Its about 3 months now, in China.
Look, he's taking a picture of ME...while I am taking a picture of HIM...I guess we are both doing blogs...
Ya'an, the rainy city...and the cold city. This place rains a lot and is getting cold. My basketball playing days have been greatly numbered..."what a pity", as my chinese students would say.
In 3 months I have found a few more places to eat, more noodle shops, dumpling shops, and a Taiwanese restaurant. I really like the food here, but, it does start to get monotonous. My power occasionally goes out, usually for a very short time, the water was out for half a day, or
something like that. My heater works good (only one of them) and thats GOOD. ITS COLD. And thus, I cannot hang my clothes out to dry! Oh, we do get about one day of sunshine a week. I think it's gov't sanctioned. That is usually when I scrable on my bike and get going to the mountains or countryside.
Since we dont have a clothes dryer, this is how i dry my clothes.
I can tell that I am getting used to China. As I go around town nothing strikes me as odd or strange, and I am used to people staring at me..I just stare back...It's normal to do such things...just dont put your shoe on a seat or a table...my students hate when i do that...so of course I do it ALL the time! haha. Besides the stair, I get the usual "hallloooooo", "how are you", and the "where are you from?"...and if I respond I get back the usual "ting boo dong" ( I dont understand).
The stares, especially when I venture out of town on my many bike rides can be quite long.
I usually will go off-roading, through the farm lands, where I think many are surprised to see me, especially the kids...sometimes chasing me for a while, after their initial shock and/or fear.
In my short time here I have been learning abit more about the culture, the people, my students. The students have it a little rough here. No heater in their dorms...electricity is cut at 11pm...that's right! Lights Out...11:30 on weekends, so the Powers-that-be do show their mercy! They do not have showers in their dorms, so they have to walk to some big building to take a shower... haha...that sucks. One thing I found funny is that besides the fact that so many of these students are coupled up...the usually pay dutch when they go out...they tell me its about equal rights...ha. How about that, u american women! I tell them that its usually opposite in America, and the guys fear...and the girls hope! Many of my students have siblings...i suppose because we are more rural out here, far from Beijing. Some of the students that do not have siblings had told me that one of their parents worked for the GOV, and if they had had a second child they would have lost their job. U know, PARTY stuff (communist party for u uninitiated).
As I ride around Ya'an, I see more of this...the locals are getting into the bike scene, and i have read some blogs of the chinese traveling far...just to travel. From what i understand, this is a rather new phenomenon.
I dont have many students, and don't know much about their family lives, but so far at least one of my students lost a sibling in the big earthquake that happened out here last year. Sichuan province has many mountainous parts, where many tibetans live. A few of the tibetan students that I know had told me about their homes collapsing with the earthquake...and then they laugh. Always the laugh. Not a big laugh, but a half giggle. Its quite funny to hear them talk about losing their house, and then laugh about it...I cant quite discern it. But one tibetan fellow laughs at most things...I think he (and they) are just easy going lads such as us so-cal people.
One student had told me that she had to get a part-time job, and said it was because her family had no money because they had to rebuild their house after it fell in the earthquake. Bummer. Hard to speak of any hardship I may have after listening to my students.
Yeah, and my chinese is coming along...even though i rarely study. I can now ask someone
where they are going,
what they are reading,
give me the big bowl of noodles, and
my name is Big Mountain with Flowers. U gots to have a chinese name.
Another one of my rooms. This is the standard Truck Stop motel. They are located all throughout the land, near the smaller villages and towns. They are usually 3 bucks. This one had a tv, sometimes they do and sometimes they dont. Sometimes I have to walk far to the W.C. and sometimes I dont. This day I only had to walk downs stairs across the dirt road, near the animals...and wala, the w.c.
One of my basic meals. Potatoes and a vegie and rice, of course. Rice usually comes free when u order food. Except in Yunnan, particulary Kunming, i have had to pay 1 quai for rice. 14 cents. sucks!
Some of the vistas and views along the way. The pics just dont do justice to the landscape.
To my disbelief I saw a cycler early in the morning ahead of me and caught up to him.
