Dear Starbucks,
First off, thank you for opening one of your glorious consulates of coffee in Shijiazhuang. The Shiz should feel honored that you chose her to join the ranks of the two-dozen or so Starbucks-equipped cities in the Middle Kingdom. In theory, you are doing something to make the butthole of China just a little more livable.
With that being said, I do have some suggested improvements. Read more
I knew the Shiz had a bad smell but I forgot that it smelled ALL THE TIME.
- Emily Krustlic
After an overnight bus and a miraculous purchase of train tickets (despite the largest annual human migration in the world) we arrived back in Shijiazhuang yesterday. Now I have that mix of emotions one always feels at the end of a vacation: it’s nice to be done with the stress of traveling but man, that tropical island was a hell of a lot nicer than this place.
Those negative feelings are especially potent when you return to a city like the Shiz, a place we characterized as “the butthole of China” when describing our city to other travelers over the last few weeks.
But, despite the smog and smells, the Shiz is a little nicer right now because of one wonderful reason: FIREWORKS!! The early morning honks and engine roar that I came to hate over the last five months has been replaced by the sweet, sweet sounds of firecrackers and mortars exploding in the morning. Actually, it is a little creepy how this city has essentially fallen silent except for the occasional faraway boom or string of pops. And I think I might add to the din in the silence by blowing another 100 RMB on fireworks at one of the hundreds of pyrotechnic stands set up around the city…
We arrived in Xi’an yesterday morning and we promptly found some fireworks to celebrate Chinese New Year. I’ve had one or two experiences with fireworks in Xi’an from this summer, so it was nice to be back in a familiar city doing something really fun.
And for only 125 RMB we had a lot of fun. Our collection:
- 8 giant Roman candles
- 2 thick Roman candles that ended up shooting miniature mortar shells (the kick from the firework was like that of a 9 mm pistol)
- Several boxes of uber-poppers (think those little white poppers you throw on the ground to make them explode only with about three times as much gunpowder)
- 2 huge fountains that we thought were miniature mortar sets
- 2 strings of 1,000 firecrackers
We lit all of these on the street outside of our hostel. There are apartments to either side of our hostel and across the street in Xi’an city wall. Only in China could you let this many explosives loose with an ancient landmark and houses within range…
Scams and markups are something I can handle. Someone rummaging through my stuff on the other hand...
I have always heard stories of people getting robbed but I never thought it would ever happen to me. Yesterday changed that. Read more
A Star Ferry crosses Hong Kong's Victoria Harbour at night. The ferry only costs two HK dollars but it gives an excellent view of the city.
Many fortnights ago (aka, the first part of September) I was forced to go to Hong Kong in order to get my Z Visa, an issue that should have been resolved when I visited Thailand after my summer program ended. But I don’t want to rant about that, I would much rather tell you about some of the cool stuff I was able to do and see during my surprise vacation to Hong Kong. Read more
The last test has been given, the final paper graded and the spreadsheet has been emailed to my department director. The semester is over, and not a moment too soon.
I will start my 45ish day Spring Festival vacation tomorrow with a flight to Hong Kong, followed by a week in Thailand and finally a week in Xi’an. I will be traveling with Emily and a evolving cast of Shiz-based expats at different destinations. And I’m pumped.
As you can see from above, Emily and I’s vacation started a little early right here in the Shiz. Emily blogged about our interesting cupping experience and we made mac ‘n cheese, which, incidentally, was the first meal I cooked in my apartment…four months after moving in.
I’ll try to keep this blog updated as we travel by occasionally stealing Emily computer. Stay tuned!
That is the smallest piece of pumpkin pie ever, but it was also a delicious component of my holiday experience in China this year. I’ve already shared about our Thanksgiving chaos, the silkworms and my family’s plane starting on fire, but here are a few of the photos and stories from the last 90 days of holiday celebration. Just in time, of course, for my Spring Festival adventures which start on Tuesday.
I realize that there are no New Year’s Eve photos and that is because our celebration was remarkably tame. We played Settlers of Catan, drank Irish cream, hit the bar at about 10 p.m. and nestled into bed by 12:45. Wow, I am getting old.
I have a number of resolutions and goals for 2012–run a marathon, dramatically improve my Chinese, get a real job–but one goal I had for 2011 that I spectacularly failed at was maintaining this blog.
I promised at the beginning of this summer to keep this thing up to date and interesting, but I haven’t. And I’ve had a plethora of excuses:
• “I’m really busy.” Sure, being an English instructor can be tiresome and these papers I’ve assigned are a huge pain to grade, but I still have a lot of free time. I am only in the classroom about 11 hours a week and my preparation time is minimal for most of my classes. I still spend too much time creeping on Facebook and watching pirated copies of American movies and TV shows for that to be a real excuse. Read more
I said goodbye to my family this morning at the Beijing airport at about 7 a.m. They had an… interesting… experience in China for the last ten days, but the trip ended well. The flight from Beijing to Chicago was overbooked so my family was given a free upgrade to business class. Wide seats, improved entertainment systems, gourmet meals, everything you would expect a $2,700+ ticket to provide.
I returned to the Shiz via a D-Train (a luxury I equate to flying business class) and this evening I got this email from my little sister:
Dearest Tyler,
We are still in China and not hating it. After being upgraded and basically looking forward to the best plane ride of our lives and then ordering a scrumptious free gourmet breakfast on board, our plane caught on fire. Well, the cockpit was smoking and it smelled like melted wires. Counts as a fire. We turned around after being in the air for just over ten minutes. We had to taxi to a remote part of the tarmac and had to climb out of the plane via portable stairs and had to be bused to a waiting lounge while they continued to have no idea what happened or when we’d be back on the plane. Eventually they had us re-enter the country and cancelled our departure stamp and American Airlines put us up at the Hilton across the road. Yes, the hotel we were going to stay at last night. Here’s the kicker. They didn’t have any rooms with three beds….so they gave us a two floor townhouse suite. Fuck. Yes. The showers are amazing. They finally gave us information about when exactly we’ll be leaving. Our flight will be at 10 am tomorrow after the regular Beijing to OHare flight gets out. I best get my pancakes I was denied today. Wish you were here! (But instead you are in The Shiz). I took plenty of pictures so you’ll be fully jealous once I upload them to Facebook.
LOVE,
Megan
PS. No. This is not a joke.
Yeah, getting upgraded is rare, but also having a fire followed by a free room in Beijing for New Years Eve is ridiculous. My only question is, why didn’t they call me so I could come back to Beijing?
I’ve been going crazy with finals in the Shiz and my family trekking to China for Christmas so I have not blogged in a while. I feel bad about this. So, here is my effort to make it up to you.
There is a neat little street near our hostel called Donghuamen Night Market. A line of vendors sell an assortment of foods on sticks or in Styrofoam containers every night, even in the winter. You can get normal treats (beef, chicken, fried dumplings) or delightful delicacies (candied fruits, steamed crab) or…um…other things (dog, snake, testicles, insects of all sorts). I told Megan, my little sister, that she could pick one item from the assortment of unique items and I would eat it as a Christmas gift. Clearly she doesn’t love me very much because she chose silkworms.
The Hungry Student Leader Through the Lens
