Day Five- AKA HONG KONG IS MAGIC

Hong Kong is a magical, magical place. It has cheese. It has garlic rolls. It has paninis. It has bookstores of English books. It has wonderful shops full of toys. It sells the traditional Chinese Almanac. Everyone speaks English.

We started the day a little late- we left our room at ten instead of the usual 12:00pm- and took a 45 trip on the subway to the port. We left China and entered Hong Kong (though Hong Kong is technically a part of China, it has its own laws, internet censorship, and customs)- which was another 45 minutes. Then we spent another hour getting to the downtown part of Hong Kong. 

I had thought Hong Kong to be an island only, but it is also a peninsula or something- separated by a river. It's bigger than just a small island, however, and many areas had high hills (Iowans could consider them small mountains while mountain-dwellers will consider them hills) covered in forests. I had assumed incorrectly that Hong Kong was all city with no green- that is completely false. Hong Kong has a lot of green, and a lot of trees. I'd like to explore it someday. The green makes for a blanket; it feels as if we really were leaving China and going to a different country.

When we arrived in the downtown area, I went into the public bathroom, and I was surprised. Half the stalls are squat and the other half were sit-down. Each stall had toilet paper and the sinks had soap. These are little things that I'm sure will not shock my American audience, but certainly they were shocks to me. I'm lucky if the stalls in China have a door. 

We went down the streets and looked at finding food along with a couple of shops I wanted to go to. We stopped for lunch- paninis- and then made our way to the shops. We bought things, and saw a bookstore- a beautiful, English bookstore. In fact, Hong Kong's colonization by the English was very noted- people line up for buses, the cars drive on the left, the speech is a form of British Pronunciation (not sure which one, it's not quite BBC English, and has the Cantonese accent, I think), and the spelling is all British as well. On the other hand, it's very welcoming to foreigners from non British countries as well, with helpful signs saying "LOOK RIGHT". I wonder how many accidents happened before it became standard for those signs to be posted on the streets.

The bookstore was great, and I was tempted to buy a tarot deck before I decided against it. While I miss my tarot, I didn't quite like the look of the cards- better to wait for a deck I'm familiar with and like than to buy something I don't. I was also tempted to get a "Berlitz Learn Chinese in 30 minutes a day!" set, but if I'm not using what I have now, then why pay money for something I won't use? 

I feel these are fine questions, and I feel I made a wise choice. The downside was I'd already withdrawn money, and I had money to burn- in the back of my mind, it was like withdrawing had made me committed to spending all the HKD. There were places to transfer and exchange money, certainly, but it's easier to spend and bring back than to exchange, at least mentally. Even when I know the ideal is to transfer and place the money back in my account. I might try to exchange with Ann, as she uses HKD, or maybe I'll use it at the airport later. 

For dinner, we were walking on the opposite of Hong Kong Island; near a place called "Tsim Sha Tsui". We ate in a New York Style Pizza joint- with huge pizzas with legitimate cheese. They also had pasta and garlic rolls, beers and wine, and I felt that I was back in New York or something. Hong Kong felt like China's Chinatown to me. IT WAS WONDERFUL. 

After the pizza, we wandered around- all of us had our different ideas on where to go in order to find the light symphony. I pointed us North and East; Ann pointed us West and South, while Nicole pointed South and East. Though we kept moving, Nicole finally stopped and asked for directions: the correct way was actually North and West. It was for the best that we had directions, as I'm not sure our tempers were in the mood to be lost and miss the show after a tiring day of customs and walking!

We came back late- we left the downtown area at 8:15pm, and we made it to the transfer area at Shenzhen at 9. We stopped at a Japanese chocolate shop where we bought candy and chocolate in the bulk and then made our way through customs. By 11:15, we had made it back to our hotel, where we looked at our daily purchases, talked, and then fell asleep. Just like true explorers. 

Did I mention Hong Kong was wonderful and magic because it was. It was like going home to the states for a day. It was certainly not my part of the states, but it felt like being back in a country I could understand nonetheless. 

I will miss Hong Kong. I will return to Hong Kong, for it is magic.

Day Three and Day Four

Day Three

After arriving in Shenzhen, Ann was going to meet us. The ladies at the hostel were super kind. They were sold out of rooms, so we got an upgrade for free, meaning Ann could stay with us. Ann was going to meet us at our hotel at 10, but it ended up being about 11:30 instead due to trains, phone calls and other things. So Nicole and I chilled in our room. 

We went to a couple of local restaurants to eat, bought some wine and went upstairs and watched a terrible movie. Both Ann and I had seen it before, but Nicole had not. By the time we were done, we went to another restaurant to say thank you for opening our wine. We ordered, sadly, far too much food. 

Day Four: 

This day also started late, but everyone was around. We left at about 11:30 again, had lunch at a local noodle place (very cheap), and went to Ann's house to see a Russian Navel Vessel from WWII. It was very exciting. We spent maybe an hour and a half on the ship. It was very big, but I wasn't completely convinced that the bullets, torpedoes and missiles were dead. The ones used for touching and photo ops I'm sure, but some of the ones in the "Casing Room" (Chinese translation) did not look touched. We also had fun with the terrible English: At a bunk, showing how the Navymen slept on the ship, the English read, "These 'esidents' habitated in this location". Not even an "r" for "resident". :(

We had delicious bread and delicious croissants, very delicious, and we went to Ann's apartment. It was small. Very small. It was also on the sixth floor. What excitement! 

That night we went shopping in a very active shopping area that was full of cheap goods. I got many shiny things, like earrings resembling the ones I bought in Japan, a necklace and a hairpin- all gaudy, shiny things. But they're fun. And how often am I allowed to be sparkly?

Then we went to bed, remembering that the next day, we'd be going to Hong Kong!

Nicole is in China! Day One and Two

Day One: 

Woke up at 6 to try and finish cleaning for Nicole in my room. At 7, woke up the old man to get in the hired car to drive to the aiport. I managed to say what I needed this time, compared to when Mom came. "My younger sister comes to Kaifeng". While Nicole isn't my younger sister, I was afraid if there was no blood connection I would not have a free hired car. It's a great service. 

Nicole's plane was about 10 minutes late, but no worries! She arrived with her token blue roller bag and we drove back to Kaifeng- not on the highway but past all of the small dilapidated buildings outside of the city. We got back, entered the hotel and my room- where I promptly napped. I was tired. Afterwards, we had lunch at the Jaozi place, a very tasty first, bought bus tickets to the airport, and Nicole napped afterwards. Then dinnertime was with the exchange students Ben and Dennysha and the Oya English teacher Tom (who is not part of my program, but here the same amount of time nonetheless). It was a good dinner as well; we went to the Muslim Place, which is a noodle store and the most delicious store. 

Then on our way out the exchange students were going to hang with us, but I said no drinking as I didn't want to have to clean up at 5:30am in the morning. They moved on to Tom's place. We went to bed at 8:30ish. 

Day Two: 

I woke up at 5:30. We'd had no luck the previous day in securing a faster method to the bus station- the buses would run at 6:30 and the taxis demanded 4x the money on the night before, so we'd have to walk 40 minutes to get to the bus arrival on time. At six we woke up the old man in our hotel (but our hotel is supposed to open at 6, anyway, otherwise I would have woken him up earlier), I withdrew some cash and then we hoofed it to the bus station. We were there early (better than late) and then we got on the bus, transferred to another bus, and made our way to the airport. In the airport (we were there 2 hours and 15 minutes early), we managed to find a self check-in service (many people wanted the tickets or to talk to a person), and got on the plane. They served a meal for the two-hour flight. 

Ann was waiting for us in the airport! We made it to our hostel, did nothing, and then went to eat Indian food. I have missed being in a big city. I have missed other foods. 

After we walked around a bit, we went back to our hostel and went to bed. :)

Aftermath of finals

I woke up this morning and everything is dusted in snow. Not a lot, as the concrete has already melted whatever snow used to be there. It's very pretty. I'm glad that I live someplace with snow, because it's surprising how much it mellows me out when I see it. 

My sister has left for Africa. This means that there are no children in North America that descend from my parents. Two of us are in Africa, and one is here, in Kaifeng and might also be me. The jury's still out on that one.  

My finals have finished and I slept from 6:30pm to 8:45am. After 7:30 I was just rolling around in bed, though, to be honest, flipping from one side to the other to continue dreams. 

Now I seriously need to clean up and dust (Kaifeng is so dusty) so that when Nicole comes she does not think me a hoarder. 

finals

I have been up for 28 hours grading, trying to hit a deadline that my TA sent. I hit the deadline- but to go there means I have to go outside. I am not fit to go outside yet. 

28 hours grading. 

Doesn't matter though, because the night before last (when I slept), I dreamt of trying to gather four sections of things, put them in boxes, and try and get them to score 60 points or more. 

I'm glad for break. 

Air quality

For the past couple of days, there's been a very strong fog at nighttime, making everything in Kaifeng creepy as well as being run-down. Man, if you ever wanted to shoot a horror movie, Kaifeng would be a great place- people out of luck, people unable to communicate, people who are surrounded by wires and building decay. 

In the morning, there has been a frost, though it covers mostly the tops of buildings. Never plants, so it is a very unusual frost. 

Yesterday I checked the air quality- the same counter that is used for Beiijing. The scale only goes up to 300, and it says, "over" after that. The quality yesterday was 275. It was shoddy. 

Today, as I wake up, it looks like there's snow outside. There's a low, white cloud and I thought snow had been covering everything. As I went to pick up my early paycheck (yay early monies) I realized it was not snow, but dust. There is a white dust cloud covering the city. 

The quality is 410 and climbing. Here's the website: http://www.aqicn.info/?city=Kaifeng . 

On the upside, I don't smoke. I'm just inhaling concrete dust. 

Stuck between a semester and a finals place

Last year I wanted cheese. This year I want a vpn. I miss it. Sending this blog posts has been.... 

useful, but not ideal. 

I am currently stuck in the middle of grading; tomorrow is another slow day before all of my exams come in. I have 8 classes of exams (maybe 240) coming in on Monday, and another 140 arriving on Tuesday. Then my grades must be finished and in the computer. Scary. 

This next semester I no longer have additional classes; 24 hours of teaching per week was a lot more than I expected. Plus no weekends, and I was pretty isolated. Nor could I manage my time well, which makes me frustrated with myself. 

With the couple of days break before my finals are given, I've found myself with breathing room. I'm hanging out with the teachers and exchange students, beating myself up over not hanging out with them more, because they are all awesome people. However, given the amounts of time spent on work, and the frustrations at the department and the lack of free time, I'm not sure that I really had a choice in the matter. 

This upcoming semester, there's no extra work. There's just my 16 hours of class, and while I still have writing I don't have an additional 8 hours required to be in a classroom. So I'm looking forward to it. 

Also a friend, Nicole, is coming to visit! She's coming to visit me! In China! I am so excited. We're going to head to Ann's place because she's also here to visit Ann, and then back to Kaifeng for the Spring Festival where we can have firecrackers and dumplings. Tasty!

I am so excited to see Nicole. So excited. 

International Family

Today my brother in Ghana skyped me in China to call Mom and Dad in the states to send him a file via skype. 

If that's not international, I don't know what is.