Nice to Meet You, Barbed Wire

I don’t know if this is legitimate or not, but I swear that God has gifted some people with a sixth sense of knowing. You know what I’m talking about? Some people just know things, it’s a really strong intuition type of thing. Maybe, maybe I’d venture to say that I have that [and by ‘maybe’ I mean I do.]  But sometimes, when you’re on vacation, you feel empowered to do things that you wouldn’t normally do in real life. Never in my real life do I pretend to be an athlete, but the hot weather here, walking around in athletic shorts, the blisters on my feet, and maybe all the running we did in the Bangkok airport indicated to my brain that I in fact, am an athlete in Thailand.

Some teammates and I thought it would be a really fun experience to go mountain biking so of the dozens and dozens of brochures, we picked one. I don’t know why the “25 km” didn’t send off flashing red lights in my mind, or the “elevation drop of 5,000 feet.” The trail was marked “beginner”. Clearly, athletes don’t worry about things like this, and obviously, I’m an athlete in Thailand.

Let’s just say that the pamphlet was a little…misleading. I have never worn more equipment in my life, even for a dance recital. Elbow pads, helmet, knee pads, racing gloves, backpacks…some people need them more than others. I fell into the “more than others” category.

Yes, for those of you who were wondering, my helmet has stars.

We drove up the mountain in a tuk-tuk, the Thai version of a taxi. It was a long and twisty-turny ride that left a good percentage of us carsick. At the top we acquired our bikes and prepped ourselves for the adventure to come, practicing in little circles at the top of the mountain.

I vividly remember the day that I learned to ride a bike [thanks mom and dad for all your physical and emotional support in that]. I can ride a bike as a great mode of transportation. Obviously, being able to ride a bike on the sidewalk makes you an automatic athlete. There’s hardly any difference between riding your bike on the street and riding your bike on a mountain. 

{Biggest lie ever}.

We have no idea what we're in for...but we look good!

I don’t know if you’ve ever been mountain biking before, but it’s not even close to a walk in the park. Point number one: you’re on a mountain. In case you don’t know, mountains are these really high things that stick up to the sky and they are anything but smooth. Point number two: 5,000 feet is really tall. That’s like 714.3 Yao Ming’s, people. Point number three: Things with two wheels move. When they set themselves to move down a hill [or you know, a mountain] they have a tendency to move fast. When your body is on top of them, you also acquire and add to the momentum of the thing with wheels and you also then move fast.

I met three new friends today. Their names are gravel, barbed wire, and prickly-hay bush. So being that I’m an athlete and all, it’s only necessary that I experience a right of passage into the realm of athleticism. That involves the process of wiping out. I just loved my first time so much, I just had to do it again…and again. [Mom, I promise I’m ok]. I’m especially thankful for the barbed wire, as it stopped me from tumbling over a cliff. It was so excited to meet me that a kind Thai woman had to come over and untangle me out of it. It left a couple nice souvenirs on my arm. They’ll go away in a few weeks. I took a tumble down a three foot ledge to meet the prickley-hay bush. Michael got a spectacular view of that first-and only-greeting, as he was a few feet behind me.

[I just wanted to note that as I’m sitting here proofing this epic story, I find myself laughing at my own writing to the point of tears. My guess is that those of you who know me really well may also be laughing just as much as I am (Kate & Alicia I can hear you in my head). Breathe. Now it’s time to get serious…]

I’d be lying to you if I said that it was easy. And I might even admit that my eyes glazed over with a watery liquid at 2 or 3 different points throughout the journey. For as exciting and awesome as it was, I was a definite passenger on the struggle bus…er, the struggle bike. I had my own personal guide [in the back of the line]. I had to get over (real quick) my hatred of needing special treatment, my hatred of people sacrificing their time and lessening their abilities for the sake of me, and my hatred of self-detrimental thinking. I had a champion teammate who after tumble number two, refused to leave my side—or at least keep me within his views at basically all times. Throughout a good portion of the experience, my brain was on replay of what I overheard 1 ½ years ago in regards to me [at ironically another athletic event].

“She’s too weak, she can’t do this, what was she thinking?”

 Maybe not the greatest moment of my life, so I won’t put it on the blog for all to hear my sob story. Nonetheless, that was playing through my head and obviously got me nowhere. Moral of the story, kids, is don’t let your past ruin your life. You can do it.

I just biked a momma-banshee mountain in Thailand, homies. I don’t ever want to hear the words “I can’t…” come from your mouth, or your kids mouths, or my kid's mouths. But that's for an era that I haven't reached yet. Perseverence, [a little] sweat, and [a lotta] prayer will get you there.

..and that’s all I have to say about that.

The only true causality of the day: my sunglasses

想家 [homesick]

I started writing this blog post two months ago for completely different reasons. I was in China, it was almost holiday time, and frankly I was spinning to whack the piñata at my own personal pity party. I verbally processed through my fingers all that was confusing within, but decided to hold it back, knowing that the feelings, confusion, and sorrow wouldn't last forever.

[from November 14^th] I'm not a huge fan of lying, so I'm not going to lie to you. The above title is a very real reality for people living abroad for a short period of time. There's a deeply embedded longing for what is familiar, and for as much as one can try to simulate what the actual experience would be, it's just not the same. There's some things that are just not going to be a part of my life for the next six months: simple things like driving a car. It would be so nice to hop in a vehicle and take a drive up to the lake. {Ontario that is}. Like ordering a pizza. How many Friday nights have passed when we just wanted to order ourselves a pizza for surviving the week.  But those things won't be happening any time soon, and I'll just have to get over it.

Now here I sit two months later with a very new perspective on the whole scenario, surviving the holidays, loving the holidays, and still living abroad. For our yearly conference, all employees find themselves in Chiang Mai, Thailand. A mere few days ago, my teammates and I found ourselves in the Bangkok airport, bewildered at the heat and confused as to how to catch our next flight, process immigration and obtain boarding passes. To make an exceedingly long story as short as possible: it wasn't the greatest experience in the world. In the midst of my confusion and frustration I caught myself saying a very common phrase:

“I just want to go home”

But this was different. This home meant China. This ‘home’ meant Harbin, with its frigid air and all. Looking around the airport we were surrounded by a new language, new temperatures, and new colors of people [most of whom were white]. These were all unfamiliar things, and even though I can hardly get by in my Chinese and most of the time Chinese characters are completely useless to me, they’re still familiar. I am not claiming to know everything about China, really I know very little. I’m comfortable being stupid in China. Going to another country, I forgot just how terrible it feels to be lost and unfamiliar with your surroundings. 

At what point did things change? When did China become home? There are studies upon studies that say in order for a person to feel and fully adjust to being “home” takes approximately 4 years. {No wonder saying goodbye to college was so hard.} I’ve only been in China 5 months. At least in my mind, China doesn’t ever seem to quite fit in with the “norm.” It’s a very special place. It’s home.

Why I Like Xi'an

-Our hostel is located 2 blocks from the Muslim Quarters.

-Their food is delish.

-There is a “wall” around the city (as it was he capital of China for centuries and centuries) that you can walk or bike on.

-People get around on motorbikes and honk at you on the sidewalks.

-Beef on a stick.

-Lamb on a stick.

-We can walk to McDonalds to enjoy familiar ice cream treats and new ones too (Strawberry oreo McFlurries? Strawberry pineapple milkshakes? Way to go China.)
-It’s warmer than Harbin.

-There is a Bell Tower and a Drum Tower in the middle of the city. Music education at it’s finest.

-Security Checks: At the Taracotta Warriors, we had to have sort of ID on us in order to get in that wasn’t our passports. My mixed teammate, Laura {marie} Baker did not have any sort of photo identification. I just so happened to have both my drivers license and driving permit from the state of New York. Jia Jia, our adorable tour guide told us that Laura could use my ID in order to get in. Yes, Laura {marie} Baker was going to use this white girls ID in order to see the ancient ruins. As if I wasn’t white enough, the flash from the photo coated my skin in an extra layer of Antarctica that day. However, even though Laura {marie} Baker has been out of the sun for awhile, she is still clearly nothing close to Antarctica. We laughed at the irony, and we laughed at the probability that our plan would actually work.

Did she make it through security? You bet.

Lonely Hearts

As if yesterday wasn’t enough, Guangzhou keeps getting crazier and crazier by the day. It’s almost as if God was making fun of me for even thinking that yesterday was an eventful day…but again, I’m getting ahead of myself so perhaps I should start at the beginning.

Well let’s see, I woke up. Michael, master of maps, had found a map and came to the conclusion that our hotel wasn’t on it. In fact, our hotel isn’t even “technically” in Guangzhou. That ignited a desire for a quest to head into the city by foot: a quest which was accompanied by the presence of Wes, Tiffany and myself.

It’s days like today that I wish that I had a pedometer handy to see exactly how far we walked. I guarantee you that in total it was somewhere within the 14-18 mile range. We paused for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, walked around some backstreets, took pictures of the city, yadda yadda yadda…

…Sorry, I’m rushing, I just really want to get to the good part of the story. You see, we had found ourselves wandering and hoping to find a Starbucks. Guangzhou is a really westernized city of approximately 15 million people, we found one in no time. Tiffany went to the ladies room and when she came back she had a message: “Kayla, there’s a woman over there who looked really happy to see white people, maybe you should talk to her.” Tiffany had no idea what she had set me up for. For the next 45 minutes of my life I had a lovely chit-chat with my darling new friend, Stephanie from Newcastle, England (oh goodness, my inner monologue is sounding British already. Blimey!) We had such a lovely, genuine conversation, laughing and sharing stories instantaneously. I left, feeling like I was walking on clouds. My teammates, who were patiently waiting and happy to use the free wi-fi, asked if I had invited her to dinner. Why didn’t I think of that?! So I turned around and that’s exactly what we did.

Three hours later our whole team met Stephanie and her friend Niel at that Starbucks again, and headed to a yunnan food restaurant. We sat and chatted for hours, sharing stories, China stories, culture things and greatness. Neil works outside the city teaching English to a variety of students, and Stephanie works in a kindergarten, teaching 2 year olds. Both came here on a whim, not knowing a soul and have only been in the country for 3 ½ months. [Pause: Lets talk about brave.] Both are having a hard time finding community and feeling connected in this great, huge place. It broke my heart to hear that such wonderful people were having a hard time finding genuine people to share life with in this city. It made me thankful for my team, thankful for my organization, and thankful for all the real relationships that I have in my life, both here and 7,000 miles away.

We closed out our evening by heading to a Cowboy Express a few blocks away to grab some fro-yo’s [frozen yogurts for those of you who aren't up-to-date on snack slang]. The owner(from Utah, p.s) was happy to greet us and inform us that the fro-yo was imported from Australia. Let’s talk about a cultural night, people. Inside we talked some more, watched Taylor Swift music videos, and laughed until we cried {well, at least I was crying…I can’t speak for everyone else}.

I was really sad to leave our new friends. Who would have thought that Guangzhou would have so much to offer? It began off the radar in our travel plans, but then we had a connecting flight here, and then we booked a hotel, and now we’re here, and I’m so glad. Stephanie, the entire evening, was cracking me up. As we closed out the night, she said to me “you know, your blog could be a place for all the lonely hearts of Guangzhou to connect and find each other!” This one goes out to you, Stephanie, and to all the other lonely hearts in Guangzhou, looking for somebody real, friendly, and loving life! Leave a…comment? I’m so glad to have met you and truly and genuinely hope that our paths will cross again, someday. Preferably soon.

Yea buddy... the sign above says "There's a little cowboy in all of us."

A Story for the Blog

January 15^th: It’s not every day that a day like today happens.

Things happen and you get to the end of the day and you can do nothing but sigh and chuckle to yourself and say “wow, that happened today?.” But I’m getting a little ahead of myself, where to even begin?

If you recall from the previous posting, my allergies decided to throw a party basically everywhere in my body from my waist up. Well, my lungs didn’t like that so they started this violent coughing form of attack which is not the most convenient thing ever. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really proud of my lungs, they’ve done good to me and we’ve kinda grown up together, it’s just really inconvenient that they’re this violent when I share a bedroom with four other sleeping women.

At approximately 2:15am the forces were on the move. I thought for sure we could fight a “quiet battle” of sorts (you know, like “the quiet game” that mommy’s always tell their kids to play to secretly shut them up for about 2 minutes? I tried it with my lungs. Fail.) At about 2:30 am I climbed down from my bunk, popped a couple of cough drops in my mouth, grabbed a water bottle and my Kindle and headed to the hostel lobby…no one was sleeping down there so there was little fear that I would wake anyone up. The battle for my air supply raged for quite some time, but at about 3:30am the allergens temporarily retreated, and I braved climbing up my bunk again and closing my eyes for just a few moments of…

Team Harbin @ 6am, Xi'an Airport

…before I knew it, the alarms were going off. Was it really 4:30 already? We had a plane to catch. We bundled up our belongings and lugged them down to that lobby I had left merely an hour ago. Laura talked to the front desk man to finish out the paper work and confirm our transportation to the airport.

“the van is not coming”, said Mr. Front-Desk-Guy

“What do you mean it’s not coming?” said Laura [she hadn’t had her coffee yet]

“it is too early”, said he.

“We were told to be ready by 5am,” said Laura.

Phone calls were made, and a van was present to pick us up at the hostel by 5:30am

Plane was fine, food was…questionable.

We stepped out of the airport in Guangzhou. Everything about this place screams that it’s certainly tropical…at another time of the year. The lush palm trees and tropical looking remnants of flowers convey that for a large portion of the year, the weather here seems to be hot & humid. However, the current month is January and being that we are in the Northern Hemisphere {still}, that means that there is no “hot & humid” to be found here. We’re currently in the “cold & wet” season, and Guangzhou doesn’t disappoint. It’s been raining for continuous hours now and at fairly heavy and steady pace (but trust me, im super thankful it’s not snow). The hotel told us to hop on airport shuttle 6. That’s all that it said so that’s what we did.. And then we got off when the bus stopped, assuming that the next step would be obvious.

It wasn’t.

If you’re a Chinese citizen, it’s not every day that you get to see a white person, let alone 6 white people, let alone 6 white people with backpacks and suitcases, walking in the rain and crossing major highways [don't worry mom, we looked both ways]. We were quite the sight for a few Guangzhou citizens today. Our airport shuttle bus decided to drop us off outside of a shopping center.Our hotel was nowhere in sight, so we began wandering. We came across a Starbucks. Laura had her coffee, and Michael was unsuccessful in obtaining the “free wi-fi”. We hailed down a couple taxi’s and showed them the address of our hotel, none would take us. We laughed and sighed, everyone externally exhausted and trying to keep spirits light. With every new and failing step of our adventure we’d just remind ourselves ”this is going to make a great blog post”. We told ourselves that for the hour that we wandered the streets of Guangzhou in the rain, with our wet bags and weak [and really hungry] bodies.

If Starbucks has an “Employee of the Year” award, it needs to go to one of their employees in Guangzhou. We were poor, lost, wet, and weary Americans who just wanted our hotel. Our new Starbucks employee-friend walked us out in the rain to hail taxi’s for us to explain the location of our hotel [as apparently the address on the website was faulty].

Yet again, we are less than a block away from McDonald’s, which means any slightest accomplishment/bad day/reason to celebrate is a reason to purchase a McFlurry {Yes, there are McDonald’s in Harbin, but the nearest one to our school is about 25 minutes away by bus}. Today we celebrated getting to a new city as we all indulged in our hot fudge sundaes and McFlurries…and a McChicken sandwich for Wes.

We celebrated (again) and shared some fellowship time with a friend of Lauren’s, an Auburn Alum, who is currently working and residing in this city. We went out for what has been one of the greatest meals in our time here in China… Mexican!!! We celebrated at “Tekilas”, and *sigh* it was just great. Tacos, chips and dip, tacos, fajitas, salsa, tacos… a good life.

It’s not every day that all that happens. With my hair now freshly shampooed and jammies on snug, I just thought I’d verbally process this…experience…and give you a glimpse into the adventure we had!

A Time of Firsts

We stepped off the plane. As if choreographed, all six members of team Harbin whooped, hollered, jumped and rejoiced at the warmth that 37◦F provided to our skin. Winter coats came off, deep breaths of warmer, non-paralyzing air were inhaled, and smiles were spread across all faces.

We are on the first stop of our vacation journey. Everybody, say ‘hello’ to Xi’an! Xi’an is a city rich with Chinese culture and way different than the China that we’ve been experiencing these past five months. Our team is having a blast [which is no surprise at all] and we’ve been experiencing a lot of ‘firsts’.

So far it’s been our first time:

-staying at a hostel

-eating Pao muo (Xi’an special dish with slabs of meat and cubed bread in broth)

-bartering hard core for things that we want

-walking on a rooftop garden

-visiting a Muslim mosque

-eating at a Korean restaurant

-drinking fresh pomegranate juice

-eating spinach noodles

-doing the donkey dance

-drinking hot orange juice

-to have an extended sleepover as “Bean Team” women.

-seeing Terracotta warriors

We have a really good friend at home named Sunny [perhaps some of you have heard about her]. She is a fellow English teacher at our school and often hangs out with us foreign people. When we told her that we were going to Xi’an she became all excited and told us that her brother lives in the city. The other night, he met us at our hostel and showed us around town and took us to his favorite Korean restaurant. He said that he and his wife eat there every week; if I lived closer, I would too!! We had such an enjoyable dinner spending time with him, and watching the waitresses turn our tables into grills. Grilled bananas, grilled oranges, and grilled dragon fruit right in front of our faces.

Today was the day that we went to see the terracotta warriors. Our hostel is ballin’! Through our hostel and another, they provide a daily tour of the warriors. We went as a large group, meeting Miss Scotland and Miss Britain along the way. They too are English teachers somewhere in the south of China, on their way to visit Harbin, and stopping in Xi’an coincidentally at the same time that we are. It was an hour bus ride there so we were able to have some interesting conversations with Miss Britain and Miss Scotland along the way; these women were…hilarious, to say the least, reminding me of my sister and I when we try to tell the same stories at the same time. Any of you who have been witness to that, you know exactly what kind of spectacle I'm talking about. The only noticeable (and crucial) difference was that their British and Scottish accents were far more consistent and authentic than Erica & I could ever carry. Alls that to say, it was a friendly reminder of home and a wonderful sister that I love.

  

Maybe my teammates will have more insightful blog posts about these experiences. My body is a little confused, thinking that it's now spring due to the drastic weather change and my allergies decided to have a party inside my sinuses. Sniffle...sniffle...

Even though that's just me, trust me when I say that a grand time has been had by all thus far. Promise!

Recipe for a Good Time

*note: it is recommended that appropriate Chinese is learned beforehand, however end result can still yield successful without it, as long as French guy is involved.

Ingredients:

2 sets of long underwear, both tops and bottoms

1 pair jeans

2 pair sweatpants

2 long sleeved shirts

1 hoodie

2 sets gloves

Team with that French guy :)

2 sets socks (one wool)

1 pair hiking boots

1 super-warm China scarf

1 pair earmuffs

1 hat

1 large [red] China fabulous coat

1 fabulous Nikon camera

Approximately 25 packages of “Hot Hands” and “Toasty Toes”

1 ticket to the Harbin Snow & Ice Festival

1 French guy

Assembled English teachers

 

-First, assemble all clothing items. Then, put them on. Be sure to allow room for your blood to still flow and not cut off circulation. If you need to take a pit stop at a fancy bank to put on more clothes, go ahead and do it. Don’t let the Chinese people staring at you be intimidating; they’d be staring at you anyways.

-If needed {uhm…yes}, place “Hot Hands” and “Toasty Toes” into designated locations.

-Find the bus that will take you to the festival. Before taking a strangers directions, be sure to have it confirmed by at least 3 other people, or else you may end up walking in circles in 0 degree weather for a period of 40 minutes or longer.

-Once the bus is found, purchase the expensive ticket to the festival and ride the overcrowded bus for approximately 30 minutes. Get off when everyone else does.

-Stand in awe at the ice before you. Don’t stand too long; keep your blood moving.

-Enter the park, continue to marvel at the ice and lights. Laugh internally as a sculpture of a bottle of vodka and Harbin beer greet you into the festival.

vodka...

-Walk around and talk with English teachers and French guy. Make comments, continue to marvel at the ice.

-Follow the crowd of people and marvel at various snow sculptures as well.

-Take as many paictures as you possible can with that camera. It dosen't matter if it's dark outside, you're at an ice&lights festival.

-Gather the group of English teachers and French guy together various times for group photos.

-If necessary, pose for pictures with the natives. Do not be alarmed if they walk up to you, grab your arm, and point you in the direction of a camera.

-For an extra zest, be sure to try out the various types and sizes of ice slides. Be sure there is extra padding around your bum region.

-Be sure to listen to your fingers and toes. They’ll be sure to tell you when time is just about up.

-Use the French guy to ask a policeman the direction of the return bus; don't just wander as your fingers and toes are screaming at you by this point.

-Upon your exit of winter wonderland be sure to get your body to a good source of heat pronto.

 

A great final memory to leave Harbin on!

Tomorrow our team is hoppin' on a plane and starting our month long journey. 

First stop... Xi'an!

Central Street

I was holding out on writing the first blog post of the new year. It’s a whole new year, a fresh slate, this blog post carries a lot of weight. I’ve been waiting the past few days for something ‘inspirational’ or out of the ordinary to talk about. I’ve been waiting to be struck with Zeus’s lightning bolt of creativity. Of course, this lightning bolt wouldn’t actually hurt, it would be made of rainbows and sparkles, but it would have the same “zap” effect as all other lightning bolts.

I don’t think I’ve been hit with a lightning bolt by any means, but our team has done some things that are pretty blog worthy. We took a day trip down to Central Street yesterday. In Harbin, Central Street is where a ton of shops and prime shopping and markets are centralized (I’m talking Nike, Reebok, Starbucks). Upon looking at ground level, one would almost think they’re in NYC. However, looking upward you can’t help but notice the Russian architecture all over the place; it’s really quite exquisite. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the day we decided to visit was the Harbin Ice Festival Opening Day Celebrations. This meant that there was dancing in the streets, Chinese flag dancers, Chinese dragons and lots and lots of people, performances, and dancing. It was quite a special treat for us. We ran errands the majority of the day as well as enjoyed dinner at a Russian restaurant {a very…hearty…meal}. We finished the night with some good ‘ole fashioned KTV. [For those of you who don’t know, KTV is something similar to karaoke, but it’s more like karaoke on crack. You buy a room with just you and your friends, pick your songs, pick up a microphone, set the strobe lights and away you go!]

There are two crucial lessons and observations that I think I learned yesterday.

Lesson #1: White people are fascinating. Walking along Central Street yesterday I was exposed to more white people that I have seen combined these past 5 months. I found myself continually staring at them, so curious about their choice of clothes, their hairstyles, and their accents. If the probability of them being Russian wasn’t so high, I would have walked up to them and asked “what’s your story? Why are you here? Why Harbin, why?!” They were simply…intriguing. I couldn’t help but to have a small taste of what plays through the Chinese people’s minds when they see me walking down the street.

Lesson #2: My entire life I have fully underestimated the power and good that a dance party can do for the soul. This is a crucial difference between men and women. For a lot of my life I have spoken out against my own gender because {lets just be real here} women are super confusing. However I am now regretting not taking hold of this glorious ability to instantaneously change my mood and my outlook on life. Dancing to pop songs with terrible lyrics and a boppin’ beat, singing as loudly and as terribly as you possibly can in the company of other girls (some boys) and a microphone seems to make all the cares of the world disappear. How no one has taken these effects and encapsulated them into a pill yet, I have no idea, but I bet you it would make millions.

We chuckled coming out of our KTV experience as we realized that the cold wasn't as bitter as we thought it would be. Michael decided to pull out his iPod touch to discover how cold it actually was. Michael's iPod touch informed us that it was -6◦F. We actually looked around at each other and actually said "ehh, it's not too bad out here". Harbin is changing us.  

We are sad that we will soon be saying goodbye to our friend, Gary. He leaves for Paris soon and ...well, we'll miss him. We have loved getting to know him and were super happy that he could join us for the day excursion yesterday. 

The boys rockin' to a "man song" at KTV

It says "Welcome to Harbin" in ice...in case you can't tell