My experiences in China

Hooray For Hong Kong

2009-05-06T13:19:00.006+08:00

Things I did in Hong Kong:
1. Checked into my shit hostel with the rudest people I have met thus far.
2. Immediately went to explore.
3 Met a guy in the elevator who told me to go check out the peak.
4. Went to check out the peak...AWESOME you can see the whole of Hong Kong from up there.
5. On the way up met a business man from America who helped me take pictures and I did the same for him as we were both by ourselves.
6. Accepted dinner invitation and had a fantastic steak...I mean a real! steak.
7. Went out for a night out on the town with some old air force pilots and their wives.
8. Went to my first ice bar...brrrrrr
9. Met my new roomies who turned out to be a really cool bunch of people that I ended up hanging out with for most of my time in Hong Kong.
10. Went shopping...DUH!!
11. Went dancing every night where I met my boyfriend Steve. Love you baby!
12. Went to dinner with Steve, to the beach with Steve, to a movie with Steve, drank wine with Steve :)
13. Saw an awesome Chinese New Year parade and had a front row spot (Ive got videos but they take forever to upload so please be patient)
14. Saw the best fireworks show of my entire life!!!!!!!!!
15. Saw the best crowd control of my entire life!
16. Tried to get my hair colored but everything was closed for the new year..had to wait until Shenzhen.
17. Drank a ridiculously huge (and delicious I might add) margarita mmmmm yummy.
18. And above all I had the best time of my entire spring festival travels and even my time in China thus far. Hong Kong I LOVE YOU MAN!!!

Off to Guangzhou

2009-03-04T19:14:00.004+08:00

From Harbin my plan was to fly to Guangzhou which is in the South of China for those of you who don't know. One thing you must realize is that Harbin is incredibly cold and in the South of China its warm even in the winter. So once I got off the airplane in Guangzhou I was tearing off all my winter clothing like my life depended on it. In Guangzhou I was able to wear a t-shirt with no coat...it was fantastic.
My hostel was right on the river so all I had to do was walk outside and I got a spectacular view. My hostel was really awesome with nice rooms and friendly staff.
Once I arrived it was about 11pm so since my hostel was also on a bar street I decided to change clothes and go walking to see what I could find. As I was walking I was invited by a group of Chinese to join them in one of the bars. We ended up closing down the place playing a drinking dice game that they were very surprised I knew how to play let alone that I am good at it.
During my time in Guangzhou I did a lot of relaxing and shopping. One thing I found very strange was that aside from the hostel everywhere I went seemed to be absent of other foreigners. And everywhere I went I heard people saying Tai Gao Tai Gao which is Chinese for very tall very tall. It always makes me laugh.
At the hostel I met some pretty cool people from different parts of the world: Spain, Italy, Germany, Taiwan, China, and Canada. We hung out at the hostel and traded travel stories. I would have to say Guangzhou was the place I did the most relaxing..i mean hell i was on vacation right.
There was this little restaurant down the street from my hostel that served American food and I ate most of my meals there. I always seemed to be the only customer and the staff seemed to get a kick out of me being there. The were friendly and funny.
On one day I went to the seaside but it was so foggy you could barely see anything and then I visited a small park that was very beautiful, but I dont remember the name.
One my last night there one of the Chinese people I had met took me out to one of the bars on the street for some drinking and live music. I ended up singing a song on stage and getting a great round of applause. It was a pretty fun night and a great way to spend my last day there.
Enjoy the pictures.
Enjoy the pictures.

Next Stop: Harbin

2009-02-25T12:14:00.013+08:00

First off it must be said that Harbin is freaking COLD!!! The reason I went to Harbin was because during that time of year they hold an ice festival where they have huge ice and snow sculptures.
When I got off the train in Harbin a man outside the train station helped me to find the correct bus for me to make my way to my hostel. On the bus I was lucky enough to meet a young man who spoke English and he was kind enough to ask the bus driver to let me know when I needed to get off the bus. Without too much trouble I was able to locate my hostel.
The thing about the hostel I was staying at is that the staff there do not speak English. I was given a notebook on which was written "Do you have a reservation?" I answered in Chinese that yes I did. Then they point to "how many days?" and so on. Arriving at the same time as me was a guy named Daniel who was also from America. We had come to Harbin for the same reason and so decided to combine our plans together as travel buddies. The following day we were also able to add three more people to our group, a girl from Germany and two girls from the UK. The first night we were there we tried to go ahead and go to the ice and snow world where they have the huge ice sculptures all lit up but by the time we got there they were about to close so we decided just to go for a meal instead. We grabbed the closest taxi and asked him to take us to a restaurant where we could get some traditional Harbin specialties. After a very short ride (without the use of a meter) he tried to tell us that we owed 30 Yuan for the ride. Daniel and I have both been in China for a little while so we knew that this guy was trying to rip us off. So we told him in Chinese that it was too expensive and I went to hand him 15 Yuan. He didnt want to take it from me. I told him that was all I would give him and he still refused to take the money, so Daniel and I said fine and just got out of the taxi giving the driver nothing. Of course the driver did not want this so he got out of the taxi too. I then again offered him the 15 and he begrudgingly took it. He figures because we are foreigners we dont know any better but to his chagrin we did. Note: when taking a taxi try to go away from tourist spots to catch one. If you have no other choice either bargain for the price right away or demand that the driver use the meter.
Daniel and I then enjoyed some delicious food and then made out way back to the hostel for the night.
The next day we all met up and decided to start our day visiting the Siberian Tiger park, head over to the snow sculptures and then finish with the lighted display of ice sculptures.
Tiger Park
The tiger park was awesome. It is a large area filled with tigers, lions, white tigers, ligers, and even a jaguar. We bought our tickets and Daniel and I split the cost to feed the tigers a chicken. We all got on the bus and after they fed the tigers our chicken we wanted to see more. There were 24 people on our bus and we figured that if everyone threw in 50-60 Yuan that we could buy a cow to feed the tigers. So we found someone who spoke both English and Chinese and proposed our idea to our fellow riders. The bus driver and tour guide then suggested that we use our money to get two sheep instead as it would be a better show. Turns out not everyone wanted to put in money so we collected from everyone who wanted to throw in and decided to buy one sheep and six chickens. The bus driver then made everyone who didnt throw in money depart from the bus. You dont throw in the dough you dont get to see the show. What followed was both grotesque and awesome. The tigers move so fast and you get to be so close it was well worth 50 Yuan. I have great pictures and video from this adventure.
Snow Sculptures
The snow sculptures are fantastic. The detail and creativity that is shown is amazing. What they do actually is build the figure out of ice and then cover it with snow. While we were there, we ran into a parade. As we were taking pictures with some of the people in the parade they asked where we were from. When we said America they got very excited and wanted to get lots of pictures with us. Things like this always amuse me. "America! Okayla"
Da Da Bing Shui (Big Ice)
These were absolutely amazing. There is so much to see and its so impressive it would take your breath away. There are games you can play and ice slide to have fun with that were all free to enjoy. But it was freaking COLD!!!!!!!!! At one point we ran into what can only be described as an outdoor dance party so we stopped to dance and warm ourselves up. I definately needed this as I felt as if my feet were going to fall off. Did I mention that I was wearing two pairs of pants, two shirts, three coats, three socks, a face mask, gloves, and a hat and I was still cold?
After our journey we went back to the hostel, exchanged pictures and then the next day parted ways. That is one thing I love love love about traveling in China is meeting all kinds of new people! I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Spring Festival Travels: The Beginning: Beijing

2009-02-25T12:07:00.002+08:00

So now that spring festival is over in China I think it is about time that I got around to writing about it so that all of you at home can share in my joy. I'm going to do this little by little so dont expect it all at once; I went a lot of places and did a bunch of things so one city at a time is all I can promise you :)
My travels started by going to Beijing, a city I have visited on a number of occasions. I wanted to start there because it has become familiar to me and it cut down the time I had to spend on a train. On the way to Beijing on the train of course as always I was a popular sight. The people I was sitting with all wanted to try and talk to me but as we all know my Chinese is pretty sub-par i.e. I speak like a child and can only carry on a very basic conversation. As luck would have it though there was a Chinese man who could speak English and so he was the interpreter for all who were interested in talking to me.
When I arrived in Beijing I made my way to my hostel to unload for the night. I ended up meeting a Russian girl in the hostel bar lobby and we decided to go out for the night which is always fun. We then spent the next few days together shopping and eating good western food. She had been studying Chinese so was also able to help me buy my train ticket for my next stop in my travels: Harbin.
I dont have any photos of Beijing from this journey as I have been there before and plan to go again. Remember, Beijing was only the beginning of what turned out to be a fantastic trip.

New Years

2009-01-09T13:52:00.005+08:00

For New Years all of the classes had a party and I went to as many of them as I could. They all wanted me to stay for the whole time but I had to explain to them that I had to visit all of my classes if possible. Each class that I went to had me sing a song and some even sang songs to me. In one class they had me dance with their other teachers. They all had so much fun. On that day I also went ice skating with some students in my class 15. None of them were very good but neither am I so it was a lot of fun. After that I had to attend a New Years party for the school which was very entertaining as well. I only have a couple of pics of the school party because my camera went dead but I do have pics of my students' parties.

Christmas

2009-01-09T13:41:00.006+08:00

For Christmas Erin, Lauren, Matt, Jon, Ross, Landy, David, Amy, and Erin's aunt spent the holiday together. We each had bought one gift and did a grab bag exchange where everyone picks a number and you get to choose your presents in the order of that number. I ended up getting Lauren's gift which was a dartboard, a puzzle game and a miniture pool table. We had breakfast together and dinner as well which we all pitched in on the cooking. Then we sang Christmas songs after dinner. It sure wasnt the same as being at home with family but it was still nice to be around people who appreciate this holiday and we spread the joy among each other. Here are the pics. Btw..this all took place at Erin's apt.

In my classes I taught the students about secret santa and had them all choose names to bring in a gift. My students also gave me gifts which was really sweet. On the day we exchanged gifts I also let them watch the movie Elf for Christmas. They had a lot of fun. It was also really cute if a boy happened to have picked a girl's name or vice versa because of course the class ooooed and ahhhhed when they gave the gifts to each other. My students are so cute.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-21T10:47:00.005+08:00

For Thanksgiving we invited all the people from Shijiazhuang to come down and spend it with us. We held it at the school and made a ton of food. In the end we invited some students as well and they loved eating American Thanksgiving food. You have to realize this was probably the first time they ever experienced something like this. I know my students loved it and had a really great time. The school even came and took pictures of all of us and the food we made. It was sad that we couldnt spend it with our families but it was nice to be able to spend it with our second families that we have created here in China.

My trip to The Great Wall Simitai

2008-12-12T18:26:00.007+08:00

Long story short, we went to Beijing to go and climb the great wall. Matt and I ended up having to take a private car as there were no buses running there because of the season. It wasnt too expensive just more than I wanted to pay but well worth it. We got there and it took us an hour and a half to climb the wall and another hour to climb back down. Once we got almost to the bottom there is a place where you can zip line the rest of the way down and so we did. It was AWESOME! I should have taken a video but didn't, oh well. One interesting thing is I met a guy from Muscatine Iowa while climbing the wall (small world). I took a picture of him doing a handstand on the wall so he could flip it to make it look like he was holding the wall up. He is going to be sending me the picture in the future. Otherwise here are the pics of my Great Wall experience.

12 Things I Have Learned in China Thus Far

2008-11-25T23:10:00.003+08:00

1. Crossing the street is like playing Frogger
2. It is okay to drink beer and liquor at lunch time and then go back to work
3. People not only eat dogs here they keep them as pets too
4. People are always worried about you wearing enough clothes and drinking enough hot water
5. Compared to American prices everything here is a steal
6. No tipping saves you a lot of money
7. Please is no longer a necessary word to remember
8. What is a line again?
9. Stop asking why and just go with it
10. Dogs are not the only ones who poop and pee on the street
11. A public toilet is very much that...PUBLIC
12. and the most important phrase that has served me quite well even though it can sometimes be embarrassing: Ting Bu Dong!!!

Need an Update

2008-11-25T11:50:00.006+08:00

There is so much to talk about. Let's start at the beginning.
Classes have been going great. Awhile ago I showed my classes the pictures from our trip to Shanghai and Suzhou...they loved them. Most of them have not had the opportunity to travel and I think they like the fact they can live a little vicariously through me and the other foreign teachers through our pictures and our stories. I have tried some games as well that they seem to really like. They go crazy for the game categories where I divide the class into four teams, have them pick one person from each team to come up to the board and then I give them 45 seconds to write as many things from a category that I choose. The other game that gets a good response is the dating game. I pick one boy and three girls or one girl and three boys and ask them questions. Whoever gets to five points first is the winner of a date (just pretend). There is a lot of oooooo's and ahhhhh's from the class. It gets them riled up and embarrassed which is adorable at their age.
Another interesting happening was Kirk's visit to Shijiazhuang and to Handan. Lauren and I went up to the Shiz to see Kirk and the others since he wasn't going to be able to stay in Handan as long as he had first planned. It was a great time. When he came to Handan it was quite an entertaining experience. Let's just say lots of toasting and good times. Plus I am totally jealous of Kirk's Chinese. I find myself in situations all the time where I wish hard that I could speak Chinese as well as he does. Mine is terrible and mostly broken when I try to speak it. Most of the time I can get my point across but I still want to know more...much more!
A couple of months ago the school had a sports meet. The students competed in events like the high jump and running. Some of these kids are super fast and it is quite impressive. There was also an event for us where we do a 4x100 meter relay. We came in dead last but it was still fun and all the students cheered for us and the school gave us a notebook for our efforts. All in all it was a great time and an excuse for the kids to have a little fun instead of studying all the time..which is basically what their lives are.

YES WE CAN! YES WE DID!

2008-11-05T17:20:00.001+08:00

BARACK OBAMA IS THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!! THE SEASON OF CHANGE IS HERE! GOD BLESS AMERICA!

2008-11-03T20:29:00.004+08:00

I know it has been awhile since I have written but things have been busy around here. The last time I wrote was coming back from my trip over National Holiday to Shanghai and Suzhou. Since then a few things have happened. For one I finally got some cheese. To those of you who dont think that is a big deal I'm here to tell you that you are very wrong. Cheese is incredibly hard to find here except in Beijing and then once you find it it is super expensive. My mother sent me a package that contained cheese and ranch!!! WOOHOO!!!
I have also been back to Beijing once again. This time I didn't do much sightseeing as I am trying to save a little money. I did end up meeting up with my friend Elle who used to work with me at Des Moines Golf. We had a great time. We went out for some dumplings and then spent a little time at San Li Tun. After that we went and smoked some hookah. It was absolutely delicious. Along with that we had some hummus which was also pretty darn good. Lauren and Erin were with me on the trip and they got up super early to go and see lots of things but I decided that this trip to Beijing would be more about having fun than getting up early, waiting in line to see a bunch of stuff (and spending a crapload of money to do so) and then being tired the rest of the day. While in Beijing I did meet some interesting people. While at San Li Tun at a bar called Shooters I met this Italian guy who I was playing a game with about who could dance with the most guys or girls. It wasnt just about dancing with then but getting them to dance back with you. Needless to say I won 8 to 3 LOL. Then once we went outside I spent 45 minutes discussing Chritianity vs. Islam with a guy from Lybia. It was pretty interesting. During this time a Chinese woman came up to me and told me I was beautiful. She was selling roses and instead of making me pay for one she just gave it to me because she said, "you are very beautiful." Ah China how great you are for my ego. I also met a guy who looked Chinese but also looked very American. I asked him where he was from and turns out he is French. Go figure. Between the partying and hanging out with friends we made another visit to the silk market where I picked up a pretty neat chess set and an Ipod shuffle for super cheap.
Since Beijing I have just been teaching classes, which I still absolutely love. My students are sometimes a little naughty but that is to be expected with high school students. For the most part they work pretty hard and pay attention to what I am trying to teach them. And as always they know who to make me laugh. As all of you know, recently was Halloween. Teaching the students about Halloween was really cool. And then on the actual day Lauren, Erin, Matt, and I all dressed up as the characters from the Wizard of Oz. I was the scarecrow, Lauren was Dorothy, Erin was the wicked witch, and Matt was the tin man. The school even took pictures of us it was awesome. The students went nuts for it.

This weekend the foreign teachers and I will go to the Great Wall to zip line which I think will be awesome. I will post pictures and stories once I get back. Until then....

2008-10-06T22:02:00.000+08:00

Shanghai, Suzhou, Good friends and good times

2008-10-06T19:42:00.002+08:00

Lots to write about after my national holiday travels. The story begins with an 18 and a half hour train ride on hard seats to Shanghai. Oh my! I can't even begin to describe what this is like. First off the seats do not recline so you are sitting with your back straight the entire time. As far as leg room goes there is none and then there is the fact that not everyone on the train has a seat so you are surrounded by people who must stand for their 18 and half hours. Sleeping was off and on as much as one could do until you woke up from feeling sore or some limb or the other had fallen asleep. But I was with five other people so we kept each other company and offered as much comfort in the form of leaning on each other as we could. Let's just say that all this was totally worth it.
MISTER DONUT
One of the first things you see when you walk out of the train station in Shanghai is a lovely little sign that says "mister donut." For all those of you out there who are thinking 'donuts who cares its just a donut' you are sorely mistaken. Donuts in China are like ranch dressing...almost impossible to find. This was our treat to ourselves when getting into Shanghai. We sat and ate donuts and drank coffee..it was magnificent. Besides the fact that we all smelled really bad from the train and sweat..we just didnt care. All that was on our minds were how great it was to have donuts once again. Living in China makes you appreciate all those little things in America that we all take for granted like cheese, ranch dressing, donuts, burger king..and the list goes on and on. While we were at this place there was a little Chinese girl, the most adorable little thing. She couldn't have been older than maybe two. She has this plastic fruit which she proceeds to bring over to me and set on my tray one by one and then walks away. SO CUTE!! I can tell you right now there is no more adorable thing in the world than Chinese babies when you are a foreigner (except when they piss on the floor at the post office..on the street..pretty much anywhere they need to go). This was a great way to start off our day.
THE HOSTEL
We then hopped a taxi over to our hostel which was absolutely the sweetest hostel we have stayed in thus far. The rooms were nicely sized and clean. In fact the whole place was in great shape and very modern. The also had a bar called the Travellers Club which is a great place to meet the other people staying at the hostel. I met so many people there. People from Ireland, Guatemala, Chile, England, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, and of course America too. I got along with these people great mostly because there was a pool table and me being the social person (and half pool shark) that I am I played them all. Of course I did my little 'this is my first time playing' charade and then proceeded to amaze when I was actually good. This one guy I met from Ireland (Nial pronouced Nile) was an awesome pool player and actually just an all around awesome person. These guys I met from Germany also played and they were just great to hang out with. I love meeting new people especially from other countries. Weirdly enough one of the guys asked me what my family name was and I told him it was Wiele. Turns out this is his first name. We were instant friends. I got numbers from everyone I met so that we could keep in touch since most of them are here studying and will be in China for about as long as I will. I met this guy from California who is just about as cocky around the pool table as me..we were also instant friends. His name was Issac. There are pictures that were taken by this big group of us and they have promised to send me the pictures which I will add later since I do not yet have them. Before all this though we got to the hostel and took all of our stuff to our respecitve rooms and immediately showered since we smelled of what I can only describe as dirty feet and B.O. After this we all gathered together to go and explore the town.
THE CITY AND NANJING ROAD
We took the subway over to Nanjing road which is comparable to Michigan Avenue in Chicago except much bigger and with way way way way way way more people. It would be impossible to depict the incredible amount of people that are all over in Shanghai. I thought when we went to Beijing that there were a lot of people but OMG so many so many. We walked on this road for a while taking pictures and stopping every once in a while to get directions to the bizarre. The bizarre was freaking amazing. There are so many little shops with all sorts of trinkets and things to buy. They dont bargain with you like in Beijing which was kind of disappointing but hey I can always go back to Beijing to get the price I want. I did end up buying a pair of house shoes that are pretty sweet. When we got there we first went to this garden which was absolutely beautiful. We spent an hour or so there taking lots of picture and just enjoying the scenery. China also has a funny way about their signs. I have included one here. Wo I China (I love China). We walked around the bizarre for a while longer and then made our way over to Jin Mao tower which is this incredibly tall building right next to another new incredibily tall building. We took the elevator up to the 88th floor observation deck and stayed for a couple of hours taking pictures and taking in the sights. One funny thing is that since there were seven of us we had to take two taxis. There are three girls who have the best Chinese of all of us who usually do the talking when we go anywhere. These three girls all got into one taxi and left the other four of us to another. This we didnt seem to realize until we were in the taxi. I knew where we were going and what it was called so I told the driver and we were on our way. It all worked out in the end as we did make it to our destination. Woohoo! The view was amazing even given the fact that pollution in China is super thick and we couldnt see that far as you can see in the pictures. But all the same it was still spectacular. After we left there we were all starving as so decided to try and find a western restaurant to eat at since I mean we are in Shanghai and can get really good western food. We spent over two hours looking for food, walking up and down the Bund (the big river in Shanghai) and did not find anything within our price range or what kind of food we were looking for. In the end we ended up eating Subway which made us all very very very happy. After that we were all dead tired from all the walking around and so decided to go back to the hostel. The girls all wanted to go to bed but I thought that was a waste so I went with Armand (the french guy we were with) into the Travellers Club. I am so glad I didnt go to bed. Going to bed would have made me miss a great opportunity to meet lots of cool people. While I am all for the sightseeing and what night I am also a party girl at heart and love to be social. Armand and I spent from around 11 pm until 3 Am in this bar and I dont regret a second of it. The others wanted to wake up so super early to be able to walk around and all that. Truthfully I think that spending all of your time sightseeing and going to bed early so you can get up early is kind of a waste. You miss all sorts of other parts of traveling by just doing this. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing to want to go out and see all sorts of sights but that is only one small part of traveling. I refuse to miss out on the night life just to be able to see 8 AM. I met so many great new people that I feel that it made my trip that much better. The next day we woke up fairly early (the others much earlier than me) and we made our way back to Nanjing Road to do a little window shopping. The great thing about China is that not all the shops are on the main road. There are all sorts of salesmen walking around with little pamphlets saying "shoes, watch, bag, sunglasses." They take you into these back alleys where they have little private stores set up where you can buy all the designer things you want at very not designer prices. I got myself a cute little Chanel wallet after visiting several shops to get the price I wanted to pay. After a little shopping we stopped off at Burger King and had ourselves some whoppers. Oh the little things in life how sweet you are! The girls then wanted to go and see some sort of art district and me not being the most arty person absolutely did not want to go. So Armand and I went on a boat cruise instead. For 50 Kuai we spent an hour on a boat on the Bund and I am so glad I did not go to the arty stuff. Dont get me wrong I dont mind seeing art and checking out things like that but I cant spend forever starting at one exhibit like the people I was with can. I know I would have just been a damper on thier fun and there is no harm in to each his own. The boat ride was wonderful and I got a lot of great pictures from it. After that Armand and I made our way back to the hostel to wait for the others. Mind you we spent an hour on the boat and almost an hour getting back to the hostel where we found out the others were hardly even finished with their artsy tour. I told them not to rush as this was their kind of thing and I hate to be a downer on whatever brings people happiness. So Armand and I spent the next few hours drinking Tsing Tao (Chinese beer), playing pool, and meeting great new people. One thing that did tick me off a little was the fact that the day before I had suggested we eat lunch before we went to the Jin Mao tower because I was already starving then. Then it had taken us so long to find a place after that. Well then the next night as we are waiting I get a call from the others that they are done and want to go to dinner. I ask them where they are and tell them that Armand and I will meet them. They ask me well should we wait for you or should we just go ahead and eat? I told them they should wait and we would be there soon. They called back a minute or so later to tell us that they would not be waiting. So while the others ate at a great italian place and had pasta and real salad Armand and I had hostel pizza. Oh well I guess. We waited for the others and played some more pool and then the others arrived and we all got ready to go out. During this wait I met two guys from Guatemala who were really cool. They were looking to go out as well so I invited them to come with us.
GOING OUT
We all got ready and then hopped a taxi to a spot the front desk said was really popular among foreigners. We ended up at this club called Club G something. It was fantastic. I met this guy there named Luca from Italy through the Guatemalans we were with. He was a really nice guy with a girlfriend of three years and we talked about everything. I think I fell in love with his accent and his name. Super nice guy. We partied into the wee hours of the night and finally made our way back to the hostel. This would be our last night in Shanghai and our train wasnt leaving until 10:50 the next day. So I figured we would be able to sleep in a little. NOPE. We got to the train station obscenly early and waited utterly exhausted for our train. I will absolutely be going back to Shanghai!!!
SUZHOU
We got into Suzhou about half past 11 and proceeded to find a taxi that would take us to our hostel..to no avail. We ended up hopping on a bus that did not in fact take us to our hostel but which the hostel had told us would. We then got off the bus and took another taxi to the street our hostel should have been on. We then spent three hours looking for our hostel trying to ask people direction (we had the address written in Chinese and yet still....). We walked up and down up and down this road until finally someone told us the correct place to find our hostel. It had been right in front of us the whole time UGH. We then showered found something to eat and hit the sack for an hour or so. After that I felt so much better. We then made our way to this night market that they have in Suzhou and walked around for a few hours looking at all sorts of stuff..taking pictures etc. It was great. For a while we also walked down the street where earlier we had been searching for our hostel and actually stopped to look at things since we were feeling much better. We stumbled upon this random small little shop that carried western chips and candy. Now in China you can find things like Doritos, Cheetos and whatnot but they taste just a little different. This place had the real deal. We all stocked up, what a great find! After a very long day we went to bed to await our adventures for the next day. The next day we woke up at a descent time and had a great western breakfast at our hostel. From there we went to the silk museum which was smaller than we expected but still a good place to visit. From there we caught a show at an almost impossible to find museum that was entertaining but we didnt understand anything since it was all in Chinese. I have included a video of this. From there we went to the Lingering Garden which was absolutely beautiful. We took lots of pictures and then stopped at a silk shop next door where I got a new pair of silk pajamas for a steal. Then we had dinner at a nice little restaurant and made our way back to the hostel.
HEADED FOR HOME
We woke up in the morning fairly early as we had to catch an early train back to Shanghai to catch our train back to Handan. Another 18 and half hours on hard seats UGHHHHH. This ride was better than the way there though as we all got to sit together which made things a bit more comfortable. On the trains they have a cart that comes by with a guy yelling "pijiu, pijiu" which in Chinese means beer. This guy passed us at one point and Erin yelled pijiu back at the guy who offered her the cart. She got up and walked down the aisle yelling pijiu to the amusement of all the Chinese people (I think it made a dreary train ride for them a little better) and sold two bottles of water for the guy. It was awesome. I cant tell you all how glad I am to have Erin here. Not only has she helped us out immensly getting settled in and helping us to communicate but she has this great personality that you cant help but just love her. We finally made it back into Handan at 4:30 Am on monday and came home to crash since we had a full day of teaching ahead of us. All in all the trip was a great success and I cant wait to travel more. I love it here in China and cant express enough how i feel this is going to change my life and me as a person for the better.
ARMAND
On a side note I want to talk a little about this French guy we were with. His name is Armand and he is the most animated guy you will ever meet. He is funny and just a great guy to know. He is also a sneaky little bastard. The theme of our trip became "where is Armand?" This is because every time we turned around that is the question we were asking. He would sneak off without any of us noticing all the time and it became sort of a running joke for us to ask "where is Armand?" He is not a teacher like the rest of us but here on a job for 5 months. He was a friend of Kim's roommate who needed someone to travel with. I am so glad he came with us. Coucou Armand. We love ya!!

All pictures are relatively in the order as I have described my trip so just follow along and you will get an idea of where they are taken at. And the video is uploaded on the following blog.
Until next time....

Classes, games, and students

2008-09-28T15:38:00.000+08:00

In the past couple of weeks a few things have happened. In most of my classes before I started to teach the book I have been playing games. These games do have a purpose I am trying to get the kids interested in the class as well as have fun while using English. One game that went over really well was where I came up with 36 words. I wrote out each of these words on a separate piece of paper and had two copies of each word. I would then split my class into two teams and each team would have a copy of each word..one per student. I would then call out a word and the person on each team that had this word would have to run to the chalkboard and write the word in a sentence and do it faster than the other team. If the word was used correctly that was worth one point. If the sentence was grammatically correct that was worth two points for a total possible of three points per sentence. In each of my classes this worked really well until my class 17. In there the students got a little to into the game and ran up to the board a little too fast. This all ended with the chalkboard shattering into little pieces. Needless to say we did not play this game anymore. I have been informed that this is not the first time this has happened. Apparently other foreign teachers have learned the hard way that students can get really into a game and chalkboards will be broken. I informed the head teacher of this occurrence and also let Ms. Tian the vice principal know what had happened. I assured her that it was no one's fault really that it was just an accident and everything was taken care of without incident. The chalkboard has since been replaced.
I have since started to teach from my book of lessons. In each lesson the students are given a story. I teach these lessons by first reading the story to them. I then ask for volunteers to read to the class. It is amazing how many volunteers I get. It seems that the students want to impress me with their skills. Sometimes I pick people to read. There was one boy who told me that he couldnt do it. I asked him how he knew he couldnt do it if he did not try. So he stood up and read the story. He did so well and his pronunciation was so good that I wondered why he thought he could not do it and I told him so. It is always funny to me how the students will tell you that there English is terrible but they do so in perfect English. It always makes me laugh. The students always tell me that they think learning English is very hard and I tell them that is the same way I feel about Chinese. Amazing how something like this can really put things into perspective. After I have a few students read the story we go over the new words in the lesson. I write a word on the board, say it for them, and then have them repeat it back to me. Then I ask them "what is the meaning of this word?" The concept of raising your hand and waiting to be called on is lost here and so I am answered by a swarm of voices that is indecipherable. I tell them I cannot understand when they all speak at the same time and sometimes they say sorry miss dani. I like to surprise them by answering in Chinese with meishi and the whole class is filled with gasps of amazement and sometimes applause. The students love to teach me Chinese and are usually very surprised when I bust out in a little on my own. I love it. After this they give me the meanings to the word and I feel that these early lessons might be a little too easy at times for them. I am very impressed by how well they do and I usually reward them for thier good work. I like to let them know they are doing a good job because encouragement can do wonders for motivation. At this point in lesson 1 I teach all of my classes what a synonym is then I put a couple of words on the board and ask them to tell me some synonyms of the word. One word I always use is beautiful because there are so many synonyms for it. It surprised me to discover that almost everyone believes that smart means beautiful and I had to explain to them that this is not the case. Either way it is a good exercise and the students seemed to have fun with it. I try to make the lessons a little more interesting as the students do not get alot of enjoyment out of learning from the book.
After lesson one I made up a crossword using words from lesson 1 and words that I had taught to them when we did name meanings. At first they did not understand what they were supposed to do but with a little explaination the activity went well. The whole point was for me to see how well they could recall the information I had taught to them and associate words from meanings. In one of my classes the Chinese English teacher came to me before class and told me that if I ever needed help explaining something in English to the students to ask him and he would be glad to help me. I was grateful for this and told him so. He said he also wanted to sit in on my class for that day and I told him that was fine. He ended up doing the crossword as well. In that same class we had finished lesson 1 a little early so I gave the students a sentence and told them to make as many words as they could with the letters in the sentence. They turned in these sheets to me and I gave a prize to the winner. She came up with an impressive 37 words. Her prize was a US quarter which she seemed to be very happy for. As the class all did very well with the exercise I gave them all candy..this made them very happy as well. In this same class is my favorite student. He picked the name Allen Iverson. He is always volunteering to read and is kind of like the class clown. He has a good nature and always makes me laugh. His English is also very good. I would never tell him that he was my favorite student because I dont want any of my students to feel left out or that I pick favorites.
I have also been teaching my students some slang. One of the phrases I taught them was peace out with the hand motion. Here in China the hand motion for peace means victory so I had to explain that in America it also means peace. Now when I leave class they all say in unison Peace Out! It always brings a big smile to my face. I can't express how cool my students are.
The students are not supposed to have cell phones or anything of that nature in class but from time to time I catch a student taking a picture of me on thier cell phone. They think I dont know what is going on but it is so obvious. I always strike a pose which gets laughter from the students. As long as they are paying attention and putting in the effort I let these little things slide. Until it becomes a disruption I dont see the point of making it a bigger deal than it is.
I have also taken a couple of my students out for lunch. This makes them so happy. When it came time for the bill they pulled out thier money and I told them to save it...of course I would pay for them. They tried to beat me to the punch but I was a little quicker. The food here is so cheap and the school pays us so why not treat the kids every once in a while.
I feel very lucky to be here in Handan and to have such great students. I am really loving my time here and hope that I can truly impart some new knowledge for these kids. They work so hard and are under so much pressure that I want their experience in my class to be productive and enjoyable. So far I think this is the case. They are really great kids.

Weekend in Beijing

2008-09-16T16:22:00.000+08:00

So this past weekend we went to Beijing and it was AWESOME!!! There is so much stuff to tell about. We got there around 7 pm on friday and checked into our hostel which was very old world style. It had several levels and everything was so neat. Lauren has pictures of it that I have to get from her and then I will post them. It was just the four of us (me, Matt, Lauren, Erin) in our room. It was very clean. It was also very close to Tiananmen and the Forbidden City. From our hostel we went to eat at a western restaurant called Grandma's Kitchen. The food was fabulous. From there we walked around Tiananmen as it was closed by the time we were done eating and took pictures in front of Mao's picture (Lauren has those too). I had forgotten to take my camera at this time so the pictures from that night will get posted next time. After that we were all pretty tired and so just decided to go to bed so we could get up early to try and find tickets to the paralympics. We woke up the next day and went to meet the others from Shijiazhang. While we were waiting we went to Starbucks (oh so good) and this other place where they sold the greatest muffins I have ever tasted. The one I got was apple cinnamon and had real chunks of apples baked into it. They had ones like chocolate cheescake with real pieces of cheesecake and others that just looked so good. I wish I had gotten some to bring back. From there we went to where the bird's nest and the olympic green are and found some people selling tickets on the street. They wanted way too much money for them so we passed and so then tried to go get them from the bank of China. But they didnt have any tickets available for the days we wanted. So in the end we didnt end up getting to go to the paralympics which was a disappointment. We plan to go back after the olympics end so that we can go inside the bird's nest and on the olympic green as at that time it will all be open to the public. After that we went to silk street which is a market. We spent a really really long time there shopping and haggleing. It was pretty sweet. I ended up getting a bag, some shoes, some jeans, some earrings, a watch, and some sunglasses. It was a great time and I really want to go back again. From there we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant, yes Mexican. It was so great to have margaritas (strawberry frozen baby), and chips and salsa. Oh so good. The food was okay but the staff kept messing up our order and tried to charge us for things we didnt even eat or drink. In the end we got it figured out. After that we all went back to our hostels to shower and change for a night out on the town. We went to San Li Tun which is a street with a bunch of bars and clubs on it. We spent the whole night dancing and meeting new people. There were so many other foreigners from lots of different countries there and we had an awesome time. There were people from all over the world and paryting with them was super sweet. We got back to our hostel around five in the morning and all went to bed. The next day we went to 798 which is an art district in Beijing. Matt and I were still really tired so we just kinda sat around while the others walked around to look at galleries. At one point Matt and I layed down on these wooden benches. We were laying in the same positions just opposite one another and behind us was a sign that said living culture. We got our picture taken like six times. Some I think just thought we were sleeping and that it was funny. But not all the people who took our pictures were Chinese so I am kinda thinking that some thought we were some sort of art exhibit given the sign behind us and the way we were laying the same. On monday we tried to go to this western market to get Mac and Cheese along with cream cheese and some other western goodies. To our chagrin they were all sold out of mac and cheese :( and a few other items we were looking for, so here is hoping that next time they will be stocked up. Oh mac and cheese i never thought I would miss you so much :) Also,on monday we went to see the Temple of Heaven which is absolutely beautiful. There were so many people and we took so many pictures. There was one place called the Echo wall where it goes around and someone at one end is supposed to be able to hear a person at the other. We tried it but it didnt work (hence the picture of everyone frowning LOL). There were just too many people there for it to work well. After the Temple of Heaven we had to go back to our hostel and grab our stuff if we were going to make our train back to Handan. Oh I almost forgot. On Sunday night we tried to go to Wongfujing to try out these weird foods. Apparently there is this street that sells strange food on a stick like shark, starfish, scorpian, testicals, and the like. But it had just rained a little earlier and so everything was closed up by the time we got there. So we just ended up eating at McDonalds :(. All in all the trip was a great success and a super awesome experience. I met some great people some I will never want to forget, (you know who you are) ;) I can't wait to go back and have even more fun and see other things. We didn't have time to do all the stuff we wanted because there is just so much to do. Next time we want to go back and go through the forbidden city, see the Maoseleum, and visit the Summer Palace. We have plenty of holidays coming up so I am sure we will have the time. I wish my writing in these blogs could be witty and entertaining but I just dont want to leave anything out and I am sure that even with all this there is plenty I have forgotten. If I think of anything else I will add more later. To all those at home: I MISS YOU ALL. To all those in Beijing we met and saw: see you again soon. To everyone else: CHINA IS THE PLACE TO BE!!! (Pictures: Us at Tiananmen, Us all dressed up the night we went out, at the mexican restaurant with people from Shijiazhang, on the train, at the Temple of Heaven, at night on Wongfujing, at McDonalds, others that were not included were in front of Mao's picture and a few other places that I will put up next time)

Going to Beijing

2008-09-12T11:33:00.000+08:00

Classes have been going well. I have finished up giving everyone an English name and now we are working on meanings. For the next classes I will have them tell me why they chose the name they did and then will move on to a lesson in American history. We finally got our books to teach out of but I have not begun to yet as I would like to finish up the things we have already started. Matt, Erin, Lauren, and I are leaving for Beijing today. Tonight we will check into our hostel and then go to Tienamen Square this evening. Tomorrow we will get up early to buy our tickets to the Paralympics. This is going to be so awesome. We will be coming back to Handan on Monday night after we have a good time in Beijing. So my next blog will include lots and lots and lots of pictures. To my mom: talk to you in a few days I promise to be careful. To everyone else: BEIJING BABY YEAH!

More and more

2008-09-08T22:39:00.000+08:00

So the first week of classes is over and we are into week two. This week we are picking English names. My students are so awesome. Some of the most interesting names are Anubis, K.O., Harry Potter, Mr. Frank, Mr. Steve, Niko, Wait, Pierre Martin, Remington, Reginald, Winston, Kingston, and many more. The students really have a good time picking them out. For the second class this week I will tell them the meanings to all of their names. We also celebrated teacher's day on Sunday. There was a ceremony and we got gifts. They gave us flowers and a cool book of stamps. It is pretty neat actually. A lot of my students are giving me gifts too. I am falling in love with all of them they are so sweet. They gave me a Chinese name too. It is Xiao Ya which I am told means graceful. But if you say it with the wrong tone it means duck. LOL. Today in one of my classes six or seven boys were 5 minutes late so I made them sing a song for me. It was awesome. This one boy was so into it. The whole class cheered. Then I had forgotten my sunglasses in my last class so I went to get them and I came back, the students were like "Miss Dani, you are late you have to sing" So I sang them a song and I got a standing ovation it was pretty sweet. I am excited for this weekend. We are going to Beijing to see the Paralympics. I AM SUPER EXCITED!!! This past weekend we went to this park they have here in Handan. It is very pretty but they have this zoo that is so sad. The cages are so small and there is no such thing as grass here. But the park was pretty and we say some cool things. I am putting a lot of pictures in this post since I have been slacking on my blogging (sorry). I'm not sure if I've forgotten to talk about anything but if I did I will put it in my next post. Oh yeah, when we went to the zoo there were these kids that were following us around taking our picture. It was like we had our own little fan club. They are the kids included in the pics here.

The Pictures

2008-09-02T11:40:00.000+08:00

Here are the pictures I was too lazy to upload last night.

First day of classes

2008-09-01T21:45:00.000+08:00

So today was my first day of classes. I had five today and have two tomorrow. The kids were all so nice and they asked me so many interesting questions. They were very interested in the pictures I had brought to show them. Most of them wanted to know the biggest differences between China and the United States. They all wanted to know if I was liking China and if I liked the food. They are all so very sweet and I think I am really going to enjoy teaching them. I took some pictures of my classes but I am too tired to upload them right now. I never thought speaking slow and loud could be so exhausting. I told them that I only had two rules for the classroom and they were that there is no such thing as losing face in my classroom. There are no dumb questions and we will all make mistakes but we will all learn together. The other was that learning English is fun and we will have a lot of fun this term. One class gave me a round of applause for saying hello in Chinese. They go nuts when I say things in Chinese and they tell me my Chinese is very good but I know that they are just being nice to me. Most of them claim that their English is not very good but most of the students who said that said so in almost perfect English. I am just so impressed with how nice they all are. One of my students even invited me out to dinner tonight but I told her that I already had plans with the other foreign teachers. It was very sweet of her to ask. I told them all to call me Miss Dani as this is the name I usually go by anyway and it is easier for them to pronounce. One of the big questions was how to learn English better. I told them that the best way to get better is to practice practice practice. I told them that they should speak English as much as possible and for words that they have particular difficulty with they should write down and repeat over and over again. I am looking forward to meeting my other classes (I have 9 total twice a week). I think this is going to be a great year.

more adventures

2008-08-31T19:14:00.000+08:00

In the past few days we have been busy. Yesterday we went and got bicycles. It's a good thing we had Erin with us because none of us are really great at understanding (let along speaking) Chinese yet. I tried one bike and almost fell off. Everyone laughed at me but I laughed at myself too so it was all good. I finally found one that I liked and am happy with my purchase. Riding around is a little scary because there is so much traffic and so many other bikes. Everywhere we go people want to say hello to us. It is kinda cute really. Erin says the novelty will wear off after a while but I dunno I am pretty easily amused. Today we went and got our cell phones. Matt and Lauren each bought one but I am getting my old phone unlocked so I can just use that one. Just trying to save myself a little money. We also had our pictures taken today by the school so they can put them on the wall as you walk into the school (pictures coming later). We also met some of the students. They are all so nice. I am pretty excited to start teaching actually. Tonight we are going to a restaurant that serves donkey meat so that will be interesting. I think its pretty cool all the new foods I am getting to try. The sun was out today and the sky was blue so that was really exciting as there are not too many days like that. We finally got bed foam for our rock hard beds so hopefully tonight's sleep will be better than the other nights of waking up every few hours sore from the bed. The odd thing about this place is that I dont feel out of place even though I am one of like only 14 white people in the whole city. I know that sounds odd but I find myself really liking it here. Who ever said that change isnt a good thing. Although I do miss my friends and family at home. It is hard not being able to call and talk to them. Phone cards to call from China to the USA dont get very good rates at all. We all got our class schedules today. I will be teaching the senior grade 1's. I dont have any early classes which is way cool since I am not the most morning kind of person. I am thinking that my first few classes will be talking about myself and learning about the students. I meet with each of my 9 classes twice a week so that should take care of the first couple of weeks. After that we should be getting our lesson books that they want us to teach out of. I am happy to have it as I have never taught before and planning lessons will be much easier with some guidelines. I will write more as more happens and will be posting more pictures in the next few days. Until then hope all is well with all of you.

Starting off with pictures

2008-08-29T18:09:00.000+08:00

Well, I have been in Handan for about three days now and it seems like the traveling is still happening. After the 11 and a half hour flight from San Fransisco to Beijing we stayed at a hotel in Beijing for the night. In the morning we went back to the airport to take a bus to take a taxi to take a train. All of this with all of our luggage...good times :) Then we finally made it to the school. The apartments are a lot nicer than I expected which is to say that if anyone decides to do this they should come with no expectations...it makes it more interesting. I have included some pictures to show some of my experience thus far in Handan. Needless to say I am enjoying myself immensly. Oh and btw on our first time out on our own for a meal we accidentally ordered duck heads. Lets just say they were interesting :)