November 9th 2008

Not much has been going on here. It's been super busy, but not really exciting. Zach and I got our schedules changed around for the zillionth time, but at least now we only teach English Nursing students who actually want to learn English and for the most part, speak it reasonably well. Our schedules haven't changed, they just made some of our classes smaller, which is nice.

I guess one exciting thing has happened in the last few weeks. A bunch of us dressed up on Halloween and went to the OK Bar for some drinks looking pretty rediculous (me as a cheerleader, Zach as English Man, Matt as Fidel Castro, Megan as a cat, Chris as Justin Timberlake, and Jimmy and Lotus as basketball stars). We had already been there for a while when suddenly two foreign guys walked into the bar! We stared at them and they stared at us for a few seconds before Zach and I looked at each other and said "foreigners!" and went over to talk to them. It turns out that Adam and Ramtin were on a humanitarian mission here in Chengde for a few days repairing cleft palates at Chengde North Hospital. They were really cool guys who hung out with us for the rest of the night, including the 3 AM pitt stop at McPerkins. And the poor guys had to be up by 5:30 to go to the hospital! We wound up hanging out with them the rest of the week, going with Ram to Mountain Resort, having drinks with Ram and Adam, hanging out with the other doctors on the mission, going to multiple KTVs, and spending a lot of time at the OK Bar (they really love us there). We gave all the doctors their first taste of Baijou, which they thought was...interesting. I wish we would have had more time to hang out with them. They were a fun group. Mostly from California, where a Rotary club raised the money for them to go. Adam and the anesthesiologist, Allen, and three from Canada were the only people not from Cali. Adam was from Philly, Allen was from Phoenix, and as mentioned before, the others were from Canada.

Funny story about Adam and Ram: the night of Halloween, the guys hadn't been in Chengde for very long, so they didn't know the city very well. We passed their hotel on the way to McDonalds, but it was almost four when they headed back. They apparently couldn't remember how to get back to their hotel, so they hailed a cab. They got in and showed the driver the card for Chengde Binguan. The cabby laughed and literally drove them around the corner to their hotel! They were two blocks from home! We had a good laugh about that one. Luckily, I think they got the one honest cabby in the city who only charged them 2 qui for the ride instead of the normal rate of 5 qui or the American rate of 10 qui.

Zach and I have started coming up with a "You know you've been in China too long when..." list. It starts off with "...when you stop and stare at foreigners as much as the Chinese do." It's funny how being foreign is reason enough to strike up a conversation with someone in the supermarket, which is how we met Dave from the Rotoplast mission, who we later found out was Ram and Adam on the same trip, and who has some...interesting...stories. You'll have to ask if you want to know.

Anyhoo, I'm going to hope my internet comes on soon so I can post. It hasn't been working for the last four days and I'm going CRAZY!

This is a video of Zach showing off his Kung Fu skills one drunken night at the KTV with the comfort girls looking on...

October 18th, 2008

Grrr! I'm really confused about this election. I've watched all the debates, and now I feel more confused than ever. Do I vote for the Republican whom I don't agree with on the subject of the economy but agree on Foreign Policy and hate the VP (who scares me, actually), or do I go with the Democrat, whose FP scares me but whose economic plan seems more palatable. At least I like the choice of VP. Grrr!

But enough of that. it's been an exciting past few weeks. Mr. Lei took us to Hammer Hill and Frog Rock last weekend, which was gorgeous! The fall colors were starting to emerge and it was sunny with temps in the mid-seventies. It makes me glad I'm in Chengde.

Kirk came to visit us this week and that was a lot of fun. We went to a banquet for lunch (we had no idea it was a banquet, we thought it was just a lunch), and then took Kirk to the school where he sat in on one of our classes. We wanted to introduce him to Mr. Lei, but he left before we got out of clas. We then went out to dinner at Serena's BBQ (AMAZING!) and then got dessert at the western restaraunt before heading to the KTV for some karaoke! So much fun! I can't wait for people to come visit.

We decided to go to OK Bar for Jimmy's birthday last weekend and we met some really cool people there. There was an American visiting from Pennsylvania and was travelling with his Chinese friend from Beijing. Mike Li (the Chinese guy) spoke very good English, as he apparently has relatives in Alabama. We sat and drank with them for a while, and the next time we go to Beijing we will call him to show us a good time. Exciting!

Beijing Days 7&8

We were supposed to go to the Great Wall, but I really wasn't feeling up to climbing around on a bunch of stairs when I had a horrible head cold with a splitting headache and barely being able to breathe. I decided to stay in the room while Zach went and ran errands. He was totally a good friend and got me soup and watched movies with me.

That evening, after napping and recovering, we ventured over to Wangfujing for some Outback Steakhouse. It was EXPENSIVE (230 qui per person). But it was worth it for the blooming onion, potato soup, and steak and mashed potatoes. We also made another stop at the pirated DVD shop for some more movies. When we got back, we went out for tea with our Spanish friend, Barbara, and sat and talked for three hours. It was so much fun!

Day 8

5:30 wake up call for the 6:30 train back to Chengde. Ass crack of dawn if you ask me.

Beijing Day 6

Bright and early the next morning (10 am), we met the four Shizz kids at Tian'an Men square because we were going to try to see Chairman Mao in his Mausoleum. Unfortunately, we discovered the Mausoleum is closed during National Holiday. BOO. I guess they don't want too many people traipsing past Mao's embalmed boy. Amusingly, while we were waiting for the Shizz kids, Zach and I were bombarded by people wanting their pictures taken with foreigners. We need to start charging a fee. Twenty qui to have your picture taken with us. Even the adults were doing it.

After Tian'an Men, we all got on the bus and headed off to Olympic Green to see the olympic venues. We got there only to find out it was 50 qui to get onto the grounds! No way were we going to pay that much just to walk around. So we took a few pictures from behind the fence and took a cab to the Shizz kids' hostel and went to Hooters for lunch. It's just like the Hooters everywhere else (amazing, I know). Overpriced food that is OK. I wound up getting Chili fries and wings, and I was STUFFED. I hate to say it, but the poor Hooters girls only had 'skeeter bites with a lot of padding...

Zach and I left the Shizz kids at their hostel to take a nap while we went to the silk market. Silk market is truly an overwhelming place. Seven floors of booths where people try to sell you things. And they do ANYTHING to make the sale. Yell, grab, block, insult, redirect, and just about any other method possible. I made out ok, only spending about 600 qui on a winter North Face jacket, two belts, two shirts, and some silk. Zach was not so lucky and wound up buying a bunch of knockoff coach bags for his mom and sister, setting him back about 2000 qui. Silk market is definitely not the place to be when you are sick, so after Zach bought the purses, we decided it was best we leave. I would like to go back the next time we are in Beijing and get a knockoff Diesel bag I saw and some knockoff Abercrombie clothes.

We were supposed to meet up with the Shizz kids again for drinks, but I was really feeling to sick to do anything else, so Zach and I went home.

Beijing Day 5

National Holiday. Zach and I decided to go to Summer Palace for the day to check out what it was like. We should have stayed home. Not that it wasn't beautiful and we didn't enjoy the scenery, temples, and buildings, it was just waaaaaaaaaay too crowded. National Holiday is not the day to go to a national tourist spot. Everybody and their aunt was there. Out of the 100 or so pictures I took, two did not have a mass of people in them. And I thought the Forbidden City was crowded! And to top it off, when we got tired and decided to leave, the exit gate does not tell you how to get back to where your bus drops you off! So Zach and I wandered around for a half hour trying to find the front gate. When we got there, there was a HUGE line for the bus. The best part was that when a bus would come, all the people in the front would shove their way onto the bus, and all the people from the back would run to the front to try and get on. We were stuck in the middle. When we tried going to the front, we were told to get back in line. And to make it better, I was starting to come down with a really bad head cold. I was not in a good mood.

To console ourselves after we got back, we decided to go to Papa John's for dinner. Papa John's! It was awesome pizza for being in China, and it even had garlic sauce. Zach and I joked that we got Cheese Pizza and Cheesy Bread, which is cheese pizza without sauce. Way to have a variety... We also had this little drink that was Sprite with a scoop of strawberry ice cream on top. It was pretty good.

After dinner, we met up with some of the people from Shijiajuang (also known as The Shizz). We met Willie, Kara, Billie, and Alyssa at Suzy Q's on bar street in Beijing. We didn't actually go in because they don't allow flip-flops and two of the girls were wearing them. We decided to go to a random bar and have a drink. Once inside, we were excited to find they had a hookah! So we ordered a hookah and sat around shooting the breeze for an hour or so while we smoked it. Once it was finished, we decided to get some beers at a market. Lo and behold, the market was a western one and had all western food in it! And everything was in English, too! They had cheese, cereal, avocados, mexican food, chips, cream cheese, mac and cheese, alcohol, coke, gummy bears, and a host of other things. Of course it was all MONDO expensive. A box of cereal was 60 qui (10 USD). I satisfied myself with a cheap Chinese beer and a box of mac and cheese. After we drank our beer, we headed over to teh area by the Shizz kids' hostel and tried to find another bar to go to. We kind of lost interest though, and I was really starting to feel sick by this time. Kara had already left because she wasn't feeling well, and we decided to part ways after making plans for the next day.

Beijing Day 4

Zach and I (after lazing about the hotel all morning) decided to head to the Forbidden City again for a second try. But first, before doing anything else, we ran down to the train station to get trian tickets for the return journey. Luckily, we happend to get behind this girl and her mother, and the girl was an American Journalist who had been in China for two years and spoke fluent Chinese! She was extremely nice and helped us get our train tickets. Unfortunately, she and her mother were unable to get tickets because the train they wanted was full. I wish we could get together with her, but I didn't have my phone and she hasn't emailed us.

Once back, we made a quick stop at Gate Tower, which had a wonderful little museum about the Beijing Wall and Five Archways street. As for our trip to The Forbidden City, this time we decided to visit a few more of the museums. It is truly awe-inspiring to be in rooms with thins that are that old. We visited The Museum of Precious China, which held truly beautiful craftsmanship, saw museums dedicated to the guards, the emperors, the concubines, and many others. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the Hall of the Clocks because they were closing the city. Once again, we didn't have enough time to get through what we wanted to at the Forbidden City. We still need to see the Imperial Gardens.

We did have our first run-in with the Chinese Police (and Paul thought he would be the first, ha). There were a few policemen fooling around with their hats off and having fun, so Zach and I tried to sneak some pictures. Well the guards noticed, and so they sent an english-speaking policeman to come find us and erase the pictures of the guards from our cameras. Boo.

On our way out, apparently the security guards decided to exhert their control again by not letting us exit through the front gate. Instead, we got rerouted a half-hour out of our way around the outer walls of the Forbidden City and putting us on Wangfujing Dajie (the place where the Pizza Hut is). On the way, we stumbled across thre awesome things: 1) a little shop that sells cheap, pirated DVDs that look real (I bought 2), 2) Subway, where we stopped for dinner, and 3) the barbeque street where you can get odd things to eat like Starfish, centipede, scorpion, dog, and just about anything else. It was pretty exciting. We've now deemed Wangfujing Dajie "Western Street" because it's where you find all of the Western stores; Armani, Cartier's, Pizza Hut, Haagen Daas, Outback Steakhouse... We almost ate Starfish, but I was too full to eat anything and Zach was repulsed by the smell. Maybe next time... We decided to head home and watch some of our new movies.

Later that night, we had a craving for McDonalds, so we decided to head over. We were on our way out the door to the hotel when we noticed two women arguing with the girl at the front desk. The older one turned to us and asked us if we spoke English and asked if we could help hem. It turned out that they had just arrived from Guilin and their key wasn't working. They got the misunderstanding cleared up soon after we stopped to help, but these poor women were having the trip from hell! I don't remember everything, but what I do remember is that they were supposed to fly from Guilin to Xi'an, but their flight was inexplicably cancelled. So they wound up taking the 27 hour train ride from Guilin to Beijing hard-seat, standing room only. They sat in the dining car the whole time, but had to pay 30-50 qui every few hours to stay in there. No wonder they were frantic! We were supposed to go with them to the Summer Palace the next day, but on the way to the bank, the mother tripped and fell and hurt her hip! They wound up taking a rickshaw tour of the hutongs. Poor women!

Beijing Day 3

We were pretty tired from the previous two days, so we decided to be lazy and hang around the hotel. We didn't actually get up and moving until late in the afternoon.

Zach and I tried finding some hutongs on foot because we didn't want to take a rickshaw. Not only were we too cheap to do that, but we were really getting sick of the rickshaw drivers yelling "hello!" at us and following us around trying to get us to rent them. It happens about every block in Beijing. I think we did find a hutong, but it wasn't much to look at. We'll have to break down and take a rickshaw next time. On our way back, we wound up taking a sidestreet that lead off of Five Archways Street. We discovered the oldest silk market in Beijing, where I bought two yards of silk, and Zach spent 900 qui on having a silk jacket made for him. Then we stumbled upon a tea shop where a worker sat us down to sample some fine teas. Of course, even the cheap ones were expensive! I wonder what the 2000 qui tea tastes like... It must be like drinking liquid gold. I bought a cute tea set, three really good teas, and some realy good snacks to go with it. It's now my special occasion tea.

That night, we decided to try and find Pizza Hut, which we had been craving for some time. We headed down towards The Forbidden City, and randomly chose a direction to head in. We passed the Grand Hotel Beijing (affectionately deemed the Michael Phelps Hotel because we like to pretend thats where he stayed in Beijing), and Zach had the idea that we should go in and pretend to be patrons asking for directions. The concierge went above and beyond getting the directions for us. He drew us a map and called the Pizza Hut to make sure he was sending us to the right place. We easily found the Pizza Hut (with a quick stop at a DVD shop) and had scrumptious stuffed crust meat lovers (unfortunately for Zach, who had to break Kosher) pizza with drinks. The Pizza Hut happened to be located on the most western street in Beijing (Wangfujing), having a foreign language bookstore, Cartier's, Coach, Outback Steakhouse, and a bunch of other Western Shops. We stopped for some sorbet on the way home (16 qui for one tiny scoop!) and headed home.

Beijing Day 2

Zach and I grabbed our bags and checked out of our hotel by 9:30 am. We tried to get a cab to take us to our new hotel, but we'd made the mistake of not writing down the name of the hotel we were going to stay at. We wound up hoofing it the 1.5 miles to Tian'an Men and the hotel because whenever we tried to tell a cab we wanted to go to Tian'an Men, the thought we wanted a tour.

After checking into our hotel (which we found out that they were showing us a more expensive room, but Zach got them down to the price we thought they were asking), we decided to venture out. We explored Tian'an Men for a while, looking at the sculptures of the Olympic Mascots, then decided to head to the Forbidden City. We discovered, to our surprise, our ISIC's got us into the Forbidden City for 20 qui, as opposed ot the 60 qui it normally takes. That card paid for itself in Beijing alone.

The Forbidden City is, in one word, AMAZING. We spent two days in there and didn't even make it through half of the city. The first day we stopped and saw the Hall of Art and Calligraphy, which was incredibly awe inspiring. I can't imagine making art like that. Such detail, and some of the scrolls only showed about 8 feet of their full length. There was a poem on dark wood panels that was carved in Jade. You'll just have to look at my pictures to get the full effect of the Forbidden City. The awesome thing? The Chinese have no compunctions about letting you take pictures or video. Snap away! (As long as there are no police in the picture).

For dinner, we decided that because we were so tired, we would just walk to McDonalds for dinner and call it an early night.

Beijing Day 1

So it's about time I sat down and wrote about our trip to Beijing, so here it goes. It's a really long entry, so there will be an individual entry for each day.

Zach and I set out for Beijing on the 1:30 train, arriving in Beijing around 6:30. We made the unfortunate mistake of not making hotel/hostel reservations before we got there. We wound up wandering around Beijing for 2 hours with our heavy backpacks looking for a place to stay. Realizing we weren't going to find anything cheap the later we went, we decidied to drop our bags at a hotel that had an opening and go on from there. We were both really tired, and about a hairsbreath away from saying screw it, we're going back to Chengde. We stayed at some 3 Star hotel that was 600 qui per night (100USD). Once we dropped our bags, we decided to explore a bit and maybe get a bite to eat. We found a Dairy Queen and got ice cream, then randomly stumbled across Tian'an Men square! Yay for random finds! We had trouble finding the actual square because it was roped off and hidden behind Mao's Mausoleum (we didn't know that was what it was until a few days later). So we wandered around, losing ourselves in the underpasses for a while, explaring places we later discovered were Gate Tower and Arrow Tower, some of the last remnents of the Beijing Wall. We also discovered Five Archways street (we discovered the name when we went on a tour of the guard tower). It's this awesome little collection of empty shops that are eventually going to be a replica of the old Five Archways Street, a street of master-craftsman workers during the Ming Dynasty. there is a side street that we found later that is full of replicated shops, but we'll talk about that later.

Once we'd had our fill of Tian'an Men and Five archways, we headed back. Along the way we discovered a small hotel with quaint rooms for 300 qui a night, and we promised to return the next day to book. We stopped at a McDonalds on the way home to kick off our week of Western Only food. Sleep came easily that night.

October 13th, 2008

It's funny how a tragedy makes us realize all the mistakes we've made, and all we could have done better.

I found out today that a guy I knew in high school was killed in a motorcycle accident when he lost control of his bike out in California. The hardest part was finding out that he wasn't killed instantly. He was awake and alert when the emergency team got there, but blacked out and stopped breathing while they were examining him. He died less than four hours later. Michael Kaske was in the Navy, working on the USS Higgins based out of San Diego. He was a part of a team that did search and seizure on land and other ships. He was in the military, he wasn't supposed to die in a motorcycle accident.

I knew Mike in High School. We used to be in band together and he used to take piano lessons from my mom. My junior year, we were in study hall together. I found out near the end of that year that he had a crush on me and that was the reason he was taking lessons from my mom. I tried dating him that summer, but I really wasn't into him as much as he was into me. I was in high school, I didn't know how to politely refuse someone, and I let him down pretty hard. Now I really feel like an asshole.

I saw him once a few years ago when I was home on Spring Break. It was for Tara's 20th birthday my sophomore year, and Abby had invited him along to the Byrd downtown, which is where we were celebrating. It would have been right after he finished boot camp. I remember dancing with him and how he seemed to be really into Abby, and how I felt like an asshole even then. I wish now I could go back to high school and make ammends. But I know I can't. In the words of Rascall Flatts, it's "what hurts the most."

So Michael, here's a prayer for you:

I'm sorry for the way I acted towards you in high school, and I wish things could have been different. Now that you're gone, I want you to know that you will be sorely missed, and may God shelter you in the palm of His hand.

September 23rd, 2008

Whoops! Sorry it's been a long time since I last updated. Here's the gist of what I'm going to talk about: Smoking is bad for the furniture, Chinese guys are fun to drink with, Mountain Resort is beautiful, my freshman classes, discrimination, and my new tattoo.

So we were sitting at the OK bar the other night, when Matt and Jimmy lit up cigarettes. To our amusement, Lotus (Jimmy's girlfriend) pipes up and says No smoking! Smoking is bad for the furniture! Funniest. Quote. Ever. Lotus is really cool, even inviting us all over on Autumn Festival for her friends to make dumplings for us. While there, we got Matt to write down some of our favorite dishes in PinYin so we could at least try to order something we like instead of it always being a guessing game...

A few nights ago, Zach and I tried our hand at a different barbeque with Matt's little cheat sheet. While we were there, Megan and Chris stumbled upon us and we invited them to sit for drinks (BTW, this barbeque is just a tent on the sidewalk just behind my apartment). Soon, the grill-guy comes and sits with us. He tries to say the few words he knows in English, so Megan hands him her phrasebook, I grab mine, and we have our conversation through our phrasebooks.

The next night, Zach and I were on our way to meet the Normal people at their hotel for dinner. On the way there, we have to walk through the BBQ from the night before. The grill guy stops us, sits us down, and pops open beers for us. Well there went our night. We called the Normal people to come join us. Soon, grill guy (I can't remember his name) brings us lamb skewers. Then he brings us more skewers. And then more! We are then invited to sit with some friends of his, who happen to be dining at the BBQ that night. Just as we are sitting down, lo and behold, Matt walks by! He decides to sit with us, and we now have a translator, and one of the guys happens to know a little English. Oh, and Matt and these guys are good friends. So before we know it, we've all been poured glasses of beer, and we Ganbei them. And then we Ganbei again. And again. And again. Well, you can guess what happened. I found out that the guy who spoke English was a tattoo artist, and I started talking to him about the tattoo I wanted. He's drawing me a picture. More on that later. I tried many interesting things that night. Most noteable was silkworm cocoons and snails. Yeah, definitely won't get them again. Vei Yun, one of the guys, got really drunk, and the only words he knew in English were USA, I love you, and friend. He then proceeded to kiss everyone at the table, and even chased Zach around trying to kiss him. That night, once again, ended at McPerkins.

The funny thing was that we went out with Serena the following night for dinner and bowling. We were telling her the story when she suddenly realized she knew Vei Yun! She then called him and a very sober and abashed ei Yun joined us at teh bowling alley for a game of pool. Oh, and the pool girls like to sit and watch everyone play pool. It's a little unnerving at first...

Anyhoo, about my tattoo. It's a picture of two dragons (I love dragons) that are intertwined. One is Chinese, the other is western, and both are 3D. It will be on the back of my shoulder. I'm going to see the finished drawing tomorrow. w00t. Don't worry Erin, I waited the three years grace period.

So freshman classes: HUGE! And definitely didn't have enough copies of the worksheet for everyone. I had 50 copies for 137 students! And they had no idea what sharing was. I tried to explain, but everyone in the front still took one, and everyone in teh back sat there and didn't know what to do. I had to go take papers away from people to distribute. And I swear, if I have one more person tell me to slow down, I'm going to tell them to sit down and shut up! Seriously, if I talk any slower, it will be like this. And that is completely unproductive. Nor do I speak Chinese, so I will not be teaching them how to speak English by speaking Chinese to them. Frustration! I hope the next freshman class goes better.

As for discrimination, it happens, but I've never been on the recieving end until now, and I really don't like it. I mean, yeah, there is that whole feminist thing where it feels like as a woman you are looked down upon and don't get the same opportunities, but here, we get discriminated against because we are white. We had to shove our passes in the face of the guy at the gate to Mountain Resort before he would stop pointing us to the ticket counter. Out of all the people walking through the gate to get to campus, we are the only ones that get stopped to have IDs checked. In the library, we weren't allowed to have our backpacks with us. They had to stay with the librarian even though the only thing to steal were books in Chinese and the door had a book alarm. Because we are clearly going to steal books written in all Chinese. The librarian was about to tell us we couldn't be in there and that we should go to the English section until we explained that the English section was closed. I guess they aren't trying to do it, it just gets cumbersome after a while. And annoying. It's hard going from a country where white skin gets you everything to a country where they are suspicious of anyone who doesn't have black hair, brown eyes, and yellow skin. Damn white supremacy.

One thing I've noticed here is the weird thing the brain does when faced with a language barrier. My brain knows they can't understand me in English, so it switches to the next language I know, which is Spanish, before it switches over to Chinese. So when I'm trying to translate something, it comes to me in Spanish first and then I have to try to translate it into Chinese. Weird, huh?

We met the professor of the Overseas Nursing program yesterday and went to talk to him today. He is AWESOME! Despite being in the medical field, he speaks very fluent English. His name is Lei Hui (Mr. Lei). He offered to take me and Zach to Hammer Hill after holiday. We are totally taking him up on that. And he also wants us to come play ping pong with him, which I am totally going to take him up on. And he introduced himself by saying Jeremy and Michelle were his friends. A lot of people say that. If nothing else, they were well liked and paved the way for me and Zach (Jeremy and Michelle were the previous foreign teachers).

Another person I've met is Cecilia. She's a translator who studied English in Beijing and is now working at a nice all in Chengde. She wants to hang out with me sometime, which I'm totally up for. I met her through Matt at the tattoo shop and she took me to get a chicken sandwich while Matt was getting his tattoo. I really like her. And I can talk at a normal speed with her and she completely understands me. We also visited a little pet sop and I was pleasantly surprised to find she likes animals. Perhaps we will take her with us to purchase train tickets for Guilin.

We are planning on going to Guilin for national holiday next week. It's a 27 hour train ride, but we can't afford anything else. And it looks like beautiful country. Mountains, hills, valleys. I was told by Mike to take the Li River Cruise to Yangshue and see the light show. I can't wait to go to Guilin.

Oh, and Mountain Resort is gorgeous! We still havn't seen much of it because of my VMCAS essays, but what we've seen has been phenomenal. And it's been there for 300 years. While we were there the last time, it started to rain (it does that a lot here). So we took refuge in one of the pavillions. There happened to be a man there playing a version of the wooden flute, the kind you hear in Chinese music. he was amazing. I could have sat there for hours listening to him play coupled with the rain and the scenery. I tried to ask him the name of the instrument, but he thought I was asking his name and wouldn't give it to me. I really want one of the flutes he played. Esp. one of the ones with deeper, richer tones. He had about 6 flutes with him, and he played all of them. I have a video of it. I also want one of the tooled wooden swords they sell outside mountain resort, and one of the tea sets they sell in the grocery store.

Whelp. Bedtime. More later.

Sept. 14th, 2008

Yay for random fun nights in China!

So yesterday, Zach and I decided to try our new passes for Mountain Resort. It was gorgeous! We only spent 1.5 hours there, and we maybe saw 1% of all there was to see. We'll definitely be going back. But that wasn't the beginning of the randomness. The beginning came when we were on our way to meet the Normal people. Zach and I saw this mini carnival thing on the other side of the street, and on the off chance that there might be something interesting going on, we decided to stop. Lo and behold, we discovered a roller skating rink behind some hedges! So randomly, Zach and I rented roller skates for 10 qui a piece and went roller skating! We wound up calling the Normal people, which showed up 1/2 hour later, and we convinced Megan to skate with us. Chris and Travis went exploring because on the grounds with the skating rink, Zach and I noticed a trampoline, inflatable jumpy thing for kids, dancing, mini car rental, a playground, and pool! We'll definitely be coming back (BTW, Zach and I found a Tai Chi group in Mtn Resort and we're thinking about trying to join by just showing up every week). Unfortunately we had to leave because it was getting late and we hadn't eaten yet.

Tonigh, we went to dinner and the bar with Matt, a previous Drake student who has been in Chengde for three years. We went to this little barbeque joint that nobody in America would dream of walking into in the US, it was that sketchy. But the food was AMAZING! We got etamame, these spicy green peppers, perfectly spiced chicken wings on a stick (ji chuan er), and mutton on a stick (yang rou chuan er). I could have eaten all 30 of the mutton sticks by myself, they were so good. From there, Zach, Matt, Jimy, and Fu Long (Lotus) met up with the Normal people and went to "Bar Street." The drinks are about 2x more expensive than in the states, but it's a bar, not a KTV, with vodka, JD, and American beers. I wound up playing pool (the pool sticks are abnormally thin) with some Chinese guys who bought me some drinks. It's funny how there is an internation pool language... I think the Chinese guy was purposely losing to make the game more interesting. We wound up sitting and talking with them for a while after pool, our group and the Chinese guys. They were really cool. We were helping them with English and they were helping us with Chinese.

After the bar, we went to McDonalds, which is open 24-7, and we determined it's the new Perkins/IHOP/Paul Reveres. We now call it McPerkins. Yay for late-night drunk eating! Too bad there wasn't a drive through or it would have been just like McDonalds walk-through at Drake!

September 11, 2008

I had my first day of class two days ago. I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life. I was especially worried about not having enough material, and the material I did have seemed boring, especially after hearing what Zach had planned. I just had introduction activities and the syllabus. Zach had all sorts of games, vocab, and gave them an assignment. Plus he's got the next few weeks of assignments planned out. I feel very behind.

Anyways, Zach and I left for school at 8am because I wanted to make copies at school and I wasn't sure how easy it would be. So we stopped by the Foreign Affairs office to find out what to do. We were worried we would get stopped by the guard on the way in, but we weren't. We were stopped by some lady standing at the door to the Admin Building. Luckily, some party members walked by, said something to her, and she let us pass.

So we got up to the Foreign Affairs office to find out it was a good thing we stopped because Maggie had sent us both texts that we should stop by that neither of us got. So we got our ID cards from Maggie, and gave her money to get passes to Mountain Resort. I easily made my copies at the computer in the office. We were way too early. So we sat around for 45 minutes looking at the Chinese version of Vogue before we headed off to class. Luckily, Maggie came with because Zach was about to go to the wrong room.

My first class was to be English Nursing for Sophomores. I got set up in the room which, BTW, had a real slate chalkboard! Real Slate! Not that crappy stuff that's hard to write on. I havn't seen that stuff for years. Of course, I'm used to white boards now, and had to be wary of chalk dust.

My class showed up about 5 minutes late. Apparently they have a class before mine. I'm debating whether I should set my foot down and make them be on time. It seemed like a lot of them were on time, they just came and left.

When I started talking, all of the students got intense looks of concentration on their faces. Good, they were paying attention. When I went over the syllabus, I got a few laughts at how they weren't supposed to speak Chinese and a few gasps when I went over my attendence policy. Apparently they thought it was really strict, but Laura said it was just fine, they just didn't like it coming from a foreign teacher.

So the first game, they had a hard time understanding, and I had a hard time getting people to volunteer. I had them all write down questions, and then somebody pretended they were me. Even though they had the questions right in front of them, they didn't want to ask them. It was like pulling teeth. It took 15 minutes to get through two people. Finally I gave in and just told them about myself. And class here is very formal, they all stand when they speak.

So the next game we played, I tossed a ball to people who then were supposed to answer questions. The problem I had with that was nobody would catch the ball! And instead of telling one fact, they told me a bunch. So we never got through all of them. :(

I did hand out a questionnaire during class, and I had them suggest a Chinese name for me. I got a few good suggestions:

Mengya-elegant and beautiful
KeXin-
Liu Ya Xuan- Liu is a family name, Ya is graceful, and Xuan is used in names of studies
Ya Jing-demure and beautiful

I then had them journal and I dismissed them.

After class, one girl named Tara (I had them pick out English names as well, the most interesting of which was Torocat) came up and asked me questions about the GRE. Luckily I had taken it, and was able to give her information on it. I might like to have my GRE study guide sent over to let people look at. I also had a student ask for my phone number, but I didn't want to give it out. Oh there were 40 students in my class.

Zach and I then went to lunch with Laura and Maggie, where we got lunch cards and sat and talked for a while. Then Zach and I headed back to our apartments.

An interesting thing I did last weekend was go to a Chinese barbeque with the rest of the Drake crowd in Chengde and a girl named Serena and her mother, who we met at the KTV (a karaoke place that has private rooms instead of a bar, and you pay by the hour. There are no bars in Chengde that we've seen). That was probably the best meal we've had in China yet. They had fried bread that we dubbed French Toast with a sort of sugary glop you put on it, and we decided to go have it on Christmas morning. And it had wonderfully marinaded meats that you cookd yourself on a hot plate in the middle of the table, and these amazing rice dishes that I couldn't get enough of. I swear I ate enough for three people, and Serena kept ordering more food! After the meal, Serena bought us all lotus seeds, where were good, and then we played the Chinese version of hackey sack in the public square, where we were joined by various Chinese wanting to show off their skills to the Americans. Probably the most amusing part of the night was when Serena gave Chris the Chinese name "Shui Ge," which means handsome boy. It seemed fitting, since he'd already had a marriage proposal.

I had the workmen come today to replace the heating pipes in my apartment. I've never been so appaled in my life. My reasonably clean apartment was reduced to shambles as the furniture had been moved to get to the walls, and any bits that fell were just left where they happened to fall. There was no cleaning up afterwards like they would in the US. My apartment was completely covered with cement, tile, brick, brick dust, mud, stones, metal piping, plastic pipes, and even a tool that they forgot. I have spent all night cleanin the apartment. Oh, and they dug a 3"x3"x3' trench across my kitchen, and then left without filling it in. I had to call Maggie, who had to call the campus repairmen, who had to call someone to come cement over the hole. I was furious. And neither Zach nor I have working washing machines, so neither of us can do laundry. Pooh. Something needs to be done soon because I'm running out of T-Shirts.

Tom

I would like everyone to meet Tom. Say hello, Tom! Tom lives by himself in the apartment across from me and likes to observe the goings on in my apartment. I often catch him at his window, staring over towards my apartment. We swear he knows what is happening before I do. I suppose that is good, if anything were to go wrong, Tom would be there and know what to do.



I did catch Tom once watching me intently as I cleand my apartment. Of course, part of the problem was probably because I was cleaning in my swimming suit, not wanting to get my clothes full of bleach.



Oh, Tom has two neighbors, Dick and Harry, who take showers together. These are the things you notice when you have big picture windows overlooking the apartment on the other side.

Sept. 3rd, 2008

Three exciting things happened today: 1. We went to campus today, 2. I got my bathroom fixed, and 3. We found an awesome little restaraunt that we will be frequenting.

First, Zach and I got up and met Maggie somewhere around 8:45 am. We took the bus downtown where we stopped and waited forever to get my cell phone SIM card from China Mobile. Apparently numbers with lots of 6's and 8's and especially ending with them or even ending with two of them makes them really expensive. Unlike ending with 4, which are really cheap because 4 is considered an unlucky number because the chinese word for death and the number four sound very similar, it's just a matter of tone (sĭ vs. sì).

So the #10 bus with the green label takes us to campus after about an hour's bus ride. But you do get to see the outlying temples of Summer Resort on the way. Bus six takes you to the two remaining open temples.

Chengde Medical Campus is new and quite large, having been built in 2006. Once at campus, we met Laura, our other Waiban, who took us to another building to meet the other English teacher, who is Chinese. We got our schedules (incidentally in Chinese) and talked about what we would be teaching. Most of our students have been taking English for 10+ years, and they read and write it very well. Our job is to improve their listening comprehension and verbal skills. How I'm supposed to do that in classes of over 100 students I have yet to figure out.

Once we finished talking to the Chinese English teacher (who was, BTW, very animated), Maggie and Laura showed us some of the rooms we would be teaching in, which I must say, were a little worrisome. Mostly because they had trash all over them, and I'm so used to a clean atmosphere. I had a teacher tell me once that a messy stage makes for messy acting. I have a feeling that is what is going to happen here: messy room makes for messy teaching/learning. Zach and I got a bit of a shocker when we found out we would have some classes with 100+ students. For Oral English! How is that supposed to work? I guess I'll figure it out.

Laura asked me a few questions that I enjoyed answering. Some of the signs on the buildings had English on them as well as the Chinese character, and she asked me if the English was correct. I had to explain to her the difference between pre-medical and pre-clinical classes, and that the building labelled "Experiment Building" shoud actually be named "Laboratory Building."

The campus (new campus) has five major buildings that I could tell. There was the Admin builing, the Life Sciences, Lecture, and Experiment buildings, plus the library. Ther might have been one or two others, but I can't remember what they are. They have plans to put in a playground (? I guess no school is complete without a playground) and swimming ool, and new Teacher apartments are being constructed on a hill overlooking the campus. Too bad we were to early for those! The campus even hasa little village we would call "collegetown." The buildings are all grey and red with white and silver trimming, and there are a heck of a lot of stairs. And th classrooms seem a little old fashioned, despite being only two years old. I think it's due to the effect of wooden doors that have cracked and peeling paint (and sometimes holes), and no custodial staff. I'm used to fireproof doors, plastic desks, and constantly cleaning staff to make buildings look spick and span. Maybe I could give extra credit to people who clean up the room before class starts...? (j/k)

Anyhoo, the campus visit only lasted until 11:30, so Zach and I went back to our apartments. I took a nap, and right on time, the repair guy showed up. He replaced the showerhead so it no longer leaks, and he fixed the toilet and replaced the button on the flusher so it mercifully stopped running. Yay! Of course, no three hours after he left, Chris broke the string that turns on te light to my bathroom, so now I just have to leave the bathroom light on. Oh well, at least that is silent.

And the last exciting thing? The five of us stumbled upon a little restaraunt that has really good food and a waitress that speaks English and was exited to practice on us. w00t. We got to try a meat that was "like horse, but not a horse." We came to the conclusion it was donkey. That was he best dish we've had so far in China. Well, besides the spicy chicken and peanut dish.We also got "Pig's Fingers," which I think was pigs feet boiled with potatoes. Oh, and the donkey dish had AMAZING potatoes and it had almost a gravy, which I liberally applied. There was also this noodle and mushroom soup that wasn't too bad. That restaraunt is now my No. 1 favorite. It's located on the street that has some sort of road construction going on, and becomes a cluster F*** of cars during rush hour. Oh, and we got to eat in a private dining room with a Lazy Susan. It was a nice dining experience. We're still wondering what the green sacks that were hanging from the picture were. I guess we'll never know. I can't wait to eat at that restaraunt again.

Oh, and we went to McDonalds today, which is pretty much like McDonalds in the US. I guess I'll be eating there when I feel homesick. It's cheape than in the States, too. Zach and Chris bought some happy meal toys and plan on incorporating it into their lesson plan by having students pick random items (like the Darth Vader toy) and market and sell it to the class. I remember doing that in Mrs. Menne's speech class in the 11th grad, and I think I might steal the idea.

August 29th, 2008

I didn't get to write when we touched down in Beijing because my journal was in my backpack, which was in the overhead compartment. And I've been too tired to write the past two nights.

After we landed, we walked through the gynourmous Beijing airport to customs, which was really easy and uneventful. We didn't even have to claim anything. Both of my checked bags arrived safe and sound. I changed money, and after a little searching, Zach and I found our Waiban, Maggie, who was there with somebody else from the school. Maggie speaks English very well, but the other person doesn't speak a word of English. Zach says he keeps expecting him to turn around and say "Surprise! I can speak English and I've been understanding you all along!"

From Beijing, we went straight to Shijiajuang in Hebei Province, where Maggie told us we would get our work permits and complete our medical examinations.

Shijiajuang is very polluted, one of the most polluted cities in the world. In Beijing, you could see that it was polluted about a mile in front of you. In Shijiajuang (The Shizz), it is so polluted, you can see the haze starting fifty feet in front of you. We are two hours outsied of the city right now on the way to Chengde, and there is still a haze that could almost be fog, but it's not. Zach and I determined that Shijiajuang would be a good city for weekend visits, but not for living in. We're glad we're living in Chengde.

Yesterday morning, Zach and I were obliged to skip breakfast in lieu of the impending blood test. On the way to the medical exam, the driver started taking the back streets. They were so narrow we almost couldn't get the car through. On either side of th street, we passed countless shops and houses, often with broken windows and rusty metal screens. Faded pictures from too much lights (I can't say sun expures because it's permanantly grey from pollution) adorn the windows of shops. Most are pictures of hair models in salon windows. I'm sure what was once a vibrant, in-style picture seems a little old and outdated, but maybe that's just the effect of the fading.

Zach and I were worried that our exam would be on one of these back streets, in which case Zach woud have refused to go in. Luckily, we came out onto a main street where there was a nice clean building labelled "Foreign Affairs Examinations." The only scary thing was when the Flombotomist (blood draw person) took his gloves off to put the needle in because he couldn't feel the vein. It took two practitioners to draw my blood because the first couldn't find my vein. I got poked in both arms and now I have a beautiful purple bruise where they drew blood. Amusingly, the hospital had labelled rooms like "Surgery" and "Internal Medicine," but were just a standard hospital room circa 1920with a few updates. There was a room called "Facial Features," which I thought might be facial mapping, but it was just an eye test.

Maggie, Zach, and I wen't shopping for cell phones. It was really hard to find a good cell phone that didn't take all or half of my cash. I found one eventually, a legal one I can take to a service center in Chengde, should I need. After this, Maggie left us to fend for ourselves in the shopping center while she went to pick up our medical exam results. We now wonder if we might not have gotten a better deal on cell phones if we hadn't taken Maggie with us because then she wouldn't have been threto tell us all the features of a phone and why it was so expensive. Zach alo says the stand owners think we are rich enough to hire a translator, so they won't lower the price. Once Maggie left, Zach and I wandered the shopping center in search of appliances. We got around using my phrasebook and asking "Duoxiao qian?" in which the worker would answer with a number (in Chinese) which we would have to translate, or pull out a calculator. We would then haggle down the dealer by offering half,who would then come back with another offer and so on. The cool thing about the shopping center was that it was arranged by product, and everything in that store was electronic. First floor was cameras, MP3 Players, and large electronics. 5th floor was cell phones, 4th was printers and burnable CDs, 3rd was computer stuff. I don't remember what 2nd was. Most of the things we got were less than half of what we would have bought it for in America. I found and AWESOME Nikon D40 for 6300 Yuan (930 USD) and maybe if I save enough from my paychecks and I can haggle enough, I can buy it near the end of my stay.

Chinese food in China is nothing like what it is in the USA. You order it because you think it is one way, but it tastes completely different. Chinese cuisine is mostly a guess and check game. Guess what it is and try to check. We did go to a Pizza Hut last night, which was very similar to Pizza Hut in the US, it just had different types of pizzas.

Zach and I almost became the proud owners of a new puppy (we were for about 45 minutes), but we decided there were too many unknowns, so we gave it away. It couldn't have been any more than two weeks old. Sad thing is, I was probably it's best chance of surviving that young. Maybe we'll get a dog in Chengde.

People in the Shizz seem to just bunk down for the night wherever they can. On a deserted door step, in front of a hotel. We passed one man who was sleeping on the marble railing that led down to one of the street underpasses. I don't know how he could sleep with all the honking and people passing by. I'd be scared someone would do something to me in passing. But I guess when you do it enough, you become accustomed.

By the way, drivers in the Shizz use their horns ALL THE TIME. Talk about desensitization. They honk when they pass, they honke when they come to an intersection, they honk when they want you to get out of their way. A bus nearly blew my ears out when he honked right next to me because we didn't get out of the way fast enough. It gets really annoying after a while because it seems so futile. I hope it isn't like this in Chengde.

MSP Airport, 5:00 am

Here I sit in MSP airport, waiting to get on the plane. We got here at 4:00 am, but the ticket counters weren't even open. When we finally got to check in, the lady thought my visa said I had zero days to be in country. At least she figured it out, otherwise I would have been in deep trouble.

Zach and I are watching the news and I just heard some interesting news: Obama named Joe Biden as his running mate. Paul Larson is going to be very happy. Zach says he already is. Apparently Paul changed his facebook status almost right away.

I think it finally hit me that I'm going to China when I checked into my flight this morning. After I scanned my passport, it asked me if I was going to Beijing, China and I had to click "Yes." Wow, I'm going to China. For a year. No going home, no changing my mind. I'm going to be stuck in a foreign country with nothing familiar around me for eleven months.

I'm going to need sleep soon. I feel like I'm getting sick, but I don't know if it's from my allergies combined with lack of sleep, or if I'm really getting sick. I just hope it goes away once I get some decent sleep.

I think this is all I'm going to write right now because I want to read the packet Dr. Arroyo gave me on journaling before I journal too much. I'll write again when we are about to touch down in Beijing.