Grand Hotel

I'm currently writing this on Jiahua Grand Hotel paper. Because that is where I am right now. In the bathtub.

It's actually March 1st, 2008.

I have a confession to make: I've never stayed in a hotel room by myself before. So when I realized I would get a room to myself I got ridiculously and embarrassingly excited. What made this realization so embarrassing is the fact that I have been in China completely cut off from any semblance of my Canadian life, living alone on a campus where the majority of people cannot speak a single word of English – and yet, staying by myself in a hotel is this new, grand adventure.

I can’t remember if in a past post I mentioned that the students and Chinese teachers are so enamoured with me that they’d like to take me home with them on weekends (not an ounce of false modesty in that statement, eh?). I was flattered and figured this would be a good chance to experience the “real China” and not just the touristy western-influenced China – like on my New Year Trip.

I figured right.

One teacher and her husband and her son - who is one of my students – has had me for the whole weekend so far. She has treated my like absolute royalty. The Chinese – I gotta say – are a very giving people.

Yesterday after work and after a brief shopping spree we met up with about 10 of her friends for dinner where every drinking tradition was thrust upon me. The Chinese – I gotta say – are a very traditional people. Honestly, one cannot turn down a tradition without being horribly offensive. No matter how you word it, or what excuse you give.

One tradition in particular is to prove your friendship to another person by each of you chugging three full glasses of beer in a row. Which amounts to a little over a bottle and a half per person. Before every drink you shout “gān bēi” and tip your glass in respect to the other person. This literally means “bottoms up”, so start chugging it down!

Afterwards we headed to a “Western Dance Party” club called Las Vegas. There is nothing western about this club besides the flags at the entrance.

I was the only female of about 5 foreigners in the whole club. Let’s just say I got a lot of attention.

This morning we went to what is essentially a tree farm. We were originally going to go fishing in the lake at the same park but there aren’t any fish at this time of year. There was an army training ground though - that was fun.


We headed to a nursery next, where there were easily over 200 separate greenhouses. After wandering through and looking at so many different beautiful flowers and plants, the teacher bought me potted cacti for my desk and a really gorgeous flower/plant for my room (which will deserve its own blog post later).

After the nursery we spontaneously stopped in at a roadside greenhouse that grew strawberries all year long. Mutant, huge and delicious strawberries.


We went for a hot-pot supper (you put raw meat and veggies into a pot on a boiler that’s in the middle of the table) where I ate about three different kinds of fish, duck tongue and “cow’s husband” (bull).

They reminded me constantly over the weekend that “Chinese people like to eat all animals”. Geez, now Westerners look discriminatory.

On the way back from the teacher getting her hair professionally cleaned (she has a lot of it) we were pulled over by a cop because she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. That’s two run-ins with the law now since I’ve been in China. You can expect me to be deported soon enough.

We went back to Las Vegas where it was a much better crowd and the teacher and I each won a stuffed dog, literally by jumping up and down.

So now here I am in a bubble bath trying to remember every single detail of the past 34 or so hours.

I have a magnificent life.


Update: the next day she took me to meet her family. Her mother made me dinner and they repeatedly told me they wanted me to continue to be a part of their family. I’m scheduled to eat with them again the next time her sister is in town.