White Privilege

When I was researching about China I found that many white people who have lived here say they get stared at and people yell things at them like, "Foreigner!" I have not been yelled at. Have I been stared at? Yes. Does it bother me? No. I understand that this is the first time many people in my city may have ever seen a white person in real life and I don't feel offended. The issue is the implicit thoughts that come with that. 

In psychology and sociology, students study about various topics including racism which branch off into two ways, Implicit and Explicit racism. Explicit racism is displayed through abrasive means such as hate crimes, yelling slurs, and straight out discrimination. Implicit racism is unconsciously acting in a way you don't realize is racist such as not making eye contact with a person of a certain race, believing that a race might rob/trick you, or believing that a race is better at things. Even items that could be considered "positive" is racist. I had a chat with my dad once because he said that a certain race was better at sports. I told him that was racist and he was confused, "No, it is a good thing!" 

"Well, you are saying that a certain race is better at sports because of their genes and not because of hard work or talent."

"Yeah...and?"

That is implicit racism. 

Implicit racism has shown itself here as a "positive." Parents believe they know what I am talking about when it comes to English. People compliment me when I do simple tasks like use chopsticks and say basic phrases in Chinese. I have had co-workers who told me that there would be no way they could go to bars with me because my tolerance must be really high. When I asked why they thought this they all answered, "because you are white." 

That was a little jarring but it got worse. 

One of my co-workers speaks fluent Chinese and English but she teaches English at the school. She has a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education, and she has been teaching for over five years. When parents found out she was the teacher they got angry. They said they didn't think she was competent enough and even demanded that they watch her teach a class. Why doubt her? Because she looks Asian and she isn't white. The parents said that out loud to her face and to the principal. They asked why a white person wasn't teaching the class. They said and I am paraphrasing, "Why didn't you hire a real American who is pale and has blonde hair?" 

When it comes to "Real Americans" I know that it means anyone who was born in America or has American citizenship or even on their way to get their citizenship. The entire idea around America is that you can be any race, religion, or ethnicity to be one of us. That is confusing for people of other countries especially if they have low diversity. They have seen American movies and know our politics and what they have seen has been white people and when a person who isn't white comes overseas and says they are American they don't believe them. It is a hard pill to swallow. 

One blog I follow is Monkey Abroad and he touches on this subject. He found that his non-white or non-American co-workers had a harder time getting a job. Monkey Abroad stated that there are people here in China who have studied English their entire lives, are fluent in the language, get a degree in English and will be considered less qualified than a person who grew up speaking the language as their native tongue. Both Monkey Abroad and Lauren Without Fear did not have teaching degrees before they came to China but both were considered "hot commodities" because they grew up in the USA and English was their first language. 

I know this is just scratching the surface of much larger issues and I knew that I had privilege for the mere reason that I am white. I guess I am surprised because when I looked up what life was like here, I was expecting harassment and I braced myself for that but the person who ended up being harassed was not me. The person who is being doubted and questioned is highly qualified for her position and the person who has never been questioned just got their bachelor's degree in May 2017. 

Teaching abroad can be a great experience and I have enjoyed a lot about it so far but here is the thing, everyone should be aware that racism is out there. This is a problem. People who are qualified and hard working are considered "less than" because of their race. People who are less qualified and lazy are "better than" because of their race. This isn't a problem in one country, it affects every country and in a negative way. I guess my advice is just this...be aware that this exists and make it known. We won't be able to rid of racism in a day but talk about it and when crappy stuff happens you need to air it out. I became a teacher to create positive change in people and I hope that you will too. 

Am I Getting Enough To Eat?

The past few days I have been feeling crazy hungry. Whenever I would go out to eat with my co-workers/friends they would exclaim that they were so full and couldn't possibly eat another bite! Zoom in on me who is asking the waiter if they serve dessert. I was thinking about this and had this thought that most grandma's have about their grand kids...am I eating enough?

Breakfast is usually buttered bread or croissants from the bakery I live nearby accompanied by yogurt.
My school provides a lunch which is pretty nutritious. It contains mostly boiled vegetables, a soup, fruit, rice, noodles, and one meat. It is a lot of food and I do feel full most times.
For supper I make either soup, boiled vegetables, pasta, or rice dishes. They are mostly grain and veggies and seem quite healthy.
Then it is around 8-9 o'clock and I eat an entire sleeve of cookies or a giant bowl of icecream. What up?

I have three theories on this.
First theory is that I am not eating as much protein as I was used to in the USA. Protein can make you feel full and takes a while to digest at times. Today I looked up foods high in protein which include most of the vegetables I am eating! So it is probably not that?

List of High Protein Veggies and Fruits

broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, garlic, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, parsley, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, radishes, spinach, squash, sweet potatoes and tomatoes. Fruits that contain protein are apples, apricots, blueberries, cherries and grapefruit (GardenGuides.com).

"But Chelsea why not eat more meat?" I will tell you why. The meat here is highly suspicious. The grocery store I go to has the meat lying out on ice WITH NO PLASTIC COVERING. It is bloodier than USA meat and it doesn't have to be inspected. Not to mention none of the meat here is de-boned. It has all those nasty little bones in them for you to pick out and I friggin' hate it. My school lunches serve pork with bones, chicken with bones, beef with bones, and fish with bones. How often in the US can you order a meal and not worry about bones? Answer: 95% of the time. 

In fact most people in China are vegetarians because the meat is not healthy or they also hate eating around the bone. One thing I wish I knew before coming here is the availability of bones in food. 

Second theory is that my diet just isn't filling. I have pasta and white rice but doing research I found that brown rice and whole wheat pasta can make a person feel more full than their white counterparts. I plan on buying and eating more of that.

Third theory is that my calorie intake is too low. Since I am eating mostly vegetables and grains it could be that I am not getting to the 2000 calorie mark. Most veggies have a low calorie count so it could be that I need more grains. It would also explain why I crave high calorie foods before I go to sleep.

My game plan for the moment is to switch to whole grain and eat more protein. I am low on fruit so I think I will buy a bunch of berries to eat for the week. There are apps to track a person's calorie intake and I am thinking of downloading it to see if I am really below the mark. Hopefully my food adventures will get better from here.

Works Cited

“Fruits & Vegetables High in Protein.” GardenGuides, www.gardenguides.com/88079-fruits-vegetables-high-protein.html. Accessed 23 Sept. 2017.

Hong Kong

My sister and I were skyping today and she asked if I had looked at her blog. When I did look at it was very cute and had good information and was funny and I looked at mine and realized that I hadn't posted in a while. The reason being that I had no idea what to post about. After reading her blog I decided to pick one at random and talk about it. This is a long one...buckle up. 

Hong Kong is where I had to go to get my work visa. Before I just had a visitor visa but now I can legally work here. Yay! I was supposed to be there only three days to get my visa which seemed like not enough time to me. I was wrong. Here is how it went.

Getting There

When I arrived in China it was night. I had to find a way to go from the airport to my hotel and realized that my school had not arranged a car for me. I walked around aimlessly with my backpack, a gym bag, and my purse which were getting heavier by the minute. After walking down a flight of stairs and walking across the airport I found a bus service. When I asked if they could take me to my hotel they pointed me to the help desk. The help desk pointed me down another flight of stairs, the next help desk pointed me outside, where I found the ticket counter. My school had given me 5000 Hong Kong dollars but only in 1000 dollar bills. (I didn't know it was a thing either.) I handed the lady my money and she pointed to a sign that read, "We don't accept 1000 dollar bills." I paid with my American credit card. Why not my Chinese credit card? I couldn't tell you except that NO ONE ACCEPTS CHINESE CREDIT CARDS IN HONG KONG. It makes no sense to me since Hong Kong is technically China. We will get into that later. I get on the bus and go to my bus stop.
It seemed like it would be simple to walk from my bus stop to the hotel but it was not. I was lost for 20 minutes. I aimlessly walked around again. Hennessy Road was where I was headed but when I followed the signs they lead me to alley ways. Still lugging the bags, my phone not working (Chinese phone not working in technically China), I headed to McDonald's. The reason being that I was hungry and I knew there would be wifi. Bless McDonald's because that is how I found my directions to get to my hotel.

The Hotel

When you go to a hotel in Hong Kong you have to make a deposit first. The deposit for Ozo Wesley was 1500 which the school told me beforehand it would be that much. When you check out they will give the money back minus any expenses. They asked me if I wanted breakfast all three days and I said yes. Each meal was about 60 Hong Kong dollars. To put that into perspective it is 10 Hong Kong Dollar to one US dollar. That means each breakfast was all you can eat for $6. Yes please. The service was awesome there, they got me taxis, and gave me directions when needed. It was western style too but more British than American. The plugs were British and spelling was in the UK way. However, they don't accept Euros or pounds...only USD. I could not tell you why. 

The Visa

The visa office opens at 9:00 am and I was told to be there before then. So I came at 8:30 and there was a line and security. It wasn't a big deal. The big deal was, you guessed it, paperwork. I walk in and this woman in front of me asks if I know what I am doing. I tell her no. She shows me the forms on the side and tells me to take a few and fill them out since most people are told they fill them out incorrectly. I do so which takes maybe 40 minutes. Admittedly I had no idea what boxes to check for some so I left them blank thinking I could ask someone for help. This is not the thing to do. Next step is going up to these men who give you a ticket with a number. Once your number is called you can see a Visa representative. In order to get a ticket these men check out your form so I thought I was good as they looked over mine and even checked the boxes for me. That wasn't so bad I thought to myself. Next I waited for the 50 people in front of me to get their numbers called (not exaggerating it was literally 50 people). When it was about noon I got called up to the window, the representative looks over my form for two seconds and circles all the mistakes. There were a lot. She tells me how to fill it out very quickly and before I can ask her a question she calls the next number and I am back to square one. Naturally I call my school and I ask for help. I was supposed to put down an inviter, their address, how they knew me. Then I asked what box was I supposed to check, company employee or other? The representative told me I could only do single entry but what does that mean? (I still don't know.) I go up take another number and wait but here is the thing...during noon to two o'clock only one of twelve people are working. The place closes at four. I thought, there is no way I am going to make it. Of course when all twelve people are back at their stations it gets moving again and I do see a representative. 

She looks over the form for two seconds and says, "Would you like to pick up your visa tomorrow or the day after tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?"

"Okay it will be done by 3:00 pm." 

I walked away stunned. 

Next day at 3:00 I ask if I need a ticket. The men tell me no and point me to a window. I pay 1400 Hong Kong to get my visa and then I have it. In my hands. I walk out utterly amazed. 

Tourist Stuff

Near my hotel I decide to do a few fun things. According to the map the hotel gave me there is a temple and two parks and a zoo. I decide I can walk to them. For the temple I walked past it before realizing it was the Buddhist temple. It was very small and there were signs that said no pictures were allowed inside. I took them outside instead. 

Next was Wan Chai park which was super cute. They had a place to donate clothes and food, a workout jungle gym for the elderly, tennis courts, and a pond designed for racing boats in. I do not know of any other park that caters to so many people's needs. Not to mention it was handicap friendly, in fact almost every single building, park, and street was handicap friendly. The doors don't have those crazy blocks, cross walks had beepers for blind pedestrians, and even park/road signs had braille written on them! I have not even seen that in America. 

Look how cool the paintings are for trash and the different types of recycling?!?

Day two I decided to go to Stanley Market as it came up as TOP TEN THINGS TO DO IN HONG KONG on several websites. I decide to take a taxi there since it is a 20 minute ride. I did not realize it would be so expensive and that they don't accept credit cards so I used my company money to pay the taxis (I paid my school back). It was not until the final day that I learned there was a subway that goes through the entirety of Hong Kong Island and even under the water to main land China. My taxi was 150 Hong Kong one way and a one way subway ticket is 5 Hong Kong. *Jim from The Office stares into camera*

Anyways, the taxi driver drops me off and I am stumped. I get dropped off at these shacks with these sweaty barely dressed people with bad teeth. One is selling art but doesn't accept cards (I was not going to spend company money on souvenirs) and the other is selling coconuts to drink (I did use company money to buy that). I am dumbstruck because this place is awful then I turn a corner and...it is magical. The people speak English, they are nice, and the stuff is stupid cheap! I buy two paintings and a bunch of souvenirs because they all accept American credit cards, baby! Never been in the area and not knowing where I was going I wonder to Stanley Market Pier which was beautiful. They have a Buddhist temple on the bay and restaurants which were cheap and yummy. I eat dim sum for the first time and it comes with beer for only 16 USD. I buy lychee iceream and get a taxi home. 10/10 would do again. 

Me and my coconut. It was delicious. Worth company money.

The pier! You can see the flags that belong to the temple.

The final place where I went that was nearby was Hong Kong Park. On the map it looked far away so I had planned on taking a taxi but when I asked the hotel worker he told me it only a five minute walk. Sure enough it was! There was a tea museum, a children's conservatory, restaurant, and aviary in the park plus a lot more. It is 20 acres big. 

One thing to note is that when I was in the tea museum it was a bit eerie. It doesn't look Chinese because it isn't. It was built by British forces and was where all the British officers would hang out and in the 1980s (not that long ago!) they made it into a tea museum. If you know your history you will know that the British owned Hong Kong until the 1990s and gave it back to China. Technically Hong Kong is China but Hong Kong considers themselves to be their own country. They have their own money, different customs, and most people speak English. This is why Chinese phones don't work there, why you don't need a VPN, and why they only accept Hong Kong dollars...and US dollars. Again I have no idea why that is. 

There was a competition a few years ago to design the most unique tea pots and cups. These are some of the samples. Yes even the creepy clown is a working tea pot. 

All teapots and cups. 

The Way Home

Immediately after the museum I had lunch at a pretty nice restaurant in the park and headed to the hotel to get my bags and check out. I ask if I can get a taxi and the hotel worker tells me there is a subway DIRECTLY BEHIND THE HOTEL which can take me there. A ticket to go from the hotel to the stop to get to the airport was 5 Hong Kong dollars. It cost 115 Hong Kong dollars to take me from the stop to the airport. I thought it was dumb but regardless. I get off the subway and head to the airport. I get to the correct gate to print off my boarding pass (that is a thing here and maybe in big airports IDK I flew out of Omaha, Nebraska). The boarding passes will not print so I go to the help desk, I check tube that my paintings were stored in, and considered if I should check my other bags. I decide not to which was a mistake because they were big, heavy, and at a few points the gym bag zipper burst open due to the weight and I had to realign the zipper. If I checked it, it probably would have burst open when they throw the luggage onto the plane but if I checked my heavy backpack my awkwardness and weight would have been much improved. I get through all three (yes three) points of security and across the entire airport to my gate barely on time. From there a bus takes us to the plane and we board by walking up a flight of stairs onto the plane. 

So on the plane they play a movie for us but you can't turn it off or even hear it, so you rely on the tiny closed captions to see what is going on. I am all about movies but they played a rated R film on the plane called Battle of Memories. I mean, there were literally kids sitting behind me and it got so graphic that I had to look away. I am squeamish so maybe that doesn't mean anything but the guy literally swallowed a razor blade so...I think I was justified. However, it was an interesting plot and I didn't see how it ended (because the plane landed) and I might want to finish it later. 

Overall, Hong Kong is a cool place. I would like to go back to the places I couldn't visit like the Jade Market or Victoria Park. Here's to next time! 

Western Work Ethic VS Chinese Work Ethic

When doing research into China I asked four people about their experiences here. Two used to work at the school I now work at, one works in Taiwan, and the last one is in a town just above Shanghai. (Shout out to my buddy Skyler for hooking me up with the last two connections. You da best.) They all said that work ethic here is different and hard for Westerners to get used to. What are the differences?

First, people try to look busy when they aren't. According to Mr. Sison, "[The] Chinese job market is very competitive... Value is determined by how long they stay past work hours and working on weekends. " Delegation is basically not a thing here because of this. (If I don't delegate tasks then I will have to do it and look like I'm working hard!) People will try to do only urgent work and worry about future planning when it is right on their doorstep. 
In just a week of being at my school this can be seen. Communication is pretty poor between parties because they all wait last minute to do it. There was event at our school and the time changed from 6:00, 5:00, to finally 4:30. The 4:30 time was then delayed 3o minutes due to some confusion about who was doing what tasks. I was prepared for this but one of my co-workers was not. She has been very frazzled by the lack of staying on time and communication. 

Second, time is not a factor. People in China think of time as a fluid thing and not important. This is mind blowing for Westerners because we basically are slaves to the clock. I had a landlord that was supposed to come to my apartment at 5:30 to pick up the money for the utility bill. When it was 5:30 I was in a restaurant eating and was worried about being late and my friend wasn't worried at all. The reason is that the landlord didn't drop by my apartment until 6:00. When someone gives you a time it is more of an approximation of when they are coming. It stinks when you have to be somewhere and you are waiting for them for 30 minutes to an hour but you just have to deal with it. 

Third, is following up. I hate doing this because I feel like a nag but so far haven't encountered a problem with it. Miss F has told me that when things are running low you have to request new things immediately. If there are two reams of paper left, order more right then and there. By the time the new paper comes in, those stacks of paper will be gone. You have to ask every few days to make sure it is coming too as the person you ordered from will say, "Yes, I ordered it. I'm responsible." When really they are just saying that so to appear they are good workers. My friend ordered a roomba and it took three weeks to get to her house. American Amazon you can live in Nebraska and get overnight shipping from California! 

Fourth, you can sleep at work if you want. There are teachers with cots in their room for this reason. The idea is that if you work really hard then you must get tired (which you totally do) so why not nap? When I told my Chinese co-workers this didn't happen in the states they were shocked. I didn't tell them that napping at work in America could totally get you fired. I want them to live in innocence. 

Fifth, the breaks you get here are AMAZING. I get an hour and thirty minutes every day for lunch. That is not even including a nap break ya'll! My first lunch break I tried to eat in 30 minutes but my co-workers were taking their sweet time. I asked how long we had and when they told me I almost cried in gratitude. In my Nebraska school we only got 30 minutes and that was including walking to and from the cafeteria. On my Chinese lunch break we literally took a nature walk and had a tour of the school. 
Also the maternity leave and paternity (yes paternity leave) are great here. You get four months off for being a mom and two months off for being a dad. That means your kid can get as much as six months of constant parent care. My Chinese co-workers asked how much we can get off and I told them two to four weeks for maternity and paternity didn't exist at all. They asked if grandparents lived at home to help with child care and I told them no, we have daycare. They were stunned. America get it together! 

Overall, the work ethic here is different but I wouldn't say it is worse or better than America. Ideally, I would love to have the timeliness of America with Chinese breaks. 
One can dream...

Very Superstitous

There are little things I noticed about China that had my head scratching. Why do doorways have a block you have to walk over? Do they really believe in evil spirits? What up with this Moon Festival I keep hearing about? Turns out they are based on the ancient Chinese religion. I am sure there are a bunch more I am unaware of at the moment but these are some of the things I now know. 

Doors have a big block of wood to walk over because hundreds of years ago it was believed it would trip up demons and evil spirits. It very well could because dang I was tripping on those a bunch when I first arrived. (Wait, am I an evil spirit?) They are in every store in the old market and when we went to Jing An Temple they were straight up hurdles. It makes sense, it is a holy place and bad spirits have to stay out. My thought every time I see these though is, "What about those who are handicapped?" I asked that to my friend and she was stumped. Hopefully there will be more doorways here accessible to those in wheelchairs. At Jing An Temple they have elevators for those who can't walk up the stairs but every worship room has the big block so...good luck. 

You can see that in front of the prayer pillows there is a cement block to walk over. 

I lit incense and prayed at the temples. You can see the big tower there. People threw in coins into the holes, the higher the better off you were!

 

Speaking of temples there is a huge Buddhist temple in Jiaxing that I really want to go to. Some temples will give their guests vegetarian food when you leave and that one gives out vegetarian food (you know I want some free food). Some do have restrictions such as you can't enter the temple unless you are also vegetarian, or at least have had no meat in 24 hours, and some say that if you are on your period you can't enter. (How would they know though?) 
Back on track, my friend said that we can only enter in the day and to avoid coming at night. I thought it was because it was closed to the public during the time BUT NO. It is believed that good spirits visit the temple during the day and bad spirits can come by at night. You can see an example of this belief in Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
One question I had was why were food left on the altars and how often do they change out the food? The answer is food is left by worshipers to have it blessed in the mornings and at night they will bring it home to eat it. So the food is changed often. 

One interesting superstition came about from my student. I have a first grade boy that has one of his ears pierced. I thought nothing of it, it happens in the states to look cool. That is not the reason he has his ear pierced. This boy's parents thought that he was too handsome and perfect which means that the universe would try to counter this by making his life a little hard. His parents fixed this issue by piercing one of his ears so that he wouldn't be "perfect" thus saving him from hardship. 

The Mid-Autumn Festival is coming up otherwise known as the Moon Festival. There is moon goddess named Chang'e (or Chang'o) who is the goddess of growth and healing. Some people compare her to Mary in the Christian religions. We have a co-worker who is supposed to give birth around that time and in her farewell card a bunch of people wrote something along the lines of, "May the moon look over you!" They even got her earrings with moons on them. 
During the Moon Festival people make moon cakes. I actually got a box from a parent for teacher's day. 
During this time people will light lanterns and send them down the river to keep their beloved dead at peace. The reason is that the moon comes in cycles and it reminds people that there is a cycle to life. People will light candles, incense, and buy jade rabbits and statues of Chang'e during this time. It is customary to eat moon shaped foods too such as melons or crescent shaped dumplings (Chang'o Chinese Goddess of the Moon). 

Sources:

Ch’ang-O Chinese Goddess of the Moon, orderwhitemoon.org/goddess/Chango/index.html. 
             Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.
All other information comes from my co-worker buddies who I am not sure want to be cited so I am just writing this instead. :)