桂林 (Yangshuo), Guangxi

I made Ayman promise me to bring me a suitcase full of spicy Cheetos when he comes to visit. I think that should last me about 2 months. I have been eating all kinds of food here, hot food, cold food, spicy food, mild food, hot pot, salads, rice in pineapples, french fries (we went to a Western restaurant and ordered french fries...no one makes them like Burger King though!), but nothing fulfills my yearning for spicy Cheetos. It really IS an addiction. Two days ago I had my first class. A couple of my students (and co-workers) and I went out to dinner before the class, and we went to a DongBei restaurant. Dong Bei means north east, so it was a restaurant where the food comes from northeastern China. It was my second time at the restaurant and the food was delicious, once again. This time my co-workers ordered spicy seasoned beef (cold), pork ribs (which you eat with a plastic glove on your hand WITH your hands), Tofu strips that you make little vegetable rolls with (you take the tofu like a piece of tortilla and put in cucumber and other vegetables in it) and then there is some sort of dipping sauce (that was not very good in my opinion). We also ate a cold potato salad (the potatos are not cubed, but cut into thin strips and there are some red spicy peppers in there also), dumplings, and the best part- CARAMELIZED SWEET POTATOE (that you dip into water before putting in your mouth to make it hard). It was so good! I ate about 8 of those slices. I also learned a great new Chinese tradition. I started pouring tea for my coworkers and they both tapped their two fingers (pointer and middle) on the table. I asked them if it meant that they want some, and they said it means thank you. I am really going to be so Chinese-y-fied when I come back to the US. I'm going to look for Cantonese restaurants specifically! The point is, DongBei food is amazing! It's not oily like Southern Chinese food, and they use great food such as tofu and other vegetables....YUM.

So...that paragraph was written about a week ago, and now I am going to finish this post which will consist of a ton of new information! This blog will be structured like this:

1 MONTH IN CHINA!
Food in Guangdong
Easter Weekend Vacation
Speaking to non-Native English Speakers
Chinese minorities and Muslims in China
Bù yáo Bitch!

So, as you can see, today is my anniversary of 1 month in China! I have to admit, it all has gone by so quickly! It doesn't feel like I've been here a month! I go to work and eat and sleep and then the weekend comes, and I'm busy then, trying to get as much accomplished as possible, and before I know it, the week starts again, and I have to go to work! So this is life...

THE FOOD! The food in Guangdong (or maybe just where I live) is known to be delicious! When I left this province this weekend, I have to say I was less than impressed with the food I ate. I guess I am spoiled by the food here and the restaurants I go to here.

Speaking of my vacation, I went to Guilin, Yangshuo this weekend! I went with other AIESEC people who are here from Russia, Poland (!), Australia and Lithuania, and we all met in Guangzhou at 7 30am. Audre (she is new here, and I won't even get into her issues with AIESEC now, but let's just say she came here from Lithuania and does not have a job, due to AIESEC SYSU and her TN Manager, or they say "misunderstandings" between the company and AIESEC...right) and I had to leave Beijiao at 6am. We were supposed to have a cab come and pick us up, but of course it didn't come, so at around 6 25 we went to go find another cab that would take us 30 minutes to Guangzhou, where we would have to get on the subway and go to where we would meet the other people. Nevertheless, we were sweating and running to the tour bus, and we made it exactly at 7 30, maybe 7 31am. Thank God for Kenneth who is from Australia but is Chinese, because he got the tour people to wait for us. At least he could communicate with them! So Audre and I made it! The ride to Guilin was 6 hours...6 LONG hours. We stopped a few times before we reached the mountains. Guilin is a touristy spot known for it's nature and scenery. We could have gone and seen underground mines, but some of us skipped this part and instead walked around a little. Then we went to eat dinner and to our hotel room! I was ecstatic since I was pleasantly surprised by the room and the bathroom! Regular western toilets, not a hole in the ground! Then the girls took showers and the guys went to buy alcohol! YES people that drink! Finally! So we drank, played some card games...We played Circle of Death and Kenneth ended up having to drink the cup in the middle filled with Chinese beer, Rice Wine and some other stuff. Let's just say he was obviously intoxicated 5 minutes after! We went to the street where all the bars/clubs are, and the first was the best. The music was pretty good, and there was even a stripper! Not a stripper, but a dancer. Needless to say, she climbed the pole all the way to the top and did some pretty impressive moves. There was also a dance/song by a guy our age who was pretending to be an old, Chinese, hunchback man. He was cool, because his dance moves were intense.
The next day, we went to the rice fields, which were high up in the mountains. Warning to those who go to Chinese mountains: Close your eyes when you drive up, because the road is to narrow, and at the most A FOOT away from the ledge AND the drivers go way too fast. When we finally made it after our 3 hour drive, you could tell you were on top of a mountain. The air was crisp and fresh, and it was just so quiet. Obviously we had to climb up a little more, and we heard a lot of people speaking other languages such as German, Spanish, English. The rice fields are on top of the mountain and they look like patches of land that are on different levels (imagine stairs). Rice grows in water I guess, so it's beneficial to have the rice fields where there is a lot of precipitation. It makes me wonder, how do you pick the rice then get so much of it down from a mountain?! To some of these places it is impossible to get by car!
On the way to our next hotel room, we took a bus again, and of course I slept the whole way. [Sidenote- I’d like to mention that there are bathrooms here which are actual holes in the ground, at stops along the road. There are also no stalls…so imagine that!] The next hotel room was just as great as the one the night before, and we all took showers and then met up in Alex's room (guy from Mexico) and played some card games [I learned how to play Dou Di Zhu on the bus!] and some language games since we all speak another language fluently. We didn't go out the second night because we were too tired, and had to get up at 6am the next day. We also went on a river boat tour on the Li River where we say the Elephant Trunk Hill (a tourist and nice scenic site). After breakfast on the third day (Monday) we went to get Western coffee (haven't seen real coffee here yet!) and walked around the street we went out on, and bought some random Chinese jewelry. The vendors said (when I say said, I really mean there was a sign) it was from Tibet and that it was silver, but I highly doubt it especially since the bracelet I bought gave me an allergic reaction that I get to jewelry which contains nickel and other cheap substances. I did get some cool jewelry though. After shopping we hurried to the bus to make sure we would be able to make it home. I slept pretty much the whole 6 hours. The ride back was supposed to last longer due to traffic, but we made it back by 8PM, so Audre and I thought we'd be able to catch a bus back home! To our surprise, once we got to the bus station, we found out that the last bus to Beijiao left at 8PM, and now it was 8 30. This was the point in the trip where we started freaking out! Neither of us even had 80RMB left to pay for the cab, so I called Natalia to ask her what to do! Some guy who works at the bus station tried to help, but all he said was "I suggest you take a cab". WITH WHAT MONEY MISTER? Natalia assured me that we could share a cab with 2 other people and we'd split the cost, so it would only cost 20RMB each. (Ashley you would be laughing if you saw me trying to communicate and point etc with the cab driver, but he figured out we wanted 2 more people in the cab). I guess it's common for strangers to share cabs here if they're going to the same place. It saves a lot of money! So we made it home and the driver and the 2 other guys were talking about us in Chinese, but we had no idea what we were saying, except I heard some words I know, one of them being měiguó rén (American). One of the younger guys asked "Where you coming?". I thought he meant where are you going so I said "From Guangzhou to Beijiao", then he started saying something in Chinese, so I figured out he meant "Where are you from" and that's when I responded "Chicago". Our conversation ended there. So that was our little vacation over Easter and the Tomb Sweeping Festival. As it is said in history, it usually rains during the Tomb Sweeping Festival and it also rained this past weekend, so the sites weren't as fun to see. The way I celebrated Easter was by saying "Happy Easter". I should have thought about going to that Catholic Church, because I'm curious what language the mass is in and how they lead mass...this is a Communist country after all. Traveling 6 hours to a province near by made me realize just how HUGE China is (we were in a province just north of Vietnam!). The US is so small compared to here, so I might have a little difficulty planning my future adventures around China, but they have to happen!

Oh, one more thing. I finally got sick because of the weather change and I have a sore throat. Not only do I have a sore throat, but I have 4 bumps on my right palm. At first I didn't think anything of it, but then I showed my supervisor at work yesterday and she said I should go to the doctor. Great, the doctor in China, just what I need. So they had a car pick me up and I went to the Midea hospital (how you would imagine a small town Chinese hospital) and the doctor said (I had my translator from my Beginner's class with me) I must have touched something. To me it could be bug bites or something of that sort, especially since I have no REAL allergies. Also, my gums have been hurting me so it seems like maybe my last wisdom tooth is growing in? I have no idea, but this is not what I need right now! So I got a bunch of medicine from the doctor (penicillin being one of them) and they are all in Chinese...I am supposed to come back if my hand doesn't return to normal, but so far it looks the same and still moderately hurts.

Speaking to Non-Native English Speakers and Chinese Minorities

My English has slowed down a lot because I have only been speaking to non-Native English speakers (well with the exception of like one person!). My pronunciation has become more clear and I have refrained from using long and complicated words. When I get back to the US, people won't recognize my language! I am a fast speaker and now I have slowed down a lot. Another thing that I had learned last week was that there are a few minorities in China- the people of Tibet (an ethnic minority in China), the people from Taiwan, and the Uyghur people from Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The Uyghur people are one of the biggest minorities in China and are related to the Turkish culture and to Muslims. This is something I wrote down to read about, but thought it was interesting to mention.

Bù yáo Bitch!

Everywhere we went this weekend, there were people selling some sort of trinkets and would not leave us alone! There were old ladies who literally followed me from the market to across the road into the restaurant. Even after I said Bù yáo (No thank you/I don’t want it). I know this is common all over the world, but if I say no once, I will say no again! So I came up with this phrase if someone made me mad, Bù yáo Bitch! It has a nice little ring to it. The one time I’ve had a problem here is when a lady beggar came up to me in front of McDonalds and literally blocked my way in order to shove her tin bowl in front of my body so I would give her money. Talk about invasion of personal space!

I'd like to also mention the accent marks on Chinese letters. Those are the tones and there are 4 for each word. So imagine how hard it is to learn Chinese when ONE WORD (a pinyin word is a Chinese character)has 4 different sounds and means 4 completely different things! AND THE SOUNDS ARE ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO DISTINGUISH!

So, for now that is all I have to write about. Classes have been going well, work is great, and once agin someone is leaving me! This time Natalia is moving to Moscow :( on the 24th! At least I will have someone to visit there at the end of my trip to China. Russia and Europe! Here I come!