Well, we're off to our new home in Guyuan! Tonight we're hoppin' on the midnight train to Ningxia (just substitute "Georgia" with "Ningxia" and we have a kicky travel song).
This will probably be the last post for a little bit as I don't know what our internet situation will be like out there.
Our trip should be about 24 hours from Nanjing so, Friday morning at about 1:30 AM we'll be rolling into town. Whoo hoo! It will be nice to finally unpack our bags and start to get to know our new home.
I think that we will start teaching on the first. If anyone has any good teaching ideas for middle school, please share!
So, goodbye (for now) Nanjing, dumpling man, beverage man, beer lady and potsticker people!
Wish us luck!
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Saturday, August 20, 2005
How Many Chinese Men Does it Take to Change a Light bulb?
Hello all!
We have been busy here in Nanjing and I have some catching up to do! Mandarin classes have been going okay. I'm not the biggest fan of them right now, but hopefully I won't get too discouraged. I do like to try to write the characters and will hopefully be able to take a calligraphy class while I am here.
I know that I have been promising you pictures... I have been having some difficulty with that because the instructions are in Chinese. So, if any of you are bored and want to see some pictures, send some suggestions/instructions my way!
Last weekend we went to Suzhou - the place to go to see Ming Gardens. It was fun, but to tell you the truth, I was pretty gardened out after two (too crowded to be a lot of fun). We also went to "The Silk Museum" which was nothing more than paying an admission fee to go look in their gift shop - i.e. the place done sucked! It was truly a horrible waste of money plus no climate control for the silk that they did have on display.
The massacre monument and museum was very interesting. I don't really see how some people can say that it never happened. They had an excavation pit open for viewing and there were just bodies stacked on top on bodies - lots of children. Very chilling. I will post some pictures when I can.
The Nanjing museum rocks! They actually had a mini exhibit on the folk crafts of China, and included a case with paper cuttings! Hopefully I will be able to refine my skills some more and work some more on design. But from a cutting standpoint, I have yet to be challenged! Bring it on!
Other than that it's all dumpling wishes and potsticker dreams!
Oh, about the light bulb - apparently four, one to hold the ladder, one to hold the light bulb and screw it in, one to hold the box and old light bulb and one to scream at all of them.
No joke! 4 men and 25 minutes later - voila! Light!
*sigh* China!
We have been busy here in Nanjing and I have some catching up to do! Mandarin classes have been going okay. I'm not the biggest fan of them right now, but hopefully I won't get too discouraged. I do like to try to write the characters and will hopefully be able to take a calligraphy class while I am here.
I know that I have been promising you pictures... I have been having some difficulty with that because the instructions are in Chinese. So, if any of you are bored and want to see some pictures, send some suggestions/instructions my way!
Last weekend we went to Suzhou - the place to go to see Ming Gardens. It was fun, but to tell you the truth, I was pretty gardened out after two (too crowded to be a lot of fun). We also went to "The Silk Museum" which was nothing more than paying an admission fee to go look in their gift shop - i.e. the place done sucked! It was truly a horrible waste of money plus no climate control for the silk that they did have on display.
The massacre monument and museum was very interesting. I don't really see how some people can say that it never happened. They had an excavation pit open for viewing and there were just bodies stacked on top on bodies - lots of children. Very chilling. I will post some pictures when I can.
The Nanjing museum rocks! They actually had a mini exhibit on the folk crafts of China, and included a case with paper cuttings! Hopefully I will be able to refine my skills some more and work some more on design. But from a cutting standpoint, I have yet to be challenged! Bring it on!
Other than that it's all dumpling wishes and potsticker dreams!
Oh, about the light bulb - apparently four, one to hold the ladder, one to hold the light bulb and screw it in, one to hold the box and old light bulb and one to scream at all of them.
No joke! 4 men and 25 minutes later - voila! Light!
*sigh* China!
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Dirty Little Secret - Shhh
Okay - so, I'm not proud of myself for this, but it just had to be done.
I ate French fries.
Wait! That's not in itself such a bad thing, right? But...
We went to McDonald's.
I feel so ashamed.
I ate French fries.
Wait! That's not in itself such a bad thing, right? But...
We went to McDonald's.
I feel so ashamed.
The Dumpling Master
So, Matt and I found this absolutely awesome dumpling man right by the university we are staying at and the guru of the art of the potsticker happens to be right next to dumpling man. I think that we have eaten there at least twice a day for the past week - they now know us and laugh when they see Matt coming. Ahhh...porkish meat and spring onions wrapped in water dough - there's nothing like dumplings and potstickers in China! Also we both eat for under $2.00! Whoo hoo!
Things here have been warming up since the typhoon that hit Shanghai (right after we left!) has blown over. Not clothing soaking hot here - yet (nothing like getting up from a chair to find that you're stuck to it).
Today we went down to the International Bookstore to get some TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages - for those of you not in the biz) books and some Chinese language books to work from with our tutor in Guyuan. We met a strange fellow there. He latched on to us (errr...big, white Matt) and followed us - more like stalked us around the store. When we lost him and were trying to figure out what workbooks to get, he shows up with an arm full of Chinese workbooks. He was probably just trying to be nice and wanted to practice his English with us but he followed out of the store, we said goodbye and we watched him start to walk in the other direction. We hailed a cab and told our cabbie where to go and just as we were getting in - poof! here he is again. He told us that he wanted to share our cab with us and got in and told the cab driver where to go and where to drop us off. He finally left and we were dropped off where he told the cabbie to go - at the wrong university. So, Matt lugged ALL of our books back to Nanjing Normal and I had a nice little asthma episode after inhaling a cloud of cement dust.
So, that was our little adventure today - tomorrow will be the Nanjing (Nanking) Massacre Monument and Museum and Ming Garden.
At least we ended up with Dumpling Master to end the evening.
Things here have been warming up since the typhoon that hit Shanghai (right after we left!) has blown over. Not clothing soaking hot here - yet (nothing like getting up from a chair to find that you're stuck to it).
Today we went down to the International Bookstore to get some TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages - for those of you not in the biz) books and some Chinese language books to work from with our tutor in Guyuan. We met a strange fellow there. He latched on to us (errr...big, white Matt) and followed us - more like stalked us around the store. When we lost him and were trying to figure out what workbooks to get, he shows up with an arm full of Chinese workbooks. He was probably just trying to be nice and wanted to practice his English with us but he followed out of the store, we said goodbye and we watched him start to walk in the other direction. We hailed a cab and told our cabbie where to go and just as we were getting in - poof! here he is again. He told us that he wanted to share our cab with us and got in and told the cab driver where to go and where to drop us off. He finally left and we were dropped off where he told the cabbie to go - at the wrong university. So, Matt lugged ALL of our books back to Nanjing Normal and I had a nice little asthma episode after inhaling a cloud of cement dust.
So, that was our little adventure today - tomorrow will be the Nanjing (Nanking) Massacre Monument and Museum and Ming Garden.
At least we ended up with Dumpling Master to end the evening.
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Toe the Line: The Tale of the Ultimate Crossing Guard
So, I am in Nanjing and it is currently cooler here than it normally is because they have been getting rain. I began my survival Chinese class today and I hope that it will be really good. I will need to really work hard at my language because people might expect me to speak more than Matt because of my slanty eyes (I can say that because I'm slanty eyed).
We did go to the Shanghai Museum in the staggering heat and thick humidity (the pollution traps the heat). It was a neato place, I thought that it would be bigger, but you can tell that they must have a really impressive collection. They still allow flash photography (tisk, tisk), but a lot of the other museum biggies were really well done.
So, we were trying to cross the street, which in China is no small undertaking (a girl in our group was hit by a motorbike our first night in China), and they have these crossing guards err... "Traffic Assistants" to help you across the street. This one guy was a total hard ass and whenever anyone put a toe over his line he would blow his whistle and pull you back behind the line. A couple of kids went to run across the street and he ran after them and pulled them back. It was hilarious!
We did go to the Shanghai Museum in the staggering heat and thick humidity (the pollution traps the heat). It was a neato place, I thought that it would be bigger, but you can tell that they must have a really impressive collection. They still allow flash photography (tisk, tisk), but a lot of the other museum biggies were really well done.
So, we were trying to cross the street, which in China is no small undertaking (a girl in our group was hit by a motorbike our first night in China), and they have these crossing guards err... "Traffic Assistants" to help you across the street. This one guy was a total hard ass and whenever anyone put a toe over his line he would blow his whistle and pull you back behind the line. A couple of kids went to run across the street and he ran after them and pulled them back. It was hilarious!
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
Greetings from China!
We're finally in Shanghai! It seems like we have been traveling forever! The bus ride from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was long - about 11 hours and literally painful - Matt is not very Asian sized and I have no tail bone so we were in pretty rough shape by the time we got to the airport - Burger King Hash Browns have never tasted so good! The flight was nice and we were asked to fill out an evaluation on the in-flight service, so we were spoiled and had lots of leg room.
Today we have been just running around getting some errands done - changing money, post office, internet, etc. Hopefully when I am done here we can get to the Shanghai Museum which is supposed to be the best in China and one of the best in the world. Super nerdy excited about that (Whoo-hoo! Lets look at the mounts and humidity controls!)
Alas, tomorrow we are traveling again - just a 4 hour train ride this time and Matt and I will each have one fewer bags to lug around (thank you post office). I guess that Nanjing is hotter than Shanghai - which I am not really looking forward to as it is roasting here. There we will be going to Survival Mandarin Chinese classes for only about 3 hours a day for 3 weeks. Then we take another train for over a day to Ningxia (from there it is a little hazy how we are getting to Guyuan).
So far we have had some very good hand pulled noodles and some kick ass dumplings, but I think I have another request for those looking to come to China, in addition to salsa, if you could sneak a bottle of Dr. Pepper, I would be most appreciative!
Today we have been just running around getting some errands done - changing money, post office, internet, etc. Hopefully when I am done here we can get to the Shanghai Museum which is supposed to be the best in China and one of the best in the world. Super nerdy excited about that (Whoo-hoo! Lets look at the mounts and humidity controls!)
Alas, tomorrow we are traveling again - just a 4 hour train ride this time and Matt and I will each have one fewer bags to lug around (thank you post office). I guess that Nanjing is hotter than Shanghai - which I am not really looking forward to as it is roasting here. There we will be going to Survival Mandarin Chinese classes for only about 3 hours a day for 3 weeks. Then we take another train for over a day to Ningxia (from there it is a little hazy how we are getting to Guyuan).
So far we have had some very good hand pulled noodles and some kick ass dumplings, but I think I have another request for those looking to come to China, in addition to salsa, if you could sneak a bottle of Dr. Pepper, I would be most appreciative!
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