Country adventures...

Well, I had another SURPRISE holiday two weekends ago, where I worked on Saturday then had Sunday thru Tuesday off. Unfortunately, I didn't find out about this holiday until the week prior and none of the real deets until the Wednesday meeting before the break. I consigned myself to a few days of relaxing, working out and getting some things done (yeah, right). I was explaining my frustration with SURPRISE holidays to my adult tutoring student, David, and complaining about the Chinese holiday system. He looked confused and told me that he always knows in advance about his holidays, so it must not be a nationwide problem.

It seems, after some amateur investigation and through my own experiences, that this phenomenon of SURPRISE holidays is mainly apparent in the school system, where government control is high and planning for anything other than tests is low. So it's not my company's personal demonic habits that keep me out-of-the-loop, but rather the Chinese governments efforts to control its employees by keeping them ignorant. Aren't you glad it's 2012? I mean, because of China's epically large population, the government is going to have to do things a bit differently and I'm not sure popular democracy is quite applicable YET (omg, my blog is so about to get hacked) but I do wonder when employees are going to ask for better, aka a yearly logical schedule that is followed closely and predictably city-wide. As of now, it's a haphazard day-by-day announcement of education policy. Awful. Really hard to deal with and of course, my company, being the dullest pencil in the box in terms of companies that deal with foreigners, can't quite seem to grasp or address our frustrations. Ergo, I consigned myself to being irritated and enjoying my days off in Shanghai. (Reminder: traveling last-minute in China during big holidays is expensive and maybe impossible.)

David then tells me that he and his family are going back to his hometown of Zhangshu in Jiangxi province and, "Could you like to go with us to my hometown?" which initially confused me because mixing up the words "could" and "would" really changes your perception of a question. I gently corrected him, assuming that he wanted to invite me to vacation with them. I considered and realized, why the hell not? So we discussed logistics and I bought a plane ticket the next day. David was generous and kind enough to purchase my train ticket home with his friends, so I was all set.

I flew into Nanchang on the cheapest flight available Sunday at 1pm and awaited David's flight so we could get a ride together out to his home. I was, of course, the only white person on the plane and in the airport. I studied Chinese in a tea shop with overpriced beverages and psyched myself for my SURPRISE adventure into the rice paddies.

Alright, so...Chinese vacation = eat, sleep, talk, repeat.

 First meal made by David's mom.

The nongcun.

View from the house.

My lovely accommodations!

 Laoma really wanted me to take a picture of the chickens.

So basically David's family took care of me and made sure I didn't hurt myself. I didn't pay for anything and they always tried to make sure I was okay. It was incredible. I don't know them that well and only David's wife Ida speaks English. I am so grateful and happy that I had this opportunity.

50% of the time I was confused about it all so I smiled and looked content. I spent a lot of time with my own thoughts, which was interesting, but gave me a good clue about what my life would be like living in a Chinese city alone. I don't want to do that alone, ever. Great for my Chinese, bad for my psychological well-being. Not worth it. Sorry fluency!

Temple visit.

Raoning doing kungfu.

Raoning is famous in his friend group for his mad English skills:

Raoning: (waving madly at a foreigner in a restaurant) Hello! Hello!

Foreigner: (looking confused) Hi, where are you from?

Raoning: I'M RAONING. I'M RAONING!

Foreigner: Um, I'm sorry, I don't understand.

Lunch.

View from lunch.

Wedding feast.

Playing cards. Thank you Raoning.

Slippers! Wedding gifts for newlyweds.

Moo.

Home-brewed rice liquor. Drunk on Wednesday at noon? Blame this stuff.

Puppies.

My 5th meal. Too full. These people are trying to make me fat.

Torturing the newlyweds with sexually-suggestive games.

As you figured out, I got to go to a Chinese wedding. The food was amazing and the cultural experience...interesting. The idea of a wedding is pretty different than in Western countries, with the lack of religion and heavy involvement of the community and extended family. That night we visited the new home of the newlyweds where I encountered the slippers and the ridiculous teasing of the groom (including drawing facial hair on him with charcoal and putting a pot on his head so he looked like a Japanese soldier, which just KILLED all of the Chinese people). So that was fun, and Ida just kept telling me not to be embarrassed, though I was.

I took a night train back to Shanghai and promptly returned to work at 8:45am! One of the best vacations I've ever had.

ellen