Zheng Zhou Shopping Trip

On Saturday we were able to head into the capital city of Henan Province, Zheng Zhou for a shopping trip.  They have a few western things there, like Wal-Mart, Metro (a foreign goods import store in bulk, kind of like Costco), and Dairy Queen (real ice cream!).  They also have a huge technology market, outdoor fashion market, and fabric market.  So many things to do, and so little time.

The bus ride took 1.5 hours and I got to sit with one of the Chinese culture students named Jessica.  We've been hanging out quite a bit during the cultural activities, and I like her a lot.  So, we talked and folded cranes, and she volunteers at an orphanage on fridays and I want to go with her.  One of the other foreign teachers leads the program and I'm excited to start volunteering there.

We made it to Zheng Zhou and went en masse to the technology market.  Since I will be teaching an academic class, I need a USB flash drive to take my power point files to class.  I also wanted to get a wireless router so I can use my iPad and computer anywhere in my appartment.  I was able to find both, the first costing me 50 RMB ($7) for a 4 GB drive and 120 RMB ($18) for the wireless router.  Sure, the instructions are all in Chinese, but we figured it out and now its up and running. 

Note: RMB is the shorthand for the offical Chinese term for their currency, which is yuan.  On the street, yuan are called kuai.  RMB = yuan = kuai.  Just in case I use all three terms, I don't want you to be confused.

We took the bus in the city, which only cost 1 RMB ($0.14) and it was cramped.  Top row left to right: Winston, Seth, Nick.  Bottom three: Erin, Michael, Jessica (who I sat next to on the bus).

Then we headed back to the shopping mall for Indian food for lunch.  Most of the Chinese students had never had Indian food before, so I ordered some things that I liked (paneer naan and chicken tikka masala) and found out that our Chinese students really just like Chinese food the best.  There were mixed reactions to the curry (more for me!) and we had a discussion about American food and international food.  They were surprised that I ate Indian food so often (once a week with Mom in the U District during school) and we tried to hash out what was really American food and what was food brought in by other countries.  I decided that pie was really a truly American food (thanks to pioneer women) as well as hamburgers.  We have a lot of American style foods, but few that didn't originate from somewhere else.

Anyway, we did see some interesting street food (I will do a whole post of street food later) but I had never seen this before, and certainly not near Sias.  I think its a pretty cool way of serving melon, it almost makes me wish I like eating it.

After lunch we went to Wal-Mart so I could buy butter to bake some stuff (which I won't do for a while, but its more of a security blanket than anything because I feel better just knowing that it's in the freezer section of my mini-fridge.)  However, I was shocked how much butter was compared to other Chinese things.  To give you a comparison:  a bottle of water costs 1 RMB ($0.14) and a bag of chips is 3 RMB ($0.42) and 20 pork dumplings are 6 RMB ($0.85) and a really nice meal cost 20 RMB ($2.85) and one block of butter costs 25 RMB ($3.50).  That is the normal American price for butter, but in China it's shockingly expensive.  I bought coffee too, which was also expensive (50 RMB) and GUINESS!!!! which was 10 RMB a bottle compared to the Chinese brand Tsing Tao which was 3.5 RMB a bottle.  So for the most part I'm sticking to Chinese things, but I'll splurge every once in a while on coffee, real stout, and butter.

After Wal-Mart and a quick stop at Dairy Queen for real ice cream (Chinese ice cream has a weird taste and texture, its not made with real dairy and doesn't taste as good) we came to this open market to look for things like sunglasses and earrings and fake purses, etc.  I got a pretty swanky pair of white aviators for 15 RMB ($2.14) and resolved to come back for a purse that I really liked. 

The only thing that I haven't really found is a foam pad for my almost rock-hard bed.  Maybe I'll buy a whole bunch of pillows and sew them together (puts a whole new meaning on the term "pillow top").  We'll see.

More to come!

Top Five Grossest Things

Disclaimer:  This post is kinda gross, hence the title.  Informitive, but not for the weak of stomach.

I just cleaned my toilet, which inspired this list.  My toilet is moderately clean aside from some scum that is really crusted on there, but the unexpected surprise came from my toilet brush.

Without further ado, my top five grossest things I've seen/smelled/touched in China:

5.  The street.  While this is better after the Olympics than before, Chinese streets are gross.  It is a trash bin, a bathroom for dogs and children, somewhere to dump any dirty liquid you might have, a spitting target, its gross.  There are street cleaners, but they just pick up the larger pieces of trash.  In China, you do not sit on the floor.  There is no "10 Second" rule for dropping food on the floor.  You take your shoes off before entering your house and wear slippers inside.  Its dirty, dirty, dirty.  Which leads me to my second point:

4.  Grown man peeing in the street.  Babies do it too, but its cuter when babies do it and so you can look past sanitary issue and point out how funny their split pants are.  (Note: baby pants are lacking a crotch and butt.  there is a big hole so they can just pee and poop on the street.  There are very few diapers in China).  However, when a grown man does it, its just gross.  Ugh.

3.  Trash cans on the street.  It was a lot worse in Tai'an than here, but anytime I pass a trash can on the street, I hold my breath for as long as I can and walk faster.  Especially in summer.

2.  The bathroom in the Zhengzhou hospital.  When a foreigner gets their physicals done for their residencial permits, they need to pee in a cup and put it in the corresponding number cup holder outside the bathroom.  I was number 73 out of 150 little cups of pee outside the bathroom.  Needless to say it smelled aweful.  AND the bathroom was a squatty potty, which are smelly to begin with.  Between the smell, trying to pee in a cup and not on my shoes, and no soap to wash my hands with, it was an interesting time.

1.  My toilet brush.  I don't know who used it before I moved it, but it was BLACK with black water collected at the bottom.  I have never smelled anything so autrocious in my life.  I almost cried because I was so angry that it was IN MY BATHROOM!  Needless to say: as soon as I gather up the courage to touch it again, I am tossing it.  GROSS!  (Another Note:  there is no flushing toilet paper in China.  The system can't handle it.  But I'm used to that, so it doesn't make the list expect in passing.  But some of the other teachers who are new to China are having a hard time with it.)

Thus concluded my list.  I needed to get it off my chest.  Please don't let any of these things deter you from visiting me, the pros of being here certainly outweigh the cons.  I'll write about the pros later.

I'm So Flexible, I Can Do The Splits

Another thing about living in China is that hardly anything is in my control.  And things change repeatedly.  And I never find out about anything until last minute.

I moved to China with a contract to teach Oral English, something I have experience in and enjoy doing.  During training, my boss Nathan mentioned that they need two teachers to teach Writing and Composition as an academic course.  I had tried to teach the British and American history course but one of the other oral english teachers beat me to it with a masters in history, so they hired him instead.  So, I thought that teaching writing would still get my foot in the door and be more interesting to teach, and have a higher calibre of english because all of my students will be English majors.

I told Nathan I would be interested in teaching Writing, and he said he'd get back to me.  I didn't find out that I was teaching it until the next day five minutes before the Academic team meeting started.  And it turns out that no one has taught this course for 7 years and so there is no syllabus or precedence.  This allows me some flexibility to do what I want but also require more work to unit plan, etc.

I didn't get my textbook until today (Friday) and finally got a chance to sit down with Nathan to ask some basic questions: is this a one semester or two semester course?  (full year)  How many classes will I teach?  (5 classes as opposed to 9 oral english classes I was going to teach)  How many students in each class?  (50!  That's why we only have five classes, because we need that time to grade papers).

I am teaching this class on Monday.  I won't get my schedule until Sunday afternoon.

This is what I love and hate about China at the same time:  this would never fly in America.  But everyone operates like this in China.  The government operates like this: last year they declared a national holiday a week before it was going to happen.  Everyone just dropped what they were doing and rearranged their schedules and took a holiday./How crazy is that?

I am going to plan as much as I can for this class and just jump when they say jump.  As much as I get frustrated, this is the way that China is and it's not going to stop for me.  I just need to learn to roll with the punches, not complain, and be grateful that they are letting me teach a class that I'm not necessarily experienced in, but am willing to try my hand at.

As a side note, I've noticed that my spelling and word choice is slowly deteriorating.  When I come back in Janurary, my English will be Chinese English and I will say things like "I wish you to be happy every day."  Just wait.

Direct Vs Indirect Communication

Some of the junior English students have been taking a class over the last three weeks called American Culture: learning about the differences between Chinese and American culture and then experiencing it first hand by spending a lot of time with the new teachers when they get here.  Last night they did a presentation on the difference between direct and indirect communication, something I found very interesting.

Chinese culture promote indirect communication. Most all of Chinese culture is the same all around the country and a huge part of their culture is the idea of 'face.'  I'll write more about face later, but in general its like one's reputation and self esteem.  Chinese people are very very careful to make sure that they don't lose face in front of others.  So they communicate indirectly to be sensitive to everyone's face.  Most ideas are presented as sugestions, with deference that the other person probably has the better idea.  Most answers to yes or no questions are 'maybe,' giving both parties the chance to back out or change plans without losing face.  Conflict is prevented at most costs, Chinese people do not want to rock the boat at all.

To Americans, this type of communication can be very frustrating.  We value straight talking; equating direct communication with honesty.  Conflict is something to be dealt with and then move on.  In China, direct communication is used only with very close friends or by employers to employees.  Americans can easily overstep bounds in China that they didn't know where there, seeming overpowering and superior in a culture where very little is said outright.

The way things happen in China is often not the most efficent way things can be done.  Unlike America, efficiency and problem solving are not top priorities for the Chinese.  Providing the most amount of jobs to people is a much higher priority.  This can create efficiency: the entire garden in front of Peter Hall was torn up and replanted in three hours because there were 40 people working on it.  However, mostly it creates a drag because things need to go between more people.  But, that's the way things are and those people are getting paid and feeding their families, so the line has to be drawn somewhere.

I remember this story from my ELIC training discussing this idea: a group of Americans were driving around the country side and watching workers in the field.  One of them commented that farm machinery would be able to cut the number of people in the field in half.  Their Chinese guide looked at him and said "But then where would all those people work?"  Just because farm machinery would be more efficent, it is not necessarily the best way in China.

Having the Chinese Culture students be able to articulate this to us was very informative and will help with dealing with a culture as different as China's.

White-Knuckled Grip on my Seat

My friend Mel was going to come into the airport in Zhengzhou and I wanted to go meet her at the airport to welcome her back home.  Innocent enough, wouldn't you say?  Her flight came in at 11:30 PM, but that wasn't a problem.  Sias has vans that go back and forth to the airport, I came to Sias in a cheery yellow van.

At 10:45 I found myself gripping my seat next to my friend Neil as we barrelled down the country roads between Xinzheng and Zhengzhou.  It was pitch black and pouring rain and the lightning lit up the sky in increadible patterns that I have only ever seen in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.  It was like something out of an action movie: the right lighting, the right weather, and the right hightened suspense factor represented by the lightning and thunder. 

My top five favorite moves that our driver pulled:

5.  Pulling around slower moving trucks blindly.
4.  Driving on the wrong side of the road with oncoming traffick whizzing by.
3.  Hydroplaning in the small lakes that had formed in the potholes.
2.  Honking at and then swerving around the people that walked three-across down the middle of the road in
     the pitch black.
1.  Backing up on the freeway because he missed a turn in the dark.

This drive took 45 mintues to make is into the city and to find out that Mel's flight had landed in Wuhan because of the bad weather.  So then we drove 45 mintues back, by which time I had come to terms with the fact that we might die on the road and what will happen will happen.  We did pass a pretty big accident involving a dump truck vs a van and the dump truck had won except that it had spilled its load across the freeway.

I've decided that crazy, deathy defying driving is easier to handle in the day time, when you can at least see what you're hurtleling by. 

Mel did make it, finally, at 3.30 AM.  I'm super excited to have her here!!

Apartment A402

I have finally really settled into my apartment, though I haven't quite put the finishing touches on it yet.  However, it does feel like home now and I like what I've done with it so far.

The first room is the living room area, complete with TV, couches and coffee table.Or is it a tea table since Chinese people don't drink coffee?  The first thing I did when I moved into my apartment was to put the pictures on the wall.  All my clothes were still in my suitcase, but I needed to visually impact this space and claim it as mine.  I really wanted it to look like I lived there, not like a hotel.

I am still awaiting my tall friends to help me put up the US map.  The walls are a very sunny yellow, that I'm sure I will appreciate during the dark days of winter.

I brought with me a Nikki McClure calendar from Eat Local, which has really nicely matched with the walls.

In between the living room and my bedroom is the quasi-kitchen hallway and bathroom.  I've bought a hot plate to be able to make an occasional meal and the sink to the right is very useful for dishes and sink laundry.  Even through we have a laundry machine, I've been doing mine in the sink a little bit at a time.  When school starts I'm sure I'll switch over.

Please note the most exciting thing about this bathroom: the water heater.  One of the pervious teacher installed it, otherwise I would have a very narrow opportunity to shower in the morning (6-7am) or in the afternoon (3-5pm).  But now I can shower whenever I want with hot water! 

I'm also very excited about my mini fridge, which is currently stocked with water, orange juice and yogurt pouches.  I'll talk more about yogurt pouches at a later date.

Finally, here is my bedroom, with more yellow. I am still trying to find something to put on the walls.  I brought a purple bedspread from home, which I'm glad I did.  Its nice having something familiar.

Last but not least is my closet and desk (out of the picture on the left).

That's about everything, so I'll wrap up and write more later!

I Can't Believe I'm Back

These last two days have been busy... between training, getting to know my teammates, and unpacking there has been very little time to stop to breathe.  My jet lag is getting better, last night I slept a full nights sleep thank to NyQuill (used both for my jet lag and for my sore throat I picked up on the plane).  The night before I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't fall back asleep.  Ugh.

I finally feel like I've pulled my apartment together, I went shopping to get cleaning supplies to clean out all my drawers.  Here is the deal about China:  nothing is ever really clean.  Ever.  And things get dirty fast.  This is one of the reasons my mother should never live in China.  So before I put all my clean clothes away, I cleaned out my drawers and closet to at least make me feel better.

The Chinese Culture Students took us shopping and to the bank, which was incredibly helpful.  I went with two girls named Amanda and Jessica as well as another American family.  Becky and Eric and their four children ages 4 months to 10 years old.  They are really brave people. 

We took a taxi downtown to the bank and to China Mobile where I got my new cellphone.  It is a little, really basic phone; basically the cheapest they had.  Amber was able to bargin it down to 190 RMB, which is about $27.  All phones in China are pay-as-you-go phones, so I put mintues on mine and am collecting everyone's numbers.  I still need to look into getting a skype number to call people back home.  Its nice to have a new phone, though.

We then headed to a little store across from Sias called the Superman store by the other Americans here.  They call it that because it has everything one could possibly need for the teachers and if he didn't have it than he could find it.  It has now changed hands, but the name has remained.  There are a lot of names like that, since we don't know the Chinese.

While I was in the Superman store, I looked down to find this surprise:

Kittens!  They were so cute, sleeping in the box of trash bags.  There are apparently a lot of cats on campus, so I will get a little bit of a cat fix after leaving Carmella behind...

I tried to buy the whole store while I was in there, but I needed a lot of things.  White boards for my room, shampoo, trash bags, hangers, pens, paper, rags, soap, tide, a sock clothes-pin circle hanger, a clock, tp.  Lets just say I made the woman behind the counter's day.

Everything about this city reminds me of Tai'an.  They are basically the same, the stores and the streets and the styles.  It looks just like Tai'an, which is nice because I know what to expect.  Its also surprisingly comforting, knowing that its not that different and familar enough to make me feel like I know what I'm doing.  It helps prevent me from being too overwhemled.

I will post about my apartment next time.  The Chinese Culture Students are teaching a class called Survival Chinese, which I need to attend.

No Place to Rest my Head

I hate traveling. I mean, the getting from point A to point B part of traveling, not the visiting new places and people. I have had my fill of dirty airport floors and the smell of airlines: recycled air, germs and BO. Gross. I am also envious of people who can sleep on airplanes. I can't. The first time I went to China, I took two NyQuill liquid gels and slept for seven hours which turned out to be a record for me. My friend Neil has a great picture of my with my face planted in Fluffy (my pillow shaped like a polar bear) and drooling.

There was blackmail involved. But he took pity on me and only resurrects it once every two years.

Needless to say, I have Tylenol PM handy. Sleeping is preferable, even if Neil will be waiting with a camera, again.

I finally found Neil (fellow Sias teacher and friend from my first trip to China) in LAX and he was already equipped with his camera.  He had been in the airport already for six hours.  Needless to say we were happy to see each other.

Neil and I met up with most of the other Sias teachers traveling on our flight in the check-in line. With my bags checked with no overweight fees (which are $220 to $300 per bag!!!!! I nearly had a heart attack when I found out), we made it to the plane with no problems and had a rather uneventful flight.

I took Tylenol PM like a good girl and managed to sleep some. More than I expected, on and off for 8 hours. Not restful, but not too bad. I haven’t seen any more blackmail photos from Neil yet, but I’m sure he has at least one new one. He slept only 3 hours.

Stepping off the airplane in Guangzhou reminded me how different China is from the USA (and especially Seattle). The air was thick with moisture and I could feel my hair curling as I walked to Customs. The smell is different: part earth, part pollution and part Chinese person. Not a bad smell, but distinctive.

We only had two hours until our next plane took off and we didn’t have our connecting boarding passes yet. After some misdirection and our group splitting because Whitney has a misplaced bag, we arrived in line too late to make the 8:00 am flight. Talk about having to trust the Father right off the bat, we had only been in China for less than a half hour before I was turning over control. After much waiting in line, we finally all got on the 11:00 am flight, which gave us plenty of time to check in, drop off our bags and make it through security. After another (shorter) uneventful flight, we arrived in Zhengzhou.

After collecting our bags, ten cheerful Chinese 'Culture Students' came to meet us and load all our luggage in a little bright yellow van.  These students are juniors at Sias, English majors, and part of the new teacher reception team that will help all the forgein teachers settle in.  They lugged all my luggage up four floors to my apartment and will take me shopping to help get all the supplies I need.

Seeing them reminded me the reason why I came back to China.  There are a lot of things in China that make me uncomfortable.  But teaching these students who are so eager to learn and excited to interact with Americans is why I love coming here.  My students in Tai'an were the same way. 

I am super jetlagged (woke up at 3.30 am) and a little overwhelmed, but optomistic. 
I will post about my apartment tomorrow, it needs its own post, for sure.  Pictures will be included.

T Minus 20 Hours

This is my luggage pile that I will be taking with me.  The trunk and purple duffle are checked (50 and 40 lbs) and the brown/grey roller and the backpack are my carry-ons.  I'm pretty impressed over all.  The only thing that I didn't get to pack that I really wanted to was a black briefcase.  Maybe Dad can bring it when he comes to visit me in September.  (Noted:  everyone is welcome to visit me.  Please come!)

This morning was the first time I really felt excited about going.  So much of moving is hassel and stress and anxiety that I had no room to feel excited.  People would find out I'm moving to China and say "You must be so ex-CI-ted!!" and I would smile and nod even though I didn't.  Theoretically I was excited, but the emotion wasn't there until this morning.

HOLY CRAP I'M MOVING TO CHINA, TOMORROW!

But I'm not looking forward to the 24+ hours of traveling.  But I am excited at getting to my appartment and putting away all my stuff and having my new friends come over for tea.  And meeting my students and making them all think I'm crazy because I talk too much and smile too much and they have never had an English teacher like me.  On the whole, Chinese English teachers are pretty solem.

I'm excited about buying a hot plate and figuring out what I can cook (and what I can't).  And baking baby pizzas with no cheese and no tomato sauce.  So like... bread and olive oil and cherry tomatoes.  Something like that.

I know that I am going to break down and cry in the airport tomorrow when I say good bye to my family.  I nearly cry just thinking about it.  But this is what I'm called to do, so that's the way it needs to be.  As Donald Miller would say, a great story is not without tears.  Well, paraphrased.

Today:  ate baked brie for lunch and am eating mozzerella and tomato salad for dinner.  Have eaten pizza for the last three nights in a row.  More cheese tomorrow.  Then...  rice.  Will USPS ship cheese through the mail to China?

125 Pounds

I have done a lot of traveling and moving before, so packing all my stuff into boxes and suitcases is not an unfamiliar prospect.  I've spent three summers in China, packing one large red suitcase for a month of teaching at a time.  Moving to college was a 20 minute drive, so I was able to put all of my boxes into my little VW bug and take two trips back and forth in a day to move home during summers.  My first post-college house was only 6 blocks away from my in-college house, so we shoved all of my furniture one at a time into the back of my friend's Subaru and drove at 10 mph with the back open and me holding desperately onto whatever-it-was so it didn't fall out.

[Side note:  I googled "Seattle to Zhengzhou" to find out how many miles I would be traveling, and it calculated it based on kayaking to Hawaii and then to Japan, then jet skiing from Japan to mainland China.  I appreciate Google's sense of humor.]

Anyway, moving 8,500 miles with just 125 pounds of luggage is new for me.  Especially for a whole year.  My comfort books alone weigh 50 pounds.  Thank goodness for ebooks!

I have already packed a large trunk that my dad took to Penn State (back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) that has a large red sticker on the top that says "President Nixon- Now More Than Ever."  Seeing as Nixon was the first president to visit China, I thought it was appropriate.

 I'm glad to be halfway packed already, it has helped easy my pre-move anxiety.  Now I just need to figure out the last minute items and any summer clothes I want to take that I am wearing until the last moment.

More to come!