I want to focus this blog on the "characters" in my regular everyday life here. I use the term "character" loosely because I'm using it as a term for, people, animals, and the city of Kaili.
Kaili itself is a small city, however there are a lot of people in it. It's pretty small by Chinese standards, but there are times when it feels very crowded to me. I had expected something smaller, probably because it had been described to me as a small town. I've spent a lot of time in small towns. I know what small towns are. This is no small town. Kaili is a small city. There are plenty of buildings, markets, shops, stores, restaraunts, and conveniences, nearby. This is not a cowtown, but a short walk south, west, or north, makes you forget that there is any sizeable town in the area. Out there it all becomes mountainous farmland and small houses with rice paddies behind them. Some of the best moments I've had in this city are the ones where I'm simply walking and looking at the world around me. Overall, I'm happy with my placement here. A larger city would've probably driven me crazy by now. There is almost nothing western in Kaili. I've found some Dove chocolate and there's a buffet restaraunt that serves what the menu refers to as pizza. The menu calls it "pizza" but I don't. I'm still getting use to life here but it has enough good parts to make life pretty good.
Now the people. I'll start at the bottom:
The bottom is named Henry. Many Chinese people introduce themselves to me by English names. Sometimes that can be a problem when I don't know a person's "real" name, so I try to encourage people to tell me their Chinese names. Mr. Tang introduced himself as Henry and, for some reason, will not tell me his Chinese name. Henry is not a bad man. He's a relatively nice person, but if you've ever worked with a cowrorker who is completely incompetent and a terrible communicator then you've worked with a Henry. Most of the major problems and inconveniences that have befallen me since coming to Kaili can be traced back to Henry. I'm not blaming him for every problem, that wouldn't be fair. But, I can blame him for a lot. There have been too many times where he would simply refuse to answer my questions, not give me necessary information, or not give me the information until 2 seconds before I need it. I do not think the problem is the language barrier. I think it's Henry's poor work ethics. If he didn't have a wife and kids, I might complain to the boss. So would Dave (I'll mention him soon). Henry causes a lot of problems but I still don't "hate" the guy. I don't want him to be fired. I just can't stand being around him. Yeah, I know. Sometimes I can be a real jerk.
King. I wrote about him in my previous blog. He was the guy I met during the debacle that I think of as "The Great Pig Dick Incident of 2010." I refer to him as my "friend." Quotation marks are necessary. I don't do this because of what I ate. I simply don't consider him a real friend because I barely know him. I met him once and we kind of got along but he kept putting his arm around me, I told him to stop doing that, then he proceeded to get drunk and do it again. I played the role of the friendly foreigner who just went along with everything. Drink baiju? Sure. It tastes like ass but ok. More chicken. Sure. Don't mind the fact that I just told you that I'm full and I know you understood me. I know. I can be a real jerk sometimes, but I just don't want to be friends with people who annoy me. I better move on to people I actually like.
Long Tso. This is my friend from Zenhyuan. I spent 2 days in his hometown. He's good guy and loves to talk. It doesn't matter whether he's speaking English, Mandarin, or Miao. He never shuts up. It's mildly annoying but it's also a topic of funny conversations between myself and Long Tso's other friends. He's going to go study in England soon, which is a bummer for me. My friend is leaving, but he loves it over there and I hope he has a good time.
Ms. Fu. This is my boss. She always has a rather bassett houndish look on her face. Droopy and sad. I consider myself lucky to have her as a boss, because although there have been a few miscommunications between us and despite the fact that the language barrier rears its ugly head in many of our conversations, I find that she makes efforts to communicate well with me (unlike like some people who's names I won't mention. Cough *Henry*). Ms. Fu really seems to happy with my work and I'm very glad to see that, not just because it means I can keep my job but just because she's a nice lady.
Dave and Lucia. They are my two fellow expatriot teachers here in Kaili. Many times, it seems like we're the only foreigners in this entire city. Dave and Lucia are a married couple. He's Irish and she's Uruguayan. People always assume that we're all best buddies, but the fact is that we haven't really spent a lot of time together. But, we have hung out a few times and I get along with them very well. Dave and I currently on a mission to find dark beer in China and neither one of us has succeeded yet. I plan to spend more time with them in the future. It's nice to talk to people who are experiencing the same kinds of things that I am.
Liana. I don't know her Chinese name yet. Liana works in the school office but she doesn't work for the school. All I know is that she works for an organization that places her at the school, where she works to secure visas for Chinese students who go to study overseas. Part of her job is helping out the foreign teachers at the school with, whatever. That means she has been a major help to me, Dave, and Lucia. I consider Liana a good friend of mine. She's a nice lady and we've had coffee together a few times. Unfortunately, her job is such that she could potentially be shipped off to another school at a moment's notice. I'm trying not to think about the possiblity that I might have to say goodbye to another friend.
Wudan. I mentioned Wudan in my second blog. She was my first real Chinese friend. During my first two weeks here in Kail, Wudan was my helper, my Chinese teacher, and my friend. Her presence was absolutely invaluable to me. After two weeks, I learned that her boss had given her some of ridiculous ultimatum that she just couldn't accept. She had therefore quit her job. This meant that she had to leave her company apartment in Kaili and return home to Changshan. This sucked for me. Two weeks in Kaili and suddennly my best friend was leaving town. I keep in touch with Wudan and I hope to go see her someday. Liana is her replacement.
Tan Yen. Tan Yen is in my photos. There is a reason why I'm writing about her last. She's quite possibly my best friend here and we're kind of in the same situation. We both had to say goodbye our friend Wudan and we're both worried that our friends Long Tso and Liana might be leaving soon as well. Tan Yen and I stick together. She helps me with Chinese and I help her with English. She's the kind of person I want to hug every time I see her. This is not a romantic thing, she's just freakin' adorable that's all.
I'm done with people:
The dog. There's a dog that loves to follow me whenever I go to my apartment. It lives in my building, somewhere near Dave and Lucia. I'm glad the dog has a home but it's filthy and I admit that I'm afraid to pet it. But the dog is friendly I always get a kick out of it following me. The thing that bothers me the most about life here in Kaili is the number of homeless animals I see here. This dog seems to be doing relatively ok. I hope it stays that way.
Steve. Steve is a gecko that occassionally shares my apartment with me. I haven't seen him for a while but he used to show up a lot during the summer.The first time I saw him I kind of freaked out a little, but only a little. After all, he wasn't some kind of horror movie spider or brightly colored multi-fanged snake. He's just a gecko hanging out on the wall. I soon learned a little lesson in Chinese Apartment Ecology 101: The presence of a small gecko population can nearly eliminate the presence of any mosquito population in the immediate area. Steve and his brethren are welcome here any time.
So that's my "character" list for now. I'm going to go wander for a while.
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