Thanksgiving dinner.

Pumpkin soup.


French fries.


Baked pork chops in rice (with cheese on top!).

Some classroom thoughts.

So I've talked a bit about China, but very little about my students. I teach mostly freshmen, and they're the best (with the exception of the few boys in my classes whom I want to club quite often). They are so enthusiastic about almost everything I tell them about America -- I've found that including pictures of my family and friends will always elicit several oohs and aahs. Of course, they're still very shy and their English is quite terrible, but they're still much better than my one class of jaded and unimpressed sophomores, where everything is like pulling teeth.

I teach four oral English classes and three listening (terribly boring for both me and my poor students), plus this month I agreed to teach tow evening classes for non-English majors who want to improve their English. These are nice classes despite the extra work for two reasons: one, since these students are going the extra mile to study English, they enthusiastically participate in class; and two, because I get an extra 100 元 an hour.

Some things about my students: they are obsessed with Prison Break, High School Musical and Twilight. They also love me when I let them watch episodes of Friends (I prefer showing an episode of TV for four or five classes every once in a while as opposed to having to watch glittering vampires or Zac Efron for four or five classes every once in a while).

Students here are also obsessed with weight loss and dieting. I see girls "running" around the school track wearing jeans and coats and non-running shoes, and I wonder how they could possibly be comfortable. They also tell me about their crazy diets and how 55 kilos is fat. They have an incredible disgust for slightly chubby people.

Also, the students' text books are ridiculous. Take the following passage from one of them (emphasis mine) --

Whereas many Chinese enjoy snacking on natural foods like dried fruit, seeds, or nuts, many Americans prefer snacks like potato chips, buttered popcorn, and cookies. If they are really hungry between meals they even have a hot dog or two.

I would write more, but I'm a bit hungry. I think I'll go have a quick hamburger before lunch to hold me over.

Hechuan: Some things to know.

Some snapshots of Life in Hechuan--

To begin with, walking across the street in Hechuan is like playing a live-action game of Frogger. This is because there are absolutely no traffic laws in this city, or in Chongqing in general. I know I've complained in the past about crazy taxis in Beijing, but honestly they have nothing on the complete anarchy in the streets of Hechuan. Half the time drivers are on the wrong side of the street, or driving three abreast down two-lane roads, or swerving to avoid having to stop behind a bus.

　In fact, there are only two intersections that I have seen that even have traffic lights (according to a sign, it is called the Cultured Traffic Law Intersection, and it admonishes drivers to pay attention to traffic laws. It is ignored). Otherwise, taking a left turn is simply a game of chicken, where the driver swerves at an appropriate time and others honk and yet somehow miraculously slow down in time all the while dodging pedestrians and small animals. The noise pollution of the city is deafening.

Despite all of this, taking a taxi is quite convenient. It is only 3 yuan, quite easily the cheapest taxi I've ever been in in China. I am greeted when I first enter by the driver's garbled Chongqinghua (dialect), and then an automated voice stating, "Hello, passenger. Welcome to take my taxi." The buses are only 1 yuan, and rather easy to use as well -- someone leans out the window and shouts the destinations, and if you happen to be going to those places, you just hop right on.

Secondly, foreigners are non-existent here. Really. Maybe a few people stared at me in Beijing or in Harbin (well, in Harbin they just glared because they thought I was Russian). But here, foreigners are a complete novelty, as is Western life. There is no McDonald's or Starbucks like in pretty much all Chinese cities -- instead they have the Chinese fast-food chain Dico's (rather delicious, actually) and a couple of poor coffee shops where they take a half hour to bring you a cup of coffee and don't know how to make an actual sandwich. There's also a Western restaurant that serves vegetable pizza -- with carrots on top (?). People in Hechuan are incredibly friendly, though sometimes it is quite vexing, as when you are trying to work out at the gym and people keep talking to you non-stop.

Thirdly, there is no heating in any offices or classrooms at the university. Recently it has quite suddenly become winter, and it is surprisingly cold and wet. As a result, my students are huddled at their desks in their coats. I can only clutch my hot water bottle closely and freeze. In fact, people even leave windows wide open for "ventilation" everywhere despite the fact that one's breath frosts indoors; and restaurants and shops don't even have doors, which means that I look like a hobo as I huddle in my coat and gloves and drink bowl after bowl of soup. The city-wide power outages that come and go every once in a while don't help, either, as we are periodically plunged into darkness for hours at a time.

Halloween Hocus Pocus in Hechuan.

Halloween, when seen from the viewpoint of people who have never really heard of it before, is really strange.

I spent all last week introducing my students to the curious customs of this wonderful holiday ("we wear ridiculous costumes" "children beg for candy" "people make their houses look creepy") and spreading the joy of that Great Film, Hocus Pocus. My living room has been filled with cardboard gravestones and flapping bats that Carolina, Lilly and I made during our quarantine days, and I decided to be a panda for the night -- ace! We dressed up in the afternoon and played some basketball so students could see our costumes and take pictures. I also went into a store and bought some 'bamboo' from a befuddled store clerk who I suppose is not used to seeing pandas walking about (it was not actually bamboo, but rather some kind of sugarcane, but close enough for my Halloween prop).

Our party was set for the only night club in dear ol' Hechuan, Manhattan's (曼哈顿). We worked out a deal with the manager of the club -- the foreigners would perform three songs and draw in clients in exchange for an entire night of free beer. I was more than okay with this, and thus, after we all introduced ourselves ("Hi, I'm Alison, and I'm a panda), I found myself singing Backstreet Boys' "As Long As You Love Me", some techno remix of John Denver's "Country Roads" that is insanely popular amongst the Chinese here, and a dance to MJ's "Thriller" which at some point randomly turned into a conga line.



There were other random performances as well, including a drag queen. I think. At one point someone stole my bamboo, but then someone else gave me a mask, so I changed my costume to a panda at a masquerade ball. And, outside of a soccer match in Chongqing and finding a Subway sandwich in a place called Pirate City (more about this later), that was the highlight of the past few weeks. You stay classy, Hechuan.