Taking a Trip

Heyyy everybody!

Soooo...I thought about this and I will be creating another mini-blog for this next section of my time abroad. I'm attempting to be artsy and so my theory is by creating a new mini-blog (or more than one...maybe??) I will be in some way taking you with me through my travels to the different places I end up in. A new mini-blog for a new place, and the separation of pages will subconsciously in your mind make a clearer distinction between the different adventures in different places I go.

This mid-winter vacation that I'm having is an adventure I don't view as part of my "Adventures in Hubei", but rather each place is its own individual adventure to be seized and embraced. Everywhere I go is a new story, a new beginning and thus a new mini-blog. In this way, it will bring you a little closer to coming along with me on Krissy's Many Big Epic Adventures. So...without further ado, I invite you to come with me and see what there is to see.

Here is the link to my new page:

http://kexininkunmingin2014.blogspot.com/

Enjoy! And I will return to this blog in February once I'm back in Xiangyang. ;)

Goodbye Xiangyang!!

The trip was an approx. 28 hour train ride deep into the West of China. The four of us teachers were all separated on the train, and I was a little nervous about being by myself. It’s big in China to be wary of thieves on trains…I’ve even watched a Chinese movie just about that subject. I had more bags than I could fit on the top bunk with me (I had a small suitcase…and remember that top bunks are teeny, with just enough space for sleeping). So I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep my bags safe.

But as soon as I got to my section of the train, and I was looking for a place to put my things, the Chinese family that was in the same section with me was very nice and helped me put them somewhere. I had intended to pretend to speak no Chinese while on the train so as to avoid hours of being interviewed when I mainly just wanted to rest. But I needed help with my stuff and so I had to use it. Of course, once they discovered I could speak Chinese I was certainly interviewed. But these people were very nice and so it wasn’t as tedious as I thought it would be.

They asked about American culture and compared it with their own. And I talked to the young lady of the family, her name was Wang Qie. She was 24 and pregnant, traveling with her parents back home to where her husband lived. I asked her if she was excited about her kid, and she said, “Meh, it’s okay.” I thought that was interesting, because that’s not a typical response that someone in the West would say. But I understand why she said it…it’s a Chinese cultural expectation and it brings honor to your parents to get married and have a kid, preferably a son. So she wasn’t having a kid necessarily because she wanted one, as most Americans are, but to simply fulfill a societal expectation. I liked her though, she was spunky and in fact she knew a whole lot about different things. I asked her if she had a job right now, and she said, “No,” then she joked, “taking care of my parents is my job now.” I really enjoyed talking to her until she and her parents got off the train.

But really, most of the time it wasn’t just me and Wang Qie talking together, it actually was more of a big party at my section of the train. One of train workers  stopped by to chat with all the people in that section, I have a feeling it was because I was there. Why? Because that was everyone’s initial excuse to come over to the section. It started off as, “Where are you from?” And I said, “America,” and then they’d join in on the conversation talking about the Americans they’ve met or what they knew about America…and it was just a big party over in my section. Even some people that weren’t part of the party were watching us and listening to the conversation. It was actually really nice though and didn’t feel like I was with a bunch of strangers because everyone was so friendly and jolly. One lady even gave me her number to call if ever I was in Shiyan, a city very nearby Xiangyang.

Even the next day in the morning and noon before we got off the train a bunch of the train workers joined the one that was always at my section talking, and joined in on the conversation. I was asked, “Those other foreigners that are here on the train, are they with you too?” I said yes they were, which then led to comments such as, “Do they speak Chinese?” “I don’t think they speak Chinese.” “They don’t speak Chinese as good as she does.” “Next time you take a train, you should buy the tickets all at the same time so you don’t get separated like this.” I didn’t bother explain to them that we had all kind of joined together at last minute and our plans originally had not coincided. Then they proceeded to talk about things like the weather, what the weather in Kunming was like, what the weather in all the places the train went and each person’s hometown was like…with occasionally asking me, “Have you been to ___?” “No I haven’t.” “One day when you have time, you should go. It’s a great place. That’s where I’m from.” Ultimately, I didn’t have to do a whole ton of talking the whole trip; all the Chinese people at my little party were very content to hold their own conversation with me just being there being enough. I probably couldn't have jumped in too much even if I wanted to.

Also, during that time I was in fact able to rest for a good amount of time. On the first day of the train ride after the conversation petered out and everyone went to rest, I fell asleep. And /I slept for a LONG time. I just couldn't get up. I could hear them talking below me, asking if their “American friend is still asleep”, but I couldn't answer them because I was still in the sleep world. And when it was lights out, I slept once again, but not before watching my favorite movie The Fellowship of the Ring. It was warm in the train and for the first time in almost a month, I could sleep without shivering and tensing my whole body to resist the cold. I think that this was the first stage of my getting better. I wasn’t better yet, but even just knowing that I was getting away from the cold was making me feel much better. Even my computer seemed better because even just a day before I was never able to watch a three hour movie on just the battery alone, and now I could all of a sudden do so…I think because the system was not working harder through the cold.

And finally, at 3 pm of the second day, we got off the train…into gentle warm breeze and sweet smells.

How I Realized It.

So Christmas was over. And I realized it FAST. Once it was done, it was absolutely done.

I had a boost of energy and happiness during that whole week, but once Christmas was done it was done. And I went back into seasonal depression again. I was trying to eat more, anything I could get my hands on I would eat. But I didn’t get out much, and I ate no more than two meals a day. And two meals a day with a stomach as small as mine had gotten was really not much. So as I said two posts ago, I thought I was eating a lot. A lot is very relative…especially when you can’t remember exactly how much you used to be able to eat for a meal.

I've seen better days...but I also made myself look a little nicer for this photo...so normally those days I looked a ton worse. :(

So as I mentioned before I didn’t realize I was malnourished and dehydrated. But I realized it before long on the last day of my classes.

I had been hanging on by a thread and I didn’t know it until that last day, when I was giving final examinations to my class. For their final exams, each person had to do a 5 minute oral interview with me outside the classroom, while the rest of the class watched a movie while waiting to be called next. I had already done half of the class the week before and was doing the rest of them today. If you remember the pictures I posted about the Ligong campus, you’ll remember that the buildings are not finished being built yet…and honestly even if they were, they’d still have no heat. So I was giving interviews for an hour and a half (that’s how long the classes are), OUTSIDE the classroom, standing up, and basically it was like standing outside in the winter cold for an hour and a half.

When I got to maybe the third or fourth student I was interviewing that day, I started feel a little tingling in my head. I knew that feeling all too well, and I knew what could possibly be coming. However, I continued interviewing my student. Then I started to not be able to hear my student, I was looking at her but was unable to concentrate on what she was saying. I was thinking, “Keep it in, keep it together.” But I knew that what was to come was beyond my control if I kept standing. And very soon after that my vision started to fail and things were starting to go black. So I told her one second and slid to the ground, taking a knee…pretty dignified-like. She went and got me a chair and I continued my interviews no problem.

I think I handled that pretty well. Fortunately, I knew what you have to do in order to prevent a fainting spell. You take a seat and put your knees up. If I hadn’t known that, it would’ve been a REALLY embarrassing experience…and they might’ve put me in a Chinese hospital, AND YOU KNOW I’LL NOT BE GOING TO ANY OF THOSE UNLESS I WAS ACTUALLY DYING.

So I managed to finish my final interviews that day with a mixture of sitting down and standing up, but it was a sign that I was doing very very badly. I tried to eat more that same day and have some bigger meals so I would get better, I even drank a lot more too. I don’t know if it was what I ate or how much I ate, or just the fact that I was in terrible shape (I think it was the latter, and I don't mean fitness shape), but that night I had a BAD case of throwing up. I spent New Year's Eve and Day just recovering. SMH. Not good. I was falling a part. I was hanging by a thread. I needed to get out of there.

I could hardly even fake the happy face anymore. In public, I was doing a lot more staring into space than anything. All I knew was that at the end of the week, I was hopping on a train with three fellow teachers and getting out of the city, getting south. I didn’t know if that was a wise choice, to travel in the condition I was in, but honestly I knew that if I didn’t get some place that would boost my morale I wasn’t going to get even an inch better.

I felt horrible, inside and out. Even when I was completely by myself I wasn’t relaxed at all…I was just cold. I finished my grades and turned them in, spent one more day hanging out with Xixi, had a goodbye dinner with my other teachers, and packed my bags and got ready to leave. Even that was hard for me…as I was straightening my hair to get ready for the trip, I had to keep sitting down because I felt that familiar tingle in my head again and soon after things started to get black. But I kept packing and getting everything ready because I knew getting out of there to somewhere warm where the food was filling and delicious and the environment was open and welcoming was the only thing that was going to make me better. There was only one place in China that could do this for me.

And so the Saturday of January the 4^th, me, Kyle, Malcolm, and Melissa (four foreign teachers at Hubei University of Arts and Science) grabbed our bags and hopped a train, returning once more to Kunming, the Spring City.

Merry Christmas!

I think that this year I’ve been more grateful for the existence of Christmas than any other year that’s passed. This year has really got me thinking about the importance of having such a holiday…in any culture that has to deal with an extended period of harsh and depressing weather conditions (weather that means monsoons, harsh winters, etc.).

Winter is dark and cold, and it makes people want to shut down. Winter brings to a lot of people seasonal depression (which is what I’d say I had). At times like this, having a holiday that is celebrated together by a mass amount of people, filled with traditions and ways to make far more merry than one ever does during the rest of the year, gives people something to look forward to. It’s a time when people are pretty much forced to take a break, even if they choose to refrain from celebrating.

And here’s a theory I have about winter holidays: I think one of the reasons why there are so many winter holidays (there seem to be more holidays specifically made for the winter than any other holiday) is because the winter is the season that NEEDS holidays the most. It would be extremely depressing without them. Way back thousands of years ago when some of the earliest forms of these holidays and others existed, people needed a way to emotionally get through these hard times. They gathered up much of the food they harvested to throw together a huge feast to celebrate and boost morale. There were traditions to be done that represented good luck, to give people the hope of happiness and keep them remembering that things will get better in the spring. In my opinion, these winter holidays were like a big pep rally for the community, saying “Whoo! Winter’s here! And we’re gonna survive it like we always do! We can do it! Be happy!”

So for me, particularly this year I was feeling the need for such a boost of happiness. And though it wasn’t like the Christmases I’ve celebrated at home with the family, it was what I needed to keep me going just a little longer.

CHRISTMAS PEP RALLY!! WHOOP WHOOP!!

As Christmas was starting to get closer and the plans for what we’d do to celebrate began to be made, I found an extra boost of energy to go out and be a part of all of it. I love Christmas, it’s my favorite holiday of the year. It’s a lot of people’s favorite holiday, and honestly it makes a ton of sense why…it’s the biggest holiday of the year in America, and I’m not just saying that because I like it a ton. It’s true. Not any other holiday has as many companies and businesses shut down for the day (or at least half of it) than Christmas does. Not to mention, for those that celebrate Christmas, it’s often the holiday that involves the most activities of any other holiday celebrated…there’s buying and decorating the tree, making the big dinner and desserts, making a stronger effort than you do at any other time of the year to be home with your family, Christmas movies, games to play, and specific Christmas music (which has a countless amount of songs…many of which a mass amount of people know). Anyway, it’s my opinion, but all of this is why it’s my favorite holiday; not these specific things I’ve listed, but what all of these together create: they create a kind of attitude, a mood that is exclusive only to this specific time…I guess a lot of people call it Christmas cheer. It’s a feeling that things were never as good as they are right now (even if you aren’t the richest of the rich), a feeling that makes you want to help other people and each other, a feeling that makes everyone want to be nice to each other for particular reason but that it’s a great moment to be alive.

Okay I can rant all day about all of that, but the ultimate point is the coming of Christmas gave me a boost of energy that helped me get through this time. We (all of us teachers, along with some of our Chinese friends) all decided we would do a Secret Santa (as I mentioned before) and we’d pool together our resources to put together a potluck. It was something really nice to look forward to, and though it may not be what we all were used to…the biggest difference was not being with our families…it was still FAR FAR  better than nothing.

Those few days leading up to Christmas Eve, we had a Christmas party with our American boss, where there were all sorts of great Christmasy things: gingerbread cookies, mulled wine, hot apple cider, popcorn (Chinese style though, so it was sweet), togetherness and conversation, and watching Christmasy movies and tv episodes.

And then the day of the potluck/Secret Santa came. And we celebrated from 5 pm to late at night. We had all kinds of food, as Western as we could make ourselves with the ingredients in China, along with Chinese food brought by our Chinese friends. And we had it at the coffee shop that I talked about in an earlier post. There were homemade bagels, melted cheese sauce, roast duck, baked chicken, spicy fish stew, chips, muffins, crackers, jam, pickled cucumber salad, fruit ambrosia, different wines, tea, coffee, and a few other things I can’t think of at the moment. I unfortunately couldn't take any pictures of this time because my camera also got seasonal depression and was crying, and so the lens fogged up and couldn't focus right. :(

I had never appreciated the concept of a potluck as much as I did that night. When each person brings something, just a little something, and we all put it together it becomes a feast. It was a great time and afterwards we had our Secret Santa. Everyone received lovely gifts that corresponded very well with each person’s personality while at the same time kind of matching the personality of the person who gave it. I received a hat from Fuli, the owner of the coffee shop, which I have to agree with what one of the teachers said: it was kind of steampunk-ish…and I love steampunk, yet it was classy like Fuli is. And Melissa loved my stamp, I just loved seeing her reaction. I had gotten her name carved on to it as part of the stamp so it stamped her name and the Chinese cognate of her name in characters. She really liked it, I think especially because she spoke no Chinese…I thought it would be a nice connection to China for her, and in the future a reminder of the time she spent here.

After the Secret Santa and a little more conversation, someone turned on some music and some people even began to dance. So that was quite fun too.

After that me and a few of the other teachers went back to our American boss’s apartment and watched another Christmas movie and then we went to bed. It was Christmas Eve that night, not Christmas. This was to be our Christmas celebration because a few of the other teachers had to teach class the next day, on Christmas…because in China Christmas is not really celebrated. Their equivalent of Christmas is Chinese New Year, and their school terms end accordingly. Ours in America ends a week or two before Christmas, theirs goes through Christmas and ends a week or two before Chinese New Year. They also get a very long time off for Chinese New Year, about a month and sometimes longer.

So did I do anything for Christmas?? I’ll tell you what I did.

Usually I turn on my heat maybe two or three times a day and only for an hour TOPS. The heat really uses up the units I’m given for electricity in my house, and so I use it sparingly…I never turn it on all day or all night. But what I did today was turn it on for MOST  of the day.

HEEEATTTT

And today, I feasted on fresh bread and authentic sharp cheddar cheese which I was able to buy from a Western supermarket called Metro that just opened at the end of November. There’s no direct route by public bus to where it’s located, and most of the taxi drivers don’t know the location so you have to explain how to get there to them, but for some of the things they sell there it’s TOTALLY worth it. No where else in Xiangyang do they have as good and fresh bread as they do, nor as much variety of cheese (I’ve only seen American in other places, if they have any), nor meats, spices, or Western snacky-snacks (they have popcorn that ISN’T sweet! They don’t have that anywhere else). So once more, it’s worth it. And so I feasted all day on yummy bread (even though it was getting stale, just a quick half a minute in the microwave and it softened right up…but I had to eat it quickly or else it would get hard again…but even that tasted so much better than no bread at all…I’m just glad it wasn't moldy) and yummy cheese and watched Christmas movies.

FOOODDDD

Then later that evening, when it was just beginning to be morning in the Eastern coast of the US, I called the family back home. I had a routine going on for the holidays that I would still be present there, it would be as if I was never gone…I had done this for Thanksgiving as well. I stayed on Skype THE ENTIRE DAY. Yes, it was like a big movie marathon of LIFE. In the morning, we began by opening the presents and I got to watch all of that and make comments as I saw fit. And then when everyone went their separate ways until dinner, everyone took turns handing me off to different people, sometimes my dad, sometimes my little sisters, sometimes my older sister, but most of the time I was with my mom watching her cook the dinner. As she cooked, I told her my thoughts about Christmas and how my Christmas in China went.

SKYPE MARATHONNNNN

Finally, when dinner was finished being made and it was all set up on the table, they moved me to the dining room where I was placed on the table in front of the seat I would’ve sat at…so I was once more at my place at the table and I ate popcorn and soda in my room as everyone else feasted on Christmas dinner. Of course, I had to be part of the whole dinner so I made random interjections of “please pass the gravy” or “mmm, this sweet potato casserole is really really good, what do you put in it?” And honestly, it was really nice because even though I wasn’t there, I didn’t miss a single thing, and they weren’t missing me…because I was there. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it really past their 8 pm, when they were cleaning up the table, because it was 8 am my time and I had stayed up almost the whole day before (I took a quick nap to prepare for the Skype marathon). So  8 am the next day, I went to bed.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Brrrrr...it's cold!

It got bad here in Xiangyang. As the temperature got colder, I found myself getting colder too. I got cold physically, and emotionally I began to feel cold too. I tried my best not to show it, and I think I succeeded in doing that. By the end, it was all I could do to just keep the smile on my face.

And being cold inside and out led to more things. The cold wasn’t just outside, but inside my house too. Every day as soon as I got home from work, I changed immediately into my tights, sweatpants, long sleeve shirt, and sweatshirt and jumped under the covers in my bed and stayed there for the rest of the evening. It became a party of me and my computer. I would often pull the covers of my comforter over my head and let my body heat form a little pocket of warm air in my bedroom. When it became too hot and the air was getting thin, I’d pull up the sheets to let some more air in, but almost immediately pull them back down again once I got enough air.

I’d become so jaded by living in the cold in Xiangyang, and I forgot what it was like to feel better than I did. I didn’t know what being completely content and happy felt like anymore, and I was getting sick. Not “I have a cold” sick, but I was malnourished and dehydrated. I ate only when I was hungry because being depressed broke my will to leave the house, and being cold made me unwilling to drink any liquid because that would just make me more cold. I didn’t even realize I was getting malnourished and dehydrated because I was just so cold.

I didn’t realize it at this time. I’ll write again in a later blog post about how I did realize it.

Shanghai!! (Part 4)

Woke up the next day, feeling strong and ready to go once more…but sadly this time I wasn’t ready to go but ready to go…home. L

So once more we had a delicious breakfast with some hot tea, and the family saw us off as the driver drove away to the train station.

Once we got to the train station, we once more had trouble following the interesting arrows, but we got to where we needed to go eventually. We waited in a big room with maybe 150 to 200 other Chinese people all trying to head back west to various cities along the one train’s route. As I sat there amongst the individuals, I had a horrible feeling.

I had a horrible feeling that they were not going to call us by section, but rather they were going to call us to board the train all at once. And I had a horrible feeling that if they did that, it was going to be a literally painful experience.

They called us all at once.

My heart stopped when I heard the call and saw the mad dash.

And yes, it was LITERALLY painful. (correct use of the word literal)

We got pushed through the crowd…at one point we were no longer moving ourselves but were being carried along the way. I didn’t even have to hold my bags; they were being taken along for me. But my bags were being taken too far. I’m holding on to a bag and it’s being carried along ahead of me, and I’ve got it wrapped around my wrist, and my arm is being pulled along ahead of me. I have to call out and tell the people ahead to ease up, and I was just able to yank it back towards me…if I hadn’t done that, I might’ve twisted my arm. And everyone was trying to squeeze through maybe four or five turnstiles, many people with many bags. One girl had these HUGE HUGE bags she was trying to carry with her and decided she’d squeeze her way through everyone and tried to fit a bag almost bigger than her through the narrow turnstile. She got stuck.

One turnstile down. Three or four more to go.

Man, the train station officer got super mad and he was yelling at her and everyone around her, trying to find a way to get her unstuck. It was a really stupid decision what she did and all because she wanted to get to the train first. She could’ve just taken things a little slower and let a few people get past her and things would’ve been fine.

What we had just witnessed at the turnstiles was a very minor situation than one normally sees at Chinese train stations. The bigger the station and the closer to holidays, the worse it gets. At the time of Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), statistically you’ll see the biggest mass migration in the world. Everyone in China is leaving the big cities they work at to return home to their families. And that’s a TON OF PEOPLE. People almost got hurt during what we just went through, people DO get hurt during these migrations. People get trampled, and I believe sometimes people get killed. Everyone waits in long lines for a VERY long time to get on whatever transportation they are trying to get on: bus, train, plane, boat, etc. And they will remain in those positions, even going to the bathroom to hold those spots. And then when they are called to board, the huge mass of people running is extremely dangerous. I can’t even imagine how kids do it.

Later on, I asked Xixi (my co-teacher if you remember) about the mad rush to get on the trains. I understood why it happens on public buses…I deal with that all the time, it’s first come first serve to the seats. But why trains? Don’t you buy your tickets that have your seats/beds on them ahead of time? I know that’s what we did. But Xixi said, “No, actually what they do is sell more tickets than they have seats available, and so there are some people that will be without seats and most of them are trying to find a good place to stand. Sometimes they will try to take other people’s seats, but in that case the person just shows them their ticket and they’ll grumble but they’ll get up and move.” So I understand a little better why this happens. I still don’t like it, and I still don’t excuse it, but at least it makes more sense than people running and fighting to be first just because “that’s what you do.” I still don’t like it though, and I hope in the future they’ll come up with a better system that involves less injury. Until then, YOU BETTER BELIEVE I’M STAYING FAR AWAY FROM LONG DISTANCE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN CHINA DURING SPRING FESTIVAL. I WILL NOT BE A PART OF THAT. In fact, I’m getting out of the country.

Right before boarding the train.

Here's a picture of the bottom bunk.

The train before everyone got on and before it got dirty (people actually spit on the ground and the carpet, because Chinese people don't believe it's healthy to keep saliva in).

We managed to get through without too much trouble (and by too much I mean that it’s all relative)…and after we got past the turnstiles it was all good. The rest of the journey was pretty peaceful and we got off the train around 12:45 at night then took a taxi home.

But…I think Shanghai may have broke me.

I changed coming back from all of that…I thought that Shanghai would be something like when contestants on Survivor get extra rewards during their time competing. They’re all skinny and malnourished and if they win a game, they get an epic prize like all kinds of barbecued meats like hot dogs, steaks, burgers, and fries and sodas and stuff…or sometimes they’ll get like a seafood smorgasbord of lobster, shrimps, crab, sushi, and salads with wine…and plenty of other things too. But after that all happens they’re all replenished and encouraged; it gives them a morale boost that’s enough to last them until the next challenge. I thought that Shanghai would do that for me.

But it didn’t. In fact, it made things worse. It all of a sudden made me see very clearly the less than ideal conditions I was living in and feel it more sharply. Before, people would say either “you’re crazy” or “you’re brave” and I would be like “meh, I guess so…to me, it is what it is.” But now, coming back to Xiangyang made me feel more strongly what everyone else was thinking. And I broke.

I started to sink into a depression.

(That’s the end of my Shanghai tale. Don’t worry, it gets better…but it gets worse before it gets better.)

Shanghai!! (Part 3)

When I woke up the next morning, I haven’t felt that rested in months. Most of the days in Xiangyang, even if I had slept my fill in the night, I’d never ever wake feeling renewed like sleep is supposed to do. I’d mainly feel like, “Ugh, another day to get up…Ugh.” But today, I woke up and felt BEAUTIFUL. The sun was shining through the window, the heat was still on and filling the room, the room smelled good, and the ground was covered with a big thick rug, unlike the bare tile I have throughout my whole apartment. It was just a great feeling to wake up that day.

So then the family made us a nice breakfast of eggs and PEPPERJACK CHEESE…it’s been a while since I’ve had access to some good cheese and so just taking a bite of that was an amazing burst of wonderful flavors in my mouth…and served with a mug of hot tea and a slice of toast with butter (toast  AND butter are BOTH  very hard to come by in Xiangyang). And then we were on our way. What a great way to start the day!

So at the recommendation of the family we stayed with we made our first stop the Yuan gardens. Now we didn’t actually know what this was. We thought it was a garden…I’m sure you can imagine why. We told the driver the Yuan garden, but he wasn’t certain what we meant. He didn’t know if we meant a real garden or some place that just had the name garden in it. We didn’t know what we meant either. We thought it was a garden, so we decided to try the first one…as we were driving there, the driver was saying to us that there probably wouldn’t be much to see at the garden; it’s winter and so there’ll be no flowers out. So we just went over there to quick look and see if it was something we should go into…I wondered why the family would recommend we see something now that’s not going to be worth seeing?

When we got there, there was absolutely no one there. There might have been one person working at one ticket window (one window out of like eight or nine altogether)…and there were no vehicles parked outside the area. Ultimately we assumed this could not be the place that the family was referring to, and so the driver took us to the second place he thought we meant.

This turned out to be the place the family was talking about.

It wasn’t a garden at all, it was a little district with ancient-style buildings (REALLY beautiful), restaurants, little malls, and places to bargain for cool souvenirs. It was a sunny day, much more sunny than the day before but still not a clear, clear day, and it was nice just walking through the area and taking it all in.

It was here I decided to get something for my Secret Santa present…we’d do the opening of the presents on Christmas Eve at the potluck we decided to put together. My Secret Santa person was Melissa, the most cheerful and sweetest teacher in the whole bunch…and I didn’t know what to get her, but as soon as I got to one corner of a street of bargaining stores, I knew.

This one lady was selling Chinese stamps of all shapes and sizes. Some were huge, bigger than your palm, others were teeny, no thicker than a pencil. I found one that was about an average stamp size, about maybe an inch wide in the shape of a square. The whole thing was long and shaped like a rectangular prism, and at the top was a pretty little Chinese carving, and it was made of this kind of jade green colored stone. It was pretty, but I should’ve bargained for a lower price. I could’ve gotten it down to a lower price than what I got it for…I’m still working on this bargaining thing, I never have enough opportunities to practice to really get it down. But I did bargain SUPER well for the box and stamp ink it came with, I said I didn’t want it at all, then named a super cheap price, kept insisting on the price, then walked away and finally she said, “Okay okay.” And that was that.

So we continued on and found a lot of really cool things being sold by the bargaining areas and other stores that weren’t bargaining. After that, we went to lunch with two of my dad’s co-workers.

Ever since I’ve been in China, these two co-workers (whose names once more I’m omitting) have helped me out during my stay. If ever I needed mail, they made sure it got to me as soon as possible without any problems. Also, whenever I landed in Shanghai, they always would treat me and my dad to dinner and make sure we had a great stay. Whenever I needed help in China, they were always an email a way. When I did the national Chinese competition in 2012, it was them that sent me a huge packet of information about Chinese history and culture, and studying that made a huge difference in how far I made it through the rounds. I don’t think I would have made it from Kunming all the way to the finals in Beijing if they hadn’t helped me.

It had been maybe almost two years since last I saw either of them, and so it was really great to see them again. We ate lunch at a Western restaurant that served these epic sub sandwiches with roasted meat, melted cheese, and toasted bread…mine had ham, olives, and different kinds of cheese and vegetables on it…it was so good. But it was huge and my stomach had shrunk a whole ton since I’ve been living in Xiangyang, and so I couldn’t finish the whole thing. To this day when I get hungry I still pine over the loss of that other half of the delicious sandwich. My dad’s co-workers and I got caught up on what’s been going on in our lives since last we met. They told me their stories, and I told them about how awesome the Chinese Bridge competition was (that’s the name of the 2012 competition).

Then we continued on, and our next stop was the Bund to see if we could see the skyline any better today. Any view was better than what we saw the day before. That was just ridiculous. As we were driving, we took some pretty cool pictures of the tallest buildings in Shanghai…we had to pass the buildings that made up the skyline to get to the Bund from where we were.

So when we got to the Bund, things were much better. But on the other hand, there were a whole lot more people. We could actually see the skyline clearly…but anything behind it we couldn’t see. And because the main reason why anybody goes to the Bund is to see the skyline, all of a sudden there were so many more people. The day before there were only a few scattered people walking around…but now the whole wharf was filled with people, and the souvenir stores, vendors, and small restaurants were booming again. We had to weasel our way through a couple people to get to the balcony for a picture of the skyline…luckily there was a small open spot we found. So we snapped our pictures and continued on.

Look at the skyline...as I said way better than before, but still not what it should be. The results of air pollution...

After that, we returned to Tai Kang Lu, where we spent the rest of the day. It’s entirely possible to spend the entire day at Tai Kang Lu because there’s just so much to do over there. There’s so many little stores to check out, and restaurants to eat at, and cafe/bars to chill at, and there’s photos to be snapped and bargaining to be done and even people to be met, Chinese and foreign alike. And we explored pretty much the entire area, which was filled with very interesting things to be sold. We first stopped for sushi nearby the cafe across the street we were at before...and the sushi was super good. None of us really trust the sushi deep in Xiangyang, except maybe at the Crowne Plaza...but the sushi in Shanghai is awesome because not only is it fresh (being by the coast) and delicious, but it also comes at a very cheap price. You can get an 8 roll for 20 kuai...which is way less than what you get a 4 roll for in the US. We then stopped by a bar and I ordered banana milkshake that was actually pretty good. So we bought a few things, and chilled and walked around for a bit, and then before you know it the day was almost done. So then we hopped back in our van and returned to the family’s house.

We had sushi, and I took this photo while we were waiting for it to be served with the intention that I would take another photo of the yummy sushi, but I was so hungry and it looked so good I devoured it immediately, forgetting to take the picture.L

One of the small bars we stopped at.

Banana smoothie! Once more, it looked so good I forgot to take a picture before I drank half of it D:

Check this out: IMPROVE FACIAL SHAPE AND FEATURES...what does that even mean? Are you saying the people that do this aren't beautiful the way they are? Hmmm....

Bohemian ambiance...

Better picture of bohemian ambiance....

Once more, we had a delicious dinner (this time we had grilled salmon- REALLY grilled salmon…I mean fresh from a grill- it’s not as cold in the winter in Shanghai as it is in other places- along with fresh bread with garlic and tomatoes and olive oil, and grilled eggplant and fresh salad, and wine, and they served us chocolate truffles for dessert….om nom noms) along with great conversation with great people. What an ideal way to end an evening. Another wonderfully warm shower and another wonderfully soft bed. It is a glorious feeling to be warm, clean, and smelling sweet all curled up under some fluffy covers. If all of that was amazing to me, then I KNOW I’m going to suffer from some major reverse culture shock when I get back to the States.