Erica's Thoughts

Sunday, August 31, 2008

I'm a teacher?

Believe it or not, dear readers, I am now an official teacher. I didn't even have to get a teaching certificate, and I'm teaching at a college. Neato, eh? And terrifying all at the same time. I started teaching my English classes this morning. Wow. I never realized how much work and energy goes into it. My appreciation for my professors and teachers has increased tenfold. Of course, being a substitute teacher, I already knew it was exhausting...but when you have to create your own lesson plans, it can be intimidating. Especially since I only have until Friday to develop my curriculum. Scary, no? I think I can handle it. I just want to wait to get a better feel for my students tomorrow, though. I've got two new classes.

My freshmen students were very inquisitive and eager to speak in English. They were my first class. We spent about 45 minutes where I answered their questions about America. They even got me to sing. When a foreigner sings in China, they are very impressed--even if you're not the best singer in the world. It was fun. I couldn't think of any songs off the top of my head, so they encouraged me to sing the song from Titanic. They joined in--I really enjoyed their enthusiasm. My sophomore class today was a little lethargic. I think they were more wary of speaking in English in front of their peers...but we managed to get along quite well. They got homework. Bwahahaha! I like this new-found power I have...

Anyway, things are going well. I got a calling in my branch, though. I'm the Relief Society leader. Which is a lot more responsibility than I was expecting, but I suppose the Lord has something in mind for me. I need to choose an assistant and fill various other positions by Friday... So much to do! Oh well. It was really neat meeting together for church yesterday. I'm excited to be here!

In case you're curious, here's a video-tour of my apartment.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Changsha and Yangshuo

Hey all,

I realize that it's been a while since my last update. This isn't because I've forgotten how to type (heaven forbid) or because I don't want to keep y'all abreast of what's going on. I've just been busy. And without much internet access. Of course, I've got more than some of the people in my group who didn't contact their parents until about a week after leaving, which is good.

Now to the catching up.

On Tuesday, we left in the morning to visit Changsha. Once we got there, Lainey (our liaision), took us to the museum. Scott Galer, a professor I had at BYU-I, told us about the 'crown jewel' of the exhibit. Apparently archeaologists found a body inside of several layers of coffins in the 80's. The lady inside, the wife of some marquis or something, was still moist. All of her organs were intact, which is odd, as she was buried thousands of years ago. Anyway, we went to the exhibit that showed some of the artifacts they found in her tomb and the tomb of her husband and son. This is a picture of the models of servants they found in the tomb. Servants were blessed to spend an eternity serving their masters. Some of the emperors actually had their servants killed and placed in the tomb with them rather than a figurine.

Then the piece d'resistance--the mummy herself. You might want to scroll down quickly if you don't like seeing dead people, as I'm attaching a picture.

After visiting the museum (if you'd like to see more pictures, email me), we went to downtown Changsha. And a Walmart. Which was great. I got some cute shoes for about $11, which are pictured below. We also got toilet paper (you need to travel with it in China as most places don't believe in toilet paper) and a few other essentials. Here's a picture of the shoes:

We got to sleep for a while before waking up insanely early the next morning for a crash course in Chinese from Scott Galer. Jeff and I packed for our trip to Yangshuo so we wouldn't have to return to our apartment. We ended up walking back anyway. It's about a 35 minute walk between the campuses. Which isn't too bad, really. We didn't spend long at home, though. We were just getting our extra broom to give it to Jordan. She graciously let us stow our stuff in her apartment. Everyone had free time to unpack. I still need to unpack.

In the evening, we boarded a very bouncy bus that Jacob Harlan (the founder of China Horizons) chartered to take us to Yangshuo. We were expected to sleep on said bus...but I must admit I hardly slept at all. Jeff and I didn't have enough foresight to bring pillows and the chairs didn't recline. My knees were pressed against the chair in front of me for the entire 11 hour ride. The ride to Yangshuo was excruciatingly long thanks to an accident somewhere between Xiangtan and Yangshuo. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen more accidents. The drivers here are crazy. We took a taxi home one night and I thought the driver had a death wish or something.

Yangshuo is gorgeous! Jeff and I walked around a lot. The sun actually shines in Yangshuo, so we both got sunburned as well. (The sun doesn't really shine in Xiangtan because of the pollution.) We got some sandals and then wore them while walking the second day...which was probably a mistake. My feet are killing me. C'est la vie, though. The first night, we had our first experience haggling with street vendors. They show you an outlandish price on a calculator and then ask you what you're willing to pay. When you show them, they usually act like you've insulted them before showing you a lower price. Jeff and I weren't particularly good at it our first time...but I don't think anyone really is. It turns into a fun game once you learn how to do it and not get gouged price-wise. The picture on the left is a pagoda Jeff and I saw on our voyage

The next day, Jeff and I went on a bamboo river trip. I took some pictures, which are below. If you'd like to see more, yet again, please email me. The mountains are gorgeous in Yangshuo. They're like that all over the place in the south of China. Yangshuo is a very large tourist destination, in fact. Most of the vendors on the side of the road speak at least a little English. Guides try and solicit customers by showing testimonials in little books they carry around. They are all very nice, but pushy. You need to be careful, as you do anywhere with tourism, not to get scammed. You can rent bicycles to do touring. We didn't. Mostly because I'd probably die on a bike right now... I hope to be in a lot better shape when I get home from all of this walking. It's the easiest way to get around, after all.

This is a picture of a bamboo boat we saw while on the way down the river. Neato, eh? I don't actually think that it's made completely of bamboo, but some of them were.

Monday, August 25, 2008

I'm not dead!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

The task of catching everybody who reads this blog up on what has happened the past few hours is somewhat daunting. Of course, at the same time, it’s also incredibly easy—not much. We arrived in Hong Kong as I reported earlier. Jeff and I decided to watch House rather than explore Hong Kong for the layover. It wasn't until a few hours before our flight was supposed to be that we realized what the information broadcast over the intercom every once in a while meant. All flights were cancelled due to a typhoon. The winds were fierce and knocked over a few trees (though never when Jeff and I went to go see what was going on). The earliest flight the airlines had available for our little traveling group was Monday. Which is probably the day I'm going to be posting this. In my last post, I mentioned the size of the plane. You can see a picture below.

Anyway, Jacob Harlan (the man who started China Horizons) found me and Jeff with my computer plugged in while we watched said program in Terminal One (which is huge, by the by, and incredibly easy to lose oneself in). He convinced us to come to Terminal Two. We went through customs. It was exciting (but not really). I now have a stamp in my passport. Woo!

Terminal Two isn't quite as nice as Terminal One—at least, the part where you don't need a boarding pass. Mostly because there aren't really any outlets. At all. Which meant no more watching neat movies to pass the time. Which crawled. We spent the night in the airport. It was cold. Outside was very nice and warm. I think they overcompensated in the airport. I was glad I'd brought my blanket and travel pillow, or I wouldn't have been able to sleep at all. If I'd been smart, I would've packed a change of clothes. And a toothbrush. Your teeth get remarkably icky after thirty-four hours in an airport after a fourteen hour flight, by the by.

It wasn't too bad, really, except for the cold. I didn't mind sleeping on the rough carpet. It could’ve been a lot worse, after all. But after not showering since the 20 (as we finally left on the 23 (though, Thursday just disappeared)), I did want a bath or a shower or something. For a while, it looked like we might be able to take a train out to Changsha today. That hope was squashed when Jacob learned the trains were booked for five days. He worked his magic somehow and managed to convince the temple president to let our group stay at the temple lodging across from the temple in Hong Kong. It's a very simple setup. But there are showers. And beds. No complaining here. And all of this is only HK$100 per person for two nights because they felt bad for us stranded young people! Yay! That's cheap in American. There are seven Hong Kong dollars to our dollar, roughly. Which is really weird. Jeff and I had dumplings for breakfast this morning and it cost somewhere around HK$56. Which is really only about four dollars per person. Which reminds me—I tried some Chinese tea at said dumpling place. I didn't really like it. Though, it did keep me warm in the airport.

The bus ride from the airport to Hong Kong proper is intense. Lasts a while. We got off at a stop after the one we really needed, but that was okay. Walking is good. I'm exhausted, but walking is good. After arriving at the hotel, we walked down to a supermarket. Goodness, there's a lot of people in Hong Kong! I feel like such an oddball because I can't speak or understand any Cantonese or Mandarin. I can't even really hear the difference. Which is fine, I suppose, as it's my first time being around so many people speaking it. The other guests at the “hotel” are remarkably sweet. They don't speak English very well, so it makes it interesting for those of us who don't speak Chinese at all. It'll be interesting to show the difference between my lodgings now and the ones I'll be in when my Mom and aunt come to visit. I'll have to take pictures because pictures are good. Whether I'll actually do so or not is the question. But you have little to say on the matter!

Though, I did take a few pictures of the typhoon-y weather from the little bridge leading over to the parking gate. They're below.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Today we attended church in the temple. Well, not the actual temple part of the temple—the lower three floors have a meeting house, mission office, and apartments for the temple president and his wife and the mission president and his wife. It was a bit odd having the Cantonese speakers translated in real time, but not too bad. The first speaker in Sacrament Meeting was a very sweet woman who’s going out to Salt Lake next week to serve a mission. The second speaker spoke really quickly, and the interpreters had a bit of a hard time keeping up. For Sunday School, we got to hear from an area authority who was once the mission president in Hong Kong. He told us a bunch of neat things about the temple. Apparently, he and a few other members in Hong Kong scouted out ten places to potentially place the temple. When President Hinckley arrived, though, he said they were all the wrong place. President Hinckley had a vision of the temple before it was built and knew exactly what he wanted it to look like. It's a beautiful building. I tried taking pictures of it, but it was apparently smoggy or something. The one I took is above, and here's one from LDS.org. We were warned not to proselyte in China, because there is a difference between doing what is good and what is right. Relief Society was interesting—I was next to a sister missionary from Arizona. One of the sisters had a baby a month ago, so she brought a whole bunch of hard-boiled red dyed eggs—its apparently a custom here to pass out red eggs once a baby is a month old.

After church, Jeff and I munched on some sandwiches we made up from things bought at a very crowded supermarket yesterday. They were yummy. We got some peach-apple juice from the store with little chopped up peaches—it's delicious. Wish we had some of it in the States, actually. Jeff (this one served a mission to Taiwan and speaks fluent Mandarin) found some dragon eye fruit outside the little 'hotel.' Here's a picture of one that Jeff took a bite out of. You're not supposed to eat the black seed apparently.

My brother and I chilled and watched House as the others went exploring (I'm not feeling 100%). Two children came in, and one of them was very entranced by my computer. I couldn't understand what either of them said, but the smaller one started singing the ABCs. He thought it was funny when I joined in with him and pointed out the letters on the keyboard (which I think prompted the singing). His mom came and probably told him to stop bugging us right when Jeff went to get my DVD binder. I wanted to show them a cartoon or something…but oh well.

At six, we went over to the temple to eat with the temple president and his wife and the mission president and his wife. We had spaghetti! It was yummy. The temple president's wife (I'm terrible with names, by the way) made a really neat salad with peanut butter and bell peppers--I know that sounds odd, but it's delicious.

Monday, August 25, 2005

We left for the airport insanely early this morning and spent forty-five minutes on a bouncy bus in order to get back to Hong Kong for our re-routed flight. We made it, fortunately, and arrived in Changsha around 10 in the morning. It's really smoggy here. I had a headache for a lot of the afternoon walking around. Xiangtan University is about an hour away by bus. We stopped at a restaurant to experience our first real Chinese food. Boy, they like it spicy in the Hunan province!

In restaurants, they seat you around a table with a spinny glass table in the center. Everyone has a bowl and chopsticks. And then they place the dishes in front of you. You take what you want with your chopsticks and chow down. Some of the other teachers have difficulties chowing down...but Jeff and I are fairly proficient. The food is great. Well, once you get past the shock of all that spice, that is. Thankfully, they usually serve things to help cool down your palette--pumpkin, rice, potatoes... Some of the dishes are very different from what we're used to. For instance, for supper, there was fish-head soup available. Complete with the fish head. For lunch, we were able to try bone soup. With bones in it. And most of the things with chicken in them have bones as well. Jeff wound up with a chicken head in his food. He didn't eat it, sadly... But it's good food nonetheless.

Jeff and I are living somewhat separate from the others. They get new housing. We don't. Most of the apartment has been refurbished, but our bathroom has a squatting toilet. Which is exactly what it sounds--most toilets in China are squatters. It's a bit odd...but not too bad. We haven't figured out how to work the water heater, though...which is a bit of a problem. Everything else is spectacular. We've got pretty computers, printers, nice beds, a sweet tv... I could go on and on. I'll post pictures later. Right now, I'm trying not to drool on the keyboard.

Erica

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Hong Kong

Fourteen hour flights are not fun, FYI. Especially when they serve you food what gives you gas... Anyway, Jeff and I arrived safely in Hong Kong about an hourish ago. We're chilling at the airport for our layover--it's really hot and humid in Hong Kong, and we'll be coming back in January. I think the other teachers think we're crazy...but they wouldn't be wrong about that, so no worries!

I should've taken a picture of our plane. It was huge! The first class and business class had a whole deck to themselves. We were packed in to three rows with three seats by the window, four in the middle, and three by the other window. The legroom was nice, but after the first few hours, you really just want to sleep and it's hard to do so in a mostly sitting-up position (unless you're Mom). They reclined fairly well. Cathay Pacific, the airline, provided pillows and blankets and headphones. And free movies! Ones that haven't even left the theater in America. We had the option of watching Kung Fu Panda and Iron Man among others. For free. Which was very nice. The games didn't work, though, which was a bummer. It gets boring to just sit and watch something for hours on end.

The food tasted really good going down, but the gas wasn't quite as nice. I had chicken and rice. The vegetables in it were a bit nasty, but the chicken was good. They gave us shrimp, too! Jeff was very kind and gave me his shrimp and I gave him the tomatoes that came with them. Then we tried to sleep, which is nearly impossible to do for long. Once you get asleep, a baby cries or the plane hits rough air or something and you wake up drowsy and confused. Neither of us are looking forward to going back to the US because it means another long plane ride... But not much can be done. I had the window seat and Jeff was next to me, so we were basically boxed in for the entire ride...

Anyway, the mountains here are really pretty. Wish we had some in Utah like 'em. It's technically tomorrow here, which is weird... The airport is shiny on the inside. And Jeff and I are going to walk around for a bit. Just wanted to post this in case I can't find an outlet that works later.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sleepover and Sendoff

Tasha and I contrived to get together at about 4 on Friday to start preparing for a sleepover with my nieces Adelle and Lydia. She decided she was going to get her car fixed (the window was having troubles staying up) and thought it'd be good to drop by since she'd be in the neighborhood. Of course, it didn't take her as long as she thought it would. She called me ten minutes after my alarm went off to wake me up and asked if she could play. I said alright and quickly showered. I meant to clean my room on Thursday, but my cousin Tyler came over in the evening and we played Rockband until eleven. Which meant I couldn't vacuum...so my brothers and I watched some television and I finally went to sleep somewhere around five.

Before I went off on this wild tangent, I was about to tell you that Tasha got to my house before I finished showering. Kinda weird. She saw my very messy bedroom. But she already knew I was messy person, so it was alright. While I cleaned and thoroughly vacuumed my room, she played the Sims. We disappeared to go Wendy's for lunch about half an hour before the girls came over. It was yummy. Adelle and Lydia came over at about four and we started playing. I got started on our homemade pizza. I made dough with yeast for the first time in my life! Wahoo! While the dough was rising, we made chocolate chip cookie dough and started cooking them. Lydia helped me punch the dough down and then spread it over the pan. Her crust was really neat. We put on pizza sauce, cheese, and both Lydia and Adelle helped me place the most important ingredient--pepperoni! (They only wanted pepperoni on their pizza. I asked in advance.)

We ate the pizza in a hurry and the girls had some cookies before we put the car seat in Tasha's Jeep to go and see Kung Fu Panda. I thought they were showing it at Hollywood Connections--I checked online before we went and also in the newspaper, but when we arrived, the girl at the ticket stand looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for tickets to see the movie. So, we went over to the mall to see what was in the dollar theater. There wasn't anything kid-friendly. Adelle and Lydia decided it would be fun to walk around the mall, so we went into a few stores and looked at gorgeous porcelain dolls and neat figurines. One of the stores had glittery eggs on sale, so I got a purple one for Lydia and a pink one for Adelle. Lydia and Adelle thought it would be a good idea to play "Movie theater" at home, so we came back and put in Pirates of the Caribbean. It was time for bed before we got too far, though.

Lydia and Adelle didn't really want to sleep. They convinced me that talking would help them feel sleepy--which wasn't entirely accurate. But eventually we all fell asleep until Adelle woke up at 4:30 in the morning complaining about being the wrong direction. She tried to make Lydia move over, so I offered to share my bed. She took over most of it. It took me a while to fall back asleep, and it seemed a moment after I did, Adelle was awake again and the sun was coming up. I made pancakes, and we went off to church on time (which was rad). Adelle enjoyed Sunbeams--she was confused because they sang the same song at my ward as they do in hers. Lydia and Adelle were very well behaved during "dry" council sacrament meeting. We came home and they changed and had leftover pizza for lunch. I ended up falling asleep on the floor after putting the air mattress away and rolling up their sleeping bags.

Here's a picture of Adelle I took while we munched on some crackers:

Here's one of Lydia:

Lydia took this one of me:

Wes and Liz (their parents) came at around five for the sendoff mentioned in the title, as did my grandmother, aunt, cousin, and Devin. He moved away from home this past week. I think he mainly came to steal food... But that's okay! We had yummy ham, cheesy potatoes, jello-like salad, and chocolate cake. Saying goodbye to the girls was hard. I'm going to miss 'em! Adelle and Lydia want me to put them in my suitcase. If I could, I would.

Once they left, Dustin (a brother), Jeff, Tyler (my cousin) and I played Rockband for a while. Kyle (another brother) joined us and we played some fun gigs.

It's sad that I'm leaving Wednesday...I'm going to miss everyone so much!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Ni hao!

I dislike sports with a passion (mostly due to my own ineptitude while trying to kick a ball or whatever). I really don't like watching sports on television. Most of the rules don't make any sense at all to me, and the whole gimmicky professional athletes being paid millions to kick a ball around when there are people who work three jobs bothers me. But...oddly enough, when the Olympics roll around, I find myself oddly entranced. I can't help myself, it seems. I love watching the Olympics. Even the boring games. My brothers find this obsession of mine to be...well, I think aggravating is a good word. I steal the television late at night and watch swimming and gymnastics and whatever else is on. I've done it for the past few summer games. I don't know what it is about watching mostly average people compete...but something about it intrigues me. I thought it was really cool to see Michael Phelps win those medals in Athens...and Paul Hamm... Anyway, as the Olympics are being held in Beijing this year, I've found I'm even more curious about the games.

For instance, I stayed up until six this morning watching NBC's replay of the opening ceremonies. They were amazing! The Chinese are clearly trying to show that they can do this, even if there are a lot of issues on the side. The amount of effort put into the cast was spectacular. I think there's a few snippets of it on nbcolympics.com. You should watch 'em. At the end, when they lit the torch...dang. It was really nifty. Seeing all of those countries' athletes during the march of the nations was pretty swell too. I wish they showed more footage of countries other than the US over here...but that's okay. I'm excited to watch the upcoming gymnastics matches, as well as the swimming and diving. Though, I don't know if it was really necessary for them to broadcast this all in Hi-def... Honestly, while it's neat to see them all crisp and clear, the sweat factor is...well, interesting.

Anyway, the Olympics have got me thinking about China. I'm going to be 14 hours ahead of mountain standard time. So, basically, just change the am to pm (or vice versa) and add two to figure out what time it'll be for me once I get there. I'm excited to go...but I'm also a bit nervous. The Chinese seem very hospitable to Westerners, but...it's still going to be a different country. And completely different customs. Ah well. I can still go to McDonald's. The world will be alright after all. Apparently China has only one time zone for the entirety of the country...which is odd. But neat.

This evening, mom, Jeff, and I went to see the second to last performance of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" (you use quotes for plays, short story titles, and poem titles). It was amazing, like before, but the audience was a little dead. Part of that was my fault--I tried to keep from laughing because I always ended up coughing when I started. Stupid cold. Adelle was very excited to see me afterward. Boy, she's getting heavy! She's such a sweetheart. Lydia did a very professional job with her lines, too. She looked kinda tired--it was their second performance today, though, so no worries. Lydia and Adelle are going to be sleeping over at my house a week from today--it'll be rad. I need to plan things to do...hmmm... Liz had another marvelous performance, which is good too. Makes me miss the stage...maybe I'll have to try out in the future.

I should probably learn to say goodbye in Chinese, too... Anyway, toodles!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Cold from Heck!

Yesterday morning, I went and renewed my license at the DMV. Yippee! I'll be able to drive when I get back from China, which is good, though I really don't like driving. I don't really like being in control of something so terribly strong and capable of killing people. But that's alright; driving is one of the best ways to get around town. I'll need it in order to substitute teach after China. My first picture looked really dorky, but the nice lady at the DMV let me take another one. Yay! Of course, my hair is very dark...that's what I get for dyeing it, eh?

You might be wondering why I've titled this entry "Cold from Heck". Well, simply, I've got a cold from Heck. Bleh. I couldn't sleep on Tuesday night worth a darn, so I ended up staying up until four in the morning. Which made it not so fun on Wednesday, since I got up at about eight. My nose is drippy, my throat is sore, and I couldn't really eat anything because I felt so nauseous. I fell asleep shortly after getting back from the DMV and didn't get up until six in the evening. I was up for an hour or two before I went back to sleep. I slept until one today! Crazy, no? I feel better, but I had some pretty messed-up dreams. My poor cat. I didn't even get up to feed her--or to close the door. It was a miracle I even changed into my pajamas I felt so icky. I think the worst of the cold is behind me. At least, I hope so. I'm going to be singing for a talent show in China, and that could potentially not be fun at all if my throat is all scratchy still.

My task for this week is to clean my room and start packing for China. I can't believe that Jeff (my little brother) and I are leaving in 13 days!