CAMBODIA

Hi Everyone,

I just got back from my big adventure to CAMBODIA!!!  Wow, what a great trip.  I really enjoyed Cambodia, wonderful world heritage sites like Angkor Wat, delicious food, like the national dish Amok, and the friendly people.

I went to Cambodia overland from Bangkok.  I set out at 6am by bus and reached the border town of Aranyaprathet about 5 hours later.  You have to pass through Thai customs where you get an exit stamp.  It's a short walk to the Cambodian border where you then have to go through Cambodian customs.

Cambodian customs was easy.  The line wasn't long and all you had to do was pay $20, get the visa and get your passport stamped.  I was in and out.  Of course my entry back into Thailand was another story, but that's a nightmare I'll share with you later...

Once I got through to the other side I was in Poipet Cambodia.  

I still had another 2 hour drive to get to Siem Reap but I split cab fare with another traveler who was also going to Siem Reap, so it wasn't bad.  The journey through the countryside was spectacular to see.  The verdant fields of rice rippled in the wind like silk. 

 The rice fields were so lush and beautiful it seemed that if I could just reach out and touch it, it would be like stroking velvet.

Yet even with all the beauty, the stark reality of how poor Cambodia truly is was pushed to the fore.

The juxtaposition between the beauty of the landscape with the realities of extreme poverty could be overwhelming at times.

  After 2 hours of driving through the countryside once inside Cambodia, it was nice to get to my hotel which was an oasis in the heart of Siem Reap.

The outside garden was very peaceful and a great welcome after the end of a 7 hour journey.

I met up with friends (we had prearranged to meet in Cambodia), and we ended up having a relaxing dinner before going out to enjoy the nightlife of Siem Reap.

The nightlife was great.  Great night markets...

lots of good restaurants...

and of course some great clubbing!  I had a great time dancing the night away with a couple of good friends.

But as much fun as I was having, after getting up at 4:30am to catch the bus, I decided at 2am it was time to call it quits so went back to the hotel to turn in.  After all, I was getting up in a few hours to go explore a world heritage site, Angkor Wat!  Unfortunately you will have to wait for the next installment to hear all about my adventures going back in time to the early 12th century!

Finally, Back Online!

Hi All,

I have been having major problems accessing my blog while in China.  I bought a VPN which allows me to bypass the restrictions put on the internet by the Chinese government but alas they periodically attack the VPN servers and so mine has become a casualty of the war on internet freedom.  I've missed not being able to post.  It has been an exercise in frustration.  Sometimes I can get on and look at my blog but when I go to post something it freezes on me.  The connection to the VPN is so tenuous that by the time it takes to upload a pic my connection is severed.

BUT, now that I'm here in Thailand, where there aren't as many restrictions, I can finally blog again!  When I do get back to China I will have to have my tech guy find me a better VPN to buy so I don't get cut off from the world again!

So as I said, I'm in Thailand!  I'm staying with friends in Bangkok and it has been great.  When I left Nanchang it was snowing and COLD!

Fortunately now I'm in the sunnier climes of Thailand where I sit by the pool and soak up the sun.

I'm really lucky, the friends that I'm staying with have a swimming pool that is great to do laps in.  I figured it out and 2 laps (once back and forth) equals out to about 25 yards.  Right now I swim about 70 laps or 875 yards which is just under a 1/2 mile.  It's great.  I just have to walk out the door and I'm right there at my own private pool.  I even got to swim in the rain yesterday!

As much as I enjoy being able to swim laps and lounge around poolside, I have been able to experience some first, most notably, riding an elephant!  Of course if that wasn't enough, I also got to play with a baby elephant, even getting to feed him corn on the cob! 

The adult elephants were huge!  Just look at big pink!  And boy are they strong!  Their trunks are amazing.  It was so neat being able to pet them and ride them.

They are so tall that you have to climb up onto a platform in order to be able to get on their backs.  If you notice in the picture below, I'm at the same level as the roofs on the buildings to the right!

What an amazing trip so far!  I am loving Thailand.  I'm enjoying all the sun and so many new experiences.  I've been lucky enough to go to a few different Wats (temples) and was even allowed to go to a ceremony to honor the dead Up country.  But, you will have to wait for those adventures until next time.  I'm leaving tomorrow for Cambodia, and am not taking my computer, so might not have access to the internet for a little bit.  But I will be sure to post the next big adventure as soon as I get back to Bangkok!

Until next time....

Sawadee Ka!  

Brilliant Children and Jade

Hello from Nanchang.  I hope this post finds everyone happy and healthy.  I have been very busy as the semester is winding down and I have only one more week until finals.  I has been a crazy time with my students getting ready for their final exam but we still try and have fun as we learn and have even had some students over for dinner a few times.  Cooking Chinese food for Chinese people was a little nerve wracking at first but now that I have done it a few times my confidence is building.  When I get back from winter vacation I will even have a couple of cooking lessons.

But today I want to blog about a trip I made yesterday to an orphanage for the deaf yesterday.  A friend of mine was going and asked if I would like to go so I went with her.  It was such a great experience.  The children were so sweet.  It was on the outskirts of Nanchang (on the other side of the city from where I live) and a van picked us up in downtown Nanchang along with a few other people.  We took some arts and crafts supplies so that we could play with the children.

The little boys and girls were so cute and ranged in age from about 4 to 8 years old.  

The stickers and glitter were very popular with all of the kids.

If you notice all the children are bundled up in coats.  It gets quite cold in Nanchang, but it was actually a really nice day.  Not too cold (about 48 degrees) and the sun was out and shinning.  

We also went inside and sang songs with the Children although since they are deaf (and speak Chinese when they do speak) they didn't really sing too much.

They did enjoy the song, "Where is Thumbkin".  If you notice the little girl in the dark blue jack in front of the teacher in the light blue jacket, although didn't sing, did follow along with the hand gestures.

All of the kids were great.  I really enjoyed playing with them but this little girl impressed me so much (the same one that followed the hand gestures in the song).  All of the other little kids wanted to do the crafts, but not her, she wanted to write.  She brought over a little story book and had me sit with her and hold the book while she copied the characters on the pages.

She is only 5 years old and she wrote this whole page while I was there (which was about 5 pages of the story).  She would have kept going but they called us in to sing songs.  I have to confess her Chinese script is way better than mine!  She is so bright and intelligent and really made a big impression on me.  When it was time to go she gave me a big hug and the paper she had been working on.  It is now hanging proudly on my living room wall.  We stayed for a few hours having fun but the memories will stay with me for a life time.  I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go.  I can hardly wait to go back and see her and the other kids.

I will be celebrating my birthday this Wednesday 12/12/12 and I am so lucky to be here in China getting to have so many new and wonderful experiences all the time.  I even have a new name.

                                                          李 玉 轩

李 玉 轩 (Li Yu Xuan) which means Li (my family name, just a transliteration of Le in LeCroix), Yu which means Jade and Xuan which has many meanings such as brilliant, smart, cool (as in she is so cool not it is cold. Xuan is a word from ancient times.).  So the English translation of the name is Brilliant Jade.  I held a contest (which was also a homework assignment) where my students got to ask me questions about myself and then choose a name for me.  I gave them two weeks to think about it and they did a great job.  They had to write a paragraph saying what the name meant, along with the Chinese characters and the pinyin.  I picked the top 5 (one from each class) and I will be taking them out to dinner at a restaurant in downtown Nanchang.  At the dinner I will announce the winner and that student, a girl named Vivi, will get an additional prize.  I haven't bought the gift yet but will be going to the market tomorrow with a Chinese friend of mine to pick it out.  I'm thinking a quilt for the bed since it gets so cold here in Nanchang and there is no heating in the student dormitories.


It is late and I must go to bed!  So I will sign off for now.  I hope everyone is having a happy holiday season and I send you all good thoughts and warm wishes.

Until next time,

Me  :  )

I'm just plain thankful... Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello All,

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving week and a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.  I did not do Thanksgiving on Thursday but instead celebrated on Saturday.  Some of the Western teachers (about 15 of us) got together and had a potluck.  We didn't have a turkey (the turkeys in China are really just chickens on steroids and super expensive), but we did have a chicken.  We even had pumpkin pie that one of the teachers made from scratch with a real pumpkin!  Very delicious! I made home made mac-n-cheese "hot dish".  What is hot dish you ask?  Well, a lot of the teachers are from Minnesota and instead of a casserole they call it hot dish and they say most everything is better as a hot dish!  So I made the mac-n-cheese then put it in a casserole dish topped it with more cheese and bread crumbs and baked it in the oven.  Needless to say it was a big hit!  My favorite of course was the pumpkin pie.  Nothing says Thanksgiving and the holiday season to me like home made pumpkin pie.  We had Chicken casserole (with stuffing and gravy), cranberry salad, sweet potatoes with marsh mellows on top, fruit salad, garden salad, garlic mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, hummus, beans Cameroon style (we had a guy from Cameroon come and his bean dish was delicious and spicy!), and shrimp gumbo.  Quite an eclectic group of dishes!  It was a lot of fun and after a variety of desserts including a pear and apple cobbler, apple crumble, brownies and of course pumpkin pie!

After dinner we had major competition in wii tennis and wii bowling.  I can say I wasn't last in bowling (just 2nd to last!) and did very well in tennis.  Then the music got turned up and we got down and boogied the night away.  All in all it was a lot of fun.  My only regret for the evening was that I forgot to take pictures of all the delicious food!  I was going to but then I forgot in all the festivities.  So since I was so remiss in documenting the American faire I have decided to post pictures of some of the delicious food I have had since coming to China.

Here is one of my all time favorites, sweet and sour fish.  It is so delicious and the way it's prepared you don't really have to worry about bones.

Another one of my favorite fish dishes is custard with Silver fish.  This is a delicacy of Suzhou.

The fish is cooked in a custard and the fish is eaten whole.  The bones are so small that you don't have to worry about them.  It isn't even crunchy.  Very smooth, very delicious!

This is a black fungus dish that although it doesn't sound all that appetizing is actually quite good and very healthy too.

This is qie zi or eggplant.  It is a fav with all of my friends.  It's not on my top 10 but I included it because everyone else is crazy about it so it is always ordered whenever we go out to a restaurant (off campus, they don't serve at the 5 campus canteens) to eat.

Here is a typical dinner at a restaurant off campus.  We usually eat at one of the 5 canteens on campus or cook for ourselves but every couple of weeks the western teachers try and get together and go out to eat off campus at a nice local restaurant.  If you can see, everyone is eating with kuai zi (chop sticks). It is the normal eating utensils, so much so that most of us (myself included) eat with chopsticks even at home.

This is a stall in Wuhan on a street that is famous for it's street food stalls.  I took this picture on a trip to Wuhan that I took during Mid-Autumn festival.  The street was packed with people (almost all Chinese) buying wonderful street faire.

Here's a close up of the crabs.  Very delicious.  Each region has a special crab that it specializes in.  In Wuhan it is the hairy crab which is only eaten in October.

This is a pancake stall where they served tasty pancakes stuffed with pork, scallions and spices.

This is my good friend Wes (a teacher at JXNU) buying street food at a street that has many street food vendors in downtown Nanchang.  It's right across the street from Walmart, so after a little shopping, a nice bite to eat before hopping back on the bus to head back to campus is the order of the day.

And of course I couldn't write a post about food without including my all time favorite dish in China, Malatang!  I eat Malatang at least 3 or 4 times a week either for lunch or dinner.  Noodles with different greens (you pick out the greens that you want), usually (for me anyway) bok choy, spinach, lettuce, also lotus root and pressed rice cakes, lots of la jiao (chili pepper spice) and delicious broth.  In fact my students all know how much I love it and often tease me about it and join me for a nice hot, spicy bowl of Malatang!

Well my peeps, I'm sorry I got caught up in the Thanksgiving festivities and forgot to take pictures of our eclectic feast but I hope you enjoyed seeing the wonderful and exotic faire I have had the privilege of experiencing since coming to China.  I did however not forget to remember how thankful I am for having this opportunity to come to China, have so many wonderful adventures, and exposure to so many new experiences (on a daily basis!).  I also want everyone back home to know how thankful I am for you and how much I miss you.  I appreciate all of the correspondence though e-mail and Skype.  I am definitely thankful for the electronic age where I can communicate clear across the world in the blink of an eye.  Snail mail takes at least one month each way so I really appreciate my computer!  Don't forget, I have given an open invitation to all my friends and family to come visit me in Nanchang.  I have a spare bedroom and would be more than happy to host you on your visit to the wonders of China!

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Hello Everyone,

Sorry I have been remiss in my posts.  It seems that time just flies by here in China.  I am now 16 hours ahead of everyone back in California since daylight savings time is back in effect.  So you would think that I would have an extra 16 hours to post, but between classes, going on vacations and having fun...  Ok, I tired to think of a good excuse so since I don't have one I will just promise to post more often!

Today's post is all about traditional Chinese medicine.  I took a trip to Wuhan (which I will blog about later) and ended up hurting my knee so decided to get some acupuncture.  My friend Ming Cao (Dynasty) took me to the hospital of traditional Chinese medicine.  It was quite an experience!

 

This is the traditional Chinese medicine hospital for Nanchang, Jiangxi province, so the first two characters on this sign say Jiangxi for the province.  It is a good thing I have such a nice friend since no one at the hospital spoke English.  Ming was great at translating for me.

After getting my hospital card Ming translated for the doctor, telling her that my knee hurt and that I needed acupuncture.

Here is a chart showing all the different points of acupuncture for the body.  Since my injury was in my knee my acupuncture was confined to the knee area.

The first step is to insert the needles.  As you can see I'm kind of a pin cushion at this point.  They don't hurt once they are in, in fact you don't even feel them but sometimes when they are sticking them not so much fun...  My last treatment the doctor put one needle in a new point and it was almost like my leg was humming.  It kind of hurt going in and it continued to hum (but not hurt) throughout the treatment but when it was done my knee felt fantastic.

The next step is to add the incense.  Besides smelling good it is actually used to increase circulation in the area being treated.  I love it.  I had one treatment without the incense and it wasn't as effective.  It really warms up my leg and seems to increase the effectiveness of the acupuncture.  I have had three treatments and am proud to say that the last time I went all by myself!  Of course Ming wrote out a little note to the doctor for me telling what I needed, and as Ming is so wonderful he told me to call him if there was any problems and he would talk to the doctor for me, but everything went smoothly and I didn't have to call Ming.  I am really starting to learn my way around town and although I have a LONG way to go before I become proficient in Chinese I am learning a lot and am able to communicate the basics.  

I am loving China and I have picked up a couple of tutors to give me private Chinese lessons.  I am even feeling like a native Nanchanger.  I went on a trip last week to Nanjing, Wuxi and Suzhou (I will also blog about this trip later), and although I had a great time, I could hardly wait to get back to Nanchang for some good spicy food.  China is so big and each region has it's own flavor.  Some areas may be more metropolitan than Nanchang, some may have better weather, and I'll admit even better traffic (Nanchang traffic is horrible, it's like the wild west with NO RULES) but Nanchang has the BEST food!  Spicy!  Spicy! Spicy!

One bit of really good news I'd like to share.  I made a proposal to the school to make a short film about the school geared to prospective western teachers who are thinking of coming to teach here, and I just got approval to do the project.  I am really excited and I even get a budget!  One of the things that helped me decide to come to Jiangxi Normal University was talking to other western teachers who work here and so I thought if we had a short little film that the university could send to prospective teachers it would help.  It's a win win for me.  It gives the school face and gives me face (a big Chinese concept), helps me keep my film and editing skills up and I can put it on my resume.  So I am excited to start the project and I will let you know how it goes.

Well, I must end now.  It's time to work on my lesson plans.  I am working on mock interviews for the students.  Besides learning English, I want to give them practical experience that will help them in the future.  I figure helping them understand how an interview works in a western company will stand them in good stead.  

I hope everyone back home is well.  A shout out to the girls at the pool... Miss ya!  I don't get to swim here (the pool was open only one month) and I miss it terribly but I walk a lot and ride a bike all the time, but still... swim a lap for me!    

Zaijan for now! 

Time

I just noticed after I posted that it shows I am posting at 10:30am on Friday but I'm not really.  I guess because I am using a VPN (a service that makes my computer seem to be in San Francisco), so that I can access my blog and avoid all the restrictions placed on the Chinese internet, it is showing my post in PST.  So in reality I am posting at 1:30am on Saturday!  Just thought I'd let everyone know so the don't get confused as to why I'm saying things like I have to go to bed when it shows me posting at 10 in the morning.  Just remember I am 15 hours ahead (it will be 16 once everyone turns the clock back an hour on November 4th).

Night All

Starting Classes

Hi Everyone!

Well I have been very busy.  I had my first week of teaching!  I didn't start until this week (even though school officially started at the beginning of September) because I have all freshmen and the freshmen go through a month of political training before they start their classes.  

This training consists of the students doing drills, marching and shouting slogans all day long.

Sometimes you can't help but feel bad for them as they are on the field ALL day long no matter how hot it is.  Notice all the water bottles at their feet and this day wasn't even that warm (well for Nanchang), only about 85, but of course with about 80% humidity!  Remember Nanchang is one of the 4 famous furnaces of China.  We are actually the #3 furnace so it gets really hot and humid!  But the "training" is over and classes have started so I have been enjoying my first week of teaching.

3 of my classes are on the 5th floor (no elevator), so a nice little jaunt up the stairs where I am rewarded with a beautiful view!  As you can see on the right is an arrow that shows my apartment so I either walk or ride my bike to school.  I love it!

I have 5 classes (approximately 200 students!).  I love my students and know I will have a lot of fun teaching them.  Each class has it's own distinct personality and it has been a pleasure getting to know my students this week.  I have a great schedule.  I teach Tuesday's. Thursday's and Friday's from 8:00am to 9:50am and on Wednesday's from 10:10am to 12:00pm and 2:00pm to 3:50pm.  I always have a 3 day weekend and if I want to leave right after class on Friday I could be on the train by noon and effectively have a 4 day weekend!  Of course while I only have 10 class hours a week, I do spend a lot of time with my students out of class.  Everyone lives on campus (including me) and so we run into each other all the time, which is great as it gives the students a chance to practice their English and me a chance to practice my Chinese.  I like to play basketball with my students and will eventually have students come over to my apartment (in small groups of course because as nice and big as my apartment is it's not big enough for all 200 at once!) and we will watch movies and practice our English/Chinese.  The students are so eager to learn and really appreciate us as teachers.

Since I am in the Business school (The School of Intercultural Studies or SICS), all of my students are either Finance majors or Accounting majors.  It is interesting to note that the students do not get to pick their major.  Their majors are chosen for them based on their test scores.  Additionally, the university that they go to is also based upon test scores. JXNU is considered to be a good university and SICS is considered to be one of the best schools within the university, so I am lucky to have really great students.

Here is a picture of one of my classes.  Not everyone is in class yet as it is not quite time to start (there is still 15 minutes before the start of class but most students come early).  Each class has a little over 40 students and as you can see from the picture there are a lot more girls than boys.  If you notice the boy in the yellow shirt in the front row to the left, his name is Phillip (well his English name is Phillip, which since it is an English class everyone was given an English name if they didn't already have one.).  He is the class monitor and was quite a ham.  When I was introducing myself to the class he asked me why I came to Nanchang instead of Shanghai, Beijing or Hong Kong (the three biggest tourist cities in China) and I told him, "Why would I go to those cities when we all know Nanchang is the best!"  Of course the students loved that and everyone cheered.

I feel very lucky to be here and am having a blast.  I am learning so much and my adventures never end.  Although I just started teaching this week I am already on vacation!  This coming week is National Day (like our 4th of July) and Mid-Autumn Festival so I have 10 days off.  The university had a reception for the foreign teachers where they gave us moon cakes and took us out to dinner.  I will have to share the pictures I took of all the wonderful dishes we had but that will have to wait until another time.  I must go to bed as I need to be up early so I can get ready for my trip.  Yes, I am going to go on a trip this break.  I have been invited to Wuhan and am looking forward to my first trip out of the province.  Wuhan is in the next province (state) over.

Finally, I want to share a picture of my residency permit.

 
I am officially a resident!  Without this I would be considered an illegal alien, which is kind of funny to me since in California we have so many issues about illegal aliens.  But fortunately I have my permit and I am good to go.  We have to renew it once a year but the university takes care of that for us.  This is a great university and they do a wonderful job taking care of the foreign teachers and so I feel lucky to be a part of such a wonderful community.  I love my job and I really appreciate the great experiences I am lucky to be having.

So stay tuned for the next installment about all my wonderful adventures!

Until next time,

Zaijan!