Currently Playing: My newest Chinese CD.  Picked it up today.  I don’t even know the guy’s name.  But I’m definitely going to be working on learning one of these songs.

Game 7

So Game 7 of the NBA Finals will be tipping off in just a few hours.  What’s that?  Well, yeah, of course I’m excited about it.  I’ve loved basketball for just about as long as I can remember.  On top of that, I’ve been a Pistons fan for a pretty long time, too.  So you could say I’m going to have fun watching this game.  That wouldn't be much of a stretch.

But to be honest, I’d have to say I’m even more excited because this happens to be just another excuse to get some of our friends together.  The game starts around 9:00 in the AM, which makes for a pretty out of the ordinary time for a sporting event shindig, but that doesn’t bother me one bit.  We’ll still have plenty o’ fun.

Shoot, we’ll be having smoothies.  How can we not have fun?

Boys’ Night Out/Quote Of The Evening

The other afternoon I was having trouble getting ahold of any of my friends.  It was looking like I’d be having an unexpected evening to myself if things didn’t change in a hurry.  And that’s just about the time when Stone got his cell phone back from being repaired.

Just like that, he was in.  As was Jerry, his partner in crime.

A few minutes later Frank was in.

On my bus ride into town I got through to Nigel and he was onboard.

And just as I was walking up to the restaurant I got ahold of Wang Kai who happened to be right there in the neighborhood.

So much for a quiet night at my place.  It was time for a little Boys’ Night Out action.

Saying that we just grabbed dinner at Si He Yuan and then walked around for awhile before ending up at a square to just hang out would simply not do the night justice.  These guys absolutely crack me up.  I loved it when they would stop everything and have a “Chinese Corner” where nothing but Chinese is spoken—and I was the center of attention.  Now, truth be told, I certainly fumbled my way through things, but I was definitely giving it my best shot.  The biggest crowd-favorite (the 5 guys being the crowd) was when they were teaching me Guiyang Hua (the local dialect) phrases.

The end of Chinese Corner didn’t signal the end of the Chinese speaking, however.  That only transitioned into Chinese Singing Corner—with me on the mic.  They weren’t going home happy campers until they heard me (attempt to) sing the few Chinese songs that I’ve learned.  In the end it turned into more of a group effort rather than me going solo.  And that was just fine with me.

The quote of the night came from Nigel, while we were watching all the older folks slow dancing in the square.

Robbie: Nigel, do you like dancing?

Nigel: Of course!

Robbie: Do you like this kind of dancing?

Nigel: No.

Robbie: Why not?

Nigel: I like dancing that is…more violent!

Whoa.  If you say so, buddy.

Currently Playing: My homemade mix of oldies including “I Want You Back” and “ABC” by the Jackson 5.  Keep reading and you’ll understand why I mentioned that.

Finally, A Little More Crazy Cuisine (Not Really That Crazy, Though)

It seems like it’s been quite awhile since I’ve had something a little odd to eat over here.  The scary thing is that that could be due to me just getting so used to the place that I’m still eating the weird stuff, but just treating it as normal.

Anyways, after English Corner tonight Kaiser treated Wang Kai and me to a new restaurant that specializes in duck.  I’ve heard the Beijing roast duck is pretty famous, but according to Kaiser’s claims, the stuff we were having tonight is “much more delicious.”

After partaking I had to agree that it was pretty good stuff.  We had this duck that was sitting in this big bowl of soup.  Various unknown veggies were also added.  None of that was weird for me.  What I wasn’t so crazy about was the duck liver as one of our side orders.  I’ve had the pig liver before and, well, I don’t like that stuff at all.  Period.  Duck liver is no different.  Weird texture, weird aftertaste—there’s really no upside to it as far as I’m concerned.  The thing is, Kaiser is a big fan of organs and he wants to take me out again sometime soon to try some new food.  Chances are we’ll be having kidneys or something.  (He did mention that kidneys are a personal favorite of his.)  Whatever happened to just being satisfied with a chicken drumstick?

A Few Gems From The Evening

Most of my buddies over here can’t help bringing up the NBA whenever we get together.  Kaiser is one of those guys.  Tonight we got talking about the Detroit-Miami series.  Despite my loyalties to the Pistons, Kaiser didn’t hide his true feelings.

I support Shaquille (pronounced Shah-kweel).  I like it when he gets angry.  I think his appearance is very lovely then.

Uhhhhh…okay.

Upon getting up from the table after the meal, Kaiser also had this to say…

Ooh!  My bottom is wet!

Alright, I know the soup was a little spicy and the restaurant was hot, but still, that’s too much information, pal.

After dinner, the three of us walked around town for a bit.  The conversation turned to music.  Kaiser wanted to know if I liked Michael Jackson.  I explained that the MJ songs that I like the most are the ones from his Jackson 5 days (hence tonight’s musical selection).  Kaiser made this observation…

Yes.  That was when he was black.

Yes, I said.  Yes, it was.

The fun times in China just keep on comin’.

Currently Playing Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope By Alfred Newman, John Williams, John Williams, London Symphony Orchestra see related

Another First For Me In China

It took me just over 9 months time, but I finally saw my first movie in a theater over here.  Let me tell you, it was quite an experience.  But before I get into that, I need to back up a few days…

Wednesday, May 25: For a solid month now, us foreigners have been trying to casually drop hints with our Chinese friends that we were really hoping to find the new Star Wars movie in English.  Our hope was that they could lead us to the Promised Land by finding a theater that would be playing the movie in the language we understood.  After five strikes in our first five attempts, we found our golden theater.  The man at the front desk said it would be showing three times a day for the next few weeks…in English!  I must have had Wang Kai ask the guy four times just to make sure what he said wasn’t lost in translation.  As if his word wasn’t enough, he proceeded to show us the Episode III DVD sleeve (guess this one wasn’t so legal…ah well).  And then he took us inside to catch a glimpse of it actually playing in one of the theaters.  Indeed, it was there, just as the man told us.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Friday, May 27: On this evening I was with Wang Kai and his buddy Meng Dao Xiang.  Our wandering led us to the vicinity of the theater.  I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to confirm all the info that we got a few days before.  You never know with things here in Guiyang.  Sure enough, it was still showing, same times and everything.

And now it was time to get the crew together.

Sunday, May 29: Show time.  We managed to get a group of right around fifteen for the big event.  After some of us had dinner together, we all made our way to the theater.  We were about 20 minutes early, but that was fine by me.  Shoot, I knew I could use the extra time to get even more excited about watching Episode III.  Then, as we were starting to pay for our tickets, the movie theater man (same one from the last few nights) matter-of-factly told us that it wouldn’t be starting until 9:00.

What?!?  But what about what you told us just a few days ago?

There was no use complaining too much.  After all, better to be early than late, right?

So we waited.  Finally the man took our tickets and said we could head into the cinema.  No need to tell us twice.  But as we headed in, us foreigners noticed a funny thing.  Showing up early for a movie does not mean light music playing in the background along with a movie trivia questions flashing up on the screen.  Oh, no.  You get to sit in the theater and watch the end of the movie before yours.  Of course.  I should've guessed that.

Finally, the credits for Sahara, the other movie, started rolling and I, for one, was giddy that Episode III was mere minutes away.

The lights dimmed.  The Lucasfilm logo appeared on the screen.  I knew what was next.  A long time ago, in a galaxy far away…

And that’s just what came up on the screen, well, in……RUSSIAN!  No way.  The crawl started going.  More Russian.  You've gotta be kidding me!  Then again, I should've expected something like this to happen.  Thankfully, one of our Chinese friends asked if the movie could be switched to English.  Just like that, our problem was solved.

Now, knowing that this was the story of Anakin's fall to the Dark Side, I’d heard from all sorts of people and places that this film was going to be really dark.  I just had no idea that they meant that literally.  Some scenes during the movie were really dark.  So dark, in fact, that I couldn’t even see characters or the space ships.  Yeah, I'm not talking about dark in a figurative sense (although the movie had plenty of that).  I just mean dark because it wasn't exactly the film reel that was being played.  Ah well.  That’s China for you.

So all in all, this theater certainly wasn’t the fanciest or top-of-the line, but I was able to see Episode III, and that’s what counts, right?

Yuan li yu ni tong zai.  (May the Force be with you.)

Currently Playing: Xu Wei

New Friends Who Stick Up For You Are Cool

I was sitting in a park studying some Chinese when a lady came up to me and wanted to clean my shoes.  I figured it wouldn’t hurt, especially since my Asics were looking pretty scrubby.  Hardly a moment after I gave her the go-ahead she got down to business and started squirting her white cleaner stuff all over my shoes.

While the cleaning was going on, a man, probably in his late sixties, sat down next to me on the bench.  The battle was on as soon as he tried striking up a conversation with me.  Not a battle between the two of us, but us against the language barrier.  However, I’m happy to report that a) I hung in there and didn’t give up and b) he was very patient with me and didn’t give up on me.

I must’ve made a decent impression my new buddy between the time of his arrival and the lady’s completion of my shoe cleaning.  The lady tried charging me two kuai, but I knew the going rate was just one kuai.  Not wanting to be taken advantage of (not to mention thought of as the dumb foreigner) I insisted on giving her the fair price.  She didn’t back down right away, however, and kept asking for two kuai.  And that’s when my man stepped in and stuck up for his new foreign friend.  I couldn’t understand every word, but I knew enough to know that he said something like this to her in a fairly stern voice:

“Hey, what do you think you’re trying to pull here?  You know you charge everyone else one kuai.  Why should you charge this cool kid any different?  I know he can’t speak Chinese very well, but he’s my friend.  Give him a break.”

That put her in her place and just like that she conceded to accepting my one kuai and moved on to the next person.  As she was walking away, I leaned over toward my new friend, the way good buddies do, and asked him if what he did was make sure I got the fair price.  He gave me the confident nod that said, “I got your back, man.  I got your back.”

Ping Pang Qiu

I had dinner with Frank tonight, just before we headed back to his company for a little ping pong.  The meal was solid including:

Xi hong shi ji dan tang (tomato and egg soup)

Hua sheng dou fu (tofu with peanuts)

Huang gua (pickles)

Song ren yu mi (corn!!!)

A nice plate of xi gua (watermelon)

We also had this unidentifiable ball of mush that Frank said was meat.  I wasn’t so sure, but I tried not to think about it, got it down, and found that it wasn’t too bad.

I thought dinner was good, but as we were finishing up, Frank told me it was time to move on to “the main task of the evening”—that being ping pong.  Let’s do it.

Turns out three of Franks’ coworkers were also in for this evening of ping pong.  No problem with me.  The more the merrier.

Now I was all about having fun and learning a few new phrases, but I’m not gonna lie, I was definitely out to earn a little respect, too.  I know I’m no Olympic champion, but I can hold my own.  I'd say my style parallels the Detroit Pistons’ style of playing basketball.  Nothing flashy but it gets the job done.  Detroit may not be the most entertaining team to watch, but it’s hard to argue against their style after winning the championship last year, isn’t it?  I’m not out to make the highlight reel with a huge slam or some fancy-shmancy spin.  I’m just gonna do my job by getting the ball back to the other side of the net.  Sure, I’ll play some angles and I’ll go for a corner every once in awhile, but you won’t see me taking too many chances.  I know, not all that exciting, but it is effective.

I don’t think these guys were expecting me to hang in there like I did.  I was more or less a human backboard, not letting too many shots get past me.  I didn’t understand much of what they were saying, but there was no hiding their surprise when I returned some of their shots.  Just for fun I snuck a slam in every now and again.  My simple but quick serve was even throwing them off on occasion—there were times when they completely whiffed trying to be Mr. BigStuff with a powerful return.  I just kept my mouth shut (not that I could say much anyways) and smiled to myself.

Yup, I can hang with these guys.  Bottom line.