In my classes there this week I taught 'free time' vocabulary and clothes. For the clothes part I bought in a bunch of my clothes, which the students loved. They thought it was hilarious because there was no way a Chinese teacher would ever do that. I had this huge bag and they had no idea what I was going to pull out next. I taught more advanced clothing words like sweatpants and flats, but it was a good exercise because the students knew some of the words so didn't feel too overwhelmed with new vocabulary. One of the teaching assistants said it was a great class and I had real potential as a teacher. She even high-fived me (very un-Chinese). It was the nicest complement I've received since being here (although I have absolutely zero plans of becoming a teacher).
After I was done with my university classes on Friday I headed to RT Mart with Jerra to buy some stuff for Sarah's 24th birthday. Celebrating your birthday in China usually sucks (except for my one in Beijing where I was given three different cakes, one from a completely random Chinese man), so we made sure to get her something. We bought these beautiful cupcakes but the lady completely squished all the icing when putting them into the packaging. Jerra and I just cringed when it happened.
Bikes outside of RT Mart:
RT Mart where we do most of our shopping:
Jerra and the squished cupcakes (that don't look so squished here):
I had two more classes scheduled for later Friday night, but luckily one of them was cancelled so I was done working at 6:30. A huge crowd of foreigners all headed over to Uncle Dans school for dinner. First we had to be showed off to his students. Knowing Uncle Dan is interesting because it really gives you a close and personal look at the Chinese concept of 关系 (guanxi). Guanxi literally means a relationship or connection between two people, but in China it goes much deeper than that. It's essentially 'I scratch your back, you scratch mine'. Uncle Dan benefits from being seen with foreigners. His business does better. We benefit since he organizes outings, invites us to Chinese weddings, and even pays for some of our dinners. So when we went to his school Friday night we were expected to meet his students. It was a strange situation being showed off and paraded around, but if you don't think about it in terms of 'guanxi' you'll go crazy.
We eventually took over the restaurant across the street for Sarah's birthday celebration. The food was surprisingly delicious. It was a little like Korean BBQ. I was sitting at a table with people from America, Kenya, Australia, South Africa, China, Canada, and the Phillipines. It's always such a surreal experience when you think about it. There's only a few places in the world where you would get a group of people that diverse together for dinner. We ate there for a few hours before heading to Mini Club for some dancing (Gangnam stlye- the other nice thing about China is you can make a complete fool out of yourself dancing at clubs and no one cares).
All the foreigners:
Saturday was full of more classes, starting at 9:30am. Us Americans went and grabbed some jiaozi for lunch. They are just so delicious. Later Sarah and I picked up some noodles for Girls Night. Deb (from Australia) used to work at our school and now works at a different one in Qiqihar. She was kind enough to organize a girls night potluck so we all went over there around 7pm for some food and gossip. It was a fun evening getting to know everyone a little better and hearing about some of the crazy things that have happened in Qiqihar.
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