Nanchang & Stuff

I recently had 9 days off, so naturally I wasted two of those days doing absolutely nothing, then I went to see my friend in Nanchang. I saw my friend Amanda at her teaching post, Jiangxi Normal University. If there's an "Abnormal" university then I have no idea where it is. Anyways, I spent about three days there and it was pretty cool.
It was a big university, well outside of the main city. I often commented to people there that the entire downtown area of Kaili could fit into the university campus and that was not an exaggeration. This school was kind of like a town all its own. There were many other foreign teachers over there and it was great to have some other, not-so-Chinese, folks to hang out with. But my favorite thing about my trip was simply having the chance to hang out with the college kids. My middle school students are great, but there was a fun dynamic with the Jiangxi University kids that just isn't present with the younger kids. And plus, you can't drink with middle school kids. Speaking of drinking, hehehe, yeah. It happenned. Somebody managed to find Johnnie Walker in China and we downed about 5,000 bottles of it in a Nanchang bar. I met my future wife there. In other words, a very very inebriated college girl surprise-attack kissed me. It was nice, just a bit shocking.  And I can't forget about the next day when we got pizza. That's right, I ate pizza! Very small pizza, but it qualified. The first thing I told Amanda when I arrived in Nanchang was, "You're not in China. You're in Chinatown." I said that because I'd been amazed by all the McDonalds and KFCs and WalMarts, and all the western things I'd seen on my way there. Kaili has none of that stuff. But Nanchang had Pizza Hut. Gotta love the Hut.
Murphy's Law was waiting for me as soon as I had the silly idea of returning to Kaili. I had problems with the bus, problems with the plane, problems with the other bus. If I could kill the Nanchang-Guiyang public transportation system, I would stab it and then twist the knife, but only after I doused the blade with rat poison.

Since my return, things have been pretty smooth here in Kaili. The big issue right now is heat. These apartments are not only completely lacking heat, they actually seem to trap cold within their walls. It's often warmer outside than inside my apartment. It's good to be a New Hampshire boy on cold nights here, because I'm naturally built for the cold, but I did get myself a little room heater to help out. I've mentioned to my boss that I need a "real" heater, because I only expect it to get colder as winter comes in. Let's see how many months it takes my boss get to moving on that. I'll probably have to blatantly "remind" her, but if I do I think I'll actually get the heater. My coworker, Dave (the Irishman), is skinny as a rail and has already gotten very sick from the cold apartments here. I've been ok so far, but I don't plan to take any chances.

I came back from Nanchang with two specific goals in  mind. 1. Make friends with university students. 2. Explore the nearby city of Guiyang and try to find some other foreigners there. Before my trip to Nanchang, I had just discovered the Kaili University. It's a nice school, if a bit small. I went there today and made myself  two new friends within five minutes. Not bad, eh. So, the college friend buddy making plan is in effect right now and I'll put the foreigner finding plan into action as soon as I have an idea about where to look for round-eyes in Guiyang.

Today was kind of a crazy day. I got a call last night from a man named Mr. Yang. Yang is like Smith over. Everybody and their mother is named Yang. In other words, I had no idea who this guy was. He invited me a nearby city and did not tell me why. I said no while I wondered how the hell he got my number. I told him that I was going to the university today. He asked me who I was going with. I said ,"Tan Yen." Then he told me he would call, Tan Yen. Either he didn't understand what I'd said or he was outright ignoring it. Again, I said that I was going to university and told him that was no reason for him to bother Tan Yen. He sounded dissappointed and hung. I wondered what the fuck had just happenned. Later, Tan Yen called me and said that this mysterious Mr. Yang had called her and asked her to cancel her university trip with me. She asked me if I wanted to go with Mr. Yang instead, but I told her that I didn't even know the guy. Mr. Yang called me again this morning, right after I woke up. He asked to change my plans today. I said ,"No" as solidly as I could without putting any vehemence in it. I eventually found out that the mysterious Mr. Yang was one of the English teachers here at the school and that I'd given him my number at a teacher's dinner last month. The word "friend" gets tossed around a lot over here. I met this man once for a short period of time, was stupid enough to give him my phone number and now he thinks that we're such great "friends" that I couldn't possibly want to do anything other than go to some random town with him. Sometimes I get extremely fed up with people trying to make my weekend schedule for me without even considering the possibility that I might NOT want to do what they have in mind.

Around 5 today, I got a call from a person I actually did know. Ms. Cheng. Most of the time, she's just kind of a funny little chatterbox, but this phone call was just crazy: "Robert, are you home? We go to dinner now."
Me: "I'm not hungry. I just ate."
Cheng: "Ok. We go. I meet you at the school gate."
Me: "No, Miss Cheng, I'm not hungry. I already ate dinner."
Cheng: "Yes. Now. Now. Now."
Me: "Ms. Cheng." (starting to boil)
Cheng: "Oh. You ate...." (it finally dawns on her.)

This is another example of the way in which people around here sometimes try to shove their events in my face without even considering the possibility of my saying  no. They simply don't offer a choice, so I interject my own. There's a big difference between being flexible and open to culture and letting people boss you around and walk all over you. Guess what Ms. Cheng, if the American doesn't want to go to dinner with you and your friends ,"Now. Now. Now." he's not going to fucking go! Crazy!

Ms. Fu said that she's going to take me to a mountain to go climbing tomorrow. I'm somewhat excited, but my expectations are not high. The last "mountain" that my friends took me to "climb" around here had stairs all the way up and down. I expect to see a great view on the summit tomorrow but I also expect to be somehow unsatisfied by the climb. I've been spoiled by the Appalachians. We're leaving early tomorrow, which may be a good sign or may be no sign at all, so I'm going to bed. Good night.