Musings from China

Hey y’all,

It’s taken about forever and a half for me get this first post up(this post is spread across about five days) I trying my best fulfill my promise of keeping a travel blog. I indeed made it to my destination, Sky Sea Lodge, skysealodge.org, the hostel I’ll work at for the next 7(or maybe just 5 weeks). For those of you that don’t know, well, surprise! I’m in Dali, China， http://ditu.google.cn/maps?hl=zh-CN&q=dali%20china&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=8737l10799l0l10l6l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0&biw=1430&bih=697&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl

After about two months of anticipation, 27 hours of travel, four cities, two planes, a taxi, a public bus, and a short walk, I can officially say: I’ve made it.

For a bit of a background on this trip: When planning my summer, I had fit in a trip to China, considering last summer my China study abroad plans were poofed away by a decision to get that last day on the ski slopes; I tore my ACL on April 17th, Spring 2010,  requiring surgery, and thus no China. I seriously considered taking my finals early, having surgery soon after giving me enough time to be able to fly(I actually considered taking a ship to China to circumvent the plane barrier) and then finding physical therapists in China. Logic helped me realize this wasn’t the best idea. A poorly rehabilitated ACL can cause problems throughout one’s life. China wasn’t going anywhere.

This summer, I had to make sure I made it to China. My options were 1. study abroad 2. work 3. intern and my thoughts were as such: 1. From the experiences I heard, studying abroad involves hanging out with Americans, taking generally useless classes and an endless search for american food. 2. Finding a place to live and paying for food to eat would be a total hassle and hole in my wallet if I wanted to work 3. The need to get some classes out the way only leaves only seven weeks  between the end of summer session and beginning of fall semester, not long enough for the standard minimum of eight weeks for an internship.

If I wanted to go to China, I needed to find a place to stay, food to eat, and myriad opportunities to practice the language. After recalling previous travels, working at a hostel was certainly the best way to go. A bed, food, and constant turnover of new travelers makes for a great way to experience a country.

Over spring break I perused the web and found this site: http://www.yhachina.com/index.php?hostID=2, a China youth hostel booking site, and emailed every single hostel with a description of my self, request for a job, and offer to send over my translated resume. I got offers from about 25 hostels in cities all over, Chongqing, Yangshuo, Guilin, Kunming, Sanya, Dali, and a few others. Asking my chinese friends and teachers helped me narrow my choice to Dali or Guilin. Both are smaller cities in beautiful landscapes. There’s a good cahnce research and work will eventually bring me to the bigger cities of Beijing, Shanghai, or Chongqing etc.

What sealed the deal was Sky Sea lodges response to my inquiry. The manager from Sky Sea Lodge responded with enthusiasm and encouragement saying that it will be a great exchange, Dali is a great place, and many domestic travelers come through, and that I was very welcome to come. My decision was nearly made, what solidified it was the fact that my emails back and forth were only in Chinese. No english? Better Chinese, here I come.

So what is the purpose of this blog? I have my own ideas, but I want to cater to what family and friends want to hear. My current idea is to have three aspects: 1. update the blog with my daily activities and interesting things I saw that day(cultural, structural, societal, governmental etc) 2. Write about a different topic every one or two days (the development here, culture, food, health) 3. Provide dank photos.

But I need your help! Send me an email with the things to you want to see and read about. I’ll keep a list of the requests and make sure to get through them.

So, now time to discuss actually going to China.

2. Packing list

Firstly, my packing list. I debated between really caring about weight and.. not. I ended up somewhere in between in my packing. Weight only matters for moving around, so it won’t be a problem until I leave to travel. Here it is:

Bags.

(1)Quechua 70 liter backpacking backpack. I found it on the street. So much for the 65 liter gregory I bought at REI, I figured an old backpack wouldn’t draw as much attention. It hasn’t mattered so far.

(1)45 liter Kelty. for day trekking.

(1) money belt, only useful when actually walking around

Electronics.

(1) Droid 2 cellphone. It has absolutely no service. So now it serves as a very expensive alarm clock.

+charger, case

(1) Canon 5d Mark 2. My baby, the light of my life. Will get some pictures up tonight.

+charger (3) batteries (2) 8g memory cards (1) camera bag (1) lens cloth (1) memory card reader

(1) 1 terabyte portable WD external harddrive

+case, chord

(1) very tiny sandisk 4g mp3 player, haven’t used it yet (6th day) but will probably will use it while exercising in the mornings

+ear phones

(1) macbook pro, very useful as a phtographer

+charger

(3) outlet converters

Books.

(2) Composition books, one is my exercise training log, the other is my travel log. I need to buy a tiny pocket book so I can write down new words right away, versus trying to recall them later in the evening

(3) travel books, (1) yunnan province book, haven’t read yet (1) lonely planet book, too broad to be useful if staying in one place (1)phrase book, not useful if you know the language

()recreational reading, made a huge dent in my john muir book on the plane, haven’t read since. Wondering how much reading I’ll get done, and what I’ll do with them when I travel.

-Into the Wild, My First Summer in the Sierra, Kite Runner, Life of Pi, No Impact man, and     The Alchemist

(1) lead pencil

(1) thing of lead+ eraser

(1) eraser(went missing today, Aokao (a coworkers son, Ashima) found my travel log, thus turning it into a drawing book, eraser is nowhere to be found.

Toiletries/health stuff

(1) CVS first aid kit, haven’t used it yet and its relatively big,

(1)travel case

(1) deodorant, maybe useless

(1) toothbrush in travel case

(1)fresh tube of “arm and hammer”(hell yes) toothpaste

(2) floss..es(what the hell is the plural for floss?)

(1) bar of soap+case

(1) retainer+case

(a ton) water purifying tablets, bottled water everywhere, so no need

(2) pack of condoms, China has enough people already

(1) extra box of bandaids

(2) 48 tablet pepto bismal chewables. Haven’t used, yet.

(1)anti diarrheal, a foul subject but relevant to traveling

(1)z-pack, antibiotic, this stuff will seriously kill any stomach bug, but eat some probiotic after.

-from what people have told me, the three prior items could potentially be the most important items I have in China

(1) razor but shaving cream, I’m not staying clean shaven, this is foreign to me.

(1) small shampoo bar

(1) bar of poison oak soap, there are relatives of poison oak in china. fuck.

(60+/-) Malarone pills, I think catching malaria might be cheaper than how much these pills cost.. I’m seriously considering saving these, planning a trip to Africa and trekking through stagnant water to justify the cost; It costs about $8 dollars a pill

-relevant side note, there are barely any mosquitoes here and they aren’t biting me

(2) bottles of “Off”, haven’t been bitten yet, could probably go without this

(a ton) of water purifying tablets, haven’t used yet. They have clean water here

Recreation

(1) speedo, swimming in open water is not as convenient without lanes and walls, but hey, swimming is swimming

-googles

(1) small board travel set, two sides, chess, checkers, and backgammon, so glad I brought this, but teaching backgammon in another language is a lil difficult

(1) Harmonica, played a little bit for my coworkers

Shoes

(1) Reef Sandals, I definitely could have only brought these

(1) topsiders, in case I want to look a bit more formal, haven’t used yet

(1) pair of hiking shoes, hiking is a bit farther than I’d like, and time is a bit harder to come by, maybe I’ll find time before work starts

(1) Tevas

(1) fresh pair of climbing shoes, workers get to climb for free(dank) so I’m going to make time this week for a lesson

Clothes and Apparel

-didn’t pack too much, can wash clothes here,

(2) t-shirts

(1) long sleeve shirts

(5) button up shirts, best shirts ever, can hike in them, look nice if you want, roll up the sleeves and make a short sleeve shirts, unbutton and cool off, roll down sleeves and you have a jacket

(1) pair of pants, only wore on the plane over, climate is very temperate here

(1) pair of exercise shorts

(1) pair of shorts

(1) full brimmed hat, haven’t used yet

(7) pairs of socks

(7) pairs of boxers

(1) pair of swim trucks

Random

(1) 34 fluid oz Kleen Kanteen

(2) 2 liter camel backs, haven’t used yet

(1) head lamp, so useful, there aren’t street lights in this town, I shouldn’t be surprised

(1) pack of AAA batteries

(1) cheap travel alarm clock, forgot a AA battery for it, useless

(1) tiny travel towel

(8) travel locks, which I didn’t bother putting on. I’ll use them when I travel about, I hope

Documents/paper

(2) wallets, one which I wanted to leave at home but was thrown in my backpack,

the other wallet has

-about 50 american dollars

-100 dollars in chinese yuan

-my id

-debit card, completely useless,

-visa credit card(it’s not everywhere you want to be)

(1)passport, visa for 60 days

(2) copies of my passport

(700+-) american dollars in money belts

(100) chinese dollars in money belt

Thats it, from what I can recall..

3. My questions/goals for this trip, some of these already have answers considering this is my 6th day

-Will I be a giant in China?

answer: surprisingly no, I was way more of a giant walking through the streets of Lima and Cusco, but their bowls, tea cups and benches are doll sized. I am a decent bit bigger just not a huge amount taller.

-How much Chinese do I actually know?

answer: none.

just kidding.

but seriously.

but really, I’m just kidding, I’m getting by. There are a lot of words I still have to learn, and Chinese has so many words for the same exact thing. Some people mumble, and some people speak so quickly, it can get hard.

-How will the food be?

answer: so far, fantastic, different meals all the time, lots of spice and flavor, and different ingredients all the time, more meat then I’m used to. I’ll expand on the food in another blog post.

-Will my stomach survive?

answer: after 6 days my iron stomach prevails, street vendor food, here I come

-Is China really the rapidly growing country with development everywhere?

answer: I’ll expand on this more, I have a lot to say, but right now, its a yes and no

-Will I be able to use chopsticks?

answer: mastered. all the Chinese are surprised, on my first day they kept asking if I wanted a fork instead.

-Does the hostel look like it does in the pictures or was I recruited to work at some hole in the wall family inn with no guests?

answer: it is bigger and better than the website, skysealodge.org

-Will I get yellow fever?

-Will I be able to restrain myself to swim in the lake despite the potential risk of blood flukes?

answer: I didn’t last more than 2 hours. I have no self control. But, while traveling, I would never do things the locals wouldn’t, all the locals swim, guests and coworkers. So it was a bit of a calculated decision when my cute coworker suggested to go swimming on the first day. Seriously, did I actually think I wouldn’t go swimming?

-Is it true that Chinese women are all over white men, especially those that speak Chinese?

answer: No, I felt much more like a ticket to America in Peru, when my friends and I walked into a very local restaurant, the waitresses took pictures with us and gave us their emails immediately.

-Will I suffer massive culture shock?

answer: Seeing my chicken dinner tied to a tree in the courtyard, holes for toilets, not understanding anything, people looking at me while I walk in the streets. Still none, I guess I go with the flow, I know I’m in China and things are different, how surprised can I be?

-What will I miss?

-Does jet lag exist?

Answer: no, it doesn’t, but seriously not knowing if two hours or 4 weeks passed between your departure point and destination, exists.

-Will I desperately miss American food?

answer: after six days, no. although, I do miss cereal a little bit..

Goals

-speak Chinese so much that I dream in Chinese

-be able to answer the phone for the hostel

I’m going to do my best to recall the past 7 days(someone closed the window I was writing in, ugh)

Day 1 July 5th

*Landed in Guangzhou at about 5:40 AM, met someone going to Dali as well, Shireen, a grad student in Public Health at UC Irvine, doing research with a UC Irvine professor, studying the abnormally high rates of Cardio vascular disease in the Dali area. Went to change planes, a piece of advice, if the Chinese airlines tell you your bags will be transferred, just go to the bag carousel anyway, sure enough, Shireens and my bag were circling around, thank god, thank god we had doubts. Later we met Whisper, a Dali local from Washington state, and Sarah, a Duke student doing research with the same professor.

*Made it to Kunming, at about 10, waited for about fourty minutes and then flew to Dali. Landed at 12 ish. I took a taxi into town with Whisper and another Dali local, Monica, from Austria. I got dropped off at the bus station, 18 yuan, and then they helped me get a taxi so I could get some money, when I left then, it definitely felt like I lost my crutch. But, I made to the bank, exchanged money, and made it back the bus station without dying or being robbed. Success.

picture: flying into dali, the lake in the picture is erhai 耳海

picture: taking the taxi with Whisper and Monica into the main town

*Was able to read the list of bus lines, paid 17 yuan (in 7 days I have only spent 6 dollars), and got on the right bus, success, again. Horns are used a lot in China, and the other side of the road as well.

picture: out the side of my bus to 双廊

*Made it to Shuanglang, 双廊, after about an hour. It was a bit unsettling, getting of a bus in country you’ve never been to, with noone that speaks your native tongue, looking for a place you’ve never seen, after about 5 minutes I was pointed in the right direction.

*Made it to Sky Sea lodge in about 20 minutes. At about 3pm-ish Approached the front desk and just said “I’ve finally arrived! I’m 邓克思（deng4ke4si1, my name）” Thus I met Lina and ShouJun. Lina showed me around the hostel, introduced me to everyone and made sure I promised to teach her English. She suggested we go swimming; I couldn’t resist, blood flukes? They can’t be too bad right? But honestly, it was a calculated decision, I would never do something the locals don’t do, and well, everyone was swimming. After the swim sesh I met Youyong, the hostel manager who I’d been emailing back and forth with. Interesting to finally meet someone you’ve only connected with through a screen. The funny thing is, he worked at a different hostel at the same time when I sent my emails, and he was the one to write back. He suggested that we were destined to meet. I don’t disagree.

Day 2 July 6

-got up at about 7 am and took some pictures of the hostel. Ate breakfast at 9, milk, porridge, and eggs.

-went to go get a delivery of new kayaks, then tried them out. I tried out a two person kayak with a Chinese guy Jack, about half my size and only broken English. We could only go in circle going left, even if we only paddled on the left. We couldn’t manage to paddle with the same rythym and every time we almost tipped, he said “control!” I think riding a tandem bike with a one legged person and an inner ear problem might have been easier.

*Lina showed DongDong, a fellow volunteer and myself around town, other restaurants, the post office, the bank(literally the only bank in town, and only ATM) and then the best view in town.

picture: looking down onto Shuanglang, looking north west

-That night I brought some guests to the bank, made my way back by myself. Then I realized how useful that headlamp could be. Made it back without getting lost, thank god.

Day 3 July 7th

-Got up at 7, worked on the computer until breakfast at 9, milk, a sweet biscuit and porridge

-Started my first day of real work. And this is when I realized I was actually in China. Not when every sign was written in Chinese, not when I saw my toilet was just a hole, not even when I saw my chicken dinner tied to a tree in the courtyard. It was when I raised my pick axe and swung it into the ground, breaking up the dirt and pulling out the weeds. Gardening at a hostel across the globe, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself

-I went to a café in town, Amigo and played backgammon with Nicolas, a French Sky Sea lodge guest, so glad I brought the board.

Day 4 July 8^th

-7 am, got up and organized my room, my anal organized self couldn’t stand searching for my items between two backpacks.

-Cleaned up the first courtyard, organized the kayaks

-3pm, taught some English. This was hard, some people have a base, but others don’t even know numbers or how to read. So I taught them how to read(started to teach, I should say) Thinking of where to begin with a language is so, so tough.

-Swam and Kayaked, I’ve been looking for anything that resembles a pull up bar and realized that kayaking is a great substitute, soon enough two-a-days will start again.

-That evening I met a couple who worked at Price Waterhouse Coopers,  in Guangzhou, I got their email and they said I can go to Guangzhou and stay with them, definitely going to take up all these offers for free stay.

Day 5 July 9^TH, Saturday

-7am got up and exercised by the lake, an elderly(64 years old he said) man then challenged me to an arm wrestle. Am I douche for not letting him win?

-9am, ate breakfast and then plowed a plot in the first courtyard till noon

-Tristen, a kiwi who lives in Australia arrived at Sky Sea Lodge, I helped him check in. He’s now my roommate, cool dude.

-Prepared our buffet 自助餐 in the evening. And then joined in the meal. Talked with some guests for about an hour and a half. Drank some plum hard alcohol, but was instructed to sip it, not to use it as a shot.

-Stayed up till about 3 with Ashima, DongDong and guests, drank tea and chatted

picture

Day 6 July 10^th, Sunday

-got up at about 8:30am at breakfast at 9 and started my work in our book bar(basically our café with western food, drinks, snacks etc) It’s great work, being able to chat with guests and coworkers. Did a lot of washing dishes this day.

-Chatted with Lulu, a guest and taught some English

Day 6 July 11^th

I didn’t journal for yesterday so It’s honestly hard to remember. I washed dishes, taught English to Xiao Yun, Swam, went to repair a bike, but the bike store was closed and went to make a sign to put up at Amigo café. And swam

picture: You yong cutting a board for our sign

Day 7 July 12^th

-Got up at 7, did some core workouts, ate breakfast, washed dishes in the Book bar, and then fixed bikes. As of today, I’m changing my ranking of managing bikes to just relatively dank from very dank. A couple guest wanted to use the bikes today, but they all needed work, after about an hour of working on them, they didn’t go. Ugh.

-Worked in the Book bar, and chatted with a Chinese teacher at a private school in Beijing

-Taught Lina English for an hour had dinner, then went to the Book Bar and chatted with a guest a Chinese tv anchor and then sat down to finish this long ass first post. It’s now 1:35 am on July 13^th.

Starting now I can post once a day. I’ll post more precise, more interesting recollections of my day, things I want to highlight, a requested topic and dank pictures.

If you have suggestions let me know. But who knows if you read this far.

Until next time.