Today is the Moon Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival. And it is beautiful! The moon is full and out (it’s usually covered by smog, but today had real blue sky! More on that later) and is graced by thin high clouds. Children are carrying paper lanterns, and adults are sending up floating light things (I’ve had them described to me before, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what they are). So cool!

So today was a day off work for everyone. To celebrate the 3 day weekend, my roommate and I headed to the beach (Dameisha Beach) on Saturday. It was awesome! Good breeze, not very humid, and warm water! We got completely in and body surfed. We bought beach mats and coconut drinks (they cut a hole in the coconut and stick a straw in it). It took a couple hours to get there by bus, but totally worth it for a tropical beach day! With transportation, buying our beach mats and coconuts, and dinner, the whole day probably cost us less than 20 bucks in American money. I can live with that! That’s just the gas money to get from the valley to the beach in Oregon!

Today, I went to Walmart to buy curtains. But when I got off the bus, the air felt so good and the sky was so blue, that I just couldn’t head right in to the store. So I walked over to the mountain first. Yup. I did a spur-of-the-moment hike up Nanshan on a Walmart trip. You can do that here. I didn’t go all the way to the top since I was on a schedule, but I stopped at a resting platform (not sure what else to call it, there wasn’t a view or anything) and laid down on a bench. I gazed up at the clouds grazing the blue sky, bordered by the tree branches swaying in the wind overhead. Heaven.

Weekends like these, I really love being here! It was a long, rough week teaching, so I needed it desperately. Even the kids were exhausted. Here’s to a new week, and fortunately it’s a 4 day one!

P.S. I should mention my birthday- it was a fun time with friends. The girls at my campus (we’re all girls here except when the music teacher comes from the other campus) bought me a beautiful purse with an antique map design. One of the girls bought me a playground ball that’s a globe with all writing in Chinese except for the China section, that says “I (heart) China” in it. Hilarious! My Chinese friend Jessica bought me a beautiful tea set. I love it. I went out to lunch on the Sunday before with all the girls from my campus and a couple of the guys from the other campus. I chose Mediterranean food. The owner is a guy from Canada whose name is Aragorn. So funny! All in all, it was a great birthday abroad. My first one since I was born in Germany.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I haven’t blogged in a while. The reason is last week was my first week of teaching. And before that, I was getting ready. I didn’t know I was teaching elementary school, so I didn’t think to bring things like ABC charts and 100s charts and things like that, so I had to make them. It takes a while to decorate for 1st grade! And teaching was busy, even though I only had half my class due to vacations and illness (and it was small to start with!)

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to write about my favorite local places. The places I frequent or plan to frequent. The places where I feel most at peace. I also want to do a whole post on the food here, but that will have to wait. Because today, I discovered a new favorite place.

Aside from flying into Hong Kong, shopping in Dongmen (in central/eastern Shenzhen), and meeting at the other campus in Futian disctrict of Shenzhen, all my time has been spent in my district of Nanshan. Each district has many neighborhoods.

I live in the neighborhood of Nanshan Central District, aka “Shopping Mall Land.” That’s what I call it, anyway. There aren’t really a lot of Westerners in my district, but the shopping is trendy and spendy, and there are lots of Western eateries.

To give you a frame of reference, one block away is the Maoye department store (which is several stories high, and has a supermarket and restaurants in the bottom, like every good department store here), and next to it is Book City (one of my favorite places, of course!) with McDonald’s and Starbucks in the bottom. A couple blocks away the other way is Coastal City, which is a mall in itself (and a supermarket in the bottom, of course) plus a lots of shops all around it (complete with another Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Dairy Queen, and Burger King). At the other end of that is Carrefour, which is kind of like Fred Meyer. The list goes on.

So I need places that I can go to get away from it all. Of course, I love the bookstore. Who knows how many stories (you keep going up these slanted moving sidewalk things) of books and school supplies and paper and all sorts of stuff. Most of the books are in Chinese, of course, but for anyone who understands the pull of Powell’s in Portland, it’s still a world of books.

My second favorite store is probably the Jusco, which is in the bottom of the Coastal City mall. It’s my favorite grocery store. Yeah, I know. A grocery store. But this one has an awesome deli where you can point to a bucket full of rice and vegetables (and maybe meat), and the guy stir fries it up for you fresh, packages it up, and you go right on grocery shopping. And it only costs around a buck in American money. We (the Nanshan Clan- me and my coworkers) go there, grab something to drink off the cold drinks row and maybe some fruit, get our stir fry, and head outside to sit by the ponds (recycled water canal).

But all that shopping gets to you. So I have a few places to get away from it all.

First of all is the park across the street from me (and the school- I live right next to my job. Weird!). It’s a lovely neighborhood park, complete with grassy lawn, courtyard and pavilion, stone path, dry streambed, and pond with waterlilies and footbridge. There is also a path that goes through this covered walkway with very jungle-ish vines. Sometimes there’s dancing going on in the pavilion- ballroom dancing to Chinese music! Once they actually put on a Shakira song. (Speaking of songs- I heard a Lady Gaga song in the grocery store today! So funny). Most of the time, though, the park is very peaceful. My favorite time to go is dusk, when the air is steamy from the heat and humidity. The last couple days there have been hundreds of dragonflies out, especially by the pond. Magical!

My next favorite place is where my new friend Jessica lives. She lives in Shekou (a neighborhood south of us, on the peninsula, where lots of expats hang out. She lives there with her aunt and uncle and cousin. Her family is from a northern province. Most Shenzheners are from provinces outside of Guangdong province, which is why the city speaks Mandarin even though the rest of the province speaks Cantonese. She’s now taking Cantonese lessons. She learned British English and lived in England for three years. It comes out sometimes- when she took Ashlee and me to her house, she pointed to a veterinary clinic and declared, “That place is rubbish!” and proceeded to tell us about when her dog got sick. Anyway, my coworker Ashlee and I got to see her place. It’s amazing. It’s the most beautiful condo I’ve ever seen with the most beautiful view (even nicer than when I stayed with my friend Elly’s family in Germany). Even the elevator has a view. The view itself is of the bay, with Hong Kong in the background. Below the complex is a palm tree-lined boardwalk along the bay, complete with lighthouse. Amazing. Her balcony had the air of a vacation home in Hawaii. We drank tea and chatted under an umbrella. That was probably the most relaxing day I’ve had here.

And now for the grand finale: Nanshan Mountain. I hiked there this morning. Yeah, it was crazy hot. I went through four big water bottles and an orange juice. But it was awesome. It’s a short bus ride away (you get off at the Walmart, go figure) and head up the mountain. Literally. The “trail” is a cement staircase that goes straight up the mountain. No nice low-grade switchbacks here. Fortunately, the mountain is only about the size of Spencer’s Butte in Eugene (a half-hour to forty-five minute hike). But with the heat and humidity here, it took me at least an hour and a half to get up. At the top, there are a couple of vendors (and a couple of bathrooms!) I decided to do like the locals and buy whatever food they were buying from the outdoor vendor. It seemed to be some sort of fried tempureh skewers. The guy asked me if I wanted sauce on it. I nodded okay. It was stinking hot. But delicious. The sweat poured out of me and cooled me off in the top-of-the-mountain breeze (thank heaven for that!). A rooster came up to my table to check out my food. There was a hen, too. I kid you not. Anyway, the views were, of course, breathtaking. They would have been much more so if it hadn’t been hazy today, but at least it doesn’t seem to be too often. It was nice to be way above the city instead of stuck in it. The trees along the trail seemed to be tropical scrub forest type. They were wonderful shade. In my last post, I informed you of the umbrella-carrying custom here. That holds true on the mountain too, although not as strongly. I saw a few ladies with hats instead of umbrellas. Those who weren’t carrying umbrellas carried fans. Most people here don’t use the fancy folding fans; instead they use cheap flat paper and plastic ones. So I broke out my butterfly-shaped one with the school info on it. Oh, yeah. I carry it everywhere. Once I returned to the trailhead (called “Mountaineering Portal” here; and I should mention the observation tower called a “Navigation Platform”), I proceeded to buy an ice cream bar. It looked from the picture like it was filled with some kind of berry or currant. Nope. Red bean. Very popular here. Sweet and cold. Good enough for me!

So there you have it: my favorite retreats in Nanshan. The places I go to get away from it all. Or to get fed.

On Saturday, I was feeling restless. It was nice outside- a dry heat (at least comparatively!) and a nice breeze. So I decided to go exploring.

I wanted to see the bay, so I headed due east. I found myself joining the locals in a pilgrimage around the Shenzhen Bay Stadium, which was built for the Universiade. The sun blared down on all of us pilgrims, but I came prepared: I whipped out my umbrella like the locals do. Umbrellas sold here all have UV protection. You can easily tell the Westerners because they’re the only ones wearing sunglasses and not carrying umbrellas in the sun.

The first stop on the pilgrimage was this outdoor stage thing. It was covered, so people sat and ate picnic lunches or took pictures of the lake (kind of a man-made bay off the main bay). The lake had giant colored balls sitting on it which were icons of the Universiade. Looking northward was a great view of the stadium. So everyone got their picture taken with that as the background. I asked a young man to take mine since he was taking pictures of his friend. Then his friend wanted his picture taken with me! That’s the second time that’s happened; the first time was a young woman in Dongmen who linked arms with Alina and me for a picture. It makes me feel like a celebrity! Funny.

Then I made my way around the lake and up to the torch. It was awesome. It’s still burning. After that, I got a picture of the front of the stadium. They kindly had some sort of portapotties there (squatty potties, of course, but they did have real sinks!) I finally made it to the vendor’s avenue at the end of the pilgrimage. They could have made a fortune on selling water all around the area, but I survived. I also bought a couple Universiade souvenirs.

So ended my Universiade pilgrimage. But then was the game! Men’s volleyball, USA v. Turkey. My friends and I took taxis to get to the University, but we ended up touring the entire campus a couple times before we found the entrance to the gymnasium. Some of our friends had a taxi driver that knew the right place to take them, so they’d held seats for us. We were the only Westerners in the crowd. So we cheered loud and proud for the USA! Even though the Turkey team was pretty good looking…

USA won!

So ended my Universiade experience. The closest I’ll probably ever get to the Olympics. Now, I’m hooked though. I’m thinking my next world sports venture will be the soccer World Cup. Go, Mexico! I mean, USA…

Right now I’m watching the opening ceremony of the Universiade: Shenzhen 2011. I’m watching it on TV, but I’m only about 10 minutes away from where it’s happening live!

The Universiade is probably about the closest I’ll ever be to the Olympics. From what I understand, it’s like the Olympics for college students. Torch and all. Hey, here comes the torchbearer now!

My friends and I just watched the parade of all the national teams with the host country China going last, and then they had dancing, speeches, beautiful Chinese music, and acrobatics. My friends finally gave up and went home, and my roommate went to bed, but I’m holding out for fireworks and hoping I can see them from my balcony! This event is seriously huge here. I heard they have 1.4 million volunteers from the city!

And even more exciting: I’m going to a game tomorrow! Some of my coworkers and I are going to watch USA and Turkey face off in men’s volleyball. I bought Universiade flags yesterday from a woman selling them on the streets, so I’m ready! The volleyball is held at a different location in the city than the stadium they built for the Universiade, but it will still be cool. The stadium they built is only hosting the opening and closing ceremonies and ping pong, as far as I can tell. But it’s awesome! I’ve driven by it. I’ve heard they built it to resemble the building for the Beijing Olympics, and I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s amazing!

I think they just said the newest torchbearer to take the stage is a former Olympic medalist. Cool!

I’m not really into sports, but there’s just something exciting about something big like this. My friend Karissa that was here earlier said it’s because I like world history, and this is the world coming together in an historical event. And we’re part of it! Love it.

Ooh, they just lit the giant torch. Sweet!

Hmm. Computer graphic fireworks. I’m still holding out for the real thing…

Talk to you all after the game tomorrow! Wish America luck! Unless you like Turkish food as much as I do. My heart is divided…

All right, Go Team USA! And China, of course, since they’re hosting and it’s where I’m living for now. So cool! Go Shenzhen 2011 Universiade!

Sea World, Shekou, with Nanshan Mountain in the background

SS Minghua, Shekou Sea World

Shekou Sea World at night

Tuesday night, the Nanshan Clan plus Cameron ventured out to Shekou Sea World. No, it’s not a theme park with orcas. It’s a very Western (and by that I mean European and American) shopping/dining area, complete with a large ship with restaurants and bars on it. The ship has been docked permanently in cement. Out in the plaza area, there is a Starbucks, TCBY, Mexican restaurant, Irish bar, and just about everything else you can imagine. My favorite part is the great view of Nanshan Mountain, that I want to hike soon.

We ate at the Mexican restaurant. The waitresses were wearing Mexican dresses, but the only Spanish they knew was Hola. It was great food, though! Afterward we explored the ship and wandered around. From the German bar on top of the ship, you could see the bay and into Hong Kong. Beautiful!

Last night, some of the Meilin/Futian campus folks came over to celebrate Debra’s birthday. We went to Noodle King first, and then went to karaoke. Karaoke here is different than what I’m used to. You rent a private sound-proof room for several hours. It has it’s own disco ball in it even. So funny! We had fun watching the old Michael Jackson videos and singing along with old songs (including Lion King songs), but after the second Lady GaGa video I think I was ready to go…   I loved it when our interpreter friend (she’s an instructional assistant at our school like I was in Salem) sang Chinese songs. She did one love song and then a song that seemed from the video to be the Chinese version of TLC. Funny! All in all it was a fun night.

So now I’ve experienced the most popular entertainment places and forms in the peninsula. Aside from hiking, I think next I’d like to head east and check out the theme parks! After I get paid, of course…

So aside from our lovely visits to the park next door, the 8 of us that are stationed at the old campus pretty much do nothing but eat and shop. And drink lots of water. So it’s time I acquaint you with shopping in Shenzhen.

The neighborhood I live in is called Coastal City, which is in the district of Nanshan. Coastal City is made up of a whole bunch of modern malls and ginormous department stores (we’re talking 8 levels with a grocery store, 3 restaurants, and an ice cream shop on bottom, which is below ground level. That’s the one catty corner from us. Next to it is Book City. Oh, yeah!). The actual Coastal City mall is down a few blocks, and you have to reach it by going upstairs to this incredibly futuristic walkway. I’ll try to include pics sometime.

But yesterday we had a more adventurous shopping experience. Jenna, who taught at a local public school last year, took us to Dongmen. Dongmen is one of the older parts of Shenzhen. It’s a labyrinth of shops and large stores with mazes of bartering stalls inside. This is where most local Shenzheners shop.

To get there, we had to ride a bus and then transfer to a subway. The subway was packed on the way there. Ashlee and I barely made it on before the doors closed!

Once there, our group ended up splitting up (it’s too hard to stay together with 8 people in that place!) and wandering, somewhat aimlessly. It was overwhelming. But I got a few cute things. Some dressy but comfortable sandals for teaching 1st grade in, a tiny notebook with pictures of Paris in it for writing key phrases in Mandarin, a day planner that turned out to be a travel diary (it’s adorable! Vintage travel style), and the smallest Jenga game I’ve ever seen. It’s about 6 inches high. Getting those wooden pieces out will be a challenge!

Tired and hungry after a hard days work (okay, so maybe not hard, but the heat and humidity and chaos of that place takes it out of you!) we decided to get food. The other gals went to McDonald’s, which happens to be the first McDonald’s ever in this country

. Sara and I saw the locals eating something that looked delicious, so we braved the Chinese fast food stand. We found a girl eating the pocket bread food we wanted, so she helped us order the right food. From there we were able to point at some fried potatoes and some other food we saw them making but had no idea what it was. Eventually we sat down with our food on the top step of some stairs and ate. It was spicy and delicious!

Just before we got food, the monsoon rains came. The roads were flooded within minutes. Fortunately, I’d brought an umbrella. The locals all carry umbrellas rain or shine (cheaper than buying sunscreen, I guess). But soon it was raining so hard that everyone holed up under cover. Sara and I made it to the KFC (built like a pagoda, of course) where we were supposed to meet everyone. It was packed with everyone trying to avoid the monsoon. I got a 7-Up because I was dying of thirst from the shopping and spicy food. It was an experience.

Eventually we made it back home to Coastal City, where the shopping feels like New York City. Today my roommate Jada and I went grocery shopping at the local Jusco, where things are more normal to us (or are they? To buy fish, you pick them out of the tank. And I got a picture of the most amazing cake I’ve ever seen. Evidently it’s for Chinese New Year). I bought a starfruit and my new favorite food, dragonfruit. We bought some amazing stir fry from the deli (they cook it in front of you) for super cheap, and ate it outside by a pond with lily pads. Yeah, I think I can handle living here!

When Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin arrived in Bree on their journey to Rivendell, they needed a hero. The ringwraiths were on their trail, and Gandalf was not there as promised. To their relief, Strider showed up.

Well, I have a hero now in my journey. I wrote yesterday that I was put in a preschool teaching position. But my new friend Ashlee felt it in her heart that she needed to trade with me. She loves the young ones and assured me that she would enjoy it and be happy either way. I talked to the principal, and it’s a done deal. I’m so happy! 1st grade still isn’t my strength, but at least I’ve worked as an instructional assistant in 1st grade classrooms. I haven’t worked with preschool age children in probably 17 years.

Ashlee is a beautiful young woman, inside and out. So are the gals in the rest of my team (those 9 of us at the preschool-2nd grade school). My roommate is another gem: she always lifts me up when I’m down. We are going to be a close knit group this year. Like the Fellowship of the Ring (the 4 hobbits, 2 men, a dwarf, an elf, and a wizard), we all have our strengths and weaknesses. We will laugh together and cry together. And help each other through this journey.

So here’s to the Fellowship of the Nanshan girls. And here’s to my Strider: my new friend Ashlee.

Flying into Hong Kong

I made it! A lot has been happening here with my job and getting settled (including testing the local eateries, of course!), and I didn’t have internet hooked up, so I haven’t been online. But now I’m connected and will do my best to keep you all updated!

The flight was fine. The best part was visiting with my coworkers and flying over Hong Kong.

I’m living in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen. It’s very Westernized, but nice. There is a lovely park across the street. Our apartment (my roommate Jada and me) is right next to the school. There are several shopping malls all around us.

We drove by Shenzhen Bay yesterday on our way to the new campus for orientation. We could see the bridge that connects Nanshan (the peninsula part) to Hong Kong. Pretty cool!

My job situation isn’t what I expected (I just found out that I’m teaching preschool, and I have to admit that I’m not very happy about that) but I like my coworkers and surroundings. So it will hopefully still be a great year, even if it stretches me in a way I wasn’t expecting.

It’s finally here: the day I leave for China! I’m in the Portland airport, waiting for my flight to San Francisco. From there I’ll fly to Hong Kong with many of my future coworkers.

I’ve met several of them already, and gotten to know others through Facebook, so my traveling companions are already friends of mine. I’m thankful for that.

Now that I’m here (and all my preparations are done), I can freely look forward to this exciting journey. I can’t wait to discover what China really looks like. When I went to Germany several years ago, I was excited to see what it really looked like in comparison with my preconceived notions. It was beautiful there, but was more than that. It felt real finally. So I can’t wait to see China and let it feel real. All of it. The sights, sounds, smells (especially food!) and most of all, the people.

I’m excited to get to know my coworkers more, and make local friends, too. I can’t wait to meet my students!

I’m looking forward to seeing real pagodas, temples, and other ancient structures. The mountains, oceans, bays, and rivers (and the Pearl River Delta! I’ve never seen a delta). The restaurants and food carts. The shops, markets, and skyscrapers (okay, not so excited about skyscrapers!). And yes, even the theme parks. I have to admit, I love cheesy theme parks. I think it started with my family’s tradition of going to the Enchanted Forest. Shenzhen is supposed to have several fun theme parks. And when I say theme, I mean theme! Here I come, scale models of world landmarks!

Here I come, world!