tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27722267500388080102024-03-13T12:48:42.559+08:00Land of the DragonTales, tribulations, and triumphs of a foreign teacher in chinaLaurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-64373520105490040512012-05-20T09:26:00.000+08:002012-05-20T15:56:47.221+08:00Countdown to Coors Light and Home!!<HTML>
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<br /><br />
Strawberry picking/pear flowers:
<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/April?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPHv8dfYgp_NnAE&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-asq_w8JUEpI/T414CKiVTKE/AAAAAAAAGmY/EBPNFR3MQWI/s160-c/April.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/April?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPHv8dfYgp_NnAE&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">April</a></td></tr></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-5510330053343493052012-05-16T10:57:00.002+08:002012-05-20T15:58:50.888+08:00Spring Travel, because it would be "a great adventure!"... right?<div style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">
One of the most common questions I get from my students and friends is:
<blockquote style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">
<i>"How do you get around? I mean, you don't speak or read the native language, and yet you still manage to travel."</i></blockquote>
Well let me introduce you all to <span style="color: red;"><b>My Little Black Book... of Chinese Travel</b></span>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N0p4W2PXxZg/T7Iq6yI6MyI/AAAAAAAAHOA/Hf7pcamdcE8/s1600/120515-135444.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-N0p4W2PXxZg/T7Iq6yI6MyI/AAAAAAAAHOA/Hf7pcamdcE8/s640/120515-135444.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I bought this handy dandy little guy the first week I moved into my apartment. I was grocery shopping at the little convenience store across the street and in the back there was a bin of these for 5kuai. I grabbed one figuring it would be handy to write out a little cheat sheet for reading common Chinese characters. Little did I know at that time that the tiny book would be saving my ass left and right from miscommunication with taxi drivers and my horrible sense of direction.
<br /><br />
When I travel I put everything in this little book. What train, what time it leaves, when it arrives, how much it costs, how to get from the train station to the hostel, the name of the hostel in Chinese with the phone number, and the major attractions of the area and what buses/subway lines will take me there. It's also been great for shopping. I get on taobao.com and find what I need then copy the Chinese name and price then pop into Taihe (the electronics high rise building) and show the first person I meet. More often than not I end up with some sort of impromptu personal assistant at Taihe. Taxi drivers always get a kick out of the book when I hand it to them with directions in Chinese and English for where I want to go.
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_kC53a77wAk/T7Iq6wh1CnI/AAAAAAAAHOI/BRfow3ZiwTQ/s1600/120515-134429.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_kC53a77wAk/T7Iq6wh1CnI/AAAAAAAAHOI/BRfow3ZiwTQ/s640/120515-134429.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Preparation for departing Shijiazhuang Airport/Arriving Shanghai Hostel</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Now that you all know my secret to (mostly) smooth and easy travel in China, I must confess recently I put down the book to have a try at my friend's (Tyler's) more adventurist way of traveling. Last week we made preparations such as trains, planes, and hostels for a week long trip to the south. He was going to be doing some business stuff in Shanghai while I was going to be visiting Hangzhou and scenic areas of Guilin. Other than jotting down some easy railway station to hostel directions I put the book away and was ready to wing it through the beautiful mountains of south China. The first day went well, we caught our overnight train to Shanghai and in the morning I pretty much walked right onto one of the hundred trains that runs between Shanghai and Hangzhou every day. An hour and a half later I was safely situated in a cozy hostel in the middle of Hangzhou so I set out for West Lake.<br /><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwnNcPghMko/T7HlUzVIrOI/AAAAAAAAGvM/q9plHxRBmW0/s1600/DSCF6118.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwnNcPghMko/T7HlUzVIrOI/AAAAAAAAGvM/q9plHxRBmW0/s640/DSCF6118.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Well turns out the lake was quite a bit further away than I thought, and I never actually made it all the way to the lake on foot, but I happened across the City God Pavilion and got to have a free fruit buffet dinner at the top while overlooking the lake at sunset. Halfway through dinner it clouded over/began to drizzle and there wasn't any sunset so I never got any really amazing pictures but it was still beautiful. In the morning I awoke to a torrential downpour. Much to my sudden dismay I realized I didn't have a coat, much less a poncho or umbrella. I went down to the desk to check the weather in Guilin and realized my lack of preparation had let me into a weather trap. Guilin was to be having severe thunderstorms for all three days I was to be in the city. I didn't want to go back to Shanghai without a few days of break from the big city feel so I decided to go through the hostel pamphlets other travelers had left. The only city I could find within a days travel which wasn't going to be underwater during the week was Huangshan. I called the hostel, they had beds and so I set out to return my train ticket for a quick 2 hour bus ride to this new city. The country side we passed through on the way was AWESOME.
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wgSz9Q982Ms/T7HmIkwa-1I/AAAAAAAAGxc/TIQ_izbP3_k/s1600/DSCF6139.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wgSz9Q982Ms/T7HmIkwa-1I/AAAAAAAAGxc/TIQ_izbP3_k/s640/DSCF6139.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
After an initial debacle finding my hostel (I walked past it three times) I got settled in and went adventuring. I was smack middle in old street market. There were all sorts of traditional medicine venders, nice traditional Chinese food restaurants, and people every third shop down practicing their calligraphy and painting skills. It. was. BOMB. (and there were so many cute doggies!!!)<br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kukULqUiWIM/T7Hni8pn9WI/AAAAAAAAG18/vbyFn3Rz_R4/s1600/DSCF6180.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kukULqUiWIM/T7Hni8pn9WI/AAAAAAAAG18/vbyFn3Rz_R4/s640/DSCF6180.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SO MANY TEAS!!!!!!!!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
I woke up the next morning and after breakfast went down to the front desk to find out what I could do for the day. I had read online about a famous mountain nearby (Mt. Huangshan/Yellow Mountain) and was eager to have relaxing day among the trees.
<br />
<span style="color: red; text-align: center;"> This was the first decision leading to what would later lead to my fat ass racing against sunset for safety</span>
<br />
So I bought a double sided city/mountain map for 4元 from the desk and set off for the bus station. At the bus station I simply mimed mountain with my hand and a woman grabbed my arm and escorted me over to a small bus and I hopped on. Sixteen kuai later I was on a quiet serene road twisting through tiny rice farms and villages, passing over crystal clear streams and every so often getting a glimpse of an oxen plowing a crop.<br /><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j1Wv0Sdbdas/T7HoaiJpbhI/AAAAAAAAG38/Pi0EkiKgA8I/s1600/DSCF6196.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j1Wv0Sdbdas/T7HoaiJpbhI/AAAAAAAAG38/Pi0EkiKgA8I/s640/DSCF6196.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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About an hour and a half later we emerged out of the mountains into a nicer town and people began to get off the bus. I realized I had no idea where I was supposed to be headed. I was looking for some large impressive mountain but saw nothing that really stood out. Finally we pulled up outside of an English travel agency and someone came to talk to me, he then directed them to what I guess is one of the main bus terminals for rides up to the base of the mountain. I hastily hopped off the bus and it took off. I walked across the street to a seemily deserted little building with one guy outside selling water out of a cooler. When I approached he was coordial enough and directed me to the bus ticket window. I pulled out my map to try and identify to which hicking entrace I wanted to go.
<br />
<span style="color: red; text-align: center;">This was the first time the thought that my map didn't match the mountain came across</span>
<br />
Eventually I decided to go to up the Yungu Temple and cable car station. It was expensive but all the tour groups were going up the hiking trail so I decided on the cable car. Best 80kuai I've spent in china.
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dT5u4nFhmJo/T7HqGJStTiI/AAAAAAAAG7s/J9s04sR5RZ8/s1600/DSCF6226.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dT5u4nFhmJo/T7HqGJStTiI/AAAAAAAAG7s/J9s04sR5RZ8/s640/DSCF6226.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Arriving at the top I was all planned to head west and go across the range to see the famous cliff hanging walkways... but I never made it. Due to my main landmark being on the wrong mountain peak on my map I headed off in completely the wrong direction. I ended up on the Beginning to Believe Summit first. It was breathtaking seeing the irregular stalagmite-like mountain peaks. By then I knew I was headed in the wrong direction, but I was still determined to make it to the Jade Screen Peak area.<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tmknF127qqw/T7Htdv7seZI/AAAAAAAAHDk/Rzss_qJ-x_c/s1600/DSCF6293.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tmknF127qqw/T7Htdv7seZI/AAAAAAAAHDk/Rzss_qJ-x_c/s640/DSCF6293.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The places at the bottom of the mountain are Fuxi Village, and Tangkou Town. I think.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So I doubled back and started heading west towards the TV tower that I knew I could follow to the mid-point. It took MUCH longer than I had expected, apparently I was tiring and was in turn walking at a slower pace. I arrived at the Beihai Hotel about 2pm (I had set foot on the mountain at 12:30). I took a small break and haggled for some water (down from 10kuai to 4. outrageous). From here I Headed for Brightness Peak (1840m) one of the top three peaks on the range. From there I would work my way over to the Illusion scenic area to see the Walking Fairy Land Bridge and Wusong catching the tiger peak (which was really the whole reason I came to the mountain). Things shifted quickly as my mostly relaxing hike turned into a truely endless uphill battle of stairs between Beihai Hotel and the Television Station. I climbed up endless sloping stairs for about a hour and a half before I came up at Brightness Summit, and it began to rain.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6tgbocTFyUA/T7HwK-hU2JI/AAAAAAAAHIs/01AblhrY7eQ/s1600/DSCF6334.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6tgbocTFyUA/T7HwK-hU2JI/AAAAAAAAHIs/01AblhrY7eQ/s640/DSCF6334.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<span style="color: red; text-align: center;">This is when I became certain my map was not accurate scale wise, or on its placement of markers</span><br />
The other problem was I could never locate the attractions listed on the mountain signs on my map, they were in fact not listed. I knew at this point I was cutting it close in regards to being able to take the cable car down, avoiding the 2 and a half hour downhill hike. So I began to double time it... in what turned out to be the wrong direction. I realized this after about an hour when I reached the next labeled attraction "Flying Over Rock". I stopped to ask one of the tour guides which direction I could take to get to "Jade Screen Station" very fast and he just gave me a worried look and pointed me in a direction so I started off that way. I arrived at the Meteorological Observatory at about 4pm. I had no idea it was so late, but was certain they would be shutting off the cable cars soon so opted out of the further away station for the cable car line I came up the mountain on. I knew it was about two hours away but if I jogged it I would make it... so I set off jogging. Easily the hardest thing I had ever done (up to that point) I went up and down and across two mountains arriving at the station at 5:20. It was closed.
<br /><br />
Panic began to creep in as huffing, puffing, and limping from the jog I searched for someone, anyone, who could point me in a direction where I could hike down off the mountain. According to my map it was supposed to be right next to the station but in fact it was on the mountain I had just jogged across, so back we went. Through the workers quarters and OVER a large fence next to a sheer cliff face drop (climbing all those livestock gates in my early years DID NOT prepare me for that). He led me to an area I had passed an hour earlier and pointed down a staircase I hadn't even taken notice of and said "1 hour 30". Near to a shear drop and stairs made for people with small feet. GREAT. [5:40]
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GGgFEcidUjY/T7L6mJMlWjI/AAAAAAAAHOc/elc-rcXC8zU/s1600/A-short-break-for-a-new-hike1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="440" width="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GGgFEcidUjY/T7L6mJMlWjI/AAAAAAAAHOc/elc-rcXC8zU/s400/A-short-break-for-a-new-hike1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">[not my picture] No handrail, just old old concrete. Often it was a good 4 or 5 ft. drop on either side.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So I started down the stairs with about 60% daylight left. Without my smartphone or a flashlight I was going to be in trouble if I couldn't make it down fast enough. I gave Tyler a call to let him know what was going on (and mostly so he could talk me down from a panic attack) and I set off. A steady pace about a step for each heartbeat. It wasn't long until I ran into some people. They didn't speak English but it was easy enough to mime "How long have you been climbing?" and to my horror, they said over 3 hours. It went on, and on, and on, and on, and on. An hour later full panic was beginning to set in. I passed a necessities setup half carved into the mountain face and as I jogged by he yelled some thing in Chinese. When I turned around I saw him holding a huge flashlight but waved him off as he shouted 40yuan in Chinese. When I turned to continue on he immediately lowered to 10 but there was no way physical way I was going back up two flights of stairs to get a flashlight. I was certain I would make it down, it had been an hour and the guy who showed me the stairs said an hour and a half. I had about 40% daylight and I was going to make it, though the thought he would have sold me the HUGE floodlight for 10kuai was quite troubling. He worked on the mountain and if he was that worried I was still going to be up here come nightfall maybe so should I...
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I continued on, increasing my pace but painfully aware of the toll it was taking. Finally there was a break in the trail and the steps got larger and more robust. I pulled out my China phone and called the hostel hoping to get some useful information out of them. [6:15 - 30% daylight] All they did was laugh and say that the sun set at different times each day. They couldn't be bothered to jump off the qzone tab for 5 seconds and get on weather.com or anything like that ya know. So I hung up, put some Fall Out Boy on and continued. Never stopping for fear I'd loose my rhythm and fall; or stop, realize how much pain my thighs were in and just fall over. As I bobbed along I started making plans. If I wasn't going to be able to make it to the bottom before nightfall I had to do something, but continuing on in pitch black down these stairs was just too dangerous. After sleeping on a Chinese bed for 9 months I was certain I'd have no trouble sleeping on the bare ground(in fact, it may have been more cushiony). I knew there weren't going to be any large predators on the mountain. Snakes are probably rare and the only thing I really had to worry about was if any of the small wildlife had rabies, or getting bit by some venomous insect. The biggest problems were going to be starting a fire, and my active imagination. Also, it was starting to get cold, and I'd been out in the rain all day in a t-shirt and shorts.
<br /><br />
Continuing along it soon became, "No just a little bit further, I'll hold out for a better rock overhang.", "I could totally make a shelter out of those carrier chairs...". Then it dawned on me what I really thinking about doing. I was going to stop, and try and hunker down outside in the rain for the next 9 hours of dark? No, no I was not. This is when I'm sure it got really strange for whatever wildlife was watching me from the trees. I was quickly loosing strength and determination... and in the words of Andy Balfor of True Blood - I went "all 'lost in the nature' retarded".
<br /><br />
I began yelling little quips of self motivation banter at myself (I was the little Ping that could, at one point), and with my legs starting to fail I was having trouble with my balance. So yelling, with my arms waving in the air, and making a loud "HUH" with every other step I kept my rhythm down the mountain. Then it happened, I could SEE the hiking entrance gate! [7:00 - 10% daylight]. I steped through the (thankfully) unlocked gate at 7:20 and though it was pit dark the parking lot had lights and I could see 2 or 3 workers milling around the area.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1pIQgqu8pLk/T7HpKwWPrYI/AAAAAAAAG5s/eJh6CjzGsGw/s640/DSCF6210.JPG" width="640" /></div>
<br />
This was one of the first pictures of the day that I took. Little did I know 7 hours later I was going to be standing at the top of these stairs, just after sunset, huffing, puffing and with legs trembling scream "HA" fall over on my but and laugh hysterically. No doubt worrying the few people in the area to the bat shit crazy foreigner. I crawled down the stairs on my but, and stumbled over to a nearby bench to call Tyler. We talked for about 5 minutes, he was convincing me to continue on to the mountain base to see if I could find a hotel in the village but I was hesitant about setting out down a windy paved road by myself with no light... really I just wanted to go to sleep on the bench. Never the less I hauled myself off the bench and began for the bus parking lot, only to discover the last bus had left - 2 minutes ago.
<br /><br />
A girl saw me hopelessly standing in the parking lot and as I began to sing and head down the path for a village she ran over to ask where I was going. I told her the village and she grabbed my arm and said there was a hotel near the tourist building. Turns out my 4ft tall 22 year old Chinese friend was actually traveling with her 2 friends around southern China on foot from some remote village out west, but her English was decent and so we chatted. We arrived at the entrance gate to the hotel only to find out from the not so friendly guard that they had "no rooms" but later the excuse became that they were closed (though I swore I could see lights through the trees). So the girl and I started back up the hill to the main entrance we'd come from, when we came across a policeman. She explained my situation and he was going to call me a taxi when a SUV pulled up to let someone out at one of the workers dorms, and the girl took off running. She caught the car and asked them to take me down to the village at the bottom of the mountain. With the policeman looming over me they hastily agreed and I hopped into a REALLY nice SUV next to a overly excited small Chinese kid with his mom and dad. Essentially I'd drawn the winning lottery ticket of China hitchhiking.
<br /><br />
It was a really awkward 30 minute ride down to the village and at the bottom I jumped out and said my goodbyes. I noticed they dropped me outside the police station at the bottom of the mountain so I headed in to see if anyone could direct me to a hotel but no one was inside (oh China). I had seen some huge fancy building up the street so I headed off that direction and into the first building I could find. I was in a nice, well decorated and well lit lobby. I spotted a convenience store and bolted for it. I hadn't eaten since breakfast at 9am and hadn't drunken any water since the small bottle in the middle of the day on the mountain. But I was thirstier than I was hungry, I grabbed three bottles of water and overlooked the food. Juggling the water I hobbled over to the front desk to haggle for a room. The lady spoke no English but I got across I wanted 1 bed and CHEAP. She pulled out a pamphlet and wrote prices next to the different rooms pictured. 700kuai for the single!!! A laugh and an "aw hell no" was my first response so I shimmied my money sleeve out of my wallet and showed her all I had in my wallet was 100kuai. She pointed at the ATM and I said méiyǒu. Frustrated she said okay, 200kuai and what I figured out was a 100kuai deposit. I was desperate so I went for it. I pulled out my money sleeve (much to her surprise) and handed over 300kuai. After a debacle with my passport (they couldn't figure out if I was in the country legally. Was I their first foreigner ever?) she led me up to my room.
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As I checked the room I immediately noticed they had quite the fly, gnat and insect infestation, but it was quite the upgrade from the mountain so I flipped on the TV. As I thumbed through the welcome book it dawned on me to check out where I was actually staying. There it was, right there on the front of the book, "Huangshan First <span style="color:red">Business Man</span> Hotel". I had upgraded my living situation from a mountain to a brothel. Suddenly the exorbitant price she quoted me for the room made sense, luckily after hobbling with me to the room and seeing the route I'd drawn on the map to keep track of where I'd gone she realized the only thing I was after was a good nights sleep.
<br /><br />
I got up at about 5am and camped out in the hotel lobby until they opened. I grabbed some bread and chips for breakfast and headed out on foot for the bus station. An hour later at the bus station I discovered, with translation help from my hostel, that the bus station only let buses up the mountain, not back to the city. In utter despair I let loose on the poor girl running the hostel desk phone about how they could run a business like a hostel when they didn't know anything about their most popular tourist attraction. I ended up apologizing later, but I was still stuck a hour and a half away from my luggage at this point though somehow I was supposed to be checked out of the place by noon and on my way back to Shanghai to meet Tyler and Ike. In the end I bargained out a taxi to take me home for 100kuai. Got back to the hostel about 10am, showered, checked out and got on my bus to Hangzhou where I could take an easy train into Shanghai.
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Barely able to go up and down stairs I navigated Shanghai to find Tyler and Ike for a foreign dinner and drinks. Never in my life had I been so happy to see a friend. Dinner was expensive but dammit I deserved that whiskey/coke, mac'n'cheese, and steak sandwich. Or so I thought. As if God decided I wasn't at rock bottom yet I woke up at 5am stiff as a board with food poisoning. I spent the next two days in bed reading just hoping I'd be well soon enough to go see the things in Shanghai that I had missed the first time. I hobbled out of bed on the third night to go and meet Ike and Tyler for the bar crawl. Apparently Beer Olympics had grounded Ike for the night but his friend Andy was in town for the night so we set out for bar crawl, which turned out to be my best decision of the trip hands down.
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So here I am, safe back in the Shiz. I feel like I've been gone for a month but really it was just 7 days. No doubt I needed the vacation. I'm starting to plan my summer traveling before I get home and I assure you, the black book will be full with every minute detail of my trip. I'll leave the adventuring to you adventurists, and the next time any of you hears me say, "I'm going on an Adventure!" just save me the trouble and shoot me in the foot.
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<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/SpringTravel?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOTj-56p5sytEg&feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-QTbI-OuGOVE/T7HhmsiedEE/AAAAAAAAHNE/8bk_56GyA7E/s160-c/SpringTravel.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/SpringTravel?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCOTj-56p5sytEg&feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Spring Travel</a></td></tr></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-57704918175735657852012-04-08T20:48:00.003+08:002012-04-08T20:52:37.860+08:00The Adjustment Phase<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">As many people well know I have spent most of my time here in China complaining. Either about my Waiban, my apartment, teaching, city life, or the government control over my internet. In effect, for the last 7 months and 21 days in China I have compared every challenge I have encountered with the idea of how or if I would ever encounter something similar back in the states. At some point “Oh china”, and “this is my life…” became daily catch phrases (along with “such as” and “have a rest”). Last week I even squared out some time to calculate how many weeks I have left in China. I was probably one of the first to book my plane ticket back to AMURICA, and yesterday I thought I would be one of the happiest to leave. <br /><br />
However, today as I sat out on the park bench and sketched the clueless construction worker napping in the grass underneath a nearby tree I started to think about what I would do my last day in China… and something strange happened. Somewhere down deep in my heart there was a tiny pang. Of course there was immediate panic and a (probably) verbal “What the fuck was that!” It was in fact, sadness. You see, somewhere during all that complaining and crying and anger and drinking, China crept up like a ninja and worked its way into my heart.
At some point, China became my new normal.<br /><br />
<b>It is normal</b><br />
<ul style="list-style-type:none;">
<li>…to be stared at</li>
<li>…for a child to cry (or pee himself) at the mere sight of you</li>
<li>…to hear “HELLO” from half a block behind you</li>
<li>…to travel everywhere with a tiny packet of toilet paper</li>
<li>…to have no clue what people are saying all around you</li>
<li>…to live with multiple “herds” of wild cats</li>
<li>…to not know what you are eating</li>
<li>…to communicate only though hand signals and grunts</li>
<li>…to haggle for almost everything you buy</li>
<li>…to go to the market in the morning and pick out potatoes while standing next to a cart of skinned pig/lamp carcasses</li>
<li>…to hear every sneeze, step, and conversation of your neighbors</li>
<li>…to hear fireworks before dark</li>
<li>…to live almost exclusively on noodles</li>
<li>…to hop across the street for a 9er of beer</li>
<li>…to play video games with friends and yell at 3am, but not get into trouble</li>
<li>…to wake up at 6am and get on a “school bus” (charter bus) with 40 other teachers</li>
<li>…to stand in front of a group of 40-50 people and instruct them on grammar, speech patterns, and debate</li>
<li>…to have your appearance be openly assessed by strangers with the “top-to-bottom
glance” that I’ve watched my grandmother practice for years.</li>
<li>…to be called “Teacher”</li>
</ul><br />
I’m certain I have complained about every one of these things, but at some point I stopped even noticing them. So in fact this list could have once started with “It is annoying”. In this light I have come to the conclusion that I have in fact entered what you could define as “the adjustment phase” of culture shock.
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h3 style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-bottom-width: initial; font-size: 17px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.3em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0.17em; padding-top: 0.5em; width: auto;">
<span class="mw-headline" id="Adjustment_phase" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Adjustment phase</i></span></h3>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-top: 0.4em;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Again, after some time (usually 6 to 12 months), one grows accustomed to the new culture and develops routines. One knows what to expect in most situations and the host country no longer feels all that new. One becomes concerned with basic living again, and things become more "normal". One starts to develop problem-solving skills for dealing with the culture and begins to accept the culture's ways with a positive attitude. The culture begins to make sense, and negative reactions and responses to the culture are reduced.</span></i></div>
</blockquote>
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<span style="font-size:20px; color: red;">Sure as hell took long enough! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻</span>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-47380497510427573922012-02-10T18:38:00.000+08:002012-03-05T03:59:34.274+08:00Videos from Winter Break<span style="margin-left: 26px;"><b>Shanghai</b></span>
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<span style="margin-left: 26px;"><b>Haerbin </b></span>[more to come]
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<br />Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-52271159354377145692012-02-10T18:30:00.000+08:002012-02-10T18:30:03.773+08:00Haerbin - The Winter Wonderland of ChinaThings I did in Harbin:
<ul>
<li>Regained my faith that not all of China sucks</li>
<li>Conquered my fear of walking on ice by unknowingly wandering out onto a giant frozen river</li>
<li>Nearly got blown up with fireworks</li>
<li>Got minor frostbite</li>
<li>Saw a polar bear</li>
<li>Experienced a village made of ice</li>
<li>Ate the best Shāokǎo in China</li>
<li>Became a pro at navigating bus routes</li>
</ul>
<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/Haerbin?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPmO9cv-x9ed5QE&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-VreM9xFrcUM/TzS8Kv4TZ_E/AAAAAAAAGbY/j5t1EyfoCuA/s160-c/Haerbin.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/Haerbin?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPmO9cv-x9ed5QE&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Haerbin</a></td></tr></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-63804651247702028692012-02-10T18:09:00.001+08:002012-02-10T18:09:22.876+08:00Xi'an - Winter Break Stop 3<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<h2>Friendlies!</h2>
After roughly two weeks of traveling alone I was definitely excited to see Tyler, Emily, and Alan. They however didn't seem to fair quite as well as I had. In short, Tyler had almost all of his money stolen, and he and Emily had crashed an e-bike in Bangkok leaving Tyler with 8 stitches and a hole in his ankle. Also upon their arrival I learned that Tyler's friend had in fact not been able to acquire a return ticket for us back to Shijiazhuang, so thus began the hunt for transportation back home. But you'll hear more about that later.
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<h2>Fireworks</h2>
Just as dangerous as mom always told me they were. Still just as fun.
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<h2>Terracotta Warriors</h2>
I thought this was going to be over-rated and boring but it was so cool! The sheer size of the pits is incredible.<br /><br />
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<h2>Huimin Jie (Moslem Street)</h2>
I could spend 2 whole days on this street. The food is cheap and super tasty and you can find any trinket you would want to buy in China. Oh, also lots of knives ^_^<br /><br />
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<h2>Doctor For A Day</h2>
Though I've never had stitches I think I did pretty okay cutting out Tylers. I mean, he only bled a little...<br /><br />
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<h2>Bell & Drum Towers</h2>
Neat, but not worth paying full price. Ask for the student ticket! Seeing Alan accidentally smack a Chinese child in the face: priceless.<br /><br />
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<h2>Xi'an History Museum</h2>
Cool, but REALLY crowded.<br /><br />
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<h2>The Quest To Return Home</h2>
Just thinking about recounting this adventure stresses me out. Pictures to come soon.<br />
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<td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/XiAn?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIG4v4Xtr7GuQQ&feat=embedwebsite" style="color: #4d4d4d; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Xi'an</a></td>
<td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/PlayingDoctor?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCMW8642W4cqxBg&feat=embedwebsite" style="color: #4d4d4d; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Playing Doctor</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-33584862521269793152012-02-10T17:37:00.004+08:002012-02-10T17:38:48.754+08:00Nanjing - Winter Break Stop 2<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<h2>Jasmine International Youth Hostel</h2>
I'd give this place about a 3/5. It was definitely built with the hot summers in mind because the restaurant/reading room/front desk/internet area couldn't hold heat at all. The staff was pretty nice and they had the cutest golden retriever named Batto. The rooms were way to small though, and I couldn't find any showers for the dorm rooms. Also, the food was really limited, super expensive, and not as good as the other hostels I've stayed at around China.
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<h2>Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Scenic Area</h2>
It was weird going straight from Shanghai to a scenic area but the peace and quiet was pretty awesome. Also, a good workout. <br /><br />
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<h2>Ming Tomb Scenic Area</h2>
In the same area as the Sun Yat-Sen memorial. The tomb itself was boring but the sacred way was line with really big animals sculpted out of rock. It was pretty expensive to enter the area but definitely worth it if you go exploring up to the lake and hot springs at the top of the mountain.<br /><br />
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<h2>Nanjing Massacre Museum</h2>
Interesting museum. Poorly lit but probably the best sculpture pieces I've seen in a long time.<br /><br />
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<h2>The Overnight T train</h2>
The most expensive bed I've stayed in in China but not so bad as long as you don't get the middle bunk (like I did).<br /><br />
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<tr><td align="center" style="background: url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left; height: 194px;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/Nanjing?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIfIoJGa__z7QA&feat=embedwebsite"><img height="160" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-H6f1anYWFlo/TyUVQBsRC7E/AAAAAAAAFTs/zV6qf9xHl-I/s160-c/Nanjing.jpg" style="margin: 1px 0 0 4px;" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/Nanjing?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIfIoJGa__z7QA&feat=embedwebsite" style="color: #4d4d4d; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Nanjing</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-4799719569930489562012-02-10T17:14:00.000+08:002012-02-13T13:30:35.503+08:00Shanghai - Winter Break Stop 1<div style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">
So after some initial debacles I was finally able to acquire a plane ticket to Shanghai and my train tickets from a travel agent in Beijing. I decided to scale down my winter travel stops because of a cold I caught during the last week of school so I only went to Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi'an and Haerbin.<br />
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<h2>
Chinese Air Travel</h2>
I began my trip on a quick 2hr plane to Shanghai, which should have been relaxing and easy... but in China nothing is ever relaxing, or easy. It turns out someone decided the best place for the Shijiazhuang Airport was an hour outside of the city, and seeing as my plane was leaving at 10 i had to be up bright and early enough to hail and cab, get out there, and figure out how to check in. It wasn't very different from American air travel except I may have been only one of about 4 people who had been on a plane before. Which was quite frustrating.<br />
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<h2>
Mingtown Etour International Youth Hostel</h2>
I'd give this hostel about a 4/5 stars. The location was perfect, the hostel itself was beautiful, but the staff weren't very helpful. Not that they were mean they just didn't seem to care that you were a customer or if your experience was pleasant or not.<br />
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<h2>
Peoples Avenue</h2>
I stumbled upon this gem my first night in Shanghai. Its underneath the people's park and it's a shoppers paradise. They had a whole bunch of nice clothes stores as well as some anime themed stores, electronics stores, and the general Chinese nic-nacs that you see being sold in Beijing a lot. They were also selling these ridiculous phone covers, which I actually saw a few girls with the next day on the subway.
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<h2>
Shanghai Museum</h2>
Easily one of the top 3 museums I've been to in China. The building itself is architecturally really unique (like most of Shanghai) and the exhibit's were well lit, organized, and labeled. I had read online the the bronze exhibit was really neat and it did not let down for sure. The collection of currency and the seal gallery were also pretty impressive. My single favorite collection had to be the tibetan masks on the top floor in the cultural minority arts gallery.
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<h2>
The Bund</h2>
My main priority on my second afternoon was to locate the Bund. Obviously I had missed the minor detail that my hostel was actually located right next to the Bund... but it was really awesome to wander around and check out the different types of shops on the streets and take in the unique environment.<br />
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<h2>
Pudong District</h2>
This was by far one of my favorite areas to just hang out in. The Pearl TV Tower is kind of obnoxious to look at but I found the rest of the Pudong district to be pretty cool. My favorite building by far is the Shanghai World Financial Center Building (the bottle opener). Plus it was only 2 subway stops away from my hostel :P
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<h2>
Shanghai Ocean Aquarium</h2>
Because where else would I be after being landlocked for 6 months? Pricey, but worth it.
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<h2>
Shanghai Subway</h2>
SO MUCH BETTER THAN BEIJING
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<h2>
Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Center</h2>
I didn't really have high hopes for this one but after vising I would say it's a must visit for anyone going to Shanghai. The model of the city blew me away and the short 360degree video on the future skyline of Shanghai is the best I've seen so far in China.
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<h2>
Shanghai Art Museum</h2>
It took me forever to find the entrance to this place and it ended up being a complete disappointment. They were WAY overstaffed and the staff were all talking and overall being disruptive. The collections were only so-so.
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<h2>
Oriental Pearl TV Tower: Shanghai History Museum</h2>
Probably my favorite museum in China. It was very well organized and really took you into old Shanghai. It was relatively cheap and didn't have hardly any traffic. Its in the basement of the Pearl TV Tower.
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<h2>
The Quest for the new SD card</h2>
In my infinite wisdom to buy a tablet computer and not lug around my big laptop for my winter trip I failed to realize I would not be able to clear out my camera's SD card every night...
I got about 3 days in before I had to start searching for a new card, and everyone I talked to had no clue where I would find one or how much I should pay. Luckily one of my Chinese roommates was a regular visitor to Shanghai and pointed me in the right direction. Thanks to her I now know where the Shanghai version of the Shiz's Taihe is, and it is AWESOME. I ended up paying 90kuai for a new 8GB SDHC card.<br />
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<h2>
Jing'an Temple</h2>
The contrast between the temple and the surrounding skyscrapers is definitely worth the visit (even when it's pouring outside).
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<b>Overall I think if heaven was located in China, it would be somewhere in Shanghai.</b>
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<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/Shanghai?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCP_Lz__ylfTW4wE&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9s-zTtEC6TY/TxLdGJ4_SNE/AAAAAAAAGh8/X6rU8TwufoE/s160-c/Shanghai.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/Shanghai?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCP_Lz__ylfTW4wE&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">Shanghai</a></td></tr></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-239856270277242272012-01-13T12:31:00.000+08:002012-01-13T13:38:52.797+08:00"Remember that time..." - A post to share the Christmas, and post-Christmas, craziness in China<div style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">
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This post is basically an attempt to catch up blogging on the recent shenanigans in China. It will be long. You have been warned.</div>
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<h2>Remember that time Emily forgot her passport and utter craziness ensued to make the train to Beijing?!</h2>
<i>AKA: The single most intense half hour of my life</i><br /><br />
As a frequent traveler in the states I have always prided myself on my organization, preparedness, and timeliness on trips. This however is a different story entirely. It began as a simple weekend trip to Beijing. In an effort to not arrive in Beijing at 11pm I had canceled my last class of the day and had about an hour to make it to the train station. In china this is plenty of time, as they don't often begin boarding the train until 15 minutes prior to departure and going through "security" is pretty much just forming some semblance of a line to shuffle through a metal detector (which is more than often turned off). The first thing I did not allot time for was the shuttle bus to my apartment to be 15 minutes late. I thought this would be a problem and promptly called Emily to see if she had already arrived. She was still on the bus but said traffic in our area wasn't to bad right then. <br /> <br />
<i>Now before I continue, let me explain Tyler's phone situation. He paid ¥120 for a phone he should've gotten for free. why? BECAUSE IT IS A P.O.S. THAT NEVER WORKS. okay.</i><br /><br />
I exited the bus outside of the middle campus and went directly to the street to begin trying to hail a cab. Flailing around in the street trying to get a cab to stop I heard my phone start ringing. The conversation went something like this:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Hello?</span> <br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler: Hey, have you left yet?</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: No, the bus from the new campus to the middle campus was late. I’m still at the middle campus looking for a cab</span><br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler:I'm - t- bus - on - Jie.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: WHAT</span><br />
*load noise*<br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler: I'M AT THE BUS STOP ON YUCAI.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Oh hey your phone is working!</span><br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler: I know, I hit it.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Well hey, I'm trying to get a taxi I'll come pick up you. I'll call you when I'm headed your way.</span><br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler: If I get one first I'll come to you.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Okay bye</span>.</blockquote>
After having two cabs pass me up after seeing I was a foreigner I all but jumped in front of the third cab. I hauled my backpack and messenger bag into the front seat with me and again my phone began ringing.
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<blockquote>
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Hello?</span><br />
Emily: Where are you?<br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: I'm in a cab, I'm getting Tyler, we should still make it on time but it'll be close.</span><br />
Emily:I need you to tell Tyler to call me it's really important.<br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Okay gotta go bye.</span>
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Suddenly I remembered I still hadn't called Tyler to tell him I was coming. It would completely be our luck that we both got taxi's and were headed to get the other.
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<blockquote>
*ringing, then dead air*<br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Hello?</span><br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler: -a -t</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: I CAN'T HEAR YOU JUST LISTEN. I'M IN A TAXI ON MY WAY TO YUCAI AND HUEBEI LU ABOUT 1 MINUTE. CALL EMILY RIGHT NOW. SHE IS UPSET ABOUT SOMETHING. GET YOUR DAMN PHONE FIXED. BYE</span></blockquote>
So we got to the intersection and sure enough there's Tyler on the opposite corner looking as frantic as ever. The taxi driver was starting to get pissed cause I wasn't telling him where to go so, in my total mastery of the Chinese language I just started pointing at Tyler and shouting "PENGYOU JAR, PENGYOU JAR". So Tyler sprinted across the intersection, hopped in the car, and gave the Taxi driver directions to...Emily's school? Here's how that conversation went:
<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Tyler the train station is the other way!</span><br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler: I KNOW WE HAVE TO GO GET EMILY'S PASSPORT AND WALLET SHE FORGOT THEM!</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE FORGOT THEM?!</span><br />
*tyler begins shouting "faster" in Chinese at the taxi driver*<br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler: She's calling somebody to let me in so I can pick them up.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me: Tyler we only have 20 minutes left.</span><br />
<span style="color: #93c47d;">Tyler: I know this.</span><br />
<span style="color: #f6b26b;">Me:fine.</span></blockquote>
So after a near death experience of our taxi driving crossing a 4 lane street on a red light, we arrived at Emily's school and Tyler took off running. After the longest 5 minutes ever he came running out of the gate. Passport in one hand, a giant wad of 100元 notes in the other. So we were headed across our district to the main train station...at 5:30pm on a weekday. Waiting in the traffic was brutal but I've gotta give our driver some credit cause he sure knew how to weave in and out of the main traffic bundle. We pulled up to the station and Tyler began to pay him and I got my bags situated and took off running. It was at this point that I realized I did not pack well for China. I was one belt to short, and loosing my pants fast, but at this point it was every man for himself. Tyler, the marathon runner he is, sprinted off to find Emily as I jogged my way across the parking lot and outdoor waiting area to the security line. Huffing and puffing I pulled out my ticket and began throwing 'bows and shoving my way through the crowd. I could see Tyler's head above the rest about four in front of me but no Emily. It was not until later that I learned he had used her as a battering ram to quickly traverse the security crowd.<br />
<br />
I made it inside and promptly called Emily to find out which waiting room we were departing from. I took off sprinting through waiting room one, looking like god knows what to the Chinese travelers. I got up to the ticket lady and all but threw my ticket at her to hole punch. I ripped it out of her hand and headed jogging to platform 4. I could still see a few people headed in the same direction and hoped the train hadn't left yet. I was almost certain I was going to arrive in time to watch the train pull away from the platform when out of no where in front of me a man turns around and asks frantically in English,"WHAT PLATFORM ARE WE ON". It's Byron! The train was scheduled to leave at 4:54 and I made it onto the train with one minute to spare. Easily the closest I've ever come to missing any trip.
<br />
<br />
I am certainly not the first to recount this experience on my blog. Both Tyler <a href="http://tylertoneil.com/wordpress/?p=1861">[click here for link]</a> and Emily <a href="http://emilykrst.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/i-own-beijing/">[click here for link]</a> have copies I believe. All I can think now is:<br />
<span style="color: red;">I would've paid good money to have been one of those random Chinese people in the Waiting room witnessing 6 foreigners almost miss a train to Beijing (and more importantly OUT of Shijiazhuang).</span>
<br /><br />
<h2>Remember that Christmas Eve we spent in the hostel bar?</h2>
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<br /><br />
<h2>Remember that that time that Canadian came up in Tienanmen and asked if we spoke English?</h2>
On Christmas day we decided to go over to Tienanmen sqaure to see Mao's body and kill some time. Now, there are foreign tourists every time i go to Tienanmen but I've never actually had one come up and initiate contact. As someone who is living here, I have adopted the Chinese repose to foreigners:
<ol>
<li> Immediately stop what your doing</li>
<li>Stare intensely and for as long as possible</li>
<li>Take a picture</li>
</ol>
You can always pick out the expats because they will stare back at you lol<br />
So Emily, Tyler, Megan(Tyler's sister), our English friends (from the video above), and I were walking along when this shaggy looking guy, around our age, walked up and asked if we spoke English. Probably a little overexcited, we quickly said yes and the boy inquired as to where he would be able to find a hostel to stay at. Yes people, he had come to Beijing without even figuring out where he was going to stay. So we directed him to our hostel, gave him their business card and told him we should meet up later for drinks. Upon returning to our hostel we found him napping on the couch. Later that morning we took him with us to the silk market. He hung out with us all night and he was really an interesting guy. Turns out he graduated with a degree is molecular science and then somehow ended up in Mongolia as a surgical assistant. As he put it, "I pretty much just hold people open". He had to come to China to get his Mongolian VISA renewed and then would be headed back north. He had been in China for pretty much the same length of time as us but seemed to be adopting to Mongolian faster than we were with Mandarin. When we asked when he would be going home he proudly told us he would be taking a cargo ship home, which would take about a year. Apparently it usually costs a lot of money but he wrote the CEO of the shipping company and got a trip for free. It would be a really cool way to see some port cities around the world, but don't worry Mom I have no intention of taking anything other than a plane back to the states.<br /><br />
<h2>Remember that Christmas Day we saw that famous dead guy?</h2>
I would say I had an eventful Chinese Christmas. Complete with gift shopping at the Silk Market and viewing the (mostly wax and eerily lit) body of Mao Zedong. Also, what brilliant Chinese person thought it would be a good idea to light his head up like and orange Christmas light??<br />
<blockquote><span style="color: #f6b26b;"><i>Oh, they must've put a decoration or something on the castket for... nope that's his head</i></span></blockquote><br />
<h2>Remember that time we closed out Christmas in the hostel bar, the American way?</h2>
Christmas night was a good one. We drank and played games in the hostel bar then saw Byron off back to America at 3am. I think I went to bed around 7am? I think...<br /><br />
<h2>Remember that time I ordered a new part for my Xbox and Tyler's sister brought it halfway across the world?</h2>
My new power brick finally made it to China! Thanks Megan ^_^<br /><br />
<h2>Remember that time my TV glowed and sparks shot out the back?</h2>
So last week my TV made a funny noise, shot sparks out the back and stank up my apartment like burned rubber and years of Chinese dust. I fully expected Li to brush this off, as it would still turn on but the screen was all rainbow colored craziness. So, I sent him a little more intense text message:
<blockquote>
My TV shot sparks and something inside caught fire. This is an electrical fire hazard and needs to be fixed immediately.<br />
</blockquote>
Sure enough two days later the fixit man (as Li calls him) was knocking on my door. In 30 minutes he disassembled my TV, found out what was wrong, and fixed it.
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<h2>
Remember that time I planned out my winter travel a month early, but did't start trying to get tickets until 3 days before departure?</h2>
oh china.
</div>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-66937061027166305192011-12-25T08:54:00.000+08:002011-12-25T08:54:07.305+08:00The Beijing Weird Food Market<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-47405148108765806912011-12-19T14:50:00.002+08:002012-01-13T10:11:28.722+08:00The night china shot down Santa. Sort-of.<div style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">
<h2>
Pre-Party Planning:</h2>
This last Saturday I attended my first Christmas party in China. It all started two weeks ago when the head of our English Language department sent an email to Max, Tyler and me asking us if we would be interested in attending a Christmas party thrown by the catholic based charity organization “Jinde Charities”, of which he is apparently a volunteer. Originally in this email he also asked what we would be able to do on stage. Apparently last year Lyn (a Drake student) and Leo (another foreign teacher at our school) sang a Christmas song which was apparently the highlight of the night <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMZIGRnMFf0&feature=related" target="_blank">[click here to watch on YouTube]</a>. He was obviously pushing us to try and do the same. The only difference is Leo came to China to sing professionally, so he is actually really good. I myself am not down with the whole “white dancing monkey” routine. I’m okay when the school exploits my race in small gatherings, like lunches and dinners, but this was a whole other level. Plus it wasn’t even University related! Nevertheless I decided to go. See, I actually like James. He is always friendly when he sees me, asking if I need help with anything and reminding me to call or email him when I need something. He can get things done in a timely fashion... like no other foreign language official I’ve met. Plus, he seems to at least understand when I freak about things such as imputing grades. The best part is he pretends to understand and care, even if he doesn’t, pretending is good enough for me.
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<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
So I sent him an email, confirming we would all be going even though we have no discernible talents, we would like him to find other jobs for us to do so that we can help in exchange for our dinner. I was expecting something like greeting people as they walked in, the email I got back suggested something different entirely.
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(1) Leo will sing a song in the party. He and Lyn were the stars of the previous party, and this year he will continue to shine.<br />
(2) Tyler is tall, and he may dress up as a Santa Claus. Then we will have the first "real" Santa Claus from the West in Shijiazhuang.<br />
(3) Max can serve as one of the hosts of the ceremony, and he can show off his Beijing Dialect. I'll try to help Max to eliminate any "Lao Wai" accent so that he can surprise the audience.<br />
(4) Lauren may take my son to sell the lottery for the party. Who will refuse a foreign lady "marched ten thousand miles to China" (bu yuan wan li lai dao zhong guo) to help the poor? Especially she's accompanied by an extremely handsome small boy. By the way, is Lauren Irish? The Irish ambassador and his wife will surely be happy to see two Irish people from U.S.
<br />
<br />
Please do bring your friends with you, and the Chinese priests and nuns will be encouraged that their work are appreciated by people all over the world. Thanks again.
<br />
<br />
Best regards<br />
James
</blockquote>
<br />
So, Tyler was to be Santa, Max was supposed to transform himself into a Chine MC, and I was to be a glorified baby sitter and ticket seller. Also, how did he pick up on me being of Irish descent and not Tyler? It’s a Christmas mystery.
<br />
<br />
<h2>
We Arrive</h2>
So Saturday rolls around and I grab a taxi to pick up Max at middle campus. Tyler was to meet us at the event as he had an English competition to judge. We arrive at the MASSIVE banquet hall building just as James is getting out of a taxi. So he takes us in, and apparently other than the rehearsing acts we are the first ones to arrive. Of course everyone wants a picture and so we take pictures, and then meet the priests. James informs me is baptized catholic, and many of priests have been educated in America so they speak good English. I’m not too excited about this, non-English speaking Chinese people are my favorites… mostly because I can talk about anything in front of them and they have no clue what’s happening. He sits us front and middle at neighboring tables as we get our ears blown out by a petit woman belting Chinese opera into a microphone.
<br />
<br />
Side note:<br />
I have to say that I truly believe the man working sound, has never before in his life seen a sound board. The overall levels were too high, you couldn’t hear the choir singing over the keyboard, and at one point mid way through the “talent show” he apparently couldn’t figure out which sliders were the host’s microphones because they were talking with no audio for about 3 minutes. I later saw the soundboard… it only had about 10 volume controls on it… and they were color coordinated with the microphone rings… but back to my story.
<br />
<br />
<h2>
Christmas is not about Santa, it is about Jesus!</h2>
So Max and I got to see them testing the lights and sound and such. Then it happened. What I’m guessing was supposed to be an introduction to the night in a short animated flash movie. The first time it played I completely missed it, but my attention was caught by the sound of a digital gunshot so I turned to look at the screen. It played, in its entirety, about 5 times (long enough for me to dig my phone out to record it) and then the man at the computer began replaying just the part where… THEY SHOOT DOWN SANTA. Luckily, I got it on film.
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<br />
I was surprised to see this. Mostly because I know guns are illegal in china, but also because my students (who I have discussed gun rights in America with) seem to be absolutely terrified of them. As an example, Tyler showed the film Romeo+Juliet in one of his classes and a student actually asked him if he was afraid to live in America, because everyone carries guns. Later in the week, somehow gun rights came up in my class. A student asked if I had guns, and of course I told them yes, but I explained licensing for ownership, and hunting licenses, and a license to carry a concealed weapon. This seemed to shed some light, as I guess many of them thought Americans just totted around shotguns on grocery trips, and family outings, and anywhere else we mystical foreigners go. Little did I know, the needless destruction of Santa’s sleigh would only be the first time that night my jaw would drop in utter disbelief.
<br />
<br />
<h2>
… And then <strike style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">she</span></strike> he spoke</h2>
There was a little drummer boy, an all girl ballet troupe, a Chinese opera singer, a choir, multiple art auctions, and a whole lot of lip syncing. Then it happened. The lights began to dim further, all the people from the back began to crowd the front, and a picture of a seemingly very traditionally dressed Chinese singer was projected on the big screen as a 5 minute prerecorded introduction in Chinese blared through the banquet hall. The music began to play and she appeared. Her hair and dress were beautiful; her face was painted white, and her grace was unmatched. I half watched, and half took the opportunity to eat while my obnoxious table mates were preoccupied. People were staring in awe as the singing continued, and finally it ended as she took a bow. The announcer came onto the stage and asked a question… to which HE responded. I shot up out of my chair as my jaw, once again, dropped to the floor.
<br />
<br />
Yes, the headliner for the catholic Jinde Charities 7th Charity Christmas Party was a drag queen.
<br />
<br />
I erupted in hysterical laughter as the Chinese people at my table stared at me in confusion. I don’t know if maybe they included this information in the introduction but it was definitely news to me. She did three performances, and I got some footage of the second and third.
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<br />
<h2>
On being an elf</h2>
So far James had not called on us to do anything, and I thought maybe we had lucked our way out but I was wrong. Soon James appeared to inform max and me that the director did not need us to mc or help with raffle, but instead to be Tyler’s “elves”. That’s right, I was Tyler’s “little helper”. Anyway, in America I probably would have been fine carrying a red sack full of cloth shopping bags (the gifts), but once again, I’m in china. The second Max, Tyler, and I turn around we are flocked by Chinese adults, not even children, with their hands out palms up, staring at us. Our instructions were to go around to the tables to hand things out, and this group of people was very insistent they were not going to move (all for a shopping bag?) And finally one of the organizers came to our aid as she waived them off and followed us around the banquet hall staving off other drunken adults. Tyler and Max got wrangled into a ton of pictures, but I think as “the angry one”, most Chinese people are too afraid to take a picture. Really people, I’m not permanently pissed off that’s just what I look like.
<br />
<br />
So from here on I am sure I will not be afraid of the Christmas parties people have been talking about. It seems bad at first, sitting with a bunch of insistent people who speak no English but wish to use you to improve their “face”, but in the end you come away with memories you will never forget. I think sometimes we forget that the journey is just as important as the destination.
</div>
<table style="width: 194px;"><tbody>
<tr><td align="center" style="background: url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left; height: 194px;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/ChristmasParty01?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNib2qijtMG2rQE&feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="160" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Zo9kONeYwvo/Tu7ggy8vzVE/AAAAAAAAB-Q/0Y_pQ6o_PWc/s160-c/ChristmasParty01.jpg" style="margin: 1px 0 0 4px;" width="160" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/ChristmasParty01?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNib2qijtMG2rQE&feat=embedwebsite" style="color: #4d4d4d; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Christmas Party 01</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-89483994708687691152011-12-12T23:21:00.000+08:002011-12-19T03:59:18.575+08:00Winter Travel Plansembedded pdf doesnt work in firefox, to view original file visit<a href="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B-GaEUHMVoVTMGRkOTZlYmEtYzUwMi00NGM2LThhMzktYjdlOTA1ZTM1NWJl&hl=en_US&hl=en_US" target="_blank"> [google docs]</a><br /><br />
<embed height="600" src="https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B-GaEUHMVoVTMGRkOTZlYmEtYzUwMi00NGM2LThhMzktYjdlOTA1ZTM1NWJl&hl=en_US&hl=en_US#toolbar=0&navpanes=0&scrollbar=0" width="800"></embed>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-9644554237471552072011-12-05T15:42:00.001+08:002012-01-13T10:15:13.831+08:00teacher...TEACHER! AH TEACHER!<div style="color: black; font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Word around the </span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><del style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">water cooler</span></del></span>
<span style="color: red; font-family: 'rock salt'; font-size: large;"> NUCLEAR PLANT</span></div>
<br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 24px;">
Life drags on in China. I’ve reached the point where not much surprises me anymore, and I really need to get back my sense of adventure. I’ve developed a daily routine and while that is good for my sanity it’s boring for my brain.<br />
<br />
<h2>
Yes, I hate the Chinese education system. No, I have not murdered any students yet.</h2>
Classes are good, now that the only class of heathens (the non English majors) is over, and you can rest assured the average grade in that class turned out pretty low. The final for the class turned out fairly interesting; because the school did not assign them a book I had to draw on another source to test their spoken English level. I settled on having them read a 5 minute section from different famous English speeches. The speeches I chose were:<br />
<div style="float: left;">
<ul>
<li>Barbara Bush – Wellesley Commencement Address</li>
<li>FDR – 1st Fireside Chat</li>
<li>FDR – Infamy Speech (Pearl Harbor)</li>
<li>JFK – Inaugural Address</li>
<li>Margaret Thatcher – This Lady’s Not For Turning</li>
<li>Nixon – Checkers</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="float: left;">
<ul>
<li>Nixon – Resignation Address</li>
<li>Robert F. Kennedy – M.L.K. Assassination Announcement</li>
<li>Steve Jobs – Stanford Commencement Address</li>
<li>G.W. Bush – 9/11 Announcement</li>
<li>Patrick Henry – Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death</li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Seemed simple enough, I posted .pdf files on my class blog for them to look over and at the beginning of next class each would tell me which one they wanted to read and I would assign them a certain number of words which they could pull from the online copy. Of course, in China, nothing can ever be easy. Chinese logic sometimes makes me afraid for the future of this country. I explained this to them and got every Chinese excuse in the book, “But teacher, I don’t have a computer…”, “Teacher, teacher, no printer…”, “Teacher, to busy, no time!” This problem was easier to fix than I expected though, apparently publicly humiliating and kicking out one liar was enough to kick the rest in line. It’s hard to tell me you don’t have access to a computer when you just had a conversation with me on QQ (not QQ mobile) an hour before class. Additionally, if I see you reading printed speeches for your competition while in class, it’s hard to tell me you don’t know where to find a printer.
<br />
<br />
Then came the next hurdle. I returned home that night only to be downright assaulted by a mass number of QQ messages from students saying they didn’t understand which section of the speech was theirs, in fact many were freaking out that they thought they would have to read a whole speech. And this is how I got harassed into creating 41 different word documents, one for each student containing their Chinese and English names, speech section and number.
I planned two class periods for them to speak and two class periods for teacher assistance. Essentially I wanted to read everyone’s speech so they could listen for rhythm, pronunciation, and emphasis but this just turned into me spending two 2hr classes giving the speeches they would give with no extra time for me to help them. I knew many of them would see this as an opening to invalidate this as their final and thus I began the hunt for video of these speeches that I would be able to send to them…inside of the great firewall of china…
<br />
<br />
Not surprisingly I was able to find the Nixon speeches and Jobs speech but nothing else was in sight. I ended up ripping the videos off YouTube and posting them on Youku. I wasn’t expecting much and was already researching other methods to get the video to the students when my videos on Youku actually went through review and were posted. So…if I ever disappear in China, we know why.<br />
<br />
<h2>
As a foreigner, you may feel lost and confused in China. It's not just you, the Chinese have no idea whats going on either.</h2>
<div>
<a name='more'></a></div>
Last week I sent an e-mail to a fellow teacher/Director of the Applied English department at my school, I asked if he could explain to me who I should turn my grades in to or how I should submit them. One of my classes had ended and no one had contacted me yet about the subject of grades, or testing at all for that matter. I set up an appointment and at 11:20 this morning I was knocking on his office door. I'm going to skip talking about the state of his office/bedroom/living quarters and skip right to the fact that I was expecting him to have at least some sort of prepared instruction for me on submitting grades, but no. He then proceeded for 30 minutes to fumble around on his computer trying to figure out how to log me into what I would explain to be the Chinese version of blueview. If the definition of insanity is repeating the same action and expecting a different outcome this man is <b>FUCKING CRAZY</b>. It was hard enough for me not to kick his rolling office chair from 1980 out of the way so I could run the computer. At a snails pace he typed and clicked the same things the whole time, before conceding and trying to call someone for help. When they did not pick up he turned to me, clearly frustrated with the fact that I was missing my bus, and said, "I think it's time for lunch, lets go eat something at Touch".<br />
<br />
So we had lunch, and the typically awkward conversation that accompanies lunch whenever I eat with school officials. After being harassed over and over with the fact that I should pursue my masters degree here in china and remain at the school to teach we headed back to his office. Upon entering I believe he called nearly everyone he knew in his phone book to come help us figure out how to input my grades into the system. Four other teachers showed up and 2 hours later they had finally figured out how to log me into the system, after confusing me with both Tyler and Max in the administration's computer system. After this, was a painstaking slow process of them trying to type up instructions in Word on how to do everything I had been watching them do all day, needless to say I didn't really need written instructions anymore.
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<br />
<div style="color: red; font-family: rock salt; font-size: large;">
AH, TEACHER ... <span style="font-size: x-large;">TEACHER</span></div>
<br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: inherit; line-height: 24px;">
Never, before teaching in china, could I have imagined all the different ways this phrase can be said, and the different meanings it could hold. So, I will break it down for those of you who don't hear this upwards of 20 times a day.
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<ol>
<li>First, there is the "<b>AH, TEACHER</b>" expression of utter surprise. Usually this is used by many students in unison and is either immediately preceded or proceeded by a loud audible 'gasp'.</li>
For example:<br />
Last week I encountered this first-hand when I entered my first class of the day and took off my giant insulated north face coat to reveal one of my 6 t-shirts (ya, i under-packed >_< ). I had barely gotten the coat off of my arms when I heard the whole class of 30 gasp dramatically and a chunk of about 10 kids scream "AH, TEACHER". Now, as a student I feel I would never have shouted something like this unless there was an immediate serious threat in the classroom, such as a student gunman...and this is immediately where my brain went. I had about 5 seconds of legitimate panic until I saw the first camera flash. They were taking pictures! Leave it to a class of Chinese students to find a way to dramatically over-react to a foreigner taking off a coat.<br />
<li>"Teacher..." said with an extended downward inflection is used by students to show their disapproval of either something you've said, or something you're wearing.</li>
For example:<br />
Recently while we were in Beijing one of the other Drake teachers bought a fuzzy winter had with fur on the inside, and knitted blue outside with pictures of moose circling the main part. I didn't think it looked to bad, not exactly something I would buy in the states...but it probably would've cost more than $6 at home. It looks striking similar to this one on amazon for $32:
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But the story goes, she wore it to class and the first day she walked in and a student just said "Teacher...", and since then it has been an ongoing barrage of disapproval. I say, if it keeps your head warm who cares? <i>The Chinese, that's who.</i>
<li>"<b>AH</b>, teacher" is said with a lot of emphasis on the "AH" and almost no emphasis on "teacher". I have no idea what this is used for and asking has not helped at all. I hear "AH" a lot when people here talk on their cell phone(another story entirely) and I assume it's some sort of affirmative noise everyone makes instead of just say "yes" or "ya" in Chinese. Though, when I asked my students about this they said it does not always necessarily mean "yes", it can sometimes mean "maybe", and they seem to think it is an acceptable way to answer the question "Do you understand?"...which I can assure you it is not.</li>
<li>Finally there is the ever popular "ah, Teacher", said with a rising inflection at the end to indicate a question. Because they've only known me for 2 and a half months but still don't know my name, or how to properly word a question.</li>
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All in all, god help anyone who even considers calling me Teacher when I get back to the states. I may just get a shirt with my name printed on it to wear around. Just a thought.
</div>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-2066159346098883492011-12-01T18:02:00.001+08:002011-12-01T18:04:32.466+08:00HEBUST - Main Campus<div style="width:800px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="800" height="533" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F100823442024762814681%2Falbumid%2F5681060378327429617%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCPv5iY_y_5yXew%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></div></div>
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<table style="width:194px;"><tr><td align="center" style="height:194px;background:url(https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/transparent_album_background.gif) no-repeat left"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/CampusShots?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPv5iY_y_5yXew&feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-m4hz8ch5nCM/TtcuUIXAsfE/AAAAAAAAB9I/3_6QO192eOA/s160-c/CampusShots.jpg" width="160" height="160" style="margin:1px 0 0 4px;"></a></td></tr><tr><td style="text-align:center;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:11px"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/100823442024762814681/CampusShots?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCPv5iY_y_5yXew&feat=embedwebsite" style="color:#4D4D4D;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none;">campusShots</a></td></tr></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-4309655566844866802011-11-17T15:29:00.001+08:002011-12-01T14:50:09.756+08:00My 1st traveling experience: Taiyuan (not taiwan damnit!) Day 3<div style="width:800px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><div><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="800" height="533" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2F100823442024762814681%2Falbumid%2F5675830970628063121%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCMuk14fHhNb8kgE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></div></div>
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</tbody></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-49623281416884200542011-10-21T16:12:00.000+08:002011-12-19T04:12:58.678+08:00My 1st traveling experience: Taiyuan (not taiwan damnit!) Day 2So the next morning I woke up to this: <br />
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My plan for the day was to hit up the twin pagoda temple, grab dinner and come back to the hotel. Needless to say, this IS NOT how it went down. It was more like...travel halfway to temple, freak out, hail a cab, cabbie gets lost, go off-roading in a Chinese cab, finally arrive at temple, take a thousand pictures of the most awesome pagoda's in Taiyuan, trek back to my hotel by foot, engage in spontaneous shopping spree, scavenge dinner at Dico's, pass out in comfy hotel bed at 8pm.<br />
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So, I had fully planned out what buses, I needed to take for the day. Little did I know a 2-block area around the temple was under construction and had stopped all buses to the temple, and most of the buses in the same area. Before leaving my room I again looked on Google at the route and was confident it should only be about a 30-40 minute bus ride. So I walked about 10 minutes to the bus stop and got on one of the most pleasant buses I've ridden in china so far. As we neared the train station (the halfway point) the bust began to make a noise and the driver pulled it over to the side and ordered everyone out, of course I didn't understand this because I don't speak Chinese, but eventually a lady came over and told me in English that this was the end. This made me VERY confused, because I knew there were supposed to be another 5 or 6 stops. Reluctantly I got off, but I knew the area around the train station well and knew I needed to go NE to the temple. I walked for about 15 minutes before I realized it was super hot and I really wasn't down for the trip. I had the name of the temple written in Chinese so I hailed a cab, but when I showed the cab driver he said no and told me to get out. This was the same with the next three cabs. I gave up and went into the nearest international hotel to see what was up. When I showed the name to the desk clerks they had no idea was I was talking about, it took about 10 minutes before I gave up and just drew a picture of a pagoda and said "lian ge" and they immediately understood. They said it was too far to walk but wrote something in my book and said to give it to a taxi driver. The first taxi agreed to take me. Looking back I don't know if the first few knew there was construction and wouldn't take me, or if they really just didn't understand...but finally I had a taxi. So after 15 minutes of driving he turned down a rather questionable looking street (with lots of construction) and it became apartment that he wanted to turn left but couldn't because the roads were shut, so he just kept going forward. Finally we found a left and he drove up a windy road to a large gate and I could see the two pagodas to be what looked like only a 5 minute walk or so. So I paid and got out, to a GIANT flower arrangement of a sickle and a hammer...I was pretty confused. So was the guard who ran out screaming in Chinese at the cab driver. I just stood there totally lost as what I'm sure was the guard giving directions to the cabbie on where to go, and the cabbie not really wanting to listen. So, frightened, I got back into the cab...and so began my first off-roading experience in China...in an old cab. We drove through the rather uneven construction site for about 10 minutes until we came to a dirt road which led to an alleyway, which coincidentally led to the temple. He didn't charge me, which I was glad because after having him take me first to what I’m sure was a head of government building/training facility I probably wouldn't have paid him.<br />
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The most awesome thing though was that because of the construction almost no one was visiting the temple!</div>
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So after a few hours at the temples I decided it was just about time to leave. I knew their probably wasn't going to be any taxis around because it was later in the day so I walked to the nearest bus station. I lucked out that the bus stop sign said there was a bus that I knew stopped near the train station, and there was a group waiting so I hoped at least one bus was still running in the area. I waited, and waited, and waited some more but nothing came. Finally I struck up a conversation with some girls who looked to be near my age. They spoke a little English and were able to tell me that the bus I wanted wasn't running even though they still had it on the sign. When I asked where I could find a main street to get a taxi they turned to the group of about 30 Chinese people and it took all of them to figure out where the nearest main road was lol it was hilarious. The group was mostly older Chinese factory workers, as there was a clothing factory right next to the temple. Eventually they gave me a street name and pointed me South East. So I began walking. After not being able to find the street they had recommended I decided I was going to try and retrace the route the taxi had taken, which led me down one of the scariest streets I'd seen in china...</div>
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Possibly the most vacant and creepy large Chinese street I've been down. So I walked down this street for a while, and took my first left. I had turned onto the busiest street in town I'm sure. There was no room to walk on the sidewalk so I was literally following around a man dodging cars in the middle of the street. I knew I was on the right path but still had a ways to go as I was not even at the halfway point yet, so I decided I would browse the street venders and see if I could get any good deals. I ended up with this:</div>
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The train ticket I got from the train station with the help of a seemingly nice Chinese man and daughter...but we'll get to this later. So the rip off kappa bag and spring loaded pocket knife cost me a whole $7, oh china, so expensive. So it took me almost two hours to meander through the street markets before I really started heading for home. Turned out I was really only about a 15 minute walk from the train station, so I decided to go ahead and get my ticket home for the next day.<br />
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I approached the gigantic station and walked around the front for about 10 minutes before I gave up on finding the ticket office and decided to give the automated ticket machines a try. So far Chinese technology has been pretty intuitive and I new my train number so it shouldn't have been hard. The English language button helped too. I had everything sorted out and the final step was to scan my id card...but my passport is so old it doesnt have the chip like the new ones. I asked the lady standing next to me if I could use my passport, what I mean is I pointed and the screen then at my passport. She went over to a man who I'm guessing was her father and he came over and said "let me help you, you can use mine", so I was like okay whatever. So he swiped his id, I put in my money and my ticket popped out and I was all set...or so I thought. Later I was comparing my first ticket to my second ticket and noticed my new ticket has some extra Chinese characters on it where before my passport number was present. Then it dawned on me, it was his name and id number on MY ticket. So I was like great, I can try and get a refund and buy a new one, or just go for it and hope they don't notice I'm not Chinese...<br />
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Basically after this discovery I was way to worn out to do anything else for the day and just went to bed.</div>
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</tbody></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-58482421914672030932011-10-20T18:21:00.000+08:002011-10-20T18:21:06.334+08:00Shijiazhuang Video - Daily Commute<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-3762598518942358862011-10-09T23:42:00.000+08:002011-12-01T18:14:31.823+08:00My 1st traveling experience: Taiyuan (not taiwan damnit!) Day 1So last week i popped onto google maps to decide where to go for national holiday. I got a week off from school but i didnt want to be gone the whole week, and i didnt want to go to far for my first venture out into china. I found travelchinaguide.com to be an amazing site. Not only did it help me pick a place but i also pulled information on sites of interest and an example touring schedule! However, after this trip i now fully understand why NO ONE in china plans anything in advance. A couple of days before leaving i got my ticket<br />
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Google helped me discover i was in car 15 seat 5, which was awesome because i was at the back of the train with a window seat! So I awoke @ 5am on October 3rd, and with my planning book and backpack in tow i set out to make it to Shijiazhuang North rail station. There was nobody on the street which was awesome because it took me far less time to hail a cab than i had planned (yes i even timed this out). So, I arrived at the train station an hour early....which turns out is way to early for china.<br />
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there were only about 30 people present in the waiting room for three high speed trains all leaving within 2 hours. About 30 minutes beforehand the crew went through the doors (which were chained shut), and with 15 minutes until departure they opened the doors for us to board. The train was super long, and was much more spacious than an airplane.<br />
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It was remarkable how quickly the topography of the land changed from flat cityscape to mountains. It was really beautiful!<br />
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It also felt like it took forever for us to get up to speed. So an hour later i arrived at the main rail station in Taiyuan. When i saw the shiz north, i was like "why was i worried this place is so easy to figure out", well the taiyuan rail station was about 3 times the size of shiz north and with 10x more people. Basically i just followed the horde and hoped for the best. I had planned to buy my return ticket before leaving the station for my first temple visit but bypassed this when after 15 minutes of searching i had no idea of where the ticket windows would be, and no desire to bother asking, i would just figure it out later. So i arrived in Taiyuan at about 9:20am.<br />
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I had my notebook of what i needed to do. I was to walk across the street to the third bus stop and take bus 848 a little over 2 hours south-west of Taiyuan to Jince park and temple. So begins the trouble, there is no bus 848. There was a man flagging the buses where to pull up for people to board. so after some flailing of arms i just yelled "zai nar ba si ba?", thank god he understood. he asked "Jinci" and i nodded, and with the help of two other Chinese people i was able to determine i was to get on bus 804...so i just went with it. I literally fought my way onto the bus. Reagan high school finally came in handy, the only thing i ever learned there was how to viciously navigate a crowd. I got pushed back to the exit doors and we took off, with them open. So i stared at the ground going past me at 40 miles an hour for about 20 minutes until someone in the back was able to yell loud enough for the driver to hear them. China.<br />
An hour and a half later i start to realize we have really left the city and are now in rural china...and how the hell am i supposed to know what stop to get off at!!! Well luckily a family behind me asked someone the same question, eventually they determined it was only 4 more stops. The father noticed i was staring intently nd then yelled in english "FOUR MORE STOPS". you know, because yelling always helps people understand lol. So the bus unloaded near the park:<br />
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So interesting entrance to say the least, but the inside was AWESOME (minus the hords of chinese tourists)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I forgot to reset my camera phone settings so everything is way over saturated and exposed :P</td></tr>
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So after 3 hours and 30kuai to much for a bowl of noodles i was on my way back into town. I got back on the same number i had taken to the temple and could see from the map above the exit door it was headed back to the railway station which was perfect for me. I plopped down in a seat...and fell asleep. Unfortunately i went nearly two stops past the one i had planned to get off at. So i wondered out into Taiyuan. My hotel online looked like it was on a super busy street so i headed near where the rest of the crowd was headed. After stopping in a large hotel i had directions to the street my hotel was supposed to be on, i found the street and spend a good 2 hours walking up and down it asking people in they new were number 38 was...of course no one did. I hopped in a taxi and he didn't know either, i showed him the hotel chain's logo and he called someone on the phone and we took off. Once again, i ended up at the wrong hotel. Luckily another bellhop was friendly enough to help me hail a cab and tell the driver where to go, which took almost 45 minutes due to all the traffic. National day holiday travel is crazy! Turns out i had walked past the hotel a few times but because it was in a multi-business building i did not immediately recognize it. The hotel was super nice, and the Chinese bed was even cushy! I knew they existed...
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After a few hours of rest in the hotel i ventured out for dinner but got lost again and just ended up eating at the hotel restaurant, which was conveniently located catty corner from my room.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">this was dumplings and fried rice. needless to say the shitty bowl of noodles didnt quite cut it for lunch. i was starving.</td></tr>
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<br />Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-13970537143018850712011-10-09T22:38:00.000+08:002011-12-01T18:16:03.509+08:00Getting a haircut in china<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This only requires two
things: luck, and a picture.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So I figured, really, when am
I going to find a better time to tryout a new haircut than while in china? I
have a year to grow it back to what it used to be, and the Chinese can't stare
any harder at a foreigner anyway, so it’s not like anything’s going to change
when it comes to standing out. I started out with some research. I literally
just Googled "getting a haircut in china". I was completely amazed at
the amount of material I was able to find, the reviews however were very mixed.
It was about even between good and bad experiences and I knew picking the right
place was going to be the main factor in my success. I thought about it for a
few days and decided on a place I passed every time I went to get </span><span lang="ZH-CN" style="font-family: SimSun;">包子</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> (a steamed bun with meat or veggies
inside, pinyin: baozi). They were always blaring English pop music so I figured
someone had to speak a little English. After dinner with Emily and Tyler I
headed over to it. I walked in and stood in the doorway for a bit, before being
beckoned in by what I guessed was a receptionist, I showed her my translations I
got from my students and the picture of the cut I was going for I had put on my
phone.</span><br />
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<img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MvEA9rKOlqs/TpGns5FzfOI/AAAAAAAAATQ/JP7z246A7pA/s320/111009-213820.jpg" width="320" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So she walks off, meanwhile I’m
reading their board. Matching words I know with the ones in my book. Basically
I gathered a haircut was gunna be about 25kuai. More than I had read about
online, but really I’m not going to bargain down a $4.00 haircut. She came back
with another guy, who proceeded to start typing away on his computer. He turned
the screen around and the English translation haircut came up, like he didn’t
understand that in Chinese? I nodded and he turned the screen back and began
typing away again. When he was done 58kuai popped up on the screen. I made a
confused face and pointed at haircut on the board and "25" next to
it. I don't think he expected me to be able to translate. This was the first
time someone actually tried to scam me outright. I told him in Chinese,
"wo shi ba, bu ar shi wo"? He just stared so I shook my head in
disapproval and walked out. On my way I’m guessing the man who was the head
stylist approached me, and said hi in English. I just laughed and told him bye.
So like everything in china I was now just wingin' it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I do hate how you can never
find a store when you need it, but when you don't need it you see them
EVERYWHERE.</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZdsNNeDXK4/TpG3uI79SHI/AAAAAAAAATg/PqiC0MFoKzI/s1600/IMAG0578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_ZdsNNeDXK4/TpG3uI79SHI/AAAAAAAAATg/PqiC0MFoKzI/s640/IMAG0578.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I knew for a fact there was
one across from the back gate to our school so I headed up there. It was
getting late almost 9:45 so I thought they might be closed, and when I arrived
it looked like they were getting ready to but I just walked in anyway (
>_> ). There was a middle aged woman, and a man who I assume was her
husband and a little boy who was about 7. Between my bad Chinese and her bad
English I determined she understood what I wanted. I asked her how much and she
said 10kuai, more than what was advertised on the sign outside but I also knew
she was going to be doing a lot of work lol. I’m sure it’s different cutting
western hair, and a western hairstyle, than the typical Chinese college student
style. So I agreed, much to the little boys dismay, he obviously was ready to
go home. He kept yelling at his father that he was Chinese and I was American
but other than that I couldn't understand. When I asked him what his name was
in Chinese he all but turned into a ghost, and hid from me the rest of the
time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So it began. First she washed
my hair (with god knows what kind of shampoo but it dried my hair out for
days). Then she began cutting, every now and then she would stop and say
something in Chinese. To which I would smile and say "wo bu dong" and
just pointed to shorter or longer in my notebook. After a while I kind of
drifted off daydreaming. I was jarred back awake to the sound of the hairdryer
turning on, to which I just about freaked. My hair DOES NOT need any help
standing on end, trust me. So this woman now thinks I’m terrified of hairdryers
I’m sure, but she got the jest of "don't blow dry my hair". My
initial reaction was, "holy crap she cut my hair like Justin beaber",
of whom I’m not so fond...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So this is how she cut and
styled it:</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CsAL3qI7EgU/TpGt4KpIdnI/AAAAAAAAATU/uU-80D_EqEE/s1600/110921-233311.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CsAL3qI7EgU/TpGt4KpIdnI/AAAAAAAAATU/uU-80D_EqEE/s640/110921-233311.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">She kept trying to get my
hair to lay flat; all I could do was laugh. However, this is the straightest I’ve
ever seen my hair so I can’t say she completely failed. Sometime soon I will
have to invest in a hair straightener as I kind of like it (and its
predictable). Anyone that knows me knows that this is DEFINITLY not what my
hair naturally does, and I could not expect it to do this every day so I had to
come up with an alternative. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This is what I woke up to the
next day:</span><br />
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As unhappy as I was the night before with the haircut, it’s
hard to be sad or angry when you find out your hair naturally stands on end (I
must get this from my dad). After some fussing and product I ended up with
this:</div>
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So it took 3 or 4 days, but I totally love my haircut now
(even if the left side is 2inches longer). Most days I just wake up and shake
my head, which totally beats pulling it back and wearing a hat. So, if you
decide to get a haircut in china and you think you've made the biggest mistake
ever, just give it some time. It grows on you, just like china ^_^</div>
</div>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-91390915492390861692011-09-24T13:00:00.000+08:002011-09-26T22:09:05.405+08:00My life fits in two rolling bags. My life story fits in a 15 minute power point presentation.So I have now officially started all of my classes. On week two I started my sophomore level 3s, on week 4 I started my freshman level 1s, and on the hellish week 5 I was introduced to my first and only class of non-English majors which are the only kids I have more than once a week (cue sarcastic yay).
<br />
<br />
My first class ever was my Wednesday sophomores. Needless to say I was terrified walking into a room of 40 Chinese people staring. I only had 2 boys in this class and about 4 invaders who were mechanical engineering majors, come to gawk at the foreigner. I had everyone break into groups and while I went around speaking with everyone I noticed they didn't have the book. The girl sitting next to them said they weren't in the class, and after I started speaking to them rapidly in English asking what they were doing in my class it seemed as if they couldn't pack up their things quickly enough to escape lol. So class began and I soon realized I was WAY under prepared. I couldn't figure out how to open the projector and decided to just wing it...which didn't work. Luckily my students were super sweet and filled up most of the time just chatting with me about America, and what I had been doing in china so far. I wrote all my contact info on the board, including my QQ number which elicited a resounding chorus of laughter from everyone. Overall this class is golden; they are all well behaved and avid in participation. Thankfully they're in the middle of the week, a nice break of the chaos that goes on Monday and Tuesday. My Friday sophomore's are much shyer but I can see ideas starting to brew when I ask them questions. The class is huge (56 people) so I can understand why participation is much lower with them than with my other English major classes. They're more challenging to wrangle because it’s the last day period on Friday but they're starting to catch on.
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<br />
My English major freshmen are all pretty funny. I am the first foreigner most of them have ever spoken with and as such this illicit great statements like, "Did you know Shijiazhuang is the capital of Hebei?” why no i just popped over here to china, you know we don't have such information in the states, with the open internet and such. They're kind of adorable, in a puppy/kitten kind of way. They soak up information like sponges and it’s funny to hear them all repeat something I say in a whisper when they encounter a word they don't know. Then again this phenomenon occurs in all my classes, it's the only way I can tell when they don't understand something.
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<br />
My non-majors are the equivalent of the class from hell. I can plan and plan all day and still have 30 minutes left in class when I’ve gone over everything. They don't care enough to ask questions or participate, even when I come around to small groups. I swear if I try to catch another one of them trying to take a picture while I’m walking around the classroom I’m banning cell phones from class. The worst thing is I have them two days in a row for two hours a day, and on the second day I don’t even have a projector. I'm fairly certain they are the reason I go to beer so quickly.
Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-88295524810577607022011-08-28T13:45:00.000+08:002011-09-20T13:48:15.895+08:00In China the value of friendship is measured by how much Baijiu you can drink.So there I was. In a t-shirt and cargo shorts in arguably the nicest private dining room I’d seen since I got china, watching my Waiban frantically order food. I had remembered to take off my hat, and put down my hair…never mind that I put it back up 5 minutes later, after deciding it resembled more of a Christmas tree than a hairstyle. People began to enter. First was a head teacher, then a teacher from the power and energy department, then some officials from the school, and finally the party officials from the government foreign affairs office. At their entrance everyone stood and therefore so did i. Observation was going to be my best tool in this I could already tell, only 3 of the people spoke decent English. This was indeed my first “holy crap I’m in china” moment, then TO MY GREAT RELIEF, in walked Tyler; My fellow teacher and sort of Chinese speaking partner in crime. Between him and what I could remember from online research I do not believe I made any major faux pas. At first I did not drink baijiu with anyone but was then pretty much coerced by the teacher from the power and energy department. It wasn’t that bad but I have no idea how the rest of the people were taking upwards of 10 shots of it. Though about five minutes later it was obviously having quite the effect, especially on the vice president of the foreign affairs office from our school lmao, he was crazy. So after countless toasts, blessings, and presenting gifts to the directors from the government foreign affairs office the almost nightmare was over. What started out horrifying had turned out fine, though the drinking and nervous atmosphere really made me desire a shower O_oLaurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-3245590509007324982011-08-25T15:00:00.000+08:002011-09-26T22:15:24.360+08:00Moving Day!<br />
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<span class="apple-style-span"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So last night was the last hurrah for everyone to be here in
Shijiazhuang. Sadly I slept through dinner with our director Kirk but awoke to
noise that was obviously my group partying in the hallway (which reminds me I
still haven't blogged about my lunch with the Chinese officials? now
how did I forget that!). Henceforth I went to investigate. Upon entering I was
greeted by Sean with a bottle of baijiu, some
terrible Chinese "vodka", and a Tsingtao. Gotta love
friendly drunks. I got my first karaoke experience courtesy of the KTV in the
basement of the hotel. We were only there for about 15 minutes but it was still
fun. After this some of us headed out to Mazzo. I was inside for 5 minutes
before I left feeling like I had experienced a mild seizure. Outside I
found Kirk and some other people. It was a nice relaxing night, plus I got hear
some of what other people were expecting from this experience and what they
were planning on doing afterwards.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Woke up this morning with quite the headache -_- now realizing I
could've had a use for that 500 count bottle of aspirin I bought freshman year
but never finished off. Tyler and I were greeted by Li Wei (our Waiban) nearly
an hour early in the breakfast room, seriously? Luckily I packed
before heading down for food. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Now, up until this point I felt pretty comfortable in China. The
first two days I just spent touring Beijing, after that everywhere I went I
knew Kirk was just a taxi away so no real panic. Before being picked up by Li (I
think this is his family name, but it’s more comfortable than just calling him
Wei, so I’m sticking with Li...) I thought hey, this guy knows I’ve never been
to china before surely he'll be helpful and understanding. From what I had
learned all of our Waiban's had arranged time to take us to get cell phones and
show us our apartments and really just talk about contracts and stuff today,
well I was wrong. Tyler (the other Drake teacher) and I got downstairs to a van
that Li was apparently borrowing from someone (?) and really up until this
point I not met a single person who had not been at least somewhat helpful with
my luggage but this was too much for him I guess. I loaded my two giant bags in
the back then climbed into the van to help Tyler get his stuff in...Cause I literally commandeered
the whole trunk of the van lol. We were off...to what I thought was going to be
our medical exams, but no Li had a lunch appointment first. So we spent a good
20-30 minutes sitting in the van outside the restaurant...then we were off
again, but not to the exams instead to my apartment. Once again I received no assistance
from Li with my baggage (all 2 carry on and 2 50lb rollers), in fact he even
told Tyler he should wait in the van. Well thankfully for me Tyler had manners
enough to help. I’m on the fourth floor, and no there isn’t an elevator but
they also aren’t very common in china anyway. Now, I knew not to expect much
but I was not expecting this. The living room, bed room, and office are good
but it soon deteriorates. In fact I’m certain I will be renovating the bathroom
at some point in the next 10 months. If nothing else a fresh coat of protectant
on the wall (I think that's a giant colony of mold on the bottom of
the walls but I haven't really gotten up the courage to investigate).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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After a once over and some paper signing we were off, no not to our exams, to the police department. Frantically Li gathered our passports and ran in. Five minutes later he ran out, now even more frustrated. He didn't seem to want to answer our questions and after prompting him for the 3rd time about cell phones he informed us we could get our own and he had important things to do. After this is was decided we were not going to have exams until the next morning at 9am, he would meet us at the hospital, the name of which he wrote down for us so we could get a taxi in the morning. He left us at Tyler's apartment, and so Tyler and I set off to find my apartment. Which turns out is only a 20 minute walk but we wandered around for about an hour and a half. Luckily he speaks some Chinese and was able to ask for directions. So now it's cleanin time bitches!Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0My New Home38.032077 114.526308338.0305135 114.5238408 38.033640500000004 114.52877579999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-21742326348818650312011-08-22T14:30:00.000+08:002011-09-13T16:09:20.898+08:00My First Saturday in China<br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So after the first day of Chinese language lessons our director
sent us on a mission to team up into groups of four, find dinner and haggle for
a t-shirt costing no more than 5kuai. All of this sounded fairly easy and so my
group members and I set out on an adventure. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have never in my life, had such a hard time finding a
questionable t-shirt vendor in a country where street markets are so common.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After taking off down a half demolished alley we
still hadn't found a vendor with t-shirts. Underwear, toilets, and
shoes seemed to be very common but no t-shirts. After rounding a corner near Main
Street we finally came by one, but it became immediately clear we
were not getting any t-shirt for less than 5kuai lol. We haggled with the woman
for about 10 minutes after which we had gotten her down to 20kuai for 4
t-shirts but we said no and walked out onto the main street. We soon returned,
realizing she may have been the only T-shirt street vendor. She then raised her
price to 20kuai for 1 shirt, and turned back onto the alley-way. We still had
some time to kill because one of our group members was partaking
in Ramadan and couldn't eat till the sun set. He was the only one
brave enough to approach the pool stick wielding Chinese woman near
the outdoor jimmy rigged pool tables, and thus we soon became great local
entertainment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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After what was easily the longest game of pool I've ever played, and a stroll
back down the alley it was dinner time! We ended up in a nice looking
restaurant, which coincidentally was a hot pot! Which means there were also
pictures of the food...which is handy when you don't speak Chinese...<o:p></o:p>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took a total of 5 waiters to take our order, and while it
seemed like a hassle it was sure entertaining for them. They had
seated us at the front table, a spectacle for everyone to behold, westerners
trying to eat a meal in china. The cashier woman was especially entertained,
she openly laughed and took pictures but I didn't really mind.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All in all I gotta say I still think we got the best bargain, free
pool in a demolished Chinese ally-way. That experience is gunna be hard to top.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0Fuhua Hotel38.049594954615749 114.5466756820678738.048031954615752 114.54420818206788 38.051157954615746 114.54914318206787tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-48409909266159638792011-08-18T13:00:00.000+08:002011-09-05T23:30:42.370+08:00First Day in ChinaI have never used the expression FML so many times in one day. I woke up at 3am on the 16th to drive into San Antonio to depart, I arrived on the 17th at about 5pm in the airport and thought I had adequately prepared myself for my first day in china...SO NOT PREPARED. I had no problems in the airport but the second I stepped on the arrivals area I was totally lost, and I'm sure looked like the easiest scam ever.<br />
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Mistake #1: Accepting help from seemingly well dressed very insistent strangers<br />
The second I started down the sidewalk looking for the taxi queue area I was approached by a professional looking man who spoke some broken English. I said "taxi" he said "free airport shuttle". I had printed directions to my hotel from the airport in Chinese from google.com/cn and he read them and nodded. I followed him a few minutes then spotted a group of taxis. After waiting about 10 minutes for this "free shuttle" I decided I probably needed to figure out how to take taxis anyway and I really just wanted to go to bed, so I headed over to them. I handed them my piece of paper with the directions and the group of 5 Chinese men took a couple of minutes I'm guessing to discuss where it was (it was only 13-15 minutes from the airport right off the expressway). After they came to a consensus the guy with the paper looked at me, I asked how much USD, he apparently didn't understand this so I said U.S. and showed him a dollar bill, and he said $100. I laughed and said $20, by the look on his face I think he didn't expect I was going to haggle with him. We continued to haggle until I got him down to $25, which I think was still rather high but whatever. I agreed and the men put my bags in the back of one of the taxis. At just this moment the man from earlier who was with the "free airport shuttle" rushed up and began yelling at the taxi driver, of course I had NO idea what was going on lol so I just played on my phone.<br />
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Mistake #2: Letting myself be pushed around <br />
When they stopped yelling the taxi took my bags out of the car and the shuttle guy led me back to the curb, after which a very old white shuttle pulled up that said "100% perfect airport shuttle" on the side though I could barely read it from the weathering. I got in this thing greeted the driver and in a few moments we were off. I was following where he was going on the English version of my directions and was not really paying attention to what we were passing...and therefore didn't realize we had passed the Days Hotel and had turned off down a backstreet further down. In an enclave there was the entrance to a hotel, which did actually look like the only picture I had been able to find online of the outside of the Days Hotel. A bellhop helped me get my bags to the front desk at which I encountered an associate who spoke NO English. I said I had a reservation and pointed to the Chinese translation in my phrase book. She looked at me funny and asked for my passport. I handed her my passport and watched her fill out a little piece of paper, after which she photocopied my passport and handed me a carbon copy of what she had written down. She handed a key to the bellhop and he escorted me to the room. Upon entering I noticed an intense smell of smoke. I really didn't care I just wanted to sleep.<br />
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After settling in my luggage I began to explore the room. The DVD player had no parts inside, the sheets were stained, it was definitely not a western mattress, and the full length mirror was clearly half caulked into what used to be the doorway of a two room suite. I walked into the bathroom with some surprise, the whole bathroom was the shower, and had apparently not been cleaned in a while. This all seemed strange but I overlooked this and took a sleeping pill and laid down on the non-stained side of the bed. Two hours later I awoke much more calm and conscious. I began to really scrutinize, having worked in a Days Inn owned hotel I know firsthand how they brand EVERYTHING, from the towels to pens in the room. I saw none of this in the room and for the first time it had dawned on me, I was definitely in the wrong hotel. I grabbed my backpack, my hotel directions, and my phrasebook and headed downstairs. I eventually came across a bellhop who understood what I was trying to convey and immediately flagged a man over, with whom I negotiated a $5 price to take me all the way to the front desk of the hotel on the paper. I was skeptical when I got in the car with him seeing no displayed taxi license or meter, turns out he was just the friend of the bellhop lol but he got me there. I was fortunate for the rest of the night my next taxi driver was very kind though he didn't speak a word of English, the phrase book/dictionary really came in handy. He successfully got me a refund at the first hotel and got me and my bags back to the Days Hotel, where the rooming situation looked much more like what I had seen online and THEY HAD INTERNET. After over 24 hours of travel I had finally arrived lol.</div>
<br />Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2772226750038808010.post-41345808864331589092011-05-24T12:08:00.000+08:002011-05-24T12:09:34.977+08:00Artwork of the Week<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NMkpaoMjJ3E/TdsrEtTYM6I/AAAAAAAAACQ/a-U0sCI8WTc/s1600/Sliver_of_Blue_by_yuumei.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NMkpaoMjJ3E/TdsrEtTYM6I/AAAAAAAAACQ/a-U0sCI8WTc/s640/Sliver_of_Blue_by_yuumei.jpg" width="279" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://yuumei.deviantart.com/">Yuumei of Deviant Art</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Laurenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06206668762864294814noreply@blogger.com