Hot Pot and One Thousand Buddahs

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It's 10 o'clock on a Thursday night and I'm sitting in bed, propped up against a million pillows and determined to finish this update that's been a week or two in the making. Have the house to myself tonight, which is nice considering the recent "space heater" incident. Not a very eventful day, I taught this morning at the college, then we had the regular Thursday noon teachers' meeting and I taught 3 hours of Pre-Intermediate this afternoon. I met up with Sophia at Jenny's Cafe and we had dinner and a good talk while I filled the ashtray with little paper stars. Both of us were too exhausted to even head down to Pyramid for a game of foozball, so we caught our cabs in opposite directions and headed home to opposite ends of the city.

It's that time of year. As much as I hate it, I sleep with socks at night to keep my toes from freezing and fight with my alarm clock every morning for ten more minutes. It's tough to get up in the morning when bed is warm, life is quiet, and there's no light coming in through the window. Mornings bring crisp, cool air (still polluted, but you don't tend to notice it until later in the day), visual breaths, icicles for fingers and red cheeks on the 10 minute walk to work. But it's still my favourite time of day... walking down my street in the morning, past all of the vendors still selling their fruits and veggies but everyone bundled up in coats and mitts and hats and scarves.. and me tuned into Jack Johnson or Bob Marley and taking in everything I can before I have to start thinking about the First Conditional and how to explain the difference between "will" and "going to" futures.

So what's the news since last update? Well...



Saturday, November 12.

So "Peace and Love Night" at the Pyramid was nothing more than a name given to an otherwise perfectly normal and uneventful night, in hopes to attract more people. Like myself. But Sophia and I had a blast none-the-less. We played a few games of foozball (I won, I won!), had a beer or two, danced until one, then went home (this time I had a key!).

Tuesday, November 15.

Long day of teaching, came home tired and content to spend the night with a cup of tea and Season 3 of Sex and the City... when Cecilia (Richard's girlfriend) came knocking on our door. She'd had a fight with Rich and didn't have anywhere to go. Jon had taken the TV hostage with Season 3 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, so Cecilia and I decided to take a walk and go for dinner. We ended up around Quan Cheng Square and found a hot pot restaurant. For those of you who don't know, a hot pot is basically what it sounds like. Imagine a ying yang shaped bowl (a divider in the middle) set into the middle of your table and heated with gas from a tank beneathe the table... the water on one side of the divide is SPICY and on the other side, not so spicy. You wait for the water to come to a boil, then throw in whatever you want... (in my case, we only ordered veggies) mushrooms, potatoes, bok choy, rice noodles, dofu, eggs, other various green veggies, etc. etc. Let them cook for a while, grab whatever you want with your chopsticks, soak in a bowl of peanut sauce, and shovel it into your mouth before it falls and hits the table. So amazing, I wish I could bring a hot pot back to Canada. The only thing that's not so desirable is the aftermath. Breakouts and toilet-time. But still worth it. After the hot pot, we walked around the night market where you can find just about anything for cheap (because most of it is fake)... shoes, clothes, makeup, jewelry, cell phones, electronics, tools, cigarettes and cigars, underwear, food, porn, games... found a few things worthwhile, and we caught a cab just before our fingers turned to icicles and made our ways home.

Wednesday, November 16.

Taught in the morning but had the afternoon off so I made plans to meet Sophia at Qian Fo Shan (Thousand Buddah Mountain) around 2. I caught a cab and got to the main gate just on time. At the bottom of the mountain were many small shops selling different things as offerings to the Buddah... shiny statues, incense, and candles. A man sitting on a maja (small, traditional Chinese stool) in a nearby market was selling dates and pomegranates, two fruits traditionally used as offerings, and women selling huge bunches of incense wandered up and down the street, trying more than once to sell to me. There were some men planting cabbages (yeah, cabbages) outside the gate, and a small Chinese man stopped to chat with them for a while. I watched him curiously for about 10 minutes... he was about 65 I'd guess (difficult to tell, I find), and no higher than 5 feet tall. He wore an old leather jacket, dark pants, and a dirty hat. He had small but wise eyes and a long grey mustache... an aged face and hands. He looked traditionally Chinese in every single way, until your eyes met his feet, where you noticed a pair of brand-spankin-new black and white Converse sneakers. China, such a bizarre mix of new and old worlds.

Sophia and her guy friend Mimi showed up around 2:20 and we wandered in through the gates (15 RMB) and started our ascent up the hill, stopping along the way to pose with various statues and for me to take a million pictures, being the photo-junkie that I am. We made a detour to take advantage of our five free balls on the "driving range" (ha!) and had a good laugh at that. Dad, I tried to make you proud. Sophia and I took our shots while Mimi was the bag-man. He carried our bags for most of the day, actually. When we'd had enough of golfing, we continued on our way. We continued climbing the stone steps, and came across many landings with temples and people worshipping. All around, there were red ribbons tied to the trees and statues. Sophia told me they were prayer ribbons, and she helped me buy a couple from a nearby stand (2 for 5 RMB), one was a prayer for myself and one for family. I decided to wait until I found a special tree to tie them.

Onward and upward we went, stopping almost every 10 steps for another picture or two, until we came across something truly bizarre and had to make another detour. There was a bird farm, with the most beautiful peacocks, and little feathery-footed chickens, AND the strangest alien-dinosaur-birds I have ever laid eyes on. We went in and paid for some food to feed them, and Sophia almost laughed herself to death as I scampered around trying to feed the chickens and escape the alien birds. Until they cornered me. Two huge, freaky creatures right out of a sci-fi movie. You can see the pictures for yourself, and take a look at my face.

Got out of there shortly after and again continued on our way, determined to make it to the top before sundown. The next detour was the main attraction of the mountain, the Million Buddah Cave... I wondered to myself why it was called the Million Buddah Cave when the mountain itself was called Thousand Buddah Mountain.. but soon found out why. Buddahs. Everywhere. Thousands of small ones carved right into the walls, HUGE statues, life-size statues, paintings... there really are no words to describe the magnificance of the place. And the deeper we went into the heart of the mountain, the warmer it got.. and the air was humid and smelled of dirt and incense. Corridor upon corridor, room upon room we explored, and lost track of time.

When we took our next breath of fresh air, the sun was on its way down, so we hurried along. Climbed a million stairs (slight exaggeration) to a temple near the top of the mountain (we never did make it to the very peak) and looked out over the afternoon haze of Jinan. For the first time I really SAW the city is and how big it is. It's everywhere. Didn't stay too long up there because I caught a view of the huge golden Buddah and wanted to reach it before it got too dark. But on our way there, another detour. For the bargain price of 3 for 1 admission, we stopped to get a tour of the caves dedicated to the female aspect of the Buddah. Again, long corridors, but this time they ended with a huge golden statue of the female buddah surrounded by curtains of rich, dark reds and purples.. a million candles and offerings of incense burning. We were guided in a prayer, then Sophia and Mimi consulted with monks in Chinese and were roped into "donating" 100 RMB to Buddah for his words of wisdom. I was spared, being the foreigner I am (thanks Sophia).

Finally reached the golden Buddah, hung around the square for a while, trying to successfully capture the sheer size of the statue itself... managed pretty well, I think.
By then, the sun was disappearing behind the mountain so we turned back and began the descent. On the way down, I found the what felt like the "right" trees, so I took a few minutes to say a prayer and tying a rock to each end of my ribbons, threw them up into the highest branches of the trees where I'm sure they'll stay for a long time to come.

Indescribable afternoon. A camera just can't capture a feeling, a smell, the every sensation that really makes the experience so unique. But I do have some pictures, which I hope give you a glimpse of that afternoon.

Friday, November 18.

Uneventful day except for the fact that it was the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! I met Tom, Terry and Nicola at the theatres above Walmart around 6:30 and we sat down with two huge buckets of popcorn and a bag of oranges, and enjoyed the movie. In Chinese. I understood a few words... hello, goodbye, and thank you, amongst others. I'm hoping I can find it on bootlegged DVD sometime this week and watch it in English at home.

Saturday, November 19.

Another Saturday at the JAC with Kerry. I've really come to enjoy my Saturdays with Kerry. We have two classes in the morning; House and Food. Food finishes around 11:40, just in time for lunch. We have a place where we've become regulars. Noodles, peanuts and soy bean milk (though I'm the only crazy person who likes cold drinks in winter so they don't serve it cold anymore). Then we check out the indoor maze of the peoples' market or the outdoor cultural market at the bottom of Hero Mountain. Just think of the ultimate, never ending flea market. Traditional Chinese medicines (herbal, along-side dried up spiders, snakes and seahorses, lizards on a stick, wild cat paws/claws, horns, teeth, and tendons, amongst other things), "antiques" (a lot of fakes), jewelry, plants, coins, vases, paint and paintbrushes, Chinese name stamps, tools, games, paintings, decorations, etc. etc. On and on and on and on. Our last class, Going To My Friend's Place, starts at 2:30 and ends at 4, at which time we can go home.

Thursday, November 24.

That would be today and I already wrote about today. Happy American Thanksgiving everyone. I got about a million SMS's from my students at the college today, reminding me.



And now it's time for some more random observations and things to laugh about:

The busses here are honestly like human sardine cans, and people are absolutely merciless. Move it or lose it, baby. Personal space does not exist. I've had gold-diggers digging about an inch away from my face.

Smoking manholes. Because of the sewer systems they have here and the fact that the shit it so much warmer than the air outside, the manholes all the way down the street smoke all day. Surprisingly they don't smell too bad, but every once in a while...

Street sweepers. For such a big, busy, and populated city, the streets of Jinan are clean. This is the work of street sweepers. Not machines, no. People who walk the streets and the highways all day and sweep up garbage and leaves for 6 RMB an hour (a dollar). With the neatest looking brooms you've ever seen. I've got to get a picture to show you, I can't explain.

Somehow China missed the update that scrunchies are soooo-early-90's... you should see some of the ones they wear here. Saw one today that looked like a dead animal on an elastic band.

Assicle. When your butt gets so cold it turns into an ass-icicle. An assicle.

Little Chinese dogs in coats. They're everywhere. For one minute, I want you to remember the beginning of 101 Dalmations (the cartoon version) where all of the owners and their dogs match.. the bulldog and the short fat man, the French poodle and her poodly froofy owner, etc. Now think little Chinese dogs and their Chinese owners. Again, I need to get a picture.

Duck, a young guy in my current B class, has now changed his name to Jiji. I think he despised the fact that we had all nicknamed him "Beijing Duck". He may have changed his name, but the nickname stuck for Beijing Duck (ca-ching, a rhyme!). We also have "Housewife" Xu ("I wouldn't want to be a housewife because I'm not a woman."), Lovely Lin ("My name is Lovely. I mean my room is lovely!") and Married Mary ("Hi, I'm Married."). Sans nickname at the moment is also Olivia, Lily, Ice, June and Wendy.

I was riding in a cab on my way to the JAC last Sunday when I happened to look over at the cab driving beside us just in time to see a guy stick his head out the window and hurl for a good 30 seconds all over the highway. Whilst in motion. I just looked away and laughed. After being in China a while (only 5 months), I've begun to think I've seen everything. Obviously not.

And here's a funny story I forgot to tell from a couple of weeks ago. I was taking a walk to the corner store to pick up some bread at around 8:30 one night... I took a step up onto the sidewalk and fell flat on my face. A Chinese couple that had been walking behind me then proceeded to step non-chalantly OVER my fallen body, look back momentarily, mutter in Chinese, and continue on their merry way. Needless to say, I was slightly embarressed.




Pictures, once again, can be found here.
Hope the link works.

That's it for this time.
Finally get this sucker posted.

All my love,

Laura

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