Above:The Baha'i House of Worship of Asia. Below:Life and times of your fellow World Citizen, Kolya

Still Living in Happiness at Mid-Winter!

Happily I can report that winter in Baotou is not at all as bad as I imagined it might be. It doesn’t really FEEL any colder than what I’ve experienced in Durango (USA) and Berlin (Germany). As long as one wears long underwear and a good warm coat one is all set! I did not arrive in Baotou with a good coat but I did have a set of thin long-underwear. But it was no problem finding a good quality coat, more sweaters, gloves and some more long-underwear here. The main difference with mountainous Colorado is that it doesn’t warm up again during the day and so snow-packed in to ice remains on pavements and roads for quite a long time (unless it is scraped away, which, generally, it isn’t).
My parents live in New Delhi, India, where there’s often a power outage daily, for a couple of hours (sometimes less sometimes more). But in Delhi there’s always water in the taps I’ve come across. Here in China (at least in Baotou) the electricity seems to be just about as efficient and continuous as anywhere in the West (excluding California!) but when I first arrived there were times when there was no water (for a few hours)! A friend of mine in a city closer to southern China has had similar water problems. Although it hasn’t happened at all after my first month or two here but in the first few weeks it seemed to happen 1-2 times a week that there wasn’t any water from any of the taps in my humble abode (although perhaps not so humble by Chinese standards). Although, I’ve never been completely without water, since I have a water dispenser in my room. I use the hot tap mostly (as do most Chinese) since I prefer warm or hot water to cold water. And I prefer warm or hot drinks, in general, to cold drinks. This is very un-American but very Chinese, and perhaps European also and actually most of the world is probably this way. As I’ve said before, I'm not very American in most ways! I just happen to have an American mother, an American passport and to have lived in the USA for 4 brief years before moving to China.
There have been times when I did not have power but it seems that most times it was only our floor, or even only the rooms on one side of the corridor on our floor that did not have power, so it wasn’t a “normal” power outage but rather a problem within the building (or just our floor). The building is only 7 years old but it seems like it could be 10 or 20 years older, perhaps because it’s gotten a pretty run-down in places. Hopefully the new buildings on the new campus will be built competently and there won’t be any such minor irritations when we eventually move to the new campus, hopefully before the end of next school year.
The students get a little less than two months of Winter vacation, from about January 15 to February 28. But I’ll only have February off as I’ll be helping them to have an English Institute, teaching English for 10 days before the end of January. In February I plan to see a little more of China by taking a trip down to Hong Kong and Macao. I'm planning to go down by train because, although it’ll take me about 3 days to get down to Hong Kong from here, it will enable to see more of China (at least as much as can be seen out of a train window—which is, however, a whole lot more then you see if you fly). Also, it will save me around ¥1000 (US$121 or €138). And maybe I’ll meet some interesting people on the train. Also, I'm very much looking forward to seeing The Lord of the Rings movie in English and on a big cinema screen! Luckily, it’s not being released in China until I’ll be down there in Hong Kong where it won’t be a problem finding a (or the) movie theatre that’s playing it in English. Then I’ll be in neighboring Macao with friends for the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year.
Chinese do also celebrate the Gregorian (Christian) New Year (January 1st 2001, 2002 etc.) [However, very few are aware that 2001, 2002 etc. is a Christian calendar or know much about it.] and many people get at least one day off for it. But of far greater importance for all Chinese is the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival. The date follows the Chinese lunar calendar and so this year it will be on February 12, 2002, it’s usually a week long celebration/vacation, in which families reunite. It will be nice to flee the cold for a little while and do a bit of the migration thing like the birds. Mother Nature is a good teacher, after all, and I'm happy to follow the lead of my feathered friends. Unfortunately, it will still be a little cold when I have to go back north for the 2nd Semester, which starts in March. But I’ll be happy to be back in the warm presence of my Baotou friends! And as I said, actually it’s completely bearable and doesn’t at all feel as cold as I imagined it would (of course I don’t have to spend much time outside, happily).
Something interesting happened a while back. One of my colleague-friends described me as an “uncomplicated” person. It’s not the kind of word I would have ever dreamed of to describe myself but actually maybe it’s a good and accurate word. I think perhaps she just meant that I'm an open person and don’t have any intrigues or whatnot swimming around my head… Anyway, I think it was a compliment, *smile*.
An example of something I never thought much about before coming to China was the difference between saying, “I know” and “I see”. I noticed this because a number of the teachers and students were saying “I know” when they should have been saying “I see” or “I understand now”. It’s a phrase that’s used quite often in a situation where two people of different mother tongues are conversing. For example,
“What’s this in English?”
“It’s a computer.”
“I see.” (not: I know)
If you say “I see” then you are merely acknowledging that you have understood the point being made. However, the phrase, “I know,” is one that should only be used when what you have just been told is something that you ALREADY knew. Because in saying “I know” it implies that you ALREADY knew this. As in,
“We have a meeting tonight.”
“I know. Susan already told me about it.”
On New Year’s Eve I attended the teacher’s party which started with a small banquet and then we went to the multi-purpose Hall (which is also where the Winter English Corner was held in 2001-02) and danced and sung some Karaoke. The music varied between some modern dance/techno and then Chinese pop/Karaoke. It was fun. Although there were a couple teachers who had drunk too much alcohol and they were not having much fun!
Another fun thing I did was a few weeks ago, the Principle invited me and the other staff to go out bowling. It was a very modern and up-to-date bowling hall. It was my first time bowling in China but only maybe the 4th time I had ever gone bowling. It was very fun.
Also a few weeks ago I went out to a Chinese dance club for the first time with a good friend of mine and 3 of her friends. When we got there we sat down at a table, my friend and I ordered some juice and her friends got some soft drinks—I was glad they did not order anything alcoholic. The main thing I did not like about the place was that it was quite smoky at the table, a lot of men near our table were smoking. The club was fairly large with a central dance floor and a stage at one end with the DJ booth at the opposite end. Around the Dance floor, along the walls were tables at which everyone was sitting—it wasn’t dancing time yet. Instead a band was playing. But they’d only play a few songs and then some dancers (paid performers), 3 women and 2 men, would come out on to the dance floor and do a dance to techno music in a style that is apparently very popular in Korea and comes from there. Their dancing was pretty good but they would have looked much better if they had all smiled while they danced. By not smiling it made them look somewhat morose. Then after the song the dancers would disappear and the band would play some more songs, but this time with a different singer! Although this is apparently completely normal in China. Each time the band played again it would be with a different singer. And at each dance the dancers would be wearing a different costume. Then at about 10pm the DJ’s called everyone to dance and almost everybody went onto the dance floor… making it a bit too crowded… the paid dancers came to the mini-stage in front of the DJs and danced there and my friend and one of her friends and I danced for a little less than an hour, when I had to go home. It was a fun night and I enjoyed myself a great deal!
I will admit that living in China and teaching are certainly not without their difficulties but I'm very much happy here. And as always, I'm a very happy person all day long, all month long (99% of the time). Faith, trust in Providence and prayer go a long way in keeping a person happy! And most importantly, they help to light the way when one comes upon life’s tempests, so that one can come out the other side stronger and wiser for the experience.