The Bus

Allen, a student, ordered a better bus but I guess the company didn’t feel like giving him what he requested. There were 29 of us but only 28 seats. This bus had seats that fold out into the isles to make full use of every square centimeter. I saw the bus driver working on the tires after it got us to the hotel on Saturday which didn’t bode well – but it was the next day that it actually broke down as it was coming to pick us up at the entrance to the park. Since it was in the middle of the road (normal for all cars, trucks etc) it ended up blocking the buses going down which was probably a good thing because the blocked bus driver got out and helped our driver fix our bus. The bus made it back but not until the bus driver took a wrong turn and we ended up going the wrong way round the Hangzhou Express Ring which added an extra hour or so to coming back. Most of the kids didn’t notice, they were asleep.

My Nanny(ies)

I guess that most of the ZUFE students had seen the downloaded or pirated version of the Nanny Diaries because the girls and guys that helped me the most called themselves my “Nanny” which was an apt description. From feeding me every variety of Chinese snack (spicy bamboo shoot strips on a stick were my favorite), carrying my backpack and taking turns trudging up the stairs with me definitely didn’t make me feel like the responsible adult in the group. It was nice. I sort of liked being dependent instead of independent for a while.

Before & After

See ---- I wasn't the only one tired from all those steps.

Spring on the Mountain

Even though you could see your breath as you huffed up the mountain and some of the snow hadn’t melted, the flowers had already decided that it was time for spring. I recognized Rhododendron because we used to have tons of it planted around my Delaware childhood home, and rest of the flowers were pretty but un-nameable. The pretty yellow one pictured above was my favorite.

Is The Translation Lacking or Is It Me?....

I know I was never very good at figuring out symbolism in my high school and college literature assignments so this is really way beyond me. I challenge all the members of my book club to see if you can figure out some of it. Most Chinese stories and legends have a lot of symbolism and really tragic endings. I haven’t heard any ancient Chinese legends where the boy and girl live happily ever after in the here and now. Some of them do get together in the afterlife but I don’t think that counts.

I am thinking this one is not one of their tragic love stories it might be about the cliff directly in front of me as I am taking this picture. Is it telling me to think about jumping?

You can click directly on the picture to make it a little bigger.

Daming Mountain - Sunday

Sunday morning was a little drizzly and foggy but the trek was still doable. After a wild (similar to Mr. Toad’s) bus ride with lots of hairpin turns we got to the starting point. We started climbing about 9:30 and got to the top by 12. I told you it was a lot of steps. Along the way we got to bounce across 2 exciting shaky cable bridges, eat some hot and spicy bamboo shoots, play in the snow and of course, take lots of pictures of the beautiful scenery even though the fog made our photos look a little washed out.

I had taken a class trip with this group when they were freshman in the spring of 06. They are now juniors and it is really nice to see how they have matured and grown not only in their English speaking abilities but in their personalities.

After they told me we had only gone 1/3 of the way I wimp’ed out and let the guide carry my backpack, but to my credit I didn’t go running for the cable cars – I kept climbing. (I know what Zac & Nicole are thinking– but remember I am way older than these college kids and there don’t seem to be many mountains for me to practice on in coastal Georgia – and I did make it up to ALMOST the top of Daming Mountain.)

Daming Mountain - Saturday

Daming Mountain is about a 3 hour bus ride (if the driver doesn’t take the wrong exit- but more on that later) south-west of Hangzhou city but still within Hangzhou boundary.

Side Note: I haven’t quite figured out how they can figure the population of a city when the boundaries of it are the size of one of our counties, and within those boundaries are many little towns/cities (with populations bigger than 200,000).

Anyway, back on subject… Daming Mountain which is pronounced like DOMing Mountain but should be pronounced like Damning because I sure d^&* well felt my age and there sure were a lot of d^%$ steps up to the peak. To relieve your suspense I made it 7/8 of the way – that last little hill to get to the top was not worth my huffing and puffing so I gave the kids a break and me a much bigger break and sat for about 15 minutes while they finished the rest and took the obligatory photos at the top.

We got to the mountainous area about 4 pm Saturday afternoon and checked into our little hotel. We walked around the area ate the local food for dinner and I taught 5 of the girls how to play Yahtzee. I wish I had thought to bring a Twister game with me. Somebody remind me to pick up one when I am home in August for vacation. This age group would be perfect for it. Plus they have all seen it played on the Friends TV series, which is very popular over here.

More on Daming Mountain in the next blog – but here are the photos of the trip I took

Shiny Box

This shiny machine is a common feature on every floor in all our classroom buildings. It is a hot water dispenser. All day long it boils a big tank of water so instead of hanging around the water cooler – you can hang around the water heater. It makes the water safe to drink, refills tea containers, which you can drink or just warm up your hands with. All the dorms have lots of big (gallon size thermos) available for the kids to take the drinkable water to their rooms. I am sure there is one of these shiny machines in this hotel but I haven’t found it yet. And yes, it is used as much in the summer time too. You actually get used to drinking hot drinks all year long.

Pictures and Pig Face

Here is the link to the Shanghai pictures as well as some thrown in from the West Lake Afternoon I spent with my ZUFE co-workers, Kris and Jim from Dalton Georgia.
http://picasaweb.google.com/katiea48/ShanghaiAndHangzhouWestLake

And the picture above was taken in Shanghai in one of the food shops. Look carefully and you will see 2 eyes --- look more carefully and you will see the folded down ears. It is a smushed pigs face. HONEST. (and I thought duck tongue was weird)

Pattie's Pearls and Katie's Candy

Sunday morning, I was finally going to get to see everybody –I decided I was in the mood for pancakes at McDonalds (Zac makes the best blueberry pancakes in the world – but when in China,,,,) but unfortunately when I said the number of the meal that had the pancakes I heard the dreaded Chinese phrase “Mei you” (sounds like “may yo”) which means “Don’t Have”……. No pancakes…..pooh .. baozi for breakfast – it was good but it wasn’t pancakes.

At 10 we met the group that was going with me to the pearl store – I had emailed Lisa @ Lisa Pearls and warned her I was bringing 5-8 eager patrons but about 12 showed up with guide (more on the quide story after the group gets back to Georgia). Creta and Pattie were both sort of leaning to one side because of the large bags they were carrying. Pattie literally had a full gym bag. Turned out both were filled with candy, cold medicine, deodorant, patches for my pants and more candy. I am really surprised that I haven’t gone into sugar shock – but I am using my pitiful will power and trying to pace myself. I am positive I will have enough for a daily dose of 3 peppermint patties miniatures and few Twizzlers for the rest of my stay here. (plus I have gotten 3 Easter Bunny boxes from Martha, Gail & BJ).

Since they had opted to give up their free tour day in Shanghai I only got to visit with the Georgia group for about 2 hours before their they had to hop on their bus for lunch and a museum visit. But it was a great 2 hours and I am so glad I came to Shanghai to see them. By the way the Georgia group purchased lots of baubles at Lisa’s Pearls with Pattie (who was shopping for friends too) making the biggest dent in her credit card.

It was a beautiful sunny day so we walked around and then at 3:00 we got our bags from the concierge and we began the multiple transfers that would get us back to our campus, which seemed even longer with our bags laden with Georgia goodies. I arrived back at my ZUFE room by 8:00 with sore shoulders and back (I see a massage in my near future) and ate a few of my “treats”. Who is coming next?

Cynthia's Friend

Since the Georgia travel group, that I was planning on meeting, was off touring on Saturday we each took a nice long hot shower in our shiny tub with great water pressure and really big towels to dry off with. (The shower alone was worth their nightly hotel rate) Then we had rice noodles for breakfast and caught the metro to a station on the outskirts of the Pudong district. There we met an old college roommate of Cynthia’s. Sunny & Bob (their English names) picked us up in their new Buick and drove us to their flat.

Side Note: Driving and owning a car is starting to become more popular with the middle class families, especially if you live outside the big (Atlanta sized or larger) cities. Cars, licenses, tags and gas are much more expensive here than in the US.

The flat was a modern 3 bedroom, 2 bath downstairs apartment about the size of my home 100 sq meters (about 1100 sq ft). One bedroom was for the husband’s parents who are the main caregivers of their new baby boy. As is normal in China, both parents work with all childcare being done by the grandparents. Bob and his mother did most of the cooking for our lunch of duck soup (yes, with all parts of the duck), chicken wings (hard to eat with chopsticks), scrambled egg and tomato, qing cai (dk green leafy vegetable – I don’t know the English name because it’s nothing I recognize, but I like it) and of course rice. They were so nice to me even though they had never laid eyes on me before. It still amazes me how hospitable the Chinese are.

When we got back to Shanghai we walked to the Magnificant Hotel where the Georgia group was staying, unfortunately the receptionist said they wouldn’t be back from their tour till after 9. So we had bowl of noodles for dinner and a McDonalds ice cream for dessert. The best of both worlds.

A Ningbo (Hotel?)

No they are not my dishtowels, mine look better than that. They are the bath towels that were included in our Ningbo hotel room. Granted the room only cost 15 dollars, but the night before when we stayed in a very similar and even smaller room close to Ningbo University, and they actually provided us with three regular and sort of thick-ish hand towels. I have to add that I was pleasantly pleased because both hotel rooms had a “throne” toilet instead of a “squatty potty”. And I have to add that the owners of this first hotel were really nice and even made Penny a nice ginger tea for her nervous tummy (she was taking her big English test that morning)

Saturday night we planned on staying in the center of Ningbo and I had assumed that once we got closer to the big city of Ningbo that we would be in a hotel that at least slightly resembled a western style hotel. Never assume….. Obviously we didn’t take a shower (both of the hotels had a bathroom that doubled as the shower) and I used my dirty shirt to wash my face – it looked cleaner.

Ningbo

When I was researching the possibility of working in China one of my choices was a college in Ningbo. Ningbo is located couple hours east of here by bus. After spending a couple of days there I have decided that I was lucky because I made the right choice and chose Hangzhou. Granted ZUFE is located an hour away from Hangzhou and the sky is not as blue and they don’t have fried bananas (another story) but there seems to be so much more history and culture in this area. I think we visited most of the important sites during our 2 days of walking around the city. Also one of the things that Ningbo is famous for is 4 special types of food. All of ripened tofu dishes have names that start with the word that means stinky and boy do they live up to their name. They say it tastes a little like blue cheese, which I like, but I have never been able to get the stuff past my nose to try it. So every once in while you would get a whiff of that strong stinky smell as you walked around town. Also Ningbo had way more beggars, Hangzhou has some but usually I only give away 5-10 yuan here on Yan'an Rd., but in Ningbo I went thru at least 30 yuan (in coins) for the beggars there. (I have been so blessed to be able to travel and teach over here, I feel like I need to share a little- plus they always beg harder when there are foreigners around because we are such an easy touch- me included)

So Hangzhou was a good choice because even after spending 2006 in Hangzhou I still have places I want to visit here – but not next weekend because I am heading off to Shanghai to meet some other adventurous travelers from Glynn County that are touring China. Their first stop is Shanghai and I intend to abduct a couple of them on their day off and lead them astray into the den of temptation known as Lisa’s Pearls. Many of my friends have bolstered the Chinese/Shanghai economy at least a couple of percentage points by the amount spent here.
Click here to see more pictures of Ningbo

A Chinese Fried Banana

Looks can be deceiving. This actually tasted good. But not as good as the chocolate covered frozen bananas you can get at Disney World.

Penny bought us these fried banana treats in Ningbo. Penny had asked me to accompany her to Ningbo for the weekend because she was taking an English test that was offered at Ningbo University. If she gets a good score she can apply to an American University for a graduate degree. So keep your fingers crossed for her. She is not an English Major so she has had to study English in her spare time. It just amazes me how hard some of these students work, especially like Penny or the ones that have 2 majors (they go to school on Saturday and Sunday)

In Love With an Inanimate Object

We had heard rumors but yesterday, Ben our foreign affairs office savior, showed me the real thing. A building that had a room full of Deluxe Massage Chairs just for teachers. Forget the Brookstone/Sharper Image chairs you try out at the airports and the Jax Town Center these are way better. 20 minutes of thumping, rolling, squeezing, and shaking. Pure Heaven! Kris, Jim and I let the massage chairs embrace us after a great dinner in a Xiasha restaurant that had a picture menu! – no surprises! What a way to end the day.

By the way, I have gotten an email from our Foreign Affairs office saying they needed some more American teachers for next year. All you need is a college degree and an adventurous spirit…and you will get to use the chair too…. Want to join me? Great food (if you can figure out what you are ordering or they actually understand what you are asking for), great students and with all the walking it is almost guaranteed that you will lose weight!

The Olympic Mascots

The first year I was here I had trouble explaining what a “mascot” was. I had a picture of my college mascot “The Fighting Blue Hen” (University of Delaware) but it just didn’t click until this year when I associated my UofDel chicken with their Beijing Olympic Mascots. They were originally called “Friendlies” but for some reason they changed it to “Fuwa”. Fuwa means, roughly, “wishing good fortune to the young people” or more efficiently said “good luck dolls”.

If you put the names of the mascots together it says in Chinese “Beijing (Bei Bei & Jing Jing) Welcomes (Huan Huan &Ying Ying) You (Ni Ni)” It is common to hear Chinese names, especially childrens’ doubled up like this. And it definitely fits into China’s cutesy theme that they have for most of their everyday outfits.

I only found a couple of web sites that were informative about the mascots and I was sort of looking for some coloring pages of the mascots online – but I haven’t been successful in that search – anyone else know of a good young student friendly web site for my Frederica Academy Lower School students?
Here is the official Beijing Olympic Web site.
http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214068254.shtml
and here is one about some of the other Olympic mascots
http://www.mapsofworld.com/olympic-trivia/olympic-mascot.html

Side note: I forgot to give credit to the Ya Yas and Dottie for my amazing language barrier breakthrough for drilling me using the crude Chinese word flashcards I had made. Dottie did it many days during our lunch break and I made all the ya yas do it during our weekend retreat at Margie’s. Many xie xie’s

Language Barrier Breakthrough

I had a really leaky shower and asked for it to be repaired. Two Chinese workmen came this morning and caulked the bottom for me. As they finished they shot off a lot of Chinese words that of course made no sense. BUT I did manage to recognize one word. I heard MING TIAN and I actually understood it. It means "tomorrow". I grabbed my calendar so I could point to "today's date" and the shower and say BU (means no) and OK for tomorrow. And they acted satisfied that I understood that I wasn’t supposed to use the shower until tomorrow. I felt so clever. I know my Chinese colors and my numbers – does that mean I can get into Chinese kindergarten? (probably not) BUT I can now order about 10 different dishes, get a taxi driver to turn left or right, order a bottle of water for my apartment, say where I live and work, say “I can’t understand”, say the word “pain” (for when I get a massage), along with maybe about 100 more single words and about 3 more complete sentences. Maybe listening to all those Mandarin podcasts, and Pimsleur lessons as I went to sleep every night last year worked "yi dian" (a little bit). Wonder if when I get back in ’09 I will be able to get to sleep without them?

Side Note – I also told them about my faulty washing machine and they traded it out with another from one of the empty apartments AND IT IS BIGGER (Kris and Jim are jealous)! And works just fine…so far….BUT my lint removers I brought from the US are still my most favorite and useful items I included from my “What I am missing list (2006)”

Side Note – the many, many ZUFE gardeners have been doing their best to rush spring along with planting lots of tulips, unwrapping the bushes and trees and fertilizing. The azaleas look like they are getting ready to pop. I promise I will climb up to the top of the library to take a picture of the colorful scene when it really arrives.