You know you're in China when....there is a cut off chicken head in the restaurant's bathroom sink

Our final day in Changsha we only had the morning before we needed to catch out train back home. We tried to go to the city museum but it was sadly closed. So we got in a cab and asked him to take us to Orange Island, another site seeing area, and he said he couldn't and we couldn't understand why but then he suggested another place to go so we just said yes because we had nothing else to do. He ended up taking us to Changsha's Windows of the World.... (We've got one in Shenzhen and are not even really willing to go to that one) We got out of the cab because he couldn't understand why we wouldn't want to go and tried to find something to do. Luckily....next door was a large convocation center and it was hosting a dog show! We voted and decided to go. It turned out that the dog show was actually a sales auction for Tibetan Mastiffs. All the Chinese people were very excited to see us because they thought we were going to spend 100s of kuai to get one of their dogs. Jenni actually got one down to 600 kuai (less than $100) for a pure bread mastiff - pretty crazy. The event was slightly depressing because the owners weren't the nicest people to their dogs but it was still an interesting experience. After that we headed for the train station and made the journey home.


Shaoshan is a small village located about an hour and a half ride away from Changsha. It's claim to fame is that Mao ZeDong was born there. So of course we needed to go check out the birthplace of Mao. We didn't know much about the town other than that there was a museum and his original home. We were hoping that we could just take the bus there and it would all be self explanatory. Fortunately, on the second bus of the journey, there were four college students sitting in the back that were very excited to talk to us but as usual had very limited English ability. So another Chinese woman on the bus translated for us and we ended up finding out about the town and the sites that were worth seeing because they had all been there before. Once off the bus we headed straight for his home. It was reported that on even a regular day there was at least an hour wait to get into the house. We joined the mass of Chinese people headed there and played the "lets see how we can stop Chinese people from cutting us in line" game. The best moment was when this older woman literally just stepped under the rope in front of us, after we had been waiting for about twenty minutes. She looked at us and laughed a bit and started talking at us in Chinese. The rest of the time in line was trying to maneuver in front of her. But she'd randomly get very excited about being able to see Mao's home so she'd start singing and just push her way right through the hoards of people. We finally got there and it was pretty cool. He had a nice house for the area but did have his bedroom next to the cow and pig pens. We saw the bed he was born on and learned about some of his family members. After that was the Mao museum. It impressively made Mao seem like quite a stand up guy. As far as the museum says he was very deliberate with his spending and was insistent that all his clothes and belongings be mended and patched as much as possible until no longer usable instead of just getting new things all the time. The picture is of my favorite thing in the museum - Mao's poop chair. The padding lifts up and there is a large hole in the middle of the seat underneath. This chair was the one that he was also sitting on when meeting many high political officials, including Nixon. After the museum it had started raining and was really cold so we decided to give up on the other sites of the area and go back to Changsha. Back at the hostel we got a restaurant recommendation from the receptionist and had one of our best Chinese meals ever. We had fried baozi, a spicy shrimp dish, eel and eggplant, fried rice and oiled potato strings. Each dish was to die for, especially the eel. After we were stuffed we headed back to the hostel and met Ivan, this huge black spider that was hanging out between Genevieve's and my bed. I convinced her not to kill him....but we still slept on the other side of the room that night.


In the morning we were getting ready to leave and this Chinese guy who was staying in our room asked if he could join us for the day. He seemed nice enough and spoke decent English so we said yes. His name is Jun and he is from Guangzhou. We left the hostel and stopped for breakfast at this little noodle shop down the street. Then we headed out for YueLu Mountain, the second most famous mountain in Hunan. We got there and it was already hot so we decided to get a 10 kuai ride up the mountain and walk down. In years past there have been wars fought on the mountain so there are a lot of tombs and memorial sites. So we wandered down stopping at different places along the way. It was nice having Jun with us because he could read the signs and tell us more about the history of the area. Then we stopped at YueLu Academy, the oldest academy in China! It was founded in 976, crazy. It is now Hunan University. Changsha is an interesting place because there are three or four universities all together so there are a lot of college students in the city. After the academy we went to lunch at this really dirty Chinese restaurant. There was trash and oil all over the floor and it just wasn't pleasant but it was the only restaurant we could find in the area. After we finished eating we wanted to go to a museum which housed many things including a 2000 year old preserved corpse! But unfortunately all the tickets were sold out. Instead we went to a famous street in Changsha for wandering around and getting food or buying souvenirs. It reminded me of Lijiang. Jun wanted to go to this poet's house but we weren't interested so we split ways. We stopped at this cute little coffee shop. The owner ended up coming out and chatting with us. He had just opened the place two weeks before and was still getting it started. He spoke almost perfect English and seemed really cool. Afterward we had to go buy some train tickets to get back home just in case they sold out before we left. Then we got dinner at a random place we found on the way. To end the night Jenny wanted to go to the Changsha ferris wheel, which claimed to be the tallest in the world at 390 feet tall (It's not though, not even the tallest in China). We all decided to go and it was completely worth the 50 kuai ticket. To top it all off, when we reached the top, fireworks started going off over the river! Changsha has a big river through one side of town so it was great to see everything from so high up. We then got some snacks and went back to the hostel.


Saturday the four of us met up at the train station rearing to go on a new adventure. We took the train to Guangzhou and then took the high-speed train to Changsha! It went 333 km/hr. When we got there we needed to find a hostel. So by asking around, we found a bus towards a random hostel we found online. One the bus a Chinese couple was helping us and saying they were going to the same area and to follow them. Once off the bus we had to take a taxi so we split up and each got in a car with one of the Chinese people. They both ended up paying for a cab fees! It was so nice! I love Chinese people! So we got to the hostel and it turned out that they only had two beds available. We didn't know of any other hostels in the are that had room so we were willing to share because it was already pretty late. After dropping off our stuff we headed out to find some dinner and found ourselves at a little hole in the wall Chinese place that had the BEST fried jiaozi I have ever tasted!! Hunan province is known around China for it's spicy food, it is one of the main Chinese cuisines. Since we've been eating Hunan food all the times since we've moved to China, we were all excited to have authentic Hunan food. Later we went back to the hostel and found out a reservation had been canceled so we all got our own beds. It all worked out in the end.


This Friday we were all getting ready for a three day weekend for the Chinese May day holiday. At about 3:30pm (while I was in Chinese class) we all started getting texts from our schools saying that the Education Bureau announced that the holiday was going to be extended by two days, meaning that we had Monday through Wednesday off instead. At that point I decided with five days I really wanted to take a trip somewhere. So I messaged people to see if they wanted to join. Marie and the G/Jens said they were in and excited to go wherever it was that we were going. So the next thing was to find a location. I texted Brian and asked where he would suggest going and he said we should go to Changsha, the capital of Hunan province. So that's where we went! The rest of Friday Marie and I spent going to get train tickets for the following day and researching stuff to do in Changsha. We stopped in Dongmen for dinner and Marie suggested that we go try this 4D ride that we always pass on the way to our favorite restaurant in the area. I had secretly always been curious about it as well so we went! You picked a theme out of about 6 different ones (we picked the scariest that we could find) and then you go sit in a rollercoaster car. You're wearing 3D glasses and there is a big movie screen in front of you. Our adventure had us driving/running down scary wooded roads and haunted houses with zombies and Jason coming after us. The rollercoaster car is moving all around and then the room sprays air at you to give it the 4D effect :) It was a bit hoaky but we had a great time!


Fuat and I have been wanting to take Brian out to dinner for awhile to thank him for being such a great contact teacher. So we finally found a day that worked for all of us and took him to a Turkish restaurant in Shenzhen (Fuat is Turkish). The food was really good. We even had hummus!! (Not something you can easily find in China) I was definitely glad Fuat and said we should go there because I had never had Turkish food before. Since he has been to Turkey numerous times and has two Turkish parents he knew all about the food and what to order so I was able to get an authentic Turkish meal. He also ordered us this yogurt drink that is very famous in Turkey. The drink was a little weird because it was slightly salty. During dinner I tried to think of any other drink that I knew of that was salty and the only thing I could think of was tomato juice. But overall it was a very good outing. Plus Brian isn't one to really try many foods outside his comfort zone so it was fun getting him to eat the different dishes.


In class this week I did a future and past lesson. Part of the lesson each group had to come up with predictions for the year 2050. I was interested in the different things they were coming up with so these three days were all pictures of the white board after they wrote up predictions. Click on the picture to make it bigger so that you can read some of them.








Minnie sprouted flowers!! I was so proud of her. She shot up an entire stem of pretty little pink flowers.

Life without a VPN

Jenny invited me to go to Hong Kong with her to meet up with a friend and go hiking. It was a great time! First we met up with Abe, a HongKongian who the G/Jens met through some returners. We hear about him all the time so I was excited to finally meet him. We then went to a small Hong Kong diner and got some lunch. After food we stopped by a temple on the way. Jenny and I tried out a fortune telling tradition the Chinese do. You get a bucket full of sticks and kneel down and shake them, thinking really hard about a question. Each stick has a specific number. Once one falls out of the bucket you take it to the fortune teller and find out what the number means. Unfortunately the teller was 40 kuai and since both Jenny and I are on the cheap side we decided not to find out our future. But my number was 39 - which I'm pretty sure means good things. Next was the mountain - Lion's Rock. It was a really good climb. All of the mountains in China usually have cement stairs built in from the bottom to the top. This one had a few sets of stairs but a lot of natural trail too. Plus we saw monkeys on the mountain! The day was really foggy so sadly once we reached the top we couldn't see anything but mist. So we just walked around the peak taking pictures. Abe suggested that Jenny climb onto this rock for one and it seemed like a good idea so she did. What we didn't know was that the rock was moss covered and the mist had left a slight layer of water on top of it. Halfway down the rock Jenny slipped and almost fell way too close to the edge which was a sheer drop to halfway down the mountain. We all decided she should get off the rock right then and there and luckily she was safe and it was only a scare that we had to deal with. Afterward we got dinner at an Italian place that gave free bread refills - awesome. Then Jenny and I headed back home and met up with some people at the Windows beer garden.


For the past two months I have been teaching these ten Senior 3s with Fuat. They are moving to Singapore to go to college and needed excessive amounts of English help to be able to pass their English entry exam. I was told that the group were students who weren't good enough at school to get into a really good Chinese college and not good enough at English to go to America and their parents have a lot of money. So they are being shipped to Singapore to go to a two-year college and then going to Australia to get their full degree. It's pretty cool. So I had these students three days a week for awhile and Fuat taught them the other two. We got to know them pretty well and I'm glad I got the chance to know them. They've now gone on to Singapore and are doing well and I'm in email communication with three of them.


Fuat and I had the entire week off of school this week for Midterms. I took advantage of the time and went to DaFen, Shenzhen's art village in Longgang. I needed to buy some presents for people and it is just crazy how cheap you can find stuff there! I didn't even feel like bargaining because I felt bad that they were getting so little money from me.


Chinese stores have a habit of having manikins in the strangest positions. I saw this one and couldn't help taking a picture of the perfect example. I can't tell if the hand placement was to show that she feels bloated in that outfit or wants to point out the crotch of the jean skirt she is wearing.


April 19th - sad day. When I went home to America for the funeral, I brought back a bunch of stuff including my Playstation. I was super excited that I was going to get to play video games. But I finally found an adapter that would fit the Playstation's plug and....the electricity of China fried the entire machine. It smoked for quite awhile which was pretty cool though.


Went to the post office the other day. I commented on this in an earlier post but wanted to visually show it. It still amazes me that China is on its way to becoming the next super power and they still do things like use a dirty bottle of glue to put their stamps on envelopes.


I know this is a terrible picture, but oh well. So on Sunday I go and tutor. I was really tired from the weekend so I decided to close my eyes on the bus. When I opened them again the world had gone black. Seriously, it was 2 in the afternoon and it looked like it was 9pm. Storm clouds had just rolled in from out of nowhere. When got off the bus it had started sprinkling a little but not too badly and I still had a couple minutes to wait to get picked up by my tutoring family. I got to our meeting destination and it down poured. Luckily there was a nearby tree so I took shelter. Then this nice Chinese woman was standing down the way from me and took one look and walked over and let me share her umbrella. About a minute later the family showed up in their car and during the run from the sidewalk to their car I got completely drenched. There was so much rain that a river had started in the street and an umbrella was just floating down it on its way to who knows where.


After our breakfast in Longgang, we all headed to the Hakka houses. The Hakka people are famous for their architecture around China. There are Hakka villages all over the country. The G/Jens, Marie, Jess and I went exploring and got to learn a lot about the people. One funny thing that is in the museum is America's interpretation of the buildings. Some Hakka houses are building is circular houses that sort of look like mushrooms with a big hole in the middle. Well a US government official was visiting China and saw these houses and wrote immediately to our President that China had these strange structures and that he was pretty sure they were nuclear weapon storage areas. Of course they were.... Anyway, after that Marie, Jess and I headed to Xili and met up with Andrew to go rollerskating! It was a blast, but really hard! I haven't roller skated since I was probably 7. But it was a lot of fun and the rink put on a good show with fun music and interesting Chinese skaters to stare at. Afterward we went to dinner and met up with Cliff, Greg and Christina (Greg's Chinese girlfriend that we met for the first time who was very nice).


The girls up in Longgang hosted a breakfast party for the G/Jens, Cliff and I. It was really good food, but even more exciting was that Jess hand made a crocheted sling for Cliff's arm! It was very stylish and helped him out a lot.


This is the day after my Chinese medicine treatment. The thought is that the more purple the circles turn the more bad stuff that is in your body. The edges of my circle were getting close to a good shade of purple. What it felt like was I had somehow wound up with two large bruises on my body.


Tracy, one of the Chinese English teachers at my school, was very excited when I said I wanted to try Chinese hot cups, a Chinese medicine for removing pain from your body/getting rid of colds/taking away anything that is bad in your body/etc. She had a "do it yourself" kit and was willing to offer her services so that I could experience the health remedy. We waited for a day when my body was sore or hurt or felt bad at all and tried it out. The true version of hot cups is they have glass cups and put fire under them next to your skin and then quickly take the fire out and press the cup against your body. This takes the oxygen out so the cup sucks in your skin instead. The 'at home' version uses plastic cups and a syringe to suck out the air. The first one I tried was a big one on my lower back. It hurt! The Chinese keep telling us that it is annoying but doesn't actually cause too much pain. It hurt enough that I almost asked her to take it off and but wouldn't let myself, instead I just stood very still. They are supposed to be left on for 5-10 minutes to officially work. Tracy still seemed excited that I was doing this so I allowed her to try a smaller one on my shoulder, figuring that the area would be less sensitive. This one didn't hurt as much but was still uncomfortable. Plus it just looked really gross. That is so much skin up in that cup!!