I think I have a few minutes to let you know the new things in my life. I just finished a long day of shopping.
I have always loved sewing and fabrics. In the U.S. I had a bucket of fabric that was absolutely full of random fabrics, bolts of cloth and buttons and everything that I ever needed when I wanted to make something. It was a fabulous hobby that I enjoyed doing when I had the time.
Here I am in China, land of silk and cheap tailors and I decide to go shopping for cloth so that I can have a few items made.
I am exhausted. I spent 6 wonderful hours walking around and bargaining at the fabric market. Now imagine if you will a mile long stretch of mall that has indoor and outdoor shops and stands simply covered in cloth. Cloth bolts, cloth samples, cloth drapes. Everywhere you look there is every possibility of finding exactly the kind of cloth that you are looking for. I wanted to find quite a few different items so I had a lot to look for.
To start with, I was looking for cloth for a coat. my husband is in need of a winter coat so I started by looking for fabrics that came with quilted batting. I went to several different shops, and I searched and searched for just the right fabric. Several times I found deals on fabrics that I knew he would not put up with... No man looks quite right in pink duckies...Finally I found just what I needed, plain black (okay it might be a little shiny) and it came with the batting and the lining... I purchased 3 meters (enough for a full length coat for my husband) for less than 6 U.S. dollars.
Well that was done, so now I needed to look at a few silk samples because I have been wanting to have traditional suits made for the children... For 20 U.S. dollars I was able to buy enough silk for three childrens outfits. Two in brown for the boys and one in light purple for Rae. So here I am, lightly loaded down and feeling very happy with my purchases and we come across the satin section.
Now I had been wanting drapes for the living room. I had needed a yellow material that would brighten up the room because of the pale blue gray walls and the flourescent lights. It felt so drab. So I noticed the satin and I thought...It isn't the right kind of cloth for drapes, but lets check the cost anyway. I know, satin is a bit rich for drapes, but at less than 75 cents for a meter of cloth I simply could not resist, I bought enough to drape the living room (Less than 12 dollars for all of it) with enough left over for the other rooms.
I spent 6 hours going over every inch of cloth that I could. I did find some fabulous worsted wool that I really wanted to make a coat for myself out of, (a nice sporty English style coat) but it was very expensive so I turned it down (12 U.S. dollars per meter). The whole time I was in that shop I kept thinking about all of my family back home... I bought a lovely treat from the land where silk is made.
2010 Note - I still have that yellow satin and have used it regularly for wall decorations, table clothes, pantomime curtains, one of the best purchases I made while in China!
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Voice of Will: Kaifung Trip 1
2004-10-26 - 10:12 p.m.
So this last weekend the SIAS teachers were allowed to go on a trip to the city of Kaifung. This was an overnight trip. Crissy had decided to allow me to go out without them (after all I allowed her to go to the longman grotto for the national holiday, so turn around was fair play).
We left at 8am. I was slightly concerned about the trip, but I was told it was only a 2 hour bus ride. 2 hours is easy, no big deal. The toll highway is usually very lightly crowded, and the ride is usually fast and smooth.
After about 30 minutes into the trip, the bus pulls over to the side of the road, and makes a rather sudden unexpected stop. Well unexpected for everyone except the driver. The driver saw the traffic backup, and pulled over. So we are now on a "sit" way, no longer a highway. We sit. We sit. We sit. At the 20 minute mark the bus drivers shuts off the engine. We are now surrounded by traffic all trying to take the same exit we are trying for. Other traffic goes past. At this point I decided to try to get off the bus and stretch my legs. So here I am off the bus, walking around trying to talk to others. Most of the chinese can't speak a word of english, and my chinese is relegated to asking how much that is, and saying no, too expensive... At one point I think I bought a cow from a local farmer, but I'm not too sure.
I had a wonderful conversation with a chinese road worker who spoke enough english to ask, "where you from?" So in his fresh cement, I managed to draw a horrible map of america, and then showed where Arizona was. So here is this sidewalk in china with drying cement and a bad american map... I wonder how long it will be there. At the 45 minute point we found out the chinese equalivent of the Secretary of State was driving on the toll road we wanted to go on, and he didn't like traffic, so we had to wait.
At this point, I had noticed the other traffic zooming past our little offramp was very sporadic, and usually had several long time periods before a large vehicle, or a honking car would zoom by. So I did what any good fun loving american would do.
I walked out into the middle of the freeway, and started singing and doing... "Y...M...C...A It's fun to stay at the Y M C A!!!" I did three whole verses, and was trying to get the local chinese out of their cars, and I really wanted the road crew who was watching to join me, and show solidarity. (the other foreign teachers were dying. Rolling in the isles, some took pictures).
Well as you can guess, having an american in the middle of their highway was enough to make the guards who were holding us up to decide it is time to get rid of the crazy american. So our trip resumed. My job was done.
Kaifung is a smaller city, total inhabitants about 1 million. It is a very famous city in china (though, now that I think about it almost every city in china is "very famous.") It has been the imperial capital for 7 different dynasties, and now it is one big tourist trap!!
We stopped at the Dragon Pavilion, which was a large tall shrine, surrounded by lots of tourist shops. Each shop carried the same goods as every other shop. There were price tags on items, but they were suggested starting points for bargaining. I only got a couple of post cards here. Though we did find a great animatrotic dinosaurs who were eating each other. The best one was the TREX wannabe who was eating the smaller dinosaur on the ground. Lots of fake blood, and the ROAR, and whimper... wow... it's a whole family experience!!! I also really loved the Monkey King sculpture, and the monkey waterfall. The monkey king is one of my favorite chinese myths (a normal monkey who was too clever, becomes a god, and then is too smart for the other gods. He is very arrogant. the other gods call on the buddha to teach him some humility, which he does.) So the sculpture was fun, but I didn't know the monkey king looked like a power ranger reject!!!
So we are off for lunch at the building of the local power company's resturant. So it was an enlightening experience, I think we had to charge it on our account. The food was shockingly good, but boy did it give us powerful gas. And some of the food was really hair raising.... (done with the puns)
We went off back to the dragon pavilion, and walked on the streets outside of the amusement park. Have you ever been to disneyland? just like the shops when you first get into it. Cameras, films, and overpriced trinkets, and each store has the same items.
But I had to stop and look on the lakes. You see about 20 years ago, people were excavating the site of the imperial palace, and they dug 2 very large pits on each side of the dragon pavilion. Well it rained very heavily, and violla you have instant lakes. So the government decided to drain the water finish the escavation, and make man made lakes. They are a rather pretty shade of green. I couldn't see anything living in the water, but I could see people swimming across the lake. I am from flagstaff AZ, and I was wearing 3 layers (tee shirt, long sleve shirt, and nice sweater) and here they are swimming in speedo's. (I'll let that image sink in... old chinese guys in speedo's and cold water......)
I found one place that interested me. mainly because it was DIFFERENT! Going off an alley from the main road was a warehouse. This warehouse appears to be an art school, or an artist collective. There were many booths, with different artists. Now some of them painted the scroll wall hangings that were in the shops on the main road, but most of them painted different scenes. One had a copy of a famous chinese picture of 2 young women during the revolution, one had a hand woven wall hanging of Mao, several were doing landscapes, there were many who did the traditional chinese bamboo, or flowers. But the one I reallllly liked is the one who was not being like the others. It was a woman who was painting women. They were not polished, and artifical, they were bright watercolors, and I decided to buy one for criss. I pointed to it and asked how much, she said 300 RMB. I wrote down 200 RMB. She looked over my shoulder to her 'boss(?)' and he finally shook his head yes. So he walks over, and takes down a different painting than the one I pointed to. The woman takes down the painting I pointed to, and then they proceede to take down the 2 pictures between them. So I purchased 4 pictures of women (I liked them all) for 200RMB or 50 yuan each...
It is getting late, I'll continue tomorrow.
So this last weekend the SIAS teachers were allowed to go on a trip to the city of Kaifung. This was an overnight trip. Crissy had decided to allow me to go out without them (after all I allowed her to go to the longman grotto for the national holiday, so turn around was fair play).
We left at 8am. I was slightly concerned about the trip, but I was told it was only a 2 hour bus ride. 2 hours is easy, no big deal. The toll highway is usually very lightly crowded, and the ride is usually fast and smooth.
After about 30 minutes into the trip, the bus pulls over to the side of the road, and makes a rather sudden unexpected stop. Well unexpected for everyone except the driver. The driver saw the traffic backup, and pulled over. So we are now on a "sit" way, no longer a highway. We sit. We sit. We sit. At the 20 minute mark the bus drivers shuts off the engine. We are now surrounded by traffic all trying to take the same exit we are trying for. Other traffic goes past. At this point I decided to try to get off the bus and stretch my legs. So here I am off the bus, walking around trying to talk to others. Most of the chinese can't speak a word of english, and my chinese is relegated to asking how much that is, and saying no, too expensive... At one point I think I bought a cow from a local farmer, but I'm not too sure.
I had a wonderful conversation with a chinese road worker who spoke enough english to ask, "where you from?" So in his fresh cement, I managed to draw a horrible map of america, and then showed where Arizona was. So here is this sidewalk in china with drying cement and a bad american map... I wonder how long it will be there. At the 45 minute point we found out the chinese equalivent of the Secretary of State was driving on the toll road we wanted to go on, and he didn't like traffic, so we had to wait.
At this point, I had noticed the other traffic zooming past our little offramp was very sporadic, and usually had several long time periods before a large vehicle, or a honking car would zoom by. So I did what any good fun loving american would do.
I walked out into the middle of the freeway, and started singing and doing... "Y...M...C...A It's fun to stay at the Y M C A!!!" I did three whole verses, and was trying to get the local chinese out of their cars, and I really wanted the road crew who was watching to join me, and show solidarity. (the other foreign teachers were dying. Rolling in the isles, some took pictures).
Well as you can guess, having an american in the middle of their highway was enough to make the guards who were holding us up to decide it is time to get rid of the crazy american. So our trip resumed. My job was done.
Kaifung is a smaller city, total inhabitants about 1 million. It is a very famous city in china (though, now that I think about it almost every city in china is "very famous.") It has been the imperial capital for 7 different dynasties, and now it is one big tourist trap!!
We stopped at the Dragon Pavilion, which was a large tall shrine, surrounded by lots of tourist shops. Each shop carried the same goods as every other shop. There were price tags on items, but they were suggested starting points for bargaining. I only got a couple of post cards here. Though we did find a great animatrotic dinosaurs who were eating each other. The best one was the TREX wannabe who was eating the smaller dinosaur on the ground. Lots of fake blood, and the ROAR, and whimper... wow... it's a whole family experience!!! I also really loved the Monkey King sculpture, and the monkey waterfall. The monkey king is one of my favorite chinese myths (a normal monkey who was too clever, becomes a god, and then is too smart for the other gods. He is very arrogant. the other gods call on the buddha to teach him some humility, which he does.) So the sculpture was fun, but I didn't know the monkey king looked like a power ranger reject!!!
So we are off for lunch at the building of the local power company's resturant. So it was an enlightening experience, I think we had to charge it on our account. The food was shockingly good, but boy did it give us powerful gas. And some of the food was really hair raising.... (done with the puns)
We went off back to the dragon pavilion, and walked on the streets outside of the amusement park. Have you ever been to disneyland? just like the shops when you first get into it. Cameras, films, and overpriced trinkets, and each store has the same items.
But I had to stop and look on the lakes. You see about 20 years ago, people were excavating the site of the imperial palace, and they dug 2 very large pits on each side of the dragon pavilion. Well it rained very heavily, and violla you have instant lakes. So the government decided to drain the water finish the escavation, and make man made lakes. They are a rather pretty shade of green. I couldn't see anything living in the water, but I could see people swimming across the lake. I am from flagstaff AZ, and I was wearing 3 layers (tee shirt, long sleve shirt, and nice sweater) and here they are swimming in speedo's. (I'll let that image sink in... old chinese guys in speedo's and cold water......)
I found one place that interested me. mainly because it was DIFFERENT! Going off an alley from the main road was a warehouse. This warehouse appears to be an art school, or an artist collective. There were many booths, with different artists. Now some of them painted the scroll wall hangings that were in the shops on the main road, but most of them painted different scenes. One had a copy of a famous chinese picture of 2 young women during the revolution, one had a hand woven wall hanging of Mao, several were doing landscapes, there were many who did the traditional chinese bamboo, or flowers. But the one I reallllly liked is the one who was not being like the others. It was a woman who was painting women. They were not polished, and artifical, they were bright watercolors, and I decided to buy one for criss. I pointed to it and asked how much, she said 300 RMB. I wrote down 200 RMB. She looked over my shoulder to her 'boss(?)' and he finally shook his head yes. So he walks over, and takes down a different painting than the one I pointed to. The woman takes down the painting I pointed to, and then they proceede to take down the 2 pictures between them. So I purchased 4 pictures of women (I liked them all) for 200RMB or 50 yuan each...
It is getting late, I'll continue tomorrow.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
Voice of Will: Pranks with Balloons in China
2004-10-21 - 11:01 p.m.
I couldn't help it. No really. There was a fresh opened bag of 1000 purple ballons. No one watching them. They started talking to me. No honest. They were saying, "Billy.... billy.... billy, take us, and play with us, and make people smile...."
So I took a big handful. Now there are about 350 largely inflated purple ballones all over campus, and on the surrouding streets... not in basic easy locations... but in potted plants, bicycle baskets, on door knobs, fitted into handlebars on bikes, and even in the door handles of some parked cars, some light poles, but the best one was walking by a construction sight at 8pm (the workers are still working even now at 11 pm) and when the cement loader was not paying attention, and the hauler was not paying attention, dropping in 1 purple ballon in each of the empty cement buckets, which were then taken up to the top, the worker pullng out the ballons with this "WTF???" look on his face...
Or hiding about a dozen ballons in the local convenience store (called Wakka... just the name... tooo classic), and watching the workers find them, and play with them. Something to note, each row in the store has its own attendant. Now placing the ballons without being seen, that was fun...
And to think, I still have about 400 ballons left over... maybe I'll fill my freshman class completely on tuesday... hmmmmmm.....
Will
I couldn't help it. No really. There was a fresh opened bag of 1000 purple ballons. No one watching them. They started talking to me. No honest. They were saying, "Billy.... billy.... billy, take us, and play with us, and make people smile...."
So I took a big handful. Now there are about 350 largely inflated purple ballones all over campus, and on the surrouding streets... not in basic easy locations... but in potted plants, bicycle baskets, on door knobs, fitted into handlebars on bikes, and even in the door handles of some parked cars, some light poles, but the best one was walking by a construction sight at 8pm (the workers are still working even now at 11 pm) and when the cement loader was not paying attention, and the hauler was not paying attention, dropping in 1 purple ballon in each of the empty cement buckets, which were then taken up to the top, the worker pullng out the ballons with this "WTF???" look on his face...
Or hiding about a dozen ballons in the local convenience store (called Wakka... just the name... tooo classic), and watching the workers find them, and play with them. Something to note, each row in the store has its own attendant. Now placing the ballons without being seen, that was fun...
And to think, I still have about 400 ballons left over... maybe I'll fill my freshman class completely on tuesday... hmmmmmm.....
Will
Monday, October 18, 2004
Voice of Will: Missing our friends
2004-10-18 - 7:48 a.m.
So we have been here about 2 months now. We have seen the daily life, we have done some travelling. We were worried about how the kids would adjust. We were wrong. The kids have adjusted very well. They look forward to the homeschool lessons, they have about 100 american aunties and uncles, and have found other children to play with. They are picking up the language really fast.
We are the ones who are having a hard time adjusting. We had lived for 5 years in flagstaff. We have made some incredible friends.... Amy, Dan, Martin, Erik, and Londyn... These friends are much more than that, they are family. Just like my mom, and dad. These friends are my brothers and sisters, and at some time or another they have been much more. They are welcome whereever we are, at any time...
We knew these friendships were close, but we are missing these people deeply. We go out and see things and go "wow, Amy would love this" or "Dan would go crazy about that."
We have made some "new" friends, but it isn't the same. I know it isn't fair to compare the New to the Old, but I'm not even going to not try to...
Growing up, and moving apart is part of life, but I can't wait to see my family again.
Will
So we have been here about 2 months now. We have seen the daily life, we have done some travelling. We were worried about how the kids would adjust. We were wrong. The kids have adjusted very well. They look forward to the homeschool lessons, they have about 100 american aunties and uncles, and have found other children to play with. They are picking up the language really fast.
We are the ones who are having a hard time adjusting. We had lived for 5 years in flagstaff. We have made some incredible friends.... Amy, Dan, Martin, Erik, and Londyn... These friends are much more than that, they are family. Just like my mom, and dad. These friends are my brothers and sisters, and at some time or another they have been much more. They are welcome whereever we are, at any time...
We knew these friendships were close, but we are missing these people deeply. We go out and see things and go "wow, Amy would love this" or "Dan would go crazy about that."
We have made some "new" friends, but it isn't the same. I know it isn't fair to compare the New to the Old, but I'm not even going to not try to...
Growing up, and moving apart is part of life, but I can't wait to see my family again.
Will
Monday, October 11, 2004
Voice of Will: Going to Zhengzhou
2004-10-11 - 12:41 p.m.
So yesterday I had a nice adventure. I travelled to zhengzhou (jungjoe) with a student by ourselves. We took the school bus into zhengzhou with the chinese teachers who were going home, and then we went and did a few errands I needed to do. This included getting another baseball glove.
Now as I have stated earlier someone took my sons baseball glove. So I had asked my students to keep a look out for a baseball glove. I should have known it wouldn't be easy, especially after I had gone looking in xinzheng (shin jung) with absolutely no luck, and lots of chinese snickers as I tried to pantomine playing catch...
Well in a city of 4 million there is exactly 1 store that has any baseball equipment. They had 1, count em 1 baseball glove (very hard stiff leather, need some saddle soap...finding that will be an adventure too), and about 6 bats, and 2 balls. Baseball doesn't seem to be too popular here...
So we finished our errands, and we had to get the 30 miles home. City bus I said. My companion blanched. No no no. The school should have a bus returning any minute. (this for an hour). I did not understand why my student was not wanting to take the city bus back. Now I know.
So we get to the bus terminal at about 5 pm. We get on the bus at 520. the bus leaves at 530. WE have seats (as I found out later, no cushions). So now imagine a bus driving the backroads, slowing down for every group of people to "troll" for more fairs.
Now I have told you about driving in china. Now I'm going to tell you about driving at china at NIGHT.
So the roads are about level with some bad dirt roads. Pot holes that swallow cars, funny road grades, and of course no shocks on the vehicles. Now that is the road. Think about roads in America/Europe where you live. Now take away the street lights one at at time until the road is completely dark.
Now imagine the worst pollution of any major city and double it so you cannot see more than about 100 feet in front of you during the day. Now put 10foot tall bamboo shoots growing on both sides of the road, or put in dilapidated buildings with single 40 watt light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. (imagine the perfect horror setting, and this makes that look warm and fuzzy)
do you feel the setting?
Oh and I left out two things, the oncoming traffic may not have lights, they may have running lights, they may have only one headlight, or nothing at all. And the traffic you are passing on the right consists of tractors, mopeds, bicycles, and other cars also with all, some, or no lights. Now imagine your bus driver barreling down the road talking on a cell phone he keeps dropping.
Do this for 2 hours on the 30 mile trip back.... are you feeling car sick yet?
Will
So yesterday I had a nice adventure. I travelled to zhengzhou (jungjoe) with a student by ourselves. We took the school bus into zhengzhou with the chinese teachers who were going home, and then we went and did a few errands I needed to do. This included getting another baseball glove.
Now as I have stated earlier someone took my sons baseball glove. So I had asked my students to keep a look out for a baseball glove. I should have known it wouldn't be easy, especially after I had gone looking in xinzheng (shin jung) with absolutely no luck, and lots of chinese snickers as I tried to pantomine playing catch...
Well in a city of 4 million there is exactly 1 store that has any baseball equipment. They had 1, count em 1 baseball glove (very hard stiff leather, need some saddle soap...finding that will be an adventure too), and about 6 bats, and 2 balls. Baseball doesn't seem to be too popular here...
So we finished our errands, and we had to get the 30 miles home. City bus I said. My companion blanched. No no no. The school should have a bus returning any minute. (this for an hour). I did not understand why my student was not wanting to take the city bus back. Now I know.
So we get to the bus terminal at about 5 pm. We get on the bus at 520. the bus leaves at 530. WE have seats (as I found out later, no cushions). So now imagine a bus driving the backroads, slowing down for every group of people to "troll" for more fairs.
Now I have told you about driving in china. Now I'm going to tell you about driving at china at NIGHT.
So the roads are about level with some bad dirt roads. Pot holes that swallow cars, funny road grades, and of course no shocks on the vehicles. Now that is the road. Think about roads in America/Europe where you live. Now take away the street lights one at at time until the road is completely dark.
Now imagine the worst pollution of any major city and double it so you cannot see more than about 100 feet in front of you during the day. Now put 10foot tall bamboo shoots growing on both sides of the road, or put in dilapidated buildings with single 40 watt light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. (imagine the perfect horror setting, and this makes that look warm and fuzzy)
do you feel the setting?
Oh and I left out two things, the oncoming traffic may not have lights, they may have running lights, they may have only one headlight, or nothing at all. And the traffic you are passing on the right consists of tractors, mopeds, bicycles, and other cars also with all, some, or no lights. Now imagine your bus driver barreling down the road talking on a cell phone he keeps dropping.
Do this for 2 hours on the 30 mile trip back.... are you feeling car sick yet?
Will
Saturday, October 9, 2004
My first trip to the Longman Grotto
Okay, Time for the update on what has been happening in China.
The children recieved their shipments from the Calvert school, which include textbooks, full lesson plans, and all the activities they need to do their schooling at home (but not worrying about whether they are getting all the information that they need). Rae is excited about starting Kindergarden (technically a year early) and Zeb is excited about starting second grade (We decided after testing him that he is perfectly ready for the second grade program) William is happy with the third grade (The math is a bit easy for him so we have been doubling it up).
Now we are discussing allowing the children to go to a weekly chinese school that teaches Martial arts. William is really interested, but we are of course going to test it out. If they want to stick with it I will support them, but Chinese schools are usually overnight stays (For the whole week, sometimes 6 or 7 days a week with only holiday times for home visits) However, because we are foreigners there is a lot of prestige involved in having us attend the school, so they may work it out so that the kids have a shorter schedule and can be home on weekends.
Don't worry about fights, the Chinese children think having a Lowei (Foreign) student is more important than arguing. They won't fight because it is too cool to go to school with a foreign kid. The school can charge more money if we attend (The kids I mean) and have the chance for major photo ops. We will of course keep you posted on that.
This week was a national holiday (Nation Day) and I went on a break without the kids or Billy. This is the story...
I got up at 4 AM. The bus was due at 5:30 and I wanted to makesure that I had the chance to take a shower.
Now in China hot water is a joyous occasion, so I knew ahead of time that there was little chance that the water would be warm. In fact there is only a few times each day that the water is hot, and then it is always boiling. I was okay with the cold shower at 4 AM and after a few minutes of standing in the cold water I felt quite awake. I packed the night before and set three different alarms to be sure that I would wake up. No problems there. I had decided on a backpack, because hauling a suitcase around on a trip is such a pain. However, the only backpacks that i had to choose from are... The Justice League (Featuring Superman), The Power Rangers (Dinosaur version), or Hello Kitty. I chose Hello Kitty. I figured that I would be able to recognize it if it got snatched out of the Bus or train. I stand by my choice. So my good friend Rita (Who has been putting up with me wonderfully) met me at 4:40 and we walked over to the bus stop with our two tour guides. They have chosen to go by the names of Michael and George. (I had no trouble remembering George and Michael...Just think about it for a second...Yes, I used the singers name to remind me)
They are two Chinese students. Now Chinese students rarely volonteer to be tour guides unless there is something in it for them. michael is a senior, so there is nothing in it for him. However, George is a sophmore and will be one of my husbands students next semester and possibly one of my students the following year. Here in China there is almost always an alterior motive. Part of the agreement for this tour was that the students would take us and speak Chinese for us whenever we needed it, and we would pay their way. (It is a better deal than you might think...just wait and see).
So we arrive at the bus stop. We are the first people there. We are waiting around and a few other people show up. One of them is the lady that collects the money. Our guides check with her and find out that the bus is one of the new buses that will easily hold 30 people. In fact there is going to be a second bus just in case. Then our guide asks her to make sure that there is room on the bus for the two lowai (Foreigners...boy did I get to hear that word a lot!!!) and she agreed. Then we waited. While we waited I counted.
First there were 10 people, then 20 people. When we hit 37 I raised my eyebrow to the guide. It is amazing which signals are universal. He went right to the lady who collects the money (Who by the way was standing around with the rest of the crowd because she has to get on the bus too) and mentioned the crowed. She laughed. Then the bus showed up. Low and behold, the bus was full. You see, there was a previous stop and the crowd that we had been standing with was the second stop. Well let me tell you first, we did not get on that bus...but I still need to tell you what I saw. Imagine for a moment the city bus. Now imagine every seat full. Now put twice as many people in the seats. Now fill in all of the empty space with people standing. Now pile in suitcases and baggage. Now stuff in more people in the stairway. Now just for fun, throw in a few more.
Okay. In your mind you should be able to see faces pressed up against glass windows from the pressure of so many people. This was the scene as the bus pulled up. Then they began to stuff in some of the 37 people who had shown up at the stop. The bus seats about 35 comfortably. It was holding at least twice that many...at least. So then the second bus arrived. It was not a bus, it was a small passenger van that seats about 10. Our guide (The student Michael) dove onto the van and laid down on the seat. He did not budge at all. He was the perfect friend I tell you!. So Rita and I had seats, In fact because of the way he laid on the seats, there was enough room for each of us.
The driver looked at my friend Rita and I, and demanded that I be the one in the middle. (I was the thinnest person in the group, including the Chinese people!...This diet of Rice and Chinese food is fabulous. Everyone else here has been gaining weight, I have lost another 10 lbs.) He had the Lowai sit up front. Then he made a few jokes at our expense (as could be expected). We were able to sit up in the very front on the bench seat with the driver and our guides sat in the very back. We passed our luggage to the back and we had no troubles at all. Now, this is a 4 hour bus trip. Think back to the bus, to the crammed people, to the people standing in ackward positions...4 hours. HAH, I was on the van (said to the tune of nanny nanny boo boo)
Now I have to add a caveat. For most of my family, they already know that I am prone to motion sickness. In fact, I have been told by the family doctor in the states that I have a rare form of virtigo that is positional. And that there is almost nothing I can do about it. Now this is not entirely true, I found a fabulous medicine in Japan (With certain ingrediants that are not perscribable in the U.S.) that works wonderfully.
However, I am all out of it. I do have a patch for long journeys, but I did not think to take it because I am saving it for the trip to the great wall and the journey home. (It is difficult to get ahold of). Now, top that off with the Chinese National Smoking Campaign. Everyone I have met (Teachers and Students and Travelers and Everyone) smokes. So of course the driver of the van was a smoker. The first cigarette did not bother me. He had the window open. However, he closed the window and continued to smoke for the entire 3 hours. Yes three hours, another joy of riding in a van instead of a bus. After 2 hours he pulled off to a road side vendor for a stop. Everyone went for their potty break.
Have I mentioned the toilets in China? For a man who needs to "take a leak" the toilets are not an issue. They are refered to as squatty potties. I had come across these same toilets on my trip to Japan so I was actually prepared when I came to China. However, Japan is a whole other country, a whole other world.
China has dirty squatty potties. There is no toilet paper, you carry your own. There is no flushing toilet paper, you throw it in the garbage. Sometimes the toilet is a trough with stalls (Like a long hole in the ground that is seperated by dividers. And no, there are no doors on the stalls. Sometimes the mens and womens are not seperated. Does this sound a little uncomfortable to you. Some people will go out of their way to plan their day around the locations of the western style toilets...However, I am okay with squatty potties. But...this was a rural stop. What that means is... a small brick wall seperating the Mens and Womens stalls. There was no roof, no building in fact, just a small brick wall dividing and area out back of the bus stop. there was no hole, nope, just a couple of walking bricks to a set of bricks that you could stand on and squat. When you come to China... you will never have trouble using the forest when you camp...it is exactly the same thing except more people using the same spot....EEEWWWW!!!.
Okay, potty break over. The combination of the motion sickness and the potty break and I am not feeling too happy. Well I took my gum out of my mouth, leaned over the wall and got sick...rinsed out my mouth with some drinking water, put the gum back in and walked back to the van. I was feeling much better. Good thing I did not have time for breakfast. SO we only had one more hour on the van. We got to the city (which looked a little different from the other cities that I have seen in China so far, however I think I now know what to look for to differentiate cities) and climbed off the van and we went straight over to the train station to purchase our return tickets home. We did not want to be standing in line when it was time to return and it was early enough that the wait was only 30 minutes to purchase tickets. This becomes important later because we had five minutes when we arrived at the train station to get to the platform. We never would have made it if we had to buy tickets!. THen it is time to go for breakfast. After all it is only 9AM... although after all of that it felt like much later. So we go for breakfast. The guides order rice porridge, and a side dish of bean curd...Tofu to me and you.
Rita orders noodles and soup. I order a nice plain bowl of rice. I like rice, always have. We get our chopsticks and eat our breakfast. In china it is customary to share main dishes, but rice is a solitary dish. So everyone was sharing their main dishes with me, but no one expected me to share my rice. It was kind of nice. The bean curd dish was fabulous, but I still was happy with my rice. THen it was time to take a city bus to the grotto. (The whole reason for coming to this particular city) The city bus is a bit different, kind of like the difference between grayhound and the city bus back home. This city bus was relatively clean and there was room to sit down. It did get crowded but with so many people getting on and off the bus it was no big deal.
So we road through the city and I looked out the windows with my window open (fresh air is a beautiful thing) and I got to see a lot of sites. Our guides had studied, so every time we needed to ask what something was they usually knew and would have some historical information which Rita would write down in her notebook. She is hoping to write up something about her travels. I hope to as well, but I think mine will be more like this....email style. The city we were in is pronounced something like Lewyung (that is not how it is spelled, but that was what I heard when they said the name). It is famous because a general had his head chopped off during battle and the emperor buried his head in the city because nothing else was ever found of him. We finally arrived at the grotto.
The longmen grotto is a famous Buddhist temple and thousands of limestone carvings of the Buddha that sit in hundreds of hand dug caves. These carvings are all over 2000 years old, some older. Some are tiny (2cm) and some are much larger (50ft high) Some have been severely damaged, some are in excellent condition. Some you can still see the old paint and a few have had the gold leaf still on them (although you can't really see that anymore) some are falling apart and some have been vandalized. Long story short, we spent more than 5 hours just looking at the Buddhist reliquaries. Then we crossed the river and visited the temple. It is a beautiful temple with very old artifacts. I thought it was lovely, but it was also very sad. There is so much capitalizing on the old and the artifacts. I thought the grand canyon was bad but this was much much worse. I was sorry to see the hired monks, the people who would pretend to be religious for the tourists but then would go on their smoking break. But it is to be expected.
Then we went to a famous grave sight on the same location. The grave sight is a single grave of a famous gentleman who wrote poetry and inspired poetry in others. It was lovely. The __ sight has a link to the photos (including some of me). The whole visit to this one location, which most people can finish in 4 hours at the most, took Rita and I a total of 8 hours and 30 minutes, not counting the shopping trip in the temple shopping area afterward. (Hey, I bought a sword for my Billy at a temple in Japan, I had to at least try it here... and boy did I walk away with a great deal, less than $40 U.S. for a steal sword...sure it's just a wall decoration but it is still really cool... and He likes it a lot).
So then it was time to go to the hotel. Our guides assured us that they were able to get a deal on the hotel. Some of it I am not allowed to talk to much about...because wehn you are staying in a city that you are not living in you have to register with the police and tell them where you are staying, which we tried to do. However, because it was a munitions factory owned hotel we were not suppose to stay there. (Foreigners are required to stay at hotels for foreigners..which can cost a heck of a lot) Well, we did. It was a beautiful room, a suite, payed for by the munitions factory owner (free for us) and that is all I will say about that....except...cable, western toilet, hot showers...and not leaving the room because we were not allowed to be there.
Enough about that.. On to breakfast the next morning. We went for a meal famous to the area. It was a spicy beef soup with shredded tortilla bread. It was fabulous. Rita had hers twice as spicy...she likes things spicy. I had mine normal, the guides had theirs without the spice. Other than the congealed blood (imagine Jello with a blood flavour) which I could only eat a little bit of, it was a fabulous soup and I ate a lot of it. I also liked the bread, it was a lot like Arizona. Then we were off to go explore the town.
Originally we were suppose to go to a second temple, but our guide decided that he did not want us to risk returning late to the train... after 9 hours at the longmen grotto I am not suprised at that decision, smart boy. So we chose to go to a museum. This was a two room museum, no bigger than a persons house in the first room. The first room was filled with artifacts and musical instruments from various dig sites around China. Lovely. The second room contained a complete chariot pit.
That is, a pit that they had dug where they had discovered the remains of chariots and horses, along with other artifacts. The horses had been lined up with the chariots and then slaughtered. Dogs had been tied up (alive) to the chariots and then the dirt had been added to bury them. One dog had escaped (probably chewed through the ropes and had been killed closer to the surface) and his remains were really easy to see, but the rest of the pit was in a lowered area that you looked down into. It was fascinating. There were also the remains of one human.
I have my theories...It was a slave society after all. And his body was above the horses but underneath one of the chariots. This is the most important chariot pit because it proves that the emporers chariot was pulled by 6 horses. Side by side not two by two. By the time we left that museum we did not have a great deal of time to kill so we went to a park and visited some lovely gardens. Then we went shopping for gifts (I bought the kids plastic replica swords that looked like the one I got their father) and then it was time for lunch. WE went to a restaurant that was famous for its Hunan food. (that is a province far to the south of here). I have been told that hunan food was very spicy so I was worried. The food came. I don't like sweet and sour, I don't like bean curd, I don't like soups. However, I found my favorite food in the whole of China...Hunan Beef.
Wow, it was so spicy even Rita was suprised, but I could not resist. Hunan is also known as the area where people eat rice. In the north they eat noodles (like Rita) and in the south they eat rice (like me) and When I started wolfing down the Hunan Beef the guides were laughing at me. Then they told me that my accent when I speak Chinese is also Hunan. eventually I will have to visit the province to see if that is really what I sound like or if they are just making fun of me.
Anyway, lunch was fabulous. Quite delightful. Then we hired a taxi to go to the train station. Low and behold we find ourselves running a little behind. The taxi driver keeps telling us not to worry, the train always runs late, but we did not want to miss it. So we run in and go to the platform and we make it just in time. (Okay, we had 5 minutes before the train arrived...if it had been like that in the U.S. I would have been in tears, but this is China. They didn't even ask to Xray the sword...just let me carry it on the train. We make the train and our guide George says goodbye because he lives in that city and is just going to take the taxi home.
Our guide Michael talks to us on the train (There are pictures of both of them on the link too...The one playing with the top on the train is Micheal...the other one is George) and we have a pleasent journey back. I am sitting backwards and the ride is 4 hours, but for some reason I just get a little nausious at the end but am okay for the most part. We arrive in ZhengZhou (said JungJoe) and we take a taxi to the bus station to take us home to the university. Michaels bus has already left.. so he gets us to our bus which is leaving in 2 minutes and he says to us that he will stay with his aunt in town. The bus from Zheng Zhou to XinZeng (shinjung) is a two hour trip (don't ask, I guess we took the long way back) and I was seated in the back. I thought I would be standing, but then the people in the back decided to practice their English skills for the Lowai and asked me to sit with them.
Now remember back to the description of the bus at the beginning. It was not quite that bad...but there was no room to breath. Now I started to get more than a little car sick but I decide to ignore it and just sit there talking to Rita, sitting up whenever I need to but mostly leaning foward to chat (She is sitting in front of me). At one point I unintentionally woke her up. She dozed off. Boy was she awake after that. Although a lot of people dozed off on the bus, but I was too afraid of people It was okay because it was better than the taxi ride that I had from ZZ to XZ. That was a whole other story and boy is it a doozy... but back to the journey.
I got off the bus and we had to walk a few blocks (To clear my head after that bus ride) before we got a taxi to the university. I got home and the kids were already in bed. I took another cold shower (The hot water was off when I got home, but I did not want to smell like a smoking bus) and went to bed, telling my family all about my adventures. I brought back pictures too, which I will be adding to my website eventually, but for now I am going to just sit back and enjoy the fact that China really is a whole new world. (Oh and for all the bus, van and taxi rides...add in the previous stories you have heard about driving in China...If I had ever complained about drivers in the U.S. I formally apologize in writing. You are nothing compared to drivers in China)
I have a lot more to tell, but I think that this is more than enough already. walking off with my stuff.
The children recieved their shipments from the Calvert school, which include textbooks, full lesson plans, and all the activities they need to do their schooling at home (but not worrying about whether they are getting all the information that they need). Rae is excited about starting Kindergarden (technically a year early) and Zeb is excited about starting second grade (We decided after testing him that he is perfectly ready for the second grade program) William is happy with the third grade (The math is a bit easy for him so we have been doubling it up).
Now we are discussing allowing the children to go to a weekly chinese school that teaches Martial arts. William is really interested, but we are of course going to test it out. If they want to stick with it I will support them, but Chinese schools are usually overnight stays (For the whole week, sometimes 6 or 7 days a week with only holiday times for home visits) However, because we are foreigners there is a lot of prestige involved in having us attend the school, so they may work it out so that the kids have a shorter schedule and can be home on weekends.
Don't worry about fights, the Chinese children think having a Lowei (Foreign) student is more important than arguing. They won't fight because it is too cool to go to school with a foreign kid. The school can charge more money if we attend (The kids I mean) and have the chance for major photo ops. We will of course keep you posted on that.
This week was a national holiday (Nation Day) and I went on a break without the kids or Billy. This is the story...
I got up at 4 AM. The bus was due at 5:30 and I wanted to makesure that I had the chance to take a shower.
Now in China hot water is a joyous occasion, so I knew ahead of time that there was little chance that the water would be warm. In fact there is only a few times each day that the water is hot, and then it is always boiling. I was okay with the cold shower at 4 AM and after a few minutes of standing in the cold water I felt quite awake. I packed the night before and set three different alarms to be sure that I would wake up. No problems there. I had decided on a backpack, because hauling a suitcase around on a trip is such a pain. However, the only backpacks that i had to choose from are... The Justice League (Featuring Superman), The Power Rangers (Dinosaur version), or Hello Kitty. I chose Hello Kitty. I figured that I would be able to recognize it if it got snatched out of the Bus or train. I stand by my choice. So my good friend Rita (Who has been putting up with me wonderfully) met me at 4:40 and we walked over to the bus stop with our two tour guides. They have chosen to go by the names of Michael and George. (I had no trouble remembering George and Michael...Just think about it for a second...Yes, I used the singers name to remind me)
They are two Chinese students. Now Chinese students rarely volonteer to be tour guides unless there is something in it for them. michael is a senior, so there is nothing in it for him. However, George is a sophmore and will be one of my husbands students next semester and possibly one of my students the following year. Here in China there is almost always an alterior motive. Part of the agreement for this tour was that the students would take us and speak Chinese for us whenever we needed it, and we would pay their way. (It is a better deal than you might think...just wait and see).
So we arrive at the bus stop. We are the first people there. We are waiting around and a few other people show up. One of them is the lady that collects the money. Our guides check with her and find out that the bus is one of the new buses that will easily hold 30 people. In fact there is going to be a second bus just in case. Then our guide asks her to make sure that there is room on the bus for the two lowai (Foreigners...boy did I get to hear that word a lot!!!) and she agreed. Then we waited. While we waited I counted.
First there were 10 people, then 20 people. When we hit 37 I raised my eyebrow to the guide. It is amazing which signals are universal. He went right to the lady who collects the money (Who by the way was standing around with the rest of the crowd because she has to get on the bus too) and mentioned the crowed. She laughed. Then the bus showed up. Low and behold, the bus was full. You see, there was a previous stop and the crowd that we had been standing with was the second stop. Well let me tell you first, we did not get on that bus...but I still need to tell you what I saw. Imagine for a moment the city bus. Now imagine every seat full. Now put twice as many people in the seats. Now fill in all of the empty space with people standing. Now pile in suitcases and baggage. Now stuff in more people in the stairway. Now just for fun, throw in a few more.
Okay. In your mind you should be able to see faces pressed up against glass windows from the pressure of so many people. This was the scene as the bus pulled up. Then they began to stuff in some of the 37 people who had shown up at the stop. The bus seats about 35 comfortably. It was holding at least twice that many...at least. So then the second bus arrived. It was not a bus, it was a small passenger van that seats about 10. Our guide (The student Michael) dove onto the van and laid down on the seat. He did not budge at all. He was the perfect friend I tell you!. So Rita and I had seats, In fact because of the way he laid on the seats, there was enough room for each of us.
The driver looked at my friend Rita and I, and demanded that I be the one in the middle. (I was the thinnest person in the group, including the Chinese people!...This diet of Rice and Chinese food is fabulous. Everyone else here has been gaining weight, I have lost another 10 lbs.) He had the Lowai sit up front. Then he made a few jokes at our expense (as could be expected). We were able to sit up in the very front on the bench seat with the driver and our guides sat in the very back. We passed our luggage to the back and we had no troubles at all. Now, this is a 4 hour bus trip. Think back to the bus, to the crammed people, to the people standing in ackward positions...4 hours. HAH, I was on the van (said to the tune of nanny nanny boo boo)
Now I have to add a caveat. For most of my family, they already know that I am prone to motion sickness. In fact, I have been told by the family doctor in the states that I have a rare form of virtigo that is positional. And that there is almost nothing I can do about it. Now this is not entirely true, I found a fabulous medicine in Japan (With certain ingrediants that are not perscribable in the U.S.) that works wonderfully.
However, I am all out of it. I do have a patch for long journeys, but I did not think to take it because I am saving it for the trip to the great wall and the journey home. (It is difficult to get ahold of). Now, top that off with the Chinese National Smoking Campaign. Everyone I have met (Teachers and Students and Travelers and Everyone) smokes. So of course the driver of the van was a smoker. The first cigarette did not bother me. He had the window open. However, he closed the window and continued to smoke for the entire 3 hours. Yes three hours, another joy of riding in a van instead of a bus. After 2 hours he pulled off to a road side vendor for a stop. Everyone went for their potty break.
Have I mentioned the toilets in China? For a man who needs to "take a leak" the toilets are not an issue. They are refered to as squatty potties. I had come across these same toilets on my trip to Japan so I was actually prepared when I came to China. However, Japan is a whole other country, a whole other world.
China has dirty squatty potties. There is no toilet paper, you carry your own. There is no flushing toilet paper, you throw it in the garbage. Sometimes the toilet is a trough with stalls (Like a long hole in the ground that is seperated by dividers. And no, there are no doors on the stalls. Sometimes the mens and womens are not seperated. Does this sound a little uncomfortable to you. Some people will go out of their way to plan their day around the locations of the western style toilets...However, I am okay with squatty potties. But...this was a rural stop. What that means is... a small brick wall seperating the Mens and Womens stalls. There was no roof, no building in fact, just a small brick wall dividing and area out back of the bus stop. there was no hole, nope, just a couple of walking bricks to a set of bricks that you could stand on and squat. When you come to China... you will never have trouble using the forest when you camp...it is exactly the same thing except more people using the same spot....EEEWWWW!!!.
Okay, potty break over. The combination of the motion sickness and the potty break and I am not feeling too happy. Well I took my gum out of my mouth, leaned over the wall and got sick...rinsed out my mouth with some drinking water, put the gum back in and walked back to the van. I was feeling much better. Good thing I did not have time for breakfast. SO we only had one more hour on the van. We got to the city (which looked a little different from the other cities that I have seen in China so far, however I think I now know what to look for to differentiate cities) and climbed off the van and we went straight over to the train station to purchase our return tickets home. We did not want to be standing in line when it was time to return and it was early enough that the wait was only 30 minutes to purchase tickets. This becomes important later because we had five minutes when we arrived at the train station to get to the platform. We never would have made it if we had to buy tickets!. THen it is time to go for breakfast. After all it is only 9AM... although after all of that it felt like much later. So we go for breakfast. The guides order rice porridge, and a side dish of bean curd...Tofu to me and you.
Rita orders noodles and soup. I order a nice plain bowl of rice. I like rice, always have. We get our chopsticks and eat our breakfast. In china it is customary to share main dishes, but rice is a solitary dish. So everyone was sharing their main dishes with me, but no one expected me to share my rice. It was kind of nice. The bean curd dish was fabulous, but I still was happy with my rice. THen it was time to take a city bus to the grotto. (The whole reason for coming to this particular city) The city bus is a bit different, kind of like the difference between grayhound and the city bus back home. This city bus was relatively clean and there was room to sit down. It did get crowded but with so many people getting on and off the bus it was no big deal.
So we road through the city and I looked out the windows with my window open (fresh air is a beautiful thing) and I got to see a lot of sites. Our guides had studied, so every time we needed to ask what something was they usually knew and would have some historical information which Rita would write down in her notebook. She is hoping to write up something about her travels. I hope to as well, but I think mine will be more like this....email style. The city we were in is pronounced something like Lewyung (that is not how it is spelled, but that was what I heard when they said the name). It is famous because a general had his head chopped off during battle and the emperor buried his head in the city because nothing else was ever found of him. We finally arrived at the grotto.
The longmen grotto is a famous Buddhist temple and thousands of limestone carvings of the Buddha that sit in hundreds of hand dug caves. These carvings are all over 2000 years old, some older. Some are tiny (2cm) and some are much larger (50ft high) Some have been severely damaged, some are in excellent condition. Some you can still see the old paint and a few have had the gold leaf still on them (although you can't really see that anymore) some are falling apart and some have been vandalized. Long story short, we spent more than 5 hours just looking at the Buddhist reliquaries. Then we crossed the river and visited the temple. It is a beautiful temple with very old artifacts. I thought it was lovely, but it was also very sad. There is so much capitalizing on the old and the artifacts. I thought the grand canyon was bad but this was much much worse. I was sorry to see the hired monks, the people who would pretend to be religious for the tourists but then would go on their smoking break. But it is to be expected.
Then we went to a famous grave sight on the same location. The grave sight is a single grave of a famous gentleman who wrote poetry and inspired poetry in others. It was lovely. The __ sight has a link to the photos (including some of me). The whole visit to this one location, which most people can finish in 4 hours at the most, took Rita and I a total of 8 hours and 30 minutes, not counting the shopping trip in the temple shopping area afterward. (Hey, I bought a sword for my Billy at a temple in Japan, I had to at least try it here... and boy did I walk away with a great deal, less than $40 U.S. for a steal sword...sure it's just a wall decoration but it is still really cool... and He likes it a lot).
So then it was time to go to the hotel. Our guides assured us that they were able to get a deal on the hotel. Some of it I am not allowed to talk to much about...because wehn you are staying in a city that you are not living in you have to register with the police and tell them where you are staying, which we tried to do. However, because it was a munitions factory owned hotel we were not suppose to stay there. (Foreigners are required to stay at hotels for foreigners..which can cost a heck of a lot) Well, we did. It was a beautiful room, a suite, payed for by the munitions factory owner (free for us) and that is all I will say about that....except...cable, western toilet, hot showers...and not leaving the room because we were not allowed to be there.
Enough about that.. On to breakfast the next morning. We went for a meal famous to the area. It was a spicy beef soup with shredded tortilla bread. It was fabulous. Rita had hers twice as spicy...she likes things spicy. I had mine normal, the guides had theirs without the spice. Other than the congealed blood (imagine Jello with a blood flavour) which I could only eat a little bit of, it was a fabulous soup and I ate a lot of it. I also liked the bread, it was a lot like Arizona. Then we were off to go explore the town.
Originally we were suppose to go to a second temple, but our guide decided that he did not want us to risk returning late to the train... after 9 hours at the longmen grotto I am not suprised at that decision, smart boy. So we chose to go to a museum. This was a two room museum, no bigger than a persons house in the first room. The first room was filled with artifacts and musical instruments from various dig sites around China. Lovely. The second room contained a complete chariot pit.
That is, a pit that they had dug where they had discovered the remains of chariots and horses, along with other artifacts. The horses had been lined up with the chariots and then slaughtered. Dogs had been tied up (alive) to the chariots and then the dirt had been added to bury them. One dog had escaped (probably chewed through the ropes and had been killed closer to the surface) and his remains were really easy to see, but the rest of the pit was in a lowered area that you looked down into. It was fascinating. There were also the remains of one human.
I have my theories...It was a slave society after all. And his body was above the horses but underneath one of the chariots. This is the most important chariot pit because it proves that the emporers chariot was pulled by 6 horses. Side by side not two by two. By the time we left that museum we did not have a great deal of time to kill so we went to a park and visited some lovely gardens. Then we went shopping for gifts (I bought the kids plastic replica swords that looked like the one I got their father) and then it was time for lunch. WE went to a restaurant that was famous for its Hunan food. (that is a province far to the south of here). I have been told that hunan food was very spicy so I was worried. The food came. I don't like sweet and sour, I don't like bean curd, I don't like soups. However, I found my favorite food in the whole of China...Hunan Beef.
Wow, it was so spicy even Rita was suprised, but I could not resist. Hunan is also known as the area where people eat rice. In the north they eat noodles (like Rita) and in the south they eat rice (like me) and When I started wolfing down the Hunan Beef the guides were laughing at me. Then they told me that my accent when I speak Chinese is also Hunan. eventually I will have to visit the province to see if that is really what I sound like or if they are just making fun of me.
Anyway, lunch was fabulous. Quite delightful. Then we hired a taxi to go to the train station. Low and behold we find ourselves running a little behind. The taxi driver keeps telling us not to worry, the train always runs late, but we did not want to miss it. So we run in and go to the platform and we make it just in time. (Okay, we had 5 minutes before the train arrived...if it had been like that in the U.S. I would have been in tears, but this is China. They didn't even ask to Xray the sword...just let me carry it on the train. We make the train and our guide George says goodbye because he lives in that city and is just going to take the taxi home.
Our guide Michael talks to us on the train (There are pictures of both of them on the link too...The one playing with the top on the train is Micheal...the other one is George) and we have a pleasent journey back. I am sitting backwards and the ride is 4 hours, but for some reason I just get a little nausious at the end but am okay for the most part. We arrive in ZhengZhou (said JungJoe) and we take a taxi to the bus station to take us home to the university. Michaels bus has already left.. so he gets us to our bus which is leaving in 2 minutes and he says to us that he will stay with his aunt in town. The bus from Zheng Zhou to XinZeng (shinjung) is a two hour trip (don't ask, I guess we took the long way back) and I was seated in the back. I thought I would be standing, but then the people in the back decided to practice their English skills for the Lowai and asked me to sit with them.
Now remember back to the description of the bus at the beginning. It was not quite that bad...but there was no room to breath. Now I started to get more than a little car sick but I decide to ignore it and just sit there talking to Rita, sitting up whenever I need to but mostly leaning foward to chat (She is sitting in front of me). At one point I unintentionally woke her up. She dozed off. Boy was she awake after that. Although a lot of people dozed off on the bus, but I was too afraid of people It was okay because it was better than the taxi ride that I had from ZZ to XZ. That was a whole other story and boy is it a doozy... but back to the journey.
I got off the bus and we had to walk a few blocks (To clear my head after that bus ride) before we got a taxi to the university. I got home and the kids were already in bed. I took another cold shower (The hot water was off when I got home, but I did not want to smell like a smoking bus) and went to bed, telling my family all about my adventures. I brought back pictures too, which I will be adding to my website eventually, but for now I am going to just sit back and enjoy the fact that China really is a whole new world. (Oh and for all the bus, van and taxi rides...add in the previous stories you have heard about driving in China...If I had ever complained about drivers in the U.S. I formally apologize in writing. You are nothing compared to drivers in China)
I have a lot more to tell, but I think that this is more than enough already. walking off with my stuff.
Thursday, October 7, 2004
Voice of Will: Mao's Revenge and teaching schedules
2004-10-07 - 1:14 p.m.
So we have been on a National Holiday since last thursday, and classes resume on Friday. (I'm not sure what the holiday is for, but why not make it a week long, and let you get that extra weekend? Too easy I guess).
I have been sick most of the time, it appears I have the flu, or it could be 'Mao's revenge' But I was well enough to let crissy go on a trip to the Grotto. Now let me explain. The grotto is full of about 10,000 different statues of the Buddha.
(see http://share.shutterfly.com/action/share/view?i=EeCN3DFo2asmLd&open=1&x=1&sm=0&sl=0
Now these pictures were taken by a friend who was with crissy. Crissy is in a couple of the pictures though.)
I do wish I'd been able to go, but I think the kids would have been bored. And bored brilliant children are a real problem. I shudder to think of the kinds of trouble they would have gotten into.
After the national holiday has ended we change our teaching schedules, by moving up one half hour our afternoon classes. This means the class that was at 2 is now at 1:30, and the class at 4 is now at 3:30. Not a real big deal, but just adds to the confusion.
So we have been on a National Holiday since last thursday, and classes resume on Friday. (I'm not sure what the holiday is for, but why not make it a week long, and let you get that extra weekend? Too easy I guess).
I have been sick most of the time, it appears I have the flu, or it could be 'Mao's revenge' But I was well enough to let crissy go on a trip to the Grotto. Now let me explain. The grotto is full of about 10,000 different statues of the Buddha.
(see http://share.shutterfly.com/action/share/view?i=EeCN3DFo2asmLd&open=1&x=1&sm=0&sl=0
Now these pictures were taken by a friend who was with crissy. Crissy is in a couple of the pictures though.)
I do wish I'd been able to go, but I think the kids would have been bored. And bored brilliant children are a real problem. I shudder to think of the kinds of trouble they would have gotten into.
After the national holiday has ended we change our teaching schedules, by moving up one half hour our afternoon classes. This means the class that was at 2 is now at 1:30, and the class at 4 is now at 3:30. Not a real big deal, but just adds to the confusion.
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