Admittedly calling my visit to Boston and New York a "tour" is stretching the meaning of that word a little far! After my previously recounted slightly nightmarish flight to Boston, I managed to get almost all I wanted from that city- delicious food, time to hang out with my sister and SNOW! It wasn't the huge storm that has been forcasted, it wasn't even a reason for the local schools to close (which they did anyway), but it was snow. Pretty flakes wandering their way down to the ground and not even sticking until the late afternoon. I suggested a walk and an excursion to find me some shoes that were not so Chinese (read: marginally practical and sequin-free) so my sister and I armed ourselves with warm clothing and rode the T down to Downtown Crossing, an area I fondly remember from many previous visits. We stopped into almost every other store, as much to shop as to stay slightly dry. We walked for a long time and eventually the snow did start coming down a little faster and actually staying on the ground so that by the time we made it across the Commons it actually did look like winter. I'm pretty sure I embarrassed my sister by randomly raising my arms and exclaiming "Snow!" every so often, but, why not, eh?
The snow basically just made me want to stay here. I imagine myself in a small apartment, somewhere in New England, toasty warm, sipping some warm beverage (my sister's friend's suggestion of hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps possibly) and watching the snow fall. Quite the departure from my recent praises of the life I lead in Shantou, no? But somehow this image is much more pleasant than "sitting on the last cool tile in the apartment trying to find a way not to sweat to death, occasionally dragging myself to the water cooler, but not wanting to stray too far from the fan/ A/C combo".
I had originally worried that the impending snowstorm would delay my departure for NYC, but when I saw that lack of blizzard, I went ahead with my original plan. The bus ride was smooth and short (you know you've been in China too long when 4.5 hours on a bus counts as a short trip!) and while I immediately found "The City" to be giant and a little overwhelming, I dragged myself and my suitcase to my cousins' place without any problems. I had been a little apprehensive about staying with said cousins as I don't actually know them very well, they have a 10-month old and I never know how to deal with small children. Turns out, as usual, I needn't have worried. My cousin's wife was very welcoming and easy-going, we picked up their offspring and he kept us entertained until dinner and bedtime. I have to admit to jetlag making it very difficult for me to stay up past 9pm but somehow that worked out fine too.
After much more chatting the next day, I discovered that pre-school teachers love to make their charges decorate things with colorful handprints when we picked up Mathias and he made a Valentine's card for his parents by sticking 2 very pink handprints onto a construction paper heart. This is apparently destined to go with the handprint turkey from Thanksgiving, the handprint reindeer from Xmas, the handprint mess from some other holiday and the footprint circle, possibly from Labour Day... pre-school teacher is a career I can cross off my list!
That is, in fact, the only one I have crossed off, by the way. I just took a typing break to re-read a past post and am pretty sure that I change my mind about next year approximately every time I blog. In November I was "definitely leaving", a couple of weeks ago I was "pretty much staying put" and now I'm "What am I doing with my life?! I have no idea what to do next year!!" This brand new change of tune comes from a discussion with my cousin about change and new opportunities. Her husband, who works for the UN, has been offered a chance to move to Geneva. She was telling me about the different aspects of the move she was looking forward to and also about the activities she hopes to engage in there. I'm not saying I'd live in Geneva (although, why not?) but the realisation struck me that they have "a life". In NYC, she gets to take yoga and samba classes, meet up with friends, have a routine and, if she wants to go and do something cultural, she's only a subway ride away. Maybe most importantly though, she is "home". It's not that I don't feel at home in Shantou, I do; it's that I'm perpetually in the situation of having to make decisions about what I want to have with me and what I can "live without". I accumulate a lot, but there are plenty of things I don't get or have that I could do with, because I know that eventually I will have to find a way to take everything with me. It takes time to dismantle 4 years of a life and it's going to take a lot of boxes to ship the results of said time. Yesterday I was trying to figure out how I'd get all my stuff back to wherever I end up next and what I'd leave behind. I'm a self-avowed packrat so I know that whenever I head out of Shantou, there will be several boxes following me by slow-boat. My current flight out of Chinaland gives me a luggage allowance of 20kg... I'm pretty sure that I could use triple that and still need to ship quite a lot. If I decide to leave, I may have to see if I can change flights or if buying a whole new ticket with a more reasonable airline ends up being cheaper and more convenient than boxing things up and trusting the postal service. And, anyway, where do I ship things? Just one more thing to consider... If I spent as much time working as I do angsting, my plans for the semester would already be done!
On a last note before I try to pack up all I've acquired on this trip into the bag I arrived with, the rest of the weekend didn't do too much to encourage me to remain in China for too much longer, if only because of the many pounds of brownies, the other delicious foods, the amateur opera singer in the subway serenading passengers with Ave Maria and Panis Angelicus (my two favourite pieces- coincidence?) and, of course, the snow! Getting covered in snow and possibly getting sick can't dampen (pun intended) my enthusiasm for cold flakes of water... masochist?
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Smooth flying?
Advice to travelers: when you are informed that a flight will be delayed, but not by how long or why exactly the delay occurred and you have a connection to make, don't check in anyway assuming that the check-in desk clerk knows what he's doing. If you do, you may find yourself sitting in the terminal, waiting by the gate, checking the little all-knowing screen to find out that the flight status is "flight delayed" and the only consolation is the offer of complimentary snacks and drinks... for an unspecified amount of time.
The problem with yesterday's situation wasn't that I don't know that if I have an hour and ten minutes to catch a connecting flight and that my first one is delayed by more than an hour and a half a miracle would have to occur for me to make it to the appropriate gate in time. The problem was that I trusted the little man behind the desk when he told me that I'd just be moved onto a later flight without any problems. I was calm, I figured that since I was traveling for fun I wouldn't make his life a living hell or complain unnecessarily. I went through customs, got my bag searched and sat down to wait. Then I waited until I called my mother and after some search discovered that the only later flight I could connect to in Reykjavik (could have been an exciting stop) was 5 minutes after the one I was scheduled to be on. After that, it would be an overnight wait until at least 10 a.m. Fanta-freakin'-tastic... Feeling a little sheepish for having to get travel advice from my mom when I consider myself fairly well-versed in the ways of airlines, I took her advice to go to the check-in desk and ask to be rebooked onto another airline to get me to the US sometime in the next 12 hours, possibly under the guise of having a job interview or some such.
I ran back and forth and calmly explained that I did not want to sleep in Reykjavik to which the lady behind the counter very accommodatingly replied that I could be transferred without any problems, that the people at the desks didn't always know what they were doing and that I never should have been checked-in anyway... Thanks for telling me something I already knew. I grabbed my flight coupons and marched upstairs to the arrivals gate and over to yet another counter to retrieve my luggage which she had erroneously told me would be done in 15 minutes... The guys there disagreed, guessed at 1 hour and sent me off to the terminal at the other end of the airport to check in for my shiny new American Airlines flight to New York... only to be sent right back to get my luggage since I couldn't check my body in without doing the same for my bag (at this point, please note that I had ridden the little train across the airport 4 times already).
I did eventually get the bag and myself all checked-in through to New York and found out that my Boston connection was full already and I would possibly not be able to get to said city the same night. They did make sure that they asked as many dumb questions about my bags as possible in the process however and I now know all the announcements on the airport shuttle by heart.
The flight itself was very empty, to the point where basically every passenger had 3 seats and we were all able to lie down to ignore the very dumb movies being forced on us. In NYC, the lines for the border were tiny and I got checked in through to Boston without any (more) hiccups. The flight to Boston (after much time spent wandering around the airport with my new friend Joowon- who had had the same nightmarish experience as me after also checking-in for the Icelandair flight) occurred in what I'd like to refer to as a toy plane- 13 rows, 3 seats per row and so little head-room that even I banged mine on the overhead bins... can 45 minutes in the air in a tin can really be called a flight? We wobbled our way over the perfectly crossing streetlights of New York- amazing how beautiful night-time planned cities look from the air. We kept wavering all the way until we got over the Cape and my "other hometown". The landing was smoother than our turbulent flight had announced and I was soon experiencing the coldest weather I've been in since my last winter in college. Quite a shock to the system, but sisterly hugs and a warm shower made up for it admirably.
Today, I'm in sunny Boston, awaiting a snow storm and making theoretical plans as to how I can make this home.
Too bad I'll have to attempt to fly Icelandair in 10 days! Either I'll finally get to see the Reykjavik airport or I'll have more travel rambles to post here!
Sorry for the long post, you know how it is!
The problem with yesterday's situation wasn't that I don't know that if I have an hour and ten minutes to catch a connecting flight and that my first one is delayed by more than an hour and a half a miracle would have to occur for me to make it to the appropriate gate in time. The problem was that I trusted the little man behind the desk when he told me that I'd just be moved onto a later flight without any problems. I was calm, I figured that since I was traveling for fun I wouldn't make his life a living hell or complain unnecessarily. I went through customs, got my bag searched and sat down to wait. Then I waited until I called my mother and after some search discovered that the only later flight I could connect to in Reykjavik (could have been an exciting stop) was 5 minutes after the one I was scheduled to be on. After that, it would be an overnight wait until at least 10 a.m. Fanta-freakin'-tastic... Feeling a little sheepish for having to get travel advice from my mom when I consider myself fairly well-versed in the ways of airlines, I took her advice to go to the check-in desk and ask to be rebooked onto another airline to get me to the US sometime in the next 12 hours, possibly under the guise of having a job interview or some such.
I ran back and forth and calmly explained that I did not want to sleep in Reykjavik to which the lady behind the counter very accommodatingly replied that I could be transferred without any problems, that the people at the desks didn't always know what they were doing and that I never should have been checked-in anyway... Thanks for telling me something I already knew. I grabbed my flight coupons and marched upstairs to the arrivals gate and over to yet another counter to retrieve my luggage which she had erroneously told me would be done in 15 minutes... The guys there disagreed, guessed at 1 hour and sent me off to the terminal at the other end of the airport to check in for my shiny new American Airlines flight to New York... only to be sent right back to get my luggage since I couldn't check my body in without doing the same for my bag (at this point, please note that I had ridden the little train across the airport 4 times already).
I did eventually get the bag and myself all checked-in through to New York and found out that my Boston connection was full already and I would possibly not be able to get to said city the same night. They did make sure that they asked as many dumb questions about my bags as possible in the process however and I now know all the announcements on the airport shuttle by heart.
The flight itself was very empty, to the point where basically every passenger had 3 seats and we were all able to lie down to ignore the very dumb movies being forced on us. In NYC, the lines for the border were tiny and I got checked in through to Boston without any (more) hiccups. The flight to Boston (after much time spent wandering around the airport with my new friend Joowon- who had had the same nightmarish experience as me after also checking-in for the Icelandair flight) occurred in what I'd like to refer to as a toy plane- 13 rows, 3 seats per row and so little head-room that even I banged mine on the overhead bins... can 45 minutes in the air in a tin can really be called a flight? We wobbled our way over the perfectly crossing streetlights of New York- amazing how beautiful night-time planned cities look from the air. We kept wavering all the way until we got over the Cape and my "other hometown". The landing was smoother than our turbulent flight had announced and I was soon experiencing the coldest weather I've been in since my last winter in college. Quite a shock to the system, but sisterly hugs and a warm shower made up for it admirably.
Today, I'm in sunny Boston, awaiting a snow storm and making theoretical plans as to how I can make this home.
Too bad I'll have to attempt to fly Icelandair in 10 days! Either I'll finally get to see the Reykjavik airport or I'll have more travel rambles to post here!
Sorry for the long post, you know how it is!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Cold and happy about it because there's food!
Currently on my Spring Festival break from STU and spending it quite happily wandering around the streets of Paris, occasionally not feeling my nose or toes (and accidentally rhyming), but making up for it by eating everything that I can't get in China. I imported a friend from Shantou as I don't have any here and it's a little weird that she's done more touristy things here than I have. She took me to the Eiffel Tower and we climbed it (on foot, up to the second floor where we found traces of snow, no less) and this week sometime we intend to go to Versailles (she's kind of appalled I haven't been there yet). We're both enjoying the cold weather and aside from the constant worry of being able to layer up enough not to lose appendages, the cold is a wonderful predictable break from Shantou's crazy one-day-sweating-one-day-freezing weather. Right now, I know that even if the sun is peeking out past the clouds, it's going to be a "two pairs of pants" kind of day for my little temperature-challenged self.
Our culinary tour of Paris has thus far featured such delicacies as crepes and cider, which I really could live on. Food is a big thing with me since the options in Shantou are so limited, so forgive me for giving it such a major place in my ranting about life and travels. The street of Paris really just make me want to eat... well, not the actual streets themselves, since they are not so delicious-looking, but there is so much variety in food options that it's a little overwhelming.
Quick pause to mention that as I write it just started to snow and it's very exciting- last time I saw snow, it was 4 years ago.
Back to my food thoughts, it's amazing to me that you can walk down a small unassuming street and get Lebanese, Italian, Greek, Mexican and French food as well as pub stand-bys, sandwiches, crepes and pastries. Why do I remain in China, land of chaofan and jiaozi? Don't get me wrong, I like noodles, dumplings and all the rest as much as the next expat, but it doesn't quite compare, does it? (or "it doesn't quite compare, can they?" as students would say) I am constantly wondering what to eat next and how to prioritize my cravings. I'm pretty sure there's a very fat person inside me trying to break out and just eat everything in sight.
So, as it turns out, what will eventually drive me from China won't be the language or my inability to fit in; it won't be teaching or family; it will be food. I feel like I'm finally acultured to life in Shantou and deal better and better with my isolation from the Western world. I'm finally actually serious about studying Chinese (got a tutor and everything), I don't need to import quite so much foreign food every time I hop the border to HK and the bad traffic is just something to deal with rather than a permanent drain on my life. But when I come back here, when I smell the croissants or the pizza, when I get dizzy from looking at the dessert options at the patisseries, when I get overwhelmed by the supermarket aisles and just want to sit down on the floor and rock back and forth, I know that it's just a matter of time before the "West" wins out and I leave China. I'm considering staying one more year (ain't that always the way?) but know that, happy as I am there (and I'm actually happy), it's not permanent. Whenever the time comes that I pack up my apartment and move on from STU, I'll just have to put "variety of foods" at the top of my must-have list for a new home. I think only that will make up for what I'll leave behind.
Until I decide to leave Shantou, though, I'm going to allow myself to take food-centric vacations. I won't feel guilty about eating my way through the cities I visit. I'll happily order crepes and cider for one meal then indulge in pizza and rose for the next one. I can worry about being healthy later, when I'm back to jiaozi and milk tea and the occasional trip to sushi and Il Santo. Right now, I have 3 weeks left before I return to the Middle Kingdom... what cuisines will I fill them with? That's my only worry!
Our culinary tour of Paris has thus far featured such delicacies as crepes and cider, which I really could live on. Food is a big thing with me since the options in Shantou are so limited, so forgive me for giving it such a major place in my ranting about life and travels. The street of Paris really just make me want to eat... well, not the actual streets themselves, since they are not so delicious-looking, but there is so much variety in food options that it's a little overwhelming.
Quick pause to mention that as I write it just started to snow and it's very exciting- last time I saw snow, it was 4 years ago.
Back to my food thoughts, it's amazing to me that you can walk down a small unassuming street and get Lebanese, Italian, Greek, Mexican and French food as well as pub stand-bys, sandwiches, crepes and pastries. Why do I remain in China, land of chaofan and jiaozi? Don't get me wrong, I like noodles, dumplings and all the rest as much as the next expat, but it doesn't quite compare, does it? (or "it doesn't quite compare, can they?" as students would say) I am constantly wondering what to eat next and how to prioritize my cravings. I'm pretty sure there's a very fat person inside me trying to break out and just eat everything in sight.
So, as it turns out, what will eventually drive me from China won't be the language or my inability to fit in; it won't be teaching or family; it will be food. I feel like I'm finally acultured to life in Shantou and deal better and better with my isolation from the Western world. I'm finally actually serious about studying Chinese (got a tutor and everything), I don't need to import quite so much foreign food every time I hop the border to HK and the bad traffic is just something to deal with rather than a permanent drain on my life. But when I come back here, when I smell the croissants or the pizza, when I get dizzy from looking at the dessert options at the patisseries, when I get overwhelmed by the supermarket aisles and just want to sit down on the floor and rock back and forth, I know that it's just a matter of time before the "West" wins out and I leave China. I'm considering staying one more year (ain't that always the way?) but know that, happy as I am there (and I'm actually happy), it's not permanent. Whenever the time comes that I pack up my apartment and move on from STU, I'll just have to put "variety of foods" at the top of my must-have list for a new home. I think only that will make up for what I'll leave behind.
Until I decide to leave Shantou, though, I'm going to allow myself to take food-centric vacations. I won't feel guilty about eating my way through the cities I visit. I'll happily order crepes and cider for one meal then indulge in pizza and rose for the next one. I can worry about being healthy later, when I'm back to jiaozi and milk tea and the occasional trip to sushi and Il Santo. Right now, I have 3 weeks left before I return to the Middle Kingdom... what cuisines will I fill them with? That's my only worry!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Land of Censorship
My residence in this place has definitely put a kink in my new school year's resolution to keep a more regular blog. Every few days something crazy, weird or just "China" happens and I feel like I should share it with any readers or at least note it down for my future entertainment. Then I realize that all I can do is share it with my laptop until I can borrow someone's proxy and post. Result? No generation of a single written word since that last note from KL. I have notes about the oral presentations I just graded (they will turn into a post at some point), quotes from essays, anecdotes from Malaysia that I keep trying to remind myself of and that gave rise to Megan's and my catchphrase from that trip "Oh, well! At least it's a good story!" as well as the usual plethora of random meetings, weird and occasionally offensive student comments, new ELC developments and pre-EF gems.
Today though, as I sit in Jenica's apartment, shamelessly using her proxy to distract myself from the pile of essays I have yet to grade and babysitting her kitten who just got relieved of his ability to procreate, I just want to ramble. I'm not sure if these thoughts will be coherent or cohesive in any way, but I feel the need and desire to "share". It's been a stressful, busy and frustrating semester in a lot of ways and I've been adapting to certain new unignorable facts.
Fact #1- I am still in Shantou, China, despite the fact and repeated claim that "I am leaving at the end of this year" (said in 2007, 2008 and most recently 2009). The plan was to come here for a year, live somewhere else in China for the 2007-2008 school year and become quite competent in China, then return to 'the real world' and settle down somewhere, presumably with the reason I came here in the first place. Now, it's late 2009 and I am still here (as an astonished former student remarked a week ago) and by the time I leave (I'm saying it again, and this time hurt me if I go back on my word "I am leaving at the end of this year") I will have spent more time in this transitional place than I did at college. I am a "senior at STU" and determined to change directions as of July 2010. If it's good enough for the likes of Lok, Tracy, Jasmine and all, it's more than good enough for me.
Fact #2- I am now unattached and vascillate between being happy about it and living with thousands of "what-ifs". I won't expand on that state of affairs here, but suffice it to say that I have re-evaluated some things since August and have made some changes in my outlook and performance in life. It feels strange writing anything about this situation at all, but it's part of my reality and I figure anyone who cares to read my blog probably knows all about it already!
Fact #3- I have no diea which direction to go in after I leave Shantou. This is a by-product of Facts #1 and 2 and intensified by the feeling that I have gotten almost all I can out of my experience here. I could get a Master's in TESOL, Applied Linguistics or something similar and remain here/ return here, but I'm not sure that I would develop much more as a person and a teacher than I have already. Without singing my own praises, I think I can fairly say that I've come from an incompetent, nervous, shaking and shivering mass in front of the classroom and someone who thought her colleagues were so far out of her league to a confident equal to at least a few of the other members of the ELC faculty who has at least 1 out of 3 lessons that impart some form of knowledge and fewer than 1 out of 6 that totally bomb. If nothing else, my students will be well-versed in the uses of "it sucks!" and "awesome". I've been trying to vary my experiences here and to that end have become a coordinator, whose opinion is sometimes solicited, and leadership occasionally followed. I have been acting as advisor and counselor to various people around here (most notably one new teacher who seems to be having some troubel adjusting) and feel like this is finally "my place". Of course, that means I feel the need to leave it and so something different. Maybe if it wasn't for the fact that you have to make new friends every year, that doing anything other than planning/ grading or hanging out in someone else's apartment requires a 40 minute bus ride and that the discovery of the library has so far been the highligh of my year, I'd seriously consider staying here more or less permanently. But things being as they are, with 80F weather in November, no easy way to see family or non-current STU friends and no real Christmas spirit, I think I'll take my uprooting and resettling with a pinch of excitement and a healthy dose of relief. I just hope wherever I land it gets cold in the winter! Current interests include Paris, London, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Boston, New York, Washington DC, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Anyone have any leads there? I think I'll leave exoticism for my next fit of wanderlust!
Fact#4- I'm barely excited about visiting new places in Asia anymore. I'd go back to Koh Tao or take someone to Angkor (with just the one sunrise excursion probably) but I am not so intrigued by some of my other options. Is that bad? I really should be out there this winter discovering Indonesia or the Philippines, or even another part of India, but I keep having this image of myself bundled up wandering around the snow somewhere and that makes me want to skip the rest of Asia and go home, or at least somewhere familiar for Spring Festival. Decisions decisions. Maybe another sign that I need to move on.
Fact#5- (loosely connected to #3) I think I do want to go back to school sometime soonish. The discovery of the foreign language section of the new STU library sent me into geek-happiness, especially the collection of psych 101 and abnormal psych texts (they have the 101 book I used at Harvard Cont. Ed.) and the random smattering of Greek tragedies, both in English and Greek. Where did those come from?! Not sure what I'd go back for though. Psych? Classics? Teaching? Counseling? Law? Med? It's not like all these hours of introspection have given me any direction whatsoever. I just know that I remember liking learning and that when I sit there with terribly grammatically incorrect essays facing Euripides' Alcestis in the original, all I want to do is find a Liddell and Scott and get to work and that when a conversation comes up where I actually feel like I have interesting things to say (and it's unrelated to the best way to get through grading and planning without feeling your will to live floating away) I feel almost smart (or really dumb when the conversation goes over my head) and wish I could speak with more authority on intellectual things. I've even forgotten which one was the id and which one the ego... oh, my brain, where have you gone?
Fact#6- Students do not feel comfortable when office hours (and possibly other events) are held in a teacher's home. Knowledge I could have used approximately 3 years ago when I moved this weekly ritual from a classroom to my apartment, or at the start of the semester when I'm pretty sure the words "If you do not feel comfortable coming to see me in my house, please let me know and I can hold office hours somewhere else" left my mouth. Students!
Fact #7- Kittens lose their teeth and it's completely normal. (just in case you wanted to know!)
That is all for now. I should get at least 1 essay graded before Jenica returns and finds out I wasted an hour and a half! Oh well, she just walked in... Productivity (and library), here I come!
Today though, as I sit in Jenica's apartment, shamelessly using her proxy to distract myself from the pile of essays I have yet to grade and babysitting her kitten who just got relieved of his ability to procreate, I just want to ramble. I'm not sure if these thoughts will be coherent or cohesive in any way, but I feel the need and desire to "share". It's been a stressful, busy and frustrating semester in a lot of ways and I've been adapting to certain new unignorable facts.
Fact #1- I am still in Shantou, China, despite the fact and repeated claim that "I am leaving at the end of this year" (said in 2007, 2008 and most recently 2009). The plan was to come here for a year, live somewhere else in China for the 2007-2008 school year and become quite competent in China, then return to 'the real world' and settle down somewhere, presumably with the reason I came here in the first place. Now, it's late 2009 and I am still here (as an astonished former student remarked a week ago) and by the time I leave (I'm saying it again, and this time hurt me if I go back on my word "I am leaving at the end of this year") I will have spent more time in this transitional place than I did at college. I am a "senior at STU" and determined to change directions as of July 2010. If it's good enough for the likes of Lok, Tracy, Jasmine and all, it's more than good enough for me.
Fact #2- I am now unattached and vascillate between being happy about it and living with thousands of "what-ifs". I won't expand on that state of affairs here, but suffice it to say that I have re-evaluated some things since August and have made some changes in my outlook and performance in life. It feels strange writing anything about this situation at all, but it's part of my reality and I figure anyone who cares to read my blog probably knows all about it already!
Fact #3- I have no diea which direction to go in after I leave Shantou. This is a by-product of Facts #1 and 2 and intensified by the feeling that I have gotten almost all I can out of my experience here. I could get a Master's in TESOL, Applied Linguistics or something similar and remain here/ return here, but I'm not sure that I would develop much more as a person and a teacher than I have already. Without singing my own praises, I think I can fairly say that I've come from an incompetent, nervous, shaking and shivering mass in front of the classroom and someone who thought her colleagues were so far out of her league to a confident equal to at least a few of the other members of the ELC faculty who has at least 1 out of 3 lessons that impart some form of knowledge and fewer than 1 out of 6 that totally bomb. If nothing else, my students will be well-versed in the uses of "it sucks!" and "awesome". I've been trying to vary my experiences here and to that end have become a coordinator, whose opinion is sometimes solicited, and leadership occasionally followed. I have been acting as advisor and counselor to various people around here (most notably one new teacher who seems to be having some troubel adjusting) and feel like this is finally "my place". Of course, that means I feel the need to leave it and so something different. Maybe if it wasn't for the fact that you have to make new friends every year, that doing anything other than planning/ grading or hanging out in someone else's apartment requires a 40 minute bus ride and that the discovery of the library has so far been the highligh of my year, I'd seriously consider staying here more or less permanently. But things being as they are, with 80F weather in November, no easy way to see family or non-current STU friends and no real Christmas spirit, I think I'll take my uprooting and resettling with a pinch of excitement and a healthy dose of relief. I just hope wherever I land it gets cold in the winter! Current interests include Paris, London, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Boston, New York, Washington DC, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Anyone have any leads there? I think I'll leave exoticism for my next fit of wanderlust!
Fact#4- I'm barely excited about visiting new places in Asia anymore. I'd go back to Koh Tao or take someone to Angkor (with just the one sunrise excursion probably) but I am not so intrigued by some of my other options. Is that bad? I really should be out there this winter discovering Indonesia or the Philippines, or even another part of India, but I keep having this image of myself bundled up wandering around the snow somewhere and that makes me want to skip the rest of Asia and go home, or at least somewhere familiar for Spring Festival. Decisions decisions. Maybe another sign that I need to move on.
Fact#5- (loosely connected to #3) I think I do want to go back to school sometime soonish. The discovery of the foreign language section of the new STU library sent me into geek-happiness, especially the collection of psych 101 and abnormal psych texts (they have the 101 book I used at Harvard Cont. Ed.) and the random smattering of Greek tragedies, both in English and Greek. Where did those come from?! Not sure what I'd go back for though. Psych? Classics? Teaching? Counseling? Law? Med? It's not like all these hours of introspection have given me any direction whatsoever. I just know that I remember liking learning and that when I sit there with terribly grammatically incorrect essays facing Euripides' Alcestis in the original, all I want to do is find a Liddell and Scott and get to work and that when a conversation comes up where I actually feel like I have interesting things to say (and it's unrelated to the best way to get through grading and planning without feeling your will to live floating away) I feel almost smart (or really dumb when the conversation goes over my head) and wish I could speak with more authority on intellectual things. I've even forgotten which one was the id and which one the ego... oh, my brain, where have you gone?
Fact#6- Students do not feel comfortable when office hours (and possibly other events) are held in a teacher's home. Knowledge I could have used approximately 3 years ago when I moved this weekly ritual from a classroom to my apartment, or at the start of the semester when I'm pretty sure the words "If you do not feel comfortable coming to see me in my house, please let me know and I can hold office hours somewhere else" left my mouth. Students!
Fact #7- Kittens lose their teeth and it's completely normal. (just in case you wanted to know!)
That is all for now. I should get at least 1 essay graded before Jenica returns and finds out I wasted an hour and a half! Oh well, she just walked in... Productivity (and library), here I come!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
KL, HK and more abbreviations
Just a quick note while I am in censorship-free land. I've been in Malaysia with my friend and colleague megan for a few days and have had a great time. I wasn't expecting to like it this much, but am so glad we made it, after all the hiccups!
I'll write more details when I get home, but suffice it to say that AirAsia will no longer be getting my business by phone, as they cannot tell the difference between 7th and 2nd...
KL is lots of fun though kind of crazy and there is such a variety of people and food that makes me kind of giddy. I really want to find some awesome unique souvenir before going home tomorrow, but things seem very similar to Thai handicrafts and are much more expensive... maybe my souvenirs will just have to be pictures and delicious memories!
Pics to come on Flickr!
I'll write more details when I get home, but suffice it to say that AirAsia will no longer be getting my business by phone, as they cannot tell the difference between 7th and 2nd...
KL is lots of fun though kind of crazy and there is such a variety of people and food that makes me kind of giddy. I really want to find some awesome unique souvenir before going home tomorrow, but things seem very similar to Thai handicrafts and are much more expensive... maybe my souvenirs will just have to be pictures and delicious memories!
Pics to come on Flickr!
Friday, September 11, 2009
A new year, a new resolution to keep up with this blog!
So... I'm back in Shantou, kicking and screaming all the way back once again! I seriously need to take the hint and maybe consider NOT signing another contract this spring. Remind me of this if you hear me utter anything along the lines of "well, at least it's something, it's a fallback"- it is no longer a fallback. It's a good place, there are good people, friends, students, support for teaching, opportunities for advancement etc, but 4 years will be more than enough.
That said, we started the year quite brilliantly with a professional development retreat to the beautiful island of Hainan. There was the awkward first faculty meeting and group picture, this preceded by the medical "body check" tests downtown which I joined once again this year to hold hands while blood was drawn, meet the new people and get a free ride to and from WalMart with all my stuff. New people are all sort of lost for the time being, but I'm sure will all know their way around faster than I learned to get around town. I still stick to my usual haunts and hope that La Kaffa will not be closed indefinitely, thereby depriving me of my favourite caffeine-providing locale.
The trip to Hainan started on the 5th, bright and early, with all of us appearing packed and ready for fun, sea, bonding and at some point professionally developing into masterful teachers (for those who have not reached that level yet). Flight was uneventful, apart from a cute airline logo, arrival in Haikou included coconut candy (everything there includes coconut in some form!) and the beginning of the Harry Saga. Harry was the tour guide we picked up in Haikou. He was irritating, clapped his hands to get us to do anything, stated the obvious (as in "ok, stand up now!" after we were told to get off the bus), started every sentence with "OK" and ended with "aah" and was generally more than we could deal with during 5 days of forced interaction in 90% humidity and 35C weather (that's realfeel 110-120F according to Accuweather), with daily wake-up calls between the hours of 7:00 and 7:30AM. After a quick lunch, we were taken to the hotel, which had a very pervasive mold/ smoke smell (especially in the room I was assigned and the dining room- enough to put you off any food!), then bused over to Hainan University for a tour during which we stayed on said bus, swung by Evergreen Park, had some dinner back in the hotel then basically crashed as many of us were still recovering from jetlag.
Next day, after a rather Chinese breakfast, we went off to be professionally developed by listening to various talks about teaching English, one of which, from our fearless leader, involved research carried out on myself and fellow faculty members. Apparently, I am easily identifiable as the perpetrator of quotes involving how the language of foreign teachers begins to include never-used-so-often-before words such as "delicious", "convenient" and "hometown". Several people guessed it came from me, even people who weren't sure I'd taken part in this project (about our Chinese and 'home language' selves). The afternoon session of the day involved us splitting into interest groups and discussing various aspects of ELT in China. I joined the Extra-curricular activities group, which ended up just being a group of ELC teachers talking to one HaiDa guy about what we offered, while he told us they had nothing like that and he didn't really know about what did exist at his school, though he suggested that we come up with a way to evaluate the usefulness of these activities rather than just doing whatever came to us at the time. A valid point, but he offered no suggestions as to how to do that... helpful! Dinner that night more than made up for the unfulfilling sessions, as it included a buffet of sushi and delicious desserts!
Day 3 was made up of a lecture/ workshop about the state of ELT in China given by a professor from Macao who had no problem telling it like it is on the Mainland. He may have been walking a fine line, telling us about which newspapers to take from HK and Macao back into 'China' and which it would be best to leave behind, while making it clear to us what he thought of Chinese policy making. I definitely enjoyed the pictures of lower-ranking political figures sleeping through reform speeches in silent protest, boredom or general disregard of their duties in light of the fact that they would have no say either way. Good to see our colleagues reacting to this and nodding along in a not so "toeing the party line" style.
The afternoon was full of bus-time as we made our way across the island to Sanya, land of beautiful beaches and fancy hotels, and our retreat 3 years ago. This time we stayed on a different beach, but the hotel had a great view of our stretch of sand and was close to a bbq area, complete with pushy little girls thrusting firecrackers and Roman candles at me (5 jiao for 1, 1 yuan for 2!) I ended up wandering down the beach with a few people until we found "cocktails" at a "beach bar": 4 mixed drinks of questionable alcohol content at a table on the beach, overlooked by a tiki lamp. It had atmosphere... kind of! New drink: Sanya Bay.
Day 4- was subversive and refused to get back on a bus and get dragged around to another beach, butterfly village, seashell museum and tropical forest (yup, all that in one day!), when there was a perfectly decent sandy area with beautiful waves right in front of my nose the whole time. An unnecessary 7:30AM wake-up call later, my roommate and I were on the beach with overpriced snacks in hand, ready to bake, swim and generally have a great day, starting at 8:30. We jumped in the waves, lay back down to dry off... then 3 guys decided that right next to our heads was the perfect spot for their sunshine-y day- there was no one else on the beach!! Miles of empty sand and they just had to come park themselves in our personal space and take out their cellphones and (presumably) take pictures of us. We quickly decamped cursing the locals and their lack of beach/ human etiquette and found ourselves a pair of wooden lounge chairs with a tiki parasol for 30RMB/ day. More wave-jumping action and perfect positioning between the two lines of breakage of the waves, a little chit-chat with a couple of new colleagues who also went the umbrella/ chairs route rather than the sand/ sun/ annoying people one and we headed back to go hunt down the Muslim quarter for some delicious, non-Harry-ordered foods. No dice with the taxis- they had no idea what the "muselin simiao (Muslim temple)" was. They did offer to take us to a famous temple 20km away though! We settled on a lunch of fish, tofu and egg, but at least, we ordered it ourselves, with me having to serve as the designated Chinese-speaker! Success- I can now get things done, more or less speedily and accurately! I am a whole new person (especially after amazing a new co-worker when I claimed to be "shy and introverted")!
The afternoon plans for yet more wave-fun were dampened by the threatening clouds and intense downpour, though we did manage to make it back out to "our bar" for after-dinner drinks with a bigger group of people. Much discussion and fun for our last day in Sanya.
Day 5- Breakfast (still not approaching "delicious"), bus to Boundary Island where we could swim or join the "water sports games" (oh, Harry and his Chinglish!) The bus ride was fine, the boat ride to the island was quite fun for those of us with a strong stomach- bumpy times! On arrival and after being vastly entertained by some hilarious mannequins in wetsuits- pictures on Flickr to come soon) we excitedly got away from Harry and headed over to the "swimming area"... it was tiny and packed with people. More subversion as a few of us carefully headed over to the next little bay, traipsing through masses of broken coral and happily jumped into beautiful clear water... until we felt a weird shock, heard a tinny sound and we whistled at to get the heck out of the non designate swimming area! There was a policeman on the shore looking annoyed and a guy on a jetski to help enforce the rules. No choice but to turn back and I headed back to the "corral" with two of my fellow rule-breakers (the other 2 tried, it seems, to find a good new spot repeatedly and to annoy the guard as much as possible by keeping eye contact and occasionally trying to make a break for it). Good water, annoying rocks underfoot but fun colleagues did make it all worth the trouble, the staring and the potential sunburn. A communal shower (thankfully no naked colleagues at that time), overpriced drinks, a neutral Chinese lunch later we met up with those who had taken part in the "water sports games" and saw the pictures of them holding onto the coral reefs and picking up sea urchins... my irritation at how these Chinese people (the scuba instructors who condone this, I mean), and other inconsiderate and ignorant people, ruin the environment knows no bounds at this point! I remember being sternly told not to even get close to the reefs when I went diving and here they are grabbing on, picking up random bits off the beach and buying souvenirs made of coral!! Gah!
Anyway, boat ride back was, again, speedy, bumpy and entertaining, made more so by the screams/ squeals of my fellow workmates! More hours on the bus, then the visit of a conference center and another boat ride to the "Jade Belt"- a stretch of sand that looks out onto the South China Sea, a beach with waves the knocked over a few teachers and drenched more than that! The guy holding a turtle that kept trying to beat him up with its 'flippers' was just the cherry on top!
New hotel for the evening and a friend and I went to explore the area around the hotel in an attempt to stay awake past 8PM and find some ice cream/ dessert. The best part was the discovery of the NanGuo Supermarket, not for its offerings (we're better off in Shantou), but for its delectable Chinglish. There were aisles of "bumf", "dentifris", "clean air", "bathebles", "family thing" (yes, singular) and, my favourite, "mop/besom". We did not pay with our "credit carts", but this store definitely could have produced yet more entertainment if we had had time and energy enough for it.
Not much to add about today- a temple with some interesting statues of disgraced mainlanders (with good faces) this morning after a disappointing breakfast and an irritating experience with milktea people who seemed convinced that we did not need large cups and that the small or medium would be more appropriate. Much annoyance at the airport with people in the next line for check-in yelling at each other and shoving into us and Harry making the whole process go about as slowly as possible, while trying hard to grab all bags by the most tearable parts possible. Glad to have left him behind in Hainan! Flight was delayed, we got back to campus after a slight pause on the road to maybe wait for some freshmen. More disappointment and irritation when I got home and the best part of my day may have been the smoothies I had for dinner followed by the Singleton cult movie: Bridget Jones' Diary.
To look forward to (and by that, I mean, to produce fodder for sarcasm and my ever-decreasing patience): Freshman Orientation, grading and more grading... I need to get a squishy stress-ball for this week/ semester/ life!
That said, we started the year quite brilliantly with a professional development retreat to the beautiful island of Hainan. There was the awkward first faculty meeting and group picture, this preceded by the medical "body check" tests downtown which I joined once again this year to hold hands while blood was drawn, meet the new people and get a free ride to and from WalMart with all my stuff. New people are all sort of lost for the time being, but I'm sure will all know their way around faster than I learned to get around town. I still stick to my usual haunts and hope that La Kaffa will not be closed indefinitely, thereby depriving me of my favourite caffeine-providing locale.
The trip to Hainan started on the 5th, bright and early, with all of us appearing packed and ready for fun, sea, bonding and at some point professionally developing into masterful teachers (for those who have not reached that level yet). Flight was uneventful, apart from a cute airline logo, arrival in Haikou included coconut candy (everything there includes coconut in some form!) and the beginning of the Harry Saga. Harry was the tour guide we picked up in Haikou. He was irritating, clapped his hands to get us to do anything, stated the obvious (as in "ok, stand up now!" after we were told to get off the bus), started every sentence with "OK" and ended with "aah" and was generally more than we could deal with during 5 days of forced interaction in 90% humidity and 35C weather (that's realfeel 110-120F according to Accuweather), with daily wake-up calls between the hours of 7:00 and 7:30AM. After a quick lunch, we were taken to the hotel, which had a very pervasive mold/ smoke smell (especially in the room I was assigned and the dining room- enough to put you off any food!), then bused over to Hainan University for a tour during which we stayed on said bus, swung by Evergreen Park, had some dinner back in the hotel then basically crashed as many of us were still recovering from jetlag.
Next day, after a rather Chinese breakfast, we went off to be professionally developed by listening to various talks about teaching English, one of which, from our fearless leader, involved research carried out on myself and fellow faculty members. Apparently, I am easily identifiable as the perpetrator of quotes involving how the language of foreign teachers begins to include never-used-so-often-before words such as "delicious", "convenient" and "hometown". Several people guessed it came from me, even people who weren't sure I'd taken part in this project (about our Chinese and 'home language' selves). The afternoon session of the day involved us splitting into interest groups and discussing various aspects of ELT in China. I joined the Extra-curricular activities group, which ended up just being a group of ELC teachers talking to one HaiDa guy about what we offered, while he told us they had nothing like that and he didn't really know about what did exist at his school, though he suggested that we come up with a way to evaluate the usefulness of these activities rather than just doing whatever came to us at the time. A valid point, but he offered no suggestions as to how to do that... helpful! Dinner that night more than made up for the unfulfilling sessions, as it included a buffet of sushi and delicious desserts!
Day 3 was made up of a lecture/ workshop about the state of ELT in China given by a professor from Macao who had no problem telling it like it is on the Mainland. He may have been walking a fine line, telling us about which newspapers to take from HK and Macao back into 'China' and which it would be best to leave behind, while making it clear to us what he thought of Chinese policy making. I definitely enjoyed the pictures of lower-ranking political figures sleeping through reform speeches in silent protest, boredom or general disregard of their duties in light of the fact that they would have no say either way. Good to see our colleagues reacting to this and nodding along in a not so "toeing the party line" style.
The afternoon was full of bus-time as we made our way across the island to Sanya, land of beautiful beaches and fancy hotels, and our retreat 3 years ago. This time we stayed on a different beach, but the hotel had a great view of our stretch of sand and was close to a bbq area, complete with pushy little girls thrusting firecrackers and Roman candles at me (5 jiao for 1, 1 yuan for 2!) I ended up wandering down the beach with a few people until we found "cocktails" at a "beach bar": 4 mixed drinks of questionable alcohol content at a table on the beach, overlooked by a tiki lamp. It had atmosphere... kind of! New drink: Sanya Bay.
Day 4- was subversive and refused to get back on a bus and get dragged around to another beach, butterfly village, seashell museum and tropical forest (yup, all that in one day!), when there was a perfectly decent sandy area with beautiful waves right in front of my nose the whole time. An unnecessary 7:30AM wake-up call later, my roommate and I were on the beach with overpriced snacks in hand, ready to bake, swim and generally have a great day, starting at 8:30. We jumped in the waves, lay back down to dry off... then 3 guys decided that right next to our heads was the perfect spot for their sunshine-y day- there was no one else on the beach!! Miles of empty sand and they just had to come park themselves in our personal space and take out their cellphones and (presumably) take pictures of us. We quickly decamped cursing the locals and their lack of beach/ human etiquette and found ourselves a pair of wooden lounge chairs with a tiki parasol for 30RMB/ day. More wave-jumping action and perfect positioning between the two lines of breakage of the waves, a little chit-chat with a couple of new colleagues who also went the umbrella/ chairs route rather than the sand/ sun/ annoying people one and we headed back to go hunt down the Muslim quarter for some delicious, non-Harry-ordered foods. No dice with the taxis- they had no idea what the "muselin simiao (Muslim temple)" was. They did offer to take us to a famous temple 20km away though! We settled on a lunch of fish, tofu and egg, but at least, we ordered it ourselves, with me having to serve as the designated Chinese-speaker! Success- I can now get things done, more or less speedily and accurately! I am a whole new person (especially after amazing a new co-worker when I claimed to be "shy and introverted")!
The afternoon plans for yet more wave-fun were dampened by the threatening clouds and intense downpour, though we did manage to make it back out to "our bar" for after-dinner drinks with a bigger group of people. Much discussion and fun for our last day in Sanya.
Day 5- Breakfast (still not approaching "delicious"), bus to Boundary Island where we could swim or join the "water sports games" (oh, Harry and his Chinglish!) The bus ride was fine, the boat ride to the island was quite fun for those of us with a strong stomach- bumpy times! On arrival and after being vastly entertained by some hilarious mannequins in wetsuits- pictures on Flickr to come soon) we excitedly got away from Harry and headed over to the "swimming area"... it was tiny and packed with people. More subversion as a few of us carefully headed over to the next little bay, traipsing through masses of broken coral and happily jumped into beautiful clear water... until we felt a weird shock, heard a tinny sound and we whistled at to get the heck out of the non designate swimming area! There was a policeman on the shore looking annoyed and a guy on a jetski to help enforce the rules. No choice but to turn back and I headed back to the "corral" with two of my fellow rule-breakers (the other 2 tried, it seems, to find a good new spot repeatedly and to annoy the guard as much as possible by keeping eye contact and occasionally trying to make a break for it). Good water, annoying rocks underfoot but fun colleagues did make it all worth the trouble, the staring and the potential sunburn. A communal shower (thankfully no naked colleagues at that time), overpriced drinks, a neutral Chinese lunch later we met up with those who had taken part in the "water sports games" and saw the pictures of them holding onto the coral reefs and picking up sea urchins... my irritation at how these Chinese people (the scuba instructors who condone this, I mean), and other inconsiderate and ignorant people, ruin the environment knows no bounds at this point! I remember being sternly told not to even get close to the reefs when I went diving and here they are grabbing on, picking up random bits off the beach and buying souvenirs made of coral!! Gah!
Anyway, boat ride back was, again, speedy, bumpy and entertaining, made more so by the screams/ squeals of my fellow workmates! More hours on the bus, then the visit of a conference center and another boat ride to the "Jade Belt"- a stretch of sand that looks out onto the South China Sea, a beach with waves the knocked over a few teachers and drenched more than that! The guy holding a turtle that kept trying to beat him up with its 'flippers' was just the cherry on top!
New hotel for the evening and a friend and I went to explore the area around the hotel in an attempt to stay awake past 8PM and find some ice cream/ dessert. The best part was the discovery of the NanGuo Supermarket, not for its offerings (we're better off in Shantou), but for its delectable Chinglish. There were aisles of "bumf", "dentifris", "clean air", "bathebles", "family thing" (yes, singular) and, my favourite, "mop/besom". We did not pay with our "credit carts", but this store definitely could have produced yet more entertainment if we had had time and energy enough for it.
Not much to add about today- a temple with some interesting statues of disgraced mainlanders (with good faces) this morning after a disappointing breakfast and an irritating experience with milktea people who seemed convinced that we did not need large cups and that the small or medium would be more appropriate. Much annoyance at the airport with people in the next line for check-in yelling at each other and shoving into us and Harry making the whole process go about as slowly as possible, while trying hard to grab all bags by the most tearable parts possible. Glad to have left him behind in Hainan! Flight was delayed, we got back to campus after a slight pause on the road to maybe wait for some freshmen. More disappointment and irritation when I got home and the best part of my day may have been the smoothies I had for dinner followed by the Singleton cult movie: Bridget Jones' Diary.
To look forward to (and by that, I mean, to produce fodder for sarcasm and my ever-decreasing patience): Freshman Orientation, grading and more grading... I need to get a squishy stress-ball for this week/ semester/ life!
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Bollywood!
I am a movie star.
Well, maybe not quite. More accurately, last Friday, I was an extra in a ridiculous, low-budget Bollywood movie. Philippe had met a guy recruiting the day before, so we found ourselves, up, breakfasted and rounded up with 25 or so other goreh youths in front of the local McD's at 8 a.m. then herded onto a bus, and driven out of town towards "Filmcity". Sound glamorous?
When we got to our movie's set, we were led to a room and given our costumes- black, white, grey or a combination of those- in my case, a white skirt (thankfully longer than I originally guessed), 2 stripe-y tank tops (black and white) and a really short white shirt (puffy sleeves, collar, strange mid-belly length... unflattering!); in Philippe's case, shiny black pants (think "fake leather") and a black shirt with white "washer" pattern (think "70s"). In both cases, our shoes didn't fit and it was like foot torture... for 11 hours. My hair was pulled back and curled, then sprayed into place. It was a little scary. All the other girls looked more classy, sadly, but some of the other guys rivalled Philippe for ridiculous outfits (see-through shiny white shirt, anyone?)
We then sat. Had a tiny cucumber and tomato sandwich. Sat more. Wandered around and found a mirror to see how ridiculous we looked. Saw some guys in obvious wigs (reddish and fluffy). Sat around.
Finally, around noon, we went on set and discovered quite how weird the day would be. The scene was set in a club called the Blue Elephant (with shiny giant blue elephant head cutout and hung front the ceiling). There were 2 stages (one with poles, one with a band), a raised bar and some raised areas, balcony-style, parts of which were covered in what looked like thick chicken-wire. We went up there. These balcony sections were surrounded by what looked like banisters, but was in fact plastic piping and not sturdy, as we were reminded by a loud voice answering to the name of Sweety, in the same breath as we were told to stand as close to the edge as possible, dance and wave our arms about. Philippe was somewhere under those platforms, standing around a table with some other guys, I was at the top with a bunch of girls. We basically danced over and over again to the same 15-second part of a song, occasionally being shifted from one platform to another.
There was a long lunch break. Then more dancing on platforms, this time while pole dancers did their thing on their own stage.
Then a random long-ass break. Then more dancing.
The whole "we'll get you back to Colaba by 9 p.m." was looking increasingly unlikely when Philippe started regularly going to argue with the agent-guy who had brought us over and eventually, we started walking off to change. They brought us back and shot their last scene as fast as possible. We still didn't get back to Colaba until a little before 11 p.m., half an hour after a girl's hostel closed and an hour before our night train to Jalgaon for the next step of the adventure.
Death-trap of the day: unstable platforms with fake railings.
Well, maybe not quite. More accurately, last Friday, I was an extra in a ridiculous, low-budget Bollywood movie. Philippe had met a guy recruiting the day before, so we found ourselves, up, breakfasted and rounded up with 25 or so other goreh youths in front of the local McD's at 8 a.m. then herded onto a bus, and driven out of town towards "Filmcity". Sound glamorous?
When we got to our movie's set, we were led to a room and given our costumes- black, white, grey or a combination of those- in my case, a white skirt (thankfully longer than I originally guessed), 2 stripe-y tank tops (black and white) and a really short white shirt (puffy sleeves, collar, strange mid-belly length... unflattering!); in Philippe's case, shiny black pants (think "fake leather") and a black shirt with white "washer" pattern (think "70s"). In both cases, our shoes didn't fit and it was like foot torture... for 11 hours. My hair was pulled back and curled, then sprayed into place. It was a little scary. All the other girls looked more classy, sadly, but some of the other guys rivalled Philippe for ridiculous outfits (see-through shiny white shirt, anyone?)
We then sat. Had a tiny cucumber and tomato sandwich. Sat more. Wandered around and found a mirror to see how ridiculous we looked. Saw some guys in obvious wigs (reddish and fluffy). Sat around.
Finally, around noon, we went on set and discovered quite how weird the day would be. The scene was set in a club called the Blue Elephant (with shiny giant blue elephant head cutout and hung front the ceiling). There were 2 stages (one with poles, one with a band), a raised bar and some raised areas, balcony-style, parts of which were covered in what looked like thick chicken-wire. We went up there. These balcony sections were surrounded by what looked like banisters, but was in fact plastic piping and not sturdy, as we were reminded by a loud voice answering to the name of Sweety, in the same breath as we were told to stand as close to the edge as possible, dance and wave our arms about. Philippe was somewhere under those platforms, standing around a table with some other guys, I was at the top with a bunch of girls. We basically danced over and over again to the same 15-second part of a song, occasionally being shifted from one platform to another.
There was a long lunch break. Then more dancing on platforms, this time while pole dancers did their thing on their own stage.
Then a random long-ass break. Then more dancing.
The whole "we'll get you back to Colaba by 9 p.m." was looking increasingly unlikely when Philippe started regularly going to argue with the agent-guy who had brought us over and eventually, we started walking off to change. They brought us back and shot their last scene as fast as possible. We still didn't get back to Colaba until a little before 11 p.m., half an hour after a girl's hostel closed and an hour before our night train to Jalgaon for the next step of the adventure.
Death-trap of the day: unstable platforms with fake railings.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
"I am sooo not getting on that death-trap"
This is a theme, so far this trip. There are many different exciting ways of getting around the country and half of them look like they were never designed to hold nearly as many people as they are doing.
Our second day in Mumbai, stopped by a pastry shop for breakfast (recommended in the LP and making Philippe salivate in front of the glass cases of chocolate and fruit concoctions), moved our stuff to the Salvation Army's hostel and we internetted. Then we headed over to the Haji Ali Mosque in northern Mumbai. To reach it, you take a really long bus ride through "real Mumbai" (not the touristy area around Colaba) then you walk out into the sea (Arabian Sea?) passing vendors and beggars aplenty. The mosque itself is a place of pilgrimage so it's a really interesting atmosphere. I was crazily on the lookout for what to do, this being my first mosque-experience, and me being really afraid of making a faux-pas and offending someone. I followed the women into the female entrance while Philippe got to go through the main entrance, all unshod and head-covered. It was really a great and interesting experience.
We also saw the laundry facilities for Mumbai's hotels, restaurants and general populace. This is an intricate network of washing tubs, rinsing areas, hanging posts, swinging lines and sorting people, all looking like it's been around for quite a while. We saw laundry being swung around, stomped on, hit against the stone tubs and twisted into the lines to hang without pins. Impressive.
Our day ended with a swing by Chowpatty beach where there were hundreds of people flying kites. The colors of the sarees and kites were amazing, and the gelato we treated ourselves to after a long day of walking wasn't bad either. The best, though, was wandering around the snack stands by the side of the beach. We tried panipuri (crunchy little puff with lentils and tamarind sauce inside), bhaji sandwiches (deep fried veggies in bread roll) and chai. We also got a weird thing in a leaf that tasted like rosewater, coconut and other things that I found horrible, but Philippe downed because it was served directly into your mouth by a man with a crazy moustache. The "death trap" part was the crazy ferris wheels that were made to spin by guys jumping up onto it and then swinging themselves off and pulling it down with their bodyweight... does that make sense? It was so strange to watch and, combined with the fact that it looked ready to fall apart, did not encourage me to try it, no matter how much Philippe made puppy eyes at me for great pictures.
The next day, after a slow start to the day and a chance meeting with a Bollywood guy looking for extras for a movie, we headed to Elephanta Island, to gaze at temples carved into rocks. The boat ride over was quite long, made more so by the cramped quarters and the slightly sketchy guy who was trying to get a picture of himself sitting next to me. Also, the random throwing of trash into the ocean was a delight... not. The site on the island is a group of about 4 main caves up a hill, with some monkeys. It was good to visit, being a completely different sight from what we'd seen so far. I realise that it's an impressive feat- carving huge temple caves from a rock, sculpting rocks into huge statues etc- but I felt bad being left nonplussed by the visit. The threat of monkey bites did little to add to it! There was a thoroughly impressive sculpture of three--headed Shiva.
After our boat excursion, we decided to delve into the mysterious world of train-ticket buying in India. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus or CST) is a beautiful building which combines all sorts of architectural styles on the outside. Inside, it's amazing how many people it can hold without seeming all that crowded. After asking several people, filling in some paperwork, getting a guy to leave us a lone and purchasing a book of all Indian trains for all the days of the week until June, we got our stamp, went to the reservation room and found that our train was fully booked and we'd have to be waitlisted. Too bad, we thought, but whatever, we didn't want to waste more time standing in the reservation room listening to a guy trying to sell chai by rattling some plastic cups at us. Then, we spotted the "Foreign Tourist" window. Surrounded by "Foreign Tourist Only" benches, it became our haven for over an hour while we deciphered train time tables, bothered the nice lady behind the window repeatedly and finally settled on one night train towards Ajanta and Ellora and a waitlist spot on another night train to Ahmedabad. Tickets in hand we avoided bus touts, traffic and wrong turns to return to Chowpatty and sample bhelpuri (crunchy, crispy, spicy and delicious), pav bhaji (lentils with onion, tomato and peppers eaten with grilled bread) and get a picture of P eating the yucky leaf combo from the guy with the moustache. I had to fight valiantly but managed to get away with some slightly less weird stuff and an odd-tasting glace cherry... I think this will be the worst thing I eat in the country, but everything else so far has been amazing.
Death trap of the day: tourist train on Elephanta!
Our second day in Mumbai, stopped by a pastry shop for breakfast (recommended in the LP and making Philippe salivate in front of the glass cases of chocolate and fruit concoctions), moved our stuff to the Salvation Army's hostel and we internetted. Then we headed over to the Haji Ali Mosque in northern Mumbai. To reach it, you take a really long bus ride through "real Mumbai" (not the touristy area around Colaba) then you walk out into the sea (Arabian Sea?) passing vendors and beggars aplenty. The mosque itself is a place of pilgrimage so it's a really interesting atmosphere. I was crazily on the lookout for what to do, this being my first mosque-experience, and me being really afraid of making a faux-pas and offending someone. I followed the women into the female entrance while Philippe got to go through the main entrance, all unshod and head-covered. It was really a great and interesting experience.
We also saw the laundry facilities for Mumbai's hotels, restaurants and general populace. This is an intricate network of washing tubs, rinsing areas, hanging posts, swinging lines and sorting people, all looking like it's been around for quite a while. We saw laundry being swung around, stomped on, hit against the stone tubs and twisted into the lines to hang without pins. Impressive.
Our day ended with a swing by Chowpatty beach where there were hundreds of people flying kites. The colors of the sarees and kites were amazing, and the gelato we treated ourselves to after a long day of walking wasn't bad either. The best, though, was wandering around the snack stands by the side of the beach. We tried panipuri (crunchy little puff with lentils and tamarind sauce inside), bhaji sandwiches (deep fried veggies in bread roll) and chai. We also got a weird thing in a leaf that tasted like rosewater, coconut and other things that I found horrible, but Philippe downed because it was served directly into your mouth by a man with a crazy moustache. The "death trap" part was the crazy ferris wheels that were made to spin by guys jumping up onto it and then swinging themselves off and pulling it down with their bodyweight... does that make sense? It was so strange to watch and, combined with the fact that it looked ready to fall apart, did not encourage me to try it, no matter how much Philippe made puppy eyes at me for great pictures.
The next day, after a slow start to the day and a chance meeting with a Bollywood guy looking for extras for a movie, we headed to Elephanta Island, to gaze at temples carved into rocks. The boat ride over was quite long, made more so by the cramped quarters and the slightly sketchy guy who was trying to get a picture of himself sitting next to me. Also, the random throwing of trash into the ocean was a delight... not. The site on the island is a group of about 4 main caves up a hill, with some monkeys. It was good to visit, being a completely different sight from what we'd seen so far. I realise that it's an impressive feat- carving huge temple caves from a rock, sculpting rocks into huge statues etc- but I felt bad being left nonplussed by the visit. The threat of monkey bites did little to add to it! There was a thoroughly impressive sculpture of three--headed Shiva.
After our boat excursion, we decided to delve into the mysterious world of train-ticket buying in India. Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (Victoria Terminus or CST) is a beautiful building which combines all sorts of architectural styles on the outside. Inside, it's amazing how many people it can hold without seeming all that crowded. After asking several people, filling in some paperwork, getting a guy to leave us a lone and purchasing a book of all Indian trains for all the days of the week until June, we got our stamp, went to the reservation room and found that our train was fully booked and we'd have to be waitlisted. Too bad, we thought, but whatever, we didn't want to waste more time standing in the reservation room listening to a guy trying to sell chai by rattling some plastic cups at us. Then, we spotted the "Foreign Tourist" window. Surrounded by "Foreign Tourist Only" benches, it became our haven for over an hour while we deciphered train time tables, bothered the nice lady behind the window repeatedly and finally settled on one night train towards Ajanta and Ellora and a waitlist spot on another night train to Ahmedabad. Tickets in hand we avoided bus touts, traffic and wrong turns to return to Chowpatty and sample bhelpuri (crunchy, crispy, spicy and delicious), pav bhaji (lentils with onion, tomato and peppers eaten with grilled bread) and get a picture of P eating the yucky leaf combo from the guy with the moustache. I had to fight valiantly but managed to get away with some slightly less weird stuff and an odd-tasting glace cherry... I think this will be the worst thing I eat in the country, but everything else so far has been amazing.
Death trap of the day: tourist train on Elephanta!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
A Chinese idea of utopia
I just got back from a whirlwind tour of Hangzhou, Suzhou and Shanghai in about 6 days. I'll post more about it in the next couple of days when it's not really late, but I wanted to mention something I encountered when wandering through the Shanghai Museum (awesome museum, by the way, and worth the incredibly long wait in "line") that really struck me:
A Chinese painter's works are exhibited in the Painting Gallery and one is a representation of his idea of utopia. It's a landscape completely devoid of people. There are mountains, trees, a river, probably a few fish, but not a single human.
I'm not going to lie, after a week of being shoved, stared at, honked at, almost run over, squeezed between people with varying levels of concern about their personal hygiene and of getting angry at the rudeness of Chinese people to each other (a few were yelling to each other during a traditional opera performance in a garden in Suzhou- squeeky Chinese singing + squeeky instruments + yelling over it= my personal aural hell), my utopia would definitely also be "people-lite". I wouldn't necessarily ban all people from it, but they'd have to take a test before getting in!
A Chinese painter's works are exhibited in the Painting Gallery and one is a representation of his idea of utopia. It's a landscape completely devoid of people. There are mountains, trees, a river, probably a few fish, but not a single human.
I'm not going to lie, after a week of being shoved, stared at, honked at, almost run over, squeezed between people with varying levels of concern about their personal hygiene and of getting angry at the rudeness of Chinese people to each other (a few were yelling to each other during a traditional opera performance in a garden in Suzhou- squeeky Chinese singing + squeeky instruments + yelling over it= my personal aural hell), my utopia would definitely also be "people-lite". I wouldn't necessarily ban all people from it, but they'd have to take a test before getting in!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
