"Well, that was..... interesting."
Back at CIMI, we grew tired of hearing 12 year old girls shriek "eewww gross" when dissecting squid. To prevent having to hear this, we informed students beforehand that instead of saying eewww and gross, they were to pause, think like a scientist, scratch their chin (if their hands weren't covered in squid guts), and thoughtfully remark "....interesting." Thus the squid were no longer disgusting and slimy but instead something new, different and interesting. While in Asia, I have tried to apply this concept of interesting to the cultural situations that I have encountered. I see a man scrubbing his sidewalk with soapy water and I pause, have an open mind, appreciate that that sidewalk will remain clean for about two minutes before the nearest mangy dog dumps out the nearest uncovered garbage can all over it, and I say "well, that was interesting." A woman holds her baby over the sewer while it poops, and I pause and say "well, that was interesting."
China is a place full of "well, that was interesting." From the moment that we crossed the border, we have been uttering that phrase. We wander around not knowing what is going on about 95% of the time, but that may be because our China guidebook was confiscated at the border for having a map that didn't include Taiwan as part of China. Maybe it's because we don't speak a word of Chinese. Whatever the reason, we are in the dark in China and cannot find the light switch. Sometimes we are permitted to do things, and sometimes we are denied. I am sure that people tell us the reasons behind these things, but we have no hope of understanding them. The first night was interesting since we took our first sleeper bus and I thought that I might die. Picture the night bus from Harry Potter, but with three rows of bunk beds that don't move and picture me on the top middle bunk. Basically, there was nothing for me to hold onto and I was expected to sleep in that position while the bus careened around corners on narrow dirt roads while motorbikes whizzed past in the other direction. I coped by practicing meditation. Breathe in, breathe out. I knew that meditation would come in handy someday.
Toilets in China are interesting. If you are lucky, it's a squatter, but it likely wont' be clean. The smell of urine radiates from the "toilets." If you are unlucky, there is simply a channel that you squat over with very short cement dividers (or maybe none at all) so that you can watch everyone else doing their business also. If you are in one of those, whatever you do, don't look down because the channel may not get washed out very much. If you are a small child, then everywhere can be a toilet, including the nearest farmer's field. That is right, human feces = fertilizer in China.
Since we always seem to things the interesting way, we thought going overland wasn't enough. Perhaps it would make a better story if we say... rode a water buffalo overland to Korea. Then we thought about how much you would have to feed a water buffalo and what you would likely smell like after the experience and we decided against it. Our next plan came in Lijiang when we decided to rent bikes to explore the town. We were about to head off on some rusty mountain bikes when we spotted a tandem. We have always wanted to ride a tandem, so we quickly traded in our two single bikes for one very long and heavy and unstable tandem. Maybe we could ride a tandem across China we thought. It sounded like a really good idea until we tried to actually ride the tandem down a hill. Somehow we managed to ride around, get lost and find cute little villages, which was really fun. Ok, so no water buffalo and no tandem bike. Anyone have any brilliant ideas of how to make traveling overland fun?
In Lijiang, we stayed at an amazing guesthouse recommended by our British friends who inspired the trip to China. The owner is the wonderful Chinese woman who directs you around and talks loudly and makes you eat way too much food. You get to call her Mama, and that is exactly what she is like. From Lijiang, we visited the Snow Jade Mountains and rode on a gondola. We made the mistake of not having Mama arrange it for us, and so it was much more confusing than anything in life ever should be. Our efforts were rewarded with a very cold and cloudy view of some beautiful snowy peaks, and it was worth it. The next day, we had Mama send us off to Tiger Leaping Gorge. TLG is this amazingly huge gorge (I think it's one of the biggest in the world, but our guidebook got taken from us so I am not sure), and you get to hike for a couple of says to see it. Along the way, we stayed at pictuesque guesthouses in the mountains and drank lots of tea. I highly recommend Tiger Leaping Gorge if you like to hike and are ever in China.
Now we are in a small town called Dali, where cute old women in the streets ask you if you want to buy ganja. There are tons of yummy places to eat and we are resting up here for the long train ride to Beijing. Ok, I am stopping now because I think that the people who own the hotel want to go to sleep and I think I am in their bedroom. They are hovering so I must go.
Back at CIMI, we grew tired of hearing 12 year old girls shriek "eewww gross" when dissecting squid. To prevent having to hear this, we informed students beforehand that instead of saying eewww and gross, they were to pause, think like a scientist, scratch their chin (if their hands weren't covered in squid guts), and thoughtfully remark "....interesting." Thus the squid were no longer disgusting and slimy but instead something new, different and interesting. While in Asia, I have tried to apply this concept of interesting to the cultural situations that I have encountered. I see a man scrubbing his sidewalk with soapy water and I pause, have an open mind, appreciate that that sidewalk will remain clean for about two minutes before the nearest mangy dog dumps out the nearest uncovered garbage can all over it, and I say "well, that was interesting." A woman holds her baby over the sewer while it poops, and I pause and say "well, that was interesting."
China is a place full of "well, that was interesting." From the moment that we crossed the border, we have been uttering that phrase. We wander around not knowing what is going on about 95% of the time, but that may be because our China guidebook was confiscated at the border for having a map that didn't include Taiwan as part of China. Maybe it's because we don't speak a word of Chinese. Whatever the reason, we are in the dark in China and cannot find the light switch. Sometimes we are permitted to do things, and sometimes we are denied. I am sure that people tell us the reasons behind these things, but we have no hope of understanding them. The first night was interesting since we took our first sleeper bus and I thought that I might die. Picture the night bus from Harry Potter, but with three rows of bunk beds that don't move and picture me on the top middle bunk. Basically, there was nothing for me to hold onto and I was expected to sleep in that position while the bus careened around corners on narrow dirt roads while motorbikes whizzed past in the other direction. I coped by practicing meditation. Breathe in, breathe out. I knew that meditation would come in handy someday.
Toilets in China are interesting. If you are lucky, it's a squatter, but it likely wont' be clean. The smell of urine radiates from the "toilets." If you are unlucky, there is simply a channel that you squat over with very short cement dividers (or maybe none at all) so that you can watch everyone else doing their business also. If you are in one of those, whatever you do, don't look down because the channel may not get washed out very much. If you are a small child, then everywhere can be a toilet, including the nearest farmer's field. That is right, human feces = fertilizer in China.
Since we always seem to things the interesting way, we thought going overland wasn't enough. Perhaps it would make a better story if we say... rode a water buffalo overland to Korea. Then we thought about how much you would have to feed a water buffalo and what you would likely smell like after the experience and we decided against it. Our next plan came in Lijiang when we decided to rent bikes to explore the town. We were about to head off on some rusty mountain bikes when we spotted a tandem. We have always wanted to ride a tandem, so we quickly traded in our two single bikes for one very long and heavy and unstable tandem. Maybe we could ride a tandem across China we thought. It sounded like a really good idea until we tried to actually ride the tandem down a hill. Somehow we managed to ride around, get lost and find cute little villages, which was really fun. Ok, so no water buffalo and no tandem bike. Anyone have any brilliant ideas of how to make traveling overland fun?
In Lijiang, we stayed at an amazing guesthouse recommended by our British friends who inspired the trip to China. The owner is the wonderful Chinese woman who directs you around and talks loudly and makes you eat way too much food. You get to call her Mama, and that is exactly what she is like. From Lijiang, we visited the Snow Jade Mountains and rode on a gondola. We made the mistake of not having Mama arrange it for us, and so it was much more confusing than anything in life ever should be. Our efforts were rewarded with a very cold and cloudy view of some beautiful snowy peaks, and it was worth it. The next day, we had Mama send us off to Tiger Leaping Gorge. TLG is this amazingly huge gorge (I think it's one of the biggest in the world, but our guidebook got taken from us so I am not sure), and you get to hike for a couple of says to see it. Along the way, we stayed at pictuesque guesthouses in the mountains and drank lots of tea. I highly recommend Tiger Leaping Gorge if you like to hike and are ever in China.
Now we are in a small town called Dali, where cute old women in the streets ask you if you want to buy ganja. There are tons of yummy places to eat and we are resting up here for the long train ride to Beijing. Ok, I am stopping now because I think that the people who own the hotel want to go to sleep and I think I am in their bedroom. They are hovering so I must go.
2 comments:
I have used all of the toilets you described while I was in China. Interesting is definetly one way to put it!
Enjoy your travels!
Yo Yo Ladies! You still have the link to my old blog on here. My new one is www.nok-cha.blogspot.com! I do a much better job of updating this one.
Later~
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