Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 5th

Day 8 – June 5^th

Woke up at 6 for some ungodly reason… Began working on the powerpoint presentation for our class on American Summer Fun, Got a text from Yasmina for breakfast. We hit up the noodle shop from before and got the same thing. It was delicious. I really wish this rain would go away but apparently it’s been like a drought lately so the rain is welcomed at the same time.

My new teaching partner for the summer vacation class, Brandon, came by around noon. I learned that he is Jason’s older brother who also went to our school. He studied Economics and ASLC, an interesting combination to say the least. He also reads manga, which is really interesting, I certainly didn’t expect that to be a common interest but then again I hardly expect much from people besides decency. At least I try to.

Anyway we finished up the powerpoint with minutes to spare when we realized we probably can’t use some of the videos. The videos would have just been a nice extra to add onto the lecture but everyone seemed at the least vaguely interested. I may have talked too quickly again but this was in excitement to talk about vacationing. People seemed interested in the wooden roller coaster the Beast. I think they were really concerned for their safety on such a ride.

We had to switch classes with Drew who was also switched up/left on his own because Yasmina had to go to her job stuff. Apparently it went okay, which is better than nothing. 

After the classes we answered a few questions about ourselves then we were let out early enough to catch some of Drew’s class. He ended up teaching about drugs, going by definition included coffee. The students seemed really interested and surprised. They brought up some questions about just how accurate some movie depictions/stereotypes are of the drug culture like alcohol and also asked what the best tasting drug is. I have to say hands down would be alcohol and the effects so long as you aren’t abusing it can be made minor. 

We then went out for a hot pot dinner at the Little Sheep. We had chicken feet, duck intestines/sausage, bean sprouts, noodles, spinach, collard greens, fried corn and sprinkles, and numerous other things. We drank sprite, coke, and plum juice, which was all really delicious. Plum is now a favorite juice of mine.

The hot pot was split into 2 parts: a spicy and a non-spicy part. I think it was towards the end that I could feel the spicy. It was really good. We also had like… these krill/shrimp burgers? In the sense that you mash something together and then cook it up. We dumped bits of the shrimp stuff into the hot pot andthen we were able to eat some within seconds.

We also had a lot of beef and some other meat, which was all just great. I don’t think I have eaten that much meat before coming to China. Honestly that was more meat than I have had in a week. Can’t say that the chicken feet had much meat too it. The duck intestines were really chewy and when you nomm’d on ‘em it sounded really crunchy in your mouth. It was really odd for me so I didn’t eat too much of it.

Another part of the restaurant is to make your own sauces. I put chives, kawemisaky sauce, spicy beef sauce, and garlic into mine. I should have added more of the spicy sauce but oh well. In general it was similar to Fire and Ice.

After we finished eating we began playing a number game. The point of the game was to not guess the actual number. Guessing the number landed you a punishment. It is similar to truth or dare. I had to go sing Row Your Boat to a random couple in the restaurant and take a picture with someone like they were family. Drew was asked personal questions by the entire group (10 people total), some were innocent fun and the others were … fun and hilarious. Like which girl do you like the most for ____. He ended up using it for study partner.

After doing a couple of rounds of this we played Sheep! Everyone’s faces are really sore I am sure. The game went on for a long time and I decided to cut it to the mini game we would play at the end of Waah!

After finishing that game we exchanged emails and took tons of pictures. It was so nice.

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 4th

Day 7 – June 4^th

Woke up to find an opened umbrella with my name written on a note card on top of it. A Yi’s such a sweetie! Augh how much she tries to take care of me (and clearly succeeds) is awesome.

Although the storm/rain was a drain on the rest of my day. In fact it had interrupted my sleep as I do recall. Fairly unpleasant if I may say so.

Anyway only had one class as students did not sign up for the spa class. This meant I could go to the party at Zhejiang University with the others. I quickly set about this endeavor only to realize I had taken the 301 the completely wrong direction. I ended up at the end point for the buses. I was a bit terrified and sent a panic stricken text to J.C. then proceeded to walk aimlessly towards the buses I saw still in the area. I understood my folly and found a 301 leaving the area. It quickly took me by my place of work and then onwards.

Something weird I’ve noticed about the men… They don’t either seem to care that their flies are open/half done or are aware. Considering they piss and spit wherever they please (yes this included the bus I was in, in fact he spat right next to me) I doubt that it is the latter.

Made it to Zhejiang University, the campus is huge but because of the rain I didn’t want to take a picture. It was ugly and I like my camera. Once I arrived I was told to do some sort of improv because I was late. ><’ There were a lot of Chinese students and they all seemed pretty interested in us. It ended up being Drew, Yasmina, and I as well as Annika. Met Brandon Kung, Jason’s brother, and another foreign teacher? Matthew. They had been playing Waa, never have I ever, and some other games. We did a “boat” race  where we had to gather the items the MCs listed. At one point they called for a boy, Drew was on our team and quite easily the tallest guy in the party, which really helped us in the end. They also asked for shoes, laptops, and a jacket. I ran around without a shoe and tossed out my jacket for the win. It was a lot of fun, definitely something I want to take back to the states as ice breakers. Or even as a language game. 

After playing these games, we performed a bit of an improvised skit singing Mulan’s Let’s get down to Business…. It was… okay…? Um I supposedly played the part of Mulan. It was more of a joint effort with Yasmina but either way we were left to dry as we kind of gestured and ran around the stage in front of university students. We felt very silly singing and motioning things that we associated with the words. Ended up doing a gesture like a Tsunami for Great Typhoon. I’m not sure why but it worked for our purposes. We also gestured to ourselves for “did they send me daughters?” then pointed to the guys who were in the back hiding from the limelight. It was really silly and a lot of fun. I doubt the students really understood what we were going on about, they seemed fairly clueless. Afterwards they even asked some of us what we were singing/dancing/flailing to. It was seriously embarrassing but I guess that doesn’t matter seeing as we all had made fools of ourselves earlier. 

We then ate Zhong zhu… ? A rice triangle ball with either: pork meat, eggs, or red beans that was wrapped in a couple of large leaves similar in appearance to dried corn husks. I first ate a red bean one, which reminded me of the red bean ice cream popsicles Omma used to get for me from the Korean Market, later I grabbed one filled with pork. They were really delicious. The rice they used was insanely sticky.

While we ate we took the time to talk to the various students; I met a girl named Anniey (Annie) spelled her own special way who invited me to a movie later on next week. I don’t know that I’ll be able to easily navigate back from Xiaoshen but we’ll see how that goes. Maybe we can find a halfway point or something.

After eating we listened to Sea Lion (yes that’s her English name apparently – I find this to be super awesome) perform Ambush from Ten Sides – played on the traditional Chinese instrument the Pi Pa (also a fruit). It is considered a masterpiece much like Flight of a Bumblebee according to certain sources – i.e. Drew googling some bits instead of preparing for his class. The song/performance was amazing. I think that girl would be a killer on the banjo/guitar. The Pi pa is a really intense instrument as well. I wish her luck in all of her endeavors. 

When we left the University the others mentioned food… I was very envious. It would appear that staying in Hangzhou would have been much nicer to my stomach (and possibly wallet) as I would have been able to check out the sights and places to eat with them. It would also have just been nice to have a consistent friendly face but such is life. Apparently Yasmina has been hunting down all of the bakeries. Drew tried a century egg and overall found goodness.

I feel like I’ve missed out on a lot for having been gone for a week. I really did miss them after being gone for so little time. I guess I just missed having people who were fresh to the whole China thing around me. J.C. and Zack are great though cynical especially in regards to the job. Drew hasn’t done much with Linkman it would appear. Jim seems to keep better tabs on him than me but I guess that might be linked to the fact that he has Annika to run to and I have A Yi who treats me like kin.