Saturday…
Oh Yangshou… How I love you! We arrived last night and are spending the weekend at Monkey Jane’s. It is a hostel that has a bit of a reputation. It is the perfect place to spend Chris’ birthday weekend. Last we went to dinner at a western style place and I had a veggie burger, which is strange. I have stopped craving a steak, though the thought of going vegetarian has not crossed my mind. Maybe I’ll just cut back my American size portions when I get back to the states.
When we got back to Monkey Jane’s we just hung out at the roof top bar here. Most of the people here are from England and are on the same circuit as Chris. They sure like their drinking. I also met a couple of American girls from Georgia. They are veterinarians here studying something to do with rabies. It was pretty funny. One of the Brits was pretty into one of them, and then I pointed out that she was married. He was pretty devastated. Poor bloke.
Today, we woke up and went on a walking adventure around the town. We found some interesting sites. I’ll let the photos do the talking.
I have just tried uploading pictures to my computer and realized that the format I shot in (raw) will not work in my editing software, so I now have to download a trial copy of Photoshop to convert them into jpeg’s. It’s a pain, but I gotta do it. If anyone has any better ideas, let me know. Otherwise I’m going back to shooting straight jpeg’s.
I have just been taken a bit off guard. A white girl just walked in and is speaking fluent Chinese. That would be nice. I’m learning a little, but the phrase dinner is ready is not very helpful.....
Sunday
This weekend has turned out to be pretty fun. We made some friends at the hostel and hung out at Monkey Jane’s last night. We got our rooms at the school yesterday and they are okay. The place we’re staying at is a boarding school for middle school kids. Yesterday, when we got here Chris and I took the soccer ball out to the field and they actually have goals set up. The only thing is the grass is pretty long on the main field, so we used the short field, which was probably better seeing as Chris and I aren’t in the best shape compared to these kids. We played a pick up game with some boys and they were actually pretty good. We beat them pretty bad though.
The Chinese people really value community and it is interesting to see how that comes across in everything. At one point I slipped on some mud and they stopped play and gave us the ball back. They have to keep the harmony. We were told that they really don’t have contact sports here and after yesterday I can kind of see why. It was a lot of fun though.
After that we went back to the hostel and got ready for the evening. For the second hostel in a row, our shower was a little messed up, but they had western toilets, so that was a good thing. Crouching over a hole in the floor is very uncomfortable to say the least. I think we might stay there again next weekend.
Around 8 we met up with some of the people that we had hung out with the night before. I ended up being the center of attention for 5 or so Chinese girls that just wanted me to pronounce words for a while. They also wanted to inform me of the stereotypes that they had about Americans. Basically, it was that we are fat, arrogant, whores, who flaunt our money. I told them that besides the fat part, they were pretty spot-on. But then they kept asking me how much my car costs and how big my apartment is. Basically, making me sound arrogant, but they were the ones asking. They also said that we like to start wars for no reason. I told them that maybe the reasons that some people justified the war aren’t good, but when genocide is happening to a minority group someone should step in. They had no idea who the Kurds were. They then said that it was still none of our business what happens in another country. I then pointed out that other countries got involved when the Nazis were exterminating Jewish people. They said that was different, and I told them the scale may be different, but it was the same premise. I asked them how they would like to be a minority group and a larger government started killing their family. Would they like another country to step in and help them? Eventually I got them to stop talking about it.
I hate talking politics with people abroad, but it is very interesting to see how censored the news is here. I’m not saying that US news is good because I think for the most part it is biased garbage, but we have access to other news sources. One thing that I find to be incredibly funny is how they feel about their government blocking certain websites. They think it is a good thing that the government doesn’t want to have a lot of western influence all at once. Which kind of makes sense in a strange way, but all the kids here have facebook profiles. Not sure how that isn’t hypocritical.
After a couple hours entertaining these girls I made my way over to the beer pong table. I won a game and lost a game. My partner was horrible, and halfway through the second game he disappeared for 5 or so minutes. Turns out he had a case of the throw ups. That reminds me of another stereotype. We drink too much… I agree, but I enjoy myself so I can justify it.
Around 2:30 I made my way to bed. Chris had a great time for his birthday night. He was a typical drunk Englishman, partly due to the shots that I bought him. When I walked into the room he was passed out.
Woke up this morning and felt great! That’s not sarcasm either. Went and got some breakfast, then came back to the school for a little game of soccer… That’s it for now.
Chris- Adviser Abroad China
Cultural Embrace @ www.culturalembrace.com
www.flickr.com/photos/cschave
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