But the sun will come up tomorrow...

Loneliness
Is
An island
In
The middle
Of
A sea of people

R.R (aged 11)

Thad the Duck

As there was no major pressing events happening this week I will just update you on a number of smaller things that are happening 'round these parts:

Zaijian (Goodbye)
You can cross this off of your "Things I Want to See in China" list. Nobody will ever be able to see it again. It is such a shame when preventable things like this happen. Is commerce so important that we are willing to sacrifice our world??

My Friend
So, over the past few weeks here, I have gone to play basketball with the students and teachers on campus. I try to go once or twice a week at least. I figure it is fun, a great way to exercise, and I can get to know the people on campus better. One of the people I usually play with is another English Department teacher named Murray (his English name.) Murray is my friend.

The notion of friendship in China is somewhat different than it is in the U.S. and it is hard to explain. If you gain a friend in China, that person is your *friend*. That means that you help one another out, frequently hang out together, and are pretty close. The notion of a casual friendship exists here, but it is much more rare. In the U.S., everyone has friends who come and go, such as co-workers, college classmates, and other similar instances in which the contact doesn't last and both parties of the friendship understand that fact. In China, people don't move much and, thus, contacts aren't as tenuous as they are in the U.S. That means all friendships are considered life-long experiences. That is all fine and good. I am comfortable with that. The problem is that friends are also much more affectionate with one another than the average American friendship. It is not uncommon here to see two girls walking down the street hand-in-hand, as a sign of friendship. Men who are friends lean on one another, ruffle each others hair, and will even hang an arm over a friend's shoulder.

That is where my frienship makes me a bit uncomfortable. Murray is my friend and he has been very kind to me, but it FREAKS ME OUT when he gets in my space bubble. Want an example? We went to an English Department Christmas party a couple of nights ago. I was sitting in one chair and Murray was talking with me on a stool next to the chair. Michelle wanted to take a picture of us together. Do you know how, when someone takes your photo, you lean in to make sure you all fit in the frame together? I leaned in, and Murray, rather than leaning in....well....I'll just show you:
He just hopped into the chair with me, practically on my lap, and we had our photo! You may notice that I appear a little uncomfortable in the picture.

Of course, Michelle is endlessly amused by all of this and refers to Murray's friendship with me as his "man-crush." This is just one of those cultural differences that I will have to get used to I guess. Perhaps if I don't reciprocate, he'll get the drift. Who knows?

The Old Man
To those uninitiated in the ways of the holidays in China, the "Old Man" is what the Chinese call Santa Claus. The Chinese have a peculiar view of Christmas and celebrate it in an odd manner here. If you were to go into the supermarket in Cheng Xian, you'd see a Christmas tree (full-sized, potted) with a strand of lights on the top half and a cardboard cutout of Santa's head hanging from the ceiling every 6-10 yards. Never his body, only his head. They do have the occasional and obligatory "Christmas Merry" on them, but that is all. It is a little creepy seeing that many bodyless Santas floating through the store, but my concern is soon soothed away by the very loud holiday music blaring from the store speakers. Sometimes the lyrics are right, and other times... Well, it's the effort that counts, right?

Here is a photo of the front of the supermarket. The store owner hired a band he happened to hear playing for a wedding parade the previous day. They didn't play Christmas music, so they did the only thing they could do to make it more Christmas-like to match rest of the theme:
I personally like the man playing the gong with the giant red bow on his chest. He went the extra mile! You gotta love that effort. You can't see it in the photo but they are all standing right next to a giant speaker which is blaring music so loud that I couldn't hear the band anyway. Oh, the things musicians must do to make it these days!

Trippin'
I am in the middle of planning our Spring Holiday vacation. Every year, during the months of January and February, schools close and Chinese families all gather together for the Spring Festival and the Chinese New Year. It is, essentially, the Chinese Christmas. Considering that it is in the dead of winter, a few of us decided that it would be the perfect time to head south (like ducks!) So, we'll be spending 3 weeks much closer to the equator, travelling around in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Macau, and perhaps Indonesia. As time gets closer I'll post more of my itinerary. Michelle has given me free reign to plan as long as she: (A) is warm, (B) can drink fruity beverages, and (C) can ride an elephant somewhere along the way. Considering that these three requirements are pretty easily met, she can expect a healthy dose of historic and natural sites along the way. Rainforest, here I come!

Talk to you soon!

The CCC

There are stranger things in the world to-day
Than ever you dreamed could be.
There's beauty in some of the commonest things
If only you've eyes to see.
Thornton W. Burgess

When a problem presents itself there are a number of ways to solve it.

There is the time-honored tradition of ignoring the problem and hoping it'll go away or magically solve itself. I've used this on a number of occasions as a teenager when my car wouldn't work right. My best friend's father would get after me when he saw me ignoring an obvious problem. He'd say, "Thad, do you think your car will magically heal itself?" Lacking mechanical know-how, motivation, and money at the time, I'd look at him, sigh to myself, and wistfully say, "Someday, Sir, someday." One time I was actually proven right when I tried to drive my car through a lake-sized puddle (There was water coming in the windows. Do not try this at home. If you do, as a courtesy to your passengers, roll up your windows.) and the distributor cap got wet. The car refused to start for a couple of days. Finally, on the third day it started right up. I gleefully gloated to my friend's father that my car had, in fact, magically healed itself. He responded to my technical victory by referring to me as a knucklehead, idiot, "damned fool kid," or something along those lines. Given my penchant for using my car as my own personal yacht, he was probably right. The S.S. Thad didn't last much longer and is now in that car lot/marina in the sky.

One can present the problem to a number of people and hope that one of the many listeners may help find a solution. This is often known by a much more popular term: whining. It can be successful on occasion, but it is really dependent upon three key attributes: persistence (Variation works well. "Boy, am I hungry!" "I am starving." "I could eat a horse!") , persuasiveness ("Michelle, you are the most beautiful woman in the world...can I have a bite of your sandwich?", and a thick skin (Important both physically and psychologically in my case.) Of course, the importance of these attributes is lessened if you happen to be blessed with a particularly nasally voice, a whiner's holy grail.
Another option is throwing enough money around until the problem is solved. I, however, am a Peace Corps volunteer and that is *definitely* not what we are about...mostly because we *definitely* have no money. So, until smiles are accepted as currency (Someday, Sir, someday.) I'll have to resort to the first two options or...

...my own solution.

Christmas time is coming quickly and, as we are away from home, we figured that one of the ways that we could bring a little bit of America to China would be to get a Christmas tree. The problem is that nobody sells them. They have some small potted trees for sale around here but they are too little and very expensive. House plants are cheap, just not the trees, particularly this time of year. Besides, who wants a Chrismas houseplant anyway?

I was mulling the problem over on my way to class when the solution stared me right in the face, literally. I was going into the library when I noticed, for the first time (I've been here over three months folks. I need to open my eyes!) that there were several small potted pine trees in front of the library. Hmmm...the wheels began to turn. I started planning the CCC (Clandestine Christmas Caper.)

I waited until nighfall when nobody would notice the giant foreigner sneaking through the shrubbery. The plan was to saunter up, grab the tree, and sneak into the shadows. I'd have to be quick because there are constantly people wandering the campus at all hours and the library faces the campus square, where nearly every other building faces. Everything went well, not a soul in sight, until I tried to carry the thing. The pot was made out of stone, not clay and the thing weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 9876189 pounds (3746846 metric!) thanks to both the pot and the recent rain that we have had. So, I waddled home with it, quite un-cat burglar-like, ducking behind cars, shrubs and corners until I reached the staircase to our 6th story apartment. After looking up and quietly sobbing to myself in the dark for a few minutes, I covertly tried to carry it up the stairs without tripping the sound-activated stairwell lights or having an errant branch knock on one of my neighbors' doors.

Could you imagine trying to explain to someone (in Mandarin) why you were slinking around at 1 a.m. with what is obviously some of the campus' decorative flora? My plan was to either (A) stop drop and run, or (B) feign drunkenness.

Luckily, neither option had to be used as I was stealthy (read: not clumsy) enough to not cause a problem to anything other than my back, which hasn't quite forgiven me yet.

So, now we have a tree. It is decorated, and the place has a festive holiday feeling about it. Some students have come by too 'ooh' and 'ahh' over the place. Apparently the connection hasn't been made yet and we should be in the clear. Until, that is, I have to return the thing in a few weeks.

Incidentally, Santa, if you're reading this, I'd like a bottle of aspirin and a back brace for Christmas.