What has America done to the world's taste in music? I never expected my Chinese students' list of favorite American artists to include Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Michael Jackson. They absolutely love them. Okay, so I can understand Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson (because I not-so-secretly love them too). But Justin Bieber—really?
After starting our teaching assignments early last week, it's a little hard to tell how it went. But I think, overall, it went well. It was a little concerning at times, talking to a sea of blank faces. After certain words, however, the sea would come to life saying “Yes! Yes!” So who knows? We taught two classes on Monday. On Tuesday, we served as teaching assistants and mainly helped with dictations. On Wednesday, we taught one period and were TAs for one period. Thursday morning, instead of teaching, we went to the school’s opening ceremony for their Winter Games. Each class lined up along the track and marched in by groups. When they reached us, they performed some sort of dance or routine or got into a formation. One class had a girl dressed up and do crazy sword twirling/ninja moves. Other classes danced to (guess who?) Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber. After that was all done, the games began. It was like a track meet with high jump, long jump, and running events (when I was there it was the 100m.) We left after only a few minutes of the actual events began, though. Every middle school has these games. A country that wants more Olympic medals? I think yes.
At the moment, our daily schedule is shaping up like this:
In the morning, we teach. My classes are at different times—some days they start at 8, some days they start at 10:40. We’ll teach for two 40-minute periods. When that’s done, we’ll head back to the university. We then have a lunch break until 2 in the afternoon. We can go to lunch at either the university’s cafeteria or out to whatever restaurant we feel like. There’s a “western” street fairly close to the university that has a bunch of choices. Some of them aren’t all that western though—like Thai, Indian, and Korean. There are also cafes with more American food and Italian places as well. I’ve gone to the cafeteria everyday except once when I went to a Thai restaurant. I have to say that I actually like the food at the cafeteria. It’s nothing like the ones I've experienced in the U.S. You pay per dish, but everything’s really cheap. Rice is .30 yuan (there’s about 6.80 yuan to one dollar,) meat dishes are around 2.50 yuan, and vegetable dishes are probably anywhere from .50 to 2 yuan. Pretty much two whole walls of a big room are lined with different dishes. We bring our steel eating bowls every day and go around the room, pointing at whatever we’d like. Usually I get three or four dishes, plus rice, for about 5 yuan. And it’s a ton of food! We have Chinese class for an hour after our lunch break. In theory, I know a few more words and phrases now, but I have such a hard time remembering them. After class, we have our seminars or lectures. I get home around 6:15.
The bike lanes here are really big—about the size of a car lane. It’s for bikers and people on motorbikes. On my way home, there are so many people that it will turn into a traffic jam. Literally, we are at a standstill. It’s crazy. Sometimes when I get home, my host family has already eaten! It’s a much earlier dinner time than I’m used to. At night, I do my Chinese homework and readings for seminar. We have a library of books and movies here, so if I have time, I’ll watch a movie. I checked out a book with the intention of starting it this weekend, but I haven’t had the time!
We eat SO much pork in my homestay—we’ve had it at every single meal. I look forward to meals that feature an alternative source of protein. So far, we’ve had two meals with fish accompanying the pork, and two meals with beef. I guess I'm making up for my strict avoidance of eating pork during the last 10 or so years of my life.
Besides looking forward to different kinds of meat at meals, I get really excited when the sun shines. Not only because that means the sun is out and it’s warm and sunny, but because then I get to have warm water to shower. It’s a major buzzkill, though, when I turn on the faucet and think the water’s warm enough, but find out it isn't after I'm already in the shower. I end up wet and freezing and not all that clean because I just want to get out.
It’s funny just how different life is here compared to Los Naranjos—in so many ways. We can do things in the city on weekends and communicate when we’re not with each other. I do miss the simplicity and tranquility of life in Los Naranjos. But it’s fun to be able to do things like go see Harry Potter! Its opening night was a major event, which we anxiously awaited all week. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go to the midnight premiere because we weren’t sure if it was in English. So we toughed it out the extra 19 hours and went to a 7 pm showing Friday night. IT WAS AWESOME. Truly.
I’m getting a little more used to noticeably sticking out as a foreigner. People’s reactions fill a wide spectrum. Some people will say "hello," a few will even ask us to take pictures with them. Others, though, simply stare. I’ll hear my homestay family say “wai guo ren,” which means "foreigner," at meals. Then I know they’re talking about me, but I don’t have a clue what they’re saying. It’s like being a strange mixture of movie star/alien.
It was a nice, sunny day today. Good Sunday weather. Hopefully that means there’s hot water!
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