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