2011 A Year of Change

Today, January 1, is my 7 month mark of being a foreigner. It is also a day that many people look to the past and make resolutions for the future. I will follow the crowd and do the same.

Thinking about this past year I feel an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. For a girl who rarely did anything by herself, I made possibly the craziest (and best!) decision to move to China all by myself. No matter what I do next, I can say I did that. The reason I moved was because I knew there was more to this world than just colorful Colorado. I moved to explore and adventure what else is out there for me. Adventure and explore is EXACTLY what I have done. It is hard to remember what life was like before moving here a few months ago. The only way I can really wrap my head around what I have done and experienced this year is to make a list. --Matt, yes direct copy... don't sue for copyright infringement--- Everyone does countdowns so how about 11 of 2011... Cheeky and done before but, again, I am following the crowd. Oh and these are somewhat in chronological order...

1. Holding my niece, Mina

2. Finishing 2 years with the most amazing kiddos in the world

3. Moving to China

4. Meeting INCREDIBLE People*

*Obviously not EVERYONE that has touched my life this year is in this photo*

5. Climbing the Great Wall

6. River climbing in the heart of jungle in the Philippines

7. Visiting my dream vacation spot... Florence

8. Climbing to the top of the Duomo

9. Learning to speak (A LITTLE) Chinese

My Chinese Name: Huang He Ma (Yellow Hippopotamus)

10. Hearing my 4 year old students speak in PERFECT English... English that I taught them.

11. Realizing I'm comfortable with being... just me!

Now to the future. Honestly, I have been struggling in the past few weeks with the question..."what now?" My contract in China will expire in June and I have to decide if I stay abroad or if I go home to Colorado. This life of living abroad can be very glamorous at times... just to name two "perks"--jet setting all over the world and meeting extremely interesting people ... it is addicting. The adrenaline is clogging my brain from making decisions which means all I am left with is the questions. If I go home, do I stay until June? What kind of school would I want to be at? Then if I decide to pursue living abroad again, is something I can do for another year? Where would I go? Can I be away from my family for another year? Can I do this again... alone? AH the questions. Who knows when I will make the decisions that need to be made, but I do know that it when it happens it will be like when I made the decision to move to China-- audacious.

I will leave you with some Italian graffiti that stopped me while I was climbing back down through the dome of the Duomo. Whatever my decision is for my next step in life, I know that I will try my best to live up to the ideal inscribed by a vandal. Give as much kindness and love to those around me and feel lucky to be with whoever and wherever I am in this world!

Much LOVE to you all in 2012!

Traffic

I realized the other day that it had been quite a while since I had updated the blog. Things here in China are really picking up and I am constantly doing something! My day-to-day life consists of teaching... (EVERYDAY of the week), tracking down western commodities, practicing yoga and extremely long dinners.

Traffic is going to be the focus of this current update since it was a very hectic and sad week due to traffic reasons.

I am the proud owner of a three-generation hand-me-down bike. It has a basket, a bell that doesn’t quite work and several ribbons donning the blue random brand bike. The ribbons I have been told are good luck and I should not take them off. Any luck I can get while out on my bike is welcomed with open arms. I love riding my bike and it's the most convenient way of getting around the city. One other advantage is not having to use my limited Chinese. So my bike is a way of avoiding using my limited Chinese skills. The video above is taken on the corner of one of the streets I ride home on. It gives you a great idea of how crazy the bike/scooter/walking/bus/car/truck traffic is. For the most part, riding around on my bike is very safe. But...(Disclaimer: terrible story coming up...)

Tragically, I did see a fatal accident the other night on my way to the grocery store. I arrived just seconds after the woman was hit by a motorized scooter. I saw her mangled body on the ground and a few people around trying to help. I didn't want to gawk so I did my shopping and 20 min later when I came out she was in the same position. No paramedics or police yet. They came screaming around the corner soon there after though. As I was unlocking my bike and noticed the paramedics covering her with a sheet and putting her into the van. I imagined they would leave straight away for the hospital if she were alive... However, they stayed at the scene. I hurried to get away cause I felt like I was going to vomit from the thought of being so close to the situation.

Alright, story over...

Needless to say, I am slowing down and being really cautious when riding. If I'm not on my bike I am usually on the bus. (Again, avoidance of using Chinese.) I can get pretty much anywhere I want on a bus and I think I have a much better grasp of the city because I know the bus routes.

The buses are generally very crowded; it's only 1yuan to ride the bus. It's a very bumpy, jerky, stop and go ride. Sometimes it's fun to pretend I'm surfing to pass the time since many of them are pretty slow. Actually as this is being written I am sitting on a jam-packed bus coming back from school.

And a last resort... Cab. Cabs are insane! Every one of our students wear glasses, yet, you will never see a cab driver wearing glasses. Which might be why they seem to speed around with a sense of reckless abandonment! There is a rare occasion where I don't need to grab the window or bars from the backseat. Not only the driving is crazy, but also cab drivers tend to have their own cab driver dialect.

Many times do not read characters or pinyin and refuse to listen when you speak or have someone on the phone help you. There have been many times where I have no idea where I am and end up saying "ting zheli" -stop here- getting out and finding another cab. Younger cab drivers usually are more helpful when trying to speak and they are more likely to be able to read.

Speaking of riding in a cab… I'll leave you with a conversation that happened in a Senior (13-15yr old students)...

There is a statue of Mao in a square in the heart of Fuzhou. He is raising his arm straightforward –saluting Hitler style–. Thinking that it might be a conversation starter the question was asked: “Who is that person?” The senior student said, “I have no idea, but he has been trying to catch a cab for a long time!”

Holiday- The Great Wall of China

I had heard many different opinions of where to go and what to do when you got to The Great Wall (TGW). I knew that I wanted to get away from the crowds, which in a capital city, it might have been a pipe dream. I had heard that the JinShanLing (金山岭)section was good if we wanted to see the wall without much restoration and more of a natural experience. We signed up with our hostel and our day started at 6am, which when you are on holiday… it’s a VERY early morning. We boarded a very small van that took us to pick up a few more people and then onto a large bus where slowly the seats were filled one by one. The section of TGW that we were all headed to was about three hours outside of Beijing. The tour guide who kept a very tight schedule was a very typical Chinese woman andspoke English with an incredible (almost fake) Chinese accent. She was wearing pants, two shirts, a long sleeved shirt, a hat and a jacket over all of that, plus… and an umbrella. The forecast was hot and sunny, no chance of rain. Typical Chinese. While on the bus, our tour guide told us a story about how TGW is referred to as the largest cemetery due to the massive amount of people who perished while the wall was being built. When someone would perish, their body (as the story goes) would be put

into the section of the wall currently being built.

I had my first sighting of TGW right before we pulled into the parking lot. Due to the intense pollution surrounding Beijing, seeing the wall from far away is near impossible. There were approximately 50 people that were in our group… I started to think, there goes the possibility of seeing the wall without tons of people and lines. We all corralled around the tour guide and she explained that we had three hours on the wall and to be back down at the bottom at 2:20 for lunch and the bus was leaving with or without us at 2:50. She strongly insisted on us taking the cable car up to the top. I know that most Chinese people really don’t like to hike and just walking up stairs is considered a hike for them. Plus, I heard it wasn’t worth it to take the cable car, but I wanted to be on the wall right then! So, we purchased the one-way ticket and we thought we could climb back down. Well, as it turns out, the

cable car took more time to get to the top than it would have taken to climb. Bah!! Coming from Colorado, I should have just known and started walkin! We walked through crowds of Chinese people coming back down from the wall, it was only 10am and I was confused as to why they might be already leaving! But, it was getting warmer and the sun was starting to shine. That means that its time to head inside for most Chinese.

There was still a bit of a walk from the top of the car to actually getting onto the wall. The excitement inside me grew and grew with every step. I almost felt like running to it like a kid on Christmas running downstairs to catch Santa. It was an incredible overwhelming sense of finally knowing that I was in China, knowing that I actually did it- I am exploring the world. Since I have been here, I have really only been in Fuzhou and its like home to me now. Somewhat like being back with family and friends… but being on THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA… I knew I was no longer in Kansas… er… Colorado anymore.

We attacked the wall with sense of urgency that reminded me of kids trying to play one more game of hide and seek before our parents called us in for the night. It was a fantastic workout of stair after stair after stair. The area that we went to had not been as restored as other parts and still had uneven giant-esque steps and slopes that required you to climb on all fours like an animal. Ben and I climbed around for a while and eventually made it to one tower that you

could climb to the top of. This provided a 360˚ view of the wall and Luanping County. Rolling hill after rolling hill. I had an immense rush of emotion while looking out at the Chinese countryside… my eyes filled with tears and I succumb to my emotions as tears started to roll down my cheeks. Even now, writing this and remembering what that feeling was like, I am overwhelmed with emotion. Whew. Okay…

We continued on further and further up and down the wall. 2:20 was blaring in the back of our minds and we decided to turn back a few towers past the Corner tower. We were beasts in our trek on the wall and made it down to the bottom with almost an hour and a half to spare. Not just wanting to sit around and wait, we climbed back up a different path to the wall. We explored for the rest of the time. When looking at a map of the JinShanLing section, we covered almost the entire thing!

When we climbed back up the second time we were in a section that had very few other people. For the entire last hour and a half we only saw two other tourists on the wall. I achieved my goal of getting away from the crowds… and to get away from them on a wall is a very interesting feeling. I did NOT want to leave the wall—but this day, I did not want to be left on the wall with no way of getting back to Beijing and then onto the Philippines. I would LOVE to go back again and hopefully the next time I visit I can do the camping adventure on the wall. We made it back in time to catch the bus and were whisked away back into the hustle and bustle of Beijing. So far, being at TGW is my best memory of my time here in China.

Holiday- Forbidden City and JingShan Park

I have just come back from a HUGE adventure. I had 5 days in Beijing and 9 days in the Philippines. There are so many stories from this incredible holiday that I am going to break it up into parts. I will start with my first day in Beijing seeing the Imperial City and JingShan Park.
Beijing seems to be a world away from Fuzhou. It was only a 2-hour plane ride up north. The day started extremely early in Fuzhou with a red sun. Ben, my travel partner and roommate, and I arrived to Beijing in the morning. We thought that a city that just hosted the Olympics in 2008 we would be able to use the Chinese that we know and maybe even show off a bit. Well, that slapped us in the face as soon as we failed to tell a taxi where our hostel was. I bowed out and called the hostel for directions. Turns out, our Chinese isn’t as terrible as I was thinking; it is just a different accent between what we have learned in Fuzhou and what is spoken in Beijing. It’s like going from the deep southern part of Louisiana to Northern Minnesota and trying to say the same things… Some things might get lost in translation.
We finally made it to our hostel, and immediately left to explore the city. We walked in the direction of what I thought was Tiananmen Square. We essentially just followed the crowds. In looking for one sight, we stumbled into the eastern entrance to the Imperial (Forbidden) City. The Imperial City (紫禁城) was humongous. Just inconceivably massive. It was one gigantic set of temples, palaces and gardens after another. I could have wandered around the city for days and not have seen everything. The Imperial City, much like the other historic scenes in China was constructed during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Only two dynasties lived in the City.
We walked through the Forbidden City for a good three hours. The City doesn’t seem Forbidden at all anymore with its palaces turned into gift shops. The Palace of Accumulated Purity was once the living quarters for Concubines but is now selling ice cream, maps of the city and knockoff relics. I think the Emperors and Empresses of the past would be losing an immense amount of face by having the city where they conducted all secret imperial business being turned into what it is. Despite what it is now… it was incredible to see so much history that was just nestled in the heart of the city just blocks away from where we were staying.
After a good trek through the Imperial City we went to JingShan park (景山公园), which was directly behind the Imperial City. The park is spread out around Coal Hill which is an artificial hill built in during the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty. The hill is about 155 feet tall and built entirely from the earth that was excavated from building the moat around the Imperial City. There is a temple at the top of coal hill that provided the most dramatic overlook of the entire Imperial City grounds.
When we walked in through the gates of the park, the first sign we saw said, Coal hill, butterfly pavilion and the place where Chongzhen committed suicide. I was intrigued by the last location on the sign and wanted to read more about it. Apparently, under immense military pressure from rebels, Chongzhen (the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty) forced his empress to commit suicide, killed all members of his imperial household, daughters and fled to JingShan Park. Then, still dressed in his imperial clothing he climbed Coal Hill and hung himself from a tree. It was a very somber spot in the once imperial garden.

We spent another couple hours in the park just relaxing and hoping to catch the sunset fromthe top of Coal Hill.

The sunset was a bit anti-climatic because of the pollution. The sun just drifted away without any great denouement. It had been a very long day from Fuzhou to Beijing and I was ready for some food and bed!

We found a restaurant that was just like the ones in Fuzhou... we decided to branch out the next couple of days to get something we couldn't get in Fuzhou. The first night we did sample some local Beijing beer. It wasn't great but it was better than the Sedrin we get in Fuzhou!

2 Months

It has been officially two months now since I left that wonderful square state of Colorado. I am loving life out here in Fuzhou!! I love teaching which makes it just seem like I am on a extra long vacation. The weather is incredibly warm... but as many of you know, that doesn't bother me one bit! I have actually been getting sick because I walk in from the extreme heat to Air Conditioning that is kept very low and I think my body is not very happy with it. Nights are very nice here, warm and usually there is a nice breeze. Although, sometimes it is almost unbearable to sit outside.

A friend of mine lived on the 18th floor

and had an incredible view of Fuzhou. I took this on my iPhone at night, it is a bit blurry though. On the right there is a white pagoda and then the center lights is a building with a giant statue of

Mao in front of it. On a clear day, you can see the mountains that surround Fuzhou on all sides.

One thing that I did not even think of when coming to China was thing that I would be making friends with people and they would eventually leave... In my own little world, I just thought I would be plopped down in China and people would adjust to me then I would leave and it would not be any big issue. I was wrong. I have met some incredible people and a few of them have left in the past couple weeks. It's this constant wave of new people coming and old people going. I am such a softy when it comes to saying goodbye to people. This is a picture of Yoko, Matt, Chelsea, Kirsten and me. This was Matt's last night in Fuzhou. The next picture is of Heidi who just left to do an internship in Vietnam before heading back to England to work on her masters. She is an incredible young woman. I can say that because I am older than the majority of the other teachers here in Fuzhou.

I have only three weeks until I go on a fantastic vacation... holiday... with my roommate Ben.

We are heading to Beijing for four days then off to the Philippines for nine days. I think we might even extend our holiday for a few more days and stay in Xiamen after getting back to mainland China. We will see how sick of each other we are since we do live together as well.

My classes are turning into really fantastic classes! I have had some tough kiddos to work with and I have worked my Ames and Alice Terry magic and turned them into great groups of learners. One in particular had me almost in tears a few times. The class was ending and they were to start on a new book on my third lesson with them. So, new book, new attitude, new direction for the class. I had my students do a version of a social contract. (My AT pandas would be so proud!) The students seem to have more drive for the class and are more willing to participate as a whole now that I have taken it from chaos to controlled chaos.

I also have some kindergarten-first grade age students who are just adorable! I have nicknamed one after a student at AT that I called Hannah Banana. She is just as quiet and sweet as the real Hannah Banana. The class read a story and then did a role play. It is an adaptation of the country and city mouse. There is Sally, Sam and a cat that tries to eat them. The story is broken into parts and this is only one section of the story. They only practiced the story in English maybe 5 times, which for a new story in a foreign language they did fantastic!

Westlake Park

I finally made it into the gigantic park that I live across the street from. I went there on July 4th and then again a few nights ago. I was trying to get a good run in, but there were a TON of people in the park and it was just after 9pm. The Chinese families love to go out dancingandwalking around at night.There were even several pagodas that had karaoke style singing and a one had a full band.

The lake is lit up every night until 10 or 11 on weekends. I took some really interesting pictures of the lights along with some fantastic 80's looking power walking. I just wish I had my purple crinkle socks and sweatbands! But, even without the insane outfit, I didn't mind that everyone was staring at my ridiculous walking... because they stare at me anyway.

I am 'la why'-- a derogatory term for a foreign white person. I have become quite accustomed to hearing that wherever I am. Us foreigners tend to travel in packs and it is quite a sight to see such an eclectic group of people together.

So other news, I will

actually be moving to the other side of the lake with a different teacher, English Ben. He is in one of the photos in my earlier posts. I moved a bunch of my stuff yesterday and the plan was to just take a taxi to the new place.

When I went down out of my apartment with a stuffed suitcase and duffle bag, dripping with sweat, I was stopped by a woman who was yelling at me in Chinese. I obviously still do not speak or understand enough to really communicate, but I think she was telling me I couldn't get a taxi with my bags, and to stand over in a different place. Then some random guy pulled up seeing the commotion and I told him where I was going "may high youen" (when I sound these out, its not the actual pinyin, it's just my rudimentary attempt at chinese phonetics) and then this random stranger popped his trunk and I put my bags in. Yes, I know all of you are screaming at the computer... "Cally you are an idiot!" But I have started to trust my instincts more than the crazy factor. Crazy stuff happens all the time here. Anyway, he dropped me off near my new apartment and I gave him 10 yuan for helping. It would have been the same if I had actually taken a taxi. I am about half moved in right now and slowly finishing up the packing around my old apartment. I think though, I will be taking the bus to finish up the rest of the packing. I don't know how lucky I can get two days in a row with the whole random man in a black car and telling him where I live.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth everyone! There is so much to tell all the time that I struggle to write coherently so here is my attempt at coherence about our fourth of July celebration. We were able to celebrate the 4th yesterday a day early than the rest of America. Haha, but we did it in a great American fashion. I was with a few other Americans (Brian and Sarah from Indiana, Alex who is from New York and the new couple Dan and Lynnae from New Jersey) and I was also with Tom (from the UK) and Jeremy (from Australia). We started by having hamburgers at the Westlake (Xi Hu) hotel. The only other place to really get hamburgers or western food for that matter is McDonald's and for those of you who know of my deep disdain for McDonald's the hotel was a nice treat to have western food. Speaking of the disdain... I haven't had McDonald's yet. Which out here is truly a triumph!

Anyway, after hamburgers, we went to the Westlake Park (I live across from the park and the hotel) to rent boats to go out on the lake. The boats were more like 40 year old golf carts converted into boats. Our boat did not go very fast, I think that I would have been able to swim faster than the boat. It was fun cruising around and trying to beat the intense heat of summer in China on the lake. After crash landing the boat into the dock we went to the amusement park. There is a size-able island in the middle of Westlake which has the amusement park, a temple, a gigantic museum and some swanky private homes. The amusement park should be condemned because of the state of some of the rides, but they proudly display signs that say passed safety checks. The signs of course are engraved metal signs so the date of the check is very uncertain. But, YES lets jump on that metal heap of death! I rode the roller coaster which the safety harness didn't lock until after the ride had started. It was a fun experience of getting whiplash in China.

After the amusement park of death traps we went to the river beach which is more like a dirt road than a beach and played American Football. It was quite fun because the teams were split with two Americans on each side and a mix of British and Australian players too. My team sadly lost, but I scored a touchdown! I was even barefoot and in a dress playing. We had size able crowd watching our attempt at American football. Whatever we (foreigners) do gets a crowd, even if it is just walking down the street. After our game we celebrated the fourth the way that all drunk Americans do... lighting a few hundred blackcats all tied together in a 30 second blaze of glory! There was one little fireworks show down the river, probably other Americans celebrating on a bigger budget than our own. It was a great fourth and I hope that all of yours was just as traditional and adventuresome as mine. Happy Birthday America!

21 Days

I've been in China now for (obviously by the headline) for 21 days. I am officially a citizen of Fuzhou. I have settled in and have now been teaching for two weeks. I originally thought that I would be teaching after about 3 or so weeks... One we to the day of arriving in Fuzhou I was in front of the class. But, for those of you who have seen me teach, I was 100% at home. It felt like I was in one of my classes back in the states. This past week, my third week, I taught 8 lessons and have four classes of students. The kids come to school 2 days a week for 60 minutes or 90 minutes. My youngest student just turned 4 (western age 3) and my oldest is 17 (western age 16). In China they start counting how old you are from inside the womb. I am realizing that I found the age of students that I love teaching at a very young age!! Kindergarten and the primary years is where my heart lies.

I do not have any pictures of the school or students, but I will share some pictures of my apartment. I have been doing quite a bit of cleaning because only boys have lived in myapartment since the school has been renting it. Some of the other teachers and teaching assistants came over to make dumplings and they said they had never seen the apartment so clean.

The pictures are:

• Making dumplings, which were more like chinese tamales. They were in celebration of the dragon boat festival.
• My tiny kitchen
• The living room
• The view outside of my apartment

Chinese Cupping

Today was an interesting day, a few of us girls had this silly idea to practice some ancient Chinese medicine... Chinese cupping. (bá guàn) Well, if you are ever in China and want to have a nice relaxing spa experience; do not do ba guan. They light a flame in the cup and then suction cup it to your back. It is supposed to release the toxins in your body. The darker the circle the more toxins apparently. Heidi, from Britian, had some really dark circles, even darker than mine and she is a vegetarian. The actual process was not painful like getting shot or stabbed in the arm, but it was pressure pain and I have had a headache all day. Plus the oh so attractive bruised circles all over my back. A girl, Lou from Minnesota, says the bruises go away in about a week with a healthy diet. In China a healthy diet is actually quite hard to come by. Everything is fried here!!

Some of these pictures are a bit gross to look at. (Sorry Mom!) But now you all know about Chinese cupping... I will let you know how the bruises turn out.

This is my friend Lou getting her back done. I was able to catch the flame quite well.

Below is picture of what mine looked like after all of them were on. I only had 15; another girl, Heidi, had a whopping 27. They told her she has a large back. The Chinese can be very blunt with you.

And now... the after shot. This is a self portrait

of the carnage about 6 hours later.

I hope all of you are doing well! I would love to know how you all are doing. My e-mail is callyhester@yahoo.com if you would like to yell at me for my stupidity or fill me in on what's going on in the states. I miss you all tremendously!

Pictures From Fuzhou

This is a picture of another teacher (Ben) and I playing pool in an underground bring your own booze pool hall. Ben is from the south end of England and has been in Fuzhou now for about 7 months.

This is one of the temples from the "University Temple". It had a GIGANTIC bronze Buddah with a bunch of small famous monks all around it. I am sure that I will be able to get more pictures of this area as the year goes on.