So let’s see…

Thanksgiving is coming up this week. We do not have the day off, but Thursdays I only have one class in the morning and we usually are required to do two hours of English corner from 7-9pm but we talked our boss into canceling it this week because of our holiday. So there’s no turkey to be eaten here so we are going out to eat at this place where they have western food aka steak and fries and spaghetti ect. It’s pretty expensive but worth doing every once in a while.

About English corner, now that it’s like 40 degrees English corner sucks. We have to stand outside in the dark (there are no street lights and we do it outside near a pond) and its only cancelled if its really raining so if its drizzling we still have to stand outside for two hours.

This past Thursday we had a city-wide power outage that lasted from 3 something until 9pm or so. Here’s the situation… if there is no power I can’t really teach because I give my lecture on powerpoint. Next issue, there is no heat in the classroom so by the time class is over I am super ready to go home and sit in my warm heated apt. BUT on this day with no power we all had to wear layer after layer. We went out to try to get candles but shops didn’t have any. So we ended up eating dinner with out winter coats on in the dark at a restaurant, next to a loud generator that was blowing weird fumes. FUN FACT #1: in China, many restaurants and stores don’t have doors (open air) so whatever the weather is outside it’s the same weather inside. I now appreciate the invention of doors.

There’s also no heat in the student’s dorms and they must live on campus all 4 years and they have the same 5 roommates every year! Hope they all enjoy each other’s company haha.

Fun fact #2: if people here don’t feel well, they do to the pharmacy and get an iv drip. They just hook themselves up and go about their day as usual.

Fun fact # 3 Chinese people describe clothes and things as very “fashion.” So if you think your friend looks cute today instead of being like oo I like that shirt, very cute, you would say “oh you look very fashion today” not even fashionable. just fashion. Also clothes have the words fashion written on them pretty often. Weird.

Also people keep contacting me and trying to get me to teach on the weekends. The extra money would be nice but I refuse to teach 7 days a week. I think they believe we don’t need a life and that we have a gift, and that gift is to teach English, and therefore, we must use that gift ALL the time.

We had an interesting night yesterday. Started off as a quiet Saturday night. A student asked if we would go watch the dance team at a bar, we agreed. The show was good some break dancing, some MC Hammer pants and some hoooorrrrrribble attempts to rap. After the show we played this game: you pay money to play, you roll the dice in a cup and the one with the highest amount wins 40 bottles of beer. We played three times and won the beer. There were only 6 of us and our Chinese friend who was already too drunk so we gave away a lot of it and then drank and drank some more. Needless to say everyone had WAY too much to drink. At one point our Chinese friend broke the leg off our table and open beer flew everywhere, like ten bottles broke, broken glass and beer everywhere and it was a hot mess. The owner wasn’t mad at us and instead asked to take pictures with us. Haha!

And a word about gambling here: I thought it was a stereo type to think that Chinese people gambled all the time while chain smoking, but guess what its true! In restaurants, in alley ways, at the park, in the middle of the sidewalk you name it they are gambling all hours of the day.

Lastly, Fun fact #4 Chinese people love Avril Lavine. god only knows why.

written by  cz74699 on November 22, 2009 from Hechuan, China
from the travel blog: Chongqing, China
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All I can say is... Thank GOD I'm in the wonderful US of A!!!!! I love you sister!

written by  Natalia on November 23, 2009

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ain't no shame in loving on some avril. miss you boo.

written by  Lauren on November 23, 2009

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1) What kind of beer do you drink there. 2) It sounds like you played yahtzee for beer, which i could totally get into.

written by  Matt Jennings on January 14, 2010

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Great stuff. I live and teach (sort of) in Kunming and you hit so many things on the head in a lighthearted way, but so friggin' true. Like the "fashion" thing. Would like to heard more about your English Corner adventures. I hate them. Me sitting there with a bunch of stunned college students all waiting their turn to ask me if I like Chinese food or what I do on the weekend, not noticing I have threatened to walk out if I get asked those Qs one more time.

written by  Bill Dan on April 22, 2013

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you are so good.

written by  Lisa on May 16, 2013

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