It's Time to Go HOME!

Wow, it's time to go home already?? I can't believe it. This year has been amazing. I've learned so much about Chinese culture and about myself. Thank you all for reading my blogs and keeping up with what I've been up to in China. There will be more since there are many stories I haven't shared yet, so keep checking back! This month has been a whirlwind of parties and preparations for our return home. We spent the last two weeks saying goodbye to all of our students. I brought a few things for them to look at, their favorite being MONEY! And then we spent the majority of the classes taking pictures. Some of the students prepared songs to sing for us, and we also received many different gifts. I noticed that Sara tends to get large gifts and I usually get small ones. Of course, they are all special to us. I will miss so many of my students. I hope they will continue to write to me. We've also had many parties to go to. Brandon and Caroline left last Sunday, so we had goodbye parties for them as well as our own. They have been a lot of fun, and I am so thankful to have such good friends here. We're leaving XinXing Sunday morning around 9am. We'll take a van to Guangzhou's airport, and then we fly to Shanghai at 3pm. We'll stay overnight there, and fly out at 4pm on Monday on our way to Chicago! Then, we will land at 4:45pm Monday (45 min flight?! Awesome!) in Chicago. We then have a 5 hour layover and will arrive in Madison at 10:30pm on Monday. It will be the longest day ever, but we'll be so glad to be home. Pray for safe travels for us! Next time I write, I'll be back in America!!!

Weather

Just thought you might be interested to know that the high these days is in the mid-90's and fairly sunny! The low is pretty close to 80, so it's as hot here (sometimes hotter) in the middle of the night as it is in MN and WI in the middle of the day... Our clothes are drying much faster! In just 4 hours the other day! Oh, the novelty of putting your clothes away the same day you wash them... :)

Another Festival Today

I don't remember the name of the holiday, but I just found out yesterday that our students have off today for another one. This one I will not be participating in though... it is the day they eat dog meat. Poor puppies!!!

Exams June 7-9

We had a four day weekend! Partly it was for Dragon Boat Festival, but mostly it was for Senior 3's Entrance Exam. You would not believe what goes into the preparation for the most important exam of a Chinese person's life. First of all, the Sr. 3 teachers are not allowed to watch the exams because of cheating, so many of our friends who teach Sr. 1 and 2 had to give up their long weekend to watch the exams. Also, two teachers watched each class of 30 students along with a video camera. The Internet was shut off for the entire weekend in order to send the video footage to Guangzhou where officials would watch them to ensure that no cheating took place. As you can imagine, our friends were very afraid of making a mistake and hurting the students chances of getting a good score. Stephen told us that a teacher had made a mistake about 10 years ago and they still mention his/her name during the preparation meetings as a warning. Each exam lasted 2-2.5 hours and the teachers could do nothing but watch the students. They were bored and exhausted.

Second of all, each classroom was cleaned out so there were no books or papers of any kind. The desks were lined up with pencils and note paper. Then the doors were sealed with a piece of tape that looked very official. Outside each classroom was a piece of paper with pictures of the 30 students who would be in that classroom. The walkways near the classrooms were blocked off so that no one who was not allowed could walk anywhere near them. This way there would be no distractions or cheating possibilities. We had to walk through the gymnasium to get to the front entrance of the school.

Third (yes, there's more!), the street outside the school's front entrance was blocked off to traffic. Only bikes and walkers were allowed there. They can't take the chance of any noise distractions. I'm pretty sure that any construction near the school was halted, too. It was incredibly quiet for three days. When we left for lunch on Saturday, there were mini buses lined up in our parking area and in front of the school gate. I am assuming that the buses were there to take the kids home or to lunch so they wouldn't have to travel so far and stress themselves out. I had read an article once that told of student's parents renting hotel rooms near the school so that they wouldn't have to travel and could go there to rest after their exams.

It was all pretty intense. Sara and I went to Zhao Qing on Sunday to get away since the Internet was off and our friends were busy. And on Monday after the exams were over, we had three Sr. 3 girls come over to our house for an American meal. Now they are all gone for the year. I'm not sure when their graduation ceremony is, but they will find out their scores on June 29^th. I hope they did well.

MFC

I don't think I've mentioned our favorite fast food restaurant in XinXing much. It is a McDonald's/KFC knock-off restaurant called Mai Ken Ji -- the "mai" from Maidanglao (Chinese for McDonald's) and the "ken ji" from Kendeji (Chinese for KFC). It is also called MFC, which I have determined based on Mai Ken Ji, is short for Mc Fried Chicken. We have taken pictures (on Snapfish!) of the menus and food wrappers, also the pictures posted up around the restaurant. Look for the poor-quality photo shopping they did to fuzz out the original brand names and logos and replace them with "MFC." Note also the still-mostly-visible golden arches on some of the cups on the menu. In the family photo, they have done a poor job of photo shopping out the Colonel's picture on the cups. Also, there is a picture above the stairs as you walk out of a little boy making the "shh" sign -- as if to say: "It's our little secret. Don't tell anyone." Last time we were there, one of the employees was wearing a shirt with a tiny McDonald's M on it with a line thru it. She unknowingly posed for a photo with Adam while I zoomed in on her shirt. :) Another thing I think is funny, is that they have no qualms about leaving the Coca-Cola logo on the cups on the menu when they serve Pepsi...

Brandon once asked if he could have or buy a menu to take home with him, so he could learn the Chinese for the various menu items. A friend who works there said it was not allowed, against company policy. They're no dummies. We didn't ask about taking pictures though. ;)

Apparently, MFC is a chain restaurant. Our friend who works there was sent up to Guangzhou to another one for training for 3 months this winter. We haven't seen one there, but it is a large city. We've questioned how they can get away with their obvious copy write infringement. My guess is that it is extremely difficult for an American country to complain to the Chinese government. They have to either keep their mouths shut, or lose their place in China completely. I mean really, what hasn't China copy written?

Shari - May 18-31

As many of you know, my good friend, Shari, came to visit me last month. She came for two weeks and we had a really good time! I'll try to fill you in on the highlights.

The theme of our two weeks was: Shopping! We went walking and shopping almost every day for two weeks. I can't believe I still have any money left! But really, I already had most everything I need, and I don't know how much I'll be able to take home in a month, so I was able to control myself most of the time. I did buy two more pairs of shoes, several shirts, a couple purses, a pair of capris and a pair of shorts. Oh, and a pair of jeans that already stretched way out. :( Shari and I were pretty excited to find two MN Twins t-shirts here in small town XinXing! Except that it's Minhesota, and they were champions in 1887... Then I also found a shirt that said something about Milwaukee shoes! Also while in XinXing, we were able to go to the hot springs one evening. There were very few people there so it was nice and quiet.

We traveled to Zhao Qing for one night where Shari was able to find two pairs of shoes and a large suitcase to take my stuff home in. We also went to Guangzhou for a weekend. Instead of shopping the entire weekend, we went to Crocpark to show Shari what a 'zoo' is like in China. It had all the animals you would expect at a place called Crocpark: turtles, lizards, snakes, iguanas, hundreds of crocodiles. And also some you wouldn't expect: chipmunks, squirrels, mice, rats, hamsters, muskrats, porcupines, guinea pigs, goats, and pigs. The best part about the pigs was that they put on a show every day. It's called... Pig Diving!
So they have this obstacle course for the pigs to compete on. They go up an incline to the diving board where they get pushed off into the water (you would think they would be used to this, but pigs really aren't supposed to dive...), then they do a long jump into a sand pit, then run a ways until they come to the hurdles and back into the pen. We felt so bad for the pigs, but we had to admit it was pretty funny! I also have a video of one of them "diving". We also saw children feeding chicken heads to the crocodiles, and a crocodile wrestling show that was pretty boring.

We also traveled to Hong Kong for three days. The weather was rainy, so some of our plans got ruined, but we were able to find things to do anyway. We walked around HK Island around the bases of the skyscrapers, went shopping in the ritzy expensive malls (didn't buy anything, though), went up to see Victoria's Peak on the night of the tram's 120^th Anniversary, went dancing with our HK friends, and ate lots of good food. One of the most exciting moments, was went a car pulled up near us and some young guys got out while a swarm of paparazzi took their pictures. Unfortunately, they were Asian, and I didn't recognize them. They arrived for the grand opening of a new Diesel store. I still love Hong Kong!

Between travels and shopping, Shari watched my classes. I think it was a little boring for her, but some she was able to get into more than others. She could have taught my classes after a day, though. For my Oral English class, we had them write punchlines to strange questions. I'll have another post for some of the jokes. They had a hard time, but I think they did a pretty good job. How would you answer a question like: Why did you pour hot coffee into your coat pockets? Or Why did you put ice cream in the rice cooker?

Wushu Performance Video 4-28-08

I figured out how to show this video. I hope you can watch it even if you don't have access to facebook. Enjoy! 

 

 

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=16599460151

XinXing and Hong Kong Feb 12-17

Feb 12 After landing in Guangzhou, we got a ride with Jie, our school's driver. We barely all fit into the van. It had 7 seats, but we had 7 people and luggage! It was a pretty uncomfortable 2-hour ride to XinXing, but we made it.

The first thing we did was find some food. We ate at the coffee shop close to our school. It is western food and pretty good. That afternoon we spent taking a tour of my school campus and at home. I repacked and did some laundry, and we spent some time relaxing until Cathy took us out for supper. We had hot pot with Cathy, Mr. Cui and his son, Jimmy, the Hu's, and the Wu's. Then we went to the hot springs. The one we usually go to was closed so we went to a different one. I liked this one better. It was more like I would imagine hot springs to be. There were more private pools so I didn't feel stared at so much. The air was cold, but the water was soo warm! It was wonderful after being so cold all the time :)

Feb 13 This morning I took my family out to breakfast for my favorite: long rice noodle. They all liked it! Yay! Then we went on a tour of the town. First stop: the market. The sights and smells in a Chinese market are really interesting. I still don't like the smells, but the sights are still amazing to me. Every season brings some new kind of food or animal I haven't seen before. With my family, we walked around by the poultry and fish and saw them preparing the fresh meat and looked at all the strange fruits and vegetables. Then we headed into town. We stopped by the "lake" where a group of boys was throwing firecrackers into the water. Then we did a little shopping. My favorite street of shops was really dead, though. Many of the shops were closed for the holiday. We also explored the supermarket and ate lunch at MFC. We spent the evening at home again getting ready to go to Hong Kong.

Feb 14 We took the 7:30am bus to HK. It is a 5 hour bus ride with stops for customs and bathrooms. Then we had to find the YMCA where we would be staying. We got checked in, found some lunch and got cleaned up before going over to Mark and Susan's for a pizza dinner with some of our friends from around China. This weekend was set aside as a group get-together to share stories and encouragements for the second term. Almost all of our group was there and we had a really good time. Many of us had recently been to Thailand so we were able to trade stories of our adventures there.

Feb 15 Today we met the group at the Seminary before going to have Dim Sum for lunch. It was so delicious, but Connie ordered too much food! It kept coming and coming! Then we took a ferry over to Lamma Island for a hike to talk and take pictures. At the end of the walk, we arrived at a seafood restaurant where we had another large meal. We were still not hungry from lunch and they ordered a lot of food again! I'm not complaining, though. We spent a lot of days on our trip not eating enough, so it was nice to have too much food. :)

After dinner we headed back across the water to the Kowloon side of Hong Kong (not HK Island). Every night there is a light show on the water. There is a large viewing deck and you can watch the lights of the buildings on the shore. It's pretty cool! After that, the excitement continued... we went across the water again to HK Island. And then took the tram up to Victoria's Peak. From the top you can see all of the skyscrapers and the harbor. It's an amazing view. The Number One thing to do in Hong Kong!

Feb 16 Stanley! There is a place on the south side of Hong Kong Island called Stanley. There is a big market to bargain and buy souvenirs, and many restaurants along the shore. Our big group split up into smaller groups and made our way through the maze of shops. I found some good things and I think everyone else did, too. We were given free reign to spend as long as we wanted shopping, as long as we got to the Seminary by 5pm for a service. After the service we all went out to Fat Angelo's for Italian food. It was sooo delicious! Then a group of us went out to a popular bar area to do some dancing and chatting on our last night together.

Feb 17 My family's last day together. :( We went to the south side of HK Island again to Ocean Park. We saw several shows and went to most of the animal exhibits there. I love seeing the animals! I think the jellyfish and pandas were the most popular! For supper we went to the Hard Rock Cafe and I ordered ribs. Mmmmm! I miss ribs, steak and beef so much!

Feb 18 We all went back home today. I was so sad to see everyone leave. I am anxious to see them again in July.

Three Gorges Cruise Feb 8-12

It's feeling warmer, we must be heading south!

We took a cruise on the Yangtze River between Chongqing and Yichang. It wasn't the ideal time of year to be on a Chinese cruise (No heat and no warm water for showers...), but it was an experience! We took a Chinese cruise boat and paid for an English speaking guide, Tracy, to come with us. Tracy was great! We really enjoyed her and were glad she came. It would have been really difficult and no fun without someone to tell us what was going on. We had two cabins: one for 4 women, and one for 2 men. We spent most of our time in the women's cabin cuz it's easier for 2 men to relocate than 4 women :) Also, we had gone to a supermarket in Chongqing to get food for 4 days. We mostly ate pb&j, chips, apples and pears the whole time.

The cruise was a nice transition in the middle of our hectic trip to be forced to relax for a couple days. My memory of what happened what day is fuzzy now, so I'll just tell you what we did as I think of it. We got off the boat a couple times each day, usually in the morning or evening. We stopped at Ghost City which was pretty cool, and a couple temples. Also, there were the gorges. We thought it was 3 gorges, but we were surprised to find out that it was 3 Gorges, Little 3 Gorges, and Mini 3 Gorges! They kept on coming! We all thought the Mini Gorges were the most beautiful. That day we transferred from our cruise boat to a smaller boat to go thru the Little 3 Gorges, and then transferred again to several mini boats which were wonderful. The ambiance was amazing.

The main reason we went on the cruise was because the Chinese are building a large dam on the Yangtze that will eventually fill up the gorges. There were signs everywhere showing how high the water level will be. So at the end of the cruise, we took a bus to view 'the whole dam site'. The best part about it was that we had to get off the bus and walk thru a metal detector. They are worried about people (Americans especially...) bringing bombs to destroy the dam. WHAT?! Why do Americans care about the dam? It's not going to flood my land! Anyway, the funniest part was that we left everything on the bus and walked thru a metal detector and got back on the bus. What about our luggage?? Hmm... at least they try... At the viewing point, the sun was setting so we got some really pretty pictures.

Then we got back on the bus and drove into Yichang where we stayed overnight before going to the airport very early in the morning. Sara and I are on our way home!

Xi'an Feb 6-8

Xi'an is an old capital of China so it is full of history. This was my favorite city. There were so many things to do and places to see that we couldn't fit it all in with only one full day and two half days. I would like to go back again. Our first night, we didn't have time to do much besides find our hotel and walk around a little before going to bed.

Feb 7 Happy New Year! We started off the celebrations with loads of firecrackers! At the mall across the street from our hotel, they covered the sidewalks and stairways with firecrackers and set them off. This was one of Greg's favorite parts of the trip :) Then we set off to see the Terracotta Warriors. We didn't get very clear directions on what bus to take out there and ended up finding a tour group that offered to take our family alone for a somewhat expensive rate. We decided that was ok. Well, it came with a catch – we had to stop at a store where the people were selling souvenirs for way more than they were worth and wouldn't bargain very much. We didn't buy much there. Then we went to the TW site.

One of the pits was closed, but the other two were pretty cool. It was so elaborate and detailed. I can't imagine how long it must have taken to make all of those warriors and horses. Wow. There was also a small museum which held two bronze chariots. They were really small and difficult to photograph in the strange lighting, but we got a couple decent pictures between the 6 of us :) Outside the park were some shops with the loudest, most aggressive hagglers I've ever heard. My sister was a little nervous. But we got a couple good deals anyway.

After that, our tour bus took us back to town. They wanted to stop at more places and tried to be very convincing, but I was not having it because we had such a short time in Xi'an. No time to waste! So they took us back begrudgingly and we headed to the Drum Tower. My Mom and Greg each took a turn hitting a very large drum, and we waited to see a performance, but it was rather disappointing. To end the evening, we went to a Muslim Market Street my sister wanted to explore. That was really cool! I've seen a lot of market streets all over China and Thailand, but this was a reasonably cool street. Most of the items were familiar, but they had a few unique things on display, too.

Feb 8 we had time to see the Bell Tower and have lunch before heading to the airport and on our way to Chongqing in the center of China. The Bell Tower wasn't as cool as the Drum Tower. There wasn't as many bells, but you could play one of them, too.

Like I said before, I wish we had more time in Xi'an. There were several more sights we wanted to see.

Beijing Feb 1-6

I finally finished writing my blog entries for my vacation around China with my family. Enjoy! :)

 

Our trip started off in Beijing. Sara and I went up there two days before my family arrived to do some extra sight-seeing. We stayed in a friend's apartment which was so wonderful! They gave us directions on how to get around and what places were nearby. So our first day in Beijing, we spent time at some Special Bookstores looking for gifts for our friends. One was really cool because we could make our own banners with verses printed on them in Chinese. I'm really excited about them! While at the banner store, some friends (Naomi and her brother Adam who was also visiting) we had planned to meet later arrived! We spent time with them picking out pictures and sizes and verses and then went out for supper.

Feb 3 we went to the Silk Market. It is a big building filled with people selling things. It was a great place to find souvenirs and bargain. If you go there, you MUST go way low. You think it's too low, but even when you think you got a deal, you still spent too much. Amazing. After that, we wanted to check out Olympic Stadium before going to get my family at the airport. We were on the subway and didn't know where to get off so I just said "Does anyone speak English?" One guy said he spoke a little. So he helped us figure out where to get off and then came with us! We weren't able to get inside any of the buildings. The aquatic center was being used for an event and the bird's nest wasn't open yet, but we were able to see them and take some photos. Then it was off to the airport for my family's arrival! I was soo excited to see them!

Feb 4 we went to the Great Wall (Chang Cheng). It took longer than expected to get there with the New Year coming. There were fewer buses running and we missed it so had to take a different way. We met a nice man who helped us get directions and found us a driver for a reasonable price. The driver took us to a less touristy part of the wall (JuYongGuan), so it wasn't too busy. At times we were able to take photos without a single person in them! The wall was really steep and we were pretty cold, so we didn't go too far, but if you wanted, there is always another tower that looks inviting!

After the Great Wall, we planned to get back to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe and then go to an acrobat show. The HRC was closed so we found a little Italian place around the corner which was excellent. Then decided to walk to the acrobat show – BIG mistake! It took much longer than expected but we arrived just as the show was about to begin. Yikes! The show was pretty cool, though. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Feb 5 we met up with our friends again and we planned to explore the big attractions in the middle of the city: Forbidden City, T-Square, and the Temple of Heaven. The FC was cool, but sooo big! It kept going and going and we took a long time stopping to take pictures so we didn't have as much time to see the other things later. We walked thru the Square and found a little restaurant across the street. The food wasn't great, but ok. There isn't anywhere close to eat there which is really inconvenient. By the time we arrived at the Temple, the attractions were closed and only the park area was open. It was really disappointing.

That evening my family had their first taste of real Chinese food. We had a hotpot dish where they bring the ingredients you want, you put them into the hot pot under which is a stove. Then when the food is cooked, reach in with your chopsticks and eat! It was really delicious, but a bit of a challenge for my family who are not very skilled with their chopsticks!

Feb 6 we went to the Summer Palace. The apartment we stayed at was very close to the palace, so we were able to take a bus there. We spent a few hours there seeing all the major sights and a couple other little ones that looked interesting. It was a beautiful day although still very cold, so we got some nice photos there. I really enjoyed the peaceful setting there.

That afternoon our flight to Xi'an left at 5:30, so we got our things and went on to city #2!

Earthquake Update

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers for my friends. I found out that Colline's family is fine! His parents had already moved in with him and his wife here at school to care for the baby. His uncles lost their homes, but they are safe. Thank God!