Stuff

Getting stuff in China has proven to be quite interesting indeed. Some stuff is easy to come by, and other stuff... not so easy.

Interestingly (maybe), DaLian has two Wal-Marts, so getting western-ish goods isn't THAT big of a problem. Although there seems to be no cheese anywhere. The thing is, for the good stuff, you don't go to Wal-Mart.

Oh no. Oh no no no no.

DVDs
China, much like the appropriately named China-Town of cities such as New York, has a vibrant and booming bootleg DVD trade. And here is how it works: You walk into a store that has CDs and a few assorted legal DVDs. You peruse for a few seconds, and then an employee comes up to you. In barely audible English (or I guess still Chinese...) they ask "DVD?" You nod. And then they show you a small stack. You shake your head and gesture "More... ummm... bigger selection... ummm... more!" This is followed by some more nodding, and some whispered Chinese between employees.

The next thing you know, you're running after the employee who is taking you down some winding route into a strange locker in a basement that is filled to the brim with bootlegs. At this point, you peruse to your hearts content. Be sure to pay attention to what is written on the back. Sometimes they are actually descriptions of the movie inside. Sometimes they don't have that many copy errors. But most of the time they do, and most of the time they're about a different movie. But worry not. Just because your copy of Casino Royale has the rating info for Corpse Bride, it'll be Casino Royale. The Chinese are good with pictures. Maybe not so much with words.

The best though was the bootlegged "Man of the Year" which had a negative review for the film printed on the back.

Close enough.

So then you grab your stack. The employee will take them, and rush you back upstairs to the store. Then comes the bargaining. They'll type out the price on a calculator. No matter what it is, fake incredulity. Nuh uh sistah... you gotta do better. So type your preferred price. Keep at it for a while, and see how low they'll go.

It's like limbo, but MORE illegal.

Oh, and when you get home... don't expect all of them to work, so buy a few. They're cheap. And if you're really good on the calculator - they're REALLY cheap. (I didn't bargain nearly enough the first time. I'll show them next time!)

Of course this isn't the only way to get your bootlegs. Sometimes you can just be on the street. Most of the basics'll still apply, but be prepared to follow winding routes into strange apartments. Oh yeah, and if they start making obscene hand gestures when they say DVD... just make sure you know what kinda DVDs you're in for.

Apparently they'll bootleg anything.


CELL PHONES
Just like America, China has tons of cell phone stores, stands and kiosks. But apparently, you only use them if you're a complete fucking loser.

Kidding.

Sort of.

The way Corey and I were told (and subsequently taken) to buy a cell phone, is to go to the guy on the street. You know... the guy.

You go into his little shack on the side street, and with someone who speaks Chinese, you get them to show you there selection of phones. Keep in mind, said selection may be presented to you out of a duffel bag. And they may get more brought to them in a plastic bag while you're negotiating.

Yeah, that's what happened. But what can I say? The phone works. Not so much in the apartment... but that's probably the apartment's fault.

Oh yeah, and you get to choose and buy your cell phone number. They're priced according to the amount of unlucky numbers in them. Really.

So of course us idiot Westerners are looking for numbers with as many 4's in them as possible. They practically give them away. All you need to do is be willing to tempt fate every time you use your phone or something.

I don't get it, but hey, I'll go with it.


TOYS
Just a quick note here, as I haven't really bought any toys here. But in many of the stores, I was sort of surprised by what I saw. Sort of.

You know the Chinese stores you have down the block from wherever it is you live? You know all the shitty knockoff toys they sell?

Yeah. That's what they have here. Everywhere. Even in the aforementioned Wal-Marts.


So I guess the take away message of this post is that no matter how different China is from home... when it comes to STUFF, China ain't that different from say... Canal Street.

- S

The Day Before Yesterday...

So remember that morning typhoon I wrote about in the last post? Forget about it. That was nothing compared to what happened later that night.

When we left school, our manager Fiona told us to be careful because the wind was very bad. We all laughed it off, thinking it was nice of them to still be overly concerned for their wide eyed and always confused foreign teachers. But when we got outside, it was a different story all together.

There were apparently class 10 hurricane winds blowing snow and ice everywhere, not to mention pieces of buildings and signs. Oh... and people. One of my coworkers saw people being blown down the street on their asses trying to grab on to anything they could.

All we had to do was walk from the school to the bus stop right down the street. Of course the "all we had to do" part was a joke. It was so crazy that it was more funny than scary, and it only got worse once we got off the bus by our apartments.

Of course we realized that if we wanted to eat anything we'd need to go out, so imagine eight foreigners huddled in a private room of a hole in the wall restaurant in china while gale winds are blowing the door in.

Food was great though. Interesting aside: despite all the talk of "Chinese food in China won't be the same" they make GREAT Kung Pow Chicken here.

Anyways, after dinner and a few TsingTaos, it was time to make the trek back to our apartments.

The short walk back was made a bit more exciting by the fact that the apartment complex was basically one giant iced over wind tunnel. The best way to sum this all up is that there is nothing cooler than having to hold on to a wall so you don't get blown away, while yelling at your friend to stay down after she got knocked off of her feet, and watching another friend get blown into a truck.

Straight out of a movie, straight from DaLian, China.

- Shawn

Educational Monsoons

Man, a lot's happened since the last post, but such is the way of moving into a new city/apartment/job/hemisphere all at once.

We had an insanely hectic two days of training, where we were "fully prepared" to teach. Man, I wish I was telling you this story in person. I feel like I need to be there to fully exaggerate the quotation marks there.

Not that the training was bad at all. It was just a lot to absorb all at once. Suddenly, the next thing we know, we're all planning lesson plans for a full day of classes on Saturday.

Winging it would be an understatement.

But somehow, it wasn't disastrous. And I have to say, I'm really enjoying this whole teaching thing. There's just a feeling of doing something worthwhile that has been missing for... well... a long time.

That, and the kids are really fucking cute. And when they're not, and they insist on being pains in the ass instead, well... you can have a lot of fun with them anyways.

Like pushup time.



But really, these kids are damn smart. Ignoring the English levels (which are obviously very varied), one 11 year old blew me away today when we got into a discussion at break about the city population of New York. He asked me how many, and I hazarded a guess figuring it didn't really matter what I said. Boy was I wrong. I had thought he was curious, but it was more him testing my knowledge. Suffice to say he knew a lot more of the population break down of New York than I ever did. Or ever will.





My guess

His correction.

His break down of New York City proper.

And America as a whole



But what the hell, he still had to do pushups.

Anyhoo, it's raining now, and while DaLian rarely gets rain (or so I'm told), the entire city is flooded due to a non existant drainage system. Getting to school this morning was more of a platform jumping video game type experience than a commute.

I didn't really feel like taking the time out of my puddle/river dodging to take pictures, but here is a quick shot of a staricase that was more like waterfall.



Meh... doesn't really do it justice. Well just imagine waking up to view of a sea of garbage outside your bedroom window.

And on the topic of apartment views, I bid you adieu. More on Corey and my living arangements next time (when there are some good pictures).

Stay dry,
- Shawn

Dazed and Confused

So right off the bat let me just say that having the entire blogger page pop up in Chinese was an unexpected twist that caused me to lose the nice long post that I wrote. Well, you're all lucky that I'm not tired at all, because I'm gonna try to recreate it all. Just for you.

There wasn't much to report yesterday. We arrived in Dalian after a nice and long travel day. I have to admit that somehow, the twenty plus hours of traveling went by very quickly and easily. Doubtless this is in no small part thanks to two laptops, an assortment of random DVDs, and in flight pizza. We arrived in Dalian and were met by some of the staff from our school, Future 2. Corey and I also met two other foreign teachers while we were waiting for our luggage. Somehow, we were able to tell who they were. Somehow.

Our apartment is still occupied, so for the next day or so Corey and I are being put up in a hotel. Laura and Vickie (the two other foreign teachers) say that their apartments are "quite nice", and a few of the staff members at our school told us that our apartment is very big. Should be interesting once we move in. Interesting in a good way.

This morning, the four of us were all rounded up by Louis, one of the Chinese teachers, who took us to the police station to get registered with the (duh) police. Afterwards we went to our school where we met a bunch of the teaching staff. Most of whose names escape me. Give me time.

After a quick look at and around the school, Louis took us out to a traditional lunch at a restaurant across the street from the school. When you walk in on the first floor, there are an assortment of fish tanks. The four of us stood bewildered as Louis asked us to pick our lunch. Indecisive westerners that we are, Louis pointed at two, and we watched as some dude netted the fish, pulled them out of the tank, and bashed them against a bucket a few times before taking them off to be prepared to our liking.

Since we were a large party (six of us now including Louis' girlfriend), we were taken up to a private room on the fourth floor where there was a large table, a couch, and a television. On the table was a big wheel where all the dishes were put.

Now, people that know me have often accused me of being a picky eater. All I can say is: screw you guys. I ate it all. From the egg batter fried pumpkin sticks, to the standard steamed broccoli with garlic, and of course, our friend the fish from before.

Yeah. This guy:

After lunch, we went downtown to what seemed like an endless string of malls. They were... overwhelming... to say the least. I promise there'll be more on the scintillating subject of malls as soon as I have something more to say than "wow, I have no idea what's going on."

Well, it'll probably be sooner to be honest. I have a feeling "wow, I have no idea what's going on" is going to be a prevalent theme for the next few weeks.

- Shawn

Before the Beginning

It's been a long and slow build to this point, but here I am. My bags are (sort of) packed, my closet is (sort of) empty, and I'm (sort of) ready to go.

A lot of adjectives were tossed around in describing the "career move" Corey and I are making. Perhaps the most prevalent of all descriptive words was Crazy. How could we just pick up and haul ass all the way to the other side of the world and immerse ourselves in a culture we know little about? Now, I can't speak for Corey, but for me it was the answer was always sort of "Meh. I'll let ya know when I get there." Basically just jump out of the plane now, and hope the parachute opens later. And after that, hope you land right.

I really hope that metaphor made at least some sense. If not, I'll just have to come back and edit the hell out of this thing.

But despite trying to flippantly dismiss this with a skydiving metaphor, it's become a lot harder to qualify the trip like that. Because this isn't just a close your eyes and jump type thing. It's been planned for a long time. A long, long time. And now, I'm wondering if it was long enough. I mean, I still have so much to do. I need to buzz my head for christ's sake. And umm... get my glasses fixed.

I promise there won't be many posts like this once I get to China, this is just me taking a break from packing before I realize I'm actually done and ready.

I didn't write "and ready to jump" there. I'm proud of myself. Look, I'm already growing as a person.

Although, "and ready to jump" does have a cool ring to it. Very epic. But since that ending is already squandered, I guess all I can say is that it's time to finish packing, and I'll catch you all on the flip side.

- Shawn