Chinese October Holidays

We're on break from school, starting today (Saturday, September 29) until Monday, October 9. It was a bit confusing for me to understand the history and politics behind the observance of these holidays, but I think I have this year's holiday calendar figured out, thanks to talking to many locals and expats who have experienced the holidays in China, as well as good old Wikipedia. 

This week, we are celebrating two annual holidays, which are combined to comprise one week of vacation time, one of the two Golden Week holidays China now celebrates. (There is much controversy regarding the Golden Week holidays in China. I'll let you research that if you'd like. Which you probably won't. So I'm not going into it here and now.) The following explanations of the holidays are comprised of info spliced together from Wikipedia info. Follow the links if you please.

The Mid-Autumn Festival (which can be celebrated any time from September-October, depending on the given year and the lunar calendar), is celebrated Sunday, September 30. This is like an autumn/harvest festival.  It is a time for family members and loved ones to congregate and enjoy the full moon - an auspicious symbol of abundance, harmony and luck. 

The National Day of the People's Republic of China (simplified Chinese characters: 国庆节; pinyin: guóqìng jié) is observed every year on October 1. It is a public holiday in the People's Republic of China to celebrate their national day. The PRC was founded on October 1, 1949 with a ceremony at Tiananmen Square. The National Day is celebrated throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau with a variety of government-organized festivities, including fireworks and concerts. Public places, such as Tiananmen Square in Beijing, are decorated in a festive theme. Portraits of revered leaders, such as Mao Zedong, are publicly displayed. 

Celebration day	English name	Chinese name	Dates (2012)
15th day of 8th lunar month	Mid-Autumn Festival	中秋节	Sun September 30
October 1	National Day	国庆节	Mon 1–3 October

This is a time of year that a lot of people try to leave China, avoiding a week of fireworks and noise. Besides, many stores and restaurants are closed. While my flatmate Kari, as well as other teachers and international families, have left China to travel elsewhere for the week, I cannot. The status of my work visa only allows me one entry into China, therefore I cannot leave until my more permanent work visa is processed (takes about a month). This will then allow me to exit and enter China as many times as I want, as a temporary resident on a year-long work visa. 

My bites into the Moon Cake.

So I get to explore my surroundings, get set up in my new apartment, and observe the culture. I'm okay 
with that. I'm recuperating from being sick. I want to ready my classroom and really prepare. Coming to terms with not being able to travel this week due to my visa status was a bit frustrating, but really for the best and all the wiser for me to stay here and settle into my new home. 

So, I’ll [continue considering to] eat my Moon Cake (seriously, check that link out. I did after I ate my first couple of bites, and then decided NOT to continue eating it, for obvious reasons in the description). I will also be blogging far more than you probably want to read/see from Cup o' Joe or school, since we will have no internet in our apartment until after the holiday week. At least it gets me out and about! Yay.

No internet at home for the week

As I mentioned in my previous post about being sick, we have no internet in our apartments for this coming week.

This was discovered by yours truly, because I was sick at home while everyone else was at school. After figuring out through deductive reasoning that it was NOT my own devices and a failure of their own precarious internet connections, I called Kari at school, to notify her. She contacted our school's tech liaison, who communicated with the powers at be within the Li Ren Gardens apartment community. It was only then that we realized that we'd be without internet for the week to come.

Email sent out to all AIAN staff members regarding the outage:

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jiang Tan <Jiang.Tan@aian.org.cn>

Subject: FW: INTERNET ACCESS 

Date: September 28, 2012 3:27:13 PM GMT+08:00

To: All Teachers <AllTeachers@aian.org.cn>

if any one want internet service . please come to school directly . AIAN will not be under the transformation . 

T.J

---

From: Elaine
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 3:23 PM
To: Jiang Tan
Subject: RE: INTERNET ACCESS

TJ,

This is unbelievable. I have so much work to do online next week....it's the reason I decided to remain in Beilun.

Elaine

---

From: Jiang Tan
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2012 3:20 PM
To: All Teachers
Subject: INTERNET ACCESS

Hello, all

The maintenance company has informed us that the internet access service of the Liren community will be off due to the transformation of the higher speed internet access by local supplier . it will take one more week to completed it , accordingly ,you will not have the internet service from today to 8th Oct.
Thank you very much
T.J  

Then we realized what all those signs posted in the elevators for the last week meant to warn us of...

"visual intercom system" really means to say "internet".

Chingrish. Oh, how we love miscommunications. This is China. TIC.

So, while many members of the Li Ren Garden community are traveling and will be mostly unaffected by the outage this week, those of us who are not traveling (ahem, ME!), will be relegated to the weaker, slower wifi at shops that remain open during the holiday week. Such as Cup o' Joe (local expat coffee shop; it's really quite fabulous. Again, I promise a blog is to come describing this wonderful setting). Or Hemingways (bar/pizza). 

Sicky times

After feeling the onset of a cold on Wednesday with some dizziness and a fever, I woke in the middle of the night in a coughing fit, throat burning, and fever. Thursday was my medical check up for my entrance exam to China. (One must pass a thorough medical exam in the process of getting the expat work visa and residency.) The full-blown cold had yet to hit at that point, so I pushed myself to just go and have the exam done and over with.

That afternoon (Thursday), I went home sick. Horrible sore throat, cough, runny eyes and nose. It seemed to get worse by the minute, head spinning, fever, etc. I tried to sleep. Thursday night was not fun. Tossing and turning and coughing.

Today (Friday) I had to take the whole day as a sick day (yes, day 3 in China and I was already full-blown sick and needing to take sick leave from school). I had no voice. To spare you the snotty details (especially you, Moo-Ma!), let's just say that it was not pretty. No way I was going to be at school around the kiddos and colleagues. Who wants to be sick right before October Break? (October 1-8 are off in honor of Chinese National Day and celebrations, so there is no school until the 9.)

Waiting for the Friday morning to pass seemed like an eternity, and every time I awoke from a 45-minute nap, I felt as if I was a bear awakening from hibernation. I was in a daze and not thinking clearly. I blame it on the fever and throbbing head congestion.

Our ayi showed up around 9am. Ayi (pronounced like saying the English vowels "I-E") is the cultural term used to refer to one's housekeeper. As was my experience in Latin America, it is common practice for middle-class households to have a housekeeper who tends to cleaning, watching children/caring for pets, and cooking, depending on what the client requests. For about 6 months or so, Kari has been hiring the cleaning services of an ayi, for three hours on Mondays and Fridays. It is nice not to have to worry about cleaning and taking out trash and laundry. She doesn't cook, but she does like to re-arrange things. She doesn't read/write, and since I speak no Chinese yet, it makes communication difficult (furthermore, Ayi speaks a Ningbo-ese dialect that is not like the Mandarin I will be learning). More to come later on the Ayi topic.

Anyway, when Ayi came in, I was sick as a dog in bed. Trying to sleep, with my door closed. Ayi must have heard me coughing, and she opened the door to my lair of dark and germs. What surprise could be seen on her face! She had no idea Kari would have a roommate moving in, and must have been further astonished to find an obviously ill laowi (foreigner) in the spare room. And so much more stuff in the apartment! I can only imagine what was going through her mind. She immediately starting doting on me. I was so out of it, I hardly remember how many times she came into my room, but I know that she woke me up several times to deliver hot water to me, or food. One time she also tried to pull my covers up around me (despite the fact that I was burning up, as it was 80+ºF and I was running a temp, even though I had the A/C on).

Kari has been calling Ayi her surrogate Chinese host mother. According to my own prior experiences with host moms, that's exactly how I felt about the relationship. With a HUGE cultural divide. I had no way to communicate to her that I really just wanted to be left alone. Thanks for the hot water and kind intentions of keeping me warm, but I was seriously about to ignite in flames. And I didn't have the energy to communicate/protest, so I just gave up and let her do whatever she pleased. Which included rearranging all my stuff out in the living room, bringing me drinks and food, washing all my dirty clothes and dishes, picking up my snotty tissue mess and taking out all of the trash I'd generated in my sick state. She left around noon.

By the afternoon, I was able to get up. All the extra sleep really helped, and I had a bit of energy. I was getting a bit stir crazy--especially since there was no internet for some strange reason. I checked the VPN settings. Was there a problem with my connection? None of my devices would connect to wifi or with ethernet cable. They wouldn't even access China-approved sites. It said they had internet, but there was no connection. It looked like I was without internet. No Hulu. No Netflix. No Facebook. Nothing to entertain me. First-World Problems. I watched Flashdance and Aladdin from my movie collection.

By the time Kari was out of school, I was feeling up to going out. We figured out why we didn't have internet. They're updating the system in our neighborhood. And it will take all week. Cool. All week we're on holiday. This is China (TIC).

Since I had been cooped up all day, and Kari and I had errands to do, we biked several blocks to get passport-sized photos (which are always necessary for visas and travel and completing various documents). Afterwards, we went to Cup o' Joe's coffee shop (to be explained in another blog post). We met up with other expats and internationals and enjoyed a night with some internet access. Though I had hardly no voice to speak with, it was great to meet people, and I was in good spirits.

When I started to fade around 8pm, we picked up some pizzas and headed back to our internet-less apartment. I couldn't taste the pizza, but I filled up my tummy, downed more vitamins and Airborne and Emergen-C, and crashed for a good night's sleep.

Be assured, thanks to the fact that I brought a whole pharmacy with me from the States, I have all the necessary antidotes to remedy/calm my systems and restore me to health. Airborne, Emergen-C, vitamins, teas, even antibiotics, prescriptions of nasal sprays and steroid inhalers, in addition to probiotics and other supplements.

That's all for now. I'm sure this was way more than any of you wanted to read, with the exception of my mother. But that's an update on my status and the first few days here in China.

(-Written Friday night, posted Saturday morning, because I didn't have internet access until I went back to Cup O' Joe this morning.)

So much has been set up!

Apartment 1203: Kari & Lara's place!

As if just getting here was not enough of an ordeal and undertaking--37 hours, delays, troubleshooting, more delays, confusion, complications, and hauling SO MUCH LUGGAGE)--now that I'm two days in, so much more has been accomplished (some things, especially dealing with technological issues, I feel especially proud and accomplished in having set up!):

1. I'm all moved into my new apartment with my (former (2008-2009), and now again current) roommate, Kari! 
• I completely unpacked within 2 hours of arriving in Beilun. Now I just need to purchase some additional stuff to make things more convenient, as well as decorate... but that won't happen until next week probably.
• Power adapters/converters and extensions/power strips/additional plug ins have been figured out and properly adapted to for all electronic/electrical needs. 



Our apartment building. We live on floor 12.

• We even made brownies to warm our [already 77ºF] flat (that's another story... dealing with fermented eggs... so stinkin' gross... literally!)
2. School business:
• reimbursements requested (for travel expenses, visa costs, etc.)
• mailbox set up
• fingerprint ID clock-in electronic time card thingymabobber programmed
• lunch card purchased (as a back up for when I can't pack a lunch)
• my new classroom is in the process of being remodeled (more detail to come on this exciting development!)
• ELL departmental meeting with my ELL team coordinator and fellow teacher-colleagues
• AAAAND, I attended my first AIAN faculty meeting and was introduced and very warmly welcomed by the staff members yesterday afternoon!



New Chinese SIM card!
3. Chinese bank account set up
4. Chinese cell phone plans figured out and activated
5. VPN on computer and iPhone purchased and activated (thanks to help and recommendations from Kari and other AIAN staff friends)
6. First shopping trip experience, purchases successfully made!
7. Eating "real" Chinese food out! (and then subsequently getting a massive headache from the massive amounts of MSG in the noodle dish!)
8. Chinese medical exam: I have been 

   

   Health inspection paperwork.

   sufficiently poked, prodded, and tested enough in the last month back Stateside, but I had to go through the routine all over again for my entrance exam here in China (it's part of them granting me a more permanent resident work visa): EKG, ultrasound, X-Ray (chest), eye, ears, nose, and throat exam, blood draw, urine sample... basically an assembly line of doctors and tests.

I am sure there is more that's been accomplished, and more anecdotal comments will be forthcoming. But alas, last night, I awoke before dawn, sweating and chilled, my throat screaming hot fire, and congestion. Now, I am in the throws of cold kingdom. Thanks, 37-hours of flight, limited sleep/food, and new climate to adjust to.

Prayers appreciated!

It's warm and humid.

Travel tales

I figured I'd share some of the highlights of my 37 hours of travel time from Sequim, to Seattle, Seattle to Beijing, Beijing to Ningbo, Ningbo to home in Beilun District…

The delay fiasco (hang with me; it's worth the read): 

(Click on image to get a larger view, see blue dotted line that is the
intended flight path, over Russia.)

• In Seattle, we board plane 45 min late (2:45pm). 
• 2:50pm, Captain informs us we’re missing an essential piece for the technological communications system that is required on this flight path over Russia.
•  Flight attendants start serving first meal (not a good sign that we’ll take off any time soon). I discover Hainan Airlines offers coconut milk!
• We wait on the idling plane, still docked at the terminal, until 5:10pm, when we are informed we will disembark the plane, as soon as the tunnel is re-attached (approx. 10 minutes). Seattle doesn’t have the necessary part to repair the technical issue. Options: wait for it to be located and flown in from another location, or rechart the flight plan to avoid flying over the region where that specific communications tool is necessary. Captain chooses the latter option. 
• Still on the plane at 5:55pm (10 minutes passed long ago, along with our hopes of ever getting off the plane), we are informed that we will stay put on the plane, as we’ll be departing soon. They'd been waiting for approval on the re-routing of the flight.



Fire/Rescue truck that arrived
15 minutes before we finally took off.

• 6:15pm, I notice an emergency aid care vehicle (Fire and Rescue) outside our plane on the tarmac, complete with flashing lights. Three rescue personnel board the plane and head to the back. Concerned?



After all the waiting on the ground, the Seattle staff literally
waved goodbye to us as we taxied away from the terminal.

• We finally start taxiing at 6:35, and are airborne around 7pm... 5 hours after scheduled departure.



Flying out of Seattle, chasing the orange sunset.

• We land in Beijing at 9:00pm local China time (almost an 11-hour flight), which is just 1.5 hours before my scheduled connecting flight leaves. 
• I rush through customs/immigration and head to check in for my connecting flight to Ningbo (arriving in China, you must collect all your luggage and haul it to the ticketing counter to re-check everything in and get your boarding pass for your next flight). 
• Once at the check in desk, it is 9:45pm, and it is determined that Hainan made a booking mistake. I apparently do not have a reservation on the flight for 10:15pm. The booking is for the 10:50am flight the next day. I protest. What are my options? It’s either purchase (again) the second leg for the 10:15 flight, or go figure stuff out with Hainan ticketing. 
• Well, I'm not paying again for a flight I've already purchased, and I have nearly missed the 10:15 flight anyway by the time they determine I should go elsewhere to resolve the booking mistake. It’s already 10:00pm by then.
• So I head to Hainan Airlines (domestic flights) in Terminal 2, a 10-minute walk away. Pushing cart with suitcases, pillow on it, heavy backpack on me. Suitcases precariously balanced on the push cart/dolly. From a bystander's perspective, the luggage "comically" keeps falling off at the slightest jarring movement, bumping over cracks in the uneven floor. Not so comical to me, of course. Nobody helps. Seriously?! Suitcases topple no less than a dozen times before I finally figure out an more solid stacking technique. 
• Problem #1 million for the day: my Global Data Plan on my phone was not working, so I couldn't communicate with anyone that I wasn't making the 10:15pm flight, and not to bother coming to Ningbo to pick me up at 12:20am.
• The Hainan ticketing counter issues me a flight for 10:50am. No! Isn’t there another flight out with Hainan to Ningbo that is earlier?
• They send me to another Hainan counter, pushing my luggage, to speak with the duty manager. I'm told I can fly standby on Hainan’s 6:45am flight, which is totally full, so it’s a gamble. I already have the ticket issued for the 10:50am flight if standby falls through.
• I'm transferred to a hotel room to pass the next several hours. At least I get free internet, finally, to communicate my status, and figure out how to restore internet access to my phone for future communications. I nap in the horizontal position for about 45-60 minutes.
• I return to the airport around 5:25am, and end up getting on standby for the 6:45 flight!

  

  Beautiful clouds just above Beijing.
• Check the luggage at 6:15am, then head through security. They take out my precious bike U-lock and are on the verge of confiscating it. I make a sour face and argue that I’ve made it all the way through US securities to China with it! They end up letting me take it at the last second. 
• I run to my gate to board as nearly the last person, at 6:40.
• I cram my backpack in the overhead bin, and then wait expectantly for the men in seats 5B/5C to get up and allow me into my seat in 5A. They look at me, Man C motioning for me to slide in. Not getting up to let me in? Really?! I straddle Man C's legs, and past his knees I go. Might I mention these are VERY small seats, with almost no leg room. Their knees are touching the seats in front of them. Man B allows me to climb past/hop over his knees (he is a tall man). Good thing I’m nimble and limber and not touchy concerning personal bubble space...



Flying into Ningbo.

• We finally land in Ningbo at 9am. My baggage is all there. First out on the belt (advantages of checking in last!). I have to wait 2 hours at the airport for my ride from the school to come get me. There is a big traffic jam delaying their arrival. So I figure out my Chinese SIM card and people-watch.
• 37 hours from Sequim to Beilun. Phew. Less than a combined total of 5 hours of tumultuous sleep, minimal food, and sore body from awkward sitting/sleeping, as well as pushing, pulling, loading, unloading, and carrying all that luggage. At least I got a workout.

Entering the Beilun District, finally!
(It's 40 minutes out of Ningbo, where I now live.)

       Observations:

• I met some cool people in transit: 
• an engineer for Hainan who educated me on the history of the Ningbo/Shanghai region of China
• a young woman who is an accountant in Houston, Texas, and travels frequently the Houston-Seattle/Seattle-Beijing itinerary
• a few traveling Mexican businessmen who market eco-friendly plastic cutlery (we had a nice conversation while crammed into an airport shuttle bus back from the hotel)
• a kind old man who advocated for me and translated to a ticketing agent, insisting that I MUST have a sooner flight. Cute and sweet old man.
• a businessman (in finance) who tried to make conversation with me in broken English on my flight from Beijing to Ningbo who was so boring I eventually had to put my earbuds in to send a signal that I did not want to carry on the conversation
• a kind young man who volunteered his basic translation skills to help me check into the airport hotel and reserve a shuttle back to the airport (really, at an airport hotel that is an international hub, out of 6 employees, nobody speaks English?!)



White grape juice, something like what I purchased.

• My first purchase in China at the only little convenience store/stand that was open in the airport around midnight was some grape(?) juice—green with pulp and jelly stuff in it. It amazingly only  cost the equivalent of 50 cents.
• Chinese culture: people are coughing and sneezing and hacking and burping and making gross spitting noises all the time. No wonder they wear breathing/face masks! It’s a germ cesspool! (I don’t think I would’ve noticed the sounds as much if people hadn’t mentioned it to me prior.)
• There is soothing instrumental Oriental music played on Chinese flights.



Interesting airplane food.

• Food: aside from rice, rice, and more rice, one of the flights served a bland, clearish porridge, white bread turkey(?), mayo, and cheese sandwiches (that I of course passed on), as well as some sort of pickled, packaged, MSG-mustard (that I also pass on). I scarfed the dehydrated apple chips that I scarf. They also serve complimentary salted, MSG-soaked almonds. Whatever happened to just good old peanuts? 

That post got way longer than I had anticipated. Represents my long, long travel experience.

Home in Ningbo!

Just for all those who are wondering, I did finally make it to the Beilun district of Ningbo this afternoon (China time), after 37 hours of travel. All baggage arrived and I am safe and sound. Happily reunited with roomie Kari! A more thorough update is to come. When it's not 10pm and I'm not in severe sleep deprivation mode.

Airport #3: destination Ningbo

Finally arrived in Ningbo. I'm the conspicuous laowi (white person) sitting here waiting to be picked up and taken home to Beilun to see my dearest Kari. Shortly. (Well relatively speaking, in comparison to how long the rest of this trip has taken!)

There is a story behind this photo. Ask me about it.

Round 2 Beijing Airport

At it again... maybe I'll be able to fly to Ningbo today...?

In Beijing...

Complicated travel issues, but just so people know, I'm more than halfway there! I am IN China at least! Just need to figure out how to get myself and all this excess luggage to Ningbo now!

Traveling to China!

Airport #1 of the trip... ~22 hours to go until I'm in my new home in Ningbo!

Flight 1: Seattle to Beijing
Sunday, September 23, 2012

Departure: 02:00 PM (PDT) Seattle, USA - Seattle Tacoma Arrival: 04:55 PM +1 day(s), local time (2:00am Monday, PDT)   Beijing, China - Capital International, terminal 2
Airline:	Hainan Airlines HU496	Aircraft: Airbus Industrie A330
Fare type:	ECONOMY STANDARD/Economy
Baggage:	haha A TON.

 

Change of plane required. Time between flights = 5:20.

Flight 2: Beijing to Ningbo

Monday, September 24, 2012

Departure: 10:15 PM, local time (7:15am Monday, PDT) Beijing, China - Capital International, terminal 2 Arrival: 12:20 AM +1 day(s), local time (9:20am Monday, PDT)   Ningbo, China - Lishe International
Airline:	China Eastern Airlines MU5180	Aircraft: Airbus Industrie A320-100/200

 

Prepping for another international move

This time, the packing process included compiling a
detailed list of all the new medications I'm on.

I've been preparing for my second international move this year. China will mark my passage through the 17 countries within six months' time. (In retrospect, all exhilarating, exciting, and exhausting experiences that I have been blessed to journey through!) I'd be lying if I said I'm not having a hard time in preparation for this move (how's that for a statement of double negatives?)... for a number of complicated and intertwined reasons, including my health, relationships, and just general burn out. I have been extremely emotional of late. I have many questions, doubts, fears, and anxieties for personal reasons, but also much excitement for all that is new. A new language, a new culture, a new apartment and living space in a new city, a new job, an international community at AIAN (the international school where I'll be teaching), and to be reunited with an old roomie and good friend (Kari), with new sights to behold and adventures to be had!

Visa documents coming in!

Though emotionally conflicted and constantly questioning my decisions and what this means for my future, nevertheless, I have made this commitment to teach, having accepted the job over a month ago. The visa paperwork took a bit longer than anticipated (for my work visa, which will be processed as a resident work visa upon my arrival in China). But this Sunday, with a new Chinese visa sticker stamped in my newly-inserted extra visa page insert in my full passport, I will be on a plane headed across the world, 15 hours ahead (across the international date line and time zones). By the middle of the night Monday/Tuesday, local China time, (~11am Pacific DS time) I will be at my new home in the Beilun area (a district/region of Ningbo, China, but I'll get into details of location once I'm there).

(Check out the links to the categories to the right of this post, as well as the tabs at the top of the page that detail contact info and my new job description.)

Please pray for safety in travel, general health/healing for my physical body, clarity in decision-making, and calm and peace for emotional and mental health. Feel free to send me emails or comment on my future blog posts! I'll try to set up password protection for access to my blog, as I'll be in China (and information/privacy restrictions exist). Yes, I will still have access to Facebook and Skype and other communications, just as in the States, as I'll be employing the (legal) use of a VPN service.

So stay tuned! Thank you for your support and interest.
Love, Lara