"Best Sonny"

A few days ago, I woke to a beautiful, warm, sunny day--a rare commodity in the chill of mid-autumn-- and decided that it was a good day for some excitement. So, I decided to go buy a cell phone instead.  But that's the thing about living in China: buying a cell phone is no longer an annoying-but-necessary task; it's an adventure!

I resisted buying one of these at first; I figured if I could get away with it in the states, I definitely could here.  However, I have since found pretty much everyone and their grandmother has a cell phone here (or as my boss says, "even everyone's grandmother has the cell phone"), and apparently they haven't discovered email yet, so until I got one, I had essentially no social life.  That is not of course to assume that with one I would have a social life, but that is neither here nor there.  Anyhow, luckily the clerks at the first cell phone store I found were very excited to help me buy a phone with my broken Chinese, so it was actually a rather fun process ("excuse me, do you know how to say 'sim card'?").  Additionally, I am now the proud owner of a brand new, 100% authentic "Best Sonny" brand cell phone.  Trendy and cheap!  Although, it was hard to resist the slightly more expensive "Kokia" phones.  Good ol' Chinese copyright law! (I love 20¢ DVDs!)

As I was still enjoying the nice weather, and high on the feeling that today was an auspicious day, I continued on an exploratory jaunt around town.  Soon after, as I was passing a restaurant nearby, the person working at the door pulled the old Duck-Inside-and-Tell-Everyone-to-Come-Stare-At-the-Foreigner maneuver.  As this is fairly standard procedure downtown, I simply continued on my way, but this time was soon chased down by a rather enthusiastic and uncharacteristically brave English student, who insisted that I go back to the restaurant and chat for a minute.  I eventually acquiesced, and let myself be dragged back into the restaurant, where I promptly met everyone that worked there (including her brother, the boss =)), and was fed a wonderful free lunch with the staff, who were all on break.  I will admit, as well, I had to break tradition and eat some meat during that lunch, as it was the first time I had ever had a chance to eat 乌龟 (WuGui), which after some discussion, pantomiming, and eventually some drawing,  I learned means "turtle".  It was an exciting cultural experience, but I must be honest, the actual turtle "meat" (I don't know how they get away with calling it that) rates about a 3/10 on the deliciousness scale.  Yuck!

Once we finished eating our various delicious and less-delicious dishes, "Anna Bear" (people here have funny English names) had to take me around to see all the touristy sights around town, which I hadn't the heart to tell her I had already seen.

First, we saw the "Spring and Autumn Tower", which is around 750 years old, and quite tall.  We didn't go inside the tower-proper, as it was not open at the time, but the surrounding palace buildings were still pretty neat.

Then, we saw a large statue of a famous ancient general, "Cao Cao".   Apparently the statue was built almost 10 whole years ago.  Not as cool.

We also ran into a child biker gang, which was rather intimidating at first.

 But it turned out they liked having their pictures taken.






And I also made sure to take a picture of one of the little turtles on sale in the park, just so I could try to feel bad later about eating him:

Turns out I'm heartless.

Sorry little guy; you are even worse than moon cakes.

"Contact Info", or "Mail me stuff!"

My Address

Jackson Davis

International School of Education

Xuchang University, East Campus

Xuchang, Henan, China

(I think you just put all of that stuff on there.  Supposedly that will eventually get to me.  I'm always really surprised that the mail system works at all, though.)

I love snail mail!  Who doesn't?  However, I am just as bad about sending it as the next person, so here are some other ways to contact me:

• Get Skype!  It's free, and very easy to download and use. My username is Jacksonmdavis, so find me, and we can type to each-other, or if you have a microphone we can talk.  If you have a webcam, we can even see each-other!  Technology is amazing.
• Send me an email!  Jacksonmdavis -at- gmail.com
• Tell me to call you, and I can use skype to call your cell phone for free!  Just let me know when you're free.  Cool, eh?  (Note that my Skype phone number is no longer active.  You can't call me anymore!  Sorry.)
• Blog comments are always welcome, of course =).
  

Look how many ways there are to contact me!  Now you have no excuse.  Send me frisbees!!  They don't have them here in China!

If you are feeling enterprising, you can probably use my street address in China:

Jackson Davis (戴豪森)  河南省许昌市许昌学院东区家属院青年公寓2号楼3单元1楼东户

Good luck!

Edit: I forgot to add: tell me how to get in touch with you!  Especially if you want anything snail-mailed.  That being said, I am not the best snail-mailer, and especially not when I have to navigate the post office in Chinese.  But I will try!

Let's be honest: Moon Cakes are gross.

Happy Holidays everyone!  Yesterday was another holiday: the Mid-Autumn Festival.

This festival, combined with the Chinese National Day, meant an 8-day holiday break for the whole country!  Not too big a deal for me, though, since I'm on my third straight week of holiday.  I just can't get enough!

I didn't do a whole lot of stuff during this festival, since most of the traditions are family-based, but I did partake in two important Mid-Autumn traditions:  sitting down to a nice dinner, and eating moon-cakes (as well as, of course, a bit of firework watching).

Moon cakes themselves are these  delicious-looking small cakes that generally come individually wrapped or in boxes. For some inexplicable reason (read: I don't know why), it is tradition on this holiday to give them out to /everyone/.  I received like a million of these little guys (occasionally without word from complete strangers), and even gave out a few myself. They come in a variety of flavors, with some popular ones being "red bean" and "green bean", and the one I decided to take pictures of is "egg yolk" flavored.  Also, and this is an important point, they are gross, and taste like sugar-cardboard mush.  But the thought still counts.

As for the dinner, I was again touched by the thoughtfulness of two new friends I made in one of the cafeterias on campus.  The day before, I had met this married couple (about my age) that runs one of the small shops in the cafeteria, and they told me that if I came back the next day, dinner would be on them.  I was already impressed, but when I came the next night (the day of the festival), I simply expected the husband to whip up a quick dish for me to eat, and I wouldn't have to pay.  Instead, I was invited back into the kitchen where they had set up a table, cooked two separate dishes (plus rice for everyone), and bought two more from the nice, rather expensive restaurant upstairs.  They then sat with me and we had our nice, Mid-Autumn family dinner together.  It was both incredibly kind and incredibly delicious.  I did not, unfortunately, bring my camera to photograph the royal spread, but I stole a picture off of the internet of my favorite dish in the group, Shao Fu Zhu, which is a lovely combination of bamboo shoots and "tree ears".

And yes, they also gave me a moon cake.  Yippee.

Flickr Update

(Highlights available at bottom of post.  Click "read more".)

The Update
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*New Set*  "Downtown Xuchang" - 15 new photos  (Slideshow)
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"Cute Chinese Kids" - 11 new photos (Slideshow)
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"Art? Questionable." - 2 new photos (Slideshow)
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The following post also contains some helpful info about using my flickr page.  If you feel computer savvy already, it is probably not for you.  (Mom, this means it is for you.)

National Day Rehash

National day was a blast.  The day started off rather normally, although with more morning fireworks than usual (hooray).  After that, one of the other foreign teachers (Scottish, specifically) and I hit downtown to check out what was happening.  Here are some of the highlights.

 

Chinese National Day

As I already mentioned, the color red was everywhere you looked.  However, today, there were also throngs of people everywhere you looked; somehow, the city found a way to whip up more people than usual.  Patriotism was also running high, and the people were generally very festive and friendly, and glad to see foreigners helping them celebrate.  Unfortunately, however, I also experienced my first case of open hostility in China.  A man who looked to be about 30 rode slowly by us on his bicycle, and proceeded to shout loudly and angrily at us in very rapid Chinese.  While I could not understand most of what he was saying, my companion (who does not speak Chinese) fairly accurately translated it as "Bugger off, you bloody foreigners!".  After yelling at us for a few minutes, though, he rode off, and my troubled feeling was soon washed away by the beautiful friendliness and curiosity that most complete strangers showed me throughout the day.

Chinese Traditions

I was curious myself as to what the Chinese traditionally do on their national day, and so I took it upon myself not only to see what was happening in the city, but to ask for a number of people's thoughts on the matter.  The most common answer?  Go Shopping.  Of course, these conversations were corroborated by the multiple small armies of young people (mostly students working during the break) walking around with product advertisements, primarily for cell phones and appliances.  I was a bit disappointed at this tendency, and tried to think of what sort of traditions we had in America on our Independence Day.  However, all I could think of was cooking out, drinking beer, and fireworks.  And since Chinese people cook outdoors and set off fireworks all the time, I figured they weren't far behind.  Especially if you watched any of the impressive excitement in Beijing.

Chinese Music

One of the many interesting things we ran into was a group of people playing and singing traditional Chinese music in a small courtyard by one of the rivers in town.  There was a moderate crowd of people watching, although they were nearly all at least forty years old.  After listening for a brief moment, however, the reason became clear: traditional Chinese music is most definitely an acquired taste, which the young, westernized people here have not yet acquired.  While the music itself wasn't exactly like Beijing Opera, it was quite similar, and to the untrained ear sounds a bit like Small Children Banging on Pots, accompanied by Dying Animals.

Chinese Children

(Click on this one!  It will make you happy!)

My favorite part of the day, however, was going by myself to a park near my house during the evening.  The scene itself was magical; families everywhere, children playing together in the huge fountain, a nice sunset... and of course more friendly Chinese people.  One couple gave me a Chinese flag to wear on my backpack (sweet), and multiple families asked me to hold their children for pictures.  Me, hold your cute smiling Chinese child?  I think I can manage that.

Happy Birthday China! (And Benjamin!)

(Apologies, of course, for the brief leave of absence.  My 1337 hacking was temporarily incapacitated, and needed some love.  My thrilling imagination likes to daydream that the government is trying to shut me down, but I'm pretty sure it's really just that Vista sucks.  Anyway, I'm back, so look forward to more posts soon!)

We have a very special birthday today!  Turning 60 years young today, we have the People's Republic of China.  Hooray!

Today marks the 60th Anniversary of China's National Day, the anniversary of the day Chairman Mao declared a unified, communist China.  It is a very exciting time to be here, and even in the "small" city that I live in, patriotic excitement has reached a feverish intensity.

The most notable thing that you see everywhere is the color red.  While the color itself usually carries an important role in Chinese culture, bringing luck and happiness, it takes on a special meaning at this time of year, symbolizing China itself.  And so everywhere you look, there are red lanterns, red pamphlets and fliers, red storefronts, and Chinese flags as far as the eye can see.  There are various cultural presentations and ceremonies, a huge "parade" and display of military might in Beijing (which I will not be allowed to attend), and of course, fireworks at all hours of the day/night.  Which would be cool, except that they're almost always the type that makes lots of noise and don't look all that cool.  And unfortunately, 6am seems to be firework primetime around here.  Don't these people ever sleep?!

Of course, not being ones to miss out on economic opportunity, the Chinese have openly embraced the perfusion of patriotism, with very reasonable prices.  This guy normally just sells these little lego-like toys, but was suddenly struck by the glory of China, and decided to deck out his cart with the ubiquitous Chinese flag, which incidentally, he wouldn't mind selling to you since he has a few extra.  Convenient!

I'll have the soup with a side of DEET, please.

One of the things that attracted me about China was the food.  I feel like If you're not interested in the culinary experience of eating in China, you're only experiencing half the country.  So, naturally, I eventually found a better solution to my stomach's desires than the bag of soup from the local neighborhood, and that is the campus cafeteria.  There are actually two of these on campus, and they are both quite huge, and usually very busy.  Don't let this picture fool you into believing in orderly queues, though.  Such a thing does not yet exist in this country.   

(Edit: Thanks to Ali for pointing me in the vague direction of this article about recent humorous efforts made to change this fact!)

One interesting thing about life here is they way the free market has been so strongly embraced.  The cafeteria system itself probably contains at least 100 small, privately owned shops and restaurants, crammed into the same two buildings.  This is fairly representative of the attitude in the rest of the city.  Also, meals here are super cheap (I don't think I've ever spent more than $1 US on a meal here), and the folks are usually very nice and patient with me as I struggle to learn the language.  Especially the two pictured above, who work at the "fruit water" stand, and are helping me learn the names of all of the fruits.  I successfully named all of them today, but my final fruit exam isn't until Monday, so I have to make sure I don't forget any before then. Overall, a great place to hang out every day.

And it all seemed so perfect, too.  Nice little cafeteria, nice people, relatively comfortable access to food...  but then this guy walked in:

I'm in the middle of a conversation, nomming on a late breakfast, and all of a sudden this dude walks in with a super-loud, gas-powered blower on his back, and starts spraying chemical bug spray everywhere!  While I was eating! What?!  No warning, all over the cafeteria.  Out of control.