Recap: Kunming

So, after a week of traveling in Southern China and then a month of being home in Seattle, I have made the long trek again back to Sias.  The flight is long, but direct Seattle to Beijing is really nice.  Plus, I severely dislike LAX.

However, before I returned to the land of good coffee, beer, and cheese, I traveled to three cities in Southern China with my friends Becky and Ole.

The first (and my favorite) was Kunming.  It is like the LA of China: sunny weather even in winter, really nice neighborhoods with interesting restaurants, really cosmopolitan compared to places like Zhengzhou.  We met quite a few French people and ate at a lot of French restaurants.

First off, we stayed in this hostel called Cloudland.  This was my first hostel experience and I LOVED it.  It had a really cool atmosphere and a lot of interesting people there.  All of the rooms opened out into the open air courtyard and was really nice to sit on the patio or in the bar.  We stayed in an 8 person dorm which was clean and functional.  There was a cute little dog that ran around that I became friends with.

In the center of down town is Green Lake, which was wonderful to walk around and the weather was sunny and warm (an nice break after the bone aching cold we had been experiencing in Xinzheng).   There were old men flying kites in the park so high that we couldn't even see most of them.

Near by was a game store (just like Blue Highway Games on Queen Anne!!!) that we rented board games at.  Rather, one board game: Ticket to Ride.  I love that game.  We played it three days in a row.  We know play it all the time here as well.  The French guy who owned it was really nice and informative and served good black beer.

The next day we made the 4 hour bus ride through construction mayhem outside of town to what was called "the Stone Forrest" which I had seen on a poster in our Hostel.  It looked really cool and I pushed for us to go.  Little did we know that it was 175 kuai to enter the park!  This may be only $26.90 to you, which is a normal fee for going into a nice natural preserve (I paid that much driving through Glacier National Park in Montana), but I am a poor English teacher who gets paid in Chinese money.  So, we trekked off into the unknown, finding some of the rocks in the countryside that were not maintained but rugged and more interesting (bright side of a really long bus trip).

It was again a really nice day and I ran around in a dress and flats (maybe I should have worn more appropriate foot wear, but I thought we would be walking around a park, not hiking into the countryside).

Where's Waldo?  I am in this picture, I swear.

On the bus ride back we got to see a Jackie Chan movie about all of these Chinese dudes trying to save/kidnap a baby.  It was funny, even if it was in Chinese.  When we got back, we were starving and I ate the best sandwich of my life: BBQ lamb with blue cheese on french bread.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it now.  Mmmmmm.

Needless to say, I want to move there.  Too bad I already signed a contract for coming back next year.  

Highlight of Kunming: getting my first Yahtzee ever.  Always go for 5s, cause that's what the picture on the box it.  

Well, there is this thing called Culture Shock...

It's been a long time since I last updated.  Sorry.

Briefly, I want to talk about something that happens to all expats living abroad.  Commonly it's called culture shock, but in long term cases it's more like culture stress because it's not really a shock.  Maybe they call it shock because it's like the pschological term for shock: a state of being disoriented, withdrawing, and being irratible or anxious.  That pretty much describes culture shock.  Culture shock is inevitable when moving or spending time in another country and usually it hits 1-3 months into your time there.  It happens.  I stopped writing my blog when it hit.  Then I never really got back because finals started.  I'll talk more about that later.

There is a list of stages of assimilating into a different culture.  The goal is to get to level 4, but it's possible to be in multiple stages in different degrees.

Stage One:  Everything is exotic and shiny.

Stage one is really fun.  It's the honeymoon phase of moving to another culture.  Everything about chinese culture was interesting and exciting.  Mainly because it was so different that novelty really gave everything a shiny glimmer through my rose tinted glasses. 

Stage Two:  Everything is confusing and annoying.

After the shine wears off, the honeymoon is over and things aren't so fun anymore.  Chinese culture is really confusing on many levels and after being stared at the 10,000th time, or being yelled at in Chinese for doing something wrong that you didn't know about, or having another awkward moment with a random Chinese person, living in China is really not fun anymore.  It's dirty, and different, and this is when you really start craving food from home hard core, like cheese and not-boxed milk, turkey sandwiches, good beer and coffee,  pizza sauce that wasn't sweet, and rainbow chard (well, maybe that was just me).  Normal food.

This is where culture shock really gets you.  You start complaining and grumbling more than normal, you become irritable and annoyed constantly, you start withdrawing and watching movies alone in your room.  I was constantly tired and slept all the time.  The emotional stress takes a toll on the body and a whole bunch of people got sick.  Things are just rough.

Stage Three: Acceptance

Stage three is the light at the end of the culture shock tunnel.  Once you force yourself out of bed and out of your room, you establish routines that make life understandable and stable again.  My routine includes going to get a real milk tea latte every day.  (Maybe twice a day).  You find the things that remind you of home and make you happy.  You find the things that you like about Chinese culture (like tea to go everywhere).  You get to know your chinese friends a little more and have them explain some of the things that are confusing about Chinese culture.  You accept that the Chinese do things differently and that's okay.  Different is okay.

Stage Four: Assimilation

The goal for most people in their international experience is this level.  Assimilation is taking part of the foreign culture and adding it to your own personal culture, participating in Chinese culture as a whole.  This happens the best when you fluently speak the language (which I absolutely do not) but can happen to anyone who makes an effort to understand the culture.  Assimilation is literally a change in thinking and habits, in subtle ways you starting thinking more Chinese, seeing patterns or subtexts that you didn't see before.  You not only accept that things are different but understand why.  This understanding of the culture makes you appreciate it more.

In general, I'm in stage three moving into stage four.  However, I am still experiencing all stages depending on the event or encounter.  Some people that I know are still in stage two.  Stage two can make or break a person, living in a different country shows you many character flaws that you didn't know you had.  It's rough, but a really good growing experience.

I hope to start writing again, now that I'm on vacation in the States I have easy access to blogger, which is blocked in China.

More to come!

Random Facts About China Part 2

Yes, another list.

10. Green Oranges.  During the summer, the only oranges you can find are green.  Orange oranges have now come in, but for a while it looked like you could only buy limes.  If I only could have been so lucky, they don't have limes in China. 

9. All of China turns their heat on on November 15.  There is no heat in my building until then.  I could use it now....

8.  There are no personal ovens in China.  People don't bake things.  There are bakeries, but no one bakes cakes or baked goods on their own.  I have seen one oven in China and it was in a foreigner's appartment.  There are toaster ovens, but they just aren't the same...

7. There are also no dryers.  Everyone line dries their clothes.  In the dorms there are lines outsidein the hallway and on the roof and they are always lined with clothes.  I wonder how they get their clothes to dry in the winter when it's snowing, maybe they just hang everything up inside where it's warmer.

6. Pretty much every phone in China is a pay-as-you-go phone.  I don't think I have met anyone here with a phone plan.  There are no hidden fees or over usage penalties, when you run out of minutes on your phone, it stops working.  I kind of like that.  But I found out that I couldn't put money on my phone in a different provience, I couldn't put money on my phone in Beijing because I had a Zheng Zhou area code.  But aside from that I like my plan-free existence.

5. My campus plays music or talk radio in the morning in the dorms to make sure everyone is up.  For example, this morning I awoke at 7 to "In the Arms of an Angel" by Sarah Mclaughlan.  Some times it is the national anthem, or a woman talking in Chinese.  Ole said he's heard a woman speaking in English and it's the worst because her acccent is not very good and you know that most of the students can't understand what she's saying anyway.  Might as well put on some Lady Gaga or "My Heart Will Go On" or something.

4.  I think the most popular American movie in China is Titanic.  Almost everyone has seen it.  Everyone can sing "My Heart Will Go On." 

3. There are not take out boxes in China, expect at foreign food resteraunts in big cities like Beijing.  Everyone takes their food to go in a double layered plastic bag.  Sitting in Italian Square at lunch or dinner time you can always watch students walking by their their bags of noodles or egg and tomato with rice, or dumplings, or whatever.  When Dad was here, he couldn't get over 'food in a bag'.

2.  The Chinese language doesn't have 'he' or 'she' differentiation.  So my students often use the wrong gender pronoun when talking about other people.  So when I talk to my students I need to keep track of the original name of the person and ignore the pronouns after that.

1. There are no movie rental store here.  I really miss walking into Video Isle on Queen Anne and browsing through all the movies and renting one.  Here there are some DVD stores but you just buy them, and granted it's for about a $1 but there is something I miss about renting.  Or maybe it was just the popcorn I got from Video Isle.  All of the popcorn here is sweet.

Culture Week

There is a Sias tradition called Culture Week.  All of the foreign teachers do a presentation each day of the week on different regions. Except for Monday, which is China day and the whole school goes crazy and Chinese.

We split into groups based on regions and I chose the day Latin/South America and Africa.  There is also Asia Day, Europe Day, and North America and Austrailia Day. 

Culture week is awesome, but also infamous.  It is certainly a high stress week for everyone and for some more than others.  Each groups has many big tasks they have to accomplish, and no one really knows if it's going to all come together until five mintues before show time.  It actually reminds me of all the Girl Scout camps I did, only on some serious steroids and minus all the little girls running around.

Each group has two parts: day time booths and a night time performance.  Our booths look pretty awesome, there are a lot of informational boards about different countries and cultural traditions.  We are also going to hand out food samples and mini passports to get stamped with some different countries' stamps.  We have a huge grass hut that people last year made, as well as a huge velvet (don't ask me why) crocodile and anaconda.  Vernon and Ashley also repainted these huge murals of a hippo, zebra, giraffe and water buffalo.  Needless to say, Italian Square looks pretty bomb.

Jess dressed up as an African lady (hiding her blonde hair of course) and was outside for basically the entire afternoon.  She estimates that she has at least one thousand pictures of her now on Chinese cameras and phones.  I love the little girl frowning at me in the picture.

We served some sort of orange drink (I've forgotten the name already), which tasted pretty good. 

We also had a soccer shoot out, which was crazy difficult (for me, anyway).  You had to move the ball through the cones and then hit the smilie face.  I couldn't get enough lift to actually hit the smilie face, but they gave me a peice of candy anway.  (Holly and Danielle, you would have been pro).  Side note: I ironed and hung all of those latin American flags you see in the background hanging off of the balcony.

This was really cute, we had a huge sandbox and toys in front of our Carribean Islands poster board and all the little babies came to play in it.  They are SO adorable. 

I don't think I could find a better example or picture of split pants if I tried.  I feel like I talk about split pants and people can't really imagine what that would even look like, it's so far against our culture and sense of hygine.  However, every baby looks like this and all of them pee on the street.  And you thought that cats peeing in a sandbox was bad, it only gets worse with a baby.... (Note: this baby didn't actually pee in the sandbox but it could have and that is my point.)

Here is our velvet crocodile. There was also a pink dophin (apparently they are only found in the amazon) but it was in really rough shape so we decided not to use him this year.

Our grass hut was a big hit, and now I wonder how many Chinese people it can fit.  It always had a lot of people in it hanging out the sides for pictures.

I love this painting of the Mayan ruins, the bottom three steps are 3D so you can take a picture on them. 

We also had pinatas that we had students hit at every hour.  This one was decorated as Sponge Bob Square Pants (I have no idea why) but there were also traditional style ones too.  I watched this pinata get taken down by really enthusiastic Chinese students, after the first couple solid whacks one of the taller boys actually grabbed hold of it and tore it in half.  It was really effective.

Faith (in the plaid) and Jess decided to compete in soccer and it was really close.  Though, Jess did have the handicap of being in a dress and in cowboy boots but she did pretty awesome.

I don't have any pictures from the night performance (since I was in it) and I'll post some as soon as I get them.  In brief, there was a lot of latin style dancing, soccer, a fashion show, and boxing.

I will post another section about this, probably, but I want to get this one up.  Check out my facebook if you want to see me as Hermione Granger with Harry Potter.

October Holiday: Beijing part 2

Ironically, my favorite thing about Beijing is not Chinese.  When I was visiting the Bell Tower I stumbled across this little American style coffee shop that looks like it dropped out of Seattle.  It has a courtyard with tables and chairs in the sunshine with a little dog running around people's feet.  The whole place had the cozy but run down feel of my favorite coffee shops like Fremont Coffee Company or Cafe Ladro.  Inside had these huge posters of old movies and bookshelves filled with old books (all in Chinese, unfortunately for me).  There was this cute little white kitten that sat on my lap for a while before jumping out the open window.

I have really been enjoying the expatriot life but I do miss living in Seattle pretty much every day. It was really good for my soul to drink hot coffee in the hot sun and pretend like I was back at FCC during finals.  Plus the cat and dog were super cute and I got some cuddle time.

The day after the coffee shop I went on a tour of the traditional historical sights of China.  First was the Summer Palace.  I met some people from Spokane to hang out with, which was awesome.

The Forbidden City was also a zoo, most of the reason why I went with a tour was because I didn't want to stand in line for 3 hours to get in, which is what would have happened had I gone on my own.

There were a lot of Chinese tour groups because it was the National Holiday and we followed this really cute group of students in their uniforms.  Chinese kids are funny and are just like American kids on tour, not paying too much attention.

I went to this place that my students all called 'snack street' and I can't remember it's real name.  However, it has two blocks of crazy things to eat on a stick.  I went with two of my new friends from Spokane who kept my company on the Forbidden City tour.  We ate some normal stuff, like pork filled buns, dumplings and chicken on a stick, as well as some pumpkin cakes which are pretty good (but better and cheaper at Sias).  This picture has some of the weirder stuff like sea stars, sea snake (ate it!), shark (ate that too!), sea urchins, silk worms, scorpions, octopus, sea horses, ostrich, deer, whole pigeons, chicken hearts, intestines, tofu and the like.

I took my dad to snack street as the first thing off the airplane.  Half way through I realized that maybe that was a pretty intense 'welcome to China' but he handled it pretty well.  We did find some pretty good kung pao chicken at resteraunt near by.

Dad and I climbed the Great Wall too, but he has the pictures from that, so maybe that will be a later post or a facebook only deal.  When I say climbed, I mean CLIMBED.  Now we are both Real Men.  Or at least that's what my students said to my dad when we talked about climbing the Great Wall and I didn't wan to be left out.  Saying that I'm now a Real Woman doesn't quite feel the same.  (Don't get angry with me, feminist friends!!)

And of course I made plenty of new friends during my time in Beijing, especially the ugly stone dragons that ward off evil spirits. They are just so ugly they're cute!!

October Holiday: Beijing part 1

My dad come to visit me during the National (October) holiday, which was super awesome.  I traveled from Zheng Zhou to Beijing by myself to meet him and them bring him back to school.  Dad actaully ended up being a couple days late, so I tooled around Beijing by myself, eating as much foreign food and cheese as I could.  (Hello Starbucks and a real latte!!!!)

The first day I was there I walked around Tianamen Square and people watched.  It never ceases to amaze me that Chinese people do things differently than Americans.  Obviously I know this to be true, but seeing it can be a totally different thing.  Of course, I made a list.

6.  Pop a squat.  Chinese people don't sit on the ground.  The ground is gross, I have said this many times.  So, the Chinese have developed a way to sit without touching the ground.  They squat with their feet flat on the ground.  Its pretty amazing.  Ive really only ever seen little kids do it in America, it requires being pretty skinny and small boned, something Americans don't always have.  This position is also required for the use of a squatty potty, and I am getting better at it.  But I still don't find it restful.

5. Umbrellas in the Sun.  Contrary to America's obession with being tan, Chinese women are obsessed with being pale.  On sunny days there are just as many umbrellas and parasols as if it's raining.  They don't understand the concept of sun bathing or tanning (Christina, don't come to China) and they often put bleach or some sort of lightening agent in lotion or soap to make your skin whiter.  Hence why I brought lotion from home.

4. Kids in Split Pants.  I may have mentioned this already, but kids pee on the street and little kids don't wear diapers, they wear crotchless pants.  It's always funny to see a kid in his or her parent's arm with their little bare butt hanging over the side of their arm.  Parents must get peed on all the time, though I have never seen it happen.  They do have a particular way to hold their peeing baby so they don't get splashed on.  When Dad and I were in Xi'an we took the bus to our hotel and the baby next to us started peeing on the floor of the bus.  Of the BUS! Dad nearly got off, and I am so jaded that I hardly even noticed untill the little stream of pee threatened my shoes.  Needless to say, most of my shoes are not coming back to America and are not allowed in my house.

3. Picture taking.  Chinese people, like Japanese people, are intense about their photo poses.  There is always a peace/victory sign involved, usually on both hands.  They also need to stand right next to whatever it is they are taking and point to it.  They also don't wait for you to finish your picture before walking in front of your camera.  I have had my picture taken by many people, some with me and some from afar.  My friend Jess with blonde hair attracts more attention than I do, which I'm kind of grateful for.  Though I do get asked if my hair curls naurally pretty often.

2. Purse Holding.  When couples go shopping or out together, the man always carries his woman's purse.  For extended periods of time.  Even if it's frilly and pink.  I think it's a way for him to stake his claim.  But men in the US would never get caught dead holding a woman's purse for more than 2 seconds.  For the most part.  That's something that I appreciate about Chinese culture: men are not threatened by things like holding purses or other things that would be stereotypically 'gay' in the US.  Of course it can go a little too far, like pop stars in pleather playing sparkly guitars (yes, it IS too far, Jess).  It does through off my gaydar but I don't mind.

1.  Matching Couple T-Shirts.  I have mentioned this in one of my early posts about campus, but my favorite thing that I have seen here have been couple t-shirts.  Chinese valentines day was right before I moved here so I saw a lot at the end of August, but I did find a few in Tiananmen Square.  There appears to be a rule that couple t-shirts cannot be innocuous.  They need to be a bright color (mostly purple or yellow and ocassionally pink!) and very distinctive.  I took this picture of the first couple after seeing two other couples with matching shirts and being too afraid to take their picture.  I shouldn't have been shy, I think they like the attention more than I do (which isn't too hard).  I found the second at snack street (more about that later) and asked if I could take their picture.  They got one with me too, so I guess it was a fair exchange.

The next day I went to go see the pandas at the zoo.  Needless it say it was a zoo with all the people there (get it? yeah? yeah?... it was a zoo at the zoo...?  I hear you laughing Holly Allan).  But seriously, it was crazy.  Expecially in front of the pandas.  Below is a picture of the area when you first get into the zoo and it was packed like that as far I could see over them. I fought the valient fight to get in to see the pandas and the big ones were boring.  They just slept while a thousand people took their pictures.

However, the baby pandas were freaking ADORABLE, I wanted to take one home in a basket.  They had just gotten fed so they were chowing down on their bamboo leaves and rolling all over themselves while doing it.  These were the pandas who were from Sichuan where the earthquake hit before the Olympics.

This post is turning into a beast, so I'm going to leave you with one final thought before taking a break.  That thought is: PANDA HATS.  They are amazing and I bought three.  I first saw this girl wearing one at the summer palace and I HAD to take a picture with her.  It turned out she spoke pretty good English and she told me that they were selling them all over Beijing.  I found one not ten minutes later and picked two up for 30 RMB (less than $5 for both) and wore it all day.  Amazing.  I still have it and I wore it to my first couple classes after the trip and my students thought it was hilarious and crazy that their teacher would wear such a cute panda hat to class.  It has come in handy when we sit on the roof to talk and drink beer.  Very warm and fuzzy.

61st Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC Banquet

So, Jess and I along with Jon, Jacob, Becca and Sammy went to a banquet in Zheng Zhou to celebrate the founding of the People's Republic of China 61 years ago.  I let my class go a little early so we could leave at 5.15 and so I had to teach for four hours in my banquet clothes, hair and make up. 

We got there and it was in a really nice hotel with marble everywhere.  Dinner was upstairs and we were some of the first ones to arrive.  Our early arrival was partly due to the fact that we were able to go through a checkpoint on the freeway where police men were diveriting traffic to a detour and our official banquet invitation got us through on the main road.

We sat down with Jess, Jacob and Sammy out our table as well as Julian who works in the Sias office with Becca.  There were also five Chinese people at our table, one we talked to was a lawyer and his daughter lives in San Fransisco.

The food:
First round of 'cold' dishes:
1. Jellyfish (ate it!)
2. Duck (ate it) with an awesome brown sauce
3. Tofu noodles (ate it)
4. A black fungus that is everywhere in China. (have eaten it before, will not do so again)
5. Veggies: lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions (yay tomatoes!)
6. Sliced cooked beef heart (ate it!)
7. Little whole shrimps in a spicy rub (ate it) with their little black eyes looking at you as you eat them whole.

'Hot' dishes:
1. Roasted chainsaw chicken (when they cut up with chicken into pieces without removing the bones first)
2. Chicken soup
3. Noodles
4. Fried rice (the best!)
5. Shanghai Greens
6. Fried lamb
7. Some weird potato and green pepper dish
8. Something else I didn't recognize but had mushrooms in it.
9. Sweet red bean soup (which was pretty awesome)

Dessert:
1.Coconut mochi balls (pounded rice cakes) with seseme on the inside.
2. Fruit (watermelon, cantelope, dragon fruit)
3. Baijou.  This is infamous in China, it's rice wine that's like 40-60% proof. It can really mess you up if you drink a whole bunch at a time, but they serve little baby shots of it as an after-dinner digestive helper.

Before dinner started there were a few speeches about how much China has improved since the PRC was established and how we need to follow in the steps of Deng Xiao Ping (not the Chairman!) and how Henan is a central part of this process.  We toasted lots and lots of people, us foreigners making a special point to speak with all the other foreigners in the room (for moral support being in a country where we don't understand the language or the food).

We met some folks who were the foreign teachers at Zheng Zhou University and there are only 6 of them.  It looks like they all get along, but I can't imagine having my community that small and personalities that don't get along.  It certainly makes me glad I'm at Sias with the 120 teachers we have. 

We also met a guy named Carl who teaches at a primary school here, he and his wife and their four children have lived here for three years.  I actually ran into him a couple days later at Home Depot in ZZ when I was there on a shopping trip.  Apparently he has a motorcycle that he's been working on.

I've decided that I do like going to banquets.  It gives me something to do and try interesting food (some of it good, some of it not).  There certainly are some down sides to banqueting, like Chinese people choosing your food that ends up with things like jellyfish and tofu ten different ways in weird sauces.  But at this point the pros outweigh the cons and I'm not jaded about stuff like that.

I have a whole bunch of posts coming from my vacation, I just need time to write them!!