2006年12月25日星期一
2006年12月21日星期四
IKEA
This week has been great. It's been cold lately, and with that everything seems to have slowed down a bit. I'll be heading out this weekend to spend some time in the mountains. Along the way, we'll be stopping and soaking in some hot springs. It should be really fun. I'll let you all know how it goes after we get back.
And on to this week's news:
-I finally broke down and bought a pair of quilted pajamas. It's just too cold in my house to not own a pair. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing what these look like, they are made out of the same fabric that the comforter on your bed is. They are thick and stiff, and fit well over any article of clothing. They're ugly but warm. In a nutshell, they're perfect. We don't have heat, so we spend most of our time at home in bed on top of the heating pad. The cold usually makes my nose run, and I can see my breath in the house. The showers are especially brutal: the hot water is no where near hot enough, and the pressure is next to nothing. The open window doesn't help things either.
-I bought some margarita mix and "Pepe Lopez" tequila. I think it'll go good this weekend when I'm sitting in the hot springs. We probably won't have ice, but I hear there's already snow, so we'll be having "snow-garitas."
-Christmas planning is moving slowly. My roommate and I are talking of hosting a Christmas brunch. What we'll make depends on what we can find. I want to make french toast, but finding anything thicker than wonderbread is proving difficult. We may end up just having eggs and sausage. Maybe a sno-garita on the side.
-Got my hair cut at this place:
It was the only place I've ever been that was literally a hole in the wall. You can see it there behind me in blue. The next photo is me walking up the stairs and through the "door."
I brought with me a couple of pictures to show the woman, but I was still nervous. Sarah and I were ushered into the salon where we were seperated for the hair washing. I was brought back to a dimly lit room where I was asked to lay down on a specially designed hair-washing seat. It was great! I was comfortable and warm, and the woman washed my hair for a good twenty minutes.
I sat down in the chair next to Sarah, and tried to calm my nerves. Here's the after picture, I think she did a good job. Let me know what you all think.
By far the highlight of my week was a trip to the newly opened IKEA. Several weeks ago, I heard from one of my classmates that the new IKEA had just opened. Someone had a brochure that had pictures of the IKEA cafeteria, and it looked like they served real hot dogs. When we saw that, we had to go if only for the food.
Several of my classmates took a preliminary trip to see what all they offered, and whether or not we could afford it. They found out that IKEA has a courtesy bus roaming the city everyday. We made our way to one of the purported stops and waited. Twenty minutes later the IKEA bus pulled up and we piled on.
The ride was short; IKEA is located just outside of the city center in the middle of some fields. Next to the monolith furniture store stands the Chinese equivelent: a large open-air market. One side of the parking lot was crowded with butchers, people pulling carts of fruit, tables spread with spices, and fruit salesman. The other side was full of Chengdu's young and hip, on their way to a day at IKEA.
The store was full, absolutely packed with people. We made a bee-line for the cafeteria on the second floor, and after ordering some Americanized Chinese food sat down to enjoy our surroundings. The food and furniture was cheap, everything had been knocked down to prices that are affordable to middle/upper middle class Chinese. This meant that we would be going away with a full load. You don't know what you don't need until you go to IKEA. I ended up with a blanket, a french press coffee maker, a picture frame, and some scented candles. I also ate a hot dog, an ice cream cone, some Americanized Chinese food, and a cup of coffee. It was all wonderful, and in the midst of my eating binge I discovered that IKEA sells some of the cheapest bagged coffee in Chengdu. I'll be back soon!
And on to this week's news:
-I finally broke down and bought a pair of quilted pajamas. It's just too cold in my house to not own a pair. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing what these look like, they are made out of the same fabric that the comforter on your bed is. They are thick and stiff, and fit well over any article of clothing. They're ugly but warm. In a nutshell, they're perfect. We don't have heat, so we spend most of our time at home in bed on top of the heating pad. The cold usually makes my nose run, and I can see my breath in the house. The showers are especially brutal: the hot water is no where near hot enough, and the pressure is next to nothing. The open window doesn't help things either.
-I bought some margarita mix and "Pepe Lopez" tequila. I think it'll go good this weekend when I'm sitting in the hot springs. We probably won't have ice, but I hear there's already snow, so we'll be having "snow-garitas."
-Christmas planning is moving slowly. My roommate and I are talking of hosting a Christmas brunch. What we'll make depends on what we can find. I want to make french toast, but finding anything thicker than wonderbread is proving difficult. We may end up just having eggs and sausage. Maybe a sno-garita on the side.
-Got my hair cut at this place:
It was the only place I've ever been that was literally a hole in the wall. You can see it there behind me in blue. The next photo is me walking up the stairs and through the "door."
I brought with me a couple of pictures to show the woman, but I was still nervous. Sarah and I were ushered into the salon where we were seperated for the hair washing. I was brought back to a dimly lit room where I was asked to lay down on a specially designed hair-washing seat. It was great! I was comfortable and warm, and the woman washed my hair for a good twenty minutes. I sat down in the chair next to Sarah, and tried to calm my nerves. Here's the after picture, I think she did a good job. Let me know what you all think.
By far the highlight of my week was a trip to the newly opened IKEA. Several weeks ago, I heard from one of my classmates that the new IKEA had just opened. Someone had a brochure that had pictures of the IKEA cafeteria, and it looked like they served real hot dogs. When we saw that, we had to go if only for the food. 
Several of my classmates took a preliminary trip to see what all they offered, and whether or not we could afford it. They found out that IKEA has a courtesy bus roaming the city everyday. We made our way to one of the purported stops and waited. Twenty minutes later the IKEA bus pulled up and we piled on. The ride was short; IKEA is located just outside of the city center in the middle of some fields. Next to the monolith furniture store stands the Chinese equivelent: a large open-air market. One side of the parking lot was crowded with butchers, people pulling carts of fruit, tables spread with spices, and fruit salesman. The other side was full of Chengdu's young and hip, on their way to a day at IKEA.
The store was full, absolutely packed with people. We made a bee-line for the cafeteria on the second floor, and after ordering some Americanized Chinese food sat down to enjoy our surroundings. The food and furniture was cheap, everything had been knocked down to prices that are affordable to middle/upper middle class Chinese. This meant that we would be going away with a full load. You don't know what you don't need until you go to IKEA. I ended up with a blanket, a french press coffee maker, a picture frame, and some scented candles. I also ate a hot dog, an ice cream cone, some Americanized Chinese food, and a cup of coffee. It was all wonderful, and in the midst of my eating binge I discovered that IKEA sells some of the cheapest bagged coffee in Chengdu. I'll be back soon!
2006年12月19日星期二
Video: Take 5!
I've finally succeeded in uploading a video to the blog. In order to put the complete clip online I had to cut it in two. The first half of the video you will find just below this post. The second half just above. It may take a couple of minutes to load fully, so be patient. The second clip is funnier than the first, but they're both worth watching. If you watch carefully, you'll hear our fellow commuters shouting "Hello! Hello!", you'll see me come dangerously close to a couple of cars, while Sarah passes a bus on the right. Honestly, the day we filmed this was pretty mild, but don't think that means there is no excitement!
2006年12月16日星期六
Video!!
Here's a short video clip for you all. It's about 15 minutes long, and although the first couple of minutes are rough, it's worth sticking around until the end. The video was taken while riding to and from school. I was going to edit it, but decided that it is best in its raw form. If you watch closely you'll hear our fellow commuters shouting hello, and you'll see the sweeper ladies I've talked about. There's a couple of near-death experiences towards the end, so be sure not to miss those. Enjoy!
2006年12月15日星期五
A very short research update:
Sign language class is officially over for the year, and won't be starting up again until March. Being with my favorite Chengdu-ers in my favorite class in Chengdu has been fun, and I'll miss going. All is not doom and gloom however, I was assured that there would be deaf community events and activities that I would be invited to, so for now I'm just waiting for my phone to ring with a new text message.
Sign language class has been really fun. I'm learning it much faster than most of my fellow classmates, and I really love hanging out with the teacher and deaf students I sit with. They've been patient with my questions, and are always willing to teach me new signs. I've even talked to most of them about my research intentions, and asked if I could conduct interviews. All of them gave me an enthusiastic go-ahead, so I'm tentatively planning for the end of January and again at the beginning of March. I'm not fluent enough in CSL to conduct interviews in the language, I'll be getting my interview questions translated into Chinese.
I've also started a paper based on some of what I've learned at class. Although it's research based, it's not as long or detailed as my final research project will be (I hope!). I'll post it when I'm done, although it may not interest most of you.
I also had the opportunity to visit a school for deaf children in Chengdu. I won't be using anything from my visit in my research, but it was a fun experience and I was glad I had the chance to go. I was accompanied by someone in the International Office at SU. I was worried that she wouldn't find it interesting, but to my surprise she seemed more interested than I was. It turns out her graduate work was in education, so the visit wasn't something completely foreign to her.
That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next installment of "Research Updates."
Sign language class has been really fun. I'm learning it much faster than most of my fellow classmates, and I really love hanging out with the teacher and deaf students I sit with. They've been patient with my questions, and are always willing to teach me new signs. I've even talked to most of them about my research intentions, and asked if I could conduct interviews. All of them gave me an enthusiastic go-ahead, so I'm tentatively planning for the end of January and again at the beginning of March. I'm not fluent enough in CSL to conduct interviews in the language, I'll be getting my interview questions translated into Chinese.
I've also started a paper based on some of what I've learned at class. Although it's research based, it's not as long or detailed as my final research project will be (I hope!). I'll post it when I'm done, although it may not interest most of you.
I also had the opportunity to visit a school for deaf children in Chengdu. I won't be using anything from my visit in my research, but it was a fun experience and I was glad I had the chance to go. I was accompanied by someone in the International Office at SU. I was worried that she wouldn't find it interesting, but to my surprise she seemed more interested than I was. It turns out her graduate work was in education, so the visit wasn't something completely foreign to her.
That's all for now. Stay tuned for the next installment of "Research Updates."
2006年12月12日星期二
And again-
So you go to your favorite store again, the one that requires the precious discount card which you now hold in your wallet. After picking up your groceries, you head to one of the checkout lines confident that today's transaction will go smoothly. Picking the shortest line, you watch as the cashier asks the customer in front of you if she has a card. The customer replies no, and the cashier lifts her eyes in your direction. Upon seeing you, she turns and begins scanning the other lines (foreigners don't carry discount cards) for a customer willing to give up their card for a moment. You shuffle your basket on the counter, drawing the cashier's attention. You then pull out your discount card and hand it to her.
It's the little things, really.
It's the little things, really.
2006年12月8日星期五
More photos:
Here's some pictures from last week's photo opp at sign language class. The woman in the red coat is my teacher, the others are deaf students who are there learning as well. We all sit together in the back of the classroom and practice our skills with those who are fluent instead of paying attention like we should. It's pretty fun.
2006年12月7日星期四
More about driving-
Good Ol' Wikipedia with an article on how to drive in China. Always a funny read.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Driving_in_China
This is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Highly recommended.
http://www.bookofjoe.com/2006/11/driving_in_chin.html
Also, I just wanted to alert you all to a new link on the right hand side of the page. I've linked to SCOTUS blog, an interesting read if you have time to kill.
http://wikitravel.org/en/Driving_in_China
This is one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Highly recommended.
http://www.bookofjoe.com/2006/11/driving_in_chin.html
Also, I just wanted to alert you all to a new link on the right hand side of the page. I've linked to SCOTUS blog, an interesting read if you have time to kill.
A Good Read:
This article was emailed to me earlier this week. Although it gives a decent explanation of the roads in China, there is really so much more. I've pasted the article below. It was taken from the Irish Times, authored by Fintan O'Toole (You just can't help but love a guy named Fintan) You can click this post's title for the link.
Motoring Madness Puts Spoke in China's Wheel
Letter from Beijing: For the benefit of intending travellers, here are some Chinese rules of the road:
1. Driving is like making cloth or baskets - the skill is in the weaving. If there is more room on the far side of a three-lane highway, your duty is to get into it as fast as possible. Lanes are for bowling alleys.
2. Sound waves are a powerful form of energy. If you blow your horn loudly and continuously, obstacles in your way will disappear, clearing the road ahead.
3. Seatbelts restrict the flow of blood to the brain and may be dangerous. Drivers may buckle up if they are approaching a police checkpoint, but the belt should be removed as soon as the checkpoint is passed. Passengers should on no account wear seatbelts, as attempts to find the buckles which have been carefully stored under the seat covers may distract the driver from an important mobile phone conversation.
4. When approaching a junction with a major road, enter the flow of traffic immediately and decisively. The drivers on the main road will be well aware of your presence, even at night, and stopping to wait for a gap may be interpreted as an insult to their sixth sense.
5. Remember that Kung Fu movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are entirely realistic. Chinese people can sense at all times what is happening behind them, even without looking. They also have lightening-fast reflexes, so any momentary danger will inevitably be averted.
6. Overtaking is a spiritual quest, a homage to the gods of time, who do not like to see their precious gift wasted. The less time wasted and the more dangerous the manoeuvre (for example, overtaking on a hairpin bend on a mountain road with a ravine 5,000ft below) the greater the devotion demonstrated. You will get your reward in the next life, a destination which you may also reach sooner than everyone else.
7. Even the narrowest road has two sides - it is wasteful not to use both.
8. If you find yourself facing a head-on collision with another vehicle, it is vital to assume that the other driver will blink first and take the necessary evasive action. If everyone abides by this principle, then there can be no confusion. All drivers will understand their proper responses in this situation and there can be no danger of an accident.
I offer these rules as a cut-out-and-keep guide for anyone intending to travel to China, because, oddly, they are not published by the road safety authorities and can be learned only by observation. This might suggest that they are not rules at all, but they are universally observed in every part of China I've been to so far, and are presumably so well understood that they do not need to be made explicit.
So deeply entrenched are these rules, indeed, that they turn on their heads western perceptions of what is and is not good driving. In the West, for example, someone who swings out into the middle of the road while approaching a blind blend is a maniac who has no right to be on the road. In China, such a person is genuinely a good driver. If you assume that when you turn the corner, there may be cars bearing down on you (because they are overtaking on the other side of the bend), then it makes perfect sense to stay in the middle so that you have room, if necessary, to swerve to either side.
This kind of skill may explain one of two astonishing aspects of Chinese driving: the relatively low rate of accidents. It is not that the carnage on the roads in China is not appalling, even by Irish standards. It is. In China, injuries from road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged between 15 and 45. Every day, about 600 people are killed and 45,000 injured on the roads. But if you travel in buses and taxis for a while, these figures come to seem remarkably low.
I can hardly believe that I've seen only one bad crash in the last two months. (Though having my eyes closed most of the time may have had something to do with it.) The other amazing thing is the relative absence of road rage. In most other societies, driving would come to a halt because the roads would be filled with the bodies of drivers who had shot each other, or with the burnt-out wrecks of vehicles whose owners had spontaneously combusted. But I've only seen one episode of serious cursing, when a parked car suddenly and without any signal pulled out right in front of a taxi I was in, missing it by a centimetre. The taxi driver turned the air blue and the guilty party gave a sheepish smile and an apologetic wave, as if he had accidentally brushed up against an old lady's elbow.
When only the most egregious offences raise any objections, it seems clear that all the other offences are regarded as normality.
This all means that there's no point in asking Chinese people to explain the awful driving, since they don't regard it as awful at all. On long drives, when I've got tired of taking the holy name in vain, I try to calm myself by thinking up explanations. The most obvious is that mass driving is a new thing here and that China has gone from the ubiquitous bicycle to 130 million motor vehicles in the blink of an eye. But such an explanation would equally apply if Chinese drivers were slow and cautious.
I do think bicycles have something to do with it, though. Most drivers learned their road sense in the bicycle era, when weaving around obstacles made sense and the risks from a crash were small. Another, related, reason may be that the car is still a symbol of personal freedom, an escape from a communal rule-bound world into a private space where you can follow your own instincts. Or maybe it's just the peculiarly Chinese combination of fatalism ("If I'm going to die, there's nothing I can do about it") and optimism ("Sure haven't I survived worse?") that comes from a hard history.
This article tells it like it is. I especially liked his point about the seatbelts. I was in the front seat of a taxi once, reaching over to put on my seatbelt when the driver reached across and told me there was no need.
Motoring Madness Puts Spoke in China's Wheel
Letter from Beijing: For the benefit of intending travellers, here are some Chinese rules of the road:
1. Driving is like making cloth or baskets - the skill is in the weaving. If there is more room on the far side of a three-lane highway, your duty is to get into it as fast as possible. Lanes are for bowling alleys.
2. Sound waves are a powerful form of energy. If you blow your horn loudly and continuously, obstacles in your way will disappear, clearing the road ahead.
3. Seatbelts restrict the flow of blood to the brain and may be dangerous. Drivers may buckle up if they are approaching a police checkpoint, but the belt should be removed as soon as the checkpoint is passed. Passengers should on no account wear seatbelts, as attempts to find the buckles which have been carefully stored under the seat covers may distract the driver from an important mobile phone conversation.
4. When approaching a junction with a major road, enter the flow of traffic immediately and decisively. The drivers on the main road will be well aware of your presence, even at night, and stopping to wait for a gap may be interpreted as an insult to their sixth sense.
5. Remember that Kung Fu movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are entirely realistic. Chinese people can sense at all times what is happening behind them, even without looking. They also have lightening-fast reflexes, so any momentary danger will inevitably be averted.
6. Overtaking is a spiritual quest, a homage to the gods of time, who do not like to see their precious gift wasted. The less time wasted and the more dangerous the manoeuvre (for example, overtaking on a hairpin bend on a mountain road with a ravine 5,000ft below) the greater the devotion demonstrated. You will get your reward in the next life, a destination which you may also reach sooner than everyone else.
7. Even the narrowest road has two sides - it is wasteful not to use both.
8. If you find yourself facing a head-on collision with another vehicle, it is vital to assume that the other driver will blink first and take the necessary evasive action. If everyone abides by this principle, then there can be no confusion. All drivers will understand their proper responses in this situation and there can be no danger of an accident.
I offer these rules as a cut-out-and-keep guide for anyone intending to travel to China, because, oddly, they are not published by the road safety authorities and can be learned only by observation. This might suggest that they are not rules at all, but they are universally observed in every part of China I've been to so far, and are presumably so well understood that they do not need to be made explicit.
So deeply entrenched are these rules, indeed, that they turn on their heads western perceptions of what is and is not good driving. In the West, for example, someone who swings out into the middle of the road while approaching a blind blend is a maniac who has no right to be on the road. In China, such a person is genuinely a good driver. If you assume that when you turn the corner, there may be cars bearing down on you (because they are overtaking on the other side of the bend), then it makes perfect sense to stay in the middle so that you have room, if necessary, to swerve to either side.
This kind of skill may explain one of two astonishing aspects of Chinese driving: the relatively low rate of accidents. It is not that the carnage on the roads in China is not appalling, even by Irish standards. It is. In China, injuries from road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for people aged between 15 and 45. Every day, about 600 people are killed and 45,000 injured on the roads. But if you travel in buses and taxis for a while, these figures come to seem remarkably low.
I can hardly believe that I've seen only one bad crash in the last two months. (Though having my eyes closed most of the time may have had something to do with it.) The other amazing thing is the relative absence of road rage. In most other societies, driving would come to a halt because the roads would be filled with the bodies of drivers who had shot each other, or with the burnt-out wrecks of vehicles whose owners had spontaneously combusted. But I've only seen one episode of serious cursing, when a parked car suddenly and without any signal pulled out right in front of a taxi I was in, missing it by a centimetre. The taxi driver turned the air blue and the guilty party gave a sheepish smile and an apologetic wave, as if he had accidentally brushed up against an old lady's elbow.
When only the most egregious offences raise any objections, it seems clear that all the other offences are regarded as normality.
This all means that there's no point in asking Chinese people to explain the awful driving, since they don't regard it as awful at all. On long drives, when I've got tired of taking the holy name in vain, I try to calm myself by thinking up explanations. The most obvious is that mass driving is a new thing here and that China has gone from the ubiquitous bicycle to 130 million motor vehicles in the blink of an eye. But such an explanation would equally apply if Chinese drivers were slow and cautious.
I do think bicycles have something to do with it, though. Most drivers learned their road sense in the bicycle era, when weaving around obstacles made sense and the risks from a crash were small. Another, related, reason may be that the car is still a symbol of personal freedom, an escape from a communal rule-bound world into a private space where you can follow your own instincts. Or maybe it's just the peculiarly Chinese combination of fatalism ("If I'm going to die, there's nothing I can do about it") and optimism ("Sure haven't I survived worse?") that comes from a hard history.
This article tells it like it is. I especially liked his point about the seatbelts. I was in the front seat of a taxi once, reaching over to put on my seatbelt when the driver reached across and told me there was no need.
2006年12月6日星期三
Another Day in Trustmart--
So you go to your favorite store again, the one that still won't give you the discount card everyone else has. You're a regular customer, and the treatment you receive at the cashier has you doubting whether or not you'll come back. Each time you ask for the discount card, the cashier either borrows one from another customer for you, or tells you that you really don't need one.
Today's visit is going fairly well, the store isn't as full as it usually is, and the megaphones are blissfully quiet. After gathering your things, you make your way over to find a checkout line. Picking the shortest one, you lay your basket on the counter and wait for the inevitable question regarding the discount card. Do you have one? Nope. Just as you are about to ask where to get one, a petite woman appears and offers to help. She speaks English, and upon finding out you don't have the card, proceeds to poll everyone in line for one. You thank her for finding a willing customer, and then explain to her that you would like to obtain the card for yourself. Your new friend soon understands the problem, and agrees to take you to get the card. This is turning out to be a good day after all.
You pay for your goods and follow your new friend out the door and around the corner to a teller window built into the side of the building. In true Chinese fashion, you cut to the front of the crowd and watch as your friend issues a list of demands to the woman behind the glass window. The woman looks you over, and reluctantly agrees to give you an application form.
You and your new friend step aside and start filling out the form. Name? Check. Gender? Check. 身份证? Nope.
"What? You don't have a 身份证, the national ID card?" Your friend asks.
"Well, I'm not Chinese. Will my student ID work?"
"No."
"Oh. Well all I have is two student ID cards and a driver's license from the States. Won't anything else do?" Your friend turns back to the window and argues with the woman for several more minutes. Finally she announces that your passport will work as a suitable form of identification. Do you have it with you? You answer honestly that no, you don't have it with you. Your friend's look of disappointment at that response is almost more than you can bear. You look at her again, and make an offer hoping it'll work.
"I don't have my passport with me, but I know the number..." A few more tense negotiations later, the woman agrees to let you write down your passport number. Seizing the opportunity, you snatch the application from your friend's hands and proceed to start the acting bit of this little show.
"Hmm, what is my passport number again? Oh yeah... DVELL14766598-023. I think that's it. Yeah, that's it." In reality, you have no idea what this number is. You pass the application back as your friend orders you to get your student ID out again. The ID card is in a flip case that fits neatly inside your wallet. As you pull it out, it flips open to reveal the first page and these words: "Passport number" followed by your non-fraudulent passport number. You start to worry that perhaps this little charade won't be so successful after all. Will this woman compare the actual passport number to the one you put down on the application form? Does it really matter?
The woman takes the closed ID card and sets it on the desk beside her. "Could you repeat that number?" She asks you, "I can't read it."
"Uh... Er... Um..., it's DEV787-- Can you hand that to me? I'll just write it down for you." She passes the application form back to you and you finish scrawling in the numbers.
"And your phone number?" This time you give her a real number, but as you watch, she writes it down wrong. Oh well, one fake number for another. After ten minutes of inputting your falsified information, you hold in your hand a brand new discount card, and it feels like gold.
Today's visit is going fairly well, the store isn't as full as it usually is, and the megaphones are blissfully quiet. After gathering your things, you make your way over to find a checkout line. Picking the shortest one, you lay your basket on the counter and wait for the inevitable question regarding the discount card. Do you have one? Nope. Just as you are about to ask where to get one, a petite woman appears and offers to help. She speaks English, and upon finding out you don't have the card, proceeds to poll everyone in line for one. You thank her for finding a willing customer, and then explain to her that you would like to obtain the card for yourself. Your new friend soon understands the problem, and agrees to take you to get the card. This is turning out to be a good day after all.
You pay for your goods and follow your new friend out the door and around the corner to a teller window built into the side of the building. In true Chinese fashion, you cut to the front of the crowd and watch as your friend issues a list of demands to the woman behind the glass window. The woman looks you over, and reluctantly agrees to give you an application form.
You and your new friend step aside and start filling out the form. Name? Check. Gender? Check. 身份证? Nope.
"What? You don't have a 身份证, the national ID card?" Your friend asks.
"Well, I'm not Chinese. Will my student ID work?"
"No."
"Oh. Well all I have is two student ID cards and a driver's license from the States. Won't anything else do?" Your friend turns back to the window and argues with the woman for several more minutes. Finally she announces that your passport will work as a suitable form of identification. Do you have it with you? You answer honestly that no, you don't have it with you. Your friend's look of disappointment at that response is almost more than you can bear. You look at her again, and make an offer hoping it'll work.
"I don't have my passport with me, but I know the number..." A few more tense negotiations later, the woman agrees to let you write down your passport number. Seizing the opportunity, you snatch the application from your friend's hands and proceed to start the acting bit of this little show.
"Hmm, what is my passport number again? Oh yeah... DVELL14766598-023. I think that's it. Yeah, that's it." In reality, you have no idea what this number is. You pass the application back as your friend orders you to get your student ID out again. The ID card is in a flip case that fits neatly inside your wallet. As you pull it out, it flips open to reveal the first page and these words: "Passport number" followed by your non-fraudulent passport number. You start to worry that perhaps this little charade won't be so successful after all. Will this woman compare the actual passport number to the one you put down on the application form? Does it really matter?
The woman takes the closed ID card and sets it on the desk beside her. "Could you repeat that number?" She asks you, "I can't read it."
"Uh... Er... Um..., it's DEV787-- Can you hand that to me? I'll just write it down for you." She passes the application form back to you and you finish scrawling in the numbers.
"And your phone number?" This time you give her a real number, but as you watch, she writes it down wrong. Oh well, one fake number for another. After ten minutes of inputting your falsified information, you hold in your hand a brand new discount card, and it feels like gold.
2006年12月3日星期日
2006年12月2日星期六
Personal Space
In a country with a population of over a billion people, crowding and invasion of personal space are just facts of life. There are people everywhere, every time of the day.
Most of us Americans are not what is described as "touchy-feely" types. We don't hug often, only shake hands when necessary, and never, I mean NEVER hold hands. I've found many Chinese people are completely comfortable with the holding of hands. People I don't know often grab my hand as a sign of friendship. Others I barely know reach out and hug me as a greeting. I'm not offended by it and I'm not bothered by it; it's just a cultural difference. Most of the time when I encounter a "touchy-feely" moment, I'm just startled. Take for example my sign language class. I often sit in the back of the class and chat with a group of deaf and hard of hearing people. In this situation it's very common for someone to lean across me and place a hand on my thigh. They'll even leave it there after returning to their seats. I can live with this. I'm not offended by this.
Next week the sign language class will be taking their final test, and then the Saturday afternoon class will be finished. As with nearly everything else in China, this requires a photo or twenty. I was pulled from one side embrace to another, trying to keep up my smile. I was finally put into a pose with the teacher. We stood next to each other, arms down at our sides. Suddenly I felt her swat my back side. I could deal with this. I'm not offended by this.
I smiled at the teacher and turned to go back to my seat when I was grabbed by the arm.
"Just one more, please." A Chinese student stood in front of us poised with camera in hand. Reluctantly we all assembled into a line again. This time I stood next to one of my fellow classmates.
"1...2..."
SWAT!!!
There it was again! Some unknown person had just swatted my backside! I just continued smiling. I could deal with this. I'm not offended by this.
"...3" The picture was taken and we all hurried back to our seats.
The holding hands thing I can live with. The hugs I can tolerate. The hand on thigh isn't a problem. I just don't think I can get used to the swatting...
Most of us Americans are not what is described as "touchy-feely" types. We don't hug often, only shake hands when necessary, and never, I mean NEVER hold hands. I've found many Chinese people are completely comfortable with the holding of hands. People I don't know often grab my hand as a sign of friendship. Others I barely know reach out and hug me as a greeting. I'm not offended by it and I'm not bothered by it; it's just a cultural difference. Most of the time when I encounter a "touchy-feely" moment, I'm just startled. Take for example my sign language class. I often sit in the back of the class and chat with a group of deaf and hard of hearing people. In this situation it's very common for someone to lean across me and place a hand on my thigh. They'll even leave it there after returning to their seats. I can live with this. I'm not offended by this.
Next week the sign language class will be taking their final test, and then the Saturday afternoon class will be finished. As with nearly everything else in China, this requires a photo or twenty. I was pulled from one side embrace to another, trying to keep up my smile. I was finally put into a pose with the teacher. We stood next to each other, arms down at our sides. Suddenly I felt her swat my back side. I could deal with this. I'm not offended by this.
I smiled at the teacher and turned to go back to my seat when I was grabbed by the arm.
"Just one more, please." A Chinese student stood in front of us poised with camera in hand. Reluctantly we all assembled into a line again. This time I stood next to one of my fellow classmates.
"1...2..."
SWAT!!!
There it was again! Some unknown person had just swatted my backside! I just continued smiling. I could deal with this. I'm not offended by this.
"...3" The picture was taken and we all hurried back to our seats.
The holding hands thing I can live with. The hugs I can tolerate. The hand on thigh isn't a problem. I just don't think I can get used to the swatting...
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