Moon Pies and Chinese Men.

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I'm slowly starting to run out of lesson plan ideas and I have resorted to showing episodes of LOST and telling them to write about the characters. However, its so funny watching their reactions to the show as many of the girls are so squeamish and cannot stand to view violence or mishap of any sort. When I want to see them commit suicide I'll be sure to show them one of the SAW movies, and I'm sure this will definitely get a few of them to jump out of the window.
Then the other day, I burst out into a fit of laughter because I asked them to do an excercise about adjectives. In my class of tardos I gave them each one of the other peoples names and asked them to describe the person using adjectives then we would all have to guess whom they were speaking about. Uhh..this was not a good idea, cause let me tell you how they all describe the absolute worst qualities about each other. 'He is very fat', 'Her eyes are very small', 'His face is round like moon', 'Her teeth are quite yellow'. But despite this absolute verbal massacre they did not seem to have a reaction but oh man, after the comment about the boys face being shaped like a moon, I almost died with laughter. I seriously could not help myself, because the girl who said it just totally ripped this guy a new one, and he was just sitting there looking off into space. I was a bit mortified because it actually took some time for me to recover. I must get better at controlling these things, but I just don't know how to do it when someone is ripping on someone else and they are just staring into oblivion.
Then the holidays are coming up, but I fear that I may not be able to go anywhere. My co-teacher Sophie kinda conived me into agreeing to help coach this girl for a speech competition over the holiday. She knew that I had taken Speech and Debate competitively and really wanted me in particular to coach this girl and take her to Shenzhen for the finals (if she makes it that far). I was a bit flattered and I think I will only coach her for a few days, but then, forget all that I'm takin my vacation days.shooot. But the girl is actually really sweet and is very competitive and at least I know she is dedicated, so I actually feel great about helping her.
Also I can barely close my appartment door because their are moon cakes all over the place. My students will not stop giving me moon cakes (which are these nasty bean pie tasting things which I guess are Chinas national day or Moon day food). Whenever I refuse them they are just thrown in front of my door. I keep playing moon cake tag with some of the foreign teachers because no one wants all the moon cakes they are recieving. I think I will use them for my torch bearing target practice, or maybe throw them at over zealous observers.
The last few days for me have been filled with various new experiences and more random excursions. Last week I met this African guy from Ghana who in typical behavior was trying to holler. This is not new, as African men are always trying to holler where ever I may be. He wanted to take me out on Friday to a night club and show me around town. I have never been to downtown Nanchang in the night time and it turns out that the night time is actually quite spectacular. There are sparkling lights on every building and it is really full of people who are just having a good time and relaxing, versus the busy daytime where people are behaving out of control in the streets because they are venturing to various destinations for work.
So we meet up with some more Africans including ChiChi, this Zambian girl whom I'm really starting to adore because her personality is quite similiar to mine.
This is my first time in a Chinese club and seriously, I was not ready for this. LOLOLOLOLOLOL.
1) They were selling teddy bears and lollipops with glowsticks all over the place
2) The music was all Techno and I like techno but not this stuff.
3) Everyone in the club was dancing like babies (think about it..babies..dancing)
4) The Chinese are notorious for not being able to control their liquor so they were drinking shots of beer..????? and started cuttin up in no time.
5) If you are a foriegner you don't have to pay for anything so all drinks were on them
6) All the Chinese men get brave after 1.5 beers, so they were all trying dance with me..like babies..lololol.
7) There were grown ass men, (like 40-50 year olds) violently throwing up in the sink because they simply and absolutely cannot drink.
This was all hilarious to me, because I don't drink Chinese beer, it is a waste of time because the alcohol percentage is so low, I'd rather have water. So I'm trying to understand how much Chinese beer could you possibly drink to make you throw up.lololol.
Then we went to a foreigner bar, where I met a bunch of Americans and other Europeans. They were all nice but after the hilarity at the Chinese club, I was rather bored talking to normal westerners who could control their alcohol and play games like pool, that involve a relative amount of skill.
My right foot that night had swollen to the size of a baseball during the course of the night, and as I thought back, I realized I had some KFC earlier that night. KFC, which is all over China, is notorious for the amount of MSG they insert into their food. I thought the fish would be safe, but evidently not. It was so bad, I could barely walk and I had to call it an early night and go and drink a gallon of water when I returned home.
All the walking and my regular morning jog returned my foot back to normal (Thank goodness!) by the next day and I was ready for part 2 of the weekend.
The Ghanian (who shall for various reasons remain nameless) also wanted to take me out Saturday night to meet this big wig who deals with immigration and some of his friends who own various schools around Nanchang. He says they are great people who are particularly interested in westerners and that I could potentially obtain additional side employment with one of the schools.
We had dinner at a restaurant with about 7 middle age very intoxicated Chinese men( mind you its like 5:30 in the evening). The immigration dude spoke very good English, so he remained the translator for the group during his allotted time. He was actually pretty cool and though he was pounding the 3.1% tsingdao beer like there was no tomorrow he claimed to be a Muslim and was celebrating Eid (lol..but yes I have seen dudes in Kufi's drinking beer for iftar!).
First, as soon as I arrived, all these dudes were going absolutely bonkers! There are hardly any black people in Nanchang and other than ChiChi, I am really the only black female I have seen walking around and believe me, people make me very aware of this statistic.
These 2 guys in particular were proposing to me and telling me they'd give me the world (lol) and arm wrestling each other and in fact, they are both quite wealthy, so perhaps I thought about it for a nanosecond..then I saw the pirates of the carribbean teeth and uhhh...
After this debacle, which went for seriously more than 2 hours non-stop, they insisted that we join them for karoke, and though I kindly declined the invitation, as I was getting a little bit unsettled by all the attention but they were not taking no for an answer! Apparently, invitations with Chinese (and especially rich people) cannot be declined!
So we go to KTV, which is a karoke place, which is literally just a hotel with a bunch of individual rooms for various parties to go karoking. And when I tell you that karoke is not a joke here, its a sport. I couldn't stop laughing as everyone got up one by one to choose their song to sing to, but they were so so serious, which is what kept cracking me up time and time again. They insisted that I sing but this time I really wasn't going to do it (even though I did finally end up singing A Police song later on, when everyone was blasted on the couch telling each other how much they loved the other one). In between cheesy Chinese pop songs and national songs, one of my admirers continued to drag me from room to room introducing me to all these random people as 'The American'. There were girls dancing 'on' me, and various people touching my hair and trying to force feed me food and drinks. Then back in our original karoke room, I was forced to dance with all these old men who were just jumping up and down..like babies..again and then it all stopped being funny and I wanted to leave because I had to teach a Sunday class in the morning. My proposing admirer then went a little psycho on me and kept throwing my purse on the couch and blocking me from leaving the room so I could stay, this went on for like 5 solid minutes while the Ghanian had been locked out of the room!!! I was a little scared but more like wtf and his friends were also coming to my rescue. I also noticed that throughout the night my Ghanian friend seemed to be a little bit upset with all the attention that was being bestowed upon me. He vowed to never take me around any drunk Chinese men again. He says he is sure they would have tried something behind his back (with what army??). And for some reason I'm sure it wasn't all about my safety he was concerned about, but rather their adoration for me as an American and a female (in lamest terms, he was afraid I would steal his connections).
But all in all, even with the purse throwing, it was all very fun. The Chinese may not be able to drink but that sure doesn't stop them from trying and this will remain another another awesome spectacle that is China!
Zaijian
Latifa

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Photos

alley in Nanchang
housing of people who live in the alleys

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Alley advertising

life
life in another one of these many alleys i'm obsessed with.

rivers
one of the many rivers in Nanchang. Its kinda gray out this day.

Comments

[umm Latifa]

Moon Pies
Assalaamu Alaikum Ya Latifa: Are you getting my emails/ What is going on with the phones?

[Zakiya]

Tifa when you getting a phone
Tifa when are you getting a phone???

[anonymous]

What is this.

[PinkiLaFleur]

buy Mace!
you should seriously consider investing in a can of pepper spray if you insist on interacting with drunk chinese people! Whether they're blocking your way out or stuffing unwanted moon pies down your throat you should have an exit strategy! We all miss you and love you! Stay safe and on high ground as from what I've read lately you're still in typhoon season over there! A bientot!

[Sarah]

latifa.... i have been loling about "dancing like babies" for 3 days now... thanks