So, how have I been the past few weeks? you might ask. Well, things have certainly not been dull around here. Between teaching and English Department outings and meeting with students and just living in China, I've been wearing myself out on occasion. I have lots of stories, though, so I'll see if I can't relay some of them and still hold your attention.
For the first time since I've been in China, I think, I've seen a few accidents. A few weeks ago I was on my way to the McDonald's in town (yep, we have a McD's here, and two KFC's) in a taxi, when we passed this motorcycle on its side in the middle of the road. That wasn't so bad, but there was a woman lying next to it. She was holding her leg, but just lying there waiting for someone to help her up. I would've wanted to if I'd been walking. Then just last Sat. night I was walking home from something called "English corner" (more on that in a bit) with some of my friends, and we actually saw the accident when it happened. A taxi hit a little motorcycle/motor-scooter thing, and the guy who had been riding was trying to walk around, holding his leg. Again, I was tempted to help out, although I don't know what good I would've been. I did have that one class in "Injury Management for Dancers" and was desperately trying to figure out if he could've damaged his PCL or something. It looked like he was in serious pain, but he was able to walk off somewhere, so I think he'll make it. Just a few blocks later (same night, same people, same road) we saw the results of yet another accident. Makes you wonder what was going on that night. This one looked more serious. Although we couldn't see any people in the cars, there was glass all over the road, and the side of the van was smashed in. Sat. night must not be a very good night in these parts.
So, English corner was started at McDonald's when I was here last time. There are some other Americans in town, and they were asked by the then-Manager of McD's if they could come in every Sat. night to talk with local kids and help them practice their English. So, now that I'm back I've gotten involved in that too. It's really kind of fun, and there aren't just gradeschool kids that come. I usually end up talking to the college kids instead, to my enormous relief. ;) Last Sat. was lots of fun because I got to talk to some college students learning *German*. :) It was really funny, because occasionally I would start to think of random words (for example, "yes") in Chinese instead of English or German, and we all got a laugh out of that.
And speaking of crazy things happening Sat. nights after English corner, try this one out. A few weeks ago we were getting ready to leave, when lots of people in McD's started staring at something outside. (This is a country of spectator sports -- nothing is private, EVER; don't assume that you can go unnoticed at any time) It's not rude to stare in this country, especially at foreigners. In fact, I frequently find myself staring at things, just like the locals. You know you've been in China too long when....anyway, so apparently there was this way heated argument going on across the street from McD's, some kind of family feud or something. I didn't hear any of it, and I don't understand most Chinese anyway, so it wouldn't really matter. The crowning moment was when about four policemen started forcefully carrying a young woman away from the huge crowd that had gathered. They each were carrying one limb, and her back was only a few inches off the ground. I think they stopped once to let her pick up her cell phone, but continued carrying her several hundred feet away. The only way to describe it is bizarre. Only in China....
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