Sorry! But really, it's a good thing. It means I'm busy and not bored. Not a whole lot is new either. We have been trying to sort out the work thing because it has turned out a little more complicated than planned. Miscommunication seems to be a big issue with the people I'm working with. In my opinion, it's probably because they are academic types that have difficulty wrapping their heads around logistics, but I may already be biased about that. As soon as some kind of plan is devised for me I will be fine. I just can't understand why anyone would think it was a good idea to seek out an intern if they couldn't even outline a mandate or overall goal for them. I double checked the definition of intern just to make sure I wasn't confused about this. According to the internet, an intern is definitely supposed to have some kind of work assigned to them. So I'm not crazy. As some of you are probably aware, it wouldn't kill me to spend a year here just kind of doing what I'm doing now (not much) and learning Chinese and hanging around and traveling. But that doesn't look very good on a resume, nor will it look very good on my reports back to Students for Development when they ask what I did with the money they gave me to come here. So it really is kind of an important problem that I need to get sorted out. My people at U of T are being awesome at trying to sort this out and I feel pretty confident that something will end up working out.
In other news, Chinese lessons are getting intense. Lots of work. But it means I'm learning it faster. She is making us learn the writing too. Which means I may be able to order food in restaurants soon. Which would be nice. I accidentally ate a HUGE chunk of garlic the other day, spit most of it out, and spent the rest of today and the day after feeling terrible. I maybe know how to pronounce the word now (although my pronunciation tends to be so terrible that nobody understands me) for garlic, so I should be able to avoid it in the future. Also, in a taxi yesterday I actually conversed with a taxi driver for about 5 sentences. I was incredibly excited.
I have friends (only a few)! Yay! Locals. I don't trust the expats here. They all have questionable motives for being in Xining. I am sticking with the locals for now. They take me out and order me drinks and get me on the right bus to get home. It's good. I think that from a combination of the beer being awful quality and the altitude being so high hangovers are much worse here though. So I can't go out and then get up in time for class like I can in Toronto. I also can't skip class like I can in Toronto. I explained the concept of skipping class to some of my friends and they were like "WHAT!? That's allowed!? We would never do that, just not go to class for no reason at all!" I try to tell them at least one thing that blows their minds every time I see them haha. They want to come back to Canada with me.
I have been kind of looking around for a new apartment, since everything I do is on the other side of town. I will definitely have to move by January, since that's when my roomates leave and I have NO desire to be in this big apartment in practically the middle of nowhere (it's like living in Scarborough) without them. I'm not hustling too much though since I really do enjoy their company. It's so nice to be able to come home and be Canadian all over the place after speaking Chinglish all day and worrying about being respectful and appropriate with everyone. Apartments here are incredibly cheap so I am resisting the temptation to get a REALLY nice one just to myself. For here it's very expensive, but in Canada money it would only be like $185 a month. That's so cheap...BUT, I could also live in a less nice place and pay only $60 a month in rent. Whatchya'll think? Splurge? Save for travel plans?
I maybe am getting closer to having a research topic. The problem here is that EVERYTHING that is interesting is also sensitive. I was thinking that looking into how NGOs function in an environment where they aren't really even allowed to touch public policy would be cool. Locals I have talked to think it would be cool too, but my roomate has warned me that it may be too sensitive of a topic. Here, you don't worry about getting yourself in trouble, but rather getting anyone who is connected to you in trouble. They can't call their embassy and jump on a plane to Canada. So I may have to rework this so it's less political. But it's the best idea I've had so far, so I'm getting somewhere (I hope?)
I realized a few days ago that I miss the diversity of Toronto. First it was "I miss seeing white people." Then I was like "Man, I miss black people!" Shortly after I was like "I miss ALL the people" (except the Chinese...there's lots of them around haha). But yeah. I will never again take for granted the sheer variety of different kinds of people in Toronto. I swear it.
My roomate just opened the window and apparently it is snowing. Toque power time? I think so.
Okay. That is an update just so you're aware that I haven't forgotten about Canada. It's long again!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Dumplings
Dear family and family of friends,
These are dumplings. They are delicious, and widely available in the GTA, and unless they poison me I love them. Just for clarification.
Working on getting some work. Have maybe made friends. Almost done the second season of X-Files. Will divulge more at a later date.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Rebgong Adventure
This one is journal style, written over a couple of days. I'm back in the city now
So, I am going to blog this trip in installments, because it's been that awesome so far, and tomorrow is supposed to just bet better. And I can't access blogspot from my hotel room internet, so this is just the way it's going to have to happen. To start off, my sweater smells like yak. Yak smell has become imprinted on my U of T sweater. How cool is that? Now I will tell you how this came to be.
So, I am going to blog this trip in installments, because it's been that awesome so far, and tomorrow is supposed to just bet better. And I can't access blogspot from my hotel room internet, so this is just the way it's going to have to happen. To start off, my sweater smells like yak. Yak smell has become imprinted on my U of T sweater. How cool is that? Now I will tell you how this came to be.
The first week of October is some big holiday in here, although nobody I know has been able to give me a clear answer as to what it's about or what it's for or anything. Typical. Anyway, we all get 10 days off school, and "work" too. Work is in quotations because what I have done thus far should not be classified as work by almost anybody's standards. Hopefully that will change post-holiday. Anyway, my roomates and I decided to take a little trip to the next town over. There is a big monastery here, which we saw today.
I took a lot a lot of pictures, so ya'll should be satisfied. We unfortunately weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the temples themselves, but that just makes common sense. Even I don't like risking incurring the wrath of gods nobody can prove don't exist. Common sense, right? They were beautiful though. Breathtaking. Tibetans like colour and goooold. And HUGE statues. Come visit, I will bring you here. For sure.
I took a lot a lot of pictures, so ya'll should be satisfied. We unfortunately weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the temples themselves, but that just makes common sense. Even I don't like risking incurring the wrath of gods nobody can prove don't exist. Common sense, right? They were beautiful though. Breathtaking. Tibetans like colour and goooold. And HUGE statues. Come visit, I will bring you here. For sure.
Other reasons this town is better than Xining: everything to see and do here is within walking distance of the hotel.The hotel itself is great! Hot water, internet, TV, western toilets (wait till you see what I peed into at the monastery heh heh) clean, safe rooms...that kind of stuff. People are friendlier, and taking a great interest in us. While we were eating our breakfast dumplings (awesome right?), 5 people just stuck their heads into the restaurant, and then started talking to us about anything. Another reason it's awesome: this is a major trading post for nomads. Nomads are sweet. I'm not even sure if I can explain why...they just look so cool. I really like TIbetan jewellry...big and bright. I am going to come home with lots of that stuff.
Oh yeah. The reason my sweater smells like yak is probably because this whole town smells like yak. Because it's awesome.
Okay, that was the important stuff for now. I will upload this along with the second one after tomorrow, because I'm sure that's going to be saweeet.
THE NEXT DAY...
Breakfast was awesome. No MSG, no grease, no meat...it was glorious. And the best bread I've had in China yet. Most of the time they fry their bread instead of baking it, which leaves it pretty greasy. This bread reminded me of the bread in Italy...a little hard and dry, but insanely wholesome tasting. So yeah, that in itself was awesome. Then we climbed the mountain. It probably took us about an hour to get to the hermitage at the top. So we made it to the top, where there is a hermitage that some famous lama (I can't remember which) used to meditate at for long periods of time.They are renovating it, so there were a bunch of workers, as well as three junior monks looking after the temple thing. Apparenlty they rotate every 10 days so taht the same three aren't stuck up there forever.
THE NEXT DAY...
Breakfast was awesome. No MSG, no grease, no meat...it was glorious. And the best bread I've had in China yet. Most of the time they fry their bread instead of baking it, which leaves it pretty greasy. This bread reminded me of the bread in Italy...a little hard and dry, but insanely wholesome tasting. So yeah, that in itself was awesome. Then we climbed the mountain. It probably took us about an hour to get to the hermitage at the top. So we made it to the top, where there is a hermitage that some famous lama (I can't remember which) used to meditate at for long periods of time.They are renovating it, so there were a bunch of workers, as well as three junior monks looking after the temple thing. Apparenlty they rotate every 10 days so taht the same three aren't stuck up there forever.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Chinese lab rat
So we talked to our bossman about the racism that was present in Avatar, and he was like "if you look for racism you are going to see it". It has also become evident, that the reason he doesn't have a problem with the portrayal of the noble savage is because he really thinks that Tibetans are the noble savages. So, uh, we're gonna let that one slide, because historical evidence suggests otherwise, but you know, I don't have a lot of friends here yet or anything. Social sabotage isn't really a goal at this point, and people don't really like to be told about their culture by people like me. But it's really interesting how people have seemed to adopt this view of Tibetan Buddhism that mostly comes from the west; the view that's full of peace and harmony with nature and each other, that ignores a lot of Tibetan history. Just re-enforces that context is everything, and people will encourage the stories and discourses that seem the most beneficial to them at the time. Wouldn't it be awesome if I could write my thesis on THAT!? (I can't...WAAAAAY too political and risky for research subjects).
In other, less hypothetical news, we went to get our health checks done so we could get our resident permits. We figured they were just going to test our blood for AIDS, syphilis and the heps (A and B). And that did happen, but then we also had to get a chest x-ray (TB...in Canada we do skin tests!), and EKG (I didn't even know what it was until several hours later), blood-pressure, height, weight and colour-blindness. Has anyone ever been kicked out of China for having high blood pressure? Or being colour blind? And an EKG!?! REALLY?? And the EKG test machine really did look like something out of x-files. And we had no warning. My brave roomate went first when they were like "lie on the table", and we were like huh, that's weird. Then the doctor was like "ok, rool up your pants and lift up your shirt" and started attaching clamps and suction cups all over the place. My first thought was "GREAT, now we're lab rats for some kind of insane Chinese experiment being conducted on foreigners. GREAT." But it was (so I'm told) just an EKG. It was all so surreal. This whole damn place is so surreal though, that when stuff like that happens it almost feels normal. But after my roomate and I had recovered from the shock a little bit, we talked out how ridiculously pointless most of those tests were. It was either a scam to take as much money from us as possible or a venue to show off China's impressive collection of medical equipment, or both. Either way, it was confusing and strange, but it's over, and I didn't even test positive for syphilis (inside joke, if you don't get it, don't freak out, I've NEVER had syphilis).
In order to get our residence permits, we also had to go back to tour local police station and ask them to give us back some of the sheets they kept that they weren't supposed to. Nobody at this station speaks english, and we don't speak chinese. So a friend of ours talked to the cops via cellphone explaining our situation. Then the cop looks for our sheet and says "we don't have it". My roomate starts to hyperventilate (small exaggeration), and we're like, no, you have it (I can say that much). So he checks a different room that has a different file for each of us, and finds the papers we need. Relieved, we say thankyou and leave. As we were walking home though, it occurred to us that they have TWO files on us, in two different rooms. Weird right? ANYWAY, we got our residence permits, and after almost a month here I am now officially legally allowed to be here. Yay!
I have become mildly frustrated with work. After feeling out the situation a bit, it would seem that I was never given clear instruction or direction about what exactly I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm having difficulty getting any concrete guidance. This is annoying mostly because my talents are not being utilized effectively. I have recovered from the frustration low point and should be able to work something proactive out if I don't end up getting any concrete guidance from people. I just get irritated by poor communication of goals and such. But from what I've gleaned, this is a pretty common placement issue, so I should be able to find some kind of a solution. My roomate says she has some stuff she could use my help on, which is great. She's basically working on a medical anthropology PHD, so I'm definitely down for that. I'm also taking on a babysitting job...a friend of a friend has a niece that they want an anglophone for. At first I thought they wanted me to TEACH her english and I was like "errrrrrrgh..." but then it was clarified that all I would have to do is hang out with a 7 year old kid for a couple hours every week I was like "OH! SWEET! Sure!" Because I don't have friends and I have a lot in common with 7 year olds (too much in common? Screw you, keep your opinions to yourself!) Anyway, it should be fun, and maybe I'll finally get to go to the museums and the zoo and the park and stuff like that!
Starting today, and for all the rest of the week coming up, it's the chinese national holiday. So we're gonna go see stuff. Which means I should have pictures. There is also a huge lake nearby that people keep telling me I need to go see. My coworker has asked me like 5 times what I'm doing for the holiday, but I can't figure out if that's because he wants to go places with us or if he's just curious, and I don't want to make any social faux pas's by making assumptions. I think I'm going to resolve the confusion by asking if he wants to come with us. That would be awesome for us, because he's a local, and we'd be way less likely to get screwed. Also, this means I should have pictures by the end of next week. YAY!
I think that's the important stuff for now. OOH! Also, I found a place where you can get 10 dumplings for less than a dollar. That was exciting. And I'm having that problem where when I try to think in Chinese I think in Italian instead. Stupid Italy. I keep trying to make these short and keep failing. Sorry.
In other, less hypothetical news, we went to get our health checks done so we could get our resident permits. We figured they were just going to test our blood for AIDS, syphilis and the heps (A and B). And that did happen, but then we also had to get a chest x-ray (TB...in Canada we do skin tests!), and EKG (I didn't even know what it was until several hours later), blood-pressure, height, weight and colour-blindness. Has anyone ever been kicked out of China for having high blood pressure? Or being colour blind? And an EKG!?! REALLY?? And the EKG test machine really did look like something out of x-files. And we had no warning. My brave roomate went first when they were like "lie on the table", and we were like huh, that's weird. Then the doctor was like "ok, rool up your pants and lift up your shirt" and started attaching clamps and suction cups all over the place. My first thought was "GREAT, now we're lab rats for some kind of insane Chinese experiment being conducted on foreigners. GREAT." But it was (so I'm told) just an EKG. It was all so surreal. This whole damn place is so surreal though, that when stuff like that happens it almost feels normal. But after my roomate and I had recovered from the shock a little bit, we talked out how ridiculously pointless most of those tests were. It was either a scam to take as much money from us as possible or a venue to show off China's impressive collection of medical equipment, or both. Either way, it was confusing and strange, but it's over, and I didn't even test positive for syphilis (inside joke, if you don't get it, don't freak out, I've NEVER had syphilis).
In order to get our residence permits, we also had to go back to tour local police station and ask them to give us back some of the sheets they kept that they weren't supposed to. Nobody at this station speaks english, and we don't speak chinese. So a friend of ours talked to the cops via cellphone explaining our situation. Then the cop looks for our sheet and says "we don't have it". My roomate starts to hyperventilate (small exaggeration), and we're like, no, you have it (I can say that much). So he checks a different room that has a different file for each of us, and finds the papers we need. Relieved, we say thankyou and leave. As we were walking home though, it occurred to us that they have TWO files on us, in two different rooms. Weird right? ANYWAY, we got our residence permits, and after almost a month here I am now officially legally allowed to be here. Yay!
I have become mildly frustrated with work. After feeling out the situation a bit, it would seem that I was never given clear instruction or direction about what exactly I'm supposed to be doing, and I'm having difficulty getting any concrete guidance. This is annoying mostly because my talents are not being utilized effectively. I have recovered from the frustration low point and should be able to work something proactive out if I don't end up getting any concrete guidance from people. I just get irritated by poor communication of goals and such. But from what I've gleaned, this is a pretty common placement issue, so I should be able to find some kind of a solution. My roomate says she has some stuff she could use my help on, which is great. She's basically working on a medical anthropology PHD, so I'm definitely down for that. I'm also taking on a babysitting job...a friend of a friend has a niece that they want an anglophone for. At first I thought they wanted me to TEACH her english and I was like "errrrrrrgh..." but then it was clarified that all I would have to do is hang out with a 7 year old kid for a couple hours every week I was like "OH! SWEET! Sure!" Because I don't have friends and I have a lot in common with 7 year olds (too much in common? Screw you, keep your opinions to yourself!) Anyway, it should be fun, and maybe I'll finally get to go to the museums and the zoo and the park and stuff like that!
Starting today, and for all the rest of the week coming up, it's the chinese national holiday. So we're gonna go see stuff. Which means I should have pictures. There is also a huge lake nearby that people keep telling me I need to go see. My coworker has asked me like 5 times what I'm doing for the holiday, but I can't figure out if that's because he wants to go places with us or if he's just curious, and I don't want to make any social faux pas's by making assumptions. I think I'm going to resolve the confusion by asking if he wants to come with us. That would be awesome for us, because he's a local, and we'd be way less likely to get screwed. Also, this means I should have pictures by the end of next week. YAY!
I think that's the important stuff for now. OOH! Also, I found a place where you can get 10 dumplings for less than a dollar. That was exciting. And I'm having that problem where when I try to think in Chinese I think in Italian instead. Stupid Italy. I keep trying to make these short and keep failing. Sorry.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Museums are for nerds (and monks?)
So, I have been helping out at this museum one day a week, just helping them fix their english translations (which it turns out they actually paid a professional translation company to d0...quality isn't really a business priority here haha). So yesterday I was going through the museum and editing the descriptions they have on placques and stuff on the spot, just sitting on the ground with my laptop. First, a group of monks walked by, and I assumed they would just kind of look at me like I was an alien and say something to themselves and then keep walking, but they actually came right up and looked at my screen, and then at me, then back at my screen. So I just smiled, pointed at the sign and said "I'm fixing it" in english, knowing full well they would have no idea what I was saying. Maybe they did understand...I don't know, my ability to express things without being able to say them is pretty impressive. Anyway, they just laughed and waved and kept walking. Later, a group of wealthy looking Chinese people, probably in their late 20s walks by. This one guy leaves the tour group, squats down beside me and looks at my screen, then looks at me and starts talking in Chinese. I smile and say "I don't speak Chinese", and of course, true to form, he keeps talking to me anyway. Then his friends come over, and they are all standing there speaking to me and not understanding anything Im saying to them in return. Then one guy just comes and stares at my computer for like 5 minutes until I look up and smile at him, at which point he looks all awkward and walks away. Later still, this one little 9 year old monk walks by me, looks at me very closely then walks away. A 13 year old monk comes into the hall to find the younger kid, and they both start looking over my shoulder. I said hello to them in Chinese, but they probably spoke Tibetan, so they just smiled. I realized that the younger one was really interested in my computer, so I opened up Photobooth (the application that takes pictures) and showed him how it could distort our faces. Before I could get a good picture he giggled and ran away. However, I'm fairly confident I blew his mind with my crazy Western magic white computer box thing.
The other thing to relay about the museum is that a couple of the halls scare the crap out of me because they have life sized statues of people and stuffed animals and stuff. As some of you know, I have a pretty serious phobia of things that look human but aren't, including clowns, mannequins and statues. On top of this, the lights in the museum are on a timer, so that if no movement is detected for about 10 minutes, they go off. So, picture me sitting in this museum with these statues of monks debating behind me, knowing that the lights are going to go off any second. It is in situations like these where my overexposure to sci-fi and fantasy stories kicks in and I start to think about how I would be able to defend myself from the attacking monk statues that probably come to life in the dark and probably want to harm me, probably because I'm a whitey and shouldn't be in their museum at all. This particular fear of being killed by statues in the dark comes from a terrifying episode of Dr. Who, actually hahaha. So, it's scary and I have an overactive imagination, and it for real stresses me out. I've decided to wait a month or two before trying to explain my fear of the museum statues to anyone at the museum and use that time to convince them that I'm not crazy before I reveal that I am.
In other news, we have finally finished going through all the video footage. He has 640 clips about food production in his village, and we watched every single one of them, gave it a name, and catalogued and categorized it so that he can access them easily when putting together his film. This film is supposed to be ready to go by the end of January, because the professor wants him to show it in Toronto in February. That is like, no time to do the post-production junk needed for a documentary. I am stressed out for him (he's not stressed at all...probably Buddha's fault). Once I know more about that I will let you know, because I want you guys to go see it, especially if I end up putting as much work into it as I'm starting to think might happen. The up side is, I now know to make butter and cheese and bread and other wonderful things that Tibetans eat. Also, they like juice. A LOT! Random right? The other upside is that when I'm at the office, one of the guys will usually order my food for me at a restaurant, which is something I still can't do haha.
I started my chinese lessons this week. They are actually already helping. When people speak to me I am able to pick up on a few more things and I feel like if they would speak a little slower I would be getting so close to understanding. The only two other people in the class are a young married couple from Switzerland. They seem really cool, even though i suspect they may be missionaries a little bit. I'm okay with it as long as they keep being cool and inviting me out for apple pie and refraining from missionizing me. It's nice to have some other english speaking people in the same boat as me anyway. If I was taking these classes all by myself I would be WAY less motivated.
My Tibetan bossman INSISTED that us young Canadians watch Avatar because he feels it accurately represents Tibet. My one roomate had never seen it, so I warned her about it and then we watched it. We are now expecting an impending debate of doom in which I predict I will end up having to explain white guilt and the noble savage myth and such. I'm not looking forward to it. I sent him an article critiquing the movie as a buffer. I'll let you know how it goes.
I haven't really made any friends outside of my roomates yet but I feel like I may be on the verge. I am starting to think the guys at the office are pretty big nerds and thus don't actually have a lot going on that they could invite me or they are shy about inviting me. I will crack them soon though. I DID get invited out for drinks by some guy I have never met (or even seen apparently?). He called me, said something like "you don't know me but I saw you and I want to know you" and refused to tell me who gave him my number. I thought it sounded a little sketchy (probably should have told me where he got my number or at least been like "I work at the museum!"). I asked my roomate what she thought of it and it turns out that between Tibetans, if someone asks you out for 'drinks', as opposed to asking you to hang out in a group or even just dinner, it is pretty much the equivalent of someone asking you to sleep with them. And as my roomate said "They pretty much think that all white women are Paris Hilton." So the good news is I'm hot, and the bad news is only the creepy guys are inviting me to hang out with them. This happened on Tuesday and I haven't heard from him since, so I think I might be in the clear haha.
I've been trying to think about thesis and stuff, but it's just too hard. There are too many complications with putting people at risk and such. I need to spend some time thinking about it and asking around to profs and such who have done/are doing research here, because it's too stressful to think about without having someone acting as a sounding board.
Also, we found this:
http://www.sleepingchinese.com/
and we're pretty sure this phenomenon occurs because of the high levels of MSG in the food. The first thing on my list of things to learn how to say is "no MSG please" haha.
And it's starting to get cold...feels pretty similar to Canadian fall. I've been told by several people I need to go do some mountain climbing soon because now is the prettiest time. Hopefully I can get it done soon. Apparently there is a big week long holiday coming up in the beginning of October during which I should probably do some sight-seeing. When I figure it out I will let you know.
Okay. That's all for now. Thanks for reading guys!
The other thing to relay about the museum is that a couple of the halls scare the crap out of me because they have life sized statues of people and stuffed animals and stuff. As some of you know, I have a pretty serious phobia of things that look human but aren't, including clowns, mannequins and statues. On top of this, the lights in the museum are on a timer, so that if no movement is detected for about 10 minutes, they go off. So, picture me sitting in this museum with these statues of monks debating behind me, knowing that the lights are going to go off any second. It is in situations like these where my overexposure to sci-fi and fantasy stories kicks in and I start to think about how I would be able to defend myself from the attacking monk statues that probably come to life in the dark and probably want to harm me, probably because I'm a whitey and shouldn't be in their museum at all. This particular fear of being killed by statues in the dark comes from a terrifying episode of Dr. Who, actually hahaha. So, it's scary and I have an overactive imagination, and it for real stresses me out. I've decided to wait a month or two before trying to explain my fear of the museum statues to anyone at the museum and use that time to convince them that I'm not crazy before I reveal that I am.
In other news, we have finally finished going through all the video footage. He has 640 clips about food production in his village, and we watched every single one of them, gave it a name, and catalogued and categorized it so that he can access them easily when putting together his film. This film is supposed to be ready to go by the end of January, because the professor wants him to show it in Toronto in February. That is like, no time to do the post-production junk needed for a documentary. I am stressed out for him (he's not stressed at all...probably Buddha's fault). Once I know more about that I will let you know, because I want you guys to go see it, especially if I end up putting as much work into it as I'm starting to think might happen. The up side is, I now know to make butter and cheese and bread and other wonderful things that Tibetans eat. Also, they like juice. A LOT! Random right? The other upside is that when I'm at the office, one of the guys will usually order my food for me at a restaurant, which is something I still can't do haha.
I started my chinese lessons this week. They are actually already helping. When people speak to me I am able to pick up on a few more things and I feel like if they would speak a little slower I would be getting so close to understanding. The only two other people in the class are a young married couple from Switzerland. They seem really cool, even though i suspect they may be missionaries a little bit. I'm okay with it as long as they keep being cool and inviting me out for apple pie and refraining from missionizing me. It's nice to have some other english speaking people in the same boat as me anyway. If I was taking these classes all by myself I would be WAY less motivated.
My Tibetan bossman INSISTED that us young Canadians watch Avatar because he feels it accurately represents Tibet. My one roomate had never seen it, so I warned her about it and then we watched it. We are now expecting an impending debate of doom in which I predict I will end up having to explain white guilt and the noble savage myth and such. I'm not looking forward to it. I sent him an article critiquing the movie as a buffer. I'll let you know how it goes.
I haven't really made any friends outside of my roomates yet but I feel like I may be on the verge. I am starting to think the guys at the office are pretty big nerds and thus don't actually have a lot going on that they could invite me or they are shy about inviting me. I will crack them soon though. I DID get invited out for drinks by some guy I have never met (or even seen apparently?). He called me, said something like "you don't know me but I saw you and I want to know you" and refused to tell me who gave him my number. I thought it sounded a little sketchy (probably should have told me where he got my number or at least been like "I work at the museum!"). I asked my roomate what she thought of it and it turns out that between Tibetans, if someone asks you out for 'drinks', as opposed to asking you to hang out in a group or even just dinner, it is pretty much the equivalent of someone asking you to sleep with them. And as my roomate said "They pretty much think that all white women are Paris Hilton." So the good news is I'm hot, and the bad news is only the creepy guys are inviting me to hang out with them. This happened on Tuesday and I haven't heard from him since, so I think I might be in the clear haha.
I've been trying to think about thesis and stuff, but it's just too hard. There are too many complications with putting people at risk and such. I need to spend some time thinking about it and asking around to profs and such who have done/are doing research here, because it's too stressful to think about without having someone acting as a sounding board.
Also, we found this:
http://www.sleepingchinese.com/
and we're pretty sure this phenomenon occurs because of the high levels of MSG in the food. The first thing on my list of things to learn how to say is "no MSG please" haha.
And it's starting to get cold...feels pretty similar to Canadian fall. I've been told by several people I need to go do some mountain climbing soon because now is the prettiest time. Hopefully I can get it done soon. Apparently there is a big week long holiday coming up in the beginning of October during which I should probably do some sight-seeing. When I figure it out I will let you know.
Okay. That's all for now. Thanks for reading guys!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Dreams and a life update
Not dreams as in my hopes and plans for the future (you WISH I had any of those!), but dreams as in dreams I have and wake up from and feel confused about. I generally have really intense dreams all the time, but in the past week they have pretty much all been about Canada, which ISN'T COOL! Homesickness isn't generally a thing I experience either, but when you spend all damn night dreaming about hanging out with your friends, and then you wake up and you're on the other side of the world, it just ISN'T COOL. I'm worried my brain is going to break in half! I think the biggest reason I find this so upsetting is that I really do love it here. Like, I have no desire to feel homesick or to want to leave or anything like that. Which is all good and fine when I'm awake...but then I fall asleep and my brain is like CA NAAA DUHHHH! I'm hoping it only lasts another week or so at the most, because I'm totally excited to start dreaming in Chinese, which bring me to actual updates about my actual life (for those of you who feel uncomfortable hearing about my feelings and stuff -cough-Robert-cough hehe).
Yeah, so, tomorrow (Monday), I start Mandarin lessons, which is exciting. What I'm not excited about is that they run from 8:30-10:30 AM EVERY DAY, Monday-Friday. I realize this is fully just whining, and that I should really just suck it up, but that is SO EARLY. And EVERY DAY. And it's across town. It's kind of like having to make it to Scarborough for 9am...and a few of you know how great I was at that (awful). But there are only 3 people in the class, so I'mma get there on time if it kills me (it might). And I think I'm going to spend a solid chunk of today brushing up on the little Mandarin skill I have, just in case I'm totally screwed and start to cry in the middle of class.
I had my first real day at the museum yesterday. And just to rub it in Abby's face (again), it's a Museum of Tibetan Medicine (totally badass). I'm helping them improve the english translations they have for basically everything. Tibetans talk in a very elaborate, drawn out fashion, so some of their english translations are increadibly complicated to make out. I really am doing any future english speaking visitors (everyone come to visit me) a HUGE favour haha. Also I am learning a tonnnne about Tibetan culture. Like, overload haha.
What else...I edited a funding proposal for a development NGO trying to get a health clinic better equipped, and in the process, discovered that hardly any Tibetan NGOs use measurement indicators. They just go in, do their stuff and never really check back to see how things are going. And they still get money. I am waiting to see if maybe the reason they don't check back is is because they are so close to the communities they would hear if something was wrong with it through sources, without it having to be an official failure? Because that might be pretty disrespectful to the NGO, if they think they're doing the community a favour. I don't know. I fully admit to not yet understanding the subtleties of the culture, so I'm not going to make a final judgement yet.
I met with the guys who make the documentaries and stuff. They're cool. The professor wants me to help the one guy go through ALL of his footage that he took in his village and to catalogue it and make a list of what he has. I spent 3 hours on friday going through footage of a woman collecting mushrooms. YEAH. The worst part is, is that I'm not even bored, because it's actually pretty interesting. It's awful. Awfully interesting. Also, in that same office, I ended up teaching a bunch of Tibetan university students how to use a Mac. Basically, the guy who usually teaches them stuff, forgot they were coming and asked if I could do it because he couldn't about 30 minutes before they were coming. THAT was fun. I hope they learned at least a little bit. Also, in this office, since I'm the 'hot foreigner' by default, I make the two younger guys quite nervous, which is cute, but makes it hard to work efficiently with them. They just automatically say yes to everything I suggest, and I can't tell what they actually think. Due to I'm an ass, I'm sure it won't be like that for the whole year...I will just have to belch in front of them a few times and keep spilling food on myself on a regular basis and dropping things for no reason.
OH- and I am volunteering to teach an english class to people who want to take the TOEFL exam. I read them Anne of Green Gables and asked them questions about it. I need to find better stories haha. Also, the call me teacher, which makes me feel an interesting combination of awkward and special.
Also, if anyone can think of a good word to use instead of 'auspicious' let me know. They freaking love that word. It shows up 3 times a paragraph, and it's driving me crazy because I hate it but don't know what else to use, and the thesaurus failed me. So if anyone has any ideas let me know.
And I've been told that the people want pictures, which means I need to start taking some. Which I will do. Eventually. I don't want to be the annoying whitey who's always sticking her camera in everyone's faces. Think about it.
K- breakfast time. I can no longer think clearly because my stomach hurts.
Yeah, so, tomorrow (Monday), I start Mandarin lessons, which is exciting. What I'm not excited about is that they run from 8:30-10:30 AM EVERY DAY, Monday-Friday. I realize this is fully just whining, and that I should really just suck it up, but that is SO EARLY. And EVERY DAY. And it's across town. It's kind of like having to make it to Scarborough for 9am...and a few of you know how great I was at that (awful). But there are only 3 people in the class, so I'mma get there on time if it kills me (it might). And I think I'm going to spend a solid chunk of today brushing up on the little Mandarin skill I have, just in case I'm totally screwed and start to cry in the middle of class.
I had my first real day at the museum yesterday. And just to rub it in Abby's face (again), it's a Museum of Tibetan Medicine (totally badass). I'm helping them improve the english translations they have for basically everything. Tibetans talk in a very elaborate, drawn out fashion, so some of their english translations are increadibly complicated to make out. I really am doing any future english speaking visitors (everyone come to visit me) a HUGE favour haha. Also I am learning a tonnnne about Tibetan culture. Like, overload haha.
What else...I edited a funding proposal for a development NGO trying to get a health clinic better equipped, and in the process, discovered that hardly any Tibetan NGOs use measurement indicators. They just go in, do their stuff and never really check back to see how things are going. And they still get money. I am waiting to see if maybe the reason they don't check back is is because they are so close to the communities they would hear if something was wrong with it through sources, without it having to be an official failure? Because that might be pretty disrespectful to the NGO, if they think they're doing the community a favour. I don't know. I fully admit to not yet understanding the subtleties of the culture, so I'm not going to make a final judgement yet.
I met with the guys who make the documentaries and stuff. They're cool. The professor wants me to help the one guy go through ALL of his footage that he took in his village and to catalogue it and make a list of what he has. I spent 3 hours on friday going through footage of a woman collecting mushrooms. YEAH. The worst part is, is that I'm not even bored, because it's actually pretty interesting. It's awful. Awfully interesting. Also, in that same office, I ended up teaching a bunch of Tibetan university students how to use a Mac. Basically, the guy who usually teaches them stuff, forgot they were coming and asked if I could do it because he couldn't about 30 minutes before they were coming. THAT was fun. I hope they learned at least a little bit. Also, in this office, since I'm the 'hot foreigner' by default, I make the two younger guys quite nervous, which is cute, but makes it hard to work efficiently with them. They just automatically say yes to everything I suggest, and I can't tell what they actually think. Due to I'm an ass, I'm sure it won't be like that for the whole year...I will just have to belch in front of them a few times and keep spilling food on myself on a regular basis and dropping things for no reason.
OH- and I am volunteering to teach an english class to people who want to take the TOEFL exam. I read them Anne of Green Gables and asked them questions about it. I need to find better stories haha. Also, the call me teacher, which makes me feel an interesting combination of awkward and special.
Also, if anyone can think of a good word to use instead of 'auspicious' let me know. They freaking love that word. It shows up 3 times a paragraph, and it's driving me crazy because I hate it but don't know what else to use, and the thesaurus failed me. So if anyone has any ideas let me know.
And I've been told that the people want pictures, which means I need to start taking some. Which I will do. Eventually. I don't want to be the annoying whitey who's always sticking her camera in everyone's faces. Think about it.
K- breakfast time. I can no longer think clearly because my stomach hurts.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Asian Babies
They are the superior form of baby. Here is why:
1. I am constantly tripping over small children and almost kick or step on one every 10 minutes when I am walking somewhere, which draws my attention to them more than what would normally happen in Canada. It finally occurred to me yesterday that the reason for this is because nobody here uses strollers. Those kids WALK everywhere...and if they don't walk they get left behind (not forever haha). Part of me that thinks kids should have as much freedom as possible thinks this is great. However, the part of me that likes kids to not die or get hurt thinks this could be potentially dangerous. Example: my roomate yesterday was in a cab that just BARELY stopped in time when an unattended, small child ran out in front of it. EEEK! Either way, Asian babies don't get carted around everywhere like Canadian babies.
2. You need to be able to see this next one to fully grasp the hilarity of it, but I will give a brief description. So as soon as their kids can walk, they stop putting diapers on them. What they do instead is cut the crotch of their pants so that there is a big space for them to pee and poop out of. So, these kids are wearing pants, but their entire bottoms are exposed. It kind of looks like they are wearing chaps haha. So, picture all these little kdis runing around with something ike chaps on.
Second part: it's not like these kids are potty trained or anything, so that means they just pee and poo whenever and wherever they need to...you know, like a dog hahaha. Walking down one of the main streets yesterday we saw a little girl just pull down her pants and pop a squat (she didn't have the convenient pants-hole). She actually made a point of moving over top of like a sewer grate and doing it there...we were impressed with her conscientiousness.
Part 3 of this whole no diaper/hole in pants business is that kids are able to play with themselves wherever and whenever they want. We were in a restaurant yesterday that's down the street from us and owned by a friendly Muslim family (Muslims make superior food here). They have a toddler, and he was sitting int he dining room on this little plastic chair. He moved his chair over to us and we were saying hello to him in Chinese and English, so he was all happy. And he's got this big hole cut in his pants and he's just like flashing us and giggling, and then he starts to diddle with himself and giggle. We tried not to laugh but we couldn't help it. Could you imagine what would happen if a kid started diddling himself in a restaurant in Canada? So, reason number two Asian babies are superior: they aren't restricted by pesky diapers or toilet etiquette or diddling etiquette like Canadian babies.
3. Because there aren't a tonne of other white people here, sometimes it's clear that I am the first white person a baby has ever seen before, which is pretty much the funniest thing ever. Sitting on the bus the other day, this little baby was facing my roomate and I, and just kept looking back and forth between the two of us, like he was trying to figure out what the hell was going on. He did this for like 25 minutes, and still looked incredibly confused. Do yo uknow how dute confused babies are? The result was me cracking up for all 25 minutes of our bus ride.
Okay, I think that's all the important points of my argument thus far. I may expand upon this later though. In other news, I am going to work today, and I have for reals actual work to do now too. And we are all registered and here legally stuff too. And I may be able to start learning Chinese very soon. And I am teaching an English class every wednesday starting tomorrow night. And I haven't received my funding monies yet, so I'm getting a little anxious about that. I will talk about all that stuff when I know more.
Keep fit and have fun gang!
1. I am constantly tripping over small children and almost kick or step on one every 10 minutes when I am walking somewhere, which draws my attention to them more than what would normally happen in Canada. It finally occurred to me yesterday that the reason for this is because nobody here uses strollers. Those kids WALK everywhere...and if they don't walk they get left behind (not forever haha). Part of me that thinks kids should have as much freedom as possible thinks this is great. However, the part of me that likes kids to not die or get hurt thinks this could be potentially dangerous. Example: my roomate yesterday was in a cab that just BARELY stopped in time when an unattended, small child ran out in front of it. EEEK! Either way, Asian babies don't get carted around everywhere like Canadian babies.
2. You need to be able to see this next one to fully grasp the hilarity of it, but I will give a brief description. So as soon as their kids can walk, they stop putting diapers on them. What they do instead is cut the crotch of their pants so that there is a big space for them to pee and poop out of. So, these kids are wearing pants, but their entire bottoms are exposed. It kind of looks like they are wearing chaps haha. So, picture all these little kdis runing around with something ike chaps on.
Second part: it's not like these kids are potty trained or anything, so that means they just pee and poo whenever and wherever they need to...you know, like a dog hahaha. Walking down one of the main streets yesterday we saw a little girl just pull down her pants and pop a squat (she didn't have the convenient pants-hole). She actually made a point of moving over top of like a sewer grate and doing it there...we were impressed with her conscientiousness.
Part 3 of this whole no diaper/hole in pants business is that kids are able to play with themselves wherever and whenever they want. We were in a restaurant yesterday that's down the street from us and owned by a friendly Muslim family (Muslims make superior food here). They have a toddler, and he was sitting int he dining room on this little plastic chair. He moved his chair over to us and we were saying hello to him in Chinese and English, so he was all happy. And he's got this big hole cut in his pants and he's just like flashing us and giggling, and then he starts to diddle with himself and giggle. We tried not to laugh but we couldn't help it. Could you imagine what would happen if a kid started diddling himself in a restaurant in Canada? So, reason number two Asian babies are superior: they aren't restricted by pesky diapers or toilet etiquette or diddling etiquette like Canadian babies.
3. Because there aren't a tonne of other white people here, sometimes it's clear that I am the first white person a baby has ever seen before, which is pretty much the funniest thing ever. Sitting on the bus the other day, this little baby was facing my roomate and I, and just kept looking back and forth between the two of us, like he was trying to figure out what the hell was going on. He did this for like 25 minutes, and still looked incredibly confused. Do yo uknow how dute confused babies are? The result was me cracking up for all 25 minutes of our bus ride.
Okay, I think that's all the important points of my argument thus far. I may expand upon this later though. In other news, I am going to work today, and I have for reals actual work to do now too. And we are all registered and here legally stuff too. And I may be able to start learning Chinese very soon. And I am teaching an English class every wednesday starting tomorrow night. And I haven't received my funding monies yet, so I'm getting a little anxious about that. I will talk about all that stuff when I know more.
Keep fit and have fun gang!
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