2004-12-31 - 3:38 p.m.
Ah An Yang.
So crissy gave me a short trip to get away and relax, so I chose An Yang. An Yang is in our province so it is a sort train trip (3 hours), and is supposed to have one of the UNESCO World heritage sites after 2006. Now here is what is important about this. When a place is made a World Heritage site it immediately increases in tourism (in a recent article in China Today, they mentioned tourism increasing by over 1 Million people per year at other UNESCO world heritage sites in china) So I wanted to go there before it becomes a world heritage site/tourist trap.
What I found was a very quaint, quiet city. We got there (me another teacher, and one of her students) and went to the place that Lonely Planet travel guides recommend. at 138 yuan(RMB) per night for twin accomidations, I thought it would be a good deal. We get to the building and it is goregous. New, renovated, large glass windows, and I think to myself, "wow, for 138 RMB a night, not bad."
Can you say 'bait and switch'? Yes the new building is very impressive and has a 4 star ranking, but the 138 RMB a night room, no that is in the old building behind this one. So we go out. 138 RMB a night for standing water in bathtub that is actually covered in mold, 2 beds that are rock hard, and actually being able to see the mold climb the walls. NO. So we go to the higher priced room 158 a night. It looks like someone was killed in the bathroom, and left to rot. Next... 200 rmb a night room, and another 100 for a rollaway bed for the student. Each increase in price we increased in size of the room, but not much more. We decided to see what other accomidations we could find.
After a 15 minute walk in -10 degree celsius weather we get to the other hotel our student had heard about. It is closed for rennovations!! By now even in 5 layers of clothing I'm freezing. I see what appears to be a hotel across the street from an "experimental high school" (I'm still wondering what kind of experiments were going on), and we go into this hotel to check it out. They are for chinese only! Great. Our guide starts talking to the people behind the counter, and he tells us to go outside for a minute or so. After 90 freezing seconds he comes out and gets us. It seems as long as he is renting the room and they don't see us when he signs the contract, its all good. We got a room for 150 RMB a night, with 3 beds and a shower. So I thnk we got the better deal.
That afternoon we ate lunch, and went sight seeing,and we found a buddhist temple/tower. So we go up to the front gate, and it is locked. OUr guide knocks and knocks, and this little old man comes out, and tells us they are closed because of the weather. Our guide (michael) starts this wonderful story about how we were from america, and only in An Yang for 1 day, and we came all thsi way to see the tower. The old guy lets us in! (I swear I want to adopt this 21 year old chinese student, he is great). So we have the whole place to ourselves.
This tower is one of the tallest buildings in An Yang, about 6 stories tall. To climb it you have to go up almost vertical steps. The steps are 30" tall, and only 6 " wide. Lets not forget the roof is only about 5'6". So these builders or monks had to be about 5'4" and with hugely long legs. We managed to explore this tower for about an hour (and boy did my legs feel it the following day)
We come down, and the sun is setting. We are looking around, and there are 2 buildings being renovated/remodeled. The doors are closed, and the workers are moving around inside. Well Michael goes up and tells the same sob story about being here only 1 day, and agian they let us in. It was fantastic. Here we are surrounded by workers who are painting the ceramic sculptures, and who are putting murals on the walls. NONE OF IT IS ORIGINAL! What a sham. But it was a pretty sham.
Next day we go to the Yin Ruins (yinxu). These ruins are some of the oldest in china, and that is why it is being made a world heritage site. I was disappointed to say the least. WE get there, and agian it is cold, and snow is on the ground (we spent 6 hours there, and only saw 2 other tourists). We go to the tomb of Fuhao. She is a very famous emperial concubine who led the army. Ok. So we go inside this building, down 3 levels of stairs to get to this pit full of 'relics'. Ok, it looks really neat, but something is just telling me "WRONG" And I finally figure it out. ARound the ouside top of the pit there are skeletons who were placed there to keep the spirits, and bodies of the dead locked in their graves. OK. But upon closer look, you can see one of the skeletons is a 1980's plastic skeleton (the jaw is cast in one piece with the skull, and it looks very deformed) I reach down and thwack it with my finger. Thunk (plastic). There is a very large bronze vessle, I can barely reach it with my fingers, and pick it up, less than one pound (at it's size... 20 or 30 lbs easily). It is a recreation of the pit!!
Our guide is very very upset by this, and is apologizing repeatedly. He starts talking to another chiese person, and they tell him all the artifiacts were moved to a museum down down years ago, this is just a recreation!
so now we are disappointed, but we keep on, and find the oracle bone pit. Oracle bones have some of the oldest written form of chinese ever discovered. A person would go to the oracle with a question. The oracle would kill a tortise, and write on the shell your question, and then burn a fire in the shell. From the way the fire burned, and the ashes left it would answer your question. So the largest find of oracle bones was on this site too. Ok, that is pretty cool. We get to the site, and it has a recreated bone pit! I hate recreations. at least the pictures on the outside were of the areachological dig, and about what was found. That was pretty cool.
There was also an interesting chariot pit. An Yang was interesting, but I hope by 2006 UNESCO World Heritage site will have "real" artifacts, not the recreations!!
Will
Friday, December 31, 2004
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Voice of Will: Finals Time
2004-12-22 - 11:29 a.m.
Sorry for the delay in writing. Since thanksgiving we have been extremely busy.
Finals, and the week after finals. oh joy!
So I'm a cooperative teacher for Fort Hayes Kansas. I am in the class room teaching American Cinema, for a professor in Kansas. I present her material, and give lectures, and write the quizes. She gets the group assignments, writes the exams, and gets the headaches.
Well last week I gave our online final exam. I was told it would be ready for me to just set the time. not so fast. I go into the system the day of the exam and it hasn't been created yet. Now we have a 14 hour time difference from Kansas, so it wasn't like I could email and get an answer, so I had to build the exam from other peoples questions. So I get it done, but none of the questiosn are mine. Oh well. I give the exam. 1/2 the students can't get onto the site, and when they finally do, most of them cannot understand the terminology in many of the questions. And to top it all off there are 8 students who when they submitted their exams, the computers lost them. So they did them again. I even had one student who had to take the same exam 4 times because this kept happening. GRRRRR... Such fun.
And this week I have been mobbed by students who want to tell me their grades are wrong, or to beg for more points grrr!!!
Well just venting, I'll write more interesting things later. (a trip to the Shaolin temple, and trying to buy a snake in china)
Sorry for the delay in writing. Since thanksgiving we have been extremely busy.
Finals, and the week after finals. oh joy!
So I'm a cooperative teacher for Fort Hayes Kansas. I am in the class room teaching American Cinema, for a professor in Kansas. I present her material, and give lectures, and write the quizes. She gets the group assignments, writes the exams, and gets the headaches.
Well last week I gave our online final exam. I was told it would be ready for me to just set the time. not so fast. I go into the system the day of the exam and it hasn't been created yet. Now we have a 14 hour time difference from Kansas, so it wasn't like I could email and get an answer, so I had to build the exam from other peoples questions. So I get it done, but none of the questiosn are mine. Oh well. I give the exam. 1/2 the students can't get onto the site, and when they finally do, most of them cannot understand the terminology in many of the questions. And to top it all off there are 8 students who when they submitted their exams, the computers lost them. So they did them again. I even had one student who had to take the same exam 4 times because this kept happening. GRRRRR... Such fun.
And this week I have been mobbed by students who want to tell me their grades are wrong, or to beg for more points grrr!!!
Well just venting, I'll write more interesting things later. (a trip to the Shaolin temple, and trying to buy a snake in china)
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Voice of Will: China Winter-still warm
2004-12-21 - 12:56 p.m.
As of this writing our wonderfully warm december weather has disappeared. According to teachers who were here last year, we have had an incredible fall with very warm temperaturea and a lack of pollution.
Good for us. In fact until yesterday, I was walking around Peter Hall (where all the foreign teachers live) in short sleeves and shorts most of the time.
As of this writing there is 2 inches of snow on the ground, and what appears to be a blizzard brewing.
The chinese students seem to be very cold, and miserable through most of this. Most of them are severely underdressed for the snow, and I am worried about some of them. Many of them come from southern china, and as freshmen this is probably the first snow they have ever seen. The chinese dorms have very little heat, and hot running water for showers is almost non existant. Another reason most chinese seem to be very CRANKY. (taht with the rock hard beds, the squatty potties, and now cold showers in the middle of winter, i'd be very CRANKY too)
We on the other hand are used to the cold having come from Flagstaff AZ, and are having a wonderful time out playing in the snow. (layers, lots of layers, and don't forget that wonderful wool cap to cover the ears!!) We just finished a big snowball fight (I think I lost), and have done snow angels, and built a small snow man. We ahve come inside while we wait for a friend (another foreign teacher) who thinks he can get some truck inner tubes.... oh boy sledding down the road on SIAS (it gets about 3 cars a day), and is this perfectly long downhill slope.....
I think my students like me. Today was our last offical class. I told them their grades, and how to let me know if anything was wrong, and what we could do about it. I was told by most of them I needed to eat my Bowsa (chinese dumplings) today. Apparently on the first real snow tradition says you must eat Bowsa (Bow like a dog's bark sa) to keep your ears from falling off, and going deaf. I'm interested in learning about this tradition, where did it come from and why? (i'm sure it started by soem old chinese mother who couldn't get her kids to eat their bowsa, ie if you dont' eat your bowsa your ears will fall off... and it stuck) I told crissy about this, and she replied "your students must like you to tell you this. None of mine told me." Makes me wonder if they want her ears to fall off...... (I don't, so I fed her some bowsa)
I'll post the shutterfly site for the pictures from today later.
Will
As of this writing our wonderfully warm december weather has disappeared. According to teachers who were here last year, we have had an incredible fall with very warm temperaturea and a lack of pollution.
Good for us. In fact until yesterday, I was walking around Peter Hall (where all the foreign teachers live) in short sleeves and shorts most of the time.
As of this writing there is 2 inches of snow on the ground, and what appears to be a blizzard brewing.
The chinese students seem to be very cold, and miserable through most of this. Most of them are severely underdressed for the snow, and I am worried about some of them. Many of them come from southern china, and as freshmen this is probably the first snow they have ever seen. The chinese dorms have very little heat, and hot running water for showers is almost non existant. Another reason most chinese seem to be very CRANKY. (taht with the rock hard beds, the squatty potties, and now cold showers in the middle of winter, i'd be very CRANKY too)
We on the other hand are used to the cold having come from Flagstaff AZ, and are having a wonderful time out playing in the snow. (layers, lots of layers, and don't forget that wonderful wool cap to cover the ears!!) We just finished a big snowball fight (I think I lost), and have done snow angels, and built a small snow man. We ahve come inside while we wait for a friend (another foreign teacher) who thinks he can get some truck inner tubes.... oh boy sledding down the road on SIAS (it gets about 3 cars a day), and is this perfectly long downhill slope.....
I think my students like me. Today was our last offical class. I told them their grades, and how to let me know if anything was wrong, and what we could do about it. I was told by most of them I needed to eat my Bowsa (chinese dumplings) today. Apparently on the first real snow tradition says you must eat Bowsa (Bow like a dog's bark sa) to keep your ears from falling off, and going deaf. I'm interested in learning about this tradition, where did it come from and why? (i'm sure it started by soem old chinese mother who couldn't get her kids to eat their bowsa, ie if you dont' eat your bowsa your ears will fall off... and it stuck) I told crissy about this, and she replied "your students must like you to tell you this. None of mine told me." Makes me wonder if they want her ears to fall off...... (I don't, so I fed her some bowsa)
I'll post the shutterfly site for the pictures from today later.
Will
Voice of Will: Trying to buy a snake
2004-12-21 - 1:08 p.m.
So I'm waiting here for a different site to open so I can do some more grading.
Last week I went into Zhengzhou (jung joe) to see about getting some playground equipment for the kids. maybe a cheap swing set like you can buy at walmart, or one of those cheap plastic slides. We were able to find one store, and they only carry "littletikes" or some such american brand name. They wanted 8000 RMB for a plastic house with a 3 swing swing set on it. Taht is $1000. I couldnt' figure out why. The friend I was with asked, and was told it was imported from America. We tried to find out where we could get the cheap chinese knock off, but he wouldn't answer. so we decided not to bother. While trying to kill 3 hours until our return bus trip, I asked them about snakes.
People seem mortally afraid of snakes throughout most of china. The snake is a symbol of deception, stealth, power, and death. I can't blame them for that feeling. In the south of china there are 100 different types of snakes. 99 are so poisonous that you will die within a day of being bit, and that hundredth snake will eat your ass whole!
My students think it is hogwash, but they understand the cultural power of the snake. I have wanted to get crissy a snake for some time now. When we were at south family a snake was expressly forbidden, and we didn't want to try to bring one to china and go through the customs nightmare. But if we are going to be here 18 months it might be worth it.
So we started a journey to find where we could buy a snake. My friends are afraid of snakes, but willing to try. (That is the definition of friendship, willing to do something that frightens you to help a friend). So we start off by asking the cab driver where we can get a snake. The cab driver locks up his breaks (in the middle of the freeway) and pulls over to teh side of the road. He rattles off in rapid chinese to my friend. He was telling us the sale of snake is expressly forbidden. Apparently when the SARS outbreak occured 2 years ago, it was partly blamed on a province in china that would eat anything. Including snake. Part of the reaction was to outlaw the selling of snake.
My friends tell me this is common when you ask for something that is outlawed. The person will put on a show that they are not willing to break the law. They will then drop the show in a couple of minutes (depends on how well they know you) Because I am a Lowwei (Think of the beginning of loud now remove the d. Lou why) (foreigner) he feigned ignorance for several minutes. Now keep this picture in mind. A taxi stopped on the freeway with traffic whizzing by on the side of us with a driver who is swearing he doesn't know anything about snake.
My friend is very good at weasling things out of people (I want to adopt this kid) and has the driver convinced we are not the police in about a minute. He then explains we want a snake. The driver replies, ah yes I do know a place to get snake for lunch. we reply, no not for lunch. The driver replies, well snake is not good for dinner.
We manage to convince him we want it for pet. Long silence (about 3 or 4 mintues) he turns around in the cab to look at me in the back seat (and I'm sure he said something like crazy lowwei in chinese) and he replies. "I have been a taxi cab driver in this town for 10 years, and I have never heard anything like this" So he calls out over the taxi radio looking for snake. the first reply is from another driver, ah a snake toy. By now my friend is rolling with laughter. no nota toy, a snake. Ah... for lunch. No not for lunch. for pet. the chinese radio goes silent. (again think crazy foreinger) and a call comes back. WE can go to the fishmarket, but make them pull the teeth of the snake. (rolling laughing, just imagine a toothless snake gumming your hand....)
I didnt' know zhengzhou had a fish market. We are 1000 km from the ocean, and about 100 km from the closest river that I know about. But there sure is a fish market. it is about as wide as a normal alley, and goes back about 50 meters. There are several alleys that intersect this one at right angles, and they have poultry, or pigs.
So we go up to the first person we see in the fish market selling stuff, and my friend tells them we want snake for pet. Their eyes get so big and round you wouldn't have know they were chinese. A pet? are you crazy, snakes are dangerous. Crazy. Yes I know someone who sells them... but not for pets.
we are taken down the alley to a back alley (only in china can your alleys have back alleys) and down the back alley all the way to the end. Now for the images. Think of blood on the walls, splattered on the ceiling, and on the floor. Think of random chicken feathers stuck to this, and lets not forget the wonderful smell of dung.
we get to this shop, and there is an old woman there. She looks like she went to high school with GOD. Ancient stooped over, and dark white hair. More facial hair than I have, and very large mole on the side of her cheek. (could have been the wicked witch of the east's mom) And she won't talk about snake. She swears her son's business is honest, and would never sell snake. The son is out and won't be back until next week. Oh well. didn't get snake, but got a great story
Will
So I'm waiting here for a different site to open so I can do some more grading.
Last week I went into Zhengzhou (jung joe) to see about getting some playground equipment for the kids. maybe a cheap swing set like you can buy at walmart, or one of those cheap plastic slides. We were able to find one store, and they only carry "littletikes" or some such american brand name. They wanted 8000 RMB for a plastic house with a 3 swing swing set on it. Taht is $1000. I couldnt' figure out why. The friend I was with asked, and was told it was imported from America. We tried to find out where we could get the cheap chinese knock off, but he wouldn't answer. so we decided not to bother. While trying to kill 3 hours until our return bus trip, I asked them about snakes.
People seem mortally afraid of snakes throughout most of china. The snake is a symbol of deception, stealth, power, and death. I can't blame them for that feeling. In the south of china there are 100 different types of snakes. 99 are so poisonous that you will die within a day of being bit, and that hundredth snake will eat your ass whole!
My students think it is hogwash, but they understand the cultural power of the snake. I have wanted to get crissy a snake for some time now. When we were at south family a snake was expressly forbidden, and we didn't want to try to bring one to china and go through the customs nightmare. But if we are going to be here 18 months it might be worth it.
So we started a journey to find where we could buy a snake. My friends are afraid of snakes, but willing to try. (That is the definition of friendship, willing to do something that frightens you to help a friend). So we start off by asking the cab driver where we can get a snake. The cab driver locks up his breaks (in the middle of the freeway) and pulls over to teh side of the road. He rattles off in rapid chinese to my friend. He was telling us the sale of snake is expressly forbidden. Apparently when the SARS outbreak occured 2 years ago, it was partly blamed on a province in china that would eat anything. Including snake. Part of the reaction was to outlaw the selling of snake.
My friends tell me this is common when you ask for something that is outlawed. The person will put on a show that they are not willing to break the law. They will then drop the show in a couple of minutes (depends on how well they know you) Because I am a Lowwei (Think of the beginning of loud now remove the d. Lou why) (foreigner) he feigned ignorance for several minutes. Now keep this picture in mind. A taxi stopped on the freeway with traffic whizzing by on the side of us with a driver who is swearing he doesn't know anything about snake.
My friend is very good at weasling things out of people (I want to adopt this kid) and has the driver convinced we are not the police in about a minute. He then explains we want a snake. The driver replies, ah yes I do know a place to get snake for lunch. we reply, no not for lunch. The driver replies, well snake is not good for dinner.
We manage to convince him we want it for pet. Long silence (about 3 or 4 mintues) he turns around in the cab to look at me in the back seat (and I'm sure he said something like crazy lowwei in chinese) and he replies. "I have been a taxi cab driver in this town for 10 years, and I have never heard anything like this" So he calls out over the taxi radio looking for snake. the first reply is from another driver, ah a snake toy. By now my friend is rolling with laughter. no nota toy, a snake. Ah... for lunch. No not for lunch. for pet. the chinese radio goes silent. (again think crazy foreinger) and a call comes back. WE can go to the fishmarket, but make them pull the teeth of the snake. (rolling laughing, just imagine a toothless snake gumming your hand....)
I didnt' know zhengzhou had a fish market. We are 1000 km from the ocean, and about 100 km from the closest river that I know about. But there sure is a fish market. it is about as wide as a normal alley, and goes back about 50 meters. There are several alleys that intersect this one at right angles, and they have poultry, or pigs.
So we go up to the first person we see in the fish market selling stuff, and my friend tells them we want snake for pet. Their eyes get so big and round you wouldn't have know they were chinese. A pet? are you crazy, snakes are dangerous. Crazy. Yes I know someone who sells them... but not for pets.
we are taken down the alley to a back alley (only in china can your alleys have back alleys) and down the back alley all the way to the end. Now for the images. Think of blood on the walls, splattered on the ceiling, and on the floor. Think of random chicken feathers stuck to this, and lets not forget the wonderful smell of dung.
we get to this shop, and there is an old woman there. She looks like she went to high school with GOD. Ancient stooped over, and dark white hair. More facial hair than I have, and very large mole on the side of her cheek. (could have been the wicked witch of the east's mom) And she won't talk about snake. She swears her son's business is honest, and would never sell snake. The son is out and won't be back until next week. Oh well. didn't get snake, but got a great story
Will
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