Post China Gratitude

So, it's that time of year again, where American's reflect on all that is good in their lives, and all that they are thankful for. This year for Thanksgiving I would like to talk about some things that I am grateful for, some things that I have discovered about life and myself this year.  Since coming home from China, and living again in America for the past year, I have learned somethings about myself, and really have come to appreciate how my time in China has changed me and how I look at the world.  I think it is something that you can only learn when you come home, and try to mesh yourself back into the life that you left, and you realize just how much you have changed (and really, how impossible it is to really "go back" and fit back into that 'old' life--instead you have to make a new space).  So I want to write down a list of things I am grateful for learning this last year, in combination with my time in China.

1.  Fear. Fear rules our lives.  Fear of change, fear of not fitting in, fear of the future, fear of spiders, fear of not succeeding in our jobs, relationships, etc; just plain being afraid. Our lives are ruled by it.  And I am not saying that I am not still afraid of things (far from it).  But there is just so much that I am not afraid of any more.  I mean, I left everything familiar behind, not really knowing what I was getting myself into.  Turns out, my life was really not all that different than it was back home, but I didn't know that when I left, and I was scared literally to the point where I just couldn't think (though I am told I hid it well). I am still afraid of stuff; big spiders, driving in the snow, 18 wheeler trucks, carbon monoxide, and Ebola, to name a few.  But I am not afraid of normal sized spiders, traveling, talking in front of large groups of people, meeting new people, job interviews, singing/dancing in front of people, making eye contact, being somewhere where I don't know the language, not always knowing what I am doing, being unprepared, not having all the answers, saying I love you to people, and freely expressing opinions and emotions.

2. Distance and Relationships.  The thing about living on the other side of the world and literally leaving everyone and everything you know half a globe behind you is that you learn a thing or two about maintaining relationships.  You learn that it is hard.  But the the thing you learn about coming back home is that distance really doesn't matter.  I kept in touch with people, family and close friends, while was in China. And when I was trying to decide when to come home, many friends and family were all like, "omg, we miss you so much, please come home sooner rather than later."  When I did, finally and after much debate, decide to come home sooner, you would be surprised how many of these staunch "Rachel Come Home" supporters I have not really seen all that much of.  In fact, a few I actually spoke with more via Skype and the internet half a world away than I do now, a mere 20 minutes away.  What I have learned from this is that distance does make things hard, but it is not the determining factor in keeping up with a relationship; the willingness to find the time to have meaningful communication is.  You need to set aside an hour or two a week to call/message/Skype/have coffee with these people (friends, family, significant others, etc).  Because whether the distance is 20 minutes or 20 hours by plane, its the effort by both parties that matters more.  Of course, it is easier to stay in touch with someone who lives right next to you (you probably share a lot more day to day stuff than when you live thousands of miles apart) but I am telling you, distance is not the biggest obstacle to your relationships, at least not physical distance.

3. Diarrhea does not scare me in the least.  In fact, I usually don't even notice it (maybe this is a bad thing) because having it fairly regularly became part of my life for so long.  It's just a fact about living somewhere where the water is not safe to drink.  Of course I drank bottled water, but quite often I would eat somewhere that didn't quite get the water they cooked with up to the "killing microbes" temperature, and wham, nothing solid for a week. I guess what I am trying to say here is that I don't panic at every little health issue anymore; chances are, I am probably just fine.  I am not saying that I am never going to the doctors ever again, because that is just stupid, but before I would go for every cough and sniffle on the off chance it might be the flu, or meningitis, or some kind of horrible disease they hadn't even come up with yet! I guess this one goes back to fear.

4.  Beauty is so completely in the eye of the beholder. I mean, yes, there are some standard features which are generally considered attractive by most people, but beyond that...?  What is attractive and what isn't changes from person to person, and certainly from culture to culture. Trust me when I say that you are beautiful.  Maybe the guy or gal you're crushing on doesn't think so, but there is someone out there who is looking at you and wishing that they looked like you or could get with you, or whatever.  I got called beautiful on an almost daily basis in China.  Features such as my skin and eyes were under an almost constant barrage of praise. I was asked to be in pictures or if they could take my picture (although this might have equally been because I was foreign, not only because they thought I was pretty). In America, however, I am fairly average, and I have certainly never been called beautiful.  So someone, probably several someones, out there thinks you are beautiful.  There is no universal standard for pretty; we think that there is, but there just isn't.

5.  I love you.  Say it, or whatever it is you feel towards another person.  And I am not talking about just saying it to your significant other, I am talking about saying it to family and friends too.  You might think that they know that you love them (and maybe they do).  But they are filled with just as many doubts and insecurities as you are, and what if they don't?  What if they don't know that I love them?  My grandfather died while I was in China and that was hard.  But I know he knows I loved him, as he loved me, because we told each other that all the time.  You really don't ever know when the last time you will see someone is, so tell them you love them, darn it.  And anyway, who doesn't like hearing that?  Everyone likes knowing they are loved, by a friend, a parent, a lover, etc.

6.  We can't do this alone.  What, you might ask, cannot be done alone?  Life.  Everything.  We can't do this alone; we need each other.  We need our family, our friends, our other halves, our complete strangers.  We need them all.  When I got to China, I knew no one, save my professor, and it's not like she could be with me every second of every day.  I met some really wonderful people while I was in China, and we became friends, and also lifelines for each other; they were certainly my lifeline.  We need people to bounce ideas off of, to back our plays, to tell us why that particular play might not be a very good idea; we need people to laugh with and to cry with, and share our lives with.  We need their help and their support, just like they need ours.  You might think you are an independent person, and you probably are, but this does not mean that you do not need other people, that you can do 'life' all by yourself. You need your friends and your family and spouses and your boyfriends/girlfriends.  You need your students, you need that guy who holds the door open for you when your arms are full of stuff.  Today a man opened his closed business for me and my family because we really wanted to sing karaoke and we didn't know the hours had changed.  I need that guy.  And all these people need me, to some degree or another.

7.  Balance selflessness with a healthy does of selfishness, or vice ver-sa.  Doing things for other people makes me happy.  It tells me that I cannot possibly be a selfish asshole (a fear of mine) if I am doing stuff for someone else.  I like making other people happy, and as someone who is pretty good at judging people, and what they are thinking and feeling, I am pretty good at figuring out what will make them happy.  However, you cannot live forever on the happiness of others without beginning to resent them for it, which sort of defeats the purpose.  You start feeling like you are doing all this for others and no one is doing anything for you...you forget that you started all this in the first place, purely to make them happy, not with the expectation that they would return the favor.  So you also have to be selfish, and do things purely that benefit you, even if that sometimes makes others unhappy.  I am going to teach abroad again in another country; I know that the people who love me would be happier if I stayed closer to home, and they will miss me, but this is something I must do to make me happy, and so I will do it.  However, I will eventually come home, because I love them too, and this will make them happy (and also me; I do mostly love my country).

8.  It's great to be needed; its better to be wanted.  Going where you are needed is rewarding and fulfilling.  But don't stay somewhere where you are not wanted.

9. Your know your worth and value; don't let other's make you think otherwise.  I have a master's degree in teaching and a few years of teaching experience.  I am currently working as a substitute teacher and I work part time at night at Dunkin Donuts. I get customers who come in each night and assume all sorts of things about my educational background, life direction, and living conditions based solely on my aproned, visor wearing presence behind that counter, and nothing else.  But I know that I am there because I am working very hard for the next 8 months in order to get to the next phase of my life--teaching history full time somewhere in South East Asia.  I will not let people make me think less of myself for the jobs that I hold, because I know my value, and what I am capable of doing, and where I am going.  Do not let other's do the same to you, whatever your situation maybe.  Also, I try my best to return the favor to people I meet, and not let fairly topical characteristics determine that person's value.

10.  Life is way too complicated without worrying about what other people are thinking about you.  I mean seriously.  All that time I spend worrying about what they are thinking, and you know what they are doing?  Thinking about what I, and everyone else, are thinking about them!  Which means they, and everyone else, aren't even forming coherent thoughts about me, because they are too busy worrying about themselves.  And if they are, by some chance, thinking about me, am I even ever going to see this person again?  Probably not.  Because the people that matter already know and love you.  Screw everyone else.  Unless that person is your boss; them you are probably going to want to try and impress, and worrying about what they think about you is probably important, so keep trying to impress them.

And of course I am grateful for my friends and family, and all the usual things we are grateful for on Thanksgiving.  I am grateful for my jobs, I am grateful to my parents who are letting me live with them this year that I am home; I am grateful for my friends who remind me there is more to my life this year than my jobs; I am grateful to my family who love me no matter what I do; I am grateful for the health and well being of the all the people I love; I am grateful for being able to be a part of my sisters wedding; I am grateful for the people who read and/or follow this blog.  I am also grateful for a plethora of things about China; that I was able to go, the people I met, my students, the traveling I was able to do; I could go on for ages, but you get the gist.

Beijing Part IV: Beijing Opera

I have chosen to talk about the Beijing Opera last because I hate it.  There is no delicate way of saying it; I hate Beijing Opera. I mean, I am not a fan of other operas (one music listening class in college was enough to teach me that), so I don't really know why I thought I would enjoy this....which might lead you to the question: well, if you didn't think you'd like it, why'd you go in the first place?

And I think we all know the answer to that question.  I wanted to be all cultural and traveled and profound and stuff.  There is a wonderful and rich tradition behind Chinese opera and it's all very interesting. This is a tradition that is starting to fade in China, and the Chinese are struggling find those interested in preserving this tradition, and I do believe that it would be a loss to Chinese culture if it were to be forgotten. However, that does not make me like the sound of Beijing Opera any better and an hour or more of it was pure torture. Pure, unadulterated, aural torture.

My second trip to Beijing occurred in the summer, when a friend of mine came to visit from home, Becky. She got to be the lucky one who went to Beijing Opera.  I didn't ever drag anyone else through this experience again, having absolutely no desire to hear it myself.   We talked to our hostel about opera venues, and the hostel had an arrangement with a local theater.  So the hostel set everything up for us and told us when we would be picked up and taken to the opera.  I would definitely recommend hostels as places to stay; they are cheap, clean, and safe.

We arrived at the theater and were seated in the balcony--hey, it was a hostel, so our seats were not great, that's what your zoom on your camera is for.  Plus, with the exception of the face paint, the whole point of opera is the sound.  The unique and very distinctive sound.

The costumes and the face paint are beautiful, of that there is no question.  The amount of work, training, and dedication that goes into becoming a Beijing Opera performer is both impressive and praiseworthy.  Beijing Opera, however, is just not my thing.  But hey, don't take my opinion on it; check out the video below and form your own opinion.

Despite Beijing Opera (and other kinds of opera) not being my particular cup of tea, if you find yourself with some free time in Beijing, I would recommend seeing it; it is unique, you can't find it too many other places, and it is cultural and stuff.  I will probably continue going to operas and stuff, even if I am pretty sure I am not going to like it, because you should do these things when you travel, and if I had cut out opera all together, I would have missed Sichuan Opera.  If you ever get the chance to see Sichuan Opera, definitely do that, because that is really freaking cool.

Beijing Part III: Generation Gap

My decision to go teach in China was somewhat chaotically planned, even if the decision was not impulsive. After I decided to go and had heard back from the school, my grandmother brought out this scrapbook and told me that my great-great grandfather also taught in China.  Now, I had heard this before, vaguely, over the years.  Now that I was about to travel to one of the countries my great great grandfather traveled to, I was exponentially more interested in this ancestors experience.

I flipped through the scrap book, which my grandmother was nice enough to give to me, and decided, somewhat impulsively to take a few of them out and bring them with me.   I did not, at the time, know how much traveling I would be able to achieve, but I had some vague notion that I would try and recapture these shots while I was in China.

My great great grandfather had his doctorate in entomology and he worked at Cornell University.  He spent a few years teaching abroad, and some of those years were spent at Beijing Normal University.  He took with him his daughter, who I believe was the photographer of most of these pictures.  She took many pictures of Beijing, many places which are still open to the public, albeit changed somewhat.  When I visited Beijing (and on one of my trips, I was able to visit Beijing Normal, as a friend of mine now lives and works there--life can be so weird, am I right?) I made it my goal to recreate these photographs to the best of my ability.  I feel like I was largely successful.

I wish I was able to find more of the pictures that they took, but it was a challenge with some of them.  The Ming Tombs are extensive, and not limited to Beijing; without a bit more information, some of the pictures were hard for me to replicate.  Of course, many of these sites also look very different; many have been renovated or remodeled.  In the case of the temple of heaven, there were some gates that were reconstructed, making it difficult for me to get the angles right.  However, I am pretty happy with the shots I was able to get.  It was also really cool to stand in some of these places and look at the photos and see the differences.  And it was cool to stand in some of these places and know that almost 100 years earlier, family of mine had stood there too.

Ming Tombs...I thought climbing on these was a bad idea...but then I saw half the Chinese doing the same thing, so I decided to go ahead and try it on just one statue, for photo recreating accuracy...

Ming Tombs Gate...Yeah, I think this was probably rebuilt...

Ming Tombs Camel Statue

Temple of Heaven....their was a gate right behind me, and I could not really back up an further or zoom out, so the angle is not quite the same. 

I wanted to talk ab little bit about the Temple of Heaven, as it is also one of the more recognized monuments of Beijing. What I have been able to garner from signs, brochures, and automated tours, the Temple of Heaven was the place of ceremonies in ancient China.  Offerings to the crown and to deities were brought to the Altar of Heaven (located down the lane from the Temple itself) and ceremonies were held at the temple.  It seems largely to be a place of worship restricted only for the aristocracy.  Today, it is mostly open to the public; people can walk through and visit both the temple and the altar.  In other buildings alongside the temple and the rather long corridor that leads from temple to altar are buildings that have items on display from past centuries, like mini museums.  Of course, many of them are also souvenir shops.  If you want to know more about the history of this site, check out the UNESCO world heritage page here http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/881.

I love the stone railings that are all over this place, and have about a billion pictures of said stonework.  I think one of my favorite moments each time I visited was visiting the Altar.  First, because it is nothing but that fantastic stonework, and second because you can sit on the altar's stone.  People are pretty good about taking turns doing this too, which is nice, since there are no park authorities regulating this section; its just a free for all.  It is really cute to see the kinds of poses that people come up with for picture time with the stone.

The forested park surrounding the temple is enormous and it is typically filled with elderly Beijing citizens (you can buy a pass that just lets you into the surrounding park, and not the historic sites, and it is less money).  These seniors gather on nice-weather days to socialize and also to exercise.  There will frequently be elderly Beijingers dancing, doing tai chi ( or taiji, 太極拳), or doing aerobics.  And it's just so cute.  I like the Temple of Heaven because it is in the middle of this mini-forest in the middle of one of the most populated cities in the world.  So it feels less crowded, and for some reason, it is just easier to breathe here than it is elsewhere in the city.

Alter of Heaven...there was a wall around it, so I could not get quite the same shot. 

I couldn't quite get the same shots, but I still think these are pretty cool.

A Difference in Values: Education

I have been subbing for about three weeks now, and what I am thinking about most is the difference how Americans value their education and how other countries value their education.  Of course, I can only really speak of two countries, my own and China.  And I can only speak to China's values as an outsider, using only what I have observed.

In America, our students do not seem to value free, public education.  I realize I am about to make some gross generalizations here, so forgive me; I am aware that there are many Americans who value highly their education, I am merely talking about Americans on a whole, when you compare them to other places.  I see, day after day, kids who view their time spent each day in school as a kind of prison.  While they are there, they devote an enormous amount of energy to not doing work or to disrupting learning.  I watch students come in to the classroom, and I watch teachers waste 10 minutes of class getting everyone settled into the classroom.  I watch them be interrupted constantly because students are talking, playing with their phones, or getting into arguments with each other.  I watch them stop the lesson time and again to address these issues.  I watch students fail to grasp basic concepts across curriculum all the way up the high school level.  I watched an 11th grader fail to tell me from which country the United States declared their independence.

I began seriously considering these differing values after talking with one of the security guards at the schools, a man who was born in the Caribbean and traveled extensively while in the military.  We both witnessed a confrontation between a student and another teacher, which ended in the student walking away talking about how much he hated school, how he didn't want to be here, and that every thing was expletive, expletive, stupid, expletive.  The guard talked about how much he valued school, and how he enjoyed it.  I talked about how I may not have enjoyed high school, but I knew where it would take me...college, a better job, a better future.

In China, most students begin seriously concentrating on their academics at age six.  Yeah, that's right, age six. What were you doing at age six?  I was finger-painting, chewing on blocks, and being yelled at for running with scissors. In China, the goal as of age six is grades.  You need to get good grades in primary school, so that you can get into the best middle school.  You need to get the grades in middle school to make it to the best high school.  And I am not talking about just "good grades", I am talking about the best grades. Because if you graduate from the best high schools (where the students with the best grades go), then there is a pretty good chance (unless you totally bomb the college entrance exams) that you are going to get into one of the best universities.  And getting into the best university is the goal of almost every Chinese student and their families from the age of six.

Maybe in America Mom and Dad will make a savings account when you turn six, on the off chance you go to college, you'll have a bit saved up.  In China, families save from the time their child is born to cover whatever expenses are not covered by the government.  In addition to being in school for 8 hours every Monday through Friday, parents spend a lot of time and money on tutoring their children.  They send them to private schools on the weekend.  That's right, the weekend, the most sacred time to Americans; the time where we have the right not to do work.  Many will also attend private schools during the summer, and those who cannot afford the schools will be tutored by family or friends of the family.  These students go to school for several hours on their weekends and during the summer to do more school work, so that they will hopefully have that edge over their peers that will get them into those schools.

As for teachers, they hold a position of respect in China.  I never had students or parents or administrators tell me that my students failing was my fault.  And when students came to me asking why they did not get the grade they wanted, and I told them it was because they didn't' turn in assignments, or didn't participate in class (in our speaking classes, 50% of their grades was in class participation), they accepted this failing grade as a consequence of their actions.  They did not (as a whole) have a litany or excuses, ask me for extra credit, or storm out of the room in a cloud of profanity.  My students would constantly email me or ask me after class questions about assignments, because they wanted to get the best possible grade...before they turned it in.   In America, you are fired if your students don't pass state exams.  In America, parents tell you that it is your fault if their child cannot sit still or pay attention in class or turn in their homework--that it is the teacher's responsibility to provide all discipline for behavioral issues in class.   Of course this is not true for all parents or all schools, but it is common.

Something that these students do not seem to understand, and I am not sure I understood this at 18 either, is that high school is pretty much the last place where someone is going to care about you.  I am not saying all teachers are saints.  Some are in it because they don't know what else to do, and just like there are bad lawyers, doctors, and personal trainers, there are certainly bad teachers.  We've all had a bad teacher. But most teachers get into teaching because they want to help kids succeed.  They tend to be nurturing, to put the needs of their students long before any of their personal lives, and they spend large chunks of their free time thinking up new ways to teach their students.  I mean, teachers work for 8 hours each day and then they go home and grade student work and lesson plan.  And it's not like they get paid a whole heck of a lot, so I can't say that teachers are in it for the money.

Now, just like when I made generalizations about Americans not valuing their education, I am also making generalizations about the Chinese.  Of course there are Chinese who do not place value on education, just like their are many Americans who do.  And being a teacher in China is not some kind of educational utopia, far from it; there are problems. However, as a whole in China, the students, their families, and the society itself seems to place a much higher value on education than what I am seeing in my own country.  Free, public education...not too many countries can boast that they provide that to their citizens.  You don't even have to worry about getting into the "best high school" because, at least in theory, every student gets the same quality education in every public school in America. And if you fail a grade? Well, you just repeat it; and you get the chance to repeat these grades over and over again until you are 21 years old.  This is virtually unheard of in many places around the world; you only get one chance to make it through.

There just seems to be a vast difference in how China and America (again, making huge generalizations here) view education.  I am not sure what the future is going to look like for America if we continue to view education in this light.

Beijing Part II: Tiananmen and the Forbidden City

Many of China's landmarks familiar to Americans are located within, or very near, to the city of Beijing.  We, as a whole, have not heard of the beautiful mountains in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park or the rivers and "Dr. Seuss Mountains" of Guilin.  We have heard of the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and of course, we have heard of Tiananmen Square.

The names of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen generate simultaneous images of opulent royalty and the brutality of a nation in the grip of change.  The reality of this bustling center of Beijing is quite different from both of those images.  Personally, I love being in the center of Tiananmen Square.  In addition to being surrounded by a number of things to see and do, it is also one of the few wide-open, spaces in the middle of the city.

Panorama of Tiananmen in October, 2012

Tiananmen square is a giant rectangle in the middle of the city with a mausoleum on one end, entombing Chairman Mao, next to an ancient city gate, a statue to the People in the center, and the Forbidden City looming in the distance at the far end of the square.  Along the length of the square are government buildings and museums.  Chinese flags abound from all the buildings in the square, and in along a low wall 2/3rds of the way down the square is a giant LCD screen that highlights China's historic landmarks.  In the center of the square walk tourists, both foreign and domestic, taking pictures of the center of the capital city.

There is quite a bit to see and do in Tiananmen Square, even before you get to the Forbidden City.  The first being to tomb of Chairman Mao.  This is no ordinary tomb; Chairman Mao is not buried, but rather displayed in a hermetically sealed, glass-topped coffin, on display to the public throughout the year.  I tried to go see Chairman Mao on my first three visits to Beijing, but I was thwarted, twice by him being closed to the public, and once by mistakenly trying to see him on National Holiday (never go to Beijing on National Holiday, its packed).  Needless to say, by my final visit in December I was itching to get in and see him. Mostly because I had been thwarted previous times, but also for the novelty; there are not too many places where you can seen the bodies of long dead political leaders.

Shots of Tiananmen, and all the way to the right, a shot of the gate at the far end (opposite of the Forbidden City) of the square. 

Seeing Chairman Mao is quite the process; you must have sleeves and shoes that cover your feet (no tank-tops and flip flops) as this is disrespectful.  You are not allowed to bring any of your personal belongings into the tomb with you, but there is a building off of the square where you can rent lockers in which to place your belongings.  You cannot bring a cell phone or camera into the tomb with you, and as you approach the tomb, you go through security; they scan you, pat you down, and ask you repeatedly in several languages whether or not you have a phone or camera.   You show them your passport or ID and are then allowed to go through, you are asked to be quiet and to make no loud or disrespectful sounds.  You enter into the building into a wide hall where you can deposit flowers, you then walk around the flowers and into a narrower chamber.  Across a barrier is the glass topped coffin with Chairman Mao.  For someone who has been dead for quite some time, he is looking pretty good.  I do not have any pictures of him, of course, because it was not allowed, but I did buy a necklace with his profile on it.  And yes, I wear it.

Left: The building in the background is also on the 100Y.  Middle: Becky outside of Chairman Mao's tomb.  Right: Liv in the center of the square, with the Statue to the People in the background

After seeing Chairman Mao, you can stroll through the square and take in the government buildings and the statue in the center, making your way towards the Forbidden City.  These not really a leisurely stroll, as there are typically a zillion people taking in the sites with you, unless you go during the middle of off season--January, which is cold and miserable.  Also, there are tour guides who approach you, fluent in several languages, trying to get you to book them for various tours.  I do not recommend a tour guide for anything in the city of Beijing; their are automated self-guides in dozens of languages at all of these locations, and all the signs are in English as well as Chinese.  So your best bet, is to firmly say "no, thank you" and keep up a brisk pace.

Left: Center of Tiananmen Square from across the street.  Middle: Liv and the Chinese Flag, National  Holiday, 2012.  Right: Mom at the far end of the Square with the Forbidden City in the background in March, 2012. 

You can see a giant photo of Chairman Mao on the outside of the Forbidden City (also called the People's Museum), which from the square just looks like a massive expanse of red wall, topped in gold tile.  Now, there is a very good reason it is called a City, and not a town, village, or hamlet.  It's huge.  If you want to fully explore this site, do not plan on doing more than seeing the Forbidden City that day.  Now, each Garden of Tranquility and Square of Illuminating Inquiry all start to look the same after about four hours, so it is possible, even recommended, to simply wander around until you have seen enough and then leave.  If you do this, you can get in and out of the Forbidden City in a couple of hours.  However, if you want the full experience of the Forbidden City, it can take you from the time it opens at 9:00 am until it closes at 4:00 pm.  It is literally a maze of halls, squares, and gardens, not to mention the inside museum sections, which feature relics from various eras.  And believe or not, the whole thing is not even open to the public!

Exterior of Forbidden City; you have to walk through about three gates until you are actually inside. 

My favorite part of the Forbidden City is the architecture; I am not a huge fan of the red walls and gold roofs, but I love the stone staircases, bridges, and archways.  The stone is all carved, with detail work on the railings and newel posts.  In between the staircases are also elaborately carved murals of dragons and clouds. Occasionally the tiles on the floors are also intricately carved. I also love the detail work near the ceilings; the arches and windows are all painted, along with many of the ceiling tiles.  Perhaps my favorite part of the City is the Empress Cixi's garden; there are these enormous rocks, tumbling through the garden, trees, and painted pagodas.

Some of that architecture that I love, the stone work above.  More architecture and the gardens below. 

The Forbidden City is totally worth the visit if you are in Beijing, but there are some things you should watch out for.  The first is the tourist scams that exist in certain parts of the site.  Now, of course everything is going to be over priced, and if you feel like bartering, you can purchase identical merchandise for much less elsewhere in the city.  If this is not a concern for you, than just snatch up your Forbidden City swag in the gift shops.  Now, there is one gift shop that will likely have a woman outside of it, asking you to come inside and look at some student art work.  She will take you inside of a perfectly legitimate souvenir store, and into a room to the side of the counter.  Inside are paintings, and there is a good chance that they will not let you leave this art closet until you purchase one of these highly overpriced paintings.

When it's time to leave the Forbidden City, I highly recommend walking back to the beginning and exiting out the east exit, near the entrance.  If you leave out the back entrance, you are several city blocks away from Tiananmen Square, and the subway.  It is a long walk, or a highly overpriced rickshaw ride; if you have to walk all that way, you might as well walk back through the major historical site, snap some more pictures, buy a few more souvenirs, and maybe hit up one more Corridor of Everlasting Effervescence.  Because, hey, when are you going to see the Forbidden City again?

When you finally find your way out of the Forbidden City, you can explore the buildings around the square, which include many museums.  Or you do my favorite thing, which is just to walk around the square, people watch, and marvel at all.

R.

Cross Cultural Reading IV: Book Talk

As I have mentioned in previous blog entries, I really love reading.  When I got the chance to teach a cross cultural reading class, I was pretty excited.  One of the projects that I knew I wanted to include in this course was a book talk.  I wanted this project for two reasons.  The first reason is that it would further expose my students to western literature as well as English.  My second motive was for having the opportunity to speak with them one-to-one about their reading and this course.

I told my students that I did not care what they read so long as it was written in English (meaning they could not go find the Chinese version of this text), it was written by an author from an English-Speaking country, and it was not either Twilight or Harry Potter.  The final reason was simply because the popularity of both those series made reading the books unnecessary; they could just say they read them, and be more than familiar with the plot from either having seen the movies, having read the Chinese version previously.   And I did not want to sit through 25 book talks about Bella and Edward. I also encouraged my students to read contemporary books, as opposed to the classics for two reasons.  One, the classics tend to be boring.  I am not saying they are not worth the read, if you've got the time and stamina, but they do tend to be somewhat dry.  The second reason is that the language in many of the classics is difficult to get through; from syntax, sentence structure, and vocabulary.  Remember, these are second language learners; I did not want them get frustrated or be disappointed with their selection simply because the book's language was too complex.

I included this assignment in the syllabus:

You will have an independent project: Book Talk.  You can choose any book you want, so long as it is written in English, and you will read this book.  You will then meet with me at a separate time to have a conversation about this book and how it relates to our theme of identity.  I want you to think of these questions as you are reading this book.  Which character do you identify with? Why?  Who is this character? How did they get their identity?  What has made them into the person they are? I will ask you further questions about this character in our meeting.  I will have meetings once a month on.  We will sign up for these meetings on our 2^nd class.  

I did not go into a great deal of detail on the first day of class about this assignment, as I had a lot to get through, with the syllabus and getting underway with the content of the class.  On the second class, I went into detail on this assignment and asked my students to sign up for a date for the book talk.  The earliest possible book talk wasn't for over a month, so I did not feel too bad about making them sign up so early in the semester.  For one week each month I was available on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays to meet with students to discuss their books.  If they could not make any of these dates, they contacted me via email and set up an alternative time.  My students panicked (despite my reassurances) at the idea of reading another whole book in English, and I started nervously counting down the days until our first book talk.  

I was concerned that maybe they would not read the book...I mean, we've all been students, and we have all faced (and sometimes given into) the temptation of just looking the book up on the internet.  And these were all English majors, they had a lot of work to do, and this was only worth 10% of their final grade.  I was afraid I was going to have 25 book talks where they were unable to fully answer all the questions, because they hadn't read the book.  But it turns out that I needn't have worried.  While some of my students did struggle to answer these questions, indicating that they either didn't read it, or perhaps had read it a long time ago and were working from memory, the majority of them demonstrated in our talks that they had read the book.  Not only had they read it, but they seemed, overall to have enjoyed the reading.  

I learned that they were also anxious about the book talk.  They were concerned that, despite going over my expectations for the assignment, I was going to ask them specific plot questions...kind of like a test. While I regret this anxiety, I do believe it is likely the reason they had read the books so thoroughly and were able to discuss what they'd read in detail.  So, it turns out we were both needlessly nervous. 

I met my students one-on-one in my office during my free time during the week, for half hour intervals. I did not want to get right into the "important questions" when they arrived, because they were all visibly nervous. So I asked them first if they'd enjoyed the book and why; many of them told me that they'd liked it, and were able to describe characteristics about the characters or the story line.  The few who were open about not enjoying the book they'd selected were equally as able to point out specific reasons for their dislike. 

I then asked them the following questions: Give me a brief summary of you story (this was largely for my benefit, for the books with which I was unfamiliar). What character did you identify with? Why?  What about that character 'spoke' to you?  What is the character that you least 'identified' with?  Why do you think you did not identify with that character?  If you could change anything about the story, what would you change and why?  What did you learn from this book?  

I was very pleased with the depth of their answers.  They were able to pull apart the characters, compare their own lives and experiences and cultures with that of the characters.  They had some creative ideas about how the story should have been different (or in one student's case, why it was perfect just the way it was), and they were able to articulate why they felt that way.  I asked them further questions about why they wanted those changes specifically, and many of them were able to reference certain personal or cultural influences behind those changes. 

I would certainly do this assignment again; it allowed me to focus on my students in an individual setting, allowing me to get to know my students a little better.  It also allowed me to explore their understanding of our focus on the theme of identity on an individual basis, and allowed them to further explore this theme through a self selected book.  It also further exposed students to English books without taking time away from the books we were exploring in our class each week.  And I got to talk about books; an all around win 

Beijing Part I: The Great Wall

The part of Beijing I was most excited to see, was the Great Wall.  We all (my visitors) wanted to see the Great Wall.  I mean, come on, it's the Great Wall!!  It's one of the world's most recognized national monuments.  In 2007, it was voted as one of the new seven wonders of the world.  You can see it from space! (Well, I think this might have been disproved, but it sure sounds cool!).

I have made hints before about how my American education made my knowledge of China somewhat limited.  Well, I am sorry if this offends you, but it's true--unless you take fairly specific courses in college, most Americans do not learn too much about China.  We do, however, learn about the Great Wall of China. I remember learning about how this emperor demanded it be built in order to protect his boarders against nomadic warmongering tribes, commandeered a bunch of peasants, and when they dropped dead from exhaustion, had their bodies thrown into the construction site that would eventually be the Wall.  The Great Wall (along with Pandas) also seems to be the images that we associate with China--Google search China and see how many times the Great Wall pops up.  Needless to say, everyone who came to  China (myself included) wanted to see the Wall.

Pic of some characters on the mountains declaring loyalty to Chairman Mao (I believe), and Mom on the Great Wall!

The Wall did not disappoint.  It's huge, it stretches for hundreds of miles, it's ancient, and huge sections of it are totally accessible to tourists.   There are a couple of different ways to see the Wall.  I recommend booking a trip with your hotel or hostel, as this is usually safe and at a fairly reasonable price.   They will also have different trip packages, to different sections of the wall, which offer a different experience.  Many of them will take you to a section called Ba Da Ling; it is the most famous stretch of the wall, but it is also the part that has had the most renovation--it does not look ancient at all.  The next most common section is Mutianyu--this is a pretty awesome part of the wall because it has been renovated just enough to make it safe, but there are still lots of large, crumbling sections, and the view of older parts of the wall and mountains in the distance makes this place totally worth it.  However, there are further sections of the wall that are remote and not renovated at all.  If you are looking for a completely authentic Great Wall experience, I would recommend trying to go for one of those.  They will take you out for a day trip, and some places also offer a two day hike, where you actually camp along sections of the wall.  It all depends on the experience that you want to have.  Again, I would look to a hotel or hostel, or find a reputable tourist group before coming to China, to navigate the more remote areas of the Wall.

Shenanigans on the Great Wall, July 2012 

My first time visiting the Wall (and Beijing) was in March of 2012, with my mother.  This is right in the beginning of spring, so it was not cold, but the landscape around the wall is not lush and green, but still brown and hibernating from winter.  This does not afford a lot of contrast between the wall and the surrounding environment, but on the plus side, it does mean that the view of the wall is not blocked by the jungle that is normally growing there; you have an unrestricted view, until it curves around the mountains. We booked our tour through our hostel (365 Inn was our hostel, and I highly recommend it!) to see the Mutianyu section of the wall.  If I hadn't have liked any of their tours, however, I could have gone to one of the dozen or so hostels nearby and checked out what they offered--you don't have to stay at a hostel to use their tour bookings! The hostel took care of contacting the tour group, told us to be ready to go at (uhgg) 7:30 am the next day.

Great Wall in March

The tour group picked us up at our hostel, we made a couple of stops at other hostels for more tourists, and then we began our trek out of the city of Beijing.  Now, the wall is not right in town; it is in the mountains, and depending on traffic, this is about a two hour trip.  Which is just fine, because you get to hear some interesting stories about the section of the wall you are about to visit. You get the wall around 9:30 and you have until 1:30 to explore at your leisure before meeting back up with your tour group for a quick lunch and a ride home.   This is plenty of time to see a fairly decent chunk of this section of the wall.  You take a cable car ride up to the wall (for about 80 RMB, but it is worth it because it shaves off the 40 minutes it takes to walk up to the wall).  If you are at all weary of heights, this cable car is going to cause you a bit of anxiety, but it is totally safe.

Echo, our tour guide giving us a few last minute pieces of advice before turning us free, our cable cars, and my particular reaction to heights...

I visited this particular section of the wall again a few months later, in the summer, and was very glad I did.  This time everything was in full bloom, and while the view was restricted by all the foliage, seeing the sections of the wall peek out from the greenery, seeing that contrast, was worth the second trip.  I also got to see one of my good friends attempt to climb the Great Wall.  You may be wondering what I mean when I say climb...well, what seems to escape the notice of most foreigners (myself included) from all those lovely pictures of the Great Wall, is that it is actually a giant staircase.  There are very few sections where it is simply a rolling pathway; most of it is steps.  And not even steps--some steps are barely a few inches high, and some steps are about 1 1/2 feet high.  Some steps are on a nice sloping incline, and some steps take you almost vertically (seriously, we were on our hands and knees at one point) up the side of the mountain. And going down is not any better--now you get to look at this vertical drop and hope you don't trip, cause you know you'd feel that mistake for weeks.  Needless to say, any trip to the Great Wall is going to require a bit more endurance and stamina than most tourists expect.

Scary stairs...manageable stairs....and scary stairs again! It was back and forth the whole way. 

Coming back down from this section of the wall is also a treat.  You can take the cable car back if you wish, or you can choose to take the Toboggan.  Becky, the friend who came to visit me on the summer trip, wanted to Toboggan.  And I am glad she talked me into this; it is basically a sled, with a pull break, that you cruise back down the mountain side in.  If we hadn't been stuck between a tiny elderly lady who rode the break the whole way down in front of us and a few crazy Germans who didn't bother with he break at all behind us, it would have been totally fun--though it was still totally worth the ride.  Below is the video of said ride.

My third and last visit to the Great Wall took place on my fourth and final trip to Beijing this past December. I do not recommend going to the Great Wall in the winter if you have a choice; it's in the mountains and it's hella cold.  However, Amanda, who was visiting, had it on her bucket list to see the Great Wall of China.  So I was going to make that happen, darn it.  To avoid certain death, I decided to take her to the Ba Da Ling section.  I figured the renovated nature of this section would prevent us from injuring ourselves (the other sections are uneven, crumbling, and not well maintained--adding a layer of snow and ice would surely result in an injury).  Despite visiting the wall on the coldest day of the year, I was really glad that we did.  One, Amanda's reaction to seeing the Wall was fantastic.  Two, the Wall (and surrounding mountains) covered in snow was really freaking pretty.  Lastly, we managed to convince a third friend, and current native of Beijing, to come with us, resulting in a fun few hours of hiking, sightseeing, and funny photo ops.  Additionally, he showed us how to take the public bus system right to the wall--no tour group or nothing!  Plus, this particular section has what basically amounts to a sedate roller coaster which takes you up and down to the wall.

Pretty Winterscape on the Great Wall, Life List further completed, and monkeying around on the Wall.  All in a day's adventure. 

If I learned anything from these multiple trips to the Wall, it's that the Wall is completely worth a visit if you are going to be anywhere near Beijing.  Do not let the season stop you; it really is majestic in any season, whether you are sweating under layers of winter clothes or sweating in a tank top (cause you will sweat on those stairs!) the Wall is something to see.  So bring your climbing shoes, a bottle a water, and some energy, and tackle the Great Wall if you are in Beijing.

Great Wall in Spring, Summer, and Winter...it's all pretty awesome.

Chinese Food: Nostalgia and Desperation

I love Chinese food.  I mean, I love Chinese food. I liked American Chinese food before coming to China, and once in China, I definitely fell in love with Chinese cuisine.  However, once you come back to America, and go back to your local Chinese Takeout...well, it just isn't the same.  If you live near a big city, of course you can probably find a few authentic Chinese restaurants that sell some of what you ate while you were in China, but I have not had a lot of luck locating said restaurants in my hometown.

Therefore, I have had this idea sort of cooking around in my brain for the past few months...emphasis on cooking.  I figure, I know what it is supposed to taste like, right?  Can't I just play around with some of the simple dishes until I get the flavor right?

Big Plate Chicken, Egg and Tomatoes, and Duck Noodles

Now, I am by no means a cook.  In fact, it hasn't been until the last year or so that I dared anything more creative than boiling water.  But I have been watching.  I have been watching Chinese people cook, I have been watching my fellow foreign teachers cook (I cook with them, but my skills are limited to mashed potatoes and corn), and over the past six months of being home, I have been watching (and sometimes helping) my mom cook.  And I have been learning.  I stayed for a week in my grandmothers house and managed to tolerably cook a chicken breast, rice, and a veggie.  Armed with such success, I turned again to the notion of trying to recreate some of my favorite Chinese dishes.

However, I still did not take that culinary leap until today.  Just the other day, I was talking on the phone with a former foreign teacher friend of mine, and I was bemoaning my lack of Chinese cuisine in my daily life.  He took it upon himself to assign me a homework assignment (teachers, sheeeesh!).  He told me that I had a month to recreate my favorite dish: Yuxiang Qieze...or fish-scented eggplant--which is a lot yummier than it sounds! I made a lot of excuses about not being able to find the right seasonings, that I couldn't cook, blah blah blah.  Then I got kind of annoyed with myself: I was essentially bitching about the lack of something I wanted, but not taking any practical steps to fix it.  So, I accepted this food challenge.

I did not want to start with Yuxiang Qieze...it seems complicated.  Instead, I decided to start with my second favorite dish: Eggs and Tomatoes.  The very next night, I took myself to the store and bought a ton of eggs and tomatoes, and chopped green onions.  I armed myself with looking up variations of the tomato and egg recipe, along with watching a YouTube video explaining how to make it.  I figured if I messed this one up, I would abandon my quest towards fish-scented eggplant...but if I succeeded....well, maybe I would have one less reason to miss China.

Needing proof, I had my father help me turn it into a video, which is posted at the bottom of the blog. It was touch and go for a little while there (see about 5:40) and I was pretty anxious the whole time that it would taste terrible.  And while it did not taste 100% like the dish I ate on an almost daily basis in Hangzhou, it tasted pretty darn good.  I think the variation in taste can be attributed to the use of different oils and seasonings.  This just means that I will have to play around with it a little bit more, now that I know that I can make it.

If you want to see me struggle for ten minutes, watch the above video.  If you want to see how this is actually made, I recommend this lady's video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRfLNGE2YUo. She does a great job showing you how to make it and I combined her recipe with some others I found online. You can also run a Google search on Chinese egg and tomato dish, and you should come up with several variations on the same recipe.  Wish me luck on my next culinary excursion!

Beijing: An Introduction

Beijing, the bustling metropolis that is China's capital.  Before I went to China, I really had no idea what my salary would be like or my schedule would be like; so I had really no idea how much traveling I would be able to accomplish.  However, I knew that I wanted to see Beijing; I mean, come on--the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square?! Beijing, and the things located in it, was pretty much all America had taught me about China, so I was going to see that city, darn it!

A panorama of Tiananmen Square

Little did I know, in the early days of fall 2011, that I would see this city no less than four times. Four damn times.  Now, some of you might be thinking, "seriously?! Is she seriously complaining about seeing the capital of China too many times?!" And trust me, if I were reading this, I would be thinking the same thing about me too.  But let's face it, it's like with (almost) anything; the more you do it, the less magical and more routine it becomes.  Let's compare it to Disneyland, for example.  Kids who have gone there once in their whole lives talk about how it is the most magical place on Earth.  Kids whose indulgent parents take them every year...well, for them, it's just another place, with its ups and its downs.  That is how I feel about Beijing; it's got its pros and its for sure got cons.  Trust me, there is only so many times you can walk through the Forbidden City.

Sometimes we decided to take the cheapest way possible to Beijing...sometimes we took the nice trains. did I ever take pictures of the nice trains?  Nope. 

Other than Hangzhou and Shanghai, Beijing is the city I spent most of my time in, and this is due to the fact that so many of my wonderful friends and family did follow through on their promise to visit me in China.  Let's face, we all talk a big game when it comes to visiting and keeping in touch with people when you move on to the next phase of your life.  But realistically we know that most of the 'keeping in touch' will happen via Facebook, phone calls, email, and the occasional Skype call.  And when one of your friends decides to up and relocate herself to China, well expecting visits from friends is understandably...unexpected.  I did have three visits from home, however, in the form of my Mom, Becky Burch, and Amanda Woomer, each of whom came at different points during my stay in China.  And each of whom really wanted to see...The Great Wall.  Which happens to be located (well, the most convenient location) in Beijing.

Yet another less-than-comfortable train ride from Hangzhou to Beijing.

On the plus side, I became an expert on the sights of Beijing.  I knew how to get to all the touristy spots, I understood the subway system, I knew which hostels were good and which ones to avoid, I knew where to get the best Peking Duck at the most reasonable prices, I knew which tourist traps to avoid, and where to go if I wanted to barter for souvenirs.  I also got to relive the wonder of seeing these places the first time by watching my friends and family experience it for the first time, which was awesome.  They also conveniently timed their arrivals in different seasons, so I did actually wind up seeing the city and many of it's attractions in the spring, summer, fall, and winter, which was kind of cool.

Oh look, I found some pictures of the nice, high speed trains.  These bad boys will get you from Hangzhou to Beijing (about at 800 miles) in six hours.  The slow trains featured above will make the same trip in anywhere between 13 and 22  hours, depending on the quality of the ticket your purchased. 

Since I have been to Beijing no less than four times, I decided to do a four part series on my adventures in Beijing, highlighting the various places and activities that can be seen and done in the capital.  So, if you are at all interested in this city, stay posted.

Cross Cultural Reading Part III: Independent Writing Assignment

When I began this course, I knew that I really wanted to explore my student's writing.  I had them for Oral English the year before, and in the very limited writing that that course allowed for, I knew that I had some very expressive and creative minds; I wanted to give some of my more quiet students a chance to explore their English writing, and I wanted to get to know my students better through their writing.  I have previously discussed my use of journals in this course in a previous blog, but I wanted to provide an opportunity in the class for creative writing. 

(For details on the journals, see here: http://travelingedukator.blogspot.com/2013/04/cross-cultural-reading-part-ii-journals.html)

What originally interested me in their creative writing was actually in their performance during the Oral English class the previous semester.  We'd asked them to re-write one act of Romeo and Juliet in a different genre (either action, horror, or science fiction).  They did such a wonderful and creative job with these scripts, I wanted to see what would happen if they were given the opportunity to write creatively in a course designed around writing. 

The first two short stories that I had my students read were Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl and Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway.  If you you have not read either of these stories, a simple Google search will provide you with websites where you can read the full text.  My students really enjoyed the surprise ending of the first story, and the struggle to figure out the topic of discussion between the two main characters in the second story.   After amply discussing both of these short stories in class and exploring some of their themes through journal and group work, I decided to make their first independent writing assignment based on these books.  Below is a copy of the assignment I gave them; we discussed the requirements in detail before ending our class that day. I gave them two weeks to complete the assignment, and we did not really discuss this assignment or the two texts after the assignment was distributed; I asked each class if they had questions, but they never really had any questions...

This lack of questions really started to ratchet up my anxiety over this assignment.  Was it because they really were completely fine with the assignment-- 100% understood what I was asking of them?  Was it because they were too shy or nervous to ask about it?  And why were they nervous, we had been working with the building trust for over a year now?! Or was it so confusing that they just had no idea where to even begin asking for clarification?  Or did they completely misunderstand the assignment and were currently writing who-knows-what?!?! Being a beginning teacher is fraught with such second guessing and self doubt as the aforementioned thoughts that plagued me for the next two weeks. 

As it turns out, I had very little to worry about. I received emails from a few of them about a week before the deadline, asking me to read through their papers, and the ones who emailed me seemed to understand the assignment completely.  They came into class, each of them with these neatly stapled packets of paper, which they promptly took out of their folders and books and laid on their desks.  Instead of discussing their journals this week, I had them discuss their stories, and pass their stories around.  We spent an hour reading and appreciating each other's work.  I joined in with several groups, bringing my own creation with me (never ask your students to do something you haven't done--so I wrote a story too) and we read and gave feedback (written and verbal) on each other's work.  Before we dismissed class that week, I asked them if any of them had any trouble or if they had any overall comments.  Many of them talked about how much they enjoyed the project, and many of them commented on how much longer their stories wound up being that what they had anticipated.  

An excerpt of student writing of Option 2, adapted from Lamb to the Slaughter.

After hearing snippets of their stories and only reading a few completely through during class and via email, I was itching to get them home to read them; I don't think I have ever been more excited to grade something in my life.  Again, I was not disappointed.  The majority of the students chose to write about Option 2 (myself included) and either chose Patrick from Lamb to the Slaughter or the man from Hills Like White Elephants.  A few of them chose to give Jig (the female character from Hills) an inner monologue and therefore give more depth to her character.  The second most popular option was Option 3, and it was split between continuing the story in Hills and talking about what happened to Mary after the end of Lamb. Only one student chose to interview one of the characters. 

An excerpt from a student' writing, adapted from Hills Like White Elephants, also Option 2. 

There were only a handful of students, perhaps 4 out of the 25 students in the class, who needed to make some additions and corrections to their stories.  Most needed to add more detail.  For example, the girl who chose to give the inner thoughts of one of the characters was only giving 1-2 word thoughts at a time, so I asked her to elaborate.  Another girl was simply not focused enough; she had too many directions to take her story in, resulting in a somewhat chaotic narrative. I was extremely pleased with the level of creativity of my students and with the quality of their writing. I did some grammar/syntax corrections on the papers, gave them feedback on additions they needed (if they needed them), and gave them lots of positive feedback on their stories as a whole. 

This assignment was spectacularly effective.  It allowed them a certain creative freedom, which they seldom get in their classes.  It allowed them to practice a more authentic writing style, as it could not depend on those canned phrases they were taught to use for academic writing.  It allowed them to explore the issue of identity and the creation of identity by giving more depth and identity to these characters, and then discussing how and why they chose such identities.  What caused them to write Patrick off as a man who simply fell-out of love with his wife?  Why did they decide to make Mary insane?  Why did they decide the man at the train station was actually married to Jig?  Why did they write what they wrote?  Additionally, the assignment was wonderfully entertaining, not only for my students (because I really did believe they enjoyed writing it), but also for me; I got to know the creative, dramatic, and occasionally humorous side to their writing and to their personalities.