Stalker Saga Supplement

I was finally able to talk with the vice dean late last week about Stalker, but unfortunately not before I had her in class again. Stalker was dressed to the nines as never before, and I am quite sure it was an effort to make me regret not reciprocating her unwanted advances. I was a little unsure that anything would be done after my meeting with the vice dean, but fortunately I got this email from her a couple of days later:

"The party secretary told me that she had a talk with the student and asked her to stop the improper behavior right away. The student felt a bit afraid and losing face, and she agreed. I hope she will not disturb you any more. If she does, please let me know as soon as possible.

"You know, most of the students we are teaching are the only child at home due to China's Family Planning Policy. They are spoilt. They are naive and lack of self-control. I have felt big difference between them and the students I taught years ago. They demand more attention and help from us, both teachers and political instructors who are responsible for their behavior.

Let's hope that the situation changes, though I imagine my last few weeks teaching her will remain awkward.

As far as Stalker's myspace profile goes, she seems to have reacted in the vitriolic manner I would have expected.

From Stalker's myspace profile from May 28:
"Life lesson: If you walk on the street, suddenly a mad dog bites you without reason. What you have to do is continuing to walk with good mood. You don't have to argue with it, because it is a beast. You should keep walking and enjoying your life. We are young; we don't know how sophisticated the society is and how many beasts there are in the world. You behave well and are a good person, which is most important.we can not trust a person before we know what kind of person he is. He may be a beast which disguises being a good man.Everyone has its worst experiences; it is one of my worst nightmares. I wish every good person has beautify life without interrupting by any of these beasts.

And though the following part has been posted for a while, it has suddenly become a lot more ironic:
"Frankly speaking, I don't want to meet some big guys like others. I think it is ridiculous, because worship is very ridiculous at first. Why someone always worship other people confuses me all the time. These so called big guys are normal people who eat, drink and sleep like us.


OK, on to better things. This past weekend Allyssa and I threw a birthday party for a Japanese friend turning the big 2-9; she's the one in the yellow shirt below. Allyssa was in charge of most of the food, though I did throw in a few kebabs. I was in charge of the beverages: sangria and margaritas. The sangria turned out really well, and while the margaritas were good, they tasted more like tropical punch than margaritas. Considering I haven't seen one lime in China, I suppose this was inevitable. Anyhow, after everyone had consumed a few glasses (which for Asians spells trouble), we commenced the taking of goofy pictures.

Below, a Korean friend makes fun of ridiculous Korean picture poses.



And an international (Korean + Korean+ Japanese + American) girl sandwich!





Finally, I leave you with a picture of the most hideous building in Weihai. I cringe every time I look at it. It's just awful. Why a fountain pen? Why mauve, cream, and beige? Why the sloped, curved facade? Why tiles? Why really ugly glass? Why the lincoln-log-like entrance?

Heart of a Champion

Once Andrew left last week, life continued as normal. Well, as normal as China can be. Thursday and Friday classes were cancelled in lieu of "Sports Meeting". I thought I had avoided participation, as I had been left off the roster when a fellow teacher checked on Wednesday, and no one said anything to me on Thursday when I went to observe. When I went back on Friday afternoon to watch a friend run, on my way to play tennis, however, I was asked to run. In 15 minutes. Seriously, what would they have done had I not come along? So, I quickly changed into my "running gear" and warmed up. Ok, not really. I was already wearing tennis clothes and brand new tennis shoes I had never worn, so I was as ready as I could be given the time limitations. I would be running the fourth leg of the 4x400 (four laps total) with three other members of the the English department. By the time the baton was handed off to me, though, our team was in last place, more than half a lap behind the leaders and so far behind that I could only possibly have passed one person (who was already at the second turn when I started). As it was, and because I had not trained at all or warmed up, I forwent any intentions of pacing myself and ran as fast as I could out of the blocks (ok, there weren't any blocks), and by the final turn I could tell I really had nothing left. Unfortunately, I was only neck and neck with the next-to-last place runner at this point, so he had just enough gas left to beat me at the end. Our team finished in 7th place, aka last place, aka 6th loser, but I without a doubt had the loudest cheer section I heard over the entire two days. I think the English department cheering section in the first turn was excited and surprised to see me running, and they cheered so loud they alerted everyone else to the fact that there was a foreigner running, and then they started cheering as well. So, by the last turn I was just smiling at the ridiculousness of it all, a foreigner in last place receiving the loudest cheers. Hooray, China!

Drums help motivate the runners to the finish line!


The Three-legged race!


Most of the girls carry around parasols to shield themselves from the sun. Unlike America (unfortunately for my pasty skin), white skin is considered beautiful, so many of the face creams and washes also contain whitening agents.




In two months, I'm leavin' on a jet plane (don't know when I'll be back again). In honor of the occasion, I'm going to list a few of the weird things I've eaten here and will likely never eat again:

-congealed lamb's blood
-donkey dumplings
-cow stomach
-chicken hearts
-chicken claws
-deer penis/antler liquor
-octopus tentacles
-cow tripe
-something that's so weird it's not in my dictionary, though it tasted as I imagine intestines would taste.


Also, though not specifically to celebrate my final two months of life in China, I have recently acquired a genuine, real-life stalker. She is a student of mine and apparently is crazy. Part scary, part funny, below I have posted the four messages she has sent me so far, aswell as three subsequent text messages. Tomorrow I plan to talk to the dean and see what can be done. I don't want to get her in trouble, but clearly her actions are inappropriate and increasingly offensive.

Date: May 1, 2007 4:59 AM
Subject: Something seems out of control
Body: It's Audrey here. I don't know whether I should write this message to you or not. But I clearly know that I have already gone crazy and my life has been ruined because of you. In the past two months, I have spent most of the time thinking of you and until now I still don't know what you mean. All the things are just like a dream and I don't know what my feeling is. I planed to lead a peaceful life in the university and study hard; but now all the things have changed. I feel very sad and depress every second and minute, especially when I knew you had planed to go to Beijing this holiday. These nights were so hard to me that I can not bear. I don't want to live like this. This message maybe let you know what happened in the past. Please treat me like your student. I know you will be back to America at the end of this semester and I still have two years to go to America. During this time, I want to lead a happy life and concentrate attention on my study, not try to forget a man who disappears in my life forever.

Date: May 4, 2007 8:28 AM
Subject: Neal, these are what i have done for you
Body: Neal, I don't know what will happen in the future. Maybe we are the stranger forever and will never see each other again after you leave this place at the end of this semester. I believe the fate. There is something that we can not control in the world. We continuously say goodbye and forget someone or something that had great influence in our life once upon a time, so I think I should tell you something which maybe not important to you and I will forget in the future.
April 10th is my birthday. You sung a sweet song to a girl to celebrate her birthday in class 5 that day. I heard this news and sad.
I don't know from what time I begin to stand by the window every night to watch your dormitory for a long time and log in your space every night in order to see your lovely pictures.
April 27th. That afternoon I saw you clean your room and heard that you planed to go to Beijing. About 1o'clock that night I saw you prepare something.
April 28th. My dear roommate tried her best to console me. I thought my life had been ruined.
April 29th. I encountered you go to play tennis. My dear roommate tried her best to console me. I thought my life had been ruined.
April 30th, May 1, May 2, May 3, May 4, I found you hadn't seen my email and had not come back. I checked my email and your space from time to time.
It is these things that I want to tell you and want you know. Don't treat them as burden. Maybe many years later, you can remember me and these things. I'm sure that at that time I will have already forgotten. I wish you happy life.

Date: May 19, 2007 1:32 PM
Subject: we should settle something
Body: It's always not wise of me to send many messages to you. But why not reply and act as if you hadn't read them. Something must have an end before you leave this place two months later. It seems you don't want to make any commons about this and act as if nothing had happened before. How stupid of me to say those words to you. I don't know why you did these things to me. Maybe you want to show how attractive and handsome you are.

Date: May 20
Subject: The last letter for my perfect teacher
Body: Frankly speaking, you are the most disgusting man I have ever met. You are not only a crowd but also a patient. Because I doubt that you are not popular among the girls in the American and no girl even cast a glance on you, so you have some psychological problems and your mental is abnormal. In that case, it is not very easy for you to disguise being a polite and good boy. There maybe a lot of girls have some crazy feelings on you in china. But I am sorry to tell you that I am not one of them definitely. I can appreciate your feelings very much, because it is miserable for a man who had never been loved by any girl. It was shameful for me to do many stupid things and have some ridiculous feelings on you. It is the worst things I have done in my life. My words maybe straight, but I sincerely hope that you can lead a normal life and you should firmly believe that one day a woman will fell in love with you. Life is beautify, please don't depressed. My perfect teacher, I wish you happy and satisfied. Yes, nothing had happened between us, I am one of your student.


Tuesday, May 22:
Text Message 1: If you are a man answer the call no trouble will happen
Text Message 2: I just want to make sure sth you speak them out nothing will happen
Text Message 3: It not because of love but self esteem i am always superior to the people surrounding me you embarrass me

Vacation Part 3: Qingdao, Weihai

After my classes finished that Friday, Andrew and I departed for Qingdao, and at 6 hours by bus, this turned out to be our longest trek to Qingdao (reminder: it's only 120 miles away, and the terrain is completely flat). We found a fellow Couch Surfer to crash with for a couple of nights, and it turned out to be a great experience. She met us at the bus station, secured some blankets for sleeping, and provided us with information in the city. We also went for a showing of Spider Man 3 (only my second theater in China--they're hard to come by), and it was awful. Don't see it.

I had been looking forward to going to Qingdao since I started planning on coming to China, but it took a visitor to finally get me there. A former German concession in the early twentieth century, today it still retains a bit of a European feel and is one of the few places in China with inspiring and interesting architecture, the others being Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, and a few others. At times I felt like I was in Bavaria, and we even encountered a cobblestone street or two.

St. Michael's Catholic Church in Qingdao:


Protestant Church in Qingdao:


Former Governor's Residence in Qingdao:


Half German/Half Chinese (can you guess which is which?):


And completely atrocious, completely senseless, completely Chinese architecture in Weihai:



The German presence is also felt in the Tsingdao, or Qingdao brewery, and today it brews the finest and most popular beer in China, though it really doesn't taste that much different than most of the other hundreds of Chinese lagers.




After church on Sunday morning, we arrived two minutes late for the large bus and were therefore forced again to take a minibus, which meant another unnecessarily long trip for 5.5 hours. The rest of the time in Weihai was a little quieter, and I think it allowed Andrew to experience living in China rather than just travelling. We cooked dinner a few nights, played tennis, hung out with friends, shopped, and did all the normal things you do when you live somewhere. We also had a few more "Chinese" experiences, as I finally convinced him to go to the Korean bathhouse/sauna, while another night we had tea and watched some dancing and music performances at a traditional tea house.





In what was definitely a more difficult adventure than I expected, Andrew, Allyssa, and I rented a "trandem", as Andrew called it, and biked along the coast for a couple of hours. I never really got the hang of driving and preferred to sit in the back, but Andrew and Allyssa were quite adept. Along the way we passed several large sculptures and statues along the way. Even metal bear statues have split pants (and nards)!



A sculpture to Weihai's shipping industry and importance:



In the caption on their piece, my favorite, the artist describes providing a window for man to see nature.






I was a little relieved and sad to say goodbye to Andrew this morning. The 17 days involved a lot of planning and tiresome activity, but they went by pleasurably and unbelievably quickly. It did make me excited for my return home in a couple of months, but in the mean time I still have to find a job, and I'm a little worried about the transition back home. Life will be easier for sure, but does that also mean more mundane? While I often wish for certain aspects of life to be easier here, there's something invigorating about being challenged to fulfill tasks that seem basic in other countries. Will I be bored when I go back home? Is that inevitable? In any place? But there's also something appealing about being "normal" for a while and settling down, not always being on the move, and being able to semi/fully support myself. And I can't wait to see friends and family.

Exercise Instruction on the Beach in Weihai

Who needs to pay for a gym membership when you can use awesome equipment like this for free?

Vacation Part 2: Xi'an, Weihai

We arrived in Xi'an exhausted after a delayed flight and one-hour+ check-in nightmare at the hostel, but we did manage to find our first too-expensive restaurant in Xi'an, hotpot place that was double what it should have been. Xi'an itself is pretty impressive, with the largest intact city walls in China and the magnificent Bell Tower, which anchor's the city's center within the walls.




Xi'an also has its share of kitsch, as we would find out the next day as we visited the Terra Cotta Soldiers, known in China as the Eighth Wonder of the World. As it has done with many other (previously) attractive tourist destinations, China has over-indulged in an effort to make every last buck, and the result is less than desirable. We passed this Egyptian (theme) park on the way to the Soldiers, which alone should be enough of a draw, and once there we had to walk through a literal tourist city with countless shops and people paid to dance for about half an hour before we reached the actual pits containing the soldiers.




Once we got there and paid the enormous entrance fee, we realized that we could visit a museum commemorating the building of the museum, but not one actually detailing the discover and uncovering of the soldiers. This is also where we had our most expensive dinner, where we paid four times the typical rate for food and ended up with much less. To ease the frustration, and to poke fun at the crazy pictures that Chinese people take that usually involve only people in ridiculous poses and none of the scenery or circumstance that would warrant a picture being taken in the first place. Thus, when you look at a Chinese person's photo album (and I have), it's difficult to tall whether a picture was taken in a prison cell or at the Great Wall, because all you can see is a person's face and a few peace signs.



The Terra Cotta Soldiers were fairly impressive, but I kept thinking that very little had been done in the thirty years since the soldiers were first unearthed. It looks like no archaeological work has been done in twenty years, as huge sections of each pit remain hidden, so the overall effect was substantially reduced and a little disappointing.




We had another expensive dinner that night in the Muslim quarter, though it was much better. What's really annoying is not so much the price, as it's still cheap by western standards, but by the inconsistencies in service provided to Western and Chinese patrons. Chinese often assume that all Westerners are wealthy, but in reality, many make more money than I do, at least ones that would eat at a night market instead of cooking. It's not like we charge tourists in America more money just because they;re tourists (unless they really have it coming).



The next day might have turned out to be my favorite of the vacation. We left early again to take a bus to the base of Huashan, considered the most dangerous of China's five holy mountains and featuring a 6km trail and 2100 meter peak. The second half of the trail is completely steps; the ones shown below are pretty much the steepest ones we encountered, though. Still, thousands of steps can be exhausting.




After 4-5 hours we were at the top of the north peak, a good 500 meters short in altitude of the other four, higher peaks. People tie red ribbons and place engraved locks on the railings at each peak.




An hour later we had hiked to the higher peaks and found a place to stay for about 6 dollars a night each, which was expensive even by our standards and became even more so when you saw the hole/bathroom and realized you had very little water to use for any purpose, drinking and bathing included.





After sunset we had another expensive dinner, even though we ate only cold noodles and a plate of fried rice. It's understandable that food would be more expensive at the top of a mountain, though, because it is relatively inaccessible. Men like those below transport food, garbage, and recyclables up and down the mountain several times each day.




We intended to wake up the next morning for sunrise, and we even arrived at our destination, the East Peak, early, at 6:15, though we had clearly missed sunrise by at least 30 minutes before we got there. Crazy China and its one time zone. Still, the views were beautiful, and the temples hanging onto the sides of cliffs looked even more spectacular.





Because we had a late afternoon flight to catch, and because the mountain was a good couple of hours away from Xi'an, we started our descent early and took the more direct path, which meant that almost the entire path consisted on steep and very shallow steps. We made it down in super speed however, only to be slowed by an insane bus driver who was fond of using the entire road. Famished, we hoped to fill our bellies and avoid expensive airport food, but unfortunately, we stumbled upon a Sichuan restaurant, and I didn't notice until it was too late. Sichuan cuisine is known all across China for its searing heat, and it did not disappoint. This was simply the spiciest food I have ever had. Look at all those peppers! Every dish was unbearable until I ordered a plate of broccoli and demanded that any peppers be kept far away while cooking. Too bad it also cost us a fortune. And don't believe Andrew's smile in the picture; we were finished with peppers by that point.






I had been dreading our flight from Xi'an, as there were no direct flights to Weihai or Yantai, which are the closest airports, and we instead had to fly to Qingdao, which is a good 3-4 hours (normally) away from Weihai. Unfortunately, since we wouldn't arrive in Qingdao until 8pm, there would be no more buses to Weihai, and we'd have to hire a car for the trip. This turned out to be disastrous. I thought we were doing well at first, because I talked the guy down to 500 yuan (I was quoted 700-800 by drivers before I left), but about 15 minutes after we left the airport, the driver flagged down another motorist who apparently had a Yantai license plate. Since our driver clearly didn't want to take us, he worked out a deal with the Yantai driver and in the process received 350 of the 500 yuan he would have received had he taken us the whole way. Not bad for a 15-minute drive. Clearly, our new Yantai driver was not the brightest, as he paid 350 yuan for the privilege to take us to Weihai, and would only receive himself an extra 150yuan for completing the trip. Thus, he paid 350 yuan to the man who drove us 15 minutes, but would only net 150 yuan for the entire journey. Stupid. Unfortunately (again), he already had a passenger that wanted to go to Yantai, so I was pretty certain we were going to get screwed and end up having to go to Yantai first. I was right, but I had also decided to only give the guy 400 yuan, since we never wanted to go to Yantai in the first place. Unfortunately (yet again), our new driver decided once we got to Yantai that he no longer wanted to go to Weihai, because it wasn't worth the 150 yuan he was set to receive (which I wasn't going to pay him in the first place because the trip took so long). DUHHHHH ! MAYBE SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE AGREEING TO TAKE US! So, he proposed flagging down another car for us at the expressway to Weihai, which I naturally opposed as that would increase the cost of the trip (and make us even later). However, as I said earlier, our driver was a complete moron and just sat in the car and whined for the better part of an hour about how he was tired and it wasn't worth the money to go toWeiha . At this point it was all I could do to keep from punching him, and I'm not even violent. This guy was that stupid. He eventually conceded he'd make the trip for an extra 50 yuan which isn't even that much money (an extra 6 dollars), but this left me more fuming. You don;t negotiate a contract after you've already agreed to an original one and are in the process of fulfilling it. Can you imagine agreeing cutsomeone's hair for three dollars, then realizing it's not worth the money, then leaving the hair half-dyed for two hours while arguing for more money, then suggesting the customer find another stylist and still pay the original one the original amount, then whining a little more and asking for a raise, then finally completing the job, and then having the nerve to ask for money? NO.


We eventually made it back to Weihai at 1am (the first of three times it it took more than five hours for that 120 mile stretch). Matt had only two days in Weihai, so we had to make the most of them. The weather was colder and generally less pleasant, but we still managed to spend some time outside at the beach and explore downtown. The moment I had anticipated most upon our return to Weihai was karaoke, however, and Matt and Andrew didn't disappoint. While I generally struggle through songs (but still proudly sing my heart out), Matt and Andrew actually managed to harmonize. I'm pretty sure they;re the best karaoke singers the world has ever known. Even when singing Bon Jovi and Puddle of Mud.





The next night (Wednesday, Matt's last) we ventured out to the club (see videos from previous posts), but before that we had another giant Xinjiang dinner with lots of friends in Weihai.