Assorted pictures.

These first two are from when I got lost in Shanghai. I actually walked past my destination a couple of times.. I'd already seen three Motel 168s in China, and all the others had English letters and Arabic numbers on them. But I got to see this cool graffiti and walk down this sinister looking alleyway. 

These two are from near my work in Suzhou. No idea what the store sells or why they chose these decorations.

These pics are all from in/around the Suzhou Central Train Station. 

About five minutes walk from the train station you might run into a bridge like this. 

Look on the other side of the bridge and you may see these boats 'parked'

 Was trying to find something fun to eat, got lost again... But I saw this tower and had to check it out. Maybe it was the time of day, but this is about the closest I could get. If I ever see it in the daytime I'll investigate further.

This is a bus stop. It's beautiful.

 The view of a little park and shopping center combo from across the canal.

 This is right in the middle of what I suspect was not intended to become a parking lot. Couldn't figure out what it all meant.

 This is connected to my building. I have no idea what it is.

 Suzhou is famous in China for it's canals and gardens. There's a ton of them. I took some pictures that are less than flattering, but I think say a lot about China.

Teaching

I haven't been saying much about teaching, so I suppose I'll touch on that a bit.

Today I took a solid punch to that sensitive in-between-the-legs area. Kid had a running start, then jumped in what may have been a lunge or a pounce or even just an attempt to give me a hug. Not really sure. Kid's name is Tony and Tony sure has an arm on him.

I immediately dropped the little tray of supplies I had- flashcards, scissors, and glue- and grabbed his arm. I think his guardian type figure must have seen because she rushed in at about that time, and I was later told that this woman was angry I'd grabbed her son's arm like that. I then proceeded to fall and make a sound that was probably just kind of like "euuuuugngngngnhhhhhhuueueueu"
and the Teacher's Assistant (who actually knows Chinese) explained what had just happened to the parent. Complete reversal!

The parent's English was very limited, but she did know "sorry" and she said it about twenty times. I waved it off and got myself a glass of water. Class started five minutes late.

More on this another time.

Teaching, cooking, etc

Tonight I made jambalaya from scratch. Like a boss. My roommate ate it and she liked it, too.

She's Australian and pretty chill. A bit older than me, and with more teaching experience, too. She's been in China for I think two years already, and spent at least one year in Russia. She made me Russian pancakes one morning (which are like pancakes in America but less fluffy and you use condensed milk instead of syrup and butter) and I've been trying to figure out what I could cook for her in return ever since. But now that I have a little thing of cajun spice I can actually make stuff.

She liked the jambalaya, but wouldn't take a peanut butter sandwich with it, and was terribly confused when I suggested it. She's never had a peanut butter sandwich with soup or chili or anything like that. Nor has she ever had a PB+J sandwich. But I've never had Vegemite, so I guess we're all even.

Today I had to hop over to the SIP (Singaporean Industrial Park) district of Suzhou. Conveniently for me the San Xiang Square metro entrance is right near my apartment. San Xiang is on the North/South metro line, but is only one stop from the East/West line. I picked up some sausage and some spaghetti sauce and even found pumpkin pie filling at the Euromart (a store specializing in imported goods- mostly English, but there's also some Japanese, Indian, etc), so I might try to make pumpkin pie here soon.

As soon as I came up out of the subway I saw a guy on a little ebike moving water jugs like what you'd put on a water cooler. These water jugs are a booming business because the water in China is, well, it's not fit to drink. He had two of these giant plastic bottles between his legs, four or five on a string that ran from handle to handle, and then some kinda weird backpack rig that he'd attached at least twenty more water jugs to. And he was just passing people and swerving in and out of traffic.

I got to ride an ebike myself, and drive one, too, the other day, with my friend from Canada. I can see how they would be a lot of fun in warmer weather. Perhaps I'll invest in one.

But for now I am stuffed on jambalaya. I'm gonna call it a night.

Rugby

Last night I sat down with a Canadian and an Irishwoman and a guy from New Jersey and we drank Dutch beer at a Cuban restaurant. We watched a rugby game between South Africa and New Zealand. On Japanese Street, in Suzhou, China.

Rugby. What a sport. Only the lady from Ireland had any clue what was going on in the rugby game, but she wasn't entirely sure on the rules. I'd recommend everybody go watch a rugby match. Similar to American football, but much rougher. And with a serious cut down on stuff like time-outs, commercial breaks, and padding.

I have no idea what the rules are. But I think American football could stand to take a page or two out of rugby's rulebook. The scrums are really something to see. Even on TV. Go find a rugby video or two on youtube and be glad you did.

Chinese New Year Party

I was told to bring my ukulele. I was not told why.


Sat down and met some people who work for the company that up to this were strangers. But they didn't speak much English, so it was kinda difficult to get to know them. Everyone had red wine, and there was toast after toast. Not from wine glasses, but from these little vials. Wine is something I'd like to enjoy, but just can't get into. Sorry, wine drinkers, wine makers.

But even before the wine came out, a number of plates were already arranged in the middle of the table. There's a big glass spinning thing, you get to spin it around to get the various plates and bowls to you. That's pretty common. On the table was some kinda fried-then-baked fish that still had a lot of bones in it. And duck. I had duck for the first time. Ducks are oily creatures. Even their tongues.

Pictured: duck tongue


Then moved on and had some kinda radish and cucumber dish. Glass noodles, so named because you can see right through them. After they are cooked they take on a slight coloration based on what spices you cook them with, but uncooked it seriously looks like strands of glass. In the States we have cabbage and black-eyed peas around New Year's. The idea being, I think, that you'll have financial success in the coming year.

In a way it's easier to see how eating pig ears would make you listen to your parents if you are very young, or help you keep your hearing if you are very old.


After eating and etc we played a few games. I lost at a hot potato type game and had to either drink or perform. So I played about half of 'The Science of Selling Yourself Short' by Less Than Jake on my ukulele. It went well; when I looked up from my ukulele there was a room full of people recording me on their phones.

And I won the door prize and I got some fancy headphones. Another example of me being entirely too lucky. Headphones were going to be my first purchase after a paycheck, too. I don't know what to do with myself.

Regarding the Plagues and the search for the land of Milk and Honey.

This is arguably just a minor detail, but something else I'm intrigued by is that as God metes out the plagues on Egypt he repeatedly steels the Pharaoh's reserve.

He doesn't go down and talk to Pharaoh, but does this through his Godly ways. It isn't exactly clear how he does this, but he doesn't seem to be having a chat, it seems to be a much more supernatural thing. Pharaoh would have actually caved after just a few plagues, but God keeps him stiff.

The motivation behind this seems to be that Pharaoh would have in all reality changed his mind once the Israelites left. Maybe not immediately, but eventually he would decide to go get them back. So he forces Pharaoh to learn in the hardest way possible, so that it sticks.

He even does it right at the end. He allows Pharaoh to give the go ahead and dismiss the Israelites, then goes on to change Pharaoh's mind and give chase through the sea of reeds. But then he protects the Jewish people and closes the sea on the Egyptians.

Side note here: In movies and things the bit where they walk through the sea of reeds is a mad dash. In the Bible this event takes at least a few days.

...

Then the Jewish people have to get to the land of milk and honey. This takes a very long time. I'm not sure how old Moses is when they leave Egypt, but it takes right up to his death at 120 years old. And during that time these people repeatedly screw it up.

The most well known bit seems to be that when Moses goes up to receive the commandments from God, they make a golden calf to worship. They thank the golden calf for getting them out of Egypt, even. But then God shows up and they come back to him.

Then of course there's the deal where they aren't themselves permitted to enter the land, but only their children may, and so they have to wander the desert for 40 years.

This actually happens repeatedly in various ways. They won't go to war because of the enemy's superior numbers, so God punishes them. And when they try to go to war without his go-ahead they are punished, too.

At one point some of the Israelites who are not descendants of Levi decide that they want to be priests, and they follow all of the directions, but God doesn't like it and sends a plague that kills 14,700 people (I think that's the number).

I can't think of the other times this happened, but I'm pretty sure there are a couple more. 

God calls the descendants of Jacob a "stubborn people," but I have to wonder. Maybe he did the same thing to them. Maybe he decided that the lesson to stay loyal to him, that he would protect them, wouldn't really stick unless he put them through quite an ordeal. It's not said explicitly. It's not even suggested, really. They just seem... honestly kind of dense to not catch on to how things work.

But that's my hypothesis about the Pentateuch. I'll let you know when more cool stories come up.

Perception of the West

The Chinese seem to have very few reservations when it comes to smoking. Even right under the signs that say NO SMOKING even in the elevators. Maybe especially in the elevators. It seems they think it a courtesy to go to the restroom to smoke if they are in a building. But even then they don't bother to throw the butts in the urinals or the toilets. They simply drop them on the ground. Even on carpet.

And they have traffic signals, too. Big bright ones. They even have timers on them to say when the lights will change. And just like most places the roads have lanes.  But these things are not important to the Chinese. The general rule of thumb is that you need to honk if you are passing someone, and otherwise just kinda go with the flow. Especially the various ebikes and scooters and bicycles.

So when they see the lao wai (direct translation is 'old whitey', just really means westerner. Kind of a lighthearted insult like calling an elderly gentleman 'old timer,' but this applies to all westerners regardless of skin-tone or age) never smoking indoors, driving inside the lines, etc., they get the impression that we are a very law-abiding people.

They also love English words on their clothing, the way folks in America get Asian stuff tattoo'ed on them without any way to check what the word means. One kid at my school, maybe 8 or 9, had GO TO HELL on his shirt. A guy in the elevator last week had a great big American flag on his back and then GREAT BRITAIN.