Chinahhhh

I still can't see the blog, which sucks because this is completely one sided. Next week I think I can get to a place where I can see it. Hopefully.

China is boring me right now. Chen laoshi sprung this whole teaching adventure upon us suddenly. I sort of knew about it, but I didn't think it would last two weeks. The Mexican students who are here knew nothing about it. Most of them barely even speak English. I've been here in Hongzhou for about 9 days now and I really hate that I'm not with the rest of my group. We got split up into 8 or 9 schools, and I am with an asian guy, Jamie, and two Mexican girls, Prescilla and Tania. I'm pretty sure I'm the only white guy to come around these parts in a while, or at least that is how everybody looks at me. Staring is not rude in China.

The school is straight, but Chinese customs are strange for guests. They won't let me do anything for myself except for teach, and for that they never criticize me. So I decided to have a little bit of fun and teach some good ol' U.S. slang. The children now know such phrases as "sup, holla, whats happenin', not a thang, no biggie, peace out", and my personal favorite "roll out". The teachers here are obsessed with talking about me getting a girlfriend, so no matter what I do, it always comes back to me increasing or decreasing my chances of getting a girlfriend. Shaving my beard was a definite decrease for me. They plan cool activities for us to do during the day so I got to go pick my own green tea in a green tea farm, paint Chinese caligraphy, and learn taiji.

This Sunday was interesting because I was invited to the headmasters house for lunch. There isn't much to talk about with a guy who doesn't speak English, in a room with two Mexicans, one guy who barely knows any spoken Chinese, and a guy who looks Chinese but (surprisingly to them) doesn't know the language. There was a lot of pointing and motions, but eventually we just gave up and ate. I tried my first pig ear! It honestly tasted pretty good. Well homeboy kept filling my bowl up with beer so I kept downing them, and I was fairly drunk by the end of lunch. I had nothing on Jamie who has really never drank before, but didn't want to be rude and ignore the perpetual refills. Well we ended up at a teachers house to watch a movie after coffee, and her husband's parents made us some dinner. I got to try my first fried chicken foot (not leg) and stewed turtle (he was all there). I ended up playing with my food for a little while because it looked like some voodoo session, and I think I offended her parents. Oh well. On the subject of strange food, I also tried cow tendon on Saturday. Not recommended.

We finally get to meet up on Friday and be a big American group again. I'm feeling a little sick, but I hope it isn't anything serious. Today we had to stand up in front of the whole school, which consists of about 1,500 people total, and scream silly English phrases. They got the idea from some Canadian guy on T.V. who teaches English. "Crazy English" as they called it, is when the guy screams into the T.V. and expects people to repeat after him on the other line. So after the freaky communist national anthem ceremony, we got up there and yelled phrases such as "I can do it!" and "one world, one dream" into the microphone. I honestly had to bite my tounge to keep from laughing the whole time. I hope these people don't actually take me serious.

Well, thats China. There really isn't anything happening here, except that I read a lot and make fun of the Chinese people a lot through e-mail. Otherwise, I'm just counting down the days until I return to beautiful, smoggy Suzhou and continue my language studies. I finished "The Party's Over" and am scared shitless about what is happening. I've got all sorts of plans for when I get back, but that seems like so far from now that I feel helpless. I hope you guys (and girl) are enjoying your summer, I wouldn't know. Peace.