Triple Birthday and a trail of Donkey carnage

Last night, we met up with foreign teachers and Chinese friends to celebrate Matt's and two Japanese teachers' birthdays, Mikao and Sannei. We had a private room with a gi-normous table for 16 people with a lazy susan. We ended up ordering a set menu and thus a myriad of dishes came to us. Often in Chinese cuisine, certain dishes are not recognizable and require one to ask about the content. I totally understand this predicament, as I try to avoid meat. However, last night during the meal, there was quite a spectacle.

One of the guests, aptly with her chopsticks, picked up a pita pocket thing, filled with meat and started to eat it. She has been a teacher in Jilin for about 2 years, I believe, so I would expect her to have some cultural sensitivity or at the very least good manners. So when someone asked what was inside and the response was Donkey, she immediately hurled the pita pocket which landed on the table and made a huge commotion by spitting out the food and screaming. I sympathize with her that she had donkeys on her farm growing up and couldn't fathom eating a childhood friend, but at the same time, if I had accidentally eaten a furry friend, I certainly would not throw, spit or scream. I, as my other friends, were horrified and felt awful for this show of disrespect towards our friends who had planned this wonderful evening. As we strolled along the trail of Donkey Carnage, others stopped and enjoyed the pita pockets and hopefully made some small amends towards our hostesses. Matt ingeniously placed his camera on the edge of the lazy susan and set it to video (can you find me!?)

The candle on the cake was also quite spectacular and we took a video of the show, as it blasted the Happy Birthday song and blossomed:

Imagine in China, using chopsticks to eat cake!

Settling in

Its been 2 weeks since I've arrived and things are beginning to become familiar and I'm inching towards somewhat of a routine.

I usually schlep to Chinese language class in the mornings, if I don't have to teach. Otherwise, I'm either preparing lessons for my medical English class or constantly writing Chinese characters, hoping that they imprint on my brain. I try to go for a short run every other day, usually by the Song Hua River, which has some beautiful scenery and is an escape from the polluted roads.

Most meals are eaten out, as my culinary skills are not being employed. Its fairly cheap to eat out and the food is great.

I'm enjoying teaching immensely. Whenever I arrive to class, I have bounding energy and the 2 hours fly by. The classes here are usually 2 45-minute periods with a 10 minute break. Also, it helps that I'm teaching medical English, so I find it all very interesting. On Friday, I gave out some American candy, Jolly Ranchers, so that my students wouldn't fall asleep during my lecture on Hypertriglyceridemia. They enjoyed the candy, the lecture, not so much.

While I was studying Chinese this morning, I discovered another quirk in the language. So apparently, the same character can have 2 totally different pronunciations, for example, in English imagine if you said bank, but it could mean post office depending on the context. I'm not sure if I'm explaining it clearly enough, but that's representative of how difficult this language is! Or its my shoddy explanation skills :)

Anyhoo, some more pictures of us at dinner and at the Park:
Kevin, Me, Elena, Natalia (Russians), Matt, Ashley, and Joo

Computer on the Fritz

Yesterday, my computer became angry with me and now is refusing to cooperate. I believe that the fan that cools it down is broken, which has caused my computer woes. Thankfully, my friend Matt is letting me use his laptop.

Thinking that it could just be the fan, I emailed the COMIS, the UVM computer experts, asking about what I could do about a faulty fan. I couldn't believe it, but they responded with "We can send you a loaner and the shipping material to send my broken one back." I was flabbergasted. At first, I thought maybe they assumed that I was in China, MAINE, not China, the country. So I replied clarifying that I was 1/2 way around the world. I just checked my email and they said it would be possible, but that they'd double check.

The COMIS dept gets an A+ for dedication to UVM medical students!

The other night I went out to dinner with 2 Korean friends, Ashley and Joo, and my friend Kevin. We went to a Si chuan place and we think that a spice they used in the dish gave us awful nightmares. Kevin dreamed about helping Harry Potter escape from quite large spiders, while I was trapped in a house and couldn't escape.
Eating out has been an interesting experience, mostly because we say "chicken" or "tofu" in Chinese and are presented with something much more complicated than our one word ordering. One time, we ended up with this delicious tofu dish, so we had the waitress write it down in Chinese and we showed the slip of paper the following week at another eatery. That was amusing.

But its somewhat frustrating and hilarious because I think that I'm saying the word correct, but I can't get my point across. For example, I asked for garlic, da suan, I thought I had the tones right, but we ended up getting toothpicks! Go figure.

Also, I just found out that I have been telling our friendly food servers that "I am a vegetable." No wonder I've been getting quizzical stares. I thought that "Wo shi su de" meant I am a vegetarian, but my 2 Chinese friends told me that the translation is more "I am a vegetable." (I forgot to say Wo shi chi su de) Or if I said, "wo chi su de" it just means I eat vegetables. And so what? You eat vegetables, big deal. I think my attempts at the vegetarian language have been futile as I have either been making ridiculous statements or saying obvious things. Nevertheless, I haven't gone hungry so we must be doing something right.

2 things that I found surprising here is that the Chinese eat a plethora of potatoes and that there are large Muslim populations in China. I wasn't expecting potatoes to be a popular thing here as I never really ate alot of potato dishes growing up. Also, people around here really do eat dog. My friend Jenny last night enjoys it and eats it a few times a year.

Random Jilin Stuff

This catholic church, (Tianzhu Jiaotang) was ransacked during the Cultural Revolution and reopened in 1980, definitely sticks out of amongst the Chinese building along the Song Hua River. Along the river are various statues (fishies and bikers) and animal bushes such as the pictured Squirrels and mushrooms, which I thought were pretty funky.

Its been cloudy for the past few days, which has been dreary, but it has a nice effect along the Song Hua River. I'm pictured with Kevin, who likes to eat a plethora of Kabobs.

Kevin, Matt and I went into an outdoor type market, in doors, where a crowd gathered around Matt. He speaks Chinese the best amongst the three of us. Its actually pretty hilarious because all the Chinese people come up to me and ask questions about my 2 companions, but most of the time I have no clue what they're saying. So I turn to Matt, who is able to converse with the curious people. You have to have a good sense of humor because lots of time people talk amongst themselves and then laugh, most likely at you. So I just laugh along, blissfully ignorant about what they just said about me or to me.