It has been some time since my last blog entry, and believe it or not life has returned to some state of normalcy. The excitingness of being in a brand new place has worn off and no trips are on the horizon for me-well not until Chinese new year and then I will be beach hopping for much of that time. I have finally settled into a routine and that is a good feeling. After being here a little more than two months, the routine gives me a feeling that this is home for the time being. It is almost like going through freshmen year of college again where it takes some time to readjust your life schedule to your new setting.
I have to admit though, China is truly a fascinating place. The people are incredibly nice, even with so many people who do not speak Mandarin here, the Chinese are beyond patient with the inability of so many of us to communicate properly. Most of the locals actually treat us very well, from shop owners to food vendors, all are just very friendly and some have even gone out of their way to make sure I am comfortable. The other day I was at one of my favorite food stops for lunch, and normally I just get my food to go and eat back in my apartment. However, this time the owner and his kids all told me to stay and sit in the small eating area with them and stay for a change. It is very nice to see so many people go out of their way to make foreigners feel comfortable.
Midterms are fast approaching here at ZUEL and Halloween has recently passed. Last week I taught my students about Halloween, so that this week we could watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. Even after the sixth time of watching this movie in class This Is Halloween is still a good song-even when Marylin Manson covers it. I would love to show my students a scary movie, but since most of them are as easily scared as my sister, I would hate to know that I am responsible for keeping them up late at night with all the lights on in their dorm rooms. One of my older classes might get the remake of Nightmare on Elm Street, hopefully it will give them a good scare and they can appreciate the enjoyment of being scared around Halloween.
Halloween in China was actually lot of fun in China. I have to admit attempting to hail down a cab in a toga along with another co-worker also dressed in a toga had be quite the site for the Chinese taxicab drivers to see. When we were in the taxi our Chinese friend was telling us that all the cab drivers were talking about crazy westerners dressed up in strange outfits in their cabs, until one of the other drivers told them it was Halloween and then they all started laughing. A group of us all ate dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in our costumes and that also garnered a lot of laughs from the locals eating there as well as the owner. The two or three block walk from the restaurant to Wuhan Prison and Vox was filled with strange looks and gawking by the Chinese at our outfits. I have to say it was pretty funny for both sides to see. I entered a costume contest at Vox in my toga as the Greek god Poseidon. Had I stayed for the whole thing I might have won-and more importantly won the grand prize of a bottle of vodka-but I decided to leave after my time on stage and go see my friends before leaving to get a good night’s rest for my 8AM class.
All in all, not much new is going on here in Wuhan. A few weeks ago Augustana’s East Asia Term students and professors were here. It was great to see some familiar faces and some of my friends. I took a bunch of them out to Wuhan Prison and Vox, where we all had a good time and had an Augie invasion of Wuhan. Currently, I am in the process of planning my Spring Festival Trip-Chinese new year-and it looks like I will be heading to Harbin for the annual Ice Festival, followed by a return trip to Vietnam. From Vietnam, I will take a bus into Cambodia for a stop in Pheom Phen to see some museums about the Khmer Rouge take over during the 1960s and 1970s, after that it is down to the coast of Cambodia for a little rest and relaxation on the beach. Then I will dart over to Bangkok for a few days and hopefully go scuba diving with some sharks before I start my island hopping in southeast Thailand. If anyone has any suggestions about places to go in SE Asia please let me know.
Also for those of you that have not been paying attention to world news or events inside China, I feel it is important to remind that Liu Xiaobo a political dissident, organizer/leader of the Tiananmen Square protests, and one of the authors of Charter 08-perhaps one of China's most important political writings in the 21st century-won the Nobel Peace Prize in October. Sad to say this event went unknown to most Chinese because the government blacked out international news stations like the BBC and CCN during their announcement of the winner. Liu has been in jail for several years and did not know he won till several days after when his wife-who is now under house arrest-informed him of the prize. In other Chinese new-which does often effect world events-the Communist Party recently selected the new head of the Central Military Commission-historically a very powerful position held within the party and a position that tends to determine the next president of China. With President Hu Jintao's term ending in 2012 it appears Xi Jinping is set to become the president of China. Oh, and I read yesterday that the Chinese recently put another dissident under house arrest. This time it was one of the most famous artists in China, and happened to be the man who helped design the Bird's Nest for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. At times it is really hard to understand what is going on politically in China and understand where the political culture of this country will go in the future.
I hope all of you are doing well back home and keep in touch everyone. Plus all of you back home, enjoy fall and beautiful colors that always accompany this time of year. It looks like fall will not happen here and I will jump straight to winter.
