laughing traveler

I guess it was last month I went with a few of my American friends to visit this English culture club (training center) their friend had opened. They were having American style KTV! Which I miss ever so much! In China the KTV is individual rooms with just couches, 2 mics and your own karaoke machine. It works out well bc I get to sing as many times as I want! Unlike in the US were you sit around for hours for your name to be called for your 3 minutes of fame! I always like a bigger group to go to the KTV here, but it seems my Chinese friends would prefer 3 or 4 people in a room. WHY? They are serious mic hogs! Like they put me to shame, as if I am a shy little girl in the corner, which you know I have never been, when it comes to singing. Also public stares of descent are not effective in Chinese culture. So if they did American style KTV here you would literally have to drag the people off stage. Even in a room of friends there have been some mic hog arguments. This one guy wanted to ...

SO I am officially staying in China for another year. I was shocked when my worthless contact teacher texted me saying she and the school would be happy to have me teach at their school another year. And even more excited when my program said they wanted me back to teach another year. Even though they wouldn't tell me this until almost a month after my school offered me a position. So I went crazy worrying about what this meant, all for nothing. My original thought was that I should just stay in my current school. I know the area, I won’t have to move my stuff, and I have teacher friends there. However, Betty (worthless contact teacher) told me they intend to have 2 foreign teachers at my school next year so I would have a roommate in my small apartment. This wouldn't be so bad, except I have gotten used to having the place to myself and I have used every inch of this apartment to hold my ridiculous amount of crap I have accumulated. Plus, more than you want to know, but, it is...

One of the biggest treats in China is a genuine Whopper from Burger King with your American friends! I recently learned there is one 10 minutes from my school, a discovery that would have made me very fat if I had found it earlier this year. The food taste EXACTLY like it does back home, which is shocking but wonderful. However importing all those ingredients makes the food relatively expensive. So, like the pizza-hut, they class the place up and market it as a fancy restaurant. There is a Starbucks style atmosphere with cozy booths and hip art painted on the walls. They advertise business space and encourage business meetings and interviews to be held in one of their private rooms. It’s an adventure every time we go. One day when it was very crowded and the manager came up to me and my friends and had us sit down. Then he sent over one of the workers to take or order! Mind you, there is a line of Chinese people at the register, but we were somehow chosen for the VIP service! They bro...

The relationships in china always start in an unexpected way. My favorite teacher, Mrs Li, came up to me in the office one day and said, “I think we will be friends.” and that was it! Anything I mentioned, she sprung into action and got it done. This is the same teacher that brought me to my first Chinese wedding and took me to the fashion factory. When it was just starting to get cold, she asked me one day when I was free to go to the factory again, because she thought I wasn't wearing enough clothes. A common phrase I was told by all of my co-workers who were shocked that I wore short-sleeves in 70 degree weather! This was around Christmas time, so I was very busy. “How many classes do you have this afternoon, let me see.” she said grabbing my schedule and walking away. When she came back a few minutes later she said, “OK now you have no classes, we go to the factory. This is Ms. Qian she has the car.” And that was it. I grabbed my purse and we were out the door at 2 pm on a Mo...

It’s always small things but some days seem to be over powering! Ross and I decided to have a panda day as explained in my Chengdu blog! So the plan was to meet in a western area to splurge on our favorite junk foods and hibernate in her apartment for a batman movie marathon. On the metro getting out to Ross I had my first china moment of the day. As I was sliding my card to exit the metro, some young punk kid steps on my foot slipping through the 2 inches between me and the gate. He sneaked through the exit on my 2kuai! I was so shocked the gate almost pinched me when I hurried through after him. In my best dirty Chinese I have learned I yelled “bia chi!” which means “idiot.” He turned in shock momentarily before returning laughing with his friends! I see people try to cheat the metro fee all the time, which is silly. One - bc it cost 2 kuai which is maybe 30 cents and two - there is a metro guard watching. This further confirms that Shenzhen police are worthless. We learned from a...

It was crazy to be the one taking care of my parents for the first time. They were staying in my apartment in China. I had done all the vacation planning and I did all the speaking at the restaurants or cabs in my limited Chinese. It was the first time I felt like a real adult and I feel they saw me as an adult for the first time as well. They came with full trust in me, when I asked what do you want to do while you are in China the answer was always, “whatever you want!” I soon found that I had to make some major adjustments to the way I make plans to accommodate for my parents. When I am with my friends, we want to pack as much into each vacation day as possible and all at the lowest costs. However, when I told my parents that hostel prices must be up because of the Chinese New Year and was a 100 kaui Hostel ok, my dad responded we were not staying anywhere that was only $15 US! Then he added that maybe we should be searching for a “hotel” rather than “hostel”. I laughed that I hav...

I will admit I was pretty stressed out about my parents staying with me in my apartment here in China. I even confided in my new Irish friend on my Chengdu trip that I was afraid my parents were going to take one look at where I live and drag me on a plane back to the USA. She had some very good advice, “You are full grown now, if they start pulling on you here’s what you do: excuse yourself and take a shot of your favorite liquor. Anything they don’t like just say it is a cultural difference, take another shot and embrace the culture!” I have got to go to Ireland! I am proud to say that I didn’t have to take a shot the whole time my parents were here! My stress turned into excitement when I got back to the Shenzhen Airport from Chengdu. My parents would fly into the same place the following day. As I walked through baggage claim there was a glass separation that I could see everyone’s family members pressed up against. A little baby boy broke through the security check point and run...