Stephanie in Shanghai

Extra, Extra, Starting A New Blog!

2010-09-21T08:28:00.002+08:00

I realize I haven't updated in months (the main reason being that this was a blog about my time and China and I'm not in China anymore...), but I have a bit of news I wanted to pass along to anyone interested.

I got some positive feedback about keeping up with the blogging, so I am starting a new blog. It's also on blogspot and through the same profile. I've called it "Hooked on Hobbies" (it was the best I could come up with at 2 in the morning...) and I plan on writing about my life and the various things I do to pass the time.

Anyway, I guess I am officially calling this blog closed for the time being. If I ever go back to Shanghai though, you know where to look for updates!

So, thanks for reading and here's to another adventure...

-S

HOME

2010-06-29T09:44:00.002+08:00

I think everyone who reads this blog knows that I am home safe now.

My brain feels a little foggy. I am sleep deprived. My flight/shuttle home was uneventful and the last few days I have been seeing people, unpacking, enjoying time at home and playing with my dogs.

I have more stuff to write about. My last few days and so on. So tune in soon-ish to read the last of my China stuff.

I am also debating keeping this blog up. It wouldn't really be Stephanie in Shanghai anymore, but I could keep it as a general blog. Maybe document my job-finding process or post the stuff I cook or make. Feedback is appreciated.

That's all for now, though. I is tired.

Give It All Away

2010-06-23T10:52:00.000+08:00

Last night was my "Come Buy/Steal My Stuff" party. Most of my foreign coworkers, some of my Chinese co-workers, my Chinese teacher and Lucy were the ones who made it. A bunch of people canceled last minute, so I was left with a LOT of leftover food and drinks. Sarah and I pooled our stuff together (with a couple of additions from Kelly). My apartment looked pretty weird last night. One room was filled with too much food and the other looked like a tag sale. Which...I suppose...it was.

I think Rao Laoshi (my Chinese teacher) takes the prize for taking the most stuff. She was the one who bought my toaster oven, as well as my big fleecy sheet, my huge winter comforter, and one of Kelly's dresses and a bunch of kitchen stuff. Lucy also took a bunch of stuff. Mostly kitchen stuff. We might be able to see each other again on Thursday before I leave but with her schedule the way it is it's not a sure thing. It was sad saying goodbye to her, but if we could be penpals for ten years I am sure she and I will be able to stay in touch living in separate countries again.

I was a little worried when the party was done how much stuff was leftover. I brought a bunch of stuff to the office today so the people who didn't make it over to my apartment last night could pick through it. Suddenly I had a very captive audience. Almost everything I brought to the office has been claimed and I led a trek back to my apartment and even more stuff went.

I just have bits and pieces now. Some books I will donate to a local coffee house. Some clothes that I will give to that Sorting Party charity I volunteered for a few times. Anything that's really worth anything has gone to others. It was really depressing to watch the pieces of my life here go away, but I'm happy that they went to people that want them and will use them.

After the party last night, Sarah helped me clean and sort what was left. Then we went to her place for hot chocolate. I kept her company for some last minute packing. Saying goodbye to her was really hard. We've hung out on a nearly daily basis this year. It is going to be so weird to not have her down the hall anymore.

I finished all my work. Grading, finals...everything. My desk is clean and empty now. Taking a look at what I still have in my apartment and considering sending those packages earlier were not as expensive as I was worried it might be, I think I might send another package home. I can't believe I leave in two days. I think the mixture of sheer manic busy-ness and sleep deprivation is keeping me from having some sort of emotional breakdown.

School closing ceremony this afternoon and then a dinner to say goodbye to the teachers who are leaving this year (including me). Then my last Improv show with the PRComedy group. I am so tired and out of it, I'm a little worried I will suck, but who cares? It's a chance to do something I love and see people I will miss.

Tomorrow I will probably do all my last packing, close my bank account, maybe hit the post office. I also have to check out of my apartment so I can get my last paycheck. Thursday night I plan on getting one last massage from my favorite parlor. Soon I will be flying back to the world of expensive massages.

I think I am rambling now so I am going to wrap this up. I'll probably post another update on how everything is going before I leave.

See you soon, America.

Last Day of Classes

2010-06-22T13:28:00.001+08:00

On my last day of classes we did my one tradition and we played bingo. And just like I did last year, I took some pictures of/with my students on the last day of classes. We took some nice pictures and some silly pictures. I think I like the silly pictures best, so those are the ones I am putting here. I will probably put them all up on Facebook when I have unblocked internet again.

These are the first students I have ever taught. In the two years I was their teacher they have been challenging, fun, creative, intelligent, frustrating, surprising, confusing and always amazing. While my bad days of teaching them could easily get me angry or depressed, my good days of teaching them have been some of the best days of my life. I got to know them through their writing. I will miss them as individuals and I will miss them as a class. I hope their futures will all be amazing and that we will meet again someday.

To the Pinghe IB Class of 2011.

Keeping Memories On Hand

2010-06-20T12:14:00.001+08:00

A about a week ago, I had dinner with some coworkers. Zeno (remember Zeno? She taught me to make dumplings!) was back in Shanghai to visit the Expo, so we all got together. We went to an awesome restaurant and ate far too much food. This place was famous for soup so we had three different kinds of soup on top of the already exorbitant amount of (delicious) food. Including sparrow, crab noodles, shrimp, chicken, dim sum and tons of stuff I am forgetting. It was nice to see Zeno again. She tested me to see how my Chinese was going. We talked about the Expo and how her job in Tianjin is.

Towards the end of the dinner, my office mates sprung it on me that they also considered the dinner to be a kind of goodbye dinner for me. They presented me with a really pretty ring they had all chipped in for. About a week or so before the dinner we had been talking in the office about rings. June wanted to look at my class rings and try them on. I thought nothing of it at the time, a lot of people here are curious about my class rings since China doesn't have that tradition. In retrospect the whole thing makes me laugh. A few years ago my friend Jesse wanted to buy a ring for his girlfriend Rose who was my friend and roommate at the time. I played sneaky spy and found out by striking up a casual conversation about rings. My coworkers did the same thing to me and I didn't even notice!

The ring fits perfectly. I love the style of it. I think it has a slightly medieval feel to it (which someone else also said, so it's not just me!). It's nice to have something small that I can wear and remember my coworkers with. It means a lot to me.

On Being Sentimental

2010-06-17T19:23:00.001+08:00

I am an overly sentimental person.

I have known this about myself for years. I attach meaning to the most ridiculous things. Moving from one country to another is incredibly difficult for me. Putting aside the fact that I am going to be leaving a job I love with coworkers I love in a city I have come to love that are all part of a life that I love, just PACKING is killing me

I am trying to be brutal about making decisions. I only have two suitcases and my carry-on that I have to bring with me. I know I can ship stuff home but its very expensive and I don't want to break the bank. I have TWO YEARS worth of memories, gifts, and LIFE that I need to go through and decide what to do with.

There are a few givens, thankfully. Everything on my "wall of love" is coming home. Nearly everything that was given to me as a gift is coming home. All of my one of kind things (my hand carved buddha from Wuzhen, my mask from Suzhou, my calligraphy from Harbin, etc) is coming home. Then comes stuff like...clothes. And books. And notebooks. And magazines. And just STUFF. Sarah helped me out today. I had three boxes packed to mail home and I realized it was just too much. Sarah was over and we went through all three boxes and she made me argue/explain why everything in the three boxes needed to be sent home. When we were done I had a box and half of stuff left. It was rough.

I want to bring home a sweater because of the way it makes me feel when I wear it. I want to bring home a hat because I bought it from an event run by my students. I want to bring home my favorite baking dish because of the happy memories I have cooking for my friends with it. Plus I am also a worry wart. What happens if I get home and decide I really needed that item of clothing/book/doodad that I left behind?

I guess I wouldn't feel so bad about leaving stuff behind if I knew it was going to good use. I hope when my friends come over for my "Open House/Steal My Stuff" party they will take my things and use them.

I will feel better when this is all over and I don't have to make these decisions anymore.

PACKINGPACKINGPACKING

2010-06-16T09:03:00.001+08:00

I have five days off for Dragon Boat Festival and I am using them to get ready to head home. Well, Monday I went to Century Park with Sarah and some friends of hers for a picnic and crazy four-person-bike races around the park. But other than that....packing.

I have two wardrobes in my bedroom so what I am doing is taking everything I want to take home and putting it in/on one wardrobe and taking everything I need to throw out/sell/give away in the other wardrobe. It helps with the organizing and since I can just close the doors and hide the mess, my apartment still looks clean. It's a really depressing process going through my stuff and deciding what is worth keeping. I have tried to keep the reminiscing to a minimum since I have a lot of stuff to go through.

Most of my big items have already been claimed. Stephanie wants my toaster oven, blender, comforter, and a bunch of my small kitchen items. Becky and Chris want my big pot and my DVD player. I've promised to give Kelly my guitar as long as she practices with it (Yinglong needs love!). I organized a sort of open house party during my last few days here which serves a dual purpose of saying goodbye to people and I've encouraged people to just take my stuff away while they are here. Anything that doesn't belong to the school or I'm taking home must go!

As for the excess, I've already packed one decent sized box to mail home. It's stuff I want to keep but not essential, so I am risking it to the Chinese post office. Two month ground shipping. I am going to do a test pack of my stuff and see if I can get everything I want to take home in my two allowed suitcases. If not, I am going to have to start making another package to send home.

Moving from one country to another is troublesome.

Today marks NINE days until I leave.

CAUTION: Watching me do improv makes you drink.

2010-06-11T14:47:00.001+08:00

I was searching the web for some ideas of what to do with a class today and I clicked a link that led to blogspot. Surprisingly, it went through! I am guessing that it's not blocked now...for some reason? Youtube and facebook are still gone but I guess being able to post in my blog normally is nice. Even though I will only be here for two more weeks.

Yep, we are officially at the two week point. June 25th I will be homehomehome.

School is reaching that point where my work I need to do outside of class far exceeds the stuff I need to do for and in class. I've got correcting up the wazoo. Tests to prepare. All that jazz. I know I haven't been posting much and I apologize. I have a bunch of stuff I plan on writing about and I will do my best to catch up.

The title of this post refers to what happened this Wednesday at rehearsal for Zmack's June 12th show (my last show with them). I know, I know, I've talked a lot about improv lately. Well, I love it and this is the last time I have to perform with these groups. Anyway, we were rehearsing at the bar (which was empty except for the workers, us and people who knew us) when a group of four men walked in. I saw them walk in and seem a bit confused about what was going on, but then I had to perform so I didn't see what they did next. After I did my scene (the dating game, where I played a very perky girl named Mary Joe seeking love), I jumped off stage and was called over to their table. They then proceeded to tell me (in Chinese) that they were planning on leaving until they saw me perform. They thought I was so great they decided to stay. And drink! One of the guys held up his beer and said "This is because of you!".

I thought it was funny and a somewhat odd compliment. Since they spoke to me in Chinese I assumed they couldn't speak English, but the rehearsal was in English. So that means they must have just liked my voice or body language or something. Ahh China. You are so silly sometimes. It also made me happy that I had no trouble understanding them. Boo-yah Chinese classes.

Hopefully more later!

Much love!

Improv Awaaaaaaay

2010-05-24T10:38:00.001+08:00

It really sucks that I am leaving as soon as I started making some good contacts here. According to Lucy I have got myself an adoring public and now I am abandoning them. She was talking about improv.

Matthew, someone I met through Zmack, started his own improv group, the People's Republic of Comedy (shown above). I performed with them for the first time a few weeks ago. I thought I did horribly, to tell the truth. I was performing with people I had never met before and I was exhausted. Apparently I did ok, though, and he asked me to perform with them again this past week. That show went REALLY well, in my opinion. That's what the picture is from. All the advertisements for the show are done in old propaganda style posters, hence our far off gazes. I hope to perform with them at least once more before I leave.

In the Zmack front, I led the weekly lab the last two weeks and I think it went ok. I am running it again this and next week and then I believe it will be time for someone else to step up. I have a love/hate relationship with running improv stuff. It's kind of cool to decide the theme and pass on some improv tips, but it means I spend less time playing the games myself. And it makes me feel really self conscious. Here I am, the youngest person in the room telling everyone what to do. Ahh well. There is one more show with Zmack that I'll be doing in June.

In non-improv news, I am apparently teaching a new class for the rest of the semester. Whaaa? It's an intensive English class for the incoming class. I was hoping to use the extra time (now that my 12th graders graduated) for my job hunt, but I guess not.

In non-anything news, why doesn't my mind work anymore? I can't think straight at all. I can't sleep at night. I can't focus in Chinese class or at work. Bah. I need to whip my mental self into shape so that I can get all this stuff done!

In let's-focus-on-happy-stuff news, it's finally yangmei/waxberry/bayberry/whatever-you-want-to-call-it season again. I have a big basket on my desk that I've been munching on all morning.

Cooking With RaoLaoshi

2010-05-18T10:01:00.000+08:00

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but "laoshi" is Chinese for teacher. So "RaoLaoshi" means "Teacher Rao".

Teacher Rao is my Chinese teacher. She came to an improv lab a couple weeks ago and on the subway ride back we talked about cooking. I said I really wanted to learn to cook more Chinese food, so we made a deal. She would teach me to cook some Chinese food and I would teach her to bake some cookies.

We finally ended up getting together this weekend. We cooked and ate lunch together. We ended up making three dishes.

Cola Chicken Wings: The first and most interesting (and in my opinion tastiest) thing we cooked was "cola chicken". Apparently this isn't as novel an idea as I thought it was since when I told a co-worker about it she shared her recipe for "Coke Roast". The way we made it was to boil some chicken wings in water. Then we put some small slices in both sides of the wings (according to Teacher Rao it makes it taste better). Then we fried up some garlic, ginger, scallions, and mildly spicy green peppers in some oil with the wings. After browning the chicken a little on both sides, she poured in about half a can of Pepsi. She brought it to a boil and then reduced it to a simmer until the sauce got thick. Spicy, sweet and delicious!

Pork and Beans: This dish was an interesting mix of savory and fresh. The beans that we used are apparently called "four season beans" in Chinese since they are in season all year round. To me they just looked like giant green beans. I chopped the beans into slices while Teacher Rao mixed some ground pork with flour and egg whites. Then it was all fried up together. Teacher Rao commented on how most Chinese dishes mix together meat and a vegetable while most American dishes have the two separate. I had to agree with her, since I've noticed the same thing since the first time I came to China.

I Have No Idea But It Was Purple and That's Cool: I can't remember at all what the last vegetable was called in Chinese and Teacher Rao didn't know the English name. It looked a little like lettuce to me, but that's about as helpful as I can be. She cooked it up in a little oil, water and salt. Eating it was fun since it turned our plates purple. There is an old Chinese belief that eating uncooked vegetables is always unhealthy and I think it's still affecting the food culture. I'm not sure what the vegetable was we were eating but my guess is if it was used in the US it would probably be eaten raw or steamed, not fried up.

All together it was a lot of fun. We spoke about half and half Chinese and English, which was cool. I was a little worried that since we weren't officially in class she would just switch 100% to English. After we made and ate lunch, I taught her to make cookies. We made oatmeal butterscotch cookies, using the butterscotch chips my mom sent me about a million years ago. They were quite yummy. I have done a lot of baking since I got my toaster oven, but these were the first cookies I made from scratch instead of cutting corners with a mix. It was a lot of hard work without a mixer! But I have to use up my baking supplies before I leave so I forsee more on the horizon!

Shanghai 80's Roller Disco....Seriously!

2010-05-17T15:00:00.001+08:00

I went to college from 2004 to 2008....so why is it that every 80's song I hear reminds me of Drew U?

Lucy invited me to a roller disco this weekend. I had to read the e-mail a couple of times before I actually believed there was going to an 80's roller disco in China. But that's Shanghai for you. Turns out they have these a lot at the place we went to.

I invited Sarah along (we've been hanging out so much we are starting to act like a married couple) and we got our 80's outfits planned. I destroyed a cheap t-shirt and then wore about every brightly colored item I owned (which was a surprisingly small amount). Sarah wore some nice big bangles and pulled out all the stops with some leg warmers.

I was a little worried about roller skating since I haven't done it at the very least since high school. I have a vague memory of driving myself to good ole' Ron-A-Roll way back when so I guess I was at least 16 but that could be my mind making stuff up again. I was also worried about being run over by drunk people on skates.

In the end I only fell once (because some jerk crashed into me), knocked down Sarah once (because another jerk crashed into me, which pushed me into her) and had a few spectacular close calls. I'll tell you, spilled beer (despite the clearly posted signs that no drinks should be brought on the skate floor) certainly makes skating a bit more a challenge. And it was CROWDED. I was never so scared for my feet than when I was walking around in socks after turning in my sneakers but before putting on my skates. My poor toeses got rolled over a bit. I'd like to go back when it wasn't so packed.

Sarah and I got there a lot earlier than Lucy and Andreas so we only ended up hanging out all together for a short while. I hope to see the two of them later this week though.

Scary Clown

2010-05-14T13:21:00.001+08:00

Just a bit of weirdness to break up our regular scheduled programing.

Earlier this week the art teacher, Sarah, asked me to come in and discuss my first hand experience with the IB art exam with her students (who are also my English students). After I told them all about it and answered some questions, they went back to work on their projects.

I was getting ready to go back to my office when Sarah suggested I stay and paint. I suddenly felt the need to create something. I asked the students for ideas and the first thing any of them said was "a scary clown". The picture you see is the result. That face gives me the creeps (the painting...not me).

This weekend I hope to see Lucy, who I feel like I haven't seen in forever, and also have a plan to get together and cook with my Chinese teacher. Should be fun!

The Wedding Banquet

2010-05-11T08:09:00.001+08:00

About two weeks ago, one of my co-workers, Ned, got married to his lovely partner Zhi Hui. It was apparently in the works for a while but we didn't hear about it until about two weeks before he got hitched. Last night they held a nice big dinner to celebrate his marriage with all the Pinghe folks.

My office mates wanted to go in together on a gift for the happy couple and for a while we couldn't think of what to get. I suggested a gift card for the massage place I like. I figured it would be useful and enjoyable. In the end that's what we got. Also, the office came together in a bit of a group effort to make a card. I made the basic design of the card (white base, blue panel on the front, outlined in gold ribbon with a gold square in each corner) and then Lotus bumped up the design on the front and Lena did the back and the inside. I wish I had a picture of it. It was pretty. Then it was off to dinner.

It was a normal Chinese style dinner with tons of dishes (my favorites were the scallops which were resting on mounds of salt and then LIT ON FIRE) which were all delicious. They had rented three rooms connected by wide open double doors and a big round table in each room. Since Ned's lovely wife is Chinese and the majority of the guests, some of the traditional "dirty tricks" (as June put it) had to be played.

One involved Zhi Hui shimmying a cell phone up one of Ned's pant legs and down the other, but not before a phone call was made *ahem* in a strategic position. A cherry tomato was also strung on a string as a necklace for Zhi Hui to wear and Ned had to find and eat it without using his hands while blindfolded. The last game of the evening had them sitting back to back and writing down answers to questions about their relationship. The inquiries started out pretty tame but got worse as it went on.

The evening was a lot of fun but also made me sad. I can't believe how little time I have left here.

Hanoi Pictures and Impressions

2010-05-07T15:29:00.001+08:00

Here are just some pictures from my trip, including water puppets, the cathedral, the grilled fish, and the boat ride to the Perfume Pagoda.

Just some last things I wanted to mention about Hanoi. It was weird because if I had never been to China and Vietnam was the first Asian country I ever went to, it probably would have been a totally new experience, but it was so much like China that it wasn't surprising to me at all.

I am used to sales people shouting at me to buy things, I am used to bargaining, I am used to squat toilets, I am used to making my way across a street with no apparent traffic rules, I am used to people staring at me, I am used to spitting and the differences in hygiene and personal space. Even the stuff vendors were selling in all the touristy places was mostly exactly the same as stuff I see in China all the time. It was actually a challenge finding presents for people that were obviously Vietnamese and not Chinese.

There were some differences though. I can't understand a word of Vietnamese. In Japan I didn't feel quite so out of place since there was often Japanese kanji, which borrows a lot of words from Chinese. But in Vietnam? Nothing. It felt very strange. Also, because of the french influence, the vendors in Hanoi were always yelling "Madam!" at me to get my attention instead of "Lady!", which I thought was fancier. Ha.

I suppose that's all really.

Much love!
Stephanie

Hanoi Day Two

2010-05-07T15:04:00.001+08:00

On our second (and thanks to China Southern our LAST) full day in Hanoi, we woke up far too early so that we could do a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda. The hotel said the bus would arrive at 8am so we needed to be ready by then. We got up and dressed and went downstairs to have some breakfast. The guy showed up at 7:45 while we were still eating. Oops. He came back later to get us and we headed off.

The tour guide was kind of...I guess awkward is the best word. He kept saying that the guys on the trip weren't very good looking, and then he said he thought I was going to win the Miss Universe contest. Then he asked if we wanted to hear a story "full of the humor". And then the story was basically him saying "I have no money so no girl will love me...isn't that sad?". Once he stopped talking, though, the bus ride was pleasant. It was cool looking out the windows, especially at all the rice patties we were passing. I loved the different scarecrows in the fields, all wearing one of those pointed hats. The ride was VERY bumpy though, which I think was a combo of bad shocks and some VERY uneven roads. One stretch of road, all I could think was "I would LOVE to take an ATV on this". We stopped oh-so-conveniently at a souvenir shop so we could use the bathroom on the way.

Once we arrived we got into boats for the approximately one hour trip down the river. There were about 12 people in our group and we all piled into a long boat and headed down the river. It was super sunny and warm. I got a bit of a sunburn on my shoulders, but it was nice after how cold it was in Shanghai before we left (although now that we are back, it's pretty hot here too). During the trip, the man paddling behind me accidentally dropped his hat into the river. Instinctively my hand shot over the edge of the boat to grab it...and my camera went with my hand. Thank goodness I had my wrist strap on. I would have been very mad if I lost my brand new birthday camera.

After the boat ride the tour guide tried to get us to take the cable car. And none too subtlety. Elizabeth said the walk up the mountain and the view was nice (having been there before) and I figured some exercise would be good after that awful stagnant day spent in the airport. Sadly, things aren't like they used to be. Where there was once a peaceful walk and a nice view, there is now vendors all the way up, blaring music and shouting at you to come sit and have a drink. I also had some flashbacks to the painful (rewarding....but painful) climb of yellow mountain. If you tell me I need to walk at a steady pace on a flat surface for an entire day I'll be fine. I like walking. But up is just cruel. It kills my poor leggies. Oh well. We got to the top and made it to the temple.

Perfume Pagoda is kind of a misleading name. I was imagining...well...a pagoda. One of those many layered buildings. Instead what we went to was a cave. The inside was filled with alters full of offerings, incense, candles and people praying. I had never seen a temple in a cave before, so that was pretty cool. It just wasn't what I expected. According to Elizabeth, if you go at the right time of year, flowers bloom on the mountain filling the area with a lovely scent. That's where the "perfume" part comes from.

We ended up taking the cable car down since it wasn't really worth the trip down just to be yelled at by vendors again. At the bottom we got lunch with the group. Some fish, some meat, a yummy garlicy river plant, and some tofu that had a sauce Liz loved. After that was the boat ride and bus ride back. Uneventful, but enjoyable. I've got tons of pictures taken during the boat ride.

When we got back we had some quick showers and changed. Then we went back to a show we had been to before to get some more Thai fisherman pants for me. So comfy! We bought some souvenirs (I got something for my parents...don't tell them...shhh). We also stopped for some street food. I picked out some spicy shrimp dish, some very yummy fish and some meat with veggies. What will I do when I move back to America where there aren't people cooking lamb on sticks everywhere? Ah well. We of course also had to get some more ice cream. It's Elizabeth's favorite ice cream in the world. I can see why. Yum.

We stopped for coffee once more and while there I got some to bring home, as well as the super cool drip filters. I think I will write a whole post about it later. I am smitten with Vietnamese coffee now. The last thing we did was stop for some frothy and cooling lemon juices. Then it was back to the hotel to pack and get to bed.

The next morning we got dressed and out the door and in the taxi to the airport. Being out that early gave me a very different view of Hanoi from the previous two days. Every time we had gone out before it was a chaos of motorbikes and people. That last morning was surprisingly quiet and calm. The flight from Hanoi to Guangzhou and then to Beijing was fine. Once we reached our old stomping ground of Beijing international airport, we hit a snag. Although the flight was delayed we miraculously got our luggage first and made it to the check in counter with a few minutes to spare. Then the guy behind the counter says something I didn't want to here:

"There are no seats left on this flight."

ARRRG. I thought we were in for another horrible bout of bad luck, but after an uncomfortably long time of standing around while he called people and shouted at the other workers, he turns and asks us if we will be willing to take the same flight an hour later...in first class. Oh yes please! That was about the best thing that could happen. We didn't have to rush to make the next flight (instead we went and had some Starbucks) annnnd we got first class.

I don't think I have ever sat in first class before. It was fan-freakin-tastic. They served us drinks while the plane was boarding. I had my own pair of slippers and my own personal screen with movies and games (with a remote so I could fast forward and rewind and such!). I could fully recline as well as put my feet up. When they came by with drinks they were served in glass cups and they gave us the entire can of soda (remember way back before flights got so stingy and they would give you the whole can of soda? Better days, man). The meal served had TWO COURSES. And it was served on a TABLECLOTH. It was so fancy pants. Altogether it was a nice way to end the trip after the awful way it started.

Well, I've gone and rambled on too much again. I will post another entry with some pictures and maybe some general impressions of Hanoi. Hope I didn't bore you!

Hanoi Continued

2010-05-07T14:22:00.001+08:00

After our little break back at the hotel on our first full day in Hanoi, we headed back out. First we went back so Elizabeth could make her final decision about which shirts to get. I think I may have convinced her to get a peasant sleeved blouse (I have a weak spot for big drapey sleeves) but it's ok since she looked really good in it.

After that we made our way to the "fish street". I don't know if I mentioned this, but the layout of Hanoi is a lot like the layout of Shanghai. In that stores are grouped by what they sell. In Shanghai they have a street called Jingling Rd which pretty much ONLY sells musical instruments. I have also seen streets where almost every store is for pregnant women, or almost all shoes. It makes shopping pretty convenient. When I needed to buy a guitar tuner here in Shanghai, I just popped from store to store on Jingling Rd until found one I liked at a good price. Hanoi is similar. I saw craft streets, shoe streets, silk streets, etc. According to Elizabeth the name of the streets in Vietnamese actually say what the street sells. So...we went to "fish street" for dinner.

This fish ROCKED. One thing I loved was the "menu" here. All it said was "We only have one dish at this restaurant. Grilled Fish" followed by the price. We ordered enough for two. Out came all the prep material. Some cold noodles for each of us, chili sauce, peanuts, a big dish of herbs and most importantly a pan of fish and veggies cooking over a stand filled with hot coals. The smell was intoxicating and the taste was even better. You put everything in your bowl, gave it a mix and ate up. It was savory and refreshing at the same time. I want to know how to make this fish. I found a recipe on line but I haven't tried it yet so I'm not sure how close it is to the real thing.

After that we went for some coffee and a sit down by the lake, then went back to the place Elizabeth likes for some more ice cream. Then we walked around eating and singing. (Yes, singing...how do you pass the time?) During our walk we passed a park full of kids in little electronic cars. It took us a minute to realize that they were like remote control cars, but big enough for children to sit in. So a bunch of parents were walking around "driving" their children. It was funny.

Luckily, we were able to catch the night market. Elizabeth wasn't sure if and when it would be held and we happened to see it being set up as we were walking around. After it was set up, we walked up and down taking a look at everything. I also got some meat on a stick. Not sure what kind of meat it was. Tasty though.

After all the walking, our feet were hurting pretty bad so we decided to get some foot massages. There was a place near our hotel that offered 1 hour foot massages for about $10. Considering that's exactly how much I pay back in Shanghai, I figured it was fair. The massages were advertised as "Chinese" but speaking as people who LIVE in China, Elizabeth and I did not agree. They weren't bad...they just weren't Chinese. Regardless, it was a nice refresher for our sore feet.

Just to break up the days a bit better, I'm going to write about the next day as another entry.

Loves!

Oops...

2010-05-06T16:36:00.001+08:00

I wish I could retract my last e-mail. Since I can't sign on blogspot I can't just delete the entry.

Turns out my documents are all still on my computer. The computer teacher saved them in an obscure place and from first glance it looks like all my documents, music and pictures are still there. It is still a bit troublesome since he downloaded Windows 2003, which means I can't open my docx or pptx files (which almost all of my documents ARE). But I'm sure I can just download a patch or something to get to them.

Things are looking a LOT better than I thought. And now I feel stupid about ranting about a problem I didn't really have.

Expect another Hanoi entry soon (I need something to distract from my stupidity).

-S

Ugggggh.

2010-05-06T15:56:00.001+08:00

So today at work my laptop decided to DESTROY MY LIFE.

I was going over my PPT for my classes today when it shut down for no reason. This has been happening ever since I got my new battery. Since it doesn't happen that often and there was never a problem before, I haven't been worrying about it. Except today when I tried to turn it back on....it wouldn't. It went through the start up cycle over and over again. I kept getting blue screened and then it would say it couldn't turn on and the process would start all over again. I tried starting it in safe mode, I tried starting it plugged in without the battery, I tried going through the advanced start up....nada.

The computer teacher came and took it away after he saw what was happening. I couldn't really worry about it since I had to remember everything in my power point and now go teach some classes without it. He said he would try to get it back to me at the end of the day. Sure enough, it was on my desk at 3:20pm. I started it up happily only to find that he had wiped my hard drive.

EVERYTHING IS GONE. I feel so numb. I really wish the computer teacher had TALKED to me before he had done that. Even if there was no other option, I would have liked a little warning before I started up my computer to find everything gone. Things aren't too terrible, I think. Luckily for me I saved my pictures to my big external before I left for Hanoi because I wanted to erase the pictures on my camera and I wanted to make sure they were backed up first. I THINK when I did that I also saved my newest version of my work folder. I THINK. I am scared to go back to my apartment and check.

If I didn't, it means that my grades, lesson plans, PPTs....everything I have done this year and had gotten ready for the rest of this semester is gone. I really really really hope I did save that folder.

This is so annoying. I have to reset everything on my laptop again and there are some music and documents and such I know I have lost for good.

This has put me in a rather grumpy mood. And to top everything off, someone stole my umbrella.

Harumph.

Hanoi: Day One

2010-05-02T15:43:00.002+08:00

Things have gotten much better since our arrival in Hanoi. It has been raining on and off but not too badly. We woke up this morning and had ourselves some hotel breakfast. Eggs and toast. With Vietnamese coffee. Yum yum yum. They put condensed milk at the bottom which is just delightful.

After that we headed out the door. Elizabeth wanted to get our tickets to go see the water puppets tonight. When we arrived at the theater all of their tickets for the night were sold out. BUT they did have seats left for a show that was going to start in about 5 minutes. Good timing! We bought our tickets and head on in.

The seats in the theater were not built for Western people. The width was fine, but the space from the back of my chair to the chair in front of me was about 3 inches shorter than the length of my thighs. There was no way for me to get comfortable, but after much wiggling and twisting I was able to find a position that didn't make me feel like my kneecaps were breaking.

The show was cool. To anyone who is unfamiliar with what the water puppet show is (like I was 24 hours ago) there is a stage with water and the puppeteers work the puppets out of sight with long poles that go under the water. Liz says that the show originated in the rice patties to amuse the workers. The whole show was about 45 minutes long and was in Vietnamese, but since it was mostly singing and about the visuals it was a lot of fun. I think the mixture of my own delight and the youthful comments of the children in the audience made me feel like a child myself. One part of the show involved two people fishing. The man was splashing his basket all over and at one point trapped his friend. The woman than chased him around with her basket, until she trapped him in a corner and he was shaking with fear. Another highlight of the show was a phoenix dance that ended with a hatching egg and a new phoenix dancing with it's parents. I've got pictures and videos for when I get back.

After that we went to a lake (don't ask me what it was called, I can't speak Vietnamese!) with a bridge to a pagoda in the middle. Apparently there is a legend there, something about a sword and a giant turtle and the sword has been given back to the giant turtle...I'm not sure. But it was pretty and there was a small temple.

After that we got some coffee and popsicles. Very tasty. Then we found a lovely cathedral. Liz thinks we really lucked out and showed up as mass was letting out because we were able to get in and look around. When we were leaving, they were locking up the doors. The cathedral was really nice with stained glass portraits of saints down the walls. I'm not a religious person, but I find going to temples and churches always has a calming effect on me.

The next part may sound a little weird, but we went to an italian place for lunch. Liz's friend Kevin said it was amazing so we decided to try it. It really was delicious. We split three things: pesto linguine, four cheese pizza and something that had spinach, potatoes and anchovies with lots of garlic. Everything was super tasty. When we finished, we realized we needed to get back to the hotel to book our day trip for tomorrow.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a few shops. I bought a pair of thai fishermen pants (which I am wearing right now and they are SUPER COMFY) and Liz got a shirt. We made it back to the hotel and booked a day trip tomorrow for the Perfume Pagoda.

Now we are resting a bit. Liz is having a nap and I took a nice cooling rinse in the shower (it's pretty warm here, but not too bad). We plan no heading out for some special grilled fish for dinner and maybe some more street wandering. My Pinghe coworkers told me I HAVE to try the street food here so I need to keep my eyes open for anything that looks good.

Well, we have been back for our rest for a while and the day is a wasting, so I think I'm gonna try to wake up Liz now. Wish me luck!

Love,
Stephanie

Unlucky

2010-05-02T01:48:00.002+08:00

***WARNING: This blog post is very little updating and almost 100% me complaining***

My friend Elizabeth and I have had a very unlucky trip so far.

It started off well enough with us meeting at the airport and checking out bags with no problem. Our flight was delayed for almost an hour which really wasn't good because it means we missed our transfer. Things went from bad to worse to hell almost immediately.

We had purchased the tickets through Expedia as one trip. Shanghai to Beijing, Beijing to Guangzhou, then Guangzhou to Hanoi. Now, anyone who knows anything about China and/or Southeast Asia geography probably just spit their coffee at the computer as they exclaimed "WHAT!? You went NORTH to go SOUTH?". Yes, well, it was our cheapest offer and I am a poor teacher so we went for it.

ANYWAY. When we missed the transfer we thought of course something would be done. Since the whole trip was through China Southern Airlines, we went to them first. They said that because the first flight was a China Eastern Airlines plane, it was their fault. We went to them and they said it was China Southern Airline's fault. Then they tried to blame us because they said that the amount of time booked between flights wasn't enough (although MANY HOURS LATER when we talked to Expedia they said the blame really did lie with China Southern since they booked all three flights as one trip and if the lay over wasn't long enough the trip shouldn't have gone through as a valid option).

It was beyond frustrating. Here we were stuck with a bunch of people pointing fingers at each other and all we wanted was some action to be taken. And no action would be taken because no one wanted to take the blame. We first tried any way possible to get to Hanoi that night. Take another flight with the same airline, take another flight with a different airline. ANYTHING. We even tried to get them to send us back to Shanghai so we could at least go to our apartments and then try again the next day. Nope nope nope. Then we tried to get the earliest flight to Hanoi we could for the NEXT day. The only thing they would let us switch to was the same flight as the one we missed for the next day. So we would have to wait for 24 hours.

Once we realized what the crappy situation was and that we couldn't get out of it, we then asked what the airline was going to do. As in, what hotel would they be putting us up in for the night. And here's the fun part, because no one would accept the blame, they said it was not their responsibility and we were going to have to find our own place to stay.

After arguing, pleading, running around and I will admit a little bit of crying, we walked away from the counter to go find some internet. We thought the best thing to do would be to call Expedia and see if they could do anything to help. Maybe switch us to a different flight or maybe help us get a room or find out who was to blame. When we called (I had to buy a $15 IC card that we used up entirely for the many phone calls) the agent he said that he needed to talk to the airlines directly and their offices wouldn't open for another 4 hours. We sat in the internet cafe for 4 hours. We watched TV, we chatted, I slept a little.

When the four hours were up (keep in mind it was now 11pm), we called. We were put on hold. We used up the IC card. They said they would call my cell phone after they talked to the airlines. We waited for about another half hour. They called. They told us our flights were all set for tomorrow "And you're all set, goodbye!" Wait wait wait. We explained our situation again and the woman told us that it was China Southern's fault but there was nothing she could do to help us at this point.

We were sitting on the floor of the arrivals hall. After midnight. Things were pretty much as shitty as they could get.

We found a "hotel" in the basement of the terminal. It actually turned out to be ok. It was the first bright spot in our trip since things went so terribly wrong. We slept until 10:30 the next day. We had some lunch, we played some cards, we got some ice cream.

When we checked in to our flight we saw the same lady that basically told us we were screwed and she wasn't going to do anything about it. She waved at us happily. I wanted to punch her. We checked into our flight. The woman made fun of us in Chinese. Probably is, we can speak Chinese. Elizabeth called them out. It was more frustrating.

The plane was delayed AGAIN. Again for almost a full hour. Luckily this flight was connected to the one after so we couldn't miss it. Going through customs was fine and the next flight was uneventful. We got our visas for Vietnam on arrival, the driver from the hotel was waiting to pick us up and we are now in our hotel room. There is only one bed in the room but it's big, LizzyB and I have shared a bed before and after the start to this vacation we've had it's really not that big of a deal.

So, 39 hours after leaving my apartment, I arrived at my hotel in Hanoi. Not a very good start to the trip. The thing that is most annoying, in my opinion, is that we already had a short trip. We were only going to have three full days in Hanoi. Now, because of this whole mess we only have two. That REALLY upsets me. And the fact that I don't know if there is anything we can do about it just gets me more angry.

I'm lucky that I am traveling with Elizabeth. If I was going through this alone I think I would have had a mental breakdown. Instead, we can commiserate and cheer each other up. We are determined to have the best two days in Hanoi that we possibly can.

We've got a full plan of things to do for tomorrow so I should get some sleep.

Wish us lucky, we need it.

Love,
Stephanie

Lucky Draw!

2010-04-26T16:55:00.001+08:00

This Saturday I was heading to a party at a friend's place. Since he lives about 15 subway stops away (don't worry, I brought a book) I really didn't feel like carrying some snacks and drinks for the party on such a long trip. I asked him if there was a good convenience store near him where I could pick up some stuff. He suggested the 7-11 in the subway stop I would be getting out at. I got there and grabbed a few things and went up to pay. After I paid, they told me to pick 7 of these scratch ticket things. This kind of small lottery is pretty popular in China. Some receipts have a little scratch off area where you can win small amounts of money or prizes. Apparently the government started the program to get people to ask for their receipts more often.

ANYWAY. I was in a little bit of a rush because I thought i was going to be late (I was the first one there...I think I might be obsessed with being on time), so I just went to put the cards in my pocket to look at later. The girl behind the counter looked at in exasperation and told me I needed to scratch the tickets off right then and there. So I moved my stuff to the side and scratched off the cards as fast as I could. Six of them were all the same message and although I didn't understand it, I assumed it was the equivalent of "Thanks for playing, try again". One was different, so I handed it to the cashier. She got REALLY excited.

I won two tickets to the Shanghai Expo. I can't even remember if I have mentioned the Expo in my blog. It's kind of a huge deal and most of the people here (at least the expats I have been talking to) are pretty sick of hearing about it. I personally find Haibao (the Expo mascot that looks like Gumby's shorter, bluer and more annoying cousin) the worst part. He is EVERYWHERE. I will admit thought that the Expo actually does sound pretty cool the more I hear about it and I figured it's kind of essential that I go before I leave China. The cheapest ticket that I have seen is about 160RMB for a one day pass, so even if that's what I won, it's a value of over 300RMB, which is pretty cool. Apparently the 7-11 workers thought it was a big deal. They took a picture of me and took my name down. I'm assuming it's to hang up my picture and say I won there (like they do with the lottery back in the US). EIther that or they thought I was just so darn pretty.

So now I get to go to the Expo. And for free too!

By The Numbers

2010-04-17T22:44:00.001+08:00

This weekend I went on a trip with some coworkers to Wuzhen. Here are some statistics about my trip.

1: The number of new cities I visited this weekend. (Wuzhen)

2: The number of new animals I ate this weekend: turtle (I felt a little guilty about eating one of my favorite animals but it was good) and sparrow (TINY but pretty tasty).

3: The number of boat rides we took on canals through Wuzhen.

4: The number of containers of tea I brought back. One was a free gift. The other three were part of a special deal for babaocha (one of my favorite teas), how could I resist?

5: The number of books in the Chinese comic set I bought about the Monkey King. I figured it would be a fun way to practice Chinese.

6: I can't think of anything for six so I will just use this place to say I bought the area's specialty: rice wine. It came in a bamboo container. I have yet to try it,

7: The floor of the hotel we stayed in. I shared a room with my boss, Luo.

8: The number of chapters I read during the trip in the book I am reading, "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. I think everyone should read this book. I am enjoying it immensely.

9x10: The amount in RMB I paid for a hand carved driftwood statue with a Buddha face.

11: The approximate amount of weeks I have before I move back to America. I told Pinghe that I will not be coming back for a third year. I may have cried. They told me I was always welcome here and that they hoped I would come back. I may have cried again. Now I just need to find a job back in America...

An Awesome Weekend

2010-04-12T10:11:00.001+08:00

I had a very full weekend, mostly concentrated around Saturday night.

I don't think I mentioned it in my blog but I was asked to perform as an old hollywood actress for the American Chamber of Commerce Hollywood Lights Gala charity event. I decided to be Mae West. I put a lot of effort in preparing for my role. I had a dress made, bought accessories to match (including a wig), memorized some of her famous one-liners, etc. Friday night was some last minute planning for the role. I read up a little more about her life, watched some videos so I could get my voice to sound like hers, put the whole outfit on to check to make sure it was all set, and did my nails.

Saturday I had brunch with Sarah and then we went on a hunt for some lipstick that would be the right color and wouldn't cost me a million dollars. Then Sarah was very patient and super helpful and did my makeup and helped me get on my wig (even with my new short haircut I have a LOT of hair to tuck away). I even wore false eyelashes for the first time. I really liked them. :-) Then I grabbed a cab and headed to the Shangri-la for the event, threw on my dress and made my entrance.

There were two other actors for the night and I was surprised to find I knew them both already. There is a surprisingly small community in Shanghai when it comes to foreign performers. Serious case of 6-degrees of seperation. The other girl was being Marylin Monroe and the guy was playing an old timey director (John Huston?). I was a little disapointed because hardly anyone knew who Mae West was (although the few times I was "recognized" was a LOT of fun) and I was trying to stay true to character so I couldn't really go around all bubbly like Marylin Monroe. I still enjoyed throwing out a few one-liners and throwing smoldering glances at everyone I saw. Although I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I might have been throwing smoldering glances at flower pots, walls, or the backs of people's heads.

After that was done with I had to get out of costume really quick and head to Sound Blue for an improv performance. As soon as I got there I had to de-wig, pull off my fake eyelashes (OW) and wipe off all my makeup. We warmed up and then had our performance. We played a few new games including Questions Only and Props. A few people from work came, and I was also able to see Lucy for the first time since the beginning of February. The show went really well. The place was pretty full and we got tons of laughs. I had a lot of people I didn't know coming up to me after the show to say I was really good. Yay! This time the director also mentioned that we do this for free and put out a tip jar. My cut of the tips was enough to pay for the taxi home, which was nice.

Also on Saturday I got a text comfirmation from Elizabeth that our tickets are booked for our trip to Hanoi. The holiday ended up being for 5 days instead of just a long weekend like I thought it was going to be, so I am very excited for the extra time in Vietnam. Elizabeth has been there before so she already knows a good hotel to stay at and some good places to go. This will be the fifth country I've ever been to (America, Canada, China, Japan....VIETNAM!). I can't wait. We leave on the 30th of April.

The last bit of news really isn't mine to tell. A good friend of mine got engaged and asked me to be a bridesmaid! It's the first time I have ever been asked and both her and her fiance are good friends of mine so I am really excited. I won't put their names here, though, on the off chance that someone who knows them reads my blog before they get a chance to spread the news themselves. EEEE!

I suppose that's all my biggest news for now. Next week is midterms. I can't believe the semester is almost half done already. The seniors are taking their IB exams in three weeks. Wowza.Actually, I have a "mid-term" myself this week. We are at about the middle of my Chinese classes and we are halfway through our new textbook so our teacher is giving us a bit of a midterm this week. I haven't had a midterm in about two years!

Well, gotta prepare for classes. Leave comments to say how good I look as Mae West.

Much love,
Stephanie

HAIRCUT HAIRCUT

2010-04-08T13:38:00.001+08:00

I continue to be horrible at updating. I know. But something happened this weekend where an update seemed kind of necessary. I cut off about 10 inches of hair.

My before picture kind of sucks in that it was taken about 3 months ago. I thought about taking a before picture right before I cut it but I figured I would be able to find at least ONE clear picture of my long hair from recently. Oh well.

I got tired of it being so long and the summer is coming so I figured I might as well chop it all off. When the time came for the cutting I was a bit frazzled so I completely forgot about gathering it up in a ponytail to donate it to Locks of Love. Oh well. Next time! My friend Elizabeth (the one from improv) was the one who did the honors and I think for no real training she gave me a pretty nice 'do. Liz cut my hair out on my balcony. I felt very Chinese getting my haircut outside. At first she was cutting off chunks and throwing it all over the edge of the balcony. After we watched it wildly blowing in the breeze we figured it was best to throw the rest away inside.

The comments on it have been mixed but positive. Walking into class for the first time after having it cut lead to a very fun reaction of "Woooooh!" and applause from the students. Most people say I look a lot younger. I look younger to myself as well since this is what my hair looked like when I was a freshman in college.

One interesting reaction was that a few people asked me if I was in love. I asked a coworker about it and I guess it's a saying or something that if a woman cuts her hair (at least as severe as a haircut as I had) it means there is some big change in her life. For the record, I am not in love. Just wanted a hair cut.

On a related note, as I was walking back to my apartment the day after the haircut and was surprised to find a dead rat by the side of the path on the school's campus. As I got closer, though, I realized it was not a dead rat but my own hair. Nice.

Anyway, what do you think?

Much love,
Stephanie

Bye Google

2010-03-23T08:28:00.001+08:00

Crap crap crap.

Google has been talking for a long time about leaving China. Apparently there were censorship issues and other disagreements with the Chinese government. We all heard about it back in January but nothing had happened since. Until this morning.

Goodbye Google.com.cn. When I try to go to Google.com or use my toolbar google search I get automatically switched to Google Hong Kong. Weird.

Right now I can still get into my Gmail account and I can search in English using Google HK, but I am going to be up a certain creek without my paddle if China decides to block Google entirely. Not only do I use Google at least 10 times a day, that's where my e-mail account is. ARGH.

*grumble grumble*
Stephanie

Pay For The Funny!

2010-03-22T15:17:00.001+08:00

I am pretty sure I mentioned before that I've been spending time with Zuloo Smack, an improv group (apparently the ONLY improv group) in Shanghai. I've been going to their weekly labs when I was available and have been in a total of three performances so far. The first two were at Bali Bistro and one, this Saturday, was at Sound Blue.

I did improv all four years in college and I was really excited to find an improv group here. I had done performances at Drew for mixed audiences in terms of size and reception. I still say the best show that I was in was the one we did as an opening act for a Thursday night comedy group in the Space (a hangout on campus). The two Bali Bistro performances had it's ups and downs. Two serious downsides were that the stage was TINY. I mean like the size of a large elevator. Try acting in that kind of space. The other downside was that the people there really didn't come to see improv but to eat, so it kind of felt like we were interrupting.

Saturday's show was the first time that I have performed in an improv show that people paid to see and it felt really good. The American Women's Club was doing a charity and we were the entertainment. The Sound Blue stage is a little bigger so we had more freedom and the people coming CAME to see improv. It was so cool.

I think one of my favorite parts of the night was the game Genres, where we act out a normal scene, then do it 2-3 more times in different movie styles. For example, the scene we did Saturday we did again as a chick flick, a western and a musical. I was in the scene with Matthew and Christoper. I've done scenes before where we have to sing, but this was the first time EVER we had someone actually playing the piano that we had to sing along with (think Whose Line Is It Anyway). I don't know if the fact that there would be a piano player for that scene was mentioned during a rehearsal and I just wasn't paying attention or what, but that was a HUGE surprise for me standing up there on stage when the music started. It went really well though, and someone from the audience later told me I had a lovely singing voice! :-)

It was a lot of fun doing improv for an audience that came specifically to see us. It was really cool to get a lot of compliments from people watching after the show. I love performing in front of people. It's a nice rush.

Afterwards, the actors all went to a bar called Bell and hung out a little while longer. It's a fun group of people. Especially Elizabeth! I'm hoping that she and I will go to Hanoi during a long weekend I have the first weekend in May. We'll see!

Much Love.
Teh Sprof

Nice Guy Taxis

2010-03-21T11:29:00.001+08:00

I've had my bad luck with taxis in China. Especially in Shanghai. I've had taxis that have purposely tried to rip me off. I've had to deal with such things as them messing with the meter, taking the longest way possible to get to my destination, getting "lost" or even saying they had no change when I tried to pay with a larger bill.

I've learned to deal with it. Usually with preventative measures. I always repeat where I want to go at least twice to make sure we are both clear. I bring a map so that I can point out exactly where I want to go. I will say in Chinese which characters the street names are or by which route I want them to take me. I always pay attention when they are driving and if I know they are going the wrong way I make a stink. I've gotten the fare reduced a few times because I know they were doing something wrong. Still, on occasion, I know I've been ripped off and there wasn't really anything I could do about it.

With that mindset, yesterday was a really nice change. TWICE yesterday I was taking a taxi and before we arrived at my destination they lifted up the meter so that I got a reduced price. The only time a driver has EVER done that for me before was because I demanded they did since they had taken the long way around. Both times yesterday when I asked why they did it the drivers said they did it because they had gotten a little lost. I had been paying attention and both drivers went maybe the TINIEST BIT out of the way. Nothing I would bother complaining about usually. Instead they both realized what had happened and just made sure I got the real price. I was shocked the first time it happened and beside myself when it happened the very next time I took a taxi.

It's a nice change to have taken a ride with an honest and kind taxi driver.

-Stephanie

The Contents of a Woman's Purse...

2010-03-15T12:02:00.001+08:00

Things at work continue to be crazy busy. I thought I would post something but since I don't have too much time to really get up to date I thought I would be silly and post something as a kind of window to my life. Last night I cleaned out 3 purses and 2 backpacks I had been using on and off because I was getting tired of not being able to find what I needed everyday. They say the content of a woman's purse will tell you a lot about them. Here is a list of everything I found:

2 Cameras
3 Greeting Cards
5 Packages of Wet Wipes
7 Packages of tissues
1 Pair of sunglasses
3 Chapsticks (all Burt's Bees)
3 Necklaces
2 Hairclips
1 Novel
2 Chinese dictionaries
3 Notebooks
1 Sudoku book
1 Chinese textbook
2 Maps of Shanghai
5 Containers of Doublemint mints (2 of which were empty)
11 Pieces of gum not in their packages
3 Partial packages of gum
2 Mirrors
1 Pack of Beijing Opera playing cards
81RMB in assorted bills and coins (and one British penny)
1 Container of floss
1 Pair of folding scissors
1 Wallet
1 Change purse
and
1 single journey subway ticket.

This subway ticket really bothers me for two reasons. One: I ALWAYS use my transit card. ALWAYS. and Two: You need to put the subway ticket back in the machine to get out. Did someone slip this thing in my purse thereby trapping themselves in the subway? I am really confused.

Also not mentioned was a PILE of receipts and empty gum wrappers which I tossed and a PILE of entrance tickets I was still carrying around from my trip with Mom and Bethany.

So what do you get from the list? The only pattern I see is that I live in Shanghai, am studying Chinese and care about dental hygiene.

Later taters!
Stephanie

Why Haven't I Posted?

2010-03-04T12:48:00.001+08:00

"Why hasn't Stephanie posted?", you may ask yourself. The answer is simple. I am awash in responsibilities.

Apparently this semester is front loaded with craziness. I have been back at work for less than two weeks but have already had 4 meetings. The Extended Essays are due the end of this week and since I have two EE students I have to read draft after draft and give advice about them, as well as filling out supervisor forms and conducting interviews. Me, the worrier, is paranoid I am going to miss something important that will make them lose points so I have been reading all the IBO documentation about EEs that I can find.

CAS (creativity, action and service) is also winding down for the seniors. I have to have final interviews with each of my 5 CAS students by Wednesday next week, as well as reviewing their handbooks, filling in progress reports and giving final comments. I found out there was going to be another River of Hearts volunteer event this Saturday so I took the initiative to try and get some Pinghe students to go. I put up a sign up sheet, organized a meeting point and sent announcement reminders to the classroom teachers. This is the first time I am doing something like this by myself so I hope it goes well. I've got 20 students signed up already.

In the world of classes, right now I have my normal class schedule of 12 classes a week with grade 11 and 12. In about two weeks I am going to have an open class where my co-workers will observe me teaching (I get so nervous for those). After that I have about 6 weeks of TOK (basic philosophy) classes that I will be teaching on top of my normal workload. I am teaching my TOK class about Art I put together last semester for the grade 10 class 3, and doing a new section on The Power of Names for the other two grade 10 classes.

I also have a GIANT STACK of winter homework that I am trying to get through ASAP so it doesn't just sit on my desk and take up room. At least it makes for interesting reading since I tried to give them creative writing prompts that they could have fun with.

I hope all this doesn't come across as complaining. I would rather be awash in responsibilities than feel useless. I feel a lot more involved with my students and my school this year and it's nice to feel like what I am doing matters. And this craziness shouldn't last long. This is a relatively short semester (19 weeks), and once May rolls around my responsibilities with the 12th graders are pretty much over. They start their exams then and as soon as the exams are done they graduate.

In my life outside of Pinghe, I am still going to improv lab. We have a meeting on Monday to discuss some upcoming shows. I'm happy to be performing again. My Chinese classes will be starting up again next Tuesday at the same school but with a new teacher and a classmate! I hope the classmate and I get along and that the teacher is good.

I've been having fun hanging out with various people, but nothing really blog worthy. I went to a birthday dinner for a friend at a Turkish resaturant, met up with someone I haven't seen since high school who happened to be in Shanghai, as well as various dinners and nights out with coworkers. I have kept up my Sunday night baking tradition and brought some brownies in on Monday. I think next I shall make sugar cookies using a lovely heart shaped cooking cutter my friend Rose sent me.

Anyway, I am sorry for the delay and hopefully I will have something more interesting to post soon.

Much love!
Stephanie

GEISHA PICTURES

2010-02-27T17:46:00.001+08:00

D'Arcy sent me my pictures and the CD with all the files from our geisha makeovers. SO EXCITING.

I plan on posting a real entry soon, but I just couldn't wait to share these pictures!

Loves,
Stephanie

Day Nine Onwards – Shanghai

2010-02-14T22:58:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom and Bethany

On Monday, we didn't set an alarm. We slept late and S even served us hot drinks in bed (mocha for B, tea for me). Then we went to the local huge shopping center (Carrefour) down the street. The bottom floor has multiple cafeterias and we picked and chose several different foods to share. Then we picked up a hair dryer and a few other things. It was crazy busy due to the upcoming New Years.

More than once, while standing in line, someone cut in front of me or tried to cut in front of me. S had to warn me more than once because I just wasn't paying attention and let a small gap in front of me. It is just like driving, if there is a gap, someone will go into it.

We were thinking of going for another massage, but we were so tired, we decided we needed to rest more first. As we walked back to S's apartment, we saw workers (in cook's outfits and such) playing cards in groups on the sidewalk, sitting on the ground or squatting. When we got back, we popped in a DVD and chilled.

That night, Stephanie had scheduled a wine tasting with her favorite wine tasting bartender, Pierre, for us and a few friends. Pierre emailed pretty late and said he was laid up in the hospital. Stephanie tried to work something else out but we ended up just having several bottles of wine and some really interesting food with Stephanie's friends Stephanie and Fleur joining us. Stephanie is a teacher at PingHe just like Stephanie and Fleur is a website designer for an Australian company.

After dinner, Fleur headed home and the four of us headed to one of S's favorite bars, Windows Underground, in the basement of a building. They play American pop music and their drinks are cheap. Being a Monday night, we were able to grab a table right away. S showed us a dice game we can play without being able to hear each other talk (you use hand signals for the game) and it was a lot of fun. A guy from Zambia named Sam, bought us all a round of drinks, then joined our dice game and then tried to convince me to stay in Shanghai, he would even pay me. Okay, time to leave.

We grabbed a taxi to the apartment and got home about 2AM.

On Tuesday, we slept very late. Then we headed to the Yu Garden and Old Shanghai. It is a large collection of shops and restaurants, from very cheap to very expensive. The entire area was very elaborately decorated for New Year's and was beautiful. We went to a popular restaurant for Shanghai style dumplings. We then crossed the bridge that is supposed to give us long lives.

Then we walked along the Bund, a row of beautiful European style buildings along the river's edge. They are doing all sorts of improvements in preparation for the 2010 Expo, so there was a wall between the road and the river and the sidewalk was being improved. We saw the famous Shanghai skyline all lit up across the river.

We then walked toward Nanjing Road, another row of modern stores and restaurants as we headed toward the subway. One thing I saw that was interesting was delivery bikes for several restaurants, including KFC and McDonalds. Why don't they offer that in the US?

On Wednesday, we went for a Chinese all-body massage. It's amazing how many aches and pains our bodies have from walking ALL day and sleeping on really hard beds. So really, they are necessary.

We then headed to the Shanghai museum and learned quite a bit of Chinese history. It was much more fascinating that we thought and ended up running out of time and got kicked out at closing time. A bell rang, the security guards shooed us out and as we sat on the front steps, planning our next step, we saw the procession of security guards exiting.

We walked down the rest of Nanjing Road that we didn't see last night. Everywhere we went, we were always approached by street vendors. The most interesting item they were trying to sell us here was a set of two wheels that you strap to your sneakers. Then you could walk when you wanted to, or roll away when wanted. If only I was younger…

Stephanie then brought us to another great restaurant. My favorite dish, which I had requested to have again which I remembered from our last trip, was a caramelized potato dish. We had it here and it was awesome. We grabbed a cab home which went right underneath the skyscrapers. We were able to take some interesting pictures of them with their tops lost in the fog.

On Thursday, I desperately needed to stay off my feet, especially since we were going out Salsa dancing at night. I suggested B and S feel free to go out without me. It was a very rainy day which was perfect for me to stay in.

***Bethany Writes About Her Day!***

I still wanted to walk around more to take in more Shanghai. Stephanie graciously offered to take me to see 2 Buddhists' temples and the Fake Market (another huge market place with designer purses, sunglasses, and all kinds of other items). We decided to visit the Jade Temple first because Stephanie had not been there…that way if we only made it to one temple, it would be new for Stephanie too. Off we went.

It was a cool rainy day, not great for outdoor sightseeing but we pressed on. We stopped for breakfast at my favorite coffee spot, The Coffee Beanery. We had a western breakfast. I had my standard mocha and Stephanie had her caramel macchiato. After breakfast, we jumped in a cab headed for the subway. We took the subway to the closest stop to the Jade temple and grabbed another cab from there to the temple.

The temple was surprisingly busy with worshipers. Stephanie explained this was most likely due to the impending Chinese New Year's which is a very important time for the Chinese. As we walked into the courtyard, we saw 3 large vessels with burning fires. People were crowded around the fire lighting incense. Around the courtyard and beyond were structures all in the traditional Chinese architecture. Inside each building were many deities, everywhere you turned, with stools in front of them for the worshipers to kneel and pray. They also had amazing detailed beautiful alters in front of the larger deities. The alters were covered with gifts of fruit, food, coins, and other items. We watched as many people walked through the temples, kneeling to pray to almost every deity. At the back of the temple area, we heard chanting and peeked inside to briefly see part of a Buddhist service in progress.

We now headed to the front exit and on the way were greeted by a woman asking if we wanted to try the tea from the temple…a special blend only available at the temple. After Stephanie confirmed the tasting was free, we followed her upstairs for the tea ceremony. We tried 4 different teas and then she blended several together for us to taste. As we sipped our tea, we wondered if Ms. Vickie was awake yet. Stephanie and I both liked teas #5 and #8 so we both bought a box of each. As with most things in China, these were not prepackaged so the woman scooped out our tea and put it into our pretty boxes. Then off we went.

It took a few minutes to catch a cab back to the subway (I'm getting used to this occasional inconvenience now). It wouldn't have been quite so bad if it wasn't cold and drizzling. It was nice to get in the cab and on the subway to warm up some. Stephanie, having seen both temples now, said that she liked the Longhua Temple better and we should go there. Whaaaaaaaa! I'm cold and wet. I reminded myself that I asked for more sightseeing…besides when would I be back to China?????

On the map, the Longhua Temple looked closer to the subway stop than the Jade Temple so we thought it might be within walking distance. Hhmm!!!!! I think the map lied or maybe I was just being a weenie because I was cold and wet. Well, we made it. This temple was similar in layout and architecture with many worshipers. However, the insides of the buildings and the deities were more impressive. One building had 3 walls (top to bottom) of small Buddhas, each one slightly different. Another building had 4 large statues of females with their backs to each other. Each one had 8 arms, all holding a different object. We went through several other buildings with large gold deities. The ceilings inside the buildings were absolutely beautiful with detail carvings and designs. Stephanie was right. This temple was more impressive and I was glad we went.

We took a taxi to a different subway line instead of walking more in the rain. Now to the Fake Market which is inside the subway tunnel at the science museum stop…warm and dry. This area is an underground mini-mall with small shop after shop all willing to barter for the sale. I spotted some D&G purses I liked. Fake, of course, as the market name implies. We haggled with the woman for a bit getting her down from over 320 RMB per purse to 300 for both. I wasn't anxious enough so we decided to have lunch at a food spot next door. We enjoyed lunch and wondered again if Ms. Vickie was awake. As we walked out of the lunch shop, the purse woman was waiting to pursue the sale. I offered her 250 for both and ended up settling on 260. SOLD! J We browsed through a few more shop and I bought some D&G sunglasses. Then it was back to the street level to catch our cab to the grocery store near Stephanie's apartment.

Tonight was supposed to be hairy crab night before salsa dancing. We stopped at the grocery store but it seems that hairy crabs are out of season so we had to come up with plan B. We made the short walk to Stephanie's place. And now the answer we had waited for…Vickie was up but snuggling under the covers in bed. We rested a bit for our big night out.

***Back to Vickie!***

We went to dinner at the nice restaurant near S's apartment in our salsa outfits. It was a windy, cold night and the walk was very chilly. We were finally able to get the famous Shanghai hairy crabs that Stephanie told us about earlier in our trip, and tried the spicy bullfrog. Yum yum. (Really!)

The salsa dancing was on the 65^th floor of a 5-star hotel with beautiful views all around. Lucy, Fleur and another of S's friends Ibrahim joined us. After we each did some dancing and had one expensive drink each (78RMB!! Eep! That's more than the 1 hour massage costs!) we headed to a jazz club. After 1 more drink each, we headed home. As we were getting into the cab, we were approached by a little girl begging for money, with her mom standing close by. It was shameful to see.

On Friday, we had some more baozi for breakfast. Two of them cost a total of 3.8RMB. Wish I could have these at home for breakfast too. Today was our day to actually go to the famous Shanghai skyscrapers and unfortunately, it was an extremely cold and windy day. First we went to the Pearl Building, the one with the balls and tripod legs. Stephanie suggested we go up into the higher building, the Financial Center, for the views, and go into the Shanghai History museum in the basement of the Pearl Building. It was very interesting and informative.

Then we headed to the Shanghai World Trade Center. It is the building that looks like a giant bottle opener, with a gap at the top. We first went to the 97^th floor (the bottom of the opening) and took tons of pictures and looking up at the 100^th floor above us. Then we went to the 100^th floor (the top of the opening) and took tons more pictures. Some of the floor blocks were glass and we were able to take some pictures looking straight down. B had some issues with the height and the glass floor but she survived.

We grabbed some dinner and used the heated toilets (mmmm) and headed to the Super Brand Mall. It is a huge mall with 9 floors. We each had a Dairy Queen Blizzard. Of note here is that the options for the blizzards are not the same as home. No candy options so B had to settle for oreo and nuts. Then headed out to the edge of the river to see the Bund all lit up for the night. There were many boats and barges going down the river, it is busy all the time. Again, more sales people (jasmine for you…you like lazar lady) and a McDonald's kiosk.

We grabbed a taxi back to Stephanie's apartment but first stopped to see S's DVD lady. Then, on the walk to her apartment, we stopped several times to see fireworks taking place very close to us. The fireworks caused the car alarms to go off right near us. According to Stephanie, they will get more and more frequent closer to the New Year. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and Sunday will be the New Year. We will be leaving just before everything closes for the holiday. As I'm writing this, I hear even more fireworks all around us.

B and I packed because our flight leaves at 5PM tomorrow. We decided to go for a foot massage in the morning, grab a few supplies at the Carrefour, go for a hot pot luncheon and then head to the Maglev and home. I probably won't post again until I'm home and Stephanie probably won't post for a while because we completely exhausted her. But she was an absolutely great hostess and we had a fabulous vacation. If anyone else has an opportunity to come visit her, you really should.

Bye and B and I will see you back in CT soon.

Day Eight – Hangzhou to Shanghai

2010-02-14T22:41:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom

We were able to sleep in a bit this morning and it was wonderful. Then we checked out of the hotel and met Lucy's dad's friend (who had the big vehicle) and his son, Eric, who is 21 and going to university and wanted to practice his English. He was extremely nice, pleasant, friendly and a great guide. At the end of the day, we exchanged emails because he would love to stay in touch and continue with his English.

Eric's dad drove us to the opposite side of the lake that we were at yesterday. He drove us around all day which was extremely nice of him. They brought us to a place where the famous Hangzhou tea is grown, including the Emperor's personal 18 tea trees, to a tea garden, to a cave and to a beautiful park. Despite the previous projected weather of a rainy weekend, Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous spring-like day, sunny and warm.

After exploring a bit of the tea garden and the dragon's well, we had some tea and sunflower seeds out on the patio. We decided to stay for lunch there and Eric's dad ordered us a feast, several different dishes and our favorite was a fish dish smothered in a dark ginger sauce. After we finished, we climbed the hill to see a temple and then went even higher. We figured at some point it would open up to a beautiful view but wasn't sure how high we had to go. Lucy asked some people coming down hill and they said it would be another 15 minutes to the summit. But we had left Eric's dad at the table and decided to go back down.

When we went back to the patio, the lunch dishes had been cleaned up and there was more tea and sunflower seeds (they were slightly flavored with soy sauce, we think, and were awesome, we couldn't stop eating them). It was a beautiful setting with wonderful weather, so peaceful and quiet, we decided to stay for a while. Luckily, Stephanie had her playing cards on her (which apparently she always has on her) and we decided to play some poker, Texas Hold 'Em, which Eric knew and we taught Lucy and Eric's dad. We used the sunflower seeds for betting but were eating them so fast while playing, that Stephanie had to buy us another bag to continue playing. There was lots of laughing and the last hand, ALL the sunflowers were thrown in (big pot!) and both Eric's dad and I won, so we split the pot.

After the game, we went to a few more spots and then we got dropped off at the train station. We were a little late getting there because the New Year's traffic was so heavy, so there were quick goodbyes and thank yous, we practically ran through security (imagine 20 people throwing their stuff in the security machine at once) and pushing and shoving like your life depended on it. I honestly don't know how they really check everything piled on each other like that. I think it may just be for show.

As we ran down the corridor toward our train car, the conductors were telling us to just jump on the nearest car, and walk down the aisles on the cars. Lucy said no, that we still had a few minutes so we walked very fast towards car number three. I was afraid they were going to close the doors on us and leave so I was ready to jump on the nearest car, but we made it in time.

We have used all sorts of public transportation during this trip; taxis, the Maglev, subways, trains, planes. The public transportation stations and vehicles are immaculate. They are so clean and organized and neat and safe. The subways are HUGE, almost entire cities underground with shopping centers and huge walking areas; I think they could have concerts down there. One we went to had 20 exits that extended over several blocks. So you had to make sure you took the right exit, or you would come out in totally the wrong place. Also, at the busy intersections, they have underground crossings so you don't have to cross in the road. At a couple of places, we saw huge elevated circular crosswalks to prevent people crossing the roads.

Once we arrived back in Shanghai, we said our goodbyes to Lucy (who had to go in a separate direction) who had to work the next morning and planned on seeing her again on Thursday night. We grabbed a cab, stopped for a quick late dinner from the local convenience store (baozi – big steamed dumplings with fillings that I'm becoming obsessed over), and went home to bed.

Now we were back in Shanghai, Stephanie's territory. Now we can slow down and maybe get some more sleep.

Day Seven – Shanghai to Hangzhou

2010-02-11T17:55:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom

Our train was scheduled to leave at 9:30AM to Hangzhou, Lucy's hometown, which is yet again another city. Lucy was Stephanie's penpal since S was in middle school and now they are good friends while both in Shanghai. S's grandmother's neighbor's husband's brother's wife is Lucy's aunt. Got that? And the neighbor had heard that Lucy (her American name) wanted an American penpal to practice writing English too, and that was how they got hooked up. This would by my first chance to meet Lucy. Well, she is a charming, funny, wonderful girl!! She has a great sense of humor and fun and obviously loves spending time with Stephanie. We were joking to each other about how 'crazy' and 'rotten' Stephanie is and that I don't have the option to not be around her, and Lucy said she doesn't either, because S is too cute.

We were scheduled to meet Lucy at the south train station at 8:45AM and we thought that as a hoot, we three would wear our panda hats (very hot in Beijing) that S bought for us at the Pearl Market. Talk about crazy laowais! We got tons of stares as we walked around the train station with our hats on trying to find Lucy. The south train station is a very large circular building with multiple entrances, thank goodness for cell phones. We eventually found each other, hugs all around and then we ran to catch the train. We literally had to push and shove through miles of people to get through security and towards the train but once we were on the train, we had assigned seating, so no problem there. It was a little over an hour ride and we chatted the entire way.

It was supposed to rain all weekend but we weren't going to let that bother us. Hangzhou is known for their beautiful West Lake (which is on the Chinese money), for their famous tea, and for the beautiful natural area around the lake. We were met at the train station by Lucy's dad who grinned from ear to ear to see us, especially Stephanie, his American daughter. She had knitted him a scarf for the only other time she met him and he was proudly wearing it, says he wears it all the time. He rushed us to his friend's car with lots of room, 3 rows of seats, and we piled in and away we went.

They brought us to our budget hotel which was very nice. We had two rooms for two each, checked in, dropped off our luggage, cleaned up and ran back downstairs where they were waiting to drop us off closer to the lake. We had until about 5PM to ourselves, and then we would meet at Lucy's grandmother's home for dinner. Lucy suggested we eat lunch now so we would be hungry again at dinner time. She brought us to a restaurant right near the lake and ordered us several Hangzhou specialties. Everything was so good. I love having someone else order for me, especially when they know the good stuff to get.

We walked on a bridge that crosses the lake in the drizzling rain. It was beautiful and the spring buds were starting to open on the trees and everything smelled so good. You could see pagodas and mountains in the distance. We got a flat boat ride to an island which was even more beautiful and peaceful. Due to the closeness to the holiday and the drizzly weather, there were few people there. They had paved walkways and gates and gardens and so much more. We took a ton of pictures, leisurely walked and chatted. Then all four of us decided a foot massage was in order and we had just enough time before dinner.

We grabbed a taxi to the Big Feet Massage parlor, how appropriate. They put all four of us in one room on these really comfy chairs, we each had our own masseuse (like before) and this time they really, really focused on our feet and ankles. Boy, I needed that. But they also did hands and arms, and neck and shoulders and back. Again, we got the elbows in the back and apparently, I was the only one that got knees in my back (I must have really been stiff). As B says, they seem to find where your knots and problems are, and are really able to work them out. This massage was a little more expensive, 85RMB for 80 minutes. The green tea footbath was heavenly.

Lucy's grandma lives just a couple of blocks away from the massage parlor so we walked. She lives in a large apartment complex. Her apartment consists of one great room (divided into a dining area and a living room), 2 bedrooms, a very tiny kitchen with a small sink, another room divided, one half is the toilet, shower and washing machine, the other half has a large sink. It was very cozy and neat.

When we arrived, Lucy's dad and uncle and cousin greeted us. Lucy's mom and grandma were very busy cooking. They had laid out some different fruits and gave us hot tea. They were very pleasant to us and seemed really pleased to see us, especially Stephanie. We exchanged gifts (I am SOOOO glad I thought to bring some gifts from CT) and everyone seemed pleased. The women were more subdued in their thankfulness but that is part of the Chinese culture, don't want to seem greedy. But Lucy's dad was visibly pleased by receiving a matching knitted hat from Stephanie and I got some great pictures of that exchange.

Lucy's cousin is 17 and is learning English too. So he was a translator along with Lucy and occasionally Stephanie at the dinner. Lucy's dad knows a few phrases and was very proud when he used them and we understood. They brought out at least a dozen foods, a real feast. You can tell they went all out for us and we were so grateful and pleased. There were vegetables, meat, fish, sweets, soup, so much. They seemed especially proud of the mutton dish. We ate and ate until we thought we would burst and then ate more because there was so much food. We had beer with dinner which was very good. We talked about all sorts of things and had a good time. Such an experience I would never have been able to have without Stephanie.

We all sat around a round table, all nine of us, close together. The table was covered with a large piece of plastic and each serving place had a small salad-sized plate, a small soup bowl, a soup spoon and chopsticks. I didn't learn until the next day how this works but I'll explain now. You can use the soup spoon or chopsticks to serve yourself or others from the platters. You usually serve into the soup bowls. You leave the scraps in the plate. Soup is usually served last, after you are done eating the real food, you empty your bowl onto your plate, and now use your soup spoon for eating. And at grandma's house, the plates were emptied onto the plastic on the table and it was rolled up and thrown away. Now I know!

Also, at or before this point, B and I were starting to get sore using chopsticks. I knew we should have practiced before coming, and I did, for a meal here and there, but I didn't realize how tiring it would be to constantly use them. We were actually getting a sore near the fingernail where the bottom chopstick rests. We figured we needed a callous there so it wouldn't be so sore anymore. Also, at times, our fingers just wouldn't work the way we wanted them to anymore. All of a sudden, we couldn't pick up our food. This happened to B at this dinner. She reached for some cabbage hearts and couldn't get it. Of course, at this point, everyone was watching her and cheering her on. Eventually she got it and there was a loud cheer.

After the table was cleared, we had more fruit and tea and more chatting. But grandma goes to bed early so soon afterwards, we finished cleaning up and headed out. Lucy had to stop at her parent's house and would meet us at the hotel within the hour. She suggested going to a Reggae bar and we agreed but I said it would be dangerous to go back to the hotel first because we knew how exhausted we were. But we thought we could rest a little and be ready to go out again.

We went to our hotel rooms and there was a business card pushed under the door, for an escort service. I remembered that on my last trip to China, they actually went to some of the student's rooms offering their services, so I warned B about it. We took off our shoes and relaxed, turned on the tv and found one English channel and got real tired. We agreed that we really did want to go out, to have more experiences but were totally exhausted and hoped they would cancel. A little later, we got a phone call, 'Did you order room service?', NO, 'Do you want a hot oil massage?' NO, 'We have…..' At this point I hung up, I thought it was the escort service harassing us. A moment later the phone rang again and I made B answer it. It was Lucy playing a joke on us. She said they were tired and would we mind not going out, and we were thrilled. I think we were in our pjs and in our beds within 30 seconds. We found out the next day that when Lucy got back to their room, Stephanie was already asleep. What a great day and looking forward to tomorrow.

Day Six – Xi’an to Shanghai

2010-02-11T17:54:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom

We had to get up fairly early to get in the visit to the Terracotta soldiers and get back in time for our flight back to Shanghai. We had the option of joining a tour from the hostel but they were including a couple of shopping stops and we were worried that would make us too late. Stephanie had researched and found a bus that would take us the hour plus ride out of the city to the museum. Our hostel was at one end of the city right against the wall, the bus station was at the other end of the city right against the wall, and then the bus ride would be over an hour outside of the city. We decided to first grab a quick breakfast in the hostel's café which, unfortunately, only offered Western style breakfasts. 'Terra' was still there and this time we got her attention and fed her our leftovers and got lots of doggie lovings that we sorely miss from back home.

We grabbed a taxi to the bus station and hopped on the bus. They had many busses lined up just waiting for this route and the last stop is the museum (no getting off too early this time!!!). After a few passengers got off, there were only about a dozen of us left for the last stop. There was a lively happy group and they collaborated among themselves and us and asked if we wanted to join them to try to get a group discount, we said sure. We were the only laowai there and as we went into the entrance, they all wanted pictures with us, putting their arms around us and such. The 'leader' went up and asked for the discount but 'no go'. I guess it needs to be pre-planned. It was only 65RMB for B and I to get in, S used her college ID to get a big discount, only 35RMB. There were dozens of guides hanging around the box office and entrance asking us if we wanted a paid guide for 35RMB per person in the group. They stated that there really isn't that much information inside and they had all the good stuff to tell us. They especially told us that very little was in English and really pushed for us to hire them. But we refused multiple times, with multiple guides both because Stephanie had been there and we didn't believe there wouldn't be information. Our group haggled with one guide for a long time (the entire walk from the entrance to the first building) and they eventually agreed on 3RMB per person. We broke off at that point and went our own way.

WOW! First we hit Pit One which is the largest pit of excavated soldiers. It is a huge area that isn't even entirely uncovered yet. They have areas where we see well preserved soldiers and horses and areas where they are all broken up. Some areas they are working on fixing them, putting them together like puzzle pieces. There were several signs explaining what we were looking at (ha! No information in English, bah!) and the immensity was overwhelming. There also used to be carriages too but they had made those of wood and they had either burned or rotted since then. We walked all around Pit One and went onto Pit Two and Three. We spent a few hours, it was so fascinating. Then we went into the museum and found that the entire area we were in was basically covered in finds. The emperor needed EVERYTHING he had while alive in his afterlife, so they created an entire village for him, gardens, stables, soldiers, bakeries, etc, etc. They even buried a few horses live. It was very fascinating and I think I will need to read more up on it when I have time.

One thing I have noticed while in China is inconsistent numbering. This definitely isn't Germany where they are as precise as possible. You will read one sign and it will say there are this many soldiers in the pit, and another sign will say there are this many (a different number). The Forbidden City said there are 8,700 rooms on the recording and the sign would say there are over 9,000 rooms. Ah well.

As we headed back to the line of buses waiting to take us back to the city, we ran into our original group again. They were snacking on a type of roll with meat and vegetables in it that a lady was selling from a cart in the parking lot. They told us to try it, it was like KFC (hee hee). Stephanie told us we needed to be careful because it was meat but we braved it. She opened the steamed bun which already had some veggies in it, put in a spoonful of some shredded pork and handed it to us in a type of paper pocket. It was very good (and none of us got sick). We were followed by a stray dog and I shared some scraps with him. We have been noticing lots of stray dogs in China but many look well-kept, so I'm not sure if they are truly strays or just wander during the days. And none of them seem aggressive. As I tossed some scraps to him, he just gingerly approached it and took it gently. He then continued to follow us at a safe distance and I think he honestly looked sad when we got on the bus.

Some vendors approached us as we were boarding the bus with baskets of pomegranates. There were also many vendors on the side of the road, about every 1/10^th of a mile with many more pomegranates. I guess they are the big thing this time of year. Of course there is danger pulling over to buy them, there are signs warning of getting hit while trying to pull over.

As we drove through some countryside, and then closer to the city, I observed what we were passing. There were still fruits, individually wrapped in plastic bags, on the trees. Lots of stray dogs wandering around. People working right on the street or sidewalk: using a sewing machine, repairing bikes, cutting hair, shining shoes. We passed lots of walled in courtyards, both old and new. If you got a glance in some of the older gates, you could see big piles of debris. It looks like they are doing a lot of destruction and rebuilding.

Again, I notice the extra employees needed on the bus, this time there is a driver and fare collector. This bus trip cost us 7RMB each for each way for the hour ride to the Terracotta Museum. Luckily, just about every time we have taken a bus, we have gotten the back seat which has 5 seats across the entire back, and we can stretch our legs into the aisle. The other seats are way too close together for us tall Western giants.

When we got back to the station, it was CRAZY busy. It was now a Friday night and a lot of people were probably off work for a week and heading home for the Chinese or Lunar New Year next weekend. I suggested we grab the first taxi we could get, go to the hostel for our luggage and head to the airport and then worry about dinner, but S said we had plenty of time and didn't want airport food again. So we stopped into a noodle place that she likes and we had some great dinner, but I am really getting tired of noodles!! We ate quickly and headed out to get a taxi and realized that we would have to walk a distance away from the crazy bus station area to get better luck, and it was starting to drizzle. Well, taxi after taxi passed us, no one would stop. S was getting frustrated as we walked and walked, flagging down every taxi we could see and having them pass us over and over again. We were approached by pedicabs and motorcyclists, but there were three of us, and we wanted to get there alive. And obviously, they couldn't get us all the way to the apartment. We debated taking a pedicab to the hostel and then seeing if they would call us a taxi but decided against it.

As the time ticked by, S thought they were being picky and not picking up us laowai but then we noticed they were driving by the locals too. One or two stopped and when Stephanie told them where we wanted to go, they said no and drove away, we don't know why. So I said, the next one we get, we just jump in and don't give them a chance to refuse us. A few minutes later, we approached a taxi pulled over on the side of the road. We watched a guy poke his head in and talk to the driver, but whatever he said the driver refused. We decided to ask if he would take us to the airport. As S was talking in the window to the driver, a Chinese woman practically pushed S out of the way to get in the front seat but S wouldn't let her, she was quicker. After telling the driver what we wanted, he wanted to negotiate a price, some more discussion between S and the driver, and we agreed on 120RMB (instead of the estimated 100RMB) and off we went. I told S I was so grateful we finally got a cab and one that was willing to wait at the hostel while we get our luggage, that I was willing to give him more. S said no way, we don't want to encourage them to take advantage of people, especially laowai. I went along with her wishes of course but I was so grateful to be off my feet and to get to the airport on time.

When we got to the hostel, B and S jumped out to get our luggage. I stayed to make sure the taxi wouldn't leave, but he hadn't gotten paid yet so it was probably a safe bet he wouldn't have left anyway. Like I said before, our hostel was right up against the wall and the street was very narrow even though it was two-way. While we waited, the taxi had to move several times to get out of the way of traffic.

Eventually, we were on our way, one of the craziest scariest taxi drives ever. I'll explain Chinese driving below. We made it in time for our flight which was delayed 50 minutes, so we had time to relax and have the most expensive coffee and tea ever. We all ordered our usuals (Mocha, Caramel Mochiatto, Milk Tea) and they were each about 68RMB. Only my tea was a decent size and tasted good, B and S got major gypped in size and taste. Never again!! Because we paid so much, we decided to stay at the comfortable table until our flight was ready to board.

Our flight to Shanghai was about 2 hours. S wanted us to take the Maglev (fast train) but it was closed for the night. We decided on a taxi (rather than multiple subway stops and then a taxi for the last leg) and even got the school guard to open the gate for us so the taxi could drive us all the way onto campus, to S's apartment building. Normally we have to walk through the gated campus to get to S's apartment.

We knew that we were leaving early tomorrow morning for a 2 day 1 night trip to Lucy's hometown of Hangzhou, so we needed to wash enough clothes for that trip, take showers and quickly check emails. Then we all collapsed and set our alarm for early morning to catch the 9:30AM train.

Chinese driving: As you may know, this is my second trip to China, B's first and S has been living here for the last 1 ½ years in addition to several trips previous to that. Now, with my observations, Stephanie's help and my new book, I understand Chinese driving. As I told people after my first experiences here, there seems to be no rules. There are the occasional stop lights but no real stop signs, yield signs, etc. Here is the reasoning and how it all works.

American's have Right Of Way rules, lots of them. Both where signs regulate movement and where there are no signs.

Chinese have no Right Of Way rules. Whoever is in that space first has the right of way. And it works for them. That means when you are at an intersection, whoever is in that space first, gets it. Whether it is a large truck or bus, car, bike, motorcycle, pedestrian, anything. You obviously are taking a chance going into the traffic flow, but that is the only way you will get anywhere. This is very apparent in the very large, busy areas. If you were to wait for a clearing to pull out, or someone to give you the chance to pull out, it will never happen. But if you do pull out right in front of someone, they will slow down and not hit you. No middle fingers, no bad attitudes, no horn blowing. The only time there is horn blowing is more of a warning that you shouldn't walk out in front of a speeding bus, not because you did but because you shouldn't. I've never heard any one grumble, yell, swear or be upset while dealing with the traffic. Amazing!

Also, everyone will do anything they can to get where they want. If that means crossing the double line (into oncoming traffic) to pass someone, they do it. The oncoming traffic will just slow down or swerve out of your way. If it means the taxi goes down the bike lane, it will. If it means squeezing between 2 vehicles without an inch to spare on either side even if you aren't in a real lane, it will. We've gasped a few times and sucked in our guts to help, but we haven't hit a thing. And we've only seen 2 accidents so far and we've been in very large, busy cities at very busy times.

Day Five - Beijing to Xi’an

2010-02-09T23:34:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom

'Windy' knocked on our door at 5:30 AM to get ready for our flight and ordered a taxi for us. We got to the airport and found a buffet breakfast for only 18RMB that was very good. Chinese breakfast offers the same food as lunch and dinner, meat, veggies, noodles, rice, dumplings, soup, etc. We casually ate breakfast until S told us it was getting late and we quickly went to our gate. The plane was already boarded so we got right on, but we weren't the last ones to arrive. This plane had seating 3-3 in coach and it was full.

This flight included breakfast which B and S nibbled at, everything looked gross to me. A kind of mush, some yogurt, a weird sandwich, and I felt it was a good thing I had already eaten. The flight was less than 2 hours. We grabbed a taxi to the hostel, it was a very nice 'fancy' taxi, a newer VW with lots of leg room and fuzzy seat covers. It was much better than the taxi in Beijing where there was no leg room in the back seat for B and me and the 45 minute ride to the airport was painful. But S had researched and found that a normal taxi ride from the airport to our hostel should cost about 100RMB for the 30-40 minute ride and this one went up to 180RMB. Stephanie argued with him but he wasn't giving in, so we just paid him. I appreciated the comfortable ride.

Xi'an is a walled in city, like most cities in ancient China were, but this one is still standing. At night the wall was lit up with strings of lights. There were also some extra decorations near and on the wall for the Chinese New Year. Within the city, Xi'an has its own drum and bell towers just like the ones we visited in Beijing.

Our hostel was literally right against the wall, only separated by a road. It was a rather cute hostel, an old style multi-courtyard house. S had reserved a 3-bed room again but they suggested we take 2 rooms (same price) because the only available 3-bed room would be near a noisy section. This hostel had MUCH better bathrooms and again very nice rooms but unfortunately, these showers didn't have individual water heaters and only offered hot water from 7AM until 12noon. We arrived after noon and were leaving before 7AM so no showers for us that day. The rooms were around the edge of the courtyards which were really nicely decorated.

After we checked in, we grabbed lunch at the hostel's café. There was a beautiful, extremely mellow golden retriever hanging around. Her name was 'Terra', like Terracotta soldiers. S had a sandwich and B and I had Chinese food. Then we walked to the Muslim Market area, which was new for Stephanie too. It was blocks and blocks of vendors, in this case, mostly food vendors, as far as you could see, selling every type of food. Fruit, meat, candy, spices, garlic – the aromas were awesome! They were selling food to bring home to cook and food to eat right there. We tried a few things and liked most of them, but stayed away from the meats. They had whole skinned pigs and birds and beef and more hanging right there, with boxes of bones in front (free?). They had large bags of peeled garlic (30 lbs or more), huge bins of spices and so much more. I took a hundred pictures myself; it was so unusual to me. We walked for a few hours seeing and smelling everything. We tried a glutinous rice cake with red bean paste and honey and rose petals, that none of really liked. We also tried some dried fruits, nuts, a stuffed fruit pancake (major yum!), warm bayberry juice and a hairy, crumbly, dusty 'sweet' that only Stephanie really liked.

In the middle of this market was a very old walled in Muslin mosque, over 1200 years old. It was so peaceful and quiet and beautiful, with gardens and gates and walls and buildings. This also seemed to go on and on until we hit the back, where the actual mosque was. So peaceful and quiet despite the crazy market that was just outside the walls.

When we couldn't walk anymore, S found us a massage parlor. We badly needed foot massages if we were going to walk anymore. They had an 80 minute foot massage for 45 RMB (less than $7 each) that was not as focused on the feet as I would have liked. It was a full body massage with some focus on our feet (including a foot bath) and included the girls kneeling on our backs in all the right places. They couldn't have weighed more than 100 lbs each but when they knelt on us, it was with so much strength, we were grunting under the pressure. At one point, while laying on our stomachs, they unhooked our bras and did our backs, and also massaged our ears and cleaned them with q-tips, nothing like our first massages in Shanghai. It was great and our feet and ankles and calves felt a little better, our bodies felt great but our feet needed more attention. So we knew we would need another massage soon. Now it was necessary for research and comparison.

After the massage, we went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. B had spicy beef hot pot, I had Udon noodles and S had pork chop over noodles. We shared some Japanese dumplings and fried prawns. I'm getting sick of noodles now.

The hostel had given us free coffee coupons that we used at lunch and free beer coupons that we tried to use at night. There was a bar in the basement of the hostel that we had to climb an extremely narrow set of stairs to get to. It was a lot bigger once we got down there than we would have guessed, in fact it had room after room and was quite busy. We found that our coupons weren't good until later in the night so we just ordered a drink each that were served in very pretty, fancy glasses and were very reasonably priced. In this bar (and a future one we later visited), you pay when you order the drinks right away. After one drink, B and I went to bed and S stayed on a little longer, waiting to hear them play a trivia game, but it ended up being a 'private' game so she eventually also went to bed. Tomorrow, we go see the Terracotta soldiers.

Day Four - Beijing

2010-02-09T23:33:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom

First we went back to the dumpling place just down the road from our hostel, on the way to the subway. We were there at a very busy time today and the cashier was very short with Stephanie this time and got her frustrated. Yesterday's breakfast only cost us 9RMB total, this time it was a little more. I prefer the baozi (very doughy bread outside, filling on the inside), B prefers the dumplings. We also tried an extra large pork roll that looked like a big cinnamon roll, and was very good.

We grabbed the subway to Tiananmen Square which was surprisingly quiet yet again. We are hitting these places at the right time. Today was a very cold and windy day. There weren't even that many vendors out. I remember getting majorly harassed the last time I was here, but that was in the summer. After we walked the huge plaza and took tons of pictures, we headed into the Forbidden City.

If you don't know, the Forbidden City is basically a fortress that the emperor lived in. It is multi-walled and gated and has over 8,700 rooms. It was even bigger than I remembered but that could be because we walked where we wanted to, instead of with a tour group. We went to a few new areas, including a clock museum and a treasures museum. We also saw a big nine dragon screen (wall). B wanted to steal some of the fancy jewelry we saw but luckily they were all in secure glass cases.

When we exited the Forbidden City, there were more vendors, and some of the first ones that were selling books that B was interested in. They have big colorful pictures of the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. B negotiated once again but really wanted them. They started at 60RMB each and she got them for 40RMB for 2.

We grabbed a taxi to the Temple of Heaven. This is where the emperor would have an annual ceremony to wish for a good harvest. There is an Abstinence Hall where the emperor would stay for three days before the ceremony abstaining from women, meat and alcohol. The main temple of Good Harvest is a very well-known temple that you probably have seen in pictures in Chinese restaurants. It is round and has three levels and is very colorful. The entire temple area is a large and beautiful park that the people use for getting together, playing cards, music, singing, selling homemade items, like crocheted elephant purses and hacky-sack type things with feathers on them (very popular). They don't harass you too much, ask once or twice and then let you go on your way, but everyone is selling the same things.

We went to the Circular Mound where the emperor would climb the steps, stand on a small round stone and talk to the gods. The tourists take turns standing on it for pictures, and of course we did too. Bethany asked for warmer weather.

We went to the Echoing Wall, a round walled area with a couple of buildings. Its claim to fame is that you can talk into the wall at any point and hear it at any other point, no matter how far away you are. Stephanie loves her panorama option on her new camera and took another cool picture here.

After we left the Temple of Heaven, we stopped for coffee to warm up. The place was really small and it had a ladder that went into a small hole in the ceiling, where there supplies were. While there, Stephanie asked where the best restaurant for Peking Duck was and got suggestions on how to get there. But first we stopped in the Pearl Market.

The Pearl Market is a large 4-story shopping place, mainly for products, no food. A lot of the vendors have a tiny 6'x6' area packed full with a small hole in the middle where they stand. Sometimes they would scoot underneath to get out or they would have an assistant. Here they harassed you endlessly. 'Hey Lady', 'best price for you', 'better quality', 'looka looka', 'I give you better price because your friend can speak Chinese' (ha!). They are SO good at following your eyes. You glance at something and they immediately pick it up and try to sell it to you. If you don't look their way, they point out something and yell it out, 'magnets!', 'pashmina', 'chopsticks' etc. They would actually pull on your sleeves and follow you down the aisles. We were there for a couple of hours, did some heavy bargaining, bought some items, made some enemies and stayed until it closed, using the late time to make some last minute sales.

We grabbed a taxi to the Peking Duck restaurant. It was a nice place, it had covers over the chairs and covers over people's jackets on the chairs. I'm not sure if I explained this practice yet, but (according to my book), this is because Chinese food consists of a lot of liquids and sauces and the spaces between tables are usually very small, so these covers prevent spills on people's jackets and on the chairs. Also, once you are seated at a restaurant, they usually only give you one menu (which we hand to Stephanie) and may leave for a minute or two and then they are back right away looking to get your order. You barely have time to open the menu and look at it. They stand over you impatiently waiting. There's no such thing as ordering drinks first and casually perusing the menu. Also, you really have to work to get the waiter's attention after the initial order, for more tea, for the bill, etc. Only one place we have been at, have they cleared some of the dishes as we are eating. Most don't take anything away, even if you have many empty dishes on the table and there isn't room for more, until you leave the table.

We ordered half a duck (B wasn't sure she would like it), the side items needed to eat the duck (thin pancakes, duck sauce, scallions), sweet and sour crispy fish, mushrooms with cabbage hearts and more. Some soup showed up that we didn't order so we sent it back. Later, Stephanie asked for sugar for our tea and the soup showed up again. She used the wrong tone (tang vs tang) and eventually we got the right item. B really liked the duck as did S and me. It was as good as I remembered. Stephanie ate the meat from the half a head too. Our last item arrived really late, shrimp fried rice. Here, once the item is ready it comes out, no waiting for everything to be ready and some items come out late. You need to pace yourself. We had leftovers this time and I suggested we get our leftovers packed to give to a beggar woman we passed on the way in. This was the first beggar I remember seeing so far on this trip.

On the way out, we passed her and I gave her the bag of food. She was so grateful, and thanked me many times. But next thing you know, there were three beggar women surrounding me while S was calling a taxi. They were very friendly saying 'hungry', pointing to their bellies and mouths and 'xie, xie' (thank you, thank you). I gave each a dollar and we jumped in a cab and drove away. A man was starting towards us just before we got in the cab, I'm assuming to shoo the women away. I realized that we were very lucky to 'escape' and I decided that we wouldn't give to another beggar unless we could get away fast. They could come out of the woodwork faster than we can handle.

We went back to the hostel and used the internet in the lobby and talked to the lady at the front desk and some of the guests. It was a good time. 'Windy' is trying to learn English and we talked for a while and she learned a few new phrases. She wanted our pictures with her and I asked for her email address so I could send her copies and she was thrilled. She also asked if I could be her American mother, what an honor. We stayed up too late but it was fun, and eventually dragged ourselves to bed because we had a morning flight to Xi'an.

Day Three – Beijing

2010-02-08T12:25:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom

We decided to get another early start to get to the Great Wall today and had an acrobatic show to attend in the evening. Bethany and I had our first experience with a shower corner, it is just so fun having the entire bathroom get wet. We have to make sure the non-showerer uses the bathroom first before we use the shower. Unfortunately, we found out our hair dryer won't fit in the Chinese plug or the converter, because it has one wide and one narrow prong. Darn it. So no shampoos because it is much too cold to go out with wet hair. It was approximately 0 degrees Celcius. This hostel has individual wall water heaters so while someone was showering, the others kept hearing 'beep, beep' while the person in the shower was trying to regulate the water temperature.

On our walk to the subway, we passed many vendors selling food, on carts, outside windows, etc. We picked one place that didn't look too bad and had inside seating in addition to selling food outside the window. We had some fried dumplings and a large fried-dough with a caramelized (thick, browned) sugar on top. Yum. Bethany was in love with the dumplings and planned to go back there again.

We grabbed the subway during rush hour to the bus station, and hopped on the bus towards the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It's a little nicer than the Badaling section which allows vendors on the wall. The one we went to, the vendors are only at the bottom and we have to take a cable car up to the top. This is the first place we got scammed but it was funny.

Stephanie said we had about 5 more stops to go before we had to get off and grab a taxi for the last distance. But a guy got on the bus pointing to a brochure with a picture of the wall and mumbling something. We ignored him. Then a second guy came to the back of the bus where we were and said 'this is the stop for the Great Wall', and I assumed he was the bus driver so we believed him and got off. Well, it wasn't. It was a group of drivers trying to get people to use their car service to the wall. We could have hopped back on the bus but instead had a grand time watching Stephanie negotiate (quite vigorously I might add!) a much better price than first mentioned. She even tried to use the tactic of getting the price lower because we were 'three beautiful women'. That sure got a laugh out of the other drivers and some spectators. Finally we agreed on 55RMB each for the 40 minute ride to the entrance of the wall, where he would then wait up to 4 hours for us and then bring us back to the bus stop.

We were all smart enough to wear long underwear and multiple layers, hats, gloves and more. It was a cold crisp day but little to no wind, thank goodness. We took a cable car way up into the mountain and the sun was shining for us. There were very few people there with us and we got lots of pictures without any people in them. Bethany and Stephanie decided to go for a long walk and I decided just to have some alone time and take some long distance pictures of them. It was so peaceful and quiet and serene. I'm so glad I got a new camera for this trip and believe I am getting some really awesome pictures. We also gave Stephanie a new camera for her birthday and she is greatly enjoying using it too. Between the three of us, we should have some really great pictures to choose from.

B and S came back from their very long walk (all the way until it was closed to tourists) which took them over an hour and about four to five towers away from me, then we took the cable car back down. It looked like the cable line dropped off the face of the earth and B and I were frightened that it would face us down into the steep drop, but we then realized that the cable car would stay level (duh!) and the ride wasn't bad. We walked by many vendors who were very pushy but now B was used to handling them. We did look at several items and bought a few. Some of the vendors would say 'I remember you' because we walked by them to go up and now we were walking by them again. Some were very enthusiastic while saying this so we would say 'YOU DO?', and they would say 'Oh yes!'

We went into a shop for some warm drinks, met up with our driver again, tried some yummy dried fruits and bought more things and got back into our car. Our driver dropped us off at our bus stop, we paid him and he waited to make sure we got on the right bus. Very nice even though we were scammed for a little more money than we should have paid.

We took the bus back into Beijing and calculated how much time we had left before we had to get to the acrobatic show. We decided to get something quick to eat (a Japanese fast food restaurant) and grabbed the subway to the Olympic village. There is a huge plaza area and there were few people there again and we walked from one end to the other. We saw the Bird's nest and the water cube and the tower and took more cool pictures. We were approached by a few vendors mainly trying to sell us kites and animal hats, mostly pandas. These vendors had some new tactics, such as saying 'no tax', 'not broken', 'you always say no'.

We went into the subway at major rush hour and saw how the people pack themselves into the subway cars. We decided to pass on the first car that showed up and Stephanie told us they would all look that packed. We passed on the second car because we really would not fit (3 big laowais with their big bags). Stephanie was getting nervous about the time so we decided we were going to take the next subway no matter what. There were a few inches of room so we jammed in and amazingly enough, we fit. We went through a few stops and even more people piled on. Crazy!

We made it to the theater in time and met with 'Betty' who was standing out front with a sign with Stephanie's name on it. Apparently when you call to reserve tickets, you get some sort of service that will buy the tickets for you. The tickets were 250 RMB and she wanted the cash. We handed her the cash and she walked over to the box office to buy the tickets (HUH?) so we got nervous and stood near her to make sure she didn't take off with our money, or hand it to someone else. Meanwhile Stephanie checked the price board and that was the actual price of the 'good' tickets we had chosen. No scam but we still don't know if Betty was working for the theater or got a cut of the tickets. Our tickets were center stage, row 12, very nice. Our seat covers said we were in the VIP section. The place wasn't even half full and most of the people were in the cheap seats, including a tour group. There was no-one in front of us, in the expensive seats. And everyone who had our price seats were in our row. Once the show started, a couple of girls from the tour group tried to hop into the middle closer seats and an usher immediately shooed them back to their own seats. They were selling some snacks in the lobby and walking around in the theater. They had bags and bags of microwaved popcorn. We bought a few snacks and drinks and enjoyed the show. Its theme was 'Flying' and the physical feats were pretty phenomenal.

After the show, we were ready to collapse and took a taxi back to the hostel. B and S wanted some more of those fried dumplings down the street (it looked open when we passed in the taxi) but I was too exhausted to go. But when they got there, it had closed. They grabbed some microwavable food at a mini-market and some drinks.

We also found out we could borrow a hairdryer from the front desk, so shampooing could happen. YAY! We went to bed and planned on sleeping in a little more the next day but it would be our big day for Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Peking Duck.

Day Two in China

2010-02-07T23:07:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom

Prelude – We just arrived back in Shanghai Sunday night after a whirlwind tour of 3 cities in China: Beijing, Xi'an and Hangzhou. Stephanie has been the most awesome guide and we have had a trip of a lifetime. I will now try to catch you up on what we have done so far but it will be over the next few days. We had jam-packed full fun days and now we hope to go much slower and easier, because we need to!

We had to wake up bright and early Monday morning (5:30AM) to catch a flight to Beijing, despite just getting off our 15 hour flight just yesterday (who thought of this crazy schedule anyway?). Stephanie had pre-ordered a taxi to come pick us up right at her apartment door to bring us to the Maglev train to the Shanghai airport for an 8AM flight. The taxi driver apparently took the long way from the school to the train station (the 'elevated' route) and Stephanie proceeded to 'yell' at the taxi driver, that due to the longer route, it cost too much. She negotiated the price down to a more reasonable price, and we had our first experience of Stephanie haggling with the locals.

Once we arrived at the airport, we found out our flight had been cancelled, and we had been rescheduled to a later flight (oops! Forgot to check the status before we went!). We were told two different things and eventually realized we had been re- booked on a 10AM flight at the other airport all the way across the city. We were provided a free bus ride and another 45 minutes later, after we passed the area Stephanie lived, we arrived at the other airport and caught our flight. Stephanie was already getting upset, stressing and sighing because she was disappointed that things were not going perfectly for us but Bethany and I were cool with it. We decided we would be looking at everything that happened as an experience and weren't going to let anything upset us.

We grabbed a breakfast in the airport and that was a mistake. Stephanie recommended a beef ribs and noodles dish that she enjoys elsewhere but it was very bland and very expensive! The three of us split 2 orders and had some drinks and it cost us TWICE as much as the wonderful, multi-course meal from the night before!! (230RMB versus 110. $1 = about 6.7RMB) So last's nights dinner cost us a little more than $5 each.

A couple of differences between Chinese and Americans: the employees at the restaurants and massage parlors, etc, all have name tags with numbers on them, not names. Also, wherever you eat, you never clean up after yourselves, NEVER. Even at the airport or fast-food places, they don't even have garbage pails available to use. You leave your table and an employee cleans up after you.

Our flight was packed and it was a very large plane (it has 2-4-2 seating in coach). The Chinese New Year is less than 2 weeks away so many people are traveling to their hometowns to celebrate with their families. Every flight we took was packed. As we were boarding the plane, I noticed how many employees they had: one to take your boarding pass from you, hands it to second person who scans the boarding pass and hands it back to you, take a few steps and another employee rips the end of the ticket off, take a few steps and another employee puts a check mark on the ticket. There were about 6 airline attendants greeting you as you boarded the plan and they seemed to have even more, once we were on the plane. The ceiling was so high above us, that the attendants would turn on and off the lights as they see you trying to read or trying to sleep. They walked up and down the aisle so often, it was almost instantaneous. It was a very nice flight. I also noticed that for most of the flight, they had a flight attendant posted at the two curtained entrances to the first class section, preventing entry. It was just less than a 2 hour flight.

We grabbed a bus and then a cab to our hostel (one cab refused to take us, Stephanie thinks it was because the fare would be too low). We decided to try hostels in order to 'do as the locals do' and to try to keep our costs down. Stephanie said they are very similar to hotels with very hard beds like anywhere in China and she enjoys the experience. We had a private room with three single beds and a private bathroom. The bathroom was clean, per se, but very old and disgusting. The caulking was all black and a little scary, but it really was okay, really! The room was clean and comfortable. The cost was only 260 RMB each for all three nights.

We came across our first Chinglish that was funny: a sign in the bathroom had a picture of someone slipping on the slippery floor and said 'Caution: Landslide'.

We were in walking distance to some hutongs (older style courtyard houses) and the Drum Tower and Bell Tower. These two towers worked in unison to keep the people informed of the time back in the time of the Emperors. The emperor was said to be the Keeper of Time. They had some special time keeping machines (using water or pebbles) and they would announce the beginning of the day, end of the day, etc by playing these enormous drums and ringing the enormous bell. We had to climb these incredibly steep and narrow steps to get up to the level that the drums and bell were located. We timed it just right and were able to catch a performance of some of the drumming and got a video of it. The drums are on their sides and the drummer stands in front of them and beats on the head of the drum that is almost as tall as they are. The bell was so big, that they would use a tree-sized striker.

Since we hadn't eaten since our bland, too expensive breakfast at the airport, we went for a popular dumpling restaurant that Bethany's dad had seen on a television show and wanted pictures from. They make the dumplings in a glassed in kitchen area and when they saw us watching them, the guy rolling the dough starting showing off a little. We had three orders of 12 each of boiled dumplings, 1 order of fried dumplings and some vegetables. The boiled dumplings were awesome with some flavored vinegar, the veggies were cabbage, rice noodles and a small amount of shredded pork had some sort of horseradish sauce (yum!), but I think the fried dumplings were the best with a little soy sauce.

This is where Bethany had success with her first squatty potty experience. She even took a picture of her first encounter with a squatty potty.

Since we were close to collapsing, we decided to fit in only one more thing for the day – the Night Market. We took a cab to the Shopping Street and walked past all the "Western" style stores in a huge mall and ended up where the street vendors sell all sorts of food and items. This is where we got to see all those weird food items you see on television shows about China and most were on a stick: starfish, seahorses, scorpions, big bugs (cockroaches?), larvae-looking things, centipedes and so much more. They also had chunks of raw meat, organs (hearts?), calamari, tuna and so much more on sticks that would be cooked to order. Another popular item was really large turkey legs with most of the meat gone but enough to carry and eat as you walk. I was tempted to try one of the really strange items, just because I could, but I was really afraid I would get sick and ruin part of my short vacation, so I chickened out.

We got some fruit on a stick, chunks of fruit dipped in a slightly sweetened corn syrupy type sauce that hardened when it was cool. We heard an opera-style singer on the side and checked her out for a few minutes. She was in full costume and makeup and was singing those very high squeaky notes and we moved onward fairly quickly.

We headed down an alley where all the small items vendors were located. There wasn't even breathing room in-between the displays, they are packed so tightly. Every few feet was a salesperson. We heard: Hey lady, Hello, Hey woman, Good/best/better quality, Cheapa for you, How much you want?, over and over and over again. Bethany showed interest in some scarves and was originally quoted 280RMB. Yeah, right! After starting with a counter offer of 30RMB and being almost physically accosted and prevented from leaving the small shop, with Stephanie encouraging Bethany not to give in so the salesgirl gave Stephanie all sorts of dirty looks, lots of laughing about how Bethany was handling her first high pressure sale, and eventually walking away, the salesgirl yelled 'OK! OK!' and the sale was made at 45RMB each. This was how Bethany learned to be forceful for all future bargaining (and she did get good at it!!).

Each of us bought a few items, saw loads of interesting stuff, shared a plate of banana fritters (with confectioners' sugar and a sugar sauce), we talked to a nice guy who wanted to know where we were from. Once he found out, he boldly asked if we could give him anything from America. I gave him a quarter, explained what it was and how much it was worth and he was pleased.

We stopped for some milk tea with tapioca balls that Stephanie likes to warm up, grabbed a few bottles of water (needed to brush our teeth) and took the subway back to the hostel. Stephanie used the computer in the lobby for a few minutes to finalize our travel plans for the next day and then we all conked out. We were glad to see the power was on (it wasn't when we first arrived to drop off our items), turned on the heat and went to bed.

Quick update only!

2010-02-06T00:48:00.001+08:00

Guest Writer: Stephanie's Mom

We just returned to Shanghai after our whirlwind tour of Beijing and Xi'an. It was a fabulous, fun-filled, full and exciting time. As you may be aware, I've been to Beijing once before and Stephanie has been there several times and to Xi'an only once before, but we were able to see several new things ourselves, as well as seeing some things again in a new way and with Bethany seeing everything for the first time. We are totally exhausted, our legs and feet are killing us, we spent too much money on items, and are having an excellent time. Our hostess has enabled us to see the 'real' China and I would never do this without someone who knows the language, culture and can navigate. We've had some crazy incidents but we consider everything an 'adventure'.

One thing that has helped Bethany and I is a book I picked up at one of the stores, 101 stories for foreigners to understand Chinese people. Now we understand a few things that we couldn't quite grasp before the explanations. We will explain more later.

I've especially enjoyed watching Stephanie interact with both friendly and unfriendly people, arguing with the taxi drivers who try to charge us too much, negotiating with the vendors, ordering for us in the restaurants, and so much more.

It is after midnight on Friday night and we just got back to Shanghai and already re-packed in order to catch a train tomorrow morning for Hangzhou. We will finally meet Stephanie's friend, Lucy, whom she has been a pen pal with since middle school and is now able to see often. Lucy's parents invited us all for dinner tomorrow night and Lucy is looking forward to showing off her hometown and the beautiful lake. She has a whole list of places to see and things to do in our short time there, and we are looking forward to it all.

We have been keeping notes on all our activities but please forgive us for not writing each day. But I promise that starting on Monday, we will catch you up on everything we have done, once we get to slow down a little and breathe a little more. (And get yet another massage – maybe they will kneel on our backs again!!!!)

Just a Quick Note...

2010-02-03T22:02:00.001+08:00

Just a quick note from our hostel in Beijing to tell people we are alive and well. We have had three VERY busy and VERY tiring but I think VERY good days here in Beijing. We are now poor and our feet have exploded. Tomorrow morning first thing we will go to Xi'an.

Mom has been taking tons of notes for her next blog entry and it should be very interesting. Expect lots of details soon!

Much love,
Stephanie

She really can speak Chinese!

2010-01-31T21:31:00.001+08:00

Guest writer: Stephanie's mom

Stephanie thought it would be cool to have me (her mom) post to her blog about my trip to China with my friend Bethany. So here goes, but I probably won't be nearly as funny or entertaining as she is. And please excuse any errors, it is currently about 9PM Sunday night in Shanghai, we just landed about 3PM and I'm functioning on about 1 hours sleep in the last 60 hours.

The trip was not bad at all. Despite it being a 14 hour and 45 minute plane ride on a Continental 777, it went by quite reasonably fast. Continental now has movies, games, music and tv shows on demand for each seat, and they start even before you take off and stay on after you land. And I don't know about you, but time flies when I'm watching movies (at least 4 in fact, "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs", "Jennifer's Body", "Love Actually" and "Michael Jackson's This Is It") and playing video games.

So before we left CT, we communicated with Stephanie and she suggested that after we arrived, we bring our stuff to her apartment, hit an ATM for some Chinese cash, get massages and then have a Shanghai style dinner. Boy, just thinking about those massages kept our attitude up the entire plane ride. Bethany took a couple very quick cat naps and I didn't sleep a wink and our butts were sore after sitting so long. When we arrived, there were HUNDREDS of people (99% Chinese) waiting at the gate to meet incoming passengers, many with signs. But we were able to find Stephanie fairly quickly and after some long hugs, she boarded us on the Maglev train, which goes 431 kilometers per hour, and the total distance from the airport to her 'area' is 30 kilometers and the entire commute took about 7 minutes. We sat down, it sped up, it went REALLY fast, it slowed down and we got off, that fast.

Her apartment is really cute and very clean (I don't know why she was so worried I'd be critical, I'm a saint). After a little settling in, we headed back out fairly quickly before Bethany could fall asleep (and she was pretty close to it!!). A quick stop for some cash, some coffee, a new umbrella (it is supposed to rain every day for the next 10 days here in Shanghai, good thing we won't be here for the next 7 days) and then we went for 1 hour full-body Chinese (translation: really intense) massages. Uuuuuu baby! So good! They start at the top of the head, work down to the feet, flip you over and do your head and face, sit you up and do your shoulders. We were all practically purring and were so light headed once it was done. Of course, they work you so hard, that some 'things' (such as noises or gasses) are in danger of 'escaping' without your control, but damn it felt good! The best thing was the massage cost us each about $10!! We are definitely doing that again.

Once we were done, we were getting re-dressed (we wore special massage outfits) and one of my socks was dripping wet. It took us a few moments until we realized that when I undressed, I accidentally put my sock in the little incense or essential oil container that was on the floor in the corner. Even after squeezing it out, there was no way I could wear it and Stephanie just happened to have a spare pair with her. But the sock sure smells great!

After the massages, it was time for dinner. A short walk and we were at a great Shanghai style restaurant that Stephanie likes. She ordered us Shanghai noodles (with a little spiciness), Shanghai style eel (Bethany also requested this), a potato and green bean dish (sliced into long thin slices with a sweet sauce) and big pork dumplings. Everything was very good! But they played ONE song over and over and over again the entire time we were there, the theme song from the Titanic movie. We were ready to RUN out of there when we finally could. It also was a little intimidating to have so many waiters/waitresses hanging around. We had one guy pouring our tea and water, and another couple getting our food, writing our bill, the hostess checking on us, etc. It wasn't busy but I had a feeling you get that kind of service all the time. And Bethany is making progress learning how to use chopsticks, but I think she struggled a little due to the fact that she was overtired.

By the way, Stephanie really can speak Chinese! She actually carries on conversations with the locals. In fact, she hardly shut up during the entire massage. But I didn't mind too much, especially since the masseuses thought I was her sister. Tee hee! I'm definitely going back there soon! And she ordered at the restaurant, spoke to the taxi driver, ordered a taxi for tomorrow morning through the guard at the school and more, all in Chinese (or at least in some language that others could understand, she could be tricking me into believing it is Chinese but I think I'll believe her).

We are turning in early tonight because we are catching an early flight to Beijing in the morning. We will be spending 3 days and 3 nights there and then head to Xi'an (think: terracotta soldiers) for 2 days, 1 night. Stephanie is not bringing her laptop so there may not be an update until Friday night. We will have a great time and tell you all about it!

Countdown to Mom

2010-01-31T11:58:00.001+08:00

My mother and Bethany should be arriving in Pudong airport in about 3 hours. My apartment is mostly clean, I packed a bit for Beijing and I have a notebook filled with useful information about our trip. Soon I shall go pick them up and our fun shall begin.

I have to admit I feel a bit nervous because I will be a tour guide for China. I have been a tour guide for friends and such in Shanghai but that's a little easier. I've lived here for a while now. I know where I'm going. I haven't been in Beijing since 2006, Xi'an since 2005. I think the nervousness entered my subconscious. I had a very strange dream last night that it was my first day as a real estate agent and I had to show this posh old woman a pub she was considering buying. We were going to go in my car (which was the Sable that I usually drive when I'm home) with her riding in the passenger seat. I backed out of the parking space and everything went wrong. The brakes weren't working and I couldn't switch out of reverse. So I'm panicking and we are driving BACKWARDS around the parking lot and I can barely control the car and all I could think about was how disappointed my boss was going to be and that this old woman was never going to buy the pub now all the while trying not to hit people or cars. In the end I backed the car into a small brick wall just to get it to stop. Then I had the brilliant idea of taking the keys out. Then my dad showed up out of no where and said that someone had drained my transmission fluid and cut my brakes. I woke up still feeling nervous. Ack.

Anyway, on a completely different note I think I am going to try and bully my mother and Bethany into guest writing in my blog about their trip. I think it would be a nice change of pace and the people who read my blog would get a chance to see China through the eyes of a person who hasn't ever been before (Bethany) and someone who hasn't been in 6 years (my mom). Plus that means the pressure is off me to write for a while. Whaddya think?

Just a warning since we will be very busy traveling around a such, there might not be a post for a while. Our itinerary is three days in Beijing, two in Xi'an, a weekend in Hangzhou and then their last week in Shanghai. That's all for now.

Much love,
Stephanie

Birthday in Shanghai

2010-01-30T18:01:00.001+08:00

I meant to post about my birthday on my actual birthday but things have been strange recently. I haven't been particularly busy but somehow my days keeps flying by and I can't seem to get everything done I want to.

So this year was my first ever birthday outside of America. I decided I wanted to do something fun. Since my birthday was on Wednesday (the 27th) and I knew a lot of people were leaving around then, I decided to have the celebration the Saturday before. Teppanyaki is a popular choice for celebrations around here (all you can eat and all you can drink Japanese Food), so I was boring a decided to go for that. I tried to get a head count before the night of and I got a lot of maybes so I decided to just wing it with 15. Turns out that was EXACTLY how many people showed up. How good am I?

In this picture you can see everyone but John, who leaned out of the picture. From left to right there is Kelly, Kate, Lotus, Lucy, Me, Curt, Elizabeth, the cook, Ibrihim, Fleur, Michelle, Bronwen, Stephanie, Sarah and Ned. Most are from work but there are also some Improv folks, some people I met at Century Park (and then went to Huangshan with, remember?), and of course Lucy my pen pal! Dinner was delicious and lasted for over two hours. I was worried the whole time about being having fun and getting along (I worry too much, don't I?) but people seemed to be in a good mood and I was sure to flit around and hang out with everyone for a while.

I got a few nice gifts from that night and also later including a necklace, a pretty mirror, a stone jar, a book about Zac Efron (which was a JOKE I SWEAR), some candy and a little purse. Two of the best have to be the ones from Lucy and Michelle. Lucy got me a mug that was personalized with some of the pictures of us over the last year and half of hanging out together. Michelle got me a SUPER USEFUL travel notebook for Beijing that includes three different maps. I have now filled it up with (hopefully) everything I will need to be a good tour guide in Beijing.

On my actual birthday DAY I cleaned my apartment a bit. Then I went and had a Shaanxi style lunch with Stephanie and Michelle. Afterwards we went to get foot massages and pedicures. For a while I had one foot being massages and one being pedicured...I felt so pampered. I bought some more yarn and needles (making a hat for Lucy's dad). Then I went to Improv. Altogether a good birthday.

I am 24 now. Shouldn't I feel more responsible and adult like? By my age my parents were married with two children and owned a house....

Anyway. I am nervous and excited about my mother and Bethany coming to visit. I am going to go scrub my bathroom floor.

Loves!
Stephanie

I Made Quiche

2010-01-29T21:17:00.000+08:00

I bought a little casserole dish (only 15 kuai!). I celebrated by making the best quiche ever.

Caramelized onions, garlic, mushrooms, spinach and feta cheese mixed up together in the bottom of a tasty crust, topped with eggs beaten with milk and a little shredded cheddar. Yum. What did I do before I got my toaster oven?

I know I haven't been posting much. The freedom of not working (which seems to have left me with the energy of a coma patient), mixed with my attempt at a social life and my rush to clean and prepare everything for my mother's arrival in Shanghai has left me feeling rather spun about.

In other news, I tried out for Hamlet with the parent theater group that my improv group is a part of. I got the part of the first gravedigger which is oddly enough the exact role I wanted (I never asked for it or mentioned that fact to anyone). Now I just need to consider if I have the time and energy to actually do it...

That is all for now.

Loves,
Stephanie

I Haz A Hat

2010-01-20T14:41:00.001+08:00

Consistent readers of my blog might remember that around this time last year I got a wonderful package from the wonderful Elysse currently being awesome in Scotland. In this wonderful package she sent me lovely handspun wool. For a while now it has been sitting in my craft drawer deciding what it wanted to be when it grew up. This weekend it told me it wanted to be a big chunky comfy hat. I was happy to help.

A couple days later and I have a nice warm chunky hat. I finished it last night and even though it is warmer today then it has been since before Christmas, I have been wearing it in the office (why yes....I am a show-off). I like the fact that it is big enough to cover my ears.

Problem: Having a Big Head. Solution: Being Able to Knit.

I really need to soak it since the yarn obviously still has some of the natural lanolin and such from the sheep. I might even do a gentle felting.

And now, do you like my hat?
(Proper response: I do! What a hat! I like it! I like that party hat!)

Much Love,
Stephanie

Snow and Tea

2010-01-18T13:37:00.001+08:00

This is a weird time to post this picture since today is actually the warmest it's been in a while. However, I haven't posted in a while and I like this picture.

This picture is from the day after I came back from Sanya. I thought it was funny that the day after I got back from lying on the beach and swimming in the ocean, I would see snow in Shanghai for the first time. "Snow" is a rather grandiose term in my born-and-bred New Englander opinion. "Flurries" or maybe "sky dandruff" would be more fitting. Still, it was nice to see. This picture was taken from my balcony.

In other news, today is an awful day to be a beverage near me. Or my keyboard...especially my backspace key. The first thing I did when I got to work this morning was make my usual cup of instant coffee. The second thing I did was spill my coffee all over my desk. I had to use up the rest of my paper towels to clean it up but I was extremely lucky not to get more than a drop or two on my laptop.

After lunch the first thing I did was make myself a nice cup of tea....you can guess what happened next. UNluckily, this time I got more than a fair amount on my keyboard. I immediately shut down and began the drying process (and found a surprising amount of dog hair trapped under the keyboard...). I had removed and dried under about 10 keys when the backspace snapped. ERG. I am lucky that was the only casualty, but I am very quickly and painfully realizing how much I normally use the backspace key. And my natural reaction is to use my pinkie to hit it, which is now impossible. I think I am going to try to superglue it to fix it. Or...ya know...learn to type better. Ugh.

Things are rather busy but boring here (hence the lack of update). School is finishing up. My last day of work before break (providing I get all my paperwork done) should be Friday. Chinese lessons are going well, although the last lesson I learned (about business dealings) was so complex my brain exploded a bit. There is another improv show this Friday that I am looking forward to. Saturday I am planning to get some people together for a birthday dinner for me. :-)

Now I just need to get through this pile of finals, finish my CAS paperwork, fill in my test reviews and evals, book hotels and shows for when my mom comes to visit, and you know...continue life. Phew.

Much love!
Stephanie

P.S. For the people who have been asking....No...I'm not coming back to the US this holiday. The earliest I'll be back home is very late June or early July.

1 Hot Plate, 1 Toaster Oven, 3 Courses

2010-01-10T21:50:00.001+08:00

This weekend I had Lucy and Audrey over for dinner. Feeling ambitions, I decided to cook a fantastic dinner including appetizer and dessert. Keep in mind my "kitchen" consists of a hot plate and a toaster oven.

For an appetizer I made a simple salad with mixed greens and tomatoes. I also baked some buttermilk biscuits.

For dinner I made baked stuffed chicken. I flattened the chicken breast, made a filling of spinach, ricotta cheese, feta and some seasonings and wrapped it all up in prosciutto.

I made some brown rice as a side, with a garlic mushroom sauce to go on top (mushrooms and garlic in some butter and lemon, thickened it with some flour, then white wine and chicken stock...yum).

Dessert was chocolate-chocolate chip muffins. Yum! We also watched Grease which I loved in middle school and I don't think I have seen since then. I still remembered all the words. *DORK*

I really should invite people over for dinner more often. I LOVE cooking, I just don't feel like going through the effort for just myself.

I am thinking of making some nice hearty soups since it's winter, I have a giant pot and it would be easy to make a big batch in one sitting and reheat for meals later. Any recipe suggestions out there??

Christmas in Sanya: Part Two

2010-01-03T20:48:00.000+08:00

On Christmas we had a very full day of sightseeing. We had a quick breakfast at the hotel and then met up with Harvey and our taxi for the day.

Our first stop was an “ethnic village”. I put that in quotes because it was basically a theme park. When I heard ethnic village I assumed we would be going to a real working village. NO NO NO. This place was never a real village. It was obviously built as a tourist destination. The only thing about this place that made it worth going to was there were a lot of shows to see there that apparently showed off “ethnic culture”. There was singing, dancing, a stunt show and a fire show (my favorite).

One of the houses...

Trying on some traditional headgear:

This was part of the stunt show. If it doesn't seem that dangerous to you, I should tell you that the rungs of the ladder are actually made of blades. OW.

Next we were going to a “rain forest”. Now rain forest here is also in quotes because it also wasn’t a real rainforest. It was a glorified park. Kelly pointed out it was more like a Disney safari. We took a bus to the “rain forest”, there were PAVED paths, we had electronic headsets as a tour guide, and the people working there wore brightly colored hats and constantly greeted us with a peace-sign/wave while shouting “YANODA!” (which they said meant Hello in the local dialect). That really does sound like Disney to me. It was still pretty, but again…nothing like I expected or hoped.

The last stop for the day was Monkey Island and after two kind of disappointing stops we were a little worried. How badly can one mess up Monkey Island? We considered that we would be greeted by animatronic monkeys or that instead of an island it was a parking lot. Luckily we didn’t need to worry. Monkey Island was all it was promised to be….an Island with monkeys on it.

We took a cable car over to the island which was a fun time in and of itself. I was surprised that it wasn't completely enclosed. In this picture you can see the tiny shadow at the bottom left. That's from the cable car we are sitting in.

Immediately after arriving on the island we saw monkeys. And, just as I had been told ahead of time, these monkeys are free to wander around the island.

We had been there for about 5 minutes when a monkey came up and viciously GRABBED my right leg in what I assume was an attempt at dominance. Scared the crap out of me. She/he grabbed me hard enough to leave a bruise on my thigh.

Luckily, the rest of our visit to Monkey Island was assault free.

I think one of the things I liked best about our tour day was actually the long drives between locations. I loved looking out the window and seeing people living their normal lives. There were dogs everywhere and every once in a while the taxi had to slow down or stop since there were water buffalo in the street.

When we got home we got cleaned up and had a really nice dinner at the hotel. Kelly got Hainan style chicken. I got another big seafood dinner that included mackerel, salmon, squid, prawns and scallops. It was delicious. After dinner we walked up and down the beach in the moonlight, shoes in hand, feet in the surf, just talking about life. It was a truly wonderful way to end the day.

We also laid out and looked up at the stars and listened to the waves. Once it got pretty late we went back to the apartment, watched a little TV and then fell asleep.

Saturday was sadly our last day in Sanya. We decided to finally get the breakfast buffet which we had seen everyday but had yet to order. It was fantastic. Probably not worth the huge price tag, but delicious just the same. Especially the coconut jam. YUM.

After that we went back out on the beach. Check out was at 1 so we stayed as long as we could before we would need to get back to shower and pack. I spent more time in the water than I did the first day. I chatted in Chinese with a police officer, floated on my back and found some huge chunks of coral.

After showering, packing and checking out, we went back to the market we found on the first day to do a little shopping. I got some keychains and jewelry as presents for my coworkers. Kelly got some beach dresses. After that we went back to the beach for a little longer. We couldn’t get enough of the warm sunshine! While there a couple of Chinese guys asked to take a picture with Kelly. One asked if she would put her arm around him because he said "If you touch me, I will be so happy!" I stole a picture of them together.

On the way back to the hotel I stepped on a still lit cigarette hidden in the sand and burnt my foot, OW. When it finally got to be time, we changed into our cold weather gear and took a taxi back to the airport. We spent the whole ride eating “coconut curd” candy (it’s yummy). I think Kelly might be addicted to it now.

The airport was awful with some really long lines and confusing directions. I nearly panicked thinking we were going to be late, but we go on the airplane just fine. The flight back was uneventful. Kelly was so excited to find that we were getting off the airplane on one of those moveable stairway things that we waited to be the last two to get off the plane just so she could have a little Nixon moment.

That was the end of our lovely trip to Sanya. Monday I wore short sleeves at work just so I could show off my tan (nearly froze to death, but I think it was worth it). I really want to go back. I miss the warmth!

I hope everyone who reads my blog had a lovely holiday as well.

Much love,

Stephanie

Christmas in Sanya: Part One

2010-01-01T23:26:00.002+08:00

Wednesday, December the 23^rd, as soon as my last class of the day ended, I rushed backed to my apartment, grabbed my pre-packed suitcase and scooted off campus with Kelly. We took the maglev to the airport and after check-in, quick dinner and a little waiting we flew off to Hainan island.

Getting off the plane was SO NICE. Shanghai doesn’t get as cold as my home outside, but indoor heating isn’t so good and the humid cold goes right to your bones. We walked off the plane and suddenly it felt like a balmy summer night.

I had checked ahead of time and one website said that from Sanya airport to Yalong Bay (where our hotel was) should be a quick ride and about 30kuai. LIES. I bargained around with a bunch of drivers (some guy with an unmarked car tried to get us to go with him. Umm..no) but the cheapest I could get was 100kuai. Then found out that Yalong bay is about 40 minutes away. Ahh.

We ended up staying at a 5 star Holiday Inn right on the beach. It was the most expensive hotel in China I have ever stayed in, but it was totally worth it. The first night there after checking in we decided to just get to sleep. It was almost midnight and we wanted to have an early day.

Christmas Eve we woke up and decided to take a walk around the area and see what we were working with.

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel (banana pancakes and an omelet split between us), found a little market down the street and then walked along the beach back to our hotel room to change into our suits. We got out to the beach around 10am and didn’t leave until around 4pm. Our plan was to spend the first day at the beach and we stuck to it.

The hotel had roped off a part of the beach that only the guest could use. If you stepped beyond that it was likely you would be bombarded by people offering everything from boat rides and scuba lessons to pearl necklaces. In all our time on the beach I think I saw only about 5 other foreigners, so we did draw a bit of attention. Especially Kelly in her bikini. People didn’t even try to hide that they were taking pictures.

That first day I mostly swam, laid out in the sun, collected shells and bits of coral, read or walked up and down the beach taking pictures. Kelly and I also each ordered a Pina Colada around noon. Writing this blog entry in my FREEZING apartment while trying to remember the heat of the Sanya sun on my skin makes for a jarring juxtaposition.

The beach was lovely. The water seemed pretty clear and warm. The sand was soft and white. The sky was a lovely and clear blue and the air seemed fresh. So different from the hazy sky and smoggy air of Shanghai.

After spending all day in the sun, we were both a bit wiped and a little sun burned. We cleaned up and after resting for a bit, we decided to go to Sanya city for some seafood. A guy working at the hotel (whose English name was Harvey and for some reason we found that hilarious) got us a taxi and after talking to him a bit he said he would help us to get a driver to hit all the main tourist spots for the next day.

After getting to Sanya city, we wandered around for a bit until we found a place that looked fancy enough to eat. I had heard horror stories about people getting sick from the seafood in Sanya so we wanted to be safe. We ate at a hotel and the restaurant was literally empty, which gave me pause at first, but the food was REALLY good. We ordered some coconut shrimp (my favorite by far), some roasted beef, Hainan style veggies, crab soup and coconut rice. We ate and ate and ate until we were in pain since it was so delicious.

We wandered around a bit more, ended up buying a whole bunch of Hainan style fruit candies (for ourselves and our coworkers) and then grabbed a taxi to get back to the hotel. When we got back, we each found a Christmas stocking on our pillow, which was a really nice surprise.

It had cookies, candies and nuts. I thought it was really sweet of the hotel to do that. We watched a little Indiana Jones on TV and then went to sleep so we would be rested for our full day on Christmas!

More soon!

Much love,

Stephanie

All I Want For Christmas Is MONKEYS!

2009-12-23T11:52:00.001+08:00

Tonight is the night. Very very soon, in fact.

For my lunch break I am going to go back to my apartment and made sure my last few things are package and my clean dishes are put away.

My last class before my short Christmas break starts at 2:25 and ends at 3:20. We will be going over the monthly test and creating our own modern version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas". As soon as the clock reaches 3:20 I am packing up office stuff, grabbing my suitcase and Kelly and I are grabbing a cab to the Maglev.

Our plane leaves at 6pm. The flight should be around 3 hours. Then...SANYA.

I've looked up how to say the name of the place we are staying in Chinese, I looked up about how much the Taxi ride from the airport should be, I've gotten advice from coworkers about what to do and eat...

I've also looked at the weather...Supposed to be up to 79 degrees the next three days...HEAVEN. So far our plan is to spend the first day being lazy bums on the beach or pool side. I've packed "The Southern Vampire" series for a little brain candy vacation reading. Day two, (aka Christmas) we are thinking of doing the touristy stuff, the focus of which is probably going to be "Monkey Island" which is exactly what it sounds like: an island full of monkeys. Day three will be a bit more lazying about before our flight back. Altogether far too short of a vacation, but hopefully an enjoyable one.

My camera is still broken (flash not working) but I think it will be fine in normally light and sunshine which I am hoping to get a lot of in Sanya. I shall try to post something good when I get back.

Happy holidays to everyone!

I send love!
Stephanie

Happy Fruit, Sleeping Worm and Encyclopedia?

2009-12-18T11:13:00.001+08:00

In my 11th grade class we are moving forward with creative writing. I decided to have them go over traditional fairy tale stories and then re-write them with a little creativity (ala The True Story of The Big Bad Wolf).

But just talking about some of these stories I have found some differences in the way the stories are told or called. One of my favorites is the different names for the 7 Dwarves from Snow White. I asked my students what they were called in Chinese.

The most normal sounding one was KaiXingGuo, or "Happy Fruit" for Happy.
Instead of Grumpy the have AiShengQi or "Angry".
Doc is given the slightly grander name of WanShiTong or "Encyclopedia".
Bashful's name is somewhat similar...HaiXiuGui or "Blush Ghost" (I think ghost here just means that he blushes a lot, like an Alcohol Ghost is someone that drinks a lot).
Sleepy is KeShuiChong or "Sleeping Worm".
Sneezy has the slightly more viscous name BiTiJing or "Runny Nose".
The last is by far my favorite...and I'm not even sure if it's the same type of character. In stead of Dopey they have DaHuZi which means....*drumroll please* "Big Mustache".

I find this especially funny because in the famous Disney version...Dopey is the only one WITHOUT facial hair.

Anyway, thought you all might enjoy that. Here are a couple more I have heard:

Wolves Are Coming!= The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Little Red Hat= Little Red Riding Hood
Bean Princess= The Princess and The Pea

Time for class now, gotta run.

Much love,
Stephanie

Stephanie in Shanghai...In Chinese!

2009-12-17T14:01:00.001+08:00

This was my homework I did for my first class. I am so happy to be practicing Chinese in a structured environment again, I just want to show it off. I don't feel like translating it though. :-P

天气

我不喜欢上海的天气。我觉得太潮湿。上海的夏天太热，如果我去外面，马上出很都汗。每天我要洗三个澡。上海的冬天我也不舒服，也很潮湿。我的脚很冷，所以我每天穿两双袜子。我最喜欢的季节是秋天还是春天，但是在上海很短！所以我不高兴！这几天在上海不太好。很多我的同事感冒了。

我喜欢我的老家的天气。夏天不太热，有时候一点热所以你可以游泳。我的家有一个游泳池，如果天气凉快我还要游泳！冬天也很好。我的老家比上海冷得多，但是不太潮湿。我的脚在美国很舒服。冬天下很多雪。很多人觉得下雪很麻烦，但是我觉得很美。如果天气预报说“明天下雪”，我很高兴！

春天和秋天很长的。我的家有很多树林，秋天的时候有很多颜色，漂亮极了。春天的时候我可以穿了一条牛仔裤，一件T恤杉。也可以外面散步。我想我的老家的天气！

爱好

我有很多很多爱好。

我最喜欢编织何十字绣。今年我织了一条羊毛毯子。以前我去上海我告诉我的朋友，家人，如果你们要给我一个礼物，请给我羊毛。他们给我很多羊毛！颜色不一样，所以我的毯子很像彩虹，也很暖和。

我也喜欢弹吉他。我的吉他的老师是我！我弹不太好，但是我觉得设很好玩。

我也喜欢做饭。我在中国的时候，我要学做中国饭。我已经作中国饺子，但是我的朋友不要尝尝，他们太害怕！

头发

在美国，很多人有癌症。如果你有癌症，有时候你没有头发。我有很大很长的直发。所以，每三年，我剪头发，给其他的人穿的。如果你要给你的头发，你不行烫头发或这染头发。很多人觉得很麻烦，但是我觉得很适合。在我的看来，染指甲，发型都不太重要。每天用很长得时候，不太习惯。可是我的朋友的意见是那些很好玩，我不同意。我觉得当老师，我的爱好，我的朋友比那些的东西很重要。

Oatmeal+Coffee=Oatffee?

2009-12-17T10:27:00.001+08:00

I don't think it's any secret that my nick-name Sproffee comes from the combination of Sprite and Coffee. I even created a new Chinese name for myself that combines the first character from the Chinese word for Sprite (XueBi) with the last character that forms the Chinese name for Coffee (KaFei). XueFei. While I was not the creator of either the combined drink or the catchy name for it, I somehow ended up being pegged with the nickname that now even the President of Drew University and many of my Chinese friends call me by.

On a somewhat related and equally bizarre note, I saw a student making his own creation in the library today. I was making copies of a handout for class when I saw one of my 12th grade students pouring a packet of instant oatmeal into a mug. I didn't think anything of it until he opened a packet of instant coffee and dumped it into the same cup. Intrigued I asked him what the heck he was doing and if the combination tasted even somewhat good. His response was rational and made a lot of sense.

"It does taste good, because it tastes like coffee and coffee tastes good. But if you only drink coffee, it doesn't fill you up. This tastes good and afterwards I feel full."

Points to you, Sir. I am actually considering making this myself sometime. Right now the most creative I get is adding a scoop of hot chocolate mix to my coffee in the morning to make a poor man's mocha.

Hooray for culinary adventures?

-Stephanie

Clever girl...

2009-12-12T19:54:00.001+08:00

In class we are discussing descriptive writing. I showed my students a picture of my parents cabin and had them describe it. After getting them to say all the usual things (height, color, shape, etc), I tried to get them to think beyond the norm and describe the picture using feelings, similes and imagination. I prompted them with questions like "If you were at this house, what do you think you would hear?"

This happened in class D.

Me: If you were standing here and looking forward, what do you think you would see?

Angela (student): *looks at the picture, then looks at me* A camera.

I nearly tripped I was laughing so hard.

Being Productive

2009-12-09T12:31:00.001+08:00

The past few days have been pretty productive.

This picture is from Monday night. It was June's birthday so we went out and had Indian food for dinner. On the left is XuPing (or Shopping), Lotus with her adorable hyperactive son Jason, Me, birthday girl June, Ula and Ned (who looks worried for some reason...)

Yesterday I finally gave up trying to fix my internet for myself (or waiting for divine intervention) and reported that it wasn't working to the school. Good thing. Turns out the problem wasn't my computer or my modem but something with the cable lines. They reset them and now I have internet in my apartment again!

Since I was already talking to the school about repairs I finally decided the light in my bathroom was calling it quits. (It was taking about about 2 minutes to turn on...if ever. Showering in the dark is rather weird). The repair man replaced it and now I can see my teeth when I brush! Whoo!

Lastly and most importantly, I finally got off my lazy butt and went to sign up for Chinese lessons. I had used about ever excuse ever. It's raining, I have dinner plans, I'm tired, there is a school meeting, I have a wine tasting, I gotta do lesson plans....etc. Stephanie and Becky told me where it was and I had a little interview with one of the organizers. She quizzed me in Chinese to see what my level was (Sample question: How do Chinese people celebrate the mid-autumn festival?) I asked if there was a class I could join but it turns out there is really only one other person at the school at my level and he won't be back for more lessons until after Chinese new year. Since I want to brush up my skills before mi madre comes to visit, I signed up for private lessons for the next month. It was pretty pricey, but Becky says it's a good school, it's convenient (literally just down the street) and part of my thinking is that I'll want to work extra hard so it will be worth the price. Wish me luck

I forget if I mentioned in my blog already or not, but Kelly and I are going to Sanya for Christmas break. We already got our plane tickets and are going to reserve our hostel tonight. Sanya is on Hainan island and is supposed to be the Hawaii of China. I am looking forward to a little warmth!

The only thing stopping me from being super productive lately is www.notalwaysright.com. It's addicting and I need to stop reading it.

That's all for now.

Much love,
Stephanie

Grr...Argh.

2009-12-01T15:54:00.001+08:00

I have been very busy at work and the internet hasn't worked in my apartment for about a week...that makes it incredible hard to post.

So let me give you all a quick update on the last week or so.

-My bike got stolen. I am thoroughly crushed. Friday night I had dinner with Lotus and then went shopping. By the time I went outside it was gone. I had it locked and right by the entrance like I always do. This means someone either cut through my lock or picked it up and walked away. Either way, no one stopped them and I am SOL with no bike. RIP The Lime.

-I lost my favorite hat. In a continuing streak of bad luck, I left my favorite hat (my grey irish cap/newspaper hat) in a cab on Saturday night. I loved that hat and it had a lot of good memories.

-Not all in the world is sad. Friday night I got a comforter after being freezing cold all last winter. It is super warm and comfy and was pretty cheap.

-Saturday was a surprise party for Chris, that Becky organized in an Irish pub. It was a lot of fun. I got myself, the other Stephanie, Ned and Michelle to all chip in to get him an acoustic guitar (I've been giving him lessons). On Saturday Michelle and I went to jingling lu and got the guitar, an electric tuner, a new set of strings, a bunch of picks, a soft case and a capo all for the price we wanted. Chris seemed to really like it.

-I went to an Improv lab last week and they really liked me. I might be asked to join the performing group and the woman running the lab asked me if I would be interesting in running a lab myself in the future. I wish I could find something medieval here to do in Shanghai, but it was really nice to find my second favorite activity from college: improv!

-I have been baking like crazy. My new routine is to wash my dishes Sunday night while baking something, and then bringing whatever it is in for my coworkers on Monday. I've made three kinds of cookies, blueberry muffins and chocolate cupcakes so far. Yum!

-Last night I played Christmas music and decorated my apartment. My tree looks very jolly.

I suppose that's about it for now.

Much love,
Stephanie

My Worst Nightmare

2009-11-22T20:47:00.004+08:00

Ok. Maybe "worst nightmare" is a bit overly dramatic, but something has happened that I have been worried about for years now.

I think it is pretty common knowledge that bikes are EVERYWHERE in China. Pedal bikes, electric bikes, bikes with carts...they are all over the place. Outside of big stores and shopping areas there are usually rows and rows of bikes in the parking lots. The Carrefour where I go shopping is no different.

(note: this is not a picture of the Carrefour parking lot, it's just to give you an idea of what I mean.)

The bikes often are not attached to bike racks but rather have wheel locks. They are also often crowded together cheek by jowl (or pedal to pedal I suppose). I don't know if it's just me, but for years this bike organization has always looked forebodingly similar to this:

This Saturday I left Carrefour with my purse and two bags filled with groceries in hand and tried to squeeze my bike out from between two others.

And it happened.

Luckily, I only knocked over 5 bikes. The 6th in line shuddered dangerously but held it's ground. Unluckily, one of the bikes was a motor bike with an alarm the immediately started blaring it's protest. Further unluckily, I was right by the entrance so I had a crowd. I quickly righted all of the bikes, jammed my groceries in my basket and pedaled out of there as fast as I could.

It could have been worse. Not even ten minutes later as I was turning the corner on my street, I passed a man looking dejectedly at no less than 9 domino-ed bikes. I think it was the universe's way of telling me not to worry about it too much.

Much love,
Stephanie

Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake

2009-11-15T09:35:00.004+08:00

So last night I went to dinner at Lucy's apartment. Since I have been using my toaster oven EVERYDAY I of course knew I had to bake something. While hanging out at Bed last weekend, Audrey excitedly asked me if I knew how to make pumpkin cheesecake. Since I knew Audrey was going to be at dinner too and I have an uncontrollable need to please people (and cuz it sounded yummy) I decided to make pumpkin cheesecake.

I found THIS recipe online, which sounded easy enough. The only problem is that I couldn't find canned pumpkin at either Carrefour or the imported food store. So I bought a small pumpkin and figured "Hey! How hard could it be to make pumpkin puree?"

It actually wasn't too bad, just time consuming. First I cut it in half and scooped out the yucks. (I went through the extra effort to pick out the seeds to make toasted pumpkin seeds but I got distracted by a friend and they ended up burning. :-( )
Next I brushed a little butter on the flesh, covered each half with foil and put them in my oven for about an hour.
After that I scooped out the now tender pumpkin meat. A little time in a blender (that I borrowed from Chris and Becky) and I was looking at fresh pumpkin puree!
After that I just followed the recipe (although I used a pre-made graham cracker crust since I already had one). And I ended up with a pretty tasty fall themed cheesecake.
Lucy and Audrey (and Audrey's boyfriend and Lucy's roommate) LOVED it. I think it tasted extra good with a cup of coffee.

-Stephanie

P.S. When did my China blog turn into a cooking and crafting diary?

My Poetic Students

2009-11-11T11:00:00.001+08:00

I often share when my students make funny mistakes in English, or do things that make me laugh. Recently, however, we have been talking about rhetorical devices (like metaphors and similes) as well as descriptive writing. Some of my students have written things that I really like. I thought I would share a few.

"Drowsiness is such a quiet killer that murders our time"
(I really liked this one, probably because I've been sleepy lately and it makes it so hard for me to concentrate.)Life

"Life is the early bus,
We always keep missing.
Life is the traffic jam,
We never stop waiting."

"The little ship, even now seemed to be as fragile as a piece of glass, steadily floating on the tranquil horizon."

"His hair is twisted and as complicated as IB math higher level."

"I used to hide myself from everybody
Like a shadow cast on the ground
Always behind somebody."

"It's the day of autumn
Leaves are so tired that they fall to sleep on the ground."

"Looking at the lake under the sun shine,
You will find that,
It is glittering,
As if it was made of thousands of diamonds."

That's all for now. I think I might actually get all my correcting done today just in time to correct my big stack o' midterms I'll be getting tomorrow. Whoo...

-Stephanie

Mock Admissions

2009-11-10T21:15:00.001+08:00

This picture amuses me. During last Friday's meeting we did a mini mock admissions. It is supposed to be a good example to show us teachers the kinds of things that colleges are looking for, and to read some sample recommendation letters since a lot of them are writing them now.

Each teacher had to read one of the three fake applications for a college. Personal essay, transcript, recommendations...everything. Then we discussed them as a group and voted to admit one, wait list another and reject the third. I am proud of my group since we wanted our guy to get in (he wrote a really good personal essay) and he was the one the whole meeting voted to admit.

In this picture you can see the notes we collected for each of the three candidates on the board, listed by their last name (Gates, Leavitt and Wilson). I was in the group that read Gate's application so when the time came to write notes on the board, I volunteered like the goody-two-shoes I am. When I noticed someone in the back was taking pictures, I made a goofy face at them and then went back to what I was doing.

June sent this picture to me yesterday. Of course the camera woman happened to catch my silly face moment. BAH!

-Stephanie

Festival, Film and Fun!

2009-11-09T21:24:00.004+08:00

So this past Saturday I had two big things planned. One was the first ever Cuisine Festival and the second was meeting Lucy's Swiss boyfriend Andreas with some other friends for drinks. My day ended up being quite different from what I expected.

I left my apartment around 9am and stopped for a breakfast on the run at The Coffee Beanery. I met up with Lotus, her son (Jason), and her mother. We grabbed a cab and headed to the Cuisine Festival. We wanted to get there early so we could see everything. I thought for sure I would be there for a while. We arrived at 10:30 and I left at 1:30. It was rather a disappointment.

As soon as we arrived I bought pierogi because I was just so excited to see them in Shanghai. They were ok. Jason was funny and went and played on the bouncy house in the kids area and then ran up to hug HaiBao (the Shanghai Expo mascot which is freakin' EVERYWHERE).
I planned to take pictures of everything I tried but that fell through pretty quickly. The only thing I did take a picture of that I ate was this cupcake. Which was tasty.
I was mostly just dissapointed at how small the festival was. I did three trips around seeing every booth. The day wasn't a total waste. There was some interesting things to see like these terracotta warriors made of chocolate.
I also made a friend. I was sitting down and enjoying roast beef, mashed potatoes and a corona when another foreigner came up and asked if she could sit next to me. Her name is Bonnie and she comes from a large family in Alabama. Her husband is a pilot for a Chinese airline and she sells baked goods. We chatted for a while, then went and got gelatto and chatted some more. We exchanged info and I hope to meet up with her again. She was a lot of fun and we talked about random stuff like juggling and a puppets. We also laughed at the clowns.
After I felt like I had seen everything I wanted to see there, I left. I wasn't planning on getting together with Lucy et al until 9:30pm. That gave me a lot of time to kill. First I found a bench and read the City Weekend magazine I picked up at the festival from cover to cover. Then I just started walking down Nanjing Road. I ended up at a shopping center that had a movie theater. I figured, why not? I haven't been to a movie theater in China in a very long time and never have I negotiated one by myself.

I read the signs (which were all in Chinese), and ordered my ticket (in Chinese) and went and saw "This Is It" (in English...I have my limits. I did pay attention to the Chinese subtitles though). It was the only option they had that day in English. I was the only laowai in the theater which got me a few stares. Ah well. The movie was ok. Interesting enough. I thought it was funny that a lot of the people in the audience would clap after every song as though Michael Jackson was actually there performing. The girl sitting next to me got really into it and cried for the last 15 minutes or so.

After the movie I headed back out and walked some more. I ended up in People's Square. I figured I would sit and people watch. I took out my journal, planning on maybe writing something but instead ended up sketching (which I haven't done in a really long time). I ended up getting a lot of attention. It was really weird. I was just sitting on a bench sketching and trying to look as non-interesting as possible. A few people took pictures of me or what I was drawing, or sat half an inch away from me on the bench and stared at what I was doing. It's not even that good! What do you think?
I decided to get myself a little something quick to eat before drinking. I didn't want KFC, Starbucks, McDonald's, Subway or Pizza Hut...all popular choices on Nanjing Road. I walked down a small alley and found some places selling Chinese snacks. I got some shengqianbao (fried meat dumplings...this time with crab meat and pork), which was boiling hot when it arrived at my table and burnt the crap out of my tongue and lips but was totally worth it because it was so gosh darn tasty.

I walked a bit closer to the club we were going to meet at but after all of my procrastinating it was still early. Lucky for me I always have something to keep me occupied. I am currently reading "Son of a Witch" (the sequel to "Wicked"). I sat on a bench and read for a bit. I even waited a little bit after the appointed meeting time. I was still the first one there. Oh well.

Lucy and Andreas were the first to show up after me, followed by JJ, then Kevin and Peter and lastly Audrey and her new boyfriend Ryan (who is from Maine! I was surprised to meet a Maine-r).

We ended up staying for 4 hours. It was really a good time. Good conversation, good drinks (I had the Brendetta, a fruity rum drink). We were at Bed, a club I had been to once before. Instead of couches or chairs, Bed has...well...beds. Sorta. They are large flat cushioned platforms with a bunch of pillows. Because my flash is broken, like I mentioned before, I can't take pictures at night. But here is a picture from the last time I was at Bed just to show you what I mean:
Again, this picture isn't from this Saturday, but oddly enough this is in the same "bed" that we sat in this weekend. It was a good group of people to hang out with. We sang and talked and joked and laughed. I interviewed Andreas (mostly jokingly) to make sure he was good enough for Lucy. I think he passed. Here is an excerpt from our conversation:

Me: What is your favorite thing about Lucy?
Andreas: Ask me what my least favorite thing about her is.
Me: Ok...What is your least favorite thing about Lucy?
Andreas: She doesn't live in Switzerland.

We ended up leaving because the bar was closing and everybody went their seperate ways. I got home a little after 2am, meaning I was out wandering around for 17 hours. Long day!

Anyway, there is a real post for y'all. This whole posting everyday in November is totally not working.

Much Love!
Stephanie

More Guitar

2009-11-08T22:22:00.002+08:00

Time keeps getting away from me. Saturday was an extremely full day and I plan to write about it.

For now it's late at night and I am still trying to perfect my lesson plan for tomorrow (which will hopefully be fun).

Hopefully another guitar video will hold you all over until I have time to post some substance. For those of you who missed it, the link has been updated in my last post so you can actually see the Coldplay cover video.

The video of me singing Fear You Won't Fall is HERE.

Much Love!
Stephanie

Remember When I Played Guitar?

2009-11-06T21:36:00.003+08:00

This whole "posting everyday" makes me run out of interesting stories pretty quickly. I guess the exercise is to either find excitement in everyday things or at least to try and write in such a way to make them sound exciting. Instead I decided to record a song on guitar and post it. Whoo!

I think this should totally count as a post. It took some practice and a few takes and then some editing for this video so the amount of effort is the same (if not more).

Tomorrow should be interesting. I am going to a cuisine festival and then out with Lucy to finally meet her boyfriend. So that should warrant a post. And yes, I still plan to finish posting about Japan...eventually.

Anyway, here is Yellow by Coldplay. I don't know why I look so serious. Just concentrating and worried about messing up, I suppose.

EDIT: I tried to upload the video on blogger and it didn't work. Tried to upload to youtube and it didn't work. So now I have an account on a Chinese video website Tudou (which means potato and I think that's hilarious). So finally, here is a link to the video I was talking about:

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/GXxf_PU2sH0/

Much Love,
Stephanie

New York Style Pizza: Two Strikes

2009-11-05T21:15:00.000+08:00

So yesterday after work I was feeling a bit peckish and decided to go out to eat. My original plan was to eat at the food court underneath the Carrefour since I wanted to get groceries anyway. Did I mention the food court was open again after being under reconstruction? Did I mention it was closed to begin with? Oh well...it's open again and I'm happy. Instead, I met up with a coworker (Karen) as we were walking back to the apartment building and we decided to get pizza.

The restaurant we went to is called New York Style Pizza. I think I might have mentioned it before. I like the pizza there because it tastes like...well...pizza. The way I expect it to. Like it tastes back home. I also liked it because it wasn't terribly expensive. Certainly not cheap but and ok price considering I would usually go there and end up with enough leftovers for a cold pizza breakfast and dinner to boot. But I don't think I'll be going back there again.

Last night was far from a pleasant dining experience. First of all the windows were open and the place was swarming with misquitoes. While we were waiting a COCKROACH crawled up along the edge of the table right in front of me and scared the ever living daylights out of me. We switched to a table at the other side of the restaurant (although considering what happened next we should have chosen a table at a different resaturant entirely).

Finally our pizza came out. I made my way through my first slice of delicious pesto pizza without incident. I was halfway through my second slice, enjoying a big bite when I felt something hard and sharp in my mouth. I spit it out immediately and in my hand there was something that looked an awful lot like glass.
Let's back up a bit. When I was in middle school, my music teacher told my class a story about a slave woman who wanted to kill her master. So when she was cooking she decided to grind up a drinking glass that one of the children had broken by accident and put it in the batter for the cornbread. At dinner the master ate a ton of that cornbread, saying it was the best she ever made. In the days to come the master was bed ridden, with an agonozing pain in his gut, slowly dying and no one could figure out why. He eventually died, his stomach torn up, bleeding from the inside.

So here I am staring at this shard in my hand (and two other smaller pieces that were in the same bite) and this story is the only thing in my head. After I got back to my apartment I did a bunch of reading online on the subject. If what I read is right, ground up glass won't hurt you, and anything big enough to do any damage you'd notice as soon as it was in your mouth, like I did with that piece of whatever-it-was in my pizza.

The waitress gave us 20% off and a coupon for next time (which I gave to Karen, be she brave enough to return). Sometimes the middle class American in me aches to be back in the US. First of all, I could accurately express how I felt at the moment had I been in the US. I could have asked to see the manager. The meal probably would have been free. The whole event probably wouldn't have happened at all.

It isn't even the cockroach that gets me. I saw one in the office about a month ago and I really didn't care. I don't want them around when I'm eating and I especially don't think they should be around when I am paying as much as I was for my meal. If I go to a tiny bring-your-own-chopstick style noodle shop, I wouldn't really be surprised if I saw a cockroach.

But there was something in my food. I think it's either plastic or Plexiglas. That piece was actually bigger than you see in the picture was bigger when it was in my food (I cut off a bit to try and analyze what it was). If the people working there were careless enough to let something like that get on the pizza, how do I know that next time it won't actually be glass?

Next time I want pizza I am going to go to Papa John's, Pizza Hut or making my own in my toaster oven. I know people make mistakes but I don't think I could go back there and enjoy that restaurant after sitting there feeling terrified that I was going to die an agonizing death of internal bleeding.**

The baseball metaphor doesn't really work here, but I like it anyway...two strikes and you're out, NYSP.

24 hours later and not dead,
Stephanie

**Yes I am dramatic. I realize that.

Toaster Oven!

2009-11-04T21:06:00.003+08:00

So yesterday I went to BaBaiBan on my quest for a laptop battery. I struck out three times in a row. At BaBaiBan, the electronics store next door and at Best Buy. At BaBaiBan the man suggested I call lenovo and have them give me an address of a place nearby where I could get one and at Best Buy they said the best they could do was a 4 cell (mine is a 7 cell). Both said if I did get my hands on a replacement it would probably set me back over 1,000RMB ($150). UGH! I really don't know what to do at this point.

There is some good news though. As I was leaving Best Buy I noticed the toaster oven section. I have never stopped looking for a toaster over. As I was browsing I noticed one that had a sale sticker on it. It was the last one left in it's model and also has a slight dent on top. So instead of being 400 RMB it was 250 RMB! I of course bought it. Isn't it pretty?
Plus it fits PERFECTLY on top of my microwave. It saves me counter space and looks pretty spiffy. Talk about meant to be.

Tonight I went shopping and went a little "OMG I CAN BAKE" crazy. I got stuff for biscuits and cookies and even a frozen toasted sandwhich-y thing. Of course since I had a toaster oven in my apartment for almost a full 24-hours, I had to start baking immediately.
The cookies came out more like chocolate-chip cake. But you know what? They were warm and delicious and smell wonderful. And I can BAKE!

My last post I did at work so I couldn't add a picture, but here is the winner of the cooking contest, Sigma (far left). All three of these girls are my students. :-)
One last quick thing...today a black cat crossed my path twice. Should I be worried?

That's all for now. I need to get to sleep so I can wake up early for breakfast and TOAST SOMETHING!

Much Love,
Stephanie

PingHe Chef!

2009-11-03T15:27:00.001+08:00

I was asked by one of my students to be a judge in a cooking competition that was held yesterday after school. Of course I said yes.

The club that organized it all is the "Olive Club" here in the high school. They promote healthy living and proper eating habits. There were six students that were competing and we had to grade each one on four different categories. Taste, health index, economy (how cheap or easy it is to make) and creativity.

There were three teachers as judges (myself included) and two student judges. Us teachers watched in trepidation as the food was being prepared. It didn't seem like anything was being washed and the room was jam packed with students touching and trying everything. All I could think was...I am SO going to get the flu.

The first dish we tried was a tuna and boiled egg sandwich. Not too creative or daring or healthy but good and solid and tasty. The next thing we had was potato salad type dish with potatoes, cucumbers and carrots. It was ok. Slightly sweet. Crunchy. Next came a weird dish of potatoes, tuna and corn...I'm not sure what it was supposed to be. It tasted ok but I can't imagine having it again. The next dish definitely got my highest score for creativity. It was a kind of glutinous rice sprinkled with sugar and served on rose petals. The rose was a bit bitter, the sugar was nice but the rice goo was pretty plain. My favorite dish was the 5th one. One of my students (do you hear the note of pride in my typing?) made a very yummy dish with cucumbers and tofu. It was garlicy and fresh tasting with just a bit of spice for a kick. Last, but certainly not least, another of my students made a mashed potatoes dish with bits of ham. It was pretty darn good and made me homesick for mashed potatoes.

In the end, the mashed potatoes came in the first, the cucumber and tofu came second and the potato/carrot salad came in third. And it's almost 24 hours later and I haven't gotten sick yet, so it looks good! I asked the student in charge of the club when there would be a cooking competition for the teahcers. :-D

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The weather has gotten so weird. Last week I was wearing sandals and t-shirts comfortably. Today I am shivering in a sweater. Apparently this nice cold won't last too long though. It's supposed to get back up to the mid 70's later this week.

For those of you who care, please remember that Daylight Savings Time does not exist in China. I am therefore now 13 hours ahead. Keep that in mind when setting up skype dates or sending text messages (text messages I receive while sleeping will either be checked and immediately forgotten by Half-Asleep-Stephanie or will be replied to very grumpily).

Tonight I am going off to the BaBaiBan department store. My coworker reccomended it for getting a new laptop battery. Wish me luck!

Much Love,
Stephanie

Halloween 2009

2009-11-02T21:00:00.005+08:00

Yes, I know. My plan to post everyday in November has already fallen short. Here it is, November 2^nd, and I didn’t post yesterday, did I? Nope. Ahh well.

I wanted to post a bit about Halloween before it got too far away from Halloween.

First of all I was amused when my office mates mentioned how keen they were on the idea of decorating our office for Halloween. On the Tuesday before, we went out to Carrefour and got a bunch of decorations, a few costume pieces and even a pumpkin. I forget if it was Wednesday or Thursday during lunch that we decorated.

It was a mad and fun dash of stickers, balloons and spider webs. (I did most of the spider webs…I love doing the spider webs. Did you notice the spider webs?)

Most of the work I had been doing recently with my 11^th graders was a bit dull, so I thought they deserved a bit something more fun. Something to show them that writing in English can be enjoyable. I also felt like being a little dramatic. When the students came into class I turned off all the lights. I had prepared ahead of time by drawing the curtains and blocking out as much sunshine as I could so the room would be as dark as possible. Then I turned a flashlight on my face and asked what holiday was coming up.

I started class with a spooky story. I had looked for a few online and decided to do a slight variation of one about a murderous doll. I looked a long time for something good and scary (I honestly had trouble sleeping in my lonely apartment after that night of research) and that would be easy enough to understand and still be creepy. Here is the basic story I told (slight variations were made in each telling):

“Once there was a girl named Sarah. Her mother gave Sarah a little doll, but she didn’t like it very much. She thought it was creepy. This doll had long brown hair and big brown eyes.

One night, Sarah woke up around midnight because she thought she heard a strange sound. This sound was a very quiet voice that was saying (said in a creepily quiet singsong voice): ‘Little doll, little doll, in the kitchen. Little doll, little doll, on the stairs. Little doll, little doll, in your sister’s room. And now she’s dead!’

Sarah woke up the next morning and her sister was gone. She told her parents about the little doll, but they didn’t believe her. They called the police and looked all day, but Sarah’s sister couldn’t be found. Sarah was very scared when she went to bed that night. Around midnight she heard the voice again: ‘Little doll, little doll, in the kitchen. Little doll, little doll, on the stairs. Little doll, little doll, in your parent’s room. And now they’re dead!’

Sarah woke up and found her parents gone as well. She was all alone. She didn’t know what to do. She knew no one would believe. She stayed in the house all day, too scared to even move. That night she couldn’t sleep. She just stayed in her room and waited. At midnight she heard the voice for the last time: ‘Little doll, little doll, in the kitchen. Little doll, little doll, on the stairs. Little doll, little doll, in your room now. AND YOU’RE NEXT!’”

Every time I told the story I said each “little doll” part quieter so they had to strain to listen and then abruptly changed to a louder, rougher, demonic voice for the “AND YOU’RE NEXT!” I think that plus the repetition, the suspense and the dark room made for a decently scary story. I got a lot of them to jump and a few of them to scream, which made me very happy. J

I then passed out paper, pens and flashlights and told them to write their own scary stories. I think writing their stories in the dark using flashlights added a lot of fun and spookiness to the class. A few of them got really creative and added sound effects or tried to tie their stories into the school to make them creepier. They were a few that weirder me out. One that really stuck with me was a story about a young girl whose shoulder’s kept hurting but all her doctor’s said she was fine. When a psychic suggested her parents take a photo of the girl to look for ghosts, they saw the ghost of a man who had been hung in their house. His feet were resting on the girl’s shoulders. *shudder*

On Friday a few people in the office dressed up. I didn’t want to wear my Athena costume to work, but I had my jester hat and shirt from last year’s Halloween so I just wore them.

From left to right here is Jane (the head of my department), Lotus, June, XuPing/Shopping, and me...the freakin' giant.

On Saturday I went on the LGBT Annual Pub Crawl. I went last year and had a TON of fun. This year wasn’t as good as last, and it was probably due to a lot of factors. One of the biggest was that I didn’t have Ron to hang out with this year like I did last year. Also, there were a ton more people than there was last year but the bars are still just as small as they were before. Which meant that people often got a drunk and then hung around outside. Which was difficult to do when it started raining. Oh well. I still had fun. I even won a prize this year for…erm…well…for having the largest breasts on the bus I was on.

I got really into my costume this year. I had the main part of the costume made at a tailor that Lucy recommended. This is what I gave her as reference:

I was really annoyed when the costume wasn’t ready to be picked up when the tailor said it would and then when I did pick it up it was a bit too big. I don’t think I’ll be going back to that tailor. For shoes, I bought a pair of plain brown sandals and then painted the top part with gold nail polish so that it looked like gold with leather. I also got some gold leaves at the craft market which I attached to a bent hanger to make myself a laurel crown. I also got some gold rope I wore as a belt. I painted my fingernails and toenails gold and had gold eye makeup and gold glitter on my arms and chest. Last but not least, I wore the matching ring and necklace that Elysse and Heather got me from Cyprus. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of my whole outfit. It's rather blurry and dark.

Because I was feeling extra crafty and didn’t feel like carrying a purse, I also sewed pockets for my cell phone/keys/extra makeup/etc into the skirt of the costume and a pocket for cash inside my bra. It worked out really well.

Here is a picture another pub crawler took of me on the bus. Also a bad quality picture, but at least you can see my crown better. I love how it came out.

I am a little annoyed right now because my camera has cracked out on me. The flash doesn't work anymore and I don't know how to fix it. I feel handicapped. How can I document my life here without the use of a camera? UGH! If I send it home to be fixed I just know it will take forever. I wonder if I can get it fixed here.

And because my electronics seem to like failing on me in pairs, my laptop battery is 100% GONE. It has been failing on me horribly since I got it back from CNS at Drew this summer. Yesterday I got a warning that it could no longer hold any charge. If the power chord gets disconnected my laptop shuts down immediately. I am going to try to go to the electronics market tomorrow to get a new laptop battery because this is BEYOND inconvenient.

Anyway, that's all for now. Hope you all had a good Halloween!

Much love,

Stephanie/Athena

Rocking Tiger

2009-10-28T15:41:00.001+08:00

Yes, yes...I realize there has been a delay. And you'll have to wait a little longer. I am a bit frazzled right now. First there was that 8 day work week from hell and then immediately afterwards I got sick which meant I was pretty much going to bed as soon as I got home from work. Now I am trying to catch up on my workload that has seemed to have piled up out of nowhere.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, however. I will be turning in my mock exam grades this friday and the week after next is midterms which means things get easier for me (no lessons to plan or homework to correct). Right now I am in super efficient mode which means things are getting done and I am feeling good. I am digging myself out of this hole of things that need to get done.

Soon I shall post the next part about Japan. You'll just have to be patient a little longer. There will be at least two more entries about Japan to look forward to. Also, I am going to try and particpate in the November Blog Writing Month, which means posting everyday. The entries probably won't be as long as they usually are, but you'll get a month of constant updates.

To hold you over I thought I would post this picture. Isabelle unfortunately had to go back to Germany to finish up school, but she asked me to babysit her electric guitar. And by babysit...I play it. Lucy brought it over and we rocked out. While she's with me, this guitar shall be known as "Rocking Tiger". That way the two guitars in my apartment will be "Rocking Tiger" and "Shadow Dragon".....yes, I am a dork.

That's it for now. I will update as soon as I can.

Much love!

Stephanie

Japan Part Two: Kyoto and Geisha Makeovers!

2009-10-19T21:10:00.004+08:00

Alright...continuing with part two!

We woke up in out hostel in Nara. We took some quick showers and checked out. We went to a restaurant nearby for "breakfast" (I put it in quotes because we both had non-breakfasty sandwiches). Then we went to the train station and headed to Kyoto. We had a little trouble figuring out how to get out of the train station at the exit closest to our hostel (There were lots of trains and hostel in this trip). We ended up chatting for a bit with another traveler from Canada. She was looking for a hostel to stay at for the night, so she decided to join us and check and see if there was an empty room where we were staying. It was POURING rain, so we decided to split a taxi rather than walk. That was another culture difference...in China the taxis are cheap enough so I don't really bat an eye at the idea of taking one even for a short distant if I'm carrying something heavy or the weather is bad. In Japan, this was the only time we took a taxi.

Once we arrived D'Arcy and I checked in. Our very brief travel companion was not so lucky, however, since the hostel was full. She asked the desk clerk where she could find another, I gave her one of my disposable ponchos and we said goodbye. Again we had to take our shoes off at the door. It was around this point I realized why D'Arcy wears slip on shoes. I got really tired of tying and untying my shoes. For this one, our room was on the 4th floor, which made dragging my suitcase up the stairs a LOT of fun. Ugh.

After checking in we went across the street to get some lunch. We got katsu pork, this kind of breaded and fried pork with a yummy sauce on top. It was delicious. It came with rice and this red miso soup.
Next was one of the things I was MOST looking forward to. The geisha makeovers! Technically we were being dressed up as "maiko" or geishas in training. We kind of lucked out that it was raining on the day we were planning on being inside. We hopped on a bus to head to the studio. Turns out we got on it heading the wrong way so we had to ride it for a long time. Oh well. It was a chance to check out the sites. Once we arrived we got a bit lost. We asked an obaasan (grandmother/old woman) for some help, which ended up getting us more lost. We eventually arrived though.

First we stripped down and put on the under robes and tabi socks (the ones with the big toe seperate)...boy did those feel weird. Then we were ushered into the makeup/wig/kimono room were we picked out our kimonos. At first I was drawn to one that was black and covered with flowers in all different colors, but D'Arcy suggested I get one that was blue and red. It did look more like the ones I think of when I think of a traditional kimono. D'Arcy also picked one that was blue, but with purple flowers.

Here you can see the room we were in. The kimonos are all lined up in the back.
We sat down in the makeup chairs and they put this weird hairnet thing on us. Then out came the makeup! The speed with which this woman worked amazed me. She started painting my neck with the white paint, brushing it on and then blending it all in. On the back of my neck she left a little of my bare skin without the paint which just made me think of Memoirs of a Geisha where the main character talks about that part of the makeup process.
Next she washed my face and put this pinkish reddish blush around my eyes and cheeks. Then covered my face with white paint. Again, the speed was ridiculous. One minute nothing, the next, Casper the Friendly Ghost was staring back at me. I just wish I could have had my glasses on (or..you know...good vision) so I could see the details of the whole process.

Here is D'Arcy post-white makeup but pre-everything else. Creepy, huh?
Next she went to the eyebrows. She started with a red pencil, drawing the shape in, and then switched to a black one. The eyes were the same, done first in red and then in black. I enjoy the sensation of someone else doing my makeup for me, so I kind of just half dozed while she was doing all this. I loved hearing D'Arcy commenting the whole while saying things like "Oh my god...that looks so cool" or "Weird! She's coloring your eyebrows red!". Last came the lipstick and mascara. And I was transformed! I wish I could have gotten more pictures of the process but it really happened so quickly. I would have taking more pictures of D'Arcy's but once I was done another woman came in and started dressing me in my kimono.

We were already wearing the white under robe. Next came this red skirt with white flowers. Next came this white fabric with flowers that they wrapped over my back and shoulders, which became the inside collar. Next came the kimono. Then they wrapped this wide red fabric around me from my chest to my hips. Then another layer of fabric, red with white flowers. Then came the black with gold (which I thought was a little weird since it didn't match at all) obi, complete with the giant back piece. And last was this weird ribbon like belt thing with a metal clasp in the front. Each layer got tighter and tighter. I could feel myself standing straighter and straighter. It felt a little like wearing a corset or Renaissance dress bodice (something I actually enjoy) except that instead of trying to create an hourglass figure, I was being turned into a tube. According to D'Arcy that's the look geishas try to achieve...no curves.

Here you can see D'Arcy's whole outfit and all the different layers.
This is the only full body shot I have with me in it right now, so you can see the layers on my outfit. It's a bit blurry. Sorry. And yes...we are being Charlie's Angels.
The last piece was the wig. They tried to put one on me, but it didn't fit. Little known fact...I have a huge head. Side story: In the Medieval club back in college, we had to take our measurements so that if the costuming department ever had to make something for us, it was already on record. That included head size for hats and such. Out of all the people that had their head's measured, myself and I guy we called Panda were tied for the largest head in the whole club. Yeah.

ANYWAY. I was actually a little worried they wouldn't have one that would fit me, but the second one did the trick. Boy did that wig feel weird. It was heavy, for one thing, so I felt a little like falling over. It really was impressive though. The hair around the scalp was designed so that it was attached to a nearly invisible mesh piece. When you wear it, it looks like the hair is growing out of your head. As soon as I was all geisha-ed (or maiko-ed), I was rushed out of the room and down the hall to the photo studio.

The photographer guy had some music playing and spoke enough English to tell me how to pose. I posed holding this weird but interesting small fabric ball (called a temari?), with a fan, and with a big red parasol...not all at the same time of course. The worst was when he had me put on the big wooden sandal/shoes thing. They DID NOT FIT. Half of my foot was hanging off the back. He arranged it so my kimono was covering up the back of the shoe so it looked like they fit. I REALLY felt like I was going to fall over. While he was taking pictures he would say things like "Head...like this" and then would turn his own head the way he wanted. He kept telling me to smile more. I was aiming for the demure smile I always associate with geishas. Oh well. I was worried about letting my teeth show. I've gotten a few compliments in my life about the whiteness of my teeth but anyone's teeth would look yellow next to a white painted face and bright red lipstick. I then watched D'Arcy go through the same thing. After we took a few pictures with our own cameras and then got stripped down and washed the makeup off.
I was disappointed to find out that our printed pictures and the CD with all of the shots won't arrive until after a month goes by. We decided to send everything to D'Arcy (cuz it was cheaper and easier) and D'Arcy will send them to me when they arrive. I really can't wait. When it arrives I will be sure to update better geisha pictures.

We were both kind of wiped out after our makeovers. We headed back towards the hostel to rest for a bit, then got some dinner. After that we took a bus to Gion, the famous geisha district. We got a couple of beers and just walked up and down the streets. We chatted and people watched. I tried not to stare too much whenever I saw a woman in a kimono (unlike this incredible rude foreigner who followed a woman in a kimono with his video camera for a few blocks...ugh). We looked into the window of D'Arcy's favorite shop (which was sadly closed at the time), which makes jewelry and other things out of old kimonos. We walked for a while on a small path next to the canal. It was cool to just be in a place that had so much history and culture.
It was also on the streets of Gion that I experienced a "man" (man here rhymes with Han, as in Han Chinese or Han Solo). For those who know what baozi is, it is really similar. It's a steamed bready dumpling filled with a tasty filling. Niku man is a meat one, piza man is a pizza filling. And it's DELICIOUS. I think I had around 10 piza mans during my stay in Japan.

We realized it was getting late and we didn't feel like paying for a taxi. We took the last bus back to the hostel. We stayed up a bit longer watching silly videos on the iternet and chatting with the two women who were sharing the room with us. Then it was bed time.

We did more stuff in Kyoto the next day but this post is already WAY TOO LONG, so I'm going to lump it into the next post.

More soon!

-Stephanie