Travels

Egads 2012!

2012-01-06T12:32:00.002-05:00

And the new things keep rolling in...

So my last post occurred when I was first starting my fall in our fair nation's capitol, Washington, DC as a White House Intern. Pretty snazzy, no? Yeah, no.

It was interesting, and certainly a once in a lifetime experience, but I was amazed to find the culture shock I went through moving from Detroit (with a brief summerish long stop in Albany, NY) to DC. Mostly just price wise, in DC one months rent was equivalent to about three month's rent in Detroit - and I got a downright cheap apartment by DC standards (with parking and utilities included, if you're wondering how I found such a great place check Craigslist). I was living in Glover Park, which is on the NW side of DC pretty much smack in between Georgetown and American University. Lovely neighborhood with an unofficial requirement of a baby or a dog to move in, but Glover Park taught me some DC lessons the hard way, aka my bike got stolen. Luckily I had some amazing, wonderful, and fantabulous friends who I had met over the summer in Vermont who took me in, fed me, let me hang out in their basement, and lent me a bike so I could continue biking to and from my internship.

All in all, it was a good experience. Granted, as soon as they told us that we weren't allowed to blog while we were a part of the internship I'd never wanted to get this blog going again so badly, but ce la vie. I've also never lived in DC before, and I'm glad I got it out of my system now, than a couple of years ago when I desperately wanted to go to school there. Who knows though, I may be back, but for now I've moved north and I'm thrilled!

I'm currently living in the northeastern section of central Connecticut (should that make any sense to you) in a lovely house on a horrible hill. Seriously, you take two steps onto this hill and you're suddenly your legs and lungs are burning. I feel like I should walk this hill several times a day, if only out of sympathy for my car. If you think I'm exaggerating, please come visit (I recommend not winter, you may get trapped by snows). I have a fantastic Connecticut family here, and we spoil each other with cookies, laughter, bread, good music, good company, and dreams of gardens to come.

Speaking of dreams to come, there will have to be another post soon about my newest crazy activities - aerials, circus (my roommate has promised to teach me how to walk on stilts), my new job, going back to ballroom at UConn, and whatever other trouble I can get myself into between now and the next post.

Love and hugs!
-d

Moving (again)

2011-09-05T22:15:00.000-04:00

So I've moved to D.C. and this will be my first and last blog post for a while. Not that thats any different from normal, eh? Since when have I ever had a consistent updating schedule? Actually, now that I mention it, I seem to update pretty consistently for the first few weeks/months that I move to a new place, but this time will be different.

No updating. At all. None. Until DECEMBER! I don't think I've ever been so excited for winter to come!

Basically I've started a new internship in the nation's capitol. If I say anything more about it before it's over, I'll have to kill you, but anyways, heres the skinny on what I'll be up to for the next few months:

Living in Glovers Park
Dancing
Biking
Trapeze
Aerials
Stretching
Running
Insanity
Working (a lot)
Hopefully finding a second (aka paying) job
Sleeping (occasionally - ha, I anticipate that will be happening around the same time that my blog begins again)

And generally learning about a new city - moving from one of the nation's most downtrodden and vibrant community oriented cities to a place that is so expensive, lush, and superficial is quite the culture shock. It never ceases to amaze me how diverse this country is. It makes me wonder if international relations is all I really think it's cracked up to be, or if I should just focus my energies instead on local issues "on the mainland" as my sister would say.

Or maybe I'll just go join the circus...

Peace, love, etc.
-d

ps: any advice, comments, and confessions are welcome

Huzzah!

2011-03-03T23:12:00.005-05:00

things I love about this week:

CARE PACKAGES EVERYWHERE <3

Getting on the treadmill at the YMCA and discovering that Bones was on (I can't remember the last time I watched TV, probably when I was in CT over winter break). Going to have to do that more often, except not for an hour on the treadmill. Ow.

My kids watching me touch type. Seeing the looks on their faces while I watch them and they watch my fingers. Pretty hilarious. We also offer a typing class on Tuesdays after school so I don't feel that badly about teasing them. Besides, they dish it out, why can't I?

Also, even though we only had two days of classes this week (if I have to spend more time in that cramped little office I swear...) the kids were doing really well on their math worksheets! There were a couple of them who, once we went through the first problem, I was able to turn them loose and only go back for the occasional consultation. I love those looks of epiphany! Those few moments and a good sense of humor is why I stick around.

That being said, it's about that time of year to get my butt in gear and look for things to do upon my City Year completion. As much as I enjoy leaving my future open to fate and whichever way the wind blows, it's probably time for me to start taking charge of myself.

I love it that when I find applications with interview essay questions my first two thoughts are, "drat I have to go back to writing in coherent sentences that people outside my job will understand." And, "crap, under 500 words!" If I asked my kids to write a 500 word essay they would just look at me in disbelief. I suppose I did the same think when I was their age...and now I feel old. Great.

Anyways, the weekend approachith. Time for sleep and debauchery. Not necessarily in that order.

Love, and goodnight!

-deb

PS: Since I've been stuck at the office this week I've found an excellent music blog through hype machine called My Old Kentucky Blog. The link was a day of music I particularly appreciated.

PS#2: Now that I'm in a music mood I may have to buy more concert tickets! DEMF is coming up (May is soon, right?), and Iron and Wine will be around as well! Oh crap, now that I went to the Royal Oak Music Theatre's website to get ya'll that link I see so many more good shows coming up! Doom.

Thaw

2011-02-14T11:48:00.017-05:00

Not to state the obvious but...it's February.

Being the horribly inconsistent blogger that I am, it appears that I haven't touched this blog since November, roughly when I went into hardcore hibernation.

Temperatures went up to mid 40 and low 50 this weekend, and blue skies have been playing peek-a-boo with the ominous grey since last week. What I've decided that I miss most about New York and New England, aside from varying elevations, is the winter blues - that clear and cold blue sky, usually right after a storm. It may make the temperatures plummet, but a chance for sunlight is more than worth it.

Needless to say, we've had nothing but grey since the end of November, to early February. And thus, my prolonged stint into absolutely nothing. I haven't even been able to summon up the energy to go dance! Pub trivia and friends have kept me going. I've even gotten into roller-skating on the west side at Northland, and broomball on the canal on the east.

Here is a picture of the canal on which we play broomball (except the canal is thankfully frozen when we play)! This photo was taken in 1987, but I think it's pretty close to the house that we play out of. By the way, this house is amazing! It's reminiscent of a fishing shack, except beautifully filled with hardwood (the walls are made out of gym floors of Detroit Public Schools!) and has a fantastic industrial kitchen. I will have to find/take pictures of the inside of the house someday.

Northland is an interesting place. When asking my fellow Detroiter corps members about Northland skating rink they told me to, under no circumstances, go there. However, when I told them that I wanted to take an adult roller skating class there they told me it would be fine. Apparently Northland is known for its fights in the parking lot. The adults are far more civil (and fun!) and Al is an amazing teacher. Stop by Fridays from 5:45-6:45!

Pub trivia at the Woodbridge every Wednesday night (and $3 drafts)! A $50 gift certificate goes to the winner - my team has a lot of fun, but we are by far the youngest and average about a 50/100.

Heres a picture of my favorite piece of sky in the world! The picture is a portion of the ceiling from The Palace Theater in Albany, NY. Sketchy backstage - very Phantom of the Opera - but a beautiful place none the less. The ceiling (see photo below) is what I've been thinking of all day, very similar to Detroit's sky current skyline. I love it.

The other wonderful part about February is that it's a rather short month, and that means it's almost March, and March is awfully close to April (roughly a month away), and while April is a tease, it means spring! And spring means summer, which means it is time for me to get out of my perpetual winter sleep, get my rear in gear and move for gods sake!

I've joined the Boll YMCA in downtown Detroit. It's a simply beautiful facility filled with friendly Midwesterners. After sitting down on an erg to workout on my first day there, within ten minutes I was asked to join the Detroit Rowing Club! Glad to know I've still got it - the jury is still out on if I'll actually join.

On top of releasing my pent up winter energy, I feel a great need to reject (most of) my wardrobe and start afresh. At the moment this isn't really a problem since I wear pretty much the same uniform every day for City Year, but it's Fashion Week in NYC and I've been keeping track. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

I love those dresses, but I really need to start buying clothes that are some color other than black (guess I am my mother's daughter). Good thing the red dress is definitely my favorite! And these are only a few of the designers whose slide shows I've looked through so far. I'm using my expensive taste and my distaste of debt (post college that debt thing seems to sneak up on you) to help motivate me to get a real (aka paying) job after City Year.

Time to start making lists and figuring out summer and next fall!

Love you all!

-deb

PS: I'm trying to learn/teach myself how to knit, and Zoe is learning that yarn is fun. Needless to say I have to start over on that pot holder I was making...

Sorry it's a little blurry, but being a cat she likes to move. A lot. And destroy things that move. Like my feet.

PPS: Next week the kids are off of school, so we City Yearers have an internship week. Most people are going to go do good deeds working with kids. I deal with enough kids. I'm going to learn how to fix my bike. Check out where I'll be interning at The Hub.

PPSS: More updates about City Year, school, kids, and their (and my) crazy antics some other time. In other words, blog to be continued...hopefully in a less sporadic manner.

November

2010-11-28T15:26:00.004-05:00

So much has happened this month, and yet this feels like the shortest month I've spend in Michigan yet!
Calendar rundown:

First week: on the 5th after work I left for Las Vegas! I slept the entire plane ride there, it was wonderful! There was a ballroom comp there on the 6th, but more importantly I got to spend time with family that I haven't seen since the last time I went there for my cousin Jeff's wedding back when I still wore glasses in high school! Came back on the morning of the 8th, was left at the airport, but by the grace of good karma got a ride back home. Had the day off.

Week number 2: my only full November week in school! Sadly there was testing for most of it. These kids take more tests, and more standardized tests especially, than I remember ever having to take. And the worst part of it all is that as half the class falls asleep bored while the other half stresses it proves what the kids don't know (if the tests are graded and if the results make it back to us, which they usually don't - while cleaning out a classroom closet at OPrep I found boxes upon boxes of old standardized tests, taken but never graded) and takes time away that the kids could use to learn.

Week number 3: Americorps celebration on Thursday in Lansing, MI. It was the second time I've been to the capitol, and the second time in November that I was able to use my newly found skill of sleeping anywhere at anytime. It was a really relaxing day of going to mediocre workshops. The last one I went to was an improv workshop, which was nice, I haven't done anything acting oriented in a while and I think I'd like to start again.

Week number 4: Thanksgiving! I celebrated Thanksgiving this year with a half day on Wednesday: laundry, a trip to the pub, and ballroom practice. Thursday: cooking until 4am, waking up at 8 to go to the Detroit Thanksgiving parade with the girls I was having dinner with, hung out there until noonish, baked/prepared dinner and pies until we ate at 4, hung out there talking, drinking wine, and watching Freedom Writers until it was time to go, made it home and was in bed by 1. Whew. I decided that that was more than enough to do for the week so I've stayed inside and enjoyed the quiet (my roommates just got home from their breaks about an hour ago) and caught up on sleep so I don't get sick.

Only 2 more days until December! I have my flight booked to come home (or well NYC) on the 21st! I should be back up in Albany by the 24th, and then down to CT ASAP! Back to Michigan on Jan 2nd

Waiting...

2010-10-26T20:44:00.011-04:00

Waiting to wake up:

At this moment I'm trying to think of how best to wake myself up safely from a nap. My team got out of work early today because of the impending apocalyptic storm that was suppose to beat the crap out of Detroit. One of my favorite things about Michigan is that it has the most amazing skies. Surrounded by lakes, and mostly flat you can see the weather for miles...if only the weather was ever consistent. Rumor had it that winds reached 80 mph in Ann Arbor today, and since weather tends to travel from Ann Arbor to Detroit (and occasionally vise versa) there was definitely a tornado warning in some places, and heavy wind/severe storm warning where I work and live. So we left early and I was able to go to the bank for the first time in a month and a half. Tis an exciting life I lead.

After my banking adventures I went home, lay on my bed with a good book, and after setting my alarm for around 7pm, passed out. I woke up at 6 - dusk. Now I know that when I wake up at or before 6 every morning, the sky is dark. For some reason, every time I've recently woken up from a nap it's around that dusk-ish time of afternoon/night and my mind freaks out that I'm about to be late for work. Usually the roommates are home and I can hear them playing video games, or making dinner - something that they wouldn't be doing before work, but today was different. I had actually almost completely dressed for work when I realized that my timing was way off. At least I know that my body can do things well, quickly, and automatically even if my mind shuts down or panics. I just need a way to stop the panic in the first place. More sleep maybe?

Waiting for the revolution:

Some of the thoughts I've been toying with is how different the kids I work with are from my generation (not even a ten year difference) and why. I know from history and international relations classes, talking with friends, parents, and grandparents that my generation has it easy. Sure my graduating high school year was the first year that colleges realized they didn’t have nearly enough spaces for the offspring of the baby boomers, and that my college class graduated into a world struggling with financial and social issues, but it's all in how you decide to compare generational struggles.

When it comes to my students, the biggest complaint I hear of them, and the thing that we as corps members talk about most often is a lack of respect. Not all of them, but most of the kids have literally no respect for their teachers, for each other, us, friends, etc. Often times I think that it's a product of the environment they grew up in: gang violence, single parent households, some have uninvolved parents, drug abuse and peer influences, and possibly most important a general cultural view of how kids in the US view teachers (especially compared to the respect that teachers receive in other nations). But topping all of those issues, is how respect has become a twisted priority. I've been told by friends who have grown up in these environments that it's often more important to a parent to give their kids the latest outfit, new kicks, and a bangin' cell phone, than it is to pay rent, heat or make a car payment.

For a kid, it's about automatically having physical property (clothes, shoes, etc) and having people respect you for the material wealth that it brings rather than for your academic aspirations, how you do in school, and where you want to go next. For most of my kids, they say that they want to go to college, but they don't know how or where. They expect to be given a scholarship automatically, but most of them are failing their core subjects. I can't tell if they want to get out of the place they've been brought up to believe is awful, when they've been told that theres someplace better out there, or if they've accepted where they're from and are too scared to try to get out because they don't know anyone who has successfully. As a result they respect one another based on shallow visuals and material wealth. Thus in class, they're too distracted by these things to care about paying attention and getting out of school instead of being held back and less likely to graduate. My hope is that with City Year providing strong peoples as role models, that these kids will look up to us and realize that there is somewhere else they can go.

Or maybe these kids have figured out something that my generation missed. That if they stop paying attention completely to older authority figures and forge on ahead, they can control the world. They seem to have figured out the power of a mob, and because of that the only control that we have is through grades and bribery because chivalry and respect are dead. The biggest issue with that is mob mentality is dangerous, scary, and misinformed. Combine that with a lack of focus and education and you have quite the storm building up for a frightening future of apathetic leaders and a US thats falling father behind than ever. Pessimistic, maybe, but it's just a theory.

Waiting for Superman:

Still wondering why I get up before 6am every day, and work 10 hours plus every day?
Why should I bother being at a job that if I was to be paid by the hour instead of a stipend gives me half (or less in some states) of minimum wage?
And what difference can I, one small and insignificant person, make on a failing educational system?

Go see this movie. It inspired me to keep going, and hopefully will give you some insight into why I bothered to travel to another state where I have no connections to work for a year. It really is an incredible movie! If you're a crier (like me) bring tissues. Waiting for Superman discusses everything from charter schools, to teachers unions, and a comparison of the US to other nation's educational systems. Take it in completely, and then review, think about it afterwards with a grain of salt. But mostly, the stories are incredible. Be prepared to think about these kids long after the movie is over.

Just waiting...

City Year works in schools from Monday-Thursday (on Fridays we have training or service projects). As a result, I couldn't be in class last Friday during the math quiz, so when they were returned to the students in class on Monday, I got to ask how they think it went and how they did. On the Thursday before the quiz I had one student come to me during our after-school tutoring hours. He told me point blank that he understood nothing about geometry and was going to fail the quiz. We worked together explaining definitions, going over what terms he would need to understand to pass the quiz, and practicing on the homework. As long as he studied, he would be in pretty good shape for the next days quiz. This kid is an amazing student! Hes in 10th grade, and is studying calculus after school is over with a college tutor. He tells me that he hates math and is no good at it. I tell him the same thing about me, and we both have a laugh.

On Monday, sitting next to another student I ask him how he did on the quiz. He shoots me an award-winning smile and holds up his paper: 8/8

The student I was sitting next to at the time looks at his paper and her jaw drops. "Miss Deb," she says, "I'm jealous! I know he ain't that smart." I laugh and told her that he came to me for help with math and that working through it together he understood it, studied it, and got a good grade. "What, really?" she says. "Give me a permission slip, I need to do that!" We have permission slips for all of our students so that they can come to our after-school program. I love it that she was jealous of his good grades and feels a need to beat him by coming to our program to study. It gives me hope, and moments like this are all I need to keep going and make a difference this year.

PS: If you haven't seen it yet, heres a picture of my team on Opening Day. Random facts about us: we have the most diverse team in the core, the kids think that Anna and I are the same person, our team mascot is the ninja. We had just gotten our jackets earlier that day and look pretty freaking spiffy!

(top, left to right - Heather, Malaika, Josh, Julia, Kiana, Brian
bottom, left to right - Anna, me, Shantel, Sara)

Good News - mostly

2010-10-20T20:15:00.001-04:00

We finally have a 10th grade math teacher! It only took until October 14th, a month and a half of school gone, and CYD physically in school for about a month. I can't count the number of times that people have told me, "well thats DPS (Detroit Public Schools)" and meant it as an explanation, not merely as an excuse. Well I'm sick of it being an excuse and a reason. I want DPS to stand for an absolutely amazing district of schools full of college bound kids.

Right now we have rumors that to stop the flushing of funds DPS is going to close even more schools. OPrep (my school) runs on a "small school" system. My classes are full with anywhere from 25-35 students per class, depending on who shows up on any given day, hardly small by my standards. One of the most recent rumors that I've heard says that while DPS will try to institute the two teacher system, with one for special needs and the other who specializes in the course subject there will be an average of 60 students per class. At the same time as this is going on theres been a huge shortage of teachers. At the end of each school year it's been DPS's policy to pink slip all teachers and then re-hire at the beginning of the next school year. As a result many teachers have retired or left, rather than be left wondering. On top of that, the hiring doesn't even come from within a particular school - schools have to put in teacher requests at DPS headquarters, some that apparently take months to complete. Our new math teacher was actually the 10th grade Chem teacher. It was more efficient to switch him to math and hire another Chem teacher than it was to wait for a certified math teacher to magically appear.

Meanwhile, I've learned more about teaching math than I ever wanted to. My kids tell me daily that they hate math, and my answer is always the same, "me too," while they look at me with shock. I've been told that maybe it's because math isn't my favorite subject, or that I used to have to struggle to catch on to complex topics before they compounded, that makes me a good math tutor. I understand what it means to be completely lost in math class, but for many of these kids thats acceptable. One of my roommate's middle school students test in at a 5th grade average for math. I'm lucky if most of mine know multiplication, but that seems like a paltry complaint next to other problems. My other roommate is lucky if the same students show up from day to day. Thirty of them recently were charged with manslaughter when last week they curb stomped a kid who died in the hospital the next day. What a mess.

After that, I just feel thankful that my kids have a safe place to stay after school. Last week we started our after school programs (ASP), with art and dance on Tuesdays, poetry/rap/spoken word on Wednesdays, and cooking on Thursdays. We also have tutoring for the first 40 minutes (which they are required to show up to if they want to come to the other half of the program), and one on one guitar lessons Tues-Thurs. I'm in charge of the dance ASP with another team member whose an awesome follower, leader, music partner, and general good sport ("this is how not to lead your partner" "this is what the sketchy-guy hand hold looks like, now DON'T DO IT"). She will also be teaching the hustle class, and I can't wait! Last week when we first began we had four girls in the ballroom class doing American Tango. Yesterday I announced that we would be leaving to go dance and walked out the door expecting about the same number to follow me. I turned around and saw that I was leading 30+ kids down the hall. They're pretty awesome, and great sports, but mostly it's really funny to watch them attempt to salsa down the halls when they think no one is watching. Even today was a great day for the ASPs.

Today I walked in the classroom that we were using towards the end of the rap/poetry/spoken word ASP that my teammates were running. The students were presenting original pieces. Almost as soon as I walked in one the girls from my math class ran over. She asked if I could read her piece and of course I said said sure. After I finished, I turned to her and said that I enjoyed it, and she goes, "yes, but can you READ it? Out loud?" For being so talkative in class, she has some hardcore stage fright, but it was really cool that she likes and trusts me enough to do justice to her piece. She was so nervous for it's reception from her peers, that she put her head down on the desk and covered her eyes while I got up and read it. They loved it, I can't wait until later in the semester when she has enough courage to do it by herself!

My last joy of the day was that one of my students left her purse in her friend's bag, and in her purse her bus card, so she wasn't going to be able to stay after, she had to find some money or get a ride home. As shes telling me this another student walks up to come into our ASP. He and our team leader have just talked to his father whose given him the OK to stay for our ASP (we have to have a signed permission slip from a parent, but verbal consent works just as well for one day), and who will be picking him up afterwards at 4:30 when the program is over. Apparently they live around the corner from each other and hes willing to giver her a lift home, and to carpool in the morning! Before they left though I pulled her aside to make sure she was comfortable with the situation. She confessed that she was a little nervous because they're not very good friends, among other reasons. As insurance I gave her my CY phone number and told her to call me if anything went wrong, or if she was uncomfortable for any reason. About an hour later I get a call from her on my phone.
"Miss Deb," she says. "I just wanted to call you to tell you that my sister and I got home safely."
It was so adorable! "See you tomorrow in class!" I replied.
They really are becoming "my kids" - I feel like such a mom!

Problematic

2010-09-18T21:32:00.003-04:00

It's the middle of September and I'm about half way through my bulk box of cranberries. This means whomever (ahem - former roommates - coughcough) from the east coast comes to visits me first, needs to bring (probably from the Willi food coop) a 30lb box of Ocean Spray, sweetened, non-organic cranberries. Please, I'm begging you, and I'll reimburse you.

In other completely unrelated news, the polydactyl kitten got fixed this week and is running around like a maniac again, still being adorable. I have yet to charge the batteries in my camera. Once I finally get around to doing this, please do not ask for pictures of my school/students. As a part of City Year, we're not allowed to post pictures of our kids on facebook, myspace, blogs, etc, but we can give those same pictures to CY to use for publicity. I understand that the kids would have to sign a waiver before we use them/post them for our benefit, but I don't appreciate CY getting free range to use our pictures (should we choose to share them) for shameless self promotion.

Enough with that, photographic bitterness aside (and overrun with Moocy's beautiful summertime pictures - see link to Mixed on the right), this week has been pretty amazing.

We started our first day in school at OPrep on Monday, and continued there through Thursday (we have Fridays off-ish to do training and other service in the communities). Monday was pretty awful. We were confined to our CY room for much of the day, unable to meet with the principle (whose office is about three doors down - OPrep is run on the small school level with roughly 200 kids, so no one is very far away). We ended finally ended up going into the classes on our own during the seventh and final bell. Overall, Monday was a waste.

Tuesday we had a class assembly, and I was immediately reminded of why I wanted to leave high school. The administration kept the kids there about an hour longer than scheduled and they were losing focus rapidly, but then again, so was I. Our presentation was clearly the most exciting part of the assembly. It's bizarre, but I swear that all high school auditoriums (much like coops) have the same smell, instantly transporting me back to Albany High. Except for the fact that none of the lighting or sound technology that was left could have possibly been from this, or the previous decade, the auditorium was comforting in an "I've come home" sort of way. During our presentation we said where we were from (New York sounds much better than Albany), educational background, and an interesting fact. Mine was unsurprisingly about ballroom. After the assembly, the guidance counselor (a truly amazing woman, she pretty much runs OPrep) approached me with the words, "we need you." I had kind of figured that was the whole reason CY was at OPrep, but she elaborated, saying that they were looking to hire someone to teach ballroom and they had been given only one option, but that she wanted me to teach it as an after school program (ASP). If I can do anything to save this school money I will (they can't afford a gym teacher so no gym class, not a terrible loss but it would provide a welcome break from the monotony of the day, don't even ask about art or music programs), besides, my team had already discussed doing a dance ASP.

Thus I have been reduced to trying to get the ballroom part of this program figured out/written down/approved ASAP by learning the guys parts by literally waltzing in-between our cubicles in the CY office. I may have to ask some of the U of M guys for help with this one.

The rest of the week we rotated through classes, getting to see different teachers methods of controlling the class, how few books were available, getting to know the kids, and occasionally teaching a class or two (which we are absolutely not supposed to do). For example, it is the second week of school for Detroit Public Schools (DPS) and our 10th grade math class (Algebra 2) has yet to have a teacher. The kids are frustrated, and I'm right there with them. It truly sucks, but thats why we're here - to make things a little easier.

I'll end this post with a story. In CY we have a bunch of "founding" (aka adopted for moral value) stories, one of which is called the starfish story. It's about a girl whose goal is to make a difference one small step/person at a time. Our starfish are the kids who seemed hopeless, or unwilling to change/make any effort at the beginning, but end up surprising us all. One of the kids I've been working with, we'll call him R, has trouble focusing. You can tell hes smart, but his focus bounces from place to place faster than I can follow. On Tuesday he and I looked up his schedule and discovered that he has been attending some of the wrong classes (school had already been in session over a week), on Thursday I was finally able to follow up with him and he was (understandably) behind and didn't want to do his reading. I made a deal with him and part of it was getting him a book to sign out if he met me at his classroom at the end of the school day. As I walked back into class late on Thursday I was skeptical, but optimistic - he had a test that he needed to pass in this class on Friday. Sure enough, he turned the corner and made straight for the classroom and the book. I think he more surprised than I was.

But really, thats all these kids need, someone whose willing to follow up with them, to say that they care when they make an effort, and who understand how hard it can be to take that step. So many kids don't believe that we'll be there the next day, but we're going to be there until June, and despite my inherent loathing for high school, I can't wait.

-deb

ps: We get our final class assignments on Monday. First choice was 10th grade Math, second choice was 9th grade History, third choice was 9th grade Bio.

Welcome autumn!

2010-09-04T18:42:00.010-04:00

Thursday it was in the 90s, hot and humid. Friday it rained and suddenly the weather is 70s and below! Michiganites (Michiganeians?) have been warning me that if I don't like the weather - wait five minutes. I laughed, sounds like New England weather - silly me, the change to autumn really was crazy!

And of course with crisp air and beauteous falling leaves comes...kittens?

Zoe (it’s still a potential name, changed rapidly from “Patches” which didn’t fit her at all) is a 6-month-old female adopted today from the Michigan Humane Society! She seems to be pretty energetic (still kind of a kitten/teenager), although I think all the moving has tired her out since she is currently asleep on my bed...

The humane society told us that she wasn't a stray off the street, but that someone had recently dropped her off (and that today was her first day in the cage!), but they didn't give a reason as to why. No worries. She seems to be a bundle of energy, and her bio sheet said, "I need to be reminded of the rules a few times," but really, what cat doesn't??

Check out her feet! I think the total is seven toes on one paw, and six on the other...yeah, shes pretty awesome.

I swear I gave her food and water! Also, she is pretty small (about 5lbs), but thats to be expected since shes only half a year old. For those of you who were familiar with former pets of mine, her dimensions remind me of Angel - long and lean and definitely a lover, not a fighter.

More adventures to come! Have a fabulous long weekend!

-deb

September

2010-09-02T22:58:00.010-04:00

Tomorrow is the last day of City Year Detroit (CYD) training...because of this, I feel that now may be an appropriate time to mention that the writings and whatnot that appear in this blog do not (in any way, shape or form) reflect the opinions or thoughts of the City Year organization or of Americorps. I know that they've done an excellent job inducting me into their mindset, but if the above were false it would be far too bizarre.

It's been an intense couple of weeks, heres the rundown
Orientation: August 9th
First day: August 16th
Basic Training Retreat: August 18th-20th
Pledge and PT tests (physical training - I've officially bought into it. Really easy exercises, but if I fight doing them all year, I'll make myself miserable): August 27th
Red Jacket Ceremony (emotional day, lots of crying when people received, and dedicated their jackets/year of service to someone. Love you Hannah! Keep up the excellent work, amazing spirit, and general badassery in Tulsa!): Today (September 2nd)
Last day of Training: Tomorrow (September 3rd)
First day in Schools: September 7th

I work a minimum of 45 hours per week, and must complete 1700 hours by graduation in June. If you try to contact me during the weekday/some Saturdays and I only respond to you around lunchtime or afterwards, it's because I'm at work forever and ever. Amen. The Detroit Corps have been split into 8ish different teams/schools: Cody, Osborn, Emerson, Bow, Veetal, Phoenix, P3, and the Heroes teams (technically divided into Young Heroes = elementary school, and City Heroes = middle/high schools). I will be in a school called Osborn College Preparatory Academy, which will henceforth be known as, OP (or OPrep, or OzzyP...you get the gist).

Osborn is the general school (for some odd reason every time we talk about it I picture Albany High, even though we've driven past it and it looks nothing like AHS), and is actually divided up into four schools, or houses. Each with it's own administration, and wing of the building. OP had only 9th grade last year, but is working its way to becoming fully functioning with all high school grades. This year we will have 9th and 10th. As of this moment in time, my OP team (there are 8 Corps members, and 2 Senior Corps) is in a unique position...City Year was told last Thursday that our principal had left and as far as I know, again, at this moment, he has yet to have been replaced. School begins on Tuesday. What this really means is that we may not be allowed into the school (yet) because we haven't talked to the administration, so it's only a matter of time before we start; we just get to start a little late.

At this point it's mostly a lot of planning: clubs, activities, afterschool programs, morning greetings, possible set ups for tutoring/how we want to divide ourselves once we're in the school (stay with teacher or rotate by students?) and the problem is that a majority of these decisions can't be made until we're actually in the school and talking with the administration. But we'll get it done, so

This really isn't that big of a deal. We're already under contract to be in Osborn, and so there we will go. The first day of CYD in schools was in October, and that date is still known as our official start date (subject to change next year), it's just that this is the first year that we would be going into schools on their first day, for the first time. Ever. Yay!...oh wait. So really it's no big deal we're just starting late, it's still earlier than when we would have normally been headed there. There are bigger things to worry about.

Today a couple of teams went over to Bow to help them get ready for the year. A nearby middle school had just closed and so the students and supplies have been split between Emerson (20%) and Bow (80%). The school was a mess, and the Bow team was a little freaked out as to how the school would even be able to open on Tuesday. In addition the 200 middle school students are being divided into a tiny four classroom wing of the school (I believe that this is where the Bow team will be focused)! Today 35 of us came over to help out with clearing hallways, taking out trash, moving furniture and books, setting up classrooms and bulletin boards, and my personal favorite job: making nameplates to go outside the teacher's rooms. With Word. It made me realize just how deeply I hate Word and miss using Photoshop and Illustrator! On the bright side I got to avoid most of the sweat and heat by sitting in the principals office (first time for everything), and have awesome conversations with her and one of the secretaries. On the downside I didn't get to finish and I want to go back tomorrow! Other Corps members relayed the same sentiments. This bodes well for the rest of the year. I expect to be exhausted (as a general rule) but extraordinarily happy.

Good luck to Bow!

-deb

PS: 1) We got our, or most of our uniforms yesterday (my dress pants/shirts were waaaay too small. If I extended my arms the sleeves moved half way up to my elbow). They are not flattering, but the vest and quarterzip fleece are comfy! And more importantly Timberland boots!
2) Yay ballroom!
and now for something completely different:
3) Yay, aerial yoga - I soooo want to take a class! Thoughts?
http://www.detroitflyhouse.com/classes.php

Tigers!

2010-08-24T20:55:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I went to my first baseball game - I'm a bad Yankees fan. The Tigers swept Kansas 12-3, it was a full moon, and the tickets were free (nose bleed right behind home plate). All in all, a wonderful night!

Beautiful afternoon view

Full moon rising

Pictures were taken from my phone...more pictures/posts to come because that same day we also went to Lansing, MI, and last week I found out what school I'll be serving in!

Quaker: Steaks and Lube

2010-08-16T19:50:00.002-04:00

Driving around in an unfamiliar state is well...new. The title above was my favorite (or most memorable) sign on my drive to Michigan. I believe it was on my way through Cleveland, OH.

So far, the traffic signs and signals that have thrown me for a literal loop are the "no left hand turns" at every intersection, thus leading to a Michigan Left/Michigan U-Turn, and much confusion. On major roads, to make a left across traffic you: turn right, head to the left hand lane, and cross the divider to head in the opposite direction, make a left hand turn and you're facing in the direction you need to go. Unnecessarily complicated, and it messes with my GPS.

Before leaving for Michigan, I upgraded my phone to the Droid. The best part about it is easily the GPS, that being said, it still doesn't stop me from getting lost. Yesterday I helped some friends pick up a washer that they found on Craigslist. My GPS found a street with an identical name, but in the ghetto. Even though it was unnecessarily confusing, I'm glad it brought us there.

The ghetto looked unlike any other ghetto I've ever seen. It was a normal city street, in a once normal neighborhood, except that three quarters or more of any given block was abandoned, trees growing through houses that were boarded up and lonely. Like a majority of the population just got up one day, left, and never came back. The most bizarre part was that the neighborhood was so universal and familiar in the types of housing (pre-run-down stage) that if a large portion of the population got up and left, that neighborhood could be anywhere.

I need to charge my camera batteries and go back.

-deb

PS: First day of work was today! There are about 70 of us corps members in City Year Detroit, and everyone seems really enthusiastic to be there. Tomorrow is a service day, aka we're helping out in the community, and Wednesday we leave for a retreat. I'll be back Friday night, possible bbq after we get back, probably more dancing Saturday and definitely Sunday - I'm kind of in love with the University of Michigan ballroom team, they're good peoples!

First days in Michigan or: How do you pronounce Ypsilanti?

2010-08-10T22:35:00.002-04:00

From Albany, NY to Inkster, MI via I-90: ten hour drive, eleven hours in the car. I couldn't see out of my back window, and my passenger seat was full of guitar, papasan chair base, and other driving essentials, but I made it! The forty-five minute nap with my feet out the driver's side window in Ohio definitely helped. Next time, though, I'm buying some of those Starbucks mocha drinks for driving inspiration.

I arrived late Saturday night, mentally and physically drained, and proceeded to empty my car. Might not have been my smartest move, but I knew that the stuff needed to come out of my car, and I had a bit of manic adrenaline left over. After obtaining my keys (supposed to be left at the guard house/entrance, but forgotten by the staff), there was little incident in moving in. I only dropped one set of drawers, that was towards the end of unpacking my car, and thankfully I missed my foot. After a couple of showers, hours of unpacking, the purchase of a bed, and the disassemblation of some very ugly curtains, I feel officially moved in.

Inkster is my new residence in the burbs of Detroit, or one might call it, the downfall of Detroit. After being here for a couple of days, as near as I can tell Detroit is tiny. The city seems sparsely populated by a couple of residential/student areas, a small downtown filled with offices, and then it expands out into the suburbs. As much as I loth the burbs, Inkster is a pretty key neighborhood. I think I'm about half an hour away from everything: City Year HQ, Ann Arbor, shopping centers, a nearby ballroom studio...it's surprisingly convenient.

Sunday night I visited Ann Arbor for the first time, and kind of fell in love. Ann Arbor (aka a gorgeous and slightly larger version of Northampton - complete with Urban Outfitters!) is the home of the University of Michigan, and the reason I went was not for the football (apparently Ann Arbor becomes the largest city in Michigan during games - more importantly I was informed that the last time they played UConn, U Michigan lost), but of course for ballroom. Within 24 hours of hitting Michigan, with assistance, I found my way to the U Michigan Ballroom Dance Club/Team. The event (a social dance) was run by the club, but was supported strongly by the team, and they're awesome! The team was welcoming, and really nice. I'm excited to head back there next Sunday to meet more of them. I think that most weekends will be decently taken up with social dancing.

Monday I had registration with City Year - wonderful hours filled with paperwork, rules, and regulations (yes, my nose ring needs to come out while I'm at work). After that, errands and getting to know the area. Today the last roommate came in (I'm living with two pretty chill guys - Cal and Blake), we went out for a bit, and then had a bbq with some other friends from City Year at their place in Michigan. All in all, everyone seems easy going, but interesting and motivated at the same time with crazy diverse backgrounds. I have high hopes for this year, and for this weekend: Friday - social dance at Dance Elite, Saturday - State wide garage sale at a high school in Inkster and out with friends, Sunday - social dance at U Michigan!

...at least, thats the plan for now. Those of us who registered late (aka Monday or later) don't start until next Monday. Meanwhile I plan to become acquainted with the neighborhood, think about which items I've forgotten in Albany, dance, sing, run, flirt with the idea of getting a part time job (Anthropologie...hmmmmmm), and generally frolick about.

Love you all and any Detroit advice or tidbits you can find would be pretty awesome to hear about (comments are great!).
I shall leave you for now with a link from one of my former roommates - strange to say that, really I still think about her as my current roommate - Maiga. Yay for design blogs!
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/01/detroit-design-guide.html

-deb

2008-12-17T07:44:00.000-05:00

My jet lag seems to have placed me somewhere over Europe.

***

Hahahahaha so I'm going through old posts on this blog and this was written sometime during the week I got back from China in 2008. It is now 2010 and so much has happened! Maybe for lack of anything better to do this summer I'll start updating again. Might be time to revamp the blog too. (I finally posted this on 5/21/10)

Coming home

2008-12-13T04:28:00.001-05:00

I have at least a couple more posts and pictures to put up, but they will have to wait. I think I'll do them on the plane ride (in less than 24hrs!) back when I'm not asleep.
See you all soon!

The Countdown

2008-12-01T07:04:00.001-05:00

I have about two weeks left in Shanghai - one left for classes, one for finals. I can't decide how time has moved, no matter the length, quickly or slowly it passed all the same and we have now reached December. On my way home today I was thinking about all of the things I'll miss here...old men flying kites all day, being surprised that there is a Westerner on the subway (forgetting that I'm one too), and deliciously questionable street food.

That being said, I still have some things to do before I leave: Moganshan Lu art galleries, the Shanghai Museum of Modern Art and Yuan Gardens being the more important ones. I should probably also head back to the fake market at the Science and Technology Museum to buy another suitcase. I'm not overly confident that all of my books, clothes, and things will fit into the one that I have.

Either way, as soon as I get the pictures I have a post about the weekend before Thanksgiving that needs to go up (I went with friends to Suzhou - a water town about half an hour away from Shanghai by fast train), plus last Friday was awesome and on Saturday I went to a much needed rock concert.

The lay out for the next few weeks is as follows: paper to be done this Wednesday, presentation next Monday, final the following Tuesday, final the following Thursday, fly home Sunday the 14th, which as fate would have it is also when I land home, only six some odd hours after I took off. Posts will be done in between those important sounding dates. Until then, stay warm!

-deb

2008-11-28T06:48:00.001-05:00

I hope everyone reading this is in the best food coma ever.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Beijing

2008-11-15T23:10:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I got a chance to see a Chinese couple play Chinese red light, so while I feel like that is a perfect stopping point, time to come home, something is stopping me. And yes, I am talking about something other than class and my ticket home (which, incidentally, is in almost exactly a month). I blame Beijing.

We started out the trip by train. The fast train to Beijing has no stops (unlike the one I took to Lhasa) and takes almost exactly 12 hours so leaving Friday we arrived in Beijing bright and early Saturday morning with a full day ahead of us. Without stopping first at our hotel that day took us straight to the Great Wall of China. We went to the Mutanyu, a small tourist section of open wall a little over an hour outside of Beijing. To get to the Wall itself we took a ski lift up the mountain and for the first time I stepped onto the Great Wall of China. It is awesome. My next goal is to go to Egypt to see the pyramids.

View from below the wall.

That really steep section in the distance is what we climbed, turned around at and came back.

Mutanyu has been renovated and re-renovated for safety sake of the thousands of tourists that visit. Once arriving we turned left and walked down and up, and up and down until we reached the end of the reconstructed wall. To reach that end you have to climb a bazillion stairs. My motivation was my friend Sardeep who, while I was content to sit at the bottom of the stairs in the sun to avoid expending the energy to go up only to come back down, made it her personal mission to conquer those stairs. Climbing them was not easy, the wall is often a windy place, but at the time we visited the sun had baked it warming everyone and creating a sickly simultaneous hot and cold feeling on the way up. Combine that with a fear of falling and small French children running up and down the stairs under your feet and I would definitely say the hike was challenging, but well worth it. I know that if I hadn't gone up, I would have regretted it, and missed the fabulous view that resulted.

View from the top.

After our group made it to the top of the left (west?) section of wall we about faced, retracing our steps and then doubling them to the toboggan slides down the mountain and back to the bus. On our way back the wind decided to pick up and standing exposed on that wall is one of the coldest and windiest places you could ever hope to be. To get down the mountain we sat on these small plastic sleds and sped down a metal chute. Our group ended up being stuck behind a family with a small child who was determined to crawl down at the absolute slowest pace, while our goal was to not use the breaks. Needless to say while we did get yelled at a fair amount by the guards on the side, and though there was also a decent amount of crashing into each other, no injuries were sustained in departing from the wall.

On our way back to Beijing proper we stopped at a small village not far from the wall for a fish dinner. We even got to go fishing for said fish, but sadly these were in a pool and looking very bored with the process which I should hence forward going to refer to as teasing the humans. The fishing humans got to use a bamboo rod with a piece of fishing line attached and to the bottom of that, a sad looking hook with some even sadder looking bate. The humans were then teased by lowering their line into the middle of the school of fish, and watching as the fish ignored it. Even though we clearly didn't catch anything, the fish dinner was really good, but as usual, contained way more food than we were able to finish. After our late lunch we traveled back to Beijing and I practiced sleeping on the bus. I think I did this every time we got on the bus, because god knows I didn't sleep at night.

Fishing (photo stolen from my professor).

Case in point: that night I met up with Devin. For those of you who don't know, I went to school with Devin's sister Alanna from elementary school until we left for college, and Devin is about two years younger than us and just so happened to be spending the year in Beijing. We met up at his metro stop and from there grabbed dinner at a noodle house. Quick anecdote break:
So we walk into the noodle house and quickly say what we want, basically what we want in our noodle/soup. (In Chinese) I say, "I don't eat meat, vegetables please." The man taking our order takes one look at me and says, "You're from Shanghai." It was awesome, but kind of scary being called out like that (especially because people from Shanghai and Beijing don't generally like each other). The main difference between the southern accents from the Beijing accent is that people from Beijing sound like pirates. The put the "Rrrrrrr" sound on everything.

After that we went around town walking past the Forbidden City and Tiananmen square, walking to the pedestrian street (where I later went back to for the Night Market, and a much needed book store) before heading on to more interesting parts of the city. Heading home that night was the first time I realized that the card from the hotel/the hotel's street name would be absolutely useless. Keep this in mind when in Beijing: there are several ring roads that literally ring the city. The Forbidden City is the first, the second is around that, and so on and so forth, so know which ring road you're near. Our hotel was fabulous (though they had clearly finished it too quickly and it had some issues, like the toilet and other drainage, which thankfully they were quick to correct) and on the north section of the second ring road near the Drum and Bell Tower (where the American was stabbed to death during the Olympics. I think the assailant jumped off the Drum Tower, and believe me, it's quite a fall). When getting home by taxi, it was much easier for me to give directions to the subway stop (GuLouDaJie de ditie...basically Drum and Bell Tower street metro stop, no more than 50 feet away from the hotel).

The next day was Sunday and we met up with one of our guides (he also came with us to the Ming Tombs, the Forbidden City, and the Drum and Bell Towers), a friend of our professor's named Ed Lanfranco. First with a short lecture and afterwards headed to a dumpling house, and then the Imperial College, which I felt was a pretty good historical introduction to what we would see for the next week (it also had an interesting exhibit up called "Re-visiting the Wall" from Luo Zhewen and William Lindesay, the first photographed the wall many years ago, and the second revisited those places on the Wall and recreated the photographs). After that we went for a walk around a nearby hutong neighborhood, and then headed home.

Imperial College.

Wandering around the Imperial College.

Stone tablets at the Imperial College (Confucian I believe).

The hutong neighborhood we walked around.

Monday: The Ming Tombs. We started with the Spirit Path (see previous post of the picture with me and the stone elephant), which was lined with first animals in pairs, at rest and then at attention - they're supposed to switch positions at night - and then stone officials.

The beginning of the Spirit Path.

Spirit animals as jungle gym.

Of the tombs, only three are open to the public. At Chang Ling (Emperor Yong Le) we saw items that had be excavated and saved from the third tomb. At Jhao Ling (Emperor Yong Qing) the main temple/building above ground was filled with thrones, food and such, as how they would have been placed during and after the Ming Dynasty. The last tomb, Ding Ling (Emperor Wan Le) had been excavated and consequently destroyed. The Chinese had decided to practice on one of the lesser emperor's tombs, and it's a good thing they did. Once the tomb was opened all of the tapestries and paintings upon being exposed to air, rotted off the walls. If that wasn't enough to destroy the tomb, during the Cultural Revolution the Red Guard took Wan Le's, and the other bodies in the tomb, threw them over the wall surrounding the tomb, and then burned them. We were able to into the tomb itself (way underground) but as you can imagine, there wasn't much to see.

View from the top of Yong Le's spirit tower.

Same view, but looking over the mountains.

Ming tomb/temple #2

Possibly #3?

The wall encircling the tomb that the Red Guards threw the Emperor's body off.

Inside the tomb. It was really small and kind of creepy, just like a proper tomb should be.

Escaping the tomb.

On Tuesday we headed to Tiananmen Square, which was packed with people, the Forbidden City, which was packed with people, and Jing Shan Park, which was nice because everyone else stayed in the previous two locations. Tiananmen was, huge, and square. The Forbidden City was also huge, with too many buildings to visit. It was all a little overwhelming and too touristy. Apparently the best days to go are when it's slightly rainy. I think I would like to go back on one of those days instead. Jing Shan Park was built behind the Forbidden City, and is a huge hill (man made) on which sits a temple, and is a lovely place to go take pictures, and generally be at peace from the crowds. The Ming tombs, the Forbidden City, and Jing Shan Park (as well as the other historical places we visited) all have the same basic architectural and color scheme so if you want to try to do too many things in one day and visit all of these places at once, just keep in mind that if not for the immense historical value, it all starts to run together.

Tiananmen with the Memorial to the People.

On Tiananmen square looking at the Forbidden City with our Chinese guide, Jane, in the foreground.

Looking down at Tiananmen from the wall of the Forbidden City.

Inside.

Overlooking the Forbidden City.

Wednesday, for me, was Election Day. We headed to a party sponsored by the US Embassy at a very swanky hotel (our bus driver took us to the wrong one first, and at any point during the day until evening rush hour ends it takes at least a hour to get anywhere in Beijing). I had told Devin about the party and asked my professor if we could get him in with us. He told me no, that it costs 250RMB (or maybe 200, I don't remember) to get in, and we only had tickets for CIEE students. Needless to say the only identifying characteristic of someone who was able to get into this event was a wristband, so after someone handed me about ten, Devin and I walked in together.

The room was set up with several tables around the perimeter, some TVs, a voting booth (fake with California ballots) and two large projectors, one showing a map of the US with the states in either red, or blue, and on the other was CNN. We ended up sitting in front of the CNN until the election was called as the west coast states came in. It was mostly an Obama crowd, and we were all on our feet. For the record, I did try to call home somewhere in the midst of this, but it didn't work, so instead I celebrated with a whole bunch of ex-pats.

With post-election euphoria we went to the 798 Art District, which used to be an old factory district that became artist studios, prime real-estate and now is mostly galleries with, of course, very few artists being able to live there. We had a couple of hours to ourselves so I wandered around there alone and stumbled upon an industrial district (751) with a photo shoot going on. Without enough time to explore on Wednesday I was going to head back there on our day off, Saturday day, but it was a bit far from our hotel. I'll have to go back some other time.

798 (pronounced qi jiu ba).

The beginning of the industrial sector.

That night we had a group dinner (our class of CGC - China in a Global Context is further split into smaller groups for projects, mine is Global Noise and focuses on the globalization of club culture) at a delicious Korean barbeque restaurant and afterwards headed out for some field work at a bar called Propaganda (for all of you who are interested, those of you related to me can stop reading here and pick up on the next paragraph, Wednesday is the night to go - all you can drink 30RMB which translates to about $4.50).

The next day was Thursday and we were quite busy with a morning lecture from Great Wall expert David Spindler (he has been written up in the New Yorker and the LA Times is currently writing an article about him). It was interesting to hear about the Wall from someone who had walked and studied it to the extent that he had, I just wish that the lecture had been closer to when we had actually walked the Wall. After the lecture we headed to the Olympic Stadiums walking around the Bird's Nest, and inside the Water Cube (the inside of which was set up for a concert). And after that to the Summer Palace just barely before it was closed for the day. The Summer Palace was beautiful (same architecture), and though our visit was a little rushed (another place I will have to go back to) we got to walk along the lake and up to the temple before heading out of the (north?) exit. For dinner that night all of the students in CGC went out for an all you can eat pizza dinner. It was delicious and right off of an alley on the bar street of Beijing - Sanlitun (also known as Sanlituarrrrrrr), so I'm sure you can guess where we went after dinner. Some recommendations are Kai Club (where I got to dance with one guy named Jesus and another named Moses!), Nanjing Bar, and a lot of the CGCers also went to a club called Banana (not on Sanlitun) which had apparently had a dance floor on springs and fun things that came out of the ceiling.

Inside the Water Cube.

The lake inside the Summer Palace.

Inside the grounds of the Summer Palace.

Looking up at the temple inside the Summer Palace. Of course we climbed up to it.

The view from about half way up.

Friday was our last full day in the city. We had the morning off (to sleep, or what have you), and in the afternoon walked to the Drum and Bell Towers and then around the nearby hutongs neighborhoods. At the Drum Tower we saw a Drum performance, which was all well and good because we weren't about to brave the stairs a second time (incredibly steep with lots of fun tunnel vision - you'll have to go to see what I'm talking about) to come back to see it. At the Bell Tower (across the square) we were told the myth of the bell, how one of the largest ones in existence was created. It is said that the bell maker had a deadline within which he had to create this bell (or he would be executed), and every one he made cracked. So with time dwindling, as he prepared to pour the final bell his daughter ran past and jumped into the vat of molten metal (myth: human blood helps), she died/disappeared instantly and all her father was able to grab was her shoe. And of course, this bell came out whole. It used to be rung every day, but now I believe it is only rung during Chinese New Year. Supposedly when the bell is hit it sounds like "xie" the word for shoe.

On Saturday, our day off, I walked through the hutong neighborhoods a second time. The day before we had hurried through and I wanted a better look. The hutongs are small courtyard houses that are fast disappearing from the face of Beijing. The hutongs used to be one family house, but now have several, and the courtyards are quickly falling into disarray in the shadow of taller more modern buildings. The alley I wandered down has most of its hutongs converted into shops and cafes, and it is a beautiful little neighborhood. I ended up staying in one of the cafes for lunch, small and dark with wonderful coffee, and looking out onto the alley. I was only able to stay and wander for a little while before I had to head back, but thankfully it was quite close to the hotel so I didn't have far to go.

We flew out of Beijing that night and two hours later we were back in Shanghai. I think if given a choice, I would like to go back to Beijing. Shanghai, even though it's home now, feels very much more like someplace to come back and visit, not to live. Either way, while I'm just about ready to come home now (and yes, I realized that as soon as I am home I'll want to be back in China), I have to come back to China. I guess that means it's time to work on my Chinese.

PS: I am so very sorry, this post is really freaking long! I just put this into Word to check the word count...I just wrote an essay for class of this length! By the way, it's the two essays I've had to do since coming back from Beijing that I'm blaming the lateness on, just so all ya'll know.
As always, should you want more stories, pictures etc. that were not included here, I'll be home in less than a month (ahhh!).

Back home again

2008-11-09T09:51:00.000-05:00

We landed in Shanghai last night around 8:30. It was an amazing holiday, but it's time to go back to reality. I have a paper due Tuesday so you can expect an update around the middle to the end of the week, until then...

The elephant I am hugging is on the Spirit Path on the way to the Ming Tombs.

Weekend update #1

2008-10-27T11:50:00.000-04:00

As difficult as it is to come to terms with the fact that I’m almost done with this time in Shanghai (don’t worry...I’ll be back) I’ve been looking up classes for next semester. My date to choose classes is the 28th at 1pm east coast time, the 29th at 1am my time. I’m sure most of you are currently thinking, “It’s October, what is she talking about that her time is almost up?” Well think of it this way. I have three more days of classes this week and Friday I leave for Beijing (12hr train ride). We arrive in Beijing on Saturday, do some stuff during the day, like, oh I don’t know, go see the Great Wall. The rest of the week is filled with fun activities like that (I also get to meet up with friends from Albany...hi Devin!), minus election morning and the following Saturday when we leave by plane, we get off. I arrive back firmly in November and then I have about a month left, a week of finals, and I’m home.

One of my goals was to try to switch around my plane ticket so that I could go see my sister for the first time in about two years, in Hawaii, for Christmas (there are worse ways to spend the holidays). Instead Delta sucks, and I can’t switch my plane ticket unless I want to pay about double what it will cost me to get to Hawaii anyways. Unless anyone has high connections in Delta and is feeling particularly charitable, I’ll be home for the holidays. As a side note: anyone who has a particular inkling for something special from China (and by special I mean uncommonly expensive that would then require you to transfer money into my bank account) let me know now, or forever hold your piece.

Currently, however, I am preparing for a field trip tomorrow to Xintiandi and Tianzifan with my Modern Chinese History class. I absolutely love both of those sections of Shanghai. They’re like small villages within the city. They’re renovated sections of old houses in the French Concession, but very different. Xintiandi was designed by the same people who built and designed Quincy Market in Boston and has a very Boston and European feel to it, it was completely knocked to the ground and rebuilt in a style that tried to keep the feel of older Shanghai housing. Tianzifan used to be run down housing and has now been fixed up (never demolished, just re-done) mainly with the help of the artists community that thrives there. I’ve been to both places once before, actually the Friday after I returned from Tibet, and failed to bring my camera, so I’ll make an update at some point that hopefully includes pictures.

Two weekends after I returned from Tibet that would be the weekend of October 18th I went with my Philosophy and Religion class to two Daoist Temples. Sticking with tradition, the field trip was on Friday the 17th. We left at the buttcrack of dawn from the dorms and drove to Pudong district to see the first temple. This temple was located in the midst of broken walls and rubble. What used to be an old Pudong neighborhood had been razed and in its place stood shells of houses, garbage, and shrubbery. At this point in China’s history it’s not uncommon to see old neighborhoods completely demolished (more so in Beijing than Shanghai), what was special about this one is that the community temple has been allowed to remain.

You can’t even see the temple until you’re about twenty feet away from it. There were about ten of us in the group and we were all so absorbed by the buildings around us that none of us expected to see a three-story temple rise out of nowhere. It looks so out of place among all of the wreckage that it makes me wonder how everything in that area fit together before the government decided to uproot thousands for the new business buildings that will make their homes around the temple.

Outside the small temple in Pudong with one of our guides.

Just inside the door.

We stayed in the temple for a couple of hours. We got a tour of the resident deities – city gods from all over China, regular Daoist deities, and some Buddhist deities. The day we went it was Guanyin’s birthday (or the equivalent to when she became a god, go wiki her). She has a thousand arms and eyes and was originally a Buddhist deity. Maybe about twenty people, mostly older women, were there to pray to her on that day. We tried to stay out of their way while getting our tour. Same with the other, larger temple we went to.

The ceremony to Guanyin at the larger Daoist temple.

In the larger temple, which seems to be a house of perpetual construction, we saw and were invited to participate in ceremony to Guanyin. Participation in this case means singing along and bowing your head at the appropriate time. We did this for a while and we were then invited to explore and see a special stature of Laozi. It was made out of a very dark wood (I guessed mahogany, they said yew) and was quite beautiful, the room (on the top floor of the main temple where the ceremony was held) also had the same wood inlays around it. Our professor said it was made for the World Fair coming up in 2010. Either way it was an interesting day, and we spent about the same amount of time in the larger temple before heading back to school.

The best picture ever.

The other noteworthy thing that occurred that weekend was my trip to the fabric market. The fabric market is a three-floor maze of shops (picture a cross between a mall and a bazaar). I went with my host mother and two friends, Joe and Paul. My host mother helped me bargain, it was wonderful not having to do it myself, though I really wish they talked slow enough so I could understand exactly what she was saying. I think she insulted the fabric a couple of times, and then the price, which is pretty much what I do, except they give her a better deal because she is Chinese. That weekend I bought a handkerchief dress, a black and red silk traditional Chinese dress, and a suit. The way it works is that you put down a deposit, tell them what you want, they measure you, and then you arrange a time to pick it up, or come back for fittings.

My set day to return was this past Saturday. Paul, Joe and I went back but only after having a fabulous adventure in my host family’s kitchen. We introduced them to an American breakfast. It took us about an hour to make, and in doing so Joe had to physically block the kitchen door to stop my host mother from helping, but we managed it, and it hardly sucked at all. Paul was in charge of pancakes, and he mostly made the french toast. Joe did home fries with help from Paul, and also made omelettes with help from me. I cooked some apples and was general kitchen wench in terms of chopping and peeling.

We kicked my Chinese parents out of their kitchen, they don't look to sad about it though.

Paul pours some orange juice, clearly a key ingredient.

Thumbs up from Joe.

The best part about breakfast was the condiments, and the chopsticks. I am proud to say that I can now cook with chopsticks, and eat pancakes with them. We also had knives and forks on the table, and spoons for serving in the bowls, which you never see on a Chinese table (everyone just takes what they want out of the communal food bowl). In terms of condiments, the three of us chefs went to the international market on Friday after eating at Element Fresh (I had pasta for the first time since coming here!). We bought everything we would need to cook with, except for eggs, which my host family had in excess. The two most important things that we got at the international market were maple syrup, and Nutella. Rest assured, the Nutella is almost gone and was delicious. The boys also brought over ketchup. My host parents didn’t quite understand the distinction between ketchup and maple syrup. We explained, perhaps a bit too late, but they put both on their pancakes, though only once. Overall the breakfast was kind of a success. My host family discovered that they like cheese, and that no, most Americans do not eat this much for breakfast every day.

After breakfast the boys and I met up with another friend en route to the fabric market. Joe had a leather jacket to pick up, Paul a dress shirt, and me my dresses and suit. Well after getting there it turned out that the people who were making my suit seemed to have lost the pants, so I’m going back there on Thursday morning to get the pants fitted, and to pick up some other items (three dress shirts and a jacket) that I may have bought, but thats it, I swear. All together, everything I bought there came to the price of either the jacket, or the suit, in dollars, so I would say it was time and money well spent. After the fabric market I headed to the pearl market with Joe to get a bracelet fixed. So all in all, this Saturday was quite busy, but I’m done spending money and buying things, mostly, until I go to Beijing.

-Deb

Please disregard the cranky ex-pat

2008-10-26T08:23:00.000-04:00

Since returning from Tibet about two, three weeks ago (I can’t believe it’s been that long!) I have clearly failed in my quest to update, so this update will be comprised of a couple of parts. Generally the most interesting things that happen, happen on the weekends. By weekends I include Fridays when I get a break from class to travel or go around Shanghai with my classes, which really doesn’t make it a break, we just don’t have to physically sit in class. Speaking of classes and my program, now that I’m around, or a bit over, halfway into my time here I’ve come to some realizations about CIEE and ECNU. Feel free to check the blog later otherwise...begin rant here:

CIEE’s main purpose seems to be to isolate the international students (it feels a bit funny to call myself that) from the rest of the student body. Sure, we are encouraged to interact with Chinese students, our parents, and anyone else we happen to meet, but it seems really forced. CIEE has no interaction with ECNU other than one floor where the offices are housed, the dorms, and our classrooms, the majority of which are in the international studies building. I believe that the only students who actually take classes at ECNU are the gap year students (they take a year off between high school and college, or finish high school a year early). I believe CIEE has five; I know them by face, not by name.

I really don’t like how isolated we are from ECNU. Yes, a lot of it has to do with the language barrier; the majority of Chinese students begin learning English at a very early age and are always looking to practice. For the rest of us (barring the heritage speakers and those in the advanced program), following classes in Chinese only would be quite difficult especially as the Chinese style of teaching is lecture, not discussion or Q and A.

Maybe it’s unfair for me to compare the two programs, but the way one of (I say this because I only know of one) UConn’s study abroad programs is run the students are assimilated into the school, and only separated into dorms (Global House) if they choose to be. I believe that UConn’s international students are free to move in and out of Global House if they choose, and non study abroad UConn students can apply to live in Global House – quite a few of my friends have. You can blame Amanda and Zheina, and everyone else that I’ve met there, for the reason I’ve spent so much time in Global House, they’re the reason I know a bit about it. All of the students who live in Global House have meetings with their two advisors (who are awesome, and very friendly...after all, they let me sit in on their meetings) and do projects with UConn and Global House together, they’re not stuck on a corner of the campus and ignored except to be gawked at.

As a general rule, Chinese people do not approach foreigners. They watch us as we pass, and occasionally say hello, or talk to their friends about us (which is getting more and more hilarious the more I understand what they’re saying), but they’re also very gracious and I’ve always gotten help that I need. They don’t seem to expect much from foreigners learning Chinese. If you don’t know the English language in America, people are often condescending or frustrated with your lack of language skills (personal experience: I don’t know enough Spanish or Russian to serve ice cream), if you know a couple of words of Chinese, and now I can officially claim to know enough to get directions as of Friday, they praise you unnecessarily. I find it very hard to make Chinese friends, especially with people who don’t live in the international dorm as Chinese roommates. What I would love to see more of is collaboration between CIEE and ECNU. What saddens me is that with the state of the Chinese government and their reactions towards foreigners, while greatly improved from past government incarnations, greater collaboration may not be possible. I’ll have to talk with some of my friends who are attending other universities in Shanghai and Beijing and see how their experiences are.

My last complaint (before I get on to the good parts of my weekends) is that I have absolutely no free time here. CIEE fills up our days with barley any room to breath. Not that I always mind that, I like being busy, but this is the first week that I have not had a fieldtrip or another engagement on Friday. I feel overwhelmingly busy, and that may just be part of the Shanghai atmosphere. This is one city that I will not have mastered after living in it for over three months. If you were to stick me in an unknown part of the city (a really easy task) and told me to find my way somewhere else without using a taxi, I could do it, but not if there were time constraints. Shanghai is huge, bigger than NYC, and I surrender to the thought that I will never learn this city. But it would be better to have some time to explore it. Granted I did come to study abroad to study, but even in terms of my studies, it seems like I spend so much more time studying and on work that I do at UConn. That might be because the Chinese language programs here are much more challenging than UConn’s. Here I have class every day (M-Th) for two hours. At UConn Chinese classes are three days a week, for an hour, to hour and a half apiece. At the same time, maybe the hours I keep here are just different, and things like scheduled meal times, and that I wake up at 8am-ish every weekday (even though Tuesday through Thursday I don’t have class until 1pm, surprising no?), are throwing me off. But since I’m more scheduled shouldn’t that mean I have more time, not less? Maybe it’s that I spend at most 45min (at least about twenty) each day getting to school, and then the same time getting back. Or my favorite culprit, the activities and field trips that, while I appreciate, take up my entire day. I wonder if people who live in the dorm have the same dilemma of vanishing time that I have? I could go on with the supposed situations and never get anywhere so I’ll have to discuss this with some friends here. Back to our regularly scheduled program....

-Deb

Tibet - loooong post

2008-10-11T07:16:00.000-04:00

I'm beginning to feel much more human since coming back from Tibet. I can safely say that I'm getting over being sick, not only did I survive my first week back since the break but I am even almost excited to make it through two more weeks of classes before my next break and long trip to Beijing. But I owe you all an update, and after more than a week of reflection I am more than ready.

On Wednesday the 24th at about 8pm our train pulled out of the station and we settled in for our two-day ride to Lhasa. My group booked hard sleepers, a small cabin that sleeps six, three on each side stacked bunk bed style with almost enough room to turn around in-between. Hard sleepers are roughly half the price of soft sleepers but don't have their own doors and their occupants have to deal with two more people as well as the train crew who control all of the lights and air conditioning. At the same time at least we didn’t have stay in regular seats for two days like at least three cars of people did, even if we did have to deal with three female middle-aged Chinese roommates who arrived loudly at 5am our first night and proceeded to set up camp. Over our entire ride was uneventful. There were a bunch of friends that we were to see periodically on our trip, we had roughly the same itinerary as a group from Spain, and another larger group of Europeans from a university in Shanghai (they taught me how to play a card game quite similar to rummy called Machiavelli, two decks and thirteen cards each instead of seven with a couple of other rule changes). We also met a group of five guys studying abroad at a business school in Shanghai who had booked their trip with the same company as my group had so during our trip in Tibet we often went out together.

Train picture.

The most interesting thing on the train other than passing the walled city of Xi'an, and having one of the guys turn blue from lack of oxygen while he slept (don't worry, he survived), was waking up on Friday to a tundra. It was really beautiful, especially the contrast of the white clouds mirroring the snow and the brightest blue sky I've ever seen. Even though I'll probably get more snow by the time I come home than I will while I'm in Shanghai, I have an incredible urge to go skiing. Of course I took a couple pictures, but unfortunately I'm not quite sure where we were at the time. The other fun thing on the train was that I saw my first yak. This isn't really a noteworthy event because Tibet probably has more yaks than humans, but still, yay, yaks!

Snow that we awoke to on the second day!

Sacred looking lake in the background, yaks in the forground, cool clounds in the sky.

We arrived in Lhasa at about 10pm on Friday the 26th. Driving to the hostel we were able to stop outside the Potala Palace to take some pictures. On Saturday the first thing we did (other than had breakfast - banana pancakes!) was go to the Potala Palace, otherwise known as the Winter Palace. It is ginormous, and absolutely beautiful. Wiki it for the history, I'll provide the visuals. To get there you have to walk up an obscene number of stairs, not generally a big deal but it's strange how oxygen affects you. Even going such a short distance up made me lose my breath more than once, I was glad when we stopped periodically for a rest. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the chapels. We also got to see where the Lamas have lived, worked, prayed, and their tombs, which remind me greatly of Egyptian sarcophagi, except much larger and made entirely out of gold. The entire experience inside the place was incredible, partly from knowing that I shouldn't be able to be there at all. It was sad that someplace potentially so important had turned into a tourist trap.

A side view of the Potola Palace

Me with the entrance to the main part of the palace/temple.

After the Potala Palace we went to Johkang Temple, another place that was a shell of what it used to be. Our tour guide told us that hundreds of monks used to live in the Temple and now only a skeleton staff remains. For all of the temples I was able to take pictures of the outside but cameras were not allowed on the inside. What I found more interesting than the temple was the market outside. To get into any of the temples you had to pay (included in our trip fee) so most of the devotees were outside making their rounds with their prayer wheels through the market, and praying on the ground in front of the temple. The market was beautiful in it's own strange mixture of poverty meets capitalism teeming with the devoted. Wherever we went, though, we attracted a group, especially around my friend Ashley who is Guyanese/American.

The roof of Johkang Temple.

Looking down at the devoted from the top of Johkang Temple.

The plaza/market in front of Johkang Temple.

The Potola Palace from the roof of Johkang Temple

Lhasa market.

In Lhasa my only complaint (other than shortness of breath due to stairs) was a bit of a headache and that went away after resting and oddly enough going out for a night on the town. A couple of the guys from the other group, their tour guide Topyel, Ashley, and me went to what I can only describe as a cultural bar. There was a large stage in the middle of the room, and places for the large number of people who jammed in there at small tables packed closely together on three sides of the stage. At about 10ish dancing and singing started, alternating between one or the other until later on when audience members began joining the singers on stage for the equivalent of Tibetan line dancing (or circle dancing). Of course, our group got up to learn the dances, fun, but some were definitely harder than others...for example the equivalent of the Tibetan Electric Slide. It might have been made a bit more difficult because Topyel seemed to know everyone, and everyone wanted to buy drinks for him and the foreigners. We had fun and I woke up the next morning feeling the best I had since coming to Lhasa. On the down side, that was the day we had gotten back from Namtso Lake.

Namtso Lake is one of the three holy lakes in Tibet. It is also the highest salt lake in the world. We drove many an hour up hill and mountain to get there, same as any other place we went in Tibet. Namtso Lake was absolutely beautiful though. The sky over it, and over most of Tibet was beautiful blue, you could even see snow falling on the mountains across the lake from us, but no clouds ever ventured over to our side. We stayed there for an hour or two, which turns out was an hour of two more than we should have stayed. Because the altitude was so different (read as so much higher) from that of Lhasa a fair amount of people ended up getting sick. The ride back was pretty bad, but for me it was worth it. All over the shores were rocks, and people piled them into sculptures on top of one another, much like they do at Aquinnah, but without the clay. There were also a bunch of caves and a large hill on the small island that we walked around. One of the caves was called "the cave of good and evil" and was narrow and "L" shaped with an opening at either end, one parallel with the ground, the other perpendicular. The object was to get through, if you could, you were good. After watching a friend get stuck it took him a while to convince me to go through, by which he took off his scarf and measured the size of our hips. I ended up getting through the fastest and left Namtso with some awesome pictures, a headache, and the great memories of that cave.

Namtso Lake.

Namtso Lake.

Namtso Lake

The next day we visited the second holy lake called Yamdrotso Lake, where we didn't get as close and personal, but I did get to ride a yak on our way to Shigatse. This day was mostly travel and we got to see some beautiful scenery, mountains and edges of roads that were way too close, with the strangest thing we passed being a bike tour on our way to Yamdrotso.

Yak butt on the way to Yamdrotso Lake.

Me riding a yak to Yamdrotso Lake. I am clearly the Tibetan equivalent to a cowgirl.

That evening we arrived in Shigatse and I proceeded to get food poisoning. On the bright side, though this really isn't a good thing, I knew that it wasn't me just having a weak stomach because our guide got a bit sick too. This was Monday evening.

The next day was Tuesday and we headed for Mt. Everest base camp. Our guide warned us that we would probably have a really tough time at the base camp because we were trying to do it in such a short time, usually people stayed in a village near by (possibly Tinggri) for a night or so before moving up in elevation. Instead we packed oxygen in a can and hoped for the best. I can honestly say, however, that the ride up to base camp was the worst thing ever, possibly only trumped by the ride back. We were on a gravel/dirt road with hairpin turns for about 120km in a bus. It took us 4-5 hours. The entire way up we saw hitchhikers in the form of small village children trying either to get to school or to get home. It was a little unnerving to leave them behind to breath our dust while they walked in small groups, staring as we passed. Our first view of the mountain ranges was at the top of a large hill (haha, understatement). You can see all of the peaks, except for Everest, which had clouds continuously circling the top. Even on the hill we were on it was much colder than in Lhasa, or Shigatse but nothing compared to that of the base camp. We headed down from the look out point and through a village (literally) and then drove for a couple more hours before reaching the base camp near Rongpu Monastery.

We never actually visited the monastery, but it really didn't matter. When we got to base camp it was dusk (keep in mind that all of China - and I'm including Tibet in this - shares one time zone. It gets dark around 6pm in Shanghai, but in Tibet it waited until at least 9pm) and we had little time to hurry into our tent before it was completely dark. The people who lived at base camp rented out the tents. The one we stayed in was large enough to house 11 people sleeping on benches around the perimeter. It seemed to be very well insulated, and as an added bonus had a stove in the middle that they used to heat water, and I used to melt the tips off my gloves. I wasn't feeling very well at base camp and ended up curling up on a bench and passing out around 10ish, waking up only to be tucked in by the mother or the tent.

At about 3am I woke up to find that I couldn't really breath, I slept on and off for a while until getting up to go to the bathroom (a very relative term) around 5:30. Even though it was ridiculously cold outside, I am very glad that I went. I have never seen the stars so bright and so close. That alone was worth the trip, walking outside alone to be surrounded by sky and mountains. The next time I went outside after that was sunrise around 7:30. We watched the sun come up to shine on Mt Everest, and I can honestly say that we saw the peak. The clouds had completely cleared for us and we had a beautiful view. After that we ended up taking a bus to the next base camp up, now completely devoid of tents (except for one for the army to check our passports). It didn't get us too much closer, but we were able to walk up a very small hill (which was sadly way too much physical activity for me) and hang our prayer flags. I put up a longish strand with the names of everyone in family by choice, the rosenchessers, and for my friends, congrats, you were all with me through my trip in China and over to Tibet. Now up at base camp there are flags flying with your names.

Sunrise begins.

Good morning Everest.

A look in the other direction.

Prayer flags for you.

I headed down to the lower base camp pretty quickly, not feeling quite up to staying any higher than I had to. I now have a new respect for people who climb those peaks. But at the same time I think they're all crazy. We headed back to Shigatse soon after everyone came back to the lower base camp. Once in Shigatse we had little time to do anything but sleep, and the next day we stopped at a monastery to see the largest future (Medicine) Buddha, and a small market (we were supposed to stop at a famous fur market but I think something got lost in translation) before heading to the middle of town to see a dance.

The last monastery we went to.

They had these bells at the entrance/exit to every temple.

The largest future Buddah.

Our group mixes with monks with cell phones on the way out.

This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. We got to see the monks perform, I'm not quite sure what, but they danced, drummed, and went around in circles to the reverence and entertainment of large crowd. Theres not much I can describe so I'll just let the pictures do the work. After that we went left for Lhasa and for our last night in Tibet (where of course we went back to the cultural bar). The next day we got up bright and early for our two day train ride back where I played more rummy than I had since middle school and still got my ass kicked, some things never change.

A quick run down of things you should know if you're going to go to Tibet:
Do not expect to have hot water, and if you want it call the front desk of the place where you're staying and request it, then make them come upstairs to turn it on. I failed on all of those accounts and had a hot shower when I returned home.
The bathrooms all smell. Especially the ones in gas stations don't use those if you want to keep anything in your stomach. I recommend the side of the road, it's cleaner and there are lots of ditches and yaks to hide behind.
Tibetans are nice, but they will rip you off. The same goes for any place inside China. You're a foreigner, you look like a foreigner, and they double the price.
Learn a couple of words of Tibetan. It is nothing like Chinese, but everyone I met appreciated the gesture. We were actually encouraged to not use Chinese, but if you know it, I would recommend using it. Pretty much everyone in Tibet is required by the Chinese government to learn Chinese, but of course they mostly speak in Tibetan to each other when alone. Most of them know some English too.
I'll write about my impressions of the Chinese in Lhasa when I get out of China. Fun factoid: if you're Chinese not only do you not need a visa to enter Tibet, but also living there is tax deductible.

Any more questions (barring certain opinions of mine) I would be happy to answer.
Sorry this took so long for me to put up, but enjoy!
-Deb

Hui jia.

2008-10-05T07:13:00.001-04:00

I am back from Tibet. I have seen the tip of Mt. Everest without clouds. I got to watch monks dance and talk on their cell phones. I managed not to piss off the military, die from lack of oxygen, and I even got to survive food poisoning. You get to hear all of these stories and see the pictures, but no sooner than Friday. I have work to do. This post is just to let you know that I'm alive, well, and back to work.

One last post before I go

2008-09-23T07:23:00.000-04:00

So I just spent the last five minutes in what is possibly the most cyclical conversation I've ever had with my Chinese mother. I was trying to explain to her certain colloquialisms about language, namely the English language. It all began when she tried to help me keep my hair out of my face - very kind but a pointless task as Shanghai humidity has made my hair big, and thus the point of this post. The word for big in Chinese is 大 (da). The word for numerous is 多 (duo). I was trying to explain that my hair is big. "Wo de (my) tou fa (hair) hen da (is very big)." And she would say, "Nono! Ni de (your) tou fa (hair) duo (is numerous, a lot...big) he chang (and long)." And I would respond: "Dui (yes, I understand) hai shi (but) wo de tou fa ye (my hair is also) hen da." And then she would reply to me that my hair can't be big because the nature of hair is thin, and only something like your face can be big, but your hair cant be big to which I would respond, yes, but my hair is big. We really didn't get anywhere in this conversation but on the bright side I haven't laughed that hard since my friend Joe (tall, African American, gets stared at a lot in China) scared the crap out of a little kid at the park by waving and saying hello.

In other more interesting news, heres my itinerary for this coming week:
Sept 24-26 Train from Shanghai to Lhasa
Sept 27 Lhasa city tour. Visit Potala Palace, Johkang temple.
Sept 28 Drive to Namtso Lake, visit Namtso lake, and Yangpachen hot spring.
Sept 29 Lhasa/Yamdrotso lake/Gyangtse/ Shigatse.
Sept 30 Shigatse/Lhatse/ Rongpu (Shegar).
Oct 01 Rongbu Monastery/Evrest Base Camp/Shigatse.
Oct 02 Shigatse/Lhasa.
Oct 03 Take train from Lhasa to Shanghai in the morning.

Talk to you all later!

While eating dessert the talk turned to politics...

2008-09-21T08:50:00.000-04:00

This past week was all kinds of something. It really began on Tuesday when I took my first Chinese exam and panicked (no worries, I passed). I didn't know until five minutes before the oral part of the test that I had to give a three minute speech on "If your Mom/Dad/Boyfriend/Girlfriend/Best Friend's birthday (choose two) were on the same day, and you only had 100RMB to spend on a present, who would you give the present to and why?" Yes only one of you got a present. No, it was not that interesting because I can't bargain that well, 100RMB isn't a whole lot of money (divide by 6.7 for the exchange rate) and more importantly I know how to say a VERY limited number of nouns in Chinese. But thats not the fun part of the test. The really fun part was figuring out that my Chinese class is on a six-day cycle and that my next Chinese exam will be this Thursday while I am in the midst of my two-day train trip to Lhasa (in Tibet). Needless to say, I'm taking the test Wednesday afternoon so the rest of this week will be devoted to studying for that exam and packing, and I'm writing the story of my weekend now because I will have no more time until after I get back from Lhasa.

So the rest of the week passed in a haze of schoolwork, sleep and studying (which I expect will be par for the course for the rest of the year) until Friday. On Friday my group left for Hangzhou, the former capital of China (of some ancient dynasty) and the home of West Lake. We drove into Hangzhou around noonish, picked up our tour guide, had lunch and went on a boat tour of the lake. Other than the start of the canal that begins in Hangzhou, stretches up to Beijing, and is the longest man made canal in the world (apparently it was made under orders of an emperor who wanted an easy way to get to Hangzhou because thats where the most beautiful girls in China are, by the way), the West Lake is supposedly the most beautiful place in China. When we were there, however, there was an oppressive amount of moisture and smog in the air that made it difficult to see much of the lake. I think that in terms of beautiful waterways Americans are spoiled, I prefer the Adirondacks.

This was taken on the island that we stopped off at. Very pretty.

After our tour we went to the hotel (very nice) where my roommate Heather and I preceded to take a much-needed nap before going out on the town with friends. We wandered through streets (Hangzhou is a huge shopping area and apparently has lots of outlets mostly there seems to be Nike and Adidas stores every couple of feet), found some very cute shops as well as a bar called "Friends Bar" which was based on the television show Friends. It had a live Chinese jazz band singing English, so we stayed for a while before calling it a night.

The next day we headed to Moganshan way up in the mountains (shan means mountain), which was supposed to be nice and cool. Not so much. The bus ride up the mountain was frightening to say the least (one lane road, really steep drop). We checked into our motel/villa (very creepy) and after a quick lunch most of our group (I think we had about 45 people all together) headed off for a tour/walking hike. Our first stop was where Chaing Kai-shek stayed in Moganshan, a dusty but mildly interesting museum. From there we walked down thousands of stone steps through a bamboo forest (Moganshan's main business' 1) bamboo 2) tourism) into the town. The town itself was about two city blocks wide and had some amazing vistas that you could look out over the mountains.

Next we walked down to a small pond covered in lily pads and with a small pagoda called the "Dripping Green Pond" for the character "lu" or "green" (yes the color) that was carved into the cliff face, painted green, and reflected into the pond. By this point we had lost about half our group and continued to press on. We walked down to another small lookout point where you could walk to a couple of pagodas and take some more fabulous pictures. We lost about another the people at this point.

After this we were already all hot and sweaty, but we carried on and went down some stairs to a villa thats been turned into a hotel (I sat on the steps rather than move any more than I had to), and we then walked up some more stairs to get to a villa that was once an infamous Shanghai gangster. It was very pretty with lots of intricate designs of opera heroes and Chinese characters. At this point we had been walking for about two hours nonstop and took a survivors (about fifteen of us) picture on the steps of the gangster's house. I think he would have appreciated it.

We kept walking over hill and stairs to the "Sword Forging Pond" and while I haven't the foggiest idea as to what swords were forged there, there were lots of little streams, waterfalls, bridges, ponds, and stairs to see and walk over. Some of our group went swimming in one of the ponds and then had to walk back wet. The rest of us were also wet from the amount of sweat that hiking and mostly walking up and down stairs (instead of having to walk up and down hills the Chinese put stairs EVERYWHERE and my knees hate them for it) for three to four hours in a bazillion degree weather causes, but we were probably more comfortable than them. Either way, no matter how far we walked, however many steps we climbed, and however disgusting the cold and moldy shower was in the villa, that hike was well worth the weekend.

We returned to Shanghai after a four/five hour drive today. I am now in the process of writing a paper and studying for my next Chinese exam. As I said before, please don't expect to hear from me until I return from Lhasa which barring any unforeseen circumstances should be sometime on Sunday October 5th. Until then I leave you with this...

I got a message today from one of my friends working on Obama's campaign. She sent a reminder message to make sure all of her friends oversees had registered to vote and registered for their absentee ballots. I made sure to register weeks ago, but for the rest of you, if you're not registered to vote, you're cutting it close for a huge election. Hey, even all of my parents know whats up. My Meiguo jia (American family as I now call you all - hi mom! hi dad! hi em!) have checked up on me, and I had a lovely discussion over melon with my Zhongguo jia (Chinese family) about American politics. I plan to try to talk about this again, but talking politics in another language is quite difficult. We managed to hash out Bush (Busha), Obama, McCain, and Clinton. I was trying to explain Sarah Palin to them as well as Hillary, though I'm thinking that that they aren't quite as aware of female politicians, especially on the Hillary front because when I mentioned "Clinton" the response I got from my host dad was, "ahhh mistress!" said with a huge grin. Hilarious!

As promised...

2008-09-14T12:04:00.000-04:00

So this weekends post is going to be a bit of a tease. I'm posting the few pictures that I took today and will write more about my weekend of awesome later with these few clues to entice you to check back.

Last Thursday a group of us took a biking tour around Shanghai. It was three hours. In the rain. At night. It was AMAZING.

Friday we took a walking tour of the French Concession, it was really interesting and it made me feel way too capitalistic to be in this communist country. In other words, I have got to go shopping there!

I sang karaoke on Saturday. It was hilarious.

Tomorrow is the moon festival, CIEE is taking us on a cruise of the river, this will be made all the more interesting because a typhoon sent to us from Taiwan is currently raining on Shanghai.

We have a week off from school beginning on the 27th. If all goes well I take off with a couple of friends Wednesday night (the 24th) miss one class on Thursday, I don't have any classes on Friday, and make the two day train ride with some friends to Tibet. Next weekend I'm going with my class to Hangzhou and Moganshan for the weekend. So all together I had to get my craziness of Shanghai out this past weekend because I won't be here for another weekend for at least three weeks.

Enjoy the pictures!

The view from the Bund. The infamous Pearl Tower is to the right.

My host mom, me, and the river.

My host parents.

The view approaching the Bund of the Pearl Tower.

Ballroom dancing in the park!

A kid flying a kite.

Shanghai at night from a subway stop.

Huh, Star Wars

2008-09-08T09:09:00.001-04:00

While writing this I believe I am listening to Star Wars dubbed into Chinese. The music is definitely right but I can't follow what the characters are saying (well...I mostly have no idea) and since I'm trying to do homework at the same time, I'll have to stick with my gut instinct (I also like the idea of my host parents watching Star Wars on a Monday evening).

Friday was my last day of orientation. We had a couple of lectures; two on travel, and one on fortune telling (the Yi Jing) which I found fascinating, especially as that lecture came first and I asked about my future in terms of travel in China (not too shabby). The fortune telling lecture was given by one of the professors, Amy Goldman. She will also be teaching a writing intensive course that I plan to take. If everything works out correctly my schedule is thus...

Mondays 10am-3pm: Globalization Seminar (focus on Shanghai), and Chinese Intermediate I. The Globalization course is required for everyone in my program China in a Global Context. It seems like it will be interesting if not because we are required to do field work in Shanghai for our group projects to will be presented at the end of the semester. The topic for the group I am a part of is "Global Noise: Hip-hop and other dance club (sub) cultures in Shanghai (and how they differ from Beijing). I started my research last weekend.
Chinese Intermediate I is a trip and a half. I never before realized exactly how much of a so-called language course is actually taught in English. We speak English only when Li Lao Shi (Teacher Li) asks for a translation. We also signed an agreement to try to speak as much Chinese as possible when out side of class. So far this is limited to sentences like "Zhong wen hen nan shuo le!" (Chinese is very difficult to speak!).

Tuesdays 1pm-6pm: Chinese Intermediate I, and Modern Chinese History. Modern Chinese History, I'm not actually quite sure what that covers, but I've never had a problem with a history class (as a general rule, I enjoy them - thank you Albany High School) and despite the reading load I don't plan to start now.

Wednesday 1pm-6pm (or possibly 9pm): Chinese Intermediate I, and Philosophy and Religion. I went into this study abroad program hoping to take an international relations course taught from the Chinese perspective, which sounded fascinating. Unfortunately it was at the same time as the Philosophy and Religion course, which promised hands on experience going around Shanghai to visit different local temples etc, so I dropped the i.r. course and took up Modern Chinese History. I can take another i.r. course at home, I can't explore the temples of Shanghai at UConn.
The possibly 9pm that class is going to depends on my taking/having enough time to take the writing intensive course. We'll see on Wednesday if this is possible.

Thursday 1-3: Chinese Intermediate I. Did I mention that we have a daily quiz for that class with 13 new characters? Fun times. In other related news I met my Chinese tutor today. He lives in the dorms with another CIEE student and seems both really nice and like he can help me a lot. I'm probably also going to end up helping him with his English, though he seems to know all of the good words already from hanging around Americans. He and I discovered that we had already met briefly when I was in a friend's room Friday with two other Americans and three Chinese learning how to play a Chinese Card game called 99. It's really fun, and if you play in Chinese it helps with learning numbers and swears. If you want to learn how to play, post a comment or email.

Friday: no class except for field trips. We have a group excursion to the French Concession that I'm going on this week. Next weekend we leave to travel for the weekend to Hang Zhou and Moganshan. The weekend after that we begin a weeklong break from school (national holiday), and I get to travel. I would like to go to Xi'an and a couple of other places. I haven't decided fully yet, but I have to, and soon.

This Thursday after class there is a bicycle excursion around Shanghai that I hope to be a part of. It's three hours long and we literally bike around the city. I'm kind of scared for my life, because the traffic here is frighteningly terrible and if you get stuck behind a bus you can see the dark cloud of exhaust coming right at you. In terms of traffic, imagine L.A. and London traffic combined into one horrific mess. Yes I realize that people driving in this drive on opposite sides of the road. This is the type of chaos that one experiences on the road, hence why I'm excited for this opportunity. I would never be brave enough to face traffic on my own. We are provided with bikes and helmets (thankfully). If I end up doing it, rest assured it will be written about.

Another CIEE city excursion is a river cruise on the Huangpu River that splits Shanghai in two. That is next Monday on the day after the Moon Festival.

This coming weekend is the Mid-Autumn Festival (or the Moon Festival...google it). I have been invited by my family to go with them on Sunday to see their son, daughter in law, and 8-month-old grandson. We will be eating at their house. I'm really excited to go, even if it means coming home at a reasonable hour on Saturday.

Speaking of which I warned my host family last week that I like to sleep on the weekends and that they can wake me at any point they need to with a knock on my door (please don't even try this at home in America). So I kind of slept until about 2pm on Sunday and freaked out my host parents. The first thing my host mother did when I came out of my room was felt my forehead to make sure I wasn't violently ill, which I wasn't, so I had to assure her of that before showering/sitting down to breakfast/lunch. After lunch I informed them that I had a lot of reading to do for Monday. They informed me that no, I was not going to be doing my homework. I never have a problem with this so I relented and told them that I would read later that evening. Instead of working we went for a walk out in the neighborhood to a really nice park. I plan to go there to study when I can't stand the University (which by the way is beautiful! I'll post pictures of it when I have time to walk around more) or my home stay anymore. I've been to one other park in Shanghai other than that one and each time it is really amazing what a difference a few plants/trees make to the quality of the air. Usually I don't notice the smog (though a couple of my friends have developed a nagging cough) unless it has gotten to a hot and humid point where you can literally see it hang in the air, but stepping into any park you can notice the clean smell and the ease with which you can breath. The campus of East China Normal University (ECNU) also has fairly good quality air, though today walking outside and breaking a sweat were simultaneous. It seems like I won't have to face cold weather until I come home in December. Have fun all of you Northeasters.

Until then, I'll talk to you all via email or skype (go get skype if you haven't already!). I should be on line from about 8pm-ish my time (8am for most of you) until whenever I decide to go to sleep. I can also access iChat from here as well as all of my email accounts.

One last story before I'm back to studying...
After the walk on Sunday with my host family, which oddly enough resulted in a lot of singing (people often get together to sing/play instruments in the parks) we came back to the house and I was serenaded by my host mother on the Erhu (a two stringed thing with a bow that goes in-between the strings) and host father on the flute. It was lots of fun, especially the point where I got to play (Doe a deer, a female deer...), and I got to listen to them play "Jingle Bells." The best part about that was trying to explain that you don't really play that until December when it's cold...and then realizing that it doesn't get cold in Shanghai in December. Oh well, happy days.

Some things never change...

2008-09-03T09:27:00.000-04:00

I have discovered an international pleasure in bubble wrap. Today I was introduced to my host family and I gave them a gift of two Vikki Crowell cups in bubble wrap. Apparently the word "pop" is the same in both Chinese and English. I will live with them (minus a couple of weeks/weekends of random travel) until I'm done with classes/finals. Out of the 42ish students in my program - China in a Global Context aka CGC - 18 of us are doing home stays and five others live in my immediate neighborhood. In all of the CIEE programs (the other two are Business, and Advanced Chinese) there are 120 of us international students.

For the past couple of days I have been living in a hotel with another CGC home stay student. The daily activities have not been overly interesting (except for today when we took the subway downtown to the history and the urban planning museum - I'm going back there at some point so more updates then), mostly orientation stuff which will continue for another two days. I have gone out every night for dinner, and often for lunch during the day as well. These dinners are great events for practicing your Chinese, especially as none of the menus are in English. This calls for a good sense of humor from your group and your waiter - so far so good, I even know how to say, "I'm a vegetarian. I don't eat meat. I eat do eat fish. I like tofu." it has gotten me surprisingly far. Near the international student dorms is a back gate that leads out into the city. All around that gate are restaurants and stores, vendors selling street food, bootleg DVDs, and one who has some animals on his cart, most notably are three really adorable bunnies each the size of my hand that I would love to bring home so much that I've taken to avoiding that part of the street.

Tomorrow we have an internship fair, which I will be attending but am not overly vested in; I have more than enough to occupy my time here. We will also find out our test results from today’s language placement exam. I tend to stress out about all tests, difficult, important or not, and this test was no different. I have not taken a class primarily devoted to the Chinese language in eight months. However, I have spoken and been exposed to more of the language in the past three-four days than ever before, so not having seriously studied Chinese is kind of balanced out. Tomorrow we also find out about extra-curricular activities that are offered, which bring me to my family.

Two of the things I would most like to learn are Taijie (tai chi/martial arts, etc) and how to cook. If those aren't offered as extra-curricular courses, my Chinese family seems to be able to teach me both. My Chinese mom picked me up from our hotel at around 7ish tonight; we grabbed my bags and a taxi and headed home. In case you've never experienced, nor heard about traffic in China, be rest assured that I will never drive be it car, motorcycle, or possibly even bicycle. The Chinese are scary drivers and traffic laws mean nothing to them or the pedestrians. On average there are about 200 motor/pedestrian related accidents a day in China and after being here for a fraction of a week, I can see why.

Anyways, we get to the apartment, she shows me around. There are two people in my family, a husband and wife both in their late 50 and retired with no children living at home. They don't have any pets, don't speak any English, smoke occasionally, do taiji, and have plants on the veranda. Or at least thats what I was told from the CIEE folks. While sitting down to dinner we were talking about something involving lots of hand gestures and help from a Chinese/English dictionary (so really it could have been anything), and my Chinese mom goes into her room, and demonstrates taiji for me using a sword and a fan. Way badass. Slightly intimidating. Thankfully she comes up to my shoulder. All good. So tomorrow I believe that I am waking up at 6:30 am and learning taiji. We'll see how that works out.

By the way, Chinese people (especially mothers...I think this is culturally universal, Jewish mothers are like this too!) like to feed you and really don't take no for an answer. Thankfully I was able to communicate early on that I don't eat meat and I do eat fish. This was then narrowed down to what kinds of meat wouldn’t I eat. I don't really know how to say "everything" or "I'll eat anything but flesh or fowl" so we went down the list one by one, lots of fun especially if you don't know what the other person is saying, so out come charades and animal noises. One that really stumped me was "xia" and a hand motion of bunny ears moving up and down. So thinking that they were going to try to feed me that cute bunny I saw earlier I tried to say "no, I don't eat that...uhhh....I like them....they're really pretty (I can't remember the word for cute)." This confused my host family, so my Chinese dad got up and found a circular with a picture of a shrimp. I felt really stupid. I have got to stop thinking about that cute bunny and go to bed.

More fun stories of miscommunication and mayhem in China whenever. Pictures will be posted once I feel comfortable enough to find my way around (I have to take the subway/bus to and from school), and actually take some.

-Deb

Ba ba ba, I've landed!

2008-08-31T09:21:00.000-04:00

Sunday at 9:35pm

I am writing this from the hotel room I am living in for a couple of days (until Friday?) before I am move to a home stay. I have been awake for roughly two days (minus airplane naps which really don't count anyways), am way overwhelmed and it is past time for me to be asleep. Can’t be bothered right now, I’ll feel excited tomorrow.

Orientation starts tomorrow and lasts until Friday. I believe that we choose classes on Thursday evening and we get a Chinese Placement Exam sometime before then - though I kind of feel like the trip so far was calculated to show just how much of the language I've forgotten. I'll do a better update at some point, this was mostly to test that I could access the blog, and to let everyone know that I've made it safely.

-Deb

Deb wins!

2008-08-21T05:00:00.000-04:00

Hey look! My blog is officially up and running!

I decided to make this in hopes of keeping in touch with all y’all while on the other side of the world. Some of my goals with this blog are to attempt to update once a day (ha), and with every new post to add a photo just so you can get a feel as to where I am and what I'm up to. Feel free to add comments, questions, etc as you please. I really do want to try to keep in touch, but since the 12-13 hour difference is probably going to make that a tad difficult, this seems like as good of a way as any. I am also going to try to use Skype, so feel free to contact me through that as well.

I leave the country Saturday August 30th and will arrive in Shanghai on the 31st. As of today everything is all squared away. I have my visa, passport, ticket, and absolutely nothing packed.

The next update will probably be jet lagged and exhausted saying that I've hopefully arrived safely, in one piece, and with all of my luggage.

Until then, see you on the other side!
-Deb