Small but tasty!

Last night the I.B. department took all of their teachers (and Naomi and I) out to dinner at a restaurant that specialized in Peking Duck. The only difference between Beijing style and a normal roasted duck is how you eat it. They give you what are basically flour tortillas, onions and plum sauce and you are supposed to wrap the duck with that and eat it. It's actually quite tasty. The presentation of the duck is perhaps the most interesting though. The chef comes out with the duck he has cooked and slices it in front of you. First they put out some of the pieces of skin which you are supposed to dip in sugar and eat (it does taste better than it sounds, but I would have preferred salt to sugar). Then they give you the slices of good meat that you're supposed to wrap and eat. Then, they slice the head open and put it on the table. It seems to be that Chinese really value the head of any animal and seem to think it's the best meat.
So, yeah, I ate it (or at least half, and somebody else ate the other half).

Be forewarned, anybody with a good imagination and a weak stomach might want to skip over the next paragraph.

As I popped the little duck brain in my mouth, all I could think of was what my mother would say and how my dad would have definitely eaten it with me. The brain was tasty, but as they say, pure cholesterol (it really coats the inside of your mouth). I then ate the ocular muscle. I left the eye there because that just seemed to be going a bit too far for me in one night. I ate the cheeks, which were delicious and then I ate the skin. Frankly, it was tasty. Waste not, want not!

And I'm still alive!

After proving that I will try just about anything, one of the people at the table (originally from Taiwan) offered to take me to try sheep's head at a restaurant down the street. If I don't die in a week from some strange duck brain disease, I might take him up on it.

China takes it's toll...

I was recently reminded, very subtly of course, that it had been a while. It's been almost a month to be exact. To be fair to myself, however, I did actually write another blog in the meantime, but it turns out my computer is smarter than me and it was deleted. Since I had spent an absurd amount of time writing it, I wasn't really inclined to give it another go. So, I'll try to avoid the same fate this time and use that handy little "Save as Draft" button. Or, perhaps if I'm really smart, I'll just hit copy every once in a while!

The previous blog was an elaborate description of my Thanksgiving dinner, which I will not attempt to repeat here. I do feel the need, however, to point out a few things. First of all, it was my first Thanksgiving in three years and I really enjoyed myself. It was also the first time I have ever roasted a duck and I managed to roast a chicken and bake four pies (three apple and one pumpkin) at the same time! Any of you who have ever eaten my chicken would be glad to know it was not undercooked this time! As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure it's close to impossible to undercook a Chinese chicken because they're about half the size of a normal American or European one. But that, in my opinion, is a detail. Anyway, long story short, there were lots of people and it was fun, though admittedly not the same as celebrating with family.

The weather here has now become a pretty constant freezing. It only changes once in a while when there's a strong wind and it gets pretty close to unbearable. I find it really hard to believe that as a teenager I could brave similar conditions without a hat. Living in Madrid must have made me a wimp! It actually might be easier to deal with if the weather would stay outside, but it doesn't. Our room is a tad leaky to say the least. It seems the only remedy for that would be to seal both doors (we have a balcony and an inner door that don't fit) with plastic and hibernate until April. I'm pretty sure they would stop paying us though, so that could be problematic.

Aside from the slightly cooler than comfortable living conditions, I don't really have many complaints! There is less and less sunlight, but thanks to the fact that they don't follow daylight savings, it's at least light out when I go to work. Besides, after a couple more days it will start getting lighter again. Work is going well, though like anybody, I have my days. I am exercising and eating well. I have developed a severe addiction to milk and haw fruit roll-ups (Mom, you should have bought me that food dehydrator when I was 10! haha), but they don't seem to do much damage.

Dan and I have continued our visits to the village in spite of the fact that the original couple that we went to visit is no longer there (they should be back at the end of February). The other day we had a slight misunderstanding with a couple of the guys. We thought (keep in mind this is entirely in Chinese) that they were inviting Dan to go drinking on Friday night. They are always asking how much he can drink, so it was funny, but entirely plausible to us. However, we had a birthday party to go to first. It was for a little kid, so Dan figured he would go and meet up with the others a little later. They decided on a time which would give Dan enough time to eat first (they did say drinking, afterall). They made some joke about saying hi and bye that we didn't truly understand until much later. So, Friday rolled around and we went to the birthday party. The restaurant was awful, but Dan ate a bunch because he didn't think he would get to later and certainly didn't want to drink on an empty stomach. He left, and I stayed. Apparently, however, drinking in China means eating too. They had invited us both out to dinner and we totally misunderstood. So, not only did they think we were weird because only Dan showed up, but when he only managed to eat about eight spoons full of food, they were a little confused.

The next day, we went to visit the old mother and told her the story, but she didn't seem to think it was that funny. A friend of hers stopped by to look at us though. That was fun. After hearing that Dan was from France and I was from America, she looked at us confused for a minute and then said, "But you have the same face!" They, apparently, think all Caucasians look alike. She also commented that I had oddly small feet for a foreigner. Why was she looking at the size of my very normal feet?? We may never know.

Since I'm on the subject of cultural differences, I'd like to draw a mental picture for you. Imagine a world without diapers. It's sort of frightening. It's China. They do not use diapers. Little babies just pee when they have to (and yes, I have at least one friend who came close, too close, to getting peed on). This in itself is kind of bizarre by western standards, but it's a little weirder when you see the pants they put on their kids. Imagine mini chaps, but with a bit more butt cover. The kids have a huge and presumably drafty slit down the back of their pants (summer and winter) so that when they have to go, there's no struggling with pulling the pants down. They just squat and go. Yeah. All I have to say is that I'm really grateful they stop wearing those pants at some point.

Perplexed, proud, frustrated, sad and annoyed... one at a time.

I was kindly reminded that it has been a while since I last wrote. I appologize. The past couple of weeks, I have been especially busy. Doing what? I can't say exactly. I'm tempted to suggest that there may be fewer hours in the day in China. I've been working a bunch (7:30-5), but that ought to leave plenty of time for simple things like writing and the like. My schedule seems to have filled itself with unnecessary obligations: Dan and I go to the village a few times a week to talk with our friends (and usually spend most of the evening there) and two other nights I teach a little Fillipino girl English. It seems, however, that I ought to have at least a couple more hours than I actually do every day.

I know what you're thinking, but I don't sleep that much!! I do take a short nap at lunch time(que la siesta no me deje!), but I also wake up at six a.m. to start my day. Life is hard :-)

Anyway, this weekend, I actually did a lot. Friday, I went to get a foot massage after work (I know, life is rough, but for 3 dollars I can afford a massage) and then we went into the village for dinner and lessons. Saturday, we woke up bright and early for the Great Wall! I'll post pictures if I ever figure out how. The wall was amazing, but not what I expected. I think it's incredible that they built such a long and intricate wall over hundreds of small mountains, without a single machine and so long ago. I was, however, expecting something a little more massive in terms of height. Obviously it's tall enough that you can't just climb over it, but it's not that high. Another thing I wasn't expecting was the incline of the hike. It was steep! The pictures I have may not do it justice, but there are some stairs you don't want to go down without holding on to the railing. After a short afternoon nap ;-) we went into Changping in an attempt to find me some markers and other supplies.

Today was "interesting". I woke up early to go into Beijing with the church bus and Dan slept in. On the ride in, I was looking at the trees and wondering, for the umpteenth time, why they paint some of the trunks white. There doesn't appear to be a pattern, but I think maybe it's a certain variety of tree that they paint. All of the trees that line the streets of Changping, for example, are painted white (but only the bottom three feet or so). Once we asked a Chinese person why they were painted and they told us it was for visibility reasons. Now, in any other country I would have thought he was nuts, but the way they drive here it seemed plausable. Today, however, I saw an entire forest that had been painted like that. So, while it's plausable that somebody might take out a few of the trees, it seemed just a tad overboard to paint the whole woods. I'm perplexed. Any suggestions?

This morning I had an agenda. I went to Beijing with a purpose. I was going to get a laminator! I found the store I was told sold them and it was ENORMOUS! It was five stories tall and each floor had at least a hundred small booths that sold electronics of all kinds. I managed, speaking almost no Chinese and in less than an hour (bathroom break included), to find a laminator and, admittedly half-heartedly, I bargained just a little. No more crappy paper flashcards for my kids, no sir-ee!

After my wild success at Computer City, I decided to try my luck in Carrefour. Needless to say, my luck had apparently run out. All I wanted was some ground cinnamon (it's hard to find around here) and maybe some other spices if they had them. So, I entered (or so I thought) the complex. It was enormous and confusing and I literally spent a half an hour just trying to find the entrance to the store. That done, I realized that it wasn't the grocery part of it and it took me another ten minutes or so to locate the food. To my utter disappointment, they didn't even have what I was looking for! So, I bought myself some chocolate and headed back to the bus, wallowing.

Back on campus, Dan had the B.B.C. on. I sat down to watch it with him, but I'm either extremely hormonal today or it was more depressing than usual. I started crying because they were talking about the forest fires in Borneo. They didn't say anybody had died or anything, just a forest burning and I cried. I had to leave the room, to do something to distract myself. I was just immensely sad for everything all at once.

We went to the village and I asked to go get my favorite soup with noodles. Dan obliged, but even my noodles were different and the restaurant people were less friendly. They gave us beer without bubbles! Towards the end of my meal a few men walked in for dinner. That in itself would have been relatively harmless, but one of them kept spitting. Mind you, he wasn't spitting in a napkin or getting up to spit out the door. He would just spit right next to himself, on the floor, for everybody to hear and see. I didn't feel ill. I didn't lose my appetite. I was just disgusted. I was annoyed with the restaurant owners and more so with the spitter. The food was fine, but the atmosphere was killing me.

Now I'm home, warm and cozy. Soon I'll be asleep. Dan killed the flies that had been haunting us, so I will hear nothing, no buzzing, no spitting, maybe just the hum of my computer.

Another week, another weekend!

I made it through another week. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, but it wasn't normal either. I got the usual crap from work and caught a cold to go with it, but made it through most of my classes without any major problems.

Aside from work though, things got a little odd. On Wednesday, we found out that one of the foreign teachers was being sent home because the doctors wouldn't give him medical clearance. Whatever they were unhappy with was nothing contagious or dangerous to anybody else (he was still allowed to be around the students and us). Regardless, the school decided that they weren't going to let him stay. The school's overreaction is nothing less than typical, but it's still disappointing to have to say goodbye to somebody already.

The really annoying thing is that, according to the Beijing government, the medical exams aren't even necessary if you're staying for less than a year, but our school insists we pay the 85 dollars to get it done, and will revoke the contract if there's something they don't like.

So, we went out to dinner Thursday night to say goodbye. Afterwards, a couple of the I.B. teachers, including the one who left, participated in the "Aerobics Competition" held for the 10th graders. This was not a dance competition. All of the students used the exact same song, with only very slight differences in the actual routine, all of which resembled your run of the mill aerobics classes in the U.S. Some of the classes were better than others, but the whole thing seemed just a little strange. The highlight of the show, however, was probably the eleventh grade "club team" which performed to a different song and with a whole lot more energy.

The Chinese government puts a lot of emphasis on exercise and healthy eating, both of which are mandatory at all levels of schooling. In the primary school, the kids have mandatory group exercise for 30 minutes every morning and once a week, for twenty minutes, they are forced to listen to somebody lecture about the importance of eating well. It probably isn't a bad thing, but it's a little more rigid than what you would get in the U.S.

Friday was, as it was the week before, welcomed. The day flew by because it was over by 2 p.m. and I went home to sleep off the stress. In the evening, Dan and I went into town for dinner. On our way back we stopped by to see our "friends" at the movie rental place and ended up staying for about 2 hours! Of course, I don't understand much of what they say, but it is entertaining, and I always learn something. We got back exhausted, and I was soon asleep.

Plans for today have yet to be made, but probably include going to the village at some point, maybe even into Changping and studying some more Chinese (the language is practically painful to learn). We'll see though, it's promising to be a pretty low key day so far.

If I disappear, check the restaurants in Changping!

Just order kung pao lao shi (kung pao teacher for you English speaking folks). Seriously though, I published what was previously censored, but it happens to be hiding behind the post asking for advice because it was saved earlier. All of you who know me know that I am unbelievably stubborn, amongst other things, and so I had to publish that post in spite of Dan's concerns.

To clear things up, however, I feel the need to add that I am not miserable here. On the contrary, I quite like the nearby village and the people I've met here. China is cool, the food is fine and the language is killing me. I couldn't ask for a better challenge right now!

Self-censorship. Am I nuts?

I just finished a post, a rant really. It's seriously critical of this school, but not China. Yet, Dan seemed to think that we could lose our jobs for something like that, so I thought I'd think about it for a day or so before publishing it. I may be totally naive, but I honestly didn't think they would ever find my blog or bother to read it if they did. It's hard to imagine (and horribly ironic given the topic of the post I have temporarily suppressed) that my writing might get me in trouble.

Am I crazy?

You decide!

Totalitarianism is annoying after all.

Not long ago, I tried to argue that a totalitarian state might not be so bad. I was, admittedly, arguing for the sake of arguing, but I partly believed what I said. Claiming that freedom of speech was overrated and rules are a necessary evil, I was pretty sure it would at least be possible to not be miserable under totalitarianism. I was right. Plenty of people are satisfied if not actually happy in this country. Where I was wrong, however, was in thinking that I too would be able to tolerate the same state of affairs with the same degree of complacency. It appears that once you have rights, it's pretty hard to grapple with the idea of not having them.

The irony of this revelation is that it has nothing to do with anything that has happened to me directly. In fact, it has more to do with the treatment of Chinese people, specifically at this school. Most foreigners (westerners, at least) seem to be exempt from real life in China. To anyone who knows me, it's no surprise that I would become enraged about something that has nothing to do with me. I have a passion for "fairness" and at times become vehemently righteous about the way I think people should be treated. That said, I will move on to the nitty gritty.

In the past few days, the seriously off balance policies of this school have become utterly apparent. I'm not feigning ignorance where salary is concerned. I knew from the beginning that I would be making two or three times the salary of the Chinese teachers at this school (not to mention about 10 times as much as local employees), and working a heck of a lot less. A meal in a restaurant in the village costs 12 rmb ($1.50) for two people and I make about $700 a month, but I digress.

Before continuing, I have to note that a job at this school is superior to many for any Chinese person. That said, I am appalled by the collective differences in treatment and disgusted by a few recent events. Not only are the teachers paid less, but they are forced to pay more. Our housing deposit was a mere 500 rmb, theirs is 3000 (or so I've been told). We have free meals, they do not. In addition, it appears that their pay can be docked for almost any reason. I've been told that several teachers were paid only 2/3 of their salary last month because they didn't demonstrate enough discipline in the classroom. Unfortunately, I'm sure these are only a tiny tip of the iceberg.

Even more disturbing, however, is the fact that a Chinese teacher was recently mobbed by a group of 15 or so students (only two or so of whom were suspended and are awaiting further decisions regarding punishment). The teacher was dragged out of his office and repeatedly kicked and punched by the mob. Needless to say, with the majority of those students still in his classroom, he has not and will not return this year. Sadly, I have my doubts that the school will do the right thing by kicking the students out of school (for good) and paying the teacher a year's leave.

Needless to say, I'm convinced that the students wouldn't have even considered doing the same thing to a foreign teacher. Frankly, they knew they could get away with it. They get away with everything. I'm not even going to get into academics here.

Everybody loves Friday!

Yesterday morning I went to work dreading the day to come, but to my surprise, it turned out o.k. I might even say it was a great day. My advisor seemed to be much nicer to me, and when I asked, I was even given rags to wipe my desk with! Still no markers, but hey, one thing at a time. It is China.

The morning flew by and at lunchtime I was given a belated birthday cake. It looked a little sketchy, but turned out to be alright. On top of that, I found out that on Fridays we finish at 2:30. The day just got better and better.

So, after work, I went back to the dormitory and found the people we usually hang out with. We ate cake, some nasty meat candy and yak meat pie and talked about random stuff. And we planned to go to town a little later to have dinner.

In the end, it was only Dan and I that went. We took a nice long walk through the whole village and then found a place to eat. The people were super nice and tried to talk to us even when we (or at least I) really didn't understand. We ordered kung pao chicken and mystery noodles (I only know the word for noodles, not what goes in them). Dan got his enormous dish with a bowl of rice and I got my huge bowl of soup along with a pot of tea. We ate and ate and ate until we were stuffed, and then I fed some of my egg to the cat when I thought the owners weren't looking. As a total sidebar, there are a lot of pet cats and dogs here, which surprised me, but they are all really dirty and sort of mangy looking, well fed though, thanks to people like me.

During our dinner, the owners sat at the other end of the room watching something on television, more or less ignoring us. And a child, or perhaps a very large fish, splashed around in a tub in another room. The man who owned the restaurant came over at one point to ask us why his cell phone had an error message, which was sort of odd, but understandable, since the message was in English and he didn't understand it. Needless to say, we couldn't figure it out. And, I believe that even if we had, we wouldn't have known how to tell him.

We paid our bill and left, heading back to campus. Along the way there were puddles and a few cars to dodge, as usual. We stopped for a moment when we saw a "store" that looked like it might possibly sell books. A moment turned into an hour as they told us to have a seat and then bombarded us with questions. We found out that it was a rental shop for books and vcds and when two friends of the couple came in, we found ourselves answering even more questions. And, yet again, we were presented with a cell phone to fix. This time was slightly easier though because the language had been switched to English and he just wanted it back to Chinese. After about an hour of babble we decided it was time to leave and headed back for some shut eye.

We slept through the night!! That might not seem exciting, but having woken up at 3, 4 or 5 a.m. for the past week, it was really nice to sleep normal hours. We were in bed until 7! And, since breakfast starts at that time, I consider that to be perfect timing.

After breakfast, we left campus with a couple of friends to go for a hike. The trail began on the edge of Changping near the railroad tracks and went steeply up and down hills. At the top of the first little hill, my butt and legs already felt tired, and the dusty air seemed to be taking its toll on my lungs. Surprisingly, however, I seemed to recover a bit and get a second wind, enough to carry me over 5 or so more peaks. There were some very interesting things up there, and some beautiful birds, though looking back at Changping was not exactly breathtaking. Chinese people have not really been all that interested in aesthetics for the past few years so there are more than a few ugly buildings. I should also mention that Chinese people do not have the same respect for their natural surroundings as most western hikers would. There was trash along the entire trail. In parts, it was only a plastic bag or a cigarette pack, but in others the ground was covered. One place in particular, a pagoda on the top of one of the peaks, was especially tragic. There was trash everywhere, the pagoda was filthy and someone had even decided to use it as a bathroom! For a moment the four of us contemplated coming back someday to clean up the trash, but when we thought about hiking back with huge garbage bags, we thought it might be easier said than done. That said, it is a shame that nobody cares for the trail.

We traversed some of the steepest parts of the trail before coming to the end, where a sign warned us that the area we were coming from was forbidden. Chinese people are weird. Needless to say, we were starving when we finished, so we found a small restaurant to eat at and got lucky enough to get good food knowing only the words for vegetables, hot, meat and chicken. Afterwards we did some shopping and headed back. Dan and I crashed for the better part of the evening and only woke up hours later for some late night cleaning and blogging.

This jetlag thing is killing me!

Bureaucracy isn't bureaucracy if it doesn't defeat the goal.

Dan and I had a discussion about bureaucracy, and I began arguing that China was a lot like France in the way that you have to do paperwork and ask a million different people for every little thing, nobody really seems to know what's going on, etc. Dan pointed out, however, that in France bureaucracy is intended to be a pain in your arse. In China, on the other hand, it's intended to prevent you from doing whatever it was you wanted to do in the first place. Unfortunately, this is not limited to the government here.

On Monday, I got my schedule of classes and was presented with the desk and computer that I am supposed to clean twice a day (all of this gets even better when I start to factor in favoritism, so just wait). Frankly, at that point, everything looked fine. I knew I was going to be teaching kindergarten and 1st grade and I had a Chinese teacher with me in every classroom. I was only slightly disappointed that the book we were supposed to use for the majority of my classes was taught by the Chinese English teachers, and that my job was actually to come up with some supplemental materials and topics. Here is where I need to mention that the school told me I wouldn't need to bring any books or anything with me. So, it was up to me to pull something out of my arse for Tuesday.

I slept away most of Monday afternoon and evening and woke up at about 4 a.m. Tuesday. Prepared for the day, had another delicious breakfast and hustled off to school. My first class was a disaster. In spite of the fact that my co-teacher had warned me, I simply thought that Chinese kids could not be as rowdy as the French ones. Let's just say I have a new appreciation for order. Unfortunately, my schedule is set up for me to have that class twice in a row Tuesday mornings, so when class one was over, I took a ten minute break, regrouped my thoughts and decided not to do anything I had planned. The class went slightly better. Stepping ahead a couple of days, I broke all the rules my co-teachers had (about not punishing kids because it's not really useful) and laid the smack down on that class. Let's just say my co-teachers weren't exactly right. I have been putting children in corners ever since.

So, classes got progressively better, but my opinion of the job stayed sort of luke warm (when not boiling with contempt), because I have been treated differently than the other teachers. The problem is, I am the only westerner who teaches primary that did not come with ELI a religious group who "volunteers" here. As to why they volunteer at the most expensive private school in China, nobody seems sure. Regardless, they have their own supplies and their own advisors, their own, lighter schedules and office hours. So, my work advisor seems to think she can treat me like a Chinese teacher. I'm supposed to wipe off my spectacularly empty desk twice a day but was not provided a rag to do so (the ELI teachers informed me that they had been given two each), I have to be in the office by 7:45 and I can leave at 5 (which is fine, but originally my advisor told me that I was to stay till 5:50 and then return in the evening again! I politely informed her that I worked until 5), and I have 22 class periods (she tried to make it 25, but I refused) while all of the other foreign teachers have 16. Oh, and they have their own supply cupboard, but I was told that I couldn't be provided markers because the Chinese teachers didn't get them. The Chinese teachers are also paid about a quarter of what I am and work more hours. Maybe I need to remind them that I am not Chinese.

Needless to say, I'm not sure how it will all work out, but it's got to get better than this. So far, we've gotten very little of what we were promised.

Back by popular demand!

Due to ever-growing popularity and at the request of my loyal reader, you know who you are, the blogging will recommence! Be careful what you ask for...

I am in China. I feel like I could end there with no explanation needed, but the entertainment is, admittedly, in the details.

After much waiting for papers and visas and last minute plane tickets, confiscation of my beloved deodorant and my first ever 13 hour plane ride, I arrived in Beijing Saturday evening safely, if not quite sound. We waited in line for what seemed like hours to have our passport stamped and then breezed through the baggage and customs areas (Chinese people are apparently only efficient when they want to be). Thankfully, there was a school representative waiting for us outside the door and we were whisked into a car and out of there.

I was glad to be in the car for about 30 seconds, while I was still figuring out that we were on the wrong side of the road and oncoming traffic really was moving that quickly. I rapidly came to terms with the possibility of dying (or maybe it was just the shock that kept me from jumping out) as we dashed around mobs of bikers and rickshaws, all the while just missing the other speeding vehicles. There was a very near miss with a bus but in an attempt to erase it from my memory as quickly as possible, I am not going to go into detail.

Luckily for me, my jetlag was starting to set in and I fell asleep for the last half of the ride. Dan woke me up when we arrived at the creepy looking compound that we will call home for the next 9 months.

We were taken directly to our "apartment" on the sixth floor (no elevator) of building 8. If it sounds luxurious now, just wait! We are told that this is temporary, for about a week, but it's China, I have my doubts. Our little one room abode is cosy, but was a tad bit dirty (I'm being nice) and a little smaller than we expected. The fact that there were only two out of six lightbulbs in our fixture was only a mild disappointment compared with the lack of flushing power in our toilet (we worked it out using a complex mathematical equation, and we can each take a dump every alternating third day--if I sound cranky, now you know why).

After being horizontal for about 30 seconds I decided the place was livable and fell into a deep sleep (at 8 p.m.) only to be woken up four hours later with about a liter less blood (Chinese mosquitos are enormous)! So Dan and I spent a few hours hunting down and killing all buzzing and flying creatures. Actually, he did all the work, but I stayed up and cheered him on. Needless to say, I've seen way creepier bugs since then, and all of the bugs here seem to be about 5 times the size of the American version (when there is one).

Sunday morning we had our first Chinese breakfast. The steamed bread with bean paste was actually quite tasty and filling, the warm milk was warm and milky, the steamed green beans were an unusual breakfast choice but certainly do-able, the flavorless barley water was a little weird and the crunchy, not so sour sourkrout was close to appalling. Overall, it wasn't bad.

After breakfast, we took a trip into town and things got interesting. There are no signs for the bus stops here. You just have to know where they are or be able to speak enough Chinese to ask. We were up the creek. We went into town with a Chinese girl, which made it easier, and she was kind enough to take us to Marymart or Merrymart (I can't remember which now) to do some shopping. I have never seen so much color before in my life! Between the color and the music on the street and the color and music oozing out of all the stores it was a little bit like Big Trouble in Little China meets Toys 'R Us gone long (if you don't get the joke it's your loss).

Shopping in itself was entertaining, as it always is when there are so many new items and you can't read the labels. I got so excited when I saw a jug that said "Pure Milk" that I just had to buy it! But, aside from the joys of being totally confused, there were the little things, like little children staring, pointing and laughing at us. Now, granted, Dan looks a little like Jesus at the moment, but they don't know who Jesus is! Even more entertaining were the adults who couldn't take their eyes off of us, one of which came pretty close to falling off her bike and another held up traffic with his pick-up bike in order to get one last look.

Other entertainment to be found in town included a woman flipping bowls onto her head, a machine that smacked you on the head to tell you how tall you are and your fortune for the day, and dodging traffic in the street, even if the little walking man was green. Dan cursed at a car that almost ran him over and the man behind me started laughing. I think his exact thoughts were "Stupid foreigner thinks he has right to live... hahaha!"

It took us about 20 minutes to find the bus stop for the way back (our tourguide had left us), but eventually we got on. Thanks to our western looks, I barely had to pronounce the first syllable of the town we needed to get to before the ticket woman shouted it at me and took our money. For ten cramped minutes I stood next to a little girl who may have had SARS or TB or Avian Flu, so I practically leaped out of the bus before it stopped, and I'm pretty sure the busdriver would have let me.

Today, there was sun! The dust cleared for a few hours this afternoon and I felt the first (very faint) rays of sun since I got to Beijing. I was given my schedule and met my assistant teachers, told that I would not be given supplies and basically prepared to suffer. Tomorrow I start bright and early. Dan, on the other hand has 5 class periods a week, no joke, and only teaches Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. There's no need to mention that he's earning one and a half times my salary for doing a quarter of the work. Life is so unfair!

In the middle of nowhere

Gosia has kindly hinted that it is time for me to post again. It has been about a week since my last post and not a whole lot has happened, at least not much I really want to blog about.

I spent two great days with my grandparents. Papa tells some funny jokes and good stories (both of which are even better the tenth time you hear them... in a day). We were lazy and talked all day and then went to the Moose club for happy hour the first day and the American Legion on the second (they LOVE their happy hour).

Most of our time, those two days, was spent trying to escape the heat wave by not moving. If you don't move, you don't notice how you're sticking to the furniture.

I'm going to skip over my trip from Buffalo to home because it's largely uninteresting and I want to get to the part where I woke up my nephew out of his very peaceful sleep, just so I could see him vacuum. I'm not kidding. I am selfish enough to wake a sleeping child for my own entertainment.

He was cranky till he got a sippy cup full of milk. That perked him right up, and the fun began. He's 18 months old and he actually likes vacuuming (my mom's dustbuster is the perfect size)! You have to turn it on for him, but once he gets started it's hard to tear him away. My sister is so lucky! House cleaners are not cheap, and she's got one for free! Okay, so he's not free, he's freaking expensive, but he's damn cute.

He also does other things like "big man" where he does the muscle flexing thing and makes a sound like he's crapping his pants (it's supposed to be more of a grunt, but it's funnier his way), and, like all kids, he likes to play with his food. Watching him suck on a piece of peanut butter sandwich and then spit it out was probably the most disgusting thing I've seen in a while, but I guess he's allowed.

He does have some behaviors which make me wonder a little though, like how he head butts people. My brother kindly calls it nudging, but either way, it's something we're pretty sure he learned from my sister's dog (who died before I got home). When it comes to dogs in general, he's a little "different". He barks back at them and greets them with a kiss before laying his head on them. He's just a touch "feral" as my brother says.

Aside from my evening with the nephew, I didn't do a whole lot until the weekend. Friday and Saturday was like Becca boot camp. On Friday, I went on a short, but very hilly bike ride. Saturday morning, I decided to suffer through some Tai Bo, which is a registered trademark (just want to be safe), and then go on a little walk with my dad.

I should preface by saying that I called him to go for a walk. He chose the route though, and man did I suffer. He said it would be six miles each way, when we got there the map said seven, but in reality it was closer to nine (especially with our off-trail walking added in). So 18 miles, which (for those of you who work with kilometers) is more than a marathon at 28.8 km. It was fun, walking all the way up to Dresden for icecream, but my legs have never been so sore from a hike! The worst thing was I was already tired half way through. We still had to go all the way back. My dad, of course, whizzed along (as if I wasn't already feeling out of shape).

In the end, it was a really cool hike, and we got to see a lot of run down mills and wonder about how important they were once upon a time. My dad told me the names of lots of things I wish I could remember and helped me improve my poison ivy identification skills. We found fossils and crayfish in the creek and I let minnows eat off my feet. Actually, I yelped every time they did it, even though it didn't hurt. We saw lots of bugs, two turtles, a blue heron and a baby toad. Good stuff! Afterwards, we ate Chinese and went home.

I slept well.

Today was spent eating and playing volleyball mainly. My brother had a picnic with his friends and their families. So, I went, exhausted myself and here I am. I'm ready for some of that relaxation stuff again.

Riga was more than we hoped for.

Riga was a relief from the moment we got in to the train station. There were people everywhere!

The first challenge, however, was already upon us. I had the address for the hostel, and knew that it was only a short distance away, but couldn't remember the exact directions. I knew we had to turn right, but after that, I couldn't remember. So, we decided to ask somebody, "Do you speak English? Francais peut-etre? Espanol?"

It might have worked out well, but Dan decided to ask a blind man! I kid you not. The man had dark glasses, one of those foldable sticks and a woman was leading him by the arm. Dan later informed me that he didn't realize he was blind, he thought he was just a little retarded or something. So, I ask you, blind or retarded, would you have followed the man around? Well, we did, but only for a block (and I think mainly because Dan felt bad for having asked the man in the first place). Then we sort of ditched them on a corner and went right. We found the street, but then when the wrong way down it. In the end it took us about 15 minutes to get to a hotel that was 5 minutes away. I'd say that's not too bad.

The hostel, was another small challenge as the owner tried to give us a six bed dorm instead of the double that I had reserved. I was irritated, but luckily it was Dan who really complained. I mentioned that we were supposed to have a double bed and the man said he would go and see if one was available. Of course, there was, and we moved in there to a big bed and a television.

We relaxed a bit and then ventured out in search of food. We found an Indian restaurant, but not in time. I had already become a raving bitch. Dan dealt with it remarkably well and we enjoyed the rest of the evening walking around the old town of Riga on very full stomachs.

The next day was spent in much the same way, walking. We spent the morning walking around Europe's biggest market, and let me tell you, it's HUGE! There were stands outside, but even the indoor part was the biggest I've ever seen. The stands sold things like black bread and black bread and honey and more honey and fruit and smoked fish and more smoked fish and loads more smoked fish and some cheese. I think you get the picture. Variety isn't necessarily the spice of life for everybody!

After the market tour, we decided to head for the beach. A half hour train ride (and some guessing which way to go) later, we arrived. Unfortunately, I don't think either of us had a really accurate idea of what it was going to be like. The beach was nice (overcast skies meant there weren't too many people out and about) but the sea was like an infinite sandbar. Dan must have walked out at least 50 meters before it was deep enough for him to swim, and due to the rivers that had outlets nearby, the water wasn't salty! What kind of sea is that? We actually enjoyed ourselves, but didn't stay too long.

On our way back to the station we took a stroll along the "strip" of the town and marveled at how American their little fair seemed (there were rides and vendors). They even had a group of Peruvians dressed up as American Indians playing flutes and things. It was funny.

That evening was also spent walking around and eating, and eventually we went to bed, knowing that the next day, the trip would be over.

The trip back to the states began painfully with a 4 a.m. wake up call. I was convinced that it was a long haired man who opened our door, but it was apparently the woman at the desk who was trying to wake us up. Where else in the world would they actually come in to your room to wake you up?!

We made it to the airport long before necessary and diddled around till our flight was about to leave. We made it to Prague bright and early and waited a painful four hours for our connecting flight. We struggled to sleep on the way to Newark and succeeded in turns. We ate horrible food and watched a pretty bad movie and a measly nine hours later we arrived! Dan was off to his brother's and I had one more flight up to Buffalo. Twenty-six hours after waking up, I arrived at my final destination.

That was two days ago, and I'm still recovering.

Vilnius to Riga

We will never take an overnight bus again!

I have never been on a bus that smelled so strongly of stinky feet and sweaty people before; it was awful. It was smelly, and uncomfortable (with an intermittent snorer directly behind us and a whining little German girl in the back) so neither of us slept more than 2 hours. And the sandwiches Dan bought us for dinner were so dry that, in asking for water, a dust storm of crumbs blew out of my mouth. So, we ate candy bars instead, and for the rest of the night we twisted and turned and wished we had tried for the train.

Upon arrival, we couldn't have been more disappointed. We hadn't booked any lodging because we thought that, like in Poland, there might be people offering cheap hostels in the station. Well, we were wrong. So the search began for acceptable accommodation. We knew the prices were high there, so we did our best to get the most for our money. I'm not sure we did too well, but we did try. Going from one overpriced hostel to another, we met a French priest who helped me carry my bag (a blessing, ironically, not in disguise).

The priest was there with a group of girl scouts (in the U.S. I believe they're non-denominational, but French girl scouts are apparently linked to the Catholic church). They had spent three days in the countryside, where running water and electricity are scarce by his accounts, and several days in Vilnius. He warned us that the town had very little to offer apart from a few pretty churches and lots of fancy cars.

He couldn't have come closer to the truth. We checked in to a guest house and slept for a few hours before heading out to discover the old town of Vilnius. In our quest for something akin to lunch, we found a blyni restaurant. In retrospect, that may have been the highlight of our stay there.

We spent a good part of the afternoon walking around, noticing the fancy cars (there was actually a hummer there!) and pretty churches. It was not at all what we expected. Nothing looked all that old, and the town seemed overrun by foreigners (tourists, businessmen and diplomats). We stopped at a cafe for a little while, but it turned into a long while when an old Norwegian man started talking to Dan about American politics and social programs.

He did a lot of criticizing for a man who moved is business from Norway, which is highly taxed, to Lithuania, where labor and costs were much cheaper. He did, however, emphasize how much he LOVED the United States, regardless of that fact that there is no universal health care.

He also told us about his trip around the world when he was just 15, and explained why he didn't like Arabs. He had a really bad experience in Yemen, but he didn't go into a lot of detail, so neither will I. The man liked to talk, so we didn't manage to slip away until his mistress arrived.

Aside from the Norwegian and a couple of pretty churches, Vilnius proved uninteresting. So, we were more than happy to part for Riga the next morning, and the five hour train ride turned out to be about as interesting as our day in Vilnius.

We boarded the train and found our seats (right next to a grumpy Belarusian woman and her granddaughter). We couldn't help but marvel over the use of space on the train; where there were two seats with a table, the table flipped over to make the two seats into a bed, and another bed flipped down from the ceiling!

So, for five hours, while Dan went around making friends with people, and I slept and read.

Warsaw, Poland

We took an "express" train from Krakow to Warsaw on Monday morning. Interestingly, "express" does not mean that the train does not stop, but rather that nobody gets on or off. We boarded around noon and set off through countryside that I could have easily mistaken for parts of western New York. Well, almost. I did see a really large, glass encased statue of Jesus in sombody's front yard, which I probably wouldn't find just anywhere in the U.S.

On the train we met some Canadians who were doing more or less the same trip as us through Eastern Europe, with the exception that they went to Budapest first. They seemed like really nice folks, but not great travellers. Their suitcases were so large that they wouldn't fit through the train's hallway. For a moment I considered myself a light packer! They also got off at the wrong station in Warsaw, but it's hard to say if it was intentional or not.

We arrived at Warsaw Centralna where we had arranged to meet Gosia, but like an idiot, I didn't ask where! I don't speak polish and it turns out that not so many polish people actually speak English or want to. Needless to say, their signs were rarely written in a language I know, so it took a bit of work to buy a phone card, figure out that the first phone I tried just wasn't working and eventually get Gosia on the line. It took us about 30 minutes to actually find each other there. Boy, was I glad to see her face!

She got us to the taxis where we were refused by the first for having too much luggage, but the second one grudgingly took us. In a few minutes we got to the place we would call home for the next two nights.

Time flew by as we chatted, watched british comedy (that I actually found funny!) and saw very little of the city. It turns out I wasn't very interested in seeing Warsaw (and neither was Dan). We saw the old town, but knowing that everything had been bombed and then reconstructed it felt more like walking through a Disney park (pretty as it was) than an old city. Frankly, though, I was here to see a friend so that's what I did.

So now it's time to go. Dan and I opted for the 9 hour bus rather than the 24 hour train (which goes through minsk and might, consequentially pose some visa problems) to Vilnius. It's impossible to "look forward to" a bus, but we are looking forward to Lithuania. Here's hoping it lives up to our expectations!

Prague to Poland

Post number two coming to you from Krakow, Poland. I love this town. It's really cute. It's small with the potential for boredom, but we've only been here one day and we're leaving in a couple of hours to go to Warsaw.

Prague lasted too long. Dan and I both wish we had left earlier, but things got in the way and we had some trouble deciding where we wanted to go. On the upside, on Friday night, we got to see a really bad poetry reading by a really awkward guy who wrote mildly amusing poems. There were probably 12 to 15 people there and we were the only ones laughing.

On Saturday, we rode bikes for an hour and a half and made a really sorry attempt to ride up to the castle. Uphill is difficult, uphill on cobblestone is next to impossible. So we stopped at a cafe for some desperately needed water and then rode back into town. I was exhausted and sore and more than happy to give the bike back, but Dan and I decided that we should do that in pretty much every town from now on. It's a great way to see a lot with very little time.

Saturday night, we caught the train to Krakow. It was a two person cabin like the train we took to Paris, but with a commie touch. There was no air-conditioning and no shower and no little toiletries, but there was water and a sink and a big window with a sign above it (in Czech, French, German, Italian and Russian) asking people not to hang out the window. It was small, but surprisingly comfortable except for the fact that just as we were leaving the person in charge of our car asked us to please double lock our door for the evening. He also informed us that we would be woken up around two in the morning for the border crossing. At least I knew in advance that my evening would not exactly be restful. We did get some sleep, though, and I was ready for the day when we arrived at 6 a.m. (When I was trying to convince Dan that it wouldn't be horrible to arrive that early, I told him it would be cool to see the sun rise. Needless to say, I didn't realize that the sun rises in Krakow at 5 a.m.!)

We found our hostel and left our bags (because we couldn't check in until one o'clock) and headed to the center of town for breakfast and bikes. I did all I could to prevent Dan from wandering off to some grassy patch to sleep, and we finally made it to a terrace in the main square for tea.

After tea we wandered over to the bike rental shop and picked up our bikes from an old polish man. I think we were lucky that he spoke one of our three languages, because it turns out that not that many people speak English here. We went for a long ride along the river and saw some interesting things. It was nice not to ride on too much cobble stone because our bums were still sore from the previous day in Prague!

We checked in to the hostel, showered and tried unsuccessfully to nap (nobody told us it would be hot in Poland!!), then we headed back into town for lunch. We found a place that only made perogies and had a delicious lunch despite the fact that two nasty girls had stolen our terrace table and tried to cut in line (it was a self-service place).

The rest of the afternoon was spent riding around to various neighborhoods and watching Dan scale a climbing wall. We had dinner, returned the bikes and went back to the hostel to crash. The day had been wonderful and sleep was quickly upon us.

So, now it's Monday, and we're off to Warsaw to see Gosia. I haven't seen her in over a year and I couldn't be more excited!!

When fascists cry...

I didn't think I was the blogging type till last night. I met my first fascist ever, yesterday, and he cried!! So, now I must blog. It makes sense, trust me.

At the moment I'm in Prague. I left Madrid almost two weeks ago now (after three long years!), and have been traveling a bit. We took the overnight train to Paris, which could have been lousy, but we had a private cabin with a shower! And from Paris we shipped out to meet Dan's family in the suburbs. Actually, it was more of a small town, but not far from the city.

We stayed for a week in the tower of a medieval farm. And, as always, the Mason family entertained. We ate and ate and ate some more, rubbed elbows with some very musical folks, drank lots of wine, played music with plastic spoons, went for a walk that we all thought might never end, played petanque and scrabble and had a generally good time relaxing. Unfortunately, the week was soon over and we returned to Paris on Bastille day.

We spent the weekend in Paris eating and drinking and socializing some more. We were, sucked in and it was over far too quickly. We hopped a flight to Prague and we've been walking the city since.

There are a few too many tourists, but it's charming all the same. We thought about leaving two days ago, but haven't managed to tear ourselves away. The people are nice, the food is good and if you can stay away from the main squares it's all pretty cheap.

Getting to the inspiration for this blog, we met up with a Czech friend of a friend of Dan's mom. It sounds complicated and it sort of was. We met him for lunch yesterday and chatted a bit awkwardly for two hours. He explained why he didn't like paying taxes that helped people other than himself (because he worked hard, of course) and why it was better to hire part-time employees for his business (because you could pay them much less and they didn't ask for vacation and other silly benefits) and why women should be paid less than men (if you know me you know that I am not a feminist, but even I was slightly offended) and that he actually liked Bush's foreign policy (he is the only foreigner I've ever met to think Bush is a jewel). We tried, gently, to persuade him that fascism was not the answer, but I don't think he was convinced.

In spite of our differences, he invited us to come to his house for an obviously impromptu barbecue (read on for an explanation). We said sure, we'd be happy to go, and then debated whether or not that was a good choice after leaving the bar. It had been a little awkward and we wondered if it might get worse.

We met him at the train station and just barely made the 25 minute train to his house. When we arrived we were greeted by his very pregnant girlfriend who looked like she was trying way too hard to be happy. Then she said she had to go into the city for a meeting and confusion set in. There was clearly major tension between Evil (that is his real name) and his girlfriend so when he left us with his other friend, David (a very nice musician), we figured the evening might not end up as planned. An hour or so later, when Evil returned, he informed us that he was having some serious problems and that it was a bad time for a barbecue. And, since he was crying, we decided not to complain.

We walked back to the train station with his friend and waited 45 minutes with the bugs for the train. (I had never seen so many gnats on a train!) Finally, after a painfully silent (and itchy) ride, and arriving in the center far to late to eat, we stopped at a late night supermarket and wandered home with food that just couldn't compare to the barbecued steak we'd hoped for.