See…………
This week was May Day in China…AKA May 1st. So I had Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday off…yippee!!
Sunday:
It was supposed to be a day off, but I had to do some paperwork for my Resident Permit. We drove all over the city trying to get some papers to turn into the authorities so that I’m ‘legal’ to the government. It’s not enough to have paid for the visa and received it, but now I have to get all of the paperwork in order. Thank goodness for the assistants, because well…I can’t read or understand Chinese…well most of it. But sad to say, we didn’t finish it all and I’ll have to run around more later on this week. Van, my director/principle, drove us around most of the day. We ended up near the Wenzhou University campus and he decided that it was time for a tour. It had rained most of that morning, but luckily it had cleared and the rain brought out the freshness of the Cherry Blossoms that were getting ready to bloom. The air smelled fresh; for once…and that’s not a joke! The air quality here is really bad and I’m sure that’s how I got my cough…or maybe it’s the germy little kids…I digress. The air was lovely and we ate some delish food at a local restaurant, I love Chinese food…so I’m lucky to be in a city that’s still pretty Chinese. Gimme rice any day! I thought it was funny that our bowls/plates/cup and chopsticks all arrived at the table wrapped up…just telling us, yep, see, we’re clean. Haha. On our way home, Van called Noni…my new friend and the recently past teacher to this school…I hadn’t told Van that we were friends…hehe! I have my life too. But Noni and her brother Paul, who is fresh off of the plane from Kenya who’s visiting/trying to find a teaching job…they came to the school to check it out and chat.
Paul wants to stay in China to teach for a while; however, we just hired a new teacher who will be coming near the end of May. So we don’t have any positions, sad face. I’m sure he would have liked to be near his sister…sorry Paul! :/
Monday:
Pretty much a normal day, hung around the area, did some shopping, laundry, I know! = WOWZA!
Also, was able to go to the local gym and check it out with Mrin…good times had by all, we sweated it out like dudes and got some tips on working certain areas of the body from the semi-English Chinese speaking trainer. And get this...his name is Bruce Lee...Seriously! His English teacher apparently had a sense of humor! The Chinese guys are very awkward when talking to women, I kinda feel bad for them.
One of the odder conversations the Bruce and I had during the evening…
Trainer asked me, ‘Are you wed?’
I say, ‘huh’ and look to Mrin, who pipes in with, ‘He’s asking if you’re married.’
Me, ‘Ohh...no, not married.’
Trainer, ‘When will you be married?’
Me, thinking...well I left my damn crystal ball in the states...but said ‘Well, umm, no boyfriend so, no time soon.’
Awkward and weird, right?! Yes, I know…but that seems to be the Chinese version of a ‘getting to know you’ situation. I did end up joining the gym…it’s only a few blocks away and it was decently priced, and now I don’t have to jog on the side of the street trying to avoid bicycles and motorbikes.
Tuesday:
It was a good day, even with the pouring rain, my assistant Sherry and I went to YanDangShan Mountain. It is about 1hr 15mins north of Wenzhou by bus; we took the fast train, which was only about 35-40 minutes. The train was good and fast, we made 2 stops along the way and then we were there! Only a bus ride away from the 120 million year old mountains. It was very cool…I will have to go again, when it’s not raining cats and dogs. I told her this phrase and she laughed for about 2 minutes…but that’s not really saying much, she laughs at everything! We went to two of the main sites both of which have many sites within them. The first, the Big Dragon Waterfall, to get to it we went through Saddle
Range and up along Jinxi Brook, in the middle before the falls was Scissors Peaks, it is basically a lot of really tall, old rocks that has a river running through it, because of the falls…but we saw all of these sites before we actually got to Big Dragon Waterfall. There was also a large bamboo ravine where the Scissors Peaks meet each other. The second, the Spiritual Rocks (Lingyan), which also had a smaller waterfall (but still very high up!), there are many ancient towers of rocks lining the pathway towards AnShan Temple,
we were also able to climb through a rougher trail to Heaven Lake and the Square Cave, which is where the waterfall is located. This area was very slippery, since it had been raining all day and the trail was made up of granite rocks, made the climb a little more difficult. AnShan Temple was nice, it looked newer than some of the other temples I’ve seen so far, but one can never be sure until SHE LEARNS CHINESE! Ha. I would have liked to stay longer and relax a bit, just sit and enjoy, also try to ignore the Chinese people who were staring at the soaking wet foreigner who was wearing a poncho one size too small and pants rolled up because they were soaked…but alas, we had to catch our train back to Wenzhou. I will definitely be back, because…well I only got to see two of the many sites! It takes a while to walk each one, then you have to bus to the other locations because they are quite a distance apart.
Next time I will definitely plan better…I have a Chinese-English map of the park, so I’m good to go for next time! Also, I will make a sign...no high heeled shoes or umbrellas allowed past this point, in Chinese...so that people go and buy a pair of flipping tennis shoes and ponchos. So that my eyes don't get gouged out and I don't get stepped on because they're slipping all over the place. Crazy Chinese people!
Wednesday:
Another day off…ahh! Relaxation! I was able to get to the gym early, and to my surprise or rather shock there was no one there…I’m not sure why I am surprised by this. Everyone was enjoying their holiday at
home or with relatives. Me, I got my work out on! Bruce, the trainer from Monday was there and decided it was time for incessant chatter while I was literally running on the track….Do you like Chinese tea? Do you like sports? What’s your favorite sport? I like boxing. Do you have QQ? Do you have ‘blah, blah?’? Do you like coffee? Yes, this is the awkward Chinese approach to attempting to ask someone out. Alas, he never actually did…as, my ‘No, I don’t have QQ. And I don’t know what that other one is.’ He said ‘I don’t know’ in Chinese and made a running motion and went away. For those of you that have no idea what QQ is, it’s kind of like the Chinese version of Facebook. All the COOL people have it…well, this cool person is going to stay Americanized and keep her Facebook and stay away from creepy QQ. That’s where the stalkers live, I’m almost positive!!! Haha.
I also decided that I needed food…as I actually needed food to eat! I haven’t learned how to order food at a restaurant other than pointing at a menu so most of the time I eat at home…which is healthier anyways.
Wal-Mart was slammin’. I went through the store and there were a lot and I mean a lot of people
there. After about 20 minutes in line I really started to get annoyed with these three women who worked there, they wear these god-awful headsets that they talk into and it blasts their voice across the room. If you’re just walking by its fine, but if you have to stand there for 20 minutes, you get the urge to take it off of them and shove it down their throats just to shut them up. But I have a feeling that would definitely get me on that show ‘Locked Up Abroad – Chinese Edition’ and I’d be the ‘loveable, normal girl’ from Michigan who just snapped under the pressure of Wal-Mart shopping, who just couldn’t take working with the 2 year olds who laugh at her when she speaks English and also who becomes someone’s
B-t-h in the Chinese prison. So, in my mind…I talked myself out of it. Yes, when pretty much alone…this is where your mind wanders to, the worst possible scenario! Hope it made at least one person laugh out loud!
After the shopping madness, I decided it was more relaxation time. I found out where the nearest movie complex was, figured out what bus to take, which stop to get off and found myself buying a ticket to see Iron Man 3 – 3D. Of course, the movie complex was near European City, so now I know how to
get there myself. And the movie didn’t start for another hour, so I walked around and found a park to sit and relax. Get some actual sun on my face. As here, there is no actual sun unless it’s rained the prior day…the rain clears out the hazy pollution and the sun actually shines. Most of the time, the sun is behind a hazy of cloud and multiple layers of different pollutants…think of looking at the sun through a pale ale or Blue Moon…that’s what the sun looks like most of the time. But since it had rained all day Tuesday, the sun was out and shining and it was a lovely 74 degrees! Ahh…nice right. Yes, it was. Until the Chinese started to attempt to take my photo, I’m officially past the stage where the staring is okay. I’m now to the annoyed stage. Where I think, ‘Really, common people, have you never seen a foreigner before>!? Stop effing staring at me!!!’ I don’t mind the kids so much, they’re young and most of them are funny and they at least attempt to talk to me. It’s the adults that drive me nutty! I’m officially going to
learn the Chinese phrase, ‘didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s rude to stare at people?’ and ‘did you just take my picture, delete it, delete it…don’t ever do that again, it’s rude.’ Muuahahahahaaaa….Evil Laughter! They’ll never see it coming. Or maybe, since I don’t really care what people think, and here the common phrase among foreigners is ‘Common, it’s China. No one cares.’...maybe I’ll just start sticking my tongue out at people who stare at me and see what the reaction is. Haha, I could do a test group…one I yell at and the others I’ll stick out my tongue.
The movie was good, I do love Iron Man. And although the movie was in English…parts were also in Chinese. So for the English parts I could definitely understand, but during the Chinese parts they didn’t subtitle in English…so I have no idea what was said for those parts. Haha.
After the movie I was meeting the girls at Odessa for ladies night, aka free drinks until midnight.
We went, Noni and her brother Paul came out for some fun. They do this thing where you write down your name, phone number and birthday…then later they ask for people to come up on the stage.
I wasn’t about to be a part of some crazy Chinese karaoke…I didn’t do it in the states and by-golly I wasn’t about to do it here! So two chicks went up on stage and grabbed something out of a bag, it was my name…the Scottish guitar player/singer called my name. I froze, I really didn’t want to go up there.
I get up, after Paul is pointing and waving at me…(thanks Paul, I’ll get the tire marks off my back later!), I go on stage, the Scottish guy (Keith) says, ‘Can I have your phone number your pretty cute?’…me, I want to die, ‘No, you can’t’… A) because Mrin loves you and B) I don’t…Keith, ‘Common, what if I wanted to ask you out?’ Me, ‘Well, too bad.’ smile* ‘Is this you,…4414’ My brain, awh crap…I forgot, I wrote my number on that paper!><@#9%* Some girl hands me a bottle of Jose…yep, the good tequila! Yum, thanks…okay, you can have my number, but just this once…unless next time you have a bottle of vodka or gin. hehe! I get back to the table and they’re really excited that I just won a bottle of free booze. I’m still in shock, I hardly ever win anything! I think my parents got all of the winning juice in the gene pool. So I crack open the bottle and give some to Paul. After that, all Noni and I heard out of him was how smooth it was….apparently, in Kenya he drinks the really bad/cheap tequila. Haha. On the way out, I gave the bottle to Noni. She said she felt like Santa Claus, making everyone really happy with free alcohol...I don't know what Santa they have in Kenya...but I want that kind of stocking every year!
Overall, the days off were a huge success! Other than talking to myself on a semi-regular basis things are going well. And to top it all off, I got a package from the US…thanks Mom and Pops! I’ll start learning Chinese now.
Sorry but for some reason the videos I took with my 'real' camera and not my phone will not upload...I kept getting an error message. So until the videos work...you'll have to settle for photos! :D