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!

Chingrish: One of Life's Simple Joys

One of my favorite past times is finding and photographing awesome translation errors. Chinese and Japanese products usually provide the best entertainment, so I am hoping for many fine specimens this year. It seems like English words are used as a style element in packaging as opposed to a means of communication. Probably a Chinese speaker encountering a product in America with Mandarin characters on it would be just as amused.

Before I left for China, my friends Tim and Janet shared the following two precious Chingrish treasures they found when they taught in China ten years ago. The first photo is the cover of a photo album, and the next two are the outside and inside of a birthday card. I was inspired! So far I have collected one more. I will update as I unearth more morsels.

Pretty good advice about the car, but I wonder if being maned would hurt?

Note the partial lyrics to "My heart Will Go On." No matter what happens, Celine will always have a die hard following in China.

Nothing says happy birthday like a pea pod, a violin, and a newly wed couple in a convertible...

Even better than simple bacon!

For  more delightful fun, visit engrish.com. But be warned, some of the posts can be a little vulgar.

Ghost Festival

Yesterday was Ghost Festival, a traditional Chinese holiday when some people believe the dead can visit the living. People celebrate by offering food and burning incense and fake money to their ancestors. I guess that duck is a traditional food that ghosts like to eat, so there were duck vendors along the streets and on every corner today when I visited Wuming. The festivities seem to be toned down in Nanning. A Chinese friend of mine told me that children go to bed early on this particular day so the ghosts don't "get" them. I wish I knew a bit more about how people in my region celebrate the holiday and what they truly believe about it, but my research skills are limited by the language barrier! As I walked around and took photos, I couldn't help but feel kind of bad for these little guys. Their legs were tied and they just kind of sat there with their beaks hanging open, quacking now and then. But, I reasoned, I'm no vegetarian myself and besides, ghosts have to eat too, right? Er...

Speaking of duck sacrifice, this scene triggered a memory from and my hometown in Oregon. A couple of Springs ago, a popular downtown park had been overrun with geese and ducks, so much so that it had earned the name "Duck Poop Park." Birth control efforts seemed to have little effect,and the ducks were allowed to be fruitful and multiply without threat from predators. The solution was to round up several hundred geese and dispose of them. Now, how this was actually carried out, I still don't know. I can't separate the fact from what has become legend. Rumor has it, they gathered the ducks into a truck, gassed/clubbed them, and then fed them to people at a homeless shelter. I can't believe this is entirely true. But whatever the case, there were protesters up in arms about animal cruelty. Ghost Festival had me wondering how the duck rights activists would respond to these poor quacking victims.

A Community Trip to the Quarantine Office

China hearts paperwork more than a leprechaun hearts rainbows. So when you come here to stay longer than, say, three months, you need have many official documents. There is paperwork to be done, my friends! One of your tasks is proving your health. This requires a physical exam. Actually, two physical exams: one in your country of origin, and one once you're in China within a short time of your arrival. In the States, I went to a clinic and had a doctor look in my ears and throat, take my blood pressure, and poke around my abdomen. Then I had to have him sign a form that verifies I am tuberculosis-free and that I don't have AIDS, and I was good to go. On the China side, I discovered today, they are way more in-depth.

I rode with Ethan on the back of his motorcycle (still flinching, by the way, at the aggressiveness of the traffic) to the downtown "Frontier Health and Quarantine Office." We met up with two American friends, Peggy and Stuart. Now, when you are a foreigner living in China, you are required to get this exam annually, regardless of how long you have lived there, or whether or not you have even left the country since your last exam. Peggy, Stuart, and Ethan have all lived in China for approximately 20 years, and this was their yearly pilgrimage. I was happy to accompany my friends on this adventure because they helped me navigate the bureaucracy, which was actually not as bogged down as I expected. Yay for community trips to the doctors office!

Like I said before, Chinese exams are way more in-depth. I had my blood drawn (and they DID use sterile needles from a package *whew!*) Then I peed in a cup (a TINY cup! Whhhyyy?) Then I had an EKG (where they stick suction cups to you and monitor your heart),  followed by a chest X-ray. Lastly, they tested my vision and performed the usual poking and prodding you would expect at a check up with a GP in America. Turns out I'm TB-free *whew* again! I guess that means I can stay? I have to return to the clinic to pick up my certificate of health on Monday.

With all the form signing and official stamping I've seen done, I can't help but wonder what they do with the paper trail. Surely no one monitors this stuff? Truthfully I'm not sure. But I do know that every time I go to the bank to switch US dollars to yuan, I fill out two forms and they photocopy my passport. Then the banker reviews them, stamps them with a red, official stamp, and files them away. All the veterans here say that this is nothing compared to the tussle they used to go through in the old days. Slowly, it seems, China is relaxing their requirements.

Image taken from http://codingnews.inhealthcare.com/tag/blood-draw/

 

Note the official red stamp

Adjusting...

When I first traveled in Malaysia, my Western eyes had never seen an Asian country. So when I encountered curious stares and pointed fingers, businesses and buildings jumbled together without much apparent city planning, traffic that can only be described as insane (and I've driven in DC), and the lady on the crammed bus standing so close to me that she's practically on my lap and thinking nothing of it, it was all new and exciting. And I really, really noticed the difference between normal in Bend, OR and normal in Penang, Malaysia. This is my second time in Asia, and much of that initial shock and awe has worn off. Living in Nanning feels a lot like living in Penang, only without the calls to prayer five times a day or the marketplaces crowded with women in colorful hijab. (I should point out, however, that women in both places wear some fabulous shoes.) In some respects the familiarity makes the transition to a new community easier, and in others it's actually harder because the wonder is gone. This time, when I see a street filled with Mandarin-only shop signs, I'm not captivated. I'm irritated that I don't know where to go to get what I want. The decaying buildings with rows and rows of clothes drying on balconies that once looked kind of charming now just look kind of ghetto.

But on the upside, this time I'm more comfortable walking across a six lane street, stopping in between streams of traffic and stepping out when I'm reasonably sure that the e-bike has time to stop.The smell of the wet market when I walk though isn't as accosting as it once seemed. I even smelled a durian stand without much repulsion at all. And thank God for the dictionary/character reader on my iPod!

And beyond the strange-yet-familiar frenzy, I've decided I really enjoy the Chinese. When people aren't nudging their friends as they walk by and whispering "Meiguoren," they are very friendly and helpful. The students that I taught at the English camp in W-city were some of the most focused and respectful kids I've ever met. And though the campus that I'm living on will be nearly empty until late August, I've had enough invitations to dinner that I haven't spent too many days and evenings cooped up alone in an empty house. It would be completely daunting to try and find food to eat without the ayi that has stayed on to shop and cook five days a week for me, in the home where I'm staying, for the equivalent of $50 USD per month. And there are wonderful people in my network who are willing to translate for me over the phone when needed and show me where the grocery stores with refrigerated meat are.

This time in Asia, however, I do feel that I'm on my own to a much greater degree. I'm thankful for all the resources I have ready should I ever need them, but at the end of the day, I'm not accustomed to going home to an empty house. Through it all, though, I have a sense that I'm in the right place doing the right thing. When I'm mindful to put first things first, I feel cheerful about my life here. I'm thankful that strength is found in my weakness, because I can't think of many other times when I've felt so unequal to my task. I have to believe that jumping into murky, choppy, and unfamiliar waters will allow for results beyond what I have the power to produce if I were wading in the safe and routine. Here's to the treasures that wait in the uncharted deep!

English Camp 2011

I had a great time with the team and the students at English camp. I've found Chinese students to be invested in their learning, respectful, fun, and sweet. I would do it again in a heartbeat, even though we taught in classrooms without air conditioning...on the 5th floor. By the end of each day the guys on the team were soaked through, it was so hot and humid. Luckily there was a swimming hole nearby, so we were able to cool off there or in our air conditioned hotel rooms. Aside from English lessons, we did skits, song performances (this particular minority group of Chinese love singing) watched English movies, and had free chat time.