All Quiet on the Eastern Front

China is killing me. Well, not literally, unless I got the Hantavirus from the mouse living in my apartment, but it is certainly killing me mentally. I saw that I hadn't posted on this blog for three weeks, and there are plenty of reasons why.

After my last post, we had a national holiday. Qingming is sort of like Memorial Day; it's a chance to go home, pay respects to your ancestors, and have a big dinner with your family. It was also our chance to have a five day weekend and take a trip to Guilin.

The trip was really nice, and sort of an adventure in itself. We left at 6:00 AM on Friday the 4th (I think) and spent about 4 and a half hours traveling by bus. The bus conductors were really helpful, actually, and we made it to Yangshuo without any problems, although we did get nervous a few times about having missed a stop or something. It was nice to be back in Yangshuo. We stayed in a hotel with running hot water, something I've missed, and it even had a bathtub (which is pretty much unheard of for China.) We went out to a Western-style restaurant (I had a hamburger and Josh had the BLT) and we borrowed some books from Betts, and we looked at a used bookstore. It was a nice night.

Saturday we went to Guilin, and we handled the buses pretty well. We grabbed a taxi once we got there and went to the Prince's City, which is sort of like a city-within-a-city. It was amazing. We've put the pictures up on Picasa so that you can see, but I'll do a quick description. It's the ancient government center for the Guilin area, and it's built around a karst mountain in the middle of downtown Guilin. We looked around at all the old stuff, and then we climbed the karst and got to look out over all of Guilin (although we couldn't see far because of the pollution.) After our tour we tried to walk back to the bus station, got lost, and had to take a taxi back. We made it back to Yangshuo, had a good dinner, I bought a book, and then we went to bed. The next day, we came back to DaoXian (which required calling David on our cell phones to have him talk to the bus conductor to make sure we were on the right bus.) We made it back by about one in the afternoon.

I had gotten sick on our trip, so I crashed for the rest of Sunday. I was so glad that we had Monday and Tuesday off so that I had a chance to get back on my feet. We spent those two days just relaxing around the house. It got really hot, and we had all sorts of problems with our computer, but we managed to figure everything out. Classes went well last week, and then on Friday our Internet stopped working.

Now, our Internet usually goes out at least once a day, so at first we weren't worried. By Sunday, however, I was getting irritated. We talked to David about getting it fixed, but he kept telling us that he couldn't do anything about it, so we kept hoping the school would get around to it. Today I decided I didn't want to wait anymore, so I called Buckland, and within an hour our Internet was working again. Granted, it only works on Josh's computer, but at least we can use it.

So China is killing me because I get so tired of running into these dead-end arguments with people, when the real problem is that I'm not going through the right channels, or I don't know the right strings to pull. Otherwise, things are fine. We are getting a little sick of the seven or eight recipes that I've managed to cobble together, so if you all have any recipes to send me, I would greatly appreciate them. Keep in mind, however, that we don't have access to a lot of ingredients.

Ok, time for some funny stories. This week I taught about international travel, and so part of the assignment was to brainstorm things that you would like to take with you. Most of the students came up with what you would expect, but one student came up with my favorite thing: a poster of Chairman Mao. I guess that might come in handy somewhere...

Also, apparently people earn commission in the soap and toilet paper departments of the grocery store, because every time Josh and I walk down those aisles, at least four women come up to us trying to sell us different soaps / toilet papers. We had two hilarious experiences. In the soap aisle one lady came up to us and (even though I was buying a bar of bath soap) shoved a bottle of liquid hand soap in my face. When I told her, "No, thank you," she rubbed one of her hands and said, "Hello" [pause] "beautiful." I'm not sure if I was beautiful, or if the soap would make my hands beautiful, or what exactly she was trying to convey.

Then, in the toilet paper aisle, we grabbed a 4-pack and we were trying to beat it out of there, but one lady stopped us, pointed to a massive pack of the cheapest stuff, and gave us a huge smile and thumbs-up. I have to give her credit-she was doing her best to sell that stuff to people that didn't speak her language, and she almost convinced me. The fact that it looked a little bit like sandpaper did deter me, however.

Oh, another funny thing. I think I've mentioned before that no one here has arm-hair, so people make a big deal about the fact that I do. Well, in class last week I was bending over a student's desk helping him with something, and while I was talking he just reached up and started stroking the hair on my arm. It was pretty disconcerting, but I took it in stride and just sort of finished what I was saying and beat it out of there.

Ok, last thing. The school recently purchased a new loudspeaker. How do I know? They use it all the time. They play it so loudly, in fact, that it is louder than our TV inside my apartment. When do they play it, you might ask? Oh, 6:30 AM. Every day. My sleep has been so screwed up.

Fortunately, the new loudspeaker has revolutionized the mandatory student exercise time. Usually the students would just line up in the courtyard and shuffle around. Thanks to this new loudspeaker, though, they have a brilliant exercise routine. I videotaped it so that everyone could enjoy it as much as I do. My favorite part is the punching.

(Yes, there is something creepy about a single man videotaping a bunch of high-school students from his window, trying not to be seen by anyone else. I'm fully aware of that.)