.

Today I decorated my room for Christmas. I feel more cheerful already.

Living in China

I think James Fallows has China down to a T. If you want an idea of how things work in China or why there are so many accidents in China, you should definitely read this. http://jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/11/the_way_vs_a_way_japan_v_china.php

Other related news:
I have now wandered onto two constructions sites since being in China. This doesn’t include the construction site that a taxi driver took my friends and I through once upon a time. How many have I walked through in the US? Zero. I was trying to get out of Future Mall, the basement of which has a grocery store. The rest of the floors are under construction. One would think it would be simple to do this. Not so. The exits were clearly not exits in this mall o’ the future.