"Can I do your friends?"

This is the question that was emailed to me by one of my more ambitious students. I know she meant "can I be your friend?" but I couldn't resist posting her innocent mistranslation. Right now in classes we are making English names, which in itself is proving to be a bit chaotic. There are so many Tims and Toms and Kens that I'm tripping over them. I also have a Superman, Sugars, and a Mat (one T, she's also a girl and one of my favs cuz she's a little awkward).

I expected my websites to be attacked when I got back from the holiday because I wasn't online all weekend. I was correct! I do not have internet in my apartment, which I am dealing with - it's one of those things that they say they will fix sometime this week, but I'm sure when they show up I'm not there, and they don't call me. Chinese people taught the Sears repair guys how to do this I know it.

Friday night I went over to my contact teacher (Helen)'s house to have dinner with her family. This little event proved to be.......awwwwkwwward to say the least. Not only did none of them speak English (well her daughter did I found out later but she chose not to for the first half hour) but there was a disturbance when Helen's sister's daughter (her niece) hadn't come home. So mom and aunty went out to look for the girl while I stayed behind with the "not-talking-to-me-daughter" and the "stare-at-you-blankly-grandparents" and of course eat the soup in front of me (which must have been some sort of brain material albeit it was pretty good with tomatoes). The niece returned first, saying that she was at school. I tried to talk to her but she refused (EVEN though she was in one of my classes) she was just that shy. Then the aunt returned and Helen called to say that she was bringing over the girl's head teacher.
Now, each class has a head teacher of that specific grade. Sort of like their homeroom teacher only worse. The niece almost broke down into tears. The poor thing was so scared. Helen returned with not only the head teacher but also three of her former students (who now go to Bao'an middle school where Katie and Amy teach). We all spoke a little English and after dinner Helen showed us her very lovely apartment. It was 2-3 stories with a garden on the roof - so lovely. After that we watched Chinese soap operas for a while and ate Dragon fruit - which was mostly just a less sweet kind of melon with a ton of little seeds. Comes from Tailand. Then she drove myself and the head teacher home. It all felt like there was some big joke that I wasn't let in on. Not a lonely feeling, just that I missed something. Of course this is generally how a foreign person feels in China all the time.

Saturday I was told that Mr. Huang (the vice principal) and his daughter would pick me up around 3. In China (as with Sears' repairmen) 3:00pm means anywhere from 2-6. So around 5:15pm I got a very frantic call, first in Chinese, then in English from his daughter saying that they were at the gate to meet me. As much as I was annoyed with waiting around so long, I enjoyed this visit much more. Apparently I was the first foreign person that the Huang family had had in their home and they were all very excited even though Mr. and Mrs. Huang spoke no English. Jenny (their daughter) had come home on holiday from Shenzhen University and her English was very welcome especially after Friday night. Many of you (especially mom) will be excited to hear that she picked up much of her English colloquialisms from watching none other than "Friends". Apparently they are obsessed with the show here, although I don't think they understand the finer jokes such as ("The humas, I got the humas." and "Got keys?" which even the Americans fail to catch when I say it). Jenny spent much of the time talking to me about movies, and showing me pictures of her many travels around China. Her father also brought out his photos and showed me his travels around Europe. He is a very cute man and is always making funny poses in the photos. Cute sense of humor. I also couldn't help giggling at the mother's expression, because it never changed from photo to photo. She had this look of uncomfortableness mixed with wonder and also looked like she might be sick in a moment. I loved how she had this same face in every photo. Cracked me up.
The food - I was told - was traditional Guangdong food (this is the larger province in which the city of Shenzhen is in) It consisted of Tofu (both fried and boiled) soup, shrimp (heads and legs attached), greens, and chicken. Afterwards we had the most bitter tea I've ever had and some grapes and bitty apples. Like literally apples the size of grapes. They had me try my hand at calligraphy, which I am horrible at, but I got a small applause for my attempt. Mr Huang is a fan of calligraphy and is wonderful at it. It's probably why there are so many characters in Jenny (Huang Jia Yu)'s name, because he wanted to write them all. I listened to Jenny play the Guzhen which is basically a Chinese harp that lays down. It sounded like the backdrop from every classical Chinese movie I've ever watched, so pretty.
To add to everything that they had shared with me that evening these sweet people also gave me gifts (which was sweet and completely unnecessary and made me glad I brought them some extra moon cake that I had extra of from teacher's day). They gave me a box of Belgium chocolate which I have yet to open, and a pashmena (which of course no one got the Friends reference but me again) and a little red Chinese good luck charm. I hope it works, I'm going to need luck this year I'm sure.

Sunday. Sunday I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I had been invited by so many teachers to watch the Moon Viewing. But then I learned that the Moon Viewing party was mostly for single teachers. Yes I am friends with many of these teachers, but I realized that would mean single men drunk and falling out of their chairs trying to put together simple English sentences to talk to me....while drunk. I had originally invited my group of friends to come with me but they all backed out when they told me that Rachel (the coordinator who lives in our area) was having a get together in Nanshan. So I had a decision to make(go alone but celebrate the moon viewing festival with drunken Chinese teachers or go to Nanshan with a bunch of Americans and not celebrate the holiday but mostly drink). I chose the latter and while I'm sure it was the better idea in retrospect I wasn't happy about it while I was there. (The only time I was happy was when I was dancing because people were quiet) While some of these people I tend to get along with very well, others and I clash at the strangest times. Granted I understand where they are coming from, and they are quite due their opinion, I am also due to mine. However mine is frequently ignored. When we met some returning teachers I blatantly stated that I was the nicest of the three girls. It was a joke of course but they immediately jumped all over it. Of the four girls this is not true, but of the three girls this is very true, I think. I can't explain it without going into specific details and possibly hurting the feelings of those who may read this but in certain aspects it rings true. I do not make people feel bad about themselves because it makes me feel better. I do not put down customs that I am unfamiliar with because they are different from my own.
I don't know, it's been getting me down a little lately - the ignorance of people. When it does I think about all of the good things that I have here. I have the friends who I can talk to, I have the new Chinese friends that I am making, and I have friends and family at home who care about me very much. So when these people say their rude and uncaring remarks or act like they're better than everyone else, I just put the cotton in my ears. Or I pull the Chinese card and smile and nod - always works.

But I will stray away from things that make me blue and focus on the things that make me smile.
Monday, yesterday, was one of my favorite days so far. My friend, Benny, one of the first teachers in the school to make friends with me, offered to take me out and show me around the city. Let me explain Benny. He is short (duh, Chinese) and sweet, with a really good sense of humor as far as Chinese humor goes. He is the teacher for classes 7 and 4 and they all really adore him. I remember my male teachers were my favorites in school and because it was so rare to have one for a language class, they always brought a new sense of humor and fun to the classes. Perfect examples are Cooper sensei, Langlois sensei, and Nakao sensei. So I'm sure that's why they adore him. In a small and horribly stereotypical way he reminds me of Jackie Chan. I think it is the fact that he is always smiling, always laughing. I like it.
He took me to his favorite Chinese restaurant and ordered way too much food (which is just what they do here, I've decided.) Seriously the phrase "there are starving kids in China" is totally false. They waste more food than we do! But honestly the food was great - dumplings and porridge and cucumber salad and tea. So good, in fact, we went to the same restaurant for both lunch and dinner! The best part was when the power went out "candle light dinner" so cute, except when the girl at first basically put the tiny church candle on the table, not supported by anything, and then proceeded to stick it the top of a bottle of liquor. Have these people never heard of the maltov cocktail? Seriously. In between giant meals we went walking around the streets, attempting to find stores that sold English books, with the result of a teeny corner in the largest bookstore in the area (4 stories!) mostly classic fiction and Shakespeare. He also showed me a little gorgeous park right in the middle of the city of Bao'an. Now Bao'an reminds me of a blend of Chicago and Detroit - more Chicago, so a quiet little park is a welcoming find. There were areas to sit and watch the water, or run and play, and there was even an area to roller skate. That's right a roller rink in the middle of China. It's so junior high school. In fact, the whole day was very Junior High school. Walking and talking and eating and making conversation. His English is one of the best here in my opinion so it wasn't just simple sentences (we were talking about American politics and economy at one point) and it was nice to talk to someone with a positive perspective on things rather than the mumblings and grumblings of foreigners. Late into the evening we went to karaoke which was...an...interesting experience to say the least. What I will say about it that it was the first time I've ever all out sang in front of someone and I got a pretty decent response (gahhhhh still embarrassed thinking about it!) Definitely brightened me up after the "gwoomy" feelings of Sunday. Sorry Joel I had to steal Eddison's word cuz it's perfect. The events of yesterday have put me in a smiling mood all day.

To add another piece of news that happened today. Brendon Albertson has been found. The prodigal son of the "group of 7" has finally responded to me and I know where he is. I'm glad because with Randy gone I kind of lost my person in a way. Anyone who's watched Grey's Anatomy can explain that one to you. You have your group of friends, but then you have that one person that you can talk to about everything else. I usually have a guy for that because I think they are more down to earth than girls. So all in all I am excited. This week has started out rather lucky. Maybe it's because of Mr. Huang's red luck charm. Maybe it's the spirit of Mao Zedong that haunts China. Maybe it's just me.

'Til then