Zai Jian China

2/6/10

The time has come. It seems like I began this blog eons ago, but my adventure in China is finally coming to an end. I frequently tell Hallie that I feel like I’ve lived my entire life in Shanghai, but at the same time, this experience has flown by quickly. I flew halfway around the world for really one thing: an epiphany. Did I get my desired emotional, grand feeling you ask? Nope, not even close to a light bulb moment or overwhelming flicker of, ‘Oh, this is what I’m supposed to do in life.’ Instead, I feel like I gained something(s) so much more.

I’ve decided that I enjoy making myself uncomfortable. I’m the girl who forces herself to watch scary movies, jump off waterfalls in Switzerland, travel to foreign countries not knowing the native language, major in a subject that I know doesn’t come naturally, and looks at something when someone tells me not to. I’m completely freaked out during these acts, but the thrill is the pay off. I am a mess. But my mess has made me scared, excited, proud, and maybe even disgusted sometimes. I know now that being uncomfortable pushes me to do great things. Things that I wouldn’t do if I didn’t test myself. I hate tests, but for some reason thrive on them. Being comfortable makes me lazy and although I’ve learned a thing or two about being lazy since college, I know that I don’t do lazy.

Living in Shanghai for the past 5 ½ months has made me realize a lot. A whole lot. (See my ‘Things I Miss Part 4’). This country is insane. There are customs and everyday occurrences that still are in no way OK with me. Despite how frustrated and grossed out I get, I can’t judge the way the Chinese live their lives. I think their tofu smells and they think my turkey sandwiches are nasty. We’ve got a deal. My patience is tried every single day and I’ve learned about how much s#&% I can tolerate. Patience was something I needed to work on and I feel like I’ve learned how to stand my own without completely going nuts.

Graceann once asked me if I liked kids. Everyone babysat in high school and college and while I babysat all last summer, I was more inclined to working a part-time job {than taking care of kids for extra money}. I’m pretty sure there were a few people worried about me tending to all these little tots everyday (if anyone knew it was almost 400 kids, I’m pretty sure they would tell me to stay home). Now I know, I love kids. I love, love kids. They have these little personalities and I loved getting to know my students. I’m not sure if teaching is a life-long career aspiration of mine, but the nuggets are going to be greatly missed. They grew and their English improved in the short time I taught them. The look on some of their faces when I had to say goodbye reassured me why I was here. If only Lucy and Anson could fit in my carry on….

Sweet Hallie. That’s what her family calls her and it’s quite a nice fit. My roommate, bestie, cooking buddy, movie-goer, venting partner, dance/workout acquaintance, co-worker, and (I’m going to do it and you can vomit on yourself if you feel the need…) sister has been such a wonderful part of my experience here in the East. I know that I wouldn’t have made it past that first week had I not been here with Hal. Living here has no doubt, been a big struggle. In good ways and in bad. Having a friend to help me through this process has been the greatest thing. I owe her so much! I’m sure my few bouts with sickness and weird quirks were interesting to deal with and I am thankful she never gave up on China. We learned a lot about each other’s families and friends, which allowed us to become better friends. Mainly, our jokes that made no sense (with our lack of social skills and American friends here) are what made this time so enjoyable! Love ya Hallie, I hope the fun continues.

Getting to see a part of the world that I thought I’d never get to see has been incredible. I’ve traveled to Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xi’an, Harbin, Hong Kong, and Macau. Each city is different (although once you’ve seen one pagoda, you’ve see them all) and the structures and scenery have been truly breathtaking. It makes me want to travel even more. Hallie and I talk about how we need to experience traveling more in the United States even. Having seen all these places has opened my eyes and allowed me to wonder about seeing more and living life.

Overall, I feel like the most grateful person on the face of the earth. My family and friends are the best support and I never could have guessed the capacity at which I miss them. The thought of being away from them again leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I love America, a country that allows us to think, feel, and do what we want. Things and rights that we don’t think twice about (freedom of speech, religion, etc.) are not a choice for the people here. For goodness sake they believe that leaving an onion in various rooms in your house fights off sickness. It’s sad to live amongst the censorship and the lies that the Chinese are told, which always reminds me that I’m thankful, American, and free. And on the surface, I will try and never take air conditioners, heaters, dryers, ovens, dishwashers, and clean air for granted. My kids wear 4 layers of clothing because it’s likely that the school won’t turn on the space heaters in the classrooms. I’ve definitely learned life lessons that will stay with me forever.

It wouldn’t be right to end this entry without some humor, so here it goes…I think I’ll live if I never have to witness someone hocking up a loogie, peeing on the sidewalk, hearing Chinese girls sing karaoke, seeing a baby’s bare butt peeking through it’s split pants, riding the Metro at rush hour, and the list goes on. I’m so happy that I had this life-changing experience, but am more than ready to be home!

My friends from college made me a photobook/quotebook before I left for China. The last quote in the book is one I tried to live by here:

Martin Luther King Jr. said that, “Men hate each other because they fear each other, and they fear each other because they don’t know each other, and they don’t know each other because they are often separated from each other.” Increased understanding of diverse people, their customs, values and ideas leads to a reduction of conflict based on ignorance and toward an improved foundation to seek peace.

Goodbye China, it’s been lovely.

It’s been great meeting you: Renshi ni shizai hen gaoxing

Serious Business

2/4/10

I’m not sure whether this is a huge accomplishment or a ridiculous embarrassment, but it’s definitely worth sharing. Hallie and I have had some down time (mainly at night after our teaching day is over), which has allowed for some serious TV/movie watching. This is the extensive log we kept up with during our near 6-month stint in China.

MOVIES:

-The Holiday

-Cold Mountain

-The Blind Side

-An Education

-Virgin Suicides

-Fight Club

-Gosford Park

-Sin City

-Rounders

-Shakespeare in Love

-500 Days of Summer

-The Secret Life of Bees

-Zoolander

-The Prestige

-Sliding Doors

-Sleeping Beauty

-Adventureland

-Pride and Prejudice the BBC Mini-series

-Pride and Prejudice

-Sunshine Cleaning

-Love Actually

-Elf

-The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

-The Hangover

-Home for the Holidays

-Meet Me in St. Louis

-Into the Wild

-Christmas with the Kranks

-Deck the Halls

-The September Issue

-District 9

-Post Grad

-Serendipity

-Four Weddings and a Funeral

-Edge of Love

-Ever After

-Stardust

-Observe and Report

-French Kiss

-Tristan + Isolde

-The Young Victoria

-Away We Go

-New Moon

-The Thomas Crown Affair

-State of Play

-Inglorious Basterds

-Avatar

-Up in the Air

-Time Traveler’s Wife

-Fantastic Mr. Fox

-It’s Complicated

-Brothers

-Seven Years in Tibet

-The Proposal (Hallie)

-Penelope (Hallie)

-Bright Star (Hallie)

-Lords of Dogtown (Buff)

TV SHOWS:

-Weeds: Seasons 1-5

-30 Rock: Seasons 1-3

-Dexter: Seasons 1-4

-Mad Men: Seasons 1-3

-Felicity: Seasons 1-3

TV SHOWS maintained:

-Gossip Girl

-Grey’s Anatomy

-The Office

-30 Rock

-SNL (the ones we can get on You Ku)

-Glee (Buff)

(Hallie and Buff: Movies/TV we watched when sick)

Books I’ve Read:

-Time Traveler’s Wife

-The Kindness of Strangers

-Confederacy of Dunces

-Freakonomics

-The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

-Longitude

Movie: Dianying TV: Dianshi Book: Shu

Hong Kong and Macau

On the ferry headed to Macau!

2/4/10

For our last excursion in China before coming home, Hallie and I chose to go down south. The constant coldness of Shanghai has definitely taken a toll on us Texas girls. We left after our last class on Sunday to experience our final week in China.

Hong Kong is a Mecca. It’s warm, the people are friendly, the air is clean(er), the Metro is huge, the food is amazing and you get to ride on ferries at your leisure. Getting through Chinese customs (and then HK customs) was slightly annoying, but was well worth the wait.

The hostel situation was…bizarre. Most of the budget places are located in these ‘mansions,’ which serve as many things. Money exchange booths, Indian food kiosks, souvenir shops, you name it. Despite all the weirdness on the ground level, the hostel was great. It was great, but it was also the tiniest room I’ve ever seen in my life. Hallie and I shared an almost double bed and the bathroom was about 4 ft tall, 3 ft wide: best part, you showered on top of the toilet.

First up was Victoria’s Peak. The view was amazing and we were able to see the harbor and all the big buildings. This outing was our first realization of how obsessed HK is with escalators. Next we went to the Bank of China tower to catch another view. In between we saw a church, ate some sandwiches, and wandered through a garden. My Dad had told me about this high-end hotel called, ‘The Peninsula,’ and said that we had to go there and get afternoon tea. ‘High-end’ and ‘ afternoon tea’ are not two things that come to mind when I think of Joe Golias, but sure enough, the hotel was incredible. We waited in a line to be seated for our afternoon tea. We paid around $130 HK Dollars (nearly $19 USD) for a cup of tea and a piece of cake. It was ridiculously expensive, but so fun! After, Hallie and I went down to the Avenue of the Stars to check out all the famous Chinese movie stars. (Much like the Hollywood Walk of Fame). We recognized Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and Chow Yun Fat. The day ended with the Light Show. We stood on the Kowloon side and watched as all the buildings on Hong Kong Island lit up and danced to classical music. We ate dinner at a cute French place and called it a night.

The morning of day two in Hong Kong was spent wandering. We figured out which ferry to take to Macau (a nearby island also referred to as ‘The Las Vegas of China.’), and purchased our bus tickets to take us to the airport the following day. After getting organized and stopping at one of the billions of Starbucks on the island, we were on the ferry on our way to Macau. Macau was…a tad underwhelming. And the spotty weather didn’t help. We got off the ferry and headed into town. (Macau has a large population of Portuguese people. The inner city was quaint, but the tacky Chinese New Year decorations lessened its cute appeal.) The Ruins of St. Paul Cathedral was pretty spectacular. The views from the Macau Monte Fort were also worth seeing. After sightseeing got redundant and the rain began to trickle, Hallie and I decided to stop for lunch. We ate at a Tapas place that was really good.

So about Macau being the Chinese Las Vegas…um NO. I’m sorry 4 casinos in one section of town is no Las Vegas China. I played $10 HK Dollars in a slot machine at the Wynn and lost in a matter of seconds. Not sure if it’s because I’m not good at gambling or that the machine was in half Chinese. Anyhow, we gambled, we ate egg tarts, we finally saw the ‘Obamao’ shirts and we were ready to get back to the island. For dinner that night we at the most amazing vegetarian restaurant called Life. (Back to the love of escalators. We took the world’s longest escalator to get to the restaurant. It was one of the silliest things I’ve done in a while.) It was the best food I’ve eaten in a long time. And we drank good wine. And we forgot we were in China. It happens from time to time. When the bill came, we were of course shocked by the service charge. (In ‘Regular China,’ there are no taxes or additional charges) We scrounged for money and came up with enough HK Dollars with one to spare. And that one-dollar was not going to buy 2 tickets on the Metro. After lots of walking and false attempts to change our RMB, we finally stumbled upon a Money Changing kiosk and were on our way home.

Our last day in Hong Kong was a lot of waiting. We wanted to eat dim sum, but our timing was off with the restaurant. Hallie and I decided to camp out at the bottom of a huge Citibank where we found ourselves in Western heaven. We drank Starbucks, ate Pret a Manger and bought US magazines for $60 HK Dollars ($8 USD). After a long bus ride to Shenzhen, going through Hong Kong and China customs, we made it to the airport. We found ourselves on an airplane back to Shanghai and finally got home around 10PM. Hong Kong was so much fun, but I’m ready to be back in America!!

Escalator: Futi

Things I Miss Part 4 (What I’ll Miss About China…AND What I WON’T Miss)

1/28/10

This is my last installment of the 'Things I Miss' section. Although the 'won'ts' outweigh the 'wills,' I'm going to miss this place. Here goes!

WILL MISS…

*My kids

*Hallie as my roommate

*City Shop (especially their sandwiches)

*Buns of various sorts by Xiang Yang

*Element Fresh

*Pirated DVDs

*The fresh noodle stand

*Josh and Becky

*Traveling

*Chinglish signage

*The food cart by our apartment

*Being employed

*The Fabric Market

*Angela: Chinese English teacher extraordinaire

*Making faces at babies on the Metro

*Laughing at things that aren’t funny

*Trivia night

*My 3-hour stents at Starbucks

*Watching any and every TV show/movie for nighttime entertainment

*RMBs as currency. Love using the coins.

WON’T MISS…

*The pollution

*The mold growing in our apartment

*Our GHETTO apartment in general

*Eating Chinese food every day

*Getting stared down all the time

*My one-hour commute (each way) to work

*Being insanely cold all the time

*Line drying my laundry

*Skype…at least for a while

*Cooking the same food every night

*The traffic and poor driving skills

*Watching people pee on the side of the road

*The smell of rank tofu following me around

*Having an almost non-existent social life

*Wearing the same outfit everyday

*Riding the Metro and the Chinese thief who stole my iPod on it

*Spitting

*My Nokia cell phone that stays together with a hair rubber band

*Wearing 4 layers of clothes daily

*Getting sick every other day

*Not being able to drink from the sink

*Using an Ethernet cord

*Blow-drying myself to get warm

*Being cut off in every line that I get into

*Having more than 6 contacts in my cell phone

*Steamed rice

*Wearing my robe and socks to sleep every night (and wrapping myself into a nighttime burrito)

Excuse me, I have to go now: Duibuqi, wo yao zou

Kids Say the Darndest Things

1/25/10

Anson always has funny things to say.

A few gems that my students have managed to spit out...

“How are you today?” – Me

“I’m hamburger” – Frank

“I hurt my arm.” – Me

“I hurt my ass.” – Elan

“Froo salala” – Andy (supposed to be fruit salad)

“Wegetable soup” – Sky (supposed to be vegetable soup)

“Can someone tell me a their favorite method of transportation?” – Me

“Firetruck” – Ivan

“Underground Light Rail.” – Matt

“Police car” – Davy

“Bye, bye Buffy Laoshi.” – Steven (Laoshi is teacher in Chinese)

"What’s your favorite fruit?" – Me

“Guava.” – Jerry

“Waterlemon.” – Jeffrey

On learning about Halloween…

“Who is this?” – Me

"She's a bitch!" - Cindy (supposed to be 'witch')

Texas: Dekesasi

Harbin

1/19/10

Me standing in front of the Forbidden City sculpture. SO COLD!!

This entry is going to be short because let’s face it, I don’t really feel like reliving my time in Harbin. Seeing as I was nearly in Russia in mid-January and that my number one fear is being cold, I was in quite a pickle. I warned my travel mates, Josh, Becky, and Hallie that I was probably not going to be the nicest person on this trip. They all lied at the end and told me that, “I did great.” Hah. Good liars…

So this is what we did (as a shiver consumes my body while thinking back to the trip):

-We woke up early on Friday morning to head out into the cold. I noticed that I could only be outside for no more than 5 minutes at a time. This was when I found that the left side of my hair had frozen. (This meant there were frequent, short stops in souvenir shops, KFC, McDonalds, etc.) Buff-o-Meter: Uncomfortable

-We took a horse-drawn carriage ride around a frozen lake, which was interesting. B-o-M: Mildly Uncomfortable

-We ate lunch at a little Russian Restaurant where we warmed up. B-o-M: Comfortable

-Strolled over to St. Sophia’s church. The Russian architecture was quite impressive. Thankfully, this was the only point in the day when we were in the sun. B-o-M: Slightly Comfortable and enjoying myself.

-Peeked in a ‘UAS Bucks Coffee.’ That name is all sorts of wrong. Enjoyed a hot coffee and the blood started flowing again. B-o-M: Happy and Warm

-Set out for the real deal, The Harbin Ice Festival. We got out there and popped in and it was seriously breathtaking. The sculptures, buildings, and lights were incredible. And I lasted 7 minutes. B-o-M: Pretty Uncomfortable...Really Uncomfortable.

-We were at the Ice Festival for a total of about 3 hours. Our time was spent taking pictures, going down ice slides, being cold, and camping out in the little huts they had set up around the place. Overall feeling on the B-o-M: Seriously, seriously cold. Never want to feel that coldness ever again.

Long, frigid story short: This was a once in a lifetime trip. Once in a lifetime means it won’t ever happen again. And I’m 100% OK with that. The Ice Festival was amazing and I couldn’t be happier that I got to see it with my own eyes. However, Northeastern China in the dead of winter is not the best idea for someone like me. I’m glad Hong Kong is the last stop before we return home so I have some toasty memories of China.

It’s freezing: Tianqi henleng

Suzhou

1/4/10

Happy New Year!

The sweetest of gifts was given to us for 2010: no school from January 1-3. We wanted to take advantage of the rare holiday from school, so we planned a last minute trip to Suzhou, a nearby canal town. Best of all, Helen and Elliot were going to meet up with us for the day. So the adventure began…

Hallie and I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to catch an 8:01 AM train to Suzhou. Our breakfast stop at Mister Donut and the 5-minute delay of our connecting Metro created a bit of chaos for us. (Hallie looked at me on the Metro and said we were going to have to, “Run, run Rudolph from Home Alone.” That was an understatement.) We got off at the Shanghai Railway Station at 7:56 AM and made a run for it. We flew through the security check, up and down flights of stairs nearly knocking people over, and got to the train with seconds to spare. Downing coffee and a donut became a quick regret before my all out sprint to the train.

After a somewhat leisurely/stomach-cramped 35-minute train ride (the movie, Taken, was showing in Chinese in our first class car of the train. Hal and I think the English-speaking train ticket lady is out for us, which is why she always conveniently hands over the expensive tickets. She knows we're defenseless with our limited Chinese. Ie: We're forced to buy whatever she sends our way), we arrived in Suzhou. We went straight to ‘The Master of the Net’s Garden’ to meet up with Helen and Elliot. The Garden was very small, but pretty. It seems like we chatted mostly about what we’ve been up to for the past two months. Exchanging stories about being sick and funny things our kids had done made time fly there.

Next, we went to the Twin Pagodas. It made me think about Sheridan and Jordan and how I miss them. The two pagodas are identical pink and yellow structures in the middle of a small, enclosed garden. We found a stone horse and had a photo session with it. It made all of us laugh too much I think. We hopped in a taxi to go to the Opera Museum, which was rather desolate. After, we walked to a big street and did some touristy shopping. Us three girls gave Elliot some advice on gifts to buy his Mom and sister.

After shopping we were all famished and found a dumpling place that embodied every bit of a fast food chain, but sold dumplings instead of hamburgers and fries. The place was packed and Helen fought tooth and nail for a table. While I know that yelling in Chinese is necessary, it’s still frightening. Haven’t gotten used to it. Lunch was nice and it gave us more time to catch up. We got our things and began walking towards the Silk Museum, but had to stop at KFC for some ice cream. We talked about how Chinese people make fun of fat people and it makes us very uncomfortable. The body image issue (especially for girls) is rampant here. Seeing someone slightly overweight is an extreme rarity.

On our way to the Museum, I had a very odd encounter. A gypsy child harassed me! She stuck her little paw in my jacket pocket and I immediately started screaming. And then I took off running. This tiny gypsy tot was running alongside me with her hand in my pocket. Too bad all she could grab was a used Kleenex. Hah, Karma. Everyone was laughing at me, but I was rather disturbed. It felt like a blur, but Hallie told me that her parents, the adult gypsies, were insisting on me giving her RMB. Not sure how I feel about those creatures…

Finally, we made it to the Silk Museum where Hallie and I had a rest outside while Helen and Elliot took a look inside (we were silked out from the Hangzhou Silk Museum that we saw in October with my Dad). Then we made it to ‘The Humble Administrator’s Garden.’ This was the big enchilada. It was a beautiful, massive garden filled with willow trees, pagodas, zig-zag walkways, ducks, Bonsai trees, rocks, and lots of Chinese people. It was one of those places that you feared closing your eyes because you might miss something. We weren’t keeping good track of time, but I happened to glance down at the Timex and saw that it was 3:45 PM. Our train was scheduled to leave at 4:35 PM. We didn’t need another close call, so decided to head to the train station. Of course we get outside to the main street and there are no cabs to be found.

After turning down a pedicab, which in hindsight we should have taken, we were walking. And walking some more. Helen, our American-born fluent Chinese-speaking savior, got some directions for us. The problem was we were already so far into no man’s land that we were going to have to take a round about way to get back. We said bye to Helen, who had to go to the bus station, and Hallie, Elliot, and I were on our own. We walked and got further away from civilization all while the clock was ticking. I looked down at my Timex and saw that it was 4:23 PM and thought, “There’s NO way we’re going to make it.” By some stroke of luck, we caught a lone taxi around this time and prayed we could make it.

Hallie and I fly out of the taxi, yelling goodbye to Elliot and we were Home Alone-ing it yet again. For the second time of the day, we were running, jumping, pushing, panting, and everything in between to catch our train. (Trains are never late, unlike planes. Glancing down at my watch and seeing 4:37 PM stare back at me, I knew there was no chance.) We made it to the platform out of breath to find that our train was not there yet. God was on our side that day. We hopped on the train. Joked about how we didn’t have to workout and had a lovely 35-minute ride back into Shanghai.

Runny Nose: Liu Biti