xin nian kuai le!!!

Happy NEW YEAR!!
Today is new year's eve, which means staying up, playing cards, and eating dumplings and candy. It also means wearing red, especially if you are born in the year of the dog (1982) like me. You should say to people, "xin nian kuai le" or "happy new year" or also "gong xi fa cai" (note to my mother: the cantonese version is "gong hey fa choi")which roughly means "become prosperous"

On to other things: So I haven't written in a while, partially because we don't have internet in our house any more (long story), and partially because I've been so busy going to class and doing my homework. For example, over break I have to memorize a Song dynasty poem and write an essay about Harbin. I hope to be able to use some of my new vocab words like, "the beauty of mist rising out over the water" or "to thumb the table and roar with happiness." Sometimes I feel like my vocab words were defined by a non-English speaking Chinese person with a dictionary. My favorite definition was of the word "shi ci," defined as "poetry and ci." I must say, ci has always been one of my favorite literary forms. (It turns out ci is a certain type of poetry with a very strict word scheme, much like a haiku or sonnet). Other than teaching and studying I have been having dinner with more Chinese people, which is really nice. I also went to the beach on Wednesday and shot off many fireworks. It was a bit like fourth of july, except extremely cold (my big toe turned purple), and some of our fireworks were of the type that aren't really legal in America. We had a lot of the ones that shot into the air and then had a big colorful explosion, which was really neat, though a litte scary because it was just right over our heads. There were also lots of fireworks just like the fourth of july, right down to the dud sparklers. On the whole there have been lots of fireworks going up write around the city, and even more fire crackers. Sometimes it feels a little bit like walking in a war zone. "Little new year" or "xiao nian," which falls at the end of a month in the lunar calender passed last sunday, and that day there were so many fireworks we could barely teach over the noise. Following tradition, we also ate dumplings.

a little bit of this and that

So, it's been a little while since we last wrote, but I can't say that we've been all that busy. The weather most recently has been a little bit warmer, mainly in the low forties and sunny. It is supposed to rain later in the week, which won't be all that pleasant. Other than that, the biggest thing in our lives is where we want to go for Spring Festival. Our first thought was to head south to Yunan or Macau, but our friends told us not to go to Yunan if all we had was a week, and Macau isn't out of the picture, but right now it seems a little complicated and expensive, especially where visas are concerned. Our second thought would be to head the other direction, straight up north to Haerbin, where the average temperature in January is -30 degrees celcius. January is however, the month Haerbin hosts the ice festival, which I've heard is really great if you don't mind wearing 5 sweaters. Dan has even agreed to buy a second pair of long underwear. However, we haven't bought the tickets yet, so we may still change our minds. One interesting thing is when I was talking to the travel agent on the phone, I told him I was a foreigner (not that that wasn't already obvious from my imperfect Chinese). At one point in the conversation, he said, "just a moment, I have someone who speaks Korean." Before I could say a word, heard a woman's voice saying "anyang hasaeo" (sp?) (which means hello, and is the only word I know in Korean). I still can't really get over that someone mistook me for a Korean, I guess mainly because face to face that would never happen. It was a little flattering though, because Koreans in general are known for speaking better Chinese than western foreigners.


On another note, I was teaching one Saturday and one of my students, who is five, said to me, "teacher, there's bird flu in Jinan" (the capital of Shandong province). I was a little disturbed by that, and I asked her, "how do you know that?" then she said, "there's also bird flu in Qingdao. People all over China have bird flu! It's everywhere!" Then she smiled and said, "teacher, what is bird flu?" After that, the other students (who are about 10) and I let out sighs of exasperation and continued on. We were talking about last names when again, the 5 year old shouted out, "teacher! what is the last name of people with bird flu!?" I guess that awareness and understanding are two different stages.

Finally, I don't really know anything about Japanese culture beyond my friends' anecdotes and the occasional samurai or anime movie, but I have a feeling some anthropologist could have a field day doing a comparative analysis of Japanese versus Chinese toilets. Pretty much all the toilets I've used in China not in a private home have been squat toilets. The level of sanitation has varied between atrocious to barely adequate, and even in the cleanest toilets there is usually a few drops of urine splattered around the edges. (On the whole though, I would prefer a public squat toilet as it means there is no sitting on the toilet seat dilemma.) Often, the toilet stalls have no lock or no door, and most are byotp and byos, or bring your own toilet paper and bring your own soap. (A small digression: At our school, the one of the woman's bathroom a)has no door and b) has only one stall door for only one of the three toilets. There is also no partition between the other two, and they directly face the outside door, so basically anyone peeing there does so in full view of anyone walking by.) In the winter however, the whole toilet experience has taken on a different unpleasant dimension as it seems few establishments think it necessary to heat the bathroom, which means that one must remove clothing in a room not much above freezing. Even worse is the sink, which shoots out a stream of icy water, which then has to be shaken off of one's hands as quickly as possible to prevent them from freezing in the cold bathroom air. There are a few Korean establishments with Japanese toilets, and this toilet experience is like none I have ever experienced before. The back of the toilet is larger and contains about as many buttons as an expensive washing machine, appearing to perform similar functions. There are detailed instructions in Japanese next to most of the buttons, as well as helpful diagrams, some showing water spraying out of the toilet bowl like a fountain. (Maybe Japanese engineers have carefully built an overflow function into the toilet, saving you the effort of having to clog it yourself.) The toilets also have arms, for comfort and with more buttons if 12 or so on the back of the toilet weren't enough. Also, the seat of the toilet, like those of expensive cars, is heated. The water in the bowl of every single one of these toilets (which I have to admit, is not a large sample size) is unfailingly blue. Since all the Japanese toilets I've seen are in Korean establishments though, I suppose any sort of comparison between bathrooms would only illuminate Chinese-Korean differences. I'm curious however, are these sorts of toilets common in Japan, or are they only the luxury brand toilets, found only in the swankest places or mainly sold for export? Any experts?

my sugar daddy

and I met in a somewhat ordinary way. I had a friend who was returning to Germany, and she had an offer from a business man to translate for him in Germany. She said no, but then he offered her 5,000 euros and a new cell phone for two weeks of translation, so she decided to reconsider. Her Chinese isn't that great, so she invited me and our other friend to meet him for lunch to translate for her. The lunch was somewhat of a bore, especially for me. At the end we exchanged cell phone numbers, a common formality that often has almost no meaning. However, about 2 weeks later, I got a call from the business man and he invited me out to for dinner and karaoke, as I described in an earlier post. Yesterday he called me up and invited me to his friend's house for dinner, however I didn't really have the time or energy to go, so I cancelled on him, promising to have dinner with him tonight. My cell phone has a notoriously bad connection, and combined with the language barrier, I had a very difficult time understanding what he was telling me on the phone. I met him near the school, and we took a taxi to a Xinjiang restaurant (the muslim autonomous region in the NW of China), where I had fried rice and he told me he already had eaten. At this point I was a little worried. If we weren't going to eat, what were we going to do? (I must admit some rather unpleasant possibilities crossed my mind). He spent most of the meal on his cell phone (which is called the Razor, Motorola's brand new phone about 1/8" thick that can basically perform heart surgery). I told him I wouldn't be able to stay out that late, and he told me we could be home by about 10:30. He told me the car was waiting, so we went outside. The car was black and enormous. The interior was completely black leather, and there was a small tv for the back passenger seats (the TV brand was "Chairman"). The front had a display with a satellite map, clock, weather, CD changer, etc. Between the extremely spacious back seats was a leather arm rest that unfolded with about 10 different types of seat controls. There was also a hidden panel with a space for drinks and cell phones and ashtrays and for basically anything else you could possibly do in a car. The business man removed a list from a compartment which listed how much the interior of his car had cost (which apparently he had just gotten redone). The total was in the 10s of thousands of yuan. I asked him what brand it was, and he said "shuang long," which could be a Chinese brand or a translation of a foreign one. He asked me if I could drive, and I said yes. He then asked me if I could drive stick shift, and I also said yes. I asked him if he could drive, and he said yes, but he didn't have a license, he just had a car and other people drove him around. He told me that I could borrow his car any time I wanted and drive around Qingdao in it, but somehow I don't think I would dare drive a car in an empty parking lot, much less on Chinese roads.

After picking up another of his friends, who to my relief turned out to be a young woman, I found out we were going to a bath house. In China, bath houses are extremely popular, and people often go there instead of hotels. After searching a bit for one that wasn't extremely crowded, we finally found one with space. After entering a lobby, we immediately separated into a men's area and a women's area. We removed our clothes and went into an area with showers, sauna, and massage. It was still crowded so we had to share showers. There was all sorts of shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes (in plastic wrap, of course), toothpaste, and face wash. The only soap however, turned out to be whitening soap, which everyone knows is exactly what I need for my January complexion. After washing it off, I look closely to see if I was any whiter, but it was kind of hard to tell. After exfoliating, sweating, and whitening, it was time for a massage. I lay down naked on a table and a woman rubbed me with fragrant oil. For the next half hour, she kneaded and pounded every part of my body. It was about 1 part relaxing and 2 parts painful, but I do feel better afterward. After the massage, the other woman and I went out and changed into the bath house clothes, which turned out to be oversized baby cloths. we had disposable socks and underwear, pale yellow pantaloons trimed with lace, and a matching top with puffy sleeves and more ruffles. After donning our incredibly dignified outfits, we went upstairs. The upstairs contained, as far as I can tell, facilities for any sort of activity people in oversized doll clothes might want to do at night (though the men were in slightly less ridiculous hospital gowns). There was a restaurant, bar, karaoke rooms, other rooms which were probably for other activities, and then a large massage room. We went into the room, which was dimly lit and full of the biggest easy chairs I have ever seen. The room was full of semi-comatose people getting feet, head and neck massages, as well as other people sleeping. In the front were two large screen TVs showing some sort of B-grade Planet of the Apes rip-off. We sat down and drank some tea. They asked me if there were many sort of places like this in America, and I said no. The girl said of course, corruption is not nearly as bad, then we all laughed. (As Dan pointed out, these are exactly the type of people I despise in America). I then asked the business man if he had to go to work tomorrow, and he said that he owns his own company, so he really never has to go to work at all. We were going to get foot massages, but by this time it was well past 11, so we went home. He told me to call him any time I was free so he could show me and my friends around Qingdao. Maybe I'll take him up on it, or maybe I'll just call him up to take his car out for a joy ride.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

So, I guess the title sums it up, but happy new year!!! (or xin nian kuai le! though technically speaking, the Chinese new year is still 28 days away.) So most of you still have another 11 to 14 hours to go, but here in China, we are already 2 hours into the new year. It's hard to believe that it's already 2006, hopefully this new year will be a good one for everyone. As Dan says, 2005 wasn't the greatest in terms of international events, so it isn't asking that much for 2006 to be better. Here's hoping that the situation in Iraq improves for the Iraqi people, ethnic and regional conflicts find peaceful resolution, esp. with the elections in Israel and Palestine, natural disasters stay at a minimum (though perhaps these disasters are a sign from the angry hand of God to a certain unamed goverment...), and that the Democrats take control of congress in the midterm elections (which I'm hoping could have a positive effect on the natural disaster situation.) And of course, good luck to all of you in all of your endeavors!