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

The Chinese Wedding.

So, there have been a few things happening in the past weeks that I've unfortunately neglected to mention in my little electronic journal (not diary) here. I'll try to catch myself up here.

Oh, and something of note. My general lack of pictures on my blog right now were due to a malfunctioning camera. I haven't been able to properly take any pictures lately, and thus the problem. However, I think I've fixed it - so prepare for a new load of Christmas shots in the coming entries! Huzzah!

But I digress. Reaching back a few weeks - we (Myself, Katie, Mike and Neha) were lucky enough to be invited by Cindy, a teacher in the North Campus high school where I work, to attend her wedding ceremony! We were all extremely excited for the chance to experience a wedding here in China, and jumped at the opportunity. However, weddings over here are WAY different than anything you might find back home. I'll do my best to explain the whole ordeal. Oh, and the best part is that she asked us to sing at her wedding - a reprisal of 'My Love' by the ever-popular (at least in China) Irish boy band 'Westlife'.

To begin.. the Chinese have a kind of siesta-like period of the day in which they get time to return to their home, have something to eat, and usually take a nap. For us at school, it lasts from 11:30 until 2:30. Everyone gets these three hours off to do whatever they like. I usually take the time to grab some lunch and go to the gym, as I hate napping. But for most over here, the nap is essential. Especially for the Chinese students who have class from 6am-10pm every day. God bless 'em.

That said, entire wedding was held during this lunch-siesta time of the day on a Friday, so that any co-workers of Cindy or her husband wanted to attend - they would certainly have the time. To preface a lot of this.. it was what may be considered a 'typical Chinese wedding'.. so most of the things I write about are common to all of the weddings that happen over here. So.. we leave at lunch, and end up at a nearby Hotel (a very nice one, might I add) where we, and the rest of the faculty body attending the wedding got off of the bus that shuttled us from the school to the wedding. The whole thing was held in a large function room of the hotel. Inside, we were greeted by Cindy and her Husband, both dressed up in wonderfully beautiful wedding dress. Cindy in a white gown, and her husband (who works for the military) in an all white military officers suit. They stood at the entrance of the hotel and greeted everyone individually. We then made our way into the hotel proper, and into the function room. It was extravagantly decorated with every wedding decoration and garnish you could possibly think of. But the coup de grace, in my opinion, were the lavishly photoshopped photos of the bride and the groom in a MYRIAD of different costumes, poses and scenes depicting how much they love each other and how important the marriage is! My favorite picture: The groom exploding out of the Statue of Liberty's torch while looking tough, arms folded. Priceless.

Another side note: There is a HUGE industry in China for wedding pictures. The Chinese 'Steps to Marriage' go as follows:
1. Decide to get married. Fill out the proper government paperwork.
2. Get a ton of immaculately cheesy / but completely endearing wedding photos taken.
3. Have the ACTUAL wedding ceremony, usually months later.
4. Enjoy life together!
The wedding pictures are a huge part of the marriage process, and actually look like they're a lot of fun. The wedding couple will take a whole day usually, and go to a photo place where they will go through a host of costume changes and scenery changes, taking pictures with each other and alone. It's kind of magical, in a way, I suppose!

Anyhow. We sat down at a big, typical dinner table (the kind with the lazy susan in the middle), because, naturally, at the wedding itself, they serve lunch... and a ton of booze. Yup. Right in the middle of the day, a work day nevertheless, everyone is basically required to take shots in honor of the bride and groom. It was hilarious. China does things right. There is also a host, who MC's the entire wedding, that the Bride and Groom will purchase for the occasion. They fellow MC'ing Cindy's wedding was great. He was enthusiastic, spoke well (I think) and wore a wonderful, sequin-suit that had 'asian game show host' written all over it. He was great. He announced many things we didn't understand, then introduced Cindy, who strode down the center of the room in her wedding gown. (It is also customary to change dresses a few times during the wedding ceremony. The more dresses, the more wealthy you are, I think.) She had a little Q&A in front of everyone with the host - apparently it was funny, due to the crowd's laughter. Then suddenly, the groom was announced! He appeared from nowhere with a microphone and a bouquet of beautiful roses, dropped down to a knee, and sang his wife a very heartfelt song right there in front of everyone. It was really heartwarming! Afterwards, there were a bunch of little games and ceremonies that the Bride and the Groom took part in. A few of them were, for example.. Having each spouse's mother and father come on stage, and having them take shots of Bai-jiu together... pouring wine into the top of a series of little wine glasses and having it cascade down into a final glass of wine for drinking... and then, the singing. About 4-5 people (close friends of the happy couple) got up on stage individually, and sang songs to them! Unfortunately, we were slated to do this first. We had no idea what was going on.. and basically we got on stage, the HUGE wedding crowd clapped, and the music started. So we sang! Our pep talk before starting: "The song is in English... They're Chinese. They can't understand what we sing even if we screw up. GO!" All in all, even if we were horrible... Cindy was so grateful to have us sing her a song at her wedding. Plus, I thought it was pretty fun, haha.

During most of the song-singing, lunch was served in between shots of Bai-jiu and something that tasted like grape coolaid with booze in it, that the couple's parents were bringing around from table to table. After lunch.. the whole thing was essentially over - and everyone left the wedding! It ended so abruptly, that we weren't quite sure what to do. Most wedding parties at home in America last for the entire night.. so we were a little perplexed as to what our next move would be, cordially... since we were half in the bag at noon. The girls went shopping. I took a nap.

Just another standard day in China.

Thanksgiving?

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

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.

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).

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..)