Shenyang 沈阳

I've been sort of lazy about updating my blog, as I have been busy studying, teaching, and planning the next few months of traveling. As part of my prep for the future journey, I had to get more pages for my passport, which can be done in Shenyang, the capital of a province adjacent to Jilin province.

We had been meaning to take the train down to Shenyang, as there are other Maryknoll teachers located in the capital and visit them. Thus, Matt and I took the slow train down last Thursday, which translated into a 7 hour train ride, usually its 4, but it was the only train we could take at the time.

Shenyang is the fifth largest city in China and is 5 times the size of Jilin. While Shenyang does have some nice western perks, like Starbucks and Listerine!, it noticeably had more air pollution. I was so excited to find Cool Mint Listerine in a local drug store. I had given up my quest for the refreshing minty liquid and had resigned myself to sub-standard dental hygiene, but Shenyang has almost everything.

They even have a Carbohydrate-laden Great Wall!

One thing that Shenyang is lacking are things to do, which is not only a problem in this country, but as Patrick and Matt pointed out: its a major problem in most cities. The Shenyang crowd frequents the bowling alley, so we bowled our hearts out, 2 nights in a row.

Visiting the U.S. Embassy in Shenyang was an interesting experience and it was nice to be on American soil for a while, until we walked in; we were greeted unfortunately by the smiling faces of the leaders of our country. It was surprisingly easy to get more pages put in and we only had to fill out 1 form and wait. Our passports were returned with a bunch of pages, stuck in with scotch tape. It looks like a fourth grader put it in. Oh well, I hope its not confiscated at any border. Regardless, its a free service and was relatively stress-free, aside from the surge of disbelief and anger when passing those photos, twice.

Overall, I had a pleasant trip to Shenyang, but realized that I'm glad to be living out in the "country." When I first got to Jilin, I was overwhelmed with the size, the amount of people, but now it seems so small compared to Shenyang. Even though we don't have some Western amenities like Starbucks (I don't even go there that much, but its nice to have the option), I enjoy being in Jilin.

Birthdays Galore

The past week has been fairly quite, aside from my senior classes ending, and celebrating birthdays of two friends. I gave the seniors a short final and asked for feedback on the back of their test paper. I think one of the best comments was "James, you are my 2nd favorite foreign teacher. (Aaron is my first)." I thought it was a great compliment and felt very touched by her words, honestly. I heard a rumor that we would have the same students next semester, which bodes well for me, since, I really enjoy the students that I had.

Last weekend, I met Kevin's two friends, Monique and Jessica, who was celebrating her birthday. We had a nice, frigid stroll along the Song Hua River and ended in a bakery, sharing some cake and hot "chocolate." Along the way we found a pack (group?) of bull statues and enjoyed the sunset (which I think starts around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, *tear).

Our Korean friend, Joo also celebrated his birthday this past week. We went to this pretty fancy restaurant, where the "lazy Susan" was the epitome of lazy, it was battery operated! Anyhoo, the party was fun and as Matt said, "this place certainly has the best presentation of any restaurant in Jilin, I hope its not too expensive." Towards the end of our festivities, we played an infuriating game called, "two up, one up/one down, two down." Its actually an amusing party game which involves drinking, if that's your bag.

The birthday boy, Joo and his favorite cake
The spread on the self-rotating table
oddly colored vegetable shrimp and fish
Hooray! 好哇!

World AIDS Day

In preparation for World AIDS Day, I did a lesson on HIV/AIDS with my classes and showed the movie, "Philadelphia," which was well received. To be honest, I was surprised with how much my students already knew about HIV/AIDS and was glad to know that they were mostly well informed. Anyhoo, I just wanted to throw it out to y'all that World AIDS Day is this coming Saturday, December 1st. I am sure that there is an event: memorial service, candle light vigil, etc. happening near you. I found that this website has a list of events worldwide: World AIDS Campaign (Its listed by country in alphabetic order) or check local papers for events. Tell your family and friends and get involved!

Solitary Kidney

I have 2 classes of seniors and most of them are frantically searching for jobs, which entails shelling out money and shoving their way through different job fairs. It sounds pretty stressful as I am sure thousand of students are making their way through the job fairs in the region. Consequently, the other day, only 2 students showed up to my class because everyone else was wrapped up with job hunting. I didn't mind as this made for a very intimate class. The three of us went over some of the lesson I had prepared and we chatted about gender roles, life, and how the job search was panning out.

One of my students was telling me she was offered a job in the South. However, she was ambivalent about accepting because it is so far away from home and the high crime rate. I think the North's views are that the south is full of drugs, murders; basically, that its chock full of the seven deadly sins. She the proceeded to tell me that ubiquitous horror story, ending with someone in the bathtub full of ice, horrified to find that a kidney had been removed.

My students asked me if it was possible to survive on 1 kidney. I explained that our bodies would be able to handle living minus 1 kidney. Then, I thought this was cute; she asked me, "Won't that kidney become tired?"

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

感恩节快乐!

The Bei Hua guys (Jim, Matt, Kevin and I) and Jenny went out for a great meal at a Brazilian BBQ buffet restaurant. The type of place where waiters bring various kinds of meats on skewers, so my kind of place. Actually, there's plenty of other things to eat and an endless amount of beer. So, we had a great meal, sharing what we are thankful for and having a fantastic time.

As we celebrate with family and friends, let's not forget those who do not have enough food. Please go to Free Rice, its an easy and fun way to help a good cause! You can learn a new word AND help out the United Nations World Food Program.

Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?

Tonight, my tutor and I were discussing that this Thursday is Thanksgiving in the U.S. and my plans for the day. Then, she asked me, "Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving?" So in my very basic Chinese, this is what I managed to spit out:

"Many years ago, the Europeans came to America. They did not know how to cook, so they were very hungry. The people living in America, before the Europeans came, knew how to cook. They helped the Europeans, so they did not die, so they gave many thanks. Now, families come together and eat a whole lot of food, and give thanks for what they have."

It was pretty amusing rendition of the first Thanksgiving; nevertheless, I think I managed to get the point across.

Dumplings! (饺子 - Jiao zi)

One of our favorite foods in Jilin is dumplings. We were disappointed before because we missed the festival when each person is supposed to eat 100 dumplings, regardless, we've eaten our fair share of dumplings here.

Thus, this past Saturday, Matt, Kevin, Jim, Jenny and I went shopping to make a whole bunch of dumplings. It was a success and by the end of the night, we had our share plus tons to freeze. We spent several hours chopping, rolling out dough, making and boiling dumplings, oh and of course, eating our product, while we worked.
Kevin, the dough master












Rolling out the dough into small patties
(Can you tell which hands are mine?)












Dumpling stuffing: assorted meats and egg based fillings












Jim, Kevin, Jenny and I working the dough.

First Snow

Today marks the onslaught of snow here in Jilin. Its been snowing steadily for about 12 hours now and has covered the campus in white. This has made walking treacherous because the combination of precipitation on top of the "red tiles of death" equals very slippery, concluding in a big wipe out.

In Chinese comprehension class today, most of the students were wistfully looking out the windows at the falling snowflakes, totally not paying attention to our teacher. She, being the great person that she is, totally understood, as most of our class is originally from different countries in Africa and have never seen snow before. She let us out a little early, so that we could frolic in the snow.

Bei Hua Da Xue Library (北华大學圖书馆)

Kevin and Matt enjoying the snow, outside our usual lunch spot, which we affectionately call the Muslim Noodle Place.

Recovering...

Earlier this week, I came down with a nasty bug and was out of commission for a few days. I'm not quite sure of the origins since I'm pretty sure it was from a meal, but no one else became ill. Regardless, I was definitely not feeling up for class and had to cancel two periods and then be loopy for most of my Tuesday afternoon class.

While I did not have enough energy for class, I did have it in me to lie in bed and catch up on Project Runway Season 3, from last year, since I hadn't seen most of shows, as I was cable-less. I also managed to learn a children's Chinese riddle, which I attempted to recite, in Chinese, to my students in my loopy state, which did not go over well. My student asked me if I was speaking Chinese.

I think its so interesting that even though we, more or less, have the same animals all over the world, we have different animal sounds. For example, in the Chinese riddle, the frog says, "呱呱呱" (gua, gua, gua) which is different from how Americans view the amphibian's vocal contributions to pond life.

Also, at the beginning of the "semester" with my seniors, when they found out I spoke Spanish, they said, "oh, I hear that there are many beautiful Spanish songs, can you sing us one?" Unfortunately for them, I conceded and sang them "De Colores" which I successfully butchered. Regardless, there's all sorts of farm animal noises that stray from our conventional cock-a-doodle-doos and high-pitched peeps. Anyhoo, De Colores is a catchy tune, which you can hear in the movie "Romero," a powerful, life-changing film about Oscar Romero that takes place in El Salvador.

Surgery

I just learned how to say "surgery" in Chinese, 外科 (waike), no worries, I did not have to utilize my dictionary because I was in the hospital. So, dorky me thinks this is so cool because a literal translation is 'department of out.' In other words, the department where things are taken out, which believe you me, surgeons, more likely than not, want to do. 外科, pretty nifty, eh?

In other news, I am halfway done with my teaching marathon. I think between prepping for class, teaching, going to Chinese class, Chinese tutors, and studying Chinese, time has evaporated quickly. Its challenging to teach 5-6 different 2 hour lessons each week and while I already had a great deal of respect for teachers, it has grown exponentially.

For those of you interested: Project Runway Season 4 starts on November 14th. Its a fabulous show that showcases up and coming, talented fashion designers. Its interesting to see the process from the challenge to the sketches to the execution of a garment. Plus there's, of course, great drama and humor. I won't be able to watch it on TV, tear. However, I think I'll be able to find it on Chinese Internet. Hooray!

Guest teacher

Disclaimer: this happened 2 weeks ago and I forgot to tell you about it, so it goes.

Everyday, Jenny has a class in the afternoon for about 25 minutes, where she is free to teach anything. She usually does something English-related. I had previously been giving a spattering of American Sign Language (ASL) signs ranging from the alphabet to pineapple. Thus, she thought it would be interesting if I came in and did the alphabet and whatever else came up.

I was more than happy to do it as I enjoy hanging out with little munchkins. What I failed to realize was that it would be with 40 students during their last period of their day. They were quiet a handful, but Jenny is SO great at shuting them, uh, I mean, quieting them down. It was a lot of fun teaching them the ABCs of ASL and they went crazy over signs like 'hamburger' and 'pineapple'. (I found a website that shows ASL signs in video)

To top it off, at the end of class, the little guys and gals stormed the front room, shoving pens and papers into my hand, asking me for my signature. I felt like an instant celebrity and wanted to get out fast. Those little kids are strong! (and some need baths)

Its was a great way to spend the afternoon and Jenny has since told me that the kiddos are asking for me to come back. Maybe I'll ask my friends to be my bodyguards...

A Banana in Mini-English Corner

After class, I met with a student of mine so that she could practice speaking English with me. She ended up leaving around half-past 5 so that I could study a little bit of Chinese before I met with my tutor. As I was reviewing, a small band of students migrated in, eager to practice their English with me, before their English-Corner at 6pm. English Corner is weekly, where the foreign teachers and English majors meet and practice their oral English. I had met some of them before and I didn't mind taking a few minutes to converse with them.

They were very curious why I looked like them, but could speak English so well AND why didn't I speak Chinese. One girl said, "You are an ABC (American Born Chinese)!". I nodded my head, as I couldn't speak since my mouth was full with banana. She then pointed at my hand gripping the banana and exclaimed, "We also call you a 'banana'!". I sort of chuckled and slightly nodded my head.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this term, calling a Chinese person basically means: "you are yellow on the outside and white on the inside." Thus, you are a banana; you look Chinese on the outside, but your insides are white. I don't mind being named an ABC because for the most part that's true, but I feel that while I grew up in America, I definitely have some Chinese values and beliefs in me. While I know she did not mean that as an insult, I usually associate the labeling of 'banana' as someone who is not happy being Chinese and wanting to be "white"; this is NOT the case with me. Speaking of bananas, a few weeks ago, I took a picture of my twin banana (no, the banana did not look like me):

Although I am proud of being Chinese-American, in class today, a student asked me which country I felt more patriotic for: China or the United States. I explained to her that I was born and raised in America, so of course, I have more patriotic feelings for the U.S. (even though we've done alot of crummy things in a myriad of places in the world), but I am also extremely proud of my heritage.

We then talked about China-Japan relations. This was a huge issue for her, understandably so, as the Japanese have committed many, unspeakable atrocities, especially in Nanjing, which has been called "The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II" by Iris Chang, in her book, 'The Rape of Nanking'. I highly recommend this book (while researching this a little bit on the web, I just found out, even though this happened in 2004, that Iris Change committed suicide, you can read about it here, if you have NY Times access, if you don't, sorry, I can't afford the $1,000 to share it with everyone).

My student asked me about my feelings towards Japanese people. I explained that while I realize that the Japanese committed many atrocities, it happened in the past and I do not harbor any ill-feelings towards currently. However, I disagree with the Japanese government's policy about covering up what Japanese soldiers did during WWII. The government has given their citizens' a revisionist history of what happened. While I understand that the leaders want to foster nationalism, I don't agree with it. Japan, however, is not alone in rewriting history, I think many countries are guilty of this, especially the U.S. Nevertheless, people can still feel proud of their country and know what past atrocities have been committed.

On another note, one of the students guessed that I'm 19 years old, that kind of nice, I guess. I think my hair is getting out of control. I am in serious need of one, but I'm trying to figure out a different hairstyle. Any suggestions?

Chillin' Jilin Halloween Bash

Last night, our first shindig of the year was a success! We had a potluck Halloween party and invited our fellow foreign teachers, classmates and friends. Our costumes went over well with the crowds: Jim was a construction worker, Matt wrapped himself in toilet paper, to be a mummy, Kevin had a toilet seat cozy, toilet paper and a mini plunger to imitate a toilet and my costume turned out pretty nicely, as Astroboy, whom the Koreans call “Atom”.

At first I wasn’t sure how my costume would go over since it was black underwear over skin colored long johns, but I think the red soccer socks brought the costume together.

The food was great ranging from Vegetarian Chili to Korean Rice balls with hot sauce. Due to the international flair (Mozambique, Korea, Japan, etc) of the party, most everyone was communicating in Chinese; we named it "Chinese Corner", named after "English Corner", which we hold for the Chinese students during the evening. Pictures are below and posted here.











Ashley, Sannai, Wakana, and Joo






Lion and Moi
(There's an Astroboy sticker on my belt)











The Mummy and Ashley















"Death by Plunger"

Part of the world again!

Hooray! Yesterday, I came back from our almost daily lunch spot, which we have nicknamed the Muslim Noodle Place, and sitting behind the reception desk was a black case for me! I finally got the computer that UVM had sent me about a month ago.

Not having a computer was not the end of the world, but its much more convenient to have an accessible connection. Its going to be easier to plan for classes and I don't have to worry about getting all of my work done in hour blocks at the internet cafe.

To share the spirit of Halloween with our fellow friends here, we're throwing "The 2007 Chillin' Jilin Halloween Bash" tomorrow night. I was having a hard time deciding what I would be for the party. One day, we were shopping at Da Fu Yuan, which is a major grocery store where I saw my inspiration! I'm going to dress up as Astroboy! He is a Japanese cartoon character and one of his unique powers is using his hips as "a powerful machine gun".

我 叫 黄思金

Okay, I just figured how to use the pinyin-Chinese program on the computers here in the Internet cafe, with the assistance of Jenny.

I'm ecstatic of this new discovery because its another conduit for me to study. I'm also ecstatic because this keyboard does not have any spittle on the keys. The other day, I was writing an email to my sister, but every time I would begin a sentence or use a proper noun, my left pinky felt wet. At first, I ignored this sensation, but then after a few minutes, I wondered what the heck was going on. I looked down at the shift key and it was covered in some food particles in a small puddle of someone else's saliva. How pleasant.

Anyhoo, I wrote: 我 叫 黄思金（Wo jiao Huang si jin) which means "My name is James Huang" Well, my surname is Huang which means yellow. Then, si jin means to think of gold, which I guess means that I want to be rich or think of being rich, which is not really the case, but its a lucky name, I think.

Chinese Wedding (婚姻)

On Saturday, I had the privilege of accompanying my friend, Jenny, to a colleague's wedding. It was a pretty dreary morning, rainy and cold, but I was excited to see a Chinese wedding. The wedding started at 11:18Am; I am assuming ending in '8' because this is considered a lucky number, as in Chinese, 八 (eight), sounds like 发（fa), which means prosperity.



Jenny and I strolled up to the front of a restaurant, with our umbrellas in hand, waiting for the arrival of the lucky couple. There was a stand with firecrackers dangling from the top bar and a crowd of anxious wedding attendees armed with tubes filled of confetti.

The doorman lit off the firecrackers and we were all cheering for the couple as they stepped out of the car. The shiny confetti shot all over the happy couple and drifted on the wind towards us, covering us. Then all of a sudden, Jenny exclaimed, "ai! those are not my friends!". We were waiting for the wrong wedding party!

We quickly exited to the restaurant half a block down, finding 'our' lucky bride and groom. It was a good thing that we went to the wrong wedding because we had missed the grand, noisy entrance of our couple.

This wedding, like many other Chinese weddings according to Jenny, seemed pretty low key to me. There was an MC who ran the show and introduced the bride and groom, said some nice things about them, like how pretty the bride was and how lucky the groom was. There was a quick ceremony, officiated by some woman, and then some speeches by the parents and their bosses. Then, instead of a wedding procession, there was a dizzingly fast marching of food to our tables.



The wedding banquet was great and while did not consist of many options for the ovo-lacto-pesco-tarian, I was quite stuffed upon exiting the wedding which ended in a record short time, at 12:30. I think its the shortest wedding I've ever been to in my life.

Red Leaves Valley

On Saturday, Jenny, Matt, Kevin and I trekked to Jiaohe, which is about 1 1/2 northeast of here to check out the Red Leaves Valley. Unfortunately, we arrived a little bit too late, umm, like by 2 weeks. All of the leaves had hit the ground. On top of that it was SO cold! Nevertheless, we made the best of it and had a great walk. We managed to avoid the 50 kuai entrance fee, which was absurd since there were no red leaves to speak of and that barely anyone was visiting the valley. I'm a wimp when it comes to being an icicle, so I kind of complained alot, but in a good way. The pictures are courtesy of Matt's camera, as my hands were frozen and couldn't be bothered to push a button.


I have to admit that I didn't believe people when they told me that winters here would be bitterly cold. Now, I have seen the light: IT'S COLD! (and we're only in October!) I heard from Jenny that the heat would be turned on the 25th, so I'm excited, but I can't complain. The sun warms up my room (when it's not being obscured by clouds), and is decently warmer than Kevin's room across the hall.

Anyhoo, I start my legal English course tomorrow and am kind of nervous about it. I think it'll be an interesting class and I'm glad to be teaching another course, especially since its with undergrads. Hopefully, my seniors won't be to ill with senioritis.

Chopstick Faux Pas

Oh my! I've had a penchant for leaving my chopsticks upright in my dish, which is a no-no here. By leaving them sticking up in my food, I am imitating the scene of incense burning at a funeral, which does not bode well for my meal-mates. Kevin always points out whenever I do this, stating, "James has a death wish for all of us". I can't help myself; it's more convenient to rest them in my food, but then again, I enjoy my friends' company. For more big travel no-no's, check out this article.

Speaking of chopsticks, the other night, the four Jilin guys and my friend, Jenny, were out at a dumpling (jiao zi) restaurant, which by the way, is our most favorite food. As the steaming dumplings were being placed on our table, amidst the pre-packaged dinnerware (showing that everything has been sterilized), beer, and condiments consisting of garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and hot sauce, each of us were prepping our little area for the onslaught of dumplings. We've all gotten into the habit of mixing Chinese and English, Chinglish (analogous to Spanglish). Thus, I wanted to say, "Where are my chopsticks?" so I said, "wo de kuzi zai nar?". Everyone gave me a funny look, and I realized that I said, "Where are my pants?". I figured if I didn't know where those were, I shouldn't be in public.

Why?!?

This was a desperate plea, in Chinese nonetheless, that exited my mouth at the customs office today in Changchun. Why? Why do I have to pay almost 400 dollars for my computer? In response, I got a mocking 'Why' back at me in English, and several customs officers chortling at my plight.

My computer crashed about a month ago and UVM graciously sent me a loaner computer via UPS. I received a phone call yesterday informing me that my I had a package in Changchun, which about 1 1/2 hours northwest of here. I confirmed many times that I had to travel to Changchun to pick it up and that they would not be delivering the package to me. Thus, I embarked on an adventure this morning with my compatriot, Jim.

It seemed that the gods were smiling down on us, as we jumped on a bus that immediately left for Changchun. Things were moving like clockwork. We finagled a taxi to customs, otherwise known as 'hai guan' in Mandarin. However, as soon as I walked in, everyone was walking in the wrong direction. Ops, we arrived at break time, 11:30AM. I was on the phone with my would-be package deliverer and my friend, Jim, heard me exclaim, "huh, Xiu xi!" which means break, and in China, it means siesta until 1:30.

We did the best we could and explored that part of the city, which is 4x the size of Jilin; about 4 million people live there. We found some pretty neat stuff including: a Chinese-version of a breakfast burrito, a fried egg with potato-like hash, some magical Chinese sauce, veggies and a man de-feathering 2 pigeons and leaving the carcasses on some fresh cabbage heads and a hospital called: Modern Male Hospital: where the trendy get their medical care.


We returned to the customs office and met up with a short woman in a black trench coat, who reminded me of the clothing designer in "The Incredible," because of her spunk and sassy attitude. I had a good amount of fun with her, notwithstanding being computerless upon exiting.

Man, did we have some language difficulties, but we were putting on quite the show for everyone in the room. At first, I couldn't believe how much they wanted me to pay in taxes. It was great, I was pulling out all my Chinese vocabulary: "that's so much!" "What am I going to do?" "How about if I just change the broken computer that I have here for the one in the airport and call it a day?" Well, I didn't say, "call it a day," but I did ask if I could just exchange it so I wouldn't have to pay. She laughed hard at me. I thought it was a good sign, but it didn't get me anywhere.

In the end, I left with only her phone number and bank card number so that I could deposit my payment in her account. Its sounds a little fishy, I know, but she's good people. I'm going to try to haggle the price down by using my resources here. If not, my contact at UVM told me to have them send it back because I should not be paying close to $400 for it. What an adventure! I'm pretty happy that I was able to somewhat communicate in this customs debacle; I'm a little sad that I am still bereft of a computer, *tear*, or rather that I don't have a functioning computer.

PS: It was flurrying today in Changchun, *double tear*
PPS: It was very, very cold today, *triple tear*

马马虎虎 （Ma-Ma-Hu-Hu）

I've learned the bestest phrase the other day "ma-ma-hu-hu" (马马虎虎). Literally, this means horse-horse-tiger-tiger, but in conversational Chinese, it is used as describing something as 'so-so.' When it is used to describe a person, I believe that it means 'sloppy' or 'unkempt.' I've been finding great pleasure in repeating this phrase; I think the novelty will wear off soon, but in the meantime, everything will be 马马虎虎.

For those bibliophiles out there, I highly recommend these two books: "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards and "Eats shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss.

The first novel is poignant story about a doctor in the 60s who ends up delivering his wife's twins and deciding to send away one of the infants because she is mentally retarded. The novel then whisks you through the parallel lives of each child and their families. It's wonderfully descriptive and a compelling story. I couldn't put it down and literally stayed up until 2AM to finish it.

"Eats Shoots and Leaves" is a light-hearted, humorous and much needed book in society today. Its a great crash course into the sometimes frightening, yet extremely interesting world of punctuation. I get excited about things that sometimes raise eyebrows; however, this is a fun way of learning! Aren't you afraid to use semi-colons? I've always been apprehensive about plopping ';' into my writing. Fear not! This book breaks down the mystical dots, commas and whatnot into easy-to-understand language. Plus, I learned that Starbursts used to be called Opal Fruits, who knew!?

And we have water, hooray!

During the past 1 1/2 months, on random days, our water supply has been cut off. Not to worry, its usually only for a day; we get advanced notice, either from our American buddy, Fr. Jim or from the front desk staff which undoubtedly leads to confused looks on both of our parts and repeated explanations. Its actually quite amusing as the dates and times always are in flux. It's always a pleasant surprise when you go to wash your hands and poof!, water flows out of the faucet in jetting spurts.

I've become accustomed to these water blackouts and the night before, I fill up my small tub of water and hope that the water comes back on. We've even named the first flush of the day a freebie since there's water stored in the square thing (I forget what it's called, or did I even know the name before).

Over the weekend, I learned how to play Chinese Chess (xiang qi) and Ma Jiang, both fun games and challenging. Chinese Chess involves tanks, cannons, elephants, rivers and more! The game is analogous to Western chess in terms of specific pieces having special moves and whatnot; but, I feel its a bit more complex and tricky.

Also, I have discovered that I am replacing Spanish brain cells with Chinese brain cells. For the life of me, I could not remember how to say "there!" in Spanish (Ahi) and all that kept popping in my head was a resounding 'NA!' Ugh! I'm not sure what to make of my waning Spanish ability and my growing Chinese. Nevertheless, I think if I immersed myself in a Spanish-speaking community again, I'd rejuvenate mi espanol!

Final Part: Chang Bai Shan (White Mountain)

On Tuesday, the seven of us took a bus to Baihe, which is the town closest to the Northern entrance of Chang Bai Mountain, which is located in China's largest nature preserve. This mountain also holds a great deal of importance for Koreans and which 1/2 of it is located in N. Korea.

We got off the bus in what we thought was Bai He and began a search for a cheap hostel. We were immediately bombarded by several people offering lodgings and tours of Chang Bai Shan, but we broke free, except for one persistent gentleman. He hounded us for about 1/2 an hour but in the end, helped us find a family guesthouse for 15 yuan a night (2 dollars).

During lunch, we discovered that we were NOT in Bai He, but Tudou! D'oh! Nevertheless, the two towns are practically one city, so we were not that far off.

We ended up meeting the nicest man in China, who drove us around in his mini-van. We gave him an English name, Chuckles, because he was extremely jolly and pleasant mannered.

He drove us to Chang Bai Shan early in the morning and we began our journey up the mountain, which in 2000 won the record for a volcanic lake at the highest elevation. The pictures I've seen of Heaven Lake are spectacular and I was excited to see it in person. When we arrived at the peak, however, we were disappointed as we were greeted by a lake enshrouded in fog. Good thing we waited around because as the minutes passed, the fog began to dissipate and we had some gorgeous views of the lake.

(That's me!)

The rest of the day was filled with walking to different sites in the park: a Waterfall from Heaven Lake, small Heaven Lake, hot springs (where they boil eggs, corn, and funny pork sticks) and the Underground Forest. Pictures of all of it are in this sentence!

The following day was filled with a visit to a random sculpture park and this amazing card game that Jenny and Sherry taught us called: Red Tens! I think in total we spent over 15 hours on the trip playing this card game. It was like crack; we couldn't stop.

Now, I'm back in Jilin, ready to continue teaching medical English and start teaching my legal English class in a few weeks. I'm going to show 'Legally Blond' and leave it at that! (Just kidding) Its going to be an interesting class, as I do not know much about law, but will be well informed for my class!

Part 2: Tumen, China/N. Korean Border

Matt, Kevin, and I were debating on whether or not to stay in Yanji on Sunday because we also had Monday in Yanji with our friends who were coming in that evening. We trekked to the bus station to see about a trip to Tumen. With our broken Chinese, we were able to figure out that the next bus left in 40 minutes, but we couldn't buy the return ticket there. On top of that we weren't even sure if there was a return bus. D'oh! We said, "what the heck, we'll go and if we get back great, if not, there are places to stay there, probably."

Tumen is a border town between China and N. Korea and was pretty amazing to witness. I think after hearing all about or rather not hearing much about this country, to actually visualize N. Korea was surreal.

We couldn't glean much about N. Korea from Tumen, but Matt and Kevin paid 2 yuan each to look at the opposing border town through telescopes and binoculars. From their reports, the buildings looked monochrome and during the night, it was pretty much pitch black.

Along the river, there were alot of touristy gimmicks, so we did them! We paid 20 yuan to cross 1/2 way across the bridge between China and N. Korea; and rode a 3 person tandem bike, which was in shabby condition; but we were able to pull of a 360 turn without falling over.

The rest of the pictures from Yanji and Tumen are here: click me!

We were able to get a train back to Yanji to meet up with our friends at midnight and continue our travels to Bai He, which is right next to Chang Bai Shan, China's largest nature reserve.

National Holiday Triology: Part 1: Yanji

I've returned to Jilin after a week of travel to Yanji, Tumen, and Chang Bai Shan. Its been a great, but tiring week; as soon as I stepped out of the Jilin Train Station, it felt good to be back 'home.'

I last reported that on the beginning of our journey that I was going to stand for 7 hours. This turned out to be a rumor and all three of us ended up finding a seat amongst the passengers. So sadly, I didn't build any character, but I was well rested and pleasant upon arrival.

We arrived in Yanji and started the short trek to our lodgings. As we passed the buildings, dodging cars in the streets, I definitely was reminded that we were in China, but also it felt quite different from Jilin. Since Yanji is the capital of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, all of the signs are in Chinese and Korean. Furthermore, there is a huge Korean population in the city, which contributes to the mix of Korean/Chinese food everywhere.

The afternoon was spent exploring the city. We found a park which sadly had animals in minuscule cages. There was a tiger and a cheetah, right next to each other, with barely enough room to walk around. The cheetah was pacing back and forth, which Matt and Kevin said was probably due to the poor animal's suffocating space causing him/her to go crazy. I was quite disturbed by this maltreatment, so I suggested to come back later in the night for Mission: Liberation. I was reminded that these carnivores are probably famished and would eat their liberators; Mission: Liberation, aborted.

Dinner was spent at a Korean BBQ place which was fun because we got to grill our own food. It was analogous to roasting smores over a campfire, but instead with meat on a stick and in my case garlic cloves and fishballs, which I tried to order more of after the first batch. However, each time I tried to say, in Chinese, 'fish,' then 'white fish' while motioning my hands into a ball formation; and then I gave up because instead of a frozen, half spherical fishball, I got donkey and then some funky fish skin thing.

In my typical clumsy fashion, I was jumping up on to a step and proceeded to trip and gouge my knee on the corner of the step. That pretty much ended our night on the town and I tended to my gushing wound which I think looked alot worse than it really was and I'm glad to report that I'm healing well with no signs of infection.

I swear...

By the moon and the stars in the skies
I'll be there
I swear like the shadow that's by your side
I'll be there
For better or worse, 'till death do us part
I'll love you with every beat of my heart
And I swear...

These wonderful lyrics touched our Chinese hosts, our fellow Japanese and Korean teachers, as we, Kevin, Matt, Jim and I represented America, bellowing out "I swear" by Boyz II Men. It was quite the scene, especially since the song was sung to a backdrop of 5 Asian sisters running through a gambit of emotions.

Tonight, our hosts took us out to dinner to officially welcome us and to promote good relations between the foreign teacher and Chinese teachers. The meal was filled with great food, most of it vegetarian friendly (yay for me), and many toasts, followed by gan bei's (bottoms up). Its a rather early night for us, but that's because we have a 7:30AM train to catch.

Unlike my pack for the Machu Picchu Trail, this trip will only consist of a small backpack and my merse. I think its the lightest I've ever packed for a week long trip. Anyhoo, I'll try to update during my trip, but I might not be able to until my return the following weekend.

Train Station

Today, Kevin and I met up with our friend Eric to buy train tickets for upcoming holiday. Originally, National Day was a day off, but now its gradually developed into a week long vacation for the country. We're heading to Yanji and then to Chang Bai Shan near the North Korean border. Since its a national holiday, needless to say, the station was flooded with people, waiting in orderly lines.

I was a bit surprised because prior to coming here, I was informed that its pretty much everyone for themselves. Just try to imagine 1.3 billion people trying to travel and then throw us non-Mandarin speakers in the mix for a good comedy show. Luckily, our friend, Alec is a native speaker, who speaks English very very well. Kevin mentioned that there was some sort of national campaign to deter people from shoving and to respect the LINE. (something that Americans are surprisingly good at)

Nevertheless, as we got closer to the ticket booth and the cashier made an announcement that he was going on lunch break in 3 minutes, a small pocket of chaos ensued at our line. A random guy came up to me and started asking me questions and of course my level of Chinese is still pretty basic so I passed him to my friend, Alec. He was asking us to him a favor of buying his ticket with his money for him.

Plus, there was this woman was trying to shove her money under the ticket window, in front of us, as we're getting standing there, trying to acquire tickets. Thankfully, the ticket man shooed her away and we were the last customers before his respite. There were tickets available only for the standing section, but they were so cheap, only 45 kuai ($5.50). So, Kevin, Matt, and I will be on our feet for about 7 hours. Its going to be an adventure and build character!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! (Zhong Qiu Jie Kuai Le!)

The past few weeks, Jilin, as well as the rest of the country has been inundated with delicious treats called "Moon Cakes," in preparation of today. In the lunar calender, today is the 15th day of the 8th month which coincides with the Full Moon! Oddly enough, it also has coincided with the weather turning quite chilly. *tear* There have been a plethora of moon cake stands all over the city and we're posing with, I presume, a traditional family strolling down the streets of Jilin with some moon cakes.Families gather tonight and share a meal together, taking in the glorious full moon. They munch on moon cakes. I think most are pretty good, but there are some that warrant being thrown in the trash.

We've been invited to Jenny's apartment for a pot-luck dinner to celebrate the day. We've done a pretty good job of cooking up an international menu. Matt whipped up some garlic mashed potatoes, Kevin made some Mediterranean Salad, and I made some Thai vegetable curry.

Today in class, my students taught me a famous Mid-Autumn Festival Poem by Li Bai that everyone memorizes.

静夜思

床前明月光，
疑是地上霜。
举头望明月，
低头思故乡。
by 李白

While I am not a certified translator, I'll give it a shot:

Thoughts in a Silent Night
Bright moon light falls in front of my bed,
frosting the ground beneath my feet.
I tilt my head towards the bright moon,
then I lower my head and think of my homeland.

*tear* (place your finger near your eye and imitate a tear drop falling) Many of you know that I do this as a comedic action, so don't worry about me!

But seriously, all of you are in my thoughts and I hope that you have a fabulous Mid-Autumn Festival Day.

Dragon Pool Mountain (Long tan shan)

On Saturday, I went on my first hiking adventure with the guys, Joo, Jenny, Michelle, and her two dogs: Peng You (Friend) and Xin-xin. I was excited to get out of the city and get some fresh air. I soon discovered that the trail was a hybrid of nature, religious experience and amusement park. The hike first passed some Buddhist temples and then made its way into a mini-theme park. They had everything from "riding the bull" to archery. Matt picked up the bow and arrow and shot as if he had years of experience hunting buffalo on the range. He got a bulls eye on his second try!

The trail passed by a reflecting pool, which legend says that a White-tailed dragon flew out of and thus the mountain is named Dragon Pool.


(L-R: Joo, Jenny, Matt, I'm holding Xin-Xin, Michelle, Peng You, and Kevin)

Joo mentioned, after seeing a sunflower on the roof of a temple, that in Korea, giving a sunflower to your significant other means that "you only have eyes for them."



Last night, I was by the Song Hua River and the trees are decorated with Icicle Lights, awaiting for the real thing in a few months. Anyhoo, its not super clear, but at least you can hear me narrating!



On Sunday, I asked Jenny if I could sit in on her English Class for her 5/6 year olds. There were 7 students and quite adorable. I thought it was interesting that when she was teaching the youngsters how to write A, B, and so on, she was doing it based on how many strokes are in each letter. This totally makes sense as Chinese Characters revolves around strokes.

Well, Tuesday, is the Moon Festival, so you better run out and get some Moon Cakes for the Full Moon!

Bone Marrow Stew

In my medical English class today, I learned an interesting tidbit of information about one's diet during an illness. One of the dialogs focused on a fracture and the patient asked, "Is it okay, if I have some soup with bone marrow, so that I can heal faster?" The doctor's response is, "Yes, it might speed up your recovery." I made a side comment to the class that this is probably not true.

However, my students informed me that when a patient has a health issue, be it liver dysfunction or heart problems, it is widely believed that eating the analogous part of an animal aids in the healing process. Thus, when you break a bone, you should eat bone marrow as part of a comprehensive treatment plan.

I think many American are finicky eaters and would never fathom eating the liver or heart of an animal. Also, I'm not sure how many would even believe that this type of diet would help cure their illness, as we live in a culture of pills and prescriptions.

My right thumb is numb

This past Sunday, Matt, Kevin, Jim, Jenny and I went to the underground arcade to bowl. We walked below into a haze of cigarette smoke and our faces were bathed in neon flashing lights and the soothing glow of various videogame screens. They had all types of fun things to do like pool tables, ping-pong tables, and a myriad of videogames.

Remember the arcade game with the big claw and you try to win a cute, stuffed teddy bear? Well, we saw a variation on this idea, that included both children and adults: Note the pile of cigarette packs in the lower right corner, so that children can't see them, oh wait, they're right at their eye level...

I recently read a statistic that 1/3 cigarettes made in the world are consumed in China. Its ubiquitous around Jilin and everyone smokes, everywhere. Its quite a shock to the system after being in a smoke-free environment for several years. I asked the doctors that I worked with about smoking cessations aids. The consensus was that there weren't any types of medications like Wellbutrin, patches or even gum. Assuming that people would want to start quitting, there'd be a huge market for smoking cessation tools here.

Anyhoo, the five of us bypassed the lure of the cancer sticks, and made our way to the bowling alley, where we had a grand time. Unfortunately for me, after a few frames, I noticed that the distal part of my right thumb became oddly numb. I think I compressed a small sensory nerve or something. It currently is still slightly asensational (is that even a word?) but I'm not too concerned as it'll probably take sometime for it to recover. I ended up bowling a decent game so the people who did not bowl so well had to buy Kevin and me ice cream.

We made our way to the McDonald's where I had my first encounter with a Chinese Ronald McDonald. It was kind of bizarre. Moreover, my friend pointed out they seem to be recycling ad campaigns from the past. Remember the suave McDonald's Moonman? He's been resurrected and making a full comeback in China!

Triple Birthday and a trail of Donkey carnage

Last night, we met up with foreign teachers and Chinese friends to celebrate Matt's and two Japanese teachers' birthdays, Mikao and Sannei. We had a private room with a gi-normous table for 16 people with a lazy susan. We ended up ordering a set menu and thus a myriad of dishes came to us. Often in Chinese cuisine, certain dishes are not recognizable and require one to ask about the content. I totally understand this predicament, as I try to avoid meat. However, last night during the meal, there was quite a spectacle.

One of the guests, aptly with her chopsticks, picked up a pita pocket thing, filled with meat and started to eat it. She has been a teacher in Jilin for about 2 years, I believe, so I would expect her to have some cultural sensitivity or at the very least good manners. So when someone asked what was inside and the response was Donkey, she immediately hurled the pita pocket which landed on the table and made a huge commotion by spitting out the food and screaming. I sympathize with her that she had donkeys on her farm growing up and couldn't fathom eating a childhood friend, but at the same time, if I had accidentally eaten a furry friend, I certainly would not throw, spit or scream. I, as my other friends, were horrified and felt awful for this show of disrespect towards our friends who had planned this wonderful evening. As we strolled along the trail of Donkey Carnage, others stopped and enjoyed the pita pockets and hopefully made some small amends towards our hostesses. Matt ingeniously placed his camera on the edge of the lazy susan and set it to video (can you find me!?)

The candle on the cake was also quite spectacular and we took a video of the show, as it blasted the Happy Birthday song and blossomed:

Imagine in China, using chopsticks to eat cake!

Settling in

Its been 2 weeks since I've arrived and things are beginning to become familiar and I'm inching towards somewhat of a routine.

I usually schlep to Chinese language class in the mornings, if I don't have to teach. Otherwise, I'm either preparing lessons for my medical English class or constantly writing Chinese characters, hoping that they imprint on my brain. I try to go for a short run every other day, usually by the Song Hua River, which has some beautiful scenery and is an escape from the polluted roads.

Most meals are eaten out, as my culinary skills are not being employed. Its fairly cheap to eat out and the food is great.

I'm enjoying teaching immensely. Whenever I arrive to class, I have bounding energy and the 2 hours fly by. The classes here are usually 2 45-minute periods with a 10 minute break. Also, it helps that I'm teaching medical English, so I find it all very interesting. On Friday, I gave out some American candy, Jolly Ranchers, so that my students wouldn't fall asleep during my lecture on Hypertriglyceridemia. They enjoyed the candy, the lecture, not so much.

While I was studying Chinese this morning, I discovered another quirk in the language. So apparently, the same character can have 2 totally different pronunciations, for example, in English imagine if you said bank, but it could mean post office depending on the context. I'm not sure if I'm explaining it clearly enough, but that's representative of how difficult this language is! Or its my shoddy explanation skills :)

Anyhoo, some more pictures of us at dinner and at the Park:
Kevin, Me, Elena, Natalia (Russians), Matt, Ashley, and Joo

Computer on the Fritz

Yesterday, my computer became angry with me and now is refusing to cooperate. I believe that the fan that cools it down is broken, which has caused my computer woes. Thankfully, my friend Matt is letting me use his laptop.

Thinking that it could just be the fan, I emailed the COMIS, the UVM computer experts, asking about what I could do about a faulty fan. I couldn't believe it, but they responded with "We can send you a loaner and the shipping material to send my broken one back." I was flabbergasted. At first, I thought maybe they assumed that I was in China, MAINE, not China, the country. So I replied clarifying that I was 1/2 way around the world. I just checked my email and they said it would be possible, but that they'd double check.

The COMIS dept gets an A+ for dedication to UVM medical students!

The other night I went out to dinner with 2 Korean friends, Ashley and Joo, and my friend Kevin. We went to a Si chuan place and we think that a spice they used in the dish gave us awful nightmares. Kevin dreamed about helping Harry Potter escape from quite large spiders, while I was trapped in a house and couldn't escape.
Eating out has been an interesting experience, mostly because we say "chicken" or "tofu" in Chinese and are presented with something much more complicated than our one word ordering. One time, we ended up with this delicious tofu dish, so we had the waitress write it down in Chinese and we showed the slip of paper the following week at another eatery. That was amusing.

But its somewhat frustrating and hilarious because I think that I'm saying the word correct, but I can't get my point across. For example, I asked for garlic, da suan, I thought I had the tones right, but we ended up getting toothpicks! Go figure.

Also, I just found out that I have been telling our friendly food servers that "I am a vegetable." No wonder I've been getting quizzical stares. I thought that "Wo shi su de" meant I am a vegetarian, but my 2 Chinese friends told me that the translation is more "I am a vegetable." (I forgot to say Wo shi chi su de) Or if I said, "wo chi su de" it just means I eat vegetables. And so what? You eat vegetables, big deal. I think my attempts at the vegetarian language have been futile as I have either been making ridiculous statements or saying obvious things. Nevertheless, I haven't gone hungry so we must be doing something right.

2 things that I found surprising here is that the Chinese eat a plethora of potatoes and that there are large Muslim populations in China. I wasn't expecting potatoes to be a popular thing here as I never really ate alot of potato dishes growing up. Also, people around here really do eat dog. My friend Jenny last night enjoys it and eats it a few times a year.

Random Jilin Stuff

This catholic church, (Tianzhu Jiaotang) was ransacked during the Cultural Revolution and reopened in 1980, definitely sticks out of amongst the Chinese building along the Song Hua River. Along the river are various statues (fishies and bikers) and animal bushes such as the pictured Squirrels and mushrooms, which I thought were pretty funky.

Its been cloudy for the past few days, which has been dreary, but it has a nice effect along the Song Hua River. I'm pictured with Kevin, who likes to eat a plethora of Kabobs.

Kevin, Matt and I went into an outdoor type market, in doors, where a crowd gathered around Matt. He speaks Chinese the best amongst the three of us. Its actually pretty hilarious because all the Chinese people come up to me and ask questions about my 2 companions, but most of the time I have no clue what they're saying. So I turn to Matt, who is able to converse with the curious people. You have to have a good sense of humor because lots of time people talk amongst themselves and then laugh, most likely at you. So I just laugh along, blissfully ignorant about what they just said about me or to me.