Hangzhou: The City of Coffee

I'm not a big coffee drinker. When I asked Peter Pan on my 23rd birthday how I can stop growing up he said three things:

1. Never read the newspaper--it's too boring
2. Never grow a moustache--only pirates have moustaches
3. Never drink coffee--if it starts to taste good, it means you're growing up too fast

Well let's just say that no one in China ever asked Peter's advice because there are coffee shops everywhere. EVERYWHERE, I tell you!

Last night was my first day in Hangzhou and after dinner, Gio, Miaomiao, and I went to Gulu Coffee down the street from my temporary apartment. It had a really cute whimsical feel to it with paintings of cats, mice, and owls eating sweets and cakes (which they also sold, reminding me of oh- so many dramas) and it was so nice to just sit back and drink in the fact that I was sitting next to my freshman roommate, living in China (you just can't keep us away from each other)!!

If China knows how to do one thing, it is coffee shops.

Today I finally (I say finally like I've been in Hangzhou more than 36 hours...) got to go to the semi-famous Central Perk coffee shop. For those of you who lived off of the shows Friends in the '90s, this name might sound just a tiny bit familiar with the good coffee and over stuffed orange sofa. Well apparently, someone in China decided to recreate it complete with said orange couch (and blue/green chair off to the side, mind you)!!

Yes, Hangzhou has a Central Perk... Be jealous of me--it's okay!!

It was such a fun, laid back atmosphere and they had a big screen TV playing episodes of Friends. If that isn't perfection (and a lack of copyright laws), then I don't know what is!! I was not a hardcore fan of Friends-- of course I watched it whenever it was on TV (if you didn't I think the '90s disowned you or something like that)--but I could not help but thoroughly love and appreciate this cafe. Rest assured, I shall return (even if the drinks were a bit over-priced).

As if I haven't had enough coffee in the last 24 hours (maybe that was the reason why I barely slept last night and why I am still up after midnight right now), Miaomiao came to my apartment and she decided to take me to an equally awesome cafe about a 15 minute walk away called andloft (I'm not even going to begin to try what that one means). It is next to (what I assume was) a library and there is this whole literary feel to the area with a arched walkway covered in larger than life newspaper articles and rows of bookshelves. There were sofas, armchairs, dim lamps, and blankets all around and I loved it.

Not sure if you noticed--but I got the same thing every time (a latte). They're super sweet and don't taste too much like coffee so I don't feel like I've broken my promise to Peter (but just in case, don't mention this post to him). That being said, if there is one thing that might make me more of a coffee drinker than a tea drinker, it will be the cafes of Hangzhou.

Until Next Time,
Amanda

Rachel is Never Going to Let this Go…

All my life, I have been proud to say the jet lag does not affect me. And for the past 10 years of my international travel, that has been the case (even the last time I visited China). I have the God-given talent of being able to fall asleep on planes and whenever I know I am going to a place with a drastically different time zone, I force myself to either sleep or stay awake depending on the time change.

As I mentioned in "Back in China" (found here), I was able to sleep for six hours on the plane ride from Detroit to Shanghai. I thought that this would be the best I ever felt coming off a plane. Maybe it was my sleep or maybe it was just the adrenaline running through me but I was so energized the minute I got off the plane and walked through Pudong Airport.

I blame the car ride.

I felt myself dozing off in the car so I quickly drank the Coke that the driver had bought for me, hoping it would wake me up a bit—and it did.

When we finally arrived at the Fine Arts School, I was just so antsy and ready to get up and move around and the fact that I was with Miaomiao again gave me a new found energy.

I made it through dinner and even late night coffee where we stayed out until almost 11 o’clock at night. You’d think I would be unconscious the moment my head hit the pillow.

Nope.

I woke up every two hours or so. I don’t think I ever really fell asleep and at around 5:30am, I just decided to get up. I mean, I was productive—I wrote in my journal, caught up on blog posts, made an introduction power point presentation, and even looked through the text book a little bit and wrote down a few ideas for class. But I would have much rather have been fast asleep.

I’ve been up for about 4 hours now and I have a feeling that for the first time ever, jet lag might have gotten the better of me.

There Rachel… Are you happy?!?

Until Next Time,

Amanda

Teaching!!

One thing people kept asking me (and the question I wanted to have answered) was, “What are you teaching?”

Well, I am happy to say that I finally know what I am teaching here at Hangzhou Normal.  I teach Oral English and Oral English I (I'm still trying to figure out what the difference is between the two).

I teach three days a week—Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (four day weekend for the win!!).

Tuesdays from 8:05-9:35, I teach Oral English for Outsourcing majors (not too sure what that is) and then I get to repeat it right away from 9:45-11:20 for Animation majors.  And then I have a bit of a break until 3:05-4:40 where I teach Oral English I.

Wednesdays are pretty easy days it seems with Oral English back to back from 8:05-9:35 and 9:45-11:20 where I am teaching Science and P.E. majors (there’s a joke in there somewhere).

Thursdays are basically a carbon copy of Tuesdays with Oral English from 8:05-9:35 for Law majors, Oral English I from 9:45-11:20 and again from 3:05-4:40.

I mean, I know I’m a total newbie at this but I think this is a pretty nice schedule!

Now to look through these text books and come up with lesson plans… EEK!

Until Next Time,

Amanda

Back in China

Originally written 8/29/13

What a long day it has been!! After that less than ideal fright with Delta cancelling my original flight, I am relieved to say that there were no more bumps in the road and I am now sitting in my temporary apartment (more on that to come).

I won’t go into the teary goodbye too much but I am proud to say that I don’t think the Woomers made a scene at the airport (“Ten points to Slytherin!”). I put on my classic soldier face and marched my way through security. It wasn’t until the plane was taxiing down the jet way that I think I started to panic.

For those of you who know the Buffalo area, you know there is a really big, really obnoxious blue water tower. For as long as I can remember that thing has been there and as I caught sight of it for the last time, I found myself praying that it would still be up when I returned home. A strange thing to think about as I am leaving but it made my stomach drop and suddenly burst to life with butterflies. But all I could think of was what my mom told me the first time I went to live in another country for the first time:

“If you didn’t have butterflies, you couldn’t call it an adventure!”

Those words have helped me through so many tough (but ultimately exciting and life changing) times and I embrace those butterflies every time they decide to pop up. So I sat back and as the wheels of the plane left the ground of good ol’ Buffalo, I knew there was no turning back and that it was time to GO ON AN ADVENTURE!!

Now, I can say this first hand—flying to China can be a bit intimidating. The first time I came over here last December, I was one of five foreigners—the rest of them all being older businessmen who sat in (you guessed it) business class. It was a bit scary, feeling like you were the bizarre outsider, different from everyone else around you, and really unable to communicate (it really stinks when you have a window seat and you just really have to go to the bathroom). Luckily (and looking back, I should say “obviously”), a lot more Americans travel to China in August than they do December. Everywhere you turned there were other foreigners sitting around you and, even though you never necessarily communicate with them, it’s just a relief to know that they’re there.

Originally, I had chosen a specific seat on the flight—the end of the second section right in front of the bathroom with no one behind me and I only shared the row with one other person. Well that person was quite fortunate when I didn’t show up to that flight—they got the whole row to themselves, the lucky dog! And while I was a bit bitter that I didn’t get the seat that I was really excited about,  I did still have my beloved window seat and I had a very nice flight.

I sat next to a lovely Chinese couple. The wife thought that I was Chinese which resulted in her husband just laughing at her and then they were determined to teach me a few words and phrases (from the looks on their faces, my tones have not improved). They seemed excited that I was moving to Hangzhou to teach English and they had all the faith in the world that I would enjoy it and be a very good teacher. Their friendliness definitely helped to settle the butterflies in my tummy just enough so I could sleep.

I slept for SIX HOURS.

I don’t think I have slept that long on a plane ever! I watched two movies (“Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “Rise of the Guardians”) and then slept for two hours, watched another movie (“Les Miserables” and an attempt at “Sherlock Holmes”) and then fell asleep for another four hours. When I looked down at my watch and saw that there was only an hour and a half until we landed, I was so excited but then it dawned on me that I only had a little over an hour before I had to start being responsible again. No pressure.

I’ve looked at this endeavor as a series of obstacles (Visa, packing, flights, unpacking, teaching, etc.) and one of the ones I was the most nervous about was actually having someone to pick me up from the Pudong Airport. They had originally scheduled someone to pick me up on the 28^th at 2:50pm, I could only hope that they got my email telling them about my flight change. Luckily, they did and a little old man (who didn’t speak a word of English) was there with a sign that said Amanda on it. 

Obstacle: Cleared.

As soon as I got in the car, all my nerves seemed to vanish and were replaced with surreal excitement. I was really in China, driving towards Hangzhou to start my teaching career. Any fear I felt was wiped away with the exciting unknown that waited for me!

It was about a three hour ride from the Pudong Airport (the driver got lost in the parking garage which made me love him right away… I’m not the only one that can’t find my way out of those stupid things) to downtown Hangzhou (passed by Wu Mart, China Mobile, and the lovely Korean BBQ place Rachel, Olivia, and I went to for Christmas dinner and it made me super excited).

Now you might be wondering (or you might not), ‘Amanda, I thought you weren’t living in downtown Hangzhou--I thought you were living at the actual university.’ And you would be right. Apparently, there is no hot water in our official apartments just yet (among other things, I suspect) so right now we are staked out at the Fine Arts School for (hopefully only) a day or two. I’ve been told that tomorrow (Friday), we’ll be able to move in which is good because I am itching to unpack and decorate my new apartment (even if it is going to be super tiny).*Update as of Friday night: No such luck*

Around 7 o’clock at night, we pulled into the Fine Arts campus and Miaomiao came running out. (For those of you who have not had the pleasure of meeting her) Miaomiao was one of my foreign exchange roommates in college. I had two from China (Yexi and Miaomiao) and two from Japan (Yuri and Chisako) but Miaomiao and I became the closest--she came home with me, celebrated Easter with my family, visited my grandfather in the hospital, and became such a wonderful addition to our family. In December, I came to China in order to be a bridesmaid in her wedding and now, here we are, four years later, living in the exact same city. I just love life sometimes!

Miaomiao and Cindy, the secretary for the School of Foreign Languages, showed me my room and I basically threw my suitcases down and we turned around, grabbed another foreign teacher, Gio, and we went out to dinner.

Cindy left and the rest of us went back up to my room where we looked over our class schedules and textbooks. Being exhausted and overwhelmed, we decided that enough thinking had been done and we went out for late night coffee. We found a cute little café called “Gulu Coffee” and just sat around talking and getting to know one another.

Cindy told us that there are four foreign teachers and I am hoping she means four new ones because that just does not seem like a lot to me (of course, I am comparing it to when Rachel was teaching here and there seemed to be a nice amount of foreign teachers working for HNU).

I’m hoping that by the time the weekend has passed, I will be all unpacked, settled in, getting to know the other foreign teachers, and acquainting myself with the new city I will call home for the next year.

Until Next Time,

Amanda

 

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!

So just a quick update:

I am not leaving for China today.

I woke up to a phone call from Delta (add them to the Never Again List along with "China Visa Office"), about two hours before my flight from Buffalo takes off, telling me that it is delayed just enough for me to miss my connecting flight in Detroit to Shanghai. So unless I wanted to catch a connecting flight in Malawi (that's in Africa for those of you who aren't quite sure), I had to push everything off one more day.

So now I am leaving from Buffalo tomorrow, August 28th at about 8 o'clock in the morning and arriving at Pudong Airport in Shanghai on Thursday, August 29th at 2:50 in the afternoon. It's the exact same flight, just a day later. Of course, I'm sure I won't have my seat that I picked out specifically two months ago... at least this isn't costing me any more money.

Originally, I did only have about 40 minutes in Detroit to make my connecting flight (which I've done before, so I wasn't too concerned) but I was a bit nervous about having the time to exchange my money. So if that is the only good thing that came out of this, then at least there was something.

I emailed both the school and my old college roommate so they know, too. Hopefully I'll still have teachers waiting to pick me up at the airport and maybe Miaomiao will still be able to visit with me that first night and take me shopping (you know, to get toilet paper).

I like to think that everything happens for a reason, but I'm starting to suspect that my mother was behind this... maybe she paid off the people at Delta to change my flight so she could have one more day with me.

If we're trying to look on the bright side of things, I don't really have the energy to me sad or nervous now... Like the visa, I just want this leg of the journey to be completed. At this point, getting on that plane will be a triumph.

Until Next Time (and hopefully "Next Time" will be China time),
Amanda

3,2,1... GO!!

Here it is!! We have reached the end of our countdown. It's hard to believe that what has been looming on the distant horizon for so long has finally arrived. 24 hours from right now, I will be seated in a plane (hopefully) fast asleep.

Before I leave, I want to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point. Of course all of my friends from Oswego (Hart Hall for the win) and my DCP peeps, as well as the Ghostlight theatre and and the lovely Dave, Olivia, and (of course) Rachel--they've all trained me and prepared me so well for this. I especially have to thank my family--not only my mom, dad, and brother, but also the Gullos--my aunt, uncle, and cousins. They haven't banded together to tie me to a chair in order for me to miss my flight (at least not yet). They are my rock and they are who I am spending my last night with.

For those of you who wish to continue to follow me on this adventure, there are some ways for us to keep in touch.

Email: woomer@oswego.edu
Skype: xomandierosexo
Hopefully Facebook and Tumblr (VPN! VPN! VPN!)

And of course, this blog. I must recommend entering your email on the right hand side of this page in order to receive updates sent directly to your inbox. There is a possibility that I will not be able to post a link to Facebook every time I make a blog post so that is a pretty good way to guarantee staying up to date on all the goings on.

Also, care packages will never be turned away so shoot me an email if you ever want my mailing address ::wink::

I guess that is all there is to it for now. My bags are packed. I've said my goodbyes. I got that darn visa. All there is left to do is find the courage I need to board that plane tomorrow morning.

See you all on the other side!

Until Next Time,
Amanda

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

It's been a great weekend.

Friday, I spent most of the day packing. For those of you who have had to move before (especially via air travel), you know how difficult it can be to decide what is worthy to bring with you and what you must leave behind. I like to pride myself in being a light traveler but it was still a bit stressful trying to fit teaching outfits, clubbing clothes, rain gear, shoes, winter clothes, and outfits for all kinds of weather not to mention anything fun like DVDs, my computer, decorations, etc. into just two suitcases. However, with the help of my mother (luggage packer extraordinaire), within two hours, I had my two suitcases packed with a bit of room to spare.

Talk about a minimalistic lifestyle!!

 Saturday, was my last day to see all my dear friends. I honestly didn't know what to expect when I came up with the little idea of having an open house a few days before leaving. I knew my dad and brother would be coming home from a canoeing trip and walking into a house full of people and that my luggage would be lying right in the middle of the living room, but I knew it was the best (and maybe only) way I could see as many people as I could before leaving.

I cannot begin to express how blessed I felt. Friends from high school and my early years of college that I hadn't seen in years, Team Awesome, friends from the theatre who have watched me struggle through my awkward teen years and those who I have had the honor to share the stage with, my family, and people that I just love to spend time with. On top of coming to my home on a beautiful Saturday night (one of the last of the summer) to spend time with me, almost everyone answered my request to bring something for me to hang on my apartment wall as decoration. I put this out there not really expecting anything but hoped maybe I would get a photo or a quote here and there, but the amount of love and creativity that everyone gave me that night will not only join me in China but it will be what constantly acts as my soft place to fall. On difficult or stressful days, I will look up at the drawings, quotes, photos, letters, and drawings that everyone brought and know that a small piece of you is with me... a piece of home.

School pals

Fellow theatre geeks

 Sunday (today), was the first family day I've had in awhile. With my dad and brother out of town, I got to spend this last week with my mom and, while I love spending time with her (I count her as one of my best friends), it was so nice to have the whole family together again. We decided to go to Letchworth State Park to just walk around, take in the sights, and spend time with each other. For dinner we were originally going to go to the best Korean place in Western New York but then I realized that, as a Buffalo gal, I like to consider myself to be a chicken wing connoisseur and I would go a long time without quality wings so we decided to go to (where else?) but Duff's.

Anchor Bar may have created the wing, but Duff's perfected it... don't try to argue.

I think I'm going to remain stuck at the denial point that I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, "Some Needed Inspiration" found right here. I was hoping to get to the anxious/excitement stage but at this point, with only one full day left, I don't think that is going to happen. And you know what? I blame it on all of you! Yes! YOU! I've been surrounded with so much love and support, it makes it so hard to leave it! From my friends to my family, you have made it so hard to just pack up and leave. I got message after message saying things like, " You are an inspiration to all who know you," and "...you find the way to live your dreams." If that is not pressure, then I don't know what is!! But in all honesty, your (extremely) kind words and support--that is what is getting me to swallow my nerves, board that plane, and fly over the Pacific Ocean. I know I put on the strong front sometimes (the "soldier face" as I like to call it) but it is the people in my life--people like you--that make me brave... I feel that I owe it to each and every one of you to be as strong as I possibly can and make the most of this amazing opportunity. 

So to end this overly mushy post (I promise once I am actually off on adventures, these won't be as emotional), I wanted to throw a song from the Very Potter Sequel at you. I know it's a shocker but: A). I am a huge Potterhead and B). I freaking love the Team Starkid Harry Potter musicals, and this song, "Days of Summer" seems to sum up the relationship I have with everyone that was at my farewell shindig and those who wished they could have been there. Whether I've known you my whole life, for only a year or two or even a few weeks, whether I just met you or you are my own blood, please know that I love you all and I cannot wait to see you all again!!

You're the part of me that makes me better wherever I go!

So I will try not to cry... No one needs to say goodbye!

Cheers, everyone!

Until Next Time,

Amanda