China Exchange Blog

(FIRST POST of 2012 Exchange) Bleary-Eyed Goodbyes

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

(Mr Viz - blogmaster!)

It's hard to believe that the 10th D-S China Exchange Group has just departed on another epic, 8-week experience in China! As usual, I'm green with envy and jealousy. Envious because they get to unplug from their daily routines and immerse themselves into life in another country, for such a wonderful length of time. And jealous because they are as young as they are, at an age when their experiences will without doubt help mold their future. ...

So there we were, bleary-eyed at Logan at 4am! Call me weird, but I love that place even at that ungodly hour. Dunkin' Donuts, open. People bustling around in the middle of the night. So unlike Boston, so much more like NYC. Love it. Just imagine what Hong Kong will be like ...

Clutching my coffee in one hand and my Canon EOS-40D in the other, I surveyed this year's exchange group and performed my usual photo duties ... last minute obligatory "action" shots demanded by Ms Viz. Yes, they do look similar every year, but every group does have its own character. I can tell that this one will have a great time, especially once they get their traveling street-smarts under their belts.

This year's group consists of students Emily Brown, Melissa Whitehouse, Andrew Ahn and Allen Liu, and teacher Joseph Catalfano. As I post this, they are in the air on their way to San Francisco, where they have a few-hour layover before the long flight to Hong Kong (better a layover than the anxiety of split-second scheduling, especially given the usual possibility of snowstorms on this end!).

Can't wait for their first blog entries! I hope you'll join me in following their exploits for the next 8 weeks (click on Follow on the top line of the blog). And please share this blog and posts with all your social network friends!

(FINAL POST of 2011 Exchange) Last Stop Beijing

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:22:00 +0000

(Lizzy)

I can’t believe that five weeks have already gone by, but we have already said goodbye to Hangzhou. Our train arrived in Beijing early yesterday morning, and though it took more effort than usual to extract ourselves, and all our things, from the train car this time, we made it. After we eventually managed to then get all our things into our van, we were transported to our hotel.

After a breakfast surrounded by foreigners in the hotel, we left for the Temple of Heaven. We all enjoyed both the beautiful weather and the sights. The ancient area is both a tourist attraction and a spot for local people to come to exercise in the morning and socialize throughout the day. The lush parks were full of old Chinese men and women practicing Tai Chi, writing calligraphy on the cobblestones and playing mahjong. Dawn, who traveled alone to Beijing separately, also met up with us.

After leaving the temple, we braved the Beijing traffic and arrived at “cultural street,” a pedestrian street lined with small antique and other Chinese craft shops. After browsing for a while, we stopped for lunch at a vegetarian restaurant, which included quite a bit of fake meat. After enjoying a much-needed rest back at the hotel, we met back up again to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

The size of the square, which is the largest public square in the world, is quite striking, as is the enormous painting of Chairman Mao above the entrance to the Forbidden City. Security is also very tight; we had to go through metal detectors to enter and the square is covered in surveillance cameras. Though the square itself is not much to see; it is mostly just concrete, it was interesting to see the People’s Congress, which is also the picture on one hundred Yuan note.

The Forbidden City, on the other hand, was full of things to see. Built in the early 1400’s, the city was sealed off to the public during the Ming and Qing Empires. The area includes over 8,000 rooms, all with specific and different functions. For example, the Emperor has one room in which to change his clothes before a meeting, and another in which to take a rest before a meeting. Each separate building is also ornately decorated in with bright colors and patterns, both inside and out. Today little remains inside the buildings to see, and most of the beauty of the Forbidden City is in its physical structure and landscaping. We also got a great view of the entire Forbidden City and much of Beijing itself from the top of a hill we climbed behind the park. We were all struck by Beijing’s lack of tall buildings; I pictured the capital of China to be much more modern and built-up. Though millions of people live here, it doesn’t seem anywhere near as modern as Shanghai did, with all its new buildings.

After leaving the Forbidden City we drove to a Chinese food street, where vendors were peddling everything from kidneys and beetles to whole birds and starfish. We all tried something, and while Chris stuck to fried ice-cream, the rest of us sampled scorpions. Colin and I also tried shark, which was very bony, and Colin even bought himself a snake on a stick, which he said was quite chewy. After these unorthodox appetizers we had a delicious dinner of Beijing duck, after we saw the whole bird cut open and its juices poured out.

We are all savoring our last adventures here in Beijing, and though we look forward to coming home, there always seems to be more to do and see here in China, and I know we will all miss it.

Here comes the Sarcastic Five!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:28:00 +0000

(Dawn)

[Ms Viz: Yes, the Sarcastic Four have picked up a FIFTH - Dawn, from last year's Hangzhou Group! Welcome Dawn!]

I don’t know if it’s still necessary to do a self-introduction. I’m sure some of you have known me as an exchange student to DS last year; some of you have known me from the earlier blog posts. Whichever way you know me, it’s very nice to meet you! I’m here, the fifth member of the Sarcastic group… I can’t be happier to join this blog…

The timing of my first blog is kind of awkward, I know. Two days later, they will leave Hangzhou and the routine we had in the past 5 weeks will come to an end. I’m sure I will miss it all so much, but as there are still a few days to come, I’m not gonna do a summary or something like that to conclude my feelings and gains through these weeks…I mean not in this blog..

Time sure flies. In Shanghai, we suddenly realized that there was only one week left. Ryan said time goes faster when you want it to slow down. True. So stop counting days. Start to enjoy every day more than before.

Like this last week in school.

Monday; Handworking in the morning, Chinese in the afternoon.

Whistle was a fun theme; we used school’s bamboo and wood to made whistles. Luckily, our whistles all turned out well and could make sounds.. Somehow Colin managed to make a high-pitch noise, which is both impressive and annoying~ And I must talk about the handworking class teacher, he is such a nice guy, it’s a pity that I didn’t have chance to have his classes in the past years, but I feel lucky that I got the chance to know him through this program and become friends with him. “If you were happy, I would be happy.” It’s what he says all the time. We all enjoyed his class very much.

So in all the handworking classes, they’ve made kites, card holders and wallets, wooden products and whistles… Awesome!

We watched the movie in the afternoon’s Chinese class.. I don’t think it’s really a good movie though it covered a big of Confucius’s life..

Tuesday; Chinese painting.. And a great adventure in silk road..

We had Chinese painting in the morning as usual.. For it’s the last class, the teacher helped each of the three to pick the best one among all the paintings they’ve done, and frame the picked one as a gift.. Actually all the three did much better in Chinese painting than I could. Seriously. The best painting I made in these classes was the abstract color dots one. haha. I’m a Chinese who’s so bad at Chinese painting… Colin is creative and painted the most. The teacher really appreciated his works. However, they got a disagreement while picking the best one to frame. The one teacher liked the most was the worst according to Colin. The one Colin liked the most was good in the teacher’s eyes but not the best.. But indeed, Colin is the one who’s gonna bring the painting back, and he insisted his choice… Remember to hang the cherry tree in your room!! Lizzy is the expert on flowers, orchid, more specifically.. The picking process was not as hard as Colin’s.. Ryan, you graduated from Chinese painting, yay!! Ryan really liked his latest paint which was a combination of two pictures… But seems the teacher didn’t really like the creation, she chose others.. The final decision was the tree, which, according to the teacher, has Chinese painting’s feeling..haha.. That tree was great, really. We saw the framed ones yesterday at the goodbye party, all the teachers were awed by how good their paintings are..

And that afternoon, there was so much fun in the Silk Road. All the searching, bargaining, trying and laughing are so unforgettable to me. We went in nearly every store on the Silk Road, that day might be the day that Lizzy, Colin and Ryan bought the most scarves. Haha. It was so cool that each of us was wearing a new scarf when walked out of the Road. I’ve taken pictures of the Scarf 4, hope I could show you somewhere.. It’s such a pity that Chris didn’t come that day for he was tired and resting at home. I’m glad that they’ve all found some great gifts at the Silk Road. Especially Lizzy and Ryan, have found the scarves for their moms after all the searchings, I really hope the moms would love themJ

And the funniest thing was, the language mess. I couldn’t believe I asked a shop assistant “How much is this”, in English, English!!!

Wednesday, Yiwu.

We should have Chinese Kungfu class, but we went to Yiwu, the world's largest commodities city, the source of the small commodities all over the world instead. An-hour train ride has brought us there, for me, it’s an adventure too, I haven’t been there before. There are a few huge markets in the city, and each one has difference concentration, we didn’t have enough time, we just went one and browsed different areas like bags, jewelries and hardware. The things there are relatively cheap for it’s the source, but some of the stores there don’t have stock, they only do wholesale not retail, which has caused some inconveniences.. It was disappointing when you found something you liked at a very good price but you just couldn’t buy it. However, it’s quite an experience there.

Thursday, Chinese, Chinese Culture, Goodbye Party, Dinner

We had the last Chinese and Chinese Culture class in the morning. I helped Chris and Ryan preparing their speeches at the dinner in the Chinese class. I’m sorry Chris, for being a strict teacher>_< I know tones are hard for you, just like the “rr” in Spanish for me, but at least you could get the tones right, I totally can’t do that “r” thing.. And Ryan, it’s fun as usual, doing Chinese with you! (Doing Chinese, kinda weird, haha, whatever, do=speak+write+correct+etc. )

The English Corner was a lot of fun as always. English Corner really gives me a chance to hang out with my own friends cause I don’t have to go to classes anymore since I’ve chosen to go to college in

America

and pass the Gaokao.

In the afternoon, each of the three has received a wonderful gift which was the Chinese silk suit. Colin and Ryan’s waistcoats fit very well; seriously they looked better than I thought in the suits. Lizzy’s dress wasn’t that good, but fortunately, the tailor did some improvement later and it fit well. Just be prepared to see the beautiful China-ish Lizzy in that green Chi-Pao. (Looking at her wearing that made me really want to make a Chi-Pao too, haha).

Same room, same people, from welcome to goodbye. I smelled sadness of farewell, listening the four and all the host siblings talking about their experience, I wanted to say something too but didn’t get the chance; I guess I shall say here. “I was blessed to be a part of this exchange program and have the chance to spend these fantastic five weeks (which has not come to an end yet) with you guys. You kept saying Thank You to me, but I told you so, I’m not a fan of hearing Thank You, you’ve already did the best thing to thank me which is accepting me and treating me as one of you. I did what I’ve done simply because I like you guys and enjoy all the time we are together. ”

And the sense of sadness upgraded when all the students were taking pictures, when I saw Colin hugging Apple after receiving his stamp (reminding me of hugging Julia after setting each other as sibling on Facebook), when I saw Ryan hugging his first host parents after dinner… But it’s not the time to say goodbye for me yet, I got a bonus 4 days! Haha..

Friday, Kungfu Class, Night Market.

Since the gymnastic (dancing, aerobics, whatever) teacher was out for competition today, we decided to catch p on the Chinese Kungfu we missed on Wednesday. But first, we played badminton for the last time… They really have improved a lot in badminton through out all these gym classes.. Singles, doubles, mixed doubles, Canadian doubles (still no idea for this name), all were cool.. I hope we could still have chance to play badminton some time in the future together.. We finished the set of Kungfu today, and took some pictures.. I know I’m bad at remembering all the positions…Me and Lizzy just couldn’t stop laughing at ourselves when we were doing the whole thing… But it was great to learn all these fist positions..

The last English corner was not as crowded as I expected, maybe many of the students didn’t know today was the last day.. But still many students came to exchange gifts and take pictures..

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

OK, I know I surpassed Colin, and I’m the No.1 rambler now…I might change my style next time.. It’s not a good idea to try to cover everything.. Thank you for your patience if you are reading this.. And hopefully my English made sense~

Life with Potato Tiger

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 13:37:00 +0000

(Ryan)

It has only been a over a week since I switched host families and so much has happened so far. My new family lives 25 minutes away from school by bike ride. Their apartment complex is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Through the gigantic entrance way is a beautiful park full of large trees, flowers, jungle gyms, workout equipment, and a pool. The apartment itself is really modern looking. There are crisp edges and bold, popping colors everywhere.

I am sleeping in my host brother's room while he sleeps in the guest room (why it's not the other way around I don't know). I feel right at home with anime memorabilia all over the shelves (^_^). In the bathroom down the hallway is a toilet with more buttons then a spaceship. Right down the street from the apartment complex is the MIXC Mall, the same mall where we went ice skating. It turns out that my host brother, Jim, is the infamous Potato Tiger from one of Chris's classes (small world). He also has a friend who's name is Tomato Tiger and another who's name is Biscuit Prince. Both of my host parents are doctors. My host father is a Chinese medicine doctor. During the week he teaches at a university. During the weekends he works at the Chinese medicine hospital in the market near west lake that we went to a few weeks ago.

Over one of the weekends, my host brother, mother, and I visited my host father at the Chinese medicine hospital. His friend toured us around the hospital and I got to see what Chinese medicine was like (from acupuncture to prescriptions of bones and “magic fungus”). Later in the day, we toured a museum associated with the hospital. There I learned about the origin of Chinese medicine, how it was prepared, and who were the major contributers to the field.

Last summer I did a program at UPenn through the Summer Academy in Applied Science and Technology. While waiting for others to arrive at the airport, I began a conversation with the SAAST student in charge of us. I found out that she would be living in China for 9 months teaching English. When I asked her where, she said “You probably haven't heard of it before. It's called Hangzhou.” Early last week I sent her a message asking if she was still in Hangzhou. To my surprise, she still was. On Thursday, we got together at the MIXC mall for Indian food. This was my first time trying Indian food, and I am glad that I did. Curry is now one of my new favorite foods. It was great connecting with a friend and catching up so far away from home. It was interesting to hear that the first time she experienced snow was this winter in Hangzhou.

Shanghai was a very interesting city to experience. The ride over via high speed rail was really fun. The ride was so smooth, I could hardly tell that I was going 350 kilometers per hour. Shanghai is a very modern, and very western city. The area where our hotel was located was called the Bund. The buildings on the Bund are all old European-style architecture. Across the water from the Bund is the new city. In the new city, modern skyscrapers tower above and gardens and trees flourish below. Not to mention the large commercial areas complete with 10 story shopping malls. It was interesting traversing Shanghai's subway system. You select where you want to go, get a card to tap in, get to your destination, and then insert your card into the gate to exit. The subways themselves are gigantic. Even though they are several cars in length each, they are packed with standing room only.

The destinations we had in Shanghai were all interesting and fun to explore. The Shanghai museum was a cultural experience full of interesting factoids. We found one intricately designed bronze artifact that was from the 15^th century BC, and there were still ones older than that. There were also beautiful pottery pieces, ancient furniture, paintings, calligraphy, coins, stamps, statues, and more. While examining some Buddhist artifacts in one of the exhibits, we struck up a conversation with a group of friendly Americans. They were on a cruise around the world and were stopping for a few days in Shanghai. They were telling us about how they left Japan only 24 hours before the earthquake hit. At night we went to a cafe on the Bund on top of a lighthouse. All the old buildings were lit up and the new city across the water was a dazzling neon display. The boats glistened with neon lines as they drifted down the waterway. One of my favorite places in Shanghai was an area with old Chinese architecture, but modern shops on the inside. I liked seeing the merging of old and new culture. One of the afternoons, we went to a lounge called Cloud Nine. The lounge was literally in the clouds. We were on the 87^th floor of the Hyatt and we could see nothing but fog out the window. It was still cool to be so high up in such a fancy place. One of the last nights, we went to the House of Jazz and Blues and listened to a live jazz show. It was a fantastic atmosphere with great music and a fun crowd (even a few swing dancers).

Food in Shanghai varied wildly while staying away from traditional Chinese food. Our first meal in Shanghai was at “Tasty Steak.” At first it seemed like a fast food restaurant. But the ridiculously high backed chairs and multiple forks proved otherwise. In the mornings we grabbed food from the local coffee shops (one morning I craved western food and got a sandwich at Subway). We also enjoyed eating lunch at an Italian Restaurant (where they broke Colin's pizza and had to make a new one). One of the nights, I decided to see what made Pizza Hut different in China than in America. For starters, there was no pepperoni pizza. Instead there was shrimp pizza with crab, green pepper, and pineapple. Also the interior of the Pizza hut was on the level of California Pizza Kitchen. Our last meal in Shanghai was at a French restaurant. It was refreshing to get some tasty western food in Shanghai.

Today we ventured to a nearby town that has one of the largest markets in the world. If one were to visit each shop for a minute each, they would be there for around two years! Needless to say, the place was huge. There were 5 districts, each with their own sub sections spread out across the four floors of each building. The districts, although connected, have their own bus system because they are so far apart from end to end. They sold luggage, jewelry, furniture, sporting goods, toys, decorations, electronics, and much MUCH more. Unfortunately, most of the items could only be bought in bulk. There was a really interesting globe that floated in a magnetic field that I wanted to get. When I asked how much, the saleswoman said I needed to buy 16 of them at once, each for 100 yuan. But we were still able to get a lot of what we wanted where they were selling in non-bulk.

I can't believe that there is only a week left here in China. I am certainly going to miss the adventures!

Adiós Hangzhou.

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 05:26:00 +0000

(Chris)

It is Thursday, the 24^th and this will probably be my last blog post from Hangzhou. I’m sitting at my desk getting ready for tonight’s banquet. We’re hosting a dinner tonight to thank everybody who has made our experience here one of the best of our lives. The guest list got a little long – we invited almost 50 people! However, not everybody can make it, so we’ll have about 40. I’ve been asked to give a speech – in Chinese. I’m not going to lie…I’m very nervous.

I wrote a little something and asked Dawn to sit down with me and translate it into Chinese. I’ve been practicing, but my Chinese is not very good. For those that aren’t too familiar with Chinese, there are many different tones. I have a very hard time hearing the difference between two of them. When I repeat after Dawn, it sounds the same to me, but she keeps on pointing out my errors. It’s frustrating – I’m a language teacher, so this should come more easily to me, but it’s quite challenging.

As I was writing my little speech last night in my apartment, I shed a few tears. I think it’s a combination of feeling incredibly grateful for this opportunity and being very excited to see my family, friends and students when I get home. I miss everybody terribly. I have a feeling the first 2 weeks after I get back will be a lot of fun.

It’s also going to be weird to not see Lizzy, Colin and Ryan everyday. They’ve become good friends. Having lunch with them is the highlight of my day. They crack me up! I have one more week, however, to enjoy their company. We’ll be heading to Beijing on Sunday night before we fly back to the U.S.

It’s going to be strange saying good-bye tomorrow. It’s all become so routine - the apartment, my bicycle, the strange mannequin-lined street to school, mystery food, the wonderful teachers in my office, my cubicle, the crazy traffic, the incessant honking of car horns, being introduced by some teachers as Christ instead of Chris – everything! I was starting to feel like I was becoming part of it all here and now I’m leaving. I hope the exchange between DS and Hangzhou continues so that others can experience all this. I know it’s probably cliché to say this, but this has really changed my life and my perspective of things. This experience was the spark I needed at this point in my life. I’m not usually one to stray too far away from my comfort zone, but I was ready for an adventure and something to wake me up a little bit. This did it!

The people I met here have been some of the nicest I’ve ever met in my life. They welcomed us with open arms and made sure that every aspect of our visit was enjoyable. I can’t thank them enough. To all the DS teachers reading this – I highly recommend you consider embarking on this journey in the future. It’s been fantastic.

Hasta luego, Hangzhou. You’ll be missed.

Broken Pizza and Eye Patches

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 07:40:00 +0000

(Colin)

Here goes another blog post; lets see how entertaining I can make it.

On Saturday morning, the Sarcastic Five (with temporary member Dawn) arose to a misty morning in Shanghai. We met in the lobby at 8:30 am, ready for a day of exploration. Having woken up at about 7:30, the meeting time of 8:30 in the lobby seemed to be a bit late for me, but nonetheless, we met.

As breakfast was not included with the hotel fee, we decided to find a place in the city to eat. After walking for five minutes, across a river, and down the Bund, a historic avenue of European design, we stumbled upon a coffee shop. I ordered a large Americano and a traditional Chinese chicken Caesar wrap, Chris got a Croissant with some coffee, Lizzy a Cappucino with some type of pastry, and Dawn purchased some tea and what looked like bread. Ryan, however, not being a coffee drinker, decided to go to the subway next door, and came back with a sub and a coke. At 9:00 am. Over breakfast, Chris regaled us with stories of his childhood, and the conversation ran from wild animal experiences to desk fans.

After we left the Gloria Jeans, we walked down the Bund a ways and eventually turned west, heading to wards the Shanghai museum. Immediately after turning, we spotted an Italian restaurant, which we decided would be our lunch, and a club that I had read about online the night before, called the “House of Blues and Jazz”. We decided to check it out after dinner, and kept going towards the museum. On our way, we stopped at a bookstore, which had all kinds of various novels, publications, and other such things on paper. We continued westward, through some odd intersections, and we soon found ourselves facing a large building of questionable design, which featured free admission and invasive security.

The Shanghai museum housed thousands of historic pieces form all over chine dating back over 10,000 years. We moseyed through the museum for a good 2.5 hours, during which I heard many different languages. Not much is to be said about the museum, other than that it was the best museum I’ve ever been to. Being a huge history buff, I had a field day examining the various oddities and curios. Among my favorites were some old coins for thousands of years ago, and a particularly amusing statue of a dog.

After we left the museum, a light drizzle had set in. We were amused by the number of peddlers selling umbrellas, but decided that getting a bit moist isn’t that bad. We walked back the road we came from, though on the other side, and saw millions of shops selling trophies and calligraphy implements. After a short while, we came upon our destination: the Italian restaurant we saw earlier. With great excitement, we entered, and enjoyed the atmosphere and the bread basket. Lizzy ordered proscutto (sic) with melon, Ryan got some shrimp alfredo thing, and Dawn, Chris and I all ordered pizza. Ryan was confused as to what a Margherita pizza was, thinking that it was a pizza version of a Mexican cocktail. Shocked, I explained to him what it really was.

Soon, everyone’s food arrived. Except mine. The waitress explained to Dawn, who explained to me, that the chef had “broken” my pizza, and that they were making another. This seemed wrong in several ways. First and foremost, how does a chef, who is trained in making pizzas, fail at making the easiest type of pizza there is? Second, how does one “break” a pizza? And finally, would they take the charge of my pizza off the bill? The five of us discussed the possibilities to these three questions, with much hysterical laughter. In the end, I had to pay for my food, which was delicious.

Having eaten the best Italian food that I’ve had since I left the US, and also the second Italian food I’d eaten since I’d left the US, I felt very satisfied as we went to the subway station. We had planned to go across the river after lunch, and see the modern buildings. Sadly, when we got there, the drizzle had picked up, and you couldn’t see the tops of most of the buildings. We took shelter in a mall nearby, which was realy more of a small city than anything else. Seriously. This place was massive. So massive, in fact, that I could see it from the exit of the subway station, perhaps hundreds of feet away.

Though we bought nothing, we toured the 13-story behemoth, and soon went to go to the Hyatt, the second tallest building in Shanghai, where Chris had read of a lounge called Cloud Nine, on the 87^th floor. We hoped that we could stay for a couple hours and look down on the city as nighttime came. This plan, however, did not come to fruition. Though we stayed at cloud nine for a few hours, and have some great conversation, the cloud cover only got worse as time went on. We mused that we were actually 87 stories underground, as all we could see outside was a grey wall of cloud, thought it could have just been a painted concrete wall. We exited the Hyatt, and were struck at how dark it had become. We made our way back to the hotel, and were approached by countless peddlers of fake Rolexes, fake Gucci bags, and fake iPhones. Having already purchased ten watches on this journey, and wary of the US Customs officer’s reaction when I walk through the airport in two weeks, I decided not to buy more.

We rested at the hotel for a half hour, and we regrouped to get dinner. Lizzy, Dawn, and I went to a Japanese fast food place, while Chris and Ryan went to Pizza Hut. Us three discussed colleges, before we finally went over to see if Chris and Ryan were done. As we did, I was surprised at how nice the Pizza Hut was. Seriously, it was awesome. Still a Pizza Hut, but very nice. As we left Pizza Hut, a man asked Chris if he wanted to get massages, and we all simply laughed and walked away.

After some more walking in drizzle, we came to the light at the end of the misty tunnel: the House of Blues and Jazz. Decorated like a 19209’s speakeasy, the club had a large bar area and would eventually have live music. We all found some seats, and waited for the act to start. At around 10:30, Charlie Sayles and the Moonshine Society stepped onto the stage, and I immediately fell in love with the music.

Charlie Sayles, the male vocalist and harmonica-ist, had a B.B. King-like voice, and, interestingly enough, an eyepatch. The Female vocalist, Black Betty, had a large white flower in her hair. She was fantastic. The band was loud, upbeat, and awesome. Ryan, Lizzy, and Dawn went back to the hotel after about 40 minutes, due to a reasonable amount of exhaustion, but Chris and I stayed until 12:30, having a blast with the great music.

We left, and a woman outside tried to sell us massages. We said no thanks, and we kept walking, back to the Seagull, which we started to call the Pigeon, after what Lizzy accidentally called it once due to forgetting the small fowl from which the club got its name.

Shangahi was a magnificent place, and I was surpised to find, while back at the Pigeon, that I had taken over 800 pictures in those two days alone. By the time we got back to Hangzhou, it would be over 1,000 in one weekend.

Hangzhou to Shanghai in the blink of an eye.

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:40:00 +0000

(Chris)

We (The Sarcastic Four & Dawn) are now in Shanghai for the weekend! I’m sure Colin, Lizzy or Ryan has talked about Dawn in one of their blog posts. She’s a senior at Hangzhou High School and she has come with us to Shanghai. She is one of the best people you will ever meet! We are so excited that she is here with us.

We met at 7:30 this morning (Friday) at school and we hopped on a bus to go to the Hangzhou train station. We left Hangzhou at 9:00 a.m. and arrived in Shanghai at 9:45 a.m. The high-speed train they have between the cities is pretty impressive.

There was a screen at the front of the train car that updated us on the time, weather and speed. Our top speed was 350 km/hour (over 210 miles/hour)!! We first saw the high-speed train last weekend during our trip to Wu Zhen (a small town between Hangzhou and Shanghai that was overwhelmingly ‘touristy’) and I couldn’t help but wonder how much time and money it must have cost to build the tracks for this train. Most of the tracks are elevated. That’s over 100 miles of elevated tracks! Needless to say, it was one huge project!

The train station in Shanghai is humongous! After buying our return tickets for Sunday, we found our way to the subway and took a ride to the China Pavilion that is left over from the World Expo 2010. When we went to buy tickets to enter, there was a sign that said it was a 2 hour wait to buy tickets and then a 1 1/2 hour wait to enter the pavilion. Within 5 seconds, we all decided to venture elsewhere. We hopped back on the subway and headed to People’s Square. After spending all morning on trains, we were getting a little cranky. We needed to eat. We went into a mall that had about 10 restaurants. We were all being a little indecisive, but we finally decided to try the steak house that was listed on the directory. We were all pretty happy with our choice - it was a great meal.

After lunch, we ventured down Nanjing Rd. It’s one of the major tourist attractions in the city. The road is closed to traffic and there are shops and restaurants galore. We got some ice cream, took a lot of pictures and just meandered through the streets that branched off of this main street. Once again, Colin, Ryan and Lizzy impressed me with their bartering skills. They got most of the things they purchased for at least 60% less than the original price. At the end of this road is the Huangpu River. The area along the west side of the river is called “The Bund”. Here you can see the magnificent skyscrapers across the river. It’s very interesting how the architecture on the two sides of the river is very different. On the west side (The Bund), there’s a lot of European architecture - you would swear you were in London or Paris, but on the other side you have a modern 21st century skyline.

We walked north along The Bund and then arrived at our hotel - The Seagull on The Bund. It is right on the river and is in a great location. In one of the pictures I’ve posted, you can see our hotel with the skyscrapers in the background. We couldn’t ask for a better location.

We relaxed for about 30 minutes and then met up in the lobby to continue exploring. Dawn took us to this really beautiful area called Yuyuan Garden. It's a few blocks away from The Bund and has a lot of buildings with traditional Chinese architecture. There are ponds and canals that snake through this area - it was gorgeous! There were a lot of people in this area taking pictures and waiting in long lines to try some food at some well-known restaurants. Dawn wanted us to try some steamed buns at one place, but the line was very long. We found a little restaurant that specialized in dumplings, so we ventured upstairs and had a great dinner.

We walked around some more and then returned to the The Bund to take some pictures of the skyscrapers at night. They all had some impressive light displays and we got some great shots. We found a cafe that had a roof-top deck, so we went to the top and and just relaxed and admired the view. This city is absolutely gorgeous at night. Sitting between the old European influenced architecture and the dazzling, flashy, modern skyscrapers was pretty spectacular. Afterwards, we returned to Nanjing Road to see all the neon signs that lit up the streets.

We sure did jam a lot into one day! We got back to the hotel around 9:30 and we all just retired to our rooms. We’re meeting at 8:30 tomorrow in the lobby to go visit some museums and to go to the top of one of the skyscrapers to take in the views. We’re all very glad we decided to come here for the weekend. This is a fascinating city.

“What is ‘Pancake’?”

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 13:20:00 +0000

(Lizzy)

We've all moved into our new host families, and I personally have been quite surprised by the differences between my two families. While my first family consisted of a daughter and her parents, I now have a host sister, mother, father, grandmother and cousin. Both parents work all day and often at night as well (though the father works at home), so the grandmother acts as the primary caretaker. She stays home all day, and only leaves to walk the cousin to kindergarten in the morning and go food shopping in the afternoon. She does all of the cooking and cleaning and has lived with the family since my host sister, Yi, was born. I am told that a live-in grandparent is very common among Yi’s classmates, as they often move in to help take care of kids when they’re small and never move out.

The grandmother certainly has her hands full, although Yi is seventeen. During the week her rambunctious seven-year-old cousin lives in the apartment to be closer to his kindergarten. Though his parents live in Hangzhou it would take them over an hour to drive him to school every day, and he can walk from Yi’s apartment. Though he is seven he still has not begun elementary school, but rather has had three years of kindergarten. Even so, he has to take classes on Saturdays at the Children’s Palace, where the younger set of future academic competitors learn important skills, including Chinese brush painting and jump-rope, which the cousin then has to practice at home while being timed.

Living with this younger cousin has really opened my eyes to what it’s like being a boy in China. No matter how noisy or rude he is, the family simply laughs at everything he does. Though Yi admits that he is naughty, he is never punished or even told not to do something, like yelling at his grandmother. My first encounter with him was when I first stepped out of bed on Monday morning and he burst into my room. He looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see him, and stood there staring at me, in my pajamas, for a good three minutes. Though I greeted him, he said nothing, and I eventually just closed the door, having the feeling that he had no intention of ending the staring contest.

Aside from the extra family members, there are further differences between this family and my last. For starters, my first host mother spoke excellent English, while in my current family my sister is the only one with any knowledge of the language. Though this is sure to help my Chinese, it does make communication difficult when Yi isn’t around.

This was especially a challenge when I presented my host mother with my gift to the family; pancake mix and maple syrup. Not only could I not describe what a pancake was to the family, but I couldn’t make it clear that it was a breakfast food, so I agreed to make it for dinner. As you can imagine, this was no easy task, though I was using a mix. The family had neither a mixing bowl nor a measuring cup, but I eventually was able to eyeball the ingredients in the cereal bowl they gave me. I was using a small frying pan to cook the pancakes, but my host mother got the idea that I was frying them like a stir-fry, so she gave me vegetable oil for the pan and kept lifting the pan off the stove to shake it back and forth so the pancakes couldn’t cook. I could not make it clear to her that the pan was meant to be left on the stove, so many of the pancakes came out with liquid centers. On top of that there was no hope to explain what maple syrup was, and though I tried to stop Yi from pouring it over the entire plate of pancakes at once, she managed to do it behind my back. This of course presented a problem in eating the pancakes, because the family only has two forks and had to use their hands. Despite all of this, the pancakes were a hit, and I was happy that the grandmother didn’t have to cook so many dishes for one night.

We have also been experimenting with food outside the kitchen. There is a fruit market on my way to school, so the other day I stopped in and looked around. The fruit here is surprisingly different from what we are used to in the US, and there are also many things I have never seen before. One such item is a huge, brown nut covered in spikes. The shell is about the size of a toaster, but the fruit inside is only about the size of a soda can. The fruit resembles the meat of a large clam, and it gives off a very strong odor. I bought one and brought it to lunch at school for us to try. During this process I managed to stink up both my backpack and our classroom, which eventually aired out, thankfully. Though Chris and Ryan declined to try the smelly fruit at lunch, the rest of us sampled it and were quite disappointed. Despite what I was told by the previous host family, the fruit tasted very much like its off-putting smell. On top of that Chris brought in some horrific crackers. When there is no English on packaging we have no idea what things are going to taste like. The food always looks great in the pictures, but little do we know that the label says “blueberry potato chips.”

The first thing that struck me about my new host family, upon arriving at their apartment for the first time, was how they got though the door. My host sister pressed her thumb onto a lighted pad which identified her by her print and unlocked the door. I then was quite surprised by the size of the apartment, which is also in a great location; only a few blocks from the school. My host sister even went home for lunch every day last term. For some reason she was told that she has to stay at school now because I am here, though I never see her at lunch. I feel bad that she has to suffer the cafeteria food because of me. I love being able to walk to school; however, and I have been very lucky that both my host families are on the same road as the school and only about ten minutes away. The new apartment also has a park, and my host sister said that it even has a gym. While she went to class on Saturday night, I asked if she could tell me how to get to the gym. She said that her grandmother would take me. After eating dinner in silence with Grandma, she led me out into the park. She then continued towards the gate of the apartment complex, and down the street, away from the apartment and from where I thought the gym would be. We eventually stopped in front of a cluster of exercise machines in a public park, outside. These public exercise areas are very common in China, and they are frequented by elderly Chinese tai-chi fans. Though it was dark out, many old men and women were scattered about on the various equipment, and some were simply walking back and forth on the same 20-foot path. Though not exactly what I was expecting, it was nice being outside, despite being stared at closely by my fellow exercisers, including my host grandmother, who insisted on sitting directly behind me on a stone wall (which she covered in paper before sitting on).

My new host sister is a very hard worker and a top student. She is busy with homework every night, though she somehow finds time to watch cartoons with her cousin. She also takes classes on Saturday nights until 9:00 – and that’s after having classes at school in the morning. When we were talking about food and I asked her what fruits she liked, she even said that she doesn’t have time for such things as eating fruit. She also answers questions with “not really” when she means “no,” which can be quite confusing when I am asking a “yes” or “no” question. For example, when I asked her if her cousin’s parents live outside Hangzhou, she replied “not really.” This of course makes me want to clarify what she means, but that is often frustrating for both of us with the language barrier.

In school we are continuing with our cultural Chinese classes, and none of us can believe that we have only one week left here. There is also another American exchange group at the high school from Georgia. They are here for only a week, but it is nice being able to talk with other American teenagers for a little, and there are even more Americans at English Corner now than Chinese. We are all looking forward to our trip to Shanghai this weekend, which begins with a bullet-train ride Friday morning.

Snoopy, Guitars, and Lipstick

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 15:51:00 +0000

(Colin)

In my previous blog post, I started with an attempt to make it shorter than before. As doing so did nothing, I shall make no such attempts in this post. I shall simply let the words flow out of me, and whatever length this particular post chooses to be, it shall be. Here it goes.

Last week was our last week with our first host families. In celebration, ryan’s host family took us all out to eat at a restaurant known for a dish called “Beggar’s Chicken”, in which a chicken is encased in mud clay then tossed into an oven.

The clay keeps the chicken moist and makes the whole thing look like it just came out of a brick wall. Apparently, the dish came from a beggar who, being a beggar, had no house, meaning that he had no kitchen. He did, however, have a chicken, which was a problem, as he wanted to eat it but lacked cooking implements. With the ingeniousness of Bobby Flay, the beggar thought, “I need to cook this chicken. To the Mud Pit!” Covered in mud, the beggar found that he had a delicious meal. And thus Beggar’s Chicken was born.

The next day, a Friday, was our final day with our host families. Before we had any classes, Lizzy and I ventured across the perilous street to KFC and got some Kentucky Fried Coffee. We reminisced about the trip and our host families and a plethora of other events, and then went through a local market where we passed stores selling everything from cleavers to mannequins. After not buying anything, we went to class.

After a few uneventful hours, we met in the English office at 2:00 to meet with Helen, an English teacher, who was bringing us to go get some clothes made, as is done each year. We walked down Silk Street (not it’s real name, but it’s easier to say “Silk Street” than it is to read Chinese), and admired the many mannequins that seemed to be made no later than 1995. We were led to a large warehouse looking place, and went upstairs where we found a giant room full of different fabrics. We were told to choose one. Needless to say, this took a while.

As I walked through the giant room, many fabrics caught my eye. Some in a good way, some in a bad way. Some patterns were dragons, some were fish, and some were flames. I hit a crossroads in deciding whether I should find a respectable piece of cloth, or the craziest one imaginable. I chose a few, and found one that was dark blue with gold dragons and phoenixes on it. Hoping to get a vest made, I think I made the right choice. We went back to the school, where Helen told us she would call the tailor and schedule a day for her to come and take our measurements.

After school, I took bus 35 home for the last time with Ray. At his house, his family gave me some gifts, including some nice combs (a big gift item here), a tie, a fan, and some chrysanthemum tea. We had a delicious dinner, and then watched the news. At about 7:30, my new host father arrived to pick me up. We tossed my things in his car, and I said a final goodbye to the Yangs.

On the drive to my new host house, I talked to my new host father in English, which was a new experience. My previous host parents didn’t speak English, and here I was, having a coherent conversation with a stranger in my native language. As he drove, cigarette in one hand, gear shifter in the other, my host father told me that he is a businessman, in the business of selling saw blades and other woodworking tools. He lives in Hangzhou, but is in Shanghai during the week. We arrived at my new house, which is on the opposite side of Hangzhou as my previous one, and half an hour away.

I was quickly welcomed by my new host family to make myself at home, and I got a brief tour of the premises. That night, my new host brother Gary, his friend, who I named Sean, and I played video games for a few hours. I was very happy to find that Gary has one of my favorite games on his computer. We played Counterstrike for a few hours, and went to bed.

Saturday, my host father drove me to school, where the Sarcastic Four and Dawn were whisked away to go to an old village. Full of tourists, this village was quite a sight to behold. Bisected by a river, the village hosted several museums and cool sights. As I just said, though, it was FULL of tourists. There was a fair amount of traffic, and the reverberating voices of dozens of tour guides were overwhelming. I jokingly told Chris that we should tell people about this hidden gem of a village. We ate lunch under the smelly haze of a local dish, appropriately called “smelly tofu”, which smells like a combination of a barn and bad breath. We tried it, but were hesitant to eat more.

On the drive back, we experienced traffic, and the peculiarity of two Chinese fighter planes flying overhead. Also, we had chips. We arrived back at the school, where my host father was waiting for me. Not much can be said of the ride home, other than the fact that we backtracked a lot of the route taken to get to the school from the village. But whatever. We returned home, and Gary’s friend Sean came soon after. For the remainder of the day, we floated between an aging Play Station 2 and the computers, leaving a wake of destruction behind us.

Sunday, I woke up at the ripe old hour of 9:30. I ate breakfast, which consisted of some simple food, on the table, which was covered with a very interesting covering. The covering had a pattern that had flowers, Snoopy, electric guitars, and lipstick. I, for the life of me, could not recall any mention of these things together in our popular culture, but I assumed that they stand for America in some way. Let us never speak of it again.

In the afternoon, Gary, Sean and I went to KFC for lunch, where Gary got me some kind of wrap, and a small child was staring at us for the entire time we ate. After KFC, we caught a cab and went to the west lake. We walked around of a while, and I took a ton of pictures. There were at least 12 couples taking wedding pictures. It’s crazy. During our travels, a pack of three dogs scampered around aimlessly, one with a limp, and always were just too far ahead for me to get a good picture. As they reached a fork, they went right, we went left, but we watched them walk over the dress of a bride before we kept going.

We walked across the street, crossing a traffic jam, and continued to walk by the lake, passing by several weddings. This traffic jam would come to haunt us, as we later tried to get a cab to go home. Because there was little movement of automobiles, fresh cabs couldn’t get into the area. We waited for a great deal of time, I’m not sure how long because I didn’t have my watch, and I’m certain that I saw the same vendor on a bike, making his rounds, three times. Gary finally found us a cab, and we got home a good hour later.

Back home, I helped Gary’s parents make dumplings, which we soon ate. They were delicious. Over dinner, I talked to them about home, my family, my school, and the day’s events. After dinner, Gary and I played counterstrike. I’m going to like this family.

I kept a blog post to under two pages! WOOHOO!

“Are you a Professional Eater?”

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 08:30:00 +0000

(Lizzy)

None of us can believe that our time at Hangzhou is half over! It feels like we just arrived, but we are already switching host families in just a couple of days. I am excited to meet my next host family, but at the same time I know I will miss my current host sister, parents, and rabbit very much. I could not have asked for a more welcoming and generous family and I look forward to showing Apple around when she visits the US.

Because we are moving in a couple of days, my second host mother and daughter came over to my apartment on Tuesday to meet me. They went about this in a very strange way; however, which did not involve speaking to me at all. Instead, I stood there while my current and next host mother-daughter pairs talked about me and everything I do, from brushing my teeth to drinking coffee, in rapid Mandarin. Though a slightly unorthodox first meeting, my next family seems very nice and I am looking forward to experiencing a new Chinese household, this time with both a grandmother and a younger cousin.

We were kept very busy during our last weekend with our first host families. First, after school on Friday we enjoyed a Chinese karaoke experience, complete with our favorite game, Uno. Karaoke is very popular here among all age groups. If you were wondering whether we all got up on stage to serenade a crowd of Chinese strangers, karaoke works a little differently in this country. Rather than one room with a stage, each group pays for a private room fit with a couch, a table, and a TV screen with the song lyrics. You make a list of songs using a computer monitor in the room, and take turns passing around microphones. We had a mixture of both American and Chinese songs.

After karaoke we met up with Chris to enjoy our first Western meal in over a month at a nearby Italian restaurant. I was surprised at how little our Chinese host siblings knew about Italian food, though they all enjoyed it so much. I think each of our host siblings asked us both what to order and how to eat it. For once we were more adept at using the utensils, as there was not a chopstick to be seen.

The next morning, while class was in session at Hanggao, our group was transported first to a vegetable field that is landscaped in the shape of a huge Ying-Yang. We then visited a Song Dynasty museum, which specialized in exhibitions of the pottery from that era. We even got to try constructing our own vessels on potter’s wheels at the museum. Later, the teachers who went with us brought us to a street lined with small shops selling traditional Chinese wares. We toured the market and went into an ancient Chinese hospital. The hospital is still running, and people go there to fill prescriptions that may include anything from plants to dried animal carcasses, which the patients take home, steep in boiling water, and take as directed.

On Sunday morning I went on a hike with my host family in one of the mountains surrounding West Lake. Though it was drizzling, the hike was very nice. I found it interesting that the mountains in Hangzhou are all lined with staircases and stone pathways for hikers. My host mother told me that these paths carry on for so long that one could hike for an entire day, all within the mountains around the lake. Many old people like to come to the mountains early in the morning for a walk. I have noticed how much old Chinese people enjoy being in large groups together, often chatting and dancing. My host mother also mentioned that one must be careful of the occasional wild boar known to be seen around the hiking stairs.

After the hike we drove downtown to a huge new shopping mall, where we would later meet up with Ryan and a few girls from school to go staking at an indoor rink. First I had dim-sum for lunch with my host family. Apple ordered, and she said that she would order some chicken fingers. “Oh,” I said, “Those are very American.” My host family looked slightly puzzled at this, but didn’t say anything, and when the dish came out I understood why. By “chicken fingers,” Apple meant chicken feet – not so American after all.

The skating went very well, though none of us knew exactly who some of the girls we met up with were. The Chinese kids were all pretty surprised that Ryan and I could skate; even though we tried to explain that it actually gets cold enough where we are from to skate outdoors. The skating rink is new in Hangzhou, so most people living here have only skated a few times, and the general skill level called for heavily-padded skaters.

We have been very popular at school this week. On Monday we were invited to a party thrown by a Grade Two class. Everything was very well planned, and the class even had a PowerPoint set up to organize the procession of events. After welcoming us, the class monitor introduced the first activity: charades. We each had to choose a partner from the class, go up to the front of the auditorium, and either act out the word on the projector or guess what our partner was acting. The first slide to come up, when Colin was acting, read “Daily Goods” thinking this was what he had to act out, we all looked at each other with slight panic, worried about our turns to come. Thankfully the first slide was just the topic, and his first real clue was “wallet.” After charades we were invited up to the front of the room again to play a singing game. Song lyrics were put up on the projector with certain words missing. Different students sang the lyrics that were there, stopping when they came to the blanks. If one of us knew the correct lyrics we had to raise our hand and sing them. Singing in front of groups isn’t exactly my forte, so I chose to say the words instead. Chris did belt out a few lines, and Colin finished Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated,” but Ryan, usually the most eager to sing for a crowd, didn’t know any of the songs. The party concluded with performances of a Chinese folk song and a Britney Spears dance.

On Tuesday we were again invited to a class. This time we sat at the front of the room and the students asked us questions about ourselves. One boy stood up to ask “Mr. Chris” if he lifts weights, drinks lemon tea, and is a competitive eater. Another boy asked “Mr. Chris” what Chris thought of his beard, and whether he could come up and touch it. That was a no. We were also asked what qualities we think are most important in a person, and how we felt about Apple computers. We are all pretty used to these questions by now; however, and have all been asked other ridiculous things at English Corner. For example, one group of girls told me that they know my life is just like a character’s in Gossip Girl, and if I like to watch the show because of that. Despite some ridiculous questions, we did get the chance to dispel some misconceptions about American teenagers; however, because it is widely believed here, thanks to American movies, that we do no homework, enjoy unlimited free time with our friends and apparently have no rules or even parents.

On Wednesday we were invited to English club, where we were asked to introduce some American music. We chose to present Somewhere over the Rainbow and Don’t Stop Believin‘, songs many of the Chinese students were familiar with, but didn’t know the lyrics to.

Tuesday was also Women’s Day, which everyone says is an international holiday, but I have curiously never heard of before. On this day women often get the afternoon off from work, but most of the teachers celebrated the holiday early, over the weekend.

Tonight, our last night with our first host families, Ryan’s host family is taking us out to a restaurant for “beggar’s chicken,” a Hangzhou specialty to which we have been told to look forward to. In the next round of posts we will all be able to report on our new host families, which we are all excited for.

No, I don't eat competitively.

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 07:29:00 +0000

(Chris)

This week is turning out to be my most enjoyable so far here in Hangzhou. In addition to visiting English classes and giving my little presentation, I (along with Ryan, Colin and Lizzy) have been invited to other classes and clubs. The other day, we were all invited to an after-school party. We were the guests of honor for a club that has the kids playing a bunch of games to practice their English.

We played Charades, sang some American pop songs and competed in an activity similar to that game show we have in the U.S. where you have to finish a song to win prizes (I can’t remember the name of it, but I think Wayne Brady hosts it). The party was so well planned - the kids really put a lot of time in putting together a nice presentation for us.

Teachers and students have also been inviting us to random classes just to chat and be interviewed by the students. I’m really enjoying these ‘question and answer’ sessions. I’d like to share with you some of the questions I’ve been asked over the past week or so:

Do you eat competitively? (We figured out he saw a hot-dog eating contest on TV recently.)
Can I touch your beard?
Do you like your beard?
Do you know X-men? You look like Wolverine’s cousin.
Do you have a girlfriend?
What do you think of Steve Jobs?
Can you lift weights and do you like lemon tea? (All in one question)
Do you like the movie Saw?
Can you give me a name? (I named her Sunshine.)
How old are you? (I asked her how old she thought I was - she said 22. She’s my new best friend.)
Have you ever been attacked by a bear? (I told them how I saw a lot of animals growing up in PA.)
Did you ever wake up and have an animal on your bed?
What is the most important trait you look for in a person? (Is this a first date?)
Do you have a gun?

In addition to these comical questions, I’ve also been asked some very good questions about American culture, politics and schools. I’m absolutely amazed at how stellar their English is. As a language teacher, one of the biggest struggles is stressing the importance of mastering another language. When I was growing up, very few kids stuck with a language all the way through the program. Most dropped it their sophomore year of high school because they had fulfilled their foreign language requirement. However, the way I see it, things are changing for the better. Our community recognizes the importance of language learning - which is one of the reasons I enjoy teaching at DS. Thestudents here don’t have any options when it comes to learning a 2nd language - they all have to study English. They’re amazed when I tell them that our students get to choose from 4 languages. Part of my presentation is telling them why Spanish is such a popular language to study in the U.S. One thing I try to get the students here tounderstand is that the U.S. is so diverse. It’s one of the greatest things about our country and I want to make sure that the students know this before I leave.

They’re very knowledgeable about American culture. They watch a lot of American movies, listen to American artists (Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Eminem, Lady Gaga, Lady Antebellum, etc...) and they’re obsessed with the NBA. I’m learning that most are Lakers and Heat fans. Very few are Celtics fans. It's amazing how influential and popular our pop culture is around the world. I need to investigate and find out who some of the popular Chinese artists are and listen to some of their music.

This afternoon, we’re all being interviewed for the school’s radio station. Our session is going to be pre-recorded and will be played on a future broadcast. If I’m able to somehow save the recording and send it, I’ll be sure to do so.

After this week, we only have 2 more weeks here. It’s going quickly - too quickly. We’ve decided to go to Shanghai next weekend (18th to the 20th). I’m pretty excited about visiting this city - from what I hear, it’s just humongous. The following weekend we’ll be heading to Beijing and then back to Boston. It’s pretty crazy to think that we’ll be visiting 2 of the biggest cities in the world in the next 2 weeks.

For those that inquired, I’m feeling much better. I was pretty sick last weekend. I don’t know if I had food poisoning or what, but it took me a good 4 days to get my appetite back. Last night I was ravenous, so I went to Papa John’s and finally had a pepperoni pizza. Don’t judge me. I’ve been good...I’ve tried everything from smelly tofu (that's literally what it's called and it was pretty darn stinky) to Twinkie-like-pastries topped with pork shavings - I deserved it. ;)

Apparently I’m a Good Cook(?)

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:40:00 +0000

(Colin)

Though my last blog post was rather long, I feel that it is better to do many short ones than a weekly long one. On that note, I shall do my best to limit this particular post to a decent length. However, as I do have a tendency to rant, I can give no guarantees in the first paragraph.

Moving on. ...

Now then. These last few days have been fairly uneventful from a Chinese perspective, yet to an American I suppose that they would be quite odd. Last week, which I shall abridge to a few sentences, consisted of making kites, painting things, and learning about Beijing Opera. As Ryan has noted in the previous blog post, Friday evening and Saturday were full of fun events. Not much is left to be said about last week, but I can tell you now that is was a good one.

Sunday morning (of this week, not last week), my host Mother and Brother brought me to the Hangzhou Tea Museum, which was enlightening and fun. It detailed the roots of tea-drinking in China, and made me really want to drink more hot leaf water. Additionally, the museum was also visited by former US President Richard Nixon, which, with my visit, means that a President and a Future President have visited this humble museum. Neat.

Despite the poor weather, the first of its kind so far, the three of us then went, umbrellas in hand, to the former residence of a prominent business man in Hangzhou. The house featured countless courtyards, caves, and a private fleet of ducks. The architecture was stunning, and I regretted not bringing my camera. We exited through the gift shop, and Ray soon asked me if I wanted to go to McDonalds for lunch. By the time he got to “alds”, I had already said yes.

Though in recent years, Micky-D’s in America have had a facelift in appearance, the McDonalds we ate at had design matching that of many fine restaurants. The three-storied dining room featured high ceilings, chandeliers, and lacked the dusty haze seen in the rest of China. My Big Mac was perfect, though the fries were not as numerous as I had hoped. The rest of the day consisted of relaxing at home, and getting some work done, until dinner.

I went to dinner with my host family, where my host father and some old pals of his had a nice, private room reserved for the many people there. The food was great, with some crab that could only be described as succulent, and some kind of mollusk that tasted like the New England Aquarium. Ray and I went waking around after dinner, and found ourselves at the same market we had visited the week before. Though I bought no fake Rolexes this time, I still enjoyed eyeing the wares of the vendors. Exhausted and cold, we returned home and got some sleep.

I awoke Monday morning with a pain in my stomach. I felt a bit off, but disregarded it as hunger. I had a little bit for breakfast, and concluded that I was sick. Again. Though this was no sore throat. I will allow my readers to fill in the rest of the time between when I ate and when we left for school. Here’s a hint: It was not pleasant. But, not to be beaten by a stomachache, I went to school anyway. Our first class was “Handwork” in which we made little fleece wallets. Despite the others quarantining me to the opposite side of the room due to whatever sickness I had, and that my wallet didn’t work properly, it was relatively fun. Because I finished early, I got some rest on our empty classroom.

After lunch, which I skipped for miserable pain-related reasons, we had Chinese class, in which we watched a Chinese film about Beijing Opera. Though the film was long, difficult to follow, and it felt like I had a tennis ball rolling around in my stomach, we concluded that it was a good film. We then went to a party that had been thrown for us. We played Charades, Watched a few performances, and were challenged to a game that was copyright-infringingly close to “Don’t Forget The Lyrics”. We were terrible. But nonetheless, I shall continue. Following the party, Ray and I returned home, where I, still feeling ill, took a brief nap. I ate a brief dinner, which I kept down (hooray!), and went to bed. My host family gave me some pills that were, in addition to being quite tasty, meant to make my stomach feel better. I hoped for the best, and washed them down with water.

I awoke the next morning feeling wonderful. I got up and was immediately barraged by my host family asking if I was all right. I told them that I was fine, and I had breakfast. At school, Lizzy, Ryan, Dawn, and myself went to painting class. Last week, I painted a mystery bird (crane?) in some grass. This time around, I painted an abstract elephant in grass, and a blossoming plum tree…in grass. The teacher noted my overarching theme of things in grass, and I simply went with it.

We finished painting with a good half hour left before lunch. Knowing this, we went back to our room and conversed for a while about movies, our families, why we like dogs, and why we all hate cats. Lunch was, as always, diverse and yummy. After Lunch, we had English Corner, where Lizzy and I talked about American Schools with a group of girls, two of whom are going to boarding school in the US next year.

After English corner, the five of us had resolved to go to a supermarket. Dawn led us to a massive four-story behemoth selling everything from electric razors to fresh fruit. We found ourselves in the international aisle, and Chris and I made it our quest to find Pasta Sauce. I decided to make my host family dinner that night, so I bought spaghetti, olive oil, cheese, and sauce (from a jar. Sorry mom). We, unfortunately, couldn’t find any proper bread in the store, so we went to another supermarket, one that Chris goes to frequently. The supermarket, though not as big as the last one, had many odd foods, like chickens whose only preparation had been plucking, and tiny shrimp. Luckily, we found ourselves some French bread, and quickly got out of there.

Last period, Chris, Ryan, and Lizzy went to class 11 for a party-type function, and I went to my host brother’s class to talk about American Culture. I didn’t really know what to say about our culture, so I gave the class a brief overview of the 1900’s from an American perspective. Then, I was asked to write an English tongue twister on the board, next to a Chinese one. I then invited people up to the front of the room to give it a try. As Peter Piper Picked his Pickled Peppers, the class and I got a great kick out of people giving it a go. Ray and I went home soon after, and, it being almost 5:30, I set to work on dinner.

Making spaghetti in China is not as easy as it sounds. Cutting the French bread with a cleaver was rather difficult, and keeping the sauce at a decent elevation from the flame below was proving to be impossible. Nonetheless, dinner was a success. My host family greatly enjoyed dipping their bread in olive oil, and Ray flew through two plates of Spaghetti. I was told that I should be a chef, and that I am a good cook. I’m not, to be honest, but I’m always up for some ego boosting. I went to clean up, but my host family insisted that I didn’t, which I found to be a bit awkward. But, having satisfied three people with food, I felt that I had accomplished enough.

After dinner, Ray and I went on a walk by the West Lake, and I tried to mess with some stray cats with my new laser pointer. The cats didn’t go for it as planned, but at least I tried. I then used the pointer to try and point out some western constellations to ray, but the fog was so dense that very few stars were visible. However, as my love of space is rivaled only by my love of commas, which, as you may have noticed, I use all the time, I still managed to find and point out Orion and Taurus.

That concludes this blog post, which has proved to be quite long. My apologies. But, referring to my initial paragraph, I do tend to ramble.

Apple on Ice: the Return of the UNO

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 17:08:00 +0000

(Ryan)

I have to say that weekends in Hangzhou are the most eventful weekends I have ever experienced. I can't believe how much we can cram in into just a few days. It makes me sad that we only have a few more weekends left. There is so much to do here, and I'm afraid we wont be able to experience it all in our stay here.

Friday night was a fantastic way to end the week and start a fun-filled weekend. Colin, Ray, Lizzy, Apple, Dawn, Steven (my host brother) and I met after school to go to a karaoke bar ...

Only Steven and I had bikes, so we decided to walk all the way from school to the karaoke bar. We arrived after half an hour of walking to what seemed like the lobby of a fancy hotel. There were gigantic crystal chandeliers, marble floors, leather couches, and gold trimming everywhere. Everything was spotless and pristine. I had no idea that karaoke was such a big deal in China! After talking with the hostess, we were escorted down a circular corridor to our own private room. The set up in the room was really cool. There was a large U-shaped leather couch for us to sit in around a table. Next to the couch was a touch-screen that could control not only which song played, but what part was heard and what subtitles were seen on the flat screen TV in the front of the room. We quickly situated ourselves around the couch. Before the singing could begin, we were asked what we wanted to eat and drink and given menus. After ordering and receiving several smoothies, spring rolls, juices, and other tasty goodies, the song selection began. The variety of songs was surprising. They had several hundred songs in many different languages. We all got to punch in the songs that we knew to add them to the playlist. In the end, we had classic rock, Michael Jackson, punk, pop, modern Chinese songs, Chinese nursery rhymes, and one Japanese song that I managed to sneak in. I think my favorite part was the music videos that displayed while the songs played. Some of the displays were the music videos that corresponded to the songs, but others were like something out of an 80's sitcom opening. We stopped singing halfway through some of the songs because we were laughing so hard. After a few hours, Apple decided to pull out the dreaded UNO cards for a friendly game. Luckily the games didn't go on as long as dumpling night. Once we had our fill of karaoke, we headed for our next destination: Italian food!

Dawn had found an Italian restaurant nearby with authentic Italian food. Apparently, the chef of the restaurant studied and honed his culinary skills in Italy (so naturally the Italian in me was very exited for some familiar food). My host brother had never had any Italian food, so he was very anxious to try some. The restaurant was only a few blocks from the karaoke bar. We met up with Chris on our way over and proceeded into the restaurant (which was surprisingly cozy). While ordering, we had a sense of deja vu when many of our requests were answered with “no.” After deciphering what items on the menu were actually available, we placed our orders. The pleasant aroma of Italian food wafted across the room. I couldn't wait to taste Italian pasta again. But I would have to wait. My food came second to last. I think that waiting made it all the more delicious. I missed the taste of tomato sauce, cheese, and pesto. I wasn't the only one who was enjoying his meal. Everyone but Chris (who was feeling slightly ill) finished their food (with some assistance). Very satisfied with our meals, we each headed home to end our days.

On to day two of a fantastic Hangzhou Weekend! We (what are we now the “the Sarcastic Four”?) rendezvoused with Dawn and a few teachers at school and piled into a school van to start our day. Our first destination was a park that was manufactured to look like a large Bagua (Eight Trigrams) from above. The center was made of an elevated osmanthus grove whereas the eight trigrams surrounding it were made of vegetable gardens (which were being actively used and apparently rotate with the seasons!) After the Bagua park, we went to a pottery museum. Not only did we see pottery on display, but we also got to visit the excavated ruins of an ancient kiln dating back 800 years ago when the area was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. The most fun part of the pottery museum was at the end, when we got to make our own pottery. Out of the six people who tried, only Lizzy's survived the process. Mine tragically died when being separated from the wheel, and the others perished in similar ways. After the pottery museum, we were taken to yet another fancy lunch (which, as expected, was fantastic). To end the day, we went to a market near where Colin lives at West Lake. The markets are certainly something to experience in China. It is a lot of fun to barter, and it is also fun just to look around and see what people are selling (paper cuttings, carvings,candy sculptures, clothes, decorations, weapons, 30 minute busts of yourself, you name it!). It was great to end the day experiencing the bustling energy of a market again.

The last day of the weekend was one to be remembered. Lizzy's host sister, Apple, had invited us to go ice skating at 12:30. Before going ice skating, I made noodles with my host family for lunch. I taught my host brother how to make spaghetti (he really liked the Italian food and couldn't wait to experience more!) and they taught me how to make hand made noodles. The dough was made from scratch, and I kneaded it myself. I also helped flatten it out and then cut off some noodles. The rest was done by my host family. In the end both pastas were delicious. After we had our fill, we headed out to go skating. After a short car ride we arrived at our destination (a shopping mall???). Never before in my life have I seen a mall that was as shiny as this one. Every surface was sparkling clean and reflective. Steven and I met up with Lizzy, Apple, and some of her friends (I don't know why Colin and Ray didn't come) on the third floor in front of the ice rink. We got our skates, laced up (some helmeted up) and headed out on the ice. It has been years since I was out on the ice, but the skills from my elementary school hockey career eventually came back to me. I tried to teach Steven as much as I knew about skating, as it was his first time. By the end of our time in the rink, he was getting good at skating. It was fun to see the different kind of people who came to the skating rink. Some were stumbling and falling over, while others were completing perfect pirouettes through the air and moving with expert precision. I only wish we could have stayed on the ice longer. After a few hours, we decided to call it a day. One of Apple's friends recommended that we go to the movies. The mall happened to have an IMAX on the 5^th floor. We ended up watching I am Number Four, which none of us had ever heard about, but apparently was an American movie. What was funny is that we were able to use our DS Student IDs to get half price tickets. The movie was.......entertaining (Lizzy fell asleep withing the first five minutes). After the movie, Steven and I navigated our way out of the mall and to the nearest bus station to head home. Back at home, my host father wanted to show me an old Kung Fu movie, which was really good. The choreography was really impressive for a movie so old. Many of the actors could easily manage difficult acrobatics and it seemed more realistic than many of the movies out now (Though the movie did have its wire moments). I can't believe this is my last week before I switch host families. Time flies when you're experiencing a weekend in Hangzhou!

Pedal Away

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 02:49:00 +0000

(Chris)

We've just begun our 3rd week in Hangzhou and I thought I'd talk about this city in this post. The school has given me a bicycle to use for the 5 weeks that we're here and I've been riding pretty much every day to explore the city. The one great thing about the layout of the roads here is that they have bike lanes on almost all the streets. The lanes are separated by cement dividers or large vertical reflectors that line the entire bike lane. It's fantastic!
In some of the other cities that we've been to, the traffic patterns were very chaotic. In Hangzhou , however, it is much different. There are traffic lights at all intersections and they are much more advanced than the ones we have at home. The lights here count down from 10 to 1 to let drivers and bikers know when the light will turn green or red. Also, there are separate signs for bikers. In addition to the little green man that says it's safe to walk, there's a little green bicycle that lets you know when it's safe to pedal across the street. It is a very bike-friendly city. American cities could learn a thing or two from Hangzhou .

What I really love is that the city has 'bike stations' every 4 blocks or so. There are metal posts that have red bicycles attached to them. Like the Charlie Card we have in Boston or a Zip Car card, you can scan a card over the metal post and the lock releases and you can rent a bicycle for the day. If you return it within one hour (to any bike station in the city) it's free of charge. If you do keep the bike over an hour, it's only 1 or 2 yuan/hour, which equals out to about $0.30/hour. When you return the bike, you put the bike in one of the lock stations, scan your card and walk away. It is very cool.

There are bikers everywhere! I'm starting to learn that it's probably better to ride a bike than use your car because traffic can be pretty bad here. On the weekends, the teachers here have been so great and have taken us to visit the sites of the city. They usually drive us around and we've gotten caught in some bad traffic jams. They tell me that it's worse on the weekends. By bike, I'm amazed by how quick it is to get to most destinations from where the school is located. It's a pretty big city, but I get to most destinations within 30 minutes.

As orderly as it is, it's still a big city. The other day I was waiting at a cross walk that had a light (a rarity here). The traffic light finally turned red and the little green man and green bike appeared. I proceeded to walk my bike across the street, when a woman went around the 4 lanes of stopped traffic and drove on the wrong side of the road to go through the red light and honked at me to get out of her way. She missed me by about 1 inch. Those who know me can imagine my reaction.

I'm really enjoying exploring the city by bike. I look forward to getting home, throwing on my sneakers and hopping on my bike. Sometimes I get lost, but that's part of the fun. I carry my map, cell phone and contact #s with me, so I never get worried. When I do get lost, I'll stop people on the street to ask for directions. Most people are very nice, others just point in any direction just to get rid of me. I've learned that the best place to pop into for directions is a hotel. Even if the front desk people don't speak English, they'll grab a map and they'll point to the map to help you out. As a side note - there are SO MANY hotels in this city. Everywhere you look, there's a hotel. I read in the English newspaper here that all the rooms were booked in the city for Valentine's Day weekend - you wouldn't believe how popular this holiday is here. I also read that there was a small group of people protesting the idea of Valentine's Day. They claim that it is nothing but commercial holiday that has no place in China .

Well, that's all for now. Oh, before I go - I met the teacher that's going to visit DS in the spring. Her name is Wang Fei. Like the 3 students, she's awesome! She and another teacher, Tang Pei , took me out to dinner and a show on Saturday. We had a great time. This is a bustling city on Saturday nights, let me tell you. I was supposed to go hiking on Sunday with another teacher and her husband, but I had to cancel because I had an awful stomach bug. But, I'm feeling better now and looking forward to sharing more stories with you.

Party!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 13:15:00 +0000

(Lizzy)

While not as bad as Boston, Hangzhou has certainly been chilly the past couple days. The school (Hanggao) has the odd tendency to revel in the cold, however. Rather than shun it with heating and insulation, they embrace it by opening windows and doors as much as possible. This does help explain why the drinking water is preferred hot. To say the least, the inescapable cold (including constantly wearing winter jackets and being able to see our breath in class) is taking some getting used to among the DS group ...

Despite the school’s unorthodox temperature control policies, we have all been enjoying our classes, both those we take as a group and with our host siblings. Yesterday, during the tech class the three of us take together, we constructed kites out of bamboo sticks and paper. While Ryan designed an intricate star pattern and Colin an F-22, I am proud to say that my simple circle design was the only to fly successfully, despite Colin’s determination to fly his oversized jet during English Corner. Today we all had the opportunity to decorate our kites during our traditional Chinese painting class. We learned a few techniques of brush painting and after some practice we all had some success with our creations. Tomorrow we will continue to learn the Kung Fu we began last week, as well as practice our badminton.

During the rest of the school day each of us join our host siblings for a few classes. Though it is usually the case that we don’t understand much of what the teacher is talking about, these classes give us an opportunity to recognize some of the differences between DS and Hanggao. For example, not only are the classes almost four times the size of some DS classes, but the students also must stand up when called on in class. There are no text books here either. Instead, the students have stacks of workbooks for each class that they use both during school and for homework. In addition, unlike in the states, where we often write essays and do projects, Chinese students rarely have long-term homework assignments or papers to write. If they are going to write an essay, it is most likely on an exam, of which there are plenty.

On most days; however, there is one period that is like a DR at DS, where the students are given the freedom to do what they want, sometimes within the classroom, and other times within the campus. These periods are usually used for completing homework, but today Apple’s class threw a welcoming party for me. The teacher who is assigned to the classroom during this period brought in a hot plate, and another student brought in pans and ingredients to make Chinese food. He set everything up in front of the class and other students set up a camera over his work space that projected onto a screen so we could all watch him cooking. He described every step to us like a cooking show, from chopping the fresh bamboo and beating the eggs, to browning and serving the spring rolls. I was also called up to help with the preparations. We all enjoyed the food, and I was quite impressed by the chef’s cooking and instructive skills. My host family told me later that it is very uncommon for boys in China to know how to cook, and I think it is pretty uncommon for any kids to cook. In addition to the food, students performed songs, and one student, Tom, put on a magic show. While speaking in English, he made a six of hearts turn into an eight of hearts and back again, turned water into orange juice, and found a piece of paper with my name on it inside an orange. The party was great and I really appreciate the students forfeiting their precious studying time.

Tomorrow I will go to Apple’s English class, and if it’s anything like the last, I better study my English so I don’t embarrass myself in front of the class…

Dumpling Monsters and the Curse of UNO

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:02:00 +0000

(Ryan)

It has been more than a week since we arrived in Hangzhou, and I am loving my stay here. The city is beautiful! Everywhere you look there is something nice to see, whether it be trees, parks, water ways, old architecture, stone carvings, statues, or the modern buildings. After our hectic train journey into the city, it was nice to finally get some rest and relaxation ...

My host brother and mother brought me out to a beautiful park. Not only did the park have beautiful trees and gardens, but it also had really cool buildings in the old Chinese-style architecture. Some of these buildings were museums. One of the museums we went into was full of a lot of interesting modern art pieces. The part I liked the most about the park was the plum blossom area. Plum blossom trees of all different shapes and colors dotted the landscape as far as the eye could see. People were out and about admiring the scenery in the warm spring air (including us).

School here has been really enjoyable so far. The school is massive compared to DS. It looks more like a college campus than a high school. The school also has it's own museum on-campus that tells the history of the school that dates back more than 100 years. Some parts of the day we follow around our host siblings, and other parts we have our own classes. During our own classes we do anything and everything Chinese. So far we have done calligraphy, made kites, done Chinese paper cutting, practiced Kung Fu, learned some dancing (to the opening song of the world cup???????), and taken Chinese language classes. It has been a blast so far and I can't wait for more classes this week. Unfortunately, there is a bit of a language gap between us and the teachers. Luckily Dawn is always with us as our go to Hangzhou friend and translator. Dawn came to DS last year, and it's great that we get to hang out so much while we're over here. Tony and Vapor (Hangzhou students from last year) have also made their appearances. Tony was even nice enough to bring us dumplings and special Hangzhou fried bread for lunch. Speaking of lunch: THE LUNCHES HERE ARE AMAZING. Every day we get to eat in our own private room where we get served delicious food. I feel like I'm eating at a fancy restaurant every time I eat lunch at school. After lunch we have English corner. At first people were shy about talking to us, but after a few days more and more people came. It's a lot of fun talking to the people here and getting to know about the way they live and the differences between our daily lives. After school, my host brother and I bike home to his apartment building.

We have been doing a lot outside of school. A few days ago we got together at Lizzy's host grandparent's house to make dumplings. Colin was the most experienced among us at making dumplings, so his came out the best. Mine were pretty terrible at first, but eventually took the right shape towards the end (except for one monster dumpling that had two covers because there was too much filling for just one). After the dumplings were steamed, we feasted on our hard labor. It was delicious. After dinner we started to play UNO. Unfortunately, after the practice round, the game never ended. As soon as someone had one card left, fate would barrage them with cards until they had about half the deck. We finally decided to end the game at 8:45 when the grandparents went to bed and the school (where my host brother and I had left our bikes) was about to close.

Last Saturday, we went on a trip to West Lake, a famous destination point in Hangzhou. Unfortunately for us, the day we went was very cloudy, and it was hard to see in the distance. But the lake was still beautiful even when it wasn't at its full potential. The parks and museums near the lake were also very interesting. After a delicious lunch at a local restaurant, we got on a boat to tour the lake. The boat was like a gondola, with a person rowing the boat forward from the back. The water was very peaceful and the old architecture that dotted the islands, shores, and mountains near the lake added to the lake's natural beauty. I only wish I could have seen the lake on a brighter day. I am sure it would be even more spectacular than it already is. I can't believe how much I have done in the past week. I am loving Hangzhou and can't wait to see what's coming next.

A Ray of Light

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:39:00 +0000

(Colin)

After an 18 hour train ride, during which I slept like a baby and saw 5 nuclear power plants, a new chapter of my Chinese experience (not to be confused with my upcoming novel about a Chinese space pilot named Hangzhou-lo, who flies the Millenium Dragon), began ...

Immediately upon my arrival, I was whisked away by my host family to their home near the beautiful West Lake. We had a delicious lunch, and I had just settled in when my host brother, Ray, asked if I wanted to go play basketball with some of his friends. As I am not one to sit around all day on the computer, or at least, haven’t been one since January, I accepted. Athletics, of course, are not my strong suit. Basketball, especially, is something is excel at being terrible at. Not only am I short, but I also have the coordination of a tub of OxyClean. As I am a good writer and give credit to my readers, you can just draw conclusions from there.

In the hours following the Failsketball game, Ray, Ray’s friend whose name I forgot and/or can’t pronounce (we’ll call him Bob), and I went to a market-street, which was full of vendors selling all kinds of curios and oddities. As I had, at the time, no desire for a custom made bust of my head, nor the luggage space for a ming vase, I simply browsed the tables. We circled through the market, then climbed up a hill, stopping halfway to enter a museum. The museum had historical tidbits, mostly, and as I walked through the museum I saw a giant sign that read “Stamps”. I told myself that it couldn’t be any worse than the snake wine, and walked in.

Though the prospect of a room full of stamps doesn’t seem that exciting, I was pleased to find that it was a collection of stamps from around the world. I immediately made it my quest to find the American collection. And there it was, the largest collection other than the Chinese one, of course, and it was quite a group of bits of paper. Stamps advocating the purchase of war bonds during World War Two, showing the new invention of air travel, and even advertising the US Naval Academy, were seen. As Ray, Bob, and I walked through the room, I was intrigued at the number of foreign countries that had, at one time or another, pasted Franklin Roosevelt’s likeness upon their stamps. Am I still talking about the stamps? Sorry. I’ll move on.

After the museum, we continued up the hill, past a temple, and walked back down. Ray and I went home, and parted ways with Bob, and I took a well-deserved shower, the first in at least 5 days. Not to leave me bored for an instant, I was told that we were going out to dinner, so I got dressed in a (slightly) tasteful manner, and we walked to a restaurant on the market street that I mentioned earlier.

During dinner, Ray’s parents, who speak English just as well as I speak Chinese, which is barely, told me, through Ray, of course, that by the time I leave their house I will be able to say ten sentences in Chinese. Already knowing three, I was excited to add seven sentences to my vocabulary. We ate a dinner that was quite delicious, and returned home. Before I went to bed, I set the alarm clock that was in my room, which insisted on loudly narrating the time as I changed it. I slept quite well, given that my host family, like many families in China, insists on keeping their windows open during every season, and a construction site was going for what seemed like all night.

I was awakened by my alarm clock, which, instead of beeping quietly or playing music, screamed me awake with rooster noises. In a panic, which repeats every morning, I rushed to shut the electronic fowl up. I emerged from my slumber to a breakfast of bread that was labled “Toast”, though it was not toasted, some kind of sweet loaf, apples, and peanut butter. Having not had peanut butter in an unhealthily long amount of time, I engorged myself on two slices of peanut butter-logged bread. I then proceeded to add some PB to some slices of apple, much to Ray’s confusion. After breakfast, Ray’s mother drove us to school, which is quite a sight to behold.

Across from a KFC, Hangzhou High School’s main gate is guarded by two men, holding nightsticks, and wearing helmets and what seem like Kevlar vests. Feeling both safe and confused, I walked past them. The campus is stunning, the buildings are pretty, and, unlike DS, the observatory is functional. We had a small welcome ceremony in a meeting room, which I have to say is much better than any conference room at DS, which featured a welcome committee of administrators and teachers who we would be seeing a lot of during our stay. We took a tour of the campus with Dawn, a senior who went to DS last year with her school, exactly as I am doing now, and were relieved to know that she speaks near-perfect English.

We were brought to the cafeteria to eat lunch, which, I thought, was going to be as the students had told me and be less than delicious. But, as China continues to surpass my expectations, the Sarcastic Four, with our new fifth member, was brought to a private room with cloth napkins and tea waiting for us. The head chef, almost as soon as we had sat down, brought each of us a platter of food. This occurs daily, and the food is consistently diverse and delicious.

The rest of the day featured classes, the first two hours of which was a Chinese class for us, and the second two hours of which were the three Americans sitting in on our host siblings’ classes. Though my Chinese language skills are rivaled by those of a banana, I enjoyed watching the classes go down, just as I enjoyed comparing teaching and learning styles between China and the US.

The rest of the week followed suit with Monday, until Friday afternoon, when the three of us, along with our host siblings and Dawn, went to Lizzy’s host sister’s grandparents’ house to make dumplings. Though normally, when you enter a house in China you are given a pair of slippers to wear, as it is cold, which is a problem easily solved by closing windows, upon our arrival at Apple’s Grandparents’, we were given each a pair of blue plastic booties to cover our shoes with, a plan that not only kept our feet warm, but also kept the floors sparkling clean. With the assistance of the seasoned dumpling veterans, we created a plethora of dumplings that exuded happiness and porkness, and which were fantastic.

After we had consumed the weight of a small moon in dumplings, we played Uno, a game which I, along with the host siblings and Dawn, had never played. Due to a lack of understanding of rules on everyone’s part, the game lasted for what seemed like two hours. At an unnatural hour, we bid Apple’s Grandparents farewell, and returned to our host houses. Ray and I took a bus back home, which passed by a Rolls Royce dealership, a Ferrari dealership, a Lamborghini dealership, a Maserati dealership, a Porsche dealership, and an Aston Martin dealership. Sadly, the bus was not made by any of these companies, and its only luxary was a small TV in the front, which played a discovery channel program on the Titanic, which was in all Chinese.

Saturday, while the host siblings were at school, the Sarcastic Four went on a tour of the West Lake with Dawn, Derek, and Ms. Wu, who is one of the leaders of our stay. We walked through many a plum blossom, ate lunch, and went on a two-hour boat ride, powered by a man constantly pulling on an oar. After we returned back to dry land, my host parents drove me back home, as did Lizzy’s and Ryan’s. Ray returned from school, on a Saturday (crazy, I know), with an old friend and a plan. He said that his parents are going out for dinner, and that the three of us were going out ourselves. We departed soon after, and played pool at a pool hall, where I saw another American. We then had dinner at KFC, which I have to say I needed after having nothing but Chinese food for 3 weeks. We went to go see The Tourist, with Johnny Depp, nothing to write home about, and then went to get coffee.

After coffee, Ray and Ray’s other friend, who we’ll call Jim, went to a night market, which was composed of things for sale that I actually wanted to buy. Fake designer goods, counterfeit Rolexes, and powerful laser-pointers are but a small fraction of the market’s goods. I brought out my bartering skills, and got a good haul of great souvenirs.

We walked home soon after, and I got myself some well deserved sleep. I’d talk about Sunday right now, but I think that a 2.5 page blog post is enough for now. Perhaps later this week I shall regale you with such stories.

Mucho gusto, Potato Tiger.

noreply@blogger.com (Andy) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:16:00 +0000

(Chris)

It is the beginning of our second week here in Hangzhou. I’m sitting here reflecting on what we’ve done so far and it’s hard to believe that it’s only been one week. There is so much to talk about that it’s going to be hard to condense it all into a few paragraphs - I’ll do my best to make my observations descriptive, yet brief ...

But, before I begin, I just have to reiterate how great everybody has been here. I got a little choked up at one point the other day because I was just overwhelmed (I know I’ve used this word a lot, but it’s true) by how kind everyone has been. The students and teachers here are truly a wonderful group of people.

On Saturday, a group of teachers took all of us out for a tour of West Lake. We had a delicious lunch and then rented a boat for a 2 hour ride around the islands. Later that evening, Derek - one of the English teachers, invited me to his house for dinner. I had the pleasure of meeting his wife, mother, aunt and his 3-month-old son, Tiger. It was a lovely evening - his family couldn’t have been nicer. They made me feel so at home and insisted that I take some food with me when I left. The generosity and hospitality of the people I’ve met here in Hangzhou can’t be beat!! (Derek’s house, by the way, is beautifully decorated.)

On Sunday, the 3 students that are going to visit DS in the spring invited me out for another walk around the lake and for lunch at a famous restaurant known for its homemade noodles. These 3 students - Swan, Kevin & R.S. - are such great kids! They were very knowledgeable about the history of the areas we explored and they seem very excited to come visit our school. You guys are going to love them! I’ve attached a picture of them - they’re standing in front of the waterfall.

On Sunday evening, I was in desperate need of some Western food. I met up with a friend and we went to a bar called Reggae Cafe - the waitstaff had Bob Marley sweatshirts, there were some fun tunes playing on the radio and the menu had a lot of familiar dishes. I ordered Spaghetti Bolognese with garlic bread and I was in heaven. I needed this!

I have started to visit classes to do some guest-teaching. They’ve created a schedule for me where I visit 2 classes a day. I’m starting out with the Grade 1 classes. This high school has 3 grades, so the Grade 1 class is the equivalent of our 10th grade in the U.S. Each grade has about 600 students, so there are about 1,800 students in the school. The classes here are much bigger than at DS - there are about 45-50 kids in each class.

One very noticeable difference here is that the kids stay in the same room all day. When the bell rings, it’s the teachers that move from room to room. If I understand the system correctly, the kids stay with these same 50 students throughout their 3 years here. In our schools, most teachers have their own rooms and put up posters and student work - that’s not the case here. I believe the kids have 8 classes a day and they each last 45 minutes. The kids have about 15 minutes between classes, which makes their school day rather long. They start school around 8:00 and they leave around 5:00. When I told them that our school ends at 2:15, they went nuts.

I created a Power Point presentation to show the kids. I talk about my life, my family, NY and Pennsylvania (where I grew up), Boston, New England, DS schools and American education. After this, I give the kids a little Spanish lesson. It’s been a blast! They’re really interested in hearing about our school system. Most questions that I’ve been asked in the classes have been regarding the amount of homework that American students have. Evidently, the kids here get a lot of homework. When I ask the students what they do on the weekends, they usually say that they have to study.

Some of the kids are rather shy and hesitant to ask me questions. Others, however, are very eager to practice their English and ask me a lot of great questions. (Although some were hard to answer - “How are Spanish girls?” being one of them.) They seem to be very interested in hearing about what American kids do after school. One class was fascinated by the amount of extracurricular activities that are offered at our schools. Another aspect of our community that intrigues them is that our school is in a rural setting. Hangzhou High School is right in the middle of the city (6+ million people). Most of the kids can walk here or ride their bikes. A few take the city busses and others get driven to school.

I’m really getting a kick out of teaching the kids some Spanish. Most of them have never heard any Spanish before, so it’s been pretty cool to introduce them to something new. I’m just teaching them the basics - greetings, the alphabet, numbers, ¿Cómo te llamas?, ¿De dónde eres?...easy stuff. I’ve been walking around the room asking the kids “¿Cómo te llamas?” and I’ve been getting some interesting responses. Some of them answer with their Chinese names and some answer with their English names. As I mentioned in my previous post, some of the kids have traditional English names and others have rather interesting and creative ones. I asked a boy in one of the classes what his name was and he responded with “Me llamo Potato Tiger.” After 11 years of teaching, nothing really surprises me anymore. I just shook his hand, said “Mucho gusto” and moved on to the next kid. After my lessons, some of the kids come up and swarm around me. They’ve been asking me for my autograph, my e-mail address and hugs. It’s a hoot!

One thing I really like about the setup of the school is that the teachers have offices (grouped by department). It’s really nice to have my own space/cubicle and computer. What I absolutely love about this office is that many of the teachers take a nap around 1:00. They all have reclining chairs, blankets and pillows. They dim the lights, lock the door and take a 45 minute siesta. My next purchase is going to be an air mattress.

Lizzy, Colin, Ryan and I are also ‘hosting’ English Corner. After lunch, we stand out in the front lawn of the school and just chat with whomever decides to swing by to practice their English. The first day there weren’t many kids, but as they get to know us a little better, more and more are stopping by. Today, I would say there were about 30-40 kids. I’m very impressed with the how well they speak English!

Ok - now that I’ve told you about my experiences here at the school, I have to tell you about my neighbor, Tang, that lives in the apartment below mine. As Lizzy wrote in one of her posts, there is no escaping the cold in this city. The school (and any other indoor space in this country) does not use its heat unless it’s absolutely necessary. My little toe on my right foot is close to just snapping off. Everyone wears their jacket all day long. The doors and windows of the classrooms are wide open and nobody seems to mind the cold - except the 4 Americans that are shivering (Lizzy and I are the worst). So, when I get home, I can’t wait to turn on my heat - I need to thaw out!! The other night I was sound asleep and I woke up to what I figured out was my doorbell. I fall asleep to music, so in my groggy state I thought it was part of a song, so I just went right back to sleep. Then, I heard somebody banging on the gate that’s outside my apartment door. I opened the door and there was a lady standing there bundled up as if she were about to climb Mt. Everest. She started speaking in Chinese, obviously, and I just smiled and said “I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re saying.” She then started to try and speak in English and the first thing she said to me was “Jacket. Jacket. Drip. Drip.” She must have seen the confused look on my face and continued to try and use what English words she knew. I started to guess that maybe there was a leak in her apartment or that she thought I had hung clothes out to dry and they were dripping on her porch?? I had no idea what was going on. She then said “Close air conditioning.” (They don’t use the word ‘heat’, they refer to the heater as the air conditioner.) So, I figured maybe my ‘air conditioner’ was leaking. I never knew heaters could leak, but I offered to turn it off for the night. She said “Thank you” and left. I had trouble waking up in the morning because my eyelids were frozen shut.

Well...last night, around the same time of night, she rang my doorbell again. This time, she showed up with a hose and asked to come in to my apartment. I reluctantly let her in. She went into my bedroom and was hanging out of the window (I’m on the 7th floor, mind you) trying to connect this hose to the exhaust pipe of my ‘air conditioner’. She couldn’t fix the problem and was very distraught. She told me “No sleep! No sleep!”. I figured out that the dripping was hitting her awning and keeping her awake all night. I asked if she was sure that it was MY ‘air conditioner’ and she said “Only you use air conditioner”. As baffled as I was by the fact that my building enjoys living like polar bears, I offered to turn my bedroom ‘air conditioner’ off again and only use the ‘air conditioner’ in the living room with hopes that some heat would find its way to my bedroom. As she was leaving, she said “Thank you. Less air conditioner, more jacket”. I’m sorry - I’m more than willing to acclimate myself to the customs and norms of a culture, but wearing my boots, jeans, wool coat, gloves and scarf to bed is not an option. My mother, however, would be in full agreement with Tang. She would always refuse to turn up the heat when we were walking around the house in shorts and T-shirts. Anyway, I’ve informed some of the teachers here of the issue and hopefully somebody will call the maintenance people and have it fixed. I’ll be sure to give you an update on the Jacket! Jacket! Drip! Drip! situation in my next post. In the meantime, please send electric blankets, heat lamps, Snuggies, Spongebob Squarepants slippers - ANYTHING - to Chris Estabrook, Keep an American Warm Foundation, 238 Fengqi Lu, Hangzhou.

First Week at Hanggao (Hangzhou High School)

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 13:18:00 +0000

(Lizzy)

Our first week in Hangzhou has been quite eventful. Immediately upon arriving in the city after an exhausting 18 hour train ride from Luoyang, we were greeted by our respective host families at Hanggao, our new school. My host sister’s English name is Apple, and she and her family have all be extremely hospitable and kind to me; especially since my first week here has not been the smoothest.

My first day; however, seemed to indicate good things ahead. I got my first glimpses of the beautiful city, including West Lake, which the residents of Hangzhou are most proud of, and for good reason. Everything is green and fairly warm here; a drastic and welcome change from the bleak coldness we have become used to. Though the lake is technically to the West of the city, it is very part of the city center, and the parks surrounding it are often quite crowded with people out enjoying the day.

After enjoying the sights around the lake with my host family, I began to feel sick back at the apartment ...

My sore throat quickly worsened, and before I knew it I had missed two days of school in my first week and ended up in the hospital.

Apart from the two days I spent asleep, I have enjoyed attending Hangzhou High School very much so far. The school has a beautiful campus; full of green trees and even a park for the students to enjoy during their break after lunch. The school is famous for its red buildings, which definitely add to its charm. The students are all incredibly friendly, and often go out of their way to say “hello” to us. We all stand out starkly; however, and it’s not only because of the school uniforms the students have to wear. Everyone has made a point of making us feel very welcome, though, which we all appreciate.

The night after our first day of school a group of administrators and teachers took us out to a meal with the most food I have ever seen – over 20 dishes each for two tables! I was later told that the huge amount of food presented showed the extent of hospitality the school wished to extend to us. We have also been the lucky recipients of the school’s hospitality during lunch at school. While the meals offered to the students appear edible, the meals prepared for our group are better than we could ever imagine at school; lunch at DS will certainly take some getting used to when we get back.

Our classes are another area of life here where the differences between Hanggao and DS are highlighted. There are three grades in the high school, and each grade is divided into about twelve classrooms, where the same group of roughly 50 students remains all day. The teachers come to the students, rather than the other way around. There are eight 45-minute classes every day except Friday, which has seven. These classes, along with a morning reading period, lunch, break, and the 10-minute transition periods between classes, mean that the students don’t leave school until almost five o’clock each day. The students in grade three, who are preparing for their college entrance exams at the end of the year, may even stay until after nine o’clock. Our host siblings are all in grade one. After school, the students may have as much as five hours of homework during weeknights, and more on weekends.

Unlike the traditional students here, we don’t have eight classes a day. Rather, we spend some time in our host sibling’s classes, and sometimes have classes together. The classes we take together include Chinese, woodworking, dance, kung-fu, and painting. I also go to Apple’s Chinese, Math, Chemistry, English, and other classes. The classes here are much more lecture-based, with the teacher randomly calling on students. No hands are raised, rather, students generally hope they won’t be called on and have to stand up in front of the class to give the answer.

While most of the Chinese students do homework during their post-lunch lull, we hold English Corner in the school park and invite students to come practice their English and learn about life in America. Though I missed the first English Corner due to my hospital visit, the second attracted many more students. Mostly grade one students gathered around us in the park, full of questions about our high school lives. Many were interested in the amount of school work we do, both during class and at home, in comparison to their own. Many were shocked to hear that we leave school at 2:15. Others wanted to share the traveling they had done in the states, and most simply stood around and listened. Though some students are shy about their English, those who come forward can often articulate themselves well.

After school on Friday, Apple’s grandparents invited all of us, our host siblings, and Dawn, a senior at Hanggao and our very helpful guide, to learn how to make dumplings at their house. Her grandfather grew up in Northern China, where dumplings are very popular, and he is an expert. We all gathered around their dining room table as he demonstrated proper pinching technique. We also pressed homemade dough out into thin wrappers, and everyone perfected the art of dumping making. After enjoying plenty of the fruits of our labors, we played a never-ending game of Uno.

Today, Saturday, the school set up a tour of West Lake for us. Mr. Xu, an English teacher and a past visitor to DS, took us to see the parks around the lake. We were lucky to have warm weather to enjoy the lovely parks. After another extravagant lunch, which included everything from crabs and jellyfish to fried dough and a bread bowl, we took a boat cruise around the lake and enjoyed views of surrounding pagodas, bridges, and the islands scattered throughout the lake.

Despite my being sick, living and attending school in Hangzhou has been quite the adventure so far. I have loved discovering the cultural differences that are presented only in such an intimate setting, and I look forward to whatever is coming next!

You can call me Thunder.

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 03:15:00 +0000

(Chris)

It is Tuesday morning here and I am sitting in my cubicle in the Foreign Language Teachers’ Office at Hangzhou High School! They gave me my own little space with a computer, cappuccino mix, tea and a file cabinet. It’s perfect!

Let me start out by saying how fantastic the staff and administration here have been since we arrived! There was a welcoming committee of about 6 teachers at the train station waiting for us. With big smiles and an excited look on their faces, they gave each of us a bouquet of flowers as we got off the train on Sunday morning. They helped us get through the mob that was departing the train station and then threw us into some vans to bring us to the school ...

When we got to the school, we were greeted by even more teachers, the assistant principal and the kids’ host families. There were so many people around making a fuss over us. I said “Ni hao” about 75 times and before I knew it, Colin, Lizzy and Ryan were thrown into their host families’ cars and I had to say good-bye to my travel buddies.

I was escorted to my apartment by Mr. Lu Naichuan (the head of the Foreign Language Department) and Ms. Tang Pei. Tang Pei is an English teacher at the school and she has been appointed to be my guide and translator. She has been absolutely wonderful!

My apartment is awesome! It’s a 2 bed/1 bath with a kitchenette, fantastic views, a washer and dryer, HEAT, a comfortable bed and a sun room. It’s much more than I expected. The bathroom is similar to the ones in some of the hotels - the shower rains over the toilet bowl. One of my first purchases yesterday was some sandals. After a shower, the bathroom turns into a pond.

Yesterday (Monday) was a busy day. I met Tang Pei at 7:15 outside of my apartment building. She showed me where the cafeteria is and we had breakfast together. Chinese breakfast is very different than what we’re used to in America. It’s usually an assortment of noodles, rice, a hard-boiled egg and some other dishes. Coffee isn’t as popular here either. It’s usually just a cup of hot water. My list of things I need to have the day I return to Boston is growing - just added: an extra-large French Vanilla coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts.

After breakfast, a student from the school gave Colin, Lizzy, Ryan and me a tour of the school. It’s a huge campus with some great facilities. We were taken to a building that has a very nice 3-story museum devoted to the history of this school. They really take pride in their history and in their alumni’s accomplishments. There was a very fascinating display that showed how the teachers and students had to flee the campus in the late 30’s and early 40’s due to the Japanese occupation of Hangzhou. They used the campus as a ‘base’, if you will, and the people from the school scattered to surrounding towns to continue their studies.

After the tour, we had a very nice lunch prepared just for us by the school’s chef. We were seated in a private room with our tour guide and were treated like VIP guests. We really are getting an over-the-top welcome here - it’s overwhelming how special they’re making us feel.

From there, we had a short Chinese lesson on the basics. I’m sure Ryan was bored being that he’s had 4 years of Chinese. But, I definitely benefited from the review. Grammatically, I get it. However, it’s very hard for me to hear the difference in the 4 tones. We did some listening comprehension activities to assess our understanding of the Chinese tones - I got a 70%. I’m so ashamed.

Then, I followed Lizzy and her host sister, Apple, to a Chinese class so I could observe how classes are conducted here. The class was very big - about 50 kids. At the beginning of class, all the students stood up and bowed to greet their teacher. Then, an announcement came on over the PA system with some soothing music and a woman rattling off a bunch of numbers in Chinese. All the students closed their eyes, put their heads down and were rubbing their foreheads, massaging their heads and just really taking some time to focus and perhaps meditate a little bit. This lasted about 5 minutes and then class began.

Then, at around 5:00, Colin, Lizzy, Ryan and I were invited to a fabulous dinner with about 12 teachers and administrators and the kids’ host siblings. In total, there were about 2 dozen of us that went to this huge restaurant about 2 blocks away from the school. I had a blast!!! The food was never-ending. Every 5 minutes, another plate was brought to the table. I’m proud of myself - I tried everything except the jellyfish. I’m not known for being the most adventurous eater, so this was a big deal for me.

The teachers and administrators cheered one another throughout the entire meal. ‘Gambei’ is Chinese for ‘Cheers!’. It literally means “Bottoms up” and traditionally you’re supposed to down your entire glass of juice or wine. The principal was very pleasant and had Tang Pei tell me that, although Gambei means bottoms up, I shouldn’t feel pressured to drink all of my drink at once. I was Gambei-d at least 30 times throughout the meal. I am absolutely overwhelmed by the welcome we’ve received. The teachers and administrators here are a very special group of people. I’ve only been here 2 days and already I feel like part of the crew.

There’s one last thing I’d like to share before I end this post and that is my new Chinese name. Most of the teachers and students here have English names. Some are rather traditional, such as Rose, Derek, Tony, William and Helen. Others, however, have interesting names like Apple, Vapor and Cherry. Ryan, Lizzy and Colin all have a Chinese name already, so the teacher analyzed their names and showed the characters used to represent them. He asked me if I had one and I couldn’t for the life of me remember the one Louise Zhu gave me (Sorry, Louise!). I wanted something fun, so I asked if my name could be Lightning. The teacher thought about it and said that the Chinese word for that just wouldn’t sound right, so he gave me the name ai lei (there are accents, but I don’t know how to do them on this computer.) This translates to “Love Thunder”. I love it! Today, during our paper cutting class, I introduced myself as Ai Lei and the teacher thought I was nuts. I think I might have to think of something else.

Last stop before Hangzhou: Luoyang

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:52:00 +0000

(Chris)

Well, the 4 of us are almost at the end of our tour of southern/central China before we settle down for 5 weeks in Hangzhou. Our last stop: Luoyang.

We spent the day yesterday in the beautiful town of Pingyao. With a well-preserved city wall and beautiful pagodas and temples, it was a delight to spend the day wandering through the streets. We had some trouble understanding our tour guide, Wang, but he was a very pleasant man.

We said adiós to Mr. Wang at 1:00 a.m. this morning to catch the overnight train to Luoyang. The 4 of us had a great night’s sleep! We had ‘soft sleepers’ - as they call them here - and we slept for almost the entire 10 hour train ride. I think we’re all starting to run out of steam ...

These past 2 weeks have been absolutely amazing, but I think we’re all looking forward to leaving our suitcases in one place for a while.

Our new tour guide, George, was waiting for us as we got off the train. He’s a really nice man and his English is stellar. We all hopped in the van that was waiting for us and drove through the streets of Luoyang. It’s a small city - only 1.5 million people. :) It’s mind-boggling how many cities there are in China with a population of 1 million or more. Look it up...I think there are close to 200. There are less than 10 American cities that have a population of 1 million or more. Think about that for a minute - it’s crazy! (There are many U.S. cities that have a metropolitan areaof 1 million or more, but look at the numbers for the population within the city limits).

Our first stop was for lunch at a nicely decorated restaurant that served a lot of local dishes. The first plate that was brought out was a brown, gelatinous dish with white chunks that was served in a primitive looking chafing dish. The woman that served this to us saw our faces and pointed to the menu to show us what it was. It was item #204 on the menu and the description was entirely in Chinese. We just nodded and said “xie xie”. We were all hesitant to eat #204. The first to try it was Colin. He said it was OK, so we all then began to take small samples. It was like eating red Jell-o with chunks of garlic. It was...interesting. We found out it was sweet potato noodles. Other dishes started to be served and we really enjoyed the lunch.

After trying some #204, George took us a few miles outside of the city to see the Longmen Grottoes. Here there are hundreds of caves (natural and man-made) filled with thousands of statues/figures that were sculpted out of the limestone hillsides. The sculptures depict mostly Buddhist subjects and some are more than 1,500 years old. The work on these started around 493 A.D. and continued for almost 400 years under different dynasties and emperors (and 1 empress - Empress Wu.) Some of the sculptures are incredibly well preserved and others have been defaced, eroded and stolen throughout the years. Some emperors saw this area as a valuable place for prayer and commissioned artists/sculptors to continue the work. Others, who weren’t believers in Buddhism, had some sections destroyed.

After our enjoyable visit to the Grottoes, we drove to our hotel. Our hotel is on a hillside and is attached to a Martial Arts School. The hotel isn’t too bad. It has heat!! Our last hotel did not. The bathroom, much like the last 2 hotels, has a shower that rains over the toilet bowl. It’s just one room with a toilet and a shower (that has no hot water).

We had dinner tonight in the function hall of the hotel/dorm. The dinner was actually pretty good. It was very similar to other dinners we’ve had over the past 2 weeks. My favorite is a dish that looks like scrambled eggs with large chunks of tomatoes in it. It’s quite good. The highlight of dinner, however, was the cartoon that we watched on the TV over our table. There was a cartoon on that had seizure-inducing animation. It was in Chinese, so we weren’t able to understand everything that was going on, but it appeared to be a cartoon about kids that had super powers that were trying to save their village from evil beings. One of them - an obese feline that fought them with its flatulence. It was quite charming.

After dinner, George drove us to the local ‘village’. When I say ‘village’, it’s probably a city that has the same population of Metro West Boston from Worcester to Braintree. There was a fireworks display to celebrate the Lantern Festival. The streets were blocked with cars, so the driver dropped us off and we walked about 1/2 mile down the street to get close to the action. It was very cool. The street was blocked to traffic, so it was just pedestrians and scooters. Some people built fires in the street to keep warm and just were enjoying the fireworks with their friends and families.

It was a good day! Tomorrow we’re having Kung Fu lessons here in the hotel. I’m going to try and stay in the back of the room so nobody sees me. Wish me luck.

On (Window) Display in Pingyao

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:19:00 +0000

(Lizzy)

We woke up on the train this morning, groggy and confused about when our stop would come. Unable to find anyone who could clear up our confusion in English, and no less puzzled by the train conductors hand gestures in response to our questions, we decided to wait it out. Ryan suddenly realized; however, that the captain was using Chinese finger counting, and the sign he made with his pinky and thumb meant we would arrive at 6:00 AM.

After finally making it off the train all together and with all of our things, we were greeted by our new guide, who talkatively led us to a large golf cart. We loaded our luggage and piled in, cold and tired. We checked into our very authentic hotel, complete with rock-hard beds, no heat, and a shower head in the middle of the bathroom. Though it is very cold here, people make no effort to avoid it or use heat. In everything from houses to restaurants to hotel rooms, it is very difficult to escape the cold. Doors are often left wide open, only sometimes shielded by a thick quilt hanging from the threshold ...

After cramming in one last hour of sleep in the morning, we met for a “western” breakfast in the hotel, and reluctantly went out in the bitter cold. Our guide led us to the city wall, which he explained resembled a turtle with each of the two main gates representing the head and tail. He also informed us of Pingyao’s history as a banking center of China. There are twenty-two ancient banks in the city, and in its heyday they had outposts and connections throughout China.

We also visited a Confucian temple, where a group of costumed teenagers were beginning the day with a dance and musical performance in front of the temple. After enjoying the show, Ryan, Colin and I were forced into getting our fortunes told, all of which didn’t exactly make sense, though they were quite specific. Incense was lit, and we left the temple.

Due to the raw temperature and even snow flurries, we soon had to ask our guide if we could take a break in a warm coffee shop, where the unexpected warmth was much appreciated. We were then led straight to lunch, where we lingered in the warmth of the food again. We made the mistake of sitting in front of the window where the overly curious townspeople had a perfect and up-close view of us. Few hesitated to come straight up to the window and peer in at us for a good minute. One group even entered the restaurant and requested that we come outside to take a picture with them, to which we agreed, despite our guide asking the friendly Chinese to leave. Many of the people living in Pingyao are not afraid to snap pictures of us as we walk by or ask that we pose in one with them. One family even asked me to hold their baby. These sorts of things make the cultural differences between China and the US very apparent.

After taking a rest we met back up for a tour of the banks, which were interesting. What was more interesting; however, was that given Pingyao’s ancient background with banks, we had to leave the city to find a modern one.

While Ryan slept in the hotel to recover from a cold, Chris, Colin and I decided to check out the light show our guide mentioned to us that was outside the city walls. We were told that we had to be out of the main gate by a certain time when it closes every night. We rushed to finish up our second cup of tea in the warm coffee shop we had gone back to, and were driven to the gate. As we left through the city gate we realized that there were very few other people in the deserted outer courtyard, but thought little of it. Our guide led us to what looked like a circus tent from the outside. We bought tickets and entered what turned out to be a sort of maze made of bamboo and strings of flags. As we started following the various chutes, we quickly realized that there were no alternate routes to follow; what we thought was a maze was more of an elaborate queue directory, in which we were the only ones waiting. Already confused at the purpose of this, we were then informed by our guide that the show tonight was for government officials only, and that we would just have to wait in the “maze” for an hour and a half to see the show. While Colin followed the identical path a second time, Chris and I decided that our time could be better spent. We kindly told our guide that rather than sitting in a string-crisscrossed arena, we would like to walk back to our hotel. We made it back in the gate within a minute of it closing for the night.

On the way back we enjoyed experiencing a little of the town’s culture. We took a look at some of the popular street food, stepped into a tea shop, and looked over some vendor’s wares. We were all pretty tired, having slept little the night before, and were happy to enjoy dinner and relax. After dinner we turned on the Chinese TV in Chris’ room while Colin dubbed the character’s voices with his own impersonations.

We all got about three-hours of sleep before we had to wake up again to catch our next train to Luoyang. Though traveling has certainly been exciting and very interesting, I think we are all ready to reach our last destination.

Gypsies!

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:51:00 +0000

(Colin)

On the morning of February 15^th, 2011 AD, in the Julian Calendar of the west, the Sarcastic Four arose from a decent slumber. I myself did not enjoy the softness of the mattresses, as I am more of a firm mattress person, but I’m not one to complain about mattresses, so I shall continue. We ate at the hotel’s breakfast buffet for the third and final time, and enjoyed the music that they played, which was the exact same as they had played the two days before. Though consuming bad noodles to bad new age jazz is not something that one would consider ideal breakfast, we got more than a kick out of the massive contemporary wingbacks that we sat in, and the plethora of watermelon. Aching to get out of new age jazzland, we quickly went back to our rooms, and packed.

During packing, I had the interesting predicament of a gourd flute that I purchased in Lijiang, which I had dismantled the evening before in a fruitless attempt to repair it. My bags were full, by back was already straining under the thought of my backpack, and I hated this flute with the force of a thousand suns ...

so I decided to leave it in the room as either refuse or a gift to the housekeeper. Nonetheless, the women at reception kept me waiting for about ten minutes trying to figure out why there was a flute lying on one of their beds. After trying to negotiate with them in their fractured English and my fractured Chinese, I was finally allowed to leave.

Our driver (who I think looks like George Clooney but nobody else agrees), was waiting for us with our guide. As our original train out of the city was scheduled for around noon was rescheduled for 9:00 PM, we spent most of our time aimlessly driving around the city with few things to do. It was cold, a bit snowy, and, as with every other drive in China, perilous. Nonetheless, we had a good time. We went to a museum only to see that it was closed, then we were taken to see Xi’an’s artificial lake and park complex. Surrounded by contemporary architecture and statues, the lake-park-area-thingy was clean, pleasant, and vacant. Aside from a few stragglers, nobody seemed to stalk its walkways. This lack of humans did not stop me from giving my all at a balloon-shooting booth, as one would see at a carnival. I won a small bracelet, which boasted wood beads and fake jade. As it did not match my style, or lack thereof, I gave it to Lizzy, who I am sure immediately tossed it in the lake.

After our escapade in the park, we were vanned to the new mall to see a fountain music show, only to hear upon our arrival that it had been cancelled. Not to be out smarted, Cool and Mr. Wu brought us to a Muslim restaurant, where we walked in, through a warm dining room, and into a cold dining room. We were immediately presented with pancake like bread, and bowls, neither of which did any of us have any clue what to do with. Only after our triumphant guides came to the table did we know that we had to rip the bread up into tiny pieces into the bowls, which would then be brought into the kitchen and filled with yumminess. Our waitress brought out six plastic cups, and a kettle of tea. For reasons that I still do not comprehend, the tea went in the plastic cups. As the hot tea thinned the cup walls at an alarming rate, I said “When in Rome…” for the umpteenth time this week and drank it. Our food arrived within a matter of minutes and consisted of some noodles, some lamb, broth, and all of the bread that we had ripped up earlier. We ate under a cloud of cigarette smoke, surrounded by laughs and memories. Needless to say, it was fantastic. At the end of the meal, I went to the bathroom, which was really more of a war-torn post apocalyptic river basin than a hygienic facility, and caught the plague.

Woozy from the fumes of the bathroom, we went to the Shaanxi History Museum, which Cool had told us was the largest history museum in Asia. Immediately we believed him, as it was fairly large and boasted some old pottery, models, and arrowheads. However, after a meager 70 minutes, 90 minutes short of our 4:00 PM deadline, we realized that we had seen all of the museum’s exhibits and that it wasn’t really that big at all. We called Cool to pick us up, and soon departed the museum. We continued to drive aimlessly, and pulled over at a McDonald’s.

Before I talk about the McDonalds, I would like to clarify that it was NOT my idea, and that I am NOT the one who wanted to eat McDonald’s while in China. I didn’t even order anything. But, as today is my blog day, and Mickie D’s is part of today’s events, I will write about it. The restaurant had the same floor tiles as McDonald’s branches have in the US, and that is about as far as similarities go. The restaurant played a weird New Year themed techno song, which was about 15 seconds long, and looped for the entire time that we were there. This was, at first, endearing, as is beating one’s head against a wall. But like this activity, it became annoying and painful. Ryan ordered a burger and a McFlurry, of all things, and Chris and Lizzy both had coffee. Cool got some hot liquid that wasn’t coffee, and I got a feeling of satisfaction for holding out the longest against the influence of American food corporations.

After the torturous-music infested fast food encounter, we went to yet another museum, this one about art. We saw some pretty paintings, puppets, and got a crash course in calligraphy. We then bought some paintings made by art students, and were about to leave when the curator of the museum offered that we take our calligraphy work home with us. Because we were all terrible at it, we decided to donate them to the museum for a new wing of western attempts at Chinese art.

With an hour left before the beginning of dinner, we walked around the area of the same place where we had eaten two nights before, as someone thought it would be a good idea to eat hot pot again. During this hour, we went to Dunkin Donuts, which was very clean, happy, and had great workers. As we ate, a boy and his mother approached us, and he asked if he could take a picture with us. We happily obliged. We ate and talked for an hour, then went to an uneventful dinner.

After dinner, we went to the train station, which I was excited for. I had misplaced my excitement. The station was full of people trying to get home to families for the New Year, and one of my terra cotta warriors had his head broken off. A little Krazy Glue will fix it, but it is an inconvenience. We said goodbye to Cool and George Clooney, and sat in a surprisingly vacant waiting room for an hour. We got some mystery food, and went on the train.

Not much can be said about the train, other than the fact that we get our own room with four beds and plenty of space. After we had gotten all of our things under our seats and whatnot, we were in exploration phase, and looked around to see if there was anything interesting in our room. There wasn’t. During this exploration, however, Chris found a knob, labeled “Volume”. He turned it clockwise, out of a speaker in the ceiling bellowed some Gypsy music. At the risk of offending even more Gypsies with a blog post, it was not good music. We have, however, been feeling like we are Gypsies, as we live nomadically in a modern world. All that is left is for us to wear shawls and dance a bit less drastically.

Space Invaders

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:39:00 +0000

(Ryan)

Today was the day we visited Pangliu village. We started out early in the morning by piling into the van and heading towards the outskirts of the city. We picked up Richard on the way. For those of you who don't know, Richard is the amazing person who has coordinated most of our fantastic trip so far. Because of him, we have been able to pack so much into the past few days. On the way to Pangliu, he told us about his life growing up in the village and how hard school was for him and his classmates. Of all the students in his class, only two, including him, went on to University. The testing process had been extremely difficult when he was in school. On the journey into the village Richard explained how the city of Xi'an was expanding and soon even Pangliu would be absorbed by the condo complexes and parks.

When we arrived in Pangliu, it reminded me of the Bai villages we had seen ...
The village had many streets branching off from one another with houses one after another. We saw many farm animals on our journey through the streets. There were a lot more stares here then there was in the city. Most of the buildings were made of brick, but some of the older ones were made of hand made earthen bricks. Eventually, we made it to the school that Richard had helped build.

We walked through the gate into the courtyard as Richard conversed with the head of the school and the town. We then stayed in the office for a while and talked with the teachers and administrators, using Richard as a translator. There were a few laughs when Richard left the room, and we used our broken Chinese to try to continue the conversation. After the conversation was over, we headed upstairs to one of the classrooms. The kids were shy at first, but we soon got them talking, saying their names and favorite colors. They liked the stickers we handed out that had English words printed on them. Some were animal stickers, others were Nice! and Super! stickers. We then played a game where we would draw random things on the board and have them shout out the English words. We were surprised at the vocabulary of the kids. Not only were they naming animals, but sports, vehicles, emotions, and basic introductory sentences too. After a group photo, we bid our sad goodbyes to the students.

After the school, we went to one of the village greenhouses, which was a nice relief from the cold. It was amazing to see just how many greenhouses there were and how vast each one was. After the greenhouses, we made our way to the town clinic complex that also served as the administration complex of the town. Richard had also assisted in the construction of this building. Here, they showed us the village's website, which can be found at www.pangliu.com. We then headed to lunch at one of the villager's houses. It was a newer house with a beautiful mural near the front gate into the courtyard. Lunch was fantastic. My favorite dishes had to be a sort of pancake with scallions cooked in and hot Coke with ginger. We said our thanks, piled back into the van, and headed back to Xi'an.

Back in Xi'an, we visited an ancient Mosque. It was really cool to see a Mosque that combined Chinese architecture and design, with Islamic culture. During our journey through the mosque, we heard a faint whistling that got louder and louder as we approached the man building. What was even more confusing was that it seemed to be coming from the sky. Chris thought the noise sounded like an old Sci-Fi movie's alien invasion. It was not space invaders above us, but pigeons with whistles strapped to them. After the mosque, we spent a bit of time in the local markets bartering (much to Colin's delight). When Colin was finally content, we headed back to the hotel for a quick rest before dinner with Richard. Dinner was great! The pancake dish made a reappearance along with a deliciously sweet corn dish that looked like cornbread Chinese-style. We gave Richard our thanks and headed back to the hotel to end another fantastic day in China.

K(C)ool and The Gang

noreply@blogger.com (Rebecca) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 18:06:00 +0000

(Chris)

Before I explain the title of this blog entry, I'd like to first just re-visit what Lizzy probably talked about in her post. We had the opportunity to visit two small villages outside of the city of Dali a few days ago and these visits were very memorable for me. The people of these villages are of mostly Bai descent (one of the 56 minority groups within China). They were probably the nicest people I've ever met in my life!! The women of the village invited us to a wedding reception and to their temple while a group prayer was in session. In the pictures, these women are easily identifiable by their beautiful, ornate headdresses. Our tour guide, Nancy, was also of Bai descent and is the most pleasant person you will ever meet! (She's the one force-feeding Ryan at the temple.) She was so happy and proud to share her culture with us and it was an honor to be invited to such special events within this community. Please look through our pictures to get a glimpse of a culture that truly exemplifies what it means to be a good human being!!

Now, let me explain the title of this blog entry ...
We are now in Xi'an - a city of roughly 8 million people. This is about the same number of people that live in all 5 boroughs of New York City. It's huge, but it's not the biggest in China. I would categorize it as a medium-sized city by Chinese standards. We arrived yesterday and our tour guide introduced himself and I thought he told me his name was Ku. So, we were calling him Ku all evening. Then, before going to bed, he wrote down his name and phone number on some cards for us in case we needed him for anything. We learned that his name is not Ku, but actually Cool. That's right...Cool. Cool is very knowledgeable about Xi'an's history. He's a very pleasant man with a relaxed and 'chill' demeanor - his name fits him perfectly.

Today, Cool was at our hotel at 9:00 a.m. sharp to take us around (and outside) the city for what was a pretty long day for us. First, he explained the history of Xi'an and how its history goes back thousands of years. One interesting fact that we learned is that it was the eastern endpoint of the Silk Road. It was also the capital of China under several dynasties. History buffs would have a field day here!!

Our first stop was a museum dedicated the history of the Banpo village from the Neolithic age. This artifacts from this village are over 6,000 years old!! It was accidentally discovered in the 1950s and is now a valuable window into the early days of human civilization in what is now China. Fascinating stuff.

From there, we went out to see the Terracotta soldiers. Many of you may know about the history of these soldiers, but for those that don't, here's the Cliff Notes version. Some 2,200 years ago, a Qin Emperor had 720,000 people work for 38 years to create a mausoleum for him - this guy obviously thought he was pretty special. In addition to the mausoleum, he wanted an underground army to protect him/serve under him during the after life. So, he had people create thousands of terracotta (clay-based ceramic) life-sized soldiers, generals and officers. These figures were put in underground pits and when the emperor died, they sealed off all these pits. However, they were all mostly destroyed by years of wars/invasions and were left to be forgotten about forever. However, in the 1970's a group of farmers digging a water well discovered some pieces of the terracotta soldiers. What they found was to be an archaeologist's dream come true! For the past 30-40 years, archaeologists have painstakingly put the destroyed soldiers back together and now have many of them on display at the original site of their discovery (as seen in the pics). Only a fraction of them have been unearthed - there are many that are still buried. It was explained to us that they're waiting for some more advances in technology before they unearth the rest due to the fact that some of them still have the original paint/colors and this color fades away almost immediately when unearthed. Until they figure out a way to dig them out and preserve the original colors, they'll remain buried.

After leaving the excavation site, I enjoyed watching Colin, Ryan and Lizzy barter when buying souvenirs. Today, they wanted to buy some mini terracotta soldier replicas. They were hopping back and forth between street vendors trying to get the best deal. At one point, they had the employees of one store cracking up. Colin had a good exchange going with one man and managed to drop the price by almost 75%. I give them a lot of credit - bartering is not my thing. I give one price back and if they don't accept it, I give up. I'm just not good at that kind of stuff. Next time I buy a car, I'm taking these three with me.

After these fascinating insights into China's past, we then went to the opera house for a dumpling feast and a music & dance performance. We were served a new round of dumplings every 5 minutes or so. Some of the fillings we tried were shark fin, duck, pork, tomato & carrot, pickles and fish. Shortly after we finished dinner, we then were able to watch some folk dances from the various dynasties throughout China's history. It was great!

One thing that has been evident is that there is a big difference in theater etiquette compared with the U.S. When we go to the movies or to the theater in the U.S., we expect the audience to be quiet and to applaud (with at least some enthusiasm) at appropriate times. It's very different here. This was our second theater experience here and it is hard to enjoy the performance with all the noice and chatter that goes on around you. During the first performance we saw in Lijiang, people were talking very loudly for the first 20 minutes or so. People were shuffling in late trying to figure out their seats, making sandwiches with the supplies they brought in plastic bags, talking on their cell phones, etc... It made me feel a little anxious, but the noise level finally leveled out - moderately. When scenes/acts ended, the applause from the audience is rather weak. It's just a quick little clap and then back to the chatter. We experienced the same today. It was annoying, but you learn to accept the fact that it's a different culture and things run their own way.

One more week until we arrive in Hangzhou. This has been one wild ride - looking forward to more adventures.

Hope you're all doing well. Miss you!