Wait, this is good for your what?

Onions are good for your skin, chicken feat are good for your breasts, eating stomach can help your digestion and eating duck heads... well they just taste good.

The most fun I have in China is when I entrust myself to my Chinese friends. I ended up drunk in Shanghaiguan having a heart to heart with a Chinese girl over duck heads one night and celebrating a man's daughter's 100th day of life in his bar the next. One day I walked around for an hour trying to get in touch with a guy I'd met on a bus who wanted to take me out to dinner but was to Chinese to admit he had no clue where I lived (oh yeah, he didn't speak any English) and another I was brought to an all Chinese variety show where I was asked by one of the women there if I wanted to get on strange (I said no). You know the interesting thing? All of this happened in the last week. 

If there's any advice I can give you it's that when you're in China just let the Chinese usher you around like a child, it's kind of fun. I mean, I'm a traditionally overly independent American like the rest of us. But sometimes it's fun to let the Chinese girl you just met that day grab on to your arm and ask overly personal questions as they tell you should eat stomach and promptly take you out to dinner. You can't get offended by it or even annoyed. Chinese people are completely harmless and honestly kind of adorable when you get used to the crazy shit they do. Sure I swear under my breath at the old men who stare at me non-stop during an hour bus ride, it's still creepy! And I get annoyed at the 10th text in one day from a Chinese person I gave my phone number to out of nothing more than reluctance but that doesn't mean I can't love the Chinese people too. 

Chinese people have a lot of ideas about what's best for a person especially what's best for their health. In fact a lot of the things they think sound absolutely crazy! But you still have to smile and nod along when you're co-worker who gave you food poisoning tells you that you MUST eat such and such because it's so good for you or you're told to wear more  layers when it's 70 degrees out and you're already sweating. Or when an old lady tells you you won't be able to have children because you're sweating from physical exertion (well that was a male friend of mine, but it's still funny!) 

No, I don't want to take advice from people who have their kids wear pants with slits up the ass in the middle of winter (when it's below freezing!) or from people who find it necessary to wear long-underwear when it's in the 50s (what are you going to wear when it gets colder?!) But at the same time, even if it's not helpful this stuff leads to good stories and every once and a while you find out you like something. I mean, who knew duck head was delicious?! Ma

Public bath houses

In China there's a huge variety of living conditions. Some buildings, even in my city, are very modern. You can walk into many apartments and feel like you're in an American apartment. Yet there are also people living in bunks in their office at my school or in the restaurant they own. In some places there's running water and hot water heaters, you can get hot water from the tap and/or take a hot shower but it still very common to live in places where you don't have your own bathroom, shower, hot water, or any running water. Because of all this bath houses are very common in China. They are especially common in a old, small, undeveloped city like the one I live in. I've heard their are ranges of bath houses. They receive letter grades just like restaurants do. In China the restaurant's letter grade is posted near the door for all to see. (I've still only ever seen one A!) As for restaurants there are a lot of Bs, almost no As and Cs are only really common in small holes in the wall, where as long as the food is still hot you don't have to worry about eating it. For bath houses I'm not so sure, I've only ever gone to one and it has an A. But I was told by the friends I've gone with that this bath house is a lot nicer than the other ones they've been to.

So what is a bath house? A bath house is a mix between a public shower (like the ones at a swimming pool or gym) and a spa. But in no way can you call a bath house a spa. If you were told a bath house was a spa you'd be very disappointed when you got to the bath house! The one I got to is very fancy and you don't see very poor people at it, but you do see a lot of older people who are not well off. Yet you also see very posh skinny Chinese girls teetering on their 5 inch heels in and out of the place.

Firstly, the bath house I go to is remarkably clean. The entrance is very warm and has all marble floors (like all the floors in China). You take your shoes off in a little pit then you can step out of it in your socks or bare feet onto the floor that is constantly being cleaned by the attendants in the room. Along the edge of the small-ish entrance room there are couches and chairs to sit in. There's also a front desk where they take your shoes and clean them for you.

There are separate rooms for women and men (duh) each one has its own locker-room. You get a "key" which is a bracelet with a magnet on it that only works for one locker of which the number is on the bracelet as well.

After the locker room there's a room with showers all along the walls and massage beds up and down the middle. Then there's a big opening into another similar room which is smaller and only has a few showers and a few massage beds but also has a sanna and a steam room. For the low low cost of 15rmb  you get entrance to the bath house for as long as you want, well I'm sure there's a limit of some sort, but I've stayed their hours before, so if there is it's pretty long. It's a really nice experience it's so warm and the hot water never runs out!

But the fun part of the bath house is the "treatments" you can get there. You can get normal spa like things, like different types of massages. There are also full body treatments, where they rub stuff on you. You can get normal substances rubbed on you like body wash but there are also strange ones, like a milk rub and a honey rub (the honey rub looks like wax). You can get a traditional Chinese treatment too, which are still common done even among the youths in China. These include having bad wind sucked out of you by putting hot cups on your back which act as suction cups leaving your skin seriously brused for up to a month, they can last longer if you get it gone regularly. There's also the repetitive scratching of your skin when you have muscle aches which is meant to help the healing process but actually is just the classic distraction method of treatment. This treatment leaves your skin with red gashes that makes you look like you've been attacked by an animal. But the best thing you can get done at the bath house is a scrub! This is one of the Chinese things that should really be brought to the US.

I mean, when you think about lying down completely naked on an extremely slippery surgical looking bed  covered in a thin layer of plastic in the middle of a large room filled with naked Chinese people showering to have a slightly clothed Chinese woman peel of your dead skin by rubbing down your naked body with a gritty mit it doesn't sound appealing. But it's the best thing in the world. It feels like getting a full body scratch. So it's a hundred times better than a head scratch. I think it might even be better than a massage. And at the end you can't stop touching yourself because your skin is so smooth. You also get really clean from it, even though you feel disgusting because the mit they clean you with ends up being really dirty and all the skin that falls off you is really dark too. But still, at the end you feel like a new person. Scrubs are slightly additive though, I know want to get one every week, which would probably not be good for my skin. Any time I start getting dry skin or start wanting to use lotion all the time I think "scrub time!"

What is Thanksgiving anyway?

Being a foreigner in a new country is interesting in many ways. One of the things I love about it is making friends is simple. In China it's pretty much guaranteed the Chinese people think I'm cool and want to be my friend because I'm a novelty. Obviously foreigners standout a lot in China, this is something I'm reminded of every day when small children or random adults point at me and say "外国人" (foreigner). On a side note - a lot of the children will actually say "美国人“ which mean American and really ticks off foreigners from other countries- understandably. When a foreigner sees you they feel instantly connected because hey- you're also not Chinese and it's a good bet you're fairly uncomfortable in your surroundings.

So, if you're having trouble making friends at home- just move to China! It's doesn't matter how weird or strange you are, you can still make friends. Also, if you're a guy, you're are guaranteed at least five Chinese girls fighting over one another for you. You know, if you're into the stuff. 

But in all seriousness I often feel way more connected to all things American as soon as I leave the country. I even feel this way about Americans themselves. It feels so nice to get together with a bunch of people from your country who speak your language. It's also nice to get together with anyone who's foreign because you have something in common- you're in a foreign country! 

So one night a bunch of us foreigners got together at a nice restaurant. Originally there were going to be about 16 of us so one of our friends who'd lived in the city for a while got a room put aside for us with a table that had enough space for everyone. To explain, in China many restaurants have rooms where people can eat. These rooms are often for parties, large groups, or simply for groups with important people in them. Most restaurants have a normal dinning area with rooms connected to it. When we found out way more people were going to show up we asked the waitresses for a bigger table. They told us we couldn't get a bigger table because the only room that had a table big enough for us had a minimum. So some of these rooms are very fancy and your party has to spend a minimum amount to be able to stay in that room. The minimum for this room was 2,000 RMB (over $300), which isn't bad considering the room sat about 20 people so that would only mean 100RMB each which is about $20- a pretty low price to pay for a fancy dinner out. But this is China, where you can get dinner for about $1 American. 

The dinner was amazing. The restaurant was known for 北京烤鸭 which is Beijing/ Peking Duck (Beijing and Peiking are the same thing but written in different styles of writing Chinese with an alphabet). So we got three ducks, a man even came into our room to carve the duck for us, right in front of us; it was really neat. There was tons of other food too. There were even six types of animal meat on the table (duck, squid, octopus, some type of fish, lamb, beef, and pork). Though I was a vegetarian before going to China I think consuming four different animals that night really cemented my flop onto the omnivore side of consumption. In true Chinese style there were as many dishes as people all on a giant lazy-susan. This table was so big the lazy-susan actually had a motor, it was really hard to turn it yourself. The table was also so large that it took 3 mins 27 seconds for the lazy-suzan to make a complete pass around the table. Yes, we timed it. The room was huge and very ornately decorated. I felt like I was in a small parlor at Versailles, not in a small restaurant in a small city in China. The room had coaches and big comfy chairs for people to lounge in along with two giant floor heaters (an expensive luxury in China where all their heating comes form the same company and is standardized from place to place). The room also had a dvd player and projector screen resting above a fireplace. The chairs at the table were big with tall backs and velvet cushions. The restaurant even had real cloth napkins! Something I've missed very much in China. 

During the dinner we began talk about Thanksgiving plans. It was decided people were to celebrate Thanksgiving in one of our British friend's bar during the afternoon of Thanksgiving, because people had to work during dinner. Lots of plans were made. Who would bring what, what we would eat, how many people there would be, how we'd get turkey (which is really expensive here!) and so on. The four people from the UK in the room were all sitting next to one another. In the middle of us all gushing about Thanksgiving I hear form one of them, "So, what is Thanksgiving any way?" Which was answered by another Brit saying, "It's got something to do with when the Indians took over America."

So there you go, you don't even have to understand the holiday to celebrate it. Any excuse to get a bunch of foreigners together is a nice thing to do. Some of my Chinese friends even said they wanted to come!

Fun fact, the literal translation of the Chinese word for Turkey is "fire chicken." I was told this by my students today. After asking they made it clear that it was due to the color of the meat, not the color of the bird.

Sadly I will be missing this celebration because I'll be in Guangzhou. I'll be sure to write a blog about the strange, southern, Cantonese speaking part of China.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Squat toilets

I feel as though the words "squat toilet" general induce a feeling of disgust in people. Most people see squat toilets as gross and unsanitary. I don't believe this at all. I actually think squat toilets are much more sanitary.

Sure, squat toilets are pretty gross. When you walk into a public toilet in China it's pretty nasty. It smells, there's normally a thin layer of dirty liquid on the ground and you know some of that liquid is urine. There are overflowing bins next to the toilets where the toilet paper goes (you don't flush it). The first reaction most people have would probably to cover your nose and run. But really squat toilets are great. When you really think about it having western style toilets in public places is kind of gross. I mean, you put your naked skin somewhere where tons of other people have put there's. Also, how many times do you see urine on toilet seats? How many times have you yourself sat in someone else's urine? Yeah, that's gross! I'd much rather get someone else's pee on the bottom of my shoes than on me! Squat toilets are just so simple and quick to use. I mean, who wants to sit on a squat toilet for a long time? That just hurts your calf muscles after a while. You get in, you get out, and there's no sitting on the toilet and texting when ten people are waiting in line.

Squat toilets are just so basic, there the bare minimum of what you need, which truly reflects the Chinese way of life. I have a huge respect for Chinese people and how they live. I feel so spoiled in comparison. I am guilty, like all other college students in America of complaining about how small the dorm-rooms I lived in were. I also complained (like every other student) about having to share my dorm-rooms with other people. But the most people I ever shared a room with was two other people. In China, the students share their dorm-rooms with 5 to 7 other people. That's 6 to 8 people in one room. I've visited a number of college campuses and when I do I always peek into the dorms. One of my Chinese friends made fun of me last week for doing this. "That's just a dorm, what are you looking at?" It was hard to?!" Is pretty much how my response went. He then told one of our chinese friends that the next time I was on their campus she had to show me her dorm room. Because of course me going into a mens dorm... was impossible.

Here's another way College in America and China is so different. My female Chiese friends who are in college will giggle and ask me if I've ever had a boyfriend. I try to explain to them that I've never known a person in college in America who hasn't had at least one boyfriend or girlfriend. The ideas relatively unthinkable! Relationships are such a big part of the college experience. But in China the students don't get any time to themselves let alone a room for them to go and be alone with someone. The lack of privacy in China is another thing that makes me feel like a selfish brat. Getting alone time in America is easy, most of the time I simply want more time alone than I'm able to get, but in China, I feel as though being alone is next to impossible. Parents are out of work by the time students get out of school, the students might even leave for school earlier than their parents leave for work. Many students board at school because even an hour commute to and from school is too much for the students to do twice a day, every day, six times a week. They live in big rooms with 10 or 15 other students. They go to college and have dorms full of people then they go back to live with their families or get a job where they get housing. At my school many of the Chinese teacher live on campus, the young unmarried ones. They share a room with another person, there is not kitchen area in the whole building they live in nor bathrooms or showers. They have to go to another building to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and have to go to a public bathhouse to shower. (I'll explain public bath houses in my next entry.) Other people who work on campus  like the man with the mail, the security guard, and the cleaner (yeah, I'm pretty sure there's only one for the whole school.) All of them live in a room on campus, the same room they work in, or a room adjacent. Many of the small restaurants here have a back room where the family lives, sometimes you'll even see them go into their living area to cook. You also will see washers or TVs in the room where you eat for the families.

The truth is -in a lot of ways- I wish I had grown up that way and experience that life. It's impossible to not feel like an entitled fuck looking at people living this kind of life. The thing is, it's relatively easy to live in better living standards then you're used to. It takes time to adjust, but you'll enjoy the adjustment. But living in conditions that are less than what you're used to is very hard and frustrating. No matter how open minded you are or how much you want to experience something new adjusting down is hard to do.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Ladies and gentlemen we have a unicorn

Or so I was called by a few foreigners I met. I finally met a group of foreigners in Qinhunagdao at my very first party in China and one called me a unicorn. His girl friend finally explained that it's a word they use for young white blond haired girls like me. She explained the comment to me when I was complaining about how everybody in Qinhuangdao stares at me and makes a big deal over my looks. The way she put it was. "If you saw a unicorn would you ever be the same?" I guess this is a fair comparison, it's just strange to think of your self as a unicorn. Of course to me I'm really not that special   but in general I don't see being blond as a big deal because it's pretty common in America. But of course here it's very different from the typical sea of black heads.

I guess when I thought about coming to China I was thinking about how global our world is. I was thinking about how I hate how American culture has overrun other smaller and local cultures in the world. I felt that I wouldn't be that interesting because they saw plenty of white people in magazines, on ads, on TV, and in the movies. But I seriously underestimated China's ability to keep their own unique culture in a global world. Sure in places like Shanghai you might as well be in a city like New York or London; they're not very Chinese. But as I keep saying, Qinhuangdao is a small town. There are very conservative people here and also most people don't make much money. Not only is Americana not as popular in China as I would have assumed, it's in someways untouchable to the people here. Picture a hick from a small farm town in America (like most of New Hampshire), that's where I'm living. My town in New Hampshire has a hell of a lot more culture than this place does. These people are sheltered. To them I am a unicorn. 

I guess I just have to take it as a compliment... But it's hard to when you can't go out with out every person in the bar trying to talk to you, when you can't walk down the street with out being stared at, when you can't sit down and eat without ending up giving somebody the reader's digest version of your life, and when you can't go to the grocery store without being asked your advice on a product. I do know that if I ever see a unicorn I'll just leave it alone; the poor thing deserves it.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Beijing Beijing

All the tour-books warn against visiting China - especially the big cities - on national holidays, but unfortunately when you are employed in China you get the same holidays as the Chinese people do. I have to say, I don't agree with the tour books. Maybe it's just because I'd been living in China for a month before my one week vacation in Beijing during the worst time to visit Beijing, but I didn't think it was bad. Sure, there were a lot of people, and even if you could get a taxi it just stood still almost the whole time you were in it, and yeah they blocked off a lot of major streets because of the National day festivities... and of course there was the fact that they shut down random metro stations. But other than that, it was pretty normal. I ended up staying in a hotel out of the main city. At the time I booked it I was thinking about how I wished it was closer to everything, but once I got there, I was glad it wasn't! In the outskirts of the city life went on like normal, and taxis didn't cost a fortune because the highways around the city weren't packed. 

If there's one thing I think you should experience when you go to China it's being stuck in a big crowd of Chinese people! It's really annoying, but also funny (as long as you don't have to be anywhere!) My last blog post I talked about how Chinese people can't be orderly to save their lives, well when there are more of them it's even worse. I got to the point where I would just weave through groups of people and run around or through them just because their slow meandering in a general direction was so frustrating. It was like no one actually had to be anywhere they were just letting the crowd push them around. 

I'm convinced that Chinese people just go places to say they've been there. They show up, buy the ticket, then take pictures in front of random stuff and that's it. There's no gasps of wonder or even much reading of information. They're all about the picture taking, especially when it involves them standing in front of stuff. That way they can prove they were there!  Another thing they like taking pictures of? White people! Honestly I didn't get asked to take my picture with nearly as many people as I thought I would, but it still happened. It was also very common to get pictures taken of me. There was an especially memorable guy who I caught taking a picture of me and I started laughing at him, he sheepishly walked away. As he walked away -with his girlfriend- I saw him show her the picture then promptly get smacked. People not only think it's okay to take a picture of me (and my friends) without asking, they will visibly get angry if you get in the way of them taking the picture. I was walking around with two friends who are black, that was the photo op of the year. A blond and black people?! It was like Christmas in china. I would get annoyed and cover my face with my hand and people would get pissed at me. Oh, I'm so sorry I got in the way of you taking a picture of ME! 

It was so crowded that the first time I went to the forbidden city I wasn't even able to get tickets, the ticket windows closed while I was in line. Wangfujing street, one of the most famous streets in Beijing was very crowded. Walking down the street reminded my of the time I tried to walk through time square a few days before new years. I have to admit though, I didn't get as claustrophobic in Beijing because the people are so short you can look over hem and forget you're in a big crowd. This is dangerous, it can lead to collision with the young and elderly (who are the same size). I think the coolest part was a huge line of "Chuar" stations set up all down a transecting road. There had to be hundreds! Chuar is Chinese Kebab, but don't picture a kebab shop you'd find in Europe or even real Kebab. It's just meet and veggies on sticks all set up and then you pick what you want and how many and they throw it on a grill and put spices on it and give it to you. Chuar can be foudn everywhere (well  all over the north at least). It's really delicious too! Especially if you find a place that does "Qiezi" or "Doufu" (eggplant and tofu). Though I have delved into the "Yang rou" (lamb) and "cong" (scallions) and they're also pretty good. There were just people and sticks everywhere! It was an amazing sight to see. 

Another food related high light of the week was visiting a famous Hot Pot place in Beijing, it's a chain and there was a restaurant right near the hotel I stayed in. Hot Pot is a new love of mine since coming to China. You sit at a table that has a huge pit in it with a burner at the bottom. The burner gets lit and a big vat or two (this restaurant had two) get put in the pit. The vats look like sinks, they're really big and filled with broth. At the restaurant in Beijing their were two types of broth, one was spicy (really spicy) and the other was milky. In China "La" or spicy doesn't just mean hot spicy, it means that there is a lot of spices in the dish or a lot of flavor. (Note for French speakers: it's the very same meaning as the French épicé). So the spicy side had not only spicy peppers but also a lot of ginger, I never knew ginger could hurt so much! 

So, you get a sheet of paper full of all the ingredients you can add (a lot like a chuar place, though at a chuar place you tell them verbally) and check them off. At this restaurant you could get a full or a half portion of each thing, which was really nice. There are a bunch of meats, fish, veggies, mushrooms, noodles and types of tofu. In China there are a TON of types of tofu, even if you don't think you like tofu you'll find a type you like here. There are also a lot of different types of mushrooms- I love most of them and a lot of styles of noodles. The noodles are different shapes and also made of different things. This restaurant had soba noodles which I have an affinity for after falling in love with the food at a Korean/ Japanese restaurant near my house. 

So you order all you want then they bring it too you on plates- raw- even the meet (can you say health food violation?). You get to put the stuff in the water as you'd like. I like putting it all right in so they turn off the burner quickly, because it's so hot when it's on! After observing the chinese people I found out that they place things in the water and eat them much slower. Also, there's a bar with seasonings, you take a bowl up and fill it with sauces and other seasonings and spices. I really like the peanut sauces. It's really delicious! You just pull the stuff out of the water and slather it in sauce and eat. I can't believe we don't have it in America! 

Being in Beijing is really nice because it's such an international city. You can get any type of food you want! I've even tried new types of food I'd never tried before coming to China. I got to go to a German restaurant, they're popular in Beijing, there are a few. There are also a lot of areas you can go and meet a lot of foreigners in. This is something that is seriously lacking in my city. In Qinhuangdao I have met a total of four foreigners and two of them work at my school. Getting to speak English with native speakers was wonderful. Though when I had lunch with a bunch of native speakers I kept forgetting the English food vocabulary, which led to them thinking my Chinese was much better than it is and also to them thinking I'd been in China much longer than I had been. I ended up teaching a lot of chinese during my trip to fellow Ciee-ers, I guess living in the Chinese-boonies has its pluses!

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Oh China...

Between the popularity of crouch-less-paints for children, mini-skirts for day time use, and spitting just about anywhere I can't help but to think the country with the longest and richest history in (possibly) the whole world might have gone astray... a lot!

I'm not trying to say that there's anything wrong with China's culture I just don't understand how children urinating in public buildings, people ignoring the fact that they affect any one's life but their own, and half dilapidated buildings is a culture.

China's a very strange place, I don't think I could begin to describe just how bizar it is, and no one would understand they depth of the oddity with just a two weak vacation here. But believe me, it's bizar. I've been a lot of places in my life. I'm no Carmen Sandiego or anything - I'm just saying I haven't spent my whole life in rural New England either. I've seen enough strange stuff to not get shocked easily but China often makes me go "What the fuck?" After being here a month and a half I still get the erge to text people when I see strange stuff happening.

So children really do wear crouch-less pants, mostly without diapers. I've only ever seen one kid wearing a diaper on under crouch-less pants. A lot of the little boys have at least a hole big enough for their penis to fit through. The kids are prompted by their parents to pee everywhere. And not just every once and a while, I mean sure - sometimes a parent in America is desperate and they lead their kid over to a tree and try to sneakily get them to pee. But in China it's everywhere. I have seen a kid being held over a trash-can in a mall to pee and a mom just pulling out a little boy's penis at a bus stop (facing the street), that's just normal here.

The Chinese people are convinced anything can give you diarrea, I don't really know why - but they are. They're also convinced that the sure to any sickness is just to drink hot water. No - not tea - hot water. That zhou (pretty much rice and water but they translate it as "porridge") should be eaten every morning and that ice is the devil. I mean, I'm sure this comes more from the fact that I live in an area that is essentially a small town (of roughly 3 million people). Also this comes more form older people than young.

Women's clothing is almost a 50/50 split between dowdy/childish and consisting of way too much of the color pink and prostitute. I guess it's not fair to judge what is and is not appropriate women's wear in another country. But when the skirt you are wearing out in the day to McDonald's hits well above the seam of your panty hoes, I don't know what else to compare you to but a prostitute. The women here all cover their chests - there is neither a scoop or a v neck in site. Women's footwear is also about a 50/50 split between really ugly sneakers and just as ugly 5 inch platform stilettos. Needless to say, I feel that Chinese women are confused about how they want to be perceived.

The spitting! It is so gross. Blowing your nose is strange here (I've only seen one person do it other than a white person) but hocking a loogie is totally cool. I'm fairly certain I've written about this before, but still - EW! I was told by another foreign teacher that kids will just go to the trash can to spit up mucus in the middle of class, gross. I don't understand how spitting out one's mucus is superior to blowing into a tissue...

Chinese people do not understand lines. They can not form one and they can not follow one. They also can not walk in a straight line, and when they do manage to it's when they are taking up an entire street or just close enough to the people next to them that it is impossible to get by them and they are traveling slower than a snail and just looking around. I'm convinced that Chinese people dont walk, they meander. I would die if I saw a Chinese person walking at a sensible pace, just die. When they're late they run (or if their women teeter around on their tiny little feet and high heels). Chinese people as a whole have very little perceived respect for the people around them or ingeneral for anyone who's not themselves. Before coming here I always thought that China would be a community based country, but I don't feel that way any more. People are out for themselves and don't seem to have a care in the world about anyone around them.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

The Great Firewall of China

For all of you that don't know, which I think is a lot of you... I've had to explain this many times so I'm just going to devote a short blog to it.

The Chinese government is huge on censorship. And yes the Chinese people actually call it the Great Firewall of China... well, in Chinese of course. In fact my colleague didn't even know the word for firewall in English. But that's off the point. The censorship here is extensive.

All social media from outside of China is banned. That means: no facebook, twitter, and youtube. This also includes blog sites and I'm pretty sure I was told gmail in general is blocked. Also normal media is clocked, a lot of news sources are blocked. I was told by a teacher at my school that am American once showed her the Onion but now even that's blocked over here.

Why? Because of China's communist roots I guess you could say but also because of revolution. What happened in Egypt - and the whole Muslim Spring in fact - is exactly what the Chinese government did not want happening to them. The censorship in China went back way before that ever happened, so some might say China predicted social media and revolution going hand in hand. Yes, this means the Chinese government is smarter than us - in some ways.

China's a big country with a lot of different levels of poverty and living standards. China also still uses something I would refer to as slave labor and doesn't give equal rights to its citizens. When people move from province to province in China they can lose their right to be a citizen. Yes - the East of China has refugees from the West of China, children who aren't allowed to go into public eduction. If China were to have a revolution it's something that the whole world should be afraid of. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a positive thing, but it would be felt everywhere. It would be felt a lot more than the crash of a few Mediterranean countries for sure.

So, why prevent the inevitable? (Because yes, I am an optimist and believe that a revolution in China is inevitable). Well you know, that's very Chinese. From living here I really believe that they think they can stop the country from having a revolution. Hey - maybe they can. They might be able to develop fast enough to be able to give increased rights to the oppressed people before they or the educated people in China are able to complain. But I think it'd dangerous. I probably shouldn't be saying this for my friends and family to read... But China's a ticking time-bomb, who knows when it'll blow.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

All or nothing

After spending some time here I've changed some of my original opinions. A lot of my original opinions relied on what I was told by others. Things I was told by the school, the teachers, the people from Ciee. But I've started to view things differently.

For one the attitude of the students. Before coming to China I grew up with the American stereotype of the Asia student. Children with Asian parents were always very smart, very diligent and hard working. They always listened to their parents and did what ever they were told. Many of them were played instruments and were good at them. They not only worked hard but were very respectful of their teachers. Sure, not all students were like this but a lot of Asian-Americans followed this stereotype. I always learned (as many other Americans do) that it had to do with the traditional Chinese culture. That education was revered in Chinese culture along with elders. Chinese youths were always to listen to their parents and teachers and had to make them proud. But in China it's nothing like that. Sure traditional Chinese values state that one should respect their parents and there's a lot of pressure on children (especially in those families with only one child) but here kids are just as disobedient and rude as they are in America - if not more.

The High School I've been placed in is the second best in the whole city (it was number one for a long time but then another High School got "foreign experts" and is now above ours). By the way, this is a city of about 3 million people that spans multiple districts. The High School is the sixth best in the province of He Bei - population 72 million. If you ask me, that's pretty good. But you know what? Most of the time I can't get the kids to shut up long enough to learn anything. Sure - they see their classes with foreign experts as not as important as their other classes and they just want to watch movies in my class so they're disappointed when I try to teach them. But still, when I talk to the other teachers they say this behavior is normal.

There's one thing I've figured out about the Chinese way that I was never taught. This is a society of all or nothing. It's seen a lot in the students. There are a few students who are very intelligent and they know it. These students work their asses off and do very well in school then they do very well on the 高考 (the standardized test at the end of their senior year of High School) then they go to a good college and then they get a good job... ect. This is how it's suposed to work. But for those students who don't believe in themselves. For those who have been told they're not that smart- they just give up. It's sad that after teaching for a few weeks I could figure this out. But I talked to the teachers and they reaffirmed what I felt. The bar is set so high in China a lot of students set themselves up to fail.

In my classes I know the kids who are the best at English. They sit their and answer all the questions, they try really hard and they make me happy to teach! But their are maybe 2 or 3 in each class. That means about 50 students out of the 1,000 students that I teach. You think being a teacher in America is hard? It'd challenge you to come here. And the smart kids - the kids who are interested - here are treated the same as they're treated in America - like reject freaks. I think it's worse here. By the time I got to High School I took classes with people who were intelligent and cared because we had a level system in my High School. They have a level system here too... but it's not the same. Students are split up into one of 10 classes. Each class has 50 students and one class room. The kids take all of their classes in the same class room with the same 50 (mostly more) kids. Except PE, music, lab sciences, and computer courses - those are in different rooms. So sure class 1 are the smartest kids in their grade but that doesn't mean they're at the same level in math or science or English as their fellow class mates... If you see where I'm going. I hace a few students in class 10 (the lowest class) who speak English better than kids in class 1. In fact my grade one class 3 class is terrible at English - the whole group. But grade 1 class 6 are pretty good. IT's hard to cater to students' needs when you're given 50 students of completely different levels.

The other issue is that I'm not a teacher I'm a commercial. This is the thing that has upset me the most since coming to China. I was talking with a Chinese man about it yesterday and he very much agreed with my feelings on the subject. The 高考 is what parents and teachers care about, getting a good score on the 高考. We complain about this in America to - that teachers teach to the test instead of teaching kids for the sake of learning. I think in many ways the students are brainwashed. There is no oral English on the 高考 thus my oral English class doesn't matter. In fact being able to speak English isn't something 99% of my students care about. Sure there are some who would like to, some who find English interesting. But educationally they don't care.

In my classes last week I stressed pronunciation with the students (well duh - it's an oral English class). I taught students that you had to put the stress on the right syllable in a word to have the word make sense and put stress on the right words in a sentence to make a sentence make sense. The saddest thing about this is that they'd never learned that in English class before. I had the students read lines to a song one by one (the song was Call Me Maybe) and most every students didn't look at the line till it was their turn, wouldn't even know it was their turn though we were going in order then squint at the board (their eyesight is all horrendous!) and mumble out the sentence word for word emphasizing random words. "so CALL me mayBE"became the refrain of the song.

I told the students over and over that if you speak like they were speaking no English speaker would ever understand them, but they didn't care. Like normal teenagers they cared more about not getting made fun of by their friends for trying so we spent a half an hour going through the lyrics to one song with the students rarely improving (even though - if you know the song - the lyrics are very repetitive). I stopped one of my classes and I told them that's just not how the exercise was going to work. I told them the challenge wasn't being able to read the words - I knew they could read the words. I said to them that I knew most of them had been learning English for a very long time. I then asked a student how old he was when he started learning English. I had to repeat the question three times, I said it in different ways and as slow as I could. He still didn't answer till another student translated the question into Chinese. Want to know the answer? Six... He was six years old when he started to learn English and yet he couldn't understand a simple question posed to him multiple times said at the speed of molasses. I even checked with the teachers in the school to make sure that I didn't have an accent that was difficult to understand and they assured me I didn't. It's just that speaking English doesn't matter to the kids.

I am in the school simply so the school can say that they have me. So they can keep their high rank. So they can ask for more money from their students. So they can get more students to go there. It's sad but it's true. Every time they take a picture of me I think to myself that it'll end up on some advertisement for the school. I know it's a cynical outlook, but the sad truth is that it's true.

As the friends I've met here in China have put it - they just exploit foreigners. And sure - some schools aren't like this school and some of the students really listen when I teach and there are rotten apples everywhere. But what it really comes down to is that all those traditional Chinese values have made schools in China into lucrative businesses. Every parent thinks that their kid deserves the best education, is the smartest kid, and just needs the right education to succeed. So the schools market the best education (on paper) that they can to stay competitive.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Chinese people sound like pirates

I'm devoting this blog post to random things about China, the Chinese people, Chinese language and Chinese culture that I find amusing and/or odd and think you should know. A lot of these topics I'll write about later. But here it is in a nutshell!

The first is that Chinese people sound like pirates. Especially people in the north who have Beijing accents - aka the people near me! So... Chinese people add this character:儿 to the end of words that have a "final" (Chinese character pronunciation is made up of two parts the initial and the final) consonant sound that is... soft - I guess. So "wan" (to have fun) becomes "war" and "ben" (the measure word for book) becomes ber "na" (there) becomes "nar." All these "r" sounds = pirate speak! It also just makes people really hard to undertand! Especially because they speak so quickly - TOO quickly. I didn't know it was possible, but Chinese people speak faster than American teenage girls (I know, I just blew your mind).

Chinese people and English just don't mesh well. English is really hard for them to pronounce, hear, understand and the worst for them is our grammar. Sure - I've met tones of Chinese people who have great English and my Chinese is terrible. I'm not being mean to Chinese people, just pointing out a fact. I'm impressed they all learn it! (I'll write a post soon about some of my classes).

Chinese people are REALLY bad at translation English into Chinese. All those books about bad Chinese/ English translations are not exaggerating - the signs are that bad. A few of my favorites are:
"Oliver oil" instead of "olive oil"
"Beware of falling into lake" or "mind hitting your head" (I think these speak for themselves)
Instead of exit one will often see "Way out" which makes me feel like I'm in a horror movie
Instead of entrance "Way in" (not that bad in comparison to others"
Even "Toilet" is awful strange - though not the worst
My new favorite is "Do not throw your trash, show your civilized behavior" this is a mouthful
Also, there are a lot of no spitting signs... not a bad translations, just culturally strange

Yeah, in China spitting in public = very normal. Not like the random spit when no one's looking. I mean full on hocking up a loogie in the middle of a crowded street kind of spitting. I am seen as strange for blowing my nose... but the normal thing to do is snort and spit. I mean, not trying to be culturally insensitive or anything, but ew.

In China most toilets are squat toilets. I expected this. squat toilets are more common in most of the world - we're just those strange westerners who want to but their bare ass on something other people have possibly peed on. Just saying, squat toilets >>>. Though! Having squat toilets in my apartment (yes, I said toilets plural) not so nice! (I'll talk about my place in another blog entry).

People don't have that much clothing so they wear the same things over and over. Again, this is pretty normal in places that aren't the US. When I lived in France I saw this a lot. You'd wear the same pants and shirt and just change your scarf or jacket or something. But in China they wear the exact same outfit. I went on a weekend trip with the teachers from my school (I'll write about this too in the future) and it got easy to recognize teachers because they wore the same thing the whole trip! Three whole days of the same thing. Then yesterday I was in the school cafeteria for lunch and one of the teachers was still wearing the same dress! I don't like any of my clothing THAT much!

Macs are uncommon here. There's a mac "reseller" (aka mac case with a random machine inside) on every corner but they're stills strange for Chinese people to see. They have "iphones" and "ipads" here (again, they are very not real) but mac laptops... none! There's one teacher in the school, the computer teacher who has one. And his is at least four years old. They don't understand macs at all, they tried to treat mine like a PC a lot and got confused when it didn't work like that. Someone tried to give me their internet browser on a flashdrive and I had to explain that you need a different one for a mac. They just have a mental block when it comes to Macs. But they're also super impressed.

Everything in China takes a lot of time. Nothing's easy in China. You can't just tell someone your internet isn't working once - you have to tell them 10 times in different ways and not be mean about it and then eventually they'll ask you about it then that's the opening for them to help you. (My internet's been fine, I just meant it as an example).

Naps! Naps are normal here (be jealous). I have a two and a half hour break for lunch and nap time. The students go home, if they live close by.

If a student lives more than a half hour comute away then they board at the school. This is because The students' first class is at 7 at night and the students have to be at school till 8 or 10 at night. They even have class on Saturdays. So students who have to comute an hour in total don't do it. They only go home for Sunday!

Chinese people eat all the time. I don't think they ever stop. On the trip I took each person brought a grocery bag full of snacks and then would buy food at every place we stopped. But the snacks they eat are better for you than junk food. They eat a lot of vegetables, fruit, nuts, tofu, and jelly. I think they may be so skinny because their constantly digesting.

Chinese people really are as small as the stereotype. They are crazy short and just small. All the stuff in China is small for me. I hit my head a lot here. There's a Queen sized bed in the room they gave me and I think it might be so it's not to short for us Americans. The teachers are the same height as the students. Also - a lot of women who are rich and live in big cities are very skinny. I thought I was going to be seen as fat - but that's not the case. In China the women have stick like figures so when they are "fat" they look it. Even though the "fat" ones are smaller than Americans they all have chubby faces and guts. It's funny. Women here don't have breasts or butts at all. So Americans don't look fat in comparison - to them I just have a figure which they don't. But I don't know how well I'd fit into their ready-made clothing... Probably not well.

They build things FAST over here. One of my coworkers said it was because there are so many Chinese people. I guess that's true... But they're just more efficient than we are in the US. There are so many construction projects but still everything is fast. It's incredible.

I'm going to talk about children in China in another entry but a lot of Americans have huge misconceptions about the one child policy. I knew a lot about it before I got here. But the one child policy is really just for the Han people. So the Han people are the dominant ethnic group. The one child policy is to stop over crowding in China but was also created to make an incentive to marry out of the Han race. Don't get me wrong Hand nationalism is big over year. The chinese language written and spoken is only referred to as the Han language or script. When I say "Chinese"to them (in Chinese) they normally say Han back. But the government wants Hans to marry other ethnicities and have kids with them so Han blood mixes in with all of the Chinese people. Or, this is what I'd assume... It's not like the Chinese government can say stuff like that. So people do have more than one kid. But there are a lot of only children... way too many to be healthy.

From my point of view people do not dress conservatively here. The skirts the women wear are way shorter than ones you find in the US. (For Sluzers- they're like tick toc clothing that girls wear everyday!) But women do cover their chests - but I think that's just because women don't have cleavage over here, so there's nothing to show. Women often wear clothing that is light or lacy so is kind of see-through. Women wear short shirts that show their bellies when they raise their arms. And women wear tight clothing. I have to say, I don't like the "fashion" over here in China. I don't think you can even call it fashion!

Students in China are nothing like the stereotype of Chinese American students in America. They're not obedient, they rarely stop talking, they're late to class, and they outwardly have very little respect for their teachers. The students are interesting.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Money

Currently 1 USD is equal to 6.3429 RMB.

RMB stands for 人民币 in pinyin - Renminbi. This literally translates to "The people's currency." 人民 means the people's and 币 means currency. So the people's republic of China also uses the characters 人民 .

The money is also called 元 pronounced yuan (not yen!). They also say "kuai" I think it's this character: 块, but I'm not sure if that's the right pinyin/ character.

RMB comes in many shapes and sizes...
The common bills are: 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 (there's also a strange on that's like 5 cents...)
For coins there's mostly just 1 rmb and then cent coins. I haven't paid much attention to the cent coins yet.

So, looking it up online...
1 RMB  is about 16 cents
5 RMB is about 79 cents
10 RMB is $1.58
20 RMB $ 3.16
50 RMB $7.89
100 RMB $15.77
500 RMB 79

So in my head I think


1 RMB  is like a quarter
5 RMB is a dollar
10 RMB is 2 dollars
20 RMB $5
50 RMB $10
100 RMB $20

And the usual amount I get out of an ATM is RMB 500 which is like $80

But now I'm starting to look at the money as a Chinese person would. And how much the money's worth - how much I can buy with it is much different.

Lunch is 5 RMB both in the Cafeteria on campus and buying street food. 3 to 5 RMB can get you a drink, bottled tea or coffee (cold). 1 yuan can get you bottled water (often not cold).

If they're asking you for more than (or close to) 100 yuan - you're paying too much. Most things here are really cheap. Haggling is a thing here, not in stores... But you can haggle with street venders for sure.

A lot of things still cost about the same as they would in the US. Electronics are expensive. My phone cost RMB 2,000 (a little of $300) but the service for my phone was really cheap - less than RMB 200.

The bus is 1 yuan in my city and a taxi is around 50 yuan. The trains and plans are expensive though. I looked at a plan ride to Hong Kong (grant it I looked at ticket for less than a month away) and the cost was RMB 2,000 each way. But I also saw some cheaper flights for about RMB 800. Then again I also looked up the rate for a ferry into Korea and it was less than $100 US (by a lot). So the prices seam all over the place to me.

American made goods are expensive here. In China (unlike in the US) they have a luxury tax on products that aren't made in China (aka American products). This tax makes them about the same price as they are in the US. Also, importing clothing into China is illegal. We were warned about this before we came here. We were told to not ship ourselves clothing because it's perfectly legal or the government to confiscate and even destroy them. Anyone wish America did stuff like this sometimes?! Maybe we wouldn't have so many people in the US hating China is we just had stricter import laws. Not trying to get political or anything but sometimes America just looks really dumb in comparison to China.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

And then my student bought me a cellphone - literally

Well, okay I'm paying him back. And technically his mom bought it for me. Also, he's in grade three so he's not my student. BUT still, the people here will more than take off their shirt for you (I mean that's not hard, most of the guys walk around shirtless anyway).

The Chinese people are some of the nicest people in the world (I still think the people in Senegal are nicer) but the Chinese people have been way more helpful! They predict my needs and wants. They know what I want before I do - and ask me if I need something before I would feel comfortable asking.

I spent my first week in China in Shanghai with the Ciee program. For those of you who don't know I am in China through Ciee. Ciee is a study and work abroad program. My university (St. Lawrence) uses Ciee for their study abroad program to China. This is how I heard about them. When I didn't study abroad in China during College I knew I wanted to go there (here) after I finished. So I applied to Ciee and was accept. The program places native speakers (our group was mostly American with a few Brits) in teaching jobs in school in China. Ciee functions in countries other than China as well.

I spent a week in Shanghai at orientation with the other soon to be teachers. It was nice to have an orientation and not just be thrown into China because when I got to my school I was just thrown right in! During the orientation we were told how helpful the students would be, but I don't think I fully understood it. I feel that way about a lot of aspects of China. I knew what I was getting myself into but I didn't really at the same time. I think, sometimes, no matter how much you prepare you can't be ready to really be in a place. One of the experienced teacher told me that his students would even try to help him up the stairs (he's an older gentleman, but not old enough to need help walking!).

The second night I was in the High School I had dinner with the grade three students. There's a McDonalds near by and some of the boys ran there to get food. They got me a soda! Then another girl got me a dessert from a stall in the mall. Another student gave me some dates (fresh ones - I'd never tried them before). And one of the teachers got me dinner from the Canteen (it's free). Earlier that day when I sat in on some classes the students went down to the Canteen and bought me cold water (because they know Americans like cold drinks) and coffee (because they know Americans like coffee). Food in China is very inexpensive. Lunch in the Canteen costs less than a dollar and you get a lot of food - so much food that I can't finish it all. But it's still nice of them to spend their own money on me, but they like to!

So a few students made a plan to bring me to the mall to get me a cell phone (they're young so they understand the need for one). They made a plan without even consulting me, they just asked me after when I was free. All this babying is very against American culture - I mean we pride our selves on being self-relient and independent - but I have to say... I like it! I love that people care about me enough to want to make sure I'm happy. I also like that I don't have to feel like I'm burdoning people by asking them for their help - it's really nice.

On Sunday I met some students outside of the front gate of my school and we went to the mall. They knew that I was interested in getting an iphone so they brought me to one of the local mac "resellers" which means mac cases with god-knows-what machines inside. I tried to explain to them that I'd only buy an apple product online here, but I don't think they really understood it. So we went and saw a few phone stores. Boy are them overwhelming!! There are tones of brands here and types of phones. I got overwhelmed. A boy student met us there and he was very helpful. He took us around to a few stores and then pointed out one phone that he said was very good and that I really liked. I told them that the only things I needed in a phone were: able to text, able to get the internet, has maps, and has a translation ap. And this phone had all of those! As well as a really nice camera (much better than my camera) and is small and thin. So in short - I love it! Also! I can bring it home and us it in the US (or so they say...)

So here's the rub... They wouldn't accept my debit card... Then I tried to go to an ATM but the ATM wouldn't give me money either. I was considering buying online and getting it sent to school. When I told the students this they told me no - they said that I needed a phone as soon as possible. Which I have to admit... I was glad about. I know it's stupid, but in the modern day I feel naked without a cellphone. (The whole first week in China I didn't know what time it was). IknowIknow... first world problems! So my student called his mom and his mom said he could use her cellphone to buy me the phone and that I could just pay her back when I got paid. Wow! Of course I said no way, but the students didn't even listen to me. He used his id card to set up the phone (which was great because my passport's being used to get my residence card) also I think it costs more and you have to get a different plan if you're not a native. So he set up the whole thing, I just sat there. It was pretty awesome.

Then after they took me out to lunch. Yeah, life in China = awesome so far. People don't let me pay for stuff... They all feel bad because they know I haven't been paid yet and they know it's very expensive for me to take out money here, so they try to make things easier by paying for me. The school told me they'd try to pay me early so I'd have some money soon too (so I can pay back my student's mom!).

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Do you have boyfriend?

Needless to say, this phrase has been the most common English phrase out of my students' mouths thus far. My students are as young as sixteen but to them it's completely appropriate to ask me if I have a boyfriend, ask me out on dates, and ask me if I find them attractive. I keep trying to explain to the students that "We just don't do that in America," but they don't get it.

My gut reaction to this questions when it was first asked was to lie, and tell them I did in fact have a boyfriend. But I don't know if that was the best choice... Because after saying that the next few questions are: "Is your boyfriend in China?" "Is your boyfriend Chinese" "Why?" "Can we see a picture? "What is his name" and so on. It's tiring. I probably just should have said I wouldn't tell them. Also after I say this at least one boy tells me that I "broke his heart." China's a strange place... One class, I showed them pictures from home after telling them I had a boyfriend... Boy was that ever the bad idea, I was asked if every boy in my pictures was my boyfriend.

The second night I was in Qinhuangdao I spent time with grade three students. There were a few girls who were talking to me and when one boy walked by they asked me if I thought he was attractive. I was flabbergasted. I tried to say that I'm too old to answer that question but they reminded me that I was  "only four years older." Only?!? Four years is a lot older, especially when it means they are 18 and I am 22. But it's a different world over here. I guess I offended the boy by not answering. The next day I went out into Qinhuangdao with a few of the girls I'd met and a boy met up with us. This boy was deemed a "playboy" by the female students. Apparently he hadn't been in class the day before and was disappointed that he hadn't gotten to see me. During the day I was asked by one of the female students if I wanted them to leave me alone with him... The creepiest part of this question was that it was followed by a bad English translation, she asked me if I wanted to "play" with him. Oddly, I refused.

The students, teacher, and just random people on the street stop me to tell me I'm beautiful. It's really strange, but kind of nice - I guess. This country seems to revolve around attractiveness. I've already been told by the students who the most attractive male teacher is (teacher Zhang) - even the male students found this important for me to know. They also told me that they like me more than the past 外教s because I'm more attractive than them (lucky me?). The most attractive boy from every grade has already been introduced to me as well. I already spoke about how "fat" is just a descriptive word - well "pretty" and "handsom" are too! I mean - it's seen as a good thing to be the most attractive, but it's just another part of you.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

After work we work

After meeting one of my coworkers I asked her, "What do you like to do on the weekends?" She responded with, "I'm also new here." I took this to mean she didn't know what there was to do around here so I just asked if she liked to go out dancing, go to a bar, do KTV (karaoke), or go out to dinner with friends. To this she responded, "I'm new so I should work on my lesson plans." I said I understood this... "But later in the semester, when you're settled in and you don't have as much work, what do you like to do?" This was not a fruitful conversation, it was more like a "who's on first" conversation. Yesterday I met another 外教 (foreign teacher) she's the Russian teacher and she was so excited to see me - a foreign girl. She reaffirmed my fears - Qinhuangdao is pretty boring. Yeah sure, I'm in China! So everything's new and different, everything's an experience. But when it's nine at night and your options are walk around the dark streets as the stores are closing alone and sitting in your apartment alone... China's really not that interesting.

Qinhuangdao has some amazing sites, I mean the Great Wall of China is in this city. We have beaches so famous that the military comes here to vacations. I also read about a garden that's one of the oldest in all of China. The soccer games for the olympics were held here. I'm a few hours from Beijing. These things are pretty cool. But they all take time and navigation skills (that I don't currently have). At the end of the night you want to go to a bar and meet some people, but they just dont' do that here.

At least I met another person who's as bored as I am and we'll be able to go out and do things. But I still don't understand the Chinese mentality, it's all workworkwork. Most days I don't have class till after lunch but I'm still expected to get to my office at 9 in the morning to "prepare" till 11:30 which is lunch. Then I go to lunch and can go back to my room (for a nap). I have to stay in the building till the end of the day then I can go get dinner.

So if you've been thinking to yourself "She's been writing an awful lot of blog posts..." now you know why! I HAVE NOTHING TO DO ALLLL DAY. You think your job is bad? Yesterday my computer gave out, so I had NO WAY to even pretend I was working on lesson plans, yet at my desk I continued to have to sit. I even got a note on my desk today, reminding me that I'm suposed to be here. The note says this time is called 坐班. 坐 literally means sit and 班 means classroom, but you know the funny thing? I looked it up on google translate and the translation it gave was "imprisoned" I think that's more accurate.

I've heard that a lot of 外教s just sit around and play computer games...

So, yes. All of our stereotypes about Chinese people being amazing workers are true. The students sit in school from 7 till 10 and so do the teachers. They are constantly working. But for what? America might be a lazy country but we thrive on efficiency. We want to get our work done so we can live but in China, as far as I can see - their work is their life. It's a cultural difference and I don't mean to look down on it. It's impressive! Seeing all my colleagues sitting there for hours - working on lesson plans. But for what? Sometimes culture is difficult to understand from an outside point of view.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

Don't ask and you shall recieve

The Chinese have their own way of doing everything. This sounds stupid to write down... But the truth is, in China there is a right and a wrong way to do everything. Boil it down to their high context culture or the intense formality and hierarchy  but china should come with a "How to" manual.

In China you don't say something is wrong and you don't outright ask for things. What you were given was right, no matter what. I went to a restaurant with some friends the first night here. My Chinese was the best of the group's so I pointed out dishes that I understood (or understood for the most part). When I asked if they had an English menue the woman simply told me to point to pictures if I needed to. So we did (well I did) - I pointed at some pictures and some menue options. But what I got for food was nothing like what I ordered. I felt bad and apologized to the girls but then they pointed out that I had pointed t pictures, so it wasn't my bad Chinese that'd gotten us that food, it was the restaurant that had. They simply chose for us. they saw us struggling and thought they knew better. I looked at the recite next to the menue and in fact none of the things I had pointed to were on the recite (well except the wontons but they gave us meat instead of vegetables) and none of the dishes looked like the ones we pointed at.

Sarah, the teacher in my school i've talked about before she explained to me that to keep the system fair in their school the teachers rotate what grade they teach and all the teacher rotate offices. I thought this sounded smart. Grade three (the seniors) are the toughest to teach, they're in class the longest and there's a great stress put on them to study for the entrance exam (think bigger than the SATs, I'll explain these later). Yet, poor Sarah has been stuck teaching grade there for years now (I think she said this was her fifth year...) I said it was unfair and she just said that that's how it worked out. She is hands down the best English teacher in the school, so I understand the need for her to be teacher grade three and so does she. I am just amazed at how well she took it, it's jut how life works.

You also don't deserve anything in China. To deserve is a foreign idea. In China life is almost seen as arbitrary- what happens happens, what doesn't doen't - and that's just life! I know this isn't how they really view it, but it almost feels that way.

This is a good time to bring up the entrance exams. My understanding is still a little rough, but this is what I know for now. Exams are big in China, they've been used for thousands of years and for everything. The biggest exam the students take is taken after High School and dictates the rest of your life. Now I'm not being mellow dramatic with that statement, it's just true. What score you get dictates what schools you can apply to (I understand you get a choice of three or so) then those schools still have the choice to accept you or not. You apply with an intended major, but the majors here are really more like tracks. When in college you only take classes related to your major (there's no minor system over here) and you can't change it. You are accepted into a college with a certain major and can't change it. This sounds pretty rough to all us free-spirited Americans who changed our majors three or four times over four years (three for me) but what's even tougher is that you may be accepted into a school for a major that is not the one you chose. You could apply to study Chinese Literature and be stuck as an English major. Poof, your whole life written down for you without your consent. What's worse? If you don't get into the schools you apply to (or - god forbid - deny the school) you have to repeat your last year of High School so you can retake the exam. You can do this an infinite amount of times, I've actually been told by Americans living here that they've heard of students taking the exam five times. Five times! That more than doubles the length of High School! In America we can't get all of our students to finish but in China they get them to do it over and over again.

When you understand the exam and how important it is it makes sense that these students stay in school intill ten o'clock. Yes, students who get to school at 7 stay until 10 at night. They have their dinners on campus and after dinner classes very. On Saturday they were free to do homework but last night they had a big exam (that they didn't know about at dinner time). I have a lot of respect for the students here, it would be hard not to.

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/

干杯 (Cheers)

My first night here I was taken out to a big welcome dinner with many teacher from my school and the principal. It was literally an experience of a life time. I think all Americans should be placed at the table for a family style dinner with a room full of Chinese people at some time in their lives. 

On Friday I was picked up at the airport by Sarah, an English teacher from Qinhuangdao Foreign language High School (The high school I'm working at). She's an older woman who's been teaching at the school for a long time and her English is amazing. She came with a younger teacher, another knew teacher at the school - like me. She's also an English teacher but she's Chinese. Her English was not as good, it was very difficult for her to understand me, which I felt bad about. The two of them picked me up in the front of my building to go out to dinner. She said it would be the principal (who was very excited to meet me) and some other teachers. When I got there most of the teachers were already there and also already drunk. 

Drinking is BIG in China. The Russian 外教  (learning Russian used to be more common than English up here in the North) said she'd never seen people drink as much as the Chinese，that not even Russian compare. 

When I sat down - right next to the principal of course - the first question I was asked was "Beer, wine, or liquor," well it was asked in a mixture of English and Chinese and with help from other people. So I answered 啤酒 （beer) - as any good Germany girl would. Before we even started eating the toasts had started. "To the new teachers" - there was also a new 外教 (foreign teacher) from Japan - he's a very nice older man. He sat on the other side of me. So the whole night was a competition of how much we could drink. I have to say I didn't do that badly - till they tried to get me to drink 白酒 (Chinese liquor). This stuff is terrible and they drink it straight!! Some of the women mixed it with juice, but seriously - this is the most disgusting stuff you'll ever taste ( and also gives a nasty hangover). 

干杯 means "Cheers" in Chinese but that's only the connotation, the literal translation is "finish your drink." So the whole dinner was old men cheers-ing the new teachers and the American, so they were just trying to get us drunk. I went to college, but this was rough. 

Also - in China - your glass can never be empty. It's seen as respectful and an honor to fill someone's glass - especially someone that you view as above you or the guest. That day I was the guest and so was the man to my right and the principal was to my left.... So I was a target. People would fill your glass with your bottle of beer, or thMy first night here I was taken out to a big welcome dinner with many teacher from my school and the principal. It was literally an experience of a life time. I think all Americans should be placed at the table for a family style dinner with a room full of Chinese people at some time in their lives. 

On Friday I was picked up at the airport by Sarah, an English teacher from Qinhuangdao Foreign language High School (The high school I'm working at). She's an older woman who's been teaching at the school for a long time and her English is amazing. She came with a younger teacher, another knew teacher at the school - like me. She's also an English teacher but she's Chinese. Her English was not as good, it was very difficult for her to understand me, which I felt bad about. The two of them picked me up in the front of my building to go out to dinner. She said it would be the principal (who was very excited to meet me) and some other teachers. When I got there most of the teachers were already there and also already drunk. 

Drinking is BIG in China. I met a Russian woman today that works at my school (learning Russian used to be more common than English up here in the North) and she said she'd never seen people drink as much as the Chinese. 

When I sat down - right next to the principal of course - the first question I was asked was "Beer, wine, or liquor," well it was asked in a mixture of English and Chinese and with help from other people. So I answered 啤酒 （beer) - as any good Germany girl would. Before we even started eating the toasts had started. "To the new teachers" - there was also a new 外教 (foreign teacher) from Japan - he's a very nice older man. He sat on the other side of me. So the whole night was a competition of how much we could drink. I have to say I didn't do that badly - till they tried to get me to drink 白酒 (Chinese liquor). This stuff is terrible and they drink it straight!! Some of the women mixed it with juice, but seriously - this is the most disgusting stuff you'll ever taste ( and also gives a nasty hangover). 

干杯 means "Cheers" in Chinese but that's only the connotation, the literal translation is "finish your drink." So the whole dinner was old men cheers-ing the new teachers and the American, so they were just trying to get us drunk. I went to college, but this was rough. 

Also - in China - your glass can never be empty. It's seen as respectful and an honor to fill someone's glass - especially someone that you view as above you or the guest. That day I was the guest and so was the man to my right and the principal was to my left.... So I was a target. People would fill your glass with your bottle of beer, or theirs, or some random one lying around. Or sometimes with 白酒 (I tried to keep some beer in my glass at all time so they couldn't put 白酒 in). 

The food was Family Style, like most Chinese dinners. I took a picture of a table in China right before leaving and the table is so full most people would think the dinner had just started! On average there are twenty courses to a dinner. The plate is taken away before the food is all gone. It's seen as gauche to not have enough food - so there is always excess. I think this is silly and wasteful, but hey! it's their culture. 

The food is similar to Chinese food found in the US. Every region has it's own cuisine. In Qinhuangdao there's a lot of fish and seafood. I'm a long time Vegetarian, but I chose to be a Pescitarian for this experience - I've even ate some meat. I mean, when in Rome (oddly this is an American expression that came up at dinner). 

eirs, or some random one lying around. Or sometimes with 白酒 (I tried to keep some beer in my glass at all time so they couldn't put 白酒 in). 

The food was Family Style, like most Chinese dinners. I took a picture of a table in China right before leaving and the table is so full most people would think the dinner had just started! On average there are twenty courses to a dinner. The plate is taken away before the food is all gone. It's seen as gauche to not have enough food - so there is always excess. I think this is silly and wasteful, but hey! it's their culture. 

The food is similar to Chinese food found in the US. Every region has it's own cuisine. In Qinhuangdao there's a lot of fish and seafood. I'm a long time Vegetarian, but I chose to be a Pescitarian for this experience - I've even ate some meat. I mean, when in Rome (oddly this is an expression that came up at dinner). The one really annoying thing about food in China is that they have like fifty names for dumplings. Each name refers to the tiniest of differences. I've gotten to the point where when a students asks if I've tried a certain type of food I just ask if it's a dumpling - because it probably is. 

A few more things to note about Chinese restaurants. It's very common for you to get your own room. Your group group could be 10 people for 30 but you can still get a private room. In the hotel I stayed in in Shanghai there were numerous dinning areas of all different sizes with different sized tables for this reason. So my coworkers and I had our own room with just one table. Another thing to note is that it's still legal to smoke indoors here. But it's not terrible, it's nothing like the horror stories I've heard about bars in America back in the day. There's normally only one or two guys smoking a little. At dinner the one guy in our group who wanted to smoke went next door to the room where the soldiers were and smoked with them. 

Another side note! The first week before classes start for High School and College age kids they have military training. This happens all over China. It's a way fo the students to bond - because they don't necessarily know each other. Some of the students at my school here board here, they're far from home. But there are also many schools in Qinhuangdao that the students could have come from. 

I do know that by the end of dinner I just wanted to fall asleep. I was full, jet lagged, tired from traveling all day (and getting up early all week), and hot! 

Want to learn more about Qinhuangdao? Checkout this website my friends made. (There are even some pictures of me on there!) http://qhdconnect.spruz.com/