"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 :(

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.

jing jing

*It's pronounced "tsing tsing" (Try combining 't' and 's' into one sound. Then add 'ing' on the end.)

Tonight Sandy (one of the Chinese teachers we work with) came over to play Wackee 6 and eat french toast with us. She's great. I love playing with Sandy. She liked our french toast (with peanut butter, or jam, or bananas, or honey, or brown sugar...or any mixture of the above you please... in lieu of maple syrup) very much. We joked and laughed at then pulled out the cards.

Now for those of you who know me well, you will know what a major tragedy it was when I realized part of my yellow wackee 6 deck is stuck together. Yes ladies and gentleman. The YELLOW deck. MY yellow deck. Leading me to believe that something got onto them... (this was a recent discovery... as in tonight.) I had to play with the red deck, and let me tell you... it just wasn't the same. The de-stickification process of my beloved cards has already been begun... but I have this fear in my heart that my cards will never be the same again -- assuming I can even get them successfully unstuck. Please wish me luck, cross your fingers or something, because if I lose my yellow Wackee 6 deck... I'm not even going to complete that train of thought because it is a thought too horrible to contemplate.

Hem hem. Despite this tragedy, the evening was not a complete blowout. Because Sandy gave us all Chinese names. Glance back at the title please.

              (.......pausing while you glace up.......)

Yes. That is me. My Chinese name. Jing Jing. Said in the first tone. Isn't it pretty? (If you say it with a horrible American accent it doesn't nearly as nice as when you say it properly, so please attempt for my sake.)

In English my name means 'shining star.' When trying to explain what it meant Sandy started to sing "twinkle twinkle little star" --- it was so cute.

So yes. I now have a legit Chinese name. First thing I had to do? Tell you about it of course :)

A few Chinese words

that I am not likely to forget anytime soon:

#1.  xie xie (shay shay)  Translation: Thank You
I use this one a lot. People have quit laughing at me when I use it. Hooray!

#2. ni hao (nee how) Translation: Hello
One of the most common we hear :) I'll bet you even knew this one. 

#3. li (lee) Translation: Pear
This one is just easy to remember. Ha! (And you thought these were all going to be common words.)

#4. duo shao qian (doh sh-ow she-en) Translation: How much is it?
Comes in handy when shopping. And how, you may ask, do I understand the price? Usually they type it into a calculator so that we can see it.

#5. tai gui le (tie gway luh) Translation: It's too expensive
Also very helpful. Especially when bargaining.

#6. ping shui (ping shu-way) Translation: Bottle Water
I remember that ping=bottle thanks to Carrie and Camille, and water is just one that needs to be memorized.

#7. jiaoshi (luh-ow shu) Translation: Teacher
When multiple adorable children look up at you frequently throughout each day and plead "jaioshi, jaioshi"   yeah ---- you wouldn't forget it either.

*Please note. All pronunciations are approximate, and made up by yours truly. Don't rely on them please. :)
**Also note: if you decide to pronounce these with the wrong tones, then they might not mean these translations at all. Haha. Chinese is tough....