Well, nothing altogether interesting has happened lately, but I feel like I ought to post something. So I will tell you about a normal day in my life in China. Here goes:
Depending on the day, I generally wake up around 5:30 am (aka 5:55 am after snoozing for a good 20 minutes or so) in order to catch the school shuttle that leaves at 6:20 am to take teachers from the campus where I live over to the the campus where I teach. Then I eat breakfast. In any country, anywhere, I love breakfast. At first I was weary of Chinese cafeteria style breakfast and preferred to inhale some oatmeal before running out to the bus. This practice was quickly abandoned in favor of the few extra minutes of sleep it afforded me. Turns out the food isn't bad. It's delicious. I usually eat cooked bean sprouts or cabbage, "manto" (I don't know how to spell it, but it is steamed bread), yogurt (similar to yogurt at home but with a much waterier consistency and drank out of bag you rip open with your teeth),and fried dough balls covered with sesame seeds and filled with sweet paste stuff (can't remember the name). When I want the cooks to serve me some, I generally point and make my hand into a fist - universal sign language for "fried sweet dough ball things, please". Depending on my mood and the availability of fried dough ball things (they go fast), I will also occasionally eat a boiled egg (something I had found horrifying in my pre-China life, but now find rather tasty from time to time). So yeah, that's breakfast.
Then class. Which is always extremely educational and usually consists of a game of some sort. I mostly find myself quite entertained by the little rascals (except for when I want to break their necks). I don't really like small children - they sort of creep me out - but my students are funny and generally not creepy. Maybe it's just because I can actually remember being in 7th grade, so I'm amused by their awkwardness. My favorite is this tiny little boy who simultaneously jumps in the air, waves, shouts "Hello Teacher Anna!", then bows and runs away almost every time he sees me in the hall. I see him multiple times a day.
Then lunch. Not nearly as good as breakfast. Nothing exciting to say here. Usually I just eat the rice and maybe some vegetables, and some porridge. "Porridge" is a very watery type soup with a somewhat gilatenous texture that tastes basically like nothing. At first I found it gross, and determined that "porridge" was something that belonged only in Goldilocks. But now it's cold outside, and the porridge is hot and steams so friendly, so I find it quite delicious. I think it's mostly just corn starch in water, but it's hot, and sometimes there are vegetables floating in it. Best of all, we ONLY have chopsticks (i.e. not even a spoon), so we get to drink it right out the bowl, which brings out my inner child. Mmm, this porridge is just right.
Then more class. Then I wait around until 5:30 pm to take the shuttle back, or more often opt to take the public BRT bus. The public bus ride goes something like this: doors open - "oh my god get gotta get on the bus" as thousands of tiny, sharp Chinese elbows are thrown in all directions - doors close, usually almost crushing someone in the process.Then I try to ignore everyone while standing in my 1/4 inch of space on the bus as faces mere inches from mine stare me down the whole ride. I generally just stare out the window and try not to get lugied on. Actually, the bus is only bad if I happen to hit right at rush hour. Usually I am lucky enough to beat the crowd and can sometimes even snag a seat. Those are the good days.
Then home, more food (I've run out of steam for describing my meals),maybe the gym (needs a post of its own), waste time online, read, bed. Which is where I need to go now.
But first I will leave you with one final thought, and that is the lugie. People in China love them. They hack them up whenever possible. Walking down the street, standing in an elevator, standing on the bus, sitting in class, sitting in the teachers office, you name it,there's someone hocking a lugie. It's my favorite part of China, really. The sidewalks are like minefields and I've learned to just not look down. Though I suppose I do take a certain comfort in the fact that, at any given moment of any given day, I am sure someone, somewhere in China, is hacking up a lugie.
So on that thought, I shall go to bed. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Snow and pandas
Mmm...I am so happy. I just finished a delicious dinner of hotpot. This is definitely my favorite Chinese food, mostly because it is both an activity and a meal. At hotpot, a large steaming bowl of chili oil and broth (the hotpot) is put on a hot plate in the middle of the table and a wide variety of vegetables, tofu, meat etc. can be ordered. These are then brought out and dumped into the boiling bowl and then each participant gets to fish out the food with their chopsticks and then dump it in delicious bowls of peanut and garlic sauce. It's good fun, and very steamy and spicy. Perfect for a cold day.
The hottest hot pot I've had so far was one I had in Chengdu the week before last. Chengdu is in the Sichuan province (maybe you've heard of it?), and is known for its very spicy food. This is the province where gungbao (or we might say kungpao) chicken originated. I really liked the food there, but was not so much a fan of the rampant use of peppercorn. Peppercorns in China are small little black balls that you hardly ever notice, but when you happen to eat one, you will know, because your whole mouth will go numb. That's not an exaggeration either. They aren't really spicy but give your mouth and unpleasant tingly/numbing pain feeling that really is not desirable. At least not to me.
The week before last my students had testing. Due to my inability to speak Chinese and do anything useful, I did not have to participate in this. Therefore, I got a week off and Lili and I took a trip to Chengdu, which was awesome. The city was beautiful and had a lot more culture and charm than Zhengzhou. It was also very interesting to see people other than Han Chinese, as that is who makes up 98% of the people in Zhengzhou. There is a large Muslim population in Zhengzhou, but that's about it as far as minority groups go. Zhengzhou is very industrial (yay, textile capital of China!) and there is little architecture that would strike you as "Chinese", but Chengdu was full of old buildings and temples. It is a city that has very strong ties to Buddhism, and is located in the province next to Tibet, so these two cultures have had a strong influence on the city. At least it appeared that way to to me. It is also one of, if not the only, province in China where pandas can still be found in the wild. The panda breeding and research center is located just outside the city of Chengdu. Lili and I visited the center, and you can see numerous panda photos on my photo website. I'm sorry, they are just so cute, I couldn't help myself. I also shelled out the dough to "hold" (sit next to) one. Totally worth it.
Lili and I also visited Emei Shan, which is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China. It was really beautiful. The mountain is located about two hours outside of the city, and unfortunately we didn't end up getting there until a little later than we'd originally hoped. So we hiked maybe 15 km up the mountain, and spent the night in a monastery on the mountain. This was really interesting and my have been my favorite part of the trip (besides sitting next to my friend Ling Ling of course). I'm not so sure Lili was as excited about the idea as I was, and the hike up to the monastery ended up being a bit more than we'd anticipated. But at least we had the help of "Monkey Lady" who followed us part of the way with a big stick to scare away any monkeys. After the night in the monastery, it became clear we weren't going to make it hiking to the top, so we hiked back down and took a combination of buses and a cable car to the peak. I felt a little lame not actually hiking to the summit, but we just didn't have the time. I'm so glad we did decide to go to the top though. At the "golden summit" there was a giant multi-faced statue of Buddha riding on the back of elephants. I'd seen pictures of it, but had no idea how huge it was going to be. The view from the top was also amazing. We'd been warned by other travelers that going to the top might not be worth it, since the views at this time of year are often obscured by clouds. But we were lucky and had the most amazing view. We could see all the way to the first peaks of the Himalayas. Seeing the view, I could understand how Buddhist monks used to throw themselves from the summit in ecstasy. Though I was fine settling with just a bunch of pictures (again see my picasa album). My final word is that if you ever find yourself in China, I highly suggest Chengdu.
Hmm. I'm in a half coma from all my hot pot, and can't think of much more to say. Except that last week we had a "giant" snowstorm in Zhengzhou. We got about 8 inches or so of snow, which is pretty unusual for here. I think an inch or two is common, but they don't usually get much more than that. It was also super wet and heavy snow, so trees and power lines were down, as was internet and electricity. Anywhere else might just call it a loss, but not China. Thursday morning I showed up to school and ate my breakfast (which must have been cooked over a fire) by candle light in the cafeteria, and knew I was in for an interesting day. We had no lights or heat or running water, but we still had school. I had to wear a hat and gloves and could see my breath in the dark classrooms, and yet still I had to teach 6 classes to about 200 students. So I ditched most of my lesson plan and just played Simon Says, because at least it kept the students warm. I think that may have been one of the more difficult things I've had to do. I got home and was asleep shortly after 8:00 pm. At least by then the heat was back on.
Well, I guess that's about all I've got to say. I'm hoping that my English isn't getting too terrible. I spend most of my time speaking at half speed using the simplest words possible and repeating everything at least two or three times. I'm going to come back home and sound like English is my second language. It doesn't help I've ran out of books that I brought, and now have to read whatever romance novel or werewolf story I can snag off someone. This is not helping my feelings of mental decline. Thanks goodness for http://www.sporcle.com/. Thanks to which I can now name all of the countries in the world (well except Asia, that's the continent to tackle next). If you are bored you should check it out. Best way ever to waste time.
The hottest hot pot I've had so far was one I had in Chengdu the week before last. Chengdu is in the Sichuan province (maybe you've heard of it?), and is known for its very spicy food. This is the province where gungbao (or we might say kungpao) chicken originated. I really liked the food there, but was not so much a fan of the rampant use of peppercorn. Peppercorns in China are small little black balls that you hardly ever notice, but when you happen to eat one, you will know, because your whole mouth will go numb. That's not an exaggeration either. They aren't really spicy but give your mouth and unpleasant tingly/numbing pain feeling that really is not desirable. At least not to me.
The week before last my students had testing. Due to my inability to speak Chinese and do anything useful, I did not have to participate in this. Therefore, I got a week off and Lili and I took a trip to Chengdu, which was awesome. The city was beautiful and had a lot more culture and charm than Zhengzhou. It was also very interesting to see people other than Han Chinese, as that is who makes up 98% of the people in Zhengzhou. There is a large Muslim population in Zhengzhou, but that's about it as far as minority groups go. Zhengzhou is very industrial (yay, textile capital of China!) and there is little architecture that would strike you as "Chinese", but Chengdu was full of old buildings and temples. It is a city that has very strong ties to Buddhism, and is located in the province next to Tibet, so these two cultures have had a strong influence on the city. At least it appeared that way to to me. It is also one of, if not the only, province in China where pandas can still be found in the wild. The panda breeding and research center is located just outside the city of Chengdu. Lili and I visited the center, and you can see numerous panda photos on my photo website. I'm sorry, they are just so cute, I couldn't help myself. I also shelled out the dough to "hold" (sit next to) one. Totally worth it.
Lili and I also visited Emei Shan, which is one of the four sacred Buddhist mountains in China. It was really beautiful. The mountain is located about two hours outside of the city, and unfortunately we didn't end up getting there until a little later than we'd originally hoped. So we hiked maybe 15 km up the mountain, and spent the night in a monastery on the mountain. This was really interesting and my have been my favorite part of the trip (besides sitting next to my friend Ling Ling of course). I'm not so sure Lili was as excited about the idea as I was, and the hike up to the monastery ended up being a bit more than we'd anticipated. But at least we had the help of "Monkey Lady" who followed us part of the way with a big stick to scare away any monkeys. After the night in the monastery, it became clear we weren't going to make it hiking to the top, so we hiked back down and took a combination of buses and a cable car to the peak. I felt a little lame not actually hiking to the summit, but we just didn't have the time. I'm so glad we did decide to go to the top though. At the "golden summit" there was a giant multi-faced statue of Buddha riding on the back of elephants. I'd seen pictures of it, but had no idea how huge it was going to be. The view from the top was also amazing. We'd been warned by other travelers that going to the top might not be worth it, since the views at this time of year are often obscured by clouds. But we were lucky and had the most amazing view. We could see all the way to the first peaks of the Himalayas. Seeing the view, I could understand how Buddhist monks used to throw themselves from the summit in ecstasy. Though I was fine settling with just a bunch of pictures (again see my picasa album). My final word is that if you ever find yourself in China, I highly suggest Chengdu.
Hmm. I'm in a half coma from all my hot pot, and can't think of much more to say. Except that last week we had a "giant" snowstorm in Zhengzhou. We got about 8 inches or so of snow, which is pretty unusual for here. I think an inch or two is common, but they don't usually get much more than that. It was also super wet and heavy snow, so trees and power lines were down, as was internet and electricity. Anywhere else might just call it a loss, but not China. Thursday morning I showed up to school and ate my breakfast (which must have been cooked over a fire) by candle light in the cafeteria, and knew I was in for an interesting day. We had no lights or heat or running water, but we still had school. I had to wear a hat and gloves and could see my breath in the dark classrooms, and yet still I had to teach 6 classes to about 200 students. So I ditched most of my lesson plan and just played Simon Says, because at least it kept the students warm. I think that may have been one of the more difficult things I've had to do. I got home and was asleep shortly after 8:00 pm. At least by then the heat was back on.
Well, I guess that's about all I've got to say. I'm hoping that my English isn't getting too terrible. I spend most of my time speaking at half speed using the simplest words possible and repeating everything at least two or three times. I'm going to come back home and sound like English is my second language. It doesn't help I've ran out of books that I brought, and now have to read whatever romance novel or werewolf story I can snag off someone. This is not helping my feelings of mental decline. Thanks goodness for http://www.sporcle.com/. Thanks to which I can now name all of the countries in the world (well except Asia, that's the continent to tackle next). If you are bored you should check it out. Best way ever to waste time.
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