Baotou day 2
I forgot to talk about Baotou in my first post about the city. The ‘hell on earth’ tag is completely inaccurate. this is a nice, smallish (for China, 2.5 million people) city on the Mongolian plains. It is clean – immaculately clean. There is a building boom here just like everywhere in China. The city has many parks. Several residential districts with vibrant neighbourhoods. It is dry, several of us got nosebleeds. and it is hot. Our first day was 30 degrees, day two hit 36.
Day two started at 8:30 but Lily took me out for breakfast first. Dumplings! They served us tea. I took a gulp and it was salty! We were eating our dumplings when Chi Pei and his traffic police partner arrived for their breakfast. Popular spot.
8:30 – 10am – Chinese Language Lesson – Family. Don’t ask me to remember a single family member except mother-in-law (husband’s mother) po po. Probably spelled wrong.
10:20-12 – Classroom Observation. Cuma, Dalia and I sat at the back of an English class. We didn’t participate except to be involved in a million selfies at the end of class. We have some sort of rock-star status here. Geoff mentioned that they don’t get many westerners in Baotou so we are definitely exotic. People sneak-photograph us in restaurants and on the street. It is bizarre. I wonder if Brad Pitt says ‘if only they knew how boring I am’ like we all did.
Lunch. That first night, when I met Winna and Ray, Winna invited me to lunch on Tuesday. She had made a mutton stew (have I mentioned mutton – every meal seems to involve mutton). It was quite tasty. She mentioned that Ray was so excited to have me over, that he didn’t sleep at all the night before. Ray is my number one fan.
Of course, Lily is picking me up and dropping me off everywhere.
15:00 – 17:00 – Cultural Exchange Forum. The faculty of the International School of BVTC gave us a presentation on Mongolian culture. Baotou is on the Mongolian plains but it is a young city with lots of people from other areas in China.
We learned about Mongolian food. Red food it meat (mutton!) and white food is milk. We had a plate of weird candy on the table, it had a surprising texture. Turns out it is cheese candy (white food). I brought some home for my staff meeting on Tuesday.
And salty tea is a mongolian thing here. I’m not really a fan but they gave us a giant bag as a parting gift so I hope everyone else likes it. This gift is probably my and Dahlia’s fault. She wanted to take a bit home to give to her husband. Our Chinese hosts heard us talking about how to get some (I just swiped an unused packet off the table so we considered the matter done) and thought, sure, those Canadians loved the salty tea, let’s give them a kilo each to take home.
They also gave info on singing and dancing. They sang for us as well. Pro tip, if you ever come to China, prepare a song. They love to sing and like their visitors to sing too.
For dinner, Lily took me to her mother-in-laws (pou pou) and we made dumplings. Of course pou pou did all of the prep work, made the filling and the dough and rolled out the dumpling wraps for us. But I stuffed them. Mine looked terrible compared to pou pou and Lily’s but they were edible. Or at least, I ate them.
Then home. I watched a bit of tv with Sally but I could barely keep my eyes open. I had promised her the night before we could watch tv so I felt committed. But I didn’t last long (5-10 minutes maybe).
Baotou day 1
We arrived in Baotou at 10:40pm and our host families were at the airport to meet us and take us each to our homestays. Lily was there with her husband, Chi Pei (totally spelled wrong, I’m sure) and her daughter Sally. Sally had only gotten her English name the day before so it shifts to Shelley sometimes. I have been trying to convince her to change it to Bella. Lily likes that better but Sally is having none of it, even after I showed her pictures of Belle from the Beauty and the Beast compared to famous Sallys who all seem to be women in their 60s.
Before I get into the whole what I did what and when blog routine, let me talk about our homestay families. These people are amazing. They pick us up and drop us off at all hours. They feed us and pretty much do anything we need or accidentally suggest we might want.
My host family has taken me out for multiple meals and won’t let me pay for anything. Chi Pei has moved out of his own home to make room for me. He is staying with his mother. From what I can tell, most of the women on the Field School have displaced a husband, most of the guys are with bachelors.
We get driven around, we don’t pay, we don’t make decisions, we just go where we are told and do as we are told. It is very much like being a child. It is like a vacation from adult responsibility. We were/are all quite uncomfortable with how much work our host families are doing for us. But I am kind of getting used to it. I knew I was in full kid mode when Sally and I were eating breakfast and watching cartoons while Lily swept the floor. We just lifted our legs when she swept under us. Definitely time to come home.
Anyway, back to the timeline.
Lily and family live in a two bedroom apartment on the second floor of a building in a smallish complex. They had bought a new bed for me (see what i am saying about feeling guilty!) I visited a bit that first night but I was so tired that I went to bed fairly quickly.
The next morning at 8:30, we had our opening ceremony. Again with the official photographer.
Baotou and Camosun have a much longer history so we had been told that the ‘ceremonies’ would be much less formal that those in Xuzhou. Fortunately, this turned out to be true. I did wear my new silk dress and strappy sandals though. But we then had a campus tour and then a city tour. My feet are not made of walking in strappy sandals but I survived.
On our campus tour we visited some of the trades areas. Baotou Vocational Training College is much like Camosun with lots of trades and tech.
Between the campus tour and the city tour, we had our Welcome Lunch. We had a very fancy hotpot meal. This may rival the Beijing Duck for the best meal in China.
We each got our own hotpot. There were four choices of both; mushroom, tomato, spicy or plain. I got plain. Plain is not a good word for this broth. It had dates and prawns and garlic and who knows what else brewing away in there before I even started to add to it. They brought out plates of greens and sauces and meat, so much meat. Beef and lamb in the thinnest slices possible. Sure, just throw in some more meat to the hotpot. I may have boiled up a whole lamb in the little pot, one tiny piece at a time. I managed to get hotpot all over my new dress so I guess I will be finding a dry cleaner when I get home.
The City tour wasn’t much of a city tour. We drove through the city to a park. It is a nice park with yurts. Something about Genghis Khan being buried there or maybe he just visited. That definitely needs to be fact checked.
There is a temple (Buddhist?) on a hill so we walked to that. We stopped and fed some deer in a pen first. It was quite warm, 30 degrees, that day but there was a breeze. My legs are not made for a skirt on a breezy day but I survived.
We ended our official day with a tea ceremony. Some of the students gave us a demonstration of a tea ceremony which is quite complicated. Different processes, timing, cups etc for green vs black tea.
Then Lily picked me up at the school even though we were an hour late to finish. It was after 7pm when we got home. Lily suggested we go for dinner with her friend Winna and Winna’s son, Ray. Ray’s grandparents live right next door to Lily and Chi Pei so Sally and Ray have basically grown up together. They are adorable. But Ray is particularly adorable because he adores me. He just sits there and stares at me with a big goofy smile in his face. He is lucky he is only 7.
We went for BBQ. BBQ is nothing like north american BBQ. Lily ordered a million little skewers of everything imaginable. Pork, prawns, beef (which turned out to be tendon, like Achilles heal tendon) bread, garlic, mushrooms. And ‘high protein’ which turned out to be grubs. I tried one, it was unpleasant.
The skewers just kept arriving. We ate and ate and drank beer. Lily and Winna are my kind of ladies. Late to home and late to bed.
Beijing: we did some stuff, ate some food, spent some money
This was so many days ago and we didn’t get an agenda for Beijing since it was our weekend. I am just going to have to wing it.
We left Xuhou early and took the train to Beijing. Have I mentioned the train ‘snacks’? On our first train ride, we got a little package that contained such treats as ‘roughage’ and ‘good intentions meat’. This trip we got a ‘throat’ (yes, an actual throat, chicken I assume).
We stayed at the swanky Jianguo Hotel. Niya met us there. She would be joining us to replace Geoff who would be leaving the next morning. Skye would be leaving us on Sunday.
Lynette and I shared a room again. She is a good roommie. We both just threw our stuff everywhere. I’m sure the maids hated us, especially since we managed to lock ourselves out and begged for free hand cream.
We were half a block from the Silk Market. Well, what were we to do?! A crowd of us headed over but I ditched pretty quickly. I had a mission, find a silk quilt. Which I did. I taught my salesgirl how to say ‘cool in the summer, warm in the winter’ so she gave me a deal. Or she didn’t, who knows. I was happy with the price. But now I am carrying around a quilt!
In an hour, I bought the quilt, pajama pants, a silk dress, sandals to wear with the dress and a painting. There went all of my cash. I still have some bargaining skills from my Mexico days but let’s face it, silk dresses and leather shoes aren’t cheap, just way cheaper than in Canada.
I kept back a few hundred yuan for dinner because Geoff wanted us all to go somewhere special for his last night with us – for Beijing (Peking) Duck.
There is a reason everyone has heard of Peking Duck. It is amazing. I don’t have the words to describe it properly so I will give details. They bring the duck to the table and cut it up. First the ‘best’ bit, some crispy skin, from where on the duck, I do not know. That comes around first. Then the first slices of meat, presented like a rose on the plate. Pretty. Then a giant stack of meat served with little pancakes, duck sauce (is that a thing?) and the thinly slivered whites from green onions. You take a couple of pieces of duck, dunk in the sauce, put it on the pancake, add onion and eat while waiting for god to take you because you have hit your peak food experience.
The Original Duck restaurant (I may find the name in my pictures) really is the ORIGINAL duck restaurant from 185?. It is near Tienanmen Square. So, we took the subway there and back. And wandered around the square in between. It is big. Really big. Then we went home and went to bed.
Next day: THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!!!!
We tried to leave at 7am to get there before the bus tours. I think we made it out the door by 7:15. then our bus driver didn’t fill up so we stopped twice for gas. He was going to stop a third time but lovely Niya yelled at him (not really but her calm voice ‘suggested’ yelling was imminent) so he just filled up more at stop #2.
We arrived at 9am-ish. There were a few buses already there but it wasn’t too bad. It was overcast and a bit foggy but we lucked out, it didn’t rain at all. the fog just make it picturesque.
There is a cable car to the top of the wall but just the walk up to the cable car was steep. You can’t even see it until you are half way up. then we were there. Standing on the Great Wall of China!!!
News flash – it is long. It is also steep. It just follows the hills it sits on. We went down then up and up and up. We were aiming for the ‘next’ platform. Well, it was pretty far but not unreasonable. What was unreasonable was the staircase that seemed to last forever, only to end at a steeper staircase that could properly be called a stone ladder.
I made it to the top, last, but there. Slow and steady is my motto (and pace). Prepare yourself for too many photos. (I am having trouble uploading – here is whatever I can manage to get)
The group bought subway sandwichs (yes, there is a Subway at the wall) but I just ate stolen buffet breakfast food. While they were waiting I bought a key chain with the worst name ‘etching’ ever.
After a couple of hours at the wall, we went to the Golden Temple. I have no idea what this is about, who built it, why it is there. Here are some pictures.
Next day, we woke up to some upsetting news. Mandy had to leave the Field School for a family emergency. She had become a very intregal part of our crew, especially among us girls. Tiniest consolation was that she did get to go to the Wall.
Not only was Mandy leaving, Sunday was Skye’s last day with us too.
Despite the loss of our besties, Lynette and I managed to still got to the Silk Market a couple of more times with Niya and Skye. I had to hit up the bank machine again. I bought a couple of pairs of walking shoes (and threw out my old ones), some silk tops, another painting. Umm, two more purses (shame emoji). Lynette had to buy a new suitcase, which is mostly filled with my stuff.
We headed to the airport around 5pm, flew out @ 8 and arrived in Baotou @ 10:15 to be met by out homestay families. And that is where I am going to leave it.
I am having some hard core trouble uploading photos to this site (I may have hit some button on my camera to make the photos bigger (!) or my wifi in my homestay sucks or my computer can handle the photos or ‘other’. who knows). (Next morning, managed to get a few on)
Another food day, culinary school and a home visit for dinner
I am a day or two behind but things are starting to slow down a bit, well not slow down but at least be less photogenic. I am on an hour break after lunch before we head off to do our 90 minute presentation. Actually, now that I think about it, I should be looking at that instead. BRB. Okay, I can do this.
Yesterday we went to the Xuzhou Technician Institute.
8:30-9:00 am: We started with a campus tour. We focused on the culinary school. We watched students learn to cook a fish and to cut up a radish into a rose.
9:00 – 9:40am Chinese Language Lesson: Numbers and Shopping. We had a good teacher again, she would occassionally sing the numbers. I like a teacher who tries to bring in different parts of the brain/learning styles to get the lesson to stick. All four (five with neutral) tones are present in numbers up to ten so we mostly recited numbers and mangled pronunciation AND tone. She was very encouraging. Then we picked number cards and had to yell out our number whenever she called on us. I was six, lucky number six. Jiu.
9:40 – 10:00 am Tea Break. We ate sweet yummy stuff made by the students. And drank tea.
10:00 – 11:00 am Lecture on Chinese Culture. As described, a lecture on Chinese food culture. Not too exciting.
11:00 – 12:00. Chinese Cultural Experience: Chinese Traditional Food. This was fun. The chef showed us how to make red bean stuffed glutenous rice balls. We were divided into three groups again. Trevor and Lynette decided it was a competition with the other groups to see whose balls were better. Long story short, they made the chef pick the best balls and we won (although I take no credit, Trevor and Lynette did most of the work). But really, she cherry picked the best ones out of each bowl and then reshaped them herself before throwing them in the deep fryer so we ‘won’ but not in the eyes of Chef.
I have to say though, those fresh made glutenous balls were so light and airy and delicious. Nothing like the ones we can buy at home. They really need a better name though.
Then Chef made long noodles by hand. This involves stretching and spinning dough for 20 minutes. Her noodles were so thin and perfect by the end, I would not have believed they were hand made if I hadn’t watched her do it. We had some at lunch made by students, much thicker and less even but still super tasty.
12:00 – 13:00 pm. Lunch. Made by students. Served by students. Very good, I’m sure I have some photos. Plus a big bowl of noodle soup for each table.
After lunch we had an hour or so break. Of course, we worked on the presentation. Or maybe I uploaded photos, who remembers.
15:00 – 17:00 pm. Niushan House Home Visit. Barbara met us in a neighbourhood to take us to her friend’s house so we could see a ‘traditional’ Chinese home. They were very wealthy so it may be traditional but I’m not sure it was typical. They were very nice hosts. The wife just retired from teaching English at the JSNU and the husband teaches ?something? to do with Han culture. He has written lots of books and has many scrolls of rubbings from ancient tombs? He brought out a Han dynasty vessel and handed it to Cuma. We all held our breath until it was back in the professor’s hands.
It is a beautiful house. My favourite room was the husband’s art studio on the glassed in deck. They have succulent plants everywhere. And tiny teapot collections on shelves. One of the best parts of the tour for me was visiting the library. We all cram into the library. As we come out, we find Cuma, John and Trevor inspecting the electrical panel. Way more interesting to them than stacks of books in Chinese. Electricity, the universal language (I assume).
Gotta go to whatever is next.
later -Would write more but there is a party in Geoff’s room for the end of Xuzhou.
Yikes, more hours later – would write more but I am a bit drunk from good bye Xuzhou party. Super early start tomorrow so who know when this will get finished. Probably in Beijing.
TWO DAYS LATER!!! Travel day and down internet. Let me go back and see where I left off….
Still on the house visit. Mr Zhou gave us each a scroll he had written as a gift. I haven’t actually seen them. Someone told Geoff that he is a very recognized artist and those scrolls could be valuable one day. And we ate some cookies.
I am having trouble uploading some of the photos so I think they may have to wait until I get home.
17:00 Chinese Family Home – Dinner. We left the house and were met at the gate by our dinner hosts. We went in pairs. I was with John. The couple were Alice and Rico (he was very happy to hear his name means rich in Spanish). Alice had been away for two days and they were picking us up on the way from her arriving at the airport. They have a 7 year old daughter named Yolanda.
They live in a three bedroom condo in a high rise farm. I haven’t mentioned these complexes yet. There will be 10-15 massive highrises of the exact same design in clusters. They might house a thousand people per building. These complexes are everywhere, even in the middle of farmland. From a distance they look terrible and depressing. But I was happy to find that as we walked from the car to the building, it was like a nice neighbourhood inside. Lots of trees and playgrounds. Families walking around. Alice said it is a nice community with lots of kids.
Yolanda went insane when her mom came home, and with weird stangers to boot. She was so excited, she was a whirlwind of energy. Her English was pretty good, we saw the awards to prove it but she mostly spoke at scream level. She was cute though. Alice teaches Enlish and her English was amazing (not true of all English teachers we have met here) and Rico was able to keep up so we were able to have a good conversation once Yolanda wore herself out a bit.
Rico’s parents were staying with them. (They rotate with Alice’s parents). They had made dumplings. So many dumplings. and some side dishes but lets be honest, it was all about the dumplings! Do I even need to tell you they were amazing. Yes, they were amazing. And grandpa kept trying to sneak more into our bowls despite the fact they we had each eaten a cereal bowl full of them.
We talked about property values so it was just like being at home. They were very nice people, I thoroughly enjoyed our evening with them. I really was like having a casual dinner with friends. They brought us back to the hotel around 9pm.
I am going to do two days here because the last day wasn’t very exciting. Lots of meet and greets and ‘exchanges’.
8:30-10 (yea, we got to sleep in!). JSNU International College – Faculty/Staff Resource Exchange. I was paired up with a lady from Student Affairs. She took me on a tour of some Student Affairs offices. We saw the counselling area. It included a room with boxing dummies to work out aggression,a room with sandboxes and toys and another room with easy chairs and headphones for music. I kept waiting for the puppy room.
The student affairs office was closed so we saw it but not in action. But we looked over thier wall of awards. We compared notes on how we work with students and student needs etc. She was very nice but didn’t speak English so we had an interpreter (Cherry, whose name I remember but not my exchange partner’s name 🙁 ). I gave her a small gift (Camosun T-shirt) and she gave me a JSNU graduation ring. So, I guess I don’t need to enroll now.
10:30-12 Group Discussion. This just turned out to be our group so we spent the whole time talking about what we had seen on our exchange. Those of us in student services definitely got the boring tour. Mandy got to see rats with electrodes attached to their brains. It was nice to be alone with just us, not having to be ‘on’.
12:00 Lunch Cafeteria 6. Super spicy.
14:30 – 16:00 – School of Foreign Language Studies – Guest Lecture. It finally arrived, our 90 minute lecture. I gave my PP presentation on Canada, Victoria and Camosun. I kept it very casual and made jokes, of course. They laughed but it was hard to get them to ask questions. There was one keener (thank god) and once she started asking questions, the other kids around her were feeding her questions to ask. So, we talked about the Gold Rush, the Canadian Railway and Chinese workers, aboriginal people and how we have a complicated history with them as ‘immigrants(invaders)’. They had some interesting questions and talked about their minority groups. Then one girl stayed back and asked a whole bunch of questions about being a student in Canada and about Camosun.
Then it was over, just like that. T-Shirt to my teacher. I don’t think I even took a picture.
16:00 – 17:00 – Closing Ceremony. Back to the formal boardroom for some more stiff speechifying. The last time we went in for the opening ceremony, Geoff was in the middle, the most prestegious spot, and the rest of us were placed willy-nilly. This time, they had figured out who was who. Lynette and I were on each end, as far from the prestige spot as possible.
Another gift, a JSNU memory stick and a certificate of completion for out Chinese cultural and language training. Then they showed us the ‘documentary’ of our visit. A film of still shots and videos from our visit. They were taking our photo/videos constantly. It was so weird to always have a camera on us. Thank god we were generally super happy (and overwhlemed) that we were always smiling like idiots. We will all get a copy of the final product when we get home. Something for you all to look forward to!
17:30 – Farewell Banquet. This was far less formal than the previous two dinners. We had several table set up in Cafeteria 6. Like the bunch of pre-teens we seem to be, we all clustered together at two tables but word from Geoff, scatter, mingle, share the tables with the delegates. so a quick shuffle. I ended up at a table with Lynette and our interpreter and our Chinese Characters and Greetings teacher. I had had several conversations with the interpreter so I gave him a gift of a photo book of BC. He seemed very pleased.
I think I am going to adopt the personal toast. At a large table, everyone gets up and toasts (chats with) each person there. Way better than just talking to the people in your immediate vicinity. I might skip the baijiu and bottom’s up part of the formal dinner ritual though. This dinner we just had beer, no Baijiu.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. It was our last night in Xuzhou so Geoff bought a few bottles of wine and some chips and invited us to his room for a ‘goodbye Xuzhou’ party. Cuma and John showed up with a little bottle of baijiu. I stuck to wine. Apparently, Baotau is even worse for the baijiu toasting so I am saving my liver for that.
We were very tired so (after drinking every drop of wine, baijiu, eating every chip and spilling wine on Geoff’s bed) we left by 11pm. No pictures.
And that has to be the end of this post. Some ups and downs checking the news and emails today. Brooklyn 99 was cancelled and then renewed. And, CUPE SD funding on hold until who knows when. I was sort of depending on a refund cheque for $1000 field school fee when I got home.
(next day, again! sorry, problems with wifi, uploading etc. I am going to post for now, sans pictures because I am so far behind)
Day two, more Xuzhou, more Baijiu, more food, more more more of everything!
It is almost 10pm. We got back from our dinner early, around 8:30 so I quickly threw in a load of laundry. This hotel has something like 20 floors. They offer free laundry but the catch is that there is only one small washing machine and one wee little dryer. I suspect we are the only ones using them but there are 11 of us and only 20 spare minutes each day, if we are lucky. Some of us have used it when we wake up at 3am. Anyway, I was the first to the machine tonight. I am currently waiting for my pictures to upload on yesterday’s post and I can’t go to bed while my clothes are in the dryer (which apparently takes three hours to get the clothes to less damp status). So, I guess I will start today’s post. Sorry for the number of posts and the lengths of them. But each day is jam packed and each event is so bizarre and photogenic, how can I leave it out.
Anyway, onward.
7am breakfast. Last night at our pajama party, for reasons too convoluted and baijiu influenced to get into, we decided to have some fun with Cuma in the morning.
8:30-9:30 – Chinese Culture Experience: Chinese Traditional Costume. This was taught by Barbara, our guide from the day before. She asked if we would prefer a different cultural topic before we parted from our city tour. Before anyone even had time to process the question, Lynette was like NO WAY, we want to see costumes! Ok. Costumes it is. Then Barbara asked if we might like to try some costumes on. Lynette again with a resounding YES!!! joined by Mandy and Dahlia. That meant we had to get there early. The men, all sitting in the back of the bus, didn’t even know what was happening before it was all settled and done. I did not want to try on a costume. The men did not want to try on costumes. But the brides would need a groom. Poor Cuma, he got picked, of course. He wasn’t having any of that. He is a good sport but he was adamant, he was not going to wear a costume. I think the girls had convinced Jon to join in by the time we got to the hotel that evening so Cuma was off the hook. (cue to Cuma wearing a costume)
The next morning we were all to class by 8:15 to give the girls a chance to dress up. Lynette got some extravagant costume but Mandy just got a pretty silk robe thing. I can handle a robe, I thought. there was a nice green one on the rack so I put it on. That’s a man’s robe says Barbara aghast. Fine with me but it was huge. She was not having it so i gave it back. I think there is a photo of me in it but I’m not sure if it is on my camera or someone else’s.
The men were all hovering in the background. Geoff was the first to crack and agreed to put on the groom’s outfit. But it turned out that Lynette, Mandy and Dahlia had all chosen non-bride outfits. I was the only female left who could be the bride. How did this happen? Before I could come up with a good excuse, I had a dresser tying me into my bride’s dress. While that was going on, the rest of the guys joined in and dressed up too.
Then the formal photos of our wedding party. Me and my groom, Geoff, with our family and friends. Maybe we were still drunk?! I haven’t seen the pictures yet so this should be fun.
Barbara said not to take the costumes off, we could wear them for the lesson. My dress weighed many pounds of fake silk (polyester). It was so hot.
Barbara gave us a slide show of her, probably 30 years ago, wearing every outfit she has ever owned. Every picture was a glamour shot, photo-shopped into ridiculous scenarios – a billboard in Times Square, the cover of Vogue, etc. That went on for half an hour. She couldn’t figure out the smart board so even after the dozens of slides, they just started again (and again). We were starting to get the giggles. We were already on the edge from the costumes.But we all held it together.
Here is my favourite real life photo of Barbara in a dress.
With each new type of dress, she made whichever one of us that was wearing that style to come up and model it.
She was wearing the same type of dress as me so she modeled it and I thought I was in the clear. No such luck. At the end, Geoff and I had to go up, bride and groom, and go through our ‘wedding ceremony’. I’m not sure how Geoff’s wife is going to feel about this but I’m sure she will grow to appreciate having me around to tend the goats (anthropology joke!)
Oh my, it is only 9:30am in post time and this is already too long. too bad, there is so much more to the day. You do not want to miss out on the tiny opera. But I have to stop now. We have a 7:45 start tomorrow. My laundry is out of the ‘dryer’ and hanging on the line in my room to finish.
I’m back. Got home from dinner @ 9 and then Mandy and I finished up our presentations. Everyone is kind of freaking out about the 90 minute presentation we all have to give tomorrow (but more on that when I get to it)
Anyway, back to 9:30 on Tuesday. School of Foreign Language Studies – classroom observation.
We got divided into groups of three or four (I was with Lynette, Trevor and John, all of the bad kids in one group maybe not so good but we behaved). The four of us sat and watched Chinese kids who were learning English as their third language (after Spanish) discuss if Einstein is a space alien. That went on for an hour. We didn’t get to participate at all so we were getting a little bored. We all broke into the textbooks in our desks. They were weird to say the least. I learned about ‘Dating and Mating after 35’ (I am not making that up) and Lynette learned about the pooh-pooh theory in a linguistics book.
Then we were taken to our next event, lunch at Cafeteria 6. There was less food this time but still too much. I think we got an hour break after lunch (the first one). We all mostly just worked on our upcoming presentations, no rest for the weary.
14:30 – 17:00 No 34 Middle School. For some reason, even Geoff didn’t know why we were there, we went to a middle school. It was kindergarten to grade 9. It was huge but a new building and quite nice. The sports field was very impressive. We saw kids building robots. And.. honestly I can’t remember, that was so many hours ago. We’ll check the photos. (I checked, nothing…?)
Classroom observation. This was so bizarre. We all sat on little chairs off to the side of a classroom while we watched a live propaganda play, acted out by children. Except it wasn’t a play, it was ‘all real’. The children not only knew the answer to every question, they knew them exactly to the word on the slide show. All the while, 6 cameras and 5 microphones recorded the entire thing. One camera kept sweeping over the room as we sat there.
I was sitting with John and Jon. The ‘lesson’ was on volunteering to help poor, elderly, disabled, blind and deaf people. It almost made it but not quite for correctness so we all sat there, amazed, at how not quite right it was. We are always bordering on the giggles, so when John made an inappropriate joke, I lost it and had to hide my face because I couldn’t stop laughing. Eventually it ended and we all went off to do a 30 minute presentation to a classroom. Fortunately, Michael got to stay in that room and tell the kids that there are other ways to help disabled people than to ‘write the government to build more places to put them’ or to ‘help blind people across the street’.
Next stop, our classroom presentaion. I gave my presentation that I stole/borrowed from Mandy. The 30 minutes whipped by. Especially since each slide was a bit of a surprise. Mandy showed me what was on there and we took out the Dental stuff but I didn’t remember, we had looked it over so fast. Plus, one of the slides was of Mandy’s family. Mandy is of Indian heritage so the slide was of a bunch of people who clearly aren’t related to me, wearing traditional Indian clothes. Umm, multiculturalism! The kids asked some questions. And then I was out of there, onto the next middle school activity. My schedule says exchange with students but I have no idea what that was (maybe I took a picture?)
Then the best part, Students Extracurricular Activities Experience. Tiny Opera!!! Little kids, I mean LITTLE, put on an opera for us. I won’t describe, I will just post pictures, you wouldn’t believe me otherwise. Afterwards, the kids came outside to say goodbye. More photos when they were allowed to smile. Then we all grabbed one or four and fled for the border… no but we wanted to.
Next extracurricular activity, soccer. Jon and Cuma got roped into playing. Cuma is a big guy so his jersey fit him like a dickie. They managed to not knock any of the kids over and did not score on them so success all around. Back on the bus to the hotel. A lovely, leisurely 15 minute break, back on the bus to our next fancy dinner.
I am getting so far behind but I have to stop for now, another early morning tomorrow (they are all early mornings!).
Next morning, 4am awake. Let’s get this done before I have to get up.
Another formal round table dinner. This one was hasted by the high school that is affiliated ((owned) by the university. The script was the same but the whole thing had a different vibe to it. The food was very non-Canadian. There was intestine and greens, goose egg and chilies, sea cucumber, mutton chops and so much more. And of course, more baijiu. Lots more baijiu. We all decided it isn’t quite as bad as it tasted the night before. Michael was sitting beside one of the hosts (number two guy?) who took a shine to him, as one will. Every time I looked over there, this guy was pouring Michael another tiny glass and toasting him.
These Chinese dignitaries did a couple of toasts directly from the pitcher! The pitchers on this table had measures on them so I know they were 100 mls. Of liquid fire, in one shot. Apparently, at least one of us should have done the same, but I say that is up to Geoff and Geoff said, no way unless they want him to get sick at the table. Since this was a high school, I didn’t geel quite the pressure from the university dinner. But, Geoff told me at breakfast the next morning, that in fact, we aren’t really courting the university, we are courting their high school. So, in fact, this dinner was the big game. Fortunately, I still did the toasting rounds and word is, despite no pitcher bottoms up, we did well.
I have to talk about the food though. It was so different than Canadianized Chinese food. Geoff said it was the best, more expensive food that could be offered. The sea cucumber is over the top expensive and prestigious and we each got a special dish of it. I have had sea cucumber before, my mom makes it sometimes. But she cuts it up and cooks it like calamari, tasty and a bit rubbery. This sea cucumber, on the other hand, was whole and looked like a blackened severed penis, left in the sun too long so it turned to gelatinous goo, in a lovely light broth. I ad one bite. It didn’t taste bad but the look and texture was too much. I had one bite. I might have eaten more if I had know it was so special. Lynette who did know, ate the whole thing.
I was still feeling overwhelmed from the night before so I didn’t even try half of the food, which just kept arriving. I hear that this dinner is more like what it will be like in Boatou. Oh dear! Then a very traditional ending to the dinner, the hosts just got up after noodles (always the last dish served) and left the room. Sitting around chitchatting after dinner indicates that your guests have not been served enough food. Nope, so we all got up and left just like that.
It was still fairly early so Mandy and I did a bit more work on the presentation. And, if I remember correctly,this is where we started. Time to get up and out for our next full day of events. Sorry for the length and typos.
A week’s worth of activities in one day
Up at 4:30 this morning. I don’t know when I am going to write once I am on China time.
BTW – I figured out how to make the pictures smaller, posts should download more quickly now.
Yesterday was our first full day and it was crazy. I am having to consult my schedule (which is the first time I have looked at it properly, it keeps getting updates with new events, not to mention new gift giving events – I did not bring enough gifts!). I am just going to organize the blog like the day was organized.
7 – 8am – Breakfast buffet. Not nearly as comprehensive as the airport hotel. I just had a random selection of stuff but some of the others found a noodle bar. Tomorrow, I am having soup.
8:30am – 9:10 – Opening Ceremony. This is a very formal meeting with the Canadians on one side of the table and the Chinese on the other. There was a photographer and a videographer. There must have been a thousand photos taken of us. The president of the JSNU was there and made some speeches (interpreted) and then Geoff made some speeches (interpreted), we all quickly introduced ourselves (not interpreted) then a quick video about JSNU. We got our first gift here, a diary.
It is an impressive school. I can see why Camosun would like to partner up with them. I am thinking of doing an exchange here. Help me out – should I pursue a PhD in Chemisty or Dance? Seriously, they have a lot of good stuff.
Then formal photos. I handed my camera to the interpreter (he is actually a VP in International Education here) so I have a photo or two (I haven’t actually looked at all of the photos taken when I handed off my camera). One of their delegation asked if I was the official photographer? I was for a few minutes until the rest of us got out our cameras and it was a photography free for all! But that question made me feel like I had a bit of leeway with taking pictures during the official stuff. And the fact that their photographer and videographer were with us ALL day. Geoff says they will be there all week.
9:10 – 10:30 – Campus Tour. This was fun. We started with Fine Arts. They told us some of the paintings are for sale but no one said, sure, this one costs $XX. I wanted so many of them!
The students gave us Chinese character calligraphy. My guy did not want to let me have the brush. He just kept talking and talking and I would look confused. He eventually let me do a character and I did it wrong. Order of strokes is important! Next time I paid more attention and he seemed pleased. I managed to do two characters. Some of the others in the group had whole pages filled. I guess a PhD in Fine Arts Calligraphy is out. Finished up with an official photo, of course.
Next stop, Sport Education. We popped into the basketball court (where we thought a wedding was going on but apparently it was a graduation ceremony) and the volleyball court where I was happy to see a female team.
Then we moved onto a demonstration of some martial arts, name forgotten, which as VERY impressive. There was lots of sticks and machete spinning and kicking and jumping etc. I’m sure any photos will not do justice. After that crazy high energy, sparkly outfitted demo, the Tai Chi ladies came and calmed us all down with their calm movements and subdued costumes.
The campus is big and we walked from point to point. I honestly can’t remember if we visited any other areas. I guess we’ll find out when I check my camera. I do remember that we walked along a red mud path and we all had so much red mud stuck to our shoes. I ended up going to the formal dinner looking like I had just come through a cow paddock.
10:30 – 11:30 – Chinese Language Lesson: Chinese Characters and Greetings. A really good teacher who taught us hello, goodbye, please, thank you, sorry, China and Canada. It was fun and we all practised with each other. My partner was Lynette. Then we watched a very short video that was an excellent lesson on how to read Chinese caracters. Geoff said if he had seen that video when he lived here, he could have saved months of lessons. I would search for it, but no Google here, so no.
12:00 – Lunch Cafeteria – Another huge meal. I am getting smarter. I only ate half. Amazingly, no picture!
Geoff had pointed out when we got our schedules that there is always a couple of hours in the middle of each day for some downtime (a siesta basically). Well, day one has shown me that any overtime in any event comes out of ‘downtime’. We got back to the hotel at 1 and had a quick meeting so Geoff could give us some pointers on how our formal dinner is going to go. Basically booze and toasts in a very formal order.
He told us that we could/should make our own toasts. Lynette asked if this was required (we were all a bit nervous) and Geoff said that the women don’t have to. Women are superfluous to the whole thing. Men do business. I should have been insulted and pissed off but mostly I was relieved.
Up to our rooms. In the end we got 25 minutes of downtime. I uploaded blog photos
14:00 – 17:00 – City Tour, Scenic Spots. So, before we go on our tour, you may remember from the BBC article I posted that they have a terracotta army here. I was on a campaign all day to see them. No, too far away for today. And not in the schedule for any other day. No free evenings so no, no, no. I tried every angle, every person, no. So, I guess no terracotta warriors. hmmph.
Not that what we saw wasn’t impressive and lovely. First to a lake. Our guide, Barbara, said it is especially beautiful because there is a lake and a mountain. What she didn’t mention is that they have put a see-through walkway RIGHT THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF THE LAKE! Umm, that should be your opening line Barbara! We walked through a lake. We stared at fish, they stared at us. Did I mention a see-through tunnel! In the middle of the lake! Again, pictures probably won’t do justice.
Next stop, a historical housing complex for a rich family. I never could figure out how long ago this .was inhabited. But at the end a man came up to us and said he had lived there (before the revolution?, his family lived there? he was joking?). Lots of stone roof pictures. Best part, there were older ladies stationed around the place. Some put on an opera, some just looked beautiful, others danced, there was a flag situation?
Back to the hotel to change back into our ‘formal’ duds. I posted the blog. I have figured out how to keep my power on in my room so I can try to keep this thing running despite the 14 hours a day schedule. But that still hinges on jet lag…
18:00 – end of time – Welcome Dinner. This was supposed to be at our hotel but it was at a different hotel. What can I say about this dinner. First the formal seating by power ranking. I think we confuse them. Obviously Geoff is first. Then Dahlia because she is next in line because she is exempt. then the rest of us, whilly nilly. We were around a giant round table with an automatic lazy susan. The food already on there was like art. I have so many food photos. I was sitting between Jon and Trevor.
Let’s talk about baijiu. Bai or at least the first Chinese character means country. And Jui means destiny that ties people together. When we sat down we each had a little pitcher and a tiny tiny glass shaped like a miniature wine glass. The waiter came around and filled the pitcher. I managed to stop him at half full but the men didn’t get off so lightly.
Dinner started. More dishes were brought the table. Then more and more. Then the toasting. It starts with the most important, the president. Then Geoff. Then Mark, the director from the first night. I can’t remember if Dahlia had to give one. But back to that first one. I had a sip of the Baijiu. Burning. It is turpentine I think. It tastes like mothballs smell but with a very little bit of fruit and sweet as it burns it’s way down. After that I just touched it to my lips and didn’t actually drink it. At least as long as I could get away with it.
Food, toast, food, toast, etc etc. As we were on the downside of dinner (not the end, mind you, but the eating part was slowing down), the ‘personal’ toasts started. The president toasted Geoff, vice versa, then they all toasted the dignitaries. The president left at some point around here. I wonder if this is a diss or if he actually had to leave. Geoff says he has come to Xuzhou four times and they haven’t come to visit us yet so the relationship is slow going.
Anyway, the lack of president did not slow down the toasting. Mark took over. He then toasted each of us individually. This is when my sip strategy fell apart. Personal toasts are a ‘bottom’s up’ situation. I made it through the first one. But then the Chinese dignitaries came around and had a small conversation with each of us and each time, toast and bottom’s up. That second mouthful was when the gag reflex started kicking in. Not easy to gag graciously while speaking to a Chinese VP you want to do business with.
That’s when Trevor and Jon let me in on their secret. They were watering down their baijiu. Sneaky boys, so smart. My one third full pitcher became one third baijiu and two thirds water. The problem had been we weren’t given water. Our beverages were baijiu and a grain drink that tasted like watery brown oatmeal. Not exactly a refresher. But at some point, Jon and Trevor had managed to get bottles of water. So, they topped me up.
Geoff got the worst of it. As the toasting progressed, we were all not good at this. Mark forced the issue by having us all toast our ‘boss’. Each toast (10, us nine plus Skye) came with a full force baijiu bottoms up. He held it well. We all said nice things about each other (and meant it) and our hosts. then some of us got up and did personal toast with the Chinese delegation. I made the rounds. I started with Skye to practice and worked my way up to Mark.
It was actually quite fun. Especially since I wasn’t drinking full force Baijiu. Although as I made my way to Mark to give him a personal toast, he had run out of baijiu. I was literally standing there with a half full pitcher and he has his empty glass. I can’t give him some of mine! So, I had to be so rude and not share (hard for a good Canadian). There I am, holding a pitcher and saying ‘I think Geoff has some’ and ‘I see some over there’. It was an awkward couple of minutes (it may have only been seconds but it seemed like an eternity) before the waiter came by and filled him up.
Anyway, despite being a woman, I think I did well. Geoff said it went well as we were leaving.
Back to the hotel where the ‘girls’ had a pajama, chocolate and ironing party. I’m not sure what else to say about that, the name pretty much says it all. Then to bed. Oh yea, except I didn’t got to bed. Our first gift giving situation is tomorrow so I wrapped some stuff with paper Lynette and I bought at the mall next door during our ‘down time’. I think I managed to actually go to bed around 11:30.
My alarm just went off so time to get up. I will try to upload photos later. No time for spell check. Consider this my PD funded activity presentation!
Aaack, just back from another Baijiu-soaked dinner and opened this to finish uploading the pictures. I thought I opened the wrong one. I cannot believe the first day was just yesterday!. We have been so busy and done so many things and drank so much baijiu and it is still only Tuesday. I may not survive.
Four meals and three snacks – Shanghai and train to Xuzhou
It’s almost 5am. My alarm is set for 6:30 so I am getting closer to being on the right time zone. Yesterday was mostly just stuff that happened between meals and snacks!.
When I posted last time, Lynette and I were both awake at 4am. We ended up talking until it seemed reasonable to give up on the idea of getting back to sleep so we got up and had our Nescafe coffee and cupcakes (snack one). We decided to head down to breakfast buffet and then go for a walk around the airport.
Breakfast buffet was great. Lots of dumplings, veggies, bread, omelets, stirfry, cheese, way to much to list (or eat!). I had dumplings and some noodles (meal one). While we were getting our food, Trevor arrived and then Mandy and Cuma (pronounced Juma). Mandy and Cuma had just arrived the day before and came straight from Pudong Airport to Hongqiao Airport on the shuttle so they hadn’t seen the city at all. They were keen to head downtown for the few hours available. So we needed to leave right away.
We were all done eating by 7am so we grabbed some food, I took a ‘long bag of cheese’ my new favourite food name, some dried beef and fruit. I wipped up to my room and quickly packed in case we needed to vacate the room before I got back. I didn’t even have time for a shower.Trevor came with us on the subway but got off on an earlier stop. Lynette decided to stay at the hotel and relax.
We got to Nanjing Rd East, a major tourist shopping area before 8am. It was raining a bit but not as bad as the day before. We found an open shoe store and Cuma wanted to have a look. We all tried on some shoes. I would have bought a pair if they had been in my size, Cuma didn’t get anything but Mandy succumbed to the siren song of well made but cheap footwear.
We basically did a mini version of my day before. Nanjing, Bund, People’s Park and this time, People’s square. I didn’t take that many pictures but here are some new ones from People’s square.
After People’s Square, we sat on a wall and eat our ‘long bags of cheese’ and dried meat (meal two). Then headed back to the hotel a little after 11am. My feet were pretty sore by this time after abusing them so much the day before. I wanted to have a shower and change my clothes and generally scrub two days of smog and big city off of me but when I got back to the room, Lynette had already checked us out for the noon checkout time. So, I washed my face and hands and just stayed sticky.
We all met in the hotel lobby to get ready for our train trip to Xuzhou. This was the first time the whole crew was in one place. So, here is a quick intro. The participants are me, Mandy, Lynette, Dahlia, Jon (he was with us that first night but I misspelled his name as John), John, Trevor, Cuma and Michael. (It was nice to see Michael, he was the only one I knew going into this adventure but I feel like we have all gotten to know each other pretty well over the last two days). Plus Geofff, our leader and Skye, Camosun’s marketing rep in China.
We sat around the lobby for a while chitchatting. Then we walked over to the train station which is attached to the airport and hotel. There was nowhere to sit and we had at least 30 minutes to wait. So when some of the gang headed over to get some food, I joined them even though I wasn’t hungry. I had eaten two tiny cookies and a banana (still from breakfast) while we are in the lobby (snack two).
Skye took us to a noodle place. It was just the girls, we seem to tend to divide by gender but that is for another discussion. The food looked so good, I just gave in and ordered pork and noodles. And then ate the whole thing (meal three).
We all got on the train. I was in a seat with John who had just joined us that morning so I hadn’t had a chance to talk to him yet. It was good to have a bit of time to get to know him. They brought around some very expensive fruit in family packs so Lynette gave me an orange (snack three). Jon bought some grapes that probably required a second mortgage.
We arrived in Xuzhou to close to 6pm. Michelle, our Xuzhou guide (?, rep?, contact? not exactly sure what her title is but she seems to be our person here). She ushered us all onto a bus to our hotel – Ji Hotel, which is new and looks like an Ikea showroom. We get our own rooms here.
Now we are ‘at work’. Free time is over. We are on a schedule. We were supposed to meet in the lobby at 6:30 but we didn’t get checked in until 6:20. No worries, say Skye and Michelle, the schedule is flexible – we can meet at 6:40. No need to dress up but we are expected at the Jiansu Normal University to meet someone, at that point unknown, for dinner in Cafeteria 6. I managed to have a shower, change my clothes and be in the lobby in 19 minutes! But still 5 minutes late.
I asked Geoff if this was going to be a big formal meal. No, it’s a student cafeteria so we can just choose what we want. Oh good, I am not hungry. Back onto the bus. There was a wedding going on in the hotel somewhere which meant the parking lot was overfull, which meant our bus couldn’t get out. Watching the menouvering was like a pre-dinner show. It took half an hour but our amazing driver got us out of the lot and onto the road.
We arrived at Cafeteria 6 by 8pm. We were met by Mark, the Director of International Student Affairs (or something like that). He met us all one by one at the door and then we went into Cafeteria 6. This was billed as the nicest student cafeteria in China. I have to admit, it is a lovely cafeteria. Very funky decorations.
We were led upstairs to a set table with salads already in place. oh, no, this is going to be a big formal meal. Oh well. (meal four).
Like the overtired children that we are, we rushed at the table forgetting our cultural lessons about seating arrangements in China. I think it was Skye or Micelle who got us all up before the big wigs arrived. Mark put Geoff in the place of honour and sat beside him. The rest of us could sit whereever at that point I was at the table with Geoff and Mark. Mark was a lovely host. He welcomed us to China and acknowledged we were all pretty tired so tonight was casual.
Dinner arrived. A huge skillet with pork, veggies, rice, crepes(?), soup, salad, and and blueberry bubble tea. Mark mentioned that the tea is cold. Chinese people don’t tend to drink cold beverages so I think they offered these special for us. It was all very delicious.
Mark and Geoff talked business a bit (relationship building). I asked a bunch of questions to Mark. They have 20000 students but only 500 international students. Almost all of them live on campus. We had driven through the campus to get to dinner and it was like a mini-city. It was dark though, I will see more today.
Dinner ended (I ate about half) and we headed back to the hotel where we scattered to our rooms. Wifi password here is based on the phone number of the person who booked the room. So Skye signed me in on my phone but I can’t use my computer yet (I am writing this on word for now). As we got to floor 14, I realized I couldn’t remember my room number. I was so tired, I had been awake since 3am with only a couple of hours of sleep. I had to try my key card on every door until one opened. Not my best effort.
I did eventually get to bed and slept until midnight and then again until 4:30. Not bad. Breakfast at 7am (so time to get moving). Meet in the lobby at 8:10 to head to a formal welcoming ceremony with the president of the university. Dress nicely. It is a packed day, welcome, campus tour, Chinese language lesson all before lunch. After lunch and a rest, city tour and then dinner back at Cafeteria 6. I will not eat as much before hand (hopefully).
After lunch: Our two hour break turned into 35 minutes so I don’t know how many pictures I can manage, it is a slow process.
Shanghai – I didn’t get lost all day!
I am at the Boyue Shanghai Hongqiao Airport Hotel. International Ed has outdone themselves. This is a swanky place. I just missed the gang heading out to dinner so I am taking the opportunity to write a quick post (ha!). I am sharing a room with Lynette.
My list of things I forgot, so far: my business cards, pajamas, umbrella.
I was awake from 2-4am last night (this morning) and then slept until 9am so I am good and refreshed. I left my bag at the hotel front desk around 10 and hit the mean streets of Shanghai. Well, not so mean, mostly just super clean and well laid out.
First stop – breakfast dumplings!
My tourist map showed three shopping streets. I thought I could hit all three. Nope. I got distracted by the ‘People’s Park’ and it’s tantalizing bird songs. It is a beautiful urban park, it reminded me of Beacon Hill Park. I couldn’t figure out how to get in for a while, there was an iron fence surrounding it. I have a feeling the Chinese like to control entrance and exits, even from a park.
(off topic discussion: we had our cultural competencies workshop before leaving where we discussed a bit about the differences between ‘collective’ societies like China and ‘individualistic’ societies like Canada and America. As I am writing this (now in the middle of the night again), I realized that I am using the term ‘the Chinese’ as opposed to Canadians. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese can’t be pluralized but Canadian and American can be. Is this a coincidence? A linguistic bias built into the English language. Does our past language for naming different cultures affect our current view of different cultures? Discuss amongst yourselves… Now back to our regular post from yesterday).
There were lots of trees outside of the fence and I could hear so many birds in them. I was following almost-paths to get close. There was lots of poop in there, let’s just all agree that there are VERY large dogs in Shanghai so we don’t have to think too hard about where that poop came from. As if the Chinese don’t already think Western tourists are weird, there I was suspiciously lurking in the bushes. I assume they thought I was in there taking a poop – no, that I was taking my VERY large dog to have a poop. (That may be a record for the number of times I used the word poop in one paragraph)
Oh, yea, and it was pouring rain. So, looking up to see birds, looking down to avoid poop and trying to stay under cover. Needless to say, I didn’t see too many. I only had my camera. Camera birding requires obedient birds. Birds are rarely obedient. This guy was very good though and sat nicely for a long time. But I can’t find him in my book.
Eventually I found a gate into the park. I was raining so hard I was getting soaked. I saw some people sitting with umbrellas on the path. I rushed over and said, yes please! they looked at me like I was insane. Of course their signs were in Chinese so I just assumed they said ‘umbrellas for sale’ since it was pouring rain. But they didn’t seem to have any umbrellas except their one, open on the pathway. I walked a bit further and came upon dozens, hundreds of people with open umbrellas with signs. I thought maybe a protest or something… But then I remembered reading about Chinese parents advertising for their unmarried children. I am pretty sure that was what this was. I just wanted an umbrella! Not a spouse! Anyway, they were very photogenic.
The park has a pretty little lake with another crooked bridge.
A few other random photos from the park
I finally left the park and headed to Fangbang Street. I bought an umbrella along the way. I figured it was close to that weird pagoda mall we had been to the night before. It was. But during the day, it was soooo crowded. Time for some lunch dumplings!
That picture of the crab reminds me. I have not gotten one napkin with food yet. I need napkins! Early in the day, I stopped by a Starbucks. For a coffee, to get out of the rain and for a bathroom break plus, I knew they would have napkins. Well, I got coffee and out of the rain but no bathroom. and the napkins were under guard (literally) so I only managed to get four. Four precious napkins.
I already knew that wasn’t going to be enough. I found a bathroom in the park and already needed one, no TP. I started rationing. Half napkins. Then I dropped one in the next bathroom stall (squat toilets BTW!). Then I had that crazy crab. I was covered in greasy chili sauce with bits of shell. I used a half but it wasn’t enough. But my last napkin got soaked by my wet umbrella. NOOOOOO!! Wring it out and it becomes a Wetnap! Anyway, why didn’t I buy tissues at some point in the day?
In the end, I only bought the umbrella and a new USB charger since the one I bought died last night. And dumplings of course.
Here are some pictures from the city
Long walk back to the hotel to retrieve my bag. I popped back to the Bund to see what was happening with the amazing skyline.
Then onto the subway to my new hotel where I found this great room waiting for me.
Now it is 4am and Lynette and I are both wide awake. She is on skype with her family and I am keeping touch with my family via blog.
Today we head to Xoujou (I am probably spelling that wrong) by train. Yea – train! Lynette has just told me that we are being met by a delegation at the station when we arrive. I guess I can’t wear my filthy rain soaked pants for ‘travel day’ like I planned.
Getting here.
I am in my Fish Inn room. Fancy. Wifi is super slow.
I managed to get packed last night and to bed at an almost reasonable hour. Then up early to the airport (thanks Alisma). There were four of us going on the same flight, Geoff (the leader), Trevor, Dalia and me. We only had a few minutes in Vancouver to add each other to WeChat, the favourite chat/message system in China. I was also trying to download a map of Shanghai so I wouldn’t be completely lost when I got in a taxi. But as it turned out, no taxi for me.
Flight was long, 11 hours, but uneventful. I barely slept so I ended up watching four movies.
We arrived in Shanghai and met up as we exited the plane. Geoff is an old hand at Chinese immigration and customs. Fingerprint scans, passport scans. The usual, again uneventful.
We were all in hotels ‘downtown’. Trevor and I are staying only a few blocks apart. So we all took the bullet train which has a name I can’t remember because I am tired. It went over 430 km/hr which is the fastest I have ever traveled on land, I am pretty sure. Then Geoff and Dahlia went off in one direction and Trevor and I took the #2 line subway. I never would have attempted that on my own but Trevor was in full charge and led the way (thank god). A few blocks walking to find the Fish Inn (in an alley) where Trevor kindly deposited me and went off to his hotel.
We are meeting at Geoff’s hotel soon for dinner so I will stop here for now.
It’s now 2am and I am up and ready for my jetlag! After much map consulting, I decided to walk to Geoff’s hotel which is right on the Bund, a lovely raised walkway along the Pudong River. Based on 100% observation and zero research, we are on the old side of Pudong with large historical buildings. And the other side of the river is an amazing space colony!. No, not really but the futuristic buildings are a spectacular light show. I am still figuring out my camera and this blog site so let’s hope I can upload a photo or two. I walked back that way too after dark so I will put in both so you can see how it changes once it gets dark. Amazing!
Here’s the less exciting ‘old’ side
Lynette, who had arrived a day before us, Trevor, Geoff and I met in the lobby at 6:30. Dahlia and John texted that they were on the way. When they hadn’t arrived by , we started to walk toward this weird mall place that looks like a pagoda village. Most notable feature, the crooked bridge. Which apparently, I did not take a decent photo of.
Back to meet Dahlia and John and then to dinner where we ate a pigeon (and some other stuff) and had giant beer.
Back to the Fish Inn after dinner. I had made it to 9:30 so well past my ‘don’t go to bed before 8pm’ rule to stave off jetlag. Yet here I am updating my blog at 3am!