Spectacles All Around

It's been an interesting two days, and the number of surprising sights I see per day is rising steadily. Yesterday me and two of the other English teachers decided to go out and get some breakfast together. That normally involves walking to the West Gate [Xi Men] of the campus and going to one of the food stands for fried vegetables in a pita or something similar. I've noticed that the Chinese don't mild, sweet breakfasts like Americans do (cold cereal with milk would not be appetizing to them). After we got our food, we walked back towards the East Gate, where my and Mallory's apartment is. On our way, we encountered a group of men in similar uniforms marching around the sidewalk together chanting. We had no idea who they were or what they were doing.

After they had marched around for about a minute, we heard the noise of more people in uniforms behind us. Another group in different colored outfits came out of a shop right next to us and started doing the same thing. Turns out, these were both hair salons! Apparently every morning the entire staff of both places comes out and competes to see who can yell and march the best, in order to win customers. I took video of most of it, and trust me, it was quite a sight!

Later that day, we were relaxing around campus when the wife of one of the groundskeepers came out with a strange contraption. It looked like a spinning top a bit bigger than a softball. She had two sticks in her hand with a string connecting them, and she would spin the top on the string, which made a whirring noise like a UFO. After she did that for a while, she started doing tricks with it, tossing it from stick to stick (still spinning!), tossing it under her legs, and throwing it in circles around herself! She even taught one of the English teachers how to do it, though it took him quite a while to even keep it spinning, let alone do any tricks with it.

The Chinese are not the only ones providing spectacles, though. Most Chinese have never seen a foreigner in their lives, and coming to university is their first chance to see one and practice the English they've learned. They've also never seen many things that we take for granted, like a frisbee. You heard me right: most Chinese have never even seen a frisbee on TV before. When I and two of the other English teachers went out to play, it was quite a sight to behold! Usually when we play, a crowd of about 15 to 20 people gathers to watch us throw it around. One guy with a very expensive camera even stopped and started taking action shots of us! He seemed very taken with my ability to reach a frisbee flying about 9 feet off the ground.

It looks like these ten months will be full of surprising sights for everyone involved!

P.S. If you ever get the chance to try doujiang (pronounced dough-jahng), I'd advise you not to do it unless you're ready to have your mind blown. Doujiang literally translates to "bean juice." It's ground up soybeans mixed with water, warmed up, and frothed like a latte. And it tastes exactly how it sounds...