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
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