Chinese Redhead

my blog has moved

2010-08-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

my new blog is here:

www.absentmachine.tumblr.com

我的博客已经搬到tumblr.com去了。上面的链接就是我的博客！:)

Blogger is blocked in China

2009-06-09T00:59:00.001-07:00

Blogger.com has been blocked in Mainland China.
Please check out Arthur's new blog:
http://chineseredhead.livejournal.com/
Sorry about this!

大坪七牌坊 Da Ping's Seven Tablets Lane

2009-05-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

(The official plaque saying this is a cultural landmark and that Seven Tablets Lane is to be protected. Placed in the year 2002.)

(七牌坊 Qi Pai Fang, Chee Pai [say: pie] Fahng.)

(The characters say something about a river. But even my Chinese friends couldn't really tell me why these were placed here.)

(Seven Tablets Lane, or Qi Pai Fang [Chee Pai Fahng] was almost destroyed in the demolishing of old government block housing.)

(James and I walked over those boards to avoid destroying our feet on the rubble. But...when you walk over the boards all the rats underneath begin to protest. When leaving the site I preferred the other route.)

(Construction workers milling about. That block of housing is probably demolished now.)

(James Spencer-Owen. I am not sure how willing he was to go with me on this adventure. But I　dragged him along. These tablets were pretty huge. The tablet on the far right says something about a river.)

(Just so you get an idea of how big these tablets are. Nowadays [May] I wouldn't wear that much clothing. I think James and I went to explore this in February...when it was still COLD!)

(We kept commenting on how the surrounding area looks like a bomb had been dropped.)

(Maybe this area will have towering apartments like that.)

(This is the market we passed through to get to 七牌坊 Qi Pai Fang.)

(Selling all kinds of pots and containers.)

(That big red character on those huge urns means alcohol. 酒 jiu3)

(Shelling peas.)

(More vege.)

(On the way home this little girl was staring at us. So I decided to take her picture. She is sitting atop the fire extinguisher in a public bus.)

七牌坊 Qi Pai Fang was originally meant to be a mild adventure. I had bought a small Chinese guidebook to Chongqing's historic and "touristic" sights. While I was flipping through it I found several pictures of a pleasantly shaded street lined by huge stone tablets. The neighborhood is relatively old looking but at the same time very Chongqingesque. Cobble stone alley ways, steps galore, people hanging laundry out their windows, some even placing bedding on the tablets.

I dragged James along with me. When we got off the bus we found the nearest magazine/drink stand to ask for directions to the lane. Fortunately our bus had stopped almost exactly perpendicular to the small street leading to the lane. However simple this may sound now, we didn't know this at the time. I asked the man watching over the cigarette-selling part of the magazine stand. His wife (I am assuming) sat in the far corner of the booth knitting.

"Excuse me, where is Qi Pai Fang?"

"Eh? You want to go to Qi Pai Fang?"

"Yes."

"[Insert directions here]."

"Well you'd better hurry. They want to demolish it soon. Oh, actually it's been demolished."

The wife sitting in the corner who had been quietly observing, set her knitting on her lap and piped up.

"It hasn't been demolished yet. They wanted to though. But the people of the neighborhood protested and complained. So now they will keep it safe."

"Who is they?" I asked.

"The construction company." the couple said, they looked at me as if I had just asked a really stupid question. Maybe I had.

James and I thanked them and were on our way. Even though those two had said the lane hadn't been demolished yet we hurried along the street leading to our destination. This street was packed with stalls of lettuce, alcohol, fruit, and various cooking items. The little corner of Chongqing we were in was not the most well-off area to be sure. Most of the people gawked at us as we went on our way.

The next part came as a shock. Once we turned a corner we saw that a whole chunk of the neighborhood had been blown away. It looked like a bomb had been dropped on all the government housing that had once occupied this now quiet space. From a small distance we could still see the stones, which looked intact. What a relief! For a split-second I thought that the whole adventure would have been ruined. The only thing in the way now was a strip of yellow CAUTION tape and a few workers smoking cigarettes. I tried crossing the line and then a worker said:

"You are not permitted. It is unsafe."

"Oh, but I just want to take some pictures. Is that alright?"

"Ok, but be careful. Walk along here..." he pointed to some boards.

The only reason he let us pass I think was because I spoke Chinese with him. He may not have expected me to be able to answer him back at all, let alone understand what he had said in the first place. It feels strange to think about all the things I would not have been able to do in China if I could not speak Chinese.

As James and I walked over the boards we heard the protests of various rodents: RATS! Quickly we hurried off. I turned only to see a few scurry out from under the boards, turn around, then scurry back under again. The rats were not very big but they looked filthy.

The stones were large sturdy slabs. They were much much taller than me. Possibly three times taller than me. But then again some of their bases were covered in construction debris. On each stone were carved large characters. I recognized a few but when I put them together I did not get the meaning. I do know now, that one slab says "Fierce Loyalty," or "Strong Virginity," depending on how you'd like to translate it. The other slab says the name of a Festival or a shrine (that is located in Taiwan). That is if you read the characters vertically. If you read them from right to left (from one slab to another) it just means "Virginity" while the bottom would read "Strong Filial Piety." Interesting, huh? (Mind you I had to find out all of this by myself, my Chinese friends weren't much of a help).

Next James and I looked around at the barren landscape. It was an oasis of empty space surrounded by overcrowded apartment blocks (be they government-built or already-looking-dirty newly built). The sun was high. I started to sweat. We took pictures, looked around at the tablets for a while. Wondering out loud what the characters etched into the stones meant. Venting about the Chinese. James had just gotten to Chongqing from England a week or two before so we mutually vented about cultural differences between the west and the east.

We finished taking photos and exploring. The weather was getting hot. James ran over the boards infested with rats while I took the slower way of tip-toeing over small construction debris. I was lucky to not have had a nail go through my shoe. We bought cold drinks from the magazine stand where we had asked for directions, told the couple how it went, crossed the busy (lacking a stop light or crosswalk) street, then proceeded down the street to find a bus returning to Shapingba District. An interesting adventure to say the least.

貝迪溫泉五月一日 Beity Hot Springs

2009-05-04T01:38:00.000-07:00

(Entrance.)

(Flowers outside the hot springs.)

(Lake/pond in front of the hot spring entrance.)

(Indoor portion of the hot spring.)

(One of the many pools outside.)

The beginning of the day started out a bit rough. It was drizzling outside, and I convinced myself that if I didn't take a shower now I would regret it later. I popped into the tiny closet sized bathroom, took off my pajamas, and balanced myself carefully over the porcelain hole in the floor that serves both as a shower drain and a toilet. In this house, the shower head actually stays put when the water is running. Whereas in the prior family's house, the shower head would have fallen.

After I finished showering, I quickly put on my clothes. Packed somethings into my messenger bag given to me by the Ngan family in Hong Kong and went downstairs. The stairs groaned under my feet announcing to all downstairs that I was awake. I looked around the living room. No one really appeared ready. My host mother asked me why I was ready so early. I told her that the night before my host dad had said that we were to pick up Ben around 9am. She looked at the clock. It was five to nine. She called to my host dad who was in the kitchen making breakfast.

"You didn't tell me you planned it like this! Aiya, Ben is waiting for us! Why didn't you tell me?"

My host dad something inaudible, something he grumbled.

"That's no excuse!" my host mom responded.

She popped her head out from between the kitchen door and the door frame.

"Yaoxia, go get Ben. Tell him he can have breakfast with us."

I nodded then slipped on my black sandals.

It was cool out. Which is not unusual for Chongqing weather. Chongqing has a problem deciding on whether it really wants the seasons to change or not. I have been through rainy periods, foggy periods, sunny hot scorching sweaty humid periods, and warm drizzling periods. Today it was overcast and drizzling.

Ben was already waiting outside his apartment's lift lobby. Like me, he didn't carry an umbrella. I lost mine, Ben just refuses to have one. He is from England after all. It seems like whenever it precipitates outside Ben insists that it is "spitting" and not actually "raining" hence the lack of an umbrella. I told him what was happening. Then we walked back across the wet and green campus to my family's apartment for a breakfast of noodles and egg.

The car ride to the hot spring was a bit more time consuming than we thought. We ended up waiting in the car at the front gate of Chongqing University for over half an hour. We were waiting for my host dad's older sister to arrive so her car could drive in front of ours and take us to the hot spring. She finally arrived. Much to the frustration of my host mother and the embarrassment of my host father. I do not think my host mom enjoys my host father's older sister's company too much. In the end there was no point in her coming because after ten minutes on the freeway her car sped off. We were lost.

It took us an hour longer to get to the hot spring than originally planned. In fact the hot spring is quite close to Chongqing. The journey back lasted for about forty-five minutes to an hour.

Our caravan of cars eventually met up at a conference center/ hotel near the hot spring. The plan was to get some lunch. However, the restaurant wait was too long. Time was short already because Ben and I needed to be back in Shapingba (the district in which we all live) for a birthday party. There was a wedding ceremony going on in the middle of this huge restaurant. The restaurant building looked like one of those huge glass topped indoor plant nurseries you sometimes see off the highway.

As soon as Ben and I got out of the car to go into the restaurant we were greeted by two small girls. Well, they didn't really greet us. They sort of pointed, said "wai guo ren" (foreigners), walked up to us, and stared. This happens often, but not when the children who are staring are the children of your host family's friends. Ben and I ignored them, as we have learned to do now.

"It's funny how in some countries this place would be full of plants. But in China it's a restaurant full of people and a wedding." Ben said while my host mom inquired about the wait for a table.

The wait ended up being too long. Everyone piled into their respective sedans and drove out of the well landscaped conference center towards the hot springs. I was expecting some sort of indoor hot spring, possibly dirty.

I definitely did not expect marble floors, showers with nice water pressure, unlimited towels, hairdryers, an internet cafe, acupuncture salon, massage parlor, free fruit bar, 68 yuan all-you-can-eat-buffet, or huge lazy boy chairs with televisions attached! Not to mention a wonderfully strange pool where small fish eat your dead skin!

The host family paid for our entry and left. They had all decided to find a bite to eat since the all you can eat buffet was too expensive. 68 yuan per person is a lot for three people. My host mom asked Ben and I if we wanted to join. We politely declined saying that we could feed off the free fruit bar.

There were many different kinds of pools in the hot spring. A large beach like one that would change into a horrible-high-pitched-techno-playing wave pool. All of the pools were shallow enough for people to sit on the bottom without drowning. You could buy a drink from the bar and sit in the spring marveling at the condensation off your coke can.

Another was a fish pool. The water itself wasn't so clean...it was filled with little bits of fish poop. But it must have been cleaned regularly because you couldn't smell it. I didn't mind, we could just pop into another pool couldn't we? After sitting down in the fish pool one must remain still in order to entice the small brownish fish to have a nibble. Once they had a bite all their other friends would join. The feeling was tickle-ish. I heard many Chinese people exclaim "Yang si wo! 癢死我!" or "Hao yang a! 好癢啊!" meaning "I am being tickled to death" and "So tickle-y!" We went back to that pool several times.

Due to our hunger we eventually caved in to the all you can eat 68 yuan buffet. Which was glorious! I had noodles, cakes, coffee, pastries, spinach, chocolate from a chocolate fountain, and a real danish! The best 68 yuan I will ever spend. I met another American lady there from Texas. We talked briefly. She asked all the questions. I was too giddy from all the good food to remember my manners and ask her in return!

We returned to the pools to digest our food.

Later Ben and I ran into my host mom, host dad, and Rose (my host sister) in the fish pool. Rose was having a hard time sitting still and therefore having a difficult time understanding why this pool was so special. We chatted for a while, admiring our little finned friends.

Hot springs are really nice! I hope to return soon!

Lamma Island 南丫島

2009-04-22T21:44:00.000-07:00

(Flags on the pier, as well as fellow tourists.)

(Boats in the harbor near the pier.)

("Creek" between houses and restaurants on the main street through Lamma.)

(Postage on the way towards town from the ferry.)

(The main harbor, yes that is a power plant. I think it is hydro-electric though. Sort of a reminder that you are still in China.)

(Main street.)

(Handwritten menu of the restaurant where we ate.)

(Vege.)

(Fruit.)

(Coke machine near a curio shop.)

(Roadside shrine on the way to the beach.)

(Part of the walk to the beach.)

(No cars are allowed on this island. Only small tractors. 6000 people live on the island.)

(I really love signs like this in Hong Kong. This style of lettering really gets me! This restaurant was on the way to the beach.)

(Big flat leaves, also on the way to the beach.)

(And finally we arrive at the beach. There is an old Francophone with his granddaughter playing in the water. We rode the same ferry.)

(Our cicada friend that frightened us at first. The noise was really loud at first, it startled Baddi and I. Then we got up from the table and looked around only to find it here!)

(A fellow table-sitter.)

(Leaving the beach, a white wall around some one's property.)

(This is what some of the houses look like on Lamma.)

(The main harbor by the ferry.)

All I have to say about this place is wow. Nam'a Doh (means "South Forked Island") is a really interesting, not to mention relaxing place. The weather was wonderful and the water looked so clean! I don't think my Icelandic friend Baddi agreed about the clean water part, but I am used to dark green water so to me the semi-clear blue water was good enough.

The weather that day was warm and humid. After we got off the boat we walked down the main drag of the island, past several seafood restaurants and a small post office. Baddi and I were both starving and on a budget so we settled for a slightly cheaper noodle place off the beach. We had Shanghai noodles, funnily enough the island's specialty is seafood but neither Baddi nor I likes seafood. along with my wonderful Shanghai noodles I had a lemon coke, which I have only had in Hong Kong (and nowhere else in China as that sentence already implies).

After paying the bill we sauntered on down towards the nearest beach (25 minutes away). I was seriously regretting not bringing sun screen. When we arrived I retreated to the coke machine and then on to the shade. The beach was so clean, and the changing facilities, bathrooms, and lifeguard station were really tidy. Baddi and I sat on a bench under a tree and commenced our people watching. The beach was fairly empty. Most of the people there were foreign. Some French and some Americans. The rest were Chinese. In total this may have been 12 people.

Our presence was later graced by a big cicada. Looking back on it we should have named him...but we didn't alas.

On the way to and from the beach we were surrounded by foliage. Green green green foliage! It was lovely. Occasionally we passed a house or two. Maybe even a Filipino maid getting after her mischievous western charge. We passed that sort of thing twice actually. There is an international elementary school on the island, so there are westerners about.

It was a sad thing to leave this place, I think Baddi and I both enjoyed it. Vowing several times that we must move here when we are older. We could be neighbors! I suggested to Baddi that he spread Icelandic by opening an Icelandic International school on the island. He thought that was amusing.

At the end of the day we paid our fare and boarded the ferry to head back to the wonderful hustle and bustle that is the city of Hong Kong.

西貢 Sai Kung (Xi Gong), Hong Kong

2009-04-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

(Sai Kung Pier)

(People having tea and chatting next to the little park of us Sai Kung pier.)

(Circle K, the place to get cheap chilled coffee. Oh, and practice your Cantonese. "Yat ga feh, m goi." One coffee, please.)

(Me playing tourist.)

(Fisherman handing off cuttlefish guts to be used as bait. He had just finished gutting and cleaning a cuttlefish before selling it right off the boat.)

(Fisherman's boat off the side of the boardwalk.)

(People fishing [illegally] off the pier.)

(I love these lovely neon signs around Hong Kong.)

(Fisherman selling their catches off the boardwalk.)

(Crabs outside a seafood restaurant in front of a hotel.)

(Fishing boots.)

(Grandma and grandchild passing time out on the pier in Sai Kung.)

(Sam pan boats.)

(A worker taking care of the Urine Shrimp, a local speciality.)

("Aren't those guys up there illegal?")

(This seafood shop was one of the first things we saw in Sai Kung.)

(Shops leading to the boardwalk in Sai Kung.)

On Monday afternoon Baddi and I made a trek to Sai Kung. Sai Kung is in the western part of Hong Kong, and it means Western Tribute in English. I had seen a picture of the harbor in a Hong Kong guide book that I had bought recently. I decided to drag Baddi with me. (Baddi is my friend from Iceland who is living with the Ngan family in Hong Kong. He came here with Hong Kong AFS. The Ngan family took me to Macau. See last post!). Nelson (Baddi's host brother) helped us find the minibus on his way to school.

When we got off the bus in Sai Kung it was already late afternoon. The fisherman were out selling their daily catches for local peoples' dinner. Baddi and I spent more than a half an hour watching people haggle (in Cantonese, so this time I wasn't doing the translating) over cuttlefish. Off Sai Kung Harbor are many different islands, I didn't realize this until I looked at a map afterwords. The islands definitely contribute to the great view that is this harbor.

I really enjoyed resuming on of my hobbies since I was three: catch watching. When I was little my Uncle Rusty used to take me to the local pier (in California) to see what was lurking in the buckets of the fishermen. I did a lot of the here, but it was a bit more convenient. The fish were already displayed in tanks for sale, while other fish were still in the boats of fishermen.
This was mostly a people watching one. I really enjoyed it. Baddi was fascinated by the gutting of the the cuttlefish. He also liked to listen to the haggling of the locals. It helped me with my Cantonese numbers.

(This morning I discovered how horrible my Cantonese is. Cantonese not only has 6 tones. It also has three pitches. High, middle, and low. I tortured Nelson this morning by having him repeat these pitches over and over again. Last time I visited Nelson, and his sister Kathy, couldn't even recall the tones specifically to give me a listen. When I visited this time they had brushed up!)

Macau (O Moon) With the Ngan Family

2009-04-19T00:31:00.000-07:00

("Greet Money Cat" in a mango pudding restaurant in Macau)

(Another form of Hot Pot. from the left: Liu Zhuo Rong a friend of the Ngan Family's son Nelson[Yan Jia Feng] who is sitting on the right.)

(Mr. Ngan and I enjoy Macau's best cup of coffee)

(So Japan! So Macau?)

(Veggie-Stall in Macau)

(Afternoon snooze in a Macau bakery.)

(Casino/Hotel Lisboa)

(Late night snack outdoors)

(Shutters in Taipa, Macau)

(Busy night in Macau)

(A lovely shady lane somewhere near Taipa, Macau. We walked along this street for a while before moving on to some Mango ice cream/pudding.)

(Portuguese style architecture in Macau. Macau was a part of Portugal until 1999.)

(Taxi to Taipa, Macau. Taipa is the northern part of the second island in the south of Macau.)

From April 17th to the evening of April 18th I was in Macau with my favorite Hong Kong family: the Ngans. I met them last time I was in Hong Kong when I stayed with them. They are hosting a boy from Reykjavik, Iceland named Baddi Olsen. Baddi was in Beijing while we were in Macau.

The first day in Macau was sunny and beautiful while the next was depressing and rainy (I spoke too soon Jane). Last time I went to Macau it was rainy too, but that time I was too excited about being in a place once owned by Portugal to care.

I really like Macau, and maybe sometime in the future when I have the chance to return, it will be sunny!

Grave Sweeping Festival 清明節

2009-04-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

（譚Tan is my host father's family name. Before "sweeping" any graves we first went to the gathering of the family in a small government building's courtyard in the countryside.)

(Hell money, the money burnt near grave sites so the dead relatives may have spending money in the afterlife.)

(Selling fire crackers 鞭炮 [bian1 pao4, byen-pao].)

(爺爺 [yeh yeh: Grandfather] returning from his wife's grave.)

(My host father's mother's grave. She passed away when my host father was four years old. She had been ill for a long time my host mother told me.)

(Walking through a village street decorated with Grave Sweeping Festival things. The big flowery circle is made of paper, and in the middle it says 奠[dian4, dyen] which means to make an offering.)

(Water Ox used for plowing. )

(My host father [standing] and my host father's older brother [kneeling] in front of their grandmother's grave.)

(Walking through rice fields to leave grandmother's grave site.)

Grave sweeping festival doesn't actually involve sweeping any graves, at least the three graves my host family and I visited never got swept. Grave sweeping day was not really what I had expected. It seemed more traditional than Chinese New Year to me (or at least to my idea of traditional Chinese culture, but what do I know? I am foreign!). For my family this holiday involved a big get-together on my father's side of the family. The whole 譚 Tan family got together somewhere on the outskirts of a small town an hour and forty-five minutes outside of Chongqing.

My host father parked the sedan on the edge of a little dirt farm road outside a dingy little local government building complex somewhere in the countryside. I walked up to the gate that lead into the courtyard and was met by a hundred pair of eyes staring back at me. My host mother quickly moved me to a bench outside the courtyard and out of view. She didn't want my "presence" to interrupt the speech given by the head of the family (which was going on when we arrived). "I am sorry Xiao Tang [shao tah-ng : my nickname] I forgot to tell the family you would be coming to the celebration. I hope you aren't embarrassed!"

After the speech was said and done my family snuck in. Well not really...I was surrounded by a sea of old Chinese country folk, my host mother helped me press through them. When we finally made it to the table furthest from everyone a crowd of elderly men followed.

"Can he understand what we say?"

"Where is he from?" they asked.

"Look at how yellow his hair is," one exclaimed.

"His skin is so white!" another whispered.

"Oh, he can speak Chinese very well," my host mom piped up.

"Mmmm." Was the only response, mind you not an embarrassed one. Just a sort of unsure one.

After a drawn out lunch. My host mother, father, sister, uncle, aunt, grandfather, other aunt, and cousin separated from the rest of the Tan family and drove to our respective branch of the family's graves. We first visited my host father's mother's grave.

My host grandmother (I suppose I could say) is buried in a small vault located on a hill over looking rice paddies, bamboo groves and a small path leading through the fields. It was a very pretty place. We only had to walk along a narrow hill ridge for about 2 minutes before getting to her stone. Along the way we passed other graves. Most had already been visited. Incense sticks long burnt out still lay in front of the barely visible ivy-entangled tombstones. When I got to the grandmother's stone, my host aunts and uncle were already "talking" with her.

"This year their is a financial crisis Po-po, but you don't need to worry about us. We're all fine."

"Here look Po-po, I have brought Xiao Xiang [shao shah-ng : my four year old host sister] and our new friend Xiao Tang [shao tah-ng] to see you. Look at how big Xiao Xiang is getting."

"Will this be enough money Po-po? Use it well!"

Meanwhile my host uncle was staking a pole into the ground to hang white paper cuttings from. My host mother and cousin were burning Hell money so my host grandmother would be financially secure in the afterlife. When all was through everyone stood in front of the stone and made three deep bows. My host grandfather set the firecrackers off, as we walked away the sound of the firecrackers echoed off into the distance keeping the evil spirits far away from Po-po.

For some reason walking down the hill was very sad. It felt strange to know that as Westerners we really don't have a holiday like this. There is Day of the Dead but that's a bit different. I also like the fact that the family honors and remembers the dead together. That is very different I think.

Later that day we visited two more graves. One would have been my host great grandmother on my Father's side, and the other on my mother's side. It was just about the same. Except when we visit my host mother's grandmother my host father's side of the family didn't accompany us.

Huayan Temple 華巖寺

2009-04-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

(Main entrance to the Huayan Temple compound.)

(The main attraction of this temple is the 16 meter high golden Buddha.)

(Carvings on the base of the Buddha [佛 fo2 Buddha].)

(Posing awkwardly in front of the massive Buddha.)

(Path to the rest of the temple compound.)

(Gate to a smaller temple within the Huayan Temple compound.)

(Candles used for lighting incense. People buy them and then stick them on a bar over a vat of cold water for people to use to light their incense.)

(Incense holder.)

(The inner courtyard of the smaller temple.)

(I don't know what the purpose of these towers are. They were in front of the gate to Chongqing's Buddhist School located on the temple grounds.)

(Outer hallway of the Buddhist school. Those aren't monks there, they are nuns. They laughed a lot and looked really happy. One had a cellphone.)

(Gate to leave the temple.)

(A picture of a poster, to give you an idea what the temple looks like from the air.)

(I took this picture when trying to find a bus after leaving the temple. The area outside the temple was really industrious, noisy, full of huge trucks, and dusty.)

Yesterday Ben, James Spencer-Owen, and I decided that our weekly adventure should be going to see a large golden Buddha. This golden Buddha is considered to be one of Chongqing's "tourist areas" as the ten yuan ticket proudly displays. The temple grounds were quite peaceful apart from the infrequent tour groups that were lead by women with high-volume microphones. I was more amazed by all the green around the temple and less by the giant Buddha. In Chongqing one seldom sees a very green park. Or many healthy looking trees for that matter.

The journey to and from Huayan Temple was another story. We took a taxi there, I was sure we were to die of asphyxiation from all the exhaust that the heavy-industry trucks were releasing. The air was also very dusty from all these trucks and traffic. On the way back most of the main roads were clogged with these same colossal trucks. We had to walk quite a ways before we came to an opening in the road and jumped onto a bus heading back to our district.

One thing that is a let down for temples (Ben pointed this out) is they lack any information telling you what it is you are looking at. What is this alter for? Who does this statue represent? etc. However that doesn't make it boring. Just a lot of guess work and assuming. Sometimes we consult wikipedia afterwords. Or I try to ask a temple-visitor what the painting of the jumping naked monk is for.

At one point we almost got lost within the confines of the temple. Ben accidentally walked through a door that lead to the nun's dormitories. A nun with a broom froze in mid-sweep at the gate as she watched Ben casually walk on in. Next to the gate there is a sign in Chinese that forbids men from entering. Whoops! Good thing I could read the sign otherwise I may have wandered in myself.

The nuns wore different colored robes than the monks. Nuns wear yellow-orange, while the monks wear black-coffee colored robes. I passed through the Chongqing Buddhist School and saw several young nuns chatting, smiling, and a few making phone calls on their cellphones. A sight I didn't expect to see in a temple! But then again I don't know much about them.

Lower Half City 長江的旁邊的下半城（朝天門的南部）

2009-03-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

(On the old city wall.)

(Two little girls playing near the old city wall.)

(The gate of the old city wall.)

(A convenience store [便利店 byen-lee dyen] in Lower Half City.)

(Near the old city wall.)

(A man selling traditional Chinese medicine in Lower Half City, sometime in the early afternoon.)

(I am not sure whether this is a storefront or not. However, the back room with the television is some one's living quarters.)

(Lower Half City is located on a hilly part of Chongqing. There are many steps!)

(Street view.)

(Clothes and shoes. The front door of a very old/traditional Chongqing household.)

(A little boy sitting at the mouth of an alley way. Lower Half City is filled with random alleyways and helter-skelter steps.)

Last Tuesday Ben and I decided to have our weekly adventure. The weather was nice enough for an afternoon adventure. Normally we have "Adventure Thursdays" but last week we made an exception because of the favorable weather.

Two weeks ago my friend Jane had given me an old photocopy of a guide for Chongqing. One of the pages in the guide was for a place called 下半城 [sha-ban chung] or Lower Half City. In the guide it said that not many tourists go because this area is considered one of the poorest areas in Chongqing. Even though this place has done the best job of preserving the way Chongqing used to be. Hilly, many steps, ramshackle housing here and there, people playing Mah-jongg while smoking, old ladies selling things, laundry hung out everywhere you look, little kids playing in alleys. That's just what it is.

Ben and I had a field day taking pictures of the happenings in Lower Half City. Afterwards I felt guilty because I wouldn't like it if someone shamelessly photographed my neighborhood. But also I am afraid that in the future Lower Half City might not exist because of all the new development going on in Chongqing. Especially because Lower Half City is located right next to the longest river in China, the Yangtze. I was feeling a little torn!

The residents of Lower Half City were very kind. They smiled a lot. Many times they would warn us of dead-ends up ahead. Telling us that it's "not good walk!" in Chinese, meaning you won't accomplish anything by walking there...like finding another way out other than the way you came in. One man told us "In a place like this you can walk for days and still see something new."
(Ramshackle houses.)

Let's Go Fly a Kite 我們去放風箏吧！

2009-03-24T19:18:00.000-07:00

(People loitering on the stairs that lead up the mountain [Chinese doesn't have a word for "hill," it is either mountain, or little mountain]. Most of the way there are switchbacks that lead up the hill.)

(Vendors selling kites to park-goers at the front gate of the park.)

（Looking down on to Chongqing from Flat Top Hill Park [平頂山公園] . Usually Chongqing's weather is a mixture of fog, dust, haze, and pollution. This is one of the worst days I have seen.)

Last Sunday I went with two Chinese friends and Ben to a park on a hill near my school. Although the weather wasn't sunny it was sweltering that day! We all thought surely Chongqing's summer has arrived, alas the past two days have been overcast and a bit rainy. Chongqing's weather is so fickle! Ben flew a kite (or tried to) whilst on top of the hill, and our Chinese friends helped. I decided to take pictures.

Update 新闻

2009-03-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

Lately I have really been getting the feel for life in China. I am not sure how to explain what has happened, but I think I have made it over the hump that is culture shock. Now I am used to most oddities that exist throughout China. Squat toilets, babies pooping in the street, people cutting in line. The little parts of life that seem so BIG when westerners come to China. I have only just realized this though.
Other westerners who are fairly new to China have helped me look back on my experience and think "Oh, that was me just a few months ago!" Usually when people are new to China (especially if they are here long term) they just complain or rant about the smallest things. At first these "newbies" annoyed me to death. Then I took a step away from myself and figured out that I did the exact same thing. I just ranted, raved, and vented for a total of four months until I simply dropped it. The only thing to do is to accept it. However hard that may be, one must merely accept that what they are raving, ranting, screaming, crying, and complaining about may just be normal in China.
This feeling of realization, of growing accustomed to the way China works has really comforted me. I think living on campus also has helped a lot. Because now I am around my classmates more.
(For those of you who don't know: I moved out of my old family's apartment several weeks ago, and have been living in limbo. I live with a 21 year old British teacher named Ben. He came to Chongqing around the same time as me. He teaches spoken English at my school. I sleep on a mattress on the living room floor of his flat. We get along really well. I still hope to find a host family soon. My AFS teacher is supposed to be on the job.) I can talk with my classmates during break, go with them to lunch, practice jumping rope with them for the sports festival, answer their English grammar questions etc. Now I just need to walk up eleven flights of stairs to go "home."
My spoken Chinese has really improved. My English is slowly disintegrating. Even now as I type on this computer I have to think for a few seconds before I type the next sentence. Speaking "Chinglish" is more comfortable. For example when Ben and I talk I usually jokingly say things like:
"Tonight, I go down get ramen. Want 不 [bu] Want?"
(Getting some ramen from downstairs, want any?)

here are a few other examples

"Oh 今天[jin tian], so tired!" (I am so tired today!)

"Have you 吃[chr]ed any 饭[fan]?" (Have you eaten yet?)

"I 不要 [bu yao] go to the park!" (I don't want to go to the park!) ***

Ben thinks it is a joke. But the words come out faster this way! Immersion really does work! Because I am so fascinated by languages (thank you Mrs. Pam Davis) I really get excited by weird linguistic things like this. My reading comprehension has improved as well. I can understand more of newspapers now a days. (Even though this doesn't have much to do with reading comprehension) Television is pretty difficult still. News casters talk very fast and use formal Chinese. Many programs have subtitles to improve literacy, but news programs don't! If the program on TV has subtitles I have a much easier time.

As for news... there have been at least two shootings in Chongqing. The locals claim that a "Terrorist Tibetan Group" is responsible for the violence. But according to BBC one of the shootings was a mentally ill man who grabbed a policeman's weapon and shot people in a grocery store. Luckily all of this happened in a different district than the one in which I live. The day it happened many of my friends sent me text messages warning me to stay indoors, or leave Chongqing because of the Tibetan terrorists. Chinese people tend to be a bit over dramatic I find.

As long as the "terrorists" don't take away my beef noodles I will be alright!

***Note, those lines aren't me making fun of Chinese people. I don't want anyone to take that the wrong way. Chinese grammar has no past, present, or future tense. So if one literally translates Chinese into English it will look like this. Sometimes that happens because I am so used to speaking Chinese.

Artsy! 黄桷坪的艺术不囧！

2009-03-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

（Entrance to the gallery opening.)

(One of the pieces of art on exhibition. The artist's idea was to take old classical Chinese paintings and make them look like cross-stitch patterns [if you don't know what cross-stitch is google it]. It is a very popular activity here in China.)

(A man tending his garden in a government housing block near the river in Huangjue Ping.)

(Helping Huang Lin on his latest project. He invites his friends to write their thoughts on a canvas. Soon the canvass is covered with words and thoughts. It doesn't matter if you write over someone else's thoughts. The whole point is to express yourself!)

(Huang Lin's studio! He invited Jane, Ed, and me here later that afternoon and we helped him with his latest project [see above]. He has shown in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen. He will go to Dusseldorf this summer to see if he can have a showing there as well. A very friendly guy. He teaches oil painting at the local art school.)

(A lady selling vegetables in a common area surrounded by old government housing.)

(My dear British friend Jane showed me an art-book store. The people were really nice, they offered us free tea and a seat. We met our artist friend Huang Lin 黄淋 here!)

（The "Tank Loft" area located in the Sichuan School of Fine Arts. All the tank lofts have been converted into design studios.)

One Friday my friend Jane and I (later joined by Jane's beau: Ed) went exploring (again) around Chongqing's art district. These are some decent pictures of the interesting things that we encountered! We met artists! And even got to help one on his latest project! Later that evening the same artist invited us to attend his friend's gallery opening. I had a blast!

(Note: because the blog site's image uploader is strange, the photos are not necessarily in chronological order.)

Hong Kong 香港

2009-03-14T03:10:00.000-07:00

(After arriving, the first thing we went to see was a temple right outside of an MTR station that I can't remember the name of.)

(My fortune, I am still not quite sure what it says. I need to ask someone to translate it for me. A lot of the characters I recognize, but the combinations are not something I am familiar with.)

(The fortune stall. The way to get your fortune is by shaking a cup of thin bamboo sticks. [I did this while I was in the main hall of the temple.] When a stick falls out you are done. Remember the number that is burned onto the stick [mine was 55] and ask these people for the slip assigned to the number. Although you do have to pay them five Hong Kong dollars..)

(Next stop was "the gold fish market." Which is a street made up of many many many shops that sell not just gold fish, but all sorts of 魚 [fish: yú sounds like the German u with the umlaut over it, only with the tone of a question].)

(Gahhh! These fish are so fat! They remind me of my pug dog Molly. At home we call these "tumor fish." It's not the official name though. In Chinese their name means "Long-living Orchid." Pricey fish!)

(Feeding the fish.)

(The bird market in Hong Kong.) (A woman eyeing the blooms in one of the many shops in Hong Kong's flower market.)

(Flower delivery!)

(Thought both of these posters were interesting to see [above and below].)

(A view of Hong Kong harbor from the peak. Unfortunately it was cloudy that day!)

(Opposite the peak, a view of Hong Kong harbor.)

(This is an obvious sign that one is in Hong Kong, because on the "mainland" there is nothing like this that I have seen.)

(Lan Kwai Fong, 蘭桂坊, Orchid Birch Lane, is one of the night-life areas in Hong Kong. I really like all the lit up signs! At the very bottom of the lane you can spot a 7 Eleven! I hadn't seen one since living in America!)

(This street was so steep there are escalators!)

(Curios for sale in Cat Street market.)

（A store at the Cat Street Market.)

(The man, woman, and little girl are portraying a family for the commercial that was being shot in Cat Street market.)

(Man Mo temple near Cat Street is famous for the coils of incense that hang from the ceiling, even though there are many temples like this in the south of China. There were many other foreigners visiting the temple. I think it was a bit too touristy for my taste, but the photo turned out well!)

I was most fortunate to be able to travel to the wonderful city that is Hong Kong. It was one of the funnest things I have done while I have been abroad. I really underestimated Hong Kong. Before I had thought it was just a big westernized city (which it is) but it's more than that! Hong Kong has a blend of all sorts of people. Middle Easterners, Europeans, North Americans, and Hong Kongers themselves live there, making a great mix of culture.

Hong Kong is also much cleaner than China (you saw the littering sign). The government is also trying to make all public places in Hong Kong smoke-free. There were lots of signs up around the city encouraging people to do so. The fine for being caught smoking is something fierce too!

In Hong Kong hardly anyone speaks Mandarin. Mandarin is the dialect of Chinese that I learn in school, it is also the one I use everyday to communicate. While I was in Hong Kong I tried to pick up a bit of Cantonese. One of the major differences between Cantonese and Mandarin is that Cantonese has nine different tones (three are pitches of the voice), while Mandarin only has four.

English and Cantonese are the official languages of Hong Kong. I did not have any problems getting around!

I only spent a few days in Hong Kong, but I crammed in a lot of sights! I also made really good friends with the AFS exchange students living in Hong Kong! (Hong Kong and China are separate countries when you apply through AFS).

I hope to go back one day!

Macau 澳门

2009-03-09T23:43:00.000-07:00

(There was once an old wooden Cathedral here, but it burnt down sometime in the 1900s. Now all that stands is its stone front. Behind it you can see the old crypt. But it was sort of a let-down.)
(A view down the street from the burnt-out cathedral pictured above. That tall Christmas-tree looking building to the left is a casino. Macau is famous for casinos!)

(Cathedral in the center of old Macau. The interior is pictured above!)
(Lunch, some of the best noodles I have ever had. Along with some hot tea to prevent any "colds" we may catch from the rain. As you can see I am soaked. I have had many a dish of noodles in China, and these were some of the best.)
(Bilingual Portuguese and Chinese street signs.)
("Downtown" of Macau, does it not have that Portuguese feel to it? The only reason it looks empty is because it was cascading that day.)
(The Macau schools' uniform looks like an actual uniform! Where as on the mainland [China] everyone pretty much wears track-suits. These girls are waiting for their friends under the cover of an overhang. It was pouring rain that day.)
(Vegetable stall in an alley.)

(Buddhist temple in Macau, those bee-hive looking things are rings of incense. Families or businessmen usually donate them. For good luck purposes or good business negotiations.)
(A calendar inside a Buddhist temple. It lists all the auspicious things happening on Thursday the 5th of March. It also lists the Lunar calendar date. Which requires a different set of vocabulary for Chinese.)
(Typical street in central Macau. Me with my good Thai friend Porsche!)
(Ladies helping a mannequin in the Venetian Casino in Macau.)
("St. Mark's Square" inside the Venetian Casino of Macau.)
(After officially crossing the border into Macau I took a victory photo!)

Last week I was very tired of Chongqing. The weather was depressing, and I just needed a change of environment for a while. I last minute decided to go to Macau and Hong Kong (via my friends in Zhuhai). I had just found out I had some days off, and decided to book a flight to an ocean side city in southern China called Zhuhai. Zhuhai is across the border from Macau. You can walk across and get to Macau for free! However since the trip was very last minute, AFS was not informed. (You need at least 2 weeks to get travel permission). So I just told my parents and my friends in Chongqing. And anyway I am back in one piece and there weren't any big problems!

Macau is made of a group of little isles off the coast of China. There are two main ones connected by bridges both of which have casinos on them. Macau used to be owned by Portugal starting from the 16th century to December 20th, 1999. However no one in Macau really speaks Portuguese apart from some expats and students that attend the Macau Portuguese School.

I felt really at home in Macau for some reason. The mixture of Chinese helter-skelter apartment complexes and the brightly painted Portuguese churches did not bother me at all. I liked it a lot. At one point my friends and I just wondered aimlessly through the residential district of Macau. Waving to old ladies, looking into little roadside shops, taking pictures and exploring. I thoroughly enjoyed all the hand painted store signs that hang above the street. I especially liked that in Macau as well as Hong Kong everyone writes traditional characters, not the ugly simplified ones that they use on the "mainland." (Although I am biased because my teacher is from Taiwan. I learned traditional first.)

However in Macau no one can speak Mandarin. Everyone speaks Cantonese. Which is completely different from Mandarin. For example the word for "Excuse me," (when asking someone a question) in Mandarin is "ching wen" while in Cantonese it is "m goi." Cantonese has nine tones (three of which are vocal pitches) while Mandarin has only four tones. I tried learning some Cantonese on my travels, I can speak "shew shew" (Mandarin: "ee dyan dyan") a little.

I was hoping for lovely weather in the southernmost parts of China, but I did not get it. Actually I got quite the opposite! It was pouring buckets in Macau for the two days we were there! In the noodle picture above you can see how soaked I am. Our shoes were so drenched that we all bought sandals. I heard that if it rains people from Canton often wear sandals. However I didn't know this until after I bought them. By about two in the afternoon we were soaked to the bone. We rode a bus to the Wynn casino and rested on a comfy couch. (That's another thing so lovely about Macau is that all the buses are paid for by the casinos. Since the casinos are almost everywhere you just get from one part of Macau to the next via casino buses FREE!)

Something I tried in Macau that I recommend to anyone who goes there is a Portuguese egg custard tart. Especially if it is raining, the warm egg tart will taste amazing! It is a "special local product" of Macau.

Old Nest Cafe 老巢咖啡厅

2009-03-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

（Having an intense discussion about China, and Chinese culture around the table. We talked about a lot of interesting topics that night. Some of which included Cantonese, and digestion problems.)

(James [the new Brit in our circle of friends who just arrived last week] and Jane to the right. That lamp shade is made from old packaging paper.)

(The 老板's pictures from the times of the Cultural Revolution proudly on display near the bar area. 老板 or "lao ban" means boss.)

(This is what you see when you first walk in, I purposely took this picture without the flash so you can get the feel of the place. Dim, quiet, and filled with books!)

(The room adjacent to the entry-way looks like this. It was very cozy!)

A week or two ago my friend Jane had told us about a "little bar" she had discovered in the art district. Because she said the "little bar" was in the art district all of my friends and I were eager to go. When we got there we discovered it wasn't a bar at all but a little nook in the wall filled with books. It is conveniently located directly across the street from the Chongqing Museum of Contemporary Art. I was hoping to meet some local artists but unfortunately we went at night and did not really have the chance. But there is always next time!

River Watching 朝天门

2009-02-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

(My friend Jane contemplating the level of pollution she is breathing in while sitting on the steps of Chaotian Men.)
(The docks at dusk at Chaotian Men [chow-tyen muhn] .)
(Sunset on the steps of Chaotian Men.)

One lazy Friday afternoon my friend Jane and I headed down to the tip of the Chongqing Peninsula. Chaotian Men [chow-tyen muhn]. Jane lives about an hour away from me, we hadn't seen each other for a while so we decided to meet up and have a chat. As we walked down the sloping streets of Chongqing, we passed tons of vendors. Selling pineapple on a stick, mending clothes (operating antique-looking sewing machines), minding drink stands, chatting with other vendors. Chongqing is most assuredly not a quiet place, but definitely not a boring one at that.
While we sat on the steps of Chaotian Men (which means "see the king/heavens gate" according to my Chinese friend) gazing at the river, and the boats that were docked near by.
The boats docked there are quite old and run-down. They are rusty looking, decked out with neon lights, and boast free karaoke on board. They look tired.
Jane and I sat there 'til just before sunset. Talking, commenting on the other people around us, exclaiming about the boats. Two (other) foreigners came round, we got all excited! I had never seen them before, she had not either. They too were there to take pictures and chat. After a bit we figured we should meet our other friends for dinner on time. Chaotian Men is one of the best places to chat idly in Chongqing.

Art District 黄桷坪艺术街道

2009-02-23T23:16:00.000-08:00

(An old tank factory converted into an art space. Russian portraits were on display when we went.)
(A wall in the courtyard of a tank factory that had been converted into a museum.)
(As we followed the signs from art place to art place we came across a load of elemtary school students going home for the day.)
(Chongqing people meet art.)
(Colorful old highrise that has been overtaken by ART!)
(A hotel, with panda!)
(A painting from the Chongqing Museum of Contemporary Art pictured below.)
(The Chongqing Museum of Contemporary Art looks like it too was a factory of some sort. Not many staff were about so we didn't really have an opportunity to ask.)
(Grafitti-ed highrise.)

One lazy Thursday afternoon my friend Ben and I decided to explore the 艺术街道（Art Street, ee-shoo jyeh-dao) of Chongqing. I had seen it before but only once and I was in a crowded bus. Ben is a spoken English teacher at my school, he has Thursday afternoons off.
The neighborhood of Huangjue Ping [Mandarin: hwang-ju'eh ping, Chongqing Dialect: Hwang-goh-ping] surrounds Chongqing's art school, it looks as thought it has been taken over by an army of grafitti artists!
Sure enough it has! We didn't see any up to any mischief though. The place is quite remarkable. It's so unique compared to the boring white-ish greyish high rises that can be seen throughout Chongqing. Multicolored, artistic buildings are really a relief! Just our luck! There was an art festival going on! Many studios, galleries, museums, and old factories were open displaying art. But! We were a little too late in the day and were only able to see a few.
Many of the highrises have art supplies stores below them. I would have liked to meet some Chinese art students, or some of the artists that had their work on display. When we finished looking at the paintings in the museum, Ben and I snooped around the Chongqing Museum of Contemporary Art's back studios. Unfortunately no one was to be found!

On the way back home Ben and I were happy to know that Chongqing has a cool place like this.

Xinjiang 新疆

2009-02-16T05:40:00.000-08:00

(Snow capped mountains outside the plane, somewhere near Urumqi. I couldn't take my eyes off these until the plane was slowly enveloped in clouds.)

(Aerial view of Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang. I took this on the flight to Nanjing.)
(This is what the apartments looked like that Jesus's host grandmother lived in.)
(Family portrait with foreigners! When we visited Jesus's host grandmother's house. Someone decided that a photo was in order. The grandmother [maternal] is seated in the middle, with her youngest grandson in front. Her son is to her left and so is her daughter in law.)
(Jesus served as my loyal bodyguard. Don't I look the part of a Middle Eastern King? At touristy stops (like this) one can have their pictures taken in great costumes for a small fee.)
(For about $1.50 I was honored with the privilege of wearing clothes not unlike the king who once lived in this "historic" palace.)
(A REPLICA [super disappointing that it wasn't authentic] of the palace where the king of Hami once lived. He had visited the Forbidden City and liked it so much that he had his palace made in the style of the Forbidden City. However there is a mosque up there.)
(The aftermath of the fireworks in the little alley outside of Jesus's paternal host grandfather's house. People still continued to light fireworks for about 2 weeks after New Years. LOUD fireworks.)
(You can buy fireworks like these on the street, I think in the USA you have to be specially trained to light these? Or have some kind of permit maybe? Oh well who needs regulations!)
(Making Jiaozi [dumplings] in Grandma's kitchen. Chinese traditionally make Jiaozi [jee-ow zuh] on New Year's eve. It sort of brings the family together as they sit around and pinch the dumplings together.)
(Fireworks anyone? All kinds! And the tradition is to leave the red wrappings on the street after you have finished with the fireworks...it has something to do with keeping the luck from leaving, or keeping the demons away.)
(We killed some time by ice skating on nature-made ice! Okay for those of you who have skated on real ice, leave me alone! I am from California!)
(The kitchen of the house we were to celebrate New Year's in.)
(The first meal we had after arriving in Hami, unfortunately the main dish was mutton. Which tastes like vomit deep fried in expired curry and then dipped in some kind of oil. That is Mr. Gao, Jesus's host dad, behind us! He is really nice!)
( I thought it was really interesting to see this really bright and clean picture above a gas pump. It talks about cleanliness etc.)
(Roadside 清真寺 [ching-juhn sih] mosque on the way to Hami.)
(rough translation: Let's both participate in the prevention of AIDS. [below]:(This) community is my home, prevention depends on everyone.)
(By far the filthiest gas station toilet in the whole world. Or at least in the whole of Xinjiang! There was poop all over the floor and god knows what else! Jesus and I just decided to use the gravel piles around the back and take a rain check on the exposure to several diseases.)
(I thought this was interesting, if you look carefully you can see that half of the mountain has been sliced off!)
(We passed a Uighur graveyard on the way to Hami, the pictures would have been better if we had actually stopped. But a 7 hour drive is a 7 hour drive and we had to keep moving!)
(On the way to Hami we stopped for pictures at Asia's largest "Wind Farm." Sort of reminds me of the drive to Palm Springs. It was freezing, and definitely windy!)
(Jesus's host father teaches Uighur students Chinese Literature in Shanghai. One of his students heard that he would be going to Xinjiang for the New Year so they invited him to see their home. However! Uighur students aren't allowed to leave school until the summer months, the student wasn't even there. They were very nice people, very hospitable. The little cakes and nuts on the table were delicious! The Father spoke English better than most Chinese people, but he was shy about it. He doesn't have much trouble with the pronunciation because his mother tongue is more related to Turkish, not even related to Chinese.)
(Two little girls playing in a village that we stopped in on our way home from ski slope.)
(Me, Jesus, and Gao Chengyu [Jesus's host brother] getting ready to slide down the slope. It was different at this ski slope, there were no ski-lifts. There was a special cable that you held onto to be pulled up the slope.)
(People getting ready to go skiing, I chickened out and just decided to sled down the hill in an inner tube.)
(Road to the ski slope. Snow!)
(Having famous Xinjiang beef noodles for breakfast before departing for Jesus's host dad's ski slope.)
(Ice sculptures of Santa Claus in front of the Uighur [say wig-uhr:Uighur people are the native minority to Xinjiang] market. we thought it was odd that Santa Claus was out here considering most of the people practice Islam.)
(Jesus and his host dad in the living room of our flat in Urumqi. The floor was heated, despite its white-wallness it was a very warm and cozy place.)
(The apartment complex we stayed in while we were in Urumqi. Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang province.)

Pictures are meant to be viewed from the bottom of this article up! 请从下面开始读。读完了之后随便看照片

This trip was a bit of a culture shock for me. It felt like there was a seperate country inside of China, and some people actually feel it should be that way. I flew here directly from Beijing, and I noticed immediately that I wasn't in the China that I thought I'd be in. Many of the signs were bilingual. (Which I like because I support language diversity!).
The reason the signs are bilingual because the "ethnic minority" that lives in the province of Xinjiang speaks a language that is not related to Chinese at all. They are the Uighurs [say wig-uhr]. Thsi minority looks more Middle Eastern than Chinese, and their language is related to Turkish. However Arabic script is used to write Uighur.
After spending only two days in the capital city of Urumqi, [once again not Jesus the Biblical figure but my fellow American AFS'er] Jesus's host family (and some other friends) took us on a 7hr drive to Hami. Hami is a city famous for it's 哈密瓜[ha-mee gwah] melons. Unfortunately it's winter and we didn't have any! Just loads and loads of lamb.
I found it slightly off. Chinese New Year is supremely awkward. Members of the family seem extremely uncomfortable with each other. Awkward and smiling. Not at ease with each other at all! No warmth! Chinese people like to compare Chinese New Year with Christmas but really it lacks soul I felt. I felt as if the family felt obligated to be with the rest of the family. All we really did was eat and watch a very tacky Chinese TV program that just about everyone watches on New Year's Eve. I am proud to say that I understood most of it! The Chinese subtitles helped as well!
Now you're probably thinking..."Don't generalize Arthur! All Chinese families can't be this way!"
Well, after talking to my other foreign exchange student friends...it sounds like all the other families were! Most AFS students suffered extreme bordem. Thank God I was not alone on New Years, and that I went with a friend! (Jesus's host father and brother had invited me on this trip to Xinjiang because they knew that my host family isn't exactly dedicated.) This whole family-discomfortness that I sensed during the trip was a bit of "Culture Shock" for me! I thought surely people who are related would get along swimmingly...apparently not. Still it was interesting though.
The night we returned from Hami, all the friends of Jesus's host dad got together and went out to party. Jesus's host dad grew up in Urumqi. He wanted to meet up with old classmates. We "children" were sent off to a roller disco! It was awesome! All the kids on the floor just wanted to have fun! They were carefree and not as uptight as many students in my school in Chongqing.
We had so much fun that we decided to go back the next night, our last night in Urumqi.
At the end of my stay in Urumqi I realized I didn't want to leave. I don't really know why I didn't want to leave, maybe it was because Urumqi is so diverse?
Went we visited Jesus's host dad's Uighur friends I was not very comfortable at first. The Uighur people had once had their own country and society. Now they are being oppressed by the Han Chinese. Visiting houses of Uighur families with two Han Chinese felt strange. How would you like it if your country was taken over by some foreign population and then you were expected to be hospitable to them? I knew that Jesus's host dad was not oppressing them directly, but still.

Beijing Day 5: Yonghegong Lama Temple (Last Day) 北京第五天：雍和宫（最后一天）

2009-02-11T20:00:00.001-08:00

This temple was really big. One of the biggest I have been to in China so far. But then again I haven't been to many temples. This temple was comissioned by "Dragon Lady" (a.k.a. the Dowager Empress). The weather that day was so cold! Too much wind. Before that the weather in Beijing had been only mild. It was a rude awakening. But a breakfast of hot coffee, and mantou 馒头 did the trick!
As soon as we were finished seeing the temple we hopped into a taxi and made our way to the airport. That day I would depart for Urumqi, directly opposite from Beijing. In the wild/"dangerous" west.

(Buddha in a store front that we passed on our way to the temple. He looks so happy!)

(One of the halls on the grounds of the temple.)

(It was absolutely bone chilling that morning. This is our AFS coordinator, Ms. Ma all bundled up. She is more sensitive to the cold than us it appears.)

(The main hall.)

(A prayer wheel, this is very Tibetan. Inside the wheel are many prayers, and when you spin the wheel in the correct direction the prayers will be sent to heaven. You can see that there is a little plaque telling people exactly which direction to turn the wheel.)

(The sign above me is written in four different languages: Tibetan, Chinese, Manchu, and another one that I can't remember. I can't see it quite clearly in this photo either.)

(Courtyard.)

(One of the hallways through a temple building. Photography is forbidden inside. So I couldn't take any photos.)

Beijing Day 5: Walking through a Hutong (Last Day) 北京第五天：胡同的散步（最后一天）

2009-02-11T04:14:00.000-08:00

After waking up pretty early on the last day of our Beijing trip, we all (Diego, Ms. Ma, and I) decided to go visit a near by famous Lhama Buddhist temple called "Yonghe Gong" [yohng huh gong]. To do that we had to walk through the narrow streets of Beijing's 胡同[hoo-tohng]. 胡同s are the streets between the old fashioned courtyard style houses that once dominated Beijing's living quarters. Lately they have been torn down and replaced by space-efficient apartment blocks. But some 胡同s are being preserved now.
It was a freezing cold morning that day, and not a soul was moving about the 胡同 that we were walking down (save a few bundled up people on bikes). Inside the 胡同 it was less windy though because the streets are so narrow that wind is blocked by the houses. The weather made this walk a bit miserable at first, but the movement kept us warm. I enjoyed taking pictures of the entrances to the courtyard-style homes. Ihope to go back to another 胡同 one day, because during this trip we only saw one! There are many famous 胡同s throughout Beijing!

(Looking down the 胡同.)

(After coming out of the neighborhood we caught a glimpse of the Temple, which we visited after a warm breakfast.)

Beijing Day 4: Summer Palace 北京第四天：颐和园儿

2009-02-08T22:12:00.000-08:00

The Summer Palace was probably one of the prettier palaces we visited in Beijing. While the Forbidden City was for business and Imperial get-togethers, The Summer Palace was for leisure and admiring nature.

The day we went to The Summer Palace most of the water was frozen over, and the wind was really harsh. But it didn't take away from the intrigue that surrounded the palace.

(The doors to the throne room.)

(The Summer Palace has the longest covered walkway out of all of the palaces in China.)

(At many touristy places throughout China you can pay to dress up as an ancient figure/hero and have your picture taken. While we were buying water bottles I spotted this little girl having her picture taken.)

(A pavilion near the restrooms.)

(The bedroom of The Dowager Empress. A bit sparser than I expected actually. The Dowager Empress kept her nephew in this palace so he wouldn't have a chance to usurp her authority. She sent him a clock. Which is an extreme insult in Chinese culture. The word 送钟 [song-jong] to give a clock sounds the same as to see someone to their death. Even today if you give a Chinese person a clock it is basically treated as a death wish.)

(昆明湖 Kunming Hu [kwin-ming hoo] surrounds the palace. Most of it was frozen over that day! The weather was freezing!)

(Just after entering the gate you come up on this courtyard.)

(The front gate, actually the name in Chinese doesn't actually mean "Summer Palace" I would ask around if anybody could tell me what it meant exactly but no one really could say. The characters literally mean "check peace garden." Go figure!)

(Approaching the main entrance of The Summer Palace)

Update 新闻

2009-02-06T07:55:00.000-08:00

Sorry! I haven't posted in a while! It is because I am traveling and I haven't had the means/time to upload photos. I will make posts as soon as I return to Chongqing! On the 8th of February!
对不起！不好意思，最近没有时间/机会把照片放在博客里。我二月八号才回去重庆。八号之后我会写一篇文章。
谢谢合作

Beijing Day 3: Great Wall 北京第三天：撞道口长城

2009-01-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

(View of the village from one of the tower's on the wall.)

(Look at how steep it is! It looks as though it's a straight drop, but looks can be deceiving!)

(A part of the wall photographed from the collapsed tower in the top of the lower photo.)

(On the wall!)

(A frozen part of the nearby river that runs along the village below the Wall.)

(The gate in the wall that the village of 撞道口[joo-ahng dao koh] is famous for.)

（This is a little street in the practically empty village near the Great Wall, this sign says "May Mao Live for 10,000 Years!" It is probably still left over from the Cultural Revolution days.)

This part of our travels through Beijing was incredible! We couldn't believe that we had actually CLIMBED the Great Wall! Because the part of the wall we went to was less traveled (no one was on the wall but us!) there weren't any stairs leading up to it. Diego, Taotao, Carina, and I walked through the tiny cluster of houses (past big scary barking dogs, thankfully they were chained up!) then hiked up a mountain pass to the gate in the wall (pictured above). The gate in the wall is what this little village is famous for apparently.

The feeling that I experienced when I mounted the wall was breathtaking. I was a part of a huge feat that stretches across the better part of China. Also the sky was clear and not so cold. Taotao took many pictures of us with his fancy camera. We left him where we mounted the wall (his legs are bad). In total we explored two little towers of the wall. One tower had completely collapsed! Most of the time we didn't speak, just admired the wall and the view from it.

An hour or two passed....we hiked down the pass, got into the car and fell asleep. The day was quite exhausting!

Beijing Day 3： 798 Modern Art Factory 第三天：七九八艺术中心

2009-01-25T08:35:00.000-08:00

This part of my Beijing Extravaganza deserves its own post! The 798 Modern Art factory was at first a government owned factory. Maybe a weapons factory, I am not entirely sure. It was abandoned after a while and was later rediscovered by modern artists. It was taken over and turned upsidedown into a sort of underground-modern art-escapade! Now it is officially recognized by the government. However it still remains a creative hub and has an alluring artistic feel. This was one of my favorite parts of this trip. I have been wanting to go here forever! Another caption and picture post! We went early one cold Beijing morning. I was armed with jackets and my camera, ready to experience Chinese modern art up close.

请从下面开始读。Read from the bottom and make you're way up!

(A garden/park next to the factory.)

(Statue.)

(We happened to run into a film crew! They were recording an advertisement for cameras I think. Because the man and the woman [foreigners] walk up to each other and comment [in English] on a camera that the woman is holding.)

(Graffiti.)

(More ice made from dripping pipes.)

(Road through 798.)

(Support the People's Revolution Against the Capitalist Art World! Just kidding, just kidding. I don't know if this statue was made by artists or by the government when the factories were built.)

(More graffiti. What I think is interesting is that I hardly saw any graffiti that used Chinese, most was in English or Scribbles.)

(Two fashionably dressed mysterious individuals standing in front of a very big brick wall. I like this picture.)

(Water dripping from a pipe has slowly created a stalagmite of ice! Natural art!)

(The main factory hall that started it all. I don't know why there aren't any paintings up. This is the most famous part of 798. The red writing at the top of the picture says "May Chairman Mao live to be 10,000 years old!" and then it goes on too say "and then 20,000 more years!")

(All over 798 graffiti is the main form of decoration. It doesn't look anything like graffiti one sees in the USA. Maybe because this graffiti is for different purposes? Such as art.)

(I don't really even know what is going on here. This building was just on the way to one of the main galleries we were going to see.)

("Originality Square" factory-esque buildings to the side. Would Andy Warhol be jealous? I am.)

(The main drag of 798 still has that factory feel to it. The center used to be a factory, then it was abandoned, later modern artists took it over for work space. Now it is an art center. Still really cool.) (Giant near the main drag of 798.)

(This painting, yes painting, brought back many memories of playing Super Mario Bros with my dad when I was little. I would have bought this!)

(Making a disapproving face at a slightly risque statue.)

(Painting in one of the galleries, the background is the Forbidden City. It looks like a hand that has somehow found a hole in our demention.)

(From left to right: Our financial sponsor/friend Taotao, his girlfriend/our friend Lulu, Ms. Ma my AFS teacher)

（Our breakfast that morning consisted of bread-cakes and pork dumplings. You dip the pork dumplings in vinegar and it is just heavenly! Especially when restaurants have poor heating!)

Beijing Day 2 Part 2 北京第二天，第二部分

2009-01-25T08:20:00.000-08:00

After the Forbidden City we were invited to dinner by fairly well-off Chinese factory owners. We had our own private room for dinner and had a glass wall to view the performances in the main hall. The dinner was full of mirth and laughter. Many jokes about Chinese people and foreigners alike. After dinner we were taken to the Water Cube and the Bird's Nest to be touristy! It was a lot of fun. Took many silly photos (see below). Soon after they whisked us off to Beijing's best bar (Mix) that is owned by one of the factory owner's friends. It was a lot of fun, and even better that other people were treating us.

(Puppet performance at the restaurant, telling the story of the courting of two lovers.)

(BIRD'S NEST!)

(Water Cube! Dragon Ball Z pose.)

don't worry a more serious post to follow ^.^

Beijing Day 2 (Forbidden City) 北京第二天 (故宫）

2009-01-23T07:05:00.000-08:00

请从下面开始读。Start reading from the bottom!

Unfortunately the Forbidden City is too amazing and all too beautiful to describe with words. So this blog post will be picture and caption oriented! I hope you enjoy it regardless of its lack of text! I had a great time here, and if you ever have a chance to visit Beijing, go!

(One of the seats for the Emperor, just for watching Peiking Opera.)

(Ceremonial crown of the Emperor it weighs 2kg. Which is like 5 pounds-ish.)

(Alleyway in the Forbidden City, long long long!)

(View from the main buildings from a less important courtyard, can you see the smog?)

(With our tour guide. English name: Aleen.)

(Dragon wall, the maker of this wall was only given a limited time by one of the Emperors. Right before the completion date one of the ceramic slabs fell off. Painted wood replicas replaced it, luckily the Emperor didn't find out or it would have been off with the craftman's head!)

(Bedroom of the Dowager Empress, Suxi [su-shi] or Dragon Lady. She ruled for 48 years.)

(An interesting doorway in one of the courtyards that housed the concubines.)

(Beautiful gate coming out of one of the courtyards that housed some of the Emperor's concubines. I think one of thos children in the background is sneaking a picture of me!)

(The back garden. Located behind all the buildings that were used for official business. Here the Emperor and people who were allowed in could stroll around the garden. The last emperor to live in the Forbidden City was the first to begin learning English, he was also the first to ride a bike. His English name was Henry. His wife? Elizabeth.)

(Throne room where all the official business went down!)

(These dragon heads served as gutters, in Ancient China it was believed that dragons breathed water. When it was raining the Emperor would come outside to admire these fountain heads that doubled as gutters. This is all according to our English/Chinese speaking tour guide we hired for 200 yuan.)

(Voila! The Forbidden City! Breathtaking!)

(In front of one of the buildings used for formal ceremonies such as announcing imperial exam results, throwing banquets for officials, etc. From left to right: Diego (from Brazil, also live in Chongqing), Me, and Ms. Ma. The hall behind us is called the Hall of Supreme Harmony. 太和门 tai-huh-men)

(Through one of the gates in the city, note the cieling!)

(After breakfast of beef noodles, we walked a 5-10 minute walk to the entrance of the Forbidden City! I was super excited and my hunger was quelled!)

Beijing Day 1 北京欢迎你第一天

2009-01-23T05:53:00.000-08:00

(Our hotel room! That's Diego the Brazilian behind me!)

(the entrance to the forbidden city, located in front of Tian'anmen Square!)

(后海 [ho-high] bar street)

(Ah! I almost died when I saw this dog being pushed along in a stroller, I had to take its picture. It reminded me of my own dog, Molly, back home.)

(One of the most famous Beijing 烤鸭 [kao-ya] roasted duck places. very very tasty!)

(The entrance to the forbidden city at sunset.)

Day One: Beijing

Our flight to Beijing was the scariest flight I have ever partaken in while being in China. Hainan Airlines, beware of the red and yellow logo that is Hainan Airlines. We left Chongqing in the early afternoon. As we were taking off I couldn't help but notice that the plane kept tipping from one side to another quite rapidly. The Chinese people on the plane were looking a bit anxious, and you know something is super scary if the Chinese start to flip out. We never really stabilized until the plane got to cruising altitude. The crew blamed turbulence...but I am not so easily decieved!

(The landing was just as scary, and the overhead compartments looked as though they were about to fall down, yeesh!).

Once we arrived and collected our baggage we headed out of the terminal only to be greeted by a friend of a friend of a friend in his Infiniti SUV to take us to our hotel (北京饭店 The Beijing Hotel). We were very fortunate to have such good friends on this trip. [My AFS coordinator (Ms. Ma) accompanied Diego (my Brazilian friend) and me to go to Beijing, but she also invited her friend Lulu and Taotao (who are a couple). It just so happens that Taotao is very rich and owns a cement factory. He is very kind and has a good sense of humor. He also PAID for our hotel, which would normally cost more than 1000yuan each night, and is a 5 star hotel. We weren't planning on staying in such an expensive hotel...but Ms. Ma informed us shortly before we left that for 3 nights we wouldn't have to worry about the hotel bill. However the last night we stayed in a significantly cheaper hotel because Taotao and Lulu returned to Chongqing.]

The Beijing Hotel is where Nixon stayed when he visited China way back when. We put our stuff in our rooms and relaxed for a few minutes then Ms. Ma fetched us to go see Tian'anmen Square.

Our hotel was only about an eight minutes walk from the square and we got there just as the sun was setting. After snapping a few photos the police shoved the crowd out of the way so they could begin the flag lowering ceremony as the sun finished setting. We stood in the windy coldness for about 20 minutes and nothing happened so we walked across the street to meet my British friend Benjamin (who also happened to be spending some time away from Chongqing in Beijing before he went home to visit the UK).

It took ages to find a taxi willing to get us near to this famous Beijing roast duck restaurant! It was worth it though, in the end we had our own room, my AFS friend Carina from Germany joined us (she lives in Beijing with a host family). What I really liked about the restaurant was its location. It's located in an old Beijing style courtyard house（四合院儿 si-huh-yu'ar literally: four harmony courtyard). These houses are slowly disappearing to accomidate apartment buildings, some are being preserved though. The feel was very "old Beijing." Courtyard houses were the houses not too long ago in Beijing.

Carina went home, and we sauntered on down to 后海 Houhai [say:ho-high] a famous bar street along a lake in Beijing. The name means back-sea. Ms. Ma left us because she was not feeling well so Ben, Diego, and I popped into a more laid-back sofa-ish bar, listened to a man and a woman sing karaoke. They sang pretty well, then I realized that they must have been hired by the bar to entertain because they were the only ones singing. Kerry (another Brit) joined us and we chatted about our upcoming travel plans during this month long holiday for Chinese New Years.

Later we took a taxi back to the hotel. The next day Lulu and Taotao (our sponsors in a certain sense) would arrive, plus we needed sleep since we planned to get up early and see the Forbidden City.

Yunnan Trip 云南旅游（从下面开始读）

2009-01-13T17:38:00.000-08:00

READ FROM THE BOTTOM UP PLEASE :) 请从下面开始读这篇文章 :)

(Fields on the drive back to Dali from Lijiang. A four hour drive with amazing views! So green!)

(A man dressed in one of the ethnic minority's costumes.)

(One of the rivulets/canals in the ancient section of Lijiang, in the background is 雪山 [shu'eh-shan] Snow Mountain.)

(A tree-lined street in the ancient part of Lijiang. Throughout the ancient part of Lijiang there are many little streams and rivulets that run along the streets. Usually you can see fish in the water, it was the cleanest water I have seen so far.)

(Hearts for sale in a butcher shop. I don't know of what animal, maybe pig?)

(One of the minorities here in Lijiang is the LAST in the world to still draw pictures for their writing. If you look closely at the sign to the right you can see the little pictures. They are called 东巴 [dong-ba] characters.)

(We took a train from Dali to Lijiang. Lijiang means beautiful river. We stayed in the ancient part of Lijiang. This hanging wooden votives have people's wishes and prayers written on them. When you walk by them or walk under them you are supposed to run your hand along the planks to ring the bells. I made one!)

(View of the mountains at sunrise from outside my hotel room in Dali.)

(The ancient town/street of Dali. Dali is the hippie capital of China. I have no idea why, maybe because it is kind of in the middle of nowhere and the weather is fair. We saw a few hippies. My other American friend was followed by a shady Chinese man that said she was beautiful. So we Americans banded together and protected her! Everything was fine in the end. The street is really nice for an evening walk.)

(When I bargained with the employees at the tie-dye store they always asked this lady if the price was okay. She was kind of like the floor manager. She had denchers. One of the Chinese AFS chaperones exclaimed "Wow! You're teeth are so nice!" She smiled and told us the truth. Apparently having teeth is a big deal for old people, especially those in the countryside.)

(Some of the dyed cloth hanging in the courtyard of the tie-dye shop.)

(A tie-dye store in Dali. For some reason Chinese tour group destinations usually have a catch: they want you to buy something!)

(View towards the 洱海 [ar-hai] lake in Dali. This morning was spent in the town of Dali. I really like Dali!)

(View towards the mountains from the upper levels of the replica house.)

(In one of the courtyards of the replica house they served us 3 different kinds of tea and danced for us. Bitter tea, sweet tea, and memory tea which was cinnamon. In the end just about everyone was dancing on the stage.)

(Next morning we were taken to a REPLICA of an old Chinese residence. Even though it was just an eight year old replica it was still really nice. The views from the upper floors were quite nice. It also doubled as a hotel... Sometimes these stops just felt like advertisements.)

(Part of our dinner that evening was crickets and maggots...or grubs I couldn't tell. And I definitely didn't eat them. The smell was making me gag already. From what I heard they didn't have taste, but the texture is a different story.)

(The rock forest, if I heard correctly used to be a giant lake. Many pointy rocks that you can now walk through. If you take a wrong turn you ccould be lost for at least three days. That's what our tour guide said at least. After looking at this picture it seems plausible.)

(A lady and her child dressed in traditional clothing belonging to a minority that lives in the province of Yunnan, this picture was taken in the 石林 [shur-leen] rock forest.)

(Coming out of a dinning hall that day this lady tried to sell us some little trinkets. As you can see there were many others like her. I do like how they were dressed though. This is what one of the local minorities wears. China has 56 ethnic minorities.)

(Me being silly infront of the entrance to the little gazebo on the cliff.)

(One of the first sights we saw on the second day in Yunnan. The first day was just a traveling day so we didn't see any sights. This park is pretty, except everything is fabricated. the next photo was taken atop that cliff.)

New Year's Day 元旦

2009-01-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

(kitty in the kitchen)

(we got one of these roosters as a gift when we left the farm)

(Mao lurking on the wall of their bedroom)

(Chongqing's countryside in winter)

(a view of the house from the main courtyard, I took this when we had just arrived)

After getting seven hours of sleep I was woken up at nine o'clock in the morning and taken by my host family to the countryside of Chongqing, about one hour away from the city center. Luckily I fell asleep in the car! In the car all I knew was that we were going to visit some friends at their parent's farm. I didn't know when we were coming back or what we were to do there besides eat. Meanwhile outside it is -6C (21.2F) and overcast. Most of my warm clothes are back at home sitting in the washer. I still hadn't washed them yet after coming back from Shanghai.

The placed where we stopped the car did not even look like a village. It looked like a row of houses along several muddy fields. The houses were on high ground above the fields, and across the fields was another shorter row of houses. Some of the houses had a pee-yellow tile facade while others were just plain red brick. Bright white geese were milling about in the brown muddy fields occasionally squawking to themselves.

A tan man greeted us, chatting in rapid Chongqing dialect and led us to the main courtyard of the farmhouse pictured above. My stomach was a bit upset from the bumpy roads so I mostly spent the time sitting and watching my host brother and his cousin play badminton with my host mother.

The food we had was incredibly though! I have never had such good Chinese food in my whole life! The table was made of metal and had a small stove inside so the surface was warm to the touch. What a relief, I have been so cold here lately. I was asked a lot of questions about life in Los Angeles at this point, how many people made up my family, the differences between American school and Chinese school, how much my dad makes, whether my mom works etc. Most of the time the room went silent as if everyone was hanging on every word I said.

Following lunch all the adults went into the dirt-floored living room to watch television. The TV was the only modern thing I saw in the whole house. It looked out of place. To heat themselves there were cast-iron bowls filled with ashes and hot coals laid at their feet.

I ventured outside and found my host mom and my host aunt giving badminton advice to my host brother and host cousin. After about a half an hour we started getting ready to leave. But I needed to use the bathroom...I was pointed to a dark room off the barn. Little did I know that the bathroom was also the pig sty.

Christmas in Shanghai

2008-12-30T07:47:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-22T00:54:00.000-08:00

(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

2008-12-17T18:33:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-12T18:22:00.000-08:00

(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

2008-12-10T05:36:00.001-08:00

(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

2008-12-08T22:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-07T22:05:00.000-08:00

(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

2008-12-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-28T22:36:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-25T00:28:00.000-08:00

（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

2008-11-23T05:44:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-20T01:19:00.001-08:00

(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

2008-11-20T00:45:00.000-08:00

(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

2008-11-18T09:09:00.001-08:00

(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

2008-11-17T00:53:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-09T06:13:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-07T04:20:00.000-08:00

(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!

Don't Worry! :D 别担心！

2008-11-03T05:40:00.000-08:00

(This sticker atop the crate of milk boxes proclaims "Rest assured milk!" meaning "Relax it doesn't have Melamine in it anymore! When I saw this I burst out laughing because it's so strange!)

The milk isn't poisoned with melamine anymore! Don't worry! Only the eggs are now!

Actually I have heard only certain eggs, from certain farms. My grandma is the one that does the shopping, she is very careful so there should be no problem. And all the poisoned eggs are off the shelves.

According to CCTV English Channel 9 (a.k.a. Chinese propaganda in English for Foreigners) the "perpetrator will be brought to justice." These words come from the mouth of the health inspector.... I was under the impression that most factory inspecting officials are usually paid off.

The (Sorta) Ancient Town of Ciqikou 磁器口古镇

2008-11-03T04:49:00.000-08:00

(the restaurant we ate in serves very fresh fish!)

(temple)

(view of Ciqikou from bikepath near the river)

(dinner, Chinese barbeque! yum!)

(looking down to the river from the old town)

(touristy knick-nack shop)

(lady selling fried sugar dough, yum yum yum)

(mask shop)

(above the mask shop)

(one part of the village)

(main gate)

Sunday evening my host family took me to Ciqikou, an ancient town now located near Chongqing. I imagine that at one time it was an actual seperate town but today it has been engulfed by the city. This place dates back to the late Ming dynasty however recently it has had a new revamping. It still has the same feel, and much of the back alleyways lead to a more authentic ancient town away from the touristy streets. While my host father, host brother, and his little cousin were preparing the barbeque (DIY at a restaurant) we went walking down the narrow lanes. I liked the atmosphere of the place! I liked to imagine what it would have been like to live here during the late Ming dynasty. My host mother told me that it was very important because it is so close to the river. Lots of trade etc.

Along the streets now are shops that cater to tourists only. But here almost everyone is a tourist unless you live in the old town. There were stores that sold clothes, fermented tofu (which smelled like dog poo, I checked my shoe a few times before my mother explained to me what the smell was), tea, dumplings, masks, and places where people will turn the characters of your name into an illustration. There was one haunted house, and one temple (closed unfortunately) build between AD 535-56.

When we got back to the restaurant the food was all ready! It was delicious! Everyone serves themselves. You take the food hot of the grill and then roll it in seasoning and voila! This eating session lasted about two hours...I am learning to eat slowly, in the USA we eat much too fast. The Chinese eat slowly so as to savor the time and flavor.

My brother and his cousin finished eating and then went off on a short bike-ride by the river, a few minutes passed and I joined them. It was a lot of fun, but a little scary because you had to squeeze really really hard on the brakes for them to work!

I was burnt out after that day and went to bed really early...but I was still tired in the morning!

Painting

2008-11-03T04:21:00.000-08:00

(the finished product)

(view from the greenhouse/classroom window)

(painting)

At 9:00am Sunday morning I was taken to art class by my Brazilian friend's host sister Zhaozhao (赵曌). We studied Chinese painting along with a bunch of ten and nine year-olds. They stared at us for a good part of the class. We would just be painting at our own separate "foreigner's table" and they would walk up and stare at our faces while we painted. I thought it was silly so I started making crazy faces back at them. They either laughed, or shrank away thinking I was some kind of creep!

The painting we were taught to make is almost an exact replica of the painting the teacher gifted me last week. First he called us to the front of the classroom and explained (in Chongqing-hua, the local dialect) how to paint this particular painting. I could only understand the general meaning of what he said because Chongqing-hua is not Mandarin (but my listening comprehension is improving!). Also it helped that he painted it right in front of us, however what took him 15 minutes took us an hour!

I like Chinese painting because it is more impressionism-y and less realistic when it comes to plants and people. Lots of the leaves in my painting are not connected to branches, and the tree only has a few branches. Color also can be whatever you want most of the time. Black is used the most though.

It was a good way to start a Sunday morning. A lot of our little classmates brought their Grandmothers whom all chatted away on the rooftop garden outside of our greenhouse classroom. They were very funny, they mused at us as much as their grandchildren did.

Dinner Out

2008-11-01T07:04:00.001-07:00

(the district in which the restaurant was located)

(Bolivian friend and his host family)

(Our good friend Gong Tengfei, the Brazilian, me, the Bolivian, the German, and our AFS coordinator Ms. Ma)

(Brazilian, me, a host sibling for a former Brazilian exchange student last year, Bolivian's host brother, Bolivian, Brazilian's host sister Zhao Zhao...we're good friends!, and the German)

~~~Sorry I haven't posted with pictures in a while! My house's internet was on the fritz! I could only post from the local internet cafe, but without pictures~~~

This evening was the going away party for our AFS Bolivian foreign exchange friend. He came with us to China through AFS but this past few months he has been having a rough time adjusting to the culture. He told me that he had expected China to be similar to America. The main reason why he wanted to come to China was because he wants to learn the language in order to get ahead in the manufacturing business. He comes from an affluent Bolivian family and his father owns 12 car battery factories in Japan. Apparently he wants to stay in that field.

But his expectations for China were too high. Almost every meal he had was out at a western restaurant (this is because he doesn't like Chinese food very much and supposedly his family doesn't cook very well). He is often frustrated by the language barrier, although he knows many Chinese words, his listening comprehension is poor and many people cannot understand his Mandarin.

Anyways! My Brazilian friend, his host sister, and I took a taxi to a more lively part of Chongqing where we were to have dinner at a famous Chinese restaurant. I don't know why, but Chinese people think chain restaurants are better. If a restaurant is a chain restaurant, it is printed somewhere on the table. Be it the napkins, plates, tissues, or table cloth!

It was a very nice restaurant! Many private rooms! Ours had a sofa, coffee table, and a television as well as a large round table for us to have dinner. On the table was a large glass lazy-susan with several cold dishes on top for appetizers.

The Bolivian's host family hosted the dinner, and they were a bit strange. I don't really know how to describe the parents but their son was annoying. All he could think about was how he was missing out on computer games, and every sentence had an English cuss word attached. I sat right next to him. It got old, fast.

The main dish was fried peppers with huge snails mixed in. I didn't eat the snails, they were too spicy and plus you had to crack their shell open. It was sort of messy and too tedious.

I was glad when it was over. I can't explain why, but the whole affair put me in a bad mood. Maybe it was culture shock from the snails...but I don't think so. The Bolivian's host mother couldn't get over the fact that I wasn't eating the main dish, no matter how many times I told her I didn't want it she wouldn't hear of it. Finally when I said "I'am sorry but I really do not like this dish. I don't want it," she caved in. However she kept mentioning to the other guests how I wasn't eating enough. Sometimes people should just let things go! :)

(note: I don't like to put the names of people who are in my day on the internet without their permission so I often refer to the name of their country)

Poem Recitation

2008-10-29T03:12:00.000-07:00

There was supposed to be a video of me and five other classmates all reciting different stanzas of a poem..but unfortunately the internet is too slow to upload it here. I will have to upload it later!

This was a contest between all the different classes in the 高一 (Gao-ee, freshmen level). It took place in one of the smaller auditoriums at our school. It could only fit 900 people? I was so nervous! I had to say my part first, and also our class' group was the first to perform! I was the VERY FIRST. Waahh. After I said three lines the whole auditorium errupted in clapping, I couldn't help but laugh. I knew that they were amazed a foreigner could speak Chinese. On stage I wore the school's uniform, black pants, and a white colared shirt (which odly you are not allowed to tuck in).

This perfomance was performed by classmates selected by my class. I think that this poem was written by the group of students who I performed with. They gave me the poem to go over two days ago. I memorized the first one..but I decided to read it anyway because I didn't want to mess up on the intonation or the second verse. To me this poem sounded like a sappy love poem...but only now do I realize that the whole performance is a dialogue between a child and his/her mother taking place as the mom goes up to heaven after the Sichuan Earthquake. I feel stupid because I didn't know I had to put emotion into it! Whoops! Many people cried during the performance...now I see why.

The first time I heard them recite the poem I thought it was so strange that they were over acting and being dramatic! After the performance my AFS coordinator told me that when Chinese people recite poems they really put all of their feeling into it. It's more of a small play than a recitation! I like this because there aren't any drama programs in my school....or any other schools for that matter!

Many of the lines are (mother to child) "Don't be scared my child, mother will walk with you!" and "Mother, the road is too dark I can't see! Please take my hand!" while the mother responds with something along the lines of "Mother feels tired, I can't go on! I will always be with you my child!" etc. etc. Actually the mom is really screaming "I feel tired, oh, I can't relax! I can't relax!" But I think the other translation is better.

My classmates sent me text messages congratulating me on my performance, but now that I see it...it didn't look very good at all :(

My classmates think we will win first prize! ...Is it because of the quality of the performance...or because of the foreigner?

[LATER: (The day after the performance) The Chinese literature teacher took the performers from our class out to Hot Pot (the local speciality) during lunch because our class won first prize! Everyone in my class likes me now hahaha!]

Art Class （上艺术课）

2008-10-26T00:13:00.000-07:00

(Mr. and Mrs. Hu, in their apartment after looking at Mr. Hu's art)

(the painting he gave me)

(a hillside painting he did, this is traditional Chinese painting by the way)

(one of his scrolls, still not fully unrolled)

(painting table)

(coffee, art pens, sketchbook, and pencil! the greatest tools! this is what I was working on during the class)

(classroom)

(students sketching in the classroom)

Finally! Art! Last night I accompanied my Chinese friend Zhaozhao (赵曌）to art class! I was very excited because I didn't know what to expect of a Chinese art class. But as it turns out the atmosphere is very much the same as the art classes I have taken in America. The teacher walks around and takes a look at every one's work, gives them suggestions, and then moves on to the next person. This art class was held in a greenhouse/makeshift classroom on a rooftop garden. Naturally this is a night class, because most Chinese students don't have much daytime to spare for art. What with outside school math class, English class, and sleep...

Only four teenagers attended (including my friend Zhaozhao and me), the rest were elementary school students and middle school students. It was quite, and I liked that.

Presiding over the class were two teachers, a middle aged married couple. As soon as I walked in to the greenhouse/makeshift classroom Mrs. Hu, the teacher, yelled to me (in Chinese) "Wow! You're a lot more handsome than I thought you'd be! So handsome! Kids look at how cool he is!" I knew right off the bat that I would like this class.

The Saturday evening class focuses on sketching, while the Sunday morning class focuses on Chinese traditional painting (国画).

After the class was over Mr. Hu decided to take me, and a few other students downstairs to his apartment to show off his art. His amazing art! Waah, he is such a good artist! Almost all of his art is traditional Chinese painting (which I have taken a liking to), calligraphy, and photography. He pulled out numerous paintings and scrolls of his work. I was speechless. So many beautiful pieces of art! His wife, Mrs. Hu, said "He draws the whole day, it would take a lifetime to see everything he has drawn!"

In the end he gave me a painting! I was so grateful! Not that he doesn't have enough paintings, but still! In a few days I will have the painting put in scroll-like format so it is easier to take back to America. Zhaozhao said she would steal the painting.

This viewing of his artwork was a very special occasion because never before had he shown his students his work. He said the reason why he did it was because he could tell how much I appreciated Chinese culture, and art. That made me very happy!

Next week I will go back for more lessons!

Today's Sights

2008-10-23T05:12:00.000-07:00

( a view from in between apartments outside my friend's flat)

(Fruit store, I don't know why but for some reason I love these kinds of stands! The way everything is layed out looks so appealing! That lady there is the shopkeeper)

(Propaganda hanging over a place I pass by everyday. Old people like to gather here to chat and play chess. I am not sure but I think the meaning of the propaganda is "One person joining the military, glorifies the whole family")

(Mickey Mouse New Year's decorations left up from last year. The decoration on the left says "Welcoming the good fortune of Spring" while the one on the right says "Greeting Wealth, letting in Treasures.")

I wanted to post these things that I see everyday because I want people to have an idea of the different things that I experience. Also I want people to see what Chinese people around me see everyday!

Things at Night

2008-10-20T06:02:00.000-07:00

Nighttime Sidewalk scene, notice the width of the sidewalk! So many people need so much space!

Vendors with their stands on the street, still selling things.

I took most of these photos while walking really fast so the vendors wouldn't ask me to pay them money for the photo! Apologies for the blurriness! These pictures are pretty self-explanatory. I took these while my Chinese friends and I were lost. We trying to find the location of a restaurant where my friend's birthday dinner was to be had.

Foreigner Street 洋人街

2008-10-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

(where we ate lunch, we had chinese barbeque which is served on a stick)
(yes, you can get married here)

(cafe place)
(Egypt?)
(this made me laugh so hard, the sign should say Park...the front entrance says park...but this one says Pack! I have no idea what a Non-Topic park is either. It says the direct translation in Chinese so it wasn't mistranslated)
(this area was called San Fransisco Flower Street)

In America we have China Town. In China they have a strange equivalent called "Yang Ren Jie" which can literally be translated to "Vast People Street." It was foreign alright, I mean foreign to me. There were no foreigners there at all (I didn't expect there to be actually)! The place is more like a theme park than a street. There are buildings that are "replicas" of different places. But I didn't recognize anything except for a reproduction of the New York skyline. Most of the food served was carnival food, or Chinese food.

I didn't like the place very much...because I had this feeling that the Chinese people around me would see me and think "Oh a foreigner is here? Then this must be like his home!" Even when my I came home my host brother asked if it was nice to see a street that has buildings similar to America! I explained to him that it was nothing like America! He then said "Well then it is probably like other countries, maybe France or Germany..."

After about one hour my Brazlian friend and I left. We couldn't take it anymore. I don't know why but this was teh first Chinese thing that I really had extreme culture shock with and couldn't stand. This place is not very important in terms of daily life so I decided not to waste my Saturday any further and go back home.

The reason we were there in the first place was because of my Chinese friend's birthday. I like my friend...I just didn't like where he chose to have his birthday. My Brazilian friend and I politely excused ourselves and hailed the nearest cab!

Chinese Class at a Foreign Language High School

2008-10-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

(mottos of the Sichuan Foreign Language High School)
(Our Chinese teacher for the afternoon, this was taken before the power failed)
(rubbish house in front of the school)

Yesterday our AFS coordinator decided to take us on a little field trip to our friends' school. We were all delighted to be able to be doing something out of the weekly routine of Chinese class. Except this school was very dirty and probably not earthquake proof. I definitely felt fortunate to be attending my school rather than the Sichuan Foreign Language High School. Especially after the power went out in our whole building during class. Whcih supposedly happens all the time there. However! The students were a lot more friendly and spoke much better English than the ones at my school. They also seemed more relaxed. I think this is because Sichuan Foreign Language High School isn't considered an "elite" school by the government...so they don't make their students go insane with examinations and homework. But students from elite schools would look down on these students. And probably tease them to no end. Teasing here is butal, and ignored by adults.

In fornt of the school gate there are several noisy construction sites, and a house loaded with trash. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. I think this is a designated area where all the street cleaners dump their garbage and it gets sorted.

When our class was over our teachers left us alone to get transport back home. We all opted for 10 minute taxi rides rather than 1 hour bus rides. Except no taxi would take us! I would tell them in pretty good Chinese (if I do say so myself) the name of the district and location of the internet cafe we wanted to go to, and then they'd simply say "Oh sorry I am getting off work now!" and then I'd say "That's a lie! If you were getting off work why did you ask me where I wanted to go?!" After I said this I would close the door because the taxi driver was in a state of disbelief that a foreigner just told him off. A redheaded devil at that!

Finally we found a taxi that would take us. It turned out he needed to head back to our district anyway because that's where he was based out of!

New Driver?

2008-10-16T19:15:00.001-07:00

Since driving here is so fierce, many Chinese people (usually women actually) prefer not to drive. People who do drive use SUVs to assure themselves some safety. The rest of the drivers are taxi drivers, motorcycle taxi drivers, buses, and delivery trucks. Nobody regards lanes, turn signals, or pedestrians. Therefore everyone relies on their horn or headlights to communicate what they are about to do. Horns are not considered rude here by the way. Anyways, this little sticker is a signal to other drivers that this car is being driven by a beginner. The little earless-cat is a robot cartoon cat named Doraemon. He is very popular in any place outside America! I decided to take a picture of this because I haven't seen anything like this in America. Maybe because there isn't a need for it!

Late Night School Hopping

2008-10-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

(walk way when night is in full-swing at the school)
(retired teachers' living quaters)
(walkway)

A few days ago I toured my friend's school at night! Most elite high schools in China have dorms, middle schools also have such facilities. This school just so happens to be very near my home! So I made good use of downtime by practicing my Chinese listening skills as my friend told me about her school, life etc.

Sorry I haven't written in a few days, I have just been busy studying (yes dad, I do study)!

Soon I will have more posts!

Keep checking!

Taking a Tour of Chongqing University (重庆大学）

2008-10-12T05:59:00.000-07:00

(main entrance to the university)
(Mao of course)
(Lily pond, it is in bloom in summer)
(a view of the river from the university)
(art department building)

Chinese friend gave me a tour of the local university today, which is located along one of the rivers that come through the city. We didn't talk much about the university, we discussed our favorite school subjects and things we wanted to do when we got older. I would occasionally inquire about a building and what its purpose is etc.

The weather today was overcast and a little rainy! My kind of weather! Chongqing is known as one of the three furnaces in China (the others are Nanjing, and Wuhan). So it was a welcome break. This is the beginning of the short Autumn then comes a long winter, short spring, and summer again!

While we were walking I asked my friend about Chinese literature and famous authors. One I asked about in particular was Lu Xun who she said was known to speak out for the people and for revolutionary things. This author's work was praised during The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution unlike many other chinese author's works (much of which were banned). I confronted my friend about this and asked if this was right or not. All she could say was "At the time other works were not acceptable to the people." I find that very interesting!

Also of course there was a statue of Mao Zedong in the university, but it was an ugly brown.

Food in Plastic, It's Fantastic!

2008-10-11T06:29:00.000-07:00

Fancy/expensive "Western Style" restaurants often display their food available in windows near their entrances. The food displayed is plastic. This restaurant had everything on the menu displayed, everything! It took up six windows like the one pictured above. It must have looked strange when six foreigners (me and my exchange student friends) walked up and pulled out our cameras!

Karaoke! (卡啦OK, or KTV)

2008-10-11T06:07:00.000-07:00

(lobby, we went in the daytime if we had come later there would have been more people)
(I cajoled a staff member into taking this photo of us, for some reason he acted like he didn't have time)

[read the post below before reading this one!]

At one point we decided that we were through with shopping and wanted to move on to another amusing thing. This next "amusement" was Karaoke (sometimes known as KTV)! Everyone was dazzled by the front lobby! The pillars in the lobby were decked out in neon lights that change colors every few seconds. Right when you step out of the elevator (the establishment is on the 6th floor I believe) you are greeted by a loud 欢迎光临 (We welcome your patronage!). Quickly the staff asks how many people are in your party and how long you plan on renting a room.

Our group agreed on one hour to a grand total of fifty-five yuan ( about eight dollars and eight cents). All of us were then whisked off to a private room with a sofa, televison, and small screen for choosing songs and ordering snacks. The snacks are over priced so we hide our own in backpacks, under sweatshirts, and enclosed in handbags.

This was my third time to a KTV place! I finally mustered up the courage to sing! I am getting to the point where I can follow along with Chinese songs (you have to read the characters and sometimes this can be challenging if the tempo is speedy). I confess I sang English songs! Avril Lavigne is a superstar here, naturally a few of us sang one of hers.

Underground Shopping Center (地下购物中心)

2008-10-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

(entrance)
(one of the booths situated on a corner in the labrynth-like market)
(a view down one of the main alleys of booths)

Today most of the foreign exchange students met in the most expensive/entertaining part of Chongqing, 解放碑 (Jiefangbei, ji-eh-fahng-bay). In total there were 3 Germans, 1 American, 1 Italian, and 1 Thai. We had quite a lot of fun! First was lunch at a western food restaurant (I had Chicken fingers, but I can't really be sure what kind of meat it was actually). Then later we found ourselves shopping in an underground bargain market!

Here is a list of things that one can buy in this market:

1. umbrellas

2.knock-off designer handbags

3.mani-pedi

4.hairweaves (no joke, I almost died when I saw this)

5. cheap but nice women's casual clothing

6.hello kitty-esque stuffed animals

7. t-shirts/sweatshirts with interesting tastes in the English language

Inside it is not unlike a labrynth! So many little shops, so little time!

Everything is sold from a little booth that the shopkeeper has set up. Usually these shopkeepers can be seen in or outside their boothes either eating, haggling prices, or text messaging. What is nice about these little informal establishments is that one can bargain. To some people this is most of the entertainment. I myself have never seen bargaining or done it before and it was exciting and fun!

Also this place sold mostly women's things so men were seldom seen inside. There was the occasional husband/boyfriend holding the bags for a woman. These men didn't speak much unless it was to help haggle. But even then the women didn't really listen.

Fellow Students Off To Mandatory Military Training!

2008-10-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Students listening to the headteacher tell them the reasons for going to this camp (supposedly for building character, and developing team building skills...but that is debatable)
I like this picture because you can get a glimpse of the student's faces and what they have brought with them. very few items are permitted.
Military officials discussing travel arrangements
Students being informed, my camera is spotted by a soldier

(Head teacher gives a rousing speech, that doesn't rouse students much)

This past week my fellow 高一(gao-ee, first year of high school in China) peers have been participating in a grueling mandatory military training camp. All foreign students at my school opted out. The food is supposed to be horrible, and for a whole week you are not permitted to shower (nor are the facilities provided). Toilets might also be a bit of a dive too then.

I saw pictures of last year's camp and the students didn't look so cheery...In fact they looked miserable. Their uniforms are not military-esque at all! Actually they are rather kitschy. Like boy scouts except more flamboyant iwth bright colors for everyone! Blues and chartreuses for boys, pink and white for girls. Everyone has matching visors/baseball caps. All the kneckerchiefs are red.

I am told the students learn basic survival techniques, like purifying water and how to start a fire as well as miltary excercises and tests. One fo the tests is standing in the sun for 30 minutes straight without moving. That was one of the reasons why I didn't want to go!

Little Neighborhood

2008-10-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

Little neighborhood that is around my apartemnt building. It bustles from about 6:30am 'til 10:00pm with haircutters, massage parlors (not the prostitute kind...which they do have but elsewhere), noodle shops, a bra store, and a little gifty nook.

Incorrect/Silly English Signage throughout Guilin

2008-10-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

Most Chinese signs that have English are pretty accurate....however some signs are just downright incorrect, or others you just look at and think "Okay....and?"

"hope forever days eternal enjoy you fun manners!"

Last Days in Guilin 桂林 (gway-leen)

2008-10-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Pagodas on the boat cruise in the urban part of Guilin
Old style architecture at the end of the boat cruise in the urban part of Guilin
Countryside of Guilin
Cave
(above: bamboo raft trip to get to the waterfall)

3rd Day

Thank God! On this day I was able to sleep in! The night befor ewe didn't return to our hotel room until about 12am. So everyone woke up around 10:30am and we started to drive to lunch at about 11:30am.

For lunch we had "Sour fish" which is a Chongqing style dish. Sour fish is prepared in a big pot on top of a stove cooker right at your table. Two fish are dropped into a soup of seasoning and vegetables, cooked, then picked apart and eaten. You spit the bones out onto your plat or the table. I found this very difficult because it requires eating the fish in the front part of your mouth and being able to spit out just the bones on to the plate. The Chinese have been doing it all their lives and are very good at this. After a while I got used to it, and began enjoying my food.

Soon after lunch we departed for another boat cruise in the city part of Guilin. At the end of the cruise was an old building complext that was built in the style of traditional Chinese architecture.
I want to see more buildings like these!

Next was a golfcart tour of Guilin's zoo/park. It is called 七星公园 (Seven Star Park). I was surprised to see that in this zoo the animals are given a lot of freedom, and boundaries are flimsy or just not there. However the park didn't have anything really dangerous like lions, tigers, or bears (oh my!).

4th and Last Day

My flight back to Chongqing with my host Grandpa wasn't until 10pm. So my host father had the two of us join a tour group to kill time until then. The rest of my family started driving back to Chongqing sometime after my host father dropped us off at the tour group's starting point.

This tour I enjoyed because we drove through the countryside of China the whole time! Fields and little villages passed by our window the whole way. I was entertained.

On the tour we were taken to a massive cave somewhere in the mountains of Guilin. But it was poorly preserved and people touched the cave way too much, so you could tell that the cave was dead. Anyone who knows about the preservation of caves would know what I am talking about. (When I went to Karchner Caverns they lectured us on this).

The cave was lit up with fancy rainbow lights and even had a train going through it so you didn't have to walk too much within the cavern.

Going to see a waterfall was the final item on our list, and to get there you we taken by bamboo raft. I was given the option to climb the waterfall but I wasn't wearing the right clothes and my host grandfather wanted me to stay with him. This tourspot advocated environmentalist to the fullest. There was a graveyard with all the extinct animals from China, a doorway with a mirror on the other side (above the mirror it said the reason for destruction of the environment), and signs explaining how to recycle and why you should.

On the tourbus the lady sitting next to me recommended a remedy for my skin disease. Skin disease!? Yes, freckles are considered an illness here! And this lady was no country bumpkin she was a TV actress from Beijing who also worked parttime as a pharmacist's assistant. This actually wasn't the first time I had heard this either.

She told me I was eating too much meat and not enough vegetables. Oh I should also drink more tea. But I showed her the half of my arm that is all white because it doesn't face the sun. "See? There are only a few freckles here. It's not that I am eating bad food, it's the sun! See white, tan, white, tan!" Her response was this "No that's not true....it's just that the skin on the bottom of your arm is more healthy." After that I told her that almost everyone in my immediate famliy has freckles and that it was genetic...to which she said "Such an unhealthy family, you must tell them what I have told you." She recommended some medicines and creams I should take for this "ailment."

5 hours later I was on my plane back to Chongqing.

I had a chatty 12 year old boy in the seat next to me and he told me about cartoons, Chinese music, his favorite American superstars, and his English class. His parents were so happy that he was sitting next to a foreigner...as a sign of friendliness they called me "big brother."

Chinese Redhead

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大坪七牌坊 Da Ping's Seven Tablets Lane

貝迪溫泉五月一日 Beity Hot Springs

Lamma Island 南丫島

西貢 Sai Kung (Xi Gong), Hong Kong

Macau (O Moon) With the Ngan Family

Grave Sweeping Festival 清明節

Huayan Temple 華巖寺

Lower Half City 長江的旁邊的下半城（朝天門的南部）

Let's Go Fly a Kite 我們去放風箏吧！

Update 新闻

Artsy! 黄桷坪的艺术不囧！

Hong Kong 香港

Macau 澳门

Old Nest Cafe 老巢咖啡厅

River Watching 朝天门

Art District 黄桷坪艺术街道

Xinjiang 新疆

Beijing Day 5: Yonghegong Lama Temple (Last Day) 北京第五天：雍和宫（最后一天）

Beijing Day 5: Walking through a Hutong (Last Day) 北京第五天：胡同的散步（最后一天）

Beijing Day 4: Summer Palace 北京第四天：颐和园儿

Update 新闻

Beijing Day 3: Great Wall 北京第三天：撞道口长城

Beijing Day 3： 798 Modern Art Factory 第三天：七九八艺术中心

Beijing Day 2 Part 2 北京第二天，第二部分

Beijing Day 2 (Forbidden City) 北京第二天 (故宫）

Beijing Day 1 北京欢迎你 第一天

Yunnan Trip 云南旅游（从下面开始读）

New Year's Day 元旦

Christmas in Shanghai

Village Outside Shanghai 上海外面的农村

Crazy Schedule! 疯子

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

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

合唱比赛 Singing Competition

Christmassy Happenings 圣诞节快到了

Update: Mood Lately

Thanksgiving 感恩节

Medicine Man 中医

HAIR 头发，剪头发

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

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

Shanghai Excursion Part 2 上海旅游第二部分

Excursion to Shanghai 上海旅游！Part 1

Technical Problems!

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

Don't Worry! :D 别担心！

The (Sorta) Ancient Town of Ciqikou 磁器口古镇

Painting

Dinner Out

Poem Recitation

Art Class （上艺术课）

Today's Sights

Things at Night

Foreigner Street 洋人街

Chinese Class at a Foreign Language High School

New Driver?

Late Night School Hopping

Taking a Tour of Chongqing University (重庆大学）

Food in Plastic, It's Fantastic!

Karaoke! (卡啦OK, or KTV)

Underground Shopping Center (地下购物中心)

Fellow Students Off To Mandatory Military Training!

Little Neighborhood

Incorrect/Silly English Signage throughout Guilin

Last Days in Guilin 桂林 (gway-leen)

Beijing Day 1 北京欢迎你第一天

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