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Week 12 in China

Challis Hackley
Feb 19, 2018
4 min read

What I Learned

Wuxi is pronounced Wu-she.

In the simplified Chinese tha uses the Latin alphabet instead of Chinese characters the letter X makes a “sh” sound. Don’t ask me why. Probably for the same reason the Z makes a “je” sound. Anyway there were plenty of jokes about the wushi finger hold when we visited Wuxi.

Trains are easier than planes.

While there is barely a difference in how easy it is to get your ticket or go through security, trains are just easier. You don’t have to check your luggage or worry about liquids. The trains are always on time and you don’t have to arrive an hour before. I think from here on out, I’ll just use the trains. Even though planes are faster, I just don’t think it’s worth the price and and the pain.

You know you’ve made it when you can help a native-speaker.

Coming home from the big Buddha I had to reload my metro card and most of my group had gone on ahead because I was behind this Chinese couple who didn’t know what they were doing. I was getting a little anxious about getting left behind and people waiting on me so I leaned forward and started helping them a little bit. Put your card here. Press that button. Money goes there. They were finished in no time and then I was reloading my car. It wasn’t until I was walking down the street a few minutes later that it hit me. I helped a Chinese speaker with something in Chinese. I knew enough about my city and it’s mechanics to help someone with it. Weird, but somehow, I felt like that was a really big turning point in my time abroad.

The Chinese people love to sing.

There parks are lively, with classes and activities, and always there is singing. They carry around their own portable speakers and legit microphones and belt out Karaoke in the park. It's always a blast, even if you can't sing along.

Chinese Fashion is something else.

Straps and tassels and slits and platform shoes, the style here is pretty different sometimes and you can always find unique pieces at the mall, like this little beauty. It looks like it has a tissue holder instead of breast pocket.

Making dumplings is pretty easy.

A little dough, a little filling, use some water to seal the edges and fold it all up before boiling it. I probably made like sixty dumplings.

Riding a tandem bike isn't easy.

While making dumplings is easy, riding a two-person bike is pretty tricky. It's all about the balance, and no small degree of trust when you're not the one driving. It was a blast though.

What I Did

Sunday

Went and saw the giant Buddha statue in Wuxi. Wuxi is a lake-side city along the path from Nanjing to Shanghai. It was about an hour by train and another hour by bus once we got to Wuxi to reach the park where the giant Buddha statue is. The statue up an the side of this hill, so you can see if for miles around and it's pretty impressive. One of our more expensive park entrances though. When we first entered the park, we were there in time for the fountain show, which was kind of cool. We walked around a little bit, saw murals and statues. There were plenty of people praying and burning incense. We got to give a giant high-five and eventually we made it up to the statue itself which was even more impressive up close and personal. You could take and elevator up to touch its feet but the line for that was ridiculous and we still got a pretty good view from where we were at. From there, we went questing in search of food and saw a few pretty impressive buildings and got some more great pictures.

Monday - Wednesday

Lesson planning and teaching. Nothing exciting really happened until ...

Thursday

Our fifth graders had their parents’ day and I was surprised at how nervous I was. It went well, though. My kids were acting really good.

We had another medical presentation, of a different kind. Instead of acupuncture and cupping it was sewing and sachets. Sachets are kind of like tea bags, but for your neck. You full up bags with herbs and traditionally they were worn around your neck for good health but we sewed them into stuffed fish and more ornamental bags. They smell pretty good.

Friday

We went out on the town trying trying to find hot pot because my friend hadn't tried it yet. Instead, we found kittens and bought hats and gloves. The place we were looking for had apparently shut down or been moved and we couldn't find it. So we got some noodles instead and went to a mall to hang out and generally just make a nuisance of ourselves.

Saturday

This day was really fun. Our school set up a day trip to Jurong. They planned and paid for it all. We took a bus ride to the outskirts of the city, to a lake park. it was really cold and we were all bundled up but it was seriously so fun. We took a little cart ride to some little cottage-like pavilions by the lake. there we helped prep our foo, making dumplings and grilling meat on skewers. Once everything was made we sat down to eat and it was delicious.

After lunch we took a boat ride on the lake. Apparently there are ruins in the lake, and you can still see some of the old buildings and bridges sticking u out of the lake.

After that I was pretty cold and pretty tired, we headed back towards the us ad I thought we were going home. Instead the unchained the bikes and said that we could go for a ride. Now, i was tired, but riding a tandem bike is on my bucket list so I couldn’t very well pass up the opportunity. So I grabbed a friend and off we went, cycling around the lake. it was awesome and when we were done I wasn’t as cold as when we had started. It was a great end to a good week.