Let's Go Fly a Kite 我們去放風箏吧！

(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

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！

（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

(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

(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

（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!