How about a starfish?
I dare you.
I would eat scorpion again, though.
Want to split one with me?
Monday 22 October 2012
Double Dare
Have you ever eaten a scorpion?
How about a starfish?
I dare you.
There's a place in Beijing where the crowds get so thick that you get swept away if you get caught in the thick of things without direction. There are so many places to spend money here, in great big malls that surround you or an extensive network of alleyways filled with merchants who sell every kind of food item you can imagine as well as toy, fabric, and game. My roommate and I ventured here on the subway and we split a skewer of scorpions and a starfish. The scorpions tasted like bacon to me since they were fried in really hot oil (probably pig's fat in there) and the starfish wasn't so tasty to me. It had this aftertaste that kind of turned me off and the texture was pretty gummy and chewy. I have realized on this trip that I'm not such a big of things from the sea.
I would eat scorpion again, though.
Want to split one with me?
How about a starfish?
I dare you.
I would eat scorpion again, though.
Want to split one with me?
The Great Wall of China
After thinking of how to tell you all about my amazing trip to Beijing and trying to decide where to start, it seems easiest to start at the most memorable part of the trip: The Great Wall. Remember, we were only in Beijing for about 5 days, so The Great Wall was a great day trip that took all day (from about 8 in the morning to 7 at night give or take) on the second day of our adventure.
The Great Wall of China actually refers to a collection of similar fortification structures which stretch all the way from the Pacific ocean in North Korea, across the continent to Beijing, and well into Mongolia and Western China. Naturally, parts of the wall were built at different time periods than others. Parts of the wall near Beijing are quite close to the city center and are therefore far more crowded and more tourist oriented. These sections of the wall have typically been restored over the years and are relatively flat and easy to explore, but may not have the same awesome views or features we experienced (and it is probably more expensive to access those parts of the wall). I don't know the name of the part of the wall we went to, but it was quite far from Beijing by comparison.
My roommate and I had traveled to Beijing together, but we also knew that a group of Canadian teachers were going there as well so we stayed at the same hostel as them and joined them to go to the wall. We had some far more experienced people (also Canadians by coincidence!) who we met at the hostel who took us to the wall. They had done this before.
We took a bus that cost about 16 RMB to get on to the outskirts of the city and then got off. There were a group of Chinese "tourguides" waiting to take people to the wall. How they knew it was safe/not a scam was over my head, but everyone knew it was safe so we all split about three or four vehicles/drivers. Each vehicle was basically an old large van. We were told not to worry about payment until the end of the day when they dropped us off again. Good to know. (The service of getting driven to and from the wall only cost each of us about 60 RMB- a great deal since they drove about an hour each way, but keep in mind we were a group of around 15 people).
We finally arrived. We had to pay a small fee to get through a gate which led us into a small village of some kind. When you looked around you, you were surrounded by mountain ridges, most of which had the wall visible as a small thin line on the top of it. We had to hike for about 45 minutes through cornfields and up a hill to get to the wall. You can see from the first two pictures that the wall grows incredibly steep (sometimes it's just a sheer drop that you need to climb up or down!) which was incredibly terrifying for me. At this part, I needed my roommate to come and help me climb down it because I became frozen with fear. I am scared of heights, as you have already deduced. All the people seen in the photos were Europeans or Canadians we met at the hostel. They were all such amazing, great people.
At the beginning of the actual wall part of the climb, someone had accidentally let loose some very large and very scary looking bricks that fell. I had to run and duck and get out of their way as they tumbled down the stairs of the great wall. Almost gave me a heart attack. This is the unrestored section of the Great Wall. You can never be sure if the ground below you is going to crumble at your feet as you go and many parts of the wall is just walking on rubble.
It was terrifying and amazing and thrilling all at the same time. Afterward, we all went out for a celebratory dinner at a duck restaurant (Beijing is supposedly known for its fine duck dishes) where we feasted on some fine Chinese cuisine.
An amazing day I'll always remember.
The Great Wall of China actually refers to a collection of similar fortification structures which stretch all the way from the Pacific ocean in North Korea, across the continent to Beijing, and well into Mongolia and Western China. Naturally, parts of the wall were built at different time periods than others. Parts of the wall near Beijing are quite close to the city center and are therefore far more crowded and more tourist oriented. These sections of the wall have typically been restored over the years and are relatively flat and easy to explore, but may not have the same awesome views or features we experienced (and it is probably more expensive to access those parts of the wall). I don't know the name of the part of the wall we went to, but it was quite far from Beijing by comparison.
My roommate and I had traveled to Beijing together, but we also knew that a group of Canadian teachers were going there as well so we stayed at the same hostel as them and joined them to go to the wall. We had some far more experienced people (also Canadians by coincidence!) who we met at the hostel who took us to the wall. They had done this before.
We took a bus that cost about 16 RMB to get on to the outskirts of the city and then got off. There were a group of Chinese "tourguides" waiting to take people to the wall. How they knew it was safe/not a scam was over my head, but everyone knew it was safe so we all split about three or four vehicles/drivers. Each vehicle was basically an old large van. We were told not to worry about payment until the end of the day when they dropped us off again. Good to know. (The service of getting driven to and from the wall only cost each of us about 60 RMB- a great deal since they drove about an hour each way, but keep in mind we were a group of around 15 people).
We finally arrived. We had to pay a small fee to get through a gate which led us into a small village of some kind. When you looked around you, you were surrounded by mountain ridges, most of which had the wall visible as a small thin line on the top of it. We had to hike for about 45 minutes through cornfields and up a hill to get to the wall. You can see from the first two pictures that the wall grows incredibly steep (sometimes it's just a sheer drop that you need to climb up or down!) which was incredibly terrifying for me. At this part, I needed my roommate to come and help me climb down it because I became frozen with fear. I am scared of heights, as you have already deduced. All the people seen in the photos were Europeans or Canadians we met at the hostel. They were all such amazing, great people.
After the trek, we wanted to hike back to the place where the vans were waiting from the part of the wall we had walked to. We did not want to walk all the way back to the beginning when we saw there was a trail leading back to the village from where we were. The problem was there was an old man blocking our way to the path, demanding 3 RMB from each of us to pass. We were pretty upset at him since he had no authority to do this and we were pretty tired. Like he owns the Great Wall of China or something? We decided to bypass him and his silly ways and go around him and go down anyway but there was about a 8 or 9 foot drop from the actual wall platform to the ground below. The man was blocking the only way to the ground without a drop. Luckily, a brave guy from Montreal somehow climbed to the ground below and got each of us to step on his hands and climb down by supporting our weight (he was very very strong). Thankfully we were able to get down easily and avoid a very long and arduous route back and we shortened our time. When we were walking back, we saw the following sign that said "this part of the wall is closed to the public"!!! How crazy! Here's two guys from Sweden from our group posing in front of it.
It was terrifying and amazing and thrilling all at the same time. Afterward, we all went out for a celebratory dinner at a duck restaurant (Beijing is supposedly known for its fine duck dishes) where we feasted on some fine Chinese cuisine.
An amazing day I'll always remember.
I'm back!
Hello, lovely readers. I am finally back to blogging after a pretty long absence. This was due to a mysterious glitch on my laptop which prevented me from accessing my VPN provided by UBC. I tried to uninstall and reinstall the service several times but then it just would not reinstall, I kept getting error messages. This prevented me from accessing uncensored internet here for a pretty long time (a pretty frustrating situation as you can imagine...)
You may be wondering how I am able to get back on. Well, this little problem of mine pushed me to take a look at some technological alternatives, and I ended up looking into finding other gadgets that might be able to install the UBC VPN service. I tried using my iTouch, but it would not support the installation either. At this point, I remembered that technological devices are incredibly cheap in price compared to what I'm used to in Canada. For example, the iTouch (newest version!) that I bought here after losing my iPhone only cost 1,500 RMB, equal to about $215 CAD. I started thinking, if the newest iTouch is this affordable, surely I should look into buying some kind of a Notebook Laptop computer. It would serve as a backup from the current bulky laptop I have from Canada, not to mention far more convenient, and probably about the same price as a new iTouch would be. There is a great place here called the technological market in Weifang that would be the place to go to check this out. I had been there once but I did not know the name of the place in Chinese. I played around on google translate and got a Chinese coworker to help me with the pronunciation (it's ke ji shi cheng). A friend and I headed to the place a few days ago, and we looked around. The place is HUGE, and they sell pretty much every kind of device you might ever want or need. After spending a bit of time searching, we found the best deal: a Lenovo notebook that cost only 1,600 RMB. I was right! The price was so affordable. Not only did it include this great new piece of machinery, it also came with a free attachable mouse, a slick and nice case that also doubles as a small shoulder bag, a mouse pad, and they even offer a warranty should the hardware malfunction. It took them 2 days to install Windows XP because I demanded the English version and then I made them try to connect it to the internet before I gave them payment, which did not install properly the first time. But they got it working eventually. Now, here I am, enjoying my new purchase in the comfort of my apartment. Works like a dream.
After getting back from Beijing, I've been super busy with work. Here's how it works: I teach 4 college classes, a business class on Mondays, two listening classes on Tuesdays, and another listening one on Wednesdays. Each class is 2 hours and takes place in the morning and all my students are in first year university. My business students have far better English than students in my other classes (theirs is called speaking and listening). Each class has anywhere from 25-50 students. My business class consists of a lot more talking, presentations, and debates than my listening classes.
Thursdays and Fridays are my "weekends". On Saturday mornings, I tutor a 15 year old for an hour and a half and we just talk about Canadian and Chinese differences in culture and customs most of the time. In the afternoon, I teach a set of grade 4 students a class called "SuperKids". A textbook and curriculum is provided so this class is easy and fun. I have developed a system of awarding stickers to students in order to motivate them whenever they behave or learn something new. When they receive 10 stickers, they can choose a prize. They are highly competitive kids, which is good because it makes my job a lot easier to get them to learn the material I need to teach them. On Sunday mornings, I teach a few middle school aged kids for about two hours and then I teach another two or three middle school aged kids for about forty minutes. Usually, I make my students stand up one at a time and give an "oral presentation" such as show and tell or just have them tell me what their favourite music/movie/book is. The point is to just get them talking about something in English. Their English is quite high, higher than most of my first year college students in the listening classes.
They are very sharp kids. We used to talk about small things, but they are keen to learn about politics and more contentious issues. Yesterday, we talked about the Holocaust, but only because our conversation somehow took us there because one student brought it up (to my surprise). The other kids did not learn about the Holocaust yet in school, so we spent the rest of the class talking about history and world cultures and religions.
I was very impressed with them after that class, as you can imagine. They are far more mature and open-minded than I might have expected. I can now plan more stimulating lessons for them in the future.
I'm going to wrap up this post and then I'll make a new one on my trip to Beijing shortly.
You may be wondering how I am able to get back on. Well, this little problem of mine pushed me to take a look at some technological alternatives, and I ended up looking into finding other gadgets that might be able to install the UBC VPN service. I tried using my iTouch, but it would not support the installation either. At this point, I remembered that technological devices are incredibly cheap in price compared to what I'm used to in Canada. For example, the iTouch (newest version!) that I bought here after losing my iPhone only cost 1,500 RMB, equal to about $215 CAD. I started thinking, if the newest iTouch is this affordable, surely I should look into buying some kind of a Notebook Laptop computer. It would serve as a backup from the current bulky laptop I have from Canada, not to mention far more convenient, and probably about the same price as a new iTouch would be. There is a great place here called the technological market in Weifang that would be the place to go to check this out. I had been there once but I did not know the name of the place in Chinese. I played around on google translate and got a Chinese coworker to help me with the pronunciation (it's ke ji shi cheng). A friend and I headed to the place a few days ago, and we looked around. The place is HUGE, and they sell pretty much every kind of device you might ever want or need. After spending a bit of time searching, we found the best deal: a Lenovo notebook that cost only 1,600 RMB. I was right! The price was so affordable. Not only did it include this great new piece of machinery, it also came with a free attachable mouse, a slick and nice case that also doubles as a small shoulder bag, a mouse pad, and they even offer a warranty should the hardware malfunction. It took them 2 days to install Windows XP because I demanded the English version and then I made them try to connect it to the internet before I gave them payment, which did not install properly the first time. But they got it working eventually. Now, here I am, enjoying my new purchase in the comfort of my apartment. Works like a dream.
After getting back from Beijing, I've been super busy with work. Here's how it works: I teach 4 college classes, a business class on Mondays, two listening classes on Tuesdays, and another listening one on Wednesdays. Each class is 2 hours and takes place in the morning and all my students are in first year university. My business students have far better English than students in my other classes (theirs is called speaking and listening). Each class has anywhere from 25-50 students. My business class consists of a lot more talking, presentations, and debates than my listening classes.
Thursdays and Fridays are my "weekends". On Saturday mornings, I tutor a 15 year old for an hour and a half and we just talk about Canadian and Chinese differences in culture and customs most of the time. In the afternoon, I teach a set of grade 4 students a class called "SuperKids". A textbook and curriculum is provided so this class is easy and fun. I have developed a system of awarding stickers to students in order to motivate them whenever they behave or learn something new. When they receive 10 stickers, they can choose a prize. They are highly competitive kids, which is good because it makes my job a lot easier to get them to learn the material I need to teach them. On Sunday mornings, I teach a few middle school aged kids for about two hours and then I teach another two or three middle school aged kids for about forty minutes. Usually, I make my students stand up one at a time and give an "oral presentation" such as show and tell or just have them tell me what their favourite music/movie/book is. The point is to just get them talking about something in English. Their English is quite high, higher than most of my first year college students in the listening classes.
They are very sharp kids. We used to talk about small things, but they are keen to learn about politics and more contentious issues. Yesterday, we talked about the Holocaust, but only because our conversation somehow took us there because one student brought it up (to my surprise). The other kids did not learn about the Holocaust yet in school, so we spent the rest of the class talking about history and world cultures and religions.
I was very impressed with them after that class, as you can imagine. They are far more mature and open-minded than I might have expected. I can now plan more stimulating lessons for them in the future.
I'm going to wrap up this post and then I'll make a new one on my trip to Beijing shortly.
Saturday 6 October 2012
Back from Beijing
and feeling pretty...tired, put simply. For the past few days I've been just relaxing after a very crowded and fast-paced trip to the crazy city that is Beijing. Going back to work again is really the biggest thing on my mind now, but once I get back into the groove of things again I'll give you all very detailed accounts of everything that happened-with pictures!! (and some pretty crazy things happened! hints: unlikely food choices, terrifying heights, and street wanderings...)
In the meantime, I have like 4 college classes to make lesson plans for. Not really so excited about that, but hey, it's a tough job and somebody's gotta do it.
Tonight, my roommate and I were chilling in our apartment. Actually, we were thinking of maybe going out when, of all the most coincidental timings imaginable, there comes a knock on our door.
Wait, before I continue this story, I think I have to make it clear to you just how big of a deal that is to have someone knock on our door.
We live on the SIXTH floor of our building. Highest floor. (extra points if you remember elevators are just not a thing here!!) Our building requires a key to enter it and then another key to get into each apartment (naturally) so we thought it was either some of our neighbours or I thought maybe it was some guy who doesn't speak English who once rang our apartment bell for a long time, maybe he was supposed to deliver something to this apartment (mom, dad, ahem?)...
Anyway, I thought it was another confused delivery guy or something only it was like 8PM and nobody delivers anything at that time. We both look at each other apprehensively and I open the door and IT'S COLLIN alright we can all relax and have a good time. Collin is a guy who works at the Canadian international school here in Weifang and he's a great guy. He's come to invite us to that bar called Backyard but we (him, our Canadian neighbours, and some other people) ended up chilling in our apartment and we talked for like an hour about our trips. They just got back from Shanghai and Yunan where they climbed the Tiger Leaping Gorge and I saw the pictures and I freaked out because that place looks incredibly terrifying (and trust me, I had been through a terrifying but amazing experience doing the great wall... so I know how crazy things can get in China).
These people are all fearless! More on that later.
Anyway, everyone had an amazing holiday. We all went to backyard and stayed there for hours. I feel great, we all chatted and caught up on our adventures. The people who went to Beijing with us (other BC teachers) were all there too.
I feel so great I'll post a photo of my happy self before going to bed!! I got a haircut yesterday and, yeah, it's a little different than what I'd normally get but it looks good and that's the peacoat I bought at the designer market in Beijing (did I mention it was a great bargain? More on bargaining in China later...)
All right, my dearest friends, acquaintances, children, lovers, and creeds. I am tired. It is late. I am signing off for now but I can't wait to tell you all about my adventures in Beijing.
Ta ta for now.
In the meantime, I have like 4 college classes to make lesson plans for. Not really so excited about that, but hey, it's a tough job and somebody's gotta do it.
Tonight, my roommate and I were chilling in our apartment. Actually, we were thinking of maybe going out when, of all the most coincidental timings imaginable, there comes a knock on our door.
Wait, before I continue this story, I think I have to make it clear to you just how big of a deal that is to have someone knock on our door.
We live on the SIXTH floor of our building. Highest floor. (extra points if you remember elevators are just not a thing here!!) Our building requires a key to enter it and then another key to get into each apartment (naturally) so we thought it was either some of our neighbours or I thought maybe it was some guy who doesn't speak English who once rang our apartment bell for a long time, maybe he was supposed to deliver something to this apartment (mom, dad, ahem?)...
Anyway, I thought it was another confused delivery guy or something only it was like 8PM and nobody delivers anything at that time. We both look at each other apprehensively and I open the door and IT'S COLLIN alright we can all relax and have a good time. Collin is a guy who works at the Canadian international school here in Weifang and he's a great guy. He's come to invite us to that bar called Backyard but we (him, our Canadian neighbours, and some other people) ended up chilling in our apartment and we talked for like an hour about our trips. They just got back from Shanghai and Yunan where they climbed the Tiger Leaping Gorge and I saw the pictures and I freaked out because that place looks incredibly terrifying (and trust me, I had been through a terrifying but amazing experience doing the great wall... so I know how crazy things can get in China).
These people are all fearless! More on that later.
Anyway, everyone had an amazing holiday. We all went to backyard and stayed there for hours. I feel great, we all chatted and caught up on our adventures. The people who went to Beijing with us (other BC teachers) were all there too.
All right, my dearest friends, acquaintances, children, lovers, and creeds. I am tired. It is late. I am signing off for now but I can't wait to tell you all about my adventures in Beijing.
Ta ta for now.
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