Since Meg and Christina have been gone on Vacation, and were gone for Thanksgiving... the four of us had a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner. In other words:
We took a few handfuls of coupons to KFC and bought as much fast food as we shove in our faces.
This includes, 1 bucket of legs, 3 sandwiches, 2 pop corn chickens, 4 ice creams, one small corn on the cob, 2 cups of mashed potatoes, another serving of wings, and 4 bags of fries.
It was a meal fit for a king. Or.. maybe a meal fit for four American kids stuck in China on Thanksgiving. Happy belated Turkey day!
THANKFULLY, we will be having a REAL Thanksgiving meal tomorrow night! My mother has graciously sent me a TON of Thanksgiving supplies ready to cook for a wonderful Thanksgiving Feast!!! (Thanks Mom, I love you SO MUCH!)
I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes! I MISS EVERYONE!!!
PS: Things I am Thankful For.
- My Mom and Dad and Sister. Love you all.
- My Sister again. Her love keeps my sane.
- All my friends at home in the States - miss you guys so much. Seriously.
- My students here in China. They are all so wonderful. God, I love those kids.
- Everyone that we work with here at #1 School. David, Honey and Mr. Zheng at the top of the list, of course. Thank you all so much.
- The other 5 PC kids I'm here with. Katie, Christina, Meg, Neha, and Mike. Love you guys. :)
- The recently revamped 'Die Hard Room' I just heard about back at Rocksteady. Good work.
Much love, everyone! Can't wait for Christmas!!!
-Ricky
Monday, December 1, 2008
Tomstone and the 'Crazy English Cup!'
A few days ago, Christina and Meg were invited by their School (South Campus) to come be judges at an English Speaking competition down at the Tongliao University. Naturally, everyone else from American wanted to tag along for the ride to see them judge, and to check out what the competition would be like!
It was all run by a Chinese English Teacher named Tomstone (whose English is undeniably great), and it was named the 'Crazy English Cup'. It wasn't all too Crazy, but it WAS very exciting, informative, and inspiring to watch. 12 Chinese students from the university participated - each of them hailing from different departments of study at the university, but each having a certain penache for English speaking. They were asked to give an opening speech, then were asked two questions from the panel of judges, then were given a random topic to give an impromptu speech about. It was EXTREMELY inspiring to watch these young men and women from the university perform in front of a large audience of their peers and teachers.
Note: The Judges panel consisted of seven people. Two Chinese English Professors from the university (Tomstone was one of them), a Chinese English Teacher from the #1 School named Marsha (she is our good friend here in Tongliao), Meg and Christina, and two other Americans that are living in Tongliao! Their names are Mandy and Ned, and are a young girl and older fellow from New Mexico. They are both teaching English at the university, and are extremely kind and happy people to be around. We have had lunch with them once since meeting them, and hopefully will meet up with them again soon!
The students giving speeches exhibited a strong ability to speak English quite fluently, and spoke on the topic 'Who Am I' quite frequently in their opening speeches. I wish I had brought with me something to write with, as I would have taken notes of their beautiful words. As I sat in my seat I realized that these students are only a year younger than me, or more likely, my age, and have already come close to mastering two languages on top of studying into a field of their interest at their university, and are only now beginning their adult life. I too am doing quite a similar thing - but I am doing it in their country. It was a humbling experience. I was blown away with the studious strength and power in the students answers and speeches. It made me want to study my Chinese harder, and drive myself to achieve my goals, and such. Indeed, these are somewhat cliche things to wish for, but the ideas struck me, and I'm happy they did. My direction is still a bit askew, but at least my driving force has had a bit of a kick start.
Alas, I digress on my story! The competition went swimmingly, and a young girl named 'Amy' was crowned the victor of the cup. And rightfully so. Her English was absolutely superb, and she deserved the win. Her preparation seemed the best, although I am quite sure that all the students who participated in the English Competition worked VERY hard to be a part of the entire experience. If I were their teacher, I would be proud beyond words.
It was all run by a Chinese English Teacher named Tomstone (whose English is undeniably great), and it was named the 'Crazy English Cup'. It wasn't all too Crazy, but it WAS very exciting, informative, and inspiring to watch. 12 Chinese students from the university participated - each of them hailing from different departments of study at the university, but each having a certain penache for English speaking. They were asked to give an opening speech, then were asked two questions from the panel of judges, then were given a random topic to give an impromptu speech about. It was EXTREMELY inspiring to watch these young men and women from the university perform in front of a large audience of their peers and teachers.
Note: The Judges panel consisted of seven people. Two Chinese English Professors from the university (Tomstone was one of them), a Chinese English Teacher from the #1 School named Marsha (she is our good friend here in Tongliao), Meg and Christina, and two other Americans that are living in Tongliao! Their names are Mandy and Ned, and are a young girl and older fellow from New Mexico. They are both teaching English at the university, and are extremely kind and happy people to be around. We have had lunch with them once since meeting them, and hopefully will meet up with them again soon!
The students giving speeches exhibited a strong ability to speak English quite fluently, and spoke on the topic 'Who Am I' quite frequently in their opening speeches. I wish I had brought with me something to write with, as I would have taken notes of their beautiful words. As I sat in my seat I realized that these students are only a year younger than me, or more likely, my age, and have already come close to mastering two languages on top of studying into a field of their interest at their university, and are only now beginning their adult life. I too am doing quite a similar thing - but I am doing it in their country. It was a humbling experience. I was blown away with the studious strength and power in the students answers and speeches. It made me want to study my Chinese harder, and drive myself to achieve my goals, and such. Indeed, these are somewhat cliche things to wish for, but the ideas struck me, and I'm happy they did. My direction is still a bit askew, but at least my driving force has had a bit of a kick start.
Alas, I digress on my story! The competition went swimmingly, and a young girl named 'Amy' was crowned the victor of the cup. And rightfully so. Her English was absolutely superb, and she deserved the win. Her preparation seemed the best, although I am quite sure that all the students who participated in the English Competition worked VERY hard to be a part of the entire experience. If I were their teacher, I would be proud beyond words.
Xi'an - Part II
SO - we woke up in Xi'an, and had perhaps the most scrumptrilescent (that one's for Sully if you ever read this) breakfast I've had in China. The hostel sells 'The American Breakfast'. Two eggs, Sausage, Bacon, Toast, Butter, served with an extra helping of love. It was mouth watering, lemme tell ya. After breakfast (with the Spanish gals), we had to unfortunately say goodbye to them, as their trip was taking them off to Shanghai for their next stop. I hope we see all of them again someday, or sooner! They were fabulous people.
So today we took our trip to see the Terracotta warriors. We took a Chinese Tour Bus (which was ridiculously cheap) to get ourselves to the dig-site. We paid our tourist fee...
NOTE: BRING A COLLEGE ID TO ANY TOURIST AREA IN CHINA. YOU WILL SAVE MONEY ON TICKETS!
... and headed on in. There are 3 pits of statue warriors, covered in and STILL being unearthed and studied to this day. They say it will take a few more decades for them to fully understand the entire site. However, what they have on display currently is enough to blow your mind. The statues are extremely solemn and awe inspiring. The sheer number of them.. and how they were meant to be BURIED and NEVER found by any man is truly amazing. This was all done in name of one man, an Emperor. They respected and worshiped this one man enough to create a vast army of stone soldiers to carry him into the afterworld, and for the living world to never lay eyes upon. That, to me, is poetic and stunning. Unfortunately though, much like the Forbidden City, the tourism factory that the place had become put me off a bit. I was expecting something life changing, and I was confronted by Tour Guides and merchants trying to squeeze as much money out of the ancient culture found here. A bit off putting - but if I concentrated enough, I felt I was able to understand and get myself in the right state of mind to enjoy the old statues and their meaning.
After many pictures (my camera died here. Bummer) and long walks, we made our way out of the dig site and headed through the small merchant zone where they tried to sell you souvenirs like crazy. We bypassed them quickly and sat in a little square for a bit. I saw a couple of locals playing Badminton nearby, and walked over to watch them. They asked me if I wanted to play, I said absolutely, and found myself sweating profusely over a game of Badminton with a Chinese local in Xi'an after about 15-20 minutes of play. They asked the regular questions - where are you from? What do you do? How old are you? But mainly, they were just happy to see someone who wanted to have a little fun, I think. It was somewhat heartwarming to know that people are still people no matter where you go. Be it America, China, or anywhere else - I could barely speak with these folks, but they greeted me with warm smiles and the want to connect for a minute, even if it was over a silly little game with rackets and a 'birdie'. I loved it. It was a blast. I thanked them, shook hands, and we jumped back on our bus back to the city.
Back in Xi'an, Katie and I decided we wanted to go check out the Oldest Tea House in Xi'an, down near the Muslim quarter of town. Mike and Neha stayed in the Hostel to relax. We also called up Caitlin (Katie's randomly realized friend from high school) and met her for the Tea Ceremony we were to partake in at the Tea House.
Side Note: While waiting for Caitlin near the Muslim quarter (and in front of the Drum tower) we met 3 young girls from the Xi'an University. They were English students and had many questions for us. They were VERY kind and happy to speak with us, and we were happy to chat with them! We seem to get this basically everywhere we go in China. People love to practice their English with native English speakers. It's kind of nice, I think.
At the Tea House, we paid a very small fee, and were brought into the Tea room in the house. Two women that spoke standard English helped us in and made us comfortable. One of them was the Tea Master (or Mistress, I guess) that made us about 4-5 different types of tea to try out and enjoy. She also gave each one a bit of history and explained why people drink that specific type of tea - for example, The Lychee Concubine Tea was for ladies, and meant to improve the skin and wet the lungs.. whatever that means. It was actually very nice, and the whole experience was definitely worthwhile and interesting. We then were given a tour of the old house - which was around 400 years old - and housed an art studio, shadow puppet theatre, several small homes, a paper cutting art studio, and a small, gorgeous garden.
After saying goodbye to our Tour Guide and the old house - we got back to the hostel and made more friends! A young man named Ferdinand from Germany, an English gent named Louie, two guys from D.C. who are teaching in Korea and were on holiday and vacationing in China. All good kids! Anywho - our friend making led us to making plans to go out in Xi'an to another hostel to meet more foreigners! We were in a city where foreigners seem to thrive, so why not meet a few more? We got to the other hostel, where the bar was much more suited to host larger parties and had some solid music going. We made friends with LOTS of kids there - including Al - a guy from Vermont (UVM), Muhammad - an American teacher traveling around,
Joe - an American kid who was studying Taoism/Buddhism in Xi'an, and a host of other characters we spent the night with! After a failed attempt at a disco, a trip to the night food vendors, and getting back to the hostel bar - we called it a night and headed home to our little hostel near the Bell tower downtown.
We woke up and had breakfast with Caitlin, Joe and Ferdinand, and relaxed quite steadily inside our hostel, chatting, enjoying each others company, and talking about the night before. The Hostel's 'living room', I guess you could call it, is extremely comfortable. It has couches, a pool table, Fooseball, computers with internet, all kinds of drinks and food, etc. So it turned into a good place to hang out. Also, the walls of the Hostel (like many others, I've found) are littered with words, sayings and drawn pictures from travelers that have stayed at the hostel in the past. It is mesmerizing to begin reading all the things people have left on the walls of the hostel as their mark, and of course we had to leave our own little mark. Or a few.
Note: I saw Zach Zimmerman's name splayed across the wall on the second floor of our hostel. I went into convulsions and wrote my name next to his, as well as '603 Forever'. Go New Hampshire. Go PC.
We wrote Providence College a few times, our names, a little story.. AND, we noticed that the Spanish gals drew three cute little impressions of themselves on the wall near the pool table in the back - so obviously we had to draw ourselves in right next to them! I named the artwork, "Xi'an - the city of Friends". I think it was fitting! After doodling a bit, it was time for the four of us to get onto our train back to Beijing, and then later, the train back to Tongliao. It was a bittersweet leave we took from our happy little home we found in Xi'an. We bid Joe and Ferdinand goodbye, and Caitlin came to see us off at the Train station. Very sweet of her indeed. The train back was again a sleeper into Beijing - so we woke up in the morning, In Beijing! How convenient the train system works here. A train cab can act as BOTH a form of transportation, AND a hideously uncomfortable hotel room! What luck!
At any rate, we made it to Beijing - and decided to spend the day (we had until 5pm or so to kill, as that's when the train to Tongliao leaves) exploring the Temple of Heaven in the center of Beijing. We walked there. Oh, and on the way, I bought this flour-wrap-egg-sauce-crunchy-cilantro-onion-thing.. that was maybe the most delectable street food I've had since entering China. Cheers, Beijing! Anyway - we made it to the Temple, to find that it is actually a MASSIVE park that houses a few monuments and the temple inside of it. The attractions inside include the Temple of Heaven (for making sacrifices to the heavens, duh) the Temple of Good Harvest (for making sacrifices to the gods for a good harvest), The Garden of 100 Flowers (which were all dead - wrong time of the year!), The Echo Wall (which you can talk into at one point, and someone can hear you from the other side of the wall, like, WAY far away), and this big Mound that is supposedly extremely important. Alas, we're not quite sure why. At any rate, everything inside the park was beautiful and captivating to visit and tour around. But the REAL attraction of this place was DEFINITELY the throngs and throngs of old timers hanging out in the park! There were HUNDREDS of them doing activities from Ribbon dancing, playing cards, playing 'Chinese Hackey Sack', learning to ballroom dance, doing Tai-Chi, Playing Tennis, Singing Karaoke, chatting with friends, learning to play instruments together, singing sheet music and BEYOND. It was enthralling! And actually kind of nice. Everything the older folks were doing is 'for exercise and health' - and they all seemed pretty happy to be out and about! If that's how the Chinese retire - count me in when I get that old!
After our Temple of Heaven Park adventure, we made our way back to the Train station and hopped on our final train home to Tongliao. A wonderful trip we had in only so many days. I'd never trade it in for anything, or change anything about it. Well, except that I DID miss our friends back in Tongliao very dearly. It was wonderful to come home and see them.
Ah, traveling. I think that it may be my new passion in life. I guess I'll just have to see where it takes me! (Pun intended).
So today we took our trip to see the Terracotta warriors. We took a Chinese Tour Bus (which was ridiculously cheap) to get ourselves to the dig-site. We paid our tourist fee...
NOTE: BRING A COLLEGE ID TO ANY TOURIST AREA IN CHINA. YOU WILL SAVE MONEY ON TICKETS!
... and headed on in. There are 3 pits of statue warriors, covered in and STILL being unearthed and studied to this day. They say it will take a few more decades for them to fully understand the entire site. However, what they have on display currently is enough to blow your mind. The statues are extremely solemn and awe inspiring. The sheer number of them.. and how they were meant to be BURIED and NEVER found by any man is truly amazing. This was all done in name of one man, an Emperor. They respected and worshiped this one man enough to create a vast army of stone soldiers to carry him into the afterworld, and for the living world to never lay eyes upon. That, to me, is poetic and stunning. Unfortunately though, much like the Forbidden City, the tourism factory that the place had become put me off a bit. I was expecting something life changing, and I was confronted by Tour Guides and merchants trying to squeeze as much money out of the ancient culture found here. A bit off putting - but if I concentrated enough, I felt I was able to understand and get myself in the right state of mind to enjoy the old statues and their meaning.
After many pictures (my camera died here. Bummer) and long walks, we made our way out of the dig site and headed through the small merchant zone where they tried to sell you souvenirs like crazy. We bypassed them quickly and sat in a little square for a bit. I saw a couple of locals playing Badminton nearby, and walked over to watch them. They asked me if I wanted to play, I said absolutely, and found myself sweating profusely over a game of Badminton with a Chinese local in Xi'an after about 15-20 minutes of play. They asked the regular questions - where are you from? What do you do? How old are you? But mainly, they were just happy to see someone who wanted to have a little fun, I think. It was somewhat heartwarming to know that people are still people no matter where you go. Be it America, China, or anywhere else - I could barely speak with these folks, but they greeted me with warm smiles and the want to connect for a minute, even if it was over a silly little game with rackets and a 'birdie'. I loved it. It was a blast. I thanked them, shook hands, and we jumped back on our bus back to the city.
Back in Xi'an, Katie and I decided we wanted to go check out the Oldest Tea House in Xi'an, down near the Muslim quarter of town. Mike and Neha stayed in the Hostel to relax. We also called up Caitlin (Katie's randomly realized friend from high school) and met her for the Tea Ceremony we were to partake in at the Tea House.
Side Note: While waiting for Caitlin near the Muslim quarter (and in front of the Drum tower) we met 3 young girls from the Xi'an University. They were English students and had many questions for us. They were VERY kind and happy to speak with us, and we were happy to chat with them! We seem to get this basically everywhere we go in China. People love to practice their English with native English speakers. It's kind of nice, I think.
At the Tea House, we paid a very small fee, and were brought into the Tea room in the house. Two women that spoke standard English helped us in and made us comfortable. One of them was the Tea Master (or Mistress, I guess) that made us about 4-5 different types of tea to try out and enjoy. She also gave each one a bit of history and explained why people drink that specific type of tea - for example, The Lychee Concubine Tea was for ladies, and meant to improve the skin and wet the lungs.. whatever that means. It was actually very nice, and the whole experience was definitely worthwhile and interesting. We then were given a tour of the old house - which was around 400 years old - and housed an art studio, shadow puppet theatre, several small homes, a paper cutting art studio, and a small, gorgeous garden.
After saying goodbye to our Tour Guide and the old house - we got back to the hostel and made more friends! A young man named Ferdinand from Germany, an English gent named Louie, two guys from D.C. who are teaching in Korea and were on holiday and vacationing in China. All good kids! Anywho - our friend making led us to making plans to go out in Xi'an to another hostel to meet more foreigners! We were in a city where foreigners seem to thrive, so why not meet a few more? We got to the other hostel, where the bar was much more suited to host larger parties and had some solid music going. We made friends with LOTS of kids there - including Al - a guy from Vermont (UVM), Muhammad - an American teacher traveling around,
Joe - an American kid who was studying Taoism/Buddhism in Xi'an, and a host of other characters we spent the night with! After a failed attempt at a disco, a trip to the night food vendors, and getting back to the hostel bar - we called it a night and headed home to our little hostel near the Bell tower downtown.
We woke up and had breakfast with Caitlin, Joe and Ferdinand, and relaxed quite steadily inside our hostel, chatting, enjoying each others company, and talking about the night before. The Hostel's 'living room', I guess you could call it, is extremely comfortable. It has couches, a pool table, Fooseball, computers with internet, all kinds of drinks and food, etc. So it turned into a good place to hang out. Also, the walls of the Hostel (like many others, I've found) are littered with words, sayings and drawn pictures from travelers that have stayed at the hostel in the past. It is mesmerizing to begin reading all the things people have left on the walls of the hostel as their mark, and of course we had to leave our own little mark. Or a few.
Note: I saw Zach Zimmerman's name splayed across the wall on the second floor of our hostel. I went into convulsions and wrote my name next to his, as well as '603 Forever'. Go New Hampshire. Go PC.
We wrote Providence College a few times, our names, a little story.. AND, we noticed that the Spanish gals drew three cute little impressions of themselves on the wall near the pool table in the back - so obviously we had to draw ourselves in right next to them! I named the artwork, "Xi'an - the city of Friends". I think it was fitting! After doodling a bit, it was time for the four of us to get onto our train back to Beijing, and then later, the train back to Tongliao. It was a bittersweet leave we took from our happy little home we found in Xi'an. We bid Joe and Ferdinand goodbye, and Caitlin came to see us off at the Train station. Very sweet of her indeed. The train back was again a sleeper into Beijing - so we woke up in the morning, In Beijing! How convenient the train system works here. A train cab can act as BOTH a form of transportation, AND a hideously uncomfortable hotel room! What luck!
At any rate, we made it to Beijing - and decided to spend the day (we had until 5pm or so to kill, as that's when the train to Tongliao leaves) exploring the Temple of Heaven in the center of Beijing. We walked there. Oh, and on the way, I bought this flour-wrap-egg-sauce-crunchy-cilantro-onion-thing.. that was maybe the most delectable street food I've had since entering China. Cheers, Beijing! Anyway - we made it to the Temple, to find that it is actually a MASSIVE park that houses a few monuments and the temple inside of it. The attractions inside include the Temple of Heaven (for making sacrifices to the heavens, duh) the Temple of Good Harvest (for making sacrifices to the gods for a good harvest), The Garden of 100 Flowers (which were all dead - wrong time of the year!), The Echo Wall (which you can talk into at one point, and someone can hear you from the other side of the wall, like, WAY far away), and this big Mound that is supposedly extremely important. Alas, we're not quite sure why. At any rate, everything inside the park was beautiful and captivating to visit and tour around. But the REAL attraction of this place was DEFINITELY the throngs and throngs of old timers hanging out in the park! There were HUNDREDS of them doing activities from Ribbon dancing, playing cards, playing 'Chinese Hackey Sack', learning to ballroom dance, doing Tai-Chi, Playing Tennis, Singing Karaoke, chatting with friends, learning to play instruments together, singing sheet music and BEYOND. It was enthralling! And actually kind of nice. Everything the older folks were doing is 'for exercise and health' - and they all seemed pretty happy to be out and about! If that's how the Chinese retire - count me in when I get that old!
After our Temple of Heaven Park adventure, we made our way back to the Train station and hopped on our final train home to Tongliao. A wonderful trip we had in only so many days. I'd never trade it in for anything, or change anything about it. Well, except that I DID miss our friends back in Tongliao very dearly. It was wonderful to come home and see them.
Ah, traveling. I think that it may be my new passion in life. I guess I'll just have to see where it takes me! (Pun intended).
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Xi'an - WAY past due. Part 1.
This post is SO past due, it's actually funny. Well, not really. I apologize for being so absentminded and tardy in my duties of recording my travels. Alas - here it is. Hope it makes sense.
So there we stood, happy to be on vacation, train tickets in hand, ready to board the train to Beijing. Armed with a backpack a piece, a few phrase books, and the heads on our shoulders - we were ready to brave the land of China by ourselves. Hoo boy. Oh, and I'll have to note.. the trip was attended by only four out of our troupe of six. The other two ladies (Meg and Christina) unfortunately had to work during our vacation due to the fact that the South campus (where they work) has a slightly different schedule than ours on the North Campus. Alas.
We boarded the train in Tongliao at about 8:30 in the morning after stopping by a small market to grab a few munchies for the 12 hour ride to Beijing. We mostly hung out and read books on the train - it was comfortable. I also met a young girl on the train named Emma who was from Tongliao, but lives in Beijing as a Perfume saleswoman. She was practicing her English, and asked me to help her out! Good thing too - we made friends and she managed to help show us where to get off the train, and where to go to leave the station. So we got off in the big city of Beijing with its flashin' lights.. and were greeted by a taxi driver who TOTALLY tried to screw us out of way too much money. So, we decided to walk through Beijing by ourselves at around 10 at night. Suprisingly, it's an EXTREMELY safe city to walk through. However, when you don't know where you're going - it can seem really big. Ultimately, however, we found our first hostel there thanks to the help of a fellow named 'Nina' we met on the street who could speak a little English. However, the hostel we arrived at cost a bit too much for the one night we wanted to stay. So, we called up my very close, good friend Steve who happened to be visiting Beijing on Holiday as WELL and asked where he was staying.
Quick side note: The friends and coincidences on this trip are absurdly wonderful and quite plentiful. Keep an eye out for the connections and stories littered throughout this entry!
So, we took a quick taxi ride to Steve's hostel, which was fantastically receptive, and much cheaper (thank god). I was so happy to see Steven and meet the guys he met over his trip (an Israeli man named Asiz , a guy from the Netherlands named JJ, and a fellow teacher of Steve's named Cy). Oh, and I forgot to mention. Steve has been teaching English to high school students in a city named Zhengzhou, near Xi'an, where we were ultimately taking our trip! Small world, huh. Anyhow, we settled into the Hostel and decided to have a night out in Beijing! I can now happily say I went bar hopping in Beijing. Good story.
The next morning we took a taxi ride and a stroll through Tiananmen Square - finding ourselves standing in front of the Forbidden City, and a massive picture of Chairman Mao. We went into the city (for the second time, mind you - the first being when we had just arrived in China!) and went straight for the ticket office to get us into the Forbidden city proper. On our way in, an English speaking woman asked us for directions where to buy tickets for the palace and what she should say. Since we were still quite awestruck by any foreigners we could find, we immediately loved her and invited her to travel with us for a bit as we toured the city. Her name was Anna Maria, an Italian ESL teacher living in Australia who spoke fluent English and Italian. She spoke zero Chinese, so we actually helped her out a bit in this regard. It felt weird to be teaching someone Chinese rather than English!
The Forbidden City and the Palace were breathtakingly beautiful. It is so huge and so ancient.. but unfortunately due to the high amounts of tourists - it has become something more of a tourist trap full of salespeople and ticket offices, rather than a beautiful monument to China's past, as I wish it was. However, I still found it captivating to imagine it in it's heyday, full of soldiers, ambassadors, the Emperor, officials, and the whole shebang. It is actually quite hard to explain in pictures and words. It is the sort of place you need to visit yourself in order to understand it's measure and history. Sorry for not being able to do it proper justice! After seeing all of the main palaces, we branched out into the East section of the 'city', and explored a few of its catacombs which included beautiful gardens, jewelry and art history displays, a theatre, and a wonderful stile of 'the 9 dragons'. Quite impressive to say the least.
After our long tour, our short stop in Beijing needed to come to an abrupt end as we had to make it to the Train station for our next stop: Xi'an. We left Anna Maria and strode out looking for the Train station. We ultimately took a Taxi - thank God, otherwise we would have gone to the wrong Train station in Beijing! There are 3 main train stations that go North, South and West. Who knew? Anywho, we made it on time and got into our second sleeper train to Xi'an at around 6pm. It shot us straight to Xi'an as we slept!
We woke up around 6am or so and walked out into the misty city of Xi'an. We immediately spotted a McDonalds and practically ran towards it. After a solid McDonalds breakfast, we noticed a few foreign girls across the restaurant, and flocked to them. They were three girls from Spain traveling in China for holiday named Judy, Leta and Rosa. They turned into some of our best friends of our traveling! We exchanged some information and gave them the name and number of our hostel - and said goodbye for the moment. We then decided to walk through the city to find our hostel as it would give us a better idea of how to get around - plus, Xi'an is a beautiful old city and has plenty to look at. Oh, also - right when we walked out from the Train station, the city is dauntingly solemn and beautiful to look at. Xi'an is still surrounded by it's ancient city walls from the days of the Chinese Empire - massive stone blocks rising what seemed like 30 or 40 yards into the sky. Anywho, we strode through the city in the morning watching it come to life (and getting stalked by some creepy fella for a few blocks who we think was crazy and intrigued by the foreigners walking around his home.. luckily we were able to shake him) and made it to 'The Bell Tower' in the very center of town. It is a beautiful old building right in the middle of a hustling-bustling city blending modern and ancient china in a rather shockingly accurate way. We took the tour later - the Bell ceremony was awesome!
Our Hostel was in sight of the Bell tower - so we bee-lined for the place. We checked in, got our room, and plopped down for a minute. THEN WE ENJOYED HOT SHOWERS. YES SIR. HOT SHOWERS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WEEKS. It was lovely, to say the least. After showering and eating something quickly, we noticed that the Spanish girls we had met checked into the room down the hall from us! They were on their way to see the Terracotta warriors during the day - and we were going to see those guys tomorrow, so we parted ways again, but promised to meet up for dinner, sightseeing and drinks.
Oh, I completely forgot to mention WHY we wanted to go to Xi'an. Xi'an, besides being a kick ass city for tourists and Foreigners to visit, is steeped with history and culture of ancient and modern China. It also houses nearby the dig-site for the Terracotta Warriors unearthed in the 1970's. They are really unbelieveable. More about them soon. Promise.
So after recharging the batteries with a good shower - we headed into Xi'an to give ourselves a little walking tour. We hit the Bell Tower, then the Drum tower (sister towers somewhat close to each other that show off some of the city's Muslim heritage), then found ourway into the Muslim market in Xi'an.
Markets in China are unreal. You can literally buy ANYTHING you can think of. For dirt cheap. You just need to know how to bargain, and speak a little Chinese. For example: Many market stall owners will yell out things like "pretty lady, handsome man, come buy this! Only 50! No? Only 25!", etc, etc. If something catches your eye or you want to buy it, seem somewhat interested in something. Ask one question about it. Then pretend like you don't care about it and walk away. The owner will usually grab your arm and ask you for a price. You ask them. They say a number. You say: "WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!" and walk away again. They grab you. You offer 25% of what they charged, and work from there. It's REALLY fun to bargain. Luckily, I budgeted myself so I couldn't buy too many souvenirs, otherwise I would have been there all day.
After the Muslim Market, we walked through the Southern gate of the city and found our way to the Xi'an Museum and 'Little Goose Pagoda'. The Museum was great, and the Pagoda was beautiful in it's historical significance. Plus, we climbed up the 12 floors of it and got a wonderful view of the city from the top!
After leaving the Pagoda on our way back towards our hostel (we were getting tired) we met someone by COMPLETE coincidence. Katie, a good friend of mine teaching with me, noticed another foreign girl walking along the street we were walking along.. stopped in her tracks, and yelled, "SHUT... UP." The other girl followed suit immediately. The 'other foreign girl' turned out to be Caitlin, a good friend of Katie's in High school who has been teaching English in China for the past year in a city named Shenyang, which sits a short 6 hours by train south of Tongliao! SMALL WORLD, HUH?! After much screaming, laughing and talking - information got sorted and we decided to meet up on the next day, after we got some sight seeing taken care of. That said - we parted and made our way back to our hostel.
On the way back, we decided to grab dinner at a Dumpling joint near where we were staying. Simply because of the name. It was, and I quote: "The Legendary DeFa Chang Restaurant is Renowned for its Superior Delicious Dumplings". That is it's NAME. Hilarious. The dumplings were okay. Not really superior. But I was hungry all the same.
We hung out in the hostel (which also operates as a restaurant and a bar to travelers) until the Spanish girls showed up after their adventures with the Terracotta warriors - and decided to make moves towards finding a 'water, music and light show' that we had heard about near the 'Big Goose Pagoda' in the city. Luckily, we had only seen the Little Goose. The big guy was still waiting for us. We took a bus to the pagoda and caught the show which was very entertaining and exciting to be a part of. It kind of reminded me of Fantasia - water and music and all. I'm sure we were more entertaining to watch for the locals, though. They were mesmerized by 3 Spanish women and 4 American kids hanging out and dancing all together to the water light show. From the Big Goose Pagoda, we made way back to the bus, back into the city, and walked our little legs right up to the first Disco Club we could find. We found one. It was called 'Club Loco'. It was... Awesome.
The place was full of swinging lights, bartenders flipping bottles, Chinese patrons, dice games, and LIVE music. The Chinese seem to have a grand fascination with live music, and it will be at literally any bar you go to. I think it's great. At any rate, the drinks were ridiculously expensive so I could only really afford one. HOWEVER, a Chinese gentleman sitting near to us was so tickled that a big group of foreigners were hanging out at his bar, that he bought us all a round or two of beer! What a guy! The live music was mostly perpetrated by this guy who looked like Rufio from 'Hook', and was wearing a shirt, I shit you not, with "I'M FUCKING AWESOME" plastered across it's breast. What a gentleman. He was actually a great entertainer. His voice was great, and he knew how to hold a crowd. He also sang "It's my life" by Bon Jovi to us for being English Speakers. All the words were wrong, but it was still awesome nevertheless. And he had a bodyguard. Oh, China.
Also, we met 3 kids at the bar who were also English teachers in China who were ALL FROM AMERICA! What are the odds! Sean, Jeff and Angelo. Good guys. Plus, they knew one of the owners of the bar, who graciously bought us our drinks for the rest of the evening. Much dancing, singing and good times ensued, including a Cha-cha or two from the Spanish gals! That will bring us to the conclusion of night two... and the conclusion of this post. I have a lot more to write, but it might get too boring to throw it all into one post. Thus, I shall begin another. HERE GOES!
(To Be Continued..)
So there we stood, happy to be on vacation, train tickets in hand, ready to board the train to Beijing. Armed with a backpack a piece, a few phrase books, and the heads on our shoulders - we were ready to brave the land of China by ourselves. Hoo boy. Oh, and I'll have to note.. the trip was attended by only four out of our troupe of six. The other two ladies (Meg and Christina) unfortunately had to work during our vacation due to the fact that the South campus (where they work) has a slightly different schedule than ours on the North Campus. Alas.
We boarded the train in Tongliao at about 8:30 in the morning after stopping by a small market to grab a few munchies for the 12 hour ride to Beijing. We mostly hung out and read books on the train - it was comfortable. I also met a young girl on the train named Emma who was from Tongliao, but lives in Beijing as a Perfume saleswoman. She was practicing her English, and asked me to help her out! Good thing too - we made friends and she managed to help show us where to get off the train, and where to go to leave the station. So we got off in the big city of Beijing with its flashin' lights.. and were greeted by a taxi driver who TOTALLY tried to screw us out of way too much money. So, we decided to walk through Beijing by ourselves at around 10 at night. Suprisingly, it's an EXTREMELY safe city to walk through. However, when you don't know where you're going - it can seem really big. Ultimately, however, we found our first hostel there thanks to the help of a fellow named 'Nina' we met on the street who could speak a little English. However, the hostel we arrived at cost a bit too much for the one night we wanted to stay. So, we called up my very close, good friend Steve who happened to be visiting Beijing on Holiday as WELL and asked where he was staying.
Quick side note: The friends and coincidences on this trip are absurdly wonderful and quite plentiful. Keep an eye out for the connections and stories littered throughout this entry!
So, we took a quick taxi ride to Steve's hostel, which was fantastically receptive, and much cheaper (thank god). I was so happy to see Steven and meet the guys he met over his trip (an Israeli man named Asiz , a guy from the Netherlands named JJ, and a fellow teacher of Steve's named Cy). Oh, and I forgot to mention. Steve has been teaching English to high school students in a city named Zhengzhou, near Xi'an, where we were ultimately taking our trip! Small world, huh. Anyhow, we settled into the Hostel and decided to have a night out in Beijing! I can now happily say I went bar hopping in Beijing. Good story.
The next morning we took a taxi ride and a stroll through Tiananmen Square - finding ourselves standing in front of the Forbidden City, and a massive picture of Chairman Mao. We went into the city (for the second time, mind you - the first being when we had just arrived in China!) and went straight for the ticket office to get us into the Forbidden city proper. On our way in, an English speaking woman asked us for directions where to buy tickets for the palace and what she should say. Since we were still quite awestruck by any foreigners we could find, we immediately loved her and invited her to travel with us for a bit as we toured the city. Her name was Anna Maria, an Italian ESL teacher living in Australia who spoke fluent English and Italian. She spoke zero Chinese, so we actually helped her out a bit in this regard. It felt weird to be teaching someone Chinese rather than English!
The Forbidden City and the Palace were breathtakingly beautiful. It is so huge and so ancient.. but unfortunately due to the high amounts of tourists - it has become something more of a tourist trap full of salespeople and ticket offices, rather than a beautiful monument to China's past, as I wish it was. However, I still found it captivating to imagine it in it's heyday, full of soldiers, ambassadors, the Emperor, officials, and the whole shebang. It is actually quite hard to explain in pictures and words. It is the sort of place you need to visit yourself in order to understand it's measure and history. Sorry for not being able to do it proper justice! After seeing all of the main palaces, we branched out into the East section of the 'city', and explored a few of its catacombs which included beautiful gardens, jewelry and art history displays, a theatre, and a wonderful stile of 'the 9 dragons'. Quite impressive to say the least.
After our long tour, our short stop in Beijing needed to come to an abrupt end as we had to make it to the Train station for our next stop: Xi'an. We left Anna Maria and strode out looking for the Train station. We ultimately took a Taxi - thank God, otherwise we would have gone to the wrong Train station in Beijing! There are 3 main train stations that go North, South and West. Who knew? Anywho, we made it on time and got into our second sleeper train to Xi'an at around 6pm. It shot us straight to Xi'an as we slept!
We woke up around 6am or so and walked out into the misty city of Xi'an. We immediately spotted a McDonalds and practically ran towards it. After a solid McDonalds breakfast, we noticed a few foreign girls across the restaurant, and flocked to them. They were three girls from Spain traveling in China for holiday named Judy, Leta and Rosa. They turned into some of our best friends of our traveling! We exchanged some information and gave them the name and number of our hostel - and said goodbye for the moment. We then decided to walk through the city to find our hostel as it would give us a better idea of how to get around - plus, Xi'an is a beautiful old city and has plenty to look at. Oh, also - right when we walked out from the Train station, the city is dauntingly solemn and beautiful to look at. Xi'an is still surrounded by it's ancient city walls from the days of the Chinese Empire - massive stone blocks rising what seemed like 30 or 40 yards into the sky. Anywho, we strode through the city in the morning watching it come to life (and getting stalked by some creepy fella for a few blocks who we think was crazy and intrigued by the foreigners walking around his home.. luckily we were able to shake him) and made it to 'The Bell Tower' in the very center of town. It is a beautiful old building right in the middle of a hustling-bustling city blending modern and ancient china in a rather shockingly accurate way. We took the tour later - the Bell ceremony was awesome!
Our Hostel was in sight of the Bell tower - so we bee-lined for the place. We checked in, got our room, and plopped down for a minute. THEN WE ENJOYED HOT SHOWERS. YES SIR. HOT SHOWERS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WEEKS. It was lovely, to say the least. After showering and eating something quickly, we noticed that the Spanish girls we had met checked into the room down the hall from us! They were on their way to see the Terracotta warriors during the day - and we were going to see those guys tomorrow, so we parted ways again, but promised to meet up for dinner, sightseeing and drinks.
Oh, I completely forgot to mention WHY we wanted to go to Xi'an. Xi'an, besides being a kick ass city for tourists and Foreigners to visit, is steeped with history and culture of ancient and modern China. It also houses nearby the dig-site for the Terracotta Warriors unearthed in the 1970's. They are really unbelieveable. More about them soon. Promise.
So after recharging the batteries with a good shower - we headed into Xi'an to give ourselves a little walking tour. We hit the Bell Tower, then the Drum tower (sister towers somewhat close to each other that show off some of the city's Muslim heritage), then found ourway into the Muslim market in Xi'an.
Markets in China are unreal. You can literally buy ANYTHING you can think of. For dirt cheap. You just need to know how to bargain, and speak a little Chinese. For example: Many market stall owners will yell out things like "pretty lady, handsome man, come buy this! Only 50! No? Only 25!", etc, etc. If something catches your eye or you want to buy it, seem somewhat interested in something. Ask one question about it. Then pretend like you don't care about it and walk away. The owner will usually grab your arm and ask you for a price. You ask them. They say a number. You say: "WAY TOO EXPENSIVE!" and walk away again. They grab you. You offer 25% of what they charged, and work from there. It's REALLY fun to bargain. Luckily, I budgeted myself so I couldn't buy too many souvenirs, otherwise I would have been there all day.
After the Muslim Market, we walked through the Southern gate of the city and found our way to the Xi'an Museum and 'Little Goose Pagoda'. The Museum was great, and the Pagoda was beautiful in it's historical significance. Plus, we climbed up the 12 floors of it and got a wonderful view of the city from the top!
After leaving the Pagoda on our way back towards our hostel (we were getting tired) we met someone by COMPLETE coincidence. Katie, a good friend of mine teaching with me, noticed another foreign girl walking along the street we were walking along.. stopped in her tracks, and yelled, "SHUT... UP." The other girl followed suit immediately. The 'other foreign girl' turned out to be Caitlin, a good friend of Katie's in High school who has been teaching English in China for the past year in a city named Shenyang, which sits a short 6 hours by train south of Tongliao! SMALL WORLD, HUH?! After much screaming, laughing and talking - information got sorted and we decided to meet up on the next day, after we got some sight seeing taken care of. That said - we parted and made our way back to our hostel.
On the way back, we decided to grab dinner at a Dumpling joint near where we were staying. Simply because of the name. It was, and I quote: "The Legendary DeFa Chang Restaurant is Renowned for its Superior Delicious Dumplings". That is it's NAME. Hilarious. The dumplings were okay. Not really superior. But I was hungry all the same.
We hung out in the hostel (which also operates as a restaurant and a bar to travelers) until the Spanish girls showed up after their adventures with the Terracotta warriors - and decided to make moves towards finding a 'water, music and light show' that we had heard about near the 'Big Goose Pagoda' in the city. Luckily, we had only seen the Little Goose. The big guy was still waiting for us. We took a bus to the pagoda and caught the show which was very entertaining and exciting to be a part of. It kind of reminded me of Fantasia - water and music and all. I'm sure we were more entertaining to watch for the locals, though. They were mesmerized by 3 Spanish women and 4 American kids hanging out and dancing all together to the water light show. From the Big Goose Pagoda, we made way back to the bus, back into the city, and walked our little legs right up to the first Disco Club we could find. We found one. It was called 'Club Loco'. It was... Awesome.
The place was full of swinging lights, bartenders flipping bottles, Chinese patrons, dice games, and LIVE music. The Chinese seem to have a grand fascination with live music, and it will be at literally any bar you go to. I think it's great. At any rate, the drinks were ridiculously expensive so I could only really afford one. HOWEVER, a Chinese gentleman sitting near to us was so tickled that a big group of foreigners were hanging out at his bar, that he bought us all a round or two of beer! What a guy! The live music was mostly perpetrated by this guy who looked like Rufio from 'Hook', and was wearing a shirt, I shit you not, with "I'M FUCKING AWESOME" plastered across it's breast. What a gentleman. He was actually a great entertainer. His voice was great, and he knew how to hold a crowd. He also sang "It's my life" by Bon Jovi to us for being English Speakers. All the words were wrong, but it was still awesome nevertheless. And he had a bodyguard. Oh, China.
Also, we met 3 kids at the bar who were also English teachers in China who were ALL FROM AMERICA! What are the odds! Sean, Jeff and Angelo. Good guys. Plus, they knew one of the owners of the bar, who graciously bought us our drinks for the rest of the evening. Much dancing, singing and good times ensued, including a Cha-cha or two from the Spanish gals! That will bring us to the conclusion of night two... and the conclusion of this post. I have a lot more to write, but it might get too boring to throw it all into one post. Thus, I shall begin another. HERE GOES!
(To Be Continued..)
Thursday, November 6, 2008
HALLOWEEN and a ton of other things!
Okay, let me begin by saying Halloween virtually does not exist in China. Now, imagine you are one of six American's in a sea of Chinese people who want to know ANYTHING about this somewhat silly holiday everyone over in the U.S. of A. celebrates on October 31st. Ready, set, go. That's what our life was for the past two weeks.
But it went surprisingly well! I took this past week as an opportunity to flex my creative Halloween muscles, that I work out so happily every year. I managed to don a new costume every day this past week in an attempt to educate a few people on how ridiculous or typical it is for the American community to dress up as things that frighten or makes us laugh on Halloween. I also wore my costumes to class, to show the kids. They ate it up. Day 1, I was a Basketball Player (everyone in china is obsessed with the
NBA.. notab
ly the Houston Rockets due to Yao Ming being their star player), day 2 I was a pirate (that actually took some explaining, but I managed to stumble upon the phrase 'Captain Jack Sparrow!' to explain. Anything commercial helps explain the American experience around here, I've noticed) day 3 I made a skeleton mask, and day 4 I had off. At school, and in my classes, I celebrated Halloween in a few different ways. I managed to find copies of 'The Monster Mash', 'Toccata and Fugue in G' (that creepy organ blasting, vampire-y song), 'Thriller', and half of the soundtrack from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' that I played throughout class as background music. I explained 'Trick or Treat' quite carefully - grabbed a costume and a bag - and went from student to student asking for a Trick or Treat quite politely! I was responded to by laughter or a pen/book/piece of fruit getting tossed into my trick or treating bag. Hilarious. From there, I went on to draw pictures of Zombies, Vampires, Skeletons, Pumpkins (and explaining a pumpkin's jou
rney from Pumpkin proper to Jack-o-Lantern, of course), Ghosts, Goblins, Witches and Mummies. I even managed to explain the idea of Frankenstein's monster. Don't ask how. From there, I had my eager students grab a piece of paper and frantically draw themselves a little Halloween Mask so everyone could have a shot at the holiday! If they could wear the mask correctly and manage to eek out 'Trick or Treat?' (which sounded much more like 'Tricko'tick!') I'd reward them with putting their hand into my magic Hurley Backpack full of chinese candy (treats!) and rocks/paper spiders/instructions to say difficult words (tricks!). They got a kick out of it, and so did I!! However, for the rest of the week whenever I saw any of my students in passing they would swarm me yelling 'TRICKO'TICK, TRICKO'TICK, RAI-KEE!". Oh, yes, they call me Rai-kee. It's easier to say than Ricky, I suppose. I find it rather endearing. Love that kids.
Anywho, come Friday the 31st - Halloween! - I had no classes until the afternoon. So I decided to go and help Neha run her 'English Salon' for her Kindergarten babies that day. It included teaching a few grades of little kids some spooky halloween English words, maki
ng adoreable little masks, and then parading the kids throughout the school from grade to grade as a unit - getting to each classroom and screaming TRICKORTREAT! at the top of their lungs, for a little piece of candy. It was unbelieveably cute. The funny thing is, the Kindergarteners (much like ours over in America) learn everything through repetition and sound. Therefore, when taught 'Trick or Treat' will inevitably get them candy - they simply repeat the
phrase over and over until they get said candy. It was a riot. Oh, and I dressed up for that too.
After the Salon and an afternoon class, we began to plot and plan for Saturday night - our big Halloween party. As it seems, it is tradition for the Foreign teachers at Tongliao #1 to plan parties periodically throughout the year for holidays and events, while inviting the teachers we work with, and their families. Hearing that made me ecstatic. I love meeting people, and I love parties! What a killer combo! So anyway, my mother, God bless her, sent us a package FULL of halloween decorations for us to spread generously throughout our apartment, and we did! We managed to grab a bunch of party snacks (and beer, o
f course) for the party.. and eve
n put together a little 'Haunted House' in a room we don't use, for the children of teachers to go into to scare 'em a bit on Halloween! We did the traditional 'bowls of guts, eyeballs and brains' made by noodles, grapes and other gross stuff, respectively. It was a big success. Oddly enough, flip cup and 7, 11, doubles was a hue hit with the little kids too. All played with water, of course. The party was VERY well attended, and turned out to be a huge hit with everyone who made it. I think we had a pretty good time, too. I dressed up as a Professional Ping-Pon
g player. I think it was appropriate.
So that was more or less our Halloween experience in China. It was just as good.. maybe even better than many Halloween's in the past. God I'm happy to be out here. Oh, and Sunday night Michael and I got invited to go to a 'Guys night' with David, Mr. Zheng (our boss), Steven (administrative assistant at school), and Sam (one of our drivers) at a traditional Mongolian restaurant. W
e went. We drank Bai-jiu. We had a blast. Then Mike and I woke up the next morning and thought we were dying. Mongolian food is great goin' down, but once it's inside you.. you're in trouble. I'll leave it at that. Either way - it was a night to sketch down into the records books, for sure.
OH! And one last thing. Sorry for making this such a ridiculously long post. I've been shirking my posting duties, and desperately need to make up for it. We made our way, this past weekend, to a park in the middle of Tongliao that was actually quite beautiful. It's nothing like parks in the states, though. In the middle of the park was a free zoo (which was extremely depressing. It was in a horrible state, and the animals seemed emaciated and cooped up. I will probably return to this thought and belabor it at some point.. but this post is getting long as it is), and also a small carnival complete with bumper cars, a haunted house, and a giant
Ferris Wheel! We actually braved the rickety Ferris Wheel to get a wonderful view of th
e city from up high, then strolled into the haunted house thinking 'how scary could a Chinese haunted house be?? Pleeease.' Well let me tell ya. It was FRIGGIN horrifying. The pictures don't do it justice, trust me. Near the park is a quaint little pond that you can paddle around it (although it's getting pretty cold around here) as well as a Buddhist temple right outside of it. I want to visit it to see what it is like, never being in one, but perhaps I'll go another day.
Other Updates:
- New gym in town. We all signed up. Only 999 yuan for the whole year. Good deal. Can't wait to use it.
- David's Birthday is TOMORROW! (November 7). We all pitched in and bought him a killer gift, hope he likes it. Dinner at 'The Big Hot Pot Place' tomorrow night!
- Honey's Birthday is 7 days later! BIG THINGS HAPPENIN'.
- We just bought train tickets to Beijing for Saturday. We'll be travelin' down there and getting into the city around 7pm. From there we may stay in Beijing for a few days, or head down to Xi'an to see the sights. We have a short holiday (although Meg and Christina can't come.. they have different schedules. Bummer) and we want to take advantage of it! I'll let ya know how it goes, to be sure.
- I successfully explained the full plot of Romeo and Juliet to my high school class yesterday. It was nuts.
- We started Chinese classes with Judy (a Primary school teacher who ROCKS) last week! It's slow goin', but a hoot. Wo ai ni, baba, mama, meimei!!
- I MISS EVERYONE. SEND ME EMAILS OR MESSAGES!!!
But it went surprisingly well! I took this past week as an opportunity to flex my creative Halloween muscles, that I work out so happily every year. I managed to don a new costume every day this past week in an attempt to educate a few people on how ridiculous or typical it is for the American community to dress up as things that frighten or makes us laugh on Halloween. I also wore my costumes to class, to show the kids. They ate it up. Day 1, I was a Basketball Player (everyone in china is obsessed with the
NBA.. notably the Houston Rockets due to Yao Ming being their star player), day 2 I was a pirate (that actually took some explaining, but I managed to stumble upon the phrase 'Captain Jack Sparrow!' to explain. Anything commercial helps explain the American experience around here, I've noticed) day 3 I made a skeleton mask, and day 4 I had off. At school, and in my classes, I celebrated Halloween in a few different ways. I managed to find copies of 'The Monster Mash', 'Toccata and Fugue in G' (that creepy organ blasting, vampire-y song), 'Thriller', and half of the soundtrack from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' that I played throughout class as background music. I explained 'Trick or Treat' quite carefully - grabbed a costume and a bag - and went from student to student asking for a Trick or Treat quite politely! I was responded to by laughter or a pen/book/piece of fruit getting tossed into my trick or treating bag. Hilarious. From there, I went on to draw pictures of Zombies, Vampires, Skeletons, Pumpkins (and explaining a pumpkin's journey from Pumpkin proper to Jack-o-Lantern, of course), Ghosts, Goblins, Witches and Mummies. I even managed to explain the idea of Frankenstein's monster. Don't ask how. From there, I had my eager students grab a piece of paper and frantically draw themselves a little Halloween Mask so everyone could have a shot at the holiday! If they could wear the mask correctly and manage to eek out 'Trick or Treat?' (which sounded much more like 'Tricko'tick!') I'd reward them with putting their hand into my magic Hurley Backpack full of chinese candy (treats!) and rocks/paper spiders/instructions to say difficult words (tricks!). They got a kick out of it, and so did I!! However, for the rest of the week whenever I saw any of my students in passing they would swarm me yelling 'TRICKO'TICK, TRICKO'TICK, RAI-KEE!". Oh, yes, they call me Rai-kee. It's easier to say than Ricky, I suppose. I find it rather endearing. Love that kids.Anywho, come Friday the 31st - Halloween! - I had no classes until the afternoon. So I decided to go and help Neha run her 'English Salon' for her Kindergarten babies that day. It included teaching a few grades of little kids some spooky halloween English words, maki
ng adoreable little masks, and then parading the kids throughout the school from grade to grade as a unit - getting to each classroom and screaming TRICKORTREAT! at the top of their lungs, for a little piece of candy. It was unbelieveably cute. The funny thing is, the Kindergarteners (much like ours over in America) learn everything through repetition and sound. Therefore, when taught 'Trick or Treat' will inevitably get them candy - they simply repeat the phrase over and over until they get said candy. It was a riot. Oh, and I dressed up for that too.After the Salon and an afternoon class, we began to plot and plan for Saturday night - our big Halloween party. As it seems, it is tradition for the Foreign teachers at Tongliao #1 to plan parties periodically throughout the year for holidays and events, while inviting the teachers we work with, and their families. Hearing that made me ecstatic. I love meeting people, and I love parties! What a killer combo! So anyway, my mother, God bless her, sent us a package FULL of halloween decorations for us to spread generously throughout our apartment, and we did! We managed to grab a bunch of party snacks (and beer, o
f course) for the party.. and even put together a little 'Haunted House' in a room we don't use, for the children of teachers to go into to scare 'em a bit on Halloween! We did the traditional 'bowls of guts, eyeballs and brains' made by noodles, grapes and other gross stuff, respectively. It was a big success. Oddly enough, flip cup and 7, 11, doubles was a hue hit with the little kids too. All played with water, of course. The party was VERY well attended, and turned out to be a huge hit with everyone who made it. I think we had a pretty good time, too. I dressed up as a Professional Ping-Pong player. I think it was appropriate.So that was more or less our Halloween experience in China. It was just as good.. maybe even better than many Halloween's in the past. God I'm happy to be out here. Oh, and Sunday night Michael and I got invited to go to a 'Guys night' with David, Mr. Zheng (our boss), Steven (administrative assistant at school), and Sam (one of our drivers) at a traditional Mongolian restaurant. W
e went. We drank Bai-jiu. We had a blast. Then Mike and I woke up the next morning and thought we were dying. Mongolian food is great goin' down, but once it's inside you.. you're in trouble. I'll leave it at that. Either way - it was a night to sketch down into the records books, for sure.OH! And one last thing. Sorry for making this such a ridiculously long post. I've been shirking my posting duties, and desperately need to make up for it. We made our way, this past weekend, to a park in the middle of Tongliao that was actually quite beautiful. It's nothing like parks in the states, though. In the middle of the park was a free zoo (which was extremely depressing. It was in a horrible state, and the animals seemed emaciated and cooped up. I will probably return to this thought and belabor it at some point.. but this post is getting long as it is), and also a small carnival complete with bumper cars, a haunted house, and a giant
Ferris Wheel! We actually braved the rickety Ferris Wheel to get a wonderful view of the city from up high, then strolled into the haunted house thinking 'how scary could a Chinese haunted house be?? Pleeease.' Well let me tell ya. It was FRIGGIN horrifying. The pictures don't do it justice, trust me. Near the park is a quaint little pond that you can paddle around it (although it's getting pretty cold around here) as well as a Buddhist temple right outside of it. I want to visit it to see what it is like, never being in one, but perhaps I'll go another day.Other Updates:
- New gym in town. We all signed up. Only 999 yuan for the whole year. Good deal. Can't wait to use it.
- David's Birthday is TOMORROW! (November 7). We all pitched in and bought him a killer gift, hope he likes it. Dinner at 'The Big Hot Pot Place' tomorrow night!
- Honey's Birthday is 7 days later! BIG THINGS HAPPENIN'.
- We just bought train tickets to Beijing for Saturday. We'll be travelin' down there and getting into the city around 7pm. From there we may stay in Beijing for a few days, or head down to Xi'an to see the sights. We have a short holiday (although Meg and Christina can't come.. they have different schedules. Bummer) and we want to take advantage of it! I'll let ya know how it goes, to be sure.
- I successfully explained the full plot of Romeo and Juliet to my high school class yesterday. It was nuts.
- We started Chinese classes with Judy (a Primary school teacher who ROCKS) last week! It's slow goin', but a hoot. Wo ai ni, baba, mama, meimei!!
- I MISS EVERYONE. SEND ME EMAILS OR MESSAGES!!!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Teaching - More than just Teaching.
Teaching English is an Adventure. A new one every day. Sorry I've been laxidasical in producing a new post - but I've been quite busy! Over the past two and a half weeks or so, we have been spending much of our time getting into something of an actual rhythm here at school. I have been teaching High School Grade 1 and 2 (which is proportionate to Freshmen and Sophomores in High School back home) - which comes out to about 16 classes full of 40-50 Chinese teenage adolescents. Who are for the most part... awesome. Having never been a teacher before in my life (obviously) this entire 'teaching' thing was weighing on my mind pretty heavily, as I'm sure it has been on the rest of the foreign teachers minds. But after my first week of classes, my mind was put at ease. The students are so unbelievably eager to learn ANYTHING from me, that it is almost silly to be a part of. They clap at anything entertaining you do (which I apparently do quite a bit - I get a lot of claps). They ask every question they can figure out how to form in English. They want to be your best friend.
That's another thing about the Chinese school system vs. the American school system. In China, the Teacher/Student relationship is much closer than at home. A few students here refer to David, our best friend teacher, as their brother or as family. The teachers will loan the kids money frequently, go out to lunches and dinners with their parents, tutor the students for free, whenever they need it, talk about current events and gossip with them, talk to the students over QQ (which is the Chinese equivalent to AIM), give them their phone numbers, and generally just be THERE for the kids at all times. Which makes absolute sense, considering the teachers life aprox. a quarter mile away from the students - or in the same apartment/dorm buildings. It is kind of heart warming, actually.
This brings to mind an instance the other day. It was my first week of classes, and I was in my office, idling at my desk, when I saw two students come into the office and stand next to Mr. Lee who is one of the Chinese language teachers at school - funny guy, but doesn't speak a lick of English. The students looked at the floor, and Mr. Lee stared at them for a minute or two. Then Mr. Lee began speaking to them slowly and precisely in Chinese about things I couldn't understand. The two students (boys, English names Sweet and Kobe, they are in my Class 5 Group) answered Mr. Lee's questions in short manner - dui.. bushu.. (yes, no), etc. One of them was starting to cry a little by the end of the 30 minutes speech Mr. Lee gave them. I was bewildered as to what was going on, so I asked David after the two boys had been dismissed by Mr. Lee. He said that the two boys were caught swearing during class, and not paying attention to the lesson. He then also went on to explain that Mr. Lee was talking plainly and with great concern for the future of the kids. He was asking questions about why they wanted to ruin what could be a great future for them if they concentrate in school, and why they want to waste their time with the rubbish of curse words while in class. Of course this started to make some sense with me, seeings how the Chinese school system works something akin to this (I think): You go to Middle School, and test out of High School to get to University. If you do very well on the High school exams, you have the chance to go to a good University. If you test out of University and do well on your exams, you can get the chance to get a great job. If you can get a great job, you can get out of China and do whatever you want.. otherwise you're goin' no where fast. Mr. Lee wasn't punishing his students - he was looking out for them. School is something real serious around here, and as much as I have fun and joke around with the students, I want them to have as many opportunities to learn from me as possible. Plus, they really are good kids, at least the ones I've gotten to know somewhat well so far.
I know this is dragging on, but real quick.. My lesson this week is so fun that I need to share. I've been teaching my students MUSIC from AMERICA. They eat it up. I start with Blues, explain it, play Stevie Ray Vaughn, then move on. Country is next, explain, and play 'Sweet Home Alabama' while showing them the words on a Powerpoint. Soulja Boy is next. Yes, I explain Rap. Yes, I do the Soulja Boy dance. Yes, I teach them, and yes we do it as a class. It's a riot. Then Rock a la Van Halen and The Darkness (with a rousing Air guitar solo by yours truly.. I usually drop down to the Jimi Hendrix guitar explosion while on his knees - a clapping worthy performance), the Beatles, Incubus 'Aqueous Transmission' for it's Traditional Chinese instruments in it, then finish off class with Westlife, "My Love". The Chinese have a bizarre fascination with anything Boy Band. We still can't quite figure it out, but they love Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Enrique, etc. Any who, I'm sweating and smiling by the end of every class, and each one has lasted an extra 5 minutes due to a chorus of "TEACHAA, NOOO, STAY!" when the bell rings.
It's a good life, so far. I've taken a short hiatus from picture taking, my apology for that. The only new ones I have are of Neha's little Kindergarten babies playing in a big indoor playground they have. It's adoreable. But I'll save the pictures for another day.
Hope America is having fun with Election Fever!
That's another thing about the Chinese school system vs. the American school system. In China, the Teacher/Student relationship is much closer than at home. A few students here refer to David, our best friend teacher, as their brother or as family. The teachers will loan the kids money frequently, go out to lunches and dinners with their parents, tutor the students for free, whenever they need it, talk about current events and gossip with them, talk to the students over QQ (which is the Chinese equivalent to AIM), give them their phone numbers, and generally just be THERE for the kids at all times. Which makes absolute sense, considering the teachers life aprox. a quarter mile away from the students - or in the same apartment/dorm buildings. It is kind of heart warming, actually.
This brings to mind an instance the other day. It was my first week of classes, and I was in my office, idling at my desk, when I saw two students come into the office and stand next to Mr. Lee who is one of the Chinese language teachers at school - funny guy, but doesn't speak a lick of English. The students looked at the floor, and Mr. Lee stared at them for a minute or two. Then Mr. Lee began speaking to them slowly and precisely in Chinese about things I couldn't understand. The two students (boys, English names Sweet and Kobe, they are in my Class 5 Group) answered Mr. Lee's questions in short manner - dui.. bushu.. (yes, no), etc. One of them was starting to cry a little by the end of the 30 minutes speech Mr. Lee gave them. I was bewildered as to what was going on, so I asked David after the two boys had been dismissed by Mr. Lee. He said that the two boys were caught swearing during class, and not paying attention to the lesson. He then also went on to explain that Mr. Lee was talking plainly and with great concern for the future of the kids. He was asking questions about why they wanted to ruin what could be a great future for them if they concentrate in school, and why they want to waste their time with the rubbish of curse words while in class. Of course this started to make some sense with me, seeings how the Chinese school system works something akin to this (I think): You go to Middle School, and test out of High School to get to University. If you do very well on the High school exams, you have the chance to go to a good University. If you test out of University and do well on your exams, you can get the chance to get a great job. If you can get a great job, you can get out of China and do whatever you want.. otherwise you're goin' no where fast. Mr. Lee wasn't punishing his students - he was looking out for them. School is something real serious around here, and as much as I have fun and joke around with the students, I want them to have as many opportunities to learn from me as possible. Plus, they really are good kids, at least the ones I've gotten to know somewhat well so far.
I know this is dragging on, but real quick.. My lesson this week is so fun that I need to share. I've been teaching my students MUSIC from AMERICA. They eat it up. I start with Blues, explain it, play Stevie Ray Vaughn, then move on. Country is next, explain, and play 'Sweet Home Alabama' while showing them the words on a Powerpoint. Soulja Boy is next. Yes, I explain Rap. Yes, I do the Soulja Boy dance. Yes, I teach them, and yes we do it as a class. It's a riot. Then Rock a la Van Halen and The Darkness (with a rousing Air guitar solo by yours truly.. I usually drop down to the Jimi Hendrix guitar explosion while on his knees - a clapping worthy performance), the Beatles, Incubus 'Aqueous Transmission' for it's Traditional Chinese instruments in it, then finish off class with Westlife, "My Love". The Chinese have a bizarre fascination with anything Boy Band. We still can't quite figure it out, but they love Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Enrique, etc. Any who, I'm sweating and smiling by the end of every class, and each one has lasted an extra 5 minutes due to a chorus of "TEACHAA, NOOO, STAY!" when the bell rings.
It's a good life, so far. I've taken a short hiatus from picture taking, my apology for that. The only new ones I have are of Neha's little Kindergarten babies playing in a big indoor playground they have. It's adoreable. But I'll save the pictures for another day.
Hope America is having fun with Election Fever!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Shenyang Extravaganza!!
So our trip to Shenyang was phenomenal. It began with a long train ride (that we absolutely lucked on on - as we managed to buy tickets that are hard sitters for the ride, which we never should have got due to the national day travelers) that was just as much part of the journey as anything. We met a family; father, mother and daughter, traveling to Shenyang o
n vacation just like us. They didn't speak much English, but what we could figure out (and have David translate) was all we needed. We befriended each other, they taught me the number system in China very accurately, found that the young woman (daughter) was a reporter for the Tongliao news station, got invited to the father's hometown some day, exchanged email addresses, then took shots of Bai-joe... ON THE TRAIN to commemorate our new friendship. All in all it was a solid ride.
Once in Shen
yang, we were met by one of David's friends from his hometown (Hohhot) that lives right outside Shenyang. He spoke absolutely no English, but he was one of the nicest guys we've met since being in China. He took us out to lunch, cheers'd Katie's Birthday, then found us a nice little hotel that cost aprox. $20 a night to stay at. We then hit the mean streets of Shenyang for the night and found ourselves on this CRAZY central street that has been blocked off for cars, so people could go to all the shops and stores along it. It reminded me a lot of Wangfujing street in Beijing. After checking out some shops, we found a European style restaurant that dealt heavily in pizza, so we obviously had to have dinner there. The night was a success, and we made our way back to our hotel - now visitors of Shenyang.
The next morning we woke up early and made our way to the Imperial Palace of Shenyang. The place was absolutely breathtaking - as many of my experiences in China have already been to date. It is one of the lesser renovated ruins of China, and therefore has a lot of the ancient remnants as close to their original state as possible. The architecture and artwork at and inside the Palace was mind blowing. From the emperor's throne, to the officer's desks of the 8 banners of china, to the back gardens, and
to the emperors' and empress' sleeping quarters - the entire trip was a memory I will not soon forget. Everything was so intricately designed, so painstakingly carved and painted that it is almost unfathomable to think that artisans and workers from hundreds and hundreds of years ago, without a breath of the technology we have today, accomplished such beautiful works of art and landscape with nothing but dreams and dilligence. The empire of China is something wonderous to behold, and I need to keep reminding myself that I am in a new part of the world and that it's history seeps back in time so much further than anything I'
ve experienced back at home. It is something awe inspiring and literally jaw dropping. This country is very old, and that makes it intrinsically impressive.
After the seeing the palace in it's entirety - and it's conjoining museum of artifacts - we found a rest at our hotel, then made our way back into downtown Shenyang for some shopping and food. After dinner we walked past the palace (it is closed at night) and ran into a few interesting characters along the way. A couple of them were actually playing a sort of hackey-sack game that I got in on for awhile. I wasn't very good at it, but it was fun! David later told me that the game is very popular amongst the students at school, so maybe I'll have a chance to get better at it. Ultimately, we found ourselves waiting outside this famous concert hall in Shenyang at about 8pm at night, as there is a nightly performance outside of it for the public to view for free! We decided, hell, wh
y not. After waiting about a half hour in a crowd of people waiting for it to begin, I pulled out my phrase book and asked a guy next to us what time it was starting. He said 10pm, so we pulled up a seat on a nearby set of stairs and chatted about our journey into China thus far. It was a nice little moment to reflect on everything we have been doing and going through. The show, when it finally happened, was bizarre. It was like a big Mariachi band behind glass, with this guy dancing behind a donkey that walked around a mill, and a girl dancing behind the guy. It lasted like 15 minutes. And I'll never have those 15 minutes of my life back again. What a shame. All in all, we ended the night there, and hit the hotel.
The next day we spent in Shenyang going back to some shops and streets that had interested us previously, and bought a few trinkets and memories of the city. I got a large poster painting of an ancient chinese warrior guard to put up in our apartment. The legend of the guard is that if you put him up in a home, that evil spirits and bad tidings will not be allowed into
your home and life, as he will defend your home from such effects. We then took a pair of taxi's to a chinese super market (always a death defying experience - both the taxi rides and the supermarket) then got ourselves to the train station in the nick of time to catch our train (1:15pm) back to Tongliao. It was a quiet ride home, extremely uncrowded (we bought standing tickets, but got to sit the whole ride due to there being only a few people on the train) and played chinese card games taught by Honey most of the ride back.
After getting off the train, we all headed to this killer dumpling restaurant that one of my student's mother's actually owns. The food was unbelieveable, and the service just as good - and we celebrated Me
g's birthday! There was plenty of Pi-joe to go around, and we actually bought her a cake from a wonderful bakery just a few blocks away before getting to the restaurant. In china, they whip up the cake RIGHT in front of you while you wait! It's beautiful to watch. We told David that it was so fun to watch the baker's make the cake right there - and he was shocked to find that they don't, or at least VERY rarely, do that in the states. It was just another happy little note about China, I suppose. After dinner we made our way back to our little apartments and settled back in, knowing we were home.
It was a very strange feeling coming back into Tongliao and calling it 'home'. But it was actually the first time I thought of it as home. Shenyang was a fantastic city to visit, but I feel so much more comfortable here in our little Tongliao. It is less hectic, the people are warmer, and it is familiar already. I'm happy to be here and to call our little city and big school 'home'. Happy indeed.
n vacation just like us. They didn't speak much English, but what we could figure out (and have David translate) was all we needed. We befriended each other, they taught me the number system in China very accurately, found that the young woman (daughter) was a reporter for the Tongliao news station, got invited to the father's hometown some day, exchanged email addresses, then took shots of Bai-joe... ON THE TRAIN to commemorate our new friendship. All in all it was a solid ride.Once in Shen
yang, we were met by one of David's friends from his hometown (Hohhot) that lives right outside Shenyang. He spoke absolutely no English, but he was one of the nicest guys we've met since being in China. He took us out to lunch, cheers'd Katie's Birthday, then found us a nice little hotel that cost aprox. $20 a night to stay at. We then hit the mean streets of Shenyang for the night and found ourselves on this CRAZY central street that has been blocked off for cars, so people could go to all the shops and stores along it. It reminded me a lot of Wangfujing street in Beijing. After checking out some shops, we found a European style restaurant that dealt heavily in pizza, so we obviously had to have dinner there. The night was a success, and we made our way back to our hotel - now visitors of Shenyang.
The next morning we woke up early and made our way to the Imperial Palace of Shenyang. The place was absolutely breathtaking - as many of my experiences in China have already been to date. It is one of the lesser renovated ruins of China, and therefore has a lot of the ancient remnants as close to their original state as possible. The architecture and artwork at and inside the Palace was mind blowing. From the emperor's throne, to the officer's desks of the 8 banners of china, to the back gardens, and
to the emperors' and empress' sleeping quarters - the entire trip was a memory I will not soon forget. Everything was so intricately designed, so painstakingly carved and painted that it is almost unfathomable to think that artisans and workers from hundreds and hundreds of years ago, without a breath of the technology we have today, accomplished such beautiful works of art and landscape with nothing but dreams and dilligence. The empire of China is something wonderous to behold, and I need to keep reminding myself that I am in a new part of the world and that it's history seeps back in time so much further than anything I'
ve experienced back at home. It is something awe inspiring and literally jaw dropping. This country is very old, and that makes it intrinsically impressive.After the seeing the palace in it's entirety - and it's conjoining museum of artifacts - we found a rest at our hotel, then made our way back into downtown Shenyang for some shopping and food. After dinner we walked past the palace (it is closed at night) and ran into a few interesting characters along the way. A couple of them were actually playing a sort of hackey-sack game that I got in on for awhile. I wasn't very good at it, but it was fun! David later told me that the game is very popular amongst the students at school, so maybe I'll have a chance to get better at it. Ultimately, we found ourselves waiting outside this famous concert hall in Shenyang at about 8pm at night, as there is a nightly performance outside of it for the public to view for free! We decided, hell, wh
y not. After waiting about a half hour in a crowd of people waiting for it to begin, I pulled out my phrase book and asked a guy next to us what time it was starting. He said 10pm, so we pulled up a seat on a nearby set of stairs and chatted about our journey into China thus far. It was a nice little moment to reflect on everything we have been doing and going through. The show, when it finally happened, was bizarre. It was like a big Mariachi band behind glass, with this guy dancing behind a donkey that walked around a mill, and a girl dancing behind the guy. It lasted like 15 minutes. And I'll never have those 15 minutes of my life back again. What a shame. All in all, we ended the night there, and hit the hotel.The next day we spent in Shenyang going back to some shops and streets that had interested us previously, and bought a few trinkets and memories of the city. I got a large poster painting of an ancient chinese warrior guard to put up in our apartment. The legend of the guard is that if you put him up in a home, that evil spirits and bad tidings will not be allowed into
your home and life, as he will defend your home from such effects. We then took a pair of taxi's to a chinese super market (always a death defying experience - both the taxi rides and the supermarket) then got ourselves to the train station in the nick of time to catch our train (1:15pm) back to Tongliao. It was a quiet ride home, extremely uncrowded (we bought standing tickets, but got to sit the whole ride due to there being only a few people on the train) and played chinese card games taught by Honey most of the ride back.After getting off the train, we all headed to this killer dumpling restaurant that one of my student's mother's actually owns. The food was unbelieveable, and the service just as good - and we celebrated Me
g's birthday! There was plenty of Pi-joe to go around, and we actually bought her a cake from a wonderful bakery just a few blocks away before getting to the restaurant. In china, they whip up the cake RIGHT in front of you while you wait! It's beautiful to watch. We told David that it was so fun to watch the baker's make the cake right there - and he was shocked to find that they don't, or at least VERY rarely, do that in the states. It was just another happy little note about China, I suppose. After dinner we made our way back to our little apartments and settled back in, knowing we were home.
It was a very strange feeling coming back into Tongliao and calling it 'home'. But it was actually the first time I thought of it as home. Shenyang was a fantastic city to visit, but I feel so much more comfortable here in our little Tongliao. It is less hectic, the people are warmer, and it is familiar already. I'm happy to be here and to call our little city and big school 'home'. Happy indeed.
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