Prom!

Last night Eric and I had an opportunity most people over the age of 18 don't have: we went to prom! All KIA high school teachers were invited to chaperone the event for our senior and junior students and their guests. We had dinner, watched a video honoring the seniors, listened to seniors wills (they will random personal items to the juniors and sophomores present), were given a waltz lesson, and then danced the rest of the night.

Technically neither Eric nor I had ever been to a prom before last night, we've been to Student Council Banquets, Junior-Senior Banquets, and random dances, but this was our first prom. It was a great first for us. 

Members of the sophomore class were invited as guests of seniors and juniors. Mr. Franks (on the left) and I are sophomore homeroom teachers.

Eric won the "Snazziest Teacher" award. How awesome is that?

Ms. LaPorte (Secondary Principal, HS Counselor extraordinaire), Nathan (favorite student), and I. 

International Fair: Come to KIA and See the World!

A week ago, Saturday, KIA hosted its annual International Fair. The PTA, teachers, and greater KIA community set up booths representing their passport country and each booth sells food or drinks, has crafts to make, or activities in which people can participate. There are game booths and general education booths as well. The community is invited for an afternoon and everyone seems to have a good time. 

We had a lot fun and basically spent our afternoon roaming around, enjoying the sunshine, and eating. We sampled food from Korea, Mexico, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday!

The Great Britain booth selling English tea.

The Mexico booth selling amazing tacos!

A group of students performing a song for the crowd. The students up front represent the Philippines, the United States, Singpore, New Zealand, and Korea (L to R). 

Friends Emma (Great Britain- she is showing off her Union Jack nails), Jenny (Native American), and Kim (American).

Week in Review

This past week we were back to our normal routine. Coming off a break is always a little tough, but coming off Spring Break seemed especially so, at least for most of my students. It is mid-April and we have 7 weeks left of school so everyone (teachers and students alike) is getting a little anxious in anticipation of the end of the year and summer. It is a little more difficult to focus and takes more discipline not to look ahead and miss out on the here and now. 

Last Monday Eric started his second coaching gig of the year when volleyball season started. We have a co-ed team ranging in age from 7th grade to seniors. It should prove to be interesting. Regardless of how successful the season will be, Eric is excited for yet another opportunity to relate to the students. The group is obviously eclectic and he gets to hang out with students he otherwise would never have an in with. 

I am one of three 10^th grade advisors this year and Friday night we had a lock-in at school. This basically means we had an all-night get-together from 6pm to 8am the next morning. We really did have a great time. We ate dinner together, watched a few movies, played capture the flag and sardines, and had quite the adventure finding a Shao Kao place. Shao Kao is Chinese street bbq. At about 8:30pm every night Shao Kao stands pop up all over the place and stay open until the early hours of the morning. I still am not clear on why they open so late, but there you have it. At around midnight we had planned on walking as a big group over to the nearest Shao Kao place for a late night snack, but upon walking up to the place we saw that they were closing (it was misty out which scares off customers). We then proceeded to walk a few blocks to a street corner where there were a few more stands, but as soon as we were about to order a police truck drove by and forced all of them to close (technically, Shao Kao stands are illegal because they don’t pay taxes, but as far as we have seen this could actually be said of 90% of the businesses here.) We were at the point of giving up and going to the 24hr McDonald’s when a lady pulled up in her SUV and said that she had a Shao Kao stand about a 10 minutes’ walk from here and she would be happy to shuttle us over there in her car. This being China, we said, “Great!” and a group of us hopped in her car. It took about a half hour for her to shuttle everyone there, but she did exactly what she said she would do and all 30 of us enjoyed our bbq after all! Only in China! What a great night!

An American in China.

The past two weeks Eric and I had the pleasure of hosting my friend Joy. We had a great time showing her around the city and traveling to Lijiang, a town northwest of us by the mountains. We had the opportunity to hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the deepest river canyons in the world and a spectacularly scenic trek. Here are a few photos of our time with Joy:

Visiting the Western Hills in Kunming.

Shao Kao- Chinese street bbq.

Pandas at the Kunming Zoo!

Easter dinner in style at McDonald's!

Walking through old town Lijiang.

Hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge Trail.

View from the trail.

Resting along the way.

A Visit from a Sister School

I have to admit that I didn’t think it would happen. I simply didn’t think it was going to be possible, but on Wednesday 13 March the high school girls’ basketball team from our sister school, ISK, in Afghanistan arrived at Kunming International Airport and thus began our week of hosting them.

This was a trip that our schools had been talking about for years and planning for months. ISK spent months fundraising and generating support for the trip. We spent months lining up outings, projects, host homes, meals, etc. But about a week before they were scheduled to fly to Kunming all of our hard work looked like it would be for naught. Their initial visa application was denied. We worked from our end to get special permissions but we were also denied. At this point I had written off the possibility of them coming and instead of planning on hosting girls from Afghanistan, I was planning on attending our high school service trip. Again, they appealed to the leaders on their end and at the 11^th hour were given approval. I received a call at 9pm on Monday 11 March that they were leaving the next morning. My first thought was, “O ye of little faith.” Why do I still doubt? I have seen amazing things in this place and yet the doubt remains.

We picked them up at the airport early on Wednesday morning. They had traveled all night and although exhausted, they were excited to be here. We jumped right into our schedule: brunch at school, an afternoon at the Minority Village, and a big pizza dinner at a host home. We got more comfortable with each other as the day went on and they started calling me Ms. Valerie (oddly enough this led to Eric being called Mr. Valerie when they met him later in the week).

Thursday we took them downtown and I watched as they happily wandered through the market located there. The girls grew up living in compounds, they were surrounded by grey concrete walls and barbed wire much of the time so the freedom of wandering was something of a novelty. That afternoon they played their first basketball game of the year.

Friday we drove them to the Stone Forest, a landscape totally unique and completely foreign to them. Again, it was the freedom of movement that seemed to capture their attention. We hiked for a while, stopped to eat a snack, and before I knew it the girls had begun an impromptu dance session. They are seldom allowed to dance in their home country and never in public. Freedom.

Their Saturday was spent playing more basketball games in an afternoon than they had in the previous two years. There simply are not enough girls high school teams in their country. By now some of the girls were feeling comfortable enough to forgo the long sleeves and full length leggings that they normally wore under their basketball uniforms. Freedom.

Sunday morning we drove up to a migrant center in the mountains and volunteered with their daily children’s program. The children ranged in age from two years old to twelve and they were all although Chinese nationals because of the system in place their parents are considered migrant workers. We helped serve the kids breakfast and then the girls were given a short presentation on the migrant worker situation in China. Afterwards we led a traditional Afghan craft. The girls loved it and the kids did too. I later talked to the director of the center and he said that the kids talked of nothing else for a week. We spent our afternoon doing something that I take for granted, but the girls loved- biking! They told me that they weren’t allowed to bike at home and many hadn’t touched a bike since they were very young. We bike everywhere here thus rounding up 11 bikes wasn’t all that tough. They spent an hour biking around our neighborhood, riding in circles on the pathways. Freedom.

The fifth day of their stay was spent more like any other week- at school. Our visitors were all assigned to a KIA guide and they shadowed them for an entire school day. Although this was not their favorite day (who really wants to go to school while on vacation?) they did tell me that they loved how students interacted with each other in and out of class and exhibited strong friendships regardless of nationality and gender. I thought this was an interesting observation.

Tuesday was their final day in Kunming. They said final farewells and hugged their new friends. I was surprisingly sad to see them go; after all, I had only known these girls for a brief six days, but I loved seeing their enthusiasm with each new outing and learning about how they view the world. I am hoping to reciprocate the trip this coming fall. This will, of course, require a lot of planning, and even more pr*yer, but I think that there is great value in learning about other cultures and ways of life and what better way to learn about other cultures and places than visiting?

Mint and Green Onions Recipe

I realize it is a little early in the year for a recipe calling for massive amounts of mint, but we are rolling in it here. I made this the other night and it was awesome! Just a little taste of Yunnan for you.  

Ingredients

2 tablespoons oil

3 cups chopped fresh mint, leaves only

3 cups chopped green onion, both white and green parts

1-2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules

Method

Heat wok and add oil. Wait until oil is hot and add the mint and green onions. Stir-fry for two minutes or until the greens are almost cooked, but still bright green in color. Add the remaining seasonings and mix thoroughly, continuing to cook for an additional minute. Transfer to a bowl and serve hot with other dishes and steamed rice.

Enjoy!

Dad and Mom in China!

As I type this Eric is Seoul, Korea for an AP World History conference. He left in the early hours of yesterday morning and will be gone until Monday. His departure removes all excuses for me putting off this blog update any longer.

February has been a great month for us.

Feb. 1^st my parents arrived and were our first official visitors! We were so excited they made the journey. They spend 11 days with us and we did our best to present them with an idea of what our everyday life looks like, all the while showing them all that Kunming has to offer.

 The day they arrived was our last day of school before Chun Jie (Spring Festival with the climax being Chinese New Year.) KIA has a tradition of holding a giant high school pep rally the last day before break. KIA pep rallies are nothing like the pep rallies your high school held. They are not associated with sports teams or big tournaments; they are simply a showcase for fun games and silly class skits. Eric and I are class advisors to the 9^th graders and 10^th graders, respectively, and we both participated in the pep rally skits. Eric stole the show (I am not just saying this because I am his wife) with his rendition of a K-pop (Korean pop music) dance. It was the single funniest performance all afternoon! Thankfully, my parents arrived just in time to see his skit.

We spent the rest of Friday catching up, hearing about their funny travel stories, and allowing them time to settle in and unpack. We took them to dinner at a local squatty restaurant. Squatty is an affectionate name given to the traditional, open-front, short tabled Chinese restaurants that are found on almost every corner. You sit on straw cushions and depending on your age and the condition of your knees, they are not the most comfortable. We wanted to introduce them to real Chinese food and I think they both really liked it, although my Dad did not love the chopsticks.

Saturday we picked up a scooter that a fellow KIA teacher lent us for the week. This was no ordinary scooter, but what we term an “Old Person Scooter” because it is a three wheeler with a bench seat behind the driver. This was the super hip way my Dad got around while in China! Eric drove him and Mom and I biked behind. We showed them around the neighborhood and took them to Wal-Mart so they could experience the Chinese take on an American store. I think it was the abundance of chicken feet available that surprised them the most.

Sunday we took them to Fellowship and then out to lunch with a big group of our friends afterwards, before making our way slowly back home and taking it easy that afternoon. That night we all went out with a big group of people for Hot Pot. Hot Pot is a food eaten exclusively in the winter. Everyone sits around a table with a large, boiling pot of broth in the middle and you dump in vegetables and meats and they cook in the pot before you fish them out with chopsticks. It is fondue Chinese-style.

We don’t have Super Bowl Sunday here, but we did enjoy Super Bowl Monday! I was so happy to be able to take my parents to a Super Bowl party at our friends, the Rodgers’, house. They were able to TiVo the game and had a big party so we all could enjoy it! We had a relaxing afternoon after the game.

We started our touristy stuff on Tuesday by taking them downtown to the Bird and Flower Market, a huge market selling everything from, you guessed it, birds to flowers. There are stalls selling tea, ethnic minority crafts, window cleaning supplies, fish, pipes, clothing, carvings, gardening tools, and on and on. We roamed around for a while sampling the street food. Our favorite was the friend rice dough with bananas and sweetened condensed milk. So good. We made our way then by bus to an area of town near the university that is locally known as “Foreigner Street” because of all of the expats in the area. The area was originally the only place that foreigners could live after China was opened. There are shops and restaurants all around that cater to westerners and it is kind of nice to know that when I am having a hard China day, I can go somewhere where English is widely spoken/understood.

Dad and Mom downtown

Wednesday gave Eric and me the opportunity to do something we hadn’t yet done: visit the Stone Forest. If you Google sites to see around Kunming, or even Yunnan, Stone Forest would be near the top. The area of Yunnan in which we live is a part of the China karst- a geological landscape formed by the dissolution of limestone. Stone Forest is a forest of huge slabs of limestone through which you wander on a narrow, winding path. It is a pretty amazing sight! That afternoon we visited the Jiuxiang Scenic Area caves. They too are made of limestone and are pretty spectacular to walk through. There were huge stalactites and stalagmites and terraced pools made of limestone. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteries about 5 minutes into the cave so I have photos of none of this! The worst part of the day was the rickety ski lift we took from the cave exit back up to the parking lot. It was terrifying.

At Stone Forest

Thursday we biked/scooted to Xi Shan (Western Mountains) and rode a gondola up to the side of the mountain before getting on another ski lift and riding to the very edge of the mountain. Our goal was to reach the Dragon Gate, a temple carved into the face of the mountain over a period of 75 years. The ski lift was not so terrifying and the view of Kunming was spectacular. We hiked from the ski lift endpoint area down a stepped path to the cave entrance of the Dragon Gate. After the short cave we came out on the side of the mountain next to an open temple carved into the rock. It was beautiful. We hiked all along the path through the different temples and ended back up near where the ski lifts started. We rode back down on the gondola and took the rest of the day off!

Eric loves picture time!

For a more relaxing outing, on Friday we headed to Anning with a big group of friends and spent the day in the hot springs at Anning Spa. The spa is in the forest and has a couple dozen stone lined hot pools. They are set to varying temps and some have special scents- coconut milk, mint, lemon, rose petal, sugar cane (which really looks like Coke), and strawberry. If relaxing scents are not your cup of tea there is a pool of fish that you can dip your feet (or whole body) into and they will eat your dead skin. Since that pretty much sums up my idea of torture, I steer clear of this pool.

Chinese New Year’s Eve was Saturday and we could feel the excitement in the air. We took a bike ride (or scooter ride in Eric and Dad’s case) and ended up back downtown. There were families out together and people were buying gifts for friends and relatives to give out that night. We had time to kill and were somewhat hungry so we ended up at McDonalds and ordered some of the desserts unique to China (or at least Asia). We got the tiramisu McFlurry, pineapple pie, taro pie, and red bean pie (as noted in an earlier blog, red bean is a very popular flavor here.) With the exception of the red bean pie, which wasn’t as disgusting as I had anticipated, they were all pretty good. Later we saw a fruit vendor and decided to try durian. If you are not familiar with this popular South East Asia fruit, it is known for its rancid smell (it is banned in the Singapore subway system), its custard-like consistency, and its oniony taste. It tasted just as horrible as you are imagining it to taste and worst of all, the taste stayed with you!

This is what they thought of durian. No poker faces here. 

That evening we headed to Curt and Solveig’s house for a New Year’s Eve party! There was a big crowd there and we ate and played games and talked until the big event at midnight. Not that we needed to wait until midnight for fireworks- we heard them periodically all afternoon and then as soon as it got dark, there were fireworks on and off every few minutes. But midnight was the real show. We all climbed up to the roof of the building and watched as the sky around us lit us and the noise! Wow, the big, booming filled the air and shook the ground. We could see all of the car alarms going off below in the parking lot. The night lived up to the hype and was pretty fantastic.

Because we didn't get to bed until about 3am, Sunday was a slower day. We had brunch with our friend's Michelle and Lacey and spent the morning sitting on Michelle's sunny desk drinking coffee, eating, and laughing. Our afternoon was spent at a local park. We were there with what seemed to be all of Kunming. 

Monday brought Dad and Mom’s departure. We had a great time with them and I think they really enjoyed it. We are seasoned hosts now, so visitors welcome!