For the rest of my holiday break after Harbin, my parents came to visit. Our trip itinerary was this:
1. Hong Kong and Macau
2. Bangkok
3. Koh Samed, Thailand
4. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
5. Shanghai
6. Shijiazhuang
7. Beijing
The first leg of our trip started with me flying to meet them in Hong Kong. I was flying from Beijing and was supposed to get in about an hour and a half before them. I figured this would give me enough time to collect my baggage and be waiting for them at their exit. I knew I'd be at a different exit because I was coming from the mainland and they were coming from the US. My plan was ruined, however, when my flight was delayed by almost 45 minutes out of Beijing. I still don't know why. It just was, because it's China.
I got to Hong Kong and collected my suitcase, which thankfully was one of the first on the belt. I headed out "Exit B" to the main part of the airport. I then realized that the ONLY things I knew about my parents flight were the time they were supposed to arrive and what city they were coming from. I had no idea what airline. I rushed over to the information desk to ask about flights coming in from Chicago at that time. He told me there were no flights coming in from Chicago at that time, but told me there was one coming in from Chicago that was a half hour earlier than what I expected. I assumed that was the correct one and headed to "Exit A" to wait for them.
I still had some time to wait for them, so I waited nervously by the exit, watching to see when the stream of Europeans ended and the Americans started coming in from Chicago. In reality, I wasn't really waiting for them that long. In my heightened sense of excitement and anticipation, however, it felt like I had been there forever. Immediately, all of the worst possible scenarios started flashing through my mind. I was torn in indecision. Shanghai had two airports - why hadn't I checked to see if Hong Kong did, too?! I could see in my mind my parents arriving at the other airport, and I was nowhere to be found. But, what if I went to the information desk to ask if there was another airport, and meanwhile missed them walking out the exit I was standing at currently? I decided against leaving and stood my ground outside Exit A. Thankfully, that was the correct choice, and I found my parents. Of course, I started crying as soon as I saw them and mumbling something about them actually making it.
We waited for an hour for our hotel shuttle, and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. I had booked everything online on Expedia, and my only criteria for booking was that it was the cheapest option available. After dropping our bags off in our room, we headed down for hot pot in the hotel lobby.
We only had two full days in Hong Kong and Macau, and it was quite dreary the whole time. It rained or drizzled the entire time we were there, which made it difficult to take pictures at some of the tourist sites we visited.
Our first day in Hong Kong, we visited the Big Buddha. To get there, we had to take the most terrifying cable car ever up to the top. It took almost a full half hour to get there because it was so high in the mountains. We spent the day walking around the city, stumbled upon the Jade Market and just a few street markets, and then headed to Macau for the evening.
We didn't have a plan for how to get around the city, so once we left the ferry, we just climbed on a bus headed to a casino. We chose the Galaxy casino mainly because their workers were the only ones who spoke English well enough to tell us that the shuttle was free. It was much further away from the ferry than the other casinos, and we were a bit worried that we were heading to a sketchy place. When we arrived, though, we found that we had inadvertently chosen the shuttle bus to the newest casino in Macau - that also happens to currently be the largest casino in the world! Hooray for us!
We had a few drinks and walked around the casino for a while. The only table games they had were Blackjack and Baccarat. Dad ended up playing Blackjack for a while, and we got quite a crowd at our table. We ended up staying in Macau for a long time, and ended up getting back to Hong Kong so late that the subway had stopped running.
The next day, we walked around the city again, and took the Star Ferry around so we could see all of the big buildings, which was really beautiful. That night, we took a 9pm train to Bangkok to continue our adventures.
Link to Hong Kong and Macau pictures: http://meredithinchina.shutterfly.com/pictures/894
Edit:
Oh, man. I can't believe I forgot to write about this the first time. Hong Kong is so drastically different from mainland China. I could hardly believe it. I felt extremely awkward a lot of the time as I realized how some of my mannerisms had changed to accommodate the mannerisms of the people I interact with in China daily. First, I couldn't believe how clean Hong Kong is in comparison to Beijing (and the Shiz, haha). It's the only place where I think people actually abide by "No Smoking" signs. There are also "No Spitting" signs, which I found wonderful. A small, but much needed, break from the constant hacking and spitting that haunts me on the mainland. Other things I also didn't see in Hong Kong: people using the outdoors as their personal restroom and babies with slit pants. Heaven.
The other thing that is worth mentioning about Hong Kong is that lines and rules exist in this place. One example is how people use an escalator. So, in most of the world, if you want to stand in place, you stand on one side of the escalator, to allow for people who want to walk to use the other side. This concept does not exist in mainland China. Everyone will rush to get on the escalator and then just stand there. Just stand still. Oh, you wanted to walk up the escalator to go quickly? TOO BAD. China doesn't want that for you. You must hurry up to wait. Well, in Hong Kong, people actually abide by this rule. I had the hardest time remembering to do so. Every time we would get on an escalator, my dad would have to remind me to stand behind him to allow people to walk around me. It was this one small example that made me realize how I am so used to just having to shove my way through crowds and ignore certain social cues that I grew up around. Another problem I had was waiting to get on the subway. In Beijing, you shove and elbow your way onto the subway any way you can. In Hong Kong, people actually wait in lines on either side of the door. They allow people to exit the subway car before they start boarding. It was very, very hard for me to remember to wait in line and not shove people out of my way.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Winter Wonderland
The first leg of my holiday adventures began on a 22 hour train ride up north to Harbin, China.
Harbin has had a ton of Russian influence, and initially became a large city because Russia built a leg of the Trans-Siberian railway that went through Harbin to Vladivostok. Harbin was also occupied by the Japanese during their occupation of Manchuria, and by some accounts suffered some of the worst atrocities in Manchuria. There was a war museum outside the city, where there had been a Japanese "medical testing" facility. Unfortunately, it was closed while we were there, so we were unable to visit.
Because of their mixed history with foreign influence, we had some unsettling encounters with some of the people who lived in Harbin. Overall, I'd say there weren't really very friendly to us.
Aaron's student David is from Harbin and was our tour guide through the city. David is one of the kindest people I've ever met. He sacrificed the first four days of his own holiday break to show us around his city and make sure that we were comfortable and able to see everything we wanted to before we had to leave. It was great to have him around, and he was able to explain some things to us about why people weren't very nice. Apparently, Harbin has a pretty bad history with Russia that they're not forgetting anytime soon. David explained to us that, if we were white in Harbin, they pretty much assumed that we were Russian. Although, the few times where people realized we were American, there wasn't really a difference in the way we were treated, either.
Anyhow, despite this, our trip to Harbin was AMAZING. The city is absolutely beautiful and the snow and ice sculptures are unbelievable. The crazy arctic temperatures were definitely worth everything that I was able to see in the city.
As I mentioned at the beginning, the trip started with a 22 hour train ride from Shijiazhuang to Harbin. Since it was the beginning of the holiday break, traveling in China was difficult. China doesn't exactly do planning ahead, and you can only buy train tickets 10 days in advance. We bought our tickets the day after they went on sale, and by that time, there already weren't any sleepers available. We really, really wanted to go to Harbin, so we decided that taking an overnight train on just a seat was a truly Chinese experience, and we were going to just do it. They only had bench seats available, which means that there are no arm rests or anything in between the seats. Just a padded bench that you sit on with the other people in your row.
Another thing about Chinese trains, especially T and K trains, is that there is the option available to buy "standing" tickets. However, there isn't always a special compartment for those standers. No, no. They just take their huge bags and stand in the aisle, around the bathroom, on the counter by the sink, or anywhere else they can find a place - including your seat if you get up to use the restroom.
To fully grasp what was going through my mind on this train ride, I made a journal that I tried to update as much as possible with whatever sane or insane thoughts that were going through my brain at the time.
22 Hours on the Train Ride From Hell
11:30am: I've been on this train for all of 10 minutes and already feel like I've lost my sanity. On my side of the train, there are a bunch of college students heading home to who knows where. They are also apparently opposed to actually purchasing train tickets. When I arrived at the train, the man checking tickets actually held the crowd back for the four of us (Iraise, Lauren, Emily, and myself) while mumbling something about Harbin and mei guo ren (Americans). I don't know exactly what he was saying, but I imagine it was something that involved lots of pity and surprise. "These poor American girls have no idea what they're in for. Harbin? Oh, no." I understood once I arrived at my seat and there were three girls already shoved on the two-person bench seat that was supposed to be seating me and one other person. In a haze of disbelief that this was really my life, I weakly held my ticket out and pointed to the 113 on my ticket. My. Seat. Instead of getting up, as that would be far too logical, one girl climbed into the other girl's lap, while the third stood at the end of the table, effectively blocking my leg room. I would like to add that my train car has 118 seats and a capacity of 118 people. There are, additionally, roughly 50-60 people standing in the aisle with their luggage. These girls and the two people across from me had already covered the table with their crap - mostly candy, sunflower seeds that they will eventually spit on the floor, and an odd assortment of fluffy winter gear with cartoon characters on it. Add to this that I probably have bronchitis and need to eat something so I can take the prednisone Iraise got me from a Chinese hospital last night, and I am not a happy camper. I grumbled something about, "I paid for this seat, and I WILL USE IT." while i kicked the girl out of my way and edged my backpack and bag of food under the table, my legs on either side of it. I used this same tactic to get the writing space on the table I'm currently using, except elbows were involved.
11:45am: The girls next to me were just trying to take my picture. They are already roughly six inches from my face. China.
12:00pm: Took the first dose of my sketchily-obtained medicine. Immediately after, a group of men began smoking between the cars, about five feet away from me, and directly under the "No Smoking" sign. No one else seems to care. I can feel my lungs crying.
12:30pm: The girl in front of me seems to feel as though her status as a stander entitles her to my leg room. I've settled for instead resting my feet directly on top of hers. If she won't give me the foot room in front of my seat, she can be my footrest. I also caused a commotion when a stander behind me decided to loop her arm around the top of my seat, blocking me from being able to use my own head rest. I patted her arm, said excuse me, and then lifted it off of my seat. My. Seat. You are not my problem.
1:20pm: Currently being squeezed out of my seat as the two girls in the ONE seat next to me try (and fail) to sleep sitting on laps. I am pressing as much of my weight as possible against them just to get a corner of the table. I hope they find it annoying. I am not tired. I am also not ready to use up the battery life of my electronics. I will continue this game.
1:30pm: As they are college students and know a few words of English, I have resorted to adding grunts of "rude", "move", or "are you serious?" with my elbow jabs. Again, not my problem that you didn't buy a seat.
2:00pm: The girl across the table from me is now playing music out loud on her phone. I have resorted to earplugs.
2:45pm: First attempt at a nap = epic failure. Now, the girl next to me started playing what is quite possibly the worst song in the world, on blast, from her cell phone, right next to my ear. Trying to decide on an equally annoying and obnoxious activity that I can engage in; strongly considering playing "Big Pimpin" out loud on my iPad. I think one of them can possibly read my mind, she got them to stop right before I reached my breaking point. That, or she understands the word fuck.
3:00pm: Prednisone is working. This is the best my lungs have felt since early November.
4:00pm: I don't think anyone in China knows how to chew with their mouth closed.
4:05pm: This train is staging a competition for who can be the most obnoxious individual. That's the only explanation that makes sense.
4:15pm: Used a squatter on a movie train. Wearing a surgical mask was necessary. A small part of me wants to push the two girls next to me off the moving train. They seem to think that they can sit partly in my seat.
4:20pm: The girl standing in the aisle is wearing a shirt that says, "Barack Obamd: skyline Friendly organizations in Peace." Ladies and Gentlemen, meet our new president, Barack Obamd.
4:21pm: Someone is playing a recorder.
4:22pm: What's that old torture device called where they tie each of your limbs to a different horse and then all four run in a different direction? Something and quartered. Drawn and quartered. I'm not entirely convinced that it would be inhumane to draw and quarter the inventor of the QQ instant message noise or the man currently playing music on a loudspeaker in the car of my train. I want to go boil water for my instant noodles. Not sure what will happen to my seat if I move. Still holding out on using electronics. Will need them for the last leg of the journey. Even earplugs won't drown out the sound of the girl next to me eating a meat stick.
5:40pm: Still playing music on his loudspeaker, except now there is singing. Including the girls next to me. It sounds like some sort of nationalistic war fight song recorded over the music for Celine Dion's song for The Titanic.
5:45pm: There is a man across from Lauren who has consumed an entire grocery bag full of pre-packaged chicken feet. He's currently passed out on the table. I don't know how he can eat all of that and not die.
6:30pm: The two standers have left, FINALLY, leaving me with only one other person on my two-person bench. Great success!
6:50pm: The train has cleared! There are now only about 10-20 standers. We are less oxygen-deprived now. Dinner time!
2:40am: I've surprisingly been sleeping on and off since roughly 8:30pm. I must sleep in two hour shifts. Have to stand up and walk around because my butt, back, and spine hurt so bad. Someone behind me is gnawing on a full melon. The only way sleep is possible is in my wolf hat and earplugs. I feel homeless.
5:30am: Everyone around me is eating instant noodle bowls for breakfast.
5:50am: The music has started again. The concept of courtesy doesn't exist here.
8:00am: Woke up. Starving. Nothing edible on this train. All I have left is a noodle bowl. My body is anti-sodium right now. I need water. Where is the annoying water cart man who came around every hour on the hour except when I need him?
8:10am: Surprised at how well I maintained my sanity on this train. Just a little under two hours left and I haven't used any electronics, despite bringing my laptop, iPad, and iPod. Lauren and I started shutting the door on the chain smokers. It really doesn't help much. I want to take my prednisone, but I need food. People took pictures of me sleeping. And eating. And blowing my nose.
9:05am: Arrival in Harbin!! 40 minutes early.
AND, here are the pictures: http://meredithinchina.shutterfly.com/pictures/573
 |
| The red circle is where Harbin is in the country. |
Because of their mixed history with foreign influence, we had some unsettling encounters with some of the people who lived in Harbin. Overall, I'd say there weren't really very friendly to us.
Aaron's student David is from Harbin and was our tour guide through the city. David is one of the kindest people I've ever met. He sacrificed the first four days of his own holiday break to show us around his city and make sure that we were comfortable and able to see everything we wanted to before we had to leave. It was great to have him around, and he was able to explain some things to us about why people weren't very nice. Apparently, Harbin has a pretty bad history with Russia that they're not forgetting anytime soon. David explained to us that, if we were white in Harbin, they pretty much assumed that we were Russian. Although, the few times where people realized we were American, there wasn't really a difference in the way we were treated, either.
Anyhow, despite this, our trip to Harbin was AMAZING. The city is absolutely beautiful and the snow and ice sculptures are unbelievable. The crazy arctic temperatures were definitely worth everything that I was able to see in the city.
As I mentioned at the beginning, the trip started with a 22 hour train ride from Shijiazhuang to Harbin. Since it was the beginning of the holiday break, traveling in China was difficult. China doesn't exactly do planning ahead, and you can only buy train tickets 10 days in advance. We bought our tickets the day after they went on sale, and by that time, there already weren't any sleepers available. We really, really wanted to go to Harbin, so we decided that taking an overnight train on just a seat was a truly Chinese experience, and we were going to just do it. They only had bench seats available, which means that there are no arm rests or anything in between the seats. Just a padded bench that you sit on with the other people in your row.
Another thing about Chinese trains, especially T and K trains, is that there is the option available to buy "standing" tickets. However, there isn't always a special compartment for those standers. No, no. They just take their huge bags and stand in the aisle, around the bathroom, on the counter by the sink, or anywhere else they can find a place - including your seat if you get up to use the restroom.
To fully grasp what was going through my mind on this train ride, I made a journal that I tried to update as much as possible with whatever sane or insane thoughts that were going through my brain at the time.
22 Hours on the Train Ride From Hell
11:30am: I've been on this train for all of 10 minutes and already feel like I've lost my sanity. On my side of the train, there are a bunch of college students heading home to who knows where. They are also apparently opposed to actually purchasing train tickets. When I arrived at the train, the man checking tickets actually held the crowd back for the four of us (Iraise, Lauren, Emily, and myself) while mumbling something about Harbin and mei guo ren (Americans). I don't know exactly what he was saying, but I imagine it was something that involved lots of pity and surprise. "These poor American girls have no idea what they're in for. Harbin? Oh, no." I understood once I arrived at my seat and there were three girls already shoved on the two-person bench seat that was supposed to be seating me and one other person. In a haze of disbelief that this was really my life, I weakly held my ticket out and pointed to the 113 on my ticket. My. Seat. Instead of getting up, as that would be far too logical, one girl climbed into the other girl's lap, while the third stood at the end of the table, effectively blocking my leg room. I would like to add that my train car has 118 seats and a capacity of 118 people. There are, additionally, roughly 50-60 people standing in the aisle with their luggage. These girls and the two people across from me had already covered the table with their crap - mostly candy, sunflower seeds that they will eventually spit on the floor, and an odd assortment of fluffy winter gear with cartoon characters on it. Add to this that I probably have bronchitis and need to eat something so I can take the prednisone Iraise got me from a Chinese hospital last night, and I am not a happy camper. I grumbled something about, "I paid for this seat, and I WILL USE IT." while i kicked the girl out of my way and edged my backpack and bag of food under the table, my legs on either side of it. I used this same tactic to get the writing space on the table I'm currently using, except elbows were involved.
11:45am: The girls next to me were just trying to take my picture. They are already roughly six inches from my face. China.
12:00pm: Took the first dose of my sketchily-obtained medicine. Immediately after, a group of men began smoking between the cars, about five feet away from me, and directly under the "No Smoking" sign. No one else seems to care. I can feel my lungs crying.
12:30pm: The girl in front of me seems to feel as though her status as a stander entitles her to my leg room. I've settled for instead resting my feet directly on top of hers. If she won't give me the foot room in front of my seat, she can be my footrest. I also caused a commotion when a stander behind me decided to loop her arm around the top of my seat, blocking me from being able to use my own head rest. I patted her arm, said excuse me, and then lifted it off of my seat. My. Seat. You are not my problem.
1:20pm: Currently being squeezed out of my seat as the two girls in the ONE seat next to me try (and fail) to sleep sitting on laps. I am pressing as much of my weight as possible against them just to get a corner of the table. I hope they find it annoying. I am not tired. I am also not ready to use up the battery life of my electronics. I will continue this game.
1:30pm: As they are college students and know a few words of English, I have resorted to adding grunts of "rude", "move", or "are you serious?" with my elbow jabs. Again, not my problem that you didn't buy a seat.
2:00pm: The girl across the table from me is now playing music out loud on her phone. I have resorted to earplugs.
2:45pm: First attempt at a nap = epic failure. Now, the girl next to me started playing what is quite possibly the worst song in the world, on blast, from her cell phone, right next to my ear. Trying to decide on an equally annoying and obnoxious activity that I can engage in; strongly considering playing "Big Pimpin" out loud on my iPad. I think one of them can possibly read my mind, she got them to stop right before I reached my breaking point. That, or she understands the word fuck.
3:00pm: Prednisone is working. This is the best my lungs have felt since early November.
4:00pm: I don't think anyone in China knows how to chew with their mouth closed.
4:05pm: This train is staging a competition for who can be the most obnoxious individual. That's the only explanation that makes sense.
4:15pm: Used a squatter on a movie train. Wearing a surgical mask was necessary. A small part of me wants to push the two girls next to me off the moving train. They seem to think that they can sit partly in my seat.
4:20pm: The girl standing in the aisle is wearing a shirt that says, "Barack Obamd: skyline Friendly organizations in Peace." Ladies and Gentlemen, meet our new president, Barack Obamd.
4:21pm: Someone is playing a recorder.
4:22pm: What's that old torture device called where they tie each of your limbs to a different horse and then all four run in a different direction? Something and quartered. Drawn and quartered. I'm not entirely convinced that it would be inhumane to draw and quarter the inventor of the QQ instant message noise or the man currently playing music on a loudspeaker in the car of my train. I want to go boil water for my instant noodles. Not sure what will happen to my seat if I move. Still holding out on using electronics. Will need them for the last leg of the journey. Even earplugs won't drown out the sound of the girl next to me eating a meat stick.
5:40pm: Still playing music on his loudspeaker, except now there is singing. Including the girls next to me. It sounds like some sort of nationalistic war fight song recorded over the music for Celine Dion's song for The Titanic.
5:45pm: There is a man across from Lauren who has consumed an entire grocery bag full of pre-packaged chicken feet. He's currently passed out on the table. I don't know how he can eat all of that and not die.
6:30pm: The two standers have left, FINALLY, leaving me with only one other person on my two-person bench. Great success!
6:50pm: The train has cleared! There are now only about 10-20 standers. We are less oxygen-deprived now. Dinner time!
2:40am: I've surprisingly been sleeping on and off since roughly 8:30pm. I must sleep in two hour shifts. Have to stand up and walk around because my butt, back, and spine hurt so bad. Someone behind me is gnawing on a full melon. The only way sleep is possible is in my wolf hat and earplugs. I feel homeless.
5:30am: Everyone around me is eating instant noodle bowls for breakfast.
5:50am: The music has started again. The concept of courtesy doesn't exist here.
8:00am: Woke up. Starving. Nothing edible on this train. All I have left is a noodle bowl. My body is anti-sodium right now. I need water. Where is the annoying water cart man who came around every hour on the hour except when I need him?
8:10am: Surprised at how well I maintained my sanity on this train. Just a little under two hours left and I haven't used any electronics, despite bringing my laptop, iPad, and iPod. Lauren and I started shutting the door on the chain smokers. It really doesn't help much. I want to take my prednisone, but I need food. People took pictures of me sleeping. And eating. And blowing my nose.
9:05am: Arrival in Harbin!! 40 minutes early.
AND, here are the pictures: http://meredithinchina.shutterfly.com/pictures/573
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Christmas in China
Finally, the posts about the holidays can begin!
Christmas and the Christmas season were pretty hard for me to spend away from friends and family. Being surrounded by it my whole life, I didn't realize how much I missed things like hearing Christmas music around town or seeing Christmas decorations out in stores.
The whole month of December was really difficult to spend away from family, and I tried to ration my Facebook time so I wasn't constantly bombarded by people posting about wrapping gifts or drinking Starbucks Christmas specials. I hit a low point when I obsessively downloaded Christmas music and made my kids listen to it at the end of class with me. But, hey, I'll own it. (They hated it, by the way.)
It was especially hard to see everyone posting about finishing finals and going home for the holidays when we still had three weeks of teaching to go until our break. I didn't realize how wired my brain was to be "done" when the semester was done. We were pretty burnt out at the end of the semester. It didn't help that Mr. Dong initially wasn't going to give us the day after Christmas off, but expected us to perform in a city-wide banquet for the school.
The "performance" started this way: First, Mr. Dong told us that the school wanted to invite us to a Christmas celebration banquet. Of course, we said we would love to go. Then, the next week, he told us that we would be doing a "small performance". We still were under the assumption that this was just a banquet that the school was putting on for us. We were a little put out that they basically just wanted us to put on a show for them, but whatever. We figured we'd just throw together a little song and dance a few days before and we'd be fine. Two weeks passed and no one mentioned it to us. Then, we're informed that it would be a banquet for the whole city, and all of the foreign teachers would be there and would be performing. A few days later, we were harassed by Miss Li, who asked us to come practice our performance in one of the auditoriums. We found the American students there, who had been taken out of their Chinese language classes to learn a dance to perform at the banquet.
I ended up not going to the banquet and performance because Russell was in town. I didn't want to leave him alone, and Mr. Dong didn't get him a ticket. At the banquet, the American and Thai students were forced to come and perform, but not allowed to stay and eat at the banquet. The teachers had to do their song and dance to "Jingle Bell Rock" twice because Miss Li decided that the first time wasn't adequate.
Russell and I had to go to a dinner with Mr. Fu and Iraise's parents and cousin. Mr. Fu made that dinner probably the most awkward experience of my life.
---
Russell got to China on December 19th, which was perfect timing. I don't think I would have made it through the holidays without a guest here to keep my mind off of being away from my family. Although I'm 23, this is by far the longest I've gone without seeing any member of my family - extended family and cousins included. I know that I've always taken my close-knit family for granted, but it really took moving to China to realize the work that my parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents put into keeping us together. It's hard for me to imagine a life without having all of them around me, and I will continue to Facebook stalk all members of my family until I return home. (Sorry I'm not sorry, guys.)
The day that Russell got to Beijing was a Monday. I took a personal day and booked myself a train ticket to the city in the morning and two tickets on a later train back for us. The plan was for us to be back teaching on Tuesday morning since his plane got in at 4. However, Russell's plane ended up being delayed until 8pm, which was about 5 minutes before our train was supposed to leave.
After numerous frantic phone calls and text messages to Mr. Dong, in addition to both Emily and Lauren asking him to pick up his phone or call me back, I realized that he was in no way going to assist me. Thankfully, I had the phone number to the Happy Dragon Hostel, which has been my saving grace in this country. I have never encountered anyone so helpful and friendly anywhere in my life. They were able to immediately book me a room and return tickets for the following day.
We stayed in Beijing for the night and left for Shijiazhuang that afternoon, after spending the earlier part of the day exploring Tian'anmen Square, the National Museum, and my favorite bouza restaurant nearby. Russell got a wonderful tutorial on how to use chopsticks from the owner of the restaurant, which was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. His skill did improve greatly over the next two and a half weeks, though.
After fighting through the usual crowd to take the train, the first thing he said upon his arrival in Shijiazhuang was, "Oh my God, it smells terrible here." It was a particularly smelly night, but I thought it was an adequate introduction to my life in China.
He spent the rest of that week and the following week attending classes with me. My only lesson plan for most of that time was, "Ask the American some questions!!" We had practiced forming questions the week before and I was really excited to hear the hilarious things they came up with. I had been warning them for a few weeks that I was going to have a guest, because I knew they would go crazy as soon as he walked in the classroom. We had also discussed questions that were not appropriate to ask someone you just met, but that was a lesson that did not sink in.
Here are some gems of things that Russell was asked/told:
- Sir, why are you so tall? Will I grow to be tall like you?
- How big are your feet? (It took us a full ten minutes to calm the class down after he took off a shoe and held it up for size.)
- Why do you have a beard? (They were obsessed with the fact that he had facial hair. They even created a sign where they hold their hands up under their chin to signify a beard.)
- Do you like the Japanese?
- Did you bring your gun to China? Do you own a gun in America?
- Give me five dollars.
- I will give you seven yuan for one dollar.
And my favorite:
- Do you think you are handsome? I think you are handsome. That means you are a Jew.
I clearly failed at remembering the other funny things they said. Sorry.
After spending Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the Shiz, we headed back to Beijing on Friday night to spend the weekend in Beijing. Mr. Dong had finally agreed to let us have Monday off since it was the day after Christmas.
We stayed at the Happy Dragon Courtyard, which is the sister hostel of the Happy Dragon. I'd definitely recommend both of them, because the staff is amazing. The Courtyard was just a little too cold for the winter, since the rooms are set up around a courtyard, so directly against the wind and cold. In the spring or summer, though, I'm sure it would be beautiful.
Anyway, we ended up booking a tour through Happy Dragon instead of having to deal with the subway, buses, and gypsy cabs. When we got up in the morning and boarded the bus, we were actually on the same tour as Byron, Emily, Tyler, and Tyler's family.
Once we got to the wall, we both decided immediately that we would take the toboggans down the Great Wall. There really was no other way to do it. As soon as we got the go-ahead from our tour guide to head out, we booked it to the ski lift to head up.
We went to the same part of the wall I'd been to previously, Mutianyu, because it's beautiful, and supposed to not have as many tours as some of the other parts. We headed to the right once we got up to the wall. That section has a shorter part that's open for tourists, but the unrestored part continues out pretty far.
We walked the part that was open to tourists pretty quickly, even with lots of stops for pictures. Since we got there so early, and because it was December, there were only about five other people with us on that section of the wall. It seemed like everyone else on our tour decided to go to the left. Better for us! Of course, we decided to keep walking to the unrestored part of the wall, and made it to the first guard tower. There was a man there from Germany taking pictures to enter in a contest and two girls from Russia there. We all took turns taking pictures for each other. Then the guy took some pictures of Russell looking out over the mountains, when he wasn't looking. Who knows, maybe he'll end up in some sort of photo contest. Haha.
After stopping there, we kept going to the next guard tower, which was the last part I made it to with Lauren, Emily, Matt, and Dan. We were the only people out on that part of the wall, which was really awesome. I also found all of the places where we had written our names on the wall from the first time we climbed it.
We could have kept hiking to the next tower, but decided to head back since we wanted to make sure we made it back in time to make it to the group lunch. And, of course, we had to take the toboggans down! Unfortunately, we got stuck behind a girl who was scared and went super slow. We kept stopping on the corners to let her get a head start so we could zoom ahead for awhile. Once we got to the bottom, we got Russell his awesome fuzzy Mao hat and I bought my big furry hat.
After lunch, we headed back to the hostel. We had enough time to get ready and then headed out to a Kung-Fu show tour. There was popcorn and Diet Coke at the theater, so I was quite happy with finding those things on Christmas Eve. The show itself was alright. It started off pretty slow, but at the end they broke stuff over their heads, so that was pretty cool.
We spent Christmas walking through the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was huge, and really cool. I'm glad we went, but it was kind of like Tian'anmen Square for me. I'd heard all this hype about it, but I wasn't as impressed as I thought I was going to be. Of course, I'm still really glad I went and it was absolutely beautiful. After the Forbidden City, we had a few hours to kill, so we saw on the subway map that there was a military museum in town. We decided to check it out and see what it was like since the National Museum had been such an interesting experience. (For those who haven't been, the National Museum completely leaves out the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Oh, and China is a "democracy with Chinese characteristics".) We were not disappointed with the military museum. Most of it was under construction, so there was only one floor open at the time, but it was the floor that was dedicated to the Japanese occupation - which wasn't surprising. We ended up spending a few hours there reading the descriptions of the displays. We stayed until closing before we headed back to the hostel.
We decided that our Christmas dinner was going to be Peking Duck, since we were in Beijing. I hadn't had the famous specialty yet, so I was pretty excited. We looked up a few restaurants online and then went to ask the front desk what their recommendation was. We got directions from the girl working for what subway stops to take, but when we got there, we realized that we had no idea where she was attempting to direct us. After spending about a half hour wandering up and down the street with no luck, we just decided to go into the nicest looking place on the street. It was definitely Christmas luck, because it was probably the most delicious meal I've had since getting to China. We ordered a duck and a side dish, and they came and cut up the duck at our table. Between the two of us, we finished off the entire duck. It was beyond delicious.
The last thing we did for Christmas was head to Wangfujing Street to eat some crazy things from the street vendors. I knew this was the one place in Beijing that I needed to take Russell before he left. At our first stop, we got a skewer of scorpions, a skewer of seahorses, a skewer of snake, and a starfish. The guy tried to rip me off and charge me 100 kuai. False. I bargained him down. We bought some water from another vendor and stood in the alleyway to try our crazy purchases. I was the first one to go, since I had finally mustered up the courage to do what I said I wanted to do in China - eat a scorpion. I was prepared with the scorpions in one hand and an open bottle of water in the other. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised. They were delicious. I think most of it was the seasoning they were in. I've had bugs before - locusts and grasshoppers - and they have about the same crunchy consistency. Next, we tried the snake. We both agreed that it was delicious as well. It just tasted like regular meat, with the really good seasoning. The seahorses and starfish were another story completely. They were awful. They just tasted really nasty and fishy. We polished off two bottles of water trying to get the taste out of our mouths. Then, we continued on. The next things we bought were silkworms, locusts, and sparrows. The street was closing then, so we got two more waters and walked down to the main road to eat the last of our crazy foods. The silkworms were the first we tried. They were pretty bad. They were really mushy and a very odd consistency. The grand finale was the sparrows. We were standing by a trash can getting ready to eat them when this lady and her daughter came up to ask us for money. They weren't beggars though; they had shopping bags with them. We ignored them and I took the first bite of the sparrow. I don't know what I was thinking when I did it, but I just bit the head off. Yes, just the head. The brains immediately exploded into my mouth and I couldn't handle it. I spat it out on the ground as fast as I could and started chugging water while I shoved the stick of sparrows at Russell. I don't think I can express in words how disgusting that experience was for me. The lady was still watching when Russell, being a champ, still tried the sparrow after my terrible experience. Unfortunately for him, a bone got stuck in the back of his throat and he choked on what he had eaten and had to spit it out. The lady and her daughter were still there. After watching the whole thing, I decided to just give them the sparrow and locusts, since that was clearly what they were after...and we were clearly done for the night.
The next day was our last day in Beijing and we had a late train booked back to Shijiazhuang. We spent the day walking through the Temple of Heaven and we went to the Olympic Park before heading back.
When we got back to school, we taught Tuesday through Saturday morning, since Saturday was New Years Eve. Then, we had Monday and Tuesday off for the holiday. Since Russell was leaving on Wednesday, we decided to go to Xi'an for the weekend to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. We took an overnight soft sleeper train to Xi'an on the night of New Years Eve. That kind of sucked, but it was worth it to get to Xi'an.
Our train itself was perfectly fine. We had soft sleepers, so we were in a cabin with two other people - four bunks total. The two roommates just slept the whole time. We stayed up long enough to see the New Year before trying to get some sleep. The cabin was HOT, though. At least 80 degrees or hotter. It was pretty uncomfortable, but we got some sleep. We got into Xi'an around 9am and headed to the hostel. The hostel was pretty nice. Our room was like a hotel room, and they came in and cleaned it for us. We booked a tour to see the warriors the next day, got a map of the city from the front desk, and went exploring.
Xi'an is amazing. It's so beautiful. It's either the only city or one of the only cities in China that still has most of its city wall left standing, and it's super easy to get around just walking. We walked all over the city that day. We saw the Bell Tower and Drum Tower, and walked through the Muslim Quarter. We did some shopping and then headed to the old mosque that's still left in the city. It was really pretty to walk through. After that, we did a little more looking around in the shops and walked around the city.
We also stopped at one of the hilarious costume shops that they have set up everywhere around China. For only $5 we could dress up in these elaborate "emperor" costumes and get our picture taken. Of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity. Russell wore a hilarious gold emperor outfit that was way too short on him, and shoes that they had to leave unzipped in the back because his feet were too big. I had to wear a dress and this huge, elaborate headdress. We had to sit on this throne and do about five or six poses before we chose the picture we wanted. It was awesome.
The next morning we got up really early to meet our tour to the warriors. We had the most hilarious tour guide. Her name was Zha Zha and she was obsessed with British boys, as she told us. Luckily for her, there were two British boys on our trip, and she followed one of them, Chris, everywhere. We always knew where she was because we could hear her yelling, "Chris! Chris! Where are you?! Chris!!" At the end of the tour she bought him a small replica set of the Terra Cotta Warriors to remember her by.
The warriors were really neat to see. We walked through three different "pits" where they were discovered. The story of how they were found was really interesting. It was pure luck that the first warrior found was the only one that has been found fully intact.
After the tour, we had lunch nearby. We were with a family from America, Chris, an Italian guy, and a family of two Italian women and a younger girl. I think Russell and I were the only ones who didn't complain about the meal. The Italian women used the tea to re-clean all of their dishes and chopsticks by pouring the boiling water over them. I just sat and drank my cup of tea while I watched everyone else at our table trying to sterilize their utensils with hot water.
When we got back to the city, we went to the city wall. You could go up on the wall and walk around the entire city. We only had a few hours before it closed for the night, but we walked along the entire North and West portions before heading out. After walking around the city, we walked back through the Muslim Quarter because one of my head teachers had told us that they had some of the best lamb dishes in the city. We walked and tried a bunch of different skewers and things from the street vendors before heading back for the night. We flew back to Beijing the next day.
It was really hard to say goodbye to him, knowing that I still had another five months left for my time in China. But I'm really thankful that Russell came to China during the holidays, because I probably would have had a complete emotional breakdown if I didn't have someone here to keep my mind off of missing my family.
I got to Skype with both sides of the family when they were together for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but it was really hard to see everyone together while I wasn't there. It was really hard not to cry when I was talking to everyone because I miss them all so much. I can't believe how incredibly lucky I've been my whole life to have so many important people so close to me all of the time. It made me realize how much I can't wait to get home and see them. I miss being able to just stop by my grandparents house to just sit and talk. I miss a lot of things about being home, and I never thought that I would say that I miss Iowa this much.
Congratulations! You made it all the way through. Now here are some pictures: http://meredithinchina.shutterfly.com/
(Note: I haven't had time or an adequate internet connection to actually update the website. But at least the pictures are there.)
Christmas and the Christmas season were pretty hard for me to spend away from friends and family. Being surrounded by it my whole life, I didn't realize how much I missed things like hearing Christmas music around town or seeing Christmas decorations out in stores.
The whole month of December was really difficult to spend away from family, and I tried to ration my Facebook time so I wasn't constantly bombarded by people posting about wrapping gifts or drinking Starbucks Christmas specials. I hit a low point when I obsessively downloaded Christmas music and made my kids listen to it at the end of class with me. But, hey, I'll own it. (They hated it, by the way.)
It was especially hard to see everyone posting about finishing finals and going home for the holidays when we still had three weeks of teaching to go until our break. I didn't realize how wired my brain was to be "done" when the semester was done. We were pretty burnt out at the end of the semester. It didn't help that Mr. Dong initially wasn't going to give us the day after Christmas off, but expected us to perform in a city-wide banquet for the school.
The "performance" started this way: First, Mr. Dong told us that the school wanted to invite us to a Christmas celebration banquet. Of course, we said we would love to go. Then, the next week, he told us that we would be doing a "small performance". We still were under the assumption that this was just a banquet that the school was putting on for us. We were a little put out that they basically just wanted us to put on a show for them, but whatever. We figured we'd just throw together a little song and dance a few days before and we'd be fine. Two weeks passed and no one mentioned it to us. Then, we're informed that it would be a banquet for the whole city, and all of the foreign teachers would be there and would be performing. A few days later, we were harassed by Miss Li, who asked us to come practice our performance in one of the auditoriums. We found the American students there, who had been taken out of their Chinese language classes to learn a dance to perform at the banquet.
I ended up not going to the banquet and performance because Russell was in town. I didn't want to leave him alone, and Mr. Dong didn't get him a ticket. At the banquet, the American and Thai students were forced to come and perform, but not allowed to stay and eat at the banquet. The teachers had to do their song and dance to "Jingle Bell Rock" twice because Miss Li decided that the first time wasn't adequate.
Russell and I had to go to a dinner with Mr. Fu and Iraise's parents and cousin. Mr. Fu made that dinner probably the most awkward experience of my life.
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Russell got to China on December 19th, which was perfect timing. I don't think I would have made it through the holidays without a guest here to keep my mind off of being away from my family. Although I'm 23, this is by far the longest I've gone without seeing any member of my family - extended family and cousins included. I know that I've always taken my close-knit family for granted, but it really took moving to China to realize the work that my parents, aunts and uncles, and grandparents put into keeping us together. It's hard for me to imagine a life without having all of them around me, and I will continue to Facebook stalk all members of my family until I return home. (Sorry I'm not sorry, guys.)
The day that Russell got to Beijing was a Monday. I took a personal day and booked myself a train ticket to the city in the morning and two tickets on a later train back for us. The plan was for us to be back teaching on Tuesday morning since his plane got in at 4. However, Russell's plane ended up being delayed until 8pm, which was about 5 minutes before our train was supposed to leave.
After numerous frantic phone calls and text messages to Mr. Dong, in addition to both Emily and Lauren asking him to pick up his phone or call me back, I realized that he was in no way going to assist me. Thankfully, I had the phone number to the Happy Dragon Hostel, which has been my saving grace in this country. I have never encountered anyone so helpful and friendly anywhere in my life. They were able to immediately book me a room and return tickets for the following day.
We stayed in Beijing for the night and left for Shijiazhuang that afternoon, after spending the earlier part of the day exploring Tian'anmen Square, the National Museum, and my favorite bouza restaurant nearby. Russell got a wonderful tutorial on how to use chopsticks from the owner of the restaurant, which was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. His skill did improve greatly over the next two and a half weeks, though.
After fighting through the usual crowd to take the train, the first thing he said upon his arrival in Shijiazhuang was, "Oh my God, it smells terrible here." It was a particularly smelly night, but I thought it was an adequate introduction to my life in China.
He spent the rest of that week and the following week attending classes with me. My only lesson plan for most of that time was, "Ask the American some questions!!" We had practiced forming questions the week before and I was really excited to hear the hilarious things they came up with. I had been warning them for a few weeks that I was going to have a guest, because I knew they would go crazy as soon as he walked in the classroom. We had also discussed questions that were not appropriate to ask someone you just met, but that was a lesson that did not sink in.
Here are some gems of things that Russell was asked/told:
- Sir, why are you so tall? Will I grow to be tall like you?
- How big are your feet? (It took us a full ten minutes to calm the class down after he took off a shoe and held it up for size.)
- Why do you have a beard? (They were obsessed with the fact that he had facial hair. They even created a sign where they hold their hands up under their chin to signify a beard.)
- Do you like the Japanese?
- Did you bring your gun to China? Do you own a gun in America?
- Give me five dollars.
- I will give you seven yuan for one dollar.
And my favorite:
- Do you think you are handsome? I think you are handsome. That means you are a Jew.
I clearly failed at remembering the other funny things they said. Sorry.
After spending Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in the Shiz, we headed back to Beijing on Friday night to spend the weekend in Beijing. Mr. Dong had finally agreed to let us have Monday off since it was the day after Christmas.
We stayed at the Happy Dragon Courtyard, which is the sister hostel of the Happy Dragon. I'd definitely recommend both of them, because the staff is amazing. The Courtyard was just a little too cold for the winter, since the rooms are set up around a courtyard, so directly against the wind and cold. In the spring or summer, though, I'm sure it would be beautiful.
Anyway, we ended up booking a tour through Happy Dragon instead of having to deal with the subway, buses, and gypsy cabs. When we got up in the morning and boarded the bus, we were actually on the same tour as Byron, Emily, Tyler, and Tyler's family.
Once we got to the wall, we both decided immediately that we would take the toboggans down the Great Wall. There really was no other way to do it. As soon as we got the go-ahead from our tour guide to head out, we booked it to the ski lift to head up.
We went to the same part of the wall I'd been to previously, Mutianyu, because it's beautiful, and supposed to not have as many tours as some of the other parts. We headed to the right once we got up to the wall. That section has a shorter part that's open for tourists, but the unrestored part continues out pretty far.
We walked the part that was open to tourists pretty quickly, even with lots of stops for pictures. Since we got there so early, and because it was December, there were only about five other people with us on that section of the wall. It seemed like everyone else on our tour decided to go to the left. Better for us! Of course, we decided to keep walking to the unrestored part of the wall, and made it to the first guard tower. There was a man there from Germany taking pictures to enter in a contest and two girls from Russia there. We all took turns taking pictures for each other. Then the guy took some pictures of Russell looking out over the mountains, when he wasn't looking. Who knows, maybe he'll end up in some sort of photo contest. Haha.
After stopping there, we kept going to the next guard tower, which was the last part I made it to with Lauren, Emily, Matt, and Dan. We were the only people out on that part of the wall, which was really awesome. I also found all of the places where we had written our names on the wall from the first time we climbed it.
We could have kept hiking to the next tower, but decided to head back since we wanted to make sure we made it back in time to make it to the group lunch. And, of course, we had to take the toboggans down! Unfortunately, we got stuck behind a girl who was scared and went super slow. We kept stopping on the corners to let her get a head start so we could zoom ahead for awhile. Once we got to the bottom, we got Russell his awesome fuzzy Mao hat and I bought my big furry hat.
After lunch, we headed back to the hostel. We had enough time to get ready and then headed out to a Kung-Fu show tour. There was popcorn and Diet Coke at the theater, so I was quite happy with finding those things on Christmas Eve. The show itself was alright. It started off pretty slow, but at the end they broke stuff over their heads, so that was pretty cool.
We spent Christmas walking through the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was huge, and really cool. I'm glad we went, but it was kind of like Tian'anmen Square for me. I'd heard all this hype about it, but I wasn't as impressed as I thought I was going to be. Of course, I'm still really glad I went and it was absolutely beautiful. After the Forbidden City, we had a few hours to kill, so we saw on the subway map that there was a military museum in town. We decided to check it out and see what it was like since the National Museum had been such an interesting experience. (For those who haven't been, the National Museum completely leaves out the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Oh, and China is a "democracy with Chinese characteristics".) We were not disappointed with the military museum. Most of it was under construction, so there was only one floor open at the time, but it was the floor that was dedicated to the Japanese occupation - which wasn't surprising. We ended up spending a few hours there reading the descriptions of the displays. We stayed until closing before we headed back to the hostel.
We decided that our Christmas dinner was going to be Peking Duck, since we were in Beijing. I hadn't had the famous specialty yet, so I was pretty excited. We looked up a few restaurants online and then went to ask the front desk what their recommendation was. We got directions from the girl working for what subway stops to take, but when we got there, we realized that we had no idea where she was attempting to direct us. After spending about a half hour wandering up and down the street with no luck, we just decided to go into the nicest looking place on the street. It was definitely Christmas luck, because it was probably the most delicious meal I've had since getting to China. We ordered a duck and a side dish, and they came and cut up the duck at our table. Between the two of us, we finished off the entire duck. It was beyond delicious.
The last thing we did for Christmas was head to Wangfujing Street to eat some crazy things from the street vendors. I knew this was the one place in Beijing that I needed to take Russell before he left. At our first stop, we got a skewer of scorpions, a skewer of seahorses, a skewer of snake, and a starfish. The guy tried to rip me off and charge me 100 kuai. False. I bargained him down. We bought some water from another vendor and stood in the alleyway to try our crazy purchases. I was the first one to go, since I had finally mustered up the courage to do what I said I wanted to do in China - eat a scorpion. I was prepared with the scorpions in one hand and an open bottle of water in the other. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised. They were delicious. I think most of it was the seasoning they were in. I've had bugs before - locusts and grasshoppers - and they have about the same crunchy consistency. Next, we tried the snake. We both agreed that it was delicious as well. It just tasted like regular meat, with the really good seasoning. The seahorses and starfish were another story completely. They were awful. They just tasted really nasty and fishy. We polished off two bottles of water trying to get the taste out of our mouths. Then, we continued on. The next things we bought were silkworms, locusts, and sparrows. The street was closing then, so we got two more waters and walked down to the main road to eat the last of our crazy foods. The silkworms were the first we tried. They were pretty bad. They were really mushy and a very odd consistency. The grand finale was the sparrows. We were standing by a trash can getting ready to eat them when this lady and her daughter came up to ask us for money. They weren't beggars though; they had shopping bags with them. We ignored them and I took the first bite of the sparrow. I don't know what I was thinking when I did it, but I just bit the head off. Yes, just the head. The brains immediately exploded into my mouth and I couldn't handle it. I spat it out on the ground as fast as I could and started chugging water while I shoved the stick of sparrows at Russell. I don't think I can express in words how disgusting that experience was for me. The lady was still watching when Russell, being a champ, still tried the sparrow after my terrible experience. Unfortunately for him, a bone got stuck in the back of his throat and he choked on what he had eaten and had to spit it out. The lady and her daughter were still there. After watching the whole thing, I decided to just give them the sparrow and locusts, since that was clearly what they were after...and we were clearly done for the night.
The next day was our last day in Beijing and we had a late train booked back to Shijiazhuang. We spent the day walking through the Temple of Heaven and we went to the Olympic Park before heading back.
When we got back to school, we taught Tuesday through Saturday morning, since Saturday was New Years Eve. Then, we had Monday and Tuesday off for the holiday. Since Russell was leaving on Wednesday, we decided to go to Xi'an for the weekend to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. We took an overnight soft sleeper train to Xi'an on the night of New Years Eve. That kind of sucked, but it was worth it to get to Xi'an.
Our train itself was perfectly fine. We had soft sleepers, so we were in a cabin with two other people - four bunks total. The two roommates just slept the whole time. We stayed up long enough to see the New Year before trying to get some sleep. The cabin was HOT, though. At least 80 degrees or hotter. It was pretty uncomfortable, but we got some sleep. We got into Xi'an around 9am and headed to the hostel. The hostel was pretty nice. Our room was like a hotel room, and they came in and cleaned it for us. We booked a tour to see the warriors the next day, got a map of the city from the front desk, and went exploring.
Xi'an is amazing. It's so beautiful. It's either the only city or one of the only cities in China that still has most of its city wall left standing, and it's super easy to get around just walking. We walked all over the city that day. We saw the Bell Tower and Drum Tower, and walked through the Muslim Quarter. We did some shopping and then headed to the old mosque that's still left in the city. It was really pretty to walk through. After that, we did a little more looking around in the shops and walked around the city.
We also stopped at one of the hilarious costume shops that they have set up everywhere around China. For only $5 we could dress up in these elaborate "emperor" costumes and get our picture taken. Of course, we couldn't pass up the opportunity. Russell wore a hilarious gold emperor outfit that was way too short on him, and shoes that they had to leave unzipped in the back because his feet were too big. I had to wear a dress and this huge, elaborate headdress. We had to sit on this throne and do about five or six poses before we chose the picture we wanted. It was awesome.
The next morning we got up really early to meet our tour to the warriors. We had the most hilarious tour guide. Her name was Zha Zha and she was obsessed with British boys, as she told us. Luckily for her, there were two British boys on our trip, and she followed one of them, Chris, everywhere. We always knew where she was because we could hear her yelling, "Chris! Chris! Where are you?! Chris!!" At the end of the tour she bought him a small replica set of the Terra Cotta Warriors to remember her by.
The warriors were really neat to see. We walked through three different "pits" where they were discovered. The story of how they were found was really interesting. It was pure luck that the first warrior found was the only one that has been found fully intact.
After the tour, we had lunch nearby. We were with a family from America, Chris, an Italian guy, and a family of two Italian women and a younger girl. I think Russell and I were the only ones who didn't complain about the meal. The Italian women used the tea to re-clean all of their dishes and chopsticks by pouring the boiling water over them. I just sat and drank my cup of tea while I watched everyone else at our table trying to sterilize their utensils with hot water.
When we got back to the city, we went to the city wall. You could go up on the wall and walk around the entire city. We only had a few hours before it closed for the night, but we walked along the entire North and West portions before heading out. After walking around the city, we walked back through the Muslim Quarter because one of my head teachers had told us that they had some of the best lamb dishes in the city. We walked and tried a bunch of different skewers and things from the street vendors before heading back for the night. We flew back to Beijing the next day.
It was really hard to say goodbye to him, knowing that I still had another five months left for my time in China. But I'm really thankful that Russell came to China during the holidays, because I probably would have had a complete emotional breakdown if I didn't have someone here to keep my mind off of missing my family.
I got to Skype with both sides of the family when they were together for Christmas Eve and Christmas, but it was really hard to see everyone together while I wasn't there. It was really hard not to cry when I was talking to everyone because I miss them all so much. I can't believe how incredibly lucky I've been my whole life to have so many important people so close to me all of the time. It made me realize how much I can't wait to get home and see them. I miss being able to just stop by my grandparents house to just sit and talk. I miss a lot of things about being home, and I never thought that I would say that I miss Iowa this much.
Congratulations! You made it all the way through. Now here are some pictures: http://meredithinchina.shutterfly.com/
(Note: I haven't had time or an adequate internet connection to actually update the website. But at least the pictures are there.)
Friday, February 24, 2012
Six Months in China
Sorry to everyone who has been actually reading my blog - I know I haven't posted in a long time. Something happened where my blog got hacked or something and all of the controls were in Chinese...so I couldn't really do anything because I didn't know which link actually said "new post".
Anyhow, here we are, into the second semester of teaching. I've officially been in China for six months. Sometimes it feels as though that time has flown by; other times, it feels like I've already been here for two years.
My blog is also no longer letting me upload pictures for reasons I don't understand. Probably how slow the internet is. I am very, very, very slowly uploading all of my pictures to Shutterfly and when I post about Russell being here, Harbin, and my trip with my parents, I'll include those links.
But right now, I have some other things to talk about. Mainly, how terrifying my building is to live in. Probably not what anyone wants to read about, but I need some sort of outlet to complain. Here we go.
First, we had a fire in December. Russell and I were on the train coming back from Beijing when it happened, so we got there after they put it out. During this time, they were doing a lot of demo on our street, to build what is quite possibly the ugliest wall ever. To do this, they took a bulldozer and rammed it into things until they fell down. This included structures that were attached to the apartment. Ram them until they break off. Instead of immediately removing the rubble surrounding our building, they just piled it up and left it. As this is China, people immediately saw the opportunity to use these piles of old bricks as dumpsters. They left all sorts of things in these piles - trash, old clothes, old appliances, big sheets of plastic. You name it, it was probably there. The men on our street also don't stomp out their cigarettes when they flick them on the ground. They just leave them there to smolder. What we think happened is that there was someone rummaging around in these piles, either to leave trash or to see if he could salvage something out of it, and he flicked his lit cigarette onto the pile. It ignited something, probably the clothes and towels, and it started a fire against our building. Emily, luckily, saw that there were flames against her window and got outside. They quickly found out that, though the school had supplied three fire extinguishers to our building, only one of them worked. The other two were expired. The Thai students (who are about 16 years old) had to stomp out the fire with blankets and their feet while the building monitors stood by and watched. (Note: the laziest person in the world award goes to these women. More on that later.)
During all of this, Mr. Dong had been informed. At no point during this fire did he or any of the THREE building monitors decide that it was a good idea to call the fire department. Afterward, when Lauren told him that we needed new fire extinguishers, he told her, "It was just an incident. It is over now."
Fast forward to now, February. The state of our building is this: still no fire extinguishers. Also, the "auntie" who monitors our building deadbolts us in at night.
This Sunday night, we had all of the electricity go out in our building around 11pm. Naturally, we were terrified, because it was ONLY our building. All the other buildings on the street still had electricity. When we found the building monitor who speaks English and told her she needed to do something about the situation, she informed us that the school had forgotten to pay the electricity bill and it wouldn't be fixed until the next morning. Oh, and did I mention that the breaker box was sending out sparks during this whole conversation? She apparently thought this was completely normal and went back to bed.
We called Mr. Dong and told him what happened, but he said it wouldn't be fixed until the next morning. We told him that we would not be teaching the next morning, as we didn't feel comfortable going to sleep in a building with a breaker box that was shooting out sparks when we didn't have any fire extinguishers. After no response from him, we figured that he was okay with us missing our morning classes.
We were wrong, of course. We got to our meeting on Monday only to be mocked for being concerned about a potential fire and told that we would be counted as absent for our classes - even though he had told our teachers that he was counting it as a sick day for us. What that means is that, if he chooses, he can dock us pay for that class.
He then told us that there was "nothing unusual" about the situation and we shouldn't have been worried.
Right. Absolutely nothing unusual about the school forgetting to pay the electricity bill and a breaker box shooting out sparks. Completely safe.
Then, Thursday, there was some sort of festival. That, of course, meant that people were shooting off fireworks from roughly 7am all through the night, until about 1am. That wouldn't be a problem, except around 11pm, the fireworks were close enough that they started hitting our building. I heard things hitting my bedroom window and wall. I looked out the window to see fiery debris hitting my bedroom window. Add to this that there are tons of frayed electrical wires wrapped around the bars on my window.
We went up to get the auntie and the other building monitors to tell them that they should go outside and tell the men to stop shooting off fireworks so close to our building. They didn't. So we told them that we needed to get new fire extinguishers because it was terribly unsafe.
Their response?
I quote, "No, the school said we do not need fire extinguishers. It is okay. There are policemen around."
Yes. The police and firemen that you DO NOT CALL, EVEN WHEN THERE IS A FIRE.
I have spent pretty much every night this week staying up and watching movies until I'm so exhausted that I can't help but fall asleep. I'm to terrified to go to sleep any other way.
At least the real reason why the school hasn't given us new fire extinguishers over the past two months was finally revealed.
Anyhow, here we are, into the second semester of teaching. I've officially been in China for six months. Sometimes it feels as though that time has flown by; other times, it feels like I've already been here for two years.
My blog is also no longer letting me upload pictures for reasons I don't understand. Probably how slow the internet is. I am very, very, very slowly uploading all of my pictures to Shutterfly and when I post about Russell being here, Harbin, and my trip with my parents, I'll include those links.
But right now, I have some other things to talk about. Mainly, how terrifying my building is to live in. Probably not what anyone wants to read about, but I need some sort of outlet to complain. Here we go.
First, we had a fire in December. Russell and I were on the train coming back from Beijing when it happened, so we got there after they put it out. During this time, they were doing a lot of demo on our street, to build what is quite possibly the ugliest wall ever. To do this, they took a bulldozer and rammed it into things until they fell down. This included structures that were attached to the apartment. Ram them until they break off. Instead of immediately removing the rubble surrounding our building, they just piled it up and left it. As this is China, people immediately saw the opportunity to use these piles of old bricks as dumpsters. They left all sorts of things in these piles - trash, old clothes, old appliances, big sheets of plastic. You name it, it was probably there. The men on our street also don't stomp out their cigarettes when they flick them on the ground. They just leave them there to smolder. What we think happened is that there was someone rummaging around in these piles, either to leave trash or to see if he could salvage something out of it, and he flicked his lit cigarette onto the pile. It ignited something, probably the clothes and towels, and it started a fire against our building. Emily, luckily, saw that there were flames against her window and got outside. They quickly found out that, though the school had supplied three fire extinguishers to our building, only one of them worked. The other two were expired. The Thai students (who are about 16 years old) had to stomp out the fire with blankets and their feet while the building monitors stood by and watched. (Note: the laziest person in the world award goes to these women. More on that later.)
During all of this, Mr. Dong had been informed. At no point during this fire did he or any of the THREE building monitors decide that it was a good idea to call the fire department. Afterward, when Lauren told him that we needed new fire extinguishers, he told her, "It was just an incident. It is over now."
Fast forward to now, February. The state of our building is this: still no fire extinguishers. Also, the "auntie" who monitors our building deadbolts us in at night.
This Sunday night, we had all of the electricity go out in our building around 11pm. Naturally, we were terrified, because it was ONLY our building. All the other buildings on the street still had electricity. When we found the building monitor who speaks English and told her she needed to do something about the situation, she informed us that the school had forgotten to pay the electricity bill and it wouldn't be fixed until the next morning. Oh, and did I mention that the breaker box was sending out sparks during this whole conversation? She apparently thought this was completely normal and went back to bed.
We called Mr. Dong and told him what happened, but he said it wouldn't be fixed until the next morning. We told him that we would not be teaching the next morning, as we didn't feel comfortable going to sleep in a building with a breaker box that was shooting out sparks when we didn't have any fire extinguishers. After no response from him, we figured that he was okay with us missing our morning classes.
We were wrong, of course. We got to our meeting on Monday only to be mocked for being concerned about a potential fire and told that we would be counted as absent for our classes - even though he had told our teachers that he was counting it as a sick day for us. What that means is that, if he chooses, he can dock us pay for that class.
He then told us that there was "nothing unusual" about the situation and we shouldn't have been worried.
Right. Absolutely nothing unusual about the school forgetting to pay the electricity bill and a breaker box shooting out sparks. Completely safe.
Then, Thursday, there was some sort of festival. That, of course, meant that people were shooting off fireworks from roughly 7am all through the night, until about 1am. That wouldn't be a problem, except around 11pm, the fireworks were close enough that they started hitting our building. I heard things hitting my bedroom window and wall. I looked out the window to see fiery debris hitting my bedroom window. Add to this that there are tons of frayed electrical wires wrapped around the bars on my window.
We went up to get the auntie and the other building monitors to tell them that they should go outside and tell the men to stop shooting off fireworks so close to our building. They didn't. So we told them that we needed to get new fire extinguishers because it was terribly unsafe.
Their response?
I quote, "No, the school said we do not need fire extinguishers. It is okay. There are policemen around."
Yes. The police and firemen that you DO NOT CALL, EVEN WHEN THERE IS A FIRE.
I have spent pretty much every night this week staying up and watching movies until I'm so exhausted that I can't help but fall asleep. I'm to terrified to go to sleep any other way.
At least the real reason why the school hasn't given us new fire extinguishers over the past two months was finally revealed.
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