springtime fun

i feel like my posts are sometimes too negative... since i can't read them and i don't remember everything i write, i can't go back and check, but i've decided that for every complaint i have about china, i need to include at least one positive note... i think i use this as an outlet for some of my frustrations, which happen to be quite funny sometimes, so its easy to write about... anyway, today i will start on a positive note.


the rainy season has begun again in shenzhen.... this means umbrellas are absolutely necessary. it hasn't rained since october, so i haven't needed an umbrella. back when it was the fall rainy season i, being the absent minded lady i am, left so many umbrellas behind and bought so many new ones, decided i wasn't going to buy another one.. the rain would stop soon enough and i wouldn't need it anyway. in the mean time my contact teacher mr. lu haibo, gives me an umbrella. this umbrella sat in my apartment until a few weeks ago when it began to rain again. i brought the umbrella to work one day and it begins raining pretty hard before lunch and lu haibo asks me, "is this your umbrella" and i say "yes it is" and he goes on without it..... well, i take the umbrella with me to lunch and since its not raining when i leave work that day, i leave it behind.... i come to work the next day and its not there. a few minutes later lu comes in carrying the umbrella. no big deal, one thing i like about chinese culture is that everyone shares everything, even answers on tests... granted someone might not always ask and your desk will be slightly different in the morning than when you left the night before, but no big deal, cuz i use people's stuff without asking now too. anyway, he brings in the umbrella and i think no big deal i'll just take it with me this afternoon when i leave. to make a long story short, lu and i go back and forth with this umbrella for a couple of weeks. i of course am trying to keep it, but because he is chinese, i think he might have just been "sharing"..... one day when i'm on the defense with the umbrella i decide i'm just going to take it and keep it next to me at all times, i'm tired of trying to decide who gets to use it what day. however, it was raining pretty hard when i was leaving for lunch and since he had brought it in the morning, i couldn't take it. i thought it would be pretty thoughtless to just take it in such a down pour.... now this is an extremely long preface to a wee story of kindness, but in the end, i lost the umbrella fight... i had bought another one while traveling in yunnan province but at the time i didn't realize that cheaper umbrella was actually a child size one and although it is functionable, it is teeny tiny and parts of me stick out when i use it. now this is all leading up to one of my positive experiences, i promise. so, it was raining a couple of days ago and of course i don't have an umbrella. luckily it was cool enough in the morning that i had a scarf on.. as i get closer to my office it starts to rain harder so i put the scarf over my head. a teacher sees me and runs over to me with her umbrella saying "lai le, lai le, lai le" meaning, "come, come,come" and motions for me to jump underneath the umbrella and then walks me to my office so i won't get wet!!! it was so kind and thoughtful.... now, this makes me excited not just because someone was kind enough to care that i was getting soaked, but because many of the chinese teachers don't speak english and aren't exactly "open" to patti and i... i think alot of it is the language barrier and some is shyness, but i also just feel that many of the chinese teachers are so unimpressed with having foreign teachers that they go out of their way to make it known... nothing horrible, but just general unfriendliness, like not responding to a hello... or ni hao i should say. so anyway, it was a bit of a breakthrough with my american-sino relations.....
this brings me to my next inspiring and heart warming story of the day.... patti and i started teaching a class of senior 2's this semester. (chinese high school is senior 1,2,3)... they are "english majors", so there english is good and most of them are 18 or 19, so they are much more mature than my senior 1's... anyway, one of our students "blythe" who is named after these scary looking blythe dolls, asked patti and i to morning tea on sunday morning. which is dim sum to us westerners.... anyway, she and two of her friends took us to dim sum and then we had these super chinesey teeny bopper photos taken... i really wish i could post them.. we did one that looks like we are on the cover of "teen plus" magazine.. ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wasn't even this teeny bopper when i was a teenager. anyway, after pictures we went shopping a little bit and then they wanted to go ice skating at the new indoor rink.... so we head towards the mall it is in..... we decide to take the new subway, which is another story in itself and finally make our way to the rink... once we get there, there is only an hour left before closing time, so we decide to just hang out a bit longer at the mall!!!!!!!!! yes, i was a mall rat, with tiny teeny bopper stickers in my pocket, while sipping on some super sugary fruity frosty drink thing.... it was so great!! my students were so kind and they paid for everything!! they insisted on it and would not let patti and i pay for anything. and the whole time we were walking hand in hand or arm in arm :) chinese people are quite affectionate with each other. it is very common for women and girls to walk arm in arm or hold hands and the same goes for men.... but not men and women together (sometimes)... so anyway, they held on to us the whole time and made sure they had our hand if we were crossing the street or holding on to us if we were getting on the bus. not only was it the greatest most funnest most awesome day ever (this is my inner teenager), but these girls were everything i love about chinese people.... if you are there friend, they really take care of you and want to do their best for you and show you kindness....
so on that note, i let you reflect upon the chinese way................................................... i can really ruin a sweet moment, so i'll just stop here... hope all are well!!! i will be posting pictures of the weekend today as well.
peace,love, and dim sum