AMERICA!!

Sooo - fast forward 5 MONTHS, and you'll have found me back in the US of A! I've spent the past 3-4 weeks back in America, readjusting to Western culture. This includes, but is not limited to saying 'Thank You' in Chinese to people when I buy things at stores, being shocked that I could understand everyone around me at once, noticing how different Chinese People look vs. the explosion of variety found here in USA, and realizing I've gained weight at an alarming rate since putting myself back on an 'American' diet (Hamburgers, nachos, pasta, you NAME it). But let me tell ya, it's been wonderful to see friends that I haven't seen in an entire year. Refreshing.. rejuvinating, even! In about 2 weeks from today, I'll be returning back to China to continue teaching for another teaching year! I touch down in Shanghai to attend a huge meeting for the new job I'll be entering, then taking a train to Zhengzhou, Henan - to begin my new job! I'm afraid I won't be spending my next year in Tongliao, which is a shame, both because I made a myriad of wonderful friends and memories there... and since my website is teachingtongliao.blogspot.com .. but I'm sure I can figure something out, here. I'll keep you all (all 6 of you that might read this?) highly posted!


Oh, and explanation about why I abruptly stopped writing in my blog 5 months ago might be in order, yeah? Well, turns out one day in March I went to log into my blog, and I was unable to access blogger.com in any way, shape or form. Was this China's fault? Maybe. Did I want to keep writing? Of course! Alas, I was unable to - so I was forced to lay down my digital pen for awhile. Bummer. Hopefully now I can pick up the pieces and try to recount my last few months in China. I'll do my best!

I hope all is well, living in America is everything I had ever dreamed. Or, at least, everything I had remembered from about a year ago.

Ricky

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!

Love you mom - you made my life, and make it better every day. :)

Thank you so much for all your support in my crazy undertaking of going to China and seeing the world, etc. I wouldn't be able to do all this without your blessing and interest in the things that I do, and it is nothing short of a miracle how much love and admiration you've given me. I can't fathom how many sacrifices I'm sure you've made for me, and how blindly you've given your love to me through my entire life. Love shapes, love nurtures, and your love in particular has given me strength and personality enough to live out my dreams and search this world for opportunity and adventure. You've literally made me the person I am, momma. Words can't translate how much love I've got for you every single day when I think about you out here.

I miss you more than I've missed anything else in my life! I can't wait to see you this August..! Enjoy Murray Farms Flowers, and treat yourself to something you love today. :) You'll have to wait for your mother's day present when I return back home!

LOVE YOU TOO MUCH! You're the best mother a son could ask for!

And to every other mother who may read this, or who might read this and has a respective mother...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! To the hardest working ladies in the world!


Ricky

MY CURRENT LIFE!

Last, Last weekend I took a trip to Beijing just to get away from Tongliao for awhile. I mean, it's great here, don't get me wrong. But after teaching classes 2 months straight after a great vacation - I needed a little pick me up in the big city. I managed to meet up with Steve and Elisa (a wonderful Italian gal that I met while I was in Zhengzhou. She speaks like 40 languages and is currently studying Chinese in Beijing. Smarty Pants City) and we just had a great little 3 days together to have fun, and do, as the Chinese say, "Chi Hao, He Hao", aka, EAT GOOD, DRINK GOOD! It was great fun.

I stayed at Elisa's apartment which was in the WuDaoKou part of Beijing, and right next to BCLU, the super famous Beijing University. (I forget what the acronym stands for - sue me.) If anyone ever is in the WuDaoKou area in Beijing, they HAVE to go to "Lush", a little restaurant/pub/bar near the subway stop. The food is unbelieveable, good prices, and just seems great.

We also managed to make some time to spend in SanLiTun, aka, Foreigner Central, which is kind of a bar street/outdoors shopping village smack dab in the middle of Beijing. I bought a copy of Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm almost finished it now, and I'm going to have to pick up the next installment concerning Harry's time at Hogwarts next time I'm in the city!

Which.. conincidently - will be tomorrow! I'm taking a train tomorrow morning into Beijing, and should arrive in the city around 10pm tomorrow night. I'll be staying at my good friend Kristin's place, and then waking up at the CRACK of dawn to grab a train (6:45am, ugh.) that'll bring me directly to Qingdao, China. Qingdao is supposed to be a very beautiful beach town on the Chinese East coast, and I've been dying to check it out. Now that the weather is beautiful (and I was told about 3 days ago that I have no class this week) I've decided to make the trek out there to see it for myself! Meg and Christina, two of the girls that I live with here at Tongliao #1 School have already made the trip, and highly recommended it. So here I am, updating my blog before heading out! UNFORTUNATELY, my camera has suffered a very recent death, and it's going to make documenting this trip extremely difficult. However, I'm sure I'll persevere, and find a way to remember the place that doesn't involve photographs! And maybe I'll just buy a new camera. Who knows.

So that's the long and short of things right now! Aside from that, I've been studying Chinese pretty hard lately. I'm getting happier with my ability to string together sentences, but I still get very frustrated with my listening abilities. It's very hard for me to listen to Chinese people speak their native language, and to completely understand what they're telling me. I suppose that'll just come with more practice and study, but still, it's frustrating to know what I'm saying, then to have no idea what they reply. Argh.

Alas! Hold fast!

Let's see who can figure this out:

我今天有新工作！一个高中在郑州今天告诉我。 妈妈，，爸爸，， 妹妹。。。我很想你们！！！ 但是，我知道我回到在美国八月， 仁厚我们有一个z大聚会！！！

... And everything else.

In lieu of the fact that I'm unfathomably behind on keeping this blog updated, I've decided that I'm going to bullet-point the rest of my vacation and note a few of the things that have been going on SINCE then, (rather quickly) so that I can try to keep things more current. I apologize for my inherent laziness in keeping this a tidy record of my travels and exploits!

So let's see.

- After Hangzhou, we took a plane to Kunming, Yunnan, China. It's a city in the south-west part of China, and is kind of a hub to go to other back packing desinations via bus or train.

- We stayed in Kunming a few days, at 'The Hump' Hostel, which is easily the best hostel I've ever stayed at. The view of the city, the bar, the people, and the funky feeling from the place was far and beyond the most enjoyable I've experienced in China.

- In Kunming we were able to celebrate the Chinese New Year!!! Fireworks exploding EVERYWHERE, people having a grand time, red paper lanterns floating in the sky - it was definitely a thing to behold. Lovely, bizarre, interesting, and beautiful. What a country!

- We met up with a traveling photographer, Jason, a Californian fella traveling through south east Asia, and decided to travel to a few places together to see some more of China.

- He came with us (now it's Me, Steve, Dirk, Kristin and Jason) on a bus ride to Dali, which is an old, old, old town inlaid next to a massive lake that was unspeakably gorgeous.

- We took a donkey-back ride up a small mountain in Dali to see the view of the old city and further laying lake. It was breath-taking. But Dirk's donkey bit my leg. It's name was Nun-Chuck. My donkey was Bruce Lee.

- From Dali we took a bus (3 hours) to Lijiang, which is another back-packers paradise on earth. The old town is a web of old cobble-stone streets, shops, restaurants, and rivers flowing under your feet. It was again, completely beautiful. Our time spent there was culminated in having lunch on the 4th floor of a restaurant, overseeing the entirety of the town, and the large snow-capped mountain that silently watches the town. I think it was my favorite scenic spot all throughout China.

- In LiJiang we stayed at 'Mama Naxi's', which is a little hostel run by this old woman, Mama Naxi, and her 4-5 daughters. The place was extremely comfortable... Mama Naxi cooked us a big dinner, and gave us Naxi (a kind of Chinese nationality, or zu) good luck charms and big hugs when we left. She rocked.

- From LiJiang we took a bus back to Kunming so we could grab a train the next day to shoot up to Zhengzhou, the city that Dirk and Steve live in. I planned on staying for about a week to check things out.

- The train ride, we thought, was going to take 20 hours. Long indeed, but certainly do-able considering some of the things we had gone through so far. Turns out the ride was 36 HOURS. It was hell on wheels with an engine. I have the transcripts (an hourly journal I kept during the trip) to explain what we went through. I'll post it at a later date, for giggles.

- Zhengzhou was great, I went to a couple of Steve's classes, enjoyed staying at his apartment, and got a real feel for the city. We also had dinner at Mama Yao's (Kristin's mom's home) which was ultra delicious.

- While in Zhengzhou, I decided to take a short trip by myself to the Shaolin temple (ShaoLin Si) to see the birthplace of Kung Fu and all. It was fantastic. I got the opportunity to meet some kids who had been training, and to actually get up on stage and make a big ass out of myself in front of a Chinese crowd by trying out some kung fu moves with a master. Hoo boy.

- After my ZhengZhou adventure, I took a train back to Beijing, met back up with Jason (who had gone his separate way when we arrived in ZhengZhou) for a night of fun, and finally took my train back to Tongliao, to rest for about a week until classes started back up again!!

WHEW!

If you have any questions about anything (I'm sure I missed way too much) don't hestitate to leave a comment or ask! I'd be happy to ramble on about my time out here in China.

Okay - from here on out I'll do my best to keep this thing current, even if the posts are quite short. Hope that's okay. Alright - good talk. See you out there.

Ricky

Part IV - Hangzhou

The bus ride from Nanjing to Hangzhou was relatively harmless. After 4 hours on the road, we rolled up to a vacant lot that seemed like it could have been a pit stop, when lo and behold, it happened to be our final destination! Go figure. Welcome to China.
So we disembarked and stepped out into the Hangzhou night time air, and managed to procure ourselves a taxi that brought us to our hostel. Which was interestingly enough directly across the street from a large university (quite like our hostel in Nanjing.. hmm, a trend, perhaps?) Long story short, the hostel was nice, and had it's own little air and ambiance to it, as every different hostel will. It was also located about a 5 minute walk from the Hangzhou xihu, or West Lake. Now, a little explanation of what Hangzhou is like.
Hangzhou is actually a huge, bustling city, not unlike many of the other cities in China. However, the city is huge and bustling right up until it runs into the West Lake. Once the city hits the lake, it disperses into a few roads, a couple smaller buildings, and then finally into basically only bike paths and forests that run alongside the lake. Ultimately, the entire city fades away completely, and becomes beautiful mountainous countryside from about halfway beyond the lake, and on. It's truly something to behold for yourself. Some people say that 'if you see one Chinese city, you've seen them all'. Well, I believe that to a point, but Hangzhou is most certainly a big exception to this rule.
The next day we woke up late (tired from all of our travel) and gave ourselves some time to meander around the lake and city a bit, just to have a short look. One 'cool' thing about Hangzhou (cool to the tourists, at least) is that you can rent bikes for DIRT cheap, essentially anywhere in the city, and then return the bikes to any of the 'rent-a-bike' kiosks that you can rent from. That said, Dirk and I desperately wanted some physical activity, and decided to hop on a couple bikes to explore beautiful Hangzhou. After some heavy griping, Steve opted out of the ride. However, I loved it and we managed to cover a whole lot of ground in just about an hour or two. We mapped out the city a bit more, and circled the huge West Lake. Also we managed to sneak a peak at a couple far-away temples and pagoda's that we wanted to try and find perhaps the next day. Albeit it must have been a riot for Chinese people to watch two American guys peddle around the city on a pair of red bikes complete with handle-baskets and little ringy-ring bells... but it was pretty fun, I've got to admit.
The rest of the day we just did some laundry in the hostel, used the internet to re-connect with the rest of the world, and met a few people at the hostel as well. Primarily, a small band of British girls who had been traveling through Asia for a couple months, but had only recently made it into China. We gave them some pointers over drinks that night, and decided that the next day we would travel out around town to see some of the sights.
That next day - we walked about half the circumference of the hug West lake, and then wiggled our way to a passage that traveled up to what I think was the 'Dragon Stone Wood Park', which was kind of a big hike up a ton of stairs to a pagoda that was on top of a big ol' hill, overlooking the lake. The view was gorgeous, and so was the giant pagoda. There was also a little hike up to a prime outlook spot, though a little hard to trespass, was completely worth it. It was maybe one of my favorite views of China up to that point. You could see the sprawling city to your left, the huge, gorgeous lake dead-ahead, and then the rolling Chinese hills and forests to your right. A panoramic masterpiece, if I do say so myself.
After two more quick trips to two less impressive temples throughout the city, we retired back to our hostel and got ourselves some rest. However, we did not get to sleep until we got our airplane tickets. Getting airplane tickets in China - bizarre. Let me spin you a tale.
So when we were still in Nanjing, Dirk had his girlfriend (who speaks Chinese) order us some plane tickets over the phone to fly from Hangzhou to Kunming. It seemed to go smoothly until she told us that 'we would get our tickets in Hangzhou'. So we mostly figured, 'oh fine, we'll get them at the airport'. Wrong. What happens is a random Chinese dude calls you and tells you that he's going to come meet you at your hostel between 5 and 8 at night so you can hand him a HUGE wad of cash (3 plane tickets at 800rmb a piece = $350), and hopefully he'll hand you three legitimate plane tickets in response. We were kind of taken aback by this whole situation, and decided it'd be best if we all met with this guy at the same time to make sure he wasn't SCREWING us over, like you hear horror stories about in foreign countries. We had the receptionist/boss of the hostel confirm the legitimacy of the tickets, and made sure that the guy actually was working for the airplane company. Which, actually, in fact, he wasn't. He was simply a courier. Either way, the entire situation was very sketchy to say the least, and the next MORNING we were going to leave by plane. So if those tickets were not viable, then our trip was essentially OVER.

What happened next?

STAY TUNED!!

Part III - Nanjing

(Note: My camera was broken almost the entire time we were in Nanjing. I apologize for the obvious lack of photos.)

We get off the train.
The city seems nice.
Dozens of taxi's pass us.
NOT ONE WILL PICK US UP!
After about 40 minutes of trudging our way around Nanjing, Steve and I were FINALLY able to hail a cab. Our first impression of Nanjing wasn't quite impressive, even if it was based solely on the fact that we were tired from a 4 hour bus ride from Shanghai and couldn't find a taxi to bring us to our hostel. The bus ride was alright, by the way. 4 hours long. Watched one movie about two con men with English subtitles (score!) and another old Jackie Chan movie that was completely in Chinese, but still very entertaining! Irregardless, we finally made it to where our hostel was, and reunited with big ol' Dirk. The hostel was a nice little hideout in the middle of a massive city, right next to a large University campus. The hostel had a courtyard. It was quaint and very liveable.
First order of business? Find something to eat. Now, almost the entire time we were in Nanjing it was rainy and kind of dismal, unfortunately. However, the food in this city was some of the best I've had anywhere in China. There was a small, inconspicuous dumpling shop nearby our hostel that we made friends with fast. Best I've ever eaten in my life, hands down. Plus, the lao ban (boss) of the shop was a pretty cool guy who catered to us very well.
After a quick dinner and a completely unsuccessful attempt at trying to find the ruins of an old part of the city (we looked in the wrong place and found a park instead) we returned back to the hostel to relax for a bit. Steven, Dirk and myself being the charismatic young gentlemen that we are, managed to make friends with some of the other travelers we met in the hostel. Now, two of them were students (foreigners - one from the states, CT specifically, the other from England) at a Shanghai university. After chatting for awhile, and the fellow from Connecticut, Ryan, noticing that Steve and I were PC guys - we all had a weird moment. Ryan is actually good friends with one of my HOUSE mates throughout college (Mike Dodge) as well as a host of other kids from PC that I was good buddies/good acquaintances with! We all hit it off quick with the connection and became fast friends. The world is SMALL, huh?!
So Ryan was told by a good friend of his that there was a great Mexican restaurant called 'Behind the Wall' hiding near our hostel in Nanjing - so we set out on a journey to find said locale. After a lot of wrong turns and mistaken roads, we FINALLY found it almost directly across the street from where we started. And it was behind a wall. Go figure. The Mexican food was delectable. Such a treat. Again, I note, Nanjing - City of wonderful food.
Our next day was spent at the Nanjing Massacre Museum. It was a massive, free museum that was dedicated to the atrocities procured by the Japanese forces to the city of Nanjing during the Sino-Japanese wars in the 1930's-40s. It was so moving to the point where it's almost difficult to explain it in words. The museum was beautifully preserved and served as a chilling reminder of the darkness (killers) and yet light (those who aided) of humanity. I was particularly moved by a whole wing of the museum that was dedicated solely to foreigners who were in China at the time of the Sino-Japanese wars who refused to leave the country (under the heavy suggestion of their home countries) in order to do anything they could for the Chinese people under attack by the Japanese. Foreigners, doctors, nurses, priests, and humble volunteers, hundreds upon hundreds of them, lost their lives just to help a culture of people that wasn't even theirs to begin with. They just wanted to help. The honor that the Chinese gave these men and woman was astonishing to me. Truly graceful.
Alas, we only had a few days in Nanjing, and these ended up being our highlights. We also made it to 'Nanjing 1912' which is a part of town dedicated to oldy-timey restaurants, clubs, bars, and nightlife. It was interesting, but overall kind of expensive - so our stay in that part of town was noticeably short. Although... Dirk was able to find a club that reveled in his ability to dance with locals and get stared at by everyone else around us for awhile. Boys will by boys.
Oh - we also managed to sort out a plan for the rest of our travels. We decided that the best use of our time would be to see a more southern and rural part of China, since none of us had really experienced that sort of China yet. SO - we decided to hop the next bus out of town and into Hangzhou - supposedly a naturally gorgeous city to the south of Shanghai. From there, we would jump on a plane from Hangzhou to Kunming, Yunnan province. There, we could visit around to about half a dozen different possible destinations to check out. So it was decided, the plane tickets were paid for, and we hopped the next bus we could find to Hangzhou!

... But first, a quick note. On the way to the bus station, we managed to find a woman on the side of the road selling food. Now, this is highly common in China, since the Chinese love their snack foods, and it's a nice little industry, selling food. However, the type of food sold (commonly called xiao chi, or 'little eats') usually changes drastically depending on what part of China you're in. For example, they have these egg-bread, crunchy, spicy, tortilla things that they sell in Beijing. Delicious. In Harbin, they have Ice cream and tang hulu (candied chinese fruit on a strick) kind of everywhere. And so on. In Nanjing, the woman was making english muffins (sort of) fresh, off of her little cart, and cooking a full egg into the batter she cooked the muffins on to - then she added a ton of spices,sauces,pastes,and vegetables that I would never understand or recognize anywhere else in the world. And handed it to you to scarf. It cost less than 50 cents, and was quite possibly the most delicious thing my mouth has ever experienced. Ever. I wish I could explain this better, or had a picture of it. I'm still kicking myself for not having taken a picture with the egg-muffin lady. She's probably still on the bus station street corner... I'm tellin' ya. If anyone from a huge food provider or restaurant chain is reading this - there's your next huge sales pitch right there. Don't say I never did anything for you!!

Next Episode - Hangzhou.

Part II - Shanghai

Hey kids,

I apologize heavily for my slacking on writing, per usual. That said, here goes.

So, after Beijing, we bought a pair of tickets for Soft Sleeper beds to Shanghai. You might ask yourself - what the hell is a soft sleeper? I'll tell you. It's a single compartment in a very chic looking train set up for 4 people, basically two sets of bunk beds. The beds are rather comfortable, the furnishings a bit up scale, and all the employee's in the train are quite fashionably dressed (when it comes to Chinese taste, I guess). For the record, we took off on January 17 at around 6pm.
After about 10 minutes of milling around on the train, waiting for it to leave, Steve and I supposed that we were going to be the only two people in our quarters, since the other two didn't quite show up. However, things changed swiftly once two fella's basically flew into the room and jumped up into their bunks. They were two middle aged guys - an uncle and a nephew, we later discovered. The Newphew's name was Elton, a Chinese engineer who lived in Shanghai but had to commute often to Beijing for work... Whereas the uncle was named Robert - which aptly and quickly got changed into 'Uncle Robbie' for all intensive purposes. The guy was an absolute riot. Elton's English was broken, but quite understandable. A nice guy. Uncle Robbie knew very little English, but what he did know, he wasn't afraid to belt out as loud as possible so that we could 'clearly understand him. As for the rest of the ride, it was wonderfully comfortable, and we made solid friends with the train waitresses, Uncle Robbie and Elton. The culmination of the ride was Steve telling Uncle Robbie he had a friend that was a girl living in Shanghai (as he understand as 'girlfriend', of course), and that I had no friends like that in Shanghai. He thought about this for awhile, then asked where I was sleeping. I supposed that I would be on the floor at the apartment. I believe Uncle Robbie took this as I was on the floor, and Steve was in a bed with a lady partner. After letting this sink in for a bit, Uncle Robbie unexpectedly leaned over his bedpost, pointing at me incredulously saying, "Tomorrow.. you.. you.. you, SUFFER!".. "You sleep alone.. SUFFER!". It was easily one of the funniest things I've heard a Chinese person say to me, to date. God Bless that wild old Uncle Robbie.
Once we arrived in Shanghai the next morning, we were greeted outside the train station by Steve's good friend Lu Xuan, who promptly took us to the subway station that would eventually lead us to her apartment. She was gracious enough to let us crash at her place for the few days that we were going to spend in Shanghai, although she also needed to work during our stay. That in mind, she forewent being to work on time in order to make sure we were comfortable and situated at her apartment first. The Chinese level of hospitality is something I've never experienced before coming to this country and meeting the unbelievable people that live here. It's really a humbling thing to be catered to, just because you're a friend of a friend.
Although Shanghai is a hustling, bustling metropolis (and a really neat city), it isn't exactly all glitz and glamor. Lu Xuan's apartment was a bit outside the city proper, and more in a sort of 'chinese suburb'. The best way I can explain this is that, it was like living in a place that seemed like it was in a constant state of construction and re-construction, dust, people, and concrete. Not really too flattering a state of affairs. However, a short subway ride brought you back into the sophistication of Shanghai high rises and business architecture. It was a strange dichotomy to observe. Steve, considering his hate for New Jersey, refused to call the area that Lu Xuan lived near anything else but 'The Hoboken of Shanghai', which I guess is apt enough. Either way, it was gracious of her to give us a place to stay. Thanks again, Lu Xuan!
The time we spent in Shanghai was divided between Lu Xuan's apartment and 'Jin'an si', which is Jin'an temple, the subway stop that Lu Xuan and Tina (her best friend) worked near. One night we visited the famous 'Bund' of Shanghai with it's beautiful flashing lights of the city, and the reflection of said lights into the river running straight through Shanghai. We also managed to get ourselves to 'Window Too', a really fun bar that was extravagantly western. It felt a little like home. Oh, and on that note - Shanghai itself is extremely western feeling. Aside from the usual hordes of Chinese people around, the city has an overwhelming amount of western chains, western style, english language, and foreigners teeming inside of it. It was nice for a bit, but afterwards a little off-putting. I really enjoy Chinese culture, and it certainly exists in Shanghai, but something has been lost there, I think. Alas, it is still China!
To disprove myself a little, we also managed to find ourselves a temple (near Jin'an si, the name escapes me) to visit in Shanghai. It was thoroughly interesting at night - lit up like a giant, Chinese Christmas light decoration, and surrounded by throngs of people visiting the shops surrounding it, or just there for a stroll. By this time too, the Chinese Spring Festival was creeping up closer day by day, and each day more and more people were out being festive at night! It made for an excellent environment for a few young kids like ourselves to be exploring a beautiful city like Shanghai, and proved to make things more interesting basically everywhere we went.
As a note, Tina, Lu Xuan's good friend, was a huge help in Shanghai. She didn't speak a whole lot of English, but her friendly attitude, and helpful demeanor were awesome for the time that we were there. She taught me a ton of useful things to know in Chinese while we were there (for example, xiaoxin means 'be careful!' - an indispensable phrase to know when crossing the street in China) and was generally just a lovely person to be around!
After a few days of fun and excitement in China's largest metropolis, we said our goodbyes to the girls, and made way for the bus station early in the morning on that following Tuesday. It was sad to leave the unending possibilities of Shanghai, alas, we were heading into more cultural and beautiful places! Our next stop - Nanjing, to meet back up with Mr. Dirk Chilcote, and basically to plan out the rest of our vacation together, since nothing else (at that time) had been actually set in concrete.

Next Episode: NANJING.