KTV

My Chinese name is 羅立珊 (Luo Li Shan) which literally means "coral" "stand" "establish/recruit" but was chosen mostly on phonetics.  Lou, the family name, comes first as is representative of the importance of the family over the individual in Chinese culture.  My teachers call me Lou LiShan, but my Chinese friends would call me Li Shan or Shan Shan; however, most of our Chinese peers tend to introduce themselves by their English names to us Westerners.


Getting to school is a one-hour two-bus commute.  As you can see, the buses are completely packed, but imagine a little dot of a Caucasian in the middle of the sea of staring Asians.

Today was a madhouse outside of the main gate to enter the school because of a character-writing competition.  And we thought SAT day was bad...











School starts at 9 am every morning (including Saturday and Sunday for just this week) and ends at 5.  The first half is studying language, and the afternoon is culture.  We learned kung fu yesterday and tai chi today.  Both were pretty difficult especially as we watched 10-year-olds besting us.  Every evening I see huge groups of old ladies doing tai chi to music in the park.  (American grandmas knit and gossip, Chinese grandmas tai chi and gossip.)  Someday when I have the time I think it would be really fun to join them.

Today we ate in the school's cafeteria (bad cafeteria food exists in China, too, except that their mystery meat is way too recognizable).  Eventually we attracted the attention of the elementary school students who all wanted to take pictures with us, especially the two gingers.  It is a strange feeling when strangers want to take pictures with you just because you are taller than their father and need sunscreen on a cloudy day.

Making noodles in the street market

We walked to a superb market during our lunch break that was a couple streets wide to find more food and look around.  I had really cheap mango-flavored bubble tea and sesame seed pastries.  I had tried bubble tea for the first time the night before with my host sister at a nice tea house.  It is basically milk tea with squishy tapioca pearls at the bottom.

Bubble Tea

After school a large group of us students and our siblings experienced KTV.  You enter through a maze of long mirrored hallways to get to a dark private room with colorful flashing lights, large TV screens, and plush sofas, a bit like a Vegas casino.  Instead of gambling, you get to choose songs and sing karaoke with your friends.

The Chinese students knew most of the English songs although not vice versa.  Compare Chinese song titles (translated) to English song titles, and the culture gap is obvious:  Miss You Sadly, Wash Scrub Scrub, Beijing Welcomes You, True Love Is Forever / Rock ThatBody, Sexy and I Know It, Smack That, Party Rock Anthem.  It was a delightful, comfortable environment, and I had a blast.

Singing "Call Me Maybe"