The beginning was the end

So, as many of you know, I'm not so good at staying in touch with people. Similarly, it turns out that I'm not so good at keeping up with a blog. It became a chore that I clearly just avoided. However, it is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I encourage you to check out my pictures (also under "My Photos" over to the right on this page) as they are actually updated and clearly say it better than I can. The case still remains that if you want to get in touch with me Facebook, e-mail, or Skype are the best ways to do so. Of course, I love and miss you all but in the mean time things are going swimmingly in China, so well that I can't be bothered to write in a blog.

Penglai

Wow, this is taking me a lot longer to do but I guess it's good in a way to space out my stories. So, we woke up and Gen helped us get on an early bus to Penglai. The bus was about 6 hours but not too bad of a trip because we got 3 seats together in the back so we had some room to put our stuff. Once we got to the small town we got off the bus in a daze. We waited around for someone to come up and offer us a ride like usually happens. But it wasn't happening so we walked over to a line of cabs and that started up the frenzy. The taxi drivers started showing us maps of tourist spots and saying that they would take us there. We tried to convey that we wanted to find an inexpensive place to stay. One driver seemed adamant that he could do the job so we let him take us. We passed some very nice looking hotels that appeared to have vineyards and I got the feeling that this wasn't going to be what we wanted. We turned down a side street and into a driveway. The hotel was empty, aside from the flies surround the black mold on the ceiling. We said no way to the over-priced and strange hotel. He wanted to take us somewhere else but I thought that we should just go back to the bus station to start over. So back we went and we ended up just walking towards the ocean and got ushered into a hotel by some women following us down the street. Most of the places near the ocean had a restaurant downstairs and some rooms upstairs and the one we stumbled into was run by all women. It took us a while to get the communication down and bargain for a room but we figured it out. That night we walked around down by the beach and tried to figure out what we should do for the next few days.

The next day we decided to go to the Penglai Pavilion because, well, we heard that that is what you do in Penglai. We paid more money than I thought I really wanted to to get into a complex of temples and sites up on a cliff over the ocean. It was really beautiful and kind of like a tourist amusement park of varying temples without any rides. Well there was a cable car but we walked instead. We saw a lot but didn't really know what anything was and just took a lot of pictures. Then after a while the questioning feeling kind of sunk in of whether or not this was an authentic site, or just how authentic it was. I get tired of being a tourist pretty fast so I was not exactly a patient and polite person for my poor friends to deal with but we managed. We did also get to see a Chinese music video being filmed along the walls of the cliff which was pretty hilarious. After deciding we had had enough and establishing that we were tired the mountain somehow became a maze designed to trap Americans. It was too funny to be scary so we just wandered aimlessly, finding many dead ends and pushing through shrubbery designed to keep people on the paths in order to get the hell out of there. That night we decided to brave some local seafood since we were on the ocean. We ordered the specialty which looked like huge stretched out shrimp, kind of a cross between a shrimp and a fish. That is also what they tasted like but we cut up our hands pretty good trying to peel off the prickly shells. We were excited to get to the island that we had heard of off the coast so we decided to get up early and go there the next morning. However, first we stumbled on a jewelry store specializing in pearls. So of course we all bought pearls and watched the lovely lady who gave us all a discount string our necklaces right in front of us. And then we left for Chang Dao.

(Again, sorry that this is taking me so long to post. I'm not good at journals but thought I would give the blogging a try... I'm not giving up yet though! Getting myself behind in all these posts has given me a new project to work on. Tune back in for more updates soon I promise!)

Jinan

We got into Jinan with our Chinese friend Gen and he called his parents to check in with them. His dad said that he would try to help us find a hotel room for the night and we were going to walk to his mom's fabric shop because it was so close to the bus station. His dad ended up saying that he was pretty sure there were no hotels to be had in Jinan... It didn't really make sense because no one else was on break for the autumn festival or National Day yet, but Gen's parents were insistent that we should just stay with them. I felt really bad because that seemed pretty ridiculous and unfair to Gen's family to host 4 extra people. But it seems like Chinese people are often excessively hospitable. We walked over to Gen's mother's shop and she offered to make us sheets for free which was again, overly generous. I didn't need any sheets but I looked at a lot of her really nice fabrics. Two of the other girls did take her up on the offer but were rebuked for every choice in fabric that they made. Apparently young people in China should choose cartoons and crazy bright patterns for sheets because solid colors and flowers are for boring old ladies. In the end they made some sort of compromise and agreed to pick up the sheets at the tail end of our travels.

We left our things at the shop so that we could walk around Jinan. Gen took us to a shopping area and we wandered in and out of stores and just walked around. Then we went to the center of Jinan which is a large square with some shops and a lot open grassy areas, sculptures and fountains. I would have liked to spend more time in Jinan actually being able to see the city but I think it will be better to do that on my own some weekend. We also stopped off at Wal-Mart because Jinan is a big city in China and has one. Still, even in China (especially in China?), I couldn't bring myself to go in. During our outings Gen got a call from his parents saying that they were going to stay at a hotel so that we could have their apartment to ourselves. I felt horrible. But there was no way to talk anyone out of it. It again didn't quite add up because we had been told there were no hotel rooms available. I understood what was happening but it just felt so frustrating and unfair to his parents.

So, we went to Gen's parents' apartment to spend the night. One person we were traveling with started to get sick. He had a fever and the China paranoia set in. Gen stayed home to take care of him and the rest of us went out to walk around to have dinner. We walked up and down a market and got a little bit ripped off at a Muslim noodle place but proceeded onward anyway. We bought a bunch of fruit to ward off any germs from our friend and started sampling some pastries on the street. Most were ok, but not really that good. There was one that looked like a puffy taco and tasted like sweet dough with some kind of chicken jelly and wispy salty bits on top. It was not delicious but pretty hilarious. We thought we found a restaurant that had waffles and hamburgers but as soon as we looked at the prices on the menu we new we were over our heads. We politely got up and ran across the street to a tea shop. We got suckered into staying there and having a tasting for which we felt obligated to buy something so we bought some small packets of one of their pricier oolong teas. After that we headed back to Gen's house.

Once there we got to talking about how glad we were we made it out of Qufu and how we felt so free like we could go anywhere. Then we made the connection that Jinan is essentially a hub to get to other places in China. We almost gave Gen an ulcer, but we made him help us look up trains and planes to Kunming which is in southwestern China. Some of us had originally wanted to try and go there but then with all of the fretting about the swine flu and possibly not having a break at all we thought it would be best to not make big plans and just be able to go somewhere close, like Jinan, if we got a break. I have no idea how, but we did find some decently priced flights to Kunming, but I was the only one who had my passport which is needed for a foreigner to fly in China so it was a no go.

Instead we got up early, picked up our belongings from the fabric shop, left our sick friend with Gen to be taken care of, and got on a bus to the coastal town of Penglai.

Leaving Qufu

To start, the reason that it has taken me so long to post is not only being on autumn break but also have this site, my photos, and others (facebook) blocked once I returned. But I bit the bullet and bought a VPN service so I should be good from now on. There is a lot to tell about the past few weeks so I'm going to break it down city by city.

So two weeks ago on Saturday, I went to Qufu's youth hostel with two other teachers and we met some English speaking friends who were studying kung fu in Qufu. It was really nice to have coffee and hang out with people who spoke English. We all went out to dinner as a group and then went back to the hostel to have a few drinks. That day we had heard that someone in the physics department had swine flu and everyone on campus was wearing masks. The clinic was also selling masks for a short period of time but then it was roped off. Our new friends in town had even heard about the "outbreak". Then our one Chinese friend called and said that instead of teaching on Monday and Tuesday the school was dismissing everyone to leave for break early. We called our bosses and they confirmed it so naturally we decided to leave the next morning at 7.

As we left the next morning it really seemed like everyone was itching to leave, anxious with their small suitcases and cloth masks. We left campus to go to the other side of town to meet the other teachers. Once all together we got a cab to the "illegal" bus station. The bus station in town was shut down because of National Day/swine flu and the other one was far away. This "illegal" one is on the edge of a rotary and regular buses stop there with some empty seats and you bargain for a seat. Luckily our Chinese friend was with us so we easily hopped on a cheaper bus to go to Jinan, the province capital.

On our other bus rides it became clear that this "illegal" bus riding was pretty common. You don't even have to buy a seat, you can just pay to sit in the aisle on a little stool. I can now say that after 10 straight days of traveling in China on bus I fully understand any questions I ever had about Fung Wah.

Just as we were talking about how it really felt like we were really fleeing Qufu even though we weren't scared of the swine flu, one of our bosses called. She wanted to know if we had left yet and if we could come back. We were gone and could not come back. At the last minute they thought it would be a better idea for the foreign teachers to stay in Qufu to potentially be quarantined. They also said that there was a chance that we would still need to be quarantined when we did come back. We had been back and forth so many times about having a break or not having a break, being able to travel or not or only certain places that we were adamant on traveling and not going back. It seemed to be ok because we were staying the province and not really going too too far or to anywhere outlandish.

Speech Contest and Free Talk

In addition to teaching courses, the university will ask us to take part in some extra English speaking related events. The foreign language department highly encourages us to hold "Free Talk" sessions. These are times set aside when I invite students to my apartment to hold informal conversations in English-- essentially to just hang out. There is a lot to say about these Free Talk sessions so I'll go into that later. One thing that some of us were recently asked to do is to judge a speech contest.

I jumped at the chance to be a judge because it sounded like it would be so much fun. The contest was through CCTV which is China's TV network. There are two sections of the contest, one for English majors and one for non-English majors. The finalists from Qufu compete in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province, and then so on and so on until the televised finals in Beijing. I was a judge for the second night, for non-English majors.

When I got there, I was so excited to see many of my students, and I was glad that it was the non-English major part of the contest so that I wouldn't have to rate my students compared to others! They were so excited to see me and all came up to me to say "hi". I was really excited to find out that two of my students were the emcees, so I got to see them stand up and speak in front of the crowd all night.

There were four other judges on the panel, all were professors at the university. There were 13 contestants that gave a prepared speech, an impromptu speech, and had to answer a question from a judge. The prepared speech topic for all of them was "science intelligence or culture smart" so they chose to argue for science over culture or culture over science or some said that they were inseparable. Then they chose a number which corresponded to a random question such as "Should Chinese citizens boycott goods made in Japan? Why or why not?" or "What do you think about internet addiction?" ("internet addiction" is when young people spend too much time on the internet and can get in a lot of trouble for it here in China). Then, as a judge, I had to come up for a question on the spot if it was my turn to question the contestant. As an American, I found this really difficult to do because I didn't want to say something inappropriate or too difficult for them to answer since I didn't really know their English knowledge. We then tallied our scores of between 30-40 points for the prepared speech, 30-40 points for the impromptu speech, and 15-20 for their answers to the judge's question.

At the end I was introduced as "our foreign teacher Lisa" and asked to address the crowd. It was pretty funny as I made the typical "congratulations to everyone!" speech and thanked them all for having me. It was actually a really fun night and great to see a campus event like that that I could understand. After the winners were announced (everyone got a certificate for participating) and they all took pictures with the judges. I'm really glad that I did it and I can't wait to attend more of those kind of events. Next week is Confucius' birthday and Founder's Day (the 60th anniversary of Communist rule this year) so I think that some impressive celebrations will be in store.

But on to Free Talk. I've had several sessions in my apartment all ready and while they are pretty fun they are also exhausting. The students are so excited but also so nervous so these first sessions have just been two-hour long sessions of small talk with one of me and 15 or so of them. I have learned some funny things from them but I think that in the coming weeks I'm going to structure them a little bit more. We talked about American movies like Twilight, Harry Potter, and High School Musical. We also talked about things in China, where they are from, what those places are famous for (kite festivals, mountains, vegetables), what kinds of food they like that I should try. We also had some really interesting talks when they asked me about voting for America and if I really got to vote there. They giggled incessantly when I told them I voted for Barack Obama because they think he is so cute. A lot of girls in my classes chose the name Michelle to be like the first lady. I'm not going to lie though, I was really hoping to get some Sashas or Malias but no such luck.

They also told me how scared they were about the swine flu. We have a break coming up in the beginning of October for Autumn Festival and Founder's Day that us Americans were planning to make use of by traveling. But rumors are flying around that no one will be allowed to leave campus for fear of bringing back swine flu or for fear of involvement in potential Founder's Day mayhem. That includes the state organized parades because 60 is such an important number in Chinese culture everyone is saying that the streets of every major city are going to be jam-packed. I've seen some of the rehearsals of the parades in Beijing on TV and it looks comparable to the 2008 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony... yeah, it's a really big deal. Also every other year the parade is made up of the military but for the first time this year students will also be included in the parades.

Here on campus to battle swine flu, all of the foreign teachers have been given thermometers to check our temperatures and tell our liaison if we are not feeling well so we can be quarantined. One teacher came back from visiting her family with a cold and her temperature was .3 degrees above average so she was quarantined for a week. They have also closed the east gate to campus which is where a very crowded (and largely Muslim) market is. However, you can walk about 500 feet out the north gate to the east gate.

They are taking it very seriously here but the only thing that I am really nervous about at all is whether we will be able to leave or not. I am healthy and safe and have all the right antibodies so I just want to be able to travel. We had a variety of ideas of where to go on our travels but have toned them down to traveling to Jinan or Tai'an where a famous Taoist mountain is that we want to climb. No matter what, I'm sure I'll have some good stories to report about after this break.

Teaching!

I've finished my first full week of teaching now. I technically started last week but the postgrads and PhDs didn't start until this week. Overall I have to say that I really like my students and I felt very comfortable in the role of a teacher. But it definitely made me miss Chicago, the kids I worked with there, and working with kids in general. This teaching experience will be decidedly different than the one I had last year.

On Mondays and Tuesdays I teach Sophomore Oral English. I meet with each section just once a week. I have two sections each day and each section has 36-38 students. Three out of four of the sections had an American teacher last year and I can definitely tell the difference between them and the one section that has never had a foreign teacher. Those that have experience with an American teacher speak much more and are more willing to answer questions and slip up and switch to Chinese much less. Still all the sections are very excited to have me as their teacher and they all are very diligent students. They are all English majors and some of them want to be English teachers, some were pushed into the major by their parents or their entrance exam scores. There are two text books for the class, one on speech and debate and one entitled "Encounters with Westerners". They aren't the best but will definitely provide some good jumping off points for discussions.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach Listening and Speaking for PhDs. They are not English majors but rather have to take this English course in order to get a doctoral degree from the university. Needless to say, I've heard that the roster has 18 students (I don't actually have any of the rosters for my classes yet) but only 10-12 people show up. Their English abilities vary greatly but they are all extremely brilliant people getting doctoral degrees in things like non-linear math and Marxism. The book for that class is very troublesome. Half of it is just scripts that I am supposed to read and the other half is mainly a fill in the blank style workbook for the students. All of the scripts are taken from actual news reports or interviews which sound like an interesting idea but for students just learning English hearing me read Bill Clinton's radio address on prostate cancer might not be the most helpful. Another American teacher who has been here for 4 years is teaching them in the Reading and Writing course and we have been trying to collaborate/commiserate on what to do. Still, the students are very nice people and try their best to make conversation with me when we see each other in passing.

On Fridays I have two sections of Listening and Speaking for postgrads. Each section is 42 students and they are also not English majors that I will see once a week. It was really fun getting to know them because they are all my age and they reciprocate my humor in ways that the other students do not. The textbook for that class has a CD with listening exercises on it and is similar to the PhD textbook but much, much better. Another teacher from Skidmore is also teaching them Reading and Writing so they are doubly excited to have 2 American teachers who are the same age as them.

The schedule feels pretty light, but that's what my contract is for! I will also be holding office hours in the foreign teachers' communal office in the Department of Foreign Languages building and I will be holding Free Talk sessions at my apartment where students can drop in during a designated time to just hang out and practice speaking English. But having a less hectic work week than in America is really helpful as my apartment is always clean. And the extra time to revel in the fact that it is MY apartment will never get old. Also in China I tend to buy food for a meal or two, cook it, and then go out to the market again so it's nice to have the flexibility in my schedule to do that. I also plan to go for more bike rides and set up some Chinese lesson and of course write lesson plans!

Biking and a Banquet

This past weekend I went to buy a bike. I knew that I wanted one before even coming here and then seeing just how many people even in little Qufu bike around, I was set on getting one. Our Chinese friend from the other campus in town brought us to the walled part of the city to go to the least expensive bike store he knew. We wanted to bargain but the salesman did not at all, so we each got a bike for 270 yuan or about $40. In America that sounds really cheap but keep in mind that a week's worth of groceries for me is about 50 yuan so the bike was a lot of yuan. Still totally worth it because I love it.

It's purple with a white basket and a black bell. It also came with a lock but bike locks are different in China than in America. Instead of locking your bike to something you just put a lock around the spikes of the back wheel so that the bike can't be moved. So my first question was couldn't someone just pick up your bike and carry it away? Apparently this never happens.

So to explain biking in Qufu, I first have to explain driving in Qufu. While there is a double solid yellow line down the middle of major roads, it serves as a suggestion. If you really need to get around someone you can just go around them and drive on the other side of the road for as long as you need to. Also honking is not just for "get out of my way!" or "you're about to hit me!" like it usually is in America, honking here can also mean "I'm passing you" "I'm behind you" "I'm going to turn in front of you" or really anything. Also all vehicles participate in the honking: cars, trucks, motorcycles, motorbikes, 3-wheels carts (engine or not), bike, horse and carriage, rickshaw... every vehicle imaginable.

There is a large bike lane, equal in size to the other lanes and on major roads in town there is a divider up. But the directions are optional, so while there are bike lanes on both sides and most people go with the direction of traffic, there are a few stragglers who do their own thing. Similarly, if a car or truck really needs to pass someone they can come on in the bike lane. In short, I'm glad I brought my helmet. The only other person I've seen with one is a 2 year old practicing rollerblading on the badminton courts but I'm really ok with that.

Other than biking back from the bike store and biking to and from classes, I went on my first real bike ride today. It went much better than I thought and I was pretty pleased to just ring my bell randomly along with the crowds. I tried to bike out of town and into the countryside but I ended up by the off ramp for the highway. I kept going and found some strip mall/market alleys. I stopped at what I think was a traveling theater. It was a huge crowd of elderly people on their various kinds of bikes and a stage with people in all kinds of crazy costumes. A few people sold some things and I stayed for a bit but then decided to move on. I also biked down a side street/alley/market and then when I stopped to turn around, the lady's stand I was in front of came out and patted me on the arm and nodded, so that was nice.

I plan to go on a lot more biking adventures in and around Qufu because it's such a fun way to find new things and figure out my surroundings. But on another note...

Last night the president of the university invited all of the foreign teachers out for a banquet. We all met up and took the school's van to this very fancy hotel inside the walled city. It was a huge dinner for about 30 people and was very formal with a seating chart and everything. There were literally too many dishes served to count and many of them were typical food of the Confucius family. The presentation was gorgeous and extremely intricate. The food was also amazing. Some of my favorites were: a purple sweet potato egg roll type thing, tofu with egg and spinach, sprouts with shredded pork. But, I'm really not doing any of this justice because these are all guesses as to what they were and I have no idea how they were cooked.

I also tried Chinese wine for the first time which was a bit bitter but it grew on me by the end of the night. In typical Chinese fashion there were a lot of toasts. It was also a special night because it was the night before Teacher's Day in China (that's today here now) which is to celebrate and thank teachers. I also tried Chinese liquor. It's served in tiny wine glass looking thing that holds about a thimble worth of alcohol and it is served in this glass for a reason. It is the strongest alcohol I have ever tasted, it not just burns your throat and stomach but even your lips and tongue. It is strong but leaves a licorice aftertaste. The Chinese professors and deans were champions at shooting it back though. All in all, it was a really fun night and very generous of the president and all of the other teachers who are look after us.

By tomorrow I will have taught all of my classes at least once and will take some time to gather those thoughts and post them up.