Huang's World

Volcan Pacaya

2009-04-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Volcano Pacaya is located between Guatemala City and Antigua, at about 2,600 meters and its still active! At my first Trivia night in Xela, I learned that there are only 4 active volcanoes in Guatemala. The last big eruption was on August 2, 2000. I was a bit nervous walking ontop of the dried lava, as you could feel heat emanating from the lava underneath the rock. I had images of me taking a step and breaking through the ground and melting in the lava. Nevertheless, it was pretty amazing to see lava coming out of the ground!

Volcán Tajumulco

2009-03-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, 3 friends, Michelle, Lisa, and Aaron, and I went with a trekking company, Quetzaltrekkers, up to the top of the tallest Volcano in Central America: Tajumuclo. The peak is 4,223 m (13,854 feet) . Quetzaltrekkers is a non-profit organization that runs a health clinic, school for street children, among other various projects in Guatemala and Nicaragua. The quetzal is a national symbol of Guatemala and is supposedly a beautiful bird. When I was living in Costa Rica, I temporally took up birding and wanted desperately to see the famed bird, but alas it was not meant to be.

The hike was quite hard due to the altitude rather than the actual trail. I was a bit worried because I had experienced altitude sickness in Perú, which is probably the worst I´ve ever felt in my life. I had a pounding headache, nausea, vomiting, malaise, and I honestly thought I was going to get cerebral edema and die. Obviously, I ended up being fine, but it was still a horrendous experience. Luckily, we hiked the mountain at a moderate pace and I didn´t really feel sick. Although during the night a few times, I woke up out of breath.

Quetzaltrekkers is great, not just because of the work they are doing with the local communities, but also because they have all the gear one would need for camping overnight on a frigid mountain. It was so cold that it was actually hailing when we were setting up our tents.

The following day, we woke up again at 4am, and hiked up to the peak to watch the sunrise. It was an amazing and beautiful experience (rest of the pics are at the link).

Lago Atitlán

2009-03-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, a few friends and I took a short shuttle ride to Lake Atitlán, a peaceful, beautiful lake. Once you arrive, you´re overtaken with serenity and its a fabulous feeling. We headed to Santiago Atitlán, and stayed at this gorgeous hotel with lake views. Five of us shared a ¨cottage¨and it was beautifully crafted with wood, stone and even had a fireplace!

Besides visiting the lake, we had made the trip to go see a benefit music festival for the local hospital. There were various bands including a bluegrass band, a Costa Rican singer, and an all female Guatemalan band. From what I could tell, there were only foreigners there, and a ton of ex-pats I believe. The ticket price, while a donation to the hospital, was expensive for the locals, and many were peering over the fence, watching us crazy foreigners. I thought it was unfortunate that locals weren´t allowed to come in either for free or at a reduced cost, especially because I´m sure that the cacophonous music was keeping them awake until midnight.

The concert had great music and great people watching. As I mentioned earlier, a ton of ex-pats, so many were, let´s just say, hippish and were in full effect during the day. There was one guy that had multiple wardrobe changes, including clothing out of a 80´s female closet (tight colorful spandex pieces). Besides watching (white) people dress up in, what I assume are, indigenous costumes, it was great to see the mixing of cultures. There were indigenous children in their traditional clothing (part of a performace group earlier in the day), dancing around with other children, to bluegrass music.

While there are some towns overrun with tourists, there are still many places around the lake that are less visited and there are still many indigenous people living at the lake. The women still wash their laundry in the lake, which is causing problems in the lake. An expat at the festival was telling me that the soaps are increasing the nitrate concentration and reeking havoc on the ecosystem. So he was learning more about natural soaps and trying to encourage locals to use the more eco-friendly soaps. Its always a sticky wicket when outsiders come to another culture and try to dictate what´s best for them and their surroundings. Thus, I´m not sure what´s the best way of going about trying to work with the community, but making sure that we´re not forcing our ideals and beliefs on them.

One belief that is interesting among the people at the lake is in St. Maximón, ¨an idol formed by the fusion of traditional Mayan deities, Catholic saints and conquistador legends.¨People pray to the smoking, beer guzzling saint for good fortune or to get revenge on others.

Anyhoo, the lake was grand fun and I came home to some great news, I was informed that I matched somewhere, and I´ll find out where I will go for residency tomorrow!

Xelajú, aka Quetzaltenango

2009-03-10T06:34:00.000-07:00

Xelajú, shortened to Xela, is my hometown for this month, which in K´iche, means ¨under the ten¨. The ten most likely refers to the surrounding moutains, or it could mean that its always feels like 10 below. It is frigging cold in this city, and in reality, this morning it was 32·, and in buildings with no heat or insulation, you definitely feel the chill. In fact, in my bedroom, I have a wool blanket, a down blanket, and some sheets keeping me warm and I never want to leave it in the mornings.

Xela is the 2nd largest city in Guatemala and is home to a plethora of Spanish language schools. Its been great so far because its not as touristy, from what I´ve heard, as Antigua, where there are also a great deal of schools.

I asked my teacher today about life in Xela and she told me that it is very peaceful and relaxed here. The people are warm and welcoming. After 1 1/2 weeks here, I agree with her and am happy to be living here. Picture of Xela

Its a small glass world afterall

2009-03-09T06:18:00.000-07:00

The school has an activity planner, who organizes various outings and activities for the students, which is an added bonus. This past Saturday, we went to Copavie, a place that is known in the area as a recycled glass factory.

Its a great business because its a center of not only recycled glass, but they also recycle newspaper. The workers break up the glass and then melt it in this huge oven. Then they take these long, hollow metal poles and dip it in the vat of liquid glass, which begins the making of glass objects. The process involves blowing the glass a little bit, and then redipping it in the liquid glass and forming it into the shapes desired. Its fascinating to watch them work because they work together without the need to speak to each other. Everyone knows what to do and when to do it. When the glass is ready to be placed in a wooden mold, there is wet newspaper in the casing to cool down the glass. So in a way, they recycle the newspaper, even if it isn´t reusable after. Its wonderful to see a business thriving on recycled products, since there are many things that are not recycled here. To some extent, this is understandable since the funding and infrastructure is not present and the government is preoccupied with more pertinent issues.

While I was perusing the glass goods, two people entered the room and I did a double take! There was a classmate from UVM! It was totally bizarre to be in this random glass factory on a Saturday morning and run into someone who I knew. He has been here for the past 3 weeks, doing a similar program as me. When I recounted the story to my host mom, she commented, ¨what a small world.¨

Host family

2009-03-05T13:25:00.001-08:00

This is the fourth host family that I´ve stayed with over the past several years and things have been going well thus far. I had an interesting experience with my Peruvian host family, mostly with my host mother who seemed to be running more of a business rather than providing a home. Also, it was my first experience with hot water being heated by electrical wires coming out of the shower head.

This prepared me for the electrical rigging of my current shower, but this one is a bit more tricky. When the water is turned on, which is only during the day, and off after 17:00, and I turn the shower on, the ¨heating¨machine makes a loud rough noise. In order to maximize the hot water, I have to turn the dial just right, so that I elicit the loudest noise possible. If I hear the noise dying out, it means that there´s cold water acoming, which is painful, when its surprisingly cold here. Since we are at a pretty high altitude, the weather is relatively cold in the mornings and evening. I realize its nothing compared to the winters in the NE, but there´s no insulation or heating here, so I´m usually wearing jeans and a sweater most of the day.

My host family has been great so far. There is Amanda, with her daughter Karen, and her grandson, Luis. There is also another Guatemalan student living there, who is studying law. Amanda´s son also lives nearby and she babysits her 4 year old grandaugther Wed-Fri who looks like the little girl from Monsters INC, so adorable. The other night, we watched ¨El Patito feo y yo¨ which means ¨The Ugly Duckling and Me.¨ A cute story, about a rat who inadvertently ¨adopts¨the ugly duckling and raises him.

I was placed with this family because Amanda has had a whole bunch of vegetarians, and she is quite the cook. Although, the meals tend to be carb overloaded with rice, beans, tortillas, bread, pastas, but I can´t complain because its all good and I get my full servings of vegetables.

Romero and Sunday

2009-03-03T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last evening, the Spanish school that Im enrolled in, Miguel Angel Asturias, showed the movie ¨Romero.¨ Its a film that I´ve seen a few times, and wanted to remind myself again about this extraordinary man´s life.

Raul Julia, of Street Fighter fame, plays Archbishop Oscar Romero, a prominent figure in El Salvador in the late 70s. Before he was elected to Archbishop, he had been a relatively quiet, passive figure in the church, which was he was placed in a leadership position. He superiors thought that he would not ¨cause any waves.¨

At this time in El Salvador, there was a great deal of turmoil and the poor were suffering. Some priests advocated for economic justice for the poor and that these people should not have to wait for heaven for salvation, but that salvation can be found on Earth. These priests were labeled as communists and the military and government tortured, kidnapped, and killed many of the people who were speaking out and organizing the masses.

Romero eventually saw the reality of the situation and began to use his influence to speak out on behalf of the poor. The once passive priest was transformed into an active, vocal, and impassioned man. This is a person that I admire and respect, who has been a huge influence on me. One of his quotes has stayed with me ever since I heard it, ¨Be a voice for the voiceless.¨

In the United States, its easy to forget that the Catholic church exists, but like most countries in Latin and South America, the Catholic church in Guatemala has a prominent presence. Most of the pueblos and cities have main plazas where there is a church and its interesting because many of the Mayan beliefs and artificats have merged into Catholic traditions here.

This past Sunday, I was wondering the streets of Xela, when I happened upon a huge procession, with about 50 people carrying a huge casked with Jesus on top, carrying a wooden cross. Here are some pictures.

Cabón

2009-02-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

I only stayed the night in Guatemala City because many of the things that I had read said get out A.S.A.P. To be fair, the hostel guy told me that the archelogical museum is one the best muesums in the country and that there are plenty of things to do in the capital. On the otherhand, another hostel guest, who was a bit questionable himself, advised me to be careful. Regardless, I took a morning bus to Cabón, about 4 hours north, which is set in a higher altitude and is famous for coffee growing and Semuc Champey, a limestone formation over a river.

I visited a coffee farm, which was conviently right next door to my hostel. It was originally started by some Europeans, which transformed the region into a major producer of coffee. I opted for the Spanish tour, hoping to practice and it ended up being not too confusing. Most of the coffee plants had been there since when then farm started and they just keep trimming the plants.

Originally, I was planning to cut across to the west to Nebaj after Cabón, but there had been some major mudslides recently and the road was no longer open. Bummer, but part of traveling is going with the flow and I decided to travel up further north to Tikal, a major Mayan site, instead of going there at the end of March.

This left me with an extra day to explore the surrounding area. Since I was short on time, I went with a tour group to some local caves and Semuc Champey, which was gorgeous.

More pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/semaj187/Guatemala

Estoy aquí

2009-02-28T13:23:00.000-08:00

So I never formally finished my blog. I had been meaning to post that I returned to the U.S. and am finishing up my last year of school, but things got in the way and I was too lazy to let you know that I made it back home. For all I know, you might think that I´m still in Bangkok, since that was my last entry.

The past several months have been great, reconnecting with friends, making new friends, living with my mom for a while, and continuing my education. I´ve been fortunate to make it down to Guatemala for a little bit of travel and a medical Spanish rotation in Xela.

I flew into Guatemala City (which is shortened just to Guatemala by the locals) last Thursday and stayed in a hostel 5 minutes away from the airport that is run by a Guatemalan woman and her American husband. He and I chatted for a while, telling me about some of the interesting stories of running a hostel. I thought that one in particular had a good lesson about doing work abroad that I´d like to share with you. A Canadian church group came down to Guatemala with huge bags of gifts for a local village that their Pastor had arranged. They were all excited about the upcoming week and ready to share their gifts. A week later, they returned to Guatemala and the preceding energy had clearly dissipatedand many members of the group were quiet and reserved.

The hostel owner asked one of the members what had happened. She recounted the week´s events with disdain. She explained that they held a big party in the local school, had a nice cake, and gave out all the markers, books, pens and other gifts to all the children of the village. While the Canadians cleaned up after the party, the families left for the weekly market. Upon leaving the school, the Canadians were shocked to see all their well-intentioned gifts spread out on blankets with families haggling over the items!

The church member proceeded to express how disappointed she was that they were selling the gifts and not using it for their education. He pointed out that many of these families are more concerned with eating, rather than learning. She replied that education is important.

All in all, I think while this group had the best of intentions, there´s something to be said about finding out what the local needs are before coming down, instead of imposing what we think is best for them. More often than not, we base our humanitarian actions on our own beliefs and experiences and assume that everyone else also has the same needs and desires. But, as this little story points out, the families pointed out their priorities.

They sure do grow up fast

2008-07-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-07T02:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

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)

2008-05-26T02:03:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-05-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-05-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-18T17:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-05T02:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-02-22T04:21:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-16T07:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-07T02:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-02-01T20:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-30T02:57:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-27T05:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-27T03:52:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-27T02:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-16T21:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-09T00:14:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-08T22:34:00.001-08:00

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

2008-01-08T22:25:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-03T04:01:00.000-08:00

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.

Shenyang 沈阳

2007-12-17T23:24:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-27T16:00:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-11-19T06:52:00.001-08:00

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)

2007-11-19T06:38:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-19T06:11:00.000-08:00

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...

2007-11-16T06:16:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-11T05:13:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-07T07:07:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-07T03:56:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-02T00:48:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-28T03:15:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-10-26T23:31:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-21T06:18:00.000-07:00

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?!?

2007-10-19T06:19:00.000-07:00

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）

2007-10-16T18:27:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-10-15T07:13:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-10-06T01:45:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-06T01:06:00.000-07:00

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

2007-10-06T00:07:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-09-28T05:25:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

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!)

2007-09-25T02:37:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-09-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-19T23:13:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-18T19:13:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-15T19:57:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-09-11T19:49:00.001-07:00

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

2007-09-09T06:27:00.000-07:00

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.

Friendship Hotel

2007-09-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

I'm residing in a foreign dormitory called the Friendship Hotel. Its amazing the diversity of students living here. On Thursday night, we went to a birthday party for a girl from Dominica (NOT the Dominican Republic), its an island near St. Lucia. I made the mistake of asking her about the DR and was immediately handed a map. Anyhoo, there are people from Mozambique, Liberia, Russia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Korea, Japan, and Somalia. Before coming here, I never thought that there would be such a random assortment of nationalities here.

Saturday was an adventure in my apartment and out and about downtown. First on my to-do list was laundry. Luckily I have a washer in my apartment, but everything is in Chinese Characters! I managed to figure out what the settings meant through pictures, but still I had no clue what was going on in my bathroom.

Afterwards I headed downtown to explore and came across this performance on stage with this little boy grooving along with them. The city is mildly overwhelming. All of my senses are stimulated, as the streets are bustling with people, kabob and other food items.

The shopping here is immense. There a plethora of clothing, shoe and sporting good stores. This makes me pretty happy and its fairly inexpensive. Some of my college friends took a course aptly named "Great Ideas" which was basically Physics for Arts majors and was a running joke for a while. Anyhoo, I was in a mini-mall which had a great idea! Free lockers were provided for your items and you pushed a button which gives you a receipt with a bar code on it. When you return, you just scan the bar code and it opens up your locker!

For dinner, 2 Japanese teachers invited us out to a Japanese Restaurant. Prior to the meal, I was a bit skeptical about eating Sushi in Jilin, but I figured that I'd judge the quality of food based on the appearance of the eatery. Plus, my family in HK were adamant about me not eating any type of raw fish unless it was at a 4star hotel. But I figured if the Japanese people trust the fish here then it must be alright. There were 12 of us, a mix of Americans, 1 Canadian, 3 Japanese teachers and a few native Jiliners. We had a feast. We ordered the buffet and we housed a good amount of food. It was a fun night because we made some friends outside of school.

So its been a week since I've arrived and so far so good. The Canadian woman (who incidentally has a penchant for punching people in the back) had mentioned that the 'Honeymoon' phase for her lasted several months, when she arrived a couple of years ago. Thus, I think that I'll be pleasantly surprised by Jilin for a while, but that might cease with the arrival of the friggin' cold weather. I think I was in denial about how cold it would get here. Everyone was telling me its extremely cold here, and I kind of blew them off, but now I'm beginning to realize that I'm in for a long winter!

14 students!

2007-09-06T02:09:00.000-07:00

2nd day of class = 7 times more students than on Tuesday. Most of the class thought I would not be arriving until next week, which is why only 2 appeared 2 days ago. Thus, I went through introductions again. I had them introduce themselves, where they're from, their speciality, why they chose medicine, etc.

Interestingly, most of the doctors went into medicine because their parents chose that career for them. I'd like to think that I ended up in medicine through my own volition, so it was fascinating to hear answer after answer be "my parents." Nevertheless, this is probably common in the US too.

Its strange to me to be teaching older people, and on top of that they're already doctors! There are cardiologists, gynecologists, etc and I feel that I am being patronizing when I go through how to pronounce different body organs/parts. The students' English varies but most of the class is right at intermediate, I think. So I'm excited to help them improve their English, and to use medical terms!

First day of Teaching

2007-09-05T06:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had my first teaching class with doctors. I arrived to class 15 minutes early so that I could get situated and make a seating chart. I was sitting down when 2 women walked in and they were shocked to see me sitting at the front of the classroom. And then, no one else came. *tear* I only had a pair of students for my first class ever.

I made the best of the situation, quietly discarding my prized seating plan, and started off with trying to clear the confusion about why a "youngster" was teaching them medical English. After that road bump, the class turned out great. They introduced themselves and then I went into my life story.

My original lesson plan was based for...well, let's just say, more than 2 people. So I jumped into anatomy and practicing saying all the different body parts/organs so that they could practice their pronunciation. From what I gather, they want to be able to teach in their respective fields to English speaking medical students. Also, there are more than 2 people enrolled in the class, I think more will show up tomorrow.

For lunch, Kevin, Eric (Chinese guy who speaks English well, studied abroad in Alabama for 2 years), and I went into Jilin downtown for some homemade noodles (la mien). We each had a big plate of food with drinks and it came out to be 20 RMB (a little less than 3 dollars!)! The cost of living here is super cheap.

The bus ride home was a bit disturbing, we passed an overturned motorcycle with a huge crowd surrounding the rider, next to a mini-mac truck with a shattered windshield. I think the guy was still alive with massive injuries, but Kevin thought the guy probably died. Either way, this is a testament to the chaos that ensues on the roads here. People go ridiculous speeds to pass on the road, there are cars trying to cut in, pedestrians are playing "frogger" with the cars, and they definitely do not have 'the right of way.'

Jilin

2007-09-03T05:36:00.000-07:00

L-R: Matt (a 'nova grad too!), Jim, and Kevin

My 3 companions and I had an extended voyage from Hong Kong to Jilin. We flew to Beijing, had a 3 hour layover, flew to Changchun, and then took an 1hr van ride to our destination. We left the house at 7am and arrived at 11pm. But we made it safe and sound.

The four of us have our own apartment, which are surprisingly nice. In fact, its nicer than my first apartment in Burlington, although, it has less character:

Living Room Kitchen

Bedroom (with a queen sized bed!)

On Sunday, we got our teaching schedules, books, and ventured out into Jilin downtown.

One thing that I noticed immediately, was that it is cooler here than in Hong Kong and no humidity. Its been nice to be in a more temperate environment, however, I think this foreshadows an extremely cold winter.

Our jaunt downtown was pretty comical. I do not attract much attention because I virtually look the same as everyone who lives here, but my friends, on the other hand, definitely have people's attention. On the bus ride down, my friend, Jim was sitting next to an elderly woman who was staring at his hairy, blond arms. Eventually, she started picking at his arm hair, almost to the point of petting his arm. I was standing by the window watching this spectacle and started cracking up. It was pretty hilarious and we all had a good laugh about it.

We are teaching at Beihua University:

I will be teaching a class called "Forensic English," which means covering basic readings on things such as tort law, intellectual property law, etc. I am actually interested in teaching this course because its something that I can learn from. Moreover, it'll help me navigate Law & Order. Also, I will be teaching a class "English for Medical Professionals," which I am looking forward to, actually it starts tomorrow.

I had my first day of Chinese class today, which was very exciting. I had about 6 hours of speaking and comprehension. I was pretty burnt out by the end of the day.

Just some thoughts to leave you with:

- Kevin ate donkey dumplings and beer tonight, which he immensely enjoyed.

- I went running today and almost sank in mud.

Gr8 Fyrewall

2007-08-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I leave for Jilin, with a few transfers and whatnot. This whole week has been building and building up to our departure to our respective teaching assignments. I have mixed feelings about this teaching placement. I have NO idea what I am teaching, how many students I'll have, or any other information except that one or more of my classes will have medical students. In a way, its kind of exhilarating, but at the same time, I'm kind of clueless as to what material I should bring with me. Also, I'm in the same situations as many of my compatriots, so that's comforting in a way. Solidarity into the unknown.

Also, I'm not sure if and what I'll be able to post on here. Hopefully, I will have access to this blog page, but you may not hear from me as frequent, like these past few weeks. There is a gr8 fyre wall that blockz many things, so I'll try to post as much as I can, but I'm not sure as to when and how I'll be able to update you.

Anyhoo, I'll start teaching next week and I'm sure I'll have loads of stories to tell you about. Today, we took a group picture of most of the volunteers:

L-R: Back row: Jim, Joel, Janet, Scott, Kevin, Fr. Tom, Matt, Matt, and Anne

Middle Row: Pete, Kevin, Fr. , Joe, Nick, Fr. Scott, and Mario

Front row: me!, Sr. Cecilia, Grace, Sarah, Meghan, and Natalie.

Birthday Fun

2007-08-29T21:21:00.000-07:00

I turned 27 years old yesterday and at first I thought, "eh, its only 27" but when it actually happened, I felt odd as I am only 3 years away from 30. Maybe its because most of the people in the program are younger than me that has made me feel old. For example, I had mentioned that my high school classmates are planning our 10th year reunion and my friends in the cab were shocked. One of them said that in 1998, he was in seventh grade!

Regardless of turning 27, yesterday was interesting for me because I've started to delve into the paradigms of being an "ABC" (American Born Chinese) and now living in . I've heard mixed feelings from the couple of Chinese-American Teachers who have already gone through the program.

Their students could not fathom how someone who looks like them could not speak their language, which is my case and kind of exemplifies the "ABC" phenomenon Furthermore, they experienced some discrimination by other Asians! When the foreigners sat at a dinner table, they made the ABCs eat at a different table because even though they were American, they still looked Chinese and were not worthy enough to eat at the visitors' table.

I had some anticipation of this sort of treatment, after all, I experience it all the time in the US. Questions like "so, where are you from?" my answer: Connecticut, their response "no, I meant where are you from?" my answer: Connecticut. Nevertheless, in a way, I was hoping to find some sort of connection, besides appearance, with my Chinese ancestry. I guess we'll have to see how it plays out.

In keeping with my Asian heritage, I took a pose with Bruce Lee:

Anyhoo, I had a great birthday. The folks in the program were super great and got me a cake and card. We went out to Victoria Peak which has some spectacular, panoramic views of Kowloon.

Usually, when I stand on the balcony, there are clear views of the beach and somewhat out into the ocean, but yesterday, I was able to see the islands and beyond because it was there were no clouds or pollution. This was the perfect set up for going up to Victoria Peak, and I took a video and am digging this new video option on blogspot:

2nd day of Orientation

2007-08-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

There are 15 new teachers going through the orientation program at the Stanley house. There are several other teachers that are returning, but do not have to repeat sessions such as 'Panomrama of the country's history in 3 sessions' or How to Teach English as a second language.

So far it has been pretty informative and I appreciate all the advice we are getting on how to run a class. Its kind of nerve racking because they said our class size could range from 30 to 50!

Overall, I realize that the anticipation of anything unknown is usually much worse than what actually happens. Nevertheless, everything from teaching conversational English to the description of the coal mines' impact in the north, which is where I'll be, is overwhelming. Apparently, during the winter, the snow becomes black because of the soot. Also, the water is not safe, even after boiling.

The list goes on, but as corny as this sounds, I know that it'll work out and whatever happens, I'll make the best of it.

Maryknoll House

2007-08-26T04:21:00.001-07:00

My uncle and aunt dropped me off at the Maryknoll House located in an area called Stanley which is on Hong Kong Island. My room shares a balcony with 2 other rooms and I am still reeling in shock over this view from my quarters:

I am here for a week of orientation to how to teach conversational English and introduction to history and culture, and meet the other 2o or so volunteers placed throughout the country. I think there's a good mix of recent graduates and people who have done other things since graduating, but I have not met everyone yet. Its kind of strange to be in this type of setting once again: feeling awkward and trying to make conversation in a big group of ten. Also, I have a roommate for a week! I haven't had to share a room since 2000, albeit that was a great experience.

On another note, besides spectacular views of the ocean from my room, we are located right next to a prison (the sign is in the far right, in the background):

By the way, Maryknoll is the program that has organized this upcoming year and conducted all the interviews and placements.

*Addendum: Oops, I had forgotten that I did in fact have one more roommate post-the turn of the century. I apologize immensely for this horrid mistake and it shall never happen again.

Wetlands

2007-08-25T18:00:00.000-07:00

Last time I visited Hong Kong, I was surprised to discover that there are ample hiking trails and many pockets of conservation areas. I always assumed that the city had expanded such that the only trees that could be found would be in parks and the occasional tree on the side of the road.

Yesterday, we went to 60 hectare Wetland Park in the northwest part of the New Territories. Did you know that most of us live near a wetland and that these wetlands support a wide host of biodiversity? One of the exhibits discussed conservation and pollution, and I learned that it takes 10L of water to make 1 cheeseburger! From the feeding of cows to growing of lettuce, there is a great deal of water invested in that burger. I'm not saying that you should not eat meat, but remember that recycling is cool, and everyone else is doing it.

After the humid and hot morning (it was 36 celcius), we met up with more family for dinner. These past few weeks, I have eaten more than I ever have, in fact, I think I've gained about 5 kilos (hopefully you won't know how many pounds that is). Nevertheless, I'm not complaining since the food is great and seeing family is wonderful.
Grandma and Grandpa

Cousins

Lamma Island

2007-08-24T07:27:00.001-07:00

Today, I escaped from the hectic, inundated city to Lamma Island which does not permit cars on the island. Its quite serene, but unfortunately, it was extremely hot and humid out. Nevertheless, we (Uncle Wai and Aunt Polly) hiked from the north part to the southern part of the island. The island has a reputation for delicious seafood, but I think one can find great food from the sea anywhere in Hong Kong.

Fisherman in the Sea

You can see more Hong Kong pictures at : http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/semaj187/HongKong

Lost in Translation

2007-08-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday afternoon, greeted by my Uncle Wai and Aunt Polly (my mother's fourth brother and his wife) at the airport. Later that evening, we joined my grandma, grandpa, Auntie, and 4 cousins at an a Vegetarian Restaurant to celebrate my grandma's 84 birthday. Part of Chinese culture is that on your birthday, you are supposed to hand out money in red envelopes called 'lucky money' to the younger people in your family for good luck.

Yesterday, I spent the day solo and went to some various temples and toured Kowloon and New Kowloon, where I found this interesting translation of a dish outside of a restaurant.

The translation is supposed to read 'Fried Large Intestines' but in the dictionary, there are probably several words under the characters and the author just chose one arbitrarily.
Wall Panel behind Tin Hau Temple (Goddess of Seafarers)
Nan Lian Garden in Diamond Hill
Chi Lin Nunnery, large Buddhist complex at Diamond Hill

Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, Taoist Temple dedicated to the god worshipped by the sick, those trying to avoid illness and other seeking more material fortune.

More adventures in Bangkok

2007-08-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

I've ventured out into Bangkok a bit more the past few days, but sightseeing hasn't been high on my list during my stay here. The days have been spent more with family and as if you coudn't tell, consuming as much Thai food as humanly possible.

On Sunday, I was supposed to be at the Thai church to hear my aunt sing. I didn't comprehend why I was coming as I don't understand any Thai, except: "hurry up, delicious, and let's go!" Thus, when I didn't see my aunt when the service started, I thought maybe she had gone to the adjoining Chinese church, so I left and wandered down the street to this Buddhist Temple.

I actually appreciated the time spent inside, meditating in my own way. While I don't necessarily prescribe to any religion, I think myself to be of a more spiritual person who appreciates the teachings of multiple religions.

Wat Hua Lamphong

Little girl offerring prayers

Yesterday, Wei-Min and I went to Siam Ocean world which is part of another shopping complex near our home. I hadn't had the opportunity to take out Wei-Min and hang out with him sans other family, so I was psyched to explore the aquarium with him. It was fairly interesting and I actually gained some new tibits of information.

A Car Tank!

Not only is the steering wheel on the wrong side, there are fish swimming in the car!

Wei-Min in a TV Tank

I've posted all the Thailand photos I've taken at : http://picasaweb.google.com/semaj187/Bangkok

So tomorrow, I head to Hong Kong, most of my mom's side of the family resides there. After a several days, I will start orientation for my teaching program. Unfortunately, I won't be able to use my Mandarin that much, as Cantonese is the main dialect spoken in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, I've made some progress in my speaking ability, so hopefully I will be able to ask for vegetables and not pjs.

Constitution and Seafood

2007-08-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

Today, last year's military coup d'etat group has held a country-wide referendum on a new consitution. Apparently, the new consitution resolves some loopholes in the previous one and also recognizes more minority rights. However, this is under the premise of a military takeover, so who knows if this is really more democratic?

The latest preliminary results show that the Thai people support the new constituion, but in reality, if they did not vote in favor, the government would have chosen one of 16 constiutions from the past. So its seems to me that either voting for or against would have yielded a similar outcome.

On a brighter note, tonight, we went out to a recently renovated, fabulous seafood restaurant for a farewell dinner for Jimmy. We scarfed down Tom Yum soup, Thai vegetables, mollusks, Pork satay (I abstained) and other creatures of the sea.

This restaurnat is famous for its Curried Crab, which was lightly spicy and yummy! The fish was continously heated with coals underneath and tempered by ice which was maintained by my nephew, Wei-Min.

(L-R: Auntie, Jimmy, Cousin Suparp, Wei-En, Cousin Peng, Wei-Min, Cousin in-law Jee, Uncle Visal, and Auntie Nancy)

1st Birthday Party

2007-08-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

Wei-En turned one year old today and to celebrate, we had an "American" dinner. Everyone had mashed potatoes, corn/pea mix, salad, and steak, but me, who had some salmon. In addition, there was some cream of chicken soup. My aunt later in the evening said, "oh its okay that Jimmy eats the soup."

My aunt keeps on trying to trick me to eat meat. Earlier today, I was helping myself to dumplings and she was encouraging me to eat it and served me some sauce. As I cut into the dumpling, I thought that it resembled a little pork ball. So I turned to my cousin and asked her and she confirmed my suspicion. My aunt replied, "oh, its okay." Its actually amusing and I don't mind as she's only trying to look out for me.

In Chinese culture, noodles are served to people on their birthday because its believed that eating long noodles grantees a long life. So Wei-En is enjoying some noodles and as my cousin pointed out "eating it primitive style" with his hands.

One of his gifts is the yellow polo shirt pictured is all the rage right now in Thailand. The shirt was created last year and honors King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the 60th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. Its yellow because Thai tradition assigns color for each day of the week. He was born on a Monday, thus now Bangkok is blanketed daily in yellow. When I wander outside, each day, there are plethora of people wearing this shirt. The support of royalty here is incredible.

Tone deaf

2007-08-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I had my Chinese lesson a bit later than normal, at 7pm, because of my trip earlier today and my teacher had obligations until 4:30pm. We definitely got off to a bad start because her transport time between her first bus to the Sky Train then to another bus was 2 hours . I sort of laughed because I feel like in those types of situations all you can do is laugh, but I don't think she appreciated my humor. D'oh! So I think she was a bit grumpy and then I started to be a bit combative.

One of my problems in the Chinese language is the ˇ sound. One is supposed to drop their voice low and then quickly go to a higher pitch. My problem is that I think I raise the intonation of my voice, when in reality it is monotone. This frustrates my teacher, which frustrates me because I think I'm doing it correctly and think she's bonkers. However, I think she may be right.

I often think of Cranium in these situations. Its a fabulous game if you are not familiar with it. There are 4 categories that challenge all 'parts' of your brain: spelling, trivial pursuit type questions, artistic and performance.

There was one time that I was playing and picked a card from the "star performer" category. I was given the task to whistle a song, I can't remember which one, but that doesn't matter. As the other team flipped over the timer, I started to whistle with all my heart. My teammates sat there bewildered, not having any clue of what was coming out of my mouth. See what happened was, in my head, I thought I was fluidly moving between musical notes, but in actuality everything that flowed through my pursed lips was monotone.

So I think I might be a little tone deaf, which does not bode well for my Chinese intonations. As my bad pronunciation continued through our lesson, we became increasingly agitated with each other. To the point where we were arguing about the colors of my shirt. My response in Chinese to her color question was that "this shirt is dark purple, light purple, and white." She proceeded to tell me that my shirt was dark blue, grey, and not white. We argued for a few minutes before our respective language barriers (she speaks a little English) shut us both up and we moved on.

Who do you think was right?

(James, wearing a dark/light purple and white shirt with Wei En)

Si Racha

2007-08-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

Today, my aunt, cousin, and Wei-En travelled north about 1 1/2 hours to Si Racha so that the ladies could run errands and take care of the condos that they own there. On the way up, we stopped at an outdoor market, where we bought several of these bamboo sticks filled with sticky rice and raisins that have been cooked over a fire. The vendor breaks them open with a hammer when she sells them. There are 2 kinds one with white rice and the other is red, both with sweet beans. Its more of a dessert, mildly sweet and tasty.

After I went for a run along the beach and they finished their errands, we went to an outdoor cafe. They claimed that this place has the best Phad Thai in the whole country. I couldn't get over how cheap it was! For the seafood phad thai dish above, it was only 40 baht (about $1.10). The other dish was a flat crispy egg and mussel dish with chili sauce. Everything was thailicious!

Earthquake in Peru

2007-08-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

So as many of you know, I was recently in Peru for about 5 1/2 weeks, taking a Tropical Medicine course and travelling a bit. Also, I'm sure many of you know by now that there has been a devestating earthquake (7.9! on the richter scale) that has ravaged places such as Ica, Pisco, and Chincha. While we have no control over accidental natural disasters, we can try to help in the aftermath.

These areas of Peru are diverse in landscape and beautiful, and the people who live there are wonderful, warm, and giving people. Let's try and help in anyway we can, you can donate at: https://donate.oxfamamerica.org/02/oxfamamerica?source=fy07_do_home

Hairspray

2007-08-16T06:39:00.000-07:00

In the middle of a downpour, I dragged myself to the movie theater in the shopping mecca near my house. Before I left the states, I had heard about 'Hairspray' and wanted so badly to see it, but ran out of time. Thus, I was overjoyed to find that it was playing in only 1 theater in all of Bangkok, which was conviently located within walking distance, albeit it was monsoon-like outside.

The movie is fabulous and you should see it, even if you're not a fan of musicals. The movie tackles issues such as race relations, obesity, and the value of hair products (these are all issues close to my heart).

Afterall, a NY Times movie critic describes the movie as "so joyful, so full of unforced enthusiasm, that only the most ferocious cynic could resist it. It imagines a world where no one is an outsider and no one is a square, and invites everyone in. How can you refuse?"
(http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/07/19/movies/19hair.html?ex=1343880000&en=90b528cba10a599b&amp;ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink)

World's Tallest Chocolate Tower

2007-08-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

As soon as I read in the newspaper about the making of the World's Tallest Chocolate Tower, my mouth started salivating. When I arrived to the high-end shopping complex, I was a bit underwhelemed. I guess I was expecting it to me at least 10 stories tall, nonetheless, I guess its pretty impressive as it is 10 meter tall and has been covered with 600 kg of chocolate. I hope they let me eat it at the end of its showing.

Happy Mother's Day!

2007-08-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

Granted I am a little late in posting this day of appreciation, but it was only this past Sunday here in Thailand. Annually, Mother's day is on the 12th of August. Since the Queen is the "mother" of all the Thai people, they have Mother's day on her birthday. As someone who was raised in a culture where kings and queens are something from yore, its a bit odd to me that they also get a day off for her birthday. I think its fabulous that they're celebrating the queen, all over Bangkok are shrines like the one the one pictured.

Durian

2007-08-13T04:42:00.000-07:00

Durian is a fleshy fruit found under a spiky, tough shell and if it has a long stem, my aunt and uncle say that's the best indicator that its high quality. Its definitely an acquired taste, as everyone does not like it either because they can't open the friggin' thing or the odor/taste is nasty to them.

I'm not quite sure if I can adequately describe it but the fruit is soft, its almost like a cheese that kind of melts in your mouth. The taste is not overly sweet, but rather a subtle sensation of sweetness dissolving over your taste buds. I think its critical to find it when its ripe, otherwise, the odor and probably taste is reminiscent of a sweaty locker room (gross!). But its definitely worth the gamble to try some of this exotic fruit.

Day 2 of Chinese Lessons

2007-08-13T03:57:00.000-07:00

Oy vey! I spent a few hours today with my teacher and am quite frustrated with the whole process. Nevertheless, my family is getting a few chuckles out of my mispronunciations. For example, today I was learning how to say "Do you have vegetarian food?" But instead, I mistakenly asked "Do you have any pajamas?" My cousin, teacher, and auntie were laughing quite hard. I told them "I might go hungry, but at least I'll be warm at night!" Actually, my teacher was quite concerned with my inability to say 'vegetarian food' and that I would starve, so she was thinking about having me say that phrase in a different way until I finally caught on. The reason that things can go awry in Chinese is that there are 4 tones, so 'ma' can be said 4 different ways and each has a different meaning (mā, má, ma (w/ aˇ over it), mà). Its actually not so horrible, its just taking me a while to figure things out. But I am learning things that are important to my survival in China, like "I am a vegetarian" and "What color is this?"

Uncle Jimmy

2007-08-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was little, my family here has called me Jimmy. Surprisingly, I enjoy this nickname, and now with 2 nephews, I'm now known as Uncle Jimmy. Its a blast spending time with Wei En and Wei Min.

While hanging out with Wei En, I've determined that I'm not going to buy any toys for my future children, but rather just give them empty bottles, cardboard boxes, and egg cartons to play with. Look at him, he's happy as a clam with my empty green tea bottle!

The last time I saw Wei Min was 2 years ago and now he's 10 years old, and riding horses! He's a great older brother to Wei En. My cousin was telling me that he buys little toys for Wei En and shares everything with him.

While at the club, I went to use the restroom and looked up and saw a sign that I think all females would appreciate in bathrooms that are shared with the opposite gender.

Thai National Anthem

2007-08-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

This morning, I decided that I would go for a run at Lumpini Park which is a few blocks away from where my aunt and uncle live. The circuit is about 2.5 kilometers and I was about half way around, listening to my "sweat music" playlist on my Ipod Mini, when I heard some whistles and everyone around me halted. I assumed that the people near me were part of some running group that would run for a few minutes, stop for a minute and then continue. However, as I kept running, I noticed that everyone in the park was standing still looking off in the same direction.

I was unsure of what to do, but I definitely felt out of place as I was the only one still moving, weaving in and out of stationary runners/walkers, so I stopped and removed my earphones. I heard some instrumental music in the distance and noticed that it was emanating from where everyone was staring. As soon as it was over, everyone continued on with what they had been doing.

I came home and recounted to my aunt and cousin about what had happened. They proceeded to tell me that twice a day, at 8am and 6pm, they play the national anthem all over and that I should stop and pay respect or else the police would come and ticket me! Thank goodness I ceased running because there were police officers stationed throughout the park.

So this link (http://www.learningthai.com/songs/anthem.html) is to the lyrics of the Thai National Anthem, just in case you are here and need to sing along. I am going to commit this to memory so that when I'm running or in public I can show my pride for Thailand!

Let the eating festival begin...

2007-08-09T01:04:00.000-07:00

For the past few months, I have been anticipating eating Thai food. Besides looking forward to spending time with family, I have been salivating with the thoughts of stuffing my face with delicious Thai dishes. Finally the wait is over, I got to spend the day with my family AND start chowing on various curries, noodle dishes, and so on.

Today for lunch, my aunt Nancy, cousin Suparb, and my nephew, Wai En who is almost 1 year old went to a restaurant called S&P and had several tasty dishes:

Crispy Fish

Papaya Salad

Crispy noodles (light, sweet, and oh so good)

My youngest nephew, Wei En (which means the "highest grace"), will be celebrating his 1st birthday soon, on August 18th, so I'm happy that I will be around to celebrate. He was born 2 months prematurely, but now is healthy as a horse. He's very adorable and likes to eat his shoelace.

Bangkok

2007-08-08T19:09:00.000-07:00

My fabulous Aunt Nancy and cousin Peng met me at the newly built Suvarnabhumi Airport . From JFK to Hong Kong was about 17 hours and then another 2 hours to Bangkok. It was wonderful because on both legs of the trip, I had twofers! Two seats for the price of one!

(I have this same shirt!)

To pass the time, I watched several movies and tv shows. They showed Shrek III and Fracture, which were decent, and then I saw Disturbia, which nearly gave me a series of mini-heart attacks. Its a thriller starring hot new sensation Shia LaBeouf (whose in the upcoming new Indian Jones movie). He's under house arrest, and due to his boredom, starts spying on his neighbors. He begins to suspect that his next door neighbor is up to no good and that's when I began almost crapping my pants. There's a plethora of suspenseful/thrilling scenes. I had to look away or change the channel because I'm a wuss, but I enjoyed the movie. Plus, the Asian character in the movie is wearing a shirt that I own!!! Its a yellow polo with a dragon on the front and says Dragon Rojo on the back.

Anyhoo, the flights overall were not horrible, just lots of sitting around and eating. During the flight they had "late night" snacks, which was "CUP O NOODLES!" This is a blast from the past. Growing up, I had my fair share of dehydrated vegetables with ramen noodles in a styrofoam cup. Its a simple and very unhealthy snack, but kind of tasty.

Hello Kitty

2007-08-08T05:49:00.000-07:00

17 hours after taking off from JFK, I'm sitting at Gate 33 in Hong Kong waiting for my flight to Bangkok, Thailand, when I came across this article in the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/world/asia/07cnd-thai.html?ex=1344225600&en=e14ce1770344a664&amp;amp;ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Who knew that Hello Kitty's role in our lives would drastically diverge from cute stationary to demeaning "macho" police officers in Thailand? Basically, Thai police officers are being punished for infractions, such as being tardy or littering, by wearing a hot pink arm band with the iconic Hello Kitty with 2 hearts. This punishment is "expected to make them feel guilt and shame and prevent them from repeating the offense, no matter how minor. Kitty is a cute icon for young girls. It’s not something macho police officers want covering their biceps.”

Seriously, is this really a punishment? I, for one, would love to wear one of these in public. In fact, I wish I had one growing up. It would have made life much easier, eh?

Apparently, this tactic is working, one of the proponents noticed that many officers are frightened. Well, I'm glad to hear that Hello Kitty is expanding her role from enticing young gals and certain lads to challenging the masculinity of police officers.

I will definitely be on the look out for any littering officers during the next 2 weeks and report them to the Hello Kitty Brigade.

My bags are packed...

2007-08-06T21:36:00.000-07:00

Two thumbs up! I can't believe the day is finally here (Tuesday that is). I'm flying out of JFK tomorrow for Bangkok, Thailand. I'm staying with my Aunt and Uncle there and taking a 2 week crash course in Mandarin. That should be amusing. Besides having language lessons on "how I feel today and what's the weather like outside", I'm pretty psyched to hang out with my nephew and the rest of my family there.

Its kind of daunting to be going away for a year. I guess a year is not that long, but still, I can't even speak Chinese. Nevertheless, I'm excited for lies ahead.

On another note, I have been relishing in the garden that my mom has cultivated this year and its spectacular. Over the past few years, she has toiled on her hands and knees to produce glorious beauties such as these:

The American Dream

2007-08-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

I was walking in the Crossroads District near downtown KC and came upon this steak house. As a pseudo-vegetarian, I'm not sure why you would want to advertise the head of one's dinner on the outside of the restaurant.

Leaving Kansas City

2007-08-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't have much luck with public transport to the airport so had to pay the 17 dollar transport fee. So it goes. At least there's free Wi-Fi at KCI Airport.

The Family Medicine conference was a bit overwhelming. There were a plethora of residency programs from all over the U.S., trying to sell their program and giving me lots of free stuff. I made out with some waterbottles (as if I needed more), a nifty blue flashlight pen (unfortunately, it doesn't match my stethoscope, but I already have one that does match my maroon stethoscope, thank goodness!), and tons of chocolate. I could have wrangled up more free stuff, but I got tired of talking to residents and program directors after a few hours.

The northwest programs (Washington/Oregon) are appealing to me and the residents I spoke with were wonderful. But I feel that most anywhere you go, the residents will be super nice and whatnot. So I think a great deal of trying to figure out residency is based on where one wants to live rather than solely on the program.

Some of the states held receptions on Thursday/Friday evening so I ended up not having to spend very much on food, which was VERY exciting. For breakfast/lunch, we got monopoly-type money for food from registration. I also got to try some of Oregon's microbrewery beer - Dead Guy Ale, (http://www.rogue.com/brews.html), quite tasty, your taste buds will thank you!

For some reason, I couldn't handle all day, every day Family Medicine, so I took the afternoons off and went out and about. The newly renovated Nelson Art Museum has a great collection of art and the world's largest birdies. I also went to "The Plaza" which is an upscale outdoor shopping experience, very similar to the Grove in Los Angeles. It was a nice area, but not really my scene. There was also a great farmer's market which was incredibly cheap! Quarts of blueberries for ONE DOLLAR!

"Crushed by massive birdie"

My flight has been delayed due to an Air Force One landing in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Darn President Bush. Actually, its not too much of a delay, and I'm sure he has lots to do there with the bridge falling and all. Actually, I'm glad for the delay as it means I can procrastinate from packing. I think that will be an adventure in itself. Packing 2 suitcases for a year in a place that has all four seasons, especially a harsh winter, does not sound too appealing to me right now.