China Chronicles: Day Three (Part One)

I woke up on the train not knowing how long I had been sleeping and not knowing where in China I was passing through. I kept a steady gaze out the window as what started as a pale pink light in the darkness slowly got brighter, turning orange first and then a bright red. What I had finally realized was confirmed by the mother I was sharing my seat with.

"Beijing", was the only decipherable word I got from what she was saying to me.

To be honest, this was the part of the trip I was dreading. I don't like being rude to people, especially when I'm travelling. It makes me feel really awkward, actually, like "I need to be rude to you but that doesn't mean I don't understand where you're coming from; you're just trying to make a living..." etc, etc. Of course I am referring to haggling, and it would be my first time haggling. I didn't need to do it in Qingdao, as prices were either dirt cheap to begin with or people were just being agreeable. You don't really haggle in Korea, except in a very few exceptions, but then I know enough Korean to know how to be polite and get a cheaper price. Has my rambling convinced you yet of how scared I was to try and get a taxi to my hostel?

I probably would have felt better about it if I had been arriving in the daytime, but when my train arrived at Beijing Central Station it was only 5:30 AM and still very dark. Few people were awake and out in the street, and I had been warned many times that I would try to be ripped off at the very least. Absolute worst case scenario? I get abducted and sold as a bride (that one was told to my by Koreans and may not be completely accurate, but still, it's enough to freak a girl out). Second worst case scenario? I get dropped off in a random area after being driven around for ages and being charged an exhorbitant amount. If I had been with someone I wouldn't have been worried, but being by myself and only knowing how to say "hello" and "thank you" had me sufficiently scared.

However, like every other thing I had been worried about, it was for no reason. Did I get bombarded by strange men trying to get me into their taxis? Yes. Did I almost get shoved into an unmarked van? Yes (but many taxis are unmarked vans so I'm sure it would have been fine if I had actually gone for it). Did I get ripped off? Ohhhhh, yes. But in the end I found a driver I thought I could trust, he gave me a much lower price than everyone else (which was still too high) and I got to my destination in one piece. And I was relieved!

At around 6 AM, I stumbled into my top bunk that I was sharing with five other young women. I hit my head on the roof twice and made a lot of noise. Then I slept comfortably until about 11 AM.

I woke up feeling like I had conquered something big. Readers, this may not seem like much to you, but for this country girl who had, yes, gotten used to living in a city but had gotten used to living in a Korean city with Korean people (and, to me, there is a big difference), I felt that I had handled the chaos of my arrival in Beijing pretty well. Looking out the window and seeing what a gorgeous, sunny day it was made me excited to go out and explore the city.

I bundled up (it was -10C on the warmest days), had a brief look at a map, and set off to find out where everything was so that, when my friends arrived later that day, we wouldn't have many problems. The area of Beijing I was staying in is called Wangfujing. It's really central to a lot of tourist attractions, it's close to the Silk Market (where I planned to do some serious shopping) and it's extremely classy. The difference from Qingdao was like night and day. As I walked down the street, no one was staring at me, there were brand name stores alongside traditional tea houses and heritage monuments and although the area had a lot of Western influence it did not feel at all like a place at home, in Korea or in Japan. It felt completely unique.

I walked down the street and soon found the government buildings. If I kept walking south I would come to the Temple of Heaven. If I walked to the right I would find Tiannamen Square and the Forbidden City. If I walked to the left (for a bit longer) I would find the Silk Market. And within my vicinity was the famous eating street and Wangfujing Market area. I totally felt like I was in my element. I ran into a nice middle aged Aussie woman who lived in the Grand Hyatt with her businessman husband and she helped me get my bearings. Beijing is a remarkably easy city to find your way around; the whole thing is one big rectangle with the Forbidden City at it's centre. Hutongs, which are old, winding alleyways, are located within the rectangles. They are not easy to find your way around, but they are fun to get lost in as I would later find out.

I found the Market area with the help of my new Aussie friend, had some lunch, and went to a teahouse to warm up and write in my journal. After, I found my way back to the hostel, had a shower and waited for Allison and Jeremy to arrive so we could wander around some more. Bernard and Charlene would be joining us the next day and then the real exploring would begin.

As I was sitting in the teahouse, I could picture myself living in Beijing for a little while. It's a beautiful city- and not at all what I was expecting, coming from the neon lights and highrises in Korea. Here are some pics:



Entrance to the Wangfujing Youth Hostel, which became my home in Beijing. It was great! I especially liked it's little pub/restaurant/tea house. Oh, and my bed was six bucks a night. Can't beat that.

The only downside? I disturbed everyone in the room every time I tried to climb into my bed. The ceiling tiles are surprisingly noisy.

The teahouse where I spent hours. I really enjoyed their beverages.

Entrance to the Wangfujing Market/eating area.

Duh duh duhhhhhhhh. Building Number One, where the big Chinese politicians do all kinds of Communist things.

The streets were extremely clean and litter free, but unfortunately they were not pigeon shit-free.

I need your help:

What's a better title for my Southeast Asia blog (coming soon to a computer near you!)?

1. Getting My Sarong On
2. Suwondering Abroad
3. Thai-ing One On
4. ???? Help Me Please ?????

Mom, Sarah, Amanda and random internet people. Help me.

China Chronicles: Day Two (Qingdao)

After finally getting some sleep in my stifling ferry cabin, Jordan, my roommates and I waited around for maybe an hour before they let us off the boat (we were docked the whole time, but the ferry was crowded so all we had to do was wait for one of the attendants to come get us). This was great because it gave me time to make train plans. I originally planned on going to a hostel and getting them to help me book a train ticket to Beijing, but Jordan, who has travelled extensively, convinced me that I would be able to tackle China all on my own (can you tell I was a smidgen timid?). Relieved by the fact that, at least, he had to get a ticket as well and would be joining me, we stepped onto the (two) escalators that took us off the ship and got on the bus to take us to the terminal.

When we got there, I was immediately shocked at the state of the place. Polluted, muddy (not very cold, but very drizzly) and full of dilapidated buildings, it was not how I expected Qingdao, which helped Beijing host the Olympics this past summer (for sailing and other water events), to look. However, like so many cities in Asia, it's important to really spend some time to look around all the little interesting side streets before you make a judgement about a place. After a few kilometres in a (remarkably cheap) taxi, I could tell that this was not a typical Chinese city.

I mean, the Germans basically founded the whole place. Did you know? That's why the hometown brew, Tsingtao Beer (Tsingtao is just another way to spell Qingdao), is so delicious. The Germans came in the early 1900's and raised the small port to become the city it is today, for better or for worse (judging by the beer, I would say in this particular case it was for the better- but only because of the beer). The architecture, while old and dilapidated, is decidedly Bavarian in style. I don't think the buildings have changed much, or have even been repainted, since the Germans left. Even still, the place had an eerie but charming feel to it- I think with it's beaches and beer festival, Qingdao would be bustling and gorgeous in the summer and I kinda want to go back because I left thinking I had missed out on something very interesting.

Jordan and I went straight to the train station to get our respective train tickets (he had more time off and was heading south to Yunnan province while I had to go straight to Beijing) and, for the first time in my life, I felt completely overwhelmed by the amount of people in such a small space. The train station in Qingdao is beautiful and was just recently renovated, but the scene we came upon was just barely short of chaos. There were line ups going outside the door, security guards were kicking people to keep them in line, and there didn't seem to be any space left for us to squeeze in. We showed our Lonely Planet book to one of the security guards and he pointed us in the direction of a ticket booth that had two other people waiting in line. Score.

With the Chinese (forced to stay in their longer-than-life lines) shooting daggers at us, we went to the booth where a friendly lady got us the tickets we wanted. I didn't get a seat on my 10 hour train ride to Beijing, but I wasn't complaining. Not while thousands of other people probably wouldn't get any tickets at all, after waiting in line for hours.

Tickets in hand, we both had several hours to kill before heading back to catch our trains. We thought we could probably walk to the Tsingtao Brewery for a tour, but the city was a lot larger than Lonely Planet emphasized. We grabbed a cab, and a few minutes later we were on the famous "Beer Street". We immediately found the brewery and went inside, paid 50 yuan and got our tickets to "roam somewhat freely" through the factory and the grounds. There was a boring beer museum, the tour was ok (typical beer brewery tour... I've been on many...) but the samples were yummy and I had a great time.

After the tour we wandered around Beer Street for awhile, admiring the many statues devoted to beer and wishing we could have been here when it was sunny and warm and when people were actually out enjoying themselves. The street was pretty isolated in late December...

I started to feel hungry and found a little kiosk selling noodles. I was worried about what I was ordering, but I shouldn't have been because it was maybe the most delicious bowl of noodles I have ever consumed. It was extremely spicy, the noodles were cooked just right (this wasn't ramyeon, it was made with the thick, circular noodles) and it was topped with cilantro and scallions. Amazing.

After eating, exploring and emailing home, we made our way back to the train station and said goodbye. I waited a very long time for my train, all the while being the only white person in the room, being stared at by everyone and being scared out of my mind- not of the people, but of missing the call for my train. I didn't need to be worried at all, clearly. As would become my travelling pattern, a very kind young woman saw me and must have noticed that I was terrified of the pushing mass that was trying to get on the same train as me. She grabbed my shoulders, pointed out my elbows for me, and helped me push my way through the crowd. Then she showed me my car. Very nice.

Even though I had no seat on the train, a nice woman who was travelling with her three daughters offered to let me sit with them while she had her youngest on her lap. They played with my hair, offered me convenience store chicken feet, and then, one by one, dropped off to sleep. I slept as well, and every time I woke up a different daughter was sprawled across my legs, snoring.

That was a very long post. I hope you are still awake. Please enjoy some Qingdao (Tsingtao) pictures!




The Chinese welcome wagon. I was scared to take pictures of their faces. Immediately, though, I was drawn to their hats.

Travel buddy, Jordan, with the train station in the background.

Don't worry, Santa was at the Ferry Terminal to greet everyone. He seemed to follow me everywhere after that...

Jordan, getting his ticket after waiting for approximately 2 minutes.

The other massive lines, and people looking not very happy...

The streets of Qingdao.

I honestly had a hard time believing that I was in China at times.

The many kinds of Tsingtao Beer, in the brewery museum.

The brewery, spewing tons of pollution into the air. The outcome? A crisp and refreshing bottle of beer. Somebody's got their priorities straight.

Going through the factory, watching the magical journey the beer takes from the vat to ma belly.

Jordan, inside the "Drunken House". If you've ever been to the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, it was exactly like the "Crazy Kitchen". Incidentally, Jordan is from Ottawa and we had both been in the "Crazy Kitchen" before. Weird.

A little scared before taking my first bite. The following picture that was taken shows my extreme surprise and delight!

The woman who made ma noodles.

One of the many statues on Beer Street. This one is made out of many Tsingtao beer cans, with the display case in the background filled with Tsingtao Beer.

I reeeeeeally wish I had been here in the summer.

To close: Tsingtao Beer is really delicious, and it kind of tastes like Alexander Keiths.

China Chronicles: Day One

I woke up at 9 AM after spending the previous night at Now Bar, gorging myself on Christmas dinner leftovers with Aidan, Andrew, Amy, Jeremy and Claire. Thankfully, I had the self discipline to make myself go home and sleep after two beers. The morning was spent frantically making sure the cats had enough food for Kerri to take care of them while I was gone as well as making sure my apartment wasn't too much of a disaster for when Kerri came over to feed them.

At the last minute, I realized that I had left my camera charger at Rachael's. I called her to let her know I'd be over, grabbed my backpack and got into the first cab I could find. Yeongtong was in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go, but I was managing my time well and luckily made it to the Suwon Bus Terminal with a half hour to spare before the next bus for Incheon took off.

I grabbed a quick lunch at the terminal and was soon on my way to Incheon. I don't know if taking the bus to Incheon made much of a difference, because the Incheon terminal is pretty far away from the ferry terminal (the bus goes to Bupyeong and from there you need to make your way to Dongincheon Station by subway), but the bus is far more relaxing than taking the subway all the way to Dongincheon- plus, by the time you get to Bupyeong the subway won't be very full because hardly anyone ever goes to Dongincheon (except me- I seem to go there a lot).

After about an hour and a half, I arrived at Dongincheon Station. I grabbed a cab, expecting the ride to take about ten minutes (where all the other ferries are located) and was pleasantly surprised when the drive took maybe two minutes. Once I got to the ferry terminal I found a spot for myself in the very long line and attempted to watch my backpack... while it was on my back. That was difficult. I vowed to myself that I would buy a little travel purse for my travel documents and money when I arrived in China. While in line, I was grateful to meet another foreigner from Canada named Jordan who was going to the same place on the same boat- he would be my travel buddy for the next day or so.

We finally got our tickets and made our way through baggage checks and passport checks. A bus came to the terminal to take us to the ship and we piled on with about 30 other passengers. By about 4: 30 PM we were all on the boat and accounted for. And what a boat! It had a GS 25 (convenience store), a restaurant, a bar, a few noraebang rooms, a jjimjilbang (Korean style sauna) and much more. I was worried about my accomodations as I would be sharing with three other people, but I was again pleasantly surprised when my roommates turned out to be Chinese university students studying in Korea.

After dinner and a nap, I met up with Jordan and we had a drink on the upper deck before going back to our rooms for some much needed sleep.

The only bad thing about my time on the ferry? The heat was on in my room way too high, and my roommates didn't seem to notice or care. I just slept in my underwear with no covers. I was still too hot.



The first glimpse of China... looks a lot like Korea, doesn't it?

View from inside my room. The little table and chair were cute and surprisingly comfortable.

While the outside of the ship left something to be desired, the inside was very clean and... almost glamourous!

The bunks, TV (which has channels in Korean and Chinese) and our little fridge where we found plenty of drinking water. A great boat ride! It was so big you didn't even notice you were on the water. I would recommend this was of travelling to anyone- it's comfortable, it's inexpensive and it's fun!

Stay tuned for my exciting entry into China! Ooooh... aaaah....

Christmas Post Number Four: Christmas Day in Yeongtong

Blogger is getting on my nerves these days! I used to be able to upload my photos in the order that I wanted you to see them, but instead it just does whatever it wants in random order. There is no way to help my situation; when it comes to computers I'm just plain stupid. Oh well.

Welcome to my last Christmas post (thank God, it's only halfway through January). China pictures are to follow, as well as some odes to more friends who have left me in recent days/weeks. In all honesty I'm off soon myself. Not for long, of course, but for a good, three month long vacation to Southeast Asia. Yes, I am a spoiled lady. But, I think anyone who teaches in Korea deserves an extra long vacation for the lack of vacation during the school year as well as the added "pressures" that come to any foreigner living and working in Korea. Let's face it, sometimes we have to put up with bullshit. In any case, I am excitedly making plans, finding a cat sitter until my return in June, planning our routes through Indonesia and peninsular Southeast Asia, planning our treks and massages and cooking classes as well as trying to pack up my mess of an apartment and find places for all of my things until I return in June. I'm a bit excited.

Anyways, back to Christmas morning. These pictures are in completely random order so forgive me. First thing Christmas morning, Rach and I woke up, one of us more hungover than the other (I'm not naming names), and Rach set to work making some banana bread for brunch. I headed straight over to Molly's where I enjoyed a yummy cup of coffee and some nice conversation and she, Kim and I prepared for our friends to come over. It was potluck style, so we ended up feasting on pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, fruit, yoghurt, banana bread, coffee and mimosas. It was delicious. Then we opened our presents. The girls bought for each other and the guys bought for each other, so opening the Secret Santa gifts were a bit of a hoot.

After, we lounged around Molly's watching funny youtube clips and nursing our hangovers. Until 4 PM, when I finally had to drag myself to Now Bar to prepare for the massive Christmas dinner that I was making with the help of my very awesome friends. After we ate, Amy and Claire prepared a great round of trivia, which was also a hoot. Great Christmas!



Claire, at Now Bar chopping zuchinnis.



Me, going crazy. I mean preparing salads.



Our dear Andrew, whose experience in restaurants was greatly appreciated.



There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Aidan should be the turkey carver. Also, he wouldn't let anyone take more than their share. This was key.



Our Christmas spread.


Claire, opening her gift from Amy.



Jeremy, opening his gift from Connla.



Aidan was very pleased with the sexy orange shorts he received from Andrew. Great colour.



Amy, showing off the vast array she received from Claire.



Connla used an entire roll of wrapping paper on this bottle of whisky. And then he put it in a gift bag.



Lounging... Rachael doesn't look all there, I wonder why?



Our lovely Christmas tree.



Our gracious hostess.

Christmas Post Number Three: Christmas Eve at Now

After school was out, I went straight to Rachael's apartuh in Yeongtong, where I would be spending the night (no freaking way I was spending Christmas Eve alone, and besides, I had to be at Molly's early the next morning). We chatted, I had a little nap, we planned our food for the next morning, and then we went to Molly's where Rach got into the wine and we occupied ourselves watching those funny G I Joe cartoons... the ones where they have voiceovers and say stupid things... you know...


After a few hours of that, we took a short walk and ended up at Now Bar. Of course. The place was pumpin', people were in the Christmas spirit, and they were most definitely into the Christmas cheer (if you know what I mean). We had too good a time and ended back at Rachael's around 4 AM. Rachael had too good a time and didn't move much on Christmas morning. It was great :)



We MacLeans are a proud bunch. Here's my friend and probable relation, Stu, on Christmas Eve donning his MacLean tartan kilt.

Aidan, looking like he might either punch or hug whoever is poking him.

Jesse, Jer, Jeff and Claire.... wow, that rhymes. I love it when that happens!

We said goodbye to Luke, who was leaving the next day. Little did we know that Luke's flight would be cancelled and he would come back to Now the very next night.

Stay tuned for Christmas morning... oh the excitement!

Christmas Post Number Two: Maple Bear Concert

On Christmas Eve (yes, prospective expats... they will make you work Christmas Eve) we had a concert for all of the student's families. It was... interesting. First, we decorated Christmas Cakes, which is not a Western tradition, but in fact a Japanese one. Then, we had our Secret Santa. Even now, weeks after Christmas, we are getting complaints from parents about this one- "My child got a terrible gift, it didn't cost enough..." etc, etc. But the majority of the children had great fun getting secret presents from other students. Then, it was time to go upstairs and prepare for the concert.

My kids sang "Mele Kaliki Maka", the Hawaiian Christmas song as well as good ol' Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. For the first song Jessica and I dressed the kids up as palm trees, hula dancers and stars (and one sun) and they sang and did little dance moves. It was cute. For Rudolph, we did the funny version where each kid had something to add after each line. I made little pictures for them to hold up in case the parents didn't understand what they were saying. That would have been cute, too, if only I had explained that the kids needed to show their cards with the pictures facing their parents and not the other way around. Whatevs, live an learn. It was still cute. Then the kids got to go home early, and David paid for our lunch at a restaurant. Thank, David.

Then we did everything all over again in the afternoon, minus the mistakes with Rudolph and the lunch. Then we were on vacation! Finally!


Bright Kim, doing what he does best.

The teachers weren't exempt from wearing costumes. It's a Korean thing.

All of my little reindeer in a row.

The boys thought their red noses meant they were wearing girly make up. I explained to them that Big Bang wears make up, and we're almost 60% sure over half of them are straight.

Jason embraced the make up. He's a Wondergirls fan, not so much a Big Bang fan.

My afternoon kids! Here is my star, Mcqueen. Adorable. I wish he would speak English every now and then, though.

If I had known in advance about his appearance on television, I would have made a special lead role just for Andy. I didn't, though, and so he was just one of the many palm trees.

Martin was unsure about what he should do with his hands.

My extremely unimpressed hula dancers...

Martin, Mcqueen and Tommy shone that day. Sorry for the bad joke.