laughing traveler

One of the Chinese teachers at my school asked me if I wanted to go shopping with her. She knew of a place that sells American clothes not far from the school. I was excited that I may be able to find something in my size, which is a true battle in China. However, while most Chinese people are very small I have noticed a lot more large children. I am shocked when I walk through my elementary to middle school and the boys tower over me! I was suposta be tall in China! For the first time in my life I am average height rather than short by American standards. I guess I will have to be happy with what I have. I look at girls my size or bigger and I always want to ask where on earth they buy clothes. I know my students’ families don’t have the money to get tailor clothes made, which seems to be my only option. The tailor prices are not bad, about what I would pay for clothes in the US, 300rmb for a dress ($45) or 260rmb for dress pants ($40). But on a Chinese salary 560rmb buys food for a m...

Weird Al’s “Another one bites the dust” parody must have been written about China buses. I cannot imagine people in the US EVER being ok with that kind of crowds. Today on the way home from Heidi’s in the hardcore country I thought I was going to die. I literally get on the bus at the second stop on the route and there are literally no seats left. So I wrap myself around the pole near the door and hold on for dear life. Longhua is forever under construction; every time you go outside another road has been dug up and covered with bamboo. The US has orange caution cones, China has bamboo. However, in China no one is afraid of off-roading short cuts. So my huge bus decided they will detour THROUGH the construction sites! I am literally airborne on each bump. I look around and I’m deeply concerned that no one else is surprised by this; just part of china rush hour! So at each of the next stops a flood of people stampede onto the bus , ripping me from my safety pole and further down to the ...

I always said that I never really got into Halloween until college. That Radford made grown up Halloween so much more fun. Well China even tops that! This no Party City or Costume stores in China so you have to get a little more creative. However, you can take a picture to the tailor and she will make you the exact some dress or outfit. I went as Rainbow Brite, So I picked out the loudest blue fabric I could find and had the tailor make me a dress. It cost 300 kuai, which is about $45 but a nice dress I can wear again. I was worried that I wouldn’t be about to find rainbow accessories but then I remembered its CHINA! They have everything. Annarae took us to the PIT in Dongmen, which is under a mall area, super dirty with tons of random crap. And we were on the Halloween hunt. You would not believe that things we found. Leg warmers and hand warmers on every row! And no shortage of rainbows, rainbow leg warmers, rainbow hair ties, rainbow earrings, rainbow necklace! I bought them all...

I have had a grumpy day and have sentences myself to a 1000 word essay on why I hate China to get it out of my system. So be forewarned. My students had gotten out of control. At the beginning I saw they were all doing other homework and not paying attention and spent a lot of time walking around telling each student “put it away put it away”. Then I decided that was a pain in the butt and if they didn’t want to pay attention then I don’t care as long as they are quite. But then it turned into little groups doing their homework together and talking and running around to give each other different papers, then they began throwing things. And then there is the punk kids that knows everything already and yells out everything they are thinking because they are bored. SO I am literally screaming at the top of my lungs to the 5 kids that are listening. So I had a kick ass speech that I gave to each of my classes the last 2 weeks and things seemed to be improving. I was so proud of myself. I e...