The Village

There is a very traditional, rather poor village right outside my college gate.
Here are some photos I took of it:
Walking into the village



A Typical Building




A waterbuffalo wandering through town

A vegetable vendor


A very cute little girl

I Made a Recording for Huangguoshu Waterfall

Here's the first of my five updates, as promised!

About a month ago, I got a call from Miss Zhang. She's a university administrator in the English Department. It turns out that the people from Huangguoshu waterfall called the university to ask if a foreigner would make some recordings in English for the waterfall. I considered it for a few minutes, and said yes.

She and I had a few phone calls to set up a time that was convenient for both me and them. We chose a Wednesday, at 6:00.

When that Wednesday rolled around the last thing I wanted to do was go back into town. But I did! I met two women at the school gate. We took the bus into town, to a recording studio.

I've only ever seen recording studios on TV and in movies. It was kind of fun. There was a room with all the controls and the computers, and a booth with headphones and a microphone. I had six typed pages of information to read for them. It read something like this (from my memory, so don't quote me on this):

Huangguoshu waterfall group, the largest waterfall group in Asia,
is located in south-west Guizhou province, 130 kilometers from the
capital city Guiyang, and 40 kilometers from Anshun...

Huangguoshu waterfall is the only waterfall in the world that can be
seen from six sides: the top, the bottom, the left, the right, the front
and the back...

It was fun and weird at the same time. If you're like me, you don't like to hear your voice recorded. I felt like I sounded childish. And, they kept asking me to be more "emotional". To me, those words don't evoke emotion... But I did my best!

They had a woman record the same text in Chinese. And if you take the free tour bus at the waterfall, you get to hear me!! Laura Leigh, one of the Peace Corps teachers, said she heard me! So I'm famous!

It was a lot of fun, and it's fun to think that I'll be leaving myself in China (hopefully) for years to come!

Longgong Caves

I have attempted to write this blog entry for nearly two months now. I think I am trying to put too many photos in it, and the internet keeps kicking me off. So, it remains to be seen whether this attempt will be successful!

In mid-December I had a chance to visit the Longgong Caves. They are a local "scenic spot". The government called the school to see if the foreign teachers would visit the caves as a way of promoting it. They are trying to increase their rating from a "4A" to a "5A" standing. And apparently foreigners are a good endorsement.

I was less than thrilled by the prospect. First of all, it would take up my entire Saturday. Second, we had to meet at 7:20am. Yuck! But I am so glad that I went - it was great!

Kelsey, Sara and I went, along with two other English department faculty (Chinese nationals).

We went to breakfast first - noodles. I am still not used to eating noodle soup for breakfast, but it was yummy.

There were celebrations at the caves (promotions for this "5A" rating thing):

->local minority dances


dragon dancing<-





We also went on a boat ride through the caves. I must admit, I was expecting something cold and cramped. But the caves were enormous and beautiful! The boat ride was the most fun.

We were served a pretty good lunch. Because we were "special guests" we had special food. I don't generally appreciate the special food. Special means turtle soup with whole turtles in it, chicken livers and chicken feet and heads. I would prefer poor people food any day! This was good, though.

The day had some good examples of things that are typically Chinese:

-We were given a survey to fill out about our experience. The Chinese teacher who was interpreting said "they ask that you would please mark 'very satisfied' for each category". How's that for ensuring that the responses are accurate!!

-There was some mis-translation on the signs. Here is my favorite. Read the labels for the phone numbers!
:)

Back in Anshun

Well, I'm home in Anshun. The journey from New York to Guizhou was long.

Friday February 9th my flight left Rochester at 9:45 am. I flew to Chicago where I got on board the flight to Beijing. Unfortunately there was a problem matching luggage with passengers, so we were delayed in the plane, on the ground for 2 and a half hours! That's a lot when it's tacked onto a 13 and a half hour flight. I arrived in Beijing two hours late.

Another couple from my organization was on the flight from Chicago with me. The three of us split a taxi to the hotel where we were having our conference. We had dinner and a short introduction time and then went to bed.

The next three days were part ESL teacher conference, part sight-seeing around Beijing. I got to see the Great Wall, which was great!

I also went to the Silk Market, which is famous for being a good place to buy things cheaply in Beijing. I bought three pearl necklaces for 130 kuai (about $16 total).

Beijing also had such great international dining options. It is certainly different from the China I deal with on a daily basis!

We also were trying to get train tickets back to Guizhou. The problem was that we were trying to travel too close to the Spring Festival. Spring Festival is what the Chinese call Chinese New Year. And, much like Thanksgiving in the US, pretty much everyone goes home. So the trains, planes and buses are full. We didn't get train tickets for the 14th like we had hoped. The earliest we could go was February 17th.

So two other ULS teachers and I stayed in Beijing for three more days. Another ULS teacher who lives in Beijing was gracious and allowed us to stay with her. We went to the Summer Palace to do some sightseeing. It was really cool.

The 17th Susie (ULS teacher in Guiyang) and I got on the train to Guiyang. It was a 29 hour train ride. We had "hard sleeper" seats. It was great - we had beds in the same compartment. There was hot water for noodles (like Ramen), a reasonably clean bathroom, pillows, lights - everything you could want for a long trip! And it was easy to sleep because of the rocking motion of the train.

The train arrived in Guiyang February 18th at 8:30 pm. I spent the night with Susie, since the buses had stopped running for the night. The next morning I caught a bus to Anshun, and a taxi to the university. And 10 days after my departure I was home!!

My apartment is a little musty from being closed up for five and a half weeks. I had to restock my kitchen since I got rid of all perishable food before I left. Shopping today was intense - I had a long list! And since I have to take the bus in and out I can only buy as much as I can carry. At the end of the trip my backpack was full and I had large shopping bags in both hands. And I didn't even get as much as I needed. I'll go to the more local market tomorrow morning to get the rest of what I need.

Classes start March 5th. So I have a week and a half to get my life in order for the second semester. Campus is very quiet. My neighbors are at home, but all of the students are gone. The mail room board says that I had mail (as of 2/16). But it is closed right now for the holiday.

I will write more later about the things I saw in Beijing.

Happy [Chinese] New Year!

Guigong

Well, we had a nice weekend in Guiyang. Friday we left at 10:30, got to the bus station by 11ish and on the bus to Guiyang at 11:10. We arrived about 90 minutes later and had lunch at a little restaurant. Then we went to Walmart (one of the main things to do when visiting Guiyang!) and took a taxi back to the Financial College where Kara and Susie teach. We stayed with them for the weekend. The four of us went to Rebecca's for dinner and met up with 8 more people there. It was all young English teachers. We had dinner and played games - fun!
Saturday we went to Guigong (gway-gong) to go swimming. Kris taught at that campus for five years before coming to Anshun. The campus is on the edge of Guiyang, like a suburb. We had lunch there and then rented a boat and went on the lake. It was the most beautiful lake I've ever seen: there were wooded mountains all around it. The water has a high mineral content and feels "silky" when swimming. We paddled the boat out for twenty-five minutes or so and then jumped in! The air was cool (65 degrees), but the water was warm (80 degrees). It was wonderful!
After swimming around for a half hour or so, we went back to the boat. And because the air was so cool, we pulled the boat back rather than getting out into the cold air to paddle!
We're talking about going back sometime. Hopefully by that time my batteries will be charged in my camera!
It felt a little like a dream it was so beautiful. I wish you all could have been there with me!