life lessons from the theatre

so i went to see the broadway musical AIDA this weekend and, as with everything here, it turned out to be kind of an experience. one of the 3 main characters was a sort of ditsy blond girl and as i sat in the audience watching her, i began to understand the fascination that some other cultures have with american girls. despite being much older, the actress and the character she played reminded me of an average american high schooler. i'm not sure that i can really put it into words, but there was something very compelling about her. she had much more of a presence than any chinese women i have met. whether she was physically bigger or not, she seemed it and the head of blond curls and voluptuous bosom only seemed to magnify the differences.

granted, she is in the theatre and onstage playing a role, so everything about her is magnified, but that's sort of what i needed to be able to understand the fascination with western beauty and culture. i can suddenly understand how, had you spent your entire life here, american girls would have a certain boldness, forwardness that is both shocking and alluring. not that every single girl is like that, but this actress reminded me of the "average" girl. the one that is popular in high school and portrayed in movies and television. i'm sure there are women with similar presence here, but they are few and far between and i feel that they would carry the same exotic alluringness.

i'm glad that it suddenly makes some sense. i always thought it was so strange that other cultures try so hard to be like americans, but when you grow up in a culture that feels sort of naive and sheltered, there is something about american boldness that draws you in. it's sort of like teenagers scoffing at their parents' archaic, naive worldview in favor of something that feels more progressive.

what does meat mean to you?

so, we are talking about food groups in my classroom right now and yesterday i asked my kids to name some foods in each group. we went through fruits and vegetables with little to take note of and then i asked them what foods would be in the meat category. they looked confused so i suggested beef and chicken and then said, "what else?" which, in china, is kind of opening a can of worms. it went something like this:

Student: "pig!"
Me: "yes, very good. what else?"
S: "cat!"
S: "dog!"
Me: "umm...not quite, but probably."
S: "jellyfish!"
S: "frog!"
Me: "yep, that too."
S: "eel!"
S: "octopus!"

and then i thought maybe we should move on to the grains before we listed off the entire animal kingdom. ah, the joys of living in china.

mourning the loss

sadly, yesterday saw the loss of two amusing characters from my life. the first was a student of mine that, somewhat suddenly, transferred to a new school. he was an adorable and incredibly bright little boy who i miss dearly. i'm really bummed that i won't get to continue to watch him flourish. i know i'm not really supposed to have favorites, but there was something about him that i connected to and i miss having that in my classroom.

the other surprise blow was a new bus driver. apparently the parents of our students didn't find uncle's driving as charming as did jenna and i and so he has been replaced by a very nice, but somewhat calmer, driver. i'm sure that we will come to love him just as much (and he probably is a safer driver) but uncle and his driving brought me a certain joy that i will surely miss.

so long, friends, it was incredible while it lasted. i wish you the best and hope you know that you are truly missed.

living the surreal life.

five weeks in and my life is a dichotomy of normalcy and surrealism. things are settling down and, for the most part, it's just life. but then, every so often, i just have these moments when i stop and realize that i live in china, and no matter how hard i try, i just can't make it real.

it's the little things that get me:

• choosing a restaurant and then realizing i have no way of ordering
• washing tin bowls and chopsticks in the sunny yellow bathroom at school with the window wide open
• women walking down the street wearing 3 different patterns that aren't even close to matching
  
• the way my heart skips and i fear for my life or that of a pedestrian at least once every single time i ride in a motor vehicle
• people selling loofahs and phone cards out of suitcases on the street
• a grotesquely deformed beggar sitting on dirty cardboard on the street corner
• eel for lunch - with the spine still attached
• chicken feet and squid on a stick
  
• an entire braised duck hanging in the window of a restaurant
• umbrellas on sunny days and arm covers all the time (i think of them as shirtless sleeves) to avoid even the possibility of tanning through the smog
• shower gel with herbal whitening essence
• the frozen dumpling section at the grocery store
• the dried meat aisle at the grocery store
• ok, fine, the grocery store
• walking down the incredibly crowded, sensory overloaded street to find both designer stores and hole-in-the-wall chinese businesses intermingling as far as the eye can see
• flower boxes full of greenery lining the freeway
• glancing into the open door of a construction sight to see 2 grown men standing naked in front of a tub of water while a third scrubs their clothes on the ground
  

i'm sure there are more. this list will probably grow throughout my time here, but for now it is a random sample of the uniquely chinese in my life. in the end, too, i realize that there is something very subtle about life and the culture here that i may never be able to express in words. it can't be summed up in any list of differences or customs. it just is and you can't really know it unless you've been here. my life here may never feel real, but that cultural understanding definitely does, which is just fine, because i think it's more important anyway.

our bus driver pretty much wins...

i'm not exactly sure how, but this morning i managed to cut out quite a lot of little paper t-shirts while riding the bus. (and they look darn good, if i do say so myself.) this was a feat not even i predicted, and i'm pretty confident in my multi-tasking abilities. it's not that the ride is too short or that the kids are too needy, it's just that our bus driver is too ridiculous. the driving around here is a bit insane anyway, but he just takes it to a new level. to begin with, his chosen english name is Uncle. yes, uncle. and he answers to it. i've tried. add to that cut-off jean shorts, a tolerance, if not love, of kids and the desire to get to his next clients as quickly as possible and you have a recipe for an interesting ride.

he will do just about anything if it means arriving at our destination more quickly. you want to turn left onto a street with 2 lanes of stand-still traffic each way? no worries, just nudge your way in and assume they will move. construction forcing you to make a 5-minute loop in order to get to the apartment building entrance? it's ok, just go the wrong way down that one-way street. it's only a couple hundred yards. you started to take the wrong exit on the freeway? just back up and get on the right one, the cars behind you will move.

sadly, riding with uncle might be the highlight of my day. every taxi i have taken since the 2nd week of school has felt completely tame by comparison. which is saying something, because that first couple weeks they seemed insane.

of course, the enjoyment of the morning and afternoon bus rides is probably compounded by what little communication we are able to manage with our driver. he likes the kids, but i think he is glad he doesn't have to deal with them. you just know that if you look up when they start doing something ridiculous, there will be a great look waiting for you in the review mirror.

my favorites, though, are the morning assessments of our timeliness and the comraderie established when the adults are obviously having a bad day. we had a particularly stressful one a couple weeks ago and as we pulled into our apartment complex at the end of the day, uncle held out his pack of cigarettes to us, as in, "need one of these today?" we politely declined, but it makes me smile even now, just thinking about it.

so here's to you, uncle, for making my schooldays just a little bit brighter. you're a little crazy, but god knows i love you for it.