I'm home!

Two months later, I'm home. I guess two months doesn't seem so long in retrospect, but I feel like I've seen/accomplished a lot in these past two months. I loved the people I met, the food I got to eat, and the things I got to see. I'm a bit "China'd" out for now, but I'm sure I'll make it back there in the near future, either job-related or to visit my Tsinghua friends or Liupanshui students.

Here are a few pictures from my last days in China, in case you wanted to see them:

A cool yet creepy Chinese building that we thought was the Underground City Mao built in the 60's but really was just a house.

Some of the thousands of people who went to watch the lowering of the flag in Tiananmen Square one night:
My friend Dave taking the obligatory tourist photo with some Chinese tourists:
Monkey and Mao, frienemies:

A beautiful lotus flower at Beihai Park:
A fantastic kite shop that makes Chinese-style kites by hand:
Some of the kites they have for sale:
My favorite, a turtle! Totally flyable, too! (550 rmb?):
I got 2 kites, an eagle for Alex and a butterfly for Wei:
The Opera House at night:

Goodbyes at the airport with Johanna and Krista:
So I guess this is it for the Belinda in China blog, at least until I return to China again. If you ever want to get together to talk about China or just hang out in general, call me! :) Thanks for reading and commenting, and hopefully I'll see all of you sooner or later. :)

zaijian,
b

Picture Update!

I'm finally settled into the hostel we're staying at in Beijing near Tiananmen Square. The program ended today and me and a few friends had originally planned on going to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia but because we're all burned out and tired we decided to spend our last 4 days in Beijing. :)

The program was a journey. I felt like I got to bond with many of the 30 students we taught, and it was heartbreaking to have to leave them. I kept thinking in the back of my head that I could really make a difference with these students if I stayed here. It's really hard to disseminate all my thoughts and feelings from those two weeks there, but if you ever want to chat about it, let me know.

Anyways, I thought I'd update with pictures from the past 2 weeks. They're pretty much in chronological order.

A plate of potato dishes = MMM! Fried, chips, and hash-browns, plus corn nuts.

Me and the other girls, Judy, Penny, Erin, and Candy:
Jiaozi! Handmade steamed dumplings filled with pork and green onions in a soft wrapper, with chili sauce and onions in a vinegar "create your own adventure" sauce (10 for 3.5 RMB):
"Strange rice" that wasn't strange tasting, it was delicious! Spicy fried rice with cabbage, pork, potato slivers, kidney beans, green onions , and chili paste (1 bowl = 5 RMB):

A delicious bowl of rice noodles and chicken with green onions in a light broth and vinegar splashed on top by me (1 bowl = 4 RMB):Monkey found a delicious treat!
We did too! A delicious watermelon:
"Gloomy" and me and the box she folded for me:

Cute kids :)

All the kids having fun :)Ah, cake attack!
Us during the cake fight:Me and most of our students (They are SO awesome):

Back in Beijing! At the Olympics site, in front of the "Bird's Nest":3 minutes later, a downpour occurred, and many people scrambled for cover, including this family of 5 under 1 umbrella:

20 minutes later, clear skies. Here's the "Water Cube" and the "Bird's Next":
Krista and me out with other people on our 2nd to last night
The winners of a bowling match! I bowled a 91 and had 3 strikes :) I think all that Wii Sport Bowling really helped, thanks Wei and Alex!:
A nice picture of Wudaokou, the shopping area near Tsinghua U.:

That's it for now. Alles gut and I'll update when more happens :)

-b

Day 54: Back in Beijing!

I'm back at Tsinghua U. after an amazing time in Liupanshui. The kids were hard to say bye to, and there were a lot of internal problems with our group but I learned a lot and it was definitely a great and learning experience. I'll update more later but here's a picture from our last night there with the majority of our students when we had a cake fight! (I'm hidden in the picture) =)


-b

Here's a whole mess of pictures from the past week or so:

Our group minus one on the train:
What the "hard sleeper" car looks like [6 beds in each section, 11 sections]:
My group: Jim, Penny, William, Judy, Erin, Candy, and me:
A hilarious mannequin in Liupanshui!:The school where we're teaching and staying at, the building to the right is where we're staying:
The girls from our group, we have a lot of fun together:

Penny, Judy, and me advertising for Walnut Milk, which by the way, is delicious:
Delicious fried potatoes and chillies:
A meal of traditional Guizhou food: Potatoes, egg and spinich, bok choy, braised tofu, fried eggs and veggies, soup with taro, stir fried potatoes, and so on:
When I am missing the family, Monkey keeps me in order, helping hold my glasses and sharing positive thoughts:
How I showed the 2nd graders where Seattle is relative to Liupanshui [I need to work on my drawing skills]:

The adorable 2nd grade class, in the midst of reciting a poem:
The 5th grade class:
The old men staying at the senior home:
A family we talked to in the rural village:
Judy and me with the boy we named Andy from 5th grade:
That's all for now! Time for basketball. Miss ya!

-b

Day 43-45: Teaching English in Liupanshui

These past three days we've been teaching to the freshmen at the No. 3 High School in Liupanshui. I've been having a lot of fun with the students, teaching them things about American culture, like what high school is like in America, English expressions like "What's up?" and "Chill out". The students are so eager to practice English, and I've definitely noticed an improvement in just 3 days. We have a session of morning reading where we read an inspirational passage and I correct their pronunciation and teach them new words.

Today we read a passage by Helen Keller called "Three Days to See". Then Erin and I have an hour long session in the morning and in the afternoon where they practice their conversation and spoken English. Even though they are lower income people, they still have big dreams and aspirations for the future. I think they can do great things if they keep trying, and I keep trying to encourage them and support them. They're also very kind; one girl named "Gloomy" folded a paper box with little boxes inside with little folded stars and things. Another boy wrote a really nice letter to each of us and gave us a picture of himself. They're thrilled to be learning from us, even though these past three days have been their vacation and they just finished term exams, and also we've had school Friday through Sunday. Tomorrow they begin classes during the day, but they were so excited to hear that we would keep doing classes at night.

I feel like I'm learning just as much from them as they are learning from me. Now and then they'll teach me the Chinese for the English word that I teach them. Teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, and I think that has been easy for me because I want every one of them to succeed.

I wanted to keep in contact with them through email, but apparently, in China, you're not allowed to use the internet or go to an internet bar until you are 18, unless you have internet in a private residence. The government is worried that younger kids will become addicted or run into bad websites or meet bad people on the internet. This is so interesting. I couldn't believe it when I learned it because such a thing as restricting the internet would never happen in the US.

I'm excited for tonight. We're showing them "Horton Hears a Who". I watched it for the first time yesterday and laughed so much, I think it's one of my favorite movies now. We showed them "Kung Fu Panda" on the first night, and taught them the song "Seasons in the Sun" last night. I think I'm playing basketball with them in a few minutes so time to go after I put up some pictures! Hope all is well!

-b

PS I hope you enjoyed the video from the last post! It's SUPER adorable. It doesn't work when I try to watch it here.. weird.

PSS: Miss you Matt, and I hope to see you when I get back! =)

Day 42: Qian Jin Village

[July 9th]:

I feel as if I left my heart back in the village we visited today. We went to the countryside to a village near Liupanshui to visit the schools and do research. There are about 3000 people who live in this village, and by the area's standard, this is one of the richer villages in this province, but I couldn't help but think that the conditions were deprived. Our group of 8 were divided in three groups to visit each class at the local primary school.

Judy and I first visited the 2nd graders. They were so adorable! I tried to teach them Simon Says, but being obedient Chinese students, they followed ALL the directions and didn't understand the "Simon didn't say" part so we had to play a different game. I also taught them the ABCs but we didn't have much time so even though they memorized the melody, the letters faded in the end of the song, but it was cute nonetheless. They also preformed dances, songs, and poems for us to win some candy, and boy were they talented and adorable!

After 40 minutes with them, we visited the 5th graders. English isn't taught at their school, but I taught them "Hello", "Good Morning", "Thank you", and "Your welcome". Then I taught them "My name is..." and they wanted English names so we gave them names! It was hard to think of names on the spot, especially names that are easy to spell and pronounce. The only ones I could quickly think of were those of my family and friends. So we named some kids Lily, Alex, John, Matt, Andy, Mike, Lindsey, Becky, Ally, Sally, Susie, and so on... They were quite excited to have English names and learn from us. It was frustrating, though, when some of the boys didn't pay attention and ignored me when I asked them to practice saying "My name is..." They would just turn away, whisper to their friends, and ignore me, even when I pleaded for them to try in Chinese. I think that many of the children were shy, especially at that age of 10-12 years old. The language barrier was also frustrating, and I felt like some of them didn't take me seriously because I don't look like the typical "American" that most have an image of, and because of the way I do look, my lack of Chinese skills does not help the situation either. And it's more frustrating because I just want to help, and I mean well, and when I don't get respect, it hurts. I guess this must be what teachers experience everyday, which makes me respect them even more for their hard efforts.

The rest of the day was quite an adventure as well, though. We had lunch with the village officials and school headmaster. Then we walked around the farm area and village, interviewing people about their lives and opinions on upcoming new government policies, like a new one about to take place that states that all houses have to become standardized and look the same, which was frustrating for many villagers who cannot afford to remodel their homes. There's a "senior home" on a hill where 8 men live and are supported by the government. They were very friendly in chatting with us, and even showed us their rooms. The government lets them stay at the building since they don't have any family to support themselves, though they must find their own food and cook, too. One of the men was 87 years old, and another was 77. I wonder what happened to their families...

We also met up with a girl that was from the 6th grade class. I had briefly gone in there to answer questions and taught them how to say "Hello", and "Thank you for your hard work", which a boy had requested to learn so he could say it to his teacher. The girl was very bright and friendly, inviting us to her home to talk to her and her family. Her older sister had finished the 9 years of compulsory education but dropped out because their family could not afford to send her to high school. She also sacrificed her education so that her younger sister could have the chance to continue, seeing potential in her. Their relationship and the way they interacted reminded me of my sister and suddenly I was overcome with a wave of homesickness, and just thought about my family in comparison to theirs. Their parents raise pigs (10 of them) and grow potatoes (1000 kg a year) to support their family. All of us gave the girl moral support and encouraged her to study hard so that she could continue her education (possibly with scholarships); her dream is to someday attend university, and I really hope she makes it there.

When we returned from the village, we met the students we'll be teaching here at Liupanshui. Around 30 students from poor backgrounds were chosen for this program. They are all freshmen in junior high (which I take to believe as 7th graders). For dinner we had a local specialty, teat-ban-siu (in Cantonese). Basically, sliced vegetables are cooked on a metal plate in lots of oil in front of you at your table. I estimate that the waitress helping cook the food poured more than a pint of oil onto the pan and the oil kept splattering at us and we had to wear aprons to protect our clothes. We used to do a similar thing at home, but it was more healthy and less dangerous, and we also had meat. Erin on our trip is a vegetarian so we all just had vegetables for dinner to make it more convenient. Now we're in our dorm room resting and tomorrow we also have off to plan our lessons.

The weather has been fantastic and my arms are getting brown from the sun. The air is usually fresh smelling and the sun is shining. The area is surrounded by mountain peaks that remind me of Guilin. It's a lovely place here and it reminds me of home.

-b

PS: Here is an adorable kid performing a song for us and her class. It's a Chinese folk song about the mountains.

Day 39-41: Beijing to Liupanshui County, in Guizhou Province

We finally made it to Guizhou! Guizhou is really nice, and the city we're in, Liupanshui, is really big. At least bigger than I thought. It has 3.4 million people in this county, and 460,000 people in the city center. The air is quite clean, which I'm a fan of. It feels good to breathe here, and the sky is blue, too, another plus. Our train ride was quite interesting. We had hard-sleeper beds, which is quite the experience itself. Imagine one train car with 11 sections/room with no doors, just 6 beds in each of the rooms, and the toilet smell wafting in every 5 minutes. It felt like a sleepover... but with 65 other strangers who could at any time steal my stuff.... well besides my Tsinghua friends, who by the way are amazing! They're all so friendly and it's hard to believe that we've only known each other for less than a week. We all get along great and are having fun exploring Liupanshui together.

Tomorrow we're going to the countryside to a village that is literally called "Water City". There, we'll do some research at a primary school and visit with the kids, who all just finished their exams. Today we walked around the city, after arriving at 2am, and also met with the school officials. Serious commy action. They told us about the teaching and education situation in this region. Lots of statistics and stuff. The one I found most interesting is that out of the 690,000 students that enroll in school in Liupanshui, only around 8500 make it to college. Most students drop out after high school, since the first nine years of school are compulsory and paid for by the government. After that, students have to pay for high school themselves, which equates to 5,000 rmb a year for tuition and school fees. Only a handful make it to the elite schools like Tsinghua University, though the situation in Liupanshui is better than other areas in Guizhou Province.

I'm currently in a greasy internet cafe, and the cars are going crazy outside. It's so noisy from all the honking, it reminds me of New York City. The food we've had so far is spicy and delicious, and we're really looking forward to trying more local treats! I don't have internet at the dorm we're staying at, so I'll have to find a way to update more pictures later, because I have a lot of great ones! I'll write more later! Miss you all!

-b

PS: Alex: I concur with your feelings about being patriotic, and though sometimes I still feel like it's hard to express them in a foreign country when I'm trying to be culturally sensitive. But I really enjoyed reading what you had to say! And look forward to creating some delicious Chinese dishes with you and Wei when we celebrate National Holiday in October! :)

Day 36-38: Tsinghua University

A bird pooped on my head yesterday, I know you're all jealous of the good luck that will bring me. :)

Training has gone well and I'm really enjoying the people I've been hanging out with. The weather has been really nice lately, although a bit hot sometimes. On Thursday, it reached 35 degrees Celsius, and I went running with Johanna. After our half hour run, my face burned up and turned bright red, it was the hottest I've ever felt. Eating at Tsinghua U. has also been a pleasure. Their cafeterias have a wide selection of food to choose from and everything is quite inexpensive, although the portions are way too big. Here's a picture of a typical lunch at Tsinghua.And here's a picture of my room. Tiny but it's my own so I love it.

I've also been reading a new book, The White Masai, which has been really interesting. It's about a Swiss woman who falls in love with an African warrior during a trip to Kenya and stays there to marry him. I'm half way though, and also have other reading materials for our 32 hour train ride to Liupanshui County, in Guizhou, where I'll be teaching. I bought some presents last minute to give to the students we're teaching, 1 biography in both English and Chinese on Rachel Carson (a famous environmentalist!), and the first Harry Potter book :) I'm also bringing my Planet Earth dvds so maybe they'll want to watch those, too! Here's a picture of me and Erin, the other American going to Guizhou.
Yesterday was July 4th, and the Americans in my group had quite the celebration. For dinner, a few friends and I had sushi at a nearby restaurant. I was stuffed by the end of dinner, after having a salmon roll, prawn tempura roll, potstickers, and veggie tempura, and it all amounted to just 47 RMB! It wasn't as tasty as sushi I've had in Seattle, though the familiar flavors and freshness along with how inexpensive it was made it worth it and worthy for another visit when I return in 2 weeks to Tsinghua. Afterwards, we went to a "trendy" club called Lush that was having a 4th of July bash. Here's a picture of me, with Krista from PLU and Crysten from Iowa.It was jam packed with Americans, and every time the band finished a song, someone would start a U-S-A chant. They sang songs like the theme song from Team America, the Star Spangled Banner, and even led the rowdy crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. It was quite the spectacle. Although I'm proud to be an American citizen, I find it difficult at times to be so patriotic in a foreign country, especially when I feel allegiance to many countries. It was pouring last night, reminding me of the flood days in Guilin.

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon for our rural location. I can't believe we'll only be teaching for 9-10 days. We only had "training" for 2 days, and getting there and back will take up 4-5 days so this 3 week program will pass by way too quickly. I'm excited, though, to meet the students and hopefully inspire them to dream big. Too often they lack motivation and big dreams, especially when faced with tough competition and intense pressure to succeed from their parents. Hopefully our time there will make a lasting impact.

PS: Erin and I went to Wal-Mart yesterday, and it was quite the experience. I was overwhelmed at the size and the huge selection of products. It was like an American Wal-Mart, but with Chinese characteristics, like Beijing roast duck hanging by the deli, different sanitary rules, and the staff was not very service-oriented, plus no happy door greeter. I was amazed to see the selection of Lay's Potato Chips, and wrote down all the crazy flavors.Starting from 3 o'clock and working clockwise: Lime Flavor, Flavor Roasted BBQ, Sichuan Spice, Mango, Lychee, Cherry Tomato, Ziran Steak, Italian Red Meat, Savory Prawn, French Chicken, Mexican Tomato Chicken, American Classic, Texas Grilled BBQ, Red Wine Chicken, Fragrant Red Chili, and Cucumber Flavor. Do any of those sound tasty to you? Andrew and Stephanie tried the Mango and Lychee flavors and said they were the worst things they've eaten in our trip in China.

PPS: Naomi- I thought of you and Panda when I found the Snoopy-esqe pens. They actually have a different character on now, some white bunny and it says "Happy Ludy" :) I miss you, too, and hope to have hot pot and yang rou chuan with you when I get back!