Mike In China

Before I go on about my trip I will give a quick update about my life in China. I am pretty sure that I announced that I will be coming home on July 19th. However, the ever so difficult airlines made it so that I could only fly back on the 18th (and could not fly out of Shanghai, but will have to get a separate flight down to Hong Kong to fly home). So I am coming home one day earlier than planned. Classes have been ok. The kids have been misbehaving a lot lately which is very frustrating. And what is more frustrating is that when they misbehave they don't learn as much, and then when your boss comes and they don't know as much you get yelled at which is EXTREMELY frustrating when you are already upset from having to yell at the kids all the time and then you get told you are doing a bad job on top of that. Not cool. But so is life. Take a power walk around the block during lunch time to cool off, come back a little more relaxed, and get back to work. Sometimes I wish the kids weren't so darn cute because then I could just flat out declare war on them and be evil and not care. List of things I still can't quite get over about China: 1) General rudeness and pushy-ness involved with subway system and any kind of line waiting 2) Constant spitting, and not just a little spit here and there into the grass. I am talking major lugy hacking, inside and outside, and including full volume sound effects 3) Children who, with the aid of their parents, pull down their pants in broad daylight, in the middle of the sidewalk and pee. Yup, I think that's the big three. Lastly, I will leave you with some new videos. The first is of one of my first grade classes doing their daily classroom exercises that happen to last five minutes and fall in the middle of my lesson for some reason....
Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos
The next is of my second graders doing their five minutes of daily eye exercises which is basically just rubbing their eyes for five minutes (the point of this one is beyond me)....
Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos
The third video is simply just some of my first grade students (Richard, Wendy, Baker and Jack) at another school. They come to class a few minutes early every day so we talk and play around a little. Enjoy!
Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

The next day we got up and hopped back into the car for another full day excursion. We started out by going to see the first bend of the Yangtze River in Stone Drum Town. We walked a little through the town and up to an area with amazing views of the town, river and surrounding mountains and valleys. Mom got a history lesson about the importance of the town (something about how it was an important area because during some war a bunch of troops crossed the river here or something like that) while I once again opted out for self exploration and picture taking. From there we drove to the Tiger Leaping Gorge which was absolutely beautiful. We hiked along the gorge for awhile taking many pictures while talking with our guide. I actually took a turn talking with him because he found out that I had majored in Real Estate in college and had a bunch of questions about investing in real estate. I answered them to the best of my ability but it was pretty hard without any knowledge of how the real estate system and laws are set up in communist China. The gorge got its name from a legend of a tiger trying to escape and, what asurprise, he leaped across the gorge. Seeing as how the gorge was decently wide and the river cutting through it looked like a whitewater rafters heaven, I don't think there is much truth to the story. More interestingly though (or depressingly) is the fact that it probably won't exist in ten years! The area is high up on the Chinese government's list of places to build another gargantuan damn slash hydroelectric power plant. I don't think plans have officially been cemented yet but by the way our guide was talking things don't sound to hopeful. It really isa shame because it really is a beautiful area. That night for dinner Mom and I went a restaurant in Lijiang and had a great time. In addition to the dinner, we once again had a fair number of beers (more of the Dali beers) and had a great time talking about anything and everything. In addition to our conversation the local waitresses danced and sang around a fire in the middle of the room most of the night. Upon leaving we came to find that the streets ofLijiang are even more busy at night than they are during the day (or at least they are on the bar streets). Lit only by red Chinese lanterns hanging from the various pubs the streets are packed with tourists as the workers at the pubs have singing contests with the pubs across the street/stream. It was quite a site to see (but unfortunately I couldn't manage a good picture of it) and is another reason as to why I really likedLijaing. The next day was a free day so we slept in and then hit to the streets to do the last of our souvenir and gift shopping. In the afternoon we also got massages. I ended up getting a massage from a blind man, which is fairly popular in China. I think the theory is that since they are blind they have a better sense of touch and are able to tell better where you are tense and such. In all truthfulness it seemed just like any other massage. We went out to dinner again at the same place andreminisced of our trip and what a great time we had. The next day we got up really early to go catch a flight back to Kunming. Upon arrival at the airport Mom was hurried inside to her connecting flight to Shanghai as I was whisked out the door to wait two hours before I could re-check in for my flight to Hanoi. The abrupt goodbye made things short, yet sweet (thank god, I believe a long goodbye would have been awkward with Mom crying everywhere and attracting a crowd of staring Chinese people). Our original guide in Kunming picked me up and we spent two hours chatting inKFC about everything from education and politics to music and movies. I really had an absolutely wonderful time with my mom and am very glad she was able to come. I would like to thank her once again for taking me on such a great trip down to Yunnan and I hope that she enjoyed it as much as I did! The plane ride to Vietnam was very nice (I have found that thus far every airline has better food than the ones in the US) and things seemed to get off to a great start. However, fate would not let it be so and things began going wrong as soon as I got my bags from the terminal, that I will save for the next trip post.

DOH! I apologize for leaving you hanging in suspense about my trip but my internet is currently out! I went to Chinatelecom to get it fixed today and apparently we have three months of unpaid bills so they turned if off (I leave the country and everything goes wrong). But it should be back in 24 hours. Currently I am sitting at an Iranian restaurant (I think I've mentioned it before) watching the belly dancers (but I am here purely because of the freewifi ). Tomorrow I will try to write a couple of posts to make up for lost time. I also have taken some more video of my students that is pretty cool.

Just a side note about how things are currently going in Shanghai. I jinxed things by bragging to people back home about how warm it was here right when I got back. Now its freezing. I was told that Shanghai just broke a 50 year record for the coldest its been at this time of year. There was actually light flurries of snow seen at various places in Shanghai a few days ago (it almost never snows in Shanghai). Hopefully things will change soon. Also, my friend Jamie (was on the team with me) recently decided that she is going to come visit in me in May so I'm pretty pumped. I actually feel kind of bad because she was going to go visit my old roommate Clayton in Spain (he is teaching English in Spain) but I (with the help of her co-worker) convinced her that she can go to Spain anytime and when again will she ever have the chance to go to China and have a local guide? My other friend who is coming to visit, John, has recently figured somethings out about his visit in July and now I have an official date that I am coming home (although I still have to change my flight), July 19th, so mark your calendars! And finally, I hope you all remember that I have a picture site where I am posting all the pictures that go with the stories (blogger stopped letting me post pictures and I really have a lot so it works better with a separate site). So check keep checking that!

Lijiang was amazing. This time our hotel was actually in the Old Town part of the city, which was really nice. The Old Town in Lijiang is a maze of cobble stone streets, small stone bridges and alleys with a zig-zagging stream system running along side most of the streets. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site in which you still see many local (but usually older) women and men walking around in traditional costumes doing the same chores and jobs their families have done for generations. Unfortunately it is starting to get somewhat touristy and I heard that UNESCO has been threatening to take away the World Heritage status so hopefully the commercialism will halt and even degrees. After dropping off our bags in our hotel we walked around the tangled streets while making our way to the Black Dragon Spring which is a spring fed lake just outside the Old Town. The water was crystal clear and there was a great view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. It was kind of cloudy the first day we went there and unfortunately didn't make it back on more clear days, but you could see what it looked like with no clouds on all the postcards! Also in the park was a history museum for the Naxi people, the major minority group in Lijiang. While doing all this we got to know our guide for the next couple of days. A very nice man, who always had plenty to say about everything and spoke very good English, but (and you knew there was a but coming) somehow, someone in his life decided to tell him that to be really good at English like a native speaker, you have to master all the sayings and idioms (I think I'm saying this right, unfortunately my English ability has plummeted in China due to the constant surrounding of horrible, horrible English). Knowing "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" and that I am the "Apple of my mother's eye" is great, and does show that you know a lot about the English language. However, using one of such phrases in every THIRD SENTENCE is English abuse and, quite frankly, really, ridiculously obnoxious after a day or so. At first I thought it was somewhat funny (as did he because he would follow each phrase with a hearty laugh). But it god old REAL fast. Other than that he was a great guide. He would even try to help prevent us from getting ripped off by locals trying to barter with us (of course he would ALWAYS refer to it as "highway robbery," another one of his favorite sayings). The second day in Lijiang we hopped in our car and were taken to the Yak Meadow which is at the foot of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Oh wait, I mean we were taken to the "cable car" that would take us to the Yak Meadow. Being China and everything, of course this "cable car" was more like a chair lift and the simple thought of such struck fear in to the heart of Mom. In fact, after seeing this day on the itinerary I'm pretty sure she mentioned the "cable car" at least three times a day. Well, judgement day had come. Mom summoned her inner strength and got on! Of course she had her eyes shut and a death grip on the railing the entire 15 minute ride, but she did it. I also was barely allowed to talk. At one point the children in the car in front of us were trying to make echos and Mom muttered, "well at least someone is having fun." I thought, "I would be too, IF YOU WEREN'T FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW!?" We safely arrived at the top to find that once again it was a cloudy up by the mountain and we couldn't see it at all. We walked to a Buddhist temple and Mom (I spaced out and stopped listening) got a long history/question and answer session with our guide about Buddhism. The cable ride down was equally as frightful for Mom, which is unfortunate because the views were beautiful. During the drive back to Lijiang we got a flat tire and had to stop by a touristy bus area. It was actually a very beautiful place to stop and I got to ride a yak! By ride, I mean pay money, sit on and have my picture taken, but it was still cool. After lunch we saw the old residence of Rock Joseph, a biologist who lived in a small village outside of Lijiang for several years studying plants. That night we saw another show of local dances and music but it was nothing compared to the one we saw in Kunming (except for the fact that it was still filled with a ridiculously rude Chinese audience).

Upon arriving at the Dali airport we were once again greeted by our new personal tour guide and driver. First they took us to a local village to observe a three tea ceremony. Each of the three teas represents something different and I think there was something about getting married involved. Unfortunately I don't remember the details but it was nice. I think I remember one of the three teas not tasting so good, but the other two tasted all right. From there we went to the morning market to check out how the locals shop. Then we went to a local tiedye house. Apparently Dali is know for its tiedye so we observed how that is made. Basically the oldest women do all the hard work of stitching together these very intricate patterns and the young people sit around waiting for the dye to dry and try to sell you stuff. Next we had lunch and then headed to the Three Pagodas. The whole complex was very beautiful. Let me tell you a little about Dali itself. Dali is sandwiched between Er Hai Lake and a mountain range so the scenery is beautiful on both sides. The Three Pagodas complex works its way up one of the mountains so you take a golf cart to the top and then walk down. Our tour guide was great at telling us all about the temples and monuments. It was REALLY great having our tour guide there because I know that if she wasn't there Mom would have been asking me all the questions she had about everything thinking that I, for some unknown reason, now know every detail about every aspect of every area of China after living in Shanghai for six months. So that was very nice. If you look at the Three Pagodas themselves, the two smaller ones are actually leaning somewhat due to earthquakes. We then checked into our hotel and napped a little before heading to the old city portion of Dali. The old city is still surrounded by its original walls and cars are not allowed except on a few cross streets. We walked around for awhile until we found ourselves at foreigner street which is a street made up of pubs and restaurants aimed at backpackers and tourists. Mom ordered some Chinese food and I was able to get a good cheeseburger. We also had a beer, which turned into two and so on and so on and had a great time sitting there talking about random things and catching up. Nothing like getting wasted with your mom in China... The beer we had was actually Dali beer which is apparently pretty well known throughout southern China. It is made only in Dali (we were shown the brewery one day while driving by) and is actually quite good. The guy who waited on us was very nice and spoke very good English. He informed us that someday he wants to move to Beijing to become a pop star. I thought that was pretty funny. The next day we woke up, hopped in the car and had a four hour drive up to Lijiang. Our tour guide was only for Dali so she stayed there because we were getting a new guide in Lijiang. That made the car ride a little interesting because our driver didn't speak a word of English. We got the important stuff down like "bathroom" so it worked out pretty well. And here I will take a second to insert a story about Mom. Somewhere in the course of being in China, Mom decided that she was going to learn how to speak and read Chinese during her two week stay in China. I attempted to help at first with words like hello, "ni hao" (pronounced: knee how) but somehow it would come out of her mouth something like "pee cow" or "tea gao" or anything really ridiculously wrong. I love my mom and she is a very brilliant woman, but by no means a linguist. I quickly got frustrated and gave up, although she did not. She soon moved on to insisting that she was starting to recognize certain characters from trying to read all the Chinese signs and would ask me things such as, "what does the little pan shaped one mean?" Mind you that with Chinese there are thousands of Chinese characters and many of the more complex ones contain many of the more simple ones, so asking about the "pan shaped one" is probably referring to about one hundred different characters. Sensing my frustration with her efforts she eventually wrote down a character asking our tour guide what in meant. He (unlike I) was glad to help and explain. To ADD to her language quest she felt the need to read OUT LOUD every single English word on any sign. We would be in an elevator in Shanghai and there would be a Chinese add with everything in Chinese except the website and she would read it out loud and ask if I knew what it was. RIDICULOUS?! I think that it was just that it was something familiar for her but it drove me nuts! Hahaha, well what can say, she's Mom and you gotta love her. Upon arriving in Lijiang we met our new tour guide who would be with us for the next couple of days. HE is a whole nother story which I will save for the next post.

The following night we went and saw the Shanghai acrobats. They were very good and the show was reminded me a lot of Cirque De Solie. The only bad part was the other Chinese people watching the show. The entire audience was beyond ridiculously rude. Talking loudly the ENTIRE show, taking flash pictures even though there were multiple warnings and signs not to, never clapped for anything. It was very depressing. It made you feel bad for the performers. It must be a cultural thing but I can't imagine how no one has picked up on the fact that you shouldn't be talking loudly while someone is performing. Ridiculous. The rest of the time that Mom was in Shanghai we spent seeing the Bund and Nanjing Road. Mom had some little problems adjusting to the time change and I had a few last errands to run with my job so it was pretty relaxed. That is, up until the big grand finale of Shanghai! Mom and I met up with one of my friends, Michelle and we went to dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant that she knew of by her apartment. It was nice because as I've mentioned before Michelle can speak and read Chinese pretty well so that really helped in finding good food at a good restaurant. After dinner we did the one thing I think Mom was really excited about doing in Shanghai, we went to a KTV (karaoke) Bar. Michelle's roommate Chi met us there and so the four of us had our own little room and sang our hearts out for a couple of hours. Highlights include my mom signing "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas and then teaching Chi and Michelle the choreography for "Stop in the Name of Love" that her, Gail and Teri used to do. Chi and Michelle thought it was pretty funny and definitely had a great time (as did my mom and I). Unfortunately I didn't have my camera that night and so all the pictures that were taken are on my mom's camera (and I understand she might have already deleted them on accident) so I don't know if those will ever be seen! I even took some video of my singing "My Humps!" The next morning we had to wake up very early to take a taxi to the airport and then fly down to the Yunnan province of China. Our first stop was in Kunming. We were met at the airport by our tour guide and personal driver for the city. They took us to our hotel and the tour guide told us about the city and answered all the random questions Mom had about everything. Because we had been up so late packing and then had to get up so early to leave I had barely slept and immediately about arriving at the hotel decided that I needed a nap. I took a nap while Mom walked down to the lake and nearby park. She came back tired and wanting to take a nap just as I woke up and was ready to go! So basically we switched spots and she napped and I walked down to the park. Mom said she thought the park was dirty and depressing. I agree parts of it were a little dirty, but that was also because they were draining parts of the lake to clean it, but in no way did I think it was depressing. Maybe it was because we went at different times, but when I was there the park was filled with people walking around listening to tons of different local people just sitting in the park playing local music for people to listen. It was a lot of fun to see the different little bands people had and listen to the music while walking around the park looking at all the people and little Chinese buildings. That night for dinner our guide picked us back up and took us to dinner at some kind of dinner theater where we were served a FEAST of traditional dishes. We were told we were going to eat the local "Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle" and when we got there we simply had a bowl of noodles and I thought, no way is this going to fill me up. But then the dishes kept coming, and coming and coming. All the food was very good and it was great to try to local food. While we were eating there was some kind of strange show going on about the local cultures but we didn't pay all too much attention because we were going to a better show after dinner. The show we went to after dinner was recommended to us by our tour guide. The vast majority of Chinese people are of the Han ethnic group but there are something around 46 (I can't remember for sure) other ethnic groups in China and something around 42 of them live in the Yunnan province. The show we went to was a showcase of the music, dance, and traditional costumes of some of these other minority groups. The show was amazing. A lot of drumming and dancing. It was very well choreographed and very interesting to see. Our tour guide actually told us that the main cast is now on tour and is going to be doing the majority of their shows somewhere on Broadway. The only bad part about the show was once again a rude Chinese audience. This time we had a couple sitting next to us that talked over the music and singing of the show the whole time. And we were in the FIFTH ROW?! At one point the man even took out his CELLPHONE and made a telephone call!?! I was trying to give them rude looks and even gave a couple of shhh's during the show but they were completely oblivious. After the show we went back to the hotel and went to bed because the next morning we had to wake up and fly to Dali.