The Boyfriend Post

I know I've mentioned it a lot in past posts, but my trip to Changsha was simply that revolutionary to my living situation here.  The morning before I left, my friend (who is happily married and a mother of three beautiful children) exclaimed, "I have to introduce you to my boyfriend!"  I was understandably intrigued as she went into the living room and started to dig through a trunk.  She pulled out what appeared to be a water/ice compress...and a cord.  She went on to explain that you plug it (him?) in for about five minutes and it (he?) stays warm for hours. HOURS!

This was big news as - rumor has it - no official buildings (including schools) south of the Yellow River (one of the major rivers separating China) have heat.  Although our regular apartments do have some heating units, none of the student dorms here or any rooms at the other campus do; everyone just layers up.  We tend to do the same so we'll be better able to handle both the outdoors and the classrooms on a daily basis.  So, having a boyfriend (the name stuck as we didn't know the Chinese word and "water pouch thingy with coils that heats up and stays warm" seemed a bit long) became a quick matter of necessity.  It also became a quick source of endless entertainment in the form of slight misunderstandings and absolutely ridiculous jokes.

Some of my favorites have been:

~Peter, our waiban (foreigner handler) in wait, overheard me saying I planned to buy a boyfriend at the local "mall" and hoped to spend no more than 20RMB (about $3).  Not knowing what I was referring to, he quickly and adamantly jumped to the defense of mankind with, "We boys are not so cheap!"

~David righteously proclaimed that his would be a "wife" (instead of "girlfriend") as she would keep him warm at night.  Arianne and I actually found him the perfect one (a cute little thing with curly hair - though none of the students can quite figure out why his is so girly!), so he has us to thank for that.  I do regret not having snapped a photo of the happy couple.

~I was heading into the city nearby for supplies necessary to survive the winter (you know, like butter and spaghetti sauce) and asked Arianne if she needed me to pick up anything.  She answered that she'd like me to keep an eye out for boyfriends and to give her a call if they seemed to be at a good price.  Our local friend overheard and immediately exclaimed, "Oh! Me too! Me too!"

~While trying to find the perfect boyfriend (Arianne had already found hers - Frgo), I lamented not being able to find one as cute (yet subtly masculine) as hers...at least until I met "Gip."

Definitely cute.  And subtly masculine.

~My student gave me a boyfriend as a Thanksgiving gift.

That's right, "Cute Panda."  Every girl should be so lucky.

~Over time, our boyfriends begin losing their warmth.  Or, in a worst case scenario, they wear out and risk exploding without warning.  Naturally, that means we ditch 'em in search of one that makes us feel happy, safe, and warm all over again.