I have spent several days vacillating on the theme which I want to mesh into this birthday blog. I could speak about the hospitality. But that would seem too overdone for this blog. Or maybe I should speak about the kindness of my students’ who brought me some homemade gifts. I could talk about friendship too. Not just my incredibly generous Chinese friends the foreign teachers from Beibei, who came to Rongchang to help celebrate with me. In any event I wanted to mesh in the theme of college because I have been thinking often about how to compare the different experiences of my students here in China to that of American undergraduate students.
In any event I must start with my birthday weekend. I confess that I was worried to mention to too many people that it was my birthday coming up. Two major reasons occupied my train of thought here. One reason was selfish in its intent and the other was out of genuine respect for my Chinese students.
Let me start with the selfish reason first. I was a little afraid about the Chinese tradition of drinking the extremely hard liquor: Bi Jiao. I had never drunk it before and was not looking forward to drinking liquor with the potency equivalent of ever clear any time soon.
The other reason was that I feared too much show of gifts from my Chinese students. True to form a couple of my students found out about my birthday and brought me wonderful gifts anyways. I knew that any resistance to these gifts would have been futile. Therefore, I graciously thanked my friends and enjoyed the lovely gifts.
My birthday started early. Due to our teaching schedule it is much more advantageous to celebrate on Saturday nights because our only day off from teaching is Sunday. Thus, the foreign teachers arrived on Saturday afternoon from Beibei. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon’s walk around Rongchang. The weather was absolutely marvelous. Low sixties, sunny, and clear skies enamored all of us foreigners who were getting pretty sick of the melancholy overcast clouds of the winter!
Later, we stopped at a delicious dumpling restaurant. We were assisted in our ordering by our resident expert: Keegan O’hara. Keegan has been living in China for quite some time now. After studying abroad in China, Keegan decided to come back and teach at Southwest University for two years. Following the past two years Keegan has been taking upper level Chinese language classes at Beibei and excelling in all areas. He is exceptionally strong speaking the local dialect: Chongqing Wa.
After the delicious meal we went back to the apartment for some merry-making. Altogether the foreign teachers from Beibei included: Keegan O’hara, Brianne boardman, Kelli Nicole, and Hibes Galeano. Cory and I rounded out the group. We enjoyed a copious amount of liquids and the drinking game, “Cheer’s Governor”.
Afterwards we went out to a delicious barbecue restaurant which also sold beer. The group was joined by are amiable supervior: Mr. Tian. The group sang happy birthday in Chinese and enjoyed more merry-making.
The next afternoon the entire group was treated to a delicious state dinner at the best hotel in Rongchang. The meal was absolutely scrumptious! My actual birthday had started out with an auspicious meal which was attended by the director of the school.
The group accompanied the foreign teachers on their way out of town. The bus stop was crowded as usual, but with Mr. Tian with us we were able to walk through to say our goodbyes to the other teachers. I feel so blessed to have such great friends who would come to visit me on this special day. I know that the allure of the big city is omnipresent and appreciate their sincerity of coming to celebrate with Cory and myself.
After a nice afternoon run I met up with Cory for what was going to be an absolutely to die for meal. The location was set as our favorite dumpling restaurant. Cory and I were accompanied by Mr. Tian and his wife. Together we ate a delicious meal, toasted each other, shared some laughs, and took pictures to end the evening! To note, I had only taken one drink of Bi Jiao at this time and was very happy to not have taken anymore! My wishes were granted by not being asked to drink anymore at this meal.
After a nice walk together we said our goodbyes at Mr. Tian’s apartment adjacent to the college campus. At this point Cory and I were extremely tired. Both of us were looking for a quite night following our previous night’s libations. Therefore we decided on watching the movie: “Blades of Glory.”
Overall, I had one of the best birthdays of my life. I am truly blessed and appreciate all of the love and thoughts from friends and family back in the states. Do not worry, for I am being treated like an honored guest by my Chinese friends. I always try and return the favor when I can. In this way, I had the great honor of finally being able to pay for a meal!
My great birthday paradigm shift had occurred by me actually paying for my birthday meal! Normally, Americans would take an affront at this. However, I was as pleased as I could have been if I was given the most precious gifts of antiquity because it was an honor for me to pay for my meal. In this way, I was finally able to attempt a small way of thanking Mr. Tian for all of his wonderful hospitality he has shown me!
I have been doing a little thinking regarding the mindset of my Chinese students here in China. During an exercise geared at sharing my Chinese student’s thoughts regarding college I gleaned an important truth. My Chinese students’ perspective about college is manifestly different than most American students. I knew this from my researching of Chinese culture; however, the rationale dawned on me during our group discussion. Chinese students want to do well for many reasons. First, traditionally Chinese society has been very accepting of scholars moving up the social hierarchy. Another reason lies in the way that my students regard their future careers. Most of my students want to go on to further study after they finish up their undergraduate. Thus, they regard college as a stepping stone and know that they need to keep good marks to be accepted into the best graduate level programs. In this way, they maintain a feel of sincere seriousness about studying.
It is a much different perspective than American college students who regard college as an “experience” and are inclined to care as much or more about fulfilling their “expectations” of what their college odyssey should entail. In this way, American college students will try and maximize their experiences in college. I do not know if this is the right way for our society to act. It creates an environment where the social expectations of gratuitous partying and drinking are not just okay but expected. Seeing that I have just come from that climate and am have lived in America all my life it is easy for me to point the finger. However, I realize that not every other culture sees things the same. In this way I am remorseful at times at my expectations of a party compared to that of my Chinese counterparts.
Overall, neither approach is wrong but the differences are worth noting. I know that even though I enjoyed and even par took in the America college environment makes me a hypocrite. However, it is more important to acknowledge or own faults than to try and hide behind the veneer of age. I have learned that it is best to try and remove all insecurities about oneself in a foreign country. This is important during the times when you eat pig brain, see gratuitous spitting, and witness the manifest wasting of materials. Nonetheless, I want to always remain true to the reality in which I am feeling and the emotions in which I am introducing on this blog.
I know from my students that they do not have the same options as American students do regarding college placement. Many of my students have a varying degree of disappointment about falling to a smaller school in China. Therefore, they are extremely motivated to prove their self-worth by achieving success and being accepted into an accredited graduate level program or masters after college. These differing experiences in college highlight one area of misunderstanding between cultures. Neither culture lacks the desire to have fun or do well in life. The path at which the two cultures take is a little different which is worth noting.
This week is another short week due to the sport ceremony and celebration. I will share my reactions from my long weekend’s activities and sports celebration on my next blog. As for now, I am excited to note that I have completed my first two drawings since high school! One is a picture based off of the “White city” of Minas Tirith, from Lord of the Rings. The other is a picture of me running. I am also happy to note that my parent’s package from the states arrived two days before my birthday! Their birthday package and card definitely brightened my day!
Until next week,
blessings
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