eye exercises and squat toilets: China, day 2

I suppose that every day in a new country is naturally filled with "firsts," but yesterday marked three important ones for me: my first day on campus of the school where I will be teaching, my first "conversation" in Chinese, and my first night out downtown Shenzhen (from which I am currently in recovery, because jet lag awoke me after 4 short hours of sleep).

One. My first day on campus: Steve took Sam and I to the school campus in the morning, both to the general Chinese school where Sam will be teaching an after-school English program with most of the other international teachers, and also to the International School Section (ISS), where I will be working as a real, during-the-school-day English teacher. Yikes. However, I was relieved to know I will not simply be thrown into a classroom setting mid-semester; instead, I will have a week of training and then a week of "team teaching" before I am assigned to the classes that I am the least likely to screw up.

Schools in China seem to be in some ways drastically different from the American education system I went through, so it's even crazier that I'll soon be teaching in one. I'm sure my examples will increase exponentially when I begin teaching, but here's a taste: twice a day, all classes are interrupted by music and chanted numbers blared over the school loudspeaker. The numbers represent different parts of the face to be massaged, and are used for "eye exercises" - so every Chinese student spends a chunk of time each day rubbing his/her forehead, temples, etc to improve concentration. From my perspective it all looks pretty bizarre, but I would never say so: first, because it is taken very seriously - to the point of being monitored by security guards who walk through the classrooms to make sure all students partake - and anyway, I probably should not begin my Chinese teaching career by badmouthing a brainchild of Chairman Mao.

Two. My first sentence in Putonghua ("the people's language" or Mandarin Chinese): I went to a gym located close to campus to check out the facilities. In what I will pretend was an amazing accent and smooth flow of language, I had the following conversation with the front desk clerk:

Me: How much does one month cost?
Her: 312 kuai.
Me: Thank you. Can I look around?
Her: Yes.

This very small accomplishment gave me so much pride that when using the school's language software later in the day, I chose to practice the phrases "I don't speak well" and "I speak a little Mandarin" rather than "I don't speak Chinese." (Although I did learn "I don't speak Chinese" too, just in case.)

Three. My first night in downtown Shenzhen: Actually far less exotic than it might seem. The beginning of the night was pretty typical; a group of 8 of us - out of 11 teachers total - went to a Chinese barbecue, where we sat outside, drank Tsing Tao (since the water is unsafe, it's the beverage of choice), and ate every barbecued food you could possibly imagine: corn, pork, lamb, octopus, eggplant, bread. Again, we feasted until everyone was about to burst, and paid about US$5 each.

We caught a cab to a bar downtown, where a pretty talented live rock band was playing. It was pretty amusing to hear the band switch between Chinese and American songs (e.g. Sweet Child of Mine, Welcome to the Jungle) as though they were non differentiable. But since we mostly ended up playing Foosball and pool, speaking English with each other, and sharing a mini-keg of Carlsberg, there was nothing else particularly Chinese about the experience. Except the sign outside the bathroom, I guess, which was a perfect illustration of what even the classiest public restrooms in China entail... -->
I've been appalled by American toilets ever since I learned how much water they waste with each flush, so I'm actually pretty okay with this new spread-and-squat system. And while there are generally no sinks, there is also no toilet paper, so in the end the whole system sort of works out. Hip hip hooray for hygiene!