Yes, FRIDAY! (Marcus)

So we've been here just over three and a half weeks now and time has really flown. I am listening to music while I type this and am feeling pretty damned good. I am in a good mood knowing that there's two days of rancho relaxo ahead and I am actually quite looking forward to English Corner this week...whilst Courtney..not so much :)

I don't know what it is, but I am finding the more personable interactions I am having with students and Chinese people in general, the more satisfied I feel. It makes me really happy to have a two-way 'reaction'. When I mean 'reaction,' I mean myself and another person have communicated on a normal human level and have both thoroughly enjoyed it. Sounds weird I suppose, but when you are up against what is an absolute PRICK(!) of a language barrier, getting over it feels just downright awesome. Yeah we cant read the language, but 98% of the time we cant even remotely guess what is written down either. When you combine the two, it's headache central.

So I am walking home from my 4th class of the day and feeling quite tired. The classes on Friday's are usually pretty good due there being some of the best kids, but today they weren't so good. The first class had a couple of tosser kids, the second was fine. Third was so-so, and fourth was good but not as good as last week. The girl who wrote the letter to me is in the fourth class as is one of the girls I know quite well now who interviewed me - the two of them are very vocal in class which helps considerably when the class isn't being chatty(the common theme around here.)

So..I am walking home and I am accosted by the gardener. I saw him earlier in the day and he looked up at me, gave me a big smile and said, Ni Hao! Then he actually realized I was a Laowai(white devil), and said, Helloooooo! With a bigger smile of course. So this time as I am walking back to the apartment...and about 20 metres away, he's in the garden out front of our place, and he comes over.

"Ni hao bladder babo ninpo diaphram yabba chiny engrish ma?" he says to me with mega enthusiasm. I smiled, and he kept going on and on, yabba yabba chinesey. Finally I said, WO BU MINGBAI!!! I don't understand!! And he laughed. He was loving it. He was trying to explain Zen to me...he was writing the character onto the palm of his hand. After a short while, a young woman on a bicycle came riding past(this is out front of the teachers apartments). She smiled and said, "Do you understand?" and I thanked Jesus and God in heaven above, an English teacher!! "No!!" I said, and she began to translate between myself and the other guy.

Turns out this gardener writes poetry and has written over 500 poems. He made the teacher translate one of his poems for me while he listened with a big smile. He was also a teacher once upon a time, but from the look of him I would say from a small country town or the like. His poem was about all people loving each other(the ZEN thing), about Spring being a beautiful month and something else...oh yeah, the sun in Spring making your skin go red. I was feeling frustrated actually, I would have loved to have talked directly with this guy. This is where I would kill to be able to speak Chinese..or at least semi-speak, rather than just my get-by-in-shops-and-restaurant abilities.

So over came this grandpa, which the teacher(whose English name was Tina) who Courtney and I have seen about the place a few times. The first few times he just gave us a huge smile and pointed as his mouth a few times then walked on while we waved..we assumed he couldnt talk...then the next time, he spoke to us...ok, so you can! I think he meant he cant speak English. God knows actually. Anyway he came over, and joined in. They were all wanting to know if i was comfortable here and hoped i was. The teacher said the grandfather(she referred to him as grandfather - or the grandfather) cared for us and wanted us to be comfortable(me and my wife that is).

At one stage the Poet Gardner wanted to shake my hand and did, then showed me the calluses on his hands from hard work in the gardens. He wanted to know if i liked what he had done with the gardens, and i had to admit, i really do. Spring is starting to really make this place look nice. Flowers are coming out, the willows around the lake have their leaves...it's making me happy.

Then they suddenly noticed my hands. WHITE HANDS!!! AND SOFT! So both grandpa and poet gardner are then both vigorously rubbing my white hand, giving it a good feel, then holding both of their much browner hands against it - and then..they noticed my forearm hair. Quick someone get fireworks, this guys got hairy arms!! (in-joke, they let practically let off fireworks to celebrate someone farting in this district). So then im holding my hairy arm(not that hairy by the way) next to his bald as a baby's bottom arm and yeah.

I was going to write about the massage parlor we were taken to by Mr Pan just around the corner, and the massage we had by gentle blind men, but I got kinda side-tracked. Maybe Courtney can fill you in on that one.

Have a nice weekend! I will!