Study Break 2 - Day One

The day dawned sunny and clear, before eventually fading into a dark, overcast afternoon. I woke up and did some work for my internship before kind of...doing nothing. Eventually my suitemate, one of the very few people who isn't already on vacation for the break suggested we head to one of the local markets to pick up some food, and having literally nothing better to do, I went along.

I've been to the market before but I typically stay in the fruit section and that's the bulk of my purchases. Today however, I explored a little more while Kaitlin was doing her shopping and found some fun things. Aside from a large assortment of different veggies, some of which I'd never seen, there were also many different kinds of meats, including whole chickens. The creepiest things were the eels. They were alive and they slithered and sloshed around in their little tubs of water. I watched them, fascinated, and noticed one was attempting to escape it's enclosure. Well it wiggled and wiggled and soon enough, wouldn't you know it, it plopped, with a loud thwack, onto the floor. I took a quick picture before I hurried away from the writhing eel on the ground.

 

Making his escape. 

I bought a pumpkin so I could carve it later and we left the market, Kaitlin with many purchases because she's an avid chef, and me with my pumpkin and some assorted fruits. On our way back we stopped by a new bubble tea place near us called Super Daddy. I'm not sure why it's called this but I'm not the biggest bubble tea fan so I was a little skeptical. But I think I found a new favorite place. Super Daddy does things a little different and they have fruit syrup filled bubbles instead of the classic tapioca ones which I do not enjoy. I got a lemon flavored drink with strawberry bubbles which burst pleasantly in my mouth. The drink was amazing and it was probably the closest thing I've had to lemonade in Shanghai.

 

I got home and snacked on some grapes while I carved my pumpkin. I have named my pumpkin 小南瓜 which means "Little Pumpkin" in Chinese. In the end it turned out to be a pretty good outing and a fun day. I also learned that one of our classmates adopted a puppy and then promptly left on vacation. Can you say "irresponsible?" The puppy is currently at the vet getting it's shots but apparently someone volunteered us to watch it so starting either Sunday or Monday a dog will be coming to live with us, and it will probably be untrained. 

 Xiǎo nánguā!

"All I want right now is a NY bagel."

Shanghai has a lot of amazing things. You can eat a meal for less than 1 US dollar, you can order clothes online, have them delivered to your door the next day, where if you try them on and they don't fit, you don't have to pay, no delivery fees, nothing. Every time you get on the subway you enter the largest subway system in the world, and yet, there are some things that Shanghai simply seems to be missing and eventually you start to remember things you've forgotten since you've come to the city.

Our thing was bagels. My least favorite part of eating in Shanghai is breakfast. I never thought about breakfast too much before I came here but I realized it was difficult for me to live without a bagel, some yoghurt, cereal, or just SOMETHING like that in the mornings. Cereal here is expensive, and the yoghurt has weird consistencies, so I eat a lot of eggs. So after we talked about eating bagels for 3 days straight, our stomachs growling loudly at the thought I finally decided to look it up online, because surely Shanghai must have some hidden gem buried. And sure enough, Shanghai never disappoints, we found our bagel shop in the form of Egghead Bagels.

After work on Thursday my classmate and co-worker Caroline casually asked me what time the bagel store was open until. I got her hint immediately. Our study break was about to start the following day, 10 days of uninterrupted  freedom from school and plenty of opportunity for trying new things and spending more money than usual. Without any second thoughts we jumped into a cab and made our way to Egghead Bagels in the Jing'an area.

I'm going to admit we were a little giddy to see a sign proclaiming bagels and we were SO EXCITED to try some bagels. We got in, looked at the menu, and each decided to get a bagel sandwich "bagelwich" and also take a bagel to go which we planned to attempt to toast the next morning for breakfast. Egghead's menu is pretty extensive. They don't have too many kinds of bagels but they have a lot of different sandwich and breakfast options. I got a turkey, avocado, and swiss bagelwich, and Caroline ordered a cheese-steak bagelwich. They made the sandwiches quickly we left the store giggling with warm toasted sandwiches in brown paper bags clutched in our hands.Total money spent on one sandwich and one bagel to go 75 kuai aka $12.

 

Caroline had to go home so she could start packing for her trip to Thailand the next day so I headed up to my room to enjoy my bagel alone. It wasn't the most amazing sandwich I've ever eaten but when you've lacked the thick chewy consistency of a bagel for a while it will do with any sandwich combination. The bagel wasn't perfect but it was good enough to satisfy the craving and actually eating a classic sandwich combination was a welcome change too. I can't wait to try a bagel by itself this morning to see if the magic from last night has worn off.

Hangzhou - My Obligatory Bike Ride in a Foriegn Country

 

Sunday dawned sunny and clear, a rarity if there ever was one in Shanghai. Some friends and myself made our way through the empty streets to the subway early in the morning and headed to the train station to board our train to the nearby city of Hangzhou. The train ride was quick and painless, only 45, during which I read and listening to music while we flew past the countryside at 300 km/hr.

 

 

When we arrived in Hangzhou we immediately made our way to the lake that the city is famous for. It was definitely beautiful and definitely full of tourists. As always happens outside of Shanghai I became a fascinating spectacle for most of the Chinese tourists who like to gawk at foreigners. We walked around eating cotton candy, taking pictures, interacting with the locals and tourists alike, before getting lunch. We ate at a place that is famous in Hangzhou and extremely popular with visitors. The food was good, and I especially enjoyed the green tea cakes we had for dessert.

After lunch we wanted to rent bikes to ride around the edges of the lake for a while. We found a place and rode for around two hours. It was amusing because every so often a police officer would be standing there and would yell at you to dismount the bike. Everyone would oblige but as soon as you passed him, you could get back on and he didn't care. It didn't make any sense and by the end of the trip I learned if I rode hidden behind a trolly that occasionally passed by, I could ride past the police officer undetected. At the time dismounting all the time was annoying but now it's just something funny that we just laugh and say, "that's so China."

We tried to get back to the train station to catch our train out at 4 PM but we didn't make it. Luckily it was easy to exchange our tickets and then we just had to wait...for 3 and half hours. We found a Burger King and sat down to play some cards. It ended up being a good time and we got on our 8 o'clock train without any problems and made it back to Shanghai tired, but happy for a fun day out of the city.

Geisha

This past Saturday a friend of mine told me she was going to the opening of a new restaurant/club in Shanghai and she invited me to go with her. I'm not really big on clubbing in general and I spend most of my time avoiding these types of events, and trying to explain to people that it's really just not my scene. My friend was covering the opening in an article she was writing for her internship and she couldn't find anyone to go with her so I bit the bullet and headed out to the new club, Geisha, on Saturday night.

We didn't know what to expect but when we got there the place was clearly crowded and there was a line forming outside the doors. Since my friend was writing a piece for a local website we were allowed in immediately and we headed upstairs to see what all the fuss was about.

 

Geisha is two, decently sized floors of good fun. The place was packed with expats, but that's to be expected at a place that actually touts the fact that they serve "western style" Japanese food on their menu. The crowd seemed beautiful and rich, maybe slightly older given that this was opening night, but otherwise typical, nice club patrons. The bar was serving some kind of free drink until 11 and many people were carrying those around, but the drink of choice was definitely wine, which is an interesting choice for a place that's trying to carry the nightclub vibe.

Confetti was falling from the ceilings and some people were dancing, although more made their way to the dance floor as the night wore on. There was a roof deck with nice views of the skyline and comfortable seating that would have been a great place to enjoy a meal. Many people took advantage of this area because we were experiencing what was probably one of the last truly warm nights in Shanghai.

I was reprimanding myself for not giving this place a chance, because it wasn't so bad when something...interesting happened. There had been a few dancers up on the bars at different times throughout the night and so I wasn't surprised when someone else took the stage. This girl was dressed in a sort of traditional Geisha outfit with a parasol and some large fans. She danced for a while, quite innocently but then before I knew what was happening she began to strip!

I'll save you the details (although these pictures barely do) but the dance ended with her shirt fully off and with wild cheers from the crowd. We took this as our cue to leave and headed out to meet some friends for KTV (Karaoke Television) so that we could enjoy a more quiet end to our evening.

Zhongshan Park: A Paradise in My Backyard

Saturday morning I woke bright and early to meet some friends and head to the train station. We had planned that we were going to the nearby city of Hangzhou for the day and we were really excited. We took the subway to the train station, got in line for tickets, only to be told that they were sold out until much later in the day. We talked it over and decided that we would buy tickets for Sunday instead and just spend today doing whatever else. So we bought our train tickets for the next day and got back on the subway to return home.

There was a lot of talk about what people were going to do for the rest of the day. Most people wanted to nap understandably and lot of people were in favor of doing work. For my part, after thinking it over I decided that I wanted to spend at least the next few hours laying in the grass in the park across the street from us, reading a good book. I mentioned my idea and one of my friends, Sneha, said she thought that was a great idea, and thus a plan was formed.

We grabbed our things and walked over towards the park chatting about our plans for tomorrow. We entered the park and took a moment to decide what to do. We had only ever seen the entrance to the park, and although it had some nice grass for sitting, we noted that we had never seen any other part of the park, and that we ought to look around before settling in. After all, how long could it take?

Not too far into the park, and around a corner we were met with a delightful surprise. Not only was Zhongshan Park beautiful but it was wonderfully full of activity. We walked over a bridge as boats idled by underneath us, driven by erratic Chinese toddlers, loosely supervised by their parents. In another part of the small body of water children drove bumper cars, and shot water at each other from guns attached to the floating boats. A nearby grassy area was filled with hundreds of families flying kites, taking naps, blowing bubbles, and generally enjoying the day.

 

 

 

Fortunately, Sneha and I think alike and both of us immediately decided we wanted to take a ride in those boat we had seen earlier. Actually, we wanted to do the bumper boats but no dice, we were too old. We rented a boat for an hour and set out across the water. Ok, so the "lake" was small, and yes it was crowded, but that's part of what made it so fun. We thought we were going to miss out on bumper boats, but it turned out we'd gotten our wish after all! Maneuvering around took some skill, and the boats didn't turn very well so the hour was largely spent crashing into Chinese families. Both parties found it hilarious and often as many as four boats would all crash together, resulting in a chorus of laughter.

 

When our boat ride was finished we were about to find a place to sit and read when we came across a map. One look changed our plans. The park was HUGE. We had only seen a very small portion of what it had to offer and after the boat ride we were convinced this park was full of other amazing wonders. We didn't have to go much farther to find our next stop.

 

Just a minute or two down a path Sneha expertly spotted a sign that said "Cupcakes!" Most of you probably know that I LOVE cupcakes. In fact I recently presented a Chinese midterm that contained no less than 5 slides concerning cupcakes. I knew we had to stop and so we did. The bakery was small and only offered a few different flavors but it was adorable, and people were so sweet, and so genuinely happy to have us there. We snacked on our cakes and took some time to check out the different things that people had drawn on the windows of the cafe.

 

"Everyone will find his own cupcake..."

After our snack we continued through the park, wandering over bridges, crossing small steams by hopping over rocks, and generally enjoying ourselves. After a while we came across a small amusement park! I probably don't have to tell you that we decided we needed to ride one of those rides. After debating for a while we picked the swings and hopped aboard. We were the only people over the age of 6 on the ride, and it was clear our audience was both amused and confused as to what we were doing on the swings, but we didn't really care, we were just enjoying the day.

After coming down from our swinging high (get it?), we continued through the park until we came across a most unusual sight. We saw what appeared to be some dancers getting ready for a show. We approached and sat down to watch the show. Upon closer inspection we saw that they were dancers, but we had assumed they were women. In fact, they were drag queens! We were shocked. Drag queens in China?! Well sure enough that's what they were and they danced and sang, and we watched with a shocked fascination as old men and women, and very young children, all approached and stuffed money into these drag queens' dresses. We could not convince ourselves to stay for the whole show but it definitely was a shock that something like this could legally happen in China.

After the drag queen event we were worn out from all our activities and just from walking around the great expanse of the park and we decided to head home. As we parted in the elevator we couldn't help but remark one more time how incredible it was that all of those things were hidden in our backyard.

I Had An Amazing Weekend! And I Have No Time To Write About It

I spent this past Saturday relaxing in my neighborhood park, riding in boats, riding carnival rides, eating cupcakes, and I even saw some Chinese drag queens. Saturday night I went to the grand opening of a new club in the city which was amazing. Sunday I spent the day with some friends in the nearby city of Hangzhou where we rode bikes and enjoyed the scenery. Unfortunately the weekend was so busy I had no time to write about any of these things and now I'm so busy with work, school, and the eminent arrival of my Mom and Miguel that I can't do these posts justice at the moment so they're being put off for now. To top it all off I've also been sick for the past 3 or 4 days...miserable! Here's a picture of how I feel right now. Hopefully I'll be able to write later this week before I leave for my second break!

Teaching English and Learning to Teach

For the last 2 weeks, and continuing every Monday for the rest of the semester, I will be teaching English to the children of migrant workers. China operates on a Hukou system which is a sort of household registration that registers by family rather than by individual. Permits are issued and people are required to remain within the location that their permit allows, and aren't supposed to leave. In reality though, this is not strictly enforced and people move from rural areas into cities all the time. These people are called migrant workers and they are almost comparable to illegal immigrants. They are working in the cities, where they're not allowed to live or work, but the government has turned a sort of blind eye, although they could be kicked out at anytime.

This is their playground where they march around for recess. Yes, they march.

The school we teach at is a school for the children of these workers. The children could in theory be kicked out at any time, and in the classrooms children are seated by how long the administrators and teachers think they will remain there. Students who have been in the same school for years sit in the front row, others who may only be there for a few weeks sit in the back. The students must all wear small red scarves tied around their necks but otherwise there is no uniform. Before they enter the classroom they raise their hands outside the room until they are acknowledged by the teacher. But otherwise they are very much like the typical American student.

 

The outside of the building. 

  

 It'll be hard to make out but there are children peering out of those windowed hallways.

Our job is to teach these children English. NYU students teach English on Mondays for grades 3-5 at the primary school. We are split into different teams and each team is assigned two classes to teach. Each class is around 40 minutes long, although I have to say sometimes it feels much longer. I teach class number one in Grade 5 and class number three in Grade 4. The lower number classes are the higher level classes, so for example class one is the highest level, and class six is the lowest.

Last week after my first week of teaching I came back exhausted and exasperated. My two classes had been a living hell of sorts. Every class was supposed to have a teacher sitting in while we led the lesson, but both of my classes lacked a teacher. This caused a certain amount of chaos in the classroom. The class monitor tried to help us keep things under control, but with only a few really interested in learning the lesson, and with their apparent lack of respect for us as teachers, we didn't get very far in the lesson. My 4th grade class was a similar sort of affair. Students were running around, hitting each other in the head with pencil cases, and knocking each other out of their chairs. It took a while to get the sound of screaming, rambunctious children out of my head.

I came home thinking that these were terribly evil children! But I knew they weren't. They were just kids, and this is what kids do. I came this week more prepared. I had a precise outline of what I wanted to teach, I learned to say a few useful phrases in Chinese like "please sit down", "be quiet", and "raise your hand." I learned all of their English vocabulary in Chinese so I could explain if they didn't understand and actually, the 5th grade class was much better. I had lots of participation, and with the exception of one girl kicking her classmate in the groin in the middle of class it went really well and I left the class very pleased with myself, and sure that they had learned something.

Fourth grade was another story entirely. The 5th grade class had done well today day even without their usual teacher in the room but the 4th grade class had other ideas. Without a teacher they continued their usual shenanigans and for some completely unknown reason, none of them had their English textbooks!! We tried to teach from our outline without using the book but they weren't interested in listening. The class was a blur of children screaming and hitting each other over the head, and asking for our autographs...?

 This is my lovely 4th grade class.

Even though I left feeling like I only accomplished half of my goal of getting the kids to listen, I still felt pretty good. One of my classes was definitely making progress and I was excited and happy about how much English they knew and how eager they were to learn. I was just going to have to consider the 4th grade class a project of mine. I'm already starting to get mentally prepared for next week.

Gansu; The Final Days

We thought we were going to get a well-deserved shower after our nights on the train, and then in the freezing cold desert but luck wasn’t with us that morning and our hotel rooms weren’t ready by the time we got there. They were able to open two rooms so we could use the restroom, wash our faces, and change clothes before heading, you guessed it, back onto the bus.

Our first and only stop on our last day in Gansu was to Yadan National Park. The park is situated just over two hours outside of Dunhuang and it was a long and bumpy ride. Half of the roads that we were on were unpaved and we were in a large bus, bumping and rolling over the uneven terrain. Although we were all exhausted, I doubt anyone got much sleep on the ride over, bouncy as it was. I looked out the windows but there wasn’t much to see. The park is located in the depths of the Gobi Desert and there was no sign of life on the way there. Mile after mile of desert wasteland spread before us for two hours before we finally arrived.

           

Yadan park is a National Park that consists mostly of geological formations, specifically these mud formations that are somewhat reminiscent of some rock formations you might see in Arizona. There is nothing around for miles. The park is served by one restroom, a small gift shop, and a terribly sub-par restaurant, which we were forced to eat lunch at. I have to say I was not at all in the mood. We were going on 72 hours without shower, after having restless nights of sleep, and lots of inadequate meals and I was having a hard time getting interested in a park that solely consisted of dry mud. 

After the meal we boarded a government run bus that would take us through parts of the National Park to show us some of the “famous” (?) formations in the park. We were driving through what used to be a huge lake that had obviously dried up a long time ago, and these dried mud formations were what was left of that lake. Yes fossils had been found; no we were not allowed to see any of them. I sighed. Our guide showed us one formation that looked a little like the sphinx in Egypt, and a lot of other formation that looked like nothing at all.

The Sphinx.

We were allowed to get out and walk around and though I still wasn’t amazed by what I was seeing I was trying to appreciate it. The Chinese tourists seemed really interested so we did our best to appear interested as well, but it was hard to fight back the feeling that we could see something just as impressive if not more so back in the United States. Also, it was pretty hot outside.

 

 Also, they were selling rocks...is this a joke?

Once we were done with our dried mud formation tour we got back on the bus and headed back to Dunhuang. We did make a quick stop at an ancient check point from the silk road before another long and bumpy ride back to our hotel and, success, showers! I was so excited to step into the shower and wash the grime from the last 3 days off myself. I felt like a new person, and I was exciting for the upcoming visit to the Dunhuang night market later that night. 

 What's this?

Oh my gosh grass and water!!!

 See those tiny mounds in the distance? Part of an ancient "great wall".

After everyone had showered and we’d eaten dinner we gathered our money and our beginner Chinese skills and headed to the night market. The market was two quarter-mile-long rows of vendors selling their wares. It was the perfect place to practice bargaining skills. At first I was a little timid but after a few hours in the market I was bargaining like the best of them, facial expressions and all. “Tai gui le!” I yelled, immediately after I was told the price, and I made a disgusted face. Occasionally I’d switch into English “Oh my God!” which worked just as well and got a few laughs with it. I ended up with a large assortment of different souvenirs and I was pretty pleased with myself, as I flitted up and down the aisles, moving between groups of friends, laughing and breathing cool, dry, evening desert air.

 

It was our friend Ryan’s birthday the next day, and since the day would be spent largely on a bus and then on an airplane back to Shanghai we devised a surprise party for him that night at midnight. Plans went awry and we accidentally got two cakes but that ended up being good because we went back and set up a mini surprise party that ended up being attended by the entire group and lasting until past 2 AM. It was a great end to our trip in Gansu.

We found the only bakery in the city who would make us cakes at 11 PM! And they were good!

The next morning we had a four-hour bus ride to the airport we’d be leaving from where (to no surprise for those of you who know I’m bad luck with flights) our flight was delayed for a few hours. We finally made it Xi’an home of the terracotta soldiers where mechanical problems kept us on the ground for another few hours, and we landed in Shanghai at around midnight, a full 18-hour travel day. When I finally got back to my apartment I collapsed onto my rock hard bed with unapologetic joy. I would never forget Gansu, but I was glad to be back to my temporary home in Shanghai.

 Still managing to look somewhat awake at Pudong airport at Midnight!