Thursday, June 17, 2010
Dragon Boat Festival
The Dragon Boat Festival is a pretty big event in China, especially somewhere that has a river (like Songyuan). They always race the dragon boats in the river and its a day off for most people. Our schedules changed on Tuesday to give use the day off (Wednesday). Getting good information on when the race was actually happening was really hard. One person told us be there by 4am, another said it started at 6am, and another 8am.
Our adventure started at 3:30am, I met Natasia outside her building and then walked up to first gate to meet Juliet. She showed up in a taxi and we all took it across the bridge (the earliness was only nice because they closed the bridge to cars around 4am). We found the park north of the river and started wondering around it looking for a good place to sit and watch the race... we wanted to grab a good spot. We were a little shocked at how few people were there. We soon found out that we were way to early.. and it didn't start until 8am.... so we sat on a rock for awhile talking and eating breakfast.........and this is when Natasia's crusade started....
Natasia has been here for almost a year now... and hates being a celebrity. She gets upset when people start taking her picture.. and sometimes she charges people money to take her picture. Well that wasn't working here... as more people started to show up and just walk by take picture of us. She decided to show them how rude it was and start taking pictures of them back (because they freak out when you take pictures of them... because they are shy). So she tried to take a picture of anyone that took a picture of her.. preferably with their camera focused on her. I am going to try to post a lot of those pictures in the next post (well over 100 people took our picture).
Its weird how they take your picture to, some people come up and ask and some ask to get their picture with you. Then there are those that just walk up and take your picture and walk off. You know when they put special little decoration in a park that people take their picture by (like in this park there is a big anchor and a big ship wheel) and people just run up... pose by it real quick and snap a picture. Well the strangest type of person taking our picture made us feel like one of these objects. They would send their children or friends over to pose a few feet in front or behind use and then snap a picture. Some would just come sit next to us.. take the picture... and run off.
No.... I take that back... the strangest was DEFINITELY the lady that just came up and set her baby on Natasia's lap and then took a picture.... There is a small chance the asked first.... but I don't know... I just know Natasia handed me the camera real fast to get a picture as well... because we were like WTF.... and the of course the lady hands the kid to me next... and I am just like..... WTF take this damn baby... sure I will smile for the camera.... now take it away!
I was kinda amused... Natasia was on a rampage... and Juliet didn't really seem to know what to think... because she was sitting between us most of the time. Some of the people that took our picture were press... so i am sure we are on some websites and possibly in the newspaper.
The park was very very packed with people by about 7am and more people seemed to be showing up until we left around 11. But at one point I decided I needed to use the bathroom...... an adventure is never complete for me without a good bathroom story. So we finally find a bathroom... and ya... of course its packed. The building itself is pretty secluded and has a wall around most of 3 sides of it. As I walk around to the guys side of the building I notice many people peeing on the wall outside... and that they are all pretty much standing in a huge puddle of pee that just isn't going anywhere. I shove my way in the bathroom..and ya no way i am going to get one of the little squat holes and the entire inside of the bathroom is lined with people peeing on the wall.... I decide outside is better and follow the line on the wall around to the back of the building were there and grab my spot on the wall... this is when I look over and notice that this girls bathroom obviously has the same problem as there is a line of girls wrapped around the back of the building just squating out there behind the building peeing.... right next to all the guys that are peeing on the wall....... it was definitely an odd moment..... but hey... when you gotta go... you gotta go.
We asked many people when the race was supposed to start.. and kept getting different times.. some said it wasn't happening this year...and no one knew where it was going to be... so we found a spot that looked like we could see a good bit of the river..... but ya... obviously not enough.... we asked someone again at 10:30.... we were very tired at this point... and found out that it had just finished it was over in this tiny little part of the river that only a certain section of the coast could see......o well.. no dragon boat race.. but we had a pretty fun morning. I got to hang out all morning and we played hackysack (well kinda its a weird thing with a spring and feathers coming out of it... same concept though) with some guys that were REALLY good and like kongfu kicking it and shit... it was pretty crazy to watch.
On our long walk across the bridge to go home... we could kinda see a few of the dragon boats still in the water off in the far distance..... so we tried to get a picture.
Our adventure started at 3:30am, I met Natasia outside her building and then walked up to first gate to meet Juliet. She showed up in a taxi and we all took it across the bridge (the earliness was only nice because they closed the bridge to cars around 4am). We found the park north of the river and started wondering around it looking for a good place to sit and watch the race... we wanted to grab a good spot. We were a little shocked at how few people were there. We soon found out that we were way to early.. and it didn't start until 8am.... so we sat on a rock for awhile talking and eating breakfast.........and this is when Natasia's crusade started....
Natasia has been here for almost a year now... and hates being a celebrity. She gets upset when people start taking her picture.. and sometimes she charges people money to take her picture. Well that wasn't working here... as more people started to show up and just walk by take picture of us. She decided to show them how rude it was and start taking pictures of them back (because they freak out when you take pictures of them... because they are shy). So she tried to take a picture of anyone that took a picture of her.. preferably with their camera focused on her. I am going to try to post a lot of those pictures in the next post (well over 100 people took our picture).
Its weird how they take your picture to, some people come up and ask and some ask to get their picture with you. Then there are those that just walk up and take your picture and walk off. You know when they put special little decoration in a park that people take their picture by (like in this park there is a big anchor and a big ship wheel) and people just run up... pose by it real quick and snap a picture. Well the strangest type of person taking our picture made us feel like one of these objects. They would send their children or friends over to pose a few feet in front or behind use and then snap a picture. Some would just come sit next to us.. take the picture... and run off.
No.... I take that back... the strangest was DEFINITELY the lady that just came up and set her baby on Natasia's lap and then took a picture.... There is a small chance the asked first.... but I don't know... I just know Natasia handed me the camera real fast to get a picture as well... because we were like WTF.... and the of course the lady hands the kid to me next... and I am just like..... WTF take this damn baby... sure I will smile for the camera.... now take it away!
I was kinda amused... Natasia was on a rampage... and Juliet didn't really seem to know what to think... because she was sitting between us most of the time. Some of the people that took our picture were press... so i am sure we are on some websites and possibly in the newspaper.
The park was very very packed with people by about 7am and more people seemed to be showing up until we left around 11. But at one point I decided I needed to use the bathroom...... an adventure is never complete for me without a good bathroom story. So we finally find a bathroom... and ya... of course its packed. The building itself is pretty secluded and has a wall around most of 3 sides of it. As I walk around to the guys side of the building I notice many people peeing on the wall outside... and that they are all pretty much standing in a huge puddle of pee that just isn't going anywhere. I shove my way in the bathroom..and ya no way i am going to get one of the little squat holes and the entire inside of the bathroom is lined with people peeing on the wall.... I decide outside is better and follow the line on the wall around to the back of the building were there and grab my spot on the wall... this is when I look over and notice that this girls bathroom obviously has the same problem as there is a line of girls wrapped around the back of the building just squating out there behind the building peeing.... right next to all the guys that are peeing on the wall....... it was definitely an odd moment..... but hey... when you gotta go... you gotta go.
We asked many people when the race was supposed to start.. and kept getting different times.. some said it wasn't happening this year...and no one knew where it was going to be... so we found a spot that looked like we could see a good bit of the river..... but ya... obviously not enough.... we asked someone again at 10:30.... we were very tired at this point... and found out that it had just finished it was over in this tiny little part of the river that only a certain section of the coast could see......o well.. no dragon boat race.. but we had a pretty fun morning. I got to hang out all morning and we played hackysack (well kinda its a weird thing with a spring and feathers coming out of it... same concept though) with some guys that were REALLY good and like kongfu kicking it and shit... it was pretty crazy to watch.
On our long walk across the bridge to go home... we could kinda see a few of the dragon boats still in the water off in the far distance..... so we tried to get a picture.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
A new VPN
So...... I finally decided to get another VPN and can connect to my blog again.
A lot has happened in a little over a month and I don't think I will get it all on here. My Chinese has improved a lot. Natasia made a copy of her Chinese text book from college and I have been working my way through that. I get most of my actual speaking practice from talking to the Tanbo staff. I can have a very very light conversation at this point. The only problem with the way I practice my Chinese is that I usually can't understand what men say..... but I am pretty good at understand what women say :)
It is now warm enough (actually quite hot) to go to the park and hang out outside. We have made many trips to a few different parks. I recently bought a lot of random toys for playing in the park (including a skateboard). Relation with the Chinese teachers have improved a lot and some of them will go to the park with us. We have actually found one teacher that is quite active and keeps up with us pretty well.
In the last few weeks i have actually spent most of my free time studying.... and sometimes it feels like it has been very helpful and I am improving a lot.. and then other times I end up still feeling like I know nothing and can't answer the simplest questions.
My relations with Tanbo have improved a lot in the past month. I talk to all the staff a lot, they are very used to me at this point..... and they know how to talk to me now. I still talk to them with a dictionary in hand most of the time... because they almost always use a few words i don't know, but they usually right down what they are saying to me. I have also gotten to know the owner of Tanbo a bit, and now have a VIP card. I think I am going to work on getting a picture with all of the staff at some point soon. Also LiLi is back in Songyuan now, she is working at a hotel..... I haven't seen her yet... but the Tanbo staff keeps me updated.
More updates and pictures will come soon.
A lot has happened in a little over a month and I don't think I will get it all on here. My Chinese has improved a lot. Natasia made a copy of her Chinese text book from college and I have been working my way through that. I get most of my actual speaking practice from talking to the Tanbo staff. I can have a very very light conversation at this point. The only problem with the way I practice my Chinese is that I usually can't understand what men say..... but I am pretty good at understand what women say :)
It is now warm enough (actually quite hot) to go to the park and hang out outside. We have made many trips to a few different parks. I recently bought a lot of random toys for playing in the park (including a skateboard). Relation with the Chinese teachers have improved a lot and some of them will go to the park with us. We have actually found one teacher that is quite active and keeps up with us pretty well.
In the last few weeks i have actually spent most of my free time studying.... and sometimes it feels like it has been very helpful and I am improving a lot.. and then other times I end up still feeling like I know nothing and can't answer the simplest questions.
My relations with Tanbo have improved a lot in the past month. I talk to all the staff a lot, they are very used to me at this point..... and they know how to talk to me now. I still talk to them with a dictionary in hand most of the time... because they almost always use a few words i don't know, but they usually right down what they are saying to me. I have also gotten to know the owner of Tanbo a bit, and now have a VIP card. I think I am going to work on getting a picture with all of the staff at some point soon. Also LiLi is back in Songyuan now, she is working at a hotel..... I haven't seen her yet... but the Tanbo staff keeps me updated.
More updates and pictures will come soon.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Where's LiLi?! The not so epic tale of the waitress LiLi
The first week I was here I had met the other foreign teachers and some of the staff at my school... that was about it. Me and one of the other foreign teacher went to a the foreign food restaurant near my apts named Tanbo. Our waitress was very cute and spoke absolutely no English... so one of the waitresses that seemed to know a little bit of English helped her take our order. I decided that next time she walked by I would practice the one thing I could really remember how to say in Chinese. So I introduced myself and asked for her name.... she actually understood what I said and gave me her name with absolutely no hesitation. And so I met LiLi. I had no clue how to say "Nice to meet you" in Chinese.... and hoped she would understand...... who knows if she did... She quickly went and got the waitress that speaks a little more English and she asked if everything was alright with my food... and I was like.. ya its fine... and they went away.
While I ate it ended up being the end of LiLi's shift.. and as she was on her way out the door... she dropped this note on my table.
She obviously did not write this herself... and I was very confused for a long time about who actually wrote this... because none of the staff seemed to know English well enough. (Later found out the one with good English was just to shy to talk to us until she left... story for another day)
Over the past few months I have spent a good amount of time in Tanbo..... we go there and eat as a big group often.. and it is a nice peaceful place for me to study Chinese... So most of the staff there are pretty used to me at this point and usually willing to help me with my Chinese. I have had many many failed attempts at talking to LiLi and a few successful ones. Even though some of the other staff are better at understanding me... LiLi is still my favorite waitress... and she knew this and so did the rest of the staff.. so I am sure she got teased by them.
On a side note.. waitresses seem to have pretty crappy jobs.. they work 7 days a week.. pretty much all day. So she was pretty much always there any time I decided to go in.
So I went into Tanbo on this past Monday at about 2pm..... and I was looking around because there was no one else in the restaurant.. and the smart waitress (Natasia has her name written down somewhere.. but I don't know it) told me "LiLi meiyou" which basically mean "LiLi don't have" or she isn't here and then told me she went home. This didn't realy surprise me.. because it was 2 in the afternoon and half the staff gets off for about 3 hours a this time. So Tuesday I went in to give some of the Tanbo staff some fudge (and do some studying while I ate) and it was 7 at night... when all the staff are usually there...... and there was no LiLi.... I didn't ask about her then though.
So Wednesday night I went in (after all the fun with the car wreck and shit).... it had been a bad day and i was ready for a nice peaceful meal at Tanbo............. no LiLi...... I know the staff noticed me looking around the restaurant at one point. So when HaiLun brought me my food... I asked her about LiLi.. and she said "LiLi meiyou" and then told me that she went home. So I asked "Home in Songyuan?" and got a no..... and then the only way I could think of to ask if she was coming back was to ask "Everyday LiLi no have?(direct translation)" ... she said yes. I said ok... and HaiLun went back downstairs.
HaiLun came back up to my table a few minutes later with this note (they know that I can read better then I can understand them)
The first part basically says that LiLi doesn't work at Tanbo. After I read that part... wrote the second part... which basically says "Do you want her phone number?" and as creepy as this is... and just wrong in so many ways.... I of course said sure. (phone numbers are passed around like crazy here.. its really weird)
So LiLi is gone... don't know where.. but she isn't in Songyuan anymore.... but I have her phone number if I decide I want to try to text her in Chinese....
I just still think its odd that LiLi didn't at least say goodbye....
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
My first trip to a Chinese Hospital
Yesterday was an extremely rainy day.... so I decided to say screw waiting on the bus.. and just grabbed a taxi that was driving past my apt. Headed towards work to pick up my schedule and give some of the teachers some of the fudge that I had finally successfully made.
Songyuan has very bad drains... pretty much none of them work (in most area's of the city). So the streets are just huge puddles but at this point they weren't too bad. But the taxi was definitely flying through them and I was like shit.... this guy is going to get in a reck.. and sure enough a car tried turning oddly infront of us.. and we hit his passenger side front corner. Of course taxis in China don't have seat belts.. and the ones that are there typically don't work.. so I course go flying into the damn windshield. Luckly I think we were only going about 40mph... so I just got a good knock on the head. I called Rolland(the guy at my school that takes care of all the foreigners) and got him out there..... I wasn't sure what to do when a taxi your in gets in a wreck. So we sat in the taxi in the middle of the road for a little over an hour waiting for all the shit to get settled. Then they took me to the hospital to make sure I was ok.
I really wish I would have been in the mood for taking pictures... but it really wasn't that impressive... it was just a bunch of big pretty much empty rooms with a few chairs and maybe a desk and a bench for the patients. The doctor decided that I should get some X-rays on my head and next (only things that really hurt) just to make sure I didn't like crack anything. So we waited for a little while for the taxi driver's mother to show up with the money to pay for the X-rays. Got the X-rays done... pretty nice little X-ray machine actually.... it was shaped similar to the MRI machines back in the states.
The X-rays came back fine.. and I just have a little bump on my head thats pretty read. Rolland was asking them to pay for me to go get a massage for my neck.. and at this point... it had been over 2 hours since the accident.. and I just wanted lunch (and was already late for a class i REALLY wanted to teach.... had to have chris take it over for me... was teaching the teachers). So I was like no... its fine.. I can handle getting my own massage (they cost like $8) lets just leave. The at this point the streets were completely flooded and you really needed a raft to get across.... so walking was out of the question. Most of the cars were still making it through though... so we got another taxi! And went a whole like 4 blocks.
The funny thing about this.. is that me and Chris had been talking to the teachers about car wrecks the other week.. and none of them had ever been in one.... and here I am in China for a little over 2 months and get one.... yay............lesson learned.. sit in the back seat of taxis!
Eating made me feel a lot better.. and I managed to make it to the last like 2 minutes of the teachers class.. enough time for them to ask me if I was ok and everything and for me to give them some fudge.
I rested in the school for a bit and then went to Songjiang to teach my one real class that day. Still not really feeling great.. but I managed to get into performance mode and got through the class and it went pretty well.
On my way home.. I decided (sense i don't have food at home.. besides instant noodle and fudge) that I would just go to Tanbo.. and have a nice relaxing meal there.. with no studying..........
Next post.......Where's LiLi?!
Songyuan has very bad drains... pretty much none of them work (in most area's of the city). So the streets are just huge puddles but at this point they weren't too bad. But the taxi was definitely flying through them and I was like shit.... this guy is going to get in a reck.. and sure enough a car tried turning oddly infront of us.. and we hit his passenger side front corner. Of course taxis in China don't have seat belts.. and the ones that are there typically don't work.. so I course go flying into the damn windshield. Luckly I think we were only going about 40mph... so I just got a good knock on the head. I called Rolland(the guy at my school that takes care of all the foreigners) and got him out there..... I wasn't sure what to do when a taxi your in gets in a wreck. So we sat in the taxi in the middle of the road for a little over an hour waiting for all the shit to get settled. Then they took me to the hospital to make sure I was ok.
I really wish I would have been in the mood for taking pictures... but it really wasn't that impressive... it was just a bunch of big pretty much empty rooms with a few chairs and maybe a desk and a bench for the patients. The doctor decided that I should get some X-rays on my head and next (only things that really hurt) just to make sure I didn't like crack anything. So we waited for a little while for the taxi driver's mother to show up with the money to pay for the X-rays. Got the X-rays done... pretty nice little X-ray machine actually.... it was shaped similar to the MRI machines back in the states.
The X-rays came back fine.. and I just have a little bump on my head thats pretty read. Rolland was asking them to pay for me to go get a massage for my neck.. and at this point... it had been over 2 hours since the accident.. and I just wanted lunch (and was already late for a class i REALLY wanted to teach.... had to have chris take it over for me... was teaching the teachers). So I was like no... its fine.. I can handle getting my own massage (they cost like $8) lets just leave. The at this point the streets were completely flooded and you really needed a raft to get across.... so walking was out of the question. Most of the cars were still making it through though... so we got another taxi! And went a whole like 4 blocks.
The funny thing about this.. is that me and Chris had been talking to the teachers about car wrecks the other week.. and none of them had ever been in one.... and here I am in China for a little over 2 months and get one.... yay............lesson learned.. sit in the back seat of taxis!
Eating made me feel a lot better.. and I managed to make it to the last like 2 minutes of the teachers class.. enough time for them to ask me if I was ok and everything and for me to give them some fudge.
I rested in the school for a bit and then went to Songjiang to teach my one real class that day. Still not really feeling great.. but I managed to get into performance mode and got through the class and it went pretty well.
On my way home.. I decided (sense i don't have food at home.. besides instant noodle and fudge) that I would just go to Tanbo.. and have a nice relaxing meal there.. with no studying..........
Next post.......Where's LiLi?!
Trip to Jilin
Pictures from Jilin are posted on Facebook.
We had a pretty good trip to Jilin last week. It started with a 2.5 hour train ride to Changchun.... I decided to spend this free time to try to read my new kids book in Chinese... so I read it out loud (very badly) to Adam and he tried to figure out what it was saying (he has been here for 5 years and has a Chinese wife... so his Chinese is pretty good). We spent a good portion of the train ride reading through the little mermaid.... while Chris slept and Jess had to explain to the very confused passengers that the idiot failing at reading the book was her coworker and the one trying to translate it is her husband... and then then usual tell everyone that asks where we are from and what we do. So train ride = good Chinese practice time.
We only spent about an hour in Changchun.. enough time to get tickets for the train to Jilin (can't go strait there) and side down for a snack at KFC....... ordering at KFC was definitely an eye opening experience. I went up to the counter and tried to order a large fry in my broken chinese.. and the lady responded in like perfect English.. and took my order in English.... I can't even image the shocked look I must have given here. You never run into any restaurant employees that speak good English (if any at all) in Songyuan... and those that can speak some.... usually wont use it until you have been there a few times. My first sign that I definitely need to get out of Songyuan more.... hehe
In Jilin we wondered around and did some shopping... hit some restaurants that Adam remembered from when he lived there... and played some pool. Service is interesting in China... you finish a game of pool and call the employee over to rack the balls for you.... hehe. Adam had to go meet up with Jess and her family at some point.. so he drop us off in the area with a bunch of KTVs and night clubs. First order of business though was Chris wanted a haircut... so I decided to get one as well... its been a long time. Cost us each 15 yuan (about $2.15). Mine took about 20 minutes (with washing)... Chris's took about an hour (with getting washed before and after). With short hair they have a pretty crazy way or cutting hair... but they are damn serious with it and very good at it.... they mostly use scissors..... but they make that shit perfectly even.
We hit a really awesome club called G+ that played great music and had a nice little stage i totally could have used had I brought my hoop... it was really stupid of me not to bring it... but wasn't sure how the train traveling would go. We saw some other people that weren't Chinese so we went up and toasted with them and introduced ourselves... well damn.. their Russian... and speak very little English.. and very little Chinese. So our conversations were half English half Chinese trying to figure out what we could say that we both knew :) They were all college students here studying abroad. One of them was trying really hard to talk to us.. and getting really pissed off and cussing like hell (not at us.. just in general) when we failed to understand each other. He was pretty amusing and you could tell he was a little irritated with being in China and not really being able to talk to anyone.
Then we stopped by an awesome little steampunk bar!!! It was more like a bar then a dance club.. but it had a DJ an the waiters would dance occasionally...and they started something similar to a conga line that I totally joined in. The midget waiter even got out there and danced at one point!
Tuesday we spent the majority of the day wondering around this mountain park with a lot of temple type things. I took a lot of pictures of it... it was really pretty... we walked like 5 miles that day.. and a lot of it was stairs or hills. At one part of the park we saw a bunch of old people in the woods exercising on this one type of tree.. still don't know the significance of that tree.. but they definitely were all on the same type of tree... some of them were like scratching their backs on the tree and shit... it was kinda weird.
We went out to dinner with some of Jess's friends from grade school and their husbands.... they didn't really speak much English... so it was another good time to practice our Chinese :) They were a pretty fun crowd.
We caught a bus strait back to Songyuan on Wednesday morning and go back around 1pm. We watched some really crappy movies on the bus... but nothing eventful really happened.
When I got back, it had been 5 days since I had been to Tanbo(restaurant near my apt)... I decided that was way to long and headed there to study (I go there almost everyday). I knew the last time I had gone that I wouldn't be back for a bit... so I told them I was going out of town :)
I decided I would practice my pronunciation again for a bit.. so while waiting for my food I went do and started reading the Little Mermaid to the lady that works the front desk (I can't remember her name). She was pretty amused and kinda confused at why I randomly decided to go down there and read a kids book to her... but they are pretty used to me doing random shit. After a few pages she decided to start reading it out to me in little pieces and I would repeat those pieces right after her.... the Tanbo staff are my Chinese teachers.
After I ate I had a random craving for a Coke float... so I taught HaiLun (the bartender that also deals with icecream and shit like that) how to make Coke floats.... they thought it was a little odd. I decided to drink that at the bar and teach LiLi (my favorite waitress in Songyuan) how to say a bunch of the basic things they had at the restaurant in English (straw, fork, chopsticks, cup.....).
I ended up spending like 3 hours there.. and then going home for a nap.... after about an hour... Natasia called me to say she was headed to Tanbo for dinner... so of course I went ahead and joined her. When I sat back down at the table.. the waitress was laughing (i think it was LinLin).. so I told her in Chinese that Tanbo is my home. She agreed. Spent like another 2 hours there.. because after about an hour when we were about to leave... Ann decided to come to Tanbo.. and called me to see if I was there.. and to no surprise I totally was.. so ended up staying another hour with her and Ken.
Next post........ My first trip to a Chinese hospital.
After that.......... Where's LiLi?
We had a pretty good trip to Jilin last week. It started with a 2.5 hour train ride to Changchun.... I decided to spend this free time to try to read my new kids book in Chinese... so I read it out loud (very badly) to Adam and he tried to figure out what it was saying (he has been here for 5 years and has a Chinese wife... so his Chinese is pretty good). We spent a good portion of the train ride reading through the little mermaid.... while Chris slept and Jess had to explain to the very confused passengers that the idiot failing at reading the book was her coworker and the one trying to translate it is her husband... and then then usual tell everyone that asks where we are from and what we do. So train ride = good Chinese practice time.
We only spent about an hour in Changchun.. enough time to get tickets for the train to Jilin (can't go strait there) and side down for a snack at KFC....... ordering at KFC was definitely an eye opening experience. I went up to the counter and tried to order a large fry in my broken chinese.. and the lady responded in like perfect English.. and took my order in English.... I can't even image the shocked look I must have given here. You never run into any restaurant employees that speak good English (if any at all) in Songyuan... and those that can speak some.... usually wont use it until you have been there a few times. My first sign that I definitely need to get out of Songyuan more.... hehe
In Jilin we wondered around and did some shopping... hit some restaurants that Adam remembered from when he lived there... and played some pool. Service is interesting in China... you finish a game of pool and call the employee over to rack the balls for you.... hehe. Adam had to go meet up with Jess and her family at some point.. so he drop us off in the area with a bunch of KTVs and night clubs. First order of business though was Chris wanted a haircut... so I decided to get one as well... its been a long time. Cost us each 15 yuan (about $2.15). Mine took about 20 minutes (with washing)... Chris's took about an hour (with getting washed before and after). With short hair they have a pretty crazy way or cutting hair... but they are damn serious with it and very good at it.... they mostly use scissors..... but they make that shit perfectly even.
We hit a really awesome club called G+ that played great music and had a nice little stage i totally could have used had I brought my hoop... it was really stupid of me not to bring it... but wasn't sure how the train traveling would go. We saw some other people that weren't Chinese so we went up and toasted with them and introduced ourselves... well damn.. their Russian... and speak very little English.. and very little Chinese. So our conversations were half English half Chinese trying to figure out what we could say that we both knew :) They were all college students here studying abroad. One of them was trying really hard to talk to us.. and getting really pissed off and cussing like hell (not at us.. just in general) when we failed to understand each other. He was pretty amusing and you could tell he was a little irritated with being in China and not really being able to talk to anyone.
Then we stopped by an awesome little steampunk bar!!! It was more like a bar then a dance club.. but it had a DJ an the waiters would dance occasionally...and they started something similar to a conga line that I totally joined in. The midget waiter even got out there and danced at one point!
Tuesday we spent the majority of the day wondering around this mountain park with a lot of temple type things. I took a lot of pictures of it... it was really pretty... we walked like 5 miles that day.. and a lot of it was stairs or hills. At one part of the park we saw a bunch of old people in the woods exercising on this one type of tree.. still don't know the significance of that tree.. but they definitely were all on the same type of tree... some of them were like scratching their backs on the tree and shit... it was kinda weird.
We went out to dinner with some of Jess's friends from grade school and their husbands.... they didn't really speak much English... so it was another good time to practice our Chinese :) They were a pretty fun crowd.
We caught a bus strait back to Songyuan on Wednesday morning and go back around 1pm. We watched some really crappy movies on the bus... but nothing eventful really happened.
When I got back, it had been 5 days since I had been to Tanbo(restaurant near my apt)... I decided that was way to long and headed there to study (I go there almost everyday). I knew the last time I had gone that I wouldn't be back for a bit... so I told them I was going out of town :)
I decided I would practice my pronunciation again for a bit.. so while waiting for my food I went do and started reading the Little Mermaid to the lady that works the front desk (I can't remember her name). She was pretty amused and kinda confused at why I randomly decided to go down there and read a kids book to her... but they are pretty used to me doing random shit. After a few pages she decided to start reading it out to me in little pieces and I would repeat those pieces right after her.... the Tanbo staff are my Chinese teachers.
After I ate I had a random craving for a Coke float... so I taught HaiLun (the bartender that also deals with icecream and shit like that) how to make Coke floats.... they thought it was a little odd. I decided to drink that at the bar and teach LiLi (my favorite waitress in Songyuan) how to say a bunch of the basic things they had at the restaurant in English (straw, fork, chopsticks, cup.....).
I ended up spending like 3 hours there.. and then going home for a nap.... after about an hour... Natasia called me to say she was headed to Tanbo for dinner... so of course I went ahead and joined her. When I sat back down at the table.. the waitress was laughing (i think it was LinLin).. so I told her in Chinese that Tanbo is my home. She agreed. Spent like another 2 hours there.. because after about an hour when we were about to leave... Ann decided to come to Tanbo.. and called me to see if I was there.. and to no surprise I totally was.. so ended up staying another hour with her and Ken.
Next post........ My first trip to a Chinese hospital.
After that.......... Where's LiLi?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)