happy chicken day?

Okay, so it wasn’t your traditional Thanksgiving feast…but for us, it was perfect. Instead of turkey, we ate chicken. Instead of homemade mashed potatoes, we resorted to the less flavorful “make your mashed potatoes from a box.” Instead of warm apple pie, we ate the Chinese version of a cake.




As the seven of us sat around the table in my apartment, (I WAS DECKED OUT IN MY PACKER GEAR!!) we each said what we were thankful for, described quirky family traditions and gawked over my first taste of gravy ever. (yes, I’m picky remember? Boy, have I been missing out the last twenty-two years. What is wrong with me?) We sipped on Chinese red wine and stared in awe at our first snowfall of the year, and China’s strange inability to properly dispose of the snowy city streets. This of course does not make the outrageous drivers of Tongliao drive in the correct lanes or follow any kind of traffic law.




After a filling American meal, which our bodies weren’t used to, we retreated to the first floor apartment where six packages sent from America were waiting for us. (They had been sitting there for a week, unopened!) Ian’s mother sent us some Christmas treats, which we all agreed must be opened after Thanksgiving dinner. The suspense was killing us!






With the festive tunes of NSYNC, Mariah, and of course Britney, singing joyously in the background, the seven of us literally opened Christmas from American shipping boxes. It felt like Christmas morning as we tore open the brown boxes to find artificial Christmas trees (one for each apartment!), individual stockings, ornaments, advent calendars, Christmas lights and garland!

When we turned the apartment lights off and lit our “little Charlie Brown Christmas tree,” the seven of us sat in silence. It was the strangest feeling knowing I won’t be home for yet another holiday. But how many people can say they celebrated Christmas in China? Tis’ the Season!!!

chinese gyms and public showers.

Hey everyone! As I write this update I am sipping on hot tea and dressed in many layers. It is bitter cold outside and apparently this is not even close to a real inner-Mongolian winter. We had our first snow storm today resulting in Julianne and I (teachers at the South Campus) having a snow day tomorrow! The other five teachers here at the North Campus don't...(woops another perk being a teacher at the south campus in the city!) Enjoy my latest blog!




I have been living in China for almost two months now and day to day life has become much easier. I am settled and have developed a pretty nice routine for myself. I love traveling but Tongliao feels like home now, I have a life here (that is so weird!!!) Like I have explained in previous updates, I work in the afternoon, so my entire morning is basically free. During the months of September and most of October, my mornings consisted of a wonderful run around this gated campus, some lesson planning and Chinese studying. But that has changed very quickly!




Hello November..HELLO FRIGID WIND. I’m not sure if it’s winter yet but it sure feels like it. I thought the wind tunnels between McVinney and Meagher Halls at PC were bad, but they’ve got nothing on China! Yesterday I actually thought I was being pushed over by the wind. I’m sure it's just a matter of time before I fall flat on my face,I'm pretty good at doing that. Instead, I held my ground, tucked my face into my chest and walked blindly into the bitter Mongolian wind.




This of course creates a problem with my daily routine. My morning run, the one thing where I can be completely alone for 45 minutes, has been swept away by the wind. (Don't get me wrong, I love everyone here and all my students but sometimes I need my own time!!) Thus began the treasure hunt around the city of Tongliao…and what were we hunting? what would be the treasure? A gym! Cait and A.J. win the prize for this game because their discovery of a brand new gym in the heart of the city was the solution to this grave problem.





Lijian Jianshen Julebu was opened six months ago. It is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, a dance studio and a spinning room. (This is a big deal because this is such a large space for an establishment in China). The membership fee is a mere fraction of the cost at home and this includes a personal trainer! I’d like you all to meet Zhang Xu (Jong-Shoe), one of my favorite people in China. I am greeted each morning with a huge hug and “Hello Shee-La, I miss you.” While we work out, Zhang Xu teaches me Chinese and screams “COME ON” at me. When I stretch on the ground, she sits across from me, and comes within inches of my face. She then touches my eyelashes and stares in awe at my green eyes. "Wow, they are very beautiful," she exclaims each time. She has never seen green eyes before. I love her! Additionally, the gym has a shower room and lockers. I would like to take a moment to describe the showers because for all of us, this is the greatest part of the gym and is our motivation on really cold days when we’d rather stay in our heated apartments being bums.






Our apartments are the only ones on campus that have showers. I feel very lucky and thankful for this because it does make our lives easier. We aren’t required, like the other teachers, to travel into the city to public bathhouses for showers. However, taking a shower in our apartments is like jumping into a pool of water and ice. The hot water, if we’re lucky to get it, comes from a solar heated tank on the roof. We fill the tank each night for fifteen minutes until the tank is full. We then need a full day’s worth of sunny weather to have a hot shower. Sounds great right? Al Gore would be proud…at least one building in China has gone green. Let me tell you, shivering so wildly, looking like you’re doing some embarrassing 80’s dance is not fun.






So what does this have to do with the gym? We thought the discovery of the gym was like the discovery of the internet….well it just got even better. The gym has hot water! (not just warm, but HOT!!!) It’s fantastic. But of course there’s a side story to this, remember I’m in China! We are not talking about private shower rooms with a changing area like at the Southport Racquet Club at home. This is a room of shower heads on the wall; yet another new experience for me. My first shower in this room was a day I will probably never forget. Julianne and I were each in the middle of washing our hair when we heard the door open. We both turned our heads to see a Chinese woman standing in the doorway of the shower room. My first instinct was to hide myself, like that was even possible?!? Her eyes remained on me and I nervously said, “Shi ba?” (Yes?) She said nothing, she just continued to stare. Julianne and I became a bit uneasy at this situation and chose to ignore this creepy admirer. After wiping the soap from my face I turned to find my new friend, head tilted, examining my rear-end. Julianne and I began laughing, and I was no longer embarrassed. American women are built MUCH different than the stick thin Chinese. Oh I wish I could read minds, her curiosity was written all over her face. This is just another adventure in a day in the life of an American living in China!

Lesson learned…being self-conscious in China is a lost cause and a waste of time when you’re white and have an ass!

climb baby climb.

NiHao everyone! I hope you are all doing very well! Things here are great! We just got back from a nice little vacation in Beijing and Tai’an. I received the greatest news in a Starbucks in Beijing…the Packers won again…7-1 whaaaaaaaaaaaat?!?!? What a year to not be in America? Go Pack Go!

Julianne and I spent a lot of time planning this adventure and we named it “Climb Baby Climb” because it is probably the most athletic trip we will ever take. We climbed the Great Wall of China, Jingshan Park, and Mt. Tai Shan. Thankfully our group, for the most part is quite athletic so it was enjoyable but exhausting…our stories are priceless, and so are the pictures. Additionally we visited the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, shopped at the Silk Market, and ate at a TGIFriday’s. (Unfortunately, I narrowed it down to the Great Wall and Tai Shan because if I wrote about my entire trip, this would be another novel…..So please enjoy!!







“He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man.” -Mao Zedong






Thanks Mao, I’m now a man. I remember being in elementary school and my first taste of China was a picture of THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA. It’s one of those things that we all know about but never think we’ll ever see…




On our bus ride to the Badaling section of the wall, I felt like a child on Christmas morning, waiting at the top of the stairs. To be quite honest, as we drove through the mountains and hills, the seven of us were so antsy and excited that our driver became a little irritated. We rounded a long winding curve when I got my first glimpse. It was extraordinary. I felt like I was looking at a postcard…I continued to stare in awe. We were all pinching ourselves and each other. This was a dream come true.




The Great Wall (Changcheng) was begun over 2000 years ago during the Qin dynasty. It stretches from the east coast of China to the Gobi Desert but it wasn’t constructed as a single, continuous wall.





In ancient times, each of the disparate kingdoms built its own separate walls to keep out invaders. In 221BC, the tyrannical emperor Qing Shihuang conquered six kingdoms, declared China a single state and announced his intention to join all the kingdom’s shorter walls into one very, very long one. (The picture below shows that there is still fighting along the wall…Go Yankees!)




The streets lining the entrance are densely populated with vendors selling every piece of Great Wall memorabilia you could ever think of. It became really infuriating when a woman jumped into my face trying to sell me postcards and posters of the wall. I wanted to scream, “THANKS BUT NO THANKS, I DO NOT WANT A PICTURE, I WANT TO SEE THE WALL!” Even the sight of my beloved Starbucks at the entrance to the wall was disturbing.




The moment we entered the large square in the entrance, I remember feeling a herd of people almost knock me over. It was another one of those large tour groups, led by a petite woman with a massive megaphone, carrying a flag whose color matched the 80’s styled caps donned by each member of the tour group. (Apparently this group didn’t receive the memo about wearing matching out-of-style hats!)




It is so clear that this country is wild about the Olympics. It is such an exciting time to invite the world in. To the right of the wall, there is a large billboard with the 2008 Beijing Olympic slogan “One World, One Dream.” Upon entering, one has the choice to walk right (alongside the billboard) with a large crowd, or take the less crowded route to the left. Not wanting to be surrounded by our cap wearing, megaphone following friends, we chose the latter. Well, there is a reason why this way had far less climbers…it was brutal! I had two moments when I almost had a panic attack because of the height and steepness of the wall. (I had no idea I was so afraid of heights!) At that point, the wall was so steep and the stairs were so narrow, I was holding onto the railing for dear life. (But this section passed, and the views were fantastic.)




On all sides, the Great Wall rose and fell over the hilly land of China. I kept thinking, “I can’t believe I am seeing this, let alone CLIMBING the Great Wall! How did I get so lucky?” Seeing the wall was exhilarating. The only way to describe it is that it is “it was the coolest thing!” haha.




We had reached our first hurdle of the trip-there were no more sleeper cars from Beijing to Tai Shan, only hard-sitters. Never having taken this type of ticket before, we stayed upbeat and optimistic. “It’s only six hours,” we justified. “If we get sitters next to each other, we’ll just sleep on each other, we’ll be fine.” There was no other choice, so we sucked it up, stayed positive that this wouldn’t be so bad and purchased our overnight tickets to Tai Shan.




BIG MISTAKE. Between the hours of midnight and 6am, I squirmed, took deep breaths, and closed my eyes, praying that if I opened them; I’d be sitting on a beach drinking a chilled Corona with a lime- HAH. Hard sitters were mis-named by a man long ago who wanted to play a joke on travelers. They are in fact hard as rock BENCHES. Now before you all think I’m just a whining westerner, let me say that I would take this again, DURING THE DAY, and for no more than four hours. We took the hard sitters overnight, before climbing a mountain. An aisle separates these benches. The benches on the left side are for two passengers and the benches on the right are for three passengers. The benches face each other so you are constantly surrounded by five others. Doesn’t sound so bad right? WRONG. The people who fail to obtain sitter tickets, are given “standing room.” These people STAND, SIT, SQWAK, SLURP, SNEEZE, STARE, WALK, and LAY DOWN IN THE AISLES. The sounds they made created the most atrocious symphony-thank goodness I had 6+ hours of battery power left on my iPod, I have never loved portable electronics so much in my life.

I had already been battling an infuriating cold but after just two days in Beijing, I noticed the alarming increase in coughing and frequency of blowing my nose. I realized this was happening to fight the pollution. Any doctor would have a conniption if they knew I was spending an entire night on this unsanitary, germ-infested cattle car. The circulation in car 3 was non-existent. I felt constricted with paranoia, that with each breath I took, the stale air would hit my sensitive western lungs with a chocking-like force. Each time I was bumped into, walked over, or just plain stared at, I would shoot the person in question a homicidal death glare…maybe that is why I didn’t make any Chinese friends on the train to Tai Shan!




After six hours of trembling lunacy, I ran out of car 3 into the new morning in Tai Shan, China. I looked up into the sky to not see mountains or sunshine, but a smoggy sky, again. I chugged my water bottle, thanked God or Confucious, or the ticket collector now gawking at this disgusting, un-showered, perturbed foreigner, or whoever for my triumphant exit of car 3.

I must say that I was impressed that we only found ourselves in one rut on this trip so far….haha ohhh but it was only Monday. As we walked towards the tickets office, we started rearranging our luggage, anticipating that this was where we’d be able to leave our heavy backpacks with a weeks worth of traveling things. We purchased our tickets and hopped on the bus that brought us up to the base of the mountain where we could begin our ascent into the clouds.





The next ten minutes are a blur…It must have been the mammoth exhaustion but we never dropped our bags off anywhere. I’m not really sure if we walked right by the ‘left-luggage room’ or if we thought it wasn’t indeed there, but we began climbing with all of our luggage… A.J. had made the foolish choice to bring his small rollie suitcase and five minutes into the hike, it was almost thrown off the side into a very beautiful ravine. I don’t think Mother Nature would be too pleased with this addition to her landscape. Needless to say, there is a reason why every single Chinese person climbing the mountain, stared at us, pointed to the large humps coming out of our backs, and laughed. Some even came and grabbed our backpacks from the top, picked it up for a moment, and then wildly cheered, “Wooooooooooww!” It’s clear that senses of humor differ from culture to culture.




Tai Shan is the most honored of China’s five sacred Taoist peaks, with imperial sacrifices to heaven and earth offered from its summit. Only five of China’s emperors ever climbed Tai Shan. It’s said that if you climb Tai Shan, you’ll live to be 100 (I definitely needed to hear this at 2.5 hours into the climb; I knew I was no where near the end!!!)




There are temples at the summit where the Emperors burned money and incense, praying for their offspring. Most tourists summit this revered mountain in order to catch a glimpse at the famous sunrise. In ancient Chinese tradition, it was believed that the sun began its westward journey from Tai Shan.




Tai Shan is 1545m above sea level, with a climbing distance of 7.5km from base to summit. This was not like my hikes up Mt. Washington. Instead of climbing over rocks and up dirt paths, Tai Shan’s climb is up 6,660 steps. It left me in awe, wondering how this was possibly built by the hands of man. What an accomplishment.




The climb was amazing. We were the only foreigners (this is not tourist season for climbing) and we met tons of Chinese who begged for pictures with the crazy Americans and their life-size backpacks which probably weighed more than each of them! I passed many porters carrying goods in baskets that hung from either end of a long bamboo pole balanced on his shoulder. This immediately snapped me out of my “I’m so tired, I got no sleep last night, whoa is me” state. These men do this every single day.


We finally reached the top at noon, checked into our freezing hotel room and passed out for two hours. I awoke is a daze…I had no idea where I was and wondered why my head was pounding. After I splashed water on my face and wolfed down a zone bar, the seven of us ventured out and walked around, exploring the many hidden temples and paths.





We had a quick dinner and at 5pm, we climbed to a pavilion to watch the sunset. I sat up against a large stone pillar and watched the magnificence of nature. It was absolutely spectacular. I felt like I had finally escaped into unpolluted air and was finally away from tourist groups screaming into megaphones asking to be in a picture with me.




At 5:30, we awoke, changed into our long underwear, ten layers, hats and mittens and embarked on our climb to watch the sunrise. The seven of us were alone, far from any Chinese tourists, hawkers, and “foreigner gazers.” We sat in our pavilion waiting…the beauty of the sky and land was inexpressible.




The moon still shone high above us on a dark blue canvas while the horizon glowed a bright and vibrant orange. It was just a matter of minutes.




And then right before our eyes we watched a yellow circle pop out of the ocean of clouds, and the sun rose from the heavenly sea. Suddenly the sky and the land were undefined. It was a fleeting moment that left us all breathless. I had just witnessed the very display that has been experienced by millions before me and still continues to draw crowds to flock to Tai Shan. It made me realize how easy it is to take these stunning daily events for granted.




It’s amazing how my cold ceased atop the mountain. The fresh, clean air was just the remedy. However, we began our descent and my symptoms resumed in the smoggy city of Tai’an. I could not wait to go back home to Tongliao! More stories soon!

when foreigners collide.

The other day, one of my students threw up his hand and said, “Excuse me Sheila, What is your favorite part about China?” I stood in front of my class of seventy-six students, the best and the brightest of Grade 1 (classes are ranked in China) and exclaimed, “the food!” Maybe it was the disturbing sounds coming from my stomach at that very moment that forced such an answer. I was just 30 minutes away from an amazing Chinese dinner!

I have been told my entire life that I am the pickiest eater anyone has ever met. Yes this is true however; I am impressed with my courageous choices in China. (Sorry guys, I still haven’t tried soda!) But all kidding aside, I told the class this, which they found to be an entertaining answer.

After I left class, I nearly kicked myself because I realized that the food wasn’t the best part of China at all for me. It is something much different than food. It’s the guarantee that each time I leave my apartment; I will see something new, be involved in a bizarre situation, or meet an individual that awes me. I embarrass myself every single day and spend most of my day in a mess of laughter. I honestly sometimes feel like a child who sees things for the first time and is constantly in a state of wonder.





It’s funny when you think you’ve seen it all, but in reality you’ve seen nothing. I go to sleep each night saying to myself, “Wow, today is another blog entry.” But lucky for all of you, I have picked just a few to share with you…some of the most interesting people I have met.




#1-Johnny Taxi
In order to get into the city of Tongliao from our school, you must stand at the North gate and wait for one of the many rule-breaking, life-threatening, and horrifying roller-coaster like drivers. I have yet to meet a driver who can speak an ounce of English, and many tend to gaze deeply into your eyes (unromantically) instead of at the road. And each time I adoringly stare back, I seem to understand what their eyes are saying. “Look at these fat foreigners who speak at ridiculous speeds in such foreign tongues. Why are they so white and why are they always smiling?” Yes, our group is a group of gigglers and we say Xie Xie (thank you) to everything and everyone. But it’s not our fault that the Chinese are ALL freaks of nature and are abnormally skinny.


There are what seems like thousands of taxi’s in Tongliao, but for whatever reason, we have been graced with the presence of one in particular, at least ten times. I named him Johnny, a nice man in his lat thirties, Johnny has become our personal chauffeur. When asked if he is married, Johnny says he is married to his car. We exchanged cell phone numbers and he is always just a phone call away from picking us up anywhere we want. Most days, he sits in the school guard room at the gate and waits for us, smoking cigarettes with the school guards (whom I’ve named Harry and Wayne). What makes Johnny so great is his inability to understand the concept of a foreign language. Often times Johnny will speak quickly to me, (I can decipher if it is a question or not) and as a result in my failure to reply, Johnny repeats the question at a deafening level of sound.





I believe I have a great sense of hearing (although, after four years of living with Chrystina, she will strongly disagree with that statement). I usually yell back, “I still don’t understand you Johnny!” But for some reason, we both seem to understand each other in the end- I point to things and he repeats them in Chinese for me. I owe him for teaching me little things like (eyes, ears, mouth, nose, arms), the days of the week, months of the year, and the weather. In return, I help him with common English phrases and always tend to provide him with an American giggle (I’m a good teacher). Sometimes it seems like language learning is overrated… crazy facial expressions can take you a long way!




Living in Tongliao is like playing a huge scavenger hunt. We have spent afternoons roaming the city in search of different shops (such as the $2 DVD store, a bakery, an appliance store that sells COFFEE MAKERS) but we have failed on many occasions to find a western bar that we were informed about called, “King Hansen’s.” We have covered every street in this city for this supposed western establishment. On our third and probably final try, we found it!

Walking into King Hansen’s you are greeted by a hallway of posters of hamburgers, fries, pizza, and every other artery clogging food you can think of (no wonder America is so obese). We were welcomed at the top of the stairs by the owner, Eva, a broken English speaking woman who was so excited to see the seven of us, we thought she was going to faint on the bar. She showed us our seats and brought us rounds of Corona’s and laughed at the crazy laowai (foreigners) who salivated with anticipation. We were already in a state of euphoria when we saw two men appear at the top of the stairs.








#2 and #3 – Terence and Jeff
Terence and Jeff are two South African men, teaching at the British Language School in the city. They have just begun their second year in Tongliao and were ecstatic when we discovered each other. They sat at our table, shared some drinks and exhibited a similar childish excitement in knowing that there were other foreigners in the city of Tongliao!!!!

This was already an overwhelming night of “Western-ness” when the truly most bizarre character I have ever met, entered our absurd lives.





#4 – Sabi (Sa-bee)
I am finding it quite difficult to describe Sabi. At thirty-six years old, Sabi is a Hungarian goose-farmer/veterinarian, fluent in German, Chinese, Russian, and Hungarian. He has been living in Tongliao for several years and plans on staying for another fifteen. When asked why for so long, Sabi answered, in Chinese with a chuckle and a wink, “Wo ai Zhong guo!!” (I love China). Sabi can understand oral English but his inability to reply makes conversation difficult. With Terence as our interpreter, the guys were told (within 10 minutes of meeting him), that the best way to find a (or a few) Chinese girlfriend(s), is to pretend you’re American, say, “I don’t understand you,” and smile. He then burst into a fit of laughter, pointed to the three guys and said, “Ni shi meiguoren!” (You are American!) Ohhh Sabi, the crazy Tonglian Bachelor. He then lit his fancy cigar, winked again and ran to the stage where a small Chinese band was entertaining the crowd. He grabbed the microphone and began singing (perfectly) a traditional Chinese song. Every single person in the bar knew him, including the owner who loved the fact that she now had ten foreigners consuming all of the Corona’s she had in stock. (Eva is in one of the pictures!)





Our great western discovery ended up being fantastic! We hung out with South Africans, a crazy Hungarian man, the great Chinese, and a few people from the Philippines. Terence and Jeff are great guys and I think a friendship will ensue. Sabi (the self proclaimed Mayor of Tongliao) is going to be a blast to hang out with. His crazy antics didn’t end at the bar. He brought us to a Chinese club (which they call a disco) and introduced us to the real night scene in China. We met three girls from the Philippines and were given VIP treatment the moment we walked in the door. The Chinese loved our presence, especially on the dance floor. But most just stared and pointed at the peculiar moves and faultless skill of yours truly from atop the stage! (I, of course spotted this familiar residence of mine and ran for it. Oh I miss college).




I am leaving tomorrow evening for our five day November vacation. We will be going back to Beijing to climb the Great Wall, visit the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven. We will also travel to Tai’an and climb Mt. Tai Shan. We will stay overnight at the summit and wake up early enough to catch the famous sunrise hit the peak. I can’t wait to tell you all about it!!