Chinese New Year is for Lovers

So, while you all were out celebrating your Valentine's Days (Chinese: 情人节 qíngrénjié : "Lovers' Day"), I finally got to culminate my month-long vacation and celebrate my first Chinese New Year!  It was special.

(Forgive us foreigners for looking ridiculous in this picture)

My friend Ross and I were invited by a friend of ours, 海洋 (hǎiyáng : "Ocean", not pictured above) to have dinner with his family for the new year, which I was pretty excited about, although I felt a little bit strange.  I felt it would be like my family having strangers over for Christmas; I had never met his parents before, and being a foreigner as well, I felt I would be more than a little out of place.  Which, of course, I was.  But hey, I'm pretty much always out of place here, so no worries, right?

Anyways, the experience itself was really interesting, and we got to experience a lot of Chinese New Year traditions, and eat lots and lots of really delicious home-cooked food, and of course be the recipients of the typical Chinese guest treatment.  Which meant, as we entered, we were basically forced to sit down, and were not allowed to do anything helpful for the rest of the evening, even if everyone else was.  Female guests, incidentally, are allowed to help; male guests are generally expected to sit around, smoke cigarettes, and wait for other people to do things for them.  Perfect. (Sarcasm.)  Anyways, after things were prepared, everyone sat down to eat this delicious meal, with the exception of the resident matriarch who continuously cooked throughout the meal, and switched out whichever dishes looked low for piping hot new ones.  I probably ate about 12 different Chinese dishes, and they were all, without exception, delicious.  So even though I felt bad for Haiyang's mom (who I absolutely loved), it was awesome. 

As we ate, we took part in another Chinese New Year tradition, dating back a glorious 27 years: watching television.  Specifically, watching the 新年晚会, or "New Years Party".  This television program is broadcast throughout the country every year from 8:00PM until just after midnight on New Years Eve, and is watched by an estimated 90%+ of families throughout mainland China (note: government-issued numbers are not to be trusted).  The sheer power of a television program controlled by the government, and watched by over 700 million nationalists is mind-boggling, and it's actually rather chilling how many of the various programs were focused on the glorious country rising up to the highest heights, supported by the glorious foundations of Mao Zedong and the communist party, etc. etc..  Although all that aside, it was also interesting trying to follow the various comedy routines, in between rousing patriotic scenes of beautiful mountainsides and huge tanks.  Luckily, at about 9:30, the power went out!  I love China.

This was actually the part when I was the happiest of the whole experience.  Haiyang's mother, aunt, and uncle all came to join us about the dinner table, and we did some good old fashioned family bonding by candlelight.  It was a great time, and I felt very lucky to have experienced it.  None of my pictures from the evening are very good, as I was taking everything hand held in the dark, but it was really very nice.

 

At around 11:00 or so, the kids (us) all left the house, and went to find a few friends of ours and walk the streets, enjoying the fireworks.  Now, I've mentioned before that the Chinese love their fireworks, but never have I experienced anything like this.  At about 11:30, the whole place erupted into some kind of war-zone, with huge fireworks being lit off in the midst of tall buildings, small children walking around in packs unsupervised with lighters and explosives, and of course my favorite, people lighting firecrackers and then dropping them out of their upper-story windows.  It was awesome!

I didn't get any good pictures of fireworks, but just trust me, there were lots of them, ready to usher in The Year of the Tiger.

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Traffic: It's interesting, I swear.

 

One of the things I felt really set Beijing apart from Xuchang was the typical street scene.  In the bigger cities in China, as in the picture above, you get actual traffic, the likes of which I'm used to.  Perhaps there's more of it than I usually see back home, but generally speaking, it's the same traffic, just expanded.  It has a flow; a sort of life of its own.  But then you compare with Xuchang, and you don't find the same traffic, only lighter.  Instead, what you find is a completely different animal.  (And, indeed, you may actually find animals.)

 

So while we were there, looking at all of the fancy cars and nice traffic patterns of Beijing, I couldn't help but harken back to some of my favorite scenes of Xuchang traffic...  like the omnipresent "three-wheeled car" (三轮车).  (It's a fancy tricycle.)

Or, another, the sort of scooter-car hybrid that I have aptly, if a bit insensitively, named the "Commie Car".  Go-Go-Gadget: Commie-mobile!

Or, my personal favorite:

And in case that picture doesn't show it clearly, here's another to compare:

Why yes, indeed, that is a six-lane highway, currently being dominated by a man and a donkey, driving a cart that looks to contain potted trees, painting supplies, and spare wheels for the woman in picture #3.  Excellent.

A friend of mine recently made a good observation, which I modified and expanded on slightly, which I think encompasses well the feeling in this rapidly growing city:

"You haven't really seen China until you've seen a brand new BMW swerve to avoid a donkey while driving the wrong way down the bike lane."

Which is, of course, entirely untrue.  But gosh it sure feels that way sometimes.

(PS: If you did not enjoy this blog post, please accept this picture of a cute puppy from the Puppy Market instead.)

好久不见 : Chinese for "I am a slacker".

To be honest I never really liked spending a lot of time listening to people apologize for being away for so long, so I'm going to spare you a whole lot of explanation and blah blah blah, and cut to the chase: I'm back!  And I have a whooole lot more time now!  Let's start catching up on my life:

Trip to Beijing

As I mentioned long ago, I spent a weekend in Beijing with my friend Ross, which was far too short a time to really hit all of the sights, but enough to get a very basic feeling for the differences between Beijing and Xuchang.  And it really might as well be two different countries.

First, we stayed in a hostel a stone's throw** away from the forbidden city.  Not only did it come packed with warm rooms (which was amazing, and sorely needed), but you could also buy M&M's, Snickers bars, or even an omelette with cheese!  It was like Heaven on Earth.

Our desire for the western foods we so craved would not be so easily sated, however, and so we quickly made it to our first real, and very authentic, meal in the Capital of the Orient.  That's right, Pizza Hut.  Where we found not only "Authentic and Exotica Pizzas", but were served by a cute Chinese elf.  Delicious and adorable.

Our culinary pursuits of course were not limited to our long-lost cheese and sweets, however.  We also ate the famous Beijing Roast Duck in a fancy restaurant, and then made our way to a couple of the street markets, where there were lots of interesting things to eat.  And buy, if you're into that.

One of my favorites was the Purveyor Of Interesting Creatures On Sticks that we found in one of the  markets.  I really wish I had gotten better pictures or even a video of this guy's stock, because not only were there a great deal of Interesting Creatures (On Sticks!), but most of them were still wiggling!  It was awesome.  Needless to say I treated us to a nice stick of wriggly scorpions.  Yum!

(Unfortunately, I must clarify that the scorpions were not actually wriggling at the time of eating.  Off by about 10 seconds in hot oil!)

(Cultural experience trumps vegetarianism every time!  Do scorpions even count?)

This picture of Ross about to put strange things into his mouth is dedicated to his mother, who occasionally stops by here to read this blog.  Hi Mrs. Heath!

Surprisingly, in addition to eating, we also did some other stuff in Beijing, like going to Tiananmen square, and taking obligatory touristy pictures.  Hooray!

 

  

 

The rest of the trip, aside from the concert you've already heard about, turned out to be fairly uneventful, with the notable exception of me being lost by myself in the city afterwards, and wandering through a number of Hutongs from about 1am until 2:30am in the frigid, frigid evening.  Who says life isn't interesting?

For the rest of my interesting life, you will have to wait for the next post!  Let's all cross our fingers that will come sooner this time!


** - For the sake of literary accuracy, I feel I ought to qualify this statement by saying it would probably have to be a rather small stone, and even then, a pretty good throw, maybe from the roof.  Perhaps we should just be safe and say I have one of those Aerobie discs. I could definitely make it with that.  "An Aerobie's throw away™"!

Owl City Love

Busy, busy, busy these days!

So, last week, I finally got some time to get out of the Xuchang for the weekend, to go and see my favorite band ever lately, live in Beijing!  The band's name is Owl City, and they are wonderful in (almost) every way.

Firstly, I absolutely love this band.  I accidentally came upon "their" music about a year ago (Owl City is actually almost entirely one person's work, Adam Young), shortly before they signed on to a major record label and got really popular in America really fast.   Unfortunately I left the country shortly after, and thought I would have to wait a long time before I got the opportunity to actually catch a live show.  So imagine my surprise when I discovered that he was doing a four-show tour of China while I was here.  Truly, heaven doth smile brightly upon me.

One reason I was surprised about this China tour is that because of my location here in small-town China, I forget that the country has a fairly large international population.  Which of course, led to the first way in which the concert was different from my expectations: there were a whole lot of Americans there.  In fact, as with a lot of places in Beijing, it was hard to remember sometimes that I was still in China at all.  This was really not even remotely similar to the 20-strong crowd of mostly-Chinese people that I was expecting.  It was certainly interesting, though, being American again for an evening.

The other thing that was notable about the concert, unfortunately, was that Owl City is not really a notably good live show.  You can trust me on this one, being a huge fan and all.  I guess I wasn't terribly surprised by this, as I had wondered before I saw it how a single guy with a phenomenal talent for post-production, and a tendency to synthesize his voice, was going to pull off a good live show.  Well, the truth is, he wasn't.  Ah, well, I still had a good time!

I guess in short, I would say that if you are not already a pretty big fan of Owl City, don't expect the concert to turn you on.  However, if you happen to listen to his actual recordings, expect your heart to melt into a pool of warm fuzzy happiness.

This week only! (Or maybe longer if you're lucky)

I have placed a few of my favorite songs up on the interwebs for your listening pleasure.  They will probably be taken down soon, or whenever I feel like it.  Just to warn you.  I highly suggest taking a listen if you haven't already.

(Edit: Downloads removed)

Hot Air Balloon

Fireflies

Hello Seattle

The Bird and the Worm

The Saltwater Room

And, completely hypocritically, I would like to suggest that if you really like his music, you might want to consider buying some of it!  I know if I were him, I would probably appreciate it.

(Full post on my trip to Beijing coming soon!)

Trapped in the Closet. Err, I mean, Library, Trapped in the Library!

No pictures in this post!  (Lame!)

So, it appears that blogging has become a weekend activity.  This, of course, is no big deal, dear readers, for I am provided with the amazing ability to time my posts as I please, leaving no-one the wiser as to my actual writing habits (so sneaky!).  However, this weekend, I found a much more addictive way to waste a bit of time!

In the past three days, outside of social and gastronimical obligations, I have primarily split my time reading The Three Musketeers, and the first one thousand pages (literally!) of the online comic Questionable Content.  If you are mildly into great literature or web geekery, I suggest both to you, although if you're going for QC, be patient, as the comic gets addictively interesting around the 200 mark.

Also, if that's not enough web-dorkiness for you, you should also be reading the occasional XKCD (though I feel a bit trite saying so), and if you're into things that are ridiculously awesome, than you might also enjoy the annals of Dr. Mcninja.

Actual story time

Not to be completely wrapped up in my uninteresting geekiness, I thought I might also relate a quick anecdote from my recent life.

One interesting little fact about China that I didn't know about before I came was that the society, at least locally, is highly predisposed to take a little siesta each afternoon.  Consequently, right around the 1:00 mark, the campus turns into a ghost town (relatively speaking; China has way too many people for that to actually happen).  The interesting thing is, almost none of the local shops or restaurants ever actually closes in the afternoon; if you need anything, you just walk in and wake up the owner, who is probably drooling behind the counter.  This sometimes makes one seriously reconsider just how much they need that little snack, or possibly lunch.

One other effect of the afternoon siesta that I recently discovered is that the big library on campus closes from about 1:00-ish to about 2:30-ish every day.  I discovered this, of course, the hard way.

As I am often wont to do, I found myself one afternoon lazing on the roof of the library, studying Chinese and trying to soak up a few rays through my 4 layers of clothing.  However, when I decided I wanted to go home, I found that not only were the main front doors locked, but the entire first floor was devoid of people.  Slightly panicky, I made my way downstairs to the lower doors, back doors, and side doors, all of which I found locked as well.  Eventually, however, I ran into a large study-room on the ground floor that had a few students scattered about, some studying, some out cold.  Thinking myself saved, I struck up a conversation with one of the students that went something like this:

Me: "Excuse me, can you tell me where the exit is?"

Student: "Sure, it's right over there."

Me: "Oh, but that door's locked on the inside, too.  How do I get out?"

Student: "Oh yeah, that's no problem.  There's a guy that comes around 2:30 to open the doors again."

Me: "What??  Wait, so all the doors are locked?  From both sides??"

Student: "Yeah, they come in about an hour to open everything again."

Me: "So I just have to wait?  What if someone has to get out?"

Student: "I'm not really sure.  We're just studying down here, and a guy comes and unlocks the doors around 2:30."

Me: "But I have class at 2:30!"

Student: "Hmm.  I don't know.  Maybe he will come early?"

China is crazy!  Luckily the guy did come a few minutes early, and I was able to run off to class in time, but it's just crazy to imagine those students getting locked in for a couple hours, with no clear way out.  I feel like there must be a way somehow, but having lived here for awhile, a complete lack of a viable exit would not really surprise me.  And what if it was closing for the night and you got trapped in?

Worth the experiment for the blog post, I wonder...?

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope everyone in the States had a wonderful time on this lovely holiday based around eating.  I, myself, forgot about it entirely until I was reminded by my thoughtful students, at which point I had the most intense craving for Western food I've had since I got here.  For those who don't know me, I must explain here that Pumpkin Pie is one of my top three favorite foods in the whole world, and that this is a holiday where it is traditional for me to eat it until I get sick.  Best holiday ever!

So, after I was reminded by my students, I decided I would have to celebrate in the best way that I could.  So, we rowdied up all of the Americans in the city (three!), one Indian, and two Brits, and all headed across the street to the local "Western Cafe", to see what we could find.  Well, what we found was a menu that was (slightly awkwardly) translated into English, and listed "Pumpkin Pie" under the desserts section!  You cannot imagine my excitement.

I should have known it was far too good to be true, and instead of the delicious American-style pie I was expecting, we got these little grease-soaked pumpkin biscuits instead:

Ah, well, we'll call it Pumpkin Pie With Chinese Characteristics.  It was at least something to remind us of home, and was kindly stamped with the Chinese characters for Happiness, Long Life, Money etc.  Thanks for the effort, guys.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Ahhhh! Snow!

Please, allow me to preface this post by saying that I am a born-and-raised Floridian, and that it hasn't snowed in Florida since I was 5 years old.  Please forgive any excess of exclamation points.  Additionally, I am freezing, so I am typing in gloves; please forgive any typos as well.  And without further ado,

WOOOOOOOOOO!!! 

Ah.  Much better, thank you.

So, about a week ago I woke up to the following terrifying weather report on my computer: 

 What I found outside my window, though, was far more glorious!
(And far less depressing!)

Naturally, I did as any responsible teacher would do in my situation, and spent the whole day playing outside and taking pictures:

(A few friends and I pose for the camera.  You might recognize Mao Yeye on the left (remember her?).  Also pictured is Mani from India, and Zhijuan, formerly known in English as "Better".)

First things first, I rounded up a few of my friends and made up for all of the standard fun-in-the-snow time that I missed as a kid.  It was awesome.  We had snowball fights, made snow angels, and even tried in vain to make a snowman!  Classic!  One of my favorite activities, though, was the series of snow races across the incredibly slick polished marble that the school has inexplicably laid down everywhere:

After some general horseplay, I managed to convince the braver souls to join me on a journey to the highest rooftop we could find, so we could get a nice view of the campus.  This conveniently happened to be the library we were playing in front of:

Interestingly, as opposed to the locked doors I'm used to, in Xuchang apparently you can just walk up to the roof of most buildings without any issue.  Most likely highly related, the idea of going to the roof for anything but official business doesn't seem to cross the minds of the Chinese people I meet. That is, of course, until I meet them.

After a long time of frolicking and fun, I eventually had a class scheduled in the afternoon that I felt mildly responsible for, and felt I needed to attend.  Luckily, I have a lot of freedom with my curriculum.

"Class, today we are going to go outside and learn about 'weather'"

Best teacher ever.

(If you are reading the Sinocopia main page, make your way to the post page for a few more of my favorite photos from the day!)