我媽媽 - Beijing Edition

Beijing is one of those places that has so much to do and so much to see that it's hard to believe that anyone can even begin to chip away a dent in the long list of activities. But by golly, if my mom and I didn't try our darndest to see it all in this enormous city.

I began this trip to Beijing by reading "The Last Days of Old Beijing" by Michael Meyer on my kindle. It was on an Amazon best reads list the day I happened to be downloading books for my trip, and it ended up being great. It gave me a broader understanding of the history of Beijing and why it looks the way it does today, (two words: Olympics 2008.) So if you happen to be traveling to Beijing soon, or if you're just interested in reading a book that combines history, urban development, and funny stories about teaching like the ones I tell, it's the right book for you.

We stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast deep within the type of alleyway, (called a hutong) for which Beijing is very famous. The room was small, as many rooms are considering how overpopulated China is, but it was a really nice place to stay.

Don't interrupt a girl eating toast

The breakfast part of bed and breakfast

The hutong where we stayed

Our first full day in Beijing was really, well, full! We started off at Tiananmen Square, which was really uneventful because according to China, no events happened there to begin with. From there, we went to the Forbidden City, to Jingshan Park for a view of the entire palace, to Beihai Park for a boat ride, and to the touristy Hohai area. And if that wasn't enough, later that night we had dinner at an excellent restaurant called Black Sesame, where diners can sit in the kitchen and watch the chef prepare the meal. After the dinner, we ended up in a random bar with the other people at our dinner way in a labyrinth of hutongs. The bar looked like someone's home from the outside but ended up being a cute establishment in the inside.

In front of Tiananmen 

A traditional Chinese pose in front of the Forbidden Temple 

In the palace 

Forbidden dragon

Touch the lion for good luck!

The garden 

Ima walking in the garden

Me in the garden

Flowers and pagodas 

Awwwwww

Following the leader

View from Jingshan Park

View of us and the palace from Jingshan park

 

In Hohai

At the dinner

Delicious eggplant

So, we did a shot of 白酒 (baijiu.) Good times.

The next day was dedicated to the Great Wall. We arranged to go to a very out-of-the-way area in a small town called Gubeikou. For those interested, it was the "Winding Dragon" section of the wall, but no one we spoke to was familiar with this section. It is much less popular because it's totally unrestored. The walkway was narrow with a steep drop on either side. It also happened to be the only week of the year that the "apricot blossom" trees bloom (we're pretty sure they're apricot blossoms, but there may have been a translation error) and so the view was dotted with white flowers. Apparently the time we went was the best time to go, according to the old man who ran the ticket office, because that day the most amount of trees were in bloom, but the flowers would start to fall down the following day. Pretty sweet. Near the end of our trip, my mom and our guide waited for me at a tower thirty minutes away and I got to hike out further by myself. There was something so incredible about being out on this historic, larger-than-life world wonder all by myself.

The. Wall. And. Apricot blossoms.

Ima and our guide, Sonia

Mother/daughter Great Wall day!

Had to take selfies, since I was all alone :)

Winding wall

Picturesque

Oh, self-timer, thanks for proving I was on the wall.

Can you spot the China Doll?
(bonus points for finding Sonia!)

Our next day, we woke up early for a market tour and Chinese cooking class. Later, we went to the Lama temple...

Unsurprisingly, Sabra was the star of the class

A++++++++

香菜牛肉
(Stir fry beef with chilli, Sichuan pepper, and coriander)

麻婆豆腐
(Mapo doufu, spicy tofu) 

三杯鸡
(Three cup chicken)

干扁四季豆
(Spicy green beans)

Bell tower

Spinning thing that sends your prayers off

Incense

 With yet another early start, we headed to Panjiayuan Market AKA the "dirt" market AKA the "antique" market of Beijing (the real antiques are few and far between, it's mostly chotchkies.) Later, we visited the Kingdom of Heaven, an area which used to be a religious site for the emperors, but now it is mostly just a beautiful garden area. From there, we walked to Qianmen Street, which is a large modern shopping area with intricate hutongs filled with cheap-y trinket places and restaurants behind it. That night, we got dinner with a friend from Grinnell, Meg, who is spending a semester in Beijing. She took us to a really funky Tibetan restaurant, which included live music and dancing...

Off to bargain...

The temple

Wedding pictures 

Ima, living in the hutong of Qianmen
with a few local residents

Meg and me!

Delicious Tibetan food.

Due to some unforeseen complications involving the stupidity of the English language, which uses confusing words like "Sunday" and "Monday" instead of the much easier Chinese system, Day 1, Day 2, etc., my mom and I stayed an extra day in Beijing. It ended up being for the best, because we used this day to go to the "Pearl" market, and to a super secret handbag place that an expat we met at Black Sesame told us about. We had to go over a bridge, through some alleyways, and into a scary looking warehouse, but we left with some very nice fake designer handbags, jewelry, shoes, and sunglasses. We thought it would be our easy, relaxing day off, but instead we were out for over 12 hours. Ooops!

I had a great time in Beijing. Like in Shanghai, we didn't get lost ONCE and I spoke Chinese to waiters, ticket takers, and random people on the street. I was worried that we would be overwhelmed in Beijing, but the geography is easy to understand and the metro is really convenient. I can't believe how much we did and how much we saw: Beijing took up a little under half of our four-city trip. Even though we did so much, I'm already planning my next trip there (with an important stop at the underground handbag place, of course...)

Bonus picture: My new boyfriend and me

我媽媽 - Shanghai Edition

Like, OMG you guyzzz! My mom (我媽媽) is here!

We spent our first few days in Shanghai. Our first day was incredibly rainy, so we went to the Propaganda Art Museum. As a history major who is pretty nerdy about WWII propaganda, I thought the museum was pretty interesting. It is all privately owned by one Chinese man, who organized the museum for tourists. Everything was very carefully worded. He had great posters that glorified Mao and Co. and demonized Americans. He also had some cool artwork of the Shanghai girls of the 1920s.

The museum is near Taikang Lu, which is a maze of streets with art galleries, boutique shops, cafes, and bars galore. My mom, who is currently decorating her new home, found some artwork to hang on the walls. Taikang Lu was so Western I often forgot I was in China. That is, until I heard the sweet sweet sounds of an old guy hocking up spit.

That evening, we had a hot pot adventure (never ordered at a hot pot restaurant. Now I can.) and afterwards we saw the New Era Acrobat show. I don't care if you're eight years old, eighty years old, or a surly and cynical eighteen year old, that show was seriously amazing. A performer would come onstage and I would think "wow, he's going to balance on that wooden plank which is precariously on a round piece of glass" or "wow, those contortionists will make a pyramid" or "wow, there's a motorcycle in that ball that looks like a hamster exercise toy" but that was always only their first move. Then, the guy would add more glass and more wooden planks, then use his feet to kick teacups onto his head, which he balanced, and I was like HOLY %&@. Then, the contortionists would build up the pyramid and the guy would balance it all on one hand and I was like HOLY #$!. Then, they would put one more, then one more, then one more motorcycle in that tiny hamster ball until there were SEVEN motorcycles and I was speechless, watching the whole show through the cracks of my fingers. Clearly, loved the acrobat show. Not ashamed to admit it.

We woke up early the next morning for a Jewish tour of Shanghai. This tour was incredibly comprehensive and served not only as a great lesson on Jewish history, but on the history of Shanghai as a whole. I learned how Shanghai became an international port, with the Americans, French, British, and Australian governments all with stakes in the city. I was especially surprised to learn how much of the commercial areas of Shanghai were built by Jews from Baghdad. It was a lot of information and I spent a lot of time learning it: the tour didn't end until 2 PM at which point I was starved.

The park dedicated to Shanghai Jews

The Jewish Quarter

Thin "streets" for apartments called a "lilong"

Kind of like a Jewish star?

After the Jewish tour, my mom's college/early working gal bud Joan (who I visited in November, for those of you wanting chronology here) took us to a Chinese bathhouse. I faced all my prudish fears and de-robed for the saunas and hot tubs. I got some kind of traditional scrub thing, which was painful at first but totally worth it because my skin is so soft now I'm almost creeped out by it.

Between the bathhouse and the five hour tour, my mom and I crashed around 9 PM. We woke up the next morning and wandered around the Yuyuan Gardens area, not actually entering the Yuyuan garden for lack of good signage. We also had a bit of an adventure with a woman who worked at an arts and crafts stall who was determined to find me embroidery floss so I could continue my immature hobby of making friendship bracelets.

Isn't my mom beautiful?

Later, we killed time around Fuxing Park, because we our noodle tour left from that area. Yes, noodle tour. I have always been a fan of noodles (studied abroad in Italy, of course) and I was so excited for this tour of Shanghai's best noodle shops. The tour included six dishes from four restaurants (plus egg tarts from a famous bakery), a tour of the French concession area with stops at an antique shop, lilong, and coffee shop, and a tour of a Shanghai wet market (sans bird-flu infected chickens.)

Fish noodles

Hole-in-the-wall

My favorite noodles, from the aforementioned establishment.
Sesame chili noodles!

Simple yet delicious garlicky onion noodles 

This guy really wanted his picture taken
(at the wet market)

Egg tart from Lillian's Bakery

We rolled ourselves back to Joan's beautiful home around 8 PM, and prepared for our early departure the next morning. Unlike literally every other trip I have ever taken, we are yet to get lost. I'm sure we will, it's in our nature, but the fact that I managed to lead us around Shanghai (and a bit to Beijing: fast forward, I'm writing this from our hotel on the Hutong) is incredibly impressive. I am also surprised how much Chinese seems to fall out of my mouth when necessary: I guess I know more than I think I know. Granted, who knows how grammatically correct I am... I probably sound like a complete idiot. But I'm feeding us, leading us, and spending time with my mom so in general it's been a great trip so far.

Shot from inside a Shanghai lilong

To Boston, With Love

One of the strangest things about living in China is hearing about American domestic news. The time difference is such that I find out about an event as soon as I wake up, but am unable to get more information throughout the late morning and afternoon, since it is late evening/very early morning EST and reporters are done for the day. I counted down the minutes at school until I could rush home and check to see what areas of the east coast were devastated by Hurricane Sandy, since my internet at school wasn't working. Sophie and I refreshed and refreshed and refreshed current events websites waiting for the election results during our lunch break. The bombings in Boston were no different.

The night before our class, (so the morning of the Boston marathon) Sophie and I were wracking our brains, wondering what we should do with our seniors this week. Our lesson planning time has become shorter and shorter as we've become better teachers, or perhaps as we've gotten more apathetic (I choose the former.) Our friend Liz was waiting to hang out with us after we were done. We had started a few weeks ago on the topic of "cities." First, we did the history and music of NYC (thanks to Sinatra and Jay-Z, for making guest appearances.) Then we asked them to tell us about the pros and cons of living in Nanjing. Later, we asked them to create a perfect city. 

"I taught them the word utopia last week, what if we did something with that?" I offered haphazardly. No bad ideas in brainstorming. 

"Too hard," said Sophie. "We did perfect city, what about perfect world?" 

"We could play them Imagine by John Lennon," I suggested; our younger kids were learning "Yellow Submarine." 

"They can discuss what is wrong with the world and how to improve it." said Sophie. Thus, our lesson was born.

The next morning, I read about the bombs. I felt numb. I have family and friends in Boston. I've thought about living in Boston. I have such happy memories there. What could have possibly happened? But I had no time to research, as class was about to start.

The class went over pretty well. China has different laws and therefore different conceptions about violence: no ordinary citizens own guns or bomb making equipment (legally.) There are issues with knife violence, but Chinese people simply don't worry about terrorism in the same way Americans do, for plenty of reasons that are both related and unrelated to gun control. But hearing my students realize on their own that a world in which weapons were banned, a world in which starving children had enough food to eat, and a world in which discrimination  (I had to teach them this word) ceased to exist was a world we could work together to create, was really uplifting.

I had my entire class sing "Imagine" that day. Hearing them sing made me feel more at ease. The other Chinese English teachers said that the students rarely have opportunities to discuss the current world in which we live. The teachers asked for our lesson plan, so that they could repeat the lesson in future years. Not only was that a huge compliment, but I hope they really do continue to teach current events. I never realized that something so vital to my education was not integrated into the Chinese system. I really do hope the teachers use this lesson next year, because the only way to improve the world is to first acknowledge that there are problems that need fixing.

Number 3

If you want to see a truly heinous picture and read some adequate prose, check out my third quarterly Grinnell Corps Report:

Briel's 3rd Grinnell Corps Report

I had a lot of trouble writing this report, which is odd because writing these blog posts (when I actually get around to writing them) flows so naturally. I can't believe I only have one quarterly report left before my time with Grinnell Corps is over... so crazy. Enjoy!

"What Should We Call Me?" Awards

This semester, I have 425 students, each with their own special and unique name. Or not, if their name is Lily. I have sixteen students named Lily. In this blog post, each name will fight to death to be known as the best (or worst) of their nomenclature.

Athletes 
(we're counting pro-wrestlers as athletes, by the way...)
Randy Orton, CM Punk, Kobe, Lebron James, Iverson, The Rock, Cena, Undertaker Triple H

Winner: Undertaker Triple H. Imagine me saying, "Ok, so, what is the conflict of this story? Anyone? Anyone? Undertaker Triple H?"

Apparently Undertaker Triple H is a combination of the names of these two wrestlers.
Incidentally, the gentleman on the left was the star of my latest nightmare.

Definitely Boys Names
Peach, Stunning, Goldust, Bright, Rainbow

Winner: Goldust. Not a real word, which is interesting because he's one of my most well-spoken students.

Country Club Members
Scofield, Bond, Winston, Hunter

Winner: Winston.

That Thing That Explains the Science in a Sci-Fi movie
Protoss Judicator YZF, Maxime Testard, Quentun Stark

Winner: Protoss Judicator YZF, although I call him YZF for short. "The inter-dimensional time portal is being altered by the Protoss Judicator YZF... better adjust the Quentun Stark and resume the hyper-connection in the Maxime Testard!"

Duets 
(kids who sit next to each other in class)
Wendy + Wency, Apple + Jax, Jas + Aum, Zoro + Sparta, Mike H + Mike L, Angelica + Cynthia (SHE'S A REALLY COOL DANCER!) Water Z. and Water W. (not typos, they're both named Water. Both. Named. Water.)

Winner: Apple + Jax. The two Mikes came in a close second, because they're both insanely tiny and don't speak any English, but that's more of a joke for me. Apple Jax is better.

Hey, these don't taste like apples!

Well, That's a Word...
Burrows, Demon, Tyrant, Echo, Sirius, Leisurely, Tank

Winner: Demon. The first day of class, I asked if she knew what the word meant. She recited a dictionary-perfect definition. Demon, OK then.

Random Letters Put Together Randomly
(Male Category)
Zomber, Catschen, Tenimpelia, Elic, Parkel, Airloy, Gank, Rance, Foren, Saxia, Relouis

Winner: Tenimpelia. Seriously... where did that come from? Lucky for Tenimpelia, I can't pronounce his name so I never call on him in class.

Random Letters Put Together Randomly
(Female category)
Prayal, Berya, Misaya, Vlinn, Lintu (Grey Dante), Marman

Winner: Lintu (AKA Gret Dante). Lintu destroyed the name card that the students keep on their desks (come on guys, 425 students, I need those damn name cards) and so I insisted she make a new one. Instead of writing her name "Lintu" she wrote "Grey Dante" which makes her name doubly strange. Annoyed, I insisted she go by Lintu. These kids love changing their names on me, it's highly unfair! I actually remembered her name was Lintu! I should get some credit for that! You also may remember her from the infamous "Her Name is Rio" scandal.

Other
Eagle, Panda, JK Rowling, Herbert

Winner: Herbert. I mean, clearly.

The best part of this funny names ordeal is that many of these students are the best at English in their class. So even though their English is really great, they still chose these bizarre names. With over 400 students, the students with stranger names are easier for me to remember.