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[strangeraeons]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anomalousclouds/

Yes, I've started putting together a "photostream." Hopefully it's not that boring.

If you have an account yourself, add me, I guess. haha.

Comments

[glad_ghosts]

by rot-gut booze, do you mean baijiu? they have this shit here that they translate as "white wine," which is MOST DEFINITELY NOT WINE, more like grain alcohol. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baijiu it's kinda great, because it's served at every faculty "meeting" (lunch) at the college, and they encourage you to drink at least a glass (about 2 shots' worth), afternoon classes be damned. their "cheers" is ballsier, too, they say "gan bei" which means "empty glass."

the toilets are ok, what's weirder is the complete lack of toilet paper in at least half of them. and sometimes the lack of stalls (!). I saw a handicapped-accessible bathroom for the first time last weekend and it was just out in the open with no walls (but with a western-style toilet, you win some, you lose some...).

about the post-punk: yeppp, I've already started playing songs that do not suck in class, and one class theme is going to be American music through history, vetted by me: cool old shit, cool new shit. most of them love awful, awful music, and they can't tell what's cheesy. ("I like Backstreet Boys because their songs are very moving.") Adam played Bjork in one class and all the students hated it, one girl said "it is too terrible," hahaha.

[strangeraeons]

Ahh yes, that's probably what I saw when I was watching this documentary about contemporary Chinese life, and a big part of it was their drinking habits. I don't know if I could stomach the baijiu though, they win in the international drinking game.

Oh, the toilets. That's always a fascinating topic from everyone I've spoken to who's visited there. You can rate them: sitting style, squatting style, and there's even a "compromise style." Some pictures I've seen were horror stories, others are just probably highly awkward if you're female, or having to defecate. You totally need to take a photo of the handicap-toilet-of-shame, though. Although to them it might not be as strange to them, as you said the lack of stalls seems to be prominent, or just "dividers", like stalls lacking doors.

Oooh, that class sounds like it's going to be quite a lot of fun. Even if a couple kids walk away slightly interested in new genres, it's a complete success. I'm surprised they listen to any American music though, that's quite interesting. I guess Bjork doesn't go over too well, though... haha. What age group are you working with anyways? Maybe you can show Rock n' Roll High school... although maybe they'd hate that.

Where are you exactly, anyways?

[glad_ghosts]

drinking on campus is weird just because no college students seem to drink beer. we've hung out with a couple guys who'll exclaim "ANOTHER ONE?" if we crack open a second can. the other 2 American teachers (they've been here longer) are always complaining that all the students think they're alcoholics.

Chinese youth love western music and western culture in general. if I tell them that anything is "cool in America", there's about a 75% chance (if not higher) that they'll cave and say they like it. but they prefer songs with lyrics they can easily understand, i.e. the cheesiest music out there.

I'm in Tianjin. sorrrta close to Beijing, although it takes up to 2 hours to get there. the college is on the outskirts of town. which is good because the city is notorious for being one of the dirtiest in China. they've taken great care to plant lots of little trees and bushes everywhere on campus to compensate.