My Life in China

5 Days in Chengdu: Day 4; March 8, 2005

It’s 7:00am, and as usual, I wake up earlier than I want to. Phil has already gotten up an hour earlier to go jogging. Now, I suppose I could write a paragraph or two complaining about how I hate waking up in the morning, but I suppose this isn’t the website for that sort of thing. It’s not xanga, after all.

After showering and changing, I quickly revise my presentation. I taught English when I was living in Beijing, so this really shouldn’t be any different, it just focuses on English writing, and my audience will be eager young minds. My thorough, three-hour presentation will include planning your paper, writing a thesis, revising your draft, citing sources, and different styles of writing. Oh yes, I thoroughly intend to WOW them a hundred times over.

After a quick breakfast (well, Phil has breakfast, I stay in the room and have a cup of tea) we head for the classroom. It’s located not far away, about five minutes from our hotel. It’s funny to see all the students rushing to class; I catch snippets of conversations regarding doing homework, studying, hanging out with friends, and other general gossip. I find it both funny and sad that I was just like these people only two years ago, and yet I will never again be that young.

There are about 50 students in the classroom. Strangely enough, all the girls (save for two) are sitting at the front and all the boys are in the back. And the ratio of girls to boys is almost 2:1. I’ve heard how there is an extreme imbalance between the sexes here in China, but in all the classrooms I’ve been in there’s always a dearth of males. That’s a good or bad thing, depending on your point of view.

We go to the front and copy our files to the computer so that it can be shown via the projector. For some reason I try to look as serious and professional as I can, I suppose to make the students think I’m really cool. Unfortunately my hair is pretty natty today, so they probably aren’t paying much attention to me. Phil gives a quick introduction, and then it’s all me.

Well, to make a long story short, I got through it without too many problems. After the initial ‘oooh, aaah’ at my being from LA, it quickly moved into lecture, student territory, as in, those who want to listen, listen and those who don’t, sleep. At the end of the presentation I ask if there are any questions (naturally, there are none), then I get the obligatory applause, and then I’m done. Later some students walk up to me and ask me some stuff, I give them some advice, then my email address. By the time I’m done it’s time for lunch.

The rest of the day plays out like the above, with Phil giving a presentation in the late afternoon that lasts until early evening. After he finishes, some students stay behind to ask some questions. I take this opportunity to ask a few questions of my own, namely what’s good to eat around here and where’s the best place to eat it. The students tell me that in Chengdu, you have to try the Sichuan hot pot, and they tell me the best place around here for that is actually not too far away.

By now I’ve gotten Phil’s attention. He also asks how to get to this place, but instead of simply getting directions, he asks if some of the students would like to join us. This naturally takes convincing, and after a few rounds of “No no teacher, we are just poor students” and “Don’t worry, Isaac and I will treat you.” They relent.

So I, Phil, and five students go out to this famous hot pot place. On the way there we stop to take some pictures, and I chat with one of the kids. Turns out he really likes baseball, particularly the Dodgers. That’s really a coincidence because I…don’t. And as most Chinese males, he also likes basketball. And it just so happens that his name is, I kid you not, LeBron. And yes, he named himself that expressly because of his love for the game.

The hot pot restaurant, the name of which is “Something Something Really Good Hot Pot Restaurant,” is large and crowded. There is just one really big room, filled with smoke and steam, making everything a bit hazy. Large groups of people in various states of perspiration shout and laugh around large tables, the center of which lies a big metal bowl filled the hot pot broth. Some tables have large piles of used napkins lying on the floor next to them. Waitpersons scurry about, delivering food and beer all while dodging carts of raw meat and veggies that are waiting to be dipped in the spicy liquid.

We have to wait for a table. Phil and I take this time to learn the names of our companions. Aside from LeBron, there’s Alice, Sunny, Cherry, and Debbie. One of the students is from around here, but I don’t know where the others come from. After a little while a table opens up for us. The aforementioned large metal bowl sits right smack in the middle of our table, and a smaller bowl rests in the middle of that. In the larger bowl is a red paste, which when heated dissolves into a dark crimson broth. When this happens, red chilies and thousands upon thousands (millions, even) of peppercorns reveal themselves. Ooooh, spicy! In the smaller bowl (the much, much smaller bowl, I might add) is some flavored chicken broth, for those of us who are not flame retardant.

We sit around the table and get to ordering. Phil orders some beer and LeBron orders the food. Or maybe he doesn’t and I just like to use the name ‘LeBron’ as much as I can. China’s a LeBron country that’s LeBron big on LeBron bowls. They have plates at the restaurants too, but it seems those are just for putting bones on. You rest your bowl on the plate, and you eat out of the bowl. Here you fill the bowl up with a dipping sauce, and you get to make your own. Mine consisted of sesame paste, oyster sauce, minced garlic, and some parsley.

Our food arrives just as the water begins to boil. Tonight we get to eat slices of beef, pork, tofu, veggies, some kind of fungus, pork brain (which I take a pass on), and some little fish things that look similar to sardines, and are very bloody. Actually I forgot if we also ordered a plate of blood. If you’ve never tried blood before, yes the thought of it is gross, and yes the first few times it has a texture that needs serious getting used to, but after a while it’s not so bad. After a long while. Of having no choice but to eat it because you don’t want to be rude in front of your hosts/friends.

Let me tell you a little something about Sichuan food: it’s not really spicy, at least at the beginning. The spice is not something that you feel in your mouth; in your mouth you taste the flavor of the food. The heat goes to your face, and moves to the top of your head. Your body temperature rises, but it’s more like steam heat instead of flame heat. Constant patting of the forehead with napkins (moistened or unmoistened) is permitted. But really, the heat is manageable.

Unless you bite into one of those pesky peppercorns. Those suckers are big enough so that you can usually avoid them yet small enough so that one always manages to get through. But one is enough. You know when you’ve bitten into one because there’s a sudden floral aroma that you can smell and taste, quite pleasant, actually. But that doesn’t last long, for soon there’s an extreme cooling sensation followed by an extreme burning sensation that completely shrouds that largest of the five holes in your head. At the end, after it’s all over, you’re left with a smoking mouth and a totally numb tongue. I don’t recommend doing it more than once.

After a very satisfying meal, as we leave the hot pot place, the students spot a cart selling small pancakes and decide to treat me and Phil. We each get two little pancakes, each filled with whatever stuff is available. I fill one with peanut butter, the other with cream. Phil fills his with strawberries and cream. We eat our pancakes as we head for the campus. Phil and I stop at a bus stop while the students continue on. We say goodbye to them while the two of us hitch a ride downtown.

Downtown Chengdu has nothing terribly special, there’s a street just like the others filled with shops and coffee houses and restaurants. I read somewhere that Chengdu is a good place for drinking tea and kicking back. I however didn’t see that part of the city. There’s a bar street, like any other place, but nothing really stands out. After walking for a while Phil spots a massage place, so we decide to get foot massages.

This is an interesting experience. Maybe if you’re good someday I’ll tell you all about it.

---

---