There's only one song worth singin'

It snowed! We didn't get very much, maybe just an inch or two, but it was quite the project to get it all cleaned up. I'm sure that snowplows exist in China, but they may only bring them out for the serious snowfalls. Instead of snowplows, teams of workers (as pictured) go out into the street and either shovel or brush the snow off the roads and into piles near the sidewalk. I have no idea where the snow goes from there, but if today is any indication it will stay there until spring.

The weekend was a pretty good one. On Thursday night all of the foreign teachers got together and went to a hotel for the best Chinese Thanksgiving we could find. I was a little skeptical but it ended up being really good, though not exactly traditional. They did have Turkey, gravy, and some vegetables, but absent was the stuffing, the mashed potatoes, and unfortunately the pumpkin pie. But the substitutes for these usual favorites of mine were pretty cool. They had some veggie pizze, calzones, mashed sweet potatoes, and cheese cake for the dessert. There was also steak, some chicken and this seafood rice thing that looked really good though I did not partake. It was a little odd not being home for Thanksgiving, but this combination of a little bit of America and a little bit of China for the dinner seemed just right for this trip. In the picture (starting with me and going in a horseshoe) is me, Charles, Tracey, Luke, Jessye, Shelby (the Minnesotan!) and Michael. For some reason any time someone mentions Michael, I feel compelled to repeat it in the tone of G.O.B. from Arrested Development when he realizes that Michael (Bluth) is "hermano." Yeah, I get my share of weird looks.

Friday night I went out to dinner with Andy and Sarah (the owners,) their son Brett (referred to by all foregin teachers as "Brat") and three of the TA's. With the exception of my boss possibly offering to find me a Chinese girlfriend/prostitute (many, many things are lost in translation here) it was a pretty good time. Have I mentioned how cool so many of these TA's are? The social dynamics of China are that workers are (often, not always) not treated particularly well by their bosses. Unfortunately, our bosses chose to treat our TA's as servants to them and to the foregin teachers. None of the foreign teachers actually buy into this. It's a tricky situation. Andy and Sarah treat the foreign teachers so well and are generally so nice to us, but then they will go and fire a TA because she wants to take a day off because her mother is going into the hospital to have surgery. As one can imagine, none of the TA's are particularly fond of Andy and Sarah, though they each have their different ways of coping with it. There is Vicky, who ends up overdoing the "I'm subservient to the foreign teachers" thing, and always tried to do some pretty basic tasks (getting water, picking up bags, putting food on our plates) for us. There is Vivian, who is absolutely hilarious. She is as openly hostile towards our bosses as anyone. The other day Andy told her to go out and shovel snow and the second he turned his back she stuck her tongue out at him and shook her head back and forth. Then there is Sasha who speaks English extremely well and is fortunately the TA that I've gotten to work with so far. For some reason Andy and Sarah treat her worse than anyone, even though she is great with the kids, the foreign teachers and the parents, and works hard all the time. Her contract is up in a month and under no circumstances is she planning on renewing it. It sucks for the foreign teachers, and it will suck for Andy and Sarah once she is gone, but it's hard to watch someone put in so much effort for something and be so unjustly not rewarded for it. From what I've been told there are no unions here for workers, and there are always new people willing to take the place of old workers, despite the poor conditions, so the powers that be can largely get away with treating them like second class citizens. There are many parts of this culture that I think are pretty cool but worker treatment just doesn't quite make the cut.

Okay, I need to get myself to sleep. I had big plans to read a ton while I'm here, but the ridiculously cheap DVD's have been too much of a temptation to pass up. I need to get back on the trolley (or is it off the trolley? I can never remember.) I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and if you're in school, that your term is wrapping up well.
p.s. If anyone can figure out the song that the title of this post comes from you get a hundred points.