The Yellow Mountain New Year: Huangshan

Last year I went on a mountain to ring in the new year and this year was no different, maybe this will be a new tradition for me. This year's mountain was Huangshan also known as Yellow Mountain. The hiking, the city, and the people were great on the trip but naturally with any trip there were a few bumps in the road so read along to follow the journey!

First, the 2019 New Year break for our school was on a Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. That Saturday we actually had to work but since I took off a personal day for Christmas, I still only worked 5 days that week so I wasn't pining for that three day break that badly. After that Saturday of work, the group I was traveling with received a few bad news. 

I had asked for an itinerary, hotels, and how we were getting to Huangshan only to keep being brushed off. At one point I was told, "There is no reason to be so nervous Chelsea. We have this covered."

Okay then. If you say so. 

The troubles began immediately.

Originally the group was to be six people, two people got sick, reducing the group to four. This was a problem for a few reasons. The person who got sick...they planned the whole trip and they were supposed to drive us to Huangshan in their car and give us a tour of the city. She gave us her car to drive to Huangshan because literally no one else in our group had a car and two of the four of us left were even allowed to drive in China. One of those two had ever driven in the snow in the mountain. It also made the trip more expensive because instead of splitting the cost six ways we now had to split it four ways. So we were off to a great start. 

The first stop we made was halfway between Jiaxing and Huangshan as we didn't want to drive the five hours in the dark. When we were at the hotel I was talking to my roommate and she stated that she didn't want to hike up the mountain with her luggage and that confused me. When I asked her to go into that further she went on to explain that there were ZERO roads that went to our hotel, which was on the top of the mountain, and also..the hotel was expensive even if we would have split it six ways. I was so surprised and angry that no one had told me this and she was surprised that of the five other people going on the trip, they had all failed to tell me this. I hadn't brought a backpack but a carry-on luggage case and that meant I had to borrow someone's backpack when we arrived in Huangshan to carry up the mountain. We had a meeting that night and had to call the person who was supposed to be our guide: How long was the hike? Was the hotel easy to find? What was the booking number? Were there cable cars available? 

I sat there stunned that no one had asked these questions before, they had all blindly trusted this person to take them everywhere. I was also angry that when I had asked these questions earlier that month, I was brushed off, and now my fears were being realized. I was also worried about the hike as I had injured my knee last year and had no idea how rough or easy the trails would be. 

When we arrived in Huangshan the next day we ate KFC, parked the car, got our backpacks, and then headed to a shop that sold water proof coats and pants along with these ice grips you could place over your shoes. 

Looking cool as heck.

It was very cloudy and snowy which scared us all a bit but to all of our delight the cable cars were promised to make a three hour hike into only a ten minute trip. We took the cable car up the mountain but our hotel was still about 45 minutes away. Still way WAY better than the three hours our original guide/group member told us. 

The trails themselves were incredibly easy to hike! The entire mountain has a staircase carved into it, making the hike into more of a pleasant stroll. I have done my share of hiking in Yellow Stone National Park, Teton National Forest, and the Rocky Mountains and this hike was nothing compared to those. By the time we got to our hotel it was dark so we ate dinner, watched Mad Max: Fury Road and went to bed in a very warm hotel. 

We started the next day with breakfast, checked out of the hotel, and went to hike the mountain's various trails. We went to the most famous area where people go watch the sunrise. At that point we had missed the sunrise as it was predicted to be too cloudy to see it so we slept in. We were surprised to see blue skies the next day. 

The hike was very charming. There are supposed to be deer living on the mountain but we only saw a cat and heard a few birds. It was surreal to me at one point, because I realized I hadn't heard birds chirping in a long time. Living in a city, you just don't hear them. 

We ate lunch at one of the restaurants on the mountain then hiked down to a cable car station. It started to get cloudy and then from then on it snowed on us. It wasn't terribly cold but the staircases did get slick. Almost everyone had a hard time with the ice shoe grips as they kept slipping off our shoes. I actually had no problems, and I think it was because I managed to pick up my feet. Those who had more problems were tired and I think were dragging their feet due to exhaustion. We did get to the cable car just fine.

Arriving at the bottom of the mountain we threw away our water proof gear but kept the ice shoe grips to walk to our car. We drove to our next destination which was an "old town." Old towns in China are a popular tourist destination as they are designed to look like ancient Chinese buildings (Moon River in Jiaxing is a fake old town). Some of these are original but there are many fake ones. The one we visited was mostly original. 

Naturally, hotel troubles came back to haunt us. The hotel that was picked by the group had great reviews for the manager but the hotel itself was awful. It was designed to look Japanese but the man who made it clearly had no idea what he was doing. My room had rocks on the ground and you had to hop around to not stab your feet. All the doors were made out of bamboo and paper, like you see in Japan, but the man clearly didn't know that the Japanese have heavy blankets in front of those doors to keep heat in. All of the bathrooms were tiny which was confusing since the living rooms were huge. In my fury I kicked all the rocks to one wall so that I wouldn't have to step on them in the middle of the night. I got my old roommate back as she couldn't stand her unbearable small bathroom. 

You may notice that the shower, sink, and toilet are in the same area.

We blasted our heaters, ate supper, and came back to find our rooms were the same temperature as the outside. To all of our anger we had to book a new hotel that night and couldn't get a refund for this bad hotel. So we paid for two hotels. $$$$ down the small shower drain. 

Our new hotel though....it was AMAZING. There was a fire place, the host roasted us potatoes, and he brewed us tea. The hotel was done in a western style so I found it incredibly comfortable. The bathrooms were huge and the rooms were warm. 10/10 would stay again. 

Three happy campers.

After checking in, we shopped for drinks, snacks, and souvenirs and watched the New Year's countdown on Chinese TV. We had a toast and went to bed. A great way to end the day!

That morning my roommate and I headed off to explore the old town. We ate breakfast in a restaurant that was also a man's house and he let us walk around his old home. It was really cool! He had newspapers and pictures plastered to his walls, old carvings hung on the door, and paintings as well. 

There were many old houses to see from former merchants or dignitaries, an old school, a shopping area, and a lot of places that sold souvenirs, tea, and food. We drove back to Jiaxing that afternoon but first made a stop at a rest area. I will talk about that in a later post...but it was crazy. The male member of our group, Sunny, doesn't actually work at our school and came up to see his girlfriend Evelyn (you may remember them from previous posts) so he had to go to Hangzhou airport and fly back to his city. Evelyn drove the rest of the way home and that was the end of the trip. 

In all, the trip cost us a lot more money than we anticipated and it was stressful for me as many details were never explained to me, even though I had asked. However, there were many delightful parts of our trip like the hike, the old town, and the fireplace hotel. 

Would I go to Huangshan again? Yes, I think I would but I would definitely plan it on my own terms. 

Shanghai Starbucks Reserve Roastery: More Than Just Coffee

A few weeks ago I had a few people message me a link with the Buzzfeed video where a girl goes to a "fancy Starbucks" which is a located in Shanghai along with a question: Was I planning on going?

I watched this video and immediately my answer...was no. The girl in the video talked about how this Starbucks was so great and how "you can only get this here" while she talked about all the imported goods this Starbucks had. It was driving me crazy! The chocolates were from Belgium, the coffee from South America, and even the chef who made the menu was from Italy! Not to mention that the host of this video failed to mention how you even order, if you notice there aren't hanging menus from the wall like normal Starbucks. 

This drove me so insane I went and researched this place and found their website. https://www.starbucksreserve.com/en-us/locations/shanghai    What the host failed to mention is that the Starbucks Reserves (which there are now six) are supposed to be kind of like art installations for coffee. Executive Chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz stated, "The Starbucks Roastery environment honors coffee innovation as a modern-day Willy Wonka experience, where customers are only feet away from the theatre and artistry of our coffee craft."

You see where the beans are roasted, sucked through tubes and sent to the different bar areas of the store. They have copper and leather finishes everywhere in the store and the main roasting mechanism is covered in traditional name stamps. 

After a while, it got to me. People were asking so often and it is only one of six in the world, plus I needed to get my co-worker a gift for Christmas and I knew she would like something from the store. I caved and was actually surprised. 

The downstairs area of the Reserve is more of a coffee area and you can also buy merchandise from the store. They have sweatshirts, cups, tote bags, measuring spoons, and phone cases to choose from and yeah...they are expensive. The cheapest mug I could find was 139 RMB which is about $20 USD. Some were up to 300 RMB or $43 USD. 

Upstairs is the tea center and an alcohol bar area. That is right, they serve alcohol in this place! Then I was stumped, again how do you order in this place? I found a server and guess what? Almost every server in this store speaks English and Chinese and they were all really nice despite the fact that it was packed like crazy. A server told me that there are menus by the cash registers and I could take a peak. Servers also have their phones on them and you can order directly from them, if you can pay with WeChat. The servers give you the order number and you wait for it by the bar that specializes in whatever you ordered. For example the tea bar, the espresso bar, coffee bar, and the bakery areas. 

You can order beer and wine in this Starbucks. 

I bought an alcoholic drink and it was really delicious! This is coming from a coffee hater, BTW. Finding a chair in this place was really difficult. It is possible, but maybe have your order to go. 

I ordered the Cold Brew Lemon Sour.

After this experience, I would recommend going to this Starbucks. It is pretty fun but it is also crowded and a little pricey for the merchandise. Go for the experience but don't make this place the place you have to visit in Shanghai. 

Do you hear the call of the Shanghai siren?

Christmas Part II: This Time We Got It Right

If you recall, last year's Christmas wasn't too ideal. While there were definitely good parts there were rough parts such as the government coming in last minute and making us take down our decorations and telling us we weren't allowed to do a school-wide Christmas event ever again. 

I thought that last year I could work through the day to distract me from the fact that I was away from my family. I ended up spending that day so annoyed I was working on Christmas for the first time in my life. This year I decided to do things differently. 

Earlier that week, I had a Christmas dinner with the trainers at my gym. In November we had discussed how they had never eaten turkey before and I decided that as a treat I would get them a turkey dinner. The only time they ended up being free was December 21st. To  my surprise they brought me Christmas gifts! I got a scarf and hat, boxing gloves, a traditional Chinese tea set, and a new water bottle. When they asked if they needed to bring anything to the dinner I said chips. They brought literally a garbage bag full of chips. It was surprisingly touching. 

Trainer Tony took this photo. You might notice a Husker hat on my trainer Robert.
From left to right: Jiang, Carter, Shanna, Boom, Robert, David.

We ate turkey, mashed potatoes, vegetables and for drinks I had apple cider and mulled wine (a first time making it for myself). One of my guests brought a cake for dessert. We spent the night talking and singing songs together. It was a great highlight to my year so far. 

Later that week the teachers in my office got together for a Christmas event at Teacher Fang Fang's house. We ate hotpot, played a card game, and sang and danced to Christmas songs. It was so fun!

For Christmas Day, I went to Shanghai first for church, then I went to the mall and bought myself some pajamas from the store Tutu Anna and ate pizza for lunch. Later I headed to the Shanghai Starbucks Roastery (I will talk about that in a separate post), rested in another mall, and ate supper and had a drink at Boxing Cat. For the finale I went to a free museum nearby and headed home. Then the cherry on top was calling my family when I got back to Jiaxing. 

Merry Christmas from China!

Tibetan Performance, You Bet!

Last Tuesday my TA and friend Jeanne got three free tickets to a Tibet singing and dancing show and invited me and another co-worker to go along with. We were excited to tag along!

Jeanne is the far right. 

We asked how she got the free tickets and a family friend of her's works in government. If anyone in China works for the government they usually get these kind of perks. It was surprising how many college kids were there but Jeanne stated that they were probably the children of the employees. The government most likely provided tickets for entire families. And here we were, three non-government employees and non-family members enjoying this performance. 

The dancing and singing varied quite a lot which surprised us. There were different costumes, music, and dances even though they all came from Tibet. It was noticed that some of the Tibetan dancing and singing incorporated Chinese and Western styles. 

On these dancers backs was a cape made out of dozens of small scarves of different colors. The capes were taken off and flipped back on throughout the dance. The men then did a dance that looked as if they were wrestling. 

Between each dance number there would be a single person who would sing in a Tibetan style or a Tibetan infused style. 

These women balanced three tea cups on their heads while they danced! This could be the Biwang style of dance. 

These women wore orange cones on their heads and the song went from slow to fast. It was my favorite!

Many of the dances involved the costumes having abnormally long sleeves that were swung around. This could be the Ralpa style of dance. 

The last performance we saw were these men who incorporated rapping and Tibetan chanting. 

After this performance I was excited to learn more but was hard to find information on this. I found this source which states that Tibetan dance started around the 11th Century. I hope to watch more of these dances in the future!

100 Days: Part II

It's that time of year again...100 Days of School! 

Last year I talked about the history of this celebration but this time our school photographer, Mia, got better pictures. This year was a little different than last year. 

Last year I had parent-teacher conferences but this year that was cancelled. The conferences were at the same time as the students' performance and many parents didn't want to miss the performance last year, so many didn't come. This was solved this year by not having them. 

The day started at 8:30 am where my TA, Jeanne and I gave a 20 minute presentation about the first grade English curriculum to the parents. Then each class was shortened from one hour to 30 minutes and all the parents could watch our classes. We ate lunch then it was off to the concert. 

Since I could watch all the performances this year I can tell you what each class did. 101, 102, and 103 each had to write the character for person, chant a poem about becoming an adult, and then performed a poem that was directed by their homeroom teacher. You can see that the students are wearing their traditional Han outfits again, however this year the water bowl was taken out of the program. 

The students having their knowledge chakra painted on. 

The students' calligraphy of person. 

101 had the students chant a poem and do a dance. 

102 the students dressed as lily pads and fish for their poem. 

103 pretended to be a class during recess with a strict teacher watching over them. When the "teacher's" back was turned the class snuck out of the theatre. It was by far the funniest one. 

                                  

After that the students had to solve rubik's cubes, did a dance with all the extra curricular sports, performed the two English songs I taught them, and then ended with an English skit that my TA's Jenny and Jeanne wrote. 

The sports dance. They had ribbon and flag dances and basketball players. 

                                      

Colors of the Rainbow was performed again along with If Your Happy and You Know It

I would say that this year was a total success! Also the parents are not as strict as the parents last year. This year the parents all stated that they thought the students' English was very good and were pleased with the discipline and homework. 

My reflection is that I do think that I am a better teacher this year. I found that I am better at giving directions because I know what the skill set of first graders are. My TA's also know what kind of videos and homework the students like to listen to and complete which means the turn in rate is much higher. After the midterm exams, we noticed that the average grades are an A compared to last year when they averaged a B. I am very happy with my second year of teaching here and hope to have a good finals exam week in January. 

You Have No Mail

Last year for Christmas I wanted to mail some Chinese-only items to my sister and my long time pen-pal Anita. A co-worker helped me get a FedEx to pick up and mail my package off to the Czech Republic and Portugal. I was able to track down where the package was and so were my recipients and all seemed going well. Strangely enough, when the package came within blocks of where they lived we hit a snag. 

FedEx said that both my sister and my friend had to go in-person to the FedEx office, bring their passports, and be there within three days or the packages would be sent back or DESTROYED. 
Both had a hard time getting time off to get to the FedEx office. Anita sent her boyfriend to pick it up for her but the employees denied him, saying Anita had to come in person and just her passport wouldn't do. My sister came in the day they told her to with her passport only to be told that the package was destroyed early that morning. 
Both of my packages ended up getting destroyed even though I expressly stated on the forms that I filled out when sending the packages that I wanted them sent back if there was a problem. Needless to say, none of us use FedEx anymore. 

(If you recall in a previous blog post, FedEx has let me down before.)

What is confusing is that while I was in the USA I could send packages to both Czech Republic and Portugal and had zero problems! The packages came in their mailboxes and there was no fuss. 

After doing some research I found that Europe has really tight restrictions against anything coming in from China. Everything is closely inspected and regulated compared to anything coming in from the USA. 

Sadly, the other way around is true as well. My two co-workers in 2017 were sent packages and post cards in August and then in December. A total of ZERO packages ended up getting delivered to them. Only one postcard out of three was ever delivered and it came in June of 2018. 
I have no proof but I am almost sure that the government is confiscating these items. When my co-workers checked online to see where their packages were, one seemed to be perpetually stuck in Shanghai. 

Last August my cousin asked if she could send me a project called Flat Stanley. It is now December and I am 100% sure that Flat Stanley has now become Confiscated Stanley. 

Now that the holidays are upon us, I have been asked by my loving family and friends if they can send me things and the answer is always no. I just can't risk these things getting "lost" for months on end or confiscated. I am not sure if these things will ever get delivered. 

One thing I know for sure is that the United States Postal Service is amazing at sending things overseas. 

The true mailing bae.