So, I thought I was getting used to living in China, eating with chopsticks, and not knowing whether the poop on the sidewalks was canine or human, but I might have been wrong. Last Friday I had to use my first trough. Barb Jones had warned me about them, but I had not encountered one until recently. In the ladies' restroom there was literally a trough separated by "stalls" that had no doors. I have seen more than my fair share of babies butts, but I did not expect to see grown women butts. I honestly walked in, went bug-eyed, and walked out. Unfortunately nature was calling so insistently that I could not afford to be horrified for more than a few seconds. I waited until a few people had walked out, smiled at the white chick, and then hurried to the "stall" furthest from the door, where I thought my shiny white hiney would be least likely seen by anyone. You don't wanna know what I saw in the trash can next to me.
The night before, Ben and I had gone on our first date in China, to celebrate our two-month anniversary. We ate dumplings filled with soup and gong bao ji ding (kung pao chicken) then strolled through downtown Kaifeng. It was quite nice, feeling slightly more normal (that is, until we saw two kids sitting next to a FIRE they had built on the friggin' sidewalk--apparently sidewalks are not for walking in China).
A group of Australians recently joined us here, and Ben and I have made a few new friends. I mentioned Tim and Margeaux in my last post. Now there is also Toby, the German teacher. We all went out to dinner on Friday then retired to mine and Ben's place to watch the most horrible movie ever ever made and laugh and gag while doing so. So now Ben and I have friends on four of the six habitable continents. Yay!
Got to run. As my lovely sister Madeline so wonderfully said, I gotta go teach them commies to speak English good.
PS See our picture of Longting Park on Facebook!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Acclimating
Hey y'all. Let's see... What's new?
Honestly, I think we are starting to get used to living here. It's taken me longer than Ben to accept the fact that we really are living in China for a year and, no, there's no way to jump ship and head home tomorrow or the next day. So that's probably why we haven't posted lately. We're getting used to kids pooping in the streets and not knowing exactly what is in our mouths at any given moment. I'm even almost used to all the incessant honking. The only thing I think I will never get used to is how the students answer your questions like trained monkeys. Seriously, I have asked hundreds of students where they would like to travel, and anytime someone answers that they would like to see France they say this to me: "I would like to go France...I think it is, um, romantic." No variation ever. And, honest to Spandex, I'm not sure they even know about the Eiffel Tower. Okay, they probably do, but I wouldn't be shocked.
Some more Aussies have shown up, and with them they have brought along a mother and daughter from the States, named Sybil and Margeaux. They are as interesting as their names. Sybil lived in Istanbul and majored in Modern Dance. Margeaux has been all over the continental U.S. as well as spending a year in Gap before the age 28. It's been a huge relief to me to have her here. We have a lot in common, I think. She studied English and has her Master's in Rhetoric and Composition. Last night, Ben and I went to dinner with some of her organization, who are all middle-aged women except for her and a 24-year-old guy named Tim. After, Tim and Margeaux came back to our place for a couple of hours, and we all had fun talking and sharing music and such. We also butchered a wine cork trying to get it out of the bottle. I swear, nothing here works the way it should. So, that's a little of what's new.
Oh, did we tell you that our flatscreen has a USB port? Yeah, we may not have a DVD player, but we can load movies and TV episodes onto my flash drive and watch it on the TV. That's cool. I'll take it. Because you really never know what's going to be on the English movie channel. (Tangent: I'm pretty sure they have 1 Italian, 1 French, and 1 Russian movie also that they mix in with the English ones. And they call everything from Mulan to Ocean's 11 a "Classic Blockbuster." Sheesh.)
So a tally: Yay for China, USB ports on the TV. Yay for the US, pretty much everything else. :)
Honestly, I think we are starting to get used to living here. It's taken me longer than Ben to accept the fact that we really are living in China for a year and, no, there's no way to jump ship and head home tomorrow or the next day. So that's probably why we haven't posted lately. We're getting used to kids pooping in the streets and not knowing exactly what is in our mouths at any given moment. I'm even almost used to all the incessant honking. The only thing I think I will never get used to is how the students answer your questions like trained monkeys. Seriously, I have asked hundreds of students where they would like to travel, and anytime someone answers that they would like to see France they say this to me: "I would like to go France...I think it is, um, romantic." No variation ever. And, honest to Spandex, I'm not sure they even know about the Eiffel Tower. Okay, they probably do, but I wouldn't be shocked.
Some more Aussies have shown up, and with them they have brought along a mother and daughter from the States, named Sybil and Margeaux. They are as interesting as their names. Sybil lived in Istanbul and majored in Modern Dance. Margeaux has been all over the continental U.S. as well as spending a year in Gap before the age 28. It's been a huge relief to me to have her here. We have a lot in common, I think. She studied English and has her Master's in Rhetoric and Composition. Last night, Ben and I went to dinner with some of her organization, who are all middle-aged women except for her and a 24-year-old guy named Tim. After, Tim and Margeaux came back to our place for a couple of hours, and we all had fun talking and sharing music and such. We also butchered a wine cork trying to get it out of the bottle. I swear, nothing here works the way it should. So, that's a little of what's new.
Oh, did we tell you that our flatscreen has a USB port? Yeah, we may not have a DVD player, but we can load movies and TV episodes onto my flash drive and watch it on the TV. That's cool. I'll take it. Because you really never know what's going to be on the English movie channel. (Tangent: I'm pretty sure they have 1 Italian, 1 French, and 1 Russian movie also that they mix in with the English ones. And they call everything from Mulan to Ocean's 11 a "Classic Blockbuster." Sheesh.)
So a tally: Yay for China, USB ports on the TV. Yay for the US, pretty much everything else. :)
Monday, October 3, 2011
Pizza in China!
Hey y'all. I'm sick (Mal). Well, now that I've said that, I can talk about making pizzas last night! A few weeks ago, Ben and I went to Zhengzhou with Adam and the other Ben to get ingredients to make pizzas, and last night we finally made them. We took McCormick's pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese and put them on top of these delicious pieces of bread called "xia bing" and baked them in a little oven. They were absolutely delicious! I don't really know what else to say about that... It felt so nice to have something familiar, though. The food here is delicious, but I really miss the food back home. Making the pizzas made that seem no so far away.
That's another reason why it's been so nice to have good internet here. We were fighting with a dying computer and ridiculously slow internet, so we often felt isolated. Granted, we are on the other side of the world from everything we've known and loved. Now, we can get Facebook without any trouble, and we can access our favorite TV shows and movies too! Don't ask how. Ha... Ben is now sitting beside me eating oatmeal and drinking coffee. Why can't I have my cereal? :(
Oh, and being sick makes me homesick, apparently. If you can't already tell. Short post. Hopefully something really interesting will happen and we can put up something longer soon. I guess I'll get back to playing Angry Birds (I'm getting really good at it) and reading all the free books we got for the Kindles (don't ask about that either...)
Love to the US!
That's another reason why it's been so nice to have good internet here. We were fighting with a dying computer and ridiculously slow internet, so we often felt isolated. Granted, we are on the other side of the world from everything we've known and loved. Now, we can get Facebook without any trouble, and we can access our favorite TV shows and movies too! Don't ask how. Ha... Ben is now sitting beside me eating oatmeal and drinking coffee. Why can't I have my cereal? :(
Oh, and being sick makes me homesick, apparently. If you can't already tell. Short post. Hopefully something really interesting will happen and we can put up something longer soon. I guess I'll get back to playing Angry Birds (I'm getting really good at it) and reading all the free books we got for the Kindles (don't ask about that either...)
Love to the US!
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