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I had breakfast at the hostel and then took a taxi to the bus station.I had a five hour bus journey to get to Jinan for some training.This time I made sure I got a window seat to avoid any 'overspill' from the aisle!I slept for most of the journey and this time nobody was sick on me, hooray!
I had a call from Miss Shi's daughter Alyssia to say they were waiting in the McDonalds across the road from the station.It took me ages to cross the road because so many cars and coaches were zooming around.When I finally found them we had to get a taxi to somebody's apartment.As usual it was all very vague.Nobody would tell me where we would be sleeping the night, when or where the training would be, and how I would get back to Liaocheng.Apparently the taxis were trying to charge about three times the usual amount because of the national holiday, so I had to stand in the traffic with Alyssia and their luggage while Miss Shi tried to find the cheapest taxi she could.Eventually she found one she was willing to pay for and we went to a housing yard similar to mine.
As we were walking through the yard I was talking to Alyssia and suddenly we realised Miss Shi was not walking with us anymore.We turned around and she was just stood there eating a banana!Alyssia was quite embarrassed and said she really does not understand her mother sometimes… This was good to hear because ever since I have arrived in China, Miss Shi has completely baffled me.I know she is a very intelligent and business-minded woman, but her general behaviour does not always reflect these things!
The apartment we went in to turned out to belong to Teacher Neil from my very first day in Liaocheng.I was corrected and told he is called Teacher Liu, but I am going to continue to call him Neil because that is how I think of him and 'Neil' quite suits him.His apartment is the most modern I have seen in China so far.The walls are painted in bold colours like bright red and green, and the furniture looks like it came straight out of an Ikea show room.As well as Teacher Neil there was another lady about the same age as Teacher Shi, but I never got her name.Alyssia mentioned Neil had a wife and I thought maybe it was her even though she seemed a little old for him.
They were asking me what I wanted for dinner and I said anything would be OK as long as it was free from meat or fish.And also I would like to try something other than egg and tomato!Alyssia and Neil were going to the local market so they took me with them.We went around all the stalls and they let me pick the vegetables.I saw some cauliflower so I asked if I could try it as I haven't tried it since being in China.We picked up many other vegetable and Tofu, but they also got meat for themselves.When we got back I helped them prepare the vegetables and they got out the hotplate and pot for a hotpot, so I was really looking forward to dinner!He opened out a step ladder and put a different bowl of vegetables on each step which I thought was a pretty cool way of doing things,Then they filled the hotpot with beef stock and Neil brought me my own plate of stir fried courgette and some tofu.I was so disappointed, after all the excitement of picking the veg at the market, I couldn't try any of it!
After dinner I found out that Neil's wife was actually not the lady we had dinner with.She was out with the car and we had to wait at Neil's apartment for hours before she came back with it.We dropped the lady off at the school where she works.Her husband and son were there and because it was so late I had to go inside so he would believe her where she had been- blame the foreigner!Then Neil drove us out of town to his second home.It was quite far so I had a nice chat with Alyssia in the back of the car.She explained that Neil is from a very wealthy family so he has this large home outside of town which his parents bought for him, and he also has the smaller apartment in town where he lives with his wife because it is closer to get to work.She said he is having a mid-life crisis (he's only 27!) because he feels the marriage is like a net trapping him from doing what he wants to do.I thought it was pretty interesting that despite other cultural differences, the perceived constraints of marriage can be very similar in China.
Alyssia explained to me that she has an American boyfriend who she lives with but Miss Shi is not happy about this.They plan to move to Japan next year to teach, much to the displeasure of her family.She is 20 years old but already it is clear that she is not like a lot of the other Chinese.She is not afraid of the big issues- such as China V Japan, or relationships with foreigners.She helps her mother with the family business (placing foreigners in schools) and there is a lot of money in this.She also studies at home, and her English is excellent.She sounds a little American and within another year or two I think she could blend in very easily in any western English speaking country.Her way of dressing could be considered trendy even by home standards (she certainly put my lack of style to shame!).She told me she has an American boyfriend because she cannot bear to date Chinese boys.I couldn't help but ask her why not.She turned to me, very seriously, and said "because they are sexually disabilitated".I laughed so hard.I have no idea exactly what she meant by this, but it doesn't sound good…She said it wasn't funny because it's true.I apologised for laughing and then we got to Neil's second home and drank tea and ate dates before going to bed.
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