Back in Beibei

Let's see where were we...

For the rest of my time in India I didn't do much sightseeing as most of my days were spent travelling in a car. But soon enough it was time to fly and off to Malaysia we went! After a groggy red-eye flight to Kuala Lumpur, we managed to find a bus to take us to Singapore right away. So as Jack is going through customs on the Singapore side, he realizes his visa expired yesterday. Woops. So we're sent back to Malaysia and have to wait for the Singapore consulate to open to renew his visa. This could have been a very quick process but because of the Chinese New Year everything is closed. So I decide to head to Singapore on my own and wait for Jack to try get his visa. Singapore is this incredibly clean, nice, new tropical island. It's story goes something like this:

Once upon a time the handsome, bold West traveled a great distance and met the beautiful exoic East. They quickly fell in love and soon had a child which they named Singapore. Singapore grew up learning many languages and was taught to never jay-walk, spit or even chew gum! Nowadays Singapore slings back with his pet merlion and welcomes friends from every corner of the globe. I love Singapore. While I was there I toured the neighbourhoods (little india, chinatown, arab street and the colonial area) and also made a visit to the zoo and national museum. On the morning of the 7th I woke up at 5:30 am and grabbed a spot at a cool microbrewery to watch the Packers beat the Steelers in the Superbowl!!! I was surrounded by Green Bay fans also enjoying lagers for breakfast. Twas glorious. Jack didn't end up getting a visa so I departed the lion city and made my way to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia is very laid back so it was the perfect place to go at the end of our trip. We met up with two other teachers from Beibei and toured the city, making sure to catch the awesome view from the skybridge of the Petronas towers! We had an exciting day at an amusment park and then it was time to go home. It was a little strange walking into my apartment here in Beibei and having it feel like home, but it does. So I'm all settled in here again eagerly awaiting the return of the other teachers from their travels. I'll start teaching at the beginning of next week and am looking forward to heading back to the chalkboard.

I sent a lot of you post cards from India but I'm afraid you'll never get them :( I think I used the wrong stamp and I doubt they'll ever leave the country, but know that I was thinking of you!
Here's a link to the pictures of my trip!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2094159&id=1019820015&l=8c853f3244

Eels, escalators, and elephants

Namaste!

Hello from India! I'm about halfway through all my travels and I'm having an amazing time. Thailand was a little taste of paradise. Actually getting to our destination island, koh phangan, took a little longer than expected due to delayed flights/trains/ferries but we made it a day later and ran straight into the turquoise sea. So after a few nights on this crazy island, including an all night 15,000+ person full moon beach party, we took a boat north to calm, laid back koh Tao. Here I got my open water and advanced scuba certifications! The waters in the gulf of Thailand are crystal clear and full of life, and luckily I can revisit them by watching the DVD that documented my final day of diving. One night in Bangkok and then off to the land of maharajas!

I honestly never thought I would find a place crazier than china, but India fills those shoes! Our first day we toured some sights around new and old Delhi including the red fort, lotus temple and humayun's tomb. The next day we woke up early for the 4 hour drive to Agra. Our afternoon in Agra was spent wandering around the gardens of the taj mahal. Photos just don't do this symbol of love justice. I could spend days there, it's absolutely incredible. And now I'm in Jaipur, staying at an absolutely beautiful hotel watching American tv! It's fantastic! Visiting a few more palaces tomorrow and then back to Delhi the following morning. India has honestly been a little overwhelming, especially after spending 10 days on the beach, so this has been a nice taste but I'm looking forward to checking out Malaysia and watching the packers in the superbowl in Singapore! I'll be eating cheese all day, and hopefully drinking some form of Wisconsin beer. Go green bay!!! Will probably update again once I'm back in china, happy Chinese new year!

It's Travel Time

I'm currently reading a collection of essays about China, 'Coming Home Crazy' by Bill Holm. This Minnesota native touches on just about every aspect of living in China as a foreigner, and I find myself laughing along as I read his stories that mirror a lot of the experiences I've had. He taught in Xi'an but did take a short trip to my area of residence, Chongqing, and described the city as "a humid, coal-burning industrial town at the bottom of a sinkhole surrounded by steep mountains. Photographs of it are always bathed in a fuzzy haze, giving it a romantic, ancient look. There is little romance, however, in chemical analysis of the haze." So as glamorous as that sounds, I'm looking forward to getting away for a few weeks.

My itinerary includes 10 days in Thailand, a week in India, and 10 days in Malaysia and Singapore. So I can't promise too many posts the next month but I'm hoping to bring back lot's of stories, souveniers, and photos that look like these...

Thailand

India



Malaysia

Singapore



Christmas in China

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

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!

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 ;)

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