Rain rain go away

The weather in Kunming has been miserably dreary the past 10 days, it reminds me of Amsterdam, but we’re nowhere near the ocean. Everyday it rains and we’ve seen not even a hint of sunshine. The buildings here have no central heating so it’s quite chilly inside and out. Our apartment is a refrigerator. Luckily my thrifty dad taught me at a young age to "put on a sweater" when I'm cold rather than cranking up the thermostat. Right dad? Needless to say, I hope the suns returns.

Last night we went downtown for dinner with our friend Amos, a Chinese from Inner Mongolia working on his masters in finance at our university. We decided on a hot pot restaurant due to the cold weather. Hot pot is a Chinese specialty consisting of a large pot filled with boiling soup that sits on a Bunsen burner in the center of the table. You can order from a long list of fresh ingredients to fill your hot pot and everyone digs in. Aside from the ingredients we ordered, we were surprised to find many other “treats” within the murky boiling water of our hot pot like pig tendons, octopus and a whole fish. Smiling all the while, we nibbled at these treats that Amos, our gracious host insisted were for us.

Besides those surprises, the other ingredients were quite tasty. Piled high plates of thinly-sliced raw beef and lamb strips, large chunks of tofu, fresh spinach, wild mushrooms and tomatoes, dates, potato noodles and long strips of seaweed were all systematically tossed into the hot pot to cook. The result was delicious, filling and did the job of warming our bellies.

After dinner, we walked around busy downtown Kunming. The bright, florescent lights that the Chinese use lavishly make for a dazzling show and stark contrast to the daytime city scenery.


China’s massive population becomes obvious on the weekends. Even a “small” Chinese city like Kunming (pop. 4 million) is overrun with people. Taking a bus back to campus last night and downtown today was a waiting game as each bus that pulled up to the swarming bus stop was already filled to capacity. This morning we waited for bus # 84 and when the fifth one came along with room for only two people to squish into the entry way, we decided to take the long way and crammed onto the slightly-less crowded bus # 129.

China has some very odd customs that I can’t help but wonder about. Here’s a few observations I thought I’d share with you, stay tuned for more in later postings:

- Restaurants rally their employees every night before dinner rush by lining everyone up outside to sing a spirited song or running around the block in military fashion while chanting.
- Traffic lights are simply a “suggestion” while driving and most automobiles pay no attention.
- Children under the age of three wear crotch-less pants. This eliminates the need for diapers and when in public, the parent simply holds the child over a planter as it does its business.

Classes went well this week. I’ve turned my American Culture class into a History of Rock and Roll class as I decided it would be impossible to fit the entire subject of American culture into 90 minutes. Anyways, these naïve Chinese students who love Mariah Carey and Green Day need some serious music culture. As our classrooms are multimedia, I treated them to videos of Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock and Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Dani California music video were the musicians work their way through rock history, mimicking every genre in one song.

For my Western Etiquette class, I cover many subjects, most importantly: no spitting, the concept of waiting in a line (Chinese love to shove and cut people off) and what “would you like to come in for a drink” really means at the end of a date.

The theme of my English Writing class this week was figurative language. To the exclamation of many moans, I gave the students an assignment to write a 500-word essay on their experience at university filled with figurative language. It wasn’t until later that I realized 500 words is really long for these student’s level of English and I most likely ruined their weekend. Ooops.

Yesterday in one of my classes, I was using Spider Man and Mary Jane as an example and admitted I didn’t know Spider Man’s real name. Scott, who had been waiting outside my class, popped his head in and said, “Spider Man’s real name is Peter Parker.” I told the students that he was my boyfriend and they all clapped and shouted “ooooooooh.” They seem to enjoy a campus-teacher romance.

Scott started his Chinese hockey career on Monday where he is not only the star of the Kunming team even with his bum knee, but has also been suckered into coaching both the youth and adult teams. His team will be hosting an international expat tournament at the end of November where teams from Beijing, Bangkok, Bali and Hong Kong will play in Kunming. I’m looking forward to watching him play again.


Kunming Chinese love KFC - more so than any other American fast food chain


Using the bathroom at McDonalds (I promise I didn't eat there - just used the bathroom!), I was pleasantly surprised to find a western toilet and toilet paper. As I mentioned before, most all Chinese public bathrooms are toilets in the floor that you squat over. I found this sign humorous, as apparently Chinese may get confused with a western toilet and climb atop to squat.