What a Christmas!

Well, Christmas is over. All that build up for it to end with.. well, with me hovering near the toilet. But more on that later..

Not including my childhood Christmases, this was definitely one of the best and busiest. I know many people were very homesick, but as I'm used to not being with all my family at this time, I really enjoyed myself. Never have I been surrounded by so many decorations and friends nor attended so many parties! Yes, working on Christmas was a pain, but I can't knock China for that..I chose to be here during this holiday!
And anyways, they may not know "the meaning of Christmas" (does anyone know anymore, Charlie Brown?), but they do know how to decorate! Every mall had a huge display outside, every convenience store had Santa stickers on their door, and even the supermarkets played some Christmas music.

We were a bit worried that the lasers this mall was shooting was affecting nearby planes. It's also 3 blocks from our house.

The first party I went to was at my apartment for my roommate's class. The one other American bought catered food...a real thanksgiving dinner (finally)! It was crowded and international.
The next party I went to was dubbed the "Unofficial company party" at one of the teacher's apartments. We all brought food, I dressed as Santa, and we all had a great time at the White Elephant gift exchange. There was a lot of Wine and Chocolate combos!

Santa and some of her reindeer

My third party was the official company party. Looking snazzy, we all went to a hotel and celebrated with our foreign and Chinese coworkers alike in games, a raffle, and a buffet. I won a thermos!

                                     

the company

Finally, Christmas Eve the crew at 11D went over to our better half, 5A, and celebrated the holiday as a family. I'm so thankful for the Oregon crew I came here with and the friends we've met along the way. My Chinese language tutor and her boyfriend joined us as well. We discussed their pending move to New York for university! With another fun White Elephant exchange and a lot more wine and chocolate, I was very happy with my Christmas season.
On Christmas day, I worked a bit and then headed back to 5A. This time we ordered food (Indian again!) and sat in front of the tv and watched some movies. Perfect.
Although....I was starting to feel a little funny.

Some of the kooky family

On the 26th, I woke up feeling awful! As I met a fellow foreign coworker at the subway, she expressed that she was feeling the same along with many of our other friends! I connected the dots, checked my symptoms, called my mom, and called in the diagnosis...food poisoning! After making it through half the day, I went home to stay near my bed and my toilet. The rest of the week I've been slowly recovering.
At my school, I explained a bit of Christmas last week with a short Rudolph film. This week, we decorated a Christmas tree and reviewed all those odd Christmas words (why is it 'Stocking' and not 'Christmas sock', they ask and what's a 'bauble' ?!) I definitely loved how excited all my kids were when entering my classroom to see the Christmas tree and tell me Merry Christmas or 圣诞快乐 ! (which is very close to "Happy Birthday" so we had some confusion)
Best of all was at the end, my grade 5 culture class which I cherish so much on Fridays because we can actually hold conversations received a package full of Christmas ornaments from kids back in America..

grade 5 culture class: penpals to the 'Rainbow Stars' Wilani CampFire club

*A special thank you to the friends and family who sent me gifts. The common themes were 1. warm clothing (7 pairs of socks!) and 2. food (cheese and peanut butter themed). Shucks, you guys know me so well! I know it can be a bit of an undertaking to send packages here so I really truly appreciate the love.

So what's next? Well, China has a pretty funny way of doling out its holidays. Remember for the Mid-Autumn festival how I had to work Saturday to get the next week off? Well New Year's is here! Here's the plan:
Monday Dec 31: work
Tuesday Jan 1-Thursday Jan 3: off
Friday Jan 4: work
Sat. Jan 5: work!
Sun. Jan 6: work!
Monday Jan 7-Friday Jan 11: work 
 Oh yeah, that's an 8 day work week baby!! 
But then, after I'm about to collapse...I'm off for Chinese New Year!!! A month of freedom! Where shall I go???? More on that later, but I promise you, it's epic!

Thanks to you

Much has been happening these days and it has been hard to be so far away from friends and family.

This is a short post to say Thank You and I Love You to so many people in America, Chile,  and all over the world.

I say I'm missing home, but it's the people I miss. Your support for me is amazing and I couldn't have gotten to this point without your help along the way.

The Christmas holiday is approaching and we are doing our best to fill the voids of what or who we are missing, so happy holidays to you, where ever you are. Remember this December that I am thinking of you and am grateful for you.

A Charlie Brown tree

November Holidays

November brought Thanksgiving and my birthday... 

Here's how we celebrated:

family Thanksgiving dinner of....Indian take-out!

Chong's first mashed potatoes..he kept going back.

Did somebody order a chicken?

Hmm, I find there is an absence of birthday photos. Well here's a sum up:
Wed the 28th: work 8:30am-4pm teacher's meeting 6-7:30pm. Well, at least they brought a cake.
Thurs: potluck dinner with good friends
Fri: party!
Sat: party!
Sun: sick...

dinner at 11D

Hop, skip, and jump to Suzhou Canal Town

The largest city I've lived in before Shanghai was made up of under 200,000 people. Living in a city this big certainly gets to me sometimes. So it was nice to take a break and head over to the neighboring "town" (4million) of Suzhou. It did sound appealing on the banks of the Yangtze River and dubbed the "Venice of China".

I hopped on the bullet train one Saturday which got me there in a breezy 30 minutes. Unfortunately, I left my cell phone at home so when it came to meeting up with my friends, I was in a pickle. I found the hostel and they miraculously knew where my comrades had gone and told me what bus to get on to find the Lions Grove Gardens. I never should have got on a strange bus in a strange town. Who knows if I got on the right bus or the right direction, but I certainly never had any hope of finding the right stop to get off at. So, when the time felt ripe, I got off the bus. As usual, I asked someone for help but did not understand their reply and so I continued on foot in what felt like a good direction. After a bit, I realized my friends were probably worrying about me as they waited at the Gardens and asked a rickshaw driver. He laughed, pulled out a map and demonstrated to me exactly how far off I was from getting to my destination. Of course, he wanted to take me and we haggled over a price before I hopped in behind him. I got a nice view of the city while he pedaled and weaved through traffic. At the destination (finally) he hopped off and mimed his pumping heart at me from the exertion of the long journey. I mimed how strong he was and paid my fare.

my chauffeur

After that, things went smoother. I met up with my friends from Shanghai and we did some Garden touring.

Tiger Hill pagota

one of my favorite aspects of traveling: comparing street dog sizes

Unfortunately, Suzhou has fallen in with the likes of many towns in China where industry and development now overshadow and replace much of the cultural aspects that made the town unique. Though there were some interesting sights, we were never far from new construction zones. Nevertheless, it was a good break from the familiar construction zones of SH.

history illuminated

Is this Pork? The Food edition

For some reason, one of the first phrases I learned was "Is this pork? "Zhu rou?" I never had any idea of what they would say back to me after asking the question. Like whoa, not advanced enough to have an actual conversation man, please stick to head shakes of yes or no. So I'd ask and get some response and then usually gauge my hunger and availability of options before deciding if I cared or not. They eat a lot of pork here.
I can't believe how much meat I eat. I mean, all of the sudden, a few weeks ago I was vegetarian and now  I've been chowing down on animals like no tomorrow. Ugh, it's not the happiest thought. Oh look, I just got offered a little pork pastry as I am writing this.

typical dinner selection. noodles, noodles, or rice

It has just been easier to accept what is given to me than offend anyone or go hungry. I admit though, I can only get a few bites in before I've had my fill of meat for the day. Whatever meat it might be..
So far, I've had pork, lots of pork, different kinds of pork, duck, bacon, fish (the Whole fish), crab (the Whole crab), more pork, squid, chicken (but not the Whole chicken), and fried beef steak with mayo on it. Oh, and a scorpion as you learned in my Beijing post. Maybe other things. I just go with it usually. And with a smile.

"Korean BBQ" street skewers

Today at lunch, in the caf, I picked up a cube of meat and popped it in my mouth, but alas, it was a large hunk-o-bone. The local teachers at my table had a good laugh at that and got me a napkin. It was supposedly pieces of bone with meat on them, but this one was basically just bone. The teachers went and got me an extra serving of vegetables after that. Now whenever there is bone-meat, one of the teachers goes and gets me something extra. Lunch at school is hit or miss. It's a cube of rice, oiled lettuce, some meat, and something else vegetable/meat/tofu/oil related. And soup that often tastes like salt water, oil, and seaweed. Oh man, are your mouths watering? It's quite the sight when you go up to get your tray and see an entire fish put on it. Or entire slimy prawns (I said no to biting their heads off). At a teacher appreciation dinner, we were served entire boiled chickens. (I also said no..to the people offering and "no, no, no" to the little chicken head staring  up at me).

I know everyone who knew me when I was younger  is gaping at the screen right now.
WHO'S PICKY NOW??
Honestly though, my diet still consists of mainly fried bread things, noodles, and rice. Breakfasts and snacks (and sometimes other meals) are usually cheap dumplings or fried bread off the street. Though I sometimes happen upon roasted corn on the cob and sweet potatoes. Dinners are often rice or noodles at the Muslim noodle place by our house or a number of other small grub joints. Occasionally, I branch out to street skewers, soup on the street, and other fine restaurant fare. Chinese food is great like once a month, but day after day it gets tiring (especially the unholy amounts of oil) and we are all always scoping out ethnic restaurants or pub fare for a change. I have managed to stay away from classic Western fast food. I've only patronized Pizza Hut a few times.. McD's and KFC I stay away from.

a little more refined

the Indian food that nobody managed to get a photo of before devouring

Famous in Beijing

Onto the rest of the Beijing trip..

real cosy metro rides under the city

On Tuesday, we again set out early. This time our direction was towards the summer palace.  This is where Empress Cixi diverted navy funds to create her own sort of Versailles. And grand and extravagant it was. The area was huge and there were hordes of people. The woodwork was interesting, and the marble boat that isn’t functional. I don’t think my legs were very excited to be used for walking again so soon after the Great Wall.  After lunch, we planned to go back to the hostel and take a break but after a RedBull and snickers, we remembered that we were in BEIJING and there was no time for breaks!

Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake

The marble pleasure barge. Forever docked.

We then went to a hutong which is a traditional narrow street that are individually known for their crafts. They would be Cobbler’s Street, Taylor’s Street, etc. This one, down the block from our destination of a Buddhist temple, had turned commercial from all the tourist traffic. But I Loved it. Oh my, I almost felt at home. Fixie bikes, cute little craft vendors, beer and veggie cafes, and a sign in a window saying “We will refill your re-usable water container for free.” After we pulled ourselves away from there, we went to the “Lama Temple” which is the largest Buddhist Temple in Beijing. The greenery and smell of incense further calmed me. We joined in offering incense for good blessings and wishes.

I said "I'm American!" and he said, "It's too expensive there!"

After, we stopped outside the second largest Confucius Temple and college in China. Following that and dinner, we continued our saga-like day and went to the “Olympic Park”. The area is best seen at night when all the arenas are still lit up. Tourists and vendors were swarming still. One thing that I have noticed is that the Chinese still marvel at their history and love to experience it whether from the age of emperors or 2008.

On Wednesday, we slept in. Finally. Then we hit the day at full force with Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.  The square (“of Heavenly Peace”), known for many important historical gatherings, holds Mao’s body, the People’s Congress, multiple museums, and lots and lots of people. We didn’t deign to get swallowed up. Across the street we got our photos taken with Chairman Mao’s famous portrait as well as portraits with many local Chinese. It is not uncommon when there is a group of us posing for pictures, that locals will stop and take ours too. Sometimes, they even join in. Today was that occurrence x1000. Take the capital city, national holiday, rural folks, and foreign ladies and you get children pushed up against your legs, shy people edging in close, and bold people bluntly asking for photos with them. CELEBRITIES. By the end of the day, our egos were bursting and we would boldly pose for people who were still trying to slyly take our photo.

Looking down at the Forbidden City // Outside the gates wit Michelle and Ling

The Forbidden City recorded about 180,000 people on Monday and Wednesday they surely must have been about the same. Fortunately, it’s huge. Over 9,000 rooms that the emperors of old frolicked in. I really enjoyed this place. We also liked that by flashing our drivers license, we were able to get in under student discounts as the cashiers were not in the mood to check closely.

That night, we went for famous Peking (roast) Duck. They bring it out and slice it like artists and leave you with every part of it. (Including the cleaned bones). I had a nibble.  Then we went to Wangfujing Night Market where I followed up with a dessert of “Scorpion on a Stick”. I thought about Penn State’s Ag Fair and realized that if I was going to eat grasshopper in the states, I might as well eat scorpion in China. They were still squirming on the stick when the cook pressed them on the grill. When we bit into them, they weren’t quite dead but really, we were doing them a service. How did it taste? Crunchy. Not much else to them. The seahorses and starfishes I left to others with less of a conscious. In the later evening, we went to  GulouDajie bar street which surrounds HouHai Lake. It is a very pretty area, and very expensive!

enjoying the crunchy exoskeleton

On Thursday, we got up and headed to the Temple of Heaven. Pretty, but at this point I was very weary of crowds and meandering walking. We got some famous Beijing noodles (not bad) for lunch and then headed to the train station! All went smoothly again, and I was happy to be home on my hard bed.

close to Heaven

Overall, a great time. I was willing to put up with the crowds to see things I NEVER thought I would have the chance or motivation to see. I did not expect to find myself in China, but while I am here I will be immersing myself and broadening my horizons on a completely new culture. And I’m proud of myself for it.

The WALL.

Here are a few titles to describe last week:

Mid-Autumn Festival

Golden Week

Moon-Cake Festival

Rachael doesn't have work for a whole week and it was a glorious thing

Rachael's trip to Beijing!

Whatever you may call it, China took the week off and had a little celebration. 

Yum, Moon Cakes. Filled with red bean, lotus jelly,...

According to the World Bank, last year China's population was 1,344,130,000.  So, there were about a billion people planning to travel this week. Why not join in?
I was offered a spot to join one of my Chinese company coordinators and a few friends in Beijing and jumped at the chance. I didn't know when I would make it north in my travels and here was a chance for someone to plan it all out for me. Of course, I'm in! 
Because it makes perfect sense, the schools are mandated to be open on the Saturday before the holiday to make up for missing the whole week. Obviously that takes care of it. So after 6 days of teaching, I boarded the high speed bullet train (!) on Sunday afternoon. At 300kilometers an hour, we spent a comfortable 5 hours hurtling through Chinese countryside headed north. We got in late and with no problem, got ripped off by a taxi driver, had a drink at the hostel, and went to bed. Tomorrow would be an EARLY day. 

so nice to be back in a hostel.

MONDAY: Indeed, we woke up at 6am, had breakfast (yogurt, granola, eggs,toast, cheese, oh my!) and boarded a bus for the great wall. Sorry, I should rather say THE GREAT WALL. There are different spots at the Great Wall for tourists to access. We decided to drive 2 hours away from Beijing to the Mutianyu section to try and escape some of the crowd. Thank goodness. Some pictures showed people crammed onto the Wall, so crowded you were just being pushed along in a surge. Whereas we were able to get some pictures without anyone in them.
A little info:  

Watchtowers: The Great Wall at Mutianyu has 22 watchtowers, about one every kilometer, on overlapping mountain ranges. 

Dimensions: The wall, built with slabs of granite, is 22 km (14 miles) long, seven or eight meters high and four or five meters wide, crenellated on both sides. 

History: The Mutianyu Section of the Great Wall has 1500 years of history (see below) and today’s wall is a replica of the fortifications of 1568.

Construction began on this section of the Great Wall in the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577). During the reign of Emperor Hongwu (1368-1398), General Xu Da rebuilt the Great Wall on its original foundation. Mutianyu Pass was fortified in 1404 (the 2nd year of Emperor Yongle's reign) with a rare triangular formation of three interlinked watchtowers.

At least we didn't have to take the stairs to just get the the Wall.

Why do all the cool things have stairs? First Machu Picchu, now the Great Wall. There were little stairs, big stairs, no stairs where there should have been stairs, and lots of stones. At one point, I left my companions and took on the final set myself to reach "the end of the wall" or where no restoration had been done and the wall was unsafe for tourists.

After 3.5 hours of the original stair-master workout, we headed for lunch at the base. First, we tobogganed down. Because that is the way soldiers have always gotten off the wall. .

I had a nice moment at lunch when I aided some French boys at my table in ordering for them in Mandarin and then began speaking in Spanish with the Spaniards at my table. The boys were incredulous when I told them I was from America. Apparently, I was only supposed to speak English and expect everyone else to speak English. Well, same to you Frenchies! Maybe you should learn how to at least say "water" and "rice". Touche, Rachael.

queuing up for the ride down

Monday evening, we went to a famous pedestrian street called QianMen (chi-an-men). We had some delicious "hot pot" dinner where a boiling pot of water is served along with veggie, tofu, and raw meat. The water is so hot that after dropping in your food for a minute, it is cooked and ready to be dipped in delicious peanut sauce.

Our tour guide/friend Michelle was on a tight schedule so after dinner, we soon headed home to get some sleep before waking up early again..