Reflections on the past year

Hey everyone! I believe this will be my last official entry in this blog. It has been almost 3 months since I returned from China. I had the best intentions of writing a follow-up blog shortly after I returned, but I feel like it has almost taken me this long just to process everything that I’ve been through the last 13 crazy months. I want to start out by saying that I am so happy to be home! China was a great experience, but I think 10 months was enough for me. I’ve come to the conclusion that Chinese culture is an acquired taste. I met foreigners there that absolutely loved it, and some that hated it. I am somewhere in the middle. Since I’ve been home I just appreciate my country so much more. I feel a freedom here that I didn’t have in China (no political pun intended). But let me start from the beginning in my attempt to recapture the last 3 months:

I arrived in Denver airport on July 3^rd and was greeted by my amazing boyfriend who I hadn’t seen in far too long. I had been anticipating that moment just about everyday for the past 10 months, so needless to say I was a little anxious! I was talking to this guy on the plane before we landed and he kept asking me "are you nervous to see him, are you nervous to see him?" But the moment I saw him all the tension faded away and it felt like we’d never been apart (in a good way!). I spent a week in Denver- catching up and spending time with Zach and also doing the not-so-fun activities like setting up a bank account, new phone, etc. I also had to settle everything on my new apartment (which my roommate Kristy had organized and found before I got back) and move a few things in.

I then flew to Clear Lake to spend time with my extended family, along with my mom, Gus and Ashley, and meet my 10-month old nephew Harper for the first time! We planned on spending a week there, however my dad had to be flown home from Alaska for an operation, so our time was cut a bit short and we headed back to Cannon Beach. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to see my dad while I was home, and I ended up getting to spend almost a month with him! My time at home was spent mostly hanging around with my family, and remembering how much I hate Oregon weather. But I also got to catch up with some old friends and spend much needed time with my adorable nephew, who I fell head over heals for!

Zach flew out the first week in August, and we packed up my car to brim and began the drive back out to Colorado. We decided to make it in to a bit of a road trip, and visit San Francisco and my grandma and grandpa in Utah on the way. It made it for a long 4-day trip, but was worth it! We both loved San Fran and I especially loved visiting China town and showing Zach some of my favorite Chinese foods (which he loved as well). We stayed with my cousins in Concord, and just happen to be there on the night my cousin Spencer got engaged! Now that’s lucky timing! We were both so happy we got to be a part of it.

My first week in Denver was a bit stressful. Not only was I busy moving everything in, but also I basically had to start from scratch in acquiring furniture and things I needed. I saved a good chunk of money in China, but it dwindled away FAST. Craigslist free list became my best friend. Also, I found myself on the phone for hours each day with customer service reps for car insurance, internet set-up, etc, as well as trying to fit in some time to job hunt. It just amazes me how much BS you have to go through in this country to get anything done. My best example is my car insurance: I needed to get and pay for my own car insurance for the first time, so I did my homework and got quotes from a bunch of different providers. Due to the fact that I’m young, have a newer car, and am not married (therefore a reckless driver apparently) none of them were that low. I chose to go with AAA since it was the lowest quote and a reputable company. When I was in the process of setting it up, however, I realized that my parents had taken my name off their insurance last year when I went to China, but left my car on. Our insurance company told us that I was ok to drive until I got to Colorado and set up my own. However, my AAA rep told me that because I hadn’t had insurance for the past 6 months, that my rate was going to be 30% higher every month for the first 6 months, EVEN THOUGH I was out of the country and clearly not driving my car. I couldn’t believe it!! It’s all of this kind of stuff that really drives me up the wall, especially because I haven’t had to deal with it for the past year, if ever.

Now that I am all settled in, I really love Denver. My apartment is in a prime location near everything and the weather has been incredible. I love living near Zach and just getting to spend time together and live life. I still don’t have a job, but have been temping full time in hopes of securing one in the mean time. I know it’s tough but I’m not giving up hope! Since I’ve been back I notice some things that I didn’t before. I notice how big and massive everything is in this country, especially in the grocery store- the cereal options, the mega Costco warehouses, and even the shopping carts are so gargancuous that I think a Chinese person would have a heart attack if they came here. I’ve also noticed how materialistic we can be. It’s hard for me to listen to people complain about their flat screen TV not being big enough or not having a new enough car. I lived for a year without so many little luxuries, and I think it taught me that you really don’t need many of those things. I went 10 months without having a remote for my tiny TV, a car, or a credit card. I think that I will always choose to live simply and be able to see the world verses having the nicest and newest stuff. This year really helped me to define "wants" from "necessities" and also realize what's really important in life.

The two greatest thing I learned this year are 1) that people are what’s most important in life-You can live out your wildest dreams and aspirations, but how special can they be without people to share them with? And 2) Not to worry, but trust God and he will always take care of you- physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually- just trust!

Thanks to everyone who faithfully followed my somewhat sparse blog and also sent me prayer and encouragement! I’ll be sure to keep you updated on my ongoing adventures (there will be more- I promise). But for now, so long and thanks for reading!

China-itis

Around the end of April, beginning of May, I was having a hard time. It just seemed that a bunch of very frustrating things happened all at the same time, and I came down with a bad case of “China-itis.” One of the reasons for this, and the reason I haven’t blogged in a while, is because my computer cord broke and I had to give it to the school to be fixed. They said it would be a week- 5 ½ weeks later and still no cord. China is great until you need something resolved, and then its a pain because NOTHING happens quickly. I’ve been having to borrow charges of other people, which restricts any prolonged time online. I’m sorry for being such a bad blogger! Another thing that happened was the building I was teaching in was deemed unsafe because of a large construction project going on next door, so my classes were squeezed into the old building of the school- in classes like the music room and art room, which are normally meant for half as many students as I have. It was awful. The very next week, my favorite co-teacher had a spat with the school and was threatening to quit. She has been a teacher at the school for nearly 8 years, and is the one who keeps me sane and helps me so much. I was distraught! Thankfully, we got moved into some better classrooms, and my co-teacher did not quit. Another thing that happened was another one of my co-teachers was suddenly fired, and replaced by a girl who is a mute (not literally). She’s like a shy little rabbit that hides in the corner while I have to do all the teaching and disciplining. This is the 3rd co-teacher this class has had this year, and it’s really affected them. Their grades have gone way down, and they’re completely out of control. Other than those things, I was just bored. The work seemed to be close to nothing, and without a computer I found myself sitting around twiddling my thumbs a lot. I’m someone who likes a busy schedule and I hate having nothing to do. Also mixed in to this whole scheme of things was a bad case of food poisoning, my second since being here. But things have improved the last few weeks, and now I can’t believe that I only have 4 weeks left teaching!
To make up for not posting for a while, I’ll attach some pics of things I've been up to recently. I have some good videos too, but the internet here makes it nearly impossible to load videos.

A few of my fellow foreign teachers have a band here and have been playing at various venues in Wuhan. This was a show they did at a local shopping mall, and we all went to watch!

My friend got me a ticket to the kickoff of the Chinese soccer league game- Tianjin U. vs. Hubei U.
I got invited to this tea house for a tea ceremony (very common here). It ended up being group called "Cha Dao" which means "The way of tea". They meet almost every night and drink tea, sing songs, and feel energized by the tea's 'energy'. We now call this group the "tea cult"- it was an interesting experience to say the least.

The kids at the kindergarten I work at put on a show, and I even got to be in one of the dances! It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen!

Huang Shan

I just returned from a weekend trip to Huang Shan, or “Yellow Mountain” in English. I was really excited to go because it’s claimed to be one of the top 10 places to see in China, and this long weekend was the perfect opportunity. I went with my friend Pip, one of the other foreign teachers I work with.

Our trip began Friday evening when we boarded a sleeper bus to make the 9 hour journey to Tunxi, a town near the mountain. This town is a bit remote, so not trains went directly there, making bus our only option. The “sleeper” we received was a 5 ½ by 2 foot bunk bed on a bus with no suspension. The head of the bed was tilted up a bit to make room for the next person’s feet. I was on the top bunk, and a few sharp turns up the windy road and I was bracing not to fall out, while Pip was on the bottom bunk with a man with no bed laying on the floor next to her and elbowing her. 9 ½ hours later, 4 am, we arrived in Tunxi, and hopped on another little bus to get to the base of the mountain. We opted to climb the difficult route up (15 km) and save the easy route for coming down the next day. After buying our bus ticket to get on yet another bus to get to the mountain, where we could buy our entrance fee (nothing in China is a one step process, and EVERYTHING requires an entrance fee) we began our hike…and were winded after about 5 steps. As the sun rose though, it turned out to be a clear day, which we were incredibly lucky to experience because Huang Shan only gets about 100 of these a year. We were expecting rain and snow, and came with all the essential warm clothing that we ended up lugging in our bags the whole way up. We made our way up slowly but surely, taking many stops to eat and enjoy the view (or so was our excuse to get a rest). 8 hours of hiking later, we reached the summit. We knew that lodging and food was scarce at the top, so hotels and restaurants take advantage of this and charge you an arm and a leg, because they can. We came prepared by packing all our own food, and calling ahead to reserve a dorm at a small hotel. We figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask around at a few other hotels though, just to see if we could bargain a better deal. The first one we walked in to said they could give us one for 130 kuai (about 4x what I normally pay for a bed at a hostel), which we knew was a good price and said we’d look at it. The woman walked us to the hall, and pointed to a row of bunk beds set up just outside the bathroom, IN THE HALLWAY! We both looked at each other, and then asked her “so this is what the bed looks like…inside the room right?” She said no, there are no more rooms left. We said “OK, this can be plan B” and left with our mouths still hanging open. We continued on to find the hotel we made the reservation at, beginning to feel our legs turn to spaghetti noodles. We found it, and the man led us to the building which we previously thought was the bathroom facilities, and in to our “room.” It was a tiny, cement floored room with 2 sets of bunk beds and no heat. We both agreed that this was the best we were going to get for our budget, and paid the man. I sat down on the bed, looked at the sheets and said “I hope the beddings at least clean” and Pip responded “Oh I’m sure it’s not.” I leaned down and smelled it, and was reassured that she was in fact right. She then replied, being a more experienced traveler than myself, “ya…smelling it is never a good idea.” It was only about 4:00 when we arrived, which gave us some time to kill and we really didn’t want to do it in the prison cell we paid to sleep in, so we walked over to the 4 star hotel across the way and sat in their restaurant, paid 10 kuai for hot water, and ate our instant noodles. We also used their bathroom facilities to brush our teeth, etc since ours made me want to be sick. By about 6, we were ready for bed. We went back to our room, and by then the sun was setting and it was very cold. We put on every piece of clothing we brought, one to keep warm and two to avoid having to have skin contact with the bedding. Luckily I brought a beanie that covered my ears, so if I positioned myself just right on the pillow I didn’t have to touch my face to it. Every time I woke up in the night, which was a lot since the wooden planks covered in a foam mat I was sleeping on was giving my tired legs and hips bed sores, I was very consciece that the comforter was not anywhere near my neck or face. When we woke up the next morning, I was so ready to get out that room and get outside where it was clean and beautiful. We did just that, and began climbing down the steep and crowded easier route. This route wasn’t as scenic, but we were happy that we saved it for the second day when we were tired. 3 hours later we reached the bottom, and booked it to the Best Western hot springs! They were a little spendy, but totally worth it! We soaked in a number of different small pools including the red wine, green tea, milk, and coffee pools. We also got to experience a pool that had small fish in it that swarm you and eat all your dead skin, by far the weirdest feeling ever (sorry I didn’t get any pictures)!! We stayed there for a few hours, and then got on another sleeper bus back to Wuhan. My legs are like jelly and I probably won’t be able to walk normal for quite some time, but it was still a great hike and I’m so happy I got to see it!

There’s one quote that I’ve found continuously to be true as I travel, and this trip was no exception. It is “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” – Lin Yutang

Happy Easter everyone!

The sleeper bus

The path near the base of the mountain

"lover's locks"

The highest point

Our room

The Crazy English Language

My name is Alicia Cruz. I'm a manager of the Barur Global Company. The company was founded in November, 2007. It's goal is to assist people around the world to be a part of an Internet trading community. Barur Global works as an online retailer and product shipper. Barur Global is responsible for the purchased or sold goods, and thereby, the legal title holder of the product during the purchase order process.For the right work of the selling and buying services, that our company offers,we hire the employees on the position of "pre-paid manager".We received your CV from Careerbuilder.com so now we offer you the opportunity to work for our company.Our company offers an absolutely legal work. We do not demand from you any investments into our company, also it is not required to pay a curriculum. We will train you free of charge and we guarantee timely payment of the salary. You will be convinced.The work is part time. It is not required any special knowledge.This work is intended for people who want to have a stable extra income and not spoiled by a big salary.. You will spend from 6 to 10 hours a week for this work. Your salary will be $5000 USD a month.If you are interested in this job, you can write me on e-mail alicia.cruz@barur.com and i will send you a detailed information.
Sincerely yours,Alicia Cruz

I recently received this e-mail from someone who found my resume online. I don’t know if it’s just the teacher in me, but this thing is almost painful for me to read! Misspelled words, incorrect grammar, etc etc etc!! I don’t know if I was this anal before, but these things drive me nuts now! Going on facebook is a daily struggle to hold my tongue (or “fingers”) and not correct every English mistake I read…and there are a lot. I’ve been thinking lately- has our educational system gone down, or have we just gotten lazy? My 4^th graders here know the difference between their, they’re and there- yet more than 50% of the time it seems that Americans do not. And I am especially surprised that that is the case because new technology makes it so easy to spell and grammar check just about everything we write! Now I am not claiming to be the best speller around…we Molans are good at many things- spelling is not always one of them ;) As embarrassing as this is to admit, I get called out on spelling mistakes I make on the board during class quite often- by both my 4^th graders AND my 1^st graders. Talk about humbling! But it just reminds me of how important it is to know, first and foremost, my own language! I’m actually learning a lot of things about English that I never knew. When subjects like “when to use ‘more’ and when to add ‘er” (i.e. more important vs. importanter) I have to look it up because I don’t know the rule off the top of my head. Today I was teaching plurals to my 4^th graders and I was thinking “this language is so crazy! Why would the plural of ‘box’ be ‘boxes’ but the plural of ‘ox’ is ‘oxen’. Sometimes I just have to contend with telling them “I don’t know why this is- it just is!”

I have a great new respect for teachers everywhere!

Besides critiquing the English language, here are some other things I've been up to lately:

BBQing at a park with some of my co-teachers. This was unlike any BBQ I had ever been to in my life!
The food was amazing though!

A teacher's field trip to plant trees!

One of the co-teachers at my school's wedding. The photographer in the big puffy red coat kept getting in all of my pictures!

Back to Work

My first couple weeks back at work have been a lot better than I expected. For some reason, I was really nervous about my first day. I think I had it in my head that it was going to be just like my first day back in September, when I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. But amazingly, I walked in March 1^st and just kind of picked up where I left off. I can’t even explain how much more comfortable I am with teaching than I was 6 months ago. I’ve got the flow down now. I know my kids and I know what they’re capable of. I know when I can push them, coddle them, lecture them, and laugh with them. I still get a little bit nervous before each class, and I don’t really know why. The only way to explain it is that it’s like putting on a play everyday. Even if you’ve done it a thousand times, you can still get stage fright. Teaching isn’t one of those jobs that you can just hide out behind your desk when you’re having a bad day…the show must go on!

We just got our official end date: June 25^th! I can’t believe I only have 3 ½ months left here…plus we have a few long weekends between now and then, which means some more opportunities to travel! In a way I’m really excited about returning home. This has been a hard year, and I miss people and food and just the little conveniences of home. But on the other hand, I’m stressing about going back. Life here is virtually stress free…no bills, no money problems, 3 hour work days…you get the picture. When I go home, I have to start paying all my own bills for the first time, I have to get a “real” job, and technically be an adult. No more 5 week paid holidays, no more free afternoons to do whatever I want, no more being cooked for everyday. But I guess it had to happen eventually, and I think coming here was a good transitional period from college to the “real world.” And if anyone wants to hire me when I get back, I’m great with Microsoft Office and IMC tools :)

Adventures

Well, I just returned from my 5+ week holiday. It began the 22nd of January and I started work again on March 1. I had a wonderful time and feel so lucky to have been able to see so many new things! It would take me quite a long time to explain all 5 weeks to you, so I thought I would do it in pictures instead (that's more fun anyways). I'll do my best to explain as much as I can under each pic and recap my journey with you. Enjoy :)

I began my trip in Nanjing, where I met up with my friend Tiffany. This town was very pleasant and calm, and steeped in Chinese history. The famous "Nanjing Massacre" took place here by the Japanese, and there is a memorial that I visited. These 2 pictures are from Purple Mountain, and the Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum. Mausoleums are as plentiful in China as cathedrals are in Europe.

Next Tiff and I went to spend some time in Shanghai. We met up with our other friend Theresa there as well, and did things like biking, eating out, shopping, visiting the Bund and so on. It was nice to take it easy for a few days, as I didn't realize how tired I'd be at the end of the semester. Shanghai's a cool city, but was also a bit dead due to the nearness of Chinese New Year (everyone goes home to the countryside). Next stop, the Philippines!

The unbeatable white sand and sunsets on Boracay Beach, Philippines. This was my second visit to Boracay, and my first visit to the Philippines since my exchange there 6 years ago. It was so sureal being there again, and made me realize just how much I love that country. I feel like I had a special connection with the Philippines that I haven't felt with China so far. The people, the beaches, the culture, I miss it so much! Tiff, her friend Jake and I escaped the cold and spent 6 days here.

Back in the cold! Tiff and I went strait from the Shanghai airport upon our arrival to Suzhou, a small-ish town only an hour outside Shanghai. I loved it! It still has so much of the old Chinese architecture that was destroyed by the Communist party in most other parts of China. It's known as the "little Venice" because of the waterways, and it has beautiful gardens (behind me in picture 2).
Hangzhou, known as one of the most beautiful places in China. Apparently, also one of the wettest. It rained on us all three days we were there, which meant a lot of Starbucks visits and early nights. But it was fun to imagine how beautiful it is in the spring. This is a picture of the famous West Lake.

I met my mom at the Shanghai Airport after Hangzhou, and we flew to Wuhan to spend a few days. She got to see where I live, work, eat, etc. We also went to the Yellow Crane Tower (above) which is a tourist attraction that I hadn't seen yet. It was nice to have a bit of a break after traveling for 2 weeks, and before doing another 3!

We flew to Guilin, Guangxi Province (Southern China), and took a bus to the small but bustling town of Yangshou. This was once a village that got discovered by Chinese and foreign tourists for its natural beauty and outdoor activities. We stayed here for 5 days and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was nice to experience what old China might have been like in some of the 600+ year old villages, and see that China does indeed have natural beauty! Here's some of the things we did:

Night cormorant fishing. We rode in a boat beside the fishing boat and watched the fisherman fish with cormorants. He had a string tied around their necks so they couldn't swallow the fish they caught.

We spent 2 days bike riding through the villages, with our bike guide Melody, a local farmer woman. For 100 yuan (about $18 US) a day, she led us around all day, and even took us to her own village where her relatives made us lunch in their farm house (see pic above, probably the most authentic experience I've had thus far in China).

Bathing in a hot spring inside the water caves. The caves were cool and we actually got to shed our coats for most of the time, a nice change!
We took a cooking class too! First we went to the farmer's market, where we saw some of the most disturbing "meat products" I've ever seen, and then we went back to the cooking school and cooked and ate and cooked and ate. We learned to make dumplings, stuffed tofu and mushrooms, beer fish, Kung Pow Chicken, Chinese veggies, and eggplant. It tasted so nice I couldn't believe I made it!
We went to see a show that was directed by the same guy that did the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
A great Chinglish sign at Moon Hill
On the way to Ping'an, I came out of the bathroom to find these women hounding my mom after she bought something. Her line "oh yes, they're very beautiful but I just don't think I need any right now" didn't do much for convincing them. We had a good laugh!
Ping'an, a mountain village north of Guilin and Yangshou. It's famous for its rice terraces. This is a picture of some of the native women selling sweet potatoes.

The women in this village only cut their hair once when they're 17. They keep the ponytail they cut off to twist in with their bun. They wear their hair down until they get married, and then they wear it up. When they have a child, they add a bun in the front. This woman offered to take her hair down for us for 5 yuan, and she also has her ponytail twisted in to it.

We flew to Xi'an where we got to see the Terrakota Warriors, 8th wonder of the world! And boy were they! We really were in amazement.

Xi'an has one of the 2 panda reserves in China. These were the babies at the reserve and they were too cute!

The transportation of choice in China, sleeper train! We were pretty unlucky with getting train tickets with it being Chinese New Year, but we managed to score one from Xi'an to Beijing.
In front of Tianamen Square, the day we had to part ways. It was an unforgettable time!

Chinglish

One of the greatest sources of comic relief in China is the large amount of Chinglish (Chinese-English) products. With everything from detergent to clothes, if it was made in China and has English on it it’s usually a little off. The best are the shirts and sweatshirts though. People here love English on their clothes, and they either don’t understand what it means or they don’t pay attention. Here has been some of the best I’ve seen:
“I’m going to knock some secret into you”
“Every little make a mickle” (a sign in my classroom)
“The best d*** green thing” (worn by a teacher at my school)
“Fake” (under a Channel logo)
“Verybody makes mistakes” (A Brittney Spears shirts)
“Kennedy Funneral Home” (Sweatshirt)
“NEKI” (With a Nike swoosh)
“Faint the town red”
“camp THE blue” (my new favorite sweatshirt I bought)

Speaking of Chinglish, I recently judged an English competition for Elementary students. Competitors were from all over Wuhan, and it was a huge deal. Kids at my school had been preparing performances, reciting stories, and writing essays for weeks. The competition was an absolute riot the first 6 hours…after that it got pretty mind numbing. These kids were under so much pressure from their parents and they were so nervous! Some of them, to get an edge of the competition, decided to “dress to impress.” Monkey suites, boys wearing makeup, and 5 year olds in wigs and fake eyelashed were not uncommon. It felt like something strait out of a Little Miss Sunshine pageant But I did write down my favorite answers to some of the questions I gave to 4th-6th grade competitors:
Question: Pick a number between 1 and 15 (so we could read them that number question)
Answer: No, I’m sorry I cannot.

Question: Describe what you see in this picture.
Answer: This boy looks sad. Maybe his mother bit him last night.

Question: What do American children do on Christmas day?
Answer: Maybe they go to the library

Question: What day is Halloween?
Answer: Maybe it’s September 13.

Question: What is your father’s job?
Answer: Can you say it in Chinese please?

Through my Chinese lessons and my interaction with my students, I have come to appreciate the vast differences between our languages. They are hugely different and therefore make it very difficult for one to learn the other. Most of the time, you can’t just translate the words directly from Chinese to English and have it make sense. For example, the other day my co-teacher came up to me and ask if it’s correct to say “I am so angry at you I could spit blood.” I looked bug eyed at her and said “why on earth would you want to say that?!” She told me that that is a common phrase used in Chinese, and she wanted to say it to the students when they’re being loud. I explained to her that we never use that phrase. I could go on and on with examples of these kinds of differences between the languages. The Chinese language is laced so tightly with their culture that it’s hard to experience one without the other. I’ve started to try and learn characters, because I feel that I am missing out on so much by not being able to read anything around me. I know that I won’t be able to get very far in the next 5 months, but I’m enjoying learning the common characters and then getting excited when I see them and I know what they mean. My goal is to learn 5 new characters a week, 100 by the time I leave. I’m still really struggling with learning the spoken language. I came here saying I wouldn’t use the excuse “Chinese is very hard” not to learn the language, but it honestly is sooo hard! Partly because of the reasons I just explained, and partly because our western tongues just don’t like to make those sounds! The tones are a killer…I can’t hear them and I can’t say them! Every other country I’ve visited…I’ve noticed that you can kind of say the words brokenly and people will understand what you’re saying. But not Chinese…if you have the tone wrong they won’t understand you! Sometimes I’ll hear my co-teacher say a word or phrase over and over in class. I’ll ask her about it after, and she’ll have no idea what I’m saying. I’m thinking “how could you not understand? You just said it like 10 times!” Then when she finally does know what I’m talking about, she’s repeat the word back to me. I’ll of course reply with “ya, that’s exactly what I said isn’t it?” After being here for almost 5 months, I can finally get a taxi driver to understand my home address about 90% of the time without having to wip out my hand notebook. I’m really trying to keep my spirits up when it comes to learning this language…I’m taking lessons and studying outside (that’s the key I’ve learned), and hopefully it will click very soon!