Warmly Welcome 2011

It's been a pretty good year. Jia and I both found new jobs this past year, and are living much more comfortably than at the beginning of the year. We expect everything to go a little smoother in the new year.

My first New Year holiday in China was spent in Guangzhou. Jia and I had been dating less than month and decided to take two days outside Shenzhen. Seeing as I only knew a handful of words in Chinese, Jia was my tour guide. She took me through the main sites--the Tomb of the Nanyue King, Guangxiao Temple, Chen's Folk Art Museum (where I purchased a miniature Statue of Liberty because it seemed so out of place), and Xiu Park.

Guangxiao Temple was a highlight of the trip. It was my first experience in a Buddhist temple. Unfortunately, when we revisited Guangxiao before leaving China, the temple was undergoing renovations and much of it was closed off. The first visit was much more memorable.

White Out

It was a pretty wild snowstorm we had yesterday. It wasn't much until around 4pm, but it dumped plenty of snow around the city. The wind was howling last night, creating some large snowdrifts. It was an adventure just walking down the street--the sidewalk in front of my building is dry, but a few feet away the snowdrift grew to almost two feet.

Fortunately, my car was not buried under two feet of snow like some others.

Both cars were parked next to each other for the entirety of the storm, and only one is completely buried.

The Right Vote

That's one way to ensure a favorable ballot.

According to China Daily, Putian, a city in Fujian province, launched an online opinion poll asking netizens whether they were satisfied with government departments. It sounds like a great way for the government to see which departments need improvement. But, like most governments in the world, they weren't really interested in listening.

Netizens who voted "dissatisfied" for the majority of the 79 departments listed were met with a notice from the website stating that their vote "does not meet the requirement."

The Putian vote was definitely better than a previous online poll for a city in Jilin province that only provided the choices of "satisfied" and "very satisfied."

The lesson here is, if you're dissatisfied with the government, don't vote.

Exclusive Squatters

I'm surprised this exists in China, but I am surprised it didn't pop up in Shanghai or Shenzhen first.

A mall in Chongqing has introduced an exclusive restroom for its elite shoppers. According to the Telegraph, shoppers spending 5000RMB can have access to the toilet. The article doesn't mention if this is a one-time deal or if shoppers have to spend 5000RMB each time to relieve themselves in the harmonious toilet. There's also no word on whether or not it's a squatter.

Overview

Sometimes I discover photos I forgot I took.

Looking down from Buddha's head in Leshan wasn't the best idea. I don't particularly like heights and it was a long, slow walk down the stairs to the feet.

Along the way down, I encountered one of many coincidences in my relationship with Jia. I had just taken my parents to met her in Xinjiang before heading to Sichuan. In front of us in line to see the Giant Buddha was a woman and her daughter from Xinjiang. She spoke English, and we had a pleasant conversation on that slow walk down. While talking with her, I received a text from Jia--she met two people from New Jersey on her train ride back to Shenzhen.

The Perch

On my first visit to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, I hiked as far as I could up the mountain with the time I was given by the tour guide (not nearly enough time). As I walked up the higher reaches of the wall where few tourists ventured, I came across some kids enjoying their time on the wall.

On Broadway

There are some perks to teaching at a college in the NYC area. I've been impressed by the activities that the college has for students and staff, but I haven't been able to attend anything until now. Unfortunately, I missed out on trips to the Natural History Museum and a Buddhist monastery outside the city.

Jia has asked a few times to see a Broadway show, but she's worried that she won't understand what's going on. It's part of why I've been reluctant to take her to a play (I don't like musicals, I think they're cheesy). However, thanks to the student/faculty activities committee, I can now take my wife to a Broadway show that she'll understand: Blue Man Group. There is nothing for Jia to understand about three blue guys playing improvised instruments.

Since the theater is in one of my favorite neighborhoods, we may combine our Broadway experience with dinner at Crif Dogs and a beer at McSorley's. That would make it a classy evening.

Hidden Shrines

While wandering on my own in Bangkok I discovered a few things. The first was that our hotel was near nothing other than a dirty clothing market. The second was that I really had to walk to find anything of interest.

After a couple hours of walking, I stumbled upon a small shrine. It was down a quiet side street and had no noticeable signs. I also didn't see anyone to talk with about what I found.

From its appearance, I could tell that it was a shrine for people who have died--some of the photos were of people in military uniforms. I also noticed that there was Chinese on parts of the shrine, though I couldn't read any of it because it was written with traditional characters. What interested me most was that it was a mosaic constructed from broken dishes--the craftsmanship of the images was amazing. I still wish I knew more about it.

Dangerous Dates, continued

In response to a couple comments on the previous post about the sort-of-secret relationship Jia and I had during my first year in Shenzhen, I've decided to add to the story.

I spent most of the first summer living in the school apartment, which was also the storage space for the few returning teachers. All the other apartments were filled for a month with visiting Americans who were working at the summer camp in the unbearable Shenzhen summer. Jia worked six days a week, often until after 8pm, which meant I didn't see much of her. I spent plenty of time sitting in my air conditioned room, having a few beers in an air conditioned restaurant, or wandering through air conditioned shopping centers. I also continued studying Chinese in preparation for my parents' visit in August.

Part of my summer plan was to introduce my parents to Jia. Since Jia and her mom wanted to spend their brief summer holiday in Xinjiang, I planned for a few days in Urumqi. The other foreign teachers asked if I was going to meet Jia on my vacation since they all knew she was from Xinjiang. I figured there was no harm in admitting that we were at least friends (sooner or later they'd find out about our relationship).

As some of the teachers were leaving Shenzhen after their year at the school, we celebrated their departure. A few of the more gossipy foreigners loved to discuss our co-workers' love lives--and, of course, it came to me. Seeing as they were leaving, it was safe to let them in on my little secret. They weren't surprised--and one of them was fairly certain there was something going on between Jia and me because she kept running into us at odd times.

By the time the new term started, Jia agreed that it was safe to tell the foreign teachers about our relationship as long as they knew it couldn't get back to the Chinese supervisors. There were also two Chinese co-workers who were kept our relationship secret from the rest of the staff.

Malacca-minded

If we had known what Malacca was like, we would've stayed more than a day.

After spending a couple days around Kuala Lumpur, my parents, Jia, and I took a taxi to Malacca, a quiet colonial town less than two hours outside the Malaysian capital. The hotel concierge helped us find a friendly driver for a reasonable price (and his car ran on natural gas). When we arrived, he even offered to pick us up the next day after dinner for the same price.

Malacca is a walkable town, although the heat and humidity take some getting used to. After the noise and traffic of KL, this was a great place to relax. And we relaxed in between the sights--we found great food near the hotel and cafes along the river. And like everywhere else in Malaysia, we found the locals to be very friendly.

In America, we love to talk about diversity and tolerance, but we've got nothing on Malacca. On one particular street near the central tourist area is a beacon of religious tolerance. At one end of the street is a church. A little further down is a mosque, which is next door to a Hindu temple. A short walk down from there is a Taoist temple across the street from a Buddhist temple. I have never seen anything like it before or since.

On the same street, we found a shop that sold Buddhist paintings, furnishings, and other items mostly imported from Dharmsala. The shop owner was from India. He explained that he first came to Malaysia to visit his brother in Kuala Lumpur, but decided to stay after seeing Malacca. He pointed out the houses of worship outside and said he couldn't find a more peaceful street.

Dangerous Dates

I recently came across a few blog posts about dating in China--in particular, one at ShanghaiShiok caught my attention. And I realized I never wrote about my experience of dating Jia (though I use the term "date" loosely).

Jia and I began our relationship as co-workers and friends. She took it upon herself to plan a few weekend excursions around Shenzhen with Winnipeg and me. Of course, office gossip caught up with our friendly relationship--oddly enough, I wasn't the foreigner mentioned in the gossip.

By the time our relationship turned romantic (about a month after my arrival in China), we decided to keep things quiet. It sounded like a good idea, as I didn't know where it might lead. A month later it was apparent that we made the right decision to keep it quiet--Jia's boss warned her about hanging around foreigners. In a staff meeting for our Chinese colleagues, the boss made some veiled threats of termination if the Chinese staff spent time with the foreign staff outside school-approved activities. Not wanting to end our relationship, Jia and I kept it a secret.

We casually met at the bus stop, avoiding anyone we might know, and pretended that it was a coincidence that we were taking the same bus to other parts of Shenzhen. Somehow, we turned these chance meetings into dates, even though I had to fight with Jia to pay the bill at restaurants. She always found a way of either paying for part of a meal or paying for something else to even things out between us.

The most difficult part of our quiet relationship was explaining my travels. I took some impressive trips that first year, and had to claim that I took them alone (as well as hiding photos with Jia while using the school computers to email home).

We maintained our secret for the first seven months, though a few of the foreign staff guessed there was something going on (in particular, the foreign couple we kept running into late at night, which forced me to make up some lame excuses). Even after the summer, our relationship was kept quiet from the Chinese staff--even the other foreign teachers knew not to mention it.

Same Difference

Most days I wonder if there is any difference between teaching ESL in the U.S. and China.

When I taught at the graduate school in Shenzhen, I was given an attendance policy that was supposed to be strictly enforced, even though it was a lenient policy. There was no official policy for tardiness, but my department agreed that students would be counted absent after 15 minutes, which really pissed off some students. Most students showed up on time, but there were also the habitually tardy.

Now, I've been given a much less lenient attendance policy (two absences per class and four lates equals one absence). I've repeatedly told my classes about this policy. Still, a few of them are habitually late. I also have a few who have already failed the class (it's not even mid-term) because they've missed too many classes. And I'm fairly lenient on the tardiness--I give them a few minutes before I mark them late.

The only significant difference I see between my current and previous students is that the current ones are much more active in class and usually ask questions. In a year and a half at the grad school, I only had a few students who regularly asked questions (mostly clarifications of assignments).

One aspect I miss about the grad school is the communication. We had a small department and held weekly meetings to discuss the classes and any administrative matters. Unlike most meetings in China, these were not boring or useless--my boss only made the meetings as long as they needed to be, which occasionally meant the meeting lasted a few minutes. Now, if I have any problems or concerns, I have schedule a meeting that somehow fits my schedule as well as my supervisor's.

Busy Streets

My first trip to Macau was almost a year after I arrived in Shenzhen. If I had visited the city earlier, I might have tried to move there instead of staying in Shenzhen.

On that first trip, I traveled with Jia and her mother during the October holiday--it was their first trip outside of mainland China. We rushed through Macau in two days, visiting as many non-casino attractions that we could (of course, we also stopped in a few casinos, but we only gambled 20RMB).

I always enjoyed the sight of the Lisboa (before the Grand Lisboa opened across the street) in the distance as I looked down Avenue de Alemeida Ribeiro from Senado Square.

Working the Beach

During my short stint at the training center in Bao'an district, I was treated to a day at Dameisha. We were promised fun on the beach and plenty of food. The weather was terrible during that May holiday--it rained, and, like all days in Shenzhen, it was horribly humid. But, it was my first trip to Dameisha, and I was excited (I definitely had my expectations set a little too high).

There wasn't much of interest by the beach--and there wasn't much more when I returned a year later. It reminded me of Seaside Heights without the boardwalk (another destination I don't plan on ever revisiting).

As it was the beginning of the national holiday, it was crowded. I expected plenty of tourists, but I wasn't prepared for all the local factory workers. When it came time to have our beach barbecue in the designated area next to what appeared to be a landfill, I realized we were surrounded by people who rarely get a day off work. I also realized I didn't want to eat anything that the training center had provided--the meat and vegetables were mixed together and had been sitting on the hot bus all day. I ate a few things that were purposely overcooked in an effort to avoid illness.

Unlike my other foreign co-workers, I decided to take the free bus back to Bao'an. In hindsight, I should've taken a public bus with the others. The company decided the bus would stop elsewhere in Bao'an to make it more difficult to get home. I split a cab with a Chinese co-worker, but found that she lived in an area I didn't recognize. Of course, I had no idea which way the taxi driver was going and ended up paying much more than I should have. It would've been easier to take a taxi back from Dameisha.

Beach Weekend

I'm not much of a beach person. I prefer hiking in the mountains to sitting in the sun. But, I decided to take a weekend trip to Cape May--it was my first time there (and I've lived in New Jersey for 24 years), and I got to share the experience with Jia.

For some reason, all the small hotels I called prior to our departure were booked for the weekend. However, I was convinced that I could find a guesthouse or bed and breakfast that had a room available when we arrived. I was right. After searching for about 20 minutes, we found the May Caper--an older guesthouse across from the beach. It had no amenities: no TV, no air conditioning, no breakfast. It was in need of some repairs, but it was comfortable enough for a night. And, our second-floor room included a large balcony overlooking the ocean.

After a short walk on the beach, Jia and I rented bikes for the day and rode around town. We stopped along the pedestrian mall, which was rather disappointing as it had nothing I'd consider interesting or unique. It was much more interesting to ride on the side streets and admire the Victorian architecture of Cape May.

We gazed at the lighthouse before sunset from the end of Beach Avenue--we would've stayed longer, but we had to return the bikes by 6. With a little time before sunset, we drove out to the lighthouse. Unfortunately, we arrived a little too late to walk up the lighthouse. But, it was still nice to walk on the beach around it.

Sunday we drove out to the zoo. This was probably the most exciting zoo Jia has ever visited (I'll have to take her to the Bronx Zoo sometime) as she's only visited her hometown zoo, which I didn't know existed.


Before returning home, we made one last stop in Avalon to visit my friend's deli for lunch. I regret getting the larger hoagie--he stuffs his sandwiches with more meat than is really necessary.

Meet the New Boss

When I first moved to China I thought I was moving to a communist country. I quickly realized how little labels mean there.

On a trip to Dameisha, I came across this advertisement. Somehow I doubt Karl Marx would approve (or even see the humor in it). I especially like the knock-off sports car logo in the bottom left of the sign. I wouldn't be surprised if the school's curriculum included reading "Jewish Business Secrets," a popular book that has little basis in reality.

Class Demographics

After three weeks of teaching ESL writing and grammar at the community college, I've noticed more differences between my current and past students. Of course, some of the differences can be attributed to the location.

Overall, my current students are more motivated. That's not to say that my students in China weren't--I had some amazing students there who were more motivated than any student I've ever encountered. But, there are fewer unmotivated students here in New Jersey (I also only have 45 students instead of 300, so the percentage might be similar).

To go along with the motivation, my current students are much more talkative in class. Aside from my time at the language mill in Shenzhen, I never had students who actively participated in class--including the few highly-motivated students I taught at the graduate school. On the first day of class, I was shocked by students volunteering to read in class. And, the willingness to answer questions without me looking through the class list to call on specific students makes my life easier. Of course, this also leads to numerous questions from students, some of which are difficult to answer.

The best part of teaching at the community college is that all of my students are at about the same level. Again, aside from my time at the language mill, all my classes in China had mixed levels in the same class--I've had students who were nearly fluent in English mixed with students who couldn't speak a complete sentence.

This has made me realize that if I go back to teach in China (or any other country), I want to teach English and literature majors at the university level. It would definitely be more enjoyable.

Lunatics Holding Us Hostage

I thought it was over after that idiot in Florida got his 15 minutes of fame for planning to burn copies of the Koran. Now, more idiots are coming out of the woodwork and threatening the lives of every American because of their disregard for tolerance of anyone other than themselves.

The first is an pastor in Tennessee who has decided to burn the Koran to "save their souls." The second is the most hated church group in America: Westboro Baptist Church--those so-called Christians who protest at soldiers' funerals with highly offensive slogans about gays. These people are going to burn the Koran because the idiot in Florida decided not to.

How is it that a few lunatics can garner so much attention that it endangers an entire nation? Maybe the government can sponsor a trip for the lunatic fringe to the rural regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan...and leave them there.

Calming Effects

Things are a little less hectic around here. Our new apartment is now furnished (though we still need a few more bookcases and some art on the walls), and I've started teaching again at the community college.

It feels a little weird being in an ESL classroom and having no Chinese students, but that's not the demographic of the area. I was surprised that I have relatively few Spanish speakers in my classes, and quite a few Arabic speakers. Fortunately, most of the students who showed up for the first day of class were enthusiastic and determined to do well, which should make my job easier for the semester.

Everything that's been going on lately has made it difficult for me to put together the sixth issue of Terracotta Typewriter. I hope to have it finished next week--I just need to write a book review and lay-out the poems and stories.

This Friday photo is a reminder of my favorite destination in Bangkok, because it was the least crowded tourist attraction. I visited Wat Arun twice, once with Jia after our engagement and once with my parents, and was just as impressed the second time around. I found Wat Arun to be a relaxing and quiet temple in the middle of a busy city. Sometimes I think I could use a place like this nearby.

The Flood

One thing I was definitely unprepared for in China was that I would encounter quite a few Pakistanis studying at Chinese universities.

The first few I met were friends of my wife--they were studying medicine at her university in Xinjiang and attended our wedding. They were finishing up their program when we met, and they were very happy to have people with whom they could converse in English. One was arranged to be married to a woman living in Denver, and he was unsure of how he could get to the US or if she would return to Pakistan. Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to see them after the wedding.

The second group of Pakistani students I met were at the graduate school in Shenzhen. The first time we met was at the campus Christmas party. I saw them a few more times around campus. And, during my last semester there, we participated in a humiliating badminton competition. They were all engineering students, and finished up their programs last year (or so they expected).

As far as I know, all of those young men returned to Pakistan. With news of the epic flooding, I wonder if they're safe. Even if they are safe, their country is in crisis and needs help. I'd like to remind my readers that toward the bottom of the sidebar of this blog is a link to the Red Cross and they do accept donations for international aid.