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Published: September 9th 2008
It has been a while since my last blog so this may be my longest one yet. School is going really well. I just gave my first tests at the end of last week and beginning of this week. All A’s! And they were not easy tests! I have been giving a lot of homework. After the math test I gave today, they asked about math homework and I said there was none. My one student that speaks little English shouts oh what a lucky day! Her English is making massive improvements this year, I am impressed by how many new words I hear her use everyday. I’m not sure what it is that is helping her, but I am so proud of her. I have her doing Rosetta Stone for one period (45 minutes) everyday. I work on the Chinese version at home so we are in competition for the high score. Every time she gets 100 she asks me how I do. Of course I have a hard time admitting she is beating me!
Last weekend, I went to an advertised western night to publicize a new restaurant. We drove with our lawyer’s wife. Traffic was bad so we got there a little late. They also had a magician who did a show and then came table to table with little tricks. Some of his tricks were good-like he would turn one heart sponge into two in someone else’s hand. Other tricks he did left us all bewildered as to what he had done or the point behind the trick. I suppose the words behind these tricks were important….who knows?! The event was in “beer garden” which is in Jie Fang Bei, the center of Chongqing. I guess this is a popular place for foreigners to go. Next door was a KTV. In China, after work or for celebrations, people will go to KTV, which is kaoroke. You rent a room with your friends and sing and drink the night away. Some KTVs offer additional services…you can rent a girl to sing to you amongst other things. They also had a foosball table outside of the KTV so we started up a game. None of my Chinese co-workers or their husbands had ever played foosball before. They loved it. Ping pong and tennis are hugely popular here.
A random observation is that in Chongqing all the men wear what foreigners call “half shirts.” They basically pull their t-shirts up to expose their bellies. I am guessing this is to keep cool! It looks goofy. Some days you’ll walk down the street and see tons of men walking around with their bellies hanging out.
This past weekend, I went to a Chinese ballet on Friday. I went with one of student, her mother and her piano teacher. There was no talking, just dancing. The costumes were gorgeous. The ballet told one of the four tragedies of Ancient China. It was like a Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet. In ancient China, young girls were not able to go to school, but this one girl wanted to go to school so badly that she begged her father. Her father, who must have been very open minded for the time, agreed she could go if she dressed as a boy. So the girl went to school as a boy. While there, she falls in love with a poor classmate. He never knows she is a girl. At the same time, the girl’s family is arranging a marriage for her with a wealthy classmate who is not very nice. The girl tells the poor boy her true identity and the two fall in love. The rich boy finds out and causes the poor boy to get sick and die. The girl then commits suicide. The Chinese culture dislikes sad endings, so the ballet ends with the boy and girl turning into butterflies and flying away together in the afterlife. It was a beautiful story. I learned that red is the traditional color of weddings in China. Now days, it seems like all Chinese wedding dresses look just like ours….they have lots of wedding gown shops at the shopping centers.
Before the ballet began, the woman sitting next to me gave me half an apple. I was so confused! I didn’t know if I was holding for her as she rearranged or if she was giving it to me or what. Finally, my student’s mother told me it was a sign of friendship. This was sweet, but I really did not want an apple…particularly one I had no idea where it had been. Fortunately my student ended up eating most of it. After the ballet, the piano teacher was not feeling well so we went to the hospital. Chinese people go to the hospital over everything! And they also go on a drip over everything! For a common cold, people will go on a drip for a couple of days! It seems insane! While I was waiting in the hall, a man came in passed out on a stretcher. My student came out and asked me what happened. I of course had no idea. So she asked the nurse. The nurse just told her! It was baffling because our health is so private in the US. Turns out he had too much to drink.
Saturday, the girls-Megan, Pam, Ella and I went shopping at the fabric market. This place has everything! There are buildings of fabric. I hope to buy some and have some clothes made. There is also a tall building with tons of stuff on every floor. Every floor has its own theme. One floor is kitchen, the next is household goods/cleaners, one is for women (hair, make up etc), another is bags. You can get some awesome knock off bags. I am waiting for my Chinese to get better so I can truly bargain. I definitely saw some bags I’d like though. It is so funny because we’d all scatter on one floor and then meet back up at the escalators. If one of us was missing, kids could point out where the missing person was. Four foreign girls out shopping here got us lots of attention! Tons of people were shouting hello at us as we walked through the streets. It is so bizarre!
After shopping, we all went to lunch at an Indian restaurant nearby. This was the best food I’ve eaten in Chongqing so far! After lunch Ella and I went to have our toes done at the Women’s Plaza. I’m not sure if this was sanitary or not. We got the expensive treatment and it was still less than ten dollars. Ella’s fiancé met us there and he thought we paid too much! After nails we went for beers at the beer garden. As we sat there people would literally come along and stand at our table starring at us. So awkward! Ella has it the worse because she has beautiful red hair, which is particularly uncommon. After beers, Ella and Craig showed me where the Catholic Church is located. It is actually fairly large. Someone told me that Christians here can meet only in groups less than fifteen, but this church can definitely hold more than that. A friend who works with Craig goes to mass every Sunday so I plan to go with him next week.
Sunday I made brunch for Megan, Luke, Ella and Craig. Well it was more of a lunch. Right before they came over my electricity went out. This is the second time. After a huge ordeal and an electrician being called in, they determined my air conditioner sucks too much power. So I am out of air conditioning in the living room until my landlord has his own electrician come out and adjust my fuses.
I found a website for foreigners living in Chongqing and I have been talking to some people trying to find a travel buddy or just more friends here. I went out to dinner Sunday night with a guy a met on there. He lived in Vietnam previous to Chongqing. He lives about twenty to thirty minutes from me. He was nice and showed me around his part of the city. We ate at the Indian food restaurant again…I didn’t tell him I had just eaten there because I didn’t mind eating there again!
So that’s about it. Tomorrow we have one of our top people coming to visit the school. I am doing laundry so I actually have good clothes to wear. I hate doing laundry here so I am almost out of clothes! It is so much work! My clothes also never feel super clean after I wash them…it is so weird. Ok I’ll stop complaining and get to work! Hope you are all doing well!
Love Joc
Oh one other thought just came to mind. I meet my Chinese teacher at a restaurant twice a week. I go with Luke and Megan so she spends one hour with me and one hour with them. During their hour, I'll often walk around the shopping complex checking stuff out. Well I went off by myself and as I'm walking this guy with half of his face bandaged says hello to me. So I say hello back. Then it starts! Once you say hello to one person, like twenty more people will start shouting hello at you! It is rather scary when I am alone. So I quickly walk away and ignore everyone...I don't know what else to do! Part of me feels rude, but the other part of me is scared. Well I end up coming to the center square. It is so cute, because at night, the center squares all over the city turn into aerobic/dance classes. Music is played and tons of people gather to do aerobics/dance together. There is no leader, but everyone know the right dance for the right song....well not everyone, there is the occasional person who looks like they wouldn't be able to remember the steps if their life depended on it...yes this would be me! There are also other people who do partner ballroom or latin style dancing. I think it is a great, fun way to exercise!
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If I come to visit, I will totally cut all my shirts in half.