The End of a First Session and Chinatown

After our awesome trip to Tianjin we wandered the streets of Beijing around the Forbidden City to see the sights! First we went and saw the famous gardens next to Forbidden City and climbed to the top of a temple that overlooks all of downtown Beijing, pretty cool! Would have been more impressive had the sky been clear...smog sucks. but still cool to see. The next day we went and saw the China Art Museum, very interesting, a lot of old chinese paintings as well as some modern chinese photograps and a Goya exhibit as well as a bunch of other things it was awesome.

Then we were off to the two major shopping centers there. They are painfully large and crowded, at first we were amazed by it, but after trying to get around the dizzying displays of millions of knock-off clothes we got lost in an 8 story mall that was slammed with people. On top of that we wondered around what could only have been Chinatown in China...it was like the mecca of Chinatowns, way cool but exhausting to say boo yao (no thanks) to vendor after vendor offering endless junk for best price!

As we were wondering around the city we happened to stumble upon a strange roller coaster type contraption just chilling in the middle of the sidewalk. The first things out of Diogo's and Pat's mouths were "we're doing it". Now for those of you who know me well will know how I felt about this...But all that aside they both strapped in to the unknown as pat was asking the ride operator if he could guarantee they wouldnt die on the ride, the ride operator's response was a simple "no" and then pat told him he would come back as a ghost and haunt the ride operator if he died, and the operator responded "no no dont do that". Needless to say it was hilarious to watch them scream like little girls as they were reversed bungee jumped into the air and fell back down like the Big Shot in Las Vegas on Crack.

We are now almost done teaching our final group of middle school students in the Southern Beijing school in BDA. Next week we are off to northern Beijing to our next school for a whole new set of kids and crazy experiences. Teaching is definitely fun, and I really have no idea how they are letting us teach...the kids deserve so much better haha. But its been fun and I cant wait to start the new school. Stay tuned!

Traveling to Tianjin and HP

Our last day of class with the 2nd group of students was great. We started learning a popular chinese song by the name of "Peach Flowers" by Ar Niu. My guess is that he is the equivalent of Justin Timberlake over here...we also played several games with the kids and at the end of class we were given new Chinese names. Mine is Gao Wen Shan, which roughly translates to gentle mountain, the kids explained that the character Gao is a very honorable characteristic to have among the Chinese so Im proud to have that as a name.

Friday July 21st - 9pm Beijing time...7am in Colorado, I stumble into a bookstore with a nice poster for the 7th Harry Potter book hanging up in the doorway. Being that it was not nearly midnight yet and I was anticipating there to be a slim amount of books available in china I wasnt expecting much. However what do you know, there is a single U.K. Edition copy of book 7 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sitting on the front shelf. $208RMB later and I was a very happy dude. Somehow I miraculously managed to get a copy of the book a good 18 hours before I would have in Colorado. Im so stoked.

Anyways...The next day after class we were off to Tianjin for some sightseeing as well as to meet some new friends. Little did we know we were about to become the guests of honor at a going away party for our new friend Mary. The food was exquisite, and we ate like kings all weekend. The family's hospitality was tremendous, they showed us around Tianjin. What an awesome city. The financial district was very modern with some awesome architecture and the best part was it wasnt terribly hot outside and not very crowded for the 3rd largest city in China. In all fairness that was just the financial district that im referring to. Later in the day we were able to see old Tianjin, the culture street in the city. It was awesome, tons of shops to bargin for things at. Pat got some chopsticks, I got a nice painting and Diogo got some cotton candy. All in all our stay there was very nice, we really enjoyed it there.

Today we are back in Beijing and get to plan our next adventure. Today I believe we are going into the city on our own so that in itself will be quite exciting. There are plenty more stories to come so stay tuned. Also we are uploading a lot more pictures to the site I mentioned before, so check that out too!

Teaching the kids part deux

So today we began our second round of teaching a whole new set of kids English. I got to start the day by myself. I would like to say it was because I lost a game of rock paper scissors, but I actually volunteered for it. The first hour was kinda scary...lots of blank stares at me while i nervously tried to think of what to teach them and keep the class interesting at the same time. Once again Bingo has saved the day...the kids love the game. We taught them all about colors, clothes, families, numbers, time, sang the A,B,Cs and plenty more...

I forgot to mention we went and saw Transformers the other night...Michael Bay you have vastly surprised me. That movie was awesome! and what really made it great was that we got to see it in a Chinese movie theater, (in english with chinese subtitles) and we were the only Americans in the room. So at every little joke we were bursting out laughing and im pretty sure we were the only ones who got the jokes. haha. That and Diogo absolutely lost it every time someone gets blown up in the film.

So ya, tomorrow we have some more awesome classes to teach and no doubt, hundreds of awkward silences and stares throughout the lesson. The kids are in fact very smart and seem to be picking up on what we teach them very quickly, however they are all very shy and for that reason they dont speak up much...we're working on that...
for example, if the kids dont speak up and volunteer to answer a question, Pat hits me with a water bottle. I dont care too much for the technique for obvious reasons, but it is surprisingly effective.

Back to the Beijing

As we said our goodbyes to our trusty guide Dhon and the awesome countryside that is Tibet we all thought about when (if at all) we would be back. For some, once was more than enough and yet for me, I cant wait to be back in the mountains, whether it is Colorado, here or somewhere else i cant get enough of the scenery. The plane ride back was good, we had a layover in Chengdu, panda capital of China. Then to Beijing where we got to see the two schools we would be teaching at, and then moved in to our rooms at the first school, BDA in southern Beijing.

The first week of classes went really well considering. The first morning of classes I was stuck in the room sick from an obscenely spicy beef dish that I got at a restaurant the night before. Needless to say, I know know what it means to breath fire out my butt. I healed up quickly and helped Diogo finish lessons for the day which really did go quite well considering none of us had ever taught before, and we really had no idea what to do. All I can say is thank god for BINGO. combined we probably played it at least 100 times over 3 days. Fortunately the kids loved it.

At the conclusion of our first week of classes, we all retired to the local massage parlor for foot massages...quite possibly the best idea ever. so relaxing. and 70 minutes for about $5, how can you say no to that? We also treated ourselves to some fine restaurant cuisine...it really wasnt that fancy, but in comparison to what we've been eating at the school's cafeteria it was heavenly.
Over our 3-day weekend, we adventured around Beijing by ourselves by buses and taxis to see the temple of heaven. We also were able to spend the day at the Kelly's friend Rick's house, which ended up being one of our best days so far in Beijing. The day consisted of hiking the Great Wall all morning...about 4-6 miles of steep hills and crazy man-made steps. There was also a race from one tower to another tower between Pat and I...I almost beat him but collapsed right at the end, we both realized it was a bad idea about 5 steps into the race...haha oh well great workout. and according to Mao, we are officially men now that we have hiked the wall. After that we were able to go swimming and relaxing in the spa near Rick's house. All followed by a delicious mexican food dinner, first and probably only mexican food we will find in China. We finished the day by buying about 8 pirated DVDs...when in rome? haha

Yesterday we went on a field trip with our 2nd group of middle school students to the Summer Palace as well as two major universities here in Beijing. The summer Palace was amazing. Probably one of the cooler things to see in Beijing for sure. The kids are awesome and they know a lot of english. This makes us kind of nervous about having to teach them english because our strategy of using categories of easy vocab words with bingo games might not fly with these kids...Im sure it will be fine, and Im really looking forward to it.

More to come soon...

Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

Hey, so all of us have started compiling photos of our adventures and we will continuously update them, so you can check them out at this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/EGotthelf/AdventuresInTheChina

So check it out often because we will try and update it as much as possible.

Highest Ive Ever Been

When we finally got to Lhasa I was blown away, the sun was setting and it was just stunningly beautiful. We met our guide Dhon, and went straight to our hotel to rest and acclimate to being at over 13,000ft. The next day we went to Potala Palace, the highest palace in the world and formerly the palace of the Dalai Lama. After that we went and saw Jokhang Temple in the famous Bakhor street, a major shopping center of Lhasa. Inside the Jokhang Temple, a local monk offered me some Yak Butter Tea, a local delicacy that more or less tasted like melted butter from toast with a hint of tea...pretty strange but i liked it.

The next day we were off to Namtso Lake, the highest salt-water lake in the world. During the drive to Namtso, we went over a mountain pass that was well over 17,000ft above sea level... we got to stop on the pass and hike around, officially marking this point as the highest Ive ever been. what a surreal experience. Diogo, Pat and I befriended some sheep and had to pay the local nomads some money to take pictures with them. Namtso lake was so pretty, the water was perfectly blue and in the distance we could see a snow-covered mountain 24,000ft up. (as you can see in the picture)

Later that day Pat died. Diogo says it was because of zombies, i think a dragon ate his entrails...either way Pat unfortunately came down with altitude sickness and was out of commission for the rest of the trip in Tibet. The next day Diogo and I continued on our adventures by ourselves as pat was forced to stay back at the hotel due to his illness. We drove out to Shigatse where the largest statue of future Buddha is kept in Tibet. This is also the half-way point to Everest from Lhasa...so close...That night Diogo and I ventured around our hotel and found the spa...lets just say, be careful when ordering a Taiwanese Massage...

Our last two days in Lhasa we spent wandering around the city checking out the major monasteries. First we saw Sera Monastery which features arguing monks...an awesome thing to see, mostly they were arguing about philosophical views (Evan you would have loved this) but Diogo and I were convinced they were arguing about whether waffles or pancakes were better. it was a heated debate to say the least. Then we got to see Drepung Monastery, the largest Monastery in Lhasa, once home to thousands of Tibetan monks.

Along the way I sampled Yak meat stew, Sweet Yak Milk Tea...which was awesome, Diogo and I loved it. As well as countless other foods that I have no idea what was in them...probably best to not know...All in all, Tibet was fascinating. It was so beautiful and I hope to go back sometime soon. One word of advice though, and Pat will agree, get acclimated before going above 14,000ft otherwise as Diogo says, zombies will eat you.

The Amazing Yak

So the trip begins in the wonderful city of San Francisco...

As our plane takes off from SFO to Beijing, it suddenly hits me that i will be in a tiny enclosed space for over 12 hours. i would later learn that airplane food would be the last "normal" american-style meal for a long time. oh goody. The plan ride wasn't all that bad, i slept on and off, watched some crazy hong kong film and listened to two wild little kids fight in the seats next to me. Upon arrival in Beijing we were met by our new friend Raymond, and brought to dinner at a very nice western-china style restaurant and then to the Beijing Train Station for our 48 hour train ride to Lhasa, Tibet. The humidity and temperature was about 100% and 97 degrees at 9pm...putting a new meaning to the song, its getting hot in here.

The train ride to Lhasa was awesome. We lucked out and got a 4 person soft-sleeper cart that Pat, Pat's dad, Diogo and I were able to share. the first night we spent sleeping and desperately trying to adjust to the time difference. (14hr difference from Colorado)
The first day on the train the food was awesome. the waitresses knew absolutely no english, but thanks to a few guys from Washington who were on the train with us and who happened to be pretty much fluent in chinese, they translated a lot for us. As the train continues on, we stop briefly in Xi'ian...the city with the Terracotta Warriors. unfortunately our train stop was about 10 minutes long, so there was no time to see the warriors. bummer. but on the bright side, we saw our first Yak outside the train. Yaks are cool. Oh and Diogo decides 'Rihanna - Umbrella' was going to be the official song of the trip...Pat is thrilled! haha
The second day on the train was interesting, we be friended an Australian priest named Ken and got to know the guys from Washington, who happened to also be middle school teachers and were going to do a bike ride from Lhasa to base camp of Everest. pretty sweet.

More on our travels in Lhasa soon...