What is Thanksgiving anyway?

Being a foreigner in a new country is interesting in many ways. One of the things I love about it is making friends is simple. In China it's pretty much guaranteed the Chinese people think I'm cool and want to be my friend because I'm a novelty. Obviously foreigners standout a lot in China, this is something I'm reminded of every day when small children or random adults point at me and say "外国人" (foreigner). On a side note - a lot of the children will actually say "美国人“ which mean American and really ticks off foreigners from other countries- understandably. When a foreigner sees you they feel instantly connected because hey- you're also not Chinese and it's a good bet you're fairly uncomfortable in your surroundings.

So, if you're having trouble making friends at home- just move to China! It's doesn't matter how weird or strange you are, you can still make friends. Also, if you're a guy, you're are guaranteed at least five Chinese girls fighting over one another for you. You know, if you're into the stuff. 

But in all seriousness I often feel way more connected to all things American as soon as I leave the country. I even feel this way about Americans themselves. It feels so nice to get together with a bunch of people from your country who speak your language. It's also nice to get together with anyone who's foreign because you have something in common- you're in a foreign country! 

So one night a bunch of us foreigners got together at a nice restaurant. Originally there were going to be about 16 of us so one of our friends who'd lived in the city for a while got a room put aside for us with a table that had enough space for everyone. To explain, in China many restaurants have rooms where people can eat. These rooms are often for parties, large groups, or simply for groups with important people in them. Most restaurants have a normal dinning area with rooms connected to it. When we found out way more people were going to show up we asked the waitresses for a bigger table. They told us we couldn't get a bigger table because the only room that had a table big enough for us had a minimum. So some of these rooms are very fancy and your party has to spend a minimum amount to be able to stay in that room. The minimum for this room was 2,000 RMB (over $300), which isn't bad considering the room sat about 20 people so that would only mean 100RMB each which is about $20- a pretty low price to pay for a fancy dinner out. But this is China, where you can get dinner for about $1 American. 

The dinner was amazing. The restaurant was known for 北京烤鸭 which is Beijing/ Peking Duck (Beijing and Peiking are the same thing but written in different styles of writing Chinese with an alphabet). So we got three ducks, a man even came into our room to carve the duck for us, right in front of us; it was really neat. There was tons of other food too. There were even six types of animal meat on the table (duck, squid, octopus, some type of fish, lamb, beef, and pork). Though I was a vegetarian before going to China I think consuming four different animals that night really cemented my flop onto the omnivore side of consumption. In true Chinese style there were as many dishes as people all on a giant lazy-susan. This table was so big the lazy-susan actually had a motor, it was really hard to turn it yourself. The table was also so large that it took 3 mins 27 seconds for the lazy-suzan to make a complete pass around the table. Yes, we timed it. The room was huge and very ornately decorated. I felt like I was in a small parlor at Versailles, not in a small restaurant in a small city in China. The room had coaches and big comfy chairs for people to lounge in along with two giant floor heaters (an expensive luxury in China where all their heating comes form the same company and is standardized from place to place). The room also had a dvd player and projector screen resting above a fireplace. The chairs at the table were big with tall backs and velvet cushions. The restaurant even had real cloth napkins! Something I've missed very much in China. 

During the dinner we began talk about Thanksgiving plans. It was decided people were to celebrate Thanksgiving in one of our British friend's bar during the afternoon of Thanksgiving, because people had to work during dinner. Lots of plans were made. Who would bring what, what we would eat, how many people there would be, how we'd get turkey (which is really expensive here!) and so on. The four people from the UK in the room were all sitting next to one another. In the middle of us all gushing about Thanksgiving I hear form one of them, "So, what is Thanksgiving any way?" Which was answered by another Brit saying, "It's got something to do with when the Indians took over America."

So there you go, you don't even have to understand the holiday to celebrate it. Any excuse to get a bunch of foreigners together is a nice thing to do. Some of my Chinese friends even said they wanted to come!

Fun fact, the literal translation of the Chinese word for Turkey is "fire chicken." I was told this by my students today. After asking they made it clear that it was due to the color of the meat, not the color of the bird.

Sadly I will be missing this celebration because I'll be in Guangzhou. I'll be sure to write a blog about the strange, southern, Cantonese speaking part of China.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Squat toilets

I feel as though the words "squat toilet" general induce a feeling of disgust in people. Most people see squat toilets as gross and unsanitary. I don't believe this at all. I actually think squat toilets are much more sanitary.

Sure, squat toilets are pretty gross. When you walk into a public toilet in China it's pretty nasty. It smells, there's normally a thin layer of dirty liquid on the ground and you know some of that liquid is urine. There are overflowing bins next to the toilets where the toilet paper goes (you don't flush it). The first reaction most people have would probably to cover your nose and run. But really squat toilets are great. When you really think about it having western style toilets in public places is kind of gross. I mean, you put your naked skin somewhere where tons of other people have put there's. Also, how many times do you see urine on toilet seats? How many times have you yourself sat in someone else's urine? Yeah, that's gross! I'd much rather get someone else's pee on the bottom of my shoes than on me! Squat toilets are just so simple and quick to use. I mean, who wants to sit on a squat toilet for a long time? That just hurts your calf muscles after a while. You get in, you get out, and there's no sitting on the toilet and texting when ten people are waiting in line.

Squat toilets are just so basic, there the bare minimum of what you need, which truly reflects the Chinese way of life. I have a huge respect for Chinese people and how they live. I feel so spoiled in comparison. I am guilty, like all other college students in America of complaining about how small the dorm-rooms I lived in were. I also complained (like every other student) about having to share my dorm-rooms with other people. But the most people I ever shared a room with was two other people. In China, the students share their dorm-rooms with 5 to 7 other people. That's 6 to 8 people in one room. I've visited a number of college campuses and when I do I always peek into the dorms. One of my Chinese friends made fun of me last week for doing this. "That's just a dorm, what are you looking at?" It was hard to?!" Is pretty much how my response went. He then told one of our chinese friends that the next time I was on their campus she had to show me her dorm room. Because of course me going into a mens dorm... was impossible.

Here's another way College in America and China is so different. My female Chiese friends who are in college will giggle and ask me if I've ever had a boyfriend. I try to explain to them that I've never known a person in college in America who hasn't had at least one boyfriend or girlfriend. The ideas relatively unthinkable! Relationships are such a big part of the college experience. But in China the students don't get any time to themselves let alone a room for them to go and be alone with someone. The lack of privacy in China is another thing that makes me feel like a selfish brat. Getting alone time in America is easy, most of the time I simply want more time alone than I'm able to get, but in China, I feel as though being alone is next to impossible. Parents are out of work by the time students get out of school, the students might even leave for school earlier than their parents leave for work. Many students board at school because even an hour commute to and from school is too much for the students to do twice a day, every day, six times a week. They live in big rooms with 10 or 15 other students. They go to college and have dorms full of people then they go back to live with their families or get a job where they get housing. At my school many of the Chinese teacher live on campus, the young unmarried ones. They share a room with another person, there is not kitchen area in the whole building they live in nor bathrooms or showers. They have to go to another building to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and have to go to a public bathhouse to shower. (I'll explain public bath houses in my next entry.) Other people who work on campus  like the man with the mail, the security guard, and the cleaner (yeah, I'm pretty sure there's only one for the whole school.) All of them live in a room on campus, the same room they work in, or a room adjacent. Many of the small restaurants here have a back room where the family lives, sometimes you'll even see them go into their living area to cook. You also will see washers or TVs in the room where you eat for the families.

The truth is -in a lot of ways- I wish I had grown up that way and experience that life. It's impossible to not feel like an entitled fuck looking at people living this kind of life. The thing is, it's relatively easy to live in better living standards then you're used to. It takes time to adjust, but you'll enjoy the adjustment. But living in conditions that are less than what you're used to is very hard and frustrating. No matter how open minded you are or how much you want to experience something new adjusting down is hard to do.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/