dragonflies

I don't think I've ever seen so many dragonflies at one time. It rained hard for most of the weekend, and now that it has stopped the dragonflies are everywhere. I just wish the pictures had turned out better.

Shanghai

Lots and lots and lots of people! The shear number of people everywhere, on bikes, in cars, on mopeds, walking, etc., was pretty crazy. And the mopeds were 100% silent so it's amazing that there aren't more accidents!

Day 1:
While William was taking his CISSP exam I took a subway to the French Concession area because the guide book said this was the area that gave Shanghai the name "the Paris of the East." The large sycamore trees lining the roads made it a pretty area, but really it was one large expensive shopping area. But then I found a beautiful park where some people were playing badminton, practicing tai chi, exercising, relaxing, etc. I also came across a group of older people in a pavilion area where a man was playing an accordion while others were singing and dancing.
By noon I'd been walking for several hours and my feet were sore! I took the guide book's suggestion and got a foot massage. Not all Chinese massage parlors have blind masseuses, but being a masseuse is a traditional occupation for the blind in China. It felt fantastic after it stopped hurting (he was pressing hard!)

Tea Ceremony:
Later in the day, during one of the sporadic rain storms, I met 3 Chinese students. The guy on the left had a Chinese name I can't spell or pronounce, then there's me-Sarah 1, then Sarah 2 (when I told her my name she laughed, then told me her English name and gave us numbers), and Andy on the right end. They were very friendly and invited me to a tea ceremony, after which we exchanged email addresses and took a photo.
They did their best in translating so I now know how to properly drink tea if ever invited to another tea ceremony. We tried 6 different teas: green tea, jasmine tea, ginseng oolong tea, a dried fruit tea that I never quite caught the name of, a 6-flower tea, and lychee black tea. They were all good but the dried fruit and lychee black were my favorites. Below is an illicit photo of the 6-flower tea. The tea woman had left the room for a second so I decided to take a few photos. I only got the one before she came back in and informed us that no photos were allowed. It turned out I could have taken the same picture later at a tea shop, so it's not too secret. The tea started out as one big bud until the water was added, then it opened up to what you see below.Food:
Both William and I wanted to try as much food as possible during our short trip. We went to a restaurant called "We Make the Best Noodles" and tried egg noodles with asparagus in a cream sauce, along with some fresh fruit drinks. But mostly we ate from small food stands rather than restaurants. It's too bad the U.S. doesn't have more food stalls, and I don't mean for selling hot dogs. Some of the "o.k." things we tried were: spinach-filled and pork-filled dough bun things, fried dumplings, and a bean-paste pastry (similar to a Korean snack).

The worst thing: rice steamed in a banana leaf. We each tried a small bite then it got tossed, yuck.

The best things: a bowl of lo mein and bubble tea. Ummm, delicious!

There were the usual squid and octopus-type things that I will always be too squeamish to try. (William tried the crawling tentacles in Korea, not while I was around, thankfully, but I cannot!)

On Sunday we did more walking around a shopping area and were followed for a good 20 minutes or more by 3 guys trying to talk us into going to their specific store. It was incredibly ANNOYING!!! So we left and took a very long walk to Old Town.

Old Town:

This was by far the coolest part architecturally, I thought. But it was a tourist trap...not for foreigners necessarily because we didn't see many, but for Chinese from other areas it seemed. There were loads of little trinkets and knick-knacks to buy within the 100+-year-old buildings, mixed in with the occasional Starbucks or McDonalds. There were some cool shops too. I especially liked the ones that sold chopsticks and tea.

We packed a lot of things into a short amount of time. Maybe later I'll think of other things I wish I'd written about, but for now I'm all typed out. I'll let my photos speak for themselves :)

singing road

I will get a Shanghai post up very soon, but until then here's a little something interesting. When I arrived in Korea last August a driver picked me up at the airport and took me to Anjeong-ri. Partway into the drive he turned off the radio and told me to listen. Here's what I heard. Name that tune :)

DMZ trip

William, myself, and our friend Rykie took a USO trip to the DMZ. The day started early with a 3-hour bus trip to Camp Bonifas, just 400 meters from the southern boundary of the Demilitarized Zone. The bus drove around Seoul then up along the western coast of South Korea. North of Seoul we started seeing razor wire bordering the water. We couldn't figure out why but then realized it's probably because some of the islands off the west coast are still in dispute between North and South Korea.At Camp Bonifas we received temporary UN guest I.D. tags, followed by a short briefing on the history of the DMZ and what we would see on the tour. Then we got on an ROK (Republic of Korea) Army bus and drove to the House of Peace and the Freedom House, both on the southern side of the MDL (Military Demarcation Line) within the DMZ (don't you love all the acronyms). (The white polls mark the location of the MDL.)
The House of Peace is for non-military meetings between North and South and we saw it only from the outside. We entered the Freedom House next to it, built in 1998 as a place for reunions between families who were separated on opposite sides after the war. Too bad it has never been used for a single reunion. We were told that the North won't let its families come to the Freedom House on the southern side of the DMZ because they're afraid of their people defecting to the South. There wasn't much to see in Freedom House, just a big empty building, but we had to walk through it to get to the JSA (Joint Security Area), which is a special area outside administrative control of either North or South Korea.It was here at the JSA that the Armistace was negotiated and signed. The MDL runs through the middle of the blue meeting buildings. The line of microphone wires on the conference table traces the path of the MDL. It was here that we were able to step into North Korea for a few moments. (To the right of the South Korean soldier is North Korea.)Next we drove through Checkpoint Charlie to get to Checkpoint 3 that was surrounded on 3 sides (in the distance) by North Korea. We could see the world's largest flagpole and a little bit of Propaganda Village on the North Korean side, so named because loudspeakers used to blast propaganda messages until 2004. Supposedly the village is fake, no one lives there and some of the buildings don't even have back sides to them. It's just for appearances to keep up with the South, which has Freedom Village inside the DMZ (although it's a real village where people live and earn ~80,000 U.S. dollars a year, but they must be present in the village for 240 days of the year to maintain their village residency. Women can marry into the village, men cannot.) Oh, and isn't the name "Freedom Village" the South's form of propaganda? Of course the tour guide never mentioned that.

The bus also stopped at the Bridge of No Return, which crosses the MDL. After the 1953 Armistice Agreement, prisoners of war from both sides were exchanged on this bridge. It's called the Bridge of No Return because the prisoners were given the choice whether to cross to the other side or not, but whatever choice they made they couldn't go back. If they crossed to the North they were stuck there forever, and vice versa.The rest of the trip involved lunch at a Korean restaurant, a trip to the 3rd infiltration tunnel, the DMZ Museum, and the Dora Observatory (no pictures allowed in the tunnel, or Dora Observatory past a certain point). The tunnel was dug by the North and discovered by the South in October 1978. We were only able to walk maybe 300-400 meters of the full length of the tunnel, after which it was blocked off. It was pretty cold down there, but not much to see.

Overall an informative trip.

oh the funny things they say...

Student: "Sarah Teacher, how old are you?"
Me: "I'm 31 years old."
Student: "Oh, like Baskin Robbins!"

rice planting time

The farmers have been planting their rice for a few weeks now and it looks like fun, although they might say otherwise. Initially all the fields were flooded at various times, and sat that way for a few weeks.
Then the big tractors came out to wallow in the muddy fields. I'm not really sure what they're doing, maybe flattening out the bottom or compacting the mud down.

One of these tractors got stuck in the field across from our apartment. He had to have a bulldozer come get his tractor out (the one above is not stuck). All the mud around lately has reminded me of being little and playing in the mud at the edge of Grandpa's garden with John and Kim. Maybe that's why rice planting looks like fun to me.

For awhile I kept missing the actual planting. I'd go to school and a field would be water. By the time school was out, the same field would have baby rice. With all the water-filled fields, it has looked like we're surrounded by lakes.
The rice was being planted so quickly that I thought they must have lots of people helping. Ahh, so naive, because then one day I finally saw the specialized tractor they use, which explains why the rows and plants are so perfectly spaced. It plants probably 7 or 8 rows at a time so it gets a field planted extremely fast. Fast enough that I've still not been able to get a photo of the tractor. One day when I didn't have my camera with me, William and I watched one for a little while. It's pretty cool but we're not sure how it works exactly. It seems like it would shred the baby plants.

(I'll try to post about Hong Kong soon.)

teacher appreciation day

Yesterday was Teacher Appreciation Day in Korea. My school had a ceremony during 1st and 2nd period which I didn't understand a word of, but I did get this pretty corsage from one of my students. All the teachers received one.Then we were allowed to leave for the day. I love half days!