Signing Off

Thank you to everyone back home who followed my adventure. It was a bit overwhelming at times to try to keep up on my blog since I had a few internet glitches and we had a very busy schedule! However, it was a great way to stay connected to home over the course of almost 5 weeks and hopefully to show you all a little bit of what China is all about. This experience was everything I was and wasn't expecting all wrapped up into one trip if that makes any sense. Most of all, I hope it was only one of many opportunities to travel with other educators and it only inspires me to learn even more about other cultures around the world.

Additional Videos

I am in the process of adding videos to some older posts since I was unable to do so while I was in China. If you feel like looking back, you can see clips on:

Ferry Ride
Students from Changzhou Senior High
Roll out the red carpet
Hutongs
The Great Wall
Forbidden City (2)
Overnight Train
Crater Lake

"Chinglish"

One of the most entertaining aspects of our time in China was the botched translations that we all looked forward to reading everywhere. There are actually books of "Chinglish" signs that you can purchase there. Mostly they amount to inaccurate translations that could have been much more simply stated. We had so much fun with these that it was actually disappointing to be in Hong Kong where you can find proper British English everywhere.  I'm pretty sure the one posted here should just say "Keep Off".

Read more about Chinglish here.

I'm Home!

It was an amazing journey that I was very fortunate to be a part of. Stay tuned tomorrow for some final thoughts and videos as I slowly begin to recover from the jetlag!

Farewell Banquet at the Peak

Ferry Ride

We had a beautiful night ride on the ferry last night.

Hong Kong

We made it in safely yesterday just before Typhoon Molave made landfall in the middle of the night. I woke up to a lot of rain but that didn't stop us from throwing on our ponchos and hitting Kowloon Island for sightseeing, shopping, fortune telling, and fun. This is the first day that we have had completely free on the whole trip so we made the most of it! The skies cleared in the afternoon and we were able to ride the ferry and hit the night market for some last minute gift buying as well. Hong Kong reminds me a little of Las Vegas on an island...
This is an exciting day for me as well, it is the first time I have been able to view my own blog since I left for China! The blogger ban does not extend into Hong Kong so I can actually post and view my blog without any secret shortcuts. Too bad we will be leaving on Wednesday already! Look for some new videos to be attached to some older posts possibly tomorrow!

Hong Kong here we come!

Tomorrow morning we will drive about 3 hours to Shanghai and say goodbye to the first members of our group.  Wanli, our Chinese escort, will be returning to his family near Beijing, and 4 other members of the group will return to the States while the rest of us will fly to Hong Kong for the last leg of our journey. Wanli, thank you for your kindness and for all that you have taught us, and Sarah, Kate, Anna, and Marianne, we will miss you!

I think we are missing American food just a little...

Traditional Chinese Instruments

We also attended a performance by some of these very talented youngsters.  Their group has already been to the United States several times to perform in both Washington D.C. and New York.

Art class...not my best subject

Yesterday afternoon we attended sessions at the Children's Palace and participated in pottery, drawing, and calligraphy with the students.  It was fun to observe the younger children about ages 9-10 participating in their summer enrichment activities. Many of them are too busy with their studies to have time for these extracurriculars during the school year.  In this picture, my friend Kate and I are working to design some sort of clay pot.  We could not understand the teacher's instructions in Chinese, so we had to follow along with what the children were doing!

Students from Changzou Senior HS

The students here at Changzhou Senior Middle School just finished their school year and many students from Ms. Li's English class were kind enough to come to school to present power points, skits, songs, piano performances, and a Kung Fu demonstration to showcase their many talents.  I think my students would be surprised to hear about how busy the students will be due to all of the necessary studying and reviewing during the summer months.  Many of them even asked me how much homework I assign over summer vacation! 

Pagoda of Tianning Temple

This is currently the world's tallest Buddhist pagoda and it is located in a park that is about two blocks from our hotel in Changzhou. 

Dancing in the Park

The park that surrounds the area around the pagoda brings out many people to enjoying dancing and strolling around at night. It's very beautiful and the people are so friendly.  It's fun to be in a less-touristy area once again!

Xi'an to Changzhou via overnight train

These are my six "roomies" from our overnight train ride last night.  We departed at about 8 pm and arrived at 10 am this morning.  I slept on the upper bunk so it definitely reminded me of sleeping in a loft during my college days and also because we spent most of the evening telling stories and eating junk food on the lower bunk.  The biggest challenge we had was getting almost 4 weeks worth of luggage and accumulated souvenirs from 16 women stored on very tiny luggage racks overhead and in a very small space below the lower bunk.  In some cases it took about 3 of us in a tiny aisle to lift 50+ pound suitcases over our heads to another person hanging up above off of the top bunk across from the storage rack. I think our two male chaperones have spent many days shaking their heads at our crazy group of ladies!

Time to pack our bags...again!

Today we had the privilege to meet with teachers from many rural areas who traveled specifically to meet for the first time with a foreign teacher.  Many of these teachers of English have not yet had the opportunity to ever speak English with a native speaker, so I was honored to share this with them. They were bubbling over with questions and so anxious to hear my perspective on any new insight to improve their current teaching methods.  I have to say it was quite overwhelming to be regarded this highly and once again I felt much like a celebrity, as many of them wanted individual photographs with me and asked me to sign their notebooks. 
 
Our group has really enjoyed our stay in Xi'an, but it is time to pack our bags again and travel eastward to Changzhou via overnight train tomorrow night.  Most of us are looking forward to the experience despite the fact that we know we may not sleep very much!  I'm not sure how adventurous I will feel or how close I will get to the dining car, but I am looking forward to seeing more of "real China" via train.

Terra Cotta Warriors

One of the highlights of our stop in Xi'an was our visit to the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum.  For those of you who are unfamiliar,  some pieces of pottery were unearthed by peasants in 1974 who were digging for a well.  Experts have determined that these artifacts are associated with the Qin Dynasty which dates back to 206 BC. These life size figures are arranged in battle-like formation associated with what an imperial army would look like in those times.  The Chinese refer to this discovery as the "Eighth Wonder of the World", and it is truly worth the visit!

My favorite picture so far...

This was taken at the market yesterday. The majority of the parents are very flattered and proud when you ask to photograph their children and it is a polite gesture to show them the picture after you take it.

Xi'an City Wall

Foot massage

In a group of 16 women, one of our most enjoyable activities is to experience the art of foot massage in each new city. So far I have had 3, and each time it seems to be better! In addition to the relaxation, perhaps the best aspect is the affordability. The best foot massage that I had was about 70 minutes in length for the low price of 40 yuan or about $6-$7. There is no need to feel guilty about having multiple foot massages because they are so affordable! If I lived in China I am sure I would get one at least once a week.
Some of the rooms have about 15 comfortable chairs with ottomans so you can also lie back and chat away with your friends. They usually begin with a foot soaking bath while they massage your neck, back and shoulders and sometimes your hands as well. When your feet have finished soaking, they will begin to work on all of the specific acupressure points on your feet. This feels great after a long day on your feet, but if the person is very skilled it can also be a painful experience! Finally, they will massage your legs and by this point it is difficult to stay awake.

No more Facebook!

These are exciting times in China! The Fulbright History/Arts group arrived in Xi'an at our hotel today and we will overlap here for a few days, and it was then that we learned that 3 of their group members had experienced the 7 day quarantine process in Beijing because they had been seated near a person with an elevated temperature on their flight. From what we heard second hand, it was a long difficult week in a room with no air conditioning and sub-standard food. Fortunately those group members were able to stay behind in Beijing for a couple of days to see some of the amazing sights that we saw while we were there. The other issue that I am sure many of you are aware is the protests and current violence in Western China. This is not affecting our visit to Xi'an other than the fact that we noticed an increased police presence last night when visiting the downtown area. We were questioned for our passports while sitting outside and none of us were
carrying them on us because they had alerted us to the fact that there is a higher rate of theft here. They took our hotel information and called the hotel to confirm this and thankfully there were no issues! We also rode the city bus last night from our hotel to downtown so we were able to fully experience the "non-Disney version of China" as a friend of mine likes to say. The other noticeable effect is that Facebook was blocked beginning last night and now none of us are able to access it. The ironic thing is that Facebook isn't a very popular website in China but somehow it got added to the list of the other social networking sites that have been recently blocked. I am disappointed because I know many of you have also been looking at my pictures on Facebook so now we will have to wait until I arrive in Hong Kong on the 18th when I will escape the Great Firewall of China that is the internet. Many of you also know that I am already using a dummy
email to post my blog since the Blogger site is also on the list of blocked websites. All of this has definitely made this even more of a learning experience. Not to worry, we are all safe and still having a wonderful time!

Roll out the red carpet...

We have arrived in Xi'an, another Chinese city representative of many ancient dynasties. Today we visited the Qinyang Primary School and were greeted like a bunch of American celebrities by students who were excited to showcase their English skills. We literally walked a red carpet as the children were chanting "Welcome Welcome" and "Hello Hello" as they waved balloons and presented us each with a bouquet of flowers. We were also presented with scrolls with Chinese proverbs and we were invited to observe summer school English classes with mini-lessons about food and traffic safety. In China it is customary to present gifts to hosts, teachers, and guides. Some of the teachers also brought small gifts to share with the students such as pencils, pens, rulers, or coins that might represent something from our schools or the region or state from which we all originated. My favorite part of the day was when one of the children asked me, "You are very tall,
why?"

KFC

I can't remember that last time that I actually ate at a KFC in the States, but today we welcomed the opportunity to have a taste of American food to celebrate the 4th of July!  (No, there is no 4th of July celebration here so we created our own. However, the absence of fireworks was very strange!)
There are about 2000 KFC restaurants in China, and perhaps the most notable fact is that the menu here differs very much from the traditional Colonel Sanders that one might be accustomed to.  Menu options might include a Beijing duck wrap or perhaps the seaweed flounder sticks that I sampled tonight for dinner with a side of fries.  It is actually considered to be a more upscale restaurant, with some of the buildings having 3-4 stories with immaculate bathrooms, and a call-ahead or delivery service.  Chris, one of our guides in Beijing said that KFC and Pizza Hut are much more popular than McDonalds and that many families will celebrate Father's Day in China on August 8th with a family trip to KFC.

Changbai Mountain

The Sky Pond of Changbai Mountain is a crater lake that naturally borders China and North Korea and is a popular tourist attraction. Getting there required our bus to first take us to the main park gate, then an eco-bus to take us to the next check point, and finally a 6 passenger SUV to take us to the top on an adventurous ride with some of the worst driving I have ever experienced! It was worth the view and I can't even imagine how beautiful this place is on a sunny day.

Hot Spring Eggs?

Doesn't everyone cook corn on the cob and hard-boiled eggs in a hot spring and sell them to tourists?

Typical border town...or not!!!

Today is the first day that we have actually seen the sun shine in Yanji.  Both of our school visits were cancelled today, still due to extreme caution regarding H1N1 despite the fact that we have now been in China for nearly 2 weeks.  We had a nice visit to high school classes yesterday so I think most of us welcomed a change in plans and a visit to the China/North Korea border town of Tumen, China.  In many ways it is similar to a US/Mexico border town in that they are many tourist souvenirs and photo opportunities, but in other ways it is very different!  The first being that no one has their passports out and ready to cross the border and return several hours later, and the other being that one can't help but think, wow, I am looking into North Korea right across that river!  According to our scholar escort, the only people that you could see crossing the bridge over to North Korea would be citizens with some kind of special permit.  I can
assure you that our visit was completely safe, and afterwards we visited a restaurant for some kind of cold Korean noodle dish that not too many of us were very interested in eating.  Our hosts are very concerned that we try all the typical regional dishes, but many of us are ready to move away from the spiciness that our stomachs cannot seem to get accustomed to!  A few people from the group decided to visit the local KFC for a snack this afternoon before our farewell banquet this evening with the local teachers from the high school and Yanbian University.  One thing that I have enjoyed is there have been a variety of dishes containing potatoes in this area which has been a change from the usual white rice, although this region is supposed to have the best white rice! 
Tomorrow we will depart at 5:30 am to travel nearly 4 hours to visit a crater lake in the mountains, and then we have an early departure on Sunday morning to connect through Beijing to Xi'an, where we will stay until July 12.  I have been told that it could be hotter there than in Beijing, but I am also looking forward to returning to a larger city.  Many of us are missing coffee the most!!!

Update from Yanji

We left Beijing very early this morning on a 2 hour flight to the city of Yanji located in the Jilin province in Northeast China.  The flight reminded me of what domestic flying used to be like in the US with lots more legroom and breakfast served!  Evidently is has been raining here for 20 days straight, so what a change it was to land and have it be nearly 30 degrees cooler and cloudy after baking in the sun and heat of Beijing for the last 8 days.  Our host tonight at Yanbian University confirmed in fact that we are a mere 40 km from the North Korean border!  The Korean influence is evident here in the food and all of the signs are labeled with both Chinese and Korean characters.  Gone are the Chinese and English road signs that were abundant in Beijing and here it is very difficult to find a person in the hotel who speaks any English at all.  We will be heavily relying on our escort Dick Bodman, a retired professor of Chinese from St. Olaf
College, and our Chinese escort Zhu Wanli, an English teacher from China to translate for us.  I have to say it is very difficult as a language teacher to not be able to communicate at all here in Chinese and now Korean and feels almost hypocritical for us to be trying to get people to understand us using whatever English we can find in common or a few basic Chinese words.
I have enjoyed teaching Wanli some slang as we try to teach and learn some things from each other as we go.  Today we saw a public cell phone charging station  for students on the college campus and he explained to me that the Chinese sign literally said "put gas in your cell phone", using the same word for gasoline.  So I told him about how kids might say in English that they need to "juice" it up when referring to electrical things. He seemed rather amused by that!  He is very paternal and takes such good care of us, as running around and keeping track of 16 women is no easy task!
My friends here have been gracious enough to let me use their computers since they know that I am trying to stay up to date on my blog!  We had a great day today with the faculty from the College of Foreign Language at Yanbian University.  They are so friendly and so much fun and we are looking forward to seeing most of them again tomorrow night for some karaoke singing.  That might turn out to be our most interesting cultural experience yet! They are by far the most gracious hosts that we have encountered on this trip, and they are so anxious to have any foreign teachers return to their university on an exchange program.  Anyone interested? I love my time in China but I do not anticipate returning here to teach in the near future!

Yanji

I am here in our next city having some technological issues. I hope to be able to post more again soon!

Dandelion School

Today we visited the Dandelion School, founded especially for middle school aged children of area migrant workers who would have otherwise been unable to receive their 9 year compulsory education.  Many of these families are not registered to live in the Beijing area so the free education that their children can receive would be available only in the area from which they came.  Most of the children live at the school Monday through Friday and spend the weekend with their families.  Although the accommodations at the Dandelion School are very modest, they are still much better than the conditions that they might endure with their own families. The children are happy, friendly, appreciative, and so very respectful of the teachers and the opportunity that they have been given.  We were able to spend the afternoon observing the classes, meeting with the teachers, and eating dinner with the students in their classroom.  The students even serenaded me
for my birthday in both English and Chinese! 
Tonight we are packing up to leave for Yanji on a 6am flight.  It is there where we will encounter more educational issues related to minority groups because of this city's proximity to the North Korean border.  I have very much enjoyed my stay in Beijing, but I am looking forward to cooler temperatures!

The Great Wall

Today will probably be on record as one of my favorite days in China despite the fact that I am still at the beginning of my trip!  We had to begin very early in order to beat the heat and drive about 90 km northeast of Beijing to visit the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.  It is less crowded and touristy than the Badaling section which is a little closer to Beijing.  With a 6am departure, many of us were snoozing on the bus and when we arrived, we were instructed to meet at a small coffee shop before we were to climb up to the cable car station in order to ascend.  Little did I know that my fellow travelers had arranged a birthday party for Tamara, who turned 30 on the 25th, and I, complete with birthday cakes decorated with our Chinese Astrological signs.  I am fortunate to be in China this year, as my sign is the Ox and 2009 is the year of the Ox! I am also very fortunate to be able to say that I climbed the Great Wall of China, and I
even have a t-shirt to prove it. About 9 of us also just enjoyed a 70 minute foot bath/massage after two very long days on our feet!

Hutongs

"Hutong" means "alley" and the word, a derivative of Mongolian, dates back 700 years to the occupation of the Yuan Dynasty. The traditional courtyard homes, which are still in existence, are about 70% government owned and 30% privately owned.  Upon completion of our tour today, we dined in a home that occupied 4 rooms of an 32 room area shared by many families, with the only common space being a "shared" bathroom.  Many of these areas are now preserved and restored with aid from the government. Perhaps the most fasinating feature of the Hutong is the existing neighborhoods around these areas which are bursting with energy from the nearby lake, shops, and the many bars which lined the streets. I hope that at some point during my trip that I will be able to access my blog and post some of the videos that I have taken which will show some of this rich cultural energy.  But for now, I am still being blocked, and thanks to some help from a friend of
mine, you should be able to see your comments posted soon!

Forbidden City

We had a very busy 13 hour day today starting with a visit to the Panjiayuan Market where we got to do some shopping and bargaining, a trip to Tian'anmen and the Forbidden City, a stop at a silk factory, dinner, and then a performance at the Lao She Tea House. Now we are back at the hotel preparing to depart at 6 am to visit the Temple of Heaven and the Great Wall.  Forgive me, as it is often difficult to think clearly after these long days, but I know if I wait too long I will get behind on posting about all of our learning experiences!

Tian'anmen, or "The Gate of Heavenly Peace", is the main entrance to The Imperial Palace, or the "Forbidden City", which housed 24 emperors over 5 centuries.  Ordinary Chinese were forbidden from even approaching the walls and the emperors rarely left the premises. The complex contains over 800 buildings and would take days to walk around to see more than 900 rooms!

Beijing 2008

We got to visit the Bird's Nest and Water Cube today. During last summer's Olympic Games I never dreamed that a year later I would be here to see it for myself!

Here's what I won't be eating for dinner...

At our lunch banquet today we saw the "whole fish" on the plate including the eye. The eye is edible and the Chinese say that its consumption will improve your own eyesight!  I think I would rather eat the fish eye than the things pictured here.  The smell at this street market was so overwhelming that I had to step away.  Some of the items not pictured were: fried silk-worm, sheep kidney, and chicken heart.  Thankfully today our Chinese hosts at the Beijing Language and Culture University fed us some delicious dishes that did not contain any of these!

RIP Michael Jackson

Michael,

Thanks for lots of good times dancing to the Thriller record in our living room. You'll be missed.

Food

Perhaps one of the most interesting components of the trip has been our change in diet!  Our Chinese hosts have provided us with several formal banquets, and as a result we have learned about some of the etiquette.  For example, the most prestigiuous guest at the table would eat the chicken head.  No, we have not been eating chicken heads, but there was one on the plate that one of the hosts was happy to consume!  We also noted that the fish cheeks are the tastiest and most desired parts of the fish.  As for me, I have chosen to eat vegetarian while I am in China so I have been enjoying many cold dishes containing tofu, vegetables, fungi, peanuts, pumpkin...I could go on and on!  Last night our group split up since we didn't have a formal dinner scheduled and we went to Pizza Hut and ordered a Veggie Lover's Pizza which contained tomatoes, peppers, corn, and pineapple.  Pizza Hut is actually an expensive sit-down restaurant here!  It was nice to
have a break from Chinese food after eating it twice a day for almost a week.
Some of my colleagues visited an outdoor food market last night where they saw the scorpions, grasshoppers, snakes, etc.  They said that the sights and smells were a little overhwhelming, but I hope to get down there tonight to at least take some pictures.
I am trying to enjoy all the conveniences of Beijing because I know that the whole trip will not be like this!  In fact, I may even walk over to the nearby McDonalds to grab a coffee after I post this because good coffee is definitely something that is hard to come by over here.  I ask that you continue to please write comments and I will publish them as soon as I figure out the best way to accomplish this!

Time for English

Our second stop of the day was at Wall Street English.  We learned about their English training program and unique centers all throughout China and around the world.  They hosted a special "English Corner" where students sat and conversed with us and we did a scavenger hunt activity around the center.  It was really fun to hear a variety of levels of English and to teach them some new expressions like "don't cheat!" when playing a game.  Many students are participating in this program in addition to other jobs and responsibilities and it is incredible to see how motivated they are to learn English and to want to visit the United States.

Our days are very packed with activities and by the time we return to the hotel at night I am exhausted!  I am with a great group of educators and we are learning so much already. I am looking forward to the weekend when we can have some time for sightseeing!

Let the learning begin!

Today we began the day with a meeting with a teacher trainer from the Beijing Chongwen District, Ms. Di Di Yan.  Together we discussed how the English teachers are being trained to teach English and what their classrooms might sound and look like.  Some of the main things to note are that their semester grading breakdown looks much different than ours.  The mid term exam can be worth 30%, the final exam 40%, and the class activities, participation, and homework may only be 30% in total.  Also, there are not many discipline issues in class and students tend to be very quiet.  Asking a lot of questions and taking up the teacher's time can be considered a waste of class time by the other students.  To wrap up our meeting with her we practiced eye exercises which are often times performed several times a day to maintain attention and focus.

Our Arrival

We arrived in Beijing on Monday afternoon about 4:15 after departing San Francisco at 11:15 am on Sunday.  Due to an erupting volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, our plane had to divert to a more southerly route to avoid volcanic ash.  This resulted in several more hours of flying time!  Our plane was then greeted by national health officials who board the plane and individually take every passenger's temperature with a laser-type gun.  Anyone even displaying a low-grade fever is quarantined in a hotel for 7 days!  Thankfully we all managed to safely pass the inspection but a few of my colleagues had to have their's re-taken after walking through the terminal and being flagged by a laser-scanning temperature device which are installed throughout the terminal.  It is more than obvious that the Chinese are taking H1N1 very seriously and we have had multiple reminders by our hosts and the hotel to contact someone if we begin to feel
ill. This is especially important within the first 7 days since this is when people would begin to develop symptoms after exposure.  We even had some locals plug their noses today and cover their mouths when we boarded an elevator! Our school visit tomorrow in Beijing has been changed to a briefing at the Chinese Education Association for International Exchange since officials are being cautious about possible exposure so close to final exams.

I am unable to post directly to Blogger so please bear with me while I try to figure all of this out!  I will love to read your comments but you may not see them posted right away. 

Adios!

Tomorrow morning we will be departing the Vallombrosa Center bright and early for our flight to Beijing. We have spent the last few days here preparing and learning about Chinese history, geography, sociology, and economics from university experts. We have also participated in two "Survival Chinese" lessons and after those I have to say that Spanish is easy! I have spent time with my fellow partcipants who come from New York all the way to Alaska and am very excited to continue this journey with them.

Orientation

On Thursday I will arrive in California for my pre-departure orientation and finally get to meet my fellow travelers. We will be convening in Menlo Park, California, just outside of San Francisco for a 2 day orientation to prepare us for our what to expect in the upcoming weeks. http://www.vallombrosa.org/ On Sunday morning we will depart as a group to Beijing and actually arrive on Monday afternoon at 2:40 pm. I am almost finished packing and the nerves are starting to set in...

Blogging Bans in China

Since I may encounter problems posting directly to Blogger from China due to internet bans, I am testing a new application from my Facebook page where hopefully I can post directly from here. Only about 10 days left until I arrive in Beijing!

Map

I won't have my detailed itinerary until I arrive in San Francisco, but check out the map I created which shows all 6 of my stops. http://tinyurl.com/chinaitinerarymap

Thanks

I would like to extend a special thank you to all of the people in District 127 who went out of their way to help me prepare for this trip. Dr. Catherine Finger, Scott Fech, Rick McGuire, Pam Pleviak, and Mark Paluga, your support and willingness to help me are much appreciated!

Preparing for this awesome opportunity

I am one of 16 foreign language instructors from around the country who was selected to participate in the Fulbright Hays Seminar Abroad in China. The seminar is administered by the National Committee on U.S. China Relations http://www.ncuscr.org. I will spend 5 weeks traveling through China visiting schools, government agencies, and various locations of cultural interest. The seminar will focus on native language instruction and training.

Due to the intensive nature of the itinerary, I will try to post as much as I can. I look forward to reading your comments!