StRaNgE ThInGs

Here are some things you don't see every day in America.


Anybody hungry for some some chicken feet?











I call this a "No sit down" or "Squatter".



















And when was the last time you saw a Coke with a pull tab?

Early Morning Work Outs

First morning in China

Early Riser

OK...it's 5 o:clock in the morning.

I find myself up with the sun each day. I don't know if that is the jet lag or just the excitement of wondering what I will learn today.
Typically I don't get up until 9 or 10.

I thought I would get my coffee and things and go down to the park and watch the day come alive.

The elderly people here get up early and work out in the park.
Everybody had their own routine.
Some use the exercise equipment and some just do laps around the park.
They swing their arms and rub their faces.
One old man walks around backwards clapping his hands.

Soon there will be a large group doing Ti Chi.
Another group does some type of Ti Chi with Chinese fans.

It's already very warm out. The air is thick.
And last nights mosquitoes are still around.
But no bites to far...they must be used to Chinese food.

One old man walks by and I give him the old "Nee How"..."Hello".
So he replies and walks up and starts talking to me in Chinese...Damn I forgot my phrase book!
After about 2 min. of trying to chat he laughs and shakes his head and walks away saying something to Mr. swinging arms guy.
I may have to run up and get my book real quick.

Ok one old guy is standing behind me watching me type
He tries to chat too but all I can say is"Boo Dui"..."I don't know".

Every body is hockering and spitting...even the nice little old ladies.

I read that was something that people did here.

And so as 5:30 approaches the sun peaks over the horizon.
Must be time for the...I don't know what you call it, but they have small tennis racquet type thing and a ball and they toss the ball back and forth.

Mr. Slap yourself in the head man is now on the scene.
That may be me in a few more months.

The music starts up and we now have a group of people doing some kind of dance aerobics using little yellow things on the end of strings.
Little groups of men are walking around chatting very loud. This reminds me of the mall walkers back home.

Two guys wearing camouflage just came up and sat down next to me and try to chat...
I gotta' get my phrase book!
I think they are some sort of security.
And I forgot to bring my passport with me.
I wouldn't know if the asked to see it anyway.

I ask them if I can take their picture and they say no.
One writes something on his hand and shows me thinking maybe I can read Chinese.
Sorry..."Bui Dui".
I'm not too sure if the people mind if I take their picture or not so most of my shots are from the hip without the flash.
I don't want to offend anybody.

It's getting a little more crowded.
They now have a net set up for the little racquet and ball thing.
And I think the Ti Chi crowd has finally arrived.
They are doing some sort of dance...I think a warm up.

And now two little old ladies are trying to chat with me and checking out my lap-top.
With no progress they move over the other little old ladies and ask them about me.
(I can only guess)

The Ti Chi with fans has begun and I can hear the loud clap of the fans as they slap them open.

And there seems to be a lot of dragonflies all of a sudden.
6:30...Dragonfly:30.

I think I'll go back up and work on my blog and learn a few phrases that might actually help me in one way or another.

More Later.

Jim

Hot Pot

Hot Pot and KFC

So here we are again in the park but not quite so early.

After a fairly busy and social day yesterday, I slept in this morning.

I took a walk to the school today at about 10:00am (just to get out).
Kenny was there (I think for the same reason).
I had mentioned that I wanted to buy someDVD'ss because my DVD player didn't work with my American DVD's.

We walked around the corner from the school and there was the DVD store.
I wanted Kenny to go with me to make sure they had English version.
So I picked out a five new releases and I do mean new.
Mission Impossible 3, DaVinci Code, X-men III and a few others. At $1.00 each.
These were still on at the theaters back home when I left.

Afterwards Kenny had to go back home to have lunch with his mother.
On my way back home (different rout) I stumbled across an old friend…KFC.
So I had my fist dine out meal by myself.
It was easy to order...The #6...Qing....(please)
Four small pieces of chicken, some kind of corn, peppers and I don't know what else mix and a mango drink.
Just like back home...Sort of.

On my new rout home I too a detour down a back street with a lot of little shops.
This street and shops seemed very old. It was kind of like walking back in time.
Some very old little building were very dilapidated.
I even saw my first public urination.
Probably a 17 year old kid just walked up and started pissing on a wall along the street.
People everywhere..Nobody seemed to even notice.

At one intersection there was quite a crowd. I didn't know what was going on but I managed my way through.
On my way back I realized that they were waiting for their children to get out of school for lunch.
All the little food shops I had passed on my first pass were all a hopping...It was noon.

When I got home I immediately broke out my DVDs and tried them in the DVD player.. No luck...Chinese only.
Then I tried my lap-to..No luck there either..Wrong format. Damn.
So much for a good deal.

Red Berries
Sucia wanted me to come to the school at 2:00 to do some prep work...So I thought.
When I got there I found out that we were all going to go pick red berries.
So we all loaded into a van. (Sucia, Jessy, Kenny, Andy and myself) and took off to the berry farm.
On the way there we stopped at the junior high school and pick up a friend of theirs.
An American named Matt. Matt was from Tampa Florida and had been here for about a year. He was also getting ready to leave on Saturday.
So after not seeing one American or non Chinese in three days I was kind of like running into a brother. Matt had lots of helpful tips for me. And he answered a lot of questions that my Chinese friend couldn't.

The van dropped us off out in the middle of nowhere and a man took us into the woods where the red berry trees were. It was hot.
After a while we realized all the good berries were on the tops of the trees.
So after a while and lot of negotiating over price..We ended up just buying some baskets of berries. We could have done that on the streets, cheaper.
But it was nice to get out and see the countryside and see where theses berries came from.

You can see some pics. On Red Berries post.

Back at school we had a couple of hours of class and then Matt and a couple of other Americans showed up so we could all go out to dinner.

HOT POT

This was very interesting.




We all sat at a large round table with a big divided pot filled with spiced water in the middle. One side spicy.


So... it was the three new American guys, Hylan and Ben, Matt, the teachers, the head master of the school and myself.

The waitress brought us a bunch of plates filled with sliced beef, live shrimp, sliced sheep, some kind of stomach meat (no really), mushrooms, fish (with head attached of course)dumplings, meatballs (not like the ones we are used to...Looked like testicles so I had to ask to make sure they weren't) and a bunch of stuff that nobody could translate into English.
Man-o-man was it good.
Mr. David (headmaster) told me that when you eat Hot Pot it is tradition to eat three things. Those were mushrooms, sheep and stomach.

When I was camping in the mountains of Jamaica I ate some goat gut soup, so a little stomach didn't seem so bad.


This bowl had live shrimp in it. The leaves are there to keep them from jumping out.

What's next?

Picking red Berries

Chinese Red Berries...You can't get these back home!




We went to the countryside to pick Red Berries...Lots of eating...Not much picking!!





Kenny with the scales...Watch the thumb Kenny!!!





Well...Just buying berries.



And eating them while we watched the picker pick.

Global Jim in China

And so it has begun...China.

It is everything I dreamed it would be and in some ways nothing like I could imagine.


To be a foreigner in a place where people have never seen a person like you is a strange thing to say the least.

To be in a place where nobody knows what you are saying and you have no idea what they are saying either.

They look...They smile....At least most do.

Everybody stares...It is so strange.

I guess I think back to when I was young and saw a foreigner for the first time. One can't help but be curios. At least I couldn't.

I guess one of the reasons I am here is because I have always been fascinated by other cultures.

Even as I sit here in the park writing this, I am surrounded by Chinese kids.
Watching me and looking at my things. Old folks are walking up and staring...I know they are saying"Look....A foreigner...Isn't he funny looking"?

It is a very strange thing to be the foreigner.
This could take some time to get used to.

Well I've signed up for six months so I guess I have the time.

Ok...A man just offered me my first Chinese cigarette. I don't know the brand but it taste like a Marlboro red.

There must be at least 12 of them now...I'm creating quite a crowd.


The apartment is OK, I spent most of the day cleaning it up a little

It has a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, dining room and a den plus a laundry room... No drier. I think I'm supposed to just hang my clothes out the back window to dry.

I spent a couple of hours at the school today. I taught my first class. I wasn't sure what to do so I just mimicked what I saw in the training video.
Sucia said I did a good job. I don't think she knows that I haven't taught English before.

I'll have to go back up to the apartment and get my camera and take a few pictures...I thought I had brought it?

I don't think they have seen very many laptops. I just put some music on and the think it is just great. It seems they like the police.

This is going to be one wild adventure.


I went to the bank today and opened an account and got a bank card.
I also went shopping today for groceries, got a cell phone and had lunch with the headmaster of the school.

I think the school is mostly at night after the kids get of regular school.

That gives me plenty of time to practice my Chinese and get to know everybody around here.


Jim