Friday, August 29, 2008

Foot massage = heaven?

I'm going to attempt a modest description of the small piece of heaven which I just encountered. Imagine a full body massage. Okay now take that, and begin with the arms, than move to the legs, and then to one foot (for about 45 minutes), than the other (for about 45 minutes). The whole process taking about two hours, a Chinese foot massage is quite possibly one of the most relaxing, soothing, deep tissue experiences I have ever encountered.

wait for it, I just looked at my back. So, I warn you - this actually felt very good at the time, and does so currently, except that I am not supposed to expose my back to air conditioning because I have a, "cold back" (not quite sure what that means), but I currently am doing so, and its tightening up...

I promise this doesn't hurt.

Movies!

So we were just assigned our classes, and I'm teaching two sections of a "Movie class," which will be me showing American movies for them to listen to, interpret, learn from, etc...

I would LOVE to get movie ideas from everyone - Apparently I can show just about anything, so please fire your ideas at me. Anything you think would be good, anything you think I should avoid... Also I need to know relatively soon what movies I'm going to be showing, so anything you can think of off the top of your head...

Thursday, August 28, 2008

A few quick things...

Just a few communication things -

I've changed the access so that anyone can comment, not just people with Blogger accounts.

Also, I have discovered the world of Skype - if you get it too its like having a free phone... so long as you have a microphone on your computer. My ID is: nick.collins.feay

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Holy crap.

Okay so here's the deal.

I'll write more about my impressions, feelings, etc. later, but for now, I'd like to point out that being the only man at Xintan (the only male foreign teacher I mean), I apparently have the important role of being able to drink for the group. I read this on the plane, and it has been proven true - Drinking is a competition, and a big one. It's 1:43 in the afternoon, and after an amazingly large lunch, I find myself heavily intoxicated. I constantly am toasted in a, "bottoms up" toast, meaning finish my glass. the glasses they use are about one and a half shots, and can be filled with either beer, or more likely, a Chinese grain alcohol called baijiu. see picture for example. Very delicious, yet very strong. I'd also like to point out that they got me drunk before we have to go to the police station to register as foreigners. This should be interesting...

More later.


Example of Baijiu. It's good stuff!

How do I get the meat stick open...?

So I made it!

I'm currently sitting in my Appartment in Qufu, Shandong China. The trip itself was, all in all, uneventful. The only real noteworthy thing about the flight over was that for the first twenty minutes of the flight out of San Francisco, the "call flight attendant" ding noise wouldn't stop. We were discussing the possibility of it continuing for all 11 hours and 45 minutes of the flight, but luckily that bloody scenario did not have to play out.

Interestingly enough, we completely missed the night of the 26th. When we passed over the International Date Line the sun was shining, and continued to do so all the way to China.

The Beijing Capitol Airport, recently COMPLETELY BUILT ANEW for the Olympics, is absolutely massive. I mean just massive. They also designed it so that international travelers were not only in a different terminal than domestic flights, but almost in a completely different airport. We had to transfer to a domestic flight to Jinan, which required us to get our luggage, go through Customs (which consisted of us putting our carry ons through a security scanner... the U.S. seemingly has far stricter customs - nobody even asked us questions about where we were going, how long, etc.), and travel to "Terminal 2." Terminal 2 is where the old airport was, I think. It's a 10 minute bus ride away from where they bring in the International flights, and is much more what you would expect to find in a Chinese airport (People, mostly). The terminals were still quite nice and easy to navigate, and we got on our local flight without any major problems.

Our local flight was only about 45 minutes, but in that time we were given these awesome little "snack packs" which had several types of rolls in them, one filled with this strange brown paste, which while delicious, myself and Andy agreed we did not wish to know its origins. Also in the snack pack was a butter roll (delicious pastry type thing), a packet of Sechuan Pickles (an acquired taste), and what can only be described as a pudding cup container filled with 100 mL of water. They gave us a bottle of water, and we didn't know what to do with the pudding cup, so we just left it alone. Better to be safe than accidentally drink the water you are supposed to wash with, or wash with the water you are supposed to drink with.

We landed in Jinan at about 6:45, and the first thing we noticed was the sky. The dark, heavy air which hung in the city of Jinan is something I have never seen before. It was difficult to tell whether it was just so unbelievably humid (it is) that the sky looked like you could cut it with a knife, or if it was just the obvious air quality issues, but I'm guessing it's somewhere in the middle. You can feel the dirt in the air. Less so in Qufu, however it is still noticeable.

We were met At the Airport by several people. Connie, for the Xintan College group (my group), A guy whose name I can't remember (he was very nice) for the Qufu Normal group, and a whole separate cadre for the Dongying group. The drive down was about two hours long, and having eaten only airplane food, we all agreed that we would like something to eat. We stopped at a Chinese truck stop about half way,which was an experience. There are massive numbers of trucks on the Chinese highways, and as best as one can muster, very few restrictions as to load size and what happens to be carried. For example, we saw a truck carrying another truck of identical make and model, in the back (it was a little European sized personal truck, so it was rather hilarious). There are also random broken down trucks along the road which, while swerving in and out of traffic, you sometimes almost hit. So it goes. Did I mention that Driving in China would be an experience? I can't even begin to describe Chinese driving habits. They aren't horrific - but lets just call it extreme white knuckle driving. Anyway, back to the truck stop. Our hosts (Connie and the nice man I can't remember) Purchased us a loaf of sweet bread (very similar to Challah and very good), a bottle of water, and what can only be described as, a meat stick. It looks like bologna, and I would imagine would taste like it, however I haven't tried it yet. We couldn't get the things open. Nobody of course had a knife, and try and try as we might, penetrating the plastic force field encompassing the meat stick proved impossible. So we just poked each other with them discreetly (as to not offend our hosts). Hey, after traveling for almost 24 hours poking someone with a meat stick is more comical than you might imagine. When we finally arrived in Qufu (very cool looking city by night), after dropping off Eliza and Lucy at Qufu Normal University (massive campus), we headed to our Apartments at Xintan. Hard wood floors, queen sized beds, nice kitchen - the living situation shouldn't be a problem. I even have an office with a spare bed! Below is a picture of my bed, and my living room.


After dropping our stuff off we were taken out to eat at, you guessed it, KFC. Gotta love KFC. Actually, KFC was closed, so we ate at the Chinese equivalent, CBC - China's Best Chicken. Who were we to contest? They were very proud of the KFC, and CBC was the next closest. We'll visit all the street vendors selling some sort of amazing smelling barbecue later. Connie is taking us to eat real Chinese food this afternoon, so that should be fun.

Well thats all for now, time to shower, shop, eat, clean, unpack, and attempt to figure out what on earth I'm going to do come Monday when classes start (Oh shit, I actually have to teach... Damn and here I thought I was on vacation).

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Seven hours left

So I'm almost there - only seven hours left to go. I felt it best to post one last time while from the states, however I'll be brief.

I'm overwhelmed with excitement by this point, so much so that it has been difficult to say goodbye, but only because it felt as though it was dragging out the inevitability of my departure. Not that I'm not sad to say goodbye yet again, but it doesn't feel like I'm going to be gone that long, or that I'm going that far away. I think I've very much gotten used to (and comfortable with) traveling long distances for extended periods of time. I'm not sure what I would do without the possibility of adventure. As much as I love home, I love it and miss it more when I'm not here, if that makes sense.

Enough contemplation about traveling. For those who are interested in paying the exorbitant amounts I'm sure it costs to ship things, I'd love to get mail from all of you, so below is the address at which I can be reached:

Nick Collins-Feay
Xintan College
Qufu Normal University
105 You Peng Rd
Qufu, Shandong 273100
Peoples Republic of China

I look forward to hearing from all of you during the next year!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Four days and counting...

So I only have four days until I fly, which really means I only have three days left in the states, and thats moderately terrifying. Only to a point however - I feel as though having everyone else worry for me feel less guilty (and less foolhardy) about not being really all that concerned about a great number of things (not speaking a word of Chinese, for example).

Since being home I have gone to see the eye doctor, the dentist, get an inoculation, deal with the bank, gone into Seattle twice now to visit with Noah, Zach, Aaron and Jess, had a wonderful lunch with Grum and Grumpa, fixed a friends internet connection on her new laptop, watched the Olympics, and eaten a fair bit of Mexican food, not to mention the wonderful party with the whole family on the 17th. I bring all this up because in the last week, I haven't really had the decompression time which, as much as I knew it wouldn't happen, was secretly hoping for. Oh well, time to pack up and head off to China.

Speaking of packing, I have yet to unpack from my wonderful summer at camp in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I've been living in a cabin since almost immediately after graduation, but the time has flown. I was one of the first people to arrive this summer at camp, working at what was called "pre-pre" camp. This consisted of mostly scrubbing radioactive grime off of the camp kitchen equipment (the winter is long in northern New Hampshire, and not kind to anything which isn't heated year round), painting a very large building by hand, sweeping, cleaning, mopping, scrubbing, and all the manual labor which must happen to get a place ready, but which is rarely thought about. Following that, I went into "pre" camp, which is about two weeks of the same, just more organized and with more people. Then came orientation, last minute preparation, and finally the kids arriving near the end of June. Once camp was in full swing my job was the same as last year - hiking and backpacking trip leader, which meant I found myself outside hiking five to six days a week. It was a fantastic job and I'm in great shape coming off the summer, but it was a whirlwind of a summer, especially considering that I found out about China right around June 20th. And by found out I don't mean, found out I was going, but found out the possibility existed...

I had originally applied to the program back in February, however at that point I was ALREADY late in the game compared to everyone else, and the spots had all been filled. I didn't give the program much thought following that, until I received an email from Karrin, a friend in the program stating that a last minute spot had opened up and that I should re apply. So I said sure, why not? I emailed Sandy, the administrator of the Skidmore in China program and wrote something to the effect of, "Sandy, I heard there is a last minute spot open. I would love to hear more about it! let me know if you need another copy of my resume and cover letter."

Now, given the nature of my job at camp, checking email isn't always easy, and doesn't happen too often... So when I did check my email again about five days later, I found two emails from Sandy: The first stated, "Nick! glad to hear you are interested. I've forwarded your resume and cover letter to Xintan College in China. Best of luck." The second email loosely said, "Great news! you've been accepted! You'll fly out August 26th with the other Skidmore teachers. I've atteched some health forms which should be done roughly yesterday. Talk to you soon!"

And so began my adventure...

Friday, August 15, 2008

First Post!

I figured that if I was going to have a blog chronicling my travels, I'd better start using it... So here goes:

Currently I'm finishing up my summer job at Camp (Camp Walt Whitman, for those who don't know) - the summer was challenging, amazing, wonderful, tiring, and fleeting. I wouldn't have traded it for any other summer - I honestly got paid to hike all day long, play in rivers, and hang out with Narva. Can't beat that. Things however are a bit hectic - I have yet to find a way to slow down the whirlwind which has become my life post college graduation. Immediately following Skidmore I came to camp and worked to help get the place set up, well over a month before kids ever actually arrived, and now following camp I immediately find myself leaving the country (with a quick 10 day layover in Seattle) for a year, traveling to China to teach, yet speaking absolutely zero Chinese (whose excited for total immersion?!?). At some point I imagine I'll have to stop for about six months, catch my breath, and figure out what the hell is going on, but that day may take a while...

I fly back to Seattle in just over 12 hours, so I'm going to attempt a few hours of sleep before packing and hopping on a plane. I'll try and post again soon and explain how in gods name I came about a random last minute teaching job at a Chinese University, as it makes for a good story.

Hugs and Kisses,
Nick