I'm So Cold!

If there is one thing I have been discovering in my time here, it is that China is a land of contradictions and opposites far more than America is. China is Communist, yet the daily lives of people are more or less governed by the market as people work for wages, own businesses, hawk their wares, and save up to buy things. China is both rich and poor and the divide is startlingly clear in the city where there will be people diving by in brand new German cars while a gathering of old men sit on the corner and play chess wearing clothing that looks like it might be their only pair. China is different and yet the same. In America we envision exotic architecture, throngs of people, and bicycles while the truth is that most of the old styled buildings are only the front, many people have bicycles but many more drive or ride the bus, and people are just a natural by product of the area. What we never imagine is that in the supermarkets there will be small freezers with ice cream and advertisements featuring thin women wearing "Aberc Rombie and Titch" shirts. (If you haven't guessed the spelling is intentional).

I've had several interesting stories this week from getting a ride home on a motorbike Taxi to going out for dinner with the teachers from XiGong and playing chinese drinking games (over team and coke for me so far). One of the games didn't sound very chinese in truth, it was called "The Gun Shoots 007". To Play you need a big group. Then you go around and in chinese say "the" "gun" "shoot" "0" "0" "7" and the next person says "bang" and points at someone. That person says "Ahh" and the two people on either side of them hold up the hand closer to them. It doesn't sound that fun on paper but when you are sitting around a big hot pot with 12 young Chinese women it is far more enjoyable. (Even when you know that most if not all of them are attached).

Another amusing part of my week came from sharing some of my stories from back home with the girls at XiGong. I was telling one teacher whose English name is Maggie about my family and she wanted to know what Stefanie's job was. When I explained it a little, Maggie's face lit up and she looked very surprised, "Ohh, such a good job!" She said turning to the others and nodding at her own statement. "From now on my name is Stefanie because I want so good a job too." We laughed and the other girls continued to call her Maggie.

And all of this brings me to my cute kid story of the week and the title of this weeks blog. The Chinese saying for when something is uncanny, or eerily close to accurate, is "I've got goose bumps." When translated into English, the children learn it as "Oh, I'm so cold." While I was teaching class this morning I reached a point where I was going over a dialog between a boy and a girl. Because I was in a silly mood I decided to act out the dialog for them using changing voices and mannerisms for the boy and the girl. For the boy I dropped by voice to some low rumble and this kiddies all chortled for a while. For the girl I cupped my hands by my shoulder and pretended to act cute and then spoke in a high pitched voice. As I did this all the boys laughed and all the girls looked at their Chinese teacher, Annie, and said in unison, "Ahhh, Annie I'm sooo cold." Not knowing at the time what this meant I asked if the air conditioner was on, and they all laughed. So I introduced myself as the boy and the girl again and got the same reaction.