There are two issues that any westerner considering spending part of their life in China must be aware of. The first is the driving, I have alluded to the suicide taxi rides in the past, I will elaborate; the second is the practice of trying to drink the guest under the table.
The driving I will discuss in more detail as I describe the visit to the high school. The second I will also discuss in that trip; however, it is common to many of the formal dinners that we have had in China. It seems to be a bit of a game here to try to get the guest drunk. This is accomplished by a plenitude of toasts directed toward the guest followed by the, ever common, "bottoms up." There is an expectation that the guest will down the entire drink, along with the host, that is, generally, some form of vodka. However, one must consider that there are, generally, at least four hosts to each guest; thus outnumbered, the guest will generally loose this game.
Following our return from the park, and an afternoon of rest, several of the teachers met for dinner. Instead of going to one of the usual places, we allowed some of the students that were with us to make a selection.
They chose a small restaurant. However, this restaurant did not have an upstairs dining room. So, instead of eating inside of the main, and public, dining room, at the restaurant, we had our tables and chairs set up on the sidewalk in front.
The next afternoon, on Sunday, I went for another of my long bicycle rides. I followed the route that the bus generally takes into town, stopping at a store near the base in order to get some shoes and to price a pair of boots. I then rode into the main part of town and past the point where the bus turns. This route took me to the opposite side of Xinyang City. At that point I turned back and rode, following a very indirect route, back to a bookstore that I had seen earlier in the week.
The thing that I had noticed about this bookstore was that the signage was in English. It was clearly marked as a bookstore. I was interested, considering that they had taken the trouble to put up an English sign, if there would be a good selection of English books. This was in no way a sure thing, considering that many of the buildings sport English signage; however, it was definitely worth checking.
I had first seen the bookstore when Michelle and I were returning with our new bicycles. However, at the time it was not convenient to stop so I simply filed it away, mentally, as a place to return to. I am reaching the point where I can, generally, go to the places that I want to within Xinyang. Riding around on my bicycle, instead of relying on cabs and buses, has definitely helped me in learning the town.
In the bookstore I discovered that the English selection was very limited. There was one, small, wall that contained about a dozen older works and texts. All of the books were clearly intended to help the reader learn English language and culture. An example of this would be Mark Twain's book, "The 1,000,000 Pound Note." The book contained the story along with study exercises and insert pages describing clothing in the 1870s and how they differ from common western clothing today.
From there I went to the computer shop where I had gotten my power adapter several weeks prior. I needed a particular computer part (it didn't do what I wanted; however, I wanted to try) and while the shop owner ran to get what I wanted I sat, in the shop, and had the tea that was brought to me. They also provided me with an extra network cable at no additional charge.
From there I returned to the bicycle shop and had my brakes adjusted. They were not working well and I was able to show this to the people at the shop by holding the brakes and moving the bicycle forward. By doing this I demonstrated that the brakes were not holding, thus stopping, the bicycle. Having recently purchased the bicycle, this maintenance was preformed at no charge (cable adjustments are normal after a bicycle has been ridden a while initially following purchase).
From the bike shop I continued riding around town making semi-random turns that took me through several plazas. I then followed the road that runs along the river that is near the campus. This road sees very little traffic and runs next to several parks including one that we had previously taken pictures at when Zeneta and I visited it with Summer and some other students. There is an alleyway that runs between this road and the road that is in front of the campus. This alleyway ends almost directly across the street from the main gate of the school and is how I returned to the housing area.
On Wednesday my routine was altered somewhat. Normally, I show a movie for my students. However, I, and the other English teachers, were invited to dinner. So, I did not stick around a watch the movie with the students. Instead, I showed them how to operate the projection equipment, and I ran off.
The source of the dinner was rather unexpected. It turned out the Colin was asked to be in an advertisement for a furniture store here in Xinyang. As a way of thanking him, the English teachers were invited to dinner at one of the nicer restaurants here in town.
With us, the western teachers, there were also several nonwestern English teachers, the director of teaching, the chair of the colleges board of directors and his sister, the director of the finance department. There was also the host and his immediate family.
We started the evening by watching Colin's commercial. In it he spoke Chinese. He had been thoroughly coached on the lines that were necessary.
After the showing of the commercial, and some time spent chatting, we had dinner. Wendy, one of the teachers, sat next to me in order to insure that I did not do anything to embarrass myself. Her advice consisted of translation, telling me which foods were to be eaten with which utensil, how to properly respond to toasts, and the like. She has assisted me at several formal dinners and has also been a great help at work. She teaches one of my classes (fifth class) in their grammar class. She has reported that my students enjoy my class and consider it to be of great value for them, which is something that I was glad to hear.
The dinner was the typical Chinese arrangement with a large round table with a large rotating platform in the center of the table. The platters are then placed on the rotating centerpiece. Each person then takes a small portion off of the platters and eats it. There is a small bowl that is used for soup and most of the other food is eaten with chopsticks.
Later in the evening we were served some small crabs. It seems that these freshwater crabs are served as a token of esteem and are considered to be delicious.
After the dinner we all stood for pictures. The way that we managed to get the entire party into the picture was to have the waitress operate the camera. At that point, the drive home was provided by the chairman of the board in his Volvo wagon. Zeneta and one other rode in the back, Wendy and three other English teachers (yes, that is a total of four) rode on the middle seat and I rode in front. It turned out that the director is a great fan of western classical music and has a great investment in high-end audiophile equipment (I have to compliment Wendy for translating from the center seat, with someone sitting on her lap, while speeding through Chinese traffic at night).
Thursday I had arranged to have dinner, after English club, with two of my students. On of these was Warlik, whom we have invited for dinner in the past, and Mary, a student who had asked me a question after class. On our previous dinners with Warlik Zeneta has assisted him with some of his English poetry and he has given me permission to include his work here, in my blog.
The Lord Of The Ring
--Light the Dawn
Highly stand you at the top of the mountain
Surveying the starry sky of hometown far away
May be you could have fall in sleep now
But the duty on your shoulder makes you forget the tired
How sad the eyes in the darkness
And the undiscribed pain floated little by little
Who will hold your hand
Go along with you even the future is unknown
God won't leave you
And your weak heart will go longer feel lonely
Stars will round you
Even comes the dark clouds and the heavily snow
Gently breeze whispered
Take your missing to the friends in the hometown
Received the regards from there
The voice of storm are not so terrific
Stars glaring your journey
The earth welcome you with her broad chest
You buried your own happiness
In order to light the dying candle of the mankind
You get on the way far from home
You get on the way full of danger
You never be hesitated although the road is rough
You never afraid of the great length of return journey although back may become
A dream that will never come true
But your faith will lead your direction to go ahead
And your heart will never lost in puzzle
Only you
Fighting with the difficulties
Debate the chanllenges with your wisdom
With the weak shoulder you carried the heaviest duty
The duty to save the world
Your beautiful wish is to built a bridge
Between the painful reality and the wonderful paradise
The songs from your heart heard happily
Your faith will lead you sailing to the dawn
Lofty mountains murmured under your feet
And the fate lead you to the highest height you ever touch
Difficulties ,sadness, loneness and the lure
Everything you conquered as they are just weeds
You'll surely go ahead
For the old men in the ruins calls for your determination
For the women and children crying for their helpless calls for your hope
You'll sure go ahead
Although the road full of horrible storm and heavily blow
But the colorful clouds will make up your destination
And every waiting for your return to crown you
Every bloody track will blossom flower after enter the heaven
The thing hidden in the frightened shaking every time is a beautiful
Forget the under feet thorn and
Stare at the starry sky upon to go ahead
The running river will guide your way
And the flower in the shadow of the trees' will mark your road
Carry on with the friendship ,sincerity and trust
What go away is the passed sadness
The wonderful world you'll see in dawn is created by yourself
Zeneta also arranged to go shopping with Mary. It seems that Zeneta has had trouble finding pants here, in China. Mary told her that she knew of places that would suit her, both in size and in style. My only concern was that she would not miss any classes to assist Zeneta.
This is a problem; the students will cut a class in order to assist us in activities in order to spend the time practicing their English. While I have no doubt that it is a productive use of the student s time, I cannot condone or assist any cutting of class. It turned out that she did not have any classes on the Friday afternoon that she had scheduled to spend with Zeneta and even had the class monitor with her when they went to go shopping with Zeneta.
Friday morning we, Zeneta, Colin and Bronee, and myself were asked to do something different by Mr. Lu and Mr. Zhang. It seems that they had been contacted by one of their former students, who was now the headmaster of a local middle and senior high school. They were asked if we could come and speak to the students at their school and they, in turn, asked us.
We were all glad to go and speak at the school and assembled at the main gate
One of the biggest things that bothers westerners with the driving is the amount of the time spent on the wrong side of the road; There is the constant expectation that the other driver will dodge. These drivers were no exception. There was the constant passing people by entering the opposing traffic on the four lane road with a double line. Our drivers often found themselves on the wrong side of the road on sections of divided roadway and this is considered normal. The driver will just hug the right (the dividing wall) and keep on going. This is clearly so common here that when we passed a police officer while traveling above the speed limit by over 50% and on the wrong side of a divided road we did not even warrant a glance.
We have adopted the local attitude of fatalism, if the driver kills us then it was our time and if he doesn't then clearly it just was not our time. However, this driving practice is something that a newcomer must be mentally prepared for. It can be a bit unnerving to be in a car that is driven off the road to pass someone on the right; at above highway speeds, or to be passing a lorry that is passing a lorry (leaving you in the #2 opposing lane) with two lanes of traffic ahead and closing fast.
Upon arriving at the town where we were scheduled to speak we turned off of the highway and entered a small town that looked like what we expected; when we agreed to the assignment of the school, that we are now at, we were told that we would be in a small town. This was a town with very few cars on the, often unpaved, streets that were shared with horse drawn carts and lorries with a families riding atop the load of goods in the rear.
We pulled into the main gate of what was, clearly, the most modern and well-kept building in town. Before we even exited the autos we saw what was one of the most surprising differences (however, not the greatest difference) between American and Chinese middle schools (ages 11-17). What we saw was dormitories. Both the students and the teachers (along with most of the administrators and staff) live on campus. There are small shops on campus to supply the students, a canteen, apartments for the staff and faculty, and separate dormitories for the male and female students.
The teaching building itself was a relatively new building, having been built only two years ago. It was a large square with an open central courtyard. In the center of the courtyard was a large water fountain with coy in the moat that was bridged at four places. On three sides were the fifty classrooms; on the side furthest from, and facing, the entrance was the administrative area and the teachers' offices. Each teacher's office was a shared office with six to eight teachers.
This school had over 4,000 students and a combined staff and faculty of about 300. This provided for an excellent student teacher ratio, in terms of schools in China, of approximately seventy students per teacher.
Throughout our entire time at the school we were being video taped by what I suspect were various local news crews and school personnel. They moved from room to room to insure that they recorded some of each of the teachers providing lessons to the students.
I discussed the differences, which I have observed, between American and Chinese schools. I ended up delivering the same lecture three times with it being cut short in one class.
The reason that I was cut short was due to an underhanded trick played by one of the teachers in order to get me into her classroom. I definitely compliment her on her ingenuity and recognize that she was a woman who was willing to go the extra mile for her students.
As I was near the end of my lecture in one class, the first I spoke to, she handed Zeneta and I water bottles and told me to follow her when the bell rang. I did this, not being aware that her class was not the one I was supposed to be going to. I entered her class unaware that there was a fight about to break out between this teacher and the teacher whose class I had been scheduled to go to. They discussed it in the hall so that it would not interfere with my lecture. However, once Zeneta discovered what was going on she called to me that I had to cut this one to no more than five minutes. This compromise satisfied both teachers. It meant that I would not walk out on the class whose teacher had been so enterprising, in providing her students the first chance of their lives to see and hear a foreigner, and that I would still be able to go the class that I had been scheduled to speak in.
While she did not speak to any of the classes, Zeneta was kept busy managing my schedule, which was being developed on the fly. It is interesting that Bronee was doing almost the same thing for Colin as he was also making his presentation before several classes. We really did enjoy the rock star treatment as hundreds of teenagers came to us requesting autographs. Just before the lunch bell rang we were taken to the, waiting, cars so that we would not be blocked in by, literally, thousands of students, all wanting to see and speak to us.
From there we went to a local restaurant for a large lunch with the school vice president, the headmaster, and the teachers for whose classes we had been scheduled to provide lectures. Also present was the party that had accompanied us from the University.
I spent some time before lunch talking to the teacher who was still a bit upset about having me led to a class other than hers when she had been next on the schedule. The time I spent talking with her helped her practice her English and appeared to go a long way to smoothing any ruffled feathers.
The lunch was a typical Chinese business lunch with only one difference; the drink of choice was excellent quality vodka. The food was a typical Chinese fare with a bias, based on our request, toward beef instead of pork. There were still the traditional fish and chicken dishes. Both of these dishes were served complete with head.
After the lunch we were provided with excellent, and unexpected, gifts from the school. In all, it was an unexpectedly good time; even if I did spend the later part of the afternoon in my flat, sleeping off lunch.
