Some Notes On Money

I went to the tailor this morning to pick up my latest order – a qipao top custom made for me out of beautiful red embroidered silk for $16.  I was considering ordering a full-length qipao as well, but have pretty much decided not to.  It’s not so much what the tailor would charge (certainly not more than $40), but more the associated costs of transporting it home and finding shoes to wear with it.  Also, this is a sort of gamble – me betting that I’ll be back in China some day with less luggage and more occasions to wear a qipao :)

 

While walking back from the bus stop at West Gate, I stopped at the DVD cart and bought 松花江上.  It’s a Chinese TV show, a historical series set after the Japanese surrender concerning the Communists vs. the KMT.  I don’t know that it’s the pinnacle of Chinese television (a peak that doesn’t seem to be that high, anyway) but I watched a couple episodes with Xiao Zhang and Xiao Li so it has a special place in my heart.  I have a hard time telling apart the Japanese/Communist/KMT characters (which meant I was continually asking “Are they a good guy or a bad guy?”), but their accents are good and they’re easy to understand.  The entire show cost me $2, but when it turned out to only be on two discs instead of three, I got a refund of 70 cents.  Buying Chinese DVDs are possibly the most guilt-free purchase to make here, as they are a) incredibly cheap, b) unavailable in America, c) small and easily transportable, and d) both entertaining and educational. 

 

I bought tickets this afternoon to Hangzhou at the beginning of July for $130.  It’s a trip to a part of China I don’t want to go to (Shanghai), and during a week when I don’t want to be traveling (last week of classes before finals and goodbyes).  So why am I going?  A friend of mine is going to be there.  We aren’t best friends, but we went to elementary, middle, and high school together and have kept in touch sporadically since then.  I’ve probably only seen him twice since we graduated, one of those times being a chance meeting at Caribou Coffee, but I guess this is a good example of how facebook can actually be used to actually keep in touch with actual people who you actually know.  I know, right?  I saw he was taking a tour through Europe and Asia and knew that I had to try to meet up with him.  I kind of promised myself when I came to China this year that if someone I knew came to Asia (especially China), I would do my best to see them.  Hence the spur-of-the-moment trip to Guangzhou to see the family friends who came to adopt a son, the repeated postponing of my trip to Jilin, and now this.  I am really excited to see Matt and catch up, and have been moderately successful at mitigating the parts of the trip I’m not excited about.  I’ll be flying in and out of Hangzhou, completely avoiding the insanity of Shanghai and the Expo, and scheduled the trip during the week (missing class) so as to be in Xiamen for the all-important Fourth of July and last weekend. 

 

I also resumed searching for tickets home two weeks later – and it turns out that they all suck.  The cheapest flight available from Xiamen to Minneapolis is $1,052 but most of the cheap stuff involves 4 legs (and sometimes 4 countries) or ridiculously long times between flights.  Yes, I’d like to visit the Philippines but an 11-hour layover wasn’t what I had in mind.  The price isn’t of utmost importance as I have a scholarship to cover it, but is it too much to ask for an journey home that starts in the afternoon, lasts under 24 hours, and is preferably through either Delta or Cathay Pacific?  Apparently.  Nevertheless, it must be done – don’t worry, I firmly intend to return home. 

 

I took a look at my records and calculated that my 10-day trip to Jilin cost just under $500 total.  40% of that was the plane tickets, a third was food, and the remainder was other transportation.  I was so lucky to not have to pay for a place to stay!  I spent $120 treating people to dinner, but (besides that fact that this is a drop in the bucket compared with what they’ve given me) it’s still less than I would have spent otherwise – on lodging for 10 nights and for food on the occasions that they treated me to dinner!  The only disappointment (again) was that final day in Jilin, which cost $50.  That’s a tenth of the total cost, and a full third of my transportation costs, in one day!

Mandarin: No Sweeter Sound

This morning I had plans with Alex, a friend of mine from TU, to meet for Mass at his usual place, Rosary Church Kowloon.  The church was a beautiful building, and the Mass was just as beautiful.  The priest (Irish, I’m pretty sure) was the first native English-speaker I’d heard celebrate Mass in over 7 months, and the Gloria was the first one I’d recognized from home in just as long.  Those weren’t the only differences – the congregation didn’t talk during the service, the priest commented on the one cell phone that rang, and there were extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist.  The main similarity to my church in Xiamen was that Communion was still confusing. 

At the end of Mass, Father made a special announcement concerning the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.  This was another first for me.  He shared some of Pope Benedict’s words, which I had already read, but it was still the first time I heard anyone mention the issue in person.  (I think this is completely a function of me living in China, and not characteristic of the international church – is that true?)  I wonder what they know about it [mainland] China . . . are they talking and I just don’t understand? 

After Mass, Alex suggested that we go to his town, “out in the boonies of Hong Kong” and on the way to Shenzhen.  We took the Metro over there, where we had a delicious Indian meal.  (Alex confirmed my hunch that he eats a lot more foreign food in Hong Kong than he did when he used to live in Chengdu, simply because most Chinese food is as expensive as the foreign food.) 

From there, we walked to the river, where we hung out and talked for awhile.  We spent a lot of time comparing China with the non-China places we’ve been.  Here’s a general summary: Chinese people are friendly, people from Hong Kong are courteous, and Taiwanese are both. 

Alex and I have had different paths to China so it’s interesting to compare our past experiences and our hopes for the future.  We discussed the prospect of returning to work in China; it sounds good but the more I think about it, maybe it wouldn’t be the same.  We both like China and think it’s fun, but perhaps less so when you actually have to get something done . . .

Alex’s town has a nice ‘town square’, lots of sitting areas surrounded by food vendors.  We got big glasses of milk tea (for the ridiculous price of $1.80, compared to 60 cents back in Xiamen) and I got a Belgian waffle doused in butter and condensed milk.  I have pretty good self control when it comes to food, but all my restraint goes out the window when traveling.  Especially in China, if I see good food in another city and don’t eat it, I may not ever get the chance again!  And thus, my Easter sugar high has stayed around through the entirety of the Octave.

I managed to work the money situation just right, changing 1,000 renminbi (about $130) to Hong Kong dollars when I arrived and leaving with about $10 US of loose bills in my wallet and an Octopus Card with a negative balance.  Basically what I’m getting at here is – I am a ninja.

He walked me to the subway, which I took back to the border crossing.  As I approached passport control, my phone vibrated, delivering a text message from back home in Xiamen – now I have dinner plans to look forward to tomorrow!  Reentering China was – surprisingly – quite easy and I was through in a matter of minutes.  From the moment 請 became 请, I felt myself relax into the familiarity of China.  The Chinese characters before me were all wondrously simplified, and the only language that my ears detected was good ol’ Mandarin.  After a few days of English and Cantonese, it soothes my soul.

I bought a ticket for the 8:30 bus to Xiamen and sat down to wait for a few hours.  The couple Chinese guys nearby were drawn in like moths to a flame, and after complimenting me on my Mandarin, the usual battery of questions began:

• How long have you been here?
• Where do you work?
• Where are you from?
• Which is better, China or America?
• Are you used to it here?
• Do you eat Chinese food?
• What brand is your computer?
• How much did it cost?
• Do you have a Chinese boyfriend?
• Have you been to ___ place in China?

It’s good to be back, China – I’ve missed you, and I think you missed me too. 

Hong Kong Isn’t China, But It Might Be India

Oh, Guangzhou Victory Hotel – it’s been great.  Thanks for the bacon and croissants, the decadent bed, the super-friendly bellboys, and nightly chocolates delivered to my room.  But all things must come to an end, and today was a day for leaving – leaving Guangzhou, and leaving China.

My friends went home to America this morning, but I had another stop to make before heading home (to Xiamen, of course) – Hong Kong.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t consider Hong Kong to be part of China.  It might have something to do with the fact that I had to go through Chinese and Hong Kong Customs and Immigration to go from one to the other, or the fact that I had to change currencies and my cell phone no longer works.  Things like this indicate different countries to me – I know, I’m crazy like that. 

I was prepared for those changes, in theory at least.  In actuality, I wasn’t quite prepared for the trek from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, which involved 3 separate subway rides and a longer train ride, adding up to over 5 hours – longer than it took me to get from Xiamen to Guangzhou!  A lot of this time was also spent waiting in lines to get through customs and immigration, each time comically divided into a ridiculous number of lines showing the complicated relationship between China and the places I refer to as non-China (HK, Macau, and Taiwan). 

The surprises of Hong Kong did not stop there, though.  Coming to Hong Kong after living in China is like going about your daily life while wearing a pair of glasses that aren’t your own.  Everything is different – usually just a little bit, but enough to throw me off.  The traditional characters, for instance – a lot of them familiar from my summer course in the US, but some only understandable based on context.  But even traditional characters are preferable to the Romanized Cantonese that accompanies them.  It’s strange and I hate it – again, it bears some semblance to Mandarin pinyin but the differences are non-negligible.  Cantonese is so prevalent here that the ‘common-ness’ of 普通话 (Mandarin, the ‘common language’), is questionable; I’m not sure how much use my Mandarin is, so I’m paralyzed by doubt every time I try to speak. 

It’s not just language based, either.  In a relic of British imperialism, they drive on the left, walk on the left, and put their pants on left leg first (most likely); I have made an ass out of myself even more often than usual because of this.  Even the money is almost-but-not-quite.  I traded in 1,000 RMB for 1,112 HKD, which is a difference slight enough to mean that revising my usual estimation of 7-to-1 isn’t worth it.  The bills are even brighter than Chinese money, but look weird because they are issued by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and HSBC instead of a government; they pretty much look like traveler’s checks or something. 

Anyway, I made it the correct subway stop and came up to the surface of Hong Kong for the very first time . . . and culture shock immediately set in.  Hard core, more overwhelmed than I’ve been since coming to China.  I was on Nathan Rd, the main drag of Kowloon, and the neon signs in English, Chinese (characters), and Cantonese illuminated the street like the midday sun.  And what was there to be illuminated was people.  In terms of quantity it was much like China, but the quality of the people was different.  I really felt like I had taken the wrong train and ended up in Mumbai or something, because Indians and Pakistanis had clearly overtaken the Han Chinese as the strong majority in this area.  They harassed me as I walked along, selling watches, computers, tailors, and places to stay.

It was around this point, when I was being intimidated into near hysteria by some men who weren’t even being particularly aggressive, I realized that if I were to immediately travel from China to a culture of machismo, I would mostly likely experience a completely emotional breakdown.  Chinese men are just not very aggressive, and even when drunk they’re more deferent than Western men.  I’ve become accustomed to this, and thus was surprised by and unprepared for the efforts of these men to get my attention.  Worse, they all spoke English so couldn’t even hide behind the language barrier as a defense. 

But, I actually was looking for a place to stay, so at some point I had to talk to them.  I went to the Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong’s most infamous low-budget hostels, and let one guy take me up to his place.  For 150 Hong Kong dollars ($20) a night, I get what could generously be described as a cell. 

I have my own bathroom so I shouldn’t complain, but it’s miniscule – I could literally drink from the faucet while relieving myself on the toilet, and could do both while taking a shower. 

 

After setting my stuff down, I decided to explore my surroundings.  I had grand delusions of eating at the TGIF next door, but when I saw that appetizers were 100 HKD ($13), I decided even that wasn’t worth it.  Enjoy what you have, where you are, I reminded myself, and grabbed Indian food from one of the 400 tiny food stands in Chungking Mansions. 

I got it to-go and planned to retire to my room and enjoy the freedom of expression available here in Hong Kong, in the form of Facebook, Youtube, and The Onion.  If only it were that simple . . . Turns out that the Chungking Mansions consist of at least 5 buildings, sharing a common base but unconnected at the top.  I’m sure you see where this is going, but to explain completely why it took me an hour to get up to my room on the 6th floor of building D, I also have to add that the elevators are epically slow.  Each building has two – one that stops on even floors and one that stops on odd floors – each capable of holding about 6 people an uncomfortable proximities.  After dinner time, lines for the elevators were spilling out into the main corridors and made me glad I had a book on me. 

So yeah, my bad sense of direction + a maze of identical Bollywood DVD shops, naan and curry stands, and knock-off iPod sellers + worst elevator situation ever = 4 trips to the 6th floor, including one by stairs. 

Back in my room, I curled up with my chicken rice, pita bread, and wifi-enabled laptop, and there spent several wonderful hours rotting my brain.  I read about 40 Onion articles in a row and watched a music video for the first time since leaving America.  I came to the conclusion that Lady Gaga is freaking messed-up, and am now fine not watching music videos for another 7+ months.  But I also watched a few videos I had bookmarked for this occasion.  One, a guerrilla handbell stunt from Improv Everywhere, was distinctly out-of-date with a Christmas scene but despite (or perhaps because of?) this, brought me to tears. 

I’ve been using my proxy back home in Xiamen so it wasn’t weird at all to get on facebook, but videos load too slow so it was really my first time on Youtube in many months.  It has changed – I can’t describe exactly how, but the page is laid out differently and there are a lot more videos in HD.  Weird that a familiar website can feel so unfamiliar. 

But maybe I should have expected it.  Familiar sites have brought me a lot of unfamiliar things this year – engagement announcements of friends, pictures of things I wasn’t there for, news of current events I missed, and popular songs I’ve never heard of.  Most recently, it’s been weird checking out the new 2010 scholarship winners.  For the last two years, April was a time to await scholarship decisions, a time to obsessively check websites looking for my name.  This year, I checked the same sites but looked instead for the name of my school.  I was happy to see TU students do so well – with a Truman, 2 Goldwaters, and 3 NSFs – but felt weird that I didn’t know most of the winners.  (Technically, this was more true before I found out about the NSF winners, one of whom is living in my room of my apartment right now, and the other who just sent me a letter from New Zealand.)  SENEA totally swept the last two years of Goldwater and Udall scholarships, but I guess all good things must come to an end. 

Put On Your Dancing Shoes!

This afternoon I joined my friend Liz and her new friend Dani for an adventure towards a shoe repair place.  I had a sinking feeling as soon as I learned the place a) was located by Marco Polo, b) had a business card, and c) was named Luxury Goods Repair, all of which I took as indication that the place would be expensive.

I was right.  They wanted to charge us 270 kuai (almost $40) to repair a broken strap on a purse and 170 kuai ($25) to fix a pair of shoes.  I had four items to be fixed (two purses, a pair of heels, and a pair of rain boots) which, when I bought them, perhaps cost $50 all together.  Needless to say, we did not take them up on their offer. 

Instead, acting on a series of tips and hunches, we made our way up DaXue Lu towards a market where, rumor had it, a guy fixed shoes.  Sure enough we found them, two guys with tiny rooms chock full of every item needed to repair any sort of damage to shoes, leather goods, and umbrellas.  Between us we had new heels put on two pairs of high heels and three purse straps repaired – for a total cost of 15 yuan ($2).  That’s much more like it! 

We had lunch at the Loving Hut, a vegan restaurant in the McDonald’s building.  I really liked it!  For one thing, when you’re not eating meat it’s almost luxurious to go to a restaurant where you can eat absolutely anything on the menu.  Also, the place is clean and even slightly decorated; unlike most of the places I eat here in China, I would perhaps try this place if it were in America.  But most amazing was the service!  After we had eaten our fill a waitress came over, asked if the food was good, offered to pack up the leftovers for us to take home, and checked to see if she could take away our plates.  This might not seem groundbreaking, but trust me when I say that it is by far the most friendly service I’ve ever received in a Chinese restaurant. 

We stayed at the table talking for quite a while after finishing our meal.  (The weather outside is really not conducive to going out; if it’s not outright raining, it’s drizzling!)  We ended up talking about our experiences with beggars here.  We all had really bad experiences to share – like when we gave money to one guy and three others mobbed us; or when we offered them bananas or bread and they demanded the dumplings or cookies we had.  We were all wondering what options are available to the poor and homeless here, like what help they get from the government. 

This also led into a discussion about disabilities, because so many beggars are disabled or severely injured in some way.  Due to its complete lack of handicap-accessibility, China at times seems downright hostile to the disabled.  Since coming to China, I’ve really become appreciative of the American Disability Act.  Sometimes the litigation and political correctness in America can get impractical or tiresome, but I am really very proud of the US for the value that we now afford to people with all sorts of disabilities and the laws that we’ve put in place to protect them.  I know that “better than China” isn’t necessarily a good standard, but I think we do a pretty good job, right? 

Lester was supposed to get out of the hospital yesterday, and then today after an ultrasound, but now his release has been postponed again until Monday.  I went to the hospital to visit him but he’s a hard patient to keep track of!  He goes out every afternoon or evening when he’s done with his IV, so sometimes it’s hard to catch him in his room.  We met in one of the cafeterias on campus for dinner with XuLei, a girl we met in dancing class who has been visiting Lester even more than me. 

I like hanging out with those two.  They’re both great friends and we speak a fun mix of English and Chinese.  She’s one of my Chinese friends who I feel comfortable questioning about aspects of Chinese culture that I don’t understand.  We talked about my good service experience earlier that day and how remarkable it was, which led to a discussion about the nature of service in China and the West.  Really, now that I think about it, maybe it’s not so weird that service is so bad here; workers don’t get respect and they certainly don’t return it.  Unlike in America, where most people work at least one entry-level service job in their lifetime and then move on from there, the really crappy jobs here held for life and those who hold them are looked down on.  New resolution: Be nicer, and give everyone a chance to be nice back. 

This evening XuLei and I went dancing.  I hadn’t been in a few weeks because I’ve been so busy between classes and helping Lester, so it was great to be back.  Everyone was full of questions about Lester and my parents (Dad, the officer says hi!).  I think I danced every dance except two, which can get pretty tiring!  But I hadn’t been to The Key in a few weeks, either, so I convinced XuLei to go out with us afterwards.

We met up with Leinira and some other friends and first went to Havana Beach, a bar that just opened this weekend.  (By ‘just opened’, we really mean that it changed names and perhaps theme; this happens almost weekly in Xiamen.)  Leinira knew somebody there so we enjoyed a round of free sangria before going to The Key.  It was XuLei’s first time in a bar, but she really seemed to enjoy it!  We didn’t stay very late because – get this! – she has class tomorrow (Sunday) at 8 a.m.!  Anyway, it’s probably just what I needed: dance ‘til you’re exhausted to some Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Akon, Bon Jovi, and Katy Perry, then go home and crash. 

半年了! (Half A Year!)

As of yesterday, I’ve been in Xiamen for half a year.  I’ve seen half a year’s worth of weather, been around for half a year’s worth of holidays, festivals, and events, and witnessed half of the liturgical year in church. 

It’s a big milestone! 

The last week or so has felt like a turning point in my time here.  For one thing, I’m feeling even more at home than usual.  With so many of my good friends still gone on vacation, I found myself really missing them.  I wasn’t sad when missing them, though; in fact it was really nice to realize that I have friendships good enough to miss.  It was great to welcome them back, share memories of our last semester together and begin making plans for this semester.

As my friends have returned, though, they’ve been joined by a whole new flock of new students.  Age and experience are all relative, and thus I have become an oldster around XiaDa.  I’ve been through registration and the residence permit process, I’ve taken classes for a whole semester, I know where the cafeterias are and which ones are good, etc. 

Kids these days . . . They have no idea how hard we had it, back when I came to XiaDa.  We had to wait two months in the sweltering heat for our E-cards! 

But, as my stay in China is slightly shorter than a full year, the 6-month anniversary means that I’m actually past the halfway mark of my time here.  All of a sudden, I feel like I’m at the top of a hill on a bike with no brakes, because I think the rest of my time here will pass quickly. 

I made up a calendar so I could keep track of important dates and vacations this semester, and it is really helping me to put things in perspective.  I have the starting date of classes at XiaDa this spring (March 1st) and the starting date of classes at TU in the fall (Aug 23rd) all on one piece of paper.  It’s not that far off; in fact, in another 6 months I will be finishing up my first week of classes back at TU. 

So while I’m feeling comfortable with my life here, I’m looking forward more and more to getting back.  There’s definitely excitement and longing, but by ‘looking forward’ I more mean that it’s just on my mind a lot.  It’s kind of hard to wrap my mind around!  I’ve been studying Chinese 24/7 since the beginning of last June and probably haven’t touched a calculator since then, so sometimes it’s weird to imagine myself in engineering classes again.

I’m getting hungry for it, though – numbers, equations, and logic instead of this crazy language with its ridiculous characters and stupid 了 particle.  I know I sound fabulously geeky saying this, but I can picture the binders of notes in my room and I plan to read through them like novels when I get home. 

[Since these things are so much easier when dealing with round numbers, I’m going to share an update about my finances.  I know most of you probably aren’t interested in all this, but I put it up here in case a future XiaDa student finds this and is looking for an idea of costs.  I’m on scholarship here but it obviously doesn’t cover everything I spend money on.  I got a 2,000 kuai (almost $300) settlement when I arrived, to cover textbooks and the basic necessities of moving in and all.  Then, every month I get 1,700 RMB ($250) to cover food and other daily expenditures.  So far I’ve received $1,800 in stipend money, which has basically been enough to cover my food ($1,150), local transportation ($100), cell phone and internet ($130), personal products like shampoo and things for our room like the fridge ($250), all my textbooks for three levels of Chinese ($65)  and the documentation that I had to get at the beginning of the year ($130).  My other costs, like clothes, souvenirs, recreation, and travel, have been out-of-pocket.  Basically, over the last six months I’m out about two thousand dollars, including $850 for travel, $250 on souvenirs and gifts, $60 for my internet proxy, and $200 on a new camera and hard drive.]

That’s What This Blog Has Been Missing!

I found avocados today!!!!!

This was pretty much the highlight of my stay in China thus far.  Xiamen, despite being a tropical island, is not an avocado-producing island.  I imagine that the climate would be just right for growing avocados, but for some reason they are not grown here.  It is one of the constant disappointments of my life, because I think most days are better with a bowl of guacamole.  Am I right, or am I right?  (Although, really, the lack of avocados is not the only stumbling block here; there are also no tortilla chips.  I mean, there is a green saltine-looking cracker that mysteriously tastes like a Tostito, but isn’t that a little weird?)  The lack of avocados goes on the list of things about China that I will never understand, along with the acceptability of spitting indoors, the undefined ends of phone calls, and the preference for chicken feet over actual meat. 

But, as I mentioned, today I triumphed!  Following a tip from a friend, I went to Metro to look for avocados (and a dozen other things on my Metro-only shopping list).  There they were, in all their wrinkly beauty . . . I was planning on getting four until I saw the price – 72 kuai per jin!  Neither of those units probably make sense to you, but taking 6.8 kuai as $1 and 1 jin (half a kilo) as 1.1 lb, it turns out that they were almost $10 a pound!  Swallowing deeply, I grabbed two and went to check out.  $5 for two avocados!  I am really looking forward to that guacamole . . .

Shopping at Metro is like mini culture shock.  In a usual Chinese supermarket, the average item is probably under 10 kuai ($1.50).  I have to be careful in Metro, though, as most items I want are about $5 each.  Cheese, butter, powdered sugar, baking mixes – all in the range of 30 kuai.  It was so easy to spend $50 today, which is a ridiculous sum of money in China! 

Back at home, I decided to put some numbers with my gut feelings of “cheap” and “expensive”.  I graphed the price by weight ($/lb) of several food items:

I feel slightly nerdy, and it feels AWESOME.  And it feels awesome that feeling nerdy still feels awesome . . . Did you follow that?

The data set is far from complete, as it only contains items from Metro whose receipts I still have and two fruits I recently bought, but I still think it’s interesting.  Avocados are, by weight, the most expensive thing I’ve bought in China, narrowly edging out cheese and butter (the good stuff I buy for bread).  I’m going to the supermarket tomorrow and plan to add more fruits and vegetables as well as anything else I find interesting.  I would also like to do a comparison with American prices, so I hope you’re looking forward to some more graphs!  I think that’s what this journal has been missing all along . . .

Today Xiamen took the opportunity to remind us of what a charming city it can be when the sun is out.  It was a gorgeous day – not too hot and not too cold, and all you need is a light jacket!  (And scarf, of course.)  After dropping off my groceries, I went out to the beach to check out the sunset.  Evening Prayer before such a vista is one of the simple pleasures of life, one that I hope to partake of more in the upcoming months.

Each time I left campus today, I felt like a fish swimming upstream.  The students of Xiamen University are returning in full force – finally!  The little convenience store downstairs opened today so we were finally able to get drinking water for our room, and the CaiQingJie restaurant opens tomorrow.  S

I met Diederik and three new Dutch guys for dinner.  Would “Holland and the Dutchmen” make a good band name?  I think so.  If you’ll allow me to make a generalization about the entire Dutch people based on 6 of them, I think they’re great.  Again, my data set is a little skewed – for instance, almost all of the Dutch people speak Chinese, and they’re all between the ages of 20 and 25 – but hey, it’s all based on my own personal experiences.

Come to think of it, every single one of the Slovenians I know speaks Chinese.  That’s probably not typical of the general population, is it? 

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My breakfast today – a bowl full of strawberries and three bananas – cost 50 cents.  Have I mentioned loving fruit (and their prices) here in China?  I tried a new fruit today – the small mangos – and was reasonably impressed, but I think the discovery of a kumquat vendor right next to the malatang soup place was more exciting.  Polished off a pound of those today . . . Katrine also tried a new fruit (heard of the custard apple, anyone?) which was good, but also randomly ridiculously expensive – one of them cost nearly $4.

I went to lunch at the malatang soup place with some friends, those who made it out of bed before our 2 o’clock date.  I thought me and my friends back home (okay, mainly me) could be pretty lazy, but I have never seen people like my friends here.  I think the only times I’ve slept past noon were times when I was really sick, but here it is not unusual at all.  Part of it may be the drinking . . . Growing up in America, I was always led to believe that we drink irresponsibly as a function of the high drinking age, but based on my experience living in China with a bunch of foreigners I would like to say that is utter bull.  Maybe Europeans grow up sipping a glass of wine with dinner, but once they’re my age, they drink like fishes.  Maybe it’s something about people who choose to come to China, maybe it’s something about China (goodness knows I sometimes try to drown my frustrations in a glass of milk tea), but it is definitely something.  I’ve heard more stories of hangovers, throwing up in inappropriate places, bruises one can’t remember, and incriminating photos here than I ever did in America. 

I live between Muslim families.  There is absolutely no sense of community in NanGuangWu (my dorm) so I barely even notice (other than to wonder how whole families live in rooms this size).  But since I’ve been home, I’ve been noticing.  I think the kids are on break from school, and they’re quite loud; their favorite game seems to be Bang the Headboard Against the Wall.  Also, the men pray throughout the day.  Several times every day, I hear chanting in an unfamiliar language, so at least I assume they’re praying.  It doesn’t bother me, and it helped me feel okay about starting to chant the Salve Regina before I go to bed.  At least I don’t bang the headboard against the wall!

I went to church with Andrea from Romania tonight.  She’s Orthodox, but as the nearest church is in Shanghai, she comes to Catholic Mass.  When she told me she had consulted with her priest about it, I said I had too – but then I had to explain about the Chinese Patriotic Church and all because she had no idea.  There is so much misinformation about the Church in China, but this was perhaps the first time I ran into a lack of information, wrong or right.  Is this because she’s Orthodox?  European?  Just her?  I don’t know.

The Gospel today was Jesus being tempted in the desert.  No idea on the first two readings, but 1/3 is about as good as I get.  I also understood a good part of the homily because a) it was the same explanation of the significance of 40 days as every beginning-of-Lent homily, and b) it contained a lot of numbers.  Father He (visiting from Taiwan) walked us through the calculations for the dates of Easter and Lent.  In case you were wondering, Easter is the Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.  The Chinese calendar is also lunar, which I’m guessing means that this overlap between the New Year and Lent occurs annually?  Lame.

There was a woman nodding off during the homily.  Then all of a sudden she sat up straight, and I thought she had heard something something interesting and decided to pay attention.  But then she leaned to the right . . . and then I heard a farting sound . . . and then she went back to sleep.  Also, three people answered their cell phones during Mass.  Remember my first Sunday as choir director with Cell Phone Man (whose transgression was so infamous that he was named after it!) answered his phone during Mass?  Yeah, it wouldn’t even register with me anymore – much less texting.  The Venn diagram of “Actions that are permissible” and “Actions that are permissible in church” basically consists of a single circle here in China. 

Diederik invited me to dinner with the French and a new Dutch guy at 8.  I usually really hate such late dinners (darn Europeans) but tonight it was perfect.  I was happy to see Diederik, just back from the Netherlands, and went up to hug him.  It ended up being awkward, as he was expecting to exchange kisses.  I miss hugs!  Again, darn Europeans. 

We ordered hotpot cabbage, braised eggplant, cold chicken, and fish.  The waitress told us they were out of that kind of fish, so I told her to bring us whatever kind of fish they had.  She brought squid.  In what world is squid an appropriate substitute for fish?? 

Back in my room, I finished watching 花木兰, the Chinese version of the story of Mulan.  There are some differences with the Disney version.  I mean, right off the bat, they’re speaking Chinese.  Also, the songs are way less memorable; I can’t think of a single one that I would sing with my friends.  But seriously, it’s a live-action historical drama, so there’s less color, humor, and physically impossible physiques.  The story line is quite different – for example, two guys (including the love interest) find out she’s a girl in the first 10 minutes of the 100-minute movie!  She is portrayed as a natural for taking her father’s place: she actually fights (well!) and is promoted to general, from which position she leads her troops for twelve years.  I followed it pretty well, but wasn’t able to figure out the random foreigner in the Hun’s court or where the crazy sandstorm came from.  I did like the fact that the memorable lines were more moving than funny, but in the end I was disappointed with the film.  The lovers part ways!?!  That’s just crap, China; next time, add a happy ending . . . and a dragon.

I think I am more addicted to Google Reader than to any other site.  It’s where I catch the news, read friends’ blogs, and get some laughs.  XKCD.com is a classic, 1000 Awesome Things makes my heart glow most days, but I don’t know that anything can top The Onion.  Almost every headline makes me laugh out loud – before even reading the article – which is good, because I have to use my proxy and sometimes the Great Firewall figures out that I’m not actually in San Francisco.  Examples:

• Sports: Construction Restricts Daytona 500 Traffic to One Lane
• Ford Recalls 2010 Mustang For Being Too Cool
• NASA Scientists Plan to Approach Girl By 2018
• Family Concerned After Aging TV Show Has Another Terrible Episode
• Hometown Boy Makes Good Enough
• Miss Teen U.S.A. Declares Herself Miss Teen U.S.A. For Life
• Best Thing That Ever Happened to Area Man Yelling At Him About Socks
• Sports: Saints, Colts Hoping To Resolve Super Bowl Through Diplomacy
• Secondhand Smoke Linked to Secondhand Coolness
• In Focus: Wal-Mart Announces Massive Rollback on Employee Wages
• Self-Defense Tips That Will Only Make Him Angrier
• Friendship Between Caterpillar, Horse Exploited For Cheap Children’s Book
• Make-A-Reasonable-Request Foundation Provides Sick Child With Decent Seats To Minnesota Timberwolves Game
• Dubai Debt Crisis Halts Building of World’s Largest Indoor Mountain Range
• Jews’ Covenant With God Is Up For Renewal

I could go on and on (in fact, I think I did), but you get the picture.  The Onion is unblocked [today] in China – celebrate by checking it out!

Usually I write a post and then look for the unifying theme to help me choose a title.  Most days, surprisingly, have unifying themes.  I’m most proud of my post “Digging Our Own Graves”, which contained an account of the self-service hot sand therapy and my thoughts on the dangerous consequences of China’s One-Child policy, but I make do most days.  Today, though – I have written, I have looked, and have not found.  Sorry. 

胖星期二 (Literally, “Fat Tuesday”)

Yesterday was among the best holidays I’ve celebrated in China – Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Carnaval, call it what you will.  I woke up late and spent the morning grocery shopping.  I had to pick up wine and fruit for sangria and flour, sugar, chocolate, and eggs for the cookies.  Then I forgot the butter and had to walk all the way across campus again . . .

I got started baking in the afternoon, making one batch of chocolate-chip cookies and one batch of M&M cookies.  It was going pretty well until one tray of cookies burned.  Just to be clear, by ‘burned’, I do not mean that I overcooked them – I mean that they started on fire.  They were black lumps of charcoal by the time I noticed it, and when I opened the oven the rush of oxygen caused them to ignite.  Luckily, my friend Deni arrived just then and helped me move the oven to the balcony, extract the bonfire, and throw it in the sink – crisis under control.

I was nervous to start the second batch until I figured out what happened.  My oven, in addition to being small, is probably less technologically advanced than the average Easy Bake Oven.  It resembles nothing so much as a toaster, in that its only control is a little wind-up timer.  When the set time (chosen by turning the knob to the 5, 10, or 15 minute marks or to some carefully-calibrated [not] position in between) is up, the oven ‘dings’ and turns off.  But sometimes the cookies aren’t done, so I turn it back on to approximately 45 seconds and try again.  Well, the oven is starting to break down, I think.  Based on careful observation I can see that when I reset it for a short amount of time, it ticks for the proper duration, and then falls silent – without ‘dinging’ or turning off.  This is a problem.

I paid more attention, let the oven cool off between trays, and managed to bake the second batch without incident.  Then I hopped in the shower and hurried to meet my friends at West Gate.  We had invited everyone we knew who was back in town, and it ended up being all women.  From left to right: Nathalie (Germany); Andrea (Romania); Kristina, Maja, and Anja (Slovenia); Paloma (Columbia); Eva (Germany); me; and Deni (Mexico).

We went to a new Thai restaurant for dinner, which was a delicious choice.  Two curries, Thai barbecued chicken, sweet-and-sour fish, garlic shrimp, egg rolls, 茄子 (eggplant), fried noodles, and Thai rice – for $7 each. 

   

We ate ‘til we were full, ate some more, finished the curry sauce and rice, had a few more bites, and then started on the cookies.  While we snacked, we took a bus to Bailuzhou Park to take in the Lantern Festival. 

It was kind of like looking at Christmas lights, only there were inordinate amounts of tigers and red-colored things.

The festival is supposed to run all the way through March, which is good because I’d like to go back someday when it’s not cold and rainy.  As it was, a quick walk-through was enough, and we went back to the dorm.  We hung out in Paloma and Deni’s room, where we drank a whole pot of sangria and polished off the rest of the cookies.  We talked while we ate, about anything and everything.  I learned a lot about the other countries represented, especially Slovenia.  I don’t know that I’d ever heard of it before coming to China – an Eastern European country near Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia.  It has 2 million people and its own language.  Slovenian sounds like a crazy language because, among other things, it has different ways to say each noun depending on if there are 1, 2, or more of the objects – and that’s without discussing gender.  Despite the challenges, I am slowly picking up the language.  I can say ‘tissue’ (paloma), ‘two boys’ (fanta), ‘smart boss’ (bisterbosch), ‘orange’ (pomerancha) and ‘beer’ (pivo). 

Anyway, last night we were lucky enough to have THREE Slovenians with us (0.002% of the ethnic Slovenian population), which we judged worthy of a picture.

The group included one Orthodox girl who goes to Mass with me, a few former Catholics, and others who had no affiliation, so knowledge of the celebration varied.  Most of them were familiar with the idea of Carnaval or Mardi Gras in some language, but I think only one of them knew that it was associated (at least at some point in time) with the Catholic season of Lent.  I think this is pretty common in the US as well; it’s kind of excusable because the first thing I think of when I hear about New Orleans’ crazy partying is not the Catholic Church.  At any rate, I told them a little bit about the tradition, focusing on the season of Lent ahead of us – with its fasting and penitence – which is what gave rise to the tradition of Fat Tuesday, one last day to stuff yourself.

We finished about 4 minutes to midnight, feeling full and ready for Ash Wednesday and the following 40 days.

The Trip in Review

I know we wrote a lot about the trip, but I think a little wrap-up is in order.  Here’s the big picture:

We went to 8 cities:

1. Xiamen
2. Guangzhou
3. Wuhan
4. Chengdu
5. LeShan
6. EmeiShan
7. Xi’An
8. Beijing. 

This included 5 provinces and one municipality:

• Fujian
• Guangdong
• Hubei
• Sichuan
• Shaanxi
• Beijing

We checked a lot of things off the must-do-in-China list:

• visited Xiamen’s peaceful Gulangyu Island
• ate dim sum in Guangzhou
• ate hot pot in Sichuan
• saw the Giant Pandas
• saw the world’s largest Buddha in LeShan
• climbed (well, kind of) Emeishan, one of China’s sacred mountains
• seeing the Sea of Clouds (at least for me!)
• saw the Army of Terracotta Soldiers in Xi’An
• witnessed the flag-raising at Tiananmen Square
• climbed the Great Wall
• ate Peking duck in Peking

We also had a few other special experiences:

• dinner with my priests and future bishop
• two beautiful Xiamen sunsets
• Dad’s pingpong matches
• riding the world’s fastest train
• that hour spent with the young pandas and their caretaker
• amazing massages and even acupuncture for Dad
• being driven around Xi’An’s major sites by our new friend and volunteer chauffeur
• sledding down the Great Wall!
• leaving a note at Google China headquarters
• meeting all sorts of military people, including a Korean who served with the US Army, a Chinese cadet, and an major in the Chinese artillery
• narrowly avoiding disaster three times (two bus crashes and a rockslide)
• going to Mass in three beautiful churches and getting to see a few others
• riding every form of transportation with thousands of our closest friends

The trip lasted 22 days (plus a few days of travel to and from for my parents) and, besides their international flights, cost just over $3,000.  The trains and planes that got us around China cost $250 a person, we spent about $300 on souvenirs, postage, and donations (and massages), and our daily expenses (food, lodging, tourism, and local transportation) were about $100 each day for all three of us. 

I think my parents were pleased with the trip; I know I had a great time.  If I had the chance to do it again, I would only make small changes.  I wouldn’t go to Emeishan – save a couple hundred dollars and go to smaller, less sacred mountain.  I would allow an extra day in Xi’An so that things weren’t so rushed.  Other than that, I was basically the perfect tour guide.  Right, parents??

Finally!

Today was a little bit of alright.  Finally!

I went out this afternoon for the first time in daylight.  I walked to West Gate and had lunch at Aleid’s Restaurant, accompanied by a delicious cup of 珍珠奶茶 milk tea from Coco.  It had been a long time and man, it tasted good.  Finally!

After lunch I caught a bus headed for the ZhongShan Lu, the ped mall downtown.  I walked the length of it and noticed a piano shop I hadn’t seen before.  I went in to ask about piano music, and they directed me to the bookstore next door.  Most sheet music in China consists of numbers instead of notes and is impossible to read, but I ask everywhere anyway.  I totally lucked out here, though, with a huge section of piano books.  They even had a few books of modern Chinese songs, including some of my favorites: 天路, 北京欢迎你, 做你的爱人.  I’m still looking for the sheet music to 童话, but this is still progress on the piano front.  Finally!

When I got to the ocean end, I went in search of the Tea Shop DVD store that a friend had showed me a few months ago.  Against all odds, I FOUND IT!  It was right where I remembered it – on the small road off ZhongShan Lu, down the alley, in the tea shop at the end of the street, behind the cabinets and through the closed door.  I feel like a secret agent shopping for DVDs.  I bought a few movies I like, one new TV series, and the entire set of Golden Girls.  Finally!

From there I got on a bus to the train station.  A little ways into it, I second-guessed myself and got off.  I was on the right bus, but as luck would have it, I got off by a little shop that sells (among other things) baking soda.  Still no sign of vanilla, but it’s a step.  Finally!

I got off at the train station, and said a silent prayer thanking God that it wasn’t my destination.  It looks like a refugee camp, filled with people sitting around, surrounded by their every worldly possession, appearing to have lost all hope in ever getting out of there.  Probably a realistic expectation, unfortunately.  My actual destination was the movie theater in the mall next door.  I miraculously found it – seriously, two successful searches in China in one day?  I think God Himself heard my tears and is intervening.  Finally!

I went to see Avatar in 3D, which cost me all of 37 kuai (or $5).  I’m guess I’m glad I went to see it, but . . . am I the only person in the whole word who was disappointed?  It was pretty, but every plot element was recycled from some other movie.  Meh. 

Now I’m back home, watching Golden Girls and finishing things up before bed.  I also remembered that, in my wisdom, I bought a book in Taiwan that I was saving for a bad day.  Even though today has been pretty good, I say it still counts.  Can’t wait to read it – When You Are Engulfed in Flames, by one of my favorite authors, David Sedaris. 

Finally!