Marcy Marce Loves the Kids

My title, it's a Martin reference...

Anyways, it can be a little hard here getting work. Harder than I expected. As far as I know, in China, as my fellow bloggers have noted, there is nothing resembling an Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (EEOC). So obtaining employment at a local company might have more to do with looking the part than anything else. As Frank said in his post, Cody Joins the Darkside, some of us don't look like "typical" westerners so it's a little harder for us to find suitable employment. It's not impossible to find. It's just harder. You just need to have patience, persistence and most importantly Providence (or guanxi, 关系) and as I've said before － my very big family has got a lot of 关系.

With the help of others I was able to find a job as soon as I arrived. I work 4 - 5 hours a week and make enough to cover all of my living expenses while here. My work is great! I still teach English, American English, to children. It really isn't hard work. My students range in age from 2 - 13. The younger ones are the cutest things in the world and their parents are so great - so far. They have a lot of energy and can be a handful in class but they look cute while terrorizing me and that more than makes up for it.

Please meet some of my kids. We went to the park to fly kites and play games. These are the kinds of things they pay me for.

My First Ride on a Motorcycle (摩托车) !

Here in China there are many different modes of public transportation - public bus, taxi (legitimate and bootleg), tricycle, and motorcycle. I've tried all of them.

Buses actually run more efficiently here than in any other city I've ever lived and are much cheaper. In my home city of Miami it was a little difficult and time consuming to take public transportation. The same went for Tallahassee and Atlanta.

Here in China buses run every 5 minutes (for some reason though they are still always crowded) and to travel from one end of the city to the other will only cost 2 Yuan ($0.2927 US) if one doesn't have a bus card. I do have a bus card though so it only costs me half of that, about $0.15 US, for the trip.

When I first moved here, 3 1/2 weeks ago I took taxis everywhere because I didn't know my way around. Nowadays, I'll take a taxi only out of necessity because it can cost more than 5 times the bus fare. I'm trying to save as much money as possible and actually like the bus riding experience so I've weaned myself off of taxis. I'm learning to maneuver my way around the city using the bus. It's understandable if I make mistakes from time to time as I sort it all out.

One of my many mistakes happened last week. I was running late for work (as usual) and had completely missed my stop on the bus. I therefore found myself late and lost. I was desperate for a taxi but there seemed to be none passing. A man pulls up on a motorcycle and offers to take me to my destination for a small fee. I didn't want to ride on his motorcycle so I tried to sike him out and tell him that I didn't understand - 听不懂! (ting bu dong) He looked at me and said 你听懂! ("You do understand me!") How did he know I was faking it?!?!?! I looked down, shrugged and said 对我听懂。多少钱? ("Yes, you're right, I understand you. How much?") as I hopped on the back of his 摩托车.

I can be such a dork. :-) I can't pretend to be ignorant when I should and I am ignorant when I shouldn't be. No matter. I'm alive still and only out 10 元。

汉字

Where to begin? I had the flu or something this past week. I went to school anyway. I hope I didn't infect any of my classmates.


The third week of classes is just beginning and it's quite exciting to see how much progress we've made in just two weeks. I can read many billboards and bus schedules that are all in 汉字 (Chinese characters). Very important.

I was speaking to some security guards at a complex where I work. I had to sign in but I was getting their commands confused and in desperation asked them "Please, don't you speak a little English?" The guard looked at me and responded, with a smile, "You are in China now, we speak Chinese." 他说的对。He's right. I'm in China. I need to speak Chinese. The quicker I learn the better things will be. So then I'm happy that my decision (or someone else's decision because this is truly a good gift and perfect present) to attend school has been working out so well.

Thanks!

A correction - In my last post I said the taxi driver told me I looked Mexican. After yesterday's class I realized that I heard him wrong. What he said was that I, because of my hair, looked like I was from 美术馆 (Pinyin: mei3 shu4 guan3, Pronunciation: may shoe gwan). 美术馆 means art gallery. It was a compliment. I'm so ignorant.

I don't know how much longer I'll keep up blogging. I don't know how long I can keep YOUR interest in this trip to China. But I just want to thank all of you that took the time to read and/or comment. It was much appreciated especially when I was all alone. In a way, I was using YOU. Anyways, thanks again for caring. If only a little.

Bye bye.

Class is in Session - 上课！

我们星期一上课。

We started class on Monday. I am now enrolled as a 汉语学生 (student of Mandarin chinese) at a university. The classes are great. Everyday for 3 hours from 8:40 in the morning until noon (we get two ten-minute breaks) I sit in a classroom with 5-10 other students and we get barked at in Chinese. If we speak in English we have to give our 同学 (classmate) 10 Yuan. My textbook is 90% in characters so I'm learning a lot of those which is such a plus.

Last Friday I arrived at the administrator's office for an interview and placement test. We talked in Chinese about Jamaica and Miami. We talked about my inability to sing and my love of exercise, even though I never do it. I got a new name - 卫云涵- that means that I'm a person with a lot of interesting things in my soul (or something to that effect). I like it. I waited until I could see that they liked me before I let them know I really didn't have any money to pay for classes. No problem, they said, you can pay in installments. Yippee! Somebody, definitely worked that out for me.

I have a part-time job that will help with the tuition. The job consists of me teaching kids from 2 - 13 years of age English. More on that later. I'm going to join a gym. I bought a mat for the bathroom floor. So much interesting stuff! Just way too much to write about. If you want to know what it's like to be here in China, you really have to come here and see for yourself. 真的！

Interesting exchange: I took a taxi to work. When I feel like it I make an attempt to practice my Chinese with the taxi driver and so we started talking a bit. He actually initiated the conversation and asked, "Where are you from?" I told him I was American. He said "You don't look like an American." I asked him what made me different. He said, "Americans don't have hair like you." I told him that many in America have hair similar to mine. He said, "I think you're a Mexican, show me American money." Eventually he saw a dollar bill and finally he believed.

A New Home

After nine hours of traveling I arrived home to a new roommate and closet space. It's been quite an adventure! One of the most interesting experiences was standing in the queue for the taxi at the airport. A "hustler" walked up to me and asked me in English where I was going. I showed him my destination's address written on a sheet of paper in Chinese characters and he looked at me and offered to take me to my destination for 100 元(Kuai). I looked at him and said "100 元?! 我的朋友告诉我45元少不多.太 贵了!" Basically, I said that my friend told me it should only cost 45 Kuai. He was too expensive. He looked at me, muttered 45 元 to himself and walked away. The legitimate taxi lady ended up taking 45 minutes and 50 元 to get me to my new home. It's nice not to get hosed in Chinese.

My apartment is PHAT! Do people still say that?

My new apartment is 19 floors up and has a very nice view of the city. There is central heat. There is a Western toilet. I have closets. There is a stove. It's a really nice apartment. 看一看:

Keen Observations

When I told my Chinese friends I was coming to Linyi many asked "Lin - what?" Even to many native Chinese Linyi is a small, "insignificant" town. I was told that if I could survive Linyi then it would be a cinch for me to survive in any other city. I'm not so sure about that but I do know that life here wasn't extremely difficult. In fact during my first (nearly) two months in China, while living in Linyi, I've learned and experienced quite a few things.

• People in China aren't uniform and come in different sizes so clothes shopping here isn't impossible.
  
• I've been able to meet people that I hope I was able to help in some way. I might have even made friendships that could last forever.
  
• My oral Chinese hasn't improved tremendously but my reading and writing skills have taken off.
• It takes the isolation to reinforce how much you need your friends.
• Remember to laugh at yourself and your mistakes.
  
• Remember to be kind and open with the locals. When they stare smile and say "你好". A kind word goes a long way in breaking down barriers.
  
• Don't be quick to take offense. If you aren't careful you'll mistake curiosity for rudeness, shyness for coldness, and bad English for bias. :-)
  
• Good remedy for homesickness is to remember for whose sake you left your land, house, mother, father, brother, sisters (one who's pregnant), niece and nephews. It's hard to be gone but it's rewarding to be here.

And the final and perhaps keenest observation has been:

• Squat toilets aren't really that bad. In fact I have to ask, what's the big deal with Western toilets anyway!? The faster you learn that it's necessary to hold on to the little inside knob at the bottom of the stall door, the happier you'll be.