It's been a day since I've been back. I spent most of yesterday trying to get the electricity in my house fixed. Got that and internet and I was almost set. Too bad there's no heat and I can see my breath even when I sit in bed under my comforter. But then I walked to town today and it was sooo nice outside! Like at least ten degrees warmer than in my apartment! And as I was walking to town, I realized that it was only the second time I had walked to town that way during the daytime. Ever. Crazy, huh? I usually only walk to town at night when there are no motorcycle taxis, and during the day I'm always in a rush and take a taxi. And it just got me thinking: I need to slow down and enjoy where I am. This place is so amazing. Just saying "xinnian hao" to everyone and walking along was so nice. And then I got all my errands done and ate and bought groceries. It was so nice still that I decided to walk home with all my bags. And that way I could rationalize buying two dishes for lunch (not paying for a motorcycle taxi).
On my way into school I ran across Wu Laoshi, my calligraphy teacher, and his wife. I chatted with them for a bit and then they invited me back to their house to hang out, and I was like eh? No no I couldn't intrude, etc. etc., I'll come another day. And they were like okay, but then I was like, wait, how will I know where your house is? Haha. And so I went with them to see where their house was, but then they were like now you're here, you have to come in, and so I laughed and went in. And their house is soooo nice! They have a big TV and leather furniture and clean white marble floors and it's so nice! And they gave me tea and snacks and fruits (Xinjiang pear, pomelo, these sesame hard cracker things that are only made in Hunan) and I was just like wow! We talked for almost an hour about stuff, with the TV on in the background, and I did pretty well, I thought. :) We talked a lot about Hunan and the recent weather and their family and stuff. And then people started trickling in -- their nieces and nephews and other people's grandkids and their friends -- and we all just sat around and watched Animal Planet in Chinese. It was sooo awesome, and I talked with some cousins about their work in Guangzhou.
Then Wu Laoshi and the guys left to hang out with ex-Principal Yan and I hung out with the girls, snuggled under a comforter on the couch. Some people were falling asleep and so was I, so full and warm and happy. But then Principal Yan called and said I should come upstairs to hang out with them. So I went. But everyone was talking in Hengshan dialect and I didn't understand. Wu Laoshi tried to translate for me a bit, and they were talking a lot about some guy in Guangzhou that really wanted to go home so he decided to walk, in the ice and snow, but then he got injured and his shoes fell off and he just kept going but his feet split open, something something, I didn't really understand, haha. But yeah. I was just really tired and then Wu Laoshi offered to walk me home and that was it.
Such a good night!! They said I should come and eat with them sometime. I hope I can! I'm nervous because I feel like I've exhausted most of the topics of conversation that I'm comfortable with -- the weather, people's families, my recent travels. Haha. But I'm really happy and motivated to study more Chinese so that I can become more a part of this community, and be where I am. This is an amazing place and I only have four more months left here.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Back in Hunan
I just got back to Hunan yesterday after being gone for a month, and having traveled around with my family for almost two weeks before that. So much has happened since I was last here. China suffered it's worst winter in fifty years and people all over the country suffered. The timing was perfectly horrible, as the Lunar New Year holiday hosts the largest annual movement of people on the planet, when almost EVERYONE in China has at least two weeks off to go home and celebrate the new year with family. The weather caused both passenger and freight trains to stop running, leading to logistical nightmares around the country, including between 400,000 and 800,000 (at various times) people stuck at Guangzhou train station for the better part of a week. In addition to this, many places suffered from loss of electricity and backed up shipments of coal, which means no heat for the house or warm food for the family, as coal is still China's main source of energy.
It was particularly bad in Hunan. Temperatures here dropped to -5 degrees Celcius during the day, colder at night. In a town where it has not snowed in three years and it normally gets no colder than 5 degrees, storms brought rain followed by extreme cold that caused telephone poles to freeze and crack, power lines to snap, and transportation routes to close down. There were almost two feet of snow and ice on the ground, and many trees broke in half under the weight of so much ice. There was almost no power for the better part of twenty days -- as in a few random hours a day -- and my students took their final exams shivering in their classrooms, cursing the weather which caused them to be unable to study after the sun went down. Candles were among the first things to sell out at the grocery store, followed by the Chinese version of Cup-o-noodles. There were scares of food shortages across the country and province, but I am told most people here ate alright. The train lines were blocked off and it was dangerously icy on the roads, preventing many from going home for the New Year.
But everything seems strangely back to normal now, and if I hadn't been aware that this had happened, I probably would not have noticed the small differences (thank you to Andrew for telling me to document this):
-- Many of the trees are stripped of their branches. There is a big, knocked over tree blocking the walkway to our apartment.
-- The hands of the lady who puts the groceries in the bags at the store were about twice as large as usual, red, puffy, and cracked.
-- There are more people out on the streets, talking to each other. I was wondering why, and I think it's because not everyone has their power back yet, and so their TVs don't work so they have to socialize outside. -- Many people do not have cell phone reception back yet. One of the two towers (each for a different company) is broken.
-- Outside my calligraphy teacher's house, under a ramp, there was big mound of ice three feet tall, that hadn't melted yet.
-- The market still has no fang bian mian (cup-o-noodles).
Crazy, huh? I can't believe I missed it. Part of me feels lucky to have gotten out in time to make it to Southeast Asia. But part of me feels like I missed something very important, a bonding experience that would connect me to the people of Hunan forever.
It was particularly bad in Hunan. Temperatures here dropped to -5 degrees Celcius during the day, colder at night. In a town where it has not snowed in three years and it normally gets no colder than 5 degrees, storms brought rain followed by extreme cold that caused telephone poles to freeze and crack, power lines to snap, and transportation routes to close down. There were almost two feet of snow and ice on the ground, and many trees broke in half under the weight of so much ice. There was almost no power for the better part of twenty days -- as in a few random hours a day -- and my students took their final exams shivering in their classrooms, cursing the weather which caused them to be unable to study after the sun went down. Candles were among the first things to sell out at the grocery store, followed by the Chinese version of Cup-o-noodles. There were scares of food shortages across the country and province, but I am told most people here ate alright. The train lines were blocked off and it was dangerously icy on the roads, preventing many from going home for the New Year.
But everything seems strangely back to normal now, and if I hadn't been aware that this had happened, I probably would not have noticed the small differences (thank you to Andrew for telling me to document this):
-- Many of the trees are stripped of their branches. There is a big, knocked over tree blocking the walkway to our apartment.
-- The hands of the lady who puts the groceries in the bags at the store were about twice as large as usual, red, puffy, and cracked.
-- There are more people out on the streets, talking to each other. I was wondering why, and I think it's because not everyone has their power back yet, and so their TVs don't work so they have to socialize outside. -- Many people do not have cell phone reception back yet. One of the two towers (each for a different company) is broken.
-- Outside my calligraphy teacher's house, under a ramp, there was big mound of ice three feet tall, that hadn't melted yet.
-- The market still has no fang bian mian (cup-o-noodles).
Crazy, huh? I can't believe I missed it. Part of me feels lucky to have gotten out in time to make it to Southeast Asia. But part of me feels like I missed something very important, a bonding experience that would connect me to the people of Hunan forever.
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