All the Single Ladies

This month a pizza joint opened up in Qufu. What? Qufu, the city that only recently has stocked peanut butter or ziplock bags, suddenly goes out on a foreign limb and offers pizza?? My teammate Tarah and I had to check it out. So last weekend, we strolled into "European Jazz Pizza" and sat down to a delightfully Chinglish menu. It is the first menu I've seen in Qufu that has any sort of English. We about died when we saw french fries and hot chocolate -- rare treats!

Our waitress recommended that we get the "lover's repast" (a good deal for two people), which we accordingly did. It turned out to include a fruit plate, french fries, and a surprisingly good pizza that included cheese, pepperoni, sausage, and bacon -- all items I have never seen in Qufu! The restaurant was clean and open, with a mix of 50's rock-and-roll reminiscent of a small-town diner. There were as many waitresses as customers, and they spent a good bit of time watching us from a distance, coming to re-fill our glasses of hot water whenever they were even a little less than full. It was great. As you see in the picture, our pop even came with heart-shaped straws, which brings me to my next topic...

Happy Bachelors' Day! Yes, today is a day for all the single folk here in China. Take that, Valentine's Day! Some of the single students are celebrating by going out to dinner with their roommates. They told me that today, you should wish single people a happy Bachelors' Day, and also wish them that they don't have to celebrate it again next year! I fully agree with this sentiment.

So, happy Bachelors' Day to my single friends, and I hope you find love if you're looking for it. On a serious note, happy Veterans' Day to my dad, my grandpas, and all of those who have served.

Old School

I went to a shop on campus to buy some colored paper today. I got 16 sheets at .80 RMB a sheet. When she needed to add up the total, the woman reached under the counter and pulled out an abacus. An abacus! Now that's old school.

Licensed, Certified, and $400 Poorer

I decided before I went to China that I would maintain my speech pathology license and my membership in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association so that I can easily return to the field if that's what I decide to do. I just renewed them both online, for the cost of almost a month's salary in China. Yikes! I hope it's worth it.

In other news, I have found a way to view comments again. Hooray! So feel free to re-start the conversation.

Free Talks: The good, the bad, the burnt

Every other week, I invite each of my classes to my apartment for a free talk to practice their English. Three classes come per week, and they usually come in two shifts (one hour each). Sometimes we play games, like UNO and SPOONS, and sometimes we just chat. I get a bit tired of 6 hours per week of questions and card games, so this week I decided to move the party to the kitchen.

Yesterday, one of my free talk groups made banana bread. Each girl got to do only one thing (like pour in the oil), because there were so many bakers. The first shift stayed the whole two hours so they could taste the fruits of their labor. When the bread came out of my tiny oven, we sliced it into 20 steaming, delicious pieces and everyone got to try one.

Today, a different class came over and we made pancakes from a mix. Some of them said they were nervous -- they'd never cooked before! 20 years old and never cooked... That is quite unimaginable to me, but I've heard that high school students are too busy with studies to do any housework, and they don't have access to a kitchen in college. There was enough batter for each girl to make one pancake. I set the stage by burning a couple, and the end results were mediocre at best. But it was fun!

Tonight, one of the freshmen classes came over. We just did the standard: UNO and conversation. They are very curious about America (everything from the Mississippi to the Statue of Liberty), and I don't think I'm quite ready to unleash the freshmen on my kitchen.

Basketball as Growth Hormone

From a student composition: "I was the shortest student in our class in primary school, but I became the tallest girl in our class in middle school thanks to playing basketball."

Acclimation

As I was walking home from my office today, I saw a couple dozen students sweeping leaves into piles on the grass using wide brooms made of sticks. I saw a middle-aged man buzz by on an electric bike. I saw a girl walking back from the hot water station laden with large thermoses in each hand. And I realized: A couple months ago, all these things once seemed different and amusing. Now they just seem... normal. Am I losing my fresh eyes for China?

Back to Beijing

Pictures:
1) Visiting a school for the deaf.
2) Elizabeth and me on the Great Wall.
3) Dr. Bentler from Iowa was a VIP guest at a ceremony/banquet for a hearing aid company (and the rest of us were along for the ride).
4) Can you spot the Wal-Mart?
5) Twilight on Wangfujing, a pedestrian shopping street.

Chinese word of the day: 朋友 pengyou. Pengyou means "friend."

This past weekend I went to Beijing to visit my friend Elizabeth, who came to China for a week with a service project from University of Iowa. Elizabeth and I became good friends in grad school, and it sounded too good to be true when I heard that she would be coming to Beijing, just a train ride away from my home in Qufu. After the usual hassle of arranging travel, I went up and spent a few days in Beijing. Here were the highlights:

1) "Remember when...?". It was great to see a friend with shared memories and shared acquaintances. All of my China friends are fresh -- they don't know my past; they never met my family, visited my apartment, or took my same classes. There's no one here to share inside jokes and reminisces. So you can see why it was a blessing to hang out with a friend with a 3-year history instead of a 3-month history.

2) Wining and dining. Elizabeth and the two professors she was traveling with had been invited to collaborate with an ear-nose-throat doctor at a hospital. The hospital hosted them (and me, by proxy), and treated us right. Arrange a trip to the Great Wall? No problem. Pay for our Starbucks coffee break? Check. Did my hotel have carpet? Oh yes, it did. That's right, Qufu. I just spent a weekend in a city with carpet, coffee, and skyscrapers, and I liked it.

3) Speech pathology. It was fun to talk shop with the folks from the hospital and the professors from the University of Iowa. I spent 6 years in school for speech pathology, and I don't use it much these days, but last weekend I got to talk about voice, speech, language, and hearing to my heart's content. Speech pathology is apparently almost non-existent in China, and the host doctor at the hospital was excited to hear that I'm a speech pathologist. They don't have anyone to rehabilitate their voice/speech/language patients, and they were interested in hearing how we do it in the States.

Enough rambling from me. It was a fun trip; enjoy the pictures!

"There are coming cold air masses, so put on a warm coat."

The above is a text message I got from one of my students a couple minutes ago. It's almost 11 p.m. and I can hear the wind rushing through the trees outside my window. It's a strangely comforting sound that reminds me of Iowa winters.

I spent the past three days in Beijing visiting my friend Elizabeth from grad school, who was in China with the department I graduated from. It was great. Now it's back to school -- midterms start tomorrow.

I'm sorry that wasn't a very substantial update, but I haven't forgotten about you. More to come later! :)