Guangzhou Bus Trip

Nathan and I were on our way to Guangzhou for part of our May holiday. It's usually a mildly unpleasant 6-hour ride on the highway. This time, though, we managed to get a bus that was touring through every podunk mountain town on the way.

We would have probably enjoyed the scenery and resigned ourselves to a longer trip, but we were also lucky enough to get seats just behind the driver. He honked a painfully loud horn every time he thought someone was even thinking of crossing his path--three times. It made for a very long eight-hour trip. But it also made our time in Guangzhou that much sweeter.

Heavy Metal Restaurant

I just finished a run across campus and back to our apartments near the river. You might notice the time of night and wonder why I go running so late. There are three main reasons: mental health, motivation, and bucking the trend.

Mental health: If I ran at day, the sight of a foreigner might cause all kinds of accidents and other problems. I feel a little like a circus animal already anyway, and I don’t think all the extra staring would help my well-being.

Motivation: People sometimes catch a glimpse of me even at night. About one in four make some sort of predictable comment like “Haloooh!” which makes me want to run away from them. . .quickly.

Bucking the trend: In my eight months here, at least 99% of the people I’ve seen exercising were doing it between 4:30 and 6:00 PM—before dinner. I find the opportunity to introduce some unconformity irresistible.

Great. Classroom.

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

"Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. education & free discussion are the antidotes of both."

- Thomas Jefferson

Lately Chinese have been getting angrier about new Japanese textbooks that whitewash Japanese atrocities during WWII. Yesterday the Japanese prime minister gave an unreserved apology for Japan’s actions, and this was at least the 16th time Japan has apologized. The Chinese government doesn’t allow broadcast any of these apologies within China.

Meanwhile, masses of Chinese are throwing rocks at Japanese embassies and violently protesting outside Japanese businesses in Guangzhou, unaware that Japan has ever apologized for anything.

Yesterday, before watching the news broadcast (or not broadcast) one of my students told me that she wanted to give her informational speech about Taiwan and Japan and China’s relationship with them, but that the university had told students not to discuss political matters in the presence of foreign teachers. I told her she’d better not.

Hey M'sieur!

First of all, before you rush to judge (me) this is not my photo, and not even really a friend's. I saw this on Flickr (my photo hosting site) and was laughing for a while, so I thought I'd share. If you click on the photo, you can see the rest of the "gasman" series.

Shantou Bird Show

I just had a day that requires some venting, and I think a blog is as good a place as any--minus all post-venting regret for publishing angry thoughts.

I spent the day in an elaborate trap that locals call the “Meizhou Con” or “Hakka Hustle.” This masterful plan is implemented by the university’s communist-inspired bureaucracy (is that an oxymoron?). Whenever one person in the bureaucracy is required to make a decision, take responsibility for making a decision, or even think about making a decision, they enter a complex dance, which has incidentally remained largely unexplored by science. In this dance, the person who has responsibility for a decision refers you to someone who then refers you to the former person, who, when told about the impasse, refers you on to someone farther down the campus hierarchy. Then this peon sits and wonders (along with you) at how they’ve become responsible (for anything). They sometimes grow a big head suddenly and complain that the university should consult them about more matters if they're to be held responsible for this one. You are then dragged along in the inescapable current until you inexplicably, but inevitably arrive back to your starting point. It’s really a little like those current pools at the water parks. You know you're wasting your time, but it's strangely entertaining to just float along and watch the current. I can’t question it—there wouldn’t be any answers anyway.

The impetus (I can't say reason) for my trip around the system was an impossibly expensive ticket to leave later--when the university would be happy. In the end everything worked out fine. I'll be coming back later, but as long as I can keep from being drawn into the current again, I’ll be happy.

Magical Mystery Bus

Nathan spotted a bus near our apartments that was having trouble negotiating a curve. The curve is on a fairly busy, very narrow road from a small village on the outskirts of Meizhou into the city. A wall around our university's campus runs parallel to the road. Seeing that the bus wasn't going anywhere, we decided to climb the wall and join in the fun.

When we arrived on scene, the bus had made no progress. The small road it was on was the only one between the village and Meizhou proper. Was this the first time a bus had tried to make this turn? Where had this bus come from? Are there other villages back there? We might never know the answers to these questions, and I don't really care. Sometimes it's satisfying to just join in the spectacle.