Great Wall of China and Terracotta Soldiers!

On Thursday, we met Tammy and Carmen to go to THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA! This was the whole reason I wanted to come to China. We went to the Badaling section, which is not what I would have chosen, but it wasn’t up to me. J Because my knee had been giving me fits, I went to try to take the cable car, only to discover that the cable car wasn’t working. On the way, I ran into some American college girls who I tagged along with for the rest of the day. It was quite fun and interesting. Because it was so cold, the Wall wasn’t very busy. However, I did meet tourists from all over the world. It was pretty spectacular.

My friends from New York!

The Wall was amazing. It is absolutely breathtaking (in more ways than one) and such a bucket list item! I never imagined that I would actually get to go and climb The Great Wall of China!

That night we again hopped a sleeper train to head to Xian, the home of the Terracotta Soldiers. This was Robyn’s Bucket list item. We arrived there early so it was not busy yet. Again, this is such a inspiring place. To think of the dedication it must have taken to create these warriors with such painstaking detail. Just Wow! There are so many of them and they are not even finished excavating. You can still see people attempting to piece the warriors together and working to bring them out of the earth.

When we arrived back in Beijing (after another sleeper train) we immediately went to the Paijayuan (sp?) Antique market! This was such an awesome place to go. It is truly a feast for all the senses. There are rows and rows of beautiful pottery, beads, silk, paintings, etc… Any souvenir you could want can be found here. At lunch, we met Carmen and her roommate Amy for some Peking Roast Duck, one of Beijing’s specialties. It was delicious. I then headed to explore the Temple of Heaven before meeting Robyn at the hotel to pack so we could head back to Taiwan!

Beijing - Happy New Year in Harbing!

This year, I had the opportunity to spend New Year’s in China. Robyn and I left Tainan on Friday night. We took the High Speed Train to Taipei to make sure we had plenty of time to make our flight.

After an eventful journey where Robyn spilled her dinner on her new coat, we arrived at the hotel, where I Skyped with my dad and Robyn informed me that my accent gets thicker when I am talking to “home”.

Saturday morning, we headed to the airport, boarded an airplane and flew off into the sun! We arrived in China, retrieved our backpacks, and headed to our hotels. This was when we realized it was COLD! Like really cold. That night we went and met our friend, Carmen and her friend Tammy. After doing some fun shopping in the hutong neighborhood, we went to a little restaurant and hung out.

On Sunday, we met up with Tammy and went to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The Forbidden City was so strange, because it was incredibly large, but so little of it was indoors. It is hard to imagine people living there. It was also extremely cold. Tiananmen Square was awe inspiring. It was so big, but it was easy to visualize large numbers of people being forced to stand in lines while Chairman Mao spoke to them.

 

Unfortunately at this point my camera lens broke so I didn’t get many more good photos for a few days.

That night, we met up with another of Carmen’s coworkers and caught the train to Harbin. We took a sleeper train, so there was a small room with bunk beds. Robyn and I were in a room with a cute little old couple.

We arrived in Harbin and went to find our hostel. Harbin was FREEZING. I’m talking -33 C freezing.

While in Harbin, we basically shuffled through the snow from coffee shop to coffee shop. I did buy a Russian nesting doll since we were so close to Russia. We also discovered that our eyelashes froze and melted every time we came in and out of a building, therefore ruining any mascara we had on. That night, we went to the official Ice Sculpture Festival which was really interesting. There were so many cool snow sculptures and ice sculptures, including Disney princesses and castles made from blocks of ice.

Since it was New Year’s Eve, we went to a local pub and had fish and chips for dinner while we rang in the new year!

The next day, we did more snow shuffling to coffee shops before catching our train back to Beijing. This time, we had to take the “hard sleepers which meant there were six beds in a compartment with no door which meant no privacy. The lights were also turned off so we played word games by the light of a flashlight.

When we arrived back in Beijing, Robyn and I went to our hotel where Robyn proceeded to sleep for several hours. I, on the other hand, went shopping! I went and found a new camera lens and went to several shops that were in my tour book that looked cool.

After Robyn woke up, we did a rushed tour of the Summer Palace. It was so cold, but very beautiful. We got there late, so we didn’t get to see all of it before it closed! We made it an early night since we were so exhausted. 

Christmas 2012

Presents with my English Club!

Christmas this year was so much fun! The weeks leading up to Christmas, I taught my students how to make ornaments for the Christmas tree as well as watching Elf! (By the way, Elf gets really old and unfunny after watching it 15 times.)

My club had such fun! On Christmas Eve, we had a Christmas party, complete with gingerbread cookies, brownies, Dirty Santa and Christmas games.

Christmas Eve night, one of my friends, Marissa came to spend the night with me. She, Robyn and I went to Bus-7 for a Christmas carol service, which was quite fun! We only had two tickets, so Marissa ended up hanging out under the table some of the time. Then Marissa, Vanessa and I hung out at home while I made pancake batter!

On Christmas morning, we got up and got ready for Christmas Brunch. I had some friends over for Pancakes and breakfast! I made my family's special pancakes which are colored and shaped! We ate and ate and ate. We also did a Dirty Santa exchange, which was hilarious!

Pancake Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus

Swirly Pancakes!

Christmas Presents

Yay for friends!

Everyone stuffing their faces!

 Later that night, I Skyped with the family and watched them open my presents and theirs! It was a lovely Christmas!

Judson asked for Books for Christmas! Pigs are flying!

Family!

Sports Day 2012

This year’s Sports Day at my school was quite fun!

The Sports Day consists of an elaborate opening ceremony where each class prepares a dance, or show. They also showcase the winners of the “cheerleading” competition! The students prepare really hard for Sports Day! They practice weeks in advance!

They have track and field events as well as fun ones like 7 legged race, potato sack races and tug of war! This year, I helped one of the 11^th grade classes in Tug of War and we won!

Of course, there was the normal shaving cream fight with the PE classes at the end of the day!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2012 was quite the interesting day. My students made hand print turkeys and watched clips of the parade after I taught about it! My high school students made Indian and Pilgrim costumes and we did a short play where they had to gobble and pop and make Indian noises to a script!

That evening, we had a big Thanksgiving dinner at 515 restaurant complete with Turkey, sweet potato casserole and pumpkin pie! I made the Sweet potato casserole for the first time and it was very good I must say! It was a very loud and fun night as another group from church had an outreach night! I really enjoyed getting to chat with everyone and celebrating our thankfulness.

Babies!

My life is currently full of babies... Or should I say news of babies.. It seems that I have now reached the point in my life where everyone is already married and entering the baby stage. Two years ago, my friend Jill kicked off the baby stage when she had her first baby a few days before I left for Taiwan. I was so happy to get to see her and hold him before I left. She has now had Baby #2, a girl. At this point, EVERYONE around me is having babies. Two of my co-teachers were pregnant last year and had their babies over the summer and in October. I got to go visit Carrie and her son recently! Isn't he the cutest!

I also quite recently got some amazingly good news on a terribly bad day! Some of my dearest friends, Amanda and Adam are going to be parents too! And of course I will be this precious bundle's Auntie Hannah!

I am so very excited and happy for all my friends who have had children! I think this summer, I will just go on a long road trip visiting all my friends so I can hold their little blessings!

Recent Conversations.

I must have lost the sign on my forehead that says “Please don’t talk to me”.

I’m not sure if I am happy about this or not.

I have now been in Taiwan for a year and two months if you count the summer vacation. I shouldn’t count the summer vacation because I was in the US, but it’s easier to say a year and two months.

Anyway most of last year was characterized by a lot of staring and little talking. What I mean by that is this: people would stare at my white, blonde headed self, but would very rarely stop and talk to me.

There were a few notable exceptions. 1. The soldier in the Kaohsiung Train Station who approached me and proceeded to chat with me for 30 minutes while I waited for joy and 2. The mainland Chinese people who must have thought I was part of the scenery at Alishan Mountain. There are probably a dozen photos floating around China somewhere of me and tiny Chinese women. And of course number 3. Frank, the nicest man who helped me buy a printer cartridge at RT Mart one day. The cashier had no idea what I was saying and I had no idea how to explain to her what I wanted. He very nicely stepped in and translated for both of us. We chatted for a few minutes and he even gave me his number telling me to call him anytime I needed anything, also explaining that his wife spoke English very well too and would help me if there were any women things I needed help with. Thanks!

Other than these few people I have not been approached very often. Several of my Caucasian friends, on the other hand, are often approached.

Recently though, it seems as if whatever was the problem has been fixed. In the past two months I have met and spoken with several very interesting people. I am always amazed at how kind people are and wanted to share these two stories with whoever reads this blog.

A few weeks ago, my roommate and I went to eat dinner at a nice little restaurant called 515. We went there mainly because they serve Thanksgiving dinner and we wanted to find out about it in preparation for this year’s celebration! While we were there, a little girl kept staring at me. I smiled at her and made a silly face like I normally do with children in Taiwan. She just kept staring. Later, her grandfather came over and introduced himself saying “she was very curious.” She was so hyper and excited, but didn’t say anything to us. However he stayed and had a nice chat with my roommate in GERMAN! Turns out he studied German Literature in University. It was such a funny experience. Turns out his father was a Taiwanese ambassador and he now taught German and English at the University nearby. He gave both of us his card and was so kind.

Yesterday at Curves (my gym for anyone who doesn’t know) I had two different people approach me and speak to me in English. Now I’ll admit, I get approached a lot at the gym and my feelings aren’t always positive. After all, I don’t like to make conversation while lifting weights or doing aerobics. However, these two women kindly waited until I was finished and stretching/cooling down to come talk to me. The first was very brief but the second woman sat down on the floor with me while I stretched and we chatted for thirty minutes! She had lived in Dallas, TX for fifteen years and was very interested in what would bring a young America to Taiwan. Her name was Jaime and her English was perfect! We chatted about why I am in Taiwan and some funny things that had happened! It was very nice and refreshing. Since we got to the gym at the same time I’m sure we will be seeing each other more often!

It just seems very odd that all of a sudden, so many people are chatting to me in English....