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Monday, January 30, 2006
Spring Festival Madness
popular during the winter season because the sugar coating the fruits would stay hard.
Spring Festival is the most important festival in China. When I tried to go shopping a few days before the event, it was almost like Divisoria mall the day before Christmas.
Spring Festival Purchases
I think pink looks good on me. I do not have enough pink tops. This is to remedy that problem.
My Tinola
I dragged myself out of bed with the intention of going to the gym and working out. It's been a month since I last visited the gym and I didn't want my membership card to go to waste. I have my whole day planned. In fact, I even made a list last night. 1. work out. 2. LongShou Market to have my DVD player fixed. It's supposed to have a one-year warranty but then again, this is China so I'm hoping that that's true. 3. Since I'll be in LongShou Market, which is something like Divisoria's 168, I might as well look around at the interesting things they have for sale. 4. check out the phones Joyce was asking me about. 5. buy bluetooth, again an errand from Joyce. 6. hang out at Karen Coffee and do some writing.
I called up Wendy to see what time she could go to LongShou with me. I do not know how to say "warranty" in Chinese and I figured I should have someone Chinese beside me when I go to the store where I bought the player from. Her mom picked up the phone and since they sound the same, I started talking to her in English. I thought it was Wendy! Of course she didn't understand a word. It turned out that Wendy left her phone at home. And because this was totally unexpected, I panicked and all my Chinese flew out the window. Thankfully, she realized who I was and perhaps thinking how futile it was to have a conversation with me, she hung up in midsentence.
Fifteen minutes later, Wendy called. I was all dressed up ready to leave the house when she told me that LongShou is closed because of the holiday. Wow, when they said that Spring Festival is big, I didn't realize it was this big. Shops are closed for days! So basically, everything's closed except for XingLong, the biggest and newest department store in TieLing. I suppose I could do some grocery shopping at XingLong. I hadn't left the house for days and I was beginning to run out of food too. But then I remembered I still haven't cooked my tinola. It was the perfect time to do it.
Let it be put on record that I had never cooked tinola in all my life. I was/am terrified of actually cooking anything because I'd always been afraid that I'd just be wasting the food if it turned out inedible. But I had to conquer my fear sometime so I got all the ingredients out of the ref and started chopping garlic, ginger and onions. Should there be onions in tinola?
I swear to god, my tinola turned out great! It tasted like tinola! Even without papaya! It did not start out promising. As I was looking at all the ingredients swimming around the pot, I must admit it did not look like tinola at all. It just looked like, well, a mess all swirling about. I was actually ready to stop referring to it as tinola. I was thinking of a new name to call it, something less assuming. Something like, um, chicken soup. So I let it boil and boil and boil, until it actually started smelling like tinola. There was hope! It was time for the taste test. Something was missing. No patis! Uh oh, there was absolutely no way I could find patis in China so I put salt and tasted it again. Better. More salt. Just a tiny bit more until yes, it finally was tinola. I could not believe I was actually successful! Of course I will have to cook hundreds of tinolas more to rival Akoh's tinola, but hey, there is still hope for me! I can cook!!!
And as most of you know, after a good meal I have to go to the bathroom. My digestive system is very efficient. I promise to post pictures. Not of the digested tinola, of course. I am so gross! Hahahaha!
Sunday, January 29, 2006
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Spring Festival 2
My phone rang at around 6pm. It was Rain asking what I was doing and if I wanted to hang out at Sunrise's parents' place. Having no plans for the night except for sleeping, I said ok. We had a great dinner at Sunrise's, chatted up his parents and grandma, then we went off to buy fireworks.
I was never a participant at fireworks-lighting in my country. There were too many images of blown up fingers, missing limbs, and burned faces on TV each year to make it worth lighting an explosive. When it was the new year back home, I made it a point that I was indoors, with the windows and doors closed so the smoke wouldn't come in, and to reduce the level of noise as well. You'd probably find me eating. Or sleeping, with the reminder for someone to wake me up a few minutes before midnight. Or I could also be watching the New Year countdown on TV. I could be doing so many things save that I was safely inside the house.
But then there came China. Or more appropriately, I came to China. I was at first reluctant to participate in this fireworks madness, but being with two grown up men who suddenly turned into little boys at the sight of fireworks, I was left with little choice. In no time, I was also eagerly looking for things we could blow up. Interesting finds that we had: a potato, an egg, a styro, a plastic bottle, a bulb, oranges. We were running around the neighborhood like twelve-year old kids, vandalizing posters so we could have something to wrap our explosives in and at one time even plotting to blow up a window in an abandoned building.
I must note that I still think that the pinoy new year is noisier and far more dangerous. The only difference for me is that I was actually participating in the noise and danger here in China so that made it more dangerous for me. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised that it was almost comparable to our fireworks back home. After all, they invented it.
Once we had our share of our juvenile fun, we went to Sunrise and Fashion's house, which was actually very near Sunrise's parents' house. We watched TV and waited for ZhaoBenShan to appear onscreen. This was the first time that I would actually lay eyes on the famous ZhaoBenShan so I was a little excited. A little backgrounder: I have been told many times since I came here that ZhaoBenShan is a "Chinese superstar" who used to be a farmer in TieLing. He is well-known and well-loved all throughout China, and he uses the DongBei, specifically TieLing, dialect in his comedy routines. When I finally saw him, I could understand perfectly why. He has the same charisma as Dolphy. In fact, if he weren't talking in Chinese, I would have thought he was Dolphy. I did not get more than half of what was being said but yes, I like him. ZhaoBenShan rules!
After watching ZhaoBenShan's skit, we went back to Sunrise's parents' house to eat dumplings. Dumplings are traditionally eaten during the Spring Festival. There's a Chinese saying that goes something like, "there's nothing more delicious than dumplings." I was told that in the olden days when people were so poor, the only time they could eat dumplings was on the Spring Festival. Everytime I hear stories like these (It's not even a story. It was just something that was told in passing), I always think of Angkong and how it must have been for him growing up in impoverished China and leaving everything to start a new life in a country that was free but was not always kind to him and people like him. On a ligther note, nope, no tikoy here. Tikoys must be a tradition from the southern parts because I have not seen a single one here. I really have to go and check out Fujian one day.
As we were stuffing ourselves with the dumplings, we totally missed the countdown and rushed to the TV a few seconds too late. Mei shi, we went back to the kitchen and ate some more. The 29th is also Rain's birthday and he was born in the Year of the Dog. Somebody once told me that if it's your year, you have to be careful because you'll be unlucky.
We went back to Fashion's home to hang out some more. We fooled around with the computer, played some cards, talked, they drank beer, etc. Sunrise showed me a red sash-like thing that he wears for protection. It turned out that Rain, Sunrise and Fashion were all born in the Year of the Dog. Rain explained that they had to wear something red to ward off I'm not sure, evil spirits, I guess. True enough, Fashion's red underwear was peeking out of his underpants. Rain said he also has a similar red sash but that he just wears red socks. I looked at his foot. Nope, he wasn't wearing them.
I wasn't there when it happened because I was in the bathroom. When I came out, there was a flurry of activity in the living room. It was flooded and Sunrise was trying to stop the water spurting out of the radiator. Because we never need a heating equipment back home, allow me to explain a little. There's this government regulated heating system that is mainly a big piece of metal that has hot water inside. I personally love these warm objects because, well, they're warm.
What happened was, as Rain explained to me, he picked up the guitar right next to the radiator. With the guitar, he accidentally and ever so lightly hit the radiator when suddenly, water was spurting out of it. It was quite busy after that since someone had to constantly hold the hole and try to lessen the amount of water flowing out. The basin had to continually be emptied, and the floor mopped (although there was no mop so we had to wipe and squeeze, wipe and squeeze with rags). The "repairman" came and told us that somebody would come to fix it the next day. He did turn off the water though so at least Sunrise and Fashion could sleep without the fear of drowning. They'd just have to take care not to freeze to death. Rain felt so horrible about it that he must have apologized a hundred times to both Fashion and Sunrise.
He should've worn his red socks. What was he thinking? Just because he's a foreigner the evil spirits would spare him?
I got home at around 3:45am. See, there's no need to make plans in China. Things just happen.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Spring Festival
27 January. To celebrate the first day of my Spring Festival holiday, I went shopping. There's this pair of Giordano corduroy pants that I've been thinking of buying for the past month or so. Of course I had to ask Joyce, since she used to work at Giordano Philippines, first how much it would be back home and I was assured that it's at least P500 cheaper here. Whee! I love China!
I did not find the Giordano outlet. I'm sure I would have if I persisted but there were so many other stores lined up on the street and I got distracted from my mission. I ended up buying four Kamiseta-like blouses, at half the price if I did buy them from Kamiseta. I know, I know, four is a little too much but I can't help it if everything I tried on looked good on me. Sigh. Then I bought a bra and a sleeveless shirt from an underwear store that spells lingerie as "langerie". Can't blame them, really. Why are bras always so expensive? It's hard enough to find good ones, then when you do, they're usually even more expensive than a shirt or a blouse. Not fair!
At the underwear store, they were having a little debate on which country I was from until somebody finally asked me if I were Korean. "Bu shi." "Then what country are you from?" I can't remember how she asked it but that was what she meant. "FeiLiPin." "Oh!" Nods all around the shop. A young woman came forward to help the woman who was originally assisting me. I was asking if there was a similar shirt without the Chinese words prominently written on the chest area. I wouldn't have minded too much if they were written in Chinese characters, but they were in Pinyin so it kind of took the fun out of it. Anyway, there wasn't. I asked what the words mean and the woman said something I didn't understand then showed me the tag where the Chinese characters were written. I remembered a story wherein a student was wearing a shirt with "fuck" written all over. When she was told what it meant by her foreign teacher, she almost died of embarrassment. "The brand," I said under my breath. The young woman said, "Yes, the brand!" I looked at her, pleasantly surprised, "You can speak English!" It was supposed to be a question but it came out more like a statement of relief. In this city, it is very hard to find anyone who can speak English so you'll have to understand my joy everytime I find someone who can. It turned out that she was the owner's niece and that she was studying at so-and-so university in Beijing and was home for the Spring Festival. The woman who was assisting me chided her for not speaking up sooner and said she didn't know. Well, she thought I was Korean.
After that, I tried looking for my bus stop. I walked and walked and walked but could not find it. I wasn't really worried though since I knew I could always hail a cab once I'd decided that I was really lost. I ended up in a market that was quite close to my house. Perfect! For some time now, I'd been wanting to cook tinola. (I'm reading Noli Me Tangere, remember?) I took the list of ingredients that I got from the internet and started looking for each one. I could not find dahon ng sili, papaya nor sayote. Truthfully, I'm not really sure how dahon ng sili would look like uncooked so I just bought some leafy vegetables that I could use as substitute. For the papaya, I... um... settled for... a radish. There were no papaya nor sayote in sight! I even thought of buying eggplant instead, or cucumbers. Radish would be closer to papaya, right? Darn. I'll tell you how tinola with radish tastes like soon.
I got home, tripped over the cables that connect my DVD player to the TV, which promptly sent my player crashing to the floor so it's not working now and I'll have to get it fixed tomorrow. Then I went online and read some depressing articles.
28 January. I wanted to have the DVD player fixed today but when I asked Wendy about it, she informed me that since it's the Spring Festival, most shops are closed in the afternoon so we'll have to wait until tomorrow. She also told me that the headmaster called to ask if I have any plans for tonight. He was inviting me to have Spring Festival dinner with his family. "I don't have plans but I don't really want to see him either." Laughter on the other end of the line. "I understand. I'll just tell him you already have plans." "Thanks Wendy!"
In China, at least in TieLing, nobody really makes plans until the last minute. I'm pretty sure someone would call later to ask if I have any plans and if I want to have dinner or something. And if not, I could always just sleep. That's the plan.
For lunch, I fried a fish. Don't ask me what fish, I have no idea. But it was good and I will post pictures later. I might cook the tinola tonight. I am still a little nervous at how that might turn out. I've pretty much covered boiling and frying so I think I'm ready for something more complicated. I'll post pictures of the tinola too.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Lantern Festival 25 Jan 2006
The week before the Spring Festival (or what we commonly call the Chinese New Year), the Chinese have what they call the Lantern Festival where there are huge lanterns in different shapes lining the street. Very colorful and pretty. The coming year is the Year of the Dog.
Chinese Ice Sculptures 25 Jan 2006
Part of the celebration of Spring Festival is a display of ice sculptures. I took these pictures until my fingers couldn't move due to extreme cold. You will notice a lot of fish in different shapes and sizes. I was told that fish symbolizes prosperity, so this is to wish for prosperity in the coming year. These are taken the same night as the Lantern Display.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Cute Chinese Guy #3
Today was hectic. Considering that I usually just stay home and sleep or sit in front of the computer most of the time, today was pretty busy. I had to attend a meeting at 1:30 in the afternoon which I thought (and still think) was a stupid waste of time. The meeting was in Chinese and I didn't really care enough to understand and pay attention. Bored, I took out my notebook and started writing. One good thing about being in a country that speaks a different language is I never have to worry about people accidentally reading what I've written. Another is that I never have to pay attention to meetings such as that because nobody even expects me to understand anyway. Really, I didn't know why I even had to be there. Totally useless!
During the meeting, I was also passing notes with two other teachers. More appropriately, they were passing notes (in Chinese) to each other and I joined them. I asked for their little notebook and read what they've written. I was getting high school flashbacks while this was going on. Fun, really. Took me back to Chemistry class. In the first part, I recognized words like "lao gong" and "hao kan" so I asked whose husband was goodlooking. It turned out that they were talking about a coat that someone's husband bought and the coat was goodlooking, not any of the husbands. In the second part, I read "Ta zhe ci huei hou... (wang)" and did not understand the last two words before the name. I underlined these two words and put an arrow and wrote "bu ming bai" and gave it back to one of my note-passing friends. She wrote "more fat." Hmm, got it. They were talking about one of the other teachers who was getting fatter. Wow, it really was high school!
After the meeting, I went to my class. I had a new student who was home for the Spring Festival. That's cute Chinese guy number 3 for me. He's a senior at one of the universities in Beijing and will be graduating in June. He's taking up Computer Science and I'm sorry but for the life of me I can't remember his name now. The first time I saw him, I dismissed him as one of those nerdy and boring Chinese guys. In class though, he was nerdy but in a cute kind of nerdy way. And he had a sense of humor. And an adorable smile. And a nice voice. And a great complexion. Yes, in less than two hours, I could tell that he's extremely intelligent, funny, sensitive, charming, kindhearted, intuitive, maybe sweet. And he probably has a girlfriend. Sigh.
After class, my assistant and I had to go to a Spring Festival dinner for the teachers. As we're all going the same way, my assistant asked him to ride with us. I think she likes him too! I'm not really competitive about things like this. She can have him. I don't mind. :p
After class, he asked me if I'd heard of the Chinese aptitude test in Beijing for foreigners. I hadn't but it sounded interesting and I would like to take it one day just to see which level I'm in. We talked a little more in the cab. He said I should go to Beijing one of these days because it's a really nice place. Well, I do want to go there and take a look around. Plus, if I want to take formal classes in Chinese, I suppose that's the place to go. So anyway, I told him this and he excitedly said I should go and look for him. You should've seen how his face lit up, he was so cute!
No reason to get all excited though. He's only 23 (I know I know, three years isn't much but it still feels a little weird) and he's going back to Beijing after the winter break. So anyway, there goes cute guy number three.
After that dinner, I came home and checked my mails, all the usual stuff when Rain called. He's back! He went home for Christmas and also to renew his visa so he was gone for a month. This led to dinner number two. Now that he's back, I'm expecting my calendar to be a bit busier since he's the party organizer around here. He was saying that he was actually worried about my social life while he was gone. He knows how I can stay in front of the computer for hours and shut out the rest of the world. He most probably won't be teaching at WaiYan though because of problems with the headmaster which I can totally understand.
So finally, I'm home and writing. And I need to go to bed. I'm dozing off as I write this.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Sunday, January 22, 2006
A Night of Dumplings 22 Jan 2006
It's Xiao Nian, literally, Small Year. My little sister's family came to my house and made dumplings. Yummy! Home-cooked food is the best.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Something to let you know I'm still alive
Truth be told, I don't really have anything to write about so this will be a free-writing sort of thing. That's fair enough warning, I guess, in case you start muttering that this entry isn't really going anywhere. Anyway, I'm writing eventhough there's really nothing to write about because I just feel like it. I haven't posted for a while and I'm sure you're all wondering if I'm still alive. Yes I am although barely.
This week has been ultra-busy. (I just wanted to say ultra because I don't think I've ever used that word before except for Tide Ultra. Hahaha! Funny why I thought of Tide Ultra just now. Oh, I have a student named Tide. Maybe that's where my brain made the connection.) I have more than 30 hours of classes this week because we're having the classes in advance so we can have a vacation for the Spring Festival. (Spring Festival is what we usually call Chinese New Year. But since they are Chinese, they probably don't think of it that way.) There is more to this story but I'm not sure if this is the best place to write it or not. Maybe it'll come up again later.
Which now brings me to my plans for the future (I know you don't really see the connection but I do. I'm not really in the mood to explain because I'm just going to rant about it so just trust me that that really leads me to my plans for the future). From the time I came here to about a week ago, I was undecided on what I wanted to do. After my contract with WaiYan, I was thinking of doing any one of the following things: 1. renew my contract and extend my stay in this city. 2. move to another part of China (most probably Beijing since I still have a standing offer of sorts at one of the universities there). 3. go to another country and be more adventurous (as if being in China isn't adventurous enough). 4. go back home and stay there forever and ever amen.
I still am undecided but I have since scratched one of the options off the list. I don't think I will take option number one. While I love TieLing and I've made really great friends here, I think I've come to that point when I have grown too tired of having to constantly negotiate for every little thing that I feel I deserve. (See, I knew it'll come up again. Here is the part where I rant.) The most recent of this negotiation has something to do with the making up for the will-be-missed classes for Spring Festival. I agreed to the horrendously overworked week because I was told that this will give me a long vacation. One that would and should start on Monday, the 23rd of January, and end in the 7th of February. So here I am this whole week barely having time to have lunch rushing from one branch of the school to the other all the while thinking that this too, shall pass. I was having a mental countdown. Last night, though, they opened a new class for me, an adult class; and I did enjoy talking to my students or more appropriately having a one-sided conversation most of the time as most of them were too shy to say anything. After the class, I overheard the office lady and some of the students talking about the schedule. The school was/is planning on having it on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, okay so far, meaning there will be classes on the 24th, 26th and 28th. What the fuck?! I told the office lady that she said I won't have classes beginning the 23rd. Smiling, she said, that's for the children's classes. Bullshit. This is the reason why I don't think I should ever own a gun. It doesn't end there. Today, I was told that I'll have classes on two other days on that same week at the other branch. Okay, give me that gun. Now.
Actually, a few hours ago I was furious. Right now I'm just drained. There is this eerie sense of calmness in me. Maybe a knife will do, what do you think? I just feel it might help them at being a little consistent with their words? I'm trying to be helpful here, really.
I would love to talk about the issues on the other options but I think I have to do something about this overwhelming calmness in me. Something makes me sense that it's not healthy. Oh and yeah, I have classes from 830 in the morning until 630 at night tomorrow. It might be a good idea to sleep while I still can.
I swear I didn't know this is how this entry would turn out. So I guess I did have something to write about. Let's see who will be stupid enough to make me explode tomorrow.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
The Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://inq7.net
Being away from home does not have to mean being out of touch. Thank god, and the inventor of the Internet, for the what else but the Internet! This is where I read about the entertaining circus, also known as news, in my country.
Being away from home does not have to mean being out of touch. Thank god, and the inventor of the Internet, for the what else but the Internet! This is where I read about the entertaining circus, also known as news, in my country.
Sunday, January 15, 2006
Stupid Calendar
I am soooo mad!
Here I was perfectly happy in my own little world in front of my computer when I heard a knock on my door. I took a peek and saw a tiny woman outside. She seemed harmless enough so I opened the door. It turned out that she was selling calendars. I politely said, no, thank you, I don't want one and tried to close the door. Because the door opens away from me, I couldn't close it without her stepping aside. She was standing between me and my door.
She kept on pushing a stupid red calendar with a drawing of a chubby man with long moustache to my hand. She proceeded to tell me the advantages of having a calendar in the house, and not just any calendar but this one with the stupid red Chinese characters and equally stupid red drawings which, I am assuming by the way she was talking and pointing at them, would bring me luck and happiness for the rest of the stupid year. I repeatedly said no, I don't want it, I don't need it, I'm busy, please go away. This went on for a long time. She said it only costs 1RMB and even showed me a 1RMB bill.
She managed to step into my house. She was very insistent. At one point, I started to be scared of her. She could just push me away and grab my bag, which was conveniently within her reach, and run. She even tapped it a few times when she was asking for the money. And I wouldn't be able to chase her because I wasn't wearing enough clothes to be outdoors, chasing a stupid woman with her stupid calendars.
I gently pushed her but she was surprisingly heavy for such a small woman. And she smelled bad. Plus she was coughing at my face that I got really disgusted and gave in. I gave her 1RMB for the stupid useless calendar. When I handed her the coin, she asked for one more, holding up two fingers. She said it was 2RMB. The nerve!!! This made me really mad. I reached for my money and said, then I don't want it. You said 1! She had the coin securely in her hand. She just turned around and went upstairs to undoubtedly the next victim. But one more equipped for battles such as this. I feel so angry and helpless and I want to slam her head to the wall!
Grrrr!!! I am never opening my door to anyone ever again!!!
Friday, January 13, 2006
Thursday, January 12, 2006
In Pain
As I type this, let it be known that my left arm still hurts from the 3-day torture that it had to undergo because of my lingering illness. I am both cursing in all the languages that I can remember curse words of, at the same time calling on all the saints that I can think of. These must be the effects of both the drug which was passing through my veins very painfully while I read Noli Me Tangere, whose words seeped into my brain quite pleasurably I must say. At one point, I did not know whether I was weeping for the lot of poor Sisa as she waited for her sons to come home, or I was weeping for my poor wretched vein which was about ready to burst judging from the degree of pain it had to suffer. Yes, it is still very very painful. It wasn't this painful yesterday or the other day. My vein must have reached its limit. It says, enough! Enough or I will revolt!
I started to feel pain when swallowing on Friday. As how I usually deal with my illnesses, I ignored it and expected it to go away. It became increasingly painful though. By Sunday, my birthday, people in school had found out that I was sick and offered all sorts of medicines which I gratefully accepted. I was also brought to a clinic to buy a montrous-looking vitamin in two bottles enclosed in a big box to help me "be healthier". (Pictures on 'my images') I felt a slight fever by night time and started taking antibiotics, ones that I brought from the Philippines, along with various Chinese pills and whatnots. For a couple of days, I felt a little better as my throat did not seem to hurt as much but I also felt that my fever was not going away. By Wednesday, I'd run out of antibiotics. I asked Wendy how to say 'antibiotics' in Chinese and told her that I'd call her and let her talk to the salespeople in the drugstore once I get there. She, in turn, convinced me to take the lethal injection. Yes, it sounded like the death penalty to me.
Earlier in my stay in this country, I had in many different occasions expressed my absolute fear of this procedure. I did so again that Wednesday morning. I said no, begged, more precisely. "No Wendy, please don't make me do this." She laughed! "It will only hurt a little." "Ha! I've heard that before. I won't be fooled." "You've been sick for a long time now. The medicines you're taking are useless." She did have a point. As I seriously began to consider voluntarily subjecting myself to the pain of the needle, images flashed through my mind. The first and only time I saw this being done was on a little boy of about seven. He did not seem in pain. I was here less than two weeks and was having my hair dyed and permed and this little guy, the hairdresser's son, was in a corner looking bored as he had to stay still for maybe an hour or two. He seemed okay. I remember wondering if he was seriously sick though. Why did he have to have a needle attached to him, for crying out loud. Later on, I learned that it was/is a common practice. The drug goes straight to one's bloodstream therefore one gets well sooner. Okay, I'd rather be sick longer then. Then I thought of my friend Sunrise. He would come to dinner countless of times with his hand covered in little swabs of cotton. Sometimes he would even show me the little holes, ok wounds, the needles made while I had goosebumps. He had always seemed okay too. On the way to the clinic, Wendy tried to comfort me by saying that Rain, the other foreign teacher, would always have injections when he was sick. "Rain is a big man!" I wailed. I did not tell her about the seven-year-old kid. I have my pride.
And so we reached the clinic. It looked more like a prison cell. Or maybe a clinic in a prison. The first day was fun. I took pictures while Wendy had to explain to them that that was the first time that I was getting an injection, therefore I was very scared and that yes, I would like to have pictures to show for it. It also did not hurt so bad that day, I don't know why. While I brought my MP3 player and a book, I never was able to listen to music nor read because the nurse promptly had her nine-year-old daughter talk to me in what little English she knew. She also brought her English book and had me correct the kid's pronunciation. No wonder I was exhausted after that session. The next day was better in terms of catching up on my reading. It hurt more though. I was able to read and enjoy the first six chapters of Noli, despite a few unexpected visitors. The headmaster came with a family whose thirteen-year-old daughter will be living with me for a couple of weeks so she can "practice her English" with me. The kid is home for the Spring Festival but will be going back to England, where she had been studying for six months now, after her little vacation with me. Our little vacation starts next week. In fairness, the kid seems nice. And then today. I was able to finish until Chapter 20 of my book because today took longer. It hurt so bad that the nurse had to make the flow of the medicine a little slower, (actually not only slower. Make that as slow as possible). And believe me, it still hurts and I've been home for a couple of hours now.
And I have class in an hour so I'll have to stop complaining. Messages of sympathy are in order. I'm waiting...
Chinese Clinic
After five days of being sick, I was finally convinced to take drastic measures. Clearly, the medicines that I was taking the oral way were not helping. It was time to do it the intravenous way. Once again, don't think I was not scared...
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Sunday, January 8, 2006
Chinese Medicines
isn't that box a little too big?
I've been sick for three days now and I have collected, beginning from the last time I was sick which was about a month ago, an assortment of Chinese medicines.
Friday, January 6, 2006
Thursday, January 5, 2006
Wednesday, January 4, 2006
PuTongHua Update
I've been in China for a little over five months now. Yes, my PuTongHua has improved considerably, mainly because I'm using it now. Back home of course, it would never occur to anyone to actually talk in PuTongHua, except maybe as a joke.
I tell people that one of the reasons that I came to China is to be forced to speak, therefore learn, the language. However, it is also very much possible to be here for years and not speak a word of it too. It would have been so easy to always have someone to go with you to buy things, pay the phone bill, or maybe have someone else do these things for you. You'd be surprised at how many people are willing to help. These, obviously, are suicide when it comes to learning the language. Of course it wouldn't hurt to ask a friend's help from time to time. But it's also advisable to just go out there and start talking to people. And not in English.
I am, of course, at an advantage when it comes to learning the language. I did not come here with a blank slate. Twelve years of Chinese education should inevitably leave a mark somewhere somehow. I've actually been thinking about it a lot these days. People are thinking that it is phenomenal that I learn Chinese so fast. Um, no, I had a twelve-year headstart.
From Kindergarten to High School, I was subjected to around three hours of Chinese classes every afternoon. And it wasn't just PuTongHua (it used to be called GuoYu. I found out a few days ago that GuoYu is what they call PuTongHua in Taiwan. Hmm, we've been influenced by Taiwan more than I thought.). It was PuTongHua and everything else the school could find a teacher for. Imagine learning Geometry and Trigonometry in Chinese. Imagine reading about current events in Chinese. Imagine learning Chinese history in Chinese. Imagine reading Chinese literature in Chinese. Imagine memorizing poems (and everything else, actually) in Chinese. Imagine writing compositions (zuowen) in Chinese. Imagine singing songs in Chinese! We also had Computer and Speech classes in Chinese! Wow, even I'm overwhelmed. Yes, all these and more if you study in a Chinese school in the Philippines.
How was I able to survive all those? The answer is I wasn't. Not really.
No, I never got to learn Trigonometry in Chinese because I failed Geometry which was being taught in third year. (Come on, it was hard enough learning it in English!) And because I did not attend summer classes (it was summer!), I had to repeat my third year Chinese. Trigonometry was being taught in the fourth year. Therefore I was a senior in English but took the afternoon classes with the younger batch, which was actually the most fun Chinese class I had. And Chinese classes were never fun. Ask anyone.
So I never got to graduate in Chinese. Ironically, look who's in China now? I'm sure this is someone-up-there's idea of a sick joke.
Tweleve years is still a long time (having graduated or not), the question is how come I know very little Chinese? Of all the things that I had supposedly studied, my brain has retained maybe less than 5%. That's because I never really studied (that's why I didn't graduate :p). Come to think of it, nobody really studied (hmm, how come they graduated?). Chinese classes in the Philippines were hell (I don't know how they are now. I sincerely hope they have improved). You were asked to memorize everything. As in everything. I wish they'd just let us study Chinese history and literature in English, then I would probably still remember something now. The 5% that are still somewhere in my brain are, I'm guessing, the things I learned in Kindergarten and early grade school. I was still trying to be a good student at that point.
Wait, I think I have an idea on how to improve it. The earlier generation of Chinese in the Philippines had Hokkien/MinNanHua as their mother tongue, therefore when GuoYu/PuTongHua was being taught to them using Hokkien/MinNanHua they were able to easily understand and learn it. Our generation would have benefited more if we studied these things in English, and maybe just a little MinNanHua. I need your opinions on this, fellow survivors. The even younger generation is not at all fluent in Hokkien/MinNanHua anymore. I don't really know what to do with these kids except maybe get rid of the current affairs, Math, etc., and really just focus on the language. And not just the language but the everyday use of the language. More like our Speech classes before. Come on, who's going to talk to me about right angles and coefficients here?
While I'm reflecting on my Chinese education, I'm also trying to compare how I learned PuTongHua in the Philippines to how the Chinese students here are learning English. I think everyone will agree that PuTongHua is definitely harder to learn than English, but it's still a foreign language to them. And when I say foreign, it really means foreign. And I'm not just talking about the language here. Sometimes, they seem to be totally removed from the rest of the world.
**Funny story: During my first month here, I was walking home with my students and they were asking what I like doing in my spare time. I told them I like reading, writing, surfing the net... One student was very surprised and asked me how good my Chinese was. Not very good, I told her. She said, and I paraphrase, "Then how are you able to use the Internet?! Everything's in Chinese!" She was very serious. She did not think there were websites in English and all the other languages. She did not think there was a world outside of China. And so I tried to explain, and I was not so sure if she understood, that you can actually find a lot, so many that I can't even fathom (no I did not use that word), of websites that are not in Chinese. She still looked at me doubtfully.
Whew. Going back... They've also been studying English for a long time, just as I spent almost half of my life learning PuTongHua. Once they step outside the classroom (even before) however, they'd naturally go back to speaking in Chinese. Sounds familiar... And no matter how many times I tell them to speak in English with each other, they don't. Maybe they forget. Maybe they just think it's too much of a bother. Maybe they're shy. And I've been through all those. I can understand. Perfectly. Sigh. I tell them, watch English movies, learn English songs, and talk talk talk in English!
Of course I have to follow my own advice. I've been listening to a lot of Chinese pop songs. I especially like watching them in videoke, that way I can see how the characters are written. I'm already on my third Chinese song. I can already sing the first one even when I'm sleeping. The second, I need to have my copy (with all the zhuyin, again a Taiwanese influence on us) in order to sing it. The third I have to have my copy that has romanized pinyin (although yes, I am definitely more comfortble with zhuyin) and I'm still finding it hard to unknot my tongue as I try to sing it. But I am making progress. And it is fun.
Monday, January 2, 2006
Sunday, January 1, 2006
Still the First Day of the Year
The day hasn't ended yet, and so hasn't the madness.
I planned on spending the whole day just chilling at home, sleeping and surfing the net. That would have been good. At around 10am, one of my aunts called to ask how I was. Pretty good, I said.
"Is it very cold?"
"Yes. Very, very cold. Super cold."
"So you're just home alone?"
"Yes. I'm chatting with Achi Janice."
"Ok. Does your dad call you."
"We chat sometimes."
"Also with Joyce?"
"Yeah."
"You haven't seen the baby yet, have you?"
"Only in pictures. And when we're chatting. Through the webcam."
"Does Francis call you?"
"Um, haven't you heard? We broke up."
"What?! No, I haven't heard."
"Oh ok. We broke up."
"You broke up before you left?"
"After two months..."
"You have a boyfriend there, don't you?"
"I don't."
"Then why did you break up? He's very nice."
"We just decided that it would be better for both of us this way."
"Who broke up with whom?"
"It was a mutual decision."
"He didn't want you to go and you insisted, right?"
Now how was I supposed to answer that? What, is it my fault now? No, I suppose he didn't want me to leave. I wouldn't have wanted him to leave if the situation were reversed. But I wouldn't have stopped him, just as he didn't stop me.
I mumbled something nobody could understand. Not even myself.
"Why? When are you coming back?"
"I don't know. Next year? Oh wait, that would be this year. We're still very good friends. We still send messages to each other."
"You're too stubborn. He's a very nice boy."
Sigh. I knew it was going to be my fault. My whole family loved LB. I couldn't blame them. Of course he's very nice. I wouldn't have fallen in love with him if he weren't.
After the phone conversation, I resumed chatting with Achi Janice. I quizzed her on the contents of my site to make sure she was reading everything I posted. It's an old game. Back home when I told her stories and I felt she wasn't listening, I'd start giving her an oral exam. So far, she has passed all my tests. Hen hao.
Fast forward to around 5pm.
Phone rang. My adopted JieJie invited me to dinner. I tried telling her that I was too tired to leave the house and I wanted to sleep. I'd just go and see her on Wednesday. She laid the guilt-trip. It wouldn't be the New Year on Wednesday. I want to see you tonight. It's the first day of the year. Blah blah. Being the push-over that I am, I said ok but I'd go home early, xing ma? (Do you agree?) "Xing. Ba dian huei jia." (I agree. You can go home at 8.) "Ba dian, xing." (8pm. Ok.)
So I went to this dinner in her restaurant. She owns/manages (I'm not so sure which) a restaurant that's about a 15-minute walk from my place. When I got there, there were her ex-husband and about six of his employees. I had to drink bai jiu, literally meaning white wine, with everyone every few minutes. Bai jiu is the devil in liquid form. The last time I went out drinking with JieJie and her friends, I was so drunk I went home weeping. Zhen de. That was also the first night that it snowed so I just sat outside my building for a few minutes just watching and experiencing the snow. Depressing, in a way. Now I personally know why winter is the metaphor for death in so many poems.
Tonight, JieJie got so drunk that I think she forgot I was there. I wasn't so sure what exactly she was saying but I could tell she was annoying the other people at the table. At one point, ex-hubby left and one of the employees got ex-hubby's things for him. This was the signal for all the other employees to put on their coats and leave. She was trying to stop them without much success. I was just watching the whole proceeding. I knew that the employees' loyalty was to their boss but I couldn't just leave my JieJie that way, could I? One of the men gestured to me to put on my coat as they were about to go out the door. JieJie was following them. Okay. So I put on my coat, which took me a long time because I had to put on my jacket first, then my coat. By the time I went down, almost all of them were in the cars. I waved just to be polite and say bye. One of the men told me to get in so they could bring me home. I got one foot in when another man (the one driving, so I guess he owns the car) said I should just take the taxi home. Now that was rude. I said, "Mei shi." I didn't intend to go with them anyway. So I got back out and told the nice man that I'd just take the taxi. He said he'd take the taxi with me and bring me home. I certainly did not want to bother anyone. Hell, I did not even want to leave my house in the first place. I said mei shi several times and said I could go home by myself, thank you very much. He said, "Mei shi. Wo xong ni huei jia." We couldn't find any taxis and I said, "Mei shi. I could walk by myself." I said that in Chinese, I wasn't sure if he understood me. Anyway, he insisted on bringing me home. Finally, we got a taxi and he brought me home. He said "Wo xong ni shang lou." The last time a guy brought me home and walked with me up the stairs did not end very well so I just said, "No need to do that. Thank you so much. Zai jian."
So now I'm typing these words and I'm feeling more depressed than ever. During the ride home, the nice man asked if I get homesick. I said yes. Hell, he has no idea how much I want to be back home right now.
I hope the rest of the year won't be this crazy. Maybe I should go and watch something funny now.
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