Advertisement
China!
Speeding down a beautiful highway on route to Nanning, the story continues. At this point we have met a friendly Austrailian couple during the border crossing headed in the same direction. As we arrived in the city we found a room at the hotel connected to the bus terminal. A reasonable room for a fair price. Nothing to write home about 😊 Fairly clean and an easy place right in the heart of action.
After settling in we regrouped and went out to find a meal in a city where English is not commonly spoken. We were in for quite a treat! We walked the streets looking at the options in our corner of the city and found a little Mom & Pop restaurant on a side street. Venturing inside the next thing clear is that there was not a stitch of English in the whole place. We debated this fact for a few minutes and decided that we were all in for the experience and took up seats at a large round table. At this point the game of charades begins to try and get something we understand onto our order. At this moment it seems
appropriate that we should mention that we had the entire restaurant staff (5), and a party of eight or ten men all trying to help get the order through. Total mayhem and wonderful fun. In comes the Lonely Planet China book that our companions owned and its handy food names section, written in English and Chinese. We began to point at things in the book and in a few short minutes we had apparently assembled a sensible order! In a short time one delicious dish after another began to arrive on the table and soon we had a feast set before us. Truly a fantastic treat after a very long day.
The next morning we went out to find, don't laugh, Wal Mart of all places, to buy some special treats for our friends Jamie and Scott. Treats like cheese and butter, not to mention chocolate, bread, peanut butter, good wine and a whole bunch of other tasty snacks we found in the enormous food section. In fact, it’s safe to say it was the largest Wal Mart we've ever seen. Ok enough about Wally World...
China was different than other places we had traveled so
far this trip. This was the first country we had been in that didn't speak English at all. Trying to navigate through town to find a store was a task for sure. Not to mention ordering food. However, a population who doesn’t speak your language means those who would separate you from your cash won't use your language against you. We joked about this, but quickly noticed that there weren't people out touting and trying to get the tourist dollar. They were living their daily lives and prospering independent of tourism. Our awareness grew of how different this country was from the others so far.
We grabbed a cab across town, purchased our bus tickets and hurriedly boarded the bus and off we went to Qin Zhou. Arriving at the bus terminal, we were greeted by warm friendly faces of friends. Jamie, and Scott sporting some nice dreads, were right there to welcome us to town.
At this point we're introducing Jamie Rose, as a guest writer. So without further introduction....
I like to call it "what to expect when you're expecting... a visit to China". Ha! Here goes...
I asked
Justice and John if I could write a short bit on their blog about China... I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some thoughts on being American adjusting to life in the Far East.... I've been in here for 8 months now, long enough time to become desensitized to some of the vast cultural differences between the east and the west. However, when I found out that my close friends from Seattle were coming to visit, I began to re-evaluate some of these differences and take note of why China is, indeed, such a foreign place. I'll mention a just few of these here, as these were my thoughts in anticipation of Justice and John's arrival.
1. Personal space: There are a billion people here, and there is no word in the Chinese language equivalent to privacy, because it rarely exists. Public bathrooms with no walls between toilets, crowded shopping areas, 8 students per dormitory room, it is normal daily life. Also pushing and shoving are quite acceptable.
2. Squat toilets: in my flat is a western style toilet. Otherwise, squatting is everywhere. People are so used to squatting that you often see people squatting on the
curb instead of sitting down to have a rest.
3. Manners: No bless you after sneezing, coughing without covering the mouth is fine, spitting, cleaning the ears, picking the nose, cutting the nails and/or hair are all acceptable in public. However, no blowing the nose, this is rude.
4. Eating and Drinking: there are usually common dishes set in the middle of the table, each diner is given a small bowl and chopsticks. No drinking while eating, tea or beer is ok afterwards. Incidentally, once a woman has a baby, she never drinks cold beverages again, it is unhealthy for the body.
5. Body Language: crossing your legs is rude, women here cross their ankles and men do not cross at all.
6. Smoking: ok just about anywhere, including the police office and the hospital.
In addition to these differences, most people here don't speak English. This is how and why my boyfriend and I got ourselves to China - to teach English. The educational system in China is quite different than other countries. Children are mandated to be in school until 9 years old. At that point, to continue is up to the
parents, and they must pay to send their children to middle and high school. Both of these are normally dormitory-style schools, so at age 10 children go away to school. Some children will continue through middle school and stop, some will continue through high school and stop, and of course the lucky few go on to college. That is where I come in. At the point where I meet my students, they are 19 years old and have been studying English for no less than 6 years. Many students want to learn and know it will advance their career opportunities, many do not care. My job is to teach spoken English, and basically get the students to open their mouths and not be scared to talk (Chinese, as a people, are extremely shy). Luckily, all students tend to be excited to have a foreigner as a teacher. Foreigners are considered gold in China, and there are still few of us here that everyone stares, either with excitement or disbelief. We experienced this quite a bit when Justice and John were visiting, we were 4 young white friends walking down the street, it was very noticeable that we didn't quite fit
in. You can't help but feel like a rockstar at times 😊
I could go on and on about China and life here, but I think that's enough to fill your brain for now. I will say that it's difficult to be in a foreign place sometimes, and it's also difficult to live out of your suitcase and be traveling all the time. When Justice and John arrived, Scott and I were relieved to see our friends from home, and I think they were just as relieved to relax for a week with some real friends. It was a break from the strangeness of it all, it was a chance to, at times, close the doors and windows and talk and know that, in good company, we were home. I feel so lucky that they came and spent time with us here, we were all blessed by the experience and the sharing, and now look, I'm getting all misty-eyed just writing it!
I'll sign off by saying that though I can't be at the wedding, I love both of you and I'm so glad you were here and I'm sending you all my love for the
rest of this amazing journey..... xoxo, Jamie
Thank you Jamie!
We were incredibly fortunate to get to share time in Qin Zhou. Scott and Jamie have been a part of the community there for almost a year now and we were able to experience Quin Zhou with a local’s perspective. They have a good working knowledge of the language, the town and the fantastic campus. All their students greeted us so authentically and with great enthusiasm. The students were absolutely lovely, going out of their way to help us at any moment possible. They love Jamie and Scott and we were treated like royalty.
Our time there was filled with so many exciting moments. Some of which were; Riding motorbikes around Qin Zhou and out to the shore to go dolphin spotting, sitting in on classes taught by each Jamie and Scott (fantastic teachers!) playing for the classes, (let's just say, Fireweed is big in Qin Zhou) purchasing a huge pile of fireworks and a enormous cake for Jamie's 30th birthday bash, attended by friends and fellow teachers... two of which were actually from Seattle ( five Seattleites partying together in Quin Zhou, China,
Fresh rolls
Bet you can't guess what the wrapper is made from?it hardly seemed real), having a birthday lunch with Jamie and riding there three on a bike, Asian style through town attracting stares as we passed not because we were three on a bike but because we were all white...lol
And so many more subtle moments we will never forget! It was truly an honor to spend this time with close friends amongst such an unfamiliar road and to share a slice of their lives that could never quite be completely explained to someone unless they could actually see it for themselves.
Time passed too quickly and we soon found ourselves heading by sleeper bus toward Macau to catch a flight to Bangkok. For a country that does busses so well this trip left a lot to be desired, but we won't go into that here 😊 However, arriving in Macau was an amazing sight. Macau is the Vegas of the Orient. As much Portuguese as Chinese and totally independent, Macau is a thriving Asian hybrid community. We spent the day seeing the old city, had a fantastic Italian lunch, and even visited a casino. We caught our flight and were headed to Nepal with a layover of
four days in back to Bangkok. During our layover we took the opportunity to see the floating market that we had missed previously. It was Fantastic!
That about wraps up the China episode of "Where are they now" and another chance for us to express to all of you how amazing it is to have made this opportunity into a reality. As well as say thank you again to all of our family and friends holding together our lives back home...
So stay tuned boys and girls to find out if the Dynamic Duo will be stampeded by Yak herds in the High Himalaya, or will they see the sacrifice in Dubar Square and have their lives changed forever... Same travel time, same travel channel, for ...... Nepal!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0599s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Paul Krekelberg
non-member comment
Yay Onto Nepal
Right on Im glad your heading to Nepal. Please do take alot of pictures of the place I called home for 4 yrs.. I want to see them when you guys Come to Everett and then also when we are all in Mexico. Love you two and definitely look forward to seeing you guys Soon.. Peace Paul