Superlatives

(Heather)

As an organizational freak, (and yes, I readily admit this…ask my senior year college roommate about the line of demarcation down the center of our room) there’s little I adore more than lists. Likewise, as a high school teacher, I’m quite familiar with the superlatives that are given to seniors each year—I always enjoy hearing the buzz about who has been deemed “best dressed,” or as having the “best car,” etc. So, then, it seems to make sense to compose a list of superlatives—China style.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

(Timmy)

Saturday, March 15, 2014. Today, the Barnyard Bunch (our official name now), ventured into one of the most dangerous, (safe) and harsh (beautiful) of places in all of China. We would be dropped off an hour and a half away from civilization, (Hangzhou) and we would have to survive for half a day in a foreign area. Can we survive in this unforgiving, (very nice) wasteland (extremely green area)? This is…MAN VS. CHINA!

Shanghai and New Host Families

(Caitlin)

I think it’s fair to say that at this point quite a lot has been said about our weekend trip to Shanghai. I’m not going to spend this whole post talking about it, but I have to talk about it a little bit. I mean, I’m not going to go to Shanghai (!) and not mention it even a little in my blog. That would just seem so wrong.

The Night Circus

(Heather)

Over the summer, I read Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, which was a rich and vibrant novel about a mysterious, supernatural, traveling night circus. It was a fantastic piece of magical realism, but I’d bet money Erin’s never been to China.

Friday night (March 14), I witnessed my own night circus, and while there were no acrobats, trapeze artists, or pachyderms, there were plenty of illusionists, magicians, and fortune-tellers.

Time Travel

(Heather)

Oh, how I wish time travel was possible—for multiple reasons. First and foremost, I want to go back and spend more time in Shanghai, as it was fantastic! Two and a half days was simply not enough time to see and do everything we wanted to see and do in such an incredible city. Please don’t misunderstand me—we packed a lot into the time we had, but there’s so much left undone.

Sick in Shanghai

(Dareus)

Unfortunately right before our weekend excursion to Shanghai, I somehow got a bacterial blood infection which caused me a fever so I was mostly restricted to the hotel room and the surrounding block. There were a few occasions when I felt good enough to go out and see things so I’ll talk about those but also about my experience at a Chinese hospital.

Shanghai Nights

(Max)

So this past weekend we traveled to Shanghai by speed train. Shanghai was actually the city that I was most looking forward to seeing before the trip started and it did not disappoint. We did a series of activities that even the most veteran tourists would be proud of.

Football Brings the World Together

(Timmy)

events of March 2

Sunday morning, I got some much-needed rest. It’s amazing what 13 hours of sleep does for you. My host brother Kevin took me down the street to Zhejiang University for some lunch. There is a food court there that sells strictly Islamic food, so we went there, and it was delicious. Earlier in the trip someone wrote about the big bowls of soup in Xi’an with the pancake noodles. We basically had that again, but this soup had noodles and some kind of vegetable. I was still full from the giant lunch we had yesterday, so I didn’t eat a lot. Kevin, on the other hand, was very hungry and had a lot of food, so we walked around campus to burn it off. He showed me the different buildings around campus, and the surrounding area. We went back to the apartment for a few hours for some rest and so Kevin could finish his homework.

Snapshot

(Heather)

This will be a very brief blog post, as I’m quite tired at the moment. Nevertheless, I wanted to provide all of you a brief glimpse or snapshot of my life here in China. In particular, I want to write about my commute to school each day.

All. The. Things.

(Heather)

China is a dangerous place. Now, before anyone goes off in a tizzy of worry, I don’t mean to imply that China is a physically dangerous place, nor do I mean that I’ve felt unsafe at any point (other than from the mopeds and scooters that careen precariously close to me on the street).

No, China is dangerous for your wallet and bank account, as there are so many things. There are so many pretty, lovely, stunning, beautiful, charming, intricate, delicate, rustic, artisan, whimsical, clever, unique, colorful, shiny, soft, sleek, silky, heavenly, gorgeous, ethereal, exquisite things. How about those adjectives?

Teachers and Teaching!

(Heather)

Before I write anything else, let me tell you about a new survival strategy I’ve adopted…it works well when you’re trying to cross the street with a delicate birthday cake in a box, and are faced with an onslaught of cars that largely ignore traffic lights or walk signals. I call it the “stand close to but on the other side of traffic from a local, and then mirror and match every step he or she takes” method. It’s worked so far, though I do have some guilt at effectively using local Hangzhou residents as unwitting shields against aggressive bicyclists, moped-ists (is that a word?) and motorists.

I Just Wish There Was a Way….

(Dareus)

I’m going to give you the lowdown on what we did today because that is what I am supposed to do; later I will tell you what I really want to talk about. 

So today started off with an exceptionally tasty breakfast. I inhaled what is called Ba Tsung in the backseat of my host dad’s car on the way to school at 6:30 in the morning. Ba Tsung is essentially sticky rice, meat, peanuts, and mushrooms formed into roughly the shape of a triangular prism. This triangle of rice and stuff is then wrapped in banana leaves and steamed to cook it. Afterwards you unwrap this geometric prism of deliciousness and eat it. So that was worth noting.