Merry Christmas! 圣诞快乐!

Merry Christmas all! We are so happy and grateful to be spending the holiday with our families at home. Enjoy two impromptu performances of our students singing Christmas songs!

What We've Learned in Our 6 Months Here...

Déjà vu? Feels like we just did our one-month post. But here we are in December, 6 months after we got here. This has been an amazing six months that, like everything wonderful, has flown by. The past couple of weeks we've been working on a list of things we've learned here. It’s a list of both superficial and more serious things but they’ve all undoubtedly affected our world view and daily perspective. Each thing has played a role, whether it be small or large, in shaping who we’ve grown to be during our time here. 

Let's start with the serious...

• We've learned about the power of generosity and putting someone else’s needs before your own. It’s interesting, there were times we’ve felt disrespected here. But there were mostly times we've felt so loved. People were so quick to welcome us and show us that our happiness was important to them. Whether it be our new Chinese friends giving Charlotte thoughtful gifts for her birthday, or our students' parents giving us their bikes. There are so many things that Chinese people do that may seem rude (pushing relentlessly on the subway, almost running you over in the street). But this is all cultural and overall we've found all of our Chinese friends to be incredibly kind, helpful and generous.
• China is incredibly safe, but also incredibly unsafe depending on how you measure safety. We've never felt like we're in danger (okay, maybe biking to school some days...). No person has acted in a threatening way towards us and there is (to our knowledge) virtually no street violence. We can only recall a few news pieces about violence in Beijing. Two were about foreigners getting stabbed outside stores, another about a terrorist attack in Tiananmen Square. Hearing these stories of course we were shocked and horrified. But stepping back the violence doesn't really compare to the violence in Boston, or any other American city where homicides happen frequently (I just read there were 39 homicides in Boston to date this year..awful). We're amazed by how safe we feel all the time, even walking alone at night. It relates to a conversation Charlotte had with our Chinese friend on the way to our Buddhist retreat. During this conversation, Charlotte asked her if there are any parts of the city we should avoid and she laughed at her. Charlotte told her about the gun violence in the neighborhood she worked in last year (Dorchester) and she was horrified. Although she doesn’t believe gun ownership should be a freedom, this conversation brought her to speak about the lack of freedom that Chinese people have. If you take freedom into account when measuring safety, Chinese people aren’t safe. People are arrested every day for posting controversial things on the internet and are robbed of knowledge due to “The Great Firewall.” Then of course there’s the health, from the toxic air pollution to lack of clean water...China is environmentally unsafe.
• We’ve learned a lot about patience here. It’s impossible not to be patient in China. Whether it be pushing your way onto the subway, standing for two hour subway rides, taking over triple the time to be understood or to understand someone, waiting hours for clean water or electricity. Everything is twice as hard here, we’ve definitely become more patient along the way.
• It's hard to phrase this in the right way but we’ve learned a lot about the power of the human connection and nonverbal communication. I think many people assume Chinese people are so different from Americans and that Chinese culture is nearly the complete opposite of American culture. We've realized that although so much of the culture is different, with real love and caring there’s no cultural difference that can prevent a meaningful connection. Our Chinese friends and co-workers have undoubtedly had vastly different experiences than we have and have different beliefs, but that hasn’t stopped us to becoming so close to these people and coming to care so much about them. Even our co-workers who we can’t fully communicate with (which is most of them), we feel so connected to. There really is a universal language of love and kindness that has enabled us to feel bonded to people we have barely had verbal communications with. We've learned that the most important communication is nonverbal; actions, facial expressions, etc. all mean more to a relationship than we realized before. The connection is there even though the language is not.
• We've learned how easy it is to adapt to a place so foreign than the one you know. These past 6 months we’ve had a lot of challenges and have had to adapt to many oddities, things we never thought we’d get used to (i.e. squatty toilets, jampacked subways, different working styles). But what seemed so foreign to us in June is now comfortable. I think we owe a lot of that to our good attitudes. We are both lucky in that we’ve had challenging experiences in the past that have left us both with a positive outlook on life. We both have been able to see the learning and growth experiences in the challenges we’ve faced and have been able to find joy in the little things.
• We've come to truly grasp and acknowledge how blessed we are. Blessed with freedom, stability, opportunity (the list goes on and on). Things that so few people have.
• We've learned a lot about Chinese educational approaches and the cultural values behind these approaches. From our classes and training we may have been a bit closed minded when thinking about educational approaches without even realizing it. Generally, Chinese education values memorization and perfection. In the U.S., creativity and critical thinking are valued and if you make a mistake, it's okay. Although we can't accept the lack of creativity and critical thinking taught in schools here, being here we've realized that Chinese educators must be doing something right. Our students are so advanced and such fast learners. They take learning time more seriously than most of the students we had in America and seem to be more engaged. When we first got here we were very quick to call some of the things the school and teachers did inappropriate, but now we're not sure what to think. It may not be a matter of what is good vs. what is bad, rather what is right for a particular culture. For example, critical thinking isn’t valued here China, rather it could get you in trouble and therefore is it “bad” that these kids aren’t getting this training? If China wants to continue to develop and really become a world power then they need more innovation, and to have more innovation, they need people who are innovative and thus, the educational approach here needs to change (the educational approach needs to place value on fostering critical thinking and creativity). The U.S. has some of the lowest test scores of any developed nation in the world, maybe focusing more on memorization and disciplined learning wouldn’t be so bad (I never thought I’d say that). It’s been really interesting to observe the differences in educational approaches and analyze how that lines up with cultural values and economical implications. We still have a lot of thinking and learning to do about this. Hopefully more of this will come out on the research project we will be conducting in the Spring comparing American and Chinese educational approaches. 
  We've learned so much about Chinese politics and culture. We're fascinated by the censorship, approach to the environmental issues, overall collectivist values, the list goes on and on. Ask us about this while we're home! 
  
  
  Now for some of the more superficial (but still important!) things we've learned:
  
  


• Real Chinese food is so different from American Chinese food...and we like it better! From hot pot to jiaozi to real scallion pancakes...Chinese food is GOOD even though there are no fortune cookies.
• How to dodge spit on the sidewalk. Seriously. We’ve called the sound of spitting the official soundtrack of Beijing. All day every day..spitting, spitting, spitting. Since spitting seems to be a favorite pastime (and some days I don’t blame them, with the bad air we get a lot of "gook" in our throats too) it’s important that we've learned how to avoid stepping on it.
• How to successfully use a squatty toilet. Our first day when we realized our school had no western toilets we had a little freak out (trying to use it and failing resulted in hysterical laughter). We avoided going at school for some time but now we're not phased at all.
• How to creatively satisfy our appetite. China is seriously lacking any of the foods that we crave, or we lack the right appliances to make this food (no microwave, oven or toaster). But we’ve gotten creative and have aced making a stovetop fulfill all our cooking needs!
• How to speak some Chinese! In a way we're disappointed we don’t know more by now but considering that we barely have any free time to teach ourselves we know quite a bit! Hopefully with our new Fosetta Stones (fake Rosetta Stone...) we’ll be able to learn faster during our second half here.
• That throwing up is really not a big deal. It's weird. Every day our students throw up. The vomit is quickly mopped up and the student is shoved back in his/her chair or even worse, is getting more food shoved down his or her throat.
• The power of hot water. No one here drinks cold water. Even at the gym we see people drinking tea. It seems to be the solution to every problem, and we’ve been pretty healthy, so maybe it works. On that note, we’ve also learned how to make a mean glass of tea. Whether it’s green, oolong, or our recent favorite, pu-er, we got it covered.
• We quickly learned that pedestrians don’t have the right of way. This is normal to us now, even to the point that if a car seems to be letting us go at a crosswalk we get angry...
• How to bargain. Wow when we first got here we hated it! We felt guilty and now we’ve realized it’s cultural and weird if you don’t bargain. Now we embrace it and (most of the time) are fully comfortable doing it.
• How to use chopsticks! Our chopstick skills were weak when we first got here. Now we're experts.
• How amazing KTV is! KTV (karaoke) is a favorite Chinese pastime. Any time of the day people love it and have absolutely no reservations belting out their favorite song in front of complete strangers. It helps us really embrace singing loudly for all to hear. 
• How to convert RMB to dollars quickly. 
• That elderly Chinese people are the most active age group in China. Every day, whether it be 9am or 9pm, we see large groups of elderly Chinese people dancing and exercising in public places. It's great.
• ...How quickly time passes! We cannot believe that it's already been 6 months. We are so thankful that we agreed to the year rather than just 6 months. We're not through with this adventure just yet! But we are definitely ready to come home for a refresher and to spend time with all of you. See you all in less than 48 hours! 

Special Guests at a Chinese Wedding

About two weeks ago we were invited by our friend who runs the Buddhist retreats to a Chinese wedding. She said that she didn't know the couple well, but for some reason she was able to invite guests and (correctly) guessed that we would jump at the opportunity to join in on the experience. 4 days before the wedding, she texted us asking if we would be willing to do a reading - one from the Bible and one poem - for the couple during the ceremony. We hesitated because we had no idea why they would want strangers to do such a thing on their special day but after making sure with her that it was what they wanted, we gladly accepted. She said she was doing a reading, too. We read over the Bible verse and poem and realized that the poem was actually about a break up… when asking our friend if the couple knew that, she replied "No, I don't think they do but they don't speak English so just read it anyway." …okay. 

On the day of the wedding, the bride looked absolutely gorgeous. They popped fire crackers while she walked down the aisle. The ceremony was in both Chinese and English which was really lucky because we were able to follow along and see how a typical Chinese wedding goes. Our friend was called up to do her reading (in Chinese) and then we were called up: "Will our special guests Jacky Jean and Charlotte Wright please join us for two readings on stage." Well, here goes nothing. We get up on stage, are each given a microphone and read the verse and poem for the beaming couple who were nodding their heads as if they knew what we were saying. The bride even started crying tears of happiness while we were reading to her. It was a special feeling knowing how different this experience was from one we would have at a wedding at home but we were happy to be there and making this bride so genuinely happy. The rest of the wedding was mostly lots of eating vegetarian (the bride is Buddhist) food and "imitation meat." It was certainly a memorable experience! 

The beautiful bride

Imitation Peking Duck

Bride and groom bowing to their parents

We're Supposed to be in Shanghai...

This weekend Jacky and I had planned to visit a friend of mine from Tufts, Mengmeng, in Shanghai. Towards the end of last week we starting noticing the rising AQI (air quality index) in Shanghai. Now, Shanghai usually has relatively heathy air (by China standards anyway) so we were confident that by the time we boarded our flight on Friday the "Moderately Polluted" air quality level would eventually diminish to a "Lightly Polluted" and maybe even a "Good" level (if we were lucky). But to our dismay, every time we checked the AQI app on our phones (yes, every day we check the pollution level along with the weather) the AQI kept rising until it reached "Hazardous" and eventually "Beyond Index." As I was finishing up my lesson on Friday I got a message from Mengmeng warning us to cancel our trip:

Cover of Huffington Post on Saturday

So we eventually ended up canceling our flight last minute but we didn't escape the pollution. The AQI level in Beijing ended up rising almost as high as in was in Shanghai. This was the view out of our window this morning (AQI of 430 "Hazardous," 20 is considered healthy):

After living with it for almost six months, the air pollution here still shocks and angers us. Throughout our time here we've had many heated discussions about the gravity of the air pollution situation and frequently ask our Chinese friends their thoughts on the matter. As frustrating as it is to have to check the AQI every day and frequently wear a mask, what angers us the most is that it seems most Chinese people aren't educated about the long term effects of being exposed to such intense air pollution (WHO recently declared air pollution a level one carcinogen). It shocks us that the government doesn't seem to be working hard not only to prioritize alleviating this problem but also to spread awareness of how people can best protect themselves. We're baffled and saddened when we walk to school through the smog and only see a handful of people wearing masks. When we talk to our Chinese friends/co-workers about it they respond calmly saying something like: "sometimes the bad weather bothers my throat" or, at times, they don't believe us/ shrug us off when we mention long term effects. When we asked one friend if she wears a mask she says that she doesn't "in protest." In 2012, the US embassy and the government in Beijing clashed over the US embassy publishing AQI levels that were measured according to US standards for air quality (meaning that their numbers were always higher than those published by the Chinese government). Like with many controversial topics, the magnitude of the implications of the consistent air pollution seem to be largely ignored (censured) by the Chinese media. Our friend who works for Greenpeace in Beijing (an environmental protection NGO) was arrested last month after she took a picture of a factory spewing out pollution during a particularly smoggy day in a city north of China. Recently the government has announced policies aimed at combating this issue, but the steps seem largely insignificant and unsustainable (limiting cars on the road, prohibiting barbecues and fireworks, canceling school--all only on heavily polluted days).

We hear the worst of it is yet to come this winter! We will continue to wear our masks and encourage our friends to do all that they can to protect themselves as well. We're looking forward to taking a deep breath of fresh air when we step off our flight in Logan in just 11 days!

Bikes and the Generosity of Chinese People

We have been wanting to get a bike for months now. It seems like almost everyone has a bike here. With the constant high traffic and pollution-related driving restrictions, it may be the most efficient way to get around in this city! Everyone told us it would be easy to find a cheap, second-hand bike, but all of our initial efforts failed. After our failed attempts Jacky thought to post on "WeChat" (a very popular Chinese social media application) asking if anyone knew of where we could find cheap bikes. Within minutes, her student's Mom offered to give her their unused bike. I was equally successful, having several parents offer to give me their bike. Jack, our school's "maintenance man" jumped at the opportunity to help Jacky pump more airs into her mostly flat bike tires. When she explained the problem (using hand motions and the translator app on his phone) he grabbed the bike without question and took it down the street, quickly returning it with filled tires. He refused to be repaid for this. The other day, one of our school's administrators, Anna, took some of her break time to take us to get baskets to put on our bikes. While we were waiting, she sneaked away and brought us some "shanza" (sweet hawthorn fruit on a stick, a famous Beijing food). Our bike story is a perfect example of the incredible generosity we've experienced here. Everyone, from our Chinese friends to parents to co-workers, is eager to help us with any problem we've had. They will sacrifice their time and money to make sure that we are happy and comfortable. This amount of consistent generosity is something so unique to Chinese people, it is truly beautiful and inspiring. Now we ride our bikes everywhere around our neighborhood. Our long, cold walks to and from school have become quick bike rides, all thanks to  the generosity of our community in Beijing!

Jacky and Anna with their Shanza

Celebrating my Birthday in Beijing

About a month ago I celebrated my birthday in Beijing. I was blown away by the generosity of those in my life, both near and far, and overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude. The weekend before my birthday Jacky and I trekked out to Sanlitun, the "hippest" neighborhood in the city. This is where we go whenever we need a break from the traditional Chinese "vibe" of our neighborhood. It's where we go when we crave English, cheese, and Mexican food. Carine, a friend we met out in this neighborhood a few weekends prior, invited us to stay at the hostel she works at. Seeing as Sanlitun is over an hour subway trip from our neighborhood, we quickly took her up on her offer and decided to make a mini-vacation out of it! We met up with our friends at our favorite (and the only) Mexican restaurant in the city. Then we went back to the hostel for surprise cake and champagne (both hard to come by in Beijing...Jacky is the best)! After we enjoyed a night dancing at a roof top bar. The next morning we treated ourselves to our first bagel in five months and a trip to a Western supermarket!
It was a wonderful weekend, it was very special to share it with so many of our new friends who have welcomed us into their lives in Beijing.

Posing with Carine and the dog she gave me as 

a present (because the "big blue eyes" reminded her of "my big blue eyes").

The whole group at dinner.

First bagel in 5 months!

But little did I know when we got home from our mini-vacation in Sanlitun the celebrations were far from over. For the past month or so Jacky had been organizing and creating a beautiful video made up of videos from our first 5 months in China as well as birthday messages from those I love back at home and here in China. It was the most special gift I've ever received and it made for one of the most special birthdays I will ever have. Thank you to everyone who helped her put it together, I love you all. If you'd like to see just how happy you all made me check out the reaction video that Jacky (secretly) recorded while I watched: http://vimeo.com/79179399.

The next day at school my students sang me happy birthday in both English and Chinese throughout the whole day and also presented me with birthday cards and pictures. I was also lucky enough to hear from many of my family and friends who I miss so much. It was a birthday that I will never forget, thank you to everyone who made it so memorable and brought me such joy! The biggest xiexie (thank you) goes to my fa xiao (dear old friend), Jacky. She worked so hard and took great care to make it a special birthday and to bring the love of all of those at home to me in Beijing. I am the luckiest to call her my best fa xiao, my roommate, travel companion, and co-worker! 我愛你, 華梨花! 

My pal Yoyo wishing me a happy birthday!

With my students after they gave me their beautiful cards! 

Giving Thanks

I know it's early, but Thanksgiving doesn't exist here in China so I think it's okay to start celebrating now. Just a quick update on what we've been up to-

We recently started taking the spinning class at our gym - which quickly became the highlight of our days. They offer it every night at 7pm and unless we're busy going to the Italian Embassy (we did that last Wednesday) we're in that dark basement on a sweaty bike rocking out to some awesome bumping music. We've quickly becoming obsessed with the feeling we get from spinning our butts off for 45 minutes as hard as we can. Although the instructors speak Chinese, it's pretty easy to follow along and just go with the beat. We started a tally and are hoping to reach our goal of 20 classes by the time we get home.

Which, by the way, is in 4 weeks! We're very excited and already starting to plan our 3 weeks in America before coming back here until June. We're already very aware of how much we're going to miss our students, friends and Chinese life so we're extra thankful that "5-months-ago us" decided to stay the whole year rather than just 6 months. 

Since the temperature has dropped so quickly, we have been having a hard time walking to school in such cold weather each morning. The walk is under 15 minutes but in the cold it feels much longer. I quickly grew obsessed with the idea of getting a bike (we've discussed it since day one but never really did anything about it). The traffic on the way to school is a little crazy, so we were nervous to get bikes and stuck with the safer route of walking. However, since we were looking for a way to get to school that much quicker, it became a reality that we should maybe venture out on two wheels. But where to get a bike in our suburb-like district Shijingshan? We looked at the stores, but they were a little too expensive so we decided to reach out to parents at our school and ask where we could find a used bike in our area. Within an hour, each of us got a response from a more-than-willing parent to give/lend us a free bike. We were shocked! And thrilled to say the least. I got mine yesterday and we rode it around (tried to fit both of us on it which was a failure) during our break time. We felt like children giggling and falling off our new bike. Monday Charlotte will get hers and then we will have our first experience riding back and forth from school. Wish us luck! We're very thankful for our new bikes.

Last night, after our spin class we were discussing how grateful we are to be here. And to be here with each other. It's been a magical adventure and somehow our personalities fit perfectly together and we haven't gotten sick of each other. We've even discussed what we're going to do when we're both back in Needham but not in the same room at all times.. Maybe we'll bike to each other's houses! I'm thankful for you, Lotty. 

I'm also thankful for the fruit tea that we're drinking at this dimly lit coffee shop we're in. Both of us are writing and reflecting today.

THANKS for reading, happy Thanksgiving to all! We'll be over here eating a box of mac & cheese and drinking our last bottle of Italian wine that Beca brought us. Yum.

Love always,
Jacky

Making Dumplings

A few weeks ago we had one of our Chinese co-teachers, Ciel, and her boyfriend (whose English name alternates between Stone and Codi (y?)), over to cook. We spent over four hours learning how to make and then making pumpkin dumplings, egg and chive dumplings, and a few other Chinese dishes (including sugary sweet yam "fries"...amazing). It took us a while to get the hang of the art of jiaozi dumpling making...but after about 30 tries resulting in some messy/ugly dumplings (okay I'm exaggerating...maybe 10) we finally started getting some positive feedback from Ciel and Stone/Codi. After four hours we had made almost 100 dumplings completely from scratch (aren't you impressed, Moms?)! After Stone/Codi quickly boiled the dumplings we were ready to enjoy the result of all our hard work. It was well worth it! It was arguably the best meal we've had since we've been here. While we ate we shared some very interesting conversation with our guests. They were very honest and open about the pressure young people in China feel to get married and start a family young. They spoke of the expectation to live with your parents throughout your whole life, and the expectation to be completely committed to your family. We're hoping to have them over again before we come back to the states in 5 weeks(!) so that we can be able to make them for you when we come visit!

The Greatest Wall of Them All

Better late than never... We finally made it to the Great Wall! A good friend of ours who we work with came with us since she had never been there either. We had a great sunny day which ended up being much warmer than expected. We were smart enough to layer up for the morning and quickly started peeling those layers as we continued the steep climb toward the sun...

Enjoy the pictures!

Before the hike

With our friend Yenzi

Check out the fall foliage! Hard to come by here in China..

On top of the world!

Almost there...we were so tired!

Paparazzi

This sign says, "You're not a real person until you climbed up the Great Wall." Haha!