currently working on a photo album where you can view all of my Taiwan
photos. After I got back to Guiyang and got my first full paycheck, it
was starting to finally turn cold for fall. So Spring, one of the
Chinese staff, and I went shopping last Monday. We began the day by
grabbing a very Guiyang lunch of what I would call in English,
"noodles with a bunch of crazy stuff." It's apparently a specialty of
Guiyang, and you can choose a type of meat to get, but there are some
vegetables, other stuff, and congealed blood. The blood is sort of a
weird gel-ish texture, doesn't really have a strong flavor, and is
grey. Then we went to look for some coats. I was very glad to have
Spring with me because she told them the next day would be my
birthday, and I got a 60% discount on one of my coats. We attempted to
look for boots, but they didn't even have close to my giant size- a 39
or 40 (I usually wear 9 or 10 in the US). Usually the biggest one was
a 38. If even. I've seen some taller, bigger women who must have large
feet. I guess they have to get their shoes specially made or
something. I am having my mom send me some boots since I've now
realized my shoes aren't totally adequate for the colder weather. At
least, my flats are getting very worn down in dirty Guiyang city.
Tuesday was October 13, my 23rd birthday. I had a relatively
uneventful day, cleaning my room and went to Jazzy pizza for a mango
smoothie, garlic bread, and cheesy pizza. That evening, I invited
everyone out to a restaurant the guys had told me about that I had
never been to. It is a hot pot restaurant where the food comes down a
river on little boats, and you choose what you want to eat. It's a
buffet, all the food you can eat, and also unlimited drinks, including
beer. Which is good when you want to please your 5 British guy
co-workers. Also only about $7 US. I had some of my hot pot favorites,
thin sliced beef, golden needle mushrooms, and fried meat. It's also
pretty cool, since we're in spicy Guiyang they give you a divided pot
with half spicy and half not. I had a pretty good group of both all
the foreign teachers from my school and Chinese friends; Chris's and
Garry's girlfriends, my three Chinese teachers, and Leo, the new
Chinese staff who is assigned to help me.
I had Chinese lessons and work on Wednesday, and for our Chinese
lesson time on Thursday, my three teachers and I decided to go out
into the city. First, we took the bus to their university, Guizhou
Normal University. I don't take the bus much- not just because I don't
really know the routes well, but because there are maybe a dozen
actual seats and otherwise you have to stand, which is a very jerky
ride in the wild Guiyang traffic. Their university has a small campus
but some nice areas to sit outside. Their dorm rooms, though, have 8
people to a room. That's right. 8. And a curfew of 11 pm every night.
It makes my friends' small quad freshman year seem roomy. After that,
we ate lunch- those Guiyang style noodles with blood again. Not my
favorite, but good enough and cheap. And I got a fried egg on top,
which was delicious.
After that we headed to the post office at my request. I sent my mom a
birthday present and a few postcard from Taiwan. I'm sorry to say that
the whole thing was sort of a pain, so I don't know that I'll be
sending much mail while I'm here. Maybe send my postcards from Hong
Kong. They didn't even have sticky stamps- you had to use this gooey
glue. Next on our list was some shopping. I bought a scarf. They sell
a lot of scarves on the street here. Many of the same designs. I have
a feeling I might collect them all because they're cheap and cute.
Later, Yang Haiying asked me if I was interested in seeing the place
where she takes guqin lessons. Guqin, or qin, is an ancient Chinese
instrument. It is best described as a zither with 21 strings that you
play flat on a table (I recommend googling a picture). Anyways, I took
Music of China while I was in HK, and we did a whole unit of studying
the qin. So I knew about it and the music, which is very soft and
peaceful. It is a solo instrument because it is so quiet. I watched
Yang Haiying, who is a beginner, play what she's learned. No songs
yet, just some exercises. And then she taught me some! I taped the
fingernail looking picks to my right hand. Qin is something that looks
easy but is very difficult. There is a lot of position and technique.
Maybe it's easy to play some songs, but hard to do it well. I played
some, which was great fun! The girls thought I was good at it, but
it's more because I've played an instrument before rather than actual
talent. Then, one of the guys taught me some guitar. The man and woman
there are music majors who teach lessons. He played a Chinese pop
song, very well, before he taught me some chords. I've played a bit of
guitar so I knew how to read the chords, but I still think guitar is
difficult- changing chords is tricky. I would love to teach myself,
but having someone, even who didn't speak English, teaching me
reminded me of why it is great to have a teacher. He pointed out
things I didn't even realize I was doing wrong, which made playing
much easier. At any rate, I do miss music. I am considering getting a
cheap (or renting) a violin so I can play something with Philip.
Philip plays piano, and for hours at a time. So it would be nice if we
could play some concertos or something.
A fun day, and obviously I loved the music. I'm so glad I took that
Chinese music class and now I got a chance to play a qin! It's great.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment