Adventures on a Friday Night

I only have to work half days on Fridays. This is very convenient, as it gives me time to relax or to go to Chengdu.

I caught a taxi (well, an illegal taxi…but I’ll save that info for another post) with Mrs. Wong to Chengdu. It took about a half hour to get there. Normally it would have been boring, but I thoroughly enjoyed driving through town. There are so many different shops to look at on each block that I’m pretty sure I will never get tired of looking out the car window.

Mrs. Wong and I were in town to meet up with the other teachers, but not until later in the evening. Since we had a few hours to kill, we went and got facials. This was an entirely new experience for me, since any kind of spa treatments in the US is incredibly expensive. Here, however, it is very inexpensive. How inexpensive, I can’t be sure, since I didn't have to pay for it, but I would guess it wasn’t more than 100 yuan ($15). The best part? The facial lasted two full hours. I believe I had at least 15 different lotions put on my face.

Once we were done being pampered, Mrs. Wong and I went to find food. We walked a few blocks towards a shopping mall and headed towards the food court. I had at least a dozen places to choose from for dinner, but they all served essentially the same thing: stir fry/dumpling/rice/noodle plates. One major difference between this food court and food courts in the US was that each different establishment had at least twice as many employees than was necessary. The employees who weren’t actually taking orders or making food had the responsibility of trying to convince anyone passing by to eat at their establishment. It got kind of annoying after just a few seconds with all of the yelling and pointing.

 

I ended up picking the proprietor that looked the cleanest. I ordered the chicken curry plate, and let me tell you…I made the right choice. It was heavenly. Sure, all that the meal consisted of was potatoes, carrots, rice, chicken and curry sauce, but somehow it was the best curry anything I’ve ever eaten.

Also in the food court was a Dairy Queen. I decided that I wanted to get some ice cream, so I stopped by DQ for a blizzard. Let me tell you, things are very different here. First of all, the biggest size of anything here is smaller than a size small in the US. I got a medium chocolate blizzard and paid 22 yuan ($3.50). It was gross. The ice cream did not taste like ice cream, and it melted really fast. I do not believe I will ever be going back there. Note to self: don’t buy ice cream in China.

After we finished eating, Mrs. Wong and I walked around for a little while. Traffic was so bad that we walked past blocks and blocks of cars that were not moving. The intersections were a mess. So much so that I think there is a good chance that some of those cars are still in the same place on the road this very moment. 

We passed by a movie theater that was playing The Dark Knight Rises, as well as this lovely little gem. Notice that in English it says “Sad Fairy Tale.” I’m not sure that I’d want to see this film.

We walked around some more and found ourselves at the river. It was quite large, with a beautiful bridge and a bunch of hotels on either side.

We then walked a few more blocks along the river towards the English corner where we were meeting Dr. Wong and two of the other teachers. Now, English corner is just a specific place where people can meet in the city to speak English. I was told that this is where I could meet other foreigners and possibly make friends with other people from the States. However, what I found was that my fellow teachers and I were the only Westerners present. Everyone else was Chinese.

So, I started talking with one young man. He told me he was a student at Shishi, and he is working on bettering his English. Then suddenly, I was surrounded. I had a full circle of Chinese men around me, listening to everything I said. Some just stood there and listened, but others asked me question after question. I tried to shake everyone’s hand and ask them their names, but there were just too many of them.

Three of the people I met were very memorable. First, I’ll talk about Ten Thousand. Ten Thousand goes by the name Ten Thousand because he is the oldest person that shows up to English corner. He was kind of difficult to understand, but he made some very interesting comments.

Then we have Luke. His English was superb, but he kept talking about how boring his job of working at a power plant was.

I have been told by many other people that when you meet someone in China who speaks English, they will always ask the following questions:

1.       Where are you from?

2.       Where do you work?

3.       How much money do you make?

4.       Are you married?

Now, so far, besides the flirty guard at the bank on my first day here, I have only been asked the first two questions. Everyone wants to know if I am American, and they are curious as to why an American would be in Chengdu. So, I don’t blame them for asking these questions because I would wonder the same things. Luckily, none of the people I met at English corner asked very prying questions.

Well, that is, except Ryan. Ryan is a different story. Ryan is a 27 year old artist. He has a very nice bike, and so far, he is the only person here who I’ve seen wear a helmet. Ryan is the kind of person that instantly becomes friends with everyone. He told me he really wanted to visit the United States, but that he can’t get a visa. He also tried to teach me a little Russian since his girlfriend is Russian and she has taught him some phrases. Once he found out that I am not married he said that he would try to find someone for me to marry. I told him that this wasn’t necessary, but he said that I was destined to marry a Chinese man. “After all,” he said, “Why else would you come to China?” I then gave him a strange look, which made him say, “Not me! I will marry my girlfriend soon. But I will find you someone.”

In the end, I was surprised at how much fun I had at English corner. I think that next week we are going to go to the English corner in a different part of town where there will be more people.

Once we left, we had a heck of a time trying to get a taxi. Since we were in such a busy part of town, all of the taxis were full. This photo is of one of my coworkers who kept trying to flag down every taxi that passed by, even though they were all full. Then, when they would pass by without stopping, he would yell at them. It was quite entertaining.