Dan
took us to Starbucks. He said its the only place you can buy coffee that is
around. Starbucks is a status symbol in China, people carry the paper cup in
the same manner as which both men and women dangle Gucci and Prada bags to show
off to others. The women are all using umbrellas to block the sun even though
they walk in the shade. I saw a girl in 6 inch heels walking her dog by the
paws, at if she was walking a small child. The pooch hobbled on two feet. I wish
I took a picture. We waited for the police station to open. Ruby, a girl who
works at Dan's school came to help with the paperwork and to sign as our
Chinese host. At the station, I made one typo on the nonresident visitor
form and had to rewrite the whole damn thing. It seems crossing out is a big no
no. A women at the hair salon across the street watched over a dog that looked
like Fassi The Bear. Many cute dogs in China. None of which are on
leashes. We then took a taxi to the school Dan teaches at. The taxi had
belts but no buckles and the coast was littered with cranes and storage
containers for export. Dan gives directions to the driver in Chinese. I have no
idea if he speaks correctly or not, but I notice many of the words he is using
are the same. Shenzhen Foreign Language School is a boarding school with
an AP program to prepare students for american colleges.
The teachers have
their resumes and pictures on the walls next to posters of all the American ivy
league universities. The school is impressive in size and facilities. Mike and
I had the chance to ask and answer questions to three of his 11th grade
classes. Many of the students were shy and did not make a significant effort to
ask questions. The students that did said some very interesting and humorous
things. My favorite was " Given the Chinese stereotypes I described
(Chinese are geeks and nerds, and are more quiet then other
nationalities) wouldn't you rather go somewhere else, like Africa, where
people are louder and are always dancing?" The students seemed to have a
much different world view, concept of travel and I believe more pessimistic
view of their country as compared to which China is admired and often feared in
the US. Dan said that travel in China is either out of necessity or to
experience an elevation of life style, the China only travel to areas up on the
economic ladder. His students didn't relate to his desire to travel to Mongolia
last summer.
Towards the end o class with is acknowledged with relaxing
chinese transient music, students asked me to come back to school tomorrow to
see them do their communal calisthenics. Dan informed them that we would
have other plans but I mentioned that I've seem this one YouTube.
"YouTube, we don't get that her," said a frowny faced girl. Oh yea,
I've heard about that. I'll be using a VPN service that costs about $60 a
year to bypass the Great Fire Wall. At the end of class, after avoiding
only 1 sensitive and politically inappropriate question Dan informed me not to
pursue, the students all perked up with excitement to have their picture taken
with me. The free cafeteria lunch was also real highlight and very tasty.
Afterwards, I got my hands on more gift tea from Dan, this time Good
Taste, Good Life green tea, free and gifted from parents during his end of the
year parent meeting. The school office is overflowing with gifts of tea and
boxes of lychees. Teaching here seems like a really good gig, smart and capable
students, a salary that surpasses NYC and a drastically lower cost of living.
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