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Published: February 15th 2006
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Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed our two part series that just concluded. Today's entry will be a tad on the shorter side.
Well, we knew the day would come eventually. I had to say goodbye to the tiny, pink girl's bike that I have been using for the past few weeks. Today the Jingshan school gave us all new bikes. Gone are the days of me feeling silly while pedaling the streets of the capital on grandma's clunker. Now, I am the proud caretaker of a slightly larger, silver, but still girl's bike. Hey...it's an improvement. After all, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. I am told usually they give us bikes that barely work...but this year they bought new ones for us.
So today we had to go into school to pass in our passports and get bikes. The passport situation is well...I just won't say anything here. I'll leave it at that we had to pass in our passports today to get our visas extended. Hopefully this goes smoother than other paper work things have to this point...otherwise many of you will be seeing me about 3 months earlier than anticipated.
So we
get ushered into the Jinghsan school's "VIP room." Providing an equivalent example from my own school is impossible...we barely have heat...let alone a room for VIP's. Anyway, this was just a holding tank until the meeting with the principal and the administrators. Can we talk about the table for a moment? A ovular shaped thing in which there was a cutout in the middle for...flowers! It was awesome. So they sit the kids on the side of the room, and usher myself and my colleague to the table. No problem! That was until I was forced to make a speech. Yikes...don't worry...I made up for my lack of Chinese by listing words I DID know in Chinese....peking duck....dumpling....beef....yes...that was the speech. The kids laughed...the interpreter translated...and the administration was...well...er....puzzled. Start of international incident? Those at home who had 3.5 weeks...you may be collecting soon.
Following a very warm welcome, the principal gave us all pins, and pinned mine on me. As he was leaving the room I chased him down, feeling obligated to reciprocate a gift of my own. I pulled out one of my Massachusetts quarters, explained it signiifcance...and well, I think he liked it. Either that or
he was puzzled.
After the meeting, my host brother and I went to lunch with some of his classmates at "Pizza Buffet." For 39 Yuan, all you can eat pizzas, fries....you name it. However, the Chinese need to master combinations of food better. Chocolate pizza? Ah....good if it wasn't dough. Interesting note....no chopsticks....they give you a fork and knife and no one seemed to mind. I felt very at home.
In the afternoon my host brother took me to the movie theatre to see a feature. A Jet Li kung fu feature called "Fearless." It was good, particularly because the plot was easy to follow. After all, it was in Chinese. Don't worry, it had subtitles. Oh wait...those were in Chinese too. Yes, you read correctly, a Chinese movie....with Chinese subtitles. I've noticed they do this on TV as well here. Is the langauge so difficult to understand that even natives need it written out? Isn't this a sign it might be time for a more simple way of speaking?
Despite my ability to follow the movie, turns out I was wrong on some parts. For example.....TIME OUT....in the middle of typing this I just got a
phone call...I need 5 lines in Chinese for a speech tomorrow to the whole staff....WHAT? Stay tuned for that entry tomorrow...sure to entertain.
Anway...I was a little off on the plot. Somewhere in the middle of the movie the protagonist goes to live in exile in a rural village. He falls in love with this pretty blind woman, which climaxes when she touches his face. Unfortunately, he has to return home to complete his journey...blah blah blah. I thought there was a big I love you scene. I even inserted something in my head about him asking her to marry him but her saying "I can't, you have to return...." Okay, turns out in the language vacuum...I made it all up. I asked my host brother at the end "So...he really loved the blind woman, huh? He had know idea what I was talking about. When I told him, he said that's not what happened at all and that this wasn't an American movie. I said "I like my version better."
Finally, two last bits for today. When host brother and arrived at school this morning, this very jovial student comes up to my host brother and starts
talking his ear off. When he leaves, my host brother turns to me and says, "That is the worst student in our class. No one likes him." He could not be that bad I said, he came back from vacation early. To which he responded that he did that in order to retake a test he failed.
And in conclusion...Hey China...why are you so stingy with the napkins here? There are no napkin dispensers as restaurants, and you get 1 for the meal. This is messy eating...more than one is necessary. No napkin dispensers at McDonald's? Cmon...this is silly.
Okay, until later.
-Brett
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Michelle
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A VIP room? With flowers? Are you seeing this Mr. Jordan??