Yes, English is officially my second language, but that doesn’t mean I can’t teach it to 45 Chinese middle school students. This past week has been full of excitement and one of the highlights has been visiting the local middle school to teach English. I originally was going to help with the sports activities (because I am so athletic apparently, right????), but then after some discussion about who would be the English teachers of the day I was kind of voted to teach instead. (According to the group, singing children’s songs to try and cheer people up is a sign of a good teacher – I was just trying to not be bored)
Boy, I’m I glad I did teach! The lesson plan given to be by the director of the middle school’s English department was titled “A Night the Earth Didn’t Sleep” and it was all about EARTHQUAKES! At the beginning of class I was supposed to introduce myself and answer questions about myself. This got boring after a while (especially cause I hate talking about myself) so I decided that maybe it would be better if all 45 students learned the song ‘Oklahoma’ from the musical. It was such a magical moment hearing 45 Chinese English students sing Oklahoma at the top of their lungs – this might go down as one of the greatest moments in my life! There favorite part was at the end when you spell out Oklahoma and yell Yeeeow!
After some great entertainment it was time to actually learn the lesson. Again 45 students, in unison, read the lesson aloud (again, goosebumbs!). After that we recreated the story of an earthquake – they really loved this too cause some people got to be ‘a scared pig,’ and “a running mouse!’ I asked them questions and then explained some new concepts such as: “The water rose and fell, rose and fell” and cows that “would never give milk again” and “as if the world was at an end.”
The Chinese students were so willing to participate and really enjoyed having me as a teacher. Every time they answered a question they would stand up. They asked me questions about Obama, the war, Michael Jackson, China, and many other subjects. It was a great experience and I hope to be back soon!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 24, 2010
Choo Choo to Xian
My first time on a passenger train was quite an experience. These past three days of vacation the group and I took a short trip to Xian (or Xi’an – don’t really know why they put in apostrophe on it sometimes). The train was quite an experience and thank god for my ipod! On the way there we discovered how to actually read our train tickets. After are adventure at the ticket office – we bought tickets, then they were the wrong date, had to get a refund, and then stand in line to get tickets again – we really didn’t care which seats we had as long as we could get to Xian. There are three types of seats and we chose the ‘hard sleeper.’ This meant that each grouping of beds consist of six beds facing each other in stacks of three. The bottom bed is the best to have cause you can actually sit upright on your bed – well, I had the middle seat.
Not only can you not sit up on your seat, but also you have five other roommates who snore, fart, laugh, and wake up early and look at you while you sleep. (The foreign factor sometimes is good, but not when you are in a train car with a lot of Chinese cause it’s hard to hide if you want.) Long story short – I didn’t sleep much. We arrived in Xian after eight hours and ran into our guide Melanie. She took us to the hotel and then we were off to tour Xian. We hit all the popular tourist spots such as the Bianpo Village, Terracotta soldiers, Hot Springs (some house the Chiang Kai-shek lived at), and the terracotta soldier factory. The terracotta soldiers were definitely the highlight of the trip! Visiting the museum has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember! Seeing the ancient soldiers in such great condition for miles and miles was truly amazing. You get to the museum and you really get a grasp for the deep culture and long history the Chinese have.
We ate lots of foreign food while in Xian – which was nice for after three weeks of Chinese, Chinese, and Chinese our stomachs were ready for some western food. Subway was the first stop, followed by Starbucks, and some McDonalds before we returned. Service is bad in Chinese though, and fast food is not fast at all.
The second day in Xian was free time. We explored the city wall and did some shopping. Bought some shoes and ate some crazy Japanese style food. Walking around the city was fun because Xian is huge in comparison to Lanzhou and there is a lot to do. The city felt so alive and you could tell that people were excited to be there. We ran into lots of foreign and Chinese tourist (I followed a Spain group to hear the Chinese girl speak Spanish to them on their tour – so cool). They charge for everything though! Every place, even the parks, charged an entrance of 30 Yuan or more. Overall it was a great trip and I can’t wait to visit Beijing, for it is a LOT bigger than Xian. I bought lots of souvenirs and I can’t wait to share more details and pictures with my 13 loyal followers!
Not only can you not sit up on your seat, but also you have five other roommates who snore, fart, laugh, and wake up early and look at you while you sleep. (The foreign factor sometimes is good, but not when you are in a train car with a lot of Chinese cause it’s hard to hide if you want.) Long story short – I didn’t sleep much. We arrived in Xian after eight hours and ran into our guide Melanie. She took us to the hotel and then we were off to tour Xian. We hit all the popular tourist spots such as the Bianpo Village, Terracotta soldiers, Hot Springs (some house the Chiang Kai-shek lived at), and the terracotta soldier factory. The terracotta soldiers were definitely the highlight of the trip! Visiting the museum has been on my bucket list for as long as I can remember! Seeing the ancient soldiers in such great condition for miles and miles was truly amazing. You get to the museum and you really get a grasp for the deep culture and long history the Chinese have.
We ate lots of foreign food while in Xian – which was nice for after three weeks of Chinese, Chinese, and Chinese our stomachs were ready for some western food. Subway was the first stop, followed by Starbucks, and some McDonalds before we returned. Service is bad in Chinese though, and fast food is not fast at all.
The second day in Xian was free time. We explored the city wall and did some shopping. Bought some shoes and ate some crazy Japanese style food. Walking around the city was fun because Xian is huge in comparison to Lanzhou and there is a lot to do. The city felt so alive and you could tell that people were excited to be there. We ran into lots of foreign and Chinese tourist (I followed a Spain group to hear the Chinese girl speak Spanish to them on their tour – so cool). They charge for everything though! Every place, even the parks, charged an entrance of 30 Yuan or more. Overall it was a great trip and I can’t wait to visit Beijing, for it is a LOT bigger than Xian. I bought lots of souvenirs and I can’t wait to share more details and pictures with my 13 loyal followers!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
There is one mountain high enough… XingLongShan!
Holy mole!
I got my schedule for the week and noticed that Sunday indicated we were going to ‘tour’ XingLong Mountain. Okay, that sounds easy enough – maybe we would get to see some hills, walk a few trails, and breath in the fresh air. Wishful thinking… Touring the mountain actually means climbing the mountain up and down the steepest stairs/trails I have seen in my life. Our tour guide Andrew starts the talk by telling us that XingLong Mountain is 2,600 meters high – I do not understand when they talk in ‘meters’ and ‘kilometers’ and those measurements that the rest of the world uses, but 2,000 of anything sounded like a LOT!
We arrive at the mountain and start to climb. The first 100 meters are fine, but then the walking doesn’t stop. We keep climbing and climbing and climbing and CLIMBING! I look ahead and see nothing but more stairs. The good thing is that every so often we would have a rest stop at a “Temple” (Please pardon my overuse of quotes – they usually indicate a misrepresentation of the word by the Chinese). At each temple they have loud inspiration techno music to encourage you to keep climbing (I would have preferred Eye of the Tiger). You start to hear the music about 300 meters away without realizing that 300 meters is actually quite far. Also at the temple they sell food, drinks, and, chairs. At these temples you are charged for sitting, touching, looking at, breathing, singing, sweating, drinking, or eating anything – quite a business!
Needless to say, the scenery was beautiful, just like straight out of a seen of Twilight. Fresh air, tall pine trees, but no Edwards or werewolves. Finally, after about an hour and a half I made it to the top of Mount XingLong and man was I happy. You are happy for about ten seconds and then you realize – Wait! How the heck do I get down? More walking of course! That’s when the real pain started. My legs were shaking, feet aching, and toes trembling - just to describe a few of my symptoms. FINALLY, I made it back down the hill only to discover that we still had to visit a museum for another two hours! I tried my best to keep everyone is good spirits (one of my jobs as class leader) by singing “The wheels of the bus” and “Old McDonald!” It was fun for me and everyone played along for the first few seconds (then they decided that I was to hype for just having climbed a mountain). Made it home late, had some pizza, and good night Lanzhou!
I got my schedule for the week and noticed that Sunday indicated we were going to ‘tour’ XingLong Mountain. Okay, that sounds easy enough – maybe we would get to see some hills, walk a few trails, and breath in the fresh air. Wishful thinking… Touring the mountain actually means climbing the mountain up and down the steepest stairs/trails I have seen in my life. Our tour guide Andrew starts the talk by telling us that XingLong Mountain is 2,600 meters high – I do not understand when they talk in ‘meters’ and ‘kilometers’ and those measurements that the rest of the world uses, but 2,000 of anything sounded like a LOT!
We arrive at the mountain and start to climb. The first 100 meters are fine, but then the walking doesn’t stop. We keep climbing and climbing and climbing and CLIMBING! I look ahead and see nothing but more stairs. The good thing is that every so often we would have a rest stop at a “Temple” (Please pardon my overuse of quotes – they usually indicate a misrepresentation of the word by the Chinese). At each temple they have loud inspiration techno music to encourage you to keep climbing (I would have preferred Eye of the Tiger). You start to hear the music about 300 meters away without realizing that 300 meters is actually quite far. Also at the temple they sell food, drinks, and, chairs. At these temples you are charged for sitting, touching, looking at, breathing, singing, sweating, drinking, or eating anything – quite a business!
Needless to say, the scenery was beautiful, just like straight out of a seen of Twilight. Fresh air, tall pine trees, but no Edwards or werewolves. Finally, after about an hour and a half I made it to the top of Mount XingLong and man was I happy. You are happy for about ten seconds and then you realize – Wait! How the heck do I get down? More walking of course! That’s when the real pain started. My legs were shaking, feet aching, and toes trembling - just to describe a few of my symptoms. FINALLY, I made it back down the hill only to discover that we still had to visit a museum for another two hours! I tried my best to keep everyone is good spirits (one of my jobs as class leader) by singing “The wheels of the bus” and “Old McDonald!” It was fun for me and everyone played along for the first few seconds (then they decided that I was to hype for just having climbed a mountain). Made it home late, had some pizza, and good night Lanzhou!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Represent the big O.K.
After four years of college I think I finally have the science of presentations imprinted in my brain. Today was the day that I gave my presentation on Oklahoma. The weird thing is that I can’t say I was nervous or did I stumble at all. Representing Oklahoma is fun, and the best part is that no one can prove me wrong cause apparently I am some kind of ‘expert’ on Oklahoma. I totally over-played the Native American and Cowboy cultures though and I think that everyone in China now thinks that Oklahomans are either cowboys or Indians.
All this time I had been thinking that my presentation wasn’t going to be what they expected – but apparently there were no expectations set. I was the second one to present and it lasted for about 20 minutes of Oklahoma – who knew that our state was so cool! They were amazed that Tulsa, Oklahoma is such a diverse and global place. Also, that we teach Chinese! All the delegates and the foreign affairs office were surprise to know that I had learned Chinese in middle school and that we have a sister city and that we love China! Oh, and apparently our Census is really hard to understand when it comes to ‘race.’ A lot of folks were confused when I presented about demographics.
Other cool things going on:
1. We had a kung fu class the other day. Master Meng was great and so graceful! So watch out cause I can now bust a head open with my first, karate chop, and do a really cool serpent pose.
2. I have decided to learn Swedish. Helena and Theres are really good teachers! I can say the days of the week and introduce myself. Also, I will probably be learning the “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” song in Swedish (I will then know it six languages)!
3. I miss guacamole!
(Post comments! I love to hear what you think!)
All this time I had been thinking that my presentation wasn’t going to be what they expected – but apparently there were no expectations set. I was the second one to present and it lasted for about 20 minutes of Oklahoma – who knew that our state was so cool! They were amazed that Tulsa, Oklahoma is such a diverse and global place. Also, that we teach Chinese! All the delegates and the foreign affairs office were surprise to know that I had learned Chinese in middle school and that we have a sister city and that we love China! Oh, and apparently our Census is really hard to understand when it comes to ‘race.’ A lot of folks were confused when I presented about demographics.
Other cool things going on:
1. We had a kung fu class the other day. Master Meng was great and so graceful! So watch out cause I can now bust a head open with my first, karate chop, and do a really cool serpent pose.
2. I have decided to learn Swedish. Helena and Theres are really good teachers! I can say the days of the week and introduce myself. Also, I will probably be learning the “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” song in Swedish (I will then know it six languages)!
3. I miss guacamole!
(Post comments! I love to hear what you think!)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Carlos' Underwear Wash, LLC
Do you need your underwear hand washed? If you answered yes, then I am your man.
Today, for the first day since my arrival, I needed to do some laundry. There are a few rules with the laundry man on campus: 1. He will sort you clothes and tell you how many batches you have, 2. No underwear, and 3. You dry your own clothes.
First I gathered all my dirty clothes and walked over to the laundry man. I call him the laundry man because I think he lives in the laundry room, because the room just has some shelves, about 4 washing machines, some laundry detergent, and then a curtain. What’s behind the curtain? I don’t know (nobody knows!), but I am pretty sure that when I went to pick up the laundry the said ‘laundry man’ was sleeping behind the mysterious curtain.
Anyway, each batch only cost 6 元（the exchange rate is about 6.7 Yuan/USD)。 That is less than a dollar, A DOLLAR! So I took in two pairs of jeans (yes, I had been wearing the same two pairs off and on for two weeks – don’t judge!) and 6 t-shirts. This constituted to be two batches, so that total was 12 Yuan! It takes about an hour then you go and pick up your wet clothes. Yes, WET CLOTHES and then you have to figure out how to dry it! I borrowed some hangers from Helena (Swedish lady form Kalix!), but then decided that I would be a little craftier – so, I constructed a clothesline in my room from floss! It works great! Floss is made of really strong string – must be the extra mint flavor in it!
After that, I had to wash my underwear by hand. It took about 5 minutes and I got really good at it. Clean underwear and clean clothes – now I can wear clothes that doesn’t smell and people will want to be my friend again! So, if you are ever caught with a broken washing machine and your laundry man wont wash your underwear, give me a call, for I will be opening Carlos’ Underwear Wash, LLC upon my return.
Today, for the first day since my arrival, I needed to do some laundry. There are a few rules with the laundry man on campus: 1. He will sort you clothes and tell you how many batches you have, 2. No underwear, and 3. You dry your own clothes.
First I gathered all my dirty clothes and walked over to the laundry man. I call him the laundry man because I think he lives in the laundry room, because the room just has some shelves, about 4 washing machines, some laundry detergent, and then a curtain. What’s behind the curtain? I don’t know (nobody knows!), but I am pretty sure that when I went to pick up the laundry the said ‘laundry man’ was sleeping behind the mysterious curtain.
Anyway, each batch only cost 6 元（the exchange rate is about 6.7 Yuan/USD)。 That is less than a dollar, A DOLLAR! So I took in two pairs of jeans (yes, I had been wearing the same two pairs off and on for two weeks – don’t judge!) and 6 t-shirts. This constituted to be two batches, so that total was 12 Yuan! It takes about an hour then you go and pick up your wet clothes. Yes, WET CLOTHES and then you have to figure out how to dry it! I borrowed some hangers from Helena (Swedish lady form Kalix!), but then decided that I would be a little craftier – so, I constructed a clothesline in my room from floss! It works great! Floss is made of really strong string – must be the extra mint flavor in it!
After that, I had to wash my underwear by hand. It took about 5 minutes and I got really good at it. Clean underwear and clean clothes – now I can wear clothes that doesn’t smell and people will want to be my friend again! So, if you are ever caught with a broken washing machine and your laundry man wont wash your underwear, give me a call, for I will be opening Carlos’ Underwear Wash, LLC upon my return.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Let's Get Loud - Gaya!
It was decided that Saturday was going to be ‘party day’ mainly because Sunday we were finally having a free day with not activities involved so there was reason to celebrate. Saturday was already tiring because we had a city tour and for some strange reason I decided I would play soccer. The tour involved a stop at the water wheel park and a beef noodle demonstration. Soccer on the other hand was brutal – although we won, today my whole body aches.
Mary, our tour guide and program director, made a big mistake on the tour by telling us where the bar street was located (Little did she know that we had already planned to party that day). Not only was there a bar street, but it is conveniently located about half a mile from campus (totally in walking distance), score! Later that night we set off on the party adventure to find a bar. We found a few and then realized that maybe 6pm was a little early for people to be partying – quickly rearranging our schedule we decided to eat at “Comeback.” After, we grilled our own food at Comeback, it was time to start the party.
First stop was a nice little pub. We had a few drinks, played some games, and listened to the Chinese version of Mary J. Blige’s “Family Affair.” But bars and pubs weren’t enough for me and a few of the other delegates because we wanted to DANCE! After being lost in translation a few hours we finally came upon a Chinese women who knew what we were looking for. In old foreigner fashion we had her write down the name of the place in Chinese characters, hoped in a taxi (taxis here are ridiculously cheap) and off we were to GAYA!
Gaya was like being in the movie “Robots” because their décor was fans, pipes, and other things spray painted gold. The music was totally bumping though with techno versions of certain famous rap songs, children’s songs with a little twist (I’m pretty sure they played Old McDonald one time as a call and response song), and various other familiar English songs. The best part was that there was live music! Totally stylish looking Chinese people singing in English to crazy disco – we must import this to America immediately. I remember dancing inappropriately to “Its my life” and in old J.Lo fashion “Let’s get loud.” I didn’t know what it is, but I have a strange connection with Jennifer Lopez – her music follows me everywhere. I think it is probably because we are soul mates, but that’s just a guess. There was no dance floor in this club, but we didn’t care and neither did the Chinese. Apparently you just hang around your table, drink, and shake your bom bom all you want. And that is precisely what we did. Gaya was great to us and we will for sure be gracing it with our presence often.
Mary, our tour guide and program director, made a big mistake on the tour by telling us where the bar street was located (Little did she know that we had already planned to party that day). Not only was there a bar street, but it is conveniently located about half a mile from campus (totally in walking distance), score! Later that night we set off on the party adventure to find a bar. We found a few and then realized that maybe 6pm was a little early for people to be partying – quickly rearranging our schedule we decided to eat at “Comeback.” After, we grilled our own food at Comeback, it was time to start the party.
First stop was a nice little pub. We had a few drinks, played some games, and listened to the Chinese version of Mary J. Blige’s “Family Affair.” But bars and pubs weren’t enough for me and a few of the other delegates because we wanted to DANCE! After being lost in translation a few hours we finally came upon a Chinese women who knew what we were looking for. In old foreigner fashion we had her write down the name of the place in Chinese characters, hoped in a taxi (taxis here are ridiculously cheap) and off we were to GAYA!
Gaya was like being in the movie “Robots” because their décor was fans, pipes, and other things spray painted gold. The music was totally bumping though with techno versions of certain famous rap songs, children’s songs with a little twist (I’m pretty sure they played Old McDonald one time as a call and response song), and various other familiar English songs. The best part was that there was live music! Totally stylish looking Chinese people singing in English to crazy disco – we must import this to America immediately. I remember dancing inappropriately to “Its my life” and in old J.Lo fashion “Let’s get loud.” I didn’t know what it is, but I have a strange connection with Jennifer Lopez – her music follows me everywhere. I think it is probably because we are soul mates, but that’s just a guess. There was no dance floor in this club, but we didn’t care and neither did the Chinese. Apparently you just hang around your table, drink, and shake your bom bom all you want. And that is precisely what we did. Gaya was great to us and we will for sure be gracing it with our presence often.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
I will finally survive...
Today was quite a day in LanZhou.
Now that I have advanced Chinese class at 8:30AM EVERY MORNING FOR TWO HOURS, I don't get to join the group for breakfast. Well, Lucy (New Zealand girl who is also in the advanced class) and I decided we would try breakfast on the street. We woke up early and heading to class craving the delicious street food we saw on the first two morning walks to class. Well, usually in China you eat lots of food and you don't know what it is. This was the case this morning, we stopped at the stand and told the lady we wanted 2 of whatever she had. Bread, which was great, but then she started to stuff our bread with all sorts of things we didn't recognize. There were only three things in the sandwich (I don't really know what to call it) that we recognized - carrots, potatoes, and something that looked like Chicken. The rest of the sandwich consisted of green gooey things, brown smelly things, and some other ingredients that it's better we don't know what they are. Let me just say that I will never have breakfast there AGAIN.
CLASS - We had our first Chinese writing class today and it was CRAZY. We have a total of three classes: Advanced Speaking, Advanced Listening, and Advances Writing. Speaking and listening are fine, but the writing class is way way way too hard for me. Not only does the teacher only speak Chinese, but she speaks at 10000000000000000 miles (I mean, kilometers) per hour. Not only that, but she didn't realize that it was our first time in the class and she kept calling on us to recite the homework which I didn't do! Ugh. I think it is because she studied in Russia!
There is an awesome grocery store next to the school that I hadn't quite explored until today and God was smiling at me from above because I found OREOS! OREOS - I know now that I will survive my time in China because if all else fails I can EAT OREOS ALL DAY! THANK YOU OREO GOD!
Now that I have advanced Chinese class at 8:30AM EVERY MORNING FOR TWO HOURS, I don't get to join the group for breakfast. Well, Lucy (New Zealand girl who is also in the advanced class) and I decided we would try breakfast on the street. We woke up early and heading to class craving the delicious street food we saw on the first two morning walks to class. Well, usually in China you eat lots of food and you don't know what it is. This was the case this morning, we stopped at the stand and told the lady we wanted 2 of whatever she had. Bread, which was great, but then she started to stuff our bread with all sorts of things we didn't recognize. There were only three things in the sandwich (I don't really know what to call it) that we recognized - carrots, potatoes, and something that looked like Chicken. The rest of the sandwich consisted of green gooey things, brown smelly things, and some other ingredients that it's better we don't know what they are. Let me just say that I will never have breakfast there AGAIN.
CLASS - We had our first Chinese writing class today and it was CRAZY. We have a total of three classes: Advanced Speaking, Advanced Listening, and Advances Writing. Speaking and listening are fine, but the writing class is way way way too hard for me. Not only does the teacher only speak Chinese, but she speaks at 10000000000000000 miles (I mean, kilometers) per hour. Not only that, but she didn't realize that it was our first time in the class and she kept calling on us to recite the homework which I didn't do! Ugh. I think it is because she studied in Russia!
There is an awesome grocery store next to the school that I hadn't quite explored until today and God was smiling at me from above because I found OREOS! OREOS - I know now that I will survive my time in China because if all else fails I can EAT OREOS ALL DAY! THANK YOU OREO GOD!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Complete! Complete!
Last night was our first banquet of the conference (I will probably refer to the program I am attending as a conference because that is what the Chinese call it. Don't be fooled though, it is more of a study/vacation because we only have one presentation and the rest of the time we are in class or touring the city). Anyway, back to the banquet.
Walking in the banquet hall, I peer across the room to try and find some of my delegate friends to sit with - WRONG, we all had assigned seating with Chinese Officials at each table. As soon as I arrive at the table I notice two bottles in the middle. One is wine (okay, I can handle that!) and the other is something they like to call bai jiu (or as I like to call it poison/nasal passage way decongestant). I also realize that I am sitting next to the Deputy Director of the Gansu Provincial Foreign Affairs Office. We exchange business cards and he losses interest in me until his translator (whom is one of our guides) decides to tell him that I can speak Chinese. Well, the rest is history and we are now best friends. He decided to talk about the one topic that I know the most vocabulary for, FOOD! Then, Mr. Fang (yes, fang like Fang Pi) decides that I will be his English teacher for the meal and he will be my Chinese teacher for the meal. Every time they bring a new dish out he tells me what the content of the meal is. For example, FISH (he says in Chinese of course Yu), to which I repeat FISH. Then is continues on through the duck, lamb, watermelon, squid, some weird green thing that I translated as cabbage (it wasn't cabbage, but he didn't know that). Mr. Fang was a great host and constantly refilled my wine cup until I learned that is I didn't finish my wine then we couldn't pour more.
GanBei - means cheers in Chinese. This was probably the most popular word used at last night’s banquet. Every five seconds one of the officials decided to ganbei with another official at another table, which meant that everyone at the table had to GANBEI! This wasn't a problem until Mr. Pushy (the Director of the GSFAO) decided that he would come cheers are our table ten times in one hour AND we all had to COMPLETE, COMPLETE (I believe his English vocabulary consisted of ‘complete,’ ‘hello,’ and ‘thank you.’) our drinks. What he meant to say was "get drunk our of your mind and drinking the clear poison we can Bai Jiu!" Sheesh.
It was super though! All the foreign delegates decided we would start a conga line (under the influence of BaiJiu) and dance around the room as some crazy Chinese man who definitely had had too much BaiJiu as well sang a song! After the banquet we went out on the town to a bar and drank some gross Chinese beer, got caught in the rain, took a taxi home, and then went to bed!
Walking in the banquet hall, I peer across the room to try and find some of my delegate friends to sit with - WRONG, we all had assigned seating with Chinese Officials at each table. As soon as I arrive at the table I notice two bottles in the middle. One is wine (okay, I can handle that!) and the other is something they like to call bai jiu (or as I like to call it poison/nasal passage way decongestant). I also realize that I am sitting next to the Deputy Director of the Gansu Provincial Foreign Affairs Office. We exchange business cards and he losses interest in me until his translator (whom is one of our guides) decides to tell him that I can speak Chinese. Well, the rest is history and we are now best friends. He decided to talk about the one topic that I know the most vocabulary for, FOOD! Then, Mr. Fang (yes, fang like Fang Pi) decides that I will be his English teacher for the meal and he will be my Chinese teacher for the meal. Every time they bring a new dish out he tells me what the content of the meal is. For example, FISH (he says in Chinese of course Yu), to which I repeat FISH. Then is continues on through the duck, lamb, watermelon, squid, some weird green thing that I translated as cabbage (it wasn't cabbage, but he didn't know that). Mr. Fang was a great host and constantly refilled my wine cup until I learned that is I didn't finish my wine then we couldn't pour more.
GanBei - means cheers in Chinese. This was probably the most popular word used at last night’s banquet. Every five seconds one of the officials decided to ganbei with another official at another table, which meant that everyone at the table had to GANBEI! This wasn't a problem until Mr. Pushy (the Director of the GSFAO) decided that he would come cheers are our table ten times in one hour AND we all had to COMPLETE, COMPLETE (I believe his English vocabulary consisted of ‘complete,’ ‘hello,’ and ‘thank you.’) our drinks. What he meant to say was "get drunk our of your mind and drinking the clear poison we can Bai Jiu!" Sheesh.
It was super though! All the foreign delegates decided we would start a conga line (under the influence of BaiJiu) and dance around the room as some crazy Chinese man who definitely had had too much BaiJiu as well sang a song! After the banquet we went out on the town to a bar and drank some gross Chinese beer, got caught in the rain, took a taxi home, and then went to bed!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
LanZhou rhymes with J.Lo and that's why I love it!
Leaving on a Thursday evening and arriving, in a foreign country halfway around the world, on the following Saturday morning was only the start to my adventure. As soon as we got off the plane I realized the only other girl who wasn’t Chinese on the flight from BeiJing to LanZhou was also part of the delegation. Her name is Augustina and she is from Uruguay. We spoke some Spanish and got to know each other a little. (sidenote: Apparently when you introduce yourself in a foreign country you must also include where you are from. I introduce my self as Carlos Bejarano from the USA. Yes, I have to say USA because if I say US they are confused!)
After a hour drive from the airport to LanZhou University we were rushed to lunch and immediately introduced to twelve other delegates. TRAFFIC, holy Chinese frijoles, TRAFFIC is nuts here, NUTS! Just image that you are in a high speed police chase, surrounded by bicycles and pedestrians, bumper to bumper, accelerating every two seconds, then stopping, the accelerating, then almost running over a person, then hitting a bike, then HONKING! HONKING IS THE FAVORITE PAST TIME OF CHINESE DRIVERS! BEEP BEEP… I am sure that if I grew up in China my first words would have been “Beep Beep.” All in all, Augustina and I couldn’t stop commenting of the craziness of it all and how back in Uruguay or American ALL of the drivers, pedestrians, motorcyclist, and occasional baby-in-strollers would have tens of thousands of traffic violations. Well, after being in a ‘short’ traffic jam, as our greeting party described it, we made it to the lunch.
So far everything has been great. I am enjoying meeting the entire delegations of foreign people. There are people from Romania, Hungary, Kenya, Madagascar, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, Cuban, Italy, France, Tanzania, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, Japan, and USA. Guess how many of us speak Chinese? THREE – which means that I get to serve as translator! I can translate from Spanish to English, English to Chinese, Chinese to Spanish, and all the combinations you can think of with the three languages I speak! I have been getting some headaches… to say the least. But everything is great!
After a hour drive from the airport to LanZhou University we were rushed to lunch and immediately introduced to twelve other delegates. TRAFFIC, holy Chinese frijoles, TRAFFIC is nuts here, NUTS! Just image that you are in a high speed police chase, surrounded by bicycles and pedestrians, bumper to bumper, accelerating every two seconds, then stopping, the accelerating, then almost running over a person, then hitting a bike, then HONKING! HONKING IS THE FAVORITE PAST TIME OF CHINESE DRIVERS! BEEP BEEP… I am sure that if I grew up in China my first words would have been “Beep Beep.” All in all, Augustina and I couldn’t stop commenting of the craziness of it all and how back in Uruguay or American ALL of the drivers, pedestrians, motorcyclist, and occasional baby-in-strollers would have tens of thousands of traffic violations. Well, after being in a ‘short’ traffic jam, as our greeting party described it, we made it to the lunch.
So far everything has been great. I am enjoying meeting the entire delegations of foreign people. There are people from Romania, Hungary, Kenya, Madagascar, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, Cuban, Italy, France, Tanzania, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, Japan, and USA. Guess how many of us speak Chinese? THREE – which means that I get to serve as translator! I can translate from Spanish to English, English to Chinese, Chinese to Spanish, and all the combinations you can think of with the three languages I speak! I have been getting some headaches… to say the least. But everything is great!
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