I'm alive!

What a week, what a week...I can't go into details now, but I finally
created a gmail account to let my poor mother know I am alive. I have
had all kinds of problems emailing this week (I sense
censorship!)...anyway, last night I was desperate to let my family
know that I still exist and finally went to the hotel computer to try
one last time to see if hotmail would work. Again, I could read
messages, but could not send them - except I could send a subject line
- only, I couldn't get the words into English...so, I typed a
desperate "I'm alive!" in Chinese, and sent it. My group members
think you will all assume I am being held for ransom and that you are
frantically decoding the script. But no, I am on my break at school,
trying gmail. Hope it works and hope to get back to tell some more
stories soon!

New Pictures Added

This is Brian, Marjie's brother in Bellingham.

Just a quick note to let you know that Marjie and I are having some trouble getting pictures to upload correctly from China. She sent me some new pictures via email last night and I've added them into the posts below. If you've been following along with Marjie's trip you may want to scroll through her previous posts to see some of the pictures that go with them. You can also click the "Marjie's Pictures on Flickr" link in the right sidebar to see a few more.

Enjoy!

Details

It's Monday evening...I was DREADING school today after traveling with 1.3 billion Chinese on the train this weekend and after my miserable Friday, but actually it went really well. I taught them "I am sick, tired, thirsty, hungry, freezing..." We had the same schedule today, but who knows about tomorrow! I am getting some emails from other ACT members teaching in other cities and the consensus is that "This is China!" In keeping with our theme from today, I have a sore throat and a cough; after school I went to the massage place (where we got foot massages) and asked them for a half an hour massage, pointing to my neck to my back. That worked; it was shiatsu massage in a cedar smelling room and it cost me $3. I just want to be alone tonight, so I am here sending pictures and will go back to a Korean restaurant where I asked if they served "Bi Bim Bop" and they said yes!

My flash cards rule! And Kathy from Norway suggested "Around the World" with them and they loved it. I think that this week I will get into the swing...too bad they weren't organized to begin with, but hey, it's China!

Some more details about the school: classrooms are very bare bones and supplies are limited. They have chalk, a blackboard and little wooden desks with wooden chairs (no backs). On each stair there is an engraved date, when the building of the school was completed; ours was completed 1996.8 (August of 1996).

Everything is learned by rote memory...we have seen a few teachers hit students with rulers, but for the most part, if some of them are not writing things down (mostly boys) the teachers are not too concerned. After lunch, all of the kids and teachers put their heads down for a "rest." The bathrooms smell terrible in the afternoon when it is hot...and I have heard that there are no toilets, but rather you squat over a hole. Fortunately, I can hold it a long time...I use the toilet in the hotel in the morning and then not again until about 4:30, at the end of our day. Between 11:15 and 1:15 we have a break where we can do whatever we want: eat the cafeteria food, go back to the hotel, email in the computer lab upstairs (where hotmail does not work) or hang out with the TA's in the break room. They are nice and giggly and fascinated with American culture. Sometimes Miguel brings his guitar to teach them songs, or they just flirt with him. He is the only one with a male assistant, Gary. The other day he went home with Gary and met his girlfriend; he says she is very controlling. We are all trying to think of how to tell him he has a billion women to choose from...why her? All the TA's like him too. We are planning to see their college after school on Thursday.

I brought my laptop with a couple of powerpoints showing Seattle and my friends, family and students. Things they were impressed with: Devon's braces, Nolan eating watermelon, Megan doing the splits on the trampoline (wowwww!) and anyone who looks a bit Chinese: Preston Bhang, Claire Zwaschka, Ida Keeley. They were amazed over Sue Stangl being a firefighter.

Well, that's all I have energy for. Keep the messages coming and thank you!

"Monkfish Cooked in Crazy Water"

Another fun game to play in China to read the English sayings on t-shirts and again, using my time at the train station with a billion Chinese, I wrote some of them down for you. Note that most of them seem rather positive and happy, and as you read them picture them decorated with lots of sequins:

You supply the mirion waves what is love it remain the same eternal

It's a dragon let's wave

What is life? The air it's sunshine

Tonight more

Bummer me up

Lovely Dream Trip Vacation

Margaritha's with Buena Vista from la Rambla to Rio Grande

Love Dog

Nice move say when

Poetical romance peaceful

treat yourself to an extra special wish

happy holiday

This was worn by a man: sweet summer pretty smile amusing

This one got it right: The essence of pleasure is spontaneity

On last night's menu, there was a listing for "monkfish cooked in crazy water" and a sign outside with a drunken stick figure reading "drunken walking caution triping"

While in the book store, I was looking for a notebook and found a journal claiming (in gold engraved letters) "This will be the most comfortable book you will ever write in." I almost bought it but realized it did not look comfortable at all!

I am tired and really really don't feel I have the energy to teach lots of kids tomorrow, but at least I have flash cards and (hopefully) the same students all week.

You know what has really bothered me is that audience's reaction to Chairman Mao last night. Who can enlighten me about that? I look at some of the older people here and just can't fathom what they have lived through.

By the way, today Karis and I had our first scary experience (besides crossing the street, riding in taxis and being thrown in front of millions of different students last week). We were at the grocery store and I was taking pictures of the hearts, chicken feet, intestines and livers in the meat case and was just moving on to take pictures of the pretty buns when a guard approached and barked at me. I motioned that I meant no harm and he pointed at my camera, like he wanted it. I opened my bag and put it in and said I was sorry. He got out a walkie talkie radio and began to walk away, pointing at us to other guards. They were all having a powwow so Karis and I just walked over to the line and waited (for about half an hour - no express here). We thought for sure we were going to be escorted from the store and put in Chinese prison, but we escaped! I wonder if he would have taken my camera? I now have a slight understanding of what Middle Easterners must feel like with our reaction to them at times...

I'm glad to be back in our little polyester suburb, mostly because of my air-conditioned hotel room where I will now go to figure out my flash cards and lesson for tomorrow. Hope you are all well and again, I have to say, enjoying the mild Seattle weather, if you are in Seattle and it is mild!

Save yourself a trip to France

Back from the family vacation and I    NEED    SPACE!  The train station was packed with thousands of people.  We waited in line after line and thought we purchased standing tickets for the train but were pleasantly surprised to get seats. In Hangzhou, in addition to the pagodas, the thousand year old ruins and islands, we were overjoyed to find a bookstore with some English books...we bought flash cards and teaching materials since our school does not seem to have anything (but who knows, maybe tomorrow we will have the world!) Another nice thing - it has been cooler the past few days and rained lightly all day today, so we didn't feel completely dead - only slightly! The only day of hard rain we have had was on the very first day in Shanghai.

 

While we waited at the train station today, we were fascinated by all of the flavors of the Lay potato chips...so fascinated that I wrote them all down for you:

 

Mexican chicken tomato, cherry tomato, cucumber, lemon, texas grilled BBQ, Haikado grilled crab, sha sha chicken, French chicken, crispy drumstick, Italian red meat, Ziran steak, Crispy roasted pork, beef stew, Japanese Teriyaki, and Ketchup pork flavor.  We found two other Cheeto flavors (I hope the Cheeto eating vegetarian from Seattle has discovered them!): Japanese Steak flavored and American turkey.  We all bought a package and had an international smorgasborg; and I will tell you the truth...the turkey TASTED like turkey!  And the Japanese steak TASTED like Japanese Steak.  The cucumber, lemon, crispy chicken...it saves you from traveling the world to taste things. I myself have never eaten French chicken and can't wait to see what all the fuss it. Frito Lay is holding out on America with our measley four flavors. 

I Don't Think I'm Staying

On Friday, our classes were changed for the fourth time.  We were all so confused, as were the kids, but maybe they are used to it, living in China...I got a new fifth grade class at the very end of the day.  Fifth graders can make anyone want to go home from anywhere...the girls were sweet but the boys were crazy. All of us had the same experience- what a day to change the schedule again...plus, there was a typhoon brewing. Then on the way home I was almost hit by a rickshaw, the internet wouldn't connect at the cafe and when it finally did it froze, I got home and my room key didn't work and had to be reset, then when I got into my room my lights were burned out.  I just layed there, staring at the ceiling. 

 

It was Friday night and we all decided to meet in Shaoxing (in the city center) at Starbucks (not my idea), so Amy and I decided to take a cab to an Indian restaurant. I haven't mentioned the traffic patterns here...rickshaws, taxis, cars, busses, bicyclists and pedestrians all move in some sort of magic synchronicity here. The lights don't mean much, and neither do the crosswalks. Everyone just does where they want and if they come close to getting hit, they don't flinch.

 

All of us feel we are playing Frogger each time we cross the street but we are getting pretty good at it. Anyway, we take this taxi to the city and get Speed Racer for a driver. So not only are we coming within inches of busses and people and other cars, but he is driving like he is in Germany.  Amy started saying the Lord's Prayer and then switched to asking her mother who died last year to help us!  I honestly regretted that I had never told anyone a song to play at my funeral.

 

Obviously we made it, had a great dinner, then went to some bars in Shaoxing.  At one, the usual techno was playing and suddenly we heard "Every Sha la la la, every whoa whoa whoa..." Karen Carpenter...Amy and I went crazy, singing for everyone's entertainment. And I thought, hey, maybe that is "my song." Casey always said that the difference between me and her was that she was raised on Bob Dylan and I was raised on Karen Carpenter...

 

All in all, this is what traveling is - ups and downs and a lot of craziness. But really, what you want after even a week of being in a strange place where nothing works well and where the rules don't apply is just a Friday night dinner at the Phinney Market and a good night's sleep in your own bed (followed by a Chinese foot massage). 

The Sound of One Plastic Hand Clapping

Good morning from Hangzhou! We, the eight from Shaoxing, are on what Amy is calling "A Brady Family Vacation." She is calling me "Jan" and I am calling her "Marsha." "In heaven there is paradise, on earth there is Hangzhou" is what the Chinese say about their favorite tourist spot...we spent yesterday figuring out trains (we got a standing train only for over an hour) and finding a hotel, and were then treated to a day of taking little ferries to a series of Islands called "Falling Snow over a Broken Bridge Island" and "Birds Singing on the Bridge Island" and "Three Lakes Mirroring the Sky Island." This is a very beautiful city.

HOWEVER, I don't think I will travel with eight people again! The day moved very slowly, trying to wait for everyone. Finally, Amy and I decided to break off from the group to get Italian food and then go to a "show" - "thebest (sic)show in Hangzhou!"

We are ushered into a theater where we quickly note that we are the only Westerners and are seated at a table upon which are two 'clappers.' This clapper is three plastic hands connected to each other, green-red-yellow and is used to clap for the performers. We were a bit surprised as we thought this was going to be a fancy show and thought that surely the entertainment couldn't be all that good by the looks of the clappers. Then we were brought a tray of watermelon and Land of the Lost grapes and were given abour five dollars in change. A note here...we have come to say, simply, "We're in China" when odd things occur...so the plastic hands, the fruit plate and the money made us look at each other at the same time and say this, which struck us funny and we started to laugh. Shortly, the waitress came back, mortified, because she had delivered the money and fruit to the wrong table (which would be easy to understand if we didn't COMPLETELY stand out...) So this struck us even more funny and we started to laugh the kind of laugh that just won't stop. Within minutes we were crying and everyone was staring...which was even funnier. All of this occurred while a heartthrob warm up singer was on the stage, crooning with tight white pants, a vest and dark sunglasses (also projected on two "big screens" which were impossibly to see!

Thank God we calmed down by the time the main show started. I tried to take a video, but was reprimanded quickly, but oh my, what a sight. A Chinese variety show! Jugglers, dancing, drums, Opera singers, Chinese opera singers...a man sitting in front of me turned around and asked where we were from, and was instantly embarrassed...he said, "Oh! This show really isn't for Western taste!" But we loved it. The best part was definitely the eight girls dressed in long pink socks and tutus, juggling four volleyball looking items with their feet. They played catch with these balls while they contorted their bodies into unimaginable positions. The other show that blew us away was the one where eight Japanese samurai warriors came out and were eventually annhilated by the Chinese, to much plastic hand applause. At the end of the "battle," a huge banner of Chaiman Mao came down...the clappers went mad!

What a night, what a place. Amy is very involved in theater at home in LA...she was thrilled. She does improv, writes and directs plays and sings in her brother's band, "Dick Diamond and the Family Jewels." She is so much fun, always a party. By the way, at the nice Italian restaurant we found, we heard music coming from the top floor, so we decided to investigate...it was a place we were not welcomed - business men and call girls! Prostitution is "illegal" here; but in China, what rules apply? Prostitutes line the streets in front of certain "salons." It's wild.