Busy bees

What an action-packed Monday! I feel as if we’ve experienced a few days’ worth of activities and it’s late afternoon. It’s been a whirlwind, but an educational one. 


Where should I begin relating the adventures? Probably at the beginning. 


This morning Jean-Jacques and I woke up at around six o’clock, quickly got ready for the day, and left the house about an hour later. On our way to the No. 2 Middle School, we picked up a delicious breakfast of a spicy flatbread that has sesame seeds and green onion sprinkled on top; the closest thing it resembles (though faintly) is focaccia. The dish is served with a stick that you use to skewer pieces so you can eat them. We grabbed a taxi out on the main road and arrived at the school with extra time, so we wandered around the campus a bit. We also spoke with Jean-Jacques’ principal and his helper. 

The flag ceremony was fascinating to watch; the Chinese have a special way of hoisting the flag and they throw it out away from the flag pole before it starts getting raised. (I don’t know if the US does this, but I haven’t seen it before.) Jean-Jacques’ speech had an excellent message -- don’t give up your culture in the pursuit of money -- but I'm not sure how many of the students understood his message because no one translated it into Chinese.  


After the speech, we were free to leave, so we did. We decided to walk back to No. 1 instead of taking a taxi because Jean-Jacques wanted to take a video of the trip and I wanted to snap some photos of food street. We both enjoyed the walk and were able to take some good video and photos respectively. 

Jean-Jaques and I had a brief amount of time between activities, so I processed my photos from the day, we listened to Christmas music, drank some tea, and regrouped. At around five to eleven, we left  the apartment for our next adventure. Our helper (and mutual contact) was a bit late to meet us, but once he arrived, we were whisked away by his friends. (A few days ago, our helper contacted us with a request that we visit a kindergarten to visit with the students, take some pictures of us interacting with the students -- it’s excellent advertising. At first we thought that we were going to be teaching classes, but far less than that was required of us as we quickly discovered. It was truly a firsthand lesson in guanxi, or the complex network of relationships and favors that exist in Chinese society.) 

We arrived at the first of two kindergartens, were ushered out of the car, and directed into the school where we were excitedly greeted by a crowd of little kids. The adults were anxious to show off the students’ learning, so the kids sang songs for us, introduced themselves, and said words in English. Many of the little ones were terrified of us, but were forced by the adults to interact with us; at one point, Jean-Jacques even made a little boy cry. We felt horrible about the whole situation. However, Jean-Jacques, being the wonderfully outgoing individual he is, made the best of an uncomfortable situation and tried speaking with many of the children. During the visit, many Chinese were taking pictures and video of us while we interacted with the children.

Then we were shown to another school, where we underwent a similar experience, although the kids were younger. After the tours, we were driven to a fancy restaurant where we met up with six other people for a banquet. We were introduced to some of the people, but not everyone. I have no idea why the other people were present, but I assume it was to schmooze. The hosts were extremely generous (they gave us presents, offered to arrange a trip for us during the Spring Festival vacation, and were extremely thankful that we had visited the kindergarten), but it was difficult to see the rich, party-connected side of China, when many of the poorer Chinese suffer because they don't have the correct contacts. It seems that much of the business that's done here is based on the relationships or connections you have with others. I think that sometimes it’s about who you know, not necessarily your qualifications and that can be frustrating. (However, when you think about it, the same is sometimes true in the States, but maybe it's not as prevalent or obvious.) 

Unfortunately, I was late for my first class today, but I recovered quickly and the lesson went fairly smoothly. How can it go poorly when all you’re doing is watching a Mr. Bean Christmas special and an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants?