Sports Meet

A few weeks ago, in one of the many emails I receive from my students, a student mentioned that she was spending much of her time preparing for the school sports meeting. This piqued my interest so I asked her about it in class and was elated to hear that there was a competition for the teachers as well. Now, I haven't really been all that active here, as I have been lazy in figuring out the particulars of the gym on campus and haven't yet found a group of guys with which to play basketball or soccer/football. Additionally, even in high school when in peak physical condition, I was still pretty slow (in sprint AND distance races). But, I love competition, and from playing in the basketball tournament, know that there are only so many young and fit teachers. So I asked around and eventually got a call from Connie, one of the assistants in the Foreign Language department. I signed up for the 200 and 400. Although I was tempted to sign up for the 'solid sphere push' based solely on its title, which was quite the awkward translation of shot put.

It started early Friday morning with the opening ceremony. As if we didn't stand out already, Dave and I were the only two teachers not wearing suits. Because we weren't specifically invited to the ceremony, we didn't know the dress code, and instead wore the school track suit, which we both acquired from seniors 'too cool' for the uniform. For me the highlight of the ceremony was the human dragon performance, which confirmed yet another long held image/stereotype of China.

My first race was later that morning. It was the 400, in which Dave would also run. But, as they announced the heats, our student helper/translator told us we were in different heats. David won the second heat by a small margin over the second and third place runners. He ran it in 60 or 61 seconds, which I thought would be faster than I could run, so I lined up to do my best. Well, as I came around the last turn, I was all alone, and couldn't hear anyone near me. As I came to the finish well ahead of the rest, I did my best attempt at a Usain Bolt look and turn. Unfortunately, I was put into the slow heat, so I ended up getting fifth overall, guess I should have run a bit harder. Dave represented the red, white, and blue though, as he won overall. Bryan, who took part in the darts, just couldn't get into the groove at 8 in the morning, especially without a beer in the other hand, and didn't make the finals.

Well, they put me in the fast heat of the 200 on Saturday. This time though, I was in the wrong heat. I really underestimated the quickness of the other teachers, although this time the PE teachers were allowed to participate (unlike the basketball tournament). I finished third in my heat, and by a pretty good margin. Overall, I did make the announcements (barely), finishing sixth out of twenty odd contestants. Dave, who has been running every day (and in doing so started a sort of running/fan club), took first in the 800, and set a new faculty record. After watching most of the races, we realized that the Chinese sprint as far as they can in every race, regardless of distance. So they tend to be easily beaten by a well paced runner.

In chatting with a few of my students, a few of them claimed to be running in the 20x50. Now, I had seen a few non-traditional events: balance a tennis ball on a ping pong racket while running, the human train race-each runner holds the left leg of the person behind him, and the four legged race (with three people). But a twenty person relay? Then they told me there was a baton exchange in said race, it just sounded too crazy. Alas, it was true, and very exciting to watch. It was run like a shuttle relay, with ten people in each line. There was even a small pole to prevent early baton passes. After some thought, it's a great event for China, I mean how else can 1.3 billion people participate.

Hiking Trip

The weekend before last saw me embark on yet another short adventure. This one promised to be much easier for one big reason: I was traveling with some locals. I went on the trip with Dave, Cao Xingxing, and Qin Chen (the second two are obviously Chinese). Xingxing has been one of the coolest and most helpful people I have met here. She is a senior Business English major, and I met her because she is also the student assistant to Teddy (our advisor) and to Teddy's boss. She is always eager to help with shopping, translating, or about anything else. Well, she and some of her friends and their boyfriends were planning a trip and invited me and Dave. Then, in typical Chinese fashion, all the boys (who are all the same major) had something (meeting, test, immunization, military training, practice test, (I didn't ask, but those are all plausible possibilities)) come up, so they couldn't come on the trip. This caused two of the girls to also bail. So it ended up just being four of us, which of course didn't really affect me or Dave. So we took the midnight train south to Anhui province. I was unexpectedly able to practice my Spanish for my first time with a group of Mexicans. They were exchange students studying in Shanghai and headed to Huangshan (the mountain I visited last month). They were eager to chat, as they were enduring the overnight train by making it a booze cruise.

Once we arrived, the trip was up and running. After a quick change in the delightful (insert considerable sarcasm) Jixi train station rest room, we made our way through town to the bus station. Our bus took us as far as the bridge construction, which we passed on foot, and then loaded another bus. This is what a detour is in semi-developed China, a short walk across a cement beam crossing a not so shallow river. We soon made it to the trail and had a wonderful day of hiking. The scenery was gorgeous, the air clean (a rare occurrence in the Yangzi River Delta), the weather nice and cool, and Xingxing and QinChen were lots of fun to talk with; we learned some Chinese and they some English. Like always in China, there were some other tourists on the trail, but they were so few that almost every corner provided an amazing and gorgeous view.

We spent the night in a delightful little family hotel, which was genuinely 'in the the middle of nowhere'. The food was delicious, the beds comfortable, and it was a great stay. The outhouse, though, did fall in line with the normal quality of Chinese restrooms, and was just a little dirtier than the one I remember from Boy Scout camp. I went out and sat around a small campfire with some of the other patrons after dinner. They were playing some sort of mafia (find the killer) game...needless to say I didn't follow, or even think of participating.

The walk down was a great time as well, after a breakfast of rice porridge (yes they eat rice at every meal) and hard boiled eggs (which are uber-popular here). One of the best parts was a walk through a small village. It was also a walk back a few hundred years. There were pigs in the bottom floors of many of the houses, as well as one taking a stroll down the street. An old women was sitting on a wooden stool cracking chestnuts by hand in a very primitive nutcracker. I entered, and in my best Chinese and hand gestures, asked if I could try cracking a nut or two. She smiled and laughed, but told the girls that I couldn't because it was her job and needed to maintain quality. Apparently the tourism revenue isn't making back to her household. Another women was washing clothes in the roadside canal/trough, which also seemed to serve as a trash can/sink in other parts of the village; but she didn't seem to mind.
This completed the trip, and after the town we took a bus to Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang, the province we had hiked into, and then back to Changzhou. I did make a never before made purchase while we waited for the bus. Two elderly women approached with baskets of nuts and fruits. Those items did not interest me, but the hot pepper sauce in a reused Coke bottle did, and I bought what turned out to be very good (and spicy) hot sauce. Only in China, right!

Poker Night

A few weeks ago I had the idea to have a poker night at my apartment. Because I have so much space and a really nice dining room table, I feel it would be a shame not to entertain. But let's be honest, I am not going to be hosting any cocktail parties or banquet dinners. So I thought that I'd bring poker night to Changzhou, a good guys only tradition. We have had three poker nights so far and I think they have gone very well, and it seems like everyone has enjoyed them. Chen Gang, from basketball tournament fame has come to two so far, and picked up Texas hold 'em pretty well, although so far he's just been giving money to us Americans. Dave and Danthemanstan have played each time and Danthemanstan is playing well enough to consider quitting his classes. Last week Jeff, a middle aged 'dude' from Reno joined in too. He teaches at another school in Changzhou, but some students from our school are teaching assistants at his school, so he was on campus for English and was a fun addition to the game. But by far the most entertaining attendee has been Steve. As you may remember, Steve is the English teacher who has made a significant effort to get to know all the foreign teachers and who has now had me (among others) to his house for dinner with his wife and son. Steve is a pretty funny and demonstrative guy to begin with, but poker really brings out his personality. He sees poker night as a chance to stick it to the 'foreign devils'. He loves the irony of being the one who most wants to win the money despite being raised in great Communist China. He finally hit success last night when he won a good amount of the money, and was proud to go home and show his wife his winnings.

My apartment

(above: walk in closet, bedroom, extra bedroom)

This post is long overdue, but I finally took my camera out of my desk and took some pictures of where I live. As I have previously alluded, I have pretty nice digs here. In fact, I have undeniably more space than ever before in my life. This was quite a surprise to me, as one of the major issues in Chinese cities is a lack of space or at least livable space. But not if one is a foreign teacher. While the male students pack eight into a room only a bit bigger than my bedroom, I seldom enter all the rooms in my apartment each day.
(left: dining room, right: family room)
My apartment has two floors, with two bedrooms upstairs and the kitchen, breakfast nook, laundry room, family room, and dining room. I have put up some decorations, so now all visitors are greeted by the American and Iowa flags, as well as a map of the great state. I've got pictures in the hallway and my room upstairs, and a map of China by my desk so I can always be planning my next trip. Hopefully all of these photos will help you get a better idea of where I live. (below: breakfast nook, kitchen, laundry room)


As I previously mentioned, more pictures can be found in my Picasa gallery. The link can be found in the links section at the top right of this page. I have added the links to the blogs of Dan and Dave as well as some web pages which have some more information on Changzhou, Jiangsu, and China. I also really enjoy reading the comments which everyone leaves, so please continue to leave them. Additionally, I will shamelessly promote Skype, which is a voice and video over the Internet program I use. It's very easy to download and once you have it you can call any other Skype user (like me) for free. Lastly, I would like to explain why my blogs have been sort of sparse the last two weeks. In reading my birthday present from my sister, "Made in America" by Bill Bryson I was motivated to learn a new keyboard. When the QWERTY keyboard was designed, it was made to be as slow as possible to prevent typewriter jams. So, when better typewriters came along, and then computers, a man named Dvorak designed an optimal keyboard for speed and comfort. But, as you can imagine, learning a completely new way to type when my mind and fingers have spent my whole life learning another has a long and slow learning curve. So, I am (for the moment) much less efficient with my emails and blog posts.

Suzhou

Last weekend I embarked on another adventure, but don't worry, I had a good idea of where I was going and what I would be doing. A few weeks earlier one of my students, Ben (or Yao Chen for those keeping score in Chinese) asked if I would like to visit his home if he went home for a weekend. I of course said yes; as Yao Chen is a guy and thus there is no miscommunication about 'relationship' expectations. Because he was busy with classes and I only work three days a week, he asked me to buy the tickets. I got the tickets for the right train (which is no small accomplishment, as you can't purchase them by pointing), but was surprised when we boarded the first class car. It was only five or six extra yuan, so I considered it a successful Chinese purchase.
The visit was an absolute pleasure. His apartment was very nice, exceptionally clean, and pretty modern. It consisted of a kitchen, combined living/dining room, his bedroom (full of Japanimation posters...like any Asian teenagers room should be), and his parents' room-with a porch for drying clothes. 'Goodbye' was all that I got in English from either of his parents, but all their body language and translated words were very gracious. Most of the weekend was spent going to the main attractions of Suzhou with Yao Chen. We went to Tiger Hill (hu qiu) an ancient emperor's garden and tomb with a really tall, beautiful pagoda temple. It even has this odd lean much like the tower of Piza (although not as dramatic). We also hit up the Humble Administrator's Garden (zhuozheng yuan), which was gorgeous and essentially what you think of when picturing a Chinese garden. We went to another garden and a Buddhist temple as well, which were both neat, but did lack in differentiation from previous gardens and temples.
There were two really neat and unique things which I was able to do on the trip. The first was to see the house in which Yao Chen grew up. As I said, his family's current apartment is very nice and modern. His dad is an engineer and his mom works in a department store, he has a laptop, so I think they are pretty wealthy for China. But, as he explained, his parents had to save a lot for the new apartment and his college fund. Well, they certainly didn't waste money on a house. Actually I think that the term 'collection of rooms would be much more appropriate. These rooms were within a two to three story structure (yes the number of levels varied around the building). There were many sets of rooms on each floor, connected by open air hallways, where the 'kitchens' were located. I write 'kitchen' because it consisted of no more than a wok or two and some baskets/shelves with food and pots and pans. The building surrounded a courtyard, where Yao Chen played as a child, which also included a well. This is where Yao Chen got his water when he was young; but (as the goldfish I saw indicated) the current residents now just buy water in five gallon containers (still no running water). Obviously, this sort of place was very different, primitive, and almost shocking for me. It's even crazier to think that someone who grew up here now plays W.O.W. on his laptop and has a camera phone. It really is representative of the type of change which China has seen over the last decade.
The second cool thing was to attend Yao Chen's grandmother's 70th birthday. Once again, being white and speaking English was my ticket to an amazing feast. As expected, none of his relatives spoke English, so I used the little Chinese I knew as best I could...even getting quite the response from his grandmother with my attempt at happy birthday. It really was pretty interesting seeing all the non-verbal communication of three generations of a family. And, in case you wondered, they do the cake, candles, and singing 'Happy Birthday' thing here too. They even make a wish before blowing out the candles.
One last anecdote from my trip to Suzhou is seen in the picture below. My Grammie (who lives in Hastings, NE) and Big XII football fans will be glad to know that the Huskers' logo has made its way to the Yangzi River Delta here in China. I could not resist having Yao Chen take a picture with such odd piece of apparel. How this shirt made its way to the shop I passed is a question with no less than a million plausible answers.

Photos

http://picasaweb.google.com/ken.j.ferrell

After some delay, I have put my act together and uploaded my pictures to the Internet. They can be found organized into albums on the website listed above (and below). I hope that you enjoy them. If you have questions, feel free to post them in the comments or make a comment on this blog.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ken.j.ferrell

Halloween Party

It certainly has been awhile since my last post, but no need to worry. I have been doing very well and actually staying fairly busy. Most of last week was occupied planning and preparing for a Halloween Party. The party was the brainchild of Bryan, another teacher here who is from Bartlesville, OK. With the help of a few students from the English club, we amassed huge amounts of candy, all the masks which the supermarket sold, more than a handful of prizes, and plenty of decorations. None of us had any experience with parties in China, and apparently all Chinese 'parties' here are just talent shows. We expected attendance anywhere between 50 and 5,000. Legitimately. Well, all in all the party was a success and it felt nice to use some of our comfortable salary to give back to the students. Many things were also learned for future parties. The candy was gone from the table in less than a minute (and there were thousands of pieces), so a more just distribution system is certainly needed. Despite a truly wonderful playlist, none of the students danced at all, save the group dances. But the Macarena, Chicken Dance, and Cupid Shuffle can only be done so many times. The party was advertised to start at 6:30...but the gym was pretty well packed by 5:45, which hurt some of our set-up and eliminated a few games from being set-up at all. Nonetheless, I had a great time at the party and think that most of the students did as well, and if nothing else, the four of us (Bryan, Dave, Danthemanstan, and I) are now even more famous and recognizable on campus. Of course, that isn't something I needed, but being popular and adored hasn't gotten old yet. The pictures included are from the party.