Post Cards

 Postcards require ONE stamp. That's it. Just one! And no one can tell me otherwise. But just like everything else in China, sending postcards does not involve the same process as it would back home. After talking to the lady behind the counter, she hands us practically a roll of stamps and tells us that we need to apply 4 or 5 stamps to each post card. Additionally, the stamps aren't the ones that you can lick or peel like a sticker. You have to use this glue that looks like jelly at the bottom of a cup and you  have to apply it with a cup. What a tedious, messy step in what should be a simple process of mailing postcards! Needless to say, we were not thrilled. But then again, no mundane task in China is simple, normal, or ultra fun.O and when we were done.... we had to wait in line again to give them to the lady. There are no mailboxes in China. :(

PS. If you want a postcard, send me your address. :)

Restaurants in China

         Hole in the wall restaurants in America are a joy to visit. They are usually smaller, cute and cozy and full of really nice staff. The food is usually very homestyle or ultra unique. The experience usually leaves you with a happy heart and a happy stomach.

          In China, it’s a bit different. Hole in the wall restaurants are the norm instead of the exception. They all have a rectangular sign with some sort of colored background and some sort of Chinese written on them. In my previous post, I’ve mentioned that they all look the same so we make up names for them. Inside they all contain the same wooden tables with a horizontal beam so low, that your thighs don’t fit under it, causing you to sit two feet away from the table. A cup of “sanitized” chopsticks stands in the middle of the table along with a stack of tissue thin napkins. Upon entering one of these hole in the wall establishments, it is up to you to find a seat at one of these impossible to sit at tables, which during the lunch rush could be difficult. Often times, you just sit at a table with other people. Enjoy the stares you get, as you are often the only white people in the restaurant.

            Ordering is obviously an ordeal, but once that is done, you can sit back and enjoy the piping hot water that they serve you. The Chinese don’t do cold water…  even on the hottest day in the middle of summer.

             The thing you will notice about Chinese hole in the walls is the excessive noise. The servers don’t bring your food to the table, but rather they pick it up from the chef and then scream the name of the dish out loud, and it is your responsibility to claim it. So at any given point in your meal, you will hear random Chinese screaming which is highly annoying. Further, the Chinese patrons themselves don’t understand the concept of indoor voices. It’s one thing to speak loudly every now and then to emphasize a point or because you got excited, it’s a totally different thing to scream across the table for the duration of the entire conversation. Most of the time it doesn’t  even sound like a conversation, but rather a screaming fest, kind of like six 5 year old children arguing over legos.

               So between waitresses screaming out dishes every 3 minutes, and the table next to you and behind you engaging in some verbal  combat, Chinese hole in the wall dining is not particularly pleasant. Add enough cigarette smoke to make you disoriented and then you are having a jolly good time.

Beer Duck. That upside down glass has actual beer in it. Pretty darn delicious!

Here are some other observations regarding Chinese dining:

-all bones of animals are placed directly on the table or throw on the ground

-all used napkins are thrown on the ground

-slurping noises are not a problem in China. They are by no means considered rude.

-bringing your entire face to the table to eat something is not considered bad etiquette

-if you ever need your waitress, it is up to you to scream out “waiter!!!” Same thing goes for when you want your check

-immediately upon sitting down at your table, you are handed a menu and are expected to order right then and there. If you aren’t ready, the waitress will stand there staring at you until you are. It’s normal protocol here.... me personally..... I think it's creepy.

Fall Colors

One a brighter note, there are these two adorable twins that live in my complex. The other day I snagged a photo with them.... even if they didn't really understand what was going on.

And on a fall note, they have these adorable mini clementines all over the place. I've been wanting to try them for weeks, and the other day I did. They are pure joy to eat, since they so flipping tiny! Happy Fall!

And one last thing, Mommy treated us to a wonderful bday dinner at the Sofitel hotel. Here is my first real non beer drink of 26! Thanks Mom!

Trophy Case

Let’s talk school. In the past week or so I’ve experienced some situations that I think are unique to China and to this day I still can’t really get my mind around it.

                I gave my seniors their first AP Biology test. It was unit one and the information was not necessarily ultra difficult or that new to them. After grading the majority of the tests (apparently people like to disappear on test day and are currently still making up exams), I was appalled to see that half of my students failed (six out of the twelve that took it). Considering these students had to test into this special “AP” class within the school and considering the “dumbest” kid scored in the top 80^th percentile on the SAT, the failing rate on my measly bio exam seemed a bit high. There are obviously a few reasons why this could be so. One could be that the students don’t care. Now, why would they not care when obviously their GPA’s matter for college applications AND the information I’m testing them on will be on their AP exams in May. I’m not just giving a test for no reason. I’m trying to help them learn the information slowly over the course of the year so they will be prepared when the time comes. Trust me, no teacher spends the time to make an exam just to be mean. I spent my time looking for old exams that have been released and going through them to find old AP question applicable to our unit to insert into the unit test so my exam would be close to the AP exam. I tried! I really did! And what I get is half the class failing.

                 Two, when I asked the student who received the highest grade (B+) what he thought about the exam, he responded that he wished he had more time. Hmmm ok. Let’s think about this one. For the past two or three weeks we (the teachers) have been specifically told by the office not to give homework (that is a whole different story), which I can personally say at least 2 of the 3 AP teachers (Brandon and me) complied. Additionally, the seniors have at least four to five “study halls” every day. So with that much time to study and no homework, how the heck can this boy tell me he wished he had more time! This just leads me to believe that they don’t care about their grades, because if they did, they would have used one of their four study halls a day to study for the unit test! So this just takes me back to my first point, they don’t care. Why? After living here in China for a few months now, I can get a sense that the school “takes care” of the student’s grades if you know what I mean. I was just yesterday asked into the AP office to help one of the teachers answer some questions about weighted and unweighted GPA and weighted and unweighted class rank. She was filling out the Common Application that some schools use now a days. The entire school has about 850 seniors, 15 of which are in the school’s special “AP” program and 15 of which are actually applying to American Universities. I also have to point out that the “AP” Office does not work hand in hand with the main office. Aka they report their students information separately. If I had to guess right now where those 15 students will fall in the class rank…. Well I’m sure you guys can figure out what I’m saying.

                As for when the students will actually take the time to study and learn the information needed for the AP Biology exam… well I can only guess. I have a feeling that a month before the AP exam, my classes will be cancelled for no apparent reason, and the kids will sit and memorize the entire Princeton AP Review book for every AP subject exam they are taking. In other words, they will sit and memorize (not learn) an entire year long curriculum in one month and get 5s on the exams. So why am I here? If they don’t care to learn now because they need to focus on the one thing that can’t be faked or fixed for them (their college personal statements) and if they don’t need me later when they are cramming on their own, then why do they need me at all? Answer: trophy.

                On a separate topic, I show up to my AP Psychology class Saturday morning ready to give them their unit test, to find that only 4 of my 15 students are in class. Earlier in the week I had asked them if they wanted one class to take the test (Friday’s we only meet once) or two (Saturday we meet for two periods back to back). Everyone responded with two. Ok so I go and schedule the test for Saturday and made Friday a review day. This all went down on Tuesday. So basically, between Tuesday and Saturday, not a single one of my students bothered to tell me that they will not be in class on Saturday. The office did not inform me either. When I walked into my nearly empty class room on Saturday, I just about had a hissy fit! I was not going to give a test to four students in Psychology, nor was I going to continue teaching in Biology next period to those same four students! I ended up editing one personal statement and walking out of the class.

                Communication about attendance with teachers here is not considered mandatory I guess. And due to the fact that the office probably had no idea how many students were in class and that I just walked out of the classroom and left the kids alone, I’m guessing the school doesn’t have any liability issues or any regard for knowing who is in their school and when. I’m sure the school and the students don’t think this, but I think it has to do with respect. Because they cancel our classes last minute and don’t show up to meetings last minute and do other things to push us around AND on top of it, I get a class of four students…. This just confirms to me, again, that no one cares what I do…I am in fact just a trophy but a damn good trophy at that.

How to do laundry in China

Doing laundry isn't really that fun back home, but it's a lot worse over here. Let me shed some light on how I have to do laundry for the next 8 months or so!

Meet our washer and spinner.... Notice... no drier included. Ugh. 

Here you can see the very clear instructions on how to run this machine. Thankfully our brains were able to use context clues to figure out what to do. So first you have to fill the main compartment with water. This is a manual task: all you have to do is turn the knob. However, there are a few tricky parts. One: don't forget to turn off the knob when the compartment fills.... it will not turn off itself! Two: if you want hot water.... you have to boil it yourself and pour it in, or use cups to transfer hot water from the sink in the bathroom. Aka getting warm water is a pain. But then again, nothing cleans your clothes free of dirty China smog as hot water so we have to do it. ( so far at this point its been at least 10-15 minutes boiling water and slowly adding it to the main compartment)

Here you can see the water slowly filling up the main compartment. Isn't it lovely?

Here is the washer killing our clothes. Yes, I meant to say killing because all it really does is mush our clothes around until they turn into one big knot. Then we the laundry is done, I get to play a game of untangling. It's joyous really. Not only is it a game, but I can also see at the same time my clothes getting destroyed. I'm coming back to Chicago naked I swear. My clothes will be in shreds.

After the wash cycle is done, I get to drain the water. You'd think it would be relatively simple to somehow install the draining mechanism to drain directly into a pipe somewhere, however, instead, there is a hose that goes to our bathroom and since the drain there isn't wide enough to drain the water fast enough, the dirty China smog filled water floods our bathroom. You can't see it that clearly but the water basically is past the toilet and on the green rug. We usually have to plan when we do laundry and use the facilities prior to laundering as no one likes walking into a wet bathroom. Then you fill the main compartment and repeat for the rinse cycle, sans the hot water this time thankfully.

Then comes the spinner. Just load up the clothes, make sure they are balanced, and spin away. I have to say that the spin cycle here is a whole lot more efficient than back home.... but that's not big enough of an improvement to ever justify this method of doing laundry.

Finally, we get to be all old school and hang our clothes out to dry. Takes about one day on a sunny day, or more if its cloudy and China smoggy. :/

And that is how my laundry lives it's life here. My clothes are stretched out since there is no drier to shrink them back. Like I said, I have a feeling half of my clothes won't make it and will meet their ends here in China. O how I hope it's not my favorite polka dot sweater! :)

Pingyao

Since we did the two things we wanted to in Datong in our first whole day there (the tour), we decided to leave early and head out to Pingyao. To do this we had to take a three hour bus ride to Tiyuan, then take a city bus from one bus station to the other bus station. Once we got to the second bus station we new we were in for an adventure. The line outside the bus station to just get in was as long as the line for Batman at Great America. they had the back and forth lines set up. Thankfully most people actually waited in line, minus the two or three people that found it totally acceptable to jump the line right in front of my face. No guilt about doing this either! Once we got in through security like 15 minutes later, we had no idea which counter we needed to go to, so I just picked a number and shoved my way up there while blocking all the other people trying to cut in front me! We get to the front and the ticket lady just looks at us and says "mayo" (don't have). We walked away ultra confused and a bit panicked. People told us that even on National day, getting short distance buses shouldn't be a problem. But looking around the busy bus station I was starting to doubt what everyone said. Then out of no where this girl shows up and shows us her ticket to Pingyao that was leaving in ten minutes! How the heck did she get a ticket when the ticket counter person said she was out!? Well knowing this information I sent Brandon to fight his way up to the ticket counter again. We were going to find a way to get to Pingyao no matter what! Well he worked his way up there while I stood with the bags. I kept an eye on his since he was about a foot taller than everyone in the giant crowd by the counter. Five minutes, ten minutes go by and nothing.   Brandon at one point looked at me and just mouthed "ten minutes". I was like ooooook. I mean what else are we going to do other than wait. Then out of no where, the entire crowd by the counter started shouting and waving cash around in the air as if they were on the trading floor fighting over hog ad cattle prices. I was like wtf mate! A minute later Brandon comes out of the masses with a baffled look on his face and two tickets to Pingyao in his hands. Bus leaving in ten minutes! Turns out while in line this little girl who knew like 3 words of English just told him to wait ten minutes and so he waited. At one point,  behind the counter someone started printing something and the tension in the air grew. Then out of nowhere the tickets went on sale and the money in his hand was taken and then replaced by change and two tickets. The little girl up front with him just took care of it. We still to this day haven't figured out what the people behind the counter were waiting for and why the madness had to take place. We have a theory that all the bus tickets were either sold or reserved before hand. So if people don't come and pick up the reserved tickets, they go back on sale to the public tens mins before the bus leaves. We could be wrong, but it makes sense in our head.

Anyways, so we got on the bus and were on our way! Pingyao! Here we come. :) And here is what we found there:

The courtyard of our hostel recommended by Lonely Planet, Harmony Guesthouse. We had called every place in our guidebooks wanting to make reservations but they were all full! We finally found this place that was ultra expensive, so we figured we would just try to drop by Harmony, just in case they had a last minute cancellation. And lucky us! They had a room for us for our four days! This is also where we ran into the Dutch couple from Datong.

The cutesy streets of Pingyao. It's this square of one square mile that is surrounded by a huge wall and is just full of walking streets. All the flags were up for National Day. We just walked around singing America the Beautiful. They never specified which nation they were talking about... hahah :)

Market Tower

So we wanted a pic infront of the Market Tower so we stood around looking for an Asian (there were like only 5 other non-asians in town that day so we weren't expecting much) with a fancy camera around their neck thinking that they would at least know how to use mine. Well we found one who was willing to take a picture and this is what we got: us and no Market Tower. O well, I know you believe me when I tell you we were there.

View of Pingyao from the Market Tower.

John Lennon in da house.

Streets of Pingyao

Non shopping part of Pingyao. Feels like a farm

Found a Catholic Church. It was behind the chain locked doors. Guess we're not allowed to see it.

Nine Dragon Screen.

Pingyao is in coal country. Everyone heats their homes with coal. All the "dust" you see on all the souvenirs is actually coal dust. It's gross. You can definitely feel it in the air. So I wasn't so surprised when I just saw a huge pile of it in the middle of a street.

Decorative buildings

So apparently the Chinese like to sell matches as souvenirs. Not only that but they sell Zippos and other smoking accessories. Kinda not cool, but at least the matches are interesting. Check out the Chinglish on these!

This was alittle less funny.

Some other tower in Pingyao.

Night time shopping

Soooo flipping full of people. The first night we got here, there were practically no people on the streets. Then the next day out of nowhere, it feels like thousands of people appeared. I learned really quickly that I hate traveling on Chinese national holidays. There are soooo many of them in tours with their little guides and cameras and bare butt babies! And all the prices are ridiculous! Some lady tried to charge me 20RMB (about 3USD) for a Magnum icecream bar which usually costs 5RMB (less than 1USD). I wasn't going to fall for it, so I decided to not buy it. :( I had to wait til I got home to get my icecream cone. O and on another note, Brandon wanted a Coke Zero but didn't want to over pay either. We found a can of Coke Zero in one store (which is totally unheard of, the can part) and the lady quoted the same ridiculous price. The we asked what the regular bottle cost and it was the same price. So we kind of looked at each other and then verified with the sales person that the can which was only 500ml and the bottle which was 750ml cost the same? And she said yes. OOOOOO China!

Brandon waving at this fortress that we went to on our 3rd day in Pingyao.

For those wondering, my actual Bday came and went with nothing exciting to report other than it was the first full day in Pingyao (the fact that we left Datong early meant I didn't spend my actual bday on buses). I was a bit sick and Pingyao isn't particularly full of entertainment. So the day was spent walking around and taking pictures enjoying the smallness of the town. I was hoping to enjoy the quiet and lack of people, however, that was ruined due to the arrival of thousands of Asian tourists. :D

The Hanging Temple and Yungang Grottoes

Our second day in Datong we decided to join the Dutch couple on a tour to see the Hanging Temple (the reason we came to Datong in the first place) and the Yungang Grottoes (also known as the Cloud Ridge Caves) since using public transportation was going to be a hassle and take lots of time. We figured it would just be easier to use a tour, even if it meant having a bit less fun. Either way, I had a great day, but we were definitely very tired afterwards.

Here's Brandon all excited to go see the Hanging Temple!

It was hard to get a good picture, but it was seriously pretty darn cool. It's just a temple hanging out on the side of a mountain held up by a bunch of sticks. They were really paranoid about the place burning down, so they had signs everywhere.

Paranoia to the max

Cool mask... but so out of place in this temple.

Rub the Buddha for good luck and good fortune.

Brandon..... and the random Chinese guy

High up in the air being supported by some wooden sticks.

Buddhas in the temple. You see one, you've seen them all.

One our way out. Pretty nifty huh?

The signature "we were here" pose

Monks!!! This is on the way into the Yungang Caves. There were monks everywhere and the place was all decorated. There was going to be some sort of ceremony/welcoming of the holiday the following day. But I still don't know why the monks were there.

And this is them. The caves full of Buddha carvings. Some of them still have color too.

Little caves

Biggest Buddha there. Not too shabby right (ps be careful when you say shabby in China... apparently it means a bad bad word)

Color Buddha

A MONK ON A CELLPHONE!!! Seriously! I thought monks were supposed to give up all of their worldly possession. I guess not. And to cap it off.... it was a good cellphone! Oooo the things I see in China. Further, this monk actually followed us for a while and was practicing his English with us. He was saying something about the Nine Dragon Gate. We never went to see it in Datong but we saw one in Pingyao.

The small caves made by normal civilians. They weren't as ornate and pretty since normal people obviously don't have millions to help build them.

Impersonating Buddhas.