This post may have to be short and sweet as the temperature in the apartment is floating somewhere between the high 30's and low 40's. The temperature dropped sharply here a couple of weeks ago, and due to the poor heating in the apartment we have been forced to abandon a large portion of it. There are only two rooms with heating in them, my bedroom and Bryan's. Since Bryan's room was formerly the study and is much larger than mine, we opted to move the TV along with the couch and a chair into it. So now we have a place to hang out in the apartment that doesn't require us to wrap ourselves in blankets. Unfortunately, there isn't enough room in there for the computer so it is still out in the main (unheated) part of the flat. Due to this, my time spent on the computer has been greatly reduced, especially since I can't type fast enough to keep my fingers warm. (This isn't really what I wanted to write about, I just thought you should know in case you've emailed me and I haven't responded. So anyways, on with the story).
I've recently made friends with one of my fellow English teacher. Her name is Cathy and she is originally from Shaoxing. (A side note on her name: Chinese speakers have trouble pronouncing "th", they say it more the an "s", so when Cathy told me her name I thought she said “Cassie,” which I called her for about three weeks. She told me that she chose the name from her favorite book,
Wuthering Heights. She recently gave me a copy of the book to read and I noticed that none of the characters were named “Cassie,” but there were in fact two “Cathy's.” So I have causally switched over from “Cassie” to “Cathy” and she hasn't said anything about it. She may have never even noticed the difference). Cathy just graduated from college a year ago and this is her first teaching job as well. We got to know each other through our mutual interest in the other's native language. Once a week we would get together, I helped her with her English and she helped me with my Chinese. In this way we became good friends.
A couple of weeks ago I went with her to Hangzhou (a bigger city about an hour away). We had lunch together at (what I considered) a posh restaurant, and then I accompanied Cathy to a Mary Kay Cosmetics party being thrown at a hotel in town. One of Cathy's friends was "beauty consultant" and was being promoted (trading in a red jacket for a pink one, as best I could tell). Needless to say, I was one of only a few men there, and differently the only foreigner. The party was a long ceremony with a bunch of speeches and clapping. And not surprisingly, I had no idea what was being said. I guess at one point Cathy's friend was speaking and mentioned us and everyone tried to find the foreigner in the room. Otherwise, the event was pretty low key (in it’s super-excited Mary Kay way).
Following the party I was invited to have dinner with Cathy and her parents at their home. It was a great evening, and I really enjoyed meeting her parents, even though neither of them spoke any English. I've discovered that in any culture when you are at a dinner party and you can't speak the language the best thing to do is smile and laugh a lot, as well as eat as much as you can. So that's what I did. They taught me how to say the name of each dish in Chinese and I taught them how to say it in English. Cathy's father also got me a bit drunk by toasting me every couple of minutes. I drank a couple cans of stout beer as well as a fair amount of Shaoxing wine. It was a wonderful time and Cathy promised to invite me back again.
True to her word, Bryan and I (along with Wendy and Janet-two other foreign teachers) were invited to Cathy's house again last night. We met them at the school gates at five in the evening and were driven to house on the other side of town. Since there was so many of us, Bryan and I went in the first car and Cathy followed with the others in the second. However, we arrived about ten minutes before them so we spent the time in the house with her father who just smiled and laughed. (He also offered us bananas and even peeled them for us, which is another cultural first for me).
Along with the four foreigners, the diner party included a few other people: Cathy's dad's coworkers (and one of their daughters), as well as her mom and cousin. Only one other person besides Cathy could speak both English and Chinese, but it did not seem to cause much trouble. We had a wonderful meal with more dishes than could fit on the table. Just to highlight a few of them: Turtle soup; smoked, fried, and steamed fish; duck;
cold beef; prawn; pressed tofu; a myriad of vegetable dishes; and New Year's cake (which is made from gluttonous rice). As usual, I ate more than I thought was possible (and advisable), and also drank more than I should have. We were given three different types of beer, heated Shaoxing wine, and a sweet apricot wine. I didn't realize how drunk I was until I stood up to leave. Bryan told me today that I was hitting on Cathy's mom, but I don't remember it.
After we had eaten for a good hour and a half, it was time for songs. Bryan led the foreigners in a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells" and I sang "Amazing Grace." Cathy sang "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (quite well). Two of the other guests sang as well. One sang a little bit of Shaoxing Opera and the other sang an amazing Korean song. I have now heard a couple of different Korean songs and they have all been very cool. Perhaps it is an area that needs more exploration.
At the end of the night, we were dropped off at the main gates of the school and had to stumble across campus to our apartment, where we fell asleep while watching
Sparticus. I have spent most of today recovering. It serves me right, I guess. As I was once told by a little Irish man, "At my age, I should have known better than to mix me grape and me grain." I suppose it's even more true when you throw rice and apricot alcohol in there too.
# posted by JP @ 7:00 PM
This post may have to be short and sweet as the temperature in the apartment is floating somewhere between the high 30's and low 40's. The temperature dropped sharply here a couple of weeks ago, and due to the poor heating in the apartment we have been forced to abandon a large portion of it. There are only two rooms with heating in them, my bedroom and Bryan's. Since Bryan's room was formerly the study and is much larger than mine, we opted to move the TV along with the couch and a chair into it. So now we have a place to hang out in the apartment that doesn't require us to wrap ourselves in blankets. Unfortunately, there isn't enough room in there for the computer so it is still out in the main (unheated) part of the flat. Due to this, my time spent on the computer has been greatly reduced, especially since I can't type fast enough to keep my fingers warm. (This isn't really what I wanted to write about, I just thought you should know in case you've emailed me and I haven't responded. So anyways, on with the story).
I've recently made friends with one of my fellow English teacher. Her name is Cathy and she is originally from Shaoxing. (A side note on her name: Chinese speakers have trouble pronouncing "th", they say it more the an "s", so when Cathy told me her name I thought she said “Cassie,” which I called her for about three weeks. She told me that she chose the name from her favorite book, Wuthering Heights. She recently gave me a copy of the book to read and I noticed that none of the characters were named “Cassie,” but there were in fact two “Cathy's.” So I have causally switched over from “Cassie” to “Cathy” and she hasn't said anything about it. She may have never even noticed the difference). Cathy just graduated from college a year ago and this is her first teaching job as well. We got to know each other through our mutual interest in the other's native language. Once a week we would get together, I helped her with her English and she helped me with my Chinese. In this way we became good friends.
A couple of weeks ago I went with her to Hangzhou (a bigger city about an hour away). We had lunch together at (what I considered) a posh restaurant, and then I accompanied Cathy to a Mary Kay Cosmetics party being thrown at a hotel in town. One of Cathy's friends was "beauty consultant" and was being promoted (trading in a red jacket for a pink one, as best I could tell). Needless to say, I was one of only a few men there, and differently the only foreigner. The party was a long ceremony with a bunch of speeches and clapping. And not surprisingly, I had no idea what was being said. I guess at one point Cathy's friend was speaking and mentioned us and everyone tried to find the foreigner in the room. Otherwise, the event was pretty low key (in it’s super-excited Mary Kay way).
Following the party I was invited to have dinner with Cathy and her parents at their home. It was a great evening, and I really enjoyed meeting her parents, even though neither of them spoke any English. I've discovered that in any culture when you are at a dinner party and you can't speak the language the best thing to do is smile and laugh a lot, as well as eat as much as you can. So that's what I did. They taught me how to say the name of each dish in Chinese and I taught them how to say it in English. Cathy's father also got me a bit drunk by toasting me every couple of minutes. I drank a couple cans of stout beer as well as a fair amount of Shaoxing wine. It was a wonderful time and Cathy promised to invite me back again.
True to her word, Bryan and I (along with Wendy and Janet-two other foreign teachers) were invited to Cathy's house again last night. We met them at the school gates at five in the evening and were driven to house on the other side of town. Since there was so many of us, Bryan and I went in the first car and Cathy followed with the others in the second. However, we arrived about ten minutes before them so we spent the time in the house with her father who just smiled and laughed. (He also offered us bananas and even peeled them for us, which is another cultural first for me).
Along with the four foreigners, the diner party included a few other people: Cathy's dad's coworkers (and one of their daughters), as well as her mom and cousin. Only one other person besides Cathy could speak both English and Chinese, but it did not seem to cause much trouble. We had a wonderful meal with more dishes than could fit on the table. Just to highlight a few of them: Turtle soup; smoked, fried, and steamed fish; duck;
cold beef; prawn; pressed tofu; a myriad of vegetable dishes; and New Year's cake (which is made from gluttonous rice). As usual, I ate more than I thought was possible (and advisable), and also drank more than I should have. We were given three different types of beer, heated Shaoxing wine, and a sweet apricot wine. I didn't realize how drunk I was until I stood up to leave. Bryan told me today that I was hitting on Cathy's mom, but I don't remember it.
After we had eaten for a good hour and a half, it was time for songs. Bryan led the foreigners in a rousing rendition of "Jingle Bells" and I sang "Amazing Grace." Cathy sang "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" (quite well). Two of the other guests sang as well. One sang a little bit of Shaoxing Opera and the other sang an amazing Korean song. I have now heard a couple of different Korean songs and they have all been very cool. Perhaps it is an area that needs more exploration.
At the end of the night, we were dropped off at the main gates of the school and had to stumble across campus to our apartment, where we fell asleep while watching Sparticus. I have spent most of today recovering. It serves me right, I guess. As I was once told by a little Irish man, "At my age, I should have known better than to mix me grape and me grain." I suppose it's even more true when you throw rice and apricot alcohol in there too.
