Funny stories to get things started

Ok, so I originally titled this blog "Lies and Petty Vandalism," but I decided I didn't like it. The title is, however, totally true - my time (so far) of teaching English in China has been marked by lies and petty vandalism (ok, just in a joking way really.)

The lies started with the promise in the contract of "western-style" toilets in the hostel that we stayed at for training. Now, it may not seem like a big detail. But, check out this picture.

Shoilet of Shame

(I'm going to try and include pictures when I can, but if they're already on Picasa, I might just include links. This computer is too slow to do extra work.)

So, that was an unpleasant surprise. However, the lies did not stop there. We were told we were going to Yongzhou - we came to Dao Xian. We were told we were leaving at noon on Saturday. We left at 8 AM Sunday. And so on....you can see where I'm going with this.

The petty vandalism takes two different tracks: legal (or acceptable) and illegal (or unacceptable). Our experience here has been that it's ok to smoke, spit, or throw trash wherever you want. I'm counting all of those as petty vandalism, for the sake of the blog. They do have trashcans (or, as they're called here, trash boxes), but they seem to be for show only. The streets are covered with it - especially with the paper from fireworks, which people set off like every 5 minutes (the first time i saw all the red paper I thought it was flower petals, and I thought, "Wow, China has some real beauty here." Then I got closer.)

The unacceptable version of vandalism apparently consists of taking someone else's fruit. Story: We were driving to Dao Xian, and our F.A.O (foreign affairs officer) was explaining what the farmers grew in the area. They stopped the car in front of a huge grove of orange trees and he said, "Do you want to take one?" And I politely said no, and he insisted (maybe three times.) So I climbed across a ditch and he said, "Take, take, take." So I reached up, pulled one off, and he said, "No! No! You must not take." So I just dropped it on the ground (which makes it vandalism instead of theft, I hope.) He then proceeded to take pictures of us pretending to take fruit of the tree. Apparently that is all right.

Picture after my misdemeanor:


Remember - pretending is ok, but actually taking is not (even if someone says, "Take, take, take.") About a half an hour later he asked me if I still had the orange, and I have the strong feeling that he wished he had taken one too.

Ok, that's all I'm putting up for right now, as I have to go teach some classes. I have a couple of funny stories about the flight over and Hong Kong, but nothing great. Maybe I'll put those up this afternoon.