The Retired

Woke up with the sour thought that I was being required to attend a 3 hour class on a Saturday! What an absurdity! They were forcing us to meet with some old retired teachers, supposedly to cheer them up under the guise of ‘improving our Chinse’, hit two birds with one stone sort of thing. So I grumpily got out of bed checked email, made tea and ate some cookies that I had made the night before with real butter and vanilla!! (a rarity in Haerbin). I waited until the last possible minute to leave the dorm without being too late (fashion can only get you so far), and walked over to the one western restaurant on campus, oddly called ‘Family’, which serves the worst food on campus (another reason for my building anger).

I arrived with teachers greetings at the center of the floor and a groups of ‘Old people’ sitting to the left, students huddled to the right. It was like those 6^th grade dances where the boys crowd to one side and the girls crowd to the other, and a few brave or maybe just ‘nothing to loose’ sorts dance a bit, awkwardly in the middle.

I sat and then decided to actually say hi to these Oldies and was surprised to find one of them to be in the shape of my Cooking class teacher. In fact it was my teacher, mouth gaping in between words and eyes twinkling. I said hi and he gave me some pictures that we had taken last week. The night before he had mentioned that his wife had not done a very good job at the taking the picture and someone might have been missing a arm or half a body. Of course she thought she did a splendid job, and went as far as to say that it was very artistic! In fact it wasn’t poorly shot… but on closer look there was something missing, not just a arm or part of one’s body but all but a few strands of hair from Nicholous, one of the students. And it wasn’t because the camera view was too small, because instead of Nick there was a nice empty space of wall on the opposite side of the picture, just big enough to fit a full grown person… so I guess she just decided to make an artistic decision and take poor Nick out of the picture.

After Ma Laoshi got me warmed up to talking to Old folks, the Teachers introduced themselves and told everyone how great we were and then explained that we needed to pair up. I chose a old but not too old lady who to my surprise was very energetic, expressive and very willing to give out compliments. We talked nonestopped for over an hour and in fact she had me talk for most of the time, just about life in America, in China etc. But I did get her to admit she likes to cook, so we discussed our favorite tastes and ingredients. Oh it turned out to be a blast and I was so close to being a complete grentch about it…..

Skiing in Haerbin is not just about skiing....

It’s been a while since I last wrote. I guess I haven’t been terribly busy but have been going out more trying to enjoy the last few weeks we have in Haerbin. Last week I went skiing for the first time in my life. Jon and Amy (two fulbrighers), one our teachers that we call FangZi (which means house) and I all took a 3 hour train ride to a small skiing mountain called Yaboli. It was the first weekend of skiing for Haerbin so the train was packed with families (really mostly men) and their ski or snowboard gear. The train was extremely festive with groups of people playing cards, eating breakfast and generally making lots of noise. My first time up on skis, before I even got up on the chair lift, I slid down a small slope and in an attempt not to hit other tourists I fell to the ground desparately grabbing at snow to slow my speed. After that I was mostly alright, I learned how to stop and even made it up to the higher slopes. The hardest part was after falling and tumbling down a particularly steep slope you got up to find your skis 20 feet above you left on the top of the slope! Then trying to put the skis back on while balancing with one foot in the air. At one point a Chinese woman spent at least 10 minutes with me helping to get my skis back on. She had lots of suggestions but I was pretty useless and I think it made her quite frustrated.

Our first night at the slopes we went to a restaurant with a group of loud and fraternity-like middle-age men. We ended up staying at the same hotel as them and they insisted that we spend some time talking and drinking with them. Every few minutes they lifted they’re small glasses of beer and cried out ‘ganbei’ the equivalent to our ‘cheers’ except that it is expected that you down your drink. This is perhaps why they use smaller 3-shot glasses to drink beer with – in order to limit the amount of beer they consume. Whether that is really the reason or not it doesn’t seem to work because they still went through a few cases of large 40oz bottles of Harbin beer. One of the negatives about being a foreigner in China is that you’re always receiving requests for ‘ganbei’ and usually those that are most drunk are most eager to talk and most difficult to understand. Despite all of the excitement and attention I retired early and ducked out on a number of ‘ganbei’ opportunities.

Baked potatoes, stir-fry and arranged marriages

The weeks seem to be going by rather quickly - which I'm happy about. I'm ready to move on to life where I'm not stuck in a dorm with 30 University students and no kitchen!! Also looking forward to a visit home over the Christmas holidays. I miss wine, beer, food and mostly friends and family. Luckily I had a small taste of home this past week when I received a small package from my parents containing a bottle of Three Floyd's Alpha King beer which never tasted so good, and who knew you could send beer through the mail!!
Other than dreaming about home-cooked meals I've been continuing my studies in Chinese in a snowy, icy Haerbin. Yesterday I woke up to fresh sheets of ice covering the streets and the sidewalks and the realization that while the Chinese are a bit too eager to put an extra helping of salt on their stir-fry there seems to be a shortage for preventing hospitalizing slips and falls. Or maybe they just have a good sense of humor - as I walked... or skid rather, to class I was amused at the hundreds of students, some wearing high heels slowly making their way through the icy terrain all wearing a look of concentration and fear! Later-on I found that not all walkways were left untouched. Outside of our dormitory I found our small Ayi scraping ice off of the sidewalks with a small ice-pick.... And on other sidewalks there were signs of efforts to scrape the ice away - small scratches at the ice surface that looked like dug into the side walk leaving small animal looking hieroglyphics.
So it has been cold here but apparently not as cold as recent years. Haerbin receieves cold winds from the Siberia and has an average winter temperature of -18 degrees celsius which is about 0 degrees Fahrenheit. But it's probably only about 0 Celsius right now (32 Fahrenheit).
The food hasn't been bad here but I am looking forward to some good home cooking. Lately I've been eating a lot of baked sweet potatoes for breakfast or lunch and for dinner finding small stir-fry stations who usually cook something up using fresh vegetables and a simple homemade sauce. There's a small potato bake near my school so every morning I visit the two women who run the stall and pick from a batch of piping hot fat sweet potatoes! They've come to expect my visit and are now concerned if I don't show up at my normal time. The trick is to show up right when they're pulling the potatoes out but before a crowd rushes down to consume them all! Which is often difficult in a country with 1.5 billion people!
The stir-fry stations are also quite amazing. There is one that makes stir-fried noodles - whole made noodles with vegetables and a stewed beef. As a chinese roadside chef there is little time to rest. Throughout the day it is one dish after another and the speed at which two or three men/women can make a dish is quit amazing. One cutting vegetables and preparing small oils or sauces to be used in the dish when ready, another kneading the dough, then pounding it into a long strip, pulling at it to make a arms length rope, folding it and pulling again so that it is now two long ropes, folding and pulling again until there is a pile of noodle that in under a minute were transformed from a blob of dough! I wonder if the italians have any sort of methods like that when they make their noodles? I always thought they rolled the dough flat to cut strips. Actually the proper name of the above chinese noodles is lamian meaning pulled (la) noodles (mian). The young chef that I like the most does this process with extreme vigour and excitement (he must love his job). After pulling the dough to his wingspan length he slabs the rope of dough down on to the table giving it and those around him a shock! He quickly then makes the noodles tosses them in the already blazing wok and engages in a fiery battle of producing the meal. The fire envelops the whole wok at certain points in the process as he waves his wand like metal ladle! It's almost like Harry Potter, and reminds me of when Tom used to carry around a ladle that he claimed was his wand or weapon of some sort. In the end it's a pretty decent meal, fun to watch simple but good. When I went this past week he had been replaced by a grumpy looking large boned lady. I inquired after him and found that he had taken a 3 day train back to his hometown in the South of China. His parents had arranged a meeting for a perspective wife. If they like each other he may never come back! Hopefully he will make her happy with some good cooking!
Arranged marriages are still very common in rural areas although nearly unheard of in the cities. While many city-dwellers were once from the country-side there is a huge gap not only in material wealth between urban and rural but also a gap in cultural ideas and practices. The rural poor have never had proper land rights that would allow them to organize cooperatives or lease land for the more efficient production that could then be used to enter food markets. Because of this many are tied to the land and if there is low production many farmers seek jobs in the burgeoning construction or manufacturing industry often leaving families back in the countryside. China recently changed land rights so that farmers can now lease, subcontract or trade their land that the government has partitioned for them. Not sure if this will change things but if may lead to larger profits in the rural areas but could also lead to pooling of money and land into fewer and fewer hands... And perhaps the end of the rural culture, heritage and way of life. I'll have to get out there before it does!

Russian experiences in China

Hello!!
It's been an exciting week, what with the election and all. I had a very hard time getting work done but I think I did well on my test yesterday morning and am now ready for my weekend. We're going bowling in a little more than an hour which will be really exciting. I've been missing home a lot lately so I think bowling will provide a bit of that American lifestyle that I've been missing! And who can forget Raffie's great song 'I like to go bowling with my friend Burt'.
Besides the election this week was pretty normal. It has become extremely cold lately with last night getting down close to zero!! I've been slowly adding layers and layers of clothing and have now found that I can barely move when I get outside. Still have not bought mittens though.
Last week we went to the Russian area of town, which has also been turned into the tourist district. I think you can see some pictures of it on picasso (see the link to the right). Besides the colorful neon Chinese signs it really feels like you're in a European pedestrian walkway. Old architecture, spiraling towers and detailed statues staring down from the three/four story buildings. We decided to try out the 'best' Russian restaurant in town which was situated in a beautiful pre-war Russian building. Inside had a 1960s-bar and the waitresses were dressed in a strange almost Polish looking formal dress. When I asked them what they were wearing they explained that it was in fact Haerbin dress - which I guess is a mix of Russian and Chinese influence. Well I wouldn't be got dead in it... After walking past the bar we went up a staircase, the walls covered with old-timey photographs. The decor fit together really well.... until I noticed the huge fake tree that split through the staircase... I never have quite understood Chinese ideas of decoration, they always come off as being a littlle bit of an overkill. Well I guess I should explain that this is mostly in areas that cater to toursits - they must have a very skewed view of us.
Actually I'm finding this to be more and more true. For instance the few Muslims I've come across in China think that we equate Mustlim with terrorist - which is a pretty understandable viewpoint given our countries actions and the media coverage of America.
We finally ordered food at the Russian restaurant, and after all that fanfare I was quite dissapointed. The food would compare to a normal diner in the states. We had salmon that was overcooked and everything was doused in Mayonaisse!!
Ironically when I got to back to the dorm and went to make some coffee (Peet's!!!) I found some Russians (Palin would not have been happy) in our kitchen cooking up a storm. There were about 15 bottles of empty Haerbin beer but only two people in the kitchen.... but they seemed quite sober still. One of them was quite fat and the other lean very European looking, with a face covered in red pockmarks. The skinny one made the food while the fat one watched, ate and drank.... probably a common scenario. they offered me food and even Russian cheese - which also was not that good.... they seemed to like it though, and as the skinnier one continued to burn their potato and cabbage pancake-like mash I thought to myself 'I guess you like whatever you convince yourself is good'.

Left Out!

Left out – so I feel left out of the events at home. As my friends gear up for one of the greatest events in American history (maybe overstated), many of them with tickets to the Obama party in Chicago after his supposed win, and as the whole world holds it’s breath, I sit here in Haerbin . It seems amazing that the whole world cares about what is going on in America. I received an email from a friend in South Africa the other day urging me to educate myself about the election, and make the right choice, which he then stated was Obama. The combination of economic crisis, nearly 7 years of war and 8 years of ‘us against the world’ policies has created a lot of resentment and fear. The world-wide excitement also has something to do with Obama’s upbringing and the way he grapples with issues that are so close to people. He represents a world which is one body of different parts all required and making an impact. This crisis is showing just how dependant everyone is. There is a saying in China, when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. I think this has shown to be true but the reverse is becoming more and more possible too. Crisis in other countries are only worsening the situation for everyone including America. And now China’s economy has slowed. The one thing that could help the situation the most is if China’s economy really started spending, if they’re population started spending.

It is scary to be seeing these changes, but the world needs it and it’s even more exciting to have someone like Obama leading it. This campaign has been unique for many reasons but I think the biggest reason is because of the mass participation in politics and the passion that has been put in by people seeking an idea bigger than either candidate. The idea that we can transform politics and politics can transform the world. Specifically I think this has represented a social change where people are beginning to realize that they must ‘think beyond our navels’ that our life is related to others lives. That the Midwest manufacturing depression is related to global events. While there are skeptics, I among them, the shear numbers of grassroots support that Obama has built, the number of donations he has received, it’s as if he has built a movement. But this movement will only really start after the election, and the supporters of this movement will be expecting a lot. They’ll be expecting to continually play an important part in politics and I’m not sure how that will play out but it will be good for a country that has not been engaged for the last 8 years (and longer really). This will also require reconciliation between the two parties and the supporters of the two parties. And this is where I’m also happy to have Obama as our candidate. I think he has a real ability to reconcile, to understand the other and find common ground.

We’re watching the election in another student’s room, who has somehow been able to get CNN through our slow internet connection. He actually voted for McCain and his whole family are big McCain supporters. So I asked him how he felt about having Obama as our next president. He said, I don’t mind, there are things I don’t agree with, but I’m mostly just afraid of who he will pick for our Justices. I’m also afraid of a Democratic president with a majority Democratic congress. With no checks and balances I think the country will become more polarized.

These concerns I really understand, and my hope is that Obama’s grassroots type of politics will continue and that he will continue to keep an ear to the ground so that we can reconcile the country and return America to a place where we can all be proud. Where other countries respect our way of life and where we respect theirs.

So I am particularly missing home right now, missing history and apparently missing hanging with Opera at the Obama rally in Chicago (Becca walked in with her!!!). And I wont be able to be apart of the day after election which may be even more important. As it looks more and more likely that Obama will win (they just announced Ohio and Penn) I wonder how the grassroots networks and the huge political capital will be spent by Obama and the democratic party. Will it be used to create a new sort of politics? Where there is more participation? It could be a real historical change and I’m not there to be apart of it. Instead I’m in Haerbin – a media dead zone. Still content but just a little lonely.