Christmas!

Christmas in China is a very strange holiday.  It reminds me of St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's Day; mostly just a commercial event where the Chinese go out for drinks or food.  The nostalgic, sentimental elements of the holiday are pretty lost on the general public.   

Honestly, it doesn't feel like a real holiday at all!  

And since it's not a "real" holiday, English classes still go on and Disney English employees still have to go to work.

Christmas Eve started at work were our Center Manager/DE had ordered a turkey.  It was so cute in it's little basket.

Ben, Ashley and one of the two hams that were also ordered.  (The Chinese staff preferred it over the Turkey, which they thought smelled weird.)  On the side we had gravy, applesauce, and chestnuts.  Chestnuts are EVERYWHERE in China and I keep trying to eat them because they smell so good but they taste kind of mushy and gross.  We had to fish paper plates out of the craft supplies box and here Ben is hacking into the ham with our only knife, which is about three inches long. 

 My darling friend, Timo.  We were pretty fascinated by the turkey basket.

 After work we took a taxi to a street of bars and restaurants.  When we got there we found a strange street festival atmosphere with Chinese pop music, disco lights and clowns on stilts.  Nothing says, "Merry Christmas" like balloon animals right?  

 We ended up at a bar with a giant screen that looped BMX and Monster Truck videos and that only played music by Springsteen, CCR, and Chuck Berry

 

We all complained when Timo led us into this bar because we wanted food.  "Don't worry,"he said, "I think they'll order food for us!"  Sure enough the bar didn't serve food but the bartender agreed to call the restaurant across the street and place an order.  I figured that it would come take-out style but 20 minutes later four waiters come marching across the street carrying steaming plates and bowls of food.  They even brought real silverware.  Timo handed them his credit card and they had to run back across the street to swipe it!  Ridiculous.  Only in China. 

My sweet roommate, Ashley, and out Christmas shots.

On Christmas Day, I talked to my family (it was their Christmas Eve) and when I got off of Skype I promptly burst into tears.  It was awful.  But after I had a little pity party I rallied, then Ashley and I met Timo and Ben at a Mexican Restaurant next to our apartment for a buffet brunch.  My family was horrified that we were planning on eating Mexican food for Christmas and I told them not to worry because...it's China.  It's pretty unlikely that anything resembling Mexican food will actually be served.  Sure enough I ate potato soup, salad, chicken strips and fries, and drank a lot of milk tea.  Poor Timo and Ashley had to head into work but it was Ben and my's regular day off so we hung out for another hour drinking free refills and watching a group of about 15 rich Chinese mothers trying to keep santa hats on their kids' heads while they devoured the buffet.  The moms and kids were all in matching red outfits, it was pretty cute.  Then Ben and I walked to the foreign food store and paid a RIDICULOUS amount of money for butter, cheese, and some other outrageously priced Western ingredients to be eaten at Christmas dinner.  We carried the stuff back to my apartment then Ben left to go play soccer.  I spent the afternoon watching Christmas movies and doing laundry.  

Later that night my sister Skyped me and I watch her open her presents with her family.  That was promptly followed by a Skype date with my parents as well as my brother and his family.  I watched them open their presents too.  It was a lot of fun and I can't even tell you how grateful I am for technology that lets me talk to my family on the other side of the globe...for four hours...for free!  But I will say that it was weird for me. Everything seems so different from what is happening here that it made homefeel much farther away then usual and like I was peering into a totally different life.        

On Wednesdays, the entire staff at DE is off so some of us planned to have a Day-After Christmas Dinner at Timo's apartment.  Timo, Ashley and I spent the entire day shopping and cooking.  A lot of things had to be improvised because of a lack of ingredients and/or kitchen supplies, but on the whole it was a success!
 

 

 The Christmas Goose!  Ben bought one whole goose and had one cut up at the butcher, and had a funny story about trying to negotiate the price in Chinese.  I can't believe we actually had goose, it was like being in a Dickens' book.   

 Ben sifting through the trash because we misplaced the potato peeler and had a total panic attack.  We found it but then it sucked so we ended up peeling things with a knife.  I felt like we were cooking in a camper or something.

 This is my teaching partner, Karen.  She was so excited to come for her very first Christmas Dinner!  And I was pretty impressed that she tried everything, though she did eat a lot of the Chinese food that my boss, Rebecca, brought.  Karen's always feeding me things like liver, chicken's feet, and unrecognizable vegetables at work so I guess she was due.  She asked me a lot of questions about the mashed potatoes, her favorite dish of the night!  

 Timo took advantage of Karen being at his apartment to have her translate some of the buttons on his refrigerator.

 My pumpkin pies!  I had to make them sans evaporated milk, but it's ok they tasted great!  I was happy that I brought cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg with me from America.

Karen and I again.  I adore her so much! We work together all day long and I still want to hang out with her on the weekends!  Ben said, "You're basically obsessed with her."  

Funny...and a little true.

 Timo's dining room table only seats six so we decided to push together his living room chairs and lay his coffee table glass across the top.  Necessity is the mother of invention :)

My experiment with hot apple cider!  I put cinnamon, cloves, fresh ginger, orange peel and lemon peel into a giant tea bag and simmered in the crock pot with apple juice. Success!  It was awesome and reminded everyone of home.  We ran out of glasses to put it in so Timo drank his from a bowl.  Also, please take notice of his super adorable Mr. Roger's Christmas Sweater.

Candied Yams...maybe.  We're not exactly sure what kind of vegetable they were but they were delicious in our expensive butter.  We even scrounged up seven large marshmallows to put on top.

Goose! And also, beautiful flowers supplied by our friend Helen. 

The Feast!

 My plate! (Wheat roll, broccoli, carrots, cheese, goose, sweet potatoes, pineapple and cheese casserole, sea foam salad (which was Timo's dish: pears, lime jello, cream cheese, whipped cream, etc.).  Basically a Christmas miracle on a plate.  We also had olives, mashed potatoes, spinach dip, little smokies, and of course five kinds of purchased Chinese food.   

I was determined to have whipped cream for the pumpkin pie but that means that we had to hand whip it in a bowl.  I never imagined that I'd miss my Kitchenaide Mixer so much.  All the way through dinner we took turns whisking that damn cream and kept putting it back in the freezer to cool it down.  We worked on it for at least an hour until finally it set up!  Helen and Karen were mystified by the whole process but they liked the whipped cream a lot because I didn't make it very sweet.  However, they were super grossed out by the sea foam salad which the foreigners couldn't get enough of.

Karen eating her pumpkin pie with chopsticks.  Clearly the bowl is glowing with Christmas magic.

 

 We had a little gift exchange and I bought the Chinese version of Jenga. Karen ended up with it and we promptly opened it up to teach them how to play!  

 Karen and Helen were so hilarious, look how stressed she is!

A couple of weeks ago one of the families at the center gave Timo an old guitar.  Turns out Ben can play a little so we forced him to indulge us in a sing-a-long.  Helen and Karen were ECSTATIC about this, it's all I've heard about for two days since.  Helen grabbed my camera and took about a million videos of it and this is my favorite because you can hear her cute voice as she tries to figure out how to film.   

Merry Christmas!

Dumplings in Suzhou!

 “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” — Martin Buber

By this time you've heard about my relocation to Suzhou!  I was only supposed to be here for two and a half weeks to cover classes while they waited for their new trainer to get here, but three days with this enthusiastic, hardworking staff and I didn't want to leave!
I requested a transfer but Disney English said no because they have a policy that you have to work for six months before you can change centers.  However, Suzhou has had a cycle of people in and out of this position and they're desperate to get someone in that can create some stability.  So the management fought for me to stay and the transfer request went all the way up to be approved by the CEO!  


The most wonderful thing about Suzhou is that they all want me here!  It's so great to be working at a place where they great me enthusiastically everyday and go out of their way to help me settle in. 
Yesterday, when I announced to the parents that I was staying permanently they actually applauded.  When I told the staff, the Foreign Trainers gave me gigantic hugs and the Chinese girls started making plans to take me for KTV and shopping.  I never thought I'd be living in Suzhou, but clearly it's the best place for me :)   

Just a few weeks ago I was thinking about leaving China, now I'm so happy I feel like I could stay forever!  I leave work everyday exhausted and deeply satisfied.  I'm so optimistic about my future here!

 Last week everyone came to the center early and our Center Manager, Wilson, hosted a dumpling party!  His mother prepared the meat and dumpling skins and then we folded them up and boiled them.

 I was the only foreign trainer that showed up and Wilson was disappointed, but I scored lots of bonus points with my coworkers. :) They were all excited to show me their different methods of folding dumplings according to the city or region that they're from.  We had some quality bonding time.  The foreign trainers at the center are all men, so they told me over and over again how excited they are to have a female foreigner to hang out with.

 This is Jesse, one of the classroom assistants, he is vivacious and hilarious! I adore her!  Her classroom is next to mine and she's always popping in to sing with me or to criticize my Christmas decorations.

 Helen!  The first time I did a demo class with her as my assistant she listened to me give my opening spiel with a big smile.  Then she said,"Ashlee I like your accent!"  Obviously, my accent is no different from the other American's at the center, so I said "You mean that you like that my voice is so high-pitched?"  Helen: "Yes, yes, you sound very happy! I like you." 

 Some of my dumplings!

Dumpling feast!  One of these dumplings has a coin in it, if you get that one you'll have good fortune all year.  They were so delicious!

Quails eggs, Duck's Blood, and Brains..oh my!

“Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” 

– Frank Herbert
 

To celebrate me moving into the apartment my two wonderful roommates took me for hot pot!  

(You might remember this from an earlier post.  Each table has a heating element where you place different foods into boiling broth to cook.  It's so fun!) 

This is Xiang Xiang, and she is so sweet!  Her English is not amazing (though far better than my Chinese) but she is so eager to be my friend and to help me with everything.  She can't wait to show me the best markets and stores in Xiao Shan and she asks me a million questions about my job, my friends, my family, etc.  I think having a foreign roommate is quite the novelty, I don't care because I adore her! 

The girls ordered everything for our dinner.  They would look up the English word for each thing on their phones and their phones and then ask me, "Do you like?"  And for every item, no matter what it was, I said, "Yes".  They were going to so much trouble, how could I be picky?  What resulted was a table full of totally unrecognizable food. From the front to the back: spicy corn, a cold sweet mushroom jelly, tomato broth, some kind of sweet lemon spritzer drink, sliced mutton, duck's blood (congealed and cubed), egg dumplings, shrimp balls, fish balls, brain, sprouts, watermelon, and something else that I never figured out.

When they brought the noodles to the table, the noodle man came out and did a fancy demonstration of how they hand stretch the dough.  He was like a noodle ninja, throwing the dough over his head and under his arms.  Rachel, my other roommate, asked him to come back to the table three times insisting that I get a decent action shot with my camera.  I'm so glad that she has no problem being aggressive, because I totally wanted the picture.

Xiang Xiang and the noodle man.  I love this picture because Xiang Xiang is so cute!  Rachel and I poke fun at her because she makes the most hilarious expressions.

Front to back: Fish balls, pig's brain, rice cakes, and watermelon.  I actually really liked the fish balls and the rice cakes.  I know that most of the food sounds weird and gross, but it's shockingly delicious.  These girls wouldn't eat it if it wasn't good, right? (Not pictured: quail's eggs, loved them!)

This my other roommate Feng (she told me to call her Rachel, a name she chose after her favorite TV show- Friends!)  Xiang and Rachel have been giving me a hard time about 'My American Smile' they can't believe that I always smile with my teeth showing.  I talked Rachel into posing with this toothy grin because I said she'd look happier in the photo.  When she saw it she said the smile made her face look fat.  Sheesh.

So far they've taken probably 30 pictures of me to show their friends and family.  Which is fine by me because I wanted to take their picture too!

Me trying the demure, closed lip smile with Rachel. Hate it.  Rachel is wonderful, she's from Shanghai and moved to Xiao Shan for work.  She's a super smart, fashionable, modern career woman with a heart of gold.  She's very interested in American culture and actually plans on visiting Chicago this December.

Has anyone ever seen this fruit before?  It kind of tastes like a crab apple but there was no English translation when they typed it into their dictionaries.  Rachel and Xiang were shocked that I'd never seen it before, I figured it's probably regional.

The brain!!  This is Rachel's favorite and she was eager for me to try it. 

 So of course I couldn't say no.......

Here it goes.............

 

 So it was super disgusting.  Like really disgusting. I ate half of it to be polite but it was mushy and flavorless.  Blech!  Xiang thought it was pretty funny that I was eating brain, she refused agreeing with me that it was too soft to enjoy. 

 Hot pot took about 3 hours to finish and afterwards Rachel wanted to go "shopping" which in China means window shopping, a favorite pass time for Chinese girls.  We ended up going into an international supermarket and I bought dessert.  Neither of the girls had ever had wine (not many Chinese women drink) so I splurged and bought an over-priced bottle of Chianti.  We took it back to the apartment and stayed up late talking and listening to terrible American music. (The girls wanted to show me their love for ballads from the 1970s).  We had the best time!

I'm back!/ My apartment!

Hi everyone, I'm back!  I'm sorry for my lapse in posts! Things sort of fell apart when I got to Hangzhou (actually I'm not in Hangzhou, I'm in Xiao Shan which is like a suburb of Hangzhou).  I don't want to dwell too much on the details of everything that blew up in my face.  Maybe I'll save those things for a later post. The short version is that everything about my living and working situation was a disaster.

I had pinned so many hopes on my journey to China, and especially to my settling in Hangzhou.  I think the months of planning, preparing and dreaming made the disappointment of the reality so much more bitter.  I was crushed.

I actually thought about booking a plane ticket, flying home to Arizona and never looking back.  But then I thought, “What will people say if I come home from China after only two months?  All those people went to my goodbye party!  They’re all gonna know I’m a big fat lame-o coward.”

So I spent some time crying and then some time readjusting the way that I see the world and now things are a little bit better!

I've been thinking about the following quote a lot:

”If at some point you don’t ask yourself, ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ then you’re not doing it right.” — Roland Gau

I hope it's true for me!

Okay, so the first thing I can show you is pics of my new apartment in Xiao Shan.

 This is my front door, surrounded by wires and dead herbs.  One of my coworkers knew someone that was looking for a female to take over her lease in a three bedroom apartment with two other Chinese girls.  I went over and met the girls and decided to move in the next week.  Mostly, because the rent is super cheap, it's close to work and it's available. I was nervous about negotiating with landlords and utility companies that don't speak English (there are no English speaking services/realtors in Xiao Shan) so this place was attractive because I could move in and all that would already be done.

Clothes dryers are basically nonexistent in China, everyone line dries their laundry.  All of the buildings in my neighborhood have these cages around the windows of the apartments so that you can hang your laundry outside and if it falls, it won't fall to the street

 

 My neighbor is putting trays of things out to dry in the sun...maybe tea? or seeds/herbs or some kind?

 I forgot to take pics of my bedroom but I sure remembered to take them of my big, walk-in closet.

 My living room, pretty sure that TV doesn't work

 So I've yet to be in an apartment in China that doesn't have crazy LED lights.  So fashionable :)

The kitchen.  You'll notice that there's no oven (a big luxury in China, almost no one has one). The stove is gas and my roommates, who don't cook, don't pay the gas bill. So...I'm not sure what we're gonna do about that yet.

Also, please observe how clean the apartment is.  It was filthy when I moved in and I hired a cleaning lady (An 'Ayi'- literally 'auntie') to come and clean for 2 hours.  It cost about $8.

 The bathroom/laundry room. The water is solar heated (that's what that contraption is on the upper wall) which means showers have to be taken late afternoon-before midnight or cold water for you!

Washer with buttons in Chinese.  My first attempt at using it was silly, it kept stopping mid-load and I just kept pushing buttons until 2 hours later the clothes were clean.  I'm pretty sure I washed the first load three times.

Entry way complete with shoe cabinet and shoe rack so we can take our shoes off right when we come in the door and put on slippers.  So we all know this is a tradition across Asia and now that I've started doing it, I don't think I can ever go back.  The streets of China are pretty dirty (what with all the spitting and public urination) so of course it makes sense not to wear your shoes in your house.  The idea grosses me out so much that I'm sure I'll keep wearing house slippers when I get back to the states.

My roommates have only been in this apartment for 2 months and apparently there have been many tenants in and out of this place.  There is random crap everywhere...like birdcages and baskets in ping pong balls

In China it's very common that single people don't cook at all.  It's so cheap to eat out that everyone does that three meals a day.  I thought it was pretty that there's almost no food in the entire house. My roommates were shocked and delighted to hear that I cook and they said they want to try it.  The first night I was at the apartment they came home with eggs, fruit and sugar.  We had a super of poached eggs in sugar water (apparently it's a Chinese comfort food, sounds gross but it was pretty delicious.)

Standard issue fridge...tiny and energy efficient, like most things in China

The tea kettle is mine, when I moved in the girls were heating water for tea inside that rice cooker.  They have absolutely no cooking utensils, pots and pans, or anything!

Small, useless room off of my bedroom, with random crap in it.  I think it was probably built as a "drying room" for hanging clothes but was never fitted with bars across the ceiling

Stairwell, it's a six floor walk up.  In China there's usually no elevator unless it's over seven floors.

My neighbor's door with typical decorations for bringing good luck/ warding off evil.