Christmas in Shanghai

Possibly one of the most unique (I know that it is impossible for something to be more unique than something else) Christmases I will ever have! My German friend Theo and his host family was gracious enough to host it! (And for some stupid reason I didn't bring my camera, if I get pictures from someone else I will post them.)

We celebrated Christmas the European/Catholic way: on Christmas Eve night. In day prior to the festivities, Clara (Italian), Alida (Swiss), Jesus (American), and I went to "the fake market" to do our last last last minute Christmas shopping. "The fake market" is a wonderful indoor mall where you can find cheap and/or convincing knock-offs of anything and everything!

In the evening everyone brought/made food from their own country. When we sat down at the table everyone took turns telling about how Christmas is done in their own family/country.
After that we went downstairs to the basement with our hot cocoa, we talked and played truth or dare. 12am arrived and we opened our small gifts! I got a scarf and a laser pointer clock!
We didn't fall asleep until 5:30am, and then we awoke at 11am. A few of us rode bikes to the nearby Tesco to get some Nutella for breakfast crepes! Yum!

It wasn't a conventional Christmas but it was a jolly one!

Village Outside Shanghai 上海外面的农村

(look at how empty the sky is! I have become so used to the sky being filled with highrises! left to right: Ms. Huang, Clara, Jesus, and Alida in front of the little path leading to the nong-swin [rural town])
(examining the traditional style wood carving in the village's streets)

(a 弄 [nong, fourth tone] or an alleyway in the village)

(Zongzi a dumpling wrapped in leaves, we saw many little stores like this one)(a view of the village down the canal taken from a bridge)

侬吼(nong-hou, hello in Shanghai dialect, as opposed to nee-hao)! I have been having a stupendous time in Shanghai. I have definitely experienced different things here this time than I did last time! (At the time of writing, still in Shanghai).
On Saturday night (our Swiss AFS'er friend) Alida Kropf was told by her host mom that she could invite three people to go to the countryside with her on Sunday. Clara (Italy), Jesus (Ameria) and I were all invited. Let me say a few things about this astounding woman that is Alida's host mother: she speaks German, and English (fluently, she sounds American!). She is learning French now. She also grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution (one of my favorite parts of history). Even though I had not met her yet I was very anxious to!

The next day at 9:30am (there abouts) we arrived at Alida's compound all a little unsure of what we were going to see and do in the coming hours of the day! Alida's mom met us after we came in and asked if we had eaten breakfast. Jesus and I lied out of courteously (it turned out to be a smart thing because our lunch was gigantic and delicious). We found ourselves piling into a small car and we were off into the outskirts of Shanghai!

I think everyone hit it off really well with Alida's mom right away! She was very cultured, and her sense of humor was just like ours. Chinese people have a different sense of humor than westerners (I have found).

First place we stopped in was a housing development near Shanghai's biggest lake (I have forgotten the name sadly) that Ms. Huang's friend wanted to show her. The houses here were all very very very nice for Chinese standards. But they were not unlike American cookie-cutter houses you see popping up in Temecula and Riverside. However since I am used to Chinese housing and the way the middleclass here lives it was a bit of a shock! The houses actually had ovens and dryers!

The next part of our excursion took place in the little village a little ways away. It is located on a small tributary or some kind of creek that probably connects to the nearby big lake. I was so excited when I got out of the car, at first the cold didn't bother me. The little village looked so untouched and picturesque! There were small bridges crossing over the canal that ran through the part of the little settlement that we were about to venture into.

As I walked down the alleyways (弄堂nong-tahng) I noticed that the buildings were usually not seperated, and if they were it was usually for access to a small courtyard or a bridge. Since it was early afternoon the streets were quiet. A few wandering old people passed us by, their caps were knitted and looked warm. I liked looking at the decorations that people had long ago hung up on their doorways, for marriage, for the new year etc. It was really interesting to see what the locals put outside their doors. Pots, pans, chickens, bikes, fruit crates, an old (probably still in-use) grey sofa. The outiside of most of the buildings were painted white, except for the brick facade of the post office.

All of us seemed to be a bit entranced. I know why Ms. Huang likes this place so much. It is the sort of place that people imagine China to be, but these days cannot find. Because most places like this have become tourist traps. Ms. Huang told us about the daily life of the village, what people probably do, that every house on the water has a little dock, what the specialty of the village is etc.

Soon we found out that the village wasn't as "untouched" as we thought. Ms. Huang's favorite restaurant is on the touristy street, which compared to some other places isn't that touristy. Just raised prices and more people walking the streets (I can't tell whether the people are locals or tourists). The restaurant was nice, right on the water, and our table was situated next to an air-conditioner that was on the hot setting.

What was served for lunch:
little fried fish (you eat them whole, like potato chips)
fish soup with tofu
egg plant slices in a syrupy sweet sauce
rice

I asked Ms. Huang about the Cultural Revolution when we started to eat. She grew up during this time in China, somewhere outside Bejining in a small village. The place where she grew up is no longer outside Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution her parents were both sent off to the countryside to be re-educated, however they were sent off at different times so she always had a parent at home.

She explained that school was only for half the day, and once a week they had a class period dedicated to criticizing their teacher. I asked her if she could recall any criticisms. Once a student had criticized the teacher for beating her son. They also could recite many of Mao's quotations "backwards and forwards". Ms. Huang smiled and said that growing up during that time was enjoyable because they could play so much after school.

"But what did you do for fun?" we all asked. She told us that when the willow blossoms were in bloom everyone would light them on fire to watch the strange blue flame that it would give off. Jump rope was common, as well as a certain kind of top that one had to whip in order for it to spin. She and her friends would go to the irrigation ditches behind the Summer Palace in Beijing to catch the shrimp that hid between the rocks. "If you didn't know how to catch shrimp, you would have never had it. You couldn't buy it."she said. Things were much cheaper back then as well, she remembers because she did the bookkeeping for her housekeeper. Two bunches of vegetables only cost 2 fen, but that doesn't mean things were readily available all the time.

To make extra money she and her classmates would sell leftover newspapers because the paper was so precious. Also they dry out their leftover orange peels and sell them. The orange peels were more valuable because in Chinese medicine they are considered to have a medicinal quality.

After finishing lunch, Ms. Huang stayed at the restaurant and worked on her French homework. The weather outside was awful! We were freezing cold, but it woke us up from our post-meal daze. Our bargaining skills were honed within two hours, and now I can say that I know how to bargain. Be stubborn, then walk away. I bought some peanut candy made locally in the village, and a brown earthenware teapot.

On the way home we listened to some Pink Martini, provided by Ms. Huang's iPod. It was a good day.

Crazy Schedule! 疯子

Next month is going to be a whirlwind of a month...here is the schedule:

Dec. 28th return from Shanghai
Jan. 5th Fly to Kunming for Yunnan Province Trip
Jan. 11th Return to Chongqing
Jan. 18th Fly to Beijing with AFS teacher for a sightseeing trip
Jan. 22/23rd Return Home
Jan. 25th Chinese New Year's Eve
Feb. 1st Leave off for Macau (via Hong Kong or Shenzhen)
Feb. 10th Return to Chongqing

I am very excited! So much to do and see in China! This month (it's sort of a month) is bound to be jam-packed with adventure and fun. I am eager to celebrate the Spring Festival (a.k.a. Chinese New Year) which is as important to the Chinese as Christmas is important to some Westerners.

Recently my mood has been a lot better. I am now used to my family not being around. The only one who takes care of me is my beloved host grandmother! I think we have gotten really close just living in the same house together. She is making sausages by hand in the kitchen as I write this.

These days I have been hanging around in a coffee shop adjacent to a bookstore after school. I used to just go to the internet cafe after school, but now I have discovered the magical beverage that is coffee! Coffee and books are the recipe for ultimate procrastination! Lately I have been late. Late for many things because of books and coffee. It's not my fault that coffee shops provide big glossy magazines for me to enjoy! I have to enjoy all of them (otherwise I forget which ones I have looked at), rip out the pages I like (no, no I don't do that!) and then leave.

Another fatal addiction that China has to offer: cheap DVDs. Usually found in the back of stationary stores or magazine shops (not magazine stands mind you). Only 10 yuan ($1.40) for one DVD! And my favorite store has a good selection of Independent films, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, American, and European films. The storekeeper has seen me so often that she has started to take custom orders from me! I also have found that my ability to speak Chinese charms people. I don't do it on purpose. I guess the fact that a 17 year old, strawberry blonde, blue eyed, American can speak conversational Chinese is an astonishment to them.
(Personally I think that my Chinese needs more improvement especially when it comes to the intonations of the words).

Visiting the Buddhist Temple at Ciqikou Ancient Town 磁器口古镇的寺庙

(first set of steps leading from the entrance to the main compound of the temple)

(me in front of the second set of steps leading up to the temple courtyard)

(a view out onto the river from a platform below one of the temple's towers)

(cool latticery below one the the temple's three towers)

(side of a temple hall)

(a lanterny thing, a view of the incense vessel in the background in front of one of the temple's halls)

(people admiring the votive candles they had just lit)

(votive candles lit in front of one of the main halls, the building behind the candles is where you buy incense and the candles themselves. The baskets on the ground are for disposing of the plastic wrappers that cover your incense sticks.)

In the very early days of December Frances (a British friend), and I got out of the hustle and bustle of the city and escaped to the ancient town of Ciqikou. While we were there we suddenly remembered that the little ancient town had a temple. It was late in the afternoon (around 5pm), so we rushed over to the main gate to see if it was open. It was! After paying 5 yuan as an entrance fee, recieveing complementary rolls of incense to burn, and after marveling at the great amount of steps before, us we pressed on.

Being on the temple grounds was like being in a whole different world! It was quiet! Hardly any people were lingering about, and the sound of people hawking to spit could not be heard at all.

Both Frances and I were at peace.

Coincidentially we both like photography. Most of our time was spent enjoying the atmosphere and taking photos where we could. Photography is limited in temples. No photography is allowed at all inside any of the halls.

I decided that I wanted to burn my incense. Slowly I walked over to where a young couple was lighting their incense. They lit the incese by holding it to the votive candles burning in front of one of the halls near the large stone incense plate. They made sure it was burning and then cautiously walked towards the plate. Gingerly, the woman stuck the bunch of incense in the ashes on the plate. She clapped her hands together over her head and bowed a few times. It looked like she was praying, she probably was. Next her beau did the same.

A minute or two passed and they moved on. I tried it myself. While I lit the incense, walked to the plate, placed the incense in the ashes, and bowed all the temple workers stared at me. Nothing went wrong! Phew! I wonder if they see many foreigners lighting the incense like locals?

Afterwards, Frances lit her incense, then the pair of us caught a bus home. We both zoned out during the bus ride home. Savoring the feeling that the temple had given us.

Judging an English Competition 看西南大学的英文比赛

(little did this contestant know she would win second place)

(James, Frances, me, and Ben sitting in the first row of the auditorium ready to judge the contestants)

At 6:00pm six people (including those pictured just above the text) gathered at the front gate of Chongqing No. 3 middleschool only to be squeezed into a five passenger car. The driver complained about so many foreigners cramming into the car. In total there were 7 people in the car. Normally people would find this uncomfortable, on the contrary we found it quite amusing. After a while there was no use keeping the car heater on as all of our bodies began to generate enough heat to surpass that of the heater. All of us soon fell asleep wondering how long it would take until our arrival at South Western Sichuan University's Beibei Campus.

Forty-five minutes came and went. Everyone had already been awake for a bit and had vaguley worried looks on their faces. I looked outside our tinted black windows. Even though the windows were hard to see through I could tell that we were somewhere far from the city...and it was fairly dark. The road was bumpy, and the car was surrounded by forest. "This is a bit dodge, wouldn't you say?" one of my British friends said.

Now I was worried. They had crammed all of us 老外(lao-wai: foreigners) into a small black car with tinted windows, and were proceeding to drive us deep into the countryside of China. I tried to recall from biology class, where the kidneys are located in the human body. Can I keep mine? I wondered.

In a meeger voice I asked the Chinese man who had arranged this whole thing when we would arrive. "Soon, soon. Don't worry." I worried.

Thankfully, we did arrive fairly shortly afterwards. The university sort of sprang up in the middle of nowhere! It looked like many other schools in China with its plain white tiled walls.

We were late, and staff members waisted no time in getting us to the auditorium where we were to judge the English speech competition.

The audience applauded as soon as we entered. I blushed. I didn't know we were that important. I actually did not know what to really expect of this competition. There were easily 200 people in the audience. I thought it would have been smaller, but I suppose people-wise nothing in China is ever small.

They seated us in the front row. The long desk that was seated in front of us was covered in red velvet! Fancy! And each judge had their respective water bottle, scoring sheets, topic lists, and pens. The MC asked if our names were spelt correctly on our name plates, surprisingly they were...but they were not capitalized. Oh well.

The MC then asked us if we "would like to light up a light for a Chinese girl." I was confused, someone wanted us to light a cigarette for a Chinese girl? Apparently this is a direct translation of a Chinese expression meaning: to pray for, or say a few words for...etc. The girl had recently found out that she had contracted a "treminal disease, and there is not hope for her health." Everyone looked a bit embarrased, what are we supposed to say? We don't know her? We all looked at one another. Finally James spoke up and politely refused. It was an awkward question...but in the end the head of the student union did it for us.

Before the first speech the MC introduced the rules to the audience in choppy English, and her counterpart relayed them in Chinese. Her English was quite good a part from she kept saying "millets" instead of "minutes" which was rather distracting...I had to try extremely hard not to burst out laughing. I coughed instead.

All of the contestants were girls, except one. Two of the 15 contestants were of the Uighur minority that belongs to north western China (they are more Turkish than Chinese, but the Chinese prefer to call them Arabs).

"Each contestant will be give 3 millets during their first planned speech, and 2 and a half millets for their improvisation speech. The topic of their improvisation speech is chosen at random and the contestants are given one and a half millets to prepare."

(The reason why she was saying "l" instead of "n" for miNutes. Is because the accent from the south west of China confuses L's and N's. They also confuse their F's and H's. Mind you this happens when they are speaking Chinese and English. Oftentimes our calligraphy teacher will say "Lo Lo Lo!" when we are making an incorrect stroke while writing a character.)

The first speech was not much of a speech but more of a mispronounced list. (I was the hardest to please judging-wise). It was titled Where We Are Heading and began like so:

"Where are we heading?

We are buying more, but enjoying less

We have more conviences, but less time

More experts, but more problems

We talk too much, but love too seldom!

We have added years to life! But not life to years!"

(I wrote it down while she said it)

It continued on like that until her time was up. After a few contestants we discovered that many of them were excellent at memorizing their planned topics, but when it came to answering our questions or improvising they failed miserably. I am harsh, see?

One girl decided to do her speech topic on the Recession. Her speech was very disorganized. like many words jumbled toegtehr and you felt like you were listening through a wall. To prove her points she held her fist in the air and shouted, as if she were leading an army to a battle.

Ben leaned over and whispered in my ear "Was this what the cultural revolution was like?"

In the end the contestant who won was a Uighur mionority girl whose speech was on mass media. Although none of us agreed with her speech we still could not ignore the fact that she delivered it very fluently, and her improvisation was almost flawless. She answered our questions with ease. I gave her quite a good score. I later wondered if the people throwing the competition were sore that a minority had won. I was happy.

And I am sure the winner was too because she got a mobile phone for winning!

合唱比赛 Singing Competition

Yesterday I finally participated in our school's singing competition for all students in 高一 (gao-ee, freshmen year). The reason I say finally is because my class has been making me practice for so long! And now I was finally able to sing in front of 1000 other students for them! In total there are 1000 Freshmen. The song I sang in front of all those people was the School Anthem. Which is specifically about our school, not just some all encompassing school song written for every academic institute in China, but our song. Naturally the students and staff are very proud of it.



When I "mounted the stage" (the way to say walked on stage in Chinese) my nerves suddenly hit me. What if my voice cracked? Or I vomitted on stage in front of everyone (ruining my new sweater)? Everyone was looking at me!

The music began with a piano and march-like introduction. Then the first lines "Jade Green Happy Song Mountain, Flowing Jialing River!" were sung by me! Followed by the next two lines which were sung by my classmates "Our schoooool, Our schoooool!" My next and last solo line was "At this center of beautiful scenery!"

I just know I sung awfully. When the song was finished I hastefully left, after a formal bow of course. However there was some kind of problem and the school song played again cuasing me to hesitate and stumble as I went behind the curtain. Embarrassing! I was hopeful that the crowd would be distracted by my class's singing and not look at me. I was wrong.

The results of the singing competition still haven't been released even though two days have passed since then.

Today my classmates have invited me to participate in a DANCING competition for new year's!
How can I refuse? I wish that my school had these sorts of obligatory competitions, it would make things a bit more livelier than they already are, and it would also be very entertaining!

Christmassy Happenings 圣诞节快到了

(singing practice at school)

(pet shop in the underground market)

(lady selling turtles...or some kind of amphibian)

（Frances stringing ornaments [baubles in British English] onto some tinsel)

(the little 10yuan tree that I bought for her house, what would Christmas be without a tree?)

This weekend it was all about the Christmas-ness. On Saturday Frances (pictured above on the sofa) and I went into a "posher" part of Chongqing to find Christmas decorations. Thankfully she knew about a particular wholesale market that sold Christmas decorations. We made an afternoon of perusing the stalls that were loaded with Santa suits, ornaments, tinsel, snowmen, snowflakes, fake snow, and plastic trees. How strange that China doesn't celebrate Christmas but they have all these fantastical deocrations for we foreign folk to utilize! Restaurants buy the decorations I think, because those are the only places I see decorations.

Everything was amazlingly cheap. Bargain bargain bargain! Haggle haggle haggle! The shopkeepers would always name an enormously exaggerated price. Then our job was to name a rediculously low price. They refuse. We up the price a bit. Then hold out until they finally agree.

With that we bought: tinsel, a little tree, several ornaments (ball form), and colored Christmas lights (fairy lights as they call them in the U.K.).

Sunday Frances and I braved the crowds (on any given Sunday there's a crowd) to do what little Christmas shopping we could. I love Christmas shopping. It reminded me of Christmas shopping for my family and friends when I am home. However, this time I just flew by the seat of my pants (usually I make a Christmas list) because China has such unordinary things I just decided to buy those. Some of the pictures above are some of the sights I saw while shopping around.

Later in the evening I returned to school to practice singing with my class. Today we have a "harmony singing" (literally translated) competition. I am to sing a few solo lines! Wish me luck! (I will definitely update you guys on that). My class found it hilarious that I was taking pictures of our class president leading us. She is the one waving her hands trying to keep time to the music. I will be singing part of our school's anthem!

Update: Mood Lately

Recently I think I have hit the bottom of the Cultural Rollercoaster here in China. Which means two things: Everything only goes up from here, and that right now may be one of the harder times while being abroad. It doesn't help that Christmas is coming up soon either!
Factors for this low point:
1). Catching a cold
2). The cold weather (which I am not accustomed to, I am spoiled by Southern California)
3). Language barrier (people may erroneously think I speak perfect Chinese, but I still have so much more to learn and this weighs on me)
4). Christmas!

I notice that I am in a good mood when I am out and about with my friends, but for some reason when I am at school in the morning before lunch, or out and about with my host family I feel a little less than miserable. Most of the time I am with my friends. I wish it wasn't like this, but it is.

Last weekend I was feeling "particularly shit" (as my British friends like to describe bad moods). I woke up late on a Saturday morning feeling ill and tired. I also felt bored. I stayed at home even though my family wasn't there. I felt like I should wait for them, although they hadn't even told me what they were doing/where they had gone/when they would return.
Two o'clock in the afternoon rolled around and I decided to get out of the house. I called my British friend Frances, who said she was heading to the only Starbucks in the area. This place has become my "de-saddifying" center. In the comfort of the cushy chairs, heating, the familiar smell of coffee, and Christmas music we discussed our day.
Just before I had left for Starbucks my host father had called me inviting me to their other apartment in Chongqing for dinner (they have three, I live in one, which they bought just for me). He asked me to take a taxi....which would cost at least 30 yuan (which is costly for a taxi, when the starting fee is 5 yuan). So I waited for a taxi. They were all full. I bailed. I wasn't in the mood to be there anyway. I had a feeling all I would end up doing is watching TV. I called my father again and asked for a busstop to show a fake willingness to go. He admitted that he didn't know of any buses that went to the neighborhood nearby that apartment.
I politely said that it just wasn't going to work out because I was feeling ill and I didn't want to walk anymore, or walk with effort looking around for a busstop. Unfortunately he didn't undertsand, and asked me to reconsider. I asked him to give me 45 minutes. All of that time I spent at Starbucks with Frances discussing the situation. I think I would have gone bonkers if Frances hadn't been there! She talked me through the decision process: stay home and have dinner with friends at a restaurant a stone's throw from my house, or go see my family.
I opted to stay home.
Don't think I am a jerk though! After Starbucks I arrived home to find my Grandma waiting for me. She was going to take me to the other apartment. I told her that I was not feeling up to it, and with the aid of a piece of paper and a pencil everything was sorted. I wrote down what I said, as I said it, to make myself clearer. Straight away she gave my father a phonecall. I burst out laughing, because my Grandmother sounds like a Jawa from Star Wars (Youtube them if you don't know what they are).
She sat down on the brown sofa in the living room and picked up the Chongqing Daily Newspaper. "No relationship, don't worry." (The expression "No relationship" is the literal translation of a phrase that really means no problem). Relieved I asked in some of the local dialect "And what are Little Brother, Mother and Father doing?" She looked up from behind the paper and peered at me through her tiny wire-rimmed glasses. Her hair is black and shiny, she dyed it before the family took their most recent group photo. "Little Brother is playing badminton, and Mother is sick in bed~o." The added extra "~o" is a particle added at the end of a sentence to show that you are saying something with endearment.
Yet again I was relieved. If I had wasted that time and money to go to the apartment, I really would have just ended up watching TV.
"Come here," my grandma patted the empty space on the sofa near her. "You should try and read this, it will help you with Chinese!" she encouraged me, holding her hand out to another copy of the newspaper. (We get two different editions of the paper everyday, they aren't evening or morning editions...so I am pretty sure one is economics and the other is well, other). She proceeded to explain the headlines to me. She read them aloud slowly and asked me to follow along. Recently the Chinese Newspapers have had complete editions dedicated to the massacre in India, and so I learned new words like "unexpected attack" (袭击) and the sentence structure for "So-and-so was shot dead by so-and-so." I should find this useful I think.
No, but I really did enjoy spending this time with my Host Grandmother while I was waiting for my friends to pick me up for dinner. I think she had a good time too, because we discussed the current events. She told me how China is so much better than it was when she was little.
As it turns out we both had to leave at the same time because she was meeting with my Host Grandfather for dinner. The pair of them rarely spend time with each other! When my friends invite me to dinner my Host Grandmother encourages me to go because she knows she can seize the opportunity to spend time with him. My Host Grandfather takes care of my Little Brother's cousin, while my Host Grandmother cooks, cleans, washes the flat I live in. AND she picks up my Little Brother from school.
The dinner with friends and the time spent with my Host Grandmother definitely made me feel better that day.

Thankfully there are a few distractions coming up soon:
1). Returning to Shanghai for Christmas
2). Going to Beijing with my AFS coordinator and another AFS'er from Chongqing

Thanksgiving 感恩节

I had an excellent Thanksgiving here in China! It was far from traditional but it was nice all the same. The weather was perfect: sunny and not too freezing. I spent a lot of time on the school roof getting my fair share of Vitamin D. I am not the only one who knows about it either! Many secret couples (dating is grounds for expulsion in China) also joined me up there. They stood far away occassionally eyeing the foreigner out of the corners of their eyes. The view of the city from the top of the roof was lovely!
In the evening we were going to go to the local Marriott to have a Thanksgiving dinner. But we bailed at the last minute because it was far too expensive. When I say we, I mean my very lovely British teachers who were nice enough to celebrate Thanksgiving with me!
The group of us decided to head to a Singaporean restaurant that had specials on American food this month. My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of: a hamburger, french fries (YUM!), and for dessert pancakes. It was satisfying. And the day had been so nice and relaxed I had no complaints, and no real homesickness.

Medicine Man 中医

（Chinese Traveling Medicine Man selling his wares on the street by our school. In this picture he was cutting an antler or some kind of bone for the man sitting next to him. He was also singing some unintelligible song.)

Yesterday I walked by this man on the way to lunch, and unfortunatley I didn't have my camera. He is new to this part of town. However today I happened to have my camera, and I discreetly took his picture while watching him cut some ingridients for this man. If you look closely there is some kind of paw (bear?) or hoof at the front of his mat. Most of the things are roots and mushrooms, but I think some may be animal testes. I just stood there and watched him for a while fascinated. Because I stood there I drew a crowd...I think the locals thought I was going to purchase something. I wouldn't even know how to do that!

HAIR 头发，剪头发

A few days agao my friend and I decided to get our hair cut. I was definitely overdue for one and she said she was too. Together we searched the local shopping square for the most impressive looking hair salon.


We finally settled on a salon that had a huge L'Oreal poster at the bottom. At the entrance we were greeted by a hugely tall Chinese woman who walked us up a flight of stairs to the actual salon. In the salon a whole row of stylists (dressed in bright pink and deep purple dresses) bowed and said "欢迎光临" (We Welcome your Glorious Patronage!). The cieling was wrapped in a tacky looking gold fabric and the seats for waiting were plush and bright red. How could I refuse?



From the gold beguiled cieling hung many pictures of people with flawless skin wearing all the trendiest Chinese hair-dos. Some look more like dragon ball z characters than anything. My friend and I sat anxiously in our red plush seats, constantly glancing around as if someone would run over and shave our heads. After a few minutes one of those purple and pink ladies walked over and began squirting straight shampoo into our hair from what looked like a mustard bottle.
It was a strange sensation at first, but then we relaxed. The assistants began massaging our heads with their fingers, we were content.

Next came a wash, which wasn't anything special. But while you are lying down you can read all the advertisements stuck to the cieling.

When the hairwash was over we were offered a complimentary massage. I asked what kind of massage, because if you are offered a massage in China you can never be sure if the lady is offering you sex. She wasn't! Yay! The assistant said that it would be an ear, head, neck, arm, and upper back massage. My friend said "Why not?"
It was absolutely fabulous. However there was one strange part where they stuck a long wrap of toilet paper down our ears to clean them. It was a bit disconcerting, but we got over it because the arm massage was next and that involved cutting off our circulation and blowing cold air onto our open palms.

All of this preparation took about an hour, and the haircut only took about 15 minutes!

Shanghai Pictures! Series 2 上海旅游的照片 第二部分

(my favorite building on the Bund)

(being silly on the subway, Alida, me, and Magdelena from America)

(walk street off the Bund)

(tallest building in China, as of now, on the Bund)

(the Bund)

(night-out in Xintiandi: Lalo from Mexioc, Clara from Italy)

(typical style of building in Xintiandi)

(my American AFS friend Jesus and the model/wedding picture lady)

(lady having her photos taken infront of a wig shop's window display)

(the cookie dough attempt)

(Shanghai friends!: Alida from Switzerland, and Dasha from Russia)

（"Little Eat Street" or "Snack Street")

Shanghai Pictures (Finally)! Series 1 上海旅游的照片（总算上载）第一部分

(Alleyway)

(local market street, no foreigners besides us!)

(strange looking old house and the wall surrounding it)

(inner courtyard of vacant lot house)

(the housing complex on the vacant lot)

(Old and slightly creepy housing located on vacant lot)

(Old alleyways of Shanghai)

(In front of the main hall of the Temple near Yu Gardens)

（An old alley in Shanghai)

(Teapot shop near the alleys)

(one of the halls in the Temple near the Yu Gardens, many red ribbons)

(Outside of the Yu Gardens, that building is a famous teahouse...very expensive! And very scenic expecially when the weather is right!)

(the front entrance to the temple near the Yu Gardens)

(marketplace/shopping streets around the Yu Gardens)

Shanghai Excursion Part 2 上海旅游第二部分

(Continued from post below)
We had seen as much of the temple as we could see, we then decided to move on to something else when we stumbled into this sort of communist-era or precommunist-era part of Shanghai outside of Shanghai Old Street (上海老街). From the outside it looked a lottle seedy and rundown. But the most attractive thing about it was that there were no foreigners to be seen! At first Jesus (my friend, not the biblical figure) was a little unsure, but then I remembered how my neighborhood in Chongqing looks. It's not clean, and there are not any foreigners wandering about. I concluded that we should have a look because this is a part of Shanghai where normal people live! (Plus these old neighborhoods are slowly being replaced by highrises).
Each lump of housing was two stories, white, and a bit of ashen gray (probably from pollution or something else). Most of them had extremely narrow and square courtyards. Most of the courtyards had at least one dirty porcelain sink for washing and a bike or two. In one of the courtyards a door was open so I got a glimpse into a shabby white and blue tiled kitchen. In most of the alleys there were small black stenciled advertisements sprayed on the walls willy-nilly. Many of them were for electrical and plumbing repairs. Out the small windows and into the alleys people had hung their laundry to dry. The laundry gave the alleyways most of their color. Each little alley was about the width of 1.5 doorways. I really enjoyed walking along these narrow spaces because I could see what the everyday Shanghainese were up to! If I ever go back to Shanghai I will definitely need to return to these sorts of places!
The main drag led us back down another lively street (also lacking foreigners), it was something of a market street, except all the stores were mainly inside small establishments and not in little stalls. Past this street a building caught Jesus's attention, it was a dark looking brick building that we could just see over a blank white wall. This building looked like something that belonged in the French Concession. What was it doing here? We turned a few corners and voila we were at the gate...
Through the gate we saw that the building was surrounded by a shrubbery covered vacant lot that was about the size of a football field. The outside looked like it needed a few good coats of paint and maybe some new bricks, bit this didn't take away from how intriguing this place was (this building is hard to describe, I will have to post a picture). There was one visible entrance that opened onto a courtyard and a very dark hallway, I had a quick peek in, snapped a photo, heard some voices and then hightailed it out of there! At this point it was pretty dark so my nerves were on edge a bit.
Soon afterwards we met Dasha (Russian) and Alida (Swiss) at a frog restaurant. Or well a restaurant that specializes in serving frogs! I tried them, but I must say they were served like a sack of bones and organs so it didn't really appeal to me...However the noodles and rice hit the spot! Where we had dinner was a small street called "Little Eat Street" or "Snack Street." It's just a street lined with restaurants and extremely well lit because of all the restaurant's signs.
Then suddenly I had a craving, a craving for COOKIE DOUGH!
It would now be impossible to stop me, I was determined to have cookie dough. (You'd think the Cold Stone Creameries that Shanghai has would at least have cookie dough icecream...but no! And if you have ever been to Cold Stone with me you know that I get one "like it" with at least 4 mix-ins of cookie dough!). Everyone joined me in my quest, and our Italian comrade Clara met us at the nearest Carrefour to join in! (Carrefour is a foreigner-friendly grocery store, it's like a French version of Wal-Mart).
There we discovered:
1. No one in China knows what pre-made cookiedough is
2.Cinnamon can only be found in the spices section and the staff usually doesn't know what it is
3. Vanilla extract comes in the form of vanilla sugar (it's a substitute)
4. Brown sugar in Chinese is called "hong tang" red sugar (this caused a bit of confusion)
5.Make your own chocolate chips!
Thankfully we had the wonderful Dasha, she called her mother in Russia to make sure we had all the ingridients for the batter, and Clara helped us get most of the ingridients! Yay teamwork!
Late at night while Jesus and I were making the cookie dough his host Dad walked by on his way to the bathroom and peeked in. He seemed genuinely curious...I did not want to seem like a weirdo so I told him that making this dough was a Thanksgiving tradition in America....one makes the dough late night on Thanksgiving Eve and enjoys the dough amidst the company of friends. Thanksgiving was two weeks away, and it's a total lie! But it's fine. No harm done. :)
It all turned out that the dough was a little too brown sugar-y and the sugar wasn't very granulated. The movie we wanted to watch while eating the dough was not very good either...so we just went to sleep.
Day Four:
Since we were so busy with our Thanksgiving "traditions" the night before, we did not go to bed until quite late. Late to bed, late to rise, this keeps an exchange student happy, awake(through the day), and skinny (because you sleep through breakfast...this is not done on purpose!). We joined the other exchange students for lunch at the school cafeteria.
In the afternoon we met another American AFS'er (she goes to a different school) in The People's Square and subwayed it to the French Concession for dinner. When I thought of the French Concession, I thought about international restuarants and tree-lined streets. Well, we got the tree-lined streets but as it turns out we all were craving American style pizza...naturally we had Papa John's! (They don't have pizza in Chongqing!). Papa John's served on the sidewalk of the French Concession was truly lovely!
While we were eating a model started posing outside the display of a nearby wigshop. Out of curiosity I sent Magdelena (the other American) to take pictures of her. In the end the lady wasn't a model but a woman taking fancy pictures for her wedding album! Interesting!!

Later we walked around the famous Bund. Which is breathtaking, but after a few minutes one gets tired of Chinese vendors shouting "hello Rollerskates!" "hello Lights!" "hello Photo!" The word Hello has a different meaning over here. It means "Excuse me, move out of the way or else that car is going to run you over," "Please buy my goods," and "You're a foreigner!"

Soon we got over it and just decided to enjoy the scenery. I think my favorite building on the whole Bund is the clocktower. (When I returned to Chongqing I told people I had visited the Bund most of their responses were "Oh so many foreign banks there.")
Day 5:
On this evening we had all planned to go to a semi-well known Shanghai Dance club...When everyone was together and we had made it to the entrance we were turned down. The bouncer's excuse was that we weren't 18 yet. (This usually isn't a problem in Chongqing). There is no drinking age, and the drinks are far too expensive to drink, people just go to dance. After that huge disappointment everyone just decided to walk around the interesting part of town nearby.
This part of town is called Xintiandi.
Xintiandi looks very European, but I am not quite sure of the history behind it. It's a small area and most of the buildings are brick and Victorianesque. I have some pictures that I will try and post because I don't think words can do this part of Shanghai any real justice.
One of my favorite parts of this night was that I actually had cookiedough icecream from Cold Stone! The nice icecream people took the cookiedough from a pre-made cookiedough cake and scooped it out just for me! And they did it for free!!! I think they did it because there are seldom any Chinese speaking foreigners that come there!
Day 6:
Such a sad day! I had to return home and leave all of my Shanghai friends behind :(
Nothing much exciting and noteworthy happened on this day. However I do plan to return to Shanghai maybe early next year!

Excursion to Shanghai 上海旅游！Part 1

These past five days I was enjoying the wonderful city that is Shanghai!

I don't even know where to begin, the city was purely spectacular! It is a perfect blend of western and eastern societies. For example on one side of town you can walk through alleys of disappearing pre-communist era neighborhoods, while on another side you can walk by a Louis Vuitton or an upscale bar. I enjoyed both ends of the spectrum, and I think in order to fall in love with the city as I have one must see both sides.


First Day:


The first day wasn't really much of a day, it was more of a first night. I arrived at Shanghai Pudong Int'l Airport at 9pm and was greeted by my American AFS friend Jesus. Although we have really only spent three days together before this we reunited like old friends. After many exclamations, greetings, and questions we quickly made our way to the Maglev ticket booth to buy tickets for the last train (50 yuan) which goes directly to the subway.

While we were waiting for the train we talked about our other AFS acquaintances, host families, and the quality of service our AFS coordinators are providing us (mine is just perfect).

Apparently my friend ended up with an extremely bitchy coordinator who seems to have a smart-alack answer for everything "It's just culture." or "You're a coward."


When I arrived at my friend's house his host parents were waiting by the door for us. They are both fairly medium height, have short hair, and wear glasses. They are both are Chinese Literature teachers at the local school that Jesus attends. The first thing they exclaimed as I walked in was "Oh! Your hair is not red!" At that time they thought I couldn't speak Chinese.

My friend Jesus had told his parents accidentally that my hair was literally red...but for strawberry blonde you say 金黄色(jeen-hwahng suh), meaning "golden yellow." After a few laughs I answered them in Chinese "Oh, I think there was a misunderstanding..." We got along perfectly after that. His parents are really nice, and care about him alot. Also their Mandarin is amazingly perfect...I am so used to Mandarin spoken with a Chinese southern accent (which is a little bit complicated to explain unless you speak Mandarin).


After a few cups of tea and a lively chat I found out that they used to live in one of the remotest provinces in China, Xinjiang 新疆 (sheen jahng). The host father can even speak a little bit of the native minority's language. (This is a treat in China because most Han people look down on any other minority in China, but the host dad was actually interested in the culture and people so he was clearly open-minded...and would be considered liberal in a sense). There is a group of Xinjiang students living at the local middle school and Jesus's host dad is responsible for some of their classes etc. The "reason" why these students are so far away from home is so they can get a higher education...but that's just what the government wants you to think. Really they are here to sort of be washed of their culture and to be sent back to instill more Chineseness into their native Uighur (name of the minority that dominates Xinjiang Province) society.
But that's another story!!


Day Two:


The next day I attended class with my friend Jesus and his host brother. I didn't meet the host brother the night before because he was asleep! He walked with us to school which Jesus said was unusual because his brother never liked to be late. (I don't really know the host brother's name so I will just call him Catboy from now on...because that's what all the AFS'ers call him behind his back). Catboy was extremely excited to talk to me because we could communicate. He seemed pretty reserved, but was really nice. Like most other Chinese teenage boys he has a fiery passion for basketball (his room has at least five posters of various American players).

Unfortunately over the course of this stay in Shanghai I didn't have much time to get to know him! Chinese students are always so busy with school!


In English class I introduced myself to the class and told them (slowly) why I was in China, and then repeated myself in nervous Chinese. The only response back I got was "Waaaaaahh" and clapping. I can't help but turning red! During class Jesus and I played catch-up by passing a sheet of paper back and forth with notes. At break time I met the other exchange students at the school: Dasha (Russian), Alida (Swiss), Clara (Italian), and Theo (German). Everyone was really nice and welcoming. Most of them were surprised that I knew their names! :) We all ate a wonderful school lunch together, the noodles were so much better than my school's lunch! It was delicious.

In the afternoon I took their Chinese class. The teacher was positively evil! In a very backhanded and subtle way. But not in a such a way that no one will notice. We came back late from break because we were busy taking group photos, when we arrived she yelled "You're late!" everyone was silent. Trying not to laugh at her accent. Then she said something that almost killed us all "What on the hells were you doing!?" Muffled snickering ensued. I couldn't help it I asked "Excuse me?! What did you just say?" She ignored me but I just had to make it known that what she said (or meant rather) is in unacceptable behavior from a teacher. She's mean already, she doesn't have to make it worse.

It was 5pm when class ended. Jesus's parents took Alida, Jesus, Catboy, and me out to dinner for authentic Shanghai cuisine! It was excellent. Most of the dishes had sauces that you dip the meat in. I had pig feet meat...which isn't as bad as I thought it would be (especially after it has been dipped in a sweet sauce). Chongqing food is always spicy so this sweetness was a much needed change.

The restaurant was in a preserved old part of Shanghai called Qi Bao Guzhen (chee bao goo-juhn) and is marvelous to walk around at night because most of the old alleys and buildings are lit up. The area is supposedly over 1000 years old.

Day Three:

We got a late start on this day, but that didn't stop us from seeing a lot! We took a subway into the centre of Shanghai and somehow ended up near the Bund. (But we weren't going to see the Bund) When we successfully hailed a cab, the driver took us to 豫园(Yu yuan) Yu gardens. Which is kind of a tourist trap...but we knew that ahead of time. In this courtyard-ish area are many stores located inside lavishly decorated Chinese style buildings. The roofs are very picturesque and traditional Chinese-like. Signs upon signs painted with gold calligraphy hang over shops, alleyways, and streets. On your way to the garden you pass over a crooked bridge with several zig-zag corners (to confuse the evil spirits). I am lucky that I got a picture on this bridge because usually it is overcrowded with people! After all we opted to not enter the garden considering it cost 40 yuan per person. The outside was enough, and plus Frommer's/Lonely Planet did not think highly of the place anyway.

Jesus took me to a temple instead (I know how funny this sentence looks!). It is an old Buddhist Temple outside of the Yu garden's complex. The entry fee was only ten yuan (less than 2 dollars). The process of paying went like this... First find the hole in the wall, then look in and find an old bespectacled small man on the other side. Hand him the money, he then checks to see if the bill is real by feeling the grooves on Chairman Mao's face. He nods. Then hands you a small ticket that is collected at the gate.

To my surprise there were no foreigners to be seen inside the temple! Right when you walk in there is a small enclosed courtyard with different halls off each end for different purposes of worship. The main hall is directly in front of you, and the big Buddha is clearly visible. In the courtyard there are several places where you can burn incense and I suppose warm yourself. Off to the side is a small stall to buy incense (I didn't burn any...I don't really care for the smell, but now that I think back on it I probably should have).

We walked straight into the main hall. In front were knee-cushions for kneeling, a few Chinese people were using them already. Bowing with their hands together, bowing, bowing, bowing. They were muttering things under their breath but I did not listen. Jesus and I walked around the Buddha a few times (in the right way...which I think is counter clock-wise). There was a bearded man wearing a black cap, dark blue robe, and coke bottle classes in the corner. Behind him were the characters for Happiness Help Place. He had a rather thick book in front of him which he opened as we came towards him.

Politely as I could I asked "Excuse me, but are you a fortune teller?" He waved his hand and shook his head as if to say "No". Then he pointed to the open book before him. It was full of names and numbers. Below every name was a number and then the character for Yuan after the number. Immediately I understood. You write your name, give a donation, and then he prays for your good fortune! I wrote my name and donated 10 yuan.

Continuing down the hall towards the back courtyard there were rows of small statues on each side of the hall. Each was painted differently. They all probably represented a different aspect of something. Below each statuette were posts. Each post had bunches of red ribbons tied around them. In the back courtyard was a smaller, and less interesting, worship hall. This courtyard was not as fancy and looked as though it was used for practical things such as cleaning.

(the rest will be continued in the next post!)

Technical Problems!

Sorry i haven't posted in forever! Something is wrong with the picture uploading icon. I will have to postpone some posts because they all require pictures!!

Interesting Photos (Pre-Shanghai Trip) 很有意思的照片

(Note: this post was written before the "Shanghai Excursion" but because of picture posting problems it wasn't posted until afterwards)
(apartment buildings by my school)

("what sweet smiles they have, alas! so please keep them off the green grass!) Engrish

(painting class at school)

(a storefront in the underground market)

(stuffed anime characters galore! ~in the underground market)

(shopkeeper in the underground market, she was super embarrassed when I asked to take her photo)

(SUPER ENGRISH! if you can figure out the complete meaning, you're amazing. click to enlarge)

(another awesome example of Engrish that the underground market has to offer)

(ping-pong tables at a middleschool near to my house)

(laundry drying on the last day of perfect weather in Chongqing)

Make of these photos what you will! I have just put them up because I think they will interest a few people. These are photos I have just taken everyday.

On Tuesday I am going to visit my American AFS friend in Shanghai for about a week. I will come back on Sunday. I will definitely have some good things to write about after that. But while I am there I probably won't be able to post.

Recently it has just been school school school for me! I wake up at 6:30 and try to get to school by 7:30. Mostly I sit at my desk and write characters. Just about everyday I write a journal entry in Chinese so I can keep up my writing. My deskmate is cool. Unlike almost all the other students he isn't too into school. Which makes him more of a real person actually! I know how awful that sounds! He is funny and often asks me questions about America, where in turn I ask him about China.

The reason why I said he was more like a real person is because most Chinese students are so occupied with studying they can't be bothered to do/talk about anything else! School is their life and life is their school. Even on the weekends they are seldom available. When they are I always take the opportunity to be with them! I like school because you can talk to your friends at breaks and there is more socializing. I love my class!

My class is so nice to me, even though I do have one girl who amuses herself by refusing to speak Mandarin and only speaking the local dialect. She likes to watch my reaction and then laugh. I am sure if I were her I would think it's funny too! Right now my class is helping me prepare for yet another contest. This one I must sing though! I have to sing a bit of the school song. I am nervous, but i will do it nonetheless because I don't want to let down my class :)

~~~the following was written a day after the above text was typed

The weather has been rainy almost for two weeks straight! But recently it has been sunny and bright. Thus many people's spirits have been lifted. I just came back from shopping with a friend. We had a fun time desperately searching for winter clothes. If I do end up going north for Chirstmas I will need to know where the cheaper places are. However it turns out that the underground malls have limited things for men, they are shopping havens for women. It was fun nevertheless!