I spent Christmas in Beautiful Hainan! An Island off the coast of mainland China about an hour flight southwest from Zhuhai. We landed on Wednesday night and spent the first two nights in Sanya in a Hostel located near the beach. We, for the first time found a place to buy wine and cheese and kicked off each evening by munching on some. During the first day we went to the beach and relaxed. The following day we went to a hot springs which offered over 60 different springs for people to relax in - hot, cold, super hot, super cold, coffee filled, coconut milked filled, and liqour filled. It was very bizzare. We ate at a terrible restaurant and hit up the most exciting pool of them all - the fish theropy pool. It was a large donut shaped pool with thousands of minnow - large minnow sized fish. These fish are related to pirahanas. As you sat still in this pool schools of these fish would begin to eat your skin off. We're talking about small bites, it tickled and didn't really hurt. We saw some people spend a few hours in here, we only spent a little over half an hour. After climbing out I noticed I no longer had any cuticles but that's about it. -- That's how i spent Christmas: no presents, no snow, no family. It was quite sad in more than a few ways.
The following day we climbed into an overpriced van (we're still kicking ourselves for getting so ripped off) and drove north on the island to a secluded area which we spent the last few days learning to surf. I managed to stand up for 3 seconds before falling down.
Christmas in China
Tuckered out.
This picture is an unstiched 360-degree shot from the roof of United International College.
We made it to the monastery yesterday, after a 3 and 1/2 hour hike. Our group consisted of 3 T.A.'s and 5 Chinese students. The students volunteered to hike with us our Friday afternoon frisbee practice (we are forming a pretty sizable and skilled team here at UIC).
This is the first monastery I have been to while here in China, so forgive me if this gets a bit lengthy. There were about 9 buildings filled with statues (Buddha and his friends), pads for kneeling before the statues, and carts for placing your lit incense sticks. In the courtyard a few merchants were hunched over a wooden cart selling various sized sticks of incense with Chinese characters scrawled across them.
A Chinese student, Austin, told me that the kneeling pads in front of the statues were for 'making wishes' to the Buddha.
"Those big incense over there, " Austin continued, pointing at an incense stick the thickness of a broomstick handle and length of my right arm, "Those cost about 800 rmb."
...That's over 100 usd.
Continuing past these buildings we came to... the gift shop. The monastery wasn't really a tourist spot, and we may have been the only people who entered the gift shop that Saturday afternoon. It's presence made me flash back to my experience of visiting a Catholic church in Italy - now museum. Like a sea shell found on a beach, these beautiful monuments of faith were discarded and reclaimed by another type of creature, one who enjoys it because of the 'sound in makes when you put it up to your ear' not necessarily the function for which it was created. This is the impression I had visiting some of the churches in Italy, and this monastery. However, I am convinced that this is is an unfair judgment. After all, I never attended a mass/worship service in an Italian church, and this temple housed monks who were still practicing Buddhism. It is my intention to rectify this error in judgment - -
Behind the gift shop was a giant building which housed the monk's 'dormitory', and the dining hall. We showed up at 2:14 and missed having lunch with the monks which usually runs from 12 - 1. I plan on attending lunch the following weekend with an interested student (if I can find one). Lunch is prepared in the monastic tradition - completely vegetarian and it is extremely cheap for visitors to participate.
Zhen Zhu Nie Cha - Bubble Milk Tea, a great drink...
Eating weird things
Since we last spoke (me to you, not visa versa) I have eaten congealed blood, bought tickets for christmas, and gotten sick. Well maybe I've been sick a lot of the time I've been here. But that's not a big deal, Ben (my roomate) assures me, most of the time you are in China you will be sick. Great...
Well anyways, I have bigger fish to fry, and blood to congeal. Serously?!? Yea. That's nasty. I'm talking about 'red' tofu. Yeeuuck. The Chinese tell me that Japanese tofu is totally different, "it's sweeter." They then go on to tell me about this amazing dish from Shezuan (I know I am botching the spelling but bear with me). It's a spicy dish, they tell me. It's so spicy, it kills all the bacteria that is in the intestines, liver, and congealed blood floating around in it (after all it is a soup). Cool, sign me up.... Not so much. after eating one or two slices of congealed blood, you might begin to notice the bubbles or the odd 'undertexture'. *Wuffff* This is about the time that I bring up the "you eat dog meat? In America we consider dogs, MANS BEST FRIEND"....but mostly out of defense.
SPEAKING OF DOG!!!! A week ago we went out to a resturant as a group and one of my friends was visiting the bathroom. When he entered the bathroom he saw a swarm of dogs hanging out by the kitchen, gathering scraps and what not. When he left the bathroom he saw one of these dogs hit with a blunt object and dragged into the kitchen............sweet. I don't think I have ever been so skeptical about the food I was chowing on. I was chewing on crabs leggs, pulled straight from the leg of a crab (it still had all it's anatomy attached, eyes and all) and I couldn't not imagine anthing but ugggg, I'm finished eating.
Well back to the present, tomorrow I hike up the 'ol mountains again hopefully this time we make it to the monastary without getting tired and turning around. We will randez-vous at 10 am so I must go to sleep.
Ahhhh, added as a second thought I didn't fill you all in one my Christmas plans, we do have Christmas here in China, even thought it's warm as summer in MN. I will be flying to an Island called Hynan. I botched the spelling, as I have only heard it spoken. It's supposed to be quite spectacular and have a neighboring island -- monkey island. All my students are asking me to bring them back coconuts. meh.
Best to all,
quin ah sen
Hikage
I was just informed that it is no longer Thanksgiving, and I should update my blog. So here goes.
Thanksgiving, Schedule, Cooking
Since we last spoke, a great deal has happened and I sort of glossed over it. I was pretty sick all last weekend from the wonderful thanksgiving meal we ate. It was a 150 Quai (approx $25) all you can eat buffet. And we ate. And ate. We paused to go around the table to say what we were thankful for, and returned to eating. Mashed potatoes, gravy, duck, stuffing, 4 kinds of salads, a meat counter where you could pick a raw meat and have them cook it up for you on an outdoor barbecue, sweet potatoes, and even TURKEY!
I have to say this is my first thanksgiving without the family, but it was fun to spend it with some good new friends and hear what they are thankful for. Some traditions are truly valuable.
I taught my first class today! It was the little yellow post-it stuck on my schedule. It was pretty scary but a lot of fun. Once the prof introduced me and took off I said something - far too quickly for them to understand - and then slowed down and the class went smoothly from there.
My Schedule
y1,y2,y3 Tutorials - I meet 2 times a week with a group of students and work with them on their english speaking skills. The class is extremely informal and we generally sit around just talking about their plans, my experiences in America, or anything else. My tutorial students have been a lot of fun.
TESL - I have this written on my schedule for 7 hours. I have no idea what this is... I was just told to block it off. TIC (This is China, a phrase taught to us immediatly upon arrival. Used to explain events and actions we don't understand.)
English Corner - A club (all first years must take at least a club each semester). Students play sports or learn about sports in the classroom.
Weekly Meeting - The Enlgish T.A.s meet with the Head of the Enlgish Dept.
Writing Center - I explained this in the past, we help students with their papers, presentations, etc.
Office Hours - You know, work on my blog, etc.
Chinese - 2 times a week we meet for Chinese lessons. The first 2 lessons we just made noises, now we learn words!!!
Enlgish Lessons - Once a week we teach enlish lessons to staff/faculty. It's what we offer in return for the Chinese lessons.
I plan on cooking. I don't know what most of these veggies are but I will try learn, and make something. We'll see how this goes.
Torrents become the norm
Wow.
I was just walking through the English department when I overheard two english professors:
"Yea, I just lost my password so I can't really help you out..."
"But wait, it's just d-e-m-o-n-o-i-d-.com right?"
"Yea, just go there and..."
That's when I jumped in. I couldn't believe that two highly esteemed professors were exchanging demonoid information. For those of you who don't know, demonoid is a torrent search engine.... Basically a search engine for downloading software both legal and illegal. There are hundreds of torrent search engines, but Demonoid is elite. In order to download torrents on Demonoid, you must register first. In order to register you must be invited by a current member.
In the US it is relatively difficult to find someone who is a member. Here in China -- while most world news sites are blocked access, google - images is blocked, US tv network online programing is unaccessible, and countless other sites are blocked -- torrents are common place. There are also tons of Chinese sites which you can find any movie/tv you could ever think of.
Truly Amazing.
Out of order
Here are a few other videos from last weekend.
These guys are setting up a for a game of Mahjong. This is a very popular game in China, you can see people playing it all over. There are tons of rules and different regions play with
These guys came out and sang us a song.
I have no idea what they were saying or talking about although they sound kinda mad.
So what exactly would you say yo do here?
In writing todays post, there are a number of things I ought to fill you in on in order to better make sense of my work in the writing center.
- UIC is a radical idea here in China. It is a division of Hong Kong Baptist University, and considered by many to be the first liberal arts college in mainland China. With that said, it still has some constraints -- not all ideas are topics for discussion.
- Nearly all of the Classes are taught in Enlgish (and require class work to be completed in Enlgish). Which creates problems as 95% of the students are Chinese and their english skills are not all equal.
- The greatest problem for UIC is plagiarism.
During the last few days I have had many people ask me to tell more about my job. Up until yesterday my schedule was shifting around so much I really didn't feel like I could full answer that question. I will spend the next few blogs explaining some of the things I spend my time on.
I spend at least 5 hours a week in a writing center helping students with their papers. 95% of the work is grammar related 5% is intellectual. Initially this was somewhat of a let down but I ought to have known that most of these students would need help with their grammar, not with their ideas.
As I noted above, the largest problem is plagiarism. Professors stress the importance of citing sources but sometimes, as I have seen, a students paper is taken directly from Wiki. The second biggest problem is internet translators. Students type their paper in Chinese, go to a translator like altavista.com, and translate it into Enlgish. Some of the papers I have been working on with students end up looking ridiculous because the amount of red ink required to fix the errors created in a simple translation.
The professor in charge of the writing center used the following metaphor:
If you give a man a fish you feed him for a day,
if you teach a man to fish you feed him for a month.
We can't just fix their papers for them, because the student's won't learn to avoid/correct their grammar problems. On the other hand, some of the time - the students don't understand our explanations. In such a case I have taken to using a highlighter instead of a pen so I can highlight the area of a problem and instructed them to speak with their professor or a classmate. Because the students are at different levels in their english skills, it is helpful to work through papers in a small group. Generally one student understands what I am talking about and they can pass it on to the other student in Chinese. Sometime next week we will have a sheet of chinese translations for common errors.
Vocab:
tai gui le - Too expensive.
I used this last night to buy something for 2/3 the marked price. I probably still was ripped off but it's pretty good reinforcement.
Return from the great countryside!
Ah! Fresh air from the countryside. I made sure to take a bunch of pictures and videos to capture the moment and was able to have a great time in the process.
On Friday night all the T.A.s headed out to a nearby island, and had a dinner with a few of the profs. Of the entire group, two older professors and another T.A. and I were the last to show up due to a combination of bad directions and tenacious individuals. Anyways, we made it to the dinner in time to pick the bones of a fish, eat a bit of eel, and gobble down enough rice to quell our stomachs churning. I then parted from my group with Ryan (another T.A.) and called it an early night... Don't get me wrong -- we had to.
On Saturday morning at 8am, 24 UIC folks piled into a large van/small bus (it was far from sufficient) and drove 4 hours to a village of lepers. In hindsight the visit was quite similar to the visits I have done in the past to nursing homes and the likes. But on the bus ride there I was getting pretty nervous. We stopped a long the way to pick up food from a market so we could cook for ourselves over the weekend.
The village was great! They evern had a volunteer wing for all 24 of us to sleep (on beds like the villagers - two sawhorses and plywood streched on top). MmmmMmm. I slept about 2 hours as the mosquitoes were bothering the crap out of me and my bed tent appeared to be doing nothing.
Well anyways, a blog with out pictures is like a fish without fins -- so on to the good stuff.
This is a picture of a villager and the sign posted by the entrance of the village.
This is our first lunch. Potatoes cut into strips cooked in oil, fish soup, eggs and tomatoes, Bok Choy and onions, and tons of rice.
These guys love their dogs, and their dogs love them too. Sometimes the dogs would be picking on each other and they would run by these old guys for protection. Other times the old guys would grab them forcefully by the scruff and get them in the "Don't make me stand like a human pose" and beckon us to snap photos of them. The dog would writhe but the old men would just grin away.
Blogging Blues
Ugggg. I went home sick from the High Table Dinner last night halfway through.
15 T.A.s, 20 professors, and a handful of Minnesota private college representatives were invited to the "Western Style" formal dinner. A pianist played classical music while students and professors enjoyed a 4 course meal. We started with bread rolls, rye bread slices, and sweet butter washed down with a glass of great wall red wine. A creamy seafood soup, followed by fried chicken, steamed veggies, and mashed potatoes. The Mashed potatoes tasted artificial, and the veggies tasted like canning vinegar. I was not able to to stick around for dessert.
Anyways... Today was a very long day. I had a few classes, met a ton of students, and listened to an retired American diplomat speak about Barak's presidency and future relations between America and China. I also had a few hours of helping students work on papers like these kids below. 
Tonight at dinner me and a few others went to eat with some of the profs and I was let in on a Chinese medicine use to cure stomach problem. I have a vial and a box for purchasing more. It's dangerous because I am just itching to provoke my stomach to mess with me so I can test it's powers.
Plans for the coming week
Our whole group has been sharing money like crazy during the past week. Our first pay check comes in at the end of the month, and we are waiting on our reimbursments so we are forced to be crafty as we deal with the ATMs. Every so often someone's bank card stops working and they are forced to borrow money until they can call the states and convince their bank they are legitimatly asking for their money. I called my bank before coming and told them I would be visiting China, and possibly travelling around south eastern Asia. They told me everything would be fine, and a few days ago my card stopped working and I received notice that VISA think's my card is stolen.
Yesterday I hiked up a nearby mountain again and watched the sunset while planning out a day trip up a giant mountain on the horizon.
Today I start my first day of classes - and tonight we have a special 'high table dinner'. When explainning what to expect from a high table dinner, we were told to think about the big celebratory dinners from Harry Potter.
-- Needless to say, I am expecting great things... I'll bring my camera.
Home Sweet Home!
Another great day in Zhuhai (pronounced joo-hi)!
Ben and I moved out of the hotel yesterday! We jumped into a van with our luggage and they brought us to the staff apartments! The apartment is a beautiful 4 bedroom place with a wash room (washer on a porch), kitchen, bathroom, HUGE living room (as seen below), and an awesome front porch.
As soon as we moved in, Ben and I noticed the giant bed located in one of the unoccupied bedrooms. We both agreed to flip a coin - to decide who would have claim to the king sized bed. Obviously I won (otherwise I would leave it out of my blog) and Ben is stuck in a room with a tiny bed.
After showing our apartment to our peers and feeling pretty lucky (as some are stuck in tiny dorm rooms with out running water) I went to sleep.
The next morning, after a terrible sleep I decided I ought to clean my room and found a bunch of dust and junk under the mattress and all over the inner bed frame. I spent the entire morning cleaning the dust and crud, while ben cleaned the rest of the apartment.
This is a picture of me thrilled to be cleaning the bed frame. I didn't want to keep my dust/mold inhalation to a minimum.
This is nasty, I promise my next entry will be a little more interesting to read. I will leave you with a picture of me on the mountain I hiked up yesterday with another TA during our free time.
Welcome to china!
Yey! I made it! Nearly a month and a half behind schedule I step off the plane and take my first breath of Hong Kong air - surprisingly fresh... compared to the airplane at least.
Our group of six left the airport and checked in to our hotel on Man Fuk Road at the YWCA. We went out to Lan Kwi Fong, a bar street which was jam packed with brits and aussis. There were lot of pink polos with popped collars. I was nervous that this was a taste of things to come.
The next day we met our boss who bought us our first family style meal of dumplings, 2 types of strong teas, egg soup, and fried noodles. We then boarded the ferry and crossed into paradise.
Palm trees, islands, sand, and highrises. We climbed aboard a charter bus and drove 2 hours though a few cities and finally arrived at our present residence - the international hotel.
It has taken me awhile to start blogging because the Chinese government has blocked a number of blog sites. This one appears to work so I will use it as much as I can.
Jia You!
Chicago
I find myself on the 31st floor of a 1.5 million dollar condo in downtown Chicago. Carl's Aunt and Uncle were nice enough to let us spend the two nights leading up to our flight to China. We turned our VISA information in to the Chinese Consulate yesterday, and hope to be able to return to pick our VISA up in an hour.
Tonight Chicago is planning on hosting more than one and a half million people for Obama's acceptence party. We plan on taking advantage of the situation and finding a few deals on lunch and dinner tonight.
