A message from Lily, checking to see if I am still alive.... 
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22 May 2006
Nothing like a fine dinner at a countryside restuarant with some beer and snake bile wine to set the mood for friendship.It seems like a long time since I have put up drunken pictures of my antics in China...
This was a fun night that I barely remember, but we got some great video.
Nothing quite like the Black and White picture sometimes. Here is myself and Heric, a very nice man with the Chenzhou government who is encouraging me to begin an import business when I go back to the states.He is the man who helped me get my old, fake nikon replaced... So I owe him a lot
Let the drinking... Begin.
Post drinking. As you can see by red face, which I get now when I drink because I dont do it nearly as often.
The Chinese are classic drinkers--they love to section you out and make you do solo shots with all of them, but the lucky thing is that they don't last very long....
Don't worry mom. I am okay. Its nothing like the old days that you dont know about.
:)
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Chenzhou living..
A photo of me, the dragon ladies assistant on my left and the dragon lady herself. Her assistant is cute and nice, quite the opposite from the other one.
Nothing quite like Mountain Biking through Chenzhou in a nice floral print.
Yes, I know. Its camp. But what the hell do they make parasols like this for?
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Allow me to eloborate...
The last post spoke of some issues that I have been having over the course of my journey here in China. I want to take a moment and discuss it with perhaps a little broader detail as I have gotten some email about it.
I understand that all there are going to be some people in this world who have more than others -- and I dont have a problem with that. Its the reality that our society and the rest of the world is still driven by the vicious machine and greed. That's fine. What I find so strinkingly different about China is the same thing that you see in Africian nations--that the powerful have no problem showing off their status and that the impoverished simply accept it. It makes you wonder who to be more angry at.
Yes, it is true that all of that will fade away when I leave this place--that the people who have touched my heart will remain there and these other scoundrels will just melt into one big dark ball in the back of my thinking, but at the moment I wrote that post, it was those people that were driving my scorn. Therefore, in order to give you, the reader the most unfiltered experience I can, I give you both sides--so that you can also appreciate the wonderful side of my life along with the food poisioning, the embarrassing toilet stories, the spitting, hauking of flem from places I didnt know produced flem and such....
Regardless, all is good.
And no, the government is not going to kick me out--and if they do.. Ill just be back sooner.
Beijing in two days. Read more!
The last post spoke of some issues that I have been having over the course of my journey here in China. I want to take a moment and discuss it with perhaps a little broader detail as I have gotten some email about it.
I understand that all there are going to be some people in this world who have more than others -- and I dont have a problem with that. Its the reality that our society and the rest of the world is still driven by the vicious machine and greed. That's fine. What I find so strinkingly different about China is the same thing that you see in Africian nations--that the powerful have no problem showing off their status and that the impoverished simply accept it. It makes you wonder who to be more angry at.
Yes, it is true that all of that will fade away when I leave this place--that the people who have touched my heart will remain there and these other scoundrels will just melt into one big dark ball in the back of my thinking, but at the moment I wrote that post, it was those people that were driving my scorn. Therefore, in order to give you, the reader the most unfiltered experience I can, I give you both sides--so that you can also appreciate the wonderful side of my life along with the food poisioning, the embarrassing toilet stories, the spitting, hauking of flem from places I didnt know produced flem and such....
Regardless, all is good.
And no, the government is not going to kick me out--and if they do.. Ill just be back sooner.
Beijing in two days. Read more!
21 May 2006
Tick, tick..tick.
The time and moments seem to be coming to a close. Even though it is only a few months before I put this chapter of my life behind me, the final chapter is slowly beginning to be written. This past weekend I met with a headmaster from a local language school who made me realize that my time here was coming to end and it was a good thing.
It made me realize that there are typically two kinds of people in China. There are the people who are kind hearted, gentile and appreciate foreigners being here because of the diversity that they bring to a culture that is supressed by its own government.
Then there are the people like this headmaster who have nothing in their souls but greed. Greed for the mighty western dollar and greed for the need that people have to learn the language that drives the foreign investment. By the end of this dinner I was sickened by this woman because she reminded me of all the things I dispise about this country as well as the world.
She is from the Chenzhou area but holds a firm distaste for the people and their lack of culture--IE western culture. She lived in Shenzhen, which is the Chinese wet dream for those that have no ability to get out of the country--Shenzhen to the Chinese represents the closest thing to Hong Kong that they can imagine and each summer the new graduates flock to both Shanghai and Shenzhen to give themselves a try in the Chinese global marketplace. Most stay for a few years, make some money and go back to wherever they came from to make a living with their Shenzhen earnings. This is what this dragon lady did. She opened the language school with her proceeds of whatever she did in Shenzhen, she married a government lawyer (another wise business decision--having a government husbands makes it easier to do anything because they have the power of bending the common rules) and opened up a language school.
She and I met because she wanted to have a foreigner hang out in the office for 5 days a week and talk to the potential customers who were going to be coming in to set up their kids for lessons. I wouldnt have to teach, just talk a little simple english to the kids. I would also be required to star in a television commerical promoting her language school.
All this without teaching.
I was simply not impressed with what she had to offer and the more she talked, the more I was sure that my time was worth more applying for jobs, etc than being in her office playing her little foreigner boy.
This sort of scenerio has been happeneing all too often while I stay in China. At first it was amazing how friendly and lovely everyone was--then, especially in this last term, the momentum has clearly changed and people are no longer interested in what you have to say, but rather what they have to say to you--this is one of the biggest problems that the Chinese seem to have with learning--they are not doing it for the art of knowledge, they are doing it because they are financially driven--just like us in the states I think--but the difference is that our system of education still allows for those that want to get an education for the desire of a greater intellectual understanding actually have access to such resources..
The main issue that I have with China is from the people, most of the wealthy people that are obviously more wealthy than their breathren who are poor and overworked. It is disturbing to see people with such poverty, but the thing that keeps you going is that for the most part they are so happy--so satisfied with the simplicity of it all.
Not the wealthy though.
The wealthy always seem to be the same-the look down on their countrymen and call them peasants and dont really do anything to make the situation better--the simply drive by all the poverty in their nice brand new Audi's and their air conditioning and they don't think about what they could do to make it all better.
Which is what I appreciate about America. At least some of us are trying to figure out for the rest of us--and there is opportunity for most. Maybe not a lot--but some.
Don't get me wrong here--China will always have a special place in my heart--but it will always hold a little scorn as well.... and most of that comes from people like this head master..
Hope you are all well and doing your part to make the world a better place. Read more!
The time and moments seem to be coming to a close. Even though it is only a few months before I put this chapter of my life behind me, the final chapter is slowly beginning to be written. This past weekend I met with a headmaster from a local language school who made me realize that my time here was coming to end and it was a good thing.
It made me realize that there are typically two kinds of people in China. There are the people who are kind hearted, gentile and appreciate foreigners being here because of the diversity that they bring to a culture that is supressed by its own government.
Then there are the people like this headmaster who have nothing in their souls but greed. Greed for the mighty western dollar and greed for the need that people have to learn the language that drives the foreign investment. By the end of this dinner I was sickened by this woman because she reminded me of all the things I dispise about this country as well as the world.
She is from the Chenzhou area but holds a firm distaste for the people and their lack of culture--IE western culture. She lived in Shenzhen, which is the Chinese wet dream for those that have no ability to get out of the country--Shenzhen to the Chinese represents the closest thing to Hong Kong that they can imagine and each summer the new graduates flock to both Shanghai and Shenzhen to give themselves a try in the Chinese global marketplace. Most stay for a few years, make some money and go back to wherever they came from to make a living with their Shenzhen earnings. This is what this dragon lady did. She opened the language school with her proceeds of whatever she did in Shenzhen, she married a government lawyer (another wise business decision--having a government husbands makes it easier to do anything because they have the power of bending the common rules) and opened up a language school.
She and I met because she wanted to have a foreigner hang out in the office for 5 days a week and talk to the potential customers who were going to be coming in to set up their kids for lessons. I wouldnt have to teach, just talk a little simple english to the kids. I would also be required to star in a television commerical promoting her language school.
All this without teaching.
I was simply not impressed with what she had to offer and the more she talked, the more I was sure that my time was worth more applying for jobs, etc than being in her office playing her little foreigner boy.
This sort of scenerio has been happeneing all too often while I stay in China. At first it was amazing how friendly and lovely everyone was--then, especially in this last term, the momentum has clearly changed and people are no longer interested in what you have to say, but rather what they have to say to you--this is one of the biggest problems that the Chinese seem to have with learning--they are not doing it for the art of knowledge, they are doing it because they are financially driven--just like us in the states I think--but the difference is that our system of education still allows for those that want to get an education for the desire of a greater intellectual understanding actually have access to such resources..
The main issue that I have with China is from the people, most of the wealthy people that are obviously more wealthy than their breathren who are poor and overworked. It is disturbing to see people with such poverty, but the thing that keeps you going is that for the most part they are so happy--so satisfied with the simplicity of it all.
Not the wealthy though.
The wealthy always seem to be the same-the look down on their countrymen and call them peasants and dont really do anything to make the situation better--the simply drive by all the poverty in their nice brand new Audi's and their air conditioning and they don't think about what they could do to make it all better.
Which is what I appreciate about America. At least some of us are trying to figure out for the rest of us--and there is opportunity for most. Maybe not a lot--but some.
Don't get me wrong here--China will always have a special place in my heart--but it will always hold a little scorn as well.... and most of that comes from people like this head master..
Hope you are all well and doing your part to make the world a better place. Read more!
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