Time to Move On

This past week has felt like an emotional roller-coaster as I've said goodbye to all the people who have made this year amazing. As I feel myself get misty eyed thinking about when I will see them again, I know that this may be the end of China, but this is the beginning of a new adventure.

I've always dreamed of going to Germany. I remember being a very young child walking along my house with my grandfather. I stopped and picked up a poppy flower, I told my grandfather that I thought poppies were the coolest flowers ever. My grandfather pointed across the street to a house on a large hill, and told me to look at it. He said that when he was in Germany (during WWII) it was full of rolling hills covered in poppy plants. That was when I first wanted to see Germany.

Fast forward eight-ish years.

It was the end of sixth grade and I had to chose what foreign language I would study. My choices were Spanish, French, and German, we were given a 5 page packet with the Spanish, French, and German translations for various English words and phrases. I was very disappointed that the school had decided to phase out Latin, I had always planned on taking Latin. I knew I didn't want to take Spanish because there was one first year Spanish teacher known for being notoriously mean. I thought about French but whenever I hear French it sounds like boomalajdalalamafouxpaxjammapelle, so French was out. As I looked through the packet at the German words and translations that I remembered that conversation with my Grandfather.

For the next five years I was immersed (as immersed as you can be in a small city in Ulster County NY) in German culture and the study of Germany. I began making lists of places I just had to see, by the time my German education was done the list covered just about every place in Germany.

Like many people college became a time to explore traveling I took numerous travel courses where we would study a country as a group and then travel there with a professor for a week. However being a double major with a minor I never found time to do a semester abroad and unfortunately my college never offered a travel course to Germany. After graduating I figured that traveling to Germany would just have to be something I did later. It became part of a rough five year plan.

This changed in January when I found an opportunity to become a certified English as a Second Language teacher in Germany. I signed up as fast as I could. So as my time in China is coming to a close, I look forward to the future where I will accomplish my dream of getting to Germany!

Yet these happy thoughts only go so far, so I tried to fill these past days with friends, Chinese food, and reflection; and tried not to think about all the goodbyes. I think I'll have plenty of time for reflection during my 30ish hour journey back to my parents house.

Back to Back Overnight Trains, Xian in 7 hours

These past few weeks have been a series of difficult decisions as I have to constantly decide how I want to fill the last of my time in China. I had a professor in college who was a fan of prioritizing. When I took his travel course to Ireland he attempted to teach me the importance of prioritizing.  However waking up early and literally running through Dublin prevented me from actually learning it's importance.

This past week however I was forced to prioritize, I was running out of time and had to chose between going to Xian (my original plan) or going to Beijing (on an impromptu trip with my friends). I just did not have enough time to do both. As I toiled with the decision I chose to email the person who first suggested I live abroad, my professor who tried to teach me about prioritizing. With his advice and many hours of contemplation in mind, I walked to the train ticket office and bought a round trip ticket to Xian.

Train to Xian!

As I set off on my solo trip to Xian I was excited for my last adventure before going home. However with my schedule this semester I would be taking two back to back overnight trains. As I set off to catch my Monday night train I was worried most about my seat, when purchasing hard sleeper seats on Chinese trains I prefer the bottom berth because I can sit up. Unfortunately the bottoms were sold out and I found myself in a middle berth. The train ride however ended up being awesome! As I made my way on to the train I met a couple of Czech guys who were also going to Xian. We killed sometime in the dinning car, drinking American beer.

Definitely didn't expect to find PBR dedicated to the US military in China

My train rolled into Xian two hours late, I should have expected that, as although Baoding is only it's second stop the train was 15 minutes late picking me up! I took a quick look at the wall before heading off to get the bus to the Terracotta Warriors.

Xian's City Wall

The bus to the warriors only took about an hour, then you have to navigate the was to the ticket office and entrance. Which are two DIFFERENT things. Don't walk all the way to the entrance as the ticket office is about half a kilometer from there.

Signs I should have been following.

Signs I was actually following

A Mural of the Great Wall

Walking to the entrance both times (once before I bought a ticket, and once after) was a very pleasant walk if you could tune out the shouts of shop owners to come look at their merchandise. However the beautiful blue sky (a rare sight in Northeast China) made it quite easy for me to tune them out.

The Entrance!

Checkout That Blue Sky!

UNESCO World Heritage Site

My first stop was an information center where I learned about the site and how the warriors have been put back together. The Terracotta Warrior site is set up very differently from other important sites in China, it felt very Western. The information center was very clean and modern, English signs everywhere. It was such an easy place to travel to in China.

Following the advice of many guide books as well as friends who have traveled to the Terracotta Warriors, I decided to do the pits backwards. My first stop was the third pit, this pit showcases the military elite.

These guys didn't fare too well

The repairs of this pit are still ongoing. 

Pit two begins to show just how massive the site is, however few warriors have been restored to their former glory. The real draw of this pit comes from the few restored warriors that are encased in glass where you can see the detail of the warriors.

Look how big this pit is!

See how his hand looks like it would be holding something?
The arrow he was holding has rotted away.

Standing Warrior

Terracotta Horses!

Pit one was my last stop and I'm really glad I saved it for last, walking into the pit, the size of it really took my breath away.

View From The Front

View of Soldiers Being Put Back Together

With such a limited amount of time in Xian I found myself unable to do anything else. By the time I got back to the city it was only an hour til my train. Despite having to take back to back overnight trains, I truly enjoyed my trip to Xian. Seeing the Terracotta Warriors was something on my "Must Do/See" list, it was actually the last thing on my list. Walking back to the train station after seeing the Warriors I felt such a sense of accomplishment, having checked off the last item from my list.

My Train Back to Baoding

Went to the Cinema!

On Thursday I was invited to see the new Star Trek movie with some co-workers. As the last movie I saw at a Cinema was Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter almost a year ago, I figured hey why not?! 

So many things are different in China, even the cinema! I'm not sure why I thought it would be the same as the United States, it's not like I've been to a cinema in any other country. However for some reason I thought it would be the same. I was pleasantly surprised. For one the seats are tiered so that unless the person sitting in front of you is 2 feet tall you won't have to worry about them blocking you view. At a height of 5'3 3/4" I notice things like this. 

The cinema also has assigned seating, at first I thought this was really different, but then I remembered the difficulty of getting a large section of "good" seats if you are going with friends. Here it doesn't matter if you walk in a minute before the movie starts you don't have to worry about finding a seat. Why don't we do this in America?

 

Loved the movie! Also I love Chinese cinemas, maybe I'll catch another film before I leave.

Hello, Hallo, Heller, Helllluurrrrrrrrrrrrr

Hello! Hallo! Hellarr! Helllllllllluuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!! The many pronunciations of Hello in China.

As any foreigner can tell you, when you live in China you will be constantly bombarded with the word hello. You might see this and think, wow many people speak English here. Don't be fooled. This is just one of the ways that Chinese people who don't speak English will try to interact with you.

I haven't been able to figure out a better way to explain it so I'll give you the same explanation an English teaching alumna gave me. "People will feel the need to talk to you, it's kinda the way people feel the need to mooo at cows. We know that mooing means something to cows but we don't know what it means, we only know that they say it. So when you see a cow you moo at it. People know that "hello" is what we say, some know what it means, most don't; but they say it to you the same way you would moo at a cow, because you can." Definitely not a direct quote but it's the wisdom that has kept me sane on bad China days, as I call them. 

I had a very bad day the other day. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and forget about all 1.3 billion people in this country. However I find that when I have bad days in China as much as I want to crawl into a ball and lay in bed this is the worst possible thing I can do. So I reluctantly dragged myself out of my bed and went to meet a friend at our favorite coffee shop. Along the way I heard five hellos. I know the people saying them weren't trying to make me feel bad but it just reminded me how bad I am at speaking Chinese, because past a few basic questions I can't have a conversation with them.

As my friend and I were shopping for a flash drive something awesome happened. A random act of kindness reminded me why I love this country, why I'll always miss it. As we were looking through a store I found something I thought my parents would love. Using my Chinese translator, my broken Chinese, and his broken English the store owner helped we figure out what exactly I was holding. After I decided not to purchase it he showed me some of the art he made on his computer and I told him it was very good (in Chinese!). As my friend purchased what she wanted the man took the art he showed me and gave it to me and then put it in her bag without accepting any money for it.

These random acts of kindness remind me how lucky I am to be living and working here. I'll always treasure this gift. 

He made it by drawing on his computer and then printing it out on to canvas.

The Rockstar Feeling

Living in China is a constant adventure, its hard to describe, I've spent many hours staring at my computer screen trying to figure out how to accurately describe the most amazing experience of my life. How do I explain this land that frustrates me, embraces me, amazes me, but most of all, that I love. Baoding has become my home this year, yes, home, it worked it's way into my heart and now a part of me will always long for it the same way I long for breeze off the Hudson river at my favorite park in my hometown.

The Hudson River from my hometown.

The people of Baoding are of the most friendly and accepting people I've ever met, and although I sometimes get frustrated by their stares, I'll never forget the kindness they have shared with me.

Before coming to China I had no idea what to expect. About a year ago I sat down with a program alumna and asked her "what should I expect?" I laugh at the question now, because she must have thought the same thing that I think when people ask me to sum up my experience. Bewilderment is how my body reacts to that question. How do you sum up a year of your life living in your own country? Why would anyone think it would be easier when living in a different one? Yet I was one of those people too. And I'm so thankful for the words of encouragement this amazing woman imparted upon me.

Sitting in a little coffee shop my friend and I (we came to China together) looked at her for guidance, and on some level confirmation that we weren't throwing away a year of our lives. I remember the confusion when she told us we would be treated like rockstars in Baoding. She went on to explain that sometimes we would love it and sometimes we would hate it, but in the end it would be something we could never escape.

Although I have now lived it and totally understand the feeling, I don't know how to explain it any better. It's a feeling, it's knowing that you will get extra special treatment because of who you are. I learned quickly to drop the "I'm a foreign English teacher" line when trying to buying things as I was always quickly offered a discount.

The best I can offer as an example of the rockstar feeling comes from an experience I had with a group of friends a few weeks ago. In order to show this moment's true glory I have to give a little back story. When you try to get on a city bus leaving the Eastern train station in Baoding: run at it as fast as you can, as soon as the doors open start elbowing people, pushing them aside, until you can claw your way on to the bus. Seriously its always a stampede.

Upon getting back to Baoding my friends and I were attempting to take a bus of this nature, the first one was too packed so we waited for the second. One of my friends speaks very good Mandarin Chinese so he asked a bus attendent when the last bus was as, we were told they run every 10 minutes for the next 2 hours, he also complemented my friend on his Chinese. As the second bus approached the throng of people began madly dashing for the bus. As we begrudgingly began to follow the friendly bus attendant who had told us the bus schedule called out to us Laowai (foreigner)! Laowai! And motioned for us to follow. We began running after him as he led us to the back door of the bus, he pried open the doors with his hands and yelled in Chinese something to the driver, I only could make out laowai. The doors opened and he single handedly held back the throng of people as my friends and I got on to the bus and got seats. I'll never forget the image of this man holding back more than 100 fighting Chinese people so we could safely get seats.

Had it been a zombie apocalypse he would have sacrificed his life for us.

I think there are moments in life that are just so awesome you need to take a second and truly appreciate them, cause nothing like it will ever happen again. My experience at the bus station was one of those moments. Like the insightful alumna explained we can never escape the rockstar status, but in that moment I loved it.

Chinese Glasses!

I've heard from many American expats that I should purchase glasses in China because they are so much cheaper than what we are used to. I never realized how much cheaper. In America with insurance my glasses often cost about $150 and I'm lucky that growing up my parents always had really good eye insurance. Many of my friends have spent hundreds of dollars each time they purchased glasses.

With this thought in mind, a few friends and I wandered into a Chinese version of Lens Crafters the other day. We spent a while combing through the frames before we each found the perfect pair. Once we found our frames we went into a backroom, this is when I started to get a little nervous. I did not want my eyes examined, I just wanted the same prescription as my American glasses. I was frantically searching the Mandarin vocabulary in my head for a way to convey this.

In the meantime my very brave friend Katelyn sat down to get her eyes checked.

She is brave.

The eye exam was relatively uneventful (at least from my perspective), despite not speaking Chinese Katelyn didn't seem to have any trouble getting through it. Under different circumstances I would have gotten my eyes tested, however I wasn't sure how to explain "I don't care what you find, I want the same prescription." 

This picture was taken during the funniest part of the exam to watch (in my opinion). Katelyn is looking at an eye chart, but instead of using all the letters like we do in America, it uses a capital E and you point your fingers in the direction the E is pointing. However the eye chart isn't in front of her, it's behind her, she is looking at the reflection in the mirror. The guy performing the eye exam always seemed to be looking at chart behind her and not at her....

I know you've all been hanging on the edge of your seats trying to figure out if I was successful in communicating. I WAS. This was definitely a success moment when it comes to my spoken Mandarin. Here the eye glasses man is measuring my American glasses. Success!

My glasses are the middle ones on the right.

My other friend Katie already had her prescription so she just handed over her card. Katelyn's glasses are on the left, Katies are on the bottom right, mine are in the middle on the right, and a mystery person's are on the top right.

Part of what surprises me the most about China is the kindness of the Chinese people when I think about how happy and excited they were to help I wish I could say the same thing happens in America. The woman who helps you pick out frames even gave us plums as we waited for our receipts. 

It turns out the expats who told me to buy glasses were absolutely correct. My frames were slightly more expansive and I chose the best quality lenses. I spent $34.88 without insurance. 

My Glasses :-)

Baozi

Street Food Pork & Scallion Baozi

 Baozi = Steamed Bun = Best food on Earth

The above statement might be a slight exaggeration. However it is my favorite street food by far, and honestly it might be my favorite type of Chinese food. My love affair with Baozi started shortly after I got to China during my first trip to Globe Square. A friend took me there to introduce me to Chinese street food, I've been buying them at least twice a week ever since.

Whenever I travel to a new city I make it a point to try their baozi, here is a list of my favorite all time baozi: 1st Baozi Lady - Globe Square Baoding, 2nd John's grandparents Tongling, 3rd Baozi shop near the Forbidden City Beijing. The thought of moving away from delicious baozi prompted me to take a cooking class so I can introduce baozi to my friends and family back home.

After much research I found a baozi cooking class in Beijing at Black Sesame Kitchen - I highly recommend it if your in Beijing. This was my second cooking class the first I took in Yangshuo during my backpacking trip.

The school (which is really a restaurant) is located in one of Beijing's Hutongs,  it helped make the experience feel so much more authentic.

I love walking through the hutongs.

The school provided me with excellent directions and I found it no problem. I know I should have taken a picture of the place, but I was too excited to remember, sorry.

Instead here is a picture of my station

Everyone is given their very own apron, pen, and spice bag filled with sichuan mouth numbers. The class included a part about common Chinese ingredients and their uses. Despite living in China for for nearly a year, I still found this section particularly enlightening. Finally I started to understand how the unique flavors of Chinese cooking are created.

Baozi is made in two basic steps, the dough and the filling. The dough is similar to Western bread dough but much less dense. It was tricky getting the correct feel, our teachers kept coming around and helping us find the perfect consistency.

Here the chef & teacher is showing us how to roll the dough.

Anything can serve as baozi filling with the most traditional fillings (the type we made in class) being pork & scallion and egg & chive. I have plans to try and make western breakfast baozi with egg & cheese as a filling :-)

Baozi ready to be steamed

The actual process of making baozi sounds really easy; make dough, make filling, fill baozi, steam. Easy right? NOPE!!!!!!! Filling baozi is an art a difficult art at that, finding the perfect way to cup your hand while you rotate and pinch the top. Not easy. However once you power through the difficult prospect of filling all the baozi, cooking them is really easy.

Put them into a steamer and steam for 15ish minutes.

Then take out and let sit for a few minutes.

Don't they look delicious?

As my year in China begins to wind to a close, I'm looking forward to taking another cooking class. I want to be able to cook my favorite foods for all my friends and family back home.

My New Hair Cut

Tuesday started out just like any other Tuesday. I slept in, relishing in my day off from teaching. A great start to a day off, it got even better when a friend texted, inquiring about a dumpling lunch at our favorite place.

Dumplings. By far one of the best things about living in China. How could I say no? Plans were made and I started to wander in the direction of the restaurant.

Going to this restaurant is usually one of the highlights of my week, I absolutely love it. For one, the woman who owns it is the nicest woman ever. She loves teaching us Chinese and tries to repeat words we say. Our lunches there usually span at least 1 1/2 hours, we order, eat, and talk.

We each ordered a plate of dumplings, we order different types and its like a dumpling sharing party.

Yummy Dumplings! Complete with a side of vinegar.

As any lunch with friends goes, we spent our time talking about a variety of subjects and at some point my hair became the focus of the conversation. In America I usually keep my hair relatively short, however in China I've kept it longer because of the difficulties getting haircuts. As we talked I held up some of my hair and made a cutting motion as I asked my friends if either of them could cut my hair.

Suddenly the owner motioned that she could cut hair and ran to the back of the restaurant. She came back and proudly announced in English that she can cut hair. After a few moments of deliberation, I gladly took her up on her offer.

Youtube Video of My Haircut When I'm in America I'll post the video here.

My Chinese Hairdresser!

Definitely my most interesting haircut ever! She didn't charge me, so I've decided to pay her back in homemade cookies! She doesn't know it yet but tomorrow I'll be surprising her with cookies :-)

Let's Talk About Teaching

I teach a lot, well its my job so that's expected. I teach a lot more than I travel and reading through my blog you definitely wouldn't realize that. So like the title of this post says. Let's talk about teaching.

Graduating from university as a Psychology & Sociology double major with a minor in Social Work I never thought teaching was in my future. I filled my schedule with classes about counseling. How to interact with people in a one-on-one or small group setting. I remember walking into my first class with forty students staring at me, I was terrified. I was standing there thinking "what did I sign up for?" 

My first semester teaching was full of tribulations, many of them. Often times I felt stranded in my classroom, no curriculum, no textbook, and no idea what to do. At first I dramatically underestimated my students' knowledge, I also found myself doing a lot of things that I thought I "should" do but were also the things I always hated teachers doing. Needless to say my first semester teaching wasn't my best. I didn't post about teaching because I didn't have many positive things to say.

That has since changed.

I thought long and hard about my favorite classes throughout my educational career, why my favorite teachers are my favorite, and what I liked/disliked about my own educational history. It was through these long reflections that I finally started to find my ground.

For the teachers, instructors, and professors who's classes and instruction helped me to become the person I am today, I thank you. Without having the honor of being one of your students I wouldn't be the teacher I've become. Without the knowledge you imparted through your lessons and your actions I wouldn't have been able to have my reflection. So I thank you.

I also apologize to you. I never realized how much effort must go into creating lesson plans, and assignments that are both educational and interesting. I'm sorry I spent so much time looking out the window. It wasn't until I saw some of my own "awesome" lesson plans crash and burn before my eyes that I realized I was once that student who would zone out and stare longingly towards the window. I'm sorry that I thought your lessons on ancient Chinese history would never impact my life (really wish I paid attention to that unit). I wish I could have appreciated how great you were when you were still my teacher.

This semester is full of positive things I want to blog about.

I've spent more time listening to the advice of seasoned teachers. Instead of spending time wishing someone would hand me a curriculum, I took the initiative and made a curriculum. I spent more time listening to my students, I found ways to incorporate grammar lessons with lessons on American culture. I remembered a lesson from a Social Work professor and I became comfortable with the silence as my students thought about their answers. I used Mother's Day and making cards to send to their Mothers as a way to teach complex adjectives.

As my time in China begins to draw to a close I feel confident that I have taught my students well. With all my lessons planned and final exam prepared it seems like I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. However the closer I get to the light the more I wish for extra time. My students have impacted me as much as I've impacted them and it saddens me to know in a few short weeks we will have to say goodbye.

I'm Going Home

I'm going back to the USA. Not today, or tomorrow, or even the day after. I have about 5 weeks left. I always knew I was going to leave China, I never thought about my move here being even remotely permanent. That being said it seems as though I'm living in a constant battle with myself, am I happy or am I sad? Excited or foreboding? Expectant or dreading? Most the time I don't know. Its strange now that I have a definitive end, I came to China on a one way ticket, so I never had a countdown to when I was going back. Now I do, now whenever I get frustrated I check the app on my phone. Slowly ticking away the seconds in the form of big green bars that are slowly getting smaller and smaller. I have it set to the time I have to leave my apartment (for the last time) to get to the capital airport bus station. Precision.

Recently I was at a brewery in Beijing. It was full of expats and honestly I was overwhelmed by all the English. I could understand every conversation taking place around me and focusing had never been so difficult. I'm used to the "silence" of not understanding the words being spoken around me......

I'm not sure how I "should" feel or even how I expected myself to feel. It just seems crazy that I gave my students their assignment for the final today, and I told them when I'm leaving. Every day it feels a little more real and every day I feel a little more out of sorts.

To make me feel better I drew a picture, I hope you like it.

Macau - More Than Just a Casino

Ever since I first learned of Macau (sorry to all my former history teachers I honestly can’t remember it from school) when I got to China, I had wanted to go. It was something about the architecture that looked so European and the ruins of the Church of St Paul. It looked so beautiful. I quickly decided that one of my days in Hong Kong would be spent taking a ferry back and forth to Macau for a day trip. My friends couldn’t understand why I felt so compelled to see this strange peninsula known mostly for its casinos.

In Macau it is easy to use the free shuttle buses casinos offer to get all around the peninsula. We used them to get from the ferry port to the center of Macau. Katie's Mom wanted us to check out a casino so we stopped at the first one we saw Wynn.

Our trip to the casino was an experience, as soon as we walked through the doors I was stopped by security asking for my ID. I was a bit surprised, living in China I have never once been carded, however what happened next is what really surprised me. The woman quickly opened my passport and looked very relieved, as she handed it back to me she said in English "ohhh good, you look sixteen." What? Maybe she thinks all foreigners look the same cause I'm positive I don't look sixteen.

The Wynn experience was ehhh, I've only been to one casino before, Mohegan Sun in CT. I must say Mohegan sun was a lot more fun, the slot machines reminded me of old online video games and we couldn't find a bar that we were allowed to go in (they were all for the high-rollers). Needless to say we left pretty quick. 

On our way to the ruins of the Church of St. Paul we decided to stop for some Macanese food, a style that mixes Portuguese and Cantonese styles. It was so delicious! They even had sangria!

After lunch we made it to the ruins of the Church of St. Paul, the most famous monument in Macau, unfortunately by the time we got there we had little time to explore. We snapped some shots and then had to make our way back to the ferry port.

Hong Kong

When I first arrived in China I was surprised by what it looked like. For some reason the standard pictures of what China should look like (I thought) was not at all like what I was seeing. At some point I got used to this skewed version of what I thought and decided that I must be crazy on some level. Turns out my thinking wasn’t crazy. I was just thinking of Hong Kong. Every image I had in my head of what China looked like I found while wondering around the crazy city of Hong Kong. Honestly I could have never left, Hong Kong is an amazing mix of the East and West, I loved it beyond belief.

The first day in Hong Kong we enjoyed the plethora of English found everywhere as well as the non-Chinese food that wasn't much more expansive than Chinese food itself.

The second day was when I really started sight-seeing, I woke up early and went straight to the peak. Unfortunately that wasn't the best idea, the morning was very foggy so I didn't get a good view.

The day continued with a trip to the longest escalator in the world, the mid-levels escalator. 

I spent the rest of the day enjoying the beach! I have seen the Pacific Ocean from Hawaii or the middle as I say, and now I had the opportunity to see it from the Asian side.

I even splurged and had a ride in a traditional boat!

Its difficult to go to a museum in a foreign country because of the language barrier so I've been avoiding them in China. To date I've only been to one museum in Kunming to learn about the flying tigers. However on my third day in Hong Kong I gave myself a morning to explore the Hong Kong museum of History before wandering through the Wan Chai area of Hong Kong Island. The museum had a really interesting exhibit about the history of Hong Kong itself. Strolling through the exhibit made me miss my home's proximity to the impressive museums in NYC.

Leaving Hong Kong was difficult, I absolutely loved it there, blue sky, warm weather, spoken English, it was perfect. Not to mention easy access to facebook. I think the thing I'll miss the most was the ferry rides between islands, so beautiful!