Everything's been going very well for us. Recently, Vi quit her job and has already found a new job that she's excited about. She left her old job because her boss had both an anger problem and a smoking problem. It was a small office and she smoked more than a pack a day. She employed 3 Chinese girls and 2 quit because they would come home smelling like smoke. The worst part though was the anger. Her boss would always yell at all of them even when she wasn't mad or it was a very small thing. Anyway, she has a new job that she can walk to, doesn't work on Saturdays and she gets a 2 hour lunch so she's happy.
The biggest news is that we received a notice that we've completed the next step in the fiancee visa process. Mom and Dad received a notice in the mail saying that the case is being passed on to the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou. Hopefully, the next step is testing and interviews but for now we're just waiting to hear from the consulate.
After working for 14 months, I got the papers for a work visa so we went to Hong Kong Thursday and Friday so I could get that visa. Vi met up with me Thursday because she had her final interviews that morning.
While I was there alone, I walked around and got some good pictures of Hong Kong island's skyline, their main downtown. I say main downtown because almost all of the city looks like a downtown.
That night, we went back to the harbor to see a light show that Hong Kong puts on every night from 8:00-8:15. The buildings light up to a song and have some green laser lights that shoot off. I was much more excited before I saw the show. It was still nice to see though and the skyline is always beautiful.
The next morning, we went back to the Chinese consulate, picked up my passport and headed back to Shenzhen.
Hong Kong's very beautiful and surprisingly clean for the amount of people that live in such a small area. The people are much nicer, especially the drivers. It really is a great place to visit. The only downfall is that it is incredibly expensive compared to the mainland. A cheap, normal lunch during the week would cost HKD$50 which is about $6, while on the mainland a cheap, normal lunch is about CNY5-10 which is about $1. We stayed in a cheap, small but clean hostel for HKD$400, about $50, that I could practically touch all 4 walls from the middle of the room. I can stay in a Sheraton in the middle of town for a couple dollars more or at a cheap, clean, bigger hotel room for just CNY100 which is $15. Crazy. Anyway, I do love Hong Kong.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Celebrating Chinese New Year
Saturday the 13th was Chinese New Year's Eve. Vi went home to Heyuan to spend it with her family. I didn't go this year, but I will next year. One of my students' parents invited me to their house for dinner so I accepted.
I got picked up near my apartment around 3:00 and we went back to their apartment. It was Jim (my 4 year-old student), his mom and dad, his mom's brother and his son. We sat and talked for a couple of hours before dinner. Jim's dad, Josh, got his MBA at Michigan State so his English is very good and he's a pleasure to speak with. We mainly watched "Tom and Jerry" to keep Jim happy and quiet, well, "less loud" would be more appropriate.
Jim's mom cooked dinner for us. We sat down at the table while she continued cooking in the kitchen. The food was great. She's from Sichuan where they eat spicy food and Jim's dad is from Fujian where my favorite dumplings come from so it's a great culinary mix. We also drank some grape wine that her family had made and sent to her. This was a traditional part of New Years for her family.
After dinner, we set up some fireworks and watched more Tom and Jerry, waiting for the clock to strike midnight. After the fireworks slowed down Josh drove me back to the apartment. Overall it was a nice evening.
I'll share some New Year's traditions that I've heard from different people. Traditions typically vary depending on what part of China you're from, just like the language.
- The biggest tradition is called "hong bao," this is a red envelope that you put money in. Typically, if you're married you give the envelopes to any elders in the family, all children and much older people (family or not). If you're single, you don't have to give money and everyone should give it to you.
- Everyone should shower and put on clean clothes no later than noon on New Year's Eve.
- Nobody should shower until the third day of the new year. So you would go 2.5 days without a shower. I don't know why.
- Every house should have red door decorations to bring good luck in the new year to the family.
- No meat is allowed to be eaten during the first 2 days of the new year.
- Everyone must eat fish on New Year's Eve. It's considered financial good luck for the new year.
- Many people believe one should wear red underwear on the first day of the new year.
I got picked up near my apartment around 3:00 and we went back to their apartment. It was Jim (my 4 year-old student), his mom and dad, his mom's brother and his son. We sat and talked for a couple of hours before dinner. Jim's dad, Josh, got his MBA at Michigan State so his English is very good and he's a pleasure to speak with. We mainly watched "Tom and Jerry" to keep Jim happy and quiet, well, "less loud" would be more appropriate.
Jim's mom cooked dinner for us. We sat down at the table while she continued cooking in the kitchen. The food was great. She's from Sichuan where they eat spicy food and Jim's dad is from Fujian where my favorite dumplings come from so it's a great culinary mix. We also drank some grape wine that her family had made and sent to her. This was a traditional part of New Years for her family.
After dinner, we set up some fireworks and watched more Tom and Jerry, waiting for the clock to strike midnight. After the fireworks slowed down Josh drove me back to the apartment. Overall it was a nice evening.
I'll share some New Year's traditions that I've heard from different people. Traditions typically vary depending on what part of China you're from, just like the language.
- The biggest tradition is called "hong bao," this is a red envelope that you put money in. Typically, if you're married you give the envelopes to any elders in the family, all children and much older people (family or not). If you're single, you don't have to give money and everyone should give it to you.
- Everyone should shower and put on clean clothes no later than noon on New Year's Eve.
- Nobody should shower until the third day of the new year. So you would go 2.5 days without a shower. I don't know why.
- Every house should have red door decorations to bring good luck in the new year to the family.
- No meat is allowed to be eaten during the first 2 days of the new year.
- Everyone must eat fish on New Year's Eve. It's considered financial good luck for the new year.
- Many people believe one should wear red underwear on the first day of the new year.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Maluan Mountain
On Saturday, Vi and I went out for a little adventure. There have been a couple of beautiful days recently in the 50s and 60s, so we decided to go outdoors Saturday. We found a place call Maluan Mountain. We got on a bus from the bus station near our place and took it to Xiaomeisha Beach. It's an hour trip on the bus for 6 RMB (about $1).
Once we got off the bus, it was a short walk on the road, then we saw the beginning of the trail. Unfortunately, this is China and there aren't many places to get outdoors in Shenzhen so we were with over 100 people from the beginning. This started off as far from my idea of getting outdoors.
At the beginning there was a large opening and we came across a company on a team-building trip. We asked some people how many of them there were and they simply replied with well over a hundred...great.
We continued our walk and came to our first choice: take the easy, slightly-sloping trail or the straight-up-the-cliff trail. We chose the straight-up path. Quickly, we ran in to a traffic jam on the trail as we realized the group in front of us had several small children who had begun to cry saying they didn't want to do this.
Anyway, we passed a lot of the people and enjoyed our hike. We met up with another group at an interesting place where they were descending straight down in to the valley. We decided to follow and had some fun, even with a large group of people. We made our way to the stream leading up to the waterfall.
From here, we hopped, jumped, scooted and climbed our way up the mountain to the waterfall. This was a blast. Thanks to the sound of the water, we really couldn't hear many people. Plus, this was just like being a kid again - it was great.
We did eventually make our way to the waterfall which was nice but much smaller than I was hoping.
We had been hiking for almost 2 hours and we were beginning to get hungry. Vi had heard of a village that was supposed to be nearby at the top of the mountain. We continued our climb with a group we had been near the entire time.
At the top, one of the guys asked to take a picture with me. I said of course and we posed for a picture. Then, the whole group wanted a picture with us. This is common in China. If you ever go out to popular places, at least once, white people will be asked to have a picture taken with someone or a group.
We began talking with everyone and found out they were students at Shenzhen University. They were going to the same village for lunch so we walked with them the rest of the way.
One interesting thing on the way was a sign that someone had written on. They wrote that the government should be overthrown and be a free government for the people. I was very surprised to see this as this is the first time in 1.5 years in China that I've ever seen or heard anything like that.
We arrived at a village and had a great lunch at a very small place next to a lake. We sat outside in the shade of some trees and it was perfect.
After lunch, we parted ways with our new friends and found out how to get to Pingshan Village. The people said "just follow this road and it will lead to a big road where you can catch a bus."
They didn't tell us that road went on for about 10km, roughly 6 miles. After an hour and a half of walking, we were able to hitch a ride with a young guy driving a truck full of trees. He drove us down to the main road.
We walked on the road for a while, asking people how to get to a bus stop. Finally, we got to a bus stop and luckily I recognized a bus that passes one of the stops near the school. There were no signs for buses or anything so we worried. We didn't really know how far away we were but the bus took over 2 hours to get to my kindergarten.
All in all, we had walked a little over 15 km (10 miles). We were exhausted. While jumping rock to rock is very fun, it works muscles we rarely use.
It was a great, short excursion.
Once we got off the bus, it was a short walk on the road, then we saw the beginning of the trail. Unfortunately, this is China and there aren't many places to get outdoors in Shenzhen so we were with over 100 people from the beginning. This started off as far from my idea of getting outdoors.
At the beginning there was a large opening and we came across a company on a team-building trip. We asked some people how many of them there were and they simply replied with well over a hundred...great.
We continued our walk and came to our first choice: take the easy, slightly-sloping trail or the straight-up-the-cliff trail. We chose the straight-up path. Quickly, we ran in to a traffic jam on the trail as we realized the group in front of us had several small children who had begun to cry saying they didn't want to do this.
Anyway, we passed a lot of the people and enjoyed our hike. We met up with another group at an interesting place where they were descending straight down in to the valley. We decided to follow and had some fun, even with a large group of people. We made our way to the stream leading up to the waterfall.
From here, we hopped, jumped, scooted and climbed our way up the mountain to the waterfall. This was a blast. Thanks to the sound of the water, we really couldn't hear many people. Plus, this was just like being a kid again - it was great.
We did eventually make our way to the waterfall which was nice but much smaller than I was hoping.
We had been hiking for almost 2 hours and we were beginning to get hungry. Vi had heard of a village that was supposed to be nearby at the top of the mountain. We continued our climb with a group we had been near the entire time.
At the top, one of the guys asked to take a picture with me. I said of course and we posed for a picture. Then, the whole group wanted a picture with us. This is common in China. If you ever go out to popular places, at least once, white people will be asked to have a picture taken with someone or a group.
We began talking with everyone and found out they were students at Shenzhen University. They were going to the same village for lunch so we walked with them the rest of the way.
One interesting thing on the way was a sign that someone had written on. They wrote that the government should be overthrown and be a free government for the people. I was very surprised to see this as this is the first time in 1.5 years in China that I've ever seen or heard anything like that.
We arrived at a village and had a great lunch at a very small place next to a lake. We sat outside in the shade of some trees and it was perfect.
After lunch, we parted ways with our new friends and found out how to get to Pingshan Village. The people said "just follow this road and it will lead to a big road where you can catch a bus."
They didn't tell us that road went on for about 10km, roughly 6 miles. After an hour and a half of walking, we were able to hitch a ride with a young guy driving a truck full of trees. He drove us down to the main road.
We walked on the road for a while, asking people how to get to a bus stop. Finally, we got to a bus stop and luckily I recognized a bus that passes one of the stops near the school. There were no signs for buses or anything so we worried. We didn't really know how far away we were but the bus took over 2 hours to get to my kindergarten.
All in all, we had walked a little over 15 km (10 miles). We were exhausted. While jumping rock to rock is very fun, it works muscles we rarely use.
It was a great, short excursion.
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