SCHOOL: This week we had the first two days off for Christmas Eve and Christmas. The interesting thing about this is that the rest of the school was in session while we were off. Since they don't celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday they don't take the time off, but they do respect the foriegn teachers' beliefs and give them the day off. On Christmas Eve we went to Guangzhou and had dinner with our friends, John, Katie, Erin and Nate. They took us to a restaurant that they really enjoy called Element Fresh. You can probably deduce from the name that we didn't have Chinese food. The food was very good and very western. Steaks and pasta were the main dish for us. We then made our way back to Katy and John's apartment to do a White Elephant gift exchange. We had a great time and made out like bandits. Especially Taylor who ended up with a very annoying AK55 toy machine gun that makes all kinds of racket. Paul and I keep trying to figure out how take the batteries out it, but Taylor keeps hiding the thing.
. Obviously it wasn't the typical Christmas that we are accustomed to having, but Santa did make his way to our home and did appreciate the plastic and LED lit Christmas tree. He also enjoyed the mint tea and the cookies. The girls both ended up with remote controlled toys that either fly or climb on the wall. It was very nice and small. We all exchanged some small gifts, but overall it was a very pleasant morning. Cecelia, the Girls and I then went to the bicycle park that I mentioned in an earlier blog and rode bikes. Paul spent much of the day using Skype to talk with his family. After bike riding we had a nice meal that we cooked at home. This Christmas was very low key, I can honestly say that I really enjoyed it.
After we returned from the short holiday, we jumped right back into the craziness that comes with working over here. The day we returned, Cecelia's department had planned a party at a place called KTV. Cecelia was a little hesitant to go because it was our Monday, but I encouraged her to go and I even sacrificed myself to go with her.
One of the things.that I need to mention at this point is that we feel that it is important to participate whenever we are invited. Many of the foreign teachers don't do anything except look for western food and live in their own little western world. Obviously from this blog, you can tell that we have decided to embrace China as much as possible.
So what is KTV? Well it is a huge building dedicated to doing Karaoke in private party rooms. The room that we were in had an upstairs and downstairs room. Each room had strobe lights, a revolving ball with multi-colored lights and lounging couches for you to sit on while you waited for your turn to be embarrassed. Oh, I meant while you were waiting to perform. The KTV system is really cool. There is a computer console where you pick the song and then it projects the music video and song onto a 60 inch television. Even amateurs like Cecelia and I didn't find the place intimidating. You also get dinner along with the Karaoke. So you get to fill up your body with Chinese food and then drink beer before you give your big performance. One thing that I have to mention is that even though I consider myself a renaissance man, singing is not one of the talents I possess. With that being said, Cecelia and I jumped off the Karaoke cliff together with a rounding rendition of "I Want to Hold your Hand" by the Beatles. We didn't do too bad, so we each tried solo songs. Let's just say that they didn't go as well. Just like our marriage we are just better together.
After our attempts at music stardom, we joined together with the rest of the staff and watched the professionals. Cecelia's colleagues put on a performance that included skits, music solos and duets. Some of the staff could easily be professional singers. They also gave away fabulous prizes like toothpaste, clothes detergent and hair conditioner. After the staff performances, they wanted Cecelia and I to sing again. We were the only foreign teachers at the party so we tried to do our part. We learned later that part of the interview process to become a kindergarten teacher at the school, is an audition where you must play the piano, sing, and dance. All this plus teaching. Hmmm!!! I wonder what would happen to kindergarten in the U.S. if we had that interview process?
As the week went along it was pretty typical until we got to Sunday. Oh by the way did I mention that despite having Monday and Tuesday off that we worked five days straight and ended our week on Sunday. Can't say that I recall ever teaching on a Sunday. Anyway, Taylor's grade decided that it wanted to do something special to start off the New Year Holiday. Did I mention that we have a week off this week. It seems that I forget to mention a lot of things. I must really be turning Chinese. Isn't there a song by Wang Chung called "I'm Turning Chinese, I'm Turning Chinese, I Really Think So!!!"? Or maybe it is I'm Turn Japanese, oh I don't remember it was so long ago. Remember, I did turn 50 recently. Anyway, I digress. Back to the story of Taylor's fun activity story. This next section is being told by Cecelia.
Claire, Taylor, and I kicked off our holiday by going on the strangest field trip/class party excursion I could every imagine. It was Taylor's 5th grade trip but Claire was allowed to go too. Let me describe it to you. First, we all gathered at the front gate to pile into cars. Yes, it was an old fashioned, parent driven field trip. But wait, was it? Seven of us piled into a car designed for 5 people. None of us had seat belts on in the back seat (there were four of us). A young boy, about 4 years old sat in his dad's lap in the front seat with his chest just about plastered to the dash board. I asked if it was okay to have him up there and was told it was okay because we were going to be driving slow. We drove within the gated community, only about 10-15 minutes and arrived at the little amusement park that our family had visited before. The whole group was going to play laser tag. We suited up. The strange feeling was that it was very military feeling. We were instructed by the school guard(dressed in camo) and loaded up with our gear. I had a gun that shot 18 rounds and then you had to pull a lever to reload. It was not a futuristic looking gun, but more real. This wasn't like laser tag at home. We were literally running around an amusement park, hiding in bushes, and climbing over things. It ended up being the boys against the girls, the parents, and the teachers (we won all 3 times by the way). At the end, we were told there was a bar-b-que. In the park, there are fire pits that look like tree stumps. Some of the parents had spent 2 days getting food ready. There was every kind of meat and fish that you could imagine, marinated and set up on skewers. I was informed that the chickens weren even raised by one of the parents in their backyard. There was fruit, noodles, bread, soup, crackers, chips, jello cups, drinks, and to the girls delight, marshmallows. There is nothing like having a school field trip where you give 10 year olds sharp objects and turn them loose to play with fire. Yes, everyone sits around a number of fire pits and roasts their own meat. It gets better. The parents are smoking and drinking 24 ounce beers. I know, many of you are wishing that our class parties could be like this at home. But wait, there's more. Towards the end, some of the kids were drinking beer too (mostly the boys). A group of them gathered around and were dancing Gangnam style (they love that here). Paul didn't believe me. One of the fathers came up and offered Claire a cup of beer too. She couldn't believe it. I had to tell her that unlike at home, there is no legal drinking age here. It isn't against the law. During all of this, children were chasing each other around, many times with sharp skewers and jumping over rocks. It was quite crazy, but a lot of fun too.
Now that sounds like the kind of field trips that we need in the states.
Enough about school.
ADVENTURES: This week we didn't really have any adventures like seeing ancient ruins or learning more history, but I did get to experience a business celebration. My friend from the golf course David invited me on Friday to go to a golf event put on by the company of his classmate from college. It was the 15th anniversary of a company called WXD. WXD is a company that most of you know, but probably not by that name. Their most famous product that they make are those snazzy plastic covers for the iPhone. What is the newest iPhone, the iPhone 25? Anyway, not only do they make those, but they make luggage, bags and other plastic products. They are also real estate developers here in Guangzhou. David was telling me that this company is the only company in Guangzhou that has continued to keep its profit margin during the world recession. So, needless to say they make a ton of money.
To begin the celebration they started the day with a golf outing. I was disappointed that I was not asked to be involved, but ...... Hey wait a minute, I was just kidding. Of course I was involved. David asked me to be his playing partner at Foison golf club in Guangzhou. This golf course was designed by the Dye brothers from America. To this date, I will say that it was one of the most beautiful and most difficult golf courses I have ever played. The clubhouse is by far the most beautiful that I have ever seen.
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| Entrance to Clubhouse |
We then went down to the first tee for an honorary drive by the owners of the company. The four of them hit balls. When they hit the balls blue and red smoke came out of them. It was really cool. I had never seen that before. This activity was then followed by a group picture. There were 150 participants at the tournament. I was then introduced to the president of the company. He was a very gracious and generous man. He was originally going to be playing with us, but unfortunately could not play, because he had to get ready for the party later on in the evening.
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| View from Clubhouse |
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| Clubhouse from 6th Green through pear blossoms |
Rather than tell you all the details about the show, I have included a video that shows some of the acts that were there. In between the acts the announcers would have a group of employees come up on stage to be recognized. The first three groups of people recognized were long time employees and management. There were about 30 in all. Each of these people was given a 30,000 rmb bonus, that is roughly $5000 in US dollars. The next group of people were 20 factory workers. Each of them was given a 30,000 rmb bonus towards buying a home. This was followed by a group of management workers. There were about 20 of them as well. Each of them was given, 10 kilos of silver in the shape of a minted Chinese coin. Convert the kilos to ounces and find out what the going rate of silver is and you will have that dollar amount. Finally, 50 factory workers were called on stage. Each of these factory workers was given a little red box. Inside the box was five ounces of gold. As if this wasn't enough, between the employees getting awards and the stage performances the hosts would come out and tell us that there were random numbers being flashed on the big screen. If your ticket matched one of these numbers at various times you would win a prize. The first 120 prizes were brand new laptops. The second group of prizes for 30 people was 20,000 rmb toward a new house and finally 500 people received free massages. I didn't win anything, but I wasn't disappointed. Watching how generous this man is was humbling. Also, the fact that he is community and environmentally minded, blew away the idea of sweatshops and bad working conditions. This company definitely does not fit the stereotype from what we hear about in the U.S. Now, I am not saying there are not places like that here. All I am saying is that despite what we hear from a not trust worthy news source, there are some business men that are trying to make some changes for the better.
The owner of this company definitely did not forget where he came from. He started this company when he was 22 years old. They showed pictures of him standing in his little booth, just trying to make ends meet and then showed his progression to where he is today. You do the math. If he started when he was 22 and this is there 15th anniversary you know how young this guy is, and yet I would say that he has the mind of someone much older. It was amazing to see this owner's generosity and also his appreciation of his heritage. You could tell that his workers loved him. This is the kind of guy that I would work for in a heartbeat.
Finally, I wanted to share with you a food adventure that I had this week. The next day I went to watch my friend David play in a golf tournament at our local golf course. He has been working hard to improve and I wanted to give him some positive feedback after his round. Unfortunately the weather turned out to be horrible and I caught him on the last few holes. He finished and invited me to the club dinner. He wanted me to meet the club secretary and president. They are considering me for membership at the golf club. That is another story unto itself. Anyway, we sat down to dinner and as usual they brought the dishes out to be shared. There was the typical Chinese food, bok choy, chicken parts with the head still on, boiled fish and beef with peppers. After that first round I was told the really good food was coming. So the next course included crab, which isn't too bad except the crabs are really small. The way you are supposed to eat it is to put the entire crab part in your mouth, shell and all. Then you break the shell with your teeth and suck out the crab. I cannot figure out how to do this. The Chinese must know how to tie bow ties with Cherry stems. The next dish was brown and had parts that looked like quail. There were little thighs and breasts. Turns out the dish was sea snake and pigeon. I was going to pass on this delicacy until one of the guys said to me, "Come on James don't you like snake." This was spoken as kind of a challenge, so I met it by trying a bit of both. Thank God the Chinese eat small portions. I did great with the pigeon, but when it came to the snake I had to do my best to suppress a gag reflex. It wasn't that the food tasted bad. I can honestly say that the pigeon was very good and the snake tasted like the dark meat of a chicken. But just the thought that I was eating snake made me a little queasy.
Well Happy New Year and Welcome to 2013. It is nice to be able to say that you really are out of the loop, you're still a day behind.
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