3/16/10 8:25 AM
Pretty awesome freakin day.
The Germans came here, which is sort of interesting. They're mostly keeping to themselves and grouping together awkwardly, but somehow snobbily. Which isn't all that bad. I'm reminded that I'm actually doing pretty well for myself here.
The day is nice and warm, so we played outside a lot. We played volleyball with the gym teachers and maybe 10 other girls who wanted to play. There are very distinct lines drawn between "girl sports" and "guy sports," which I thought just sort of came about naturally, like it does back home. But it seems like there is a school rule or general policy taught by the teachers that "girls should play this, guys should play that." Which is unfortunate. The lines are occasionally broken, but mostly by guys treading into girls sports territory, and not the other way around. I think Ping-pong is the only culturally neutral sport, even though it is largely dominated by dude players. It's so hot I didn't want all 14 bajillion layers on me, so I was running around with just my t-shirt (I'm trying to make this as G-rated as possible, but describing taking off layers will always have some raunchy undertones), having taken off all them hot layers, which I haven't done in a long time (but is my go-to, bread and butter sort of dress at home, so it was good to get back to it. I feel sort of stuffy and languid and things when I have so many layers on.) I'm feeling relaxed and on top of it all. In my element.
People call me "Shuai ge" behind my back, apparently, which means something like "cool guy," but I choose to translate it to "Fonzie."
(I started reading Fonzie-related articles on Wikipedia, and got to this. Enjoy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thums_Up)
German kids are alright, I guess, but are sort of snobby to people, in general? Jason, Hannah, Malia, and I all sort of arrived at this conclusion separately but near simultaneously. The first question I got asked by one of the kids was, "can I shop around here?" To which my mouth replied, "yes," to which my head replied, "'Culture,' where are you?"
There's so much more to do and see and learn here, but I wonder if people actually realize this? Do most people treat these trips as vacations for their own benefit, or wonderful and rare cultural excursions? I mean, not that I'm taking advantage of every second of my time here, or that I'm not succumbing to the occasional tourist trope, but I like to think I'm absorbing what I can.
I realized the other day that Briggs' blog, ya know, my teacher in this whole box social of a trip (which is just not how this is supposed to be used, I don't think, but I remember that one Simpsons episode [yeah Dad, I know you remember that one] where it's mentioned, and so I'm going with it) compliments my blog well. I go on rants about chopsticks and umbrella etiquette, while Briggs does a good job of chronicling what we have actually done. Which I don't do all that much. So, I know it's sort of a cop-out, and that I'm going to (really, actually) start telling what I've actually been doing over here, but for now, it makes for good further reading. http://BriggsChronicles.blogspot.com
A link can always be found on the top right of this page. There is also the group blog over there, but that isn't very interesting. (Sorry, people who expected that to be productive. We're investing so much of our energies into homeworks/personal blogs/awesome cultural experiences that there is rarely enough time to workshop a blog post together. Again, a subtle combination of Briggs' and my blog should do the trick, for those interested in the trip. Hannah's and Malia's [apparently infrequently updated?] blogs to be linked up there shortly).
I can pick up two beans at once with chopsticks. Stacked, like this: |00|, with one bean pressing against the other. By the end of the trip I hope to play ping pong with a chopstick or two.
Thanks, all you guys who've been commenting. I would like to write back to you, but the way proxies and The Great FireWall of China (so called) work seem not to let me do this. But I get all of them, and it's always good to hear from you.
Anyway. I should probably update you on my weekend doings, before I have another weekend full of stuff to talk about, cuz then we'll both be screwed.
Oh, quick cultural note. The American phrase "What's up," when said quickly and casually as kids these days are wont to do, can sound uncannily like "I f**cked your mother" in Mandarin. No joke.
Anyway. Saturday we went to Qi Bao, which is a cool market couple of streets, and has its roots in some snazzy history something or other that no one seems to really care about anymore. But it's a must-see marketplace sort of thing, and is jam packed with people, all the time. Briggs and I went on the same day and didn't see each once during the four or five hours we were occupying the same couple of streets. Even though we both have hello-I-am-a-foreigner sort of hair (onto which even I can latch in the streets and things. You seem to be constantly aware of foreigners, whenever they're around. Which is a great thing to think too much about.) We took a boat tour up and down a nice little stretch of the river, which was nice. There are bridges that are just as awesome as you'd want them to be. The bustling activity on the side streets that overlook the river and the crampededness of the boat gives it a great sort of mixture of isolation and busyness, which is a fairly common feeling, nowadays. Squeezing into the subway, contrasted with laying on the couch in the apartment, with the sounds of the city constantly pouring in. I'm sleeping wonderfully, by the way, which is weird, considering the absolutely unbroken mist of city sounds. Taking lessons in an empty classroom meant for 40; chilling out in our room, which we call "the office;" playing volleyball with just a couple of kids, with basically the rest of the school watching from the windows; being immersed in some sort of beautiful surroundings, like Hangzhou's West Lake or Lingyin temple, or a painting, or the majestic buildings around me. There are so many moments of tuning things out and being yourself, moments of recognizing everything at once and losing any sense of identity.
I saw a little girl shitting into a box on the street today. Jokes about "going to the box" aren't going away any time soon.
I was sorely tempted to buy the first 3 seasons of "Man vs. Wild" for about 11 US bucks, but I'm gonna wait on it. Got some awesome live band DVDs instead, some of which are gifts, so I'm not sayin' who! (which, now that I've tried 'em, may or may not work, so I'm really not gonna say who!)
Anyway. After QiBao we went to the Sports Park, (dunno the official name), but it was awesome. It was basically a place where a bunch of people could go and hang out and run and bike and walk and boat and rollerblade around, with a bunch of different paths and rentable equipment and things like that. It was crazy cool. Something like that just wouldn't work in America. No one would go. I mean, there is a huge demand for something like that generated by the sheer denseness of the apartment/legitimate business parts of the city, so it works out. But even if the same holds true for some American cities, I'm sure there wouldn't be that many people there, even on a great day, which Saturday wasn't. Anyway, we drove around a 4-person bike-car, where we all pedaled in our seats and Naiyi steered (store?) us around. Hills didn't like us. Inertia, man. The only brake was an oddly placed and oddly sensitive hand brake, so there was the occasion this-thing-better-not-tip-over-when-we-go-down-this-hill-because-I-don't-know-if-my-right-hip-is-up-for-it moment, but I got out of the thing with only my breath missing. (zing!) Then we went on a pedalboat (or is it a paddleboat? Word likes "paddle," but "pedal" is more accurate) onto the lake, which was the first time I've actually had fun on a pedalboat. Just Naiyi and I and his "sister," who I don't think is actually his sister, but a cousin, but I'm not sure how to ask and I'm not sure he knows how to respond. And then we ate at this awesome place, which apparently served food in the style of Mongolian Hot Pot, but has a better and I'm sure more descriptive name in Mandarin, which is probably lost on most of you, anyway. Oh wait, it's called "huo guo," which translates to "fire pot." Okay, never mind, just have some Wikipedia instead. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pot
We basically had an awesome pot of really hot water in the middle of the table, and we stuck things in there and cooked it a bunch. Delicious and tons of fun, and "fei chung bao le"-inducing. (remember what that means? I translate it to "state of extreme fullness," but more literally it's just "extremely full," I think). This is most of what prompted me to write that community-based-eating bit from the last post, or so. How people would be like, try some of this! And would hold it under the water for a sec, cooking you some beef, and pop it into your bowl. And that was awesome.
Then the next day, we left real early (good thing I knew ahead of time [… Borat …] … NOT!) to go to Hangzhou, which was thoroughly amazing. It's basically a really beautiful city 2.5 or so hours from Shanghai, that produces some of the best teas in the world and is home to China's most famous temple, Ling Yin Si (Si just meaning temple). Man. Perhaps the highlight of my trip so far. Where do I begin? (Guess nowhere. Gotta go do something. Sleep, specifically. I'll get to it later.)
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