Alison's Asian Adventure-Fall 2008

Many months later. . .

2009-06-09T18:54:00.000-07:00

It was about this time last year (give or take a week) that I FINALLY received the official acceptance into the SIT China: Yunnan Province program.

So I decided it was a fitting time to finally put into blog form some notes that have been on my desktop for the past 6 months. (It's crazy to think its been that long since I was in China!)

I probably postponed writing a post far too long.

Just some direct memories copied and pasted from my sticky notes sometime in December.
End of Kunming- last night dinner
teachers were hilarious- LOVE luo laoshi
We went to a Xinjiang restaurant that was awesome. It was like Chinese/Uygher/Middle Easter dinner and a show complete with beer drinking competitions, belly dancers, and dancing on tables (classier than it sounds).
The last segment of the program was in Beijing. Especially after being in Kunming it was FREEZING cold - saw "snow" for the first time this year.
Went back to my old "stomping grounds" - even helped teach an English class
(It was really good for me helping me see that I've grown?)
Summer Palace in Winter
This was my second time at the Summer Palace and I do have to say - its quite a spot regardless the season.
I finally got to see the Forbidden City and stand in Tian'anmen square. (Yes, I did live in Beijing for 2 months and never go there. . .) And now I know that apparently Mao's body can only be viewed from 8am to 12 noon -- so we missed that.
Forbidden City- not so forbidden anymore- TONS of ppl - and once you get over just the grandness/ the sheer SIZE of it all. . . I'm glad I've seen it, to say that I have, however, box officially checked.

Triumphant moment. I do not believe that I ever shared the ironic story that not only had my roommate and friend Kara been in Beijing the same summer that I had been, but lived in the same area. She was a student at the same university that I had been teaching english. Anyway, while in Beijing the first time Kara had loved this Russian restaurant and was intent on finding it and going back. She found it. We all went back. And it was DELICIOUS.
Other food related triumphant moment. I took some of my SIT friends to my FAVORITE Dai Restaurant across the street from where I used to live. The staff there somehow managed to fit our whole group in and it was DELICIOUS.
OH and the peking duck restaurant
All in all it was a good experience to be back in Beijing. I realized how much of a Southern accent I had gotten, the Beijing "er" eluded me much more this time. (And how many of my favorite memories were food related; I gained 5 pounds just being in Beijing ).
After Beijing the group began to go our separate ways: Ashley, Kara, Aly and Joe all still in Beijing. . . the rest of us went to Hong Kong and from there Kelli and I split from the remainder of the group to explore Hong Kong a couple days.
I don't know what I was expecting, but I actually QUITE liked Hong Kong. It has such a good balance of East and West, though I would venture that its a bit more on the Western side. British colonialism was awful, etc. but it sure did one thing right - Hong Kong. (Save the pollution) But anyway, fun, cosmopolitan, bustling city right on the water. Yes, the place is basically one giant shopping mall- but I liked it anyway. Kelli and I crammed an impressive amount into our 48 hours: The peak (even though the pollution haze inhibits completely panoramic views), ferried to Lamma Island, ate dim sum (i actually had dim sum two days in a row. . . guilty face?), went to the Art Museum and did a little shopping.
Our hostel situation was an interesting one- aka, one of the most sketchy places ever. So we came to Hong Kong with the address of the "New Garden Hostel" in Mirador Mansion, found Mirador Mansion and then realized we didn't know which floor the hostel was one- the elevator guy told us to go to floor three. Well, apparently floor THREE is merely the Garden Hostel, the hallways of which were sketch (that's really the best word i can think of without getting too graphic) but the sheets were clean (at least as best as we could tell they were) and it was CHEAP for Hong Kong. I then found out when I was looking for place to stay on my last night, when Kelli wouldn't be with me, was that the whole time we had intended to go to the NEW Garden hostel on the THIRTEENTH floor. . .sigh. I stayed there the last night and it was absolute relative luxury. :-)
The Hong Kong public transportation system is awesome btw.

And now I'm on my way back home- I've written most of this at some point between LAX, Dallas, and Philly.
I was/am sooo excited to get home. And then I got to LAX and was like. . . hmmm I'd forgotten how rude, dirty and unattractive America can be as well. I think maybe I just don't like LA. . .
But my Cathay Pacific flight was quite comfy. . . between the Tylonol PM and the awesome entertainment system that they had it really wasn't that bad. Its just always weird to arrive somewhere technically "before" the time you left? (I left Hong Kong at 4pm on the 17th and "went back in time;" arriving at LAX at 1ishpm.

Thanks to all who read/skimmed my blog. (Congrats if you made it to the end of this post!)
I was truly lucky/blessed to have this experience just wanted to Thank all of you who helped along the way. You know who you are. <3

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Truth or Fiction
Some Clarifications about Chinese culture from my observations while abroad.

Truth- they DO use MSG. It's called weijing and they put it in EVERYTHING. Unfortunately, I'm allergic, but I think i've built up a tolerance for small amounts. (During my homestay, I got a headache almost every afternoon for a week until I made the connection).

False- Fortune cookies? I think its probably one of the few things in this world that is NOT made in China. Maybe its a Cantonese thing? but I doubt it.

All Chinese peoples/Asians look alike - True AND False

They eat rice at every meal - Yes, they do eat a lot of rice. But they also like to switch it up with rice noodles, and mantou (bread made from rice flour). And they do occasionally use corn flour in things.

Dog is not a common dish in most of China, you can find it if you look for it, but its more endemic to only a couple regions.

There still is a significant portion of the population that rides bicycles. Less and Less people are, and especially in Kunming many people have the fancy moped types, rather than the typical Chinese one-speed.

I love answering questions :-) Let me know if you think of one.

Week 13: Xishuangbanna

2008-11-22T06:09:00.000-08:00

Ever since our week-long excursion “way back when” I had been wanting to go to Xishuangbanna. I didn’t have a particularly compelling reason why, other than I love pineapple rice and wanted to see the elephants. However, instead of going to Xishuangbanna, I went to Yuanyang and Bamei. No regrets about that, but I still wanted to go see this more “South-east Asian” and tropical area of Yunnan. The poor other SIT-ers that had to listen to me go on about this, but finally, “push-came-to shove” and I decided last Thursday that I was going to leave for Jinghong (the capital of Xishuangbanna the next day.
I had many reasons for justifying this trip to myself (I’ve been wanting to go; birthday present to myself, an exercise in self-reliance, etc.). And ultimately, I’m SO glad I went. It ended up being not exactly what I expected-but what I needed and better because it ended up being a really good chance for me to practice Chinese.

The hostel from the entrance; the "jungle oasis" in the middle of the city

I arrived in Jinghong Saturday morning after boarding a 10 PM bus from Kunming. We got in JUST before 7 and I ended up making friends with the three other foreigners that had been on my bus (all French) as we set off, copies of Lonely Planet in hand, to find a trekking place and/or a hostel. The thing about Lonely Planet is that its great in helping you find cool places, but once you get there- its not so helpful. We spent a good part of the morning wandering around, but fortunately we found Banna café, a place that had been recommended to the French as having really good treks.

Dai Village as seen on the bike ride

Initially, I almost got talked into do this awesome-sounding trek that included seeing lots of jungle, spending one night in a Hanyi minority village and another night in a Dai village on the way to essentially the border China/Myanmar, but I really had it in my mind that I wanted to go for a bike ride Saturday afternoon, trek Sunday and come back Monday in time to get a sleeper bus back to Kunming, to be back in time for my birthday. I ended up being able to get a guide all to myself for my “two-day, one-night” trek, and even though she could speak a little English, we spoke only Chinese. (Not that we spoke that much; we were limited to my Chinese vocabulary). The first part of the trek was pretty easy, just walking along roads through a Dai couple villages and the ‘Banna countryside. We made it to “THE lake” (I have the name of the lake in characters, but I forget the exact meaning) in time for a late lunch. Then, apparently, the real trek started.

THE Lake and me on the touristy side of the lake

Our goal was a Bulong village some distance past the other side of the lake, so we trekked through the trees along the bank of the lake, then through some rice fields, then through some sugar can fields, more rice fields, then finally made it to a road. We walked along the road for another hour, and then, tired, sweaty, dusty, and covered in spider webs (I kept walking into them when I wasn’t physically capable of watching my step AND looking slightly above eye-level at all the spider webs) arrived at the Bulong village. I also somehow managed to collect a ridiculous amount of burrs at the hem of my pants and on my shoelaces.

My second favorite picture from Yunnan

My guide, Xiao Yu, was also “Bulongzhuren,” knew our host family and could speak our host family dialect. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason this was the second day electricity had been out in this village. It was an interesting picture, because although they couldn’t use the electric rice cooker, they still cooked everything in a fire pit in the kitchen, and throughout dinner-prep and dinner I saw numerous cell phones in the hands of all the people going and coming. I don’t know if this was a normal thing or a result of the electricity, but 11 (!) of us ate together by candlelight.
Though they did (usually) have electricity, apparently, they didn’t have toilets. Not even the squat kind. That’s always awkward and you ask for the bathroom, are told where to go, and then look around stupidly before realizing . . . OH. . . OHHHHHHH, yes, umm, okay.
The next morning we hired a motorcycle to take us back to the main town. The view going along the road of THE lake as the mist was rising, with palm trees, rice field, pu’er tea plants and mountains in the background was BEAUTIFUL. From the main town we caught a ride back to Jinghong in time for lunch.

Xiao Yu and I at 'Banna cafe

My “plan” ended up working out really well (if I do say so myself), and I made it back to Kunming early morning on my 21st birthday. I had another mini-adventure finding the correct city bus back to Min Da, but still managed to make it back to my dorm by 8:15.

Artwork, cheese, crackers, and chocolate compliments of Kara

Thanks to many, many people (special “shout-outs” go to James and Kara) I had a GREAT 21st birthday. It was DEFINITELY memorable (or well, at least most of it. . .)

Week 12: Parades and Prague Cafe

2008-11-21T07:13:00.000-08:00

So I'm UBER excited to be back in Kunming. Kara and I had to fight to get our old dorm back. (It was prime dorm real estate; one of the few that always could receive wireless signals to pirate). But as often happens in China, you have to be careful. Things change fast here. We weren't even gone three weeks, but when we came back our special bubble was burst - there were so many more westerners on Ming Da's campus (Its a weird part of the westerner studying abroad in China syndrome- you get irrationally possessive of the "territory"). Then on the nearby "Culture Street" with a lot of international restaurants, they started doing construction on the street and completely renovating one of the shops. And then! I went to use my laptop after spending the morning on the internet and I found that the internet wasn't working anymore. (This means even more time and money spent in cafes with wireless).
But the weather is great - its November and I could have worn just a T-shirt and jeans yesterday and have been comfortable.
I'm officially in the Independent Study project phase of the program, which is challenging, yet, at this point not too stressful yet. (despite the fact that I only have one contact. . . so okay, maybe its a little stressful) Its really going to be a challenge for me, in self-discipline, self-motivation- all that type of thing. I don't see so much writing the paper to be the problem . . . just motivating myself and getting my self focused and out there to get the information to write it.
My topic is something along the lines of just examining how environmentally friendly Kunming and rural households are, and trying to figure out why they conserve water/energy/etc or why not?
(when i put it like this it doesn't sound overly exciting, but, perhaps because I'm not familiar with a lot of the methods that the Chinese are using, its at least interesting to me, especially in a time where its rumored that China has finally surpassed the United States in greenhouse gas emissions. . .)

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Basically, at this point I'm doing exactly what everyone tells you not to do. I've been holing myself up in Prague Cafe because it has good wireless, an AMAZING breakfast attempting to get research done and failing miserably.
Fortunately, Aly and I have been running in the mornings on a fairly regular basis, so my life isn't completely without structure. I don't have much to do, but I've been getting up at 7:50 to run (and I don't even have class at 8 AM!!). Crazy. I know. Sometimes I don't recognize my China-self. But then I spend the rest of the day just bumming around Kunming, to balance it out.

Our first Saturday back, Min Da invited us to participate in the "Opening Ceremony" of the Min Da Games, apparently sporting competitions between the different university departments. We had to march, and wave in matching polo shirts. It was very "China."

As part of my research, I need to interview your average Kunming citizen. What better place to talk to some Chinese people I thought than this famous "English corner" I'd been hearing about. I was picturing a cafe somewhere, where Westerners and Chinese people met at a designated time; I could pull out my laptop and type up their answers to my carefully planned questions (written up in both English and Chinese). I should have known better- I am still in China. English Corner ended up being on an actual street corner of Green Lake Park. It was MOBBED. And as soon as people saw me approach I was like descended upon. I was lucky I had a pad of paper with me and I just started scribbling down some answers, to questions somewhat resembling my initial ones. It was definitely an experience, and fortunately, I got a Chinese friend out of it.

Week 11 – Election in Lijiang!

2008-11-11T01:30:00.000-08:00

"To all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright, tonight we have proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms, or the scale of our wealth but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope!"
Obama’s first speech as President-elect

Our small group of thirteen has, fortunately, been quite politically aware. Despite the fact that we are in China, we were NOT going to let that keep us TOO out of the loop. We knew we were going to be in Lijiang during the elections; we had it calculated (even with the time change) and gotten a discussion section moved back so we could sit at an internet café and obsessively refresh our browsers as the results came in. It was compulsive. Even after we knew Obama had won (lots of hugs and excited yelling) we still kept watching to see how the unconfirmed states, like North Carolina, were doing.

Obama Victory!
(Mom I think I'm still skyping with you as this picture was taken)

So that’s probably how I’ll always remember Lijiang, as the place that I was for the 2008 election.

HeiLong Lake (Black Dragon Lake)

Statue of Mao right next to our hotel

Though the other stuff that will remain as well. We did have a discussion we had with the Chinese millionaire. He’s a 79 year old Naxi (the local minority nationality) who spent 21 years in jail and is one of the strangest, most self-absorbed individuals I have ever met. He was put in jail because he’s a musical “genius” (by his own humble assessment) and had conducted numerous Western orchestras, including one of the best in Beijing (maybe Shanghai, idk). However, after jail he timed the tourism development of Lijiang correctly, sold his house and bought a huge piece of property and opened up two theaters, one in Lijiang to contribute to his millions and one on his property. He REPEATEDLY reminded us that he was the “only man in all of China to have a theater on his property,” in which he gave free concerts.

Xuan Ke's Personal Theater

Lijiang is essentially like the epitome of Yunnan province Chinese tourist culture. It has made many people (like Xuan Ke, the odd Chinese millionaire) very wealthy, however, it has also had a huge impact on the local culture. Much of the Naxi minority culture has become commodified, and many Naxis have moved out of the old town because it was more financially lucrative to rent out their houses. Others have had to leave because of the noise and crowds. Most of the “Naxi” people in Lijiang’s Old Town are now actually just Han Chinese dressed up as Naxi ren for the tourists.

Lijiang Old Town at Night

Oh yeah, and apparently we started my birthday celebration month, because before the group split up to go on their separate ISP adventures I got a Chinese cake! Complete with an icing rabbit (because I'm the year of the rabbit).

Week 10: Yes, I am getting college credit to do this.

2008-11-11T01:05:00.000-08:00

I have to stop and think about that sometimes, especially when I get to go to places like Zhongdian, aka Shangri-la. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect of Zhongdian. The Chinese government changed the name to Shangri-la, in hopes of convincing people it was the paradise talked about in Journey to the West. It’s the capital of the Tibetan Automous Prefecture, the majority of the population is Tibetan and was reputed to be the lost paradise on earth. This general area of Yunnan (the way northwest) and northern Sichuan province are the closest you can get to Tibet without needing all the permits and such to go in. In the past, when there’s been “Tibetan uprisings” its been hard for Westerner to get permission to go into these areas. Yet its also a Chinese city, and most Chinese cities often have this similar look and feel to them. To reiterate, I wasn’t sure if I would be awed or disappointed.
IT WAS AWESOME!!! I think the only thing I have against it is that it’s really cold (again, the high altitude).

Group with Living Buddha of Songzanlisi

Songzanlisi- Tibetan Buddhist Temple

Our first day in Zhongdian was Halloween and Sam’s birthday. I think we were the only people in Zhongdian that dressed up for Halloween. Our resources were rather limited, but somehow we managed to pull together excellent gypsy costumes, which we wore to dinner and got looks not only from the Chinese people, but also all the Europeans.
Before dinner we stopped by the Zhongdian culture center and had a lecture from the director and the master tangka painter-in-residence. He was almost finished this absolutely STUNNING red tangka depicting a compassion Buddha and four nationalities coming to the Buddha for compassion and wisdom. It was commissioned for a temple in Sichuan province, to help them rebuild after the earthquake. (*tangka’s are ancient Tibetan Buddhist art pieces, depicting various elements or stories in Tibetan Buddhism, it takes a lot of training, because the masters must learn the philosophy as well as the craft.)
The night’s celebrations were definitely memorable, despite the fact that we started off the night at a bar to celebrate Sam’s 21st birthday. We ended up getting invited by the Zhongdian center director to the Tibetan performance hall of one of his friends. And HERE, one of the other guests (who is apparently an angry drunk) ended up storming the stage, stealing the microphone from the performer, going on an angry rant in Chinese before throwing the microphone on the floor and then tossing a beer at the Zhongdian culture center director! We left soon after, but it made one memorable capstone to the evening.
The next day we went to the largest Tibetan Buddhist temple in this part of the Tibetan region, Songzanlisi, and met with the living Buddha there. Then we went to a Tibetan orphanage. The orphanage was tons of fun. True to form, they put on a performance, but some of the kids were REALLY talented performers. It’s a unique place. None of the children are adopted; the entire orphanage is their family with a “mom” and an “uncle.” The kids seemed really happy, and really took care of each other. We played duck, duck, goose! with them and they were great at making sure no one was left out.

At the Tibetan Orphanage

In Zhongdian, I had one of my many “Alison” moments. I knew that my debit card was going to expire, however, I’ve used it ONCE in the past two plus months and had pretty much forgotten about it. It expired the end of October, I tried for the first time to withdrawal money on November 2nd. . . sigh.
The next morning we went out into the Tibetan countryside to a much smaller temple- Dabaoshan. The countryside outside of Zhongdian is stunning; you have to get outside the city, but you immediately understand why so many people could argue this area is Shangri-la. The temple was a small one, but the scenic drive out made the trip worthwhile. Also, this temple was cool to see just for the fact that it was one of the first that I saw that had a picture of the Dalai Lama on the alter!! Our teacher told us they were able to get away with this because it wasn’t a tourist spot. So cool. . .

Dabaosi
(yes that is a mountain goat)

I also don’t feel like a complete poser, because I bought my set of Tibetan prayer flags at this temple, so I can tell myself mine are kinda-sorta actually from Tibet. ☺

After Dabaoshan we went to bathe in hot springs and just relaxed and steamed for an hour. Like I said. . . indirectly, I’m getting credit for all this.

Week 9: 今天下雨。。。

2008-11-10T01:06:00.000-08:00

今天下雨。。。每天下雨。
Jintian xiayu. . .meitian xiayu. (Rain today, rain everyday).

We left Dali early on Saturday and headed to Jianchuan county to visit Shibaoshan (Rock Treasure Mountain) to stay at the temple there before heading to Shaxi for our rural home-stays. It was drizzling when we arrived and this temple was much more rustic. The bathroom was actually a bit nicer/cleaner. . . however it was a three minute walk, out of the temple hotel and down a path. (Scary/NOT fun in the middle of the night!) We went for a walk in the drizzle after we arrived, to see what else was on the mountain and/or see the monkeys which we had been told lived on Shibaoshan. We made it all the way up and then almost back to the hotel and then we saw them. The monkeys. I’ve decided that I don’t like monkeys. Especially when at some point the Chinese decided that it would be okay to feed them peanuts and Styrofoam looking chips and they have no fear of humans. It ended up being fine. Some people fed them. I preferred to put my zoom lens to use and viewed them from afar.

Monkeys from afar

The next day we went to the other side of the mountain and visited the famous grottos of Shibaoshan, it’s a pretty historical site as it is proof of the spread of Buddhism from India into China, was heroically saved from destruction by one of the local leaders during the Cultural Revolution, is potentially the spot where some Nanzhao kings are buried, AND has the oddest grotto- a stone carving of a mysterious “female reproductive organ” that could either be part of Buddhism or the influence of the local Bai culture.

The picture that I wasn't supposed to take, but took before I saw the no photographs sign. I'm kinda worried that I'm going to get some bad karma for putting this up, but I figure the art should be shared.

From there we walked down the other side of the mountain into Shaxi. It was raining/drizzling the whole time and was made an mini-adventure by the fact that at a couple points the path had been washed away and we had to hop across the rocks to get to the next part. When we got to the village of Shaxi I was met by the home-stay mom and she lead me to our house. I unpacked and went out to awkwardly “hang out” with the group of women shucking corn on our porch. I tried to help but they kept feeding me the smaller nobs that they had been cooking on the little coal fire at their feet.
Eventually, the time came when I needed to use the bathroom – it ended up being the outhouse outside of the courtyard, around the side of the house and on the far corner of the garden, next to the pigs. Seeing how it rained everyday, this got to be a pain because at night I’d have to lug my flashlight and an umbrella to the outhouse.
Despite the fact it was raining, or perhaps because of it, I had an awesome first day in Shaxi. Because it was raining, everyone essentially had a day of rest. Thus, I spent a good part of the afternoon watching women make giant yue bing. (Mooncakes, like for Moon Festival, except these ones actually tasted good). It was a really interesting process to watch! Americans or Europeans have the motto – “too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the soup” or something like that. But there were four women in that kitchen, three of them working together to make these ENOURMOUS yuebing cakes in a Chinese style dutch oven (the Chinese don’t use ovens often). When it was finished baking one woman would cover the flat-bottomed cast iron basin with a piece of wood and then flip the whole, cast-iron mold, moon-cake and board- ON TO HER HEAD! And then a second woman would take the cast iron thing off woman #1’s head and woman number one had a right-side turned up moon-cake on a board.

The part of the kitchen where mama zuofan he women chifan.

The entrance to the house

After a meeting at the cultural center, I walked back with a flashlight in hand, to my host family’s house to watch TV with my host mom and little sister (meimei), then went to bed, and woke up the next morning to more rain. This was to be the pattern of my life in Shaxi. If it hadn’t been raining we were supposed to help out our families the fields, however, it rained every day, more or less constantly. (Besides, our academic director essentially told us we’d only last an hour maximum in the field). It just gave us more time with our homestay families, more wireless internet time and no excuse not work on our Shaxi Study projects. My project ended up being on the development of eco-tourism in Shaxi. (Shaxi is at an interesting place where they want more tourism, to increase Shaxiren’s standards of living, but they don’t want to turn into a Dali or a Lijiang, places in which tourism overcommercialized the respective minority cultures –it’s a delicate balance.)

Restored ancient theater

I didn’t know who my homestay dad was until 3 days after I arrived. In case it was a sensitive subject I didn’t want to attempt such a conversation, especially between my broken Chinese and my host mom’s Bai accent. (I had difficulty understanding when she asked me if I wanted to watch TV, (it sounded like kan di si. .. . rather than kan dian shir. . .) much less complicated topics. But apparently I did have a Shaxi dad, but he’s a migrant worker in Kunming, in a place I’d actually heard of, an amusement park near our university.
Leaving Shaxi was sad. Despite the rain we had a really good set-up. The rural setting, washing your face in the morning in a basin of water heated on the stove, etc. was novel and the restored architecture of Shaxi is absolutely charming. We had the best of both words because we had this AND we could go to the cultural center and get a hot shower and use wireless internet. And my homestay family was just adorable and really, really welcoming to me. I felt much more like a part of the family in my Shaxi homestay, than I did in my Kunming family. And as much as it limited conversation, I enjoyed not being able to fall back on English, and the challenge of explaining things/holding conversation with my host mom and her friends. We were able to communicate the important stuff and that was all that mattered. It was also really sweet that the day we left, everyone’s homestay families sent us off with a bag of goodies. Mine included some apples and pears, freshly boiled eggs, and of course, slices of the homemade yuebing, made on my first day.

Mama, meimei, he wo

We got back on the bus for the ride to Zhongdian. . and before we even made it half-way there the skies had cleared.

Me in the rain with my trusty (albeit slightly bent) umbrella; the ancient restored bridge in the background

Week 8: The NW Yunnan Adventure Begins. . .

2008-11-08T18:45:00.000-08:00

I know. I know. I’m way behind on the blogging. I don’t even know where to start. So I’m going to pretend like it’s the end of week 8 and see how it goes from there.
Tuesday morning we left Kunming for Jizu Shan, the first destination on our two and a half week "excursion." (Excursion is proving to be a fancy word for "vacation" where we go to cool places and see the sights.) Our program directors hadn’t taken students to this mountain (the 5th Holiest in China) in nearly 10 years, so we didn’t quite know what to expect.
Fun fact: Jizu Shan translates into English as Chicken foot mountain. Not a very attractive name for the place that honestly stands out in my memory as one of the most picturesque places that we went to on this trip (and Yunnan is a picturesque place in general). The sunrise and sunsets were absolutely stunning. Our first day we drove to a temple that was about a third of the way up the mountain and stayed in temple rooms. We had been warned that they would be “simple” conditions, and so we began the pattern of “roughing it” the first night (no showers/warm water, bathrooms outside) and then staying at hotels with hot water the next. However, there were electric heaters, which now have a VERY fond place in my heart. We spent the night there, and after breakfast saw a demonstration on Daoist taiji before we began the trek up the mountains. From the temple we could either walk all the way up (supposedly a 3 hour trek, which actually, according to those that did it was more like 2 hours) or take mules part of the way up and then either take a cable car or walk the rest of the way up (still reputed to be quite the hike). I opted for the mule and then the hike. (I wanted the exercise). Riding mules is one of those things that seems like it would be a great idea, but then after 20 minutes, you’re ready to be at the destination as its not the most comfy ride.

Almost at the top of the moutain- typical Asian Victory pose

The hike up was really good exercise, we kept climbing up and around, until suddenly we were at the temple!

The set of stairs that went STRAIGHT up- fortunately it evened out a bit after this.

Yet, after arriving there isn’t much to do until dinner, it’s just the mountain top and the temple. So I wandered around the ridge. Good and bad idea – there were LOTS more steps involved (and my legs were not used to so much “StairMaster” action. However, the Tibetan prayer flags waving in the wind/answering prayers were an impressive sight due to the sheer volume and come sunset time this area I had explored behind the temple was the BEST place to see the sunset.

That night, because our program is so small, all thirteen of us were able to crowd into one of our hotel rooms and watched Star Wars: Return of the Jedi together. It was quite adorable. The next day I dragged myself out of my electric heater warmed bed (it was really cold- we were at like 11-12,000 ft elevation) because I was determined to see the sunrise and I’m SO glad I did. A group of us joined some Buddhist faithful praying/chanting at the rail. The Daoist priest who we had met the day before played his flute as the sun came up. . . and finally the sun rose. And I got my “Chinese tourist” picture.

My Chinese tourist picture

After sunrise and breakfast, we took the cable cars as far as we could down the mountain then walked the rest of the way down, to get on the bus and head to Dali. Dali was the capital of the Nanzhao Kingdom way back when in the Tang Dynasty (or was it Song? I still don’t know. . . I think it was Tang). Anyway, the city is now quite modern, but the Old City is a big tourist site because everything within the old city gates has been restored and looks pretty. Dali was just a place for us to relax for a little bit, see an historic city, and our last chance to find places with Western food, etc. before going into our rural homestays in Shaxi. The big story of Dali was that we NEEDED to vote, only one person’s absentee ballot had arrived before we left, so we had to resort to the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot. It ended up being just a really positive chain reaction. Joe (from North Carolina, the surprising swing state) asked me about this write-ballot that I had been talking about and reminded me that I needed to mail mine. Then Courtney’s like, oh yeah! And so we head off to find a print shop, and Aly comes along to help us out. It was quite the ordeal to get everything printed out and sorted. Then we went back to the hotel to sign everything and we picked up Claire (the one who’s ballot had already come, but she still needed to mail it). And we had run told Tal what we were doing so she went back to the print shop to print a ballot out. Finally, a whole group of us descended on the China Post office, asking for two envelopes, and shipping huge envelopes back to various parts of the US.
Printing out ballot: 11 kuai; Mailing ballot: 18 kuai, Voting in the 2008 election: priceless. And knowing that your story could be used in some “get out the vote” campaign- also priceless.

So to celebrate, we went to this Western bar/restaurant called the “Bad Monkey” and had absolutely delicious burgers. In China.

Week 7: Homestay, Hospitals, Homework

2008-10-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

So I think I might have jinxed myself with my last post when I was talking about traditional chinese medicine. . . and hoping that I don't have to go to a hospital in China.
As I mentioned, I was attempting to ride my bike from my host family's apartment to school. I failed to mention some other important details, i.e. that the bike seat was to short for me and after several attempts to raise it, I merely succeeded in almost breaking it and apparently, almost breaking my tailbone. (I'm feeling dramatic, sorry, feel free to roll your eyes. . . I just bruised it or something. . )
It was very inconvenient to have class for 4 + hours a day, staying in hard Chinese desks when it is extremely uncomfortable to sit. . .
So apparently, I took too much motrin . . . and in addition to hurting, I didn't feel/look well. So during lecture on Monday one of the SIT aides took me to one of the Kunming hospitals and I had an interesting experience. As with any hospital, it involved waiting, but in China most of the waiting is due to the pre-payment system of medicine. You have to pay for the service/ the medicine/ whatever, before they'll do anything . . . or at least that was my experience. But because I was a Westerner, I was put in a special "operating room" by myself to wait. That is until someone who was rushed in looking half dead and I was kicked out of the room. Then I just waited in the hall.
All-in-all, my trip to the chinese hospital wasn't bad (looking back, I have to just laugh, especially given the location of my pain; I kept having flashbacks to the part of Forest Gump where he gets shot in the buttocks and is in the hospital)
However, when I got home and realized that ALL they gave me was antibiotics!!! it was probably one of the most frustrating Chinese experiences yet. I was hurting and I wanted it to stop and they gave me three different types of antibiotics!! No pain meds. THREE types of antibiotics. . . sigh.
But I'm better now. (And it could have been worse, I could have gotten malaria, dysentery, and then the flu. . . Glad you're feeling better Becca! Stay healthy! )
We're about right in the middle of our seminar of "Minority Culture" and field study prep so our recent afternoon lectures have been focusing on that. Thursday afternoon we thought we were just going to see a demonstration of a minority dance at some place close to home. However, we ended up driving an hour, to an edge of Kunming to an international school, where we ended up basically being the demonstration. We arrived to an auditorium with a stage and sat down it our seats of honor (the ones in the first row with the water bottles on the desks) and then one of my classmates was called to the stage to help demonstrate. Then we were ALL called to go to the stage and given a Wa (the minority group, they live on the boarder between Yunnan and Burma) gong. We were then taught a "dance" using the gongs, then a song, then a wild dance that required that we shake our heads and hair. It reminded me of Kukuwa class on the Vern freshman year. Except I was one of 13 westerners on a stage, with half an auditorium full of elementary Chinese students watching and laughing at us as we danced and attempted to sing songs in the Wa language. It was definitely different, but much more fun!, than I was expecting.

Another highlight of the week, was, yet another surprise, a life history assignment that I had to do. On Sunday, I asked Popo (my Chinese grandmother) if I could interview her. So Sunday night after dinner we sat down in the living room and my host mom helped translate my questions and Popo's answers. It turned out that Popo was the daughter of a landlord before the Cultural Revolution (which meant that after Mao took power she essentially lived in a hell-on-earth of sorts). Being part of a landlord family was enough to make you one of the lowest people in society from the founding of the PRC until Deng Xiao Ping took power. When she was just in elementary school, she was dismissed from further study soley because she was a former landlord's child. And even today, despite China being the land of the iron rice bowel and still "technically" some form of Communism, Popo has no pension or government support, despite paying taxes for many years on her tailoring business. It was not so much what she told me that happened, its the stories that I've heard of the fates of other landlords, the humiliation and shocking treatment they were subject too, and its just hard to imagine all that she must have lived through.
All last week Chinese class was winding down- it was our last week of classes and the big tests - Da kaoshi, were today. It's crazy to think I'm done with Chinese class until January and its not even Thanksgiving break yet!
Now that Chinese is done, we're going to set off (tomorrow) on our "Northwest Yunnan Adventure," the one where we almost go into Tibet :-)! This trip was definitely one of the things that when I was looking at study abroad programs, made this particular program sound awesome.
However, after we get back from the trip its ISP (Independent Study Project) time. I'm still (of course) waffling between ideas.
My latest idea is a result of my homestay. I have been shocked to notice that the average Chinese person is really "green." They conserve water, electricity, and since June its been illegal for stores to give free bags with purchases. Pretty much EVERY apartment building has solar heaters on the roof and the electric heater is just back up. I'm living with a very comfortably middle class family in a very nice apartment and everyone still uses a little plastic bucket with like the leftover water from cleaning or washing dishes, etc. to flush the toilet! If I didn't see it- I wouldn't believe it. Especially seeing as this country is probably one that I think of as a giant polluted mess. I've seen the Beijing smog and its ridiculous. Granted. . . the Kunmingren aren't doing this because its environmentally friendly, but rather because its friendly on their pocketbooks. But its still, and perhaps, because of that, fascinating to me.

Week 6: Homestay Happenings

2008-10-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

This homestay thing is going quite fast! It has already been a week! But i suppose that's a good sign that I'm happy with my homestay family. I do not quite know what I expected going into the homestay part, but so far its been a mix of the anticipated and the unexpected.

I moved out of the dorm Monday morning (and of course, even though i had the most time to pack, I was the one who waited until the very last minute and I was struggling to zip up my enormous suitcase when I should have been walking over to our lecture room). Monday was just meet the family and move-in day. My "zhong guo [China]" mama could not make it to pick me up, so it was just my "zhong guo baba" and I in the car ride to their apartment. Mildly awkward, but he actually speaks quite good English and has been to the US before. (However, while it made the car ride less awkward, my plan of being forced to speak more Chinese kinda went out the door as everyone - baba, mama, mimi the meimei- except popo [grandma on mom's side] speaks better English than I speak Chinese.

But they've all been very nice. They had been told I was a vegetarian (I'm not, but I basically am in China- their veggies are better than their meat) and while some other SIT students families still tried to offer them meat mine has been really good about it (probably because I said i really like fish and so they just give me exorbitant amounts of that, which is fine with me :-).

TCM Pharmacy

Tuesday we visited a traditional medicine clinic, watched people get acupuncture and "cupping." (Accupunture I'd consider, however, the "cupping" process leaves these HUGE welts as it uses natural suction to "draw out the toxins" so I'm just really hoping I don't get sick in China.

Then we went to see a "jingju" performance at a teahouse near the Bird and Flower market. "Jingju"/Beijing opera I believe must be another acquired taste. All the singing is very high pitched and the instruments. . . well lets just say they are not going for any soothing or quiet sounds. . . The makeup and costuming is quite intense, and its rather androgynous - from my limited jingju experience men will sometimes play women, women will sometimes play big important generals- they use the costumes and special gestures to indicate their sex and station in society.

PoPo makes me lunch and dinner everyday. I have my usual class schedule except now I live about a 20 minute walk from the university. (I walk by the train tracks, its a popular short cut.) Two chinese classes (which i can't believe I only have one more week of language classes left!) taijichuan in between, home for lunch, rest time, lecture back at school, internet time at the library and then I'm back for dinner at 6:30 )then homework. . . My little sister [Meimei] has to wake up before me and is usually in bed after me. Especially for the first two-three days I think i saw her a grand total of 5 minutes. Both my homestay parents are professors at ShiDa, one of the like 5 universities just on Yieryi Street. I think they're both lawyers, because at least the Dad teaches law classes. The mom does some teaching and consulting, but I think her focus is somehow related to the economy, she does a lot with watching the Chinese and foreign markets. Actually, we often talk about the economy and even the upcoming US election. I love it. The FIRST night I was here, one of the first questions my zhongguo baba asked me was what I thought of the elections. Then he asked if I was a Republican or Democrat, then who I was voting for. Then at lunch the next day we talked about how horribly the US economy is doing and how the Chinese stock market is also suffering greatly.

Its quite the quiet atmosphere. (Except for all the asian children reinforcing stereotypes as any time of day, you can always hear someone practicing piano or violin, etc from the surrounding apartment buildings). They have a very nice apartment, quite fancy for the area. I have my own room, complete with balcony. There's pretty much an unspoken schedule and other than dinner and lunch they pretty much leave me alone to do my own thing. (I think they assume I have absurd amounts of homework to do too).

However, then, sometimes, they surprise me. Yesterday (Friday), I came home expecting that I'd probably just end up watching a pirated DVD as I didn't have homework and everybody else would be doing their own thing, especially as Mimi still had a normal class schedule on Saturday. But when i got home, the Dad asked me if I wanted to accompany him and zhongguo Mama to a Chinese wedding of a family friend. (Of course I did!). It was quite different though from an American wedding reception. For one thing, i wore jeans and was not out of place in the slightest. Secondly, there was an ABSURD amount of people there. There was like a main room for like the closer family, complete with a stage and throughout the dinner there was entertainment, a singer, dancers and kids running around the whole thing playing with confetti and sticking their hands in the pieces of cake. However, apparently drinking at weddings is universal. Its especially customary for the bride and groom to go around to every table and toast with them. (Often with baijiu [the hard liquor of choice in China]).

Wo gen Mama, Baba

Xinlang, xinliang, he wo (Groom, bride and me)

Today I just relaxed and finally went for a run in Kunming. Its interesting to see how everyone adjusts to this homestay business, a stranger staying in your house, being a stranger in a stranger's house. But I think we're all finally getting used to it. After the wedding last night, my homestay mom kept updating me on how the price of oil was dropping, then today the two of us played badminton together and jumped rope. Tonight at dinner, some of the family gossip was translated for me. My homestay mom's little brother and PoPo's son lives nearby and PoPo actually spends about half the time there and apparently this brother/son lives with his girlfriend but they have separate rooms. She's "lazy," and at 28 (quite old on the acceptable Chinese marriage age spectrum) refuses to marry the brother/son because his monthly salary isn't high enough yet. It was one of the strangest situations I've ever heard. (Unfortunately, I only grasped all this because it was translated to me. . . maybe next week will be that moment when I miraculously understand everything? I'm not holding my breath. . . .)

Week 5: The Golden Holiday

2008-10-04T06:22:00.000-07:00

Just arrived back to Kunming after a thirteen hour ride on a sleeper bus from Guangnan, in Southwest Yunnan. My hard dorm bed with mismatching sheets and a mattress that has "good wishes to you" written all over it has never been so appealing. It could have been worse though. It was a pleasant surprise to find that there was a direct bus from Guangnan to Kunming. However, in retrospect, I use the term "direct" loosely. We never got on a highway until we were about an hour outside of Kunming and just took winding, winding roads through village after village between Guangnan and Kunming. And we stopped. A lot. It was rather . . . trying . . . to be sitting (or well "lying") on a bunk two feet too short for me and then the bus stops a HALF AN HOUR after the bus departs to let on some late passengers. Then another 20 minutes later an SUV pulls in front of the van. SUV stops. And an individual exits the SUV and climbs aboard our bus. Then there was the incident where we just stopped, indefinitely, because the road in the middle of this town was blocked because of a wedding where too many people had parked their cars too close to the wedding. And when the long, LONG awaited moment finally arrived at 3:45 in the morning when we made it back to the Kunming bus station - we thought it was just another of many stops because only a handful of people got off the bus. So we ended up spending an extra half an hour on the darn bus before we realized that we definitely were in the place we wanted to be. (Not one of my proudest moments, but it was 4 in the morning. . . ). Point being: we survived the final leg of our excursion back to Kunming.

How I ended up in Guangnan, in one of the poorest parts of Yunnan Province, and quite the remote city is another story. . .

Like I mentioned in my last post, during the "Golden Week" our SIT program has a special excursion and a fellow SIT program participant, Justin, and I were on a mission to see the rice fields at Yuanyang and the remote city of Bamei. We got tickets for a bus that was leaving from the main bus station at 10:40 am, and were scheduled to arrive in Yuanyang after about 6 hours. Driving through Yunnan Province usually isn't too bad though. The countryside is beautiful, even along most parts of the highway. Yet, as most things in China end up being -- it was an experience. Apparently, China has "rest stops" with a bathroom and food options - but the bathrooms are more like indoor latrines and the food options are of the street vendor variety. And also, they always seem to provide car/bus washing services. (We noticed an obsession in China with washing cars, no matter how short-lived the results would be). OH, and the "entertainment." Two Chinese movies in a row, and then the STRANGEST mix of Chinese pop music, and English music. There was some horrible Chinese love songs, to an Bollywood sounding track, to techno, to recognizable pop- it was strange, all playing loudly on the bus speakers.

We finally arrived in Yuanyang (the second of the area which is an hour more through winding roads, yet still also called Yuanyang) just as it was getting dark. I have not mentioned where we were planning to stay because we did not know for sure. We had a copy of Lonely Planet with us, but it proved to be rather useless. As soon as we got off the bus (looking especially conspicuous and apparently touristy enough) we were met by a Chinese man and his assistant armed with flyers advertising their "Photographer's Hotel." We decided, what the hell, and hopped into his car with two Japanese tourists stopping to see Yuanyang before heading over the Chinese/Vietnamese border. (I say this all calmly now, but in my head on the car from the bus stop to the hotel, I was running through all the things that could possibly go wrong in this impulsive decision). Fortunately, it turned out to be an instrumental decision that was definitely for the better. The hotel turned out to be very nice actually. Hot water for showers (no water pressure- but the trickle that came out was hot?), western toilets, and tv that had some English channels, though not many. I now have a new obsession with Al Jazzera International (partly because it was one of three English speaking channels) And the rice we had on the first night at the hotel restaurant was delicious (as, I guess could be expected from a restaurant surrounded by rice fields).

We wanted to see the rice fields at sunrise, so we agreed to split the hotel "taxi" costs to go to Duo Yi Shu rice fields, supposedly one of the best ones to see the sunrise. Believe it or not, I was up and ready to leave for the rice fields at 6am so we could make it there in time to see the sunrise at 7am. Even though it was only about 18km from where our hotel was to DuoYiShu, the roads are so bad, and it was so foggy, that it took us an hour to get there. Once there, we ended up having to wait almost an hour before we could see the rice fields, it was so misty/foggy. But once the mist lifted for a little bit- it was impressive. Rice fields finally appeared, mountains to the left, cornfields blending into a valley of rice fields with a little village to the right of our look-out perch. We then went down into the village and walked through the harvested cornfields until the very edge of the rice fields. Unfortunately, the clouds had rolled back in – and we weren’t really able to get great pictures.

During the afternoon, after we returned from the rice fields, we tried to plot our next step. We wanted to see a sunset at the rice terraces, but after that, we were ready to move on to Phase Two - Bamei. (I mean, after a while, one impressive rice terrace looks the same as any other). However, getting to one remote part of Yunnan to another via the Chinese bus system was proving quite complicated. At this time, the Japanese girls had left, so we were the only tourists in the hotel and the hotel proprietor is looking on, helping us try to plan which buses are available, when, where, and what time. Then suddenly he offers, “why don’t I take you?” (Justin and I were quite taken aback by this- it took a while for it to sink in that this man was willing to drive us across the province on a 10 hour trek.) But the idea of not having to be a the mercy of the Chinese bus system and to essentially have our own private taxi AND to make it to Bamei by TUESDAY night, was totally worth the 500 rmb asked in exchange.

But the crazy propositions didn’t stop there. When we attempted walking nearest rice terrace to see the sunset, we ended up catching a ride with a Chinese man who ended up being a Chinese judge in the city of Gejiu (about 2 hours north of Yuanyang). And HE, when it turned out to be too hazy to take any good pictures of the sunset, invited us to “chi wanfan” (eat dinner) at his mother’s house in Gejiu! You have no idea HOW close Justin and I came to taking him up on this offer. However, we had spent the day agonizing over our new plan, had arranged for the hotel owner to drive us to Bamei, and Gejiu was two and a half hours away and it was already seven at night. We kind of regretted the decision not to go that night, and had to settle for the fact that just having the invitation was pretty cool.

So basically the next day I got up before sunrise again and we set off for Bamei. TEN hours in the car later (Including time a highway that seemed newly built but had next to no one driving on it) we made it through Guangnan and finally, the even more remote, Bamei.

Unfortunately, as we approached we had a rude awakening. Our idea of the remote and idyllic Bamei, as a place purposefully “off the beaten track” where we would avoid all the “Golden Week” tourists was blown to bits as before we even made it to the 1km path before the boats before the cave to Bamei, when we found cars lining the street and a filled parking lot. With the nearest other place to stay an hour back the way we came in Guangnan, we became really worried if we’d even have a place to stay for the night.

The poled boat ride was awesome. And the journey through the cave wasn’t a quick one, really making it much easier to comprehend how this Zhuang minority community managed to remain undiscovered until relatively recently. My first impressions of this Zhuang community were, this is nice, but at the same time coming 10 hours, finding Chinese tourists, being called “laowai” (a mainstream, but derogatory name for foreigners) every 5 minutes, and not finding an available room until the 4th place we tried was not what I had envisioned in my “lets see Bamei, its cool, it can only be through a cave” fantasies. (I was going to also complain about having to carry my backpack all this way, but I know that at least one of you, if not several, will not sympathize with me at all on this point).

Eventually, we did get a room, albeit one that had plank floors, a single light bulb that illuminated the stripped, multi-colored tarp “ceiling,” and particleboard walls. And there was no hot water and the squat toilet bathroom was down the hall. But at that point I was just glad to have a place to drop my backpack and be able to see the Bamei valley, without worrying I’d have another hour drive ahead of me.

Ultimately, Justin and I came to the following comparison of this Zhuang community. It is like going to visit the Amish, if they lived in Montana and could only be reached by traveling through a cave. Essentially, Bamei is really just an idyllic farming community, with a really cool entrance way. And this, like many of the Amish farms off of route 30, has become a tourist destination to see a more “simple” life.

Though, honestly, I have to there were really only two things that stood out in my Bamei experience (other than the cave entrance). One- Bamei cell phone service- was a shocker. It just boggled my mind – this village didn’t even have electricity until a couple years ago, yet now they have clearer cell phone service than I get in America’s capital! The second, more aligned with my original ideas of Bamei- was the amazing night sky. I cannot remember when I had seen a sky with so many stars. And to see this in China, the horribly polluted China, really made me pause.

The next morning we enjoyed Bamei for a little bit before all the Chinese tourists woke up and even more started pouring in and then we head out, taking the local bus back to Guangnan. During all our pre-departure research, we had never heard of direct buses from Guangnan to Kunming, so we were thinking that we were going to have to take a bus to Qiubei, then to Kunming. Miraculously, (though I panicked for a second when they said they didn’t have any buses to Qiubei, because I would have sworn that was the only way to get back to Kunming from Guangnan) they had something better- a direct sleeper bus from Guangnan to Kunming! Unfortunately, the bus didn’t leave for another 3 + hours. . . and there is a reason that Guangnan gets no other mention in Lonely Planet other than being the only way to get to Bamei. So after walking around seeing the “sites” of Guangnan – I decided to have another Chinese manicure, complete with glitter! The Chinese manicurist woman had great fun laughing at my pathetic attempts at Chinese.

Finally we made it on the bus, and you know how well that went.

Being back in Kunming was awesome. We just had a mini-holiday before everyone else made it back. We ended up spending most of Friday at a tea house, learning about Pu’er tea and tasting lu cha, hong cha, hei cha, huar cha (green, red, black, and flower teas). The weather was amazing, clear blue skies, even in Yunnan Province are a rare treat and I just felt really lucky to have had such a cool week.

This Monday afternoon we move in with our homestay families. This means we have to completely pack up all our stuff and essentially move out of the dorms. It is weird because I’ve gotten so comfortable here (during the excursion I was definitely thinking of it as home) and now we start another part of the adventure. It is going to be an adjustment again, but I’m excited. I am really hoping the homestay will be good for my language. I still feel like there’s SO much stuff that I cannot comprehend or even begin to communicate. Apparently, my homestay parents are teachers at a nearby university, Yun Da, and have one middle-school aged daughter.

Week 4: Basketball, pineapple rice and decisions, decisions. .

2008-09-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

My schedule is continuing on. 8 AM Chinese class, "ting-xie"s (character tests were the Laoshi/Teacher tells us a word and we have to write it correctly), readings in Chinese, taiji class, more Chinese. Then one and a half hour lunch break. Lectures with Kunming experts on a variety of subjects. We had a great one the other day on the Chinese economy and the speaker was very realistic in recognizing China's unprecedented growth, but then also reminding us that considering China's 1.3 billion person population, the per capita income is still very low, the income gap is increasing, and they are still transitioning from an agrarian society to an industrial society, and even farther away from the transition to a service-based economy. Another day was a women who talked about the HIV/Aids situation in China. Yunnan Province especially, because of its proximity to the Golden Triangle, has some of the highest numbers of HIV/Aids and drug addicts.

However, it appears (we could be being fooled), but it appears that, in Yunnan at least, the government is doing something to help the drug addicts and HIV/Aids patients. On Wednesday we took a day off from Chinese. (Thank goodness, because otherwise we would have had SEVEN days in a row of Chinese classes, and honestly, my mind just can't handle that).

So, on Wednesday, we went to the edge of Kunming and visited the Kunming Drug Rehabilitation Center. In retrospect, I think we received the business/investors tour that focused on this center's crown jewel: The "Peace Village." This is set up to house patients that have gone through the rehabilitation process, as a half-way town to help increase the chances that the recovered addict stays clean back in the "real world." Everything that we saw was very neat and clean. Apparently, this clinic even invented their own drug to assist rehabilitation- a Chinese, traditional herbal methadone of sorts called, "6.26". I only remember this because they treated us to a very nice show in the little in-center theater. We saw two traditional dances and a flute/poem number, with the advertisement for 6.26 as the stage backdrop.

Then after we finished the tour came the best part: we played basketball with some of the people living there. (Let's just emphasize for comedic effect that this is former drug addicts playing western college students (mostly female, seeing as in our study abroad group there are only 3 guys and 10 girls.. . .) For the sake of international peace and the continued friendly relations of our respective countries. . the game ended in a tie.

Stone Forest - Stone Structure Near "Forest" Entrance

Last Sunday was also a big excursion. We group went to one of THE Yunnan tourist attractions: the Stone Forest. It was beautiful. Very touristy. But definitely something that we had to go and see and it was totally worth the trip out there. We didn't really get to see that much of it, but impressive stones all start looking alike after a while. . . And the weather was absolutely beautiful for the day, and I finally had a camera again! so all was well. (Even if the woman at the snack stand did charge me 3 yuan for only one orange when I can usually get a half a kilo for that price. . . Yep, i suppose China's gotten to me considering I was annoyed, even thought the touristy inflated price that orange still cost me less than it would in DC.)

"Elephant on Platform"

So the latest thing now (besides the fact that we found a new, DELICIOUS Indian restaurant- we've all hit our monthly quota of Chinese food. . .) is that next week is our "Yunnan Exploration Excursion." This is kinda a big deal because it involves us, in small groups or on our own, picking a location that we want to travel to, buying the tickets, figuring out where we want to stay and what we want to do and then making it back alive by 2:30 on Monday the 5th. So far even picking the location has been hard. My only criteria was that I wanted to go south. A popular southern destination is called Xishengbanna, home to the Dai minority, elephants, and lots of pineapple rice (absolutely delicious sticky, sweet rice with pineapple that's then served in a pineapple). However, the other place we're considering is a remote location in far southeast Yunnan, a little village that can only be reached by boat through a limestone tunnel, called Bamei. Its a touch decision. . .
[Editor's note: The night before we had to buy our bus tickets we flipped a coin, and the coin decided we were going to go to Bamei. Unfortunately, Courtney and Courtney still want to go see the elephants so just Justin and I will be venturing to Bamei and then to Yuanyang to see the terraced rice fields. Buying the bus tickets was yet another interesting time. . . .]
Its also important because once we embark on this "excursion" its kinda the end of the first segment of our study abroad experience. From here on out we essentially become nomads. During this first month, we've settled here in Kunming, fallen into patterns, what restaurants we go to on what days, where to get the 10 kuai manicures, etc. but now we're venturing off. (And we're venturing off during the "Golden Week," a "brilliant" Chinese concept in which most of the country has the week off . . . meaning that EVERYONE and their Chinese brother, cousin and aunt, are all traveling in this same week's time. Like i said, brilliant.

I suppose its a good thing I haven't made a habit of posting on a schedule. I don't know when I'll have the constant internet access that I've head thus far, but hopefully the posts won't get even more sporadic.

中秋快乐！Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

2008-09-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

中秋快乐！ (zhongqiu kuaile)
So today is the Mid-Autumn festival in China. It’s one of the three major holidays in China. (The other two being Dragon Boat festival and the Chinese New Year). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-autumn_festival We don’t really know exactly what’s the deal with the festival- other then the legends behind its celebration and that we were tired of moon cakes before the day even started. Moon cakes are the Mid-Autumn festival 'treat,' though I haven’t found them to be overly appetizing. As with most Chinese treats, they normally find 'different' flavors appealing. Red bean is a common 'sweet' flavor, or the especially 'delicious' 'cakes' contain cured meat, or an egg yolk with meat, coconut, lotus. . . (I couldn’t even try the egg yolk ones, especially after my roommate, Kara, took one bite, spit it out and had to go out to buy a bar of Dove chocolate (the only kind that is available in China) to get the taste out of her mouth.

This is a picture of the few remaining "Bound foot Women" (Lao Tai Tai) in Tonghai. (Our orientation destination.) Some of the women's feet are only 3 INCHES!! long.

[Disclaimer: This is probably going to be a long recap- I’ve been horrible at keeping up with blogging/journaling. ]

Temple outside of Tonghai, China

HISTORY AND RELIGIONS
As you’ll see from what shall be a long entry, our first seminar is 'History and Religions,' meaning that most of our lectures, readings and field trips are related to China’s history and the major religions of Buddhism, Daoism, Islam and Christianity. I have now seen many a Buddist/Daoist temple, just the other day we went to a Hui mosque, (Hui is the minority name for most Muslims in China. It is rather interesting to see the Muslim population here- they’re very integrated into society, some women wear a head scarves, but many choose not too, all universities are required to have a Muslim cafeteria that doesn’t serve pork, and it’s the only minority grouping in China based on religion. Its also just cool to see some parts of China with signs in Chinese and Arabic- its like doubly illegible to me.) And today we went to visit the Miao people who live in a relatively remote village (think dirt roads winding and winding up a mountain, but its only about an hour and a half from Kunming) and were converted to Christianity by German missionaries. I had been looking forward to this because after all the temple visits I realized I wasn’t really as religiously aware/open minded as I thought. I just had a hard time grasping the concepts of Enlightenment and THE Buddha, versus living Buddas, since it was outside my monotheistic traditions. (It was just the flip side, like if you haven’t heard of Christian ideas and then you are told biblical stories, they sound a bit odd at first.)
Ever since going to Guatemala and seeing a small room in someone’s house that had been lovingly decorated and set up as a chapel, I think churches in developing countries are very interesting. This one was no different – I’d never heard a service in Chinese before, men sat on the pews on one side, women and children sat on the other. There were sparse decorations on the wall, no alter, but there was a very large flat screen television. In fact, everyone in the village had a television! Apparently, the village choirs were so good that they competed in music competitions in Beijing and around the world and so the government rewarded the village by giving every family a tv! This remains a small rural village, with simple conditions- however- every household has a tv. Oh China. . .

TEMPLES. . Temples. . .and more temples. . .
Quick run through of the temples- We went to one in Tonghai during our orientation- highlight of that one was the delicious vegan meal (see food blog entry). Another was outside of Tonghai that was very beautiful. All of these have been really nice to go to in that I really don’t think many other Westerners ever go to these temples as tourists.

Men Playing Mahjong? in a Confucian Temple

ADVENTURES
The third temple that I went to was called Qiongzhu Si (Bamboo temple) as part of our 'Kunming' drop-off.
SIT (the study abroad company that this trip is run by) has a very unique format among study abroad programs, and they are especially proud of this idea of the 'drop-off.' The idea is to prepare us for the independent travel we’ll be doing for the last month of the program. Our 'drop-off' assignment (our- being myself, Tal, and Joe, other SIT group members) was written in characters on a piece of paper and we were given 150 yuan and told to be back by 4pm. Unfortunately, we couldn’t figure out what the characters were (mostly because the first person we asked on the street told us the wrong pinyin for the first character) so when we got to our dorms to try and figure it out with our dictionaries and our online dictionaries we had yet to figure out where we were supposed to go. (We knew it was something Bamboo temple, but we had no idea where or how to get there. In a strange twist of 'resource utilization' I asked James in the US, if in his intense researching on Kunming, he had seen anything about a Bamboo temple. Ten seconds later. . he’s found a link with info about the place and pictures of it, which confirmed the characters. . .[J-Thanks again ☺] ) Finally knowing where we were going we asked our building guard if he knew how to get there- he did and we recommended the bus as our best option. From our limited understanding of his directions, we thought that he had said we could take bus X to stop Y and get off and change buses to get there. But no. We get off the bus at the right stop and are immediately accosted by little women talking about the temple and taxis to get there (we realize this in retrospect). But they’re unofficial taxis and we have no idea how much farther away the temple is and we’re confused. Hesitant, we hail an official taxi- but he wants to charge us 2X as much! Fifty yuan! So we ended up trying out luck with the 25 kuai (the colloquial word for yuan or renmenbi) unofficial taxi. It turned out to be the right thing – the taxi took us out of the city and up Yu’an mountain right to the temple. The temple was just another temple, we had a good vegan food, really good tea, but it was really the adventure of getting there and back that made it memorable.
The 4th temple was Western Hills (Xi Shan 西山 ) 'Most famous tourist site Kunming.' This visit was SO much fun. A small group of us ended up hiking across a part of the miniature stone forest. (Literally at some times climbing up rocks, or pushing branches out of the way on overgrown paths.)

People doing dances and exercises in Kunming Square

EVERYDAY LIFE

On normal class days, class starts at 8, with my roommate Kara and I showing up to breakfast (if we’re lucky) by quarter of. My first class is almost 2 hours! with Lou LaoShi and four other students. Then we meet up with the rest of the group for about 25 minutes of taiji, before going back up seven flights of stairs for round two of Chinese class until 12 noon. (We’ve had audiences for our taiji sessions! One day we were having class on the basketball court and in between classes a sizable crowded gathered to watch the silly Westerners attempt taiji – I’m waiting for a video to show up on youtube or something).

In the afternoons we have lectures and or watch movies about Chinese history. Thursday afternoon lecture was very interesting because we first watched a short film about a Chinese artist who had grown up, essentially, worshipping Mao and his account of living through the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward, etc. THEN, our academic director ushered in a little old Chinese man, who was apparently 87, but had spent 20 years of his life in prison after the Cultural Revolution because he had 'foreign connections' and wouldn’t denounce Christianity. (As a child he had learned English, German, and some Japanese, he was at one point a translator for the US Army and he worked at the Kunming Foreign Ministry – of course he knew foreigners). But his wife had to denounce him so that she could keep her job, his children couldn’t go to normal school because they were associated with him, and he didn’t get out of prison until he was 60 years old. He (understandably) absolutely despised Mao, calling him a dictator, tyrant, etc (which while the West has never really been overly fond of Mao, to hear a Chinese person in China speak this way was very interesting). He adored Deng Xiao Ping and it was just amazing to hear him tell his stories because he had been through so much, but was very jovial and did not come across as a bitter man (Which, given his life’s story, it would have been completely understandable if he was.)

In cramming two weeks into a blogging nutshell I'm sure I left some stuff out. . . All in all, its been fun. I'd like to think that by now I'm settled and will hopefully start becoming more comfortable in Kunming.

First Impressions?

2008-09-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

Courtney and I at a temple outside of Tonghai

One of our first assignments here was a "First Impressions" paper.

Here's an excerpt of mine:

I think it finally sunk into my head on the flight from Hong Kong to Kunming. 'I am going to China. I am going to live there for three months.' I had been telling myself this throughout the summer and yet it always seemed unreal. Even during the fourteen hour flight, still surreal. However, I think it finally started to sink in on that Dragonair flight, after I was asked, with a combination of Chinese and hand motions, if I would switch seats with someone. I said, 'hao de,' and sat down, the only westerner in the back of the plane surrounded by Mainland Chinese. Welcome back to China.
This realization, nevertheless, is slow to sink in. It is strange to be back here. [I spent last July and August in Beijing, teaching English at Bei Wai.] It is familiar in that I have been to China before; it's not the first time I have felt absurdly conspicuous as one of the few Westerners in a sea of Chinese. The pollution here in Kunming is not quite as overwhelming as the air I had to adjust to in Beijing. Yet, if it is not the pollution that throws me off, there is always something odd and/or unexpected because it is China. (I'm not sure if I'll ever get used to squat toilets). I remember being in a daze as we left the airport, exhausted by all the traveling, but still marveling at seeing people riding on mopeds, bicycles, or driving "funny" looking cars, so much smaller or old-fashioned than most of the vehicles on the streets in America. (Yet, I must also keep in mind that on the drive out to Tonghai we drove past a Mercedes-Benz dealer, a Subaru dealer and I have seen the infamous government Audi on the Kunming streets many a time). On the ride 'home' from the airport I remember being struck by how "high tech" the traffic lights were with the numbers that counted down the remaining seconds until the light changed. I also took in the colorful shops along the way, most of them just selling who knows what, and the hundreds of "China Mobile" stores, and the ubiquitous advertisements on almost everything that makes the city colorful.
Kunming seems like a really cool example of a Chinese city. In many ways, it is like Beijing. But it just seems so much more manageable. (Though manageable and Chinese city may be a bit of an oxymoron.) The buildings are not as high. The streets are not as crowded AND I can see the mountains everyday- rather than just on the few days that the sky cleared after a heavy rainstorm.
I was especially excited once I finally saw my dorm room. I never thought the surprise of finding that I have a private bathroom, (I was preparing myself to have my first experience common bathroom experience) hot water heater, and western toilet would thrill me so much- but it definitely did.
Once immersed, it did not take me too long to confirm how much Chinese I had forgotten over the summer. The language barrier, though I had experienced it before, was definitely still present. And barrier is not necessarily the best word, the Great Wall is a rather apt, (though slightly dramatic) analogy for explaining how communication often feels.

Just some other FYI. :-)
My program is based out of Kunming Nationalities University, here in Kunming. Kunming is the capital of Yunnan province, in the southwest of China. (Border countries include Vietnam, Burma/Myranmar and Laos)
Right now I'm living in a dorm with 13 other students from US universities. We will eventually be living with homestay families for two weeks, traveling northwest Yunnan together for two-weeks, and then go off and research and write independent research projects of our choice for one month.

Chinese cuisine Xingqi Yi

2008-09-06T05:26:00.000-07:00

Plate with the remains of Mongolian lunch. Includes what's left of the eel, duck, grasshoppers, and various other exotic culinary eats.
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/acdieringer/1/1220539500/tpod.html

Testing. . .

2008-08-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Itinerary:
August 30th - Depart Philly to LAX, to Hong Kong, to Kunming!!