A-Broad in Education: October 2014

Selfies in Beijing... Temples

Nihao (Nee-how) and welcome back!!

I recently finished my six day vacation visiting with two of my good friends John and Haydee. We worked together at the Casablanca American School a couple of years ago. After all of the craziness and acquired survival tactics... BUT of course after we completed our two year contracts... we all got the heck up out of there. I came here to Abu Dhabi and they decided to go to Beijing. My vacation actually started in Abu Dhabi with a trip to the Chinese Embassy. I still can't believe that I needed a dang visa to go to China. Yea I know... you're as surprised as I was. I've always been a person who believed that if I needed a visa to visit a certain country, obviously I wasn't wanted there. "Us Americans" believe that our good ol' blue American passport will get us any and everywhere... well China ain't havin' it! The worst part of it all was the price for the visa... Emirates pay $30, Canadians pay $50, and Americans... we pay $140!!! Seeeee... we need to be careful about the image that we portray to the rest of the world because I know I'm not rich... but clearly China thinks I am.

My itinerary began with a one hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Doha, Qatar. I had a four hour layover before my nine hour flight from Doha to Beijing. You all have already heard my stories of how uncomfortable long flights are, so I'll save all of my venting about coach class seats for later! Honestly, I was very excited about this trip and I couldn't wait to get there.

Arriving at PEK International Airport

I arrived in Beijing on Sunday at about 1am. John, Haydee, and Mr. Wong picked me up from the airport. Mr. Wong is the trustworthy driver that they call if they need a ride around the city. He was very nice. When we got to John and Haydee's house we spent the morning reminiscing about the good ol' days in Casablanca. It was great getting a chance to catch up with the two of them. Of course John and I spent the night drinking plenty of beers!! We used to spend night after night throwing 'em back in Casablanca. That morning was no exception and it was as if no time had past since the last time we saw each other. After a few beers, I found myself up doing the heel toe and shakin' a tail feather while DJ John played all the cuts from Nelly and the St. Lunatics. He always finds a way to bring out that little Alton girl tucked away inside of me!

At the Temple of Heaven Park

The next day we woke up and visited the Temple of Heaven. This place was absolutely beautiful. It was a perfect sunny day and we were walking around without a worry in sight. I recently bought myself a selfie stick. It's a stick that you are able to attach to your phone to take pictures of yourself. It's perfect for the solo traveler because you don't have to worry about asking folks to take your picture for you all day. The Chinese people were obsessed with my selfie stick!

Curious George... watching me take a selfie...

It was funny because so many people literally stopped and were staring at it. Ya'll know I thought they were staring at me right?... I've heard so many stories about Chinese folks being in such amazement at the sight of people with dark skin... but they were actually more interested in what I was carrying. Haydee started calling them "Curious George" because the curiosity was out of hand; some times even rude. The funniest was a man who came and dang near laid his head on John's shoulder trying to watch John take the picture of Haydee and I with the selfie stick. Little did they know... the dang selfie stick was made in China!!

I'm surprised everybody didn't have one!

After we left the Temple of Heaven we went over to a little Chinese restaurant called Hot Pot. When we got inside we were greeted by waiters and waitresses who didn't speak any English. Haydee has learned a lot of survival phrases in Chinese however, the menu was too advanced. We felt like we were saved by the bell when the waitress heard us speaking in English because her reply was, "English??"

She looked at us like "my bad... I didn't know ya'll spoke English." Then she gave us an English menu. Honestly it wasn't much help because we could read the English but she couldn't. When we attempted to order in English, she couldn't understand anything that we were saying. We had to point to the picture of what we wanted so that she could understand what we were ordering.

Our vegetables with the hot pot and rolled fish on the side.

We honestly had no idea of what we ordered so we started to look around and observe other people in the restaurant. The waitress brought over a pot of hot water and placed it on a burner. Then she brought us a small bowl of cilantro and a packet of peanut sauce. We were completely lost! We watched a woman open the peanut sauce packet and squeeze it on top the cilantro... we saw another woman take the packet of sauce and squeeze it into the pot of hot water. Haydee and I looked at each other for approval and put the peanut sauce on top of the cilantro. The waitress then brought us a big plate of vegetables with noodles on the side and big plate of fish that had been rolled like a meat platter.

At Hot Pot eating noodles... of course John had Subway instead!

We weren't exactly sure of what to do next so we started to look around again for confirmation.There was a man across from us taking each vegetable and dipping it one by one into the water. After it boiled, he would eat it. Haydee decided to put on her chef's hat and create her own hot pot. She put everything in the water... the veges, the noodles, and the fish... she was making soup. All I knew was that in a matter of seconds, everything started to smell so GOOD. I was anxious to start eating. Chef Haydee made sure that our food was nice and ready and the both of us dived right in... It was so TASTY!!

Of course we had to end this spectacular day with some retail therapy. You all know that China is known for replicating, duplicating, and copying many products. I went to two knock off shops while I was there; Hongquiao Pearl Market and Sanlitun Ya Sho Market. These places were filled with any and everything that you could think of. When I saw five floors of electronics, bags..., shoes, bags..., clothes, bags..., coats, bags..., house ware products, did I mention bags...?? I went crazy. For my New York Canal Street fans... these places are like Canal Street times ten! Of course I went in and bought a few things...

I heard that some of the products sold at these stores are made from the same materials that the original companies use. I heard that the Coach factory, for example, is open from 9am to 5pm daily. During this time "they" are making products for Coach. In the same factory, from 6pm to 8am, "they" are making their own stash from the same products however, these products won't be delivered to Coach... they'll be sold to folks like me!

Now I'm not sure who "they" is but does it really matter? Just give me a nice hand bag... I'll take the green one please! While I've heard that many of these bags are made of the same materials, China has been getting in trouble for reproducing the emblem or company name on the bags. Shops like these are actually in the process of being shut down because of complaints from big companies. So... are you ready for the "but"... some things are always too good to be true. You can end up with a leather bag that looks exactly like the original; same material, same tags, same zippers, same buttons BUT... your emblem on your Michael Kors bag ends up looking like this! Womp... womp...

Michyel Koks!

Even if this scenario is a false fantasy and none of what I wrote is actually true... PLEASE don't be the barrier of bad news. I bought a few items that I'll be styling on the fancy streets of Abu Dhabi and I made sure to leave out exactly what I bought. Don't worry... no one will ever be able to tell the difference. Besides... my knock off was made in the same country as the real one... I just paid less!

We have arrived at our first stop. Next stop... The Great Wall...

All passengers should proceed to the next gate.

Besos

Men playing Chinese Chess...

Every time I buy this beer in the states, it costs about $8...
this beer is about 50 cents in China!

Chinese Writing

Hawai'i is Aloha... Traveling back...

Aloha from Hawai'i...

Aloha from Hawai'i!

Shockingly it was only about a month and a half ago and I still haven't had a chance to share it with you all. My Hawaiian adventure was actually cut a bit short due to circumstances provided by Mother Nature. I can talk about it now because I survived... but while I was in it, I must admit... I was a bit scared.

It was my third day in Hawai'i. Since my arrival we had been receiving ample warnings about the hurricane and meteorologists were predicting that it was going to hit the next day. I remember I was sitting in the living room because I had just waken up. I was the only one at the house because my cousin had gone to take the kids and Baby Nicole to school. His wife was already at work. My cousin Anthony is in the Navy and has been living in Hawai'i for a few years now. He invited me to come and visit and because I had never been to Hawai'i, I figured why not? I've always envisioned Hawai'i through the stereotypical tourist eyes. I imagined beautiful tanned women with long and dark hair in coconut bras and grass skirts. They would greet me as I got off of the plane by saying "aloha" while doing a hula dance. I would be given a lei to put around my neck and someone would hand me a coconut filled with rum with a mini umbrella on the side. No one could tell me that I wouldn't be laying out in a hammock on the beach while falling asleep to a beautiful sunset. Wait... didn't you see that post card too? I'm sure it isn't just me. Sadly my post card dreams were miles away...

Outside of the house that day...

I heard someone knocking at the door. I started thinking, "Anthony has a key... why would he be knocking?" I went to the door and shouted out, "who is it." When I opened the door, there was a man standing there with a stack of papers in his hands. "Mam here is information on how to prepare for the storm." He was going from house to house handing out Hurricane Survival Packets. I asked him, "do you think the storm is really coming"... Anthony kept saying, "It ain't gone hit... ain't nothin' gone happen"... and I believed him. If that was the case, then why would this man be handing out survival packets explaining how to create a survival kit and providing listings of all of the hurricane shelter centers in the area? He responded, "it may not hit us hard but it is coming."

When Anthony came home, I told him about the man stopping by and gave him the packet that he dropped off. Anthony stuck with his intuition, "Maaaannn ain't nothin' gone happen Tiff... this happen here all the time... they make it seem so bad... it ain't gone be a hurricane by the time it get here, it's just gone be a tropical storm." The weather had been beautiful all week. Even that day, it was cloudy but it didn't look "hurricany" outside. Besides, I had never experienced a hurricane before so I wasn't sure what to look for. Growing up in Illinois we had plenty of tornadoes and thunderstorms so I figured if I could handle Mother Nature in that sense, then a hurricane shouldn't be that bad. At least that's what I told myself... I still couldn't keep that voice out of my head that kept a thick knot in my stomach.

Family day at the beach...

See Hawai'i is a state that is made up of eight islands. I flew into Honolulu but I was staying in O'ahu. The big island, which was directly in the hurricane's path, was going to get hit first. We were like fourth in line so the hurricane would have to get past a few other islands before it could actually come to us. Knowing that bit gave me a little reassurance that things may just be ok. I just felt like I wasn't tryin' to go out like a sucka... what would I look like dying in the states? I've been so many places around the world that it would be more exciting to hear about me getting caught up in a tsunami in Japan or an earthquake in Haiti... not a routine hurricane in Hawai'i... everybody knows that Hawai'i has hurricane season every year! Guess I should have known that before I booked the flight!
(WARNING: family... this was a joke ok...)

Meagen, Anthony's wife, got off of work a little early that day so we made a few errands around town. There were gas stations out of gas. There were grocery stores low on everything; specifically out of water though. People knew that if there was no water that meant no baths, no flushing toilets, nothing to drink... that could be bad. People had already been out buying and stocking their shelves with non perishables in hopes to be prepared if they were trapped in the house for days. I started to panic...

Anthony thought this was funny...

When the kids got home later that evening, we found out that school had been cancelled for the following day. People were convinced that the hurricane was on its way. In addition to all of the panicking messages from friends and family checking in on Facebook, we made the mistake of turning on the news as well. I saw palm trees swaying vigorously from side to side. The man who was reporting was speaking in a terrifying slow, deep, and serious voice... of course the footage was of him in the middle of the storm about to get blown away himself. He just happened to be the brave reporter who decided to risk his life to go to Hawai'i and stand in the eye of the storm to get footage. This was pure stupidity... I don't know where he was reporting from because it hadn't even started raining where we were. We were letting that craziness effect us and that made us even more scared. We had to turn the TV off...

Beautiful sunset

The next morning we woke up to strong winds and strong rain hitting the windows. The rain had finally started and there were spurts when the rain would slap into the windows really really hard and then it would just be normal rain. This happened on and off throughout the day. We didn't lose any power, water, and we weren't stuck in the house for days. As Anthony predicted, by the time it hit our island it was reported as a tropical storm. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe and covered. As soon as an opening came for me to get on a flight, I got up out of there! I made it out safe and sound without a scratch. While my post card dreams of Hawai'i are still tucked away in my heart... the next time I choose to visit I'll be sure to avoid hurricane season. Even though they aren't the typical memories that I would want to experience on vacation... I am still thankful. Thank you Hawai'i for providing me with a great story to share with my children!

Besos...