Spring Festival Adventures

Spring Festival is here! For those who don't know, Spring Festival is the biggest holiday of the year for the Chinese, kind of like a Chinese Christmas. It's also referred to as Chinese New Year. It's celebrated on the first day of the first month, according to the lunar calendar. Usually people will travel to their hometowns to celebrate with their families for several days. There are lots of traditions associated with the holiday, and if you're curious, you can check out this Wikipedia page for more info.

This week I traveled to a small village about 30 minutes by bus outside of Yizhou (kind of sounds like "ee-joe") in Northern Guangxi province. Elaine, my Chinese friend, had invited me to spend the holiday with her family, so I jumped at the chance to experience an authentic Chinese New Year celebration with my good friend. A couple of days before we left, Elaine and I were chatting on QQ, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook/MSN, and she asked me if I was nervous. I hadn't been, up to that point, but the question made me pause. "Uhh...should I be?" I replied. She answered that I would be the first foreigner to ever visit her village, and that everyone would be curious about me and want to ask me a lot of questions. Since questions and stares are pretty much commonplace no matter where I go in China, my answer was no, I'm not nervous. But it turns out that mental preparation would be a bit of a necessity...

When I say that Elaine's hometown is a village, I mean that it's a village. I didn't exactly expect this, and I will explain why. I live in Nanning, the capital city of Gunagxi province, in the very southernmost part of China. Guangxi is an "autonomous region" created for ethnic minority groups that predominate the south. I sort of equate this region of China with super rural parts of the southern US. If you can picture a place that is super "down-home" you might know what I mean. With that in mind, most homes in Nanning are quite modern, with electricity, plumming, and A/C. I have also visited smaller, more rural towns where the conditions are mostly the same. I had come to believe that truly small, rural communities didn't exist.

So I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I didn't think our bus would pull up to a cluster of quaint, two story brick houses surrounded by farmland, complete with chickens, geese, water pumps, and old men farming in pointed straw hats. When people talk about small Chinese towns, they are talking about places where many people live in seven story apartment buildings and the 300,000 people who live there motor around on electric bikes and shop in grocery stores. This was different. As we walked around the village, it seemed like 2012 probably looks a lot like 1912 did. Most of the homes have electricity, but hot water is a new acquisition and not often used, and heating/cooling is nonexistent. Yizhou doesn't get as cold as Central Oregon, but it was about 40 degrees, indoors and outdoors. I could definitely see my breath inside.

When we arrived, I was welcomed into Elaine's childhood home by her father and stepmother. (I asked Elaine if I could film the inside of her house to give people an idea of what a village is like, so I have included a video in this post.) Then we walked to the house of her grandma and aunt a few streets away. Her aunt was all smiles, sitting in a low wooden stool by a dish of burning coals. She motioned for us to sit down and have some black sugarcane. Elaine grabbed a scimitar-looking knife and hacked a section off for me to chew on. Black sugarcane is one of the farming commodities in this village, along with silkworms. It's really a delicious treat. It looks like a thick, black stock of bamboo. You eat it by peeling back the outer layers with your teeth and chewing/sucking the juice out of the pale yellow, pithy center. Once you have sucked all the sugary juice, you spit the fibrous remains onto the floor. Someone's dutiful mother or aunt will come and sweep it up later!

I was, in fact, welcomed with lots of curiosity and questions from her family members. It's a good thing Elaine is a good translator. Many people wanted to know whether I was used to Chinese food, if I could use chopsticks, how Elaine and I met, and if there are any places in America like that village. They generously told me to make myself at home, and took many steps to make me feel welcome.

One aspect of Chinese hospitality is feeding your guest well. All throughout my stay, her family members offered me snacks: breaded and fried little fish, soft rice cakes, sugarcane, and sweet crunchy fried bread. All of our meals consisted of hot pot goodies. Hot pot is a large community bowl of broth, heated over a low burner in the living room that everyone huddles around (because it's freaking cold!). Into the pot you put pork, mushrooms, greens, and anything else you feel like. You eat it by tweezing morsels out with your chopsticks and putting them into your own personal bowl of rice. Or more accurately for me, you eat the morsels generously placed into your bowl by your host. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were variations of hot pot, and the New Year's Eve meal was an extravagant selection of pork cuts and fish to put in. That night you could wash down your meal with a cup of snake wine, a distilled liquor made in, you guessed it, a big jar with a snake coiled inside.

New Year's Eve was definitely the highlight of my stay in the village. It began with Elaine and I staying in bed until 11 because it was so cold we didn't want to get out! Plus we knew we would be staying up late, since the fireworks don't start until midnight. New Year's Eve is a very leisurely day. You are not supposed to leave your house to work or shop, and a big family meal begins around 3 or 4pm. Most people prepare the meal and play card games around the fire bowls throughout the day.

On New Years Eve, it is the custom to take a shower and wash your hair to clean away all the old and welcome the new. There was no way I was going to take a lukewarm shower in 40 degree temperatures, so I opted to have my hair washed at the local salon. The hot water there was quite nice, and they even put a thick quilt on top of me while they scrubbed away at my by-then-very-greasy head. Elaine is much tougher than me, so she took a shower that night at her house. Brrrr!

The Dragon Dance is probably the most famous custom related to Chinese New Year. This is the celebration with two-man dragon costumes dancing to the beat of a large drum, and fireworks. These types of fireworks sound like automatic weapons going off. The crowds gather around the dancers and throw the fireworks at their feet, and the dragons try to dodge them. Apparently this part of the celebration was supposed to take place the next night, but they moved it to New Year's Eve so that I could see it before I left the following morning. It was quite an honor! They actually came into Elaine's house for a little demonstration before moving to the square where all 300 villagers came to see the performance. Afterwards, they asked me to take pictures with the village leaders and the dragon dancers. They let me beat on the big drum and I was swarmed by children who wanted a photo with me as well. It was a bit overwhelming, but also very honoring. It's a strange feeling to be a celebrity without having done anything to gain recognition; maybe it's what it feels like to be a Kardashian or something.

Later that evening we would all convene to the rooftops to watch one of the most amazing fireworks displays I've ever seen. It seemed that huge fireworks were bursting above every housetop, and you could even see explosions lighting up the sky beyond the karst mountains where more villages were hidden. The night Elaine and I also gave out red envelopes of money. It is tradition to give these to children, but there are no young children in her family. We gave them to her grandparents and parents instead.

I will never forget my first village visit/Spring Festival celebration, or the kindness shown to me by Elaine's family. Her father told me that I am now a part of the family, and I am welcome in their home any time. Actually, I had asked Elaine to give me a Chinese name, and she game me her surname: Wei. So, not that I can pronounce it yet, but my Chinese name is Wei Xi Ru, which means hopeful determination. I am now a part of a Chinese family in name and welcome!

Women doing laundry in the pond

The aftermath of fireworks

People making sacrifices to the town idol on New Years Eve

Elaine's sister Peace preparing vegetables

I want one!

Black sugarcane

Holidays Abroad

My first holiday season abroad is drawing to a close....and I must say, while I did miss my family and friends back home, I am thankful for my friends here who made sure the holidays were festive and fun instead of lonely and depressing. I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving with a (mostly) traditional meal and a reflection on what I was thankful for this year. I decided that I was most thankful for the support from my placement agency that made my transition to China relatively smooth. For Christmas, I enjoyed an amazing brunch with some friends who live near campus, who are fabulous cooks as and well as musicians. So in addition to stuffing my face, I also sang renditions of Christmas carols accompanied by 2 violins, a guitar, and a recorder. It was pretty sweet! So far I have received one box of Christmas/birthday loot and I know that 2 more are on their way. Getting packages from home makes me feel warm inside!

Here are some photos from the past two months (whew, has it been that long??). I took a trip to De Tian, a waterfall at the Chinese/Vietnamese border, which was lovely. This weekend a high school friend of mine who now teaches English in Japan will come and stay with me, and I am planning a trip to a nearby historical city called Guilin. (Pronounced like Gway-linn). More photos to follow!

Students at a Christmas party given by the student union. Those are glowing antlers, not devil horns. The party included sexy dancers doing the Macarena and The Bunny Hop, as well as a fashion show. I told my students it was the most interesting Christmas party I had ever seen.

A student at my make-up party.

A make-up party at my house, facilitated by Elaine, my Mary Kay friend.

My students. I baked 120 sugar cookies for Christmas, and we did a little cookie decorating party in class.

This little lady always fixes my bike. She and her husband run a little business on campus. They think I'm funny when I try to speak Chinese.

A bashful shrimp at Walmart, with the lovely and fabulous Kimberly.

My friend Elaine cooked me a delicious fish dinner. A side note: though the fish was gutted and carried in a plastic bag for 40 minutes, his tail would still flip a little as we were putting spices on him. I guess that means it was really fresh.

Edible gator!

De Tian Waterfall

Chinglish!

Mary and Isaac. Awww, so cute!

Close up of the waterfall from the raft

Happy Halloween!

The SCIC students decided to throw a Halloween party on Saturday. Halloween isn't a "thing" here, so it was interesting to see how the students chose to dress up. Many of them didn't, but those that did had rented elaborate costumes and painted their faces. Their attention to detail is pretty amazing. Likewise, they throw some pretty elaborate parties.They started by having foreign teachers and other "guests of honor" parade through the crowds of students in our Halloween costumes, and do a kind of parade around the campus. There were games, a legitimately scary haunted house, an MC'ed costume contest, and dancing. The dancing, of course, was all pre-choreographed. The students had requested that I teach them the Chicken Dance, the Bunny Hop, the Macarena, the Soulja Boy dance, and the Electric Slide during the week prior. It was actually really fun!

Midterm week is fast approaching, which means I will have my hands full with marking three sets of 40 exams. Luckily I just met my TA, Celine, this week. She will be a marvelous help when it comes time to weed through all that ESL writing.

I wore this to school on Halloween. The funny thing was that I got stared at, but not significantly more than I do on a regular day.

Some students also being fierce cats!

A tug of war competition between classes.

This comforter is as soft as a...ferret? Hopefully it smells better.

Chinese Song

Last weekend was the 10th anniversary of the language school I teach for, Sino-Canadian International College. Students had been practicing for over a month to perform on the night of the celebration.

Some of the foreign teachers had been asked by the Student Union to perform Auld Lang Syne (the new year song) in Chinese. All of us, few of whom speak Chinese, had about 2 weeks to try and learn two Chinese verses and a chorus. We tried our best, and nearly pulled it off, if I do say so myself. Luckily we had prerecorded our song and we just had to sing along Milli-Vanilli style. The students had choreographed the routine for us, and here is where I could clearly see a difference between American University students and Chinese. The student choreographer had the teachers standing in a horseshoe and waving while about 20 students sat in a line in front of us, swaying to the music. It was quite cute, but definitely something you would never see a 19 year old college boy do in the US!

I've been a terrible blogger lately! I haven't updated this thing in over a month....which is due to the fact that school has started and I've been busy learning the names of my 40 students, lesson planning, and teaching.

So here's the update: I have really been enjoying teaching. My students are awesome, and I am reminded why I wanted to come to China in the first place. They are such respectful and fun people to teach. I've been a little run down physically because of the sudden increase in workload. I hadn't worked since early July, so going from zero to 60 was a little taxing on the old immune system. I had a pretty gnarly cough for the first couple of weeks of class. I felt bad for the students, who had to listen to me rasp and hack though the first several lessons on top of being unsure of my foreign accent and teaching methods. I'm feeling much better now, but I'm still a little hoarse. I think that's mostly due to having to speak loudly for several hours a day.

I have this entire week off school in honor of National Day, the holiday set aside for celebrating the founding of the People's Republic of China. In typical Chinese fashion, some of the days off need to be made up for, so I will work on Saturday and Sunday of this week. It's been nice to take a little breather, but unfortunately we have been dealing with the fall out of a cyclone this week, which means it has been chilly and pouring rain the entire time. So, I've celebrated National Day by snuggling up in my apartment with a good book. Right now I'm reading "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith, a series that I really recommend checking out. It's set in Botswana, and it's quite charming. An awesome foreign family that I met here a couple of weeks ago, who happen to have a pretty expensive library, loaned me the first couple of books in the series.

Anyway, I wish I had some photos of my class, but more will follow later. Here are some pictures from the past month:

All students are required to complete a military training during their second year of University. It was hot and miserable, and these poor kids had to spend all week running around in their heavy wool uniforms. 

Chinglish!

Many of the cakes in China look so appetizing, but taste like sawdust!

This was actually a pretty tasty dessert: it's super-finely saved ice with mangoes and mango syrup. The texture is unlike anything I've ever had before. Yum!

Train to Hong Kong and New Apartment

Well, I'm back from Hong Kong after my visa securing adventure. I'm thankful for Stuart, who helped me navigate the Chinese Consulate in Hong Kong, and to Ethan for showing me all about the overnight train. I should pause here and explain a bit about travel in China: people travel longer distances by overnight trains or busses. In my case, I boarded a train at about 7pm and arrived in a Chinese city right on the edge of HK at about 7:30am. In America, sleeping is kind of a private thing...but this is not so much the case in China. Everyone has an individual bed, but there is usually some random dude about three feet from you, snoring away. It's kind of like sharing a king sized bed with a stranger. Oh well, we made it safe and sound! The next step is officially "exiting" China, walking across the border, and officially "entering" Hong Kong. Here are some pics from the sleeper train. Sorry about the quality, I will get a new camera at some point:

 Hong Kong is a really neat place to visit, if you ever get the chance. It's a nice way to ease into Asia as well, because it was under British rule for a time so it feels pretty Western. It's quite clean and the traffic and crowds are more orderly, plus there is some fabulous shopping! I met up with some people from Jian Hua, the placement agency I used to find a teaching job in China. Here we are enjoying some Korean barbecue.

I moved into my new apartment on Thursday. Yeah, I totally live on the wrong side of the tracks. In a funny way, not an "I'm scared of drive-bys" way. But check out the bathtubs in the "lawn!" They're on the other side of the ripped futon.

This is the stoop where I drink my 40s.

And a panoramic

view of

what I see when I

look out of

the front door.

This is an abandoned building behind my complex that the forest is slowly reclaiming.

The living space is bigger than I thought it would be. The furniture is nice too. You can't really tell from the pics, but its all made out of this pretty, shiny dark wood. The bathroom is a little scary and the kitchen is basic, to say the least, but all told, it's quite comfortable. And the AC works great, which is a  must!

The floor is all tile, so I bought a pair of house shoes. For those not familiar, it's customary to remove your shoes when you go into a house, and put on a pair of inside-only shoes. Usually people have extra to offer to guests. Not only is it much more comfortable to walk around in these shoes versus being barefoot on the hard floor, but it's cleaner, too!