We arrived here yesterday afternoon, then had dinner at a restaurant down the street. Our meal consisted of mushroom hot pot (I swear she dumped 10 different kinds of mushrooms in that pot!), 'mock pork' (mushroom cooked in sweet and sour sauce), and a side of... you guessed it, mushrooms. Everyone who didn't chase dinner with a healthy dose of McDonald's had some CRAZY dreams.
Women's tea. No mans allowed.
Today we took a tour of a local school for migrant workers' children.
Ben, Manie, and his posse.
Fishing in a lake of trash outside the school.
Afterwards we had lunch, met with the teachers we'll be working with, and talked about the classes we'll be teaching.
The teacher we're working with, Lynn, asked her classes to write questions for us in small groups. Here are some of the gems:
1. Have you seen the film Titanic
2. You want to marry foreigner or American?
3. I know that the adult ceremony of your country is very interesting. We want to know somthing about the ceremony.
4. The relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law?
We start work officially on Monday, where we'll be judges for a teaching methods competition. We're not supposed to give anyone lower than 8 out of 10.
Speaking of things we're not supposed to do... We were advised not to openly discuss the "3 T's": (Tibet, Taiwan, Tianenmen), because people would be "hurt" if we mentioned Tibetan independence, and they might even take us as an "enemy" if we were to suggest that it was not truly a part of China. Taiwanese independence would also be considered "intolerable". People know that Tianenmen is "a place in Beijing" but we shouldn't mention it.
Our Chinese advisor also told us that the Olympics is a touchy subject, and since "the torch encountered some objections," people are upset. She likened hosting the Olympics to having a baby, and China doesn't exactly want a miscarriage, so to speak. She insisted that this is the 100-year anniversary of China's initial participation in the Olympics, which was "miserable," and people are eager to show the world that China can in fact host the competition.
None of this, ok?
The television and newspapers here are just propaganda machines. I've been watching the English news here in the hotel and they keep repeating the same stories over and over. There are plenty of special-interest stories about the different ethnic minorities co-existing in peace, Tibetan arts and their link to China, "creating a favorable environment for intellectual property rights," and "environmental upgrades".
It's quite an interesting situation.
