Wednesday, June 4
Photo 1: I arrive at Lao Men Dong
Photo 2: Dangerous popcorn
After a rather rude awakening by a disgruntled teenage boy's mild argument with his mother, I rolled out of bed and proceeded to get dressed. Normally, this would be the portion of my morning that involved a shower, but, since Chinese culture begs to differ, the shower was forgone.
My host family is actually pretty well off. Their home, brand new, is very elegantly furnished and everything is completely spotless. Breakfast usually consists of what Americans would think of as lunch or even dinner in Chinatown. A plate piled high with dumplings, another with ShaoMai, a small bowl of soy sauce, hot milk and a bowl of rice sat on the table when I finally was ready to eat. Overeating is a very common occurrence during the homestay. I can understand that the family does not want anything to go to waste, but, sometimes, I feel that they buy extra just to shove down my throat. I'm not complaining. The food is always delicious, plentiful and fills me up after only a few bites. This can be a problem considering the amount of it.
Off to work. My family lives in the AnDeMen region that is located just outside of the city of Nanjing and would probably be classified as a suburb. The area reminds me of Queens and the Bronx in New York if any of you readers are familiar. To get to work I have 3 primary options: Public bus, subway or taxi. The Public bus stops directly outside of my family's apartment complex, but drops me off about 10 minutes away from work. The subway station is about 10 minutes from the apartment complex and drops me off about 5 minutes from work. And the taxi, if you should be lucky enough to find one, is just very expensive (relative to the aforementioned public transportation). I eventually arrived at the train station and, while receiving many a look from the locals, proceeded to take the train.
Lao Men Dong is a gentrified version of what the old/beginnings of Nanjing used to look like. My job, along with Alvin, is with a company that manages and oversees every business that is currently behind the gate and any that are looking to invest/move in. We were given the task of helping to promote the World Cup event that the area is hosting in the next couple of weeks. While at first, this seemed challenging and creative, it soon turned impossible when we learned of the many bureaucratic hoops that the company must jump through in order to get any money from their fund. This, I guess, is just one of the problems of being government owned (which they are).
The entire area is filled with cultural images and architecture. When Dong Laoshi first brought Alvin and me here, she pointed out this picture where the children are excited to come to what seems like a cloud of white smoke. She challenged us to figure out what it was. After some inquiries with employees, we found out that this was actually a traditional way of making popcorn. It is dangerous because sometimes, when the bag was turned over and opened, the popcorn kernels could fly out due to pressure and hit people. Interesting.
After work, our bosses took us to a comedy show that was in the area. The seats normally would've been 200 RMB each, but, since we were with important people, they were free! I would've taken a picture, but the bosses didn't seem to think that would be okay. We sat and drank tea while watching the show for some time before the bosses realized that neither I nor Alvin understood what was being said. Awkward. Still a fun experience though.
After that, we departed and headed home to our host families. Mine decides to call it a night at around 10:30 so there was only a little bit of time remaining. I played WuZiQi with the father and some interesting card games with my DiDi. All in all, it was a great day. Happy blogging.
- Tyler
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