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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Read the Story of the World: I am catching up, starting from the 20th of March 2012

wsj #worldnews: Portugal Braces for General Strike http://on.wsj.com/GI478v

nytimes #worldnews: World Briefing | The Americas: Panama: Noriega Is Found to Have a Brain Tumor, His Lawyer Says http://nyti.ms/GF6mOM

nytimes #worldnews: World Briefing | The Americas: Chile: Landmark Gay Rights Ruling http://nyti.ms/GDCXA9

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Good Bye China

Dear Family,

This email is my last entry to my Chinese story, for I am home now. The last email concluded with my hopes for a great final few days in China, and I was blessed to have a greatest final days therein. Yao's friend invited me to visit her and hang out with some of her roommate. I wondered if there would be boys hanging out with us, but Xue, the friend, has nine roommates.

It feels odd to write about this because one of the roommates is on the list of people that I am sending this to. She wants to practice learning English, so she embraced our friendship. When she heard that I love to write, she asked to read some of my writing. Writing of her and all her roommates for her with her reading it is fun. :P

When I met Xue with her good friend, she was uncomfortable because she never spake to with an English speaker before. I don't know why Chinese people always say that their spoken English is poor. This was the first time that they spoke to an English speaker, so they should relax.

Ten teenage girls living in one room seemed insane to me. Xue and a couple of her friends took me for a walk, and they denied the drama, which I imagined that can be. All ten girls were studying the same thing, so I kind of felt like I was talking to multiples of the same person, especially if they lacked hobbies. I knew that I may get their QQ numbers, and I wanted to get to know them. I was lead to ask most of the girls what their interests were, which I found to be good to identify who each person was when I instant message them.

The most interesting girl was very similar to me, loving to write. She has been working on writing a comic for six years! It is of a Romeo and Juliet story of China. The name of the story has the word butterfly in it, if you want to look it up.

The majority of the girls lacked a passion to pursue interests, but a common interest is reading. Two of the coolest girls were more athletic, either practicing volleyball or dance. The date with the girls kind of felt like the bachelor show.

The next day was Friday, and I was hoping to hang out with the girl that I met the weekend before at the sauna place in RuGao. During the week, she asked me to give her an English name, so I can have a name to easily remember to call her with. I was hard to decide, but we found a good name. It is Shaundra, the name of a most awesome cousin of mine. We planned to meet at 6 in the evening, and I was thinking that it took two and a half hours to get there. I told her the day before that she needs to tell me the place to meet her, or I cannot come. She waited to the last minute to tell me where to meet her. She is only in the ninth grade, so it was just for fun. Shaundra said that she would bring some friends as well. :)

As I rushed over the RuGao, I asked Shaundra, if there is a late bus coming home, so I can be home that night. She answered that the latest bus left to Nantong at 5:40 pm, which would not be an option. I could have if I wanted of be lame, but I did not want to cancel the evening of "play," a word commonly used by Chinese to say hang out.

God provided me a guardian angel to be safe. Before I even got on the bus, a girl began talking to me. Her name is Xue. She said that she was fifty years old, but I have seen college students that looked older than her. She was really cool, helping me find the place that I was going to met my friend, get into a hotel, and get back home in the morning of Saturday.

It turned out that the bus ride only took an hour, so I was way early. I had another friend that I wanted to meet, but she was a teacher. It kind of annoying how the professional world in China works the people way too much. I have a friend that works, starting at 7 am and often comes home after eleven pm. The teacher friend is named Susan. Susan needed to participate in the administration of a mock University entry exam all that weekend.

When Shaundra arrived, I had to rush back to the Wengfeng mall because I went on a walk. I was lead to a park, which I was seeking. I knew that there needed to be one nearby by, since a river flowed by the mall.

She introduced me to four of her friends. I only got one of the QQ number of one of her friends, so I only remember the name of one of them especially since she wants to call herself Candy. After a walk through the mall, we made it to our destination, the arcade. When they saw my excitement for pool, they followed me in to play a game; even though, they had never played before. Candy got into it, and Shaundra was too tense. Seeing the enthusiasm of Candy made me realize that I was inaccurate because I was not hitting the balls hard enough. I was more accurate, and after of playing an hour we discovered our hour time limit was up. We did not even finish a game, but we were tied. We both had two balls to hit into before getting to the eight ball. We played more games and shopped before going to dinner at like ten o' clock.

On the bus, coming back home from RuGao, Xue, my RuGao guardian, called me. She did a few times in my final days in China. She is my loving RuGao mother. She is a proud Chinese, saying that the RuGao and Chinese girls are more beautiful than California girls. I can't agree. The Chinese people are so family oriented and friendly that this bond was instant. A couple girl, sitting in the seats before me in the bus, spoke as if they wanted to talk with me, since I spoke English, so I approached them. They struggled as they all do, but we had good times. They wanted to hang out afterward, for they were going to the bookstore and to play at a park. I was down; however, their uncle was with them, and he lead them away with errands to rush to.

When I got home, I still had things to do. Melissa took me out for lunch for the final time. We went to a famous soup place, where they boil the broth and have you place the food in the pot at the table. Eating out of the pot was odd, for all I had was serving spoon and chopsticks, but I managed.

The weekend was full of drama afterward, which I should not discuss.

On my last day in Nantong, I said good bye to the school, which I spent most of my time at. I hung out mostly at Melissa's class. I drew farewell cards for her class and the faculty. Playing with the kids a final day was nice. They are like 3-4 years old.

During the week prior, a student wanted me to participate in the class, so she had me sit next to her in the class. We sang songs and did various activities. Melissa even gave me a sticker on my forehead, which is common in school, when students are good. I wore that proudly as the children do.

I was given my yellow sweater, which my Chinese sister at the schoo made. Mama Pongping paraded me around the school, boasting of the fruits thereof. It fits well, and it is beautiful.

Also during last week I noticed that every day of that week, the teachers would lead their students in fun dances to a variety of song for exercise. I was lead to join, and the children enjoyed my presence. I only danced one song though :(

I participated in Mary's English class on my last day in Nantong too. It was a good fun class of hers; however, at the end She had her students say good bye. They were very disappointed that I had to leave. She instructed them to hug me individually; then, we took pictures. At the end of it all, all the kids gave a big group, hugging for a few minutes. We almost fell down on the flour. They said the dearest words of love, the ones they knew.

On the flight home, I was bummed that I did not have my journal to write in one the way home, but flying from Beijing to San Francisco was fun. I was placed to sit next to two youth, heading for North Dakota and aviation school. At least all the employees of Air China go to the same university of these youth, so I had to test what they said and asked our flight attendant where she attended school. They all went to the same school. I felt part of the Chinese aviation family. I learned that yangyang, the flight attendant, only had to attend the university for one year before attending to the planes. I hope that they don't work her as much as the people in China. I asked for her QQ, but we were not lead to receive it, since she was so busy. I was told that the majority of flight attendants only work for ten years before they have to move on. Pilots work for thirty years.

This is my Chinese story. I still am trying to figure out how to speak Chinese. I download the international QQ to keep in touch. I began renren, the facebook of China, but I don't know how to connect with my friends. I love the Chinese people very much. I don't know when I will go to China again, but I will try to keep everything which I was given there with me especially the friendships.

Love

Alex

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Entering my final week in China

Dear Family,

It feels too long since I wrote you. I need to do research to recall what I need to begin on. I realize that people may want to have a dialog, but I might as well finish, writing the story of my adventure here.
Thursday was a nice chill day because it was women's day. I don't know, if many Chinese people celebrate it as much as my associates, but the school teachers went out. Since the day was a half day, We went to a mall, having a fun time at an arcade and a restaurant. Girl love to go have fun, so they were generous with buying token and playing games. Some of the games were boring, since the difficulty seems to be scaled back. I usually don't do well on racing games, but I was able to basically win the one that I was playing. I was pushing the back bumper of the first place winner. This can also be a sign of how easy it is to do well at this arcade, playing the games. It got good though. I will not go one explaining video games.
In the evening Melissa took me to meet her family. Melissa is married, so we first went to pick up her child. The primary school is huge. They need to organize the departure of the students in order to keep it sane. This school has thirty classes of fifty students! Fifty students per class is average.
Melissa's son is really cool. Since it was a week day, we were not able to get to know each other well. He also had to do homework, so I was left to hang out, doing what I want. Melissa showed me family pictures and Hsu Chih-mo poetry 徐志摩的. This poetry is love poetry, so I am not too interested in it. She did give me a book though. I don't know what it is about, but it begins three hundred years ago. I am realizing a book saying that is kind of odd. I will figure it out though.
The book is written in traditional Chinese. I am afraid that it may be Cantonese. It is written from right to left, and up to down. It seems that there may be many one word sentences, so that is a little confusing.
Melissa treats me as her only little brother, since she has never had siblings. On Friday my older sister took me shopping to buy books, so I can practice learning Chinese. Since studying dialog in my current opinion seems to be a good way to go, learning Chinese, I had her buy me a comic book the size of a manga. It is about a legendary male opera singer that cross dresses, during her performances. I hope that he is not a cross dresser all day long. The other book that Melissa bought me is from the thirties. I hope that this book can be enlightening. It has the English text in the back, so I can test if my translation is good.
Saturday was an awesome day. After studying the scriptures, I was lead to take a nap, which was good because I was awaken up to be informed that we were going Ru Gao to meet Sam's family. I love Ru Gao. This day was cool because I was taken to meet Sam's father at his factory. He is the big man over the factory. Figuring out what the factory was making was a puzzle because I did not have a tour guide. I had a pretty accurate idea what they were making, which was confirmed, when I was given a catalog. They make machines that manufacture raw material like metals and plastics. I enjoyed the puzzle; then, we went to Yacht and Sam's old high school.
I had a lot of fun at the high school. The school was quiet, since it was the weekend, but if you read my blog article about his school. I will need to update it. They have institutionalised meeting from 7 in the morning to 9 at night. All of them are not class. I was surprised to witness what I was told from Sam and Yacht was true. On every Saturday they test their skills to prepare for university exams. A teacher took me on a tour of the campus. They have three gigantic five story building for the school's facility. Since school is all day long and the students come from far and wide, many students have to live in dorms.
The teach let me interview her students perhaps because I told her that I interviewed Sam. It was more like they were interviewing me though. This teacher only had fifteen students, who are preparing to go to foreign universities. I am of the impression that they also have learning disabilities. They were cool! We took pictures. I feel that the class setting was an experience given to me my God, for I was able to have a great time. I was grateful that I was not overwhelmed with fifty students. When it came time for break, some of the guys took me to play basketball.
Although most boys are crazy about basketball, I was surprised that my skill was average or looked upon as good. The skill level of most students in basketball is weak compared to America. I am lost on the court at home, but here I was in the game. Some of the best basketball players of the school wanted to play with me. I was surprised that I had a pretty accurate shot. I kind of lived up the name of America. If I was Michael Angulo or Kade Bullough, I would be looked upon as a Michael Jordan. Their skill is not good because most people work all day long, and little time is given to recreation.
The night was crazy. I was taken to a place to shower. After showering, we went to a sauna type room. This room had a very social environment. We went shopping just before coming here to eat at the sauna. This weekend I felt full most of the day. I was offered food all day long. I don't know how the Chinese people do it. Maybe they do it just because I am a foreigner, and many American people are obese. After eating at a nice restaurant, they often have noodle soup. I don't know about you, but I go to dinner to have a filling meal. It does not seems so here. Sitting an the hundred degree room for a while, we went to a resting room.
In this room, I asked Sam's 'brother' how often he comes her, wondering how wealthy the family is. How often to they afford going to shower and relax here. He refused to answer. When we entered the resting room, we were lead to walk through the rooms of one of the residence, since this business was family run. I said hi to the girls casually on a computer as I was trained to do according to the Jamaican culture.
I was wave hi to the girls once in a while according to the Jamaican habit that I have, waving hi to people whenever it is appropriate. One of the girls said "I love you." Since they were 'embracing our bond,' which is my definition of a friendship, I had to make it lasting. I went over to talk to the three girls. We exchanged QQ numbers. They were not confident with their English, so I had to exercise my patience as they retrieved the sister that knew English the best. You may not be able to know this unless you visited here, but instant lasting brotherly friendships are formed. Two of the friends of the family left, and we were left to get to know the family. I got to know the brother, who is an English teacher. We took pictures, and the youngest daughter walked me out. She was not confident in her English; but to show you how the instant lasting brotherly friendships are formed. I heard the sincere words "I will miss you." as I made my farewell.
Sunday was nice too. I was honored that Sam's family gave me this day too. I don't feel like writing much about this day because I have an odd feeling about this Sabbath day. Since the family was Chinese, I could not preach to them, so my sabbath observance was not as great as I wanted. I thought of the phrase if someone compels you to go a mile go with them twain, and as I pondered the commandment within the ten commandments, I more fully realized how meaningful the words are in this commandment.
On Monday I was inspired to make Chinese French Toast for my older sister Melissa, but I ended up feeling the entire faculty. They are not sick now, and they said hao cher, so it must have been good. I was almost frustrating to cook it. Sam's family was surprised when I informed them of the size of the loaves in America. They are like three times the size of them her. The bakery section is more like a small pastry section. I used up the whole Chinese loaf of bread, trying too cook in a metal pot. Mary does not have a pan, but I was lucky to have plenty of eggs and I was able to have four slices not burnt. The way I served it was more Chinese than the French toast. Since I knew that it would be a hassle to find a fork, I cut the toast into bite size pieces. The food was displayed very nicely. I had a small bowl full of strawberry yogurt within a big bowl full of the bit size pieces of French Toast. I saw extra grapes and longan fruit around to I put that on top too.
That evening we celebrated at a Steakhouse me, leaving. This past weekend I got many new friends on QQ, for I also am friends now with the students that I met at Sam's school. The teachers that took me out bugged the waiter, which knew English pretty well to talk to me. He wanted to exchange QQ numbers. He is super cool.
The teacher expressed their love to me through him as the translator. They had him test me if they know their names as they always do. Chinese names are very hard to remember because they always give there full name, and they say their name backwards. Reminding me of their Chinese names almost everyday kind of makes sense.
My final week here has been pretty quiet until last night. I have been writing a lot. I write as the teacher knit and the children sleep. Last night Yao's friends contacted me to hang out tomorrow, and I may go the Shanghai on Friday. My final week is turning out well.

Love
Alex