Wednesday, July 31, 2002

 
alright, well i made my first 100 kuai since returning to qingdao today. it's nice to have some cash that came from china, instead of my mom's bank account in the states. easiest $12.50 i've ever made in my life. i just sat down and chatted for an hour with this 18-year-old high school kid who's studied in Canada for a year and whose english isn't so hot. he wants to meet about every other day, and doesn't have any agenda--just wants to get better at speaking and listening. i think maybe i'll bring in stories or articles and discuss them with him. if anyone runs across interesting stories or articles, send them my way. and with that hundred kuai, i'm going out to buy a rice cooker tonight. yeah!!

i discovered some nifty chinese fast food restaurants yesterday. bought three dishes and two things of rice for 11 kuai, which is less than US$1.50. You know what's nuts? KFC and McD's have infiltrated china, but their prices are not at all at the chinese level. a value meal at McD's is over 19 kuai. that's way more than one should be paying for cheap-ass made-by-monkeys food. 19 kuai can get you a nice meat dish at a nice restaurant here. food wise, it can buy about as much as $15 can in the states. I'm sorry, but i have a real problem with mc donald's charging the price of high-quality food. the crazier thing, though, is that the mcdonald's here are ALWAYS packed. what is WRONG with this situation!?

on a totally random note, i'm not sure if i've mentioned this or not, but The Boys and Girls Club in china is a chain of disco bars.

and on my way out, i'd just like to note, sadly, that no one has emailed me for today. how can i survive in this crazy country without anecdotes from the states-world? tell me your stories! i'll listen!
posted by sarah 11:30 PM

 
last night dave and i rediscovered the beauty of Luigi's Pizza (see 6/25/02), and while there met the owner of the french bar in town, two english teachers (australian and louisianian) who frequent a jazz bar in town, and the very cool chinese guys who own the pizza place (i think i'm in love with the long-haired one... 5'10", shoulder-length stylish cut to his brown-highlighted black hair, clear english, slightly-tinted glasses, international business major going to australia soon... ::drools::)

so last night was social. today was all work-based. dave, bao bao (host sister), and I went over to the fencing club to meet with the boss there. dave's looking for work teaching fencing--apparently he was really into it in the states, something like 8th in the nation. it looks like they'll give him work but won't pay him enough to get by so he's going to seek supplementary work.

today my host-mom hooked me up with several teaching jobs. one is with her brother-in-law... he knows a bunch of kids who want to study english and is organizing a group tutorial. he wants me to work an hour and a half to two hours a week, and took me shopping for textbooks today. i now own my own set of level 1 learn-english textbooks! thank god for their thorough introductions on how to teach! here in qingdao i'm expected to charge far more than a chinese person would, and therefore expected to know how to teach well. no one wants to hear that i have no experience. i'm going to get damn good at faking confidence here.

and by the way, if anyone has ANY suggestions for teaching english as a second language to all sorts of ages, my email is sadopp@hotmail.com. PLEASE help!

another student will be a chinese guy who will be going back to canada in a month and wants me to work with him every day until then. i'll meet him tomorrow.

3 other people have mentioned that they know someone who wants a tutor... so now i have 2 sets of kids and a 30-year-old business woman in the background waiting for me to make time for them.

i still, in theory, have those preschool jobs, but i haven't connected with that guy yet. hmm...

i need a datebook. today.
posted by sarah 12:25 AM

Tuesday, July 30, 2002

 
You will all be relieved to know that the Chinese Government has officially determined that I do not have the following illnesses:

Cholera
Yellow Fever
Plague
Venereal Disease
Opening Lung Tuberculosis
AIDS
Leprosy
Psychosis
posted by sarah 3:26 AM

Monday, July 29, 2002

 
Went to the doctor today. I had to go to get an "International Traveller Examination" so they could extend my visa for a year. It cost me 200 kuai ($25) and was quite an ordeal. At first I was examined by a woman doctor who didnt communicate very well with me (basically this whole thing was conducted in chinese... quite the welcoming place for all the International Travellers who are required to go there). Though the paper had about 20 things she was supposed to check (spine, breasts, night vision, anus...) she only checked my blood pressure, heart beat, and vision with contacts in. the rest she initialed and assumed were fine (thank god). the next station made me lie down on a bed. they rubbed clear goop all over my belly and gave me an ultrasound. Never had an ultrasound before... were they checking to see if I was pregnant or are there other reasons for these?? Then they moved me onto the next station, where they laid me down on a bed again. At this one they attached metal clamps on electric cords to my wrists and ankles, and pressed one into my bra for my heart. I was half expecting them to commence electroshock therapy, but they were only checking heartbeat i guess. It was weird.

Then there was some great confusion and finally I understood that I was supposed to go to another building for blood taking. When I found the station, I sat down at what looked like a bank teller's window, stuck my arm through the hole, and waited for them to suck the blood out of me. I had planned to ask if I could lie down for it (in the past it's made me sick), but the drive-though operation of it didn't really allow for such luxery. So I sucked it up and moved on to the chest X-Ray. At that station I stood in front of a big X-ray machine square, had to take a deep breath, and pressed my chest against it while the guy tried to give directions to me via microphone (not so effective... he had to resort to a big gasping sound to indicate taking a breath).

All in all, I seem to be healthy. It's a little odd that I did at no point give them my English name. I was just "Ya-Mei"--a made-up Chinese first name--on all these official forms.
posted by sarah 12:43 AM

Thursday, July 25, 2002

 
Alright, so here's what happened. A few posts got lost over the last week or so because of Blogger being a stupid-head. So let me recap a little about the adventures from Dali to Qingdao to make up for the week of silence.

My friends showed up out of the blue on my last night in dali. They came back, brought Dave (see cast list from beginning of trip, written around 7/5/02) with them. We partied at Mel's that night, eating the cookies we made (which came out awesome!) dancing around with drums and music and big chinese hats, and then moved on to a birthday party of a chinese girl (her sister was at mel's and invited us), which was crazy fun. It was mostly just one big whipped cream fight. The next day we did some last minute shopping around dali and then hopped on a sleeper bus to Kunming, on which was all crammed together on one five-person bed... it was like a slumber party on a roller coaster!

Then our luck ran out for a brief period of time and we missed our train the next day. Five world travellers working together to get to Shanghai and not one of us had the brilliant idea to get to the train station on time. So when we realized we had to beg for decent new tickets, we were pretty sure we were screwed. Annie and Sean's plane left on the 22nd, this was the 18th, and the train takes 2 1/2 days. It had to be a train the next day or nothing at all. I was nominated to do all the talking, so I got to carry the bulk of the stress while dealing with the ticket people... such fun. The first woman said there was no way we could get 5 hard-sleeper tickets.. all that was available were hard seat (absolutely hell to travel such a long distance in) or soft sleeper (far more expensive than we could dream about). So we were about to do some kind of fancy 2 hard seat, 1 hard sleeper, trade on the train sort of deal, leaving Ciprian and I behind to catch another train because we weren't in a hurry, but then the next ticket woman, lo and behold, had five sleeper tickets. Alright, so that was a long story, but I told it because that was the absolute worst experience I've had on this trip so far. I guess if that's the worst we've had, we're doing alright.

So the train was a bundle of fun... 56 hours in cramped quarters without air conditioning. we got really good at card games and had some conversations with a bunch of working-class chinese people. We got to Shanghai at 9:00 pm, and since it was Annie and Sean's last night, we stayed out all night. We had a really big dinner till 2 AM, then went club hopping till 5. After that, we wandered around by the water, where all the old women were already up and doing tai-chi, and managed to pull off one hour of sleep before getting back up to go to the airport.

More travel hell ensued when we tried to get tickets to Qingdao. They no longer do boats there and the trains were sold out. On one hour of sleep, I didn't handle such news very well. In the end, we bought plane tickets and I borrowed a bunch of Dave's money.

The rest of the Shanghai trip was cool, though. Aside from the insane sun and heat, Shanghai's a really wonderful place. i will definitely make a point to go back there.... and someday, when I'm rich and stylish, that'll be the place for me.

So now I'm in Qingdao, everyone from my original group is gone (Ciprian left via beijing), and i'm hanging out with Dave, who is mighty cool. Very easygoing, too. We have sort of a deal: I get him by with chinese (he knows none) and hook him up with some jobs, and he keeps me from getting stressed out. It's working well so far.

I'm surprised at how many connections I have in this city. I was picked up at the airport by my host sister and a driver in a University van, brought to the dorms where they had two dorm rooms waiting for us. The dorms are doubles,but they're letting us have them to ourselves for US$5.50 a night. Really nice deal. My host mother has been working hard to find me jobs (without me even asking her!), and Fang Laoshi, a guy from the office, is going to get my visa fixed up for me. Connections are kinda nice. :)
posted by sarah 1:14 AM

 
In Qingdao. Blogger's broken. Must fix!!!
posted by sarah 12:29 AM

Monday, July 15, 2002

 
I'm sorry. The font is tiny on my computer, but i think they computer is all-around weird. Can you guys read this? If it's tiny, send me an email, and I'll troubleshoot when I get to Qingdao. I think Blogger is messing with me.
posted by sarah 9:43 PM

 
Alright, last post for a few days... Today is my last full day in Dali. Tomorrow I take off for Kunming to meet my friends, get on a train for 56 hours, and go to Shanghai. After that, it's seeing them off on their plane to the States, and hopping on a boat back to Qingdao.

I'm not sure what I've logged and what I haven't. Yesterday I wrote out a whole narrative and then the power went out just before hitting "send". Before that, blogger was messing up and I'm not sure if things posted. So here are some quick highlights...

The creepy Greek guy moved out (for clarification, "dorm style rooms" mean you rent a bed, not a room, and you have no say over who else lives there) and three girls my age moved in, which was very very nice. One's American--she's graduated from another small lib arts school and has been teaching chinese in NanJing for a year and traveling by herself. The other two are from Israel--just finished their term in the army (required after high school) and are travelling for a few months before starting college. I've actually met a bunch of Israeli girls thus far... they say its because after being forced into the army, you just HAVE to get out of Israel and travel for a little while. I can see that.

I've been hanging out at Mel's cafe a lot. I'm going to miss Mel. I'm not sure what I've written about her so far... she's 26, born in northwest china, her parents live in Xi'An (central china), and she's travelled through a lot of southeast asian countries. She opened up a cafe in Dali because she thought it would be fun. She's been really great to me the last few days. Yesterday she taught me how to make Chinese pancakes with vegetables in the middle. She's been giving me free cups of chai, letting me borrow books, and giving me some great company. Last night we walked down to the High School and chatted with some friends of hers... they (shyly) practiced their English on me while I asked them about the Chinese school system. I'm really going to miss Dali... it's the coolest town I've ever spent time in, by far. So awesome.

Right now I'm heading out to find chocolate chip cookie ingredients so I can teach Mel how to make them. I'm not sure if China has brown sugar, though...
posted by sarah 9:42 PM

Saturday, July 13, 2002

 
Yesterday I made my way into the nearby city to go to the Erhai Lake Park (Erhai lake is a really big lake, sort of Winnapausakee style, that all of these towns are on). When i got off the bus, I wandered around and asked directions a few times to find the park. The second people I asked were two girls, about young high school age. They tried to explain how to get there but I didn't understand, so they accompanied me ACROSS TOWN to take me there. It was awesome. Sometimes I'm really taken aback by how friendly Chinese people can be to foreigners.

It seems like the younger they are, the friendlier they are. Young children, especially, will peek out from behind their moms to yell "Hello!" to me, then hide again out of shyness. And if their not hiding, they have a really big grin on their face. It's so cute. And so different from the older people who yell "Hello!" to me to get me into their shop. These kids are just really excited to see English speakers.

Last night I was hanging out at the cultural center in Dali watching the kids play, when at about 9:00 they turned on some music and adult couples came out to dance. They do this in Qingdao, too--every night outside the mall middle-aged adults come to dance together to music--it's sort of a nightly hobby. Apparently it's a China, thing, because it happens in Dali, as well. Anyway, I was just sitting on the ground in the corner, transfixed on the style of all these dancing chinese people. Two chinese kids--probably about 6 years old--were dancing with each other on the side, mimicking the styles of the adults and spinning around and just having a great time. Their mothers thought they were adorable. When they noticed me sitting there, they kept grinning at me, hiding their faces, and making faces; I just played right back. Before i left, I stood up, took their hands, and danced with both of them around in circles for a whole song. It was really, really cute.
posted by sarah 11:43 PM

Friday, July 12, 2002

 
oh! people! jeez! Alright, as already mentioned (probably in yesterday's post cause it's past midnight now, but don't be fooled, it's still today), my morning was spent with a Uruguayan man. He had a thick accent, but really interesting things to say, so i took advantage of my early-morning awakeness and focused all my attention on decoding his English.

As also mentioned, a Greek guy showed up later in the day. Rescuing him was fun and all, but talking to him was a pain in the ass. Harder accent than the Uruguayan and lacking in interesting things to say, however, expecting me to understand, so conversation was a royal pain in the comprehension ass. And to top it off, he moved into my room (a "dorm" style room with four beds, which i've had to myself the past few nights). I'm sorry, but he's really creepy, with big bug eyes and a neck that juts forward as he talks. And when he talks, it's with long pauses, and stories that I'm supposed to find interesting but don't. Anyway, he sort of wouldn't go away (thankfully he's leaving on a bus tomorrow).

After I escaped, I went over to the Western cafe to watch a movie, and the New Zealand guy I met earlier was there. he's way cool. His accent is New Zealand with 3 years of London influence, so it took a little work to listen to. Then 2 Aussie's joined us, and by the end of dinner, my brain couldn't take listening to accents anymore. So I escaped.

I watched some dancing chinese people and danced with some kids who said "hello" a bunch of times.

Later, I went to a cafe to chill out and write a letter and Mel was there! Mel, my way cool cafe buddy whom I thought had escaped to Li Jiang (she came back today). So she invited me to join her friends, and I ended up drinking plum liquor with 7 chinese people for the rest of the night, totally not comprehending the conversation at all. It was cool, though, cause they broke into song a lot.

Anyway, it's been a real incomprehensible day, and my brain is fried. But the creepy greek is in my room... damnit.
posted by sarah 9:36 AM

Thursday, July 11, 2002

 
Yay! People! Last night, I chilled out with 2 Israeli girls and watched "America's Sweetheart" in the Western cafe. While I was there a man from Uruguay started talking to me, and mentioned that there was a big market happening close by the next day. I said, hey cool! And today we both went to it together. The market was huge and nuts (apperently it's every friday and the biggest in yunnan). Lots and lots and lots of people, carrying baskets selling their goods--i think the entire town was transformed into this market. And I also think we were the only two foreigners there. The Uruguay man was cool. He speaks English, French, and Spanish, and teaches Spanish in a French school in San Francisco. Every summer, he travels all over the world. After this, he's heading to tibet. I taught him some Chinese and he told me all about what it takes to translate for the UN (interesting prospective future job... note to self). It was cool. He left this morning for Li Jiang, the town my friends are currently in.

Then, chilling out at this computer earlier today, I met a nice guy from New Zealand who's also traveling alone. I'll probably see him around a little these days.

Then I went for a walk and tried to get down to the lake (apparently not possible from here), but I got pretty far. As I was walking down these broken down streets and getting the occasional "Hello! Hello!" harassment, I ran into a stranded traveler. He was a middle-aged Greek guy looking for the hotels and the bus dropped him clear across town. I came to his aid and got him back up to this area, and he's checking into my hotel now.


posted by sarah 10:39 PM

Wednesday, July 10, 2002

 
And on the Thurs Day, Sarah rested. And wandered around from cafe to cafe, stopping only to book Shanghai reservations and cash the last of her traveler's checques. For if she is to relax in a town as cool as this, she must be prepared to eat and buy cheap cultural things (those items which her friends back home go to "hippie stores" in the mall and on main street and pay extravagent prices to buy, for here they are but a few kuai). Sarah arose at a relaxed 9 am and meandered down to the tibetan cafe, where she checked her email free of charge and dined on hashbrowns, eggs, "chicken steak" (that resembled neither chicken nor steak), and beautifully strong ginger tea. Later she wandered down the town streets to the Mandarin Bookstore, where she bought a book on the history and practice of Taoism and perused through "learn chinese" items. All was well, and she sauntered back to the big cafe near her hotel, which features walls of western books, a supply of western movies available for popping into the tv, couches, candles, chill music, and rose tea with honey, which truly tasted good with the taoist book in hand.

For those in America who know no else than tea bags, let me describe these two teas of today for you. The ginger tea was a mug of hot water, filled about a quarter of the way with chunks and slices of boiled ginger, and sweetened with a bit of honey. It has a very strong flavour and steeps quickly. It's also really really tasty. The rose tea was a mug of hot water, the surface of which was completely covered in small rose buds. Also sweetened with a bit of honey, it was very flavourful and very fun to drink (it takes some talent to not swallow the roses with the water, but they're big enough that it's possible). Coffee is to America as tea is to China, and you can't find a good cup of either if you're not in it's respective country (although, i have to say, American tea is FAR BETTER than chinese coffee!!!!)
posted by sarah 11:41 PM

Tuesday, July 09, 2002

 
Adventures abound in Yunnan! Yesterday the four of us went hiking up a mountain in Dali that leads to a monastery. The initial hike was cool--we sang american rock and roll songs the entire time to keep us going--and the view from the monastery was incredible. When we arrived, a woman there mentioned a walk out to some waterfalls--a flat road through the mountain that winds and takes about 45 minutes before you get to the falls. We went for it, and it was far more breathtaking (and dangerous) than we expected.

The trail wound along 3 different mountains, and was basically chopped out of the side. The path was 4-5 feet wide, to our left was a steep vertical rock going up, to our right was a steep cliff with water flowing way way way down at the bottom. We were pretty scared. It was nuts. Every turn, though, gave us the most amazing view. Here were these mountains, covered in green pine trees, clouds floating around, burying the peaks in mist, and we were walking on their edges, cutting in between their folds, looking down and running water and calculating how easy it would be to slip.

Our biggest mistake was leaving late. Once we hit 6:30 pm, we were halfway through with this trail and didn't know where it would drop us (we had already passed the waterfalls). We could either go back to where we knew we were, or push on and assume it would take us to another monastery (we knew there were many). We ended up pushing on, partly out of adventure and partly out of confidence that we were getting somewhere. We ended up getting to a road--a long road, still high up on a mountain. There was a monastery, but it was under construction, and the people there wouldn't speak to us (they possibly didn't speak mandarin). So we just started walking, quickly, because we were still high up and it was going to get dark soon. We estimated that we still had some time left, but not enough.

After about 45 minutes of walking on the road (which wound back and forth and wasn't descending quickly) we hit a trail and went for it. It was incredibly slippery, and we all injured ourselves in some way or another on it. We were racing the dark, and only vaguely knew where we were from the city lights. At one point, Ciprian hurt his knee pretty badly, but it turned out not to be serious. We were seriously scared at this point, though, because if it either started raining (which it has been doing for 2 days) or hit dusk we'd be seriously screwed. We made it out alright, though, and hobbled all the way back into the town and up to our hotel, never even taking a cab.

Today, I hurt.

My friends are actually taking off today and leaving me behind. They're all about getting as close to tibet as possible and want to go through long, obnoxious bus rides with no time to rest to do so. I'm not into that, so I'm going to stay behind in this chill town of Dali and hang out at cafes and lakes all day. We're going to meet back in Kunming for the train on the 18th. So it's all good--they get their hardcore adventure and I get my rest. Not to worry, this place is safe, and i won't venture out too far alone.

By the way, that cool woman I met at the cafe two days ago was actually the owner (it's called Mel's cafe. She's mel). I've been back there twice since. Once with my friends for dinner, and once again on my own this morning. This morning it was me, Mel, a native Dali woman (of the Bai minority group... english name Karen), and her Japanese friend. The Japanese guy only spoke Japanese and some English. Mel and Karen spoke Chinese and decent English. I speak English and some chinese. So it ended up being this crazy multilingual conversation that worked out quite nicely. It was another good morning at Mel's. :) And she gave some fresh home baked bread, as well. :)
posted by sarah 9:47 PM

Sunday, July 07, 2002

 
Still alive and in Dali, an amazing little town full of culture and tourists and beatiful things. We're staying at a place called the Yu'An Gardens Guest House No. 4 and it's beautiful--rocky walkways between buildings, landscaped flowers and trees, beautiful cultural decorations, and little tables under thatched for playing chinese board games and reading. The bathrooms are the quality of roadside rest stops and the showers are stalls without curtains and doors, but the rest of the place is just great. Even laundry and internet (yes INTERNET) is free. Problem is they only have two computers and a lot of guests, so we'll see how often i get onto it. Our group of four managed to get an empty four-person dorm room, which is truly a gift from heaven, because that means we're all together and only paying 15 kuai (less than US$2) a night. Our original plan was to stay here for only 3 days, but now we're talking about extending that because it's just so damn nice here.

We all slept in today. They're still sleeping, as far as I know. I got up at 11:40 because I remembered we have to pay for the next night before 12. After that, I went out in search of some food. I found a place that advertised Chai on their sign, so I went in (I've been craving Chai since I got here... they just don't have it in China). The cafe was empty of guests, so I sat down, ordered the Chai (which was actually called Marsala Tea), and some yogurt and oats and fruit salad. I spoke in Chinese, so the woman there took interest in me and joined me to chat. We had an entire conversation in Chinese, except for a few vocab words which she had enough English to help me on. It turns out she was born in the North West corner of China, moved with her parents to Xi'An, central China, but didn't like how dirty and unpleasant it was there so she came down to this area by herself to work. She was really pleasant to talk to and made my morning. The reason they have chai is they import the cardamon from another country--china doesn't have any. She also has curry (Annie's favorite), so i'm sure we'll be back.

A quick recap of the past few days... we flew from Qingdao to Kunming on Saturday. In the Qingdao airport we met an Canadian who's uncle owns the Honolulu Club (i had never heard of it but now i have the card) in Qingdao. On the plane, we met a guy from New Hampshire, Mike, who's been studying Chinese at Middlebury for 3 years and has been in China for 6 months. He hanged out with us in Kunming for 2 days and was incredibly cool and helpful (his chinese was incredible). He helped us book our train tickets to Shanghai (56 hours, leaving the 18th) and our bus ticket for Dali. Last night we went to a hair salon that does tattoos because Ciprean wanted one. We checked out all the equipment--single use new needles, everything was up to par and they had a lot of foreign customers--so he was going to go ahead with it, but it turned out the guy showed up too late for him to do it before the bus left. Instead, Annie and I got shampooed, scalp-massaged, face-massaged, and back-massaged, all for 20 kuai each. Nice deal if you ask me.

Kunming was cool, but a lot like the cities we've been to. The real culture is outside of it, in places like here. This whole area is heavily touristed, so we're in a safe situation. Possible things on our list to do are climbing some mountains, renting some bikes, and going on the 8 hour hike into the Tiger Leaping Gorge.
posted by sarah 9:59 PM

Friday, July 05, 2002

 
the qingdao program has ended, i've taken the tests, i'm going to a farewell dinner banquet in half an hour, and it's time to say a sad goodbye to half of my classmates, whom i may never see again. the other half, though, is coming with me to Kunming, a city in southern china, Yunnan province, for a couple weeks.

this city is supposedly one of the best places in china to vacation to--all year round it has a spring climate, so while the rest of china is baking in heat right now, this place is nice and cool. it's the home to a whole lot of ethnic minorities, so culturally, this is going to be an awesome experience. we're going to spend some time in the city, then venture out to the nearby towns and spots of interest in short trips.

after kunming, my group is going to head up to shanghai, where they'll tour a bit and then get on planes to come home. I will probably join them to tour, and then take a train, boat, or whatever back up to qingdao.

everybody make a little wish that sarah suddenly comes across a wad of cash. my money's about to run out and i'm leaving qingdao before my money from home can be wired to me. by the time i reach shanghai, i think i'm going to be living off credit card cash advances. ::winces at the thought:: but at least i have that safety net...

the other cast members involved in this part of the adventure are:

Annie Shapiro (Chinese name: Meng Ying), 20, from Boulder, CO, a good friend all year to me, prospective Asian Studies or Religion major, crazy fun-loving Buddhist, commonly asked to have her picture taken with middle-aged chinese men

Sean Callander (Chinese name: Lin Shi Buo), 20, from New York City, double major in poetry and math, gay male, currently dating above-mentioned Annie, preacher's kid, vegetarian, enjoys wearing women's clothing

Ciprian (last name unspellable) (Chinese name: Yan Kun), 23, born in Romania, raised in New York City, wasn't in our chinese class but joined our trip because he took the language a few years ago, creative writing major and aspiring travelling journalist, has no end to his drive to constantly go out and do something new

Dave (last name unknown) (Chinese name: unknown), (age unknown), from Boulder, CO, (college and major unknown), Annie's crazy friend who suddenly got a plane ticket so he could meet her in china, will arrive in Kunming on the 10th.

alright, that's the game! I get on my plane tomorrow at 8 AM. I may not be reachable for several days afterward, so be patient with me. i'm sure kunming has an internet somewhere though!
posted by sarah 2:59 AM

Wednesday, July 03, 2002

 
technical problems: how big does this font look to you? is it bigger, smaller, or the same size as it was before? send me an email and tell me your observations... it will help me greatly. thanks.
posted by sarah 8:52 PM

 
Alright, I worked myself into a complete mind-body exhaustion these past few days and am now sick. have some kind of sore-throat flu, which is a blatant message from my body to take a break. i'm doing my best to listen. i took a nap instead of going out with classmates or sister yesterday, the money issue isn't an issue (they're letting me pay when i get back), i took my tests without studying and they went alright, i'm not going to worry about the teaching job, and everything's gonna be alright.

if you've sent me an email in the past few days and i haven't written back, i apologize... i'm behind on them. i'll try to catch up before i leave for kunming.

last night my sister made me dinner and gave me some bad-tasting chinese medicine for colds. today i'm still sick, but no longer stressed out. everythings gonna be alright... ::turns on bob marley:: everything's gonna be alright... everything's gonna be alright... everything's gonna be alright.... no woman no cry....

::starts jamming and dances around the internet cafe in a quasi-spaced-out-haze, drawing confused looks from all the japanese and korean Counter Strike nerds::
posted by sarah 8:40 PM

Tuesday, July 02, 2002

 
Absolute insanity. I'm leaving for Kunming (southern china) on Saturday by plane. The school here wants me to give them $210 US before I leave to cover dorm living for the month of august. That's all the money i have left, and if i give it to them, i'll get to Kunming and then be stranded. Trying to get my mom to wire me money, but my teacher says it takes 3-5 days and if that's true i'm not going to get it. may have to charge a month of living--and that would suck a whole lot.

More insanity. So much going on this week. I taught english sunday, it went well, but the guy wants me to come back again this week and I have NO time. and while i'm writing this i should be calling that guy and calling my sister because all of a sudden i'm spending the entire afternoon on a fishing boat, which i just learned this morning, and this is just great because i have two big ass tests tomorrow and absolutely no time to study and my sister is planning on taking me out this afternoon. tomorrow big party, we invited everyone we've met in qingdao and will squeeze it onto the roof of our dorm. fun stuff. crazy fun. just a little concerned that the rest of the stuff i have to do isn't going to happen and i'm going to end up teaching english to three year olds while everyone is enjoying their last night together. the last night together--yeah, this is my last three days as a bard, student, too. after this, the kids i've been studying chinese with all year will go away, except for a few, who will get lost and die of malaria in southern china with me next week.

god what i'd give for a DAY OFF!!!
posted by sarah 10:20 PM

Monday, July 01, 2002

 
I'm living with a host family now--or actually, just a sister. She's sixteen and her name's Bao Bao. We're staying in her cousin's empty new apartment, overlooking the most beautiful seaside park in qingdao from the 28th floor. It's nuts. Her parents are staying at their own place and I've hardly seen them at all. It's just Bao Bao and I, going out for all our meals because we don't want to cook, and touring the city together. She's really cool--sort of a tomboy, really into western music, and really good about speaking chinese at a level I can understand. She and I have a great time together. She also really likes my friend Jon's host-family-brother, so the four of us--Jon, his brother, Bao Bao, and I, have been hanging out a lot. Jon's also got some great Chinese skills, so our four-person group has a great time with language.

Hanging out with Bao Bao 24-hours a day all weekend did start to drive me a little crazy, though. It's frustrating when, regardless of which language you use, neither of you can communicate smoothly with each other. Last night I was plagued with some awful dreams...
{{start dream sequence}}
I was in Jusco, the mall here, and every time i went inside the department store, the workers would tell me over and over again that I couldn't be there...that I didn't have a pass... that i had to leave. and i had to sneak in, and pretend to be part of them, but it would only last so long before they'd realize it and kick me out. I was allowed to go anywhere outside without hassle, but i didn't want to be outside, i wanted to be inside, like everyone else, and i couldn't understand why they wouldn't let me.

i woke up at least 3 times and went back to this dream...it was awfully frustrating! the last one ended with me giving up and walking back to my dorm {{scene change}} and i'm at bard, walking though the paths at night, but all the streetlights are off and i can't see anything. and i notice there are people near me, and i'm approaching them. once i realize their not going to hurt me, that they're just college students like myself, i go up to them and try to explain what's wrong...but nothing comes out of my mouth. and they just look at me with a straight face and then walk away.
{{end dream sequence}}
I'm pretty confident these were reflections of communication frustrations. It's hard being in a place where I can only express myself at the level of a 5-year-old. It took getting up, walking around, and talking some sense into my brain before I could sleep peacefully.

Right now Bao Bao's across the room playing computer games, probably for the first time ever. She doesn't have a lot of fun in her life because she's constantly plagued by her parents' concern and disapproval. She worries so much about her test scores and making them happy... it's a little disturbing...but i've noticed it's also very chinese. I have so much to learn about this culture...
posted by sarah 12:38 AM