Summer to Autumn

Summer was.

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I saw news about the 2012 US national presidential election a couple of months ago and thought "Oh, come on! Really? Didn't we just do this?"

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Chinese people seem to react especially openly and kindly to Americans, and especially young Americans. I know that the blatant reason has to do with the complicated intertwining of money, politics, and culture (a vague description, I know). I'll just explain it like this: many of the foreigners that I see walking the streets here in Chengdu tend to be older European types who wear serious faces... they tend to appear rather unapproachable, to put it nicely. NOT ALL are like this, but many are. So, what I'm saying is that it makes sense that a young American who seems to be brimming with excitement, hope, and openness would tend to be more attractive than some others in the foreign community may.

Ultimately, I think it comes down to the fact that hopefulness (being full of hope) is attractive, and we simply can't help but be drawn toward it.

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I hate that cross-cultural and multilingual communication often leads to one of the involved parties tending to appear stupid, for lack of a better word. An inability to express oneself and get one's message (a.)broadcast and then (b)internalized by others can be rather frustrating.

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It makes sense that there is such great tension saturating relationships in China at this point in time. Specifically, I am referring to age differences. It makes sense that there is tension when you understand that, for a number of reasons, both old and young people feel that they are entitled to... everything. They feel entitled to everything, but they most often end up hardly getting anything. And then, everyone between "old" and "young" is stuck somewhere in the middle.

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When Google+ first came out, the prospect of having to go through the whole social networking deal again brought with it a feeling of complacency and a general lack of motivation within me to go through the whole thing over again. The feelings remain.

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There is a peculiar freedom in being able to pick the circumstances under which you find and make friends.

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I enjoy the parts in movies when quick montages of scenes of life flash onto the screen rapidly.

Ex: Vanilla Sky, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

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I had a nightmare recently. I recall that, during the nightmare, I resisted by very intentionally and defiantly forming my hand into the "middle finger" gesture.

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I want to talk to you. I know I may come off as being a somewhat abrasive character sometimes, but just know that I want to be in communication with you. So, if you ever catch yourself writing something on my Facebook wall or sending an email to me and second guess yourself, ignore that. Write it. Send it. Say it.

Introverted Tigger Eisleys

I live in Chengdu: Tigger hunt. That's right.

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I've had my PC for almost 6 years. I'm really quite proud of that. How much money have I not spent? A lot.

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I've recently been thinking about why exactly I generally feel rather disappointed with my time at ASU, and more specifically with my Chinese class during my last semester. On the whole, it was alright; I don't hate... but I think the root of my disappointment stems from the gap between the China that I know and the China that I was learning about in Arizona. I believe a number of factors were involved, including but not limited to: the uniqueness of Chengdu compared to the rest of China, the shortcomings of the Chinese program at ASU (there, I said it), and, of course, my own knowledge of the fact that I was disappointed and general disillusionment with China and the Mandarin language.

There's no blame. Chengdu's just weird. And I'm weird. And the ASU Chinese program must not be.

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Standing up to family and friends is a challenge for many Americans. Based on my experience, however, the situation is exponentially more challenging and complicated for Chinese people. Chinese society traditionally idolizes family above all. There are webs and structures in seemingly every aspect of life which are meant to ensure the adherence of all to certain thought processes, methods, goals, etc. You're probably thinking, "Well... yeah. It's China, Chris." The thing is, we normally picture government forces enforcing this sort of system. In reality, I find that it's friends and family- the ones closest to a Chinese person- who tend to keep the individual "on track". Loved ones have essentially become the instrument by which the individual's choices are kept in line.

This is, of course, just what I see. Furthermore, change may be on the way.

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I could upload all of these things to the blog, but I'd rather just give you links:

To begin,

...Something else...

And now, this.

Well, that was fun, right? A little bit of something for everyone. Maybe.

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I like the music I listened to in high school.

I sometimes miss practical jokes. (Not common in China.)

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Teaching story alert:

I now have a student named Leo Liu. Chinese speakers will know that's the stupidest English name ever to give someone with the family name of Liu. Why? Because "Liu" is essentially just pronounced "Leo" but with the emphasis on the second vowel. In fact, it's just "Leo", but spoken in one syllable instead of two. So, maybe it's not the stupidest name. Honestly, I quite like it. What doesn't seem too wise is the fact that class now has two girls named "Lily" (Lily Love and Lily Rong) and two boys named "Leo" (Leo and Leo Liu). Yeah.

Where? Where? It doesn't exist. (哪里哪里，不存在)

The top picture is the view from one of my uncle and aunt's bedrooms. They live in Guangzhou, China. I stayed there the last time I made my trip down to Hong Kong.

The bottom picture is my room with the curtains closed. It looks a little different now, but that's about it. It's too big for me (and too expensive), but it's where I live for right now!

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Question: How can the fact that human emotions and feelings are capable of leading to massive physical responses in our bodies not point to the fact that we are fearfully and wonderfully made by a creator? The intangible can cause the tangible. Things we hear or view change who we are; how incredible is that?

That just doesn't seem likely to have been an ability we developed as we evolved... and if it was and evolution is the reality of our existence, then that just sucks. Think about it! If something as beautiful as an Aristotelian understanding of catharsis was simply evolved into being... that just sucks, man. It just sucks.

And I don't believe that it did.

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How often do Americans actually say the word, "Hello"? I only say it when I answer the phone and I don't know who is calling, or if I want to greet someone profoundly or formally.

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Hearing the phrase, "Everything Will Change" repeated over and over again at the end of the song "Brand New Colony" by the Postal Service has a profound impact on me every time I hear it. It sounds hopeful.

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Alright, teaching stories:

I have one class in which the students are named Jim, Anna, Terry, Kerry, and Frank. They are 8-9 year old Chinese kids, so a take a second to read those again.

While teaching class, I'll often say their names individually to get their attention. Well... I said Jim and Kerry's names back to back, respectively...

...and then the same thing happened the next day with two students, one named Jerry and one named Louis (pronounced the same as Lewis).

=Jim Carey

=Jerry Lewis

These are the times when it's tough to be the only American in the classroom.

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I was teaching the days of the week to 4-5 year olds a few weeks ago. I was highlighting the first letters in each word to help them differentiate.

"Bobby's" Wednesday simply became "W-Day", which is quite fun to say, I must admit.

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Check out this link for pictures of Chinese kids. None of these scenes are uncommon!

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/05/31/chinas_little_emperors?page=0,0

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I miss Seattle.

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I had a nightmare about homework. And doing homework.

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Eisley- The Valley (album)

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According to my estimates, I have approximately 106 students. I've also got most of their names memorized. Most.

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I'll wrap up by saying rather simply that, sometimes, it's hard to remember what is important when you live in the city.

Hi, hello, what's your name?

Hello!

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Not too much has changed since last I wrote. I guess plenty has changed, but it's all been in my head.

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My co-workers call me "Topher". There is a girl named Christine who works there and they used to call her Chris, but now I'm around, so I'm a "Topher" and she's "Dean" (-tine) or "Dean-dean". I don't think they know that "Dean" is a masculine name, so they all just think it's funny.

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One of my students is named "Lily Rong", and "Rong" sounds similar to "wrong". A couple of months ago during class, I exclaimed, "That's RIGHT, Lily Rong!"

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My 14-year-old brother loves Daft Punk. Can you say "Mission Accomplished"? I can!

Mission Accomplished!

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The irony of the relationship between happiness and money is only ironic if you think like a monster.

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Here's another "a couple of months ago during class" story: One of my closest friends in China is my manager person. She and her significant other are Chinese, around my age, and they are both good friends of mine. Anyway, I was teaching a class and she was my "assistant teacher" or whatever. Right in the middle of class, out of nowhere, she looked at me and said, in front of all the students in English, "I think you've gotten a bit fatter!"

I mention that she's a friend because this is how it works in China... Cultural Differences 101.

What did I do? I smiled and kept on teaching.

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A quick note: I would recommend that we don't lift up the typical Chinese diet as "ideal" or "healthy" by any means.

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I left some of my money in a pocket of one of my jeans before I put in the washer...

I laundryed my money. Baaaaaah.

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The latest Eisley album gets better every time I listen to it.

Eisley- The Valley. I highly recommend.

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I don't have a TV but I was given the opportunity to watch the National Geographic Adventure and National Geographic Wild channels a couple of weeks ago. I could watch those shows all day.

Actually, I could go to the places and do the things and see the sights that all of those people are seeing... all day.

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There's nothing quite like a near-empty inbox.

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For you Chinese music fans, the latest 方大同 album is pretty superb.

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I'm gonna be a pirate.

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I'll try to post more often!

Hong Kong and Fishes

Hi! My intention is to spend less time writing and more time putting up pictures and videos in this particular post. So there.

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My trip to Hong Kong last week was good, exhausting, and successful.

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My apartment (sometimes) smells like a cabin without the fireplace + fire. Good cabin.

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You all know that I don't not like China. It's an incredible place, and I live here voluntarily, one might say. That being said, I write the following:

The subways, ferry waiting areas, streets, restaurants, and everywhere in Hong Kong had news of the Japanese earthquake broadcast 24/7. And everywhere, everyone who was able to view aforementioned Japanese earthquake news... viewed it. As in, everyone in viewing range would take off their headphones/ear buds, turn away from their newspapers, books, etc. to watch and listen to the news. They visibly cared.

As I traveled from the Hong Kong subway line to the HK/China mainland border, we (train passengers) watched the earthquake news on the TVs in the subway train.

After crossing the border, I boarded the subway train in Shenzhen, in the mainland. The TVs were showing sports bloopers. Sports bloopers and movie trailers.

There are myriad aspects to the number of topics that this experience brings to mind, but I simply aim to summarize my feelings in as concise a manner as is possible, and I shall do so as follows:

It breaks the heart.

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Most westerners hate "squatty potties".

A. I don't hate "squatty potties". Just look up how ergonomically unhealthy the use of "normal" toilets is compared to the use of "squatty potties".

B. If all squatty potties were like the ones in Hong Kong, I propose that 90% of westerners wouldn't hate them so much. I visited (is visited a good word for this?) a squatty potty bathroom in a Hong Kong public transit station, a locale which, in America, would scream warnings for most Americans. Anyway, this place was pristine. It smelled good. It looked good. I half expected there to be one of those bathroom towel-dudes by the sinks. And it was open to the public.

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Lastly...

A couple of days ago, I was teaching a class (ages 5-6, this class happened to be all girls) "uncle", "aunt", "grandfather", and "grandmother". We were playing a game which involves two students facing off, trying to say the name of whatever card I showed them as fast as possible. The cards have pictures on them which are associated with recently learned vocabulary words.

Background: The curriculum we utilize uses a central cartoon character dude named "Chevady" as a sort of reference point... weird name, but it works. Anyway, the "uncle" "aunt", etc. were all related to this Chevady kid cartoon character thing.

Anyway, I showed them the picture for "uncle", after which they both shouted "Uncle!" I then asked them in Chinese "How is Chevady related to his Uncle?" I was looking for "Uncle is Chevady's Daddy's brother" or something like that. Instead, they both just looked at me for a couple of seconds, looked out the corners of their eyes, and then one of them gets that smart look in her eyes and says (in Chinese), "They're in the same family!!", which the other girl proudly repeated.

I cracked up.

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"As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory."

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Is it a travesty if I don't post the Bible address (e.g. 2 Corinthians X:XX-XX) of the above passage? I mean, you can look it up if you want to know where it is. Use Google. I feel like I look at a passage from the Bible with fresh eyes if I can't see it's address written below it.

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The long-awaited night-time panorama from my balcony. (Click to enlarge!) It doesn't look that great, but it's kinda cool

Hong Kong Metro underground walkway, 5:55am

If only it'd stay like that, right? Plane from Shenzhen to Chengdu... before the second bus load of passengers arrived. One thing I can say: it's very rare to hear stories about being in China and having to sit next to that "humongous, obese Chinese man/lady". Not to say that the claws of obesity are not slowly gripping this country or anything... they most definitely have and are.

Chinese co-worker's boyfriend's birthday (with fish carcass in foreground :)

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That's a negative on the video uploads... I'll have to try again when my internet is faster.

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Say hi to me!

PICTURE BLOG!

Those of you who read this blog on a regular basis are well aware that my blog... well, it doesn't look good. It's boring. It's white text on a black background. It's simple and I like it, but it's not visually appealing. Well, I feel that change is on the way. I haven't started attempting to upload pictures yet, but I'm about to. We'll see how it goes. In the meantime, here's the normal, humdrum banter I usually come up with... (we have to get this out of the way. Delayed gratification: get used to it)

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Somewhat ironically, in China, I find that it's members of the 40+ age group who treat me most normally on a day to day basis. These people often own shops or stores and the situation usually involves me purchasing something from them. The thing is, they treat me like a customer, not like a foreigner. This seems like it would be a negative; something I'd want to be cautious about, but it's actually very refreshing. Why? Because the alternative (i.e. being treated like a foreigner) almost always involves Chinese people attempting to speak English (and butchering it in the meantime), being generally offensive, being generally awkward, staring at me without speaking, etc. In other words, it's just nice to be treated as a human instead of as a spectacle.

This is why I feel that I make the healthiest connections with the 40+ group, and it's often guys that I'm talking to. They enjoy asking about me and what I'm doing in China, but they only breach these topics after knowing me for a while. Again, this may seem normal, but the alternative is, for example, a college-age student who thinks they have perfect English, and, therefore, comes off as being very imposing, obnoxious, and just in-your-face. They just want to use their English, but they often end up tossing consideration for the foreigner out the window in the process.

So, it may seem awkward, but I can say that my best Chinese pals right now and in the past are my local fruit stand owners, BBQ(烧烤) restaurant owners, butchers, vegetable stand owners, etc. Also, these enterprises are usually family-owned, so I end up being acquainted with their entire families.

It's cool.

P.S. I've laid things out as though they are pretty cut-and-dry. That's definitely not the case. There are 45 year olds who are jerks and creeps and sassy, and there are college-age and young professionals and others who are great friends... I'm just speaking generally is all.

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When some Chinese people knock on doors, they knock rapidly 3 times. I normally respond and say, "I'm coming!" or, like, "Immediately!" or "Wait a sec!" Even if they hear me, they will knock again. 3 times. Louder than the first time.

I hate that. It's the small things, ya know?

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This may just be an echo from my more competitive approach to learning language (which has been lessened significantly), but it's still irritating when Chinese people with whom I'm talking start going on and on about this foreigner they used to know who had the best Chinese ever and it was so beautiful and standard and blah blah blah. I know a bit about why it happens (I mean, there just aren't many foreigners who can speak Chinese really well. I'm not including myself in that group of foreigners by any means, but...)

A typical test of this sort of thing is to do a comparison of the same situation in America. If you met a foreigner in America who spoke English, would you, at any time in your relationship with that person, mention and go on about some other foreigner that you know who had legendary English skills? Not likely.

Completely different situations, I know. Completely different! But that doesn't change the fact that it still irritates me just a little bit.

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I'm headed to Hong Kong next week to get another tourist visa while my employer works on getting my long-term visa set up. It's kind of annoying, and there should be a bit of trouble involved. It's complicated, and I'm not a fan.

But it's all the good!

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Alright, folks. Here we go! (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Near some friends' house (where I stayed when I first arrived in China this time)

Chinese New Year fireworks! This is a small table of them. The government (read: man) sets up a ton of orange tents throughout town during New Year that are just packed with fireworks... the real deal. That's where most folks go to buy fireworks.

And this is kind of what the aftermath looks like... but it gets cleaned up exceedingly quickly. (Sanitation people clean it up)

I cook for myself. This is from when I had just started, so it looks okay... I've gotten better.

The view from my balcony/kitchen

Looking right

Looking left

My phone is cool; I can take panorama pictures that actually look good. I'll take a panorama of my view at night and post it later. In the meantime, here are some others:

A simple view of the teacher's office at one of the branches where I work.

Some friends at a local bar (Shamrock) (They didn't really know what I was doing, so obviously some of them reacted to my picture-taking, and others didn't)

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So there you go! It worked! And guess what? I have videos!... but I'm withholding those to make sure you don't miss my next post. (Disclaimer: I have no idea if I'll be able to upload the vids. I'll do my best.)

It's not a party if it happens every day!

That's seriously how I view the sunny weather in Phoenix: it gets old, knowing that it's sunny outside. It's too consistent for anyone under the age of 50, I think. I guess people who are older than 50 years old do better with consistency. Or maybe not. Maybe old people need change more than anyone. Anyway, I love change in the weather, and I've got change here. The past week has pretty much been cloudy, sunny, sunny, cloudy, cloudy, sunny, cloudy. I wake up and have no clue what it will look like until I look outside!

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My internet connection has been exceedingly slow recently, even for China. I've been surprisingly patient with it, though. I've surprised myself. I suppose I'll check on it eventually if it goes on like this, though.

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I stopped using iTunes and immediately freed up about 107 mb of memory. I'm using foobar2000 now, but I ask myself, "Why did I ever leave Winamp?"

I still have mixed feelings about Apple, in general. Maybe I just have mixed feelings about electronics.

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The song "The War is Over!" by Back Ted-N-Ted. This is the definition of joy.

There's nothing like finally getting the album of an artist you've been using Myspace to listen to for the past 5 years.

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Late Night Alumni. New Album. Haunted.

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Where should I move next? I mean, it's probably more than a year away, but still... it's never too early to start planning, right? Meeehhhh... but really. And don't say Phoenix. Or anywhere in the American South.

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One of my students (named "Tury", by the way) thinks I look like Spiderman, i.e. Tobey Maguire. Also, I'll be compiling a list of my student's names, for your enjoyment. (Is that an ethical breach with regard to teaching standards?)

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You know you are in China when you are standing in the bathroom, hear the sound of rushing water, and honestly don't know if the noise is issuing from your stomach or the pipes.

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I had a dream recently in which I received a text message from a friend. It was in English, but all of the letters were scrambled.

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The voices (and music) of Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morisette, and Dolores O'Riordan (and the Cranberries) have the unique ability to instantaneously make me feel like I am 8 years old again. There are a handful of other artists who also possess this ability.

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There seems to me to be a point at which the use of the word "please" ceases to sound polite and simply begins to sound imposing, patronizing, and, at times, threatening. I would note that the use of "please" is much more likely to sound polite and kind when it is said with a smile on one's face and honesty in one's eyes. I would also note that it is fairly likely that I am making this distinction because I say "please" so often when I'm teaching, but it's more often out of forced politeness than it is out of an honest desire to be polite, e.g. 3-4 year olds are running around the room screaming and falling down, to which I am obliged to loudly and pointedly yawp "Please sit down!", etc...

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Also, I will now express the true exasperation, joy, and entertainment I receive while teaching 3-5 year olds who, at times, will fall out of their chairs for no apparent reason at all. I am dead serious. Everything's going well..."what's this?" "CAT!" "what's this?" "DOG!!!" "what's this?" BOOM! Lily, for no reason at all, is on the floor. It's like the top of her body just suddenly got too heavy, she lost her balance, and fell out of her chair. Incredible. And these chairs are about a foot tall. This will happen multiple times throughout a class, and to different students, and the best part is, the student usually looks as dumbfounded as I do.

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Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom is still a scary movie.

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If you, dearest reader, harbor any fears that China is going to "take over" any time soon, do not fear: they still use Internet Explorer.

On that note, I hate Internet Explorer so much.

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I've written it before, and I'll write it again: feel free to respond to anything I write here! You can write in the comments or comment on Facebook. The main reason I'm keeping this is to keep you somewhat informed about my life, and it's double the fun if you respond in kind!