My Life as a Moviestar

July 7, 12:24am
(OLD; FINALLY POSTED.)
Pictures at the end of the post.

I'm exhausted, so this will be quick, but there is so much to say.

Tonight Rob and I were on an Anyang talk show that is very popular in the area. It was a bit nervewracking—Fanny told us how to say "we are very happy to be in Anyang" in Chinese, but when it came time to saying it to the host, we both totally slaughtered it. Chinese is hard! Oh well. Everyone laughed anyway.

The TV show was filled with students from the schools where Rob and I are volunteering and I met some of them. Some of the younger girls were performing on the show (they did a little dance) and asked me to do their make-up. Funny how they think that because I am from America (or "New York" as I tell everyone—it has a bit more clout than Michigan) I automatically know everything about make-up. Oh well. They were pleased with it. Anyway, I met a lot of the older students, and that was my first time interacting with the older ones. They were so ready to learn; I have never come across people who are more eager to ask questions. They absorb so much... it is great fun to chat with the older students. I wish I was teaching them (I think it will be 7-10ish for me, but we will see tomorrow), but oh well. There are advantages and disadvantages to every age, I think.

The past two days Rob and I have been taken in separate big, black cars to the surrounding villages of Anyang with various teachers and headmasters of the schools (we are basically involved with one of the many school districts in Anyang). We toured the villages, which was entirely eye opening. I have never seen such poverty and have never felt so rich and out of place. The teachers used me as a way to get students to come to the summer program and to the school, and it was very successful. We followed winding dirt roads through all kinds of farm land from village to village, and at each center we would stop, they would hand out fliers, and kids and adults alike would come running from all directions to get a good look at me. None of them had seen a foreigner before. I felt like a show dog. I didn't mind, though... I met some incredibly cute kids and I had a lot of fun taking pictures of them and then showing them what they looked like. They would crowd around my camera giggling uncontrollably and smiling at me. They are some of the most adorable children I have ever seen. In one village, I was asked to give a demonstration of an English lesson. I made it up on the spot, but I think it went over pretty well. The children loved it and the parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents who were crowding me were all also smiling from ear to ear.

A very common drill that Fanny and other adults (parents included) do with the children is asking "is she very beautiful? yes or no," and then the children are expected to shout back "yes" as loudly as they can. People everywhere come up to me, even when we are in the main city of Anyang (which is by no means a small place). People gawk, people smile. Young girls and women come up to me to tell me "how beautiful you are," which is of course very nice, but it also makes me uncomfortable. They worship my western features... it's just appearance! I don't like the worldwide standard of beauty. I have met people with the most enchanting, loving smile and eyes, but I bet they never get told they are beautiful.

I have been trying to return the compliment (or start the compliment) as much as possible. I still have not gotten used to how much people appreciate one little compliment. When I tell the students that they have good English, you would think that they won the lottery.

We have been staying in a hotel for the past several nights. Our official translator, Helen, arrived yesterday, so we will spend time with her tomorrow to prepare for class, which starts on Tuesday. I am nervous. There is a lot of unknown at this point (I have no idea what the ability of the children is), so hopefully all will go well tomorrow. Helen is planning to stay with us in the teacher dormitories, which makes me very happy. I like her a lot and she is incredibly helpful. She is majoring in English and wants to be a translator, so she is very enthused about helping us around her hometown.

That is something that is great about being with just Rob in Anyang: we are going to make good friendships with the staff people, too, not just the students. I have already gotten pretty close with Fanny, and we joke like we are old friends (I tell her that she wants to marry Robert, which makes her giggle like a 5-year-old). I think Helen is grand (uh oh, talking like the Irish) and I love the idea of spending time with her, talking with her, and having her show me around. I am most excited to see the old city and the Anyang museum, which has the massive amount of oracle bones that were found here (mom—the book you got me talks a lot about Anyang. Useful!). It will be so nice to have someone who is fluent in both English and Chinese and who is incredibly enthused to help around at all times. Otherwise I think I would feel lost...

My stomach was awful today. Still is, actually. Horrible timing with the TV show thing... Rob's stomach was acting up, too, and when we got to dinner (it was very late because of the live broadcast), we both didn't eat much. The headmasters and assistants were immediately asking why and were very concerned, and within 10 minutes there was a car waiting for us outside of the restaurant to take us back. I do think some of them are very corrupt and are only using Rob and myself for publicity and money, but then they do something like that and it comforts me a little. They may very will be corrupt, but at least they are caring!

Another thing that bothers me a lot about it here is the constant hierarchy. The women are expected to fetch things and prepare things, always. But it isn't just gender imbalance, obviously. There are all kinds of other hierarchies, too, unlike what I have ever seen. I know the US is not perfect—maybe the difference I'm noticing is that the imbalances in our hierarchy for the most part are not blatantly displayed, whereas here, they are. Each day, Fanny never knows anything about where we are going or what the plan is. It is not her place to ask, so she just waits until she is told which car to get into or where we should go. She is a 26-year-old, unmarried teacher, and therefore she is not expected to compete with her 45-year-old, married headmaster. She jumps whenever any of her bosses need anything. She thinks nothing of it. That's just how it goes here.

Fanny is actually spending the night in my hotel room with me (for the second night) because it is too late for her to go back to her home—the buses have stopped running. She has been spending 14 hours on the job, and then doesn't get to go home. Instead, she sleeps with me until 5am or so, then she quietly slips out, goes back home to change clothes, and then goes to school for a full day. This is what she is expected to do, so she does it. End of story.

A few moments ago I took out my computer and Fanny asked me if I paid for my computer myself. She asks me that a lot about everything. I am incredibly spoiled. Anyway, she asked if I had pictures of my country on my computer, and I said yes, so we looked for a little at NYC, Chicago, Florida, and Montana, along with some of my pictures from Europe. She loved it, but it made me feel a bit uncomfortable. She wants to travel—she told me she wants to live in Australia or Canada because there are not too many people, it is very clean, and it is very beautiful—but she will never in her life have enough money to leave Henan province, let alone China. We looked at my Canada pictures and she asked an unbelievable amount of questions. She was mesmerized at how clean everything in North America was and told me she has never seen a mountain or an ocean.

I have always known that people like Fanny exist, but never have I had pillow talk with one of them. Looking through my pictures, Fanny caught a glimpse of what it would be like to have the opportunities that I have. And it is unfair that I have that privilege and she does not. She is one of the most deserving people I know, but I think she will be trapped here for the rest of her life.

Ok, I am exhausted. Ha, started the entry the same way. I wish I could go into more detail about what I was feeling at each instance, but that would make for an absurdly long blog. Hopefully pictures will do some of the illustrating.

Goodnight.

~
Here are some pictures. If I had more time, I would embed them into the text for your viewing pleasure, but... well, you're going to have to deal with it. I imagine you'll all survive (it's probably just me, the obsessive compulsive one, who is bothered)!

Some girls who I fell in love with at one of the stops in a village.

This was very typical: girls would follow me around giggling and playing with me, but the parents and other adults would always be off to the side, gawking at my height and western features.

Teaching colors in the village. I was surrounded on all sides; everyone was so eager to learn English.

The set for the talk show before the broadcast. Fun stuff.