Fun excitements I've been provided with? Well, for starters, giardia and ring worm…simultaneously. Gross. Giardia is a parasite that makes you feel like death; ring worm is a nasty fungus. Giardia has since moved on because I beat it up with an amazing pill, but my buddy Ring keeps hanging on. He's not ready to leave, apparently, but I assure him he must disappear before this coming Friday. The countdown begins.
In other fun news, I have yet another guanxi incident to add to my belt! This one is perhaps the most absurd, and has given me what I think to be a complete "celebrity in China" experience. :)
A few weeks ago, my school asked me if I would be willing to host an event at Number 10 Middle School (the schools here are named according to their rank…No. 10 is a pretty good school because there over a hundred in the Guiyang area). As to be expected, when I asked questions about what being a host would entail, when the event would take place, or even if they could provide me with any information regarding my expectations, I was told that my school also was unaware of the details. Well, the event was Friday, and at 12:00 I received the notice that we were leaving at 1:00. "Fei Fei, we will meet you at the school's gate in one hour and then we will go together to No. 10 Middle School." Okay, why not.
In the car ride on our way to the school, I was told by my dean that the head of No. 10 Middle School is her former classmate and that we're trying to build relations with this school so that we can secure a good placement for our students to do their student teaching in upcoming years. AKA: Valerie, we need your foreign face to be a host at this school in order to build guanxi with this place. I was okay with the ordeal, because I thought hosting an event at a middle school could be fun, and I liked to hear that this guanxi experience was to benefit our students.
When we arrived at the school, I was taken to an office and was told the details of this event I was to host in 30 minutes. It was an English speaking event for the students of the school (who are actually high school students?) on the Olympics. My role was to ask students the questions that they were asked to memorize, and then make sure they gave the right answer word-for-word that the school wanted (the students didn't necessarily know what they were saying, the important thing was that they could speak the words correctly from memorization). While we sat in the office waiting for the event to begin, the conversation between my school and the middle school officials quickly shifted from English to Chinese (Guiyang dialect, which is almost incomprehensible to me and my knowledge of Standard Chinese). I sat there straining to listen in vain (mainly in an additional attempt to learn Guiyang dialect), but I did hear the following:______ Valerie _____ can _______ of course _______ yes _____ happy _______ Valerie ______. Immediately following, my dean stood up and told me she was to leave now because she didn't plan to stay for the event. I asked her what she told the school and, after a few roundabout answers, I was able to discover that she told the school I'd be at their liberty in the future for whatever they need: teacher training, hosting events, etc. All in the name of guanxi… but this is a good guanxi because, while I am being used, it does secure that my students will have a better resume builder because they'll be able to student teach at a good school.
The event itself was a hoot. The students had never had experience with a foreigner (of course), and so they clapped after everything I said. After the event, the high school students flooded themselves around me and asked me—I still can't believe this—to please autograph their school uniforms, give them hugs, take pictures with them, kiss them on the cheek…
What a hoot. :)
In other news, I spent this past weekend visiting Anshun with Jonny and Kim. We took a train there without any plan, maps, or knowledge of where to go, so we simply walked aimlessly around the city for a while (it was a great day filled with nice Chinese snack foods and shopping), and then came home. :) While we were there, however, we again encountered the kindness of strangers. In our attempts to find a Miao minority market, I asked a man (who was working) for directions. He kindly informed me that he wasn't aware of where any were, but then insisted that we wait while he call his friend and get his friend's insight. That was successful, but then the man decided that it was too far away for us to walk, so he left work and gave us a ride to the shops in his car, refusing to take any money for his efforts (I can't imagine many Americans saying "okay, I'm going to leave work now to give you a free ride across town"). Later, on our train ride home (apparently I didn't learn anything from the trip back from Zunyi), we were forced to take standing tickets again because, once again, we bought our tickets too late and all seats were sold out. However, once we boarded the train and people saw us standing, one gentleman, who had purchased 3 seats so he could lay and sleep (he was coming from a very far distance), insisted that we take his extra seats and he then sat up so we could be more comfortable. :)
Today, on the topic of kindness-of-strangers, I was treated to a huge banquet by four non-English major students who I don't even know (and who don't speak English). I met one of the boys two nights ago on a bus ride home, and then this morning he called me and told me that he and 3 of his friends wanted to treat me to lunch. What he didn't tell me was that they reserved a restaurant hall and had a big banquet in my honor just to "welcome me to China" and express their excitement to be able to communicate with me.
There's nothing better than being in a strange place and being treated so kindly by strangers simply in an attempt to make you feel welcome in their country. I hope, when I return home, that I can be half as kind to any foreigners that I encounter as the people of China have been to me. :)
P.S. Happy Saint Nicholas Day! I hope everyone gets plenty of nuts in their stocking!!
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