I know, it's been a long time...

I would like to tell my audience (yes, all four of you) that I will be posting much less frequently and with much less detail. I cannot explain it, but something inside of me is just resisting writing long and somewhat sappy recounts of what’s going on here. I think this has to do with my comment about experiences and not fully living in the moment. I really look forward to talking with each and every one of you in person or via skype about my summer (and hopefully yours too)! To pique your interest, here is a brief list of some of the things that have happened lately:

·         Went to a Chinese house church with a blind man. Also went to the largest, state-sponsored church in Nanning.

·         I was interviewed by the Nanning news station.

·         I debated the one child policy with a Chinese government official while drinking beer and eating BBQ.

·         I sang James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” in front of 300 Chinese middle schoolers. I was also asked, “What do you think of Mao Ze Dong?” and “Do you like Chinese women?” Safe to say I had to dance around these questions while talking into a microphone for hundreds of people to hear.

·         I ate with one of the poorest family’s in Guangxi province in a one room shack. I also ate with one of the richest families in Nanning in a modern, luxurious apartment. I chatted for about thirty minutes with the accounting department of a Chinese company which exports gum rosin- just some twenty something college grads working the 9-5.

·         I participated in a conga line with over twenty elderly Chinese people. I also taught them how to sing the “Hokey Pokey”.

A strange encounter...

Ever since I came to China for the first time in 2010, I was hoping to come into contact- in some form or another- with the growing Christian movement. Many of us have heard stories about how Christianity is growing like wildfire in China; however, the movement is not always so visible. The government has been opposed to Christianity at times, and therefore underground churches have cropped up. Also, despite fast growing numbers, the percentage of Christians in China is still very small. Well, last Sunday I had my long awaited encounter with Christianity…and in strange fashion.

Last Sunday, I decided to go to one of the bustling squares in Nanning to eat lunch and get a theraputic massage. The massages here are very cheap (about six dollars for an hour), so who wouldn’t take advantage of this stellar deal?

After eating lunch, I went to look for the massage place that I identified online. I spent quite some time committing its location to memory so that I could find it on my own. All the streets are jam packed with stores of all kinds, and it’s not always easy to identify what is what. After some searching, I finally found the right place!. However, I soon realized that they did not offer massages on Sunday. Dismayed, I left without a clue of what to do next.

I still really wanted to get a massage, so I decided to look around some more for another place. I did not know of any other options from my research, but I just assumed that one existed in this bustling square. I looked for maybe 40 minutes, walking up and down every street, but was unsuccessful. At one point, I thought I found a massage place. I saw several men lying on long beds while a man attended to them. However, after asking them if they offered massages and seeing the confused look on their faces, I noticed that the people lying down all had casts. This must have been some kind of rehabilitation center! At this point, I was kind of embarrassed by my pathetic search attempt and wanted to just give up.

However, on the brink of giving up, I decided to search one more street. I had literally combed every nook and cranny within a half-mile radius, with only one place left to look. To my surprise, I stumbled across a massage place! To find what I was looking for in the last possible place was not only ironic, but it was practically a God send! Well, that’s not too far off.

As I expected, the people giving the massages were all blind. I paid the money and then went into the room. I had a moment of panic, as I realized that I was completely alone, lying down and completely vulnerable. When asked, I lied and told the masseur that another person was waiting for me and would pick me up when the massage was over. I could not do anything about it at that point anyway, so I just continued.

Within the first couple minutes of the massage, the masseur asked me, “Do you believe in God?”

I could not hear very clearly, and was honestly surprised by the question, so I asked him to repeat several times before I finally responded.

“Yes, I believe in God.” I didn’t know the Chinese name for Jesus, so I asked him, “Do you believe in God’s son?”

He said, “Yes.”

“Do you believe that he died and went to heaven three days later?”

“Yes”

“Why do you believe in God?”

At this point, he said three things. The first two I could not understand, but the last one I heard perfectly. “Because God gives us his love.”

At this point I knew that I was most likely not in danger and had stumbled across something very interesting. As I continued talking, I learned many things about the man. He had many friends who also believed like he did. He grew up in the countryside and only recently moved with his wife and two 12 year old daughters to the city. His mother also believes in God, but he only recently started believing when a man told him about God and Jesus. He listens to the bible on his MP3 player since he cannot read (blind).

He invited me to his church one Sunday. I want to go with him, but it may not be wise to pal around town with a stranger. However, I have a sense that I should go with him. We will see how it shakes out…

An essay on experiences

Imagine this. A group of college kids have recently purchased tickets to a highly anticipated concert. They spend the weeks and days leading up to the event chatting about the concert, telling all of their friends about how much fun they will have and maybe posting an occasional facebook status to alert the world of their soon-to-be amazing experience, “Only 6 more hours to the ________ concert tonight! Gonna have a blast with _______, _______, _______!!”

That one is good for thirty plus likes at a minimum.

Moreover, they will make sure to snap pictures from the moment they leave until the curtain closes. Each moment must be documented and then posted on facebook, in order for the world to see how much fun they are having. People will like and comment on the pictures, and the discussion about the concert will last for weeks after the actual event. The anticipation and subsequent virtual re-living of the concert (in person and on facebook) becomes more substantive than the actual experience itself. This concert becomes more of an opportunity to talk about an experience, and maybe boast about the experience, rather than simply enjoy the experience for its own sake, revel in the moment, regardless of who knows or what external benefit it will bring you.

Though somewhat silly, I believe this line of thinking is far too common among my generation. What concerns me most, however, is that I find vestiges of this tragic scenario in my own “concert”. People “ooh” and “ah” about how brave it is to sacrifice the comfort of my home and travel to an unknown place trying to help strangers. I remind myself consistently how much my Chinese will improve, how much my understanding of the people will grow and how much my educational and job prospects will benefit as a result. I look forward to my triumphant return to the USA, having endured hardships and sought the betterment of others and myself for two and half months. I look forward to all of the recognition (comments and likes) my inevitable facebook album “Adventures in China Summer 2013” will receive. And just wait, after this post, the views on my blog might just bump up from 274 to 300. So many good things to come...

I start focusing on the ends rather than the means. My trip will be over before I know it. But that’s what I want, isn’t’ it? Let’s just skip to the part where I start receiving all the benefits of my experience. Granted, some of these benefits are not silly and narcissistic (like a cool facebook album) but very legitimate, like improving my language skills. However, it seems like I am just trying to “get through” the next few months until I reap the rewards of my due diligence.

But wait, is this not one of a few precious summers of freedom before the burdens of the “real world” come bearing down on me? Is this not an unparalleled time of youth? More generally, is this not one of maybe 80 some odd summers that I have on this Earth? Yet, I am simply “getting through”. I appreciate the idea of going to China, and the various benefits it will bring me, more than the actual day to day, hour to hour and minute to minute interactions, sensations and emotions. I cannot keep kicking the can down the road, living for a fake and superficial reality that never seems to include the here and now. Forgive me for sounding too Thoreau-esque, but will I go back to the US touting my “grand experience” without actually experiencing anything at all? 

This may be my own problem. But given the things I observe from my contemporaries, I would guess that I am not alone. For now, I am putting my facebook album on hold. I am not adding “English Teacher at Nanning Girls High-School” into my resume just yet. I am not even going to check how many views this post gets. I am going to write its own sake, for the joys of expressing oneself. I am going to have an experience in China, for joys of simply existing here. And that will be all.

A trip to the ocean

I aplogize for the lateness of this post. I wrote this almost a week ago but for some reason have not been able to access the blogger site. This applies to last weekend/week.

I finished my second weekend here in China and am starting the third full week of classes. This past weekend I made a trip to one of Guangxi province’s most popular tourist spots (Beihai) with one of the teachers from the school. I was very grateful that one of the teachers took the time and money to accompany me! Located next to the ocean, Beihai is well known for its beaches. We took a three hour bus ride out to Beihai on Saturday, stayed one night in a hotel and then returned on Sunday evening. I had the opportunity to go swimming in the ocean twice (in very warm water)! The water nearly matched that of water in the Caribbean (temperature wise), but the water was not as luxuriously crystal clear and clean. In fact, it was somewhat murky and there was quite a bit of trash.  Nevertheless, it was a nice place to go swimming and enjoy the beach. That night we visited a street in Beihai that was lined with food vendors selling all kinds of things to eat and drink: fresh fruit, BBQ meats and vegetables, seafood, various kinds of noodles, tea, juice and more. Streets like this with all kinds of vendors is quite common in China...much more so than in the US. On Sunday, we visited another place in Beihai that is known for its old architecture. I am not exactly sure what date the buildings were built but they seemed pretty old by Chinese standards (which means something in a country with one of the oldest histories).

Meanwhile, in the classroom, I have been organizing each lesson around a particular theme. For example, so far we have done: introductions, buying something from a convenient store, ordering at a restaurant and going to see a movie. It’s very tricky to make a lesson plan because there is a wide range of English abilities, and what’s easy for one person is nearly impossible for another. So I try to find middle ground as best as possible. The main struggle is to draw students out and make them feel comfortable: 1) generating their own sentences in English without just regurgitating ones I repeat to them and 2) being able to speak from memory instead of reading something they have written. These are the challenges for any foreign language class, but it’s particularly prevalent here because despite having taken English class for several years they have not ever practiced speaking. In English class, there is no time to practice speaking. They can read a passage and conjugate a very pretty well, but speaking simple declarative sentences can be tough. This is mostly the fault of the Gaokao, a college entrance examination for which a student’s entire academic career is geared towards. The Gaokao does not contain a speaking portion; therefore students do not practice speaking. It’s understandable that students would only practice those skills which would allow them to score well on the Gaokao (and get into a good college), but it’s sad that the Gaokao does not include speaking in their English portion of this exam; this is in my opinion the most important part of learning a language. Oh well, hopefully I can do a little bit to remedy the situation. I am trying to develop some new teaching strategies to spice up the classes…so I will be occupied with that for the days to come.

Ancient Relics, BBQ and Karaoke

I now have the chance to write while catching my breath after four busy days in Nanning. Last Friday was my first day of classes. It was quite eventful as I had 5 classes (the last one ending past 9pm). The school schedule here is very different from America. The students start their first class around 7:30 am and then proceed until 12pm. Students then eat lunch, followed by a two hour “siesta” or sorts where most everyone in the school takes a nap. With the hot and humid climate here, it’s necessary to take a nap during the sun’s peak hours. Classes resume from around 2:30 until 5:30 and then break for dinner and some downtime. Classes resume from 7:30 until just past 10 at night. They have school six days a week- pretty grueling!

My first class was intended to introduce myself and allow the students to practice their introductions. All the students oohed and ahhed at many of the pictures of my family and friends. If you are reading this fam and friends, you are now famous among a group of about 120 Chinese high school girls! I felt pretty comfortable in my role as a teacher. I always enjoy talking in front of groups. It was difficult to get the students to participate in the way I hoped, however, since they are shy about using their English. The real test will be to draw the students out over these next 7 weeks so that will be confident in speaking English. They must realize that trying and failing is the only way to improve.

I spent Saturday visiting a couple of Nanning’s most popular tourist attractions. The first was a beautiful park surrounding a lake near the center of the city. This park is several miles in circumference, with a landscape that changes drastically every half mile or so. Part of the park was grassy with trees and pagodas- a perfect place to rest. Another part of the park was like an amusement park with games and rides. Still another part had concrete platforms among the trees for people to practice dancing, while others practiced playing instruments of various kinds. In this part of the park, I witnessed a fair amount of western dancing! In fact, some of the swing dancers out here in China would put some of my Chi Psi fraternity brothers to shame, which is saying something!

 The second stop was the Guangxi province relic’s museum. This showcased the various pottery and other relics from the province’s ethnic minority groups. For part of the time, I followed one of the museum tour guides as we proceeded through the exhibits. Every so often, the adult tour guide would pass off her duties to one of many younger girls (“interns” you could say) who explained to the crowd a particularly important relic. These girls seemed very young- probably around 12-15 years old.  They delivered their speech in a very buttoned up and professional manner. When the tour group proceeded past them, they became 12 year old girls again, running over to their other tour guide friends and laughing and giggling.  Was this oppressing their youthfulness? Or was this just a good opportunity to get some work experience? I am still not certain. 

On Sunday, I woke up early in the morning to eat BBQ with about twenty of the students and a few of the teachers. When the Chinese eat BBQ, they do not go to a restaurant. Rather, we packed up our own food, which consisted of various meats and vegetables on a stick, and then hauled it down to a spot next to the river which runs through Nanning. Here, we made our own fire pits and grilled the food. While sitting next to the river, I must have taken 100 pictures with the girls that came along. Not to be braggadocios or anything, but it seems like a picture with me is quite a highly prized commodity among the students. After this, we all went to one of the teacher’s apartment to rest and have another meal. Then, we went to a Karaoke place. As you may know, Karaoke is very popular in Asian cultures. It was actually quite fun, contrary to what I expected! I think maybe America should invest in a chain Karaoke store.

After this, I went to another teacher’s home for dinner. As you can probably tell, I have been doing a lot of eating. Chinese people love to spoil guests with lots of food. Although I was actually hoping to lose some pounds over this trip, it looks like I will be gaining some.

......Now, another week of teaching and various other shenanigans…...      

P.S. The saga continues with the dog. Oh, and an added twist. There is now a third dog, who is also quite ferocious. Every time I walk to my room I hear a cacophony of loud barks when I am about fifteen yards away from the foot of the stairs, and then hear the dogs sprinting at me. They are then restrained by their leashes. God forbid that the leashes ever break. If I get seriously injured on this trip, it will most likely not be a result of human assault, getting lost or a traffic accident…it will be assault by canine.   

Ping Pong, Meat and Sprained Ankles

You may think this title is somewhat odd. If so, good. Read on.  I spent my day here without anything much to do besides prepare for my first day of classes tomorrow, which was quite leisurely.  When I am at loose ends, I always find going to the teacher’s office to be profitable. I can listen in on conversations and give my Chinese ear some practice, and I participate in conversations as well. These conversations often consist of me asking people to say something again or in a different way, since it’s hard to understand them. In fact, I often get the feeling that I am the butt of the joke when they start rambling and laughing in Chinese. However, I have realized that you must be willing to be the bud of the joke if you want to become fluent in a language. Oftentimes, we are too afraid of seeming like an idiot (even if we know that we are not!) to fully embrace the stage of language acquisition which makes us seem foolish to native speakers. I plan to come back to this school in ten years when I can no longer be made fun of behind my back. Then, I will have the last laugh.

Four things of significance happened today:

1)      At lunch, I realized that the word for “meat” refers to pork unless otherwise specified. In other words, you must specify “chicken meat” or “cow meat” when describing a meat, otherwise you are automatically talking about pork meat. This reflects the prevalence of pork in the Chinese diet. Interesting, I thought.

2)      I played basketball for the first time today with the PE teacher and some of the students. While viciously pulling down a rebound in a crowd of 5’3”, 100 pound Chinese girls, I managed to sprain my ankle. It was slightly embarrassing.

3)      I engaged in a spontaneous game of ping pong today with the students. Even though ping pong is China’s national sport, I represented the US well. I won a great deal of the games I played. I was proud to hang with the Chinese in a game of 乒乓球。

4)       While purchasing some bottled water outside of the school gates, I talked to one of the natives. His skin was weathered from many years in the sun, and he seemed to me the classic Chinese man in the straw hat tilling the fields that you might see on a postcard. He asked me if the ground was the same in America. I responded that, of course, the ground was the same in America, just like everywhere in the world. However, having never seen another part of the world, how would one know that the ground is necessarily the same? Before I left the country and travelled to Beijing in high school, I actually had no idea if the other side of the world would resemble my home at all. I almost miss the wonder of not knowing. Now I realize that different places in this world are not all that different.

Settling In

I have now experienced the first couple of days here in Nanning. Once I arrived, I was greeted by two members of the school where I am teaching: the principle and one of the English teachers. The English teacher speaks pretty good English, which is both good and bad for me. I will be able to communicate when in need of something, but I will also be tempted to speak more English. My living quarters are spacious and private, but the conditions are much poorer than in the US. The floor is all concrete, the bathroom does not have a toilet and I am sharing the space without about 50 bugs.

The lack of AC in such a hot and muggy climate is not comfortable, but cold showers and many fans certainly help. The bed is a bit hard, but I have been so exhausted that sleeping has not been difficult. On the first day, I met many of the teachers and got the low down on my teaching schedule. I also ate lunch with the girls at the school for the first time, which was enjoyable. They are very shy about using English. I try to speak as much English with them as possible to allow them to practice but oftentimes we must use Chinese or else the conversation stagnates. All of the students are from the same province (and some have never been outside of the province). The school is funded by a non-profit and does not require its students to pay tuition or living expenses. All of the students are very poor, often coming from families that farm for a living. There is much greater attention to every yuan (1/6 of a dollar) than I have ever experienced. I think nothing of buying something for several yuan, but they often weigh the merits of every purchase.  

Several other notes. Speaking Chinese has been much harder than I imagined. Maybe because they speak a slightly accented form of Mandarin or maybe because I am not accustomed to the fast-pace, “real life” Mandarin, my comprehension of more complicated topics is limited unless they speak slowly. I am sure this will improve over time, but I expected it would be easier off the bat. Also, there are two dogs which hangout next to the stairs of the building where I live. They are both HUGE. One is on a leash but the other is not. On the second night here, I was by myself and the dog without a leash seemed to be guarding the stairway. It was about a thirty minute showdown before I realized this dog was actually completely tame. I have grown to like him. However, today, the other dog which seems much more intimidating (but is on a leash) broke free from his leash just as I exited the stairs and started chasing me. Naturally, I started to run away from him and ran into the cafeteria for shelter, to the amusement of many students eating at the time. Breathlessly, I tried to explain to them what happened in Mandarin but struggled in my frenzied state. They must have thought I was crazy. I am still pretty scared of that dog. Oh well, we shall see how it shakes out in the days to come.