下雨了 (xia yu le)

Rain Rain Rain. It didn't rain last Friday. It didn't rain Saturday morning. Otherwise it has been raining everyday and is forecasted to last two more weeks. This is ridiculous. I've never seen so much rain. 1/4 to 1/2 inch at a time. Punctuated by intense thunderstorms with lots of lightening. Apparently Zhejiang Province is known for its rain and storms as well as number of people hit by lightening (perhaps a simple issue of population density). As I walked to the bus stop from my apartment earlier this week on my way to my 8am class, even with my umbrella my leather shoes were soaked to the sock within approximately 1 minute of being outside. Lightening everywhere. In class it struck close enough that some of the girls in the class screamed. After class I found myself again waiting by the bus stop, watching lightening hit the surrounding mountains and neat rows of mulitcolors umbrellas walking along the various paths and bridges away from me on their way to lunch deeper into campus.

The temperature has been hanging in the 40s all day and night, but the dampness from the rain makes you feel quite chilly so I've taken to firing up the space heater again. This week my Chinese classes also started, so I am teaching 16 hrs/week and a student 14 hrs/week. These classes are provided for free by the university in our contract and are also for the foreign exchange students (like Andrew last term) but in one class I was the only student and ended up having a nice chat with the teacher which ultimately lead to me having dinner last night at her flat courtesy of her mom. She made a special chicken that lived in a field and ate grass, not feed- cucumber, carrots, green beans (I had requested veggies over meat), and spinach (well- not really spinach.. but close enough (its better!)). The thing about eating most meat in China is the amount of bones in it. I'm okay wielding chopsticks, but when it comes to navigating the meat off of the little piece I pick up and then politely setting the bone back down with my sticks on the table- I suck. Plus, eating with new people makes me a little nervous so my skills are worse and I just end up not eating a lot- which makes the host think I didn't like the food- which isn't helped by the fact that my Chinese sucks and I can't simply tell her that her assumptions simply aren't true- I just suck at eating her food.

This semester my classes are much more laid back, and its nice to be able to get to know my students better. They know I am taking Chinese classes too, and I received an email from one of my students this afternoon offering to help me practice my Chinese. Other students have reached out too, and I hope to befriend more of them outside of class. I'm just staying really busy- which I think will keep me more productive. Julia invited me to play ping pong with her and Rainbow (my students) so we had an afternoon of lively conversation, coffee and jiaozi. One day I really hope to hold a conversation with them in Chinese. I've been studying diligently and can now write many characters by hand- a skill which I don't think is terribly useful- but I feel really cool being able to do. There are so many things I want to accomplish this term! Mid-March my friend Emily I met at the caves in Oregon will be flying up to Shanghai, so I need to coordinate meeting her and showing her around Hangzhou- so that will be nice to see another familiar face.

The rumor mill has been very busy lately- we apparently will be moving up to the new campus sometime in March- but no one seems to have any idea when. Elisabeth is flying back to America this weekend. There was an unfortunate rumor that our pay would be delayed (the 20RMB left in my wallet was hoping that wouldn't be true) and indeed it wasn't- in addition to the rumor that has literally blanketed the campus that I'm dating Morten- grumblegrumble. The Chinese whispers are pretty intense. Julia says there is an extremely attractive teacher in the accounting department. It is her homework assignment to subtly take a picture of him.

out of hibernation

So, after nearly a week of near constant sleeping and nonstop rain the sun has come out and like a furry, growling bear I have emerged from my concrete cave to greet the good people of China. I may be full of grumbles and my students may continue to pet my luxiourious arm hair (true story) but things seem to be on the up and up. I even went for a run up to the new campus, ran a mile around the track, and ran back. I even asked a man what the time was and he asked if it was time to stop running or something like that and I think I said yes. Its nice to generally have a little idea of what people are saying. I keep finding myself very surprised when I say something to a Chinese person and they understand what I say- like when I was eating at the cafeteria with Elisabeth and after she got her food I said "yi yang de ta" (the same as her) and they actually just started loading up my tray! Its amazing! And this term I will be able to take the Chinese classes offered by the university- ooohhh maybe I can be conversational by July! Julia seemed upset that she had spent so many years studying English and I'd been here 5 months and could read and communicate basic things.

One of the foreign teachers isn't returning. She is Phillipino and married an American down in Shenzhen (pretty close to Hong Kong) and I don't know where she is now. By being one of the only foreigners in town I feel a lot of- I guess you could call it racism. But most of it is pretty positive. Like the random guy video taping me walking down the street on his cell phone. There are definitely people who don't like foreigners, but generally people are friendly. But I'm white. I think this teacher received a lot of negative racism for being Phillipino- maybe from being from a poorer country than China? She would mention that her students would be talking about her in class in Chinese- that they didn't like her. I don't know. But it was surprising not to see her when I came back.

Also, I just realized that Morten has lost his British accent. He talks like I do. I have changed his accent. Apparently the same thing happened the last time he was in China when he lived with a bunch of Canadians. I find that so odd to think about. The way he speaks has changed in the past 5 months. So what does Morten actually sound like? This is just an issue of his accent on his English changing- I mean the real accent in the way he speaks is in his Danish which - obviously- I can't understand. I just find it weird to think about.

Morten is going to lecture for some of my history classes again because- he really likes history (nerd). Otherwise it is just Oral English. I was expecting to have my normal class of 17 students I had for the minor class last term- but instead I was greeted to a room of 70 students. They are minors and have a lot of other classes, so that number will be much smaller the rest of the semester.

So late! Time for bed!

But first- one more thing. So I was complaining about the cat in heat outside my window. When I was up at Morten's apartment the meowing was so loud I had to raise my voice so he could hear me. Where I have one cat on my side of the building, Morten must have twenty. The howling keeps him up and gives him nightmares when he falls asleep. This spurred me too look up more information on the reproductive cycle of cats to try to find out what all the hooha was about. Lemme tell you... its a virtual 'gang bang' situation out there. Did you know that in a litter of 5 kittens, each kitten could have a different father? According to the website this also seems to be an extremely painful process. Perhaps.... no one else is interested in this. But spring is definitely in the air...

Random Notes

Today was the first day of class and in oral English we were talking about adjectives and the students had to describe words from a list I'd made. One of the words was "boring":

"The class where we learn about Deng Xiaoping"

I would also like to proudly declare that I have stayed awake ALL DAY today. Although its going on 8, so I'll probably call it a night soon. But there is definitely a cat in heat somewhere in the courtyard right outside my window.

Its been rainy all day today, but I finally got my mail from the last month from the international office. Lots of belated birthday and Christmas wishes. It sounds like they are going to make us move- somewhere- mid March- because they are turning our apartments into student housing? Eh, I should probably be more alert by then.

Chinese Vampire

Thanks everyone who took some time out of their schedule to visit while I was back in the states. I had a fantastic time and it was extremely refreshing to be able to speak English with everyone and see so many familiar faces.
Although I was hoping to go skiing- the 50 degree heat wave was also very nice. Speaking of 50 degrees... can I also mention how nice it was to be around people who understand English units?! Granted, we are wrong. Metric is a much better system. Don't even argue this. But 50 degrees sounds much nicer than 10C or whatever the hell it is. Even though there are a fair number of English speakers I can communicate with, there is a serious lack of Americans to discuss our archaic measuring system with. And while I am on the topic of weather- Shanghai was a blistering 75F when I landed. It appears the days of warming up with a good sit on the space heater are over!

I have been so out of it since I landed. I don't think I really slept the night before my flight, didn't really sleep on the plane- and have been sleeping like 16 hours a day since my arrival Thursday night. I've been falling asleep at some weird time in the wee hours of the morning and then falling asleep again around 5PM. So I am still sort of on an American sleep pattern and probably only slept at night with the help of a sleeping pill courtesy of Morten. Hence it is 4:30AM and I am wide awake and teaching a class at 8AM. Maybe this sleep pattern isn't SO bad. Going to bed at 5PM and waking up at 2AM isn't that far off a normal sleep pattern. Plus I get all this quiet time to myself at night, to be efficient in whatever ways I see fit- plus all my American friends are out and about now. Poor logic? Well, I'm sure my sleep pattern will work itself out eventually.

Thankfully my Chinese doesn't seem to have suffered much over my vacation. I had no trouble talking to the cabbie in Hangzhou or getting bus tickets. There is a new teacher here from Canada too- which I have been sleeping too much to actually meet yet- but Morten was describing the boost for his language confidence it was to hang out with someone who was brand new to China, exclaiming about the fact that -oh! is that a Chinese bus? wow, this is a grocery store? The honeymoon phase of culture shock is definitely done on this end- but hopefully a day of actual work tomorrow- with a schedule apart from sleeping will help me get back on the right track.