Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Beginning of the End

[Dad here.  I’m hoping this will be my last “translation” of Danielle’s blog.  I know you’ll miss me about as much as I’ll miss doing these.  I must say that I found a spiffy blog editor that allows me to insert pictures where they should go, rather than having to move the HTML for the picture from the top of the blog (where Blogger insists on pasting them) to where it needs to go.  Enjoy the blog!]

I have finished teaching. It is hard to believe I have completed my job here. It was extremely bitter-sweet goodbye because I had to leave so many students and friends who I have come to love at such a deep level.

Dongan-Last week_html_5be38764There was a party for all of the English teachers the last week. We had a big banquet and then sang at a KTV (karaoke). I had the pleasure of dancing with several teachers and singing many songs including, “My heart will go on.” “Yesterday Once more”, “Country Road”. Pretty much songs my mothers generation would listen to.

Dongan-Last week_html_4f89711a Picture of some of my favorite students.

For my classes this week I showed them pictures of my Beijing trip. I showed the picture of the great wall, Wei Chen (famous singer in China…the girls flipped that I was able to see him in real life!), and the basketball team that we ran into. They couldn’t believe that there are so many foreigners!

Dongan-Last week_html_m33eea507 I love this picture because it has my favorite students (ok, all of them are my favorite students), but I’m also wearing my, “I love China” shirt. It’s the epitome of all things I love.

In class I also sang a Chinese song, “Xiao Jio Wo” that some students taught me. They were really impressed that I could sing a Chinese song. After introducing my Chinese song, I taught them Backstreet Boys, “As Long As You Love Me.” They LOVE Backstreet Boys here. I felt bad encouraging Backstreet Boys, but then I wanted to teach them something that they love and always listen too.

Dongan-Last week_html_m269c2184  As my week came to an end I realized that I need to take some pictures of the things I love. I would walk past hair salons and these guys would sit out on the street with crazy hair and I couldn’t resist taking a picture with them.

Dongan-Last week_html_m69eea3aeThis Is Tony, a grade 3 student, and his good friend. When I came back to the school I noticed that all of the grade 3 students were gone. They had taken their College Entrance Exam (huge examination they need to take to get into a good university) and were out of the school. It was a shock for me to see all of the classrooms empty and the lights off! It made me sad actually. My grade 2 students are now grade 3 students and switched classrooms. I felt like a parent who has seen my children grow up and move to the next grade. It was exciting that they have grown up but sad that this time in their life has come to a close. Some students did not like their classroom because they were really close to the WC and it’ll get really smelly in the summer.

Dongan-Last week_html_621d6fc8 Chandler, a teacher, took us to dinner one night and while at dinner a man asked Savanna and I if we wanted a free hair style (this was all translated to us of course). Savanna and I were up for it. They wanted us to come to their hair salon so we could advertise for their company. Free head/shoulder massage, haircut and trim by attractive Chinese. What could be better?

Dongan-Last week_html_m32c3989fDongan-Last week_html_m162e2c84 My stylist. I had a little crush on him.

Dongan-Last week_html_m3c45d1ad 402 class. My favorite class. They definitely have a special place in my heart. Some of my favorite students are in this class. Cash He, Peter, Hero and many others.

Dongan-Last week_html_m4bc81274Dongan-Last week_html_45741fd0 After classes I’d take the classes outside to take pictures. This kid, Andy/Jacob, was so adorable. He asked me, “Danielle, can you give me a hug?”  He told me that he was really going to miss me.

Dongan-Last week_html_70ccf285I had to sell back my bike, Peter, Jay and Hero helped me sell back my bicycle. We walked all around town trying to find a person to buy back my bike. This man wouldn’t take it back. It was really interesting to be on the other side of selling back my bicycle. It sucks trying to start at a high price and then gradually go down. Peter was really good at selling back the bike. I got my bike for 140 yuan.

Dongan-Last week_html_687bbec7I needed to go to the internet café and I saw all of these dry lizards on the ground.

Dongan-Last week_html_m137d603d

Dongan-Last week_html_m737b60a While taking pictures with students one day, a student asked me if I could go to the art room and be a model for their class. I loved it. I just sat there for 3 hours modeling and listening to music. It was a good life. During breaks students would ask me questions and then take care of me by buying water, mosquito repellent (they noticed that mosquito’s really love me…Thanks Dad for giving me B blood), and singing songs with me.

 Dongan-Last week_html_m9cc09b2 Seriously I’ve seen this, “Boys Need Yoga Too!” shirt everywhere.

Dongan-Last week_html_6bce03c5My favorite cafeteria workers. I would eat lunch there after classes. They made the wickedest tofu.

Dongan-Last week_html_38a4f12 When I got my face drawn I met a lady who works at the local kindergarten. I went and visited all of the kids. They were SO cute. We walked in on them when they had nap time. They were all laying in their beds awake. When the bell rang for them to get up the energy level went up by 100 percent.

Dongan-Last week_html_637da6db Dongan-Last week_html_m64b37094 Digging for gold. They were just sitting there chilling. We went to the 5-6 year olds and they gave us a play in English about little babies trying to find their mommies.

Dongan-Last week_html_m3e702521 My most favorite food ever: Eggplant with Green Beans. I will definitely miss this food.

Dongan-Last week_html_4ae986fa My restaurant workers. Love these girls. I met them the first couple days and have stuck with them through the months I have been there.

Dongan-Last week_html_m5eb4088a We met these students on the first day. They have been our friends ever since the beginning. They are always bursts of laughter whenever I see them.

Dongan-Last week_html_m21565fd1 See double?

Dongan-Last week_html_m1e5ab1ba Dongan-Last week_html_1444453e Gate keeper. This guy is awesome. He would wave to us all the time and say, “HELLO!” really loud and then say, “Ni HAO” after. He scared both Savanna and me at first because I thought he wouldn’t let us out, but really he just wanted to make friends!

Dongan-Last week_html_51e00b6f Our watermelon lady. I will miss them dearly. They became our mommies as we walked outside the gate. I’m pretty sure we kept their stand running with all of the watermelon and water we bought.

Dongan-Last week_html_md0e18b Motorcyclists outside of the school gate. They would line up waiting for people to ask them for a ride. They’d yell, “hello” to us as we’d walk by. They eventually knew we wanted to go one of two places: bus station or train station.

Dongan-Last week_html_ae91420 BuBuGao lady! She would take my bag every time I went into the supermarket. She became our buddy. She lent me some of her DVD’s and I we are now friends on QQ. Don’t know how that’ll work saying she doesn’t know English.

Dongan-Last week_html_m6bee69cd This was SO cute. When I went up to my apartment to get ready to go to dinner with friends all of my favorite neighborhood friends were there! It was a big party! They gave us presents and hugs. So adorable. It was so sad to say goodbye. I love these girls. Bobbie was also there to say goodbye.

Dongan-Last week_html_22218f8c Dinner with my favorite people: Savanna, Alex, Lucy, and Chandler. We went to a restaurant. I love these people. I couldn’t believe that I’d never see them again! I hope someday I will see them again.

Well Savanna and I then stayed up all night cleaning and packing to make our train the next day. Peter, Jay, Chandler and Mr. Beard came to the station to see us off.

It is hard to imagine that such an amazing experience has come to a close. Now it is just the beginning of a new life: traveling with two RM’s around China.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I am a True Woman

[Dad here: I think we're zeroing in on the Danielle-in-China-to-Dad-in-Utah connection figured out. There's only one wierdnes. See if you can find it!)

Wow, what a couple weeks it has been! I of course have a zillion and two pictures to show you! Seriously, I have the best life in the world. My happy little life is going to end in only a month in a half's time...not enough time to do what I want.

So I finished classes on Tuesday afternoon and packed up to leave for XIAN, which is the home of the Terracotta soldiers. Savii and I tried to pack as light as week could because we knew we'd have to carry it with us for the two weeks duration. We also knew we had a 24 hour train ride ahead of us. The train was actually not that bad. Mostly I tried to learn Chinese songs, read Lonely Planet guide to figure out my life for the next month in a half, talk with people on the train, and watch the scenery pass you by.

(Take Care Of Your Treasures)
I love funny translations. This sign was above the sink on the train.

We got to the hostel late that night. First thing I noticed walking off the train in Xian: the air is DRY! I was immediately able to feel at home. Humidity is not my favorite thing.

Savii and I met up with the group and we went to the Bell Tower. During the Qing Dynasty they would strike a bell at dawn and dusk to signify that they time has come to wake up or go to sleep.

View of the street from the tower. People use umbrellas in China to shade themselves from the sun. Girls don't like the sun because they want to have white skin.

Reflection off of Amy's glasses of the flowers atop the Bell Tower.

Starbucks! Humanity! We were way excited to go to Starbucks and get a Frappachino and feel American once again.

The Drum Tower. It looked beautiful at night and the atmosphere was really good. Some of the people in the group got their faces drawn. There were a ton of stalls on Muslim Quarter, right next to the tower, which means that you can bargain! They had things ranging from bookmarks, dried fruit, kabobs, to knockoff designer bags. It was difficult to be there and not spend money. All of us everyday after shopping would say, ok I am done shopping...but we would buy more because everything is such a great deal.

While at the Drum Tower there were all of these people selling kites that would extend forever and ever in the sky. It was quite a spectacular sight to see all of this.

Next Day: Terracotta soldiersTerracotta soldiers! They exist. Any my oh my what an incredible sight to behold. The soldiers were discovered by a local farmer in 1976. He's not wealthy though, my tour guide said, but just famous...leave it to the government to take all of the money. There are 8,000 Terracotta Warriors and Horses. It is also called the "8th wonder of the world." There are three pits to see all of the soldiers. The first pit, is the biggest.

Some of the soldiers still have color after all of these years! Many of the soldiers are not yet excavated because with today's technology the color can't be preserved so many soldiers are still left uncovered to preserve their colors.

There was a Jade shop, where Amy bought some local Jade. They told us how you can tell if Jade is real or not: hold is up to the light to see if you can see the minerals in the rock, light the bracelet on fire (shouldn't melt if it's real), rub two bracelets together (shouldn't rub anything off if it's real).

After our little Jade exhibition, our tour guide took us to meet the farmer who found the warriors! Yep they're still alive. I bought some postcards that he signed as well. Woo! I'm sure someday they'll be worth millions.

Muslim Mosque! We went to a mosque that is really near by. While we were there we ran into a bunch of people from Spain! Sam served his mission in Spain and so he was was ecstatic to speak with people in Spanish. I love traveling because you meet people from all over the world!

3 languages! Arabic, Chinese, and English!

Muslims! I love their caps. It was really neat because we were there during prayer time. All of the sudden all of these men with their caps, started chanting and coming towards the front.

The place was so calm and peaceful, it was nice to be in a religious place after being in the hustle and bustle that the markets can bring.

I bought some real Jade for about 20 yuan (about $2.75). These ladies were on the Muslim Quarter market.

Packed buses. I was fortunate enough to get a seat. We were on our way to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda. Yeah the name is long. If only it was Big Goose Pagoda or Wild Goose Pagoda...Big Wild Goose Pagoda is a little much for me.

You can see the Pagoda in the background. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was built to house the Buddhist Sudra's brought to China from India by the monk Xuan Zhang.

It was SO rad at the pagoda. There was a ginormous water show right in front of the Pagoda. A Chinese girl took my hand and we ran through the water! We were soaked through and through by the time we were done. The group all got in and we were tangoing through the water, onlookers probably thought we were crazy Americans. But hey, you only live once. It was fun running through because a bunch of little boys would stand on the spouts and squirt water right into us.

Next day:These were my roommates from South Korea! They just got back from a trip from Tibet! They were totally awesome. They even gave me a Korean name: Jeong An. Which means: Clear Eyes. They said that this name really reflects me and the goodness of my heart. The older guy was on his year sabbatical and the one on the right is a famous photographer and traveller in South Korea and has a travel blog: noas.tistory.com. If you can read Korean check it out. It was interesting talking to them because the older guy would do all of the talking, while the younger didn't say a word...I think he knew English because he would nod in agreeance when the older guy would speak.

I signed the wall of the hostel. The walls were covered with people's signatures all over. Look to the right middle and you'll see my name.

Xianzimen youth hostel. I'm still not sure the difference between youth hostel and regular hostel. This hostel was amazing and was in an old time Chinese-style house.

We had to check out of our hostel before 12, so we had to lug our stuff around before we caught our train that evening to go to Beijing. We spent the day at Reservation Park. It was the neatest park ever. There were many things going on:including Beijing opera. Dancing, painting, carnival rides, yo-yo lessons, and a hammock park!

Alisa and I painted a picture as we waited for the time to pass by. After we were done, because we didn't want to hold onto it while traveling we gave it to a little girl. Her face lit up as we gave it to her.

Next Day: Train and Temple of Heaven (Sunday btw)

After we got to the Happy Dragon Hostel, we went to the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings that was built for Emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to heaven for good harvest. While we were here there was also a bunch of free local entertainment. This is the happiest man I've ever met: he had no teeth and kept dancing around waving his pink fan.

Sam helped this old man down the stairs from his wheelchair. This place isn't very wheelchair friendly. I don't think I've climbed so many steps in my whole life.

There were a bunch of monks that were at the Temple of Heaven! Some of them were cute too. It was interesting to see monks outside of the monastery and doing normal day things like holding an umbrella, taking pictures, laughing, carrying a backpack. Yep, monks are real people too, not just people who are obsessed with communing with the One.

Me taking a picture of a monk taking a picture. I wonder if they feel like how we foreigners feel: people always taking pictures of them. It gets a bit annoying after awhile. Although, maybe they don't have annoying thoughts.

The monks were behind us!

The number of figurines represent how important a building is. The more there are, the more important the building.

Just chillin waiting for the rest of our homies. We still got several, "hello's" from people passing by. I thought that would have gone away since we were in a big city. People still wanted pictures with us too! Very strange I tell you.

So we wanted to see the new Night at the Museum movie at a local theater, but tickets were too expensive.

While at the theater, there were a big crowd of people grouped around holding light up signs. A guy there told us a famous singer and actor, Wei Chen, was going to make an appearance! Even though I did not know who this guy was: I saw a famous person in China!

Yeah he's good looking. It was difficult to take a picture of him because there were so many people in the way!

Next day: Rain, Rainy Monday
The hostel we're staying at offers a free bike tour around Beijing... We were going to go on it but we woke up to the pattering of rain. Ugh. But I guess rain is good luck in Beijing because it doesn't rain often there. We were lucky to see it rain. So because the rain ruined our plan we were going to go to Chairman Mao Memorial Museum, but it was closed, so we were going to go on an underground tour of old Beijing, but it was shut down too!

On our little walk around town, we walked through the alleyways. This is a guy's home! He had a cute little dog. The old man yelled, "Ni Hao" to us!

Because everything was closed we went to the Silk Street Market. Dude this is the coolest, most dangerous place to be if you have money in your pocket. The second I walked in I was overcome with: WANT of everything I saw. I have been told Beijing has really good shopping and it's true. You have to fight for your item and endure the workers guilt trips. But the challenge of bargaining is totally entertaining. I think I have learned the art of bargaining. They offer you a jacked up price and then you offer a really low price...like really low. I have been told to offer half, but even half price is jacked up.
It was really fun talking to the workers because they're just young girls or boys of age 19 or 20. They work 12 hours everyday and have only one day off a week. One girl I talked too, I was able to ask her about the real price of an item. Example: a wallet: 30 yuan, purse: 80 yuan. They'll ask you for about 400 yuan because, "it is good quality, real, hand-stiched, very beautiful on you, can't get this one anywhere else", but then you'll say, "no I want it for...such and such." then you'll go from there. Sometimes you'll have to walk out of the store and then they'll dramatically reduce the price. A girl told me it costs 1500 yuan to run a little shop each day.

I was with Sam while he was trying to get a dress shirt. The girls kept asking me if Sam was my boyfriend. Poor Sam...having all of these girls following him around. Where Sam goes, we go.

Acrobat Show! Incredible show.

How many girls do you see? I see three.

There are circles at the end of each. It spins around and there are two guys in there running and spinning around. A rat wheel to the extreme!

These three guys were my favorite. I'm not sure who has it worst: the guy on bottom, middle or top.

Now this is bicycle riding. Anyone one who rides a recumbent bike has nothing to top this.

Next day: Beijing bicycle

Jon, our friend of 19 years of age took us on a rain-free bicycle ride. It was fun first of all to be on a bicycle! It was also fun to see Beijing from a bicycles point of view. Beijing's population is 13 million and of this there are 3 million bicycle riders.

Entrance of Forbidden City!

We stopped at a local park to learn some dancing.

Local police officer chilling under the comforting shade of his umbrella.


On the way to the subway, my friend Lauren has been teaching me the tricks of abstract photography.

Next Day: The historical Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.

This is Chairman Mao's museum. Supposedly his dead body is inside, but it's sometimes switched out with a wax copy while people work on his body to keep him looking good and trim.

So what happened at Tienanmen Square you ask? In 1976 a bunch of college students were protesting Communism and supporting Democracy. The government came in with their tanks and ran over a bunch of them to quiet them up. A bunch of people were killed during this process. But is was outside of the square that this happened. That's a watered down version, but there you have it.

Tienanmen Square is adjacent to Forbidden city. We are all stoked to be here! Tienanmen square is the biggest public square.

Kissing Mao Zedong. Don't tell mom! [Dad here: This picture previews on disk rotated correctly, but showed up in the blog rotated to the left. So I rotated it to the right, and you get this. Sorry. If you're playing Find the Weirdness this is it. You win!]

The Gate of Heavenly Peace. Mao's a handsome guy and also an important person in Chinese history! This is also seen on the way to the entrance of the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City is home to two dynasties of emperors, the Ming and the Qing, who didn't leave the city unless they had to. When I first got to the city I kept thinking of Shanghai Noon when Roy O'Bannon says, "I like that, Forbidden City, a princess, kidnapped! It's so mysterious." I love how my reference to Chinese history is from Kung Fu Panda and Shanghai Noon.

Swastika on a statue. Thought it was interesting to see in the Forbidden city.

A worker taking his job seriously. It's really humorous to see how on top of things the staff can be here.


On the stonework, there were Dragons and Phoenix's. Dragons represent Emperors and Phoenix's Empresses.

Chinese soldiers, keeping our China safe by singing songs together.

Next Day: Danielle becomes a Woman

We joined a tour group for way cheap that we found in the Forbidden City (about 17 bucks, killer deal for all we got).

At the beginning of the tour we got to see the process of Jade making. The ball he is carving represents basically eternal families, how generations and generations are within one another and are protected throughout time.

This guy painting on the inside of a little globe. The Chinese sure have patience.

Visiting the Ming Tombs. They have statues of people and animals all along the walkway that leads to the tombs to protect the emperors. We actually never saw the tombs because our tour guide told us they're not interesting. We went shopping the night before and bought, "I love China" shirts. We bought them secretly so we could sport them on the Great Wall.

As I filled up on a delicious Beijing-style meal (delish by the way, because the food is more American style Chinese food than Hunan's spicy food. All of us were dying with satisfaction), I thought of the quest ahead of me: ascend the Great Wall. I met a friend along the way, He wore an, "I love Beijing" shirt (which means center land), and he wanted a picture with me.

We got to take a ski lift type chair up to the Great Wall. While riding on the chair I thought of Chairman Mao's famous words, "He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man". I'm going to the Great Wall today...I'm going to the Great Wall today! I've only read about this in history books or seen it on TV!

Yep the Great Wall is real.

Yeah we totally ignored this sign and kept on walking. It was cool to go past the wall and go to a part where it hasn't been renovated and trees were growing on the wall. It made me realize that the wall really is very old! We went to the Mutianyu part of the wall. It's renowned for its Ming dynasty guard towers and stirring views. I really liked this part of the wall because it's less touristy and is a less commercial experience.

The wall was begun over 2000 years ago during the Qin dynasty (221-207 BC) and was used as a military force and for communication.

Fact: the great wall cannot be seen from space.

Wo Ai Zhongwo! Pinyin for: I love China! Behind us you see an older, non-renovated part of the wall. Oreo to the extreme.

Us in one of the many towers that is famous at the Mutianyu part of the wall.

On the way down we got to ride on what is like the "alpine slide" in Utah. Wicked awesome way to go down from the Great Wall.

On our tour we also saw the Beijing Olympic sights: Bird's Nest!

Water Cube! We never went inside because I guess it's not really all that important (okay it's important, but there is a ton to do in only a few days in Beijing).

We went on a tour to see how silk was made...Not exactly my cup of tea. But it was interesting to see how it was made. They boil silk worms pupa and then the strands that are around them are the strands that are used to make silk. It takes like 180,000 puppas to make a quilt or so. It's a pity that they had to be killed. I have to admit I really like silk, but don't want it for myself.

At the end of the road they dropped us off at the Pearl Market, which I guess is a new market where the prices are lower and there isn't as much room for bargaining like at the Silk Street Market.

After Pearl Market we ran into an American Basketball team. I've decided that black men are rather attractive. They were so tall. I was stoked to see them so I could see the basketball team and show my students the picture. They love Kobe and Yao Ming. I've developed more love for basketball since coming. Dude they were really tall.

Sitting in the middle of the train station on the floor, while trying to figure out how to get back to our cities. I debated whether to leave with the group or stay another day and visit my friend at Beijing University....staying was what I finally decided.

Next Day: Summer Palace, Pandas, Kung Fu, and Night Markets

Our last activity before our group split off (some were going to go back to America, some were going to teach longer, and some had to go back early to their schools). We ended up going to Summer Palace. The summer palace is where all the emperors would go for a getaway from the Forbidden City.

Me, Jessa, and Ceira all stayed an extra day and took a Dragon Boat across the river to the Summer Palace. I got to hold a little baby while I on the ride. So cute. I love the Chinese kids.

So after the Summer Palace we were going to go the Zoo. We decided to take a little bike-pulled cart to the subway...bad idea. We thought we got a good deal, but the guy pulled three girls (not Chinese girls either) to the subway. It was extremely painful to watch him breakout a sweat and start breathing really hard. We thought he said it was 3 yuan to go to the subway for all of us. While he was pulling us we talked with each other and said, "maybe we'll give him nine, three from all of us." We'll we couldn't stand it anymore and we took the bus instead. He told us, "30 yuan instead of 3...PER Person". We said, no and ended up giving him 10 instead of 30. It was painful to watch and painful to give him the money.

Yep I saw a Panda...IN China btw. We came at the perfect time to watch the panda because we got to watch it eating the bamboo. It was so fun because he just kept eating and eating, then laid down took a couple minute nap and then kept eating...talk about a power nap!

The life cycle of a panda. We didn't see the rest of the zoo because we've heard from many sources that the cages are really small and not well taken care of for the other animals.

Next we went to Behai Park. It was very peaceful. We saw the strangest thing while we were there: this guy was totally massaging and pinching this woman's boob. She seemed to enjoy it too. It wasn't a disgusting thing to watch, but more a, "why, seriously, why are you doing that?"


Wishing well. My wish came true too. It's what I've been wishing for every time I need to make a wish. It's my secret though.

We had a terrific Beijing style meal that evening. Jessa and Cierra found sweet and sour pork. They were stoked about it. American Chinese food can be found in China.
We went to the Kung Fu show that evening. It was amazing! I was able to learn about Kung Fu more. I didn't realize that people dedicate their lives to Kung Fu. They literally become monks. There are 7 steps to becoming a Kung Fu master: Initiation (arrive to temple), learning (study hard), casting (body turns to iron), illusion (dealing with physical needs), remorse (not following the way leads to remorse), temple gate (accomplish final task to become a monk warrior), epilogue (old master passes on a stave and new master is an Abbot).

It was fun to get a picture with the kids behind us, but the little boys were so tired! They could barely keep their hands up. Poor kids.

Next day: Independence, Beijing University, and almost missing my train...again.

So I slept with Jessa and Cierra in their hostel room. I slept in while they took off for the bike ride they missed out on earlier in the week. While they were gone I went to Jingshan Park. It was splendid and had a breathtaking view of the Forbidden city and the skyline of Beijing.

There was a Buddhist temple at the top of the park. I took a picture of the Buddha, which was lucky I got it. The guy who was on security said, "hello! hello!" to keep me from taking it. But a hah! I got it.

I took a bus from the hostel to Beijing University. By myself I might add. I had to find the right bus to go the the school. Chinese people are so helpful. When I got on the bus, there was only me, the bus driver, this other lady, and this old man (which is surprising because 1/5 of the world's population is in China). The old man tried to tell me something about a mountain, 21 people, and how hot it is. I didn't know what he was talking about because of the language barrier, but it was hilarious to watch him Mime out what he was saying.

I met up with Landon and his friend Shawn (I gave him the English name. I think it fits him). Landon was so excited to see me. He was bursting with excitement and kept telling me how happy his father is and that he wants to take me to dinner when I get back to Dongan.

I met Landon's roommates. It blows my mind that they live with 9 people in a room. It was funny because I walked in and sat down in a chair. It was interesting because I thought there were only four people in the room when I heard a, "how beautiful." from behind me. There were 3 guys sitting right behind me I didn't even notice them. They were very welcoming and were hoping I could stay for a long time. While talking with them I got a text from Megan saying, "don't forget your painting at the hostel..." UGH I forgot my painting at the hostel...meaning I had to leave earlier to go and get it.

We played pool together. Landon showed me around his University. Supposedly 3 black men are being students at their school for 2 weeks. That'd be an interesting experience as a student. I would not like to experience it. We had to end our time together quickly because we had to get the painting from the hostel. It was enjoyable to go back...but stressful as well because traffic was bad and I needed to make my train. We made it to the hostel and then made it to the train station in time.

I got to ride the train back myself!

I met the cutest little boy while on the train. He kept calling me, "ayi" which is aunt in Chinese. He kept making faces at me like sticking out his tongue and saying, "hello". It was adorable. He then gave me a sucker. He also gave me a kiss on my arm and hands. I got kissed by a China boy! My dream came true.

It was amazing how excited I was to get back to school. More excited than going to Beijing. It felt so nice to be back and know that I am home. When I got off the train the humidity kicked me in the face...but besides the humidity I was so excited to return. I walked to the street to hail a motor-taxi, when all of them said, "yi zhong!" "yi zhong" which translates to, "1 school". Which is my school. They all know I'm the foreign teacher at the school. One guy took my suitcase and put it on his motorbike before I said okay to him.

I am in my last week of teaching right now and am busy packing things up. This entry took FOREVER to write and I don't have much time to write it. I should go to bed. I just wanted to update you on my life. Life is so magical here. I say that every time, but really life is amazing. Make it happen. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Not sure where I'll be the next time I post a blog. I'll be traveling a lot this upcoming month and not quite sure where my life will lead. I'm really hoping and praying i can make it to Tibet. The problem is I don't have any fellow companions to go with me because they are all going back home to America! We'll see what happens. It's incredible what life can bring. Make it happen.

The moral of this story is: Danielle is a Woman for climbing the Great Wall. Kudos to me.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Dragon Boat Festival

[Danielle's Dad here. China is still blocking access to blogspot.com (this blog site) and Danielle and I have been playing email tag with this post. There seems to be one fewer pictures than paragraphs. I get the pictures in one big ZIP file and the pictures are numbered, but I can't assume that the picture number has anything to do with the order they appear in the post. So, I'm putting all of the pics at the bottom, in numerical order and You'll see what I mean. The last numbered picture is at the very bottom (A bunch of dishes of food), but the last paragraph says "Dragon." I hope you'll understand my dilemma. Read, then enjoy the pictures. Make a game of matching the pictures to the paragraphs. There is no wrong answer (that I know of)!]

Hello world! It’s been a crazy past couple days and I have been able to come in contact with the Chinese mentality a little more, which is a lot different from the American mentality. I’ll explain: we are coming to the end of our teaching here in Dongan and we have a holiday next week. For our holiday we wanted to leave a day early and travel with the group to Beijing…needless to say that day off early ended up in many complications with our school telling us our last day of class would be on Tuesday instead of our planned on ending day of June 19th. I did not want that because I wanted to teach the last week to say goodbyes to the students. It amazes me how something as simple as getting a day off can be a complicated mess…through many complications and trying to talk to the head master, Savanna and I are able to go with our group on Tuesday night and teach the last week in Dongan so we can say goodbye to our students. Something that should have been easy to solve…ended up being a 3 day ordeal.


Chinese cooking lesson from Alex and Lucy…complete with tomato juice. I thoroughly enjoyed being in a Chinese household. They had posters of pictures with English captions for Lucy’s nephew to learn English. They even had a calendar with Lucy’s nephew in it…for December they showed the little boy laying down peeing out a little stream into nothingness. Lucy said, “this one’s my favorite!” Savanna and I were like, “Yeah….it’s cute….” Just shows the difference between American culture: we want those parts covered up, and Chinese culture: they aren’t afraid to let them show and are even proud of them!

Realizing that the weather is changing…my long pants and dress pants would not suffice and I needed a pair of good shorts for traveling to Beijing. I found some! It was quite the experience trying to find some big enough for my American body! I would go into a store and say, “ni you san chi yi?” and sometimes I would be lucky and they’d say, “you-Yes” or I’d have to go to the next store and try my luck. What I love…ok not really, about Chinese dressing rooms is that the mirror is outside of the stall, so you have to go out in your clothes for everyone to see how they fit you. Luckily, I found a cute pair of gray cut offs that’ll be perfect for walking the Great Wall.


After shopping I tried to catch a bus to the train station to go back to Dongan (Yongzhou has the best shopping), but I missed the train by 10 minutes. The next train didn’t leave for 3 hours so I went to a nearby restaurant to eat some food. At the restaurant one of the girls could speak a little broken English. We had a fun culture exchange…they were able to teach me some Chinese and I was able to teach them some English. Above are the friends I made at the restaurant. The guy owned a hotel in Yongzhou and said that I am welcome there anytime I come back to Yongzhou.


I went to dinner at some of my students’ home; Darcy and Angela. Darcy’s original name was Bill, but Savanna and decided that it should be Darcy because he is charming like Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. Their father is very rich; one thing about the Chinese is that they aren’t afraid to show off what they have. He works in the athletic department in Dongan. His uncles are also very wealthy. Darcy’s uncle wanted Savanna and I to have tea with him in his home, but he ended up just showing us his place instead. It was filled with nice rocks, paintings, furniture, and other doodads meaning a lot of money!



Webcam! Our internet has been really retarded lately so I’ve been chilling at the local internet café. The computers have webcams and so I was FINALLY able to see my family after many months! Our family has a laptop so Harrison gave me a tour of our home and the beautiful outdoors. I have missed whole wheat bread terribly so I asked Harrison to eat a piece of whole wheat bread for me. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of this monumental moment.



For my classes this week I’ve taken my kids to the media room so we could watch an American movie. I really wanted to watch Shanghai Noon, but I couldn’t find a copy anywhere…so we watched Spiderman 2 the first part of the week. Thankfully one of my students showed me how to download movies from the internet so we’ve watched Shanghai Noon with Jackie Chan the whole week. I pretty much have the first 30 minutes down by heart. The most entertaining part of this movie is watching these students bust up with laughter watching how ridiculous Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson are together.



Some of my favorite one-liners are:



“Holy crap! The vultures are eating my head!”

“Come here devil woman.”

“That’s because they’re not Injuns woman, they’re Jews!”

Yesterday was the Dragon Boat Festival…one of the things they eat for the festival is zongzi. Zongzi are made with sticky rice, beans, and wrapped in Bamboo leaves. They’re okay…not exactly my favorite but nice and filling. This picture is a demonstration given at the local supermarket: Bu Bu Gao on how to make zongzi.

The people at the supermarket really wanted me to make one. So there’s me, the tall one in the middle, attempting to make a zongzi…they’re harder to make than they look.

For the Dragon Boat Festival Savanna and I went to Chandler’s home for lunch. His parents gave us zongzi to eat. They also gave me some peppermint essential oil to put on my mosquito bites. I have like 20+ over my body. It’s ridiculous because I don’t even know where they’re coming from. I hate them though. Especially when I’m sleeping and I wake up to them buzzing in my ear.

After lunch, Chandler, Savanna, Alex and I went to enjoy the boat riding competition. I guess it’s not an actually a competition…but more like a stroll in the river and the competition will be later this week. This mother and child are hitting a drum celebrating the start of the Dragon Festival!

The bottom of the boat before it enters the water. The people waxed the bottom of the boat with pig guts and then processed to throw the guts in the river.

This is the head of the boat…a dragon. Does that surprise you? It’s interesting how in Chinese culture a dragon is cunning and powerful but in American culture we see them as dangerous creatures to be slain by Prince Charming.



Taking the boat to the river.





And they’re off!



Dragon Boat Festival celebrates some famous guy that I can’t remember the name of now from 2,000 years ago.



I leave for Xian in…4 days! And then I’ll go to Beijing! Can’t believe I’m going to one of the most famous places in the world. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back. Then I have one final week of teaching! Then I’m not sure what I’ll be doing…I’ll be free to travel for a month until I go to summer camp in Hefei, Anhui at the end of July. Woo! Never a boring moment in China.





Dragon
















Friday, May 22, 2009

No Free Agency

[Danielle's Dad, here. This was a bit of work to get this post into the system. I had to go into Danielle's email, grab the web document and save the pictures, copy the text into the blog, then grab the pix and put them in the (hopefully) right place. I'm glad I got to see what's going on before everyone else!]

So Blogger is now blocked in China and I can't access it from here. I am emailing my father my posts so we'll see how this works out.

I have some good news and some bad news. I'll tell you the good news first. The good news is: I'm staying in China for another month! The bad news is: I'm staying in China for another month! I have decided to extend my stay in China an extra month so I can teach at a summer camp in Hefei, Anhui province. It'll be two weeks at the end of July (July 12-25). I'm really excited because basically I'll be a Chinese EFY counsellor for a couple weeks...except without all the praying, hymn singing, and testimony bearing... although I do think there will be much singing involved. Especially because I have recently begun to learn the guitar...


Anhui is right next to Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi... Etc. What's really sweet about this place is that it is close to Shanghai, Hengyang mountains (Yellow Mountains), and many other cool places.

So that's a little update on what is to come in my life. The school year is ending over here. I only teach two more weeks! I keep having China moments over here where I can't believe that my experience here is coming to an end. But then I think that I have much traveling ahead of me and that I still have much of this journey to experience. Time is an interesting thing.


Ok so I love this kid. He totally makes my life happy. He is totally an American rambunctious kid. I feel like to many times kids don't have a mind of their own and they obey their parents to much. Okay I take that back...the kids are real great here. I love them so much. I told this kid that I wanted to take him home to America...he was scared of me after that. I have to be careful with my humor here.

Savanna's birthday! and not just any birthday: her 19th birthday! The cakes here are interesting: it tastes like regular cake, but with whipped cream instead of frosting. The decorations are way intense. We had some of the English teachers over for cake. Savanna got a chinese bra, a card to stick in her wallet (supposedly it'll make her lucky, rich, and make a lot of money), a jade cross necklace, and another bracelet. Totally the birthday of her life!


These are the guests that came to the party. Going from left to right we have History teacher, Lucy, Alex, Landon (history teachers son), Savii, Chandler, Mr. Beard, John, and ME!


Chinese 把把。 Chinese Baba! Chinese Daddy. He seriously is my father here. He is more protective of me than my own parents...kind of annoying at times, but I love it nonetheless. It's nice to know I have a daddy over here! Of course my own father can never be replaced.


I love this lady. She works at the restaurant that Savii and I always eat at. I asked her if I could watch her cook Eggplant...seriously it's to die for. So this is in the back of the restaurant.


This guy brings me and Savanna water when we need it. He always laughs whenever he answers the phone because I can't understand a word of what he's understanding...really pathetic really on my part.

Right now he is playing Crochet. The old men do this all of the time. There is a crochet park right by us.


Went on a bike ride with my student Jack and another girl in Jack's class. We were playing cards at the government building (nicest building in Dongan), when I ran into my river friend! He invited all of us to dinner. He told me that he wants me to come to China once a year and visit him. This is a perfect example of the friendliness of the Chinese people. His daughter teaches English and he said that she will also call me once a year so I will never forget him. I love Chinese people.

It was funny because when we went to the restaurant, I told them that I don't like meat...and eggs, and only just a little spice. So they brought out all of these steamed vegetables with no seasoning, only salt.

......

I went to Xiangtan to visit friends because my students had exams for two days...meaning I didn't have to teach! Xiangtan is about 6 hours away from me. So I took a sleeper train to see them. I had a two day holiday. SAWEET. What is great about the Chinese way of things is that they tell you last minute that you have a break. I found out two days before my students that they had exams...Love it.

So I took the train, by myself let me tell you. It was quite the adventure! My train was supposed to make it to Xiangtan at 5:00am. I woke up on the train at 5:47am....needless to say the attendant didn't wake me up! I had to get off the train, take another one back to Xiantan University. I'm just grateful I didn't sleep any longer.


It was Melinda's birthday so we went to Pizza Hut to celebrate. It was way fun to have good pizza when I hadn't had it for several months.

I really enjoyed going to Xiangtan because I got to see part of the group that I didn't get to see when I was in Hong Kong. It was fun talking to people who I hadn't seen since the beginning of the trip. I was able to watch The Office, have American food, and some good conversations with some good friends. I also co-taught Melinda and Jason's class. We played Boggle in the classes. I loved seeing what a Chinese University is like. There are only 30 students in their classes, they teach only 2 classes (several times a week). So they are really close to their students, plus their students don't have to study as much so they hang out with them all of the time. I'm totally jealous because I'd love to hang out with my kids more! One girl asked how old I was, she said, "I think you are 20 because we get along so well". The students loved me! I love that I am welcomed where ever I go.


John, Me, and the Birthday Girl!


We went to an arcade after eating tons of food. I totally rocked at the arm wrestling match. I also ruled at the racing game. I beat an Australian and several Americans.


Chinese graffiti in a Xiangtan park.


While all of us; Clarke, Jason, Melinda, and I were going to the park we came accross a Chinese pet market! Above is a cage filled with turtles.

This guy was really trying to get us to buy his dog.


We went on a little boat ride before I had to leave on my train back to Dongan.

Back to Dongan! All of the students had to compete in a Kung Fu competition.

Scenery around Dongan on one of my walks:

A farmers market.

We cooked American food for Alex and Lucy: Hashbrowns, Eggs, fruit, and toast. They actually liked it! It was their first time having jam and ketchup...of course not together but with their hashbrowns and toast.

Guitar lessons! One of my students is letting me and Savii borrow her guitar. This is Savii teaching Alex her sweet moves. He has had no prior music instruction but he is picking up guitar rather quickly!

Ok, so this explains the randomness of China. Mr. Beard told us a couple days ago that we were going to a foreigners party for Yongzhou area and to prepare a performance piece for the group.

The people with the sashes are getting awarded for teaching for over year.

We went to see a temple with all of the foriegners and our liasons. Mr. Beard and the vice president of the school came with.

This is the most foriegners I've seen in a long time. It's just funny how I people want pictures

with us. I really don't know why they have a fascination with foreigners.

Picture of Me, Amy, and Savii.

Centerpieces at the temple. This cow had a tail in it's mouth...supposedly it represents the beginning: the head, and the end: tail of all things.

Worshipping Buddah...ok so a little sacriligious. It makes a good picture k?

Beautiful scenery at the party.

"Daniceel&Sawanna edeleiss". Yep that's our name on the program. We were put down to sing Edelweiss. We were the first to preform. By the time they got it working alright for us, we were finished. Our liazon told us that it should be longer...it's just ironic because he told us to make it shorter. We were going to sing, "Tears in Heaven" Savii's wicked awesome guitaring at that song. I actually sang for a whole crowd! and I sounded semi good! I still can't believe that I did it. I've avoided singing in public my entire life since coming to China. I've probably sung for about 1500 people by now since coming to China (this included my classes). I taught my class, "Take me to your heart" this past week and totally was off pitch and off key but at least my volume was alright.


Lucy and Alex cooked for us. I thoroughly enjoyed going to a Chinese home. We went dancing afterwards.

There you go. There's an update on what's been happening in my life. I love it here. I am finally getting into the groove of teaching...I feel relaxed and love my students so much. I played, "do you love your neighbor" this past week with all of my classes. It was quite the event. These kids never leave the classroom so they were stoked to not have to sit in their class.

I just had a 2 and a half hour Chinese lesson with some of my favorite students. It was more like it was a cultural exchange and I learned a little Chinese but we had fun.

Well my time is about up at the internet cafe I better go.


Sunday, May 10, 2009

To the Best Mother in the World

video

Happy Mother's Day! I want to dedicate this little video specifically to my mother, but also to many other ladies who have helped me come so far and continue to support me in all I do. Mother's are probably one of the best things in the world. If the world was going to end, the one thing I'd try to keep safe would be my mom! The Mother's touch really is the best thing in the world. I hope my Mom and all of my other mom's know that I love you and I hope life brings you all that you desire because you definitely deserve it. There is nothing like hope and love that a mother has for her child. I appreciate all you do. My Chinese sisters send their love (make sure your volume is turned up)!

I love you!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

To the Center of Hong Kong and Back

So of course a lot has happened and I have neglected my blog for a couple weeks....which is a very bad idea! We've had the past couple weekends off for the May holiday and to renew our visa's which has been most excellent. It is crazy that I love traveling so much, but I also love and crave the comfort of home in Dongan. It will be nice to stay here this weekend.
Alright, so I was teaching one class and there was a lizard on the wall. It was crazy because when the girls saw the lizard, they all freaked out and started screaming. But wait it gets better; in the middle of my 'Travel' lesson, the lizard fell off the wall and onto the floor. One girl got up and basically started freaking out and crying out of fright. Class could not continue on with a lizard crawling around the classroom. What was most humorous about this situation was that the boys were a little apprehensive about getting the lizard too! So I had to get up the courage to get this distraction out of my classroom. One boy had a genius idea to get a dust pan and scoop the lizard up. He then threw the lizard off of the 3th floor of the building onto the pavement. I hope it lived! A lizard can come into my classroom anytime it wants. It is a most welcome distraction.
Went with some students to the "Government Building", which is supposedly the nicest and biggest building in Dongan and was built about 2 or 3 years ago.
Water fountain at the government building.

So Savii and I had the wonderful opportunity of going back to Hong Kong to renew our business visas so we could continue to work in Dongan. What a fabulous adventure this was indeed...We left on Friday after teaching classes to Yongzhou, to catch the 11 hour train ride to Hong Kong. We got a foot/back massage before we went and started our adventure:
Our whole body is on our foot!He better be careful with that knife!This group of people were so fun! Things we had in common were things like: NBA, like China, and talking about family.

Well needless to say, we did not catch the 11 hour train ride on Friday night to Hong Kong...because unfortunately Savanna forgot her passport! Which is very important if you want to get it stamped. So we ended up leaving on Saturday night at 12am for Hong Kong. Basically we passed the border into Hong Kong on Sunday morning at 11am, got lunch at a fun little restaurant (which was fabulous btw because people weren't staring at us and we could eat our meal without people watching everything we do), then turned around and headed back to the train station to catch our train at 5:00pm that evening to Yongzhou.
It was such a welcome sight to see a Starbucks Coffee in the train station terminal! What made it better was all of the foreigners gathered to this place too. Foreigners are so predictable. It's really funny because I have acquired the Chinese mentality that foreigners are beautiful and 'cool'. While I was on the train I saw two tall, in mid-20, foreigners with big back packs on walk out of the train station. I couldn't help but stare at them. Haha, it's funny what a few months in an all-Chinese city will do to your psyche.
oOOooo, big city! Shiny cars! Double Decker buses! lights! It was great to be in a clean city again, it was more familiar to me and comfortable and there weren't people spitting left and right. Even though we were only here for a couple hours, it was enjoyable to be in the busy atmosphere.
Micky D's! Savii and I enjoyed some french fries with Ronald McDonald to satisfy our American, western food, cravings. Hopefully it will tide us over until July!

Interesting fact: the language of Mainland China is Mandarin Chinese, while the language of Hong Kong is Cantonese Chinese. Also many of the people in Hong Kong know English, but they don't openly speak English with you.

Before we left for the train station we ran into this girl named Jen (pronounced, "djen") from France. She knows French, English, and is currently learning Chinese at a school in China. She has traveled all over the world and I am very envious of her! She had a very unique perception on life that was interesting to listen to. I also went to do a little shopping and boy are they BRutal! Where I went they have excellent shopping and have knock-off designer brands, but all of the workers manhandle you to come into their store saying things like, "beautiful girl, come and look at this"...or "come and look at that!" I eventually went into a store that had really cute designer clothes and this lady picked out about 20 things for me to buy and then set a price on them. I walked out, and then she came and grabbed me and pulled me back into the store! She kept saying, "because we friends I give you cheap price!" I was thinking, "a huh...". I finally had to just leave because She was charging me way to much so she then basically threw me out of the store while yelling and cursing at me in Chinese. That experience made me never want to go shopping there again...but my want for knock off prices might convince me otherwise...

We met up with the our group we were suppose to be going to Hong Kong with at the train station. It was so wonderful to see them! We did NOT miss the train coming back but I accidentally grabbed the wrong days ticket with another girl in the group who was going back the next day (she was going to Hong Kong Disney)....Sam got to sleep in the luggage area because there were not enough beds. It was a really fun train ride because we ran into some foreigners from Italy and Israel. The one guy from Italy has been working in Australia for the last 6 months and is traveling for the next 8. His name was Angelo. He only has a general outline of where he wants to go, but when he'll get there or how, is all up to fate. He was very inspiring to talk to, plus he added a few colorful words to liven up the conversation.
The train actually isn't that bad to sleep in. They have one room with 3 bunks going up each side, 6 bunks in total all. The train is really comfortable with the little sleep I got: we had to get off the train at 4 am.

I then had a 4-day week of teaching in Dongan.

I went on a bike ride through town, it was so enjoyable because the weather was nice and I had the whole afternoon to myself. I went and stopped on a bridge because a fishing boat on the river caught my attention. A man saw me looking at the fishing boat and gestured if I would like to go for a ride. He took my bike to his home, parked it and he gave me a ride down the river! It was so beautiful! The water was actually semi-clean where I was at. Bike rides are the spice of life and are a definite necessity.
Sam came and visited us from Shungpai. He was a huge hit with the guys. Many people think we are dating. You know that scene from Toy Story when Buzz and Woody are kidnapped by a next door neighbor, ... and there is no place of safety and Woody says, "We're always watching you, Sid…” That's how I feel a lot of the time. That there is no place of safety.
We took Sam to our local park and ran into these little boys. The boy by Sam that looks like he is crying is actually smiling really big for the camera. Haha, makes me giggle to look at this picture.

This past weekend we had a three day holiday for "May Holiday". May 1 is their Labor holiday. Savii and I went to MerryLand and Shuanghuangshong Mountain.
Savii's birthday was on this past Sunday so I had to make sure the cake was fully decorated and ready for Sunday.

To start, we left Thursday night by train to go to Merryland the next day. On the train I met this guy who just barely turned 21 and is a Nomad from Tibet. He is learning English, knows Chinese and Tibetan. I can see a definite difference between the skin color of Chinese and Tibetans...He taught Savii and I some Tibetan. It is very difficult! I hope to go to Tibet someday....but with how things are looking between China and Tibet...I don't think that can happen.
We had a midnight snack before going to bed and these are the things you can pick from... bird, bug, pig's man-parts......oh so appetizing. I stuck with the eggplant.
This guy wrote the anthem of China....
Merryland! and look at the cute, freaky-eyed characters I'm with! Merryland is a nice Chinese-style Lagoon.
Pirate town.
We watched a live Western while in Merryland. They had a Kung Fu master who rued the day.
These guys are from Yongzhou University and wanted a picture with me in the LOVE heart.
Shopping in Xiang Merryland.
Pushing a statue in the water.... shhhh-don't tell.
We went to Dongan after Merryland and then took off the following morning to climb Shuanhuangshong mountain. It is very close to Dongan. This is a picture of Savii, Lucy and I in the back of a taxi/motorbike/back-in-the-day truck. We rode this to go up to the mountain.
It is so green! There is moss everywhere.
A random dude wanting a picture with us. If you look closely at my forehead you'll see a giant goose egg. My head decides to swell up when I get bitten by a mosquito. Lucy said to me, "You can't go anywhere without having your picture taken! Even the bugs like you!"
Lucy!
Alex!
Savanna!
1 minute Kung Fu lesson. Alex loved his girlfriend, I loved him....
This place is where we get the water from that I drink in my apartment! It is wonderful! and the air is so clean! I couldn't get enough of it. I also couldn't get enough of that man who's holding the water bottle in the lower left hand corner.
MMm, clean water.
They had butterflies at the mountain! Alex tormented this butterfly. He flashing it with his camera trying to get it to open it's wings.
The strongest Chinese man I've seen thus far on my trip. His muscles are large, mine are small! Alex loved taking pictures with and of him. You don't see men, or women for that matter, wearing muscle shirts and have beautiful muscles underneath!
Doing yoga at the top of the mountain, soaking up the clean atmosphere.
Alex bought some sunglasses while we were in Merryland. He felt really cool wearing them. It's funny, whenever I wear my sunglasses at school many people say, "Wow, Danielle! So cool!". I have to be careful about wearing my sunglasses so as not to appear cocky. Chinese people, where I'm at, do not wear sunglasses so Alex and Lucy feel really cool wearing them.
Back to Dongan. People are obssessed about having clean shoes and a few people have commented on my shoes being dirty. Alex asked me why I don't clean my shoes. I told him that in America we don't like our shoes looking extremely new because we like the worn look. He refused to believe me. I decided to pay 1 yuan to have them cleaned. Totally worth it.

Well I realized this week that I only have about 4 more weeks until I am done teaching! I have a two week vacation the beginning of June, hopefully I'll go to Beijing, but we'll see what happens. But I am on the down curve of teaching. It amazes me that it has gone by so quickly! I will be so glad to have teaching over with, but will be so incredibly heart broken to leave the students and friends I have made. I don't want to think about it because I still have a lot to do while I'm here.

I have also realized that Chinese students are incredibly educated about everything. They know English, know the history of all the countries in the world, and study 10 plus hours a day! One kid in my class asked me about Obama's speech he gave a couple days ago and said many people were crying. He wanted to know why. Alas! I did not watch that speech when a kid in an intensive high school class did! I really wish I was educated in this way while in school...but then again I'm in China and many of them will never be able to travel abroad until they are very old.

Thanks for checking up on my life. I'm not sure when I'll post next. I always seem to run into something interesting.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Life continues to keep busy and new things are always thrown my way! The things thrown are always good and I enjoy seeing what presents itself! This past weekend I went to ZhangJiaJie for a few days because my students had exams (which means I did not have to teach while they suffered). I went with a tour group, which was very interesting because everyone on the tour spoke minimal English. But that is okay, I still was able to get along with many of them. Plus they took care of Savanna and I. It was interesting because at meals, Savii and I were guests on their vacation!

To start off the trip we went to a Buddhist temple. It was a very beautiful building. I just feel like I am missing out on so much because I could not ever understand what the tour guide was saying. That is probably how my students feel when I talk to quickly in my classes.
A monk handed me this slip of paper. I'm guessing it is a fortune, but I cannot be sure. I had my classes help me translate the meaning into English. Much is lost when you translate from Chinese to English. Essentially if you translate character for character it says: people, people, home, family, poor, fourth, fire. Which basically translates into: your family was poor but it now very rich. I think that is true.
Funny translation: Please not randomly throws trash. I showed a Chinese teacher my pictures and he asked why it was funny. Savii and I tried to explain to him that you don't randomly throw trash, but it should have been something like, "don't litter". He just didn't understand why we found it so humorous. It 's funny how things like this can only be funny to someone in their native language.
ZhangJiaJie is a National Park! Totally stoked about that. I feel like I have had to dumb down my English since coming to China. Forgive me if I talk really basic.
It rained the entire freaking time. I have never been more grateful for the invention of an umbrella than during the three days I spent in ZhangJiaJie. Thank you Stephanie for the umbrella! I had to wear these delightful ponchos most of the weekend. I even had cute little booties to wear over my canvas shoes.
We finally got to the park and it was beautiful! I loved the clean air. I couldn't get enough of it.
So strong. In China, to be strong means to be masculine and to withstand the elements or it can also mean that you are fat. Our friend Alex calls Savanna strong because she can eat a lot of rice. It's our little inside joke. Savanna doesn't care for it, but she's a good sport.
The spires are amazing here. It reminded me a lot of Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, but ZhongJiaJie is very green and has many trees. The rocks look a lot like fingers reaching up through the earth.
Can you see anything? Neither can I. We got to the top of the mountain but could not see anything because of all of the fog. Which was a shame because I paid a mere 100 yuan to see it.
Monkeys! They had monkeys all over the park. They are really cute and have pink bums. I saw one monkey eating junk food which made me sad that humans are interrupting their natural lifestyle and westernizing them.
By standing in the heart with a loved one, you seal your love. Too bad I only have me! Maybe someday there will be another.
This was the most random thing ever. It kinda makes me think of the scene in Emperor's New Groove, "Uh, what's up with the Chimp and the bug?....can we get back to...me?!". Anyways, in the middle of our tour they took us to a knife and peeler advertisement. It was funny to watch all of the men get excited to use a knife to cut vegetables. People actually cook here in China and need to use a knife. Not as many people eat out it seems like. Although since coming here I eat out all of the time, haha. They also had an electric razor that they soaked in water for half an hour and it kept working after they were done! It could even shave metal off of a metal rod! I totally need one to shave my legs.
Beautiful blossoms! The pink is so vibrant. I've deduced that this is my favorite color.
Breathtaking! I think the fog makes it angelic and surreal.
A peacock was sitting on a high branch on top of the mountain. I didn't even know they lived in China!
I loved this woman! She was in our tour group. We had a connection even though we couldn't speak. It's really cool how you can just feel emtionally what people's character is like even though you can't understand them.
Really far down. We had to cross over a big bridge. I'm glad I'm not afraid of depths/heights!
Savanna climbed through the bars of the bridge! She almost gave a Chinese man a heart attack. She is one crazy girl. If I got a quarter for everytime she said how much she wanted to rock climb and to do something adventurous I would be a wealthy woman and could retire now.
Locks to ceil friendship, love, and to give one luck.

video
The beautiful surroundings of ZhangJiaJie while leaving the group behind.
Leaving 张家戒, Jiangjiajie.
On the way back home we stopped by an ancient palace place. I really wish I could say more about it, but I only can talk about what I observed.
A red bed is where the bride and groom sleep the first night they are married.
A place of worship in their home.
The friends I made along the way!
Chinese people can sure make a mess! Seriously, this is after being in the bus for only 6 hours. I've never seen so few people make such a mess! The ground is their garbage can. The bus ride was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO times infinite long. We started at 6:30 pm riding home and I didn't get home until 4:30am on Monday morning! It totally sucked getting up at 6:30am for classes and teaching for 4 hours, but you deal with what live gives!

It was a very fun vacation and teaching has been going well this week. It has been my first full week of teaching after 3 weeks of having shortened weeks so it's been a little tiring.

I went dancing this past week! It was really fun. I danced with a bunch of old guys! which wasn't as fun, but still it was nice to dance with a guy who knew how to and wasn't afraid to lead. It was really funny because one time when I was with an old man, another guy stood right next to me to see if he was taller (right while I was dancing!). People circled around Savanna and I as we learned how to dance. I realize that I have horrible posture, my mama (lady I met a month or two ago) kept pressing on my back to tell me to straighten up!
My friends here in Dong'an. The guy on the far left is a very hard worker and I took a picture of him at the beginning when he was using his wheel barrow. He told me that he is very proud to have had a foreigner take a picture of him!

Well, it is time to go have a Chinese/English lesson with one of my students.

Zaijian!

小反 (xiao fan. My Chinese name.)