Magores is fat and happy

Magores is fat and happy

I'm feeling pretty good at the moment.

But... let me backtrack a bit...

It's been a pretty interesting week overall. I actually spent about 2 hours on this past Friday typing up what has been happening, and then guess what happened? Computer crash. Lost all two hours worth of typing

So.... Let me try again. Probably won't ramble as much this time ;)

Monday, April 17 – One week ago today.
-I woke up.
-Fiddled around the house. (Day off from work)
-Went out to buy a soda, some food, etc

I walked outside, and everything was yellow.

Overnight, Beijing was hit by the worst sandstorm it has seen in years. Sandstorm is probably the wrong word. “Duststorm” would be more technically correct.

Beijing is a very dusty place. Leave a mirror near an open window, and two days later you won't be able to see yourself in the mirror.

This duststorm was like 4 months of the normal dust all in one night.

Very weird. Very eerie.

Tuesday, April 18 – Gate Uncle passed away

A little background might be required here...

Beijing is made up ever smaller-in-size entities.

At the top you have Beijing
---Then you have districts
------Then you have neighborhoods
---------Then you have XiLi's (mini-neighborhoods)
------------Then you have buildings

My work in is the building that is the community center for the particular xili.

Each xili, and some buildings, have people that keep an eye on things.
-My apartment building has the “elevator ladies”
--My xili has the 18 year old rent-a-cops at each entrance (Rent-a-Cops are everywhere. EVERY xili has them, many buildings have them, stores have them. If you take 100 Chinese people in uniforms, odds are that 1 is a cop, 1 is a soldier, 49 work in a place that requires uniforms (restaraunts, 7-11, pharmacies, etc), and the other 49 are Rent-a-Cops.)
---If you want to enter a xili, you have to pass an entrance. Each entrance has a gate. Each gate has a Rent-A-Cop (or two). Call them “Gate Cops”.

Anyway... Because our building is a Community Center, we have something “bigger” than Rent-A-Cops. We have “Uncles”

More background...

“Uncle”, in China, is a respectful term for a man a generation or two older than you, that you are not related to.

So...

We have a couple of gentlemen in their 50's that keep an eye on stuff. They watch the gate. They hold the keys. Basically, they are in charge. They are the “Gate Uncles”.

I went to work on Tuesday (even though it was my day off) because I had some stuff to prepare for the next day.

Apparently, some time between 6am and 8am, one of the Gate Uncles had a heart attack.

Sigh.



In case you're curious....

Yes. I'm an Uncle.

I'm actually a lot of things...
--Teacher (Laoshi)
--Mai Kou (Michael)
--ShuShu (Uncle)
--DaYe (Man that you are not related to who is older than your father, but isn't quite as old as your Grandfather)
--YeYe (Specifically, your father's father. Generally, Man you are not related to that is the same age as your grandfather.
--LaoTou (Old man. This is somewhat derogatory). (This is what I call myself when I can't lift the 56th child that day above my head.)

Each group of kids see's me a little differently.
-For the 2-3 year olds, I am “Mai Kou”
-For the everyday Kindergärtners I am “Michael” and/or “Teacher” and/or “Michael Teacher” and/or “Michael Laoshi”, and/or “Laoshi Michael”
-For the other district I work at, I am “Michael Laoshi”. At one point they were calling me “YeYe”. I put a stop to that. I'm not THAT old. I thought of telling them to call me “DaYe Michael”. And “Michael Laoshi” is totally appropriate and correct.

Thinking about all this led to another thing...

I've lived here awhile now. And, I don't have a Chinese name. Most Chinese (that I've met) have an English name. The kids that don't have one yet, I designate one for them. This is kinda weird in and of itself. Future post topic.

Anyway... Ever since I realized I like this place, I've wanted a Chinese name. Half the forms I fill out ask me for my Chinese name, and my English one. I don't like like leaving boxes on forms blank, so I figured I need a Chinese name.

It's hard to come up with a good one.

-Strict transliteration?
-Something similar to the pronunciation of my English name?
-Something that has a good meaning, but is unrelated to my English name? (The Chinese are big on the name meanings.)
-First name is easy, but what about the surname?

I asked my Chinese co-workers to think of something. One girl came up with something like “Pu Mai Dong”... It had a good meaning, but... I'm sorry, I can't say “You are YuPuTu? Nice to meet you. Call me PuMaiDong” without laughing.

The problem with things that sound like my English surname is that the equivalent sounds in Chinese have generally bad meanings.

But, it gets even more complicated... One sound could have 8 billion meanings.

Point of all this is that I think I finally found a reasonable Chinese name for myself. I have to verify with the locals, but this is what I'm thinking of:

Shu Mai Kou

--
Shu is the “last name” - Means “Uncle”
Mai Kou is how the kids actually say my name
--One meaning of “mai” is “wheat”
--One meaning of “kou” is mouth.
--”Mai kou” together means “wheat harvest”

So.... Shu Mai Kou = Uncle Wheat Harvest = “Wheat Harvest Uncle”.

I have to check the written characters before I finally settle. If this is too hard to write, I may just go with “Pull My Dong”.

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(I stopped typing at this point. It was getting late. Here is the rest, typed a day later...)

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Friday April 21st

Interesting day this day. I went to a training session for teachers.

It was basically a sales session for a certain publisher to try to sell their textbooks. I was pleasently surprised though. It really was a training session, more than a sales pitch. On the flip side... My boss and I went their FOR the sales pitch. We wanted to learn about the books. Oh, well. More info is always available.

One mildly amusing thing... I was the only foreigner in the room (other than the trainer). 100 Chinese teachers, 5 Chinese Sales Reps, the Belgium-ese(?) trainer, and little old me. (Also, I was probably the 2nd oldest person in the room. 1st oldest was... The trainer.)

The trainer was originally from Belgium but he lives in Mexico these days

As part of his training, he taught a little bit of Spanish. I think he was a little bemused/amused when it turned out that I actually knew some of the words before he taught them. Oso= Bear, Gato=Cat, Perro=Dog. I think it threw him off for a second.

I ended up winning a bag of goodies because I “participated well.” Chalk one up for the loud American ;)

Eric (the trainer) and I actually had a decent chat afterwards. It helped that I have a background in the publishing industry. Publishing is a VERY small world. Six Degrees of Separation.

The interesting-ness goes on.... After the training, boss and I went to a Korean restaurant for lunch.

I've had a reasonable amount of Korean food in my life. One of my favorite little restaurants in SF was a Korean BBQ place. This restaurant was nothing like anything I've had before. I ended up ordered a “bowl of stuff”.

Rice, veggies, meat, and egg on top, and God knows what else. Add some sauce, and mix it all up. Pretty decent. Not enough salt though.

Speaking of salt... They don't use much of it here. Probably a good thing, but... I like salt. Runs in the family.

Speaking of Korean food... The kimchii I had that day was MILD! Boss is doing the “hand wave in front of mouth thing” and I'm thinking “Where's the good stuff?”

After lunch we went to the bookstore.

Beijing has lots of bookstores. But, we went to a particularly good one. It is on the campus of the Beijing Foreign Studies University. Basically, its a school for Chinese that are studying English, French, etc. And, for foreigners that are studying Chinese.

I like this bookstore for a few reasons. (I've been there before.)
1)If I go with the boss, I get a 20% discount
2)Good selection of technical stuff. Example: I bought...
--1.A Chinese-English Dictionary of Measure Words
--2.Writing English Language Tests
--3.How to Teach English
--4.English Phonetics and Phonology: A Practical Course
3)Learn Chinese stuff
--1.A newer edition of a learn Chinese book that I already have
4)Fun reading
--1.A paperback book by Clive Cussler . English language spy novel type-of stuff. No social redeeming value. But, escapism is good sometimes. (Thank You Jason for introducing him to me.)

Here's a tip... If you ever decide to move to China, bring books! If you ever decide to visit China... Bring books! If you have a friend in China... Send books!

I must leave China in November. (It's the rules.) There are 4 things I will do when I get back to the US.

In order, they are:
1)Visit Family
2)Visit Friends
3)Buy Books
4)Eat salty, fatty, greasy, American food

The best part of this past Friday wasn't the training, the Korean lunch, or the bookstore. It was the 1 hour bus ride in the morning where I had to stand the whole time.

“Huh?”, you say.

First... If you have ever ridden a busy bus in SF, then Beijing isn't really that big of a deal. I imagine NY is similar. If you are from anywhere else in the US, be prepared for a shock. These things get crowded. That's not the good part though.

The good part is...

In Beijing, you have have to know the NAME of the stop you want to get off at when you get ON the bus. Knowing the cross street isn't good enough. You have to know the NAME. Here's how it works...
1)Get on the bus
2)Tell the conductor where you are going
3)Give her (or him) however much money they say
4)Get off when you are supposed to

When I first got here, I tried doing it exactly in the steps I show above. I soon learned that my Chinese skills suck, so I had to add in a few extra steps...
1)Look up the location on a map
2)Have it written for me in Chinese and Pinyin (Englishified Chinese)
3)Get on the bus
4)Say the location
5)When greeted with a blank stare, show my piece of paper with the Chinese writing
6)Give a 10 yuan bill (10 dollar bill), which is always more than the bus fare, and wait for any change.
7)Wait for the conductor to kick me off the bus.

Well... On this particular bus ride, it kinda kicked in that my Chinese is getting better. I was going to a place that I had never been. So I followed the basic steps..
1)I looked up the location
2)I wrote it in Chinese (I can do that now.)
3)I memorized the pronunciation
4)I got my paper in hand, hopped on the bus, and said where I wanted to go.
5)To my surprise, the paper wasn't needed. Conductor just said the price, I gave exact change and away we went.

Even better... One stop before I wanted to get off, the conductor came to me and said “blah blah blah Ma Diar blah blah.” I didn't understand all the words, but I understood the context enough to respond with “Bu yao. Bei Tai.” (“Not my stop. I'm going to Bei Tai.”)

So... I don't understand all the words, but I can understand the context of the conversation (in this situation at least).

And, when you think about it... Getting the point, and giving yours, is all that language really is about.

Lest you think the above situation is simple, let me add in the other wrinkle...

Ma Dian -- Beijing pronunciation= Mah Dyar, Taiwan pronunciation – Mah DeeYen
Bei Tai Ping -- Beijing pronunciation= Bay Tie PeeYar, Taiwan pronunciation – Bay Tie Peeng
PanJiaYuan – The general area where I live is: (B) PahhnJyahYouWahr, (T) PahhnJyahYouOn

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On Saturday the 22nd, one of the parents of one of our kids brought in a newspaper. Page 4 had a nice article about our school, and a decent sized picture of me with some of the kids. The paper was from a week earlier. I'm still trying to track down extra copies so I can save them for posterity and all that.
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Sunday April 23 was a basic day.
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Monday the 24 was kinda cool. I went a got myself a library card.

And... I had the best meal I've had since I've been in China. Chinese food is great and all that. But, what I made for myself tops it all. I went to the “foreigner store” and got myself a nice 1 inch thick steak.

Pan fried is the only choice I have, so I slowly pan fried this hunk of cow flesh. Heated some olive oil, threw in a little butter, a splash of soy sauce. Added meat, some saurkraut. Cooked it. Towards the end, I added some salt, pepper, sliced onions, and diced jalapenos. Add in an ice cold beer... I was fat and happy.

In fact, that steak is the original point of this post. It's odd... In a land of culinary delights, the food that I've enjoyed the most of all so far, was a steak I cooked myself. Feeling Fat, Feeling Happy.

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Postscript...

Tuesday the 25 I got offered a role in a television commerical to sell air-conditioning. Not holding out too much hope. I won't mention this again unless something actually happens.
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So... There you go... That's life in China for the past week or so.

Boring, huh?