saying 再见

Striking my very last pose in front of the Tsinghua Experimental School in Shenzhen - International School Section

Chinese lesson:
再见 = zai jian = to see again = good-bye

Tonight was the ISS teachers' party to celebrate the Chinese New Year and end of the semester. Since I am still recovering from my illness, I was a bit skeptical about the high-energy activities planned (rumor was "sports day") and the dumpling-making activity. But after writing 7 single-spaced pages reviewing each of my classes in detail - an assignment sprung on the foreign teachers at the last possible moment - and an afternoon nap, I dragged myself back to the ISS for the party.

If I thought my stomach was churning earlier in the week, the snack selection exponentiated my illness. Here is a picture - can you identify any of these common Chinese snack foods?

Clockwise, beginning with the far left: Chicken feet, lotus, seaweed, pig intestine, tofu, duck neck, spicy duck heart, duck head, cow intestine.

I ate a duck heart because it appeared to be the most edible snack provided. Alan, the principal, explained to me what it was by making his fingers like veins and arteries and pumping the heart. I was pretty disgusted and declined to eat another. Needless to say, at my table everyone sided with Alan - no one could understand why people in the United States don't eat this part of the animal, and how it could possible be construed as gross. I admitted that it doesn't make much sense; we eat the legs and wings of the chicken, so why not the feet? Maybe it's something about the small clawed toenails...

We also played some typical party games, and I won a prize (bottle of lotion - practical as always) for tipping the most water from my glass into the Vice Principal's glass, both of us using only our teeth. Awkward. I also lost at a game where I had to count aloud to 5 in Chinese and then choose a number, 1-10, while giving a hand signal for a number different from the one I had chosen and the one chosen by the participant before me... all the thumping beat of Chinese techno. My punishment? Chug a glass of beer. Is this Shenzhen, China or Madison, Wisconsin?!

My favorite part, however, was the dumpling-making and consuming. I was involved in almost everything - from cracking eggs to chopping meat to shaping the dumplings. I learned how to fold dumplings, or "jiaozi," in the style of 4 different provinces, and of course ate way too many of them.

Chopping the pork to put into the dumplings - a huge task considering we had half a pig to cut up (skin and all!)

Left: The assembly line where I got my dumping-forming eduacation. Middle: Dumplings are ready for boiling! Right: One of many huge dumplings John insisted on making during the evening. ("Next one's gonna be the size of a football!")

As we continued forming and chowing down the dumplings, the principal and other school administrators walked around toasting each teacher individually. I was the only native English speaker there, but they switched to English for me and toasted me warmly. Alan told me I would be greatly missed, promised me a copy of the kung fu dance DVD, and promised to keep in touch. Sissy told me I was the "best partner ever" (she was my OSC co-teacher). Even Mr Gao smiled hugely and asked, "Tonight, do you happy?" Of course, tonight, I do happy.

Yet the happy evening was inevitably twinged with the bittersweet regret of departure. At one point, I looked around at all the teachers speaking in rapid Chinese around me and thought about how strange it was that I was here, accepted into this group. Four months ago I did not know a single person here - they were nameless, faceless, and totally removed from my reality. And in four short months I had come to feel totally at ease with them, communicating in a mix of broken English and Chinese, fumbling across cultural boundaries and laughing at common mistakes.

As I got ready to leave and wandered through the room saying good bye (再见), I received some of the nicest compliments I have ever gotten in my life. This alone maybe have been worth the hellish several-month long visa process, as I think I have enough uplifting memories now to lift me through the stresses of law school. Kevin, for example, toasted me, "Today I learn you are leaving, and am very sad, but feel very lucky to know you. But even more, I think your students are lucky, and everyone who knows you is lucky. Because when you smile, people smile. When you laugh, people laugh. When you happy, everyone happy."

My POI co-teacher Lisa, me, and John: Yes, we do happy.

food poisoning

The inevitable chapter of a Southeast Asian vacation.

The culprit:

Bangkok street food. After eating, Andy turned to me and said, "You know if we get sick in the next few days, I'm definitely blaming the sausages." Amen to that.

The result:

A day and a half in bed with no food, choking down water, and crying to my mom in the middle of the night. (Seriously... I might be brave enough to eat scorpions and pig penis, but when it comes to pain tolerance I can be a bit of a wuss.)

I got Jaris to substitute for the classes I missed today, but last night was not able to get out of judging an English competition. This is a fairly regular job for me, but last night was different, as I was judging the oral English skills of the teachers in the public and private (non-ISS, so I didn't have to criticize my co-teachers) schools. Since the judging committee was comprised of the top administration at the school, along with me and David, who is in charge of the international teachers, the teachers who read for us were obviously quite nervous. This didn't keep the administration from giving harsh feedback ("How can you expect to be a teacher if you are not continuously striving to improve yourself?") and assigning three long passages to be memorized and recited after the holiday break, along with a "self-criticism" writing assignment. I have come to see this type of thing, rightly or wrongly, as being very very Chinese.

The most surprising part of the evening, however, was after the judging process had finished. In my hazy sickness, I gathered my things to leave, but was stopped by the principal of the school. He began with something like, "You know, Amber is leaving us after this semester, and I propose that we have a party for her, with all 7,000 students." My stomach clenched up and I stared at the table. I had never even met this guy before, and foreign teachers came and went all the time; was he serious?! But he continued, "Amber is going to Yale University to study law next year, and got three degrees as an undergraduate. I think she can serve as a role model for all of the school to follow." Then, turning to me: "Would you mind giving a speech about yourself, and preparing a presentation with photos?"

My effort not to throw up must have become obvious, because he added, "Of course, it would be informal, and only about a half hour..." David turned to me and whispered, "Amber, you're wincing." And I looked at the all the faces awaiting my response and forced myself to smile. "Ok, I can do that."

David reassured me later that with only a few days left in the semester before the students go on break, there was little or no chance that even the very top administration could organize such a party before it was time to go. Hopefully he's right. But if not, at least it will give me something entertaining for my blog-readers to enjoy. Hell, by the time I get home I'll have so much character I'll put it in the bank and live off interest payments.

Thailand, round 2

Fun Fact! In Thailand, the Ronald McDonald statues in front of stores feature him in the respectful Thai gesture "wai": head bowed slightly, hands in front of the chest in prayer position. Hooray for an American burger chain doing their proper cultural research!

I kicked off 2009 with my lamest New Years celebration yet - and yes, this includes the years spent with my family when we pretended 11:00 was midnight so we could go to sleep early - in a dead sleep on a plane to Bangkok. Suspended in the air between two countries who celebrate their New Years in Jan/Feb (China) and April (Thailand), I woke up at 1:15 am to realize that my own culture's 2009 had officially begun, and then I closed my eyes and drifted back to sleep. Right: My boarding pass for the Shenzhen - Bangkok flight. Handwritten.

Since our flight to Bangkok landed at 2:30 am, and the one for Phuket departed at 6:40 am, I spent the first night of the New Year cat-napping on a bench in the airport, and the first day feeling pretty exhausted. However, I caught up on sleep quickly, and as always the excitement of travel kept my tiredness from registering until I returned to my own bed on Sunday night.

Chapter 1: Ko Phi Phi
I took an organized tour (my first and last, if I can help it) to Ko Phi Phi, a beautiful island covered in giant limestone karsts, similar to those in Guilin and Yangshuo from my early China trip. We had cloudy weather and were overwhelmed by the crowds of tourists packed onto the beaches, but the natural beauty of the islands was still obvious.

Ko Phi Phi. Look familiar? It was also apparently the set for the 1999 film "The Beach," starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Have I seen it? Of course not.

I also had two exciting encounters with the natural world during our island tour. First, we were given snorkels to explore the underwater world around the island. My snorkel experience has been limited to murky lakes, so seeing the colorful schools of fish, spiny sea urchins, and active clams against the coral floor was a dreamlike experience. A dream that ended quite abruptly when my limbs suddenly went tight and then limp, and I found I could no longer swim. Luckily, my panic/paralysis lasted only a moment, since I cried out and Andy helped me swim (ahem, pulled me) back to the boat. Turns out it was just a friendly sting from a fairly sizable jellyfish - as evidenced by my battle scars. It left tentacle marks and swollen skin from my back, across my stomach, and down to the opposite thigh. Luckily our guide got me some stinky green seaweed-like substance to rub on it, and it stopped burning within a few hours.

My other encounter with nature was a bit more pleasant. We went to "Monkey Beach," where there were lots of monkeys eating, playing, and swinging in the trees. One came over to meet me (see the picture on the left - no zoom on this photo!).





Chapter 2: Phuket
Phuket (pronounced poo-KET, and not "fuck it," in case you are giggling to yourself) is an island off the west coast of southern Thailand. It has long been a popular tourist destination, and is still in the process of being redeveloped after great damage caused by the 2004 tsunami. It was picturesque, warm, and relaxed, but after a couple days I decided that me and this type of resort destination do not get along.

I travel primarily to learn - to interact with people, understand their history and culture, and just the sense for how it feels to look out from another center of the world. Mingling with unsmiling and overweight European tourists, and being treated as one, was totally alienating after beginning at feel at home in Southeast Asia.

Nevertheless, the trip as a whole gave me little to complain about. A few of the highlights:

• Swimming in the ocean. Like a gigantic playground for adults, the ocean never fails to bring out my inner child. After swimming around (and somersaulting, bobbing, and pretending to be a shark) I got out of the water and Andy informed me I had been swimming for over an hour. I had no idea, but believed him the next day when my arms and legs were sore.
  
• A moped ride in which Andy got a ticket for not having a driver's license on him, and then ran out of gas. While I waited, I got to watch a Thai soccer match and made friends with some locals, who gave me a glass of ice water and asked me with genuine interest about my life.
• Making friends with an elephant on the beach. I have seen plenty of elephants at the zoo, but never imagined them to feel as they do - with short, coarse hair protruding from dry, cracked skin.
  

Chapter 3: Bangkok
I spent a day in Bangkok during my last Thai adventure, but this time had a much more full and exciting day. Beginning with a 3 am arrival onto the crowded backpacker streets of Khao San Road, and a 3:30 am falafel and noodles, Andy and I set out to fully enjoy the more authentic parts of downtown Bangkok.

Early on Sunday morning, we headed to the Grand Palace (พระบรมมหาราชวัง in Thai), a building complex that houses the King's throne and official residence, along with Buddhist temples and a famous jadeite Buddha. We had fantastic weather; it was in the 80s, which is cool for Bangkok, with a sunny blue sky. After deleting all of my duplicates and unclear images, I ended up with 57 pictures of the Grand Palace alone. Here are a few of the best:

















Other highlights from Sunday include great street food; the best-tasting pineapple of my life (and yes, I'm remembering my goal to stop exaggerating); a lunch so spicy it made my eyes water and burnt my lips; and a walk through Chinatown (Andy had a craving to speak Chinese... since that's something we never get to do at home...). Overall, the kind of day where I review the pictures and have already forgotten the weight of my heavy backpack on sunburnt shoulders, and instead recall the smell of chicken kabobs, rush of pink taxis, and the melody of the Thai language floating by on the street.