Twas the night before Christmas, and all were covered in foam and beating each other with plastic inflatable hammers....? What?! Yes.....
So Christmas Eve we (foreign teachers) head to downtown Beibei for Christmas festivities. As we approach the town center I look up at some weird looking stars and realize they're not stars at all but hundreds of floating lanterns gently moving across the sky! No camera could capture this but it was one of the coolest things I've seen. So as tradition goes in Beibei, we purchase our giant inflatable sledghammers and beating sticks, arm our pockets with cans of spray snow and head into battle. And what a battle it was! Once we got into the main square it was pretty much a free for all; a good thousand or so people beating each other and attack spraying with fake snow foam soapy stuff. My downfall was not wearing a hood, my hair gave me away and whenever people saw a foreigner it was a full on ambush. I'm beating with my left and spraying with my right! The other teachers are trying to defend me. Ammo is low. RETREAT! RETREAT!!!!! We lay down another 10 kuai ($1.50) and get 4 more cans of snow and charge into the action once again! It was AWESOME! We stayed until about 11, or until all the foam started to weigh down my clothes :) Craziest Christmas Eve I've ever had.
Why do the Chinese even celebrate Christmas you might ask? Well it's really just a commercial holiday over here. Most shops decorate for Christmas with trees and lights and tinsel or a cartoon Santa face, and some of my students said that they might exchange small gifts with their friends, but they don't really understand the meaning. It's just another time to decorate, participate in something Western, and beat each other with blow up hammers. I mean really, what says Merry Christmas better than foaming complete strangers under a canopy of floating lanterns right?! ;)
On Christmas day I watched some Christmas movies, ate an advent calendar and enjoyed a huge feast with the other teachers in the evening. It was a little hard being away from family and friends but the few of you I did get in touch with made the day very special :) I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a very happy New Year!
This is a link to an aritcle featured in the New York Times about Chongqing.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/travel/26chongqing.html?pagewanted=1&hp
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Did I forget my pants?
Have you ever had that dream where you're in front of a large group of people and you suddenly realize you're naked? Ya know, in the middle of accepting an award or giving a speech or something and you look down and realize you're wearing a freshly dry cleaned birthday suit? Well I haven't ;) ..... but I sure do know the feeling.
There are not too many foreigners in Beibei. And now that the 60 some study abroad students have gone back to their universities in the states, I believe there are a grand total of 3 blondes on this 50,000+ campus. So I stand out. This means stares.....from EVERYONE. When I first got here everything was so new and different, so I too was doing a lot of staring. Then when things got familiar it became a little unnerving. What? Did I miss a button? Did I forget to put on pants? Is there rice in my hair!? No....it's just blonde. And I'm white, and tall, and have hips, and everything else that's not Chinese. Naked in an auditorium.
So then I got used to the stares. It was just a part of everyday life, as usual as me not being able to read any street signs or menus. But now that Beibei really feels like my home for this year, I'd like to feel like I belong, or at least blend in a little. But I know physically that will never happen. So I'll stick to the things that can make me feel like a native. Like going to my favorite restaurant and knowing exactly where on the menu kung pao chicken is, or just ask me where anything is in the grocery store, I could tell you! I know which buses take me where and I know which rooms in the music building have the better pianos. I will never look Chinese. I may never speak it, or fully understand it. But everyday I learn something new, and that's all I can really ask for....so I'll take it!
There are not too many foreigners in Beibei. And now that the 60 some study abroad students have gone back to their universities in the states, I believe there are a grand total of 3 blondes on this 50,000+ campus. So I stand out. This means stares.....from EVERYONE. When I first got here everything was so new and different, so I too was doing a lot of staring. Then when things got familiar it became a little unnerving. What? Did I miss a button? Did I forget to put on pants? Is there rice in my hair!? No....it's just blonde. And I'm white, and tall, and have hips, and everything else that's not Chinese. Naked in an auditorium.
So then I got used to the stares. It was just a part of everyday life, as usual as me not being able to read any street signs or menus. But now that Beibei really feels like my home for this year, I'd like to feel like I belong, or at least blend in a little. But I know physically that will never happen. So I'll stick to the things that can make me feel like a native. Like going to my favorite restaurant and knowing exactly where on the menu kung pao chicken is, or just ask me where anything is in the grocery store, I could tell you! I know which buses take me where and I know which rooms in the music building have the better pianos. I will never look Chinese. I may never speak it, or fully understand it. But everyday I learn something new, and that's all I can really ask for....so I'll take it!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving in China! All week I had been teaching about Thanksgiving and going over the traditions and food, so I was very excited to finally make the dinner. We had the option of going into Chongqing and enjoying a Thanksgiving dinner provided by many of the hotels for foreigners, but we decided to save $30 and make our own! I also wanted to embrace the fact that I'm living in China, and this is not a holiday that is celebrated over here, so it just wouldn't be the same....and that's ok! We actually managed to have a pretty complete dinner thanks to Sean's (another foreign teacher here) mom, who sent him supplies for cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie! I was in charge of mashed potatos and carrots, and yes that is a wok I'm using to boil the potatos :)
I also tried to make whipped cream for the pumpkin pie, but there's no cream in China. So I used milk, and it was a good effort, but the thickness just didn't stay!
There are no turkeys in China so we got a roast duck instead, which tasted exactly like ham, but it was good! The rest of fixin's were all present!
It was an awesome dinner, so good in fact that we've decided to have an "American" type meal once a month! Speaking of holidays, I managed to find some Christmas decorations at Wal-mart here, so my wall is colorfully lit up and I have a mini Christmas tree in my living room! Tis the season!
In other news, I've finally made all of my travel plans for the Chinese New Year! I'll be travelling for about a month, spending 10 days in Thailand, a week in India, and another 10 days in between Malaysia and Singapore. I can't wait! Let me know what souveniers you want....no promises on sneaking the Taj into my suitcase ;)
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Freedom!
Ni hao!
First off I would like to wish everyone a happy Singles Day. Yes, 11/11 is singles day here in China. I asked my students how they will be celebrating and they simply said "party!" But a little more digging revealed that many bars have hong lu deng (traffic light) themed parties....wear red if you are in a relationship, yellow if it's complicated, and green if you're single. For all those who hate Valentine's Day, come to China and celebrate being single!
I would like to acknowledge an important U.S. holiday today as well and thank all the veterans and members of the armed forces who have, and still are serving their country!
THE CAST IS OFF!!!!!! I've been cast free for about a week now and my arm feels great! When I went to the hospital, I had one final x-ray taken, the doctor said it looked ok and that I was free to go home and cut off my cast. Um what!? Go home and hack away at the plaster myself!? I don't think so! Pan pan, our boss' assistant and go to Chinese helper, convinced him to actually be a doctor and take care of a patient! So all is good there!
A few days ago a very large ceremonial tent with accompanying blow up entry way was set up in the park by our apartment building. I assumed it was a holiday celebration or some sort of wedding reception but a slow walk by the entrance revealed many flowers and a casket inside. The tent was just taken down today, so the whole celebration/remembrance lasted about 3 days and included lots of food, singing, and of course hundreds of firecrackers going off at all times of the day and night. Puts real meaning into the phrase "going out with a bang!"
I was finally able to upload photos of the Jingdao gorge, so here's the link!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080508&id=1019820015&l=9424bc89f7
First off I would like to wish everyone a happy Singles Day. Yes, 11/11 is singles day here in China. I asked my students how they will be celebrating and they simply said "party!" But a little more digging revealed that many bars have hong lu deng (traffic light) themed parties....wear red if you are in a relationship, yellow if it's complicated, and green if you're single. For all those who hate Valentine's Day, come to China and celebrate being single!
I would like to acknowledge an important U.S. holiday today as well and thank all the veterans and members of the armed forces who have, and still are serving their country!
THE CAST IS OFF!!!!!! I've been cast free for about a week now and my arm feels great! When I went to the hospital, I had one final x-ray taken, the doctor said it looked ok and that I was free to go home and cut off my cast. Um what!? Go home and hack away at the plaster myself!? I don't think so! Pan pan, our boss' assistant and go to Chinese helper, convinced him to actually be a doctor and take care of a patient! So all is good there!
A few days ago a very large ceremonial tent with accompanying blow up entry way was set up in the park by our apartment building. I assumed it was a holiday celebration or some sort of wedding reception but a slow walk by the entrance revealed many flowers and a casket inside. The tent was just taken down today, so the whole celebration/remembrance lasted about 3 days and included lots of food, singing, and of course hundreds of firecrackers going off at all times of the day and night. Puts real meaning into the phrase "going out with a bang!"
I was finally able to upload photos of the Jingdao gorge, so here's the link!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2080508&id=1019820015&l=9424bc89f7
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Jingdao Gorge
Ni hao!
Last weekend the office of foreign teacher's sponsored a trip to the Jingdao Gorge. The gorge is about 60 km away from Beibei, and on our way we stopped at an old historical town to look around and have lunch. The town, Pin Yian, is very picturesque with its narrow cobblestone roads and ancient architecture. After lunch we took the very steep and windy road up to the gorge. For the first part of the gorge walk you go down about 500 steps, then you go up about 500 steps and then over a rickety wooden boardwalk that is somehow attached to the cliffs of the gorge....it's quite adventurous! It was a truly beautiful walk along the stream that carved this magnificent gorge. The water is crystal clear and we were either surrounded by steep cliffs or bamboo forests for the whole journey (which took about 4 hours). Towards the end of our walk we spotted some monkeys! We were watching for a while when a man came walking by us with some fruit in a bag. He would have been safe if the bag hadn't been clear, but those monkeys spotted the bananas and ripped the bag off of him and devoured the bananas. It was pretty funny to watch. We continued our walk and finally took a boat out of the gorge to our bus. It was an awesome trip!
A few monumental things have happened recently in my life. 1. Blue sky has been discovered in Beibei. I was beginning to doubt its existence, but on Friday a breeze swept through Beibei revealing a clear blue sky. This wind also pushed the fog/smog out of the air to reveal the mountains that surround my city, it was amazing! Unfortunately this only lasted one day, I'm back to rainy/foggy/smoggy China :) 2. I have been reunited with two great loves in my life, cheese and vodka. All the foreign teachers took a trip into Chongqing to visit a store called Metro, which is like a Costco except for foreign goods. The prices are quite high, for Chinese standards anyways, but it's worth it. We're able to find just about everything we miss from back home. And 3. I think my apartment is finally de-moused. I've been having a bit of a mouse/rat problem recently. A word on Chinese construction: Buildings here are constructed very quickly not with the best materials. It's just sort of a get it done, and get it done quickly sort of philosophy. So our apartment building has many holes and open areas and such for bugs, dirt, mice, pretty much anything to get in. So a few had decided to make home in the panels above my bathroom. And they did so by collecting rice grain either as food surplus for the winter or as a nest. Either way the food/nest easily fell through my slotted ceiling panels, along with their droppings, turning my bathroom into a rat's nest. Plus they are quite talkative at night. At first this was just annoying, but then one of them scuttled across my feet in the kitchen as I was chopping food, and another took a sun nap in my laundry room. Well thanks to my landlady and her mother, most have been disposed of. And some workers collected all the rice nests from my ceiling so I haven't had a problem in my bathroom recently either. So here's to hoping I'm mouse free!
Today I met up with some of my students at a grocery store called Yong Hui (young way). We took the goodies back to my apartment and they taught me how to cook! I now know how to make: Gong bao ji ding (kung pao chicken, one of my favorite dishes here), sweet and sour ribs, Beijing duck, Beijing pork, pork meatballs, egg and tomato soup, an eggplant and pork dish, and stuffed lotus root. It was all soooo delicious and I got to break in my new rice cooker as well. I'll be sharing recipes next time I'm back in the states!
I haven't been able to upload photos for some reason so I'll include them in my next post. Zai jian!
Last weekend the office of foreign teacher's sponsored a trip to the Jingdao Gorge. The gorge is about 60 km away from Beibei, and on our way we stopped at an old historical town to look around and have lunch. The town, Pin Yian, is very picturesque with its narrow cobblestone roads and ancient architecture. After lunch we took the very steep and windy road up to the gorge. For the first part of the gorge walk you go down about 500 steps, then you go up about 500 steps and then over a rickety wooden boardwalk that is somehow attached to the cliffs of the gorge....it's quite adventurous! It was a truly beautiful walk along the stream that carved this magnificent gorge. The water is crystal clear and we were either surrounded by steep cliffs or bamboo forests for the whole journey (which took about 4 hours). Towards the end of our walk we spotted some monkeys! We were watching for a while when a man came walking by us with some fruit in a bag. He would have been safe if the bag hadn't been clear, but those monkeys spotted the bananas and ripped the bag off of him and devoured the bananas. It was pretty funny to watch. We continued our walk and finally took a boat out of the gorge to our bus. It was an awesome trip!
A few monumental things have happened recently in my life. 1. Blue sky has been discovered in Beibei. I was beginning to doubt its existence, but on Friday a breeze swept through Beibei revealing a clear blue sky. This wind also pushed the fog/smog out of the air to reveal the mountains that surround my city, it was amazing! Unfortunately this only lasted one day, I'm back to rainy/foggy/smoggy China :) 2. I have been reunited with two great loves in my life, cheese and vodka. All the foreign teachers took a trip into Chongqing to visit a store called Metro, which is like a Costco except for foreign goods. The prices are quite high, for Chinese standards anyways, but it's worth it. We're able to find just about everything we miss from back home. And 3. I think my apartment is finally de-moused. I've been having a bit of a mouse/rat problem recently. A word on Chinese construction: Buildings here are constructed very quickly not with the best materials. It's just sort of a get it done, and get it done quickly sort of philosophy. So our apartment building has many holes and open areas and such for bugs, dirt, mice, pretty much anything to get in. So a few had decided to make home in the panels above my bathroom. And they did so by collecting rice grain either as food surplus for the winter or as a nest. Either way the food/nest easily fell through my slotted ceiling panels, along with their droppings, turning my bathroom into a rat's nest. Plus they are quite talkative at night. At first this was just annoying, but then one of them scuttled across my feet in the kitchen as I was chopping food, and another took a sun nap in my laundry room. Well thanks to my landlady and her mother, most have been disposed of. And some workers collected all the rice nests from my ceiling so I haven't had a problem in my bathroom recently either. So here's to hoping I'm mouse free!
Today I met up with some of my students at a grocery store called Yong Hui (young way). We took the goodies back to my apartment and they taught me how to cook! I now know how to make: Gong bao ji ding (kung pao chicken, one of my favorite dishes here), sweet and sour ribs, Beijing duck, Beijing pork, pork meatballs, egg and tomato soup, an eggplant and pork dish, and stuffed lotus root. It was all soooo delicious and I got to break in my new rice cooker as well. I'll be sharing recipes next time I'm back in the states!
I haven't been able to upload photos for some reason so I'll include them in my next post. Zai jian!
Friday, October 8, 2010
Yangshuo
Ni hao!
I have just returned from an awesome few days in the other-worldly landscape of Yangshuo. China celebrates its national holiday on October 1st, but instead of just a day off like the Fourth of July, China takes a week off! So taking advantage of our last holiday for a few months we packed our bags and headed south!
It's an easy hour flight to Guilin from Chongqing, and either a 5 hour cruise down the Li River or 1 hour bus ride south to Yangshuo. Kelli (a fellow Bennie and teacher, and also my neighbor) and I decided to cruise our way down to Yangshuo. For the first half hour of our trip I believe there were more pictures taken of us than the beautiful karst mountain formations, we even had a mini photo shoot with one young woman who posed our bodies around hers in many ways, mostly prom style with us as the male figure behind her....I hope she didn't mind that I forgot my boutonniere. Anyways, once everyone had filled up their cameras with blonde hair and blue eyes we were left to enjoy the serene Chinese scenery. The cruise had a full buffet lunch and we arrived in Yangshuo with plenty of time to explore the city.
The next day Kelli and I rose early to explore the area. We booked a tour that took us to one of the many water/mud caves in the morning and kayaking in the afternoon. No one else ended up touring with that company for the day so we lucked out with a private Australian tour guide ;). The cave was AWESOME! We took a boat to get inside and then maneuvered our way under and over and around spectacular stalagmite and stalactite formations until we reached the mud pits! The cave owners had made some makeshift mud slides and we went to town! I've never made a more delicious mud pie. We rinsed off in the caves natural hot springs and lounged for a while before taking a final dip in the cool freshwater spring at the entrance to the cave. It was glorious! Our next stop was to travel a little ways down river to a quiet area where we could put our kayaks in. We loaded our kayaks, greeted the water buffalos lounging in the water, and set off! The river is fairly slow moving but is fast enough that we didn't need to paddle much. After a few hours admiring more karst formations we unloaded at a Ming dynasty fortress where our driver met us for an even more scenic drive back to Yangshuo. The beauty was endless everywhere we went.
That night some of the other teachers had arrived and we met up for dinner and some drinks! Yangshuo is fairly touristy so that means lot's of Western food! We devoured pizzas and savored every bite of cheese! Afterwards we enjoyed some local brandy....which is where this story turns dark. Literally, it got dark outside. And I broke my arm. Ok ok there's a little more than that. The hotel Kelli and I were staying at was a few kilometers outside of town so we rented bikes to get around. Well darkness plus bicycles plus curbs don't always make the best cake, so long story short I've got a pretty x-ray and I'll be in a cast for the next few weeks. But I got to do all the fun activities before my little accident so I was able to wander around the city or shop or just sit and read and admire the view for my last two days, which let me tell you, I could do forever! We'll definitely be going back to Yangshuo, and I would recommend to everyone travelling to China to try and make it down there, but easy on the brandy and bikes.... ;)
Yangshuo photos:
I have just returned from an awesome few days in the other-worldly landscape of Yangshuo. China celebrates its national holiday on October 1st, but instead of just a day off like the Fourth of July, China takes a week off! So taking advantage of our last holiday for a few months we packed our bags and headed south!
It's an easy hour flight to Guilin from Chongqing, and either a 5 hour cruise down the Li River or 1 hour bus ride south to Yangshuo. Kelli (a fellow Bennie and teacher, and also my neighbor) and I decided to cruise our way down to Yangshuo. For the first half hour of our trip I believe there were more pictures taken of us than the beautiful karst mountain formations, we even had a mini photo shoot with one young woman who posed our bodies around hers in many ways, mostly prom style with us as the male figure behind her....I hope she didn't mind that I forgot my boutonniere. Anyways, once everyone had filled up their cameras with blonde hair and blue eyes we were left to enjoy the serene Chinese scenery. The cruise had a full buffet lunch and we arrived in Yangshuo with plenty of time to explore the city.
The next day Kelli and I rose early to explore the area. We booked a tour that took us to one of the many water/mud caves in the morning and kayaking in the afternoon. No one else ended up touring with that company for the day so we lucked out with a private Australian tour guide ;). The cave was AWESOME! We took a boat to get inside and then maneuvered our way under and over and around spectacular stalagmite and stalactite formations until we reached the mud pits! The cave owners had made some makeshift mud slides and we went to town! I've never made a more delicious mud pie. We rinsed off in the caves natural hot springs and lounged for a while before taking a final dip in the cool freshwater spring at the entrance to the cave. It was glorious! Our next stop was to travel a little ways down river to a quiet area where we could put our kayaks in. We loaded our kayaks, greeted the water buffalos lounging in the water, and set off! The river is fairly slow moving but is fast enough that we didn't need to paddle much. After a few hours admiring more karst formations we unloaded at a Ming dynasty fortress where our driver met us for an even more scenic drive back to Yangshuo. The beauty was endless everywhere we went.
That night some of the other teachers had arrived and we met up for dinner and some drinks! Yangshuo is fairly touristy so that means lot's of Western food! We devoured pizzas and savored every bite of cheese! Afterwards we enjoyed some local brandy....which is where this story turns dark. Literally, it got dark outside. And I broke my arm. Ok ok there's a little more than that. The hotel Kelli and I were staying at was a few kilometers outside of town so we rented bikes to get around. Well darkness plus bicycles plus curbs don't always make the best cake, so long story short I've got a pretty x-ray and I'll be in a cast for the next few weeks. But I got to do all the fun activities before my little accident so I was able to wander around the city or shop or just sit and read and admire the view for my last two days, which let me tell you, I could do forever! We'll definitely be going back to Yangshuo, and I would recommend to everyone travelling to China to try and make it down there, but easy on the brandy and bikes.... ;)
Yangshuo photos:
Friday, October 1, 2010
Chengdu
Last week was the Mid-Autumn Festival of the Chinese lunar calendar. It's tradition to spend this holiday with your family, admiring the full moon and eating moon cakes. A word on moon cakes, they are comparable to fruitcakes in the U.S. in the sense that no one actually eats them and no one wants them, but they're given anyways as a gesture of kindness....or maybe just so you can ask for a favor later. Anyways moon cakes are round disc-like pastries filled with anything imaginable, but mostly fruits, beans, meat, or egg. I did try a few different kinds but didn't make it much past the first bite. I think they would find a better use as a hockey puck. So instead of gorging on moon cakes for the holiday a group of us foreign teachers went to Chengdu!
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan, an easy 2 hour train ride away from Chongqing. Our hostel was located in the Tibetan part of town so we feasted on yak meat and sweet creamy Tibetan tea at least once a day, it was all delicious! Our first night there we decided to walk around and explore and find a bar to sit and have a few drinks. Well, we ended up in a private room in a bar making friends with some local Chinese people, loudly karaoke-ing the night away to Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, and of course devouring skewers of rabbit, which we didn't know was rabbit til the end of the night as our host hopped around the room to demonstrate what we had been eating. A little different then what we planned, but an awesome night nonetheless! The next morning we took a trip to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding to see some pandas! This is the largest giant panda breeding facility in the world; the pandas are mostly going to zoos but the ultimate goal is introduce them into the wild in hopes of increasing the natural panda population. Until that point though the pandas are happy to sit and do nothing but eat and sleep.....easy photo ops.
The following day we explored the city a bit more by visiting a historic monastery and enjoying an afternoon in Chengdu's first tea house. Chengdu is well known for its tea houses, which suit the cities' relaxed culture. At a tea house you pay for your cup and loose leaves and then tea pourers will come by your table and fill up your cup with hot water for as long as your heart desires. And I mean as loooong as you want. We easily adopted this local activity, filling ourselves with tea for a good 2 hours. We all really enjoyed our trip to the capital city, and I'm sure we'll be back for more tea and pandas soon!
Here is a link to photos from Chengdu
And this link is for photos from Beijing, Chongqing and Beibei
Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan, an easy 2 hour train ride away from Chongqing. Our hostel was located in the Tibetan part of town so we feasted on yak meat and sweet creamy Tibetan tea at least once a day, it was all delicious! Our first night there we decided to walk around and explore and find a bar to sit and have a few drinks. Well, we ended up in a private room in a bar making friends with some local Chinese people, loudly karaoke-ing the night away to Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On, and of course devouring skewers of rabbit, which we didn't know was rabbit til the end of the night as our host hopped around the room to demonstrate what we had been eating. A little different then what we planned, but an awesome night nonetheless! The next morning we took a trip to the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding to see some pandas! This is the largest giant panda breeding facility in the world; the pandas are mostly going to zoos but the ultimate goal is introduce them into the wild in hopes of increasing the natural panda population. Until that point though the pandas are happy to sit and do nothing but eat and sleep.....easy photo ops.
The following day we explored the city a bit more by visiting a historic monastery and enjoying an afternoon in Chengdu's first tea house. Chengdu is well known for its tea houses, which suit the cities' relaxed culture. At a tea house you pay for your cup and loose leaves and then tea pourers will come by your table and fill up your cup with hot water for as long as your heart desires. And I mean as loooong as you want. We easily adopted this local activity, filling ourselves with tea for a good 2 hours. We all really enjoyed our trip to the capital city, and I'm sure we'll be back for more tea and pandas soon!
Here is a link to photos from Chengdu
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Hallelujah Pizza
It's been a busy 10 days! Last week was my first full week of classes, minus my Friday course which will begin once the freshmen have completed their mandatory military training. Classes are going well! My text book is surprisingly helpful with video and audio examples. It also contains English/Chinese character vocab sections for easier translation of advanced words. My students just laugh and laugh as the beads of frustration roll down my face when it takes me 3 minutes to write one character, but they understand so I can only laugh too!
This past Monday I entered the terrible two's, 22 that is. A group of us foreign teachers went into Chongqing on Saturday night to celebrate. After catching a bus into not quite the right part of town we wandered around a bit until a sign from the heavens struck us all. BIG PIZZA! I've never heard the Hallelujah choir sing so brightly. So after our treat of pizza and other Western food we met up with some peace corp volunteers and other teachers and danced the night away! On Monday I received a cake from the foreign teachers office which was shared by many on our apartment rooftop. And although the cake was non dairy and had a similar texture to styrofoam it was decorated exquisitely - covered with fruit and chocolate and of course tomatoes! But hey, cake is cake!
I have also decided to enjoy the life a student once again and take up an elementary Mandarin course! It's very humbling actually because all of the things we teachers complain about (students putting their heads down when asked to participate, giggling when speaking or when others are speaking, etc) is exactly what's happening to us in class. Touché China.
This past Monday I entered the terrible two's, 22 that is. A group of us foreign teachers went into Chongqing on Saturday night to celebrate. After catching a bus into not quite the right part of town we wandered around a bit until a sign from the heavens struck us all. BIG PIZZA! I've never heard the Hallelujah choir sing so brightly. So after our treat of pizza and other Western food we met up with some peace corp volunteers and other teachers and danced the night away! On Monday I received a cake from the foreign teachers office which was shared by many on our apartment rooftop. And although the cake was non dairy and had a similar texture to styrofoam it was decorated exquisitely - covered with fruit and chocolate and of course tomatoes! But hey, cake is cake!
I have also decided to enjoy the life a student once again and take up an elementary Mandarin course! It's very humbling actually because all of the things we teachers complain about (students putting their heads down when asked to participate, giggling when speaking or when others are speaking, etc) is exactly what's happening to us in class. Touché China.
Monday, September 6, 2010
First Day of Class!
Do you remember that gitty/slightly nervous/anxious/excited feeling for the first day of school? Well multiply that times 10, throw in a pinch of uneasiness and about a gallon and a half of sweat and you've got my first class. Ok ok, it wasn't that bad, and although the sweat wasn't really an exaggeration, I'm blaming most of that on the 20+ minute walk and humidity. Anyways the students are really great and I think it'll be a fun class.
I took one step into the classroom and immediately there were oohs and ahhs and then a full applause! I was shocked! I couldn't help but smile, and if my hair hadn't been trying to afro its way back to the 70's, I almost would have felt glamorous. I started the class with an introduction of myself and then gave them the basic outline of the course. I then had the students write down a little paragraph about themselves so that I could learn more about each of them as well as judge where their English skills were. We then played a get to know the teacher game which started out with me writing a few words about myself on the board: Yaqui, 21, Kylie, 9, sand, and banana. The students then had to ask yes/no questions to try and figure out how each word related to me. My street name (Yaqui) was thought to be my boyfriend's name, and they thought that either bananas were famous in Arizona or that I'd like to buy the class a round of bananas. Sorry, but the banana was simply my breakfast of choice this morning. We finished up the class rather early which got me another thunderous round of applause! I could get used to this.
The class consisted of 55 students of which only 10 were men. Most of the students are from the Sichuan province but there were a few from neighboring provinces and one young woman from Tibet. Their energy and eagerness is contagious and I'm very much looking forward to teaching them all they want to know about English and the United States.
I took one step into the classroom and immediately there were oohs and ahhs and then a full applause! I was shocked! I couldn't help but smile, and if my hair hadn't been trying to afro its way back to the 70's, I almost would have felt glamorous. I started the class with an introduction of myself and then gave them the basic outline of the course. I then had the students write down a little paragraph about themselves so that I could learn more about each of them as well as judge where their English skills were. We then played a get to know the teacher game which started out with me writing a few words about myself on the board: Yaqui, 21, Kylie, 9, sand, and banana. The students then had to ask yes/no questions to try and figure out how each word related to me. My street name (Yaqui) was thought to be my boyfriend's name, and they thought that either bananas were famous in Arizona or that I'd like to buy the class a round of bananas. Sorry, but the banana was simply my breakfast of choice this morning. We finished up the class rather early which got me another thunderous round of applause! I could get used to this.
The class consisted of 55 students of which only 10 were men. Most of the students are from the Sichuan province but there were a few from neighboring provinces and one young woman from Tibet. Their energy and eagerness is contagious and I'm very much looking forward to teaching them all they want to know about English and the United States.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Settling In
Ni hao!
Slowly but surely I'm getting settled in to my apartment and adjusting to the fact that I now live in China! This week we've been touring Beibei and the Southwest University campus as well as exploring sites of Chongqing.
Yesterday we spent the whole day in Chongqing seeing all the sights. We went to the three gorges museum which is pretty cool, visited their equivalent of a parliament hall or central government building, and saw the point where the Jialing and Yangtze rivers meet. Then we went to two different places with a whole bunch of shops, but the exteriors of the places were designed like the old towns and ancient villages, it was very cool. I bought a brush painting of chinese plum blossoms to decorate my apartment. We then went to a beautiful restaurant to have hot pot! Ok so hot pot is like fondue where you have a giant pot of boiling liquid and you cook meat and vegetables in it. Traditionally, hot pot is very spicy but they have half and half pots where one side is the red spices and the other more of a broth. The meat selections were beef, sheep, cow stomach, chicken stomach, chicken noodles, beef meatballs, and sausages. The veggies were mushrooms, lotus root, potatos, chinese root (they couldn't translate it), rice noodles, sweet potato noodles, black fungus, white fungus, and probably a few other things I don't know the name of. Anyways everyone would just sort of dump a bunch of stuff into both the hot and mild side and you let it cook for a few minutes and then dip it in either a sesame oil or spicy soy sauce and enjoy! And we did enjoy :) Now if the spices didn't numb your mouth and make you sweat enough as it is, our director bought a 220 RMB bottle of baijiu, which we had to COMPLETELY FINISH before we could get beer. Baijiu is a distilled liquor made from rice; most baijiu is around 80-120 proof. It's not very good, but the more expensive the bottle the more tolerable it gets. So, eight shots later, we're all feeling pretty nice. We'll probably go out again for hot pot for my birthday, and it'll be very nice for the winter months.
Today April, one of the assistants in the international exchange office, gave me my teaching schedule and showed me the buildings and classrooms I will be teaching in, which begins on Monday! Most of my classes will have over 60 students in them but their English skills should be fairly high. I will also be teaching at a technical college in Chongqing on Thursday mornings. I'm excited and nervous to start teaching but I've already met a few students and they are all very eager and excited to use and practice English, so that'll help.
I'm still figuring out a way to post pictures. I can't directly post them into the blog for reasons unknown but hopefully album links will be coming soon.
Zaijian!
Slowly but surely I'm getting settled in to my apartment and adjusting to the fact that I now live in China! This week we've been touring Beibei and the Southwest University campus as well as exploring sites of Chongqing.
Yesterday we spent the whole day in Chongqing seeing all the sights. We went to the three gorges museum which is pretty cool, visited their equivalent of a parliament hall or central government building, and saw the point where the Jialing and Yangtze rivers meet. Then we went to two different places with a whole bunch of shops, but the exteriors of the places were designed like the old towns and ancient villages, it was very cool. I bought a brush painting of chinese plum blossoms to decorate my apartment. We then went to a beautiful restaurant to have hot pot! Ok so hot pot is like fondue where you have a giant pot of boiling liquid and you cook meat and vegetables in it. Traditionally, hot pot is very spicy but they have half and half pots where one side is the red spices and the other more of a broth. The meat selections were beef, sheep, cow stomach, chicken stomach, chicken noodles, beef meatballs, and sausages. The veggies were mushrooms, lotus root, potatos, chinese root (they couldn't translate it), rice noodles, sweet potato noodles, black fungus, white fungus, and probably a few other things I don't know the name of. Anyways everyone would just sort of dump a bunch of stuff into both the hot and mild side and you let it cook for a few minutes and then dip it in either a sesame oil or spicy soy sauce and enjoy! And we did enjoy :) Now if the spices didn't numb your mouth and make you sweat enough as it is, our director bought a 220 RMB bottle of baijiu, which we had to COMPLETELY FINISH before we could get beer. Baijiu is a distilled liquor made from rice; most baijiu is around 80-120 proof. It's not very good, but the more expensive the bottle the more tolerable it gets. So, eight shots later, we're all feeling pretty nice. We'll probably go out again for hot pot for my birthday, and it'll be very nice for the winter months.
Today April, one of the assistants in the international exchange office, gave me my teaching schedule and showed me the buildings and classrooms I will be teaching in, which begins on Monday! Most of my classes will have over 60 students in them but their English skills should be fairly high. I will also be teaching at a technical college in Chongqing on Thursday mornings. I'm excited and nervous to start teaching but I've already met a few students and they are all very eager and excited to use and practice English, so that'll help.
I'm still figuring out a way to post pictures. I can't directly post them into the blog for reasons unknown but hopefully album links will be coming soon.
Zaijian!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Made it!
Ni hao!
Well I have safely arrived here in Beibei without a scratch! The flight from LA to Beijing was long but I managed to sleep for 8 of the 12 hour trip so that helped. Interesting thing about flying with Chinese, if you are in an aisle seat, you are not expected to get up to allow the inner seat passengers to get by. As an window/middle seat passenger you should not expect anyone to move or get up for you. So I woke up a few times during the flight to find a Chinese man almost sitting on top of me trying to get to the aisle. Hello to you too sir.
I planned my trip so that I would have a 10 hour layover in Beijing. Why do such a thing you might ask? FREE TRIP TO BEIJING! My checked bags got to lounge at the airport while I heaved my carryons throughout the Beijing subway system to pop up right in front of the Forbidden city. Quite the site for my first few minutes in China. I explored the area for a while, but jet lag, thirst, and hunger eventually pushed me back towards the airport.
I saw a lot of interesting things during this "free trip," ;) Here's a list of some of the good ones:
- baby in butt-less chaps (yes, full chinese moon)
- some sort of chicken or rodent in a bag on the subway (still alive), presumably dinner for the night. I question what kind of animal it was because I only heard it squealing when it's carrier was beating the bag.
- women's fashion. this could go on forever but they all wear heels, or wedges. And if that can't be done there's at least rhinestones or sparkles on the shoes. Also shirts that say things like Sunlight, Balmy, Why not? and Do you make love?
- murses. male purses.
- TEA! Everyone has a nalgene full of it.
- No understanding of lines. You gotta push your way to the front, space between you and the person in front of you means someone else can fit in there.
- And of course my blonde hair and round light eyes attracted a few photographs. All smiles here :)
And now I'm settling into my apartment here in Beibei, which I hope to post some pictures of shortly. More orientation and touring tomorrow and wednesday and hopefully classes will begin sometime next week. Until next time!
Well I have safely arrived here in Beibei without a scratch! The flight from LA to Beijing was long but I managed to sleep for 8 of the 12 hour trip so that helped. Interesting thing about flying with Chinese, if you are in an aisle seat, you are not expected to get up to allow the inner seat passengers to get by. As an window/middle seat passenger you should not expect anyone to move or get up for you. So I woke up a few times during the flight to find a Chinese man almost sitting on top of me trying to get to the aisle. Hello to you too sir.
I planned my trip so that I would have a 10 hour layover in Beijing. Why do such a thing you might ask? FREE TRIP TO BEIJING! My checked bags got to lounge at the airport while I heaved my carryons throughout the Beijing subway system to pop up right in front of the Forbidden city. Quite the site for my first few minutes in China. I explored the area for a while, but jet lag, thirst, and hunger eventually pushed me back towards the airport.
I saw a lot of interesting things during this "free trip," ;) Here's a list of some of the good ones:
- baby in butt-less chaps (yes, full chinese moon)
- some sort of chicken or rodent in a bag on the subway (still alive), presumably dinner for the night. I question what kind of animal it was because I only heard it squealing when it's carrier was beating the bag.
- women's fashion. this could go on forever but they all wear heels, or wedges. And if that can't be done there's at least rhinestones or sparkles on the shoes. Also shirts that say things like Sunlight, Balmy, Why not? and Do you make love?
- murses. male purses.
- TEA! Everyone has a nalgene full of it.
- No understanding of lines. You gotta push your way to the front, space between you and the person in front of you means someone else can fit in there.
- And of course my blonde hair and round light eyes attracted a few photographs. All smiles here :)
And now I'm settling into my apartment here in Beibei, which I hope to post some pictures of shortly. More orientation and touring tomorrow and wednesday and hopefully classes will begin sometime next week. Until next time!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tomorrow!
Tomorrow is the big day! As predicted the packing has not begun but I have completed my stuff-your-face-with-American-food-before-you-won't-get-it-for-a-year task. Last Sunday my sister and I were admittedly distracted during church and made a mad lib of my travels. In its own way it's kind of a prayer for a safe trip over there, so here it is!
Brianne's trip to China
Arriving at the airport, Brianne checked her 7 ducks at the ticketing counter. The airline gave her a friendship bracelet to travel with and wished her a fuzzy flight. While galloping on to the plane Brianne found a wooden penny and knew it was good luck. Her seat partner was a strapless German travelling to China to find rare and exotic toes. The flight was very shiny but Brianne still managed to fall asleep and dream about feeding pineapples! She safely awoke in China and lived usually ever after!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
The Final Countdown
It has begun. One week from today I will be over the Pacific on my way to China. That means 6 days and some odd hours is probably when I'll start packing. It'll get done. I'm filled with quite a concotion of emotions as the days creep by and my bookmark moves further and further in my Chinese travel book. I've been spending most of my pre-departure days filling up on food and activites that will be deeply missed abroad such as concert-going, zebra cake-eating, mario kart wii-playing, cheese-consuming, and of course friend and family-loving. I'm too excited about living and working in China and thinking about all the new places I'll see, people I'll meet and food to try, to think about all I'll miss back home! I'm making a new home! But just for good measure... I'm off to find some gouda.
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