I've been really quiet because of all the uni work and wedding planning that has been happening, however the light is slowly appearing at the end of the tunnel in regards to uni.
More excitingly, there have been lots of developments on the wedding front.
My dress arrived the other day. I had found a dress I really liked but it was about £3,000, after searching through some wedding forums, I found a guy in China who could make it for for £120... sounds too good to be true right? I ordered it in plenty of time just incase it did go horrendously wrong, or it was some big scam, as you do hear some horror stories.
BUT
It wasn't!!!!! The dress is extremely well made, it's fully lined, has boning in it and is an exact match to the dress I wanted but of course in red! Honestly, I was really over whelmed by the quality of the dress.
If you want a dress making, send Jeff a picture, your measurements and you can pay via paypal and about 2 months later a fantastic dress will turn up on your doorstep. Jeff can be contacted on jeffliu8800@yahoo.com.cn. I cannot recommend him enough.
The only issue I had was that I have lost quite a bit of weight and will now have to have it altered, it was also realllly long. I am guessing it will cost me about £90 to have it altered but then it's still only £200 for a wedding dress - not bad!!
Our finger print wedding rings also arrived this week. The rings were hand made just for us by Chris Parry, again a fabulous job and couldn't recommend him enough either!
My journey started off at 4am, I went to try and find a taxi to take me to the bus station. Being 4am in the morning I knew this was going to be a difficult task.
I finally got a taxi, which then proceeded to go and pick up some really drunk Korean woman who stank of booze. I finally made it to the bus station to find it was closed, by this time was 5am and I knew there was a bus at 5.30. I wondered around for a bit and then found an open café and managed to get some help off a couple of older men in there. One of the men had ok English and helped me buy my ticket, sat with me until the bus came, declared he was my friend and when saying good bye hugged me and went in for a smooch!!!
The bus journey was about 4 hours long and I was the only one on the 50 seater bus. Made it to the airport and checked in and tried to go through immigration. Turned out I had printed the wrong thing off for my multiple entry visa back into Korea and had to go over to the immigration office to sort things out.
The flights were fine, I kept being asked if I had ordered a special meal, which I had – vegetarian, but they kept bringing me chicken, cocktail sausages and beef.... Both of them were delayed, which meant I didn’t actually get into Xi’an until about 11pm, when it should have been 8.30.
When I arrived in Shenyang, I wasn’t expecting much culture shock. I was just going from one country where I didn’t really understand anything to another!
I was a little bit nervous getting off the plane and going through immigration. There were lots of guards standing around in very smart uniforms, looking very imposing. A few people ahead of me had been sent back and they were studying the passport photos very intensely. I got through immigration fine and even got a smile off the officer and picked up my luggage.
There was quite a lot of snow when I landed which made me realize this was going to be slightly colder than Ghana!!
Sunday 22nd November First full day in Xi’an! We spent the morning cycling around the city wall, it was about 6 miles and sooo much fun. Sarah and I had a tandem bike and were surprisingly good. We didn’t fall off once. We had a little trouble starting but the stopping part we had down.
The view from the wall was really interesting, we could see the Bell tower and also saw the only Buddhist temple in Xian. It was such a beautiful way to see the city, the weather was cold and really crisp with some remnants of snow about.
In the afternoon we had orientation, which was really interesting. We skimmed the surface of some of my many questions. The answer was mainly the same though – Chinese people are obedient! I didn’t realize what I rebel I was as I was like what if you don’t agree, what if you don’t love the communist party. Jerome’s answer was but we do, we just know the reasons. The kids are pretty much brainwashed into thinking what the government want.
There is also a saying about do not be the first bird to put your head up in a flock, as you will get shot. Basically any sort of individualism or creativeness is not encouraged in China. It is so difficult for me to get my head around this!
Monday 23d November
In the morning we headed to Xing Quing Palace park.
It seems like all the elderly population gathers here in the morning for tai chi, sword dancing, singing, and badminton. It is a huge social event and is very important as most people live in apartments here and do not get the opportunity to socialize with their neighbors.
One thing that has struck me, is the smog/mist/fog. As it is so cold it lingers and makes Xi’an seem pretty depressing. The amount of pollution is here is tremendous with all the trees at the side of the road being covered a layer of grey grime. I can really feel it in my lungs sometimes.
We also had a mandarin lesson. The characters here are so complex and really makes me appreciate Hangeul!! Originally some of the characters were pictograms with the character representing the thing it was trying to depict, gradually they got more complicated – even though now they use simplified Chinese. There are still over 1,000 characters!!! There are also 5 tones which can completely change the meaning of the word. For example ‘ma’ depending on the tone it can mean mother, spicy, horse, when you are scolding someone or used to make a sentence into a question!! Not much difference at all!
In the afternoon it was our first time at placement! We worked with about 13 kids to help them practice Snow White.
The school is government run and has about 2,000 students in total. Each class has about 60 students in!!!! The students have different teachers for each subject and move around from class to class. It is pretty open and as a result is FREEEZING! It doesn’t seem very welcoming in that it is quite grey and not many posters/pictures everywhere. But the kids seem very well treated.
After rehearsal we spent a few hours with the teachers helping them with questions they had about English. They had questions about how to teach phonics and also how to write the alphabet. Because Chinese characters are so complex with many strokes they were worried about what was correct. Adding a line here or there in Chinese can completely change the meaning. We explained that it was just different styles and all of them were right.
In the evening we had a performance by some local music students. They played the Er Hu and Pi Pa. It was pretty amazing and really difficult!!
Tuesday 23rd November In the morning we went to Shaanxi History museum. Xi’an had been around for 13 dynasties, so the history of Xi’an is pretty much the history of China. There was a lot to take in but it was extremely interesting.
In the afternoon we practiced the play with the kids again and then helped grade 3 and 4 practice their speeches for the speech competition. The level of English is pretty good. When you walk into the school you feel a bit like a celebrity. All the kids stare at you in fascination and shout hello, what is your name. When we arrive it is break time, so there are hundreds of kids running around shouting and waving at you. They are so cute!
In the evening we had a lecture about traditional Chinese medicine, which includes things like cupping, acupuncture, massage, herbal medicine, moxibustion and massage. All of these are available and patients can choose whether to have traditional treatments or ‘western’ treatments. There is no bias on what can be chosen. Typically older people will go for more traditionally methods and the younger people for western.
After the lecture we headed to Trust Mart to buy some chocolate, where Nicole nearly got arrested for stealing chocolate! They had security tags on the bars of chocolate and it had not been deactivated. It caused a bit a scene but we managed to get away!
Wednesday 25th November
In the morning we had a lecture on the history of China and the one child policy. The one child policy or ‘Family Planning policy’ fascinates me. It was established in 1979 and was to encourage later marriages and late births. (By late they mean aged 23-25!) It was supposed to promote less but healthier children and to slow down the population growth.
Again, at placement we practiced the play and helped some students with their speeches. We actually had the contest for the younger ones, they were really good. We had to mark then on appearance, their introduction, the text/story they read and then how well they answered some questions we asked them. Some of them got total stage fright and it was so awful to watch. But they were really good.
In the evening we had a calligraphy lecture, which was really interesting to learn about the history of the Chinese characters. The characters originally started off as pictograms, so that the words would look like what there were trying to say. We had fun guessing what certain characters were not too much success though!
Thursday 26th November In the morning we headed over to the Terracotta warriors. It was about an hour drive (with no traffic!) from the home-base.
The warriors were pretty impressive, there are over 2,000 of them and each one is different, different clothes, facial expressions, hair etc. The detail on them is amazing. The mausoleum was started when the Emperor was 13 years old and he died when he was 50. I find it slightly morbid that they start preparing his mausoleum before he is even dead, but after seeing the amount of work that went into it, it is understandable!
In the afternoon it was the 5th an 6th grades speech competition. Some of them were really good, others were so nervous and forgot their speech it was awful to watch. To stand up in front of a group of people and do a speech is bad enough, but to have to do it in a foreign language – I’m glad I didn’t have too!
The Snow White performance went really well, I was so proud of the kids! I t was pretty sad to leave them even after only working with them for 4 days.
In the evening we had English Corner, where students from the local area come and practice their English with the volunteers. It was pretty interesting to hear some of the questions that they had.
Friday 27th November We had the morning free to go and do some shopping. We headed down to Muslim Quarter and shopped – a lot! We somehow managed to get lost and ended up in the meat and slaughtering section – not very pleasant to see sheep being dragged down the street to their death.
In the afternoon we went to a foster home, it is run by a South African lady in 2 apartments. There are about 50 children in total ranging from babies up to about 2/3 years old. They all have disabilities some of them have heart conditions and have been abandoned. Other ‘disabilities’ include a cleft pallet. I was shocked to learn that children were abandoned because they had facial disfigurements. People cannot afford the surgery, so they abandon them. They were so adorable and it was great to get some cuddles in off them all!
In the evening we all headed out for dinner. We had hot pot where we all our own individual pots and we cooked fish, potatoes, spinach and lots of other delicious food! After Nicole, Makayla and I headed to Karaoke! It was super swanky place with some one to carry your beer from the shop to your room, open your beer, escort you to the bathroom! The doors had small circular windows a man walked past, happened to glance in and saw a bunch of foreigners and kept trying to come in to have his photo taken with us. We ended up having a body guard out side the door to stop them from coming back!
Saturday November 28th Last day - L Nicole, Eva and Johanna left at 6.30, so just Sarah and I were left in the morning. We had a wander round and went to get a massage. For one hour it was 5 pounds 50! Not bad, it was pretty intense but for 5 pounds you can’t complain!
I also went and got my hair cut, £1.50 later I was pretty much scalped. He didn't understand the term 'I want to keep as much length as possible'!
Then 3 planes, 2 taxis, a bus and 24 hours later I was back in The Goon.
This week I have been a bit of a domestic goddess, making Birthday cakes, scones, cleaning, laundry and sewing on buttons.
On Wednesday there was the Leonid Meteor Jo and I got up super early to watch it in the freezing cold and saw....... nothing.
This is what we should have seen:
So, 2 days until China! I am so excited. I am looking forward to travelling again and experiencing a new culture. As I previously mentioned I have never had an interest in China but I have been reading up on some things. I actually have about 4 pages of questions to ask and talk to the staff about when I get there. I am not sure whether I am maturing and appreciating different cultures more but China has really intrigued me.
The biggest thing that interests me is the one child policy. Obviously I do not know the ins and outs but the title is pretty obvious! What I found interesting is that if a couple has 'a girl or or has a physical disability, mental illness or mental retardation' they can apply to have a second child. This leads to a lot of female infanticides. I am really interested in talking to the staff about what they think of this and getting actual real peoples opinions rather than information from the media.
Another thing is that Facebook is blocked in China. Shock horror for a TEFL teacher who spends at least several hours on it a day. (Yes teachers in Korea have a lot of down... err preparation time). Twitter, Youtube and many other. See here for a list.
It amazes me that hotmail and gmail have also been blocked at some point. In a world where freedom of speech is a human right and that a government can be publicly so controlling, is a little scary.
I have also been reading about the death penalty and 'black jails' and the fact that there is a generation of people that do not know about the Tianamen Square protests because all the information is blocked in China.
Obviously I do not know everything and am only summarising some the articles that I have quickly scanned,. Some of this information could well be wrong but it definitely has got me thinking of questions to ask people and really wanting to learn more.
I do not want to focus on the negative as I have also read about the rich and interesting culture it has, how it is one of the worlds earliest civilisations, the beautiful calligraphy they do, the Beijing Opera and much more.
I am definitely excited and intrigued to learn more! That is another thing I love about Cross-Cultural Solutions, I can just turn up at the airport and know there will be someone there to pick me up. I don't have to worry about all the logistics, I can really focus on volunteering, immersing myself in the culture and pestering the staff with my questions!
It has been just over a year since I left NYC and Cross-Cultural Solutions. I cannot believe it has been a year, or what has happened in that year. Since leaving I have been to Spain, Ghana, moved to Asia and changed career paths!!
Out of all the CCS programs I was never very interested in China or Thailand and had no interest in Asia what so ever! So what do I do... I move to Asia for a year!
I am really excited to visit China. A - to see another part of Asia, I think that South Korea is very erm.. unique.. and it will be interesting to see another part and compare. B- it is nearly 6 months that I will have been here, that is the longest I have been in one spot and not travelled outside the country/state for a LOOOOOONG time. Getting 'cabin fever' slightly so looking forward to travelling.
I also received my placement today! I will be volunteering at a school!
The school was established in 1957. It is located in western part of Xi’an and covers an area of 8,000 square meters. Presently, it accommodates around 2,200 students who are divided into 36 different classes according to their ages.
The content of the volunteer work at School is composed of 3 sections: l Rehearsal of a short stage play l Coach the students for an English Recitation Contest l Judge in the English Recitation Contest
Volunteers help students rehearse the play Monday through Wednesday and the play will be acted on Thursday. The Recitation contest will be on Wednesday and Thursday.
Approximately 30 students from Grade 3 to Grade 6 will take part in the English Recitation Contest. And the volunteers will be divided into 3 groups to help different students with their pronunciation, grammar, and presentation skills if possible. The students can choose either a text from their book, or one of their favorite stories to be the content of their speech. Each student is expected to finish their speech in no more than 4 minutes and it should last no less than 2 minutes.
So on my week off from teaching English, I will be ... teaching English! It is going to be pretty interesting to see the differences between teaching here and in China. For the first time I actually feel qualified for my placement! I remember when I got my placement for Ghana, I was so nervous about teaching!
I have been toying with the idea of going to China during my next week off and doing a Cross-Cultural Solutions Insight program. I have been receiving fare alerts from Kayak to keep an eye on the flights. They had been about £350-400. Yesterday I got an email saying flights had dropped to £143!!! Needless to say I got VERY excited. After searching a bit more, the flights were coming out around £300, Kayak lied. I then tried Expedia which had shown up in the Kayak search and low and behold a flight for £143. So I pretty much booked it straight away!!
Unfortunately I cannot enrol in the CCS program until 60 days beforehand, and they may or may not even be space for me but the flight was too cheap to miss!
So either way in November I will be spending a week in Xian!
The view from the wall was really interesting, we could see the Bell tower and also saw the only Buddhist temple in Xian.