Beijing Duck

I take Hugh Grant pretty seriously, especially as the awkward but wise prime minister in Love Actually.  His opening line, "Whenever I start to get gloomy about the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport," has been running around in my head for the past couple weeks, especially as I headed for the arrivals gate at Beijing Airport to pick up my parents last week.

At the Summer Palace

After seven months away from home, it is hard to describe how happy I was to see my parents at the arrivals gate.  We had a full two weeks planned, spanning Beijing and two provinces.  The first thing on the agenda was a visit to the Summer Palace in Beijing.  We had some pretty smoggy weather, but not nearly as bad as it was in January.  Still, the Summer Palace is beautiful in any weather and great for walking and exploring.
Later that day we tried the famous Beijing roast duck. Despite having lived so close to Beijing for over half a year, this was the first time that I tried Beijing duck.  I feel a little bad saying this, but I was seriously underwhelmed.  With all of the hype, I expected Beijing duck to be a highlight of my culinary experience in China.  Instead, it was pretty boring compared to my favorite Chinese foods.

At least the presentation was good.  They carved the duck at our table and one of the waitresses showed us the correct way to eat the duck

Condiments for the duck

After carving the duck at our table, one of the waitresses showed us how to eat it.  We dipped the skin in sugar, and wrapped the meat in pancakes with the other condiments.  It was aesthetically interesting, but somewhat bland.  After we got there, I realized that there Beijing duck was not the easiest first meal for chopstick newbies.  By the end of their time here, my parents were experts at chopsticks (most of the time), but our first meal made it clear that they needed more practice. 

Dumpling Day

Today is dumpling day in the cafeteria, and I thought I would take the extra free time to update my blog with some short school related anecdotes.

 This week I have been playing Jeopardy with my older classes, and one of the categories was Questions About the Teacher.  I got a few very interesting answers.  The question "What's my name?"got the following answers: Teacher, Michael Jackson, Kitty, Meinu (Beautiful Woman in Chinese), and Monkey.  When I asked my third graders where I was from, they replied "Chinada" which I can only imagine is a hilarious hybrid of China and Canada.  And when I asked "How old am I?" I got a few very distressing answers.  I mean, do I really look like I'm 37? My co-teachers just sat in the back and laughed the whole time.

  For a long time I have been wondering whether my first graders understood that I was teaching them a different language.  They almost always speak to me in Chinese when I come to their class, no matter how much I shake my head and repeat "I don't know." One example of this was when I was trying to teach food vocabulary.  Even though I had them repeat the word "rice" tons of times, when I held up a picture of rice they still shouted "mifan" triumphantly, all absolutely certain that it was the right answer.  Last week one student even asked me, in Chinese, whether I was Chinese or foreign. But today there was a breakthrough when some of my first graders began teaching me Chinese words for fruit and laughing hysterically whenever I repeated them. 

   Celine Dion was on the Spring Festival Gala on TV this year, and one of my students must have really enjoyed her performance because every time I see him he asks me, "Who is Celine Dion?" and then when I say she's a singer he says, "Me too!"

   And in other news, my Chinese friend Ada just got engaged, and my parents will be in China tomorrow!

A Kissing Problem

One of the big perks of my job is that my students are always happy to see me.  They know that my class is a break from their regularly scheduled programming of memorization and homework.  They know that we will sing songs and play games and that I probably won't discipline them at all.  I like to think that they also like me as a person.  Even when they see me every week it isn't out of the ordinary for students to cheer when I enter their classroom, so this week when my students were seeing me for the first time in nearly six weeks, I got a several standing ovations and lots of hugs. 
My first and second graders are very physically affectionate.  They don't see their parents often, so I think they come to see the teachers here as parent figures in some ways.  I'm used to spending time with kids and I don't mind hugging kids even if their nose is running and even if I know there is no hand soap in the bathrooms.  Some of my second graders, all girls, also like to kiss me on the cheek when they see me, and although this made me a little uncomfortable at first, I knew that they were just trying to show me that they liked me, so I figured it was ok.  But, I have one student (now named Sophie), who really wants to kiss me on the lips.  She always mimes this and reaches for my face while pursing her lips.  This started last semester and I have so far fended her off.  I usually just try to pretend that I don't understand what she wants.  I talked with some of my coworkers about this, and they said that it was fine and normal, especially since she's a girl.  They all told me that it was fine for the girl to kiss me, but I guess my own cultural perception of student and teacher kissing is too ingrained in me.  It makes me feel uncomfortable, but of course there is no way for me to convey this to Sophie other than pushing her away when she tries to kiss me.  Obviously I don't want to push her away.  I don't want her to think that I don't like her or that affection is bad, but still, I cannot let her kiss me. 

Draco, Darcy and Friend

This week we started school again here at the 雙語學校.  My students and coworkers were all very happy to see me and hear about my adventures.  I missed them all so much!  It's great to be back here, and to know that my students and coworkers missed me too. 
I decided to start off the new semester by helping my students choose English names.  English students in China are notorious for choosing ridiculous names.  My friends who teach at a university here in Baoding have class lists that read more like grocery lists or weather reports.  I've heard of students named Banana, Snow, Happy and T-Rex.  Often when choosing English names, students seem to just choose any word that they like the sound of.  I actually think it is cute and a little poetic, but I wanted my students to have real names regardless.  Not that I was entirely honest about what names are "popular" in the US.  I compiled a list of names including many of my friends and family and some of my favorite literary characters.  Then I read the list to my students, and had them choose from the list.  So now Baoding Eastern Bilingual School is populated with all of my favorite people and the entire cast of characters from Harry Potter.  For some reason no one wanted to be named Knightley, Mercutio, Juliet or Sherlock, but I did convince one boy to take the name Darcy. 
Some of my older students already had names in mind, and of course I let them choose whatever name they wanted, so I also ended up with a boy named Friend and a girl named Bubbles.

Home, pt. 2

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life - and travel - leaves marks on you. Most of the time, those marks - on your body or on your heart - are beautiful. Often, though, they hurt.”

― Anthony Bourdain, The Nasty Bits: Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones

 

I believe that travel changes you.  When you take yourself out of a world where you are comfortable, you make yourself vulnerable to the new and unfamiliar.  You depend more on the kindness of strangers.  You learn that your way of thinking is not the only way and is often not the right way.  

 

When I came to Baoding six months ago, I didn't think that I would ever belong here.  I was excited to spend a year living in a strange place, as an outsider.  I looked forward to experiencing new and unexpected things every day.  I looked forward to spending time alone and reading all the books I hadn't had time for in college.  I looked forward to observing Chinese life and learning as much as I could.  But I didn't expect Baoding to become my home.  

 

For me, homesickness is aptly named.  I miss my home and think about it every day.  There are times when my longing for home is incapacitating.  Iola, its people and its heart and its heritage, has an ironclad hold on my heart.  But I believe it is possible to have more than one home, that hearts and minds can expand to hold all those changes that life makes on them.  It wasn't until I left mainland China for Hong Kong last week that I realized how much I had come to think of Baoding as home.  I began to wish constantly that I were home, but in my daydreams lefse and jiaozi were mixed up together.  I felt an odd desire to tell people that I was from China, that the reason I couldn't speak any Cantonese wasn't because I was American, but because I was Baoding-ese.  I honestly couldn't tell which place I wanted to go home to, I just knew that it was time for me to go home.  

When I got to China, I was completely vulnerable.  I didn't speak the language, I didn't know anyone, and I certainly didn't know how to teach.  I am often stubborn and want to figure things out on my own, but in Baoding that wasn't an option.  I needed to ask for help.  I needed to accept kindness and patience from others.  I found that kindness in an old friend from Carleton, in my co-teachers, in my students, in a rickshaw driver who speaks no English, in my American friends.  When I left myself vulnerable, Baoding made an indelible mark on my heart.  

Now I'm back in Baoding and getting ready to start the new semester.  Even though my trip through southern China was the adventure of a lifetime, I am so glad to be home and to get back to teaching.  I still feel homesick for Iola, of course. But it is mixed with a love for this place, and I know that when I do go home in July, I will feel homesick for Baoding. 

Hong Kong Culture Shock

I want to apologize in advance for all of my readers who love Hong Kong. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have become a little exhausted from traveling for so long.  I've met several people on this trip who are traveling for several months or years or around the world, and honestly I have no idea how they can do it.  After three weeks of repacking my backpack and overnight buses, I was longing for my home base in Baoding.  By the time we got to Hong Kong last Friday, after a 15 hour overnight bus ride through Spring Festival traffic, I was running low on energy and enthusiasm.  Added to that was some confusion with my debit card, the exorbitant prices of everything in Hong Kong compared to mainland China, and the unfriendly nature of our hostel.  I spent the first two days in Hong Kong watching Ellen Degeneres videos on YouTube and going to American movies in the mall across the street with my friend Katie.  Despite my best efforts to have a horrible time, Hong Kong started to grow on me, and I know I will be back someday to really see and experience the city.

Hong Kong is very different from mainland China.  It was a British territory until 1997 when it was given back to China, and it still retains some autonomy from China, at least for now.  Because of this, English is very widely spoken in Hong Kong.  In fact, Mandarin Chinese was entirely useless, and it was slightly disorienting to be somewhere where everyone spoke English.  I tried to learn some Cantonese phrases, but for some reason nothing stuck.  I kept thinking in Mandarin, and at restaurants or such places, I would immediately think "xie xie" but stop myself from saying that only to think "thank you" and stop myself from saying that only to hesitantly whisper the Cantonese "m goi " after the waiter had already gone.  
Other than struggling to master even the most basic phrases in Cantonese, I spent my time in Hong Kong eating lots of international food (Korean, American, Indian, British etc.), wandering around various markets and enjoying a few western luxuries.  I did go to Victoria's Peak one day, but I didn't get any good pictures because it was too foggy.  After a few very lazy days and way too much time in Starbucks with the free wifi, I actually started to wish I had more time in Hong Kong to explore after I had recovered from my travels.  But, as with so many other parts of this trip, that is just another reason to go back someday. 

Bamboo Rafts and Li River Models

Here are some pictures from rafting down the Li River near Yangshuo with my friends Lex and Katie:

We spent an day floating down the river and then, after a confrontation with a water buffalo and a shopping spree at a painting store, we biked back to Yanshuo.