Second Day of BLAST (Language School) Training

• Language School is fun
• It was fun to make mistakes in class
• Our teacher wanted us to say 我吃饺子 (Wo chi jiaozi) which means “I eat dumplings) but everyone heard  我是饺子 （wo shi jiaozi） which means “I am a dumpling”
• Everyone looked at each other and said, “Wait a second, I’m not a dumpling, I’m an American”
• It was just confusing because “chi” and “shi” do sound a lot alike when spoken really fast
• I’m still such an engineer
• We were learning the origin of the character 早 which means “early” and the origin is that the square part in the old days used to be a circle with a dot in it to represent the sun and the cross represented grass
• Well the teacher asked, “Does anyone know what the bottom part meant?” before she told us it meant grass and I said, “Oh it must be the sun rotation about an axis”
• Our teacher obviously didn’t hear me and she said, “yes, it represents grass” and everyone laughed at me, it was a really good time
• Then we learned about the song 小白兔乖乖
• It’s about a guy who wants to get into a house but the little rabbit doesn’t let him in
• Basically, every Chinese person knows it because it’s taught to kids when they are really young as a “stranger danger” song
• So the teachers said that if we ever want to bond with our children then we should sing this song because our kids will know it
• What made it funny was that all the guys sang the part of the guy trying to get in and we all sang it in a really deep voice, “Quickly quickly little rabbit, let us in”
• A miracle for my broke computer
• I now have one screen instead of two!
• Somehow my computer shut down by itself while I was at language school and when I came back I rebooted it and now I have only one screen instead of the split double screen I had earlier
• I still need to get a back-up hard drive
• I’ve tried to use Carbonite which is an online back-up but my computer has been on for 3 days non-stop (except for accidental shut-offs which happened twice) and it’s backed up 20% of my computer
• Then the Carrefour wants to charge me about $250 for a hard drive so I tried to go a cheaper route on ebay but that was no luck
• I've also tried the whole, "Put an image on a DVD" trick but I ran out of DVD's so now I'm stuck with Carbonite and crossing my fingers that it can back up my hard drive before Dell transfer my warranty internationally
• Never tried to use paypal in China
• I have an American paypal and I tried to use it to buy something on Ebay but now my paypal account is blocked
• I don't feel as bad as the guy who I tried to buy a hard drive off of in China who is now waiting for my paypal to become unlocked so that he can get paid
• At least I’m making good use of my food stipend
• I get a reasonable amount of money to spend every day to buy food as part of my TFC language school living expenses and the past two days I’ve been within 1 RMB and 1.5 RMB respectively of the limit
• The only reason why is that at the end of every night I go to Carrefour to spend money on food for breakfast because no restaurants are open that give out 发票 so I now have a stockpile of about 12 packs of breakfast crackers in my room

Making it through language training

• Awesome experience finding dinner last night
• We went to go find some street food for our BLAST group’s first Chinese dinner together at Green Lake in Kunming but all the stalls close at about 6 pm apparently
• The only thing we could find was this Mr. Chicken place that had boatloads of fried chicken and the guy told us in Chinese, “It’s the best fried chicken in the land”
• But it was also cool because we got to see a group of women in the 50’s-60’s range tear it up on the dance floor while walking around Green Lake which entertained us for a good 15 minutes
• My favorite was the one guy who tried to dance with a woman during the song, “Piece of Me” by Britney Spears and he came in trying to do basically the second part of the chicken dance that we were all taught when we were younger
• The one old lady wasn’t having it and so she shadow-boxed him out of the circle into the periphery
• After walking for an hour and a half around our hostel and slightly losing our sense of where we were, we just ate at a halal small food place near the hostel
• It kind of defeated the purpose of walking around but it was good because we had authentic Chinese food
• Only one of us could fully translate the menu so basically the guy with awesome Chinese skills ordered us all the same plate of chicken and rice for only 8 RMB
• Never expect to get an English speaking staff member at 6 AM in the morning at your hostel
• There was this British guy who came in yelling and screaming because for the second night in a row he was locked out of his room
• A lot of f-bombs were dropped in there to say the least but the thing was that the guy he was screaming at didn’t speak a word of English
• I happened to be sitting in the bar (not drinking) at the time and so the Chinese guy came over to me and I translated using google for him but luckily the guy used so many f-bombs he woke up the English speaking staff 
• First day of BLAST language training
• So this isn’t a “You can’t speak anything but Chinese” because we would all be pretty silent but it was more of an introduction to Chinese class in a business setting where everyone wears business casual
• They said not to expect to be taught characters but expect to be taught how to say things so at least that leaves me with 40,000 less problems to worry about
• It was a good lesson in humility
• They split us up into three groups (1 advanced and 2 beginners) and I got placed in the beginner group where I pronounced just about everything wrong
• We were in a circle and every time except maybe two the teacher stopped at me to make me say the basic Chinese phrase like, “Thank you” over again
•  Chinese reimbursement isn’t that fun
• So in order to be reimbursed for meals I have to get what’s called a 发票 which is an official government document that’s in place in lieu of a sales tax
• Well the thing is that even though everything that is a store is supposed to have copies of these, only about 5% of Chinese restaurants actually do and if you want a发票 you either have to go to a really nice restaurant or a Western restaurant
• Luckily TFC chose one of the best districts to be in Kunming

• • We’re right by a shopping mall that has medium priced Chinese food and发票 so we’re all good to go whereas if we were in a more China-like district with mom and pop stores we would have to walk probably 30 minutes just to get some food
  • And luckily there’s a Carrefour nearby so when nothing is open in the morning that has发票 we can just get breakfast there
• My computer officially broke
• So as fate would have it my computer decided to break down in China 
• Right now I have two screens for the price of one with a nice black bar on the right side of my screen

• • It’s said to be error 0142 on my Dell laptop which means that my hard drive is officially fried but luckily I can still work my computer 
  • I have yet to turn my computer off because if I do I might not be able to turn it on again
  • But praise heaven that Vanderbilt is an awesome university with an awesome engineering school laptop program
  • Even though I graduated my warranty is good until August and Dell rocks because they told me how to fix my problem
  • All I have to do is switch my warranty over to Dell China and pray that they have an English speaking service guy…yay
• I can tell I’m not endearing myself to the staff
• We all got assigned our Chinese names today and I was assigned 鲁聪 where 
• Lu-鲁-means, “rash, rude, stupid, crass, rough”
• Cong-聪-means, “smart, quick-witted, acute at hearing” but I think it’s ironic because I’m in the beginner class so I don’t see how smart really describes my Mandarin skills right now 
• I’m not mad about my new Chinese name because I found that real Chinese people are named this http://www.jxdz.uestc.edu.cn/teacher_detail.asp?id=38
• One day I will hopefully be good enough in Mandarin to grow from 鲁 to 聪
• I lost my lunch group today
• We were divided into groups of three people to practice our language skills over lunch and I was so hungry that I spaced out and after I got done looking around a square at all of the Chinese characters I could recognize I realized I lost everyone
• What makes it worse is the fact that we're all not Chinese so I shouldn't have lost them
• At least I’m confident in my abilities to not die in China
• I just found a place in a shopping mall, ordered some Mapo Tofu and a huge bowl of rice for 18 yuan, and got myself two elusive 发票。

First Day of the Real World

• Finally started working for the first time after I graduated college
• My first thought was, "It's about time"
• Travelling around China is fun but once you start seeing your bank account go down and down you start thinking "Ok, it's time to start making money"
• Welcome to the world of non-profits
• So my company Teach for China wanted us in Beijing for two nights just for orientation and there first move was to book us a hostel room
• When I heard that I thought, "Oh man TFC, don't spend way too much money on us now"
• It was actually a pretty nice hostel though and they booked us private rooms
• I had to share my room with another guy but it wasn't bad at all

• It was called the 9 Dragons Home and I would highly recommend it if you're ever in Beijing
• It felt like an actual hotel with free shampoo, toothbrushes, and toilet paper
• Now that we're in Kunming for the BLAST language school we're in an 8-person room for 7 guys
• Luckily everyone is really cool because TFC picked awesome people and they let me in for some reason too so it will be a lot more fun that way
• Then they made us pay for our meals at first but then they covered for us
• I wasn't too mad because I had money but I felt kind of jipped because they took us to nicer places and I could have just eaten good street food for 4 RMB instead of buying a grinder sandwich for 55 RMB
• The food they got for us was really good though and if I was in Beijing as a tourist I would definitely go to these places if I was in the neighborhood
• The one place "Xian Lao Man" 馅老满 was rated the best dumpling place in Beijing and they earned it
• The dumplings were huge and they were the first dumplings in all of China that I could eat with my poor chopstick skills
• The dumplings were definitely worth the price of 7 RMB/long for the cheaper ones and even the more expensive ones only got up to 12 RMB/long
• The second place - Grinders - is a Canadian restaurant in Beijing that has excellent sandwiches for about 55 RMB
• The third place that Teach for China actually paid for was this Chongqing Hotpot place and it was very good
• I got to meet all of the TFC BLAST Fellows (those who need to go to Chinese language school before we start teaching) and I got to meet some Chinese fellows too
• The street that this hotpot place was on was the coolest because it's completely lined with red lamps and there's hotpot places everywhere
• It was called Chongqing Kongliang Huoguo 重庆孔亮火锅 and it was located on 218 Dongzhimennei Dajie, Chaoyang District and I highly recommend it 
• And the world of non-profits is good!
• I experienced more happiness in 4 hours of working at a migrant school in Beijing than an entire summer at any of the internships I've been in
• We went to this migrant school on the far outskirts of Beijing to help tutor kids in English
• My favorite child was Lucy because she didn't want to do anything because she was painfully shy (just like me!)
• All of the 10-year old children gathered around in a circle and they passed a ball around and they would practice their English by saying, "My name is ____"
• When it was Lucy's turn she was almost in tears because she didn't want to say a single thing
• Finally she whispered her name in English to her friend sitting next to her who proclaimed it to the whole room and that made Lucy smile along with every soul in that class
• There was an activity where all the kids split up into two teams and the teacher would say the sound of a letter and the kids would race to the blackboard to write down the letter
• Lucy was literally hiding underneath the desk trying to get away from it but I wouldn't let her (and the duty fell on me because by luck of where the volunteers went I was the only person above the age of 10 on that side of the room)
• I kept on trying to tell her in my broken Chinese "I believe in you" and "I know you're brave" so I got her in line to go up to the blackboard but it was just getting her to the blackboard that was the problem
• Luckily her friend from the ball activity took her by the hand when it was her turn, put the chalk in Lucy's hand, drew the sound for Lucy, and her team got the point and all the kids on her team (probably 5 of them) gave Lucy a hug
• I didn't have enough stickers for all of them but I gave Lucy one and that seemed to help
• So now I know, letting kids help kids is the best way to go
• On a selfish note, my favorite activity of the day was, "Chase the white guy"
• So there was this little boy that wanted to practice Kung Fu on me and I played around with him by sticking my arm out and stiff-arming him on the head (lightly) 
• Well what started out as 1 kid turned into 7 which turned into me running around the courtyard of the migrant school sticking my tongue out at them and making funny faces saying, "YOU CAN'T CATCH ME!" 
• I got my shirt really dirty but it was totally worth it
• The kids would one by one try to tackle me to bring me down but I would just lift them up in the air like an airplane and twirl them around
• I made sure to ask if it was ok first because I knew I would probably be arrested for that in America 
• This lasted for a good 15 minutes so I got a lot of dirt and ice cream stains on my shirt so I just went to the washroom to wash off
• I didn't realize we were going to get on the bus as soon as I was done washing myself so for the entire 45 minute bus ride I just had water up and down my chest which must have looked like the most interesting sweat pattern in the world
• At least I got a lot of personal space on that bus
• Kunming is an awesome city
• Teach for China chose a great city for us to study Chinese because the air is the most breathable of any city I've been to in China
• What they say about this city is true, it is eternally spring here
• It was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit when I landed (I took a different flight from the rest of the fellows) and it was just perfect with little humidity and a lot of Chinese people just staring at me and the ridiculous amount of luggage I had with me
• Plus Kunming is beautiful
• We're staying at the Kunming Upland Hostel (which is an awesome hostel) and it's right next to what's called Green Lake which is beautiful, full of street food, and full of people doing random dancing
• So in short, it's just about perfect

• I really want that last picture with the statue to be my statue someday if I do anything worthwhile enough with my life to deserve a statue
• It's so pimp, I mean a cape in the wind? Your first thought is, "Wow, how awesome must that guy have to have been?"

Macau is my favorite city in China

• Good deed for the day
• I’ve noticed that Chinese people don’t really help out people in need unless they have to in order to get them out of the way (they’re not the most charitable bunch)
• On my way from Hong Kong to Macau on the ferry I almost missed the ferry because I had to use the bathroom and I noticed on my run to the gate that there was this guy fast asleep near the gate
• He had his ipod earphones in so he must have never heard the announcement that the ferry was boarding (his mouth was gaping open that’s how asleep he was) and on one that boarded the ferry even so much as bothered to tap him on the shoulder
• I know this because I poked his foot with my umbrella just so I wouldn’t feel bad in case this guy was supposed to be on this ferry and sure enough he woke up, saw the ferry was boarding, and bolted for the gate 
• I think it’s just the city folks that don’t seem to really care about people in immediate need
• I do see some charity signs asking for donations to help people but when people are actually in need at the moment in front of people the Chinese don’t help them
• I remember this one woman in Beijing Central rail way station that was screaming her lungs out in the middle of the square and I was the only soul brazen enough to try to ask her what was wrong
• I didn’t help because I didn’t speak Chinese and she just started yelling at me but when I walked away still no one else was even curious as to what she wanted
• Ferry to Macau is fun
• It’s like a roller coaster so if you get motion sickness easy then this isn’t the ride for you

• • I did get the cheapest fare I could find at the China Ferry terminal in Hong Kong through First World ferry but the ferry was actually pretty nice with big screen tv’s showing commercials during the ride and nice seats that you could take a nap in
  • As you can see by the last picture, you definitely don't want to swim in this water unless you want some 19th century illness so don't swim from Hong Kong to Macau
• I love Macau
• Macau just seems like what Hong Kong wants to be as a city but they’re just way better at it
• I guess the Portuguese just know how to set up a city so suck on that England
• You avoid all of the Hong Kong problems
• There’s not a ton of people so there are some times where you’re walking around Macau like I did today and you feel like you have that entire spot of the island all to yourself
• I was in a few museums (and big ones too like the Macau Museum of Art) and even though it was a Tuesday afternoon so I understand it’s not that busy but I was the only person in there
• Plus it’s actually really easy to navigate in this city
• You’re not ducking through overpasses and underpasses trying to cross the street
• You know what you do if you want to cross the street? You just walk across the pavement! I think these Macanese are onto something that the rest of China and Hong Kong needs to adopt
• Plus you’re never lost
• If you’re trying to find a historical monument and you make the wrong turn, it’s not, “oh no, where in the world am I?” it’s “Oh look at this other museum/monument we’ve found, I guess we’ll just go to the other one a little bit later”
• There’s literally cool museums/monuments everywhere so you’re never bored
• That’s in contrast to Hong Kong where you have to walk for 30 minutes in hot and muggy weather just to find something besides an overpriced shop (by mainland Chinese standards)

• • It’s actually cheap here too
  • You actually get the feeling that:
  • You’re not being ripped off
  • It’s cheaper to buy it here than in America (not the case in Hong Kong)
  • This place still has Dolce & Gobbana and Louis Vutton if you’re into that too so why even go to Hong Kong?
  • Plus there’s no one here hawking you things
  • For the first time since I’ve been in Hohhot I have yet to be asked if I want a “massage”, a watch, a bag, a belt, marijuana, a tour of some monument, etc.
  • I LOVE MACAU!
• Macau food is awesome
• Beef jerky capital of the world
• They basically have markets everywhere with layer-upon-layer of different types of jerky that you can sample and when you find the one you want it’s like $10 a lb.
• I found this spicy pork one I liked and I got for what would have cost me $15 in America for $2 here in Macau

• • I could live off of egg tarts
  • They’re these little Portuguese treats that are really small but they’re a little bread bowl filled with egg and topped with cheese and they’re so good here

• • The pastries are pretty good/alright
  • They have these almond biscuits that they’re famous for and they’re alright but after 5 of them your mouth is so dry that you need water and by then you’ve had enough of them

• • Same for the phoenix rolls with pork in them
  • They actually taste a little bit like sushi because they’re wrapped in seaweed but unless you’re really hungry you’ll be good after 4 of them

• The specialty “African Chicken” is of course over-priced for tourists
• The cheapest I found it was for 88 MOP and even that’s a little outrageous for Macanese people
• I felt like splurging seeing that it was my last day travelling so I went to the oldest restaurant in Macau (Smiling Buddha near the San Va Hotel) and it was a pretty nice place with tablecloths and everything
• The African Chicken there cost 187 MOP after the service charge and even though it was ridiculously overpriced I’m glad I had it
• I felt bad for those guys cleaning up though because there’s no way they can re-use that white table cloth after I was done with it
• Because it was so expensive I made sure to eat every single shred of meat off that chicken that I could so at the end I grabbed it with my bare fingers and just made a mess out of my table because I bought the right to do that
• If it was 100 MOP I wouldn’t have done it but because it was so overpriced I felt like I should get something more out of it besides the chicken
• San Va Hostel – You get what you pay for
• So this hotel at first isn’t that bad because you’re paying less than 20 USD a night for a private room (even if you have to share a bathroom with the entire building of 60-70 units)
• Then you realize, “Oh wait, there’s no actual walls here”
• The partitions are probably 4 in. thick and they’re made of wood with large gaps on the top and bottom so you can hear everything 
• There’s also no wifi but that’s not too bad because the Macau government has a lot of free wi-fi spots
• I love how catholic this place is
• Even on Monte Fort when you’re walking up this fort built in the Renaissance you’re thinking you’re going to see some kind of military statue but as soon as you turn the corner *BAM* a statue of the Virgin Mary
• So many cool churches too
• I don’t know how I’d feel about going to a big church with over 1000 people with no air conditioning but still the cultural aspects of these places is remarkable
• Just about all of them have either a museum dedicated to sacred art or some cool feature like stained glass windows
• First ever gambling experience
• I realized that I will never gamble in my entire life
• Gambling is so expensive
• The first casino I went to was the Casino Lisboa which is “the place” in Macau and is basically synonymous with the entire city because everyone in Macau uses that landmark as a reference point (just go 3 km up from Casino Lisboa…)
• Well I thought I would try my luck at gambling and I budgeted 100 USD for that exact purpose
• The minimum bet in those places is 200 MOP ($30) so if I lost 3 straight times I would have been done that quick
• They had free coke and water which was nice but still, if I lost the shirt off of my back I don’t think that would have pacified me
• The only place I gambled with an actual person was at the Babylon Casino
• There I tried my hand at Baccarat and after I made the minimum bet I won $100
• I thought about how that could buy me a lot of beef jerky so I quit after one hand and went to the cashier to get my money
• I did find one computer game that had a small minimum bet
• At the Casino Babylon they had a virtual baccarat with a minimum bet of 10 HKD and I lost 30 HKD but I should have had 320 HKD 
• I made a bet that I would draw a 1-3 and the odds were 32:1 and I drew a 1 but the freaking computer automatically draws for you and I busted so I didn’t win anything when the computer shouldn’t have drawn so that I could have gotten my 320 HKD
• I was mad on a level I couldn’t even describe so that’s why I’m never gambling again
• However if I ever need an escort I know where to go
• In the tunnel between the Casino Lisboa and the Wynn Casino (also overpriced) the tunnel is lined with calling cards of women in bikinis or thongs with their legs wide open or slightly pulling off their underwear
• I took a picture of the least heinous one for proof but I don’t know how much business these girls are making because I would have no idea on how to call a Macanese phone number

• Although if you see these don’t laugh out loud
• When I first looked at them I laughed because I thought it was silly and that just gets you weird looks