I was in my apartment today just loafing a bit. It was a little after 8:30AM. I thought I heard some sort of singing or chanting. I opened a few windows trying to get a direction on it. It was coming from the east, towards or on my campus. I can’t see that direction. Rats. Singing or chanting, as loud as that was it had to be interesting. Grabbed my clothes and my camera and ran (ok, hobbled) out the door. The noise stopped. I kept walking hoping it would…wait !! There it is again, and close. I look through the trees, over the 10,000 bicycles, around the tennis courts, and I see people. A lot of them, and all in similar dress. Maybe it was that Falun Gong religion I heard so much about. I walk a bit faster now. I see groups of organized looking people. This looks military. I get my nerve up and walk in like I own the place taking pictures. It works at home many times. This is about six groups of people, all dressed in camouflage fatigues. This IS a military thing. OK, here comes someone a little my way. Wrong, she is coming right at me. Maybe I messed up and should not be here. This attractive woman asks me who I am. I tell her and she smiles. She too is a teacher. She is here with all these kids ranging from 14-17 years old. All girls. Yes, it’s OK to call them “girls”, not like at home where you must know the correct political word of the day in order to not be sued. There are over 300 girls here all in the same uniform except for mixed styles and colors of sneakers all around. The teacher, Li Tong, tells me she teaches at Zhengzhou Girls High School and these girls are here to practice a class they take, military discipline. These girls are marching in platoons, three on one side of the area and three on the other. They come here because of the room needed. The three on each side form sort of a team, against the other team of three platoons. They are singing and taunting the others, saying things like “we are better”, “wee will beat your team” and “try hard and you can do better.” When they are marching around the area, they all break into song exactly as we did in basic training. When students move or graduate from middle school to high school, there is a big difference in how hard school is and the number of hours a day needed to pass. Many of these students will wake up at 5:30 to get ready, and spend 12-14 hours before going to bed. They all need much discipline to accomplish this. All students, male and female, take the same training. It is 6 days on intense marching, drilling and exercise. They must buy the uniform. Their instructors are all male prison guards with a military background. The fee for this is 200 rmb per person. That is a lot of money for some people, and an impossible amount for others. Some families live on 200-300 rmb a year. This school looks at the academic achievement of the new students. If they have outstanding grades, but are very poor, the school sponsors about 100 girls a year by paying the 200 rmb fee. Li Tong tells me I am free to take pictures of the students as well as teachers, but not the male instructors. I tell her I understand. I spoke to 5 or 6 teachers, all very friendly. At their breaks, some of the students were dared to walk past me and say hello in English. As soon as I said hello back, quite a few came over, all very friendly and inquisitive. I posed for a few pictures and took a few of several with their favorite teacher. After a while, they had to go. I looked for the busses, but was told, “it’s close, maybe 2-3 kilometers. We will walk. 3 km is almost 2 miles. The teachers walk too, the ladies in heels. This is a tough bunch of people. The teachers invited me to come to their school a 3PM today to watch a formal competition between all these platoons for prizes and awards. I agreed and thanked them.
I arrived at the school at 3 sharp. I was escorted to the area where they were warming up. Many teachers are here. There is a long table set up in front for the judges. A large red banner over the table says in Chinese: Zhengzhou Girls High School 2006 1st year students competition. All teachers came over to say hello. One male teacher had a cell phone camera and took at least 10 pictures of me. When he could not see a good shot with me, he would drag over another teacher by the wrist to pose with me for him to photo. I know he dragged at least 3 over to me. The judges are now coming to their table in front. After a few minutes, the one in the center, I assume the highest ranking, waves to me to come to her. All the other teachers gasp in awe, while they nudge me saying, “she wants you. Go to her.” The head master, school principal equivalent, hands me a bottle of water and welcomes me to this event. I thanked her. These students all marched and sang their hearts out. I was very impressed. I had a very enjoyable day and hopefully I’ll be invited back again.
It’s morning. Lee is not here yet, it’s 9:30 and I’m hungry. Oh, did you ever figure out SHUPT ? Keep guessing, maybe I’ll tell you soon. OK, I’m hungry. What can I do? My hunger and curiosity got the best of me and I went out, across the street, under the pretext of buying a felt tip marker and some rubber bands. I walked around and got that. I saw 4 little guys that reminded me of myself when I was that small. Let's stop kidding, I was NEVER that small, but these guys are cute. Near the entrance, I saw this food establishment of sorts. I walked up and looked a minute. There were two people, a man and a women fixing local food at a mobile cart they owned. The woman makes some dough substance. She flours it, kneads it, rolls it until it’s about 8-10 inches across. She places it on the grill in front of the man. He turns it a bit and gets it cooking. She makes another and places it on top of the first. Each one is very thin, maybe 1/64-1/32 inch thick. The second one has a hole in the center about 3 inches wide. These disks are cooking together, sort of. The man uses a chop stick and separates the two from around the hole in the top one. He has a small bowel in which he places a small egg and about a teaspoon of unknown, I’ll say veggies, but I’m not certain. He spreads them around inside the two disks and they cook a bit more as he turns and flips them. They fold this thing in half and place it inside a small plastic bag. I pay 1.5 rmb and I’m on my way back across the street to my home. I was gambling on SHUPT. OK, I’ll tell you. It stands for “Still Haven’t Used Public Toilet. I was so close to home I tried the local food. I grabbed my needed supplies, new local food, a iced tea, and my bottle of Imodium AD and sat at my table. This thing, I say thing because Lee is not here yet to name it for me, tastes very good. I’m impressed. I found my new favorite food, at least for now. I’ll tell you later if it stayed good, or like a relative that owes you money, just passing through.
Talk about this being a small China…. Yesterday I was in the market buying that breakfast thing, an older man approached me from behind on a bicycle, and stated “you forgot your change.” I turned to take the .5 rmb and to thank him. We talked a bit. His English was so-so. He appeared to be about 70 and in pretty good shape. I asked him about Tai Chi, as he looked like that older man I photographed from my window exercising. We were not able to confirm that, but he did admit to 7AM, though I was not sure exactly what. We said goodbye. I was sitting at my computer at 6:30AM editing. At 7, I just looked up and there he was. It WAS him. What a small world. I got dressed, grabbed my camera and a big print of him I made, and out the door I went. Hmmmm how to get into this housing area he was in??? I walked a bit and came upon a big gate that was open. I peered in and saw many of the same houses like I saw him occupy. What a break, so in I go. Well, almost. I made it about 3 meters and I heard a loud male voice yell. I was the only person around, so I sort of knew it was intended towards me. I envisioned a policeman or soldier, tan or blue uniform, and a big AK-47 (a rifle) aimed at me. I froze. Slowly I turned towards the voice. I did not want to startle this loud voice. As I turn, I see a man, 40’s standing there in shorts, possibly under shorts, and nothing else. I do not need to understand Chinese to know he is telling me to stay out. I try to talk to him a bit with my pocket translator. He keeps making an “L” shaped sign with his hand and saying something over and over. Then he points at my watch and says it again. The light comes on. That “L” shape means 45 minutes. They are closed for another 45 minutes, then he points to an office ahead. OK, Chinese lesson #43…We are closed. We open in 45 minutes, then you can go that office ahead. Until then, GET OUT. This housing area I tried to walk into is for very high ranking retired military officers. Ah-ha…. I made my exit, but as General Patton once said, “I shall return.”
It’s Monday Aug 22, 2006 Tennis 101 day. I was walking on campus this morning and spotted a tennis class for children, looks like aged about 8 and up. I saw several young girls maybe 8-10 playing and they were doing much better then I thought. I had to stop there a while and take some pictures. In fact, I took too many pictures. I’ll be filling up my hard drive and my new 80G external drive real fast. These two girls were very cute, in great shape, and playing better then many kids twice their age. Running, jumping, two handed shots including backhands, etc. the one with the white hat is good, but the one with her hair up in a little bun…wow. I took a few shots and showed their moms waiting there. They were impressed. Now I wanted better shots, so I walked onto the courts right to where the judge sits and I got better shots from there. These little ladies were working their hearts out. After at least 1.5 hours of hard play, now the coach called them all over to his court. Now they all took positions on the court, and when he yelled “go”, they ran side to side and touched the foul lines as fast as they could go. Three solid minutes, then a one minute rest. Then another, and another. They had at least four 3 minute sessions with 1 minute break, then three 2 minute sessions, then 1 minute. After that he made them jump as high in the air as they could for 1 minute more. A few quick stretches, then 3 laps running around the courts. These kids were real tired for sure. I spoke with a few, then took a posed picture with the three I watched the most. Everyone came by me to see the pictures and personally say goodbye to me. They all had different modes of transportation home, but all had mom along too. Some were on mom’s scooter with her, while some roller bladed while mom rode her bike. These were a great bunch of kids. The family thing is alive and well in China. I like that.
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