Back to School....

Well, this week I headed back to my Chinese classes after a reaaaally long break. It's amazing to me all the things that have happened since I was last in class. My Mom came. We went to Hong Kong. I got a hernia. I had hernia surgery (yuck). We found out Jenny was pregnant. We weathered a miserably difficult winter in NC. We just barely escaped to Thailand for a few weeks in the midst of the storm. Wow. It's been a busy couple of month.

School is much like I remember. I have a new teacher for oral this semester, which I was a little bummed to find out about. I really grew to like my last teacher, and I had done really well on her exam. Now I have to break in a new teacher. The good thing is, my attitude towards studying has improved. I feel excited again about studying, and lots of things are coming back. Of course, on the other hand being back in class means I am incredibly busy now. I have morning class everyday from 9 to 12, then afternoon classes on Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday. On top of that, rumor has it we are moving to the new campus in two weeks for our classes. This will add a 45min to an hour commute each way for me. Which means I won't get to see Jenny or Grace much on the long days. Of course, at our school rumor always has it that we're moving the new campus. They've been saying that for over a year now. So, we still have some hope.

Well, better hit the books. Lots of homework for tomorrow.

Chicken Heads

Just Another Thursday Night For Us In China

Okay, so it's 9:45pm as I am writing this and we have been listening to fireworks going off for the past four hours. I'm not kidding. FOUR SOLID HOURS, and not even a suggestion that it is going to end anytime soon. This is one of those experiences that people who don't live in China can't really imagine. The noise was so loud a few times Jenny and I couldn't even hear each other talking. July 4th in America has nothing on Thursday night in China.

Of course, I guess it must have something to do with it being Chinese Valentine's Day, or the fact that it is the 15th day of the Chinese New Year. I'm not sure. All I know is that everyone of our neighbors is out shooting off fireworks tonight and it's just about to drive me crazy. The thing is- Chinese fireworks aren't so much about the pretty lights and flashes- it's about the noise. The Chinese really really seem to love noise. It's one of those things I've never been able to understand or even come to grips with. They just seem to think really really LOUD is somehow pleasant.

Our theory is that the neighbors are taking turns. We figure everyone has a store of fireworks in their house somewhere. So, we think they are just taking turns. Waiting for one family to finish shooting off all of theirs and then the next group goes down.

Gracie is usually scared of fireworks, but it's been going on for so long now I think she is over it. Her and Jenny went to bed a little while ago and are probably crashed out so, good for them if they can sleep through this.

A Dining Out Guide to Nanchang Pt. 1

Nanchang is not necessarily known for it's food, but there are plenty of very popular local favorites. Nanchang has a special style of fried noodles that is served everywhere and is very delicious. A friend of mine once taught me how to prepare them, but I've never tried to do it at home. Most of the food here is pretty spice. Nanchang people like lots of "la jiao" (peppers) in their food. It's a good thing we like spicy food, because sometimes that's the only way it comes.

Oh all the restaurants in NC, I have one dearly beloved, most especially favorite place: The Famous Restaurant. Now, this isn't actually the name of the restaurant, but rather the nickname it's held onto for the past several years. I was introduced to the Famous by some teacher friends a few years back. It's located at #33 Wen Jiao Lu, near the old campus of Jiangxi Normal University.

Now, this IS a hole in the wall for sure. But, it is a hole in the wall that offers perhaps the best food in the entire city. Imagine that favorite dive restaurant on your college campus that everybody went to. The Famous is like that. It is a dive, without a doubt. Dirty concrete floors and walls, spiderwebs on the ceiling, etc. It is a dive. However- I would proclaim that the food at the Famous is better than the stuff you can get at the really nice restaurants in town. This is because the really nice restaurants are more about presentation than taste. They may offer unique and unusual food choices (turtle, toad, dog), but taste isn't a core value for those places. The Famous though- the Famous has flavor down to a science. They offer home style dishes, local favorites, family style grub.

Anytime a new person comes to town, I take them to the Famous. Anytime I'm going out for a meal on my own and I'm on that side of town- I eat at the Famous.

The owners are able to speak a tiny amount of English, mostly because of the strong word of mouth following among foreigners in the city. When the Survivor crew was in Nanchang and wanted local cuisine, we sent them to the Famous. Now, the question is- what should you eat?

My Famous Restaurant Favs:

1) Jia Xiang Dou Fu (Home Style Bean Curd) - Cooked with peppers and pork. Incredible taste. If you don't think you like Bean Curd (Tofu), wait till you try this. This is the dish that could win anyone over.

2) Tu Dou Si Chao Rou (Sliced Potatoes and Meat) - This dish is just fantastic. The potatoes have a sort of meat gravy that makes the flavor awesome.

3) Rou Mo Qi Zi (Eggplant w/ Meat) Chinese eggplant cut in a spiral with meat and "special" sauce (I think it's fish sauce, but that's a guess) . You should know that I never ate eggplant before I had it here. This is the dish that convinced me that eggplant was okay for consumption.

In fact, when I think about, the reason I eat vegetables now is because of the Famous. I never really ate veggies before I came to China, but now I love them.

4) Quan Dan (Egg "Pizza") This is basically an omelet. Very salty, very spicy, very good.

5) Green Peppers with Black Bean (I forgot how to say it in Chinese, but I usually just describe it) I never realized how yummy whole green peppers could taste. Chinese green peppers are usually very spicy. This dish is cooked with a spicy black bean sauce that is out of this world. Jenny and I actually cook this dish at home a lot.

6) Tang Su Zhu Rou (Sweet and Sour Pork) I don't eat this much anymore, but it's still a great dish. Battered pork in a sweet/spicy sauce. Yum.

7) Ba Si Xiang Jiao/Ping Guo (Battered Banana or Apple) This is for desert. It's basically fried banana or apples with a carmelized sugar sauce. They don't have this very often, but when they do it is fantastic. It takes a long time to cook, but worth the wait.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but rather a list of my favorites. I guarantee you that you will not be disappointed by this restaurant.

On top of all of this, the husband and wife that own the place are dear to me. I've known them for such a long time, and they are always glad to see me when I stop by.

The Thanksgiving 2007 Wrap-Up

Well, it has been an wonderfully enjoyable couple of days. We actually had two Thanksgivings this year- one on the actual day with our Chinese friends, and another on Saturday with the ex-patriate crowd in the city.

This year we were very excited to learn that the Metro in town was selling turkeys. We bought one on Monday, but it turned out to be bad. So, late Wednesday night I headed back out to Metro to buy a replacement. Of course, now we had less than 12 hours to get the thing defrosted. Ended up that I stayed up all night defrosting the turkey. We put it in the sink and every 30 minutes I flipped it and changed the water. It was a very long night, but I made a pot of coffee and took some time to do something totally brainless, but nonetheless amusing: play a computer game and watch movies. About 7am, I woke Jenny up and had her take over. Then I promptly crashed out for about 4 hours. Around 11a I finally got up, but the house was empty. Jenny and one of our friends were out shopping, and Gracie was out playing with the Bao Mu. But, the turkey was in the oven and smelled great.

Jenny and our friend came back and we all started cooking. I made my first corn casserole, which turned out really well. Another of our Chinese friends came and helped cook as well. About 2:30, our friends started to show up. We had 13 people total I think, and tons of great food. Turkey, corn casserole, cranberry relish, potatoes, stuffing, broccoli casserole, pumpkin pies, etc. All the fixings. It amazed me we were able to have so many Thanksgiving staples here. Jenny is such a good hoarder though, she held onto stuff for several months just for this meal. The meal was great. Boys sat at one table and girls at another.

At around 5, people started to go home. Grace was begging to watch some TV, so I took her back to the bedroom. As she watched her Barbie movie (for about the 10th time) I promptly crashed out yet again. I woke up around 8pm, just after Jenny saw off the remainder of our friends. It was a great day overall. I wish I had been more, well, uh... awake for the party, but in the end it was still a great day. Jenny and I closed the day out with a hearty game of Scrabble. (Jenny won by six points, but I payed her back the following night with a decisive victory.)

Saturday we immediately went back into cooking mode. Jenny made turkey and another pie in addition to a few other things. I headed out to the foreigner party a bit early to drop stuff off while we were waiting for the turkey to finish. The spread at this party was huge. Everyone was required to bring two dishes and they had a good mix of everything. Someone even had the...audacity to bring dog. (A big delicacy to the Chinese. I don't think anyone ate it, and most of us were offended by it's presence there) I got there right about 12pm, but had to go back for the turkey a few minutes later. So, by the time I got back everyone had dug in. All the deviled eggs were gone (a big highlight for me on Thanksgiving) as were most of the potatoes and sweet potato casserole, but oh well. I asked someone to cut me a few pieces of pumpkin pie (the ones Jenny had made) so I could at least get some of that Jenny and Grace showed up later, but by then the everyone was just about done eating.

After the meal the guys played football. I hesitantly agreed to join them, at Jenny's urging. We played for about 3 hours, and afterwards I was so sore I could hardly walk. Of course, that was nothing compared to how I feel today. I did manage a few catches and even scored a td. Not bad for the old man, eh? We invited some friends back to our house that night and put up the Christmas tree.

All in all a great Thanksgiving! Hope everyone out there also had a terrific and blessed day. We are so thankful to have enjoyed such great food and great fellowship.

Pixar is real big with the Buddhist monk crowd....

Over the past year, I've noticed alot more activity from the Buddhist monks in town. I often see them on the street, offering little blessing tokens to people in exchange for a donation of some kind. The token is actually a small Buddha on something like a business card. The other day I ran into two monks while we were getting Martha's bike fitted for a baby seat. One of them was very friendly, asked me where I was from and seemed excited to be talking to me. He was young, probably in his late 20s or so. As we talked, I offered him one of my special business cards which contain some important life information. He took the card, did not look at it, but tucked it away somewhere. Naturally, he handed me one of the little Buddha cards and told me it would give me good luck. I glanced at the card, then gave it back to him, explaining that I couldn't take it. I tried to explain why, but he wasn't really interested in listening to that story.

The next day, I was in a music shop looking at DVDs when two monks came in. They were also looking at DVDs, which I thought was really interesting. I watched them for awhile, curious about what they were going to buy. They ended up purchasing an animated movie called "Ratatouille." I guess they can watch movies over at the monastery.

A few years ago I toured the monastery for a paper I was writing. Actually met the head of the temple and spent some time talking with him. He was very friendly,offering to teach me Chinese calligraphy in exchange for English lessons. He offered tea, and we sat together in his private apartment for about 45 minutes or so. His apartment was very nice, very spacious and well decorated. He was very proud of this fact, which also surprised me. He kept asking me what I thought of his apartment and his things, what I thought about his servants. Not exactly what I expected from a monk. It was even more ironic because just before this we had visited the room of another monk in the temple- a very old man- and his apartment was tiny, cold and disgustingly dirty. He slept on a small wooden cot, sitting up all night. The temple head had a nice bed, padded matress, comforter, everything. Quite the dichotomy.

I always have a hard time going by the temple. We've taken visitors there from time to time, just so they can see what it's like. I hate going there now though. I can't stand to see the idols and watch people bowing down to them.

City of Fire....

Here's a good example of the kind of cultural issues we face on a day to day basis:

Right now, there is a big trash fire burning in the alleyway behind our apartment. This is a common occurence. The guard that work for our neighborhood went out a few minutes ago, assessed the trash that had gathered against the back wall of the complex, and decided to dispose of it in the quickest manner possible: they decided to set it on fire. Of course, foolish person that I am, I had just hung the laundry out to dry. So, moments later I run out on the balcony to fetch the laundry. Looking down at the guards I couldn't help but feel frustrated. How could they not realize how burning all the trash would affect people who live on this side of the complex. Everyone's laundry will be smoky, as will our houses. As I sit here typing this, my eyes are burning. I contemplated saying something to them, but then the magnitude of the problem really struck me.

1) The guards don't think there is anything wrong with burning the trash. This is a common practice here, something they have witnessed, something they themselves have done and accepted for the duration of their lives. For me to tell them to stop, and to be angry about it will confuse them.

2) The issue to the guards is getting rid of the trash. How that affects other people isn't of any consequence, as long as they accomplish the goal of getting rid of the trash.

3) Even if I wanted to tell them to stop, I'd have to explain myself in a foreign language that I have yet to master. My language is not to the point that I can faithfully and accurately explain myself. At best, I can show them that I am angry and tell them to stop.

4) They damage is already done. The fires are already burning. Maybe I can convince them to stop now, but that doesn't ensure it won't happen again. Even if I was able to communicate the issue to these 5 guys, that's not going to make any real difference, because next week 5 different guys will be out there burning trash.

In the States, maybe you get a neighbor burning leaves or something from time to time- but since we don't hang our laundry outside most of the time, and since this is such an infrequent occurrence, it isn't usually an issue. But here- big issue- very common occurrence. If people could get into the habit of throwing their trash in a trash bin rather than on the ground, that might help some. But there again, re-education has to take place for something like that, and it's not likely to be very successful.

So- my solution: deal with it. Don't complain, don't get angry. Bring the laundry in. Wait for them to finish. Go on with my life and chalk it up to cultural difference.

Going to the Movies in China

Well, Jenny and I just returned from seeing Spiderman 3 at the local movie theatre.

One of the most exciting discoveries that we made upon returning to China was that our city has a very nice "international" movie theatre on the 4th floor of the Walmart. International means they occasionally show English movies. We saw our first one there last summer- Sahara, which was kind of funny since Sahara came out like 2 years before, but no matter.

I heard there was a lot of controversy regarding bootleg copies of Spiderman 3 in China before the movie was even released. We never saw any copies floating around here (at least not yet), but we were thrilled to learn they were going to be showing it beginning May 1st. So, tonight we arranged a baby-sitter, set out on out bikes and had a little date night.

Going to the movies in China is not like it is in the States. First off, you can bring in your own food- which I totally love. We headed over to McDonald's before hand and brought in a bag full of goodies. We had been talking about going to Pizza Hut, but we didn't want to wait on it. Anyway, so that's one great thing. Movies in China are very very loud. They kick up the volume to near deafening intensity, I guess because everything is always loud here. People don't turn off their cell phones, and there are no polite messages to remind them. So, throughout the movie we hear people talking on the phone at their normal volume, like nothing special is going on. The movies are also apparently a good place to let the kids get their energy out. About 10 kids were running through our theatre during the movie, playing tag in front of the screen. Then they stood along the aisle and talked and laughed and generally disturbed anyone who was actually trying to watch the movie. Sounds like fun, right?

Another interesting tidbit- the movie was in English, but subtitled in Chinese. Thankfully, our Chinese is decent enough that we can look at the subtitles and generally know what they say. So, during the course of the movie, there were plenty of moments that made Jenny and I laugh, but no one else in the audience did. We figure this comes down to them not getting the jokes, because a lot of things were cultural, and other things just weren't translated correctly. For instance, in one seen, Mary Jane calls Peter Parker a "nerd" which got a laugh out of Jenny and I, but not the rest of the audience. I guess this was because the Chinese was translated as "you are very smart." Not as funny.

The movie was great. When we are sitting there sometimes, it's easy to forget about everything else and just enjoy a good movie (barring little disturbances). It was an altogether different story coming home. We rode our bikes out there, so we had a long ride back. Traffic was crazy as usual, and we could barely cross the street without almost getting hit by a car. People drive down the wrong side of the road, run red lights, cut past bikes and pedestrians at random. Bikes and motorcycles also drive all over the rode and sidewalk, and pedestrians are just as bad. It's really a case of every person for themselves on the road. I think the general idea is you are only responsible for not running into anything, and you expect everyone else to do the same. As long as everyone keeps with this plan, it usually works out okay- right? Wrong. Traffic here is deadly no matter how you go about it. Sometimes it makes going out really miserable. Add to that the constant catcalls from people on the street and the result is a pretty frustrating, stressful ride home. Oh well, in the end it was still a good night. I should spend more time blogging about traffic patterns in this country. It's a really bizarre phenomenon.