So
we had this fill-in teacher the other day who just arrived in Guangzhou a
couple weeks ago. Her name is Stacie -
fun black girl with really fun hair.
Anyway, her Disney tag said she's from Dallas so I was giving her shit
and she said, "Actually I grew up in Oklahoma," so I said, "Oh,
I'm sorry!" And she says,
"Hey, I actually like Oklahoma."
So I asked where she's from and she says, "Oh this little town you
probably won’t know," so I started rattling off names, "Bugtussle? Anadarko?
Noble?" And when she says Pawhuska,
I screamed like a girl and said, "OMG, one of my OLDEST friends is an old
queer from Pawhuska!" I tell ya,
this here world done be getting smaller and smaller every day! J
A
couple of weeks ago, for the first time, I “automatically” thought in terms of
quai/yuan/RMB vs. thinking in dollars.
And what makes it a little weird is the price I was looking at was
actually listed in U.S. dollars. It was
to buy a “premium” for this online game I spend way too much time on: Forge of
Empires. It’s actually free to play, but
if you get really serious about it, they will sell “diamonds” (for real money)
that you can use in game play to speed things up, buy certain things only
obtainable via diamonds, etc. So yeah,
anyway, I was debating on adding a high end trading shop to my city, and
thought, “Hmmm, but is it really worth spending 30 quai on?” Of course, again, it would be 30 dollars,
which translates to roughly 186 quai.
Most of the time, however, esp. with any major purchases, I still
automatically convert the local price to dollars so I can better determine if
it’s “worth it” to me. Basically, if
something here costs about the same as it would in the U.S. once you convert
the currency, it’s pretty expensive.
I’m
surrounded by weather wussies – and not just the locals. I know, living for 5 years in San Diego, and
then 20 years in San Francisco, one’s blood “thins” and extremes of weather
become harder to bear, so I get why some of the locals bust out the parkas when
it gets all the way down to like 50-something, but even my friend Bex (who is from
chilly ENGLAND, for God’s sake), and Nichole at work (from the states/all
over), start mewling for the heat to be on at work when it’s still in the mid-60s outside. Wussies.
Which brings up another “conversion” I’ve been slower to figure out:
thinking in Celsius vs. Fahrenheit. I
HAVE figured out by now that when it gets “up to” 20 degrees I can feel pretty
comfortable, but I still tend to automatically convert it to the extent I can. But I can see myself moving more towards
“thinking in Celsius” eventually. More
programming by those crafty furreigners!
A
few notes on my “holiday season,” which was actually pretty decent except for
starting off the New Year with this vile cold/flu I can’t shake. For Thanksgiving, we had a potluck at work,
which was a somewhat new experience for the locals. Generally, folks only eat in large groups
with their families and/or at restaurants where one person picks up the
tab. But most all of them, along with us
“foreign staff,” pitched in and each brought a dish with Disney picking up the
tab for the turkey. The
highlight/lowlight of the event was when our Office Manager Landi – one of the
nicest women you’d ever wanna meet – came into the room a good while after the
meal had started with a plate of yummy-seasoned chicken wings. I could never properly convey in words what
happened next – it put a Wal-Mart Black Friday offering $5 big screen TVs to
shame. Poor Landi was literally set upon
by no less than 5-6 of our local learning partners (the women who work/are
paired with us foreign trainers). I am
completely serious when I say these women acted like a pack of wolves and
WOULD. NOT. let Landi put said platter down on the table without spearing their
own wing and shoving it immediately into their respective mouths so they could
then spear another one. And another one.
I was standing next to another trainer, Angie, and we both looked at each
other, agog. It was absolutely amazing
and shocking and, frankly, kind of disgusting to see. And these women are all younger, college-educated,
normal in most other ways 20-something year olds. But that’s the way they are here. It’s honestly kind of stomach turning to
watch/listen to them eat. We had to make
a BIG DEAL out of what is “normal etiquette” for a Western Holiday Meal
Celebration – which, for example, does NOT include: tearing food off and
shoving it in your mouth while standing over the table with others waiting to
get their food; NOT picking up a bowl of, say, vegetables, and then start
shoveling it in your mouth – again at the table where others are waiting their
turn to get their food. And, as
mentioned previously, don’t get me started on the lip-smacking (shudder).
The
next evening, our Regional Language Learning Director coordinated a
Thanksgiving Dinner night out for as many foreign trainers from all 5 sites in
Guangzhou who wanted to come. About 20
of us showed up at a western restaurant for an all you can eat and drink (wine)
buffet with turkey and all the trimmings.
It was a little pricey (actually, very pricey by Chinese standards –
worked out to about $50 each, I think), but it was still nice to do.
For
Christmas, we had another group meal at the Center on the 23rd – this one completely
paid for by Disney, with not quite as many, um, “table manners gross outs” (but
still enough). Afterwards, I introduced
the locals to the tradition of the “Dirty Santa” gift exchange which ended up
being quite entertaining and everyone had great fun. On Christmas Day itself, I had about a dozen
folks over to my place for a little soiree – 12 of us all told and we had one
of my famous punches (a new recipe that included Rhubarb Liqueur for the first
time and was quite tasty!), played a very festive “fill in the blank” question &
answer game that Nicky found and had us all dying laughing, and then did
another “Dirty Santa” gift exchange that was even more fun than the one we’d
done at work.
Unfortunately,
New Year’s Eve, I had just caught my horrible cold and stayed in to try and
keep from making it worse. But I joined
6 other Disney trainers on New Year’s Day for a “Spa Day” at a local hotel spa
that was quite relaxing/interesting. Perhaps
the most interesting thing: this is the first time I have EVER had a spa
day. I’d always looked at such a thing
as a silly “extravagance,” but being in a different culture/country/etc. and
figuring I need to be trying new things – and with my work buddies going - I
decided to give it a whirl.
For
just under 300 quai (or less than $50), you get run of the spa which includes
swimming pools, dry saunas, steam rooms, Jacuzzis, water massage, a sleeping/resting
room, video/relaxing rooms, a movie screening room, buffet breakfast/lunch/dinner,
juice bar, ping pong rooms (hey, it’s China) and probably a few other random
things I’m forgetting. Then, you have
the option of purchasing “a la carte” massages and other services. If you spend at least 300 quai on these other
services, then the 300 entrance fee you paid is waived.
In
any case, as I’m still a cheapskate – and massage was never my bag – I made do
with the entrance fee/run of the stuff listed above. The steam room was good for my cold, anyway,
the food ended up being really good (and lots of choices), I got to take a nap,
see Iron Man 3, relaxed in the Jacuzzi, had a couple of water massages, and
drank tons of watermelon juice.
On
the down side, I saw entirely too much Chinese penis as most all of the men on
the men’s side of the spa went au naturel. But I still had a good time, and all the
OTHER stuff was a nice way to start the year.
I’m definitely curious to see how 2014 plays out for me. When 2013 started, I didn’t even know there
was such a thing as Disney English.
Hell, the way things are going, I could be living in Saudi Arabia this
time next year! J
