Thanksgiving Week in Guangzhou

First Thanksgiving in China! Before, I wondered how celebrating this lesser known American holiday in the East would be different. Well, the answer: Not much. Minus the turkey and family, it was rather familiar: people bustling out of food markets and into kitchens, cooking up a storm, leaving behind an impressive mess, lots of stuffing of one's mouth, lots of schmoozing, lots of music.

The Yale-China fellows decided to congregate in Guangzhou, where four fellows were teaching on the beautiful, very green campus of Sun Yatsen University. I normally lug my hefty DSLR camera to gatherings like this, but decided to pack light this time. Thus, I had to rely on my vintage iPhone camera (and a nifty application called Hipstamatic).

Apologies in advance, the pictures are not in any order. Also, there is a story at the end!

Elizabeth being fed.

Colin, asleep after fending off hordes of mosquitoes.

Sometimes inspiration strikes at the strangest places and moments.


Sun Yatsen's campus.

I shouldn't be playing with my phone during dinner.

Some of the gang.

Nice back, Aaron.

I think I am cursed with the worst luck when I travel, and that bad luck sometimes rubs off on my companions. Missed buses, trains, and planes; luggage left in taxis; booking the wrong dates--I've experienced it all.

On this trip, one of my travel companions to Guangzhou had her wallet stolen. At first, it didn't seem so bad--only a couple hundred rmb lost, some credit cards, and an already-expired driver's license. Then, we realized our bullet train tickets back to Changsha--not cheap--were in that wallet.

It was a sunk cost. No use fretting over it. Nothing else could be done except for buying new tickets for the same train (my poor bank account). So, I did, and off I went onto a train for which I paid twice.

On the train, I fell asleep, and two hours later, we are back in Changsha. Home safe! Except... the train doors closed in front of me just as I was about to step off. The bullet train continued to Wuhan, a city that's not even in the same province.

Apparently, I had woken up at the end of the 3 minutes that the train stops in Changsha. There was nothing to be done, I had to continue on this train to Wuhan.

In situations like this, I can kick myself over and over, beat myself up for my silly mistakes; or, I can just accept that I made a really careless error, and move on. Either way, I can't really change my situation. I choose the latter. Since I am still in the Thanksgiving spirit (my big dinner was only last night), I should say that I am thankful to the stewardess--a kind, young woman who allowed me to stay on the train for no extra cost; I am thankful that the train turned right back towards Changsha after stopping in Wuhan (it could've kept going to who knows where...); and, I am thankful that, in the end, this mistake only cost me an extra 3 or 4 hours.

Hope everyone had a joyful Thanksgiving!

An Atypical Sunday Evening

In the last few weeks, I've been frequenting this one cafe. Owned by a friend, it is probably the one place in all of Changsha I find most relaxing. It is never a bad idea to go there, no matter the time of the day (or night). Even if it is a ridiculous trip. All the way on the other side of the river, it takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 by bus, depending on the traffic. By taxi, for about 25¥, the time is decreased to 40 minutes, give or take 10.

But somehow, I still find myself there two or three times a week, for hours at a time. Some of my more memorable conversations in China took place there. All of my favorite drinks were concocted there.

An out-of-focus picture of Chris taking a picture at Haozi's.

Anyway, after a bizarre dinner with the director of the Yali Alumni Association and a student's parents, I decided to make the hour-long trek across the river to Haozi's. I naively hoped to finish lesson-planning for the rest of the week there. The duration of time I was actually in the cafe was just what I expected--familiar faces, a delicious chocolate strawberry drink Haozi created on the spot, good music. Of course, no significant progress was made on lesson planning. It wasn't until when I was about to leave when some strange/grotesque/intense things occurred.

First, a random girl sitting nearby suddenly turned to me, shouted "陈刚同学, Bye! Bye!" and dashed out the door. No idea who she was. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've never met her in my life. How did she know my name? Truly inexplicable.

Then, as we were walking from Haozi's to the noodle shop, I noticed a sizable frog in front of me, heading towards the street. It was already past midnight; few cars were out. So, I didn't think the frog would have any trouble crossing the street. Unfortunately (as you probably already guessed, why else would I bring it up?) the frog met an unfortunate end. Midway through the road, a taxi came by, and... squish. Actually, it was more of a pop, like the sound of a balloon pumped with too much air.

This is actually the second time I witnessed something of this sort. About a month ago, I saw a dog get hit by a car that was going down the wrong way of a one-way street. The poor dog limped to the sidewalk and died, right in front of me. People say these things come in threes. I'm terrified to see what will be the third...

The end to my night was spicy. Literally. Xiaohong, this friend who works at Haozi's, brought Chris and me along to a noodle restaurant for her midnight snack. She warned us that the item she usually gets is extremely spicy, but being foolhardy young men, we refused to go for a milder choice. Bad decision. It was the single spiciest dish I have ever had. Ever. A spice that numbed not only the areas around my mouth, but my entire face. Brain-numbing spice. My stomach did somersaults, my legs wobbled. Chris and I emptied the water cooler. More than a few tears were shed.

Every city should have a Ferris wheel...

I firmly believe this.

A well-placed Ferris wheel can add a romantic flair to the city, no? By the river... in a large, open space... like the London Eye or the Singapore Flyer. It can really be a classy addition to the city skyline.

The effects of one can be enormous. Pritzker winner, Sir Richard Rogers, says it more eloquently in an essay about the London Eye:

"The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody. That's the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London."

It is a simple yet beautiful structure with a simple yet beautiful purpose.

Many mayors of Chinese cities have agreed with me; five of the ten biggest Ferris wheels can be found in China.

Of course, the wheel should be strategically placed, to maximize its effects.

A street intersection just around the corner from Yali, later in the evening, with the Ferris wheel in view.

Unfortunately, Changsha did not seem to worry much about the exact location of its Ferris wheel. Currently, it is in a section of the city crowded with tall but dim buildings, including one that is right next to the Ferris wheel, essentially blocking 70% of the view. The overall experience is quite underwhelming. Quite a dud really, the way it is tucked away in the back. Why didn't they put it somewhere alongside the major river running right through the center of the city, where one can see much of the city's skyline, where the riverbanks are lit up with mesmerizing (though admittedly, somewhat tacky) lights?

Anyway, who's on board my campaign to get every major city around the world to build a Ferris wheel?

P.S. Who else didn't know that the F in Ferris is supposed to be capitalized? I didn't, that's for sure...

Simba, 喜羊羊 (Xi Yangyang), and... Denzel Washington?

My life since returning from a whirlwind trip to America has been, well, another whirlwind. The daily pace has really picked up (not that it was ever terribly slow), crescendo-ing to a climax this Friday.

These days, I teach until noon, start eating lunch at 12:10, and finish lunch eight minutes later in order to make a meeting. Then, twenty to thirty minutes later, I am out of the meeting and rushing to either A) music workshop for the Lion King (explained below), B) Library Hour (students from all over the school come to talk), C) Office Hour (only for my classes' students, or D) another meeting, probably with a college advisee desperately seeking help (also explained below).

1 - College application advising

How have I not escaped college applications and personal essays already? I am currently acting as an adviser to a few senior students who are applying to U.S. colleges, and the deadline for early applications is, ugh... now. As a result, my inbox has been inundated with drafts of personal essays and pleas to look them over. Even when I do get a chance to look them over that same day, the student would often shoot an email back the very next day asking for further revisions. Were we this crazy back then??

While the process has been time-consuming, tedious, and even frustrating at times, I found it worthwhile overall. Really getting to know these kids--learning their stories, hearing about their experiencing, gaining their trust--has been insightful and rewarding.

2 - Halloween!!

Although I am in China, I will not not celebrate Halloween (yay English!). Teaming up with the group of English librarians the fellows and I selected, we threw together a huge Halloween party for the school, much like the good ol' days in the Cottage, except replace crazy college students with crazy high schoolers and gallons of alcohol with thousands of glue sticks!

Three of my students: Tiffany and Maggie (as doctors) and Ryan (as 喜羊羊, or Xi Yangyang)

The party was carnival style, with eight different booths for the students to go around and play. There was the "Guess the Organ" booth (actually grapes, tofu, noodles, etc. doubling as human organs). Additionally, there were "Deadly Chairs" (musical chairs with scary music!), "Mummified!" (teams compete to see who first can wrap up a member completely in toilet paper), "Masking Making" and "Pumpkin Carving"! And, of course, students learned the Time Warp and Thriller dances.

The English librarians with the pumpkins they carved!

Viana, one of our student English librarians, carves her first pumpkin.
Also, notice how different Chinese pumpkins are...

Some students deserve a shout-out here: The English librarians, eight students we selected at the beginning of the year, were key to this party's success. While we came up with the idea of the carnival, they totally ran away with it. At the beginning, they brainstormed for various games that could be made into booths. Then, They went out and bought supplies, they made posters, they got costumes, and at the end, they pulled everything together. This was no easy task; some of the booths took many many hours of preparation work. At last, the day of the carnival, the fellows and I only had to do a little setting up of the decorations beforehand, and for the rest of the party, we got to enjoy ourselves like we were students as they ran the show. Super, super impressed. I cannot wait to work with them on other projects throughout the year!

Love the faces on the girls in the back, at the end of Deadly Chairs.

The Halloween Carnival at noon was followed by Costume Extravaganza! (a costume contest) after school, as part of the school's Extracurricular Show. Two words: controlled chaos (more emphasis on the latter word). Twenty minutes before we were to go on stage, we only had five contestants. Stress-out time. Since we had expected at least fifteen, the fellows and I had to do some last-minute revisions to the program in order to make the contest more appropriate. Then, about ten minutes before we were to go on stage, thirteen more contestants showed up--super stress-out time! We had not had a chance to go over the contest rules or procedures with any of them--procedures which included doing a dance on stage. Nevertheless, the audience beckoned, lights went out, and we were thrown onto the stage so suddenly that Chris had his costume on backwards.

Considering the chaotic beginning and more contestants showing up even after we had already begun, the Costume Extravaganza went very well. We crowned a Chinese ghost as Mister Yali Halloween Contest 2010, and ended the show by throwing candy into the audience. This last part may or may not have been a good idea... All the students jumped out of their seats and started storming the stage, transforming into vicious beasts, pouncing on the candy left and right, from the floor, from the students, and eventually, from the sources--the teachers. Though, in hindsight, doing this was probably not the best--or safest--idea, I found it to be incredibly entertaining and the perfect cap to my chaotic week.

A student and me, after the Costume Extravaganza!

3 - The Lion King

The fellows and I are working with the Yali English Society to put together the annual English musical. This years musical? If you hadn't already guessed from the heading: The Lion King!

During the first week and a half back from the States, we had acting, dancing and music workshops to ready the students for their auditions. I was in charge of the music workshops, where we learned "I Just Can't Wait to be King!" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight." The workshops went extremely well; there was a noticeable increase in the number of participants from the first workshop to the last, and they all seemed to have relatively good ears, making it much easier on me.

Casting auditions began today. We had the participants read lines from the movie, pretend to be various animals, and sing either the two songs practiced at the workshops or one of their own that can better demonstrate their abilities.

It's terrible--not everyone has auditioned (in fact, it is only day one), but this student, Ben, has stole my heart and, along with it, the role of young Simba. His personality, his voice, his mannerisms--the boy is perfect for the role.

Auditions will last this entire week, and hopefully we'll have the cast chosen soon after! The finish product--coming to you in Spring 2011!

4 - The Great Debaters

Last, but definitely least, is class. We have been toying around the theme of persuasion all year, and currently we are working on debate.

To make it fun, I am screening scenes from the movie The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington. The movie takes place in the American South, 1935, about a debate team at a black college. My kids seem to really like it--the idea of going on stage, using words as weapons, speaking with power and intent. Haha... we'll see how well they do when they have to do it themselves.

Beyond debate, the movie is a real eye-opener into U.S. history for these students. They are shocked by the intense racial hatred prevalent in American during those times, the uncomfortable scenes of helplessness on the Negroes' end, and even one of a lynching. It totally goes against what they have always thought--the United States as a place where any one from any race can go and be accepted. This led to several interesting discussions, including the existence of narrow-minded prejudice in America today, for example, prejudice against Islam, against Hispanics. Some students even talked about the prejudices that exist in China, racism towards ethnic minorities, and how they haven't really considered the implications of holding such views before this.

So...

...between juggling classes, intense after-class activities with having a life outside of Yali, it is an understatement to say that downtime is sparse. Each day is a blur, one melting into the next. I mean, shoot, it is already November! I often find myself comparing it to life back at Yale, but while I am similarly busy, I haven't felt completely wasted away here. Don't get me wrong--when the weekend arrives, I usually collapse into what will eventually become a four-hour nap. But, with the start of a new day, a new week, the excitement radiating from the kids seems to act as an energizer, and like the Energizer bunny, I keep chugging along.