The Way of the Chinese

Temple of Heaven AKA Becca's Candid Picture taking Heaven!!

2009-05-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

This post is just from the Temple of Heaven. This place was huge! It was also so much fun to just take pictures of random things. If you look at the pictures there are hardly any of the buildings. Just watching people be and do their thing oddly enough intrigues me and so I capture it on film and try to convey it as best as I can. So enjoy!

The first Ten feet of the huge grounds of the Temple of Heaven, there were like 20 cats just hangin out on the grass. It was the most random oddest thing to see. I couldnt help but pet a really sweet one. Dont worry I used hand sanitizer right after.

We had some fun with some mirrors. Maybe a little too much fun :)

I love me some sunsets!!

Im not really sure what this sign meant at all.

Ha ha I thought this was pretty funny. The guy is just waiting patiently in his sweet red sneakers while his girlie takes pictures of herself up in a tree. Gotta love it!

This guy was carrying around a bunny. The rabbit was actually his girlfriend's who was on the phone and he was waiting patiently. See! Chivalry is so not dead!!

Just Chillaxin'

SOOOOO China!!

Cute couple!!

Another cute couple!

Chinese March Officer Man

Where's his girlfriend at??

There are some of those darn cats.

Beijing Adventures Part I

2009-05-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

BEIJING!! We had a some vacation time from teaching so 7 of us girls went to the thriving metropolis of China for 7 days!! The train ride was 22 hours long plus a 2 hour bus ride. Me and my friend Giulli decided to get smart and get on the more expensive but oh so much more worth it sleepers on the train! It was like hangin out on my bed all day and night!!

The style's in China are awesome. When we see something like what this girl is wearing, we just say, " There goes China". If you can see her hood, the big round thing is the traveling pillow and it is all part of her jacket. I think it totall goes with the glofied parachute pants and the 90's sandals.

Ever seen asian gold fish? no? well now you have!

One of the first things we did was go to the Art Museum. 798 was more of a collection of Art shows by various artist. I had more fun taking pictures of the people and outside stuff rather than the actual art .

I tried to make this photo artistic. But I dont think you can get the message from it. It's the chinese flag gated in. Soon to be freed. I thought it was cool :)

Greenwall!!

One thing that I absolutely love about China and the way they care for each other is the chivalry the gentlemen have. We walked around pretty much everywhere in Beijing, and we saw so many couples, mostly younger ones, where the guy was doing something as simple as carrying the purse for the girl. I know in America, a lot of girls are weird about stuff like that and some guys are feel too manly to do stuff like that, but the pride factor isnt really there. You watch these couples and see how they act together. Its completely different from what I see in American couples.

I thought this picture depicted China very well.

We were walking out of this exhibit, and this little kid had walked in chowin down on her little corn ice cream. So I ran back up the stairs and stole a candid moment.

This one was a completely lucky shot. I was just walking by and pointed and clicked and it turned out pretty cool.

These two people probably saved our lives in China more than we can count. Kiersten had some great connections and we were able to get to and see everything we wanted to see in a very timely manner and saved money doing it.

Mr. Cho saved me from having to sleep out on the streets for seven days since I was a sagwa and forgot my passport in my apartment. A passport is a must to be able to stay in any hostel or hotel. He was able to get me into the hostel we had originally booked with, with out a passport. I dont know how he did it, but I will be forever greatful. He also took us to an the most famous restaurant in China and we ate peking duck. Very good and delicious meal. He was a very sweet man who constantly worried about our well being and if we were having a good time and were happy. He also took us out the last night we were there to a brazilian buffet. They had Spaghetti!!!!! haha I also had some roasted ox tongue and chicken heart to make sure I had some kind of asian experience in such western restaurant.

Regular site wherever there is bargaining shopping. Worse than the day after Thanksgiving sale!

This would be a "there goes China" moment. In America, we worry about the teenager girls with mid-drifts. Well not here, here we have to worry about the middle aged beer belly men wearing mid-drifts.

We actually kept tabs on this guy for a little bit. His name was "Calvin Klein guy" I think everyone in our group has a picture of him on their camera. But he isnt the only one who wears his stomach so proudly. Many middle aged men do this. We figure it's a cooling technique. It must be affective if so many people do it.

I thought this guys outfit was sweet. Behind his back he had two walnuts turnong in his hand. We thought he wasnt too bad looking either.

We went on a quest to find the underground city that Mao had built during the Cold War. To get there you go through some old historic housing called the Hu Tongs. It houses that were built back then that people still live in that havent been renovated or restored. This little boy was adorable.

These people are always yelling something to come over and buy their food. Sometimes I'm glad I dont understand, cuz then I have an excuse not to buy it.

Mangoes are in season and they are delicious. The small ones this guy is sellin are the best!

Takin a breather. It had been a long day for these guys. They were in hard seats for the 22 hour train ride. I dont think anyone who hasnt done that could understand the agony of how much time that is to sit in one spot for so long. They were troopers. This same day is the day we arrived off the train straight to touring.

After 2 and a half hours of looking and getting lost, we found it!!!!!!! The Underground City!!

And then we saw this: :(

This man was crazy! Look at what he had on his feet. Thats all he was climbing with. They were playing with those electrical wires like they were playdough too!

We found a Dairy Queen and these are the faces that this moment created!!

Yeah yeah yeah, so what we are excited about a DQ in Asia!! dont judge :)

Our life during Beijing was a lot of buses and subways and a couple of Taxi's. Beijing is a big city and nothing was near to something else. And if you didnt know, there are a lot of Asians in China who also ride these motor vehicles at the same time. And it dont think they have any problems with chlosterphobia in China. If they did, this system of jam packed subway cars and buses wouldnt really be as effective.

This man is sitting on a giant teddy bear on the curb next to a major road. ha ha Thats about all i can say about that one.

Natural History Museum!

I was trying to be cool.....

Like these guys!!

I didnt even know that Ostrich's and Baboons lived in the same habitat!!!

These two exibits were probably the coolest ones. the rest of the museum was poorly lighted and kind of falling apart. They didnt really seem to know how to present the specimens. It was interesting since back in the states, everything is so well preserved and presented with such flare.

"Stop, take some time to think. Figure out what's important to you!"

"Stop in the name of Looooove, before you break my heaaaaart!"

It looks like that guy behind me is touching my hand...... but he's not....

Its the stinker shot!!

"I got the whoooooole world in my hands, I got the whole world in my hands, I got the whoooooole world in my hands, I got the whole world in my hands"

World Peace!!!!

This squatting this is swear is an artform. I cant sit like that for more than 30 seconds. Squattin' is the new sitting apparently here in China!

Ride like the wind Bullseye!!!

Playing Favorites and BLC's!!!

2009-04-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

So I decided to splurge this month and bought some BLC- bacon, lettuce, and cheese- sandwich!
It was so yummy and worth it for the money and time it took!! ha ha.

Last Bite :( all good things I guess must come to an end...
But it was soooo deliciouso!!
Sorry about the Creepy picture at the top!

My beautiful first graders! This is the class we call the "genius" class. They are a what the chinese call a "special" class. They know a little more than our fourth or fifth graders and they are only in first! BUT since they are so smart is a constant frustrating almost insane battle to keep their attention for 5 minutes let alone a 40 minute class! I love them outside of class, but teaching them, they are the hardest class I have. They are just too smart for their own good. Hailee is my favorite!! And she knows it! She remembered her name after the first week. I only teach them every two weeks but I go up to their class room for our thirty minute break time sometimes and chase about 50 of them around the school. Its a blast! Hailee is named so because she reminds me so much of my littlest sister Hailee back at home. They both have a mischevious side them. The Hailee in my class is actually one of the class clowns. Its a good thing I like her so much or she would get on my nerves a bit....

Hailee!! After every class I teach with her in it, she stays after and asks if we can take a picture together. My camera has been broken for a while but I got a new one, so she was really excited.

Gotta love it! and i do!!!!

Two Lefts Do Make a Right!!

2009-04-22T00:55:00.000-07:00

This past months hasn't been full of too many adventures but Ive still loved life in China as much as ever. Finding out more and more stuff about myself, others, and relationships with so many different kinds of people.

I am so blessed to be where I am right now. Being influenced by so many people of different culture and background. Different ways of thinking and doing things. A different language spoken out of every mouth and different ways that love has been spoken. No one can live this for me. This is my time to live this dream, and that is what I am trying to do.

I get to experience something not too many people get to experience in their lifetime and I am truely grateful for it. I get to breathe in the poluted air and love it. I get to taste the bitter food and crave it. I get to live with rodents and fear for my well being, but at the same time find it awfully amusing. I get to put my life in iminent danger everyday riding my bike to school on the chaotic roads of China a scream with glee. I have the opportunity to shake hands with monks and get hopelessly lost in rural town China.

I get to live in an apartment made of hand laid bricks mortered together with water and dirt and a little cement mix covered witha a think layer of drywall and still look forward to coming home each day. I get to say "hello" back to each and every asian that is excited to be able to speak the little english they know in the small amount of time they have of passing us. I get to cross the street like I am playing frogger and I am all out of quarters. I get to sleep on a bed you would only think was made out of metal springs and nothing else and still be thankful I even have a bed.

But the best thing of all is that I get to spend 5 days out of every week with the BEST part of China: their children!! The kids are so excited to see us whenever we show up at school, walk into their class to teach, come to sit down at their table for lunch, pull out a camera, or even say hello and smile at them. They swarm us with their love and even though we cant exactly speak eachothers language, you know that they love you with out words. That is something I will deeply deeply miss when the time comes for me to leave. These kids have made my life and my trip isn't even done yet. I came to teach these kids english, but they have been teaching me so much more and they continue to do so every day.

Rat Hunting Adventure

2009-04-21T21:55:00.000-07:00

Gotta love China with all of its new adventures around every corner. The morning of this video, the boys swore they saw what looked like a rats tail in the toilet. We didnt see much else of anything for the rest of the day so we let it go. Well that evening, to our surprise, and to some peoples horror, we found the little vermin in our apartment. Armed with a butcher knife and a mini ironing board, the boys went to work. Mister Jace courageously went after this animal while Brad, bravely helped get the animal into harms way of the butcher knife. After the whole ordeal, I can only imagine what the whole apartment complex was thinking. You would have thought the whole lot of us were being murdered. This was a our first experience with uninvited guests in our apartment and Im sure it wont be the last. This video contains the death of animals and blood so please be warned!

Chinese Cemetary

2009-04-17T05:14:00.000-07:00

This video is clips of the local cemetary. The pictures and videos were taken about a week after a national holiday where they go to the graves of their families and set off fireworks and talk to their ancestors. They also have a feast with their families. The cemetaries are very dirty and very unorganized. You bring your own head stone and make your own outlining of the bodies. The ceremony for when one dies here is when they die, they keep the body in the house for 4 days for the viewing. The number 4 represents death. Then they carry the body out to the streets and everyone is dressed in white, white represents death, and they dig the hole and put the body in the hole. And cover it back up again.

2009-04-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

Makeshift Kickboxing

2009-04-10T07:49:00.000-07:00

Ive really wanted a boxing bag for a while to get out the stress Ive accumulated and to burn some of the pounds off from the constant carbs and stuff we eat; with all the bakeries, potatoes, rice, everything cooked in oil, etc. One night I just decided I needed something that could take a couple of punches, even if it was from a girl. So i tore everything off my bed and pulled my mattress up and put it up against my wall. Perfect! I put on Fort Minor "Remember the Name" and went to town. It felt so good just to punch something! ha ha I promise I am NOT a violent person. My roomate couldnt help but join in!!

The mattresses in china are pretty dang crappy. I can feel every single spring when i sleep, the mattress wasnt any nicer on my nuckles. No pain no gain baby!!

Adventures of being adopted into a Chinese Family!

2009-03-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege of being invited by one of our favorite teachers from our school to go to a barbeque. After some of the accomodations were changed last minute, we went to a fellow teachers apartment. Dinah, our favorite teacher who is always very sweet to us and very excited about working on her english, took us, along with her son Chucky, to the apartment. The husband picked us up and we found out that he loved Kareoke! Everyone in China does, but little did we know that he had a huge system in his apartment.

He was nice enough to get some american songs, such as Celine Dion, Brittany Spears, and really old school loves songs so that we could sing them. We werent sure what to expect but as soon as we got there we knew it would be a great time!

Dinah is in the purple, Chucky in the orange, April (she let me give her a new english name :D) in the black, and Mrs. Zho in the grey.
We had a great time play fighting. I let Chucky beat me up pretty good! I had no chance against the little guy and his amazing moves!

I
I ate sooooo much food. My belly was sticking out. So I pretended i was pregnant and they thought it was hilarious. But yet they kept feeding me! I dont think i had had that much meat with out a lot of fat, the whole time ive been in China!

This is our 2 wonderful hosts! Neither of them spoke english. Mr. Zho could understand a little from all of the american war movies he's seen. Mrs. Zho was an amazing cook! She was the sweetest lady and it felt like being home. By the end of the night we were calling Them mama and babba

They lived on the top floor. It was pooring rain. We had the BBQ on the patio part that was coverd and the city lights were hidden by the buildings accross from us.

MEAT!!! You have no idea how good this looks to a carnivour american girl who has only eatin meat the size of her thumb!

We kareoke'd it up baby! even though we sounded horrible they absolutely loved it! Celine Dion My Heart Will Go ON!!!!!

2009-03-19T01:30:00.000-07:00

Begger woman with a child. None of us could say no to her.

Creepy funny almost cute asian that we would wake up to him staring at us! He also had a tattoo of the Beijing Olympics.

This is how comfy it is. I was actually sitting right next to Brad but moved because some seats became open after about 7 in the morning. Mind you, we had left around 6 in the evening the day prior.

Two of the Chinese guys that let me play their the guitars the night before under a bridge.

Beautiful Sun sighting behind chinese architecture. Ilove this picture!

This is the face I made because the guitar sounded out of tune.

So I traded guitars!! Ha ha. I apologized to the guy who had given me his guitar and told that it was very pretty. He just looked at me like I was speaking english to a chinese man! I wonder why?

Just chillin' on the South Great Wall. The view from up there was amazing!

We found a store dedicated to ice cream on a stick! This is my guilty look, this was my second one... :D

Beautiful landscape from up on the Great wall. I counted the steps coming down on just one section, I got to about 635 steps.

After we headed up to get into the actual wall, we looked down and three little boys has decided it would be a grand ol' time to take a nakey time bath in the little creek next to a busy road. We were just looking at the beautiful landscape and out of the corner of my eye I see little nakey bums running around!

This is the entrance to get up to the great wall and the checkerboard. It was quite a journey just to get up there.

Adorable little small village boys we saw after our beautiful hike.

We went on a beautiful hike. Many different waterfalls, pools, and a bridge hooked to the side of a mountain over a huge water fall.

The children from this little village were so cute. This little man on the right, he had two other little friends and they were all smoking!

This girl was making head wreaths to sell by a big yellow meadow. She was a very sweet quiet little girl.

Breakfast Dumplings!! We called them "dumps" and

"Noodies!" (noodles)

This is a boy, by the way, and please take notice of the slit down the back. It also ran up through the front as well. China's children potty train a lot sooner than american children.

I fell in love with the amount of abstract art I could find there.

These are all at our cute little guesthouse we stayed at for $4.00 a night each person. Sweetest place ever. I was called he Bingo Cafe. It was all hippie style and way chill. I loved it!

View outside our window.

Beautiful 2000 year old phoenix city! Our guesthouse is just in the far left corner just outside the picure.

I think the biggest thing about this trip was how long we had to travel. We went on a two hour bus ride, hopped on a train for 16 hours, got in a taxi, got on another bus for another 2 hours, and then quite a bit of walking involved. It was pretty cool. I also did not shower the entire time. It was freezing at night and hot during the day.

The Random "Adventures"

2009-03-09T06:34:00.000-07:00

I sat with these boys at lunch. They are pretty cool kids. I learned that Sagwa means idiot in Chinese! They were all very sweet to me. They got me soup, which I didnt want, but sweet nonetheless.

I've theorized that Chinese children have a condition that affects the parts in their body that moves their elbow, or elbows, up in the air. Their index and middle fingers move in the upright position while the other philanges stay at a fist position. All this happens in reaction to the observation of any and all types of photographic devices.

These are my beloved 2nd graders in my MWF school! The little guy in the right corner is named Blake, he is a very quick and clever little boy!

This was actually taken today! I was surprised how well the camera captured the redness of the sun! Instead of sunsets, which I absolutely love, I guess I can settle for these.

This is the rockin new PJ's one of my schools gave me for a gift for the international holiday called Women's Day! Yes it does say "Lingerie Professional" at the bottom. And yes! That IS my dirty room! Im just soaking in the chinese ways of organized chaos!! sweet slipper eh?!

Bundling Up "Adventures"

2009-03-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

So when we arrived to our bustling city of Xioulan it was hot hot and humid humid! Kinda nice to get away from the snow and wind. well the past week and half has been the exact opposite. Let me expand on what has been another "adventure" in China. First off, it is very cold here now! Wet and cold! It rained from Sunday to Sunday. Our apartment, being constructed im pretty sure the exact same way as a prison cell, is like a refrigerator! It is always colder in our apartment than outside. So sleeping is like a trick. Not only does my bed have random springs that protrude higher than other springs and is hard as a board, but it also takes a while to realize there is body heat trying to heat up that area of space! We all only have one blanket so we sleep as though we are camping in the winter. We all have our own meathods of trying to stay warm. Some use the cacoon technique, others the taco. There is also wake up every half hour, try to rewrap the stupid blanket around yourself only to wake up another half hour later to do it again and rewarm up the area with what little body heat you have left. That one would be my meathod. We also wear layers as if we were in the arctic. We are all quite a sight to see when bedtime rolls around, or even when lounging around the apartment lately. Last night I only had one clean and dry sock left. Since we cant hang our clothes outside to dry we keep them inside. That takes twice as long to dry and even then they are still damp and ridiculously cold! Anyway the one sock deal, I put it on my left foot before bed. I woke up with it on my other foot the next morning. I think the right one got jealous and let the left one fend for itself. I think I might sew my comforter into a taco like sleepingbag this week...

Chinese Teacher Fashion Show!

2009-03-07T04:37:00.001-08:00

So this past weekend, I had the privilege of being in a Chinese fashion show with one of the primary schools I teach at. The government puts on a fashion show that is a pretty big deal here in Xioulan. All the schools in the district are included. There were different assignments of what they needed to wear. Thankfully our school was assigned the more casual subject. If we were going to have to do formal wear, we would have been in trouble. As we are often told by many of the chinese clothing workers, "no big sizes!" ha ha I highly doubt we would be able to find a dress we would be able to fit in and also be able to have the ability to breathe or even move, let alone look attractive in it! Our school chose to do seasons as well along with our casual wear assignment. Kiersten (the other teacher I teach with at school) and I chose summer. We went shopping the night before and I found a sort of dress that i would never even think of wearing back home! But I got it anyway, why not right? I talked the lady down to 32 yuan. which is about 5 bucks in USD. pretty sweet huh! I probably could have gone lower because she only seemed a little upset at it. Oh and I tried the dress on over all my clothes int he middle of the little market place, they thought that was pretty humorous ha ha. I had to see if it fit! They had no fitting room! We started looking for something for Kiersten, found something that was exactly the same colors as mine! We were brilliant! Lets be the funny looking matching Americans!! So we were and we did! Sharon, our chinese/english teacher was autumn. The school gave each of us 150 yuan to spend. Sharon just used her own clothes and kept the money, little smarty pants! But we were taken out for dinner. All the teachers in a presidental suite. Everyone doing each others makeup and having fun. Then our time came. They told me and Kiersten to be funny like ten minutes before we went on and were like seriously?! So when I pretended like someone had pushed me and I didnt know where I was. Not too many people caught it and only my roommates laughed, so I gave up and just went out normal the second time. Everyone said we did really good, and I had a great time!! As you can see from the pics! enjoy!

Being in this dress, all I could see were the ruffles so I kinda felt like a clown clompin around in daisy duck shoes!

This is the summer group!

The man in the middle didnt speak any english but he told the girls on the other side that he was very happy to be with the americans ha ha

We were supposed to be at least 1.5 meters away from each other! I hate our american measuring system! Stupid americans!

My students also the most adorable flower fairies on stage. They spoke better english than a lot of the teachers. They are beautiful girls!

Jace and Joell were also in the show and Jace almost had to be Snow White and wear a dress... dont ask me!

My Many Concourses of Chinese Children!

2009-03-07T04:05:00.000-08:00

Some girls we met when we went to the park. They were in high school. They called me and Kiersten over to take pictures with us.They understood as much english as our 6th graders did!

This is one of my most favorite students. She is always by my side on recess and gives the best smiles!

These boys, followed me around piggyback riding just so i would take a picture of them ha ha

This is only a part of the amount of children that we play with whenever we can. They always want us to race! Either that or we play keep away with two american's against about 200 little chinese children!

This is a child i chose to try to hoola hoop 5 hool hoops. I dont know if you notice the friend helping him hold them up ha ha

The pro, showin them how it's done! ha!

The one on the right is the biggest trouble maker I've ever met at this school! I almost named him Brigham because he looked kinda like my brother, but then he picked his own name which is Alec! Watch out for this one!
You never know what kids will do! But you can always see the love in their eyes!

These are my fourth grade students! I have so much fun with them!

More Concourses of My Chinese Children

2009-03-07T03:35:00.000-08:00

Kiersten's, Sharon's, and My desk! We have desks and we have computers now! each of us has our own. Amazing huh! Also this is the Awesome school and their beloved ping pong tables!

Our Beautiful Tuesday, Thursday school. The big thing in the middle is what they call "english corner". We taught them some pretty sweet english songs. Silly ones at that!

This is us in a room looking out. Those are the kids looking in :)

First day of school! how much excitement!

More excitement and the children always have to have their cute little hands in front of the person's face which is behind them.

Beautiful Xioulan

"Adventures" of Getting Lost In China

2009-03-06T22:08:00.000-08:00

This is being lost again. A guy actually came down the wrong side of the road, stopped 5 inches from us looked at Jace, to see if he was dead, and then drove off with out a word. This picture was taken about 3 hours before we actually even got home. Little banana farm, where took a pee break and finally decided to turn around.

The wrong way we went for about an hour and a half.

Mike showing us his talents to be able to pee with one hand!
Cute little baby that was flabergasted to see white people!
This is me attempting to taste what Mike had. Its a little hard when the entire plate of noodles is one noodle.

This is what we found after we turned on our "Noody" senses! ha ha We just all wanted noodles and we definitely got exactly what we wanted! It was probably the best most satisfying meal we've had since I've gottent to China

Icky yucky water thats been contaminated.

Headin back out into the rest of the town. B-e-a-utiful!

Yeah this is us pointing to where we thought North was, I do have to say though that where MY finger was pointing, was right!!

Gettin' our ice cream, at a little shop we stopped at. It was only half a kuai! So i got two! :)

We stopped at a little shop to eat ice cream. This is only a third of the amount of people watching us.
Us on our joyous adventure, second town we found that was a lot of farms and beautiful countryside

Part of the same town. I dont blame these boys for looking at 6 americans riding their bikes down there little out of the way town. They were playing by a dirty river.

The wonderful countryside behind me and me riding the devilish bike that made my bum all kinds of sore and making the trip a little bit unpleasant

Sorry the pictures are out of order, this is us embarking on our journey to we did not know where. We just had a general direction and a desire to see more countrside than city. We live in a pretty busy city.