Ah, conversation
Back to English, but of course now I feel guilty for not practicing enough. Already the Chinese I learned is leaking out of my ears for good. I am doing my best to keep it up though as much as I can, and there are still plenty of opportunities.
The other night I met up with Carrie from Couchsurfing who took me to a great bar on the Pearl River running through Guangzhou. It was a really relaxed place with great views on a really nice night (the weather is humid here but generally comfortable) and we sat and got to know each other for a bit. Shortly thereafter she spotted a few friends of her's and we joined them, one English ex-pat living in Guangzhou for about 5 years, and two other Chinese friends. We met at 9pm that night, and did not leave the bar until about 4am while the people disappeared and the bar closed all around us. The evening consisted primarily of a long and winding conversation about the US, China, democracy, communism, censorship, religion, and other light topics. Carrie's English friend had an interesting perspective and many decent points to make, and it was an extremely enjoyable. This of course punctuated by a whole lot of beer and more of that dice game of which I still had much to learn.
The next day I met up with my mother's friend's son who is traveling on business in Guangzhou, and we met up with Carrie again who took us on a walk through a giant park here which reminded me and Michael both in some ways of Central Park. It rained a bit but nobody seemed to mind all that much, the weather stayed comfortably humid throughout. Later in the day I had a pleasant surprise at dinner. Carrie took me to an Indonesian place which appeared to have some but not a ton of vegetarian options. After explaining that I was vegetarian, they brought out a small second menu which said "strictly vegan" on the top and had maybe 20 all vegan choices. I was kind of stunned and maybe moved a little. I ended up having some kind of vegetarian salmon with chili powder and we shared some curry vegetables, all of which was pretty good. I was amazed to be eating such a good vegetarian meal in the first place, so I was happy. We then met up with Carrie's friend Sharona who is Chinese but lived in NYC for 10 years, and then Michael joined us and we went to another bar. We drank and talked and then I finally learned how to play Chinese Chess, which is much more similar to western Chess than I realized. I'm going to have to get some pieces when I get back to New York someday.
Guangzhou is a big and active city. It's very spread out and not really walkable as NYC is, but within a neighborhood it is a bit more doable. I haven't really explored it all that much, but it seems to have a lot of restaurants, bars, shopping, and everything else you'd expect from a giant city that's been around for so long. This may not be the best week to judge because there is a large trade fair in town, but there seem to be non-insignificant numbers of foreigners roaming the streets, although it is clearly still China and occasionally people do seem a bit mystified to see me, although I have been going to some places where probably fewer foreigners are found, like this internet cafe for instance which is filled with Chinese teenagers and twentysomethings blowing each other up with rocket launchers and in some cases magic spells. And smoking. Lots of smoking.
Today the only clothing I have is what I'm wearing. My laundry should be ready around 6pm. That's one thing that is always better about the hostels than the hotels. They have a washer and dryer and for like $2US they'll do your laundry for you and fold it. In a hotel, it is always some exorbitant price. There isn't really a local launderer near by or I would have tried that instead, if only for another chance to completely misunderstand someone in Chinese. I did have a good conversation with a cab driver the other night on the way home. As in all the other places I've visited, people are always pretty complimentary and enthusiastic about a western that speaks some Chinese, and usually tell me that I am either "very good" or occasionaly "formidable" which is my favorite compliment I think.
Oh yeah, I uploaded some pictures from mainland China. They can be found here:
pictures from the first part of my trip in mainland china
The other night I met up with Carrie from Couchsurfing who took me to a great bar on the Pearl River running through Guangzhou. It was a really relaxed place with great views on a really nice night (the weather is humid here but generally comfortable) and we sat and got to know each other for a bit. Shortly thereafter she spotted a few friends of her's and we joined them, one English ex-pat living in Guangzhou for about 5 years, and two other Chinese friends. We met at 9pm that night, and did not leave the bar until about 4am while the people disappeared and the bar closed all around us. The evening consisted primarily of a long and winding conversation about the US, China, democracy, communism, censorship, religion, and other light topics. Carrie's English friend had an interesting perspective and many decent points to make, and it was an extremely enjoyable. This of course punctuated by a whole lot of beer and more of that dice game of which I still had much to learn.
The next day I met up with my mother's friend's son who is traveling on business in Guangzhou, and we met up with Carrie again who took us on a walk through a giant park here which reminded me and Michael both in some ways of Central Park. It rained a bit but nobody seemed to mind all that much, the weather stayed comfortably humid throughout. Later in the day I had a pleasant surprise at dinner. Carrie took me to an Indonesian place which appeared to have some but not a ton of vegetarian options. After explaining that I was vegetarian, they brought out a small second menu which said "strictly vegan" on the top and had maybe 20 all vegan choices. I was kind of stunned and maybe moved a little. I ended up having some kind of vegetarian salmon with chili powder and we shared some curry vegetables, all of which was pretty good. I was amazed to be eating such a good vegetarian meal in the first place, so I was happy. We then met up with Carrie's friend Sharona who is Chinese but lived in NYC for 10 years, and then Michael joined us and we went to another bar. We drank and talked and then I finally learned how to play Chinese Chess, which is much more similar to western Chess than I realized. I'm going to have to get some pieces when I get back to New York someday.
Guangzhou is a big and active city. It's very spread out and not really walkable as NYC is, but within a neighborhood it is a bit more doable. I haven't really explored it all that much, but it seems to have a lot of restaurants, bars, shopping, and everything else you'd expect from a giant city that's been around for so long. This may not be the best week to judge because there is a large trade fair in town, but there seem to be non-insignificant numbers of foreigners roaming the streets, although it is clearly still China and occasionally people do seem a bit mystified to see me, although I have been going to some places where probably fewer foreigners are found, like this internet cafe for instance which is filled with Chinese teenagers and twentysomethings blowing each other up with rocket launchers and in some cases magic spells. And smoking. Lots of smoking.
Today the only clothing I have is what I'm wearing. My laundry should be ready around 6pm. That's one thing that is always better about the hostels than the hotels. They have a washer and dryer and for like $2US they'll do your laundry for you and fold it. In a hotel, it is always some exorbitant price. There isn't really a local launderer near by or I would have tried that instead, if only for another chance to completely misunderstand someone in Chinese. I did have a good conversation with a cab driver the other night on the way home. As in all the other places I've visited, people are always pretty complimentary and enthusiastic about a western that speaks some Chinese, and usually tell me that I am either "very good" or occasionaly "formidable" which is my favorite compliment I think.
Oh yeah, I uploaded some pictures from mainland China. They can be found here:
pictures from the first part of my trip in mainland china
posted by Dan at 10:33 PM
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