Today’s ten thousand things
Posted in 10,000 Things, Living in China, Teaching in ChinaJanuary 17th, 2010 · 11:22pm | 5 Comments »
- Today, I went to Changde with Nevill (one of the Chinese teachers) to see Avatar. Sadly, they were only playing the dubbed-in-Chinese version, so I didn’t understand any of the dialogue. But it was an interesting experience to watch a Western film without understanding the words (unlike watching Chinese kung fu movies on buses without understanding the words). I understood the plot, all right. In fact, it was so simple and, frankly, predictable, that it bored me quite a bit. The movie was really pretty to look at, but man, am I tired of war movies where the bad guy just keeps coming back, against all odds, to fight the last battle with the good guy. It’s gone from feeling epic to feeling like, “OH COME ON ALREADY.” I was starting to pre-guess when secondary characters would die. SURPRISE ME ALREADY, HOLLYWOOD! This is why I like that Joss Whedon randomly kills main characters without warning. Because I don’t see it coming!
- On the way back from Changde, our express mini-bus, which was supposed to be non-stop to Shimen, stopped 6 times to deliver boxes to random people in slightly-en-route small towns. Nevill informed me that this is “not allowed” (read: probably illegal) in China, but the bus driver did it anyway. The driver also waited until 4:30pm to leave Changde, even though the bus was supposed to leave at 4:00pm, to try and get more people on the bus. Nevill spent most of the hour drive home swearing in English about the bus driver. He was 3 minutes late to a staff meeting because of all this craziness. Poor Nevill.
- I again succeeded in avoiding eating at McDonald’s, despite serious prodding from Nevill. I refuse to eat it before I go home, dammit!
- Nevill is pretty much a fantastic photographer with a big fancy camera, and he took some pictures of me and I took some pictures of him on our Changde adventure. Hopefully, he’ll send them to me soon so I can post them here.
- Nevill informs me that there are “many more foreigners” in Changde. When I asked how many, he said, “4 or 6. Many more than in Shimen.” There are at least 10 foreigners in Hanzhong, which is like 14 gazillion according to this scale.
- This week, I will help my students choose English names, and then tell them I’m leaving Shimen. This, along with actually saying goodbye to them next week, will be the saddest thing about my leaving, without a doubt. I’m not looking forward to it.
- My mom and stepdad will be here in three weeks and I’m totally excited! I have to plan what I’m going to do between 1/29 when I finish teaching and 2/5 when I have to be in Beijing to meet them. I can’t wait to force-feed them amazing Chinese food.
5 Responses to “Today’s ten thousand things”
By elpdesign on Jan 18, 2010
I can’t wait to see these “fantastic” pictures of you. All I have to go on are the crappy ones you take.
I love your story about seeing Avatar; it’s really funny that your reaction to the story is the same as just about everyone else’s that I’ve talked to about it, despite the fact that you couldn’t understand the dialog. I still want to see it, just because I’ve heard the visuals are fantastic.
By larissa on Jan 18, 2010
Did you see Avatar in 3D? How big was the theater? Was a Chinese movie audience similar to an American movie audience?
I just noticed your travel quotes – love the one currently up!
By Katie on Jan 18, 2010
No, it wasn’t in 3D – the theater was rather small, maybe about 150-200 people? The Chinese movie audience was much more vocal about the movie – when there were awesome effects, they made much more noise about them than American audiences (or when something crept up behind the main character). They also talked a lot and shuffled a lot and talked loudly. Lots of people got cell phone calls and answered them in the theatre, though the conversations were short. People came in as much as 30 minutes late. So it was a much more chaotic movie audience than the ones I’m used to.
The quotes change every time you re-load the page, which quote was it?
By Scott on Jan 18, 2010
Yeah, you don’t see it coming…but Wash! Waaaash! I really wish he wasn’t dead.
By larissa on Jan 19, 2010
Oh shoot – it’s gone. Don’t remember…perhaps it will return.