Sunday, November 3, 2013

Sanxiang City China

The following are some pictures from Sanxiang City, China.  Let me tell you about China, first there are no FDA laws, no traffic laws, no sanitation laws, and no child safety laws.  The food is very good but it is best not to question what some things are.  My first meal was a huge meal for one person and I had to take it back to my apartment to eat.  The little restaurants here gives you bowls of food with a small plate and small bowl to eat from, but everyone usually eat straight from the bowls of plates and share it by eating from the same platter with chopsticks.  It is healthy but the Chinese use everything from the animals they cook, nothing goes to waste.  They give you whole fish and whole chicken including the head, but they sort of decorate it or just leave it hanging limply.  It is an experience.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

 You have to cross the street at your own peril.  It is literally a life and death situation.
 The covered motorbikes are called tricycles by the Chinese and Rickashaws or Tik Tik that my friend from Sweden likes to call them. It is illegal in China, but they are great modes of transportation and I think they pay a bribe or lets call it a "fine" to the police to keep operating.  Sometimes they drive really fast which is why I like to get a woman driver.

 This is my apartment that I can see from my school.

 Chicken and pork heart soup to make women beautiful and men strong.  Like I said, every part of the animal, but we also put tofu, lettuce, and turnips in it so it was not so bad.  The broth was delicious.
 This was my meal by myself.  It only cost me 30 yuan.  Which is $4.93 US dollars. Tofu, Greens, seaweed soup, and rice.







CHINA!

Hello Everyone!  It has been so long since I have blogged on here, more specifically since 2009.  I am currently in China teaching overseas at Sanxian Bilingual Middle School in Guangdong Province.  It is in southern China and the city where I am, Sanxiang City, is considered a village compared to other cities but it is a modest sized city itself.  The air is polluted of course and everything is old and dirty.  However they have very beautiful parks here.  Where I am, everything is cheap and I can live on 3000 yuan a month here which is 429.59 US dollars.  Of course my rent is free, electric is free, cable is free (all in Chinese), and I eat free at the school canteen.

I first arrived in China in Beijing.  Of course I had serious Jet Lag and did not explore much and I was only there for two days.  My handler, Linda (her English name) greeted me at the gate and said Ni Hao!  All I could do was mumble and smile and try not to fall out from sleeping.  Here is my first look of Beijing:

It was raining and the hair was heavy with dirt and smog but strangely I didn't feel very excited.  I guess because I spent 18 hours next to this guy who had not taken a shower in days and was trying to teach me Chinese most of the time.  After Linda picked me up and took me to a "hotel" room, I asked here where the bathroom was because I didn't see one in my room.  This is what she showed me:

I was like, "No Way! That is not happening!"  I almost told her I was leaving.  I asked her how was I supposed to use that.  "Squat, like this see?" was the answer.  At that point I was headed to the door, ready to call my mom to send money to me to come home.  Did I say I was already aggravated?  Linda must have seen the way I was edging towards the door because she said, "Don't worry!  You will have a western style toilet at your apartment at the school."  I was silently thanking Jesus for that and asking him to help me bear this for 2 more days.  I bore it and in two day I was on my way to Sanxian on a bullet train that took me 8 hours to get there.  Chinese people her are always in a hurry and they are very pushy especially when getting on and off transportation.  Many times times I thought I would die.

I hope you like my beginning journey of China.  I will update every few days of things that have happened since then and show you pictures of my school.

Love you all.