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.

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.

Voice of Will: Candle Lighting Ceremony for Freshmen

2004-09-30 - 9:15 p.m.
So I have a theory. The Village People would make a fortune touring China.
I say this not from wishful thinking, but from some sound facts. 1. They are one of the most requested kereoke bands in china (at least from what I hear... badly, off key, and horrible english), and they get played a lot.

Take the other night for example. We were invited to the Freshmen candle lighting ceremony. Sounds pretty innocent right? WRONG. Not when the college has 3600 freshmen. So we go into the olympic sized stadium (seats about 4 thousand, and has an olympic sized track and field. All 3600 freshmen are on the field. WE are seated right in the middle of them (we are after all a prized specimen (foreign english speaking teachers). So I have Rae on my shoulders to see better, and William Jr. and Zeb are on either side of me. The kids are a SMASH. When Rae waves, she gets 1000 waves back. Freshmen are calling out for us to come over and see them.

Then the ceremony starts so we sit down. Imagine listening to speaches for 2 hours. Now put that in chinese. Now put that into translated english by some students. Imagine some of the speaches giving awards for ghu only knows what... at one point I thought my gall bladder had started a revolution to attempt to seize my brain, and thus end its suffering. Thankfully my small intestine quashed this revolution.

We were spared from further agony by a very high class/snazzy musical session. It was chinese opera. The singers had some very good range, and talent and the dancers could dance, and they looked good.
Then comes .... the village people. (YMCA) now just visualize this. 3600 freshmen, 200 foreign teachers, and about 2000 spectators doing the YMCA. Now put most of them in green fatigue pants, and khaki shirts.... is your head huring enough yet? No?

Next song.... the macarena. I'm not kidding. And now the foreign teachers are being called on stage... so who should go? RAE!!

As the old saying goes, all good things must eventually come to an end. right? Well sort of. We were asked to participate in a television interview for the province television. We were briefed on the Moon festival (a time for families to come togehter, and a time for people for people to think about others with their families.) So we have been on chinese television 2x now. (see previous entry about surrealism.)

Will

Voice of Will: Cheap Tailors

2004-09-26 - 3:08 p.m.
So I really am starting to like china. Ok yes there are things that bother me, like the very interesting smell that periodically wafts over us, or the wonderful taste of coal in the air some mornings, or the apparent lack of dental hygene.

But one of the things I really like is the ability to shop for certain things. Take today for instance. I went out about a week ago and got fitted for a suit. The suit was custom made for me, measured, cut and lined. The total damage was 250 yuan (now that sounds like a lot right?) but remember the currency exchange. 8 yuan for a dollar. that means this custom light wool blend suit cost a little over $30 US. I picked it up today, and it fits incredibly well. Beautiful, comfortable, and lined with satin.

So I put on the dark grey suit (I didn't want to try for a pinstriped suit just yet, I thought I might look like a funny balloon). According to my wife the suit "brings out your Italian side." What makes this so funny is that to the best of my knowledge, I'm not italian (not even a little bit). But in this suit, I look like a mob enforcer (from the movies.)

And this works out perfectly for me. I am supposed to teach a film class on the gangster genre in about 2 weeks. I think I'll wear in the suit....


Will

Voice of Will: Birthday in China 31 years old

2004-09-25 - 9:52 p.m.
So yesterday was my birthday. My 31st birthday. That would mean that no one under 30 can trust me, and my life has just started (if you believe the adages).

It was a very nice day. My children woke me up with wonderful hugs and kisses (they usually do every other day too), we went to breakfast with all the other staff, my kids kept prompting everyone to know it was my birthday. So I got about 50 happy birthdays before breakfast was over. My class had a wonderful time watching "Some Like it hot."

My wife and kids went out shopping for birthday presents for me. I got a dragon bracelet from my oldest son William, a werewolf skull bracelet from my youngest son Zebbediah, and Alien vs. Predator from my youngest child, my daughter Raedrael. I wore the braclets linked together for most of the day. I kept getting hugs and kisses from my kids (it was nice,but getting on my nerves by bed time), and my wife gave me a wonderful present... a smile. To me when you give a gift you know if it has worked if the person who got the gift is smiling afterward. Well I was smiling, so her job was accomplished.

My mom called today (sept 25th for us) because my birthday happened for her (sept 24th in the states). I was out so I missed the call, but I will call her on our normal time (monday morning for us is sunday night for her).

and my birthday presents continued today, I got to go to ZhungZhou (pronounced JungJo) for the day without kids. It was a fun trip.

Will

Voice of Will: Pets in China

2004-09-23 - 7:58 p.m.
So having looked over the rules for the foreign teachers flat, we discovered we can only have pets that live in an aquarium. Ok. So we have the fish, and they have babies... And I decided to get the turtles (their names are pokey and speedy).

Now since it has to live an aquarium, we have made our aquarium a terrarium (half water and half land), and the turtles are terribly happy. We are currently looking for several types of frogs (they run wild around here, so we just might find one and stick him in. But we mostly want a snake.

Now in china, the people seem to have a love hate relationship with the snake (I personally don't think it is too healthy, but they seem to like the dichotomy). On one hand they detest snakes, even seeing one can bring bad luck, and hearing the screams from a simple gardner snake is rather funny. And snakes blood is considered so powerful it is used as an aphordisac and is supposed to cure impotancy. OK. Maybe all they really need to see is one well done snake dance... but I digress.

But I want a nice boa constrictor. A python of somesort, but apparently they are not pets here. I'll just have to look harder... after all the rules state whatever pet you get has to live in an aquarium.

They should be glad I'm not sticking a puppy/kitten in an empty aquarium (that is just the wannabe lawyer in me)

Will

2011 Note-  We discovered later that part of the reason people in China are predisposed against snake is that it is widely believed (albeit incorrectly) that snake was the reason for SARS. 

Voice of Will: Unpacking

2004-09-21 - 7:48 a.m.
So having fully unpacked our 10 suitcases, and 5 carry-on bags, we have noticed some things. We are currently missing

1 boys leather baseball glover
1 sealed ziplock bag of 1000 legos
1 left Yu-gi-oh sandal
1 Quantum Pad cartridge for 3rd grade math.

Now before we came we checked out what we could bring into and take out of china. The only seciton that comes to mind is the rather broad, "not in the interest of the PRC" clause. They did not specifically state what exactly was not in the interest of the PRC, I think they leave that up to the very serious customs officials, who actually look like their passport photos.

I'm still trying to puzzle out how exactly a baseball glove (which they don't seem to sell over here), and legos (which they do sell here) and 1 left sandal constitute a "not in the interest of the PRC" thingee.... I'm reminded of McGuiver for some odd reason... what could you do with those things?????
(actually, I'm pretty sure some schlep at LAX actually stole those items, but I like the mysteriousness of "not in the interest of the PRC")


Will

Note 2011- We discovered later that it was security at LAX that "lost" the items.  However, when we checked with the airport they declared that those items were never found.  I still think someone walked off with them. -Crissy