Good lord, the last month is taking too long. And I'd like to say, I do appreciate peoples comments that I'm in China, I should be enjoying it. But you do have to understand, I'm not on a vacation here, I'm living here, I'm doing activities, I'm working. Okay, the work is bullshit, as you'll find out, but still. I'm aware how fortunate I am to be here. However, take into consideration how difficult it is to integrate into a culture not for a few days or a few weeks even, but 3 months! I'm not always gonna be hokey pokey on the phone. I have good and bad stories, both of which you will hear when I get home. None the less, I have a positive attitude in mind, so I will indeed try to make the best of the last month.
With that in mind, here are some stories.
The Canadian-style Chinese New Years lunch was awesome! We got drunk and made SPAGHETTI! I remember just inhaling and smelling it. It reminded me of Canada, or just a homely feeling really, even though spaghetti isn't Canadian and my mom doesn't make it all the time. But it made me feel really good, smelling and being with good friends, just talking about things from food, to the program, to the existence of dragons and dinosaurs (I kid you not! I have a movie to prove it!) We held a guys night, with the guys going out to the bar, but we gave in and let some of the girls join us. Personally, that's breaking a golden rule, letting women on guys night. I was quite adamant on this for good reason. The two were kind of pushy most of the night, but made up for it when they found some hot women to dance with. We hit up a bar, where they ordered shisha and then we went to a club. I don't usually like clubs, as there's too much pressure for a lot of things. It took awhile, but we got into the swing of things. But god, it was so smokey from all the cigarettes! I was a bit unnerved by the friendly people in the bathroom, offering me a massage while I pissed. They'll do anything for a tip! We saw a car stopped with a girl puking on the street. Guess Chinese people can't handle their bai jiu sometimes either! It was the last night of Spring Festival, so Felix and I decided to celebrate and bought some fireworks of our own. We lit a few off a overpass, overjoyed, and then met the others. We saved the rest until we were with the others. One particular firework had a broken base, as we found out when it was put on the ground. It fell over, aimed at two people, but they ran away just in time before the firework richocheted off the wall, and exploded on the street, nearly hitting two people! Happy New Years! But we didn't feel too bad. Chinese people light fireworks on the street all the time, near vehicles even, at all hours of the night. Plus, we could say it was windy. It was a good night. There was a bit of a sleeping arrangement problem, as I did not have my sleeping bag, hoping to use our supervisors, left behind. But we had two extra girls and another guy didn't bring one. I was happy sleeping on the floor with sheets. It was a great night with good stories.
Now, guys night 2!
Same people, one less girl, one more supervisor. Good ol' Maxime. But communication sucks here. Guess no one told anyone else I was coming, but was having dinner with my host family. So I had my backpack with my sleeping bag all night, and had to play phone tag with Jamie to find the restaurant they were at. But I remembered some advice Stephane about just being confident, and I kept that attitude all night. It made me feel better, and not worry about showing up late. I was just there to have a good time. After their dinner, we walked the streets. Maxime and I talked to some randoms, my random being an American-Chinese man, trying to set up a Beijing Beauties contest, with single women no less! I told him he had his work cut out for him, and NOT because they're weren't single! We went to good ol' Sanlitun, chock full of ex-pats during this time. We chilled, went off on our own, sharing stories. I found a group half full of gay men for some reason, but they were all interesting to talk to, including this cute girl named Yenny. Scored a phone number, so yay. But even that was not a highlight. I sat down with my group who barely wondered where I was. Not two minutes later, the table erupted and a French participant had another guy in a headlock! We split them up and took him outside. The condensed version: it was Quebecois vs. France. A cocky french guy came up to us and was belitting Montreal and Quebec, being full of homos and what not. After getting into my buddies face, shit started. But the French guy did start it, even as Maxime told assholes buddy to get said asshole out of there before he called the cops. After we were outside and settled, we went into another bar, like, 15 feet away. Real problem solving there. Maxime was furious though! He steamed all night, but settled a bit after telling us all a dramatic story of his youth, of drugs, alcohol, and violence. I enjoyed the part where the people went from 50, 100, 150, to 200 that he had to take on. Haha, but it was great entertainment. While texting a friend, this blonde Norwegian girl came over and began talking to me. We talked about music, geography, travelling. She had points to make, but they were never clear. Felix joined us half way, but he got annoyed with her and started to get rude, which was entertaining to me. All the others had left I found out, so I grabbed Felix and we left, but not after he belittled her. Hey, they can't all be winners. The next day included breakfast at the hole in the wall, basketball with Jamies buddies, and a cheap and delicious hot pot dinner. With days like that, you just can't go wrong!
We were excited to get new work placements finally! It had been in the works for awhile, but all that patience has been for naught actually. The list included the library, a labour office, gym, two schools, and working with old people. Sorry, no food bank. Gary was unreasonable and only wanted to work at the library. Just like I told him, Maxime made him choose a second one, just in case we didn't get it. We now work at the libary. Sorry, I should say, we now "work" at the libary. Haha, I love my diction. Quite quickly, after one day, we all found out that our new work placements were just as bad as our last ones, maybe worse! I thought that even though it was boring, they could use me at the libary, as a lot of the books were out of order. But I think Yuchan is right, that the librarians were misplacing books just for us to have work. Some books are like, not even close to the right section! And they said they just want us to be happy. Well, here I am, happy, to actually be doing work, which includes updating the website, blog, talking to friends, facebooking, research for my CAD and EAD and I even found a way onto wikipedia!!! But there's only 9 work days left. Nevertheless, I take consolation in considering it what I'm calling reverse learning. Sure, our workplacements suck so much ass, they might as well be shitting out brown donkeys, but we can realize what we DON'T want in work placements, and to a further extent, our own work ethic and how about we can create that. Justification, not just for microsoft word no more!
With that in mind, here are some stories.
The Canadian-style Chinese New Years lunch was awesome! We got drunk and made SPAGHETTI! I remember just inhaling and smelling it. It reminded me of Canada, or just a homely feeling really, even though spaghetti isn't Canadian and my mom doesn't make it all the time. But it made me feel really good, smelling and being with good friends, just talking about things from food, to the program, to the existence of dragons and dinosaurs (I kid you not! I have a movie to prove it!) We held a guys night, with the guys going out to the bar, but we gave in and let some of the girls join us. Personally, that's breaking a golden rule, letting women on guys night. I was quite adamant on this for good reason. The two were kind of pushy most of the night, but made up for it when they found some hot women to dance with. We hit up a bar, where they ordered shisha and then we went to a club. I don't usually like clubs, as there's too much pressure for a lot of things. It took awhile, but we got into the swing of things. But god, it was so smokey from all the cigarettes! I was a bit unnerved by the friendly people in the bathroom, offering me a massage while I pissed. They'll do anything for a tip! We saw a car stopped with a girl puking on the street. Guess Chinese people can't handle their bai jiu sometimes either! It was the last night of Spring Festival, so Felix and I decided to celebrate and bought some fireworks of our own. We lit a few off a overpass, overjoyed, and then met the others. We saved the rest until we were with the others. One particular firework had a broken base, as we found out when it was put on the ground. It fell over, aimed at two people, but they ran away just in time before the firework richocheted off the wall, and exploded on the street, nearly hitting two people! Happy New Years! But we didn't feel too bad. Chinese people light fireworks on the street all the time, near vehicles even, at all hours of the night. Plus, we could say it was windy. It was a good night. There was a bit of a sleeping arrangement problem, as I did not have my sleeping bag, hoping to use our supervisors, left behind. But we had two extra girls and another guy didn't bring one. I was happy sleeping on the floor with sheets. It was a great night with good stories.
Now, guys night 2!
Same people, one less girl, one more supervisor. Good ol' Maxime. But communication sucks here. Guess no one told anyone else I was coming, but was having dinner with my host family. So I had my backpack with my sleeping bag all night, and had to play phone tag with Jamie to find the restaurant they were at. But I remembered some advice Stephane about just being confident, and I kept that attitude all night. It made me feel better, and not worry about showing up late. I was just there to have a good time. After their dinner, we walked the streets. Maxime and I talked to some randoms, my random being an American-Chinese man, trying to set up a Beijing Beauties contest, with single women no less! I told him he had his work cut out for him, and NOT because they're weren't single! We went to good ol' Sanlitun, chock full of ex-pats during this time. We chilled, went off on our own, sharing stories. I found a group half full of gay men for some reason, but they were all interesting to talk to, including this cute girl named Yenny. Scored a phone number, so yay. But even that was not a highlight. I sat down with my group who barely wondered where I was. Not two minutes later, the table erupted and a French participant had another guy in a headlock! We split them up and took him outside. The condensed version: it was Quebecois vs. France. A cocky french guy came up to us and was belitting Montreal and Quebec, being full of homos and what not. After getting into my buddies face, shit started. But the French guy did start it, even as Maxime told assholes buddy to get said asshole out of there before he called the cops. After we were outside and settled, we went into another bar, like, 15 feet away. Real problem solving there. Maxime was furious though! He steamed all night, but settled a bit after telling us all a dramatic story of his youth, of drugs, alcohol, and violence. I enjoyed the part where the people went from 50, 100, 150, to 200 that he had to take on. Haha, but it was great entertainment. While texting a friend, this blonde Norwegian girl came over and began talking to me. We talked about music, geography, travelling. She had points to make, but they were never clear. Felix joined us half way, but he got annoyed with her and started to get rude, which was entertaining to me. All the others had left I found out, so I grabbed Felix and we left, but not after he belittled her. Hey, they can't all be winners. The next day included breakfast at the hole in the wall, basketball with Jamies buddies, and a cheap and delicious hot pot dinner. With days like that, you just can't go wrong!
We were excited to get new work placements finally! It had been in the works for awhile, but all that patience has been for naught actually. The list included the library, a labour office, gym, two schools, and working with old people. Sorry, no food bank. Gary was unreasonable and only wanted to work at the library. Just like I told him, Maxime made him choose a second one, just in case we didn't get it. We now work at the libary. Sorry, I should say, we now "work" at the libary. Haha, I love my diction. Quite quickly, after one day, we all found out that our new work placements were just as bad as our last ones, maybe worse! I thought that even though it was boring, they could use me at the libary, as a lot of the books were out of order. But I think Yuchan is right, that the librarians were misplacing books just for us to have work. Some books are like, not even close to the right section! And they said they just want us to be happy. Well, here I am, happy, to actually be doing work, which includes updating the website, blog, talking to friends, facebooking, research for my CAD and EAD and I even found a way onto wikipedia!!! But there's only 9 work days left. Nevertheless, I take consolation in considering it what I'm calling reverse learning. Sure, our workplacements suck so much ass, they might as well be shitting out brown donkeys, but we can realize what we DON'T want in work placements, and to a further extent, our own work ethic and how about we can create that. Justification, not just for microsoft word no more!
1 comment:
yea i do make spagetti but everybody at home complain hell i love spagettie bought you a car while you were gone hope you like it you spoiled rotten kid
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