Guangzhou Diary XI

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