Ping guo3 vs. ping an ye4

So I will share with you a little bit of Chinese and also how it relates to Christmas.  About a week ago one of my Chinese co-workers was asking what some of the traditions in America are for the holiday season.  I proceeded to explain what most people do but at the same time let her know that Americans come from all over so it does vary by family and background.  She understood but was still wanting more of an answer and told me that I had left something out.  Next she asks about giving apples on Christmas Eve to friends. She understood this is what happens in America and I kind of laughed and said I had never heard of such a tradition.  She goes on to explain that is what happens here in China.  This conversation was a few days before Christmas Eve and so I was definitely curious how big this apple tradition would be. 

The day before Christmas Eve a lot more apple vendors started appearing along the street.  It is very common to sell items (fruits, vegetables, street food, etc.) from a cart along the street and it is perfectly safe to eat these items.  Not only were there more apples but I even saw special boxes to put your apple inside, and even apples with Chinese characters written on them.  Most likely the characters written on the apples were wishing the friend happy holidays.  So it is very common to give good friends an apple on Christmas Eve in China.  I think a big reason this does happen because of these two different words: ping guo3 (apple) and ping an ye4 (Christmas Eve).  The part that is underlined comes from the same character in Mandarin. I have written the words in Pinyin which is the transcribing of Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet.  I will go into greater details of how this helps later but for now a short little introduction showing why it is common to give apples in China for Christmas Eve (at least in Mandarin speaking locations.)  Simply put the word apple and Christmas Eve sound really similar to each other.

  

I ended up getting one apple from a class of mine that I had on Christmas Eve.  No fancy box but a nice big red apple.  Besides apples China doesn’t really celebrate Christmas.  Sure this whole entire month Christmas music and Christmas decorations have been up at most of the stores.  Besides that though not much else happened.  I had to work both days because it is simply a normal day for most people.  Actually on Christmas Eve at my school we had a Christmas party for some of the students.  They had to buy a ticket and it simply was different Christmas activities such as caroling, Christmas arts and crafts, and painting.  I have an evening class on that night at a local business so I was late for the Christmas party for the kids but that actually was better.  That meant I could go into any of the classrooms and I wasn’t in charge of any of them and simple was able to bounce around to see the different activities.  Besides the Christmas party on the weekend before Christmas we had the students write on little Christmas cards which we hung on a tree in the lobby of the school and also gave them all a small gift.

 

After work the other foreign teachers and I went out to dinner.  No real Christmas dinner but at the same time what is truly Christmas dinner?  I think it does vary from family to family and isn’t particular like on Thanksgiving.  We ended up getting some goose, fried rice, and various other Chinese dishes.  It was pretty good.  Then later that night we did a white elephant gift exchange and so we all ended up with some present. I received some decorative chopsticks that were bought up in Beijing.

 

Whether it be apples, egg nog, tamales, gingerbread, or any other special food for the holidays hopefully it was a good time had by all.  Also not too much longer for a new year.  New Year’s Day is a national holiday in China so I will have that day off but right back to work with weekend classes starting on Friday this weekend.  Not much of a break and so nothing major planned.  Below are some of the funnier cards that some students wrote. I will write later.             

Christmas Tree in front of a mall 

Tree decorated with lights at apartment complex

“Shhhh. . . I want to hear the English!”

Let me set the setting for when this was spoken.  A few weeks ago I went to dinner with one of my Chinese teachers and we went to the place conveniently located by the school because we had a short break before teaching a class later that night.  So this restaurant is cafeteria style where you walk down a line choosing which items you want and then at the end you pay for the items you do get.  At this point in time my Chinese was bare minimum where I could hardly say that one please.  So going through the line I simply point and get a few things.  Then it comes to choosing a bread that I want and so I simply point and the server asked me in Chinese do I want the “meat filled one or the vegetable filled one.”  I look at my Chinese teacher and she tells me what was said in English and so I respond to her in English in order to get the one I want.  At the time I don’t notice but the manager is standing behind the servers watching us intently.  After paying and sitting down my Chinese teacher pointed out that the manager was ignoring other customers trying to ask questions about the food and told them “shhh. . . I want to hear the English!”

That isn’t the only time when I had the attention of a lot of people and it’s not in the classroom.  Last week I went and purchased a new phone.  There is a bigger electronic store close to my apartment and so I walked over and found a phone that I want.  By this time I know how to say I want to buy this one please, but not much higher vocabulary dealing with electronics.  So the sales associates has me follow him to the register where I pay for the phone and then back to where the phone is located in the shop.  At this point in time about four other sales associates come up and start trying to talk to me.  I know very basic phrases and none of them know English and so one of them does pull out a phone to translate.  I am waiting for paperwork to sign and then they take out my phone and put a protective screen over it and put it in the case.  It is a little bit of time and while they are getting this done about four or five customers come up and join in on the translated, broken English, broken Chinese conversations.  Eventually with phone in hand I leave saying goodbye to the crowd of people.

 

Having been in different countries I have become used to being a foreigner and standing out, but here in China it seems like I get more stares and attention.  In Korea they were used to seeing foreigners around and even in Yemen it isn’t as bad as here.  I am in a “smaller” (small for China standards) town so that might have a lot to do with the attention.  I have lost count of how many times I have seen people taking pictures of me.  They are trying to hide it but it is obvious what they are doing.  Even one of my students in a company that I teach at the first day was trying to sneakily take a picture I called him out on it, and he put his phone away quickly and was embarrassed.  I go about my day normal and if they are staring and they catch my eyes then I give a smile but for the most part I ignore the attention. 

One benefit of this is I can practice Chinese with lots of people.  I have already started classes and I feel like I have picked up a lot.  Of course not knowing any of the language and then being surrounded by it, the learning curve at first will be high.  In fact after posting this I will be studying some more.  The next few weeks are normal work weeks with no such thing as time off for the holidays.  Time off will come at a later time.  Now that I have figured out how to navigate around the “Great Wall of China” (blocked sites) I will post more often than once a month. Upcoming posts will include stuff about my new job, sites, food, and other random things.  My Chinese book is calling my name so I will write later.      

New Adventure

The start of a new adventure has begun.  I am currently on a layover headed to my new destination of China!  I am headed back to the Far East for another teaching position.  A new position in a country that is about 9.6 millions square kilometers big but with only one time zone.  A country that has fertile lowlands along the coast located in the tropics but then a northern area usually dipping below freezing in the Winter.  A vast desert is located to the Western side of the country along with grasslands close to the Mongolian border.  Of course you can't forget about the various mountains (Himalayas isn't the only mountain range) and rivers (biggest 1900 km long) that stretches throughout the country.  Let's keep it simple and say it is a very diverse country with many different places to visit.  

The city that I will be living in is called Jining and is located in Shandong providence.  According to the highly reputable source of Wikipedia the population in 2010 was around eight million people. The funny part about this population is that my new boss says the town is considered a "small town."  I guess once you take into consideration that China is the most populated country in the world (around 1.3 billion in 2013) its not to hard to think about.  This city is known for its coal mining and being a key spot for the spread of Confucianism.  This is because Confucius was born just up the road from my city in a city called Qufu.  

I will be teaching at a private school for students of all ages.  Some people know these schools as "cram schools" which is essentially school all the time.  For the students In Asia school is very competitive and to not be going to classes at least six days a week or fifteen hours a day during the weekdays then you will not be a good student.  It is a different perspective then what most people are familiar with in the United States but they have been educating their people a lot longer.

The standard language is known as Mandarin Chinese.  Right now I know about three phrases.  Not knowing a language has never stopped me from visiting or moving to a country and this time around I have a great opportunity to learn the language.  Part of my contract includes 12 hours of one-on-one lessons a week.  Living for an extended period of time in a place I always pick up what I call “survival” language but in China I hope to get beyond that level of language.  It won’t be an easy language to learn but I will share how it is coming along once I start.

So that is a quick overview of my new destination.  Ahead of me I have about fourteen hours on two different planes in order to reach my city.  I am excited and can't wait to get there. Once figuring out how to circumnavigate the "Great Wall of China" (censorship and blocking of websites) I will write some more and go into more details and what it is like in China.  I will write later.           

Ma'a salama Yemen

As most people have realized now I am no longer in Yemen.  My time there was cut short because of political problems.  A quick little synopsis for people who are curious about what happened in Yemen.  There is this political/ militant group known as “Houthis” who for many years have been battling the government.  This group has had many wars with the government and its allies but for the most part these wars took place in the North part of Yemen.  Well not too long ago the government cut the countries fuel subsidies and this didn’t go over well with the people.  The Houthis decided to march down south to the capital and try and get public support in order to get control of the government.  So my western friends along with me did leave Yemen while the Houthis had the city surrounded. For them to bring the battle to the capital was going to be the big issue and we weren’t sure what was going to happen next.  Plus a couple days before we left it did start getting bloody and real close to where we lived. It is a good thing we left when we did because the Houthis did eventually take control of the airport and went into the capital fighting (since writing this they have taken the capital and started moving south controlling different cities along the way).  With Yemen being the hot bed that it is there are multiple scenarios and things that might happen in the future.  I could write many posts on the political along with tribal situation in Yemen but I won’t do that.  Instead I will share some stories of Yemen from on the ground and among the average citizen in Yemen.

I was in Yemen for about four months and in that time I was able to see a lot of the capital.  Sana'a is a very old city that has a rich history and along with that some amazing sites.  On multiple occasions I was in the “Old City” which is a very unique place.  This spot has very narrow streets and the building themselves are very old with some neat architecture.  Down in the “Old City” is a traditional ‘souk’ (open air market) and so walking through people are yelling what they are selling and trying to get customers to buy their products.  Plus while walking through it’s not uncommon to have donkeys walking through or a motorbike to come speeding by taking someone somewhere.  A pretty funny contrast but at the same time understandable. Being able to speak the local language of Arabic was a great benefit because striking a conversation anywhere was easy but in the Old City was pretty fun.  Majority of the people were curious why I was even in Yemen and what I thought of the place.  Plus walking through hearing how the salesman would try and get people to buy things was pretty neat.

One memorable spot near the Old City was this little tea shop. This tea shop only had one type of tea ‘shae ma haleeb’ (tea with milk) and of course only one size.  I would have to say it was the best tea I have had in a long time.  It simply was this older man who made the tea one cup at a time and he is the only one who has his recipe.  Sometimes the wait was a while but it didn’t matter and everyone would wait for their tea because it was that good.  Plus the view from outside his shop was pretty neat watching all the cars drive through the silo with the old buildings in the background. I was outside that little shop on multiple occasions and it was a real neat environment. 

I would have to say the best part about being in Yemen was interacting with the everyday Yemenis. Words can't describe how generous and willing to help these people are.  Some people barely had enough food to feed their own families but they were still willing to give it to me and have me over as a guest. Even with the fact that they are the poorest country in the Middle East it didn't matter. It is hard to portray an accurate description through words but it is something that I will never forget.

Before finishing with some pictures just a little note.  It has been a while since I have posted and even longer to include pictures.  This isn't because I had forgotten but another reason altogether. Freedom of speech isn't in every country around the world and some places I have to be careful of what and when I do say it.  Plus I think more importantly for safety on my part.  I have been and lived in places where kidnapping a foreigner such as myself would be beneficial in multiple ways.  Of course I am always aware of my surroundings but having pictures of areas where I am located open to the public isn't the smartest.  I am still going to be travelling and will continue to be posting about my next location.  For now here are some photos from Yemen.  I will write later.  

Weekend trip out of Sana'a to Manakha 

Water silo but mainly used by cars because not much rain

Breaking of fast during Ramadan (Muslim holy month)

Dar al Hajar

             

World Cup Matches

So Yemen doesn't have a team in the World Cup but that doesn't mean that no one cares about the games.  Since soccer is the world's sport there are still a lot of people here locally who have been watching the games.  The team that everyone around here has been cheering for was Algeria.  Unfortunately they lost sometime this last week and so now people are simply enjoying the games.  To watch the game on television people need a special chip to catch the game but luckily there are a few different places where it is a public viewing area for people to watch the games.

The biggest area where people can watch the game is in Tahrir Square.  Tahrir Square is a main roadway that does have multiple lanes of traffic going in all kinds of directions and of course with no sense of organization.  Plus there are a few big lots in the middle of the square and that is where one of the big viewing areas for the World Cup is located.  It is actually a World Cup sponsor that did set up the huge tent and provided the screen, projector, and speakers to watch the game.  So usually when a game is on people simply come and sit on the floor in this tent enjoying the game.  There are some younger guys walking around trying to sell some snacks or drinks.  Plus if during the halftime break or anytime there are a lot of shops that surround Tahrir with juices, tea, and all kinds of food.  There always does seem to be a good crowd watching the games and cheering along when something good happens.

Another area to watch the games is down one of the side streets.  Here someone put a huge white thing on the wall and has a projector pointed at it showing the games.  It is down a smaller street but there still are cars or people walking through.  In fact last time there was a vehicle parked in front of the screen blocking half of the screen.  We still sat down to watch and had to always bunch up and move our feet in when cars would drive on through.  Eventually someone decided to move the vehicle but of course without the keys and simply picking it up and moving it.  It was kind of funny to watch and it took a few people to move it.  When they did move it, it blocked more of the screen but did keep the cars from driving by.  Eventually someone brought keys and drove it away and they proceeded to block the road with two different motorcycles.  The crowd watching the games here is smaller but on multiple occasions when they see us foreigners walking up they have given us a blanket or something to sit on instead of simply the road.  The last game we sat right next to one of the neighbors there and there were even cushions for some of the people to lean up against.  Besides the kids lighting fire works close by and the different traffic going by it is a very enjoyable spot to watch the games.

There are a few internet shops where people flock to watch the games.  Also some restaurants or cafes do play the game.  For the most part we have been simply streaming the game at home but we can't always watch the whole thing because the electricity goes out regularly.  Even though the United States did lose the other night I will continue to watch the games.  I will write later.        

Weekend Trip out of Sana'a

We were finally given permission in order to travel outside of Sana’a.  How it works is the person who does sponsor the visa needs to apply for permission to travel.  They submit paper work a few days before the travel and it will be confirmed or denied usually the late night before the actual proposed day of travel.  For some time now the permission has been denied.  Various reasons were given but ultimately it is the government is wary of having foreigners travel outside of the city. 

After finally getting permission we do load up on the Friday morning at around 7:30 in the morning.  The smell of fresh petrol in the bus is a good thing and lately is hard to come by within Sana’a.  We start heading out of town and are anxious to get out and see some of the country side.  Sana’a is sort of situated in a bowl with mountains on both sides of the city.  We start heading up one of the mountains to get out of the city and the view from up there was pretty neat.  One downfall to the view was the pollution that was hanging over the city.  Once over the mountain we do come across one check point.  Now to see if our permission would be honored.  Along with the foreigners we did have two of the tourist police and so one of them went and talked to the officials.  After about a twenty minute wait they came back to our bus and let us go through. 

Off we went pretty quickly before they changed their mind.  Roads in Yemen are not always the cleanest or smoothest roads.  In order to get on the main road we had to change about three different times and when changing that mean playing chicken with the oncoming cars.  The rest of the way it was one road for cars going both directions.  Plus the route we took had us going up another mountain, then down a mountain, and then back up another mountain.  So it basically was mountain up and down then a valley with a desert type environment and then back up another mountain to our destination. 

We did stop for breakfast on the side of the road and had a traditional Yemeni breakfast.  This breakfast consisted of bread which was then also dipped in either a milky type liquid or in fooool (beans). Plus also some Yemeni tea which is very sweet with a lot of sugar.  At this particular stop we weren’t all the way up the first mountain yet but it was already very green.  Of course as we went further along it did get greener and greener.  We stopped not too long after in order to take some pictures.

 

When going through the valley with the desert environment we had to keep the shades drawn.  This was so that way that particular tribe wouldn’t recognize that there were some foreigners going through.  We eventually made it up the second mountain to our destination.  The city is named Manakha.  When Yemen has more tourist this is a big destination for people to visit not that far from Sana’a.  It basically is this village that is hanging on the side of the mountain.  The view was really neat and mainly includes seeing green fields.  These fields were various things such as: coffee trees, saharic fields, citrus trees, and qat (a product that Yemenis chew, I will post about it another time), along with some other things.  Majority of these fields were side by side of each other and weren’t mixed together.  We walked around the mountain and had some the locals follow us offering us advice and pointing out the different things.  Plus they did want us to look in some of the shops and buy some products.  A couple people did purchase some things which is good since they don’t see many tourists.

 

After the mountain we were still in the same town but went to one of the bigger mosques in the region.  It was a newer mosque and was very well built with some very neat architecture.  It was Friday (which is the holy day for Muslims) and so we didn’t really go inside.  This particular mosque was still on the side of another mountain and so the view was really neat.

 

Our last stop was a restaurant in the town.  Here we ate some more Yemeni food.  After eating the locals did a traditional dance for us.  They did a couple of dances that did go along them playing some of their local instruments.  It was pretty neat to see.  After the restaurant and relaxing we headed back to Sana’a.  We went straight back without stopping and made it back to the city as the sun was starting to set.  Overall it was a great trip.  Next week it is the finals for the students.  Then there will be some time off of class for the students.  I am in the process of planning a trip for the time off.  I will post pictures of the trip later when the internet will upload the pictures.  I will write later.  

Local Surroundings

It has been a little over two weeks since making it to Yemen.  Majority of that time has been spent at work getting used to the new curriculum and simply how the school runs.  I will write about work another time but instead will give a little layout of where I am in Yemen.  

I am in the capital of Sana’a.  Sana’a itself is a pretty big city and there is a lot to see.  I live on the edge of the Old City, which is one of the main places to visit in Sana’a.  It is an area with very old architecture and a souk (open air market) that stretches on for a long time.  Since it is an old city there wasn’t much thought in urban planning when building and so the Old City, especially in the souk is a big maze where the roads curve all over the place.  I have been in the Old City on a couple different occasions.  One time we were on a roof of a café and so it was a nice view.  One of the gates of the Old City is about a five minute walk in one direction while in another direction it is a five minute walk to work.

On the way to work there are quite a few little shops, vegetable stands, and a bakery.  That is where I have been doing most of my shopping for food and any home accessory.  The locals along the street are real nice and they do know where I live and work.  This is because the college also does host Arabic students and so they are used to seeing foreigners walking along this particular street to school.  Plus the President of the school does know everyone along this street and so the first time meeting people, they usually ask if I am a part of his school.

Besides around the school I have also ventured out to an area known as Ha’ada.  It is about a fifteen to twenty minute taxi ride depending on traffic.  This seems to be a little bit newer than where I am living and has more restaurant options.  I have been out in Ha’ada for lunch and dinner a couple of times with some of my co-workers on different occasions.

Besides the Old CIty and Ha'ada, I have been out walking around.  I don't know exact names of the areas but simply out seeing a little bit of my surroundings.  Obviously there is more to explore but those are the areas I have seen so far.  Tomorrow is the start of a new week.  The work week here runs from Sunday through Thursday with Friday and Saturday being the weekend.  Off to cook some dinner.  I will write later.  

Layover in Dubai

Before making it to Yemen I had two different layovers.  One of these layovers was in China while the other one was in Dubai.  Layover in China was only about one hour so simply enough time to make it to the next gate, but the layover in Dubai was about thirteen hours.  I landed in Dubai about midnight and after making it through customs and out of the airport it was close to one-thirty in the morning.  I made it to a hotel and then slept for a few hours.  After sleeping I had about six hours before my plane left.

I knew I would not have much time so I wanted to mainly see the Burj Khalifa and the gold souk.  The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world currently.  You need to be extremely rich in order to live in the tower and even restaurants are pretty expensive.  So I simply went by it and saw it from a distance.  It was pretty tall but there were other tall building close by and so it took away from the grandeur of the building.

 

Next I ended up out at these man made islands that are where a lot of the resorts are in Dubai.  The hotel that I stayed at the night before offered a ride into town and so that is why I ended up seeing Burj Khalifa simply driving by and then the shuttle went out to these islands.  The man made islands were an interesting thing to see but I wanted to get to the gold souk area and so I didn’t see much of them. 

‘Souk’ is the Arabic word for market.  After catching a ride over to the souk I walked around and saw a lot of gold and silver jewelry.  That particular day the price of gold was pretty high compared to the previous days according to the taxi driver.

Before heading to the airport I spent the last hour looking for an internet café or somewhere to print a colored paper.  My visa for Yemen was sent to me via e-mail and so I needed a color copy in order to present immigration when landing.  Coming from Korea there are pc cafes all over the place where they usually are playing computer games.  I didn’t think it would be that hard to find a place to print but I was mistaken and in fact there aren’t that many in Dubai.  A taxi driver said it was because wi-fi is available almost all over and so there isn’t really a need for them.

 

It was a very short trip to Dubai but I am really glad that was not my first introduction to the Middle East.  Everyone spoke English and every single sign has both Arabic and English.  I know that Dubai is a famous tourist destination and so that is how they make a lot of their money but it didn’t seem like I was in the Middle East. 

  

Tomorrow is the first day of work here in Yemen.  May 1^st was a holiday and Friday and Saturday are the weekends here in Yemen.  So simply have been resting up and doing a little bit of exploring.  I will write later.  

Goodbye Korea

It is my last day in Korea. I fly out tomorrow afternoon heading for Yemen.  This will be my last post from Korea.  Instead of writing a lot, I have written this whole year about different things in Korea,  I will mainly post some pictures.  First a few more sentences about Korea.  On my last day of work a Korean co-worker told me "that I look like a foreigner but act like a Korean."  When I did hear that it felt good to know that I had become a part of the culture over this year.  Before coming to Korea I had hoped to learn about Korean culture and it seems like I accomplished that goal.  Now it is onto new places where I hope the same thing will happen wherever in the world I may live.  All right, now for the pictures.  These pictures are random pictures that I pulled but hopefully will show some of the highlights of this year.