Wats and Woks

Greetings from sweltering, cacophonic, high-strung Bangkok! I'd heard this place is nuts, and they weren't kidding. It's a melting pot (and we're all literally melting) of culture, consumerism, and chaos, but I find it strangely endearing. Perhaps because it is slightly reminiscent of Shanghai to me. 

While I'm relieved that we're not staying here long, I'm glad we stopped by - if only because I got to smell Auntie Anne's Pretzels, Starbucks coffee, Famous Amos Cookies, Subway subs ... Today we basked, gloried, reveled in the modernity of this city. As is easy to do when you've been away from those old favorites for awhile, we walked around the food court of a very classy mall, completely open-jawed and looking absolutely ridiculous in our sweaty, dirty, frumpy clothes that have traveled so many miles but will forever cease to look truly cute. But so it goes when you've worn the same three shirts for the last two months. (I can't wait to toss all these rags at the earliest opportunity.) 

After we had had our fill of free smells and a few select treats, we noticed that there was a cineplex in this mall as well - with everyone's Oscar favorites playing just in time for Hollywood's big event. Seizing the opportunity to continue to evade the 95-ish degrees outside, we bought crazy cheap tickets for the 3:30 show of Up In the Air, which I loved and found to be fitting for this time in American history and even my own life, a little bit. Sometimes I wish for 10,000,000 miles, too. :) 

So, I enjoyed my first day in Bangkok and am excited to explore a bit more tomorrow before taking the train off to our beach paradise destinations. That being said, our previous city, Chiang Mai, didn't live up to expectations and I was eager to hit the road after those days were up. It's a nice city for the culture and the thousands of temples (wats) therein, but I'm pretty much wat-ed out for a good long time. However, there was a definite highlight, which was attending a Thai cooking class with Katrina. We had hands on experience learning about some wonderfully fresh ingredients, and got to try our hand frying up yummy things like spring rolls, pad thai, the best coconut-mango sticky rice in the WORLD, and even some fire-stir fry ... in a huge flaming wok. The most memorable moment? When my enormous fire lit up in my wok, I got nervous, stepped back, and the pan fell to the ground. Luckily it extinguished itself immediately, but it did leave me feeling pretty shaky and grateful that everything turned out okay!

Well, I should get going and make some phone calls, but thanks for reading. And don't worry, I won't cook for you anytime soon. 

Please Don't Rush

Sawat-dee from Thailand! Today we left Laos and made it to our fourth, and kind-of final, country. Time does fly: two weeks from today I'll be flying home from our brief stopover in Malaysia!

So, reflections on Laos. It was a good time! I think my experience there can be summed up well in what our kayaking river guide said that "PDR" of "Laos PDR" really stands for: Please Don't Rush. Life in Laos was laid-back. People were friendly, and time seemed to move at a slower pace. (Or sometimes it stood still, as it seemed to when we got to glimpse village life in the hill country and saw lots of dirty and partially naked little children running around with pigs and chickens ...) While enjoying this relaxed pace, we got to spend a lot of time in the stunning natural surrounds: we spent a day playing in picturesque lagoons and waterfalls, another kayaking down a river with a very fun and friendly guide, and still another trekking through the hills in the northern part of the country (post the worst car ride I have ever taken - imagine taking your mother's minivan off-roading for seven hours. Katrina and I were lodged in the back of this minivan and were thrown around so much that we kept hitting our heads against the ceiling and one another's skulls. Needless to say, we felt a little woozy after that one.). Another thing that was fun for us was that our final extended stop in a town called Luang Namtha was really close to China, so we spent some time watching our favorite Chinese music videos (ha!) and the women's short program via CCTV. It's funny how I've stopped noticing that I still can't really understand much of the language, because it just sounds so familiar and almost comforting.

I was worried about crossing the border into Thailand today; after one rather "thrilling" experience from Nepal to India, I believe I'm scarred for life and was expecting the worst. However, everything went off without a hitch ... and Katrina even found her passport again, after taking the ferry back to the Laos side of the crossing. :)

I'll look forward to updating you on this magical little place in the next couple days! While you wait for this next post with eager anticipation, fill the time by doing something that makes you happy and telling someone you love them.

Love to YOU, my friends!

Speed Limit: 30 kph

Hello from Luang Prabang, Laos! With a move that took us about 100 miles north, we've left the  all-day Happy Hours and "Laobeer" singlets behind us. Suddenly, we have entered the realm of wine-tasting, art galleries, and handicraft boutiques. Essentially, we've progressed from Spring Break to mid-life-crisis in the span of about three days. Nice. Don't spread this around too much, but we like this crowd a little bit better: they're dressed a little more tastefully, know how to use inside voices, and eat better food, as a rule.

 

As you can see, it's gorgeous here. But, most awesome places are really hard to get to, and this was no exception. The bus ride was a dicey eight hours or something (the speed limit was about 18 mph ... ), and I don't think that there was any leg of the trip that didn't include hairpin curves along mountainsides. I'm used to this white-knuckle riding experience by now - and I don't think anything will ever top getting to Mt. Everest - but my stomach might never be. I felt pretty horrible the whole time, and my uncomfortable situation wasn't helped any by the fact that I had about half a seat. The other half was taken up by the giant seated next to me. I believe this man's neck was about the same circumference as my waist, so that was a blast ... especially when he would nod off and his head would come crashing onto me, threatening to break my collarbone or cause death by asphyxiation.

Other than the silliness of taking an entire working day to travel the distance between Milwaukee and Green Bay, I don't have too much to report. Oh! Except that we saw a Lao farmer wearing an old-school Brett Favre jersey!! Have I ever mentioned that sometimes globalization is awesome?!

On that note, this sleepy Wisconsin girl is off to bed. Go Pack Go?!

It Was Good.

Today was one of those perfect kind of days, the kind of day that makes you happy to be traveling, happy to be alive, and eager to have a day just like it again sometime..

For me, these days all tend toward some kind of mean: they pretty much always involve friends, food, fantastic scenery ... and more often than not, bikes. I can't explain this last element - I'm not even good at riding bikes and it makes my weak little legs sore. But, they're usually just thrown into the mix. At any rate, this is pretty much all I need to make me one happy camper.

Today's perfect day involved us renting those bikes and riding out of Spring Break Central 2010, a.k.a., Vang Vien, a town that seems to have been invented for foreigners. Here, the average age is about 21, most clothing consists of a bikini and little else, Friends episodes play on a loop at every guest house, and hash brownies are readily available. I feel a little bit like I'm on location for Girls Gone Wild: Laos. This isn't quite my cup of tea (really? shocking!), so riding out of town was like a breath of fresh air: we were finally in the countryside, we were being active, we were surrounded by beauty, no one was shouting "WHOOOO!" These are all good things. We biked and biked, explored some scary caves (me not liking the dark or small spaces, I was pretty proud of myself for even venturing in), and enjoyed the perfect weather.

The afternoon came and we grew quite hungry, and we spotted an organic farm! Yay! I was so excited as we approached; it was set in the most idyllic place, in a plot of land overlooking the river and spotted with hanging trees, bungalows, goats, and even piggies. And then I heard the dance music. Kanye, MGMT, and the Black Eyed Peas echoed throughout the surrounding valley, pretty much destroying the ambiance. However, nothing could have destroyed the taste of the mulberry shakes, the right-out-of-the-oven baguettes, the spicy eggplant dip, the freshest mango I have ever put to my lips, the coconut curry ... and the goat cheese. My god. The goat cheese. It was a truly remarkable gastronomic experience. We sat there the rest of the afternoon, too full and lazy to do anything else but order more mulberry shakes. Keep 'em coming.

Cambodia in Bits and Pieces

This post was written in far too many sittings to have any sense of coherence, so please excuse the length and sloppiness of the ideas here. In short, I've loved being here in Cambodia; read on to find out more! 

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I can't quite put my finger on why I am loving Cambodia so much. Maybe it's the fact that if I spin around in a circle in any given location, I will be able to spot someone lounging in a hammock. Or perhaps because my taste buds are thrilled by all the lime and coconut that flavors Khmer food, or the mango that is never more than a couple food stalls away. Maybe it has to do with all the nature that I was surrounded by for the first time in about half a year: trees, rivers, crickets, stars. (Stars!? If I saw A star in Wuxi, it was practically a miracle heralding the birth of the Christchild, or similar.) Or, maybe it's because the simple bamboo huts and palm trees that line the bumpy roads make it feel like I've landed in some quintessential tropical paradise. (I'm kind of just waiting for Oceanic 815 to come crashing into the nearest hillside. It feels like I'm on "the Island," sadly sans John Locke. This is clearly symptomatic of my LOST withdrawal.) But, they say that the people make the place, and the old saying has proven its truthfulness once again. The people of Cambodia are some of the most vibrant, friendly, and helpful people I've come across in all my travels. There's something to be said for the fact that I haven't felt scammed, cheated, or threatened in any way since being here. Further, I haven't felt frustrated or annoyed by swarms of people hounding me, trying to get me to buy this or that trinket or service that I have no desire to have. Instead of feeling pressured and irritated, I feel welcomed, and this is such a breath of fresh air.

The smiles of the Khmer people are truly some of the most beautiful I've ever seen, something that is all the more incredible given the bloody and horrific history that the people here are only a generation or two removed from. Just a little over 30 years ago, Cambodia was under the iron fist of the brutal Khmer Rouge, a revolutionary Communist party that promised total social reform. If you consider horrifically destructive policies and genocide that decimates a quarter of your country's population "social reform," then the party certainly delivered. During my time in the chaotic capital of Phnom Penh (a city our always-has-something-positive-to-say-about-every-place guidebook calls "the tarnished pearl of Asia"), it was mind-numbing to learn of the horrors of the forced labor in rice paddies, the torture that supposed political dissenters received (for crimes such as "singing," or "expressing affection"), and the mass executions for such undesirable types that followed. Estimates vary, but historians surmise that anywhere from 750,000 - 2 million people were killed in this political upheaval. Our visit to the prison and the mass graves was sobering indeed. Such lunacy seemed impossible to comprehend.

It has taken years of rebuilding for Cambodia to get back on its feet, and it still has a long way to go. The destructive policies of the past have ramifications that last today. Because many families are beset by poverty and cannot afford to send their children to school, the kids end up working in the streets, selling trinkets and snacks. I read one statistic that estimated that there are about 40,000 street children living in Cambodia, with somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 in Phnom Penh alone. It was heartbreaking to have to say  "No Thanks," and "Sorry, don't need it" over and over again to these kids who tried to sell us the same postcards, bracelets, or keychains at every opportunity. Another problem that Cambodia faces is that there are still hundreds of thousands of active landmines left over from both the US and the Khmer Rouge during the time of the Vietnam War. These mines explode to this day, injuring, maiming, and killing thousands of people every year.

It was so frustrating to see such problems first hand, but there are ways that we can help. You can learn more about the plight of street children or landmine victims, and find out ways that you can contribute to organizations that are working to give Cambodia a better future. Some organizations that I recommend are: 

cambodialandminemuseum.org and mithsamlanh.org

Both are keeping kids off the streets and helping them acquire both knowledge and skills that will empower them to contribute to their own country's future. It's good stuff. I know I'll be tracking these orgs for years to come.

They say that Cambodia sticks to you. You can feel its red dust, the grittiness of its cities and the sands of its beaches on your skin. For me, it has left an impression that will be long-lasting; it has a past that is both glorious (as seen the architectural and artistic extravagance of the absolutely stunning Ankor Wat) and horrific, and a future that is just as ambiguous. Whatever becomes of Cambodia in the next couple decades will be interesting to see; I hope the smiles and open hearts of its people can help them to repair a broken past and pave the way for a better future.

As for our trip, it is now halfway through! It's hard to believe, but we're flying to our third country tonight. With some prayers and good fortune, we'll be in Vientiane, the capital of Laos tonight. I'm not sure what's in store for us there, but I'm eager to set my feet on some new soil, as much as I would love to continue to explore the country I'm currently in. But, this is just a "sampler platter" of South East Asia after all; maybe I'll be able to make it back for a main dish some other time.

Also, thanks for the birthday wishes! 23?! How did that happen?! Sheesh. Life's crazy, and it flies. Thanks for sharing it with me. Here's to another wonderful year. :)

Uncle Ho v. Uncle Sam

Hello, friends!

The past couple days have flown by, and I've suddenly found myself in the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. But, I'll get to that some other time. First: HCM City.

We stumbled off the bus at 7am, bleary-eyed and barely awake, searching all over for a place to stay. The streets were chaos, completely overrun with tuk-tuks and motorbikes and people and their food stalls spilling out from every nook and cranny of the sidewalk. It was already unbelieveably hot, and we seemed to look at  one dodgy hotel after another in our search. After trying about 5 or 6 different places, we finally found a place to sleep that seemed reasonably comfortable and fairly priced and ended our hour long search, pretty soaked and glad to ditch our bags. (The highlight of our search was that we stumbled upon a restaurant that sold real, homemade cookies and bagels ... a breakfast sent from heaven! Literally. We found out later that the place was actually a Christian NGO that gets kids off the streets and into a safe place where they can gain work experience. More on this topic later, I hope?)

Because of time constraints (there always is when you're doing an entire region of the world in 2 months), we had to hustle to see of much of the city as we could in one day. We took an unbelieveably cheap "cyclo" ride (a man biking, pushing both Jones and I for about 15 minutes through insane traffic and heat ... we felt awful that we had negotiated the price down as much as we did once we realized how far it was!) Our first stop was the highly memorable war Rements Museum, formerly known as the "American War Crimes Museum." This alone should give you a pretty good idea of what you found inside. There were heart-breaking pictures of napalm victims and those who suffured the after-effects of Agent Orange, of bombed villages and mothers escaping the battle with their children. It made you feel sick inside, like you didn't want to believe that people have had to undergo such horrors in their lives.

Our next stop (after Gloria Jean's Coffee - what? Gloria Jean's Coffee, my old place of employment at Mayfair Mall, has a branch in HCMC?!) was the Reunification Palace. I know that North Vietnam broke though the gate, which pretty much signaled the end of the war; other than that, I couldn't tell you much, as it was the lamest museum I've ever been to (no plaques, no information, nothing - just a lot of gross 70's era furniture) and I didn't learn anything. The fun thing about it was that we saw three guys at the entrance, including one wearing a Badger hat and one wearing Gator athletic shorts. They were indeed WI and FL alum (the D1 schools of my family - sorry Kristen, no LAX grads ...) and we ended up getting along famously and spending the rest of the day with them.

What I will carry with me from the Reunification Palace was the documentary they showed, giving a brief history of the Vietnam War. Yet again, we witnessed the loaded and provokative language used to describe those pesky "American imperialists." This was taken a step further at our day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels the next day. It took a long time to get there (we visited the Caodai temples first - a very strange religion where both Victor Hugo and Sun Yat-Sen hold the third revelation of God to man, the first two being from Moses and Jesus. Hm ... ) but once we arrived we watched yet another documentary that informed us how the Americans came in to Vietnam with the intent of 1) Slaughtering women and children 2) Bombing Hanoi back into the Stone Age and 3) Subjecting South Vietnam to their imperialist regime. It's true that all these things might have happened in some way or another, and to say that this is a tragedy would be a cruel understatement. But to say that it was the intent? Meanwhile, the video depicted the valor of the Viet Cong "martyrs," and told stories about soldiers who recieved awards for "killing the most American enemies." Now, I've heard of the American government awarding its soliders medals for honor or bravery, but never for killing the most people.

Then we saw the tunnels that were used by the VC as hideouts, and also some of the weapons that they used in their guerilla warfare. They were homespun, ingenious, and horrific. Certainly no one's going to say that Agent Orange was a good idea, but is creating a device that will send another person flying down into a jungle pit to be impaled by bamboo spikes any less brutal? How can you condemn someone else's brutality in one breath and applaude your own in the next? It made me so sad to think that these are the videos that are being shown to the world, shown to all the foreign tourists about all the terrible things that evil old America did. We get enough bad press already. Do we really need sensationalized, even blatantly untrue propoganda against us as well? It was troublesome indeed and left me pretty agitated.

But now I've left Vietnam behind me. Truthfully, I'm glad to be gone. While there were places that I liked a lot, there were no places that I loved. While we came across really friendly people, there were a lot of people who didn't treat us very well (shocking, given the information they recieve about Americans ...). I don't believe that you could get a truly fair and representative picture of a place if you're only there a couple weeks, but you can get a good feel. And, I've been to lots of places that I've gotten a better "feel" from in the same amount of time. (China, Palestine, and Nepal, most notably.) I'm eager to see how the next leg of the trip, Cambodia, works out! I'm feeling optimistic!

The Nha Trang Beach Diet

Experts will tell you that there are a few things you should do to lose weight in a healthy manner. You know, exercising, limiting your sugar and carbohydrate intake, eating lots of fresh fruits vegetables, possibly some lean meats ... this is old news. I've recently discovered a new way, however, which is most convenient for those who are traveling in foreign countries, or for those who are fortunate enough to play host to a colony of bacterium living in your gut. I like to call it the Nha Trang Beach Diet.

On this diet, you simply lose your appetite completely, and when you do consume calories of any kind, you simply expel them as quickly as possible. While you won't have enough energy to burn calories the good old fashioned way (such as by sitting upright, walking around, going down a flight of stairs), you should burn enough by simply sweating feverishly, whimpering, and calculating the pros and cons of getting the next flight out of Ho Chi Minh City to a more developed country, such as the one you were born and raised in.

By following these simple steps for just a couple short days, your body will be bikini-ready, for the beach that you may or may not care to visit any longer.

For concerned parents and grandparents reading this post, please do not rush to contact the nearest US embassy to have me airlifted out of this country. I am, in fact, feeling better today, and will make it a point to go to some legitimate, English-speaking health-care provider in our next city (Saigon / HCMC) to see if I can't get some meds that will hopefully kick out whatever has been lingering in my system. Contrary to what you may have heard, traveling when you're ill is not actually that fun, so I'm rather keen to make it stop.

But, like I said, if you're interested in being trimmed and toned, I have one word and one word only: parasites.

No Pain, No Beauty

Ah, the wonders of the myriad of cheap merchandise that can only be obtained abroad. Shopping and vanity have consumed us for the last 48 hours, here in Hoi An, a beautiful riverside village that got its claim to fame for the thousands of tailors that line its quiet streets.

Hoi An captivated us from the moment we got off the bus. All of a sudden, it was warmer, more laid-back, more tropical ... more like the South East Asia of my dreams. Or ... Cancun? While we've been shocked at the number of tourists in every city that we've been to thus far, here it was really taken to the next level. But, I guess most places are touristy for good reason - they have something that people want to see. And frankly, delicious food, unbeatable climate, and droves of women who are willing to make you your own custom-tailored outfit ain't a bad combination. I can see why the tour groups linger.

As did we. The day of shopping began early yesterday morning, and didn't stop till late in the evening. For those of you who know me, you'll know that I'm not a very good shopper. In fact, I strongly dislike it most of the time. I'm way too overwhelmed by the amount of choices that I face, and, being unable to decide, nearly always come away empty-handed, dissatisfied, and suffering from buyer's remorse from whatever I did buy. My mother can attest to the number of times I have come back from Khol's, the Gap, Old Navy, or wherever moderately priced items are found, tried on my purchases again, and then driven back a day later and returned whatever it was that caught my fancy for five minutes in the fitting room. Add a little bit of heat to the mix, and you have a recipe for an exceptionally crabby me.

But, there was no time for crabbiness here! There were too many vendors cluttering the streets, and too many cute ensembles to be too worried about not coming away with some ounce of success, however trifling. My success seemed destined. By the time darkness fell, I had put down payments down for shorts, a tank top, sandals, and four summer dresses - all of which were going to be perfectly tailored for ME!

The shopping continued today. Only, having already spent a great deal of money and owing a great deal more, our "shopping" was more or less confined to the trying-on and re-fitting of that which had already been purchased. While I cannot say that I am absolutely satisfied with my purchases, I can also say that being completely satisfied just isn't in my nature. If they will never be perfect, I am okay with having made "very good" purchases.

Once all my items were collected, accounted for, and paid for (it was more of a task than you would imagine, revisiting tailor after tailor in streets lined with shops that are essentially identical ... thankfully, Jones has a wonderful memory and sense of direction, and was able to draw a map of where we thought all of our stores would be. Not many shopping excursions also involve cartography, she commented), we split ways to take care of some other business. I was in the market for some small gifts for people, and went, strangely enough, to the market. After having made my purchases, I was wandering around, taking in the sights of all the commotion and activity, when stopped by a lady asking me if I wanted a 1 dollar manicure. I asked if she could do pedicures instead, she said of course. Not being naive enough to know that this would not be without a catch, I followed her to her stall and was ready to stand my ground against the other things that I knew she would try to get me to buy.

Before I knew it, I was getting my lip threaded (I mean, she had a point - it isn't very beautiful to have hair on your upper lip ...). And then my eyebrows (Well, they could use a good tweezing, and it's nice to have someone else do it ...). And then -- my goodness! -- my whole face! As my eyes streamed with tears and my face turned numb with the pain of having every little peach fuzz ripped from my flesh, the lady slapped my thigh playfully and told me to stop being such a baby. "No pain, no beauty! Do you think it is beautiful to have hair all over your face? What will your boyfriend think?" (I don't know! What does Matthew think?! What if he just never told me that he finds my werewolvian hairiness revolting?!)

Then, I was told that I have "many pimples," and that my skin was "not good, not beautiful, like mine" and that I should let her fix. And so she proceeded to miraculously pop or remove every old pimple and blackhead on my face. At this point my self-esteem had pretty much hit rock-bottom, and so I justified this additional service to myself, thinking, that she could make me more beautiful. (She does have very nice skin, she must know.) This was a rather painful process, as you might imagine, but as my eyes welled with tears again, I was comforted -- her sister ran to her aid, seizing the opportunity to give me a foot massage. I tried to tell her, "No! No! Stop! I don't need a foot massage!" But each time she said, "Doesn't it feel good though?" Yes. Yes, you're right. It feels amazing. I can't say no. I surrender.

Yes, beauty is pain - but not as painful as walking away from my 1 dollar foot massage 18 dollars poorer. Oh, I am so weak-willed ... but at least I'll have painted toes, sculpted eye-brows, and a fuzz-free-face devoid of blackheads to go with my new dresses.

Noise Torture

I write to you from an overcrowded youth hostel with really loud Jack Johnson music playing 18 hours a day, and a steady stream of buzzed Austrailians constantly floating in and out of the lobby. It seems that I can't escape noise wherever I go, lately. I am currently longing for silence ... the next paragraphs will explain why.

Finally, we're on the move! I'm so grateful for this, especially after a slow start due to the yucky weather in Hanoi. We wanted to wait out the drizzle a couple days until we set out for Halong Bay, a gorgegous area off the coast known for all of its thousands rocky limestone peaks jutting out of the water. We were so ready to leave Hanoi (especially me, having been there nearly a week!), and we clamoured into a van filled with odd sorts of tourists. Jones and I had to sit together on the front seat, and I felt a bit like an excited kid who got to sit in the front seat of a semi-truck. It was interesting to watch the landscape fly past us, getting increasingly more rural. There were constant signs, though, that we were nowhere near being off the so-called "beaten track" - the entire tour bus stopped on the side of the road, all its participants having gotten out to snap photos of people working in the rice paddies, for instance. Sigh. Sometimes being a tourist is highly embarassing.

When we got to Halong Bay - which I later heard someone refer to as the "Wisconsin Dells of Vietnam" - we got aboard our lovely little house boat, which would take us around the bay for the next day. Dells or not, it was a beautiful setting, and I really enjoyed the trip. We had a good time talking to our fellow passengers - the newlyweds from Israel, the intellectual brother and sister from Germany who were enjoying the surplus of vacation time that Europeans are privy to, the grad students from Austrailia ... The afternoon passed lazily, and we layed on top of the deck enjoying the first sunshine of the trip. However, the most memorable part of the excursion was most definitely the post-dinner entertainment. As we all sat around enjoying good conversation with the Germans (the man was just about to start a job working for Google), we were interrupted by our squirrely guide, who suggested that now it was time to start karaoke. But, I don't want to do karaoke ... I want to continue talking about the German health care system. Unfortunately, no one asked me - or anyone else on board, for that matter - and we were then subjected to a full two and a half hours of what could actually be considered noise torture. Within 15 minutes, the party had effectively been killed, with all its members having disappeared into their cabins to seek solace from the unbearable skreeching coming from the 1980's sound system. Within 20 minutes, I was ready to volunteer any amount of information pertaining to national security to make it stop, disclosing all of America's secrets to absolutely anyone who wanted to know.

Finally, it did stop (the two crew members who had been enjoying their favorite Vietnamese hits must have finally decided to call it a night), and I had a decent night's sleep, gearing up for our next day's stop, Cat Ba Island. Cat Ba Island is a really scenic spot, and we had a couple hours to make a hike up one of its hills prior to lunch. There was really no warning that this would be a rather strenuous hike, and I was frankly quite grateful that I'm in at least decent shape, or I really would have been out of luck. It was hard, and back home it never would have flown to just let any ole person hike up all that way, without any sort of nod to the fact that they could slip on the mud and fracture valuable appendages. (Something that I have learned is that in Asia, everything must be undertaken "at your own risk.") Me and my trusty Tevas made it through the trek, but I've definitely done easier things in my life.

In the afternoon, Jones and I decided it would be worth our while to take a short boat trip out to the nearby Monkey Island, a deserted place with (get this) lots of monkeys living there. (The eccentric older Israeli in our group was disappointed with this, saying that he would have rather gone to "Woman Island. I want an island filled with women, not monkeys." Our tour guide was confused.) At this point in my travels, monkeys have very little power to captivate me for more than 20 seconds, and I mostly dislike them actually, finding them to be disgusting, flea-bitten little creatures. So, we lazed away on some rocks near the shore, reading. Until we realized that the boat was pulling away. And that we were not on it. We had to quickly hustle down the beach, and found that our Israeli friend had also been left behind. The boat had to turn around and get us all. Whoops. I wouldn't have liked to be left on Monkey Island for a night! That sounds like a bad horror movie.

From Halong Bay, we had to make it back to Hanoi, from where we had to board an overnight, sleeper bus that took us to our current location. This was an experience worthy of its own blog post, but I'll summarize it by saying this: Imagine the Knight Bus of Harry Potter, and take away any and all romantic elements within. Imagine instead a regular-sized bus, with three rows of bunk beds stacked two high, and about ten beds per row. Imagine that the beds are about 30 inches across, and that they don't lay back completely, so as to make room for whose-ever feet are behind you. Your own feet fit into a small cubicle, which isn't tall enough for your feet to fit in straight up and down (even if your feet are only a women's size 8, at the most...). Imagine that even if you're only 5'4", you don't have enough space to lay completely back without scrunching up your legs. And then imagine that you are laying directly next to two other strangers, having been shoved in the back of the bus and escorted to your crappy seat, because you're just a crappy foreigner. To top it off, try and hear the painfully loud dialogue of shockingly awful local movies, alternating with equally loud mariachi music that turns on and off in conjunction with the blindingly bright lights at sporadic intervals throughout the middle of the night and harshly wake you from your slumber - if that's what you can call whatever semi-conscious state you're in.  If you can picture this, you can picture my situation.

There's little that I won't do for cheap transportation, but this might be one of those things that won't be eagerly revisited.

Well, I should go. I actually have to go catch a bus ... Hopefully they'll play good music on it.

Rainy Days and Museums

After spending a few days loping around Hanoi all by my lonesome (surviving a fun day and a half bout of food-poisoning ... guess no trip is complete without it ...) Jones finally arrived this morning! We were pleased that the whole exchange of meeting in a foreign country went off without a hitch, but I'm sure our mothers were even more pleased, given our reputations as being slightly, uh, shall we say, scatter-brained? :)

So. Vietnam. The tour begins in earnest! We were excited for our first stop on the "Banana Pancake Trail" (so named because of the spattering of Western establishments serving up the old-standby to hungry, hungry hippies roaming South East Asia back in the day), but weren't quite ... exactly ... sure what to do here. Another traveling companion who was to accompany us on the journey actually planned out this leg, but decided not to join us for it. Hm. We'll call this a bit of a pickle, seeing as neither Jones or I really did our research on how to get around Vietnam, devoting ourselves instead to planning our respective countries or getting massages or whatever the heck else we did to fill our time in China.

Luckily, the weather kind of determined our day for us. It was a yucky, cold rain all (um, thought I left monsoon behind me?!), so we decided to hit a bunch of the museums after breakfast. Our first stop was the History Museum. In my opinion, if you've seen one, you've seen ... most of them. There aren't very many museums of generic history that could entertain me for very long. Ahhh, potsherds. Ohhhh, a spoon from 10,000 BC. Meh. It had the advantage of keeping us dry for 20 minutes longer than we would have otherwise been.

After a lunch at a delightful little cafe - Hanoi is loaded with them, I guess the French were good for something? - we headed to the Hao Lo Prison Museum, which was actually pretty fascinating. Originally built by the French and used to detain Vietnamese reactionaries in incredibly inhumane conditions, it was eventually used by the North Vietnamese to detain American POW's during the war, including John McCain. While we had heard that McCain was tortured so severely there that he tried to commit suicide twice, the videos in the museum showed American soldiers having barbeques, playing volleyball, and "learning to appreciate the generosity of the North Vietnamese, which they had not understood before." Putting America's own record in Vietnam completely aside, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that anyone who is tortured so severely they try to kill themselves is probably not enjoying these aforementioned barbeques and humane conditions. The same video that proclaimed the generosity of the NV captors also celebrated the "vanquishing of the evil American imperialists," so it was pretty hard to believe in its neutrality with such loaded language. After some further research into the matter, it appears as though there was some serious propaganda going on; the conditions were, in fact, awful. Naturally, no one's going to lay claim to that. Of course, every country has propaganda, and no one has a squeaky-clean past, but it was a little disturbing to see it displayed so ... blatantly.

Our final museum stop of the day was the Hanoi Women's Museum, which had two exhibits: One show-casing all the bravery of women who stood up for the Communist party during the war and even gave their lives for the cause, and one displaying photos, videos, and stories of the street vendors in Hanoi. This one was more compelling to me, given the fact that I see these ladies everywhere. Apparently, these are women who cannot make enough money farming their land in the countryside, and thus have to come to urban areas to try and make enough to feed their families. They sell vegetables, baked things, plastic wares, straw mats, flowers, whatever. A couple years ago, the local government tried to prohibit such activity, as it some claim that it is disruptive to the development of the city. It was heartbreaking to hear their stories of their struggles: up at 3am everyday, only to stay out, walking around with heavy carts or baskets, until nightfall. All this for a couple USD a month?

It's times that like when I just feel like an incredible snot; I'm so lucky that I not only have food, shelter, clothing - basic things that others work so hard for - but I have so, so much beyond that. How many people in the world can just nonchalantly buy a plane ticket to another country, travel frivolously, and eat bruschetta just 'cuz they feel like it?

Ah, the cards we're dealt aren't fair, so I'm just going to feel a bit extra thankful tonight. Thanks for reading; I'm glad I could share my day with you!

Oh PS, Jones and I ate dinner with a guy from WHERE tonight?! Yep, Madison, WI. It's a small world after all. : ) Go Badgers!

I DO Have Friends, Honest ...

I did it! I survived my first solo travel experience! A plane, a train, two hostels ... For experienced wanderers, this is probably nothing to get too excited about, but having not gone too many places on my own, especially places outside of China, I'm pretty pleased.

Now I just have to stop feeling like a kid at camp. I'm staying at this giant, crowded hostel in Hanoi, and I feel like a total loser.

For one thing, since I got in yesterday morning, I haven't ventured out further than a half-mile radius around my home-base. Truly, this is because it wasn't my goal to come here and see all sorts of things. It was my goal to spend these free days waiting for my friends to come by planning my section of the trip and catching up on things that I've left unattended for awhile. I've done pretty good on both accounts, but I feel self-conscious from sitting at the computer for so long ...

Further, my room yesterday was filled with seven-ish girls from Melbourne who all knew each other and had traveled different sections of their trip together. The host of the hostel noticed me sitting by myself, eating some breakfast and waiting to check in. He was asking me about room preferences and said, "Well, there's a group of girls that all just got in too. They seem pretty cool. It's probably time to start making friends, right??" Ugh. You could tell already that I'm the antisocial type? The girl whose counselor tries to convince her that it will be fun to meet new people?

I've told myself that I'm not actually this shy. I think if I weren't waiting for my friends to come, my mindset would be a lot different and I would probably take more initiative in meeting and mingling with people, and it would probably be a really good experience. But that's for another time.

I did have a more positive meeting-people-experience yesterday. I was sitting at a cafe, working on planning some stuff for Thailand, and a man at another table asked me where I was from. I told him, and it eventually came up that I'd just been in China for awhile. He started speaking to me in Chinese, which was fun, as I thought I wouldn't get to speak it again for ages. Then a girl sitting nearby overheard, and joined in the conversation in Chinese as well. She was about my age, had majored in Chinese, and had studied in China for two years. We chatted a bit, and she was really sweet.

Well, I should probably get off the computer. Not because I have so many cool things to see and do, but because I can't handle the host walking past again and seeing me here ... still ...

All the Info You Need, All In One Convenient Post!

From Thanksgiving to New Year's, All in One Post!

Why waste your valuable time reading through multiple posts about the mundane affairs of my daily life, when you could read just one post about everything that's happened to me in the last two months in just one easy-to-read entry!? Now, for a limited time only, you can! For you, valued reader, this is a FREE* service! So act quickly, read TODAY!

You see, it's really all for your convenience that I haven't written in ages. I wanted to do one giant update, to save you the hassle of needlessly clicking on links ...

Actually, that's all a lie, and the truth is that I just suck at doing anything consistently, so my apologies if you have in fact been waiting for an entry since Thanksgiving. But it's a new year, and with a new year comes the opportunity to make positive changes. Or, more aptly, the opportunity to go on making the same mistakes over and over again. But, we keep trying, so here goes.

I find myself already in the third week of a new year, asking myself where the time has gone, and how things seem to have come full-circle so quickly. The final weeks of 2009 were filled with a lot of the good kind of busy-ness (such as Christmas parties, end-of-semester parties, planning for my fast-approaching tour de South East Asia, and getting ready to welcome a pile of American visitors) and some of the bad kind of busy-ness (such as dealing with the aftermath of a lost debit card with the most incompentent bank in the world, writing final exams, figuring out exit and entry visa requirements and dates to any number of foreign countries, and beginning the process of packing up and moving out of Wuxi).

Before I even had time to realize it, I found myself on a bus headed for PuDong airport (at an almost imperceptible and insanity-inducing crawl, due to incredible traffic), and finally reached the International Arrivals terminal to greet my travel-weary family and boyfriend. Thus commenced over a week of good old-fashioned Chinese fun! It was a wonderful blessing to be able to share my love for China with my loved ones. We were able to accomplish some of the "mandatory" things: We walked through People's Square in Shanghai, we wandered the Old Town and the Yu Gardens, we traveled to the top-ish of the Shanghai World Financial Center for pricey drinks and what was supposed to be impressive views of the skyline ... Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Bund, due to stupid construction. Really, Shanghai? You're just going to close down the Bund, the most recognizable landmark in the city? Thanks for nothin'. Then we traveled onto Tongli, a water village outside the city for a glimpse at the more rural side of China, all thanks to Hao and his family's insurmountable hospitality to us. Hao and his uncle drove us to Wuxi in our packed van, where my family had a chance to see a little bit of my daily life. We had a meal in "the vil" (where we accidentally consumed fried snake ... yum?), and they got to hang out in my apartment for awhile while I administered my students' final exam. That night was a highlight for me, as we were able to host a "wild" KTV party for my students. I think it was as fun for my students to meet a whole posse of laowai as it was for my visitors to see Chinese students take charge of the microphone and belt out their pop favorites. From Wuxi, we took the most luxurious train that I will ever take (the D soft sleeper!) to Beijing, where we met with a family friend, Tony, for a day of local treats and good eats. The highlight of Beijing was of course the Wall, which doesn't fail to disapoint, even the second time around. After a few chilly days in the North, our trip had us end up back in Shanghai, with just enough time for naps, some Western food, and some seriously strategic packing.

And then they were gone! And I was all alone for the first time in over a week, and it was snowing in Shanghai, and I had to find the Vietnamese consulate. It was a long day ...

When I found myself back in Wuxi for the final time, I had just a couple days to do a final run-through of my apartment and play "To Pack or Not to Pack." I also had the thrilling opportunity of adminstering exit exams for EFL students, which was certainly the time of my life (or not). Two days of listening and reading the same answers over and over ... In case you're interested, their favorite move is Titantic, their favorite movie star is Bruce Lee, and Shanghai is the place that they would most like to visit in the whole world. Apparently, this is true for about 90% of the EFL students at Lambton, or so says our survey. All this excitement, AND a classroom with no heat?! Lucky us! Finally, my last full day in the Wu was spent in an absolutely mad, stressful dash of turning in grades, portfolios, and keys, and trying to get signatures and money from various people scattered around the administration buildings (oh yes, and breaking my friends ebike and lock. Sorry Carl ...). As Katrina aptly put it, "It's like a scavenger hunt." Yeah, a really unfun one. It's a little embarassing to admit, given the fact that my life isn't stressful or demanding at all, but after all that last-minute running around, I collapsed back in my apartment and felt the kind of relief that I felt after a week of exams or completed papers. It's funny how we adapt to whatever situation we're in, and have just enough strength for whatever the task may be, and no more.

On Friday morning, I found myself beginning my journey out of China. There were some more tears shed, and soon I was on a train, saying goodbye to Wuxi forever, probably. Even though I was only there for a short while, it left an impression on my life, and it will always be an important place to me. I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunity I had; I couldn't have asked for more in an extended stay in China. I spent a day an a half in Shanghai, spending some quality time with Hao and sharing one more sad goodbye before jetting off to Nanning in southern China, where I am currently writing this post from. Tonight, I will board my train bound for Hanoi and bid my zaijians to China (though hopefully not forever. After all, zaijian does literally mean "See you again!"). However excited I am for South East Asia, I can't help but feel bittersweet about this whole situation. I think I'll feel better once I hit the road in earnest and get rid of all this slow, painful process of goodbye.

Like the description of my blog says, "The Road goes ever on and on." So, I guess now my road is leading me out of one country that I love dearly, and into another fascinating region of the world. It can't be stopped, so I'm left to follow it eagerly. Here's to the beginning of a new journey! Thanks for accompanying me along the way; your support means more than you know.

*Though the writer would appreciate a donation to her travel fund. No? Alright, I'll survive. Thanks for reading. :)

Just Say No to Imitation Mashed Potatoes

Greetings, to my hopefully fattened and merry friends!

I write to you from Wuxi, where I am probably fatter than I used to be, but sadly not because of excessive amounts of pie and leftover turkey sandwiches. This is the plight of an American living in a country where both pies and turkeys are very hard to find (though a student suggested that I try Wal Mart...).

There was a slight interruption in my normal weekly schedule last week for a certain holiday that I'd rather not discuss. But, it deserves a little attention, so the short story is that a huge crowd of teachers went to our regular bar hangout for a celebratory gathering and a catered meal and karaoke (naturally). I'll admit I had pangs of homesickness when I was staring at my plate of identifiable meat - I was told it was turkey, but maybe you haven't heard that China is really good at bootlegging stuff - cold mashed potatoes, and and stir-fry ... sigh. The company was good, but it wasn't home, and it wasn't family. (The highlight was most definitely that my friend Bret somehow secured a video of a 2008 Packers-Vikings game that we played on a giant projector screen to recreate the tradition of football. He's always lookin' out for us WI girls, which we appreciate!) However, speaking with an ounce of sincerity for once, there is certainly a lot to be thankful for this year. It has been a year of wonderful, life-defining experiences for me, and I'm so grateful that I have people back home willing to support me despite my aimless wandering and poor selection of a major in the liberal arts. 

Moving along, past marred Thanksgiving traditions, teaching has also been a treat as of late. After seeing their current grades and realizing how dangerously close they are to failing, my kids have started working hard! They spent this week trying to master the past continuous tense ("I was sleeping when you called"), and I gave them an assignment to make comic book pages to illustrate their understanding of the grammar. This was very fun, but there seemed to be an inordinate amount of people suffering from freak accidents. Hm. Maybe this Chinese humor is just over my head.

Oh, I heard there were some requests to see pictures from my classes, so here you  have it!

Here are students learning some tricky word order changes in some sentence pattern or another. These guys are some of my more brave volunteers! They're good sports.

I walked in one day to see my entire class sitting on one side of the room. Recognizing my confusion at this change of scenery, they explained to me that they all wanted to huddle together by the sunlight for warmth. Not only was this adorable, but it goes to show how amazingly cold our classrooms are, and how amazingly sensitive Chinese people are to the cold!

 

I'm not sure how / why this picture came to pass, exactly, but this is one of my classes. :)

Well, I'm going to relish in the fact that it's a Friday afternoon and that I can take a nap. Thanks for reading, and enjoy your weekend! (Remember, it is only socially accceptable to listen to all the Mariah Carey Christmas you can handle for THREE more weeks! Better get your fix while you still can!)

My Primary Occupational Hazard

To say it rains a lot in Wuxi now would be a bit of an understatement. While this pretty much sucks overall, it does have the fortunate side effect of giving me even more things to be amused at on a day to day basis. For instance, I've never seen a group of people love umbrellas as much as these students seem to. This was a scene I recently witnessed outside a classroom:

This collection actually wrapped around the corner of the building, but sadly, my camera couldn't capture the sheer abundance of nylon and aluminum. While these umbrellas may seem very harmless whilst sitting, waiting for their owners to retreive them after lecture (unless a student comes late ... what happens then? How do they get in the classroom?), they are a rather dangerous and fomidable obstacle when they are seen in action on the road. I've mentioned before that part of my daily routine is riding to class on my bike. As of late, this has been a bit complicated because of one of the primary occupational hazards of teaching in Wuxi: Students with umbrellas.

Students who carry umbrellas are responsible for 99% of the close calls that I face on my bike every day. This is due to the fact that most of them hold their umbrellas out in front of themselves, like a shield. While this strategy may prove useful in attempting to prevent their flimsy contraptions from popping inside out, it has the unfortunate consequence of completely eliminating their field of vision. Not good - especially for the rest of us on the road. 

While it was bad enough trying to weave through traffic jams comprised of literally thousands of other people and bicycles on a good, sunny day, the additional element of the umbrellas has really taken my morning adrenaline rush to the next level. Now, not only I am battling the wind, the rain, constantly deflated tires, and squeeky brakes, I am also weaving through hordes of head-phoned clumps of people who are making their way to class and now have no straightahead or peripheral vision. Excellent.

Now, I have become quite an able-bodied biker in my short time here. I can bike with one hand, I can bike up ramps, I can bike down ramps, I can get off my bike while still in motion (and I look oh-so-cool doing it, I'm sure) ... I have even mastered the art of sending text messages while I bike, a little something I picked up from every other person on the road. However, I don't know how much longer I will be able to fight throngs of people who are plowing blindly forward, their umbrellas getting caught in the wind like billowing sails, as their fragile little bodies risk being whisked away into the lake at any given moment.

As one of my coworkers aptly stated, "It's just too much power for these people to hold in their hands."

How true. It's called a hood, folks. You oughtta give it a try.

Wuxi Goes Wisconsin On Me

Meet my new best friend: His name is Singfun, and he is an oscilating heat fan. Singfun has made the sudden arrival of winter much more bearable for me. (Notice the heat radiating from it ... !)

In the summertime, I didn't realize that the walls in my apartment were about 3 inches thick. Needless to say, it doesn't do much in the name of keeping heat out, especially when they leave all the windows in the stairwell up to the apartments open at all time. So, I purchased Singfun for about $20 USD tonight, and I think I've already gotten a return on my investment.

Yes, the winter weather has finally reared its ugly head in Wuxi. I knew the great stuff we'd been having all the way up until November was bound to end, but it was still pretty hard to accept. One Saturday it was about 80 degrees and I went for a long bike ride around Wuxi; that night, it dropped about 40 degrees and was sleeting as I made my way back from downtown. It hasn't really stopped. While it's kind of nice to feel the brisk coolness of fall / winter, it does make me wish I were curled up with hot chocolate watching football on TV.

Speaking of FOOTBALL, I got to watch the epic battle between Favre and the Pack a few weeks ago! There is a teacher here from Minnesota who's a pretty die-hard Vikings fan, and he had a live video hookup from his brother's house in the Cities, which meant that we got to watch the Packers play in real time! It was pretty surreal getting up at 4:45 in the morning and bundling up to go over to his apartment, but it was highly enjoyable (despite the fact that I kept thinking Favre was throwing interceptions ... Gah. It was too strange to see him in Purple!). I could allllmost believe that I was back home! (Then I remembered that it wasn't Sunday afternoon, but Monday morning, and that I had to get ready for work ...)

 

GO PACK GO! (Can you tell it was 5am? Really? What gave it away?)

I never thought I'd be watching Brett Farve play for the Vikings from a computer in China.

Life is funny.

As long as I'm on the subject of all things fall / winter ... Christmas came early to Wuxi! On an excursion to Starbucks today (always a fun little treat), it seems that Western commercialism is alive and kicking, even in countries that don't really celebrate Christmas. Right on the good old American schedule, Starbucks was introducting Toffee Nut Lattes and displaying snow-covered pinetree decorations and gingerbread houses, while the sweet melodies of the Rat Pack Christmas were sounding merrily throughout the building. It was the most bizzare thing. There I was with my American friends, commenting on papers, eating a croissant and feeling cozy as I listened to Franky croon; I might as well have been in Madison. Globalization is really somethin' else.

All in all, life is still good, of course! I've got lots and lots of grading to do this weekend - it was midterms this week. I'm pretty disapointed with the grades my kids got, however. It's kind of a bummer because we went through that stuff sooo many times. I don't think I'm a terrible teacher, but it's hard to not let those thoughts go through your head when every other kid getting 20 / 100 wrong. 

I've also been keeping busy by applying for summer jobs. I'd like to work for an organization where I can lead educational / adventure trips for high school students. If you have any hot tips, I'd appreciate hearing from you. I hear the job market's not great or something? Heh. So, we'll see how it all goes down ...

Well, I'm going to try to connect to that Western world yet again by Skyping with some folks back home. Thanks for keeping in touch!

PHOTOS!

I know this is lame because we are so far removed from the time that this all took place that no one will be remotely interested anymore. However, if you are feeling really bored at work / school, feel free to check out some photos from our trip! They are posted on Facebook, and you can access the albums from these links: China / Tibet, Nepal, India.

Enjoy!

Coming to China?

Today in class we learned how to structure sentences that give advice and sentences that point out necessity. I could say, for example, "I need to shower." However, this wouldn't technically be correct, apparently, because there aren't any laws here in China that tell me I need to shower, it's not mandated by anyone or anything. It would be better for me to say, "I really ought to / should / had better shower."

(It's true. I really ought to shower. Some things just don't change ...)

Anyway, I told my students that my family is coming to visit me in China, and that they've never been here before. Their group work was to come up with six sentences - three suggestions and three necessities - of advice for the laowai (foreign visitors). Here are some of my favorites:

• They shouldn't go to Beijing or Shanghai. Because it's too big. You will get lost. [We wouldn't want that, now would we?]
• They should have a Chinese friend and the friend should know the price in lots of the country.
• They should eat local specialmes. [Mmm ... specialmes.]
• They'd better find a Chinese or someone who can speak Chinese.
• They should go to Beijing and eat Beijing Duck.
• If they get lost they should call 110. [My students were, apparently, very concerned that you would not get lost.]
• You have to take much money.
• You must follow Chinese laws.
• You'd better use chopsticks when you eat Chinese dishes. [Or else ...]
• They should order hotel. Because on vacation there are so many tourists on China.
• You need to buy tickets before going to the parks.
• You have to take the passport with you. [Ah yes, they must remember the passport.]
• They'd better go to visit Dong Fa Ming Zhu (the tallest building in Shanghai).
• They must notice thief, because they're too many people in Shanghai.
• They must be careful of the traffic safety.
• If you're a woman or a girl, you should go shopping. [No boys allowed.]
• You must care the weather. Because maybe the city you want to go is different from your city.
• You must taste as much as you can eat!
• They ought to care about transportation because there are so many cars in China, and the traffic system is important to everybody. [I didn't realize there was so much pride invested into the transport system, but there you have it.]

And, my personal favorite,

• You must believe your daughter is the most beautiful English teacher in our school. [Annnnd - YOU get an A!]

Now you're all ready to come to China, friends! See ya' in Shanghai -- if you don't get lost first.

::Shudder::

I really, really love my Chinese students. I do.

But here's the thing: Sometimes the gifts they give are really, really strange.

For instance, tonight we went out to dinner with a friend's student. Actually, he wasn't even her student. He just became somehow acquainted with her and some other foreign teachers last semester. He invited them out to dinner, and it became a group affair, as many things become here.

And he brought squid jerky all the way from his hometown for his new foreign friends!

Mmm. Squid jerky.

I have brushed my teeth twice and still cannot get the taste out of my mouth. Please, please make it stop!!

The Daily ... Grind?

Well, I have been teaching for four weeks! It's hard to believe, actually. Time has gone by really quickly! As I'm getting into a bit more of a routine, I thought I'd share with you a Day in the Life of Nikki Carow. What follows is what's average; it doesn't always happen, but it's what I strive for and it's what usually happens.

Monday to Thursday:

• 6:40 - Wake up, strech, stumble to put on my shoes, and clop down seven flights of stairs, yawning and asking myself why I get up this early
• 6:45 - 7:15 - Run. Though it's by no means a gorgeous campus, it's scenic enough to make me have nice places that I like to run. There are lots of willow trees, streams, garden-y paths. It's quite nice. And though it's getting cooler, esp. in the mornings, it's still nice enough by far that I can run out in shorts and a t-shirt and feel pretty comfortable. Don't get too jealous - I hear it won't last for toooo much longer. ; ) It's been really nice to try to make this a habit. It's not fully ingrained in me yet, but I hope that morning exercise can be something that I continue to do for the rest of my life.
• 7:15 - 9:00 - Shower, get ready for class, eat breakfast (usually oatmeal and yogurt or a veggie omlette - my choices are a bit limited, sadly), clean up the apartment, and make sure I have all my ducks in a row for the coming day
• 9:00 - 9:45 - Take the 7-ish minute bike ride to my teaching building, and plop myself in some deserted classroom or in the staff lounge to go over my lesson plan
  
• 9:45 - 9:55 - Go to the classroom and mingle with the students who come in early
• 9:55 - 11:30 - Teach my first class of the day. We will usually do about 5-6 activities per class. We will always do some kind of speaking and grammar activity. Along with that, there will also be a selection of listening, writing, and reading exercises. I try to make it fun and interactive, but sometimes teaching when to use simple past tense and when to use present progressive gets a little dry (especially when I myself hate grammar). However, their tests pretty much will test primarily grammar, so that is how their success is judged.
  
• 11:30 - 3:00 - Bike back to my apartment and make my own lunch. Again, I feel like I don't have too many options, mostly because I don't know how to cook the Chinese food that they sell at the stores. I'll usually have rice and beans with scrambled eggs and veggies, but I've also had soup or congee, couscous and broccoli, veggie burgers, dumplings, leftovers ... I usually end up consuming lots and lots of veggies, in an effort to get them before they go bad. Vegetables rot so ridicuously fast here, so you pretty much have to eat them within a day or two. It's a nice time to just unwind, enjoy my food, catch up on the news on BBC or the Times websites, check my email, or Skype with Matthew if he's still awake. After lunch I usually try to read a little or do a Sudoku. After that I end up falling asleep for about 20 minutes, and then have to run off to class again.
• 3:30 - 5:00 - Teach my second class of the day. Same exact lesson, which is nice because there's no extra planning. It's interesting to see the different energy levels in the different classrooms from day to day, though. I haven't quite noticed any patterns yet. But if they've just woken up from their post-lunch siestas (it's a big thing here), it's pretty hard to get them excited at first.
• 5:00-5:30 - Bike home, change out of my teacher clothes so fast, and get comfy.
  
• 6:00 - 8:00 - Usually people will meet up for dinner in the nearby village around this time. Dinners are often prolonged affairs, because you order dishes communally and eating with chopsticks is just freakin' pokey. But, it's always so nice to not have to worry about cooking anything when I get back: I will pretty much always have a hot meal waiting for me!
  
• 8:00 - 10:00 - Do whatever ... Lesson plan, chat with people back home, watch a movie with my friends ... it varies, and a lot of times I have no idea where these couple hours go!
  
• 10:00 - 10:30 - Get ready for the next day, get ready for bed, wind down, read, relax, whatever. I try to be asleep by 11:00, but depending on when I talk to Matthew or my family that doesn't happen with too much regularity.

Fridays are different because I have my two classes from back to back, from 8:00 - 11:30. I don't like not having my morning routine as much, but it is really nice to have the whole day afterwards. What we do on Friday afternoons tends to vary: Sometimes we'll go grocery shopping, other times we'll just hang out and catch up on stuff like emails or whatever. This last Friday I met up with a guy who we've arranged to tutor each other in English and Chinese, respectively. I can't say I learned much Chinese - I've been pretty much sucking at studying it since I've been here, because I haven't quite had the need to use it! - but it was nice to get to know him, and I hope something valuable will come out of it in the end. Then, Friday evenings are almost always spent on the town. There's a bar downtown where a lot of foreigners hang out, and so we usually start our night off there and then to a Chinese club afterwards. It's alright, but I'd rather just hang out and chill : ) However, it's how people hang out with each other, and so I usually go.

Saturdays and Sundays aren't really constant yet. Usually I will grab the chance to sleep in, run later in the day, do some laundry or cleaning, whatever. Sometimes we'll go shopping. However, we are trying to start a Sunday tradition of heading downtown for Subway, Dairy Queen, and killer massages. We found a really good place thats a bit more pricey, but it's worth the extra $10. That's where I'll be off to shortly, where they'll be a soccer game on a plasma TV to boot.

As you can see, my life here is very simple. Right now, I'll say that it hasn't been this amazing "cross cultural" experience. I feel really comfortable. However, I do hope that as I spend more time with my students (I have everyone signed up for smaller group lunch and conversation over the next month) that I'll gain more insight into China and "real life" here. At the same time, even though my Chinese isn't really improving and my old preconceptions about life in the US are not really being challenged, I'm really enjoying just having TIME to take life easy. The last four years were so go-go-go, it's a nice change of pace. I never feel stressed, and that's awesome! I also finally have the time to start instilling habits that I've wanted to get into for so long, and I'm able to spend time mulling over what I want from life post-China, what sort of things will keep me happy and contributing to society, and the like. So, I think there's still a lot of personal growth happening, and I'm thrilled about that.

Anyway, must run off to my massage now! Ohhhh, life's rough ; )

Concerning Mooncakes and Other Holiday Affairs

It's a Friday night in Wuxi -- Yeaahhhh!

And I'm alone in my apartment, and will be working on tomorrow's lesson plan once I finish this post (and enjoy one of my mother Tammy's WORLD FAMOUS PEANUT BUTTER BALLS ... I love the postal service ...).

Tomorrow's lesson plan?, you ask. But surely, tomorrow must be Saturday - even in China with all that confusing International Dateline stuff. Oh no, you've understood correctly. It's just that I'm living in Communist China, and what the Communist Party says, goes. So, when they decide that the week-long holiday you were just on was far too extravagant and that the country must make up for lost time / productivity, you work on Saturday, too. Oh, China. However, I really can't complain that I just had a week long vacation, and a little lesson planning never hurt anyone.

So how was this week-long break? Well, dare I say, a bit of a bust?

Our plans were made oh so quickly. One day, as I was teaching, two other teachers came to my room and asked: "Do you want to go to Ningbo? It's a few hours away and there's this beach nearby. You have to decide like, right now. We're going to buy train tickets." Well, you said beach. And you're taking care of the details? I'm there! I pretty much knew nothing beyond this, and I was more than okay with letting someone else take the reigns of my travels. We left for Ningbo on Friday the 1st, which was National Day in China, which celebrates the birthday of "New China" - Communist China. What this really meant for the people was that pretty much the entire country was plopped in front of their televisions with their families watching the "Military Review," and ooohing and ahhhing at their large tanks and intimidating soliders (think Olympic Opening Ceremonies, except less glitz and more combat boots). When I asked my students about their thoughts on this all-morning-long specacle in Tiananmen Square, they said that they loved watching it, and that they were so proud of all the progress their country has made in the last 60 years. It's pretty amazing to see this kind of patriotism, actually. It's not something I find often back home, especially Madison : )

Anyway, we left on National Day. We took a bus to Ningbo, which was about 3 1/2 hrs away. Since there was NO room any any of the hostels in town, we ended up staying at a class-ay hotel. We settled in, had some dinner (Ningbo is near the coast and is known for its seafood), and then hit the town for the night. After spending the evening / wee morning hours drinking whiskey with tea (seemingly the choice beverage here), no one was quite prepared for an early morning wakeup call to head to PuTaoShan - the island with the beach that was advertised to me. Because it would have taken way too long to get there and it cost a pretty penny, we decided to spend our day seeing what Ningbo had to offer instead. We had lunch at an excellent Japanese chain restaurant, and then went our separate ways. Jones and I accompanied our friend Wilson (the new "Hao" of the group: Chinese-American, speaks perfect Chinese / English, the man who gets us out of every pickle in China) to buy our train tickets to Shanghai and his bus ticket to Wuxi for the next leg of our trip. This was, as things often are in China, more hassle than we had anticipated, because of having to go to a few different locations. When we returned a few hours later, we learned the rest of the group was at Starbucks. After three months without having any such coffee concoction, I thought it was high time to indulge in a bit of sugary, globalized goodness. Mmm. We followed with a highly competitive paddle boat race - see below - amongst the 12 of us (three teams of four. My team lost, but I'll have you know the other teams were dirty cheaters), and then a delicious dinner.


The highlight of the evening was certainly the celebration of Mid-Autumn Festival. From what I can gather, this holiday is celebrated at the first full moon after the turn of the season, and Chinese people celebrate by going to their hometowns, visiting with friends and relatives, and eating a gelatinous "dessert" called mooncakes while enjoying the beauty of the full moon. I enjoy mooncakes, though on the sly. Most Westerners find them absolutely repulsive, and I can absolutely understand why: they're often fairly gross. However, Chinese people eat them like it's going out of style. Another tradition of Mid-Autumn Festival is the lighting of lanterns into the sky. You have this paper lantern with a candle-y waxy thing beneath, and you light that, and it warms up like a hot air balloon. When the air within gets warm enough, it floats away into the sky and you make a wish! Doing just one is fun, but not all that impressive. However, when you have a whole skyline filled with thousands upon thousands of spots of fire, it is truly a beautiful and magical thing. I felt like I was in a fairy tale as I watched all the lanterns aglow with their wishes light up the night.




That evening was lowkey, in preparation for the big beach day to follow. We woke up early and were out of the hostel by 8am. First we had a quick taxi ride to the bus station, but our bus wasn't to leave for another hour or something. So, we had a light breakfast while we waited, and then took our 1 1/2 hr long bus ride to the city where we would take the ferry. We got there, hopped right on the ferry, and then took that for another 1 1/2 hr. (I was having flashbacks to the Aran Islands in Ireland - I had horrible nausea on that ferry, and this was probably exactly the same boat. However, I managed to fall asleep for the whole trip. Lucky, too, because Matthew wasn't there to distract me!) We get to the island around right around 1pm. We wait in line and buy our entrance fee tickets - a whopping 200 yuan!, which was just shy of 30 bucks and three times the price of going to the GREAT WALL of CHINA. Can you say holiday inflated prices?! Then, we go to buy our ferry tickets back.

Uh oh.

Wilson comes back from the ticket window and informs us thaaaat ... every ferry after 1:15 is booked. It's now about 1:07. Gah! Darn you, throngs of Chinese tourists! We book it to the ticket place, where we plead to get a refund on our minutes old entrance passes. At first it didn't look promising, but we all made sad faces. We did end up getting our money back, probably more in part to Wilson's Chinese than our poutiness. And then, there we were, about ten minutes later, waiting on the dock to take the ferry right back to where we had started from.

To make a long story short, we ended up back at our hostel around 5:30pm, and effectively traveled for 9 1/2 hrs so that we could eat at a Lebonese restaurant across the street from our hostel. Lovely. I will say, it was darn good falafel. : )

Jones and I capped off our holiday by heading to Shanghai to spend another large portion of our now dwindling paycheck, and then got back to Wuxi for a day or so to unwind before classes started. Now, however, it's getting later and I must start lesson planning before trying to Skype with Matthew. I am going to try and post pictures of my apartment and campus tomorrow! We'll see how that goes ; )