October Break

Now I have started my October break. The first few weeks of school have been busy. My teaching has gone really well. I feel like I am finally coming through in my teaching. As an oral English teacher I have always done pretty well at getting the students to talk about things in English in a fun environment, but I haven't always done really well at introducing content (such as grammar or vocabulary) followed by appropriate activities to illustrate or to practice the new material. In the past my activities were a little bit random.

My wife is now in her first year of teaching. She is really a natural teacher (unlike me). She has done a great job. The students like her. She and I share some freshman classes, so they were really surprised that their English teacher is married to their oral English teacher.

I promised last post that I would tell you about my Long March. It is appropriate that I tell you about my Long March right before the October first holiday, since that is the national day of China. This summer I decided I wanted to take a long walk with a couple friends along the side of the only river in town. The city has done a great job of building parks on each side of it the whole way through town, so I wanted to explore it. Also, it had been too long since I had just taken a day and walked. Back home in the Blue Ridge I would regularly go backpacking and hiking, but since moving to China three years ago, I have had only one chance to put on my boots and wend through mountain trails. I sorely missed it.

Taking an urban hike, viewing the design of men, is, of course, not the same as taking a hike out in the woods and enjoying the pure design of creation. However, it is not so different as I had thought. After hiking for several hours across town, I really felt that feeling that a hiker gets that cannot really be described but only felt. That feeling is something like freedom, but more than that because it draws one's heart up beyond the world that one is walking through to an attitude of worship. I don't think I'm the only one who gets this feeling, because I often read atheists that very condescendingly say, "When I stand on a mountain and view the stars, I get a feeling of transcendence, so I can understand how theists get off wrong." Though it was an urban hike, there were plenty of trees and grass and there was the sky and, of course, the river. That helped provide a little reprieve from city life.

There was one great benefit of taking an urban hike. After the first half of the hike, my friends and I sauntered into a nice coffee shop and took our beverages in style. When you are doing an urban hike, you don't bring a bunch of little baggies of Kool-aid to pour into your water bottle. No, you bring Starbucks coupons. After that we slurped down some delicious noodles at a restaurant nearby. On this hike, there were no freeze dried meals or cans of sardines. There was no need to light a stove and trim the flame and burn ones fingers. We dined in luxury.

It was interesting to see the whole town from south to north. Most of the area that the river runs through is not highly developed. There is only one place that is a really valuable business district. The weird thing is that one of the nicest parts of the river park was within walking distance of only a big smoke belching factory. (Of course, one could say that the whole city is within walking distance as we proved by our seven hour walk. And after all, how far is a walking distance? Does a distance cease being a walking distance at a particular number of meters? And the next millimeter over would be considered beyond a walking distance?) The park is uniformly nice through most of the city. However it was old and unimproved in the far north of the city. As we walked in the north part, some cleaning ladies tried to tell us that we should turn around and walk south because the park was not very nice in the north, and we tried to tell them that we had already seen the south of the river walk and didn't want to go that way.

A great highlight of the journey was to be able to spend the day with my new friends J and D. We talked about all sorts of things, especially about philosophy, literature and history. D parted from us at the halfway point to do some work at his home, but J continued with me all the way to where the sidewalk ends. To get back home the two of us had to climb over a fence to get onto a dam, cross the river and then climb over another fence to get off of the dam. Then we had to pull out a city map and walk a distance to find a city bus, the only city bus, actually, in that part of the outskirts of town. Before boarding the rusty old bus, we walked into a snack store and bought a couple soft drinks that are so cheap (1 RMB/600 ml) that they are sold only in the countryside. After the bus ride, we boarded the most advanced form of transportation in our city, a subway/elevated train, to go to the south of town again. Standing there on the train, we (or at least I) felt so superior. Those around us had not felt the distance they were traveling. They hadn't made the earth turn under their feet. They had just zipped here and there on buses or taxis. Or actually maybe some of them had travelled there on their own power and seen the world walk by them in all its beauty. Maybe they had felt that freedom and sense of worship that we had felt.

Having hopped off the subway/elevated train, we still had a ten minute walk from the station to our houses. If I remember right, I think we rewarded ourselves with a little ice cream or something before going inside. For such a memorable trip it would have been appropriate to have kept a memento from it. J brought back the soft drink bottle and still has it sitting on his cabinet shelf beside his precious books as a monument to our Long March. But I have nothing. Not even pictures, as I had leant my camera to someone.

That's ok. If I had kept something then I would have had to throw it away someday. But I didn't, and I won't.

Summertime

Hey folks,

If any of you are still reading my blog, I'm really surprised. I haven't written anything here for so long. In fact, I haven't written anything for a long time. I started this blog back during my last vacation from school. At the time I felt like if I didn't write something I would burst, so I started the blog as a kind of release valve. Well, now in my summer vacation I really don't feel like writing anything, and what's more, I really don't feel like reading anything either. This is really weird because for me to not want to read is like a fish not wanting to swim.

I am reading something however. In the mornings I get up and brew a cup of Pu'er tea or Chinese black tea and read The Training of the Twelve by A.B. Bruce. It is a good book. It's kind of like a commentary. I also have been reading a book called 普洱茶. I say I am reading the book, but it is a Chinese book and I can't really read Chinese very well. Since it takes me about thirty minutes to read one sentence, it is probably more accurate for me to say that I am reading the first paragraph of the book. The book is about Pu'er tea, my current favorite brew.

Later sometime I'll tell you all about my summer and my long march and my favorite tea. But for now I'll go to bed.

Strange Place for a Carrier

As you may know, this nation is debating the merits of adding an aircraft carrier to its naval fleet. Some say that carriers are good for power projection, and thus this nation doesn't need one since it doesn't express an interest in projecting its power overseas.

What you may not know is that it already has a carrier. However, I don't think that it would do much good at power protection given the size of the body of water in which it is found.

Why this carrier is here, I don't know. It is probably just for training or gaming or whatnot. According to what I heard it was built near Shanghai. However, I got this from an internet discussion group, so who knows how accurate the information or even the picture itself is.

Finished Paper

My wife finished her paper yesterday and gave it to her adviser. The adviser will read it and give suggestions. Then we will go back to work on it to prepare the final draft.

I've noticed in this that my wife is one of the most patient people I know. I thought I was really patient, but I noticed lately that she doesn't get flustered about things easily. As the dead lines were looking more and more deadly, she seemed positively unconcerned. She just plugged away at it. Once we made a mistake, deleting a little portion of the paper, and whereas I just about went over the top, she was just as collected as can be.

Today I met with a couple of students for lunch. My wife had been planning to come with me and meet them too, but she was really tired after doing her paper. She stayed home and slept until who knows when. She deserved it because she had worked hard.

Thanks to One and All

I read something by Douglas Wilson the other day that made me smile. He wrote about things he was thankful in the form of a Hebrew poetic convention. He said, "For two things I give thanks, and for three I am extremely grateful. First, I am very thankful for the godly character of my wife and family. Second, I am grateful for the integrity of my friends and co-laborers . . . . But third, after careful consideration of the subject, I have to say that I am profoundly grateful for the caliber of my enemies."

Lately, I've been busy with teaching and my wife is busy writing her graduate paper. We have been staying up late together recently while she works on her paper, but unfortunately I don't have the luxury of sleeping in. So, needless to say, I'm getting cranky. I should go to bed and just let her work, but I just don't like going to bed all by my lonesome. It has been about a year after all since I was a loner like our luchadore friend Nacho. And even then I didn't really agree with his estimation of single life ("It's the best!").

By the way, it has been about a year. Last week was an anniversary for my wife and me. I surprised her with a gift and stuff. It was a good anniversary, but it was kindof overshadowed by a looming dead line of my wife's paper. That isn't too bad that we couldn't have a big celebration because last week was only one of our anniversaries. We have more than one actually because of Chinese tradition. It is the next anniversary that is the most important for us.

If you want to know why we have more than one wedding anniversary, you can look at my "This n'that" entry of February 10, and that should make it clear.

Gone for a While

Hey folks,

I'm terribly sorry that I have been away for such long time. I was quite busy with the beginning of school for a week or two and then something happened which I didn't quite expect. I was unable to get onto my blogs all of a sudden. I have three blogs that I participate in, and all of them one day became inaccessible to me. Even now, strangely enough, though I can post, I cannot view my blogs. I guess I should have expected it; just a day before my blogs became inaccessible, I read a news story on the topic of the Internet here. You can say that the news story was the "writing on the wall" for my blog.

Probably my friends in the States can read my blogs now, but I can't. Perhaps I will start a new blog on an "acceptable" site soon. If so, I'll send you the link. Or perhaps I'll just keep posting here.

I've been encouraged by your comments, both on the blogs and face-to-face. Whether you know my wife and me or not, I am happy to tell you about my sometimes strange, sometimes boring life, and I am especially happy to read your comments. I will go and do some reading now. Perhaps if I have time tonight, I will tell you about my wife's and my first anniversary.

Take care,

Syme

Luo Ye Gui Gen

"Luo Ye Gui Gen" is a new Chinese movie that Zhao Benshan stars in. I feel that it is a movie that Americans should see, but I know most will not. Then name means something like, "Fallen leaves return to the root." It was a humorous movie about a migrant worker returning home with his friend. Well actually, his friend didn't do much during the movie. He was dead.

In the movie Zhao's friend died while the two were drinking together after work. Zhao had promised his friend that if he ever died away from home, he would take his body back to be buried in his hometown. Zhao took the body, and he boarded a bus to go to his friend's hometown. Of course, it would be impossible to openly carry a dead body around with you, so Zhao pretends that his friend is drunk so that people will not be alarmed. The trouble begins when the people on the bus discover that Zhao's friend is actually a dead man and not a drunk man. Disgusted and frightened, they force Zhao and his friend (of course) to get off of the bus. Zhao has many adventures and trials as he tries to get his friend's body back to be buried in his hometown.

The reason that I think Americans should see this movie is that it depicts the lives of normal modern Chinese people. The biggest movie that has come out of China was probably “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” That was a good movie but it was about the upper classes in the distant past. The other big movies that might have gotten wide international viewings, such as “Hero,” “The Banquet” and “The Curse of the Golden Flower,” were all about the upper classes in the distant past. Because of this, Americans that see just these movies from China get an unbalanced and perhaps a hackneyed view of China.

“Lu Ye Gui Gen” shows normal things that you encounter in China today. Here are a few things that made me smile because they mirrored real life here. While Benshan is riding on the bus, it stops on the side of the road. Then the driver stands up and says, “Men on the right, women on the left.” All of the people then filed out of the bus and relieved themselves. There was no outhouse where the bus stopped, just forest. This exact scenario has never happened when I was riding a bus, but if you lived here for a while, maybe this scene would make you smile too.

Another thing that it showed was people’s relationships towards their laoxiang (to others who come from the same region). Benshan is a Northeasterner. One night as he is walking through a town, he hears a hair parlor worker speaking in the Northeastern dialect. Because of this he goes in to her hair parlor and trusts her, telling her his whole story about how he is trying to get the friend’s body back to his hometown. She believes him, and helps him by putting makeup on the face of the body.

Another scene showed the existence of and the fight against the black market in China. Benshan goes to give blood at an official blood center in order to get some money. But because he had had a disease, he was ineligible to give blood. As he left the blood donation center, a man walks up to him quietly and offers him 500 RMB for some blood. Benshan follows the person into a dark building and waits his turn to give blood. Just then, the police raid the blood center and take the operators to jail.

I wish this movie could be exported to America. It would do the Americans well to see a movie about common people in modern China. It is an amusing and lighthearted movie, despite the fact that the movie is about a dead guy.