Another day in Meizhou

So my last post was early this morning - now I'm posting at night after returning from Meizhou with a little bit less cash and some more shirts, pictures, dvds, and memories.

We had some rain today on and off, and when it rained it really poured, so I'm glad I wore my rain jacket and water resistant pants. Otherwise a pleasant day to roam around Meizhou once again to shop and explore. On the bus ride over there was a TV playing a DVD of some apparently famous singer performing live shows - it kind of reminded me of a Chinese version of Branson shows or something you might see on PBS occasionally.

I really loaded up today on cheap DVDs and 'Engrish' shirts, and one really cool shirt that has an olde timey Harley Davidson on it - the one that looks basically like a beach cruiser bicycle with a motor.

For DVDs I got:
-Curb Your Enthusiasm seasons 1-5
-Sopranos seasons 1-6
-compilation dvd with 18 films including Fight Club and Oceans 11 trilogy
-compilation dvd with a bunch of chinese films, a couple that I watched in my college film classes, Wong Kar Wai's "Chungking Express" and "2046." I just tested it and I'm kinda bummed it doesn't have English subtitles - oh well I'll probably use it as a gift before I leave.
-compilation DVD with all 6 Star Wars, X-Men, and the new Die Hard

Rebecca and I decided to visit the university in Meizhou today, so we took a motorcycle taxi to it and walked around for awhile. There were a couple places where you could walk up on a hill with sidewalk paths and stairs into some woods. A few student couples were back there kissing - taking advantage of what little privacy they can get in this country. We wondered around the really cool campus some, and saw many high school students - we assume it was a high school visit day, being Saturday and all.

Walking along I spotted human-sized hamster wheels and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try them out. Here is a picture of me on the hamster wheel:



Afterwards we wanted to head back to the bus station, so we hopped in a pedicab - a bicycle rickshaw - and pointed to a bus station on our map that we thought was the correct one. It was not the right one and they didn't have a bus to go back to Shuizhai. But outside were a few taxi drivers or something who were trying to get us to take their taxi back to Meizhou for 120 yuan - much more than a bus ticket back. We asked them about the bus station but they kept offering the taxi. It took me a minute to figure out they were just trying to take us in their taxi and prevent us from taking a bus or going to another bus station. Damn they were persistant, we finally walked away and one of the men kept talking to us, and even lightly pinched my arm to get my attention as we tried to walk away, and they followed us for a few blocks in their taxi and motorcycle. Looking back it was kind of funny, but at the time I was losing my patience and starting to get frustrated since they persisted so much almost to the point of stalking.

So we finally take a motorcycle taxi to the correct bus station but we are too late. Damn. We call the teachers who assist us at Shuizhai for some help - we called Lily and she offered to give us a ride back, since she and her husband happened to be in Meizhou as well and were about to leave. They came by and picked us up at the bus station and took us to eat at KFC, buying us each a meal. Rebecca and I are extremely grateful for Lily and Tom for giving us a ride back home and for feeding us dinner - they sure made things much easier for us this evening.

For more pictures of today's trip to Meizhou and some from yesterday out to the countryside, go to this link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2090425&id=36105183&l=16a3e6f9e5 or click on the "Facebook Album 6" link on the right side of the page.

Also, our internet is working again so I'm posting this from my room.

Dinner and hot springs

Yesterday Rebecca and I were invited to eat dinner at a student's house in a nearby town. We took a motorcycle taxi truck from the school entrance about 8 km or so to the town, went back on some narrow winding streets/alleys until we arrived at his home. We sat and drank tea and ate snacks watching Chinese television in his living room with his 93-year-old grandmother while his mom prepared dinner. We decided to go for a short walk out back into the farmland - here are some pictures:





After the good supper of chicken, vegetables, rice, and a little bit of homebrewed rice wine, we headed to the nearby hotsprings pool for a swim. I believe it's run off of a natural hotspring, but they have a nice pool facility built around it. It's a perfect combination of hot tub and swimming pool, and felt very relaxing.




Our friend Wei Guo Quan and his friend who ate dinner with us took us all the way back to our school on their motorcycles, and we paid them a little cash for the trip.

We still are without internet in the apartment, and will contact someone soon about the problem. We are planning another Meizhou trip today, so I am sure to have more pictures (and DVDs!) from that trip.

Checking in or something

Well I just had a close call with a motorbike that whizzed by me by inches, good thing I didn't step out into the street for a second...

Anyway, our apartment's internet has been non-existant for the past couple of days so I have to make occasional visits to this internet cafe down the street.

I make frequent visits to the Texas Burger fast food place in town, most often to enjoy their good, cheap ice cream. Last night Rebecca and I stopped in for an ice cream and they gave us each a discount card. Must be for going there so often -anyway it gives us a discount on some food and ice cream, so it's pretty awesome.

Yesterday I decided to eat at an authentic Chinese place, just any one of the billions in this town. So we stopped by this one place just down the street from the school and they served us a bowl of dumplings. I now have a new favorite place to eat, and I've visited two more times already. I believe it is the only dish they serve there, but it is amazing - it makes it real easy to order food if they only have one thing. Did I mention that they have peanut butter at this place, and that peanut butter and dumplings is a good combination?

The less-than-50 cents dumplings.


I don't mean to talk crap but using the squat toilets here in China is really not all that bad. It is essentially a glorified hole in the bathroom floor, so no porcelean throne to sit on. You simply roll your pant legs up and squat all the way down so your chest rests on your knees basically, and do your business. It's much more sanitary than a Western toilet, since you don't touch anything. Also, it all seems to move much faster - must be something with the anatomy and the body position. To flush, with our set-up, you simply fill a bucket of water and dump it in to flush. We also shower in the same room, and the toilet acts as the shower drain as well and sorta cleans the toilet when you shower. In the bathroom is our propane tank which provides gas to our water heater for showers and the small cooking range in the adjacent room. It's all a pretty nice set-up, I just always wear flip flops in the shower.

Planning another trip to Meizhou this Saturday - hope the weather is nice again. It's a tad chilly and bit rainy here currently, but nothing too bad.

I just ate a good piece of fruit I bought from a street vendor the other day. It looked like a peach, and tasted much like a peach, but it had the texture/consistency of an apple - great because I got the goodness of peach flavor but with the behavior of an apple - no messy juices dripping everywhere.

The past couple of days Rebecca and I have been going on walks through the city at night. At this one place down by the river at night there is a nightly carnival-type scene complete with rides for small children, dvd, toy, and food vendors, and a couple of areas where people can dance to music. It makes for a lively and interesting scene. Last night on the walk back we stopped by a place that had pool tables in a building but in the open air next to the main street, so we paid roughly a dollar to play for an hour, and got in 3 games of pool.

So I'm gradually building my 'illegitimate' DVD collection - I found the first three seasons of Prison Break - apparently it's found a niche over here with some people. I've never seen the show before, but I figured I'd try it out since it was only a couple of bucks or so for three seasons. I've watched a few episodes so far and it's pretty good. I just have to put up with Chinese subtitles and an occasional advertisement logo-thingy on screen but otherwise it was a good buy. You get what you pay for but hey, I can't complain.

I'm glad that I've gotten back into a habit of reading again on this trip. I brought a handful of books over with me to read, but we also discovered a small but decent collection of books here in our apartment that previous interns left. So far I've read Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums (thanks Maddy!), and just finished John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley today, where I immediately started Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance. The last two I've already read, but they are deserving of another read, as I still learned new things from the Steinbeck book - it's apart from his other novels as it's a non-fiction account of his epic roadtrip across America with his dog Charley, I highly recommend it.

Rebecca and I were sort of planning a trip for Hong Kong next weekend, but the headmaster here is not allowing it. I can understand, it is a bit early in our stay here and I can understand they are worried we might get lost or whatnot. However, we need to make a trip to Hong Kong at some point since our stay here is about 100 days, and our visas only allow for 90 days without exiting and re-entering the country. No big deal though, I think we will just make another trip to Meizhou for some exploration and shopping in the bigger city.

Check out this video of the Chinese version of hackey sack, called Jian Zi. It's some random video I found on Youtube, but it gives you an idea of how it's played - much like American hackey sack. It's popular with the students at my school and I love to play with them, since my hackey skills transfer well to this game. I've never seen a Jian Zi, the feathered shuttlecock you kick around in this game, in the US, so I plan to bring several back to the states.

One month down...

Wow, I can't believe I've been away for about a month now, it really hasn't felt like that long of a time being away from home. I guess it's just my easy-goin' personality and my love of traveling and seeing new things that has allowed me to adjust so easily to this place. Honestly it's been much easier settling in and becoming comfortable than I imagined it might be. Many modern comforts of Western culture have seeped into this corner of China - something that is both nice yet a bit disappointing at the same time. Supermarkets that sell many things you'd find in the US and fast food joints that sell burgers and cokes. They say this is a communist country, but from what I've seen it's a capitalist culture by all means at this point in time - from the Pepsi advertisements in the school cafeteria to all the shops on the streets selling plastic knick-knacks and colas.

One of the most noticeable differences between Chinese and American culture would be in the traffic/transportation culture. Back in the US, traffic is comprised of 99.9%cars and trucks, and bicycles and motorcycles are considered abnormal or even toys by many people. Here in China though, the majority of traffic consists of motocycles and bicycles. That said, practically all the motorcycles have very small 125cc motors or are 50cc scooters, and nearly all of the bikes are single speeds complete with fenders, rear rack, and handlebar basket. It's very impressive as I've seen people haul more things on their bikes and motorcycles here than most Americans usually load into their enormous SUVs.

Often times you will see bicycles with two people on them, one pedaling and another sitting on the rear rack. You'll see motorcycles carry boxes of chickens, poles, ladders, or pretty much anything that would surely warrant a citation of some sort in the US. Also I've seen up to 4 or 5 people riding one motorcycle, though three or less is more common. For hauling cargo and people, motorcycle trucks are very popular here. I posted a picture of one hauling a pig a few posts ago, but basically it is a motorcycle body on front with a two-wheeled rear chasis that can hold a small cabin for passengers or a bed for hauling things - they seem very efficient. People here seemed to be more conscious of efficiency and space saving - you have to be when there are so many people in a smaller space with less resources.

And traffic itself would be considered fairly insane to the average American. Cars, motorcycles, bikes, pedestrians, street vendors all use the same streets, so it can get a bit crowded sometimes. Honking is a constant and ever-present reality, as cars and motorcycles consistantly beep to let people know they are there and are coming through, and people just don't get pissed off about honking like they do in the states. People pull out onto a road from side streets often without bothering to check cross traffic. I'm simply amazed that there are not collisions everyday at all the intersections, but they seem to manage and survive with this system fairly well.

So now I am about one third of the way through my stay here in China. I'm really not homesick at all, though I do occasionally crave pizza and the non-existant cheese that goes on those pizzas. I think I'm really going to miss this place in many ways when I have to leave, especially all of the cheap prices for everything.

A day in Meizhou

This morning Rebecca suggested that we take a trip to the nearby larger city of Meizhou (pronounced May Joe), since it was bright and sunny outside (though a tad chilly). Always up for an adventure, I agreed. We got a few things together and took a motorcycle taxi to the bus station. We got there a few minutes before a bus to Meizhou left, so just in time! The bus ride took about 2 hours, with some of it being on rough roads currently under construction, so a few slow, bumpy parts of the ride.

From the bus station in Meizhou we just started walking. It was about lunchtime and we were hungry, so we stopped into a nice restaurant and ordered a couple of dishes - a plate of chicken and a plate of fried tofu squares in some good sauce, along with the rice and tea they give you. A good meal that only cost about $6.57 US altogether, also nearly what our bus tickets to Meizhou cost.



We walked around some more and found a really cool park where we stopped to take some photos and chill out for a bit. Check out this cool rock island thing on the pond that can walk out on.



We stopped by some shops where I picked up a couple of 3-star ping pong balls, a guitar strap, deck of cards, and a "shuttlecock" that is kind of like a badminton one, but is made for kicking around like a hackey sack. I've kicked one around a few times with people on campus so I decided to buy one. I'll likely buy a few to bring back to the states. Also, I regret not bringing my hackey sack.

I decided to stop into a DVD store to browse around and I found tons of cheap (and likely pirated) DVDs of American movies - DVD sets of 2 or 3 discs that contained between 10-20 movies. I found collections that had all the Godfathers, Star Wars, new releases, Harry Potters, ect... I was tempted to pick up several at this time, but decided to buy one for now to test out. I ended up buying the entire Band of Brothers miniseries for a buck 75. I tested it on the computer here and it plays fine, and is in English. Not sure whether it will play in the United States though, but I'll probably pick up more DVD's just because they are so damn cheap.

We were surprised to run into Lily, one of the teachers from our school who is helping us, just outside one of the stores we came out of. Small world.... I got a quick bite to eat at a KFC and then we took a 3-wheeled motorcycle taxi to the bus station, but the taxi guy took us to a college instead, and then to the wrong bus station. We got off there and got a ride to the correct bus station from a guy on a motorcycle. It was my first time on a motorcycle ever, 3 of us packed on the little 125cc powered machine as we rode through the city to the station.

Meizhou is awesome for a day trip, and we plan to make a few more trips back here to this big city to explore and shop around some more.

You can see more of the pictures I took today in this album, also posted on the right side of this page.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2089086&id=36105183&l=9321e

New Bicycle

Yesterday was the first day of warmth and sunshine since all the rain starting last Thursday. Ah, t-shirt weather again - I hope it lasts for a few days at least before it probably chills down again. But no worries, I finally decided to pull out the electric blanket from my wardrobe that one of the former interns left here. It's a true luxury, especially because we don't really have heating here for our apartment.

For our classes this week Rebecca and I are using music. We are using Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again," having students listen to a recording of the song and going over the lyrics. We write them on the board, leaving a few select words blank, and having the class listen to the song and fill in the blank. When we finish the lyrics, I use my guitar which I bring to class to sing the song myself and encourage the students to sing along with us. Since that didn't take up the whole class period, for the first couple of classes Monday Rebecca just improvised and played Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." It was a pretty cool moment seeing a class of 60 Chinese kids singing along to Journey.

However we decided that besides Willie Nelson we'd need another song to cover in the rest of the classes for the week. For the second song we're doing Pete Seeger's cover of Malvina Reynolds' "Little Boxes." We explain to them what the song is about, being as it's critical of an aspect of American culture. Both songs are fairly simple and clear in the language and singable, so we figured they'd have little trouble deciphering the words.

Yesterday I decided to walk downtown and buy the bicycle I've had my eye on for the past week or so. I've had a difficult time finding one that actually fits me, and this one is close enough to my size to fit comfortably. I paid 360 yuan for it, which is about $52 American, not bad at all.

Here it is. You can see that the cranks aren't at a perfect 180 degree angle, cus the left crank went completely loose on me earlier today. I had a mechanic fix it up but I guess he didn't do a perfect job. Ah well, it still feels normal to pedal and I can always take it to the place I bought it and have them fix it up.


Today I took a nice ride down a street that ended up taking me out of town. I don't know how far I went, but somewhere between 3-5 miles out I'd guesstimate, out to another nearby small town. There are people everywhere, so there weren't really any lonely stretches like you often have on country roads in America. I've become used to the traffic for the most part, I just always check my six every few moments for trucks and motorcycles approaching. But I have a lot of confidence in drivers and motorcyclists over here since bicycles are everywhere, so they know to look for me.

Here's a typical scene on the bridge that we cross to get over to the main street, on the way back to the school. You can see a full-ish moon, the same one from back home!

Rain rain rain

I've been paying attention to the weather back home in Missouri and saw that it got into the 60s and 70s, while here the temperatures dropped this week down to the 50s and likely 40s at times at the same time we're getting tons of rain. It's not as harsh as Kirksville winter but I hope it'll warm and dry up again shortly.

Thursday I visited the Da Tian (大田) village primary school by myself. Rebecca and I are arranged to visit the village school once a week, and we go by ourselves each time, so I decided to go this first time. I left the apartment at about 6:40 am and met the English teacher Cara who showed me the way to the bus station. It was my first time riding in one of those motorcycle taxis I see everywhere - a bumpy but fun ride across town. From the bus station it was about an hour bus ride to the village through some beautiful mountains, countryside, farms, and villages.

At the village school I taught two small classes of young kids somewhere around Kindergarten or 2nd grade age. The English teacher told me to teach out a book they gave me, but it was not enough to fill the class period, so I had to improvise some - I showed them on a map where I was from and also went over shapes and colors and a few basic things with them.

Here's one of my classes at the village school


Here's one part of the village near the school


Today while the rain let off Rebecca and I decided to walk downtown to try and find the American-styled fast food burger joint in town we've heard some people talk about. We asked several students from our school who we met on the street for directions and we finally found it. Now if I ever get the craving for good ol' bad American fast food I know where to walk to.

This yummy meal cost about $2.65 American, including an extra Coke I accidentally ordered


When we first arrived here it was fairly dry before the rains. Today we walked and saw the river which was flowing pretty steady now after three days of rain.

Here's a picture of an unfinished bridge with our school in the background


I also bought my first funny "Engrish" shirt today. It doesn't make any sense as you can see.

'Cold' weather finally

Here's a big pig on a motorcycle-truck (Click to see whole pic, same with the bottom pic)



For about the first week since arriving in Hong Kong and into Shuizhai it was very warm. I didn't know the exact temperatures, but I'd guess mid 70's or so--enough to break a decent sweat.

The past few days however have yielded much cooler temps, probably in the 50s range or so, which can still be quite chilly. However, I just keep reminding myself that I'm not freezing away in Missouri so that keeps me happy. I think this region is in a drought currently, as although we've had overcast skies for the past few days, it's done nothing more than sprinkle, and the river here in town is very low. It will only get warmer as the weeks progress - I love being down near the Tropic of Cancer.

Rebecca and I began teaching our first week of classes this Monday, and in the two days and five classes we've taught so far, it's going really well. Our schedule is fairly light with only eight classes per week, each with a separate class as we teach grades 1 and 2 here at the high school. So the way it's working for this week is that we created one lesson plan and are using it for each class the whole week. We are introducing ourselves and where we are from, and teaching the students about "wh-" questions (who, what, when, where, why, how) and allowing time in each class for students to create their own questions to ask us out loud. We figure it's a great way to get the students talking and using English, as they are very curious about us and American culture. I've gotten at least one question about Obama in each class so far, but many of the questions we get are about our favorite sport or how we like China so far.

I'm surprised it's working out so well so far, and really I haven't been too nervous when I enter the classrooms. I felt much more nervous and pressured doing a practice teaching lesson in my ESL practicum class last semester in front of a handful of college students and my professor. It helps that Rebecca and I are team teaching together and that the students are so enthusiastic, who usually applaud loudly when Rebecca and I enter the room. A couple of classes wrote "Welcome to our class" on the board for us. That sure doesn't happen in America!

Part of one of my classes. All of our classes have around 50-60 students.


One of the English teachers invited us to her apartment on campus for dinner last night, and I have to say it was one of my best meals in China so far. Cara, one of the English teachers who has been helping us a lot was there as well and brought along her adorable baby daughter. Cara told me to bring my guitar over, so I did and played a few songs.

I think by the end of this trip I will be a ping pong master - I've been playing so much with the students and teachers and have noticeably improved my skills through just this week being here. I figure we come to teach English to the students, and they in turn will teach us ping pong.

Here's a pic of me buying a slice of pineapple on a stick from a tricycle fruit

New Computer, New Guitar

Ever since we got to Hong Kong and into Shuizhai, the weather has been fantastic-- warmth and sunshine and sweat. It cooled down a bit yesterday and today, which is actually pretty nice with a light jacket. One thing I don't miss for sure is Kirksville winter.

During a walk downtown I decided to look in some random shop just to browse around and lo and behold I see guitars on display in the back. It was an exciting moment, as I thought I might never find one in this city. Apparently they do have everything and kitchen sink (no really, they sell sinks on the street). I bought a decent acoustic for 250 Chinese Yuan, which is about $37 American. Not a bad deal for something to mess around with during my stay here. I'm sure it'll provide me lots of entertainment plus I may use it for my classes.

Rebecca and I each got our own computers for the apartment a couple days ago, so now we have internet access from home instead of having to walk down the street to the internet cafe where a few kids play World of Warcraft all day. The people who brought the computers over came by soon after we got back from buying my guitar, and one of them brought their young child, who I 'babysat' for a few minutes letting him play with my new guitar. He kind of reminded me of my nephew Justin, because he was very quiet and had a serious look on his face as he curiously played with the guitar as I made different chords. Also, notice the strange body shape of this acoustic guitar.



Rebecca and I start teaching classes tomorrow, and although the school arranged for us to teach separately, I think it will be no problem to let us teach together. Our teaching schedule is very light, as we only have eight classes altogether each week. On Thursdays we are supposed to take a bus to a small village elementary school about an hour away, and we're only supposed to go one at a time for those trips.

One thing about China is that about every time your butt hits a seat you are served tea. At some of the nicer meals we had earlier this week we had tea as we sat waiting for the meal. Also when waiting at a bike shop and a mobile phone store I had tea served.

I've been away from home for well over a week and I've settled in pretty well. I'm kind of surprised how easily I've adapted to my life here, it helps that I'm not the only American around and that everyone here has been really nice. I'm sure by the end of this trip I'll be craving pizza and cheeseburgers and all that high fructose corn syrup-packed American goodness, but the food here is pretty good and there are many Western items like Pepsi and toilet paper available at the supermarket and all along the streets. My favorite so far in Shuizhai are the local bakeries, which beats eating cafeteria (the "canteen") food. Everything here is very inexpensive, and I doubt I will use much of the money I brought with me even though I like to buy lots of soda and bakery items

Homesickness hasn't set in like I thought it might -- I really like this place and find it quite comfortable. I think the warm weather helps.



And my favorite sandwich thingy from that bakery. These cost about 30 cents American