Dinner Invitations

Since being at our new school we have been taken out to dinner and lunch several times by the principals and the teachers here so we decided to make an American dinner for the principals and our FAO. We were able to find Spaghetti sauce and noodles in Hanzhong so that was to be our American meal. The two vice principals and our FAO were the only ones able to attend. The principal was in Beijing for the week on business. We schedule the dinner for a Friday night knowing that they would only have an hour or so to spend with us before having to get back class (yes, the do teach class on Friday night).

Our FAO seemed extremely excited to hear that we were inviting them over for dinner. We bought wine and buns to go with our spaghetti and were ready to serve a proper spaghetti dinner. They arrived and we poured the wine and served the food. They all complained about the large portion they received being sure that they wouldn't be able to eat it all. The two vice principals ate their bowls clean and our FAO finished most of his. They seemed to like the spaghetti but they didn't touch the buns and I had a feeling they weren't enjoying the wine. I offered something else but being Chinese they would not take it. I caught the two vice principals chatting in Chinese and looking at the wine so I called them on the fact that they didn't like it. My FAO almost spit out his food and relayed what I had said to the vice principals. They gave a nervous laugh and just kept eating.

I may not know Chinese but I can read faces and body language quite well. My FAO was very surprised at the fact that I could pick that up. I told them that it is not offensive to say that you don't like something. I didn't make the wine and I don't care if they don't like it. As for the spaghetti, I can only assume they liked it.

The most enjoyable part of the night was watching them eat spaghetti with a fork. We had a little tutorial on how to stab and spin the spaghetti with the fork which they didn't really follow but they managed none the less. As a parting gift we gave them the forks to take home and told them they must bring them back the next time they are over for dinner. It was a fun dinner and Michelle and I got to finish the bottle of wine to ourselves once they had left.

Dinner Invitations: Part 2

Since I have been here I have been invited to 3 of the teachers homes for dinner. The first is the middle school history teacher, Miss Meng. She just graduated from school and can speak a little English. She invited me to eat at her parents house. Unmarried Chinese women live at home with their parents. Her parents live on the outside of town so we made the 20 minute bike ride to get there after school on a Friday. The house was two stories but only the top floor was livable. The bottom floor was used for storage. Cement floors, white walls, a TV and wooden furniture. Surrounding the house were fields belonging to her family and the families around them. They grow vegetables to eat. Her parents did not speak English but were very nice. Her mother cooked dinner, several different dishes, and I liked them all.

Next thing, her uncle and aunt show up to of course "see the American". Her uncle was a little creepy and kept asking questions about America, politics, human rights, and other shit that there was no way in hell I was going to talk about with him. I played the "ting boo dong" (I hear you but don't understand) card and just avoided all talk with him. It is a funny thing with Chinese people, they can ask you anything they want but you can not ask them the same questions they ask you. Minus the Chinese inquisition, it was a wonderful evening.

I was also invited to my FAO's home for dinner the day our spaghetti dinner. The Chinese can't let you have one up on them for long. Michelle had left for Hanzhong early in the morning so it was just me attending this dinner. The Senior 1 English teacher, Addison, was also coming along. We arrived at what looked like a giant, run down, apartment building. His apartment was on the fourth floor, that was a fun walk. But the second you walked inside it looked beautiful, nothing like the outside. Light colored woodwork, blue walls, wood floor, nice furniture. It was a total 180 for the outside. I met his wife and his daughter. We (FAO, Addison, and I) sat and talked while his wife and daughter made dinner. We ate cold dishes first. One was fried tofu strips which was good, some cold sweet potato cakes which were okay, some kind of root that was not good, and some mushroom dish that was disgusting. It was slimy and it got stuck in your throat, I almost threw up. Then it was on to the hot dish, DUMPLINGS!! You can't go wrong with dumplings. They were very good, one of the best boiled dumplings I have had yet. After dinner we listened to American and Chinese music and I got to see my FAO's knife collections. He enjoys collecting pocket, folding, and hunting knives. I also got the inside scoop and the gossip about the school and the staff. Very insightful evening. I was also made aware that Michelle and I would be invited to one of the teachers weddings if and when her parents accept her boyfriend. I think that will be very interesting. Hopefully it be official soon.

My third and final dinner was with one of the middle school teachers, Lao Han. Lao meaning old and Han being his surname. He is the only teacher that calls me by my Chinese name. He speaks no English and I was hanging out in the office one day and everyone was talking about eating and he asked me to dinner. Then he asked what I would like to eat and of course being the smart ass that I am I said I would like hamburgers. This resulted in a roar of laughter from the other teachers and he just hung his head and smiled. I figure it never hurts to ask. So I said dumplings instead. So the next night I went to his "apartment" which he lives in at the school (most teachers have one at the school cause most live outside the town and since they are here from ding to dong they need somewhere to stay). This is a one room, cement floor, shit hole. He had a bed, a TV, all of his stuff was everywhere. His wife had come to school to cook for us (Michelle, FAO, and I). She cooked on a burner attached to a gas can in the "apartment". We sat on the bed and used a desk for the table. We were quite a clusterfuck. Again the food was amazing but way too much. They cook for an army and expect that you will eat it all. The conversation was a little lacking but Lao Han is a funny guy and his wife seemed very sweet. Overall a good dinner.

I am sure there will be more invitations and more interesting dinners to come and I look forward to them and the free, home cooked food!!

Chinese Lessons and My New Name

I started my Chinese lessons this week. Twice a week for 40 minutes. We have almost made it through the pronunciation of the letters. I am not kidding. I think it is harder to pronounce the letters than to figure out the tones. Some are very similar to English and other make no sense at all. It basically consists of us entertaining the Chinese teachers with our horrible pronunciation. Of course it's not as bad as I make it seem. I am progressing and the teachers think I can say things very well. Hopefully by the end of this I will speak proficient Chinese. I keep telling them that the teachers will be speaking English and I will be speaking Chinese and then we can talk "Chinglish" with each other.

I also received a Chinese name from my FAO. Xiao Mei = Sho May. Xiao means young and Mei is a flower that blooms in the winter and is one for the four very prized flowers in China. So I am official Chinese now, I have been inducted. It is and isn't a big deal at the same time. They do not call me by it yet but maybe they will start, I don't know.

Bike Ride from Hell!!

As you may or may not know our schools are supposed to provide us with a bike to get around town on. Let me say again, these bikes are for us to use around town, they are one-speed, Dorothy Gale of Oz bikes, not mountain bikes, there are no shocks, no changing gears, 1/2 inch tires, and they have baskets on the front, bikes. So our FAO has the brilliant idea of asking us to go for a bike ride in the country side. GREAT!!! So we go at 10am on our unexpected day off. It was very interesting, it was beautiful, but it was biking in the country on a city bike!!

We were in the farming area. Lots of field which were interesting to look at and to see the irrigation system. They farm in tiers with ditches cut through and around the fields.

This is black rice which is apparent popular here but I haven't had or seen any.

There are oxen/cows that do all the plowing. They are all over.

There is just field after field. All divided by different plants.

Can I eat that for dinner instead of rice or noodles please!!!!!!!

This was the hill from hell! It rivals St.Paul! These are the 3 students that came with us. The FAO's daughter, her friend and one of the 9th grade boys who never goes home because his parents work in Shanghai. Very sad story, but a super sweet kid.

But the view was awesome

Story time: We biked for 4 hours. It was exhausting. Up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill. I don't claim to have the patients of a saint but the two little girls had been screwing around the entire trip. So we were going up a hill and I was trying to keep my momentum up when my FAO's daughter decides to stop pedalling, right in front of me. I had two choices: Nail her and knock her on her ass or ditch and lay down my bike along with myself. Being the noble and self-sacrificing person I am, I laid down my bike which resulted in me crashing down. I scraped up my elbow and my knee. My elbow was bleeding and my knee instantly bruised. I wanted to punch her in the head. Now this was half way through the trip so I got to go 2 hours with my knee throbbing and my elbow bleeding.

Needless to say, I will not being going to the countryside anytime soon and my ass hurt so bad from sitting on that seat that I didn't get on my bike for a few days. ONLY IN CHINA!!

Sports Day!!

Apparently every school has a Sports Day, which is actually a day and a half of track and field events. The students compete against each other. There is no other schools that come to compete. So I had the pleasure of attending this event which began on a Friday at 8am (I didn't get there til 10am!). It was a cold, cloudy day but it wasn't raining so the competition was going to happen.

This was the announcers booth. The only spoke in Chinese so I really paid no attention to them.

These are pictures of the kids. These are my 8th grade boys.

These are 5th and 6th graders. I don't teach them.

These are Senior 2 boys (11th graders).

9th grade boys.

7th grade boys

This picture was taken purely for the cuteness factor. And yes they all always wear their little red jumpsuits. Too cute!

9th grade boys and girls

7th grade girls.

Senior 2.

This was hysterical. The Senior 2 boys had these drums, tambourines, and gongs that they would beat as the runners were coming by. It was funny!!

So they had the javelin toss.

The running long jump.

The standing long jump.

And they ran the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, and the 3000m.

Now for the funny story of the day. So there was all this talk about me running in the Teachers VS. Students relay but it turned out I was going to miss it because we were planning a trip to Hanzhong the next day. I made the mistake of opening my big (Tscherne) mouth about running to the Senior 2 English teacher. The next thing I know she was talking to one of our vice principals, who smiled and pointed at me. She then proceeded to flag down one of the P.E. teachers (the one I have a crush on) and tell him that I wanted to run. So, I am now being hauled down the track toward the starting line to run the 100m dash with the 7th grade girls. All the girls were moaning that they would have to race me, thinking that I might win. I took my mark, they shot the gun and we all started running. At this point I would like to remind you that I was running in khakis, loosely tied tennis shoes, it was 11am, it was cold, I had not stretched and I had NOT had my Wheaties. So I got my ass kicked my a bunch of 7th graders in a 100m dash!! It was soooooo embarrassing but everyone cheered and everyone laughed and I think I scored some brownie points with the principals so it was worth my short term embarrassment.