The plan was to go to a gated community about a twenty minute drive away from our own, where we would play games with the children and promote the YIHE Kindergarten.
We were to leave at 7:45, and get to the site before 8:30 to set up. When we got there, nobody knew we were coming, and it took everyone about forty-five minutes to sort it out. It's important they know we're coming because it costs money to use their property for marketing, so it's a big process to get the permission.
We finally got it sorted out, and set up tables with crafts on them. A bunch of kids came to do the crafts, and while they were doing that, the other teachers would give the parents a YIHE pamphlet and try and sell the school.
I had no idea what was going on, and was told to do a craft with the kids, so I tried. I was supposed to give them a free toy if they did a good job. The toys I gave out were like the kind you'd get from a machine in the supermarket...you put your quarter in, twist the handle, and a toy comes out. So, pretty cheap things.
I had a bag of these things, and I started giving them out when the kids were done their craft. Then other kids didn't bother to finish and reached in and helped themselves, following the example of their parents and grandparents.
I was pretty surprised how vicious these parents were when reaching into the bag to get a free 10cent toy. They don't line up or anything...they just crowd around and push and shove and jostle for position.
I didn't care as I was grumpy for having to work, and didn't feel like disciplining parents and grandparents in English. I just let them take the toys.
Then it started raining, so we got to quit. We would go out for lunch, then return in the afternoon for another session. Here are some pictures from today.
This is the gated community we were at. It's bigger and nicer than YIHE, with fountains, a grass football pitch, and these stone peacock statues. The buildings are taller and look more expensive, and have many pools, hedges, and trees surrounding them.
It's called "European Cityscape" and has signs and billboards all over showing white people doing things like having coffee, riding mountain bikes, reading books on boats, and sitting in hamocks. When I was there, I only saw Asians. It's interesting how white people are used in Chinese marketing.
This is the lunch table. It's the first time I've seen individually wrapped dishes. They must be washed by a third party, then delivered. China may ban plastic bags at the grocery store, but there's still lots of senseless plastic around.
This is the way all Chinese restaurants I've been in have their tables set up. Everyone sits in a circle around a lazy suzan, and the food is placed in the middle. When you want something, you reach into the middle, spin susan, then dip in with your own chopsticks and take however much you want. There are no serving spoons.
Mou Lau Shi looks at the camera, while Ma Lau Shi doesn't. You'll see duck on the right, pork in the middle, some vegetables, something deep fried which they call a pancake, and then some dumplings.
Guo, my co-teacher, is about to eat some pork. It came with these plastic gloves, so you just put it on and eat with your hand. I've seen people whip out these gloves while eating french fries, but this was the first time I'd seen it at a real resaurant.
Guo made me put on a glove and eat the pork with it too. You don't use your choppers if you have a glove. You just handle it into your mouth, so that made it easy for me since I'm not good at advanced chopstick manouvers.
Here is a view of our table later on in the meal. The dishes keep coming. The focus of this picture is the sweet and sour fish that came to the table complete with fins and head. You dip your choppers into the flesh and tear some away, which brings lots of those small, sharp bones along.
At these types of meals everyone always watches me, and it's a bit frustrating. I try to eat the things I can eat with minimal difficulty, and I usually only eat enough to be polite and avoid too much scrutiny.
During these meals everyone speaks Chinese, and I often find myself drifting off into daydreams since I have no idea what they're saying. The other teachers have had fun this year calling my name and waving their hands around to bring me back. They must think me a dolt, and wonder how I got hired to be a teacher!
I daydream all the time here, maybe since I have very little auditory stimulation. Sometimes the kids even catch me doing it and they think it's really funny. I used to be embarassed, but now I'm not. I might as well retreat into my own brain...it's a nice escape from China!
They day ended with us going back to the new gated community and spamming all the cars with YIHE pamphlets, putting them under their winshield wipers. I don't know why, but there were eight of us there to do that.
I hate when I leave a mall and find a pamphlet under my wiper, but these people don't seem to mind. We had people asking for a pamphlet out of their window before they parked, or stopping us on the sidewalk to get one. I was pretty surprised.
All in all it was a frustrating day. I didn't want to be there, and had to endure what I thought to be pointless brochure giving. Oh well, at least I won't have to go on the next excursion.
I was also frustrated by having to pretend to be into helping these random kids do a craft. One mom brought her slobbering snot-nosed two year-old over and wanted me to fawn over him because he could repeat "How-wo? Why wai i Wang Tze" after her. Fantastic. Don't drip your nose on me kid.
Country roads, take me home...
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