One of my best friends is studying in England at Durham University at the moment, and she has a blog where she has been chronicling her exploits. I felt a little guilty that I have not been posting anything to this blog, even though I said I would, so I figured I ought to try and start the ball rolling again.
So, recent events would be:
I got married on October 23rd! That is Mole Day; for those of you wondering why, think back to high school chemistry.
I am once again working at a high school in south Jersey. I love my job.
I had considered going back to China this summer, but for our honeymoon, it seems like my husband and I are going to plan a cross-country trip to see friends, family and national monuments. That should be some interesting fodder for the blog. I hope.
In future posts: ancient history trips that I have taken previously!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Tuesday, August 10 - Huangpu Boat Ride
This evening, Allan and I took a boat ride up the Huangpu River in Shanghai. It almost didn't happen, because it became a bit of a production at one point. I had asked Allan if he would like to come with me, and last week I went and got some information about tickets from one agency. I told Allan about the information that I got, and he said it was fine, but then, yesterday, Allan said he wanted to ask a friend and get a bit more information. As I've said, Allan is always scheming how to get it so things best benefit him. I just shrugged and let him do whatever.
So, this morning, Allan said that he had asked his friend, and he said that we wanted to take a certain boat and Allan had decided that we had to take the 7 pm boat because that was right at dusk and he had to go early in order to get the tickets because they would sell out right away. Meanwhile, we are in the middle of our afternoon English corner and Mary and I are trying to get the kids talking about art, and he is pulling me out of the room to tell me he's going to go right now (1:30) to buy the tickets and he would call me when he had them and then I would meet him there.
I was kind of annoying, and at that point I almost regretted asking him to go with me, but I shrugged and went with it. After class, I went back to my apartment to wait for the phone call. Around 4, he called and gave me some of the sketchiest directions I had ever gotten on where to meet him.
Luckily, he had also copied the map and the address that Hugh had given him, so at least I was able to periodically show the Chinese characters to people and have them point me in the right direction.
I got off the train at the Yuyuan Garden stop at about 4:40 and spent the next hour and a half wandering up and down Zhongsang Road, trying to find the goddamn boat. Hugh had recommended the boat that is a twenty-freaking-minute walk down the street, and people I asked were even confused about where exactly it was. My instructions had been to meet up with Allan before 6:30, because that was when we were supposed to line up to wait to get on the boat.
At 6:15, I finally found the ticket booth for the boat that Allan had described in his extremely sketchy directions. But did I find Allan? Noooo, of course not. So, I spent the next 10 minutes getting harassed by guys trying to help me buy a ticket, who couldn't understand that I already had a ticket, I just didn't have it with me. The same guy came back three different times, persistent bugger that he was. I appreciate that they're trying to be helpful, but jeez, take a hint!
By 6:25, I was ready to either scream or cry. I was hot, sweaty, tired from walking, and tired of waving off overly-helpful Chinese men, and I was just about ready to throttle Allan, when I saw him round the corner. I ended up feeling so relieved that I had found him that I didn't do any of those things. I just said "You're the worst direction-giver ever!" and we ran for the line for the boat.
And after all that, I have to admit... Worth it. Our boat was HUGE. Five floors, with wood paneling and gold paint, two giant dragon heads on the front and a roof-top bar where Allan and I say and drank Tsingtao beer, while we watched the sun go down. It was pretty epic.
Once the sun had set, the boat left its moorings and we took a leisurely cruise down the river past the buildings of the Bund. At night, all the buildings are spectacularly lit up and the breeze from the river was wonderful.
We spent a very congenial hour getting slightly tipsy and then when the boat docked, we strolled aimlessly until we found a cab and took it home. In the end, I am glad that I asked Allan to come. Even though it was a bit of a hassle, his incessant desire to find the best possible outcome for himself wound up benefiting me as well!
So, this morning, Allan said that he had asked his friend, and he said that we wanted to take a certain boat and Allan had decided that we had to take the 7 pm boat because that was right at dusk and he had to go early in order to get the tickets because they would sell out right away. Meanwhile, we are in the middle of our afternoon English corner and Mary and I are trying to get the kids talking about art, and he is pulling me out of the room to tell me he's going to go right now (1:30) to buy the tickets and he would call me when he had them and then I would meet him there.
I was kind of annoying, and at that point I almost regretted asking him to go with me, but I shrugged and went with it. After class, I went back to my apartment to wait for the phone call. Around 4, he called and gave me some of the sketchiest directions I had ever gotten on where to meet him.
Luckily, he had also copied the map and the address that Hugh had given him, so at least I was able to periodically show the Chinese characters to people and have them point me in the right direction.
I got off the train at the Yuyuan Garden stop at about 4:40 and spent the next hour and a half wandering up and down Zhongsang Road, trying to find the goddamn boat. Hugh had recommended the boat that is a twenty-freaking-minute walk down the street, and people I asked were even confused about where exactly it was. My instructions had been to meet up with Allan before 6:30, because that was when we were supposed to line up to wait to get on the boat.
At 6:15, I finally found the ticket booth for the boat that Allan had described in his extremely sketchy directions. But did I find Allan? Noooo, of course not. So, I spent the next 10 minutes getting harassed by guys trying to help me buy a ticket, who couldn't understand that I already had a ticket, I just didn't have it with me. The same guy came back three different times, persistent bugger that he was. I appreciate that they're trying to be helpful, but jeez, take a hint!
By 6:25, I was ready to either scream or cry. I was hot, sweaty, tired from walking, and tired of waving off overly-helpful Chinese men, and I was just about ready to throttle Allan, when I saw him round the corner. I ended up feeling so relieved that I had found him that I didn't do any of those things. I just said "You're the worst direction-giver ever!" and we ran for the line for the boat.
And after all that, I have to admit... Worth it. Our boat was HUGE. Five floors, with wood paneling and gold paint, two giant dragon heads on the front and a roof-top bar where Allan and I say and drank Tsingtao beer, while we watched the sun go down. It was pretty epic.
Once the sun had set, the boat left its moorings and we took a leisurely cruise down the river past the buildings of the Bund. At night, all the buildings are spectacularly lit up and the breeze from the river was wonderful.
We spent a very congenial hour getting slightly tipsy and then when the boat docked, we strolled aimlessly until we found a cab and took it home. In the end, I am glad that I asked Allan to come. Even though it was a bit of a hassle, his incessant desire to find the best possible outcome for himself wound up benefiting me as well!
Monday, August 16, 2010
Home again!
Well, hello America, nice to see you!
I'm back in the States; I arrived on Saturday the 14th at 9:30, after leaving Seoul, Korea on Saturday the 14th at 7:30 and flying for 13 hours. Weird, eh? I count that as time travel, I don't care what you say!
Anyway, don't forget about me over here because I have more adventures from China to share, and, like I said, I'm hoping this will be a travel blog for my life past China as well, so I will be making posts about any other travel adventures I have, even if they are not outside the country.
I also think that in slow stretches where travel is not possible, I will post memory blogs about times that I have traveled in the past, before I made this blog. So, never fear! I will keep updating!
I'm back in the States; I arrived on Saturday the 14th at 9:30, after leaving Seoul, Korea on Saturday the 14th at 7:30 and flying for 13 hours. Weird, eh? I count that as time travel, I don't care what you say!
Anyway, don't forget about me over here because I have more adventures from China to share, and, like I said, I'm hoping this will be a travel blog for my life past China as well, so I will be making posts about any other travel adventures I have, even if they are not outside the country.
I also think that in slow stretches where travel is not possible, I will post memory blogs about times that I have traveled in the past, before I made this blog. So, never fear! I will keep updating!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, August 9 - Happy Birthday Singapore!
Just finished watching the live feed of Singapore's 45th anniversary as a nation celebration. My friend Alvin is from Singapore. They had a giant music, dance, and fireworks display, and a parade of all of Singapore's armed forces might that then traveled all across the country so that people in neighborhoods around Singapore could see the vehicles. It was a large and very impressive display. One thing I noticed, though, was that Singapore's president is a pretty grouchy guy. They only time I saw him smile was when he greeted the people wanting to shake his hand as he was leaving. But hey, Happy Birthday Singapore and Happy National Day to Alvin and the people of Singapore!
Monday, August 9 - Weekend in Hangzhou, Part 2!
When we woke up on Sunday morning, we went down to the complimentary breakfast. It was interesting to see the spread- they had eggs and french fries and donuts, and then they had green beans and cabbage and lomein as well as rice porridge and steamed dumplings and another dozen or so dishes, none of which looked particularly breakfast-like to me. The variety fascinated me, and I tried a little bit of almost everything.
After we checked out of the hotel, we took a taxi back to the restaurant where we ate the night before to meet up with Luna's dad again. An interesting note: When we flagged down a taxi, two of them stopped, and we got into the second one. When we stopped at a traffic light, the taxi we had not chosen pulled up next to us, rolled down his window, and yelled at us. Did I break some kind of code of taxi etiquette by picking the second taxi?
Either way, the taxi we did pick dropped us off and a few minutes later, Luna's dad arrived. He had his bike with him and we walked until we found a bike rack and Luna and I rented a couple of bikes again.
The plan was to ride the bikes out to the XiXi Wetlands and then bike through them. It was pretty far and it was very hot that day, and I am not used to riding a bike that far, but I was feeling pretty good and I was enjoying seeing the city and the breeze on my face.
The Wetlands are beautiful and peaceful. I've noticed an interesting trend in China, where there will be speakers playing traditional Chinese instrumental music in parks and things. The wetlands had this too. I also enjoyed riding through the wetlands because, periodically, there are signs posted with messages like: "Wetlands: Water, Life, Culture" and "Care for Environment, Benefit Humanity." There are a number of stopping points along the path, with helpful little signs that tell you it would be a good spot to stop for a photo and, of course, because we were with Luna's dad, we stopped at every single one of them so he could take a picture of the two of us. We also stopped at the little gift shop village to take a look at the dragon boats that are kept there. They were making another candy specialty of the area, so I bought it and got myself full of some kind of caramel thing because I didn't know how to eat it. I tried watching the five-year-old who got a candy before me for a clue, but he wasn't much help because he didn't mind getting himself all sticky. Luna's dad took a picture of me failing before he told me how to do it properly.
We biked to the end of the park and back again, then took the road back into the city. By this time it was around 1 o'clock and they asked if I was hungry. I was getting really tired, so I said I didn't know, but they tried to find a restaurant anyway. We wound up eating at a KFC, where I got french fries and an ice cream. The KFC was insanely crowded. KFC was the first foreign fast food chain in China and it is SUPER popular. I'm not sure why, but Chinese people, especially kids, love to eat KFC.
After lunch, to my dismay, we continued biking. Originally, the plan was to ride to the Botanical Gardens and see them before heading back to the train station. I had no idea how long we had been biking for, but at this point, I was so tired that I started muttering curses to myself- cursing the bike for only being one-speed, cursing the various hills for not all being down, cursing myself for being so out of shape- and I fell far behind Luna and her dad. They would periodically stop and wait to make sure I could catch up, but they would always pull ahead again. I didn't want to complain, so I just doggedly pushed on, hoping we would stop soon.
After what felt like forever, I realized that we had ridden far away from the lake itself and so at a red light, when I caught up to Luna, I asked her where we were going and she told me that it was almost time for the train, so we were riding to the train station.
Oh.
We were close, though, only a few more blocks and the station came into sight. We rode another block looking for a bike rack that had open spots to return Luna's and my bikes. At this point, I had a headache and I'm sure I was dehydrated. Luna's dad went into a nearby supermarket and bought us some water. I asked if we could sit for a few minutes and rest.
That's when Luna's dad noticed that I was hella sunburnt. The line where my shirtsleeves were during our ride that day was very distinct. He found this very funny, so we took a picture. I asked how long we had biked that day...
30 kilometers. That's 18 miles! No wonder I felt like I was going to die! I am so not in shape enough to bike 18 miles in a day! But hey, I did it. I'm not planning on doing it again anytime soon, but I did it!
After I was able to move again without collapsing, we walked into the train station and prowled around until someone else got up to leave, and we pounced on their seats. I fell asleep during the train ride home, and I can tell you, I have never been so glad to see my shower and my bed.
I loved my weekend in Hangzhou, and there is still so much I haven't seen. I never got a chance to go to the other famous temple, I didn't get to see the Botanical Gardens or the silk factory, I didn't get a chance to visit the tea village that is nearby, where they grow longjing cha (dragon well) tea, and there are dozens of hiking and biking trails up into the mountains around the lake. I could have easily and happily spent another few days in Hangzhou. I'd like to go back again and also take one of the boats for a ride on the lake, in addition to all the other things that I missed. As it comes time to leave, I realize all the things that I have not had a chance to do, and it makes me want to come back next year so that I can.
Also, as we were leaving, Luna and her father invited me to go to their town, Jiaxing. So that's another opportunity that I could take!
After we checked out of the hotel, we took a taxi back to the restaurant where we ate the night before to meet up with Luna's dad again. An interesting note: When we flagged down a taxi, two of them stopped, and we got into the second one. When we stopped at a traffic light, the taxi we had not chosen pulled up next to us, rolled down his window, and yelled at us. Did I break some kind of code of taxi etiquette by picking the second taxi?
Either way, the taxi we did pick dropped us off and a few minutes later, Luna's dad arrived. He had his bike with him and we walked until we found a bike rack and Luna and I rented a couple of bikes again.
The plan was to ride the bikes out to the XiXi Wetlands and then bike through them. It was pretty far and it was very hot that day, and I am not used to riding a bike that far, but I was feeling pretty good and I was enjoying seeing the city and the breeze on my face.
The Wetlands are beautiful and peaceful. I've noticed an interesting trend in China, where there will be speakers playing traditional Chinese instrumental music in parks and things. The wetlands had this too. I also enjoyed riding through the wetlands because, periodically, there are signs posted with messages like: "Wetlands: Water, Life, Culture" and "Care for Environment, Benefit Humanity." There are a number of stopping points along the path, with helpful little signs that tell you it would be a good spot to stop for a photo and, of course, because we were with Luna's dad, we stopped at every single one of them so he could take a picture of the two of us. We also stopped at the little gift shop village to take a look at the dragon boats that are kept there. They were making another candy specialty of the area, so I bought it and got myself full of some kind of caramel thing because I didn't know how to eat it. I tried watching the five-year-old who got a candy before me for a clue, but he wasn't much help because he didn't mind getting himself all sticky. Luna's dad took a picture of me failing before he told me how to do it properly.
We biked to the end of the park and back again, then took the road back into the city. By this time it was around 1 o'clock and they asked if I was hungry. I was getting really tired, so I said I didn't know, but they tried to find a restaurant anyway. We wound up eating at a KFC, where I got french fries and an ice cream. The KFC was insanely crowded. KFC was the first foreign fast food chain in China and it is SUPER popular. I'm not sure why, but Chinese people, especially kids, love to eat KFC.
After lunch, to my dismay, we continued biking. Originally, the plan was to ride to the Botanical Gardens and see them before heading back to the train station. I had no idea how long we had been biking for, but at this point, I was so tired that I started muttering curses to myself- cursing the bike for only being one-speed, cursing the various hills for not all being down, cursing myself for being so out of shape- and I fell far behind Luna and her dad. They would periodically stop and wait to make sure I could catch up, but they would always pull ahead again. I didn't want to complain, so I just doggedly pushed on, hoping we would stop soon.
After what felt like forever, I realized that we had ridden far away from the lake itself and so at a red light, when I caught up to Luna, I asked her where we were going and she told me that it was almost time for the train, so we were riding to the train station.
Oh.
We were close, though, only a few more blocks and the station came into sight. We rode another block looking for a bike rack that had open spots to return Luna's and my bikes. At this point, I had a headache and I'm sure I was dehydrated. Luna's dad went into a nearby supermarket and bought us some water. I asked if we could sit for a few minutes and rest.
That's when Luna's dad noticed that I was hella sunburnt. The line where my shirtsleeves were during our ride that day was very distinct. He found this very funny, so we took a picture. I asked how long we had biked that day...
30 kilometers. That's 18 miles! No wonder I felt like I was going to die! I am so not in shape enough to bike 18 miles in a day! But hey, I did it. I'm not planning on doing it again anytime soon, but I did it!
After I was able to move again without collapsing, we walked into the train station and prowled around until someone else got up to leave, and we pounced on their seats. I fell asleep during the train ride home, and I can tell you, I have never been so glad to see my shower and my bed.
I loved my weekend in Hangzhou, and there is still so much I haven't seen. I never got a chance to go to the other famous temple, I didn't get to see the Botanical Gardens or the silk factory, I didn't get a chance to visit the tea village that is nearby, where they grow longjing cha (dragon well) tea, and there are dozens of hiking and biking trails up into the mountains around the lake. I could have easily and happily spent another few days in Hangzhou. I'd like to go back again and also take one of the boats for a ride on the lake, in addition to all the other things that I missed. As it comes time to leave, I realize all the things that I have not had a chance to do, and it makes me want to come back next year so that I can.
Also, as we were leaving, Luna and her father invited me to go to their town, Jiaxing. So that's another opportunity that I could take!
Monday, August 9 - A Weekend on a Bicycle
Oh my goodness, my poor aching everything. I went to Hangzhou this past weekend and it was a fantastic time. I am so glad that Luna, my student went with me. She is a sweet girl, and part of the reason I am so fond of her is because she chose her English name after Luna Lovegood, from the Harry Potter books. Nerds, represent!
On Saturday morning, I got up early... early for a Saturday, anyway. I set my alarm for 5:30, which is the time I normally get up for school. I had my coffee and got ready to the not-so-soothing sounds of CNN, and made sure to get to the train station early. I always get so nervous when I need to make connections while traveling. My stomach was all tied up in knots, as usual, but, again, as always, I needn't have worried because I made my train in good time.
I am really glad that I had the travel agent book the tickets for me, I went to the wrong building at first, to the ticket office, which is in a different building entirely from the main terminal where the trains come in. The lines were very long, people were ignoring the lines left and right, there was very little pinying (romanized letters) and even less English. I think that if I had tried to buy my own tickets, I would have been entirely lost. It was a 10 RMB (the English letters that stand for yuan, I don't know why) fee for t he travel agent, and it was money well spent in my opinion!
Once I fought my way through the lines of people crushing at the gates and popped out the other side of the turnstile, I found my seat and breathed a sigh of relief. I was on my way! The train from Shanghai to Hangzhou is about two hours, so I read a little, and marveled at the people who bought the standing tickets. I don't think you are allowed to do this on trains in America, I'm not sure-- Chinese trains sell a certain number of standing room tickets for each car, and people will stand or sit in the spaces between the cars where the doors are. However, those people are also always on the prowl for a real seat, and so you will frequently see new arrivals checking their ticket and then haranguing the seat-predator who got there before them.
On the train ride there, my student, Luna, found me--she was one of the people who had bought a standing room only ticket. We got off together in Hangzhou and waited online for a taxi, waving off the extremely persistent efforts of the gypsy drivers. If Jamaica taught me anything, it is to wait for the official taxi!
We got to our hotel and checked in. They did not ask me for my passport at the reception desk. Please take note of that, as it will come into play a bit later in the account.
Our room was nice, but we wanted to get out on the town, so we just dumped our stuff and headed back out again. We walked from our hotel down to the lake and... wow. West Lake is amazingly beautiful. There are mountains all around, and you can see the roofs of temples and pagodas jutting up from the trees all around the lake.
Luna found us a bike rental place and I gave them my driver's license and 300 RMB and they gave me a bike rental card that is good at the literally hundreds, maybe thousands of bike rental racks all around the city. Hangzhou is filled to the brim with bicycles. It costs 5 RMB to rent a bike for the first two hours and then it is 1 RMB for every additional hour. You swipe your bike card and the rack unlocks the bicycle. When you return it, you swipe it again, the bike locks in place and then you register your card at the rental station's kiosk (it looks like an ATM) and the correct amount is deducted from your card. Simple, efficient.
We rented a couple of bikes and rode our way up the east side of the lake, stopping at various tourist places along the way. We had lunch at a cafe by the lake that used to be a house belonging to a Professor who loved music. He donated it when he died, and now every table has its own sound system and headphones and the cafe has a library of over 6,000 CDs to choose from. We also visited the Hangzhou Museum, where they keep artifacts found in or from the area. They had everything from modern paintings, to antique pottery to ancient (like, caveman ancient) stone tools excavated from a local archaeological dig. Fascinating stuff. We rode all the way to the north edge of the lake, and then turned and rode down the Su Causeway, which is a road running through the middle of the lake, built by one of the first governors. And last, we visited the Jinxi Temple.
I loved visiting the Jinxi Temple! Luna is apparently a practicing and rather devout Buddhist. We stopped at each statue and she would kneel, fold her hands, then press her head and hands to the pad, then turn her hands so they were palm up. This was repeated three times for each statue, and she asked me not to take pictures inside the buildings because it was disrespectful to the gods. I was fascinated.
I also got a chance to ring the bell at the Temple, which grants me protection and good fortune. The grounds were tended by monks young and old and the whole place had an air of cheerful productivity. Some places were a little shabby and looked a bit worn, but then, it is a practicing temple and it was clear that the place was lovingly tended, but rather old and a little poor. The only place that looked vibrant and expensive where the statues. Jinxi Temple also has a miracle well, that produced timber once when the monks prayed for the gods to help them after part of the temple had been destroyed. It was wonderful.
After the temple, we rode farther around the lake, back toward our starting point, until Luna got a call from her father. We returned our bicycles (which you can do anywhere, not just where you got them from!) and took a taxi to a restaurant. We met her father, uncle and cousin and they insisted on treating me to dinner. I tried to protest, but Luna's uncle would have none of it. He said (Luna translated) that I was a guest in China, and tonight he was my host. This is one thing that I have noticed, most Chinese are very gracious and will do you favors and offer you assistance if you need it. I tried to accept just as graciously. I tried my best to thank him in Mandarin, and while I didn't get it quite right (Luna corrected my pronunciation), he laughed and accepted my thanks.
After dinner, Luna's dad asked if I had any plans for the night. When I said no, he decided to take the two of us to Wu Shan Square, which connects to the pedestrian-only shopping street. It was amazing! Out in the square, there were women dancing, very much like the do every night in front of the bank in Shanghai, but here there had to have been 500 people, all in lines, dancing together. I have never seen anything like it.
There was also a young man teaching little kids how to roller blade and orchestrating speed skating races. Children were running all around with light up toys, flinging them into the sky and chasing them to where they fell, mothers with babies chatting, men having a smoke and talking together in little clumps in the middle of the square.... it was a busy, happy scene.
The pedestrian street was even cooler. There are shops to either side selling everything from candy to Chinese medicine to the classic kitschy souvenirs you can find just about any place. But in the center of the street were stalls where artisans practiced their craft right before your eyes.
I can't think of any better word than enthralled for how I felt walking down that street. Every 30 feet was another thing to marvel at: here a man painting characters on a piece of ivory so tiny that you need a magnifying glass to read them; there a glass-blower creating a dragon bowl out of a lump of glass; here a portrait artist painting you as you sit; there a sculptor, sculpting your likeness from clay as you sit (!). There was a puppet show, and a man who made works of art from dripped caramel. There was a bean bag game, and a woman who sculpted little cell phone keychains out of clay on demand. There was a costume booth, where you could dress up as characters from legends about Hangzhou and take a picture with a fake horse, and a man who painted the insides of beads, allowing you to craft your own custom jewelry by stringing together the paintings of your choice.
There was so much to see, so much to take in that I felt a little overwhelmed. Frankly, I gawked at everything, but I think Luna and her father enjoyed my wonder. They had a fantastic time pointing out all the new sights and urged me to buy all the specialty food and candies to try.
They also bought a little painting as a gift for me and Tom. It is a picture of a married couple, and we are meant to hang it in our home on our wedding day to bring us good fortune in our marriage. It was a great night.
Exhausted, we took a taxi back to the hotel and went up to our room. Okay. Now, remember how I told you to take note of the fact that they did not ask me for my passport? Well, here's where that comes in.
In China, everyone has an ID card. You show it anytime you travel or check into a hotel, I'm guessing so that the government can keep tabs on its people. Well, in China, there are local hotels and then there are foreigner hotels. They like foreigners to stay at the unofficially designated foreigner hotel and it's kind of frowned upon to stay at the "local" hotels, mostly because the local hotels are less expensive. Earlier in the week, Luna's dad had found a much cheaper room than the one the travel agent booked for me. He reserved it, and when we checked in, Luna gave them her ID and the reservation desk let us go up.
That was bad. They were supposed to ask me for my ID as well, once again because they like to keep tabs on everyone.
Now, Luna had been in contact with her dad all day. He called every half hour or so to check in on us and make sure that Luna was showing me all the sites he had written down for her. The problem was that no one had told her mother. Apparently, Luna was supposed to call her mother. She assumed that her father had done so, since he kept checking in on us. Luna's father assumed that she had done so, because that was the original arrangement. Neither of them called her. It is important to note that Luna is thirteen, and so her mother was understandably worried when she had not heard from her.
This is where my understanding ends, though. You can only take grace so far. Here's why: At midnight, I was nearly asleep and Luna was in the bathroom when a knock sounds at the door. Groggily, I stumble to the door and open it to reveal two members of hotel staff, one member of hotel security and a police officer. The police officer starts speaking to me, and I can only stare blankly.
"I'm sorry, does anyone speak English?" I ask, confused.
The woman from the hotel says "Oh, English? Um..." she confers with the policeman for a moment and then says, "He say you need go with him."
I take a firmer position in my doorway. "I'm sorry, what is this about?"
At this point, poor Luna opens the bathroom door and all four adults launch a barrage of words at her. I feel really bad because I can't understand what's going on, she is wearing blue sheep-printed pajamas and looks confused and forlorn and this apparently has something to do with me.
"They say they need your American ID," she finally tells me. I go get my driver's license, which is not good enough, and then my passport. Thank god I carry that thing with me at all times.
After more conferring between the police officer, the woman from the hotel, and Luna, the woman from the hotel says to me, "You come, bring ID." Then she turns to Luna and tells her, "Call your mama."
I go downstairs, they copy my passport and my visa while the police man watches, and then he leaves and they hand me back my passport, apologize and let me go back up to bed.
APPARENTLY, when Luna's mother hadn't heard from her, she decided the best course of action would not be to call her, but rather to call the police and tell them that her daughter had checked into the hotel with her foreign teacher. The police called the hotel and discovered that while a girl had checked in, they had no record of me. The staff admitted to seeing me come in with her, though. This prompted the police to dispatch an officer to handle the situation.
Luckily I had my passport with me and the officer was content with simply having the hotel copy it and register me properly. But by all accounts, I came this close to getting arrested.
Yikes.
Luna apologized profusely, she was very embarrassed that her mother had almost gotten me in so much trouble. I told her not to worry about it, it would be a funny story later.
And now it is!
An account of my second day still to come.
On Saturday morning, I got up early... early for a Saturday, anyway. I set my alarm for 5:30, which is the time I normally get up for school. I had my coffee and got ready to the not-so-soothing sounds of CNN, and made sure to get to the train station early. I always get so nervous when I need to make connections while traveling. My stomach was all tied up in knots, as usual, but, again, as always, I needn't have worried because I made my train in good time.
I am really glad that I had the travel agent book the tickets for me, I went to the wrong building at first, to the ticket office, which is in a different building entirely from the main terminal where the trains come in. The lines were very long, people were ignoring the lines left and right, there was very little pinying (romanized letters) and even less English. I think that if I had tried to buy my own tickets, I would have been entirely lost. It was a 10 RMB (the English letters that stand for yuan, I don't know why) fee for t he travel agent, and it was money well spent in my opinion!
Once I fought my way through the lines of people crushing at the gates and popped out the other side of the turnstile, I found my seat and breathed a sigh of relief. I was on my way! The train from Shanghai to Hangzhou is about two hours, so I read a little, and marveled at the people who bought the standing tickets. I don't think you are allowed to do this on trains in America, I'm not sure-- Chinese trains sell a certain number of standing room tickets for each car, and people will stand or sit in the spaces between the cars where the doors are. However, those people are also always on the prowl for a real seat, and so you will frequently see new arrivals checking their ticket and then haranguing the seat-predator who got there before them.
On the train ride there, my student, Luna, found me--she was one of the people who had bought a standing room only ticket. We got off together in Hangzhou and waited online for a taxi, waving off the extremely persistent efforts of the gypsy drivers. If Jamaica taught me anything, it is to wait for the official taxi!
We got to our hotel and checked in. They did not ask me for my passport at the reception desk. Please take note of that, as it will come into play a bit later in the account.
Our room was nice, but we wanted to get out on the town, so we just dumped our stuff and headed back out again. We walked from our hotel down to the lake and... wow. West Lake is amazingly beautiful. There are mountains all around, and you can see the roofs of temples and pagodas jutting up from the trees all around the lake.
Luna found us a bike rental place and I gave them my driver's license and 300 RMB and they gave me a bike rental card that is good at the literally hundreds, maybe thousands of bike rental racks all around the city. Hangzhou is filled to the brim with bicycles. It costs 5 RMB to rent a bike for the first two hours and then it is 1 RMB for every additional hour. You swipe your bike card and the rack unlocks the bicycle. When you return it, you swipe it again, the bike locks in place and then you register your card at the rental station's kiosk (it looks like an ATM) and the correct amount is deducted from your card. Simple, efficient.
We rented a couple of bikes and rode our way up the east side of the lake, stopping at various tourist places along the way. We had lunch at a cafe by the lake that used to be a house belonging to a Professor who loved music. He donated it when he died, and now every table has its own sound system and headphones and the cafe has a library of over 6,000 CDs to choose from. We also visited the Hangzhou Museum, where they keep artifacts found in or from the area. They had everything from modern paintings, to antique pottery to ancient (like, caveman ancient) stone tools excavated from a local archaeological dig. Fascinating stuff. We rode all the way to the north edge of the lake, and then turned and rode down the Su Causeway, which is a road running through the middle of the lake, built by one of the first governors. And last, we visited the Jinxi Temple.
I loved visiting the Jinxi Temple! Luna is apparently a practicing and rather devout Buddhist. We stopped at each statue and she would kneel, fold her hands, then press her head and hands to the pad, then turn her hands so they were palm up. This was repeated three times for each statue, and she asked me not to take pictures inside the buildings because it was disrespectful to the gods. I was fascinated.
I also got a chance to ring the bell at the Temple, which grants me protection and good fortune. The grounds were tended by monks young and old and the whole place had an air of cheerful productivity. Some places were a little shabby and looked a bit worn, but then, it is a practicing temple and it was clear that the place was lovingly tended, but rather old and a little poor. The only place that looked vibrant and expensive where the statues. Jinxi Temple also has a miracle well, that produced timber once when the monks prayed for the gods to help them after part of the temple had been destroyed. It was wonderful.
After the temple, we rode farther around the lake, back toward our starting point, until Luna got a call from her father. We returned our bicycles (which you can do anywhere, not just where you got them from!) and took a taxi to a restaurant. We met her father, uncle and cousin and they insisted on treating me to dinner. I tried to protest, but Luna's uncle would have none of it. He said (Luna translated) that I was a guest in China, and tonight he was my host. This is one thing that I have noticed, most Chinese are very gracious and will do you favors and offer you assistance if you need it. I tried to accept just as graciously. I tried my best to thank him in Mandarin, and while I didn't get it quite right (Luna corrected my pronunciation), he laughed and accepted my thanks.
After dinner, Luna's dad asked if I had any plans for the night. When I said no, he decided to take the two of us to Wu Shan Square, which connects to the pedestrian-only shopping street. It was amazing! Out in the square, there were women dancing, very much like the do every night in front of the bank in Shanghai, but here there had to have been 500 people, all in lines, dancing together. I have never seen anything like it.
There was also a young man teaching little kids how to roller blade and orchestrating speed skating races. Children were running all around with light up toys, flinging them into the sky and chasing them to where they fell, mothers with babies chatting, men having a smoke and talking together in little clumps in the middle of the square.... it was a busy, happy scene.
The pedestrian street was even cooler. There are shops to either side selling everything from candy to Chinese medicine to the classic kitschy souvenirs you can find just about any place. But in the center of the street were stalls where artisans practiced their craft right before your eyes.
I can't think of any better word than enthralled for how I felt walking down that street. Every 30 feet was another thing to marvel at: here a man painting characters on a piece of ivory so tiny that you need a magnifying glass to read them; there a glass-blower creating a dragon bowl out of a lump of glass; here a portrait artist painting you as you sit; there a sculptor, sculpting your likeness from clay as you sit (!). There was a puppet show, and a man who made works of art from dripped caramel. There was a bean bag game, and a woman who sculpted little cell phone keychains out of clay on demand. There was a costume booth, where you could dress up as characters from legends about Hangzhou and take a picture with a fake horse, and a man who painted the insides of beads, allowing you to craft your own custom jewelry by stringing together the paintings of your choice.
There was so much to see, so much to take in that I felt a little overwhelmed. Frankly, I gawked at everything, but I think Luna and her father enjoyed my wonder. They had a fantastic time pointing out all the new sights and urged me to buy all the specialty food and candies to try.
They also bought a little painting as a gift for me and Tom. It is a picture of a married couple, and we are meant to hang it in our home on our wedding day to bring us good fortune in our marriage. It was a great night.
Exhausted, we took a taxi back to the hotel and went up to our room. Okay. Now, remember how I told you to take note of the fact that they did not ask me for my passport? Well, here's where that comes in.
In China, everyone has an ID card. You show it anytime you travel or check into a hotel, I'm guessing so that the government can keep tabs on its people. Well, in China, there are local hotels and then there are foreigner hotels. They like foreigners to stay at the unofficially designated foreigner hotel and it's kind of frowned upon to stay at the "local" hotels, mostly because the local hotels are less expensive. Earlier in the week, Luna's dad had found a much cheaper room than the one the travel agent booked for me. He reserved it, and when we checked in, Luna gave them her ID and the reservation desk let us go up.
That was bad. They were supposed to ask me for my ID as well, once again because they like to keep tabs on everyone.
Now, Luna had been in contact with her dad all day. He called every half hour or so to check in on us and make sure that Luna was showing me all the sites he had written down for her. The problem was that no one had told her mother. Apparently, Luna was supposed to call her mother. She assumed that her father had done so, since he kept checking in on us. Luna's father assumed that she had done so, because that was the original arrangement. Neither of them called her. It is important to note that Luna is thirteen, and so her mother was understandably worried when she had not heard from her.
This is where my understanding ends, though. You can only take grace so far. Here's why: At midnight, I was nearly asleep and Luna was in the bathroom when a knock sounds at the door. Groggily, I stumble to the door and open it to reveal two members of hotel staff, one member of hotel security and a police officer. The police officer starts speaking to me, and I can only stare blankly.
"I'm sorry, does anyone speak English?" I ask, confused.
The woman from the hotel says "Oh, English? Um..." she confers with the policeman for a moment and then says, "He say you need go with him."
I take a firmer position in my doorway. "I'm sorry, what is this about?"
At this point, poor Luna opens the bathroom door and all four adults launch a barrage of words at her. I feel really bad because I can't understand what's going on, she is wearing blue sheep-printed pajamas and looks confused and forlorn and this apparently has something to do with me.
"They say they need your American ID," she finally tells me. I go get my driver's license, which is not good enough, and then my passport. Thank god I carry that thing with me at all times.
After more conferring between the police officer, the woman from the hotel, and Luna, the woman from the hotel says to me, "You come, bring ID." Then she turns to Luna and tells her, "Call your mama."
I go downstairs, they copy my passport and my visa while the police man watches, and then he leaves and they hand me back my passport, apologize and let me go back up to bed.
APPARENTLY, when Luna's mother hadn't heard from her, she decided the best course of action would not be to call her, but rather to call the police and tell them that her daughter had checked into the hotel with her foreign teacher. The police called the hotel and discovered that while a girl had checked in, they had no record of me. The staff admitted to seeing me come in with her, though. This prompted the police to dispatch an officer to handle the situation.
Luckily I had my passport with me and the officer was content with simply having the hotel copy it and register me properly. But by all accounts, I came this close to getting arrested.
Yikes.
Luna apologized profusely, she was very embarrassed that her mother had almost gotten me in so much trouble. I told her not to worry about it, it would be a funny story later.
And now it is!
An account of my second day still to come.
Thursday, August 5 - Downhill
It's amazing to me that I am on the downslope of my time here. There is just one week left! This weekend I go to Hangzhou to see West Lake. This will be my only trip outside of Shanghai during this trip, so I am very excited about it. I tried to take a trip to Beijing, but I learned quickly that I want to plan trips like that a month ahead of time, before I even leave America. Because the Expo is in Shanghai, I found that there were absolutely no methods of transportation of getting back from Beijing. I don't mind, though, I'm excited about Hangzhou- one of my students lives in that area and she is going to be meeting me there to show me around.
I have been in China for a month, and I am torn. I would love to stay longer and see more of this crazy, weird, amazing country but at the same time, I am homesick. I miss Tom, and I miss America. I miss being able to just go on the Internet and go where I want. I miss being able to watch television other than the news in English. I miss hanging out with my friends. I miss being able to get around with ease!
I was offered a full-time position here at the University if I want it. I am both interested and terrified. I think it would be amazing to teach English abroad, it has been one of my dreams for a long time. But at the same time, China is so very different and so very very far from home that I am not sure if I would be able to stay for a whole year. It is food for thought, at least, and perhaps easier to contemplate knowing that in just another week I will be returning to the comfort of my little apartment with my cats and my Tom.
I have been in China for a month, and I am torn. I would love to stay longer and see more of this crazy, weird, amazing country but at the same time, I am homesick. I miss Tom, and I miss America. I miss being able to just go on the Internet and go where I want. I miss being able to watch television other than the news in English. I miss hanging out with my friends. I miss being able to get around with ease!
I was offered a full-time position here at the University if I want it. I am both interested and terrified. I think it would be amazing to teach English abroad, it has been one of my dreams for a long time. But at the same time, China is so very different and so very very far from home that I am not sure if I would be able to stay for a whole year. It is food for thought, at least, and perhaps easier to contemplate knowing that in just another week I will be returning to the comfort of my little apartment with my cats and my Tom.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Monday, August 2 - Disasters and News
There are three English language news stations and I usually watch one of those three (unless of course, I know a Chinese soap opera is on... I LOVE Chinese soap operas). On Channel 1 is Channel News Asia, Channel 9 is CNN and Channel 11 is Aljazeera. But the news has just been one heartbreaking thing after another.
The floods in China are completely devastating the south and the northeast of the country, and one of my students, Huang Qing qing has left the class because she comes from a flooded area and some of her family lost their home in the floods. And in one area in the northeast, 1500 barrels were washed into the river. Half of the barrels were empty, but half of them were filled with a dangerous and combustive gas. They have been trying to recover the barrels, but they haven't found them all and they think some of them have sunk to the bottom, sparking worry of contamination.
And then there was that devastating plane crash in Pakistan, where all 152 people aboard died. And immediately after came the floods. The death toll from the floods just keeps rising, with numbers hitting over 1,000 in just a few days.
The same rain that is flooding Pakistan is also flooding parts of Afghanistan.
And this past month, there have also been flash floods in Singapore that have been very costly and unprecedented, though thankfully not deadly.
I wish we could take some of the water that's destroying Pakistan and southern China and dump it over Russia, where the fires raging there have destroyed thousands of homes and displaced tens of thousands more people, and where temperatures are the highest ever since they started keeping those kinds of records.
Not to mention the horrendous drought in Niger that has been going for several years, leading to bad harvests and wide-spread starvation.
I don't know whether it is just because there is better coverage of this part of the world, or whether there is really an uptick, but it really seems like Mother Nature is trying her hardest to bitch-slap the world at the moment.
The floods in China are completely devastating the south and the northeast of the country, and one of my students, Huang Qing qing has left the class because she comes from a flooded area and some of her family lost their home in the floods. And in one area in the northeast, 1500 barrels were washed into the river. Half of the barrels were empty, but half of them were filled with a dangerous and combustive gas. They have been trying to recover the barrels, but they haven't found them all and they think some of them have sunk to the bottom, sparking worry of contamination.
And then there was that devastating plane crash in Pakistan, where all 152 people aboard died. And immediately after came the floods. The death toll from the floods just keeps rising, with numbers hitting over 1,000 in just a few days.
The same rain that is flooding Pakistan is also flooding parts of Afghanistan.
And this past month, there have also been flash floods in Singapore that have been very costly and unprecedented, though thankfully not deadly.
I wish we could take some of the water that's destroying Pakistan and southern China and dump it over Russia, where the fires raging there have destroyed thousands of homes and displaced tens of thousands more people, and where temperatures are the highest ever since they started keeping those kinds of records.
Not to mention the horrendous drought in Niger that has been going for several years, leading to bad harvests and wide-spread starvation.
I don't know whether it is just because there is better coverage of this part of the world, or whether there is really an uptick, but it really seems like Mother Nature is trying her hardest to bitch-slap the world at the moment.
Saturday, July 31- Expo, part 2!
Mary asked me this week to go with her to Expo on Saturday, and I agreed because she's been really nice and very helpful to me while here. We left our building at 5:30 and got a taxi to the Expo center so that we would be there early enough to hopefully get a pass to get in to see the China Pavilion. They only pass out 30,000 passes each day and there are hundreds of thousands of people that want to see the national pavilion.
I think that Mary's understanding of queuing up for a hot item is a little bit behind the times. The park opens at nine, and when we got there, there was a line of several hundred people already waiting at the gate ahead of us, and that was only one of 8 gates to get into the park. I wasn't surprised, I've seen people camp out in tents for less. But after waiting in line for an hour, Mary got sick of it, said "I'm not waiting anymore, this is ridiculous. I've never waited in line for anything in my life!" and then caught a taxi home. Allan and I stayed, the both of us somewhat stunned speechless, considering it had been her idea to go in the first place.
But, we waited our turn and patience paid off. When they finally opened the gates at 9, we were handed our China Pavilion passes as we passed through the turnstile. I fancy that I understood the feeling of Charlie in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when he found the golden ticket. I had my hands on THE hottest item at Expo by far.
It was delicious.
Since we had our passes and could use it anytime, Allan and I decided to hit up some of the other Pavilions first, thinking that maybe we could hop onto lines and get inside before they became outrageously long.
We spent the morning travelling the Middle East! I went to Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, and Afghanistan. In the Afghanistan Pavilion, I paid 20 yuan (about $3) to get a henna tattoo from a woman from Nepal named Bradeep. She was really nice and had very good English and beautiful eyes.
After seeing the very high-tech and extremely impressive Isreal Pavilion, we got in line to see Kazakhstan. It was about 2pm at that point, and I noticed a sign that said "2 hour wait from this point."
I turned to Allan and pointed the sign out, "Is Kazakhstan really worth a two-hour wait?"
"...You want to head to the China Pavilion?"
"Yes, please, let's go."
So, we headed for the China Pavilion. We waited on line to turn in our voucher, and then we waited on line to get on the escalator taking us up to the entry floor, and then we waited on line for the elevators to take us up inside and then finally, FINALLY we were in!
And, my god, it was worth the wait. China Pavilion is amazing, they really spared no expense. On our way up the escalator, a girl my age started chatting in English and asked if she could take a picture with me. I said yes, of course, and we spent the next half hour-long line wait to get to the elevators talking to Skye (her Chinese name is Ying) and her student. Skye is a math teacher, and she had very good English. She became kind of my unofficial tour guide as we made our way through the Pavilion.
China Pavilion is four floors that follow a theme of past leading to the present leading to the future and the hopes people have for the future. We were ushered along an increasingly high-tech path that had some really amazing stuff. One room had a giant screen that looked like a classic parchment painting, except that the little people on it were moving! The pathway leading to the next floor had dozens of reproductions of paintings actual Chinese students had created describing what their hopes and dreams for the city of the future were. That took you to the next room, which had a tramcar ride that took you through China's architecture and bridges. The last floor was all about the green movement--ways to be green and ways China was stepping up its green movement awareness. At the center was a beautiful lotus garden that had a continuous waterfall that would periodically cut off in certain areas to make words that would fall from top to bottom. Skye told me the words said "Don't waste the water."
Skye and I exchanged emails and we waved good bye outside the China Pavilion. Since we were near it, Allan and I decided to try the Culture Pavilion. With a name like that, I was excepting a museum or something similar. What I got was a mini Mall of America. It is filled with shops and restaurants, movie theatres and even an ice skating rink. I saw a Disney Store and did a double take. Am I still in China? Although the Culture Pavilion seemed to offer more in the way of Commerce than Culture, I must say that the view from the restaurants is probably spectacular at night, when you can look out at the Expo and the Shanghai skyline all lit up and glowing.
It was 6pm, I had been awake since 4:45 and I was dead on my feet. Allan wanted to try and find a musician at the Australia Pavilion whose wife he had met, but I just wanted to go home so I pointed him in the right direction and, once again, caught the train home.
Another very long, but very cool day.
I think that Mary's understanding of queuing up for a hot item is a little bit behind the times. The park opens at nine, and when we got there, there was a line of several hundred people already waiting at the gate ahead of us, and that was only one of 8 gates to get into the park. I wasn't surprised, I've seen people camp out in tents for less. But after waiting in line for an hour, Mary got sick of it, said "I'm not waiting anymore, this is ridiculous. I've never waited in line for anything in my life!" and then caught a taxi home. Allan and I stayed, the both of us somewhat stunned speechless, considering it had been her idea to go in the first place.
But, we waited our turn and patience paid off. When they finally opened the gates at 9, we were handed our China Pavilion passes as we passed through the turnstile. I fancy that I understood the feeling of Charlie in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when he found the golden ticket. I had my hands on THE hottest item at Expo by far.
It was delicious.
Since we had our passes and could use it anytime, Allan and I decided to hit up some of the other Pavilions first, thinking that maybe we could hop onto lines and get inside before they became outrageously long.
We spent the morning travelling the Middle East! I went to Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, and Afghanistan. In the Afghanistan Pavilion, I paid 20 yuan (about $3) to get a henna tattoo from a woman from Nepal named Bradeep. She was really nice and had very good English and beautiful eyes.
After seeing the very high-tech and extremely impressive Isreal Pavilion, we got in line to see Kazakhstan. It was about 2pm at that point, and I noticed a sign that said "2 hour wait from this point."
I turned to Allan and pointed the sign out, "Is Kazakhstan really worth a two-hour wait?"
"...You want to head to the China Pavilion?"
"Yes, please, let's go."
So, we headed for the China Pavilion. We waited on line to turn in our voucher, and then we waited on line to get on the escalator taking us up to the entry floor, and then we waited on line for the elevators to take us up inside and then finally, FINALLY we were in!
And, my god, it was worth the wait. China Pavilion is amazing, they really spared no expense. On our way up the escalator, a girl my age started chatting in English and asked if she could take a picture with me. I said yes, of course, and we spent the next half hour-long line wait to get to the elevators talking to Skye (her Chinese name is Ying) and her student. Skye is a math teacher, and she had very good English. She became kind of my unofficial tour guide as we made our way through the Pavilion.
China Pavilion is four floors that follow a theme of past leading to the present leading to the future and the hopes people have for the future. We were ushered along an increasingly high-tech path that had some really amazing stuff. One room had a giant screen that looked like a classic parchment painting, except that the little people on it were moving! The pathway leading to the next floor had dozens of reproductions of paintings actual Chinese students had created describing what their hopes and dreams for the city of the future were. That took you to the next room, which had a tramcar ride that took you through China's architecture and bridges. The last floor was all about the green movement--ways to be green and ways China was stepping up its green movement awareness. At the center was a beautiful lotus garden that had a continuous waterfall that would periodically cut off in certain areas to make words that would fall from top to bottom. Skye told me the words said "Don't waste the water."
Skye and I exchanged emails and we waved good bye outside the China Pavilion. Since we were near it, Allan and I decided to try the Culture Pavilion. With a name like that, I was excepting a museum or something similar. What I got was a mini Mall of America. It is filled with shops and restaurants, movie theatres and even an ice skating rink. I saw a Disney Store and did a double take. Am I still in China? Although the Culture Pavilion seemed to offer more in the way of Commerce than Culture, I must say that the view from the restaurants is probably spectacular at night, when you can look out at the Expo and the Shanghai skyline all lit up and glowing.
It was 6pm, I had been awake since 4:45 and I was dead on my feet. Allan wanted to try and find a musician at the Australia Pavilion whose wife he had met, but I just wanted to go home so I pointed him in the right direction and, once again, caught the train home.
Another very long, but very cool day.
Thursday, July 29 - More Exploring
[Editor's Note: It seems that while she was able to make the last post, she needed me to post these next ones.]
Today I decided to see if I could find the Yuyuan Gardens because they have a beautiful old pagoda in the middle and there is a famous tea-house just outside the gates. I got off at Yuyuan Station, and followed the signs, but of gardens I saw nothing. As I wandered my way along the street, I came to one of China's giant crazy intersections and took out my map. A man came up and tried to help, but his English wasn't really sufficient for what I needed, so I just asked him "Bund?" and pointed.
The Bund is another famous landmark in Shanghai. It is a stretch along the Huangpu river that is built up with Western-style architecture, and on the other side of the river rises the Oriental Pearl TV tower, which is the tallest TV tower in Asia. I wandered in the direction the man pointed me in and actually ran into a park! I got excited, because I thought I might have accidently stumbled on the Gardens, but it turns out I had found Gucheng Park. It was cute, with little shady winding pathways beneath tall bamboo. It was very pleasant, frankly. That day it was kind of overcast and hazy, but a stifling 37 degrees out! (Celsius, btw, going for authenticity here.) So, standing in the shade was at least a little bit of relief. Walking through the park, I spotted the river and the Pearl Tower rising up through the haze, so I set off in that direction.
I love wandering around, because sometimes you stumble across the most perfect moments when you weren't even looking for them. On my way through the park, I found a fish pond that was literally teeming with Japanese koi and gold fish, teeming because people were feeding the fish. I snapped a couple of shots of the big fish and then noticed a woman with her two kids. The woman and her daughter were taking turns chucking handfuls of food at a concentration of fish and then giggling as they watched them fight over the little pellets. The little boy was crouching very patiently on the edge of the water and deliberately dropping pellets one at a time into the water. He had a plastic cup in one hand and every once in a while, he would plunge his cup into the water and scoop, trying to catch the little fish who came to nibble at his pellets. He would let out a triumphant "Ha!" every time he pulled the cup up, and then his face would fall dramatically when, every time, there was nothing in the cup. But, stoically, he would just empty the water, drop another pellet, and wait patiently to try again. It was unspeakable adorable.
I surreptitiously took a couple pictures of them, and then went on my way, leaving them to their afternoon of family bonding. Eventually I found my way to the Bund, and walked down it, but because the sky was so full of haze, it didn't really have the same effect as on a clear day.
I didn't really mind, though. I had my perfect moment for the day, so I found my way to Nanjing Street (now that I know where it is, I can go back there!) and caught a train home.
Today I decided to see if I could find the Yuyuan Gardens because they have a beautiful old pagoda in the middle and there is a famous tea-house just outside the gates. I got off at Yuyuan Station, and followed the signs, but of gardens I saw nothing. As I wandered my way along the street, I came to one of China's giant crazy intersections and took out my map. A man came up and tried to help, but his English wasn't really sufficient for what I needed, so I just asked him "Bund?" and pointed.
The Bund is another famous landmark in Shanghai. It is a stretch along the Huangpu river that is built up with Western-style architecture, and on the other side of the river rises the Oriental Pearl TV tower, which is the tallest TV tower in Asia. I wandered in the direction the man pointed me in and actually ran into a park! I got excited, because I thought I might have accidently stumbled on the Gardens, but it turns out I had found Gucheng Park. It was cute, with little shady winding pathways beneath tall bamboo. It was very pleasant, frankly. That day it was kind of overcast and hazy, but a stifling 37 degrees out! (Celsius, btw, going for authenticity here.) So, standing in the shade was at least a little bit of relief. Walking through the park, I spotted the river and the Pearl Tower rising up through the haze, so I set off in that direction.
I love wandering around, because sometimes you stumble across the most perfect moments when you weren't even looking for them. On my way through the park, I found a fish pond that was literally teeming with Japanese koi and gold fish, teeming because people were feeding the fish. I snapped a couple of shots of the big fish and then noticed a woman with her two kids. The woman and her daughter were taking turns chucking handfuls of food at a concentration of fish and then giggling as they watched them fight over the little pellets. The little boy was crouching very patiently on the edge of the water and deliberately dropping pellets one at a time into the water. He had a plastic cup in one hand and every once in a while, he would plunge his cup into the water and scoop, trying to catch the little fish who came to nibble at his pellets. He would let out a triumphant "Ha!" every time he pulled the cup up, and then his face would fall dramatically when, every time, there was nothing in the cup. But, stoically, he would just empty the water, drop another pellet, and wait patiently to try again. It was unspeakable adorable.
I surreptitiously took a couple pictures of them, and then went on my way, leaving them to their afternoon of family bonding. Eventually I found my way to the Bund, and walked down it, but because the sky was so full of haze, it didn't really have the same effect as on a clear day.
I didn't really mind, though. I had my perfect moment for the day, so I found my way to Nanjing Street (now that I know where it is, I can go back there!) and caught a train home.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Squat Toilets
I don't know how I did it, but I managed to get onto Blogger in English, so here is my first post actually posted by me, in China, instead of by my loving and ever-patient Tom. (Thanks for everything, love.)
And now, I am proud to present: Squat Toilets.
Sit down for a sec, and let me tell you about squat toilets. You know how they say that you won't find any toilet paper in Asia? Well, that's not exactly true. There's plenty of toilet paper and tissues... in the grocery store. What people are thinking of when they say that are squat toilets. In homes, you'll find familiar Western-style toilets, but in public buildings, you'll most likely find this:
Basically, you have a stall and in that stall is a little porcelain furrow with a deeper hole at the front end. You squat over the furrow, do what you need to do, and then pull the handle on the water tank to flush. There is never any toilet paper. You quickly learn to carry a little packet of tissues with you if you are going out for the day. Also, if you do bring tissues with you, you must throw it into the wastebin. The plumbing can't handle paper! It's one of those things that makes it hard to forget how very different it is here, but also something that I almost enjoy for that exact reason! Sometimes I start to feel complacent and begin to forget that I'm on the other side of the world, but then there are tons of little things that remind me--hey, you're not in Jersey anymore, kid!
And that's a good thing. =)
And now, I am proud to present: Squat Toilets.
Sit down for a sec, and let me tell you about squat toilets. You know how they say that you won't find any toilet paper in Asia? Well, that's not exactly true. There's plenty of toilet paper and tissues... in the grocery store. What people are thinking of when they say that are squat toilets. In homes, you'll find familiar Western-style toilets, but in public buildings, you'll most likely find this:
Basically, you have a stall and in that stall is a little porcelain furrow with a deeper hole at the front end. You squat over the furrow, do what you need to do, and then pull the handle on the water tank to flush. There is never any toilet paper. You quickly learn to carry a little packet of tissues with you if you are going out for the day. Also, if you do bring tissues with you, you must throw it into the wastebin. The plumbing can't handle paper! It's one of those things that makes it hard to forget how very different it is here, but also something that I almost enjoy for that exact reason! Sometimes I start to feel complacent and begin to forget that I'm on the other side of the world, but then there are tons of little things that remind me--hey, you're not in Jersey anymore, kid!
And that's a good thing. =)
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28 - Everyday in Shanghai
[Editor's Note: Blame me. I got backed up a couple days.]
I've said before that Shanghai is weird and wonderful, and that some things seem oddly familiar, whereas others are entirely foreign. I decided I wanted to share some of those things that I come across in Shanghai every day that make me say that.
Fashionable ladies wearing high heels
Women in China seem to be super fashion conscious. Even when they are just wearing shorts and a t-shirt, girls in Shanghai are certain to wear jewelry and match their shoes to their outfit. And so many people wear heels! Even simple sandals are frequently elaborately decorated and heeled affairs.
Crazy bicyclists and even crazier motor bike riders
A huge number of people ride bikes in Shanghai and all major roads have a bike lane and a traffic pattern that has a light sequence that allows bikes to turn separately at major intersections. However, this doesn't stop many bikers from turning whenever and wherever they please and woe betide the lowly pedestrian who has the gall to cross when our light turns green! Shanghai is very noisy from traffic horns. Cars, buses, taxis; all use their horns freely and most ignore the frequent no-horn blowing signs. But the bikers are certainly the worst offenders of this. If you hear a little beep-beep horn, you are going to want to DIVE out of the way, because that guy is not going to care if he runs you over!
Street vendors have what you need
There are street vendors everywhere on the side streets, like the street that I live on. Some of them have little carts that they wheel into place, others have tables that they set up, still others have nothing more than a blanket that they spread on the ground to set out whatever they have to sell. And they sell everything! From books to DVDs to watermelon to pajamas to shoes, and a hundred other things as well, you can find just about ANYTHING from a street vendor. It's fun to browse, but I've found that they'll try and sell stuff to me at a higher price because I am so clearly not from around here.
My favorite street vendors, though, are the people selling food. One woman in particular is set up every day in the same spot; I pass her on my way to school. She makes this delicious breakfast wrap. It is like a crepe with an egg cooked inside, wrapped around big crunchy wonton noodles with scallions and a delicious brown sauce. Yum!
Spontaneous musical exercise
I think actually it is not spontaneous, because it is every night and there are usually the same women there, but every night in front of the bank down the street, the women of the 'hood gather to do some kind of '80s-inspired dance exercise. I don't think it is officially sponsored by anything, and anyone can join in: One woman with a boom box plays a CD and performs jazzercise moves on the steps and everyone else gathers on the sidewalk behind her, following along. Some of them sing along with the music, but most just dance. It lasts for about a half an hour, and then everyone breaks up and goes home.
Ubiquitous Umbrellas
People in Shanghai love umbrellas, they seem to be a fashion accessory that is nearly as important as cute shoes. Women will carry umbrellas around rain or shine and will frequently have the umbrella open even if there isn't a single cloud in the sky. Here's the secret (that is not at all a secret): They are protecting their skin from the sun because they do not want their skin to get dark, because dark skin is an indication that you are outside a lot and city girls don't want to look like country girls. In a weird way, modern China sometimes reminds me of Victorian England.
Road sweepers with homemade brooms
On my way to school each morning, I pass a number of sites that are becoming familiar, but one strikes me as quaint and fascinating no matter how many times I see it. Shanghai has street sweepers; they are older men who walk around with a wheeled bin, a dust pan with a long handle and a broom that is made of some kind of long, tough grass bound together by the stems. I'm not sure what kind of plant it is, but it tickles me to watch them sweeping up plastic cups and sandwich papers with a broom that looks like it could have come from 200-years ago.
Public washing and drying of clothes
I have my own washing machine in my apartment, but it seems like many people either don't, or don't care to use it. It is not uncommon to see someone on the street with a wide shallow bucket full of clothes and soapy water. It is so common, in fact, that there are instructions on how much washing powder to use for this mode of washing printed on the bag! Most of the people I see washing their clothes like this seem to be killing two birds with one stone, because they wash in front of their shops so they can keep one eye on the merchandise.
Whichever way they decide to do it, once they are done washing, the clothes need to dry. No one has a dryer in Shanghai. Clothes are hung up on lines to dry in the sun, usually. This is not unusual, people in the mid-west US do it too, but the strange thing is that people tend to string the line between two trees on the side of the road and then leave it there. No one watching it, no one tending to it, just shirts and pants and underwear hanging out to dry. The underpants are the weirdest part for me. Chinese tend to be really conservative in their conversation about anything intimate (one of my students called underwear "daily things") and yet they will flash the neighborhood without qualm when drying their clothes after a wash.
Like I said, Shanghai is weird and wonderful and these are just a sample of the sights and sounds of the city.
I've said before that Shanghai is weird and wonderful, and that some things seem oddly familiar, whereas others are entirely foreign. I decided I wanted to share some of those things that I come across in Shanghai every day that make me say that.
Fashionable ladies wearing high heels
Women in China seem to be super fashion conscious. Even when they are just wearing shorts and a t-shirt, girls in Shanghai are certain to wear jewelry and match their shoes to their outfit. And so many people wear heels! Even simple sandals are frequently elaborately decorated and heeled affairs.
Crazy bicyclists and even crazier motor bike riders
A huge number of people ride bikes in Shanghai and all major roads have a bike lane and a traffic pattern that has a light sequence that allows bikes to turn separately at major intersections. However, this doesn't stop many bikers from turning whenever and wherever they please and woe betide the lowly pedestrian who has the gall to cross when our light turns green! Shanghai is very noisy from traffic horns. Cars, buses, taxis; all use their horns freely and most ignore the frequent no-horn blowing signs. But the bikers are certainly the worst offenders of this. If you hear a little beep-beep horn, you are going to want to DIVE out of the way, because that guy is not going to care if he runs you over!
Street vendors have what you need
There are street vendors everywhere on the side streets, like the street that I live on. Some of them have little carts that they wheel into place, others have tables that they set up, still others have nothing more than a blanket that they spread on the ground to set out whatever they have to sell. And they sell everything! From books to DVDs to watermelon to pajamas to shoes, and a hundred other things as well, you can find just about ANYTHING from a street vendor. It's fun to browse, but I've found that they'll try and sell stuff to me at a higher price because I am so clearly not from around here.
My favorite street vendors, though, are the people selling food. One woman in particular is set up every day in the same spot; I pass her on my way to school. She makes this delicious breakfast wrap. It is like a crepe with an egg cooked inside, wrapped around big crunchy wonton noodles with scallions and a delicious brown sauce. Yum!
Spontaneous musical exercise
I think actually it is not spontaneous, because it is every night and there are usually the same women there, but every night in front of the bank down the street, the women of the 'hood gather to do some kind of '80s-inspired dance exercise. I don't think it is officially sponsored by anything, and anyone can join in: One woman with a boom box plays a CD and performs jazzercise moves on the steps and everyone else gathers on the sidewalk behind her, following along. Some of them sing along with the music, but most just dance. It lasts for about a half an hour, and then everyone breaks up and goes home.
Ubiquitous Umbrellas
People in Shanghai love umbrellas, they seem to be a fashion accessory that is nearly as important as cute shoes. Women will carry umbrellas around rain or shine and will frequently have the umbrella open even if there isn't a single cloud in the sky. Here's the secret (that is not at all a secret): They are protecting their skin from the sun because they do not want their skin to get dark, because dark skin is an indication that you are outside a lot and city girls don't want to look like country girls. In a weird way, modern China sometimes reminds me of Victorian England.
Road sweepers with homemade brooms
On my way to school each morning, I pass a number of sites that are becoming familiar, but one strikes me as quaint and fascinating no matter how many times I see it. Shanghai has street sweepers; they are older men who walk around with a wheeled bin, a dust pan with a long handle and a broom that is made of some kind of long, tough grass bound together by the stems. I'm not sure what kind of plant it is, but it tickles me to watch them sweeping up plastic cups and sandwich papers with a broom that looks like it could have come from 200-years ago.
Public washing and drying of clothes
I have my own washing machine in my apartment, but it seems like many people either don't, or don't care to use it. It is not uncommon to see someone on the street with a wide shallow bucket full of clothes and soapy water. It is so common, in fact, that there are instructions on how much washing powder to use for this mode of washing printed on the bag! Most of the people I see washing their clothes like this seem to be killing two birds with one stone, because they wash in front of their shops so they can keep one eye on the merchandise.
Whichever way they decide to do it, once they are done washing, the clothes need to dry. No one has a dryer in Shanghai. Clothes are hung up on lines to dry in the sun, usually. This is not unusual, people in the mid-west US do it too, but the strange thing is that people tend to string the line between two trees on the side of the road and then leave it there. No one watching it, no one tending to it, just shirts and pants and underwear hanging out to dry. The underpants are the weirdest part for me. Chinese tend to be really conservative in their conversation about anything intimate (one of my students called underwear "daily things") and yet they will flash the neighborhood without qualm when drying their clothes after a wash.
Like I said, Shanghai is weird and wonderful and these are just a sample of the sights and sounds of the city.
Sunday, July 25 - Rest Day
I have designated today as a day of rest! Oh wait, someone already did that. Well, either way, I need a break so I am going to take it easy today and give my poor feet a rest. I have no idea how to get rid of a blister, so I'm hoping that it will just go away if I give it a chance.
I also attempted to do my laundry for the first time today, which was an experiment because the labels are all in Chinese. I was able to recognize some of the symbols, like the one for water and the one for wash, but I couldn't figure out the others, and there is a dial whose purpose is entirely a mystery. But I pushed some buttons, put in some wash powder and hoped for the best. The clothes came out smelling clean and unharmed so it seemed to work out okay. Hurray me! I have managed to complete a totally menial task without catastrophe!
I also attempted to do my laundry for the first time today, which was an experiment because the labels are all in Chinese. I was able to recognize some of the symbols, like the one for water and the one for wash, but I couldn't figure out the others, and there is a dial whose purpose is entirely a mystery. But I pushed some buttons, put in some wash powder and hoped for the best. The clothes came out smelling clean and unharmed so it seemed to work out okay. Hurray me! I have managed to complete a totally menial task without catastrophe!
Saturday, July 24 - World Expo 2010
Today, Allan and I made plans to go to the Expo for the day, but when I called him this morning, he said he felt sick and was going to lie low for the day. I decided, the hell with it, I'm just going to go by myself.
I took the subway to one of the station stops that let you off near the Expo and found myself coming out from below with a fabulous view of the China Pavilion. It really is very impressive, but they only issue 30,000 tickets a day to get in. With hundreds of thousands of people wanting to get in each day, I knew I had no shot of getting a ticket, as late as it was (around 1) so I took a picture and moved on.
Near the China Pavilion is the Theme Pavilion, which holds several exhibits. There was no line for the Urbanian Pavilion, so I headed in to see what it was about. It was actually pretty nifty inside. The theme of the pavilion was "The People are the City." It follows the stories of six families in six different cities on six different continents. The exhibit takes a winding route through the families' home lives, statistics for home-ownership and water and sewage availability in each of the cities. In one room, it was completely dark except for six screens that had a day in the life videos playing for each of the families over and over again. The videos were edited so that things they all do--brushing their teeth, eating breakfast, cleaning house--were synced up.
The exhibit was really cool, but there was one creepy bit- the very first room introduces you to the people. They have a video playing for each family that shows each member of the family for a few seconds performing an everyday task, and then it'll freeze and a heads-up display like in the Iron Man suit in the movie will pop up telling you facts about them like name, age, and profession. That's the cool part. The creepy bit is that below the TV screen, they have the whole family as Madame Toussads-style wax figures. Very life-like.
After the Urbanian Pavilion, I wandered around until the sounds of singing caught my attention. All around the Expo are stages set up in the various squares. In the Citizen's Square, there was a group of singers and dancers giving performances. I took videos of a few of the groups, but I didn't want to drain my battery too much so early in the day so I mostly just watched.
The various performances were my favorite part of the Expo. They list all the day's performances in the Daily Expo newspaper that is printed each day, which you can pick up at newsstands or at the info desks for free. I actually didn't figure that out right away, but I managed to wander upon a few exhibitions just by chance.
One of these was a performance called "Island Symphony" that took place outside of the Singapore Pavilion. Inside a fountain, an interpretive dance/drum group performed this really cool futuristic dance. The best part, though, was that the dancers would periodically use the streams of water from the fountain to spray the crowd. Very refreshing!
All of the pavilions had really long lines, but the outsides of the pavilions are, for the most part, fascinating all on their own. There was so much to see that I didn't want to spend two hours on line to see the inside of any of them! If I go back, there were a few that caught my eye that seemed fun and worth the wait, but this first time I spent the whole 8 hours I was there simply wandering up and down the streets, gawking at the pavilions. I walked so much that I managed to give myself a wicked blister on the bottom of my left foot.
Some of my favorites were the Latvian Pavilions, which has thousands of plastic and metal squares hanging on wires around its outer walls, so it ripples in the wind. I also loved the look of the Thailand and Malaysian Pavilions, both of which were crafted to look like houses or temples. But the most fun Pavilion, in my opinion anyway, was probably the Netherlands Pavilion, which was constructed like a fun house and had a big sign on top that said "Happy Street." It is definitely on my list of Pavilions to visit if I go back again. The outside of the Poland Pavilion was what looked like intricate carvings and the UK pavilion looks like a giant koosh ball. They call it the Seed Pavilion. The Danish Pavilion has the statue of the Little Mermaid on display. I got a picture of her; you can see her from the outside (which is very cool of Denmark), but only from behind. If you want to see her face, you need to wait in the queue. A nifty idea came from the German Pavilion, where they had three canvas screens that were printed to look like brick walls, where people could leave graffiti commemorating their attendance. I left my name. ^_^ Possibly the cutest pavilion comes from Macao; it looks like a giant bunny with a tail that actually waves back and forth. I bought myself a set of magnets as a souvenir.
I bought myself a water bottle at one point, but I realized around 5pm that I was quite likely dehydrated because I started to feel light-headed. There was no line for the Pacific Pavilion, so I went in there to take a break in the air conditioning. Inside the Pacific Pavilion, each of the little teeny nations in the Pacific Islands had their own pavilion with giant pictures, national relics, and mannequins wearing the national dress.
I was amused to see a typo on the information board for the Republic of Tuvalu. The date of independence written in Chinese was 9 years off, which was especially embarrassing because the correct date was in English immediately below it. Someone had tried to correct the date by scribbling out the printed mistake and writing it in correctly using blue marker.
Another highlight of the Pacific Pavilion was the mannequins for Papau New Guinea: one, they were patently white people and two, the national dress for the men involved a particularly amusing highlighting of the genitalia. There were a lot of sniggering people taking pictures of and beside it. I, of course, joined in with the completely immature giggling and picture-taking.
My favorite part of the Pavilion was the giant billboard-sized pictures on the walls, which had traditional tales from a number of the nations printed on them. I love folk tales, so I spent a good chunk of time craning my neck to read the stories. I got a few strange looks, but after I read some of them, I noticed a few people copying me. I'm a trendsetter, I am!
After a very pleasant tour of the Pacific Islands in the blissfully air-conditioned Pacific Pavilion, I waited at the Pacific Stage outside to watch the drum and panpipe group that was going to be performing. I have no idea where they were from, because they were introduced in Chinese, but I took a picture of the drum leader standing next to the announcer for contrast. Chinese men are not very tall, and the drum leader was a whole head shorter than the announcer!
Around 6 pm, the sun was starting to go down and a breeze was kicking up, so the day became much more pleasant. I wandered my way back down to the other end of the park to wait for the musical fountain at 7:30.
The musical fountain is beside the Huangpu River, which runs through the Expo area, at the end of the Celebration Square. There are loudspeakers every 50 feet or so, that play orchestral music; the fountain goes off in time to the music. It's a very impressive display, considering the water jets extend for probably 150 feet along the water front. It felt very familiar to sit and watch the show. They have shallow stadium-style steps that were crowded with people. I felt a bit like I was at a fourth of July fireworks display back home. It was another one of those moments that made me feel both at home and very far away from home at the same time.
In the middle of Celebration Square is a very large, very shallow fountain. It has a neat design, there are no sides, it is simply a very gradual slope that only gets about 4 inches deep at the center. On all sides are drain slits so that if it rains, the over flow slips underground to be recycled. It acts as a huge reflecting pool, which creates a splendid photo-op at night. However, because it has no sides, people are constantly trying to walk into it. There are security guards that walk the edge, but even when they just watched a guard shoo someone else out of the water, they still step in! What is people's fascination with walking into the water?!
The Expo is completely lit up at night, and each of the Pavilions seems to try to outdo all the others for brilliance and cool factor. After the musical fountain show, I followed the elevated pedestrian walk back toward the west end of the Expo to see all the lights. My favorite by far was the Germany Pavilion, which basically turns into a giant discotech at night.
Right before I left for the night, a family noticed me trying to take a picture of myself with the China Pavilion and offered to take my picture. Then they wanted to take a picture with me, so now I also have a picture of me with a strange teenage girl in front of the Pavilion.
I left the Expo around 9 pm, exhausted but elated. It was a really good day and I barely saw a fraction of what is there. I didn't even see the whole of the outside of the Expo! I didn't get a chance to see anything on the east end in Zone A and I also didn't get over to the other side of the river to see Zones D or E. You could spend weeks at the Expo and not see everything. I've never been to an Expo before, but I am very satisfied with my first foray. Tickets are not that expensive, only 160 yuan (about $24) so it's likely that I may take another trip some afternoon after classes are done.
I took the subway to one of the station stops that let you off near the Expo and found myself coming out from below with a fabulous view of the China Pavilion. It really is very impressive, but they only issue 30,000 tickets a day to get in. With hundreds of thousands of people wanting to get in each day, I knew I had no shot of getting a ticket, as late as it was (around 1) so I took a picture and moved on.
Near the China Pavilion is the Theme Pavilion, which holds several exhibits. There was no line for the Urbanian Pavilion, so I headed in to see what it was about. It was actually pretty nifty inside. The theme of the pavilion was "The People are the City." It follows the stories of six families in six different cities on six different continents. The exhibit takes a winding route through the families' home lives, statistics for home-ownership and water and sewage availability in each of the cities. In one room, it was completely dark except for six screens that had a day in the life videos playing for each of the families over and over again. The videos were edited so that things they all do--brushing their teeth, eating breakfast, cleaning house--were synced up.
The exhibit was really cool, but there was one creepy bit- the very first room introduces you to the people. They have a video playing for each family that shows each member of the family for a few seconds performing an everyday task, and then it'll freeze and a heads-up display like in the Iron Man suit in the movie will pop up telling you facts about them like name, age, and profession. That's the cool part. The creepy bit is that below the TV screen, they have the whole family as Madame Toussads-style wax figures. Very life-like.
After the Urbanian Pavilion, I wandered around until the sounds of singing caught my attention. All around the Expo are stages set up in the various squares. In the Citizen's Square, there was a group of singers and dancers giving performances. I took videos of a few of the groups, but I didn't want to drain my battery too much so early in the day so I mostly just watched.
The various performances were my favorite part of the Expo. They list all the day's performances in the Daily Expo newspaper that is printed each day, which you can pick up at newsstands or at the info desks for free. I actually didn't figure that out right away, but I managed to wander upon a few exhibitions just by chance.
One of these was a performance called "Island Symphony" that took place outside of the Singapore Pavilion. Inside a fountain, an interpretive dance/drum group performed this really cool futuristic dance. The best part, though, was that the dancers would periodically use the streams of water from the fountain to spray the crowd. Very refreshing!
All of the pavilions had really long lines, but the outsides of the pavilions are, for the most part, fascinating all on their own. There was so much to see that I didn't want to spend two hours on line to see the inside of any of them! If I go back, there were a few that caught my eye that seemed fun and worth the wait, but this first time I spent the whole 8 hours I was there simply wandering up and down the streets, gawking at the pavilions. I walked so much that I managed to give myself a wicked blister on the bottom of my left foot.
Some of my favorites were the Latvian Pavilions, which has thousands of plastic and metal squares hanging on wires around its outer walls, so it ripples in the wind. I also loved the look of the Thailand and Malaysian Pavilions, both of which were crafted to look like houses or temples. But the most fun Pavilion, in my opinion anyway, was probably the Netherlands Pavilion, which was constructed like a fun house and had a big sign on top that said "Happy Street." It is definitely on my list of Pavilions to visit if I go back again. The outside of the Poland Pavilion was what looked like intricate carvings and the UK pavilion looks like a giant koosh ball. They call it the Seed Pavilion. The Danish Pavilion has the statue of the Little Mermaid on display. I got a picture of her; you can see her from the outside (which is very cool of Denmark), but only from behind. If you want to see her face, you need to wait in the queue. A nifty idea came from the German Pavilion, where they had three canvas screens that were printed to look like brick walls, where people could leave graffiti commemorating their attendance. I left my name. ^_^ Possibly the cutest pavilion comes from Macao; it looks like a giant bunny with a tail that actually waves back and forth. I bought myself a set of magnets as a souvenir.
I bought myself a water bottle at one point, but I realized around 5pm that I was quite likely dehydrated because I started to feel light-headed. There was no line for the Pacific Pavilion, so I went in there to take a break in the air conditioning. Inside the Pacific Pavilion, each of the little teeny nations in the Pacific Islands had their own pavilion with giant pictures, national relics, and mannequins wearing the national dress.
I was amused to see a typo on the information board for the Republic of Tuvalu. The date of independence written in Chinese was 9 years off, which was especially embarrassing because the correct date was in English immediately below it. Someone had tried to correct the date by scribbling out the printed mistake and writing it in correctly using blue marker.
Another highlight of the Pacific Pavilion was the mannequins for Papau New Guinea: one, they were patently white people and two, the national dress for the men involved a particularly amusing highlighting of the genitalia. There were a lot of sniggering people taking pictures of and beside it. I, of course, joined in with the completely immature giggling and picture-taking.
My favorite part of the Pavilion was the giant billboard-sized pictures on the walls, which had traditional tales from a number of the nations printed on them. I love folk tales, so I spent a good chunk of time craning my neck to read the stories. I got a few strange looks, but after I read some of them, I noticed a few people copying me. I'm a trendsetter, I am!
After a very pleasant tour of the Pacific Islands in the blissfully air-conditioned Pacific Pavilion, I waited at the Pacific Stage outside to watch the drum and panpipe group that was going to be performing. I have no idea where they were from, because they were introduced in Chinese, but I took a picture of the drum leader standing next to the announcer for contrast. Chinese men are not very tall, and the drum leader was a whole head shorter than the announcer!
Around 6 pm, the sun was starting to go down and a breeze was kicking up, so the day became much more pleasant. I wandered my way back down to the other end of the park to wait for the musical fountain at 7:30.
The musical fountain is beside the Huangpu River, which runs through the Expo area, at the end of the Celebration Square. There are loudspeakers every 50 feet or so, that play orchestral music; the fountain goes off in time to the music. It's a very impressive display, considering the water jets extend for probably 150 feet along the water front. It felt very familiar to sit and watch the show. They have shallow stadium-style steps that were crowded with people. I felt a bit like I was at a fourth of July fireworks display back home. It was another one of those moments that made me feel both at home and very far away from home at the same time.
In the middle of Celebration Square is a very large, very shallow fountain. It has a neat design, there are no sides, it is simply a very gradual slope that only gets about 4 inches deep at the center. On all sides are drain slits so that if it rains, the over flow slips underground to be recycled. It acts as a huge reflecting pool, which creates a splendid photo-op at night. However, because it has no sides, people are constantly trying to walk into it. There are security guards that walk the edge, but even when they just watched a guard shoo someone else out of the water, they still step in! What is people's fascination with walking into the water?!
The Expo is completely lit up at night, and each of the Pavilions seems to try to outdo all the others for brilliance and cool factor. After the musical fountain show, I followed the elevated pedestrian walk back toward the west end of the Expo to see all the lights. My favorite by far was the Germany Pavilion, which basically turns into a giant discotech at night.
Right before I left for the night, a family noticed me trying to take a picture of myself with the China Pavilion and offered to take my picture. Then they wanted to take a picture with me, so now I also have a picture of me with a strange teenage girl in front of the Pavilion.
I left the Expo around 9 pm, exhausted but elated. It was a really good day and I barely saw a fraction of what is there. I didn't even see the whole of the outside of the Expo! I didn't get a chance to see anything on the east end in Zone A and I also didn't get over to the other side of the river to see Zones D or E. You could spend weeks at the Expo and not see everything. I've never been to an Expo before, but I am very satisfied with my first foray. Tickets are not that expensive, only 160 yuan (about $24) so it's likely that I may take another trip some afternoon after classes are done.
Friday, July 23 - Venturing into the city
Today after school, I made my first foray into the center of Shanghai. I bought myself a railway pass, which is very handy because it can also be used on the bus and in taxis, so I can make my way all around the city any way I please without needing to buy tickets constantly.
There is a railway station just around the corner from my residence, so I hoped on the 3 Line and rode it one stop. I think I might just ride the 3 Line for the hell of it at some point. The 3 Line is an elevated railway, so you get an amazing view of the city as you ride it. I changed trains to the 8 Line at Hongkou Stadium and went to the People's Square.
When I came out of the railway station, I felt a bit overwhelmed because of all the exits. Thankfully, there are English translations for the Chinese characters on the signs, but there were twenty different exits and I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to go. I noticed an exit to take me to Nanjing Street, which is a major shopping street in Shanghai and my students had advised me to go there. So, I went out that exit and of course, immediately got lost. I had no idea how to find Nanjing road and the signs up on the street didn't have handy-dandy English translations. So, instead, I wandered down whatever street I was on and marveled at the buildings. Shanghai seems like a very modern city, but it has a lot of charm, too. Shanghai is one of those cities that has a nifty balance between ultra-sleek and old-fashioned. Eventually, in my wanderings, I found an entrance to the People's Park. The map said that there were gardens and waterfalls and ponds, so I figured this was as good a place as any to be lost. I headed in.
As I was walking, a man came up to me and asked "Excuse me, can I speak to you?" My first English Corner! The English Corner is a joke among the teachers at SISU. People wanting to practice their English will come up and "corner" foreigners and speak to them about anything and everything. His name is Chen En Ming and he followed me all around the park, asking me questions about where I am from, what America is like, and why I was in Shanghai. He seemed nice enough, but you always want to be cautious in a situation like that.
Mary warned me that most English Corners are simple enough--they really are just people wanting to practice their English with a native speaker. But sometimes, the person will be trying to scam you, so you should never go anyplace with them. Mary tells me that one of the most common scams is to invite a foreigner to tea, which sounds innocent enough, right? But by the time tea is done, the scammer will insist that you owe them X number of hundreds of yuan for the tea and they will badger you until you pay them.
Chen seems to have been one of the latter; we wound our way around the park and saw the lotus pond, which was pretty incredible. It had hundreds of lotus plants and Chen took my picture in front of the pond. In the middle of the park is the Museum of Contemporary Art. Right now, there is an exhibit from Singapore. I was interested in taking a look, but it was getting late and I had plans to meet Mary and Allan for dinner, so we made our way back toward the exit. We walked past the Children's Park, which had a bunch of carnival rides. Eventually, I found my way back to the exit by the rail station. I said good bye to Chen, and took the train back home.
This morning, Allan had read about a great seafood buffet in the Daily Expo newspaper. Mary, Allan and I took a taxi to the Four Points by Sheraton because it has a BOGO deal on Friday-Sunday nights. The taxi driver couldn't read the directions because they were in English, but he called the hotel, which was very good of him. The hotel was very nice, very Western. There were a LOT of young people there, strolling around in couples and dressed up. I guess Friday nights are date nights in China, too! The buffet was amazing. They had a whole spread of sushi and sashimi, and a whole other table of shrimp and crab and clams, mussels, and oysters. They also had hot soups and a made-to-order station where you could throw together whatever fish, meat, veggies, rice or noodles you wanted and the chef would cook it up for you.
My favorite part, though, was the dessert bar. Oh my god, sugar overload. I completely stuffed myself- probably ate more than I should have- but it was well worth the money. With the deal, the three of us only paid 100 yuan each. I checked my currency exchange app and it made me realize I made a math error in an earlier post. $1 is equal to about 7 yuan, not 14. I was thinking 100 yuan is equal to $14. Whoops! Still some really excellent prices here and $14 for a full spread buffet in a shnazzy hotel is a damn good deal.
When we had eaten so much we couldn't move anymore, we headed back out and flagged down a taxi for the drive home. This guy wasn't as nice as the last one though, we almost got cheated by the taxi driver. We looked like tourists, so he tried to take us way out of the way. Fortunately, we know the area and caught him at it. We made him turn off the meter and he turned around and took us straight back home once we called him on the bullshit. When he dropped us off in front of our residence, he said "Sorry, sorry". Mary quipped, "Yeah, sorry he got caught!" Lesson of the day: Make sure you watch the taxi meter!
There is a railway station just around the corner from my residence, so I hoped on the 3 Line and rode it one stop. I think I might just ride the 3 Line for the hell of it at some point. The 3 Line is an elevated railway, so you get an amazing view of the city as you ride it. I changed trains to the 8 Line at Hongkou Stadium and went to the People's Square.
When I came out of the railway station, I felt a bit overwhelmed because of all the exits. Thankfully, there are English translations for the Chinese characters on the signs, but there were twenty different exits and I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to go. I noticed an exit to take me to Nanjing Street, which is a major shopping street in Shanghai and my students had advised me to go there. So, I went out that exit and of course, immediately got lost. I had no idea how to find Nanjing road and the signs up on the street didn't have handy-dandy English translations. So, instead, I wandered down whatever street I was on and marveled at the buildings. Shanghai seems like a very modern city, but it has a lot of charm, too. Shanghai is one of those cities that has a nifty balance between ultra-sleek and old-fashioned. Eventually, in my wanderings, I found an entrance to the People's Park. The map said that there were gardens and waterfalls and ponds, so I figured this was as good a place as any to be lost. I headed in.
As I was walking, a man came up to me and asked "Excuse me, can I speak to you?" My first English Corner! The English Corner is a joke among the teachers at SISU. People wanting to practice their English will come up and "corner" foreigners and speak to them about anything and everything. His name is Chen En Ming and he followed me all around the park, asking me questions about where I am from, what America is like, and why I was in Shanghai. He seemed nice enough, but you always want to be cautious in a situation like that.
Mary warned me that most English Corners are simple enough--they really are just people wanting to practice their English with a native speaker. But sometimes, the person will be trying to scam you, so you should never go anyplace with them. Mary tells me that one of the most common scams is to invite a foreigner to tea, which sounds innocent enough, right? But by the time tea is done, the scammer will insist that you owe them X number of hundreds of yuan for the tea and they will badger you until you pay them.
Chen seems to have been one of the latter; we wound our way around the park and saw the lotus pond, which was pretty incredible. It had hundreds of lotus plants and Chen took my picture in front of the pond. In the middle of the park is the Museum of Contemporary Art. Right now, there is an exhibit from Singapore. I was interested in taking a look, but it was getting late and I had plans to meet Mary and Allan for dinner, so we made our way back toward the exit. We walked past the Children's Park, which had a bunch of carnival rides. Eventually, I found my way back to the exit by the rail station. I said good bye to Chen, and took the train back home.
This morning, Allan had read about a great seafood buffet in the Daily Expo newspaper. Mary, Allan and I took a taxi to the Four Points by Sheraton because it has a BOGO deal on Friday-Sunday nights. The taxi driver couldn't read the directions because they were in English, but he called the hotel, which was very good of him. The hotel was very nice, very Western. There were a LOT of young people there, strolling around in couples and dressed up. I guess Friday nights are date nights in China, too! The buffet was amazing. They had a whole spread of sushi and sashimi, and a whole other table of shrimp and crab and clams, mussels, and oysters. They also had hot soups and a made-to-order station where you could throw together whatever fish, meat, veggies, rice or noodles you wanted and the chef would cook it up for you.
My favorite part, though, was the dessert bar. Oh my god, sugar overload. I completely stuffed myself- probably ate more than I should have- but it was well worth the money. With the deal, the three of us only paid 100 yuan each. I checked my currency exchange app and it made me realize I made a math error in an earlier post. $1 is equal to about 7 yuan, not 14. I was thinking 100 yuan is equal to $14. Whoops! Still some really excellent prices here and $14 for a full spread buffet in a shnazzy hotel is a damn good deal.
When we had eaten so much we couldn't move anymore, we headed back out and flagged down a taxi for the drive home. This guy wasn't as nice as the last one though, we almost got cheated by the taxi driver. We looked like tourists, so he tried to take us way out of the way. Fortunately, we know the area and caught him at it. We made him turn off the meter and he turned around and took us straight back home once we called him on the bullshit. When he dropped us off in front of our residence, he said "Sorry, sorry". Mary quipped, "Yeah, sorry he got caught!" Lesson of the day: Make sure you watch the taxi meter!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22 -- Story in the round
Today, I had my Level 2s practice by telling stories. Their homework assignment was to choose a favorite fairy tale and tell it in class today in English. Then, we made up our own story as a class by using the story in the round. (One person tells the first sentence of the story, the next person in the circle continues with the next sentence and so on). I copied down what my kids were saying as we went around the circle.
So, here is the story my Level 2 class and I came up with today in all its crazy, silly, wonderful glory:
Once upon a time, there was an old man. He lives in an old village. He has a lovely dog. He always sleep with his dog. He also has a son. He works on his farm every day. He plants some seeds, but they become frogs. His dog is very strong, he use his dog to catch animals. He wasn't worried about food, but the dog ate all his food! They have no choice so they kill the dog and eat it. Then he gets a cat. The cat help to catch mice. But the cat doesn't like to catch the frogs. He can't keep his house, it is bigger than it can be. He usually goes to town by horse. One day the old man's son takes him to town. They stay at a hotel. So they decide to buy a better dog. But they can't find a better one. Then a man found them and told them he could give them a dragon instead of a dog. The dragon is very terrible and it eats the old man and his son. They decide to try and escape the dragon. The old man's cat is very sad so it kills itself. A hunter saw it and decides to save the old man and his son. The old man and his son find the stomach and jump up and down in order to make pain and make him [bleh, gestures vomit]. The hunter uses his gun to kill the dragon. With his dying breath, the dragon vomits out the old man and his son. They are able to eat the dragon meat, but it is so much they can sell it to the village. The old man and his son get a lot of money. They buy another dragon. This dragon is the dead dragon's mother and she wants revenge. They keep her in a cage. But the dragon breaks out and eats the old man and his son. The dragon flies and lands on the sun, but it is too hot and the dragon dies. But the dragon makes cold air when it dies and the old man and his son are still alive. They decide to come back to the Earth. The old man and his son are sad to lose another dragon, so they bought a dinosaur. The old man's daughter appeared and told the old man and his son that the dinosaur is her friend. Actually, the dinosaur is very cute and the family rides on his back to travel the world. The dinosaur met another dinosaur. Meanwhile, back at his farm, the evil frogs are taking over the whole town! The dinosaurs fight the evil frogs. The dinosaurs are too big, he cannot watch the frogs so the frogs ran around the dinosaur's feet. The dinosaurs kill the frogs by stepping on them. They kill them all and there are no frogs left. The old man and his son are back home. They saw the dead cat and their farm. The old man's daughter was crying in the house. The old man saw his daughter turn into a cat and was very surprised. And the daughter felt very scared. Then, the old man's daughter finds a monster to catch the dinosaurs. The hunter appeared again and says the two dinosaurs are bad for people, he takes them and leaves the village. The two dinosaurs came to a forest and get married and have a baby dinosaur. The small dinosaur escapes from the forest. Because it is actually the old man's cat who has been reborn and remembers the old man's daughter and loves her. The small dinosaur wants to eat the old man. The old man says the small dinosaur can stay and be a pet. Many years later, the small dinosaur grew up to become a big dinosaur. The dinosaur flew away. After that, the old man was dead. The old man's daughter wanted to turn back to a person, she goes to see a witch and the witch says she must find the dinosaur and kill it. The old man's son became an old man. He is not common people and the world will be destroyed and only the old man's son can save it. The old man's son began to save the Earth and he things that it is very hard. But the old man's daughter isn't normal people either and she becomes a master; she plans the destruction of the world. The brother kills his sister and he was sad, but he is great. One day a plane crashes to earth and the brother dies. The end.
Great fun! (Bonus points if you can figure out which lines are mine. There are only 4, and one of them is "Once upon a time..." I have some very creative kids!)
So, here is the story my Level 2 class and I came up with today in all its crazy, silly, wonderful glory:
Once upon a time, there was an old man. He lives in an old village. He has a lovely dog. He always sleep with his dog. He also has a son. He works on his farm every day. He plants some seeds, but they become frogs. His dog is very strong, he use his dog to catch animals. He wasn't worried about food, but the dog ate all his food! They have no choice so they kill the dog and eat it. Then he gets a cat. The cat help to catch mice. But the cat doesn't like to catch the frogs. He can't keep his house, it is bigger than it can be. He usually goes to town by horse. One day the old man's son takes him to town. They stay at a hotel. So they decide to buy a better dog. But they can't find a better one. Then a man found them and told them he could give them a dragon instead of a dog. The dragon is very terrible and it eats the old man and his son. They decide to try and escape the dragon. The old man's cat is very sad so it kills itself. A hunter saw it and decides to save the old man and his son. The old man and his son find the stomach and jump up and down in order to make pain and make him [bleh, gestures vomit]. The hunter uses his gun to kill the dragon. With his dying breath, the dragon vomits out the old man and his son. They are able to eat the dragon meat, but it is so much they can sell it to the village. The old man and his son get a lot of money. They buy another dragon. This dragon is the dead dragon's mother and she wants revenge. They keep her in a cage. But the dragon breaks out and eats the old man and his son. The dragon flies and lands on the sun, but it is too hot and the dragon dies. But the dragon makes cold air when it dies and the old man and his son are still alive. They decide to come back to the Earth. The old man and his son are sad to lose another dragon, so they bought a dinosaur. The old man's daughter appeared and told the old man and his son that the dinosaur is her friend. Actually, the dinosaur is very cute and the family rides on his back to travel the world. The dinosaur met another dinosaur. Meanwhile, back at his farm, the evil frogs are taking over the whole town! The dinosaurs fight the evil frogs. The dinosaurs are too big, he cannot watch the frogs so the frogs ran around the dinosaur's feet. The dinosaurs kill the frogs by stepping on them. They kill them all and there are no frogs left. The old man and his son are back home. They saw the dead cat and their farm. The old man's daughter was crying in the house. The old man saw his daughter turn into a cat and was very surprised. And the daughter felt very scared. Then, the old man's daughter finds a monster to catch the dinosaurs. The hunter appeared again and says the two dinosaurs are bad for people, he takes them and leaves the village. The two dinosaurs came to a forest and get married and have a baby dinosaur. The small dinosaur escapes from the forest. Because it is actually the old man's cat who has been reborn and remembers the old man's daughter and loves her. The small dinosaur wants to eat the old man. The old man says the small dinosaur can stay and be a pet. Many years later, the small dinosaur grew up to become a big dinosaur. The dinosaur flew away. After that, the old man was dead. The old man's daughter wanted to turn back to a person, she goes to see a witch and the witch says she must find the dinosaur and kill it. The old man's son became an old man. He is not common people and the world will be destroyed and only the old man's son can save it. The old man's son began to save the Earth and he things that it is very hard. But the old man's daughter isn't normal people either and she becomes a master; she plans the destruction of the world. The brother kills his sister and he was sad, but he is great. One day a plane crashes to earth and the brother dies. The end.
Great fun! (Bonus points if you can figure out which lines are mine. There are only 4, and one of them is "Once upon a time..." I have some very creative kids!)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Doing Tai Chi... while drinking Chai Tea.
[Editor's Note: I makes the posts, so I makes the titles!]
*****
Sunday 7/18 - Luxun Park
Down the street from my residence is an enormous park called Luxun (loo-shoon), named after a famous man from the late 19th, early 20th century. I'm not sure who he is, exactly. I should probably look it up. Especially considering that I paid respects at his grave, which is in the park itself!
Anyway, I got up early on Sunday, because Mary told me that I should go to the park and check it out because people (lots of people!) like to go there and do various activities. She was pretty vague- I think she wanted me to see for myself. And boy, what a sight!
The park itself is very beautiful, with winding paths and lots of trees and plants and a big lake in the middle. It is a very large park and one of those very pleasurable things to find in the middle of a city. I came in through the north entrance and immediately found the exercise grounds. They have all this gymnastic-style or weight-lifting-type equipment. Bars that are bolted into the ground. People were using them all and there were even lines for some of them. It seemed incredible to me because I've seen similar structures in the States and yet I have also never seen anybody actually using them.
Nearby were a group of women doing Tai Chi and another group doing some kind of fan dance. I also found other small groups or individuals all around the park doing yoga or slow deliberate martial arts movies off in little secluded groves or beside the lake in little clearings that seem to have been placed there for just that purpose.
I also found a group of people singing. Now, this was not a singing group. Oh no. This was no choir. There was an old woman with a pointer stick and a giant pad of chart paper with the words to probably a couple dozen songs, and a middle-aged woman with a cd player and a knowledge of conducting. And then there was a group of people. Singing.
Isn't that amazing? These people weren't practicing or performing or anything. People would wander in and out of the group as they pleased, but there was a group of probably thirty people that had gathered together on a sunny Sunday morning at the park, just to sing. It was fantastic! I took a video, and tried to hum along (because of course, I didn't know any of the words).
After a song or two I moved along to see what else I would find in this wacky, wonderful park.
I climbed up a rock wall and found a man with some kind of instrument. It was like a croquet mallet with a string, and he played it like a cello. I have NO idea what it was, but it sounded pretty. With him were a man and a woman with a portable loudspeaker and a couple of microphones. They were also singing. Again, they weren't performing, they weren't asking for money. They were just singing because that's what they like to do!
They weren't the only people with a microphone, either. Dotted all around the park every 20 meters or so was another person (usually a woman) with her very own loudspeaker, singing away to a crowd of people. Others would sometimes ask to take a turn and whoever was singing would relinquish her microphone and join the crowd. It was pretty noisy.
There were also groups of old men playing instruments together. Whole mini-orchestras with brass and woodwind and percussion all covered, just a group of old friends who came to the park to play together on Sunday.
As I made my way around the lake front, I also saw young couples out for a paddle boat ride, as well as a bunch of people flying kites. At one point, I found a big gazebo-type building that protected a small area of the lake so that it was like a pond. It had lily pads growing and bright orange and white fish. They couldn't have been koi fish because they were far too small, but they looked kind of like that. There was a little girl feeding the fish, and I asked (with gestures, of course) if I could take her picture and she got very excited. It was adorable.
I made my way all the way around the lake, and stopped off to pay my respects to Luxun himself, then headed back out into the city to see if I could find my way to my office and attempt to get on the Internet.
Of course I never found my office, but I did wander around my neighborhood and find my way back to the Carrefour. I also found a coffee shop that has Wi-Fi, so I think I might try my luck there and see if anyone can help me get around the blocks that China puts on all the social networking sites. (Including this blog, annoyingly enough. For now, my very patient and loving fiancée is posting them for me. Thank you, love!)
I found my way back home again, footsore (6 miles altogether!) but satisfied with a morning full of sights and experiences. Shanghai is both weird and wonderful.
*****
Monday, 7/19/10- First day of school!
Gosh, it feels weird to be writing that. Especially since, I am going to be writing it again come September! But this first day was one that I was really very nervous about because I had no idea what to expect. Luckily, despite some oddities, the classroom is still a familiar space and I think I am going to feel right at home.
This is my schedule for the week:
M T W R F
8:30-10:00 Speaking 2 OAV 1 Speaking 2 OAV 1 Speaking 2
10:15-11:45 OAV 1 Speaking 2 OAV 1 Speaking 2 OAV 1
13:00-14:30 English Corner 1-3 Lecture 1-3
18:00-19:30 English Corner (adult)
I wish I could write Chinese characters because I know the days of the week now! Except Saturday and Sunday. Shoot, I should learn those!
Anyway, I have Level 2 Speaking class, and Level 1 OAV, which stands for Oral-Audio-Visual. OAV has a focus that is geared heavily towards video, whereas Speaking is much similar to the language programs in United States high schools. At least, in terms of what the book offers.
Oo, I wonder if they will let me take the books home with me? Hm. Probably not. But it'd be nice!
Off track again, sorry! My Level 2 kids are wonderful. When they first came in I played the "Hello, my name is..." game with them. When I told Mary and Allan they were very uncertain and suggested that I only require them to remember the names of two students just before them. (for those not in the know, "Hello, my name is..." involves putting all the students in a circle and having them go around and introduce themselves and give one detail about them in turn. The twist is that before they introduce themselves, they say the name of each person that came before them.)
Since my class was relatively small (only 16 students) I had them say everyone's name and they all did pretty well. They were helping each other remember, and it forced the shy ones to speak loud enough for everyone to hear their name. I noticed a couple of kids already that seem really outgoing and fun. Lucy, or Yu Han, is very friendly and outgoing and Angus seems to like me a lot, so he was very helpful.
One student, Zhang Bo Yang, did not have an English name at the start of class. But the next activity I gave them was to look at the Unit descriptions in the book and pick ones that they wanted to work on. Since we won't have time to get through the whole book, I wanted to choose things that were most interesting and most likely to engage a majority of them. I figured the best way to do that was to ask them what they wanted to do, right?
Anyway, Zhang Bo Yang was flipping through the book and came across a picture of the original movie of Dracula. He told me he had decided on an English name. He wants to be called Alucard. I laughed out loud, I couldn't help it! I told him it was a great name and he announced it to the class. The problem is that Alucard is already pretty proficient and they may move him up to Level 3. I will miss him if he goes.
All of my students in Level 2 seem very nice. Some of them probably should be bumped down to Level 1, but I can tell they are going to be a fun group to work with.
My Level 1 students are also very sweet, but they are not at all proficient. Most of them are very low-level English proficient, at least in terms of speaking and listening. They seem to be a little bit better with reading and writing, although they don't like it.
Level 1 is also strange because of the age range. In Level 2, my students were between 13-16 mostly, with a couple of outliers. In Level 1 I have a whole range from 9-24 years of age. That makes for a pretty strange classroom and also makes it difficult to come up with topics of conversation that will interest or suit everyone's needs. It will be a challenge, for sure.
One student, Jimmy, is 18 and proficient enough that he might be able to move up to Level 2. I kind of want to keep him in my OAV class, though, because he seems to know how to work the projector and computer and it was nice having him around today! He was very helpful.
One thing that helps a lot is that all the students are very polite, although some of them have just as much trouble keeping away from their cell phones as American students do.
All in all, I'd say first day was a success. I will need to work tonight on structuring my OAV class a lot more than I was expecting. Also, I must remember to talk much, much slower!
At the end of each class, I asked all my students to write down one thing they liked about the class that day, and one thing they did not like or were confused about. Although all of them were far too polite to refer to it as a "dislike," almost everyone said that they hoped the teacher would talk slower next time. Curse my speedy Jerseyan style of speech!
*****
Sunday 7/18 - Luxun Park
Down the street from my residence is an enormous park called Luxun (loo-shoon), named after a famous man from the late 19th, early 20th century. I'm not sure who he is, exactly. I should probably look it up. Especially considering that I paid respects at his grave, which is in the park itself!
Anyway, I got up early on Sunday, because Mary told me that I should go to the park and check it out because people (lots of people!) like to go there and do various activities. She was pretty vague- I think she wanted me to see for myself. And boy, what a sight!
The park itself is very beautiful, with winding paths and lots of trees and plants and a big lake in the middle. It is a very large park and one of those very pleasurable things to find in the middle of a city. I came in through the north entrance and immediately found the exercise grounds. They have all this gymnastic-style or weight-lifting-type equipment. Bars that are bolted into the ground. People were using them all and there were even lines for some of them. It seemed incredible to me because I've seen similar structures in the States and yet I have also never seen anybody actually using them.
Nearby were a group of women doing Tai Chi and another group doing some kind of fan dance. I also found other small groups or individuals all around the park doing yoga or slow deliberate martial arts movies off in little secluded groves or beside the lake in little clearings that seem to have been placed there for just that purpose.
I also found a group of people singing. Now, this was not a singing group. Oh no. This was no choir. There was an old woman with a pointer stick and a giant pad of chart paper with the words to probably a couple dozen songs, and a middle-aged woman with a cd player and a knowledge of conducting. And then there was a group of people. Singing.
Isn't that amazing? These people weren't practicing or performing or anything. People would wander in and out of the group as they pleased, but there was a group of probably thirty people that had gathered together on a sunny Sunday morning at the park, just to sing. It was fantastic! I took a video, and tried to hum along (because of course, I didn't know any of the words).
After a song or two I moved along to see what else I would find in this wacky, wonderful park.
I climbed up a rock wall and found a man with some kind of instrument. It was like a croquet mallet with a string, and he played it like a cello. I have NO idea what it was, but it sounded pretty. With him were a man and a woman with a portable loudspeaker and a couple of microphones. They were also singing. Again, they weren't performing, they weren't asking for money. They were just singing because that's what they like to do!
They weren't the only people with a microphone, either. Dotted all around the park every 20 meters or so was another person (usually a woman) with her very own loudspeaker, singing away to a crowd of people. Others would sometimes ask to take a turn and whoever was singing would relinquish her microphone and join the crowd. It was pretty noisy.
There were also groups of old men playing instruments together. Whole mini-orchestras with brass and woodwind and percussion all covered, just a group of old friends who came to the park to play together on Sunday.
As I made my way around the lake front, I also saw young couples out for a paddle boat ride, as well as a bunch of people flying kites. At one point, I found a big gazebo-type building that protected a small area of the lake so that it was like a pond. It had lily pads growing and bright orange and white fish. They couldn't have been koi fish because they were far too small, but they looked kind of like that. There was a little girl feeding the fish, and I asked (with gestures, of course) if I could take her picture and she got very excited. It was adorable.
I made my way all the way around the lake, and stopped off to pay my respects to Luxun himself, then headed back out into the city to see if I could find my way to my office and attempt to get on the Internet.
Of course I never found my office, but I did wander around my neighborhood and find my way back to the Carrefour. I also found a coffee shop that has Wi-Fi, so I think I might try my luck there and see if anyone can help me get around the blocks that China puts on all the social networking sites. (Including this blog, annoyingly enough. For now, my very patient and loving fiancée is posting them for me. Thank you, love!)
I found my way back home again, footsore (6 miles altogether!) but satisfied with a morning full of sights and experiences. Shanghai is both weird and wonderful.
*****
Monday, 7/19/10- First day of school!
Gosh, it feels weird to be writing that. Especially since, I am going to be writing it again come September! But this first day was one that I was really very nervous about because I had no idea what to expect. Luckily, despite some oddities, the classroom is still a familiar space and I think I am going to feel right at home.
This is my schedule for the week:
M T W R F
8:30-10:00 Speaking 2 OAV 1 Speaking 2 OAV 1 Speaking 2
10:15-11:45 OAV 1 Speaking 2 OAV 1 Speaking 2 OAV 1
13:00-14:30 English Corner 1-3 Lecture 1-3
18:00-19:30 English Corner (adult)
I wish I could write Chinese characters because I know the days of the week now! Except Saturday and Sunday. Shoot, I should learn those!
Anyway, I have Level 2 Speaking class, and Level 1 OAV, which stands for Oral-Audio-Visual. OAV has a focus that is geared heavily towards video, whereas Speaking is much similar to the language programs in United States high schools. At least, in terms of what the book offers.
Oo, I wonder if they will let me take the books home with me? Hm. Probably not. But it'd be nice!
Off track again, sorry! My Level 2 kids are wonderful. When they first came in I played the "Hello, my name is..." game with them. When I told Mary and Allan they were very uncertain and suggested that I only require them to remember the names of two students just before them. (for those not in the know, "Hello, my name is..." involves putting all the students in a circle and having them go around and introduce themselves and give one detail about them in turn. The twist is that before they introduce themselves, they say the name of each person that came before them.)
Since my class was relatively small (only 16 students) I had them say everyone's name and they all did pretty well. They were helping each other remember, and it forced the shy ones to speak loud enough for everyone to hear their name. I noticed a couple of kids already that seem really outgoing and fun. Lucy, or Yu Han, is very friendly and outgoing and Angus seems to like me a lot, so he was very helpful.
One student, Zhang Bo Yang, did not have an English name at the start of class. But the next activity I gave them was to look at the Unit descriptions in the book and pick ones that they wanted to work on. Since we won't have time to get through the whole book, I wanted to choose things that were most interesting and most likely to engage a majority of them. I figured the best way to do that was to ask them what they wanted to do, right?
Anyway, Zhang Bo Yang was flipping through the book and came across a picture of the original movie of Dracula. He told me he had decided on an English name. He wants to be called Alucard. I laughed out loud, I couldn't help it! I told him it was a great name and he announced it to the class. The problem is that Alucard is already pretty proficient and they may move him up to Level 3. I will miss him if he goes.
All of my students in Level 2 seem very nice. Some of them probably should be bumped down to Level 1, but I can tell they are going to be a fun group to work with.
My Level 1 students are also very sweet, but they are not at all proficient. Most of them are very low-level English proficient, at least in terms of speaking and listening. They seem to be a little bit better with reading and writing, although they don't like it.
Level 1 is also strange because of the age range. In Level 2, my students were between 13-16 mostly, with a couple of outliers. In Level 1 I have a whole range from 9-24 years of age. That makes for a pretty strange classroom and also makes it difficult to come up with topics of conversation that will interest or suit everyone's needs. It will be a challenge, for sure.
One student, Jimmy, is 18 and proficient enough that he might be able to move up to Level 2. I kind of want to keep him in my OAV class, though, because he seems to know how to work the projector and computer and it was nice having him around today! He was very helpful.
One thing that helps a lot is that all the students are very polite, although some of them have just as much trouble keeping away from their cell phones as American students do.
All in all, I'd say first day was a success. I will need to work tonight on structuring my OAV class a lot more than I was expecting. Also, I must remember to talk much, much slower!
At the end of each class, I asked all my students to write down one thing they liked about the class that day, and one thing they did not like or were confused about. Although all of them were far too polite to refer to it as a "dislike," almost everyone said that they hoped the teacher would talk slower next time. Curse my speedy Jerseyan style of speech!
Monday, July 19, 2010
China by Proxy
[Editor's Note: China blocks access to Blogger for some reason. Cathy has to e-mail her posts to her fiancee who will be posting them here as he receives them. There is a bit of a backlog, so they'll be posted here now. More to come.]
It took me a while to find Wi-Fi in Shanghai. There is none in my apartment building, which is kind of annoying. Also, China blocks every social networking site and because I am not computer savvy, I have yet to figure out how to get around it, but whatever, here we go!
After I posted my last blog, I waited for my plane from Incheon in Seoul to board and watched a couple of American children be obnoxious. It's really no wonder that people from other countries think Americans are rude. As travelers, we can be annoying.
The plane flight to Shanghai seemed to be no time at all compared to my flight to Korea. They fed us and cleared our dinner and by the time they came by with after dinner drinks and the duty free purchase cart, we had 20 minutes until we were to land.
I am kicking myself because I completely forgot to take a picture of my dinner. This was a good one too! I got pretty lucky with food options on the plane ride. Even though there was the standard chicken or beef options, there was always an option that was veg-friendly or could be converted into a veg-friendly option.
Dinner was rice with vegetable, shiitake mushroom and shrimp stir-fry. The side was bean curd with oriental dressing. Yes, you heard me. My side dish was a tub of tofu with a little packet of oriental dressing to pour over the top. It's probably a good thing Tom didn't come with me- for this plane ride, this was the only option. He would have to starve. ;) Although, I guess he would have been able to eat the little bread roll that came with it.
Dessert was flavored sticky rice. I think it was honey and nuts. I followed the lead of the Korean woman sitting next to me and ate it like a candy bar. Weird and fun!
When I arrived at Pu Dong Airport in Shanghai, I made it through immigration with no problem and went to pick up my bags. I was hoping to see a sign with my name on it, but there was none in evidence. I started to feel a little worried, but I shrugged it off and focused on getting my bags.
Once I had them, I looked around for Mr. Wang, who was supposed to be picking me up. I didn't see anyone. I stood around looking bemused for a few minutes. I had a cell phone number, but no phone. I had no idea how to use the Chinese pay phones and I was not at all certain what Wang looked like.
Luckily, I must have stood in one place long enough to get noticed and the man at the information desk called me over. He let me borrow his cell phone to call Wang. Turns out he was only about 10 minutes away, so I grabbed my bags and headed outside to wait for him. A police officer came over and stood near me. He didn't say anything, and he barely even looked at me, but I'm pretty sure he was making sure I didn't get kidnapped or something. I wish I had thought to thank him, but I was so zoned out at that point that I'm not sure I was even thinking at all.
Anyway, thanks Mr. Chinese Policeman!
Wang found me and got us both into a taxi to head over to the residence building. I feel asleep for most of the car ride, despite my best efforts, so I'm not sure how far it is to the airport from my building.
The cab dropped us off at the residence, Wang checked me in and then took me to my room. My room, by the way, is HUGE. But I think I'll save that for another post. Wang bid me good night and I unpacked my bags, took a shower, and then crashed out on my bed.
I have arrived in Shanghai!
*****
Friday, 7/16 - My room
When I first arrived on Thursday night, I explored my room a little and took some pictures of it.
I am in room 1401. There is no elevator, but I guess that's good- lots of cardio!
So, now I'm here and I am EXHAUSTED.
*****
Friday, 7/16- Out and about in Shanghai
I woke up Friday morning around 6: 30. After I found my balcony, I had a candy bar for breakfast and watched some Chinese TV. Then I figured I ought to see if I could find some real food and ventured out onto the street.
I walked only a few hundred feet down my road when I was deterred by a rain that was to continue to vex me throughout the day. People seemed interested in me and I had a few call out hello in English and look excited when I answered back.
Back in my room, I watched some more TV and around 9:30, I got a call from Vicky, who is the young woman who works in the office at the University. She said we were meeting for lunch at 11 and that I should find Alan, the third teacher in his room because he would show me the way there.
I met Alan, who is a master manipulator. He's very nice, but he is always looking for the way that a situation can best benefit him. So far I've been lucky enough that the things that benefit him are also a benefit to me! Either way, we chatted for a bit and then headed out into the drizzly weather.
The walk to the University is only about 15 minutes, but on our way over the drizzle turned into a TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR. We stopped and Alan brought an umbrella. We considered staying where we were until the rain let up, but we were already late so I decided we should just go.
When we finally got to the school, we were drenched, despite our umbrella. The rain had been blowing into our faces, so the front of my pants were a different color than the back. My shoes were squelching and I was sodden. They offered me tea and tissues and Alan delved into the boxes he had left behind last year and came up with a towel. One thing I've noticed is that everyone, without fail, is really very nice if you need some kind of assistance.
I was starving (the candy bar was hours ago, and the banana Alan gave me was wearing off too) but we couldn't find Mary, the other teacher! I had met her for dinner once in the States at the Ni's restaurant. She had come much earlier, but went on vacation for a week in another province. She was supposed to have arrived at the same time I did, but her plane did not come and she had not checked into the residence.
We finally discovered that he plane had in fact landed, but very late so, with no way to find out where she went after that, we went to lunch. It was still raining.
The restaurant was so cool! We got our own private room with a lazy susan in the middle. Wang ordered for all of us, and ordered a bunch of vegetarian things so that I could eat as well as everyone else. I even managed to say "I am vegetarian" in Mandarin! "Wo chi su." I know what the pinying looks like, but Mandarin has 5 different tones that I still have yet to get a handle on.
One thing that really amused me was that, when we sat down, Vicky sat in the chair next to me. Then she immediately got up and ushered one of the men into that seat instead, so that we would be boy-girl-boy. Ah, China.
Lunch was delicious and I tried my best not to break any rules of etiquette. Mary called during the appetizers and she got a taxi over to the restaurant. Turns out he plane had landed at 3:30 am, which meant that no one was on duty at the residence to check her in, so she went to the SISU hotel instead and spent the night there.
After lunch, we went back to the office. Again, still raining. They gave us our materials and schedule and office key. I have my very own desk in a little office I share with Mary and Alan!
Frankly, I feel a little overwhelmed by how not prepared I am. I wasn't sure what to bring, so I brought barely anything. Mary and Alan both have reams of material- all I've got is the books. I think I will have to download some music or TV episodes. I hope I can get my hands on enough stuff to make it worthwhile for my students.
They're not being graded, so the only thing that is motivating them to come is their own obligation to their selves and the money their parents paid for the course. Which isn't much motivation at all, frankly. From what I've heard, Chinese teenagers nowadays are awfully Westernized. So, hopefully, I can engage them enough that they will WANT to come to my classes.
*****
Friday, 7/16 - My day, part 2
After the meeting, Alan the Amazing Manipulator convinced Chen, another teacher, to load a bunch of his and Mary's stuff into his car and drive us back to the residence because, once again it was still raining. Alan called a taxi for the other half.
After we unloaded, Alan unpacked and loaned me a glass, a mug, a bowl, and some plastic utensils.
Then, since it was only drizzling and not a monsoon, Mary and I ventured out to do some grocery shopping. Food is so cheap here! 6-7 yuan is equal to 1 American dollar, so do the math on these and be amazed:
package of 10 eggs: 7 yuan
7 bananas: 4.55 yuan
package of noodle soup: 3.40 yuan
four pack of yogurt: 5 yuan
1.6 liter bottle of orange juice: 6 yuan
4 liter bottle of water: 4.60 yuan
It is no wonder they only gave us 100 yuan a day to live on. That is more than enough, even if you go out to eat. I saw a commercial for McDonald's breakfast on the TV and a sandwich+coffee combo is 6 yuan. That is less than 50 cents, people. I seriously feel like Ivana Trump here, folks. I am rich!
After putting my groceries away, I almost feel asleep, but I didn't want to give in to jet lag, so I went back down to Mary's room and we went out again. It is still drizzling, so the first thing we did was buy umbrellas from the guy outside the train station.
Then we stopped in at this DVD shop, which is exactly what is sounds like. It is a tiny shop that just has mounds and mounds of really cheap DVDs. And when I say cheap, I mean cheap. I bought the complete Season 2 and Season 3 of House for a total of 60 yuan. Once again, for you at home that is a grand total of about $4. For two seasons of House. OHMYGODSOCHEAP.
When we walked back past the train station, Mary went in and bought a refillable metro card. I'm thinking I should probably get myself one of those. It seems really handy and the metro, from what I have heard, is quick and can get me most anywhere I want to go. And even though taxis are also super cheap here, there are metro stations everywhere. If I get lost, I can just hop on and ride it back to my street.
After that we stopped at a bakery and I bought myself a pastry for dessert. They seem to be remarkably good at baking in China, everything looked and smelled delicious. When we left the pastry shop it was... you guessed it, still raining!
I have a feeling I am going to get a lot of use out of that 10 yuan umbrella I bought.
It was dark by the time we wended our way back to the residence, and I watched episodes of House until I fell asleep.
*******
Saturday, 7/17- A new day!
This morning was very cloudy, but no rain! It is very hot and muggy though, I am grateful for the air conditioner.Mary came around 11 and invited me out. She took me to Carrefour, which is the Western-style grocery store. It is enormous and is very much like a department store. Upstairs is everything from clothes and luggage to pots and pans to soap and detergent and everything in between. Downstairs is the food area. We bought some more necessities like laundry powder, dish towels and soap, and tissues for public toilets. (Wait till I tell you about the squat toilets
I also bought some more noodles and coffee and peanut butter.
Mary, Alan and I had a meeting today to discuss what we're going to be teaching. Yesterday they informed us that we are going to be teaching an additional class on Wednesday nights. It is for adults going abroad to work in English-speaking countries and it is optional for them. Because it wasn't in the original agreement, we are each getting an extra 200 yuan per session, which means an extra 800 yuan. Which, remember, is like a fortune around here!
I'm still nervous about teaching come Monday, but I am beginning to feel a bit more settled. I think. I hope.
It took me a while to find Wi-Fi in Shanghai. There is none in my apartment building, which is kind of annoying. Also, China blocks every social networking site and because I am not computer savvy, I have yet to figure out how to get around it, but whatever, here we go!
After I posted my last blog, I waited for my plane from Incheon in Seoul to board and watched a couple of American children be obnoxious. It's really no wonder that people from other countries think Americans are rude. As travelers, we can be annoying.
The plane flight to Shanghai seemed to be no time at all compared to my flight to Korea. They fed us and cleared our dinner and by the time they came by with after dinner drinks and the duty free purchase cart, we had 20 minutes until we were to land.
I am kicking myself because I completely forgot to take a picture of my dinner. This was a good one too! I got pretty lucky with food options on the plane ride. Even though there was the standard chicken or beef options, there was always an option that was veg-friendly or could be converted into a veg-friendly option.
Dinner was rice with vegetable, shiitake mushroom and shrimp stir-fry. The side was bean curd with oriental dressing. Yes, you heard me. My side dish was a tub of tofu with a little packet of oriental dressing to pour over the top. It's probably a good thing Tom didn't come with me- for this plane ride, this was the only option. He would have to starve. ;) Although, I guess he would have been able to eat the little bread roll that came with it.
Dessert was flavored sticky rice. I think it was honey and nuts. I followed the lead of the Korean woman sitting next to me and ate it like a candy bar. Weird and fun!
When I arrived at Pu Dong Airport in Shanghai, I made it through immigration with no problem and went to pick up my bags. I was hoping to see a sign with my name on it, but there was none in evidence. I started to feel a little worried, but I shrugged it off and focused on getting my bags.
Once I had them, I looked around for Mr. Wang, who was supposed to be picking me up. I didn't see anyone. I stood around looking bemused for a few minutes. I had a cell phone number, but no phone. I had no idea how to use the Chinese pay phones and I was not at all certain what Wang looked like.
Luckily, I must have stood in one place long enough to get noticed and the man at the information desk called me over. He let me borrow his cell phone to call Wang. Turns out he was only about 10 minutes away, so I grabbed my bags and headed outside to wait for him. A police officer came over and stood near me. He didn't say anything, and he barely even looked at me, but I'm pretty sure he was making sure I didn't get kidnapped or something. I wish I had thought to thank him, but I was so zoned out at that point that I'm not sure I was even thinking at all.
Anyway, thanks Mr. Chinese Policeman!
Wang found me and got us both into a taxi to head over to the residence building. I feel asleep for most of the car ride, despite my best efforts, so I'm not sure how far it is to the airport from my building.
The cab dropped us off at the residence, Wang checked me in and then took me to my room. My room, by the way, is HUGE. But I think I'll save that for another post. Wang bid me good night and I unpacked my bags, took a shower, and then crashed out on my bed.
I have arrived in Shanghai!
*****
Friday, 7/16 - My room
When I first arrived on Thursday night, I explored my room a little and took some pictures of it.
I am in room 1401. There is no elevator, but I guess that's good- lots of cardio!
When you come in the front door, there is a main hallway. Immediately to the left is my living room. Fully furnished- I've got a couch, a TV, a desk, coffee table, bookcase, and eating table.
Off to the right of the hallway is the kitchen and the bathroom. In my bathroom, I have my very own little washing machine. No dryer- everyone hangs their clothes out to dry.
Straight down the hallway is a small second bedroom that is not being used and off to the left and next to the living room is my bedroom. I have a twin bed that came with a sheet, blanket and pillow, a little dresser, bedside table drawers, and a closet.
On Thursday night when I arrived, the curtains were closed. Imagine my surprise when I opened the living room curtains to look outside and found my very own balcony!
Here is the view from my balcony. Not super stimulating, but it is my view and I like it just for that.
This place is enormous! Enough to fit four people, really and I have it all to myself. It is so much more than I was expecting. Tom could certainly have come to live with me if we had been able to afford the plane ticket.
So, now I'm here and I am EXHAUSTED.
*****
Friday, 7/16- Out and about in Shanghai
I woke up Friday morning around 6: 30. After I found my balcony, I had a candy bar for breakfast and watched some Chinese TV. Then I figured I ought to see if I could find some real food and ventured out onto the street.
I walked only a few hundred feet down my road when I was deterred by a rain that was to continue to vex me throughout the day. People seemed interested in me and I had a few call out hello in English and look excited when I answered back.
Back in my room, I watched some more TV and around 9:30, I got a call from Vicky, who is the young woman who works in the office at the University. She said we were meeting for lunch at 11 and that I should find Alan, the third teacher in his room because he would show me the way there.
I met Alan, who is a master manipulator. He's very nice, but he is always looking for the way that a situation can best benefit him. So far I've been lucky enough that the things that benefit him are also a benefit to me! Either way, we chatted for a bit and then headed out into the drizzly weather.
The walk to the University is only about 15 minutes, but on our way over the drizzle turned into a TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR. We stopped and Alan brought an umbrella. We considered staying where we were until the rain let up, but we were already late so I decided we should just go.
When we finally got to the school, we were drenched, despite our umbrella. The rain had been blowing into our faces, so the front of my pants were a different color than the back. My shoes were squelching and I was sodden. They offered me tea and tissues and Alan delved into the boxes he had left behind last year and came up with a towel. One thing I've noticed is that everyone, without fail, is really very nice if you need some kind of assistance.
I was starving (the candy bar was hours ago, and the banana Alan gave me was wearing off too) but we couldn't find Mary, the other teacher! I had met her for dinner once in the States at the Ni's restaurant. She had come much earlier, but went on vacation for a week in another province. She was supposed to have arrived at the same time I did, but her plane did not come and she had not checked into the residence.
We finally discovered that he plane had in fact landed, but very late so, with no way to find out where she went after that, we went to lunch. It was still raining.
The restaurant was so cool! We got our own private room with a lazy susan in the middle. Wang ordered for all of us, and ordered a bunch of vegetarian things so that I could eat as well as everyone else. I even managed to say "I am vegetarian" in Mandarin! "Wo chi su." I know what the pinying looks like, but Mandarin has 5 different tones that I still have yet to get a handle on.
One thing that really amused me was that, when we sat down, Vicky sat in the chair next to me. Then she immediately got up and ushered one of the men into that seat instead, so that we would be boy-girl-boy. Ah, China.
Lunch was delicious and I tried my best not to break any rules of etiquette. Mary called during the appetizers and she got a taxi over to the restaurant. Turns out he plane had landed at 3:30 am, which meant that no one was on duty at the residence to check her in, so she went to the SISU hotel instead and spent the night there.
After lunch, we went back to the office. Again, still raining. They gave us our materials and schedule and office key. I have my very own desk in a little office I share with Mary and Alan!
Frankly, I feel a little overwhelmed by how not prepared I am. I wasn't sure what to bring, so I brought barely anything. Mary and Alan both have reams of material- all I've got is the books. I think I will have to download some music or TV episodes. I hope I can get my hands on enough stuff to make it worthwhile for my students.
They're not being graded, so the only thing that is motivating them to come is their own obligation to their selves and the money their parents paid for the course. Which isn't much motivation at all, frankly. From what I've heard, Chinese teenagers nowadays are awfully Westernized. So, hopefully, I can engage them enough that they will WANT to come to my classes.
*****
Friday, 7/16 - My day, part 2
After the meeting, Alan the Amazing Manipulator convinced Chen, another teacher, to load a bunch of his and Mary's stuff into his car and drive us back to the residence because, once again it was still raining. Alan called a taxi for the other half.
After we unloaded, Alan unpacked and loaned me a glass, a mug, a bowl, and some plastic utensils.
Then, since it was only drizzling and not a monsoon, Mary and I ventured out to do some grocery shopping. Food is so cheap here! 6-7 yuan is equal to 1 American dollar, so do the math on these and be amazed:
package of 10 eggs: 7 yuan
7 bananas: 4.55 yuan
package of noodle soup: 3.40 yuan
four pack of yogurt: 5 yuan
1.6 liter bottle of orange juice: 6 yuan
4 liter bottle of water: 4.60 yuan
It is no wonder they only gave us 100 yuan a day to live on. That is more than enough, even if you go out to eat. I saw a commercial for McDonald's breakfast on the TV and a sandwich+coffee combo is 6 yuan. That is less than 50 cents, people. I seriously feel like Ivana Trump here, folks. I am rich!
After putting my groceries away, I almost feel asleep, but I didn't want to give in to jet lag, so I went back down to Mary's room and we went out again. It is still drizzling, so the first thing we did was buy umbrellas from the guy outside the train station.
Then we stopped in at this DVD shop, which is exactly what is sounds like. It is a tiny shop that just has mounds and mounds of really cheap DVDs. And when I say cheap, I mean cheap. I bought the complete Season 2 and Season 3 of House for a total of 60 yuan. Once again, for you at home that is a grand total of about $4. For two seasons of House. OHMYGODSOCHEAP.
When we walked back past the train station, Mary went in and bought a refillable metro card. I'm thinking I should probably get myself one of those. It seems really handy and the metro, from what I have heard, is quick and can get me most anywhere I want to go. And even though taxis are also super cheap here, there are metro stations everywhere. If I get lost, I can just hop on and ride it back to my street.
After that we stopped at a bakery and I bought myself a pastry for dessert. They seem to be remarkably good at baking in China, everything looked and smelled delicious. When we left the pastry shop it was... you guessed it, still raining!
I have a feeling I am going to get a lot of use out of that 10 yuan umbrella I bought.
It was dark by the time we wended our way back to the residence, and I watched episodes of House until I fell asleep.
*******
Saturday, 7/17- A new day!
This morning was very cloudy, but no rain! It is very hot and muggy though, I am grateful for the air conditioner.Mary came around 11 and invited me out. She took me to Carrefour, which is the Western-style grocery store. It is enormous and is very much like a department store. Upstairs is everything from clothes and luggage to pots and pans to soap and detergent and everything in between. Downstairs is the food area. We bought some more necessities like laundry powder, dish towels and soap, and tissues for public toilets. (Wait till I tell you about the squat toilets
I also bought some more noodles and coffee and peanut butter.
Mary, Alan and I had a meeting today to discuss what we're going to be teaching. Yesterday they informed us that we are going to be teaching an additional class on Wednesday nights. It is for adults going abroad to work in English-speaking countries and it is optional for them. Because it wasn't in the original agreement, we are each getting an extra 200 yuan per session, which means an extra 800 yuan. Which, remember, is like a fortune around here!
I'm still nervous about teaching come Monday, but I am beginning to feel a bit more settled. I think. I hope.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
First leg!
Well, it is 4:45 AM back home in the States, but I am in Seoul, Korea so it is 5:45 local time. Right now I am sitting at the gate, getting free Wi-Fi from a cafe upstairs. Thank goodness for free Wi-Fi!
The plane flight over here was one of the longest and most tedious experiences of my admittedly short life. I will say, though, that Korea Air gets two gigantic thumbs up from me. In a time where many airlines are starting to charge you for previously complimentary tiny cans of soda, Korea Air went out of their way to make the FOURTEEN HOUR plane flight as comfortable as possible.
Anyway, back to the beginning. I packed up most of my stuff on Tuesday night and woke up on Wednesday morning with my stomach starting to tie into knots. I called my mom to say goodbye, packed the rest of my things, had a cup of coffee and then Tom and I were off to the airport. I was worried about that, but JFK was surprisingly easy to navigate to.
I made Tom park the car and come in with me because I wasn't willing to let him go yet. I checked in and got my boarding pass. Tom and I had our tearful goodbye, and then the woman at the start of the security line informed me I needed to go check my bags first. So we checked my bags, had another teary good bye and then I headed through the gate.
I wandered my way through the airport until I found my gate and then I bought some lunch and listened to Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There, his travelogue about the time he backpacked around Europe. There was an older gentleman sitting across from me who looked over disapprovingly every time I ate a potato chip. I tried to crunch quietly.
Boarding was very orderly and efficient and we took off exactly on time, amazingly enough. There were two infants on board and when I saw them I gave a little internal groan. But apparently, Asian infants come with manners installed and the little things stayed nearly silent the whole trip!
The airplane was one of the mondo huge ones with three rows of three seats. My seat was 44D, in the center, but on the aisle, which was nice. I shared my row with a Japanese girl about my age and a friendly older woman who is from Thailand. The Thai woman was really nice and sparked up a conversation. Unfortunately, the Japanese girl sitting between us was less so--she wore one of those surgical masks the whole flight and huffily turned up the volume on her movie when we tried having a conversation across her.
Interestingly, everyone got their own little TV screen that had OH MAN so many options! They had literally dozens of movies to chose from to watch. Granted, half of them were weird things that they labeled as "Classics," that were entirely unfamiliar to me and Asian films that seemed like fun and I kind of wish I had watched instead of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Oh my god, you guys. That movie. So bad.... sooooooo bad. I think I will have to write a separate post to fully express just how bad that movie was. I did get to watch Date Night, though, which was expectedly hilarious and wonderful.
And oh man. The food! They started us off with the standard peanuts and soda-- and it was classic honey-roasted peanuts too! None of that wussy allergin-conscious cracker substitute crap. Delicious peanuts, mmmm. We also got a complimentary water bottle, which I appreciated.
Then came dinner. I had to take a picture of it, because I could barely believe it.
[I'll insert a photo later, when I have a chance to upload them from my camera]
Dinner was vegetables and rice that you were supposed to mix. I segregated out the meat that was in with the vegetables as best as I could. There was also miso soup that I don't think you were supposed to mix with the vegetables and rice. I sneaked a peak at the trays of the elderly Asian couple across the aisle every once in a while, to try and get an idea of the etiquette. I mixed the soup in anyway, and it was delicious, so whatever. It also came with this awesome Korean spicy red paste. Need to get me some of that for food at home. This side dish was pickles with some kind of red spice sprinkled on them and dessert was melon and pineapple.
AND they give you wine. For free! With dinner! Korea Air is bitchin', yo!
At some point over the Arctic, they gave us pork buns, which I accidentally started eating. First unintentional meat of the trip! I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of that. Oh well. I should probably look up how to say "no meat." *makes a mental note*
At noontime in Seoul, they fed us lunch, which was pasta with veggies in a cream sauce, some kind of delicious red cabbage-carrot-vinegar salad, bread, and carrot cake for dessert. Yum.
They also frequently came around with drinks and things like hot towels and the like. The flight attendants were all super-smiley, super-skinny women in green and white and tan. It was actually quite pleasant for a 14-hour stretch of time trapped in an airplane.
I would frequently switch back to the map that shows you where you are when movies were over or I got tired of my audio book. The map on this plane was weird, though- it not only showed you the names of major cities in the area, it also showed the location in the ocean of major sunken ships like the Titanic, or a ship called the Empress of Ireland which apparently sank in some bay in Canada in 1914.
All in all, not a bad start to the trip. Just one more short plane flight and I will be in Shanghai!
The plane flight over here was one of the longest and most tedious experiences of my admittedly short life. I will say, though, that Korea Air gets two gigantic thumbs up from me. In a time where many airlines are starting to charge you for previously complimentary tiny cans of soda, Korea Air went out of their way to make the FOURTEEN HOUR plane flight as comfortable as possible.
Anyway, back to the beginning. I packed up most of my stuff on Tuesday night and woke up on Wednesday morning with my stomach starting to tie into knots. I called my mom to say goodbye, packed the rest of my things, had a cup of coffee and then Tom and I were off to the airport. I was worried about that, but JFK was surprisingly easy to navigate to.
I made Tom park the car and come in with me because I wasn't willing to let him go yet. I checked in and got my boarding pass. Tom and I had our tearful goodbye, and then the woman at the start of the security line informed me I needed to go check my bags first. So we checked my bags, had another teary good bye and then I headed through the gate.
I wandered my way through the airport until I found my gate and then I bought some lunch and listened to Bill Bryson's Neither Here Nor There, his travelogue about the time he backpacked around Europe. There was an older gentleman sitting across from me who looked over disapprovingly every time I ate a potato chip. I tried to crunch quietly.
Boarding was very orderly and efficient and we took off exactly on time, amazingly enough. There were two infants on board and when I saw them I gave a little internal groan. But apparently, Asian infants come with manners installed and the little things stayed nearly silent the whole trip!
The airplane was one of the mondo huge ones with three rows of three seats. My seat was 44D, in the center, but on the aisle, which was nice. I shared my row with a Japanese girl about my age and a friendly older woman who is from Thailand. The Thai woman was really nice and sparked up a conversation. Unfortunately, the Japanese girl sitting between us was less so--she wore one of those surgical masks the whole flight and huffily turned up the volume on her movie when we tried having a conversation across her.
Interestingly, everyone got their own little TV screen that had OH MAN so many options! They had literally dozens of movies to chose from to watch. Granted, half of them were weird things that they labeled as "Classics," that were entirely unfamiliar to me and Asian films that seemed like fun and I kind of wish I had watched instead of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Oh my god, you guys. That movie. So bad.... sooooooo bad. I think I will have to write a separate post to fully express just how bad that movie was. I did get to watch Date Night, though, which was expectedly hilarious and wonderful.
And oh man. The food! They started us off with the standard peanuts and soda-- and it was classic honey-roasted peanuts too! None of that wussy allergin-conscious cracker substitute crap. Delicious peanuts, mmmm. We also got a complimentary water bottle, which I appreciated.
Then came dinner. I had to take a picture of it, because I could barely believe it.
[I'll insert a photo later, when I have a chance to upload them from my camera]
Dinner was vegetables and rice that you were supposed to mix. I segregated out the meat that was in with the vegetables as best as I could. There was also miso soup that I don't think you were supposed to mix with the vegetables and rice. I sneaked a peak at the trays of the elderly Asian couple across the aisle every once in a while, to try and get an idea of the etiquette. I mixed the soup in anyway, and it was delicious, so whatever. It also came with this awesome Korean spicy red paste. Need to get me some of that for food at home. This side dish was pickles with some kind of red spice sprinkled on them and dessert was melon and pineapple.
AND they give you wine. For free! With dinner! Korea Air is bitchin', yo!
At some point over the Arctic, they gave us pork buns, which I accidentally started eating. First unintentional meat of the trip! I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of that. Oh well. I should probably look up how to say "no meat." *makes a mental note*
At noontime in Seoul, they fed us lunch, which was pasta with veggies in a cream sauce, some kind of delicious red cabbage-carrot-vinegar salad, bread, and carrot cake for dessert. Yum.
They also frequently came around with drinks and things like hot towels and the like. The flight attendants were all super-smiley, super-skinny women in green and white and tan. It was actually quite pleasant for a 14-hour stretch of time trapped in an airplane.
I would frequently switch back to the map that shows you where you are when movies were over or I got tired of my audio book. The map on this plane was weird, though- it not only showed you the names of major cities in the area, it also showed the location in the ocean of major sunken ships like the Titanic, or a ship called the Empress of Ireland which apparently sank in some bay in Canada in 1914.
All in all, not a bad start to the trip. Just one more short plane flight and I will be in Shanghai!
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