I’ve devised a little Q and A with myself to describe China so far.
Favourite thing so far: The people in Xining are very friendly, its been interesting to learn the language, and the places we have visited are incredible (Great Wall, Tiennamen Square, Forbidden City, Ta’er Monestary…), but possibly the food tops it all… wow, I never knew Chinese food could be so good!
Least Favourite thing so far: Squat toilets… need I say more?
Thing I’ve had to adapt to the most: Fetching hot water for the day from a building every morning, not showering when I feel like it, squat toilets, unable to drink from the tap even though it is so much colder than the hot water we drink, reading Chinese on the computer and trying to figure out which button says “Post” and which says something completely different.
I never knew it was like that here: Rice for breakfast, eggs for lunch and dinner… Lots of Muslims in Xining, and its pretty hot here too despite being at such a high elevation.
Thats all I can think of to ask myself right now, but if you have any other questions, fire away!
What I’m bringing home with me so far: (physical items) – lots of chopsticks – I like eating with them way more than knives and forks, a sweet dress I picked up in Beijing, other souvineers I haven’t bought yet. (not physical items) – a new appreciation for the Chinese language and culture, a few words and phrases in Chinese, new friends.
Category Archives: Life
The moment of Truth
…I guess I can get on here in China!!
Below is my email that I just sent out to everyone in case you’re not on my email list. I didn’t have a chance to put anything on here when I was in Beijing, so the brief summary for those who didn’t get my email was:
Great Wall x2 – WOW!!! This was my “I’m in China” moment. Absolutely breathtaking and quite dramatic. We even got Nicole up the wall in her wheelchair!
Tiennamen Square/Forbidden City – stunning architecture, history came alive.
Orientation – very usefull and so informative. I learned a lot that I have been keeping in mind while I am here.
And now for the most recent update:
Hello all,
I’ve been in Xining for 5 days now. The first couple of days were spent getting into the routine of things here. We are living in dorms with our language partners. Instead of the usual 6 or 8 people per room in Chinese dorms, there are just the 2 of us. Needless to say, we spend a lot of time with each other! Our mornings are spent in classes – first we have 30 minutes of Mandarin lessons followed by 1 hour of teaching on Chinese culture and customs. After a short break, it is the Canadian student’s turn – we teach on Canadian culture with a focus on English vocabulary and pronunciation. Our lessons are typically quite interactive. All of the students have fairly good English skills, especially in reading. We are helping with the spoken aspect as well as teaching them about Canada. It has been interesting to see how each culture views the other as we learn from eachother. After lunch, our afternoons are largely free, although there are somethings planned some days. On Friday in the afternoon, we are headed to the Tibetan Buddhist Monestary in the area. Apparently it is quite a big and important one for one of the Buddhist sects in the area.
My partner is lots of fun. Her english name is Jenny and she is from southern China originally. She is in the middle of exams now (they still have exams for the next week or 2 – off and on) so you can be thinking of her with those. Her major is foreign languages so in addition to English, she is studying Japanese as well. I think we get along well (it has only been 4 days, so it is a little early to tell!). She is older than some of the other students, so around my age which is nice. She is also quite independent and doesn’t feel the need to babysit me 24/7 which means I am able to have some down time by myself which I need being the committed introvert that I am!
It is really hard to believe, though, that I have only been in Xining for 5 days – it feels like we’ve been here forever! (In a good way…!) I could talk for hours about the differences I have noticed between Canadian and Chinese university life, but I’ll save those for a later email because I am afraid this one is already getting quite long.
Keep thinking of us – for unity for our team, for strength for us, that we wouldn’t run out of topics to talk about and that I would be able to help Jenny with her English skills because that is what I am here to do!
For those of you to whom I promised postcards, you’ll have to wait a few more weeks because the stamps I can get in Xining won’t fit on my postcards 🙂
Down to the wire
Time is getting short! I’m off to China in less than a week now. There are still lots of things to be done, like finish up our lesson. I also wouldn’t mind your prayers for me because I’ve been getting pretty bad headaches almost every day for the last couple of weeks. Last night no amount of Tylenol would rid me of it (not even neck/back massaged from Dad or Colleen helped either). I really don’t want to have to deal with that kind of thing in China.
China
Since it is just a short period of time until I leave for China, I feel like some comments to that end are appropriate. In 9 days time, I will be sitting on an airplane bound for Beijing via Shanghai, off into who knows what. The first week I am there, we will be in Beijing for orientation (and, I hope, tourist stuff). Then it is our bum-numbing 36 hour train trek to Xining. I have no idea what to expect there in terms of Internet access. Our program director said that we should be able to get on when we are in Xining, but no promises in Beijing. So if you don’t hear from me right away either on here or by email if you are on my email prayer list, don’t worry.
I’ve been trying to figure out if I will be able to update my blog while I am over there. I’m not sure if blogger.com is loved or hated by The Great Firewall of China. I’ve been reading other blogs to figure out if I’ll be able to post while I’m in China, and so far it looks like I might be able to, but then again, I might not. According to one report I read, and I can’t for the life of me remember where because I read it yesterday and didn’t bookmark it, the blockage in China is fairly sporadic: I might be able to access one site at downtown Beijing but not back at a hotel. Someone else wrote (again, no recollection where) that they have been able to access blogger.com, but not their actual blog site to see what the blog looks like and read comments. So who knows what it will be like?!?! It may even change from day to day.
So with that in mind, if you want to be on my email prayer list, and you’re not sure if you are or not, or you know you are not, leave me a comment or drop me and email at gillian [dot] hoyer [at] gmail [dot] com.
Update: More on Chinese censorship here or here or here.
Update again: I found the China article I was talking about here – scroll down to ” China ‘net censorship: not one big brother, but many”
Catching up
I’ve been doing a lot of nothing lately, and I’m loving it. I spent the better part of a couple days wandering around downtown and going places I haven’t really gone before. I went to an IMAX at the Royal BC Museum on Thursday (was that only yesterday?!?). It was on “Mystic India” and it made me want to go to India even more. The IMAX was mainly about a young Yogi and his spiritual journey. Not that I am thinking of converting or anything, but there are some aspects of other religions that I really do admire. But that is a whole other story line.
After the IMAX, I walked home to Oak Bay. It took about a half an hour, or at least that’s how long I estimate it would have taken if I had walked direct. But I didn’t walk direct; instead I walked up Fort Street and stopped at just about every single antique/collectible store and gallery on the street (if you’ve ever been down Antique Row on Fort Street, you’ll have an appreciation for how long I must have spent there…). I love looking at old jewelry, especially the rings, broaches, and earrings. They are so much fun! Possibly the best I saw was a hat pin from the 40s with a huge deep blue swastika on the end. Crazy stuff! Possibly the worst I saw (not because of what it was but of how it made me feel) was my favourite mug that I always drink my apple juice from when I am at Dad’s. Yes, my mug, that I got when I was a pipsqueak was in an Antique store. I am getting old: one more nail in the coffin.
Anyway, the real reason for my title today of “catching up” is because I am now catching up on all the reading I have been wanting to do over the last year. Unfortunately, I packed my list of books I wanted to read, so I’m having to do with whatever looks good at the library. I have just been reading “A Complicated Kindness” by Miriam Toews. Its won a bunch of awards over the last couple of years. Its about a girl growing up in an fundamentalist Mennonite community in Manitoba. It was good, interesting, compelling, haunting, thought-provoking (…). Go read it sometime. Next on my list are a couple of other Canadian books (by that I mean by Canadian authors although I think they are all set in Canada as well). I just started one which was a little odd – took place in a small town north of Kingston (yay Kingston) and seems to be about a few disfunctional families in a disfunctional town. I’m sensing a trend in my books. It has failed to grasp my attention – I don’t know that I feel like being engulfed by disfunction at the moment. I’d rather be uplifted. I’ve packed one that my sister really liked, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, to take with me to China because it is long and I have a stinking long flight and train ride (x2) to take care of. I’d rather just take one book and have it last the whole time than take a bunch. I usually take a book in French with me on a trip like that because I read much slower in French, but I decided that for China I’ll have enough crazy culture and language stuff to deal with that I will likely rather just relax when I read then have to think in French. I love to read.
Chicks and CNTM
Two important and note-worthy things have happened lately. First, I finally got the new Dixie Chicks album which came out last week. I actually got it on Monday, and it has been on high rotation in the iPod and on my computer ever since. Can I just say it is excellent?!? I am thoroughly enjoying the whole thing, but especially the subtle (and not so subtle) political messages. The Chicks are definitely back with a vengeance.
Secondly, a Canadian spin-off of an American “reality” TV show begins tonight. One guess what it is… Clues: it was filmed entirely in Victoria, I have watched every season of the American one except the first, the title is in this title.
Updates as to the quality of this knock off will follow as things of import (or just things which are darn hilarious) occur
Happy Birthday to me!
For those of you who have not gotten the subtle hints of the last few days, it is my birthday today!! I am now the ripe old age of 24, or, according to my wonderful sister, I am 1 year away from being half way to 50. We had some people come over last night for cake and brownies and we watched a movie and stuff. I also got to catch up with friends I haven’t had time to really spend much time with lately (like since school ended). This morning we went to church and this afternoon the Korean church that meets at our church Sunday afternoon is puting on a fellowship dinner for all of us to go to! Kimchi is in my near future!
Who do you look like??
So I found this crazy weird site. Actually, my coworker found it and told me about it. But what you do is put your picture in and then it tells you what celebrities you look like. Me being the geek that I am, put a bunch of photos in. There were all sorts of interesting celebrities I apparently look like. Some more so than others I think. Some who appeared are ones I have actually been told I look like before (like Charlize Theron). Others I have never even heard of. I think that the celebrity depends on how my hair is and how big my smile is in the picture (and apparently wearing glasses in a picture automatically means you are matched with Elton John…it happened with a few people I was in pictures with as well as one where I had glasses). Anyway, so the ones who appeared more than once are: Anne Hathaway, Eva Longoria, Jessica Alba, Sofia Coppola, Evangeline Lilly, Eva Perron, Allyson Hannigan, Julia Roberts, Mariah Carey, and Jamie Lynn Spears. Yeah, I put about 5 different photos in, so there’s a bit of variety!
Diary of a Soccer Mom
I think that’s what I need to change my blog title to. Well, not “soccer” per ce, but piano, homework, math tutoring, sleep-overs… those are just a few of the things I’m doing lately… Its called my crash course on parenting teenagers. It is a weird balance to maintain – we’re friends, but I’m also boss woman at the moment. Oh, for those of you who are lost, I’m house sitting right now, and staying with a 16 year old girl from my church while her parents are out of town (for a month-ish). Fortunately she is very cool. So yeah, about balance… On top of all of that, I’ve worked full time this week – 5 days, 8 hour days. Its almost more work than school! At least with school I could have been home in the afternoons etc. But now, alas not at all. That will change next week though, when I go back to my customary 1 or 2 days a week work. Oh the joys of being temp and not needed to do much. I work just enough to make a bit of cash, but not enough to get annoyed about working too much.
I got shot!
Well, it is only 11 am and already its been an interesting day…
I’m a bit competitive, and I like to think that I can ride my bike fast. So I left home this morning to go to my doctor and as I turned out of the driveway, the bus (the one I would take it I took the bus to get to the doctor) drove by. I passed (while it was stopped at the bus stop) it and thought “wouldn’t it be great if I beat the bus to my doctor’s appointment!” (Note – it is probably a 10-15 minute drive by car to get to my doctor, so we are not talking around the corner here.) Three blocks down the road I realised I had forgot a vital list I was to take with me to the doctor, so I turned around, quite sad that I had lost my chance to beat the bus. Retrieving my list from home (and feeling that I was going to be late for my appointment now), I turned to bike back down the street. The bus had only made it 1 or 2 stops away, so I passed it again! (The poor driver has now seen my go zooming by 3 times). “Hah!” I thought, “Maybe I will be able to beat the bus after all!” So I biked as fast as I could (partially because I was late, but also because I wanted to beat the bus) and actually did beat the bus, by 3 whole minutes!! Yay for me. And I was pretty much on time for my appointment too.
And now for the reason for the title, which I know you are all very curious about… I got my 1st
Hep A shot today in preparation for China. Yay for shots. My arm always feels kinda strange after I get a shot. So I put a cool bandaid on to make me feel special about it (picture is of me attempting to take a picture of my right upper arm…). Fortunately, he shot my right arm, so I’ll still have full hitting mobility tonight for doubles volleyball!
gillian's island 