Tina & Tiger

One of the neatest things I did all year was spend my final free Saturday in China with two of my students and their families. That Saturday morning, Michelle and I were picked up by our student Tiger's family (himself, his mom and dad) in his dad's shiny new black BMW and we drove north to the Ming Tombs. We saw some of the country sights, talked about everything from speeding tickets to the Da Vinci Code (with the help of Michelle translating) and it was just awesome to see a great Chinese family interact. The folks own some sort of a business together, I never quite figure out what it was but I'm settling on architecture. Tiger is excited about 1st grade in a month or so now, and they were all afraid of big dogs. I'd say they're a pretty typical well-off middle class Chinese family, one son, a nice car, etc. They gave me a great album of some pictures from the day, but unfortunately it's not digital. Now that I'm home, though, ask to see it! Tiger's a riot of a kid. Really a little man. He's got this huge head, he chose the name Tiger, and he's a child TV star. I'm not quite sure how big, but Michelle tells me when he travels to another city people recognize him. I guess he's famous for talking like an adult on TV, enough so that he gets a paycheck from CCTV (sometime I hope to post on CCTV, as Chinese TV is one of the most ridiculous things on planet Earth). He's in love with Michelle (whom he calls Miss Gao) and yeah, funny kid.

Later that afternoon Michelle and I said goodbye to Tiger and his folks and headed to a student's place who lives near our school, a girl named Tina. Tiger, I'm guessing is 6 going on 7, wheras Tina is 5 going on 6. Which makes a difference. She's an adorably cute girl and that day it was just her and her mom at home. Her dad's often away and her mom, too, is a pretty serious businesswoman. Tina's apartment home was an ok-size in my estimation, but still small for American standards. It was easy to see the "Little Emporer" complex played out in Tina and Tiger, though they're both good kids, they're the center of the family. Tina's home was decorated with huge pictures of her in crazy outfits, everything from cowboys to butterflies, and her toys took up most of the place. Tina and I played together the whole night as her mom prepared a delicious seafood dinner. Her mother, like I said, is successful, but she never finished high school. As a result, she's really pushing Tina to do well in school... I'd say too much. Tina and I watched an English video together, we jump roped (inside, oops), we played Pictionary where she had to answer in English and me in Chinese, and lots of other fun games. She is generous with her stuff and candy, but she sure has a lot of it. Good kids both, and a very interesting and eye-opening day all around.

Me & Tina:

Goodbyes

I didn't follow through on my promise to write more this past month, but now here I am home and finally I have a good chance. I'm not sure what to think of my near-11 months in China now, as being home it feels (honestly) like I never left. As I look through pictures and remember stories and see the bags of stuff still half-unpacked on my bedroom floor, it seems like such a short time I spent away, and yet so significant. It was tough to say goodbye to the kids, and harder to say goodbye to my friends. I gave each of the kids a picture of myself and a letter to remember me bye, and lots of hugs. The last week of classes we watched Finding Nemo and it was a nice way to chill and say goodbye. My Middle Pink class cried (a lot) but I never did in the classroom. I left school last Saturday and had a teary goodbye with Michelle, Janice, Paula and so many of the other people who had meant so much to me this year. Last meals, gifts, pictures, and times shared will last with me for a long time.

How about 3 yuan?

First, some background, then the punch line.

Big Purple class has been learning about going to the market and how to bargain (albeit simply) in English. For example, the student will tell me, “I want to buy apples,” to which I reply “that’ll be 5 yuan” to which they say, “No, no, no. How about 3 yuan?” Simple enough, right?

Next background: Foreigners have big, ugly noses. This is a well-known fact in China. In fact, even my nose is big and ugly—which I suppose it is compared to most Chinese noses, as they run pretty small and cute. This doesn’t bug me all that much (really at all), but when my students are kind enough to point this out to me (that my nose is big and ugly), I tickle them or give them some sort of hard time. After all, that’s my job. One of the other things I do is cut them off at the pass by asking them questions about my nose: if my nose is beautiful, if they like my nose, etc. I do this in Chinese so they know they can’t talk about my nose right in front of my nose, because, hey, I ting de dong (understand). Or I just do it to get a laugh out of them, which it does. Today, however, one of them got a good laugh out of me.

I was goofing around with some girls from Big Purple on the playground. They’d ask me to say things in Chinese and would laugh hysterically when I said them. So I said in Chinese, “You know, I can speak a little Chinese?” “We know,” they said, and kept on laughing. We continued chatting and eventually, I asked this one girl Cocoa a question. “Cocoa, is my nose beautiful?”

To which she replied, in English, “No, no, no. How about 3 yuan.”

Stuff vs. things (or is it all a bunch of dongxi?)

The Chinese word for “stuff” and “things” is the same: “Dongxi.”

Dongxi literally means east (dong) – west (xi), and comes from the old center street, which would run east-west, where all the markets would be set up. It’s where you went to buy all your stuff and all your things. To me, the two are different. You don’t really need stuff; you need things. Stuff you can do without; I really like my things. Get where I’m going with this?

I’ll admit I’ve always been a pretty materialistic person (as in I like my stuff and my things), but I’ve tried this year to think more about stuff and things and see how different they really are. Whether I’m going to buy necessary apartment “things” or just to spend money on silly Chinese “stuff,” it’s all the same in the pu tong hua (common language): mai dongxi. In my head, “mai dongxi” (buying things) sounds negative. Bored wives with their husband’s credit card “mai dongxi,” foreigners with their Meiguode qian (US dollars) “mai dongxi.”

How much of my life do I want to “mai dongxi?” How much of my “dongxi” do I really need? China’s made me ask these questions, and I think that’s a good thing, stuff, whatever.

Apologies

It's been way too long since I've posted, so for that I apologize. I've been slacking off for sure of late, but I guess I feel less of an urgency considering home is now less than 2 weeks away. Actually I'm trying to figure this out: It's currently 5:10 a.m. on Wednesday at home, which means in 2 weeks I'll be somewhere 30,000 feet over the Midwest, 1 hour and 40 minutes away from landing in Pittsburgh. Craziness. Anyway, expect more stuff between now and then, but if you don't see much, you'll see me soon enough, and hopefully all of this will be even better in person.