Traveling on Business

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On Friday night last week, our boss Joe asked us to go on a business trip.

I asked Joe, "what exactly will we be doing?" He said that we would be traveling around to schools and
giving them a 2 hour lesson. I said, "Joe, what level are they, how old, and what do you want me to talk
about?" These were all minor details, he said. We uneasily accepted the offer due to the fact that we
could see 3 new cities, Nanjing and Yangzhou. It was an all-expense paid trip.

So, we were going on a Business trip. We set off on Monday afternoon with absolutely the smallest amount
of info given possible. This seems to be a common trend here. Oh well, we thought. We were picked up in
the company car, where our driver escorted us and Sean, GEM English's Business Development Manager, to
the train station. Some 3 odd hours later, we arrived in Yangzhou. We checked into a centrally located hotel
and walked around a bit. Sean told us that UNESCO rated Yangzhou as one of the top cities to live in
throughout China. Apparently the air is cleaner, traffic isn't so bad, and the population is a modest 4-5 million. Once again, when we asked Sean about the size of Yangzhou, he replied, "It's just a small town."

Air pollution (really pollution in general) seems to be a real problem here. With the economy booming and
individual opportunities opening up more and more, it seems only fitting that disposable income will increase. More and more people are wanting cars. Purchases are increasing every month. To hinder the
problem, self-governing Shanghai limits license plates given each month and charges a hefty 3,000-5,000 RMB licensing fee. Nonetheless, air pollution is on the rise. Last week I gave a class about Tourism. I asked
the students, "Where would you go if money was no object." They gave various answers like Vietnam,
Australia, New Zealand, etc. I asked them, why? 80% of the students said, "because they have fresh air." I
haven't really sat around Omaha, Lexington, Lincoln, anywhere back home and pondered, "thank you God for the fresh air you have given me. I can see the blue sky during the day and the bright stars at night." I
guess we can take for granted even the simplest of things. As if fresh air and a blue sky isn't something
that everyone inherently deserves. And I most definitely haven't listed the quality of air as a top 10 criteria for my dream vacation. We love gaining perspective like this--despite the occasional hacking smoker's cough (we aren't smokers) and sore throats.

We haven't seen a blue sky in months, and rarely see even the brightest of stars/planets. At the hotel in
Nanjing, they had the weather report listed on a big sign. Tomorrow's weather was cloudy. Ely thought to
herself, "how exactly can people tell the cloudiness of the sky when a ring of haze and smog sits between
the ground and the clouds."

The nice thing about traveling with a Chinese friend is the food. We always want to go to small cafe's, tea
shops, and restaurants, but are unable to do so because the only menu they have is in Chinese characters. Basically impossible...no...impossible for us. Without Pinyin, a picture, or a life-saving English translation, we have to skip on by the restaurant. So...Sean took us to several small restaurants. On this night we tried a special Yangzhou dish...a big mountain of stringy noodle like tofu. It sort of tasted and looked like Chicken noodle soup...nothing beats momma's though (we miss you). We walked around a little more at night, saw some Chinese street dancing, and retired for the evening.

We woke up at 6:30 the next morning and headed off to breakfast. We went to the most famous breakfast spot in central Yangzhou. It was unique pagoda shaped restaurant. Sean ordered us special Yangzhou morning tea , an egg dish, baozi (a steamed bun with fillings inside, the Chinese equivalent to a hamburger or breakfast sandwich. They can be filled with anything from sweet red bean paste, sausage, or seaweed), and traditional rice porridge. Delicious. Definitely doesn't taste like an American breakfast, but still above-average stuff.

So we went to the school. It came to our attention that we were going to give several classes to a middle
school class. There were around 50 students and we needed to talk for 2 hours. We didn't really know what
to expect. It is sort of hard to plan a class when you don't know what level of proficiency the students
have. We planned for the worst, expecting a low level, and were right. We had each student introduce
themselves, then talk about 1 hobby they had. They we discussed traveling around the world and tourism. We made a couple of the girls sing, since that was their hobby. The students are so shy and nervous when
talking to us. The students then asked Aaron to sing, which he did. Ely said the girls were swooning...ha!
The teacher said before class that the girls though Aaron was handsome. We asked the students to describe us. They blurted out blonde hair, short, straight. And for Ely, long, curly, black, beautiful. I explained the difference between handsome and pretty. Then, someone blurted out, "you are sexy." We didn't really expect an adjective such as this. It was amusing. When you ask someone, "how are you," and they respond, "how are you," you don't really expect them to piece together provocative language like....sexy?

We had dinner at another delicious restaurant with Sean. Another famous Yangzhou dish was, "The head of a lion." The translation he provided to us didn't really make sense and gave little indication about the make
up of the dish. Was this a funny name for something like Mountain Oysters? The head of lion dish was
basically a large meatball served in broth.

Off for another 2 hour session. This school was a vocational school. The students were around 20 years
old. We don't really understand the difference between this and college, but apparently there is a difference. They go to this school for 3 years, then off to work. Their English was much more proficient,
so it made the class a little easier.

Another observation---they don't have bells to let students know when class starts/stops. They have
classical music blaring. It is pretty awful. During the class, there was a 20 minute break, where the students had to run down to the playgroud. They lined up in groups, maybe 200 people, and did some stretching and exercise. It looked like a drill team practice. They had been taught a certain kong fu or tai chi exercise. They were all doing punches and kicks, and even did the exercise as if they were holding a sword in their hands. Interesting to say the least. I don't see high school students in the US prancing around like this.

We were again interrupted by another break--something different. They have random 5 minute breaks where they exercise their eyes. Apparently the school masters don't want the students straining their eyes.
Instructions were given over the load speaker. They had to close their eyes, take deep breaths, may funny
faces to stretch the muscles surrounding their eyes.

Since their English was a bit better and they were a little older, we introduced the topic of jobs, and what their ideal job would be. They gave many different types of answers, doctor, dentist, nothing out of the ordinary. Some long shots, some easily attainable. After the class, we asked Sean, "What will these students do after they graduate vocational school?" He said quickly, "work in a factory." We were surprised to hear such a response. It made us a little sad.

After the class we headed to Nanjing. This is a historic city in Jiangsu province. Nan means south, Bei means north. Jing means capital. Nanjing was the capital of China for many years. We checked into another decent hotel and headed to another class.

The headmaster at the school invited us to dinner. We were excited. When we got to the restaurant, there
were about 6 other men. We were escorted into a separate room with a large table. The headmaster was
sitting down already, and suggested that we sit next to him. He spoke no English, so Sean acted as our
translator. He was very gracious for us being in China, and thought very highly of the United States. And then the food came...and came...and came. In China, food customs are different. Everyone shares the
food. A dish is prepared, and is put in the middle of the table. If the table is big, it will have a circular piece of glass that rotates. The headmaster ordered around 10-12 courses, and insisted to the waitress that each course be placed in front of Ely and I first so that we could taste it and give our approval. He also had beer, wine, and Aaron's nemesis, baijio. In the Chinese culture, saying "Cheers" or "Gambei (Bottom's Up) is very, very common. During our meal, we were Cheersed around 20 times each. It is a sign of respect. If the host can get the guests drunk, it makes them very happy. And they tried their best with Aaron, sifting baijio down his throat.

The food was delicious. The 2 most special dishes were on opposite ends of our spectrum. Mini lobsters and
turtle--again. 20-30 mini lobsters were served on a large plate with broth. They were still shellfish. One
thing that the Chinese are proud of is good chopstick-manship. If you remember the Pig's feet incident (I can't believe I'm bringing it up again), our Chinese counterparts seemed to take pride in the fact that they could scarf down every little piece of meat on the foot without using their hands. Luckily for the lobsters, and for us, the waitress brought little plastic gloves. They even helped us get the gloves on. We felt like a doctor getting prepped for surgery. After the schoolmaster taught us the proper tactic for getting to the lobster meat, we dove in for 4-5 each. Delicious.

The turtle, on the other hand, wasn't so. Turtles live in swamps right? Stagnant water, moss. The lake you
would never jump in because it has a thick layer of wet grassiness. Like the green Odwalla health drink.
They live in places like this. And it is true, or we will say it is so to prove a point, that the food you eat can many times taste like the environment in which it is surrounded. If there is any possible way to describe the taste of turtle meat, (something which we wouldn't have thought we would've had to describe) we hope to have done so in the preceding sentences.

Sometimes we don't feel worthy to be treated with such respect, such gratitude, to be wined (or baijio-ed)
and dined in classy restaurants... We are here to find out a few things about ourselves, to see the world,
maybe work on a few semantics of life. We aren't here to save the world, to solve global warming, or to save the doctor and others like him from the street cleaning business. Maybe it is just hard to explain.
It doesn't seem fair at times. Being born in a certain place, having a native tongue of an important language
(even if you can't explain adverbs or the difference between well and good). We are practically begged to
come to China. And when we get here, we have every opportunity possible. While the unilingual Chinese
doctorate holder has a hard time making ends meet. It is an interesting world.

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Photos

Van
A van in Yangzhou. Mini-van is a drastic shortfall to describe such a thing.

Van
Did I mention it was a 3 wheeler? And that it was basically a motorcycle, with handlebars and everything!

Van
I just don't understand why something like this was ever created. Even pagers are better than this.

intricate vase at one of our hotels...
impressive