i find that this definition very much applies to many events in china.
This morning, at 7 am, i had an insistent, insane little voice start my
day out by yelling at me, "I'm tired!!! We go for walk climbing
mountains!!! We're Late!!! I'm tired!!!". i find myself still
wondering what the penalty is for throwing her out the nearest window.
she's clearly insane. apparently, she's decided that she's fat, at 90
lbs and 5'0", i can certainly understand that she's clinically insane,
but completely understandable by chinese standards. so, i took a fast
shower, got dressed, and we were out the door and on the metro by 7:30
am, followed by a buy, and by 8:30 am, we were in the middle of nowhere,
as far as i could see.
i was a bit tired, and tried to convince her that she could go for her
walk with her "internet friends", and that i would go home, go back to
bed for a while, then go in search of a place where i could have an
English-erific day. one that had no yelling, no crazy creatures in my
food, no fruit that tastes like soap, no potatoes that have hairs all
through them (they look like potatoes, but the consistency is weird and
freaks me out a bit....i wanted a day off from China, and i had a pretty
good idea how to do it. she got very upset, and said, "fine, we just
go home!", and that's when i realized that it was more important to her
than she had led me to believe, problems in communication i would bet.
so, i grabbed her by the arm, dragging her along as i started walking up
this steep, steep road.
the road ran through the mountains, winding up and down 3 or 4
mountains, and it took me 3 hours to learn that it was actually the
Shenzhen marathon that we were doing. apparently, it starts on the edge
of the nanshan disctrict in Shenzhen, and the people who go start at 6
pm, then walk for 100 km. i met a reporter from the Shenzhen Daily
Newspaper. this was his fourth attempt, he was unable to complete it
the previous 3 years. they leave at 6 pm, there's no sleeping, there is
only walking through the mountains, "with the stars to guide you", i
mentioned that you could only ever see 3 stars anywhere in shenzhen due
to light and other pollution, he said that those three stars guided
him. i looked at him dubiously, and he laughed and said that he just
followed the path.
the shenzhen hiking marathon is done purely by volunteers, and sponsored
by Chinese Red Bull (i don't think it's real red bull because there was
only Chinese version Red Bull Vitamin Drink, the stuff in the
yellow can. there were volunteers every now and then taking pictures,
and at other times replenishing everyone's water for them. the post the
video and pictures on their website, you just have to find it later.
it was so well organized, especially since it's purely volunteers, that
i was amazed. apparently, this group is the largest volunteer
organization in China. finally we got to the final 10 km to Sha mei sha
beach, and thought that there would be something waiting at the finish
line...got into town, and there was no finish line, nobody quite knew
what to do, so they all went to lunch then caught a bus. i can't
believe that everything but the end was completely planned out. nobody
knew where they were supposed to go, what they were supposed to do, some
people cooked lunch, others went to restaurants, some took taxi's back,
and we went for a 90 minute bus ride. it was decidedly odd.
i finally got tired of Mei saying "Oh my God" in various situations, and
much to the disappointment of my parents (they are finding out the same
time you are), i decided to teach her to curse. so, we were walking
past a large body of water, and i asked her if she knew how to stop it,
she said, "dam it?", i said, "exactly!" then started laughing. she's
replaced the phrase that chinese love to say, "oh my god" with "damn
it", and i'm happy now. we went through the various situations, proper
grammar, and how to best use the phrase, and now she's happily using it
at all opportunities. (sorry....but it had to be done Mom!!), besides, i
still find it a bit amusing. oddly enough, going through things, she
now uses it in appropriate places, whereas "oh my god" is used randomly
by every one who is here, and it drives me crazy, it's never used
properly, it's used every other sentence it seems.
Mei decided to buy this melon last night, and treat me to something that
60% of china hates. of course, she didn't tell me that when she
brought this treat to my place last night, she chopped it up, and
brought me some of this green melon looking thing to taste. it actually
tastes exactly like dish soap. it's one of her favourite things, i'm
thinking of cooking her dinner one night and seasoning everything with
palmolive.
i was talking to some brits last night who teach english here and have
been here for 3 years total. they know enough chinese to order, and
that's it. they actually don't care much for the language and are
planning on moving to south american to find work as english teachers,
if possible. one of them had an interesting point that he made though.
chinese food here can be a little strange at times, but the strange
part comes from the fact that they like to eat a lot of things with
consistencies that foreigners simply don't like. turtle shell, for
example, tastes good, but...it's always in the form of a jelly, and the
consistency is weird. you feel like you're drinking jam, and everyone
makes sure that you're aware of what you're drinking, i really wish
people would just let me be blissfully ignorant. chicken and duck are
always cooked with all of the body parts still attached, head, feet,
intestines, everything, so, you're never really sure what's meat and
what's something else. chinese food is actually really good, if you can
find someone else to eat all the gristle and fat while you eat the
meat. fortunately, for whatever reason, the chinese prefer to eat skin,
gristle and fat to the meat. the problem i'm having is communicating
that without offending, because a lot of times they feel the need to
give you the "choice" bits, whether that's fish head, or chicken feet,
or duck bill, or whatever. duck skin is very good, it soaks up all of
the flavours of how it was cooked and marinated, but duck skin is also
very crunchy with a weird consistency...kind of like cooked skin (odd, i
know), and so can be somewhat difficult to eat at times. it's also not
good for you, makes you fat, which is apparently, something i need to
avoid (one reason for not losing weight whlie you're here).
there is a chinese massage technique that i want to try out. i think i
mentioned cupping before, if not, let me know, and i'll tell you what it
is, i really want to try it, but it's important that you tell everyone
why you have little red circles all over your skin so they don't think
that you have a crazy disease. i think i'm going in search of chinese
massage tomorrow after class.
i'm beat, i think i'm going to eat, and got to bed before 9 tonight.
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