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.

The Principal of the Matter

No, the title is not a misspelling. My first day at NDFZ the principal, who is new to the school, invited Sophie and me to his house for lunch. Seven months later (I had to recount that a few times… I’ve been here for seven months? That’s insane!) he finally set a date for the occasion.

We were informed last week that we would be having lunch with the principal on Sunday the 10^th. A car would come to pick us up (not as fancy as it sounds, it’s kind of a “thing” here) at 9 AM, since, as you all know, 9 AM is when I start most of my lunches. Sophie and I had no idea what to expect, because in China, expectations are always a bad idea: they’re always wrong.

Surprise number one, Zhou Laoshi, the head English teacher for the Juniors who is incredibly generous and is kind of our second supervisor after Fang Laoshi, was in the car waiting for us! So I guess she was invited as well. Surprise! When we arrived, we were led through a labyrinth of apartment buildings, and finally up to the top floor of one of the identical looking homes. The principal’s house was gorgeous.

I have been in enough upper middle class Chinese homes by now to make a few generalizations, so here they are… First of all, as many of you know, it is considered impolite to wear your shoes in someone’s home. Some houses I’ve just worn my socks, in some houses they have “guest slippers” for visitors, but in the principal’s house, they gave us those plastic shoe covers that scientists or surgeons wear, so in my mind, seeing these higher up NDFZ staff walking around in bright blue plastic shoe coverings was pretty funny. Also, no one took off his or her coat the entire time. It was like the opposite of an American get together, where it would be shoes on coat off. That day, it was coats on shoes covered in weird plastic elastic.

Next commonality between all houses I’ve seen: professional photos. There are professional photographs of the woman of the house everywhere. And they are always super edited so that she looks like she’s, say, reading a magazine or cooking in the kitchen or sitting by a plant or whatever, in a movie dream sequence. As the visitor, you always have the option to look through her photo album filled with said professional pictures. And all engagement photographs have a few themes, one traditional Chinese, one in a Western white dress and tux, and then regular engagement photos: them at the park, them with photo-shopped flowers in the back, etc.

While we were having a tour of the house, surprise, all the vice-principals were also invited so our number was more like fourteen instead of the original six (the principal, his wife, Fang Laoshi, Zhou Laoshi, Sophie and me.) We all sat around and ate (which, in China, means that the host or hostess is constantly handing you more food that you cannot decline and pouring you more tea.) I stocked up on fruit, nuts, and chocolate because I knew afterward we were going to a banquet style lunch, and those can either feature incredibly delicious foods or foods that are mostly animal fat, and I didn’t want to be hungry later. One of the vice principals told me it was good that the principal invited us (me and Sophie) to his home, because it gave the principal and his wife a chance to clean the house, prepare for guests, and “learn how to love each other more fully.” Not sure what that means, but I’m happy to have helped. I guess.

I knew that we would be eating lunch at a restaurant, but what I didn’t know is that it was a restaurant/golf resort. Surprise! When we arrived (around 11 AM, by the way) we found the principal and his wife on the balcony of our private room hitting golf balls into a large field. I successfully swung and hit a few balls into the green while Quit Playing Games (with my Heart) by the Backstreet Boys played in the background. Inexplicable, as per usual. As an appallingly frightful mini golf player, I was worried that those skills would hamper my regular golf ability in front of respected leaders of NDFZ. But it was no problem. I golfed with the best of them.

I tried to learn how to play a popular Chinese card game by watching the principal, Fang Laoshi, Zhou Laoshi, and the school’s driver (I guess since he drove us to the place he was able to join us for lunch?) play but it literally made no sense. Sometimes they put one card down, sometimes more. Sometimes the cards they put down had something in common (they were a straight, same colors, same numbers, same suit) and sometimes they seemingly had nothing in common. Sometimes they took turns around the circle, sometimes they didn’t. Plus it was played with two decks, so who knows…

The food was banquet-y, which means some dishes I really liked and some were continuously heaped onto my plate and I nibbled slowly and pretended it was delicious. I have gotten really good at dealing with banquet food. Basically, it is impolite not to at least try the things that the person next to you has put on your plate or urged you to eat. However, if it is congealed duck blood soup or crystallized pork fat, it might not taste as good as expected. So what happens next? I realized early that regular tea often isn’t served at these banquets; instead it’s an extremely sweet, gloopy liquid that is either purple or white and, in my opinion, is undrinkable. So you can’t take a sip of something to ease the crab stomach you just ate down your throat. And the only food you liked, some vegetable or noodle dish is all the way on the other side of the lazy Susan. So, lately, I’ve been stocking up my plate with things I know I like (preferably bread-y or vegetable stuffs) and then when someone insists I try something like “pigeon” or “tofu and raw meat soup,” I chase it, if you will, with something I know I like. It’s been working out fairly well, especially because it allows me to eat more of the food that is truly delicious at the banquet. Worse comes to worse, fruit is always served at the end of the meal. The fruit plate usually has watermelon, but the other fruits are a surprise. It often has tomatoes. Birthday cakes, other pasties, and fruit salads often have tomatoes in and around them as well. Not sure who to cite here, but I saw a great quote about this phenomenon on Facebook: “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.” Truer words, guys, truer words.

Before I arrived in China, I had ceded the fact that I would spend a lot of time listening to people speaking Chinese and would have no idea what was happening. Sophie, Fang Laoshi, and Zhou Laoshi are good about translating for me, but there are still a bunch of times where I just sit there daydreaming while they converse. I’ve gotten really good at learning the cadences of the Chinese, so I know when to smile (because they’re telling a joke) and look concerned (when they’re talking about something serious.) But during this banquet, I was excited to discover how much I understood. I couldn’t necessarily answer the questions in Chinese (posed in Chinese) but I could answer them in English! And I couldn’t contribute to the discussions happening, but I could follow a few conversations. My Chinese has improved so much! I am really looking forward to May, when I will start having serious lessons 2-3 times a week rather than just one.

By 12:45, which felt like late afternoon for me, we headed home. I fell asleep in the car. Spending the entire day translating and trying to be culturally acceptable is difficult! But at the end of the day, this China Doll was just happy she didn't have to eat the snake skin sitting out on the lunch table... it's the principal of the matter.

Brie and Soph's Excellent Adventure Part V

Brie and Soph's Excellent Adventure Part V: The Final Countdown

Sophie and I basically spent six days “getting back to Nanjing.” We left Koh Chang for Bangkok in the mid-afternoon. We spent one night and half a day in Bangkok. Since we weren’t sure what to do in one day, we ended up going to a market with one of the women who stayed in our dorm-style hostel with us. She was from Germany but lived in Spain. She was super cool: as a side job, she travels to Thailand and buys things to resell in Spain.

 Flowers and sunglasses

Fake flowers




















The Chatuchak market is famous in Bangkok for being enormous and overwhelming. We only spent a few hours there but I think we barely made a dent. I loved all the jewelry, vintage clothes, and random stalls that sold only plastic purses or denim products.

We then flew to Chiang Mai. We met up with Maddie and Heather at the Sunday walking market for dinner and walked around some. Afterwards, we sat in the tree house at our hostel (yes, there was a tree house at my hostel… it’s Thailand don’t ask questions) and just hung out for the night. Sophie and I were exhausted and I was starting to feel a little sick.

 Last papaya salad... boooo

The colorful hill tribe accessories



















The next morning we flew to Hong Kong (see what I mean about it taking “six days” to get back?) We stayed with a different friend of a friend who is now, I would say, a one degree of separation friend. At that point, I had a bad cold and couldn’t stay awake for longer than a few hours at a time. So the next day I didn’t really do much, even though there is so much to do in Hong Kong. For lunch, Sophie and I got dim sum at a fancy restaurant.

Great tea and great dimsum

Looking classy 

Some kind of glass noodle dumpling, it was great!














Afterwards, we took the star ferry and walked around downtown Hong Kong island. 

 View from the star ferry

Hong Kong skyline 

Some random chick 

Cool escalator at a Hong Kong art museum 


















In honor of Chinese New Year

Skyline at night

Even though it was the last day of our travels, I was so exhausted and sick that it didn’t make sense to go crazy. We got Western food for dinner, since a lot of restaurants were closed for Chinese new year (and also, I really miss it!)

The next day, we headed to the train station in Shezhen for our long trip back. This time around, we didn’t have sleepers, we only had seats for the 25 hour train ride. There are definitely advantages to having seats rather than sleepers. It made the “awake” parts of my trip easier. But they don’t turn off the lights at night in the seated cars, and even though it was 4 AM people were still up and talking. Sophie and I were not the only people making the trip from Shenzhen to Nanjing in seats, there were other Chinese people with us from start to finish. The trip would have been easier if I wasn’t so sick. But I got to read, play set, and befriend a small adorable Chinese boy, so all in all it wasn’t that bad.

Three countries in three weeks! When I returned, lots of people asked me to tell them about my trip, but I saw so much and experienced an uncountable amount of new things. Writing it out blog-style really helped my comprehend the trip as a whole. In the end, I loved every minute of my travels. I can't choose a favorite part... can my favorite part just be the whole trip? And now that it’s over, I’m looking forward to my next adventure: Shanghai, Beijing and Xian!

Brie and Soph's Excellent Adventure Part IV

It took an entire day to get to Koh Chang from Cambodia, but it was a day well spent. When I have planned vacations for myself in the past, I have always chosen to go to places with historical, natural, or educational merit. I am not really an all-inclusive resort kind of person. However, I do love the ocean (Jersey girl over here) and I really wanted to relax by the beach after doing so much in Chiang Mai and Angkor Wat. I was exhausted!      

Brie and Soph’s Excellent Adventure Part IV: Island Girl

Koh Chang is an interesting island. There are lots of different beaches: “White Sand” beach is for resort lovers, Klong Prao is nicely secluded for couples, and “Lonely Beach” is for young backpackers. You can guess where I went.

The three main types of establishments on Lonely Beach were travel agencies, bars, and tattoo parlors. I was definitely in the minority with my un-inked skin. I stayed at Ice Beach hostel, the cheapest of the cheapest places we could possibly stay. I think it was about $3 a night. We stayed in a bungalow that was so small; all it fit was the double bed that Sophie and I shared. It had a mosquito net full of holes and one dinky light: we used our phones as flashlights. There was a shared outdoor bathroom for the group of bungalows, where the toilets didn’t have plumbing and the showers didn’t have hot water. Those things would have bothered me five years ago, but I’m a whole new person: it really wasn’t that bad.

Sophie and a new friend at our bungalow. We met him when we mistook him for another person we had met the night before! You can see the stone bathroom shacks in the background.








The first two days, we drank fruit smoothes and relaxed by the beach. All I did was nap, swim, and read. It was perfect. The water was so blue, and once you were in ocean there were great views of the mountains of Koh Chang. Sitting on the warm sand and doing nothing: I forgot how great that is…

The walk from our hostel to the beach

Sophie at the beach 

 Koh Chang sunset

Palm trees, sand, ocean, ahhhh

So. many. smoothies.














There were a lot of friendly backpackers staying in Koh Chang. A lot of them were resting on the beach and had been there for a week or two, since they were doing one year backpacking treks around Southeast Asia. I am not sure I could ever live out of a backpack for an entire year! There was a lot to do at night, a million little bars all in the same area, and my last night there was a huge party right on the beach.

On our last day, we did a half-day of snorkeling before getting on the bus to Bangkok. We went to a really small, private island off of Koh Chang (with a Chinese tourist group that snorkeled in their jeans and a very tacky, very Russian family.) At first, I was a little bummed because I couldn’t really see any fish. Our Thai guide would swim down and pick up cool shells, coral, and other giant spiky sea creatures… but no fish! However, I ventured off pretty far away from the group (I was actually worried the boat left without Sophie and me!) and I finally got to see some awesome, colorful fish. I had snorkeled before in the Caribbean when I was nine, and I remember seeing schools of small, colorful fish. This was really different. I saw lots of giant, colorful fish swimming alone. One was green and pink, almost zebra striped, with a yellow fin. One looked like it was hounds tooth patterned! I also saw a fish that was the brightest blue I had ever seen, it looked electrically neon. I’m glad I swam away from the crowd, because I think the group of people was scaring the fish away!

My private beach. Kind of.

 Ready to snorkel!

We left Koh Chang sunburned and rested. By that point I was getting pretty excited to go back to Nanjing to see my friends and sleep in my own bed. But I still had a long journey ahead of me…