Embracing the Tension

"Tension." Not a particularly obscure word to the English speaker. Not one that is difficult to understand. However, it is a word that defines much of one's experience living abroad. No, not just living abroad, living in a world full of humans.

I am, by nature, a black and white thinker. I see trends, make judgments, and categorize people and experiences accordingly. When I move to a new country--or even city--for the first months, I absorb and analyze moments, noting what they imply about the host culture. Example: "Every time I ride the Beijing bus, lots of people touch me. Therefore, the Chinese personal space bubble must be smaller than my American one." Eventually, these little discoveries evolve into a whole mental framework of A+B+C+D=Chinese Culture. However, the problem with this way of thinking is that it is highly generalized. There are exceptions. There are cultural rebels. There is a least one old man that thinks, "wow, that laowai smells weird; I'm moving to the other end of the bus."

But wait! Ayoh! Ayah! That kind of complexity is hard to accept! It makes my brain sweat and my heart palpitate. It confirms my fear that I will ever be able to decipher the world completely. It warns me that my judgments are subjective and vulnerable to my own naivete.

Thankfully, friendly host cultures, loads of dialogue and debate, combined with wonderful literature in the hands of wonderful English teachers have all worked together to help me. I can now approach the color gray without too much anxiety. But I still wrestle with my own mind; I sword fight temptations to stamp every person/action/perspective with GOOD or BAD; and I often have dance-offs with the tiny philosophers I imagine sitting on the shoulders of the people I disagree with.

Two of my good friends often cite the importance of "living in the tension." But accommodations are not so comfortable there. The mattress is stiff, and the comforter scratchy. The sink sometimes leaks, and the air-con is on the fritz. It's much cozier resting on my initial impressions, condemning other worldviews (as well as their possessors) as simplistically flawed. Ignorant. It's easier to be ruled by my reflexes, my preferences for style of worship, style of conversation, style of community, my presuppositions about scripture, my condemnation of all things crustacean. :) But that would be irresponsible. A kind of intellectual apathy even. And if God has called me to love Him with my whole mind, I think He then beckons me to wrestle with truth, with His Truth, with half-truths and lies. I must engage the people and experiences that threaten to unravel what I assume is inflexibly concrete.

Hear me out. I'm not trying to embrace a kind of relativism, but instead, to be suspicious of my own blindness. In doing so, hopefully I will thus, value the complexity inherent in the lives of human beings that differ with me.

To close, here is a quote from Reading Lolita in Tehran. At this point in the book, the author's lit. class has put The Great Gatsby on trial, as many of the class's conservative students accuse the book of celebrating Western immorality--i.e. adultery and materialism. One female student, Nyazi, in her defense of the novel indicts its prosecutors of being,
          another brand of careless people...who see the world in black and white, drunk on the righteousness of their own fictions.

I, for one, do not want to live a life, drunk on the righteousness" of my own construction of truth or worshiping a God that I have imagined rather than understood from his own, written words of self-disclosure.

May I continue to struggle with Truth and furthermore, seek a Truth inseparable from Love. Let me be a wrestler, wondering and wandering on the kingdom path of seeking God.        

From Sea to Shining Singapore

It has been five months and counting since I last updated this blog. For those of you keeping up, I was in the PRC for eight months studying the old mandarin (not the tiny oranges kind, but the squawky one with all the pictures). Since then, I have immigrated, south, to a land where fried-noodles are still trendy, but the Chili Crab takes the cake.

I personally have an aversion to all things crustacion. [Basically, except for pork...and the occasional snack of roasted pithon chips, I live by the saying: If it ain't good enough for the jews, it ain't good enough for me.] So, that being said, I feel that I have not taken advantage of all Singapore has to offer in the way of the cullinary arts.

However, as for its other perks--cleanliness, public transportation, air con, beautiful foliage, and peanut butter--I am thriving. Well, now, at least. I have hesitated to update my blog during these past 3 1/2 months of transition to the Pac Rim because the fact of the matter is: since January, I have been in a constant state of sweaty agitation (it is sticky humid here, people, and in the upper 80's/90's daily. That alone is enough to put any Western newcomer in a near-menopausal state.) Anything I could have written up to this point would have been whiney. Or bitter. Or cynnical, or all of the above, and there are enough Rush Limbaughs and Papa Bear Bill O' Reillys out there without me adding any more hot air to the international pool of noise [<--Whoa, can I break any more laws of physics with that mixed methaphor?]

Without further ado, this is my official pledge to consitent, non-bitter but instead, semi-sweet blogging about my Eastern travails. As I am working for a church (IBC Singapore, whoop, whoop! shameless plug!) and the subject matter is a little too sensitive, my topics of discussion will turn to my other loves: Food and Words. And hopefully these topics will be brought to you with a reasonable level of frequency. Feel free to keep me accountable. But until then, enjoy some fun facts about Singapore:

Cool facts, Cool facts!
1.) Singapore is a South East Asian Island about 252 sq miles large if you include its other baby islands. However, the mainland is only about 22 miles long. Its neighbors are Indonesia and Malaysia.

2.) Singapore is a major port city and hub for international commerce. Oil is big here, as is the population of Texans.

3.) The average humidity is appx. 84%, and it rains almost everyday.

4.) Official languages: Bahasa Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, and English (though you'll hear a smattering of many other local dialects including: Hokkien, Hakka, Cantonese, and of course...Singlish.)

5.) Ethnically, the Singaporean population is appx. 77% Chinese, 14% Malay, 7% India, and 1% Other (aka, this scrawny white girl)

6.) We have geckos, monkeys, and lizards oh my! with the most common insect being the...butterfly...awww!

7.) Ranks 3rd highest in per capita income on the world list--The liscense just to be able to purchase a car is 90,000 SGD--and the streets sure aren't empty.

8.) Young Singaporean men are required to fulfil two years of national service in the military in order to maintain their citizenship. The common abbreviation is NS, though some chaps may prefer SOL (which consequently, is what any country that ever attacks them likely will be.)

9.) Hawker Centers are the name for local eating canteens, and not in fact, as I orinally assumed, the place to buy organs off the black market.

10.) Due to it once being part of the British Crown's constituency, there are a lot of British throw-backs here, such as driving on the left side of the road, school uniforms, superfluous 'u's in words, long fancy dinners, yuppies, and the tragic death of the letter 'R'.

 

i reckon they’ll learn me some mandarin.

The world has a love-hate relationship with Babel.

The Love:
2011: A mother rejoices as her 6-month old utters his first syllables: “Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma.”
The Hate:
1511: A tribe of Chickasaw Indians ponders why, "Greetings! A herd of meaty buffalo is just around the river bend! Let us hunt and sup together!" is met by the barrel of the white man's gun.

I embrace a similar bitter-sweet relationship with that Before-the-Common-Era Tower Fiasco and its 21st century ramifications. On the one hand, I enjoy the intellectual challenge of trying to tackle Mandarin (or at least obtain some sort of face-mask penalty). It is like a linguistic Sudoku puzzle. Aerobics for my brain. An escape from abstract ponderings about life's varying shades of gray into the concrete, black-and white "Adverb goes before verb.” Every time. No exceptions.

And yet, there are other days. Melancholy days. Days when I long to do more than merely babble, but instead, to really communicate, to CONVERSE with Chinese people. Days when I want to say "Hey! I really do have a brain even though you can't tell because I just said ‘today the sky is black plus white’ because nobody ever taught me the word for ‘gray.’

For the first week of Chinese class this semester, I didn’t turn in any homework. Given that for the past 17 years I would have rather been hung by my toenails in a Japanese POW camp than miss an assignment, one might be surprised by such a turn of events. But, I beg you to tell me how one is supposed to know what one’s assignment is when one’s assignment is written entirely in Chinese characters.

Flash forward two months. Things have improved. My Chinese dictionary is getting a lot less action these days. I am sporting the deer-in-the-headlights face far less frequently. And still…there are moments.

Like today. I thought my teacher was asking us about our hobbies. She wrote a list of verbs on the board and asked which activities we liked. I chose the only one I understood and proceeded to jump in with an “I like to sing.” In retrospect, you think I would have noticed that no one else was offering such information. The sheepish silence should have been the clue that sent a little alarm of “Retreat! Retreat!” sounding in my brain. But, no. No, no, no. I am learning that apparently, I speak Mandarin in 24/7 word-vomit mode. There is no social filter. There is no thinking before speaking.

After my declaration, my teacher became excited and told me that she would inform the main office of my love for singing.

Why does the main office need to know what I do in my spare time? I am still not sure. But I think it has something to do with some kind of school-wide talent show.

Oops.

I hope my 600+ Korean and Kazak classmates enjoy Chris Tomlin.

the great american-kazak-chinese preschool saga: part 二

(Please read my previous post about kidneys, kindergartners, and Kazaks here in the “Jing” for background info)…

Two Fridays ago…or as we say in Mandarin: “Fourteen moons and one red sun henceforth”…my Chinese class and I embarked upon an adventure to one of China’s historical landmarks.
This class field trip was the brainchild of my beloved teacher, Zhang Laoshi, who decided that our group of aspiring speakers of Putonghua had not yet truly gotten acquainted. (This lack of friendship might have had something to do with the fact that “broken Mandarin” was our only means for spanning the 4+ plus language barriers amongst the 25 of us. But maybe that’s just me…)

In the days leading up to our trip we “decided as a class” where we should go:
Student 1: “How about the Art District?”
Student 2: “Let’s go to the Great Wall!”
Student 3: “Happy Valley, Happy Valley!”
Zhang Laoshi: “Ok! It’s settled. We will go to the Beijing Movie Museum.”

Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking: “HOLY COW! THE BEIJING MOVIE MUSEUM??? MY FAMILY’S BEEN DREAMING OF VACATIONING THERE FOR DECADES!”
Try to reign in your jealousy for one moment as I relive some our fieldtrip’s highlights.

Given China’s history for progressive and creative breakthroughs in cinema, exemplified in Internationally renowned works like “Love for Life,” “No. 32 B. District,” “Wang Li Shi Wo Pengyou” and “Kung Fu Pan..—oh, wait that one was Dreamworks—it’s no wonder that we literally knew EVERY SINGLE actor and actress memorialized in both wax and photograph throughout all 20 of the museum’s display rooms.

Furthermore, we had the opportunity to expand our insight into each star’s life as Zhang Laoshi gave us a running picture-by-picture commentary:
Laoshi: “And of course you must know this actress! She is the most famous!”
Me: “Ooooh! I thought she was Japanese…”

As our exploration of the Beijing Movie Museum came to a sad close, the members of CAMIC Elementary Chinese Level C ended our time together with some Lazy- Susan fun at the Big Roast Duck Place, a restaurant situated near our school’s Eastern gate. Laughs and glasses of boiling water were had by all.

As we were entering the oh-my-Emperor!-i-can’t-believe-i-am-still-shoveling-spicy-peanuts-into-my-pie-hole phase of our meal, I received a cryptic phone call:
“Jessica. I have your money. Can you meet me at the Russian Café Asia in five minutes?”

It was my Kazak friend, the one who had formerly “invited” me to sell my soul to preschoolers in the nether-regions of Beijing (a moment of honesty: I actually LOVED that gig, but it was just too far from my house. Sadly, I had to give it up. I miss those xiao pengyou’s something fierce.)

Slipping away from my classmates with a muttered excuse about needing to visit the WC, I obeyed the Slavic voice and headed to yonder café. Entering through a gate and then into the restaurant, I was met by fluorescent lights and the stares of about twenty Central Asians all smoking, drinking, and talking in hushed voices. (I'm just telling it like it was.)

Soon, my friend met me. We grabbed a table and exchanged apologies that the preschool situation had not worked out. Then, with a quick movement-- AND I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP--she slipped 900 yuan under the table and asked me to count it.

After shuffling through the bills and giving her a nod, I departed, glancing over each shoulder and walking back up the street. Soon, I slid into my chair at the Big Roast Duck Place, much richer and my classmates, none the wiser.

And that was that.

Dear CIA, if you are reading this, you should know that if all goes well, by this time next year, I should be proficient in Mandarin and buddy-buddy with many of your top suspects.
Feel free to recruit me.
I am currently unemployed.

Kind Regards,
Jessica “Burning Wood” Schleiff

i'd like to (not) get whacked

Let’s get real. There are some people you can’t say “no” to: Mother Theresa. The Pope. Mr. Rogers. People from Kazakhstan.

Last week in the middle of my Chinese class, a petite girl I’d never met before, with thick eye-liner and a thick Russian accent summoned me to the hall. My intrigue was replaced by confusion, which soon turned into paranoia as I surveyed my beckoner and wondered how in the name of all that is Holy we could possibly be connected....“Have I offended a family (and KGB) member of hers?,” “Could she be packing?,” “Do I really need all my fingers?”…

With relief I discovered that the answer was “none of the above.” She simply wanted me to fill in for her at a Chinese preschool for the week. We decided to meet after class at the school’s “coffee shop” (a glorified desk with snacks, hot water, and packets of instant brew from which students who are affluent enough to spare 3 kuai may purchase such delicacies).

We sipped a substance that I will not call Coffee (as doing so would dishonor the name). The petite girl and her accompanying brother each enjoyed a cigarette. The sounds of Slavic dialects filled the room as their friends joined and we discussed the Preschool arrangement. Suddenly, it was if I had left the PRC, boarded a time machine, and landed smack dab in the middle of the U.S.S.R. Somehow, somewhere in between “oh, you mean this preschool is 2 hours away from my house?” and “that’s a nice mob ring you’re wearing there, Ruskov” I found out that my new Kazak friend was not in need of just a one-week substitute but instead, someone for the whole year.

I had never been to Happy Valley—the location of the school. Heck, I had never even taken an Early Childhood Ed. Class. But as the Kazak duo puffed away, I found myself committing to the whole, year-long gig. I would have offered them my right kidney as well if they had asked (I’m glad they didn’t.).

And that is how I ended up on a daily 2-bus-plus-subway commute to The-Middle-of-Nowhere-Beijing for the entirety of last week.

But wouldn’t you know that is was worth it? That Chinese preschoolers pretty much make my heart melt faster than a puppy in a fireman hat saving orphans from a well? And wouldn’t you know that Chinese preschoolers LOVE “Duck-Duck-Goose” (even if the only word for “duck” I knew in Chinese was the roasted-for-dinner version and who the heck even knows how to say “goose”?) And don’t even get them started on “If You’re Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands (Pie Pie!)!” You will have a riot on your hands.

And the Chinese government does not smile on riots.

i'd like some censorship

Chinese toddlers wear split pants. (See picture for example).

The split pant ensures that no obstacles hinder successful #1s or #2s, rendering the wearer free to do his or her business whenever, wherever, at the drop of a hat--or, in this scenario, at the sound of a whistle. For, the whistle is the preferred method of potty-training ‘round these parts.

Most foreigners gawk at the concept upon first introduction. We pity the shame that must come with one’s backside being less-than-mysterious to every ogling passerby. I imagine that the split-pant experience is like venturing commando, 24/7 into the outside world sporting a hospital gown. Sure, it’s a breezy alternative for the summer time, but I shudder to think of the chill come December.

Yet, I would like to point out several advantages:

1.) Neutralizing the potty-training battleground:

Instead of the many misses and inevitable kid vs. parent stalemates around those little training-potties, split pants make potty-training utterly straight forward. Step 1: squat, Step 2: well, you get the picture…

2.) Obliterating performance anxiety:

Split Pants make potty-time public. Where American children need books to reassure them that indeed, “everybody poops,” Chinese babes are quite aware of this truth. After all, they see their friends do it all the time.

3.) Going green:

Not only do split pants make diapers obsolete, saving space in landfills everywhere, they create natural, free fertilizer for trees all around. I would like to extend a personal “thank you” to all of the children of Beijing for the part you play in keeping our city beautiful.

4.) Growing the Pooper-Scooper market:

How much more practical is the decision to cough up that extra 20 kuai when your scooper will be scooping up after multiple species? Granted, considering that scooping up your loved ones's business is not yet a common cultural practice here on the Mainland, this increase in marketability may not yet be relevant. But think of the possibilities.

Granted, when I was walking to the bus the other day and saw a youngster bearing his boyhood to the entire world, these advantages did not immediately come to mind. Other thoughts, “Seriously?” “Is this real life?” “Thank you, that image will now be burned in my mind for all of eternity” came first, I am ashamed to say. But yet, on further review, I believe that the Chinese are on to something. Perhaps, one day, you will spot me on the streets of America whistling while I dangle a little tot above the sidewalk. And perhaps, the split down his pants will be the first shot heard around the Western World for the cause of raising children diaper-free.

Long live the split-pant.

Freeeeedddooooommmm!!!!

#4: i'd like to go to grad school

Two weekends ago, I set out to take the GRE. Now, the GRE is a normal rite of passage for many a Liberal Arts grad. Upon realizing that his “Insert something abstract here Studies” degree makes him very qualified for living at home with his parents, the recent graduate begins to grapple with questions like “how will I feed and house myself?” The reality of the M.A. as the new B.A. begins to slowly dawn on him, and he chooses to partake in this placement test, all the while wondering if he is having SAT déjà vu. Now, this post-graduate season of life, as unromantic as it may appear, should not be scoffed at too quickly. As any liberal arts major knows, such seasons of pondering, homelessness, unemployment, and occasional bouts of depression J have sown the seeds for many a great poem and indie band. The world is quite thankful for that. However, the truth that at some point in time we must move on, replace our hoodies with stuffy things like “blouses”, and avoid becoming soup kitchen regulars hits each one of us, and we begin to search for means of financial stability.

In my own ponderings of “what to do with an English major,” I came to the conclusion, that grad school was necessary. So, I set out to register for the GRE. Now in the States, this is a relatively simple process. Not so, in the good ole PRC. After many failed attempts online we resorted to a stakeout at the Bank of China. After transferring funds into a special account that would then be transferred into another special account, the matter was settled. I could now choose a location and date for my testing. Mission accomplished…or, so I thought.

Enter, complication number two: no seats for testing available.

In all of China. Really, no seats? In ALL of China?

Apparently, even in the utmost reaches of the Earth, places National Geographic has never been and where no English-speaking foreigners are anywhere in sight, Chinese students are taking an English test to fulfill their employment dreams. It seems the market is putting ALL of us new B.A.-holders in a tight spot.

After much prayer and petition and many a “refresh page,” finally, a spot opened up at Beijing Normal University. I was set for August 6, 10:00AM. After a couple months of vocab memorization and algebra review, I set off on that fateful Saturday morning, arriving at the testing place with two hours time to spare (Overeager? Perhaps. But this is China after all, and one never knows when a collapsed bridge or crossing flock of sheep may render one’s destination completely unreachable).

If we arrived any later than 9:30 at the sight, we risked being shut out of the test. So, naturally, my five new Chinese friends and I began to grow nervous when, at 9:45, no one had shown up to administer the thing. At approximately 9:50, one test-taker and I decided to take it upon ourselves to see what the heck was afoot. After busting into a class in session, borrowing a student’s computer, making a couple of phone calls, and receiving an offer to help one boy “improve his oral English” (an offer which I politely declined with an “I’m sorry, I just don’t know how long I will be left in the country…cryptic though honest excuses such as these come in handy far more often here than one would expect) we discovered that THE TEST HAD BEEN MOVED.

Seriously?!?

But, not willing to give up, I embraced the skills that both Tiger Tunes and Tiger Traks had instilled within me. I, along with my new friend, led the pack of befuddled grad-school hopefuls in a race across campus. (I can now safely cross “Win the Amazing Race” as a potential strategy for financial security off my list. I was not, I regret to say, calm and collected). I held back the tears with the help of some paper fanning and a rolled down window as we proceeded to get stuck in traffic and then drive down a hutong, a type of road that is only suitable for bicycles and small mobs. We made it to the “correct” testing center around 10:30 where we were whisked away to the sign-in center by a sweet Chinese lady. As the only foreigner present, I received special attention in the form of being personally ushered around like a blind person throughout the entire process. For once, I was not offended that my inability to speak Mandarin beyond a four-year-old level was equated with mental illness and/or physical disability.

Though in the moment it felt like one of my anxiety dreams was coming true, I got to take the whole test. And I think that all the running across Beijing pumped extra oxygen to my brain, giving me perhaps, a better score than I might have gotten if the situation had been, well, less nightmarish. When life gives you lemons…

Though my GRE attempt was almost Shanghaied, I have to thank the good People’s Republic for giving me great material for both future applications and dinner parties. And if I am accepted for a program next fall, I know I will owe at least part of my “xie xie” to the country which has hosted me during this season.