Tag Archives: China

New Job as a Teacher in China!

8 May

Hello one and all! I have a job  Woot!

Mom and I will both be teaching Business/Law courses at Sias International University the Henan Province of China. This program is a cooperative program with Fort Hays State University in Kansas. Basically we are teaching Fort Hays classes to the students in China. We will have 5-6 classes of 50-60 students each. Classes start Sept. 1; we’ll be leaving in mid-August. Here is a map of the biggest city (Zhengzhou) next to where we are moving this fall. If you zoom out, directly south you will see Xinzheng, our new hometown. We will be right next to the Longmen Grottos, Shaolin Temple (home of kung fu!), the Terra Cotta Soldiers, beautiful mountains, temples, etc. Zhengzhou also has cheap direct tickets to Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Beijing! The school itself is pretty sweet–it has a beautiful campus, we will both get an apartment, we have 3 meals paid a day, good salary, three months off a year, awesome benefits, a great community, and what promises to be great students. So Exciting!

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Lessons From Traveling: Get A Sense Of Humor

3 Apr

Whenever anyone asks me why I travel abroad, one of my answers has got to be that it makes me laugh.  Laugh at myself. Laugh at the world.  Traveling really is a great confidence booster because it perpetually reminds you that  life is bewildering and ridiculous.  

All beginning travelers try to get it all right. Things start making sense, you get through security with no hiccups and you start to tell yourself “I’ve got this. I own this traveling thing.”  BOOM! You inevitablly trip on the carpet, land flat on your face, and watch as your suitcase crashes to the ground exposing socks and clothes to all and sundry.  Yes, that happened to me. I landed nose to the floor smack in front of the hotel doors and had four lovely bellhops standing around in shock and awe.  

It was a 5-star hotel with highly important people milling around. I just got in because the school had a group rate and wanted to impress us.  Olympians, you will recognize this place because it’s where you stayed during the Beijing games. But trust me, few Olympians have accomplished the sheer magnitude of that landing.  I hit with all the style that only an overweight little German dumpling can accomplish.  It was glorious. 

 

Which brings me back to my point, traveling makes me laugh.  You really can’t help it, because with the world as crazy as it is, you either laugh or cry.  It helps that between the adrenaline and slight hysteria that comes with all new adventures, everything becomes SO much funnier.

You just never catch a break when you adventure outside of your comfort zone. There are cultural differences, natural differences, and of course utterly random differences.  I recently visited China and Korea, and if asked to compare them, one thing really comes to mind–hotel rules. You can slip into the culture really quickly, but spend hours trying to negotiate proper hotel etiquette.  The worst part about traveling in Asia is the lack of good clothes washing abilities. Hotels often don’t come with washers and never have dryers so you generally find yourself sending anything that needs pressed out to dry-cleaning.  The problem was that in Korea you had to bag up your clothes and carry them to the desk.So down I went with my suit pants to ask where I should leave them only to get the look.   Continue reading →

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“Travel” by Robert Louis Stevenson

3 Apr

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“Travel”

I should like to rise and go 
Where the golden apples grow;–
Where below another sky
Parrot islands anchored lie,
And, watched by cockatoos and goats,
Lonely Crusoes building boats;–
Where in sunshine reaching out
Eastern cities, miles about,
Are with mosque and minaret
Among sandy gardens set,
And the rich goods from near and far
Hang for sale in the bazaar;–
Where the Great Wall round China goes,
And on one side the desert blows,
And with the voice and bell and drum,
Cities on the other hum;–
Where are forests hot as fire,
Wide as England, tall as a spire,
Full of apes and cocoa-nuts
And the [African] hunters’ huts;–
Where the knotty crocodile
Lies and blinks in the Nile,
And the red flamingo flies
Hunting fish before his eyes;–
Where in jungles near and far,
Man-devouring tigers are,
Lying close and giving ear
Lest the hunt be drawing near,
Or a comer-by be seen
Swinging in the palanquin;–
Where among the desert sands
Some deserted city stands,
All its children, sweep and prince,
Grown to manhood ages since,
Not a foot in street or house,
Not a stir of child or mouse,
And when kindly falls the night,
In all the town no spark of light.
There I’ll come when I’m a man
With a camel caravan;
Light a fire in the gloom
Of some dusty dining-room;
See the pictures on the walls,
Heroes fights and festivals;
And in a corner find the toys
Of the old Egyptian boys.

By Robert Louis Stevenson

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US & Canadian laws have been D***S to Chinese Immigrants

16 Nov

I’d like to start by stating that US and Canadian laws have been ashamedly horrible to Chinese immigrants. Yep, and that’s really Horrible with all caps, lots of exclamation points, and a few “WTFs” thrown in.   I mean seriously. . . I’ve never read such racially loaded piles of SH**.  I mean, the legislative discussion behind these laws covers everything from racism to victim blaming to sexism to placing them at the bottom of the freaking “Caste” system. I mean, when have we ever even had a caste system!   Here are some of the key descriptions of the Chinese used in excusing such terrible racist legal movements:

  • “Culturally inferior”
  • “Racially unfit”
  • “Of the lowest orders”
  • “Or the lowest castes”
  • “Virtually Pariahs”
  • The “Dregs of the population”
  • “Lepers”
  • “Slaves”
  • “Yellow faces”

The list goes on.  They even mention that, of the Chinese women in the US in the late 1800s (after the Civil War was fought), most were “in a state of servitude, beside which African slavery was a beneficent captivity.” They talk about how many of these women were being forced into sexual slavery, but promptly use that as a reason to banish the population as a whole from American shores! Canada, with no just cause outside of racism, even taxed every Chinese immigrant $500 throughout the early 1900s, took away many of their rights (include the right to vote, own property, own a business, etc.) and eventually outlawed Chinese immigration almost completely (only 15 immigrants from China were allowed in from 1924 to 1944).  This continued even when Chinese-heritage soldiers rose up to fight with Canadian forces during WWII.  They were our allies, and this was still going on! NO SUCH LAW WAS IMPOSED AGAINST EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS. The Chinese residents and natural citizen already there even had to get a special permit to alert the government of their residency and alert the government of any traveling plans they had.  

   I mean, come on!!!  The governments’ treatment of these poor immigrants was just a pile of SH** And this type of conversation and treatment went on clear up through the late 1900s!!! How sick is that?!?  Some of the laws were in place as late as the 1980s!  Seriously, that’s basically within my lifetime — less than 30 years.  I have young friends who were alive then!

Now, excuse me.  I think I’ll go scream at the ignorance of idiots right now. . . 

 

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“Traveler’s Lodestone” out in Hard Copy!

15 Nov

Celebrations abound! At last, “Traveler’s Lodestone” is officially out in hard copy — a great universal translator ready for use!

After a great deal of time and effort, we have put together this great resource for anyone working with foreign languages. Whether that be while traveling abroad or when dealing with non-native speakers in your own backyard.  “Traveler’s Lodestone”  is a point-to-speak book. It uses picture-based communications to cover the basic things a person would need when conversing in any foreign language. The idea is that when the words aren’t at the tip of your tongue, the pictures are at the tip of your finger. Everything from groceries to clothes to hotel amenities to weather, directions, and more is available instantly with this easy to use book. It’s quick and universal!

Right now it’s out on CreateSpace, but coming soon to Amazon and other booksellers near you. At 5×8 and 100 pages, it’s small enough to stick in your purse or bag and carry around, easy to pull out and use. Check out this great universal translator! Now tested in Korea, Japan, and China–it worked perfectly! (the Bathroom/Toilet pic is apparently very popular 😛 )  Trust me; I’ve tried the dictionaries, translation books, etc. and this is the best tool I’ve found so far.

Great for students abroad!

Pick up Your Paperback Copy By Clicking Here

If you are interested in the E-book Version, that’s available here.  The e-book is actually broken up into 3 short Volumes for easier use.

We’re also working on a Android/Apple app. As soon as I figure out how to attach buttons to links, we’ll be adding that.

 

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Yummy Pork Buns and other Tianjin Foods

24 Aug Pork

The people of Tianjin, China are very proud of their cuisine; and for good reason.  I am an extremely picky eater due to allergies (Pork, Fish, Tomatoes, Soy, Nuts, and more) and I usually have to subsist on Pringles and Microwave meals from the Convenience stores when I stay in Asia.  So I was pleasantly surprised to find that Tianjin is actually not as bad for me as some of the other places. Most of the food served in Chinese restaurants there are actually vegetable dishes. I expected tons of rice, but found that you frequently only got a teeny tiny bowl at the end of your meal.  Most dishes were pea pods, cashews, leafy greens, mushrooms, peppers (green, red, and yellow), eggplant, and other such organic foods mixed together with varied sauces and meats.  While I did find myself eating a lot of pork; my allergy to that isn’t so bad so I was able to bypass the effects there and they served a lot of beef, duck, and lamb dishes. Amazingly, I found that their concept of dessert was fruit: Watermelon, Cantaloupe, and Grapes were served all summer as a refreshing meal end.  I actually lost more than 20 lbs this summer between the exercise and healthy foods.  To give you a taste, here are some of the great dinners we had!

Sesame Spiced Pork
A Fish dish–Couldn’t eat it, but I heard it’s delicious!
You don’t order individually; you order a table and everyone picks and chooses
You don’t order individually; you order a table and everyone picks and chooses
Another Meat Dish
Seaweed
Even the Tables were lovely!
Spiced Pork–Tasted like bacon
Weird Fruit/Yogurt/rice thing

Nonetheless, while Tianjin cooks serve hundreds of yummy dishes, they are most famous for three different Continue reading →

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A Day with the Panda

15 Aug

This summer I was blessed with the opportunity to see a real live Panda bear at the Tianjin Zoo!  This has long been a dream of mine (although don’t worry darling polar bears–I have enough room in my heart still for you) and I was glad to meet up with some friends who were as excited about panda searching as I was.  Luckily we made it just in time that day to see him eating some Bamboo (which was perfect. . . I mean it’s kind of like eating Belgium chocolates in Belgium or seeing an Arabian stallion in Arabia; seeing a bamboo-eating panda is kind of a prerequisite for visiting China) and then lazing about in the unbearable heat (see what I did there?) 😛  Cool huh?!?

Nom Nom Bamboo!
What Sharp Teeth You Have my Dear
Yummy Snacks!
Panda!
What big eyes you have!
I didn’t get a good night’s sleep last night. . . it’s why I have black eyes 😛
Panda!
Panda! ❤
Lounging about eating bonbons and napping.
Lazy Panda!
Shhhhh. I’m sleeping
Oh Please just go away. . .
Interrupt my nap and see what happens
Today is a sleepy day
Panda rear! 😛 Look how fat he is!

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I’m Back!

27 Jul

Have I got stories for you! China is just a fabulous place to visit!! I had such an amazing time visiting with and learning from these amazing people. Their kindness to my group was immeasurable; I cannot even being to tell how wonderful everything was.  And this next couple weeks I’ll start updating with pics, stories, and reviews.  But to give you a little taste; here are some of the cool things I saw and did!

When you see pics of the Great Wall that show people smiling on a flat terrain; they lie. It was death by a thousand stairs dead upmountain. My ghost is writing this.
Visited a Jade Factory!
The Mountains of China–Beautiful
Temple of Heavenly Peace
Tienanmen Square
Imperial Palace where emperors reigned!
One of 2 summer palaces–the empress’ vacation home
Rode the Dragon Boats!
Ancient Culture Street
Pandas!!!!!

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Tata!!

28 Jun

So long everyone! I’m off for China today. I wish I could keep posting but I’ve been warned that Internet there may not let me. So this may be goodbye until July 27, when I return to Korea. I’ll have lots of stories to share!! ❤

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Life In Japan: Week One is Done!

22 May

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Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!  I swore to myself that I would keep this blog updated as I went about my trip and I totally screwed up. I just realized I haven’t posted in weeks, and I sincerely apologize!  Everything has just been so incredibly hectic.  But I hereby promise that from now on I will keep everything updated and going, and I will get up the stuff I haven’t posted on.

The trip getting here was one problem after another; if I didn’t know better I’d swear a poltergeist was working against me.

It started when I started working on getting my Chinese visa. Continue reading →

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