Don't Sweat the Small Stuff (And It's All Small Stuff)

Things I should not have (or at least not as much as I had) worried about before coming to China:

1) Never being able to interact with Chinese people.
2) Hating real Chinese food.
3) Chinese people hating me.
4) Squat toilets.
5) Food safety.
6) Washing hands.
7) Having enough socks.
8) The smog.
9) Being forced to eat crazy things.
10) Internet access.
11) Accidentally seriously offending one of our Chinese hosts.
12) Not packing something that I would NEED and not be able to find.
13) Getting some crazy diseases.
Note: this may yet be a concern, so I don't really want to jinx it. Also, Mom please schedule a doctors appointment for when I get back so I can be sure I don't have malaria or yellow fever or something.

Things I probably should have thought about a little more:

1) Bringing more gifts for people.
2) Bringing my cell phone with the character recognition app.
3) Really learning left and right in Chinese.
Note: I struggle with this in English, and my poor Chinese teachers have taught us this again and again. I just seem incapable of remembering which is which.
4) Bringing my tennis shoes so I could play basketball and soccer with the guys at the farm.
5) Learning the numbers of the busses I need to use to get into the city from the farm.
6) Packing one pair of jeans.
7) Packing my medium-ish sized purse.
8) Preparing myself for a million stares and pictures.
9) Making and bringing some business cards.
10) Adding more music to my computer.
11) Packing more than one book that was not a textbook.
12) Not packing the boots, or so many socks and underwear.
13) Mosquitos. Bleh.

And now for pictures! These are hot off the presses from my morning adventure in Old Shanghai and the Former French Concession.

Does this not just scream "Pineapple" to you?

Look at his face! After I took this shot, an elderly Chinese couple starting forcing the poor dog to pose for me. They were then shocked when I spoke to them in Chinese. They were pretty adorable, and I would have taken their picture, but it seemed kind of rude at the moment.

This guy spotted my walking down the street holding a camera and demanded that I take his picture with the dog. He then had to double-check and approve the photo before continuing on his walk. 

Old Shanghai is filled with super-cool alleyways, like the kind you used to find all over China. 

This taxi driver claimed that he was a movie star, and forced me to take his picture. He then wanted one of his buddies to take a picture of us together, but I managed to get out of that one. The whole gang of them were pretty hilarious.

Some days you just can't tell if it is fog or smog or drizzle that is blocking your view.

If, as you are walking through Old Shanghai, you get a sudden craving for bagels or something, have no fear. Unfortunately they weren't open at 7 AM... so I'm not entirely sure what it was like inside.

Next I stumbled upon the YuYuan gardens, which are the beautiful traditional Chinese gardens right smack in the middle of the city.

And here is a small collection of European tourists. You can tell they are European by their shoes, their accents, and their lack of ginormous cameras.

An actual circle gate!!! I am almost a little ashamed about how excited I got over this.

A small still life was set up for us in one of the buildings. Unfortunately, no one was giving out any tea.

I've seen a lot of stone dragons in the past month and a half... but this guy is definitely the creepiest. 

Another circle gate! 

The attention to detail in Chinese architecture is amazing. This guy was hanging out on a rather unremarkable corner of a pavilion.

I constantly wonder if the waterfalls are for feng-shui purposes, or are they just to add oxygen to the water so the fish won't die?

Again, an absolutely amazing carving, hidden in an obscure corner. This is also the only dragon I saw in the complex with his teeth and nails painted white. 

Just a cute fern hanging out on the side of a rock. Sometimes it's the little things that are the most worth stopping and looking at.

Alright, I think this is a part of the building complex associated with the Shanghai Art Museum in the Former French Concession, but I'm not sure. I spent forever walking around trying to find the base of the building, but I couldn't find it. 

Hands down, funniest sign I've seen in Shanghai. Posted outside of a bar in the FFC.

In most Buddhist temples there are signs everywhere telling you not to take pictures, and generally I try to respect that. No one else does, but that's a whole other issue. But in the Jing'An Temple in the middle of Shanghai, there were no signs. NONE. And so I took a couple of pictures.

However, I quickly figured out that this was kind of a weird temple. (Note the ginormous skyscrapers in the background)

I imagine that all of the advertisements surrounding the temple make abandoning all worldly desires rather difficult.

Eventually, I kind of grew sick of the whole complex. This felt much more like a tourist trap that any of the other religious areas I have been to in China. Of all of the visitors pouring in through the gate, only a handful of people at any given time were praying. The monks were nowhere to be found, despite living in what basically amounts to an apartment complex directly behind the building pictured. Children were screaming and running around throwing coins everywhere. 

But possibly, what most effected me was that I had visited the City God Temple  earlier that morning. That was a real temple. It was pretty much me and the old people getting up to pray. The nuns were running around, getting chores done. Absolutely no photography was allowed, as I was reminded more than a few times, despite the fact that I never made any sign that I was about to take a picture. The benches that visitors kneel on to pray were slightly worn and dented by countless pairs of knees. There was less gold leaf plastered everywhere, and more Buddhas, more Dragon Kings, and a bunch of other deities I can't begin to name. 

The Jing'An Temple kind of reflected all of my feelings about Shanghai. It is fantastic; slick, new, shiny, constantly being updated, open to the masses (for a price). But at the same time, it seems fake. This isn't really China, any more than Jing'An is a temple for serious Buddhists. The traditional older buildings are either currently in a state of disrepair, or being actively ripped down by the government and "remade" into slick tourist shops selling fake Chinese trinkets. I walked past far too many of these buildings today, and it is honestly disappointing. Shanghai looks to the future by erecting these mammoth glass and steel towers, but I feel that it is at risk of losing any true sense of its past with these loose interpretations of Chinese tradition. 

How I got to Visit a Beijing Elementary School

During on of our first few days in Beijing, we were invited to a mixer with a bunch of students from the Minzu University's History Department. We were all herded into a conference room with a giant oval table in the center. Along one side of the room was a line up of History graduate and undergraduate seniors, excitedly waiting for us. We sat on the opposite side of the giant table, and were basically told to talk.

Understandably, things got off to a rocky start. The Chinese students were rather shy about speaking to us in English, and we didn't really have a clue about what was going on. Eventually, however the conversation got rolling, and soon the entire room was filled with noise. After a little while of shouting back and forth across the table about Chinese and American college student life, we figured out that this wasn't really working.

Then we were split off into small groups, where one or two Chinese students was paired with each of us. I was paired with two guys, one undergraduate who was from Inner Mongolia and a graduate student who was trying to prepare for his TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language). They were both really great characters, and desperately wanted to learn as much as they possibly could about everything in the US. We talked about classes, tuition, rent, average incomes, economic stability, what I thought about the government, where they should study, where they should visit, the cultural division between the North and the South, and a million other things. It was seriously surprising to me that they thought so highly of the US, they knew nothing about the housing bubble or the recession, they were shocked at how high tuition was, and thought that Obama was loved by all Americans. I was in turn surprised at how difficult it was for minorities to attend university in China, that immediately after graduation guys are expected to buy an apartment if they want a shot at getting married, that guys and girls are not allowed into each others' dorm buildings, how ridiculously high rent was in Beijing, that most people hate the pollution, and that a lot of the students did not like the Communist government.

All of our new Chinese friends. 

The guy to my left was my Mongolian partner, and the guy on the far right in the black t-shirt was my graduate student partner.

(Thank you Natalie for always carrying your camera)

This was a really fantastic opportunity for us all, and one of the guys I travelled with, Jake, became great friends with his Chinese partner, Mo-han Deng (or Mo as everyone calls him). Mo and his girlfriend Fiona, kind of became our guides to Beijing after that. They showed us where the best street food was, where to buy supplies, how to use the buses and subway, brought us out to do karaoke, and were just fantastic people. They had both spent a year studying at North Dakota State University, and so their English was excellent. They truly helped make our Beijing experience wonderful.

Mo and Fiona took us out to Ho-Hi for a fantastic night.

(Again... thanks Natalie!)

After we finished out tour of Xi'an, Kunming, and He'nan, we returned to Beijing for a couple of days, so that people could fly out of the Beijing airport. Mo and his family invited as many of us who could come to visit their home, make some dumplings, and visit the elementary school that Mo's aunt works at. Unfortunately, the day that worked best for the family was also the day that most of our group was flying out. Jake and Nathan were staying in China for another week and a half to do more traveling, and I am obviously still in Shanghai, so we were able to go. However, Nathan had an interview that morning, so he had to miss visiting the school.

That morning we woke up really early, ran to our favorite breakfast place to have a farewell breakfast with our teacher before he flew off, and then ran back to the hotel to meet Mo and Fiona. Jake, Mo, Fiona, and I got on a bus at around 7:30 AM, and continued bussing for another hour out to the fringes of the city. About halfway through the bus ride, Mo came up to Jake and pointed out that the two little old ladies who had been chattering away for the entire trip were trying to figure out what the foreigners were going to do in this part of the city. Apparently they were listing off all of the vaguely interesting sites we might be going to see.

 Finally, we got off the bus and got into this random guy's car. In this part of the city, getting an actual taxi is really difficult, so there are many "unofficial" taxis parked along the sidewalks. We all piled into the car, and rolled up into a what looked like the small farming villages we had been visiting throughout the trip.We were immediately greeted by all of the important figures of the school, and guided to a small  building that housed a huge table. The school then engaged in the traditional Chinese practice of stuffing guests with fruit and water before ushering in about 20 4th and 5th graders.

Standing is the school's English teacher, seated is Fiona, Jake, and me. 

They then introduced themselves in English, which was adorable, and vaguely reminded me of the sort of things I said during my first Spanish or Chinese classes. We introduced ourselves, Jake in English, and I tried out my Chinese. They laughed at me, but I think that I managed to get the major points across. Jake then led the group in a clapping, dancing, and singing exercise that eventually the kids really got into. Without knowing a lick of Chinese, he got these kids to develop a 6 part ensemble, which included some improve soloists and lots of audience involvement. After that, a group of 6 1st graders that had snuck in earlier gave us a performance. Until you have seen a group of seven year old boys and girls dance to "Gangnam Style" you have not seen anything approaching cute. It was freaking adorable, and yes, they did the lunges and riding a horse move.

The kids were hilarious. 

The older kids then sang us a couple of songs, including their version of the "ABCs". In China, they don't say "elemenohpee" like we do. They drag it out, switch up the rhythm a little bit, and then carry on like normal until the end, where they say a slightly different phrase to wrap up the song. 

Now it was my turn to do something... so I told a story. Originally, I was planning on telling the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" because it is a traditional English story. However, Fiona announced to the entire group that I was going to tell a story... in Chinese. This is a little more difficult. So, I still told them a story that was vaguely similar to "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", but I had to work around the words I didn't know. So, instead of goats, there were sheep; instead of a bridge, there was another hill; instead of a troll, there was a bad guy. What I lacked in clarity, I tried to make up for in enthusiasm and action. Kids everywhere always respond to stories where there are lots of different voices, lots of jumping about, and where you aren't afraid to make a fool of yourself. Maybe it's just me, but they seemed to like it, and when asked, they got the major message of the story. 

Next we were given a tour of the school's ceramics building. The area that we were in is famous for making the traditional ceramic roof tiles and roof ornaments that you see on all of the important ancient buildings. They even made some of the roof tiles for the Forbidden City! We got a quick lesson on how twice fired pottery works, and even got to try our hands at making a figure. We then got to play around in the clay with the students. Even though they were still incredibly young, they were all incredibly skilled at pottery. All of them had made at least one molded figurine by this age, and they were practically experts at creating objects out of regular clay. My own little crooked clay pot seemed rather pathetic in comparison. 

Here I am making one of the roof decorations with a bunch of the students. In reality I mostly just dumped the clay mixture into the mold, and tried to avoid dumping it on myself or the kids.

While we were working on our little figures, the kids were peppering me with questions in Chinese. There is really no better way to review your Chinese vocabulary than sitting in a room with a bunch of curious seven year olds. They will ask you about anything and everything, and they are always excited about whatever answer you give them.

Finally, we took about a million pictures with the students, teachers, and staff before saying our goodbyes. Before we left, they gave us the traditional Chinese treat, zongzi (粽子）which are usually eaten around the Dragon Boat Festival. These are sticky rice dumplings that are filled with red bean paste or dates (in the north) or vegetables and meat (in the south) and are then wrapped in bamboo leaves. These are impossible to eat without becoming a sticky mess. They also presented us with beautiful pictures that local villagers had made out of butterfly wings; this is a very important form of folk art in the area. The generosity and kindness of these people, the joy and friendliness of their kids, and the experiences that I had while visiting are something I will never forget, and I can not possibly thank them for. 

A huge thank you to my friends Mo and Fiona for helping make all of this possible. You guys are so amazing, and I am incredibly grateful to have met you two.

Notes on Shanghai!

1) In Shanghai they speak Shanghai-ese, versus Pu Tong Hua (the Beijing dialect I've been studying). This doesn't seem like a big deal, until someone finally tells you that the reason everyone smiles at you when you say "Hello" in Chinese is not because they are thrilled a foreigner is attempting Chinese. It is because you are saying it wrong.

2) In Shanghai-ese you say "Nong-ho" instead of "Ni-hao" for hello. FYI.

3) Periodically the nod and smile approach gets you surrounded by a group of very excited old ladies who begin speaking in rapid Shanghai-ese. By the end of the conversation I think they were trying to invite me to dinner, but I had finally figured a way out, so I quickly begged off.

4) At one week in, some of the farm workers believe that I speak Mandarin, and about half still think I don't know any. It is really funny to listen to the two halves argue about it.

5) Picking sprouts seems like a super easy job, however after about one hour in both of your legs are exhausted from practicing the "Chinese squat" and you realize that all of your sprouts look like crap compared to the ones the Aunties have pulled.

6) However, separating rotted bean sprouts from the fabric mat they grow on by hand is a much worse job. The only way to get through it is to try not to think about what exactly you are touching, and try to avoid the slimiest mats. Also, breathe through your mouth.

7) When you have to choose between profusely sweating while sleeping under a mosquito net or getting eaten alive without a mosquito net ALWAYS sleep with the net. I didn't have a choice for the first couple of days, and now it looks like I either have the chicken pox or a scary, itchy skin disease.

8) There has also been some talk that some of the bites aren't from mosquitos... which is also terrifying. I have since switched bedding and haven't gotten many new bites.

9) Aloe gel hands-down the best treatment for bug bites. You may be sticky and smell slightly strange, but the relief is totally worth it.

10) Apparently the aloe plant is edible, so they grow tons of it on the farm.

11) There is a Chinese cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" which plays on the radio periodically. A guy and a girl sing it as a duet, with an acappella group as their back-up, and they totally changed around the notes and rhythms... this never fails to throw me off.

12) Even though Shanghai has tons of beautiful parks, there is almost no one in them. No old people dancing or doing Tai-chi, no young couples walking hand and hand, and not even very many random tourists. If no one is in a park on Sunday afternoon... does anyone other than the garden cleaners visit?

13) A lot of Chinese guys have super long fingernails. Not sure how I missed this before, but I now see it everywhere... and it kind of freaks me out.

14) There are good coffee shops in Shanghai city!!! Their prices aren't even all that bad! And I can just buy a regular cup of non-instant coffee!!!!

15) I'm used to the open-air fruit and veggie markets, even the raw hunks meat laid out on tables doesn't really phase me anymore, but today I saw an entire block dedicated to selling fish, squid, turtles, and frogs (both live and dead, whole and chopped). The smell... oh lord the smell...

16) Then a few blocks later I saw a pet market. That was way worse. Turtles of all sizes piled up on top of each other in tiny boxes with water, 4-6 birds stuffed into tiny cages together, bunnies and kittens squished together, and crickets making a racket in the background. It was just so sad. That was probably the only time in my life I've considered just opening cages and telling the animals, "Be free!"

17) The strangest market I've seen thus far, is the marriage market in the People's Square in Shanghai. Older parents write up personal adds on pieces of paper (or make posters if they are more desperate) and post them all over the park railings, lamp posts, and even umbrellas placed on the ground. They then spend the entire day sitting by the poster talking with passers-by and try to hook up their sons or daughters. I happened to sit down by a poster (because I was tired and it was kind of hard to avoid them) and was nearly proposed to by a creepy old man.

18) Shanghai had it's very first farmer's market on Saturday. All I can really say about it is good on them for finally getting the ball rolling, but they've got a lot of room for growth.

19) From what I've seen thus far, Shanghai (and really all of China) has many times more European and Australian tourists than Americans. And nearly all of the Americans I have seen or met are students on a specific study abroad program.

20) Maggie can never ever come to China. All Chinese people are very noisy while they eat. That is the cultural norm, and how you show that you enjoy what your eating. It may also have something to do with the fact that there simply isn't a way to quietly, cleanly, and quickly eat noodles while using chopsticks... but I'm just speculating.

21) Don't wear a white shirt while eating noodles. Actually, just never wear any clothing that you care about or will show oil stains while eating noodles. If you are anything like me, your shirt will quickly be spotted with sauce.

22) Also, learn the characters for "la" and "ma" very quickly. These are two different kinds of spicy-ness. La (辣）is heat from chili peppers, which is tasty and something you want to try. Ma (麻）is heat from black pepper, and simply causes your entire mouth to go tingly and numb. Doctors will warn you not to eat too much of this, but it is in nearly all Cantonese dishes. I like La, and I can't stand Ma.

23) When you ask the girls (because the workers are always girls) at the Milk Tea shops which flavor is the best, you get some interesting suggestions. Today's flavor included rice or beans... I'm not entirely sure, but it was tasty.

24) Alway bring a raincoat.

25) If you don't bring a raincoat, at least buy an umbrella from the old ladies outside of your first subway station... because there might not be another one at your last stop, and then you get to walk home in a thunderstorm.

26) Timbuk2 bags are waterproof. Trust me, my camera survived the hour-long drenching.

27) When you are soaking wet, wearing a dress, and walking through 3" puddles, smile. The smart Chinese people who brought ponchos or umbrellas will always laugh at the silly foreigner who is soaking wet.

28) At some point in an extended trip to China, you will try some traditional Chinese medicine. Thankfully, mine has been limited to some soup and a salve for my bug bites, neither of which smelled all that bad.

29) At some point you will be really homesick... mostly for whole-wheat bread and sandwiches, but it is a pressing problem none the less.

30) The only way to get any sleep during sweltering hot nights tangled up in a mosquito net is to sleep on a bamboo mat over your mattress... I never thought that it could make such a difference.

And now some random pictures!

These are from the beautiful Stone Forest outside of the city of Kunming. We got to hike through these beautiful limestone formations with our home-stay student partners as a kind of bonding activity. Unfortunately my student wasn't able to miss school that day, so I mostly climbed ahead of the group, and spent a lot of time gawking at these awesome rocks.

More About BioFarm!

Today I made it to BioFarm safe and sound after nearly 8 hours on various trains, subways, and a cab covering nearly 800 miles. When I arrived, there was just time for a few really brief introductions with some of the staff and a quick tour of the grounds. It was only a couple of days later that I finally got to sit down with Jane and figure out what I am doing for the rest of the summer.

This week I am trying out a bunch of different jobs on the farm, including, but not limited to: weeding, hoeing, picking sprouts, packing CSA boxes, sorting compost, feeding guests, and riding along on delivery runs. After that, I'm going to be focusing much more on some administrative tasks; rewriting  their English language presentations, developing a public speaking course for the workers, contacting schools and universities in Shanghai to look for volunteers, and travel with Jane to meetings and conferences to promote BioFarm!

Anyway, on a different note, near the farm is a small village, that has apparently been undergoing some serious changes in the past few years. Previously this area outside of Shanghai was host to dozens, if not hundreds, of farmers. However, since Shanghai has developed into a center of international business, land values have sky rocketed, and many of the traditional farmers have been all too willing to get rich fast and sell the farm to developers. The local government has tried to slow this turnover by setting aside some land for use in semi-urbanized agriculture. 

Just a few hundred yards from the front gate of BioFarm is an old, traditional-styled house which used to belong to a farming family. Apparently the entire neighborhood was once made up of these small Chinese homes. However, these artifacts are all slowly being ripped down by increasingly wealthy families who want more modern (and Westernized) homes. The process of stripping away relics of traditional Chinese culture is going throughout the entire country; in Beijing only a handful of areas contain the hutong style houses, most ancient city walls have been ripped down to ease traffic congestion, and minority groups are increasingly enticed or forced away from traditional farming or hunting methods in favor of participation in cartoonish cultural presentations for tourists. 

To me, all of this adds up to the beginning of a process of cartoon-ification of culture, rather than actual participation and preservation. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I don't enjoy seeing the Disney, candy-coated version of China, especially not at some of the world's greatest and most historic sites. For example, at the base of the section of the Great Wall that we hiked was a small strip mall, complete with a KFC, also at the Shao Lin temple (where Kung-Fu was created) Zen Buddhist monks hawked cheap prayer bracelets and meditation tools while their robes flap back to reveal Rolex watches and Nike sneakers. 

To end on a happier note, here are a billion pictures of Buddhas from the grottos.

Every figure was carved out of the mountain side over hundreds of years, and in total there are well over 100,000 figures ranging in size from about 1 1/2 inches tall to several hundred feet tall.

However, later on some of the emperors no longer supported the Buddhist religion and ordered the destruction of these figures, which is why many of their faces are now missing.

If you can see past the masses of tourists all clambering to see the figures, this is an incredible place to visit!

Last Official Day of the Program

Wow... that went by really fast. Today is our last day together and we are back in Beijing after a whirlwind tour of He'nan province. Tomorrow everyone will be going their separate ways. Jake, Nathan, and I will be sticking around Beijing for one more day because we were invited to visit one of our new Chinese friend's home, visit a local elementary school, and make dumplings! We are all really excited for this. The day after tomorrow I will be headed out on a high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai to begin the second half of my adventure; the internship at BioFarm. I'm kind of sad to be done with our rapid-fire tour of China, but I'm excited to finally get to work.

And, as promised here are some more photos!

The Forbidden City is a huge complex of beautiful buildings in the middle of Beijing, that for hundreds of years only the Emperor and his staff were allowed to enter.

These are prayers tied to a tree in a garden that once belonged to a high-ranking official. In general people pray for true love, health, and happiness.

One of the many people we saw lighting candles at Buddhist temples.

Trevor decided to pose with Chiang Kai-Shek and his wife.

We visited a Painter's Village to do interviews. The entire village had one tractor, and all of the roads were covered in piles of wheat so the grains would dry in the sun.

They did a great welcoming performance for us, complete with dancing and singing. These little kids came along with us to watch. We also got to participate in the fun. Jake and I did the Dragon Boat Dance, and everyone was a part of the large Dragon Dance.

Here is the painter of the Painter's Village; his artwork is absolutely stunning. I was even lucky enough to have a painting lesson with him (meaning I painted some messy blobs, and he managed to fix them into a beautiful picture of peonies).

We got to see the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an. There are thousands of life-sized clay soldiers, officers, officials, and horses buried with Emperor Qing Shi-huan. 

Each one is unique, and was originally painted in vivid colors. Currently only a fraction of the total soldiers have been excavated, and only a fraction of them have been pieced back together into their original form.