Updates

Here are some stories I have from the past couple weeks:

- A week or two ago I purchased some items at a convenience store. The clerk gave me my change but then he also handed me two sticks of Double Mint gum. Being thoroughly confused, I looked at him and then counted my change to make sure I had the right amount. I was missing wu jiao (essentially, fifty cents). Apparently, they did not have any wu jiaos so the clerk thought a proper replacement would be two sticks of gum. As soon as I realized this I started cracking up and left the store. I asked someone about this and they said it's a fairly regular occurrence: "If they don't have the proper amount of change, they will fish around for something to give you instead." I then lost my two sticks of gum in a bet later that night. True Romance came out in 1993, not 1994...darn it.

- The other night a group of us was eating dinner at a restaurant that we frequent. The patrons in a private room off to the side were getting particularly rowdy. As we stole glances into the room we saw the lights turning on and off, girls hanging off of guys, and dancing. Two girls would leave the room every 15-20 minutes to go to the restroom together and each time they came out they would be drunker than they were before. Each time they came out they hung off of each other a bit more and lost their step a little more. Finally, one guy in the room ran out of the room with his hand over his mouth. Rather than running towards the bathroom, he ran towards the stairs, held down his puke for a split second and then spewed it across the floor, and then again by the stairs...then I think he left (on a sidenote, the wait staff didn't decide to clean up the mess for another 10 or 15 minutes...maybe they were drawing straws?). As girls continued to leave the room we were patiently watching and praying that one of them would slip in the puke. Only after it was cleaned up (with a broom no less!) one of the girls in stilettos slipped and fell. I couldn't contain myself and burst out laughing. Having been thoroughly embarrassed the girl was helped up by her friends and they continued their drunken trek to the restroom. Before coming back into the party room. The girl who slipped and fell turned to our table and screamed (in a thick Chinese accent) "F*#% youuu!!!"

- We get a month and a half off for travel starting January 3rd. This is the plan so far: Angela and I are going to pick up Jon (Angela's boyfriend) and Terri (my girlfriend) in Beijing on the 5th. We will return to Shijiazhuang until the evening of the 8th when we will go back to Beijing, spend the night there, and fly to Shanghai the morning of the 9th. In Shanghai we will be meeting with our friends Kara, Willie, Bjorn, and Hanne which is going to be amazing. We will be Shanghai until about the 15th when we will return to Beijing and have one or two days to sight see before we see Jon and Terri off again. Then Angela and I will meet our friend, Daniel (who now works in the North), in Harbin, which is known as Ice City. Harbin is in the most northern reaches of China and the temperatures are supposed to be as low as -20 or -30 degrees Fahrenheit. It's most famous for it's architecture (heavy Russian influence) and ice festival which essentially occurs the entire month of January. On the way back from Harbin we will hit two capital cities (can't remember their names at the moment). Then Angela will head back to Shijiazhuang to get pack up because she leaves the country January 30th. Then I will head to Luoyang, Xi'an (Terra Cotta warriors), and then meet Billie in Chengdu. The last part is heavily tentative but after all that I will be returning to Shijiazhuang mid-February. If this all works out...it's going to be a miracle.

- Weight. Unlike it is in the West, people more openly talk about others' weight problems. It is just not a taboo thing here like it is in America, especially when talking about womens' weight. Many of the Drake girls have gone shopping for clothes and some of them have been told they are too big or fat but store clerks (when clearly, they are not at all). My tutor told me that in high school (and even now to a lesser extent) his friends make fun of him for being "fat", but in fact he's just got some chub. They actually tell him the reason he doesn't have a girlfriend is because he's "fat." I asked, "Doesn't it make you feel bad when your friends call you fat?" He said, "No, I know they are just kidding." But obviously he has taken it personally because I see him exercise outside for the sole reason that his friends DO call him fat. Even while I was giving my final examinations this week many girls mentioned that they like to eat and that is why they are so fat, when really I wouldn't consider any of them fat. I feel like it's a huge self-image issue, but they approach really lightheartedly which makes me think it's definitely a bigger issue than they let on. Also, today during my final examination, I asked one girl to describe her father (What's you Dad like? Want to meet that Dad! haha) and the first thing she said was that he is "kind of fat." I then replied, "You must really love your father."

Various Chinese Chirstmas Celebrations

First of all, more Chinese celebrate (or at least acknowledge) Christmas than one would imagine. By the end of the week I thought it kind of sad that they celebrate a Western holiday that really doesn't have any meaning to them. Infiltration of Western culture, blah, blah, blah.

All the Drake people (including foreign and Chinese friends) had our own Christmas celebration. A wine and cheese party! My lips and teeth got so stained from the wine it was repulsive. We had a white elephant gift exchange and I ended up getting some tea (my second choice to a bottle of wine). Good times had by all!

On Tuesday evening we went to the Christmas Banquet for Foreigners held by the municipal government. There were about 300 or so foreigners there with Chinese friends. Our Australian friend, Francis, was chosen to make a speech on the behalf of all foreigners of the city. He was "a bit tossed" (as he put it) before giving the speech. The most hilarious part of the speech was, "Sure, Shijiazhuang doesn't have the modernity of Hong Kong, the shopping of Shanghai, or the beauty of Guangzhuo, but..." and at that point I just started cracking up. Francis is one of the most obnoxious (but hilarious) people I've ever met and I have no idea why they picked him to give a speech. Anyway, they had a wonderful buffet and there were more than a few familiar faces. Megan and I also performed "Last Christmas" for the entire banquet...seemed like a crowd favorite from the foreigners' point of view! I also realized that that was the biggest crowd I had ever performed for. Afterwards, a bunch of us went out together for a few beers.

Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been planning on performing at Christmas parties here in China for almost two months, and it finally came to pass. I practiced a couple of times with a British teacher named Rick. We practiced "Save Tonight" by Eagle Eyed Cherry, "Well Respected Man" by The Kinks, "All My Loving" by The Beatles, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by The Beatles, "Man On The Moon" by R.E.M., and "All Rise" by Blue (a British boy band). We performed two nights. The first night was at just one hotel but the second night was at two hotels. We performed on four separate stages (each hotel had an upstairs and downstairs party, the upstairs parties were for the richer folks). We played guitar and sang to the first 5 songs on repeat (with a couple of solo ones by Rick that I added some flare to) for about an hour. Then we sang "Save Tonight" and "All Rise" on stage with the actual music as background. Not only did we dance like retards and make complete fools of ourselves (as we were paid to do), but we were dressed in jeans, frilly silk shirts, and cowboy hats. The only two gay cowboys in China that I know of, haha. So after our final performance last night, Jake, Lan (Jake's boss who set up the shows), Rick, the host from our last show, his girlfriend, and I went out to a restaurant. They served some of the best shrimp I have ever eaten. Jake, Lan, Rick, and I had a great time letting off some steam from the stress of the week and we all had a great time. Then I met up with Angela and we had a beer together at our famed McDonald's/Foreigner Bar. What an amazing Christmas...celebrated in a way that I will never ever celebrate the same way again.