Laowai in USA

Memories

2010-10-26T12:13:00.001+08:00

A former student shared this blog post she had written about my class with me. I can understand much of the content here, but I want to work on reading it more carefully later.

翻到以前的日记，觉得自己真的是很淘气，所幸的是，现在还是一如既往的淘气，哈哈
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在学校的日子也还是idle
找各种借口打发时间
从家回学校的路上一直拿着我的小三拍申闵沿途风景，那些吞云吐雾的烟囱，我想有一天我会想它们的，想念这辆破破烂烂的申闵
上Teya的课，被逼到第一排坐，Teya被哄的开心的忘了点名和下课
Teya：You guys should have a topic for the research paper, have any ideas?
（大家沉默）
Yolanda:Whether we can miss class as senior students? （想起今天早上自己逃课了）
......
我已经看到Teya眼里仇恨的目光了，这老外最恨的就是truancy，逃课必挂。鉴于无人再提出新的topic她只好以此为例

接下来，她开始不厌其烦的解释dependent variables & independent variables，Yolanda完全无视她的劳动成果，再她说any qs？的时候很不识时务的说了句，I still cannot understand these
于是她又开始翻来覆去捣
终于明白independent varibles就像咱中国人的personal infor.但是Teya强调说这要放到最后写
Yolanda又发问，why？we chinese always take it at the very beginning.
Teya: But I am talking about American way
Yolanda: Well, but here is China
Teya:Ok, I don't want to say you are wrong.
（眼里再次出现恐怖的光。。。）

Group Discussion...
Yolanda 在吃妙芙，看到Teya过来赶忙藏起来
Teya， no u don't need to hide it
然后开始跟我们说Muffin的故事，说的我云里雾里，最后才晓得哦，muffin就是妙芙
拍马P的时间到了
Yolanda：Teya, I am really on your cookies. When will you make cookies for us?
Teya: Oh I am busy, But maybe Christmas. But I may not invite you though you really want to come.
真直接，至于这么直接么？
Yolanda：and I really want to see ur son, they said he is very lovely.
Teya: I have pictures
Yolanda & group members: No, we want to see him face2face, you can bring him here next class
Teya: what? if I bring him here, he must absent school. If he can absent school,how can I ask you to come to my class
真聪明
Bess: If you don't want him to miss class, we can absent ur class and all of us go to ur home to see him。 u can make a choice
Teya无语。。。。

Yolanda: Teya, I really want to tell you that I like your skirt very much
Teya:得意 thxs it's 14 dollars, US
Yolanda同学急忙拿出纸笔开始按一比八折合人民币
Yolanda：Oh so cheap. where did you buy it
Teya得意的笑 America
.....
Yolanda: You can go,bye...
Teya看着我无语
Yolanda心想完了要被挂了：Oh I am kidding
Teya:Bye...

Yolanda: How do you call ur husband?总觉得这句话有错误。。不顺口
Teya作漫不经心状：meng 第四声
Yolanda Is this a family name?
Teya: no family name is yu
Fiona,oh, you husband named 郁闷
还好Teya中文不好，不然要集体挂了我们
说到兴奋处跑到讲台上掏了个东西出来，那架势我们以为是手机
于是Bess凑上去问，wow, you have changed your mobile phone?
Teya :no
Yolanda笨，那是camera
Teya按了恶久递给我们，是个IPOD。。。
看她儿子的照片
Yolanda惊呼，oh， the cat is so fat, is this your cat?
Teya默默的看着我摇头，估计这女人已经对我完全无语了
人家让我看儿子，我只看到照片上的大肥猫
突然她又跑到黑板上去写她儿子的中文名字和他老公的名字
同志们也许是她写错了也有可能，那两个字我长这么大真的第一次看见
Yolanda i have never seen these two characters before
Teya So, you see what, i can teach your chinese
额。。。换我无语

Moving to New Blog Address

2010-08-05T10:10:00.002+08:00

I decided to start a new blog for my PhD and time in the US.

Check http://permanentheaddamagebychoice.blogspot.com/ for future updates!

No Longer a Laowai in Shanghai

2010-07-23T22:55:00.003+08:00

After several days of packing, we finally were ready and left for the airport. Everything went as smoothly as could be expected considering I was a passenger. I overpacked as usual, but was prepared to repack as necessary. There were a few things that we had to leave behind, but not of those things were things we could not live without.
The flight went smoothly. We got through customs, and Meng can stay in the US until Jan 11. Our family met us at the airport. A few tears were shed along the way as we left behind our lovely Leia, beloved city, and great family and friends. On the plane, Meng managed to leave behind the bag containing my computer charger, my ipod, and some of his crap. This is another thing to add to the list of the things Meng does that annoyed me. I should also mention the bag that he left behind was one of the ones I liked best.
It will take a little while to adjust to being back here. For a while, it will probably seem nice to be back. I got some good news yesterday, and that good news is that I am being offered an interview at the ELI at the University of Buffalo. I would love to pick up a few ESL classes because I know I am going to miss teaching. It was one thing I was afraid I was saying goodbye to. Fortunately, this may not actually be the case. They are just looking for part-time teachers, and that is also all I am looking for. If I could pick up one or two classes, I think it would be perfect.

Just the right words...

2010-07-19T00:11:00.001+08:00

to express the same feeling I have... " I feel I am not in a rush to go, but I am also ready to move on."

Meng wrote that in his blog, and I thought that is exactly the same feeling I am having.

Bachelorette Party

2010-07-18T23:18:00.001+08:00

After 6 years in Shanghai, I will help a friend host a Bachelorette Party. She was one of my students, and she is going to get married in the United States in Fall. I have been aware of her meeting this boy since early in their relationship and we have a lot in common as he is American and I am too. So we often talk about these things.

At the going away dinner that was not Xinjiang Food, we talked about wanting to go to a gay bar, but we always never do that. In fact, there are 4-5 of my friends who always seem interested. Stephanie also started asking about a Bachelorette Party and what other American customs she should know about weddings. I thought she would enjoy this kind of event, so we decided to go ahead and do it. Considering there is only one day to plan, everything will be thrown together at the last minute. Penis cookies are in the oven as we speak.

For many of the Chinese people who attend, it will be the first time they go to a bar, the first time they go to a gay bar, and certainly the first time they attend a Bachelorette Party.

It seems exciting to me to share a little of my culture before going back. I think the Post 80s generation is ready for it.

Xinjiang Shiwang

2010-07-17T23:37:00.001+08:00

Today, we planned a going away dinner at my favorite restaurant for Xinjiang food. It is a kind of Chinese food we cannot really find in the US, so I really wanted it again before leaving. However, when we arrived, we found it to be closed for the summer. I hate it when places close for the summer.

It was too late to change to another location. So we just went to the Dongbei Place next door. My friends that came were Jack, Ava, Stephanie, Sally, her boyfriend, Joseph, his girlfriend and some little girl. In addition Meng's college friends came with their wives and kids. There was a total of 17 people. The bill came to 368. We had about 10 beers as well as two tables of food. That comes out to less than $3.25 per person. If we do some calculation of Meng's fancy dinner with his ex-girlfriend, we find it to be 34.40 per person.... That's the thing about China. It is possible to do things cheaply, and it is possible to do things that are really expensive. As Meng reminded me when he told me the Xinjiang place was closed, it isn't about the food but the people we are going to enjoy the meal with....

I really believe I will see all of these people again. It felt a lot less like goodbye and more like so long. I look forward to our paths crossing again. Now I must go to bed as I still have a long day of work tommorow.

One Week

2010-07-14T23:24:00.001+08:00

That's all that is left. I cannot really say that I am ready to go. It is always hard to leave a place when you don't know when you are coming back. Especially when that place is far away. I am sure I will have similar feelings when it is time to leave Michigan and move to New York. I have never lived in a different state, and somehow it seems as foreign as another country.... and given how close it is to Canada, perhaps it almost is...

I ran into Peter today, and he was surprised to see me. It seems most FTs who are not coming back did not stick around either. I heard from him that the contracts at ECNU changed and FTs are not getting paid over the summer nor are they getting their flight tickets reimbursed. I think that is pretty crappy. It makes me even more sure I would not have wanted to stay. Today, I also got an e-mail from Hannan that I was right that my contract did not end until July 10th, so I get paid 1/3 more of my monthly salary for July! Woo Hoo!

Today, we turned over the apartment to our landlord and we got back the entire deposit except the current utility bills. Not to shabby in my opinion.

Tomorrow, I am off to Nanjing to do IELTS. I will be taking the super fast train that is supposed to take 70 min. The first time we went I recall about 5 hours on the train.

Friday, I will tutor Eun Jeong's kid one last time and I will go pick up our passports from the visa office (we had to get an extension).

Saturday, I do IELTS, and we will go to the Xinjiang Place in Minhang for a going away party with friends. But the reality is there are not so many friends left.

Sunday, I do IELTS again.

Monday, I do IELTS writing, and I want to go get a few new pairs of glasses because they are much cheaper here.

Tuesday, I have nothing.

Wednesday, we leave.

Yingna will take off the next week. I actually wish I got to be at her place and just relaxing with the family for a while. Of course I plan to make a nice pile of money in the next week, and I will appreciate it when I go back, but now it seems not to be the most important thing.

There are still quite a few things that I would like to do, and I am quite certain I will not have time to do them all. It was a great idea for Meng and I to get away for a few days and enjoy each other's company in China, as I do not know when we will get a chance to do that again.

Moving

2010-07-10T10:49:00.001+08:00

I really hate moving. I mean HATE moving. And this time we are just briefly moving to Pudong, which I also HATE. I am not looking forward to any of it, but in 24 hours we will already be moved.

I am so tired of moving, and as we plan to live in an apartment in Buffalo, I have a feeling we will be moving again in a year. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate moving...

Another Day in Paradise

2010-07-05T20:08:00.001+08:00

This morning, I spent my time at a cafe to finish my grades. It was time to accomplish this task whether I wanted to or not. It wasn't that I really wanted to, but it does seem very nice to have it done.

After that, we decided to ride scooters instead of going for a bike ride. It was the first time for both of us to ride this kind of machine, and I was a little scared at first. Once I got used to it, I enjoyed it immensely. It allowed us to see more of the countryside and with a lot less effort. On bike, I think we would have only covered 1/3 of the distance before I would have been ready to go back. I think we will do it again. We had planned to do the rafts again, but we both think this might be a better choice.

We had a guide to take us, so we did not have to worry about finding the way, and she could teach us how to ride and turn on the bike patiently. We really had a great time.

After returning, we went out for dinner. I told Meng I wanted to go back to the room for a bit to rest. I am not sure if we will make it back out tonight or not.

The other thing I still want to do while I am here is look at some more Miao Embroidery. I really enjoy it, and I think I might like a little more.

Our last 4th of July in China

2010-07-04T23:23:00.001+08:00

Happy 4th of July!

Today, we spent the day in Yangshuo. It was a very long journey to get here, and I do not think we found a place to stay until after 11pm last night. It was a long trip.

The morning began with a text from Meng's sister saying that the visa/passport had been delivered. A phone call confirmed that it was the visa that was valid for this year, so we are happy that worked out, and we are amazed by the efficiency of the processing. It did not even take one business day for it to be delivered (no one was there). I am not sure what I will do in a country that is so efficient.

After that, we went off in search of Drifters, but it seems it was a victim of modernization and it has disappeared. Instead, we just chose a random place and called it good enough. Then, I found a few stores selling Miao embroidery and I couldn't resist. I looked a bit, and I will look a bit more.

We figured out the plan for the day was going to be to do Bamboo Rafting on the Yu Long River. The first step was to get there, and we found a bus that was going in that direction, so we got on. Later, we found it wasn't so close to our destination, but we were lucky to only have to walk about 300 feet until we found a bus that was going exactly to our destination. We climbed aboard and enjoyed the rafting for about 5 hours.

Then we had a little dinner.

After dinner, Meng let me shop for embroidery more. In one of the shops, the girl working was actually a miao person who was quite knowledgeable about the different pieces. i enjoyed talking with her. She told us about the Miao Festivals and that there are three main festivals. And when we seemed interested, she said her uncle could take us there tomm. Turns out it is a 10+ hour trip. Therefore, we do not think we have time because I need to be back in Shanghai on the 9th to extend my visa. Plus, we already bought our return tickets to Shanghai (we learned this important tip when traveling in China, always book the return or next leg when you arrive otherwise it is easy to get stranded or difficult to find another time or place to go get the tickets. It is better to do it when you are right there.

I also got a new pair of shoes because the ones I was wearing broke. Ironically, they were the same shoes I bought in Yangshuo 5 years ago.

In the evening, I got a massage, and we went to have some BBQ for a late dinner. The first one was too early for Meng and his belly was empty.

Now I am ready for bed.... more on our adventures to come.

25 hours in a confined space

2010-07-04T23:10:00.001+08:00

We took the train to Guilin, and unfortunately we had the top bunk on the sleeper train. Chinese sleeper trains are 3 bunks high, and I guesstimate the amount of space between the bed and the roof to be about 2.5 feet or less. Getting up there was challenging for me, and Meng said he nearly fell getting down. I did not enjoy that experience 10 years ago when we went to Dalian from Beijing, and I did not enjoy it this time around either. Every time the train stopped, I felt that I was going to fall off the bunk. I think it was only about 6 inches wider than me lying down, so it was terribly difficult to find a way to be comfortable.

Fortunately, the person using the lower bunk got off the train around 7am, and I quickly claimed her spot. Later, as the car emptied out, we found a completely empty section and reclaimed it as our own. We were able to take a little nap as well.

I was just waking up when I heard a cell phone playing music. It really annoys me when people use their cell phone as a boom box circa the 1980s. So when the person didn't answer it, I was already irritated. Then I realized my cell phone was also vibrating (the noise part of the ring is silent). It was Yingna. Meng was sleeping so soundly that he did not hear his phone. I figured it must be important if Yingna was ringing me and Meng too probably.

Turns out they wanted to return Meng's passport that he had dropped of the previous afternoon. We started to get really nervous because we were certain that there was something wrong. I was sure that Meng had screwed up yet again. He is good at doing just that. I started to complain about how he doesn't ever plan or prepare well for things. The reality is that neither of us are all that good at doing it anymore because we do not really like to. To be able to tolerate living in China you have to give up some control in your life and be more willing to let things be and happen as the do. Waiting to the last minute usually is not a problem as things generally just have a way to work out. There is always a way to make them work. So now that we decided to take this trip, it seemed that it was a bad decision because now Meng wasn't going to get his visa.

It turned out to be a good opportunity for us to talk about some of the things we will need to work out when we get back to the US. I know there will be a long list of things to do and people to see. My feeling is the the important things will get done and the others will just work themselves out. Neither Meng nor I are big on planning. It isn't that we cannot do it, it is just that we do not often find a greater value in doing things that way. Life is an adventure, and we are going to enjoy the journey. If everything in life is all planned out, than where is all the excitement? I know if we were so big on planning, this current journey never would have happened. In fact, no one we asked to join us was able to just drop everything and come. Perhaps, had we planned it a month in advance, we would be accompanied by some friends; however, perhaps something else would have came up and we would have had to cancel the trip.

The talk made both of us feel the trip was a good idea. We tend to have the majority of our good conversations when we are on the road. It gives us both a chance to be free from distractions and focus on appreciating each other. I do really enjoy to travel with Meng. He is my favorite person to go on a trip with. Generally, we are on the same page although he always likes to enjoy more of the nightlife than I do. I guess I have to wait for him to get just a little older and he will probably grow out of it.

Towards the end, we felt like the journey would never be over. 25 hours is a very long time to be on a train. We got tickets to go back, and we will be enjoying the comfort of the bottom bunk in the soft sleeper (4 people share one compartment). Plus, the ride back is only 19 hours.

And it is back on....

2010-07-01T16:43:00.001+08:00

So the train station lady was really unhelpful and it turns out there are tickets, so we are going!!! Tomorrow.

No Soup for Us

2010-07-01T13:51:00.001+08:00

I went to the train station to get tickets, but they did not have any for today. The earliest I could buy were for the 3rd, and I did not really want to spend the 4th on the train all day. It seems this travel plan falls through the cracks. It doesn't really matter. We can also enjoy our time here in Shanghai.... though it will probably cost us more.....

Our trip would have cost:

350*4 for train tix to Guilin & return (Train ride is 24 hours each way/price is for hard sleeper)

15*4 bus to Yangshuo& return

500 for 5 nights accomodation

100*6 for food

200 rafting

40 bike rental

____________

3000 RMB or $441.00

I am going to really miss travel in China because it just is so cheap. Where else can someone get a week long vacation for two with food and other expenses included for just 220.00 per person.... I think think the train fare alone round trip to New York City will cost a similar amount. Perhaps only camping can be this price in the US. And at the same time when I see that number of $441 pop up, I also think that is a half months rent in the US, and maybe we had better hold on to it.

Spur of the Moment

2010-07-01T10:55:00.001+08:00

This morning, Meng and I talked about going to Yangshuo for one last Hurrah! Hurray! We found train tickets are around 300 RMB. For 4 nights in a hotel is just around 400 RMB. We dont know when we will have a chance to travel alone together and we did always want to go back again.... Now we have to see if we can get tickets!

Seriously...

2010-06-27T21:29:00.001+08:00

I haven't even started school yet and I got a e-mail from my advisor telling me to read 7 books and write a 1 page reflection before the second week of the semester.

National Anthems

2010-06-23T21:57:00.001+08:00

So we are watching World Cup, and they just played the National Anthem of England.

It sounded suspiciously similar to "My Country Tis of Thee".

Exchange Rate Fun

2010-06-22T22:03:00.000+08:00

Chinese law changed to let the RMB appreciate against the USD.... Lets have a looksee at how it affects my pocketbook....

Lets look at the value of the 100 RMB note....

When we came in 2000, it was worth about $12.10.

In 2001, the exchange rate was still 8.26, and it was worth $12.10.

In 2002, the exchange rate was 8.26, and it was worth $12.10.

In 2003, the exchange rate was 8.26, and it was worth $12.10.

In 2004, the exchange rate was 8.26, and it was worth $12.10.

In 2005, the exchange rate was 8.26, and it was worth $12.10.

At some point the exchange began to gradually fall until it reached 6.83, so it was worth $14.64.

On Friday, it was worth $14.64.

Today, it is now worth $14.72.

The difference does not usually seem so great when you buy average things. It is just a difference of a few cents.... but when you start to multiply that by bigger amounts of money, you find....

In 2004 when we came when the exchange rate was 8.26 that would be equal to $12.106.53.

Last Friday, when the exchange rate was at 6.83 that would be equal to $14,641.28

Today, after the exchange rate appreciated to 6.79 that same money is now equal to $14,727.54.

I did nothing.... and that money was worth $86.00 more.

I can't wait to see if the same things happens tomorrow!

Perhaps in the future would would see these kind of numbers for 100,000 RMB to USD.

I heard that at some point it will reach 6.5 which would equal $15,384.61

If it were to reach 6, then it would be $16,666.67

If it were to reach 5, then it would be $20,000.00

If it were to reach 4, then it would be $25,000.00

If it were to reach 3, then it would be $33,333.33

If it were to reach 2, then it would be $50,000.00

If it were to reach 1, then it would be $100,000.00

It is something that we probably do not usually think of, but this exchange rate plays a big role in some business decisions. When you figure for businesses those numbers probably have a few more zeros attached to the back of them. It can cause them to lose millions in a single day. It is no wonder the pressure to change the exchange rate exists. It causes more complications than we can imagine.

Funding Arrived

2010-06-18T06:09:00.001+08:00

I woke up this morning to good news in my in-box. I got the funding for my PhD. It covers a full tuition scholarship as well as a stipend for working 20 hours a week. Now there are a whole slew of other things to figure out but at least the direction is now clear.

World Cup

2010-06-15T18:19:00.001+08:00

So I was wondering how North Korea managed to get a team in the World Cup when China and her one billion people cannot?

My student told me a joke about World Cup Today.

There was a Korean, a Japanese, and a Chinese and they each asked the God a question.

The Korean asked, "When will Korea win the World Cup?"

The God replied, "I can see it happening in 500 years."

The Korean left crying because he knew he would not see it happen in his lifetime.

The Japanese asked "When will Japan win the World Cup?"

The God replied, "I don't see that happening in 300 years."

The Japanese left crying because he knew he would not see it happen in his lifetime.

The Chinese asked "When will China win the World Cup?"

The god began crying, so the Chinese asked why.

The God replied, " I am crying because I don't see China winning the World Cup in my lifetime."

I think there are two things that truly hurt the pride of people in China. One is the poor skill of the men's soccer team, and the other is the fact that a local Chinese has not been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Banking for a Huge Screw Up

2010-06-15T18:00:00.001+08:00

Over the years, I sometimes am amazed by the stupid or careless things my husband does. Just when I think he cant possibly do something like that again, he manages to.

One of our famous problems is catching flights.... The first time was when he missed the flight to Barcelona because he did not leave early enough for the airport. After that, I always got my way about what time we should leave when we need to catch a flight. When I set that time, we do not have a problem.

The second flight problem was when we were in Thailand and our flight left at 2.... am not pm, which is when we arrived at the airport. This turned out to be an expensive mistake, but we were truly glad to spend another week in Thailand and we do not feel we need to go back anytime soon, maybe it ended up saving money in the long run. So, today, when my husband informs me he missed his flight to Dalian because he did not get to the airport on time, I really found I did not have words for him.

In addition to catching flights he has other problems with tickets too. Most notably, the expo tickets. I wont get into the details, but suffice it to day, he screwed up twice.

So I told him I was going to start keeping track of all the dumb things he does as a sort of insurance policy for some future incredibly stupid mistake I will inevitably make. I will try to remain kind and courteous and not too mean or sarcastic when these things happen. I will just collect them and save them for a time when I do something so stupid that it was beyond anyone's imagination.

In the meantime, I will pay more attention to flight departure and airport departure times.... Apparently, he needs monitoring on this matter.

Sometimes I wonder if I am just super lucky for marrying such a guy who finds such outstanding ways of blowing it. He also sucks at admitting his mistakes and somehow finds a way to blame me for it. I am usually too smart for that but it doesn't stop him from trying. I wonder if all men are like this. I wonder how much other people need to manage their husbands. I have decided in order to manage mine, I might be smarter to get a MBA rather than a PhD.

Another World

2010-06-14T22:20:00.001+08:00

Today, I visited the country on the other side of the Huangpu River which is otherwise known as Pudong. Over there, the grass is green, the trees are green, and there are big areas of green spaces. There seem to be less people over there and the roads are very wide. While some people may think this is a paradise compared to my side of the river, I felt it was a lonely, empty, desolate place. According to the 2000 census from wikipedia, Pudong has 3,187,400 people living there. While that number is staggering, I still feel that it is a deserted area. Perhaps like something out of a horror movie where aliens have come and sucked away half of the population. Needless to say, I do not like Pudong.

While in that other country, I had an interesting observation when I was leaving the metro. There seems to be a new campaign to have people stand on one side of the escalator and walk on the other side. There was a girl standing with a sign at the foot of the escalator that demonstrated this revolutionary idea. However, when I looked up at the people on the escalator, I found that they were just standing there haphazardly. I gave a look of pity to the girl trying to spread the work, and stood on the escalator as the sign suggested. At the second escalator, I met the similar situation. I remember noticing in Hong Kong how everyone seemed to be doing this. I thought Shanghai was so far, but it seems this is a new thing that is in the works of changing.

There have actually been a lot of improvements such as these since we have lived in Shanghai. For example, taxis and other drivers honk the horns far less than in the past. Crosswalks are crossed in a more orderly fashion. People wait in line at McDonald's, while getting on the school bus, and when getting on the metro. Additionally, there has been some success with getting people to wait until people have exited the train before boarding. These changes have made the city much more friendly to live in, and I am sure in the years to come there will be even more changes.

402,999.... Part Two

2010-06-12T00:01:00.001+08:00

The previous post was accidently sent when the dog decide to lick my hands and block the screen of my computer with her head....

So after the UK pavilion, we decided to go see if the Russian Pavilion had a line. It looked like it might not, so we thought it might be a good opportunity to see it. It turned out that the line only took 20 min, and the pavilion was a really good one for kids to visit. After that, we passed the Norway Pavilion and decided to go check it out, too. Then we passed by the Denmark Pavilion and got to see the Little Mermaid Statue from Copenhagen Harbor. Then, just as we were about to leave, we found we could also go in the Finland Pavilion.

After that, we left the expo. We took line 13 over to Puxi, and then we grabbed a cab. Overall, it was a good day. I told ayi it reminded me of being a little kid and going to an amusement park. With her, it was like we should see as much as we could before it closed.

I think in one day that it is not really possible to see too much of the expo. The area is so big and there are so many people. Now I just want to go to bed and rest my feet.

Visiting the expo with 402,999 other people

2010-06-11T23:54:00.001+08:00

Today the attendance at the expo was 403,000 people. Not quite the half million I was hoping for, but still quite a few.

The weather for visiting the expo today was just right. Overcast, but not rainy. Warm, not too hot or not too cold. In a word, perfect.

Meng, Hudson, and I took ayi to the expo, and Natalie tagged along. We started out in Puxi, and we visited the expo museum. It was interesting to learn a little about the history of the expo and see some of the things that had been exhibited at previous expos. After that, we came out and there was going to be a show in 30 min, so we decided to get a little to eat, and then we could watch the performance of the Shaolin Monks.

It was a really amazing performance. They demonstrated many different types of Kung Fu. I thought the Drunken Kongfu was really interesting. I was glad we got to see some kind of performance.

After that, we headed over to the Pudong side. We visited the Brunei Pavilion and got some food from there. It was better than I expected. After that we went to the Cambodia Pavilion, and we saw them play some musical instruments from their country. When we came out, there was a performance by the native people from New Zealand, so we watched part of that. Then we went to the China Pavilion to take some photos.

We decided to take a break after that, and we went to Mister Donuts for coffee and donuts. Then we went to look at some of the China provinces pavilion. We looked at a few of the provinces. After that, Natalie decided she needed to leave to meet a friend for watching world cup. We continued on to the Europe part. First, we grabbed a bite to eat at Yoshinoya, and then we got a bus to go to Europe area. We thought about going to the German Pavilion, but when we saw the line was insane, we skipped it. As I have the id from the British Council, we decided to go the UK Pavilion again. I thought it was worth visiting at night, and Hudson wanted to play at the part area inside.

It was then that I got a chance to ask ayi what she thought about the expo. She said it gave her a chance to "widen her eyes" and it made her think about how big Shanghai is. To see this park is so big, and it is just a small part of Shanghai. I really did not know what I expected ayi to say about the expo, but it wasn't that. She seemed to really enjoy herself today, and I hope she wasn't disappointed.

Addfa1q

The Second Talk

2010-06-10T20:57:00.001+08:00

I met with the guy from Kaplan again, and I had an opportunity to learn more about the program. The program is actually the Sino part of the Sino-US pathways program. This is a unique model for China in that it allows students to complete their first year of studies in China and it does not require them to take the TOEFL or SAT/ACT for admissions. The other three years are completed at Baylor, University of Utah, Northeast University, or the University of Vermont. During their year in China, they are taking credit bearing courses for the first year of uni along with taking EAP courses to improve their English.

The program begins with two eight week sessions of classes which are intensive English, and then they continue their English study for the rest of the year in China. In the summer, they go to Northeast to do a summer bridge program which is to help them get acclimated to the life in the United States before they begin their sophomore year.

I found during the interview I was raising questions that they are also looking for the answers to. For example, I wondered how students were selecting their majors, and I was told they have a sort of career advising course that helps them select a suitable major along with the opinions of their parents.

I asked about how they managed to keep the standards reasonable for the US university. They said that the students need to get certain grades in the EAP and if they get to the US, and the US decides they are not ready then they also get kicked out of the program. He said that they did not lose many students in this way.

This is only the second year of the program, so the students from this year are just beginning their summer bridge program, and they have good feedback this far. it does raise a lot of questions for me as whether or not this is a good model for recruiting Chinese students. It also raises new ideas to me regarding international education and the level of cooperation that businesses can have with universities and that universities can have with each other.

I actually believe in what this program is selling and I think it is a great way from students to come from China to the United States.

What they are looking for me to do is to teach EAP (English for Academic Purposes) as well as teach American Studies (as a contingent faculty member of Northeast University in Boston). In addition, they may also like me to teach the class on Career selection and possibly work with others to develop the curriculum for the EAP courses. In addition to that, there may also be a possibility to promote me to a position of leadership for the EAP faculty.

This is a job that I feel would be both exciting and challenging. Because it is directly involved with sending students to the US, and I may be teaching a class that relates helping Chinese students choose their majors, so that is getting into the area of advising international students which has been one of my career goals for quite some time. As I see it, this job offers me the opportunity for professional growth that is in the middle of the two paths I am struggling to choose between. That is, do I want to continue with a career in EFL/ESL (which was the reason I applied to a PhD in Michigan State in Second Language Studies) or do I want to go to International Education (and work to help/advise/create programs for educational exchange). This job seems to be a good opportunity to be involved with something that combines my two interests perfectly. I am not ready to completely give up teaching ESL and at the same time, I have always thought I wanted to be involved with international education.

The company really wants me, and I have been offered summer employment only if it is not possible for me to stay longer. It is so exciting to know that my working experience is really taking me in the direction I would like to go for my career. I really want to translate this work into something I can build upon in the US, and I feel that this job may help me with that transition as well.

The only problem with this job is that it is located in China. (Actually, I would be able to stay in Shanghai--which also means they want me because Shanghai is perhaps one of the more desirable locations to work).

My first choice is still to have the PhD funding come through. But the reality is I start to question what they will be able to offer me, and will it be enough to support us until other things get sorted out.

I asked Buffalo for a timeline as to when I might find out something. I really hope it is soon. I don't want to get any more exciting job offers. It causes too much conflict for me.

Shu Nian

2010-06-08T22:45:00.001+08:00

Today we did good work helping Yingna overcome her shu nian. She was born year of cow and until she comes to her next birthday it is a dangerous uear for her. We celebrated the end of this danger possibility by enjoying japanese BBQ sand all you can drink sake. We took full advantage of this opportunity.

Happy Birthday Yingna!

Waiting for News

2010-06-04T11:56:00.001+08:00

The good news is I got word from Buffalo that there is a "good possibility" that there will be funding for me in Fall, but things are still murky and I need to keep waiting for an update which I will get once they figure things out.

On Wednesday, I turned down the job at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. It turned out it wasn't as good as I thought. It was to teach 12 hours of Oral English classes of 30 students who recently graduated from high school and then 8 hours of something else (English related) to students who could be in Pre-Master's program. In addition, they want me to teach 3 hours of teacher training and hold office hours per week. It is a lot of work for only double the pay that I am currently getting and they did not offer a full round trip plane ticket. There are two aspects of the job which caught my attention. First off all, I am really excited about the prospect of doing teacher training. In addition, it is a program that is preparing students for study overseas and I am attracted to this international component of the program and understanding more about how students are prepared for overseas study and having the opportunity to use my expertise to help the current teachers at the university. I think it would be in my best interest to teach there part time if it were an option.

Today, I had a talk with someone from Kaplan about the possibility of teaching there. My friend Natalie put me in touch with the guy and said that I should talk with him about this opportunity. When I got the call yesterday, I thought it is worth going through the interview for practice. I haven't had much while I have been in China and I wanted to be challenged by this interview with an actual American. The position involves teaching EAP (English for Academic Purposes) as well as teaching a course on American Studies. The program is a 1+3 program where students do one year of study in China and 3 years of study in the United States. The person who interviewed me had extensive experience with Harvard's Writing Program, and for the first time I got a chance to talk to someone who was actually teaching writing and realized that there are people out there dealing with the same concerns that I have and how these concerns relate to Chinese students. It such an interesting conversation. We will have another meeting on Wednesday. I explained that I am waiting to hear about funding at Buffalo and that it is my first choice to attend there and that I think there is a good possibility that it will happen.

The other thing is that we still need to figure out about immigration stuff. It may not be as simple as we hoped. He might not be able to come back or he might not be able to stay.

I was actually getting really excited about coming to Michigan. When I got the news from Buffalo, I was happy, but I do have mixed feelings. I was thinking how nice it would be to come back to the Michigan to be close to family and that it would be nice to come back to teaching at LCC. I was thinking I could be happy to stay in Michigan and eventually find my way into a ESL program and work my way up to being a director of such program and that I could be happy with that choice. We found a school that does Chinese in the primary years and it also has a primary years program of the IB program. We are very interested in this kind of education and excited that this would be a great school for Hudson to attend. But I also know that I would probably find more satisfaction if I didn't take this path that somehow feels a little like going backwards.

Which is why I was so incredibly excited about getting the news from Buffalo that the funding has some good possibility. I put a great deal of thought into choosing PhD program and doing the application. International Education is a field that I am certain I want to pursue, and I think that there are a lot of opportunities out there. In addition, after attending the American Studies Conference, I realized that I really want to be back into a situation where ideas are questioned, played with, and discussed. I want that kind of mental stimulation which can be found in a college classroom that is not in China. I truly forgot what that was like and having been in China for so long I have not encountered it in all the time I was here. Although I tried to create it in my first years here, I gave up, lowered my standards, and began to appreciate what I could get. Doing this chipped away at my soul, and yet there was not another alternative. I became an English teaching slut. Pay me enough, and I will teach anything no matter if it makes me feel good about myself or not. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but to some extent my work her has become more about the money that gaining valuable experience. I feel that doing the PhD program will be a way to redeem some of these qualities I have lost while living in China.

So today, when I had the talk with the Kaplan guy, I had many mixed feelings. I would like to teach in a supportive environment where I am not the only foreign teacher who is teaching a particular course. At Kaplan, there will be other teachers and teachers at other centers teaching the same things. In addition, there is support from the American University as well. As I see it, the person who interviewed me is doing something I would like to be doing in a few years. I asked about his educational background and unsurprisingly it has nothing to do with international education. I told him some of my career goals in interests and for the first time, I was talking to someone who got what it was I wanted to do any why. His suggestion was to stay here and keep doing it and that there is upward mobility in Kaplan as well. So that does raise the question for me which is whether or not I really need to do a PhD for what I want to do.

However, I have decided that I need to leave China. I have decided that I want to have some time back in the US to reclaim some of my missing soul. I think my best course of action will be to pursue a PhD in this area even if it is not necessary, I need to be reminded of how the American education system works and I do want to have a solid foundation in education to build my career on. I think to truly move up in the world of education, obtaining a PhD will open more doors than it closes and it requires hard work and sacrifice on my part to achieve that. I am at a crossroads in my life now. A place where whatever decision I make will lead me somewhere. I feel fortunate that I have all of these options in front of me and that all of these options lead to roads I could be satisfied with. Of these choices, going to do a PhD is certainly the most challenging and the most likely to bring me the greatest amount of personal growth. The further I grow the farther I will eventually be able to stretch. Of these three possibilities, pursuing a PhD is the one which scares me the most and also presents the greatest risk. This is why I know it is the right path to take.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down the one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference.

Packing

2010-05-31T12:15:00.001+08:00

We have officially started packing. The boxes have arrived and we are beginning to sort through the 6 years of accumulation we have here. There is the dilemma of what to keep and what to throw away. There is also the question of whether or not it is worth sending things back or if we are better to just give them to others who are here. It will seem nice to get some of the crap all thrown out. I am really hoping that we are not sending too many boxes back.

As to when we will come back, our visas will expire on 10 July, and we may extend them for 1 month. There are 5 possible IELTS dates during that time, so it may be worth staying, but the reality is that I wont be asked to work for all of them, and it is difficult to predict which ones will work to my favor.

We will continue to sort things out and let you know when we have booked out tickets.

World Expo

2010-05-30T18:03:00.001+08:00

We have visited the World Expo 4 times so far. We bought 7 day tickets, so we technically can go for 3 more days. The trouble is when to go as the weather is getting hotter and hotter and going to the expo is completely exhausting. Yesterday we heard that nearly 400,000 people went to the expo. To me, that means long lines and crowds which are two of the reasons I will be happy to leave China although after I actually leave, I do think I will miss all of the people. I will have the idea that a place seems "lonely" when there are not another 20,000 people in the same space. Crowds do not bother me as much as they used to, but the idea of waiting in super long lines seems like torture. We only have a few more weeks for visiting until the weather becomes too hot to enjoy doing or seeing anything. In light of this, I am guessing we may go to the expo again tomorrow.

So far we have been to the Pudong side of the expo for three days and we enjoyed the cultural exhibits of many countries. The pavilion we waited in line the longest to see was the Saudi Arabia pavilion. There was a huge (largest in the world) IMAX screen, but the video wasn't of great quality and it wasn't all that impressive. We waited 1.5 hours to see the pavilion and I would not do it again. The UK pavilion was probably the most impressive to me. It has a seed cathedral in which 6000 different kinds of seeds are mounted in these acrylic rods. I have heard that the seeds will be planted in China or donated to some seed bank after the expo. The Canada pavilion was also quite interesting. It was created by the people who did cirque de soliel. It was colorful and had a good message. The USA pavilion was somewhat disappointing as all we saw were movies and information from corporate sponsors. For a country that is trying to sell the value of creativity, I do not think the pavilion did a good job to represent this value. In addition to these, we also visited several other pavilions.

On the Puxi side, there are some corporate sponsored pavilions and more pavilions that seem to be more about the theme of the expo "Better City, Better Life". I was impressed with the GM pavilion and the pavilion about communications. I was not that impressed with the Urban Practices pavilions.

There is a lot more to see on both sides of the river, and we still have not gone into the China Pavilion nor have we seen any of the shows. Many of these rely on some reservation system that I am not very sure about. We haven't gotten around to figuring it out yet. I suppose we will go a few more times as we have tickets.

To some extent, I really had no idea what to expect as I have never been to a world expo before. I have seen the transformation that has taken place in Shanghai during the past 6 years, so I suppose I was expecting the expo to be really amazing. In this regard, I have been somewhat disappointed. But at the same time, I have nothing to compare this expo to.

I think the next World thing we will go to will be the World Cup.

CHANGE OF PLAN

2010-05-28T20:37:00.001+08:00

I regret to inform everyone but there is a change of plan. Today, we were discussing what to do with Meng's guitar and Hudson asked where his guitar was. I then told Meng they could have a music class at school and Meng could use that time to teach Hudson to play guitar. They decided to start immediately after dinner.

I let them continue for 30 min and then I cut them off.

They told me we should be sure to get a house with a basement so Meng could have drums, and I assured him that there would be no drums in any house I lived in, and I gave them a choice. They chose guitar and drums over wife and mother, so I decided I might as well just stay here with Yingna where it will be quiet. We will see if there is another change of plans in coming weeks.

So disconnected from reality

2010-05-28T08:55:00.001+08:00

For the last two weeks, Purdue students have been at ECNU for a American Studies conference. I attended yesterday to hear Zhu Ying's talk about "The Namesake". I do not have all that much to say about that talk other than it is very clear to me know why Julia is a doctor of knowledge. What I found more interesting was the discussion that followed. I truly do not believe this was an abnormal discussion, in fact, most people would probably feel it was quite the average discussion. However, I have not seen something closely resembling this kind of discussion in years. In America, I was always a student who had something to say, but in the course of this discussion, I contributed nothing. It wasn't so much that I did not have things to say, but that I did not think of them quick enough and I did not find a space to jump in an interject my thoughts or maybe it was I did not think that the things I had to say were worth mentioning. I don't know, but I do know for some time I used to crave intellectually stimulating conversation. Eventually, I gave it up and realized it just wasn't going to happen. Now, that I have had a glimpse of it, I know that I want it back. I am confident I wont be finding it in China.

It reminds me of the early years of teaching in China when I actually expected there could be this kind of discussion. I actually forgot what it looked like completely. I realize I am satisfied when my students just open their mouths, but nothing deep rarely ever ever ever ever ever ever comes out. I realize even more that it isn't an English problem. The students would be capable of expressing these deep thoughts in English IF they were thinking enough to get to them. Students here do not live in a world where they constantly reflect on their environment. They do not engage in critical thinking at the same level that we do in the United States. Somewhere along the way I stop expecting students to think because I suppose I do not think that they do.

This brings me to the question of language teaching and whether or not it should also include teaching critical thinking and creative thinking along with it. Students certainly need it especially if they are going to be successful in studying abroad. I know it is a skill I want to learn how to teach, but currently have no ideas about how to do it.

Thinking and Planning

2010-05-22T23:50:00.001+08:00

It has been a long time since I wrote something. I suppose the main reason is there are big decision looming and I have been wanting to avoid making them because none of the choice appear to be what I want.

First, I should clearly state that my first choice is to have the funding go through and I will attend SUNY Buffalo for further study. However, at this time I am not prepared to finance my education on my own. It does not make sense as I am going into an Education field and the chances of having this degree pay off is not so high. It may help with getting the job I would like, but unfortunately, the salary expectation is not high. According to a e-mail I got today, Buffalo is still waiting to hear about the funds for graduate students, so it is not possible to go further with that solution.

Second, We have decided that we do not want to live in different places. Thus, we either all go or all stay. If we stay, we are going to need to pay for Hudson's school which is the same price as my tuition, so that does not really make sense. I am tired of paying through the roof for mediocre education.

So right now the most serious consideration is to move back to Michigan. I have applied for a job to teach ESL at Lansing Community College which is essentially what I was doing before I came to China. I suppose it looks like LCC is still hiring despite the financial crisis. We think it makes the most sense to go to the place where we are familiar.

Although I have been looking at a website that had jobs for International Education, and I will apply to some of those as well. So I suppose if one of those jobs came through, I would also consider it.

We were joking that if I move back to Michigan to get my old job, we should seek out all of our old things. First, Meng will contact his former co-worker Shankar to get our Saturn back. I will contact Robin's friend who bought our Buick and get it back too. In addition, we will go buy back our old condo and live in the same place. Finally, Meng will get back his old job. Then everything will be as it was, but different. We will write a book about getting our stuff back and we will become filthy rich and famous for our efforts. See grams, it is a good thing we did not have a yard sale or we would be tracking down all the stuff we sold as well.

Although the job here is really attractive, and it is a promotion over what I have been doing. I know if I take it and funding does not come through again for Buffalo, we will be in the same place next year facing the same problems and issues. It is never going to be easy to leave China and the longer we wait the more reasons we can find to stay and the harder it will be to leave. I still remember reading the Ben's Blog that you will never be ready to leave China, but that you will need to decide it is time to go. I think we have made that decision and we need to stick to it.

Another conversation I had was with a co-worker. We were discussing the academic benefits of living in China. Where else can an English teacher afford to live in a 1200 sq foot apartment in the downtown and have a housekeeper to clean it. In addition, we have a housekeeper who does our shopping and cooks dinner for us 5 nights a week. I have never learned how to operate my chinese washing machine or dryer. I do not even need to remember to buy toilet paper. Ayi notices it is missing and she restocks it for us. In addition to living the life of luxury, I am also able to take vacations to Thailand or other parts of China. My list of places to go is long, and I am sure if I were to stay in China longer I would be able to check many of those places off. Economically, we do well here. But is that a big enough reason to stay in a country. After all, we do give up a lot of have the economic standing. Is it worth it? For how long? In fact, one of the main reasons foreigners stay in China is the economic situation.

The conversation that stole the cake was with a student. We were discussing what families do together. I mentioned some of the things we do together as a family, and I got a lot of odd looks from my students. Apparently we do a lot together. One girl mentioned how she hardly ever saw her father because he was always working to give her and her brother a better life. She said with a look of sadness on her face that made me realize I never wanted Hudson to feel that way.

So if you happen to see any of our old crap, help us get it back. We will be sure to write about it in our book and you can be famous along with us!

The latest we will probably be back is mid-August, but we are still ironing out the details.

PS I checked on houses in our old neck of the woods, and it is listed for 41,000.... I am so glad we sold it when we did!

Goodbye Little Restaurant

2010-05-02T22:39:00.001+08:00

When we lived on Xingfu Lu (our second apartment), we discovered a gem
of a restaurant. At least once a week when we did not feel like
cooking we would find ourselves there. The staff all knew us and it
was reasonably priced with consistently good food.
Today we decided to go there for dinner, but to our complete surprise,
it was no longer. There was no warning that it was going to disappear,
but gone forever now. Things change so quickly here, but this was one
place I did not think I would say good bye to until I left China. I
did not imagine it would leave before me.

Still in the bad place

2010-04-22T01:01:00.001+08:00

yep, you guessed it! The waiting place. When will I escape all this waiting and staying to find the brings places where boom bands are playing?

I e-mailed Buffalo to see when I would find out about the assistantship, and I was told I was on a Waiting List. This is good in that I am not rejected, but the idea of being on a waiting list is like a sort of torture. A place they put people to intentionally tie their insides up into knots and render them completely useless because they cannot think of anything but the uncertainty that is tearing them up inside. And yet, it is better to cling to the waiting place than to have all of your hopes and dreams crushed with sugar coated meaningless regurgitated nonsense.

Meng was the one who pushed me to send a e-mail so I could find out more. He told me he was tired of my waiting mood. He says I just come home and watch TV shows on my computer using Tudou, and that there is no life inside of me. I told him that I was wondering how long I could keep up the charade of waiting misery for a free pass no questions asked TV watching marathon that has little to do with the waiting thing. Or maybe it does? I joked that there was no relationship between my increased TV viewing and the waiting, but in reality, I am sure there is a strong connection. At least when watching mindless TV, some of the uncertainty disappears.

But now I am just waiting...Still

Final Rejection

2010-04-18T17:24:00.001+08:00

So I got rejected from NYU as well. Now I am just waiting to hear
about funding from Buffalo, but I suppose I am not all that hopeful
about that right now.

It is a bit discouraging, but I do think maybe I was aiming way too
high. Meng things I should aim high or not go. But I wonder if he is
being realistic. I am glad I tried to apply to a better school, but at
the same time I wonder if that is the school that is best suited for
me. I wonder if my recommendations were not strong enough or what
could have been done to make a difference in my application. Or maybe
nothing could because I think I spent quite a lot of time on the
applications and selecting schools that I thought would be a good fit
for me.

The reality is this is the first time I actually get rejected on a
college application. When I was and undergrad, I only applied to
schools I thought that I could get into, and I got into them. I made
my decision to attend based on the fact that I got funding to go to
school.
The same is true of my undergrad degree and my master's degree.

I hope I can find out about Buffalo next week.

Chinese Torture

2010-04-18T07:41:00.001+08:00

So yesterday, I went with some of Meng's college classmates to see a
YUE Opera presentation of Dream of the Red Chamber, which is probably
the most famous work of Chinese literature. I was interested in going
to see the performance so I could know more about YUE opera and I was
also interested in knowing more about the story.

The evening started with hot pot. Which I hate unless it is the
Japanese one. The good news is that is does not seem to be running
through me as it generally does.

After that, we headed to the show. It started at 7:15 and it lasted
for three hours. The singing was in this high-pitched shrill voice
that sounds nothing like something that would be pleasant to hear. It
is a kind of noise that gets into my bones and makes them hurt. My
entire body becomes tense and I cannot relax and the shrillness of the
voice makes my head pound. As I attempt to fathom what genius from
Chinese history came up with this kind of art form, I am left
dumbfounded by their creativity in torture. I do not understand how
people can enjoy this art form.

However, the costumes and set were very beautiful to look at, and
there was a live band as well.

As to the story, it is basically about a girl who is sent to live in a
big house for some reason related to a death of the family member. In
this house she meets the boy and they are mutually attracted to
eachother; however, the girl cannot speak out her feelings because she
is ashamed of her background.
The story continues and you can feel the love shared between them
though neither says their feeling. At some point, the father beats the
son, and he falls ill. Then he gets better. Then the girl begins to
get sick and to shoe the end of her life is nearing she buries
flowers. She gets sicker. The parents and other women in the house
decide the son must get married, and they know he wants to marry sick
girl.
However, they do not want him to marry sick girl so they decide to
trick him. In traditional weddings, the bride's face remains covered,
and the groom cannot see it until he enters the wedding chamber after
the deal is already done. In the wedding chamber, he discovers she is
not the woman he had hoped to marry. At the same time, the woman lies
dying. She burns her old poems and some napkin, and then she hears the
wedding music of the man she loves. That is the noise that seems to
send her to her death. When the man realizes the woman he is married
to is not the woman he desires, it is already too late for the woman
he loves is dead. Then he goes and cries at her memorial.

Most of the story I did not really understand. This is essentially the
translation that Meng gives me.

In a few more weeks, I am going to see A KUN opera. I hope it does not
have the annoying singing.

Screw Ups

2010-04-16T22:49:00.001+08:00

So I got an e-mail from University of Maryland today telling me how to
get about registering for classes, obtaining a parking permit, and
getting ready for a great semester next Fall. This was ironic as I
had already got a letter from them telling me that despite my
"outstanding" qualifications they did not want me for their program.

I just can't help but wonder what kind of quality people they have in
their program if their graduate assistants are sending welcome letters
to the rejects.

Rejection

2010-04-15T22:21:00.001+08:00

So I did get rejection letters from both Maryland and Indiana University.

I am a most disappointed about the Indiana one as it was the program I
was most interested in and I thought the person there would be a good
one to work with.

I am still waiting to hear from NYU, but I do not think I can afford
to go there.

I suppose the big question is whether or not I will get funding at
Buffalo, and I need to just wait and see...

Any moment now.

Things Get Interesting

2010-04-14T18:35:00.001+08:00

So today at work, The person who pays me and organizes my classes
asked me about my plans for next year, and all I could tell her was
that I was just waiting and no matter what I was planning to go back
to the US.
We talked a bit, and it came up that she was wanting to offer me a job
at Cai Jing University. So I asked what the job was. She said it would
be to teach Foundation courses to students who were preparing to study
overseas in the following academic year as well as teach some courses
to train teachers about how to teach English in China.
In addition, the pay would be at least double what I am making now. It
is a promotion, and thus far, the best opportunity I would have in
China. It is so tempting.
It just feels really good to know that there are other options and
that I do have some choices. It seems nice to feel that something is
working in my favor and despite my current frustrations with not
knowing about studying for a PHD something is good news.
Don't get all worried that I am not coming back, it is not my
intention. It is just that it feels so good to know there are
opportunities.

Just Waiting

2010-04-13T22:28:00.001+08:00

Frankly, all of this waiting is driving me nuts. I can't, and I mean
can't stand it. I wish everything could just be all figured out so I
can get started on the next step whatever it might be. Thus far, I
have only been accepted at SUNY Buffalo, and I have got rejected at
Maryland and Michigan State. I am waiting on Indiana and NYU. I also
do not know if I have funding or not.
Most people will tell me that PHD studies are funded. Basically,
people say if you do not get funding for a PHD then you shouldn't go.
The trouble is that I do want to get a PhD, but I do think I should
not have to pay for it because it isn't like in the future I will be
getting paid handsomely for what I do. No matter what planet you are
on, education does not really pay big bucks.
So now I am just left with so many uncertainties that it is making me
relatively crazy. So to avoid thinking of it, I am killing time by
watching TV shows on Tudou (got all caught up on Grey's Anatomy,
Gossip Girl, Desperate Housewives) and by playing the stupid game on
my mobile phone.
I find it hard to be motivated to do much of anything big as I feel
the dark cloud of the unknown lingering over my shoulder. I do not do
well with the unknown. Also, I do not believe much can be accomplished
by making all kinds of plans and worrying about it. Now I am just
stuck in that Waiting Place. Stuck Stuck Stuck Stuck Stuck Stuck!

Pot, Rape, and Change

2010-03-29T22:26:00.001+08:00

We are back from our trip to Jingdezhen and Wuyuan. To be honest, it
was a little too much time on the road for such a short trip, and I
left Jingdezhen with some disappointment that I did not get more time
for pot shopping. However, without knowing what I was looking for it
was a bit overwhelming. I think China can be like that because in some
ways, there are just so many choices. We only looked in one area for
pottery, but as we were leaving, we happened to come across what
looked like another huge section of pottery, and we also stumbled upon
another place selling it in the city. The thing about the pottery in
Jingdezhen is that there does not really seem to be any work that is
artistic. Everything is mass produced by a number of people and it is
not just one person making a single artwork. I am not sure what to
make of this kind of pottery. In Japan, when I was looking at
different pottery places, all of the stores selling the pottery
featured different things, or at least there seemed to be more variety
because there were not endless shops in large market settings.
However, I felt, in Japan, the pottery had more of a creative feel to
it. Not every single piece was the same. Although in Jingdezhen, the
people there assured me that it was handmade, it was also all the
same, so it lacked some of that feeling of being totally handmade. To
me, there is a big difference between handmade and being made my hand.
I never thought of that distinction until this last visit to
Jingdezhen. In China, there is so much that is just created by hand.
Appropriately, while on the road, I read Peter Hessler's new book
called Country Driving, and he mentioned visiting a factory town where
they created an art district as a sort of green business to promote
the arts. However, the kind of painting that was done there was more
of just copying landscapes for overseas markets and not a sort of
place that fostered creativity. In so many ways, there is this lack of
appreciation for creating something new and artistic. It seems art
here is just recreated for the masses. In addition, the people
mentioned in his book did not have a love of doing the arts. To them,
it was just a job. Much like someone would be an accountant or
possibly a factory worker at an assembly plant. The work is just
something to do to get a paycheck, and as the work requires a certain
skill, there is perhaps, more money to be made. To me, art is
something people should enjoy doing and the process of making the art
is to express something that cannot be put into words. In China, it
does not seem that definition applies.
After having our fill of pot, we moved on to look at the rape in the
fields. Hudson was delighted to be walking through the fields of rape,
in fact, I dare say he loved it. I truly felt like he would fit in so
well if we lived in the country side. He was running through the
fields as if he had lived there all his life. He spread his arms as he
was running and for a bit I wondered if he might just fly. A few
times, Meng and I wondered what the kid had been smoking or if there
was something in looking at all that pot after all. Though, I guess
the kid just loved rape.
The place were were visiting was supposed to be the most beautiful
countryside in China; however, I think it was overrated. In fact, the
rice terraces in Yunnan were far more stunning and amazing that
looking at fields of rape. I suppose my expectation was a bit too
high.
This morning we left for Shanghai, and I went directly to work. At the
train station, I noticed that they had Van Taxis with the expo logo on
them. This was a new thing to see, and as I arrived at work I noticed
even more taxis with expo labels on them. It really feels like the
expo is coming soon, and that wasn't the only change I noticed. The
other big change was that some of the busses and bus stops actually
had English on the signs. It was possible to read the side of the bus
and know where it went and some of the bus stops told you were you
were. This may not seem like a big deal, but for a foreigner who
cannot read Chinese, taking a bus is incredibly difficult. When we
first arrived, I discovered how to take busses by paying attention to
the busses near where I lived and looking for those numbers in other
places. Later, I got were I could read a few important places to see
if the bus was heading in my direction or not. I felt incredibly
pleased with my self around last October, when I used a map to figure
out what bus to take to a place I had not been before. Another change
I saw was that it looks like Line 11 is getting ready to open.
In someways it seems strange to have gone to see a form of art which
can be preserved for centuries, to fields full of rape and a way of
life that has not changed drastically for hundreds of years, to go to
Shanghai were things change so quickly that you wonder how it is even
possible.... that's China for yah.

Jingdezhen & Wuyuan

2010-03-27T09:09:00.001+08:00

For some time we have been wanting to go the village of Wuyuan in
Jiangxi. There is also another place I really like in Jiangxi, so we
found ourselves hitting the rail and getting the heck out of Dodge. In
other words, we got out of Shanghai for a long weekend.

I can't say the vacation has got off to a great start. On the CRH
(China's version of the high speed rail) Hudson emptied the contents
of his stomach onto the floor of the train. Why he cannot tell us that
he isn't feeling quite right, I do not know, but he doesn't and when
he did it, I would say I was very surprised.

The next day, he managed to complain on the entire 5 hour bus ride.
Fortunately, there was not throwing up. And his attitude was excellent
when we were walking through the folk pottery customs museum. We got
to see the old kiln and some people making pottery. Actually, this
place turned out to be across the street from where we stayed last
time, but we did not even know about it.

I suppose this is the first time I saw such a large scale pottery
making operation. One guys job was to throw the pots. I was really
surprised when the man was throwing pots and when he was finished the
pots were not really all the uniformly made. Granted the size was
similar. Unlike what I thought I had seen previously was that the pots
were then passed on to another person whose job than was to place them
over a stone that was the right shape for the inside of the bowl.
Next, the guy trimmed the bottom of the pot and the side of the pot. I
was surprised he could do this without first anchoring the pot, but I
suppose he has more than 60 years of doing this work, so he should be
good at it. After him, there was a guy who glazed the pot. I did not
see where these pots were actually fired, but there was one kiln
building that we did not visit. It made me try to imagine what
Jingdezhen would be like when it was at its height, when it was busy
with making pottery for all of Europe. That is to say, when China
became China to the West.

It also changes the meaning of handmade to me. Sure, the pots are hand
made, but at the same time, they are mass produced by many workers. To
me, hand made is more of of a kind of craftsmanship. A product that
from start to finish is made by the same person. I feel disappointed
that the work here is not made in this way. It was rather
unimpressive.

After checking out the pottery place, we wanted to get a bite to eat.
Last time we were here, we told the taxi driver to take us to a good
place. He took us to a place that served wonton, and it was good. So
good, in fact, that we went back there with Marco and Julia. And this
time, we wanted to go there again, but we could not remember the name
of the place. We told the taxi driver to take us to a place near the
center of the city that served good wonton. He brought us to the same
restaurant. This somehow really impressed us because the place is
still in business and he knew what we were talking about. The food was
as good as we remembered.

That night, we came back to the hotel. I enjoyed watching some
"Friends" on TV. However, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something
scurry across the floor. I managed to focus in on it, and it was a
little mouse. A little mouse in our hotel room where we are going to
be sleeping was not what I wanted to see. And yet, Hudson was already
in bed sleeping. Meng was had already been napping for a few hours, so
I also did not want to move. Besides, we are in rural China, what can
we expect?

Today, we are going to do some pottery shopping. The next day we are
heading off to see Wuyuan, and then on Monday, I am heading back
towards Shanghai. I have work to do on Monday.

One More Things from Su Tong's Talk

2010-03-14T17:27:00.001+08:00

As I was telling Meng about the lecture last night, I remembered one more thing that Su Tong had said.

He was talking about the loss that comes from the development. I think that is also an important thought that applies to every kind of situation when there is some sort of change or development. That as a place changes the memories get lost as well. This kind of loss in general is necessary, but you also should put some consideration into the places and the memories that you lose for the sake of development.

I think this is also quite similar to immigration. To some extent, you are changing and becoming another person. Much of what comes from your past, you also need to lose. For example, you may need to give up your language or some holidays or some closeness to family members, but you also change who you are in the process. It is important to be selective and not give up everything, but realize that you need to find ways to also hold on to the past.

That was one thing I think China is not paying enough attention to. I am not sure how much we should expect people to hold on to when it comes to modernization. I do not think we as a society took into consideration all of the changes that took place from the Industrial Revolution now. It is also not something that we take into consideration, and yet the world is changing at a rapid pace.

A Whole Lot of Culture...

2010-03-13T23:07:00.001+08:00

In the last few days, I have spent the afternoon at the Shanghai Museum, listened to a talk by a famous Chinese author, Su Tong, and gone to see a performance of the Beijing Opera. Here are some thoughts on this:

Shanghai Museum

1. The first thing we went to look at were the bronzes because Meng wanted to. There was lots of ancient stuff, but I noticed for like the first 1000 years of the bronze things, most of the things on display were wine vessels, and I wondered if it was the case that the people from ancient China were a bunch of alkies. Second, I wondered why there was not a bigger variety of items or if bronze was used mainly for ceremonial drinking glasses. And then as I was walking home tonight, I started to wonder about in other places where bronze was first developed what sorts of things were created. Was bronze mainly an art form, did it have practical purposes, was it used to create weapons or armor, or what?

2. I really only have attention to focus on one room of old stuff. We did not even make it back to the porcelain section, so I know we will be back. In detail, we looked at the minority stuff, the paintings, the furniture, and some exhibition of European painting from some gallery in Italy.

3. Fortunately, the museum was not as boring as Hudson expected.

Su Tong's Talk

4. I went with a wife of one of Meng's college roommates. She was surprised there were so many foreigners at the talk. Fortunately, Su Tong talked in Chinese and it was translated, so she could get more from it. I found that I could catch probably 85% of what was being said by him, and that made me really happy. I was able to laugh in the right places even. I felt the progress from my Chinese.

5. One of the areas he touched on was all of the change in China. All of the building and tearing down. He said that the sound the jackhammer makes is similar to "China" pronounced like Chai Na which means tear it down. And he has heard this sound for the past 30 years. Whether or not all the change is good or not, it is hard to say, but when tearing something down it seems nowadays people count how much money they can get to tear something down and do not take into consideration the historical and cultural value of the place before tearing it down. When they think of money first, it is a crime. Also there is the idea of destruction vs. tearing something down. He does not have a problem with tearing down for something new as that is necessary for progress, but it is not good to just destroy things. I thought that was a very important distinction.

6. In the new book he just wrote, he wanted to make the distinction between the meaning of river in Chinese and river in English. He pointed out how in Chinese there are many words for river that capture the meaning of a river, the water in the river, and the flow of the water in the river. His book is to capture the spirit of the flowing river in his book. I think it will be worth it to read it.

7. He cited that guy from Fenghuang and Lu Xun as some of his inspirations. He also likes Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

8. He also writes about the street from his childhood, which he discovered on a recent visit back to Suzhou that it is now a wide road.

Beijing Opera

9. Apparently, we went to see a famous person perform. Her name was Zhang something, and her voice is supposed to be especially good for portraying sad things.

10. The storyline was as follows: There are five people in the family, and they are poor. They need to pay tax, but as they do not have money the father and grandfather go to the mountains to find something to sell. The girl also sells something and earns enough money to send the tax collectors away. The father and grandfather stay away for a long time, and then it is found out that they were killed by a tiger. The officials come back to collect more tax, but they collect less since the men are gone. They are paid somehow. Then they come back. The grandmother has died at this time, so it is cheaper again, but they cannot afford to pay so they take away the woman's daughter and we do not see her again. Then they come to collect tax again, but the woman cannot pay. She leaves, but the tax collectors catch up to her at her old hometown. As she still cannot pay, she kills herself and the show is over. It took two hours to cover all the details of this plot.

11. The movement in the play was very slow, people walked slow, talked slow. It was a big contrast to the hectic city life in Shanghai.

12. I learned that when a guy carries some hair on a stick it is suppose to represent that he is riding a horse.

13. They wore clothes that had long white sleeves. Sometimes they would gather the sleeves, and other times drop it. I wondered what it meant.

14. I realized that I do not really know how to appreciate this kind of opera. In fact, the parts of it I saw before were incredibly annoying. I would not say what I saw this time was annoying, but my legs got tired of just sitting there. But I also feel I did not know what to think most of the time. I did really enjoy the Chinese music in the background.

Overall, I experienced enough culture to last me for a few weeks I think.

I GOT IN

2010-03-11T12:16:00.001+08:00

to SUNY Buffalo. However, I still need to hear about financial aid and
I applied to other schools as well, so I am going to need to wait it
out a bit longer. Hopefully, it will not be too much longer.

Trickfoolery

2010-03-09T22:10:00.001+08:00

When we moved to Shanghai, Meng promised me two things....
The first promise, he kept, but it took him a whole month to get
around to hiring and ayi.
The second promise, he broke again.
It snowed. In March. In Shanghai.

Macau

2010-03-07T18:17:00.002+08:00

For my birthday, Yingna gave me a place ticket to somewhere. I chose Zhuhai, so I could catch a bus to the border and walk over to Macau to visit Julia, Marco, and Emelia.

On the first day here, I thought Julia was going to meet me at the border, so I waited, and then I did not find her and could not call her from my cell phone. I eventually had Meng get ahold of her through Yingna's phone, and she said to just come to this place via Meng. I had no idea where I was told to go, but I got in the cab and away I went. I arrived to where to cab driver told me to get out, and asked about directions. I discovered I was close by, so I just found the apartment and went up. At the elevator, I found Julia and Emelia and they wanted to know where Marco was. Apparently, he missed me coming in, so we went down to retrieve him. Then we had a little dinner and beer.

On Friday, I walked with them to send Emelia to kindergarden or I guess it is preschool, and then we went to the cafe at U Macao and enjoyed breakfast croissants and coffee and uncensored internet. After Emelia's school, we picked her up and went back to their place. We played inside most of the day. For dinner, we went out for Mexican.

On Saturday, Emelia had her interview for getting into a kindergarden. They find out tommorow. I hope it works out for them as that school would be convenient. After her interview, Marco and I went out for coffee. Then it was time for Emelia's dance lesson or music lesson, and Julia and I got to have some coffee. After our coffee, we went to the grocery store and met Marco on the way out. Then Emelia was dropped off at her friend's house and us big people got to go out. We wandered around Taipa, and they wanted to go to a well known Portugeuse restaurant. I just followed, but we did not have reservations, and it was full. But then we were told to come back in a hour, and so we went to a bar for a beer. I got a Hoegaarden in the biggest pint glass ever! I needed both hands and I could not reach around the glass. I enjoyed! After the beer, we went to the restaurant, and it was delicious as well. At Emelia's friends house, all we heard was screaming when we went to the door. I am not sure if they will get to leave her there again.

On Sunday, we had brunch at the Four Seasons. It was really nice. I think it is the nicest brunch I have ever been to. Marco's friend Mario came as well. After brunch, us girls went shopping but I did not get so much. It was just nice to look around a little. We got back around 6 pm, and I was already tired enough. I sat for a bit and watched a little Friends. After a bit, I went out for a little more shopping, and then I enjoyed uncensored internet and we watched some episodes of Friends together. I forgot how wonderful that show was, and I remembered how nice it is to watch it with your own Friends!

Thanks to Julia, Marco, and Emelia for a great weekend!

Tired

2010-03-02T22:14:00.001+08:00

Today was a long day. I arose at 5:30 am. I forgot about 5:30 am as I
had not seen it in a long time. I believe on our vacation, I did see
5:40, but that is a whole lot later than 5:30. I cannot confirm that I
like that time of day.

I had 8 a.m. classes in Minhang. I am not a fan of 8 a.m. classes
either. After teaching two classes, I had to do downtown to do writing
marking. I did not finish the work until nearly 8:30, and now I am
ready for bed.

Except I want to wait for the electric blanket to heat things up....

一个月在路上

2010-03-01T17:29:00.001+08:00

从1月25日道2月20日，我在旅游。去了湖南，贵州，北京，山西，和辽宁。我是跟勐一起去的。宝贝在他的爷爷奶奶家。太好了！

几年前我门打算去凤凰可是到1月分才有机会去。凤凰是一个真美丽有文化的古城。在凤凰能吃比较怪的食品。我看到几个饭店有竹鼠。
我也看到一个从来没看到过的可爱动物，也可以吃的。虽然我没点着些怪怪的动物，我觉得凤凰的菜是非常好吃的。

我们带在凤凰3天然后决定王贵州的方向。我们是先去镇远。镇远也是一个美丽的古城，
可是没有凤凰那么出名的。我们带了2天。跟单地人说话，我们发现这里的人不太读书，很多人只有读初中然后毕业了。他们也是比较早结婚，
生孩子。他们也说很多外地人来镇沅买房子，夏天的时候来完水。

从镇沅，我门去西江苗寨。西江也是一个美丽的地方。没有凤凰和镇沅那么老，可是比较有特色。去西江的路，你能真发身这个地点是比较远。从一个不算大的路转到出西江的路，我们开了15公里，
可是只碰到两个寨。这些寨的人口不算多。这个路是最近作的。几年前，可能只有一个用土的小小的路。这中路可能不能开车的。让我想一想，
这样的地反怎么发展呢？旅游真有帮助。勐跟老板讨论旅游和这个地反的变化。他说以前这寨只有老人和孩子，年青的人多跑到大城市打工，
可是现在年请人不要走了，能在寨内赚钱，生活。他们也对自己的文化比较感兴趣应为有表演。我们带了2天。

从西江，我们去肇兴东寨。在路上，我门碰到一个人也在旅游。
她是一个年请的小学老师偷偷的跑出来。在肇兴的路上，我们先去了巴沙苗寨。这个地方还没有那么发展。交通也不方便。
这个寨有一个希望工程的小学。在路上碰到的人，大多数好像不太会说普通话。

一天半在路上我们才到肇兴。真难走的路。肇兴比我们想像的发展，可是没有其他的地方那么发展。我们决定去另一个寨看看。可是没有车到这个寨，
我们只好要走过去。是山路。另一个寨没有什么特别好看的，
可是在路上碰到一些人。让我们想如果我们真住在这种地方，能不能习惯这么难的生活？如果是一个农民，霉天要下山看田上山回家，下山肯木柴上山带回家。
现代生活真方便。在肇兴呆了3天然后，开始王贵阳去。

去贵阳也不是容易，我们一共要用14个小时在汽车。大部分是在山路。饶来饶吐的山路。不管在云南的山路或者贵州的山路，一定会有隔壁的人不停的呕吐。很讨厌。

到贵阳，我就想能去一个星巴克和一被咖啡就好了，可是贵阳没有星巴克。改变改变，如果能去一个马当楼和一被咖啡就好了，可是马当楼也没有。后来去了肯德鸡，可是他们的咖啡不是真咖啡。再贵阳，我们就休息，休息。

从贵阳我门飞到北京，找黄河应为他有我们的火车票。每次看到他让我很开心。他是我和勐的红娘，也是一个大学的朋友，他也认识很多朋友，看他也能知道别人现在干妈。他可能明年结婚。如果我能找办法参加我一定要去。我们在北京只呆了7个小时。没有机会碰到别的朋友，也没有机会去看北京人。丛2000，我很想看他的洞，可是到现在，勐一直篇我。

从北京，我们去平遥古城。平遥也是一个地方我很早就想去。
我们到平遥已经挺累的。我们打算去一个好一点的酒店。再平遥，我们睡在炕里。我们睡的很好。在平遥，第二天开始下雪了。在北方一定要看到下雪，让我们觉得着真是春节。

去了真么多地方，也碰到不少的人，可是在平遥碰到的一为年令大一点儿的人让我该边自己的想法。这个人是剪纸的艺术家。剪的非常好。我们买一些剪纸还有一个比较好的工艺品。她想签名。我们开始讨论，然后我顺便说我是对丝绸特别感兴趣，说我买了几片丝绸。她挺想看的，所以我去拿。

她看了几分中然后开始介绍丝绸的意思。说了不少，让我很吃惊。我没实现中华的文化是那么复杂的。她介绍的时候，用不少的成语，勐说他也不太明白她的意思。他接给我们一个剪纸书。我们也能看到剪纸也有不少文化。她请我们来她家换书和条一些剪纸买。碰到她之前我真没有注意到中国的文化是那么复杂。我没碰到过那么理解中华文化的人，让我真好奇，想多知道关于这个方面的文化。在她家，她说北京的一个大学是请她来教学生剪纸，可是她说她不想离开平遥。她也说她没度过书，说的不标准普通话，不觉得自己能当老师。我觉得她是我碰到的人最聪明之一。

从平遥，我们去父母的家，在大连。我们平时呆在家里，连星巴克也没去。

一个月在路上，这一次伙的不少。

Back to School

2010-02-24T07:53:00.001+08:00

After such a nice, long vacation, it sure seems hard to get back into
the swing of things. I went to do the writing marking at the BC on
Monday, and because it was so warm at the office all I could do was
think about sleeping. I left and came back the next day to finish, but
my usual focus was missing, and the work took longer than usual.
I was supposed to start my writing class today, but yesterday, when I
found out the number of students seemed to have nearly triple, I
actually panicked and asked for more time to prepare. With the
familiar students it would be easy to continue where we left off, but
with new students it means I want to reevaluate my original plan.
Actually, I was also a little angry that I was not told there would be
more students. I think the pay is still reasonable, but I am not as
happy with it. I need to find a way to teach writing to a larger
number of students but keep the time it takes me to grade to papers
and such to a minimum. This will take some more planning.
Hudson is the other one who is back to school. It is nice that he does
not have to catch the bus in the morning nor ride the bus in the
afternoon. We do notice he has more energy, and other than occassional
squirminess, he is quite cooperative. As the materials have been held
up in customs, we have had to be a little creative in coming up with a
plan of things for him to do. I found a book called Mr. Hatchet which
is about the Oregon Trail (so I think it will be somewhat related to
the materials I already ordered for him) and as we have the Oregon
Trail game, I thought we could play it. I am also going to make him
write a book report. In addition, there is the handwriting book, and I
think he had better learn cursive writing, so I have been giving him
that and letting him use the phonics book from his own school to
practice his printing. He works quite fast when he wants to. Other
than that, I spent a little time to talk about manners, and I want to
talk a little more about the winter olympics. On Friday, we plan to
take him skiing for the field trip. I am not sure how I will feel
about homeschooling after a few weeks. Perhaps, for both of us it is
just a honeymoon phase and it will eventually go downhill. He cannot
possibly stay this cooperative for an entire semester, can he? Of
course, it would be nice if he does, but I am not sure that he will.
Some goals I have this semester:
1. Better handwriting.
2. Better sense of English composition for his level.
3. Improved manners and self-discipline.
4. For him to be engaged in learning and curious about the world around him.
5. to get to know him as a person better.
He already reads quite well, and seems quite willing to do so. I am
not really worried about that at all. Time will tell if this is a good
decision.

Final Expense Report-- 19 Days in Hunan, Guizhou, Shanxi

2010-02-21T14:01:00.001+08:00

At the beginning of the trip, we decided to count our pennies so we would know how much everything costs. The only place where I think we consciously tried to keep our costs down was by not paying money for entrance fees to things that we probably do not care about and have not heard about previously. I think we would have been wise to pay the fee at Pingyao, but it was 180 RMB, and we do not feel we missed much by not paying it. Much of the time, Meng and I have learned that your trip costs increase greatly when you start to pay admissions to everything, and it is best to be more selective in what you decide to see. As a general rule, I think if I have not heard of the thing previously and I do not know what it is before the time to pay the fee, I can probably skip it and not feel I missed much. Following this, we could have skipped the thing we saw in Zhenyuan, and the 4 RMB we paid in Guiyang was well worth it. Sometimes cheap admissions are worth paying.

Costs can also be kept down by choosing crappy hotels. It is nice to stay in a 5 star hotel. Really nice. This kind of hotel will cost on average say 600 RMB per night. If we did that every night for 18 days, the cost of our trip would nearly double. In Pingyao, we chose to stay at the nicer hotel. There were 80 RMB options, but we did not think it would be comfortable, and we knew we had stayed and skipped on some admissions in other parts of our trip. This made us truly enjoy the room and we felt it was well worth the extra money to stay somewhere a bit nicer. I think had we been going back to Shanghai after Pingyao and I knew my own bed was coming in a few days, i would have skipped the nice hotel and stayed somewhere better in Zhenyuan. There was a cool place there. However, as I knew we were going to Dalian, I wanted to be sure I also got some good rest before going (which was a good idea because the bed there was very hard).

It is difficult to cut too much cost on transportation. We were flexible with our days to fly and we took the cheaper but less convenient route to Beijing to Taiyuan to Pingyao (the direct flight to Taiyuan was around 1200 RMB per person, so we saved money by going to Beijing first--plus we hoped to meet some friends there, so there were other reasons we included it on our route). Also this transportation includes: 3 one way flights, 6 to/from airport transfers, 5 train rides, 5 long distance bus rides, and several taxis. We covered a lot of miles on our trip, so this cannot be forgotten. We did need to pay for one more flight from Dalian back to Shanghai, but I did not include this in the cost because we had to go to Dalian for Spring Festival anyway. We shopped around for flights and Spring Air is an excellent choice when their flights are at suitable times and able to be obtained.

As to the food, I am not really sure how much we spend in three typical weeks in Shanghai, but I think I will track that expense in weeks to come. There is not one meal that I would say we ate extravagantly, but the Western food is certainly more expensive and often less satisfying than local food. The more expensive meals we had were at western establishments. In addition, we could have cut our food costs down by ordering fewer dishes and by eating more rice. I could have ate less meat as well. It would be possible to eat for closer to 10 RMB for Breakfast (4 boiled eggs/two pieces of fruit per person), 20 RMB for Lunch (two orders of fried rice/noodle and a vegetable dish), and 40 RMB for dinner (one meat dish, two veggies, and rice) per day. At that calculation, I suppose we could have ate for closer to 1330 RMB/23 RMB per meal compared to our 38 RMB per meal. This way of eating would have saved about 825 RMB. The savings budget would not have left the option for coffee and beer along the way as well, and we would not have ate any western food.

As to the local products we bought, Meng got papercuts and I got embroidery. These expenses were not necessary, but I feel we would not be able to get these things cheaper elsewhere and I am quite confident we would be able to resell these products for the same cost and possibly make a profit on them. I do not feel we spent this money on useless things, and to me one of the reasons to go on a trip was to get these local products that are either not for sale in other places or more expensive in other places.

The other expenses we had included bathroom supplies, batteries for the camera, and postage for postcards. These are not unreasonable costs.

All in all, I can think of two places where I can honestly say we sort of wasted money. The admission ticket in Zhenyuan (around 40 or 60 RMB) and the Coffee and Beer at the Airport in Guiyang (80 RMB). I found it satisfying to keep track of where my money was going and I think it is useful to keep track of these expenses for future trips.

Grand Total: 13187 RMB/ $1939.26 USD ($969.00/person & $51.00/day per person)

Transportation: 5354 RMB/ $787.35 + 1760 RMB/$258.00 (flight from Dalian to Shanghai--not included in trip total) ($393.00/per person)

Hotel/Lodging: 1706 RMB/ $250.88 ($125/person & $6.90/night/person)

Food: 2155.7 RMB/ $317.01 ($158.00/person & $3.77/meal/person)

Entrance Fees: 184 RMB/ $27.05 ($13.30/person)

Gifts/Local Products: 3569.5 RMB/ $524.92

Other Expenses: 211 RMB/ $31.02

I am sure Meng will be posting photos from our trip on Picasa soon!

Expense Report Week #3

2010-02-21T13:07:00.001+08:00

So things were a bit busier in Dalian than I expected, and I was not able to get the internet on my computer, so I waited to post the final expense report for your trip.

Here goes:

Day 15 Guiyang:

1200 RMB Flight

0 RMB Hotel (Thanks Ding!)

7 RMB Breakfast

21 RMB Taxi

11 RMB Coffee

24 RMB Bottle Opener

80 RMB Shirt for Hudson

109 RMB Lunch (Papa John's)

2 RMB Bread

11 RMB Taxi

26 RMB Taxi to Airport

5 RMB Coke

113 RMB Taxi to Ding's

40 RMB Post Office

______________________

1649 RMB

Day 16 to Pingyao

312 RMB Train to Taiyuan

2 RMB Bus to Train Station

200 RMB Hotel

12 RMB Taxi to Bus station

20 RMB McDonald's

104 RMB Bus to Pingyao

6 RMB Fruit

6 RMB Convenience Store

73 RMB Lunch

18 RMB Yellow Wine

17 RMB Hot Cocoa

4 RMB Water

------------------------------------------

764 RMB

Day 17 Pingyao

200 RMB Hotel

17 RMB Brunch

20 RMB Bikes

138 RMB Food

1000 RMB Papercut

4 RMB Crackers

------------------------------------------

1379 RMB

Day 18 Pingyao

200 RMB Hotel

51 RMB Breakfast

32 RMB Lunch

43 RMB Postcards and Stamps

16 RMB Batteries

75 RMB Dinner

------------------------------------------

417 RMB

Day 19 Pingyao to Dalian

1660 RMB Flight

30 RMB Train to Taiyuan

50 RMB Lunch

250 RMB Papercuts

100 RMB Papercuts for Hudson

40 RMB Yellow wine for Yingna

40 RMB Slippers for Ma

51 RMB Breakfast

23 RMB Taxi to Airport

80 RMB Coffee & Beer at airport

52 RMB KFC

------------------------------------------------

2376 RMB

Weekly Total: 6585

Transportation: 3534

Food: 824

Hotel: 600

Gifts/Local Products: 1534

Other expenses: 93

Chinese New Year 3--White New year

2010-02-17T23:02:00.001+08:00

We woke up this morning (can I really use woke up if I barely slept?),
and looked outside to what seemed like a light dusting of snow. It
continued to snow through the morning, and it amounted to a few
inches. This year is the whitest winter I have seen in 6 years. I
cannot say I missed the white stuff, but I am glad Hudson got out to
enjoy it.

I believe he went out at least 3 times to play. The first time he came
back bored because there wasn't anyone to play with. The second time
we went out with him. Meng was in a big hurry to get out and I was
working on my knitting, so I was rushed. I told him I needed my
gloves and he said he did not need gloves. When we went outside, the
first thing Meng does is nail me with a snowball. As I did not have
gloves, and I told him I wanted them and he implied I would not need
them, I assumed he was not going to try to throw a snowball at me. I
got even by wrestling him to the ground and getting some snow on his
face. Then, we played the game where you make a path in the snow and
you chase people but you cannot get off the path. We liked playing,
but once I was tagged, I could never catch anyone. It wasn't very
much fun just chasing others, so I got Meng and Yingna to trap Hudson
so I could get him and then called a time out when he got close to me
the next time. Then, I just said I was done playing. We took a few
photos in the snow, and then Hudson found a kid to play with. When
that kid threw snow in Hudson's face, he was ready to go back in. I am
not sure why he returned later.
We all seem quite content to just stay in and not go much of anywhere.
I am quite ok with this as well.
Last night, I slept the worst ever. It does not matter how many
blankets are piled up, that bed is harder than sleeping on the floor.
I woke up and spent a few hours on the computer, and worked on
planning my class for some time. I know I should spend a little more
time to do this, and I plan to go to Starbucks to get the job done
when we get back or later this week yet.
We have been enjoying watching the Olympics. Nearly all the televised
events are focused on the Chinese team, so sometimes we miss out on
some of the other good stuff that happens. Yingna especially likes
curling, and actually it is really fun to watch as well. I am hoping
to catch some of the ski jumping, but I have not seen it yet.
We might get out and go to Ikea, but I am not sure if we will just
continue to live in laziness.
We have continued to play clue, and I revised my playing strategy to
allow me to beat my child at this complicated game. It is quite
impressive to watch him do quite well with playing. We often tease him
for accidentally showing us his cards or other peoples cards we give
him to look at. He is getting more carful. Also, we made the rule that
if he rolls the dice off the board it is automatically a "1", so the
dice isnt landing on the floor all the time anymore either. He really
is quite good at his logical thinking. I was never that good at
playing.

Chinese New Year 2

2010-02-16T13:26:00.001+08:00

A few more days and we will head back to Shanghai. After today, I need to get busy in planning my classes. I am not so lookin gforward to this, but it is time to get back to work.

We have been watching the olympics and we were happy to see the Chinese team get two medals in the pairs figure stating. Hudson hopes that China, America, or Canada will win, but he disappeared before the final result was known.

We have played Clue a few times and Hudson keeps beating us all. He seemes especially skilled in this game and eventhough I thought I was pretty good, I am little match for him. I sure do not know how he does it.

Last night I had a long conversation with Meng's parents. I cannot really remember what it was all about. It is hard for me to remember these conversations in Chinese. Meng's mom wonders if I do not get into school if we still have to go back to the United States. I can only tell her we have not thought that far yet and I want to wait until I know about the schools before I start to think about other possibilities that are hopefully not relevent.

Today we have plans to go shopping. I am thinking to get some pad for the bed. I was trying to figure out why I am not anxious to go to bed and rather willing to get up. I think the answer is quite simple I cannot stand to lie there any longer than I absolutely must. It is really rather uncomfortable.

Happy New Year!!! 2010 Year of the Tiger

2010-02-15T12:22:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year! We are spending our New Year in Dalian with Meng's parents at their new home. It is quite warm and comfortable. We are enjoying it so far except for one little part. The bed is harder than a rock.... ok, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much.

Trip Update # 11 (is it 11?) Pingyao

2010-02-10T20:32:00.001+08:00

Last night, we both slept very well. I slept in the middle of the bed,
and Meng did not even need to complain. I think we had room for an
entire army to sleep with us although I am not sure why we would want
that? Unless, of course, it was the pretty army girls that Hu Jintao
was smiling at during the National Day Parade last October. Alas, I
digress.
We came to breakfast and happily ordered coffee, and when I asked for
the breakfast menu, I was given quite a strange look. It was then that
I realized it was 11:30 and a bit late for breakfast. I asked if it
was possible to get some toast, and it was! Toast tasted so good! I am
finding after so many days on a trip I am anxious to get into the
kitchen and cook my own food. Two and a half weeks at the mercy of
other's cooking and limited choices gets tiring.
After breakfast, Meng went to get train tickets and I went to look at
some paper cuts. I looked for a long time and I am amazed at the
difficulty of work that is involved. I saw another one of the
expensive one we got at the other store and I began to question how
unique the thing we got was, but that lady selling the work left a
deep impression on me, and I am happy to have her work to remember her
by. It is not like there could be that many of those cuttings in this
world. I should mention that it is about 20 feet long. It is quite
amazing.
After Meng got the tickets, we went and had lunch, and after lunch we
were sold on the idea of getting an admission ticket. However, we
still have not got one. It is hard to explain the reason for that, but
I suppose it is also not so important. Nevertheless, I think we are
both ok with this decision. We wandered around in the snow which
continued to fall.
While wandering through the snow, I felt a bit nostalgic for Michigan
winters and feel I could say that the snow seemed really pretty
especially since it covers so much of the dirt. I forgot what it felt
like to have snow fall on my face and crunch under my feet. It was
nice to be reminded, but I cannot say it is the feeling that I truly
enjoy. Perhaps, I got my fill of snow for the better part of the next
decade, although the reality of this is unlikely as the schools I
applied to are all well within areas where snow frequently falls.
We met the paper cutting lady today, and she let us borrow her book on
paper cuts, and we are both enjoying looking at the amazing artwork.
For dinner, we came back to our hotel and ordered hot pot. It was not
all that great, but at least I got to feel a little like I was cooking
for myself.
Tomorrow, we will catch train at about 2:45, and arrive in Taiyuan
about two hours later. Our flight is quite late, so I am not too
worried about getting to the airport in time. We plan to buy a few
things tomorrow and we will return the book to the paper cutting lady.
We are hoping not to be snowed in here as it is a possibility. The
highway has already been closed, so we are just hoping that the
airport will not follow suit.
In closing, I would like to just wish Meng a Happy Birthday. He is now
older than me. We have really enjoyed our birthday present to each
other and this trip in many ways is much like a honeymoon that we did
not take or perhaps this is what is called a second honeymoon.

School Update

2010-02-10T10:28:00.001+08:00

I got a rejection letter from Michigan State today. It was the only school I applied to for PhD in Second Language Studies. It is not the field I am most interested in, so I suppose it does not feel like as big of a disappointment as I expected. I guess what that means is that for the time being we are not going to be heading back to Michigan as that was the only school I applied to there.

I did kind of expect to get in, so it does make me feel less confident about my other applications. I hope the result of those is better. I also wonder if this rejection is a blessing because I won't have to make a difficult decision in the future. Now I am just keeping my fingers crossed that I will get in somewhere.

Trip Update#10 Pingyao

2010-02-09T22:45:00.001+08:00

Today, we are in Pingyao still. I woke up quite early and poked around at my computer. At some point, it went dark and it seemed we lost electricity. As I was also using the internet, I realized that it was a hotel thing and not just a room thing... so I just played my stupid computer game until the battery in my computer went out. As it was then close to 10 am, I woke Meng up.

I forgot to mention how nice it was to sleep on such a giant bed. I really think we need one of these at home. If it were only just a bit softer, it would be perfect. We both found it a big difficult to get out of bed as it was just so comfortable. When we finally got up, we went for some breakfast, but as there was no electricity, I could neither have toast nor could I have coffee. That was a sad moment. I ended up with scrambled eggs. I think they probably used as much oil to fry up my two eggs as I would use to fry up a whole dozen. I know what I am not going to order again.

After breakfast, we rented some bicycles to explore the city with. It really hurt my rear end, and after I got the seat raised a bit it helped, but I think the low seat already did the damage, and it was quite unbearable to ride. I missed my comfortable bike seat. It is an interesting place to be, and as we rode around, we decided to get tickets to allow us to enter some of the cool sights in the city. Actually, I should say when we found out it was Buy 1 Get 1 Free, it seemed more attractive to fork over the hefty 160 admission ticket.... after all 80 per person is far more reasonable. Unfortunately, when Meng went to buy the ticket he found his wallet had run out of steam, and unless he knew a bit of magic, we needed to pay a visit to the magical money machine. However, as the electricity was still out, we were not sure how much good finding a magical money machine would be. To our surprise, the machine was in working order despite the electricity being out.... see what I mean about it being a magical machine?

On our way to get money, we stopped to look at paper cuts. The lady is quite talented and also proud of her work. She was happy to show us the "famous" people who had paid attention to her work, and she was especially proud of a piece she created for the Beijing Olympics. She also was comissioned to so some work of this famous 6 meter long painting by a British Guy. When she pulled it out of the box, I was surprised by the kind of praise Meng was lavishing over. He was interested in getting it, but I knew he thought the price was too high to even ask about it. When she said it was 1000 for him, I thought that price is really more reasonable than I expected. But as we did not have money.... we had to first visit the magical machine.

After visiting the machine, we made our way back to the lady, and I told Meng to get the piece he liked. She also threw in the Beijing scene and we will be able to hang that on our wall. As it was starting to snow, she came back to the hotel with us to sign and seal her work. The waitress praised her handwriting. Somehow, we started talked about embroidery and I went to get mine and I showed it to her. She looked over it and started telling me things about it that I would never recognize myself. Heck, even Meng would have no idea. I had learned in Fenghuang that the embroidery contained many different meanings. I was surprised when this woman was able to point out what some of the meanings were. Many of them referred to Chinese proverbs or sayings, so it was difficult for me to understand.

I suppose this half hour with this woman left one of the deepest impressions on me that I have had since I was in China. I was so deeply impressed by her ability to look at the embroidery and point out all the various meanings. It was far more complicated than it appeared. She thought the piece I got in Fenghuang was especially good. First, the cloth was handmade, and it is not possible to get it today. Second, there was some flower that carried the meaning of three generations. There was some meaning in the things on the bottom and the thing on the top. I could not understand what she was saying so well, but I was so impressed that she could get so much out of looking at the embroidery. The reason I say she left such a deep impression on me was because she made me realize just how deep the Chinese culture is. A long history is one thing, but the idea that one things can have so many different meanings, and that the culture can share this and communicate so much through the arts made me really appreciate this aspect of the Chinese culture.

After emptying our wallet, we spent most of the time lounging around. It started to snow a bit, and the employees told us it was supposed to be a really big snow, and the transportation may be shut down. Meng and I are hoping for the best, but we are not so sure what to expect.

Expense Report Week #2

2010-02-08T20:22:00.001+08:00

Here are the expenses for the past week. Overall, we did a good job to control our costs and not make any very expensive decisions. There is, however, one exception. I wanted to get some embroidery while I was in Guizhou and I found a few pieces that really interested me. After realizing that once these pieces are gone, there will never be anymore like them, I think it is not a bad idea to get them. I believe I got a big price. I saw ones comparable to the large ones I got and the guy was asking for 3000 RMB each. Considering I paid a little over 1/3 of that, I did not pay too much, and I may have even got a good price. the other ones I got I saw a similar pair for a little more than double what I paid. I believe these are things that have value and this value will increase with time.

I hope after reading this expense report, you can get more of a sense of how much it costs to live and travel in China. In many situations, we could have gone cheaper on the meals and just ate enough to fill the stomach for no more than 10 RMB per person. We enjoy eating and trying different things and quite often the cost of dinner is also including the beer we have to go with our meal. The accommodation we stay at probably would not qualify for a one star rating, but we are ok with that at this stage in our lives. The last week of our trip we do decide to spend a little more on the hotel, but I think it is worth it.

Day 8

30 RMB Silver hair things

13 RMB Breakfast

45 RMB Embroidery

5 RMB Drink

80 RMB Hotel

41 RMB Dinner

17 RMB Batteries

_________________

221 RMB= $32.50

Day 9

140 RMB Bus to Congjiang-7 hours

6.5 RMB Lunch

20 RMB Bus--to Leishan--1 hour

2 RMB Water

80 RMB Hotel

53 RMB Dinner

35 RMB Snacks

------------------------------

336.5 RMB=$54.26

Day 10

30 RMB Taxi

36 RMB Bus--3 hours

40 RMB Hotel

10 RMB Postcards

5 RMB Batteries

35 RMB Dinner

.5 RMB Bathroom

1 RMB Sunflower seeds

--------------------------------------

157.5 RMB=$23.16

Day 11

40 RMB Lunch

28 RMB Dinner

40 RMB Room

5 RMB Battery

60 RMB Embroidery

3 RMB Sprite

-----------------------------

176 RMB=$29.29

Day 12

1100 RMB 2 Large Embroidery

570 RMB 2 Small Embroidery

16 RMB Lunch

36 RMB Bus to Liping--3 hours

100 RMB Hotel

21 RMB Dinner

3 RMB Internet Cafe

48 RMB Snacks

-------------------------------

1894 RMB=$282.83

Day 13

302 RMB--Bus to Guiyang--11 Hours

128 RMB Hotel

15 RMB Taxi to hotel

6.5 RMB Eggs and Pop

80 RMB Dinner (Aijisen Ramen)

12 RMB Movie

-------------------------------------------

443.5 RMB=$65.22

Day 14

128 RMB Hotel

52.5 RMB Lunch (KFC)

19 RMB Dinner

14 RMB Ice cream

12 RMB Beer

14 RMB Taxi

10 RMB Taxi

8.2 RMB Coke + Snack

5 RMB Fruit

4 RMB Park

--------------------------

266.7 RMB=$39.22

Weekly Grand Total: 3495.2=$514

Food 525.7 RMB=$77.30

Lodging 596 RMB=$87.64

Transportation 603 RMB=$88.67

Entry Fees 4 RMB=$.58

Handicrafts 1730 RMB=$254.41

Other 36.5 RMB=$14.19

Trip Update #9 Guiyang to Beijing to Taiyuan to Pingyao

2010-02-08T17:56:00.001+08:00

Well, we have been on the move again.... and I must say we certainly have covered more ground in the past few days than all the time we travelled around in Guizhou. Yesterday, I posted my blog from the Papa John's in Guiyang. To me it seemed that much of our time in Guiyang was just to kill time. We did not have much we wanted to do while we were there and we were tired from so many days on the road. Mostly in Guiyang, we relaxed and walked. On the first evening, we enjoyed eating at Aijisen Ramen. It was nice to have something both satisfying and familiar. The next day, we found ourselves at KFC, which I usually hate in China, but found it unexpectedly good. That evening, we ate at the night market. The following afternoon, we ate at the Papa Johns. I think it was the best tasting pizza I had in China.

I suppose the only really good thing we did in Guiyang was went to some garden. The admission was just 2 RMB and they had also these old fossialized plants and dinosaur remains. It was really interesting. And for sale. I still think about getting one of those and putting it in my foyer. I think I am repeating myself from the previous day... Let's see, we also went to the Guiyang Museum. I was surprised about two things. One was the collection of stuff related to paleontology that they had and the fossils they had of creatures from before the time of the dinosaurs. I am always amazed when I stop to think how old some things can be. In addition, there was a nice collection of minority costumes and such. The other thing that surprised me was that there was not much mention of Guizhou role in the Long March or some Communist meeting in Zunyi. I had thought there would be more of that.

After pizza, it was time to head to the airport. Our plane was delayed. That sucked. I worked on my cross-stitching and time went by fast. On the plane the person sitting next to me managed to spill his coffee on my pair of clean jeans. Oh well, they were going to get dirty sooner or later. We flew into the new terminal at Beijing. It was quite nice. We caught a cab to Ding's place as we had to get our train tickets from him. To our surprise, he forced us to stay and get a few hours of sleep. He got up with us, took us to breakfast, and saw us off to the bus stop. Considering he had to get up before 6am to do this.... it makes him pretty special in my book. Then again, he's been pretty special for quite some time. Unfortunately, it was too late to meet up with Thomas and Jack. Maybe next time.

This morning, we caught the train to Taiyuan, and from Taiyuan we took a bus to Pingyao. We are staying put for 3 days. We opted to stay at the nicer hotel.... it is the most expensive place we have stayed yet, but we have been looking forward to splurging a little, and we do want to get a good nights sleep. Tonight we will be sleeping on a kang, and it is about the size of two double beds pushed together. In other words, probably four people could sleep on it. It is almost as big as the floor my 8 person tent. it is huge. And soft, and there is a western toliet and internet access. All is good here! I am looking forward to exploring the city a bit more. The tickets are 120 to enter the things in the city and I think we are debating about it a little. It is quite expensive, and sometimes we just feel it is not so necessary. We will see what happens the next day.

We tried the Pingyao beef... and it was not bad.

In other thoughts, Hudson's books are getting held up in customs which is not so good.

Trip Update #8 Xijiang to Congjiang to Zhaoxing to Guiyang

2010-02-07T15:39:00.001+08:00

We have gone on further into the boondocks, and internet access is
harder and harder to come by. Unlike Meng, I am not going to search
our an internet café for the sake of being connected to others. One of
the reasons I enjoy going on a trip is precisely to disconnect.
However, as Meng pointed out yesterday, it is really easy to forget,
so I write these blogs as much for myself as anyone.

In the last week, we have spent a lot of time on the road. We left
Xijiang without much plan, in fact, we were not sure where we were
going until we got to the bus station. We had to decide between Kaili
and Leishan, and since everyone we asked said to go to Leishan, we
ended up taking that route. On the bus, we met a girl who was also
going a similar route to us.

In Leishan, we were to stand by the road and catch the bus that was
heading in the right direction. There were three possibilities:
Liping, Rongjiang, and Congjiang. We ended up with the latter. I saw
the bus, and I stopped it while the others were in the bathroom. Meng
and I climbed to the back of the bus. Literally, there were piles of
luggage, migrant worker bags, boxes, and trash cans filling the
walkway. I wasn't sure if I could reach the back of the bus there were
so many things in the way. Once I found a vacant seat, I kept wishing
that we would not have an accident because I was quite sure I would
not be able to get off the bus. The bus ride to Congjiang was about
eight hours. It was all mountain roads. It was too curvey to do any of
the embroidery I bought to work on, and I had already ready my books.
I ended up just watching the stupid movies they played and waiting a
long time.

That night, we ate with the girl we met on the road and ended up at
some night market. At the table next to us there were a group of boys
who were all of 15 years old, eating, drinking, and smoking to their
hearts content. I have not seen this in Shanghai, but something tells
me I will see a lot of things in the countryside that I will not see
in Shanghai.

The next morning, we decided to go to Basha before catching the bus to
Zhaoxing. The ride to Basha was quite easy, we just took a Mian Bao
Che (it seriously looks like a little loaf of bread) and went there
directly. The girl we met also came. In Basha, it was not developed
for tourism so much, and I got the feeling that we were not so welcome
to just walk around there. The villagers wore the most interesting
clothes I had seen. They all wore skirts and then some leg coverings.
Their clothes were quite colorful; however, they did not seem to want
their photos taken. They would run by quickly, cover their heads, or
go in another direction if they saw me with my camera. I did not feel
comfortable taking photos there. Many of the people seemed to have
limited Chinese as well. This was a Miao village.

When we decided to leave the village to catch the bus to Zhaoxing was
when we met a problelm. There was no transportation available to get
out. We called the guy who brought us there, but he was already taking
others somewhere. I had the idea to go to the tourist information
place, and the guy there called people he knew, but there was still no
ride. Finally, the guy we rode in with drove by, and said he would
tell his friend to come get us, and the friend would be there in ten
minutes. The friend came and we made it to the bus station in time.
The thing is, in China, when something seems like it cannot possibly
work out, it always does. (Or maybe it is just selective memory on my
part).

The bus ride to Zhaoxing was just around 3 hours. If we passed through
a city that was having a market day, we would meet a traffic jam. This
happened quite often. The markets are often set up right alongside the
road, so the stalls take up part of the road. There are also vehicles
that park next to the stalls, so when two busses meet, it is nearly
impossible for them to pass one another. To get through a town the
size of Webberville make take 20 to 30 minutes because of this kind of
delay. By town, I am also referring to the downtown area not the city
limits (like from the post office to the high school). Finally, we
make it to the destination.

To my surprise, it is quite developed for tourism. There are signs
advertising pizza and coffee, so my hopes rise. However, after my last
pizza experience, I am not going to try to order it again. We find a
hotel (the cheapest one yet), and look for some food. On the bus, we
met a Japanese man who is taking photos of similar places as us, and
he and the girl join us for dinner. I become disappointed with my
Japanese as it only has gotten worse. When I try to speak it I cannot
remember words nor can I put them together in sentences without them
getting mixed up with Chinese. I think the Japanese is still there but
it is deeply buried and I cannot reach it. I will have to tell my
students of this to remind them they need to keep at their English. I
manage to get out enough when the communication breaks down, but it is
still embarrassingly poor. The food at this little place in pretty
good. After eating, we walk around to see the village. There are drum
towers in the village and the village is one of the Dong people.

I find some shops selling embroidery and I take a look. I always enjoy
looking, but I still am not finding what it is that I am looking for.
After walking around, we notice there are several people sitting
around a fire under the drum tower drinking. Meng and the Japanese guy
seem interested in going, and I would be content to just go to my
room. The girl asks to join me to watch a movie. I could have enjoyed
the alone time, but such is life. We did not end up actually watching
a movie though. Meng comes stumbling back after not too long and he
barely makes in the door. He seems completely drunk, but he cannot
carry on his ruse for too long. The girl takes his entry as a time to
leave.

The next day, we get around quite late. It seems nice to sleep on a
softer bed, and we decide to watch the movie Grease. It is the first
time I watch it, but since the disc has some problems, I cannot watch
all of it and we had to skip some parts. It was a really good movie
though and I now have curiosity to watch Little Shop of Horrors. After
the movie, we get out and there is going to be some performance under
the drum tower. Well, I see costumed people walking towards the tower
with their instruments and assume that is what will happen.
Apparently, there is a tour group and they are performing for this
tour group. I feel quite lucky as I realize this is the off travel
season and we might not get to see a show otherwise. So I make Meng
control his hungry monster for some time.

While we are waiting for the show to begin, a woman approaches me and
speaks to me in English. I chat with her, and as we are talking like
four people with cameras come to take photos of us. I am a bit
annoyed, but as this person is older, I decide to let her. Also, this
isn't like Shanghai where there are foreigners everywhere. I try to be
friendlier. My friendliness is rewarded by an invitation to sit in the
front right in front of the big fire to watch the performance. During
the performance, there were more people taking photos of my sitting
next to the woman than people who seemed to be watching the
performance. I got the feeling the people on the tour group were not
all that interested in the performance. I enjoyed watching their
singing and music playing, but the Chinese audience was quite
distracting as well. One guy kept going in the middle of where they
were performing to have someone take his photo. That was so
disrespectful and it really annoyed me. The performers, sadly, seemed
used to it. Meng told me later that this woman was probably a
government official, and he was thankful that I did not make him join
us. I also got a cool woven belt.

After that excitement, we went for lunch. After lunch, we wanted to
find out what there was to do around here and a lady at the tourism
office suggested going to a nearby village that we could walk to in 30
minutes if we were fast and an hour if we were slow. We decided what
the heck, and set off for the village. It took a much longer time to
get there than she said. I decided it must take 30 minutes if you are
running fast, and the shorter amount of time if you are only just
jogging. There was also a choice of routes, one that involved taking
the uphill road and it was about 5 km, uphill or a path that involved
essentially climbing two mountains. For the first part, we took the
road, but we were told the path was much shorter and that was when we
found we would be climbing a mountain. It was not an easy climb for
me, and I find we always end up doing some climbing on every vacation.

Once we got to the village, I was rather disappointed. I did not have
a tall drum tower like I was hoping to see and there was nothing
touristy about the village at all. Some people may like to go the
place not developed for tourism, but not so much me. We left and
decided to take the road as I was not sure going down the path would
be all that easy. In fact, I was quite sure I would slip and fall. The
road we took. The road turned out to be really really long. It took
about 1.5 hours of walking to reach where we set off for the path. At
least it was downhill. I was relieved (in more ways than one) to
finally reach our hotel. It took about 4 hours to go there round trip.
I imagine making the round trip in one hour. Meng called this our long
march, and we reflected on the history of this area and imagined how
Mao's Red Army would have crossed these parts. It was not hard to
understand how is army of 300,000 only came to be 30,000 a the end of
the march.

After relieving myself, I went to go look at embroidery. I bought one
piece that an old woman said she had made when she was around 15 or
16. She said it was for the baby carrier, and it had some horses to
convey the meaning she hoped the baby would be strong and work like a
horse, and it had some birds to convey the meaning that the baby would
always have plenty to eat. The birds are the kind that catch fish. The
piece was unfinished and she just asked for 60, so I got it quickly. I
like the idea of the money going to the person who actually made the
thing. She also said that young people do not make that kind of stuff
anymore, so I felt it was a good buy. I found two other pieces of
embroidery that I was interested in, and I decided to come back the
next day for another look. I met up with Meng, and he was, you guessed
it, hungry, so we went off for dinner. The girl and Japanese man found
us in the restaurant as we were finishing up. We talked for a bit, but
I was ready to go back to the room and relax. I started watching Monk
and I worked on my embroidery for a little while.

The next morning, I continued watching and Meng was watching his show
on the itouch. Before we realized it, it was 11:30, and we needed to
check out by noon, so we quickly got our things together, and packed
up. On the way out of town, we looked at the embroidery, and I bought
all of them. I think I got a good deal on some of them and not such a
good deal on others. We caught the bus to Liping. It took about 3
hours.

Liping was a bigger city, but there was not much to see. Mostly we
just went there to catch the bus to Guiyang. There was an old street
and it was the sight of a famous meeting of the communist party. We
stayed in a real hotel that night, and in the morning we caught the
bus to Guiyang.

We were on the bus for 11 hours. Mostly it was taking mountain roads
to get to the highway. The highway was about ¼ of the time and
accounted for ¾ of the distance. Fortunately, I felt the bus driver
was quite safe. It was a really long bus ride though, and I do not
look forward to taking another one.

Once we arrived in Guiyang, we were anxious to get something to eat.
We checked into the youth hostel, and we found an Aijisen Ramen. YUM.
We thought about going to see Avatar after the food, but I wanted to
just relax and though we could do it another day. After eating, we
just returned to the room.

Yesterday, we got out to see some Ming tower, which is one of the
popular sights in Guiyang. It was not all that exciting, but inside
there were some really cool fossialized plants, and to my surprise
they could be purchased for some tens of ten thousands… maybe 200,000
RMB. If I were rich, I would buy one to put in the entryway of my
house. I was quite impressed by those, and I learned that Guizhou used
to be underwater and there were many dinosaur fossials uncovered there
as well. They had a cool book with some fossials in it, but it was
2500, and we thought it was a bit too expensive to get the kid. After
the tower, Meng wanted to go to KFC for coffee, and we ended up just
eating there. It was really good. Usually, I do not like to eat at
KFC, but we just ordered some fried chicken breasts, bread, fries,
chocolate sundae, and coffee. It tasted so good. I keep thinking of
going back for more.

After lunch, we found they also had an Aijisen Ramen there, and that
Aijisen Ramen also had BBQ. I am interested in going back to check it
out. After filling our stomach, we just headed back to the room to
relax. We needed it, and it seemed nice to not do anything. That night
we went to the night market for dinner. They had all kind of food. Dog
meat, Pig butts, rooster flappy things from the top of the rooster's
head—the red parts, and various other delicacies. I opted for some
grilled beef, potato, and cabbage. Meng got some pot of noodles. After
dinner, we went back to the room and I worked on my embroidery. It is
nice to have some time to relax after being so busy for so many days,
and Guiyang does not have so much to see. Plus, the weather has been
drizzly, so it is nice to just stay put.

Today, we will fly to Beijing at night. We are planning to go to a
tourist shopping place to see what kind of local products there are
today. I am looking forward to this. Last night, as we were walking
around, I caught sight of a Papa John's and I am going to suggest that
or the BBQ from Aijisen Ramen when we eat, but actually, I have found
the food on this trip to be quite good, and if we opt for local food,
I am ok with that too. I should also mention that McDonald's and
Starbucks have not found their way here yet. That is how you know you
are somewhere really far away. I would guess this city has at least 4
million people, but not a single McDonald's. It makes me appreciate
Shanghai.

In Beijing, we will meet Ding and get our train tickets to Taiyuan. I
think we are still not planning to have a hotel room for tonight as we
do not arrive till 11 PM and our train leaves at 7AM. Taking out the
time we need for transport, that leaves about 5 hours. I would rather
get a massage and go hang out at a McDonald's with internet access.

From Taiyuan, we will catch a bus to Pingyao. I am really looking
forward to this last part of the trip. It is a place I have wanted to
go for about 5 years, so it is exciting to actually make that happen.
From Pingyao, we will be heading to Dalian for Spring Festival.

Trip Update #7 Xijiang to Congjiang

2010-02-01T23:33:00.001+08:00

Today was another long day of travel.... perhaps, our longest yet.
However, before we left, it was the market day in Xijiang. It was not
really all that impressive. They were not selling anything that was
new or that caught my attention. We left before it all got set up
because we knew we would have a day of travel.
As to the destination of our travel we were not exactly sure. We know
that we want to go to Zhaoxing, but we did not really want to go back
to Kaili and pay 220 for the direct bus. It is a bit expensive. At the
bus station, they told us to go to Leishan and from Leishan we could
easily get a bus to Congjiang and Rongjiang (in the opposite order).
We met a traveller on the way who was heading in the same direction
and as we were chatting in the bus station, we saw our first
opportunity to catch a bus fly by. We moved our wait outside and I
watched the bags while the other two used to loo. Just in that amount
of time a bus to Congjiang came and the decision of our destination
was made. It turned out to be a good choice too as when we went
through Rongjiang, I found myself hoping that was not where we were
going to stop. In fact, I thought that about most of the "towns" that
we were passing through.
The bus ride to Leishan was about 1.5 hours, and we finally arrived in
Congjiang around 7:30 PM, so I figure we spent a good 7-8 hours on the
bus today. Unfortunately, we did not make much preparations before
getting on the bus, so we did not have any good things to eat while we
were on the trip. That is a long time for Meng's hungry monster. At
some point in the journey, we just got stuck in traffic. By stuck in
traffic I mean there was us and a big cement truck and the road was
not quite large enough for both of us to pass and there were cars in
front of us and in back of us and I really did not know how it was
going to turn out. No sooner did we get past the jam then we just
stopped for "lunch". We ended up getting some hard boiled tea eggs and
oranges. They were good. We got some water to drink, but I did not
want to have some because I had low expectations for the bathrooms we
would meet on the way. We did stop once for that, but it seemed people
just went to the bushes.
To my thinking, there really is just one road to take to get to our
destination. I do not think there is some kind of shortcut route or
something like that. So essentially where we are now involves riding
in a bus for a good 3 hours from the next town and a good 8 hours from
Kaili which is supposed to be a bigger town, but in fact, it does not
have much there either. The road is all mountainous, and it was a bit
scary... well, scary for people who enjoy going on roads where one
side is the road and one side is a sheer drop of a hundred feet or so.
In some places there were like 1 foot high guardrails, but hardly
enough to do much work. This is the one road that can connect people
to the outside, but really I would not want to travel it unless I had
to.
Guizhou is the poorest province (or one of the poorest provinces) in
China. It is no wonder given the transportation links. Tourism is
improving the roads here and one guy said that are a lot of mudslides,
and in the past the government did not care about that, but now after
the tourism, these mudslides need to be cleared within 24 hours. The
fields here are all terraced going up mountains. They are quite
beautiful, but the idea of actually having to be a farmer here seems
like an incredibly hard life. The houses are generally made of wood,
and the surroundings are quite beautiful. Now, the yellow flowers are
blooming in the terraces and it is really pretty.
Fortunately, on this bus ride, we managed to not sit behind any
hurlers! This made me really happy. Unfortunately, we were in the back
and it makes for a more difficult ride. The bus had lots of luggage in
the walkway, and getting to our seats involved some creativity and
climbing. I hoped there was not something serious that would call for
evacuation because it would not be able to be done in a timely manner.
On the bus, for entertainment, we could watch movies. One of the
movies they played was called "The Gods Must Be Crazy in China" or
something of that nature. The movie was staring the Kiko Kiko guy who
went to court from the English version of the movie "The Gods Must Be
Crazy". It seems Kiko kiko was invited to China to take part in some
kind of marathon. He ran. Then there seemed to be a competition to
find a panda, and Kiko ended up falling off a cliff and finding the
pandas. He was afraid of them at first, and then there were some bad
guys who wanted to take the pandas and the kiko kiko guy hit a tree
when running and the bad guys got away, then he met a chimpanzee who
called all his wild animal friends including elephants, tigers, and
dogs (poodles) to come and kick the bad guys arses. The movie was
rather ridiculous actually and as far as I could tell there wasn't
really any plot. It seemed like once scene of stupidity after another
with no point other than being stupid. I told Meng that it seemed
these Hong Kong movies had a lot in common with Yellow movies. No
plot, just looking for excuses to "fight". I was surprised to see the
Kiko Kiko guy in the movie and he was speaking some kind of mixture of
English and Chinese. He looked for a long time at a Coke bottle and he
did drive the car backwards which made me think of the other movie he
starred in. Given the sheer stupidity of this film, I am surprised how
much I enjoyed watching it. Take any movie, add a chimpanzee, and it
makes it good. I don't know what it is about chimps that make movies
good. Also, this one had several cute pandas to boot. We made it to
the destination before the stupid movie ended.
Tomorrow, we are heading to Basha and then to Zhaoxing. Hopefully, we
will not have too many more long days on the road during this trip.
Tonight, we also had to make a big decision about which room to
get....the choice boiled down to internet on the second floor OR
western toliets on the third floor.... It was harder to decide than I
imagined.

Trip Update #7 Xijiang to Congjiang

2010-02-01T23:04:00.001+08:00

Trip Update #5 Xijiang

2010-01-31T22:54:00.001+08:00

Last night we arrived in the Miao Village of Xijiang. It is quite a
sight with all the lanterns lit up. Right now, I really do not feel
like blogging, so I am going to just keep it short. First, I will say
that this leg of the trip has brought me the most disappointment. One
of the things i really wanted to get was some Miao Embroidery to match
the stuff I already have and I thought to come to Guizhou, I would be
able to find what I was looking for. Hence, the disappointment because
I have not been able to find what I am looking for at all. The good
news I suppose is that the stuff I have is more original and old, so
it might also be more valuable, and I saw some of what I like in
Shanghai, so when I get back I am going off to find more.
The other disappointment was that I ordered pizza at the hotel. Words
cannot really describe the taste, which surprisingly was not that bad,
but not pizza either. First the crust was kind of on the thin side and
it was served on a round plate similar to how we get fajhitas in the
US. The crust tasted ok, but was a little burnt. There was not really
any sauce. There were cut up pieces of tomato and onion (there were
supposed to be green peppers but I did not see any) which seemed to be
the sauce. And on top, as expected was cheese. The cheese was
American, which was not quite expected.
I suppose those are the current highlights. I bought a cross stitch
thing to keep me occupied. I wonder if I will finish.

Expense Report Week #1

2010-01-30T21:46:00.001+08:00

So how much does it cost to travel for a week in China? This time Meng
and I actually kept track of our spending. Before reading our expense
reporting, take a guess on how much you think it would cost for a one
week vacation. Be sure your guess is including a 2.5 hour one way
flight, 2 train rides, 3 bus rides, breakfast, lunch, dinner & lodging
for 7 days... Here goes:

Day 1
8 RMB Subway
90 RMB Maglev
828 RMB Flight
15 RMB Cab
70 RMB Hotel
68 RMB Dinner
3.5 RMB Fruit
7 RMB Fruit and Peanuts
_____________________
1089.5= $160.00

Day 2
2 RMB Water
8 RMB Taxi
40 RMB Train to Jishou
30 RMB Bus to Fenghuang
60 RMB Hotel
2 RMB Bus to City
56 RMB Lunch
10 RMB Postcards
58 RMB Dinner
6 RMB Fruit
42 RMB Bathroom Stuff
___________________
314 RMB $46.18

11 RMB Girl selling Cricket to pay for school
5 RMB Noodle
10 RMB Tangyuan and Wonton
70 RMB Hotel
36 RMB Coffee
38 RMB Train tickets to Zhenyuan
95 RMB Dinner
___________________
275 RMB = $40.44

7 RMB Meng's Breakfast
16 RMB Coffee and Water
16.5 RMB Book "Border Town"
38 RMB Lunch
70 RMB Room
120 RMB Embroidery
110 RMB Paper cuts & shoes
50 RMB Dinner
10 RMB Booties
5 RMB Magazine
24.5 RMB Snacks for trip
4 RMB Fruit
___________________
475 RMB=$69.85

Day 5
7 RMB Breakfast
66 RMB Bus
45 RMB Tea
80 RMB Hotel
4 RMB Taxi
44 RMB Dinner
5 RMB Fruit
3.5 RMB Water
-----------------------------
254.5 RMB=$37.43

Day 6
60 RMB Temple/Cave
20 RMB Lunch
28 RMB Book
80 RMB Room
50 RMB Dinner
7.5 RMB Fruit and Snacks
--------------------------------
245.5 RMB=$36.10

Day 7
40 RMB Train
2 RMB Bus
2 RMB Eggs
5 RMB Noodle
45 RMB Lunch
5 RMB Taxi
11 RMB Chips and Coke
48 RMB Bus Tickets
18.5 RMB Misc. Shopping
120 RMB Entrance fee to Miao Village
80 RMB Hotel
55 RMB Dinner
5 RMB Batteries
20 RMB Beer
------------------------------------------------
456.5 RMB=$67.13

Weekly Breakdown:
Food 806 RMB ($118.53)
Lodging 510 RMB ($75.00)
Transport 1224 RMB ($180.00)
Entrance Fees 180 RMB ($26.47)
Gifts/Local Products 305.5 RMB ($44.93)
Misc 81.5 RMB ($11.99)

Grand Total:
3107 RMB ($456.91)
1553.5 RMB/person
$228. 45/person

How much do you think the whole vacation will cost?

Trip Update#5 Zhenyuan to Xijiang, Guizhou

2010-01-30T19:30:00.001+08:00

Today, we mostly spent a boring day on the road. We got up early and
arrived at the train station before 9am, only to discover that the
next train was not until 10:50, so we spent a chunk of time just
waiting. See previous posts where I allude to my pure enjoyment of
just waiting. When it was nearly time to board the train, I asked Meng
if it was our train and he said "no", but I did not believe him and
told him to go ask someone. It was a good thing he asked.
We did not have seats on this train, but I was expecting an empty
train like the last time and thought it was not a big deal. I was
wrong. This train was packed to the gills. If it is possible for a
train to be packed in such a manner. We found a place to stand that
could be somewhat comfortable until a lady needed to come by with a
food cart or drink cart. When that happened, it required delicate
balancing and searching for a place to put some body parts.
After arriving at Kaili, we learned that the Sunday Market is probably
not all that exciting, so we decided to skip it and move to our next
destination, which is Xijiang. We had lunch at a Dongbei place before
heading to the bus station. When we got there we learned we would be
waiting another two hours for a bus to leave there. UGH. Why didn't I
bring more books. I am thinking of buying something to knit or
embroider or something to keep me busy although I am not exactly sure
what that will be yet. We are going to have more bus trips and waiting
on this trip, and Meng never has been the best of company on that kind
of excursion.
The bus ride to Xijiang took about 1 hour, but we spent a good twenty
minutes waiting for some girls to get on the bus. Apparently, they had
called the bus driver and asked for a ride or something. We had to
wait a long time. As we were riding, we thought of how far back in the
mountains this village was and how backward it must have been before
it was opened for tourism. It was a good 15 km into the village, and I
think we just passed one or two other villages along the way.
This place is famous for having 1000 Miao households. At night,
presently, it is quite beautifully lit. Every household has some
lanterns and they are lighting up the mountain. As it gets darker, the
view is only more stunning. We are currently enjoying some Moutai
beer, and after I post this we are going to have to go down and have
some food. There is supposed to be pizza here, but I am not even a
little hopeful and I will probably go for some egg fried rice with
another beer.
At the bus station, we learned we were facing a 7 hour bus ride to get
to the next place we want to go. I cannot say I am looking forward to
the journey in this case, but I do look forward to reaching the
destination.

Trip Update #4 Zhenyuan, Guizhou

2010-01-29T17:55:00.000+08:00

Today, we just strolled around this old city. I especially liked
walking around where the things actually seemed quite old. It seems in
some parts the town has been rebuilt while in other areas it was quite
natural. One big difference between here and Fenghuang was the absence
of tourists and goods to sell tourists. About the only tourist related
thing we met was people wanting to take your photo.
In the summer, there are supposed to be more tourists as this is a
place people come to enjoy the water. I think it is quite like
Yangshuo in some ways as there is rafting and karst formations. The
people here seem quite local and are just busy doing their own thing.
Selling fruits and what not. One unmistakeble sound here is the sound
of construction. It seems there is constantly the sound of hammering
and sawing. So this town is becoming constructed (or reconstructed) as
I write. The other interesting thing I saw was a man selling dog meat.
Literally, Fido was hanging from a stick. Unfortunately, my camera
was never out for taking a photo.
We walked enough that I am a bit tired today. The idea of getting out
even for dinner does not appeal to me. Tomorrow we are going to head
to Kaili although the locals here tell us that there is not Sunday
Market in Kaili and that there is one here so we should just stay put.
It leaves us with some mixed feelings about what to do.
We are also contemplating what to do in Beijing. Our flight will not
land until 11:00 PM, so it will be close to midnight at least before
we can get to the downtown. We were planning to meet some friends for
a drink, so it should be close to 2AM for that. Our train leaves at
7:20 in the morning, so to get to the train station we will probably
need to leave around 6:00 (or a bit earlier) because it is far away.
So we have about 4 hours that we could spend sleeping in a hotel, but
a hotel in Beijing is really quite expensive. We are trying to figure
out what we should so while we are there. Meng says McDonald's is open
24 hours, but I know of some who suggest "accidentally" falling asleep
when getting a foot massage....

Trip Update #3 Fenghuang, Hunan to Zhenyuan, Guizhou

2010-01-28T21:30:00.001+08:00

Today, we were on the move. We got up early (well, 7) in the morning
and got packed and headed out the door around 8:00. Along the way to
the bus station, I had some Tang Yuan and Meng had something or other.
I do not recall. After that brief stop, we continued to walk to the
bus station. It did not take long and we were on the bus that left
just before 9:00 am.
I bet you are wondering if we managed to sit behind some pukers again?
I won't keep you in suspense any longer; the answer is, of course! I
think no bus trip in China is complete without them. We were lucky
enough to sit across and behind the one who could not make it to her a
barf bag, so the contents of her stomach ended up on the floor of the
bus. Fortunately, I was lucky that it did not run in my direction and
I do not have a sympathetic stomach. The guy sitting behind us in the
last row on the bus though that since no one could see him and because
no one was sitting next to him that it would be ok if he chain smoked
the whole trip. I gave him a stare once and he immediately threw his
ciggy out the window. To my surprise, the smoke actually bothers me
much more than the vomit. That is not to say I am a fan of the
upchuck, but that I think smoke is worse.
Cheers to making it to our destination in one piece. Some destination
it was, too, I might add. For just as we were pulling into town, in
all her glory, were the letters KFC. Capitalism is alive and thriving
in the back mountains of China. Actually, I might be a bit premature
to say we arrived at our destination, for we only arrived to the city
where we were to catch our train to our real destination. This left us
with a few hours to kill, and while I thought getting a hairwash and
perhaps a foot massage would be an ideal way to kill time, we passed a
nice tea house, and the thought of just sitting on a comfortable sofa
reading a book seemed like a perfect plan! So we sat in the teahouse
and covertly ate some snacks that we had bought the day before.
After sitting in the teahouse for a couple of hours, we walked to the
train station. The train station looked quite new. I have few comments
about Huaihua. It was probably more of a typical Chinese city. I do
not think I could survive in that kind of place for too long. The
train was an old style that Meng remembered riding on with his mother
when they went to Beijing. It was quite empty so although we did not
have assigned seats, we had no trouble finding a place to sit. I
finished the other book I had brought with me, so now I am left
without any reading material. I curse my shortsightedness for not
bringing more books. Meng brought 4 books and has not managed to
finish even one as he has been too busy watching "Lie to Me" and "Mad
Men" on his itouch. Curse and Bless the modern technology.

(Meng just gave an enthusiastic "awesome" as he takes the first shower
since we left.)

We arrived to Zhenyuan around 6:00 p.m. and after arrival, we set out
to find a hotel. We asked in several of them and finally found one
that had a western style toliet, 24 hour hot water, and internet!!!

(Meng just gave a "woo ooo hooh" and another awesome and broke out in
spontaneous song.)

After checking in, we set out to work on the next order of business...
taking care of Meng's stomach. We found a nice place along the river
and could just say "wow" when we saw the view. I sent Meng back for
the camera. We enjoyed a nice meal by the river and as Hudson called
at that time, we got to share our meal with him too. I think he is a
bit bored. He called to tell me about his progress in Mario Kart on
his DS. Mostly I heard blah, blah, blah...And I told him good job.

I think we are going to enjoy walking around this city and I am glad
we made the decision to come here even though it got some bad reviews
on the internet. The town is quite deserted as this is not at all the
busy season. It does not seem as touristy as Fenghuang, and we did not
see so many tourists either.

After dinner, we just came back to the hotel to use the internet. Meng
watched a little of the Australian Open, and he grabbed a shower. He
is really excited about the great shower. He just keeps repeating how
awesome it is, so I suppose the shower is worth looking forward to. I
just hope he did not use all the hot water.

Trip Update #2 Fenghuang, Hunan Province, China

2010-01-27T23:08:00.001+08:00

We have spent the last couple of days in Fenghuang. It has been
interesting to walk around the city as that is all we really have done
for the past few days. I cannot say that anything especially memorable
or exciting has happened, as we have just been enjoying the area.

I guess there are a few things worth mentioning and I would also like
to make some comments about the development of tourism in China.

1. They really do eat all kinds of stuff here, but today I did see one
animal I had never seen before that was ready to get served up. I took
a photo. My guess would be it is illegal to serve that animal. It's
paw was injured in some way, but I am not sure if it was in the
process of catching it or if it was hurt. The animal is black, brown,
and white and it has a long tail. It reminded me of a raccoon and a
badger, but it also looked really cute as well. It reminded me of some
of the embroidery of the Miao people that I have. I took a photo of it
and will try to identify it later. Meng had not seen it before either.
They said this animal weighed 13 pounds and would cost around 2000
RMB to eat

2. On the topic of eating animals, I am now wondering if what is
called a bamboo rat here might be we we call a muskrat or some sort of
relative. However, as I write this and think of it again, I think a
muskrat might be get larger than this animal. It might be a gopher.
Maybe that is what it is. I suppose for now I will just continue to
think of it as a bamboo rat. Will continue to research this animal as
well. This animal is 88 RMB per jin (half a kilo).

3. Animals are kept in cages in front of the store, you pick the one
you want and they will kill it one the spot to guarentee the
freshness.

4. I learned some things about Miao embroidery that I did not
previously know. First, the embroidery can tell us the last name, age,
and thinking of the girl who made the embroidery. Miao do not have
their own written language, but the girls can use embroidery to
express their thinking and feelings. I thought this was quite
interesting, and the guy explained that there was 8 different layers
of meaning in the different embroidery.

5. I bought a piece of embroidery that is old that used to be used for
someone's clothes. I learned that the people make these clothes and
wear the clothes they made themselves. They may wear the clothes for
several years and as they make new ones they use the old ones to wear
around the house.

6. We also bought some papercuts. Actually, we got them from a 70 year
old woman who sits near the bridge and works on papercuts. At first,
she was a little scary, and there was not bargaining with her. She did
not want to give us a sort of cardboard to protect the papercuts and
insisted on wrapping them up in a newspaper and harder paper and she
said it would be easier to carry. She got her photo taken and she had
some certificates or awards for her paper cutting skills. She actually
uses a kind of knife and cuts through several sheets of paper at a
time. She also warned us about thieves and that we had better be
careful. From where she sits, she is able to see many thieves, but she
cannot do anything because the thieves may hurt her. She seemed like a
quite kind chatty old woman. She said that she goes to work everyday
around 8am and finishes up about 8pm. Sometime while we were there,
her cell phone rang. A seventy year old woman in a village in China
can use and afford to buy a cell phone. Her family called to tell her
dinner was ready and she told them to go ahead and eat and stop
bothering her because she is making money. She was quite fiesty as she
said this.

7. Word on the street is that thieves can bribe police with 2000 RMB
per month to be left alone.

8. The bars close at 11:30 PM, which is good because we have live
music every night in our hotel room whether we like it or not and I am
not sure I could take it if it lasted much past 11:30.

9. As we walked out of the village, we noticed loads of construction.
Houses of similar style are being constructed along the river. These
places would not have been there a few years ago. Actually, there
seems to be quite a bit of new construction here.

10. We bought postcards, wrote them out, found a post office, only to
discover that the post office did not have the proper stamps... UGH.
If you want a post card, e-mail me your address and I will send one
out in the next batch (or this one if we cannot find a post office).

And now for some thoughts on the development. In some ways, I get the
feeling that every Chinese tourist town is getting more and more
alike. If you have seen one then you have practically seen them all.
We have seen tourism development in different stages. In early stages,
I have seen Tuanshan and Yongding (Tulou). In a intermediate stage, I
am looking at Fenghuang. And at a quite developed stage, I have seen
Lijiang and Yangshou. In the former two, the local people all seem to
have moved away and it is just people from other cities that come to
open shops, bars, and cafes. Part of what makes a place so charming is
that it has a local flavor to it. The shops can be similar, but we
also want some unique and special things that can only be found at
that one place. Here we could see the local people making things on
their own as they were selling the goods they had completed already.

I think tourism can really change a place. Finding the way to develop
it in a proper way that is in tune with the local environment is
something that I feel is quite important.

We are lucky to be at the place away from the peak tourist season. We
are told at that time the prices will triple. I forgot how that
happens during the New Year, which makes me glad that our trip is
arranged to miss the bulk of the busy travellers.

I am running out of steam.... and Meng wants to update his blog as well...

Trip Update #1 Zhangjiajie to Fenghuang, Hunan Province, China

2010-01-26T15:37:00.001+08:00

On Sunday, I had to work in the morning and after that, Meng and
Hudson came back from basketball (Meng is Hudson's coach now--I m not
even sure Meng knows how to play basketball). Then, Yingna took Hudson
to the airport, and shortly after Meng and I left for the other
airport. We expected Hudson to land before we took off, but beyond our
expectation, Hudson's plane had to stop somewhere (scheduled--but the
ticketing agent made no mention of it), and there was no mention of it
at the airport, so we only found out after Hudson had taken off, and I
am not sure he knew about it. UGH! The good news was that he did make
it in one piece and apparently the only thing he lost on the plane was
his homework! Ha Ha (Just kidding about that one, although that would
have been a smart thing to do).

Meng made small talk with the girl sitting next to him on the plane.
He said it was for my entertainment, but the reality is I think he
likes talking to young pretty girls, and the topics he chose for
entertainment were not what I would call interesting. Asking so many
questions, it seemed like an interrogation. Which also made me think
of my students and how they really do not have the best communication
skills. Small talk is something that seems difficult to manage in
China. It will be something I work on with my students. No wonder they
cannot make American or foreign friends, and no wonder people like my
grandma reach the conclusion that many Chinese are communist spies....
Meng's line of "small talk" sure could have fooled me.

Once we arrived at Zhangjiajie, we set off for our hotel. Well, you
can't exactly call it a hotel, I guess. It had a bed (if you could
call it a bed), it was more of a board with a sleeping bag on it. I
think the ground might have been softer. The bathroom was not ensuite
either, and it was a squat pot shower combo. Although they claimed to
have hot water, I did not exactly feel like stripping down for one in
the 30 degreeish weather we were experiencing, and I am not that dirty
yet. I wonder how dirty I will have to feel before a shower like that
seems like a good idea???

I should mention the first order of business to take care of in
Zhangjiajie was Meng's stomach. It was empty and for nearly the whole
flight he did not stop reminding me. In fact, he chose that topic of
conversation with the pretty girl he entrapped on the plane. How
talking about food I probably have no interest in tasting was supposed
to be entertainment for me, I am not sure. However, all Meng could do
was think about food. We got to the hotel around 10PM, so I was not
hopeful that we would find something open. It is a small town after
all so it generally would not be open all that late. We found a
convenience, well, supermarket next door, but Meng did not want
Instant noodles. We kept walking and found a place where they were
selling street food. There was meat on a stick, so I was on board
(basically kabobs without veggies) and it was spicy! We took photos.
The best thing was that under the table there was a heater of some
sort and the table was metal so it kept out food warm and we ate
outside. After getting the belly full, we went back to to the room to
sleep on the hard board.

I was so relieved when it was 6:30AM and it was time to get up. I did
not think I could have laid on that board much longer. We headed for
the train station to get tickets to Jishou, and from there we would
take a bus to Fenghuang.

On the way to the train station, we passed a funeral procession. It
was not only the first time that I saw this sort of thing, but it was
also the first time for Meng to see such a thing. It was quite
interesting. Probably there was a total of 50-70 people. The first ten
to fifteen people carried this large thing that looked like like an
inverted sattelite that had flowers painted on the outside. It was
probably 4 feet in diameter and one or two people carried each one.
Behind them, there were several people walking, and behind them there
were people wearing black with white headresses flowing behind them.
It is hard to describe. There were people beating drums and music and
they were also setting off fireworks every twenty feet or so. It was
quite the to do. I only saw them marching in the distance, but it was
quite moving and for a reason that had not occurred to me at the time
it nearly made me cry. (Like some commercials do at certain times of
the month). Anyway, our train was delayed and we needen't have gotten
up so early (not that I could have slept longer).

I would like to take a moment to say the guy working at the "hotel"
was really helpful!

The train ride was uneventful, and the transfer to the bus was really
easy. Meng did, however, manage to sit behind the only two people on
the bus who were carsick. I got the pleasure of sitting next to the
window behind the one they were taking turns to puke out of!!! It
reminded me of the travel in Yunnan. I made Meng put the bag on his
lap lest they did not quite make it to the window. I really hate to
sit behind pukers. Also, the bus stopped part way through in the
middle of the road and someone came out to fill it with gasoline. That
was something new!

We arrived to Fenghuang and took a bus to the old city. As we were
looking for lodging, we came a cross a cafe with a Golden Retriever,
and were enticed to stay for a bite. Actually, I thought we should eat
because I did not want to meet Meng's hungry monster when my can't we
just find a place to stay monster came. Meng ate there cause he
thought I wanted to, and it turns out we sort of wasted our money.
This is the opposite of a plug for the Keep Watching cafe in
Fenghuang.

We started on a search for a hotel, which per se was not hard to find.
It was just finding one for a price we wanted to pay and getting a
guide to stop following us. We found one place for 30 a night, but it
did not have an in room loo nor was the loo western style. I knew I
was asking a lot of a western style place, but my stomach does not
always welcome new places and new food, so I wanted access to a good
facility. We looked at a few more places, and most of them did not
have proper facilities either. We were about to go back to the 30
place, but we happened around another one which did have western
toilets and was just 60 RMB and the big bed did not feel hard as a
rock. (In China, most rooms have two single beds, finding one with a
queen is not so common). Plus, this place is along the river and we
can see a great view from our window. I think for 10 more we are
going to spring for air con tonight! It was quite cold there.

After finding a hotel, we decided to just take a little nap. After our
nap, we walked around the city a little bit, and then we wanted to get
a bite to eat. We walked around before finding a place that had "ren
qi" or people energy. It turned out to be a good choice, and
everything we ordered was edible. As we were leaving and walking down
the street in search of fruit for breakfast, I noticed an interesting
animal that I could not identify. it looked like the color of a grey
bunny, but it was not as big as a bunny. We saw another one, and
figured it might be a popular food. I told meng to ask what it was. He
reported it was a Bamboo Rat, and I recalled that was supposed to be a
delicacy in this area. There were also a interesting selection of game
birds and a snake. I am beginning to believe people in China will eat
everything... even rats.

After our meal, we came across the night market which is very close to
where we live, and we plan to eat there tonight. I will report back as
to the quality of the food later!

Today, we planned to get up early to walk around the village. To our
surprise, it was still dark at 6:30 when we got up. We laid in bed for
a bit until we heard such a clatter that I sprang from the bed to see
what was the matter. I could not see anything, so I jumped back into
the not so warm bed to continue wishing to be warmer. Last night, in
retrospect, we should have paid an extra 10 RMB for the heater to be
turned on. Or perhaps, instead of using the warm blanket for
cushioning on the bed, we could have used it to cover up with. I am
sure that would have been a better choice. Live and Learn. And while I
do not plan on freezing tonight, I certainly am not ready to endure a
shower. I found a place where I can get my hair washed and I think I
may just stick to washing the stinky parts until I can shower in a
heated room.

The poor women here wash their clothes in the river with their bare
hands. I can barely endure typing this post, so to actually wash
clothes in a cold river seems unimaginable to me.

After getting settled back in bed and working on reading my book, the
clatter came again, only louder, and this time my curiosity paid off.
It was another such kind of funeral parade and this time they were
marching right by my window. Unfortunately, we do not have a great
street view, so I did not really get any photos. Maybe there will be
another one as it seems this is common in this area.

I am posting from a cafe where we managed to get some coffee--real
coffee and a little bamboo basked with charcoal in it for warmth.
However, my fingers have now frozen (it is actually quite hard to type
in gloves) and Meng wants to update his blog as well.

Stay tuned for the next installment!

Oops, not finished...

2010-01-23T09:00:00.000+08:00

I accidently hit send and away my post went to my blog and I cannot access it myself to edit it.... so I'll just continue.

Actually, I suppose I am running out of steam on this topic. I do not have too much more to say.

Oh, but the thing I want to point out is that that Chinese are resourceful. That this Firewall is possible to work around. Many people working for International Companies have access to using a VPN which allows them to access the internet beyond the firewall. This is the reason I am able to get on facebook sometimes. In addition, I know there are things you can download from the internet to allow you to surf freely on the internet, and there are VPN services you can buy that allow you to work around the censorship as well. And while I think this is convenient to do, there are many Chinese who have no idea how to do this. What concerns me about this is that it allows only a smarter (perhaps more able to use critical thinking) group who is likely of a higher class that is able to gain access to all information whereas people who are less intelligent, tech smart, and wealthy are able to access something that others do not have access to and that this will further enhance the gap between the rich and poor.

In essence, I hope that google does not leave China completely. If my gmail is gone and my facebook is gone, my ability to connect to the world I care about will be restricted to phone calls and snail mail. Although these things are not bad ways of connecting with people. I do miss getting letters in the mail and I feel there is something to be said for sitting down to write a letter myself. I think Hillary was a bit short-sighted with her comments. I think that China expressing anger over the comments is also a sign of a China that is gaining power in the world.

From behind the Great Firewall of China

2010-01-23T08:48:00.001+08:00

I think it is worthwhile to make some comments on a recent situation in China that captured the attention of our family for about a week. That event is google's decision to withdraw from doing google.cn. The reasons I understand is something about a security breach with someone trying to hack in the system and get information about some human rights activists. The other reason is China's insistence on censoring search results of google. Pornography is one of the things they wish to censor.

Currently in China, the internet restrictions do affect and annoy me. I am not able to access my blog, and I am not able to push the proper buttons to allow comments from others to be published but as they are e-mailed to me I am able to read them. I am able to update my blog by essentially e-mailing it. I cannot update any other features. In addition, this also means that I am not able to read the blogs of any others I know who are using a blogger account. Reading these blogs was something I used to really enjoy, so I am annoyed that I cannot do this anymore. I cannot use twitter. So what? Who really cares about twitter, none of my friends really use it so much (or at least I am not aware of it or they just don't use it). If I google forbidden topics, my internet will seem messed up for a few days unless I restart my internet, but that does not always do anything. These forbidden topics are the 4 Ts: one is a square in Beijing, another is an island that is off the coast of China, the other two related to the two westernmost provinces. So essentially all of these Ts have one thing in common: keeping China whole. And this does make sense given the previous history in China. I am also not able to access a website I used to really enjoy reading called danwei.com.

The most noticeable way that the GFW affects (or is it effects) me is that I am blocked from using facebook. Sometimes I cannot decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. When I was able to access facebook, I could kill hours of my day on the computer. In fact, I always had something to do online, if I was not looking at profiles of various people, I could keep myself entertained by sending stupid plants or playing stupid games. I am easily entertained by the stupid games and activities, and I was wasting several hours each day doing nothing on-line. Now, with facebook gone, I have been able to accomplish my PhD application without distractions, and I have spent hours of constantly revising my personal statement without distractions. I think that has probably been a good thing. BUT I miss having facebook there. It makes me feel connected to the world that I come from. At Christmas, reading peoples updates about going to parties, baking cookies, building a snowman can remind me of what people usually do at different times. It keeps me connected to the rhythm of life back in the US that I would otherwise be totally disconnected from. In addition, it allows me to quickly plan things and inform people. If I want to invite some people over for dinner, I can just invite them on facebook. I can also keep in touch with family. Grandma seems to enjoy facebook and I can see what is going on with other relatives, especially other relatives who may be getting married and having babies. It is nice to see events from people's lives that I am not able to be present for. In addition, I am able to get in touch with people I have lost contact with, sometimes not always intentionally and there are people on facebook that I am so delighted to reconnect with. I thought it would be really useful for keeping in contact with friends I have made in China, but now that will not be as possible. As a result, I did sign up at 开心网 which is the Chinese version of facebook. However, I understand that facebook was used to instigate riots in Xinjiang and that it is capable of spreading so much uncensored information quickly to others.

I have made comments regarding censorship in China previously. As an American, I have been taught to value freedom of the press. However, I seriously doubt that our forefathers had wanted there to be unlimited access to pornography and graphic violence. Our freedom of the press was to allow people to speak out against the government and challenge government policies without fear of imprisonment. Our country was founded on this ability to express these ideas. China, however, was not founded with the same conditions. Information historically had been controlled for thousands of years. It was the key to keeping the nation unified. Hillary Clinton's vision of having a totally free internet is perhaps unreasonable. Perhaps, it is right for our country, but to assert that it should be the same way in every single other country in the world seems like trying to impose our national values on another country without considering that it may not be appropriate for every place in the world.

I maintain that Americans are also taught to be critical thinkers. That we do not take every single thing we read at face value, that we are taught it is ok to question authority whether that authority is in the form of a textbook, teacher, politician, or leader. In my opinion, critical thinking goes hand and hand with the the freedom to express anything. One must be able to sort through the information and decide what is true.

However, in China, students are taught to respect textbooks, teachers, and leaders, and students are weaker when it comes to critical thinking. Most will hesitate to criticize these things in a public situation. Memories from the past still linger. A past where a wrong comment could land you as a political prisoner for the majority of your life. It is more important to be cautious about what you say than to say what you really think. It is actually hard to know what a person is really thinking because it is likely they will not tell you. To some extent, more views have come out under the ability to conceal one's identity when posting on the internet. Though China has people who essentially can bury unfavorable comments and remove unfavorable posts all together.

An update on the previous waiting....

2010-01-22T12:45:00.001+08:00

I am still waiting to hear about that job.

I have officially given up.

Oh well!

Vacation is coming... and it will be over before I know it.

2010-01-22T12:44:00.001+08:00

One the the main reason I have been so anxious to get all my grad school stuff figured out is because Meng and I have planned to take a nice vacation together. We are sending Hudson to his grandma and grandpa's from January 24th to Feb 12th when we will meet him there, so it will be the first time in a few years that Meng and I have had a long chunk of alone time together. The last time was when we went to Xi'an perhaps back in 2006 or was it 2007? My the years go fast now. The last time Meng and I took a long vacation together was with my mom and Hudson when we went to Yunnan and that was in 2007, I am quite sure anyway. So both of us are really looking forward to enjoying some time together. I suppose we did go to Thailand in 2008, but Hudson was with us the whole time too. So it really is the last time in several years that Meng and I spend any real alone time together and with all of the changes we have coming, I think it will do us quite good.

We are planning most of our trip to spend in smaller villages in Hunan, Guizhou, and Shanxi Provinces. We have a flight to Zhangjiajie on Jan 24th as well, so we will be leaving about the same time as Hudson. From Zhangjiajie we will take a bus to Fenghuang, which is our first destination. It is a really pretty city that has many Miao people. After that, we are planning to go to a Dong Village called Zhaoxing, and another large Miao village called Xijiang. We have a flight out of Guizhou from Guiyang on the 7th of February. In total, we will have two weeks in that area.

Our flight will bring us to Beijing and we wont get in until quite late, 11pm, but we still plan to meet some friends and go out for drinks. Our friend Thomas will be in Beijing from Germany at the tail end of his trip, and this will be our only chance to see him. We will also meet up with Ding and I hope Jack will decide to come out too. It will be a late an enjoyable reunion with old friends. The next day on the 8th, we will make our way to Pingyao in Shanxi. It is also a place I have wanted to go for some time. It has much Ming and Qing architecture and it is an old walled city that used to be the center of the banking industry in old China. I think it will be cool. We are going to catch a flight out of Taiyuan on the evening of the 12th and go back to Dalian.

February 13th is Chinese New Year Eve, so there will be some preparations and last minute shopping to take care of, but most of the time will just be relaxing together as a family. I plan to get back on the 19th of February. My work will start again on the following Tuesday. I will keep updated with our travels..... stay tuned.

A Big Change

2010-01-22T08:51:00.001+08:00

My school is not the only thing that is changing at out house. As many of you know, Meng was laid off back in October, and he has not been able to find a job since that time, so now with Chinese New Year and given he was in a similar predicament last time he was without work, I am guessing it will not be until April or May before he finds a job, and given that I will finish work in July and we would like to do some traveling, he would be around to work for just a few months. My work next semester is quite light as well. I will be teaching just 6 hours of classes at my visa job, 3 hours at another university, and whatever IELTS work I pick up on the side, and the IELTS work is quite flexible as well.

Taking this information into consideration, and the fact that we are planning to move back to the US in probably August, we have decided to homeschool Hudson for the next semester. I know, homeschooling, I never thought it would be for me. I thought it was for crazy religious people who did not want to expose their children to the evils of the world. That does not describe people like me. Surprise! I mentioned it to Meng earlier this week that I had this idea, and to my surprise, he jumped right on board.I expected him to have more reservations than he did, but he was all for it. Hudson currently attends a private school which costs around $6,000 per semester (12K per year), and it is really expensive to send him there. The thing about the school that is better than the US is that he is getting a truly bilingual education and he is developing fluency in two languages. This is important to us, and we made a big investment since we have been in China to cover his education expenses. I shudder to think of it now, but over the past 5.5 years what we have spent on is education is probably not much different that what we would have paid to send him to college. It could probably buy Meng and I both new cars. It has been our biggest expense after rent for out time in China. But, much of this education is not something that I have been fully satisfied with. There have been many problems and I do not feel like Hudson gets the most of the school. In short, I feel the school puts too much effort in cramming their heads with information and math but fails to teach them proper social skills. Hudson is not at the top of his class for either of these. He lags behind in some of the school things because we do not make him do extra homework, and he lags behind socially because the teachers do not really discipline him. Also, the way they discipline is not that effective.

At this time, homeschooling seems to make perfect sense. We cannot afford a truly western style international school. I am not sure it is in Hudson's best interest to continue in his current school. By homeschooling, we will get a chance to work with him on some social skills as well as his handwriting and writing in general. The school has not done a great job with this, so I think Hudson will benefit from special attention to this. Also, Meng can continue to teach Hudson Chinese and Math the same way as he has been getting it in his previous school. It will be good for Hudson. We will also have more time to let Hudson do reading, play outside, and get involved in some outside school activities that he has always got back home too late to participate in.

We are quite aware that this will be a challenging task, but we feel it is better for Hudson. I feel happy to have found some prepared materials, and we plan to get those ordered soon. We are looking at sonlight.com at the level 3 materials.

Applying for a PhD, Part 2

2010-01-22T08:31:00.001+08:00

Back in November, I wrote a post on applying for a PhD, and as difficult and long as I thought the process was back then, I can only now truly say it is more difficult that I had imagined back then. I would like to elaborate on a few of the things I mentioned back then as well as give an update on where I am now.... I'll start with the update.

Currently, I believe I have completed my applications for 4 schools, and I have one school that I cannot figure out if the application was submitted or not, I am going to see if I can figure it out today.

So, where might I be going? I cannot say I have a strong preference for any program. I would be satisfied with any of the programs I applied to as long as I get financial aid to do the study.

1. Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. I am sure this will be a welcome choice among my family. I applied to the program in Second Language Studies there, and if I attended this school I would keep my focus on foreign language teaching and learning. I am very interested in this and I enjoy my current work. A degree in this area would allow me to begin training teachers to be ESL teachers. I think I would enjoy doing this as well. Mostly, I applied to State because it would give me the option of going back home. It is the only SLS program I applied to as it really was not the direction I saw myself going. I am probably most confident about getting into this program and getting aid. I will just wait and see. I believe my application for this school is complete; however, I did not get any confirmation on their part and I am not positive my transcripts arrived, so I feel a little nervous if I screwed up the application. Also, I had to ask a friend to help out with getting some materials to the right place and I am just hopeful I did not make a mistake with telling the person where to send the materials or any other list of things that could go wrong.

2. New York University, New York City, NY. This is probably the program that I am most excited about learning; however, it is located in the city I am least excited about going to. I am tired of living in the big city, so to go to New York, I have doubts on whether we will be able to live. It will be expensive. The program is in the area of International Education, and at NYU there are actually three different concentrations in this major. I had to choose one so I picked Cross-Cultural Training and International Education. I really enjoy teaching the course on Intercultural communication, and I felt that my previous studies did not prepare me for working abroad. I would like to develop training materials for people who are overseas (foreigners in America or Americans abroad both). This was the first application I submitted, and I think everything got there, but I did not get any confirmation either.

3. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. The program I applied to here is called History, Philosophy and Comparative Education. I am interested in working with a faculty member here named Heidi Ross, as she has extensive experience with China. However, when I tried to contact her, I did not get any response. I am not sure what that means, but I decided not to be discouraged from applying. I like the idea of going to Indiana, it is close by, but it will be a bit warmer than Michigan. I got clear confirmation that this application was submitted and complete.

4. University of Maryland, College Park, MD. The program I applied to here is called International Education. There is a faculty member that I am interested in working with here as well. I am not so excited about the location, and I probably know the least about this school. From what I read about the program, I feel that it is a good fit. I have confirmation that the school has got all of the the materials but my transcripts and I am going to have my mom send a copy soon.

5. SUNY University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. Another NY school. The program I applied to here is Social Foundations of Education and there is a focus on Comparative and International Education. I am attracted to Buffalo in that it is not located in such a huge city. This probably is not my top choice of a program, but I would be more happy living here than in NYC or Maryland, so I suppose the main reason I applied here was that it was a smaller town and it offered the program that I am interested in. This is the application I am having trouble with submitting.

Now, the question that I am popping up with is what to do about Financial Aid. I had thought that when I applied I would automatically be considered for aid, so I did not look further into that aspect. However, I am beginning to see that I need to apply for some assistantships and what not, but I did not know or realize this. Thus, I suppose I needed to put more effort to applying for aid. Or maybe not. This is confusing to me. Also, I should fill out a FAFSA, and I am concerned there will be a problem as I have not filed taxes for many years (according to the information I had I am not required to file as I do not make enough money, and on the China end, my employer has been doing it on my behalf.) I am quite puzzled by this here. I also thought I should be able to wait to know if I got into a program before I needed to start looking for the financial aid, but since I do not know if I am in, it is hard to say what I should be doing. Why apply for a job if you are not certain you will be going to that school. It truly is a struggle. And I have no idea what the admissions people or the people who review my application feel their job is. I am not sure if I am 100% responsible for being proactive in finding funding or if the department is supposed to help me. UGH.

All in all this process is not over, and it is more time consuming and difficult that I expected.

When it came to deciding a major, I knew that I was interested in International Education. Actually, I found that this major is not offered at very many schools. In some ways, this made it easier to narrow down, but I did not have the range of choices I might have had in a more popular major. This is also the reason that some of the programs I am applying to are more related to Comparative Education or Social Foundations, and actually this might be closer to what I am interested in studying as well. What i like about this choice of major is that it combines the social sciences and humanities with the study of education in both my own country and other countries. I like that it can sort of combine both sociology and anthropology which were areas I was very interested in during my undergrad and grad work, and that it also relates to my current career. I knew my major all along, it just took awhile to find the right programs.

When it came to choosing schools, there were only 10 schools or so that even offered a program I wanted to consider. The next step was to look and see if there was a faculty member that dealt with China or who had interest in China. U Maryland and Indiana University seem to be the best choices for this. I also considered location. I knew I did not really want to go out West, so I eliminated schools in California, and I did not really want to go to the South, so that allowed me to eventually eliminate schools in Georgia and Florida. I was too lazy to get all my stuff together to apply for the North Carolina program that I was thinking about, but it was not the best fit for a program either.

When it came to finding recommenders, I did not have too much trouble. I asked 4 people, and ended up that I only needed 3 of them. It was difficult to decide which person's recommendation I would not need.

I cannot say I am satisfied with my writing sample, and I did consider starting fresh, but I only got as far as finding articles and taking notes on the articles that I read.

Writing my personal statement was probably the most challenging task. I cannot count how many revisions I went through and I am still not sure I wrote one that is all that good. I have no idea what other people write.

All in all, I made the decision to do a PhD sometime last Spring, and it is taking me until now. I think it really takes a year to complete the application. I did not realize it would be such a time consuming task, and now I am glad that I am reaching the end process of it. I suppose the PhD program will be even harder, but then I will be around people that I can ask.

At this point, all I can do is wait to hear back about a decision. I hope it is favorable.

Breaking the Law

2010-01-21T23:30:00.001+08:00

On Tuesday, when I was a work, one of my coworkers kind of roped me
into buying tickets to the show she was the producer of. I cannot say
that I was all that excited about it, but being as how I did not
really have any other plans, I figured why not? Besides the tickets
were just 100 RMB, which is not terribly expensive. So I got two.
After shelling out the money, she asked for my phone number. Now, why
would that be a request when you buy a theater ticket is what you are
most likely wondering... I did, and I asked. I said I would not be a
problem I suppose as I am sure you have already paid the bribes to the
proper people to get the permit right, and she said, and I quote,
"Well, no." And she proceeded to say the cost of getting such a permit
is around 20,000 RMB (to put it into perspective, it is more than my
ayi makes all year from us and she works 20 hours a week).
Technically, I was being invited to a private party and that they
would not be selling tickets at the event as it was, of course, a
private party. This only piqued my interest as I had recently seen on
the news an event that was cancelled. The cancelled event was Mr. Gay
China. The story made CNN. CNN made it sound like the government was
doing something wrong, and the events I saw here made me think of the
whole thing differently. In China, it is illegal to hold large
gatherings without proper permission. I believe this would be to
prevent rioting and also apply to some religious gatherings as well.
For the Mr. Gay Contest, the government officials stopped the
production because they did not procure the proper permit for
gathering and were breaking the law. Tonight we did the same thing,
but our event was not stopped by the police.
I suppose it is just a further reflection of the attitude towards gay
people in China. It is something that was not recognized as recently
as 10 years ago. In fact, in my college the classmate I had from China
insisted that there were not any gay people in China. To have such an
event now, even though it was cancelled, is truly evidence of how fast
the society is changing.
I suppose this is also an interesting reflection of using the back
door in China. Sometimes it is far easier to work around the roll and
call something technically something else to meet your objective. I
think that is something that is often misunderstood here. There is
this mistaken view that people do not have freedom and that the
government is so powerful, but the reality is people are smart and
everyone knows to use the back door.
Ironically, the question of the show or what the show was focusing on
was how far would you go for art? What is art? Apparently, the makers
of this show did not find a problem with breaking the law to make art.
Oh, and we did really enjoy the show and thought we should take
advantage of these kind of performances while we are here.

Hudson's Cocktail Party

2010-01-08T19:51:00.001+08:00

On Wednesday, Hudson came home from school and announced we needed to
bring him snacks for the cocktail party they would be having at
school. Last night, I was ambitious and I baked two batches of
cookies.

Today, he came home and described the cocktail party. Here are some
parts of our dinner conversation...

Hudson: "So today at school there was a bartender who was mixing up
drinks all crazy."
One of his parents: "Oh, really! Tell us what kind of drinks."
Hudson: Mostly fruit juices....
*****
Hudson: "I missed it when he made the Martini because I had to go get my lunch."
One of his parents: "Were they making any other kind of drinks?"
Hudson: "I do not know what they are called, but they... oh let me
show you.... goes to our stash and finds Bol's, Gordon's, and Triple
Sec and says they had these. But they did not let the kids drink
them."
One of his parents: "Were the teachers at this party?"
Hudson: "Yes, sure."
One of his parents: "Were the teachers happy after the party?"
Hudson: "Yes"
*****
Hudson to his friend Andrew: "That's not good for kids."
Andrew: "Yeah"

Apparently, the kids were not allowed to partake in the drinking, but
this event was held during lunchtime. Now things in China are
different from things in America, but this just seems to cross the
line no matter how you look at it.

Personally, I cannot help but wonder if I am working in the right
place or not. There are definately a few times when I could have
enjoyed a cocktail party during lunch!

The best part was my mom was sitting there listening to this whole
conversation as well. She did not have too much to say, but she was
finding it difficult to not laugh. I think the laugh was the
uncomfortable kind.

Well, Cheers!

Still waiting....

2010-01-07T23:35:00.001+08:00

Well, several weeks ago I mentioned I had a job interview, and I have
been told I will soon know the result, but as it is several weeks have
passed and I still do not know. I am nearly ready to give up. Last I
heard, I would find out on Christmas, but I still don't know so maybe
it is wiser to just forget about it.

Still Waiting...

2009-12-17T23:01:00.001+08:00

But don't they say no news is good news....

Waiting

2009-12-16T22:59:00.001+08:00

I hate waiting.... as it is now, I have not begun my Christmas
shopping as I hate waiting to give the presents to people. I am
terrible at keeping surprise type secrets that are my own. As to
others, your secrets are generally safe with me... if someone tells me
not to tell, that is fine.... it is that waiting to find out and that
waiting to tell someone something that is my job to tell them that I
cannot bear....
What brings on my current distaste for waiting, however, is not
Christmas. Sunday night, I had a job interview with Education Abroad
for a Residence Director position. Actually, it is a perfect job for
me and I am incredibly interested in it. But now I am just waiting and
waiting to hear the results of the interview. I was supposed to find
out yesterday, and yesterday I got an e-mail saying to wait one more
day. And now I am waiting one more day but I still have not found out
anything. It really sucks. How hard can if be for them to realize I am
the best candidate, I mean it isn't rocket science, right?
So now I am waiting.... and waiting.... and waiting.... it is truly a
usless place just as Dr. S tells us.... as the story goes... somehow
I'll escape all that waiting and staying and find the bright places
where boom bands are playing.... with banner flip flapping once more
I'll ride high... ready for anything under the sky. Ready because I
that kind of guy. So here I am waiting for the boom bands and banner
flapping....

Finally, someone else was stared at....

2009-11-30T18:39:00.001+08:00

Today, as I was waiting to get on the train (metro) at Shanghai South
Railway Station, I noticed a odd sort of young man getting ready to
get on the same train. As the train was coming into the station, he
started to say something, but I could not understand. Then he got on,
and I sat in a place where I could see him, but was not directly in
front of him.

First, he got in his bag, which was full of plastic bottles and
crushed a couple of them. And then one fell away from his reach, and
he desperately tried to get it without getting out of his seat. A
passenger across from him kicked it towards him. A bit later, I could
hear him saying "Fire, Fire, Fire" many times. And then he said,
"don't be afraid. you are a person. I am a person. There is nothing to
be afraid of. What are you afraid of? There is nothing to fear." He
repeated this many times. I looked over at him at some point, and he
saw me, so I smiled. He then waved and said "thank you" (in English).
Shortly after that, he started to shake uncontrollably. He shook onto
the person next to him. She moved as did the rest of the people
sitting near him. He was then laying across 4 seats and there was spit
coming out of his mouth. The people who were sitting in that row
quickly got out of their seats and ran away in fear. Then he say up
and said he is ok. Don't be afraid, and where is my bag? His bag had
flown off his lap during the shaking. A kind man got up and handed him
his bag, and the young man thanked him. Then this young man got out
some pills from his bag and took them and asked for water more than 10
times before another passenger on the train gave it to him. Everyone
on the train was staring at him during this time. And many people also
looked afraid. Then we got to a busier stop, and more people got on
the train. I could hear him talking still but I could not make out his
words.

This incident left a deep impression on me because I realized that in
China we rarely see people with mental or physical handicaps. It is
almost as if they do not exist. This is the first time I see this kind
of person in public and he was unsupervised. I was also surprised how
fearful people seemed towards him and how quickly they just fled from
that area.

I also wonder about this young man. Where is he going? Why is he
alone? Could he possibly be a college student faking illness to have
fun to see how people respond or from some kind of research? Do other
people know where this person is or is he lost? I heard him say that
he was going to Shanghai Railway Station, so I worry if he is going to
get on a train and go far away. I also wonder how the average Chinese
person feels about these kind of handicapped

Anyway, it made the commute more interesting than usual....

Fixing Things

2009-11-20T14:11:00.001+08:00

Oddly enough, most anything that "breaks" in China can be fixed. On
Wednesday, ayi was making us rice and in the middle of cooking the
rice, the microwave must have stopped sending out little microwaves.
It continued to spin and the light was still on, but it was no longer
serving the primary function of heating up my food in a short time.
Tragic. Especially since we had both given away our other microwave
and had insisted the landlord take their microwave away when we moved
in. We figured we were going to need to buy another one, but last
night, Yingna checked out the warranty information and it was still
under some kind of warranty where the guy would come to your house to
fix it. So we arranged for the guy to come today.

As typical of repairmen, he was supposed to arrive between 9 a.m. and
12 noon, and he arrived sometime around 2 p.m. He asked for some
slippers as he did not have any and I spent the better part of a full
minuite looking for one... He went into the kitchen and got straight
to business. He said he just needed two or three minutes. Say what? It
took us longer than that to figure out the thing was really broken. So
I decided to watch. He used a screwdriver to take off the back of the
microwave, and then a kitchen knife to remove a plastic thingy. He
then took out the useless thingy and replaced it with a new thingy
that he got from a tin in his suitcase that was full of those
thingies. He then plugged in the microwave to see if it was working. I
tested some water in it and sure enough the water was warmer after 30
seconds. He then packed his things and was on his way. This whole
repair seriously took no longer than two minuites, and I DO mean that
LITERALLY. I probably held him up looking for that slipper.

As he was putting the microwave back together, I asked him how many he
fixed everyday, and he said two or three, but that he also fixes other
things that are the same brand. I must say I was impressed. I suppose
what was even more amazing was the cost of getting this thing fixed.
We knew there would be a 40 RMB charge for coming to the house, the
total cost was 45 RMB or about $6.62. I feel so silly for thinking we
should get another microwave, and I wonder if we should have looked
into fixing our coffee maker as well...

As I have always been conditioned to make way for the new, this is a
interesting reminder how it is possible to fix the old.

I don't know how hard it is raining....

2009-11-10T07:16:00.001+08:00

In China, there are several expressions of raining. There is mao mao
rain, light rain, medium rain, and heavy rain. I don't know if my
definition of a light rain is the same as a Chinese person's
definition of light rain. Given that they carry an umbrella if it is
sunny just to be prepared for possible rain. (Ok, maybe not the actual
case, they might check the weather and know that it is supposed to
rain later unlike me who does not bother with Chinese news). Anyway, I
don't know what the rain is here and in Minhang, it could be raining
differently.

This all matters very much to me. If it is a misting or light rain,
then there is the sports meeting. If there is the sports meeting, I do
not have class. If I do not have class, I would be as happy as a kid
on a snow day.... that's very happy.

But I am still not sure.

Score....

2009-11-09T23:07:00.001+08:00

oops.... do people even still say that. Anyway, I felt like I scored
some good stuff today. First, it is Monday, and that means burgers at
the Blue Frog and buy one get one free. Plus, we were there for happy
hour and it was buy one get one free.... so I had 4 beers and a burger
for around $17.00 (no need to tip either--would never shell out the
full price of that meal though.... that's crazy). The beers were four
bottles of Sam Adams.... which is oh so tasty. Then I went to the best
video store of all and found the original Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. So excited about that.
I also got some documentaries about travel to make my students watch.
I had been searching for the Willy Wonka movie for about 5 years. They
also had Wayne's World 2, but I really want the first one. Maybe next
time.

Bad Students

2009-11-05T17:27:00.001+08:00

are so much more fun than the good ones!!!!

Today 5/9 bad students showed up for the class, I was told that the
others had to attend a lecture. I am not sure if they were telling the
truth or what, but I don't care.

So I asked the bad students if they had any pets...

One student says "a dog" I asked what kind and she told me.
The next one says "a cat"
The next one says "a cat"
The next one says that she wants a monkey and I told her I used to
want one too, but now I think they are really clever and would cause a
lot of trouble.
The last one, a boy, says "a dinosaur" (and in Chinese he tells the
other students the chinese word that does in fact mean dinosaur).
So I ask questions about what the dinosaur eats and how big the
dinosaur is, and then I ask if he will eat it when it gets big and if
I can come and try the dinosaur when he cooks it up.
Then I asked the other students if they wanted to try dinosaur meat,
and many of them did not think it was a good idea.

I had the most fun in that class. The students are creative and
interesting and they do work hard in class, but as soon as class was
over they were making plans to go enjoy life. I want to know more
about these students and how they are different from the so-called
good students. I have heard about the bad students before, and I am
thinking I probably prefer them....

Nien Cheng Dies....

2009-11-04T18:30:00.001+08:00

I recently (September) read her book "Life and Death in Shanghai" and
I found it to be one of the most amazing books I have read. It is the
story of her 6 year imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution. She
was innocent, and yet kept in solitary confinement for 6 years. That
she was able to survive the trauma of everything that happened to her
and not go insane astounded me. She truly is a survivor, and that she
had the stregnth and courage to survive as long as she did is truly
something. I am glad to know she continued to have a long life despite
everything that happened to her. She truly is one remarkable woman. If
you have not read her book, you should. It is truly inspiring.

Claude Levi-Strauss dies....

2009-11-04T18:22:00.001+08:00

at 100. Seriously, I thought he was already dead. I had to read his
work in my anthropology theory class.... I just feel so surprised that
he was alive, and now gone all of a sudden. Odd that death makes you
realize the living.

Applying for a PhD

2009-11-04T07:17:00.001+08:00

I never realized that applying for a PHD would be way more work than
any other kind of job. It is not something that can be done quickly,
but something that requires a great deal of careful thought and
effort. In the past my students have asked me about applying for
schools, and I do not think I really knew what to tell them because I
did not have to put much work into applying for my MA degrees.

Here is a list of the things that need to be done:

1. Decide which major you want to apply for.
2. Decide which schools to apply to and to do this you should consider
the requirements for admission as well as whether or not there is a
faculty member there that you would like to work with.
3. Take and get a satisfactory score on the GRE. Some people spend up
to 6 months to prepare for this exam.
4. Find 3-4 people to serve as reccommenders. It is important to think
carefully about the people you choose and what they can say about you,
and it is also important to consider how much weight that person's
recommendation would require.
5. Get your transcripts from previous universities sent to the
universities you are applying to.
6. Find a writing sample to submit or prepare a writing sample to submit.
7. Write a CV/Revise CV or Resume
8. Write your personal statements.
9. Contact someone from the department regarding your interest in the program.
10. Make sure all of these materials arrive at the school on time.

It is a lot of work to get all of these things together. I spend 2-3
hours everyday working on something related to this application. I am
ready to have it finished, but I do not want to do it too fast because
I really do want to get in a program. In total I am going to apply to
6 schools.

I suppose I wont find out anything for sure until May. It is a long
process and a long wait.

A Big, Big World....

2009-11-03T19:28:00.001+08:00

Today, Meng told Hudson if he did well on his midterm exams that he
would take him somewhere he wanted to go.....

Hudson's first question was: "Can I go to another country?"
We told him that was not an option.... Then he starts to say he does
not want to go to the high plateau (Tibet) because he will get sick
and die in this sleep (due to the altitude--altitude sickness is a
common problem).....Then he says, how about Yangshuo.
We informed him he needed to choose a place near or in Shanghai....He
first mentioned a park, but we said it might not be a good idea if it
is too cold, then he said just to forget about it.

Then I asked him if he could go to another country, which one would he
want to go to? he said he always wanted to go to Brazil because he
thinks they have a cool flag.

Today in my class, we talked about travelling, and only a select few
students have ever left China and a good many of them have only been
to one or two travel places in China. I felt so surprised. And then
again, maybe not. Considering in high school there were many people
who had not been to other countries.

Then I think about Hudson, at 8 years old, his world is already so
big. I would think that most kids would request to go to the amuesment
park, regular park, book store, or toy store, or maybe out for ice
cream. At 8, Hudson has already been to Canada, China, United States,
Japan, Spain, and Thailand as well as Hong Kong and Macau. I was 20
years old before I went to Japan and South Korea, and before that I
had only been to Canada, but given the close proximity to where I am
from it hardly counts...even Meng did not consider it a country.... (I
just asked him what countries he had been to, and he named all of the
ones he'd been to except Canada). Sorry Canadians. It was funny today
because when I told my students I had been to Canada, they were really
excited like it was really a different country. Anyway, my point is
that Hudson's concept of what the world is much bigger than what mine
was at that age. It is a bit hard to wrap my head around that fact.

Visit from "old" friends

2009-11-01T22:38:00.001+08:00

So this weekend, Julia and Marco came for a visit from Macau! It was
just really nice to see them. When I see them, I feel reminded just
how nice it is to have people who are truly special to me around. It
is nice that there are some friends who no matter how much distance
seperates you or how much time passes between each visit that it is
just possible to pick up where you leave off.

One thing about living overseas is that you find out who those people
are really fast. However, I recently realize that you cannot just
count on those lasting friendships to be your only relationships with
others. I realize now that some of those short friendships are also
just as important. Some people are friends for just a short time and
then they seem to disappear. I now begin to feel that it is also ok to
let some friendships go. People are in your life for a brief time and
they bring a great deal of happiness in the moment. But if time passes
and you see them again, the relationship is over. Not every
relationship needs to be of the lasting kind and you cannot always
predict who that person will be.

Now I feel thankful for the friends who come to my for a short time.
This year I am intending on working harder on making more friends and
having relationships with people even if I know that they will not
last. For a while, I thought that I did not want to make efforts to
meet new people, but now I feel it is time to make efforts on short
term friends as well. People need both kinds.

Halloween Party

2009-10-31T22:47:00.001+08:00

So Friday was our 5th Annual Halloween Party, and it was our biggest
party yet. There were at least 7 kids that showed up, some of them
were classmates of Hudson's, some on them were neighbours, and there
was one kid he plays soccer with and one kid Hudson has known since he
was 3 and they were in the same class for 4 years. But the party was
only a little bit for the kids.

There were also at least 30 adults that were around as well. I think
everyone enjoyed themselves. I was busy preparing food and so thankful
that both Stephanie and Olivia came early to help out with it. We made
brownies, carrot cake, rice krispie treats, sugar cookies (in
advance), spring rolls, fried geaw, chicken strips, french fries, and
fried rice. I think ayi finally left around 10:00, and the last guest
did not leave until 1:00. It was really nice to enjoy time with people
I do not see often.

Unfortunately, I am so busy these days that I spent the first half of
the party in the kitchen cooking and preparing food and directing
kitchen helpers that I did not feel I got to sit down and relax until
what seemed half the guests had left. Next time, I am going to be sure
to do the shopping and some of the prep work ahead of time.

The most exciting part of the party for the kids was the trick or
treating. I bought a bunch of candies and divided the candy among the
adults. Then we all went outside and the kids did the trick or
treating. I think they ended up with nearly the same amount of candy
as what they would get in the USA. Their parents are sure to hate me.
I was actually expecting a few more kids than who showed up, and since
the candy was already bought, I thought it better to spread it around.

There was one kid at the party that I seriously wanted to send back
where he came from. He kept coming to me (and Meng, too) to say that
he was hot, he was bored, he did not have anything to do, he did not
want to play wii, that he was bored, that this party was boring. He
came to me no less than 5 times with some complaint. I decided that I
do not like that kid at all.

There was another kid at the party who brought a gun. Hudson claims he
saw something come out of the gun and was convinced it was real. I
took a quick look at the gun and could see the "made in China"
indentation on the plastic which convinced me it was fake goods, but
Hudson was adamant about it and he got quite angry. Wonder where he
learned all his gun safety tips?

Around 9:30, Hudson was nearly partied out, and we sent him to
Yingna's room for a little quiet time. He decided to come back out
after about 20 min. I think he was just worn out as he usually goes to
bed much earlier and he was super excited about the party, so he
probably did not sleep well the night before.

All in all, I think the party was a success.

SUFE students

2009-10-28T22:32:00.001+08:00

Now I am also teaching a class at SUFE. I enjoy it because the class
is small, and the students are motivated because they want to go
overseas. They actually all almost always attend my class and they
participate as well. I feel lucky to teach them.

In class, I have taken to letting them take turns leading going over
the answers to the questions and giving them the option to call on me
when they want to confirm something or clear up something and I, of
course, interrupt when they have the right answer and should move on
or if they are going to far away from the correct answer.

I think this is a great way to do the class for two reasons. One
reason is it gives them more practice speaking oral English and allows
for active participation. I think the reading and writing classes are
often boring for students because they are just listening to the
teacher. They are good about preparing the homework at home, so we can
use class time productively to go over the answers. Second, I feel
this kind of talking helps prepare them for school overseas. There
will be alot of group work and group discussions, now I am teaching
them that it is important to listen to their classmates and how to
lead a group discussion. They seem to like it as well.

However, my only complaint is that the students are too good. They are
constantly doing their writing homework and I am having so much to
grade. They are even willing to write multiple drafts of assignments.
My students last year did not want anything to do with it. They are
also reading some short (Penguin Readers) I asked them to look at.

To reward the students hard work, they will come to my house tommorow
during class time to make sugar cookies for Halloween. I think it will
be fun to have them here. We might do a little class work as well
because I am asking them to bring their books, but then again, we
might play Wii.

We still have a little over one month to go for the class, and I think
they will still make even more progress. There is nothing more
exciting for me than seeing my students getting better in the class. I
really enjoy that.

An unexpected text message...

2009-10-27T21:34:00.001+08:00

So yesterday, I got an text message from someone in the international
students office. I have no idea who that person is nor did I have any
idea why she asked me to call her. But there was the message, and I
just called this morning.

Over the phone, she said people in the geography department were
looking for foreigners to accompany them on a trip to Yunnan. It would
include the hotels, airfare, and a 600 RMB per day stipend. It was in
regards to planning and she asked if I was interested....

I said yes, and she asked me to give her my e-mail so she could send
me more information. She wanted to know if I had any questions. I said
I would let her know after I read the e-mail. The e-mail basically
repeated what she told me and asked me to send my resume. I sent it.

This evening, I had a reply that I was warmly welcomed to attend this trip.

Yeah!

They are going to contact me when then figure out when the trip will
take place as it is pending the approval of the local government.

The American part of me had questions like: Who are you? How did you
get my phone number? Why are you asking me? What kind of things will I
be doing? Will I be able to get time off work? Should I check with my
work first?

The me who lives in China figured there was not really any point in
asking too many questions because I probably would not get useful
answers anyway. I just go along.

And I am excited about going to Yunnan and possibly Myanmar as well!

Extensive Reading

2009-10-26T23:06:00.001+08:00

Last week I picked up a book at the bookstore called "Educating the
Global Child". It is in Chinese, and I have decided that my Chinese
reading is my biggest weakness, so the best way to tackle that
weakness is to dive in. I chose the book because it relates to the
field I am interested in, so I think it will help me learn some useful
vocabulary that relates to my major field. Second, I always tell my
students they should read more, but I often have difficulty following
my own advice. As I am not taking Chinese classes anymore, I need to
be more proactive in my efforts for improvement. I have decided to try
to take my own medicine and see if it is useful or not.

One thing I feel is important is developing and using good reading
habits. I tell students that they should not worry about grammar and
vocabulary so much when they are reading, and that learning new
grammar and vocabulary is not going to help them improve their
reading. As I have now read 70 pages, there are a few things I notice
with this kind of reading.

First, it reinforces the vocabulary I already know. I am getting
faster and faster at putting some of the chunks together.

Second, it is really helpful to see the grammar patterns we learned in
class, but that I did not really understand at the time. Now I begin
to recognize some grammar patterns, but I am not completely sure what
they mean. However, if I were to study them now, I think I would be
able to begin using them myself. To me, this shows how important it is
to be exposed to a grammar pattern before it is actually taught. I
believe that reading extensively is so important for helping that.

Third, I am beginning to recognize the words that I do not know. I
think some words I have seen in the text more than 6 times, but I do
not know the meaning. I also have trouble to guess the meaning. I
think my vocabulary is not that good, but I am happy that sometimes I
will come across an entire page where I understand and can follow
everything. Although, I also read some pages where I only understand
very little. I think it is better to keep reading and not stop for any
reason. My purpose in reading now is not for comprehension but for
getting a better feel of the organization of the language. There are
2-3 grammar patters I commonly see examples of, and I remember
studying them in my class. I am going to keep paying attention to them
to see if I can figure out how the grammar is working.

Fourth, I am trying to build my reading speed. I want to try to read
faster, and I think it is useful to be able to do that. I am not sure
how fast I should be able to read in Chinese or how Chinese go about
counting how many words per min a person can read. I feel improving
this area is important for saving time and improving my comprehension.

Fifth, I wonder if non-fiction is easier to understand than fiction.
Trying to read and actually following through with it is doing wonders
in my own self-confidence for Chinese.

I am beginning to feel the advantages of doing more reading in my own
language study, and I am thinking how I will be able to encourage my
students to do that too. I look forward to returning to America to
teach because the environment for learning the language is so much
better.

The Bag Incident

2009-10-24T22:02:00.001+08:00

A few weeks ago, Hudson came home with a wet bag. A kid had thrown up
on his bag on he bus, and somehow his bag was wet. All of the things
that remained in his bag were also wet. The bus teacher said that she
helped Hudson clean his bag, yet Hudson said she did not help and he
washed his bag himself.....

Today was the school picnic.... and some new parts of the story were revealed.

And now for a very different version of events. Apparently, the
vomiting part on the bag was correct.... However, when Hudson came
into the classroom, the kids made fun of him for having throw up on
his bag. Hudson got ANGRY, grabbed his bag and stormed off. He went to
the bathroom, filled the sink, and put his bag in there and washed it
as well as he could. Before putting the bag in the sink, however, he
did not bother to remove the things that were in the bag. They got
wet. Then he took his bag back to the classroom leaving drips of water
all the way and it continued to drip as he brought it back to his
desk. The teacher helped him to get his things out of his bag and dry
them, though he was mostly just concerned with his lunch. It was not
too wet. At some point, the school principal came by and told him that
he did not do such a good job taking care of this problem. Go figure.

Is Meng a Perfectionist?

2009-10-24T10:55:00.001+08:00

So a few weeks ago, I got Meng the book called "Perfect" is was
written by the same guy who wrote "Happier". For the last few days,
Meng's nose has been in that book. Today, he says there is a part
about what they said about Chinese kids that is really good.... and he
proceeds to read that passage to me. Then, pausing thoughfully, he
says with a sort of enlightened voice..."Everything I have read in
this book so far seems to be about me, I think I am a perfectionist."
He seemed to have such pride in this discovery of himself.

I, of course, busted out laughing. I couldn't stop laughing. There
were tears in both eyes I was laughing so hard. When I could finally
stop laughing again, I told him I knew he was a perfectionist when we
were dating. I reminded him how he would stay in the computer lab
until 3am working on an assignment. I reminded him how he always
wanted to do all the work by himself and he would never get help from
others. I laughed some more.

So I am wondering, who else thinks Meng is a perfectionist?

This is a test....

2009-10-23T23:34:00.001+08:00

So I am supposed to be able to e-mail my posts and they will publish
immediately.... Take that firewall!!!

From beyond the firewall....

2009-10-23T23:12:00.002+08:00

So obviously the reason I have not been blogging is because my blog is still blocked. We all hoped that after National Day there would be an end to all this censorship business. I did just realize that as I can check facebook (I have some ways) that I could also probably post a blog and here I am.... so exciting.

These days I busy busy busy busy working. I am teaching for 10 hours at ECNU. All of them are oral English, which I actually am finding I enjoy teaching. In addition to that, I am teaching 6 hours at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and 2 hours at Shanghai International Studies University. Plus, I am still working for the BC. To be honest, I have no idea how I used to do most of that and take Chinese classes at the same time. I really do not know where I found the time. If I am not busy with work, then I am constantly thinking about applying for the PHD program.

I suppose I am doing all right. I have narrowed down the schools. I have identified 2 referees, (Still thinking who to ask for a third), and working on my personal statement and CV. It is load loads loads of work. Especially the personal statement. I am trying to make it really good, but it just seems so hard. No wonder I hate giving students suggestions on how to improve these kinds of essays. They really are difficult.

Halloween is coming and Julia and Marco will be here. I am looking forward to that.

I just can't get enough

2009-07-14T11:46:00.002+08:00

of home decorating, house buying, house renting shows.... We do not get to see that kind of TV in China and I love it. I used to love to watch Trading Spaces, but now I really don't care what the show is so long as it is related to the home. I am so sick of renting and I would really like to have my own place again. I would like to be able to do some decorating or at least no longer feel like I am throwing away $1000 a month on rent (well, close to it anyway). I do not need or want a huge house (the idea of cleaning a little one sucks, so smaller is better).

Censorship and the PRC....

2009-07-12T12:18:00.002+08:00

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, my blog is blocked in China.... and recently a host more more websites are also being blocked. There were a few days in late June that my gmail was inaccessible due to the PRC blaming google for the excess of pornographic content on the web that could be googled. Now I hear that facebook and twitter are both blocked. For a long time, It was impossible to access wikipedia. I also hear that danwei is blocked.

When I first came to China, people often asked me about the censorship in China, and I for the most part felt that it was not a big deal. That in some ways it was nice to live somewhere where the majority of news that is reported is good news and that people were not worried about something for no big reason. In the US, I do feel sometimes the media latches on to something and never lets it go... it gets old.

Essentially, I learned to avoid the 4 T's and everything would be ok. Now, I feel uncertain about the control of information. Life in China without my blog, without facebook, and without e-mail sounds like a horrible way to exist. I need this things to keep in touch with people I care about. I look at this word again... NEED.... Do I really need these things? I suppose I could go back to the snail mail method, but who wants to do that and it isnt like I know people's real addresses, so I do not think that would be overly successful.

I really hope these blockages are temporary. It is not the answer to the problems.