no airplanes, no ferries, no trains - just China.

I spent the past weekend in my lovely new hometown of Shenzhen - the first weekend I have spent here in a month. Although I was fairly sick for much it, I still managed to add a couple stories to my China portfolio.

On Saturday, John, one of the ISS teachers, organized an outing with the Chinese and foreign teachers to an indoor skating rink (see photo on right). Yes, they have skating rinks in the tropics; and yes, most of the skaters on the ice were about as bad as you might expect given the climate... meaning I fit right in. Aside from one seal-like dive when my toe-pick caught and I soared gracefully into the air and somehow managed to land on my knee and my neck simultaneously, it was actually quite fun and entertaining (although I'm sure my fall was entertaining for the others present). I also had a good time "racing" a little girl on her figure skates, although I never did decide whether she was actually racing me or just trying to escape me in sheer terror.

After skating, we went out for "hot pot," which is a Chinese dish/meal that is served in the North. It involves a hot pot (figure that out) filled with boiling water, vegetables, spices, etc into which you put different types of meats and vegetables to cook. There is an electric stove in the center of the table that keeps the pot hot and the food cooking throughout the 2+ hour-long meal. It was delicious and fun, and considering the massive quantity of food we consumed, pretty inexpensive.

The hot pot - a source of great food as well an extensive Chinese herb/vegetable/meat vocab lesson

On Sunday morning I took a trip Dongmen, the huge shopping district of Shenzhen. I went to a similar market during my first few days in China, but this one was still totally overwhelming. There were tightly packed booths selling clothing, shoes, "designer" bags, electronics, cosmetics - you get the idea - and equally tightly packed people passing through, looking at the goods and arguing over prices. This madness continues floor after floor, building after building. Apparently the market itself is over 300 years old (so much for commercialism being a new fad in China!) and is also home to China's first McDonald's. Quite the claim to fame.

In case you were wondering, I was too overwhelmed to really do much shopping, but I did buy a pair of Converse shoes for less than $5. They came with the tag and box, and so far seem comfortable and well-made, so whether or not they are "real" seems a very trivial concept.

Finally, on Sunday afternoon I went to see Jaris play basketball in Shenzhen tournament. There were people tightly packed all around the perimeter of the court, and I made a joke when we arrived along the lines of, "Where are our foreigner VIP seats??" The joke quickly became a reality, as we were ushered across the court and given plastic courtside chairs. It was a nice gesture but resulted in an even more zoo-like feeling than normal: We were literally fenced in with people peering in at us from every angle.

My post-weekend life has been totally consumed by school: lesson planning, writing reports, filling out homework/exam/attendance sheets, meeting individually with students and teachers, correcting homework. I'll spare you the details, but will reassure you that although completely exhausting and sometimes quite trying, teaching continues to be one of the most rewarding jobs I can imagine.

pink plastic skirts and AK-47s

This week China's annual Sports Day gave me a welcome break from teaching several classes. Imagine the standard track and field day at an American elementary school - but then stretch it across three days; add in middle schoolers, high schoolers, and even teachers; and kick it off with an evening ceremony/parade/speeches to reinforce its importance and seriousness.

The ceremony started at 4 pm on Tuesday, and was a sight to behold. Every class at TESS was represented - over 6,000 students - including a group from the ISS who marched holding flags representing their nationalities. They were definitely one of the more tame groups in the parade. Here are some photos to back my claim:

ISS students - note the flags from the US, Canada, Philippines, Hong Kong, China, Korea, and Germany.

This outfit would be less strange if it weren't for the thick make-up applied to both the girls and boys. This would never fly at a public school in the US...
I saw these year 1 students practicing the day before the opening ceremony, and sought out my boss to tell him, "Either I'm dreaming or there are rabbits out on the field right now." Turns out I was not dreaming.
What will this "Michael-Jackson-Thriller" costume cost you? Just one month of tuition and 90% of your dignity.
Saved the best for last - yes, these middle school girls are wearing pink plastic skirts and carrying AK-47s. At this point Bob, the 69 year-old physics teacher from Canada, whispered to me, "I don't know know about you, but my, I am finding this quite inappropriate."
Finally - closing with the Chinese anthem. Let Sports Day 2008 begin!

After Tuesday's ceremony, the middle school had their actual sporting events on Wednesday, while the primary kids competed yesterday. Since I am fortunate enough to all young ones on Thursdays, I had all of my classes canceled. I made a morning trip to the ISS anyway to cheer on my students. Ironically, despite the fact they were outfitted with track cleats and clothing while the public school kids wore their everyday uniforms and shoes, they placed last in just about everything. But I was very glad I went to see them, and after being mobbed by my year 2's and 5's I was in an unshakable good mood for the next several hours.

Here I will insert a necessary side story: a few weeks ago I bought a semi-decent mountain bike for ~US$80. I say semi-decent because while the wheels respond to the pedals and the brakes perform nicely, shifting gears results in about a minute of solid clicking and cracking without any real difference in resistance or speed. I guess that can be expected when you buy your bicycle at a Chinese Wal-Mart...

Anyway, since classes were canceled, Andy and I had our own "sports day" - we biked to Shekou, the expat district filled with delicious international food and (*gasp*) white people. It took over two hours to find our way there, but only an hour and a half to get back. It was an awesome trip, although not for the faint of heart: biking from Bao'an to Shekou involves carrying your bike over footbridges, biking along some very busy roads (highways?), facing off with bikes who are pulling truckloads behind them and cars who are in the wrong lane/sidewalk, and trying to guess which vehicles will actually obey traffic laws like red lights and walk signals. Not to mention going through the "Special Economic Zone" checkpoint - bring your passport! - and serious congestion and throat irritation after the ride due to inhaling the thick pollution. But the reward - amazing Indian food and a serious sense of accomplishment - made it worth it. (And I didn't even need to march in a parade in a pink plastic skirt to take part in it.)

thailand!

My guidebook says over 90% of Thais are practicing Buddhists. After visiting just a few cities, I'd believe it. You can't go a block without passing a little shrine like this one - even on the busy metropolitan streets of Bangkok.

Once again, before I launch into the details of another crazy weekend, I will start with a few short stories:

1. My teach-the-teacher session is on hold, since our Friday afternoons will now be devoted to learning a kung fu dance that all the teachers will perform together at our New Years' party. This already awkward process is complicated by the fact that I am the only teacher who does not understand Chinese, so no translations of the dance instructions are provided. If you'd like to check out the dance we're learning, you can see it here. Fast-forward to minute 0:50 if you'd like to see how I ripped my pants.
2. Last week during our weather unit, I had my year 2 students make weather forecasts and then record the actual weather every day. As part of this procedure, I asked them to illustrate their forecasts: sunny, cloudy, rainy, etc. When I distributed the colored pencils, they all immediately jumped for the red ones, which turned out to be necessary because that was the color they all chose for their suns. I didn't think much of it until I was walking home in the evening and noticing the blood red sun setting in the sky; because of the polluted haze hanging over Shenzhen, the sun really does appear to be red. No student in America would select a red colored pencil to color a sun, but here that was the unanimous choice. Just another reminder of how different the most ordinary things can be on the opposite side of the globe...
3. I got a new class this week, which meets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It does make my schedule a bit out of control, but still I can hardly complain: it's an 11th grade class called OSC, "Overseas Chinese," and has 9 Korean + 1 Cambodian students. My co-teacher (the Chinese teacher who teaches the class 3 other periods each week) is the director of students, similar to a Vice Principal of an American school. The kids are already pretty respectful to begin with, but the threat that the woman charged with behavioral discipline - aptly named "Sissy" - will immediately know if they are off task makes them even more well-behaved. And the good news is, with 18 classes/week, I now get paid overtime!

Onto Thailand! After a rough start, it ended up being an amazing and jam-packed 48 hours. Andy and I took a cab to the port in Shekou, Shenzhen, to board a ferry to Hong Kong to catch our flight. Everything went relatively smoothly until we arrived at the ferry terminal in Hong Kong and got ready to check in for our flight: our airline, Air Asia, was nowhere to be found. Worse, no one at the other airline counters had heard of Air Asia, and when we finally got airport management, we were told that we were in the wrong area to check in for Air Asia flights, but there was no way we could get a bus or taxi to take us to the correct terminal. As the time before our flight left became shorter, we realized there was no possibility that we would be on it. To complicate this matter, since we had taken a ferry over - which accepts only cash - we had no way of re-boarding it to return to Shenzhen. I managed to convince myself we would be fine until a member of airport staff took our passports, told us we could sleep in the ferry terminal, and left.

As you may divine by the fact that I have Thailand stories to share, things did work out in the end. We were able to buy last-minute tickets into Bangkok through another airline (for the painful price of US$428 each). In the end I was so relieved just to have my passport and be leaving that dreadful terminal that the monetary value assigned to the ticket was relatively unimportant.

Otherwise, my Thai tales form one long happy weekend. A few of the most memorable moments:

• After arriving in Pattaya around 2 am on Friday/Saturday, we decided that rather than sleep we would go for a walk and check out the city. We ended up watching a crappy American movie with Thai subtitles with a lone bartender, eating street food, and walking in the sand until 5 am. Which of course made the 9 am alarm feel terrific on Saturday morning.
• We rented scooters Saturday morning and went beach-hopping. So I spent the afternoon swimming in the ocean, laying in the sun, ogling the fat European tourists, getting a leg/back/neck massage, and eating wonderful food. One minor blip when I ran over my foot with the moped, but otherwise it was a highlight of the trip.
• Pattaya is known for its wild sex industry. Even after being in red light districts in other cities, the blatant prostitution of women and "ladyboys" was a bit startling...
  
• At a bar on Saturday evening, we were told alcohol was no longer being served. In this bar? In Pattaya? No - in all of Thailand! Apparently the King's sister was being cremated, and the ceremony lasted from 7 am until past 10 pm. It seemed that all of Thailand was glued to their television screens watching the procession, so the country was staying sober for the occasion. Quite the lesson in Thai culture and their allegiance to their principal figurehead, who has been their king for over 60 years. Fun fact: in Thailand, it is illegal to say anything bad about the King. So any sour thoughts we had about the alcohol ban were wisely kept inside.

This beach-side sign shows (a) the importance of the king, (b) the sweet Thai script, and (c) a funny equation of fish + cigarette = fish skeleton.

• Bangkok on Sunday afternoon: Pretty much exactly what I imagined. It's a crazy and disorganized city filled with hawkers selling knock-off goods, tons of amazing food, and Buddhist temples overshadowed by towering skyscrapers. Check out the example on the right - how's that for juxtaposition of cultures?
  

85% chinese

In the past six weeks, I have gotten used to...

• paying in RMB - I no longer convert back to the US dollar (unless I am trying to rationalize a seemingly expensive purchase)
• responding to "Teacher" and "老师" and even "Hamburger"
• speaking slowly and using direct/easy vocabulary
• saying "haiya" (pronounced hi-YAHH) to express frustration. Often.
  
• running on a treadmill that tracks my progress in km - again, the conversion to American units is no longer necessary
  
• biking and running in a city where cars drive on sidewalks while bikes pulling entire truckloads use the road
• eating at a restaurant or street vendor 2, 3, and sometimes 4 times a day
• drinking disgusting canned coffee that tastes suspiciously like the container it comes in
• using chopsticks - even for pasta in my apartment. Can anyone find a fork around here?!
• overseeing my students' morning exercises and eye exercises. Hard to believe how foreign these seemed just a month ago!

8:00 "morning exercises" in the courtyard of the ISS

• living in the tropics - this Minnesota girl even put on a sweater when it got down into the sixties last night
• eating meat with relatively little idea which animal, or part of that animal, it originally belonged to
• my rock hard bed
• being unable to understand the majority of signs and conversation around me
• bartering, sometimes to 1/4 the asking price, for seemingly everyday purchases
• pretending I knew the computer in my classroom wasn't going to work and that I really did intend to play Bingo/hangman/murder mystery/20 questions/charades for the last 15 minutes of class
• unexpected surprises in class at the last moment. Key example from this afternoon: my year 1 class had an extra student, Enson, who is my Year 4 low-level English Corner. He couldn't explain his presence to me with his limited English, but when I asked another teacher later, I found out that he had been "acting like a Year 1 student so today he will be a Year 1 student." This would be the classic degrading punishment, made altogether more degrading by the fact that in our spelling contest, Ben and Coco beat Enson on every single word.

Enson, Ben, and Coco caught in a rare quiet/studious moment

Of course, there are some things I'm still working on: the absolute mess of the Chinese planned-one-day-at-a-time school system; being stared at and photographed endlessly ("外国人!"); and my 7th-9th grade class, who openly state that they have no interest in learning English, and instead belittle each other and me for 40 straight minutes each week (seriously: this week after they left, I locked the door, sat in the empty classroom, and cried). But my assimilation list is growing longer and I am already getting the sense that leaving in February might not actually be all that easy... It's nice to feel at home on the other side of the world.

another one-way ticket

This summer I sent over 20 emails into African cyberspace in search of a volunteer position with an NGO from the spring of 2009. My tagline about a Yale Law student on a one-year deferral must not have been as catchy as I had hoped, because after a few months of dedicated effort I received exactly zero responses. Then, in mid-September - over two months after I had sent the initial correspondence - I heard back from Andrew Youn, a Korean Yale (BA)/Northwestern (MBA) grad who founded One Acre Fund in rural Kenya. He happened to be in Minneapolis on a fundraising run that week, so we arranged a "casual meeting" at a Starbucks downtown the day before I left.

The casual meeting turned out to be a fairly intense hour-long session in which I mapped out business and experiment plans for hypothetical situations faced by the rapidly developing agricultural NGO. I had little background with this type of interview question - although I am told they are quite common in the business world - but apparently I did fine because Andrew told me they would try to find an available niche for me with One Acre Fund for the spring after my teaching contract ends in China.

Between the blog entry title and this little background story, you can probably guess what the latest development in my life has been: Andrew officially extended me an invitation to work with One Acre Fund this spring. However, the terms are less favorable than he had hoped; since I can't get there until February and planting begins March 1, he will have to staff the major projects with employees who can be in Kenya at the beginning of 2009. So while I get free room and board (granted, "free room and board" in a hut with no running water or electricity), I have to pay for travel and immunization expenses. I don't really mind; I sort of expected this from the beginning, and if I were trying to capitalize financially I would not be working in a country where the currency is worth roughly 1/7 of the US dollar!

I should add that even after all my excitement to move to Africa, the decision was not easy - I am feeling increasingly at home in China, understanding more and more Mandarin, and finally learning the ropes of being a teacher. I hate to cut short the happy episodes of my life, but the anticipation I feel thinking about Kenya makes it impossible to turn down this opportunity. Oh yes, and of course I had to take into considering the winning vote from the poll on the right-hand side of my blog... Yes, my loyal readers, your vote does count!

a night in the HKG.

Harbor seen from Stanley (south side of Hong Kong Island)

After a joint pot-luck with the Chinese teaching staff on Friday night, I awoke early on Saturday morning to catch a bus into Hong Kong. I had originally planned to meet up with Sarah Hawkenson, a high school friend who works for Northwest. After she failed to board her flight, I debated for only a few minutes before deciding I would go anyway.

It's sort of ironic, given that Hong Kong is technically part of China, that I was not previously allowed to visit - but you do in fact need a passport to cross the border and a valid Chinese visa to return. However, as with Macau, now that I have my residence permit I can come and go freely, making it a 1.5-hour trip (and only US$12 round-trip) into the bustling downtown area of Hong Kong - including the time spent going through customs at the border.

I had been warned that Hong Kong was quite a bit more expensive than mainland China - on par with New York City, in fact - and also an incredibly amazing place. Both turned out to be true, which could be a dangerous combination given its proximity to Shenzhen! What impressed me most about Hong Kong was first its size: it squishes all of its 7 million residents into a 426 square-mile area. It appears that not a single of these square miles is wasted; either jam-packed with high rises and extravagant office buildings, protected as a nature preserve complete with hiking paths and look-outs, or dedicated to tourism in the form of international cuisine (!) and endless shops with knock-off designer/"authentic Chinese" goods.

Since the trip went so smoothly, there is less to report - guess that is the downside to easy travel - but still a few key stories that I'll share here.

• While riding the metro from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon, I relaxed against the glass door. I know there are always signs indicating that this is exactly what not to do, and I soon found out why: as the doors slid open, the back of my arm (we will call this part "muscle" and not "flab") got caught in the door, preventing it from opening beyond a small crack. One man immediately tried to pry it open, and I cried out, "MY ARM!" It couldn't have been more than a few seconds that I was stuck like that, but it left a big red mark on the back of my arm and gave me a terrible case of the giggles - as only comes when you do something absolutely ridiculous and are then trapped in a small confined space with the very people who watched you do it.
• While not as humorous, taking the tram to Victoria Peak turned out to be a veryworthwhile, albeit touristy, activity. The peak is adorned with a huge shopping mall (how Hong Kong of them), and for HK$12 (~US$2) you can go to the top for a lookout. The view was amazing and the walk back down adventurous and scenic.

View of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak

• While walking back through SoHo, the up-and-coming district of Hong Kong with the stereotypical booths and wide variety of cuisines, we chanced upon a sign that read "BELGIUM ON TAP." Despite the afternoon hour and the fact that we had just eaten, Andy and I went in to check it out. We ended up drinking a glass of beer each in front of an open window overlooking the bustling tourist streets of SoHo. As I cherished the juxtaposition of images before me - my Belgian beer before the Hong Kong streets; the dumpy shops in the foreground of huge polished glass buildings; traditional Chinese medicine sold next to a shoestore stocked with Converse All-Stars - I came to realize that the last time I observed a similar coincidence of cultures was also over a Belgian beer. Hip, hip, hooray for international trade!

culture! the laundry list

• Throughout China, babies don't wear diapers; instead, they have no crotch in their pants. Parents hold up their children whenever and wherever they need to relieve themselves, and they just let it all out right there. And yes, I really mean "wherever": sidewalks, streets, buses, banks, shopping centers...

• Manners and politeness here are totally different than anywhere I have visited. It goes beyond spitting in hallways of public establishments, slurping noodles, and burping loudly (which I personally find to be quite liberating); it also carries through to everyday conversation. I learned the word for "please" in my elementary Chinese course, but literally have not heard it since my arrival. In fact, I'm not exactly how to use it in context, and was told to "just forget it" because people here don't say please, anyway. Same goes for "thank you," and although my Midwestern upbringing demands that I thank everyone anyway, I have only once heard the Chinese phrase for "you're welcome."
  

• The book I'm reading says that Chinese are motivated primarily by shame and not by guilt. Understanding that concept has gone a long way for me in classroom management. In general, students do not feel bad for not doing their work unless they are caught, and even then only if their peers are made aware of their laziness. Test grades are almost always public information, and it is common here to publicly shame students as punishment. One high school girl who would leave class early had to stand before an auditorium filled with her peers as her truancies were explained and ridiculed. The same goes for Chinese teachers who are late to class, although supposedly I'm saved from that by being a foreigner. (Still am going to try to be on time, though...)

• There is definitely a limit to what can be publicly discussed/read. I may have already pushed some limits in my blog so I will leave it at that.

• Classes, and life in general, seem more patterned and ritualistic than at home. For example, my classes all must begin:

Me: Class begins!
Class: (standing up) Stand up!
Me: Good morning, class!
Class: Good morning, teacher!

A funny story relating to that: Yesterday morning I forgot my routine, and warmly greeted my students, "Good morning, class!" They stood up automatically and barked in unison, "Good morning, teacher!" I immediately realized my mistake, and tried to salvage it by saying, "Stand up!" To which the students replied hesitantly, "Stand up!" (even though they were already standing) and looked at me and each other in obvious confusion. I think I said something like "Sit down...?" and just started cracking up. Better luck next time, foreigner.

hey, wanna go to macau?

Macau skyline with the Macau Tower in the background (8th tallest free-standing structure in the world!)

Although I had not yet recovered from my illness, I also had apparently not learned my lesson, because I got up on Saturday morning, showered, and packed a backpack for a night in Macau. If it seems strange that I can simply wake up in the morning, grab a bag, and jump on a ferry to an apparently differently world - well, I totally agree. And now that I have my official "Resident's Permit for Foreigner in the People's Republic of China" I am allowed to come and go as I please. Weekend trips, begin!

Andy and I got off the ferry at the Macau port without the slightest idea where were in relation to the rest of the city. However, even in the dumpy district where the ferry docked, it was apparent that more than an arbitrary border separated Macau from Shenzhen. Macau was a Porteguese colony from 1557 until 1999, one of the longest colonial reigns of all time. (Another fun fact: it's also the most densely populated region in the world - ask Wikipedia!) So all of the signs are in traditional Chinese characters - since the majority of the population speaks Cantonese - with Portuguese translations provided below. I actually enjoyed this, because my Spanish/French background means that Porteguese is easily decipherable, whereas the English translations in Shenzhen are often so poorly done that they are not.

Anyway, modern-day Macau is a pretty unique and colorful place, thanks to its huge casino scene (it's often called the Vegas of the eastern hemisphere) and funky mix of Chinese and Porteguese architecture/art/cuisine. Although most of the tourists are from Asia, the ethnic diversity is above anything I have scene since arriving in China. No one even stared! Such a nice break from what has become routine in my everyday life.

Views of/from the ruins of St Paul's cathedral, built in 1602

The Grand Lisboa, our very classy hotel - I'm thinking upside-down Christmas tree?

A few highlights of the Macau trip:

• An amazing Italian dinner, which was surprisingly inexpensive given its location in a casino, down the hall from Chanel and Louis Vuitton.
• Andy coming out 1100 Hong Kong dollars (~US$160) ahead at the casino. I didn't gamble, but I take full credit for the moral support.
• Trying to pay for an ice cream cone at McDonalds - yes, they're everywhere - and realizing I had five different types of currency in my wallet: from Hong Kong, Macau, China, US, and Thailand. Which is pretty absurd considering I only had 16 coins total... Also indicative of the amount of energy I put into financial organization. Oops.
• The first bed I have slept in since arriving in China that had a softer-than-rocklike consistency. I slept incredibly well but then had a backache all day on Sunday. Guess my body is learning to adjust...? Maybe I'll have to get a bamboo cover for my mattress at home. (Ha.)

Yet as always, even after a fabulous trip, it was great to come home. I guess I knew it would happen, but it is still amazing how comfortable and familiar my surroundings have become; I arrived 5 weeks ago in what was evidently "the other side of the world" and I am now beginning to feel that China has always been in my backyard.