Welcome to Mian Yang

So the last few days have been orientation and fun stuff...On Tuesday we had a quick half hr intro into the program (and that's about all the info we have, typical chinese style- don't tell you anything until it's too late, haha) Then we all went for lunch but accidentally went to this place that was kinda expensive and only served crayfish. So we got 3 giant plates of crayfish. To extract the minute amount of meat inside their tails, we had to break off the head and the rest of the body, break off the pincers, and then snap their backs in half to get to the pinky finger nail-sized meat, which actually tasted pretty good! Needless to say, we got pretty hungry later in the day. I think this was quite an adventure for a lot of the people on my trip, many of whom have never been to china before and don't know chinese. Anyways, then we went sightseeing as part of the program and went to Lujiazui, which is the financial district where the tallest buildings in Shanghai are located, as well as the Pearl Tower (I didn't take any pictures because I already have a million from my previous trips so just go back to early september posts if you want to see what they look like). Then we took a ferry to the Puxi side (east of the  Huang Pu river), where the rest of Shanghai is located. The ferry was cool because I'd never taken it and there were a ton of boats on the river. Then we walked to People's Square, where my friend Vicky and I got a crepe like thing with noodles inside, yummy! We walked through the underground markets (in the subway station area) and then went back to our apartment.

Wesnesday we started off the day with a mandarin lesson, which was not that useful for me considering I'm not a beginner. Although I did forget how to write a lot of characters so the review was nice. Then we did more sightseeing in the afternoon (after a not-as-adventurous lunch). We went to YuYuan (Jade Garden), but didn't actually go in because we didn't have time, which was weird. But we walked around that area which has a lot of traditional chinese goods made for tourists. The buildings there are all in traditional style so it was cool just walking around. I also had my first near-death experience in China, but no worries, I’m still alive. Anyways, we were getting on the subway but then the doors closed on me! And they didn’t open up when they started squishing me! It was so scary! So ya, then I pushed through and got on the train safely, but we left a friend behind at the station! Haha. Then we had a program dinner at a hot pot restaurant (a place where you cook the food at your table in a pot of boiling broth), but it was sooooo hot cuz all the steam kept blowing on our faces. But yummy as always. 

Then I met up with my friend Jurie from my program last year. She's here doing a financial consulting (i think) internship. I brought a few of my new friendsies along and we met at 100 Century Avenue, one of our fav bars at the top of the World Financial Center in Lujiazui. Wednesdays are ladies night there and they have free champagne for ladies until 10:30! so that was awesomeeeee! But it was kind of sad not being there with all my friends from my program from last fall. :( But seeing Jurie was amazing!!!! Then we went to Zapata's, another bar that we like that offers free margaritas for ladies on wednesdays until midnight. so that was also great! And it was really fun bonding with my new friends! yay! 

Thursday morning we had a calligraphy lesson, that started an hr early cuz they felt like it? weirdddd. but whatever, so china. Had a quick noodle lunch and then more mandarin lessons which was super annoying and frustrating. They decided to split the groups up differently so I was grouped with people who had never taken mandarin before. I felt so bad for them cuz they were so lost and confused. I was mostly bored. Then I went to dinner with my Chinese teacher QQ from last year! It was sooo nice to see her again and speak Chinese and catch up and stuff. She helped me come up with an idea for my Chinese senior project too, it was so nice. J

Friday (yesterday) we went to Yuyuan on our own with one of Martha (new friend)’s friend and he showed us a famous dumpling house that I hadn’t been to before and then we walked around some. My friend wanted to buy a jade bracelet so I asked the woman at a jewelry shop if she sold jade. But she didn’t understand. I was pronouncing the word “yu” wrong so instead of jade, I said “Do you have any fish? Fish? Like Fish as in Fish Garden” (because YuYuan means Jade Garden). Haha.

Then we left for the airport. At the airport, I had to walk to like 5 different counters to figure out where to buy my ticket, because my program didn’t tell me I had to buy my own ticket from Shanghai to Mian Yang. Then I had to check-in, but because I had overweight baggage, I had to go to another counter to pay for them, where I had to wait almost 20 minutes for the lady to stop yelling at the airline worker. Then I went back to the check-in counter, got my boarding pass and went to security, where they told me something was wrong. Then I realized I had someone else’s boarding pass, so again back to the check-in counter to switch them out. Once through security, I met up with my friends and tried to find something to eat for dinner, but there was nothing. We asked the airline stewardess if there would be food on the plane and she said no. So we bought random chips and muffins and things and that was dinner. But nobody was next to me on the plane so that was nice! And then they served us more plane food so I did end up having dinner. Haha

Then we were met by Leila and Jason, two English teachers from the Children’s Palace, where we’re staying. We got in 2 taxis to go there, but for some reason all the taxis don’t have trunk space. So we balanced on bags on the edge of the trunk and tied them on with string (and by we, I mean the taxi driver). It was very precarious but our bags made it ok. We got into our room, which was much nicer than expected. Unfortunately they thought our friend Erica was Eric, and thus was a boy, so there weren’t enough beds in our room for us 4 girls. So Martha and I shared a bed that night.

The “mattresses” are basically wooden boards with a thin piece of fabric over them. The first night I spent tossing and turning because my hips would go numb from the wood mattress or my arm would loose feeling or something. The four girls share a room and the two boys share a room. We have air-conditioning in the room and a desk with two computers. One has internet but it doesn’t really work that well and won’t let us onto our gmail accounts. Plus we can’t look at facebook or post to blogs from that computer because they’re blocked. There are no shelves or wardrobes for us so we’ve laid everything out on the floor or on the top bunk of our extra bed. The best part is the bathroom situation. There is one bathroom on the floor that is “ours” but during the day, other people use it. There are a bunch of sinks, some of which don’t work, and other leak water on the floor when you turn them on. The showers are just a raised area in the bathroom enclosed by a shower curtain. But each shower isn’t enclosed so it’s a communal shower. Awesome. The girls have all been showering together because we have no other choice, haha. And the actual BEST part are the toilets. We have 4 squat toilets. Ok, I’ve dealt with squat toilets, no big deal. I can handle this. But they are not enclosed. The toilets are divided by 3 feet high walls, with no doors. So anyone walking around the bathroom can watch you going. GRRRRRROOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. So that’s been an experience. Oh ya, and we only have hot water from 6-9pm. Welcome to Mian Yang Children’s Palace.

Saturday was our first day teaching, but we didn’t know that and thought we were observing and getting settled in. They said we could sleep in, but around 8am we started hearing high pitched Chinese children’s voices singing and Beijing Opera (which is also quite painful to listen to). Turns out our room was right above the auditorium where the children were performing. It’s the last two days of the spring term so there were performances from 8am-8pm. The Opera was coming from outside in the park where old Chinese ladies were doing tai chi. After our cold shower, we decided to wonder around the school. We were told we should not leave the school because they were afraid we’d get lost and that we “don’t speak Chinese” (even though I said I’d studied for 3 years…). We ended up teaching two classes that morning before noon. Teaching basically consists of us walking into a room, where the children are running around screaming, total chaos, while cartoons are playing on the screen. After about 10 minutes, we start “teaching”. I introduce myself, they don’t understand “My name is…” so I translate it. Then we play games like, charades, hangman, duck duck goose, red light green light, etc. In no way is this “teaching”. We’re just here playing games with the kids. Their English is pretty horrendous. They can’t even pronounce the alphabet correctly. We’re in different classes every day with different students and all the teachers want us to do is play games with them so it’s not like we can actually teach and build on anything. Some classes have computers with large screens for the kids to see, some don’t. We don’t have internet access on our own computers so we can’t prepare anything. Most of the kids are cute at least. The younger ones aren’t afraid of you so they talk to you, but they don’t speak English hardly at all. All they know are animals and other basic nouns. I can barely understand their Chinese because they mumble and slur their words, but I’ve been trying to communicate with them. The teachers also help translate back and forth, but their English isn’t very good either so it’s no wonder this kids aren’t learning anything.

During our lunch break on Saturday, we escaped the palace! (Our meals are provided by the school cafeteria, which is pretty gross, just like a cafeteria in any other country). We’re starting to think of it more as a prison, than a palace. There are bars on our windows and we aren’t supposed to leave. Haha. So we explored for a few hours and found an amusement park. We played on the bumper cars. Then we bought a guitar between the 6 of us and at the end, we’re going to give it to the school. We came back and taught 2 more classes on Saturday, for a total of 4. They got mad at us for leaving the palace alone. We had more nasty slop for dinner. Then we went shopping for some basic stuff for our room and a sim card with one of the English teachers. The sim card shops were closed so we still don’t have one. They made us write out a list so that they knew what we needed but of course we saw more things we wanted once we got there. Our teacher was confused and mad because we weren’t following her around, but she wasn’t letting us buy the stuff we wanted so we had to escape again. Then I went to pay and they told me my 100RMB bill was fake (that’s about $15USD). Great. Then we went back to our room and watched princess bride. Actually great. J

Also, we were told we would have weekends off, which usually means Saturday and Sunday, right? But instead we only have 1 day off, Mondays. We’re asking for Sundays off too (and probably will take that day off no matter what they say). I had also planned to visit a bunch of my friends all over China, but now I don’t think I can. I’m planning to just take a weekend off and be like “see you, I’m leaving so deal with it”. We’ll see how that goes…but I’m a volunteer, so what are they going to do, tell me I can’t play games with their students anymore? Get real.

So none of us are particularly pleased with the situation right now, but our spirits were lifted today when they finally set up internet in our room. YAY!!!!!! The problem was that we were told certain things by our program based in Shanghai, but they were not communicated to the staff in Mian yang (weekends, homestays, leaving the “palace”, etc.) But we’ll see how things go. We’re here now so we’ll just make the best of it. Apparently we’re only staying here for 4 weeks. I’m scheduled to stay for 5 weeks (other kids are staying for 3 months!) so none us know what’s going to happen after 4 weeks. Adventure! Haha.

Fourth of July is tomorrow, and I’m sad we won’t be able to celebrate, but at least Monday is our day off! Maybe we’ll go see the pandas!

Happy Almost Birthday America! Eat lots of hamburgers and set off fireworks for me please! Miss you!