Beijing Part One: The Fellowship of the Train

Because we are a bunch of crazy people, we decided to do our Beijing vacation in 4 days.  Whew!  Every day was jam packed and filled with adventure upon adventure.

Getting there was one of the most pleasant travel experiences I've had in China.  Although it cost us about 450 yuan, we took a high speed train from Nanjing to Beijing.  It got us there in a cozy four hours.  I didn't even have time to get board.  The only problem with the train ride was that we didn't arrive in Beijing until after 11 pm.  My directions to our hostel were by metro, but the metro in Beijing closes down around 10:30 pm.  So we had to get in a huge line to wait for a taxi.  We had to take two taxis and I showed the hostel address to both drivers but neither of them seemed to have any idea how to get there.  The guy in charge didn't seem to care, so he hurried us into our separate taxis and we sped off to somewhere.

I've been really fortunate to have a cell phone here in China (courtesy of Nanjing Foreign Language School) and as it turns out, we might've been in some serious trouble if I hadn't had it.  I had emailed our hostel a few days before to let them know that we'd be checking in really late.  They had emailed me back the day we left to let me know that they wouldn't be able to accommodate us, but that their "sister hostel" on the other side of Beijing would.  The email also said that when we arrived at the hostel, they would drive us over to the sister hostel.  As long as we had somewhere to sleep, I didn't really care. 

So there we were in the taxis.  It was getting close to 1 am--our check in time.  Suddenly, my phone started to ring.  It was the hostel, checking to make sure we were still coming.  I assured them that we were on our way, but that the taxi driver seemed to be having a hard time finding the hostel.  I handed the phone to the driver and pretty soon, we were driving in a new direction.  Before too long the taxi driver asked to see my phone again, but after that call we made it.

The hostel felt really bad because of what had happened, but as it turned out, they had a good reason. The pipes in our room had broken and they hadn't been able to get them repaired in time.  The receptionist took good care of us while we waited for a new driver to come get us.  She gave us free water and offered to give us free beer (which we refused).  The new driver arrived, helped us into a van, and got us to our new hostel.

The hostel were we ended up staying

At last, we were all set...except OH WAIT, our door was busted.  That's right.  The door to our room wouldn't shut or lock.  I guess I shouldn't say the "door," it was the frame that was broken.  It looked like somebody had kicked the door in.  I was super tired and annoyed at this point.  The hostel promised that they'd fix it the next day...but they didn't and Krista ended up taping the frame together so that we could get in and out without causing more damage.

Krista to the rescue

So it wasn't the most secure hostel we've stayed in, but we put a suitcase in front of the door by night, and we stored all of our things in the hostel luggage room by day.  Poor Soren was in another room with complete strangers (just like in Shanghai), but our last night there he had the room all to himself.   My complaints with the hostel also include the series of bug bites I seemed to mysteriously get at night.  Altogether I think I had over 32 bites by the end of the trip.  Super weird and not fun.  But I digress. 

A small sample

Another small sample

These ones were the worst.  They don't look as bad because I have make up on them.

And that's it for now.  To find out what happens to Soren, Emily, and the ILP gang, tune in next time!

A Tour Around Nanjing

We officially live in the best city in China.

Two Saturdays ago we had the opportunity to take a tour around to some of Nanjing's most famous and popular spots.  Travel and food was taken care of by the school, so all we had to do was go and enjoy.  We went to the Presidential Palace, hiked up to the Yuejing tower, had lunch at a yummy restaurant, visited Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum (another serious hike), and toured the Confucius Temple. It was awesome!  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll post mostly pictures and leave simple comments.

Here we go:

Soren and me at the entrance to the Presidential Palace

Beautiful blossoms

The group on the grounds of the Presidential Palace

Getting ready to go up to the Yuejing tower

On the steps of the Yuejing tower

I've never met a Railig that wasn't dangerous

Looking down from Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum

Soren ringing the bell at the Confucius Temple

The drums of the Confucius Temple

Looking up the long stair case to the Mausoleum

Maddie by good ol' Confucius

The Yuejing tower at a distance

Shanghai

Our trip to Shanghai was a whirlwind of action and adventure.  We were having our LDS District Conference there that weekend and we figured it was the perfect time to go.  Plus, the Young Single Adults were going to have a special tour of Shanghai on Saturday and we knew that would help us get the most bang for our buck. (Technically Soren and I are not Young Single Adults anymore, but we're young and we're adults so they let us tag along.)

Once teaching was over on Friday, we set out for the train station.  Phoenix had told us that bus 97 would get us there faster than the metro so we decided to give it a try.  Although it did get us there faster, it was a pretty terrifying experience.  The driver refused to stop honking his horn and loved slamming on the brakes.  We also weren't sure where we were supposed to get off.  Fortunately, the train station ended up being the last stop on the bus route and a cute Chinese girl told us where we were.  Buying the tickets wasn't too bad, but the poor ticket lady was exhausted when she finally finished with us.

It was a nice fast train, so we were in Shanghai about 2 hours after we took our seats. It was about 10:30pm, so we boarded the metro to go to our hostel.  We got off at the right stop and we went out the right exit, but after that my directions to the hostel weren't very helpful.  I had a piece of paper with the address on it in Chinese.  Occasionally, I'd flag down a Chinese person and show them the paper to make sure we were going in the right direction.  This system worked really well until we got to a dark alleyway and a sketchy hospital. I showed the paper to a guard there and his charades indicated that we'd arrived to the address shown on the paper.

What?

My brain went into panic mode.  Had I been swindled online? Did this hostel not exist? Have we been led into some sort of trap? I trained to maintain a calm exterior.  We went into the lobby of the hospital and I showed the paper to another guard.  He ushered us out of the building and pointed down the dark alley.  The other guard came up and the two of them started discussing something in Chinese.  I was terrified to lead my group down the alley, but the second guard kept waving us that way.  Walking down that alley was one of the most terrifying moments of my life.  But eventually I saw a gate marking the end of the alleyway and beyond the gate was a glowing sign that read "Koala Garden House."  We were relieved to say the least.

It was a really cute hostel in a really cute area.  Apparently the alleyway had been some kind of short cut, but we stuck to the regular roads from then on.

The front desk/restaurant

Koala Garden House Hostel

On the second floor

On Saturday we woke up nice and early to meet the Young Single Adults for the tour.  It was a super fun activity. We went to the Shanghai museum, did some Tai Chi (super hard, but fun), went to a meet market (parents advertise their unmarried children to get them a spouse), went through some shopping areas, and saw the bund.  Our tour guide also helped us get up to the top of a swanky hotel to get another view of the bund.  Apparently we weren't supposed to be there because they kicked us out. 

Following the morning adventures we went to the adult session of conference. After being spiritually fed, the YSAs had a meal for us.  Once we finished eating we were able to set off in a giant group to get a look at the pearl tower, see the bund at night, take a ferry across the river, and go to the Yuyuan garden shopping area.  It poured rain the entire evening and we all got wet feet (probably why my cough has gotten so bad). We didn't get to spend much time anywhere, but it was still a blast.

The Bund

Tai Chi

The Pearl Tower

Sunday consisted of more conference and some shopping.  All in all, it was a pretty awesome trip.  We were glad to get back to our own city, though.  It's funny how much like home Nanjing feels.

The Nanjing Massacre Museum

On December 13, 1937, the Japanese army invaded the city of Nanjing.  The next 6 weeks were some of the most inhumane, brutal, bloody, and horrific to occur in the history of man. 300,000 people were slaughtered.  Not just soldiers; men, women, and children.  The city was torn apart.  Some victims were shot, and those were the lucky ones.  Many were burned alive, buried alive, raped, gang raped, and a number of other unspeakable atrocities. 

The city of Nanjing has a free museum to memorialize the victims of the massacre.  A few weeks ago, we all decided to go check it out.  It was

the most brutal museum I've ever been in, but it was amazing.  There were photos, journal entries, videos, artifacts, and all kinds of other interesting things.  As we walked through the museum, we all kept remarking to each other that we couldn't believe we hadn't ever heard about it.  Why did we not learn about this in school?  The only way we can avoid repeating past mistakes is to learn about and from them.

Towards the end of the museum were the mass grave sites of some of the victims.  The brutality done to those people was astounding. Some of the skeletons had nails and spikes driven into them.  The experience was pretty jarring for most of us.  Fortunately, the last part of the museum consisted of an eternal flame in memory of the victims and a peace garden.

The Peace Statue

As the human race pushes its way into the future, I hope that we learn to be more compassionate and more understanding.  The Nanjing massacre was a result of power lust and hate.  Let us all strive for something more and love our fellow men. 

Engrish

 Here are some of our favorite pieces of "Engrish" that we've come across:

Only harmful chasing allowed

We loved this wonderfwl shirt

Mmmmm...skin food for my face!

Can you rephrase the question?

Enjoy a happy what?

Funny things about China

As it turns out, China is pretty different than the US.  I think I forgot just how much until I came back.  There are the standard differences, like everyone is Chinese, they have squatters instead of toilets, and everything is written in Chinese. But there are also lots of differences that you just don't expect.

When I was super sick last Wednesday I spent a lot of time watching Chinese television.  Although most of the programs are in Chinese, I found one channel with English documentaries.  They don't believe in continuity or closure with their tv programs.  I was watching one documentary about China that completely changed in the middle of the program. The first half followed this Australian guy who was trying different kinds of foods.  The second half was narrated by some guy you never saw and it was about a Chinese businessman who built a Disney World-type theme park.  Same program.  Also, when things run short or long on the air, they just throw in random highlights from sporting events.  I was watching one highlight on speed skating in the Olympics. I was getting super into it when they suddenly switched to their regularly scheduled program. Lame. Soren and I have also watched some Disney cartoons in Chinese. It's funny, but they always cut off the punch line.  No closure.

They like to do things at very inconvenient times here.  Like the other day, they decided to turn off all the water in our ILP building just before teaching.  This meant the kids couldn't go to the bathroom or wash their hands.  The water didn't come back on for the first hour and a half of class. There were some very unhappy kids.  Eventually, we started letting the kids go even though they couldn't flush the squatters--sort of a "go now, flush later" mentality.  I gave most of the teachers hand sanitizer since the kids couldn't wash their hands.

A couple days ago there was an International Festival held at the school that we all took a part of.  It was a neat event, but no one knew what was going on: the participants, the students, or the teachers.  We knew the time, the date, the tentative place, and that we'd have a poster.  No one told us what to prepare for, so we came prepared for anything.  A few of the ILP teachers (Me, Krista, and Soren) were at the United States booth.  Maddie was in the Great Britain booth (even though she's never been there). Heather and Jenna were in the Canada and Zambia group (Heather went to Canada once, Jenna hadn't been either place).  Morgan was supposed to be in the US group, but she was still super sick. I guess the school figured that if you're from one foreign country, you're from all foreign countries. Soren and I took the Ukelele and taught a group of students how to sing "Oh my Darling, Clementine." Most of the time we just talked with the students about random things.  When it was over, we were told that it was a success.  I thought, "Oh course it was a success. There were no expectations!" Pictures of the event are below.

It would seem the cafeteria food is prepared in a very strange manner.  Like the way they cut meat.  They seem to put it sideways through a bread slicer to maximize the amount of bone per piece of meat. Maybe here in China, getting lots of bones in your meat is good luck, but where we come from, boneless chicken wings are a delicacy.

To contrast, delicacies here in China consist of things like dried sea cucumber (going up to 5820 yuan). Yum.

Delicious (and expensive) sea cucumbers

Rock Me Mama Like A Wagon Wheel

Notice how I'm holding a football...very American

Soren chatting it up

The Great Britain Group

Zambia and Canada Group

The United States Group

Highlight of the Day--or not

Emily:

I've had a crazy sickness for the past few days.  Instead of getting a stuffy nose, I got a stuffy ear.  Plugged up, hard to hear, echos in my head, basically, not very much fun.  Unfortunately, Morgan has also been sick. Only her sickness is worse. As head teacher, it is my duty to teach for a teacher when they are unable to.  So today I was at the ILP building preparing my lesson.  At the same time, a Chinese lady was at the ILP building watering plants.  As I was walking from the kitchen classroom to the supply room, I decided to try popping my ears...just for the heck of it.  To my surprise, it worked!  I heard a huge GGGLLLlllurrrrpppp-ing sound and it felt like the left half of my face came back to life.  I was so surprised, I threw up my arms and let our a "WOAH!"  I held this pose for a few moments before I realized that plant lady was crouched down on the ground, one foot away from me. We made eye contact for a moment. She was quite alarmed.  After about half a second.  I muttered something like, "I'm okay...I'll just...hello." and walked away. 

Soren:
I have nothing to say.
nothing?
yes nothing.
Are you being g'wumpy?
no.
Yes you awww.
No. I'm not.
Come on- say something.
no.
Fine. You don't have to say anything- I'll say it for you!
You aren't authorized to represent me on this blog-
SO! Soren wants to say this but but isn't-
Stop it!
there was this funky international festival thing. And when I say "thing" I mean it.
Look, you. You can't just go about on this blog pretending to be me!
I never!
You did!
No I didn't.
Did!
No, I said that you wanted to say it- I didn't say that I was representing you or that you authorized me to say it for you- I simply said, and I quote, "Soren wants to say this but isn't..." Etc. etc. etc. So don't go accusing me buddy! I'm a Lawyer!
Really?
... no.
HA!
Anyways- Like I was saying- umph!
...
...
Like I said, I have nothing to say.