Heidelberg China Trip 2011

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Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:21:00 -0400

Hello.

I’m back in the United States. After a 14 hour flight where we left at 6:55 AM, I finally got back to the States at 8:15 AM.

My parents picked me up from the airport and I slept from noon to 7 PM. Changing back to a different time zone is going to be insanely difficult.

I’m definitely having some reverse culture shock. I’m really sad that I’m back…hopefully I’ll adjust quickly. I’m glad to see my family and my cats and everything, but that feeling of wishing I was still there is definitely going to happen for a couple days.

Either way, I’m going to upload all my pictures to photobucket and facebook so that I can put them on here. So be on the look-out.

Here’s pics of our last hours in China:

Sad faces at 3 AM.

THE GREAT WALL!

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Well, I was extremely excited for the Great Wall. We woke up early and ate breakfast in the hotel at 7:30 AM this morning. The food wasn’t as bad as the day before…but I definitely miss peanut butter from home. We were supposed to leave at 8 AM, but the bus was having difficulties, so we left around 8:30 AM.

I was exhausted so I slept the whole way to the Great Wall. We went to a spot that was less touristy and less crowded, so it was an hour and a half away. I woke up just before we got off the bus. It wasn’t super hot out and the sun was hidden behind a lot of clouds. However, it wasn’t extremely foggy or smoggy, so I was excited because it’s a lot easier to see far down the Great Wall that way.

We decided to take the trolley up, while Dr. Mahon hiked it. I’m glad we did, because I am way too lazy and way too out of shape to climb ridiculous amounts of extremely old rock. The cable car trolley was about a half mile up the hill and stopped right before the wall.

The cable car.

Cable car.

First scenes of the Great Wall!

After taking some initial shots with the landmarker saying it was the Great Wall, we started to climb on it. I must have freaked out the whole entire time saying “WE ARE ON THE GREAT WALL!” because I think my life was honestly complete the moment I stepped on it.

Myself, Lisa, and Mary with the marker.

At one of the towers.

We spent a good hour just taking pictures of the wall, each other, and doing the “H-U” and “O-H-I-O” on the Great Wall. Lisa wanted a picture with a Cleveland Clinic shirt for her mom, so we did that too. The wall was amazing. It’s honestly impossible to put into words how weird and how amazing it feels to be walking on it and to know how far it stretches. We took a path that was mostly downwards because a toboggan chute was at that end and I’m sooo glad. The wall was enormous and really sloped, but most of the steps were really well preserved.

O-H-I-O with Lisa, me, Mary, and Alexa.

Lisa, me, Mary, and Alexa doing H-U, our own version.

Lisa in her Cleveland Clinic shirt.

Mary’s dad really wanted a piece of the wall, so we spent the two hours picking up and collecting good rocks on the wall. That wasn’t the best part though. They have a rare few vendors on the wall on this spot. I guess the areas that Dr. Sanders and Ms. Green had been before were just surrounded by vendors on each side so it was hard to enjoy.

I got a piece of the wall…maybe.

ANYWAYS, Lisa, Mary, and I were walking by a vendor and he yells “BEER! COLD BEER” and as I walked by I was like “whaaat, they sell beer on the wall?” and after I walked by, the greatest idea of my life just HIT ME. I needed to buy my FIRST ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE ON THE GREAT WALL! So what did Mary and Lisa do? They chipped in and paid for my first beer and we drank it on the way down. So no offense, but I think my first drink is definitely better than most people’s stories.

Buying my first beer.

Hilarious. They had me pose for pictures.

Cheers with Dr. Mahon. She hiked all the way up and met us so she actually deserved it.

So we continued to walk the wall and I drank my beer on the way down, which made me laugh. Beer is gross so I definitely will not partake in anything like that when I come back to the United States.

I also came up with a great idea of getting out my iPod and turning on Mulan songs while we walked. I’ve been singing them in my head at EVERY tourist spot and it was great listening to it on the wall…it just seemed so fitting.

So beautiful.

Mary, me, and Lisa.

We finally reached the toboggan chute. You go on a giant metal slide and loop all the way from the top of the Great Wall to the bottom. I was in the lead, so I was trying to take pictures of Lisa and Mary. I got a really successful shot and a lot of other ones of just my ear. It was really weird to come down the wall that way, but it was fantastic.

Lisa and Mary.

An example of my photo fail.

Toboggan chute.

After the Great Wall, we stopped at a local restaurant to eat local countryside food. It was full of a ton of vegetables. We also presented Eugene, Echo, and Jim with cards and gifts to say thank you for all the help they’ve given us all month and especially the past three days in Beijing.

Countryside food.

Dr. Sanders giving Echo, Eugene, and Jim gifts for helping.

After lunch, we drove an hour to the Art District and had an hour and a half to walk around. There were tons of really cool exhibits…and lots of weird ones. The graffiti on the walls was really pretty, as was this exhibit of painted horses. Walking around was nice, but I definitely wished we could have spent a lot more time at the Great Wall.

Car art.

Awesome painted horses.

Love over money, even in China.

Amazing graffiti.

After the Art District, we headed back to the hotel to eat dinner. The food was okay, but it was not the best we’ve had. I grabbed something off a plate, took a bite, and then was informed that it was pig’s feet. The rice and fruit was really good so I loaded up on that. After dinner, everyone wanted to hit up McDonald’s in China for the last time. We all went and got fries and ice cream and walked back to the hotel.

Now I’m sitting in Mary and Lisa’s room stealing pictures from everyone’s cameras before we leave. We have to be ready to go in the lobby at 2:30 AM which is rough. The plane ride is going to be 13 hours and we get back to Detroit at 8:15 AM. I’m so sad. It’ll be nice to see everyone, but I really am going to be leaving part of me behind. Yeah, that’s corny, but I fell in love with this place.

Goodnight everyone!

Temple of Heaven

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:16:00 -0400

Today, we woke up at 6:30 and headed to breakfast at 7 AM. The hallway was entirely dark so we got lost at first and went back to the room to wait a little while because we thought the place wasn’t open yet. Finally, we realized the hallways was just dark so we headed in. The food was kind of sketchy, but I still ate some rice and had some watermelon and bread in the morning.

After breakfast, we met in the lobby at 8:30 AM and left for Tian’amen Square. I REALLY wanted to go here and see the Forbidden City, but also the wall with Mao’s picture on it. I’ve seen it in so many pictures, but being there is a whole other experience.

We walked around the square for a little bit, which can hold up to 1,000,000 people. It was enormous. On one side of the square was the Congressional building and opposite of that was the Chinese History Museum. Apparently, the government chooses the top 96 most attractive men in the military to live in the Forbidden City and to raise the flags in Tian’amen Square every morning. At that same time, they bring out the preserved body of Mao Zedong each morning as well. The painting of him in Tianamen Square was also made to have eyes that follow you anywhere. It was very interesting to see it in person.

Congressonal building.

History museum.

Military man and the monument for all the people who died in creating the PR of China.

Tian’amen Square.

Dr. Wasserman, Alexa, Dr. Sanders, me, Dr. Mahon, Mary, Lisa, and Ms. Green.

His eyes follow you around wherever you go.

We walked under the street (it’s so busy that they do underground tunnels to cross) to enter the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was for the emperor, the empress, his 3,000 concubines, and other staff members. In all 30,000 people lived in the city and weren’t allowed to leave. The emperor was the only one who was allowed to enter by the front gate, except the empress on the day they got married. Everyone else had certain entrances for their positions, like ministers or scholars.

Alexa, Mary, me, and Lisa right outside the Forbidden City.

Execution square.

The place was enormous. They believed in fengshue (spelling is really wrong), where you have water to the south and I believe mountains to the east. The emperor had a giant moat built of water and a giant mountain (which happened to be the park we were in days prior that the emperor hanged himself) behind the Forbidden City. There was an area for executions of all criminals right outside the entrance, an area for maids to live, and the three main areas: the offices, a residential area, and a Chinese garden area. The emperor had 2,999.5 rooms made, with the library cut into half a room, because he believed that the god was above him and his palace in the heavens had 3,000 rooms, so he did not want to outdo him. Also, the emperor slept in a different room each night because he had so many enemies that he constantly had to check about being poisoned or murdered in his sleep.

Man-made river in the Forbidden City.

Giant rocks in the Chinese garden where the emperor used to drink tea and play chess.

Alexa, Mary, me, and Lisa.

The pictures don’t do this place justice, it was enormous and extremely elaborate. We only spent two hours there and that barely touched the surface of the place.

We then went to lunch at a place right by Tian’amen Square. After lunch, we all walked to Starbucks because Alexa wanted cups in Starbucks from China. We then got on the bus where we headed back to the hotel to see if some people could switch rooms. The rooms some of the group was switching to was exactly the same as the ones prior, so we just decided not to switch.

So much food.

So we headed out again by bus to the Temple of Heaven. This temple area has no statues because the gods’ faces were unknown, so they did not want to upset the gods by making a face of them that wasn’t accurate. There was a kitchen for sacrificing animals like horses, lambs, and also they burned jade and incense so that the smells and the ashes would reach the gods and make them happy. The corridor where the food used to be carried is now called the “gambling corridor” where many retired people come to play cards and mahjong and gamble. All retired and elderly get into any national park type area for free, which is nice.

Gambling corridor.

Far away view of the Temple of Heaven.

Mary, Lisa, me, and Alexa.

Mary, Lisa, and I.

We then went to see the temple. It was round, with four pillars inside painted with gold to represent the four seasons. The temple had blue roofs, the only ones to have such, in order to honor nature. In the Forbidden City, anything the emperor lived in was yellow, a color of the imperialist power.

After the Temple of Heaven, we went to another shopping area for only about 30 minutes. Lisa and I wandered around the floor of extremely nice pearls, where apparently Bill Clinton, Jessica Alba, and other famous people had visited. The price of the pearls was insane, like 126,000 yuan, which is over $20,000 US I believe. We met a sales associate there named Rony. She thought we Lisa and I were twins, which was funny to me because we look nothing alike.

Outside of the shop, we met Dr. Mahon’s cousin who is from Mexico, but living and working in China. He speaks English, Spanish, and Chinese and was really intelligent and funny.

After the half hour, we got on the bus and drove to Pizza Hut for dinner. There was so much food on the table: salads, calamari, chicken pot pie, and like six different pizzas. We ate extremely fast because we had to catch the show “The Legend of the Kung Fu,” which was a Vegas-style show. Lisa was extremely excited because she wanted to see an acrobatic style show and that definitely was it. We weren’t allowed to take pictures during the performance unfortunately, so I have nothing to really show for that. Afterwards, we were allowed to take pictures with some of the actors, so we got a lot of the group together to take funny shots together.

The Legend of Kung Fu show.

Me, Mary, and Lisa with one of the performers in the show.

When we got back to the hotel, we stopped at DQ with Dr. Sanders, Dr. Mahon, Ms. Green, Lisa, Mary, Dr. Wasserman, and Dr. Mahon’s cousin. It was nice to just hang out and relax after such a long and busy day.

Tomorrow we go to the Great Wall and it’s the last full day we have in China. I really am sad to be going back, but I knew this day was coming. Hopefully you’ll still read the blog even though you know I’ve arrived back because I’m not sure if I can put these updates up in Beijing because the internet is so slow.

The picture uploads are almost impossible here, so you’ll just have to wait!

Beijing Travel time

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Well Wednesday was the day we left Tianjin for good to head to Beijing for three days of sight-seeing before we leave. We had to wake up early and be ready to go in the lobby by 6:30 AM. I was really glad that I had bought that extra suitcase the day prior, because I know that having to purchase one in Beijing would be a pain, but my bag would be overweight for sure.

We headed to Beijing on a bus for about 3 hours. All of the sudden, the bus pulled over and we were at a stop for about 20 minutes. Finally, after sitting around for that long, we finally asked why we were stopped. Apparently we were getting a tour guide and she was lost. After about fifteen minutes more of waiting, she finally arrived. I didn’t even know we were having a tour guide, so that was kind of cool to hear.

Mary and I decided to eat some pringles while we waited.

Our first stop was the Sacred Way, or an entrance near the Ming Tombs that the emperor would walk through. There were giant pillars with a dragon facing outward on the outside of the Sacred Way, which was meant to call the emperor back into the area if he was away. On the inside, they had the dragon pillar with the dragon facing inward, telling the emperor he must go out and see the people if he was inside.

The dragon pillar.

Myself, Mary, Lisa, and Alexa in front of the entrance to the Sacred Way.

Gorgeous weeping willow-type trees.

Mary and I terrified because we were about to have to use our first Chinese toilet.

I actually cheated and found the western one…so it wasn’t my first experience. I cheated the system!

Mary succeeded though!

The Sacred Way.

Also, there were all kinds of animals/combinations of stone animals in fours all along this long giant path. The first two in each set were always kneeling and the other set of the same animal was always standing. Finally, there were different Chinese stone men at the end…I think 8 in all guarding the walkway. It was really, really pretty.

Myself, Lisa, and Mary with the kneeling camel.

Myself, Mary, Dr. Sanders, Lisa, Alexa, and Ms. Green.

Mary, Lisa, and I with a kneeling horse.

I tried to keep a straight face, but it was almost impossible.

Next, we went to this place to eat called the Friendship Store. It was definitely a tourist trap, but because Tianjin Normal was paying for everything through this tour company, we didn’t have to buy the food. However, we had over an hour after eating to wander around this overpriced shop for items that I found on Culture Street weeks ago.

After the Friendship Store, we headed to the Summer Palace to tour. It was the most beautiful and interesting places in the world. The emperor had one empress and 3,000 concubines under him. This woman who was 15^th in line ended up giving birth to the first son of the emperor, so she was moved up to the 2^nd in line of the concubines. The son ended up becoming emperor really young, so his mother, “The Dragon Lady” would tell him how to rule everything and would sit behind a yellow curtain while he did business and told him what to do.

So the Summer Palace was her main place to stay. However, she also kept many people in her family under house arrest for over ten years, like her nephew and I believe the empress, before the Dragon Lady poisoned her food. The Dragon Lady is featured in The Last Emperor, so when we get back, we are having a movie night at some point with Dr. Mahon, Dr. Sanders, and whoever else wants to come.

The Spring Pavilion.

The 2nd Marco Polo bridge.

The views were gorgeous.

Top of the summer palace with a temple at the top.

Guinness book of World Records longest corridor. It had over 14,000 paintings in it.

We walked near this temple part of the Summer Palace. Our guide didn’t buy the all-inclusive ticket, so we had to pay ten yuan if we wanted to go to the top. Of course, I came to China so I wanted to see as much as I could. I was kind of annoyed we had to pay, and even more annoyed that she told us we only had 30 minutes to climb all the way up, look around, and go down.

While I was ordering all the tickets for the people in the group who wanted to go to the temple, I did the sign for 6 in Chinese to get the tickets for everyone. After I did that, an older man who spoke French was trying to ask me if holding up four fingers was the proper way to ask for four tickets. So I taught him how to do the signs for six and eight in Chinese. I definitely felt AWESOME getting to teach someone something about China!

I was definitely am glad I paid for a ticket. The view was amazing and even though there were a million steps, it felt really great with the breeze on top of the mountain. We also could see the water and pretty much all of the summer palace from the top, which was breathtaking.

View from the top.

Mary, Alexa, Jim, myself, and Alexa.

Alexa, me, Mary, and Lisa in front of the Summer Palace temple entrance.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant to eat Beijing duck. It’s traditional Chinese food in Beijing so I was excited to try something new. We eat so much American food here, which makes me sad since we are in China and I’d really like to try tons of new things. Duck wasn’t the only thing on the menu, but many things were WAY too spicy for any of us. Mary and I attempted to eat this soup and it was so spicy that my eyes and nose were dripping. It really cleared the sinuses, but it was hilarious to experience.

Trying to eat the octopus…I failed.

After dinner, we headed to the hotel to check in. We had a giant tour bus and our hotel was in an alley way with a toll booth. The driver tried to somehow maneuver the bus into the lane of the toll booth and ended up HITTING IT! The whole booth tipped over and I thought it was severely damaged, but all the people did was push it back onto the curb. However, as I found out later, the driver was fined $4,000 yuan for hitting it, which is like $600. The tour guide and the bus driver were outside the hotel with the police figuring everything out from around 6 PM until midnight, which is really sad.

Our hotel is really gross. The floors are disgustingly dirty and there’s tons of mold in the bathroom. I can deal with it for three days no problem, but I felt bad for others. Dr. Sanders’ toilet seat was broken and wasn’t even attached. The people at the front desk didn’t believe her so she brought it downstairs to the lobby to show them. It was absolutely hilarious and I’m glad I got a picture.

Dr. Sanders with the toilet seats.

I found out later that Mary and Lisa’s shower didn’t work at all. So they had to sit in the tub and splash water on themselves to get clean. So they will be using our shower from here on out.

Anyways, after checking in, Mary, Lisa, Dr. Mahon, and I met in the lobby and decided to visit food street. This is a street that has been featured on Bizarre Foods, the television show, with scorpions, starfish, seahorses, monkey, tarantulas, snakes, millipedes, donkey, and locus. I was SO grossed out by the smells and especially by the fact that many of the insects were still alive before they deep-fried them, so you could see them twitching away on a stick before being cooked.

Scorpions, starfish, and seahorses.

Geckos…ew.

Spiders…disgusting.

I’m still getting the creepy crawlies talking about the street, but it was a lot of fun. We took the subway there and Eugene was terrified for us and didn’t think we would make it back alive. When we were leaving food street, there were all these taxis parked and instead of running the meter, they were bartering with us saying it would cost 100 yuan to 800 yuan to drive us back to the hotel. Therefore, we made the decision to buy a two yuan subway ticket and just walk back to the hotel like we did on the way there. It was extremely crowded this time, because it was so late at night and the subway was closing soon so people were packing on. I think it’s so much more fun with that many people because when you don’t think any more people can fit, they find a way.

We got back around 10:30 PM and I hung out in Mary and Lisa’s room until about midnight. I wanted to go to bed earlier but some other circumstances prevented that unfortunately.

Either way, the trip was great and I really loved seeing some of these old sites in Beijing.

Last day in Tianjin

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:59:00 -0400

I’m pretty sad about this post. It’s our last and final day in Tianjin and I am dreading leaving. I’ve had such an amazing time and I really love this city. I need to come back somehow, so I’m definitely going to look into that.

I woke up this morning at 7:30 AM (so much for sleeping in) and couldn’t get the internet to work. That is the main reason why these posts are so late at night for me (early for you). With no internet, I decided to get a head start on packing. I set out all my clothes and all my souvenirs in different piles. After packing up all my clothes and throwing out tons of random unnecessary things, I knew there was was no way my souvenirs would fit in my suitcase without it weighing too much.

I ended up coming to Lisa and Mary’s room and used their internet for a little while. Lisa had ordered some things from the nearby mall that had just arrived so we headed there at about 11 AM to pick them up. Surprisingly, the whole order and purchase went really smoothly and we were back before 11:30 AM. When we got back, Jim was there to see if we had successfully gotten Lisa’s gifts. We talked to him for a little bit and then just hung out until lunch.

Simon had told us the night before that he was going to do lunch big, and he didn’t lie. We had SO much food that we couldn’t even fit it all on the table. Ms. Green brought a watermelon down to be cut up that was given to her as a gift from the technology woman in the classrooms during teaching. The watermelon was delicious, but it was enormous. We ate as much as we could but there was so much left over, I felt bad.

The huge watermelon that Ms. Green was given as a gift.

Simon really went to town ordering for us on the last lunch.

After lunch, Lisa, Mary, and I ended up napping until at 3 PM. We were all still exhausted from the Beijing trip so we definitely needed a nap. After the nap, Alexa, Mary, Lisa, and I all walked to Vanguards for one last time to pick up some food, rice wine for Lisa’s father, and a suitcase for my extra things. The suitcase was 99 yuan which is just about $15 US dollars, which was definitely not a big purchase. We grabbed some snacks for the Beijing trip and then started walking back. As we walked by the bakery that we have visited so many times, Ms. Green and Dr. Sanders were inside. They offered to take our things so we could grab a taxi to Culture Street and do last minute shopping.

Mary wanted to get a figurine from the shop there and I wanted to look at the painted leaves, but that was all we intended going for. We decided to visit our friend that spoke English in one of the small shops to say goodbye. Of course, he pulled out seats for us to sit down. He was so nice to us that we of course wanted to buy something. I got three small bracelets that I kind of had wanted to get anyways and Mary got a fan. As we were leaving, he gave us each a small little purse to put money or jewelry in “for good luck”. Mary and I then met up with Alexa and Lisa and decided to head back and get a picture with our friend.

Mary and I with our English friend.

After Culture Street, we got back at 6 PM, just in time for dinner at the Sheraton. We got back and changed quickly and then took taxis to dinner at the Sheraton, where we had our first American style meal. I got spaghetti, apple juice, and cheesecake and it was really good. It was a nice last meal in Tianjin, but still very bittersweet.

Mary and I are really excited about our dessert.

And here we are, back in the hotel. I’m procrastinating packing my final things, so I’m writing blog pots and trying to upload pictures to photobucket so I can post them on here.

I don’t know if I’ll get internet access while in Beijing. If not, then I’ll definitely finish my updates when I get back, but it’ll be when I return to the United States. I’m so glad I got to do this blog and go on this trip. It’s been a life-changing experience (yeah I know, what a typical thing to say) and it’s changed a few of my viewpoints on certain issues. I’ve met amazing people and made amazing friendships and I really value that.

We’ll see if I can post again!

Spontaneous trip to Beijing!

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:44:00 -0400

Well…the trip to Beijing was a lot of fun. I can’t really remember a lot of it because it wasn’t planned and I don’t know the names of the places. Hopefully I can find out from Dr. Mahon later.

We woke up early Sunday morning to head to Beijing. Simon was coming with us and then leaving Monday night to visit his girlfriend for her birthday. I was super excited because we were getting to ride the bullet train from Tianjin to Beijing which only takes 30 minutes, compared to the 2 hour drive it took us on a bus a month prior.

We took a taxi to the train station. We had to have Simon help us with our tickets because everything was in Chinese. Thank god he was there because we honestly would have been a little confused. We had to each show our passports and in order to get a ticket that allowed sitting down, we paid 69 yuan (barely over ten dollars).

The train station wasn’t crowded and was extremely organized. Then when we got in the train, the seats were extremely nice and air conditioned and quiet. I wish we had that in the United States everywhere because it was super convenient.

Super classy.

Lisa is super excited to go on the bullet train.

So is Mary…apparently I’m terrified.

Lisa, me, Alexa, and Mary all in one piece!

After getting off the train and arriving in Beijing, we got tickets for the subway. Of course, the whole common idea that subways are crowded is PRETTY accurate. Dr. Mahon had done it before (Simon hadn’t which was crazy to me) so when it looked like there was no room on the subway, she just shoved in and magically all 9 of us fit. I honestly loved every second of it, I thought it was hilarious and a lot of fun.

When then had to take a taxi to our hotel. When we arrived, it was honestly one of the nicest places I’ve ever seen. It was really weird to be staying in a hotel like that in China because I’m okay with our current living arrangements and rooms. Either way, the rooms and the hotel was fantastic.

Chillin’ at the Holiday Inn.

Checking in.

The only soft beds in China, I’m pretty sure.

We didn’t want to spend much money there, so Mary and I had made and packed peanut butter and jelly sandwiches the night before. We decided to just eat in our rooms before exploring Beijing, which was a quick and good idea to me. Simon, of course, didn’t make food or have any, so we invited him to our room to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He had never had one before! Apparently while in the United States, Simon has managed to avoid all delicious American food. So we decided right then and there that next year at Heidelberg, we would be teaching Simon all about food in America.

Ninja Simon.

After lunch, we grabbed some taxis and headed to a park. This park, called Jingshan Park, had a temple at the top where an emperor had hanged himself after he knew the empire was ending. Minus that lovely little depressing note, we all trekked up the stairs and got to the top. Let me tell you, I think I died a little after the hike up and I’m definitely more out of shape then I even knew. The view at the top was amazing. The Forbidden City was right across the street so we got to see it from an above view. It is HUGE. We are spending about 5 hours there at some point in the next three days in Beijing and I don’t think that even covers close to half of all the Forbidden City.

The park.

Dr. Mahon being the tour guide.

A view on the way up.

A view into the Forbidden City from the top of the man-made mountain.

You could pay to dress up as an emperor or emperess.

View of the city.

After the park, Dr. Mahon found the man that took her around in a pedicab with her husband and so we all got on the pedicabs and toured through the Houtongs, or old neighborhood spots in Beijing. We saw some really nice housing that costs 1 million yuan per square foot and Mao Zedong’s home that he stayed for a few years.

Lisa, Simon, and Alexa in a pedicab together because they were the tiniest.

Coolest ride ever!

One of the pedicab drivers was teaching us about the Houtongs.

Mary and I on the pedicab.

After the pedicabs, we were dropped off and we got on the subway and went to Silk Alley and the Pearl Market. Every vendor in there spoke English, so when you walked by you’d hear “lady come look.” We only spent an hour and a half in there, but there were 8 floors and tons of things to look at. There were pearls, iPods, cameras, knock-off North Face and polo brand shirts, silk scarves, ties, pajamas, literally everything you could think of. I’m glad we went because I got a lot of my final gifts.

The Silk Alley.

After the Silk Alley, we went to dinner thanks to Simon’s father. His father called him the week prior and gave him money to take our whole group. We ended up going to a really nice hotel near Simon’s father’s work which was somewhat of an American buffet. The food was absolutely amazing and it was a lot of fun. Simon brought two of his friends. They did not know any English so it was awkward but you could tell they were nice people. It was good that Simon also got to see his friends since he puts up with SO much from us and all our jokes about him.

The restaurant was really nice.

After a nice long dinner, Alexa and Dr. Wasserman headed back with Simon’s friend and the rest of us went to a really cool park with tons of small restaurants, shops, and bars called Houhai Park. It was dark when we got there and extremely crowded. The place seemed like a really fun hang out and I think we may go back during the day time. After about an hour and a half of just spending time wandering around, we headed back.

A somewhat blurry picture of Houhai.

Well, half of us. Simon, Dr. Sanders, Dr. Mahon and I stayed for the second taxi and it was literally impossible to get one. We walked for twenty minutes out of the Houhai area hoping that it would be less busy. But then all the taxis were full from the Houhai area so we couldn’t get one. Finally, Dr. Mahon and Dr. Sanders went together to try to get one and Simon and I tried. For some reason, that helped our chances enough that we got one right away. The whole way back Dr. Sanders and I pretended to be driving the taxi and swerving and guessing what lane we were going to be in. I think that must have been the exhaustion or the heat, but it was still fun.

Simon’s phone had died earlier in the day and he forgot a charger so we were all afraid that his friends were going to leave him after he took 45 extra minutes to get back. However, once we pulled into the hotel, there were both his friends. The one who took Dr. Wasserman and Alexa back earlier and the one who went with Lisa, Mary, and Ms. Green both waited. We were all really glad to see that and obviously it shows us how nice Simon and his friends are. We owe him a lot!

When I finally got back to the hotel room, Mary and Lisa were waiting to go down to the pool. After all that walking and heat, I was glad to jump in for a few minutes. It was FREEZING. We spent about ten minutes in there before freezing too much and decided to go in the sauna. Then of course, the sauna was too hot so we got out and dried off.

We then met Ms. Green at the spa area where Mary, Lisa, and I all got full body massages. That was the first time for me doing that and it was SO awkward. It was definitely an experience. Mary and I were in the same room, still wet with our bathing suits on, unable to really know what to do. So we both laid down (thank god fully clothed, ha) and the masseuses started to massage our backs. Honestly, I’m so ticklish that I was struggling not to bust out laughing with the awkwardness and the ticklishness that was happening. I thought it was only going to be my back but then all the sudden it was my legs and it was just too much. Then they had us flip over on our backs to get massaged. Since it was the firs time either of us got a massage, Mary and I didn’t know whether to talk to each other or close our eyes or what.

In the end, it really was nice. I’m glad to say I did it, but it was definitely awkward. I’m way too ticklish to do that all the time, but it was fun.

With the massage over, Mary, Lisa, and I went to the lobby where we ran into Dr. Mahon and Dr. Sanders. I was starting to get sick so I wanted to get something warm to drink. We ended up all ordering something and sitting in the lobby for about a half hour. The waiter even had shawls that he brought us because it was so cold. Finally, I was exhausted and wasn’t feeling too well so we all went up and went to bed.

In the morning, we all woke up and met in the lobby for breakfast at 9 AM. Lisa ended up getting flu-like symptoms and feeling sick, so she definitely wasn’t up for going out.

An adorable Chinese baby in the hotel.

After a buffet breakfast, Mary stayed back with Lisa while we went to a Tibetan style Buddhist temple. We had to take the subway to get there and I have NEVER seen anything so packed before. I thought the day before was busy, but I honestly think I was squeezed so tightly that I wouldn’t have to rest my feet on the ground if I didn’t want to and I’d still be upright.

Then we transferred lines and there was almost nobody on there. We all ended up even getting seats, which is basically unheard of.

Extremely empty, which is really unusual.

The temple was gorgeous, but it was so hot. We couldn’t take pictures inside of the temples to be respectful, but there were some amazing things. The craziest thing I have ever seen was in one of the temples. It was a GIANT wood carving of a buddhist figure that was carved from a single tree in like 1000 A.D. and brought from India. It was four stories tall and somehow was carved out of one tree and transported all the way from India without being ruined.

Tree line leading into the temple.

Opening of the temple.

Alexa and I in front of a statue in the temple area.

The sign said “Please no coins” but look how many are on the ground!

The temple was really old and really beautiful.

One of the many temples.

Simon meditating?

Ms. Green, me, Simon, Alexa, and Dr. Sanders.

After the temple, we walked around the Imperial Academy street for a little bit. We were going to visit the Confucius Temple but it was 30 yuan and we were running out of time. We decided just to head back on the subway, instead. The subway wasn’t really packed this time either, luckily because we were between rush hour.

Blurry, but you can see much busier.

Simon and I on the subway. He hates them…not really sure what to say about his facial expressions, though hahaha.

When we got back to the hotel, we all grabbed our stuff from the room and met in the lobby and got some food. After hanging out for a while, we headed back in taxis to the bullet train to head back to Tianjin.

Mary being a worrying motherly figure. Lisa dying.

Lisa wasn’t feeling well, so I said that I’d go with her since I can handle someone having to puke (thanks to my sister and her motion sickness!) and I made Simon sit in the front so if we needed to pull over, we could have him tell the driver in Chinese (perfect system if I do say so). We got to the train successfully.

Trying to get tickets was not as easy this time, as the lady didn’t want us all to pay separately. While we were getting tickets, we saw two girls who spoke English flipping out because they missed their train and needed to be somewhere. We also saw a man slamming a book into the window because he was angry about something. After all that, we boarded the train and headed home in a half hour…still crazy to me.

Leaving the bullet train station.

We got back about 6 PM and decided to go get Pizza Hut on Binjiang Street. Alexa and Lisa weren’t feeling well so they stayed back. We had a really good meal. Mary and I split a popcorn chicken pizza and got mango pineapple smoothies. We ordered Lisa a cheese pizza to go so she didn’t miss out because she was sick.

The pizza was really deelicious.

Mary, Simon, and I took a taxi back to the hotel after dinner. While in the taxi, Mary and I found out that all the taxi drivers talk about us a lot in Chinese. Also, we forced Simon into making sure that he hung out with us back in America. I really hope I get to hang out with a lot of the Chinese students, especially my students if they come.

The trip to Beijing was awesome. For being spontaneous, it flowed really well and I saw a lot of great things.

Pictures to come.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble trying to upload my...

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:39:00 -0400

I’ve been having a lot of trouble trying to upload my pictures. I’ll be trying to add them to the past two posts tomorrow. I just got back from Beijing today at around 6 PM, plus out to dinner and saying goodbye to Simon, so I am not going to update tonight. Be on the look-out for a summary of the past two days at some point tomorrow.

Here’s a picture of us at the bullet train station to keep you functioning until my update later.

Lazy shopping day

Sat, 30 Jul 2011 09:43:13 -0400

Well, today we were supposed to go shopping with Jim and Alexa’s student Vicki at 10:30 AM.

Due to some issues at home and the late night last night, I only had slept like 2 or 3 hours so I felt awful. I decided to forgo the experience and just continue to sleep. I’m glad I did, as I woke up at about 1:30 PM after falling asleep at 10 AM. So this post is naturally going to be pretty short and not so interesting.

Everyone got back at 2 PM and we all hung out in Lisa and Mary’s room for a while. Jim told each of us to pick out one of his paintings that he would give us…which is WAY too generous. So now we are trying to think of a gift to make or give him to say thank you. Nothing will ever compare, but at least we are going to try to do something.

After Lisa had to go to Maggie’s house, the previous Chinese professor at Heidelberg, Mary and I decided to go to Culture Street.

I believe that was the fifth or sixth time we had been there. We definitely had our lists ready for who to shop for, but we still wanted to look and see if things jogged our mind for someone we were struggling to buy a gift for. Basically, Mary and I bought a lot of things that weren’t on our list that we liked, which was inevitable.

We went to a strip of shops we hadn’t been to before and a man who owned a shop started talking to us in English. He was nice and he wasn’t pushy, so we decided to take a look in his shop. He asked us what country we were from and he asked if we knew any Chinese. He also assumed we were just on vacation or something because he said “oh are you flying back in a week?” We explained to him how we had been teaching English for the past three weeks and were going back, and he was really impressed. When I asked what one of the items he was selling was, he didn’t know the english word for the term, but he did the motion for applying lipstick.

So then he asked if we could teach him how to say and spell the word lipstick and we did so gladly. As we were leaving, he gave us each a pair of chopsticks “for luck.”

We walked around and picked up a ton of other things. I had a lot of fun bargaining today and got the prices down a lot. After three hours at Culture Street, Mary and I headed home. Lisa wasn’t back yet, so after hanging out for a little bit, I decided to do some laundry. I had to hand wash some of my clothes and hang them up, which is a lengthy process when you only have a couple things. But I really did need to wash them, so I didn’t really mind.

After laundry, Mary, Alexa, and I decided to walk to this cafe called “Cozy Cafe” that had western food. The owner is actually American I believe, so they had lots of options.

The food was really delicious. I got a strawberry milkshake, a Fanta, and chicken and beef fajitas. Mary got fajitas and a mango milkshake, while Alexa got chili and a baked potato. The waitresses and waiters even knew English which was an interesting change from what were used to.

So here I am, after dinner, exhausted and ready for our Beijing trip.

I won’t be updating tomorrow night or possibly Monday night because we are taking the bullet train to Beijing and spend a day and a half just wandering and doing who knows what. The whole trip is spontaneous and not planned sooo it’s what we make of it. I’m really excited, but I’m not bringing a laptop so I won’t be able to blog. I’ll be taking tons and tons of pictures, more then probably necessary. So look out for that on Monday or Tuesday night.

This is our official start to our last week in China. I could stay here forever!

Graduation Day

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 09:43:00 -0400

So finally, the day of graduation was upon me. I don’t think I could prepare for this because it’s really a weird thing to meet and befriend so many people, just to know that in three weeks, it’s likely you will never meet them again.

Graduation involved every class sitting in Room 511 to perform presentations of any kind to celebrate the past three weeks and the confidence and english improvement of each student that participated.

Lisa and Ms. Green’s class went next first with a performance of sign language by her 5 students who did not go to Cambridge. They also did a skit about Thanksgiving from friends which was adorable.

The class doing sign language.

Again.

Doing a skit from “Friends”.

Next, Dr. Mahon’s group went by doing presentations. One of the students did a presentation on her hometown and province, which was very interesting. She had tons of pictures of sculptures and events that went on in the city each year. The next student showed things about Peking Opera facial make-up, which was very interesting. She talked about what the different colors meant and what the different masks and ways to paint your face were for.

The girl who did the presentation on her hometown.

A presentation about facial make-up in operas.

We then thought we were running out of time, so we had to cut Dr. Mahon’s presentations short and hopefully do them at the end if we had time.

Mary’s class went next, with Sophia giving a speech about the past 19 days and how much she learned and they meant to her. It was so touching and really did make me sad. Amber, one of her students, said that she had put together a powerpoint presentation, so Mary allowed her to include it.

Sophia giving a thoughtful speech.

The powerpoint was tons of funny pictures about things that happened in and out of class. At the very end, different students stood up with gifts and gave something to each of us. They gave Lisa, Alexa, and I a bracelet made out of a traditional Chinese grass. It’s beautiful and it’s such a great reminder of all the times I’ve had here.

The presentation about our visit.

A slide joking about how Dr. Sanders and all of the rest of us always saying “English! English!” when students tried using Chinese.

That presentation was followed by Davis and Mary doing a duet from Disney’s Brother Bear called On My Way by Phil Collins. I’ll see if I can upload the video in another post because it was so cute and so perfect for the occasion.

Next, Mary’s entire class shared all their wishes with the rest of the class. They definitely almost brought the tears.

Davis sharing his wishes with everyone. I only have video of Mary and Davis singing and I’ll try to upload that when I get back and the connections better.

Finally, my class was ready to present. We had a combination of featuring different talents from our class and things we performed for fun. We first showed Lulu’s coffee commercial that he made. It was so funny and it was a great way to kick things off.

Getting Lulu’s coffee commercial ready.

Next, Jim showcased some of his art that he has done, which was so impressive, I can’t even tell you. He showed some 3D housing designs, some Chinese paintings, and some watercolor on a powerpoint for everyone to see. People were very impressed and I was so glad he got a chance to stand up confidently and share his talents.

Jim, showing some of his drawings.

Henry and Jack were next, performing a song that Henry had written the music for and Jack had written the lyrics. They performed the entire song in Chinese, then again in English, and finally again in Chinese. It was really, really touching.

Henry and Jack.

We then started the class participation, where our entire class spread out along the front of the class and did the macarena. It was absolutely hysterical, because it’s funny watching a bunch of people doing a dance they’ve only learned prior, but also because we forced others in the audience to participate.

A blurry picture of us dancing.

Finally, we wrapped up our segment of the graduation with the song”Can you feel the love tonight?” in the Lion King. Our whole class sang, as did many of the other classes. Some of the University of Wisconsin girls studying here had just gotten out of class and came in to see the performance because they heard us singing. It was a really special way for our class to end our time together.

The class and I singing “Can you feel the love tonight?”

It ended up that we had extra time because we were waiting for the Dean to pass out certificates. Therefore, we invited Dr. Mahon’s students back up, where Element gave us a run-down of many Chinese teas. Then Vicki, another student, gave an abbreviated version of her 40 slide presentation on the Forbidden City.

Element presenting on tea.

Vicki’s presentation.

Dr. Mahon’s class wrapped up with Pansy, a student, singing Chinese opera, which was very good to the rest of the class.

Pansy singing opera.

We still managed to have extra time, so Dr. Wasserman had our class get up and we performed and taught the shark song to the class. We also did most of the macarena and got almost everyone to participate.

Baby shark performance, very embarrassing.

Finally, the Dean arrived and we presented him with a gift of stamps of actor Gregory Peck, because Dr. Sanders said that the actor reminded her of the Dean. He then helped pass out certificates to each class.

I managed not to cry once during any of the presentations or goodbyes. It was really sad saying goodbye to my class, but I know they have bright futures and are going to go very far in life. I have all of their emails and I hope I can stay in touch with as many of them as possible.

Some of the students gave me gifts to say goodbye. Lulu and Sharon had given me coin purses the day before. Others had written us all letters, which were so sad. Nancy, from Lisa’s class, gave me a jade necklace and a postcard on it, which was sooo nice. Jessica from my class gave me some panda chines. Stephen, also from my class, gave me a Chinese good luck hanging thing. A lot of them made very impressive homemade cards that mean more than anything!

This experience teaching has been so amazing. It’s left such an impact on me and I definitely feel that I’ve learned a lot about Chinese culture and about diversity. I was nervous having to teach students, especially because they were older than me, but I learned that age and ethnicity are still just minor details in the grand scheme of things. We all were very alike, even though we lived in different countries, and I’m so glad that I could have this experience.

After graduation and the goodbyes, we had a closing ceremony dinner in the hotel. I sat with Simon, Lisa, Mary, Alexa, Jim and Ellen were invited (from my class), Ms. Li, and Eugene. The food was amazing as always and I love sitting and talking with everyone.

Because of impending rain and a little bit of flu like symptoms on some of our parts (I’m healthy so far…knock on wood) we decided to push Culture Street to tomorrow. Therefore, we just headed upstairs to take a nap for about two and a half hours, which was much needed for the sick ones in the group.

After dinner in the hotel, we all got ready and met with Simon and Jim and went out for the night which was sooo much fun. We went to the Sitong Bar, which is a bar with a lot of foreign people apparently. We just sat at a table and hung out for a couple hours. Lisa made tons of friends with people who barely spoke English outside around us. We were definitely completely safe, which I wasn’t sure about, but definitely we were all good with Simon and Jim being our “body guards”.

Before going out. Our favorite asian!

Alexa, Mary, me, and Lisa waiting to get a taxi.

Mary, Lisa, and Simon.

Simon and I. He loves us, even if he pretends we’re annoying.

The Sitong Bar.

Outside the restaurant, we ran into two men in their late 20s. One of them was Italian and he started talking to Lisa. While he was talking to Lisa, Mary and I started tallk to the other guy who was from Ohio! So obviously, we were all super excited we ran into someone from Ohio. Apparently he wast here for a year and a half for business. He was an engineer and had another 8 months left in China and he was from Newark, Ohio. Very cool.

After that, we went to late night karaoke and just hung out for like an hour or two and sang some songs. We finally called it a night, of course in the pouring rain, and took a pedicab-style thing back.

Lisa and I.

The whole day was lots of fun. It was a majorly busy day but really great.

I’m working on trying to upload pictures…it’s going a little slow. So I figured I would just upload this post that I had written and fix it later.

Let's go to the market!

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:13:00 -0400

Last night, Dr. Mahon came in the room at about 10 PM and asked us if we wanted to go to an antiques market in the morning 5 AM. A part of me said “NO WAY!”, but the tourist side of me said “DEFINITELY!” so I decided to go.

After waking up at like 4:50 AM, Mary, Lisa, Dr. Mahon and I headed out to find a taxi and go to this apparent antique market that was allegedly famous in Tianjin. We first get to the gate to leave the hotel and it’s locked, so we had to wake up the guard so he could unlock it so we could get out. I guess it’s for safety, but that was interesting that they lock us in each night.

The locked gate.

When we got to the market, we were actually surprised that there were so many people out to sell their goods. It’s obviously very difficult to find out if antiques are really or fake, so I’d never pay a lot of money for anything there. However, there’s tons of little things that are not mass produced that you can pick up, which I really liked.

Just 1/4th of the little shops or goods that are around.

It was a little dirty though. The older generations still tend to spit and do the “snot rocket” technique, which is digusting. The younger generations have really learned to stop doing that though. So we had to dodge a couple of gross bodily fluids on our adventure, but it was still a ton of fun. I may go back on Saturday with Dr. Mahon because more of the little shops were open and I want to look at some old coins that are really cool.

We went to the market until about 7:30 AM and then we got back in time to shower and get ready for school. We were definitely glad that today was only a planning day for the graduation ceremony tomorrow.

When we got to class, we decided to read a play on the Pony Express that we were going to perform for the graduation but don’t have time to do. It was very cute watching them do the play. We had more people than parts, so a lot of people had to double up and read at the same time which is always funny.

Alice, Sharon, Jessica, and Hortensia reading the play.

Lulu and his girlfriend Crystal reading the same part, hilarious.

Sophia reading the narrator part.

Chen reading the other narrator part.

Jane, playing the mother of all the boys wanting to be in the Pony Express.

After the play, we started to plan and practice the order of our performers and get them all on a flash drive for easy transitions during the performance. Lulu is going to show a commercial he made at Tianjin Normal last year which is really cool. Jim is going to show us some of the 3D rooms that he’s designed and his watercolor paintings.

Henry is going to showcase a song he has written. Lanseer wanted to dance, so we were going to have her dance, but she couldn’t think of a song. So out of nowhere, I thought of the macarena so our whole class is going to perform that, which is going to be a fun time. Our closing song for the whole graduation is going to be “Can you feel the love tonight?” which is my ABSOLUTE favorite song from my favorite movie the Lion King.

Henry and Jack performing the song Henry wrote.

Before we left, I wanted to take a picture with each of my students. Here’s just a few of them.

Jim and I.

Chen and I.

Kay and I.

Lulu, Crystal, and I.

After class, Dr. Sanders and Dr. Mahon hosted a pizza party for their students since we haven’t seen them very much recently. We went through pizza SO quickly. It was also Gloria’s birthday this week, one of Dr. Sanders’ and Mary’s students, so they had ordered it earlier for the pizza party.

Gorgeous cake for Gloria.

Simon stole my camera and was trying to take a super up close picture, so I made this gorgeous face.

Dr. Sanders and Mary’s class.

Dr. Mahon’s class.

Simon, failing to light the candles.

Glorida, making a wish before blowing out some of the candles. Lisa’s looking lovely in the background.

Singing Happy Birthday to Gloria. She’s adorable.

Dr. Sanders cutting the cake for like 45 people.

Chloe and Sophia.

Ms. Green, Simon, and one of Mary’s students. She had a crush on Simon and her friends made her get a picture with Simon, hahah.

With the pizza party over and done with, we all headed up to the room to get naps to make up for the sleep we lost this morning. After a nice two hour nap, we met in the lobby at 5:30 PM to head to the Dumpling Factory (the restaurant we took our students to). Unfortunately, Mary felt a little sick all day today so she headed back to the hotel before the meal even came. So now I’m playing mother and doctor to Mary and Lisa just in case they both feel sick.

I’m also going to hand write each of my students a note, so I hopefully won’t be up all night doing that. Either way, it’s worth it to me.

So long blog followers until later tomorrow.

dinner with jim!

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:04:07 -0400

Today, class started with Dr. Mahon giving about an hour presentation on Mexican-Americans. She tried to explain a lot of the stereotypes and misinformation that comes with being a Mexican-American. She touched on the border issues, but also on Mexican and Mexican-American culture, like food and holidays.

Dr. Mahon presenting on Mexican-Americans.

Dr. Mahon teaching about Mexican-American mariachi groups and teaching other words in Spanish to the classes.

After the presentation, we divided the classes into college aged and a group of masters students. Mary, Lisa, Alexa, and I took the college students and had an hour and a half conversation about college life in the United States. I also asked some questions about Chinese colleges, which was very interesting. Chinese students graduate high school with about 1,000 students, which BLOWS MY MIND. Also, when they move into dorms, there is only a closet and no other furniture so they have to bring all of it.

One of the students asked if we had a required class like a politics class (in China they have to take classes to learn and be up to date with Chinese politics), an English class, and PE.

There were similarities in differences. The biggest difference I saw was that it costs less than about $1,000 to live on campus and for tuition all together. Maybe I should learn Chinese really quickly so I can go to college for a lot cheaper.

After classes and lunch, Alexa, Mary, Lisa, and I hung out in Mary’s room for a while. I had planned on taking a long nap, but Mary and I ended up watching 500 Days of Summer instead. It was nice to just hang out and relax a little.

We met with Jim (my student) in the lobby at 5:30 PM to go to dinner. We had originally planned to see Transformers 3 in IMAX with Bart, Jim, and Simon but the tickets were $30 US, which is way too pricey for a movie I didn’t want to see. Therefore, we had changed the plans to just go to dinner and hang out, but Bart and Simon didn’t want to come then because they only wanted to go to the movie.

Either way, we set out with Jim and told him to pick the restaurant. We took two taxis, so Mary and I were alone in one and had our taxi trying to tail Jim, Lisa, and Alexa’s taxi, which was a rough ride. After a long 45 minute drive in a round about way to the restaurant, we arrived.

One of the many cool bridges in Tianjin.

We forced Jim to order different things for us and he ordered chicken, beef, shrimp, squid, some DELICIOUS sugar covered fried pineapple, and some kind of vegetable pie thing. Whenever we usually go out to eat, we force whoever is the Chinese native to order for us because we trust them. Literally, every dish was amazing and it was sooo much fun.

Lisa, right before she decided Jim should probably just handle ordering the food.

Jim, our precious stud who went out to dinner with four girls, even though Bart and Simon both bailed.

Mary and I, precious.

Delicious!

Deep fried pineapple with sugar on top. You had to dunk it in water so the sugar would stop stretching and we could eat it.

Vegetable pie thing, delicious.

After dinner, in China many times they give these lottery scratch off receipts. Mary was scratching hers off and it said she won! So Jim went to get her 5 yuan and she was SOO excited. Granted, yuan is less than $1 US, but it is still awesome to win something.

Mary was super excited!

Alexa, Mary, me, and Lisa.

We decided to go wandering through some shops for a few hours. We taught Jim different slang words like “legit” and “totally” and he was trying to use them in sentences the rest of the night. We then asked him to teach us some things and basically all I can remember is how to say “My name is Ali.” I’m kind of a slow learner and getting Chinese pronunciations correct is wayyy more difficult than I ever imagined.

Jim, me, Alexa, and Mary drinking free water in a classy mall.

Me, Alexa, Mary, and Lisa.

We finally got a little tired walking around the shops and since it was 9:30 we decided to head back to the hotel. Mary and I went in a taxi alone and the taxi driver dropped us off about two blocks too soon. He was pointing in the opposite direction (near the old Tianjin Normal opening of campus) and I tried to tell him to keep going but it was honestly no use. Mary and I just paid him and then walked the two blocks, deciding that we need Jim to teach us phrases like “no, keep going straight ahead” so we don’t have to walk extra distances all the time.

And now I’m here. This lazy week is probably necessary for our full on attack of Beijing in the coming weeks. Tomorrow our classes are planning for graduation Friday and then Friday I won’t see many of them ever again, so so sad.

So I’m gearing up for the end of the week which is going to be extremely hard to deal with.

Another lazy day

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:09:00 -0400

As the end of the week begins to near, I can definitely feel myself getting really sad about my students heading home after classes Friday. It’s only been a little over two weeks, but I would love to see all of them at Heidelberg! I know some of them will be there in a year, but I won’t be there in the fall so I still will only get a semester with them. Either way, I have made a promise to myself that I will be back to China at some point in my life.

Today wasn’t a very eventful day either, so most pictures will be from class. Class today was a lot of fun, though. We worked on a murder mystery for the first part of class. I tried to do it myself and after about a half hour, I figured out the answer with some logical guessing and some fact checking. After we revealed the answer, pretty much everyone had figured it out. Lulu then came up and sat near me the rest of class to show me how he literally solved the logic puzzle in 30 seconds. He said that he didn’t know the meanings of the words very well, so he could find the important information and figure it out quickly. It literally blew my mind how he only needed one line to figure out the rest.

I definitely should bring my class back to America so they can be my LSAT tutors, because they were really good at doing these logic puzzles.

I brought up the idea of doing a show and tell to Dr. Wasserman, so the homework for the class was to bring or think of something they wanted to talk about to describe themselves. One girl brought in a stuffed gorilla that she got when she was four and had an adorable story about how her dad would put it between her head and the wall every night so she wouldn’t hit her head.

Erica presenting about her gorilla stuffed animal. It was so cute.

Stephen, talking about his love for the arts.

Wish I had a better picture, but this is Lulu talking about a necklace his mother gave him and a ring his girlfriend gave him that he wears every day.

Not the best picture of Chen, but she was talking about cards her students in Thailand gave her before she left.

Another girl brought pictures of her niece who had a blood disorder and talked about how she had gotten better from her original stay as a 5 month old in the hospital. She said that there was no room in the hospital so she had to stay in the hallway.

It’s terrible I’m blanking on her name, but she talked about her niece, traveling, and showed us 15 minutes of a traditional Chinese opera from 300 years ago that is very popular that she likes.

Turtle shared the saddest story ever. He was 8 years old when his mother got sick and his dad was gone as a soldier, so he had to raise himself ALONE. Literally, blew my mind.

Here’s Turtle telling Dr. Wasserman all about growing up. I almost cried today, some of the stories were so sad.

Here’s Jim showing an old coin he carries on his key ring everywhere he goes.

Ellen, showing a business card from the director of the Thai school who told her to learn English and the computer and Thai. She talked about how he got cancer and went back to the United States and died two months later and all she had from him was the business card. It was really sad as well.

Hortensia talked about her tattoo, which said “courage, friendship, faith and love” in english and it was said by Plato. She said people yelled at her for having it but that it meant a lot to her. I was really proud of her for being so confident in herself.

My students have really, really impressed me as the weeks have gone on. They’re sooo good at what they do, have so many other talents, and have become remarkable people through all the adversity they’ve faced.

After show and tell, some of the class started saying “Jack wants to sing you a song” and “don’t be shy, Jack!” so basically they forced him to sing a song. He got up on stage, plugged in his iPod, and had the words written down on a piece of paper and sang for us. He was SOOO nervous but he was SO good. The Lion King is also my FAVORITE movie of all time so I was super happy he did it.

Adorable! Seriously, Jack was so nervous but he was a good sport and did it anyways.

We did another activity where we used books called “Good Dog, Carl” about a dog who takes care of a baby while a mom goes to the store. There were no words, so the students had to create their own story for each page. It was actually really cute and some of them are so creative.

Working on the books.

Stephen, Jessica, and Jack working.

Erica reading her story.

Alice reading her story.

Lanseer reading the story. She was the dancer that I talked about yesterday.

Hortensia reading her story.

Then we played Telephone, the game where you have to repeat a phrase and pass it along a group. The last person says what they think the first person started with and you see if it’s similar. They really thought it was fun because it really tested listening skills, but it was funny to see where it changed.

Sophia passing a secret to Kay.

When Turtle changed “I love chocolate cake” to “I like chocolate cake.” A small change, but everyone laughed at him, in a good way.

Jack, Lulu, Henry, Stephen, and two of Lanseer’s dance friends she brought to class.

Here’s Chen, cracking up because the phrase “the cat was fat and fluffy” did not end up anything like the starting phrase.

We re-did the shark song because they really liked it and wanted to perform it on Friday.

Jessica, Hortensia, Jack, Lulu, Henry, Lanseer’s two friends, and Lanseer.

I passed out dum-dum suckers to the class because they’re from Ohio. They really really liked them.

So, most of my day really was memorable because of class. We took a couple pictures at the end, I need to get a picture with each person on Thursday, though!

Lanseer in the blue, me, and her two friends on the ends. I didn’t learn their names, unfortunately.

Jim and I.

Lulu snuck in for a picture.

After lunch, Lisa, Mary, and I went to Vanguards to search for a journal for Mary and bags to buy to take things back on the plane. We found some really cheap bags, so that’s good to know in case my suitcase is way too heavy.

After Vanguards, I headed back to my room and took a fantastic 2 hour nap. We just got back from dinner and now I’m just hanging out in Mary and Lisa’s room like every night.

Tomorrow we are going out to dinner with some students. We were going to see Transformers, but it’s like $30 US for one IMAX ticket here in Tianjin. I would pay it for the experience and to make my students happy, but that’s kind of a steep thing to ask for everyone.

Until next time!

They had so many sad stories but I am so glad they shared.

P.S. The moment I sent this post, A Whole New World came on Mary’s computer and we used the bed sheet cover as the magic carpet. I just uploaded some pictures that I thought you all would enjoy.

Our magic carpet.

Mary and I flying.

I was Aladdin, Mary was Jasmine.

Gorgeous, haha.

I think this was a part where we both had parts at the same time, embarassing.

And that’s all! Goodnight (or good morning for you!)

An off day

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 09:41:07 -0400

Today was pretty much the laziest day we’ve had while here in China. With everything we did last night with my students, we didn’t have any offers by any others to hang out for the day. That wasn’t really a big deal, seeing as we are all really exhausted from yesterday and the weekend.

In class today, all the classes came together in room 511 where Dr. Wasserman gave a presentation on the Amish and their culture in the United States. The presentation lasted about 1 hour and there were lots of questions. It opened up a good conversation about diversity and diversity in the United States. A lot of the students found it really interesting that the Amish were so different from others in the U.S. I think they were most surprised that the Amish community is separate from the U.S. government and not under its control so they don’t have to pay taxes or be punished by U.S. law.

Dr. Wasserman presenting about the Amish.

When we got back to class, we started to work on a murder mystery logic game. Of course, this was really difficult and confusing but I definitely wanted to give it a try as well. However, as we were working on it, we all were confused because there weren’t enough possible murder weapons for each person. Dr. Sanders then informed us that she may have accidentally given us the wrong problem sheet with information missing so it would be impossible to finish. Since we were banking on doing that with the rest of our time, we were kind of at a loss for things to do.

As we started to talk about plans for class performances during graduation on Friday, Lanseer, one of our students, said she had videos from her “dance recital”. When she got the video up on the Chinese youtube equivalent, we realized she was just outside doing hip-hop dancing. It was not at all the kind of dance I was expecting to watch. Later, as we watched the video, we found out that she participated in a flash mob.

For those that don’t know, a flash mob is when you have all these people from the internet plan a time and meet in a public place and perform. That’s exactly what she did, she was pretty cool.

Next, Henry showed the class the music that was used in the movie and also an English song he had written. They were the same ones that I heard at the birthday party, but I’m always still impressed.

Henry also had this flash drive that looked like a credit card. The USB port folded back into the card card so it remained flat, which was SO impressive. I was super jealous and thought it was really cool and definitely wanted one.

After about an hour, we gave them a break. During the break, Lulu comes up and starts talking about he had a film he made that he wanted to show. So after break, he turned on a film that he made about Tianjin Normal University. It had music and it had a seamless sequencing to it that was amazing. Since he’s coming to Heidelberg, I told him that he is going to need to make Heidelberg a promotional video.

He then showed us a commercial that he made for this class. It started out with a professor and him about to drink coffee. Then all the sudden, the professor used magic and made him and the coffee cup very small. The professor then took a spoon and just dropped a little into his tiny coffee cup, filling it. The point of the commercial was that the coffee was sooo good that the professor didn’t want to share so he only had to give a spoonful if Lulu was tiny.

I thought that was super funny and creative as well.

After those videos, class let out. I was really impressed with my class and all their talents today. I also found out that Henry wants to come to Heidelberg to get a masters in music education. So now I know of four of my students who will be at Heidelberg in the fall of 2012, SOOOOOO EXCITING!

After class, Henry and Stephen came up and dropped off a BIG bag of these little bread pieces. He said they were traditional Chinese food and wanted us to have them. Seriously, my class is wayyy too nice. I tried some right then and it was bread with some sausage and maybe egg in the middle. Basically, it was like a breakfast sandwich, but still very good.

Mmm, pretty delicious!

We finally got to eat lunch again in the hotel and I was really excited. I feel bad though, because the cook doesn’t think we like Chinese food, so they only make us the things that we eat entirely when they serve us. Therefore, we had the same food that we had been starting to have more often last week when we were still eating at the hotel. I’m definitely fine with variety.

After lunch, we all said that we were going to go back and nap. I went to Mary and Lisa’s room for a little bit to take this quiz about America that Mary’s dad sent her. Apparently most people get like 49% on it so I definitely didn’t want to look stupid. Some of the questions were about philosophers and there was a lot on economics so it was really hard. After the test, which was 33 questions long, I got an 85%, which I find respectable. I saw which ones I missed which was annoying because I realized that I definitely chose the wrong answer for some and should have known the correct choice.

Mary, looking soooo intently at her quiz questions.

Following the test, I went back to my room where I literally fell asleep for 2 hours.

This post is pretty text heavy because there was literally almost nothing to take pictures of today, so I apologize.

We had dinner and had our meeting to decide and clarify teaching plans for the week. Then we decided to head to the bakery and the bank. While we were starting to walk, there were a ton of kids playing soccer in the parking lot, which was cute.

Love the children, ha.

We all headed to the bakery, where they obviously weren’t surprised to see us. I definitely ate some chocolate and got a piece of cake. So obviously, I really am just not holding back with my fatness.

And here I sit, in Mary and Lisa’s room, while we are trying to decide a friendship duet for her and her student to do. We just performed some epic disney songs, pretty corny.

Sorry for the dull day, but we all have those days!

Now, I will leave you with a picture of a man in short shorts, enjoy!

Everybody's Zooin' It

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 10:23:00 -0400

There are going to be a lot of animal picture so bear (haha GET IT?…) with me.

Today was literally a non-stop adventure from 8:30 AM to 8 PM at night. The day started with Dr. Sanders, Ms. Green, Mary, Lisa, and I going to Culture Street to get our shop on from 9 AM to noon. Dr. Sanders is a definitely bargain shopper and she was so helpful in getting Mary, Lisa, and I some great deals.

I didn’t bring my camera to Culture Street since it was our fourth time, but Mary did. For the most part we just did bargaining and getting souvenirs for people back home for a few hours.

We got these name scrolls done for our families. These two men (the artist doing the paintings and guy who handled the money) LOVED Dr. Sanders and Ms. Green. Dr. Sanders spent a few minutes fanning the artist, while we were ushered inside the small air conditioned shop. The man who loved Ms. Green got out four stools and told us to sit down. As we sat, he got out tea cups and poured us all tea to drink! The only word to describe it would be the word we’ve used for everything this trip: ADORABLE.

Ms. Green, her lover, Mary, and Lisa. I wanted to get a pictue with them!

Another shop man and our tea! They were sooo nice.

After Culture Street, we tried to stop at Beijaing Street for Pizza Hut. I’m pretty sure the taxi dropped us off on the adjacent street because we couldn’t find a place to eat for the life of us. After 25 minutes of trying to figure out where to eat, we decided just to head back to the hotel. It was already like 95 degrees, so we were all dying by the time we decided just to head back, which was kind of a relief.

Mary, Lisa, and I then decided to run to the bakery where we’ve been getting cake and chocolates and get some of their breads and sandwiches and eat them quickly before the zoo at 1:30. So we got back at 12:40, got back from the bakery at 1:15, and had to scarf down our food to meet my students downstairs.

We decided to get taxis to the zoo instead of walking. I went with Chen, Henry, and Jack. Apparently the taxi driver told them that they should teach me Chinese, so I was telling them all the Chinese words I knew (which was like 10 at the MOST). Either way, apparently it’s always impressive to know a few so they thought it was fun that I was trying.

When we finally got to the zoo, Henry wouldn’t let me pay for the taxi. Then they also wouldn’t let us pay for the zoo. I think it might just be because my class is male heavy and it’s just the proper thing to do to pay for women in their culture. I feel guilty EVERY TIME, but I’m trying to just offer and if they accept, I’ll pay. If not, I at least tried and have to sometimes just give up forcing my belief that I can pay for them.

The zoo entrance!

Tiger cleaning his paw.

White tiger! It had white eyes…weird.

LION! Never seen one so up close.

Nala?

I must have looked meaty.

Lisa, Mary, me, and Chen (sorry Lisa!)

Mary, me, and Lisa.

A bear, just chillin’.

SO CUTE.

He got tired so he decided just to lay back and relax.

Me, Mary, and Lisa. Lisa’s trying not to sit so she apologized for the awkwardness later tonight in the room, ha.

Me, Lisa, Mary, Stephen, Turtle, Joe, Chen.

Front row: Lulu, Crystal (his girlfriend), Henry, and Jack.

Pandas, ohhh god so excited!

Mary, Lisa, and I with the panda!

There were like 8 adorable red pandas.

Lisa loves hippos!

Lisa and I pretending to be the pig on the bench.

You know, a rhino eating through the fence that doesn’t even cover his whole body, no big deal.

Lisa got to see her hippos! They were even eating…I never see them awake.

And a giraffe, that one is for my sister, Mimi.

The zoo was AWESOME! Granted, it was so hot that I was dripping sweat, but it was fun being able to hang out with my students and see the zoo scene. The zoo is a bit like the 1950s zoos with no vegetation and a lot of concrete slabs, so that was kind of sad. They don’t have the habitats that we have in our zoos and the people were feeding the bears. There were also plastic bottles thrown down that the bears were playing with. So that was really a shock to me that it was so different, but I tried to still look past it and have fun.

While at the zoo, I told Turtle that he needed to cook for us. So he told us that “maybe he would make us turtle soup.” He’s absolutely hysterical and has a really good sense of humor, but I’m pretty sure he really did want to make turtle soup. At the zoo, he’d run ahead and so when we were walking he would get pictures of us. I think he was enjoying using his friend’s digital camera a little too much.

After about two hours at the zoo, it was starting to get rainy looking, and we decided to head out and wait at the supermarket for about an hour and a half to sit in the air conditioning and wait for dinner. My students and the rest of the teaching team were going to a restaurant called Hot Pot for dinner at 6 PM so we had over an hour of time to kill. We headed to a KFC and just hung out until it was time to head to the restaurant.

We went with Joe and he paid for our taxi and led us inside where Lulu (Frank) had already reserved a table. The rest of my students got there and sat with us before the Heidelberg group did, so we were a little separated, but still had fun.

The Hot Pot restaurant was something I’ve never seen before. It was a giant pot on a hot plate in the middle of a table where you can get a certain soup broth and different things like tofu, beef, lamb, quail egg, and noodles to cook in it and then eat. It was SO good and so much food. It was probably my favorite meal because of the food and because I got to sit with all of my students who are really funny.

Turtle, the chef, was ordering all our Hot Pot food.

This is what the Hot Pot set up was like. They add different ingredients in as time goes on and we finish each plate. The meal lasted like an hour and a half but it was so good and so much fun.

Mary, me, Lisa, and Chen. We look lovely Mary.

Lisa went first so after she gave the all clear, I knew we were good.

Stirring up the pot.

Getting ready to eat quail egg. It tasted like hard boiled egg.

I was struggling to get my food, so it ended up that Lulu just put the food on Mary and my plate every time they put something new in the pot. So basically, we were needing to be fed like we were children and they were our parents. I’m not so skilled using chopsticks with certain things, what can I say.

During dinner, we found out Jim, Lulu, and Turtle were all going to Heidelberg in the fall of 2012 for their masters degree which is really excited. If I get to see my students again, I’ll be one happy girl!

We decided to get a group picture after we ate with everyone in it.

Front row: Lulu, Dr. Sanders, Dr. Wasserman, Alexa, me, Stephen, Lisa, and Chen.

Back row: Joe, Simon, Turtle in the way back, Dr. Mahon, Mary, Henry, and Ms. Green.

After dinner, we found out that my students paid for the meal! They paid for everything ALL day which was just crazy to me. It meant a lot that they did that but they really didn’t have to!

So to show our gratitude, we bought them all McDonald’s ice cream (not the same trade-off, but we tried). Lulu got in the cab with Mary, Lisa, and I to make sure we got back to the hotel properly. He even paid for the taxi…ridiculous, as I’ve said.

After a shower, I decided to upload some pictures and finish the blog before bed. I’m glad I have a place to share everything, but sometimes it’s really a struggle to get my pictures on here every night because I have to upload to the computer and then to a website. Either way, I’m going to be happy I did it in the end. Besides, today was another fantastic day and I’m so glad my students came with us to the zoo and out to dinner.

Saturday in Tianjin, Part 2

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 09:12:28 -0400

So Saturday is the day in our contract where we get to go sight-see and do all sorts of fun things. So today we had planned to go to the China House, botanical gardens, Culture Street, and Italian Street.

We left at 8:30 AM with everyone, including Ms. Li, Jim and Ellen. The first stop was the China House. This house is LITERALLY a house built with things like pottery in the actual walls. It was such a cool place and sooo pretty.

So, instead of typing too much, I’ll just do pictures.

Alexa, me, Lisa, and Mary in front of part of the China House walls.

Everything was made of pieces of pottery from the different dynasties. The top of the house says China.

Mosaics and furniture from different dynasties.

Stairway.

Dragon mosaic.

Stairs going down. That pot at the bottom is where people would drop money off the top stairs and try to make it into that.

It was SO hot outside, so we decided to skip the botanical gardens and went to the Tianjin Natural History Museum instead.

Gorgeous building.

Land Before Time!

Alexa, me, Lisa, and Mary posing in a submarine in the museum. We tried to get this little boy to join our picture.

Lisa trying to convince the kid to take a picture with her. She’s done it successfully with about 12 other Chinese children. He was too afraid, though.

Then we went to the Kenya animal exhibit. I know that my sister, Mimi, LOVES giraffes, so I had to get a picture with one!

Lions! There were tons of cool animals in the exhibit.

Bringing in the giraffes again.

And giraffes again. I’m pretending to be the giraffe…how cute.

And again. I’m pretending that Mimi is the little girl with the giraffe. She better appreciate these pictures!

After the museum, we went to get pizza at a place called Pizza Hill. Oddly similar to another famous restaurant, wouldn’t you say? So here’s Ms. Green and Dr. Sanders loving their pomegranate tea.

Hello steak and potato pizza. It was all super delicious. At this point, I had to go to the restroom. I assumed it was going to be a Chinese style toilet, which I have managed to escape using this whole time. So I mentally prepared myself for a Chinese style toilet, brought my portable toilet paper and everything…and found out they had a western toilet WITH toilet paper.

Meaning: I have escaped the Chinese toilet situation once again. I promise to do it at least once before I leave. I’ll give you a non-graphic update (I’ll give myself a pass or fail grade) on how that one goes.

After lunch, we really wanted a picture with Jim and Ellen since we hadn’t gotten one yet. So here’s me, Alexa, Ellen, Lisa, Mary, and Jim.

After that, we decided to go to Culture Street and get some shopping done. It was Mary, Lisa, and my fourth time. We are going back tomorrow too, we love it there.

This guy paints names in gorgeous colors on scrolls for really cheap. He was really fun to watch.

After two hours at Culture Street, we decided to go to Italian Street (you know, like Chinatown in America…Italian Street in China!). It’s not a big place, but it is really pretty.

They were doing a wedding photoshoot around Italian Street. So gorgeous!

Lisa, me, Mary, and Alexa on Italian Street. It was SO hot out that we didn’t want to touch. That’s why we all look so awkward and far apart.

We decided to go to eat in a french restaurant. The food was DELICIOUS.

The restaurant was super gorgeous inside.

Me drinking something called a Cinderella. It had pineapple juice, orange juice, grenadine, lemon juice, and soda.

I told Ms. Green that I’d take a picture of the adorable little bread and butter we each got to eat.

I had to take a picture of my food. It was sooo pretty and so good.

Afterwards, we HAD to get gelato…we were in Italy after all. We walked around the small shops and then posed for some corny pictures right before we left.

Alexa, Mary, Lisa, and I. Oops, Mary’s eyes are closed. Ohhh well.

Mary, Lisa, me, and Alexa.

After that, we came back and Mary, Lisa, and I decided to swap photos from the trip. That pretty much leads me to now. I’m going to maybe add some other pictures to some of my blog posts from their cameras so just check around.

The Cambridge class says goodbye

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:38:21 -0400

Today was the day Lisa’s class was leaving for Cambridge tomorrow. After about an hour and a half with our usual students we headed up to Room 511 to say goodbye to Lisa’s class.

I sat with my class, next to Lulu (Frank) who asked me all sorts of questions like “how much does it cost to buy a house in Tiffin?” and “how much does a new car cost?” Since he’s going to Heidelberg most likely in the fall, he had tons of questions on costs of living, etc. and I really failed at knowing the answers.

Dr. Sanders giving the opening speech.

Lisa and Ms. Green’s class started with a speech by Doris and Lee. Doris went first and she had a great speech about how much she’s learned so much and even though everyone was leaving to go to England, we’d be in each others hearts forever.

I about cried, seriously.

Bella did a presentation on Valentine’s Day….ADORABLE. It was absolutely fantastic. Lulu asked me what Valentine’s Day was and what my favorite kind of rose was. I was trying to explain the holiday and how you can give different colored roses to mean love or friendship, etc. Once again, ADORABLE.

When Lee was talking about how Valentine’s Day is for when you love one another, Mary and Doris did a really precious hug. I’m glad I captured it on film, ha.

The class did collages and showcased all of them to the class.

Next, Emma did a GREAT song about love to the whole class. Lulu told me it was a popular song in China (it’s in english, though) and looked up the lyrics for me to read on his phone. I loved the performance, she was a great singer.

She was so good.

Lee gave a speech as well. He even quoted a Russian poet. His english skills were really impressive.

Lisa, posing while giving out certificates.

Ms. Green pronouncing all the student’s Chinese names. They absolutely loved that!

Excitement because Ms. Green pronounced the name perfectly!

Lee giving Lisa a big hug. My class loved that!

The class with their certificates!

The class performing a goodbye song. This had ALL the students, including the ones not going to Cambridge. It was cute and they were such good sports for doing the song for Lisa and Ms. Green.

My class. I love them SO much.

Mary’s class. My classmates were chanting Mary’s name.

The staff posing for pictures. ALL the students went crazy and were taking tons and tons of pictures. I gave Lulu my camera so I really appreciated that as well.

All the Chinese people do a peace sign in all their pictures. They say it means “victory” though. Either way, we still aren’t totally sure.

Hahahaha, creepy picture of just me. Thanks Lulu.

Posing with Lee, Farrell, Doris, me, Lisa, Stone, Bart, and Bob. They were Lisa’s students and obsessed with Ms. Green and Lisa.

Lisa, Elle, and I.

Lisa, Sharry, and me.

Lisa, Ann, and me.

Lisa, Vicky, and I.

Lisa, Bella, and I.

Lisa, Stella, and I. I’m going to miss Stella sooo much, she was so nice!

Ms. Green was really popular among the boys.

Bart, Farrell, Stone, Lisa, Ms. Green, Lee, Bob, and Doris.

Our failed attempt at matchmaking Doris and Bart this week. Oh well, we still love them, ha.

After our goodbyes, we met with Jim, Ellen, Lee, Farrell, Stella, Doris, Alexa, Lisa, Mary, Bart, and I went to get lunch to say goodbye to the ones who were leaving for Cambridge on Saturday. What’s better than to celebrate with McDonalds? IT was really crowded but by the end we all got seats together.

After walking home from lunch, Mary, Lisa, Alexa, and I went up to our rooms to get on bathing suits for the water park. We were SO excited because it was super hot out and it seemed like a fun thing to do. So after changing and getting ready to go down to the lobby, we ran into Dr. Sanders, Dr. Wasserman, Ms. Green, and Dr. Mahon who all laughed at us and told us their was a communication error.

A water park to us means like slides with water and different activities like that. To them, water meant a park with rivers and streams. Welcome to the language barrier! So we felt really stupid and went back quickly to our rooms to change. It was no wonder that none of the students were going home to change into bathing suits.

After we came downstairs, we had a good laugh about the problems sometimes with language translations and how we were about to walk out with towels and swim suits on. We decided to still go the “water park” with the students because it was a lot of their last days with us. Stella, Farrell, Bart, Alexa, Lisa, Mary, two of Alexa’s students, and I walked all the way to the park, which was a longgg way. Farrell even bought Mary and myself water, which was sooo unnecessary but so nice!

Me, Lisa, Mary, Stella, and Alexa at the “water park”.

At least it was gorgeous!

Mary and Lisa getting in a fountain. This was taken seconds before some lady yelled at them in Chinese and told them that apparently only children could go in the water.

The closest to a “water park” that I got. Look how excited I was about the water.

Looking super excited that the water was shooting up. A second prior I was moving my feet around pretending I was a little kid in water and I mistakenly splashed water allll over a little boy next to me, oops!

It was really smoggy out today. But here was a ferris wheel and a tiny amusement park connected to this park.

After walking around for a half hour we literally were dripping from sweat. So we all decided to sit down for a while and just talk. While we did that, a man came up asking for our bottles from our water. Bart told us that’s how the guy makes his money. Lisa felt super guilty that she hadn’t finished her water yet. After like five minutes we finished our waters and we chased down the man to give him our water bottles. He was smiling and saying something to us in Chinese. Bart said he had a thick accent and couldn’t understand. Either way, we smiled and said “goodbye!” and he said “goodbye!” back.

We decided to head home in taxis since it was sooo hot. Farrell went home from before the taxis so I said bye at the park. When we got back, we had to say bye to Stella, which was really sad.

When we got back to our rooms, I pretty much just passed out from exhaustion and slept until dinner. We had pizza in Dr. Sanders room and discussed tenative plans. Saturday is packed with things to do. On Sunday, I’m going to the zoo and to Hot Pot with my students. I guess Hot Pot is really fun and popular so all the staff wants to come. Our weeks are jam packed with students taking us places and our own outside plans. It’s making everything go by so quickly.

We really hope that all our students stay in touch. I know it’ll be difficult in the long run, but they made a huge impact on our lives and I really don’t want to lose touch.

I was thinking to myself this morning…I’m writing a...

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 20:23:34 -0400

I was thinking to myself this morning…I’m writing a blog about being in Tianjin, China, but many people don’t know where that is. So I’m attaching a picture from google to pinpoint where we are in relation to the rest of China.

Hope this helps!

The Peking Opera!

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 11:40:22 -0400

Today we were back in our classes with our normal students. I’ve become quite attached to my class, I really love how funny and intelligent they are.

Dr. Wasserman presented her Michael Jackson presentation to them. That lasted about an hour and a half. Then she showed pictures of home and she really liked that a lot.

We introduced them to navigating the Heidelberg website. Since all the students have the option of studying at Heidelberg for a master’s degree, we talked about the different requirements and how to apply. I seriously will die of happiness if even one of my students comes to study at Heidelberg in the next two years!

I also got to show pictures of my cats, team, and family today. They really enjoy pictures from home so I’m glad I got to share more about myself with them.

We spent the last hour playing homophone bingo. I LOVE how much they like Bingo, like I do. There were some Heidelberg themed prizes if they won and they kept getting really excited being able to choose.

As class ended, Rose, one of the best students in the class, said that she had to return to teaching next week so she had to say goodbye. She was my first student to leave me! I did not like the feeling of having to say goodbye. She brought both Dr. W and I presents, a piece of rice paper with Chinese calligraphy on it that her dad had written. Each one said “Home” and talked about harmony of the home. It’s seriously the most gorgeous thing ever and I’m sooo excited to have it!

I’m going to miss her!

How amazing is that?

We then headed back to the hotel and ate lunch. The plan was to go to the zoo today at 1:30 PM, but at about 1 PM it started POURING. Chen, my student, came to ask if we could do it another day because of the rain, and we agreed. So instead, Bart took us to the bank so we could withdraw some money from the ATM. He also took us to Vanguards to get batteries and umbrellas.

On the way back, we told Bart we wanted to stop in the bakery again and get some chocolates and a mini-cake. We told him we would reward him with chocolate for helping us out.

After hanging out and eating part of the mini-cake with Mary, Lisa, and Alexa, I went to the room and crashed for two hours. I woke up, got dressed up, and met everyone down in the lobby at 6 PM to go to the Peking Opera!

Nancy, one of Lisa’s students, has a cousin who works in the Peking Opera in Tianjin. She got us 10 free tickets and a backstage tour of the dressing rooms, make-up, and props. It was sooo cool!

The next thousand pictures are all from the opera. There will be minimal text, but I figure there will be no complaints.

Outside of theater.

Dr. Sanders posing on stage.

Me, Lisa, Mary, Dr. Sanders, Alexa, Dr. Wasserman, Jim, Dr. Mahon, Nancy, Ms. Green.

Alexa, Lisa, me, and Mary being superstars.

Make-up.

Orchestra members practicing/performing in the main star’s room.

Dr. Wasserman, Mary, a famous Chinese Peking Opera star, Lisa, Dr. Mahon, Ms. Green, Nancy (front left), me, Alexa, Dr. Sanders, and Jim.

Dr. Sanders posing with props. They let us choose some and take pictures!

Lisa and Dr. Wasserman with swords.

You know, me just the next Peking Opera star.

And now you see my normal weird self in a picture.

Gorgeous stage.

Opening act.

The white mask means he’s a villain.

The red means the hero.

Another main character.

This guy was awesome! I guess he’s a famous Chinese historical figure. I’m an idiot for not knowing this history well enough.

The guy in black is the famous Chinese opera singer we met backstage.

The show went on for about two and a half hours. It was a little boring because I was not able to understand totally what was going on and there was a lot of monologue. However, the costumes and the tradition of it all was amazing and I’m so glad I was able to go. I really have to thank Nancy for everything she did for us!

After the show we were invited backstage where that main performer we took a picture with in the beginning asked us back to his private room for pictures. He introduced us to his son as well. We were joking that he was trying to pair Lisa up with him.

After the opera, everyone got in taxis and headed home. Mary, Lisa, and I ventured out a few blocks to get McDonalds. Without any Chinese skills and just the pointing at the menu method, we easily got our food.

So as I write this, I’m finishing my fries. They were delicious. I’ll definitely not be losing weight on this trip!

non-stop dayyy!

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:01:47 -0400

Today was literally jam packed from my 6:45 AM wake up to my getting home finally at 10 PM. I spent the morning getting ready and uploading pictures to WalMart’s website so my mom could print off pictures by the time I get back. That’s going to be a longgg process, seeing that I’m being a major tourist and taking pictures of EVERYTHING!

Dr. Wasserman and I did our presentations for Mary’s class today. I tried to change it up a little today and teach about restaurant slang, like “booth or table?” and other things they might not think about when going into an American restaurant. I also showed pictures from back home of friends and family. I had many pictures of the Heidelberg softball team, some golf pictures, cat pictures, and pictures of my family. They really enjoyed seeing what life was like for me because it can be so different.

Stella, Lisa’s student, had asked Mary, Lisa, Alexa, and I the night before through email if we’d like to go and get pizza with her friend Ingrid who was visiting for the day. I love opportunities to spend time with the students, and I love Stella so of course we said yes!

After teaching, we met Stella and Ingrid in the lobby. Ingrid had GREAT english speaking skills. She told us that she wanted to study in the United States and was looking at Penn as her main choice. She’d been to America before and she was studying in Beijing for the past three years.

Stella and Ingrid decided to take us to Pizza Hut on Binjiang Street, the MAJOR street that we had been shopping on with Doris and Bart.

So we go to this Pizza Hut, expecting a basic white walled room with maybe some cheap seats where we can just grab a pizza. WRONG! This was one classy restaurant, with an upstairs and a downstairs. The menu was like 20 pages long with things like “quail egg and octopus legs”, appetizers, smoothies, wine, soup, salad, dessert, and of course pizza.

Chinese Pizza Hut!

Ingrid and Stella told us that everytime either of them visits one another, they always go to Pizza Hut. Therefore, I felt really honored that they would be willing to include us in their little tradition! We had them order everything because they were the experts…it was all delicious!

Super classy! See the chandeliers? I mean this place had TWO stories.

Look at all the tabs on the side. There were like 30 pages of things to choose from.

Lisa, me, and Stella.

Ingrid, Alexa, and Mary.

Mmmm pizza! The appetizer and smoothie in the picture were also delicious!

This pizza had shrimp in the crust, corn, peppers, pineapple, sausage, ham, and everything else you can think of! It was the best!

We also told them to order desserts. They ended up ordering 6, so one for each of us…but we decided to share. This is the Green Tea cake. It sounds really weird, but it’s delicious! It was so much better than I expected, seeing as I’m not a tea fan.

Mango and chocolate…what? Also amazing.

Strawberry ice cream cake.

We got a chocolate one and a tiramasu as well. All amazing!

Stella and Ingrid even paid for us, which couldn’t have been cheap! We forced them to not pay for taxis so they snuck it so that they would pay for Pizza Hut. I can’t believe how unbelievably nice everyone has been to us!

After that, we had to head back because we were meeting some of Mary’s students to go around town and see the Tianjin Eye, or the ferris wheel, in town.

We got back and it started pouring. Mary and I made it inside, but Lisa and Alexa waited for us outside thinking that we were still on our way in taxis…oops. That’s the one benefit to having a phone that we don’t have right now.

At 3 PM, we met a huge group of Mary’s students and some of the boys from Lisa’s class and headed in taxis to Culture Street. I didn’t know we were headed here, but I didn’t take many pictures since we’d been there twice before.

We went into the temple there, however. I didn’t even know it existed, but it had tons of cool buildings.

Entrance to the temple. The whole place had been restored in 1985 but many places were built thousands of years ago, which is just hard to wrap my head around.

Lots of people were praying/worshipping and using these incense sticks at each location.

We then went back into the main area of Culture Street with the whole group. While we waited, we forced Simon to take a picture of us. So here’s me, Mary, Doris, and Lisa.

Right after we took these pictures, a teenager behind Simon had his camera ready and asked her to take a picture with him. She’s quite popular with the men around here!

I also decided to get a picture of Simon with Doris’ purse!

See, he does do tons of nice things for us and our students. Remember Bart carrying the same bag a few days ago. Doris has a way with getting the men to carry her stuff for her.

Next, we left Culture Street and decided to get McDonalds. This ended up not happening, but Mary and I got a picture with Ronald McDonald anyways!

Mary’s making a gorgeous face, as you can see.

Instead, we went to KFC because it was not as crowded as McDonalds. Simon forced me to get the spicy sandwich. I sat with Doris, Alexa, Mary, Dr. Wasserman, and Davis. We taught Davis the term “stud” because he was around all these ladies. He also said “I’m surrounded by such beauties,” HOW SMOOTH IS THAT?

Speaking of smooth, Lisa was at an all boys table (granted they were her students), but we wanted to take a picture and joke with her anyways.

Stone, Farrell, Lisa, and Lee.

Classy KFC. I figured I’d take a picture of it since I’m in such a tourist mode.

After KFC, we all headed by taxi to the Tianjin Eye.

How awesome is that? We rode it too!

Here’s a gorgeous view of the water and city from right under the ferris wheel.

Here’s a quick photo of the group. I think 14 of us went on the Tianjin Eye. Look at Ms. Green and Lee posing for the camera.

This is a nice blurry picture of what the little compartments were that we rode in. Simon, Lisa, Doris, Davis, Alexa, and I all rode in one together. It took about a half hour and went all the way around.

Here’s a picture of excited Mary waiting to get in the ferris wheel capsule things.

Simon and Lisa on one side looking super excited to be on a ferris wheel. While Simon might not have been, Lisa was!

The views were amazing.

At the top pretty much!

At about this point my camera died, unfortunately. I got a few pictures in but not many. I’m going to steal Mary’s and Lisa’s pictures from the rest of the night so I can complete the blog later so stay tuned for more pictures!

Even without pictures, I’m going to blog about the boat ride we did next. By this time, it was starting to get dark and all the lights on the bridges, buildings, and the Tianjin Eye were lit up. The sights were some of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Some of the boys wanted Ms. Green to go on a boat ride with them. It ended up that everyone but Dr. Sanders and Dr. Mahon wanted to go on the boat so we all bought tickets for about 100 yuan. Simon, Lee, and Farrell went and got them for us.

We waited about 20 minutes to load the next boat, which was this long boat with tons of seating and standing room. They tried to kind of model it after a Dragon Boat which was very cool.

The tour took us around the water and even though the announcer was in Chinese, I knew he was explaining the different sights. Tianjin is known for a lot of it’s western architecture so it was really cool seeing it all lit up at night.

Lisa’s students were helpful in pointing out what different things were. They were also very nice, getting seats for us and trying to look up the answers to questions they didn’t know.

We got a few pictures with them that I hope I can grab from Mary and Lisa’s cameras. I also want to add some of the Tianjin scenery at night because it’s seriously a great sight.

The pictures really don’t do this place justice anyways. I really think everyone should visit China when they get a chance!

Dumpling Factory

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:17:00 -0400

We did presentations in the different classes again today. I had Lisa’s classroom and they were really attentive and friendly. We did an activity where they had to order off an American menu. It’s hard to realize how much slang we really use until you’re trying to cover the material with students who speak English as a second language.

Either way, today we treated all the classes to the Dumpling Factory. So I met up with my students walking to the Dumpling Factory, where they were very energetic. They were yelling “Ali, I miss you” and “Hi Mary!” in the street. I really love my students, they’re so much fun.

When we got to the restaurant, a lot of my students wanted to sit at my table. So we added two or three chairs to fit us all in. It was a tight fit, but I loved being able to sit with all of them.

Lulu (Frank), Stephen, and Henry all posing for a picture. Mimi, note the giraffee on Stephen’s shirt! Lulu will probably be coming to Heidelberg in 2012 for his masters.

Alexa and I at the table. Henry took the picture for me!

The class! Minus Turtle (that’s his American name!) who is taking the picture. From the left is Joe, Lulu (Frank), Stephen, Henry, me, Alexa, Chen, Jack is standing, Hortensia, Jessica, and Hazel.

Doing cheers! Turtle didn’t have a glass, so they poured Sprite in his bowl. Hazel, Jack, Turtle, and Joe are in the picture.

So many dumplings! There were 25 different kinds on the table. They make combinations totaling in the 100s of vegetable, meat, seafood, etc.

Henry, the music composition major, was pressured by his friends to sing a song. So the whole table sang a song in Chinese about friendship. Then they chanted trying to get Dr. Sanders to sing but she was too embarrassed. We found Mary and so Mary and I sang a short song in english. It was the “make new friends but keep the old” song that originally came from the Girl Scouts I believed. It was really embarrassing, but hey, I’m only in China once (I hope not!).

After lunch, Dr. Wasserman, Mary, Lisa, Alexa, and I were walking home and we passed this bakery and decided we finally needed to go inside. The cakes in the window always looked SO amazing, so we wanted to look around.

Look how amazing the cakes are! These were all birthday cake designs.

These were single desserts you could get. We all decided to get something, so I got the cake with the white chocolate palm tree sticking out of it.

More cakes! Some had Chinese characters on them, sooo cool.

And the rest! I told you that these were awesome!

After dinner, decided to eat my cake. It was sooo delicious. It was only 12 yuan, or a little less than 2 U.S. dollars. That’s a pretty good deal for an elaborate cake.

We closed out the night doing our own laundry in the tub. I don’t know if that’s the best idea, but we tried it.

Lisa and Mary washing their clothes.

We will see how they turn out. We have them hanging on clothing line everywhere. I’ll have to take a picture when I get back.

Here’s our room with all our clothes. I’m proud that I honed in on some long lost homemaking skills tonight.

I’m finally all caught up to posts so look for them coming more up to date. We will be going to get pizza and go on the Tianjin Eye (ferris wheel) tomorrow, the zoo on Thursday, and a water park and Italian Street on Friday. On Saturday we are going to the foreign goods market, Culture Street, and a temple. Sunday we are going with Grace, the previous Heidelberg Chinese professor, to look at pearls. Mary, Lisa, Alexa, and I were invited by my classmates to a home cooked Chinese meal by Turtle (my student) and the rest of my class later Sunday night.