ABC in the PRC

I'm a Stranger Here Myself

2011-09-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

In a funny way nothing makes you feel more like a native of your own country than to live where nearly everyone is not. [...] being an American was my defining quality. It was how I was identified, differentiated.

- Bill Bryson, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, pg 3

Happy 3 Years Anniversary, Shanghai

2011-08-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

3 years ago today I boarded a plane at LAX. Destination: PVG (Pudong, Shanghai, China). I had two check-in 50lbs. bags, one carry-on bag and my backpack with my laptop in it. I had an open roundtrip ticket, meaning I was free to choose my return date as long as it was within a 12 month period. My cash consisted of an American ATM card that was supposed to work in certain Chinese ATMs with no transaction fees. I did not have an apartment set up. My family dropped me off at Point A and I was told that “somebody” would pick me up at Point B.

The first thing that hits most of us arriving in Shanghai in late summer is the humidity as it latches onto your body. My native Southern Californian skin immediately felt this new change as I got in line at customs under the heading “foreigner.” I looked like the locals, yet I was a foreigner. I would learn soon enough just how this would be to my advantage and disadvantage, and the beginning of many funny and frustrating stories.

My heart skipped a beat when I did not see anyone holding up a sign with my name on it in the arrivals lounge. “Maybe I missed it” and as I turned my luggage cart around I noticed out the corner of my eyes a Chinese girl running panicked towards the lounge with a piece of paper. Upon closer inspection I read my name, introduced myself, am escorted to the van and driven into the city that would become my home for the next 2.25 years.

Shanghai.

You’ve been mean and unkind, scary and unpleasant. But you were also exciting and delightful, warm and full of surprises. You stole my wallet with my passport in it, but a compassionate migrant worker found them in the bushes and and returned them to me via the contact information I had left on an old receipt. Your store owners always tried to charge me extra because they knew I wasn’t from “around here,” but your taxi drivers always got me from here-to-there without taking the “scenic route.” The people would spit, blow their nose with their hands, pick their ears with long pinky nails, children would #1 and #2 on the streets, but they would also smile and be genuinely curious about me and my life and make me feel welcome.

You were the starting point of many trips, domestic and international. It was always so nice to leave you and your smoggy air and grey skies behind, but there was always the sense of familiarity and anticipation whenever I was returning. Off the planes or trains to navigate the subway system back downtown or jump into a cab and say “Xujiahui, xie xie.”

You are a city of contrasts. The skyline is decorated with some of the newest, tallest and most modern buildings in the world. Neon signs flash while billboards and jumbotrons make their claims. Yet around each corner is an alley leading into a quiet neighborhood where families still hang laundry out to dry. Starbucks, McDonald’s and of course KFC reign supreme in every shopping plaza, but it is the friendly baozi lady or mala tang man who could serve up a quick tasty Chinese meal. Superbrand Mall is more likely to have clothes in my size, but Qipu Lu is an exhausting and lively game of shopping warfare. Cheese is expensive, but nothing beats the 3 RMB convenience store ice creams.

So 3 years later, I look back fondly at the times when every experience was new and fresh. Grabbing a taxi, learning city’s urban geography, reading menus, grocery shopping, paying bills, figuring out the local dialect, trying the Chinese chip “flavors,” the list goes on and on. The sense of accomplishment that came with each step kept me going. My Shanghai experience had been a little weird, but nothing short of exhilarating. Some of the best times were spent exploring China and nearby countries, and some of the best times were spent simply lounging and hanging out with dear friends. It was just as fun to wander its streets as it was to escape to a foreigner-friendly spot. I left Point B and returned to Point A a few months ago, and will probably remain at Point A for the foreseeable future. I brought back the trinkets and the kitschy souvenirs, but in my mind and heart are the real treasures, the stories and the memories.

I’ll be back. I don’t know when, but I’ll be back.

Welcome to Beijing

2011-03-06T23:56:00.000-08:00

In a smoky internet cafe in Lhasa, Tibet, Jing and I made a quick decision to travel to Beijing post-Tibet because:

   1.   In my two years of living in China, I had not been to Beijing yet.
   2.   There was a flight deal from Shanghai to Tianjin (via Spring Airlines - China’s budget airline), and we could just take the train or bus from Tianjin to Beijing.
   3.   While in Tibet, our tour guide found us relatively cheap return flights, essentially saving us 2 days on a train, meaning I had “gained“ 2 additional days of traveling.

We had about 1.5 days back in Shanghai before heading out again and we spent it doing laundry and packing for the eventual flight back to the States. By now, we had moved out of the "Girls’ Apartment" and was living/storing luggage in the now-open spare room in the "Boys’ Apartment." Things move fast in China, and even faster when you’re at the Expo.

When the day of departing for the north came, Jing and I took public transportation to the Shanghai-Hongqiao Airport. We had timed it so that we could take the metro over, since line 2 had a terminal at the airport. Little did we know, or expect, for the distance from the metro terminal to the actual airport terminal to be such a hassle. We arrived to the area just fine and followed the signs to take us to our destination. We get in line for the shuttle bus; no worries since we had at least an hour before the plane took flight. I take a look at the sign for the shuttle bus and my heart drops.

"Departs every 20 minutes"

We had to make it onto THIS bus that was currently boarding otherwise we would probably miss our flight; we are at the end of what looks to be a long line. Somehow we make it on board (me trying to sneak our carry-on onto the bus and not the bus’ loading trunk to save time, but the bus ayi saw me and stopped me) and breathed a sigh of relief as the bus starts its journey.

"It should be about 5-10 minutes I think." That 5-10 minute bus ride ended up lasting close to 30 minutes.

"Terminal 1 and terminal 2 shouldn’t be too far away from each other. It wouldn’t make sense." Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 were not next to each other; we (slowly) drove through a construction site, (slowly) through what looked like the leftovers of an airplane field, (slowly) through a couple city streets, (slowly) through the area with hotels for airplane staff/stewards. Things in China don’t always have to make sense.

"We’re going to Beijing!" We hope we can still make it to Beijing!

With 30 minutes to departure we dash off the bus and quickly find the check-in counter for Spring Airlines. Past experiences of others in China have said that you can still make it onto the plane even with 15 minutes to departure, since, well ... because it is China. Jing and I think we’re in the clear until the check-in girl says, "It’s too late, you won’t make it."

Oh. heck. no. I am going to get on that flight and I am going to go see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.

Two girls might be easy to push around, but my American forefathers fought for my right to the pursuit of happiness and dang it, I was going pursue happiness even if I was in a Communist country. As sad as it is for me to now say, it was time to play the role of The Foreigner. I grab our passports and push them to the check-in girl and in hurried English I say, "Please please please, let us get on the flight. We need to be on that flight."   I told her that "someone" had told us that we just had to arrive 30 minutes prior to departure and it would be okay. I keep speaking in English and only occasionally switching on "bad Chinese" of simple phrases and butchered tones (i.e. wo yao qu Tianjin, hao bu hao? 我要去天津, 好不好? I want to go to Tianjin, ok?). She makes some hurried calls over the walkie-talkie and recommends we pay an extra 20RMB to get seats closer to the front of the plane since we are boarding so late. No time to argue and I quickly give her 20RMB. She hands tickets (yes!) and our passports back to us and tells us to run. When those on duty at the security check/x-ray saw which flight we were trying to catch they decided to just let us go (only in China). A Chinese lady at the end of the hall frantically waves to us and says "TIANJIN!"

She "checks in" our bag by simply asking if I had liquids or explosives in it and hanging a paper ID tag on it, no x-rays or opening it (again, only in China). We climb into a 面包车 miàn bāo chē, (literally translated as "bread car" because it’s supposed to resemble a loaf of bread on wheels but in the West is more commonly known as a ”van“) with a group of 3-4 Chinese men who were also on the same plane. We find our 20RMB seats and can’t believe this had all happened. After we eat our bento meal from 7-11 (yup, bringing our own food onto the plane) we try to nap but obnoxious passengers who speak too loud and make crude comments about everything kept us awake. But the main point is we made it to Tianjin, and after an hour or so bus ride, we made it to Beijing.

Day 1 of Beijing saw us on a trip over to the Badaling section 八达岭 bā dá lǐng of the Great Wall of China. There is a bus that takes you directly from Beijing to Badaling for about under 20RMB. All the tour groups (ugh) were heading to the right side of the Great Wall so we, and other small groups of foreigners, headed to the left side of the Great Wall. The Olympic signage for "One World One Dream" was still there and managed to appear in half of our photos. I was very excited to be on the Wall, even if it was commercialized with vendors selling panda hats, "I climbed the Great Wall" t-shirts and Mao memorabilia. Despite the blistering cold, I enjoyed occasionally pulling my hands out of my pockets to touch the stone walls. There were steep sections of the wall which were easy to climb up but a little more difficult to climb down. At one point, Jing and I took a "cracker break" and sat our bums on the cold steps eating Chinese crackers and admiring the view of tiny Chinese tour groups walking up the opposite hill like ants. We met and talked to other travelers from China, America, the Netherlands, and India to name a few. At the top of one of the towers a vendor tried very, very hard to sell to us small commemorative plaques declaring that we had climbed so and so meters on the Great Wall. No thank you, but he was pretty persistent until he figured out that we wouldn’t be moved. Finally, he asked for something else, a quick English lesson on how to say the English equivalent of, "不能错过 bù néng cuò guò." I write down, "You can’t miss this opportunity" in his notebook and he wrote some pronunciation hints next to it. We practiced it a few times together, answered the usual questions of, "You look Chinese but your English is so good" and "American? But your Chinese is so good!" and then we parted ways.

Giving free impromptu English lessons on top of the Great Wall? Check.

Oh, Great Wall - definitely a highlight of my life in China. Better late than never :)


One World One Dream


Badaling section 八达岭 bā dá lǐng of the Great Wall of China - it's a long wall

We take the bus back into the city; next destination: Beihai Park 北海公园 běi hǎi gōng yuán.

Beihai Park is a large imperial garden with the Bai Ta, White Dagoba, as one of its most notable things to see. It was nearing evening by the time we got to the Bai Ta so the entrance to it was closed already. We wandered around the grounds for awhile until it got to be too dark to really see much and headed out.

Bai Ta, White Dagoba

Beihai Park 北海公园

Jing and I were going to meet up with a friend of hers who lives in Beijing for dinner nearby. We got a little lost and ended up at the rear entrance of the Forbidden City, though it did offer the opportunity for some interesting night photos.

The original plan was to find a particular Peking Duck restaurant, but after walking the same street for awhile it was discovered that the restaurant had closed down. Instead, we stumbled upon a snack street and since we were all super starving by now, it was quickly decided to eat there instead. The snack street had some of the usual suspects for Chines cuisine such as buns stuffed with shredded meat and noodles, but it also had some surprises for us. We had been eyeing the insect delicacies for awhile when Jing finally asked a cricket eating Chinese couple standing next to us, whether they tasted any good. They nicely handed her a fried cricket to try and Jing and her friend split it. They watched as Jing and her friend took their first bites and slowly and politely nodded their heads. The Chinese couple smiled and said that there was really nothing special about the cricket taste except to be able to say that you’ve eaten it, which in a way probably best described the taste of all the other fried insects on display. We kept wandering around and ended up at Wangfujing Lu 王府井 wángfǔjǐng, a well-known pedestrian street. I would say it’s Beijing’s version of Shanghai’s Nanjing Lu, except is felt more spacious.

Day 2: We were determined to hit up as many sites as we could and had a whole plan laid out taking into consideration locations and positioning of the sun to ensure the best quality photos we could get. Early morning start, we took a city bus (conveniently located across the street from our hotel) to see the Olympic Park. Bird’s Nest and Water Cube and a lot of Fuwa’s (Beijing Olympic mascot). From there, we took the metro back into the city for the Forbidden City.

Due to our dislike of following behind large Chinese tour groups, Jing and I wagered we could avoid them by entering from the rear entrance of the Forbidden City since chances are the tour groups would be entering from the front entrance (Chinese tour groups = lemmings). We were also able to get "low season" ticket prices! But despite the "low season" there were still tons of people visiting. Did not spend too much time reading the descriptions of every building, pagoda or column, but do recall everything being called "so and so of Divine Harmony" or "so and so of Heavenly Tranquility." I thought the Forbidden City was supposed to be larger, but we were able to walk through the entire (open) area rather quickly. I wouldn’t say it was a ton of fun, but it’s a must-see for any Beijing trip. We walked out to the Tiananmen Square area and took some photos of Mao’s portrait.

Forbidden City

Our next destination was Jing Shan Park 景山公园 jǐng shān gōng yuán, whose entrance was conveniently located (literally) across the street from the rear entrance of the Forbidden City. To save time we wanted to take a taxi from the front around to the back, however our transportation request was met with some unexpected resistance. Taxi drivers refused to take us saying, "It's unlucky to go because an emperor committed suicide there." Finally, when refused by the nth taxi driver to take us to Jing Shan Park, I say to him, "In that case, please take us to the back entrance of the Forbidden City." Sure enough, he took us and we just walked across the street to JingShan Park's entrance. Oh, China.

The specialness of Jing Shan Park is that you can view the Forbidden City from the top of the hill. As the sun set, many people had started gathering at the top to see the view. Jing and I shot a few pictures and after seeing our fill headed down the opposite side of the hill to wander around and see what else was at this park. We found the spot where the Emperor committed suicide; might have been a little more interesting to read the description if it wasn’t already pitch dark and thus a little spooky when we stumbled upon it. We ended our final full day of Beijing by FINALLY having Peking Duck ... it’s so delicious. Eating Peking Duck in Beijing is a definite must!

Peking Duck served on a duck plate - yummy

The next morning, I headed back to Shanghai by myself (fast train from Beijing to Tianjin and then fly from Tianjin to Shanghai) while Jing was going to visit Tianjin and see another part of the Great Wall and then head back to Shanghai a day after me. I had several errands to run in case I was not able to get my flight changed (making the move back to the States means making sure all your affairs are in order - things to pack up/donate/throw out/buy, people to see, etc). Luckily, I came back to see the flight change confirmation in my emails which meant that I was now preparing for my move to the Hongqiao area of Shanghai to live for the next few weeks - but that’s another story.

Impressions of Beijing? I had so much fun and I really enjoyed the city and the vibe that I got from it. It didn’t feel as chaotic or crowded as Shanghai, and even felt a little slower paced. I loved seeing the sites and the people were friendly. Transportation (metro and bus) and stuff is also generally cheaper than Shanghai. The classic question of Beijing vs. Shanghai ...

Personally, I might be a Shanghai girl, but I’m just being biased.

Tibet? You Bet!

2011-02-28T01:55:00.000-08:00

After the Expo ended, I felt the need to see some more of China and so Jing (friend, MAISer and Expo roomie) and I made travel plans for Tibet and later, Beijing. We set off for Tibet in November.

Since we are foreigners, we needed to make sure we had all the right paper work and travel permits ready for Tibet. We got a letter chopped (official stamp from work/organization/entity, it’s a China thing) by USAP, copies of passports and visas and paid the fees. Everything was done, bags were packed, winter jackets were purchased, personal luggage was stored at a friend’s apartment, goodbyes to Expo, USAP and Haibao 海宝 were said and we made our way to the Shanghai Railway station for our 2 day train ride from Shanghai to Lhasa.

Well, we made it to the train station on time alright, even with time to spare. We grabbed some dinner at KFC and seeing how we still had time, took a bathroom break before boarding. As I exit the bathroom, I see that everyone in the waiting lounge had disappeared. Make a quick phone call to find Jing and all she says is, “RUN!” I run to the ticket checker and when he sees “Lhasa” on my ticket, yells to someone, “LHASA! SOMEONE FOR LHASA!” to which I see another woman look out from the door and and yells at me to, “RUN!” I see David (another USAPer we were traveling with) at the top of the stairs with my suitcase and we run down as fast as we can. Jing is up ahead but being refused entry onto the train car because the guy decides, “Your ticket is for car #1, you still have time to make it.” The problem with this?

We were currently standing at the end, at car #13.
The entire platform was devoid of people.
We had about 2 minutes before the train left.
Trains in China leave right. on. the. dot.
CRRAAAAPPP!

We sprint with our luggage. The whistle signals one minute to take off. The train-door-operators step off the train and turn to face the train, meaning the doors were about to automatically close. No one seems to want to help the three people making a mad dash across the empty train platform in the middle of the night. Finally, I see someone motioning to enter the train so we quickly show our tickets and climb aboard. I was the last one on and the doors closed behind me; within 10 seconds, the train moves and starts making its way to Tibet.

We had made it.

We were in car #7, but we had made it. Catching out breaths and dragging our bags, we make it to our sleeper compartments in car #1. I call (and paid extra for) bottom bunk and as we are settling in, someone comes to check everyone’s IDs. In China, it’s required by law that you carry your Chinese National ID card, or shēn fèn zhèng 身份证. I hand him my US passport and seeing I’m a foreigner, ask to see my permit for entering Tibet. He told us where the bathroom and the hot water dispenser was (very important) and that lights out was at 10pm. The lights certainly did turn off at 10pm and since we didn’t have any individual lights, we just tucked ourselves in and went to sleep.

Now there’s not much to do on a long distance train besides sit and look out the window, read/write and talk to your neighbors on the train. I woke up to the loud conversations of a group of retired Shanghainese. There was also a Swedish father and his daughter who I gave some Tylenol to to help alleviate headaches. The first guy we shared our compartment with was on his way to Qinghai. The next old lady we shared with was on her way to Lhasa to visit her son. We Americans wrote or sketched in our journals, read our books, chatted, took our altitude sickness medicine and ate our duffel bag of snacks. Out the window we saw the Chinese country side zoom by and I realized that outside of my Shanghai bubble, the lives of the Chinese were drastically different from the lives of the Chinese in the big city. We made pit stops in several cities but had to remember to be back on the train before it departed.

We woke up one morning freezing cold because of the snow (!) and found out that due to some technical difficulties, it was a decision between running the heat or pumping extra oxygen into car #1. Apparently they chose oxygen over heat, so we all layered up a little more, held our hot water bottles closer to our bodies and enjoyed the snow scenery outside.

The hours passed and the instant noodles were consumed and pretty soon, we disembarked onto Tibetan soil.

Our tour guide, Lamu, welcomed us with the traditional Tibetan hada, a long piece of silk used as a greeting gift. Similar to receiving the Hawaiian lei in Hawaii. We were dropped off at our hotel, told the morning pick up time, and were advised to not shower, bathe or wash our hairs for at least the first night as our bodies adjusted to the cold and high altitude. So yes, if you do the math, we went without showering for about 3 days.

In Lhasa, we visited Potala Palace bùdálāgōng 布达拉宫, Jokhang temple dàzhāosì 大昭寺 and Barkhore Street bākuòjiē 八廓街. Potala Palace had been on my list of “things to see” and it was great to finally be able to check it off the list. Devout Buddhist pilgrims spin prayer wheels and walk around and around the perimeter of the Palace. Lamu guided us with information, much of it quickly running together because all the people’s names sounded the same. The yak butter/wax burning in all the temple altars was pretty overwhelming and made my head heavy. I was doing okay with the high altitude, but had little to no appetite and near the end of the day, really had to lay down and rest.

Potala Palace bù dá lā gōng 布达拉宫

Jokhang temple dàzhāosì 大昭寺

Barkhore Street bākuòjiē 八廓街

The next day was an early start to a long car ride from Lhasa to Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet. We climbed even higher in elevation and made a stop at Yamdrok Lake, one of the three holy lakes of Tibet. Here, we paid 10 RMB to take photos with a yak and a Tibetan dog. At the time it seemed like a blatant attempt to hustle some money from tourists, but looking back, it was definitely money well spent. Yamdrok Lake was so cold, but so beautiful and there was a sense of peace that fell over you as you gazed at the snow capped mountains reflected in the blue waters.

Yamdrok Lake

10 RMB photo ops

We arrived at Tashilhunpo Monastery zhāshílúnbùsì 扎什倫布寺, and did some more Buddhist templing. Due to the increase in altitude, my body started to fail me so by the time I got to our hotel my head was pounding. I got into bed and didn’t make it out to dinner so Jing brought me back some comfort food, tomato and eggs with rice.

Tashilhunpo Monastery zhāshílúnbùsì 扎什倫布寺

When we got back to Lhasa, we went to a dinner show with dancing and yak comedy skits.

And our final day in Tibet was spent taking it easy with a stroll through the area near Potala Palace and some last minute shopping for gifts and trinkets. Interesting fact: many shopkeepers did not accept Chinese coins, but would accept Chinese paper currency. Reason? Because the coins do not have any Tibetan writing/language on them, but the paper currency does.

We even took the suggestion of our tour guide, Lamu, and went inside a butter tea “bar,” where Tibetans hang out and drink butter tea. I guess two ABC girls of Han Chinese descent and dressed in tourist gear, stick out like a sore thumb in butter tea bars because we got our fair share of stares and curious looks. For the first time, I felt like a lǎowài 老外 (foreigner) in China.

Tibetan butter tea bar - where everybody knows your name

Impressions of Tibet? It certainly is a beautiful place to visit and I think we went at a relatively good time because we were able to see the snow, but not be too overwhelmed by the deep cold of winter. Spring is supposed to be the best time to visit. Be prepared for the high altitude by taking medication and take it easy the first few days. Sometimes we would just randomly run out of breath even if we were just walking on flat surfaces. Rest if you feel tired, out of breath or a headache and try to eat and drink even if you have no appetite. The people are friendly and the food (not a fan of butter tea or boiled yak meat though) is good. And the nature and sceneries ... pure awesomeness.

Getting Back on Track

2011-02-22T16:29:00.000-08:00

Even though I am currently not in China anymore (return date to be determined ... if it happens), I will still post about past adventures and stories and share photos as I remember them.

A little thing called the 2010 Shanghai World Expo happened and things got a bit busy for me the last few months I was in Shanghai. Needless to say, there's a lot of catching up to do and I hope to get around to updating again.

Dance in China

2011-02-13T15:35:00.001-08:00

The following videos are among my favorites.

And now you can join Matt in dancing in Beijing and Shanghai. According to Shanghaiist, Matt will be in Beijing in the "Sanlitun area at the San Li Tun Fountain, near the northwest corner of the fountain. The time and date: 3pm, Saturday, February 19." And for Shanghai, "he'll be at the Science and Technology Museum in Pudong (on Line 2) near the sculpture at the entrance. The time and date: 3pm, Sunday, February 20."

Unfortunately, I will be missing out on this, but for those who will be in either or both of those two cities, please go dance. Remember to smile and to have fun!

China ALL THE WAY!

2011-01-21T19:51:00.001-08:00

Back in 2008, when I was about to graduate from UCLA, I made the decision to move to Shanghai, China for 10 months. The plan was to finish up some graduate school course work, research for my thesis, teach some English and then come back to the USA. Little did I expect that original 10 month plan to become a “6 more months” plan, which turned into a “3 more months for the Expo” plan, which turned into a “stay until Expo is over” plan, which turned into a “I want to spend a few more weeks after traveling” plan sprinkled with short trips back to the USA to clear my lungs of Chinese pollution and to restock my luggage with American goodies.

2.25 years later, I’m back in the USA again but this time with no definite plans to return to China. There’s been no plane ticket purchased, no Chinese visa applied for, everything that I left in China has either been thrown out or donated. But, who knows what could happen in the upcoming weeks which may have me scurrying around getting travel arrangements and documents settled and making trips to Costco to buy in bulk.

In the time that I’ve been on the other side of the world, I’ve:

- been sick more often than in the 24 years of my life combined
- been stung by a jellyfish in Phuket, Thailand
- sprained my left ankle (day 2 of China, great way to start right?)
- popped the ligament/tendon (?) behind my right knee
- bruised my right wrist go-karting
- had a bruise in the shape of Mainland China on my left thigh
- as “Teacher Amy/Amy Laoshi” taught over 1000 Chinese kindergartners how to say “ho ho ho, Merry Christmas”
- taught the “Nobody” dance to Chinese kindergartners
- given English names to hundreds of Chinese children
- from Shanghai, traveled to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Taiwan, South Korea, Nanjing, Tibet, Beijing.
- saw The Amazing Race in action in Shanghai and waited in the freezing cold for the shoot to end to talk to the host
- saw Wang Leehom twice in Shanghai for a total of four times in my life; photos and a short conversation with him too!
- told U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that I was “Amy from California” before taking a photo with her
- introduced the USA Pavilion to former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
- had photo ops with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jimmy Carter and David Tao
- traveled the world in 184 days at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo
- sat on a yak in Tibet and an elephant in Thailand
- climbed the Great Wall of China
- discovered my stomach was no longer queasy after eating eggplant and duck meat
- showed up to work to find Derek Fisher giving a speech to Chinese people
- 8-clapped with Bruins who came to visit
- ridden bumpy bus rides through the Cambodian countryside
- had a hard time finding a dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong
- discovered Tom N Tom’s peach iced tea in South Korea
- seen the Annoying Asian pose go international for the first time ever
- learned what a VPN was
- saw snow actually falling from the sky
- had food delivered from McDonald’s, KFC, Wagas or Element Fresh for those times when you just can’t deal with going out for food ... or cooking
- had to sprint through terminals (like in the movies) to avoid missing trains and planes
- experienced more rain in Shanghai than in my whole life in Southern California
- improved on my Mandarin and picked up some Simplified Chinese characters
- watched too many movies on DVD-9
- spent the night at the Bangkok Airport to save money
- seen pre-cooked, skinned dog meat
- asked a Chinese person to take me to a place that would sell Xiamen souvenirs, only to have her drop me off at a Wal-Mart
- trekked through the tea fields near West Lake in Hangzhou
- met and made a whole bunch of new friends

and most importantly of all ...

I had the time of my life

Stars Wang Leehom and Angela Zhang at the USA Pavilion

2010-07-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

[Originally posted on the USA Pavilion blog and on the Student Ambassador blog]

There had been a rumor floating around the USA Pavilion that one of our global sponsors, PepsiCo, would be holding a media event involving Taiwanese pop stars Wang Leehom 王力宏 and Angela Zhang 張韶涵;. I am a fan of both of them and especially a fan of Leehom’s. I was introduced to his song “花田錯 (Mistake in the Flower Field)” during one of those productive group study sessions we all had in college. From that day on, I was hooked on Leehom’s music (and his dreamy smile) and hooked on Asian pop culture. Friends started suggesting other artists and songs and Angela Zhang’s song “寓言 (Fable)” followed soon after. So you can imagine my excitement when I received an email from Peter Winter, the USA Pavilion Student Ambassador Program Director, and Ming Lai Alterman, the USA Pavilion Digital Media Manager, asking whether I would be interested in taking on the role of Student Ambassador Journalist for a PepsiCo media event.

The same rumored PepsiCo event that we have been hearing about for the last few days.

The one with Leehom Wang and Angela Zhang.

Did I want to go?

YES!

July 5, 2010 was the big day. I made sure my camera was fully charged and made my way to the USA Pavilion. USA Pavilion staff was running around making sure everything was running as smoothly as possible for PepsiCo. I was quickly introduced to PepsiCo as the Student Ambassador Journalist and then told to wait until it begin.

The media event began with PepsiCo saying a few words about why they decided to partner with the USA Pavilion. PepsiCo and the USA Pavilion share common values: optimism, innovation, and the desire to share. You need optimism to inspire hope in future improvements. You need innovation to drive new advancements in methods, ideas or products. And you need the desire to share in order to make positive contributions back to the community. PepsiCo takes their social responsibility seriously. Rather than just selecting any random area to farm the potatoes used in their Lay’s potato chips, they made a conscious decision to farm potatoes in Inner Mongolia. PepsiCo had high hopes for the area. PepsiCo was optimistic that their investments into the land would yield large crops of potatoes. They were innovative in developing new technologies that could use water more effectively when watering the fields. Finally, PepsiCo’s desire to share gave them the drive to build more public libraries and schools in Inner Mongolia in order to further develop the talent of both their workers and their workers’ families. The result of all of this is a successful line of potato chips that is constantly introducing new flavors. Today, Leehom and Angela were promoting the new flavors: mala tang (spicy hotpot soup), BBQ fish, lemon tea and cherry tomatoes.

Yeah ... China has some ... interesting ... potato chip flavors. What we call “normal” flavors back in the United States are not so normal here. I am pretty sure that Chinese people might find the American flavors “salt and vinegar” and “sour cream and onion” pretty ... interesting ... as well. Different culture, different taste buds. But back to the event ...

The doors opened and Leehom walked in. The thoughts in my head went something like this: Wow. That’s him. It’s really him. He looks different in person, yet exactly what I imagined he would look like in person. Amy, that doesn’t even make sense. Whatever. He’s standing just a few feet away from me now. I wish he would look over here. OH MY GOSH! He just looked at me!

Cool. ^_^

After doing some promotions for his new movie “Love in Disguise 戀愛通告” (which I am excited to see!), Angela Zhang walks in and together they start promoting the new Lay’s potato chip flavor: cherry tomato. They did a simple magic trick of putting some ice cubes and cherry tomatoes into an empty black box, locking it up, and then “magically” pulling out packages of Lay’s cherry tomato potato chips. Angela made the joke that they were now better than Jay Chou 周杰倫 at performing magic tricks. They had also brought in some young children and gave them Haibao 海宝 dolls as gifts. Two lucky fans were also brought up to present Leehom and Angela with flowers and a fully stamped Expo souvenir passport. Before I knew it, they finished promoting how delicious Lay’s cherry tomato potato chips tasted and I was suddenly standing in a group photo of Leehom and Angela with some USA Pavilion staff and Student Ambassadors.

Smile for the camera! *click* Excellent.

As everyone moves from their positions, I look over at Leehom and said quickly, “Thanks Leehom.” And guess what?! HE SMILED AND NODDED BACK TO ME! Again, cool.

Leehom and Angela went back in to answer more media questions. As the media session drew to a close, I knew that it was now or never. I had to “rise to the challenge” (the USA Pavilion’s theme) and say a few words to him. Back in 2007, I had attended an autograph session for his “Change Me 改變自己” album in Taiwan and all I could do was wave “hi” to him as he signed my CD. This time would be different. Oh my gosh, he’s walking right towards me now!

(For some reason, I decided to use English instead of Mandarin Chinese to speak with him.)

“Hi Leehom, have you visited the USA Pavilion yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“I’m one of the Student Ambassadors here at the USA Pavilion. If you have time, you should take a look.”
“Take me ... take me ...”

Whoa. Was he being serious? Did he really want to go through the pavilion? Just in case he was being serious, I go stand next to other Student Ambassadors and we quickly summarize all that has gone on so far. By now, Angela had moved downstairs and is getting ready to do a viewing of the USA Pavilion and I was wondering whether Leehom would do the same.

He walked back out and I admit I was a bit disappointed when he said to me, “Sorry, there’s no time today.” Too bad. Leehom, if you’re reading this, we would love to have you come back to view the USA Pavilion.

The event was great and I was so glad to have been given the opportunity to attend. Not only did I learn more about PepsiCo’s role in delivering a healthier future for people and the planet, I also had the chance to see and speak (though just a mini-conversation) to one of my favorite music pop stars. Just another reason why this summer working at the USA Pavilion at Shanghai World Expo 2010 will be so memorable.

Little Chinese Friends

2010-06-25T02:56:00.001-07:00

[Originally posted on the Student Ambassador blog]

My job prior to being a USA Pavilion Student Ambassador was as an English teacher at a local kindergarten in Shanghai. A bit of a random job for an International Studies/International Business graduate student in Shanghai, but you do what you have to do in order to pay for food and rent. My time as an English teacher showed me that Chinese children are no different from American children; they are curious about the world around them and (most) love to talk.

One of the fun things that we Student Ambassadors get to do is to spend some time playing with Chinese children waiting in the queue line. Children (no matter where they are in the world) get bored easily and this is especially true when they have to wait their turn for something. Student Ambassadors will oftentimes spend a few minutes entertaining Chinese children in Mandarin Chinese. I once had a group of 5 antsy Chinese children end up in the front of the queue line, right at the cut off for the next group to enter the USA Pavilion (10 minutes wait). How do you keep little kids from running around and driving both their tired parents and the busy Student Ambassadors crazy? You teach them something! Kids love to pretend they are back at school, right? ... Right? Maybe?

Well, first you loosen them up and gain their trust by telling jokes. Student Ambassadors have a handful of jokes handy for moments like this when the crowd is restless and there is time to kill.

Q: 哪一种茶是不能喝的？ What type of tea (cha) can you not drink?
A: 警察! The police! (jing cha)

Corny, I know. But our target audience loves it. My audience of 5 that day got pretty competitive after I told them there was a prize to whoever got the answer first (they could be the first to enter the USA Pavilion). One girl of about 4 years old gave me a serious look and said “You can’t drink poisonous tea.” Sorry kid, wrong. This answer was not incorrect but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for. They were never able to get the answer (I win!) so we moved onto the next thing I knew I could do that would make both parents and kids smile. Quick (not to mention free!) English speaking practice. From a REAL American! At the USA Pavilion! It doesn’t get better than this folks.

“Hello”
“Hello”
“How are you?”
“I’m fine, thank you. And you?” (By the way, this seems to be the official answer all Chinese students must learn ... just about everyone gives this answer).
“I’m fine, thank you. What’s your name?”
“My name is William.”

I learned that William’s cousin was named Sweet (yes, Sweet. Not a typo). The serious 4 year old girl who doesn’t drink poisonous tea was named Rose. Another girl was named Angel ... because she was her parent’s little angel. And then there was another boy - William’s other cousin - who remained quiet.

“Hi, what’s your name?”
“他没有英文名子, 他没学过英文” He doesn’t have an English name, he hasn’t learned English yet.
“我给你一个英文名字好不好?” How about if I give you an English name?
Parents and child nod enthusiastically.
“我的弟弟叫 Andrew ... 我叫你 Andy 好吗？喜欢吗?” My younger brother’s name is Andrew ... how about Andy? Do you like it?
“Andy? ... 好听, 好拼. 说 “thank you”” Sounds nice and it’s easy to spell. Say “thank you.”
The boy smiles and says, “Thank you.”

So what’s the best souvenir you can get for your child from the Expo? It’s not a stuffed Haibao (海宝 the Expo’s mascot) doll or an Expo passport for the purposes of collecting country stamps. It’s a real English name from a real American.

The USA's "National Treasure"

2010-05-28T02:50:00.001-07:00

[originally posted on the Student Ambassador blog and on the USA Pavilion blog]

I was on my way to my lunch break when I had to make a detour back through to the USA Pavilion’s Act II and Act III. I had forgotten my sunglasses and didn’t want them to go missing within the 45 minutes that I had for lunch. However, it turned out to be one of the most memorable detours of my Expo experience so far. x

As I make my way through the crowd of Chinese people walking around in the USA Pavilion’s Act III (an area for our pavilion sponsors to showcase the innovative steps they are taking to creating a healthier future), a middle aged Chinese man waves for me to come over to him. Thinking that he wanted to know where he could get a USA Pavilion souvenir stamp (guests can “collect” stamps from the pavilions they visit in a souvenir passport), I automatically ask him to please turn his Expo passport to page 44 and to line up near the stamping table. Page 22 if he had the big brown book. Instead, he surprises me by saying that he wanted to ask me more about our pavilion and its contents.

I recite to him the answer I usually give to our Chinese guests: The USA Pavilion consists of four parts, the Overture, The Spirit of America, The Garden and the final section where our pavilion sponsors share the steps they are taking to creating a healthier and better future. He casually waves my answer away saying that he knows all that already. He adds that he thought Obama’s speech in The Spirit of America was respectful in recognizing the importance of China’s rise in the “community of nations” and the shared dreams between Americans and Chinese in a better future for our children. He also thought the message in The Garden was nice; people working together towards the common goal of “better city, better life.” But what he really wanted to know was, was there more the USA wanted to share with the Chinese and with the rest of the world? Past world expos had introduced the telephone and the elevator, this year Denmark brought their Little Mermaid statue to showcase in their own national pavilion. Besides the American ideas that had been shared earlier, what else could the USA Pavilion offer? Where was, he asked, the USA Pavilion’s “national treasure” 美国馆的国家宝?

“National treasure? Well ... we didn’t exactly bring any statues with us to China ...”
“Nothing the USA can show to the world and be able to say this is what represents the USA?”
“umm...”
“No ‘national treasure’ 没有吗?”
“Well, the pavilion did bring over from the USA many representations of what makes the USA so unique. If you look around and see all the USA Pavilion staff that wear either the blue or white shirts, well, we’re all American student ambassadors.”
“What does that mean 什么意思?”
“You can see that we’re a very diverse group. Not only are we ethnically diverse we all also come from different parts of the United States. But even with our different heritages and backgrounds, as Americans, we all understand the importance of working together towards a common goal. Here, our common goal is to provide a positive experience at the USA Pavilion for our Chinese guests. And this idea, that a country of built by people from all around the world can put aside differences and find similarities, is what makes the United States so special and unique.”

The Chinese man thinks about what I have just said. Was this the answer he was expecting?

“Some countries may have hired local Chinese to represent their country, but we brought real Americans to represent our country. Real Americans from various ethnicities and heritages that together give our country its identity. We student ambassadors may not be famous but we still represent the United States. Sir, I will say that the USA Pavilion’s “national treasure” is its American people.”

The Chinese man breaks into a smile and I knew that I had successfully passed his test.

“真好! Good! That really is what makes the USA so unique. The people.”

He then went on to tell me how his experience at the USA Pavilion of going through the shows and exhibits and interacting with various Americans had opened his eyes to how wonderful and strong a country could be even if all its citizens originated from different parts of the world. All we need is a common passion to join us together. He said he could feel our passion for the United States just from the warm welcome he had experienced from student ambassadors, from when he first queued up and through all four parts of the pavilion.

The conversation I had with the Chinese man lasted for about 15 minutes. What I thought would be just another question that could be answered with a prepared response turned out to be one that allowed me to really share with someone my perspective of what makes the United States a unique country. I hope that the short time I had spent talking to him stays with him just as it will stay with me.

He asked me to write in his notebook and so I write a short message in English and Chinese, “Thank you for visiting the USA Pavilion, 谢谢你来美国馆. -Amy.” Something so simple for me to do, but he smiled and said that he would keep it as a treasured message that came from the United States. His final parting words to me: The USA Pavilion’s student ambassadors are the pavilion’s “national treasure” and by extension also the “national treasures” of the United States.

The Day the U.S. Secretary of State Came to Visit

2010-05-22T23:39:00.000-07:00

We were notified by USAP to keep this date open (May 22) because all hands would be needed on deck. Everyone was pretty sure we knew who was going to make an appearance and when they finally officially emailed us the itinerary, our suspicions were confirmed.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

She, along with some top CEOs from our sponsors, would be coming to USAP for a sort of “honor day” for their (financial) contributions to the construction and running of USAP. Without our sponsors we would have no USAP today.

All SAs were assigned roles for the big day. We were mainly being used for crowd control because we were going to allow in about 200 regular Chinese guests when she went through to view the pavilion. As one of the consulate people said, we were to be “a pocket of happiness that would follow the Chinese people and keep them away from Hilary Clinton.” Free bodyguards maybe?

I was assigned the role as one of the “puller at front of public.” My job was to get the Chinese crowd to follow me as we moved from room to room. 过来！过来！跟我走！ As my group “pulled”, SAs followed the crowd of Chinese people and “pushed.” Once we got to each room, SAs who were “seat holders” would stand up once Sec. of State Clinton’s group got in and move to the side so that they could sit down. This repeated itself through the entire pavilion. Things all went smoothly, but it sucked for the few SAs who were assigned to work outside as everyone else was working inside. Those working outside were asked to hold the crowds for a long time since they didn’t want anyone else inside the pavilion at the time (for security reasons). Add to all this, it was raining outside. Needless to say, those who were stuck waiting outside were not too happy.

Pretty soon, the show was over and things were back to normal at USAP. I did get a glimpse of her; she was wearing a light blue overcoat.

Later that night, SAs and USAP staff had the opportunity to take a photo with her. She gave the SAs the most face time and congratulated us and acknowledged us for the work we were doing at USAP. It was definitely nice to hear her praise for us because it showed us that hey, some people do care about the SAs. She was kind enough to go around and asked each one of us to introduce ourselves and say where we’re from. She even took the time to answer some questions. The transcript of the conversation is online.

Pretty awesome right? Meet Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and be able to forever say that I said some words to her. It was all very brief and very fast, but it will be one of the highlights of my summer at the Expo!

Oh, and she looks way better in person. All the SAs kept saying over and over how good she looked for her age ... the show in USAP’s Act 1 makes her look so old and tired.

Photo of first session Student Ambassadors with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and USA Pavilion Commissioner General Jose Villareal

Shanghai World Expo

2010-05-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

THE SHANGHAI WORLD EXPO 2010 HAS STARTED!

Expo Land

2010-04-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

After a short 4 weeks back in California, I flew back to Shanghai for the third time in two years for the next phase of my China adventures. After a year and a half of graduate school studies and teaching English in Shanghai, I’m back for what may probably be one of the biggest opportunities of my young life. I’ll be working as a Student Ambassador for the USA Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo.

Fun Facts:

Location: Shanghai, China. On both banks of the Huangpu River. Area of the expo covers 5.28 square km.

Time Period: May 1, 2010 - October 31, 2010

Theme: Better City - Better Life “城市，让生活更美好”

Mascot: Haibao 海宝. He’s blue and reminds me of Gumby.

I flew out of LAX at midnight on April 9, 2010. For some totally rational reason, my flight from Los Angeles took me to Chicago first before a transfer to Shanghai. During the 5 hour layover in O’Hare airport, a few student ambassadors found each other and met for the first time. These are the people that I will be living and working with this summer!

I will be working the Shanghai World Expo 2010 this summer until the end of July. And because I’m part of the first group of U.S. Student Ambassadors to arrive, my days are oftentimes filled with chaos and quick changes to schedules. The first few days went relatively well because we were training in a classroom setting. They were usually long days of sitting and listening to people talk; we had introductions, first aid, communications, protocol, VIP training to name a few. However, things are starting to settle and run more smoothly and opening day of the Expo is this Saturday, May 1!

10 (New) Things Back Home

2010-04-04T20:49:00.000-07:00

Being away from everything you’ve ever known for an extended period of time does not mean that time stands still when you’re not there. It’s actually quite the opposite. Time still passes by, life still goes on, things still change. You forget all this still happens even if you’re not there to watch it happen with your own eyes. Instead, you can now only sigh, smile, and continue to marvel at this world that we live in.

1. Facebook albums now require a plug-in to upload photos
2. Who is this Justin Beiber?
3. Everyone has blackberries or iphones now
4. I still don’t really understand how to use Twitter. And what’s Tumblr?
5. Yay people are really starting to bring their own reusable grocery bags now
6. Youtube is in HD now! The next time I come back to America, will it be in 3D?
7. Why does this girl Ke$ha wake up in the morning feeling like P.Diddy and why would anyone ever brush their teeth with a bottle of Jack (Daniel’s)?
8. Contrary to what many China people believe, Americans are still okay and surviving. China people have asked me before why I didn’t just stay in China and why I would want to go back to America if “all the banks are gone,” “the recession is still very bad,” and “the war in Iraq!” I had to assure them that Americans were not running around like cavemen.
9. A bunch of old friends are engaged, getting married, married and/or have their own kids. I’m falling behind.
10. Changes are changes, most often they’re not for the worse and are usually quite nice. But that feeling of “home” seems to be consistent. Always a nice thing to come back to.
11. Just for extra credit, here’s a :)

What the Heck Have I Been Up To?

2010-04-04T02:48:00.001-07:00

It has been a long time since I have blogged about my amazing adventures. Since the start of the year 2010 I’ve been kept busy with little things here and there that somehow all added up to a lot of things here and there. The last thing I properly blogged about was when Michi visited in Shanghai back in December 2009. Since then ...

1. Christmas #2 in Shanghai. One of the perks of being a foreigner in China is that, if you’re lucky, you will get Christmas day off for a holiday. Christmas is not a government holiday in China and so it’s a regular work day for Chinese people. Since it Christmas Day fell on a Friday this year (2009), it was “yay - 3 day weekend” when I could have traveled somewhere in China for a quick weekend getaway, but instead I opted to stay close to home and rest up. Lisa and I attended Christmas service at Shanghai Community Fellowship and afterwards headed across the river to Super Brand Mall to get our hair done at Toni and Guy Academy. Yup, we opted to let them use our hair to practice on. Because we were too cheap to pay for our haircuts. The result? It came out fine..not perfect, but okay. Sushi was our Christmas night feast.
2. New Years Eve was spent grabbing dinner at Adobo (Mexican food) with Michelle and Brian. We ate and talked and then decided to walk back to their apt. We went through Xujiahui near Metro City and saw a crowd of people gathered there for a countdown and to see some Chinese celebrities. We didn’t see anyone famous so we sat and talked some more in the cold at a nearby park. The clock struck midnight as we were watching The Incredibles back at their apt. Happy 2010!
3. 2010 was also the first time I had ever been in China for Chinese New Year. Last year was the epic trip through SE Asia (Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong) with friends. This year I stayed close to home in Shanghai. Fireworks and firecrackers all day long. On some nights it would get really crazy because it was some god’s special night. On midnight of the first night, Karol, John and I were at the rooftop of the apt building watching our neighborhood explode when it started snowing (!) right at midnight. It also felt like I was walking through a battlefield at the ground level.
4. I was still teaching English to Chinese kindergartners. I love my kids, they are cute and so precious. A child’s innocence is something to be treasured while they still have it. Now that I’m not teaching them anymore, I’m finding myself kinda missing them. I hope to visit them sometime during the Expo.
5. Speaking of the Expo. That’s the reason why I’m returning to Shanghai. I’m going to be one of the Student Ambassadors at the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010. What is the Expo? Remember back in the day when they used to have something called the World’s Fair? They still have them, they’re just not as popular as they were in the past. I sometimes refer to it as the Business Olympics or Cultural Diplomacy. China is making promises of it being the biggest and best Expo ever. EVER. I hope that it will live up to all the hype.

Salutations

2010-03-27T02:47:00.000-07:00

Dear California, you are beautiful during the spring time. Can I hug you?

Dear Apple, I want you to give me a new laptop battery.

Dear California DMV, even though you made me wait in line for 4 hours, I received my new driver’s license in the mail within 5 days. Maybe you are alright. Still not okay on the line thing though.

Dear lj, I promise that I will write an amazing update post one day. One day. soon?

Love,
me

Analyze by Tim Be Told

2010-02-21T01:45:00.000-08:00

Nice song. If you have a chance, check out their website.

Analyze by Tim Be Told

Tim Be Told - Analyze - Official Music Video (HD) from Jonathan Moy on Vimeo.

Dear friend, please tell me who I am
And start from the inside
Or wait instead, before it's said
All these monsters I couldn't hide
Beneath the bed or in my head
If I was stronger they would've died
But every once in a while I'm terrified

Hey you, could you analyze my state of mind, my state of mind
What did you recognize? What did you find? What did you find?
Better days I've fantasized if I'm satisfied, am I satisfied?
Get rid of this low feeling with soul healing
Get rid of this low feeling with soul healing

Please talk before the clock runs out
And I'm still a mystery
You're not so wise, I apologize
I still care what you think of me
To survive, I criticize other people that I'll never be
The truth is, I bruise too easily

Hey you, could you analyze my state of mind, my state of mind
What did you recognize? What did you find? What did you find?
Better days I've fantasized if I'm satisfied, am I satisfied?
Get rid of this low feeling with soul healing
Get rid of this low feeling with soul healing

Convince me it's alright
That loneliness will subside
My hands tied, surrendered
To all these storms that I've weathered
Are you listening? Whatever
Why is this taking forever
Heal it quick, I don't care
Just fix me now

Hey you, could you analyze
What did you recognize?
Yeaaaah

Hey you, could you analyze my state of mind, my state of mind
What did you recognize? What did you find? What did you find?
Better days I've fantasized if I'm satisfied, am I satisfied?
Get rid of this low feeling with soul healing
Get rid of this low feeling with soul healing

Overnight Change in Temperatures

2010-01-20T01:45:00.000-08:00

In Shanghai, we are to go from a high of 70F (21C) to a high of 40F (4C) and a low of 39F (4C) to a low of 27F (-3C) ... overnight. The warm winter weather was good while it lasted.

FEDEX

2010-01-09T01:44:00.000-08:00

Oh, the way that the world works can be random sometimes. I am currently tracking two letters that I'm sending through Fedex right now. Both packages are due to arrive in Los Angeles in a few days.

Letter 1 was sent from Shanghai, China. It traveled through Shanghai for a few hours and is now, for some reason, in Memphis, TN. Last time I looked at a map of the world, the West Coast of the USA was closer to Shanghai than Tennessee.

Letter 2 was sent from Irvine, CA. It traveled through Irvine, went through Los Angeles and is now, for some reason, in Oakland, CA. Why did it leave the destination city and go up north?

who knows.

It's Snowing in Shanghai

2009-12-27T01:37:00.000-08:00

I was taking out the trash and happened to peek out the windows in our apt hallway when I saw the small flakes falling from the sky. I quickly ran back to my bedroom to grab my camera. Keep in mind that I’m a SoCal girl through and through and while I have seen snow before, I have never seen it falling from the sky. It wasn’t cold enough for it to stick so the ground was a cold, wet mess. But seeing falling snow was just so cooooool!! It lasted about 4 hours. Here are some pictures.

The temperature that caused this little bit of snow. Not quite "freezing" yet, but almost there. In both C and F temperature scales for those too lazy to convert (aka: me and probably you).

The first picture I took out of my bedroom widow. Excuse my poor camera skills, but if you squint you can see SNOW!

I caught some snow with my mittens. My hands were getting really cold as I stuck them out the window to take pictures.

Then it started to come down heavier, but still not sticking. A few minutes later, it all stopped. And that was the story of my first snowfall in my life. :)

Michi in Shanghai

2009-12-23T04:35:00.000-08:00

How awesome was it for me to have Michi visit me in Shanghai for a few days? Very awesome. I had not seen her since that last day in Wilshire Villa’s parking garage when after everything was packed into her car, we gave each other a quick hug and a quick goodbye. For those of you who don’t know, I have known Michelle all through my time at UCLA; we both lived on the same floor our first year and then again our second year. Then we were roommates our third and fourth years of college when we moved out to the apartments with some friends. She is probably the person who knows me best from UCLA.

The long weekend of hanging out with Michi started Thursday late afternoon (Dec. 17) when I picked her up at the Maglev in Shanghai. This was my way of saving money and having her meet me half way instead of me having to make a roundtrip taxi ride from Puxi to Pudong Airport. I arrived a bit early so I sat on the freezing bench in the freezing air of the freezing platform. It was a freezing day. Michi saw me before I saw her and calls my name out; I can’t believe she is only wearing a t-shirt and jeans!

The time she spent in Shanghai was mainly spent eating and touristy things. The trend seemed to be that it would take us forever to get out the door every morning. We usually made it out in time for an early lunch. We first made a shopping trip so that she could buy better walking shoes. We spent one day doing the touristy things of Shanghai. We went over to Lujiazui to see the Pearl Tower and to go up the Shanghai World Financial Center building - currently the third tallest building in the world (according to wiki). It’s the one that many of us think looks like a ‘bottle-opener’. After wandering about Lujiazui for a bit and grabbing a late lunch at Din Tai Fung, we eventually made it to the Riverside Promenade so that we could get a look across the river to the Bund on the Puxi side. We are standing around in the freezing cold, next to the freezing cold river when THE MOST AMAZING THING HAPPENED!

A few people run past us. The first thing that runs through my mind was, “oh no, they’re trying to steal my purse!” And then we saw the camera crew. Second thought that runs through my mind, “ITS THE AMAZING RACE!” Well, that was my theory at least. I’ve always thought it would be pretty cool if I came across the Amazing Race during my time abroad. Michelle and I start running after them and ask them what they were filming for and the guy answers with the two coolest words, “Amazing Race.”

OH. MY. GOODNESS. At this point I couldn’t believe what was happening before my eyes. Ultimately, we found the pit stop for this leg of the race and waited around long enough to:

1. see two teams check in. Including the last team to arrive. I have no idea whether it was a non-elimination leg or not though
2. see one of the world’s tallest men. He’s a Chinese man and quite tall. Though I heard soon after that he just recently lost his title to someone else. He needed walking canes to help him stand though.
3. see the production crew of The Amazing Race.
4. see Phil, the host.
5. say “hi, I love this show” and get a photo with Phil.

The crew in charge of keeping the area clear of bystanders was nice enough to let Michi and I stand around. I believe they let us because they could tell we weren’t locals from our American accents and probably figured we could do no harm. Truth is, some Chinese locals will treat you differently once they know you’re a foreigner ... even if we are ethnically Chinese.

After that cold, amazing experience, Michi and I headed across the Huangpu River back to Puxi where we grabbed some dinner and took a walk down Nanjing Road. It’s just a shopping street but at night it’s all lit up and you can people watch. Weather: still cold.

The next day, (weather: still cold) we took the train out for a day trip to Hangzhou. There was no real itinerary since I figured that we would just spend the day walking around West Lake and visit some of the tourist attractions. As we exited the train station and I was trying to remember which bus I took with Song and her family when we visited Hangzhou last June, a Chinese woman behind me suddenly starts talking to me and reassures me that “this” bus would take us out to West Lake. She kept talking to us even on the bus and started telling me where we should go for fun. At this point, Michi and I were questioning whether she was trying to scam us or was just a genuinely nice person. We decided to give it a try and followed the itinerary she wrote down for us. Along the way, another woman also told us that if we followed her we would end up at the first place. The bus took us past the lake and into the hills -- we were certainly off the beaten trail now. It turned out to be fine because we ended up in the tea leaf hills. We followed a trail that started in a village (fave part: the chicken and dark carcasses hanging out to dry) and were told it would end at a waterfall. We hoped for the best and off we went wandering along a trail and bumping into other random walkers every so often. The funny thing was other people seemed a little confused as well because would ask “which direction did you guys come from?” “What is over there?” etc etc. We kept walking until we found the waterfall, took some pictures and then started wandering ... “how do we get out of this area now?” Luckily, there were some private cars for hire that would take us down the hill to the nearby bus station. And from there we made our way back to the lake for a late lunch and some last glimpses of the lake. After a bit of an inconvenience with taxis and public buses (again, another woman helped us out by telling us to follow her to the bus stop), we made our way back to the train station and back to Shanghai.

Michi’s final day in Shanghai (weather: still cold) was spent at Yu Garden. The original plan was to visit Xintiandi and the French Concession, but when I told her that Yu Garden was one of the main things tourists do in Shanghai, we figured that she should go so that she could say she had been there. As typical with most Yu Garden visits, we never went to the actual garden (as the saying goes, you see one Chinese garden, you’ve seen them all, haha) and instead we spent a lot of time looking for souvenirs for her to buy for people back home. It was actually a lot of fun looking at “random crap” to buy.

And so, Michi’s long weekend in Shanghai ended and it was time for her to head back to Hong Kong for the rest of her trip. She left really early Tuesday morning and again the goodbye felt a bit rushed. There was no long tearful farewell, just another goodbye like we would see each other again next week.

me: When will we see each other again?
her: I’ll see you back in the States. [pause] You better come back!

You know, it’s a good feeling when you can pick up right where you left off with friends. It was hard to believe that more than a year had passed since UCLA because we were back to talking and laughing like old times.

Day of Good News!

2009-12-18T01:33:00.001-08:00

Today was a good day for emails.

1) THESIS APPROVED! I have received my MA degree!
2) Shanghai 2010 World Expo Student Ambassador accepted! They decided that I’m cool enough to be one of the people to represent the USA at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. Only problem is that no one really knows/cares about what a “World Expo” is. I am one of those people. haha. But Shanghai propaganda has pretty much brainwashed me into believing that it’s important and awesome. There’s just one problem with the logistics ... so don’t know how this will turn out.

However, I believe that #1 on this list is pretty great news. I made the deadline and have graduated on time. After two weeks of obsessively checking my inbox for that an email from the Dean, today was the day. Yay me!

To add to the good news, Michi is scheduled to be arriving in the late afternoon tomorrow. Hello to a long weekend (Thursday - Monday) of hanging out and catching up with one of my best friends from UCLA and from life! I’ll be showing her around my new “hometown” Shanghai for a few days with a day trip planned to the nearby city of Hangzhou.

Christmas came early this year!

Shanghai Metro Line 7

2009-12-12T01:24:00.000-08:00

Today I had the opportunity to ride Shanghai’s newest metro line, line 7. Line 7 runs from the Northwest at Shanghai University down through Jing’an Temple and the Xujiahui area, across the river and then towards Longyang where the Maglev station is. And after taking line 7 today from the Indoor Stadium to Longyang, I believe that this will be more convenient for me in terms of getting to Pudong Airport in the future. The interchange between line 4 and 7 at Dong’an Station is short; you can get off line 4 walk down a flight of stairs and then you’re at line 7. No long hallways or corridors to walk through. From the Indoor Stadium, take line 4 for two stops, interchange to line 7 at Dong’an and then sit until the second to the last stop on the line (Longyang). Once at Longyang, the Maglev is right next door, pay the Maglev ticket and then you’re on your way to the Pudong Airport (it is under 8 minutes travel time!).

The bonus with line 7 today was the lack of crowds. Since it is a new line that just opened last weekend, I guess many people haven’t started taking it yet. It was so empty when I was on it (3:30pm) and I didn’t have to fight for a seat. I had a comfortable ride all the way. It is only running from 0900 - 1600 for now, but should have regular hours once the trial period is over. Here are some photos.

Line 4 Shanghai Indoor Stadium stop / 4 号线上海体育馆站

Line 7 Dong'an Road stop / 7 号线东安路站

Interior of line 7 metro cars. Notice the lack of crowds at this point. Also notice the green seats at the end of the rows. On every metro line there are special seats reserved for the elderly, disabled, pregnant, etc. However no one ever pays attention to this rules, even if an old, disabled pregnant person stood right in front of the seat, the other person might not even give up their seat for them. But the idea here is to give those special seats a different color. Hmm...good idea. But the other lines don't have the green seats yet. Also, line 2 is also the "green" line. The exact shade of green as in the picture I might also add. What will happen then?

The view from near the Maglev ticketing platform.

Haibao 海宝 welcomes you to Shanghai 上海

Punched

2009-12-09T05:24:00.000-08:00

In my time teaching Chinese kindergartners, I’ve had my fair share of bruises, scratches, arm/leg pulls, stretched shirts, spit/sneezes/coughs in my face. However, today was the first time I got knocked in the face by a kid’s head.

I have a few deaf students (yeah, teaching deaf students in a foreign language how to speak a foreign language) since my kindergarten has a special program. They all have hearing aids so the program is designed to teach them to speak with the correct pronunciation. The deaf students have a reputation for being especially spoiled because everyone tends to take pity on them and give them their way most of the time. In one of my classes, there is a student who seems more spoiled than others and is intent on getting what he wants or he throws a tantrum. He also thinks that everything he does is funny and this totally disrupts the class when he suddenly decides to pull his chair up to sit directly in front of the whiteboard in line of everyone’s line of sight. Annoying.

We were doing bookwork today and he wanted a black crayon. Since there were no black crayons available, he took his book and started erasing the whiteboard work with it. I wanted the students to follow the example on the whiteboard, so I took his book away to make him stop. I placed the book back at his seat but he only grabbed it again to repeat. I take the book away again and this time hold it up higher so that I could put it in a place he couldn’t reach. Out of the corner of my eyes I see him crouching low to the ground when all of a sudden he jumps up and the top of his head connected with my mouth.

What. the. heck?! He looks up at me and as he rubs his head in pain his eyes accuse me of hurting him. Seriously kid? You’re the genius who decided to run your head into my mouth. I put my finger to my lips because I can feel it beginning to swell and there was some blood on my finger. I wasn’t sure whether it was coming from my lips or my teeth so I asked another student whether my lips or my teeth were “red.” Her eyes widened and she just nodded and so she was no help. All my teeth were still in place so I figured there was no permanent harm done. But I was mad at that kid!

The cutest thing was that another student heard from my TA that I had gotten hurt. He came up to ask me about it and I said that the other student had “hit” me and mimed it out to him using my fist to tap his mouth. He pulled my hand to lead me and told me, “I will show you who it is.” I think that he probably thought that I couldn’t understand his Mandarin and didn’t know their Chinese names (I don’t know their Chinese names actually ... only their English names). He pointed at the deaf student and I nodded “yes.” And then he told me that he would make sure to tell their Chinese teacher so that he could get in trouble. His sudden concern in my well-being was so cute. Besides the workplace hazards, it really touches me when my students share with me their love. It makes me feel like I’m actually making a difference in their lives.

Moral of the story: wear protective gear when teaching English to Chinese kindergartners.

10 Things to be Thankful For

2009-11-28T06:23:00.000-08:00

I shouldn’t use the Thanksgiving holiday as my only time to reflect on what I am thankful for. It should be an ongoing task, recognizing all that I have been given and all that I have to look forward to in the future. However, that is not going to stop me from posting another list of “10 things.” So one this particular day, at this particular moment, at this particular point, I would like to share 10 things I am thankful for.

1. My life - it’s a beautiful adventure.

2. My family - they are my blood and I love them and miss them so much.

3. My comforts - I don’t have to worry about where I’ll be sleeping tonight or where my next meal will come from. Unfortunately, many people in the world are still not able to have these comforts to be thankful for.

4. My Shanghai “family” - these people are what help keep me going in this crazy, insane city. They’ve got my back and I’ve got theirs.

5. My ability to understand Mandarin - it’s not perfect but I know enough to be able to survive. It has definitely made my move to China a lot smoother.

6. My health - yes, I have weird joint pains like the muscle/ligament/something in my right knee that will painfully pop out of place sometimes, but I’m surviving.

7. My U.S. passport - it lets me travel around (most of) the world easily. Chinese people (the locals) remind me how lucky that I have an U.S. passport so that I am not restricted in moving around. I am also reminded of the freedoms that we Americans have when compared to Chinese citizens. There are a lot that we take for granted to have that the Chinese take for granted to NOT have.

8. My internet connection - Even with the Great Firewall of China blocking my internet access to certain websites (facebook, blogspot, just about anything to do with Taiwan) it still allows me to maintain contact with many people. The way that technology has evolved I can turn on my computer and video chat with people on different continents across numerous time zones. I can send an email or attach a document that will arrive in a few seconds to its intended reader. I can send text messages to American cell phones with instant messenger. We’ve come a long way from messenger pigeons.

9. My patience - most people say that I am pretty mellow and easy going. I don’t think many people have ever seen me angry before. I don’t know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. But I do know that if I had let every little frustration get to me and be blown out of proportion, I would probably have turned into a huge mess by now.

10. Chocolate - seriously, chocolate tastes good. How could you not be thankful for something so delicious?

Of course I have more to be thankful for, but it’s called a “10 things” list for a reason.

Cat Allergies

2009-11-15T05:22:00.000-08:00

After living with Karol's (my roommate in Shanghai) cat for a few months now, it turns out that I might not be that allergic to animal furs after all. I either grew out of a childhood allergy or my parents just lied to me so that I would never ask for a furry pet.

I'm going to give my parents the benefit of the doubt though, since they said that my baby skin would turn red and get rashes when we went to homes that had pets.

Small World

2009-11-08T01:21:00.000-08:00

My past year of living abroad and moving from country to country has shown me that as large as the world is, and with all its people, we are all still connected to each other in some form or another. The contacts we make with people, even if just briefly, are somehow maintained and preserved for time. It is when you least expect it that you find yourself drawn back to each other in the most unlikely places and in the most unlikely situations. But when you think about it, it all makes sense. Read on if it will entertain you to do so ...

On more than one occasion I would bump into friends from my cohort around Shanghai. It’s one thing to run into someone you know if you live close to each other. I would bump into Karol and Darleen because they lived in the apartment building across from us. But when you are living on the opposite side of the river? More than once I would be on the metro on my way somewhere and would randomly bump into my friend Daniella.

During February 2009 when we were all traveling around the world (mostly Asia) a few of us ended up in Singapore on the first leg of our trip through Southeast Asia. We all knew that we would be in the same country and had made plans to meet up a few times. One day, Lisa and I are doing our own thing (Hippo Tour!) and had made a stop to walk through Singapore’s Chinatown. As we’re walking down a street we hear a familiar voice ask someone to take a photo for them. We look up and who do we see? We see Daniella, Nicolle and Brandy. This happened a few times during our time in Singapore. Another time, Lisa and I were late catching a bus to get somewhere and so we went to the food court to grab some lunch. Who do we see walk through the doors as we’re eating? Daniella and Brandy. Granted Singapore is a small country, but really? We kept bumping into our friends throughout the trip. Eventually we just traveled the rest of the way more or less together.

Another incident during February 2009, but this time when we’re in Thailand. Lisa and I are walking back to our hostel from the beach when we notice a familiar looking guy walking towards us. Turns out it was John, Karol’s boyfriend. Karol is my current roommate. He and his friends happened to be staying at the same beach as well. Did not expect that.

Just recently, I was in my kindergarten’s cafeteria when one of the school nurses turned to Rosa (my TA) and asked her to ask me whether I remembered her. I looked at her but had no idea where I would know her from. And she said that she was a nurse at another kindergarten previously and she remembered me from that school. I told her the name of my past kindergarten I worked at and she nodded her head. So apparently I was teaching English at her old kindergarten and then we both somehow ended up at our current kindergarten. No way.

I would also consider the times when friends of mine would be making a trip to China or were in Asia and we would make the time to meet up. With the exception of Michi’s upcoming December trip, none of my friends made the trip with the sole intention of visiting me. But because they happened to be in China or Asia for other reasons, we’d take the opportunity to touch bases. Such as when I was in Taiwan and met up with Gladys, who was studying for a year at 台大. Or when Tiff and Song were in China with family. Winston is currently in HK/Macau and Irene is in Taiwan. I’m going to try to see what kind of arrangements I can make with this!

It is easy to always picture a certain person in a certain setting. Maybe you knew them from when you were attending school in Los Angeles. So forever that will be how you “see” that person ... with a LA backdrop. Or maybe you’ve always pictured someone with a Shanghai background. It is when you remove that person’s familiar background that you start to see a person in a different way. I noticed that these were the same people I’ve always known but now there was something special. It was like discovering something new about a good friend.

So what can we take from this? As humans and in this grand thing we call “life” we are all connected. People will cross paths when they don’t expect to. While the world is physically big, our own little worlds are smaller. Remember that you are being remembered by someone or that you are doing something that will effect someone. You may not think it is of importance at the moment, but somewhere down the road you’ll bump into someone and realize something pulled you together again. And to end this with a total cliche: It’s a small world after all.

First Chill

2009-11-02T03:20:00.000-08:00

Remember when a few posts ago I was raving about the nice weather we’ve been having in Shanghai? Up until today (Monday) we’ve had glorious fall weather; just cool enough for a light jacket over a t-shirt. This all came to an abrupt end overnight. We woke up to see cold winds blowing through the trees. The sun was shining still, but as we took our first steps out the doors we knew that this was the first signs of winter. I pulled out a thick jacket and scarf. Time to also bring out the sweaters and turtlenecks and extra blankets and extra layers of everything.

It dropped to the mid 40s today and averaged 57F. And for Shanghai winters, this is considered warm! During the dead of winter it is not unusual for it to drop a few degrees below freezing for a few days at a time. Yes, call me a weather weakling. But hey, that first shock of cold is always surprising and a little unwanted.

It’s still hard to remember back to last winter in Shanghai. I remember it being cold, but it’s been so long of it not being cold that it will be like experiencing it all anew again. For now in the first few days of winter, even though it’s cold, as long as I layer up I can become warm. Later when it gets really cold, no matter how I layer up my clothes I will never feel warm. Even if I take a shower with the water turned to the hottest setting I will never feel warm.

Oh, and here’s the kicker. Most China buildings/houses aren’t insulated. The walls are just pure cement. My apartment included, and it’s considered a newer building.

Pretty October Weather in Shanghai

2009-10-24T02:17:00.000-07:00

The weather in Shanghai right now is pretty much awesome. It’s sunny without being too hot. It’s cool without being too cold. And there’s a breeze without it being windy. Those of you who know me well know that I am not a big fan of wind, particularly strong winds that throw dust into the air and whip my hair around too much. This, of course, is all before the biting cold, wet winters set into chilling our bones in a few weeks time.

So I should be out and about enjoying this amazing weather. I should be taking a walk through the city, or perhaps maybe even sitting at one of the (few) public parks. I could even be hanging my clothes out to dry if not for the lack of an adequate balcony for me to do so.

Alas, I am doing none of the mentioned above. I really want to get my thesis approved and submitted before the December deadline and I am making myself stay in this weekend to get more and more editing done on it. I am not too fond of the idea of having to pay tuition for another term to extend my writing time. I’ve been looking at and thinking about this thesis paper for over a year now so to be frank, I’m sick of it already. I’m sure that when I’m done with it, I’ll want to do nothing but talk about all the “important graduate research I did” during my time in China. But for now, I really just want to be playing outside.

note: I realize this photo doesn't make the Shanghai "outdoors" look too exciting, but it was the best I could do from my living room window using photobooth. Look how brightly that sun is shining!

10 Thesis Procrastinating Things

2009-10-20T02:17:00.000-07:00

10 things that are keeping me from being extra productive on my thesis writing

1. Staring at a sentence forever to find the perfect words to get my point across. Usually results in epic_fail.
2. Thinking about the freedom I will have once my thesis is approved and I officially graduate.
3. Checking my email. Every 5 minutes. Even though I know there are no new emails to read.
4. Wikipedia. Need I say more?
5. I recently caved in and purchased a personal VPN so that I can have easier/freer access to the Internet across the Great Firewall. What does this mean? I am able to use Facebook again.
6. Nostalgia. Reminiscing. Again. Nothing new there.
7. Trying to remember how cold Shanghai can get during the winter. Cold weather is almost here, but the last few days have been nothing but abundant sunshine. The false sense of security before winter hits us.
8. Eating peanut butter and jelly. But in Chinese steamed buns, mantou 馒头
9. Organizing my iTunes.
10. Writing this list.

Update

2009-10-18T08:05:00.005-07:00

Ni hao! 你好！

So I finally caved in and purchased a private/personal VPN so that I could access the Internet a little more ... easily ... I kept hoping that once the PRC's 60th had passed things would start to lighten up. Guess not. I had been posting in livejournal for awhile in the mean time and I will see about getting some of those entries posted here as well. Seeing how this is my "China" blog.

What has been going on in the mean time? Basically, I left China. I spent about 6 weeks in the fabulousness that is Southern California. Then I came back to China. Same city, Shanghai. Same job, teaching English. Still working on getting that thesis finished as well. Left China (again) for the National holiday (8 days off from work!) to visit South Korea. Still working on that thesis.

10 Happy Things

2009-10-18T02:16:00.000-07:00

1. God
2. Korean pop music. Purchased directly from South Korea during my trip. Saucy hips? Sorry, Sorry? Again and again? Heartbreak? This stuff is legit!
3. Finding out that Michelle (Michi!) will be visiting Shanghai for a few days during her winter Asia trip. I am so excited to see her!!!
4. Nice weather. The sun has been shining and the breeze has been light.
5. Calling home to California and hearing my parents’ voices.
6. Getting comments from my advisor about my first thesis draft. Not a whole lot of positive news, but at least I’ve passed one major step on the road to completing my thesis.
7. Having a quiet weekend to myself. I have the whole apartment to myself for a few days so it has been nice to have no noise and not much talking. Nice break from my kindergartners.
8. Making my kindergartners laugh over the simplest and silliest things.
9. Thinking about Southern California and Los Angeles.
10. Thinking about international travel and reflecting on my time abroad this last year and a half.

What are the 10 things that made you happy this past week?

South Korea, "It's So Cute!"

2009-10-13T02:11:00.002-07:00

A whole week spent away from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. Nice~

I spent China’s National Holiday with Michelle and Brian in South Korea. We were mainly in two cities, Seoul and Busan. Michelle and I were mostly overwhelmed by how “cute” everything was.

“Look at that sign. It’s so cute”
“Look at that building. It’s so cute.”
“Look at that Korean baby. It’s so cute.”
“Look at that hanbok [traditional Korean outfits]. It’s so cute.”
“Look at the food. It’s so cute.”
etc. etc.

Until Brian pointed at a poster of a wild boar nursing its babies and asked me ...
“Look at that poster of the pig. Is that cute?”

Seoul was amazing. It’s always nice to get away from Shanghai’s crowds and pollution and see a completely Westernized and developed big city, but with a bunch of Asian people. The streets were clean, people followed the traffic laws, people weren’t rude and pushy, we didn’t have to worry too much about being cheated with cheap goods. It was good. We were there during the Korean Thanksgiving holiday so there would be Koreans wearing Hanboks (the traditional Korean outfit). Palaces were even offering free admission for those who entered wearing hanboks! Promoting cultural pride! Michelle and I also went to visit JYP Entertainment. haha, one of the Korean pop star companies. There were also so many Christian churches all over the place. Most of them had a cross lit up with red lights so they were very easy to find, especially at night.

We took a close to 3 hour KTX (Korean Express Rail) train from Seoul to Busan/Pusan to see more of South Korea. Busan is the second largest city in South Korea and also a seaside port on the Eastern coast of the peninsula. We arrived a few days too early for the Pusan film festival which is apparently a pretty big deal in Asian cinema. We did see all the festival setups when we went to Haeundae Beach on our last morning in Pusan. The highlight of our Pusan trip was probably what I shall term the “Hike of Death” when we went searching for Seokbulsa Temple in the hills of Geumjeongsan Mt. Lonely Planet describe it as difficult and hard to find, and a strenuous hike. Oh, all of that was very true. Michelle and I were really working hard at this hike that had us walking down hills using rocks and tree roots as our steps, as Brian kept a fast pace ahead of us. We finally found the temple a few hours into our hike (we stopped for a lunch break, and subsequently also finished our hike that day with a foil package of cooked duck meat). The hike back up to the South Gate was pretty tough since everything was so steep. We now wanted to head to Beomeosa Temple on the other side of the hill. We kept climbing up, passed South Gate and then started following a group of ajummas (Korean aunties) because we were assuming they were headed the same way. Even if they weren’t, they at least knew where they were going so we figured we would end up somewhere. We walk for awhile (a much better trail this time) and ended up at a crossroads and no idea which direction to now head. Michelle and I went to the guard station and using our broken Korean asked which was to Beomeosa Temple. One of them started speaking to us in English and told us that it was getting late and we’d never be able to make it before night fall. Too bad. So we took a bus back down the hill and went to the Busan tower instead. And then caught a Korean movie (no subtitles!) that night as well.

We had 1.5 days back in Seoul, after Pusan, before our flight back to Shanghai. We went to watch a show at the B-boy Theatre near Hongik University. That was pretty cool. The next day, our last full day, was spent shopping. Rather, Michelle and I shopped and Brian went to visit Seoul National University’s admissions office to get information on their language classes. He liked South Korea so much, he’s now making plans to move and live there for awhile after China. All three of us met up at Myeongdong for a final dinner of Korean BBQ. And we left the next morning, bright and early.

South Korea is pretty. I would definitely like to visit it again in the future. The food was delicious, the culture was vibrant (shops close late! these people like their night life, even older people), the colors were beautiful and yes, the people are good-looking too.

South Korea, Here I Come!

2009-10-01T02:10:00.000-07:00

I have put in my dues to China. I worked the random extra "make up" days so that I can get my whole week off. I have seen all the red and yellow national flags of China waving from every single lamppost, tree, rail, pole, anything that they can hang a flag from. I appreciate all the red lanterns as well.

Happy 60th bday PRC. Turning 60 is important in many Asian cultures, Chinese culture included. And when you are the PRC, it's a HUGE deal.

2008 - Beijing Olympics
2009 - PRC turns 60
2010 - Shanghai World Expo
2011 - Time to take over the world???

And so what am I doing for the PRC's big 6-0? I am actually leaving the country to visit South Korea (will be in Seoul and Busan, and whatever is in between!) for about a week.

passport - check
suitcase - check
itinerary - check
draft of thesis sent to advisor - SUPER CHECK!

Pre-National Holiday Logistics

2009-09-25T02:09:00.000-07:00

I will define “weekend” as consisting of the traditional non-work days of Saturday and Sunday.

Most weeks, if not EVERY SINGLE WEEK, has a weekend. [see above]

That means that most weeks, if not EVERY SINGLE WEEK, gives us two non-work days (Saturday and Sunday). [see above + above]

That also means that most weeks, if not EVERY SINGLE WEEK, I get two non-work days (Saturday and Sunday) to ... well ... not work.

Now ... China will on occasion, when it feels like its citizens have been good and obedient and productive workers, give long national holidays that last a week long. Golden Weeks. Yes, a whole week off from work. Mandated by the government (unless you are one of the unfortunate few who run a mom and pop shop or some other privately run business), schools, and state enterprises, most foreigners, most companies will take a week off. The theory behind this is that when allowed such a long break from work, people will want to open up their wallets and spend, spend, spend those RMBs on shopping or trips and by extension boost the economy. Imagine if it was required by law for all Americans to take a week off from work during Christmas or Thanksgiving. Culture-wise Americans spend those holidays with family, but no doubt it would also encourage some tourism and shopping when given all that free time.

Here’s the kicker. The weeklong holiday does not come without its own terms and conditions. Because by law, the government is giving us these holidays, by law most schools, state enterprises, companies will have its workers work on the weekend to “make up” for the future days off. Yes, you read that correctly. The general idea is we shift our “work days” around so that we are not taking -too- many days off. Because -too- many days off would actually be “bad” for the economy when factories aren’t running and making “Made in China”s and little Maos aren’t learning in schools. These “make up” work days typically come right before or right after the Golden Weeks so that the “weekend” days will be tacked onto the “holiday” days to make the holiday “longer”. Following? You can’t have cake and eat it too. In this case, we have to bake our own cake before we can have and eat it.

National Holiday/October Holiday (Fall Golden Week) celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The PRC’s 4th of July. This year, it will last from October 1-8 (extra day for Autumn Festival, joy). What does this mean? It means that this weekend has been made into a one day weekend. I get Saturday off, but I will be working from Sunday - Wednesday. Thursday is the first day of the Golden Week. China has the power to not only declare one official time zone across a landmass that requires closer to three separate time zones (Beijing Time = China Standard Time), but it can also declare one day or no-day weekends. Yes, I’ve once worked 7 days straights when China shifted the “weekend” to the following week.

Hooray for Communism!

"And it's going to be totally awesome!"

2009-09-20T02:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to the website for "A Very Potter Musical." They have finally put the soundtrack to the musical online for free download! Check it out!

www.teamstarkid.com/verypottermusical.html

Sirens in Shanghai

2009-09-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

Imagine an ambulance parked outside underneath your bedroom window. On a Saturday morning. With the siren blasting. And not stopping.

We experienced just that this Saturday morning in Shanghai. Except it wasn’t an ambulance with a broken siren outside the bedroom window. Rather, they were air raid sirens. To warn the Chinese of an oncoming aerial attack.

Of course there was no actual attack coming. But after some googling for information, it turned out that the sirens were partly a memorial and partly a drill. It was a memorial for when the Japanese attacked in 1949. It was also “educational” so that citizens could familiarize themselves with the different alarms, in case there was an invasion on Chinese soil --

- an attack is on the way!
- the attack has begun!
- danger has passed!

One problem, all the alarms sounded the same to me. Another problem, there was no broadcast of what we are supposed to do or where we are supposed to go if there was a real attack. A flaw in the plan?

Friday Nights

2009-09-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

Most young people my age like to go out on Friday nights, especially in such a big, international and exciting city as Shanghai. It is a bit like the reward for working hard and surviving another week in this place. You have managed to dodge the crazy taxi drivers and old Chinese men on their motor-scooters to live another week. You have put up with the second hand smoke and gross loogies (“the nasal form of mucus“ says Wikipedia).

I, on the other hand, usually prefer to stay in on Friday nights to recuperate from all the mentioned above. I like to grab dinner with friends, perhaps. Have little hang outs. But I’m not usually the type to stay out all night. Just my style. I don’t mind. Some people will call me boring that I’m not out having fun and savoring the moments, but meh ... Friday nights are my time to rest up from the long week of having had to teach and play with hundreds of kindergartners.

Of course every once in awhile I’ll feel in the mood to do something and if that is the case than okay, it will happen.

Unfortunately, the deadlines on my thesis are coming up fast. Faster than I had anticipated. It’s amazing how fast time will fly when you are trying to live life, go to work all day and try to squeeze in some research and writing time. My original plan had been to use the 3 hour lunch break that I have everyday to do some thesis work here and there, but for the past 2 weeks that 3 hour lunch break had been taken up by me covering a grade 3 (kindergarten) class for Ryan who is on holiday. I don’t mind covering for him because it’s just at my school and does make the ”break“ time past by faster. Supposedly once he gets back from holiday he will be taking those classes again. So besides the addition of the ”Dr. Zhu“ classes, I should be getting my long lunch break back. My goal is to have a significant portion of the draft complete before October holiday so that I can email it to my advisor for his feedback while I go off to South Korea for some cultural fun!!

October Holiday

2009-09-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

I will be going to South Korea for China's October Golden Week holiday (Oct. 1-Oct. 8)!!

Back to Shanghai

2009-08-27T23:05:00.000-07:00

*deep breath* hold it *exhale*

My time back home has went by way too fast. In a blink of an eye it was all over and I was once again heading to LAX. Being gone for such an extended time truly made me realize how much I love California, particularly Southern California. I know I am biased, being born and raised here, but I’m proud to be a California girl! I must say, I really love California.

[note: yes I haven’t lived in any other state, but ... oh whatever. I don’t have to explain myself. I am open to living in and “trying out” other states. But until then, California will be #1 for me. haha]

Well, here I am again. Back on the plane on a flight back to Shanghai for another 6 months. It will be great and it will be another unforgettable experience. The only difference this time is that I know more of what to expect once I’m there. There is not much of that excitement about the unknown there was this time last year when I was arriving for the first time. Time for a trip down memory lane!

August 2008 I was on the plane for my first trip to Mainland China. It was also the first time I was going to be flying alone internationally. There was much to be anticipated. How will I like China? How will they like me? Would be drastically different from Taiwan, would it be just like how I saw it on TV? And this was also Shanghai. Shang-freakin’-hai. In my mind, Shanghai was a place where East meets West in a sort of rough and glamorous make believe land. The Shanghai that I saw on TV was ruled by the mafia and qipaos, gentlemen and ladies. The buildings were very European. This was a big international city where people from all over the world would be.

August 2009, the image of Shanghai that I have now is not the one mentioned above. Shanghai is still a very international city, and a sort of rough and glamorous make believe land. But there are no mafias or qipaos running around. Sure there are the touristy areas where they really play it up, but walk down the streets and you see regular people. Everyone seems to be in a hurry to be somewhere. There are people everywhere. You think Los Angeles is crowded? It’s nothing compared to what it’s like in Shanghai. There is always someone around you. In terms of how Shanghai looks, there are the parts where you can clearly see the influences of colonialism, there are the parts that are old school Chinese and more often than not there are the parts where you can see the modern and new Shanghai bursting to want to break away from the past. It is a bit unfortunate with how they are willing to tear down very old and historical parts in order to raise a new, modern building in its place.

Just taking a walk is an adventure in itself. Shanghai is big. It is vibrant. It is crowded and dirty. It is wide and calm. It is a world where all opposites co-exist side by side. It is insane. It is one of a kind. And that’s why I am returning.

See you in 6 months!

I Don't Know

2009-08-08T02:04:00.000-07:00

i don’t know. i don’t know. i don’t know. i don’t know. i don’t know.

I know, but I don’t know. It’s clear, yet vague all at the same time. Let me know! Let me know!

Ling & Lee Come Home

2009-08-06T02:03:00.000-07:00

The news of Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s pardon and homecoming was good news today. Very good news indeed. I can’t help but wonder why North Korea requested Former President Bill Clinton to go. Washington D.C. says he went as a private citizen on a private humanitarian mission, no messages from Obama, but I am pretty sure that private diplomatic talks probably came up while he was in North Korea. It would be so tempting; to finally have the chance for direct talks with the leaders of North Korea. And with Asians, it’s all about keeping “face.” No doubt the request for Former Clinton was also in a way to make it into a show of North Korea doing a favor to the USA by pardoning the journalists.

Maybe we’ll find out in a few days time what really happened in North Korea. But until then, the photos that I have seen of the happy reunion of the journalists with their families have brought tears to my eyes. I would never wish their situation upon others. To be separated from your loved ones and be completely clueless on what your future would hold ... all in a foreign and hostile place.

I Just Want to Slow Dance to Music

2009-08-01T02:03:00.000-07:00

La~ La~ La~ sappy love songs filled with sadness, anger, angst, and lovelovelove are fun.

Hopes & Dreams

2009-07-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

When you take an inventory of your life, what is it that you hope for for the future? Some may look at their education and hope one thing. Some may look at their work experience and hope for another. Whether it be for wealth, fame, love or even immortality, every person looks at the footsteps of their past to form the hopes they have for the future.

I have wondered what it is that I crave for my future. As like many people, my hopes and dreams have grown as I have grown. When I was a kid, I wanted to move into a castle and live happily ever after. I was silly because we all know that castles are expensive pieces of real estate and in today’s housing market ... bleh. So I started growing up and channeling my hopes and dreams for higher education. Higher education meant better opportunities right? No child left behind! Working towards more education is a very self-rewarding process. You start to learn stuff and to show the marks of an educated (wo)man not gullible to false teachings. It’s a good feeling when you gain a little more knowledge that adds to your market value. So you get that degree and you get that job. You go about your life making sure that all the loose ends are all tucked in. You are comfortable and you are content. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, [___-ally], you are all okay. What else is there left to hope and dream for? You have enough.

Close your eyes and revert back again to that young child you once were. Play make believe in your backyard with whatever random trinkets you found around the house. Believe that by putting your arms through plastic grocery bags you could fly off the bench. Look up to your parents and see superheroes. Slide down the stairway in a laundry basket, or if one couldn’t be found, on a piece of cardboard. Build a fort out of the sofa cushions. Imagine once more that you were going to live happily ever after.

That’s my goal, hope and dream for my future. That I may live happily ever after. For me, it does not mean that I have to make millions or be a movie star. I do not need a castle or fairy godmother. Just take it as it is. Live a happy, comfortable and full life ... in whatever method that works best for me. This is what I now want to achieve.

Q: What’s your goal for your future?
A: To live happily ever after.

Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? I hope that you can also live happily ever after.

Explanation for the Lack of Posts

2009-07-27T20:37:00.003-07:00

So China had blocked blogspot for a long time which meant that I could not update this blog. Ironically, livejournal's ban was uplifted a few weeks after blogspot went down. Unfortunately, while I did put some updates on LJ, I have been behind in my posting on everywhere. But, now I'm back in the USA so I will probably stick with LJ (as this is my "China" one).

:)

Back Home

2009-07-26T02:01:00.000-07:00

It has been a little over a week since I’ve been back home.

Home, as in “permanent address” home.
As in FTW home.
As in I <3 USA home.
As in no place like home.
As in home sweet home.

I’ve done absolutely nothing. Except to unpack and futile attempts at re-organizing my new bedroom. I got the bookcase and books set up today. Next task is the desk area. I’ve been to eat with cousins, family and family friends. Unfortunately, most of my friends are either busy or not in town so there hasn’t been much contact via Internet or in person. And my China friends are now in a different time zone. I did, however, beat the Nintendo DS game “Professor Layton and the Curious Village”, a charming little game where you have to solve puzzles/brainteasers to collect clues and the like. It’s like a mystery/puzzle/adventure game all in one! I also finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (book 7) because I just watched Half-Blood Prince in China before I left and am now anticipating the final movie.

Even though nothing big has happened, I quite like this easy pace of life. It’s a nice break. And while I have errands and chores to take care of, I am going at them one by one without having to worry about multitasking them in a hurry. Which might be a little bad because my room should have been ready by now, haha. I am just enjoying the time that I am back home. There are changes, but a lot of that “family-feeling” is still there. We still laugh, bicker and hang out like the old days. In many ways, being back in Cali feels like I’ve never been gone. It is true that it is always good to go back home.

Leaving 中国 (China) on a Jet Plane

2009-07-16T02:00:00.000-07:00

In an hour and a half, my taxi will be picking me up from my apartment to take me to the Shanghai Pudong airport.

My flight then is scheduled to leave at 14:55. Hopefully no delays. And then in about 11-12 hours, I will be stepping onto the beautiful American soil again.

oh my gosh. This is all real. I can't believe that this particular chapter of my life is officially coming to a close. What an experience. What a life.

Nervous? Yeah. Excited? Yeah. Happy? Yeah. Gonna miss China? Yeah. Gonna love being home? Yeah!

Half-Blood Prince Movie

2009-07-15T01:59:00.000-07:00

**No spoilers**

HP&the Half-Blood Prince was ... AWESOME!!!!! Maybe I was just super excited to be watching a new HP movie, but this one might have been the best transfer from book to movie to date. The pacing was good, the important parts were highlighted and the people were gorgeous. Of course, being that it is a movie, some details were left out and some character development was missing. But for fans of the books who have read the books and know what is supposed to be happening and going on, you are able to fill it in yourself and see the results on the big screen.

It was a very dark movie, but it was perfectly balanced with its moments of humor and comedy. Very good. Very good.

And I guess one thing with being on the other side of the world, is that I am living a few hours ahead of when the movie premiers in America. So it's almost like I am getting a special sneak peek at the movie, but not really.

Happy. Happy.

A not too spoilery quote that I thought was funny:

Professor McGonagall: Why is it that whenever there is trouble, the three of you are involved?
Ron: We've been asking ourselves that same question for the last 6 years.

Yay HP!

2009-07-14T01:58:00.000-07:00

I will be going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in Shanghai!!!!

Ouch!

2009-07-13T01:57:00.000-07:00

My body is falling apart.

Day 2 of arriving in Shanghai: I sprain my left ankle in a very serious way. As I walked down a set of non-moving escalators, I misstep and hear a loud pop! sound. Pain! Pain! Pain! I have to hold onto Ryan’s arm as I hobble down the rest of the stairs. Later that night, I wake up in the middle of my nap, feel my ankle throbbing and look down to see that it has swollen up. It is difficult to walk. I never get it checked out by a professional and to this day I do not know if it is permanently damaged or not. It doesn’t hurt anymore and rarely do I feel an ache. But I know it's probably still there.

China’s National Holiday (Golden Week): I am fine until the last few days of the Golden Week. Luckily I was on holiday and did not have to work. But, on the last few days of the Golden Week I suddenly fall ill. As in, seriously ill. I had come home early from a dinner with a slight headache. The next morning, it was a chore to walk the few steps over to Darleen’s apt for a homemade breakfast. I had to decline an invitation to the Science and Technology Museum because my whole body just felt sore and horrible. My body later rejected the breakfast and any other foods I would attempt to eat for the next few days. I could barely keep water down and managed to eat a few slices of bread. I lay in bed with a fever, chills and pounding headache for about 3 days. I had a big homework assignment due so I would alternate: write a paragraph and nap for an hour, repeat. No roommate Sina was still in America. I had no way of leaving my apt if I needed anything, but thankfully Darleen would check up on me when she could. I had never, in my life, been that sick before. To add to this, the hacking cough that I caught because of my low immunity would remain with me for about 2 months until I left winter in Shanghai for warmer temperatures in Southeast Asia during Spring Festival.

Sometime in March/April: I am teaching in class and bending down to write something on the lower half of the whiteboard. I stand up and all of a sudden something pops loudly behind my right knee. I cannot straighten out my right leg because the pain is so intense. But, the show must go on so I am kinda hopping and putting all my weight on my left leg as I continue to finish up the lesson. Luckily I was about to start bookwork which meant independent work for the students. I tenderly put some weight onto my right leg and it hurts to support it. For the next two weeks, I cannot kneel or bend the knee, but I would accidently re-pop whatever it was 3 more separate times, all while squatting or kneeling for something. It really hurt. From then on, I am cautious whenever I have to bend my right knee and actually try to avoid doing so.

Today: I am packing up my luggage when all of a sudden as I am on my knees and moving around, I hear and feel that grossly familiar pop behind my right knee again. I thought it had healed, but apparently not. I struggle and hop to stand up and sit on my bed. Ouch!

What else is going to break down? Not to mention the mysterious bruises that I sometimes find on my body.

China's Net Nanny

2009-07-08T01:56:00.000-07:00

I must document this or at least leave my mark somehow before the spread gets to this site soon!

China's Internet Nanny has gotten censorship and block happy recently and have blocked more websites. Youtube is still blocked. Google Gmail was blocked for a few days as well. LJ was blocked for a long time and recently in the past few weeks has been unblocked. Twitter was blocked and unblocked. Now, they have reblocked Twitter and get this, they have even blocked Facebook. As far as I know, this is the first time Facebook has ever been blocked (at least in my experience with the Great Firewall of China). I give it a few more days and then LJ might be blocked again~~

Supposedly the reason behind the recent blockings has to do with the ethnic uprisings in China's Xinjiang Province, home to the Uyghur people. I am sure you can google and wiki the information so that I do not have to get into a discussion here.

FACEBOOK!! With it blocked, what else am I supposed to do online? Work on my thesis?

Overheard in New York Website

2009-07-06T02:55:00.000-07:00

Overheard in New York website:

Young woman to friend: And I was getting so fucking mad at my boss, so I reached into my bag and pulled out the emergency extra strength maxi-pad I always carry, and walked into his office and threw it at his face. And he looks at me calmly, picks it up, opens it up and sticks it to his desk, and then takes his bottle of water and starts pouring it onto the pad. So I scream, "what the fuck are you doing?" and he looks at me and says, "I want to see if the commercials are true."

--Downtown 1 Train

"Amen" by Tank

2009-07-01T22:54:00.000-07:00

I had my iTunes set on random today and this song started to play. I was attracted to the tune of it and then started to really listen to the lyrics. Because it's a Chinese song, I needed to look up the lyrics online so that I could follow along with it easier. I translated the lyrics and decided that I did indeed liked this song. So I wanted to share it with you guys. I apologize that a bit of the meaning has been lost in translation (as it usually happens with me, sorry). But the general gist of the song is about wanting life to be perfect, but realizing that life cannot be perfect. The trials and uncertainties in life are given to us to overcome, so that we can become stronger in our beliefs. Or at least that is how I'm interpreting the song. I'm not exactly 100% fluent in Mandarin. Regardless it is still a nice song.

阿門
作詞：藍小邪作曲：TANK

請賜給我一顆不會熄滅的星
請賜給我一朵不被淋濕的雲
請告訴我的眼睛再等一下就是黎明
請別笑我每天都要跟你談心

請賜給我一顆不會受傷的心
請賜給我永遠用不完的勇氣
如果還能說下去請讓我在這黑夜裡
相信明天一覺醒來是個好天氣

Chorus:
**我不要飛來的運氣也不用比別人榮幸
只求當我在谷底還有力氣疼痛和哭泣
荊棘中還能辨認來時的腳印

我不求變成個奇跡也不用開創天或地
只求我最迷茫時還能找到最初的自己
如果我痛到必須要閉上眼睛就看見你**

原來每一顆星熄滅才會再亮
原來每一朵雲濕透天才放晴
原來一顆心受傷是爲了要更有勇氣
原來勇氣因為失去才有了意義

Repeat Chorus
流過的淚留下運氣受過的傷都很榮幸
下一次跌落谷底就該知道躺下看山頂
何不替眼睛謝謝所有的風景

我存在就是個奇跡你為我創造天與地
你讓我不斷迷路直到找到真正的自己
原來只要我能看見我的真心
就看見你

English Translation: Amen
Composer: Tank

Please bestow upon me a star that can’t be extinguished
Please bestow upon me a cloud that will not rain
Please tell my eyes to wait just awhile more for daybreak
Please don’t laugh at me because I want to speak with you everyday

Please bestow upon me a heart that won’t be wounded
Please bestow upon me never-ending courage
If I could also say, please leave me in this dark night
So that I can trust that I will awaken tomorrow to a good day

Chorus:
**I don’t need to be given luck and I don’t need to be compared to others for honor
I only ask that when I am in the valley, I still have strength, aches and tears
So that from behind the thorns I can still identify your timely footprints

I don’t seek to become a miracle, or to create the sky or earth
I only ask that when I am most confused, I can still find who I really am
So that if pain causes me to close my eyes, I can clearly see you**

But,
It turns out that every star needs to be extinguished to be bright again
It turns out that every cloud needs to rain so that the sky can be clear
It turns out that a heart needs to be wounded in order to gain courage
It turns out that courage has to be lost for courage to have meaning

Repeat Chorus
Tears flow and leave behind luck, the wounds that were suffered are all honorable
The next time I fall into the valley, I should know to lay down and watch the hilltop
Why not close my eyes and give thanks to the scenery

My existence is a miracle. You created the sky and earth for me.
You let me lose my way, so that I can find my true self
As long as I can see my own sincerity and self
That is when I can see you.

MS & QY Grade 3 Graduation

2009-07-01T01:53:00.000-07:00

These little Chinese kids are amazing. Granted the routines are not rocket science, but to have a 7 year old with the patience to pay attention and understand what it means to get the steps right, well I can’t say that I am not impressed.

MS and QY Kindergarten’s grade 3 students had their graduation ceremony at the Noble Center in Minhang District of Shanghai. They will be starting primary school in the fall. The ceremony had each grade 3 class performing a class routine, involving dancing and props. The kids had to remember formations and the beat of the music. In addition, there were also performances from various groups of kids, like the “dance class” kids, the deaf kids, and my grade 3 class even did a special Wushu performance. The teachers performed as well, ranging from singing to a military/artsy dance about war (?) and drumming. All in all, it was a nice ceremony to send those little grade 3 rascals off to primary school.

I’ll miss them.

Sproul 521 Reunited in China

2009-06-27T00:31:00.000-07:00

Song and her family were in China for a visit and we were able to meet up one weekend to hangout. Rather than stay in Shanghai, we all made the train trip out to Hangzhou. We left Shanghai on Saturday morning and came back early Sunday afternoon. A quick trip out to West Lake.

First off, it was so hot Saturday. Like majorly hot. Like unbelievable-my face is melting off-hot. We arrived at about 9am and we were already sweating like crazy. And the plan was to visit West Lake and be outdoors all day long. After dropping off our luggage at the hotel we made our way to Lingyin Temple. There we visited one of the large temples as well as make a climb up to Fei Lai Feng 飞来峰. Because it was just a stone stairs path up the side of a hill, we would ask people how much further up was the location. People just told us that “it is a few more minutes up” and thus we kept climbing. Little did we know that a lot of “few more minutes” add up to a longer than anticipated hike up. Add hot and humidity to this and you can imagine how wet we were by the time we got to the top.

Our reward? There was a rock with the words “Fei Lai Feng” (in Chinese) painted on it. And a guy selling cold drinks. There wasn’t even an impressive view since trees blocked any view that might have been achieved. So we started the climb back down the hill. Every once in awhile I would stumble and slip a little. I apparently have lost all sense of balance since arriving in China.

At the base we found a cave that felt like it had A/C blasting through it, but it was all natural. We also saw some of the buddhas carved into the side of the hill. Then the freak storm arrived and we all ran for cover. But it cooled down the rest of the day so that we were able to continue our trip without dying of heat. Relief!

We took a boat ride into the middle of the lake to view some of the little islands and walk around. More walking ensued and then we decided that it was the right time to grab dinner. We ate a place and ordered all the Hangzhou “delicacies”. SO GOOD!! Everything was delicious! Yum! After dinner we took a stroll down a pedestrian street to take a look at more little items to buy. Exhausted, we headed back to our hotel to shower and fall asleep quickly.

On Sunday, we made another trip out to West Lake to walk around another section. We stopped for a rest at the water show area and ate ice cream as we took in the show. Walked some more until it was about time to head back to the train station. Grabbed a quick lunch, got on the train and all fell asleep until we arrived in Shanghai. Home sweet home.

We rested in the afternoon, grabbed an early dinner and then Song and I went to get a Chinese haircut. Afterwards she came to spend the night at my apartment (which was super close to their hotel. They were staying right next to the Xujiahui Cathedral which is like a short 15 minutes walk from my apartment). We just spend the rest of the night chatting and reminiscing. She wanted to try to play AOE but I knew that the attempt would be an epic_fail. It was so good to see Song again. The last time was when we were all busy moving out of Apt 304 after UCLA graduation. It was all just a quick goodbye and then that was it. To be able to hang out with her again felt like only a short vacation had passed between the time. Of course things had changed but some of the same behaviors, habits and other little things that come from knowing and living with each other for 4 years returned as if second nature. When you see someone everyday of your life for years you really get used to and learn a lot about that person. You all know what I mean.

Song, thanks for making time out of your trip to visit me! It was definitely great to see you again. Our friendship has made it from the hills of Westwood to the hills of China.

Chinese Glasses

2009-06-16T01:51:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Michelle (W.) and I ventured out to find the Eyeglass Wholesale Market of Shanghai. Our sources from Chinese people and the Internet told us that it would be located “at the Shanghai Railway Station.” That’s it. We were told to take the metro to the railway station (not the south station!) and look for it.

We got out, asked some people and eventually found it. Apparently they had relocated to a new location. Indoors and with air conditioning. It was legit.

So we first did a walk through and had people ask us whether we wanted to buy eyeglasses and to please take a look at their inventory. Eventually, I just walked into a random store and started looking through their glasses. The saleslady pulled out various pairs saying to me, “When I saw you, I already had an idea of what style you would like.”

After picking out a pair that I liked enough to buy, I had my eyes rechecked in a small back room. It was all the usual machines you would see at any other eyeglass place. Put your chin and forehead against the bracket and look at the tree/house in the distance. They rip out a printout and then you put on sample prescriptions and look at an eye chart to confirm your prescription. Best part? It’s basically a free (or included) eye check up. Back home, you pay extra for that!

After the prescription is good, you pick out a pair of glasses, bargain the price down they send the order to be made. The glasses are made rather quickly. I didn’t even know they had gone to make the lenses when the guy comes back and says “take a look to confirm that we used the high-index lenses.” I confirmed. They set another guy to shape the lenses to fit the selected frames. You test them out when they are done, you pay and you are ready to leave.

The whole process of selecting eyewear, eye check up, making the glasses and testing them out took about 2.5 hours. It probably would have been faster if I wasn’t so picky about picking out a pair either. The process is so fast! Back home it would take about a week for them to send the order to a factory or something to make it. In China, there is no need for that since everything is ready already.

I have been wearing my new glasses for a few days now and have had no problems with them. New glasses within a few hours for 180RMB (US $26.33) for frames, lenses and eye checkup. I think that I can try to bargain that price down a little more if I go back for another pair!

One Year Ago...

2009-06-13T01:50:00.000-07:00

This weekend marks UCLA’s graduation ceremonies for the class of 2009. First of all, congratulations to all my friends from all universities who are walking this weekend (or already just walked)!!! Yay! You guys did it!

Second of all, has it seriously been a year already?! A year since I walked, smiled for the camera, hugged the last hugs, said the final goodbyes and then left the place I had lived the last 4 years of my life? Yeah, it seems that it all really did happen. Time passes by so quickly. It is hard to believe that that life was all just a mere 365ish days ago. Plus, I’m a sap.

So much has happened during the year in between that in all honesty, it feels like a lifetime ago. My life as a Bruin was great, it was fantastic and amazing. But the growth and emotions of the past year has in a way turned my UCLA memories into something that just happened ... but a long time ago. If that makes sense. Kinda. Life is marked by stages and phases. You chop it all up and mix it in a giant bowl to create who you are at any given moment.

I replay those final few days of Westwood. In the span of about a week, final exams were taken, final course grader work was completed, final work things were tidied up, final dinners/lunches/hang outs were had, final hugs were hugged, final boxes were packed up to be moved out of the apartment, a lot of final things going on. Somehow it was squeezed in, I even remember that Calvin had to drive me somewhere to drop off Murphy’s graded exams so that the next proctor could grade his portion of it. I remember hanging out at Calvin and Lydia’s the night before and then saying that I should probably go home (like at 4am or something) so that I can finish grading. But I had such a hard time staying awake, but graded some, walked at the college commencement, taking pictures and going to K-town for dinner, and more grading throughout the night and then econ graduation the day after. Maybe I didn’t get much sleep those final days. Seriously, all a blur.

In the end, time flies. And it flies by really quickly. We always say that we’ll see each other soon and we’ll keep in touch. But somehow, time flying by makes it hard to do so. We all become consumed with our own lives and before we know it, holidays are the times we try to reclaim fragments of those promises. I would love to be able to say that I have a good track record of maintaining contact with all those that have had a significant impact on my life. But I would be lying. I could only wish for a better record of maintaining contact. I really wish that I have at least kept up with emails but the reality is that they have been sporadic. There are so many people I wish that I had been able to keep in touch with but one thing leads to another, one excuse leads to another and before I knew it, all attempts to catch up somehow always start with the words “what’s up? how are things?” Because the sad truth is that I don’t know “what’s up” and how things have been with you. Sorry for being a lame friend.

But the fact that I can pick up conversations with old friends as if little time has passed since the last time, well that is pretty amazing as well. We all lead different lives now, and that is a part of growing up, but it is a beautiful thing when we all just come back to each other and fall back into the dance of life together. Maybe I’m not such a lame friend after all.

As one of my precious students greets me at the beginning of every lesson: Amy! Happy face!

Hair Dye

2009-06-08T01:48:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, i went to a “Chinese” hair place. This was an in-between of the “foreigner” hair stylists and the street alley super-Chinese hair cutters. As a Westerner in a foreign country, the language barrier can be the obstacle you must overcome for a hair cut. You either don’t get your hair cut, get your hair cut at a place that obviously caters to foreigners and English speakers at a higher cost, or you put a smile on and go with the flow at a more local place.

Now, getting a hair cut at a local place does not automatically equal disaster. If you and the stylist are patient enough and with an excellent game of charades, the desired or near desired style can be achieved. Go with a Chinese speaker (fluent or limited) and your chances of success are even greater. So Sina and I decided to check out a place that was recommended by one of her Chinese co-teachers. I did my best to translate and the people were really patient and nice. Even going to the local convenience store to buy us coffee. I wanted my hair to be dyed a lighter color, a sort of brown ... I just wanted to lighten my hair color. At least, that was the goal.

On Monday, I go back to teach Chinese kindergartners. Some of my kids notice and the responses I got were super cute:

“Amy Laoshi .... her hair is YELLOW!”
“Amy ... *pulls his own hair* ... brown!” - my favorite 5 year old Korean kid, Alex

“What color is my hair?”
“Black and .... green.”
“uh ... are you sure?”
“Black and ... brown?”

“Amy is orange”
“It looks red”
“It is black”

and the sweetest one ...
“Amy, you are pretty.” Okay everyone, collective “awww....”

I am going to argue that these kids are so young and English is a foreign language to them. So half of them don’t know what they are saying. haha =P My hair is for sure not yellow, green, red or orange. It is because of the way the light hits the top of my head that makes it appear a lot lighter than the rest of my hair. I am going to give it a few days to “settle down.” Put on a smile and go with the flow. =)

Almost Going Home

2009-05-31T01:46:00.000-07:00

Quick update: We just had the Dragon Boat Festival, which to a foreigner means 3 days off (Thursday, Friday and Saturday). It also means that we have to work on Sunday to "make up" for the day off that we got on Friday. Yes, China's government holidays make you work for your holiday. Thursday was really the only holiday we got, Saturday is the (my) usual day off and so because I got Friday off (to make it a straight 3 days) I have to work on Sunday. They just shift my "weekend" around. And now I am about to embark on a fabulous 6 day work week. Great plan right? Oh PRC, the things you think of to tickle my ABC bones.

Mark your calendars. Thursday, July 16 11:30am. China Eastern from PVG (Shanghai Pudong) --> LAX (Los Angeles). I will set foot back onto American soil, take a deep breath of American air and smile. It will be good to be back.

Leehom -- almost (again)

2009-05-13T07:27:00.002-07:00

I meant to blog about this event a few days ago but got a little busy (... with life and with general procrastination), so here I am to make up for lost time.

If you recall from a previous post, March 22, 2009 I posted about a missed opportunity at a Leehom event. Well guess what? Make that now TWO missed opportunities! Yes, dear reader that is correct. Twice I have missed out at a Leehom event. Obviously many things in my life are out of my hands, but I still have to admit there is a certain pang of disappointment when I discovered this.

Again, here are the facts of his China visit ... please notice how everything was so ... convenient.

Leehom was in Shanghai (again...) in the month of April. (so was I)

Leehom was in the XuHui District in the month of April. (I live in the XuHui District)

Leehom was at the Metro City shopping mall doing a promotion. (I wasn’t, but I could have been because it is only a max 30 minutes walk from my apartment)

This was a Saturday event. (the significance being that Saturday is my day off from work)

However, it happened to be on the exact day that I was to leave Shanghai for Taiwan. How ironic is that? Leehom was in China doing a promotional event when I was wondering whether I would have the opportunity to be a fan_girl at one of his promotional events in Taiwan.

You know what’s the best part? My roommate, Sina, was actually at the Metro City shopping mall on the day of the event. She was making a quick stop over there to find some “Shanghai” souvenirs to bring with her to Taiwan for my family. She bought the souvenirs and she says that she remembered seeing a large crowd at the entrance of the mall. But she didn’t think anything of it and went along her merry way to meet me at the metro station to go to the airport. Sina is also a huge Leehom fan.

We found out about the Shanghai Metro City Leehom event a week later, when we had returned to Shanghai from Taiwan.

C’est la vie. :)

H1N1

2009-05-11T05:36:00.001-07:00

So.... I guess the swine flu finally made it into Mainland China. Mainland China has just confirmed its first case of H1N1 (Swine flu). With a country with such a large population, I guess it was only a matter of a few days before the first case was confirmed. The infected person had traveled from St. Louis to Tokyo to Beijing and then to Chengdu.

I guess I will have to cancel my ideas of visiting Chengdu during the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival. Call me paranoid, but this is the same girl who wore a face mask all through Taiwan to Hong Kong to Shanghai. From the Hello Kitty boarding gate in Taipei to the Pudong Quarantine and Inspection area. I am also thinking that all this H1N1 talk is proof that I should probably be staying home that holiday weekend so that I can take inventory of my life and organize for leaving China.

Here is a link if you’re interested:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8043189.stm

Video Nostalgia

2009-05-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

I just randomly found some videos on my laptop that were made a few years back. These videos were shot when we were hanging out or playing some game or whatever. Seemed like such a simple thing to make back then, but who knew they could trigger such memories. I recalled events, I recalled people. I could hear your voices. I could see your smiles. The feelings that can be evoked by just seeing images is beyond description and one of the most beautiful things about life and about being human.

I only wish that we had recorded more of our times together.

I really miss people. Everyone.

我愛台灣 Wo Ai Taiwan I Love Taiwan

2009-05-08T12:31:00.014-07:00

** More photos to be uploaded onto facebook

[no, I did not go to Alishan. It's not the only place to visit in Taiwan by the way]

The recent trip I took to Taiwan (Formosa - beautiful) with Daniella and Sina was fantastic. We only had a week but we somehow managed to visit both the southern and northern sides of Taiwan. It was a jam packed week that left us exhausted, but a good kind of exhausted. The kind where you knew that you accomplished a lot and would leave with priceless memories. Most of the places we went to were places that I had already been to, but it was fun to go again to experience it with Daniella and Sina. We basically spent an entire week seeing beautiful sights, eating delicious food non-stop, and laughing everyday.

We flew from Shanghai to Hong Kong to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Kaohsiung is a port city that is located on the south western coast of the island of Taiwan. This is where my mother is from and so I have the majority of her side of the family still in Kaohsiung. My 2nd Uncle picked us up at the airport Saturday night. After visiting the neighborhood night market, we settled in and went to sleep ASAP because the next day was a trip down to Kenting, located on the southern tip of Taiwan.

On Sunday: The Kenting National Park area is a beach area that is tropical, sunny, beachy and scenic. Unfortunately, the day that we went, it was windy -- windy beyond description. Our hair was flying all over the place and we felt a little chilly. Nevertheless, we managed to have a grand old time taking pictures all over the place. My cousin Annie recommended that we visit the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium, which we later figured out was probably due to her really wanting to see the penguins again. We also visited some scenic sights such as Maobitou (貓鼻頭) and the rock that is supposed to look like Nixon’s head. Then, a day in Taiwan would not be completed without the visit to a night market. This time we went to Liouhe Night Market in Kaohsiung, which is a tourist night market. We ate some stinky tofu and fried ice cream.

National Museum of Marine Biology & AquariumMaobitou (貓鼻頭)

Liouhe Night Market @ Kaohsiung

On Monday, we did some exploring closer to home. My grandparents took us to Cijin Beach located on Cijin Island. We took the subway and then the ferry. This is only a short (very short, haha) ferry ride from the main island. Here, Daniella and Sina grabbed some tea drinks. By far the most amazing was probably Daniella’s drink which was black tea with boba pearls and vanilla ice cream ... in a large cup. Which she finished drinking really quickly. And then was too full for practically the rest of the day. At Cijin, we walked along the beach and down some of the streets, just taking in the local life. We took the ferry back and then a bus to Lotus Lake. It is a lake that has many temples and pagodas around the lake. We climbed to the top of the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas and took in the fabulous view. We walked over to the Spring and Autumn Pavilion and took a lot of photos as well.

@ Cijin

Dragon and Tiger Pagodas @ Lotus Lake

On Tuesday, we made plans to leave Kaohsiung in the afternoon to head up to YingGe (a suburb in the Taipei area) where my 4th aunt lives. My 2nd uncle’s wife (my aunt) drove us into Kaohsiung city on her way to work and dropped us off at Kaohsiung’s central park. We walked around a bit and took the subway back home. Along the way, we stopped at the “Dome of Light” which was a colorful photo op. We got on the Aloha bus that would take us straight up to the Taipei area where my 4th aunt would pick us up. The bus seats were basically over stuffed lazy boy recliners with mini-TVs attached to them. Roughing it in Taiwan.

Kaohsiung Central Park
Dome of Light in Kaohsiung subway -- the most colorful subway experience you will ever have

On Wednesday, we went into Taipei City to visit the Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall, the National Palace Museum, Taipei 101 and Shilin Night Market. The day was certainly as busy and packed as it sounds like. It was great to wander around the city on their subway system. Oh! And unlike the Shanghai subway system, the people in Taiwan actually line up to take the escalators! The right side is for standing and the left side is for through traffic ... something that the Shanghainese can’t seem to get right. In Taiwan, they will actually line up to be on the right side and kindly leave the left side for people who are walking through. And they line up to get onto the subway cars and wait for people to get off before they get on. In Shanghai, everyone just pushes as one giant crowd so that nothing really gets resolved. I love Taiwan’s subway system! At Taipei 101, we arrived in the late afternoon and stayed for the sunset. We were able to walk up to the outdoor observatory deck as well! It was super windy and it was amazing to be at the top of the tallest building (in operation) in the world.

Quote of the day from Wednesday:
[Sina sees that the security guard is tall]
Sina: He’s the perfect height for me. He’s not bad looking either.
Daniella: He just walked away smiling. I think he understood you.
Amy: I’m pretty sure he knows English. He pointed at my backpack and told me in English that I couldn’t bring it up the 101.
Sina: AHHH!!! He knows English! And he knows what I just said about him!!
Daniella: That’s why he was smiling.

Chiang Kai-shek memorial hall

National Palace Museum
Taipei 101
Taipei @ night

On Thursday, my 4th aunt and uncle drove us out to Yehliu Geopark. Here we saw natural rock formations in the shape of mushrooms, ginger, tofu and the most famous one -- the Queen’s Head. The geopark is located right next to the ocean and is an impressive area that shows you the power and beauty of nature. We got dropped off at Danshui on the way home (my relatives went home first). No problems with the public transportation around Taiwan; we knew exactly how to get ourselves home from the city (subway, train, walk about a block). We wandered around Danshui, which is sort of a like a calm water front area, and went to Ximending to meet up with Gladys, a friend of mine from UCLA who is studying abroad in Taiwan for a year. Ximending is a pedestrian shopping and hanging out area where a lot of young people like to go to. It is also common to spot celebrities (though we didn’t when we were there). There are either a lot of good looking young people in Taiwan or we have been way too deprived for too long in Shanghai.

Yehliou Geopark
@ Danshui

@Ximending with Gladys

*** Great amazing crazy story from Thursday night. On our way home, we had to run to catch the train that was leaving Taipei on its way to YingGe. We are running up the escalators and we can hear the warning bell ringing. Sina and I jump in, turn around and see the doors close on Daniella. The cell phone my aunt had given me to carry had a dying battery. We pressed the emergency button but it didn’t seem to do anything. The train that Sina and I were on was pulling away from the platform. Daniella can barely speak Mandarin. She did not know my aunt’s contact info. And the train we were on was possibly the last train out of Taipei to YingGe. The last thing I see Daniella motioning was that she would stay at the train station. Sina and I had to go into crisis_mode quickly to decide what we should do. We asked someone about the train schedule (Taiwanese people are so nice and helpful!) and found out there were a few more trains leaving that night. We get off at the next stop and our plan was that Sina would get on the next train to Ying Ge in case Daniella had decided to grab the next train. She took down my aunt’s contact info and address and I made her repeat the correct train stop to me a few times in Mandarin so that I could make sure that she wouldn’t accidently get off at the incorrect stop. I would go back to the Taipei station to try to find her and bring her with me. We had to ask some people for information on how to take the train back to Taipei. When I got back to the Taipei station, I found her sitting on one of the chairs. We now had to somehow figure out which train would take us back to YingGe and someone was nice enough to let us use her cell phone so that I could call my aunt and let her know about the situation and that we would be late. For a few moments, all 3 of us were separated in Taiwan.

On Friday, we first did a mini-hike through Yangmingshan (Yang Ming Hill). We walked on paths and found a waterfall. Photo op! Then we went to the Jiufeng area to pick up my cousin Tony from his school and also to see the Jiufeng Old Street/Town area. This area is located on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean. It is an old gold mining town that has since been converted into a tourist area. The views from the top are simply beautiful. Unfortunately, since it was a holiday weekend, the place was overcrowded with tourists (many from the Mainland). My uncle used the excuse that we were there to pick up my cousin (which is the truth) so that we could bypass all the car stops and drive directly up to the top and drop us off at the entrance. From there, the 3 of us were left to walk around ourselves while they went ahead to pick up Tony. We explored a bit and then got picked up. We headed back to Taipei because we had reservations to eat at Modern Toilet. It is a restaurant that has a toilet and bathroom theme. The decor is all toilets and the food is served in small toilet sets. My relatives had a blast with the novelty of the place as well. We all laughed so hard when our desserts came because they were way larger than what we thought it would be. One of them could have fed all of us, but we had unknowingly ordered 3. It was all in great fun though.

@ Yangming Shan

@ JiuFeng

@ Modern Toilet

On Saturday, Sina left Taiwan to go back to Shanghai to work. Daniella and I spent our last day of Taiwan by first taking a walk through Ying Ge’s ceramic district with my cousin Peter. We then headed into the city again to walk around Shilin market and Ximending. That night, we went to the Ying Ge night market and then called it a night.

On Sunday, we flew back to Shanghai. And to make it the perfect ending of a fun fun trip, our boarding gate in Taipei had a Hello Kitty theme. And there was the swine flu (H1N1) to worry about at each airport. Face masks! And that was the end of my fabulous Taiwan trip. whew, this post was way too long. But as I mentioned in the previous post, the Taiwan trip was “beyond description.” This post could have been way longer.

@ Taipei Airport in the Hello Kitty gate during the H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak. It looks like we're the only ones wearing face masks but these were like the only people who were NOT wearing masks. Just about everybody else had a mask on.

我愛台灣 Wo Ai Taiwan I Love Taiwan

Return from Taiwan

2009-05-03T06:50:00.002-07:00

This recent trip to Taiwan was, for a lack of better words, ..... "beyond description"

Taiwan!

2009-04-23T06:08:00.003-07:00

I'm off to Taiwan for a week!

April 25 - May 3.

I will be flying Shanghai -> Hong Kong -> Kaohsiung, Taiwan and then from Taipei, Taiwan -> Hong Kong -> Shanghai.

I will be visiting family and playing tour guide to Sina and Daniella. Hopefully the typhoon/rain will cease during our time in Taiwan. Keep us in your thoughts for a safe trip.

UCLA @ Qipu Lu.

2009-04-21T08:18:00.007-07:00

After work today, Sina and I made a quick trip over to Qipu Lu (Qipu Rd., 七浦路) for some quick shopping. Basically, Qipu Lu is one of those Chinese shopping areas that sells clothes, shoes, bags, etc really cheap but you have to bargain. It can be either really fun or really annoying, but because we have been there enough times we know the approximate market prices and we know which areas/stores to hit up for what we need. Need a bag? Check out the 30RMB bag shop first and then work your way up. Need some clothes? Shop around, but then once it starts getting dark outside, head outside to all the people who set up to sell on the streets. The problem with this method is that because it’s dark outside, you gamble with what “color” you think you bought and there’s more of a limit on sizes. However, it’s usually even cheaper and you get to have another adventure when you come home and see the REAL clothing colors and sizes you bought. The point of this post today? Check out what I bought during my recent Qipu Lu trip!!

I have not seen any “fake” UCLA clothing in China until today. I had to make sure that the spelling was correct (and not some random Chinglish). The material is a bit on the thin side (perfect for warmer weather) and the label is in Korean. But, I had to buy it. And only 20RMB (~$3USD)!

Love it! Love it! Love it! Go Bruins!

Xiamen Holiday (廈門/厦门)

2009-04-07T04:11:00.013-07:00

The Tomb Sweeping Festival fell on the weekend of April 4-6, 2009. The Tomb Sweeping Festival [Qing Ming Jie 清明節/清明节 Qīngmíngjié] is a time for people to enjoy the beginnings of spring time, but also to tend to the graves of their ancestors. For the foreign teachers in China, it means a three day weekend to “get away from it all”. In my case, I was to embark on a weekend getaway to Xiamen, China with Lisa and Daniella.

On Friday afternoon, the three of us made our way from our various teaching locations (Minhang, Baoshan, Pudong New District) to the Hongqiao Int’l Airport. We checked in, grabbed some overpriced food and then before we knew it we were on our plane flying from Shanghai to Xiamen.

Xiamen is a coastal city located in southeastern Fujian Province. It looks out to the Taiwan Strait and is near the ROC held islands of Kinmen. According to wikipedia, it is China’s 2nd most livable city and China’s cleanest city. Motorcycles, mopeds and car horns are banned (even though you can still see/hear them anyways]. Wiki or WikiTravel it.

We were greeted at the Xiamen airport by our tour guide holding up a sign with my name +3 on it. Because she had no English name, we decided to call her Julie. We quickly found out that what we thought was going to be a ~30 people tour group was actually turned into a private tour group of just the 3 of us. Which meant that we had a personal driver and photographer for the time we were in Xiamen. Highly convenient for those who did not want to walk around lost in a new city and who also loved having photos taken. Another cool thing about Xiamen? In addition to Mandarin, the local dialect is a form of Min-nan, which meant that I could use my Taiwanese dialect knowledge to understand the local dialect. [the Taiwanese dialect/language is a branch of Min-nan]. The city was clean and not crowded. The taxis were comfortable. We had someone taking us around. Our 2-twin beds bedroom +1 cot was upgraded to a 3-twin beds bedroom. There was free (Chinese) breakfast downstairs. Sweeeeet.

The first day was spent walking a lot. We visited a temple dating from the Tang (or was it another one?) dynasty. It was very crowded because a lot of Buddhists were praying during the Tomb Sweeping Festival.

Afterward, we went to Hu Li Shan Fortress which contains a large cannon and several other cannons. This was a major fortress used in defense against intruders during various wars.
Next stop was one of those mandatory “shopping stops” that are a part of Chinese tours. You are taken to a place where they will show you something cultural/local in hopes of you purchasing. Even though it is not required you oftentimes feel so obligated to that you do. We went to a government run tea shop where they demonstrated different types of teas and let us taste them as well. The one that had the most novelty was the Rock Chrysanthemum Tea that was very very bitter but then a few seconds later actually left a sweet taste in your mouth. The sweetness was highlighted if you had a sip of water right after. Lisa and I split the cost of a package of tea so that she could get a tea cup set that would change colors when hot water was poured into it.

After some lunch, we headed out to Gulangyu Island 鼓浪屿, an island accessible by ferry from the main Xiamen Island. The island was set as a foreign enclave after the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 and became the place of residence for Westerners during Xiamen’s colonial times. The architecture there is mostly of the Victorian style. We also had some time to stop by the “beach“ they have there. Beach culture is still in its infancy in China and it’s not like what we may be used to in SoCal. The skies also cleared up to a beautiful scene of white clouds dotting the blue sky when we got to the church which offered fantastic photo ops. It is also a pedestrian only place (no cars except for some fire trucks and emergency vehicles) and has narrow streets. It was fantastic to walk around Gulangyu. Every few corners you would see an engaged couple shooting wedding photos, or a wandering street musician or an abandoned building. Regular people still live on this converted-for-tourism-island.

We headed back to our hotel exhausted. We took a short nap and then grabbed a taxi to a nearby shopping center so that we could pick up some snacks and dinner, as well as to walk around a bit.

The next day, we went to Jimei Park located near Jimei University. The tour guide said something about Mao honoring a guy who had made his money in Singapore and then set up some schools in Xiamen. The weather was growing cold (not good).

This was apparently the last thing on our tour itinerary and so we asked our driver to drop us off at a place where we could spend some time walking around and look for souvenirs. We thought we were going to some street market but ended up at a shopping mall (that came with a Wal-Mart, lol) where we walked around and grabbed lunch. It started to rain really hard at this point and we wanted to just go somewhere warm and read. Called Julie and asked her to tell us where a book store was. Bought some books and dinner and went back to our hotel. We chatted, we read, we ate. And we all fell asleep at various times throughout. Apparently I was the first to knock out because the next thing I remember was that I woke up in the middle of the night to see that the room was dark and both Lisa and Daniella were already asleep.

We left for the airport at 9:30am the next day. Got picked up at our hotel and shuttled off to the airport by Julie + driver. Checked in, found our boarding gate and then got shuttled to our plane. About 2 hours later, I was back in my apartment in Shanghai. Goodbye 3 day weekend holiday, goodbye Xiamen.

Back to reality.

Butterfly

2009-03-27T10:50:00.002-07:00

當這世界已經準備將我遺棄像一個傷兵被留在孤獨荒野裡
開始懷疑我存在有沒有意義在別人眼裡我似乎變成了隱形
難道失敗就永遠翻不了身誰來挽救墮落的靈魂
每次一見到你心理好平靜就像一隻蝴蝶飛過廢墟
我又能活下去我又找回勇氣你的愛像氧氣幫忙我呼吸
我又能呼吸我又能呼吸你就是不願意放棄
生命充滿亂七八糟的問題像走在沒有出口的那個迷宮裡
oh no 一次又一次只會用藉口逃避
怎麼你從來沒對我徹底的死心我有何德何能值得你珍惜
為何你對我有求必應每次一想到你像雨過天晴
看見一隻蝴蝶飛過廢墟是那麼的美麗就像一個奇蹟
讓我從倒下的地方站起 Woo....只要一靠近你
就覺得安心你看著我的眼沒有懷疑你對我的相信
讓我又能重生不管世界多冷我還有你我有你
愛我這樣的人對你來說不容易我的痛苦你也經歷
你是唯一陪我到天堂與地獄每次一想到你
像雨過天晴看見一隻蝴蝶飛過了廢墟
我能撐得下去我會忘了過去是你讓我找回新的生命
yeah.. 每次一見到你就心存感激現在我能坦然面對自己
我會永遠珍惜我會永遠愛你
在我心底的你的位置沒有人能代替 yeah 你就是那唯一

David Tao's "Butterfly 蝴蝶 Hu Die"

Leehom -- Almost

2009-03-21T10:56:00.002-07:00

Last Sunday (March 15, 2009), apparently Leehom was in China doing another promotional event for a revamped version of his recent album, Heartbeat. I, however, did not find out until about 2.5 days AFTER the event occurred. Missing the promotional event would not have been as bad if it wasn’t ---

1. my day off from work
2. an autograph session
3. in Shanghai
4. at the Shanghai Stadium (where I went for his 2008 concert)
5. WHICH IS (kinda) ACROSS THE STREET FROM MY APARTMENT!!
6. a mere 10 minutes max walk from where I live
7. omgosh ... are. you. serious?!?!?

But unfortunately, it was my day off from work (Sunday -- day of rest) and Leehom was indeed holding a fan meet-and-greet-autograph session in Shanghai, at the Shanghai Stadium which is “across” the street from where I live, about a 10 minutes walk.

And again. omgosh ... are. you. serious?!?!?

What was I doing instead? I had finished that week’s MAIS homework assignments early so I had the day free to roam around Shanghai and basically have a lazy day. If I had gone out, I probably would have seen a crowd around the stadium and might have investigated. Instead, I decided to stay indoors (that day was a gorgeous Shanghai spring day) and clean up and organize my bedroom. My bedroom really is clean and organized now, since I threw out all my old papers and re-modeled my window/desk area and TV stand area. I even posted a facebook status update stating that I was now “renewed.” Daniella even commented on it.

But even with my cleaner, fresher room, I am minus one Leehom autograph.

Leehom autograph > clean bedroom

[There is still the autographed Change Me album I got personally signed that one summer in Taiwan, but to add another signed album to my meager collection would have been awesome. Like, very awesome]

If I Could Hug The Weather, I Would

2009-03-13T22:43:00.006-07:00

It might not look like much to you, but it's an absolutely gorgeous day in Shanghai today. This is the first day in over 20 days that the city has had sunshine. It had been nothing but rain and cloudiness for the last month and a half. Today, the sun is out and shining, the weather is warmer at a comfortable 48 degrees Fahrenheit (9 degrees Celsius), the air feels relatively (very relatively!) clearer. Laundry will be drying faster.

It washes away the dreariness, if for a few moments. It is a glorious day.

You Raise Me Up

2009-02-21T08:34:00.002-08:00

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up... To more than I can be.

You Raise Me Up - Westlife

I am currently re-listening to this song because it makes me happy. This past week had been tough ... really tough. But the most wonderful part of it all was that it ended on a happy note and in a way that has probably changed my life.

Back to Reality

2009-02-15T04:09:00.002-08:00

In case you didn't already know, I'm back in Shanghai from my amaaaaazing trip through SE Asia. I've been back for more than 2 week already, but have been very busy. Went back to work and school right away; no time for any breathers. I don't know when I'll find the time to accurately and detail-y blog about my trip but I had made a list right when I got back of the highlights. For now, I'll post the list up on this blog. Maybe I'll write a post, maybe I won't. Depends on time and self-motivation. I would love to write a short summary about the travels at least. In the mean time, please enjoy the list. Or contact me if you really cannot wait.

Singapore:
Living in Little India
Duck Tour
Hippo bus tours
Sentosa Island
pink dolphins
sunburned (slightly)
Bumping into Daniella, Nicolle and Brandy randomly
good food
Forever 21
using English, Mandarin, Cantonese
random male roommates at Tresor Tavern
Bugis market
cool Singapore currency
45 minutes big
Chinese New Year stuff

Cambodia
Angkor Wat!
Siem Reap
Phnom Penh
Royal Palace
temples
monkeys
foreigner vs. native price fees
“khmer” “ja”
Cambodian Culture Village
Kim and Dy = cool
tuk tuk
Cambodian currency
bumpy bus ride from Phnom Penh -> Siem Reap and vice versa
paying for visa and departing fee = lame
accomodations; "roughing" it in Cambodia
“Same same but different”
tricking Sina into thinking that Kim never picked us up at the airport

Thailand
Phuket!
James Bond Island Tour
Phi Phi Island and Krabi Island tour
jelly fish sting
Patong Beach
clear clear water
coconuts
Sina sick on speed boat/Thailand in general
spending the night at Bangkok airport
Som Guesthouse
“same same but different”
snorkeling experience

Hong Kong
Lisa = sick/unhealthy
5 hour long “welcome” nap
The Peak
Stanley Market
Big Buddha
Temple Street night market
McDonalds
Burger King = BK Lounge
long metro rides
finding dim sum
The “No” Inn

Travel Plans for Spring Festival

2009-01-09T23:57:00.001-08:00

This starts this coming Friday and will occur for 2 weeks:

Shanghai -> Hong Kong (layover) -> Singapore -> Phnom Penh, Cambodia -> Siem Reap, Cambodia -> Phnom Penh, Cambodia -> Bangkok, Thailand -> Phuket, Thailand -> Bangkok, Thailand -> Hong Kong -> Shanghai

Granted, the whole Bangkok and Phuket thing is because we need to do a roundtrip between airports to arrive in Phuket, it’s still a lot of traveling.

Insane? Maybe just a little!

!

Visiting Tiff in Suzhou!

2009-01-02T05:43:00.005-08:00

First, Happy New Year 2009!

Second, this occurred the weekend of Dec. 26-28, 2008

I took the train from Shanghai to Suzhou this past weekend for a weekend visit with Tiff! Tiff, her sister Jennifer and her dad were out and about visiting China for winter break, and it really was the perfect opportunity for us to meet up for a weekend in Suzhou.

Tiff, her dad, and family friend, George, met me at the Suzhou train station Friday night and we took the taxi to Tiff’s place, which is literally right across the street from Suzhou’s Science, Technology, Cultural and Art Center (苏州科技文化艺术中心), which looks like a miniature version of Beijing’s Bird’s Nest. Tiff’s place is so new, the water pipes and heating systems were not exactly working to their best, but we made it work. Yay for innovative thinking? Putting hot tap water into empty water bottles and sleeping with them close to the body? Layering up in PJs and jackets?

The first full day there was spent helping the family tidy up and settle in. Me, Tiff and Jennifer took the bus to AuChan, a sort of local superstore that has everything. We bought some stuff, went home, and then we all went out to dinner with George. Came back home, settled back in and Tiff and I talked and caught up with each other until we fell asleep.

Tiff asked me, “What do you miss the most from America?”
Me, “People.”

I didn’t even know that was how I would answer. It just came out of my mouth without much thought. I had thought about it before in the past and thought that I missed things like certain foods or certain conveniences. I’m not homesick, but it still is a long, physical separation from home.

It was raining the next day so we couldn’t go climb Tiger Hill. Instead, George took us (and his 4 year old daugher, Jasmine) to visit Liu Yuan 留园/園 (Lingering Gardens) - one of China’s 4 most famous classical gardens. It was a nice day (despite the on and off rain) to visit because there was little crowd. It is a beautiful and nice garden, however as Tiff says, “It’s a garden ... like all the other gardens.” I guess they had already visited a lot of gardens earlier in the trip. haha. We would take short breaks to eat snacks (“snakes“) when the rain would start coming down stronger. Our snacks were various types of pocky that had been purchased the night before, courtesy of me, Tiff and Jennifer: red wine, tiramisu, chocolate, mango, blueberry. After Lingering Gardens, we made the trek over to a neighboring Buddhist (?) temple. I don’t remember the name of the place, but we were there for only a short period of time. Then it was back to George’s home where we ate a home cooked meal and toasted each other with wine.

Jasmine is super cute. She was shy around us but wanted to play with us as well. Eventually she warmed up to us. The unofficial goal of the day was to teach her some English words.

Me: Jasmine, say ”hello“ 說一聲 “hello”
Jasmine: Why? 為什麼？
Me: Because it’s a lot of fun! 因為很好玩！

Eventually, was able to ”bribe“ her with a pocky.
Me: Here’s a pocky. Say ”thank you“ 要吃一個嗎？說一聲 “thank you” 吧。
Jasmine: (in the quietest whisper ever) ... sank yoo

Later that night, we also tried to make her calm down, so that we could watch some (English) TV.
Me: Let’s play a game. The winner is the person who can keep their eyes closed the longest.
1...2...3...Jasmine closes her eyes, I keep mine open
Jasmine opens her eyes after a few seconds
Me: Oh no! You lost! You opened your eyes before me.
Jasmine: You didn’t close your eyes.
Me: Yes I did. I opened it right after you and saw that your eyes were already open.
Jasmine: This game isn’t really fun.
Me: Yes it is! All the big kids play this game. It’s so cool. Don’t you want to be a cool big kid?
Jasmine: *nods*

I came back to Shanghai Sunday night. Back to reality and back to work. It was nice to get away for a weekend, and even nicer that I was able to see someone from back home. Tiff and I basically picked up where we left off 6 months ago and it all felt so familiar. It totally made me miss all that I had left behind when I came to China. 6+ months already ... can you believe it?? More of you guys should visit China so that I can see your beautiful faces again.

It is.

2008-12-21T06:12:00.003-08:00

Well this is a little weird.

It’s the holidays, but I’m not home. As in, home-home. Permanent address-home.

It’s also that “holiday/vacation/school break” where you know that everyone gets off. Consecutive days off, at the same time. No exams, papers to worry about. The first time since summer. It’s also the first time, where for many of us, it’s the first big break we’ve had since starting the post-college life. A milestone of sorts. It’s prime time for everyone to meet up, reunionize again, catch up and reminisce, share new stories of the love, the hurt, the funny, the sad and the awkward. Remember that first winter break since starting college? Winter 2004. But this time, 4 years older. It’s the most wonderful time ... of the year.

And I don’t get to experience it this year. At least not in the way I used to. New times, new changes.

Dear 304 ...

2008-12-18T09:05:00.006-08:00

Dear 304 ...

This song came on the radio when I was in the car yesterday. It took me back 6 months. In my opinion, the goodbyes were rushed because everyone had to leave immediately for one reason or another. We knew things were going to be different now, but in a way, we went through the motions as if tomorrow would be the same as today, nothing would have changed, circumstances and schedules would have remained the same.

On that last day, my college best friends and I packed up the apartment and our personal belongings. 4 years of our lives suddenly seemed so tiny and plain as everything fit into boxes and cars. However, we knew the true story inside those boxes.

One last look around.
One final hug.
“I can’t believe this is it.”
“It’s been great. It’s been fun.”
“I’m going to miss you.”
“Me too.”
“I gotta go. They’re waiting for me.”
“Yeah, me too. Have a safe trip.”

bye.
bye.

A few hours later, when everyone was back at their permanent addresses, this song was linked through instant messages. We still had remnants of 304 on us. I’ll be honest, I teared up as the emotions and memories from the last 4 years hit me as a giant slap in the face. A good slap. But still a slap nevertheless, as a reminder that it all came and went by too fast.

Tina, I’m sorry you were not available at that time for that final 304 moment. But here it is again - this time shared across state lines and time zones.

The emotions, memories and sentiments remain true. This may mean that proper goodbyes were never needed because we will never really say goodbye to each other. Let’s pick up from where we left off...

Hello.

p.s. For those who don't know Chinese, learn some Chinese and translate the lyrics (or google translated lyrics). Despite the corny and tacky late-90s graphics, it's a nice song.

Friends by Emil Chau
朋友 by 周華健

Egg & Tomatoes

2008-12-15T07:24:00.000-08:00

Today I had the best egg & tomatoes dish that I’ve had in China ... maybe in my entire life. This is one of my default dishes that I get sometimes when I’m not really craving anything, but I need food. Or if I’m not sure what to order at a take-out place or a Muslim restaurant. I like this dish because it’s simple and it’s familiar; I know all the ingredients that goes into it.

The one I had today was a good mixture of solid and mushiness. It was not too salty and it was not too sour. In fact, it tasted a bit like spaghetti sauce. Delicious Western-style spaghetti sauce. Mmm...

I had it at ZFH during dinner. Yes, a Chinese school dinner out of the customary metal tray.

Joey's Play

2008-12-12T19:44:00.004-08:00

Last night, a couple Shane teachers and I went to watch one of our own, Joey, perform in a local play for charity. This is what City Weekend has to say about it:

“Beautiful Thing by Jonathan Harvey is an urban fairytale that reminds us that the things we want in life are possible. This multi-award winning play is the unlikely coming of age story of two teenagers living in a London housing estate who fall in love against all odds. Sensitive Jamie (Joakim/Joey Eriksson) would rather watch rainbows and musicals than be at school. His athletic neighbor, Ste (Derek Kwan), throws himself into sport to avoid the troubles that wait at home. Jamie's feisty mother Sandra (Christy Shapiro) juggles her job as a barmaid and her younger lover and working-class wannabe, Tony (JP Lopez). Their sassy neighbour Leah (Sophie Lloyd) has been kicked out of every school in the area and lives vicariously through her idol, Mama Cass of Mamas and the Papas fame, whose music forms the soundtrack to the play.

Adapted from the award-winning movie written by Jonathan Harvey, this play is an urban fairytale, reminding us that the things we want in life are possible. Set in a council estate in Southeast London, Beautiful Thing centers on five endearing characters who are trying to confront themselves and find true love. All proceeds from the event go toward the Chi Heng Foundation, a charity committed to educating people about HIV/AIDS and supporting those infected.”

Lisa and I met up for dinner at Metro City and then grabbed a cab. It was performed at the Zhijiang Dream Factory (芷江梦工厂）and was basically a Shanghai expat-y event where all the foreigners come out with the occasional Chinese girlfriend. The play was good and funny and the actors kept us entertained. Even though it was the story of two gay boys, the play was not overtly gay ... it was basically a love story that happened to have gay boys at its center. Joey was pretty funny and we commented that his personality was shown throughout the play because we totally saw him speaking and acting in that manner in real life.

When Jamie tells his mom he’s gay and she talks about the times when Ste stayed over at their home because of his abusive father:
Sandra Gangle (mom): And all this time I felt sorry for you for having to share a bed with Ste. But it could just be 70 minus 1.

When Jamie’s mom has her boyfriend go in to talk to Jamie:
Jamie: I’m queer!
Tony (boyfriend of mom): Wow, so does your mom know?
Jamie: *sarcastically* No, I thought I would tell you first.

謝謝giving from China

2008-11-29T11:23:00.002-08:00

For Thanksgiving, Dr. Kim had an early Thanksgiving dinner at his home and a few MAIS students gathered. Nice to see people and eat some good food. Traditional Thanksgiving food, too.

So much to be thankful for this year. Being so far away from everything familiar, as corny as it is going to sound, has given me a lot to be thankful for. I have my family, I have my friends. I have a roof over my head, I have clothes to wear, I have food to eat. I have this wonderful experience where I’m seeing new sights, meeting new people, learning new things and well ... growing up.

I have the memories and experiences of my past for me to learn from and to smile about. I have a future that I am uncertain about because who knows what will happen, but excited about the possibilities nonetheless. I hope that even when I’m old I will still remember to be thankful for what I have: the past to recall and the future to have.

The Chinese Shopping Experience

2008-11-16T10:11:00.002-08:00

Qipu Rd. ... sounds like Cheapu Rd.??

I just realized that this weekend off was mostly spent scouring the Chinese shopping area of Qipu Rd. This place is pretty cool and it is the type of place you hear about. The knockoff market, the cheap clothing. It’s all true. However, China has 1.3 billion people and I think I rubbed elbows with half of them this weekend. It is super crowded there.

I went with Lisa on Saturday and with Sina and Darleen on Sunday. The key, it turns out, is to have a game plan. You cannot go there with the idea that you’ll just be “shopping.” You need to know what you want to/need to buy. Otherwise you’ll become so overwhelmed with the place that you might just end up buying nothing. Many of the things are basically the same things over and over, so once you see something you like, start bargaining for the price you want. If you don’t get the price you want, you can try another place. But know what you already want. By the third vendor, you’ll get an idea of what the market price is. Or what the market price is for you. Just deal with it. There is a break even price after all and you have to remember that these shop owners/workers still need to eat. So you try for the best and aim for the native Chinese price. Not the foreigner price.Do not be like me, “This is okay, but I might see something I like later.” Once you do that, you will just keep saying it over and over.

Another rule, don’t really bargain hard unless you actually plan on buying it. This is different from just asking them to quote you a price and doing a mini-bargain. A mini-bargain can kind of help you gauge where the shop owner stands. But once you start doing the full dance with the shop owner over the price, and the owner goes down to the lowest price they can do, you better be serious in buying it. Otherwise, it might result in the shop owner getting pissed at you and telling the other shop owners nearby to not sell you anything because you are just there to “play around” with them. Which is kind of what happened to me, Sina and Darleen at one store.

At Qipu Rd.?

Wallet 35RMB
Boots 40RMB (were super on sale, btw)
Jacket 90RMB
Blanket throw 20RMB
Total 185RMB = ~$28

I also bought another pair of boots and a pair of semi-dress shoes, but not at Qipu Rd. This was at a shoe store that’s here in the Xuhui District near the Shanghai Stadium, right where the bus dropped us off. The prices were not bad either because they were about the same price as Qipu Rd. if we were to really bargain them down. But of course the better quality stuff was more expensive, as expected. But some stuff was okay.

Boots 85RMB
semi-dress shoes 58RMB
Total 143RMB = ~$21

Grand total of my first super local Chinese shopping experience? 328RMB = ~$48. Not too bad in US dollars. Or I can buy 328 baozi (buns, of the eating variety).

We Will R.O.C. You!

2008-11-04T07:27:00.004-08:00

Evidence that my kids are cooler than your kids. I randomly said "we will, we will" in an attempt to get them to calm down when they suddenly shouted, "ROCK YOU!" Where do Chinese 5 year olds learn this stuff?!

I'm molding my minions from an early age. They are going to R.O.C. the P.R.C.!

China Time

2008-11-02T03:46:00.001-08:00

Jimmy told me that daylight savings as just occurred back home. I was re-counting what the time difference was when I wondered whether China had daylight savings time. This being the country that has only one time zone ... for the whole country. Meaning, wherever you are in the country of China, whatever time it is in Beijing means that’s the time where you are.

That was when my welfare officer called to inform me of tomorrow’s transport schedule. I decided to ask her whether there was daylight savings in China. This is how the conversation went. Kinda cute, but also kinda funny. Remember, I’m using Chinglish.

Amy: Nancy, does China have daylight savings?
Nancy: what is that?
Amy: It is when ... in the winter ... you change times.
Nancy: You mean your teaching schedule? The school schedule?
Amy: No, I mean ... the time. The time on the clock. You change it. Because it’s winter. And then you change it again when it’s spring.
Nancy: But how can you change time? Time will always keep moving!
Amy: I mean, you just change time ahead or back one hour. In America we have “daylight savings” where two times a year, you change what time it is.
Nancy *half jokingly: Wow, America is so talented [li4 hai4 厉害]. You guys can change time!
Amy: we’re not literally changing time. We’re just changing the time that it says on the clock.
Nancy: ... but why?
Amy: ok. well, the fact that you have no idea what I’m talking about means that China has no “daylight savings.”
Nancy: ok! problem solved!

"Coffee, milk, tea" for the Laowai

2008-10-29T10:59:00.002-07:00

Laowai = Lao3 wai4 = 老外＝ old outsider = foreigner

I was taking my usual metro ride from Longyang Rd. out in Pudong back to the Shanghai Indoor Stadium in Puxi. This requires me to get on metro line 2 and transfer to metro line 4 at Century Avenue. That’s the logistics of it all and is not the point of this story.

The time that I spend on line 2 is not that long since it is a quick transfer over to line 4. Line 4 is where all standing and waiting takes place. I had brought along reading [“The Return of the God of Wealth”] for Dr. Kim’s class so that I can at least be somewhat productive during an otherwise very unproductive time (unless you count NOT toppling over being productive. But I believe I have perfected the “Shanghai Metro Stand”). I step onto the metro 4 car, find a spot (standing of course), make it my own and pull out my book. This is where the story starts.

So there’s a guy, I would say probably mid 20s, early 30s, standing near me. Initially he is standing with his side to me, but he somehow turned so that he was facing me directly because he noticed my book. I am reading, but he makes his movements kind of obvious that he was taking something out of his backpack. I pause to look up because I am a naturally curious person. It was a stack of papers ... written in English. I thought maybe he was an ABC or some sort of business person (I’m always on the look out for those because I want to make contacts). Then I quickly realized he wanted to make sure that I knew that he was also doing something with English words.

He makes it a point to make sure that I saw that he was holding ENGLISH papers. Papers with ENGLISH printed on it. I do not think that it’s that big of a deal so I go back to reading my book. So I’m standing there reading and occasionally taking notes (all while standing on a moving metro I must add) and he is flipping through his papers and holding it up at such an angle so that it is quite noticeable. At one point he stops to roll up his sleeves and extends one of his arms to the point where the papers are knocking into my hands for a few seconds. I guess he wanted to informally compete to see who knew more English. I’m sorry fella, but I think I would pwn you. Quite easily too.

I am still reading but at the same time find this situation creepily funny. I was ignoring him but I could feel his eyes on me. Because I have to look up occasionally when people step on and off the metro, I noticed that he had taken his cell phone out. He might have been text messaging, but the way he was holding it kind of looked like he was using the camera phone ... on me. I just pretended to “sway” to the side and tried to hide behind a girl who was now standing somewhat between us. Next comes the best part where everyone that I had told the story to started laughing because of the pure hilarity and randomness of it all.

My stop is announced so I put my book and notes away in my backpack. In the back of my mind I’m wondering whether he would also get off at the same stop. Lo and behold, he does. I see him walk across the platform to look at the map of the metro going in the opposite direction. By now, I had joined the massive crowd of people funneling onto the escalator to get to the main floor. I’m squishing and squashing and as soon as I step onto the first step of the escalator, I hear from behind a low voice right above my right ear ...

“coffee, milk, tea...”

omgosh! it was the same guy! He was not whispering sweet nothings to me, he was whispering “coffee, milk, tea” to me! I did not know whether to laugh, run, or turn around and ask him what the deal was. I was stuck on the escalator so I kept facing forward. Inside, I was laughing and creeped out at the same time. I was also very confused. Did he really want to prove to me that he knew English? Was he practicing his English on me? And then I started laughing inside because I found it amusing that someone had made the discovery that I was a foreigner and was trying so hard to impress the foreigner. In the words of Karol N, “I guess that’s what white people get all the time, huh?”

p.s. Originally I heard him say “coffee, milk, cheese” but Sina said he was probably saying “coffee, milk, tea” ... which makes more sense. Though “cheese” would have made this story even funnier. I guess he needs to work on his pronunciation.

Leehom Shanghai Concert 2008

2008-10-21T07:26:00.024-07:00

So amazing! So much fun! So awesome! And we call him Alex Wang now. To celebrate the fact that he is ABC like us. [and this is a long post, but worth your time reading it]

Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008 = Wang Leehom’s Shanghai concert for his 2008 Music Man Concert Tour. I didn’t work that Saturday because I requested it off. Thanks to Lisa for covering for me that day!

I had to take care of some visa issues earlier that Saturday. Not to mention that the business class’s module 2 assignments were due Saturday midnight. So you can guess what many of us were doing on Friday night. Homework. Sina and I went to the Shanghai South Railway station to pick Jing up, who had traveled from Hangzhou to Shanghai for the concert. And we continued doing homework that night. Haha, it felt like I was back at UCLA again in apt. 304. Or back in the Hedrick or Sproul study lounges. A group of friends sitting around a table with their laptops, books and papers spread out. Typing away, listening to music. And every once in awhile stopping to ask a question or to chat about something off tangent.

So that Saturday morning, I woke up early to meet Lisa, Ryan and Nancy at the Science and Technology Museum metro stop. After much bureaucracy and red tape, none of us were able to complete the process. I was the one who got closest but because I didn’t bring my police registration (thank goodness that I went with Sina to do it, otherwise who knows what would have happened. And thank goodness that it was near the lunch hour so they didn’t ask me too many questions as to why my registration was so late, ~2 months after arrival in China when the policy is within 48 hours of arrival. Hence, no fine...because they were hungry?) Nancy has to return on Monday to drop off that final form and then they can start processing me so that Papa Mao can know my every movement.

I got back home and Sina and Jing were about to leave to go out sight seeing because they had submitted their module 2s. I decided to stay in and finish up work. I took a short nap afterwards because I was so tired from lack of sleep the night before. The meeting spot was going to me me/Sina’s apt. Jing and Sina inform me that they were still at People’s Square but they were on their way back on the metro. Daniella called me saying she just got off at the Shanghai Indoor Stadium metro stop and I gave her descriptive directions to help her find our apt “look at the wall on the right, are their shards of glass sticking out of the top? now you will turn left at the street with the woman sewing on the corner.” Karol was still doing homework...

Pretty soon, we realized that we had to get going to the concert because the tickets said it would start at 7:30pm (which really meants 8pm) and it was currently 6:30pm. We made a trip to the nearby grocery store to buy some “Leehom water”. His face endorses a brand of bottled water here in China; it’s called Wa Ha Ha water. We asked a worker to take a picture of us holding up the bottles and he probably thought we were crazy.

Me, Karol, Sina, Daniella, Jing at the Hua Lian Supermarket with our Leehom Wa Ha Ha water bottles!

We made the short walk across the main road to the Shanghai Stadium area. It’s great to live so close to the stadium because we didn’t have to travel too far. When we got there, there were so many vendors selling random things. Glow sticks, “food” and artist paraphernalia. However, as we were looking through everything we were wondering why Ayumi Hamasaki’s face was on everything. And why people were walking into the Indoor Stadium instead of the Outdoor Stadium (which are right next to each other). Turned out Ayumi was having a concert that night as well. We bought what we thought were lamb meat on a stick but it was really fatty meat on a stick. We kept walking towards the stadium that our ticket said “Shanghai Stadium” aka “outdoor.” And then we saw more Leehom paraphernalia. It was so much eye candy. We wanted to buy stuff, but didn’t want to carry it with us during the concert so we skipped out on that. But Sina and I got "glow sticks".

All of a sudden, we hear music coming from inside the stadium! But we were still outside! And we didn’t know where we were supposed to go to enter for our seats! We asked security and then bolted in the direction he told us to run. We ran around the entire stadium and it was later that we realized we went the long way when we could have gone in the opposite direction and save ourselves time. We kept running and running until we got to our gate and the 3 sets of security check points allowed us in. Then we had to find our seats in the dark. Sina and Jing’s tickets were two rows in front of me, Karol and Daniella. We bought them at different times. Some people were in our three seats and as I was trying to figure out how to get them out, a couple foreigners around us started helping us out. One girl asked me whether we were in row 14 (yes!) and then an old guy behind the row (probably with his Chinese mistress) helped us by looking at the seat number of the three people who weren’t getting up. Eventually, they stood up, apologized and left. And the three of us sat down happy.

When Leehom appeared on the stage after the opening singer the crowd went crazy!!! I went crazy!!! I mean, I have seen him before, and even closer in person (darn that table for separating us!!) But this was his concert!! I was super excited even though he was tiny. But there were the projected images. But wow. I was enjoying every moment of the concert. Every song, even the ones that aren’t my favorites. During his “Change Me” song, “imposter” Leehoms appeared on stage for drummer, and guitars. The funny part was that the drummer dropped their sticks, but the music had kept going. But these look-alikes were just there for the effect, you have to know the music video to know what I’m talking about. Also another highlight was when the Chinese guy sitting in front of us started freaking out when Leehom’s “Can You Feel My World” song started. He was doing this awkwardly cute shoulder dance that the three of us started imitating because it was so awkwardly awesome. And during the encore...

Leehom: So which song should I sing?
Audience: 唯一!! [Wei Yi, The One and Only]
Leehom: I already sang that song! How about 唯二? [Wei Er]

[Yi means one, Er means two. Trust me, it was cute]

Also when he was calling out to the audience, “Any friends from [place]?” Karol and I yelled out when he asked, “Any friends from Taiwan?!?!?” And then he said “Any Hong Kong friends?!?” but he said it in Cantonese and kinda totally butchered the pronunciation. Even though he can speak it better than he did that night. We were disappointed he never asked “Any friends from America?!?” We would have gone crazy yelling. In order for him to hear us ... because we were sitting far away. LOL.

I took many pictures and many videos. But some came out blurry. But they are still worth a thousand words each to me. He sang all his popular songs including a new song “搖滾怎麼了“ [What Happened to Rock and Roll]. Forever Love, Can You Feel My World, 唯一，心中的日月，蓋世英雄，大成小愛，一首簡單的歌，放開你的心，龍的傳人，改變自己，花田錯，愛你等於愛自己，竹林深處，落葉歸根, 在梅邊 ... and more. Really, so much fun and so awesome. I want to go to another Leehom concert. He’ll probably sing the same songs, but who cares. I enjoy them. And you know how some artists sound different in concert than they do on their albums? Because they’re singing live (no lip-syncing). Leehom was singing live, you could tell. But it sounded so close to the album voice. He did some improv here and there, but the sound was so much the same. He has perfect pitch. Plus, he kept bringing out instruments to play during the concert. He brought out his guitar, piano, violin, drums ... he even started beatboxing at one point.

After the concert, we went outside to the vendors and bought some posters and cups. Leehom overload!! One guy who was selling posters was trying to get us to buy this one poster of Leehom that wasn’t exactly too flattering. He told us, "Leehom, 帥的不得了!" [Leehom, So handsome you don’t even know what to think!]. Karol and I thought it was hilarious the way he was selling his posters. We bought some from him, but not that poster. There was one guy who was selling bags; cheapy souvenirs but we were still interested. He said he could give it to us for 5RMB each. We said no. Then he said 2 for 5RMB each. We said 2 for 4RMB. He said no. So Sina told him, "Come on, give me best friend price!" [running joke among us]. He said, "We are not friends..." And that was when we were all like, "wow ... burn..." We walked away to the vendor next to him and started bargaining for Leehom cups. He wanted 10RMB for each. We told him no. We would pay 5RMB for each. He said something to the effect of "I sell these for 20-30RMB each. I will give it to you for cheaper because the concert is over and I don’t want to carry them home." We said, "Fine, then sell it to us for 5RMB each and you don’t have to carry 5 extra cups home." He said, "10RMB and I give you a free poster." We told him that we had already bought posters. Eventually we got the price down to 6RMB per cup + free poster. As we were walking away, he was telling his friend (the guy who refused to sell the bags to us for 1RMB less), "those girls bargained hard." But who knows how much those cups really cost.

We walked a little more and came across another vendor who sold us the bags for the price we wanted. Score! We grabbed some ice cream at the stadium’s Coldstones (yes, the American ice cream chain) because after each concert they have buy 1 get 1 free ice cream if you show them your concert ticket. While we were eating ice cream, we were still stuck in this Leehom dreamland phase. We kept talking about how awesome the concert was and how awesome Leehom is and all that good stuff. Actually, we are all still stuck in this Leehom dream phase.

Now here are some of the pictures. I had to steal some of these pics because my camera ran out of battery on the last song of the concert:

me, Daniella, Karol (foreigner with Chinese mistress behind us)
Daniella & Karol

me & Daniella

Karol & me

Sina & Jing

me, Daniella, Karol

LEEHOM!!

Leehom with his glittery hair and silver leather glittery pants

The seats we wish we were sitting in

Karol on her first date with Alex Wang

After the concert @ Shanghai Stadium
Seats: Section 17-2 ... a.k.a far away, but still tons of fun

Wow. Such an awesome night with good friends, good fun and good music!

And one more final picture of Leehom just for fun. If only they were selling this poster. I wouldn't even bother bargaining the price:

SO AWESOME!

2008-10-18T11:04:00.001-07:00

Omgosh! Leehom's concert was amazing! I had so much fun! I'll post about it soon since I'm so tired now. But at the same time so awake from all the adrenaline.

SO AWESOME!

Almost

2008-10-17T07:47:00.000-07:00

Guess who is going to a Wang Leehom concert in less than 24 hours?!

Fobby Haircut

2008-10-14T09:29:00.008-07:00

Some of you will remember that one haircut I got from a Thai lady in Westwood. I specifically told her that I wanted to fix my bangs and to re-layer my hair. She gave me "bangs" and then she cut my hair into two layers. So you can imagine that I was still a little scarred when Karol, Sina and I went to get me and Karol's hair cut. My hair lady told me that I should have my hair curled because my hair is so straight. I told her okay, but then realized that I didn't have enough money on me at the moment. So ... an hour and 68RMB later, this is the result.

I guess no stay in Asia is complete without the requisite "fobby haircut". And then it must be followed by the also requisite photo booth session. So that you can show your non-fobby friends what you look like. I now blend in with the natives even more. I am one of "them." Now, no one is ever going to believe it when I tell them that I'm American. And insist that I could never possibly be American because I "look Chinese." They'll just think that I'm a local girl with "really good English."

Next step is to get rid of my black glasses so that people stop thinking that I'm visiting from Hong Kong. Why? Because my Mandarin doesn't exactly sound like it's from the Shanghai area, and my glasses are ... that kind. People have actually asked me whether I was a Hong Kongnese tourist.

Hangzhou - Paradise on Earth

2008-10-03T22:01:00.009-07:00

Darleen, Christian and I left Shanghai for Hangzhou Sunday evening. We had to do one of those dashes through the train station that you see on TV. We weren’t late, but we certainly weren’t early either. Unluckily, we had to ride the entire train ride backwards because of our choice of seats. It wasn’t too fun. But we tried to sleep it off during the under 2 hour ride.

Once we arrived in Hangzhou, we were surrounded by taxi drivers who wanted to take us to our destination. Totally trying to gyp us because we were foreigners. They told us that they could take us to Hangzhou Dianzi University for 100RMB. Uh, no. Patricia had told us that it’s about a 30RMB ride. We were feeling very discouraged until a guy was nice enough to tell us that we should walk a little down the street where there were real cab drivers who could take us to the University for about 30RMB.

Once at the University, we sat around and caught up with Jessica and Patricia. They had not seen much of the other MAIS people because they’re in Hangzhou so they were excited to hear all the Shanghai stories. Darleen, Christian and I had planned on finding a hotel to stay at but because of the holiday and because Darleen had forgotten her form of ID we had to be illegal in Hangzhou. China has this policy where foreigners have to be registered with the local police whenever they move to a different province, even for a few days. So we called up Jing and asked her if we could use her apt for the 2 days.

The next day we hit up the West Lake area. This is the must see place in Hangzhou. And it certainly was! There were crowds of tourists milling about and traffic was pretty bad. We had a difficult time getting a taxi. We had to separate into two taxis and I did one of those, “Follow that cab!” moments. We had just pointed to a place on the West Lake map and decided that that would be a good place to go. However, once we got to the Lingyin Temple, we saw that we had to pay a fee so we walked around for a little bit instead. While we were walking around, we saw cable cars that would take you to the top of Northern Peak. We agreed that was more worth our money, so up we went!

This is the view from the top of the peak.

After coming back down, we walked around the lake and enjoyed the scenery. I highly recommend visiting Hangzhou’s West Lake if you ever get the chance to come to China. We also randomly wandered into the West Lake Expo Museum. Which was actually interesting. There were some artifacts (probably replicas) from when West Lake held a mini-expo. We even stood atop a map and pretended to be Godzilla. After playing at West Lake, Patricia took us to a place she knew where you could do bargain shopping. I’m not very good at it, but it was still fun walking through all the random stores.

The next day we felt like we should do something “cultural” so that we could show people that we didn’t just go to Hangzhou to shop. We looked through the travel book and found another free museum, China’s National Silk Museum! whoohoo!! It actually turned out to be pretty interesting as well. At the end of our museum walk, we even took the time to paint some silk handkerchiefs. I don’t remember who has those pics of us painting. While we were painting, crowds of Chinese people would gather around us to watch “the foreigners” paint. They would sometimes even discreetly (or not discreetly) take pictures. I overheard one lady tell her friend, “here’s the camera, I’m going to stand behind her and look over her [Christian] shoulder and you take the picture.”

The plan after the museum was to go to the shopping place again, but because we had such a difficult time getting a taxi again, we eventually had to just head back to the University to grab some dinner in order to make it to the train station in time. On the ride back (I had switched train tickets with Patricia because I thought that her ticket would get home faster but it turned out it took longer because there were stops vs. the original ticket I had was non-stop) I sat next to a girl named Lily. And the two of us had a nice conversation. She was just as interested in life outside of China as I was about life inside of China. Some of the topics we talked about were Chinese and American politics, the Beijing Olympics, Taiwan, the One-Child Policy and old people. It was cool because this was the first time I was able to have this type of discussion with a Chinese person.

After a quick two days in Hangzhou, it was back to the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. Patricia came back with us, so we tried to do some of the sight-seeing things around town. That will be posted another time.

Hangzhou or Bust!

2008-09-26T16:33:00.002-07:00

I'll be heading out to Hangzhou for the Oct. Holiday (Nationalist Day) from Sunday evening to Tuesday evening. Yay for mini-trip!

Amy & Karol "Explore" Shanghai as Westerners

2008-09-22T08:11:00.007-07:00

[I finally figured out how to upload pics!]

Not really a true exploration, but it did involve metro-ing and walking around Shanghai. To parts of the city that I haven’t been to yet. I have Sundays and Mondays off from work, as does Karol. Karol also lives “next door” to me in the complex across the park. This requires a 3 minute walk to meet up at the gate. We had a very International/Western weekend.

The theme of the weekend? To be Western and to buy Western in China. And to amaze the natives with our ability to speak English “so well! and so accurate!” Because, it’s not like we were born and raised in America or anything. But that’s another story for another blog entry.

Sunday morning started off as a lazy morning. Karol messages me with her frustrations of getting her cell phone fixed and so was going to go to Head Office (HO) to have someone help her translate and get things squared away. She asked whether I wanted to accompany her and I said yes because my other option would have been to bum around the apt attempting hw and attempting cleaning house.

We took metro to HO which is located somewhere near Jing’An (maybe). Spent some time hanging out in the teacher’s office and met some of her Shane teachers. Saw Simon again and again he would speak so fast I would not be able to understand his English accent. When someone had helped Karol contact the Nokia care center, we got back on the metro and headed for Fuzhou Rd. at People’s Square. I definitely want to go back to People’s Square and just wander around. There is a sort of underground shopping mall. There are so many shops to look at (probably expensive though) and tons of people to people watch. We saw a church (I believe it is the Moore Memorial Church) whose peaceful atmosphere was a striking contrast against the bustling People’s Square crowds.

We watched Mr. Bean while waiting in the Nokia Care waiting room. After dropping off her cell phone to be fixed (~1 hour) we went next door to the KFC for lunch. KFC is really popular in China. But the funny thing is, the menu is completely different. For one, I don’t think they sell buckets of chicken or potato wedges, THE typical food of KFC. When we went in, just about everyone was eating shoestring french fries and had a drink. Where was the chicken?! (22-24RMB/meal) However, Karol and I did score some play straws that we could change into funny shapes.We also bought a hand-held sewing machine (15RMB) from a lady off the street. We were so amazed by it that she knew she had an instant sale. It’s kinda shaped like a stapler, but you can sew/hem with it!

After KFC, we walked across the street and saw a McDonalds. We bought ice cream cones (2.50RMB) As we were eating, we came across a huge bookstore. Of course we wanted to go in, but the security told us to finish eating the ice cream first before going in.

Karol wanted to find a China travel guide book. Couldn’t find any, however we did have some fun times in the foreign/bilingual book section. She wants to improve her Mandarin so she was looking through the learn Mandarin books. After laughing at some awesome titles as “EXTREME MANDARIN!” and “Romeo and Zhu Ying Tai Phrase Book” (probably the most awesome book by the way. It basically teaches a Western male step-by-step how to have a relationship with a Chinese female. The book is divided into such chapters as: Saying Hello, Compliments, Meeting the Parents, Fights (long and short ones) and Proposal among others) we came across some Chinese-English dictionaries.

Karol: Here are the pocket sized Chinese-English dictionaries.
Amy: Are you sure these are pocket sized? [points to a FAT dictionary]
Karol: hahaha, you can’t fit this in your pocket. [attempts to fit FAT dictionary in pockets]
Amy: Is that a Chinese-English dictionary in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
[laugh inappropriately for a good 5 mins. or so]

We also visited the Marxism-Leninism Literature. Which was located across from a portrait of Mao Zedong. You gotta love China. Later on, as we walked around the Shanghai Stadium looking for a place to buy Leehom concert tickets [epic_fail], we took pictures in front of Beijing 2008 signs made out of flowers.

On Monday, we attempted to buy train tickets for the upcoming weeklong October Holiday/National Day Holiday. We went to the Shanghai Railway Station to inquire about prices. We probably also pissed off the woman who was helping us because we were asking her to check every single day and for multiple locations: Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou. Well the mission was another epic_fail because we left empty handed. We went back home, stopped at Cross Regions Plaza (Foxtown!) to grab some spaghetti and pizza and then went home. We met up with Michelle and Lisa for dinner at Blue Frog which is a Western style restaurant that has buy 1 get 1 free burgers on Mondays. Karol and I decided to walk over to Michelle/Lisa’s apt because Karol said she knew how. She didn’t really know and we ended up walking somewhat in the right and wrong direction. Though a Chinese-American guy who was walking behind us suddenly asked us “So are you girls from the States?” We were surprised because we were in the middle of figuring out whether the Shanghai Indoor Stadium was different from the Shanghai Gymnastic Stadium when we suddenly hear this American voice over our shoulders. He’s from near Philadelphia.

At Blue Frog. So there we were, four Chinese-American girls, all of us more American than Chinese, sitting at a Western style restaurant eating burgers (40RMB with the discount) and speaking in English. We are super awesome. Bennett also went there for dinner, but he showed up with his Chinese friend when we were about to leave. We made a stop over at City Shop which is an International super market and couldn’t believe how expensive Western brands were. Well, we can believe it, but we were still shocked.

Karol and I departed from Michelle and Lisa and started navigating our way back towards our apts. We used landmarks and big buildings, “I recognize that building, we want to walk away from it.” I saw a store we now call the “2 Kuai Store” where everything in the store was 2RMB. It’s filled with useless stuff that you want to buy. While Karol and I were in there looking around, two Italian-Jewish guys overheard our English and walked up behind us asking us where we were from. It was all cordial in the beginning because we were speaking a mixture of Chinglish, English, Spanish, French and Italian with them, making small talk about being in China. The owners/workers of the 2 Kuai Store were loving us because here you had two white guys and two Chinese looking girls speaking to each other in a foreign tongue. We were probably bringing customers in for them. Then they started hitting on us and kept wanting to invite us out to a club/bar called Baby Face. Karol and I looked at each other and started sending messages to each other with our eyes and walked towards the door to make our purchase. They called out to us again, “Come on, let’s go!” which we politely replies, “sorry, we have classes tomorrow morning!” We asked an old Chinese man to take a picture of us outside the 2 Kuai Store holding the 2RMB plastic world globe Karol bought and then we left for home.

Let's Get (a) Physical!

2008-09-19T03:55:00.000-07:00

One of the requirements for foreigners to work in China is to pass a physical. There’s nothing tricky about the physical, you just can’t have a mental disorder or any STDs. Basically, China doesn’t want you to pass on your dirty, contaminated genes into their otherwise pure and clean society.

I don’t exactly have a phobia of hospitals but it’s still not on my top things to do in a foreign country. Nancy (welfare officer) gave me some photocopies, an address and told me that I would be able to get to the hospital a-ok. She did take me on a bus halfway there (it was on the way to the office) and then told the taxi where I wanted to go. I found the place alright. Before the physical, you basically wait in a room with other foreigners (and some of their translators) for your number to be called.

It’s an efficient process. They have it all figured out on how to expedite the process. You first check in, then they direct you to the waiting room. When your number is called you go in to have them check your paperwork and take a quick (ugly) photo of you so that as you walk through the stations, the nurses can make sure you are who you say you are. Then you go to the cashier to pay. Go to the changing room to take off half your clothes, wear a robe and shoe booties. You go from room to room where you are weighed and heighted. They draw some blood, check your blood pressure, test your eyes, look up your nose, chest x-ray, heart check, an ultrasound (?? to make sure my womb is empty??). I also helped the office make health check appointments for two other teachers.

Afterwards, I had to figure out how to get myself either to the office or to get home. I decided I had time to go home and rest before my afternoon of classes. Got in a taxi, told them I wanted the line 2 metro stop (which was supposed to be the closest station) and got myself back to my neck of the woods. However, I didn’t anticipate the distance being so great, so I ended up having something like an hour at home before I had to head back out. Sad times. I’m feeling really really tired these days.

Stocks > Fruit

2008-09-15T07:38:00.000-07:00

I’m supposed to be lesson planning right now, but all I can do is watch the stocks on Wall Street go crazy. Markets have just opened in the States on Monday morning and after the news of what happened in the financial market over the weekend ... all I can say is “whoa.”

Lehman Brothers (LEH) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after it wasn’t able to find any buyers for its apparently suffering company. I had not been keeping updated enough and didn’t even know there was financial troubles with LEH. I guess I didn’t pay enough attention to them because they are (were) a relatively large company. This goes to show that large companies can have large debts as well. Like $613 BILLION in debt.

Bank of America (BAC) also acquired Merrill Lynch (MER) over the weekend. This is a pretty large acquisition. One which did the usual of lowering the stock price of BAC and raising the stock price of MER. Expected financial results when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. What was NOT expected was just how much MER’s stock price jumped. I thought maybe like $1. Last I checked, up $5+!!

This is all pretty big financial news. Much more interesting than lesson planning for little Chinese kids a lesson about different types of fruits.

“What fruit is it?”
“[apple]!”
“What color is it?”
“red!”

What if instead I taught them:

“What do you do with stocks?”
“Buy low!”
“And then..?”
“Sell high!”

Now THAT is a good lesson.

Exciting News

2008-09-14T03:03:00.005-07:00

The most exciting, fabulous, wonderful, awesome, [insert more synonyms] thing happened today. Maybe the best thing that has happened in the last two weeks.

I finally got Internet installed in my apt!!

Circa 10:30AM the China Telecom service guy knocked on my door and said "I am here to install your ADSL." I was so happy and speechless that he had to ask me, "Do you speak Chinese?"

Atmos. Sci. 3 in Shanghai

2008-09-13T22:27:00.001-07:00

I don’t think that I’m the “weather” type of girl. As a purebred SoCal girl, I will admit I am a bit of a snob when it comes to my weather. I prefer my days not too hot and not too cold. Not too dry and not too wet. Is that too much to ask for?

In the past three weeks or so that I’ve been in Shanghai, I’ve experienced humidity so high it should be illegal, rainfall that flooded half the city (resulting in organized chaos), sunshine so strong that Nancy asked me why I turned so dark suddenly, and today a spontaneous rainfall that went from slight drizzle to insane downpour in the matter of 2 seconds. Luckily I had my 19RMB Chinese umbrella with me. Unluckily, my shoes and pants were still soaked the whole way through. I believe the rain was falling at a 45 degree angle aimed directly at my feet. I am positive I did not step in any puddles, yet my feet still squished water on my walk back to my apt. There was also a small pool of water in my backpack. Though I still have yet to figure out how that got in there as I thought I had it zipped up completely and covered.

And now, with the rainfall gone, I’m enjoying a gentle cool breeze through my bedroom window on the 8th floor.

What’s more perfect than that? Two days ago I made a discovery that could rival Columbus’s discovery of America.....

My apt’s windows have sliding screens!

You don’t know how happy I was after this discovery. Now I can keep the windows open while worrying less about unnecessary mosquitos flying in and feasting on my body.

I Spoke Too Soon

2008-09-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

Another “Playtime” session a complete disaster. It’s not that I hate little kids, I just hate “playing” with them for 45 minutes using a language they don’t understand and receiving no feedback but still under the scrutiny of the Chinese teachers who are probably thinking to themselves (and each other, out loud) what a complete idiot I am.

The second class’s teacher is pretty much horrible. I can feel her giving me Looks. I know she’s thinking, why do we get the Asian-looking teacher? Where’s my blond hair blue eyed FOREIGN teacher? Just about every game I suggest she says it’s too difficult for the children. Dallas (another SES teacher ... who is white) was able to get his teacher to agree to dividing the class into two halves and doing two 20 minutes sessions instead of the one big group for 45 minutes session. Which makes so much more sense. I tried it with my first Playtime class today and at the end of the lesson, the teacher told me that she didn’t think it was a good idea because it was too short a session for each child and the parents would complain because they were paying money for the lessons. I’m thinking that if I had been a white person suggesting this, she would accept this idea because “the white, foreign teacher said it would be a good idea.” But no, I’m just a young, Asian girl who probably doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Because I’m Asian, they are more okay with saying “no” to me. Because then, they are not really offending anyone international.

I feel like it is time for me to talk with Cristina about these Playtime sessions. I always leave those sessions so depressed.

edit: New perspective. I took another look at the schedule and I really can’t complain. I have one of the nicer schedules. I am not commuting too much and I do not have to have random layovers at the office except on Thursday (and assuming my HS classes are canceled forever). I am stationed at one school basically, so that is “my” school. I just need to learn how to work better with the little pre-schoolers. Why couldn’t they all be super-brains so that I could have philosophical debates with them? In English, of course.

"The Money Is In Your Pocket"

2008-09-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

What can I say? I had a relatively good day at work yesterday.

Even though it was an early day, I had to meet Chris and Susan at the Xinzhuang metro stop by 7:45am, the day was ... good.

The high school class we were demonstrating in was half and half. The first class was a disaster since they wanted to keep it with 30+ students in addition to the small crowd of other English teachers observing, “just what the Western style of teaching was.” Chris and I tried to implement small group sizes but with the way everything was set up, it was just not going to work. We went around doing small group introductions and tried getting the students to open their mouths and speak. But the sentences they said were very rehearsed and by the book. The bigger disaster happened when I asked the students to pull out one of the books and they said they didn’t have it. What. An. Unfortunate. Thing.

The regular teacher quickly came over to help me work out what was the problem. And I told Chris to “entertain” the crowd as a couple of us tried to solve the problem. Switched up the lesson plan to using something that was already copied out of the (other) book. Needless to say, I felt like it was a disaster because of the slow-paceness and just boringness of the lesson. The other teachers observing the lesson asked us why they would need a foreign teacher to do something that a regular Chinese teacher could already do. What was the point of having us there?

The second class they wanted us to demonstrate a more “Western” style of teaching. We had the large class divided up into 2 smaller classes of about 15 students each. Chris took one class and I took the other. I felt sorry for Chris because SES had told him that he would just be helping me out and not teaching a whole class by himself, so he was basically thrust onto the stage against his knowledge.

To get the students to open up more and to talk more (a silent class is so boring as I know from past AAP tutoring experience), I had the students move away from their desks/computers and come closer to the center. Started with introductions to give each student a chance to talk and then I started on the presentation of the lesson, “greetings and goodbyes.” Yawn. I asked two students to come up to demonstrate a simple dialogue and from there it spiraled off to a wonderful tangent. I had each student come up in groups and asked the audience to give characters and scenarios. I could tell that the high schoolers were enjoying this because they were able to use their creativity and use more spontaneous English. This was a move away from doing things by the book and responding with a rehearsed sentence.

Every once in awhile I would sneak a peek at the observers in the back and I saw that even they were having fun! Here, the students were working on their English and having a fun time doing so. Even though the vocabulary was limited, I could tell the students were searching in their brains for similar words that could convey the meaning they wanted. A particularly funny one involved 3 boys who were given the roles of mother, father and baby arguing in a restaurant. The “baby” could speak English apparently.

Mother: I want to eat much food. I want to eat sandwich, hamburger, steak. I want to eat all the expensive food.
Father: You want to eat too much. I don’t have money.
Mother: Yes you do.
Father: No I don’t.
Mother: The money is in your pocket.
Father: No money in my pocket.
Baby: Mother! This is a bad father. Father has no money.
Mother: I leave now.
Baby: Mother! I go with you.
Father: Wait for me. I come with you.

There was also a hunter shooting down a singing bird, a robber robbing a rich old lady with the interference of a policewoman (the robber refused to go to jail because her father was sick), two strangers going to eat dinner, and a famous singer (me) charging her #1 fan 10RMB to receive an autograph.

I later found out that day that the high school classes are canceled until further notice. The overall impression I got at the meeting after class was over (whether the HS would hire a SES teacher) was that they wished I looked more “foreign” and want a guarantee that their students will be able to pass the listening portion of the Shanghai English Exam.

Later that day, I went to my usual school, ZFH, to teach the 3rd graders. They are probably my favorite group so far. They remembered my name and some of them even kissed my cheeks during introductions. That was too cute. And they are also at that age where whatever (lame) game you give them to play, they love it. Even when there are no winners and losers. We played a game where all they had to do was run around a chair to look at a flashcard, sit down and raise their hand to be called on to answer “what color is it?” Even when someone else answered the question, they got very excited because they had the same answer and it was validation enough that they had also “won.” And they are old enough to give me some feedback even if it is in Mandarin (which I pretend to not understand) or miming. Not to mention that they have a lot of energy and love to run back and forth.

Chinese Laundry

2008-09-08T00:49:00.001-07:00

Today, I did my laundry. Chinese style.

Well, actually half-Western, half-Chinese. While washers are relatively common in China now, dryers are still considered rare and more of something “them foreigners” use. My apt has a washer (whew!) but no dryer. Instead, I have a lovely balcony to hang my clothes up to dry. It is actually quite neat though. Because the clothesline(rod?) can move up and down when I turn the knob. I was a bit worried initially because it was too high up for me to reach.

My “balcony” is enclosed so it’s not like my laundry is hanging for the whole world to see. Even though that wouldn’t be weird here. Since China is more humid than SoCal, the key is to do laundry in the morning so that the afternoon sun has a chance to dry it. I wonder how fast laundry dries during the winters. I might miss soft, fluffy clothes though.

Home Sweet China?

2008-09-04T04:46:00.003-07:00

This was written a couple days ago. So the dates and timeline is a little off in real time. And I still don't have Internet. I'm using a friend's internet right now. Deal.

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I moved into my apt today. I have no Internet. I have not completely unpacked yet. Nancy helped me move my luggage over and then we walked over to IKEA to find bedsheets. Rather, I went to find bedsheets because Nancy had to go back to the office and i guess she figured that I knew enough Mandarin to survive.

Chinese people seem to love their IKEA. It was pretty crowded and people were walking around taking pictures of the furniture and room set ups. I wonder if many people really were buying things or just wanted to pass the time. It was almost like a museum for them to see how Westerners decorate their homes. Except my home back in America certainly doesn’t look like IKEA. And the IKEA food court was really crowded as well.

I spent so much time looking at the bedsheets. First of all, I didn’t know what size my bed was. It wasn’t a twin and I didn’t think it was a king, so I was going with the assumption that it was a queen. Problem was, I didn’t know how big a queen was in centimeters. Blasted metric system. I finally realized that I could just go over to the mattress section and find a bed that looked like mine and look at the measurements on that. So after I figured out that I was looking for 200cm x 200cm it made things easier. Though for a moment I thought maybe I could do things cheaper and just get a twin size quilt, only to realize that that would make things more complicated and riskier in whether it would fit or not. Plus I like to roll into a comfort pod, so I went default and just picked things out. Since I am still in the process of getting my deposit money together, I knew that I had to spend as little as possible.

I got back to my apt and dropped things off. And then I was hungry so I thought this was a prime opportunity to explore my new neighborhood. The reception/lobby lady is really nice to me and told me to go to her if I ever needed something. She even gave me some laundry detergent because she knew that I hadn’t been able to find a store nearby that sells it. Her and other people who were in the lobby tried to direct me to a China Construction Bank. But when I found out that I had to take the metro to another area just to go to the bank, I decided to save that trip for another day. Maybe I’ll make a stop to the Jinhui (JH) office tomorrow and use the ATM there because I know where it is. Plus it was starting to become evening and I didn’t want to have to travel too far away.

So I am wandering and wandering around the streets near my apt and I pass the same stores like 3 times. I think it was a lot easier having Ryan around because I could use him as my excuse for not knowing how to read all the items on the menu. “Give us a moment, I am translating the menu to him.” I finally pick a restaurant that had a pretty large picture menu (and English menu as well!). I think it was because it’s located so close to the Shanghai Stadium where they had some of the Olympic Games. While I’m waiting around for my food, I txt msg Lisa, Ryan and Karol because they started work today (not Karol as I found out later). Karol replies saying that she is at IKEA and I thought that was just dandy because that was just around the corner!

I met up with Karol at IKEA (second trip in one day) and I help her pick out a couch and coffee table. And other random things. It was great to see someone I knew! We got some looks because we’re both Chinese girls speaking perfect English. IKEA stuff is cheaper in China than in America. Or at least I think it is. I told her we had to stop converting things into US Dollars otherwise we’d buy too much stuff. We have to start thinking only in the Chinese currency. As evidenced when we were comparing two couches that were a 300 RMB difference (~ $43) and were like “you might as well, only a $40 difference” and then realized, ”wait a minute, you can do a lot with 300RMB in China. Like eat 5RMB bowls of noodles for 2 months. Or buy a ticket to Leehom’s concert.“

I show her my apt and tell her to visit whenever she wanted. Poor Karol is pretty much by herself in another part of town. I need to start lesson planning now. My first day of teaching English is tomorrow!

Apt. Hunting pt. 2

2008-08-31T10:26:00.001-07:00

Apt. hunting complete! I ended up signing with #3 of the 3 we saw yesterday. I’m not exactly “living it up” in Shanghai in the way that I had dreamed and thought I would. But it’s a start. it’s certainly no luxury high rise with all the services, but it’s a high rise. I’m located on the 8th floor. 8 is a lucky number in China.

I will take better pictures soon and show off my new “crib.“ I have to explore the surrounding area a little bit more. I had just gotten quite comfortable with the area surrounding my school’s office since Ryan and I have to go out to eat every day (or starve). We had tried all the reputable looking restaurants in the area and our next step was probably going to be heading down another small street for “street food.”

Anyway, back to the topic. So I’ll be moving into my apt tomorrow on Monday. Nancy, my welfare officer, said she would help me. And hopefully one of the school’s drivers can help me transport my luggage. I’m going to need to get settled, buy bedsheets that sorta thing. On top of that, I have some lesson planning to do and I also need to do my MAIS grad school work. Classes started this week and we have assignments due already. I need to get my hands on a daily planner so that I don’t miss deadlines or teaching schedules. On top of THAT, I need to learn how to survive in Shanghai by myself. Such as the public transportation system and paying bills. Buying food. Now that my schools (Shane and Concordia) are basically releasing me into the wild, pushing me out of the nest, throwing me into the pool, etc etc. My roommate is still in America awaiting her working visa. I’ll probably end up visiting Lisa’s apt and Ryan’s apt quite a bit.

Apt. Hunting pt. 1

2008-08-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Saturday), some guys from my school/company took me on a motorbike ride through Shanghai to find apartments. I had originally thought that Mr. Lu (Big Boss) was going to be driving his car over to meet me, but instead two guys show up on bikes. And when they said, “get on, let’s go” my first thought was, “really?”

I have been on those Asian motorbikes before in Taiwan. They are pretty fun and you start to feel kinda native to the land, except real natives can probably tell right away that you are nothing more than a foreigner. We rode from the Minhang District to the Xuhui District, which while they are right next to each other, it still made for approximately a 30 minute bike ride. Too bad I didn’t get a picture of me on the motorbike, though Ryan said he wanted a picture I have no idea whether he was able to take one before I left him at the hotel.

To be frank, the first apartment we saw was crap. The hallways were pitch black, the space was tiny, and the owner thought Leo (the younger of the two guys who was taking me around) and I were a married couple and was questioning why we would even need two beds. Dodgy old man. The only good thing? It was located in the middle of town. Literally. I could see the big ball-shaped building (recognizable landmark!) from the window. Though not worth it. I think the guys could tell that I didn’t like it because we didn’t even bother asking for the rent.

The second place, while the area was an upgrade, the inside was for a lack of better words, even crappier. The kitchen was the living room and the living room was the kitchen. One of the beds was a futon/bamboo cover. The bathroom was old and gross looking. I guess I’m American and have high standards.

The last place we saw was a whole lot better. It was better lit, the space was bigger and it just felt more comfortable. The old guy that came with me said, “This place doesn’t even compare to the first two. Those first two were too ”bad“.” And apparently it is convenient to things as well. Such as IKEA. Which I could see from the window. LoL. I think this place may be the default if I don’t see anything better. Now, if only I can get Sina to respond to my emails and constant badgering so that we can come to an agreement. Let me tell you, apartment hunting is hard if your roommate is in another country, in a different time zone.

Today, the plan is for Leo to take me and Ryan out to look at some more places. Ryan wasn’t able to make it on Saturday because he was doing observations. And me, well because I guess I am picky. I want to live it up in Shanghai, with the nice apartment and my “Western” salary, but Shanghai is probably like the West LA of California. Hard to find a nice apartment with a set budget. If only I had an unlimited fund. I would then be so cool.