HM teaching me about... something. Anyway, tangents abound during these lessons. So we got to talking about police and governments, America and China. Oh, right. I was warned that the rude way to say "Move" could get me stabbed, but I said that as a foreigner, my chances of getting stabbed were quite low. She agreed that it was true: people think twice before hurting a foreigner. The Chinese government doesn't care so much about its own people, but it does care about foreigners, whereas the American government might not care so much about foreigners, but it does care about its own people. Which kind of makes sense, numbers-wise. There aren't too many foreigners in China, so it's pretty obvious when one disappears, but with 1.3 billion Chinese, who really cares? And America is chock full of foreigners, but there aren't _so_ many Americans abroad. Do I spell things out too much? I don't mean to be patronizing.
Right. Tangents. So we got to talking about the government and she was saying that even though we may not like Bush, at least we can say so. Here, you whisper. She sometimes tries to explain her brother, the Lesser H-. She said that he used to be happy, but he has had a lot of sad things in his life. He was in Tiannanmen Square during the massacre. He had just finished college in Guiyang and his class had gone up to Beijing for an internship-type thing. As I understand it, there was basically a six-week party leading up to that day, with students peacefully advocating democracy. Now, her brother doesn't talk about it, except to his family. The director of our school in Guiyang, M- was near Tiannanmen that day, but seeing what was going on, stayed away.
Jenna came in for her Chinese writing lesson. I'm off. Possibly to continue to look for Zunyi Park. Because I'm stupid.
Yesterday I went to the mi pi stand across the street from my apartment. Mi pi is flat, wide, white noodles, with small pieces of meat and vegetables, and a lot of hot spices (la jiao). It's really good, though it can be ridiculously spicy. I didn't want to eat at the stand, so I asked the lady if she could give it to me to take away and she just gave me the bowl, told me to bring it back later, and that I could pay then.
I just interviewed a girl to be a TA here. Her name is Casey. She is 25, her husband is a train conductor, and they have one daughter. Her name is something in Chinese. I can't yet tell the boys' names from the girls' names. It's a bit harder, too, because the last name comes first, so it's not like the gender-specific name is the one you hear first.
I can't remember what I have written in the past (and it takes too long to check), so just ignore if I'm repeating myself. During one of my lessons with HM, we were talking about prices of things and she said that you could ask for a lower price on fruits and vegetables. Or maybe I was talking about cherries. They do have ones from America here, but they cost 20 yuan for 1/2 kilo (8 yuan= $1). Just under $2.50 a pound. This in a land where green beans cost about $.30. HM said that since I'm a foreigner, people would charge me more, so I asked her to come with me when I went to buy mangoes that day. A couple of days before, I think I had paid 10 yuan for 1/5 kilo. When HM asked, they were 6 yuan, so she went off about how he was charging more, b/c I am a foreigner. He said that they were different mangoes and the ones I had bought were better, and that I was an old customer and he gave me fair prices. They were different mangoes; the ones I had bought were bigger. He said that he had only charged me 8 yuan, but I *think* it was 10. I also wanted a pear, which he threw in for free.
Just finished my language lesson. And now: The Story of Chinese Lanterns (Hong2 [if red] Deng1 Long2). A long time ago, when polygyny was common among rich men in China, the wife of the day would hang a lit lantern outside her door. If the husband got mad at her, he would blow out the light. When Mao Ze Dong came into power, he outlawed polygyny. Of course, he ended up having five wives -- three at one time. These days, Hong Deng Long have a couple of different meanings. A Hong2 Deng1 Qu2 is a house of ill-repute. Also, an area of those; a red-light district, if you will. Many available "wives", moths to the flame and all. In the countryside, especially, it is also used to signify hope for prosperity in the new year. Hong Deng Long are usually sold for the Chinese New Year, but they keep them all year, to bring favor and also to show that every day is prosperous.
My evil, junior high age class contines to improve. They can say, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" Bribery was involved. The new TAs from the local teachers college are helping us, though I really wish Mingli were still here.
And in case you were wondering, here's how it stands:
Heaven: Mom, Dad, Andi, Eric, my coworkers from MARS/NPS
He**: Everyone else
This week's contest: Tell me why you shouldn't go to hell (yes, I'm the one who decides).
I've solved my back pain problem. If I stack my pillows on top of each other, my neck is in alignment and I can wake up in the morning. Amazing!
I'm going to go check out Zunyi Park today. It's another mountain-ish place in town. Jenna tells me it doesn't exist and that Lonely Planet is just wrong. She seems rather sure of this. I'll let you know. I'm off.
Good news for the fall. Julian will be coming up to Zunyi to teach (Guiyang is rather charmless) and an old teacher will be coming back to China very soon. That would mean there would be three teachers in Zunyi this fall, which is one too many. HM told me that the reason was her son. He wants to go to college in the US (Columbia or Princeton), so he needs to speak perfect English, and he doesn't respond well to male teachers, so instead of teaching classes 20 hours a week, I would teach for 10, tutor for 10. That suits me just fine.
It's raining today. No climbing Phoenix Park Mountain.
My T1 (young teen) class has decided they want to perform Cinderella for their parents. The classes are all supposed to put on some sort of performance and I was asking them what they wanted to do. One girl raised her hand and suggested Cinderella. So, I told/acted the story for them (it was quite amusing) and asked if there were any other suggestions (there weren't) and if they were sure they wanted to do Cinderella (the boys said, "eh" the girls were okay with it). So we spent the next two hours writing a script for the play. And then we watched the end of Bambi (missed the mom dying) and a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Now I'm finishing the script and adding funny scenes so I can squeeze in more characters. Any suggestions? No, really. I have 20 kids and only maybe 13 parts. And that took some effort.