Part I - Beijing

So, I've decided that if I try to write about my entire trip in one post, it'll end up becoming terribly dragging and probably get boring. The English language dreamed up paragraphs for a reason - it's easier to ready things in chunks. That simple note in mind, I'll write this little adventure out in blocks. I'm going to inevitably leave some things out, so if some of the experiences I write about are unclear (and you are actually interested in them) please let me know! Write a comment or shoot me an e-mail, I'd be more than happy to go into extensive depth about anything I write about, considering the fact that I am in China and am having a very lovely time!


THAT SAID! Here goes. So I left for Beijing around January 10th I believe - and took a hard sitter train from Tongliao to Beijing Central Station. I was on the train for about 13 hours, and made a few Chinese friends on the road. That's one of the delightful things about the Chinese transportation system when it comes to being a foreigner. More often than not, and more usually when you're on a train coming from or going to a remote location (i.e. Tongliao..) the Chinese people on the train seem to wonder what in God's name you're doing sitting on a train. This is only natural, and provides a foreigner trying to learn the language (like myself) with a perfect opportunity to beef up their Chinese language skills for a good 5, 10, or 13 hours straight, especially when you're by yourself.

I spoke with a mother and her daughter, a grandmother, some kids from the countryside, a student going back to Beijing, and a young fellow going to Beijing to begin schooling who had a Chinese book he had finished reading, and ended up giving me as a gift for speaking with him for a few hours. I was touched! The book, of course, is completely in Chinese characters, and a little hard for me to read.. Alas, the gesture was genuine, and actually gave me some further drive to study Chinese characters (known as hanzi).

After skippin' off the train and spending some time finding a taxi that wouldn't rip me off, I made my way to the hostel that Steve and Dirk were staying at, named 'Beijing Sanlitun Youth Hostel'. The Hostel was great, cozy, and had food and a bar. The perfect place to nestle down for about a week (which is how long I stayed in Beijing!) I met up with Mr. Steven Monahan that night, hugged it out, and met a few of the characters in the cast of people I'd be spending my time with. The first besides Steve was Dirk, a big guy from California who teaches in the same city as Steve - great guy. Also met his girlfriend Kristin, a lovely Chinese girl who teaches English in Beijing. And then Jing, a good good friend of Steve's.. Really good friend.. but that's a whole different story in itself. Hah.

The rest of our week was spent between me and Steve catching up with each other, talking about our respective Chinese homes, friends, lives, etc. It was great seeing the big galoot. We also managed to make it to a few western style restaurants and bars to splurge a bit. We were on vacation! The section of Beijing we were in was called 'Sanlitun', which is well known for it's bars and western appeal. It also houses the 'Worker's Stadium', where many of the world's most incredible athlete's performed during the Olympics. I came to the conclusion that a restaurant/bar named 'The Cro's Nest' has the best pizza in Beijing/China, and immediately became a Gin and Tonic drinker while around Dirk and Steve. It's the gentlemanly drink of choice.

A few days into our vacation, we decided to take a day off from the local scene, and to go and find ourselves the great mascot of ancient Chinese culture. Indeed my friends, we visited the illustrious Great Wall of China (changcheng) near Beijing. It was about an hour's drive outside of the city. Now, the way we got there was a laugh in itself. We found ourselves at the Beijing Bus annex, and tried to decipher some of the bus schedules (written completely in Chinese) in hopes of finding our way to the wall on our own, for a cheaper price than going on a tour. Alas, a Chinese businessman saw that we were a big lost in our endeavor, and offered us his services. By the end of it, we had secured a ride TO and FROM the part of the Great Wall that we wished to see for little over 100rmb each. And we had the pleasure of a private driver. To be honest, the entire experience was terribly awkward, and a little spooky. Handing some guy a wad of money and hoping that he actually drives you out to where you want to go is a bit harrowing to say the least. BUT, it went off without a hitch! We made it there, explored the wall thoroughly, took our pictures, went down "The Great Wall Slide", and made it back home to Sanlitun quite safely! It was all in all an excellent experience, and now, according to Chinese tradition, I can call myself a 'True Man' for being to the wall. The views were breathtaking, and the history was something truly to behold. I was ecstatic to visit such a wonderful landmark of human history. Plus - who goes to China and doesn't visit the Great Wall of China? I'd be laughed at back home!

From there on out, Steve and I decided that we wanted to see the financial charm of Shanghai, whereas Dirk elected to stay in Beijing for a few extra days with his girlfriend before taking leave of her to meet us at our third destination which would be Nanjing. Kristin was also kind enough to let us stay at her apartment for a few days instead of our hostel, since it was free to crash at her place, and was getting pricey for us to stay in the hostel. Plus, the night before in our 10-person room at the hostel, a Scottish fellow staggered into our room at 4am, completely drunk, and tried to climb into bed with an Irish fellow who was pleasantly sleeping until then. The outcome was a little volatile. Amusing, weird, awkward and loud are some words that come to mind.

After a day at the Beijing Train Ticket Office (which was a literally an EXPLOSION of people due to the Chinese New Year going on... everyone in China is trying to go somewhere else in China. The train stations in every single city we hit were MOBBED) we were able to secure some tickets to Shanghai in a few days. However, the tickets were the most expensive train tickets sold in China. They were Soft Sleeper tickets - something seldom heard of around China. Considering their price, I had always thought that they were like living in the lap of luxury for the hours between cities. I would soon find out if I was wrong or not!

Quick P.S. I must hand it to Beijing for having the most comprehensive and easy-to-use Subway system that I've encountered in all of China/the world. I don't speak Chinese, and I understood it immediately. It's very clean, easy to follow, and gosh darn it, Boston has a few things to learn from the way the Chinese set things up. Just had to get that out.

Next Episode: SHANGHAI.

I'm HOME!

Okay, for the record... I've been back in Tongliao for about 2 weeks time now. However, I've been lesson planning, getting my life back in order, and relaxing after a solid month and a half of traveling the better part of China. It was SUCH a wonderful trip, and I want to get my thoughts really together before I begin writing about my adventures/misadventures/fun/games/etc. in this journal here.

So I apologize for my recent lack of posting. It's on it's way. TRUST ME.

To tide you over in the meantime, however, I've posted up all the photos I took of my trip onto my photo website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rlabontee

HOWEVER. I must profusely apologize for the quality of my photos. My camera has been giving my problems since basically day one. Many of the shots come out pretty grainy, or rather blurry. This in mind, I ended up not taking as many pictures of my trip than I really should have. I'm going to try to beef up my photo gallery by stealing pictures from friends I had made along the way (and mostly steve) in the coming weeks. I'll let everyone know if that works out or not.

The stories are on the way! Trust me! Lookit those pictures for now!

Miss you, everyone! Ricky!

The Big Trip.

Okay, so, here it is.

From Today (Janurary 10th) until the first or second week in February, I will be traveling around China, and seeing as much of this kick-ass country as humanly possible. Or at least until I run out of money.

I'll be leaving on a train to Beijing tomorrow morning at 9:30am, and getting into the city a solid 12 hours later. I'll be meeting my good, jolly, loyal, sardonic, hilarious, understanding friend - THE Steven Monahan, there in Beijing. We're planning on staying there in town for the rest of the week, and then the rest of our trip lays in my hands. I'll drop my plans into this blog right now, just to see how far I go off track from my original plan by the end of the trip. Sounds fun, yeah?

So here it is. I want to go from Beijing to Shanghai after a week. This'll put me in Shanghai exactly when four of my friends from Hong Kong (that I met in Harbin) will be town. That way we can meet up and have some Chinese friends for our stay in Shanghai. The more the merrier! After Shanghai, I want to explore Suzhou (once called 'heaven on earth'), and Nanjing, a large, old city to the east of Shanghai. From there, I can see Hangzhou (south of Shanghai), or drive west to Wuhan, which is essentially at the center of China. It also is host to the three river gorges of the Yangtze river, which I need to see while I'm in this country. After Wuhan, I want to shoot directly south towards Hong Kong, and perhaps get to see Guangzhou the big time city just north of Hong Kong. Then into Hong Kong itself, but not for long. It's EXPENSIVE. From HK, I'll go east to Hainan... and that's where my plan essentially ends. I'll have to see how much money I have left at that point, and see what day I am at in my travels. With a little luck, I'll have time and money left to get back north towards Xi'an, but stop by Zhengzhou (where Steve lives) to get to see his home.

This is my plan. Who knows what'll actually happen. Either way, I'm pumped.

Wish me some luck. I'll be checking my e-mail at every hostel I stop at, so please send me ideas of places to visit, love, help, or just a quick hello!

I'll be signing off from the blog for the next month. Get ready for some serious posting when I return. Until then... Love you everyone from home! Jai-o Zhong guo!

Signing off for a month,

Mr. Richard Anthony LaBontee, Jr.

The Frozen City: Harbin.

So I've traveled a good many places in my life, I'd say. But I can say, literally, that I've never seen things like I had seen in the city of Harbin, China.

We heard that there was a Snow and Ice festival (xue bing jie) in Harbin every year, and that since we live so close to the place, it would be an absolute travesty if we don't make it there this winter. At this, we decided 'hell, it'll be a good way to kick off our giant Chinese new years vacation, why not?'. So we bought some tickets to the place, packed up a small bag, and jumped on the train to Harbin on January 5th.

Now, the train situation was a bit funny. We bought 'standing' tickets. Now let me explain the Train system in China a bit in depth to show you what this means. (I may have done this before, alas.) There are two forms of traveling by train in China. They are Sitters and Sleepers. Sitters are what they sound like: couch-like chairs that can fit about 3 people on each side that line the cars of the train. Sleepers are bunk-style beds that you can rent out for your journey so that you can get a rest. You can buy two versions of these two forms. Soft and hard. A soft-sitter is a cushy, single serving version of a hard sitter. Very superfluous in my opinion. I've yet to experience a soft sleeper, but I'm sure it's very comfortable (I think it's a personal cab in the train with beds). A hard sleeper is just a bunk style bed that you share with 4-5 other people on the train.

For the trip to Harbin, we secured none of these. We were able to purchase 'standers'. A stander is a ticket you buy for the hard-sitter cars, and you literally stand in the aisle of the train until someone gets off the train, and you can pounce on the seat that they leave behind. We didn't really know we had this kind of ticket 'til we made it onto the train. Go figure. We also didn't really know that the trip to Harbin was about 10 hours long. Hoo boy. However, with a little luck, and with the Chinese's curiosity for foreign people, we managed to make a few friends on the train that invited us to sit with them or their family for parts of the ride. I myself made friends with a young girl who spoke some English, this fellow who spoke no English that I named 'Jim' (the english speaking girl said he was the most famous man on the train because he was very humorous. She wasn't lying. Every 15 minutes he'd say something I didn't understand to the entire train car, and the place would roar with laughter!) and another student going to Harbin who spoke some English named 'Johnson'. The trip went by quickly with so many people to get to know, and we made it to the Frozen city itself.

Harbin is famous for three things. It's snow and ice festival. It's below zero temperatures. And it's beer. Harbin beer is one of what I like to call, 'the big four' Chinese beers. Yanjing (from Beijing), Tsingtao (from Qingdao), Snow, and Harbin. The stuff was ridiculously cheap to buy in town, but that's a different story for a different day.

After getting off the train, our friend Johnson that we made brought us to the ticket office to buy tickets for our ride home to Tongliao. Unfortunately, we were forced to buy tickets for a day later than we wanted to stay in Harbin, but it turned out to be perfect later on. Johnson then also was kind enough to direct us to the proper bus that would bring us to our Hostel which we had 'booked' the night before. Johnson then had to take his leave from us since he was a student, and needed to return to his University to begin preparing for exams. But don't worry, he'll return to the story later on.

We get to the Hostel, but quite unfortunately, no one at the Hostel spoke any English. We probably would have had to leave if it weren't for the help of a group of students from Hong Kong that spoke perfect English and helped save our lives. They were hilarious, but were on their way into checking into their own rooms so we parted ways. However, they will also return to the story, so stay tuned. However, we DID make friends with another fellow from Hong Kong, a student named Dennis. Dennis was a great guy. Mild mannered, intelligent, funny, and innocent are a few words to describe the fella. He came with us on our adventures for the next day and a half, including Zhongyang street.

That night we decided to check out the city a bit, and found our way by bus to Zhongyang da jie, the most beautiful street in town. It had ice sculptures lining the streets, was blocked off from car traffic (only human) and had a series of wonderful shops and stores to look in and admire. Also, it had MCDONALDS!! Always the enthusiast, I got myself a quick burger. After checking out a few Russian Goods shops, we made our way to the end of the street, which runs right into the Harbin river (the city is situated right next to a large, beautiful river). Since the thing had frozen over, we were able to jump down on it and skate a bit. It was a hoot. Dennis loved it. He had never seen snow or ice in his life, and was taking it all in. Ultimately, we got tired and headed back to the Hostel for the night. We had a few Harbin's in Harbin, and hit the sack.

The next day, we had signed ourselves up for a Chinese tour of Harbin. We were excited, but kind of nervous due to the fact that none of us actually spoke Chinese. Luckily, Dennis was able to translate a little bit for us. Either way, we got picked up by some insidious van that drove us through Harbin to the beginning point of our tour. Oh, and by the way, I've found that I'm completely adjusted to the ridiculous driving style of the Chinese. We were barreling full speed at another car coming the opposite direction just to swerve at the last moment, and I yawned. Glad to know I don't live in fear any longer!

So the tour began and it brought us to our first destination: The Dragon Tower. I guess it's the 2nd biggest Tower in the world. But we didn't want to pay the fee to go in, so we left the tour for an hour to grab a bite to eat and explore the city ourselves. Oh, I forgot to mention that the tour was by bus, and they toted us to different sites around the city. After the tower, we shot off towards St. Sophia's church, which is a Russian style architectural beauty of a building in the middle of Harbin. There were doves flying around, and it was quite a sight. Hao mei (pretty) if you ask me. After this, we made our way to 'lunch' which we were a little wary of. Turned out to be a standard Chinese meal in a little restaurant that hosted all 20-30 of our tour group people. It was pretty fun actually - fast paced and a good chance to show off our kuai zi (chopstick) skills to the locals. After lunch we were carted off to what the Chinese affectionately called 'Snow World'. It was really a park, 'Sunny Island Park', that was FILLED with giant snow sculptures of every shape, size, genre, interest, and detail you could dream of. It was amazing. The main attraction was a MOUNTAIN sized sculpture of Santa Claus and a dream like landscape. It was unbelieveable, to say the least. Unfortunately, it was so absurdly cold in Harbin that my camera and it's batteries literally froze, and would not work. It's a shame because some of the things I saw were unaudiably gorgeous. Alas. Some of the artwork included different interpretations of Santa, of Greek Gods, of Spanish dancers, some abstract arts about Chinese culture, a life scale version of St. Sophia's church, beautiful renditions of Ocean life scenes, birds, children at play, elder people, halloween, angels, and everything in between. It was truly fantastic.

After our bout at the Snow world, we made our way (quite a short bus ride away) to Ice world. Now this here is actually the main attraction involved with the Harbin Ice Festival, so we were pretty psyched. The temperature was dangerously cold by this time, but did not, in any way, hinder our excitement. When I say that the Harbin Ice Festival was one of the most unexplainable, dreamlike, gorgeous wonders that I have ever experienced, I'm not over exaggerating by any means. The pictures can't do it justice. From full sized, explorable castles, to Chinese Pagodas, to a giant buddha, to never-ending slides, even a gigantic Chess board - EVERYTHING was made PURELY of ice and lights. It was breathtaking. I couldn't believe that people actually crafted this frozen town with their bare hands, just to let it melt every year. My eyes were HUNGRY to look at more of what was around me. If I can steal a line from Harry Potter: I felt like I wish I had 8 more eyes to take in everything that I was looking at. I was sorely sad to leave such a beautiful place, but it had to be. We soon after left the tour and made our way back to our little hostel to warm up and relax from our long day. We met up with a few Australian girls, as well as the four traveling students from Hong Kong! Edith, Jeff, Ken and Pauly. They were so fun to speak with and learn from that night, that we all decided to spend the next afternoon together before they left that next day for Jilin, a small mountain town south of Harbin. We also met up with a new friend named Jens, a dapper fella from Sweden. He was a great guy, and ended up traveling with us from that night into the next day, and until we left back to Tongliao!

The next day, I split away from the 4 other guys I came to Harbin with. They went off with Jens to explore a Tiger zoo in Harbin, while I went down town with the Hong Kong crew to explore some more of town. They were a blast to be around - especially since they spoke Cantonese, rather than Mandarin (which is what I've been learning). We taught each other a lot about language throughout the day, including a children's song, each. I learned the Cantonese version of 'twinkle twinkle little star', and I taught them 'The itsy bitsy spider' in English. It was a solid trade off. After a great, long day (I bought some Russian chocolate for a great price. Huzzah.) we all met up back at a quick dinner at a 'ma la tang' restaurant (super spicy noodle soup). It was wonderful, and we tucked it in for the night!

The next day, our day of departure, we made our way to the Harbin Walmart (American to the bone) and bought some provisions for our journey home. We had a coffee in a McDonalds, and waited for our friend Johnson (remember him??). We had called him the night before and asked if he wanted to grab some lunch before we left his city of Harbin. He was delighted to meet up, and he dragged us to this Traditional Chinese food restaurant that served 'chun bing', or 'Spring Bread'. It was basically like taking different kinds of fresh vegetables and chinese meat, putting it into a SUPER thin taco tortilla, wrapping it up, and eatin' good. It was very delicious, to say the least. After lunch we made our way to the train station and said some final goodbyes to our friends Jens and Johnson. Very sad to say goodbye to friends, new or old. We sighed a bit, and got onto the train. We unfortunately had standing seats once more, but luck prevailed, and we made friends again! I myself managed to situate myself inside a family of 6 that was traveling from Harbin to Batou (small city near Hohhot). They didn't speak really any English whatsoever, but were very friendly and a good time. They taught me a LOT of Chinese on the ride, and it was wonderful. They also had an adorable child that I managed to make friends with after awhile. Once the people on the train got wind of a bunch of foreign kids being on it, we immediately became famous, and kept making friends the whole way home. The 10 hour ride was quick because of all the talking and learning (I played chinese card games for a solid hour of it, too!) and before we knew it, we were back in good old Tongliao and grabbing a Taxi to get home and fall into bed. Happily.

All in all, a wonderful trip. .... BUT MORE TO COME!!!! STARTING TOMORROW!!!

*gasp* Let me explain.

Christmas and New Years in 1000 words or less.

I really must apologize for my tardiness in writing these blogs. I manage to get myself busy one way or another consistently over here in China, and end up making this journal kind of my last priority, when it SHOULD be one of my first! Alas, I've missed talking about our Christmas experience over here. It was great, to say the least. I won't go into horribly great detail about it, but I'll give you a quick synopsis... lesse...

Christmas eve we took our band of foreign teachers (minus Christina - she went home to America for the holidays) to the local western bar around town, King Hansens. We were greeted with many happy faces, a killer pizza for dinner, two new foreign faces (Christina and Benson, they used to live in Tongliao, but since moved to Dalian to teach, an American and a South African!) wonderful live music, and a host of familiar faces of people we know around Tongliao. All in all, it was an awesome night of celebration.

I'll also note that prior to this, on December 22nd, we were treated to a dinner with the Tongliao #1 Middle school officials. It was a blast, some of the food was weird, but everyone was having a great time by the end of it (bi-jiu seems to have this effect on dinners..).

Christmas day we spent opening each others secret santa presents! I got 'The Departed', a new coffee mug with Mr. Bean splayed across it (long story) and some new gloves! I was particularly excited. After listening to some serious Christmas tunes, we headed out for lunch with Gaowei in the north village. However, for dinner we were to attend a dinner we THOUGHT was being hosted by our gym. We were quite mistaken however, to find out the dinner was actually presented by one of the big, expensive hotels in Tongliao. Our gym decided that we were special enough to attend the big event and gave us free tickets to go! It was hilarious. Asian performances, a giant buffet, and free flowing beer. Our good friend Yuyu came with us to help translate a few things. The whole experience was grand!

New years was somethin' else too. On one nondescript day in December our boss, Mr. Zheng, gave us a call and told us that there was going to be a performance at our school on New years eve. He then told us we would be performing in it. That was it. PERFORMANCE?! That could literally mean anything. Luckily, we got a little info from the last year's foreign teachers as well as David, and we learned that this meant we could do a little dance or song for the school. Well of course we decided to dance, and chose the highly appropriate song, "Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays" by N'Sync, one of the better known bands in China. Long story short (and a few hours of practice under our belts), the dance went off without a hitch. I think the crowd particularly enjoyed the part when we laid down on the stage in a 'log roll formation' and had Neha (dressed as Mrs. Claus) roll across all of us while waving to the audience. We were born to shine. After the performance (in which many other teachers performed.. singing, dancing, an indian dance, a mongolian performance, a comedy skit that made NO sense whatsoever, and so on) we made our way to the school cafeteria to enjoy a school official endorsed dinner for all the teachers of Tongliao #1 Middle school. The food was probably the worst official dinner food I've ever had, but alas, it was full of good people and warm hearts. After the dinner (where Karaoke was the center of attention) all of the teachers were ushered back to the music hall for a DANCE PARTY!!! Turns out everyone gets together every year to dance to hilarious Chinese techno music for a couple hours. Anywhere else in the world, the dance would have been termed as 'really lame'. BUT NOT HERE! I believe the most fun part of it is the fact that even if people are horrible at dancing, they dance regardless just to enjoy themselves. This, combined with the absurdly fast pumping music, creates a judgement free environment for boogie-ing down. In this regard - I respect those wacky Chinese people.

So there is my Christmas and New Years tales in a nutshell. Sorry I blew through it so quickly. I want to write next about an adventure we took up in the most northern part of China. And I must write about this quickly since I'm leaving on my 1 month + long trip to ALL of China tomorrow morning! SO! Without further ado!
~

You know you're in China...

Let me say this. This following post is 100% plagiarized from a foreign teacher that was stationed at our school a couple years ago. However, it was FAR too clever, and DEAD ON for me to pass up showing to everyone back home. The words belong to Diana Dove, whom I've never actually met, but I'm trying to get a hold of. Her old blog: "Inner Mongolian Brog"

I tweaked a few of these, and omitted a couple, and added a couple to more fit our slightly different (emphasis on slightly) experience over here in Tongliao. Please. Enjoy. And learn about our lives.

You might be in China if...

• you forget what clean smells like.
• you barely flinch when you see a small child emptying his bowels in the street.
• a cup of coffee costs more than ten times a bottle of beer.
• you spend less than 5RMB on a fully satisfying lunch, but might end up eating at a table with 4 strangers.
• you carry a supply of TP with you everywhere you go.
• you know how to use a squatter.
• you know what a squatter is.
• grown men and women often say hello to you, and when you reply they run away giggling.
• you can't decide if you love or hate the country you're living in.
• you see nothing wrong with standing on a white stripe in the middle of a highway while cars whiz past you at 90kph.
• it seems completely normal that some guy on a tricycle wants to buy your garbage.
• you don't blink an eye when a complete stranger wants to take a photo of you with his family.
• you use Kleenex for table napkins.
• you drink warm sodas and find them refreshing.
• you buy a movie that hasn't been released theatrically yet at home...
• when you can get ANYTHING to eat on a stick.
• when you are constantly asked if you think simple foods and beverages are delicious. "This is the best boiled water ever!" "fantastic seeds!"
• you take it in stride when you are offered beer/baijiu at lunch before going back to work.
• you can play charades so well that it is often not necessary to talk (due to lack of chinese when you arrive)
• an entire class looks at you with a blank face when you ask them to try and discover something on their own, rather than you just telling them the answer.
• you make a scheduled trip to KFC weekly to pretend like you're in America.
  
• you have learned to enjoy being stared at.
• almost anything can be "fixed"
• you teach your body to accept 'Nescafe instant coffee packs' as real coffee, when you know that it's not.
  
• when you go shopping for clothes or shoes you often find that they don't have what you want in a size that will fit your big foreign frame. Instead they offer you something bigger and uglier and think it's a fair compromise.
• you have ten different responses to the question, "Do you like China?"
• you point out foreigners to your Chinese friends even though you're foreign yourself.
• SARS doesn't worry you; 4% chance of death is considerably lower than eating the food, breathing the air, riding a bicycle or listening to bad KTV.
• you don't have any idea what something is, but you'll eat it anyway.
• if you just ate and liked it, you don't ask what it is.
• you completely ignore most people who say hello to you.
• you see a woman with dyed hair and try to figure out of she's Chinese or foreign by walking fast to catch up.
• you know what it is and you eat it anyway.
• you convince yourself that it doesn't matter how dirty the cooks' hands are, cooking will fix it.
• you are becoming proficient in 4 other languages: Mandarin, local dialect, Chinglish, and gibberish.
• if there are only 4 screaming children running around the classroom, you consider it a good primary class.
• if you're only mocked in public 4 times, you consider it a good day.
• you love tofu because there's nothing to spit out and it doesn't have any taste.
• you know exactly what CS is. (Diana's note: CS is Counter Strike - the dumbest computer game every teenage boy here is obsessed with)
• smoking does less harm to your lungs than breathing.
• you call polluted water and preservatives wine.
• living in a 'clean' city means living in one where you won't mutate. At least not immediately.
• you point over your back with your thumb when using the past tense.
• you've learned that it's okay to be 3 days/weeks late for appointments because everyone else is.
• every village is different from the rest of China but all foreigners are the same.
• everyone wants to be your friend - all you have to do is teach them English for free.
• everyone wants to teach you Chinese by speaking to you in English.
• you tell people you don't understand, so they write it for you - in Chinese.
• you love and hate children at the same time. (Amen. - Ricky)
  
• you walk into a bar on Friday night at 11.00pm and you are the only one there.
• you start thinking instant coffee tastes pretty good.
• no one cares if you wear the same clothes all month.
• absolutely everything that can possibly be eaten is in some way good for your health.
• KTV becomes interesting.
• warm beer becomes drinkable.
• apples are the size of pumpkins.
• only five minutes of prep time for a unannounced class no longer fazes you.
• you actually believe you're here to teach English.
• you plan to ask students questions they must form their own answers to and you bring reading material along to occupy your time during the long silence that fills the period between you asking the question and the first hand that tenatively rises.
• you no longer expect the truth.

From me:

• you expect to be a dignitary at any Chinese sponsored event you attend.
• when someone unexpected or unknown comes your way, your first reaction is to calm everyone down by saying, "We can just call Gaowei."
• your new favorite phrase to tell friends when saying goodbye is 'oh, hey, happy everyday!'
• you consider the covered rice restaurant owner's baby a part of your family.
• you eat on snack street's 'noodle place' often enough to say, "Oh hey - there's more peanuts in the soup today! Yes!"
• you say 'dui' to anything a local asks you because it is your go-to Mandarin response. (Dui means 'correct').
• you've attempted to teach every class that the word 'movie' is actually prounounced the way it is spelled, rather than 'MOOOIEE", and have slapped your forehead every time you walk into class and they say the same damn thing over and over.
• when going out to dinner, going to KTV, or going to the one western bar in town have become your singular trifecta of evening choices every weekend.
• you begin saying 'hallloooo' exactly like your students, unconsciously, in response to your students' saying 'halllloooo' to you.
• if making rice for breakfast isn't 'a big deal'.
• if every mid-way to expensive store you walk by has music blaring so loudly (outside and in) that you immediately think it is a disco, but are mystified to learn that it sells leathers jackets.

More to come, I'm quite sure.
-Ricky

Checkin' in.

Just a general little listing of whats going on in my life right now! Let's see here..

- The new western style gym called "MIO" is going great. Getting to know some of the trainers there, and working through the language barrier. Johnathen is a good guy and a good trainer.. same with Robert. Mico is a muscle head, and Ricky (yeah, he took my name for his English name, haha) is a quiet fella, but a nice guy. Apple is the only girl trainer I know there. She seems nice!
- I'm getting WAY better at cooking rice. My fried rice with onions, peppers and potatoes is turning into one of my favorite little dishes to make myself for lunch. I'm working my way up to eggs and meat. We'll see what happens.
- Chinese lessons are progressing, and my Chinese has advanced from 'God awful', to 'Almost intelligible.' That's a strong step up the wrung for me. I can at least talk to taxi drivers (most of the time) and purchase basically anything I need in China. I've just about mastered the numbers in China.. so my negotiation skills at markets is spiking. Good news.
- We have a lot of down time. What have I been doing with this time, you ask? Great question. Well, we watch an ungodly amount of movies and tv series (which you can buy dirt cheap bootleg versions of at any local supermarket).. I recently got a hold of a big book of crossword puzzles that has been occupying some time... OH, and my mother just sent me Harry Potter: 1 and 2. I can't WAIT to start reading the series. Mostly because I've been showing Harry Potter to a few of my Grade 2 classes, and it's piqued my interest in the book! I'm currently chugging through 'The Count of Monte Cristo'.. once I'm done, my odyssey into Harry's world will begin.
- I've been teaching my students in Grade 1 about good/bad manners in America/China, lately. It's pretty fun. However, the lesson usually ends prematurely, so I'm forced to think of something to do in order to kill time in class. My favorite thing to do lately with 'em is to play games. The two big ones I play are 'Champion', and 'Whispers'. Champion is pretty standard. I ask for two students to come up the front of class and have them sit back to back in chairs, then write a 'topic' up on the board... like 'Animals'. They then have to say an Animal name (in English) back and forth until one can't think of one. Fortunately, I allow the rest of the class to help out their classmates with thinking of another thing in the category. I figure it's win-win, since 1. the kids get to help their friends (Chinese kids are SO supportive of their friends) and 2. everyone in the class is shouting English words, exactly what I'm trying to get them to do. Suckers. Whispers is a classic version of 'telephone'. I say a sentence to one kid, and they say it to the kid behind them, etc. til the last one in the row tells ME what I said. Whatever rows get it correct, get a point. Whichever row (I have like 60 kids in a class) has the most correct at the end of class, wins! It sounds great in theory, but in actuality, these Chinese kids are TRICKY. They write down the sentence, pass it around, tell everyone what it is, run from their seat to tell the kid at the end, etc. It's pretty wild. At least they're speaking English!
- Grade 2 is finishing up Harry Potter. The movie was too long for class. It has taken up way too much of my class time. My bad.
- We got invited to another English competition at the University! This time it was ingrained into preforming English, Russian, or Japanese musical pieces in front of the student body. It was SO fun... plus I got to be a judge for it! So many good songs. My two favorites were 'By the Rivers of Babylon', and 'Bayou'. Good old American songs.
- My mom sent me already cooked Bacon. She is a Goddess. Love you mommy.
- I'm currently on the prowl for a Santa costume to wear to class/to the big Christmas eve party that our school throws at a big hotel every year here in Tongliao. Christmas is KIND OF celebrated over here in China. It's mostly a commercial holiday, which makes sense. They sell Christmas stuff everywhere, and play some Christmas-y tunes at the local Supermarkets. Apparently it's tradition in China to give your good friends Apples on Christmas, since Apples mean 'Peace' or, 'Everything goes well', in China. I better buy some soon.
- I just turned 23. Gross.
- I still really miss everyone at home. Especially during the Holidays. Much love.
- We just had a lovely dinner with Honey and Ned and Mandy (from the Tongliao University!). It was an excellent 'American Dinner' of 'Hamburgers', 'Fries', 'Cole Slaw', tomatoes and Rice. Very nice.
- Oh, we just finished most of our decorating for Christmas! The foreign teachers from last year left us a Christmas tree and a host of decorations (Thanks so much you guys, we love ya!) that we've splayed across the Third floor apartment! It looks so homey and like Christmas. I've also downloaded one metric ton of Christmas tunes to listen to - and have had them on full blast, non stop since December 1. Oh baby, if I can't take China home, I'll take home to China!!
- David recently broke 2000 points on 'Landlord', a big time QQ game (QQ is like the Chinese version of AIM). It was a big day. I'm proud of him.
- It's absurdly cold in Tongliao right now. Right now: -1 degrees. Yikes.
- Our big trip coming up in January is currently in the planning process. When more information comes up, I'll alert the presses.
- I CAN'T WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS!!

That'll do for now. Peace, love and tie-dye.

Ricky