Goings on

So now I'm back working at this entry. I'm keeping everything I've
written below, because I think keeping track of my attempts to
complete this is funny.

I later attempted to complete it on July 13th, and possibly also in
late June. It's now late on July 31st, and I have promised myself and
others to complete it before I leave for Sri Lanka on the 3rd.

I started trying to write this blog entry at the end of April, and
then started to continue it May 23rd. I should finish it sometime
soon... Anyway, when I started writing this, there wasn't a whole lot
going on, but now lots has changed. But still, I'll start with some
of the small things, since I'm on my break between classes and don't
have time to write much (not that you'd notice if I didn't tell you
about it, I'll save the draft and send it when it's all complete).

With the warm weather (this while in China, late April) lots of new
fauna have been appearing. Most noteable are the mosquitoes, which
necessitated taking bug spray with me wherever I go, at least until I
ran out of it. One morning a while ago I went to a rice noodle shop
nearby for a quick breakfast before taiji and got at least 5 bites on
my arms and legs before I decided that I should spray the exposed
appendages. This morning I counted something in the region of 77
little bites just on my ankles.

More benevolent creatures are also starting to show themselves. Over
a month ago now, bats started coming out when it got dark, at least
over at taiji. Not the big huge bats like in Sri Lanka, but big
enough to eat bugs. It was really cool, one night I was finishing up
practice at taiji, it was getting dark, I was watching the bats flying
around. It was still light enough that I could see a mosquito several
feet above me, I was watching it in case it came down into gooshing
range, when suddenly a bat swooped past, I heard a little snap, and
the mosquito was gone.

A lot of cool non-biting insects are also appearing, including some
black and blue butterflies. Some other butterflies too, I think,
especially little fluttery white ones.

About a month ago I also ran across a lone toad hopping around on the
ground floor of the teachers' apartment, but in the past week or two
the frogs and toads have started to show up in force. I almost
stepped on a big one this morning at taiji, but for the most part
there are just tens (and probably many more hidden and dispersed) of
tiny little toads (usually no more than maybe 3/4 inch long) hopping
about in the grass. I'm not sure if they're just babies or some sort
of pygmy.

Those that I've seen most recently generally just make short hops of a
few inches, but several days ago there was a small frog (? I'm not
entirely sure how to differentiate, should look that up) that was
making leaps of a couple feet. It must have been a different species
than all the others that are out now. It was jumping so hard that at
the top of its trajectory it almost seemed to be hovering.

Oh, I've also eaten frog now. It wasn't really bad, but the bones
were annoying. I've also had the opportunity to consume some other
weird semi-edibles, including, but by no means limited to:

-pudding made from pig blood (salty jello)
-fish head, including an accidental eye (the fish was really good, but
the eye was all hard, not crunchy, just hard)
-snails (not bad, the sauce is pretty good, kind of shellfishy, but
without the fishy flavor)
-snake (like non-fishy eel, not bad, not my favorite, it has a lot of bones)
-chicken stomach, sheep stomach, all sorts of tripe (kind of gross to
look at, chewy, not much flavor, but not too objectionable)
-some eel fried with eggs (weird, and it was really spicy)
-duck eggs
-all sorts of more normal foods prepared in strange, usually yummy, ways
-pickled tofu (sort of like a creamy cheese, e.g. boursin, but with
tofu, and a little spicy)

Generally just a lot of strange things. A lot of it I got to try when
I went to Heng Yang, in Hunan province, with my girlfriend Echo. It's
her home city and we went during the Labor Day holiday at the
beginning of May. She was staying with her parent's and I was going
as her teacher and friend, which may have been believable, but I think
her parents may have seen through it. I stayed at a hotel, and,
unexpectedly, it's hard to find really cheap hotels outside of major
cosmopolitan cities. China doesn't have much of a backpacking class.
Fortunately, we were able to get the hotel room fairly cheaply because
Echo's maternal uncle's second wife's daughter's boyfriend was owed
money by the hotel. Yeah, it took me a couple days to figure out the
chain of connection, especially since at first she just said that
she'd never met her aunt's daughter before, without specifying that
her uncle had remarried.

I'm afraid that the boyfriend may not recoup his investment. The
hotel looks nice from outside and in the lobby, but the
air-conditioning was fully defunct in my first room, and barely
functional in the room they moved me to. Moreover, the rugs were
scarred by repeated run-ins with smoldering cigarette butts, the
whitewash on parts of the wall came off on your clothes if you leaned
on it, and the bathtubs were mildly scuzzy. A room near mine was out
of order and had no door. Service was sometimes slow, generally
acceptable, but not particularly good, yet it was supposed to be a
pretty nice hotel.

Well, while in Heng Yang I got to do a number of things. We went to a
park on a small hill, Flying Goose, or maybe it was White Goose,
Mountain, the first tiny mountain in a range of some size. In that
range lies one of the five holy mountains in China, the name of which
currently escapes me (Nang Yue, maybe). I had originally hoped to
climb the mountain (all famous mountains, landmarks, whatever, have
stone paths for tourists), but, being a holiday, the tickets were
priced out of my range, besides which the weather was rainy with a
little lightning on the day we would have gone. A friend of Echo's
father's did actually do us the favor of driving us out to a famous
temple near the foot of the mountain, where we walked around, looked
at all the different statues, took pictures, etc. It was wet and
gray, but interesting to do. (He also took us out to dinner that
evening and gave Echo and me a ride to the train station when we left
late that night, it was all very kind of him, and I have no idea why
he did it. I certainly appreciated it though.)

I think the temple was technically Buddhist, but it was so
syncretistic it was hard to tell. Buddhism is very good at melding
with other religions, but here former deities become former Buddhas,
and it's all very confusing, especially because the people who are
trying to explain things to me have been raised virtually without
religion. They don't seem to have any serious understanding of the
theology or cosmology involved in the various religions, and I mean
significantly less than the average American, there's just the vague
idea that this statue is to someone or something who helps make you
rich (lots of different gods for that) or helps you get children or
something. It was very confusing and a little frustrating.

It's a frustration that's all too familiar here though. I may have
mentioned this before, and I don't mean anything bad against
individual Chinese people, but something about either the educational
system or television programming or children's literature or something
leaves almost everyone I've met without much more than a rudimentary
knowledge of world geography or history, and of course people know
hardly anything about religion. Maybe the curiosity's there, but it
seems like they've been taught to think of the outside world as
boring. I remember one student said she was bored by world history
when she was taught in school, but then a teacher at Omeida started
talking about it a little to explain something, and she found it
interesting.

At the same time, when I think about how much I knew about Chinese
history, or really anything about China before I came here, it doesn't
seem like the US school system does a much better job. I guess it's
more that here even the people who are curious just don't have access
to much information. And I'm reasonably sure that the literature here
is rather lacking in tales of adventure, at least adventure that
occurs outside of China. There's one classic, Journey to the West,
about a monk who travels to India to get Buddhist scriptures, but
that's about it. Also though, there is, or at least was, a lot of
ethno-cultural diversity in what we think of as China that I'd have
thought would be more integrated into people's awareness of outsiders.

Back to Heng Yang. One afternoon we also decided go to another park,
which had some rides and jungle gyms and space to walk, it was sort of
half amusement park, half normal park. In one place there was a giant
refrigerated room that housed a bunch of ice structures and sculptures
that had been sent down from the Ice Festival in Hei Long Jiang, the
northeasternmost province. It was interesting, but not hugely
exciting. When we went in from the summer heat we were handed these
huge winter jackets to put on, which were very necessary inside. There
was a little pagoda, a statue of the Buddha, a little castle, the
animals of the Chinese zodiac, a bobsled track, some other things...
All the big structures had colored fluorescent lights in them and the
whole room was lit with big, ugly, greenish-white giant overhead
lamps. Unfortunately the bobsled cost 10 kuai, which wasn't worth the
ride, although a free ride with entry would have been fun. They were
also selling overpriced hot apple cider.

All around this park there were typical amusement park booths set up,
but several iterations of one I'd seen a number of places around the
city, where balloons are placed in hollows in a sheet of styrofoam
supported by an upright wooden board, and the goal is to shoot as many
as possible with ten shots from an air rifle. Echo suggested I try,
and I decided I would, it wasn't very expensive and could be fun.
Knowing these things are usually rigged, I aimed a little high on the
first balloon expecting the plastic pellet to drop, and missed. In
the next shot or so though, I realized that the gun was actually
pretty accurate over the distance I was shooting (maybe 3-4m), and
that as long as I aimed at the top of reasonably full balloons, they'd
pop without problem. I ended up getting 8 out of 10, which meant a
free and welcome bottle of water. It seemed so easy that I imagine
the only way those stands can be profitable is that no one in China
(outside the army) knows how to aim a gun.

One of the real highlights of the trip however, was getting to see and
be part of a wedding. One of Echo's good friends from university was
getting married, and Echo was invited to be part of the bridal party.
We got started a little late, and so didn't meet the bride at the hair
salon, wedding salon, whatever it was, someplace where she'd get ready
for the day. Instead we went directly to her parents' apartment, this
being marked by a special character, in red, placed at appropriate
intervals to guide us (the entrance to the apartment complex, the door
to the building, the door to the room).

Once we got there I was introduced to a couple of the people cramming
the small living room, invited to make myself at home and help myself
to the snacks that were out. Then it was time to hide the bride's
shoes (the groom can't take her out of her room until he finds them),
after which the bride and bridesmaids hid in her bedroom.

While we waited for the groom's party to show up, I tried to talk with
one of the bride's cousins, the only one not in the bridal party with
any English. I think he was about 19, but he was really shy. And, if
his teeth were any indication, smoked a lot, or just didn't brush. I
talked some more with one of the bridesmaids who came out for a little
while. It turns out that she works for in the Shenzhen office of an
Arizona-based agency that procures furniture for companies like
Thomasville and Ethan Allen. I think she said that she's actually
been to High Point, NC for the international furniture convention
that's held there.

Eventually the groom's party showed up, announced by the prolonged
percussion of long strings of firecrackers. Looking out the window
there were explosions all over the parking area below, as car after
rented car came through the gate. A group of innocent bystanders, who
had been quietly knitting and playing cards, seemed variously
impervious to or mildly enthusiastic about the sudden onslaught.

Moments later, the knocking at the door began, and the groom faced his
first trial: buying off everyone in the living room so that we'd open
up. To accomplish this representatives of the groom started handing
out little red envelopes containing money through the security gate,
which were eagerly collected by those within. Not wanting to be
greedy I only took one.

Eventually the door was opened, and the invaders rushed in amidst a
cloud of silly string, with the designated videographer standing
towards the rear. Now they had to try to wheedle, cajole, bargain,
threaten, somehow force there way into the bride's room. This was
guarded by her friends, who finally submitted after a few minutes of
heated debate, the contribution of some more red envelopes, and the
discovery that the room had a window that opened onto a balcony,
through which some of the groom's men were able to press their
confettied advance.

They went on to find the hidden shoes, and then went to the living
room to receive the blessing of the bride's parents. This was a
slightly more quiet moment, after which we poured out and down the
staircase, the groom forced to carry his bride all six flights. Echo
guided me to the front seat of one of the waiting cars, and under
cover of another explosive volley, we made our way to the groom's
parents' apartment.

The car ride was quite peaceful, but upon arrival at our destination
we found ourselves under fire once again. With ears covered, we made
our way along the elevated walkway to the first-floor apartment, where
we sat around. It didn't seem that there were as many official
traditional things to do in this venue, so I made some basic small
talk with some other guests, watched the Rockets play in the NBA
semi-finals, and munched on the various foods that were placed out for
the guests. In addition to the standard peanuts, watermelon seeds,
apples, and candy, these included hong xao (sp?), which are somewhat
date-like but drier and smaller, and a local specialty, which seemed
to be half of some sort of seed soaked in a sweet, mentholated
pickling juice, not intended to be eaten but rather to be chewed on,
kind of like an oversized piece of gum, with splinters. After half an
hour or so of nothing much (although I did get a glimpse of what
appeared to be a bedroom decorated for the newlyweds), the happy
couple led us all back out to the cars amid yet another extended
firecracker cannonade and confetti barrage. From there we proceeded
to the restaurant for the wedding feast.

As we entered the building, the bride and groom greeted us at the door
and forced cigarettes upon us, which we later distributed to smokers.
We found a table and sat down with a number of people we'd met
earlier, including the woman who worked for the furniture dealer.
There was another assortment of snacks and the waitstaff was making
the rounds, offering us orange drink, coke, red wine, or white (i.e.
rice) wine. Announcements were made over a painfully loud and
reverberent PA system, introducing the groom and bride (who had
changed from her white, western-style dress into a stunning
Chinese-style red silk gown, the groom hadn't changed his suit
though). Then we settled down to a massive feast, some dishes of
which I mentioned above. It was pretty good (I thought it was great,
but I'll eat just about anything and like it, Echo thought it more
mediocre), although way more food than necessary.

The bride and groom were forced to do all sorts of crazy stuff by
their friends. It seemed like each table was expected to come up with
its own challenge. In our case, the groom had to hold a
toothpick-studded piece of pork fat in his mouth while the bride
removed them with her mouth. Then the groom was asked to drink a
concoction of the various drinks on offer, lightly seasoned with bits
of food from the dishes on offer. He did his best to beg off, but in
the end downed it.

By the way, have I yet mentioned that the bride's English name was
Kinky? I kid you not.

Eventually the meal was over, we were free to go, and Echo was more
than ready. As we left the bride and groom thanked us, and then we
headed back to the hotel. On our way Echo told me that they had
thanked me especially for making their wedding different from their
friends'.

That day was also Echo's mother's birthday. I had insisted on getting
some sort of gift, so after we reached the hotel we found a bakery
nearby and I ordered a cake. We couldn't think of any useful thing
that would be practical to get, and this seemed like a nice gesture.

Before meeting Echo for dinner I took a nap and watched a movie, "Der
Untergang" (The Downfall), about the last days of Hitler's regime. It
was heavy, and engrossing. The subtitling wasn't perfect, but it was
pretty good, good enough to follow the plot and figure out what ideas
were going back and forth.

The birthday party was pretty fun and thankfully involved no cake
smearing. I met most of Echo's family, including some of her younger
cousins, talked some, enjoyed a good meal, friendly company. After
dinner we went over to her aunt and uncle's apartment (this was the
second-wife aunt with the daughter with the boyfriend) to play
mah-jong. It's a fun game, sort of like rummy in that you're trying
to make sets and runs, but with a bunch of other rules, different
scoring, and tiles instead of cards. I'd learned to play a day or two
before with Echo's mother and cousin (whom she calls sister, which is
sort of in the sense that one associates with African-American
stereotypes and sort of in the sense that they grew up together and
had no genuine siblings). Both times I played I ended up winning.
I'm not sure if it was strategy (mine was to avoid giving the winning
tile, as that's generally the way one loses points) or luck, but
whatever it was seemed to work. Echo helped me a little bit though,
so I'm not sure how much it counts.

That same aunt had also given me a haircut the second day we were in
town. My hair had started to get pretty long and the weather had
become pretty warm. Echo had originally planned to take me to a salon
a little closer to her home, but they wanted to charge me too much, so
we went to her aunt's barber shop. They have this cool way of
shampooing your hair, not in a sink, but as you sit, they put the
shampoo in, then a little bit of water, mix it all up on your head,
and toss the excess suds in the trash. After rinsing Echo decided
that I should just get a trim. I'd been thinking something shorter,
but it worked. Her aunt then pulled out a straight razor and
proceeded to lower my ears using only that, taking a lock of hair and
running the razor down it, shaving off the outer centimeter or so. It
was very strange, a unique experience. It was also mildly painful
what with the constant pulling on my hair. I would not elect to do it
again, although the 6 kuai price tag seemed eminently fair.

I guess that's about all I have to report about that trip. We did
some other things, like go shopping (Echo got some new clothes, I got
a couple new shirts and a new pair of pants), and I watched "Spirited
Away" at Echo's parents' apartment. I learned a few recipes (which
I'll post soon), ate lots of delicious, home-cooked Chinese food, met
a lot of interesting people. Outside my hotel window there was a
park, and every morning I could see people practicing taiji, all sorts
of different styles, some with swords, others with fans, others with
nothing. I considered going down and trying to join in, but decided
against it. We went to a barbecue street (a street with lots of BBQ
cookeries) and ate chicken, fish, greens. Echo claimed she saw a
couple other foreigners one day when we were out shoe shopping, but I
missed them. In fact, the only time I saw any other westerners on
this trip was when we got on the train back to Guilin. I chatted with
them briefly, but it was a late train that had been delayed, and was
getting in about 5:30, so that didn't last long. Overall it was an
excellent trip, one of the highest highlights of my time in China.

In other news, the weather seems timed to foil all my plans for doing
laundry. It's basically guaranteed to be gray and drizzly, or maybe
even stormy, for about three days after I do my laundry. Since it
wouldn't dry, but instead get all gross and moldy if I left it in my
room, I usually just let it hang out in whatever weather there is,
which at least saves me having to run home to hang it out when it
finally gets sunny. The downside is that the construction going on
next door leaves the occasional bit of mortar splashed on a shirt.
(this paragraph written end of May)

Let's see, there are a few things that are strange, but so commonplace
that I never remember to write about them. I think. For example, in
virtually every hotel there will are 4 to 6 clocks with times for
major cities around the world, with Beijing time in the center. The
thing is, all the other clocks are almost always off, Beijing time is
the only one that's accurate.

Another thing, big grocery stores in cities have lockers that you have
to leave your bags in.

Then there was this one time where I saw a massive pile of peapods, or
maybe soybeans, lying on this piece of burlap on the sidewalk. Right
by the construction of the front of a hotel a couple doors down from
the school. No one seemed to be watching them, or have any
responsibility for them. It was strange.

At the same construction site, earlier, the workers were milling and
cutting beams. Which is perfectly normal, but the saw they used,
well, it was a combined rip-saw and milling machine (the thing where
there's a rotating cylinder with a blade that is just about level with
the sliding surface of the saw, and smooths out the roughest edges of
lumber). Both blades were attached to the same driveshaft, on
opposite sides of a divider, and if you used one, the other blade
would be spinning too. That was kind of strange, but made sense, it's
easier, more portable. What really got me was that there were no
blade guards whatsoever. If they were milling something, they were
pushing parallel to an exposed, spinning sawblade and vice versa.
Having been raised and trained to have a healthy respect for the
dangers of such devices, I spent much of the day visualizing suddenly
amputated digits or limbs being tossed willy-nilly about the
surrounding area. It was seriously hard to look at walking by.

Speaking of which, there's a lot of welding that goes on around
cities, much of it for security grates for windows, but other stuff
too. And I could probably count on one hand the number of times I saw
a welder actually using a welding mask. More common were sunglasses,
or nothing at all. I could see them because they did most of their
work on the sidewalk in front of their shops.

Also, have I yet mentioned the dentist? Right next door to the school
was a dentist's office. It was partitioned off from a hotel lobby and
had its own entrance. But the operating room was in the same place as
the office and both opened right out onto the street. Once every week
or so I'd be walking by on my way out of the main building to the
building down the street that housed the classrooms for levels 4 and 6
and I'd hear the dentist drilling and just cringe. Sometimes I'd look
in, and I could see the patient right there, mouth wide open, eyes
squinched shut, trying not to cry in public...

One last thing, did I ever mention that Chinese people, especially
non-drinkers, think of alcohol as "spicy"? Well, they do, and I
thought that was kind of funny.

Well, much of the above was written back in May, I was trying to get
it all in before I had to deal with preparations for vacation and
stuff. I failed to finish, but may finish today (nope), or at least
soon. Now I'm still in about the same situation I was when I wrote
yesterday, only today I got to label all those crates we packed
yesterday (July 12). Exciting! But things are good. And still are,
starting to get ready to go to Sri Lanka! Will have much more to
write from there.