Update

One month ago, I was playing with friends in Thailand and attending a conference with our company. Check out some photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/chinatripchinatripchinatrip/20100124#

Currently, I'm back in China preparing for classes to start this Monday. Our foreign teaching team has grown in numbers. Our two new members arrived last night at 11:15. They were a little jet lagged so after helping them with their suitcases, I left them in their new apartment where I think they crashed. With 9 foreign teachers now, and two babies, it feels like we make quite a scene when all go out together. Perhaps, I'm just being paranoid; maybe it only seems like people are staring at us.
The weather recently has been odd for February, quite wonderfully odd. Today, the weather was definitely in the 70's. No need for 3 layers and even 1 layer felt a little oppressive. But even so, we respectfully wear pants and long sleeves in order that we don't get questioned or scolded by the Chinese aunties.
I'm enjoying watching the Olympics. Curling seems to be on every morning here. There are also frequent replays of the Chinese couple that won gold in the pairs figure skating.

Recent Discoveries

All this time while living in Hunan during the winter, I’ve only been wearing two layers of pants thinking that it was impossible to wear more than that on the bottom. Oh, how wrong I was.
Recently, my foreign friend Rachel (who has an amazing blog) mentioned that she was wearing three layers of pants. “Is that possible?” I inquired. If so, what a genius idea. So, the next day, while I was getting dressed, I went for it: one layer of cuddle duds, one layer of spandex sport pants, topped off with one layer of casual pants. Needless to say, I am hooked. Three layers is so much better than a measly two layers of pants.
On a related cold front, I also recently bought boots that have some wool on the inside. Plus, these boots are a little big so I can layer up on the socks. It’s a beautiful thing. Since buying these boots, I have considerable more sensation in my feet when I go out. To think, these past two winters, I’ve been unnecessarily cold when really I just needed to bulk up and buy some wool stuff. Silly me.

Spring Festival is Here!

Here's me with Wei Fei Fei's two grandmas. (see article)


My team-mate Caroline and me.


Our dear friend and her husband.


In this picture, you can see the traditional first dish and the fruit platter.

Today is the first day of the Spring Festival. Traditionally, extended families get together and cook a big meal or go out to a nice restaurant. Having just gotten home from a month long vacation, I was planning to stay in today and tend to my stomach which has been on the fritz. However, at about 10:30, our waiban (foreign affairs worker) called and invited me to join her and her family for lunch. I was very honored to be invited and knew I couldn’t pass up the invitation. So, my team-mate Caroline and I headed to the restaurant at about 11:50. We were the first ones there and our waiban, named Wei Fei Fei, showed us the room where the rest of the family would soon be arriving. There were 20 people altogether so they had reserved 2 private rooms.

I sat right beside one of Wei Fei Fei’s grandmas. She was very sweet and although her speech was quite difficult to understand both because she was speaking the local dialect and because she didn’t have any teeth, I think that we still had some communication happening. Fei’s other grandma was on the other side of this grandma. I tried to talk to her a little, but this grandma was hard of hearing, so I resorted to smiling at her.

As the family entered the room, one of the Uncles forced Fei’s 9 year old cousins to greet the foreigners. He was shy and of course refused, burying his head in his Uncle’s coat. I said that it was “mei shi” no big deal, and I added that Caroline and I were pretty “kongbu” horrible and awful. I was joking, and I heard some of the aunts chuckle a little. I’m never sure if my joking in Chinese is appropriate or understood. I think half of the time my joking is comprehensible and understandable, but the other half of the time, people just think I have no idea what I’m saying. In fact, I probably am just trying to be funny.

Each of us had two cups in front of us: one with flower tea and one with juice or peanut milk. The dishes slowly started to arrive. The first dish that arrived, Fei told us, is the traditional first dish served at the Spring Festival. It was a three layer dish: the top was some fried egg pieces, below that were egg balls formed into strips, and at the bottom was fried sweet potato chunks. Normally, I would have been a lot more into this dish, but my stomach was still feeling a little selective. The next dish they brought was a beautiful fruit mix that sat on top of crispy rice strips and had a pink sauce drizzled over it. Other dishes included broccoli, chicken, lamb, cabbage, oysters, and of course dumplings (another traditional New Year’s food.)

Before we started eating, we all stood up and raised our cups to each other as we wished each other a Happy New Year. There are several ways you can do this in Chinese: one way is to say literally “Happy New Year.” Another more complex wish is “I wish you can be healthy and have no problems this year” (it sounds a little lame in English but it’s really smooth in Chinese.) Sometimes I make my own greetings when I get bored with the other two. I’ve figured out how to say, “I hope this is your best year yet.” It seems to be appropriate, so I’ll continue to use it. After wishing everyone a Happy New Year and drinking some orange juice, we sat down and began eating. I ate very slowly and hoped no one would notice. Then, I also noticed that one of the cousins on the other side of the grandma’s was helping put food into their bowls. I decided that since I was the other person sitting closest to the grandmas, I could also help with this task. I tried it first with some sweet potato. Grandma one seemed pleased, as did Grandma two. The rest of the meal, it was fun to guess when and what kind of food I could give the grandma’s to eat. Sometimes they were a little polite and said they didn’t want the food, but they ate everything I gave them.

After the meal, our friend passed around oranges and special apples that had Chinese characters burned onto the peel. Everyone ate a few small oranges. Then, one of Fei’s cousins put the “dessert platter” (dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, and brightly wrapped crackers) right in front of us two foreigners and encouraged us to eat. As everyone was moving around, the guy cousins were discussing who was going to join in the mahjang playing that afternoon. One of them asked us if we played, we don’t, but I’d like to learn if I have a chance. Another point of interest, the boy cousins all had very red faces at this point (a lot of Chinese people get red when they drink alcohol.) Caroline and I also found it a little interesting that the 9 year old cousins’ face had also turned red…hmm, surely not.

I could probably write 5 more paragraphs about the entire experience, but to save words, let me say that I was very moved to be included in this day reserved for family and close friends. Wei Fei Fei also seemed happy to share the day with us. In the future, when I am living in my home culture, I want to make an effort to invite foreign friends to join our family for those big holiday meals. That is where the real cultural experiences happen; helping Grandma get food and wishing strangers and friends a Happy New Year.

Staying on the Mountain

At night, we stayed in these adorable little guest houses that overlooked the mountains. While there, we met some real interesting hikers from other places. We also ate our meals and breakfast at these little places. I had some "muesli and yogurt" the first morning. The muesli was oatmeal on top of cut up bananas and apples. The yogurt was the sourest yogurt I've ever had in my life. Later, we realized that it was probably made from goat's milk.

Tiger Leaping Gorge

My friend, Leslie Miller, and I traveled to LiJiang and then Tiger Leaping Gorge in the southern province of Yunnan. In a country that has over one billion people, it was nice to escape the crowds and see few people other than other hikers and the local Chinese families who live and depend on the mountains.

The scenery was absolutely breath-taking; parts of the trail that were difficult to hike were also breath-taking. The first day of the hike especially is known as being the most intense. It's a little deceptive because the trail starts out as a paved road that just gradually starts winding into the mountain. At about the same time your lungs start to notice the altitude difference, the trail also kicks it up a notch and gets steeper. Luckily, the local Chinese men have donkeys that you can pay to ride. I think they look for the "weaker links" walking toward the trail and follow them until the weary and winded traveler agrees to pay the man to ride the donkey. Would you believe that my friend and I were pegged as just this kind of said traveler. At first, only my friend caved in to ride the donkey. But after awhile, they convinced me that I should also ride a donkey in order to keep up with my friend. They were very persuasive I might add. Plus, I was happy to have the experience of riding a donkey especially since I had heard that a part of the trail that we were quickly approaching, the 28 Bends, is incredibly steep and difficult to hike. There's no sense playing tough girl when you're in the mountains with nothing to show for it. Plus, I was happy to help out the local Chinese people.

During the hike, we enjoyed talking to the men who owned and led the donkeys. They shared many interesting things about the trail, their job, and their families. I realized that this was their main source of income...depending on tourists to need to ride donkeys to climb the mountain.They both shared that they were poor and had to pay to send their children to school. During this ride, I really started to see the difficulty of their lives. While my friend and I were leisurely enjoying the scenery, the men had to hike the most difficult part of the trail. When we arrived at the guesthouse at about 4:00 in the afternoon, the men still had to ride their donkeys home before the dark set in. Yes, their life did not sound easy even though they live on a beautiful mountain, they have to work hard for what they get. Talking to these two men who so carefully led their donkeys to carry us safely to the top of the mountain was an enriching and enlightening experience.

Back Home (China Home)

I’m back in Changsha now. The last leg of the trip will happen in 2 days. I’m always reluctant to come back to the dead of Winter in China after enjoying the sunny Thailand weather. I love being in Thailand, having wonderful chats and experiences with dear friends and tasting a hodge podge of flavors and cuisines.

After Thailand this year, my friend and I also traveled to Yunnan, the Pacific Northwest of China. The weather there is supposedly like Spring all year round. The people are friendly, and my friend and I got to go hiking and be completely surrounded by nature for 3 days. In a word, spectacular. In another word, therapeutic.

I’ve just talked with 2 good friends and laughed with my parents on skype. I realize that this type of life comes with blessings and difficulties. It’s easy to focus on the latter, especially the pain and inconvenience of changes. . . changes in team, in students, in friendships, in relationships.

Now I sit and peacefully drink in the stillness of the night. I have a warm place to stay, hot chocolate in my belly, the flavor still in my mouth. The wall heater is blowing on me…I’m in 2 layers of pants, 3 on top, one warm scarf. I think I’m going to be okay. Worry is a chapter in the book I finished last week.