Teaching in China

So two weeks ago I made a trek out to Zengcheng, China with a bunch of fellow CUHK comrades. We went to this small town in Guangdong province with the mission to expose the students here to English language and non-Chinese culture. We had a blast with the students and the town. Other than the nice people, there's nothing really crazy about Zengcheng...except that they produce 70% of the world's denim.

Suprisingly I didn't see any child labor














Zengcheng. View from the school. Excited to see China China!














So we first visited Zhiye Jishu vocational-technical school. They teach middle schoolers skills for their future career which may include banking, fashion design, or other things. They were really excited. Several of them brought fake money to show off their counting skills. I wonder how their tests go. Probably a lot of paper cuts.

Zhiye Jishu, students ecstatic to show us how talented they are and how successful they will be in their future careers.














They live on campus in tight quarters. 12 per room to be exact. And I whine about my HK dorm life and touching gross walls while showering. Weak, Crystal...weak.














Their cool exercize room. I pogo balled!



















The kids there are cool. As you can see.



















The next day we taught a bunch of younger kids in a huge classroom. I taught them by myself. Well, not exactly by myself...just me and my Lonely Planet Phrasebook. What an experience! You really learn by teaching others. Of course they were teaching me more than I was them, I'm sure. I asked what they thought of the U.S., what Americans are like etc. They responded: NBA, movies, McDonalds... It's interesting how they couldn't really understand my accent, they probably got the Chinese accent down. When I wrote it down they often understood it. But still I love how you have to be creative while teaching. Rephrasing is key. It amazes me how many different ways you can say something. Amazes me.

Some things I taught them. The differences between the U.S. and China:
1. There is greater diversity. I said, "In China there's only Chinese. Hai Junggwok yauh Junggwok yahn je. In America, there's Chinese, white people, black people, red people...um, do you understnand yellow people? (and the answer is yes, yes they do have the concept of yellow people there) Hai Meigwok, Junggwok yahn, baak sik yahn, haak sik yahn, hung sik yahn, wohng sik yahn..."
2. Toilets are different. "In China you have these. (me squatting) You understand? Ming m ming baak? And these (i grabbed a chair and sat on it) Ming m ming?. But in the U.S. you only have these " So yeah, I told them about racial and potty differences between these two superpowers.

It also made my day how much interest everyone had in what I was saying. That doesn't happen very often. They didn't always understand the words that were coming out of my mouth, but some things just don't need to be said.














We later talked to high school students. Yeah, the stereotype for Asians come from somewhere, don't they? Look at those stacks of books. Insane! We asked them how long they go to school for. 6 days a week for 8 hrs a day. What do they do for fun? They say sleep...and study. OMG. We asked WHY?! To get into college, of course. But then we told them of life in the U.S. and how having a social life and normal life was important to universities they were a little bit baffled. I felt bad telling them how life could have a side other than studying.

Chinese high school students. They kill a lot of the world's trees.














At night we explored the town. I guess a group of 12 foriegners is a big deal there as they don't see non-Chinese beings. They pointed. They stared. They took pictures. Of course we took pictures back as this was way too surreal. I never got celebrity status before.

Now I feel like I know what it's like to be white in China. Almost.














We were quite the celebrities. Sorta weird...














Our new friend Lucky! Her English was impeccable. We met her in the Chinese dance group where residents come together and learn traditional Chinese dance/exercises. She showed us the malls, famous dan tat bakery (where amazing dan tat is $0.60RMB, aka $0.08USD) and the $1 store. We're bracelet buddies. I'm going to miss really nice Chinese people.

Why am I always the only person looking happy?














If it wasn't for this program I wouldn't have ever experienced a small, non-touristy town in China, as touristy places are where travellers go. Hopefully I can immerse myself in real China before I leave Asia...hopefully, after finals, group projects, and papers get done with my soul. Although I have 2 papers, 3 group presentations, and 4 tests due in the next two weeks I will try and keep up the blogging as I have mini Thailand adventures to write about. You should be excited (xing fan). You should be quite excited as this last blog was short and subpar. I am sorry.

The Substenance of Life and Study Abroad

So I've been playing catch up with my life recently; when intentions are always pushed behind something else. Something else always comes up, for better or worse. You'll probably see a lot of those something elses here. That's why I'm going to forego sleep for you, DJTHK. I've been neglecting you, and my loyal readers do not deserve this! Actually...I think my readership has plummeted and has contributed to my lack of motivation to reflect. If you want to hear more, comment. I do not know how people can subscribe to my posts, but I can inform whomever's when I sporadically update if you'd like. Though, who really cares?

This is a catch up post. I'm spicing it up a notch and I'm going to tell my story through only experiences with nutritional elements and my interactions with this culturally important part of the Chinese culture and essence (this includes the Special Administrative Region called HK). Pics with food will elaborate on topics of my feelings on both cultural immersion and cultural aversion. Hopefully only-food pics will cover how I feel about excitement, newness, and the nasty/weird/way-too-big-things that I've encountered here. Since nutrition consumption makes a significant part of HK life, I hope you enjoy and can pretend that you too are swallowing or refusing to swallow what I have encountered.


So we ate at Pizza Hut the third day that we were in HK. I didn't have McDonald's for another week and KFC for another month. I find it quite interesting how global businesses are run. How they keep their positioning or are completely different brands.

Look how happy we are; home sweet home...though when does anyone eat at Pizza Hut?














For example, KFC is huge in comparison to McDonald's, Pizza Hut sells salmon rolls and lobster pizza, and Espirt is actually trendy here. Also, 7-11 is worshiped and is as omnipresent as an ABC store in Waikiki, just more respected.

Yes, this is the interior of Pizza Hut.














One thing I noticed early on is that they eat dried anything. I wonder if this reflects their tendency to save and minimalize. I saw a pile of dried seahorses and that made me sad. (If you didn't know I had pet seahorses Yellie and Blackie, RIP) The question I have is, isn't it chewy?

Sam Sui Po, first week in HK



















Vegetarian Buddhist food. Quite amazing despite how gooey it looks. I must immerse myself! I have gotten very sentimental with vegetarianism. I was vegetarian for two weeks; it made me resepect life a little more. It's quite impressive how impeccably they imitate animate objects with tofu and seaweed. You may ask why not just use meat? For the animals. For the animals they pretend to be...

Fung Ying Seen Koon Buddhist Restaurant














Asia is a community-oriented society. However this is the cause for prevalent numbers of Hepatitis B amongst China. Must keep the immersion going...!

Sharing is caring.














An impeccable display of gender roles prevalent in Asia. It is quite prevalent in this society.














You'd be surprised what you can do with the limited amount of resources that small Asian quarters allow for. We baked a surprise bday cake out of cake mix, cream soda, crazy lil koalas, a microwave and borrowed Tupperware. Too bad it's butt ugly. People didn't want to be the first to try it.

U-G-L-Y homemade cake. Though I've made uglier...(ice cream cake that melted before I could give it to Jaimie...boo cruiser)














Beef Chow Fun. You can never go wrong with that order. Except for ordering...chow fun (higher tone), chow fahn (fried rice, sorta-lower tone), chow faan, cheuhng fan, chaow fuhn, chou fuhn...ok ok I don't really know, but this is how confused I always feel. They all sound the same!
Cheap cheap! After 10,000 Buddhas trek














Eating everywhere...not even looking at the gorgeous view over Lamma Island. Mango mochi love.














I assume this is food too...



















Yup, still looks like a pig and it's ready for eating.














This reminds me of the song:
Timon: Luau. If you're hungry for a hunk of fat and juicy meat/ Eat my buddy Pumbaa here 'cause he is a treat/Come on down and dine/ On this tasty swine/ All you have to do is get in line/Are you achin'...
Pumbaa: Yup, yup, yup.
Timon: For some bacon.
Pumbaa: Yup, yup, yup.
Timon: He's a big pig.
Pumbaa: Yup, yup.
Timon: You can be a big pig, too. Oy.

I'm such a wimp. I still feel bad chomping on live-looking animals. Especially whomping off shrimps' heads and pulling off their legs. The worst is when their brain starts shooting out. Poor guy.

Lantau Island



















Hot pot buffet. Crowded. Dirty. Of course there's pushing and live sea creatures jumping at you. Look how crowded and popular this activity is. In the US it'd probably have an F rating. Nice.

Loved by all the Asians and Asian Americans. I'm so not Asian enough.



















Look at everyone's faces. Me and Andy in disgust/awe, Lin with joy.














So some of the group decided that the almost dead but still jumping crayfish (aka peeing shrimp in Chinese for its supposedly well known abilities) had to go into the bubbling hot pot. I should get over the discomfort that I have for directly killing a living being. (esp. since mosquito season is coming up.) I mean I am the cause of many animals' deaths. They eventually get into my belly. Though, I do not usually see ostentatious hints of their past living.

Ok, so I'm not the only one thinking this eating experience is insane.














Showing us how to massage the peeing shrimp so you can pull it out of its shell in one go.



















Seafood rice! Ok, so pretty much everything you get here can be classified as "with rice" or "with noodles." I know I'm an ignorant foreigner but that's what it seems at least compared to MEAT MEAT America. Though HK is supposedly the meat capital of the world... Warning: I'm eating a lot of carbs, MSG, and greasy fried foods. That's ok, fat's back! My non-fat roomie bought a scale from IKEA two days ago. I am now 60 (I don't know the measurement or what that even means). I told her she doesn't need to take diet pills because she's already thin. I meant it in a truthful nice way as stick thin Asians for some reason want to look anorexic. (I shouldn't be suprised by now, women of the world always do.) And she was like, "Crystal, the only thing we know is that I'm skinnier than you." So...take that as you will, cuz I'm still a bit confused.














Food can truly influence your level of homesicknesses. I don't eat McDonald's at home...maybe once every 3 months. But here, whenever we see a McDonald's we have to at least stop for a dipped cone (0.40USD). We even make pilgrimages there because it is one of the few places where the dirty/cheap fragrance reminds us of a place outside of our everyday lives here. It makes my day when I can eat a $1.80USD 6 piece box of Chicken McNuggets that tastes the same as back home. McDs makes your stomach full and heart warm.

So...the first food I ate in the homeland (China) was...McDonalds...tear. I have no willpower. When we went in there was security. He asked us to not take pictures and was following us the whole time in our stay here. Enter China.

Shenzhen. First 15 min in China.
McDs stop your supersizing powers. I already cannot buy any shoes here as I'm a 41 which supposedly is massive as men's sizes start at a 42. That and I often can't even fit larges and the saleswomen make a verbal note on this.














Long noodles for long life. However, it makes it quite difficult to consume. Quite.



















So when I look at this picture I think talent. The Chinese like their food a little too fresh for my liking. They chop up fish without knicking the major organs. So in the markets even though the fish are completely butchered, you can see them still respirating with beating hearts.

Live fish. Not quite vegetables.














Still whole looking...almost to the point where it would jump and bite you in the face.














Of course we had to go to Starbucks.
What a relief it was sitting on these little couches...that and a sitting toilet in way too long.














The pastry shops here cover every block. With high levels of competition, we can buy ingeniously decorated and too cheap confectionary delights. Too bad I have a family history of diabetes, high cholesterol, and liking pasteries.














I bought this pastry from the girl as a bribe so that I could take a picture with her.














Yet another. Dynasty's! (Hey, but it was before a hike)












We had to do local pizza. No more Pizza Hut...hopefully. Please note me, on the right. I am wearing my ugly sweater, "Ugly." I bought it from Shenzhen, China for $5RMB ($0.80USD, maybe equivalent to 1 charsiu bau). Even the Chinese thought I was cheap. It is now unravelling. That's ok, it makes it more functionable as it is what I wear when I'm going out shopping at the markets and try to pull off the poor student or from Cambodia alibi. I say, "Pehng di la! Ngoh haih kohng hohksaang." (Ah! Cheaper please. I am a poor student.) It works. I pointed at all the holes in my jacket when I was bartering for a "Gucci" watch (I know...I can't believe I bought "Gucci"). They were like yeah...that is poor.

Don't I look like a talented waitress? Maybe that's cuz I am.














Starfish on a stick. How convenient.














New Territories














You're not supposed to eat/drink on the train. But if I ever get caught I'm going to pull the "Oh really? I'm so sorry...I'm a foriegner".














Ebineezers.














We get thirsty sometimes too.

Kung Hei Fat Choi / Gung Xi Fa Cai -- Chinese New Year Edition

This is going to be a primarily visual post. I will try and tell the story of my cultural connection back to my Canto roots...and then some. Just for warning, the most used lexicon I used during these 10 days was nasty. I mean, I loved the trip and all dearly, but oh man China does have its nasty moments. Um, but lucky for you I rarely take pictures of grossness. (Although I did take a picture of my legs which got 35 mosquito bites on them... Lucky for you I'm kind enough from posting that.)

So...less words. Yes, you may shout yippee!


GUANGZHOU (aka Canton, back in the day)

Cute old cotton candy vendor.
He peddled the machine with his foot and sold sticks for $0.30. However, Lin tipped big! ($0.40) One of the many Chinese New Year Carnivals/Flower Markets that I visited. All bling, all crowded, all totally Chinese.



















Pearl River















Waiting for fireworks.
And then it started drizzling in which the Chinese needed to protect their heads from. A cultural experience in itself.















Getting lost in the crowd.
Ok not really. Throughout the whole trip we kept sticking out like sore thumbs. For some reason a Chinese girl, a white boy, and a South-East Asian girl draws question to most Chinese. Well, that's not completely true...I got Indian twice, African once (<--I know...) and omg, Chinese twice. They sometimes thought that Tim (white boy) married/bought me (SE Asian classy prostitute) and that Lin (Mando girl) was our paid translator. So it goes...















The Chinese can crowd.
Their tiny bodies and disregard for personal space enables incredible packing. This is where pick pocketers lie. We caught a lady digging in Tim's pockets and Lin got her used Kleenex stolen. Take that, evil missy!
















Yeah, of course we had to Starbucks it.















Yuexiu Park
The supposed highlight of the park: the Celestial Monument of the Five Rams. Totally overrated.



















Baiyun Shan
My favorite place in Guangzhou, maybe even China so far.















Why? Because of it's insanity of colors.















...along with its integration of beauty into nature and ostentatious manmade.



























SANYA (The Hawaii of China)

Humph, they claim the beaches here are gorgeous...
I understand how it's on the same lattitude as Hawaii, but by golly gosh Hawaii beaches do not have neon green algae infestations.















That is me.
(Gogo haih gnoh.) Sorry financial backers (aka parents), that was $40.















The freshest ice cream I ever had.
Mango and pineapple peeled, cut, then mixed. Bam! Btw, this is the only non-exploitative person in Sanya.



















Tianya Haijiao: The Edge of the Sky/Rim of the Sea Beach
The Chinese are quite adept and obsessed with creating plant sculptures.















Standing at what the Chinese originally thought was the edge of the Earth.
The Chinese are quite Sino-centric. Power to us.















Yeah I studied during vacation.
Mom, this picture is for you, and no it's not posed! Academics is a legitimate priority in between ugly beaches and mean taxi drivers.















Yeah, still sticking out as non-Chinese tourists.
They don't look like this.















They look like this.














Um, sometimes Sanya can look cool. Sometimes...
They are building a bridge to a nearby island (Pheonix Island) to further exploit travellers with frivolous vacation excesses.






























HAIKOU (The Land of Dreams)
Haikou strangely reminded me of Hawaii. The people were the nicest I've met in China. They actually do not follow or shout after you if you walk past their products. They spit up noogies significantly less and don't look you up and down in a condescending manner as much.

Bus-ing from Sanya to Haikou.
Travelling on buses were one of the most culturally integrated experiences we got. This 4 hour bus was packed to start. Yet the lady collecting bus money kept trying to get more travellers in her tiny bus on our way up. She was a pushy one, and sucessfully got many Chinese to sit on hard steel boxes for 4 hours and sqush up on each other. This is a picture halfway to Haikou. We thought this was as much as the bus could fit. Of course we underestimated the willpower, Chang-ness (sorry for the derogatoriness but I don't care), and brains of the Chinese. We also watched bad Asian dancing and Indian movies on the bus TV which everyone was hypmotized by.















Rice farmers.
I really need to see more of these. I must stand and work on one before I leave.















Market shopping on Zhongshan Lu.
Summary: I bought shorts from that little boy.
Me:"Dou shao chien?" (How much?) (btw, did you notice I still can't write pinyin?)
Little 5 yr. old boy: "Shur woo quai" ($15)
Me: Thinking: $45? Nodding, didn't really understand. How much did he say? Why am I so bad at Mando? Life sucks. Goddamn. "Dou shao chien? Si shi wu quai?" ($45?)
Little boy: "Shi wu quai! blah blah blah" ($15. Doo di doo...I don't really know what's happening most of the time they speak to me, zoning out, doo di doo...this kid's cute I wish I understood how much he was saying. Why does 4 (si-4) sound so much like 10 (shi-2)? doo di doo. I think he said $15 maybe I'll make sure with Chinese hand symbols. Ok la.)
So long story short I bought shorts that my roomie thinks only an old man would wear. She told me to give it to my dad. I said I don't think he'd wear it. Whatever (see da na) I love it!



















Random temple that we found walking.
There's quite a bit of temples that you run into when walking around China.















A line of tricycle buggies.
Cheap, fun transportation prevalent in Hainan along with motorbike transport. Much better than sketchy, exploitative taxi cab drivers. Look at that line; what competition. Same same all lined up.















Luckily for Lin, fruit's everywhere.















I had to buy fireworks, now didn't I?
I mean...I'm in China, it's Chinese New Year, and the Chinese are the inventors of explosion! So we bought two ariels that shoot off five rounds of glittery goodness each and a pack of water bombs which the seller told us were the most hao wan (fun). So we carried them around the whole day wondering, where can we fire off these babies? I mean with the semi-crowded streets of Haikou, we don't want to shoot someone's arm off. So we finally found an open river to start the madness. Yeah it was fun, but we had 2/3 of our ammo left. Where else? Well, everyone else is just shooting off firecrackers anywhere without much care concern about location or consideration to others. I mean the people in our hotel were throwing pop-pops onto our hall floor for hours at night. So when we found a somewhat large puddle on the biker's street I had to throw a water bomb in it. Luckily we are smart students. We made sure no bikers or little infants were passing by and threw it in. BOOOOOOOOM! It was huge...car alarms went off, the spray shot five feet in the air. The Chinese turned, looked, then resumed doing what they do (spitting noogies and waiting for buses).















Although my roomie from Haikou asked why American students would ever think about wearing pajamas (my translation for sweats) to class, this rich fella is while walking his prissy lil dog.



















Me holding my weapon...
in front of Avon, which is more subpar in China than it even is in the U.S.















Zhen Zhu (Pearl) lady!
My new buddy. We could barely speak to each other through our broken Manglish, but friendship transcends boundaries.
The paper reads: Where are my friends? (Wo de peng you qu na le?) They've been gone a long time. (Ta men yao hui qu hun chang shi jian.) It took 20 min for us to understand my concern of where my friends were. Lin and Tim got distracted by food and left me hanging for an hour. I also learned pang (scared), sholian (bracelet) and jiezhi (ring). She is the owner of the oldest selling jewelry business in Haikou.















Cute girl we made friends with at our favorite, cheapo grocery store. (We ate meals here for $4...RMB, meaning $0.50).

Me waiting for Lin to decide what kind of coconut powder she/her mom/her relatives wanted along with how many, how to transport them blah blah blah decided to stimulate my mind by looking at weird Chinese pasteries. I saw a cool crepe-but-not looking thing and asked the girl at the counter, "Neiga jiao shenma?" (What's that called?) The indifferent girl shruged "Lian pi." Me: nod (response to Mando/Canto is always smile and nod, sometimes pretend I understand, usually ask again because I'm bored.) Me: "Dien di?" Her: "Lian piii." Me: "Pian ni?" Her: "LIan PIIIIIIIIIII!" Me: "Oh, ok... Lian piiii?! Uh...xie xie." Her: "blah blah blah" (Assumably: Where are you from? You are so dumb! Why can't you pronounce lian pi, you're older than me.) I base all my assumptions because I kept asking "Shenme? Shenme?" (What?) And her mom finally came out and probably did some hand motions or something. Me: Meigwo (America.) Her: Waaaa! Meigwo, Meigwo?! Blah blah (Probably no way! For real? Is that what she said, mom? You only speak English?). Lin finally decided which and how many coconut packets she wanted and came up and continued the enjoyable conversation that I sort of but wasn't really having. We were creating a semi-ruckus of excitement and language barrier that attracted 3 ladies to enquire about the pasteries. They asked the little girl and she ignored them, too interested in weird foriegners, of course. Persistantly they kept asking: "Dou shao chien? Dou shao chien? [and how much for this one? this one? what is this one?]" Pissed by being distracted from her American entertainers she responded, "Naga si quai! (That one's $4) Naga si quai (That one's $4) [This one's sweet and this one's salty.]" Then she continues to ignore them. Lol, cute girl. Of course through the whole conversation Lin kept telling me she was willing to bet that the kid was actually a boy although "it" was wearing a purple bandana with fake curly blonde hair attached and a purple dress.

Did I mention, I got my Chinese haircut? FOB FOB!