Honestly, I am having a little trouble coming up with something to write- what else is new, right? But, the reason why it is a bit more difficult this week is because I had a pretty bad cold/sinus thingy that kept me lying on my couch watching TV and basically doing nothing from Friday night until Sunday afternoon.  As you can see this is a large chunk of my week and therefore limits my stories. However, I was somehow a highly productive sick person this weekend. I managed to clean my house, plan my lessons, exercise, learn Chinese, and read. There are only so many hours that I can sit on my butt.

Last Thursday I had my good friend/former student Angie over for lunch. We’ve been eating lunches together every Thursday, so I decided it would be fun to cook an American meal for her. Well, due to lack of ingredients/ideas I decided to make meatloaf and mashed potatoes. What says America more than that? I know, hamburgers and pie and BBQ and probably a million other things you can think of. But, this is the meal I came up with. The best part was I had to use pork, due to a lack of quality beef, and I cooked the meatloaf in a toaster oven. Take that Rachel Ray and Bobby Flay, and other chefs whose name rhymes with day. Ok, back to the topic- Angie. Anyway, she came over and I taught her how to mash the potatoes and then just like magic, the meatloaf was ready and we ate. I have to admit, it was pretty good- not my best effort, but still pretty tasty for toaster oven meatloaf. Why do they call it meatloaf anyway? I get the whole literalness to it, but geez, couldn’t we be more creative? I think I should hold a contest. Whoever submits a better name for meatloaf will win a prize! What’s the prize you ask? UH….Prize is TBD…

On Saturday I was alone for the entire day, due to Heather and Shamblee being in Beijing, and Andy off doing his own thing. This was my main sick day, so the being alone part was my choice. I’m not sure if it was due to being sick or due to the fact that all my walls are white, but I think I had some sort of mental breakdown and according to the text I sent Shamblee, I was in “crazy town”. Why did I text her this? Good question…I think it was because I spent a solid 3-4 hours talking to myself. I narrated my life for hours. I said what I was doing out loud, I told myself what to do out loud, I even talked to the people in Rosetta Stone for a solid hour. I think I made myself laugh at one point. As in, I told a joke, and then laughed at my own joke. Now this was no fever induced psychotic episode- which I am well acquainted with, this was just a regular Saturday at home with me, myself, and I. And let me tell you, the three of us are a regular laugh riot. You should visit us sometime.

On Sunday Theresa, our friend who teaches in Tianjin, came to visit for a day or so. When she arrived we took a trip to TESCO and bought the western goodness, otherwise known as butter- mmm… Then we all went out (minus Shamblee b/c she was in Baoding) to the BBQ restaurant for dinner. That night we watched Kindergarten Cop, which in my mind is a pretty awesome movie. “Who are you?!” “I’m the pah-ty poop-ah” Oh Arnold, or I mean, Ahnuld. Anyhoo, we woke up Monday morning and Theresa and I made French toast for the four of us. I’m pretty sure this was only the second time in my life I have made French toast by myself. I have to admit, I kind of forgot how to make it. Meatloaf- easy, French toast- complicated. They turned out pretty well, minus a few that were a bit burnt, or if you prefer, Cajun. Hot plates are quite the tricky tools.

Ok, I’ve seriously rambled enough for today. Ready for food?!

Today I will be featuring egg and tomato. Yes, it sounds bizarre, but it is a common and popular dish around these parts. I’m not a huge tomato fan, but I like eggs, so I tend to pick the eggs out and leave the tomatoes for others. The dish comes two ways, sweet or salty, although we’ve only experienced the sweet version once, and it was found to be a little on the yucky side. It seems really easy to make, seeing how there are only two ingredients. Picture time:

Cya next week.

Hello all- just a heads up, there will be no food section this week. Unfortunately the internet really hates me this past week and it will not upload anything. It literally takes me ten minutes to open my email and hit the button to write one- that time doesn’t even include writing it; just merely hitting the button can take up to 10 minutes. Wow. With that said, I figured it was best to inform you about the lack of food early because I’d hate for you to read everything else with expectations of seeing a picture of delicious food. There we go. No food section. I hope you can handle it.

This past week may have been the most relaxed week of my life- with the exception of Friday. Friday was a little bit of a nightmare for me. Let me explain:

I had class from 8-12, then went to lunch with some student friends. We went to the cafeteria because, well, it’s cheap. I ended up with a so-so meal but I honestly can’t say what it was. I remember tasting onions, potatoes, chicken (?), garlic shoots, and something gooey that I pushed aside. The best part of the meal was when the lady came to clear our trays. She told my students that she hadn’t seen me in a while and missed me. I told them to tell her that I missed her too- whoever she is. I remember seeing her around every now and then, but honestly never studied her face. My memory came back to me when she laughed and pointed out that I didn’t finish my meal. Oh yes, that lady- she does this every time she picks up my tray. I probably blocked her face out of my memory b/c of the embarrassment of always being told I don’t eat enough. Sorry that I didn’t eat the mystery goo. I think it was fat and I just don’t eat that. Wow, a rhyme.

After lunch I went home for a couple of hours and got my things ready for English club- which meant practicing the songs. At club we sang “In the Jungle”, “Love Story” by Taylor Swift (blech), and “Lean on Me”. From 3-5 we had office hours and then at 6 we left for club on the western campus. Now normally all of this wouldn’t seem that bad but I was battling a bit of a cold and pretty bad stomach pain/cramps. Without going into too much detail, I was having a little trouble keeping food in my stomach- and I’m not talking about throwing up…. Anyway, feeling gross didn’t make any of this very enjoyable. But, I tried to put on my happy face as we left for club. Luckily I was able to sit down in between activities in club- my stomach was a wreck at that point. I was sweating a lot, both from pain and from nervousness that something bad would happen in my lower intestinal region, which is bad when you are 30 minutes from home- haha, is this too much information? I hope not…

Ok, let’s talk about our club skit. This semester we decided to do a series of melodramas. The way it worked was one person- Shamblee- read a skit that the rest of us hadn’t seen or read. Well, Andy saw a little, but whatever. So right then and there we were given props and identities. All three of us were fishing and each had an interesting personality. Andy was from Australia and liked to do jumping jacks when excited, Heather was from the south and liked to dance, and I was a southern bell woman who apparently loves to sing Italian opera. It took me 3-4 lines to figure out how to speak and was pretty mortified to sing the alphabet in an Italian opera voice. The funny part is, we don’t speak or move until Shamblee tells us to. We don’t know what to say or where to go until we hear it in the script- basically improv. It was fun to do and took some humility on our parts. The hope is, after our kids see it this month, we can pick them to be in it next month. We pave the way and then hand over the fun to them.

Our story ends with me in the fetal position on my lovely orange couch. I swear the fetal position on a nice couch will cure any illness. Try it. I spent most of Saturday recovering and watching TV shows while lying on my couch. I hope you all enjoyed this wonderful story about my health problems.

Oh, and just so you know- this is not a normal occurrence. I have no idea what caused it because I felt that way all day, so it could have been a number of things. I just think of this as a fluke. Otherwise I’d never be able to eat! Food here is totally safe. Sorry for the disclaimer but I can just hear my grandmother now- “that’s it, I’m not visiting you anymore, I’ll get sick like you, etc etc.” Just kidding- I think…

Ok friends, time for me to go. Catch you on the flip side.

 

This past week classes were good, as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred. I talked, they listened. They talked, I nodded my head/listened. Repeat for 8 hours.

So, now onto my weekend; this past weekend we went to Beijing because Newt is here. We went in early on Saturday- and by early I mean 9:30- so that we could go to Frank and Helen’s apartment and see their new baby. He is about one month old. I was really excited to go because, as many of you know, I am completely obsessed with babies. I love everything about them and have decided that if such a job existed I would spend my days holding infants. Is that weird? Don’t tell me if it is. Anyway, we got to the train station and I was in a fairly good mood because our tickets said we had seats. I should have known it was too good to be true. When the train arrived and we went to car number 6 it was a nightmare. The car was completely packed and we had to push and shove just to get onto the car. Needless to say, we never made it to our actual seats. Shamblee got halfway down the row but never could sit down. Andy, Heather, and I got stuck by the door and had fun standing by the bathroom shoulder to shoulder with some locals. Luckily the only smell was coming from the men smoking near us. That part was a little tough because cigarette smoke tends to make my eyes red and my nose stuffy- but, we survived. We chatted and laughed our way through the 1 hour trip. At one point one of the workers managed to sweep up the aisle and collect all the trash to put into the garbage bin- which was conveniently located next to our feet. So as he was sweeping up the last of the trash, I had to keep jumping out of the way to avoid trash on my feet. Eventually I stood on a 2 inch wide little metal strip as he swept up the trash into the garbage bin. During that time I got to know the woman behind me quite well- actually, my backpack did. I felt bad because as I was jumping out of the way/performing my high wire act on the metal strip, my backpack kept pushing her into the sink. Sorry random lady. At the end of the trip we got to watch the fascinating ritual called ‘the cleaning of the bathrooms’. It was indeed a rare treat and I learned so much. I can’t wait to try it in my own bathroom someday!

Ok, onto our next stop- the visiting of the baby. We stayed at their apartment for an hour or so, and sadly I was not able to hold the baby. Only two people got a turn and one was not me….sadness ensued in my heart for about 30-40 minutes. Then, I got over it and hopefully one day I will get to hold the baby. He was really cute though and I touched his foot- so that almost counts as holding him, right?

That night the IECS gang met up for dinner and then we met again the next morning. Before we met, I discovered a new breakfast delicacy- I have named it the bacon taco. It is basically flat fried bread, cut in a circle, with an egg fried on top, then bacon is added with a little mystery brown sauce for flavor, fold it in half, and voila! Bacon taco.

That afternoon for lunch, a bunch of us headed over to a restaurant called Texas Pete’s, which is basically a tex/mex American style place. There’s not much to say except it was awesome but not being able to have dessert (Lent) at that place was pretty difficult- the ice cream there is really good. I’m talking real American tasting stuff.

Ok everyone, I have turned my cat into a mooch. In the past 4 weeks I have only fed her 6 times- seriously, that’s it. But, this past week she came to our doors at least 3 times a day and meows as loud as she can. Shamblee said the other morning Chicken Nugget came to her window and was pretty sassy. We gave this cat a little freedom and turned her into a greedy sassy pants. Heather thinks that she is just trying to get into our house to have kittens. Personally I think that would be kind of cool- but not practical/possible at all. There is no where to hide except under my couch- and that’s my couch- I’m not sharing it with a dirty pregnant cat who gives me sass- not in this life time missy.

 

Food: Spicy Green Beans

There’s not much to say except eat with caution. Not only are there hot peppers on there but there are these little balls which I believe are peppercorns? I don’t know, but they are hot and if you bite into one they numb your mouth. So, we just call them mouth numbers- creative, aren’t we?

Oh, and while we are on the subject of food- while in Beijing we went to a western food store. I came home with pasta sauce, bread crumbs, and a fresh loaf of French bread, which I am currently eating.

Ok, that’s all!

 

Alrighty, let’s get this party started.

Before this semester began I decided that I wanted to try more things in China- food wise. So, I made the goal of trying at least one new thing each week. Sometimes this is easy and sometimes it is questionable. A couple of days ago I bought some crackers and to my surprise I opened the bag and it smelled like nail polish… After it aired out for a little while the smell was gone and they tasted alright. My choice on what to try each week is usually spontaneous and most have ended in success. Take my current snack for instance. I purchased a bag of gummy looking things in the shape of letters and numbers. They appeared to be coated in sugar so that was a good sign. They are in a grocery store downtown and I had seen them before but never felt like trying them. So, last week I decided to just do it and they are pretty good. Now, I know what you are thinking, ‘wow, candy, that must be challenging for you to try candy” and to that I say-one, you guys are a sarcastic bunch, and two, you never know in China. I’ve had my fair share of candy and many have not left me feeling all too happy. So, even though I figured the candy would be a safe choice for my weekly experimentation, I still had that feeling of ‘this could be really bad and 10 Yuan wasted’.

Another one of my semester goals was to be more creative and to try and be creative once a week. This creativity could be anything from playing guitar, drawing a picture, or making something. It’s been pretty easy, but I think that is due to the fact that it takes me a few weeks to finish a picture. I’m definitely not the best artist in the world, but I think I am pretty good in certain areas. Well, in an effort to help me with my creative goal, Heather had recently assigned me to a fun task for the group. As you all know, Lent is coming and we as a team have come up with something to do for Lent. Individually we are free to give up whatever we want, but as a group we decided to add something extra. In college, during my sophomore year, my roommate Katie Mac and I decided that for Lent we would put all of our spare change into a bucket on top of the TV and after Lent was over we would donate it. I added the rule that whatever was left in my pocket or bottom of my bag at the end of the day had to be put in. So, after sharing this with my team and with their insight, we decided to do something similar. Heather gave me three empty peanut butter jars, one for each apartment. My recent task, which I just completed, was to decorate them before Lent begins- which is today, so I made it! From now on, we are going to put our spare change into these jars until the end of Lent. Then we will combine our money and give it to a local organization. Now, I am not telling you all of this to brag and to say, ‘look how generous and special we are, blah blah blah’. I am sharing this in an effort to inspire creativity for all of you. We often associate Lent as a time to give up something, many of us not really understanding why we are. For these next 40 days I think it is important that we try to really understand why we celebrate Lent and why we feel compelled to give up something. I think it is a great time of personal sacrifice in honor of the ultimate sacrifice given for all of us so many years ago.

Ok, time for food. And, guess what? The picture uploader is working again! So, you can scroll down and see last weeks food item is now in picture form, as is today’s, which is beef and potatoes! That’s right America, China has its own version and it tastes amazing:

I can only describe this dish as comforting. To me, it tastes like stew; you know, the kind your mom would make and you’d smell it cooking in the croc pot for hours. Personally, the only thing I liked about stew was the meat and potatoes- I’m not a carrot fan. So, this dish is perfect for me! Zero carrots! It is a little pricier than our normal dishes but that’s because it is made with beef.

There is a hungry cat outside of my door crying because she knows I’ll eventually answer the door and feed her. I now have her trained so when I open the door she lets herself in and follows me to the fridge. I find this hilarious- a little gross b/c she’s dirty, but fun all the same. She is really friendly and loves to be pet; Shamblee dubbed her Chicken Nugget last year. So when we see her down the alley, we call her name and she comes running. I like to pretend she is mine. With that said- time to go feed my cat.

 

Week one of classes- check! Or should I say, two days of classes- check! My first week went well, and went by very fast, considering that my work week begins half way through the week. I have one new class and three old classes, so memorizing names should be a little bit easier, since I should already have a head start. However, memorizing names is really hard for me so I’ll really have to work at it. The first days of classes were basically introductions to the semester, what we’d be learning, how the grading works (my new class was thrilled to hear that I do not give mid-terms), and lastly a quick review of their speaking skills. I’m assuming that most of the students, if not all, didn’t have a chance to speak English during the break, so on the first day each one of them had to go in front of the class and speak. Their task was to ask their partner what was the best/worst/funniest/scariest/craziest/etc. thing that happened to them over break. Then after ample time, each pair came up front and told the class their partner’s story. This ate up most of the class time but as long as everyone was speaking English, then I’d say it was a pretty successful class.

Today in class, and on Friday, I will be telling my classes in detail what their presentations will be on. Since I only see each class once a week, they will be giving group presentations towards the end of semester; which for my 10 week classes is only 8 weeks away!

Last weekend was pretty laid back. Andy and Heather ventured off to Tianjin on Saturday to celebrate a fellow IECS teacher’s birthday. Shamblee and I stayed behind; she had a student visiting, and I had other things planned. Sunday was also pretty low-key. Basically from Saturday until now, life has been pretty uneventful and slow. Luckily starting today, my days are filling up with classes, lunches with students, and other miscellaneous things to work on/do.

I feel like I am struggling to say something of value in this blog post. I’m sorry to say I can’t seem to come up with much to say. It snowed the other day…that was bizarre and unwelcome, in my opinion.

I’m just about done reading Julia Child’s book My Life in France (is that how you cite a book, underlining it? Or is it quotes…no wait, that’s when it’s an article, right? I really need to go back to school…). Anyway, it is a great book and I love her even more now that I did before. I remember sitting in the TV room with my dad on Saturdays watching her on PBS with Jacques Pepin. Wow, spell check didn’t correct the spelling of his name, so I’m going to go ahead and declare that it is correct. I only remember her as an old woman, but I feel like after reading her book I know her much better. I feel like that is what weirdos say before they become obsessive  stalkers…oh well.

After I finish that book I have decided to tackle John Adams. That book is a whole lot larger that it looked on Amazon.com. I like history, and I like John Adams, so naturally I should be able to read this book. The sheer volume of the book has me frightened but I think I can do it. Reading this book is one of my semester goals, so I think it would be nice to cross that one off the list before June rolls around.

Shall we get to the food section? I think we should. Here we go, Carly’s Food Diary (that probably makes zero sense, but just humor me).

Today we, the royal we I guess, are featuring pork and onions.

Ok, so a totally simple dish but I’m in love with it. I have no idea what is in it besides the obvious, pork and onions. The sauce is probably just some oil, soy sauce, some salt, and maybe some love? There has got to be some serious lovin’ in this dish because I feel warm and gooey inside after I eat it. That just sounded weird after I wrote it but it is too late to delete it. Anyway, I should admit something to you all- I have a serious onion addiction.  I can’t get enough of them! What’s the deal with that?? I put them in everything I make and order dishes that include them in some form. But, don’t worry, I am an avid flosser, Listerine user and a twice a day brusher. I know some of you were thinking- onion addiction = bad breath, but no, no it does not. Now stop thinking so negatively and join me in my love for onions. I declare today onion day and everyone must go out and order something with onions on it/in it. And for all you people who have trouble with onions, ie: ‘onions don’t agree with my stomach/intestines’, I suggest you eat something that is onion flavored. Sour cream and onion chips anyone? Yes please.

So, this blog took an interesting turn. My brain is a little stir crazy at the moment. Time to go calm it down with a little downloaded TV.

Happy Onion Day!

Hello again! I have electricity!!! I finally was able to buy more electricity on Sunday. I bought 500 units so that should last me a while. When I got home I could barely contain my excitement. I turned on my heater, switched on my lap top, and popped a movie in. I left the lights off because that would have just been overkill right?

My week was pretty laid back, especially without electricity. I spent a lot of time in the dark- literally. I had to limit my computer usage and movie watching, which was pretty hard for me. Students didn’t get back to campus on Sunday so I couldn’t even hang out with anyone besides my teammates. They did a great job entertaining me though. The other day Heather invited me upstairs to watch the Jungle Book which was really fun. I’m not sure how many years it’s been since I’ve seen that movie, but it’s been quite a while. I enjoyed singing along and loved the feeling of being transported back to childhood. I could feel myself watching that movie in my TV room at home, probably sitting too close to the TV with my eyes wide and focused. We were so excited about the movie that we watched the extras. Did you know that the Jungle Book originally had a Rhino in it? Apparently he was a Rhino with mental problems- seriously- but he was cut in the end due to the vultures not having enough screen time. Who knew? Not me, until now.

So, I don’t have a lot to report about life. We got our schedules for the semester. I am teaching 2 oral English classes and two business English classes which makes a grand total of 8 hours each week. Don’t hate me. I am not entirely thrilled about it, but I am trying to make the best of it. I plan on joining the local gym, reading more, learning more Chinese and hanging out with students. I’m slightly concerned about endless amounts of free time, but I think I will make the best of it. No movie class this semester, which really bummed me out, but, I have figured out how to fill the void. Since I’ve exhausted myself with quotes, I will be giving my class a movie quote at the beginning of class. It is their job to try and figure out what it means, why the character said it, what was happening during that time, and what emotions they were feeling. I think this will be a fun and imaginative time for them. They will be forced to think outside the box and to get creative. Look out students- I’m gonna make you think!

Since there hasn’t been much action this week, I think I will share my inner thoughts with you. I know some of you are dying to know what is going on inside this brain of mine. Well, let’s start with my plans for next year. I have decided to move back to the states at the end of this school year, which for me ends on June 6^th but my plane departs on the 23^rd. This wasn’t an easy decision because I love living here so much. I love my students and my apartment and my friends and the food and, well, I love almost everything about this place. It will be incredibly hard for me to pack up and move on, but I feel it is time. I feel called to be back in NJ with family and friends. I have the overwhelming feeling that it is time to pursue a career of some sort. I am currently in the process of applying to graduate school for criminal justice. Some of you may remember that I was previously interested in social work. While I still believe that I would excel in that field, my heart has always remained somewhere else. I have big dreams about what I want to be, the main one including working for the government in some way- it has always been in the back of my mind and I am finally brave enough and confident enough to go after it. If China has taught me anything it has taught me how lucky I am to be an American. I feel this sense of pride for my country and I have this sense of duty for it. I want to learn more about how the American criminal process works and I want to be a part of it, on a higher scale than local cop. It would be a dream come true to be an agent for the FBI and I really think if I work hard I can do it.

I’ll leave you all with that, but I’m sure it will come up in another post. As usual, please email if you have any questions. I’m pretty passionate about this topic and would love to chat more about it. If you have any comments or advice, feel free to pass them along.

Ok, now onto what I know you have been waiting for: food corner (I’m pretty sure the name of this section will change each time, for varieties sake)

Today I will highlight guo bao rou- or sweet glazed pork:

I suggest clicking on the picture and then zooming in, by clicking it again, to get the full experience

This dish is brought to you by Bruno’s, once again:

Sorry this is crooked, I apparently sneezed or flinched or maybe I couldn’t see b/c it was dark. Anyway, it’s good enough.

Its fried pork nuggets with a sweet brown sauce that is kind of glaze-esc and sticks to it, it has a thin maple syrup quality to it. Good eatin’

I shall leave you with the words of a woman whose book I am currently reading.

“Bon Apetit”

Well friends, please excuse me for keeping this brief. It has been a somewhat eventful week but to my surprise I noticed a few days ago that my electricity is just about out; which means that I must be careful about using my computer or lights or shower…. Anyway, the people who work in the office where you buy electricity won’t be here until Sunday- so, I need to spend minimal time on this thing.

Let’s not waste time then and get right to it. On Saturday we were joined by our friend Theresa, and then the rest of her team joined us on Monday. They were not allowed to get back into their apartments until this afternoon, so they stayed with us for a few days. Since classes haven’t started yet and students aren’t around, our days have been pretty long and uneventful. I fill my days with movies, some reading, the internet, card games, and the occasional chore. It’s amazing how clean you can get your house when you have nothing else to do.

While our friends were here we hung out, played cards, watched Forrest Gump, ate at the Korean BBQ restaurant, made pancakes (pink and heart shaped for Valentines Day), and went to McDonalds. At McDonalds I participated in the McDonalds challenge (so far I’m the only participant). The challenge is to add a burger each time. Last night I ate 3 double cheeseburgers. It was more challenging than I thought it would be and I think it is due to two factors. One: I wasn’t completely hungry when I began eating, and two: I wasn’t full towards the end, but the taste of the artificial cheese started to get to me. The last 4 bites were really hard to finish and I blame the taste. Anyway, I did it. Mission Accomplished.

We ended our night, last night, with the lighting of fireworks and lighting lanterns. Since people are still celebrating the New Year, and the lantern festival is coming, we fit right in. My favorite part was lighting the giant ‘Shark’ firework. It was a big container with a fuse at the top, so we had no idea what would happen when I lit it. No one was harmed during our lighting ceremony.

As promised, I shall end this session with my very first, but not last, food report:

Today I will feature one of my favorite food items in China; green beans. Yes, I know, for those who know me it is a little weird that I would choose a vegetable as my favorite but in China they are so good. Normally I love beans with pork, or spicy green beans, but, we discovered a new dish: egg fried green beans!

They are really good. Think fried green beans from Fridays- although I feel like they may be a little healthier in China…anyway, they are awesome. I believe all the dish consists of are beans battered with egg and fried in some oil. It can’t be more complicated than that. This dish is brought to you by the restaurant we have dubbed Bruno’s. The woman who works there is by far my favorite towns’ person. She is nice and smiles all the time, and knows our habits. So, if we are unsure of what to order, she is known for suggesting some of our favorites. Also, if we butcher a name or say it wrong, she always knows what we are trying to say. So, thanks to you Shi Feng Yi (thanks to Heather for remembering her name).

Have a great week everyone!

 

Hello friends- I’m back. It’s been a while since my last blog entry and so much has happened since then- which you can see evidence of in my pictures located on the right side of this blog page.

Anyway, I’m both excited and stressed about this blog. There is so much to say and I’m afraid I could go on and on for days but still not be able to fully explain some of the amazing things that I was fortunate enough to experience. But, I guess I will try and see how it goes. Oh, also- I’ve made a very important decision concerning this blog- starting next week, the end of every blog entry will include a food section. I’ve decided to highlight one restaurant per month/one dish per week. That’s about 4 dishes a month for you math nerds . I’ll make sure to include a picture each time; don’t worry all of you visual learners. Wow, I’m really into categories today- oh well. Anyway, I hope you will enjoy learning about the food here as much as I enjoy eating it. So- lets get to vacation, shall we?

Our travels began on January 12th- with the whole IECS team, plus Newt- our faithful boss, Claire- his wife/IECS accountant extraordinaire, their friend and ours Paula, and Frank- the IECS staff guy in China. We headed to Sanya, which is an island at the bottom of China. We stayed there from the 12th until the 19th to have a conference. Our days were filled with great lessons given by our 4 leaders, meals at local restaurants, game nights/beach games, and plenty of free time to spend walking around or lounging on the beach. The weather was a little chilly at times, so swimming wasn’t on my mind, but it was warm enough for shorts which is good enough for me. The only unfortunate part was the fact that I got sick the day before we left, and by the second day in Sanya my voice was completely gone. It stayed that way for most of the trip. Half my voice came back for the last 3 days, meaning my lower register, but singing was not an option as my voice would not go very high. So unless I wanted to sing baritone, I couldn’t sing. Normally this is okay but I was the music leader for the week! Hah, a music leader who can’t sing or lead people in the songs, whoops. It was fine though- I just cued people in with my head, which felt slightly ridiculous but was effective. Other people were dropping like flies though- something was going around that caused slight fevers/body aches, and coughing. It wasn’t from me though, I promise. I had something else. Anyway, Sanya turned into the perfect place to relax and get rid of our illnesses before we headed to Thailand. Wait, before we go there I feel compelled to tell you about the huge population of Russians in Sanya; it was so strange. Sanya is where they vacation to escape from the cold so there were Russians every where. Before we left I learned from Rosetta Stone how to say Russia and I jokingly said I was determined to use the phrase “I am not Russian” in one way or another. Well, you guessed it- my wish came true and I had to tell 3 workers at the hotel that I was not Russian. It is so weird that they would start speaking Russian to us; not Chinese, not English, but Russian. Hilarious in my book.

Oh Thailand, what can I say about you…. I’ve got the whole trip detailed in my notebook so I’ll be able to give you the day by day recap. Are you ready? I’m not sure you will ever be but I’ll start regardless. The journey for my group (we split into 3 groups for this leg of the race….I mean trip) started at midnight and the five of us found ourselves on a 16 hour train ride to south China- more specifically Guangzhou. We rode in style- hard sleepers piled 3 high. Leslie and I had top bunks and there was no room to sit up once you got up there [see pictures in flickr]. We fell asleep around 1am or so but were woken up sometime during the night by the guy a bed below us. According to Leslie, he was battling a demon; which I think is a pretty accurate description. He was banging the walls, I mean really beating them. I’d say he has night terrors. Anyway, the train put the lights on around 7am, which were conveniently located 8 inches from our faces, and turned music on. Wake up time! We spent the next 9 hours with the others playing games, eating snacks, talking, and trying not to count the hours. Once we got to Guangzhou we had to switch train stations and get on a one hour train to Shenzhen where we would meet up with the others. We got to Shenzhen that night and took a bus to the airport to get on our 11pm flight. We finally got to Thailand at 2:30am- phew. From there we headed to our hostel and fell right asleep in our 22 person dorm room. Don’t worry mom, there were curtains separating each bunk bed.

Our first day in Bangkok began with a shower- we hadn’t showered in days- yuck. Then we headed out for some exploring/street food/lunch/shopping. That afternoon 6 of us met up with an old friend of mine. Jake and I were at Saranac lake in 2005, and so was another girl, Marisa. It turns out she lives in Bangkok now and we had been emailing about meeting up. We hadn’t seen each other in over 5 years but were somehow reunited in Thailand- how weird. Anyway, she took 6 of us to her slum and told us all about Thailand and the customs. We were eager to soak up as much knowledge as we could. She was pretty much fluent in Thai after only living there 1 ½ years- so amazing. It was a great afternoon and I am so glad we met up. I feel like I got to see both sides of Bangkok. That night she went with us to dinner and then helped us buy our bus tickets for the following night. The next day we explored Bangkok more. Everyone went to the Grand Palace, but because we were trying to save money, Jake and I waited across the street at the “park”. We had fun with the pigeons and the locals. It turns out pigeons really like diet coke- who knew?

That night we boarded an overnight VIP bus to Phuket. We got there the next morning- checked into our hostel and hit the beach. The next day began our adventures. We went on a boat/island hopping tour to Phi Phi Island. On this tour we got to go on a beautiful boat ride that took us to various things like snorkeling, different beaches, and finally some fun rock climbing/swimming. That night we headed out to an Irish restaurant where we were entertained by a local band who did covers of bands like Journey, Alanis Morissette, and Brian Adams- so strange but so awesome. The next day we went on another tour where we went on a short hike to a waterfall, saw a gibbon rescue, rode and fed elephants(!), and finally went on a long boat to feed monkeys. It was an amazing day. Our last day was spent visiting a local organization that is designed to help rehabilitate women caught in the sex trade. I learned a lot and am really psyched to possibly help them one day. That night we got back on a VIP bus headed to Bangkok. We watched the new Predator movie in Thai with no subtitles- hilarious and only slightly confusing.

Our last two days in Bangkok were spent exploring China town, having great meals and boat rides. Overall Thailand was amazing and the food was some of the best food I have ever eaten. I miss it already!! So now we are up to January 27th- the day we all split up for various adventures. Shamblee and I boarded a plane headed to Guangzhou and then a bus to Guilin. Short story about the bus- it ended up pulling over and a cop car showed up- 4 guys got off- no one knows why. Anyway, so we spent 4 days in Guilin with cold weather; the complete opposite to what we just had for 2 weeks. The sun didn’t shine once which was a disappointment, but we still had fun. One night we went to the mall and saw TRON in 3D and in English! We tried to do touristy stuff but the cold ended up stopping us from doing everything we had wanted.

February 2nd- we were back in Langfang. That was in fact the craziest trip I have ever done. It was full of adventures, delicious food, and endless amounts of laughter. I hope you feel somewhat informed. Sorry I rushed through a lot of it, but I seriously could write for weeks about it. If you want to know more, feel free to email me or skype me and I’d be happy to fill you in.

I hope everyone is having an amazing month.

See you next week

p.s. I forgot to add that while in Guilin we went to a show with acrobats and during the halftime/intermission a clown came out and made me go on stage. It was weird and he scared me. Clowns are frightening. Anyway, Shamblee got a good laugh and I stood there confused b/c he didn’t speak English. The crowd clapped for me when I had to slap my knee and then give a thumbs up. TThe End.

 

Ok friends, I would like to start out by saying that when I started prepping for this blog entry (yes, I take notes before I start writing) my hair was approximately 3 inches longer, but I’ll get to that later. As you probably have noticed I prefer to write in chronological order. So, let’s begin with last Thursday.

I finished my exams!!!! I finished grading my exams!!!!!! I finished all of my final grades!!!!! I’m finished!!!!! This is a very exciting moment for me. I was captain productive last week, you have no idea. I did everything on my list plus I watched 3-4 movies (I lost count), graded everything, hung out with students, exercised, practiced Chinese and I knitted a scarf. Seriously. I knitted a scarf- Heather taught me. I am proud of myself and I’m not going to keep writing until you agree that Carly Anita Wells knitting a scarf is strangely impressive…..Ok, I’ll keep writing. I trust you.

Anyway, I finished and I am excited to be done. Especially because we are going to start our winter travels in less than a week! 6 days!!! I won’t be home until February 2^nd, so my blog will be on hiatus until then. We are going to Sanya in south China- very far south, and then to Thailand for a week, and then back to south China to see some sites for 4 days. I’ll fill you in when I get back.

That brings us to New Years Eve. It was pretty low key but I’m quite sure that we all had a great time. It started out with taco night. Now let me vent a little bit about taco night. I decided it was my turn to cook the meat. All went well until it was time to drain the meat. As I was pouring the fat out I slipped and ended up pouring it all over my sink, which is bad because it was filled with dishes…but then I decided I needed to wash it off quick b/c it was greasy and burning hot. Ok….well, let me explain something; our sinks only have cold water. Cold water + hot fat juice= congealed white fat all over the place. It was so gross and took forever to clean up. I had to keep heating up water in my water heater thing, plus mugs of water in my microwave. Whoops. Human error. I am not volunteering for meat duty next taco night, haha. Anyway, after we had taco night we had some no bake cheesecake courtesy of America/Shamblee who received it in a package earlier this year. It was awesome and I think I gained 10 pounds because I ate so much, but I really couldn’t care less. After our dessert we played a few rounds of Dutch Blitz, the card game, and well….I kicked butt. I have played this game a lot and was sooooo lucky when we dealt the cards. But, spirits were high and we all had a good time. Good sportsmanship all around. We then retired to the living room, hah, and watched the second Chronicles of Narnia movie. We ate some popcorn from our friendly neighborhood popcorn lady, because who wouldn’t want to eat more food. We were ringing in the New Year. This obviously requires lots of food. When the movie was over we had about 40 minutes left until midnight and decided to spend that time sharing our thoughts about last year with each other. We each spoke about our favorite part of last year, our worst moment of last year, and some of our hopes for the year to come. We then spent some time lifting those thoughts up- this took us right to midnight. It was a great night and the end to a great year.

Yesterday we were sneaky, and with the help of the two girls in Tianjin, we headed to that city to surprise Jake for his birthday. Before we left we made a friend at the train station. He was a Chinese man who spoke English well but clearly had a learning disability. He had trouble meeting our eyes and seemed distracted by numbers and would repeat things a lot. He was so friendly though and I had fun talking to him for a few minutes. I admit that at first I was put off because I thought he was just another Chinese guy trying to talk to us b/c we were foreigners (which can get tiring after a while). He took me over to a sign and asked me what it meant in English. Basically it said not to throw your trash on the ground (it said it in English, I am not a Chinese character reading genius). I showed him the garbage in my hand to make my point, to which he promptly grabbed and started to walk away. He turned back, smiled and said “follow me!!” So, I did, and he took me to a garbage can and said “what is this in English?” So I told him and he smiled and together we threw out the trash. He then announced to us that “time is up!”, meaning that our train was arriving soon and it was time to walk to the platform. He got escorted out of the building b/c he didn’t have a ticket.

So we went Tianjin for the day and had a great time. We made our way to TGI Fridays for dinner and it was amazing. I ate entirely too much, but how can you not at a place like that?!

That brings us to today, the haircut day. It was an interesting experience because we had to have a student tell the hairdresser what I wanted. Plus, I didn’t have my glasses on, so I couldn’t see what he was doing. It’s even all around and looks fine, it’s just short- as in shorter than I have ever had it. I blame the metric system. In China maybe 2 inches really means 4….Oh well…it’s my beach haircut, right??? My shoulders are cold and lonely.

Time to go because Morgan is coming over for a guitar lesson.

P.S. Dad, I had my first pipa lesson the other day.  I got yelled at for my posture and for trying to play it like a guitar. My bad.

People- brace yourselves- you are about to hear the weirdest and craziest Christmas story of all time. This may be a bit of an exaggeration but seriously- after hearing this story you will laugh. From start to finish, this could ONLY happen in China.

Well, let’s start with a few days before Christmas- the Thursday before to be exact. We decided to celebrate Christmas that morning as a team, since we were headed to Baoding on Friday. So, we had breakfast at 10:30- each of us contributing something delicious. Then we played some games- ending with a game we named ‘how many US presidents can we name’. I won’t lie- we only got 25 or so. How sad. But, we moved on from our little game and started opening presents. Since there are only 4 people on our team, we each bought presents for everyone. I won’t lie, I teamed up with Shamblee to buy gifts for Andy and Heather. Two heads are better than one, right? I think I did a pretty decent job giving gifts. My favorite gift I gave was a 3 minute video I created on my laptop for Shamblee. It was about the show LOST- you had to be there. But it took me days to do and included a funny photo shopped photo- which I always enjoy doing. Anyway, my gift giving skills are fairly good, but I must say, my teammates were awesome. Everything I got screamed Carly. Here are a few highlights: gloves, a strange and awesome t-shirt, candy, a cool/weird instrument thing, cookies, a face towel (I needed one) and a subway pass. Well done team, well done.

So, Friday- Christmas Eve. Wow, ok, so I wrote this entire blog and then my computer froze and I lost everything after this point- yay- now I get to re-write it. I believe this version will be even better than the last. Anyway, so- Christmas Eve. The Tianjin crew came over- we had lunch, and then at 2pm we headed to Baoding via bus. It was a 2 hour ride and was pretty uneventful. Most of us ended up getting separated and I sat next to some guy who decided he not only wanted his seat but part of mine- awesome. I tried reading a book but the ride was pretty noisy due to cell phones, the movie on the bus, and the guy in front of my eating sunflower seeds. So, I put my ipod in and tuned out the world for the ride over. Once we got to the bus stop we had to get on a local bus for about 45 minutes until we got to their campus. The hotel we were staying in was a 45 second walk from their apartment, so that was nice. Once we all got settled in, we went to dinner on campus. After dinner, as we were getting ready to leave, Andrew got a call from his neighbor saying that Bethany’s apartment was flooding…so we headed back unsure of what we would find. Well, to our surprise we discovered that the radiator had busted and was shooting water like a fire hydrant into her bedroom. It must have been going for a while because the water in the apartment was already a few inches in all of the rooms. I went in to help because I knew my shoes were water proof- but had to turn back to remove my glasses and coat because her bedroom was like a sauna. It was filled with steam and with water shooting all over it was hard to see anything. For the next hour or two we all pitched in to mop up water, carry things out of the apartment, unplug electronics, and move furniture in an effort to save as many things as possible. It took longer than expected to turn off the water but they finally did and plugged up the hole with a stick….later to be replaced with a metal rod. Oh China… Luckily many things in her room, the living room, and Leslie’s room were unharmed. A few Christmas presents did suffer- including Bethany’s gift from her secret santa- oh irony. With many of us covered in water and sore from mopping and moving things- we finally went into Andrew’s apartment for a time of singing and fellowship. We ended the night on a positive note- singing and praising.

Christmas morning! I woke up to find my hotel roommate- Shamblee- busy with tape. I didn’t have my glasses on, but I heard tape and saw her messing with something. Turns out it was a stocking she brought and filled with candy and a weird cut out metal thing that you use to make your eggs in the shape of a heart- awesome. We went over to Bethany’s apartment around 9:30 to help move things back and get breakfast started. After a hearty meal we had our secret santa. I received an awesome hat, a scarf, a cool statue, a mixed cd, candy, and 2 movies- wow! They all came in this really cool box that Theresa (I was her secret santa) had decorated with colored paper- cut into shapes and spirals. The funny part was, ever since I saw the box the day before I couldn’t stop talking about it- because I thought it looked so cool and I kept saying that I wanted it. What happened next can only be described as hilarious. We all got on our costumes and we reenacted the nativity play- for an audience of 0. It was 20 minutes long- wow. We recorded it, don’t worry….It was hilarious. I was a shepherd dressed in a bed sheet with a belt, and a hand towel/headband as my hat thingy. Good times. The night ended with a dinner for two kinds of soup and chicken, desert, and just a great time of conversing with each other. I fell asleep fast that night. The next day we hung out some more and then I was off for Langfang again, since some of us still had/have finals to give.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas and was certainly full of surprises. I was able to be a part of a newly formed nerd brigade. Four of us spent over an hour messing with a computer to convert some videos and we were thusly named the nerds. We being, Jake, Keri, Cameron, and myself. I am honored to be thought of as a computer nerd. In my mind it means I’m smart. Speaking of nerdy things to do, I better save this and post it before my computer freezes for the 3^rd time today.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!