From the Spotlight

Everyone who knows me knows that I don't really enjoy the spotlight very much. I don't really like to be the highlight of the party, the big star, etc. I've always enjoyed being involved in this and that, of course - but being the 'superstar' of Lanzhou University of Technology (especially the West Campus) is something that I could never have imagined back home. Let me tell you about the happiest memory that I have of China so far.  Today was the semifinals (or 3/4 finals or something) of the music/singing/band competition on the West Campus. I was really nervous about it, because for one I was going to be singing in front of people (again...I had done it the week before for round 2) and two, I was going to be singing in Chinese and playing a guitar solo. However, once we had done soundcheck and played a little preview, I got really, really excited. First was the song Good Riddance (The Time of Your Life) by Green Day - that was so much fun to sing - my friends/bandmates really love the song and we had a blast practicing it and performing it. The crowd loved us so much, they started saying 加一 个， 加一个, which means "another one, another one!"  So we obliged! We played a song, which translated, means "the old boy". It is one of the most popular songs in China - everyone knows it. I told the crowd we were going to sing it and they all kind of looked at each other with that look of 'really? he's gonna sing that? he doesn't even speak much Chinese!' I showed them! After I sang the first line of the song, the crowd went nuts!!! It was so cool, I've never been in that kind of situation before and it made me feel so happy - so happy, in fact, that I got distracted and forgot to sing the second line! My friend Janson saved me, he saw that I forgot and sang it for me. After bumbling through the guitar solo, we got to the last two choruses and Janson told the crowd to sing along if they knew the words. Me, Janson, Boss, and the crowd all sang the last two choruses together - even the judges! People were taking pictures of us, cheering, clapping, shouting, singing, it was such a great moment that I wish could have lasted forever. I'm grinning like an idiot thinking about it now.  On that stage, I felt alive and completely and truly happy. I was with my friends, I was playing guitar and singing for a crowd that I knew loved me - it was truly one of the best moments of me life. These past few weekends during band practice have been some of my happiest here in Lanzhou. My friend Janson told me that he is happiest on stage playing music, and when I saw him playing today along with me and Boss, I could really tell. I think it might have also been true for me today. I looked through the crowd while we played our songs, seeing friends and giving them a nod of recognition; my heart leapt when I saw their faces. I feel like I've really found a home here - I don't know what I will do when it comes time to leave. That is my happiest memory of China so far.

Forgetting Spoons Plus Update

Before my actual post, I just wanted to update you guys on the situation. I know it's been a long time since my last post - I have been having some internet problems. The neighbors whose I've been stealing at my apartment locked their network, so I had to buy my own network. Good thing it's so cheap - it's 20 yuan for 100 hours. They just take it from my cell phone bill, which is convenient for me. Now I have to go to one of the school buildings on campus and use the internet. It's fairly reliable, but a little inconvenient. Oh, well....that's that. Happy reading! 5/15 I forgot how to hold a spoon today…..maybe I've been away for too long haha. I was eating what's called 砂锅 (sha guo), which is a small pot - maybe a little bigger than a softball - that's stuffed with vegetables and usually one or two types of meat. The pot is put over the fire, and then soup is added, cooking the raw vegetables and meat. Then you can choose to eat rice or bread with it (I say bread, but it's sort of like a mix between an English muffin and unleavened Jewish bread...interesting) and dive in. Since it's soup-based, you get a spoon and chopsticks with it. I used my chopsticks till the veggies ran low, and then picked up my spoon. It felt really strange - I couldn't decide between using 2, 3, or 4 fingers. It was really awkward, I wish I had been eating with someone or had my camera - I would have documented it. I ultimately decided on holding it between my thumb and index finger at the very end of the handle. Still didn't feel right.  It could make an interesting video...when I get back home, video my first attempt at using a knife and fork. It could either be a waste of film or really awkward and hilarious. By the way, here's a few things I like here that I didn't like or never tried back home: Mushrooms Eggplant Fish Eating mostly vegetables Napa (one 'p' or two?) Leeks Cabbage in mass quantities Donkey meat (highly suspected, but I can't confirm whether or not it WAS donkey). Oh, PS - I've been working on some videos, but because of my internet situation, I'm unsure on whether or not I can actually put them up.

Forgetting Spoons Plus Update

Before my actual post, I just wanted to update you guys on the situation. I know it's been a long time since my last post - I have been having some internet problems. The neighbors whose I've been stealing at my apartment locked their network, so I had to buy my own network. Good thing it's so cheap - it's 20 yuan for 100 hours. They just take it from my cell phone bill, which is convenient for me. Now I have to go to one of the school buildings on campus and use the internet. It's fairly reliable, but a little inconvenient. Oh, well....that's that. Happy reading! 5/15 I forgot how to hold a spoon today…..maybe I've been away for too long haha. I was eating what's called 砂锅 (sha guo), which is a small pot - maybe a little bigger than a softball - that's stuffed with vegetables and usually one or two types of meat. The pot is put over the fire, and then soup is added, cooking the raw vegetables and meat. Then you can choose to eat rice or bread with it (I say bread, but it's sort of like a mix between an English muffin and unleavened Jewish bread...interesting) and dive in. Since it's soup-based, you get a spoon and chopsticks with it. I used my chopsticks till the veggies ran low, and then picked up my spoon. It felt really strange - I couldn't decide between using 2, 3, or 4 fingers. It was really awkward, I wish I had been eating with someone or had my camera - I would have documented it. I ultimately decided on holding it between my thumb and index finger at the very end of the handle. Still didn't feel right.  It could make an interesting video...when I get back home, video my first attempt at using a knife and fork. It could either be a waste of film or really awkward and hilarious. By the way, here's a few things I like here that I didn't like or never tried back home: Mushrooms Eggplant Fish Eating mostly vegetables Napa (one 'p' or two?) Leeks Cabbage in mass quantities Donkey meat (highly suspected, but I can't confirm whether or not it WAS donkey). Oh, PS - I've been working on some videos, but because of my internet situation, I'm unsure on whether or not I can actually put them up.

New Videos and the American Constitution

Strange title, yeah? Yeah, I guess it is. Tomorrow I'm going to teach a class (some of you know the professor, Shelley Mu) on the founding of America, the American Constitution, the separation of church and state, and how it ties in the the philosophies of John Locke, Descartes, Voltaire, and the other Enlightenment minds as well as how it all ties into daily life in America. Geez, that was the longest sentence ever....well, maybe not. Anyway, it should be pretty interesting. After that lecture, I'm going to sit down and talk with the students and talk about the cultural difference and the differences in daily life in America and China. I think they're all graduate students, so that means their English will probably be pretty good. Hooray!

Anyway, life is still pretty good - I've got my two latest YouTube vids on here if you're interested. (If I do say so myself, I think they're interesting). Hooray for shameless YouTube plugs!

Bye!

Jinchang

5/1

Yesterday I met up with my friend Charles, who graciously invited me to his home for the May holiday (basically the Chinese labor day). From the little I could read about his hometown, Jinchang, it seems to be an industrial town that was created from the discovery of Nickel and various other minerals/ores. Charles told me that the town was only created 30 years ago and someone else told me it’s the richest city in Gansu (although the capital is Lanzhou). The city itself is north of Lanzhou - 4 hours by train.

Charles said that his hometown was in the desert. HOLY CRAP, he wasn’t kidding! On the train, I couldn’t believe how remote this city was - just nothing around - no trees, no bushes, just a few of those scraggly little plants that seem to survive no matter what the conditions are. The terrain around the city is like it is around Midland/Odessa, but more barren, if you can imagine.

From being here only a day and a little longer, I can tell that this place has a lot of money and is fairly new - the streets are clean and the buildings still look brand new and I haven’t seen any signs of real poverty yet - whereas I saw them the minute I arrived in Lanzhou. It doesn’t have the huge buildings crammed together like Lanzhou or Beijing, but everything is nice and spaced out - not unlike Tyler or any other mid-sized city in America. Charles has a very nice home - 2 bedroom apartment, and his parents are very nice. I have a LOT of trouble understanding his father, but his mother is a little easier to understand.

We mostly relaxed yesterday and watched some TV - there was a really interesting program about Chinese students who were the first to go to America to get college degrees. I couldn’t understand a lot of it, but I got the general picture. There was another interesting show on CCTV English about this dude named Rewi Alley from Australia. I didn’t watch a lot, but I’d like to learn more about him.

A few things I noticed about Jinchang, or at least from my limited experience there, is that people seem to like sour foods (I don't like sour stuff much, so sometimes it was hard to eat, but I put a brave face on). Even the kind of hotpot (huo guo) that I had was a little sour - strange. (remember, hotpot is a type of food where there is a huge pot over fire and you put in vegetables and meat into a type of soup to be cooked. When the food is done, you get your chopsticks and get the food out of the soup, which has flavored the meat).

I also had something called Pai Gu, which is a family meal (can't get in restaurants) where meat that is on the bone is cooked in a spiced type of soup with potatoes and peppers.....oh man, delicious.

In Jinchang, I also had the best food I've ever had in China - it was a street food called Kang Guo Zi. This food is prepared when you order it - it is meat, blocks of tofu, onions, and peppers seasoned with cumin and a couple of other spices cooked with a squirt of soy sauce. It's cooked on a huge flat piece of metal over a fire. It was magical, it really was. It was that type of food where every bite is just as good or even better than the last - no matter how much you ate of it, you wanted more. The taste was sweet and spicy mixed with the flavor of the soy sauce, pepper, onions, and meat. The sad part is that it is a Jinchang specialty - you can't get it anywhere else and people who don't live there have never heard of it. Too bad.

I've got some videos I need to put up, but for some reason, I've been having problems with YouTube - they'll upload to 85% or so and then stop. Just stop. I dunno why. I have no problems with other websites, just YouTube.