A Whole New Blog

Hello faithful followers.

I thought about deceiving you all for a bit, but I suppose I should go ahead and admit it: This is not Caryn Wang.

[GASP!]

Just messing around. This is Caryn's friend, Beth. For those of you who don't know me, Caryn and I have gone to school together pretty much since pre-K. And since I am almost constantly on my computer for my freelance work, I get to talk with Caryn quite often on G-chat. I think she can access it from her phone. If you want to talk to her on G-chat, her Google account is: carynwang@gmail.com. Original, I know.

She also said she may try to use Skype a bit more, so try her there as well if you want. (Her Skype account is also: carynwang).

Well that was quite a lengthy introduction. But to the point >> Blogger, like most sites, is blocked in China, so Caryn is unable to access or update this site anymore. But never fear! She has found another blogging outlet that is allowed in China.

And here it is! >> http://carynwang.edublogs.org/

She's already got a post up, so head on over.

Apparently she's past the whole excited-to-be-abroad phase and has settled in to the just-another-day-in-the-life phase, so I'm sure she'd love to hear from you all! And of course, her birthday is on January 14th... just sayin'.....

On that note, I've also gotten a hold of her address over there in Chinaland. It's a bit odd looking--imagine the nerve of those Chinese using Chinese characters on their addresses! :P But all joking aside, she said if you are planning on sending her any mail, just print the address out and tape it to your correspondence. And of course, you'll have to put her name on it somewhere.


Is there anything I've forgotten? Hmm. Well, I'll also post a link to the new blog on Facebook since she can't access that either. Isn't it grand that I now have Caryn's passwords?? :P

Hope everyone had a good holiday!
Beth

A Whole New World

I arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday night and even though I’ve only been here 2 days, I am absolutely in love with this city. It’s objectively awesome. I may not have taken a magic carpet 

ride here, but there are definitely new horizons to pursue and a hundred thousand things to see. It’s like an amalgam of London, New York and Miami, but with lots of Chinese people and mountains. There’s so much to do and see and buy, but sadly, my sole purpose for coming here was to get my visa so I can enter mainland China. I am very happy to say that I have successfully accomplished my objective and I have done a bit of sightseeing as well. Yesterday I dropped my documents and passport off at a travel agency (a very helpful Swiss woman I met on my flight over here gave me the name, number and address of a travel agency) and they took care of everything. 24 hours later, I am in possession of a visa to China.

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions (SAR) in China, the other is Macau. An SAR is a highly autonomous region with its own political system, code of law and economy. But they are still part of China. It’s part of Deng Xiaoping’s “one country, two systems” principle. Basically it means that if you’re American, you don’t need a visa to stay here for up to 90 days and you can still use Facebook and Youtube. It also means Hong Kong has its own currency, the Hong Kong Dollar, which I really like because the paper money is really colorful.

Hong Kong is made up of a bunch of islands that are all quite different. I’m staying at a hostel on Kowloon in a very “Chinese” part of the island, as in there’s no English on the menus at most places. Yesterday, I walked to the ferry pier to go to Hong Kong Island and my surroundings got more and more “Western” with every step I took. After I took the ferry over to Hong Kong Island, I just wandered around for a bit. There are lots of parks and gardens spread out all over the city, sort of like London. I also took a tram up to the top of a mountain (it’s one of the “must see” things in Hong Kong) to get a nice aerial view of the city. There were a bunch of restaurants and shops at the top and obviously the view was pretty spectacular. There were also a bunch of nature trails, so I took one that went around the mountain. I didn’t go all the way around, but I walked for a good two hours, listening to my iPod and doing my best to sing with all the voices of the mountain.  I think I walked about 15 miles yesterday, which is probably a conservative estimation. I was very entranced by the city so I didn’t feel like taking the subway. I took a lot of pictures, which as most of you know is very unlike me.

  

I’ve had a very relaxing day today. I slept late and then walked to the Jade Market to just have a look around…haha, I learned very fast that you do NOT go to the Jade Market and just look 

around. You WILL buy something, the vendors make sure of that. Once they catch you looking at something, they won’t give up until you buy it. Afterwards I got some lunch and then picked up my passport from the travel agency. I am currently sitting at a Starbucks in a giant mall, enjoying an Iced Chai and the Christmas music. This is my third Starbucks trip in the past 2 days, each time at a different Starbucks and each time as legendary as I imagined.

I’m really enjoying the fact that I blend in really well here. It’s really nice to not be an obvious tourist; people treat you very differently. An unfortunate side-effect of that is people assume I speak Chinese and they just ramble away and I have to wait until they are finished talking and inform them that I did not understand a word they just said. Even the stewardess on the flight over here assumed I was from here so she didn’t give me an arrival card. I had to wait in line at passport control, get a card and then get back in line as I filled it out. A really good side-effect will be that the starting prices I get at markets will be much lower than those given to people who are obviously Westerners.

Tomorrow I leave for Xi’an. The anglicized pronunciation is “Shee-ann,” in case you were wondering. It was the capital of a bunch of important dynasties (you can Wikipedia it if you really want to know which ones) and is still one of the cultural centers of China. It is also where the Terracotta Warriors are. So there will be a lot to do and see there as well. I also start teaching really soon, the 26^th I think, which I’m really excited about. It will be nice to have some kind of consistency week to week; my schedule the past 5 weeks has been pretty erratic.

Thanks for all the comments, I love reading them and I hope everyone is having a great Holiday Season!!! 

The End in the Beginning

The first part of my journey is almost over. Today is my last day in Cambodia and I really can't believe four weeks went by that fast. I finished my TESOL course yesterday and received my little certificate saying I'm qualified to teach English. I have already updated my resume and everything, so its really official. And with the continued devaluation of bachelor's degrees, this certificate might actually be the most useful piece of paper I own. Anyway, I will be traveling to Hong Kong tomorrow to apply for my Chinese visa. I'll be there for 3 days and then I go to Xi'an (Shaanxi province). I'll be in Xi'an through the end of February and then I'll move to Jinan (Shandong province), which is where I will be for a year (I've included a map for your convenience).

I had to say goodbye to a bunch of really awesome people, which kinda sucks, but now I have friends all over Southeast Asia, which is pretty cool. I really loved Cambodia, but I am very excited about finally going to China.  The visa process has been pretty stressful and confusing, but I think that's normal. Hopefully everything works out and my 3 days in Hong will be uneventful and relaxing. I think they have a Disney World there and I know they have Starbucks...talk about magical!! I haven't seen that wonderful, green mermaid logo in 4 weeks. When I was in Russia, there wasn't a Starbucks in St. Petersburg, but there were a few in Moscow. I was only in Moscow for 4 days and I think I went to Starbucks 8 times...I would go see some awesome piece of history and then follow it up with a венти холодний чай (Iced Venti Chai). The baristas knew my drink by the second day, now that's legen...wait for it...dary!! It's amazing how a little taste of something so familiar can make you feel at home, even when you're on the other side of the world. It was also the only place in Russia that understood the phrase "customer service." There might be a Starbucks in Xi'an, but according to my latest google search, there is definitely not one in Jinan. Fortunately, I will be in the land of tea, so I should be able to find a satisfactory local substitute for my addiction.

There's an App for That

In addition to teaching everyday, I also take Chinese lessons so I can learn to say important things like, “the cat is on the chair” and “the monkey is on the branch.” I am finding that even though I didn’t really know how to say anything in Chinese, the fact that I grew up hearing it is very helpful. When I learn a new word or phrase, I can remember having heard it multiple times from either my dad or from one of the martial arts movies he always watches.  Chinese sentence structure is actually quite similar to English; the hard part is the tones. There are 4 different tones and if you try and say something and use the wrong one, you’re probably saying a completely different word. For example, the word ‘ma’ can mean all of the following: mother, trouble, horse, curse and locust. So if you wanted to say, “this is my mother,” but you accidentally use the wrong tone, you could be saying, “this is my curse.” So yeah, getting the tones right is very important. Fortunately, there’s an app for that. I downloaded an app for learning Mandarin before I left home that models the pronunciation of words and phrases so I can practice them at my leisure.  Hopefully when I get to China I don’t accidentally say something completely offensive…maybe I’ll just speak English for the first few months. 

It's a Small World After All

Fact: nothing brings people together better than throwing around a little piece of plastic. There’s a group of people from all over the world that play pick-up Ultimate Frisbee every Sunday at a school here in Phnom Penh.  I have now played Ultimate Frisbee in Russia and Cambodia, only about 190 countries left.  We met at 3:30 and just played until the sun went down. It was very chill and just awesome Ultimate fun. It felt great to be able to run around and get some quality exercise.  It was also cool to meet some other English-speaking people who live here, outside of my program. I met a lot of Westerners that are here working for NGO’s and volunteering.  A small sample of the people I met: an Australian guy here for work, a Philippino guy here teaching, a guy from Oregon who is here doing some volunteer organic farming, another American guy doing solar energy work, a Canadian girl working with an NGO that helps victims of human trafficking and a guy who actually grew up in Atlanta and is here for work (he went to either Stars Mill or McIntosh high school).  So the people were obviously really awesome and interesting, but what really made this Ultimate experience complete were all the chickens chillin’ near one of the endzones. Hopefully I'll be able to find the Ultimate scene when I get to China...in one week! I can't believe my time in Cambodia is almost over, it really flew by. 

...But I'm Not the Only One

This is probably the most precious thing I've ever seen. My friends Ashley (from Scotland) and Igna (from South Africa) teach at a different orphanage and this is a video of them singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." 

 

You May Say I'm a Dreamer...

As you all know, I have traveled across the world to teach English to kids. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but after teaching for a week in a Cambodia I can honestly say that this is probably the best life decision I’ve ever made. Seriously. I teach at an orphanage sponsored by a Chicago based NGO called New Day. I have a class of 27 Khmai kids ranging from 9 to 15 years old and they are absolutely amazing. They’re SO eager to learn and so respectful and they seem to really have fun in class. I pretty much get to do whatever I want during my lessons because I’m just at this orphanage as a volunteer teacher for 2 weeks and I’m supposed to supplement what they learn out of their textbooks. So my lesson for Friday consisted of me printing out the lyrics to the Glee version of “Imagine,” with some of the words missing, and we listened to it 7 or 8 times while they filled in as many words as they could. We then sang through it a few times, which was just a magical experience. Just imagine 27 adorable Khmai kids singing along to the Glee version of “Imagine.” Amazing. I also printed out the opening monologue from Beauty and the Beast, but I moved the words around in each sentence, so as I read through it they had to put the words in the correct order. They got really competitive with this and would shoot their hand in the air as soon as they finished to let me know they were done already. They get really competitive with pretty much everything, which I totally relate to and absolutely love about them.  I also get to play football (soccer) with them sometimes during their breaks, which is just SO much fun. Just running around and playing with these kids is an uplifting experience.