My Weekly Run-Down: 1/5/2010

Where Am I NOW??

Here is my Indiana Jones-style map of where I have been this week.  The green dot is Yanji, the red line is a bus ride, the red dot is Changchun, the blue line is a train ride, and the blue dot is Harbin (where I am now).  Note, that it is very cold here.

In case you do not know where this map is located on the globe, look just north of North Korea on a world map and you might find one of these cities (if you have a good enough map).

Five Things I’m thinking about This Week:

So this is the New Year, I don’t feel any different

Because of a misunderstanding that is typical of our experiences here in China, we thought that we weren’t going to be able to leave Yanji for our winter break until after January 1^st.  Typical of our school operations, we eventually found out that we would be able to leave on New Year’s Eve, but since we had already booked our flights down to Shanghai for the following Wednesday, we decided to make our way further into the cold and the large industrial city of Changchun.

Evidently, there is nothing in Changchun, or no reason for tourists to ever go there.  While it is a huge city of like ten million people (at least, this is what we were told by cab drivers), there isn’t much of anything to see.  The American equivalent of Changchun is probably Detroit—except like everything in China aside from the people, it is much bigger.

After taking a five hour bus ride, a 30 minute cab ride, and wandering around one area of the city for far too long considering the temperature was probably -15 degrees, we found ourselves in the apartment of some South African girls that we had met in Xi’an several months earlier.  They had graciously offered to let us stay in their apartment, and were taking us to a club for New Year’s Eve.

This is how, with 90 minutes left in 2009, I found myself in a Chinese nightclub standing at a bar behind a ginger from the land of Mandela taking questions from the Russian woman (more than likely a prostitute) sitting in the bar stool next to me about where I was from. 

At first glance this looked like any other night club.  There were different people drinking different things: I drank a Budweiser for awhile and a Long Island Iced Tea after that (my first one of those since my last night at The Backer).  There were flashing lights, people taking pictures, the Black Eyed Peas pumping through the sound system, private seating areas for those willing to drop down a little extra money, and televisions behind the bars showing relevant events.

At first glance everything looked normal, but when you looked closer at the details everything was quite strange.  The televisions behind the bars weren’t playing sports or a countdown show, but what appeared to be a Japanese style game show in the same vein as Wipeout or the Most Extreme Elimination Challenge.  The Russian’s were strange.  There were only women, and they all were apparently prostitutes.  The Chinese men were touching each other more than I thought they should, and every so often I would see somebody that looked Middle Eastern and wonder how they managed to get to this part of the world.

With about 20 minutes to midnight, the band started to play.  The band, as well, looked pretty normal—except when you took into account the fact that it was half-Chinese and half-Philipino.  They sang a Chinese song, and then they started a song in English; which was Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend, played here in Changchun, China with roughly fifteen minutes left in 2009.

(oh, and if that wasn’t weird enough, there was some guy walking around the dance floor wearing a Tiger costume in the style of team mascots and Disney characters).

After they played Girlfriend, the band then started playing some sort of ballad which is evidently a Chinese pop anthem.  People stood on chairs and tables, as they sung along with the words.  It could have been Piano Man at Finny’s or God Bless the USA at The Backer. . . but it wasn’t, it was a Chinese song.

Just like most places I have been for New Year’s (places that didn’t just pay attention to the time based on a television feed) the band on stage did not have any clue when the New Year actually began.  I think they said Happy New Year two minutes early and everybody went crazy. 

When we went back to the bar to get more drinks a little while later I again looked up to the television.  This time they were showing clips of NFL games interspersed with graphics from Madden video games.  I couldn’t hear the sound (and it would have been in Chinese anyways), but occasionally I would see a graphic (like a red arrow stretching from end zone to end zone that said 100 yards on it) that helped me understand what was on the television.

Half an hour into 2010, the televisions in this Chinese bar had a program on them that was explain the rules and procedures for American football.  It was weird.

As we cabbed our way back to the apartment, however, I came to an obvious (yet important) realization.  Two years ago, I would have said with complete certainty that 2008 was about to be the best year of my life.  One year ago, I would have agreed with that, knowing that 2009 would probably be better (it was).  Today I know that the past two years have been my best, and that the next year will almost certainly be better.

My years just keep getting better, and on New Year’s Day, that’s a pretty cool thing to know.

Briefly, My Brief 2009 in Cinema

My Top Five Films of the Year

1)       The Hurt Locker: The best war movie since Platoon . . . seriously.

2)       I Love You, Man: Far and away the funniest film of 2009 (and I did see The Hangover)

3)       Star Trek: The first Trek film I’ve seen, and an action-packed enjoyable ride throughout.

4)       (500) Days of Summer: Not as unconventional as people claimed, but definitely enjoyable.

5)       Up: Probably my seventh (out of ten) favorite Pixar film, which says more about the company than it does about the film.

Five Films I Want to See (and would have seen had I been stateside this fall)

1)       Avatar: I think I’m obligated to see this in IMAX when I’m in Shanghai or Hong Kong. 

2)       Pirate Radio (also known as The Boat that Rocked): From the director of Love, Actually . . . enough said.

3)       Up in the Air: Because it looks like the front-runner for awards, and it was directed by Jason Reitman.

4)       Where the Wild Things Are: Because ten months ago, I read the book to a room full of second graders.

5)       The Informant!: I listened to a great This American Life episode that this movie was based on.

Mutiny on Ice

New Year’s Eve was our last day in Yanji, and before the students were dismissed for their New Year’s holiday (they actually have final exams this week, but their exams in our classes are earlier), the school had a winter sports meeting.

At our fall sports meeting in September, all of the students were excited.  They did track and field events, and were competing very happily.  This sports day was different, however, because the temperature was well below zero, and there was a lot of wind.

While the games started out alright (I did 87 jumps of the rope in one minute, wearing boots and thick winter clothing) the students quickly decided to mutiny and run inside.  It was far too cold outside, and none of them were really having that much fun.  Subsequently the teachers just decided to end school several hours earlier than they were planning to, and we went out drinking.

Oh the Places I’ve Slept

In 2009 I slept in 29 different places.  Of these places: I slept at beds in 15 of them, I slept on couches, futons, or air mattresses in 14 of them, and I slept on the floor (without any sort of padding) at 4 of them.  These places stretch across 2 countries and continents (obviously), 9 US States, and 3 Chinese Provinces.  Two of them were moving vehicles.

In 2009 I spent some amount of time in 16 US states.  Of these states, three of them (Tennessee, Connecticut, and West Virginia) I merely drove through (with limited stops) and four I spent some degree of time in, but did not sleep (Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Michigan).

Because I only paid to sleep in five of these places, I would like to thank all of the people that welcomed me into their homes in 2009.  I hope that I will be able to return to visit you again in 2010 and beyond as I look to achieve my 2010 objective of sleeping in 65 different places (I wanted to write 100, but that seems too unlikely).

Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright

On our first full day here in Harbin, we decided to go to a tiger park.  To get to the tiger park, our book told us to take one bus, transfer to a second bus, and then that bus would drop us off near the Tiger park.  So we did everything that the book said until we were standing at the middle of a snow covered road in sub-freezing temperatures with nothing of note to be seen in every direction.

Standing there in the middle of freezing nowhere, Gavin and I turned to each other wondering what we were supposed to do next.

Just then, a van came barreling around the corner Charlie Chin-style honking at us as if he was insane.  He pulled up next to us flashing a small sheet with a tiger on it and told us to get in.  He said it would be 40 kuai each (which is an absolutely RIDICULOUS price, it’s like the price we pay for our combined dinners at our downstairs restaurant) to get to the tiger park; so with no other choice, we reluctantly got into the ‘cab’.

While the park was close enough to walk to, in theory, it was probably a good thing that we got into this quasi-cab because it wasn’t all that close, we didn’t know where it was, and it was (predictably) very cold.  However, when we got to the park, the cold didn’t matter—because there were TIGERS EVERYWHERE.

First we got into a van (Jurassic Park style)* and drove through vast areas with lots, and lots, and lots of tigers.  There were tigers near trees, tigers with their young, tigers prowling towards the van, tigers sleeping, tigers running, and tigers pacing back and forth next to the fence.  I am pretty certain that I saw more tigers in one hour than I will see in the rest of my life combined.

*I definitely said, “Hold onto your butts” after Gavin pointed out the Jurassic Parkness of it all.

After getting out of the van (not in the tiger cages) there was a pedestrian walkway where we could see more tigers from afar.  We saw tigers chasing after a jeep that they thought would give them food, we saw Chinese people kicking snow down on tigers, we saw tigers running after each other, and we saw tigers majestically watching over it all from the top of a hill.

Overall, I think I saw a lot of Tigers on Monday.

Rising up My iTunes Play Count

The Who: Greatest Hits—Sharky gifted me some iTunes cash for Christmas, and said that I should use it to pay for Lost next month.  Instead, I bought The Who’s greatest hits.  It is very good.

Meal of the Week:

Currently I am in the city of Harbin, which should not only be noted for its cold temperatures, but also for its Russian influence.  The streets of Harbin look much more European that the streets of Yanji, Beijing, or Changchun did, and I have seen a lot of signs here that are written in Russian. 

Because of this, we decided to have dinner at a Russian restaurant.  While the restaurant we chose was much more expensive than we had hoped, it was fairly good food.  I had beef stew and we also had an appetizer of marinated pork.  The stew was really good because it is very cold outside, and the pork was also great.  I do not, however, know how ‘Russian’ this food actually was, or what the difference is between this stew and any other stew.

We also had some Russian beer, which was alright.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special.  I think if we go to another Russian restaurant while we are here I might just drink vodka.

Quotations of the Week:

“This is crazy, the band that’s playing is half Philipino and half Chinese, and it looks like they are friends with all of the Russian prostitutes.” –Gavin, describing our situation on New Year’s Eve

“I’m so sorry.” –One of my 3^rd year students who never came to my class, being apologetic on many occasions at our send-off dinner

Picture of the Week:

This is a picture of an ice castle in Harbin.  To understand how big it is, look at the people that are standing at the level near the base of the tower.  They were huge.