Week of March 3-9 2002

Diary Entries for the
Week of March 3 - 9, 2002

Sunday

Maybe the Chinese are right in saying that the world will eventually come to them. This week I had two old friends come to China. One was a guy who I briefly connected with through a good friend of mine. I met him at her wedding where I was a bridesmaid. I hadn't seen or talked with Darryl for at least 6 years or however long she has been married. Anyway Yvette told me that he often comes to China for business. I remember she told me this when I first came to China but I guess I forgot.

She sent me an email today telling me that he had called her today, was in China, and wanted to give me a call. It was nice to talk with him again after all of this time. I knew he had gotten married and lived in Hungary but I didn't know that he and his wife had a baby boy. He was in Beijing and was headed to Malaysia I think. When he detailed his travel itinerary I felt bad for all the complaining I did when I used to travel as a part of my old job. He basically said he would cover something like six countries in two weeks.

When he called I remember thinking to myself that I would have to remember to speak normal conversational English when I talked. I am so used to talking slowly and limiting my use of complex words and ideas that I was not sure if I could carry on a conversation with a native speaker. Let me explain, there are native English speakers here with me at Shengda, however, it is my observation that all of us in an effort to make our students feel comfortable have modified the way we speak. Since most of the time there are students around we have a habit of speaking slower and simpler. When we sit and talk to one another I am not sure if we use normal speed even then. So I have begun to think that my friends will think I have started to talk strangely. But anyway I enjoyed talking with him and I was also glad that my mind and my mouth both moved at my old speed.

Then the second email arrived and it was from my former boss. Suleyman works for British Petroleum and which is where I worked prior to moving to China. He said that he would be in Beijing this week. I thought that's nice and then I said maybe I will fly in and have dinner with him and some of the people at bp. It is always good to keep in contact with a variety of people. Plus Suleyman and the bp people are really nice.

He invited me to have dinner with them at a restaurant that was known for it's Muslim food and entertainment. All I needed to do was to arrange my classes and get a ticket to Beijing.

Tuesday

Today I started rearranging my classes in order to go to Beijing. It is not quite as easy as it was last semester. I have class everyday. The hours are the same but the courses are spread out rather than lumped all on a few days.

I stopped by Dean's secretary's office to ask her when my classes had free time, because I wanted to take Thursday and Friday off and reschedule the classes. She told me "just talk to your monitor in class and work it out with them" So I did.

Wednesday

I decided to fly in to Beijing. I am flying because it takes 1 hour to fly and 8 hours by train. Taking the train is just to tiring and frankly speaking I do not want to ride the train right now. I booked an 8:10 a.m. flight, which gets into Beijing at 9:30. I decided to stay at the same hotel that I stayed at last time. It is cheap and very close to the center of Beijing. I also had to arrange for a taxi to take me to the airport in the morning. The school has a guy who they always use. I got Susie to make all of the calls for the reservations (I say this unless someone thinks that the reservation people spoke English or that I have improved my Mandarin). It was simple to book a flight for the next day and to get hotels and taxi reservations. The only unnerving part is the fact that you are not given any type of confirmation numbers to prove that you actually have the reservations. Just show up. It has never failed me. BUT?

I wanted Susie to come with me. She has never been to Beijing and all Chinese say that you are not a great person if you have never been to the great wall. So I decided that we needed to go! I told Suleyman about her coming and he was delighted, he is always very friendly.

A woman who we met on the train coming from Kunming to Guilin emailed me to thank me for a picture I had sent her and in the process I told her I was headed to Beijing. She invited Susie and I to have lunch with her. She and her husband were very talkative and friendly on the train and Susie spent a lot of time with their daughter, so basically I thought this would be a good idea.

Susie stayed in my apartment tonight since we had to leave at 6:00 a.m. for the airport.

Thursday

At 6:00 a.m. we left for the airport. We got downstairs and just as we were going to leave the building I remembered that the gate would still be locked. Thank the Lord Betty gave me her gate key. The problem was where was it. I finally located the key in one of the pockets of my money belt. All of this rummaging around woke Shirley the gatekeeper and here we were trying to be secretive. Oh well.

This was the first time that I been to Zhengzhou International Airport in the daylight. I arrived at night in September. It is actually quite nice looking. I still can't figure out why they consider it an international airport. Maybe the Hong Kong flight.
The flight was Susie's' first and she was so calm it was amazing. I can't remember my first flight because I think I was about 7 years old. I think I would have been amazed and very excited. She was excited but not scared to death. Sometimes the students surprise me. They can be totally mature and together when you least expect it. Even though Susie had displayed some not great behavior during the spring holiday, she for the most part is perfectly fine when she is alone with me. In fact we have a lot of fun talking to each other. So I was looking forward to exploring Beijing with her. I also wanted to see if I could get around on my own, so she was only to help me if I was totally lost communicating with someone.

We took the airport bus to the train station and I purchased the train tickets back to Zhengzhou. We then tried to get a taxi from the train station to the hotel. That proved extremely difficult because it was not a long distance but too far to walk since there was not a direct route. Meanwhile, we were supposed to be queuing for a cab, but as usual in China, lines don't mean a thing. People were walking way down the line of cabs and getting in which meant that by the time the cabs got to us they had people. Susie said we should walk down I said no we shouldn't she kept insisting and so I agreed. The taxi drivers would ignore me and ask Susie where we were going, I would step in and show them address and then they would walk away. Finally I went back to the front of the line and waited with no results. I try to do things the orderly way. Then I gave up, grabbed Susie told her "look this is my trip and I am running the show". I told her "don't say a word!" I pulled her and my suitcase towards the back of the line and opened the door of an empty cab before he could ask me my destination I threw my luggage across the back seat crawled in behind it and pulled Susie into the cab. Who needs a trunk? Then since we were about 10 cabs from the exit and he technically could have refused to take us I spent the time acting confused and ruffling papers until he pulled out into traffic. Then I stalled some more practicing saying the hotel in Chinese. When we were clear of the train station I pulled out the paper with the correct address and showed it to him. He took us to our hotel. Sometimes it is necessary to be creative in China.

We met the people from my old company at the Hilton and left from there to go to the restaurant. The restaurant was called A Fun Ti and is owned by people from the Ulghur minority these people traditionally live in Xinjiang province. This place was awesome. The place was Muslim, which is amazing since Susie's mother is a Chinese Muslim The food, music and entertainment was familiar to Susie. This was good since it was a great experience for her. The music was fantastic. I have to say that I am so glad that I decided to come. The belly dancer was beautiful and she danced with a very handsome man, together they put on an excellent show. After the entertainers finish then they clear the tables and everyone gets up on the tables and dances. It was a fun evening. If you are in Beijing I recommend it.

Friday

We decided to visit the great wall today. The tours all want to take eight or 9 hours and I really didn't feel like spending the day with a tour group. So I negotiated a private guide and car. Susie didn't really believe that I could do it. I keep telling her I am a born shopper and I know a bargain. I got the driver, the guide and the car for the day as long as I needed for 120 Yuan. The woman started out at 250. Did she think I was born yesterday? We were headed to the Great Wall and I was talking to the man who was our guide (through Susie) and I asking if we could stop at the summer palace. He said that at this time of the year that it would not be very pretty. I then asked about another sight and he said that he thought that might be a better idea. I had explained to him that I wanted to see some building with things still in them. Not gutted out like the Forbidden City. Well we went to this beautiful palace; unfortunately I don't remember the English name. The ticket was in Chinese. Anyway it was the home of the Emperors male lover. I am amused at how the Chinese act as though homosexuality is a western disease.

The visit also included a tea ceremony and an acrobatic show. This was definitely a side trip that was worth it. I also had the chance to share eco tourism with a little boy. A little boy opened his can of coke and promptly deposited the metal tab onto the ground. Now here we are in the middle of a historic garden, and his mother father and grandparents are all there and no one picks it up or says a word. I walked across the garden stooped down and slowly picked it up and proceed to show it to him, then I walked across and put it in the nearby trash can. China can't afford to let the children learn to litter.

When I was on the train earlier this year I tried to count the number of empty plastic noodle containers that littered the railway tracks. I gave myself 5 minutes to count as many containers as I could. I gave up before the 5 minutes because I was up to several hundred. I am not joking. Many people eat those instant noodles and then just toss the container out the window, and the train staff also tosses the collected trash out the doors.

Saturday

This morning we met the lady we had met on the train and her daughter for lunch. The picked us up at our hotel and we were off. She asked me what our plans were for the day and I told her that we were planning on doing some walking around and also visiting the silk market. Well she practically sneered and said that this was a place for foreigners and that the quality wasn't any good. I told her that I was a foreigner and that I wanted to buy things at a cheap price but things that would last 4 months. You can do this kind of shopping at the silk market. I told her that there was no way I could afford to carry everything back to America so I just wanted something that would last a few months. She wanted to take us to these malls here. There is no way I would buy anything here. They are nice. Yes, they are American labels. But they are overpriced even by American standards. It is a shame but I guess if you are desperate enough to want the Espirit label here you will pay for it. As I recall Espirit is not that expensive in America.

So then she asked where we wanted to go to lunch. Well she invited us and she is a native Beijing so I said well I will let you choose. Meanwhile she is speaking totally in Chinese to Susie and Susie has to interpret. If my memory serves me correctly both she and her husband spoke English quite well on the train. But anyway, she then says something in Chinese again and I asked Susie what she said and Susie said she suggested Mr. Lees. Well I have nothing against Mr. Lee or his noodles except that one they are the fast food of Chinese fast food and two they made sick the one time I ate there and three it is a dirty chain of restaurants. The Chinese all think that Americans love Mr. Lee. I have never heard of him before I came to China. Maybe he is limited to the west coast. So at this point I had to speak up and say. I am sorry but that is the one place that I don't care for. She then gets on her cell phone to her husband who is talking quite loudly at her and when she gets off she says that her husband suggested we go to Sanlitun Street where the western restaurants are. I said fine but I think that they are mainly bars and she say yeah. Susie looked at me, I looked at her, and I asked Susie if she were getting weird vibes and Susie said yeah. Both Susie and I felt really uncomfortable, like we were causing this woman to have to go out of her way.

So then I said trying to be nice, let's just go somewhere where we can get a few dishes i.e. chicken, rice, green vegetables, you know the stuff that is EVERYWHERE in China. Then she says do I like spicy, and I said a little. Then she says how about fish; well at this point I said I don't like fish that much. And I really believe she started to get an attitude. I am feeling like hey you wanted to go to lunch then you should have picked a spot and then since we are the guests then we should choose. I think I was also pissed that she would even consider offering MR. Lees. If they came to America I know that I would have the decency to take them to a nice southern restaurant and I don't mean Kentucky Fried Chicken.

She called her husband again and this time we ended up at the international trade center hotel and they had a lovely restaurant. She really didn't talk much in English but by this time I didn't care and just wanted lunch to be over. The little girl wanted to go ice-skating after lunch and lest she invite us, I asked would we be able to catch a taxi from here to the train station to leave our luggage. I knew that I didn't have to worry about her offering to give us a lift.

Later as Susie and I walked around Beijing I asked Susie if she got the impression that this woman didn't care for foreigners. Maybe the woman was nervous because she thought her English wasn't good, maybe she was having bad day. Whatever. It seems to me that although the Chinese want everything American and they want to be like Americans they don't like Americans. It is very interesting. It is like people who are always trying to make their skin darker through the sun and through tanning solutions but yet the don't like people of color. Why do you detest the thing that you want to be like? Maybe it's because it or they have the thing that you want. Anyway.

Sunday

We got back to Zhengzhou at a 6:00 a.m. Just in time to go back to bed. I didn't get a wink of sleep since I was bed number 1 on the train which means that I was right next to the wall that contained the door. Every time the door shut my bed moved. I left it open but still it kept shutting. So around 2:00 I gave up, made some coffee, and stared out into the night.

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