Children's Day

Everyday is Children's Day, I was cynically told twice yesterday.

 

Be that as it may, June 1 is a special day for children in China, and so special things will be done for them.

 

Jenny, for instance, has bought Tony chocolates which she said I can't touch.

Latest Possible May Entry

And the oldest profession is....

Thursday, I asked this question and the students guessed... Teacher, Priest, Hunter, Farmer, and Butcher!  among other things.  But none of them said prostitute.  Maybe it never dawned on them, or the topic was taboo.  When they asked me why this was so, that is, that "they" say that "it" is the oldest profession, I didn't have any ready explanation.  I had never questioned the cliche till then.

 

And so now, I wonder...  This idea that prostitution is the oldest profession--  has it been confirmed by some branch of study?  Or is the statement, simply a clever aphorism, that has been naturally and cynically assumed to be true?  I assume that a profession must earn exchange or money, not just survival, before its activities can permit it to truly be called a profession.  I guess that in the age of barter, the service in question  was provided by wives or mates.  Once monetary exchange was possible, the services of a prostitute could earn cash and be separated from the wifely  position.  A mate was attached to a hunter or gatherer who could provide protection.  And so if money had to be used as a means for professions to earn income, the earliest profession may well be the minter of money or provider of credit.

 

Lady Ga Ga

Hearing so much about Lady Ga Ga, I went to youku to view some of her videos.  I was underwhelmed.  I just couldn't see anything about her that would put her above the other pop artists that are out there now.  I do confess I approached the videos with the prejudicial attitude of disdain, but nothing I saw even gave me moment for pause and for questioning of my assumptions.  She afforded me no guilty pleasure.  She was awful, and the product of a marketing phenomenon that I know much better than to be seduced by.

 

Stagecoach

John Wayne's birthday is in May, late May exactly.  And I just so happened to watch the movie Stagecoach before I heard about it being his birthday.  Nice coincidence.  Anyway, in Stagecoach, his first appearance on the screen had him looking like an Adonis.

 

Why my wife married me.

I heard my wife saying that when she meet me, I was a terrible customer for her -- she was a hostess for a beer company at the time.  I only drank a beer a night at the pub and she earned income from selling as many beers as possible. 

 

But this showed to her that I had the attributes to make a good husband -- economy, and discipline.

A visit from a reader

I can say, with pride and truth, that this blog has caused me to meet people I wouldn't otherwise have crossed paths with.  These people have wished me well with this endeavor, and I feel ashamed in that I can't fully repay their kindness.  I hope though that in the future, somehow, some way, I will be able to be as kind to others as they have been to me.

Friday, I had lunch with an Englishman and his Wuxiren wife  They live in England but come back often to see the woman's parents. This time back to China, they went to Tibet where the scenery was wonderful but the cities seem tense as soldiers could be seen everywhere.  

Not with a bang but a whimper

The King of Wuxi will be moving to Winnipeg where he will henceforth be known as the King of Winnipeg.  I wish him all the best.  Wuxi Expatdom's loss is Winnipeg's gain.

His departure has been one without pomp and fanfare, from me anyway, and really unbefitting for a  monarch. But so much goes on in Wuxi, on a personal level, that is so typical of the human condition and banal that you can't report it in a blog  -- that is, you can't talk of the divisions, all that much.   

It seems that when you leave a small community, you are ultimately escaping it.  (Although, it wouldn't be fair to say that about all small communities.)  The Wuxi Expat community is one where people don't come to live or have community -- they are often here for reasons nefarious.  And so I find myself disillusioned by so many human relationships and even more by how I have dealt with them - mea culpa.  

 

Time to move on for the King.

 

My time has yet to come.

Sight I Saw

In a field, sat an old man on a manhole cover -- his head in his hands, he looked like a broken depressed man.  Meanwhile, behind him stood a woman doing some calisthenic exercise -- she looked to be miming a pushing action.  What she was pushing in her imagination was hard for me to determine -- but the thing being pushed was conceived by her as being very springy.

Insert clever observation here:  Well, obviously there was a contrast but what it had to say, I don't know other than the proximity of the moods is not something you would see in Canada -- Canadians would not be so ebullient close to someone so depressed.

 

When's your mother's birthday?

This simple question earned some interesting answers from some students Monday evening.  I learned that one student's mother's birthday was on April 5 which was a day after his  birthday on April 4 -- an interesting coincidence.  As well, April 5 is Tomb Sweeping Day in China and also my sister's birthday -- two more mind blowing coincidences. 

 

Another student said she didn't know her mother's exact birthday.  This was because her grandmother couldn't remember the exact date the birth had happened, other than it was in July.  This is not the first time I have heard of this inexactitude about birthdays.

 

 

Wuxi Tony Update #588

Watch Andis chase Tony through a food court in the People's Republic of China!

Two more videos taken in Wuxi, China.

Watch this and this.  The first was taken on Xueqian Road.  The second was taken near a downtown Wuxi Church.

Walking in a Wuxi, China Electrical Market

Why Wuxi, China is exciting #18

Friday with Tony

Andis had a good Friday with Tony; Jenny didn't. 

 

In the morning, Andis took Tony to preschool.  On the bus, Tony was well-behaved.  At the preschool, he was drowsy and slept in Andis's arms.  When the teachers at the preschool beckoned him to come to class, he came to them without a fuss.  He even gave Andis a good-bye kiss.

 

So, Andis looked forward to seeing Tony after work.

 

However, Andis arrived home to hear Jenny screaming sharply at Tony.  The atmosphere of pleasantness became tense.

 

Jenny told Andis that Tony had: stolen a can of pineapple beer and spilled it on the sofa, turned off the computer on her while she was using it, peed on the floor, and had taken some lotion and rubbed it all over his legs.  She was not at all pleased with him.  Andis had to calm her down.

 

In Tony's defence, Jenny did determine that the peeing incident was a result of an effort on Tony's part to pee by himself -- something he is on the cusp of doing it.  But his attempt was unsuccessful, and so he looked for some lotion to rub on the pee that had landed on his legs.  To have seen Tony with his pants down, rubbing the lotion on the legs would have been an interesting sight to see, Andis thought.

 

But Jenny didn't think so.  Tony fell asleep in Andis's arms because he was very scared of his mom at that moment in time.

I wish I could have taken a video.

The people in the photo above are waiting for the crane to move forward. In the photo, it is crossing a pedestrian pathway through a Wuxi subway construction site.

This is the crane I referred to in the previous entry.

Below is what the crane was toting. This piece of metal, as I said, was huge, nearly fifty meters in length.

Late May Bloggings

Interesting Choice

I almost wish I had this student's choice.  His company wants him to spend two years in Cambodia.  They will give him double pay, and four trips home per year.  The only hitch is that his girlfriend doesn't want to wait for him.  He must decide between love and money/travel. 

 If I was in his shoes, I would go to Cambodia.

Muggy Weather

It is getting sweaty here in Wuxi.

 

Wearing Glasses

For about a month or so, I have been using reading glasses.  I hate wearing them except when reading.  Off my sweaty nose, they keep slipping, I've noticed when I have worn them teaching -- absolute torture.

And the other thing I have noticed:  When you wear glasses to read, you also need glasses to eat.

But on the bright side, I have told I look professorial.

 

Light-Headed

That is the way I feel after talking to large groups of people.

 

Fit to be tied, again.

I thought I had gotten through fine, but I made a slip and earned eternal infamy in the eyes of the group.  Arrgghh!  A memory to forever haunt me!  A memory to pop into my head uninvited.  And yet, it was just a conglomeration of circumstances, and I couldn't have acted other than I did.

Does my conscience ever leave me alone?

The 2010 Kaulins Family Canada Odyssey Itinerary

From June 10 to June 16, we will be in British Columbia

From June 16 to June 27, we will be in Manitoba.

Is it okay to make fun of North Korea?

Normally, it would be.  But I am in China.  Am I making fun of their ally?

 

Thought

Love your enemy, they say.  I say sure, but the enemy is often ourselves.

 

Thought

Too tired to act other than how I really feel.

 

Hilary and Obama

I did a SPC about fame.  According to the students, the most famous people in the world, male and female, are Obama and Hilary Clinton. 

 

Is that the best this world can do?  I mean we have more people alive now than ever.  Why are these stunning mediocrities, who are more the benefactors of circumstances than the creators of them, the world's most well-known?

The best of all time?  The students mentioned Mary, the virgin, and Napoleon.

 

Chinese and Russians

Chinese don't trust Russians doing business.  The Russians like to renege on deals and not compensate for lost production.

Tony's imperfections 

Anthony watches too much television.  He picks his nose and leaves the pickings everywhere.  He drinks and spits the fluid back into the container.

 

Uncharitable Thought

He is the best looking guy in the bar -- for his age and weight class.

 

Google Reader

Don't get me wrong.  After discovering the Google Reader, I can't help but love it.  It allows me to access all my favorite blogs and sites on one page.  But one morning I had 500 unread pieces!!!

 

Must Read

With so much to read on the Internet, I have to say David Warren is the number one read for me.

 

Old Latvians

This trip to Canada won't be glamorous.  We will be going on a very tight budget.  And we will be meeting a lot of old Lativans -- not that there is anything wrong with that, but they don't reek of glamour.  One of them, an aunt I used to live with, is very sick, I have been told.  I pray I will be able to see them when I arrive next month.

 

Children of Migrant Workers

That is, the offspring of the workers who come here to do construction, don't get admitted into Wuxi schools, I have been told.  And it makes for social problems.

 

I wish I could have taken a photo.

Walking down a narrow roadway, I saw a cyclist riding directly in front of a dump truck going fairly fast.  The cyclist got out of the truck's way; but for a few seconds, it looked like she was going to be run over.

 

James Dean T-Shirt

A student was wearing a James Dean t-shirt.  Asking her about it, I learned she didn't know who James Dean was.  She thought he was handsome, though.

 

It is interesting to see the Chinese wearing Iconic Western Culture images without knowing their significance.  I have seen many Chinese wearing Beatle shirts without having a clue about who the Fab Four were.

 

 Another I wish I could have taken a picture

In fact, I wish I could have taken a video.  This time, I was walking in downtown Wuxi when I saw a huge piece of metal, possibly fifty meters in length and three meters in width, dangling on a crane hook.  The crane was moving cross a pedestrian path.  Workers were trying to prevent cyclists and pedestrians from crossing the crane's path, but they were ignored.  The metal was needed for subway construction.

 

I slap myself

I am in China, I said to myself.  Who would have thought it, ten years ago?

Tony says "bicycle!"

Wednesday was Andis's day to pick up Tony from the preschool.  Arriving home, Tony saw the Kaulins family electric bicycle parked in front of the apartment entrance.  Recognizing it, he said "bicycle!".

 

Andis told Jenny about this, and she was surprised.  It was an historical first.