Hey everyone! I had an exciting adventure over the weekend that I wanted to share with you. I taught English to students (elementary - high school) in a village in the city of Hanzhong. My school Director, Ryan, is from Hanzhong and from time to time arranges for a native English speaker to visit his hometown to teach the students there (Hanzhong is primarily a poor city and most people are farmers). Ryan decided to send one of my school teachers with me for logistical purposes and for any help that I may need, so Victoria and I went on this trip together. The schedule was to teach middle / high schoolers Friday night from 6-8pm and then on Saturday teach elementary school kids from 8-10am and more middle / high schoolers from 10am-12pm.
Victoria and I left on Friday at 2:30pm on the bus, which was to be a 3 hour trip, but due to some traffic jam somewhere we arrived at 7:45pm instead of 5:30pm. We immediately went to the school where I instead taught from 8-10pm (the Chinese are very serious about school and are there until that time anyways). I had 38 students for the night. After teaching we went to a little restaurant for dinner where my host teacher ordered me a pork sandwich and a bowl of noodles. The sandwich was really good, but the noodles were really spicy, and I don't do spicy very often. We then checked into the hotel at 11:30pm and were pretty much asleep by 12:15am.
On Saturday we were picked up at 7:30am and taken to a little restaurant for breakfast, which was porridge (it is some bean flavored soup that looks like milk), more spicy noodles, and a pastry. I enjoyed the pastry, was not crazy about more spicy noodles, especially for breakfast, and only enjoyed the porridge somewhat because it helped with my mouth that was on fire. I then taught the two classes (28 students for the first class and 25 students for the second) before our host and a group of the teachers and three students took us to lunch. We went to the best restuarant there for Chinese hot pot. Hot pot is best described as a beef bouillon base with a few carrots and celery for flavor that is in a huge pot in the center of the table. A fire under the pot is started and the base begins to boil. You then add anything you want to add to it and let it cook. Once things are cooked you take the meat, vegetables, or noodles out with your chopsticks and place it on your plate to eat. Then later you laddle out the soup part into a bowl to drink. I have to admit I ate things that I would not normally eat and things that I dislike, but I did it to be culturally sensitive and to not offend my hosts and their delicacies (I had to eat tofu - sorry for those of you who like it, but it is really bad, as well as mushrooms and mushroom noodles - yes, my parents laughed about this since they have tried for years to get me to eat mushrooms). Typically the Chinese custom is to serve your guest every time they need food - so the host would get food every few minutes and put it on your plate until you were done eating. If you were being treated like family, as I was on this day, then you serve yourself. I am not up to par with my chopstick skills, so not only did my friends and I get a good laugh out of it, but I ended up being served in the long run because of it.
Victoria and I left at 2:30pm for another 3 hour bus ride, but were delayed an hour on the way home for a traffic jam at the same place, but just on the other side of the highway. I had a good time and enjoyed seeing a different part of China. I have posted some pictures from this weekend for you to see including highway signs - some are "normal" and some are just funny due to Chinese-English translation.
Here are a few random observations from the weekend:
* I had my travel size hairspray confiscated at the bus station in Xi'an for fear that it could be a bomb; yet anyone was allowed to carry lighters, water bottles and jugs of liquids through without screening (I did get my hairspray back when we came back the next day, but just thought it was a little interesting since you didn't really know what was in those containers of liquids)
* After every meal in Hanzhong I was given a piece of Doublemint gum to chew. Apparently that is what you do after a meal
* I got to watch the same movie on my bus rides, which was about Chinese poker - couldn't understand a word of it, but the Chinese on the bus loved it and laughed a lot during the movie
* The mountains of Hanzhong are beautiful and the air there is clearer allowing you to really see them
Hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventure over the weekend. This week I have been working on language and trying to get over this sinus infection that wants to stick around. Looking forward to checking in again soon.
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