Ni Hao!!!!

Fast forward 3 weeks, and I am officially a Chinese resident (according to my temporary Chinese residency permit). My vocabulary has multiplied by about 10 thanks to my patient Chinese friends, but I’m not sure how much that is saying considering my lack of speaking abilities to begin with. I’ve been practicing my dialogue abilities with various taxi drivers; we usually run out of conversation within 30 seconds or less, but that’s 30 seconds or less that I couldn’t speak/understand before. I can also correctly, with the proper tones and everything, say: ‘I hear, but I don’t understand,’ ‘I do not want cilantro on my dish’ and ‘class is over,’ all of which have served me well. I’ve already found my regular restaurants where they recognize my roommate and I. Granted it’s probably not hard considering we’re the only white people there, but it’s nice nonetheless. My liver has also been taking quite the hit this past month. Maybe I’m trying to relive my college days, maybe I’m bored, or maybe I’m just susceptible to the peer pressure by the other foreigners, but somehow, a beer ends up in my hand every night, and I keep frequenting the clubs that I claim to detest. C’est la vie! If I had a Chinese translation of this, it would be far more appropriate, but I don’t, so tough.
People did warn me that Shijiazhuang was dirty, polluted, and had little to do for fun. Well, turns out they were right, but I still like it here. A friend of mine called the city “a piece of real China,” which I think describes it perfectly. There are no tourist traps, the restaurants and shops are not targeted toward English speakers, and I’ve yet to see a vendor sitting on the street corner selling cheap plastic replicas of the Great Wall. The one fun filled exception would be the trip to the zoo, which was by far and away the best zoo I’ve ever been to. Not only was it a gorgeous, pagoda filled haven, but I got to sit on an elephant, pet a giraffe, and for 75 cents I was able to dangle raw chicken on a stick into the crocodile reservoir. I thought the crocodiles would be snapping and jumping for the meat, but instead they just sat there, eerily still, until they suddenly snatched the chicken out of my unsuspecting hands and made me scream like a little girl. Quite possibly the coolest and most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. Aside from the zoo, the lack of recreational activities does, however, in fact mean that I have been spending a good chunk of my free time watching all 5 seasons of Desperate Housewives over cups of tea with Nadya, my kick ass roommate. Yeah, it turns out having a roommate is fantastic, and I would probably be desperately lonely without her. She and the other foreigners have been a spectacular source of entertainment and company, and without them, I would most likely be sitting in room alone curled up in the fetal position and wanting to go home.
Now, I would like to venture out and explore other cities of China, which I will get to eventually, but a few obstacles have managed to prevent me. First, there’s that old nuisance of employment and having to hang around to do the job they hired me to do. That’s a topic that deserves its own blog, so my teaching experiences will have to come on a different day. The next and probably biggest barrier is H1N1, the god damn swine flu. Three colleges in the area have been quarantined and have had their holidays canceled and are forced to stay on campus. China’s 60th national celebration is coming up in the first week of October, and I was going to take advantage of this break by busting out of Shijiazhuang and wrecking havoc in other cities. Unfortunately, this might not be in the cards for me, and I could spend the entire “vacation” stuck on campus without any new episodes of Desperate Housewives! Life just isn’t fair! Although, it is probably considerably less fair to those who actually have swine flu, but still, they’re ruining it for the rest of us! I never said I wasn’t a selfish bitch. So here’s hoping that several weeks from now, you will be reading a blog about my glorious outings in China, and not a blog pissing and moaning about how much my life sucks and how I’m going to seek vengeance on the Chinese swine flu victims! So until next time, xai jian! (It means goodbye…can’t believe you didn’t know that.)