Yangshuo

We arrived in Yangshuo and walked thru the gauntlet of trinket stalls from the boat to the main part of the little town. West St. is THE street. It caters to foreigners with lots of shopping and good foreign food such as cheesecake, Mexican food, and Italian food. We stayed at Yangshuo Paradise Resort, which was Conveniently located on West St., where many famous (including Presidents) people have stayed. It is 4 star according to Chinese standards but maybe a 3 star in America. The Nixons and Clintons had to rough it for a couple of nights. But the beautiful scenery makes it all worth while.

We walked down to the restaurant that advertised cheesecake and had dinner. I can't remember what the dinner was but I can remember how good the cheesecake tasted. Afterwards we did some shopping, Cynthia found some scarfs for her mom and sister and I found a great T-shirt. It had a picture of Mickey Mouse on the front in a Chairman Mao type of hat. The caption made the T-shirt - It said Mickey Mao’s . I just wish I had bought a BUNCH of them. We tried to go back the next morning before we left but he was closed. We may have to fight over that one….

Li River Scenery......

And it just goes on and on and on - I just wish I was better at photography or a better camera or better weather - photos just don't do it.

Li River Scenery......

Li River Scenery......

Li River Scenery......

What a Way to Shop!

Another unique floating shop were the souvenir bamboo rafts that would tie up to the boat to sell trinkets. The hawkers would balance precariously between the boats and yell up to the passengers hoping someone would purchase their jade cabbages and Pixiu. Pixiu (Pea-shoe) is sort of like a good luck lion/dragon. You generally tie a small one on your cell phone.

Li River Cruise

Next morning we caught a bus to a boat dock for our Li River Cruise. It was cold and rainy but after we got to the scenic area we forgot about the weather. It is a 5 hour cruise and they provided lunch. Their kitchen was located on the back end of the boat. It was interesting watching them cook on the boat in front of us especially since they got their live chickens and other supplies from a floating grocery boat.

Peak of Solitary Beauty

This park and hill were located on Guangxi Teachers College campus. There were some 300 steps to the top but it should have counted as more because the steps where much higher and steeper than normal steps. After a year of walking and stair climbing I can now do about 3 flights without wheezing but this climb put me squarely back in my place as the out of shape American. On another part of the campus there was a old section where the students used to take exams. Of course this was after they had prayed for a good score at the local Confucius temple. They were very small partitioned rooms. Impossible to cheat here!

That evening after a good rice noodle meal we walked around the shopping area and finished the night off with a great hour long foot massage for only 20 RMB ($2.25).

Guilin & Yangshuo

Cynthia, an English teacher & friend , and I traveled to Guilin and Yangshuo a couple of weeks ago. Our trip was shortened a little with the strange schedule that ZUFE imposed on us but we managed to cram in most of the sites and activities in our 2 day trip. Even though it was rainy and cold the majority of the time the scenery was so overpowering that you generally forgot about it. This is one place I would love to return to so if anyone needs a tour guide…… The mountains on the Li River cruise is one of those places you need to see for yourself because with the weather and my lack of photography skills, our photos cannot begin to show you the mystical beauty of the place. (And that was after culling out the best 60 photos out of 300+ that we took!)

This Is The Way To Do Dishes!

You can always find the good restaurants in Guilin by counting how many containers of dirty dishes they have piled on the sidewalk. In Guilin the restaurants put their dirty dishes outside their restaurant in plastic containers. A contracted company picks them up washes them and returns them the next day. Sort of reminded me of the “pre-Pampers” old diaper services.

On the way back to the hotel we had a street snack that was a Chinese version of a Sloppy Joe. It was made with chopped pork and tasted delicious! We tried a couple of other local snacks but this is the one that my taste buds will remember.

Why I Will Never Be Able To Read Chinese

This is why I will never learn to read any Chinese. The different fonts that Word and other computer applications provide are nothing like the different characters that Chinese have used over time. All of these characters and many more that I did not put on the blog page (but are in the photo section) that were on the park walkways represent the word Elephant.

This Chinese Character Stands for Elephant

This Chinese Character Stands for Elephant

Elephant Trunk Hill Park - Guilin

After dropping off our bags at our hotel, which was conveniently located within walking distance of everything we wanted to see, we walked to the Elephant Trunk Hill Park. We took the normal tourist pictures and walked around the park. What shocked me the most was not the neat elephant mountain (whose trunk dips into the water) but how parents put their kids in mortal danger when trying to take their picture. Don’t worry, no one fell in.

Last Days in China?

I was thinking about calling this blog “Dealing with the LASTS” like I did on my 3rd blog entry (out of the current number of 166) but I keep pondering on whether it will really be the “LASTS”. I really have enjoyed my year here and even though I am READY to come home, I still feel like I have so much more to learn and see over here. Do I want to do this again? There were lots of unforeseen problems that arose this time with the house/dog that would have to be handled. Zac and Nicole took care of the house for part of the year but after they left my neighbor Rosie got stuck with the job of taking care of the Marigold homestead. She WILL get a nice China gift but that doesn’t begin to pay her back for all the little things she did for me like mailing my magazines and Twizzlers and forging my checks. I am also eternally grateful to Cathy and Joel for picking up the dog sitting duty. Sadie has been spoiled and played with so much she will probably go thru doggie depression when I bring her home to her “single dog” house. I know I haven’t answered the question yet. Would I consider doing this again? It would be a lot easier if I had a friend to do this with because the loneliness does get to you and it really would be a lot more fun if I had someone to eat and travel with. (And it is a LOT easier being stared at if you have someone to talk to). And finally, I can’t answer the question until all the other “If’s” are OK like health, family, house, dog, and finances. So, this might NOT be the last time for some of the things (good and bad) listed below…….

What I will miss
Weekly Foot massages
Noodle bowls in the winter
My favorite Oolong and Green Teas & the hot water dispensers on every floor of the school buildings
Shopping
Fresh cut Pineapple on a stick
Popcorn ‘old maid’ snack (sort of like semi popped pop corn with seasoning)
Pineapple popsicles
Fireworks almost every NIGHT
Shopping
Less salt on the potato chips
Playing pool with Ricky – and beating him – score is currently 14 to 6 – I am the 14 !
Shopping
The great students
The always helpful, Nathan and the delicious pancakes, soup and brownies by Elizabeth
Milk Peanuts (hard to explain but they have a really good strange flavor)
English Corner at West Lake
All the Chinese food I have learned to really like (it is not like American Chinese food)
The walking – yes I will actually miss “having” to walk everywhere – it sort of gave you time to ponder things a little. I am pretty sure I didn’t ponder any real solutions but it slowed life down a little.

What I won’t miss
The staring
The lint
The traffic
The car/bus/truck horns
The air
The cold classrooms and teaching with your coat, scarf, and gloves on
The hot classrooms and teaching while sweat is rolling off of you
Chalkboards and chalk dust
Bones in the meat
The noise
Trying to teach over the fireworks that are being shot off during the day
Not being able to plan any trips more than a week in advance
Not being able to tell the difference between shampoo and conditioner without a student translator
Not being able to mail anything without a student translator
Not knowing what I picked to eat for lunch or dinner
Never being able to buy clothes or womens’ shoes here – too big – somebody size 2-8 would love it!

Chinese TV

When was the last time you saw a test pattern? Pretty common here in the wee morning hours. They don’t even fill the dead hours with Infomercials. Infomercials are just starting to catch on here, I am sure that America invented that torture so I feel I should apologize to all my Chinese friends – Sorry! I keep seeing one on some contraption you wear like a kidney belt that is supposed to improve your posture and give you bigger looking boobs (if you are a girl of course). Anyway I figured I would inform you guys about what Chinese TV is like. In Hangzhou there seems to be about 35 channels. Different locations have different choices. The 4 star hotels MAY have BBC and/or CNN, which are still censored. A month ago in Nanjing, I was so excited about watching CNN that I had it on the entire time I was in my room. One morning during a newscast there was mention of a protest in one of the censored “T” words. The channel cut off immediately. During the hourly repeats you never even heard the lead in to the story, just a 45 second blank screen. Here at ZUFE they have one English channel – CCTV 9. It repeats A LOT. Generally the programming consists of short news shows, china travel shows, and business forums on the advantages of doing business in China, etc. Yesterday I saw a forum show that I had seen the first week I was in China when I was actually watching a TV and not watching a computer.

Side Note: Just in case you were not aware I watch American TV shows on the computer. Yes, I am totally caught up on Prison Break & Heroes (Both VERY popular with the kids here), Ugly Betty, Boston Legal, Studio 60, Gilmore Girls, Nip & Tuck, Numb3rs and a couple of others I am too embarrassed to mention. They all have Chinese subtitles. Most Chinese that have a computer and Internet watch American TV shows and movies this way. I wonder what they think of Americans after they watch “My Name is Earl” and “Two and a Half Men”. Last year I brought all my seasons of 3 or 4 TV shows that I thought the students would like - What a waste of suitcase space! They had seen them all and with the Chinese subtitles (which mine did not have)

Back to the topic of China TV. At ZUFE they have a music channel, a shopping channel, a sports channel, lots of those “American Idol” contest shows and lots of soap operas. Chinese Soap Operas are different from ours. Most of them are historical soap operas or mystical soap operas like the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie. The last ones are sort of fun to watch and add your own subtitles. There is lots of spinning, punching, flying and slow-mo action. The American Idol type of shows are very popular. They always have beautifully dressed up male and female announcers and no negative comments. Mostly they are the singing contests, but they even have one where couples compete in a variety of tasks such as cooking a cheap meal, sports, dancing and of course singing. Last Spring the most popular contest type of show was "Super Girl", a show where lots of skinny girls sing, model and dance their way to glory. Sound familiar?

Chinese Christmas Elves

I gave all my classes Christmas stockings and their homework assignment was to fill them for the children at Sunday’s West Lake English Corner. They did great stuffing their stockings with little things the kids would like. Shockingly 25 or more of them actually got up at 8:30 AM on a Sunday and joined me for the hour long bus ride and 20 minute walk to the park. I think my elves enjoyed giving out the little items as much as the kids enjoyed getting them.

Chinese Christmas Elves

Out of Touch

Frustration! Visions of Dial-Up! Betcha the China Filter guys are happy! All these thoughts are running through my head this week. In case you were not aware of the global impact (at least to ME), there was an earthquake off of Taiwan and an underwater telecommunications cable broke. This means that all China sites are fine BUT I can’t get any international sites with any reliability or speed. If I get up earlier than usual (4:30am) I can usually get my email before the rest of China gets online. I was able to pick up all my email and answer 4 – it is now 6:15 (1 hour 45 minutes). Pitiful! Anyway, I am ok. I am going to Guilin on Monday, maybe when I get back it will be easier…….

Photo above is of a Christmas Eve Party that one of the classes had in their classroom. They (yes, the guys too) were all making Jaozi (dumplings) for dinner. I actually made two – they looked really bad but tasted like all the rest. The hard part for me was doing it all with a chopstick. I went to another party that night and they were making sort of the same thing but they were square and much smaller – I don’t know the name of that one.

Side Note: I have been here too long! While waiting for this blog to upload, I am eating my Cheesy-Mac (thanks to Ann G?) with Chopsticks and yes the bowl is inches from my mouth. BUT don’t worry I still chew with my mouth closed – you will just have to break me of the chopstick/close bowl habit. It really is easier with chopsticks……

The "Experts"

Photo above is the newly decorated fourth floor where the “Experts” stayed during their weeklong inspection. Last week Zhejiang University of Finance and Economics had the equivalent of Georgia’s 5 year SACs review. I am not sure how many teachers are still around and alive to remember Dean Barone, who was the principal at Glynn Middle School during the PLAN program. Well if you recall she was sort of over the top when it came to putting on a good “show”. Well ZUFE went waaaaayyyy beyond Barone’s stressful “sprucing up” jags. In the last month on the campus they have added rocks (BIG TRUCK-SIZE ROCKS), trees (including a bamboo forest), plants, and even more flowers to the grounds. Besides the normal deep cleaning, they washed the roads (yes ROADS) with brushes, they hand washed (as they hung off of ropes) the outside wall of windows on the large auditorium, and they pressure washed all the stairs to every building. The hotel got new carpet for the elevator, new tables and chairs for the lobby and 4th floor, computers and printers for each room (I had to buy my own printer), a free coffee dispenser, a luggage carrier, and I am sure lots of other things that we didn’t get to see. Last week during the actual visit, they added guards at the front door and on the 4th floor (I actually got saluted once), “party girls” by the elevator to push the buttons, extra staff to meet all the “experts” needs and to keep the us quiet on the 6th floor and extra heat in the rooms (which we benefited from too!). Students couldn’t get into the school gate unless they had their ZUFE white pin on and teachers had to wear their red ZUFE pin. Even though we couldn’t order noodles from the hotel restaurant, they actually opened and heated the pool for the week and let anybody swim for free. It re-closed the night the “Experts” left. I never got observed but I sort of hoped they would walk in when I was teaching my freshman students unusual body parts like Adam’s apple, knuckle, dimple, thigh, palm, calf, and belly button by using the game Simon Says. I have heard we “passed” inspection and will now be able to be classified as a University instead of a college, which means a lot more money from the government. Not sure when that happens but maybe the next batch of teachers will get a raise.

Weird side note – they got 18 out of 19 A’s and they were very happy because they didn’t WANT 19 A’s – This is due to the fact that if they received a perfect score they would have had to been observed a second time by the national committee.

This is Your Official Christmas Card

Merry Christmas

and a

Happy New Year

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

Have a great Holiday!

Love Katie

Gettin' Ready for Christmas

That's Ricky infront of one of the many wiggling and singing Santas that are infront of a lot of stores here in China. The biggest difference between Chinese Christmas decorations and American Decorations is that the Chinese decorations go up a lot later and you will see them far into the spring. I wonder how long our ZUFE Santa is going to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".

I decided that there was no way I was going to fit all my stuff that needed to go home in my 2 suitcases and 1 backpack so I decided that I needed to send a couple of boxes home. I used a really nice sturdy box that had come (filled with goodies) from Barb’s packing department where she works. I very neatly filled it with lots of my summer clothes, shoes and a couple of large size souvenirs I had bought. I also decided I would try and mail Zac and Nicole a small box of Christmas presents. Those I was able to fit neatly into a Nike shoebox.

I conned Jerry, one of my students, to help me with the actually mailing (and he gallantly carried the big box for me). We got both of us and the boxes into a stuff-it bus which was very entertaining. The closest China Post already had about 15 students in a pack at the 2 windows. (Remember lines are a rarity here). Being a foreigner and old does have some advantages. Jerry was able to ‘butt in’ and get the papers I needed to fill out. Jerry also got the mail guy to look at the boxes and he told us we would have to buy 2 more boxes because mine were not good enough to mail in. So in this tiny student-filled room I had to unpack all my good packing and throw it into a new China approved SMALLER box. Thank goodness I had used the zip-lock bag trick on all my clothes so I didn’t have to refold. I managed to get it all in but the mail guy really had a hard time taping it shut. I hope it doesn’t burst open during its long journey home. The price was probably comparable to US Mail costs. The bigger box was about 45 dollars Ground and the smaller one I sent airmail and it was about 35 dollars. The forms were hard to fill out. The lights were off in the building and it was gloomy outside and of course the English translation print was really small so Jerry and his young eyes came to the rescue. I have to comment that the extremely busy clerks were very nice and friendly to everyone that I saw them deal with during that hour. All together it took us about an hour to do the actually mailing and a 30 minutes to get there and back. Not Bad for a China chore.

Side Note: I mailed another box home – don’t worry Jerry didn’t get stuck with this job again – this time I conned Andrew and George into helping. We ended up at a larger China Post because the closest one was packed. I had thrown all my stuff in a beat up box assuming they would make me buy a new one – but no, this time they proceeded to tape up this scruffy looking box but only after they took out my some of my DVD’s that I was trying to sneak home.

A Strange and Modern YaYa Christmas Party

I have some close friends and we call ourselves the YaYas after the Rebecca Wells characters. We usually have our official meetings at Spanky’s on Friday afternoons so we can unwind and catch up with each other (translate that into have a few drinks and gossip). Not sure how it started but at Christmas we each buy 6 identical gifts to give to each other and simultaneously open them. For Christmas 2006, when we were in Shanghai, Paula bought some really cute pearl necklaces and I bought the matching earrings, which she took back and wrapped for us. I assumed I was going to miss this years YaYas Christmas exchange, but with the magic of iChat and a couple of web cams I actually got to go to the party and see my friends and presents. Wednesday morning at 5:30am China time (the YaYas Tuesday afternoon) I hooked up with Paula’s computer and web cam and “went to” the party. I missed eating the good snacks and drinking whatever the beverage was but I saw them all (they kept rotating their positions in front of the camera), caught up on most of the gossip, and had a great time. Thank you YaYas for a little bit of home! The only sad part was saying goodbye when they all sang “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” to me…… I had to repair all my makeup before I went to class.

Planning in China

Real simple rule…….Don’t Plan ……….. something will happen to mess it up.
We didn’t follow that rule and bought discount tickets for our New Years Holiday, which is nicely color-coded red on our school calendar. The color red means we have off. I assumed that those would really, actually, for sure, be the days off. NOPE, We just learned last night, one week before our nicely planned trip to Guilin that we really have Monday Tuesday and Wednesday off and have to work Saturday and Sunday instead. So instead of leaving Friday evening as we HAD PLANNED – we had to pay extra to change our tickets to Monday morning (no flights on Sunday afternoon). If I hadn’t experienced a years worth of this kind of stuff it would have really upset me. But I have realized it is a waste of energy to get mad – ya just gotta go with the flow. Maybe they do this sort of thing on purpose because it sort of erodes any feeling of control you have over your life.

Above picture is of a group of kids doing graffiti in China. They are using water.