National Day Holiday: Day 1 - A Long Day of Traveling

October 3, 2011.

The first time that I have been on a train in Mainland China.

It wasn't too bad.

Early that morning, we boarded a D train (aka the 'fast' train... but not the bullet train - which has had loads of negative publicity in China) and took it down past Shijiazhuang. The train ride was fairly pleasant. We headed south... all the way out of Hebei and into Henan, the province just south of ours.

In four hours, we were at Zhengzhou (郑州), the capital city of Henan... and a major transportation hub. We didn't stop there for long though. As soon as we got off, we started searching for a long distance bus station. The bus station is located in the central courtyard right next to the train station. We got our tickets..

...and waited.

We had to wait, I think, about 2 hours before our bus departed. That meant we crossed the courtyard with all of our luggage to invade and occupy the nearest KFC. Unfortunately, the KFC was already stuffed to the brim with other travelers.

When we finally got onto the bus, it was late into the afternoon. The ride to Dengfeng (登封) - our final destination - was about an hour and a half. With a map printed off our hostel's website, we got off at the bus stop and walked to the Deng Feng Shaolin Temple Traveler's Hostel (which had been recommended to us by the Lonely Planet guidebook for China).

Here's the map of Henan. You can see Zhengzhou. Dengfeng is a small city that wasn't marked on the map. The little purple square is Dengfeng:

And that's it for Day 1. What's next? The next day, we set off to watch some monks perform at the Shaolin Temple. We also climbed Songshan - one of the Five Sacred Mountains of Taoism. You will hear about how a little 5-year-old boy raced me to the very top of that mountain... and won, I am a little embarrassed to say. This first day though, exhausted from our travels, we climbed into our beds and crashed.

A Map of China

Just a quickie before I start telling you about my trip:

Here's a map of China. I live in Hebei - you can see it highlighted there.

And if we zoom in... you can see Baoding where I live. You can also see Cangzhou, where my university took me and my colleagues to pick jujubes. Yes. I used Microsoft Paint's crayon-like thing to highlight the cities.

Just.. for perspective-stuff. National Day trip info coming up next...

National Day Holiday

October 1st is National Day in China. It is, I think, the equivalent of July 4th in the US.

And, for the academic schedule, it's the equivalent of fall break in the US. That means teachers and students everywhere hopped on trains and planes, went home, and relaxed for the week. However, unlike Thanksgiving break, people didn't stay home.

Many traveled.

I traveled too. I jumped onto the traveling train, dove into the "seas and mountains of people" - 人山人海 - and did my best to keep afloat. Was it worth it?

I think so.

Not everyone who went on the trip with me agrees...

You can decide for yourself.

The Lantern Festival and... an Apple?

Today is the Lantern Festival - the fifteenth day after the start of Chinese New Year and, thus, the official end of New Year's celebrations.

It means that I was woken up by what sounded literally like fireworks in my backyard. I woke up with a heart attack. Who in the world would set fireworks at that hour in the morning?

Granted, it was noon when I woke up.

Once I managed to slow my heart rate down a bit, I figured that hey - maybe some of my foreign colleagues were fighting over the results of the Super Bowl. At least two of my American colleagues had woken up early to watch the big game. One's a Patriots fan. The other's a Giants fan.

I... should be an Eagles fan.

I don't really particularly care though. (Please don't kill me...)

I figured that they had started World War III over the results of the game. But, no. It's just the Lantern Festival.

Anyway, now I am in the coffee shop. I was just about to start the next chapter in my Chinese textbook when I got distracted by something... interesting. It's not particularly earth-shattering, no. But it's interesting nonetheless.

She walks into the coffee shop and goes straight up to the cashier.

He takes a seat at the table.

She stares at the menu for a moment, then turns around and sits down across from him.

"Do you want to order anything?" The cashier asks.

"In a moment."

Then he takes something out of a bag. I recognize it from afar. It's a plain white box with a small, gray apple insignia on the end. Someone's taken a bite out of it. I squint my eyes.

It's an iPad.

All right. She sits across from him. They open it together. And... well, they're both smiling like it's the most exciting thing that they've ever done - and it's that much better because they're opening it together.

...This sounds like an Apple commercial, huh? It's not. Not intentionally at least. It's just that not a lot of people in Baoding have iPads, let alone any other Apple product. For most people, I've been told, money is meant to be saved - not spent. So much so that I had a student come to me for advice on how he could convince his mother to let him treat her to dinner at a semi-nice restaurant.

So it's strange. They're sitting together now, trying to puzzle out how it works. I guess I could go over and help them with it... but they're having so much fun trying to figure it out, I really don't want to ruin their experience.

And... that's it.

Nothing big.

Just a moment.

One (Wo)man's Trash...

It didn't take me too long to get comfortable and settled in at my new apartment. For one, I was really lucky - a foreign teacher had lived in my place last year. That meant my kitchen and bookshelf was pretty much fully stocked.

I did need to get used to certain things though.

The cement floors, the shower (aka my entire bathroom), and the lack-of-a-dryer-for-my-clothes, you all already know about. So what's new?

Eh... the closet in my second bedroom had a couple of really old blankets. They were a little moldy and smelly. I felt horrible throwing them out, but I didn't know what else to do with them. After holding on to them for about a month or so, I decided that it was time to take action. I buckled down, folded up one of the blankets and headed outside to place it next to the big trash can.

One down. Two or three more to go. I went back inside. Got another one. Went back outside and... WHA?

Wait... where did the other blanket go? It had vanished. I... just shrugged, put it down, and went back inside. Grabbed something else. Went back outside. And-

Again. The second blanket was gone. I slowly walked up to the trash can and looked around. I couldn't see anyone nearby. I set down the bunch of pillow cases that I had onto the floor and walked slowly back. This time, I hid by my door and waited...

An older lady walked out from a building further down the street. She saw the things there and walked over. Picked them up... and turned back. She was picking up and bringing home everything that I was throwing out.

I stuck my head out and asked if she needed any help.

She shook her head and looked at me. "Why are you throwing all this out?"

I was a little embarrassed. A little ashamed, too, when I stuttered out an excuse. "It's.. eh.. I'm just cleaning up. Just moved in." When she gave me a confused look, I gestured towards the stuff that she was holding. "Are you sure you don't need any help?"

"Yes. Where are you from?" (Because I have a weird accent, apparently, when I speak Chinese).

"America. I am an English teacher at the university."

"Oh. Well. Come by my place anytime you want to. I live on the first floor at the end of this street."

"Ok. Wait. Eh.. what do I call you?"

"Call me A Yi (Aunt)."

"All right. Thank you. Have a good afternoon."

She nodded and carried her things back home.

After that point, I started paying more attention to how quickly trash vanishes. Even my plastic bags get pulled out of the garbage and rooted through. Plastic bottles, glass, and paper products are taken out - I was told to recycle just by leaving things next to the trash can inside of putting them in it. People get paid for everything they bring to the recycling center, so there's a clamber for certain kinds of trash.

And then... of course, in the early days when I was cleaning up, I threw away a lot of stuff (mostly moldy pots and pans) that other people took and brought home with them.

I think the garbage can outside my house is one that a lot of people root through... just because there are three foreigners living right near it. I guess... sometimes we just don't realize how much we waste until other people find it and take it right back out of the garbage can.

With that lesson in mind... today, I happened to break a glass cup. So I very carefully placed it and all of its pieces in a plastic bag separately from everything else. I didn't want anyone rooting through my trash only to accidentally cut themselves on it. Anyway, I haven't seen A Yi since that day... but that is definitely something that I'll remember for a long time.

Belinda

No. Belinda is not a teenage witch.

It sounds like it a little, yeah? Belinda... Sabrina... Something about those two names sound similar. But this is just me getting off topic. Because I want to take this entry to introduce to you all my Chinese tutor.

According to her, it was fate and destiny that brought me to her.

Me? I don't know if I believe in fate... but... well-

Let's start from the beginning.

Fairly early on in the semester, George (one of the other American English teachers here) asked me if I wanted someone to tutor me in Chinese. He, like all the other veteran American teachers here, have been a great help. He drew me a simplified map of Baoding (to come later), he showed me how to read the bus route signs at the bus stops, and - here's the biggest favor he did for me - he helped me find a Chinese tutor.

I explained to him that I had some background in Mandarin Chinese... and, more than anything, I wanted someone who could help me with my speaking. I wanted to improve my listening and speaking fluency.

His first question? "Does it matter if your tutor's a boy or a girl?"

My response? Without thinking, I just shrugged. "Whatever."

Next thing I know, he's introducing me to a young man - a third-year computer.. science (I think?) student. The four of us (George brought his own tutor along, since his tutor was the one who found the student) stood around awkwardly in the park. We shook hands, introduced ourselves, exchanged phone numbers, and set up our first meeting time and place.

I wasn't really sure what to expect.

We met at the park the next week. Only... wait? It wasn't just him. Two people were waiting for me there. The two of them - the guy that I had met last time and his girlfriend (Belinda) were there waiting for me. Belinda laid out a seat cushion on the concrete ledge that they were sitting on and told me to sit.

Ok.

So the three of us just chatted. Belinda is a third-year English major, so she actually knew enough English to jump back and forth whenever we got stuck. We took a stroll around the university park, and we talked about the historical value of some of the structures there.

Lesson 2: Let's take a look at Belinda's dormitory! Her boyfriend waited outside - all dorms at this campus are segregated by sex... guys can't walk into the girls' dormitories, and vice versa. That's a MAJOR difference from college life in the US, yeah? More on that later. They also showed me around the rest of campus.

Anyway...

Within two weeks, Belinda explained to me that her boyfriend wasn't going to come anymore. It would just be me and her.

I was confused, of course. And I still don't really know what happened. Was he my original tutor, and did his girlfriend... excited for the opportunity to speak English... steal me from him? Or was this their plan all along? Or.. or...

...Well.

Belinda and I met twice a week during the semester for two hours each session. If it was nice outside, we'd meet in the park. If it wasn't (and it got cold really quickly), we'd meet either in her dormitory (where I got to meet all of her dorm mates... which was really cool), or at my apartment. Sometimes, if I wanted to meet in the coffee shop, I'd treat her to ice cream or whatever it is that she wanted to eat.

And... despite the lack of structure, we just spent our entire time talking in Chinese.

In the first or second lesson, when both Belinda and her boyfriend were there, I very quickly learned one phrase that I constantly use to this day: qi1 fu2 欺负 - or, to bully.

I will talk about my tutoring sessions with her as my blog progresses. For now... I'll just end with this: I think Belinda gets a little frustrated sometimes at how quickly I pick up certain words (mainly curse words - mild and otherwise) and how long it takes me to pick up other... more important vocabulary points.

And in case you are interested, in order of intensity from the lightest to the most severe:

er2 二 (dumb)

haui4 dan4 坏蛋 (bad egg)

ben4 dan1 笨蛋 (stupid)

chi2 dun4 迟钝 (mentally impaired)

bai2 chi1 白痴 (idiot)

Now you can go and dou4 逗 (or verbally/jokingly insult... tease) your friends. Be nice though, yeah? See you tomorrow...

Attack of the Jujubes!!!

Because the International Cooperation Office (ICO) at my university great, they decided to take us (all the foreign teachers) on a trip. And yes... this trip involves jujubes!

...What are jujubes?

No... no, no, no. Not Jar Jar Binks!

Not Jar Jar... Not Jub Jubs either.

No Jub Jubs. And... yeah. I know. I'm a dork.

But I haven't played Neopets in... at least ten years now.

Really.

But OK. Seriously now. Jujubes.

They look like dates, yeah? (I don't actually really know what dates are... but I assume that these are dates). This particular kind of date from China is known as the jujube... and it's wildly popular here. Jujubes are famous for their health benefits - so much so that you can easily buy dried jujubes, jujube teas, and jujube... gum?

Not gum, really. But it's wrapped in the same kind of paper.

Anyway, you know that saying about apples? An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Well, in China, there's a similar saying about jujubes. Two jujubes a day will... make your skin smoother, your eyes brighter, and your age... younger.

Something like that.

Can't really remember.

Anyway- the adventure. The ICO invited us all on a day trip on September 24th, 2011. At 8:00am, we met right outside my home.

Then a big van (or a very very small bus) picked us up for a two hour ride to Cangzhou (沧州). Cangzhou is famous for its jujubes. They're known for other things too, I think, but all I could see from where I was were fields and fields of these delicious little fruits.

Can't seem in? Let's zzzoooom in!

Those aren't ripe yet. They're green. They're sweet and perfectly ripe when its exterior becomes a dark reddish brown. Like these:

Once we arrived, we each grabbed a bag and started picking them. I'm a little ashamed to say that more went in my mouth than into my bag. At first, I was curious. And then... I was hungry. As usual - as a card carrying member of Procrastinators of the World, Unite... Tomorrow! - I woke up a little too late and missed breakfast.

Here's the outside and inside of a jujube:

My friend and colleague Hannah picking one:

And eating one...

And me! Eating one too.

Here, we're being given a little cultural lesson on the jujubes by our hosts:

After we've picked (aka eaten) our fill, we ran into one of the farmers. Everyone in the village pretty much works together to grow and maintain these fields. They were excited to see us, and they happily gave us a chance to try and pick jujubes the way they do it.

You see... how we did it - going through and picking each one out one by one - isn't really efficient when they want to collect them all, process, package, and sell them. Instead, one person takes this long bamboo pole and uses it to knock against a tree's branches. The jujubes then fall onto a big sheet that someone had laid onto the ground.

And here's a better picture of the bamboo stick:

After that, we got a big group picture.

Then hopped back onto the mega-van to a jujube processing plant. Here's the exterior of the plant:

Since we clearly hadn't eaten enough jujubes by then, we went inside to try a bunch of different jujube products.

Yum. Dried jujubes. Jujube gum. Jujube covered in coconut. Jujube freeze-dried or somethin' like that. Then to the actual place where they processed the fruit.

After eating all this fruit... we were, of course, getting hungry. For lunch? More jujubes!!!

...No.

Fortunately, no. We had real food.

Unfortunately, we had it banquet-style.

What does that mean? First, it means that cultural etiquette asks that we all participate in the communal act of toasting and drinking baijiu (or Chinese rice wine). And next?

See where I am sitting?

Our host is to my left. I was the first one into the room... so, without thinking, I went all the way inside and took the inner-most seat. I saw a strange napkin setup thing on the table in front of the inner-most seat... so I figured - OK. That seat isn't for me.

I took the seat to its right.

What does this mean?

I had no idea... until, as the dinner progressed, I realized that I was the first one being served. And then I realized - without knowing it, I had taken the seat reserved for the guest of honor.

Oops.

No one said anything to me. They just gave me a funny look... realized that, though I don't look it, I am definitely and culturally American. And continued on with seating themselves and eating. So Cultural Lesson of the Day?

The host (aka the person who is paying for the meal, aka the most important person present) sits in the seat furthest away from the door. The further you are away from this spot, the less important you are.

So I was definitely in the wrong seat.

But whew. It was ok.

All was forgiven... or ignored... or taken in stride thanks to my status as an ignorant American.

After lunch, we hopped back on the bus and took the long ride home to Baoding.

Oh wait! One more thing!

As if we hadn't picked enough and eaten enough jujubes that day, our hosts presented each of us with a giant box of jujubes that none of us would be able to eat.

I ate some, gave some away to my students in a lesson, and threw the rest out when they became sour and moldy and stinky.

And... that is all.

I would like to credit half of the above photographs to Ms. Tian, one of the directors at the ICO. And I would like to note that this pictures took ALL DAY to upload. *kicks the internet here*