Where in the WORLD is Susan?

Here I am, no longer in China but A U S T R A L I A. The Fall months were excruciating with a terrible medical issue that proved the medical coverage in China was a piece of paper with a red chop mark, only. Then a bout of serious food poisoning to top it off and I realized time to move on. The semester at NSFZ ended with the most delightful IB Art students sending me off with a fond farewell from Lukou Airport. Thank you Rita, Cookie, Arno and Jane for the sweet gift and hugs at the International terminal. Keep making art, you are so talented.

Many friends gave me good bye gifts, dinners out, last minute trips and so many fond memories. Mr. Chen, you and your family were a blessing to have in my life. Spring Yan and Stone thank you so much for all the lifts in your car, the trip to Suzhou for a silk bed duvet, and spending New Years with your family. Lady Ma, my maid I will miss our Sunday mornings together and communicating not knowing each others language. I enjoyed having a tailor, Mr. Lin. He created a gorgeous Chinese dress and Capri’s for me. My wonderful neighbors across the hall, thank you for watching over me. Sarah, Fino’s mom thank you for helping me at Sentosa Gardens, first of all finding my 27th story apartment that overlooked the city and the Yangtze river. Secondly for bringing me food when I was so ill. Rita and her vegan mom, thank you for helping me mail boxes to Texas and introducing me to a wonderful Vegetarian Restaurant. Jane, Ellen’s mom for being a wonderful art friend and showing me Nanjing sites. Daisy and her sweet friends in Shanghai and Xi’an for all our vacation trips! Didn’t we have some fun? I love the picture of you as a concubine and me as the Empresses!

Nan Shi Fu Zhong and my wonderful Chinese colleagues friends, what can I say? My office mates, Sue, Jenny, June and Alice, ladies I could have never asked for better friends. The library and offices down the hall with Esther, Shirley, Serena, Maggie, Tracy, David, Emmy and Ms. Wang, the teachers that work all day and night! The upstairs admin and teachers, Stephen, Mr. Can, Jackie, Mr. Hao, Tess, and Guo, you did so much to make my life run smooth. Thanks for getting that latte maker! To Sophia, girl I could never thank you enough for all your expertise, care and patience. “Let all my troubles pass through the hollow places,” you said describing the stone Lotus you gave me. You are a wise woman. To Gong Yan, the leader of the tribe, love your teachers as they work hard for the IB program.

My best friends Michael from Britain and Peter from Australia, how can I thank you for you brotherly friendship? I adore you both, for the care, time and lunches we shared. You were there for me in so many ways. Friendship is something I treasure and I will love you both forever and ever! We were the “Three Musketeers!”

“There was something in the water,” as Americans say when everyone gets pregnant. Drinking Nanjing water is no different. Sophia and Jenny had boys last year! Tracy just had a wee one this week. Alice and Sawyer, next month it is your turn and what good parents you will be. I wish I could be there when your daughter is born. Serena will be next! Oh my, so many sweet moments I will share from afar. I will be waiting to hear from each of you about the wonders your children are creating in your lives.

Lastly to all the national curriculum art teachers that befriended me. The art teachers are inspirations. The graceful dance teacher next class over, what a marvelous dancer and kind soul. I learned Tai Chi from the retired teachers, they were so patient with me. Then the sweet janitor lady that gave me hugs daily.

My graduating Seniors, Joy and Iris of higher level– you are talented young ladies! Iris, Elaine, Stephanie, Tiffany, Karen, and Willson of standard level, isn’t it nice to be finished with your Visual Art’s CRB? Move on, go to college and stay motivated with art or whatever you want to be. Cheng Peng, you are now at SCAD! You busted out of China early and are the happiest I have ever seen you—become the artist you want to be. My Juniors—Angela, Ellen, Rita, Cookie, Arno, William, Peter, Kevin, Jane, Becky, Sam, Fino, Amy, and Moon! Kids what can I say? You are all on track with IB, almost all 7’s and each of you totally motivated with art. I will miss you guys and remember you the most! You were the teenage art blessings in my life. The 10th grade foundation art students, to the fifty of you keep speaking English daily, stay focused and motivated, you are the future of NSFZ!

Now that I have said my thank you’s to China, what am I doing? I moved to Australia, retired and am relaxing. It is warm if not hot here, I am barefoot and happy. Learning to “BE” and not “DO!”

Dumpling making

In the last couple of weeks I visited the homes of two families and they shared their dumpling making precess with me.  My Pre-IB student Moon invited me to her home, where her mom showed me how to create them.  A rather easy process, you start with round or square wonton wrappers and a combination of your favorite diced meats and vegetables for the filling.  Since I am vegetarian my hostess made a special batch with chopped spinach, garlic, bamboo and other tasty ingredients.  The meat version has the same veggies but included pork.  We were allowed to create our dumplings by spooning a dallap on the wonton, sealing the edge with water, and pinching or pleating the edges  with our fingers.  You would line up the half moon shaped crescents until enough were ready to boil or steam.  Moon’s mom boiled them about ten minutes.  You eat them with soy sauce or a chili sauce.  If you have left overs you can pan fry them in the morning for breakfast.

Moon and my other art student Karen in front of a portrait of Moon as a child.

At my colleague Stephen’s home his mom also prepared dumplings and a wonderful Mushroom soup, the best I have ever had.  It had a combination of four different types of mushrooms chopped up with garlic and simmered into a nice rich soup broth.

Steven’s mom          Steven and Paula     Isabella, Steven, his girlfriend, niece and mom

Christmas 2010 in China

Christmas dinner at the Parkview Dingshan with the IB faculty.

Peter and Michael, the men in my life.  These guys keep me sane!  They are my best friends.

A Vienna Latte at the mall with colleagues on Christmas eve.

Christmas dinner with my friends, Armando, Gina, Santa Peter and me.  The rabbits are the symbol for the Chinese New Year.

Yuejiang Pagoda, Lions Gate Temple

FIELD TRIP…..  I took my senior IB students to the Yuejiang Tower or Lions Gate Temple for an art outing.  We had a lovely afternoon.  The focus was on photographing patterns, architecture, people, light and shadows.  Mike, Anna and Ophelia accompanied me along with the economics teacher, Michael. When we got to the steps to climb the hill to the pagoda  Michael took a leave (something about nap-time) and it was just me and the students.  The temple was part of a Buddhist monestary built in 400AD.  Much was destroyed, rebuilt and opened to the public in 2001.   Being new, there are no Buddhist monks to be seen.  More of a tourist attraction, it still represents the Ming Dynasty when Zheng He sailed to the Atlantic. It includes complex architecture lines in traditional Chinese style.  Housed inside is information such as ship building, scientific sailing, how to conquer the ocean, peaceful diplomacy, good-neighborly relationships, transmission of civilization, equal trading and culture exchanges as well as local customs and practices in western countries. (This last sentence I copied from a tourist guide!)  Since I can’t read the Chinese characters I enjoy the museum visually.

This tower can be seen from my office window and I look at it daily.  It is fun to be standing on the top balcony and see my building for a change.  I can see the Yangtze river bridge, the vast array of apartment building, old and new, hi rise and small old hutongs.  It is miles and miles of building, so unbelievable, bigger than New York City, so awe inspiring.

High School Sports Event

October 26, 2010

Friday was our high school all day sports event.  The students were bused across town at 6:20 am to the Sports Pavilion.  This pavilion is like Cowboy Stadium in Dallas for all the major sports events.  The high school rented it for $8000US, so cheap!   I think about renting Denton stadium for AHS graduation, in comparison.  The western teachers did not have to attend until 3 pm.  Some of us signed up to run a relay!  Yes, that would be me!

The week before the art club painted masks for the opening ceremony.  It is pomp and circumstance when it comes to ceremonies in China.  They like flags and each class had a huge individually created flag to march in with.  Students had different  T-shirts to separate classes and grades.   I had helped one group from the public school paint shirts in my room last week.  They were quite smart in design and I was given one.  My art club won first place for the most creative opening ceremony look!  Go Art Club!

Tess, another seasoned western teacher, Dan and I took a cab to the event.  Dan, Johnathan and I represented the IB teachers against the Chinese public high school teachers.  We are not in the best of shape for running a sprint, ok I speak for myself.  Johnathan is fast but after the hand off I jogged to the next runner, causing us to be in last place.  The public teachers had a couple ringers, like olympic runners that are teachers.

We won a lamp for our efforts.  That lit up my day!

Art teachers, art museums and the Pi Lu and Ling Gu temple

October 14, 2010

In our school many of the rooms are set up, but they are never used. I see Chemistry labs, woodworking labs, art labs, taxidermy rooms, and so on.  Jonathan, my British colleague says it for ‘show.’  I found a couple of really lovely art rooms with sculpted busts, easels, spot lights and an array of still life items.  No one is allowed in them as they are locked and even double padlocked.  I asked if I could use the rooms, and I get answers like the IB program is taking over and this is for the government public school program.  Yet they sit unused.  Last week on my way to class I noticed this art room was unlocked.  I walked in, and low and behold there was a young man painting a 24x 60 landscape in oils.  His palette had an array of colored dollops of paint nicely organized in a rainbow of hues.  I was so excited to see a real painter and began to chat yet he spoke no English.  Come to find out, after I snagged my art student Joy to translate, he is the government public art teacher.  His name is John Ching Wong and a most handsome man at that.  He invited me to his second floor office, which had a sign printed Art Department Office in English and Chinese.  Finally I have found real art teachers.  Inside he and two colleagues had their desks.  The other art teacher Mr. Drew a short older man with a scruff of a beard shook my hand and pointed to a beautiful watercolor seascape with sculpted gray rocks in the foreground.  It was magnificent.  He painted it.  (Pat Wolf, my watercolor teacher from Taos and Ann Sauve, my Colorado watercolor buddy would be amazed at his expertise.)  I need to take lessons from him, now!  The third man was the music teacher and translated our conversations.  They found out I throw pots and were quite interested in having IB buy a wheel and kiln so I could teach them.  There may be some art trading going on in the future if I can do some negotiating.  When I see John now, he makes a point to say hi or wave.  I have art painting teacher friends!

The art museums in town are small but unique.  The contemporary museum houses many oil paintings of Chinese representational peasantry life, scrolls of traditional ink landscapes and calligraphy plus a variety of modern art.  They had two of the worst Picassos’ I have ever seen.  I hope they are on loan!  The old provincial museum across the street had a magnificent collection of serigraphs by a local artist.  They were a combination of decorative almost Aboriginal in design compositions of everyday Chinese life, some very humorous in bright colored opaque inks.  I would have bought a dozen of these, if they were for sale.  Anna my art student had accompanied me on my quest for museums.  We were fortunate to see a sign to the Pi Lu Buddhist Temple, and off we went many blocks through some dank alleys.   Walking by a beggar man with no legs leaning on a dirty sofa cushion on the edge of the street, I realized how fortunate I am.  Anna is Buddhist and this temple was a find for her.  She and I heard chanting and proceeded to the center of the temple.  As we walked in many people were kneeling on sloping pillows chanting and praying.  We watched and walked around the building then climbed all the stairs to the top to view the golden Buddha in the main room.  This was a site to see, the ceiling was lavishly painted in a bright colored design to enhance the Buddha’s presence.  10,000 Buddha’s restaurant was housed on this level.  The smell wafting from the door way was that of old fried grease and soapy dirty water.  We weren’t hungry nor would we be for hours after smelling this odor.  As we walked the bald Buddhist men in saffron robes made their way to the courtyard, I couldn’t stop staring at them.  They were intense at staring back at me as well.  Guess neither of us had seen anything so amazing.  Then many local women removed their long robes to unveil their street clothes and walked out and on their way home.  Was this women’s prayer day at the temple?  Anna had taken me aside and she showed me how to pray Buddhist style.  On your knees, hands together in prayer, bow placing your hands down on the pillow next to your knees, then flip your hands over and back up into prayer mode.  Do this three times and each time pray for something, like security, prosperity, happiness whatever you want.  It was a lovely way to pray.  She was excited to tell her mom about the temple and would bring her.

Taking photographs is an obsession.  Iris, another art student invited me to Purple Mountain for a photo shoot.  We met in front of the school last Saturday morning and to my surprise, her mom couldn’t come so her dad’s driver took us.  She presented me with a gift of green tea from a nearby tea grower, in beautiful golden tins.  What a treat.  We photographed Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s mausoleum having walked some 350 steps to the top.  Dr. Sun Yat-sen is a revolutionary hero of the people.  He was instrumental in removing the emperors from the Chinese government.  Next we rode a charming little open air tram to the Ling Gu Temple and Pagoda.  A Buddhist temple yet no longer used as such, more like a museum with dioramas of the revolution.  Iris is a quick walker and hurriedly climbed the circular stairway to the top of Ling Gu Pagoda.  The sun was shining and many of our photos have wonderful cast shadows through arch ways and decorative windows.  Iris captured children sliding and climbing up sculpted walls.  I liked photographing the old people in their traditional clothing.  Lunch time, more Chinese family style food served at the food court near the temple.  Iris’ mom and dad met us there and we had the best eggplant, potato and green pepper dish along with seven or eight other dishes.  Another feast!  Iris’s dad wanted to know how long I had been using chops.  Six weeks, I replied.  He thought longer.  For me if you’re hungry and eat with sticks, you must learn how quickly so you can cram it down and not starve!  I am nimble with the chop sticks!

Faculty dinner and the back door

The high school had a lovely dinner for all the new teachers, IB and the public school teachers the other night at a very nice restaurant.  One fun tradition was lifting your wine glass and cheering, each table would walk around and cheer you, then your table would stand up, walk to each table, toast and cling each glass.  We had six large tables of twelve each so it took some time.  The food was served with appetizers first, some vegetarian dishes, red wine and some kind of boxed booze, everyone said stay clear of that stuff.  It was 45% must be an “Ever Clear!”  Dinner was many dishes of meat, whole fish, a bowl of guts in a sauce, BBQ beef, pork and chicken.  All my meat eating western friends, did enjoy these dishes.  John and I waited patiently for the vegetarian food and it finally did arrive, but to our surprise was in chicken broth.  We just gave in and dipped out the mushrooms and set them on our plate and ate them.  We had a bowl of steamed weeds, that is the best description I can give.  John liked them, I could hardly get them down.  Reminded me of the seaweed soup I had the other day.  Every time I took a sip, smelled like fish and  just couldn’t eat it.  Melons came and we all enjoyed that.  Someone set off a major fireworks display on the front door of the restaurant, causing me to jump and check it out.  WOW this was spectacular and right on the sidewalk.  My sons would have loved this and gone outside to see the action.

My school has a back door entrance, mainly an exit to purchase food from the local street vendors, but you can see all kinds of activates, from men playing checkers, to ladies washing children and vegetables, to many types of food for sale.  I’ve had Thai food, steamed dough dumplings with different fillings pronounced bowser, milk chai tea and fresh fruit.

Coming back in from an excursion on the back street to the high school grounds, one finds serenity and peacefulness.  Yes, this high school has lovely gardens and a stream with fish.  It has many multistory dorms, for those students who come from a long distance to school.  Many buildings are open air including our teaching facilities.   It is a wonderful campus.

I sometimes like to stand by the stream and look at the fish or listen to the waterfall.  It is so calming and makes me realize how relaxing this is for my overtaxed, multitasking American brain.  Yesterday in the corridors of the first floor, students were learning Karate.  The master teacher was so fluid in his high kicks showing them how far and hard he wants them to kick.  Partnered up, one student would kick and the other held a padded hand paddle to kick too.  They would kick and laugh trying to get their feet up in the higher pose.  Each day is so delightful.

A lesson in math for Texas 5th graders!

Nan Shu Foo Zong is the name of the school I teach at.  This is the IB area.  The hallways are open air and we are up 100 stairs!  No elevator.

My colleagues at their desks working, or napping.  Lunch is one and half hours, so a “siesta” is accepted at lunch time.  My Tex-Mex language seems to pop up when I am trying to speak in Chinese.  the other day I asked for water and said “Agua Por favor!”  and someone commented was that a dialect of English, yeah if you are in Texas!  No it is Spanish and I am speaking it here and no one understands Spanish, nor my choppy Chinese.

My desk is right behind Peter, my Aussie colleague.  Looking out the window from our office you can see a wonderful highrise, that is my apartment complex.  I will be moving soon, this makes me very excited.  It will be a short walk to and from  school, no more taxi’s and city buses to school.  It will cut down on expense, the bus is 2 RMB and taxi is 14RMB.  How much is that in dollars?   A lesson on money:

The yuan (sign: 元; code: CNY) is, in the Chinese language, the base unit of a number of modern Chinese currencies. The distinction between yuan and renminbi (RMB) is analogous to that between the pound and sterling; the pound (yuan) is the unit of account while sterling (renminbi) is the actual currency.

yuán (元) is also known colloquially as a kuài (块 – “piece”). One yuán is divided into 10 jiǎo (角) or colloquially máo (毛 – “feather”). One jiǎois divided into 10 fēn (分).

This is what I had in my purse.  If 6.7 yuan = 1 US dollars.  Can some one tell me how much yuan I have?  The large coins are 1 yuan each, the gold is .5 yuan and the tiny coin is .10 yuan.  IF you can add it up correctly I will send you a Chinese post card!  Why am I giving you a math lesson, because my friend Linda in Friendswood told me she has given my blog site to her friend who teaches 5th grade.  These students are reading my blog and learning about the culture for their English class.  I thought to keep them interested I would do some teaching from across the world to them!

Yesterday I taught the Chinese IB faculty about my life through a power point presentation.  I gave a show about my family, Thanksgiving and how we pray and eat, Christmas, a craw fish boil in Austin, going on vacation to Taos and the Native American Pueblo, Tahoe, Galveston, Wimberly, San Fransisco, and Durango.  I had pictures of pets, snow, my backyard and art studio.  Many of this was very foreign to my new colleagues.  The comments that I received in my email from the TOK teacher are this:

Susan,

Thanks a lot for the presentation, nice. What I found most amazing is :

1.  the muddy houses    very very simlar to the ones where people in Shan Xi province used to live. The only difference is ours are cave-like houses. But mud.

2. the claw fish   that’s almost the answer why you like Nanjing without knowing it. People in Nanjing are crazy about claw fish and it’s almost a scence in summer.
One table with a big bowl of claw fish, some people sitting around the table…

3. Budda

I can’t believe it.

One thing I am learning is we are all the same, but different.  The next thing I am learning is a good teacher is always a student.  This student (art teacher) is learning more than her little Rolodex brain can hold.  I feel like it is spinning and information cards are flying out.  Anyone still have a Rolodex?  Does this tell how old I am or just that I have an antique vocabulary.

Speaking of antiques, I made mention to Jonathan (British colleague that has lived here six years) I can’t find very many old architectural buildings or antiques shops.  He told me the Chinese government had the people destroy all the old artifacts years ago and much of the old architecture is destroyed for newer buildings.  I’ve seen more Asian jade art in the Crow Museum in Dallas than I have found here.  I will keep looking, it has to be here.  Religion is non existent.  I have seen the Buddhist temple, no Buddhist tho and one Catholic church.  In Texas there is a Baptist church on every corner like McDonald’s!  My new Chinese friends don’t practice religion, that I can tell.  School will meet this and next Sunday for regular classes. (Remember we have a funky holiday next week and we work weekends for the weekdays off)  I will have to Google my church in Dallas to read what is going on, and listen to the podcast to get my religion fix or go to the Buddhist temple and light incense and say a prayer.  That is a nice way to pray.  I will let the wind carry my prayers in the smoke from my incense to God.  Like I said all the same, but different.

A Chinese holiday or holidays Chinese style!

Woke up to torrential rains and a massive headache.  Could it be the barometric pressure causing my head to spin?  Up early and out of here, need to catch a taxi before everyone else gets going.  Umbrella in hand, rain jacket on and Keens on feet, a hike to the taxi stop and then a 20 minute wait.  I get a female taxi driver and off to school we go.  Michael fixes me a strong coffee for my headache, maybe I am caffeine deficient he says.   He maybe right!  How nice to have a man fix me anything.   What wonderful colleagues I am working with.    By noon I’m back to normal.

After classes the IB coordinator and I check out the Art Supply shopping district!   Oh my a new “hog heaven” for me, and some one tell mom it is right next door to the antique vendors.  We need to take a day and go shopping.  Yes, next day off I will return for an art and antique expenditure day.

Speaking of next day off — we have three days off next week, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  It’s a holiday, or maybe not!   To get this holiday, we teach our Wednesday class on this Sunday and the following Saturday and Sunday we teach our Thursday and Friday class.  Someone explain to the Chinese that we don’t give up weekends for three days off in the middle of the week!  Maybe it is like a “Chinese fire drill”—- were things get lost in translation and everyone does things “bass ackwards.”  Oh well, guess that holiday will be my art and antique shopping day!

I realized today that most all my students wear glasses, no contacts!  I suppose Lasik is out too.  No makeup on women, no bleached hair, no manicures or pedicures– no nail polish on anyone, but my little toesies!  (No manicure shops for that matter)  No need for botox, or stomach stapling, no one has wrinkles or is overweight.  People are healthy looking here, all this walking and biking, no wonder.  Most Americans would have a coronary within a week of living in this environment.  And by the way, they don’t like Air Conditioning or cold anything, including water and beer.  Even yogurt is hot.  The weather is somewhat like Galveston, hot, humid and gritty.  I always said I was the one person that liked Houston weather, well here I am on the same latitude lines!  Must admit, I like it tho.  Daniel told me today he drew a picture of the sun and put it on his desk!  He misses the sun with all the overcast, smoggy, cloudy or what ever these skies are days!   I’ve always liked warm, just need to get use to no AC!  That is hard.  I am too Americanized –soft!

Military Training and Rikisha ride

I walked onto campus greeted by a thousand students in uniform doing tai chi.  Now that was overwhelming and very wonderful to watch.  A nice start to the day.  Had lunch in the canteen (school cafeteria) with my Chinese colleague lady teachers.  There is a meat and vegetarian option.  YEW HAW!  So this is what I had:  bamboos shoots steamed with chili peppers, sauteed julienne sliced celery, sauteed sliced potatoes, a Chinese steamed spinach, sauteed cucumber, rice and a bowl of water soup with a see through square vegetable-looked more like a Jello cube.  Each item was it’s own dish.  The soup was blah but everything else was pretty good.  I just didn’t recognize the taste of the potatoes as a potato!  I get free lunch with my school card.   What a deal.

Class consisted of three delightful DP HL students working on individual art projects.  Class was an hour and a half.  Off to the bank  to open a checking account.  There is a 45 minute wait, and then much stamping of documents with the ever familiar red chop to open my account! I get my debit card and some other card with scratch off numbers on the back.  Is it a lottery card?   No it’s extra pin numbers when you login to your internet account.  Ah ha, something we should do in the states — extra security.  Walk back to school and everyone is out playing badminton when I return.  I have to weave in and out of  hundred plus kids swatting their rackets at the little birdie.  What a sight.

I just make it in time to see the Military Training presentation put on by the Pre IB or foundation students.  During the summer these students are required to attend one week of military training about two hours away in the countryside.  They showed videos of their training, did skits, played music, sang and gave each other awards for a variety of good deeds.  The program was in Chinese but the skit was about how to be a good military student, respect your officer and be disciplined.  Maybe we should do this with American students!

I am told I can leave early, cause the program is in Chinese, so I head out for a taxi!  By now there are none to be had so I walk a ways, stop get a iced latte (maybe a long walk and need to stay awake).  Still can’t get a taxi, so one of the police men point down a smaller street, so I walk that way.   I check out a pastry vendor, shoe store and a cosmetic shop.  (found some fingernail polish  and the clerk gave me  free lotion!)  Walking to the corner see a McDonald’s, ah good spot to get a taxi, no way!  Now it is between 5 and 6 pm –shift change for taxi drivers, darn!  Then out of the blue this swarthy guy with an electric powered rikisha pops up and motions he can take me, so off I go on an open aired three wheel bike for the price of two fingers.  We make a couple of cut through turns and end up in a seedy area.  At this point I am thinking this guy in his “Bobby Gang” shirt and pink Crocs might just turn down a dark alley and take my 3oo yuan. ($45)  But we pop out onto a street I recognize.  Then he stops and picks up a metal pipe he sees in the road and stores it for later under my seat.  He lits up a cigarette and motions I should take a hit!  Think not.  Off we go again passing hundreds of people, bikes and cars.  I see the familar McDonalds on the corner by the University.  We made it.  I hand him two yuan and he gets madder than a hornet.  He pounds his fist and stubby fingers demanding more–so I think he says four, still not enough. I motion for the University guard to come over and so does a college student, now this is getting loud and lots of Chinese verbiage is flying.  The college girls asks me what he said he charged?  I remember the two fingers, well I guess I didn’t get the figure or fingers right.  He wanted 40 yuan (almost three times a taxi ride!)  I looked at her and said I had gotten taken, she agreed, and I gave him 37 and just walked off.  Geez what a night.  I need to learn more Chinese and how the bus system works!