Randomosity

There are many amazing things about China. It is truly a completely different world here. The smells are different (some not so pleasant), the air is different (sometimes not so clean), the people are different, the land is different, the animals, everything. I must say though, my favorite aspect is the random, completely spontaneous things that happen. Here are a few examples:

Example 1: The week I returned from my vacation, Joan called me and said there were some teachers from another school in Youxian that wanted to take us to dinner. So, I agreed. We went to dinner with a group of random Chinese educators and were then asked to go to their school to “meet their students.” Yeah, ok. Apparently, in China “meeting the students” means walking into a class of 50 completely unprepared and asked to give a lesson about the US. After my “lecture” we were invited to ktv and dancing with the headmaster, a few teachers and a group of students. Naturally, we agreed. KTV consisted of a lot of beer, singing My Heart Will Go On (I’m now a pro) and dancing to really strange Chinese techno.

Example 2: Again, this occurred at KTV on a random night. Derek came to visit Joan and me for the weekend. We decided to at least attempt to find a cheap ktv. We walked into this hotel/ktv. When we excited the elevator there was a small group of men waiting to go into their room. I simply said “Ni hao” and then we were invited to sing with them! As it turned out, it was a group of investors who were being taken out by a Youxian government official who used to teach English. So, again we sang My Heart Will Go On and drank a lot of free beer. This was an amazing night because Noel, the government official/ex-English teacher has a daughter at my school. He is extremely nice and has offered to help Joan and me out anytime we need it. He even offered to take us to a few places around Youxian that are very famous.

Example 3: Last night. Joan and I went to dinner at a restaurant in town. We go there for 2 reasons: Joan likes the food and I like the men who cook the food. As we are eating two young guys walk up to us and start asking us about the meal. As it turned out one of the guys was the boss of the restaurant. They sat down with us for 20 minutes and in their broken English and our broken Chinese we found out what was good to eat at the restaurant, exchanged numbers and were asked to go to ktv later this week.