My First Time Teaching in China: January 2013

My roommate and I had been talking about going to Qingdao since before new year’s. We originally thought we might go with the other foreigners for new year's but we decided against it so we could just have a more relaxing new year's eve and, you know, we had work and didn’t want to rush things or anything.

But after a night out my roommate was cleaning himself up in our bathroom and I sort of asked him through the door if he still wanted to go to QingDao and he was like mmmm I might have to work on Saturday so then we would only be able to go for like an overnight type of thing. At this point I sort of pondered out loud- hey wouldn’t it be kinda fun to just go…for just a day??? no pressures to do anything in particular, let’s just get out of this place…for a day!

His eyes lit up and we got super stoked and we packed our bags with nothing in it really, grabbed our passports and some cash and ran out the door to get food and catch the first train to QingDao after that.

Everything was super smooth getting there and the whole time really. We got a cheap and super nice hostel in the heart of the city about a ten minute walk from the ocean. This city looked oddly similar to Seattle in Washington state to me. The trees, the hills, the churches. You see, the Germans colonized this city back in the day so everything is made of brick and looks super European. The buildings are older, red-roofed, and more intricate and are the sort of pre-WWII era architecture that you see more commonly on the North American or European landscape so everything felt a bit more friendly to us than in Weifang where all the buildings are rather cold and boxy and grey looking. On top of this, Qingdao is a jumble of streets which circle and twist and turn through themselves, situated on a series of hills that roll and stumble into the ocean, another reason it reminded me of Seattle. This was a very nice change from the rigid streets in Weifang which run in a very neatly organized grid, which I guess makes it easier to drive but harder for a foreigner to get his sense of direction since everything is so flat and there are no hills in sight. Even though it was my first time visiting Qingdao, I found it particularly easy to navigate since all I needed to do was orient myself using the ocean and the big hills around me, similar to the way things work back home in Vancouver. Since it wasn't so easy to catch cabs there, we ended up walking around the city, even at night, to discover more sights. I was given a (rather dire) warning from one of my Chinese coworkers that Qingdao would be very cold, even colder than Weifang so I came prepared only to find that she was wrong. The place was a tad warmer than Weifang which is exactly what I honestly expected since it is on the ocean.

After arriving in the city we walked around the station and explored our surroundings only to find that we were already in the heart of the city. The ocean was mere footsteps from where we were. There was a McDonald's, a KFC, and other restaurants and shops all within eyeshot of the station. We saw all the people exiting the station and grabbing cabs or buses nearby. We knew we wouldn't be able to get a cab so fast so we just went for a small walk and stretched our legs and looked out at the vast, dark ocean before us. It was beautiful.

After finally getting a cab and ensuring the driver knew where to go, we arrived at the hostel which was actually not very far from the station anyway and checked in and took a look around. The building really felt homey. It was one of those really tall and thin buildings with creaking stairs and old windows and doors which you could tell might break if you tried to push or pull them open to quickly. We were on the third floor. The common room area was particularly nice, with a tall fountain filling the room the sound of running water. We could have had dinner there but we wanted to get out and explore so that's exactly what we did after we organized our things and took a look at our room.

It was already getting on the later side of things by the time we left the hostel. We walked around our neighbourhood and discovered old Germanic Church towers that looked really creepy and haunted at night, Russian graffiti on street corners, Chinese market areas that were obviously closed by nightfall, and interesting looking corners of the city where people work and live. That night we had dinner at a hole in the wall and drank with some locals there who taught us how to play a drinking game. They insisted on paying for everything, including our meal (even though it was rather overpriced) and then we took some photos with them and left (the photos are on Ilya's camera so I'll have to get them from him to post them on here later.)

Phew

The next day we wandered around different parts of the city together and took lots of pictures and went to the famous pier which had nothing really that special to it but it was pretty and then went to a beautiful art gallery/museum. That was my favourite part. The pier had some caged tortoises in it who looked rather sad, all caged up like that, I bought a tiger's eye bracelet which is really cool to look at there, and there were some really pretty views there. People kept trying to sell us maps and little baked goods which were meant to feed the seagulls. We were really scared we would get bird poop on us walking back and forth up the pier but luckily that did not happen. We also noticed people there spoke more English and there were more foreigners.

The art museum was spectacular. We got there an hour before closing, though, so we did not get to go inside all of the exhibits, unfortunately. The landscape architecture of the place was breathtaking. The art pieces were fabulously simple, true to Chinese style. We met some artists/students there who showed us their calligraphy pieces (not photographed here) and it was amazing to see such skill. I had been practicing calligraphy for four months; but one of them had been practicing almost his entire life.

After the museum, we wandered around the streets some more and then decided we would find something to eat and then head back to Weifang. I complained to my roommate that there seemed to be no restaurants in sight, but he explained to me that it seems like people just run small restaurants our of the same buildings they live in. He can read much more Chinese than I can, so he would point out a sign to me and translate. "Dumpling restaurant, please come in" he would point out to me as we walked, and that's when I said "OH!" in realization. We kept walking on (I didn't want dumplings haha) and just as we started to get a bit antsy, he pointed out some signs that said "hotel" on them and we investigated and found a really special place that had the best noodle soup EVER. It was the perfect thing before traveling, I just really wanted a hearty and warm bowl of beef noodles and that's exactly what they specialized in.

Going home, Ilya accidentally booked the cheapest train tickets which resulted in going on a train that takes twice as long to get home. It also meant traveling on a very crowded train and you could tell that these people on the train were really working class people or poor students. That was an interesting experience for sure. We ended up getting home at around 8PM. Good thing we left early.

One of the buildings at the Qingdao art museum.

The art museum.

One of the pieces at the art museum.

Outside the art museum

Looking into the gates of the art museum. Hey Ilya.

Just outside the art museum looking in.

Probably my favourite piece at the museum.

One of my favourite photos of the art museum grounds.

I love how Ilya kept photobombing all my pictures here!

Amazing architecture.

I got this cappuccino at the hostel and it was actually ridiculous how good it was.

We discovered this scene the night we got there, walking around the city. You had to actually go through a dark little alley to see this place and peering in it looked so...real. To the left and right the buildings extended for quite a ways and you could hear people eating and doing chores inside. This was a glimpse into one of many living situations in China. Below, images of covered food stands and miscellaneous cooking appliances or laundry stands could be seen as well.