Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts

Monday, March 17, 2014

Minimum wage

I had an interesting discussion with some of my students the other day about pay in China compared to America. In America, the minimum wage is technically $7.25 (44rmb) with some states higher and some lower. The highest is $9.32 (57rmb). At least, that is what wikipeda told me. In China, I get paid between 100-250 rmb an hour ($15-$40) which is very common for foreigners-it's almost like we have a PhD in English. However, Chinese nationals get paid much much less!

Most of my friends make anywhere between 10-30rmb an hour ($1.60-$5). Those with good jobs could get 50-75rmb an hour ($8-$12). Can you imagine working 8 hours and only making about $25!? They will get bonuses at the end of the year and some get paid more, but it's still much cheaper than the USA. Yes, many things are cheaper here, but it's still quite different.

I could pay a lady $3/hr to clean my apartment! Why haven't I, you ask? Because I didn't realize how cheap it was... and I don't know where to find one of those cleaning ladies... and I should clean it myself... :-(

Friday, March 7, 2014

My old complex

My window is facing the walkway in my complex. Compare it to a driveway but shared by about 1000 people. As I sit in my room I hear children playing and old ladies talking, cars leaving and garbage people shoveling up the garbage. I also hear people yelling, not out of anger, but advertising. I never really understood what they say and didn't really care much. Actually, it was more annoying than anything. But, then today, I discovered what this old man has been yelling for the past 6 months.

I was walking home from school and heard the familiar voice. Just before I got to him, I heard a lady say "Oh, do you have eggs?". He responded, yes, two different kinds. Eggs!! Really!? all this time he has been yelling to us that he has eggs for sale? That's where I live, people come around my complex selling eggs from a little basket. They yell loudly and walk slowly so we have time to come down and buy what they have. Now I know if I need eggs, I can get them from the guy with the strong voice.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Chinese Characters

Learning Chinese is a lot of fun. I get to feel like a young child again as I walk around outside discovering my world of becoming literate. Learning to speak and listen is one thing, but learning to read is another. Although reading isn't super important, it's fun and important to learn some words. Here's a short introduction to learning Chinese charachters.

Some characters you learn out of necessity... 男 (boy) and 女 (girl) will tell you which bathroom to use. 街道口 (my street name) will tell me which bus I can take to my house.

Some characters you learn because they are easy...  一 (one), 山 (mountain), 不 (no...).

Some characters you learn because they look cool...哭 (cry), 夸 (I'm not sure, but I know it's "kua")

However, some characters you learn because of emotional connections behind them. For example, 拆 (cut down) is a character which brings sadness to my eyes. China is developing. This means that many old buildings are being cut down in order to build newer "better" ones.  The other day I ventured to my old old apartment. The 拆 character was everywhere. The entire complex is being torn down. I didn't even recognize the gate as I walked by. I decided to see if my old building was there. Sure enough, it will soon be torn down. A few people still live in the complex, but most buildings are deserted and awaiting their fate. Here is a walk down memory lane...

By the way... I saw the character near my current apartment... [sigh]... it just keeps going.

The main entrance

Looking back into the street

This used to be an open area, now it's full of garbage.

I walked past this every day and wondered what it said. Now it's crossed out... and I still don't know what it says.

The door to my building

Haha, we always walked past this... it's still there, but now with lots of beer bottles

My floor...

kitchen on the left, bathroom on the right

Our couch used to be there

TV

My old bedroom

Nicole's bedroom. Her map of Wuhan is still on the wall. We haven't lived there for over 3 years!


View from the roof

The whole to climb through to get to the roof

Here is the 拆 character, which carries so much meaning

The walkway I took every day...

This is just for fun. It's where Nicole and I would buy our train tickets. They were so patient with us!

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Menus

Ordering food in China is a little different than America. When you sit down at the table the waitress follows you, hands you one menu, and stands there. She is waiting to take your order. You pick your dishes and tell her immediately. The whole table eats the same thing, which can be nice because you get a variety, but also not, if you don't like the same foods.

Sometimes the menu is hanging on the wall. You just walk up and tell the lady standing nearby what you want to eat. Those are harder for me because it's almost guaranteed not to have English. However, most menus don't have English so us Americans just start yelling out foods that we know and see if they have them there. :) I love eating out in China, it's relatively cheap, mostly good, and a great time to chat with others. Sometimes you accidentally order some strange foods and it makes it an unforgettable meal!

on the left: wood ear with mountain medicine (the white stuff- not sure of the English name, but this is the direct translation) it's a delicious dish! on the right: Duck... very hard to eat since it was mostly bone and skin, but still good tasting.

Here is the menu on the wall.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Getting Things Done

I have this bad habit that I "write" blogs in my head. I make them so detailed that I forget later if I actually wrote it, or just thought about this. This blog I "wrote" the first time while washing dishes. So, if you already know this stuff, that means I just forgot I already wrote it.

With that intriguing introduction... let's get started. :o) It's quite interesting how I get things fixed in my home. Maybe it's the same as in America, but I've never rented a house, so I'm not sure how it works.

1. Call, text, or email (or all three) Deborah. She is in charge of paperwork for me getting to China. She's the one we talk to about money and apartment things. Basically anything besides what I teach.

2. Deborah calls Mr. Lin and tells him.

3. Collectively through text messages we come up with a time that Mr. Lin can visit (Mr. Lin doesn't speak any English)

4. Mr. Lin comes with Fixer Guy (no idea who this man is, but he's always the same guy). They look at the stuff. Mr. Lin talks to Fixer Guy. After deciding what they need to do to fix it...

5. We make another appointment for Fixer Guy to come alone. (Usually I can fumble through this conversation without Deborah's help).

6. Fixer Guy comes at or around appointed time.

7. I get to use my newly repaired/improved item!!

8, I hope that it stays working long term. :o)


pictures: These have nothing to do with my blog, but pictures are fun, so here some are. 
This is the meal Britney cooked for us. 17 dishes!!!

Relaxing afterwards. :)

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Hospitals

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. This week has been a bit crazy. One of our fellow Focers had surgery. He broke his foot in Thailand during Spring Festival and needed surgery to put in some pins to help it grow back together. So, with the school semester starting, studies starting, and visiting him in the hospital, I've been keeping busy. Chinese hospitals are quite different. Here are somethings I have learned from my friend's experience.

1. The nurses are there mostly to make sure your alive and they give you IVs.
2. Family does the rest for you- get you food, water, anything you need. Empty your bedpan, basically anything that isn't directly connected with your reason for being in the hospital... so...
3. If your family can't be with you all the time, you hire someone. Our friend has his only little "maid" that he pays $3.25 a day to do all the things he can't do on his own. This includes, but is not limited to heating up his food (he has to pay for the microwave too), emptying the bedpan, getting him hot water, and... really anything that he needs help with.
4. Visiting hours are... well, always. You can go anytime and stay as long as you wish!
5. Showers are not required. He hasn't taken a shower in a while.. why? because the bathrooms are really sanitary and he would need help. I don't blame him for not showering, I wouldn't either.
6. Bathrooms- you provide your own TP and soap.
7. Nurses wear the "typical" nurse hat that we all think of when we think of nurses.
8. You have 2 roommates.- unless you pay for a VIP room.
9. Hospital food is not provided and seldom eaten.
10. Pain medicine is not provided quite like America- no Vicodin here!
11. They keep you for a long time! He had his surgery a week ago and he's still there for a few more days.
12.  Although it's quite different, they still make sure you are taken care of and provide the best care they can give.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Family in China

Most of you probably know about the one child policy in China. Because of the growing population, families are only allowed to have one child. However, there are some exceptions. 1) If you are a minority- not Han Chinese 2) If you live in the country-side 3) If you are rich enough to pay for a second child 4) If you hide your second child from the government-not the best way, but it's better than aborting the child.

Because of this, most Chinese my age don't have many cousins. They probably have a few aunts and uncles, but each one probably only has one child. They are shocked to hear that I have 18 cousins and flabbergasted when I tell them my mom has 100! They also don't have many or any siblings, but for some reason they always talk about their brother and/or sister. Hmm... how does that work?

It's their cousins! Family here is very close. Everyone lives in the same town, probably in the same area, maybe even the same house. (Although as always, there are many exceptions). Being in Bella's hometown, I got to see first hand how close family is here. We went to so many relatives homes and by the end of the three days I felt like her cousins were my cousins. We were in the country, but the homes were still right next to each other. Children walk easily from home to home. Your cousin lives 4 minutes away walking. At one place we were at the grandparents lived in one part of the house, the uncle and his family lived in the other part (I'll show a picture).

I think it's amazing how close Chinese are to their family. They help each other with no question, they work together, they have each others' back. Most can't fathom the idea of nursing homes. You just don't do that.

Sorry, these pictures aren't in a very good order, hard to organize sometimes.

Hallway outside

This is their bathroom. A bit different than yours, huh?
Bella's brother with two of their cousins

I realize that I already uploaded this one, but I like it so here it is again. :)

apparently I like this one too.. second time for this one as well

Doesn't matter how simple the kitchen is, it can still produce amazing food!

Bella's Grandma's super simple kitchen.

Monday, February 11, 2013

A New Year in China!

Her Grandma and Grandpa's house
 I wish I could bring you all here. It's a step into the past (sort of) as a Chinese village (of about a million??maybe less, maybe more, not sure) celebrates the Chinese lunar new year. I celebrated last year with my parents and a friend's family, but this year is same same, but so very different!
Nicole and I are at a friend's (Bella)home this year in a small town called Jianli. I would compare it to a farming community in America. We took a train to the city then a taxi (we hired him as a driver, not the same as a real taxi) to Bella's hometown. All we knew coming into this was 1)11 people would be staying in the home we would be at and 2) bring warm clothes, it might snow. Boy, was the "bring warm clothes" good advice!

We arrived at her uncles home shortly after twelve. We were immediately greeted by her uncle and cousin. They showed us our room. They gave us a private room to sleep in! Then we were introduced to the "magic table". You see, it is quite cold here.. About 30(or even less) and they don't have any heat. I don't either, but I have air conditioners that blow heat. They don't even have that. So it's cold!! This magic table is a table frame with a heater under it they put a blanket over the frame. Then the top of the table over that. People can sit around the table, cover up with the blanket, and stay quite warm! You see these tables all over and people crowd around them like the watering hole.  After three days of being here, I really appreciated this "magic table".

That night we went to a wedding feast. However, it wasn't a normal wedding feast, it was sort of like the bachelor party, but not even a party, just a meal. It was just for the groom and his family and friends. We came, we ate, we left. Well; sorta. We also got our pictures taken with the groom and many others. We may have been the first foreigners that many of them have seen, so we were quite popular. There is a tradition to go to the groom and say nice things to him. If he is happy with these compliments, he will give you a red envelope. This envelope contains money. We both did it and both got 10rmb (about $1.75). Doesn't seem like much, but that can buy you two meals!
That night we came home and played mahjong with Bella and her brother. The mahjong table turns into one of those magic tables!
That's all I'll write today. I'll try to add some pictures and explain things via that. Celebrating here was probably one of my highlights (and lowlights because of the cold) of my time in China. I learned so much about the Chinese culture by being out here. I saw the differences between city life and country life in China. There is a huge difference! 

Courtyard inside of the house- I'm looking down from the second story
Walking up to the house (it snowed that night! it was so pretty- first snow of the year)

This is Nicole in the "hallway" to the right and down, that's the courtyard. Two families live here. The grandparents and one of the uncles with his two kids and wife.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Chrstmas Gifts

 Chrstmas in China is very different than America. This is a gift I received from a friend. Can you tell what it is? It's an apple. Let me explain. Chstmas Eve in Chinese is Ping an ye (means peaceful night) Apple in Chinese is ping guo. See the first "word" This pronunciation in Chinese is the same. So, many Chinese people give apples as a gift. They sell these little boxes that fit an apple perfectly :)




Here is a gift from one of my students... Can you tell what it is???? :) :)


Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Chinese Wedding

I thought I knew what a Chinese wedding was like. I mean, I've been to two of them, so I figured I had it figured out. I was wrong.... so wrong...

Last weekend I was able to participate in the entire ceremony. I will give you some step by step events.

7:00am- Kelsey, Nicole, and I were picked up to partake in the ceremony (we figured out later we were kinda the groomsmen along with one other Chinese guy).

8:00am- The line of black cars with pink ribbons were lined up and ready to go to the bride's home! I sat in the front car with the groom since I and the other Chinese guy were going to host the ceremony (that happens a bit later).

8:40am- We arrived at the bride's home... there was a lead car that recorded our trip over and as we got out of the car, basically everything we did. Firecrackers were set off to alert the bride and her family that we had arrived. After the firecrackers, we ran up to her door. The groom started knocking, but they wouldn't let him in. They asked him questions (who are you? what do you want? what's your name? why are you here? etc...) He slide red envelopes through the door full of money to encourage them to open up. Finally, he got through the front door. Her whole family was there- parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc...

8:50am- He does the same thing to her bedroom door. Finally, her mother came over and opened the door, then we saw the bride sitting on her bed with her dress on and flowing around her on her bed. She looked beautiful!!! Her four bridesmaids were there. This is the point where we discovered that we were the "groomsmen" The groom picked her up and carried her down to the cars. We all jumped in on the caravan and off we went! To where you ask? We didn't exactly know at this point...

10:00am- We arrived at the grooms home (his whole family was here). He carried her upstairs and set her on his bed (their new bed). They ate some soup (which I'm sure has some meaning). Offered tea to his parents and went back down to the cars (this time she could walk on her own)

11:00am- Last stop... the hotel! No we weren't checking them in for the night... we were having the ceremony and meal. The bride and groom greeted the guests as they arrived.

12:30pm- Ceremony begins! I helped host it, but sadly I made a mistake on one of my lines... So that was a little sad. However, I didn't care so much. I was honored that I was asked to be a part of their wedding in such a special way. Very seldom will we be able to see the "behind the scenes" part of the wedding. Only family and close friends get to join in the morning events.

I have pictures that I will add in the future. However, the internet isn't working very well right now so uploading pictures will be a bit difficult. There are other small things that happened which I didn't include. I didn't want to make the post too long, but if you want to know more, just let me know!

Friday, November 23, 2012

Jobs found in China

I've been wanting to make a post about this for a long time. Like over a year... I just haven't gotten around to making an actual list. So, I'm going to start. I may add to it in the future, but at least it's started. Here are some jobs that you can only (or more likely) find in China.

1. puddle sweeper- there are people who sweep the streets, part of that includes sweeping any puddles that have formed. This way no person, biker, or motor vehicle will have to cross the dangerous puddle.

2. pool ball setter upper- maybe we have these in America, but I've never seen them. When you go and play pool there is a person who will set up the balls for you after each game. How convenient!

3. bike watcher- riding your bike to the store? Don't want to risk someone taking it? Find a biker watcher. Pay them a mere 8 cents to watch your bike as long as you need!

4. cheerleader- this one I'm making up myself, but wherever you see workers, you almost always see too many. I think the others are there for moral support and cheering the team on.

5. theft avoider- shopping? thinking of stealing (hopefully not)? Even if you wanted to, it would be hard. As so you as step into an aisle in the store, an employee is right there beside you. It's like shopping with a friend :)

6. McDonald's delivery person- that's right! McDonald delivers. However, Pizza Hut does not... Things are a little backwards here :)

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Just One

When you fly from Seattle to New York what time do you take off... what time do you land? How many hours actually passed between that flight? What time is it in Alaska when this is all going on?? Time zones are amazing and also can cause quite the confusion. I enjoy traveling from one time zone to the next and knowing that the sun goes up and down at about the same time.

Not here...

I may have told you this already, but I'm not sure... In China there is one time zone. So whether you are in Beijing (far East) or Chengdu (a bit more West) it's 5 am at the exact same time. It's great for trains, planes, and buses. Doesn't matter when you leave, you know the arrival time at your destination is the same as where you left.

It also means that the sun comes up and comes down at different times. I woke up at 5am this morning (not on purpose- jet lag) and it was dark outside. I thought it was still midnight. I was hoping I could turn over and sleep for 6 more hours. Sadly, I couldn't. I laid in bed for another hour, then turned on my computer. This may be a long day... :)

Currently sunrise is at 5:57 and sunset is at 6:49.
In January sunrise will be at 7:20 and sunset at 5:30

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Smelling Something

Everyday as I walk to and from different places there are things you notice. You notice the vast amounts of people,  the traffic, the sounds, and... the smells. If you have been to China you can appreciate some of them, if you have not, I hope you can imagine them.

You get the smell of stinky tofu. Which smells a little like... well, it's hard to describe. I asked some of my friends and here are their replies:
  • it smells stinky- Chinese friend
  • a baboon’s left butt cheek-Jonathan
  • poop and BO combined- Andy
  • I'm not exactly sure, just bad. - Brian
  • crap = Nicole
  • rotting flesh...? It's very hard to describe.-Julie
The exhaust from the cars and buses next to you on the street.

The cigarrete of the man in front of, next to, and behind you on the street.

But last night I got another smell. I smelled smoke, real smoke. I looked over and oh.... look, the dumpster is on fire. Well, the contents inside of the dumpster. Hmm.. no one is really noticing, I guess it's ok... I will say, the dumpster is all metal, so chances are it won't spread, but I still feel that SOMEONE would notice and do something about it.All well, that's just the way it is.