China page5

On the Road to China
with George... page 5

I get up early every morning and go for a walk
Monday, July 17, 2006 5:53 AM

One always finds interesting things to see before the city wakes up. Yesterday morning, I found a college student playing soccer against the wall by himself. I stopped for about 10 or fifteen minutes. To kick the ball with him. There is a large park like area along the river that people gather in the morning. Many Chinese like to get to gather in groups and separately to exercise, they all seem to have these funny movements, moving their hands in the air and such. As I probably said earlier, the people are very friendly, not so much here in YeAn, but in Xian the were most friendly. The Yean people just haven't seen westerners much and they tend to be shy. There are 130,000 people in YeAn and we believe that the seven teachers that are here are the only westerners in the city. After I left the young man playing soccer, I headed west along one of the two rivers that fork here in YenAn, as I head along the walkway.
I see an old Chinese man waving to me, I dutifully wave back, and he waves gently back again, so I wave again, he's about 20 yards away, he waves again, and I wave again, we keep this up for about a minute until I realize, he's doing one of those crazy hand exercises that these Chinese do in the morning. So much for being friendly. I am doing well, but I am getting tired, this heat is a killer, even in the mountains. Our schedule is difficult and long. But the school is turning out to be very good, the staff that has showed up are very dedicated, and we all seem to work well together.
The Chinese organizer has used good judgment. She has left the running of the school to the teachers, and she has concentrated on other things. Which of course is unique, we have been getting together and making all the decisions. But, I will tell you I will be happy when this two weeks are over and I can go back to Xian and relax. The other teachers tell me that most teaching experiences are much easier and much less demanding. Well, I am going back to my room now, to rest, it is 6 p.m. and I will be meeting the kids at 7 for an evening program. With love to all, George

The Showers are cold and a glass of water is hot...
Tuesday, July 18, 2006

They serve the water hot so that you know all the germs have been killed and of course they keep the showers cold to save on electricity. I have been told that we can get a hot shower between 8 and 9 in the morning. Unfortunately, I report to work a eight. I am sitting in an internet cafe, in China, there are no restricted areas where smoking is prohibited, so this room feels like it's being filled with a Pittsburgh smoke stack, and of course it is not air conditioned, so sitting here for an hour is like Chinese water torture. Yesterday i wrote an email to my parents for an hour and a half, and guess what, it comes bouncing back. I keep trying to resend it, but it's not going anywhere. I will have to keep in save and print it when i return in August. Well, I'm being overcome by heat and smoke, and I have to go out to dinner.

I am having a great time...
Tuesday, July 25, 2006 8:15 AM

the school is a little confining, but there are a lot of people here to meet.  I have two college students teaching me some Chinese every afternoon, and they have taken me out a couple of times at night, to some of the restaurants  down town in YeAn.  The food has been wonderful, all except the dorm food they serve the students and staff.  I have stayed away from that; everyone who has eaten the dorm food has been sick at one time or another.  Fortunately I have that MacArthur iron stomach, to the amazement of the Chinese. I eat and drink everything they put in front of me.
Last night I went out to eat with a staff member, to the local hotel; hotels always seem to have clean  establishments and  good food.  I am talking to this staff member oblivious to anything else, only to look up and see the entire, restaurant of workers and patrons turned and staring at us. Westerners are so rare, that they can't help gawking, I feel like some kind of celebrity.  I have eaten in some less desirable places too. One noodle house that I went to, covered their plates in clear plastic bags, then served the food on top of the plastic (for sanitary reasons),
I call it eating on a condom. I'm real good now at eating with sticks.  The other day my two tutors took me down town for ice cream and a pizza, the menu gave me a choice of chocolate or strawberry.  I don't think they used any cream in making the ice cream, but it was relatively tasty. And the pizza was not too bad, a small step above Dominos, of course that's not saying much, from it's outward appearance, you would not recognize it as pizza, but it was cheesy and it had some good mushrooms and peppers.  As far as the Chinese food is concerned, I haven't got a clue what I have been eating, except for the cucumbers, I don't recognize these vegetables, and last night I was told I was eating beef, wrong!
It was meat, but I know beef when I taste it.  As papa would say "Good though". you see some unusual sights around here, yesterday I saw a bicycle shop and a shoe repair shop, which wouldn't be unusual, except they were set up on the sidewalk.  The bike repair man had everything he needed in the back of his motorcycle pickup truck.  including tires, tools, pumps, everything you need to run a bike shop, right there in the open air, and he had quite a line of clientele
lined up waiting for his service.  And right next to him was a shoe repair man, complete with shoe stands, and stitching machines.  I will try to take some pictures, but these people are reluctant to be photographed unless they know you.
Well I have to go, tell me how you are doing.

All is good with me...
Tuesday, July 25, 2006 8:05 PM

except for being tired, I think I need some vitamins, I have been easily fatigued.
Yesterday I met with one of the English teachers from University of YenAn, She (Rebecca) is from St. Paul, Minnesota. She is a very pleasant person, she enjoys teaching here. We went out for Chinese Pizza, which is not quite like something you'd get in the States. Kind of like, mushrooms, peppers and cheese on a very large wafer. It wasn't bad though. The place billed itself as a western restaurant, so there were no chop sticks, so for our Chinese escorts, the roles were reversed. We had to show them how to eat with knife and fork. We took a cab back and forth from the campus, a six mile round trip cost about $1.50. and the meal for four of us was about $14.00 U.S. Our escorts complained because the place is so expensive. After the meal, we went back to Rebecca's apartment, the apartment that is supplied by the University. She has very nice accommodations, as good as any 2 bedroom apartment that you would you would find in the United States, much better than I saw in Zhen Zhou.
I have also visited the dorms of the students, those are quite rough, 8 to a room, with a cold concrete floor, I imagine they are cold in the winter. She had a tape of the River-Dancers, so we watched Irish music. One of her students popped in to say hello and visit, it seems she is the center of attention on campus and her apartment is a refuge for many of the English students. The University has set aside a room in her building for an English speaking Cinema. so on many nights the students are over watching movies. Of course, things are slow right now, there are only a handful of students on campus, because this is summer vacation.
I plan on staying here in YeAn for a couple of days after my camp obligations are over, Friday is my last day, but I plan to stay until Monday, take the soft sleeper back to Xian, visit there for a couple of days, then head to Beijing for a week. This weekend one of the students is taking me to her uncle's restaurant, which is in a small village about a half hour outside YenAn. Then I plan to catch up on my email and rest before I leave on Monday for the big city. One of the students here, has a cousin who is a cab driver in Xian, and I have been promised the full tour. This week I am teaching the 6-9 y.o.'s, it's not what I wanted, but they kind of ganged up on me, which is ok, I just like the older kids, anyway,
I'm putting all four of them on the bus and we're going downtown to Kentucky Fried Chicken. I'm trying to teach them, "this old man, he played one, he played knick knack on my tongue, this old man, he played two...etc "but its rough, One of the four kids is hyper-active and spells everything backwards. I gave him some Scrabble tiles and he wrote out....egaugnal nretsew.
So learning problems are universal. Well I have class in an hour. Love, George

Thinking of you ...
Thursday, July 27, 2006 7:39 PM

Well we took another field trip yesterday, the gathering time was 8:30, at 8:30 all six western teachers were at the gate with about 5 Chinese children, no sign of any staff or the other 29 children. About 8;50 we were all together and ready to go, but of course, we had to take a group picture. we have taken 5 field trips and we have five group photos. It seems no field trip is complete without a group photo. Now each photo is quite nice and looks so organized, but the real story is, each photo is proceeded by mass confusion. Counselors yelling at students to get in line, and counselors debating with counselors as to where so and so should be, to sit here or stand there only to have on slip off after a ball or dart off in some unknown directions. Eventually everyone is herded into one place, frozen for an instant or two, while three or four cameras snap frantically. 60 seconds of complete calm proceeded by 20 minutes of confusion and followed by utter chaos.
At the termination of this event, the teachers are told to align with their student, we are now told that we are in charge and responsible for each of our students. Which of course is not in our contract. But, it turns out to be a moot point, as soon as we break for the bus stop, the students are everywhere, stretched out over a hundred yards in twos threes and fours. and the staff are in their little groups and the teachers are scattered everywhere. For this trip, Samantha had not hired a bus, we were taking public transportation, I have no clue where we are going.
I have been assured that I have seen my last cave, the last four field trips have been caves. I am told we are climbing a mountain, but we are taking the downtown bus. As it turns out, Samantha doesn't need to hire a bus, with 34 students 6 teachers and 9 staff, there isn't room for anyone else on the bus. Fortunately we are the starting point for the bus, otherwise this wouldn't have worked. The bus keeps stopping at the usual stops, a few people try to squeeze in, but only a few are able to get on, most can't get in the door. Now we arrive downtown, obviously, the mountain is somewhere other than downtown. Little did we teachers know that the mountain is a mile or more away. As we get off the bus, Samantha reminds the teachers that we are responsible for our students and to keep them with us. Of course as the bus door opens, kids are everywhere, none of the intersections that we cross have lights and none of the taxis or busses have ever heard that the pedestrian has the right of way.
Crossing the street is like a giant game of dodge ball, the balls are 20,000 lb. busses and 3000 lb. taxis. I have the youngest students, Super is a little chubby boy that keeps falling behind and Jackie is a tiny hyperactive kid that keeps running to the front. As you can see I have a problem, and then I have Thompson, who I can never find. We as we were on the way to the bus we start to spread out in a long line, and the line gets longer as we travel, the older and more nibble are moving faster and the younger are falling behind. Then of course, no one had thought to remind the students that it is good to go to the bathroom before taking a long trip. As luck would have it one of my students discovered the public restroom. My entire group, which is 2 of my 4 students, about 12 other students, one other teacher and 2 counselors, have to stop while 6 or 7 students stop to relive themselves. 15 mins. later the main group is gone. I will finish this story later, I have to go to my last class.
Love, George

After our greetings, was shown upstairs...
Sunday, July 30, 2006 7:01 AM

to their apartment. which which was the cleanest and neatest place I saw all day. It consisted of two spacious rooms. Both used for sleeping, and both had a living room area separate from the sleeping quarters. In the second room, a large t.v. was playing. After about 20 mins. her uncle brought in a mutton stew, I am glad I told him I want the food mild, because
mild was quite spicy. It is the first time I have eaten in a home since I left Florida. We ate at the coffee
table in the second room, on a very nice couch which sat on a white tiled floor. during the visit I tried several times to communicate with Virginia's family, but it was quite impossible. She gave me a tour of the town and walked me by the school.but there wasn't much to see. The walk into town was enough of a tour. When were returned to her uncle's restaurant Victoria said that she wanted to spend an hour alone with her mother, so I had her write her uncle's address into my book and I took my camera and went exploring.
I had seen the southern end of town so I headed north. One of the amazing things about this place is that, there are pool tables on every corner. I say at least 4 pool halls. I stopped to watch a couple guys play pool. from what I can see the tables are not in good shape. Many of them are on the sidewalk standing on blocks with shims under them to make them level. They probably cover them so they don't get rained on or snowed on, but I'm sure being outside doesn't improve their condition. I would have tried to engage them in a game, but I didn't like the tables. There were about 15 or 20 people standing around watching them. Like I said there seems to be a lot of idle time. I continued to head north until I got out of town, which was about 200 yards from the restaurant, where the main road intersects with country road that bypasses the town.
From a distance I saw some women washing their clothes with their children, I thought that would make a good photo, so I move in for a picture. They didn't see me coming and I hadn't noticed, they were both topless. We spotted each at approximately the same time, there was some fast movement on their part. I did get a picture, but only after they had composed themselves. Then I headed down the river, where some boys were swimming. As it turned out they were skinny dipping,
I didn't get any pictures, I avoided that, I don't know what the laws are like around here. I headed back to the main road through a corn field only to bump into a young Chinese man of about 20 y.o.
He guided me out of the field, when we left the field, I noticed he had one of those, motorcycle pickup trucks I spoke of in earlier emails. With a few hand signals, I convinced him to give to give me a riding tour. We headed north out of town, after all the heat, the breeze from the motorcycle was quite refreshing, I took quite a few pictures of the countryside, and we stopped at an out Buddhist Temple and I think I got some good pics. we'll see! After about 20 mins' I had him turn around, I showed him the address that Victoria had written out and he returned to the restaurant Needless to say, both Victoria and her family were in a state of shock. We headed back for the bus station at about 2:45.
We left on the bus about 3 P.M. and arrived back at my hotel at 4. Victoria continued on to the college, which is about two blocks away, I took a long nap. With love to all, George

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