Hello there, Spring

Yesterday afternoon I went over to Zhongshan Park with Allie to see the cherry blossoms which are now opening up.  It was a perfect day, 60 degrees with clear blue skies and a slight breeze.  It was also a Friday afternoon so there weren't too many people out there.

And by "not too many" I really mean this by China standards.  It was still super crowded by American terms and resembled DC during the peak times of the Cherry Blossom festival.  Another thing reminded me of DC too:

wedding photos with the cherry trees!  We saw several couples posing, but this couple was probably my favorite on so many levels.  That pink!  The poof!  The hair!  His bad mariachi band outfit!  Damn, like seriously.

Then there are the Chinese girls who take photos with the blossoms with little-to-no expression on their faces but with some important body placement.  Lots of leaning against trees and smelling the flowers, not to mention the couples wearing matching outfits in front of the trees.

When in Rome, right?  入乡随俗.

I also went out to dinner to celebrate my friend Anna (from Poland)'s birthday with some of her other friends.  We had some really yummy Korean barbeque and then finished it off with a XiYangyang cake.

We all went out to Le Bang for drinks and dancing, so I sent Tian Jian a text message and he showed up with his drunk friends.  It was a really fun night!  Here is a photo of Anna, Tian, Kana (from Japan), me, and Chris (from the UK). 

Overall, Spring is here!  It's finally here!  I could not be happier for its arrival.

My not so 老 老师

I was really excited that 田老师 invited me to his apartment for a party and had a fleeting thought that it might be his birthday.  Turns out I was right!  I had a really fun Friday night but it was not without its own strange occurrences and funny stories. 

不好意思, Holy !#%@& I am embarrassed

I thought that I had 田健 (my teacher's name is Tian Jian)'s phone number because he had been texting me off and on over the past few months.  So yesterday afternoon I texted him to figure out how to get to his apartment and this is what happened (all in Chinese, this is a translation):

Me: How do I get to your apartment?  Which bus do I take?
田老师: What are you talking about?
(incoming phone call)
田老师: Eh, Wu Laoshi (my Chinese name as a teacher)?  Foreign Teacher?  Do you remember me?  Did you send me a text message incorrectly?
Me: Oh god.  I am so embarrassed.  I am sorry, I do not remember who you are!
(text messages)
田老师Haha, it's okay. 
Me: I am so embarrassed, my Chinese teacher's name is also 田老师!
田老师: Haha, no problem. Next time I can teach you Chinese. =)

At this point I am:
(1) laughing because so many Chinese people have the same last names,
(2) embarrassed because I had mixed up my own Chinese teacher with someone else who decided to text me and
(3) mortified because I have an unknown stalker of sorts. 

I know that this other mysterious Tian laoshi has to be a teacher on my campus somewhere and there are only a few that I've given my number to, so this narrows it down quite a bit.  The problem is that I don't remember what any of these teachers look like!  I try to keep my head down here on campus because I hate being asked to teach other people English.  My life is so awkward. 

Happy Birthday, 祝你生日快乐田健!

I finally got myself over to 田健 (Tian Jian, my Chinese teacher)'s apartment and was greeted by many of his students.  They were all Japanese except for myself and Anna, a Polish girl who also studies at the school but isn't technically Jian's student.  It was really nice getting to know other expats who are not from Western countries and their children were just too cute for words!

Tian Jian and his roommates cooked us a big dinner which was delicious and really made me want to learn how to cook Northern Chinese food.  They claimed it was simple, but I doubt it and I think it's also great that these men know how to cook up a storm!  We had some classic dishes including eggs and cucumbers, mushrooms and pork, and the local specialty, Qingdao gala (clams).  Tian Jian even cooked up 酸辣土豆丝 (vinegar chili shredded potatoes) which were really good, but I joked that if we got 拉肚子 ("pulled stomach" or indigestion) tomorrow it would be his fault. 

Then Tian Jian toasted to his 25th birthday, to his friend the chef, and to all of us his students.  He said that an important part of teaching is to actually like your students and to feel happy when going to teach class.  Not only is studying well important, but also a special friendship between teacher and student and that it is fate that we were all brought together. 

It was really touching, and as a teacher myself, I couldn't agree more!  To me it is also important to have a close relationship with my Chinese teacher and to feel comfortable asking questions about anything and to make stupid mistakes during class.  I could not be more appreciative that he feels the same way and I am so glad that I have him as a teacher. 

And, well, after this touching moment occurred, the debauchery broke out in the form of beer and sake.  We did a lot of 干杯 ("empty cup", cheers, or bottoms up!) and he had to go around and drink with everyone.  I also had to hold up my own honor and "face" as an American and drink a lot just because I am from the US of A, the land of binge drinking.  Thanks a lot, Hollywood. 

Then there was a birthday cake complete with birthday torch candle that played "Happy Birthday" over and over again.  Let me tell you, Chinese cakes are delicious.  They are made with real cream frosting and the cake is perfectly moist and spongy.  It's also great because they're not overly sweet and you don't feel like you're going to develop Type II diabetes after ever single bite. 

Plus, they come with a paper crown, which should really be a part of every birthday party.  The down side of birthday parties in China is that the Chinese have this strange idea that it is normal to have a food fight at parties and smear icing all over your friends for luck. 

I didn't get too badly covered and only got a bit on my cheeks and a schmear or two in my hair by his roommate.  Also note the giant bottle of sake next to the mirror that was given as a gift by one of the Japanese students.  Needless to say, Tian Jian was tucked into bed by his roommates before midnight and left sleeping on the floor under a pile of blankets (but with a bucket!).  This was also before midnight and the friends then proceeded to leave the apartment to celebrate his birthday... without him.

Way to go, friends.  I'm just glad that's never happened to me! 

Beware the Jabberwocky

I also saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D tonight with Althea and it was pretty good.  It was a different interpretation of the story than the cartoon version and it was a lot trippier.  I kind of liked it and loved Johnny Depp's performance.  This was my first legal movie watching experience in China and it was kind of fun to actually go to a movie theatre again. 

Spring is arriving quickly and I no longer have to wear a puffy coat or tights under my jeans.  Yippee!

No word for 'bored'

I've been a bad little blogger recently.  I've just been so busy with my new schedule and such that I've neglected to share my witty comments and random banter about my life over here. 

This is my life, basically:
1- I have no weekends because I teach.
2- I have no life because I teach on the weekends.
3- In my spare time I plan out what I am going to teach.

I'm not complaining, though.  I do still really love my students and my job, but I feel like I might burn out earlier in the semester than I expected I would.  I've already started making plans to turn my Cooperation classes into "Gossip Girl" class where I teach them oral English, idioms, and casual speech using the show.  And well, for selfish reasons too.

Laowai or Old China Hand?

Last weekend my friend Cathy came down to visit with a large group of abroad students who are doing the same program I did two and a half years ago.  It was really cool to hang out with them and show them around Qingdao.  We ate a lot of seafood, drank a lot of fresh "raw" (not quite sure what this means, but it is good!), and shivered our way through the weekend. 

This is when I will continue to complain about the weather and lack of warmth in Qingdao.  It is still cold and very, very windy here.  On a good day, the temperature gets up to 60 but at night it is always in the 30s and 40s.  With huge winds, too.  And no heat in my apartment because it was turned off two weeks ago. 

On the plus side, I feel like I have finally hit my stride with the Chinese classes, almost a month into taking classes three times a week.  This excites me to no end because I no longer feel like an idiot that is unable to read and put together words. 

I feel like I'm accomplishing a lot now.  I finally got QQ this week, because my students begged me to get one.  I was also invited to hang out with my Chinese teacher at his party this weekend.  Woo!

没有意思

This roughly translates as "no meaning" but can be used in many different ways, including:
- not intersting
- no meaning
- boring

I find this interesting that in Chinese there is no real concept of calling something "boring", but instead that something that just lacks meaning.  This may be worse than just being boring, actually now that I think of it. 

I will blog more, I will blog more, I will blog more.

Victory! (And a blister to prove it)

Tiger Leaping Gorge was amazing.  The first day was pretty rough, especially the 28 Bends path which was pretty much an upward climb to 2670m complete with 28 hairpin turns for about 2 hours straight.  From there, it was pretty much downhill with beautiful views of the mountains and rapids. 

We stayed overnight at a hostel called Halfway House which is well known for its prime location and scenic toilets.  They had open-air squatty potties (troughs, actually) but they faced the mountains and made for an exciting bathroom visit.  There was also a terrace (appropriately labeled "Inspiration Terrace") where the three of us watched the stars at night and listened to the gorge.  The sunrise was also beautiful and I wish I had been able to fully capture how beautiful it was.

The next day we hiked to Tina's Guesthouse from which we hiked down into the gorge itself.  There were two sets of ladders, the longer one having about 40+ steps that were vertical and quite rickety!  We walked along the edge of the gorge and managed to see two of the three 'tiger jumps' before we turned back because of an aggressive beggar woman.  It was really great to go from the top of the mountains to the very bottom in two days. 

The last night we stayed at Sean's guesthouse, the oldest one in the valley and the most famed.  We spent the night looking at the stars and relaxing by the fire.  My legs were really sore (hiking down means hiking up!) and I have a huge blister on my right foot.  When we got back to Mama Naxi's the next day, Jenna and I immedeately did laundry and boy, was our wash water black!  We had to run three cycles before we felt the water was clean enough to put our clothes in spin dry.  This is also the first time we've done laundry in about two weeks. 

Zaijian, pengyoumen

Sean left for Xishuangban'na yesterday evening and we were quite sad to see him leave, but excited that he's going to backpack his way through the Philipines and other places before ending up in New Zealand.  Jenna and I were very fortunate to find such a positive and easy-going travel buddy!  Jenna (and Andy) left for Chengdu a few hours ago and will return to Qingdao before going to Beijing and then on to Taiwan, her new home and job. 

I leave for Kunming tonight on an overnight train to spend a day before I fly out to Beijing on the 28th to meet up with Cathy and do my Beijing thing.  I'm a little frustrated right now though, because you can only add money to your cell phone from the home province and I am a little SOL right now when it comes to calls, but can still text.  China makes no sense sometimes (or a lot, actually). 

America in NINE days!

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Lijiang is pretty but is essentially a series of shops selling trinkets. Sean and Andy got in before the amazing Mama Naxi's dinner(I destroyed the whole fish) and Evan got in later. The two of them
aren't going up to the Gorge with us, as Andy is still recovering from the 拉肚子.

Sean, Jenna and I are heading out to the Three Gorges Dam in a little  while and hope to make it to the halfway point this evening after  climbing up to the top at 2670m and the 28 bends.

Adventuretime!

Goodbye Dali

Dali is apparently known for these three golden pagodas at the foot of the mountain, so Sean and I went to check them out yesterday (Jenna has a cold...eek) but I found them underwhelming. First of all, they were built recently to add something to the area and you can't even climb to the top of the thing. It's also a whopping 171元 to even enter the complex. We walked up behind the thing and a bit up the mountain to get a good view of Dali and the lake. There are frequent checkpoints on the mountain to make sure you don't  have a lighter because the forests are so dry. There aren't any breaks
on the mountain either!

One of our new friends, Andy, had a bad case of the 拉肚子 (travelers diarrhea). Poor kid likely ate a bad western steak (eat Chinese!) and  was suffering for about 18 hours before I gave him some Cipro. He was  back in action when we left and Sean, Evan and Andy are coming up to
Lijiang tomorrow.

Jenna and I took the bus up to Lijiang this afternoon and are now in our new hostel, Mama Naxi's. Mama herself cooked us a family style dinner, as she does every night, for only 15元 each person! We got four plates of food, bananas and tea. She is so friendly and adorable! We also just witnessed her sending off some people with more bananas, extra water, and lots of hugs and kisses. This hostel also has several dogs running around, but only one bathroom/shower that we know of. Lonely planet wins again!

We're going to explore the city tomorrow. America in two weeks!

Dali: Day One

We took a train from Kunming to Dali because it was cheaper, but took a whopping 8 hours versus the 5-6 it would have in a bus. I prefer trains though, because you can walk around and its not as bumpy as a road would be (don't forget that I got the worst food poisoning in China on a bus in the Shanxi province. Long distance buses are kind of ruined for me). We got into "New Dali", actually Xiaguan, and took a bus to the Ancient City of Dali, "Old Dali". Our hostel is the sister hostel to the one where we stayed in Kunming. The Dali Hump is awesome and we are in an eight-person dorm with heated blankets and a tiled bathroom with a huge overhead showerhead. It's brand new and is pretty great.

The first night we ate at a place called Mr. Li's cafe where we had one of my favorite Yunnan dishes-- the giant hashbrown. Yunnan has some really great potato dishes but the giant hashbrown is the best! We also had some fried yak cheese which was sprinkled with sugar and was very tasty.

Dali is very beautiful and is contained by a wall and several gates. The streets are all cobblestone and there are some cool streams going through the walking streets. It's pretty touristy and the streets are lined with restaurants, cafes, and bars.

Climbing Cangshan

Yesterday we got up and hiked two hours up a mountain backs up to Old Dali. Considering we were already at 6000ft elevaton, we took a lot of breaks! We got up to a temple where we ate lunch made by a really nice man who apparently also made good moonshine. Then we walked for three hours along a paved road that went along the contours of the mountain and we were able to see all the beautiful streams and crevices of the mountain. At the end of the path we took a cablecar down and it was amazing to see how far we had gotten and how high up we were. Dali also has a huge lake near it and the views were spectacular.

We roll in expat packs

The crazy kids from the train wanted us to meet them because it was their last night in Dali so we headed out after a much-needed shower. They had befriended a Chinese local named Peter who had led them to this old man's house in Dali. The old guy currently cuts hair, but has photos in his shop of himself as a Red Guard, playing his violin, and in various places around China. He apparently used to play in the Beijing opera and has played for Mao too!

He taught us how to play the er hu (the Chinese two-string instrument) which was really neat. The two strings were the C-string and the G-string and the fingering patterns were the same as on a cello. It was kind of tricky but really cool one I got the hand of playing a scale on it. The old guy's erhu had so much resin build-up on it and the place that his bow rested had carved an indent into the wood! This was one of the coolest experiences I've hever had in China and I have a few videos of him playing.

I should also note that we picked up two English teachers who are actually teaching outside of Qingdao. One is from England and the other is from Canada and they are 18! Their boss sounds really sketchy and actually fabricated their university degrees for the police.

The expat pack then wandered around on the streets looking for a restaurant to eat at, but we wandered into the red-light district. This was when the train kids decided to pull out their medical grade alcohol and teach everyone to blow fire. Sean blew a huge fireball and I got it on video.

Then we found a chuanr place and sat in the back room until 3am eating some good chuanr and fries cooked in chuanr spice (amazing!). It was a really random night that followed a great day. Jenna's feeling a little bit under the weather today so we're going to walk around the town and just take it easy.

Till next time--

New Years in Shanghai

新年快乐！Happy New Year!

I spent my New Years weekend in Shanghai with my friend Max, who is interning at a law firm translating documents and such.  Getting to the city was annoying because not only was my plane 20 minutes delayed leaving from Qingdao because of a late arrival, but the Maglev was broken, so I had to take an airport bus into the city.  Fortunately, I was sitting next to a very nice Chinese man who helped me to figure out which subway stop to take to meet Max for Japanese teppanyaki courtesy of his German roommate, Daniel, and his parents.

Then we went to drop my stuff off and by the time we managed to catch a cab (it was a serious debacle trying to get one and I actually shoved my way into a cab before another guy could), it was about 11:30 PM.  We headed to Kangaroo Bar, grabbed a quick drink and were surrounded by fire torches at the stroke of midnight!

The Modern Shanghai

The next morning I wanted to go to The Bund, but it was closed for renovations for the Shanghai Expo.  I'm still pissed I didn't get to stroll on the famous Bund, which was the only 'must-do' in Shanghai for me.  The expo has seriously taken over the city, with pictures of the little Expo mascot (which looks like a mini-Gumby), countdown clocks, and slogans everywhere.  It's just as crazy as Beijing was about the Olympics.

We walked around on East Nanjing Road, a kind of giant pedestrian mall swarming with tourists and huge billboards.  There was a huge Sephora, Zara, and a huge Nike store with Kobe Bryant on it.

After much wandering around the area, avoiding construction sites and swarming Jan1st tourist mobs, I finally got to take a nice photo in front of the famous Shanghai/Pudong skyline!

Amidst all the development, large malls, and skyscrapers, I was amazed by Shanghai's assortment of public parks.  There are many "little" parks in the downtown area, some complete with little lakes, paddle boats and bumper cars for kids, squares for public ballroom dancing, and places to sit.

And that's about when I concluded that there was nothing that hadn't been run over by hyper-development... so the search for the "real" Shanghai began.

We went to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum in his old house in the French Concession.  I have a lot of respect and love for the man and think he did some really amazing things when he was President of the Republic, including being fluent in English and traveling around the world.  The house was really cool and I totally nerd-ed out looking at old photos and artifacts. 

That evening, we went out to get Korean BBQ with the Germans.  Max and I were really tired from walking around the city all day, so we tried to make it a chill night and go out to a jazz club.  We ended up being too early for the show, so we went back to Kangaroo Bar for a drink or two, and ended up leaving four hours later.  Chinese people are awesome.

In Search of Old Shanghai

The next morning, we headed out to Jade Buddha Temple which houses this GIANT statue of Buddha made out of a single chunk of jade.  It was really neat and the temple was also pretty active.

 

(Not the Jade Buddha.  No pictures allowed in that hall.)

After this, we wandered into a neighborhood not far from People's Square where people (a) didn't live in high rise buildings and (b) weren't surrounded by Western stores.  I love taking pictures of the vendors and stores here and would have taken a picture of every single one if I could. 

 

We also wandered into a pretty cool Daoist temple nearby, which had a ceremony of sorts and some really awesome statues.

 

I find East Asian religions fascinating and always feel a little sacrilegious (read: Catholic guilt) when I take photos in temples.  They are just so intricate and interesting to me that I can't help but take pictures!

Where is Shanghai?

I realize I'm being a huge China snob when I start separating what is "real" and "fake" Shanghai.  But what makes Shanghai, well, Shanghai?  Is it the skyscrapers or is it the old buildings that are being razed to make room for the high-rise buildings?  Or even the Shanghainese feeling that they are superior to the rest of the Chinese?  Maybe it's because I came to appreciate China in Beijing, but Shanghai is just so unlike what I know that it baffles me. 

So that's my "little" post about Shanghai.  I've been really busy this week because it is exam week and I have to grade 500 students!  Next post: Spring Vacation

Nanjing Weekend

This past weekend I went to Nanjing with my friends Charlie and Max.  It was a blast and such a well-needed break from teaching and Qingdao.  I miss having the university-age expat populations that Nanjing and Beijing have to offer.  The guys are applying to the Johns Hopkins- Nanjing program and had to sit for their Chinese proficiency exam on Friday so I tagged along for weekendfuntimes.

Charlie and I got in on Thursday after much "air traffic" delays for both of us.  When I waited for him I also saw a real dog in the airport -- a golden retriever from Australia with his German daddy!  I miss real dogs and get very excited when I see a dog that is not a pekinese or some sort of small drop-kick dog.  Then we checked into our hostel and had a really yummy italian dinner, complete with salad, bread, and of course, Qingdao beer.  Max got in later that night and after a reunion drink, we turned in for an eventful Friday.

We went to eat some yummy Korean food and then grabbed a cup of coffee before I left them to study for the test.  Then I headed out with my new buddy, Ryan, who was staying in our dorm room in the hostel and had my bottom bunk.  He had done a semester studying Chinese at Nanjing University so was a great buddy to run around the city with for the weekend.

First we went to Jiming Temple in the northeast portion of the city.

It was really neat and the view from the top of the pagoda was really outstanding.  The thing that always amazes me about China is how you will see an ancient temple right next to a huge skyscraper and surrounded by cars, bikes, and people that forget how amazing it all is. 

Then we went to the Ming City Wall which was also amazing!  The wall has survived 600 years and many wars and invasions.  I love seeing city walls because they are just so massive and contain so much history and culture.  The wall is the longest city wall in China and is still intact, although does not join in all the places it used to.

The bricks that make up the wall are actually fired clay and are surprisingly light and can be picked up.  They also have characters etched into both sides -- one indicating the company that made the brick, the other side the name of the person who made the brick.  If the wall crumbled or fell, whoever/the company who made the brick would be held accountable and executed.  Now that's quality control!

The wall also has lots of roots and even grows grass at the top, something I hadn't seen at the Xian wall.  They apparently have to mow it every so often and the last time Ryan climbed the wall, he said it was past his knees.

After wandering around on the top of the wall and walking near Xuanwu lake, I headed back to the hostel to meet up with Charlie and Max to have some celebratory drinks.   Then we met up with our friend Nate's girlfriend's friend and little sister for dinner at a traditional Nanjing-style restaurant in the heart of town.  It was really delicious and we had some great food, including an excellent fried fish, shrimp and my first real 臭豆腐, or stinky tofu.  We also consumed copious amounts of Qingdao beer and had a very, very funny night. 

After dinner we headed out to Castle bar to meet up with Ryan and his friends from Nanjing University who had just ended their final exams.  There were a ton of students, both from the Johns Hopkins program and from the main Nanjing programs.  It was fun to be with college and post-college kids that were doing the whole abroad thing again.

The next day we emerged from the hostel and went to the Nanjing Massacre Museum.  It is a huge complex and an interesting museum, albeit kind of boring just because of how the Chinese design their museums.  The Nanjing Massacre was when the Japanese invaded the city and killed approximately 300,000 Chinese men, women and children in six weeks in 1937.

 I just find it a shame that in America our World War II history is so Europe-centric that many are unaware of the atrocities that occurred in Asia.  There are even still problems as a result of the Japanese invasions as there are problems in Europe because of the Nazis.

So after this uplifting afternoon, we came back to eat dinner and hang out with some new friends we had met at the hostel for dinner and night out.  Overall, it was a great weekend with some good new friends and great old friends that definitely contribute to my happiness in China.

(post to be continued...)

Beijing Weekend

I made a weekend trip to Beijing and it reminded me how much I enjoy that city, but at the same time, made me appreciate Qingdao a little more. Beijing fascinates me because of its history, sheer size and population, and the multitude of things to do and eat. At the same time, it is so jam-packed with people constantly shoving and pushing that it can be overwhelming. Nevertheless, I miss it a lot and had a great time this weekend.
I went with another teacher, Jenna, to visit my good pal Charlie who has been living in Beijing since February studying Chinese and will finally be returning at the end of December. The rest of us thought he might never return!

It was really nice to get out of Qingdao because it is such a smaller town over here. I feel like I’m going to run out of things to do and see soon. I’m already kind of over the “scene” and fear the day when I run out of things to do on the weekends or foods that interest me. Anyway….

Jenna and I took the bullet train to Beijing and it was really cool. It was completed before the Olympics and has made the ~888 km trip under six hours long. The train went up to 243 km/hr at some points and was just amazing to watch out the window. It also had airplane-style seats and tray tables, which was nicer than Amtrak!

After dumping our stuff at Charlie’s apartment and leaving him to take a phone interview with the States, Jenna and I went to Lush in Wudaokou for dinner because I was really craving their foccacia sandwich, which turned out to be just as good as I remembered it!

Saturday we got up early and went to meet my old teacher, Linda, at Peking University. The campus is beautiful and is possibly one of my favorite spots in Beijing. Imagine going to a campus that looks like this:

Then we headed over to 789 Art Space which is actually located in an old factory center that has been converted to several art spaces. It’s a really great location and has some really interesting pieces to look at.

We then went to the famous Wangfujing Snack Street, where you can eat things like, seahorses, scorpions, and starfish on sticks. I stayed with fresh made fishballs and a delicious skewer of octopus tentacles, my favorite!

On the obligatory tourist destinations, we visited the Forbidden City, which never fails to amaze me because of how intricate and HUGE the place is. It’s really a trek across the thing and I can only imagine those poor guys running around the place with cymbals and stuff (I have a very Last Emperor imagination, ha).

Tiananmen was overrun with 60th anniversary propaganda, including giant pillars depicting the fifty-one minority groups as cartoonish dancing figures. It’s not exactly what I would consider pretty either.

There are also the giant screens on the Square, playing a rolling loop of inspirational music, dancing people, and panoramic scenery from around the country. Oh and don’t forget the recap of the 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony. Happy 60th Birthday, China.

I also made an obligatory Silk Market trip on Sunday and emerged with these goods: a grey Jimmy Choo hobo purse, Longchamp purse, LeSportsac satchels, Black boots, and a scarf. Not too bad but I was definitely restrained. I really want a Mulberry purse next time I go back!

Food post next time… yeah go ahead and laugh at me always taking pictures of food.