Hot-Pot Lunch

After leaving the lecture and escaping the storm of students wanting to take pictures, I was treated to lunch: 火锅 Hot-Pot. I am not sure if I have described this type of dinner before, but in case I haven’t I will do it again. I also think this would be a great opportunity to discuss some of the differences in Chinese dinner etiquette and traditional meal customs.

First, let me describe the meal.  火锅 Hot Pot it a traditional Chinese eating method where there is either one large hot pot of soup placed in the center of the table or many small/ individual pots of soup placed in front of every person at the table. ---These said tables are either in a general dining room of the restaurant, or for more privileged guests, in private rooms on the second floor of the restaurant.--- Under each pot is some sort of heating mechanism. Some restaurants have gas, others have electric induction burners. The soup in the pot is not really soup, but rather water with various spices. I prefer to have mine medium spicy. Next, the guests order from the menu the food that they would like to cook. Various meats as well as vegetables, fungi and noodles are the typical choices. Once the soup is hot, the servers will bring out the raw meat first. This meat is sliced very thin.

At this particular restaurant we had individual pots with electric induction heat. Every person would choose the food that they liked and add it to their pot. After a short time, the meat would be cooked and could be plucked out with chopsticks and eaten directly or dipped into sesame sauce first. Later the vegetables and fungi would come and the same procedure as the meat would be repeated: add, wait, dip, and eat. Finally, the noodles would be brought out and allowed to cook in the soup. By this time, the water has absorbed the flavors from the meat and the vegetables and the noodles are quite tasty. In all, this whole procedure, combined with socializing and drinking, takes up to 2 hours.

On top of the actual cooking procedures, there are several cultural considerations to also be considered. There is tremendous focus put upon the head host and the “honored guest.” In our case, the host was the headmaster of the school and I was the “honored guest.”

Seating: at a round table in a private room, the seat of honor is the one facing the door. This seat is normally reserved for the most important person at the table or in the case of having a guest: for the guest. I was aware of this custom, but we had arrived before the headmaster and I was instructed to sit down first. However, I was not informed where to sit down. I did not want to be presumptuous and assume that I was the most important person at the table, so I humbly chose a seat at the side of the table. When the headmaster came, he had me stand and move to the seat of honor. He then sat down directly to my right, a position of equality. This was the first, and probably last, time that this had happened to me. I was greatly honored.

Eating order/Hospitality/serving the guest: Traditionally in China, the most important person or guest always eats first, or is served first. Since most meals, especially hot pot, are served family style, this means that the food goes to this person first. In the case of having a guest, the host will actually put the food onto the plate of the guest. With hot pot, this means that the headmaster began by loading generous portions of meat into the simmering spicy liquid in front of me. This is not a one-time thing either. If the guest seems to have finished or neared finishing the things on his plate, then the host will add more. For me, as I pulled the cooked meat from my pot, the headmaster immediately added more! In all, Chinese people are very generous and gracious hosts.

Toasting/Drinking: Alcohol is a traditional staple of all official Chinese dinners. Usually this means 白酒 Bai Jiu (often translated as “white wine” but it IS NOT WHITE WINE!!! I cannot stress this enough! Bai Jiu is more like really bad and cheap vodka with a bit of an anise/black licorice flavoring. I is also about 50% ABV, stronger than most liquors in the states) Consequently, I told my hosts that I do not drink Bai Jiu, and that I prefer beer. After the cups are all filled, the toasting starts. First the host (headmaster) gave a toast and then we all say 干杯 gan- bei which people tell me means cheers, but is directly translated as dry cup and I think it would be more close to the English: bottom’s up. More toasts follow throughout the meal.

Also, it is polite for the host to never let the guest’s cup become empty. So, he would often top off my glass even after I took a small sip or two. This, combined with the continuous toasting, can lead to quite a lot of alcohol consumption. Fortunately, the alcohol percentage in Chinese beer is about half that of American beers: about 2.5%. Unfortunately, this extremely light beer goes right through me.

In general, this was a wonderful meal and I really like hot pot! It was a great end to a good weekend. After finishing the meal, we got back in the car and headed back to Kaifeng. We did, however, get lost no less than 3 times on the way back…

Saturday's lesson

We arrived at the school at almost exactly 9 AM. The car pulled up to a lot in the campus of the school, and there were already many students, ranging from 12 to 17 waiting outside for me to arrive. I should probably mention that the vast majority of these people had never seen, much less had the opportunity to speak to a foreigner before. As I got out of the car, the teacher told me that I should go up to them and attempt to communicate. I approached a small group of students, who were all visibly shy and nervous, and said good morning. Before they had a real chance to reply or engage in dialogue, a girl comes running and screaming across the lawn. She runs right up to me and shouts “Hello!” I respond only “Hi, good morning.” She immediately shouts back “I really like you!” I said “Wow! I really like you too!? --- How old are you?” “Uh, Uh, 十四um, uh fourteen!” I smile and complement her on her English and her courage to come and talk to me. No sooner, I am whisked away into the school and brought to the room where I will give my lecture.Following the teachers and administers, I navigate through the wide hallways and up four flights of stairs on the way to the room, all the way I am tailed by a sea of eager dark haired pupils chatting nervously and excitedly. I turned around a few times on the way just to smile and admire my shy audience.

This classroom was bigger than the one the night before and more and more students were packed in. I think, realistically, closer to 250 people overfilled the space. The seats were quickly occupied and only standing room remained, but was soon also taken up. I began my lecture talking about and showing pictures of my hometown, Akron ---I call this my hometown when I am away from Ohio, because North Georgetown just doesn’t seem to cut it---. It soon became apparent that I was not going to be able to speak above this large crowd without the help of a microphone. So, the speaker system was set up and I was handed a mic.

It took about 20 minutes to tell about my home but then I encouraged students to ask me questions again. Since this was a new group of students, some of the questions were the same, but I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the wonderful questions that these students asked. My favorite this time, was a student asked me about the political relationship between China and the US. Being right up my alley, I was overjoyed at this question… However, I was careful to answer it in the least political manner and still be honest at the same time. I said “that for the benefit of China and America, as well as the rest of the world, it is best for our two countries to engage in a friendly relationship of mutual respect and transparent engagement.” This statement of course had to be translated. Although, this could definitely be a sugarcoated answer from me, it still reflects my ideas and still seemed to placate the teachers and officials that were listening.

After the first round of questions, I talked a bit about the major holidays in America: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and the Fourth of July. I talked about the origins, the tradition celebrations and then my own personal celebrations. This also took up about 20- 30 minutes and was followed by a shorter round of questions. Then I  concluded by talking about my lifestyle as a high school student in America. The students and teachers were surprised and shocked by this. In China, the students’ sole purpose is to study. There is no chance for the students to participate in sports or extracurricular activities, much less have a part time job. Students are at school from 7 AM to about 7 PM and often study until 11 PM in order to complete all of their assignments.

After about two and a half hours of talking, I had become quite tired and I think this became apparent to the teachers who said that we would wrap up there. However, it was not really over. When the students were dismissed, some came up to ask if they could take a picture with me. Others asked me to sign my name and leave them an inspirational message. When the rest of the students saw this happening, they immediately thought it was a great idea, so for the next 20 minutes, I signed innumerably autographs and posed for countless pictures. Being foreign in China, especially rural China, is a strange kind of celebrity. My only claim to fame is that I am different: White. To my credit, however, I do have a heroic beard and a shiny bald head which makes me that much more interesting to look at. 

The dam and breakfast

I woke up at 6 AM the next morning and took a particularly disappointing cold shower… Lance stayed with me (separate beds, don’t get too excited!) and we went to meet his uncle at 7. Before going to the school that morning, he wanted to take me to see some things in the city. Wugang has a giant and beautiful reservoir flanked and backed by picturesque mountains. Unfortunately, there was a great amount of fog on the lake that morning and we were unable to see across. The air was cool and clean, however, and I did not mind that we couldn’t see across. Actually it was strange to see the body of water like this. Because of the fog, the water seemed endless and appeared as if it could be the banks of an ocean.  After standing at the shore for a few moments, we proceeded to the dam, several kilometers down the road. Lance and his uncle were pleased because the damn was open and was letting water out! They said that this rarely happened (maybe 2 days per year) and that we were privileged to be able to see it. I have to admit it was pretty cool!

By this time, it was about 7:30 and we were all getting hungry… Lance wanted to go to his parent’s house for breakfast! So we began to drive out of the city and into the country side and into the small village. I was really happy about this because I had wanted to check out a farm-style house since I arrived in China and this was my first chance. In China, the countryside is not like that in America. Instead of being spread out like our farmers who tend their own vast fields with modern machinery, those in China live together in clustered villages and the farmers go out to tend the fields mostly by hand. The houses are all made of brick and are all relatively small…

Going through this village, it occurred to me that in all likelihood, I was probably the only foreigner to ever set foot on these stone and dirt paths. I feeling of pride and privilege welled up inside of me and I happily waved the many smiling faces that stared at me with such curiosity. After walking through some back streets and small paths, lined with drying corn stalks and dodging chickens the whole way, we arrived at Lance’s home at the edge of the village.

His parents were happy to see me and they escorted me into the “living room,” where I was encouraged to sit down while they prepared the remainder of breakfast. Lance’s father, who speaks no English and an incomprehensible Chinese dialect, pealed an apple for me and proudly pointed out the wall behind me which was plastered with the awards and accomplishments of their son, my student. I checked them out for a bit then was beckoned back to my seat as the father handed me the apple. At this time, the grandfather limped into the room. He might have been the happiest man that I have ever seen; he grinned as he extended his hand to me and smiled even brighter as I shook it.

Not long after, breakfast was brought into the room: homemade dumplings and steamed bread. The dumplings were delicious and I heartily enjoyed them. My hosts, in traditional Chinese fashion, continued to fill my bowl with more and more dumplings. I, in traditional mid-western American fashion, politely smiled as I attempted to clean my plate. Although the breakfast was delicious, I ate entirely too much and had to eventually refuse their attempts to keep feeding me. I do think that they were pleased that I enjoyed so much.

Before I left, they presented me with a gift: a bag full of raw peanuts. The gift in and of itself was stranfe, but what was even more peculiar was the bag in which they presented it to me: a Summit Racing bag from Tallmadge, Ohio. I have absolutely no idea how this humble family of peasant farmers would have happened upon this bag, but it was certainly surprising. I unsuccessfully tried to explain that the company was near my hometown and then inquire as to how they got it, but I think the message was lost. It was about this time, that grandma made her first appearance. Like her aging husband (they are both approaching 90), she was also pleased to see me. She wasn’t impressed by the fact that I was foreign as much as the fact that I had a beard! We all gathered together for a picture and then we went on our way. (I am in the process of obtaining these pictures)

The first night

When we finally arrived in Wugang around 5 PM (2 hours later than originally expected), the first thing we did was to take pictures in front of the large city sign that read 舞钢欢迎您! (Wugang Welcomes You). Although pictures usually are not my favorite thing to do, I was not annoyed this time as the surroundings were quite beautiful and a pleasant change from Kaifeng.

---The teacher had informed me on the way to the city that we would be going to the high school that evening. He would give an English lecture to his students, I would be asked to participate in the lecture, then invited to make comments at the end of the lesson critiquing his teaching style, ability and English proficiency. The reason for all of the formality was because the local news station was going to be there, along with all the heads of the school. Before the talk, the uncle told me that he would like me to critique him on style, design, confidence and ability. He also said that I should say “good things” as to give him “confidence in front of his students.” I thought that this would go without saying, but I felt a little strange being told that I should say good things. Therefore, going into this I was a little uncomfortable that I all but had words put into my mouth. ---

After the picture-taking session, we proceeded into the city, which was as beautiful as the surrounding countryside. Strangely enough, the thing that I was most pleased about was that the city was NOT FLAT! There were hills and valleys! It’s strange the things that you will miss about home. I hadn’t realized how much I missed hills until I saw them again. Living in Kaifeng has been the longest I have ever gone without seeing real hills!!! --- It’s like the Kansas of Central China---

More than 100 students and teachers as well as the news staff attended the lecture that evening. To my delight, the teacher giving the lesson was quite excellent! He used English throughout the entire lecture, only reverting to Chinese to make sure that the students understood the definitions of new words. He also went outside of the textbook and used multi-media AND he encouraged lots and lots of student participation. A feature that I found particularly striking is that he not only asked students to provide answers, but also asked them to vocalize and support their opinions. (A feature, that I had assumed was dead in Chinese education--- I am still informed that his teaching style is more than nonconventional)

He asked me to join him in a part of his lecture where he had the students guess a new word from the lecture based on its definition. I provided the definition. The students did quite well and were able to follow almost all of what I said. After the lecture, I was indeed invited to critique the teacher’s performance. Because of the quality of the lecture, I was able to give my honest opinion and not feel guilty about regurgitating the words that he put into my mouth… I complemented him, but he wanted me to tell him something that he did wrong… I told him that maybe he could organize the students into groups and encourage them to speak and discuss answers within groups. This way they would get more practice with speaking to each other and not just answering the teacher’s questions in English. He seemed to be quite pleased with this answer.

When the lecture was over, I was informed that there was still time remaining and I was allowed to open the floor for questions… This was by far my favorite part! At first the students were very shy with only one or two students brave enough to ask questions. Then they finally warmed up and asked me questions about my home, my life, my ideas and my hobbies and the like for the better part of an hour! (this time flew by because the students kept it interesting) I think my favorite question was by a boy in the back that stood up and bravely, and nonchalantly asked “What do you think of Chinese girls?” with the most serious look on his face. Immediately, the whole room burst into laughter, as did I! I thought for a minute about what kind of satisfactory and flattering answer I could give without being too provocative or too uncomplimentary. I finally decided to say that “Chinese girls are kind, friendly and thoughtful.” I really hoped that this would make them all happy. I think it did, but I could tell that boy that asked the question had a different idea in mind (he wanted me to comment on appearance). However, instead of allowing him to prod any deeper, I turned the question back on him and said, “Now, what do YOU think of AMERICAN girls?” The classroom was once again filled with laughter and applause! Everyone was satisfied with this question, but I could tell that this caught him more than a little off guard. Without much delay, however, he quickly responded “American girls are all tall strong and brave.” I told him that I would carry that message back to the states with me!

After everyone had left the classroom, many of the students came up to greet me and take a few pictures with me… Not too long after, I was approached by the reporter and her camera man and asked to make a few comments. She wanted me to speak in Chinese. But, still unable to adequately communicate in this language, I opted to comment in English and allow Lance to translate. I simply said “I am happy to have this opportunity to visit your city and meet with the capable teachers and eager students.” I was not sure at that time whether or not or when this story would air, but I got a text from the teacher later in the week saying that I had been featured on both the local morning and evening news!

By the time we left the school it was already after 9 o’clock! I was exhausted! On the way back to the hotel, however, I was informed, for the first time, that I would be required to give a 3 hour lecture the next day on American Culture and lifestyle… I stayed up for an hour in the hotel trying to think about what I could possible talk about for three hours, and finally decided a few things and opted to wing the rest… 

The trip to 舞钢Wugang

***These next several blogs will be about/related to my weekend trip to the high school in 舞钢 (Wu-gang literally translated: dancing steel)

It was decided that I would meet my student at noon on Friday and we would go together to his city. His uncle was going to pick us up in a car and drive us to the city. The journey there was strange from the first moment. On my way to the south gate --- our designated meeting spot--- I received a phone call from Lance (the student) who told me that he was on his way and he would meet me in a moment. This was not a problem, I had my iPod and the weather was not unbearable, so I was content having a few moments to myself while I waited. Lance showed up after a song or two only to inform me that his uncle had gotten lost on the way and that he was currently on his way from 郑州 (Zhengzhou), the provincial capital- about an hour away.

Being the flexible guy that I am, I said “Hey, no problem! We’ll just go get lunch while we are waiting!” In traditional Chinese style, Lance suggested that we go to a fancy, and thereby expensive restaurant, because he was going to treat me to meal. I really wasn’t in the mood for a large or fancy meal, so I suggested that we simply go to one of the small (and cheap) restaurants that are plentiful outside of the south gate. Unable to adequately phrase his objection in English, Lance reluctantly and awkwardly agreed. The lunch was simple, but I think I threw him off a bit, because while he stepped out to take his uncle’s phone call, I paid for the bill- 15RMB (about $2.50). He was shocked and insisted on paying me back. I was going to have nothing of it…

As we stepped out of the restaurant Lance told me that his uncle was unfamiliar with the city and without a GPS and detailed directions was unable to come meet us at campus and therefore was waiting for us on the other side of the city. We would have to take a bus over there to meet them… A bus and a short taxi ride later (Lance himself got lost, but was redirected by me) we finally met up with his uncle on the west side of Kaifeng… He was a very eager man and from the phone call that I had received only a few days before, he was exactly as I expected. Although he was happy to meet me, I got the feeling he was more interested in talking in English and asking me about words than actually listening to things I had to say, a quirk that became quite irritating by the end of the trip.

Finally, by 2 o’clock ---two hours after our original departure time—we were on the road. Judging by the number of times we got lost on the way there, you would never have been able to guess that they had just come from our destination… Still, this did not bother me as I was happy to be able to get out of Kaifeng and see new places… As we left the city, the haze that is ever-present in Chinese cities began to give way to blue skies and the cluttered urban streets to farmland.  

As I looked out the window, I appreciated the sights that reminded me of home: fields and trees… Although the fields were flat and mostly tended by hand, they would be indistinguishable from ones found in the states. As I began to pay more attention to the trees, however, a strange thing became apparent to me: all of these trees are all the same relative size and in perfect rows. I asked my host about this and he informed me that all of these trees had been planted some years back to prevent soil erosion. This does not seem that strange of an idea, but it is the vast scale on which these trees were planted that is shocking… All of the trees were planted like this: entire forests, for miles upon miles. What would at first glance appear to be a nature grove of trees was just one of the countless deliberately planted and carefully tended (according to my host) stands that dotted the countryside… I know it seems simple, but it left a strange and lasting impression on me.

The speech competition

Earlier last week, (short) Ben approached me and asked me if I would be interested in joining him to judge an English speech competition. The college of economics (at the new campus) was holding a speech competition and they wanted to have two foreign teachers as judges. I thought that this would be great fun and immediately agreed to go. Our contact for this event was a boy named Ke, who I first met last year through the Akron-Kaifeng forum that I participated in while back in the states. I have had met him once since arriving in China, but had not kept in contact...
Ke met us at the new campus as he came to join us in our Thursday afternoon game of Frisbee. Afterwords he ordered a cab for us to go to the new campus. I suggested to Ben that we take this thing seriously and put our suits on. (actually it was just an excuse to wear the suit that I had gone through so much trouble to bring, but had no opportunity to wear) Anyway, Ben, Ke, and I go to the new campus to judge this speech competition.

we were ushered into the large classroom where the competition was to occur and we were automatically greeted with a standing ovation. we proceeded to the judging table where a bottle of water, a pen and the evaluation sheets were awaiting us. Having received no instructions for how to actually judge this competition, Ben and I spent the waning minutes leading up to the competition trying to decipher the evaluation sheets that were primarily written in Chinese, but included awkward English translations. Unable to figure it out with complete certainty, we opted to discuss the scores between contestants and try at least to have uniform evaluations.

There were three parts to this competition: The speech, the question section and the talent section. There were a total of 9 contestants, broken into groups of three. Each one of the three would go on the stage and give their speech, then all three would come up and be asked one question each by the judges. (We didn't understand that we were to be the ones asking questions until the microphone was thrust at us in the beginning of this segment) We both managed to ask fairly intelegent, if not extremely difficult, questions. One of the girls gave a speech about the importance of following your dreams and cited Arnold Schwarzenegger as an example. My question, in more or less words, was "given the recent news of a Arnold's long-term affair producing an illegitimate love child, should he still be used as a role model?" I was surprised that she was able to understand it, let alone give a satisfactory answer: "we all make mistakes, but we can use his achievements as an example and not look to model his lifestyle."

This process was repeated two more times for the remaining 6 contestants. The speech portion was worth 40 points and the question section was 20. Finally, the talent section, worth 40 points, was upon us. Being an English competition, I was not actually sure what to expect with this "talent portion" I expected English singing and poetry and the like, but was pleasantly surprised to see a variety of acts including Soprano Sax, Piano, dancing, singing and English story telling!

The winner was a boy who gave a speech on English as the International language and for the talent told a tragic story about how gays are repressed in China. His English was near flawless and his dramatic story telling skills definitely stole the show.

Ben and I were asked to award the prizes and after the competition, we posed for photos and talked with the contestants, teachers and hosts. In all this was another great experience. Afterwords we told Ke that if he heard of any other competitions, that we would be more than happy to judge again

A phone call and a strange proposition

The other day when I was at English corner, I got a phone call from an unknown number. This being at about 9 o’clock PM, I assumed that it was probably Anissa, who would be getting ready for her day, and I answered by phone by saying “Good morning dear, how are you?” To my surprise a male voice spoke back to me saying “Good evening is this Adam?” I said “Yes, can I help you?” This man, who I by this time had determined was probably not a student, proceeded to tell me that he was an English teacher in a city called Wugang and that his nephew, one of my students, had approached me to ask if I was interested in going to his school to give a lecture. The purpose of the call was to determine my answer.

Unfortunately, I did not remember being approached by anyone asking me to go to their school to give a lecture. I tried to politely tell this to the man on the phone without telling him that he might be mistaken, but the conversation had already taken an awkward turn as he began complementing me on how natural my spoken English sounded. At this point it became obvious that this man, although he is an English teacher, had never spoken to a foreigner before. He told me how meaningful it would be if I could go to the school and talk to and meet with the students. I have to admit he was quite persuasive, but I was a little turned off by the fact that the school is a three-hour drive away from Kaifeng. I ended the conversation by telling him that I would talk to his nephew about it and make my final decision as soon as we had discussed the details.

To make a long story short, I talked to the student and decided to go. I have been staying in Kaifeng the entire time that I have been here. I have spent every night in this apartment. It was time for me to get out and see another city. this would be a great (paid) opportunity to do it! This trip will be described in forthcoming blog posts.

William’s bike accident, and the lottery

Several days ago, William was having a bad day. He said "Nothing seems to be going well for me today. Its just been an awful day." He was telling us this as we were walking to dinner across the street. Little did any of us know at that time, but it was about to get worse. In previous blogs, I may have described the craziness that is the traffic in this city: cabs, bicycles, cars, trucks, motorcycles, pedestrians and buses all trying to use the same street. there are no rules. no lines. no traffic lights. no stop sights. just chaos. On this day, the traffic was no lighter than normal as we attempted our everyday death-walk across the street outside of south-gate. "stop, look and listen" is a bit of an understatement when it comes to crossing the street in this country. "Duck, dodge and dive" is probably a better description of what needs to happen. Anyway, as we were crossing the street, a small woman on an e-bike swerved to avoid hitting me (a good choice, who do you think would have been more damaged by that?) and instead clipped William's leg. He cussed and limped off the road and we proceeded to dinner where all of our food arrived on time. All except William's.

During dinner, (short) Ben said to me "Hey, haven't you been wanting to go check out that lottery place down the street?" I said "Yup!" Will chimed in "I'll go too, my luck can't get any worse!" so we walked a block down the street and found two small shops that Ben informed us were "for the lottery" one was the "sports lottery" and the other was the "welfare lottery" (named after where the revenue goes). Ben said that we should support sports, and I said "Yeah, why not."

This was definitely an experience worth describing. As we approached the slitted sheet of plastic, that often serves as a door here, a man, not able to see out, opens the slit and spits a great loogie on the ground in front of us. This might have made the fainthearted turn around, but we were determined to go inside and buy some scratch off tickets. Upon entering we were immediately greeted by an older gentleman who said "Good evening, how may I help you?" in perfect unaccented English. This of course shocked us, and we later found out that he had been a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan some years back. This was quite unexpected. We bought our tickets. Ben and I each bought a 5 Yuan scratcher (about 80 cents) and William took my advice and bought a strip of Five 2 Yuan scratchers. Ben scratched first and won 20 yuan! I went next and lost... But then William scratched his 5 tickets and the one in the middle was an 80 yuan winner! his luck had finally changed! Although I had lost, we were all quite pleased. We walked into the lotto-shop and spent 20 Yuan (less than 3 USD) and come out with 100 (closer to 20 USD)! what a great time.

On the way home we joked that William should have more bad days so that we could play the lottery more often. I even went as far as to volunteer to run over him with my own bike.