The Good, The Bad, the China

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Last week was the Chinese holiday known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, but more on that later.

I will introduce to you the different sides of China: the good, the bad, the just plain China.

GOOD:

EDUCATION: If I havne't stressed it enough, here I go again, they appreciate education and hard work. To make up for days lost to the Mid-Autumn Festival, I get to work the next two Sundays. I really don't mind, I enjoy teaching. I don't know if this is true at all schools, since I am at a key school, but my school has several gym teachers, a dance teacher, a ceremics teacher and a probably a couple music teachers. My middle school in the states had one gym teacher and two music teachers. So it seems they value the basic curriculum as well as other curricula.

GIFTS: My school just keeps on giving. I have received a case of kiwis, a case of peaches, an external battery with USB, and a box of high quality mooncakes. The teachers are also very nice. One gave me a laser pen, a wonderfully nice pencil cup (made of glass and about ten pounds), a good luck charm and a book. One student gave me Starbucks mooncakes.


BAD:

Impatience: Whether it's the drivers or the the people. Everyone is all about themselves. Most drivers don't seem to ever stop for pedestrians, unless you force them by walking into the street. Last night I got honked at for crossing a busy side street, but traffic was at a standstill.

Lines: There are no lines! If you go to a bank, you pick a number, but at the grocery store, it gets competitive. When you buy meats at the deli or pick up produce, you have to get them weighed and priced at a counter within the designated area. Sometimes there are lines, but usually people start cutting in front of everyone. I really should speak up. One time I walked up to the deli counter to weigh some chicken and there were about 3 people in front of me. Within two minutes a lady holding some chicken between tongs, and several others were crowded around the pricing guy. They don't wait, they just put their stuff on the scale for him to weigh it. I went from fourth in line to tenth.

Spitting and loogies: I don't spit because I feel it's gross, and the sound of hawking loogies make me gag. Whether it's on the street or a sink, everyone does it and it's not a problem. I don't like the sound or the view but I guess I will have to adjust.

Nowism (GOOD): Apparently, it isn't inappropriate to tell people about last minute changes to schedules. Nowism can be a good thing. You can be told last minute that you don't work or that your schedule has changed for the better. I was told at 7:30am that there would be a Typhoon day (think of snowday with less snow, more rain, more wind). So no school for two days!

Nowism (BAD): Let's give an example: Day 2 of moving in, I got a phone call at 8:30am saying I need to sign paperwork at 8:45am. It was fine with me because I live next door. My friend John gets the same call, but that night he slept on the other side of town, almost 2 hours away. The lady who called us, knew the night before around 10pm that we had to be there at 8:45am, but she chose to call at 8:30am. Long story short, she blamed John for not being able to communicate effectively.

BLAME GAME: Which leads to the next thing about China, blame. No one wants to take responsiblities for their actions, so they tend to find a way to blame it on other people.

CHINA:

CHINA'D, to CHINA: It's become a phenomena between CTLC and maybe westerners to use China as a verb, which roughly means to get screwed by China and its culture.

So I pray that I do not get CHINA'D anytime soon.

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