A Third of the Way There

Good people of the jury,

  Today we are here to discuss some good times in Shanghai with none other than Mr. Tony G. as your council. Oh my gato what's been going on lately? How have you been? And your better half? Great to hear! So what's the latest news? That's exciting! Wow, it's been really good catching up with you, I'm so glad you're doing a bit of the talking because I get sick of my own voice... well not entirely but seriously, I like having a conversation with two or more people instead of all of the conversations I seemingly have with myself. It makes me feel a little funny in the head area. Oh and to quickly explain the title, I'm planning on heading home in April of '12 because my visa will most likely be too much of a pain to continue on for much longer than that and that will be a full year here in the mainland. I'll be home for some family weddings and then I'm off again on another adventure with a great friend.

  Well I am excited to announce that my blog has had over 1,700 page views since it's start in April and I have to say that I am really happy to have had all of this support. The numbers are all from my parents (and myself) repeatedly refreshing the page, but I still feel like it's reaching some of you haha. I have to give a shout out to my good friend Brad Vassau because I definitely know he's reading since it shows a world map of where the views are coming from and he's the only person I know who lives in Alaska... Anyway! We have some good stuff to talk about although this one will probably be more for the friends than the family with some good clubbing stories, a good time with a buddy of mine who stopped by on his way to teach English a bit to the South, hanging out with a friend from the States who has been here for almost as long as me and I guess I'll throw in some stories and pics about the kids I've been tutoring in English (for the old folks =P)

  Okely Dokely, it was midnight on a Monday's eve and the wind was calm but there was a subtle breeze flowing throughout the city like a breath from a hibernating brown bear. The phone rang with an upbeat jingle making me jump out of my seat having already been half asleep. I groggily answered with the wavering uncertainty of a guest on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire: “Hello?!” I murmured, “Dude, I think I'm close to your house” responded a familiar voice. “I'm on Caobao Road by the subway station” the out-of-breath caller said with gumption. “Ok, I'll come get you” I answered with a raspy whisper.

  I loaded up some necessary provisions and headed for the door. I was now fully awake and comprehending the situation. As I stepped outside into a wall of moisture, it hit me for the first time since we had talked about it weeks earlier, “He's here” I thought to myself, “He's made it!” I started walking at a feverish pace while expertly preparing the first of my provisions for the journey. It had begun.

  I heard voices getting louder and louder much like the roar of a drunken brawl in an old town bar at the sound of night's end. Worried that I might miss my opportunity I quickened my pace and rushed past people talking and shouting then erupting into maniacal laughter. In the distance I saw a figure that stood out like a white pearl among a murky sandbar. “Just in time” I said out loud, the first of my provisions were running low.

“CAAAAAAAMMMMMMMERRRRRRRONNNNNNNNN!!!!!” I yelled with all the air I had trapped in my lungs letting it all rush out in a matter of seconds as I held up my hand in the air displayed as my banner. I was greeted with a similar war cry and as the sound resonated through the air I knew we weren't the only ones who had heard. I could see he had brought the packages, everything was going according to plan. Knowing strange eyes were on me, I had to be quick. Using hand signals I then motioned for him to make a break for it and come to my position. The timing would have to be perfect not to be caught in a midst of chaos.

  As the traffic light turned green, my friend Cameron from CSU walked across the street making sure to look both ways and had his two bags trailing behind him. He looked exhausted. I cracked the other two beers I had brought with me and handed one of them to him while relieving him of one of his bags. “Welcome to China my man” I greeted him. It was good to see a familiar face.

  Cameron is the first well-known person that I have seen out here since my journey began. It was really good to see a familiar face and he was excited to be in China for his third time albeit he was quite exhausted as you can see from this picture here:

  His first order of business was sleeping followed by a shower in the morning to cleanse that 15+ hours of travel time feeling. Refreshed and all cleaned up his first request was to get some Xiao Long Bao, some of the dumplings I have mentioned in my earlier posts. I was very happy to oblige him and we took a stroll down the street catching up along the way and just talking like it was business as usual. Although we're both thousands of miles away from our homes, it's nice to see familiar faces and feel like for just a few moments you are back home. It was quite nice for me especially since I've been out here for 4 months and have been missing my family. Well, after we had munched on some dumplings, it was time to head back and relax because he was still quite jet lagged. I had to teach a student English for a few hours so I headed off while leaving him to the couch. When I got back, we made plans to go to a club that night with another of his friends and make it a “guys night out.” Sweeeeeeeet.

  We started with some drinks at the house then headed out to the local club by my place. It's just a short walk away and the night is a cheap one with a small fee for unlimited cocktails while the bar remains open. Well the boys and I decided to play my favorite drinking game in the whole world, Shai zi (the one I explained with dice and cups and mullarkey spouting). Soon some locals invited us to play with them and when you have six people playing simultaneously, it can get outrageously fun. I kept looking back in the club and seeing this gorgeous girl kind of dancing in place by herself with a stunning dress on and every time I looked back, I caught her eye and gave her a trademarked Tony G. smile™. She kept on smiling back at me and laughing shyly as I would return to my game not yet having summoned up enough courage to go ask her to dance.

  Well, finally after doing this for about half an hour I went up and asked her in Chinese if she wanted to dance to which she said yes and I grabbed her hand and off we went! (Uh oh is someone about to win big bucks on the Tony G. - Chinese girlfriend pool?) Well we were dancing and having bunches of fun until a girl came up and spoke a few words to her which then prompted her to wave goodbye and get down from the stage. Well what a bummer =( I went back to my buddies and played some more Shai Zi then I hesitantly looked back not knowing what to expect and I saw her again and she was giving ME a huge smile. To heck with this! I stormed up to her with a message written in Chinese on my phone basically saying I liked dancing with her and wanted her to have my phone number which she quickly recorded in her phone just before her friends grabbed her and left the club.

  Once she had left, my friends were about ready to go (the bar had closed) and we were pretty good and toasty. We decided to take off and go to a 24 hour convenience store to get a few more beers and hang out at my place while watching a movie to end the night. We were so sweaty from dancing in the club and possibly jumping a couple gates through a bus station as a short cut (I will neither confirm nor deny this) so we took our shirts off and headed down the street to the store. When we got there, we went in with our shirts off, snagged some beers, paid for them and left. The two cops that were inside at the time just looked at us with amazement and wonder as we staggered out of the shop and down the street with our shirts around our necks and our hands full of cold beers.... I love China

  The next day, Cameron and I decided to take it a bit easier since we had a pretty big night. We got some grub at my favorite local Uighur restaurant (essentially Chinese Muslim food) and then grabbed a couple of beers to stuff into my backpack and headed for one of the world's most famous embankments, the Bund. This place is awesome during both day and night and I actually give tours of it quite regularly during the day but the real time to see it is at night with ships cruising around the river and lights bedazzling the horizon of the new city across the river as well as illuminating the more classical buildings of the original site. As we walked, talked and took some sips I told Cameron just about everything I knew about the Bund essentially giving him a mini version of the tour while checking out some of the other “sights” that Shanghai has to offer as you will see below (the person taking the picture was so drunk that the camera was looking through beer goggles! Ok so not really it was just reallly humid outside and the pics were coming out quite poorly):

  Haha, have I already said I love China once in this post? Dangit... oh well, I'm keeping it in. We decided to get a pic with some cute Chinese girls and as soon as they started talking about how they were taking pictures with their future foreign boyfriends, Cameron and I were out of there! Don't get me wrong, I would be very happy with a Chinese girlfriend but there are those who are pretty much looking for the first husband they can find and foreigners make a prime target (although the jokes on them, I'm devoid of money and wouldn't even be able to buy them a nice dinner!) It was still funny and I'm trying not to imply that Chinese are gold diggers by any means but sometimes you can just tell when they know nothing about you and all of a sudden want to be your girlfriend... Anyway before I get yelled at or start a huge debate I'll drop the topic and move onto something cool like another club with my buddy Bo for his going away shindig.

  Bo took off the other day for a job in Hong Kong like I had mentioned in a previous post. So the night before he left, we decided to go out and have some fun at a downtown bar and then later downtown club to make some memories. At the bar I met a Norwegian guy who seemed interesting and he was there with a group of 30 other Norwegian students who are studying Chinese medicine. It was a good time talking with them and I have to say even though I shouldn't really be talking stereotypes in this post, their accents are quite entertaining. Well after dancing with a few of the ladies in the group, we decided to take off for a club.

  I was having a blast on stage with a few locals when Bo's girlfriend ran into some of her work friends who had a VIP bottle service table that they invited us to. Well that was quite nice of them! We hung out with them for a bit drinking the club scene's preferred dink of whiskey mixed with green tea (not a bad combo actually and it's supposedly good for hangovers) and dancing around the lounge. It was a great time and I'm going to miss hanging out with Bo but he's got a great job lined up and he's going to have a blast. So long Bo, see you in December.

  So I realize I have neglected to include another friend of mine out here in a blog post and that's just rude of me! My friend Elizabeth Griffin whom I had met freshman year in college moved out here shortly after I did to teach English. We didn't really know each other very well during college and fell out of touch after that particular class but we were still acquaintances and so I'm glad that we've been able to hang out a few times. It's another instance of seeing a familiar face and being comfortable in my surroundings. We've had some good times thus far and I'm really glad that we've had a chance to rekindle our friendship and it's always funny to see who will resurface in your life later on down the road. I foresee some more good times with her and her crazy band of hooligans that are the Disney English teachers haha.

  Ok now onto the stuff about the kids I've been teaching to round off this wonderfully tangent-filled mess of letters that have been strung together. I currently have three students that I teach which range from six years old to eight years old so it's not too hard to go from lesson to lesson. One of the students is a girl named Sheryl and she can play the piano so well it is unreal! She's been playing since she was four and I dare say she will be a world sensation by the time she's 16. It's amazing to see her focus and determination when she is sitting on the bench with feet barely reaching the peddles. Good things come to those who work hard for them. I tried to get a video and pictures of her for this post but unfortunately this week's lesson was canceled due to them leaving town for a week so it'll have to wait.

  One of my other student's, Ray, is a great little kid but he has the attention span of a... a uh... well I guess a six year old boy haha. He's fun to hang out with though and playing transformers or angry birds with him is never a bore. I just have to make sure he knows how to say all of the things we're playing with in English. His family is super nice and Ray is going to be a great kid in the near future so I don't mind having to call his name every 20 seconds to make him pay attention.

  The best of the group thus far is coincidentally named Tony (I'm not stroking my own ego I swear!). I only knew the last names of the families I would be teaching until I got to their homes so after I arrived for the first time, I asked him his name and he told me that it was the same as mine. He got a kick out of that. He's a great kid and although he's a little on the no work and all play side, he picks up phrasing quite quickly and loves to ask me questions in Chinese which I then explain in English. It makes my job that much easier I guess, knowing Chinese.

  One night I showed up a bit earlier than expected and the family wasn't even home yet so it was just me hanging out with Granny who persisted in feeding me grapes and green tea. When Tony and his parents came home, they said they were going to eat and then start the lesson. Then they asked me if I had eaten yet and honestly I was quite famished but trying to be polite I told them I had eaten a bit earlier and that I was fine. Well they didn't take to that nonsense! They insisted and insisted that I eat with them. I finally caved and they pulled up a chair for me to sit in. Tony's father then proceeds to take out a bottle of China's famous rice liquor called Bai Jiu which literally means “white alcohol” and is known for being very potent. When he started pouring some into my glass he casually asked me if I knew how much that particular bottle of bai jiu costs (This is pretty common in Chinese culture, people like you to know if they're spoiling you with gifts of value). Well I had no idea so I shrugged and told him just that to which he responded: the bottle costs 300.... USD. I immediately told him to stop filling my cup (which by now was getting quite full) because I was no reason for him to open up such an expensive bottle of fine liquor. He said it was his honor and continuously would toast with me and take big swigs throughout the meal.

  Well the bai jiu is really not THAT bad but at a whopping 53%ABV it's sure to bite anyone who is bold enough to drink it straight. After ¾ of a cup of this stuff it was then time to thank everyone for the meal and move towards teaching the lesson. Great... Well the lesson actually ended up being a lot of fun and the dad kept popping in to see if I wanted more to which I responsibly and politely declined but he kept insisting that next time, he's treating me to even more of the stuff. Well, if it's after Tony's English lesson then sure but I'm not sure whose pronunciation was better that night... mine or my student's.

  Alright, I've mumbled on long enough and to be honest I feel like this post was all over the place but maybe that's the kind of spontaneity that you like. Let me know what you thought of this post and if my little story at the beginning was amusing or if you're just being nice haha. Anyway, again I must really spread my thanks to each and everyone of you who makes it this far in my posts because I know that for me it's all contextual because it's happening to me whereas some of you may get lost or become uninterested due to the fact that you haven't seen what I am seeing first-hand. I'll try to do better with pictures in the future so that you may all visualize what it's like to truly live behind my eyes but please note that everything I tell is told to the best of my ability to make you feel like you know the same people I do and have been where I've been if not in body, then at least in spirit. For those of you who have told me you live vicariously through me, I can't tell you how obliged I am to take you on a journey of a lifetime and I hope I am fulfilling my role as a guide. My love and adoration goes to all of you and for those of you who just started school, work hard and finish strong as my dad would say though I'd also like to add: make sure you have fun while doing it. Positive energy is what makes this great world go 'round.

In the words of the great Chinese rapper Tai Mai Shu:

Peace outside

Tony G.

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