So, How Was China?

I've been home from China for just over two weeks now.  Everyone keeps asking me, "How was China?" So far I've found the question impossible to answer.  How can I put what China meant to me in one pithy sentence, in a quick, engaging answer?  Other people even answer the question better than I do, as though my China experience is clear to them when I'm still having trouble defining it.

My co-workers in China told me many times that I was brave, that they admired me.  I never knew quite how to respond.  In fact, I admired the teachers I worked with, and it was strange to hear that they admired me.  The teachers at Baoding Eastern Bilingual School care deeply about their students and their families, they work hard and are infinitely better teachers than I ever could be.  My friends Ada, Miss Liu and Miss Bi are all so confident, so sure of what they want, so good at their jobs, I can't help but admire them.

Since I've been back, many people have mentioned how they noticed a change in my pictures and blogs.  They said that over the ten months in China, I seemed to become more confident, happier. And they also call me brave.  

Of all the adjectives I've ever used to describe myself, I never would have used brave.  I think back to my first lonely, terrifying night in my Baoding apartment, when I slept with the lights on, and I don't see myself as brave.  I think about my first time exploring Baoding on my own, when I was thrilled to buy myself an ice cream, the only thing I felt confident enough to ask for with my rudimentary combination of hand gestures and poor Mandarin.  I think about the time I had food poisoning and didn't eat or go grocery shopping for five days and when I finally tried to make myself some noodles, I accidentally poured them down the sink and broke down sobbing in my empty apartment.  I didn't feel brave then.  

When I was in China, I had difficulty answering another common question- "Why did you want to come to China?"  I just wanted to, I would think while trying to think of a better answer.  Now I think one of the things I couldn't really articulate either then or now was that I wanted to feel brave.  I wanted to have an adventure, but more than that I wanted to be an adventurer.  

So maybe everyone's right.  Maybe I was a little brave.  Maybe traveling alone was brave.  Maybe singing Celine Dion in front of the whole school was brave.  Maybe wearing a blue wig to class for April Fool's Day was brave.  Maybe riding my bike at night through chaotic traffic when it was raining was brave (and really stupid, don't tell my dad!). 

Living in China for a year gave me a deep understanding of a country I and most Americans know little about.  I made many wonderful, life-long friends, and learned about the things that matter to them.  I came to appreciate simple things like clean air, fast and uncensored internet, and unlimited grilled cheeses.  I had the chance to teach and befriend a thousand bright, creative students and to think critically about both their education system and our own.  I felt alternately homesick, joyful, lonely, thankful, angry, confident, shy, and brave.

 I still can't answer the people who ask me how China was.  All I know is that, as they say in China, "it will live in my heart for forever."

Hua Shan

A few months ago when I was hiking along the stunning Tiger Leaping Gorge, I was surprised and unbelieving when one of the girls I was with said it wasn't even the most beautiful place she had been in China.  I personally though the Tiger Leaping Gorge was the most breathtaking place I had ever been in my life, so I wanted to check out this place that could possibly trump it.  So this past week I headed to Hua Shan to see if it lived up to the hype. 

At the start of my hike, still full of energy.

Hua Shan (Mount Hua) is just a quick 5-hour train ride from Baoding on the new high speed railway, so it was the perfect trip to make in my last week here.  I took the train on Wednesday afternoon, got complemented on my Chinese by a taxi driver, spent the night in a hotel at the base of the mountain, and started walking on Thursday morning.  The day was impossibly hot, and the price of water went up exponentially the higher I climbed, but the scenery made up for everything.  Hua Shan is known as the most dangerous mountain in China. I mean, it's still a Chinese mountain, so there are stairs and handrails all the way up, but they don't necessarily make it safe.  There were several sections that were so steep it was little more than a ladder carved into the rock itself, and paths that curved along the edge of a cliff with only a thin iron chain as a barrier.

It took about four hours to reach the first peak, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the other four peaks.  By the time I reached West Peak, my legs were shaking and the sun was setting, so I settled in to watch.

The locks along the fence are for good luck and happiness, and they were locked all along the mountain.

I spent the night in a hotel on West Peak, got up early and hiked back to North Peak where I caught a cable car and bus back to the train station. Hua Shan was spectacular, but I don't know if I"m quite ready to declare anyplace the most beautiful in China.  From Hua Shan to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, to the rice terraces in Guilin, to the smoggy delights of my hometown Baoding, I can't pick a favorite place in China. 

Roundup

I have had a busy few weeks as my tenure here in China comes to an end.  I thought I would do a quick roundup for everyone, although I will soon be able to tell these stories in person.

Over the past two weeks, I've had several goodbye dinners with my expat friends.  We revisited our favorite places in Baoding, spent every waking hour in our favorite coffee shop, and spent one last evening at KTV singing "My Heart Will Go On" and every Taylor Swift song. 

Spending the afternoon at QLH coffee shop.

Our favorite dumpling restaurant.  The owner is our friend, Chinese teacher and "aunt."

I'm going to miss the girls who work at QLH.

KTV!

I should mention we used this opportunity to wear our favorite Chinese fashions...

One of the teachers, Sandy or Miss Liu, at school asked me to spend the weekend at her hometown.  I was a little nervous because she doesn't speak English as well as some of the other teachers, and honestly I didn't know what to expect from a visit to a small Chinese town.  Sandy lives in a small town that is part of Baoding county.  Her repeated warnings about the size of her town had me picturing Iola but less developed, but actually her hometown made Iola look like a tiny tiny hamlet.  People in China simply cannot comprehend someplace with so few people.  Probably in the same way that people from Iola might have difficulty imagining a city of 11 million people.   Sandy's family was very kind and welcoming even though they didn't speak any English.  Her mother would not stop feeding me all weekend long.  Even when I repeated "Chi Bao Le" (I'm full) over and over, Sandy and her mother kept giving me more dumplings and potatoes and fruit.  

Sandy's mom found out I like dumplings, so she made dumplings for me and then offered to make some for me to bring home to my family.  I thanked her profusely but had to decline.

 Sandy's 12-year-old sister followed us like a shadow all weekend long, and although she studies English in school, she wouldn't talk to me. 

We spent most of the time just walking or biking around her hometown and eating.  Sandy, her sister and I went to a weird 5-D movie where the seats moved and water and air was squirted in our faces.  We spent a morning at a museum near her hometown built around the tunnels that the Chinese used to fight against the Japanese during WWII or as some people call it, the Anti-Japanese War.  Many Chinese people are actually still very angry about the war, and very prejudiced against Japanese people.  Recent events between the two countries haven't helped matters.  While I found the tunnels themselves interesting, the amount of anti-Japanese and other nationalist propaganda was a little disturbing. 

On Tuesday this week, I made an impromptu trip to Beijing to visit my Carleton friend Marios before leaving China.  As always, he found a great restaurant and we spent a few hours talking about China, Carleton friends and everything in between.  I spent the rest of the week in Hua Shan, but I'll write a separate post about that tomorrow so I can do it justice.  Now I just have a few days left in Baoding to pack and say goodbye to all my favorite places and people before starting my epic journey home.  In case anyone's interested, my total travel time adds up to (Train to Beijing West 1 hour+ Subway to Beijing South 1 hour+ Train to Shanghai 5 hours + Flight to Toronto 14 hours + Flight to Chicago 2 hours +  Drive to Iola 4 hours) 27 hours not including layovers. 

Last Week of School

I spent my last week of classes playing "English Olympics" and taking pictures.  After I told the students that I would be leaving soon, and clarified that I won't be back next year, they were sad, but once I got my camera out they cheered up pretty quickly.  Here are some of my favorite pictures:

The boy in the front is one of my favorite students.  He's a new student who can't speak any English, but he always raises his hand to answer a question, and then when I call on him he turns to a friend to ask the answer.  He's really funny and the whole class loves him, so they don't mind helping him out.

The boy in the front, Eli, is my favorite student in the whole school.

She named herself Kate, after me!

We had a photo shoot with some students and teachers.

My Chinese best friend, Ada.

How to draw a giraffe and other life lessons

As I enter my last week of teaching, I thought I would make a list of the things I've taught my students, and the things they've taught me.

I've taught my students:

       How to make a Thanksgiving hand turkey.

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  The words angry, sad, happy and sleepy, along with hand motions.  I actually feel a little guilty about this one, because my students remembered this lesson best of all, and I'm worried that the new foreign teacher next year will be greeted by a room full of second graders stomping their feet and yelling "angry!" 
  
  
  An ardent adoration of Tom Pease music, especially the song "Branching Out."
  
  
  That it's okay to be wrong sometimes, and to make mistakes.  
  
  
  That I think our school's "Children should be seen and not heard" policy is arcane and an impediment to learning English and that they should ignore this rule with as much laughter and "jia you" and song as possible.
  
  
  About superheroes, and how important it is to be creative.  
  
  
  
  
  
  My students have taught me:
  
  
  How to make an origami heart.
  
  
  How to draw a giraffe and a rabbit.
  
  
  The best charades for monkey, fish and cat.
  
  
  How to not be nervous when I'm speaking or singing in front of a room full of people.
  
  
  An awesome new high five.
  
  
  A weird game that involves slapping and counting and I still don't know how to win this game.  
  
  
  How to say rice in Chinese (mi fan).
  
  
  That it's okay to be wrong sometimes, and to make mistakes.
  
  
  How to fly a kite.
  
  
   

Say Yes

Before coming to China I got a lot of good advice from many different people.  I asked lots of questions and got many helpful ideas, but what has stuck with me the most is a comment from one of the experienced teachers at my orientation in Shanghai.  When asked how he was so successful and happy in China, he replied, "I said yes to everything."  I have taken that as the unofficial motto of my time in China.  Whether it's a last minute trip with a friend, an event at school, or my own impulse, I have tried to say yes, to jump in and see what happens.  Some of my best memories from China have been times when I said yes even when the easy and reasonable answer was no. 

So a few weeks ago when a teacher asked me if I would sing "My Heart Will Go On" with some of my students, I said yes without really thinking about it.  My plan was to sing very quietly and let the ten students carry the song.  Little did I guess that my first agreement would escalate until I was standing on the stage with only my friend and co-teacher Miss Liu.

I usually never know much about what goes on at my school.  I just go where I'm told, and things often change without my knowledge and with little warning.  So I shouldn't have been surprised when I was informed that I would be singing with Miss Liu and not the students.  But I was surprised, and as those of you who know me might assume, I was terrified at the thought.  Miss Liu and I agreed to alternate verses and sing the chorus together.  

Our hosts for the concert.  These are all my students, but they were wearing so much make-up that it was actually difficult for me to recognize some of them. 

The concert, in honor of Children's Day which is June 1, was recorded live with the sixth grade as the audience, and it was played to the rest of the school on Wednesday.  The preparations for the concert began right after lunch, as all of the children in all of the acts needed full make-up, even the boys.  The art teachers also helped Miss Liu and me with our make-up.

Make-up time

Miss Liu

Miss Liu and some of our students.

After we were all made-up and costumed, we trooped upstairs to the auditorium.  Our performance was towards the end of the program, so we sat in the back and watched the other performances.  My students are seriously talented.  Every Tuesday and Thursday they take dance, music, and art lessons, and they've been preparing these performances all semester.  Even though I knew that all of my students were more talented than me, watching their performances made me less nervous and I even started to enjoy myself.

Waiting for the performances to start

First graders' dance

When it was finally our turn, I felt ready.  I walked out to the center of the stage.  My legs and hands were shaking, but my voice was steady.  The audience was full of strange and hostile sixth graders (or so it seemed to me, since I don't teach them and wasn't expecting the same kind of adoration I'd get from my own students), but when I finished singing the first verse I got a rousing round of applause.  Miss Liu joined me on stage and the rest of the song went smoothly.  Even though I had spent the whole morning feeling anxious and even angry about having to sing, during the actual performance it was really fun.  I'm really glad I said yes because my Children's Day performance is one of my best memories in China.