ir a principal |
Ir a lateral
So on Wednesday the guys from my school came and picked and Jason and Brook (the other teachers working at my school) from Changsha. Of course it was about a 4-5 hour drive so when they got to Changsha they wanted to take a break for a while before we hit the road again. They fed us lunch, which was really nice of them, and then they took us out to the car they drove up, which was big enough to seat three people, but not big enough for the luggage that three people brought (not a huge car). So they asked us if they could take our luggage to the train station and send it down that way while we drove. Not a big deal, except that we didn't know when we'd get the bags back and we didn't have any other clothes because they were in our bags, and we took our valuables with us so they wouldn't get stolen on the train. So I went about two days in the same clothes, kind of fun. I have this idea about adventure that makes everything more fun and less painful, so it actually didn't bother me too much.
Once we got to Yongzhou that night they took us to a banquet where they fed us again (they treat us really well, especially for China) and we ate more wierd stuff. Here's a list of the crazy stuff I've eaten in the last 72 hours.
- Pig's ear (actually really disgusting)
- Pig intestine (You can bet I didn't know what that was until after I ate it, actually wasn't that bad)
- Honey Bee Larvae (as in thoroughly cooked maggots, Slimy, yet satisfying)
- Chicken Foot
- Pickled radish (If you like pickled stuff, it's great)
- and a bunch of other stuff which I probably will never know what it was
Overall, this is turning into quite the adventure. I'm really happy about it. At the dinner we had when we got to Yongzhou, we met a guy named Lucas (I don't know what his Chinese name is) who was really awesome. He toasted us quite a bit at dinner and drank quite a bit. He kept trying to offer us whatever it was, (it was like a chinese whiskey, he told us it was 58% alcohol) and told me that I was a sissy for drinking juice when he toasted us, and that he was a real man. It was actually really funny, and then at the end of the night he rejoiced that we're colleagues. At that dinner, it kind of started to hit me that I've really gotten myself into something deep here, but the more I think about it, the more excited I get.
Yesterday morning after we settled in (I live in this sweet apartment, that's bigger than anything I had at BYU, even if it's a little different) Lucas took us around the town to show us where everything is and how to get around. And it was crazy. There's loads of people on the street here selling their wares. Most of the people selling on the street are selling food. You can go buy meat, fruits and veggies, and live chickens and frogs (all for consumption). As for the neighborhoods we drove through, it's pretty crazy. It's kind of this third world meets first world type of thing. The last bus I rode yesterday was really dirty and dingy, but it had a nice LCD screen mounted above the driver so you could watch commercials while he drove. The neighborhoods we drove through ranged from nice city to really 3rd world huts and alleys and everything in between. In the middle class part of town you can walk by a nice fast food place that's right next to a really dirty empty space that used to be a store, but looks like the building caved in. you can drive on the main street with the buses and the scooters and theirs the occasional guy pulling a wooden cart by himself ON THE ROAD. It's really kind of an amazing place. Now that I'm a little more situated, I'll start taking and posting more pictures.
Anyways, I love this place. I start teaching school on Tuesday (which I think is when a lot of schools start teaching in the states too) and more posts to come.
Thanks again for all the emails. I love to hear from everyone.
I finally left Beijing yesterday afternoon after eating the best noodles in my entire life. We went to the forbidden city in the morning, which is huge. It's where the emperor lived with the government officials and his eunuchs and concubines. (I always marvel at how rich people get in a caste system) It's really beautiful and really exotic and it's right outside tiananmen square.Tiananmen square is gigantic. It's basically a huge courtyard the size of several football fields and it's right at the entrance to the forbidden city. As you enter the forbidden city there is a series of gates or buildings you walk through. The first one is called Tiananmen
tian=heaven
an=peace
men=gate
Tiananmen = Gate of Heavenly peace
and on that gate is a giant picture of Mao Zedong, who Chinese people for the most part love. In the middle of Tiananmen square is a mousoleum that has Mao's body preserved inside. Yay. You can go look at it, but it was closed the day we went. Darn. Really interesting place. Anyways, after we left the forbidden city we were going to go to the zoo, but we never made it. We got hungry and ate at this hole in the wall place down some series of alleys. I wanted fried rice, but the guy I was with ordered noodles, turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. My noodles had tomato and egg inside and some type of leak, and it was awesome. A lot of the food here doesn't need sugar, it's so different, but it still tastes delicious. Anyways, hooray food, moving on.
Last night we got on a train called a sleeper train. You basically get on at night, hop in a bunk bed, go to sleep, and then wake up in the morning in a different province. We ended up on a really nice train, it was tight for space, but not as tight as the lower class trains. We had four bunks in our room. Had it been the middle class train (which is what our program director was hoping for) we would have had six bunks in a room, and had it been the low class train, it would have probably been a reality check for me. It's funny how big a difference there is in standard of living. I've heard that people don't need much to be happy though. I guess I'll find out soon since Hunan is supposed to be one of the least developed provinces, so I'm sure I'll get a chance to see a lot of things up close.
I had my final debriefing today about how to teach English and the kinds of things I'll have to work with culturally and overall. I'm sure I'll have a lot of things to blog about. Tomorrow morning I'll get picked up and taken from here in Changsha to Yongzhou which is where my middle school is.
For now this is kind of a travel log. Sorry about that, but It'll be more cultural the longer I'm here.
Once again, thanks for the emails. It's really nice to hear from everyone. If you have skype let me know so I can put your name in. Here's my email one more time gadiandi@gmail.com, I'd love to hear from you.
I have had a heck of an introduction to China this week. It's been awesome. I have never had so many new smells at once in my entire life. I don't even know how to describe most of them, and some of them I don't even want to remember. I've never been personally acquainted with a squat toilet before, and I've never been to a place where people are more than willing, they want you to barter with them. I have no idea what constitutes about 90% of my food, and I understand about 1/100,000 of what I hear going on around me. It's pretty fantastic. For all the stuff I don't understand, I feel comfortable and welcome here.
I went a saw a few things in the last couple days. I can't post pictures, cause I'm on a computer in a hostel and not my own, but I'll do what I can when I get to my own apartment next week. I saw the temple of heaven today. It was the place the emperor used to go offer a sacrifice every year. It smacks a lot of things that were close to me in symbolism and in architecture. There were layers of three everywhere. Most of them were show by a progression from clouds (things in the heavens) to the pheonix, which is a symbol used for longevity and health, and also for the empress, to the dragon, the symbol for power and for the emperor. Really amazing. I also saw a big group of old people slow-dancing in a park close to there. I don't care what culture I see that in, it always makes me really happy.
I also went to a big pearl market where they sell knockoff everything, and it was pretty crazy. They yell at you as you walk by and some will literally try to grab your elbows and walk you to their stall, where they'll try to sell you whatever they can for usually more than 6 times their lowest price. I bartered with one girl for about 20 minutes and got her down to about a third of her original price and when I settled there she was so happy she hugged me. (She also kept asking if I had a girlfriend, to which I could only tell her I was going to wait till I got back to America.) (Which I am)
We saw the great wall yesterday, and holy cow. That's an amazing place to go if any of you get a chance. It's pretty crazy. Mostly because it's all stairs. Best workout I've had in weeks.
Well, stay tuned folks. I'd really love to hear from you because I'm posting this from my email, and it'd be really nice to know if it was working.
Gadiandi@gmail.com
Short update for those of you who were hoping to hear from me so soon. (That's ok if you number in the negatives)
I'm feeling better, but still praying I won't get quarantined for a week (which is what they do if you arrive in China and they think you have the swine flu, and no, I don't have the swine flu). And for the fact that I didn't sleep much last night, I'm actually doing really well. Still safe. Still fairly coherent.
3 things before I jet
1. China isn't allowing facebook or blogger right now, but I can update my blog through emails, so that shouldn't be a big deal. Skype DOES work. I do expect to hear from people, and my skype name is "GadiandiSun" in case anyone missed it.
2. I had a revelation at 5:30 this morning. I was trying to fall asleep while a small child was intermittently yelling. This child was also sitting RIGHT next to us. I don't know how kids get that loud, but it was pretty intense for us when we hadn't slept for a good 24 hours. (it was really tough to sleep over night in airport, didn't work out too well). Anyways the child screamed once more right into the ear of a friend of mine (who was innocently sleeping up to that point) and it set the wheels in my head spinning. My friend had talked about how she didn't really like small children, but having several loveable nieces and nephews my mind started to discover a way to reconcile her feelings for kids. My thought process kind of went like htis.
A. I wished Children had a volume control nob......
B. If I could invent one of those, I would be rich!......
C. Dang it!
D. Some one did invent that already, it's called a pacifier
E. Wait a minute..... ( and this was the moment of truth for me) maybe it's not called a pacifier because it pacifies children, maybe it's called that because it pacifies adults....
3. I love how easy it is to make friends when the time is right. I seriously met four awesome people last night whilc trying to sleep in San Francisco Airport. One was this Indian family from Canada, who ended up giving us free breakfast vouchers, and the last was a guy named Peter who played cards with us for an hour. And literally all i did was say Hi how ya doin and I ended up spending at least 2 hours with each.
You guys are great. I'd love to hear from anyone when they get a chance. Even if I left yesterday - if this blog is only one way for the whole time I'm gone I'll be really disappointed. (Guilty prod for the future)
Ok guys. Yep. I've officially started a blog. Part of this is so that I don't have to write what happened to me like 15 times to all my friends every week (as if I'm that popular), and the other part is that I think this could serve as one of the records of my trip for when I return. So this is for you, but it's mostly for me. :)
So I'm moving to China and it's going to be AWESOME. Ever since I came to school I always had a reason to stay in Utah until one day recently, I didn't. It's actually that simple, and when that day came, everything sort of fell into place so that I could leave. Even my own mother thought if I was going to do something like this, now would be the time. I finished college, I'm single, and I'm not locked into a full time job yet (which I hope to be when I get back). So I applied to this group that sets people up to teach English in Mainland China and I got accepted. I leave on the 18th of August and I'll be gone for almost a year. I bought Rosetta Stone so I can learn Chinese while I'm over there, that way when I get discouraged from trying to communicate with people I can go learn Chinese on a computer and still feel good about myself. I bought a teaching English as a second language text book, and I'm pretty ready to rock house.
I graduate from college with my masters degree from BYU next week and a few days later I fly to China. Most of the posts from here on out will be a catalog of my travels in China and beyond. At least until a get back.
A few random thoughts:
1. Starting over is a pain (as in moving and/or trying to meeting new people), but I think it's really healthy to step out of your comfort zone every once and a while. Granted, moving to another country is a little more out of someone's comfort zone than normal, but still. I think we were meant to always be expanding in this life. Not just mentally and physically, but socially and spiritually too.
2. Even though something may be right, it can still scare the crap out of me. I wake up in the mornings and my stomach squirms a bit thinking about the fact that I fly to China in less than two weeks. Not because what I'm doing is wrong, but just because it's huge. This happened to me once in the past right before I moved to Australia. That was one of the best things that ever happened to me even though it scared me to death.
3. I think we need to do things to make sure we don't get too comfortable. Moving to China is something that falls in line really well with my life goals, but sometimes I forget where I'm going and I just chill out for a while. If we want to make a difference with our lives, I think we need to constantly think not just about where we want to end up, but also how we're going to get there. I've wanted to learn Chinese for a long time. I've thought a fair bit about how I'd get there and I think that's part of the reason it was so easy to make this decision.
4. Finally, (and this one is random) I think mistakes can be healthy. When we make them, it keeps us on our toes and helps us realize that we need to keep working on who we are.
Anyways, if anyone actually takes the time to read this, you're welcome to read on as much as you want, which is obvious or I wouldn't post it online. Also, let me know if there's anything specific you want me to write about. It might help out a lot in terms of keeping a good record.
