Porridge, Pangang, and Partyin'

This last week was pretty action packed. On Thursday, the Peace Corps training officer and my site manager came down for a visit. We went out for the standard banquet with my school officials and then we went on a tour of the local steel factory, Pan Gang Steel. The steel company is the world's second largest producer of vanadium (added to steel to strengthen it I believe) and something like the worlds 4th largest producer of steel. It's a pretty big deal. The only reason that the town I live in exists, is basically because of the steel company. Panzhihua was a very small village until Mao Zi Dong himself picked the site to be the location of Pan Gang, because of its relative isolation. Oh, but I didn't get to go on the tour because I was wearing flip-flops. I understood at first, thinking they didn't want my open toes to get crushed by some misplaced steel. But, Hong Mei had high heels on, my program manager had fancy flip-flops on, and the site manager was wearing sandals. If a vat of boiling iron toppled over and we had to run for it, I sure wouldn't have been the last one out. At least I was allowed to wear the helmet and walk around the outside of the building.

For reasons unknown, the power is out for at least two days every month. You wake up to no power, but everyone seems to know that it will return sometime in the evening. So, on our no power day, Lindsey and I cooked the most 'Chinese' diner that exists, porridge and jiaozi. The jiaozi were the ones we had previously made with the twins on our lunch date, and the porridge was from the local store. Porridge, the standard breakfast for a large majority of Chinese is something most Westerners either hate or tolerate. Porridge, or wet rice as the literal translation goes is simply rice that has sat in water for a while. You can add a little pumpkin or some sugar to try and cut the blandness out, but it's nearly impossible. I for one love rice, but I can't stand 稀饭 （xifan) as it's called. Lindsey actually enjoys it now and makes it whenever her stomach is off.

Lastly, we took a trip to Xichang this weekend. Xichang is a city about 200 km north of Panzhihua. We took the trip just to relax and leave our cave for a couple of days. Lindsey and I bought some dishes with Chinese characters on them, I bought some hand-painted cups, and we also bought the traditional outfits of the local minority. We went to Xichang partly because I have this strange fascination with the minority who live in the region. The people were a slave holding society until the 1960's, they still have their own language, and they don't inter-marry with the Han Chinese. For the most part, they live in isolated villages high in the mountains, but Xichang is now considered their unofficial capital, so many of the locals come in to town for the markets.

Eating in the dark.

The top portion of this sign is in the Yi script. All of the signs throughout the city are in both the Yi script and Chinese. The Yi language is more closely related to Tibetan than Chinese. This sign says "The Xichang City Police Station"


Here's Lindsey buying a baby carrier from the locals. There was probably a group of 50 people standing around to see what the foreigner was doing.


My continuing obsession with the Yi hand painted lacquer-ware. I bought four of these cups to add to my collection, which includes a big fruit bowl and a vase. The clothes in the back are some more of the traditional clothes.

Making Baozi and Jiaozi

Today, Lindsey, Gregory, and I went over to our favorite surrogate Chinese families house (the twins) to make jiaozi and baozi (dumplings and... bigger dumpling type things that are steamed). Basically, they are both simply pork or beef mixed with mushrooms, garlic, and anything else you want, in the middle of a some dough. We set a date to help make the traditional Chinese food and be critiqued on our poor jiaozi/baozi making skills. It was all of our first time making baozi, but Lindsey proudly surpassed Gregory and I's with her baozi wrapping skillz. While it might not seem like there is a true art to the job of wrapping a little dollop of raw pork mixed with spices into a piece of flour, it's pretty hard to get right. Well, at least to get past the brutal Chinese inspection team who point at the poorly constructed baozi and ask, "That ones yours...right"?

"Here's a free lesson for ya" The twins father showing off the moves.


A couple of Chinese-American's rocking their baozi making skills.


Me looking pretty while the work gets done. The girls English names are Daisy (left) and Betty (right), they just turned 17 this last weekend but still look roughly 12. They attend the best High School in the city and their English is amazing.


The twins mother getting ready to steam the baozi.

The woman of the hour. While we could stand around joking, making a few at a time, Auntie here was making all the wrappers and then started the real work after we sat down and started eating the 30 or so we made.


All that easy work paying off, baozi! The best way to eat baozi and jiaozi is by dipping them into some vinegar. You can find large selections of both foods pre-frozen in the grocery store, but the homemade ones are a lot better...but I'd still take lasagna, pizza, cheeseburgers, tacos, salad, cheese, or pasta over them any day.

Every Class Has It's Thorn

If you find yourself unfamiliar with the seminal work of the 1980's hair-band Poison, here is a quick refresher for you. Here are the lyrics to the bands masterwork, Every Rose Has It's Thorn:

We both lie silently still
In the dead of the night
Although we both lie close together
We feel miles apart inside

Was it something I said or something I did
Did my words not come out right
Though I tried not to hurt you
Though I tried
But I guess thats why they say

Chorus:
Every rose has its thorn
Just like every night has its dawn
Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song
Every rose has its thorn

I listen to our favorite song
Playing on the radio
Hear the dj say loves a game of easy come and easy go

But I wonder does he know
Has he ever felt like this
And I know that youd be here right now
If I could have let you know somehow

Chorus

I know I could have saved a love that night
If Id known what to say
Instead of makin' love
We both made our separate ways

But now I hear you found somebody new
And that I never meant that much to you
To hear that tears me up inside
And to see you cuts me like a knife

While this might have been one of the simplest, cheese infested rock ballads ever written, I love it now more than ever. I've now taught this song at least 20 times with guitar in tow. The fact that there are only a few new vocabulary words for my students who are at roughly a first grade reading level, is nice. Also, the fact that I can actually sing the song is cool. The thing I love most about this song is when I ask, "What is a rose"? "美化“，my students reply. Then I ask, "What is a thorn"? "刺“，a few students say. Then I ask slowly, "In this song...what is the rose"? Everyone gets very quiet and starts looking at the blackboard, which is full of lyrics. Then, without fail, one student will simply say, "美奴", or "beautiful girl". Slowly, a wave of understanding sweeps across the room and all of the boys in the class will start to laugh and nod in agreement. Somehow, Poison managed to write the perfect song. I've looked for other songs to teach my classes, but nothing has come close to the ease of singability, subtle allusions, and grit that Poison created with Every Rose.

I simply wanted to write a short ode to Poison and their song Every Rose Has It's Thorn. Who ever thought that a 1980's hair band ballad would work, and rock, so well in a classroom.

May Holiday Ramblings

Last week, starting on May 1st was the Chinese May 1st holiday, or Chinese Labor Day, as I just recently found out. The holiday was created in the 1980's as an antecedent to the week long holiday that occurs in October. "If we give the whole country a week off work in October to increase consumer spending, doing the same thing in May will probably cause the same economic results". And so it has. Most people travel around China or return home during this time. My students primarily stayed at school to play video games or they found part-time jobs to earn roughly $3 a day trying to convince people to purchase cell phones or computers.

Lindsey and I went to Chengdu at the beginning of the holiday because I had a conference to attend with the Peace Corps. Officially, the conference is called COS (close of service). All the volunteers still left in our group (44 out of 57) came into Chengdu and we watched a slide show of pictures we submitted, talked about adjusting to life back in The States, discussed jobs, and enjoyed each others company for the last time that we would be meeting as a group. All in all, it was fun to see everybody, but I certainly haven't formed any lasting bonds with the majority of the group. There were some great people, but the fact that we are stretched so far across China, have no money, and seldom meet up, meant that my vision didn't cloud up with tears of nostalgia during the slide show.

Out of our group, it seemed that most people are ready to go home and are not that sad about leaving. There will be about 6 people who are staying in China, 3 of them with the Peace Corps. Otherwise, people are either going to spend the next couple of months circumnavigating the globe discovering lost civilizations and then posting pictures of it on their blogs, going to school to get a Masters degree in International Relations with a concentration in Law or Human Rights, or finding a job. Lindsey and I will be finding work.

This May Holiday, Lindsey and I had planned to travel to Western Yunnan to a town called Zhongdian, which recently changed its name to Xiang Ge Li La (Shangri La). While it is certainly not the mythical Shangri La, it is located in the traditional geographic confines of Tibet and houses a large monastery. So, it's probably alright. Yet, in the end, Lindsey and I were fairly worn down after traveling into Chengdu and then taking the train straight back. Lindsey developed a cough, subsequently got sick and then I got some gross infection thing on my leg, which I originally believed was a pimple, Lindsey made me call the Doctor, which in turn led to my laying down with a heat pack on the thing, taking antibiotics, and then writing the few remaining Chinese characters we can actually remember on my stomach. So, the week wasn't a lot of fun, but we were able to rest and relax a bit. We spent a lot of the time looking for jobs and I even had a phone interview for a Computer Technician job in California. Right now, the future possibilities are Alaska, California, Maine, Alabama, Florida, and South Carolina, all of the places Lindsey has applied to. I've been looking for teaching jobs, but what I'd really like is a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) job, working with a small town. Then, in the fall I'll begin applying to schools to start a Masters degree in either Geography or International Relations the following year, and then who knows where we'll be.

Only 2 more months...

Oh, and he's my barber. He'll cut your hair unevenly for only 3 kuai (36 cents), but he's really friendly and all the old Chinese men sit around at his shop playing cards and chatting.