In the meantime, enjoy this video of my dad in the airport. And no, this was not staged.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Family Visit Teaser
When my mom, dad, and brother came to visit 3 weeks ago, I hardly took any pictures. There was no need since my brother, Aaron is a hardcore video/photo enthusiast. I just copied all his data before they left. So I have to weed through 55gb (yes, GB) of photos and video. I have 3 delicious weeks off in which Josh, his brother Jon, and I will be traveling to Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, before returning back to China. Hip- hip- hooray! My plan is to go through all the photos then and update the blog.
In the meantime, enjoy this video of my dad in the airport. And no, this was not staged.
In the meantime, enjoy this video of my dad in the airport. And no, this was not staged.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Christmas Time Part II: Chillax Town
As I said before, Josh and I could not wait to get out of China for a break. We took off from school directly after the 2nd graders' "Gangnam Style" performance and went to the airport to fly to Bangkok. Our plan was to directly go to the train station where we would catch an overnight train to Vientiane, Laos. We've traveled enough to know that things don't always go according to plan. So, our contingency plan was to find a cool place in Thailand to spend our long weekend eating as much pad thai as our bodies could take.
We seamlessly caught the metro from the airport to train station, and had zero problems getting two tickets for the sleeper train to the Thai/Lao border town of Nong Khai. God was smiling on us, because this was the perfect trip. Josh and I had a top and bottom bunk, and across from us were our instant friends: Darlene and Chris. They're around the same age and have been married as long as us. We were similar enough to get along great and different enough to keep things interesting. Most westerners that we meet in Asia actually live nearby and are just visiting their neighboring countries. This was not the case for Chris and Darlene. They were taking their extra long Christmas/New Year holiday to travel from Pittsburgh to not-so-traveled countries. This time it was Laos and Burma.
I knew something was up when we were talking about living in Korea for a year and Darlene said with great enthusiasm, "I would love to go to North Korea!" Seriously? Turns out they have a goal of seeing these less traveled/semi-dangerous countries before they have kids. They've already been to many places in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, as well as South America. Now they've come to Asia.
At the Lao border, you get a visa on arrival. It's amazing how powerful the American dollar is. Josh and I didn't have any USD (for obvious reasons) so we ended up paying the equivalent of $30 more because we paid in Thai Baht. Lesson learned: Always have US cash on you, especially in Southeast Asia.
We took a shuttle bus across the border. I couldn't stop giggling because as soon as our little commute began, Boney M's "River of Babylon" was blaring. Second time to Thailand, and second time I've heard Boney M booming in public. I loved it.
Chris and Darlene weren't staying in Vientiane. They were going to take a flight to Luang Prabang, so we shared a tuk-tuk to the city center to drop them off at a travel agency before taking us to Francois Ngin Rd. to find a hotel.
Turns out that they couldn't get a flight until the following afternoon, so we all checked into the same hotel and then spent the next hours exploring, eating, and ultimately relaxing.
Most young travelers aren't impressed by Vientiane because it's small, there's not much to see, and I suppose it doesn't have a good party scene. Josh and I couldn't care less because our motive for traveling is food. I hadn't realized it until Darlene pointed it out. We aren't big on seeing the sights (unless they're a big deal like Angkor Wat or the Great Wall) We mostly love eating the local cuisines and watching people. Did I mention that we love food?
We really enjoyed our time with Chris and Darlene, and of course we swapped info before they left to keep in touch. Thank God for Facebook, right?
The rest of the second afternoon and evening, Josh and I shopped til we dropped. One of the best things about Laos (or at least Vientiane) is that the people aren't trying to rip off dumb white people. In Thailand, tourism and souvenirs are big business. White faces pay a higher price. We didn't really run into that here. And another great thing, there was little to no haggling. Here's their price. It's a fair price. Transation completed.
Our final day in Vientiane, Josh had a very specific mission: to find his favorite book, "The Little Prince" in Lao. It's a fun tradition we have- collecting the book in all different languages. We had no idea how difficult this mission would be. We started at a nearby bookshop. Then to the big day market. Then we wandered around asking/miming that we were looking for a bookstore. One man pointed us to go back to the street we were on and then make a left. We ended up at a library. Then a tuk-tuk driver drove us really far away to a book store that turned out to be a stationary shop/ printing company. Eventually, I gave up and Josh continued his search alone. I tried one more bookstore on the way back to the hotel, and again came out empty-handed. When Josh returned a few hours later, he too was unsuccessful. What he found out was heartbreaking for our tradition. The Little Prince was out of print in the Lao language! Talk about disappointment. A man at one of the used book stores informed him but took down Josh's email so he could contact us if he ever came across an old copy.
To avoid the possibility of missing a train back to Bangkok, we left Vientiane right after lunch (Turkish food) to cross the border back into Nong Khai.
There you have it. The most unconventional and maybe the most awesome Christmas we've ever had. If only we didn't have to come back to the bitterly cold Shanghai. Dang.
Vientiane, Laos
We seamlessly caught the metro from the airport to train station, and had zero problems getting two tickets for the sleeper train to the Thai/Lao border town of Nong Khai. God was smiling on us, because this was the perfect trip. Josh and I had a top and bottom bunk, and across from us were our instant friends: Darlene and Chris. They're around the same age and have been married as long as us. We were similar enough to get along great and different enough to keep things interesting. Most westerners that we meet in Asia actually live nearby and are just visiting their neighboring countries. This was not the case for Chris and Darlene. They were taking their extra long Christmas/New Year holiday to travel from Pittsburgh to not-so-traveled countries. This time it was Laos and Burma.
I knew something was up when we were talking about living in Korea for a year and Darlene said with great enthusiasm, "I would love to go to North Korea!" Seriously? Turns out they have a goal of seeing these less traveled/semi-dangerous countries before they have kids. They've already been to many places in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, as well as South America. Now they've come to Asia.
At the Lao border, you get a visa on arrival. It's amazing how powerful the American dollar is. Josh and I didn't have any USD (for obvious reasons) so we ended up paying the equivalent of $30 more because we paid in Thai Baht. Lesson learned: Always have US cash on you, especially in Southeast Asia.
We took a shuttle bus across the border. I couldn't stop giggling because as soon as our little commute began, Boney M's "River of Babylon" was blaring. Second time to Thailand, and second time I've heard Boney M booming in public. I loved it.
Chris and Darlene weren't staying in Vientiane. They were going to take a flight to Luang Prabang, so we shared a tuk-tuk to the city center to drop them off at a travel agency before taking us to Francois Ngin Rd. to find a hotel.
Turns out that they couldn't get a flight until the following afternoon, so we all checked into the same hotel and then spent the next hours exploring, eating, and ultimately relaxing.
Most young travelers aren't impressed by Vientiane because it's small, there's not much to see, and I suppose it doesn't have a good party scene. Josh and I couldn't care less because our motive for traveling is food. I hadn't realized it until Darlene pointed it out. We aren't big on seeing the sights (unless they're a big deal like Angkor Wat or the Great Wall) We mostly love eating the local cuisines and watching people. Did I mention that we love food?
We really enjoyed our time with Chris and Darlene, and of course we swapped info before they left to keep in touch. Thank God for Facebook, right?
The rest of the second afternoon and evening, Josh and I shopped til we dropped. One of the best things about Laos (or at least Vientiane) is that the people aren't trying to rip off dumb white people. In Thailand, tourism and souvenirs are big business. White faces pay a higher price. We didn't really run into that here. And another great thing, there was little to no haggling. Here's their price. It's a fair price. Transation completed.
To avoid the possibility of missing a train back to Bangkok, we left Vientiane right after lunch (Turkish food) to cross the border back into Nong Khai.
Bangkok, Thailand
The train arrived around 8am in Bangkok, so of course the day's goal was to eat as much Thai food as possible before our flight at 6pm. Talk about a glorious day.
There you have it. The most unconventional and maybe the most awesome Christmas we've ever had. If only we didn't have to come back to the bitterly cold Shanghai. Dang.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Christmas Time Part I: Backwards Land
When Halloween rolled around, I had a little class party for my students. I gave them some candy, we discussed "trick-or-treating," and I let them watch "Scared Shrekless." I didn't need to explain what Halloween was about really, because isn't Halloween just for fun? No one really celebrates the dead anymore, do they? You can argue the Pagan or Christian origin of it, but in the end: it's just for fun.
To me, Christmas is a little different. I mean, I know many atheists celebrate Christmas because it's fun too: you give and receive presents, it's one of the few times that the family is all together, and it's a long running tradition, especially in America. Maybe I am naive in assuming that most Americans at least recognize the religious significance of the holiday- that Christians are celebrating the birth of their savior, Jesus.
Christmas time in China has been so bizarre. I asked my students what they know about Christmas. I received only one answer: Santa Claus. Christmas is like Halloween here. It's just a fun western holiday, that has no real significance whatsoever. To each their own. But at our school, the students, teachers, and parents were obsessed with this big Christmas production (again) having absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. Partytown USA and Oriental Trading company vomited all over the hallways with crappy Santa decorations. The Chinese teachers pulled students out of our classes for weeks leading up to the production so that they could rehearse for it. Here's what the week before Christmas looked like....
And here's what the grand production "What Dreams May Come" (?!?) looked like:
I'm especially fond of this next performance. It was a play by play reenactment of Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time" video. And at the end, Michael Jackson unwraps the mummy to reveal........ you guessed it, Santa Claus!
The big finish was the second graders dancing to Gangnam Style. I'll admit, it was pretty adorable.
Josh and I were at our wit's end with how things are done here in China. From leaving the windows open in the dead of winter to changing our New Year holiday (so that we no longer get a 4 day weekend but just get three random weekdays off followed by an 8 day work week) we were desperately in need of a break from China.
Cue "Christmas Time Part Two".............
To me, Christmas is a little different. I mean, I know many atheists celebrate Christmas because it's fun too: you give and receive presents, it's one of the few times that the family is all together, and it's a long running tradition, especially in America. Maybe I am naive in assuming that most Americans at least recognize the religious significance of the holiday- that Christians are celebrating the birth of their savior, Jesus.
Christmas time in China has been so bizarre. I asked my students what they know about Christmas. I received only one answer: Santa Claus. Christmas is like Halloween here. It's just a fun western holiday, that has no real significance whatsoever. To each their own. But at our school, the students, teachers, and parents were obsessed with this big Christmas production (again) having absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. Partytown USA and Oriental Trading company vomited all over the hallways with crappy Santa decorations. The Chinese teachers pulled students out of our classes for weeks leading up to the production so that they could rehearse for it. Here's what the week before Christmas looked like....
And here's what the grand production "What Dreams May Come" (?!?) looked like:
I'm especially fond of this next performance. It was a play by play reenactment of Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time" video. And at the end, Michael Jackson unwraps the mummy to reveal........ you guessed it, Santa Claus!
The big finish was the second graders dancing to Gangnam Style. I'll admit, it was pretty adorable.
Josh and I were at our wit's end with how things are done here in China. From leaving the windows open in the dead of winter to changing our New Year holiday (so that we no longer get a 4 day weekend but just get three random weekdays off followed by an 8 day work week) we were desperately in need of a break from China.
Cue "Christmas Time Part Two".............
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)