The last two months in pictures

Sometimes, words just don't come together in the way that I want them to. After trying to force them to cooperate many times, I gave up and decided to instead use pictures and the captions to show you January and February.This was just the beginning of 14 straight days of snow here. The snowfall didn't amount to too much, but certainly made things interesting, especially when they sent out the street-washing trucks to spray the snow off the streets after the first day of snow. The temperature dropped that night, and the next day, the streets were a solid sheet of ice. I couldn't turn down the chance to ride my bike in it, since I saw other bikers out, but after fishtailing (I didn't even know it was possible to fishtail on a bike), I decided there might be better options of transportation!My parents came for a visit right after I finished my first semester of classes. I met them in Beijing, and we played the tourist role (here on the Great Wall, which was beautiful - and cold, as you can tell!), visiting the Temple of Heaven, Great Wall, and Forbidden City. We came back to my home after a couple days, and spent the rest of the time here. It was so fun to see them in my world and show them my life here!
An hour after I sent my parents off on their plane back home, I boarded a plane as well, headed first to Kunming, a southern city of China, and then down to Thailand for a vacation! Kunming, pictured above, had a completely different feel than any of the other Chinese cities I've been to.From there, I headed further south to the beaches of Thailand! It was so nice to be on the beach in February and take a break from normal "going to school and studying" life here. We stayed in bungalows right on the beach, dividing our days between relaxing and doing nothing on the beach, and action-filled days of snorkeling, riding motorbikes, and other activities.The beaches were beautiful, and the water so clear and bright. The scenery everywhere was incredible! This pictures was taken during a boat ride one morning.the sunset on the beach
...and more scenery
I had never snorkeled before this, but I think this would be hard to beat - there was a huge variety of fish, bright, colorful, and numerous, in perfectly clear water. I got to snorkel during two days.The day that we went snorkeling, we had lunch on a little island, where some Thai people were playing this game. It's kind of like volleyball, only you can use everything except your hands. A combination of soccer and volleyball...doesn't get much better! They let me join in for a game - here's me serving as the other guy tosses the ball to my foot.
This is the bike that I rented and drove around the island (Koh Lanta) for a day. I haven't driven since July, and it felt so good to be in control of a motor-powered vehicle! I miss driving here, but I'll have to settle for riding my bike here in China.A couple days in Bangkok wrapped up the vacation before coming back home to China. Notice the center solid yellow line doesn't mean too much, since cars and buses are on the right side, reserving only one lane for oncoming traffic!

The Birthday Trash Truck

I woke up on my birthday looking forward to singing Happy Birthday to myself, with the accompaniment of the obnoxious garbage trucks that play the tune as they drive around the city. A small fear lurked deep down in my heart, the fear that I wouldn't encounter any of these trucks on my birthday, only adding to the sounds of the city 364 days of the year, but not on January 6th. Dismissing the fear as highly improbable, I celebrated my birthday with phone calls from home, an ice cream cake, Indian food for dinner, going to the elementary school, and some jewelry from my family. Soon after I set foot outside to go to a friend's apartment, my ears perked up as I heard the familiar song I had hoped to hear that day! I think I might even have sung out loud, because hearing that song so often has made me look forward to my birthday since I arrived in August!

Check out that cake! The candle is pretty awesome too!

Elementary Teacher...I can't help it!

After just finishing a semester of student teaching, spending 35 hours a week with 21 10-year-olds, just seeing all the cute kids running around my apartment complex wasn't meeting my "kid time quota." Just when I was thinking that I really missed interacting with younger people and trying to figure out how to solve this problem, I met a friend of a friend, who teaches English to 8 and 9 year olds on the the weekends. She invited the two of us to watch her teach that weekend, and it didn't take too much convincing for me! During the time that she was actually teaching, we just sat in the back and watched her, but during the breaks and afterwards I was able to interact with some of the kids!

(racing to hit the word the teacher called out)

(The whole class. The girl in the back center is the teacher, and the other two adults are friends that came)

(The poor kid in the blue coat apparently is about to get punched in the face and attacked from behind!)

(The "scholar" of the class, stroking his beard. Somehow this kid managed to make it into almost every picture I took!)

After watching, we got to meet the secretary and headmaster of the school, pictured below.

(L to R: me, headmaster, Linda, Yang(teacher))

Later that same day, I was with some other friends, and we found a bookstore. Usually the bookstores are small and of course just have Chinese books, but this one was quite the find! Besides a few books written in (or translated into) English, the children's section had a few English books translated into Chinese! A few had pinyin (romanization to represent the Chinese sounds) as well as characters, which I convinced myself would be good language practice.

my purchasesThis book doesn't have pinyin, so it'll take me a while to read, but I love the illustrations, and books about the Holocaust have always intrigued me(Janette Oke wrote this one...you can see the pinyin above the characters)

Beijing

Last week I went to Beijing for the weekend - my first time in Beijing. Since I'll be back to Beijing multiple times, like when my parents come in January (woohoo!) and when other friends come later, I decided to spread out the sightseeing a little. This trip included trips to Tsinghua University, Temple of Heaven, and Summer Palace.

Tsinghua University, considered the top science and engineering university in China, was established in 1911, funded by U.S. money (the "Boxer Indemnity," their website says) to make up for damage done during the Boxer Rebellion. Many of the country's leaders, like Hu Jintao, the current president, attended Tsinghua. The architect was a University of Illinois graduate, so he modeled part of the design of the campus after U of I campus.

Friday at Tsinghua

After Tsinghua, we headed downtown to Hong Qiao, "Red Bridge," which was a huge pearl market. There were literally piles of pearls all over the place. Vending booths lined the indoor walkways, the owners stringing jewelry if they didn't have customers. They yelled out in English as I walked by, the same words echoing all over as the vendors called to other westerners. I didn't spend too much time there, because I wanted to go to Temple of Heaven right across the street.

Temple of Heaven was constructed from 1406 - 1420. The emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty visited the Temple every year to pray to heaven for a good harvest.

People playing cards with the main building , the Temple of Prayer for Good Harvests in the backgroundThe Temple of Prayer for Good Harvests
The sunset from one of the platformsThe Temple of Heaven includes several temples and park off to the sides

One of my favorite parts of the Temple of Heaven was Echo Wall. The large round area is enclosed by a stone wall, except for the open entryway. I stood on one side of the door, facing around the wall, and my friend stood on the other side of the door, also facing around the wall. Because of the structure and how sound waves work, our voices traveled along the outside of the wall to the other person!

Saturday I went to Summer Palace, built in 1750. It was the summer resort for Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908), who used the Navy's funds to build a marble boat in 1888 (shown below). Apparently she allocated funds to help build up a modern navy, but then decided to use the funds to build a 36 meter -long boat, where she could eat dinner and admire her garden! The message she was trying to send was that the Qing Dynasty was solid and would not be overturned, like her boat. Unfortunately (and ironically), the Qing Dynasty downfall is often blamed on this woman. A good reminder that our actions are more important than our words.

Foxiangge Pagoda, the Tower of Buddhist Incense (where Cixi had her birthday parties!) This is the main building of the Summer PalaceKunming Lake Beijing from the Foxiangge PagodaThis picture is taken through a painted window of Kunming Lake and the marble boat off to the leftand...the Marble Boat!

Success!

The pictures tell the story...

Before After Reflection off my coffee table Dough Ornaments I painted at a friend's Christmas party!

Clean Cars

Here's a picture of a man mopping his car. People seem to usually take excellent care of their vehicles. Often I see someone dry washing a car, carefully wiping the dust off it. Washing cars thoroughly - including opening up the car doors and removing any trace of dirt and getting the rag in every corner of the vehicle - is not uncommon, and often I see a quite a few people working on the same car. The result? Lots of shiny vehicles, and the ones that aren't really stand out.

You've Got Mail!

I hurried home after class on Thursday, after receiving a text message saying that my apartment management office had a package for me. Lugging the box around the corner to my apartment, I ripped it open, eager to see what my friends had sent me! Inside the USPS box were some cards, granola bars, chai tea... and 20 individually wrapped Christmas presents! Aah, the suspense of Christmas! I still have to wait 2 weeks! I did, however, open the cards, which were super encouraging and fun to read, and then put the gifts under a little tiny tree that one of my teachers gave me, since she didn't want it anymore. Thank you Melissa, Sara, Megan, Beth, Liz, Lucy, Cathi, and the rest of you who contributed! I'm excited to see what's in there, and by the way, Christmas comes sooner for me than it does for you :)
Something just didn't seem right, though. Growing up, we always had a real tree. The scent of the greenery, the look of the needles, and having to move furniture to put a tree in its place remind me of Christmas, so having a 1 foot fake tree didn't quite seem real enough to me. Besides, the gifts seemed out of proportion compared to the tree. So yesterday, I set off on my bike, determined to at least find a bigger tree (knowing that a real one was out of the question). Here's what I ended up with!It's definitely larger than I was picturing, but when I chose my tree, the bar code on the box didn't work, so she sold me the larger one instead!

The next dilemma was how to get the large box home. I had ridden to the store, but this box was rather heavy and very large. After contemplating taking a taxi home and then coming back later to get my bike, I decided I wanted adventure, and loaded the box on the back of my bike! I set it behind me and held on to the tree with one hand and the handlebars with the other. It was definitely my largest bike load, and (I know this is shocking) I did receive quite a few strange looks, comments, and nudging friends to look at my wide load. As I rode, I pictured myself taking out innocent bystanders, forgetting that my bike was now 4 feet wide. However, my venture was successful, and I arrived safely at home to set up the tree!

Today's task: finding lights and ornaments to decorate the tree!