I know many of you were hoping for pictures along with the blog. With the depressingly slow connection using proxy servers to work around China’s block on sites like Facebook, Twitter and blogspot, attempts to upload pictures to notyouraveragefortunecookie have been defeated. You can check out my facebook page for pictures though.
I’ll be honest and say that my making “white friends” here has been slow coming. Teacher season needs to start soon so I can meet some of my own kind. For now, I’ve made a few friends at work and have a really sweet language partner, the topic of today’s blog posting. I didn’t tell her so don’t let her know.
I’ve discovered a small piece of heaven (home) in Nanjing in the form of a sandwich and pastry shop called Skyways. I was there the other weekend looking at a little board of postings when a sweet Chinese girl approached me about being language partners. I was getting ready to shell out 50 RMB (about $7.50) a week for a tutor, but I thought “hey free is always good.” And now I have a Nanjing native to show me around the city! So Emma, that’s her English name, and I would start a friendship learning the other’s native language.
Emma’s English is pretty good, although she insists it’s really bad. I find it funny when she mutters “oh my. god, oh my god” as I try to explain different uses of words in the English language. Sometimes I feel the same way...with Chinese and English. She’s only 18 (which compared to the maturity of US teens means she’s really like 15). She’s getting ready to take an ESOL-type test so that she’ll have the opportunity to get her undergraduate degree abroad (she wants to go to Australia). I won’t be sharing all the eye-brow raising shenanigans of my college career, and I’m just going to think of her as a “mei mei” (little sister).
There seems to be a growing number of youth in China all wanting to study abroad, and not just for a year. They want to go 4+ years for their undergrad degrees in Western education institutions. The basic function of the organization I work for connects “Chinese elite students” (great name, right?) with the best schools around the world. I think it’s pretty remarkable these students are wanting and capable of earning undergraduate degrees in their second language. As if college admissions weren’t hard enough back home, now they’re competing with Chinese kids.
Anyway, Emma and I decided we would meet on Sunday for Sushi. She seemed about as excited of the idea of sushi as I was (I love sushi), and I figured this was a safe bet compared to going to a local restaurant and trying the Nanjing specialty of salted duck soup with dried blood clots (no, I’m not joking...believe me, that’ll get a posting all of it’s own if I’m ever brave enough to try it). I was so looking forward to just some nice plain rice and a little bit of raw salmon and tuna, maybe a little mexican roll action and some seaweed salad; I just wanted to play it safe. Nope. Emma had been to this restaurant before and had all these specialties she wanted me to try. Oh no. It wasn’t too bad though. A little squid (no, not calamari style), “cherry blossom sushi roll,” seafood “porridge” and fried fish balls made it down without an apparent gag reflex. It was a little more adventurous than I was feeling that day, but as she said, “when in Rome...” Wait, has she seen Anchorman?
After our sushi adventure I wanted to check out the Carrefour (think Euro version of Wal-Mart). I’ve developed this fascination with grocery stores in case you can’t tell. After a while, Emma said the “air” was getting to her. Chinese are really weird about their health and safety, despite the facilities available to them are enough to make you want to just stay at home and suffer. More details on that observation when I divulge the details of my “health examination.” I’m still recovering from the trauma so I just can’t rehash it just yet.
From there, we went on to the Nanjing library. Being a lover of writing and books, I was really excited to check it out. I was disappointed that checking out books would cost a small fortune: 100RMB ($15)for 3-4 Chinese books and and whooping 400 RMB ($58) for the same number of foreign books. Guess they don’t want the Chinese getting any crazy foreign ideas. After checking out what was in stock (think rows of trashy beach novels by Danielle Steele with the Fabio-fit dude with the lady in a flowing dress), I was somewhat relieved knowing my money wouldn’t be wasted on these “books.” But then I thought, “I hope Chinese people realize these are not the American classics.” And then I saw a Bible. Wait, do they know that’s there? I’m pretty sure you need a foreign passport to attend most religious services, although Christianity is growing in China (yet another blog topic). I decided I wouldn’t tell them the Bible was there.
So I think this partnership will turn out alright. I need to spend a little more time reviewing my Chinese, but it helps I can ask her questions. I’m also hoping to see more of the city that is now my home. And if you ask a Chinese person about any “landmark,” big or small, they all say it’s “very famous” so you know there will never be a dull moment. But then again, when you’re a “laowai” living in China there’s never really a dull moment.
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