They sure do grow up fast

Do you remember those two little rascals, Wei-En and Wei Min, my nephews, in Bangkok? Well, they both have grown considerably, especially Wei-En. When I last saw him, he was cruising around in his stroller, chewing on his shoelace fascinated with empty plastic bottles. Now, he's walking around, chatting it up with everyone and has 2 nicknames for me, he has renamed Uncle Jimmy as: "Go Me" and "Jimmy-ah" (imitating my Aunt Nancy in a Chinese accent).

As with Wei Min, everyone talks to Wei En in a combination of Chinese, Thai and English. Wei En can correctly identify and say: Flamingo in English, Dog in Chinese, and Elephant in Thai. At first, I thought oh my gosh, that kid is going to be confused when he gets older, but the more I thought about it, the more it seems appropriate. It'll all get sorted out and then he'll be tri-lingual like Wei Min, which is fantastic!

Wei En, following in the footprints, or should I say hoof prints of his older brother , by riding a pony. Wei En is also very into applauding !Wei Min, Wei Min and Uncle Jimmy

Catching up

After 2 1/2 weeks of traveling in China, I have a much needed respite with my relatives in Bangkok. Dealing with all of the logistics of getting four people through China, while fun and exciting, can be a bit stressful. It feels like I've come full circle since leaving last year. I started my adventure in Bangkok and am now ending it here.

After we left Xi'an, we went to Chengdu (成都) in Sichuan (四川) Provence to see the Pandas! This is the same Provence where the tragic, devastating earthquake happened, but Chengdu was not effected. Pandas are cute, but they are pretty lazy. Most of their day is consumed with eating because their bodies can only absorb a fraction of the nutrients from bamboo, so they have to spend about 80% of their day eating. Its a hard knock life for them.

We also made a day trip out to Leshan (樂山), where the world's largest buddha is located. This place also happens to be the birthplace of my father, who I thought was born in Chongqing, but was recently informed otherwise. His Chinese name carries part of his birth place, Le (樂), which means "happy."

After a couple of days in Chengdu, we made it to the Yunnan (云南) Provence, which is an area that is worth exploring in China. The scenery is breathtaking and the old towns of Lijiang (丽江) and Dali (大理) are a refreshing change of pace from the generic Chinese cities, especially, since there's hardly any pollution. Also, we hike Tiger Leaping Gorge which was an amazing hike. My mom was a super trooper and hiked the incredible difficult trail without any assistance, namely from the 2 local with horses who were trailing us in hopes of one of us tiring and paying money to ride the horse to the top.

Anyhoo, that's brief recap of our travels, which concluded in Hong Kong with a four day extravaganza of eating, shopping and seeing relatives.

Zach, Jen and I at Tiger Leaping Gorge
The Fam:
Click here to see some cute panda cubs, the world's largest Buddha, and more!

Family Vacay

D'oh, its been almost a month since I've last posted. Things have been really hectic for me as the year is coming to an end. Over the past month, I went to my friend Letizia's wedding, which was a beautiful ceremony on the beach and have been trying to say my good-byes to my friends in Jilin. I've also been packing and cleaning; as Kevin points out, I'm a pack-rat, although I think that over the years, I've gotten better about throwing things away.

One of my last nights in Jilin was one of the funnest. Along the scenic, yet slightly polluted, Song Hua River, Snow Beer (Xue Hua 雪華) set up several beer tents with mini kegs and pitchers for sale, combined with kabobs and other small snacks, it was a fun evening. This type of thing is pretty atypical for Jilin as most things are closed early and most people head home around 9pm.
Song Hua River
Jenny's friends, Jenny, Jim and Kevin

Leaving Jilin was bittersweet; while it was sad leaving my friends and students, I was excited to travel in China with my mom, sister, Jennifer, and her husband Zach.

We started off in Beijing, doing all the major tourist sites and then headed on an overnight train to Xi'an (西安). It would have been easier to take a flight, but I wanted to give Jen and Zach a true China experience: the overnight train. They are actually not that bad and quite comfortable, but I think one event is seared into their brains. The morning before our arrival, the water, for some unknown reason stopped working in the bathrooms. This led to no flushing of the squatters (toilets that you have to squat to use, which are ubiquitous in China); consequently, giving my sister and Zach unfortunate views and odors.

Otherwise, its been great seeing a new place and I'm excited for the other places we're going to see.

I'm in the process of uploading pictures, but enjoy the one of Jen and me eating an overly sweet fruit kabob. I recommend getting this only with the pineapple, we had a few tomatoes in ours!

Ice Lake Ditch (冰湖沟)

This past Saturday, my Medical English Students took another teacher and myself on an outing to Ice Lake Ditch (冰湖沟). It's a beautiful place and its easy to forget that there is life outside "the city." Incredibly enough, there was still ice formations at this place, or rather maybe not so surprising since it has been cold up until now. Regardless, it was pretty cool to see ice blocks, on a sunny, warm day. My students are a fun bunch and it was great to hang out with them outside of the class setting, especially since my time here is coming to an end.

I honestly can't believe that my time here in Jilin is almost over. Before I came, I was looking for some kind of connection to China. I think that I can honestly say that I'm Chinese-American with more conviction.

Many students have asked me do you consider yourself Chinese or American? In the U.S., I've always given the standard response, "oh, I'm Chinese-American," but that was more based on appearance than anything. I mean I did know how to use chopsticks and I love to eat Chinese food, but other than some understanding of some customs, I never felt that I was truly Chinese. While living here for a year does not necessarily make me an expert, I have a better grasp of the ideas, customs, culture and more importantly, I can actually order the food now. My reply to the students have been, "I'm both! I'm Chinese-American!"

I'm in an ice pocket

Look at the last guy who littered.
He learned his lesson and now uses the trash receptacle.

Rest of the pictures from my outing.

加油! Jia You!

As I ran along the hilly countryside, along the Great Wall Marathon course, many little kids and adults were yelling, "Jia you! (加油!) Jia you!" This literally means "add oil," but translates to "go! go! go!" It was kind of humorous because I would usually hear the crowds yell out "hello" to foreigners passing by, but then when they saw me, they would say, look a Chinese runner, and say, "加油!"

This was a pretty intense course, much of it uphill and on top of that there's the wall. The first time around, it wasn't so bad, kind of nice and my body was still relatively fresh, as it was in the first 5 miles that we "ran" the wall. In reality, its nearly impossible to run along Great Wall, so most of us just walked along, hoping not to fall off or trip and break a bone.

However, by mile 22ish, I was pretty tired and my legs were screaming in pain. I was cursing every step and was wondering if I could stop right there. I kept chugging along until the end of the wall and it was all downhill from there, literally.

It was the greatest feeling to cross the finish line and I got a nifty medal. Overall, it was an amazing, grueling experience, one that I probably will not do again, but highly recommend it!

On the stage with my medal!













You can see the wall along the hills.













In other news, the earthquake in Sichuan province is devastating, as I'm sure you've heard. Thankfully, I am up in the northeast, which very far away from the western province. Today, and the next two days, there are moments of silence at 2:28PM for the victims of the Earthquake. Also, if you would like to donate some money, the following are some good websites to check out:
http://tsinghuafoundation.org/earthquake08/index.html
http://www.us.tzuchi.org/usa/home.nsf/photonews/k11802
http://www.mercycorps.org/chinaearthquake/

May 20th, 10:53PM Addendum
Here is my result from the Great Wall Marathon

May 23rd, 12:37AM Addendum
This website has photos of me along the wall and the course, just click on the Great Wall Marathon on the left side and put in my bib number in the search engine: 544

Harder than the Antarctica Marathon?

With about a week and a half left before the Great Wall Marathon, I though I'd peruse some of the articles on the marathon, just to mentally prepare myself. When I came across a comment left by a previous runner who wrote, "I thought Antarctica was tough until I ran the Great Wall Marathon"

I was in a state in of utter disbelief. I mean, come on, we're talking about freaking Antarctica here. Its covered in ICE and Wikipedia has this to add, "Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents." Oh my goodness, what have I gotten myself into?

In other news, we were on holiday last week for May Day so a bunch of us went camping at 5 Tiger Island. This island is actually a theme park, so it looked a bit odd that we had all our camping gear, looking for a spot along the beach. One of the tourists yelled out, "do you plan on living there?" Regardless, we had a grand ol' time which was accentuated with 朋友 (peng you, "friend" in Chinese), Michelle's boxer, who was super hyper, but not very good at fetching. 5 Tiger Island photo album here

Peng you "helping" collect firewood:













Matt, Michelle, James, Kevin, Peng You, and Jenny

Childhood pastimes

Winter is becoming a distant memory as the days have become super nice and warm. More and more people are outside, recalibrating their eyes to the sun and, as my students would say, playing outside.

Recently, I've rediscovered 2 activities from my childhood in Century Square, a ginormous square, near the Song Hua River, that has a huge structure called "the boat", a small zoo, a large TV that plays Enya all day long, and throngs of people renting roller skates and flying kites, some are doing both at the same time.

Jenny and Kevin in front of the Boat in Century SquareI think I can count the number of times I've gone roller skating on one hand, but nevertheless it was tons of fun and I didn't fall once! The following day, I went kite-flying with my friend, Ethan, and his girlfriend Linda. I was skeptical of kite flying at first, but I ended up liking the challenge of getting the kite high in the air and maintaining it high above. Its harder than it looks!

Kevin and me keeping balanced

I told my friend Katrin about my recent adventures and she said, "that should be a requirement...to spend an hour a week doing something that you used to do only as a child! minimally"

Octopus kite...
So buck up campers and get on out there!
Look how much this little tyke is having!

Indoctrination

So recently you've probably noticed that all the press about Tibet, the Olympics and whatnot, and maybe you're wondering what the sentiment here is in China, especially among the students. I came across this op-ed piece (NY Time Article) which I think correctly assesses the opinions of most Chinese here.

Understandably, students are taught to love their country, nationalism is part of any country's curriculum. For example, the U.S. text books have glossed over our own malicious behavior towards American Indians and Japanese text books have underplayed their war atrocities in China and even have made some of the army leaders into war heroes. This is all done in order to paint a rosy picture of history and an attempt to avert any type of shame or disdain for one's country. Regardless, history is supposed to explain the truth and even knowing the truth, one can still love their country.

Thus, one can still love their country and at the same time be critical of their actions.

Trip to Freedom's Home

Yesterday was Qingming Festival, as we did not have any classes, my student, Freedom invited me to his home in the countryside, near the town 天北 (Tian Bei). He wanted to show me the countryside and introduce me to his parents', as well as his mother's cooking. I think in this past 24 hour period, I've gained 5 kilos from all the food that she made for us.

Life in the countryside is pretty simple, but its also strenuous. There's always things to be done around the farm and the house, but the cows have it pretty easy. They just plop themselves on some hay and eat all day.We spent the afternoon, walking around his small town and I met a cute, old family friend who lives in this pretty cool mud/straw house that he built. I was excited to help with dinner and make some dumplings. But after a few minutes, it became evident that I was more of a hindrance than an asset. Freedom's mom made the most impeccable dumplings and mine came no where close to her's. Also, not only did they look funny, many of my dumplings did not survive the ravaging effects of boiling water. Though, they still were tasty.Freedom and him mom.

Can you pick out the ones I made?

The stove in the kitchen is connected to the bottom of the house. Since there's no central heating, the heat from the ongoing fire in the stove heats the tiled floor, which heats the room. It's an innovative system, so I was nice and toasty on the floor as there was literally a fire under my bed.

Freedom's parents were incredibly nice and always giving me food and inviting me to come back whenever I had free time. In fact they were trying to be hospitable and offered me a beer today, with breakfast! I politely declined and replied that it was too early (8am) for beer. However, evidently, it was not too early for "kegs and eggs" for one of the bus passengers today on the ride back to Jilin.

We took the 2pm bus back to Jilin, and there was a man who was obviously drunk standing in the aisle of the bus, keeling over. He eventually got a seat, but then proceeded to vomit in the aisle. It REEKED of this crappy alcohol called "bai jiu," which is this home-style liquor that smells just awful, especially after its been ingested and then regurgitated. We vacated the bus and I was so disgusted with the whole mess that we ended up walking and taking a cab the rest of the way home.

The episode of vomitus did not ruin the day and a half trip and it was a great adventure into the countryside.

替考 Replace Test

I was having dinner with a student of mine the other day, and we were making plans this coming weekend because we have Friday off. Its Qing ming (清明节) Festival, which is also known as, Tomb Sweeping Day. This day is for remembering and honoring ones' ancestors, which includes visiting their tombs.

My student invited me to his home in the countryside, but we have to come back on Saturday because he has to take a test. I prodded a bit and found out that the test he's taking the test for someone else! The non-test taker works at a company and is looking to get a promotion. In order to accomplish this, he has to take a test and pass to get a certificate to help him obtain this advancement at work. He is paying my student to take the test for him since it is in English and my student's major is English. Here, they call this 替考 (ti kao), which literally means replace test.

I was pretty amazed at this underground business, but then again, I was not that surprised because cheating on tests is rampant and everyone and their mother manages to sneak in a crib sheet or blatantly take someone else's paper in the middle of the test and copies it (this happened in my class last semester).

It was actually very amusing. I went up to the student and said, "Oh, where's your test paper? Are you finished with it already?" She was a little verklempt but managed to spit out a few lame questions about Thanksgiving, hoping that I didn't notice that the boy behind us had her test paper. I let it go since I don't want to fail the students out of school.

Anyhoo, back to this 替考 business. It pays well, compared to the living standards here and I thought, oh my goodness, I would rock an English test (not that I support cheating, but I get easily excited). But then, I found out that there's a translation part. Um, yeah, I'm going to have to pass.

Running with Sand

Well, as Matt pointed out, I really need to post something. But to be honest, there's not much happening these days. Time has been passing quickly and part of the reason is that I'm quite busy. My days have been filled with class hours, both teaching and Chinese class, tutors, meeting with students and lastly running.

I'm happy to report that training for the Great Wall Marathon is going pretty well. I just did long run of about 1 hr 40 minutes this past Saturday. I had been nervous about the marathon since I had a little bit less than 3 months to train for it, but I've had a nice time running in Jilin. I have a pretty good running path for my long runs along the Song Hua River, but I'm unsure of the distances, so just to be safe I've designated a mile to every 10 minutes that I run. While we've had some bouts of cold and snow, the weather hasn't been too shabby. Unfortunately, we are the throws of "sand storm season."

The way I look at it is that Mud Season:Vermont :: Sandstorm Season: Northeast China. So instead of seeing mud flaps everywhere, I'll see random people, especially children, with their heads engulfed in a weird pantyhose-netting type thing to block out the sand. I actually could use some sort of mask, since sometimes after finishing a run, I'll feel like I've tripped over someone buried in the beach and fallen face first into the sand. You know that gross feeling of bits of sand in your mouth, getting stuck in the crevices of your mouth and rubbing against your molars and gums, ugh!

Anyhoo, the run is less than 2 months away, yikes! I'm looking forward to it and hopefully I don't trip and fall off!

Home again

So I've done a pretty spotty job of updating my blog since the Gibbons experience, but so it goes. When the zip lining was over, Carolyn and I still needed an adrenaline rush, so we took a high speed boat from Huayxai to Luang Prabang. I was hesitant to do it because of all the warnings of crashing and whatnot, but what the heck, a 6 hour bumpy boat ride sounded a bit more appealing than an 18 hour bus ride.

Anyhoo, we had some pretty good adventures which included doing some Traditional fishing with some locals and meeting up with Matt in Luang Prabang. I finally put up all the pictures with captions when necessary and I split them up into albums of the cities/towns I visited: Go to pictures!

I've been back in Jilin now for a little over a week and its nice to be back. Its even nicer because I was dreading the cold weather upon returning to the NE, but so far its been very mild.

This past week has consisted of getting back into the swing of things, like teaching, studying, and now training for the Great Wall Marathon, which I foolishly signed up for in May. I have only given myself a little less than 3 months to train, but my goal is to finish, even if it does take me 6 hours.

The Gibbons Experience

Before we started the trip, we heard about this amazing experience in Northwest Laos, zip lining. The only problem was that it was in northwest Laos, and we were coming from the south. We definitely bent over backwards for this which included a 6 hour bus ride from Vang Vieng, then a 14 hour bus ride from Luang Prabang to Huayxai. But, in the end, it was worth the effort.

I had an incredible 3 days which included some great hiking, company, and of course, zip lining over the forest. It was an intense rush, as I hung by my harness, up super high, and going fairly quickly over the trees. There are some videos below of my zips. You might want to watch it on low sound because of the extremely loud, annoying screeching noise that the zip contraption makes.

Border Scams

Carolyn and I have made it to northern Laos, after a few days in Southern Laos which was a welcomed respite from the border town of Stung Treng in Cambodia. Stung Treng is a sketchy border town, which we wanted to get out of as soon as we arrived after our all day bus ride.

Unfortunately, our last experience in Cambodia was tainted by 2 seemingly nice men, who sold us tickets to the border, and then tickets to the next city in Laos and a boat ride to Don Det, part of the Four Thousand Islands in Southern Laos. Even though we eventually arrived, it left a sour taste in our mouths after such wonderful experiences in Cambodia.

In the end, it was kind of our faults, since the first gentleman that sold us the "tickets" and then we found out, he wasn't even authorized to sell tickets. He managed to get the ticket book and write us out tickets all the way into Laos! Then, the following "kind" man helped us to the border and then tricked us. So I guess: fool us once, shame on you, fool us twice, shame on us!


Regardless of the added expenses, the trip into Southern Laos has been amazing. Its very relaxed and beautiful. The Lao way of life is quite slow paced and took a little while getting used to, but its refreshing to wait, even though it may be 45 minutes or so before you eat. I posted 2 pictures from Don Det/Don Kohn (part of 4,000 Islands) and I will post pictures of our entire trip as soon as I get organized!

Same same but different

Its been almost a week, since I've arrived in Cambodia. Cambodia thus far has been a beautiful country. From the ancient temples at Angkor Wat to a boat ride from Siem Reap to Battambang (9 hours, but it was fun), passing through rural river villages, the country thus far has been a pleasure visit.

Same, Same but different is a phrase that is rampantly used here and has even made it to the T-Shrit market (I just got one, in a snazzy jean-blue color). Its a funny phrase and I've enjoyed hearing it and using it in the markets and whatnot.

I've been delighted with the smiling children, running around the streets and playing in the river. Everywhere, Carolyn and I go, there are always packs of toddlers and children waving their hands at us, saying hello and giving us the biggest grins in the world.

From what I have witnessed, the people, today, are strong, resilient and witty and always willing to send a smile your way. Its amazing to see such joy in light of the tragedies that Cambodia has faced. First the mass genocide under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, and then the mass famine after his downfall. We visited some of the sights of the mass executions and graves, which was a somber and emotionally moving experience. Its hard to believe that places like high schools were turned into prisons and places of torture. Its hard to believe that these atrocities only took place a mere 30 years ago and what's even more sad is that there are still mass genocide still occurring!

I've had some downtime over the past week and took advantage of being in bigger citities, i.e. have English movie theaters, so I've checked out 2 movies that are probably out of the theaters in the States. The first film I saw was "The Kite Runner" based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini. While I normally think that the book is always better than the film production, this movie was better than most movie-book adaptations. While the story feels a bit rushed, the overarching themes of friendship, family, loyalty, culture and love are conveyed well. I highly recommend the book if you haven't had a chance to read it yet.

The other film I saw was Sweeny Todd. I'm a sucker for musicals and while this one drasticly different from any musical I've seen, its quite good. In Tim Burton fashion, its a very dark movie, with lots of singing that makes it kind of light-hearted. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter do a superb job. It is quite gory, but in the sense that its over the top, blood gushing out, making it seem kind of fake. So two movies to check out if they're still out in theaters.

Anyhoo, I've arrived in Cambodia and waiting at the airport for my friend, Carolyn to fly in. My lodgings are great compared to Singapore, I actually have a blanket and a towel provided! Also, its nice to have a single room, since I was sharing with 7 other people in Little India. I never got enough sleep with people coming in and out. I haven't had a chance yet to check out Phnenom Phen, as I got in kind of late last night. But will update y'all soon!

Singaporsity

I've managed to find a relatively cheap Internet cafe in Singapore, which has the AC AND fan going, bonus! I arrived yesterday and am taken with this small country. Granted I've been complaining and moaning about cold weather so the warmer weather does have an uplifting effect on my mood, I'm enjoying other parts than the weather.

While it is quite hot and I am sweating up a storm, I enjoy strolling along the streets, checking out the architecture which reminds me of the buildings I saw in Macau. Also, the diversity here is refreshing; there's a mix of Indian, Chinese, Malay, Caucasian and other nationalities. Yesterday, I had a great Indian meal and have to remind myself to stay away from those yummy Pakora (veggies deep fried into a ball of goodness) or else I'll gorge myself on them. Its so interesting to see everything in 4 languages and am envious of the citizen here who can probably speaking at least 2/4 languages.

Some of the parts of Singapore that I've check out are here MERLION. You'll have to forgive me since I took a bunch of pictures in the Orchid Garden. I needed to get out of the city, so I headed to a nature reserve and the botanical gardens this afternoon. When I was hiking, I was hoping to see some of the monkeys living there. There are signs everywhere telling you NOT to feed the monkeys. But there weren't any on my trek to the summit or back down. However, as soon as I left the park, there was a whole pack of monkeys. Go figure.

Anyhoo, I'm off to find some cheap dinner!

Massagerific

After pulling ourselves away from scenic Yangshuo, we headed to Guangzhou, where my gooma (auntie) has an apartment. This was the last stop on my trek through China and after seeing the cities in the NE and SE, I can say that I have had my fill of Chinese cities. After a while, they all blend together, apart from the tourist sites, its all the same kind of drab buildings, a plethora of cars, people everywhere, polluted air and Guangzhou was no different. While there was some cool stuff to check out (Groovy sites in Guangzhou), I am glad to be heading to Hong Kong and to SE Asia.

On the flip side, I had the most amazing 2 hours of my life. I had my first full body massage and it was SUPER cheap, 10 U.S. dollars for 2 hours. I've never paid for a massage in my life, but my aunt has a spa-type place near her home and took Letizia, Jenny and I there. (We lost Kevin in Guangzhou). I wanted to stop time and get massaged forever. I think considering the price,when I get back to Jilin, I'm signing up for weekly massages! (We didn't lose Kevin, he parted ways, making his way to Bangkok).

Letizia, my Uncle and I headed into Hong Kong from Shenzhen, which was easy as pie. Hong Kong was our last hope for warm weather, but the theme continues of wet and cold. At least we have great food waiting for us!

Ending my China extravaganza with photo of a freakish 2 colored eye cat:

The Hades Express: Hangzou to Guilin

Hangzhou was kind of a ritzy, little city and according to CCTV 9 (China's English channel) the most beautiful city in China (Check it out!). Nevertheless, I was ready to leave the city for a more rural area and hike Huang Shan (Yellow Mt.), but the Anhui province had other plans for us. En route to the bus station, we found out that there was incredible amounts of snow and the roads were dangerous.

So we had to alter our plans and we decided to take our 18-hour overnight bus ride a few days early to Guilin. I think we were all not really looking forward to this trip, but at least we would have a sleeper bus which would make it a little bit more bearable.

The bus was late, by about 2 hours, we should have taken this to be an ominous sign. As we boarded, we were shocked to see that it was a normal coach bus with NO sleeper beds. D'oh! We were not happy campers. As we sat upright, in much traffic, the originally 18 hour bus ride turned into a 33 hour bus ride! We left at 5pm and did not arrive into Guilin until 2AM, a day and half later. To top if off, everyone and their mom was chain-smoking on the bus. We tried to ope So we smelled like an American Bar from the 90s.

While we probably smoke a few packs on the bus, the trip to Yangshuo (an hour and a 1/2 south of Guilin) was worth it. Yangshuo is a beautiful, almost surreal, place. When I saw the strange hills that randomly sprouted out of the ground, I immediately thought that this could be a scene out of a Dr. Seuss book, like "The Lorax."

If you go to southern China, this is a place definitely not to miss, just try not to take an overnight bus ride there. Seussian hills a click away

Group photo during our bike trip out into the hills

13 hours later, still cold in Shanghai

The four of us took an overnight train from Beijing to Shanghai, hoping for some warmer weather, to find that it was still freezing in this costal city (the translation of Shanghai is "on the ocean"). Nevertheless, I liked Shanghai, even a little bit more than Beijing. Shanghai is a bit cleaner and in my opinion, easier to walk around. The city seemed to be more managable than Beijing and I didn't feel so intimitaded by the buildings, streets, and whatnot.

Exploring a city on foot is tiring, but its the best way to get a feel for a place and hopefully stumble across some interesting things. We strolled along the Bund, which is along the Huangpu river, which has great views of the buildings on the other side.

Letizia and I looking at the Oriental Pearl Tower from the Bund

One of the best things about exploring on foot is coming across street food. I think I can safely say that all of us enjoy it immensely and almost always willing to try anything. Jenny says that she often likes street food better than what we get in restaurants. I like it alot too, although more often than not, its not vegetarian friendly.

Squid and meat kabobs

The gang ordering some dumplings

Explore the sites of Shanghai!

Lost in Beijing

After a fun, freezing two weeks, my mom took off from Beijing; it was great traveling with her. We haven't had an adventure for quite a while; we had a mini-adventure in Maine, visiting Acadia National Park; but, the last time we had an extended vacation was when we went to visit my sister in Seattle and popped over to Vancouver. On the brighter side, my friend Letizia, was coming the same day as my mom left. She, my other 2 friends, Kevin, Jenny and I planned to travel for a little over 2 weeks, making our way, overland, from Beijing to Hong Kong.

After seeing my mom off, I checked in the status of Letizia's flight and found out that it was delayed for 3 hours, so instead of getting in at 5, she was supposed to arrive at 8pm. It was only 10 am, so I figured I would head back to Beijing and return to the airport in the early evening.

On the bus, I was pretty psyched because I met a guy from Valencia, Spain and was able to practice my Spanish, or rather see how much Spanish I had forgotten. I kept hitting myself because a stream of Spanish would leave my lips but then Chinese would randomly pop in and I would get flustered. I was a little concerned for the guy since he spoke NO English and did not understand Chinese at all. Granted you can point and motion but its pretty difficult to maneuver around the city not knowing Chinese or English.

Speaking of maneuvering around the city, around 5, I was on the bus with Kevin and Jenny, when all of a sudden I got a call on my cell and was shocked to hear Letizia's voice, telling me she was lost somewhere in Beijing. I instantly felt horrible because I thought that I had misunderstood her flight status and she had arrived on time, also because she was lost. Its daunting to be lost in a city where you can't speak the language and not understand any of the signs around you.

She found a super nice guy to help her and call my cell phone. We managed (as in Jenny and the nice man) to figure out that we were serendipitously heading to the same area on the bus. So I went to the bus stop and knew the licence plate of the bus she was coming in on.

I waited and waited and finally the bus came. I ran up to the stream of people exiting and I saw a girl with long brown hair with her back turned to me so I started screaming out "Letizia! Letizia! Turn around Letizia! I'm right here!" Everyone was giving me odd looks and finally the girl turned, and it was not my friend.

I was super worried and I got a call from her fiancee telling me that she was at some bus station. I had no clue what to do, but after a while, I figured, what the heck, I'll just take a taxi to a few bus stations and look for her. I was envisioning the scene out of "Adventures in Babysitting," where the friend is stuck at the bus station, although Letizia doesn't wear glasses and would not try to pet a "cat."

But alas, I went to two bus stations, both of which were closed. After 5 hours of waiting and searching, I decided that I should just head back to the hostel and thinking of a new plan. In the back of my mind, I was freaking out, thinking that she got kidnapped and sold into some sex slavery ring.

Tired, hungry and freezing, I returned to the hostel and when I was mumbling for the room key, the receptionist asked if I was expecting a friend and pointed to a name on the guest list. I was SO SO happy, there was Letizia's name. I ran to her room and gave her a HUGE hug.

Letizia had managed, after a few hours, to find some girls to call the hostel so that they could write down the name and address in Chinese characters because no one understood the English and pinyin (the phonetic spelling of Mandarin).

It turned out she had changed her flight, but I didn't check my email to know that she was coming in earlier than expected. On top of that, she was waiting for me on the other side of the street that I was stationed at, because she ended up taking a taxi and got off on the other side. I think that this is one of those situations where we'll look back and laugh. ha...ha...hmm, not yet that humorous.

Anyhoo, I can't get enough of the Great Wall so the next day we went to Ju yong guan, which has a pretty steep incline. I'm just in complete awe of the wall and love the physical challenge of climbing it. Beijing Part Deux pictures aca

Jenny, Kevin and Letizia

Letizia acting out what happens if you over-exert yourself and you have heart and/or brain disease.

D'oh, not yellow scarf

So I have been going around China telling people the wrong Chinese name. When I first got here, I was unsure how to say my name in Chinese, but I remembered how to write it. I wrote it and the 3rd character caused some confusion, so they said maybe that's the traditional character and you should just use jin "金."

Now, I just found out that its actually the first 1/2 of the character which is supposed to be quan "銓" So my Chinese name is 黃思銓. When it was 黃思金, my students laughed because it sounds like "yellow scarf."

Anyhoo, 銓 is my great-grandfather's name, so my name means "thinking of quan", thinking of my great-grandfather. I am glad that this is the correct name because the meaning of 金 is gold so I thought that my name meant: "thinking of gold" and that is totally not me, I'm not thinking of being rich all the time. I'd rather be thinking about my family and heritage.

The Mom Chronicles: Haerbin

Haerbin (哈尔賓) is north of Jilin, close to Russia and the its the coldest I have ever been in my life, honestly. Why did we come here you ask? Its because of the annual Snow and Ice Festival which was amazing. It was well worth the almost frostbitten toes to see the magnificent sculptures. We ran into a group of deaf Haerbiners, so we hung out with them for a few hours while we waited for Matt, Kevin and Jim to arrive. They led us to the snow world and we got in for free!

These are 3/5 Olympic Mascots. They are super cute! Their names put together mean "Beijing welcomes you"

We also went to a Siberian Tiger reserve, where they are trying to revive their population. I'm not sure if its for the tigers' benefit or the people running the park. Our entrance ticket included a ride in a van through the tigers' habitat and for an extra $5, we could watch them throw a live chicken, literally, into to the lions' (or in this case, tigers') den. If we had tons of cash, we could have paid $250 to watch a cow be mauled by the Tigers. Later in the tour, we chipped in for another chicken, which my mom helped feed.

Mom getting ready to dangle the poor chicken over the tigers.

Haerbin was grand fun, but coming back to Jilin for a few days was a nice respite. Tonight, Jenny, Kevin, my mom and I will travel back to Beijing. My mom is leaving on Friday, tear. But on the bright side, my friend Letizia is flying in the same day. The four of us, Jenny, Kevin, Letizia and I are traveling together for about 2 weeks or so, making our way southward to Hong Kong! These are more Snow/Ice Festival and Tiger Pictures...

The Mom Chronicles: Dandong

Dandong is located right on the China/North Korean border. I guess I have an affinity to this particular border, as this is my 2nd venture to the border. One of the main sites here is the most eastern part of the Great Wall is found here, Tiger Mountain. It was great (...get it?) because we had the whole wall pretty much to ourselves, which was the complete opposite outside of Beijing. It was fabulous! I've been trying to incorporate the use of fabulous in the other guys' daily vocabulary, but it hasn't taken. But it was wonderful to see that little Dandong is using "fabulous."
The following day, we trekked to Phoenix Mountain, which was a short jaunt as we had to get back to Dandong to take a bus returning to Dalian to catch our overnight train to Haerbin.


Dandong Pictures

The Mom Chronicles: Dalian

When I told people I was going to Dalian, they said, "oh! why now? Its so cold!?" Indeed, it was cold, but not so bad, as its situated right by the ocean. Even though we spent a couple of days here, I really liked Dalian. The downtown was pretty compact and the shopping in the area was varied from high-end stores to bargain bins.

My mom and I found our way to a park with lots of cool statues and a enormous soccer (football) ball. Apparently, the Dalian football team is popular and during the summer, people crowd in the main square to watch the games on the huge TV screen.

This is the year of the mouse!Mom going in for the goal!

Even though it was not speedos weather, we found our way to the beach areas and had a pleasant stroll.

We had some great seafood dinners. We even ate at the same restaurant twice because the food was fabulous and cheap! Dalian Photos

The Mom Chronicles: Beijing

After I arrived in Beijing, I booked it to the Laos Embassy to get a visa because in February I am meeting Carolyn in Cambodia and we are making our way through some of the SE Asian countries. The security at the Laos embassy was very small compared to the U.S. Embassy in Shenyang. I just showed my passport and walked into the Embassy, filled out some paperwork, paid the fee and was given a slip to come back to reclaim my passport 2 days later.

Compared to what my friend, Alec, had to undergo for an Australian visa, it was effortless. I met up with Alec for lunch to catch up, as he is temporarily living in Beijing for a job. He is from Jilin, and his English is superb. He got a scholarship to study in England, which is very competitive. The program doesn't start until later this year, so he was planning to go visit his friend in Australia. He had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and go for an interview. Even though, he explicitly told the government officials that he already had plans to go to England and was only going to Australia to travel and had no plans of staying, they told him that he still might decide to stay and not go because the cost of living is cheaper than in England.

I felt bad that it was relatively easy for me as a US citizen to have the opportunity to visit almost any place that I want to, whereas he had to go through a whole ordeal, including flying to Shanghai for an interview, and still got rejected.

Anyhoo, I met up with my mom later that day and was very excited to see her. That evening, we walked to a row of night snack stands. They had everything from scorpion kabobs to stinky tofu (my fav!), called chou dofu (臭豆腐). Stinky tofu doesn't exactly elicit a mouth watering response, but its comparable to stinky (expensive) cheese.

On a side note, the character for stinky has an interesting explanation. The top character of chou is zi (自) which means "self" and the bottom part is da (大) which means big. So put them together and you have "big self" or someone who is arrogant: 自大. So no one likes anything stinky (besides stinky tofu and cheese) and no one like anyone who is arrogant, thus the character for stinky is combined from arrogant: 臭.

Eating a fried eggplant kabobMom signing the word deer and happens to be eating some too!

The next few days involved seeing all of the major sites of Beijing. We went to Tiananmen, Temple of Heaven Park, the Forbidden City, Lama Temple, a Tibetan temple and some other places. Everyday was cold, I am a wimp when it comes to negative Celsius weather, so I was always bundled up. At least our hotel room had heat!

On new year's day eve, we ended up joining this Chinese tour, which ended up being a disaster. I was warned beforehand about hokey tours, but I thought that it might have been legit. We went to the Great Wall, which was great but then they schlepped us around to places that tried to sell us jade, Chinese medicines and the deal was that the tour operators gets money from bringing in tour groups and makes a commission off anything that is purchased. C'est la vie. At least we made it out to the Great Wall.

New year's eve, we went out for a wonderful dinner. My mom was SO excited to see frog on the menu and she hadn't eaten it in ages. I'm not quite sure where I stand on eating amphibians, but I am sure that I wanted my mom to be happy, so we ordered it and I managed to eat a leg or 2. Beijing photos are here. Our chilly adventures continued the next day with a flight to Dalian...

Mom in China!

I've been traveling the past week with my mom who I met in Beijing this last Wednesday. I took an overnight train from Jilin on Christmas evening. It was my first experience on a hard sleeper train and it was not bad at all. It felt a little like a big slumber party, except that I didn't know anyone and I was afraid of my bags being stolen, which did not happen.

Thus far the weather has been frigid, to say the least, and I've felt like a Popsicle, trekking through the crowded streets.

We spent 5 days in Beijing and then took a flight over to Dalian (大连). Usually, a summertime destination, but again, its located in the 0 degree Celsius and minus club, so needless to say, while the beaches looked nice, we did not join the polar bear club.

Today, my mom and I took a bus from Dalian to Dandong (丹东). We ventured out to the most eastern part of the Great Wall.

I just wanted to give a quick update and I promise to write more about our adventures and post pictures.