I'm happy to be home

even if I teared up when "Party in the USA" came on the radio because it made me think of my kids....

Reverse culture shock is an interesting thing. I slept till 11 yesterday, and woke at 5:45 today. My body is highly confused. I've felt small for the first time in months. I stare at people. I'm still surprised everytime I walk into a bathroom, and I pause before I stick my cup under the tap to fill it up. I got to re-learn what real butter tastes like, (something that a girl who went to college in Cache Valley should never forget.) I understand the lyrics to the songs on the radio, and I spent an exorbant 8 dollars on dinner last night (I felt ridiculous handing over that much money for a meal.) My hands are shriveling up because it is so dry. My bed feels like a cloud sent straight from heaven, and I can walk barefoot through my own house again.     
WEIRD.

I miss China.

But at the same time ---> this is really home. And I'm glad to be here.

11pm in Kaiyin

Bus leaves shortly after 4 am tomorrow morning.

Can't sleep. 

Tired. 

In an odd state of emotional detachment. Don't want to leave, can't wait to get on that plane... 

So much to say...

With so little time left in China I find myself thinking of about a million things that I should blog about. So I sit down at the computer, pray that I'll actually be able to get blogger up and working, and by the time it loads... I've realized I don't know where to begin. So I close the browser and go back to Christmas music and teasing Megan. 

Tonight though I've vowed to start. Let's work backwards... 

I recently vacated a freezing shower. This was only a slightly horrific experience, made somewhat better by the fact that it provides perfect poetic justice to our time in China, and is a nice touch in the war our apartment has decided to wage on us during our last week here. Between explosions in the kitchen, a broken water dispenser, getting locked in bathroom, and a near flood (to name a few mishaps,) cold water seems not so bad. Plus, for the entire first month I was here I was taking cold showers (that was before we learned how to change the batteries in our water heater.) So yes. I guess either the apartment is sad we're leaving, or is sick of us and is trying to get us out sooner.

Earlier this afternoon I dragged my packed suitcases over to the school so that I could make sure I'm not going to incur any over-weight baggage fees at the airport. Assuming the archaic scale we used is correct, I should be close to good. So keep your fingers crossed for me. There is something kinda neat about knowing that 4 months of your life can be neatly packed into two suitcases and a backpack. It's kinda weird to think that I'm leaving so soon.... 

...but on to happier thoughts. 

Yesterday we had our Christmas program at the school. There was dancing, singing, parents, costumes --- when Happy ABC's Kindergarten puts on a show, they do it all the way. Because we're the English teachers, we got to be the final dance number. It was a slightly intimidating experience... but I think we pulled it off well. We danced to "Frosty the Snowman" and had a marvelous time play-acting as little children who build a snowman and then dance around and play with him. We even threw paper snowballs at him at the end of our song. After the performance we ran upstairs to don some festive holiday-type costume things. There were a couple of Santas, a Frosty, and I ended up with a tree skirt tied around my neck as a cape. (A fact I hope you find as amusing as I did.) We were given bags of goodies and I got to wander around the school asking children to tell me what color my cape was in English and handing out legos and sweets.

Post party we ate hotpots with everyone at the school. Basically you sit down at a table with a bunch of people, and there is a pot of boiling water in the middle. You start with a soup base, and then add whatever you like. We had fish, beef, and all sorts of sausage and meatball-esque things to throw in, as well as vegetables and noodles and even wantons. You can add sauces to your own bowl, and grab whatever you like out of the hotpot. Dinner was divine -- if it weren't I wouldn't bother telling you about it. When the meal began to wind down they started a drawing for prizes. I wound up with a massive bag of tissues. Yes. You should be jealous. It was the 2nd best prize I could have won. Anna got even luckier --- with the largest prize they offered: laundry soap! We had so much fun, and it was good to laugh and enjoy the company of the people who we've come to care for so much. 

Megan and I were walking home this afternoon from some errands and I was marveling at how different I feel from the girl who came to China 4 months ago. Everything here was so alien then... but now it's home. A home that I'm going to miss terribly. I watched the taxi drivers and felt the stares and glanced into the myriad of shops, and it all felt so incredibly normal. I'm interested to see what the reverse culture shock will be like coming home. I'm afraid I'll have to watch my mouth --- I've gotten used to saying whatever I want whenever I want without regard to who is listening, for in China the chances that the person I'm taking about speaking English are slim. And even if they do speak English, I'm willing to bet big money that if I talk quickly enough and use slang terms, they still won't get what I'm saying. 

But enough of that. The past couple of days have been wonderful. Saying goodbye to my children was hard. Wednesday we had a party with out children --- sort of a goodbye thing. And at one point I found myself sitting on a kiddie chair, while being swarmed with little arms and little kisses and hearing these children that I adore so much say "I love you teacher. I miss you forever." And it melted my heart. I nearly cried. 

Oh golly I'm going to miss this place... 

Chinese Women Understand

I had a breakdown tonight. Actually I'm kind of in the middle of it... hence this post will be short.

This is the first emotional breakdown I've had while in China. An amazing feat considering the fact that I live with 6 other girls...

And so Anna dragged me downstairs to the corner store and started pulling chocolate off the shelves while I paced back and forth mumbling. After she has an armload we headed to the freezer. And started trying to decide which of the frozen treats would best suit our needs.

The lady at the cash register paused in the middle of ringing up a gentleman, came over, lifted up half of the bin and dug some pure chocolate cones out of the very bottom and offered them to us. We never would have known they were there without her help.

I love how we can't speak and yet she completely understands. And I'm grateful.

And then I realized....

That today was my last Sunday in China. We headed to Kaiyin for Church like normal --- and was very excited that the bus rides to and from were not freezing cold (the 2nd bus always has the air conditioning too high, a fact that was nice at one point, but since it's turned chilly here it isn't nice any longer).

And then this afternoon we hung out. I traced a whole bunch of tiny gingerbread men for class this week. You know --- exciting stuff was going on.

Then tonight I realized that I go home soon. And I began to wonder, and then I began to calculate. And I realized that I only have about 180 hours left in this country. This realization was partly depressing and partly exiting.

I'll let you know if I ever figure out which emotion was stronger...

Caroling to Chrysanthemums

Xiaolan is a city about a half hour bus ride North-ish of Guzhen. We head there occasionally to shop, visit the pagoda in the big park, visit some of the other teachers, and... well you get the general idea. We went there tonight for the Chrysanthemum festival. Sandy came with Anna, Emma, Megan and me, and we had a marvelous time. Especially when Anna suggested that we sing Bazooka Bubblegum (one of our students most recent favorites) while we wandered around the paths. Sandy was a sport and went along with our antics. And then after we had a marvelous time singing, doing the actions, and getting some odd stares while we were at it, we decided more singing was in order. 

Since it is, in fact, December. We opted for some nice Christmas carols. 

Caroling is one of, if not my favorite, Christmas tradition. And I found it splendid to be walking arm in arm with dear friends, marveling at the cascades of flowers everywhere as we bellowed 'We Wish You A Merry Christmas' and 'Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.' One of the joys of getting stared at constantly is that your inhibitions for a lot of things disappear. 

Sort of a "I already feel like a freak, might as well do something to deserve it" kind of mentality.

It's quite liberating :)

So yes. I started off December right. Caroling with friends. It was lovely, even if we are the only ones who understood what we were doing. 

Happy December everybody!

"Squatting is a surprisingly natural position." -Anna Neilson

Just in case you weren't aware: the above picture is a man squatting. As you look at him you are probably wondering why the cartoonist drew him looking so at ease. If you are one of those wonder-ers, I would like to assure you that this is a very natural position. One that Chinese people are quite accustomed to. For whatever reason, we in America aren't so good at the squatting position.

Do me a favor. Try to achieve this position. I give you major points if you can stay in it for 5 minutes or more. I give you extra major points if your heels touch the ground when you do this. Since the Chinese practice this position so often, their heels always touch the ground, a fact which I have been supremely jealous of since I first showed up in this country.

Therefore: Today when I squatted down, and for the first time felt my heels actually connect with the back of my shoes, it was a monumentally exciting occasion. As in, I felt the need to exclaim and point it out to Megan, who was squatting next to me.

I felt so Chinese :) Boo yah.

Somebody call 119!

Cause that's the number you call in China when there is a fire. Want to know how I know that?

I know that because we had a fire drill today. Actually, we thought it was going to be a fire drill, turned out to be a little bit more elaborate than that.

First off... they passed out wet rags for us to put over our noses as we ran out of the building with the children. When we got down the stairs and into the courtyard we proceeded to squat in the courtyard, and watch a little fire demo. This particular fire demo included a real fire (in a fire pit of course), fire extinguishers, a skit where a family vacated their apartment after the fire started, and (drum roll please) a  real fire truck. A real fire truck that rolled into the courtyard. Parked. Pulled their hoses out. AND sprayed the side of the building with water.

Ok. How come we don't have fire drills like this in America? Cause they are S.W.E.E.T. Entertaining. And informational. I was again reminded that in America we do all things backwards. (I used to think it was China that was backwards, and then I realized that it's really America that does things oddly.) But backwards or no, I now know the number for the Chinese fire department.

PS: Sorry for the lack of pictures. But I didn't have a camera with me :(

Happy Thanksgiving!

In the very most Chinesey-ish way possible.

My Thanksgiving day started off with a lovely field trip. We all headed out to the aquarium. Want to see?

Yo-Yo

Linda

Aunt Mary and Megan 

Isn't Megan a babe?

They got really excited about the cactus

Chase and Blaze

Andrew and Xander

Me and Linda

Linda was my buddy. She held my hand most of the time.

Jump shot! Hooray for ILP!

Lucy

Mason

Random flowers that the girls picked and gave to us :)

Hooray ILP teachers!

Lucy and Chase

Aren't they cute?

Blaze, Noah, and Xander

Emma and Liam

James and Jackie

Snack time!

Free for all... but it actually worked. 

So yes. Hopefully you enjoyed those pictures. We had a fun time. Too bad we can't go on field-trips every week....

But now on to dinner!

Me, Megan, Apple, Hannah, Vivian, Sandy and Emma

The feast!

Mashed taters, KFC chicken, wontons, oranges, chicken feet, scone-like things, carrots, apples, cucumbers, watermelon, and way too much of all of it. We didn't even make it half way though the feast. But we had some good laughs, and we all got to say things we were thankful for, which is the point of the day anyways :)

I SURVIVED!

And what, you ask, did I survive?

My trip to the Chinese hospital. That is what I survived. And oh man... it was an experience. FYI: Socialized medicine SUCKS. Going to a doctor whose language you can't speak with a coordinator who is a pathological liar SUCKS.

Ok. Want to know the whole story? Here goes...

A few weeks ago I developed a little cough. About a week ago a couple of my roommates started throwing up. Luckily I escaped the flu bug, but I think it lowered my immune system just enough that my cough was really able to take over. Thursday Megan tried to talk me into going to the hospital. I would have none of it. But on Saturday night when my roommates barged inside after a trip to Xiaolan and announced that 'like it or not they were taking me to the hospital on Monday" I conceded that a trip to the doctor was probably in order. My body is exhausted, despite the fact that I've done nothing but sleep. My cough has moved nicely into my chest, making it difficult to breathe... so yeah. I consented to go to the hospital.

This afternoon our coordinator showed up, and we walked the two blocks to the hospital. (Side note: they don't have clinics here, so the hospital is where everyone goes --- so when I say hospital, think of a clinic for everything.) When you walk into the hospital you pay 1 yuan (about 20 cents) for a little booklet. You fill out your name, date of birth, and nationality, and any allergies you have. Then they send you to wait in a line.

When it got to be my turn the doctor asked a few questions, looked in my throat, listened to my chest, and then mumbled something to my coordinator as he wrote out a prescription. According to Megan, I got more attention that about all my roommates who have been to the hospital have gotten, almost put together. So I guess that's a good thing... anyways. When we asked our coordinator what he said she responded with "It's nothing serious. He's just giving you some medicine to take."

Nothing serious my foot. I can't breathe at night lady! But our troubles with our coordinator are beside the point...

After you get your slip from the doctor you proceed over to a little counter where you pay for your medicine. Then you walk to the neighboring counter and actually pick up your prescription. One thing I will say about Chinese: They like to do things efficiently. (Most of the time anyways.)

But then we headed back to the doctors cubicle to bully our coordinator into asking him to translate the names of my medicines into English. Because I paid for three different boxes of meds, that I'm supposed to take multiple times a day, for this condition that I was told is simply "nothing serious."

I will not miss the socialized Chinese medicine system when I come back to America. Not one tiny bit.

So now I'm home typing the names of these various things into google to try to work backwards to figure out what it is the doctor thinks I have.

Wish me luck :)

OH OH OH! And PS: When I got home from the hospital I received the best post-hospital-present EVER. Megan said, "Oh wait! I forgot! I have a letter for you." And then she procured a note from my family. Thanks for the letter family! I love and miss you all too!"

I'll be Home for for Christmas

'You can plan on me. Please have snow, and mistletoe, and presents on the tree. Christmas eve will find me where the love light gleams. I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams..."

I KNOW I KNOW... It's Thanksgiving this week. And I'm excited for Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving, and I'm not trying to skip it or pass it over.

BUT. This year I'm extra especially excited for Christmas. And I was listening to this song just now, and can I just tell you that it's never sounded so sweet? Especially when it got to the end, and I was able to think: 'I'll really be home for Christmas, not just in my dreams.'

I love China. Adore China. But for the record: I'm very glad that I'll be home for a white Christmas with my family this year.

Only 34 days till Christmas :D

Wide Eyes

Chinese children are incapable of opening their eyes truly wide.

However, they can pull of some good creeped out looks :)

Also, they are easily fascinated by the workings of a tongue --- and I've only found one capable of rolling theirs.

Teaching English is great :)

Mud Caves

 Mud.

Doesn't the word inspire the child within you to jump up and down with glee?

I got to play in the mud. And it was so epic, I'm dedicating a whole post to it.

 During our time in Yangshuo we decided to go to some mud caves. Our guide through the caves was great. I think her name was Tao.

 First we started touring Paradise cave ---

 which was basically a wonderland of colorful stalagmites.

 Yes. I crawled into the tiny cave. It was only... uh... maybe 2 point something meters wide.... I think.

 We descended a mighty staircase.

Told you it was mighty.

And then.... oh... then we came upon the mud. And we changed into out bathing suits... and oh.... oh... what a time we had.

The mud was watery... but definitely still mud. And you could float in it with absolutely no effort at all. Which was awesome. Excuse the lack of fun pictures... if you'd like to see more you'll have to check out facebook. But rest assured, a mud fight is now checked off my 101 list. And we did go down the slides. And basically we acted like we were 6 again. So great. So so so great.

Next to the mud there is a less muddy pool where you go to get as much mud off you as you can manage. And then after that you head over to a little underground waterfall to get more mud off.

And then once you are pronounced sufficiently de-muddy-i-fied.... then you can jump in the hot springs. Which are right next to the waterfall.

Something I want to go back and do again?

Holy crap the answer is YES.

I love mud!

So....

As evidenced by my last post, courtesy of my beautiful Mother, I have been stuck behind the firewall of China for a while --- so long in fact, that I quit even trying to get around it. And then tonight I walked past my roommate, and noticed that she was surfing facebook. In case you weren't aware -- facebook is a no-no in China. And so I asked her, wait a second! our shield is working?! And she responded in a tone that indicated doubt about my intelligence level.... but yeah. Point being: I'm sorry I've been absent for so long, but it's hard to find the motivation to write blog posts when you can't even push the publish button by yourself. I mean... there is something so satisfying about pushing that button --- if ya know what I mean.

But yes. For now I am back. Until my shield that tricks the firewall dies again. Sorry for my sporadic behavior.

Now. I'll be pushing that awesome publish button so that I can go organize photos to upload from my fabulous weekend.

Be excited :D

Firewall finally caught up with me

Stupid Internet

Actually.  Stupid great firewall of China. That is the reason that I haven't been active in the blogging community recently. I would love to have posted pictures of our amazing Halloween decor. I would also love to have taken you on a tour to the pagoda in Xiaolan. In fact, there are many details that you may never hear thanks to the fact that I cannot access blogger at the moment. So here I sit, typing in this word document which I will later paste into an e-mail and beg my Mother to post on my blog. 

So yes. I guess I have a bit to catch up on. 

Let's start with Halloween. I know it was a bit ago, but Halloween here was kind of a big deal.

I spent a LONG time pinning up various decorations. And making the place cute. As in, we spent a few days prior to the party just decorating for it. And then for the actual day of I dressed up as a princess, and I had my boys in knight costumes, and my girls dressed up as fairies. Did I make all these costumes you ask? Why yes, I did. And they turned out pretty cute if I do say so, especially since they were made mainly from fabric samples. 

During the actual party I got to perform a dance with the other teachers. In front of the whole school. And parents who decided to show up for the party. Kind of awkward, but kinda fun at the same time. Then later I got to run the face painting booth. Adding whiskers to cute little Chinese cheeks and painting stars and hearts and flowers and moustaches and goatees and whatever else you can think of. Talk about fun. Yes. You should be jealous. Needless to say, Halloween was a fun time. Prolly more work than it was worth, but that's ok.

Now let's move on to mid semester visits, and my new found love: pumpkin and taro soup. Oh my heck. I wish we had taro in America. In fact, I wish we had soup from Guangdong in America, because soup here in China is mucho better than soup in the states. But anyways. Mid semester visits --- that's when a director shows up and checks on us, the school, and makes sure that everything is going pretty well. I can't believe that they're now over. But at the same time, I am realizing that I've been in China for a while. Lots of things that used to shock me, no longer do. The traffic system with no rules --- I don't even bat an eye when I spot someone going down the street the wrong way in a car. I've pretty much forgotten what real chocolate tastes like, and I'm a bit worried that candy in general will be much too sweet when I come back. My box spring with blankets on top --- yes I find it extremely comfortable. Will I be able to sleep on a soft bed when I get back? Your guess is as good as mine.   Also. The idea of drinking out of the tap now freaks me out; whereas a couple months ago the idea of not drinking out of the tap was odd. 

Point being: I've been here for almost 3 months, I'm very much used to things, and that thought is kinda crazy.

Tonight I head off for Yangshuo. (I'm fairly certain that's how it's spelled; at least I hope so.) You should Google it, because it's going to be awesome..... I'll have to tell you more about it when I get back. 

Street Food & Shopping (Xi'an part 2)

 Ok. It's been a while, but I figured it's better late than never to finish telling you about Xi'an. A lot of these pictures might be kinda random. But hey. At least you're getting pictures. Which is lucky for you... because I hate uploading them. So yes. Feel lucky. 

This to me is REAL China. Vegetables on the side of a road, and a guy on the bike. If I could sum up China in one picture... this would probably be it:

 Also. Did I ever mention that China is crowded?

Really crowded. The above picture is in the middle of Xi'an. The one below was taken on a bus on our way back to our hostel.

A few afternoons into our trip Megan and I decided to head out to find the Little Goose Pagoda.  We had to cross a bridge to leave inner city Xi'an. The river was gorgeous. It's amazing what you can discover when you decide to walk places. 

On our way we bumped into this guy:

 Yes. Giant transformer in the middle of the city. Awesome right?

So we made our way to the pagoda. Only to find out we were too late. Never fear though... we went back another afternoon and wandered around the blessed place. It was gorgeous.

 This is the pagoda itself. And I'm the little blue blob on the steps.

 This is around the back of the pagoda. You had to pay to climb to the top, so we opted not to.

However, we did wander over to the side of this little temple/museum-esque thing across from the pagoda afterwards, and found this garden full of statues.

So often I found myself taken away by how beautiful this place called China can be. And then I take a picture, and it just... never does it justice. And yet... this picture comes awfully darn close to capturing how wonderful it was to stand in this garden. 

 Those are some really old stairs. I'm walking up to this temple thing... used to be used to worship a goddess. I don't remember of what though.

This picture was taken from the top of those stairs. It's a bell... supposed to send messages to people when you ring it. I guess there is this legend about a man... soldier or something, who missed his family. So he would ring the bell and it would send messages to them. You ring it by using that giant red mallet thingy. Awesome right?

Now switch gears. On the night of Rachel's birthday we went out to a very fancy restaurant. One you may have heard of. Called Pizza Hut. Pizza hut is considered a ritzy place here... and it's probably about as much as you'd pay in the states... making it super pricey for China. 

We had fun though and I think Rachel enjoyed it. 

Also. Only in China would you find them serving fried rice at pizza hut. tee hee.

Ok. And now on to the actual street food and shopping part of this post:

This is Megan and I in the Muslim district. There is this little shopping street where we did most of our Christmas shopping behind the bell tower. Walk down it all the way and it dumps you into the Muslim district. Street food you could die for. And most of it is very inexpensive. Basically we'd wander around until we found something that either looked really crazy or really good, and then we'd eat that for whatever meal was coming up next. It was an interesting way to eat. We avoided anything with meat... just because we're not quite that brave yet... but we did find some bread things that were great, some pastry things that were not great, and some deep fried sweet potato things that were quite incredible. Yes I am in love with Chinese food. Although, did you know? Southern Chinese is very different than northern Chinese food. And the stuff we get in America is more northern-esque. Just for your information.

Ok. So you know that scene in Mulan? Mushu is riding down the avalanche on a shield, and he slides over to where Mulan is riding her horse and trying to rescue herself and Shang. Mushu yells at Mulan: "I found a lucky cricket!"

Well that's what I said when I saw this:

 Yes my friends. That is indeed a REAL live and chirping lucky cricket.

A MASSIVE lucky cricket.

The thing about shopping in Xi'an.... well... Megan and I felt that we were trend setters. Because if we wandered into a shop and started looking intently at something, we would inevitable attract a crowd of people who were all of a sudden interested in the same stuff. And it was no exception with this little guy. No one seemed to think him interesting until Megan and I started taking pictures. Then a crowd began to form... then the gentleman who owned the shop and the cricket got upset and shooed us away. I think because the cricket was getting upset at all the flashing lights.

We had a blast shopping though. I felt like I got pretty great at bargaining by the end of things. I got some good deals, and disgruntled more than a few shop keepers who assumed I was a stupid American. I mean. I'm not a pro bargainer. One lady quoted us a price on this pictures, about a 150 yuan for them. We talked her down to 35. She wasn't too happy when we each got 3 of them.... yeah. That's when you KNOW you got a good deal. When you walk away and get the impression that you aren't really wanted back anytime soon. Haha.

Speaking of Mulan. (Ok... so I'm kind of jumping around...) Remember at the beginning when she's getting ready to see the matchmaker and she helps those dudes out with that game?

Ring a bell? This is that game. Awesome right? This is not, in point of fact, at the street market, it is rather something we saw on our way walking back from Little Goose Pagoda. But I was so excited. I mean... I knew they played this game. But two old men in the middle of the street... haha. I HAD to take a picture.

So yes. I loved Xi'an. So much fun. I hope I get to go back one day.