Hello, Touxie!

The apartment is cold these days. I find myself working with cold feet. I thought I would buy some socks and house sandals at QiBaJiu. I got some cute socks, and the slippers were so cute that I couldn't not get the Hello Kitty slippers.


-吴佩芙

Gua

The apartment smells like home. I made my Red, Yellow, and Green Dish tonight with some modifications. It's actually Green and Green today. It's supposed to be red pepper, yellow squash, and zucchini. I got green peppers at the vegetable stall on campus. Walmart had some zucchini-looking things. I suppose they are called Mexican squash in America. I got two big ones in case it was the right thing, and it was. It's totally unreproducible, though, because it was the only squash that didn't have an English tag at Walmart, and I could only recognize the character 瓜（gua: melon, gourd, or squash).

The topics of class are becoming drudgery. We started "immigration," but it can't be some interesting issue with provoking questions, it's about the immigration waves of the 1800's, like Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. It's designed for ESL, really. I don't feel comfortable with the topic because I feel like I'm always talking about America and how great America is and why people would want to go there. It's just too nationalistic for me. Oh, and by the way, there was also Angel Island, which is not exactly positive. I just don't want to discuss the topic at all. It's on the schedule for three weeks.

Last night I had a dream. I took Kavi to the vet. We had to wait a long time. In fact, I was getting a little mad because we were being passed over. And then I looked at him and he had collapsed in the box. I took him to drink from the water fountain, and he was ok. It was a little disturbing, though.

-吴佩芙

Love

"God's grace is undeserved, but it's not unconditional."

Someone left their printing on the printer in the office. I was there to print class materials, but since it was left there, I thought I would glance to see if I could deliver it to the appropriate person. The material was Christian in nature, which didn't surprise me too much. Having not gone to church since before I came to China, I thought I would read a little to see what the study was about. This sentence sent me spinning.

Christian or no, does this sentence even make sense? Undeserved means unearned, which means you can't do something to earn it. Unconditional means made without conditions or unreserved. There are too many negatives in the sentence: "God's grace is undeserved, but it is conditional." Ew, gross. Doesn't putting a condition on something mean that you earn it? The question went on to say that one must be humble to receive God's grace. Does this make sense: The condition is to be humble, and by being humble you are deserving.

It was drilled into all of our heads early that Grace means 'undeserved love.' I guess it's kind of assumed that undeserved also means unconditional, since whatever makes one deserving must be a condition. I just don't understand how a sentence like that makes someone feel better. Maybe if you meet the condition, it's not a big deal to you. It's the premise that bothers me: If you meet the condition, then you are better than those who haven't met it. Instead of feeling good for feeling good's sake, we have to tear down other people in the process. I just don't think this should fall under the umbrella of "Good News."

-吴佩芙

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving night, I gave a speech at the English Lounge. The students were interested in Thanksgiving traditions, so I had a PowerPoint prepared. My distinguished colleague got the students to help make apple crisp in a rice cooker. It was really fun.

Friday night, we were all invited to the swanky hotel in town for a Thanksgiving buffet. It was really exciting, although there weren't a lot of traditional foods. I'd been wanting soup so bad, but the pumpkin soup was more like a roux. It was a nice dinner, and so exciting to go to the swanky hotel. It's not the same without Aunt Mrl's slow cooker corn and cheese and green bean casserole.

Today was my plan to go to Walmart for something to make into soup, some oatmeal, and contact solution. I found Campbell's soup, corn with mushroom. I had it for lunch with some Chinese black-and-blue fry bread with sesame seeds, which I found out was stuffed with red beans. Oh well, it was just like the Bread Garden. The soup smelled and tasted like corn casserole. Mmmm, soup!

-吴佩芙

Resourcefulness Awards

I won my first Restourcefulness Award in college, for excellence in decorating, when I used Q-tips, wedged between layers of a mirror, to secure Christmas lights around the mirror. The lights were shaped like starfish, and the whole rig lasted for the academic year.

In China, resourcefulness comes in handy. Without a bag for my cell phone, I rigged a pocket with a bandana threaded and tied through a few belt loops. Without an oven, I made apple cobbler in my slow cooker, which actually turned out to be cake-like. Here is the shocking result:


I think today I will win another Resourcefulness Award, this one for excellence in toiletries. Yes, I made my own sugar wax, for removing body hair. Without strips, and without an old piece of cloth from which to cut strips, I tried cutting up a plastic Walmart bag. Not only did it work, but it was not as painful as regular wax with cloth or paper strips. Also, sugar "wax" is water soluble, so the clean-up was so easy.

-吴佩芙

ALLELUIA!!

Today I went with one of my colleagues to Topu (or however you spell it--the small town between here and downtown). There is a morning market there, where, we were told, they sell fresh tofu. As it turns out, they also sell fresh everything, including jumping shrimp and tilapia that are still flexing their gills. At the tofu stand, we looked up the word "firm" to ask for firm tofu, and the seller complemented our Chinese pronunciation. Much more exciting:

So exciting it deserves its own paragraph: The Topu market has a grain seller, with tons of different kinds of beans and grains. I found chana dal, which is basically like lentils, but a little smaller. LENTILS!!!!!! Chana dal is oblong and yellow, but definitely curry-able.

Another colleague lent me her slow cooker. I had some pintos soaking overnight, so I decided to try to cook them in a slow cooker, instead of cooking them for two hours on my gas stove. It worked wonderfully, and the whole place smelled delicious.

After a meeting with my Chinese tutor, I left for town.

Thoughts on being...

I've decided to post one of the emails I've written, since it sums up some of my thoughts so far, with more to come later:

We had 2 weeks of classes, and then we had National Holiday, which is a week-long break. I went to Xi'an with two of my distinguished colleagues, who are bf/gf. It went really well, and we all got along well. They are better in Chinese than me, and they taught here last year. We stayed together the whole time, in fancy hotels, in rooms (with bathrooms down the hall that were too scary to use), and on the floor of our Xi'an colleague's apartment.

We went to Shaolin Temple and the Terra Cotta Warriors. There were a lot of tourists because everyone had a break. We had some delicious food, esp. Indian food, which we don't have in Shantou.

I'm in the process of starting my Chinese classes and getting a tutor. After my trip, I feel a bit more motivated to learn Chinese a little better. The real issue that I feel is, if you can speak with people, even a little, they feel a bit more trustful of you, and they feel like you are a real person.

Many times students and little kids on campus, yell "hello" at us. They really don't have any other desire than to say "hello," and it feels like we are animals, exhibitions, or something. Even worse, in touristy areas, the street vendors yell, "Hello, hello, hello..." which means "hey, come look at my stuff, buy my stuff," while they trample over each other to get closer to us. It reminds me of 'Finding Nemo' where the seagulls say, "Mine, mine, mine..."

I'm also fascinated with some aspects of Buddhism, having visited a number of temples on our vacation. There is a goddess named GuanYin, who is like the Virgin Mary. She is the goddess of Compassion. We saw a 6 meter-high carving of her, which had 1,000 arms and 1,000 eyes (drawn on her hands). I read the story when I got home, and I think it's so interesting. Because of this, I would also like to read some Chinese novels and legends.

I'm finding some new interests, and China is starting to seem more comfortable now. Luckily, in our school, all of the students have at least a little English skill, so they can help us when we go to the cafeteria or when we buy things at the campus stores. Also, all of our teachers are qualified professional teachers, who have a lot of common interests, and some common personality traits. I would probably be miserable if these two factors didn't exist.

Also, the students treat us very well here. When they see us on the bus, we can tell that they are trying to build up their confidence to talk to us. When they see us with our supermarket bags returning home, they offer to help carry it to our apartment. Today a student walked to the bread shop with me after class, and she carried some of my bags to my apartment. They are most eager to spend more time practicing English.

-吴佩芙