Miscellaneous culture shock experience Part 1 of 100 000 - Indoor spitting, medium sized cities, Chinese line-ups

The last two days here felt like I had actually spent three months! Maybe it's due to, you know, me being completely at the end of the world, in an environment sharing very few similarities with my home country, with my mind set on "adventure" mode?

On the day of my arrival here, Thursday, I went to bed around 7 PM, knackered from the long overnight flight. The nights are kinda cool here, it's nice! Woke up at 6, went for a run (something I plan to do so quite regularly, to get fit before Felixxx en Thailande Part 2 - September '09) and exploring the surroundings. The freshmen were already up, doing military exercise around campus... poor kids! I jogged past the gate and in the town itself, there are pretty much only huge concrete buildings in this area. I shall explore Gongyi a bit more in the upcoming days...

I start teaching only on Tuesday; until then, the other teachers are doing the job for me. Modesta, the Filipina girl, is doing my Friday morning class, so I went just to attend and observe. There are like 60 students in the class, and I'll teach them once a week for 2 hours only. That's not very much... I'll do my best to make them progress. Those were non-English majors, therefore their English level is pretty low. I also have some English major classes, and have been told that they are a bit better. We'll see...

Then, while I was sitting in the back of the class, taking notes, I experienced one of what I can only assume to be the first of many gags of uncontrolable surprise due to culture shock. I almost choked. Some student was writing in his textbook, then took a pause to spit on the ground and carry on. What. The. Fuck! And it happened like three more times during the whole class!!! I have been warned before coming that Chinese people are spitting everywhere, but I thought this kinda gross behavior was limited to OUTDOORS. Apparently not... If I get back to Canada and I spit in some hallway, I want you to hit me on the side of the head with a bamboo stick.

At noon, the class was over, so Modesta and I went to the Faculty lunch held in our honour. The founder of the College, the president, the foreign affairs coordinator were there, among other important Chinese dignitaries and all the foreign teachers. We sat by groups of ten around a large round table, and all the food was set on a rotating plate and shared. There was like, tons of delicious food. The food I have had so far in China was OK, but this time around it was just fresh and delicious! Free food is awesome, even in a country where you can get a full meal for 20 cents. The school directors also gave us all a nice mooncake (some sweet pastry) and an envelope with 100 yuan for Mid-Autumn day.

I chillaxed a bit in my room before going to the basketball court with a few of my colleagues. We played 5 on 5 with a bunch of Chinese students, and goddamn these kids were good! Some of them just did the 3-point shots like nothing. Apparently, all the Chinese boys are kickass-level at either badminton or basketball, which are two sports I happen to love playing.

I showered then went outside to socialize a bit. I was sitting around, swapping stories with the guys, when Jack the Brit passed by on his motorbike and asked me if I fancied join him and his friends for some barbecue. Unaware of the fact that by "barbecue" he meant "uncontrolled binge drinking", I hopped in and he rode to this small place not very far outta campus. As soon as I sat down and got introduced, I got a beer can thrown in my hand and a cup full of baiju in the other. Baiju is Mandarin for "elephant poison" or something like that. It tastes awful, but Jack loves it and kept pouring some in my cup. So we sat around in this small open air place, tossing back beers, baiju shots and barbecue pork sticks. Then we walked to a pool hall and well, drank more beer and baiju. This part of the night out is kinda blurry in my memory, as the baiju really messed with my faculties. This shit is demonic!

It's no surprise then that I woke up yesterday hungover and confused. I would have slept more, but I wanted to go to Zhengzhou with the 8:30 bus. About two hours later, we got out at one of the numerous bus stations, then took a cab. But just before going shopping, since we were starving we stopped at some authentic Chinese food joint. I had a McCrispy Chicken meal and a pork burger. Yes sir! Then we went into the technology store, it's HUGE!!! It's like the average North-American Future Shop or Best Buy, but instead of just one floor, there are five. Computers, cell phones and video games everywhere, Chinese people seem to be big into tech stuff. I got myself some nice speakers and an adaptor for my North American 110 V electric appliances. It's nice to shop with Chinese guys, because they can argue with the salesmen and negotiate lower prices!

A city bus ride later, we were right in the center of the city to take a bus back to Gongyi. We bought some tickets then waited about one hour since the bus was delayed. When it finally parked at the bus stop, the crowd waiting just stormed to the door, pushing and shoving. As with the indoor spitting, I was truly amazed at their utter lack of civility. I've been to moshpits at death metal concerts with less pushing around than that! And to top it, it was the most pointless shit ever since we actually had ASSIGNED SEATS!!! I have been told by many people that the concept of line-up does not exist in China, therefore I truly picture myself going through the phases of culture shock; for now, I think it's pretty funny, but I'm sure I'll get annoyed very quickly by this animal behavior, until I start doing the same thing when every parcel of my Western civility will have been annihilated. Still, I can only find it very odd since virtually every Chinese person I've met so far were polite and respectful...

Zhengzhou, capital of the Henan province, is a frenetic 9.2 million people metropolis. It's loud, always foggy, traffic is 24/7 in some places, buildings are gigantic and numerous, and there is an endless ocean of Asians (this sounds pretty weird when said out loud) walking around. Seriously, I would never be able to live in such a crowded environment without headbutting the sidewalk to death after a few days. Still, it is a MEDIUM-SIZED CITY by their Chinese standards. The bus ride back was about 2.5 hours, and we never actually left builded area. When the vicinity of Zhengzhou itself starts fading out, after only a few kilometers we get the suburbs of Gongyi. I doubt I will go to Zhengzhou very often as there's not that much to see or do there besides shopping and getting pushed around. I'll rather visit the other interesting stuff around Gongyi such as the Shaolin monastery and the hiking trails.

Got back to the campus and watched some soccer on the streaming internet. Liverpool won, so Jack was happy since he hates Manchester United (he is from Newcastle). Jack has some (most likely completely illegal) program on his computer which allows him to watch like 700 TV channels. I'll make him install it on mine in the days to come, this is pretty badass.

So yeah, here I am, takin' it easy. I didn't do much today besides running, playing basketball and reading. And writing this of course.