Navigating the Northern Capital

There are two things you notice immediately when arriving on the streets of Beijing. First, this place is massive. Whether you are coming into the city by plane, train, or bus, you will no doubt be met by crowds of people, roads that look more like parking lots, and horizons full of skyscrapers and construction sites. It’s not charming; it’s not inviting. It’s just huge. Second, there is no center of Beijing. Well, technically the Forbidden City is not only the center of Beijing, but also the center of the universe. But when most people think of city centers, they are talking about an old downtown, a business district, or the most densely populated section of a city. Here, everywhere is a business district. Everywhere is a residential area. Every section is densely populated. There is no point where old Beijing ends and modern Beijing begins. This means that you will never get a postcard of the skyline of Beijing. There is no famous skyline like in Shanghai or Hong Kong. This combination of old and new is what I think makes Beijing so alluring.

what Beijing used to look like (an exhibit at the Capital Museum)

It also makes it much more efficient for commuting. In most cities in the states, rush hour means a mass migration from the suburbs into the downtown or business district in the morning, and the a mad rush back to the ‘burbs at night. We look at the highway going the other direction and think “I wish I were on that side!” In Beijing, there is no empty side. Every line of the subway is full going both directions. People work (and live) east, west, north and south. The streets are full of taxis and buses going all directions. Many people intentionally live close to work so that they only have to take a short bus ride or even a quick walk. I’m one of those lucky ones who gets to commute across the entire city.

my love affair with the Beijing bus

My day starts at 8am in the west end when I walk five minutes from my apartment to the subway station. I push and shove and get very very close to my fellow passengers on lines 4 and 2. Thirty minutes later, I’m sitting at my desk in school. At 10:30am, I make my way back to the subway for a much less crowded ride. I arrive at a bus station where I have the choice of three buses to take me even further away from home, to my office in Chaoyang district. My bus ride usually takes about a half hour, but sometimes longer during the evening commute. I love my bus ride for many reasons. First, I am always the only foreigner. This gives me a great chance to just sit and listen to people talking, picking out the few words that I know so far in Chinese. It also means that the super-curious people will talk to me. They want to look at my notes, my textbook, my flashcards, and I try my best to speak the few sentences that I can put together. Time on the bus is a great time to study. With class plus an internship, I don’t have tons of down time. The bus is my chance to sit and relax. Finally, the bus is a huge confidence-booster. Anyone can take the subway (they announce all the stops in English, and the map is very clear) but the bus is much more challenging. But once you’ve done it a couple times, you feel like a master. Now that I have taken the bus to work so much, I have started to experiment with other buses around the city. It’s just too cheap not to try! It’s 40 jiao, which is 6 American cents. SIX. Six.

my office building. i work on the top floor! amazing views of...flat land with random pockets of skyscrapers

I also love riding the bus because you get to actually see the city. Most of the subway lines are underground, so you miss all the scenery (they give you TVs instead). On the bus, I learn about different areas and roads that I used to only see on the map. I discover parks, lakes, shops, and a branch of my bank that I didn’t know existed. There are over 500 bus lines in the city. There is no timetable; they come every 2-10 minutes, depending on the time of day. The subway is very frequent (and cheap) as well. There are eight subway lines right now, and more are opening very very soon. My only complaint about the public transportation (and really one of my only complaints about this city) is that it closes at 11pm. So a night out always ends with a taxi ride. Luckily, my taxi rides rarely cost more than $4.

bikes near my apartment. so far i have not tried to bike here!

It’s not just public transportation that you need to figure out in Beijing; you have to learn how to walk like a Beijinger. First is the challenge of crossing the street. Cars (and bikes) rarely mind the walk signals. So just because the green man on the pole tells you that you have thirty seconds to cross does not mean that you should step foot in that street. The best way to cross the street in Beijing is to not cross at all. Take a tunnel or a bridge that often comes with a huge boulevard. The second best strategy is to follow the crowd. Find the old ladies and walk with them. If a bus hits a group of old ladies, well, that would be a crazy story to tell your friends back home.

The second thing you have to learn in Beijing is totally counterintuitive. Whenever you can, walk in the street. It makes no sense, I know. But sidewalks seem to be used for many other things than walking: washing dishes, playing with dogs, repairing bike parts, piling bags of recycling, cleaning vegetables, selling DVDs, sitting, squatting, napping, you name it. You can find many things on the sidewalk, and most of them are for sale. Or at least used to be. The other day I nearly stepped on a dead frog. Not a tiny frog like you see in nature, no, this was a giant frog, the kind you see fried and on someone’s plate. It was near where a guy had been delivering food for a restaurant. I guess this frog got away, but his fate was no less fatal. Anyway, if you try to walk on the sidewalk in Beijing, you will soon be in somebody’s way. The best way to walk is near the curb, sometimes in the street and sometimes on the sidewalk. If a car wants to park there, they usually give you a friendly little honk to let you know that you should move over.

seriously, don't beam on the subway doors.

I love transportation. I think it’s one of the best parts of living and traveling abroad. Every day, I could tell you something interesting I saw on the subway, on the bus, and on the sidewalk. If you really want, I can send you a daily email with those three things. Actually, that would be a great way for me to practice my Chinese. Would you mind if the email came in Chinese?

I live in Beijing

I have an alien resident form to prove it. For the next 10 weeks I will attempt to understand what it is I love so much about this country, this city, and this language. I need to figure it out for my own peace of mind, but I also would like to have a more elegant explanation when people ask me “Why do you love China so much?” Right now my number one reason is “It’s awesome” which just doesn’t capture much.

Temple of Heaven (being in a photo here is always a shared activity)

I live in Xizhimen on the west end of Beijing. The west end is known for being more local; there are not many foreigners living here and many old buildings have been preserved compared to the high-rises that have taken over the east side. The east side is also full of embassies, which means foreign bars and restaurants are nearby. Which also means inflated prices. So in my lovely neighborhood, I can stroll around my streets and find street food for 25 cents and sit-down dinners for $1.50. I can buy fruit from a lady with a cart or I can buy dresses in the trendy little shops on the main road. I love my neighborhood. I also live on the newest subway line 4. Most of Beijing’s subway is ultra modern and sleek, but I feel super cool that my station is only a few months old.

my subway stop on Line 4

My apartment complex makes me really happy as well. When I first arrived, I was freaked out that I wouldn’t be able to find which building was mine or which door led to my apartment. I live in a complex of buildings that all look the same: ten floors, orangy-pinkish, gritty exteriors. To tell someone where I live, I have to say building 30 and entrance 2. That gives you an idea of how many buildings there are! Every group of buildings surrounds a parking lot, and every parking lot surrounds a small plot of grass and tress. I call these the garden courtyards, but of course that is a generous term. But what makes them so lovely is how much the neighbors enjoy them. Every night I open my window to listen to the people chatting (listening is a crucial step in language learning…I am not being a creeper) and the kids running around the trees. Most everyone has a small dog, similar to Marshall’s size, so I snoop on them as well. Many people keep plants and patio furniture outside their entrance doors so they can enjoy the summer nights together. Even though my community has thousands and thousands of members, I feel cozy and at home.

home sweet home!

I go to school nearby at a subway stop called Guloudajie. It would be about a 15 minute bike ride or a 40 minute walk. I may walk if I get my act together by 7:30am! My school is in a Hutong, so that’s why it’s called the Hutong School. The school gives English lessons for Chinese people, Chinese lessons for foreigners, and internship and housing support. So I go there for class every morning, then I go to my internship that they found for me. They have been really amazing so far. They have helped me with absolutely everything, from visas to phones to internet to banking. I have a small class with a cute and energetic teacher. The school may be small, but I think it does amazing work. And it is MUCH cheaper than going to an actual university!

Hutong School friends playing soccer on Wanfujing Street

I have three roommates from three different continents: Gabi from Slovakia, Shirley from Canada, and Christine from South Korea. They have all been here around two or three months, so they helped me get acquainted with the area, and they are good enough at Chinese to order our supply of drinking water every week. Two of them are just doing intensive language at the Hutong School, while one other is doing the internship program like me, where we do language plus interning. Each of them are really dedicated to learning Chinese, and they really enjoy it here. That’s a huge relief to me, because the roommates can make or break your experience; a whiny roomie can really bring you down! A happy home is the first step of me loving Beijing.

Wrapping up Indonesia in the capital

Over my two weeks in Indonesia, I felt like I was in a dream. It wasn’t that everything was perfect; there are many imperfections and struggles in Indonesian life. However, I felt extremely comfortable there. I tried to relate this to the other Southeast Asian countries I have visited and loved, like Cambodia and Laos. But there are very few similarities. Indonesia has much more obvious extreme wealth next to extreme poverty. It has hundreds of languages and thousands of islands, each with cultural differences. Compared to everywhere else I have been, Indonesia actually reminds me the most of China: diversity, sprawl, inequity, pollution, ancient history, natural wonders, modern high rises, and a massive young population focused on a modern, developed future. Maybe I feel a real connection with large countries. To Americans, the USA is the center of the universe; to Indonesians, their nation is the center. It all depends on your point of view.

prayer at Indonesia's largest mosque

I thought that spending my last day in the capital of Jakarta would help me understand my feelings on Indonesia. It just complicated things even further. By the generosity of the university in Malang, I stayed at a very nice hotel near the airport. The only other thing near there is a mall, since it is basically a Jakarta suburb. But actually, visiting malls in suburbs of Asian countries is a fun cultural experience. In the entire mall I did not see one Westerner. When I bought a shirt for 10,000 rupiah ($1) the young women who worked at the stall were very excited to practice their English “thank you.” Malls are much more scattered and open in Southeast Asia than in the West. This mall was definitely a hangout spot for the local teenagers. (Which means many of them said “Hello sir!” to me. I am guessing they haven’t learned the difference in gender words.)

inside the mall near my hotel

In order to get from my suburb to the actual city of Jakarta, my only option was a taxi. In most cities I have visited, especially capital cities, there is a city center, a downtown, or someplace that you can walk around a bit to get a feeling for the place. In Indonesia, this does not exist. At first I just made this conclusion on my own. Then I met some English teachers, one Scottish one American, and asked them about city centers. “There are no city centers in Indonesia,” one said. Confirmed. So, you can imagine, with no city center, everything is spread out. How do you get from one place to another? Motorbike. “No one walks here,” one of the teachers told me. Confirmed again. Since I did not have a motorbike in Jakarta, I was stuck with a taxi. But this idea of no city centers, no public transportation, and no pedestrians really stands out to me when I think of Indonesia. My taxi brought me to Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia. There you get a free guide in English and a walk around the mosque to learn about its history. It was designed by a Christian and it is actually across the street from a Catholic church, so the guide focused a lot on Indonesia’s religious tolerance. “We are moderate Muslims.” he repeated. Like I said before, Indonesia has been a great place to learn about Islam.

me and the dome of istiqlal mosque

The other major site in Jakarta is the National Monument, or Monas in Indonesian. It’s a freedom monument, a reminder that Indonesia was once colonized by many different foreign powers. Monas is a giant pillar with a golden flame on top, surrounded by huge roads and acres of grass and palm trees. Apparently you are able to go up the tower and also see some small museum inside the monument, but I could not find the entrance. Parts of Monas are really beautiful, but other parts are covered in trash and not kept up. But the greatest part about Monas is the amounts of people just hanging out there. In other parts of Southeast Asia, I have been able to easily find parks where families picnic and boys play soccer. This is the only place like that I found in Indonesia. Food and drink vendors are stretched across the pathways, a toilet in trailer sits at one entrance, and kites flutter in the sky. I was there in the early evening, so families were happy to be outside as the sun was setting to make way for the cooler weather. Walking around Monas reminded me of being in Tiananmen Square in Beijing because so many young people walked up to me to take my photo. The only difference is that more Indonesians speak little bits of English. “Hello miss, can I have a photo with you? Can I have your email address? Will you be my facebook friend?” Indonesian teenagers are not shy.

Monas in the late afternoon. If you look closely you can see the kites in the sky.

The only real conclusion I can make about Indonesia is that I love it. It’s a love that makes my heart ache, like the way I feel about St. Louis and Copenhagen. I’m not sure if I would love it if I didn’t have such wonderful friends as guides in both Java and Bali. I think they helped Indonesia feel like my home. I want more people to visit there, not because it is an island paradise or for the exotic food and art, but because it is an example of how different life can be on this planet. Understanding this is so important to me; I want to be constantly reminded that my home is just a small slice humankind, and nothing gives me the right to assume my way of living is better than anyone else’s. Travel is funny in this way. For me, travel gives me confidence that I can do anything I put my mind to. But at the same time, it brings me modesty. While I am strong and able, I am also small and powerless. I take the first steps, but the world is really in charge. I am just along for the ride.

Hooray Malang!

Finally, the destination we’ve all been waiting for: Malang! Coming to Malang was the whole point of my Indonesia trip. Kasihani’s home university is Universitas Negeri Malang (UM), the state university. Malang is full of schools, and many of them have specialties like technology or engineering. UM is the education university, so the science majors will be science teachers and the English majors will be English teachers. By coming to UM, I have a much better grasp on the topic I am writing about: training teachers to teach English in Indonesia. So I sat in on classes, toured schools, taught a few lessons, and hung out with English students. My days were packed literally from sunrise to sunset. It was a blast!

university library

It was finals time at UM, so one of Kasihani’s classes had to do “microteaching” for their exam. That meant a nearby middle school let them borrow some students to teach for an hour. Since I was there, I got to teach them, too. The winner is always the Hokey Pokey: they loved it! The more challenging teaching job came the next morning: teaching 20 four-year-olds “I’m a Little Teapot.” I’ve never pictured myself teaching little American kids, much less kids who only speak a tiny bit of English. I was exhausted after only an hour with the little ones; I don’t know how teachers do it! I was able to confirm that teaching kids is not my strength or my goal. Whew. I also did some lessons at an English tutoring center and a bilingual (English/Arabic) high school.

teachers and students from microteaching

it's blurry, but i am the tall one (for once) and we are doing the little teapot motions!

After doing my school duties, I had the chance to spend a few days with some of the university students. Kasihani asked her student Ninga to be my guide for three days. She was so generous: showing me her campus, introducing me to her friends, driving me around on her motorbike, bringing me to a park in the mountains, and helping me pick out Arema t-shirts. (Arema is the soccer team of Malang that just won the national championship. Arema!!!) Ninga is an English major and she just got a job offer to teach English in Brunei next year. She is going to be an excellent teacher, and now I have to plan a visit to Brunei!

Ninga's awesome floormates in the women's boarding house (note my t-shirt. Ninga is the bottom right with the peace sign)

Malang is in the higher elevation part of East Java, so that means it is much cooler than other coastal parts of Indonesia. Ninga and her friends decided to take me on a day trip up to Batu, a city even further up into the mountains. Eight of us traveled by four motorbikes an hour from Malang. I was slightly worried that an hour-long motorbike ride would mean dodging trucks and other crazy motorbikers. However, it was actually pretty tame, and my biggest issue was my butt falling asleep. In Batu, there are lots of parks and forest areas for people to relax. We went to a place called Selecta, which is a combination park, garden, waterpark, and amusement park. There are mini motorbikes for kids to ride, waterslides curving through the trees, and huge plots of vibrant flowers. It was really cool to be among Indonesians taking a break in the cool mountains for the weekend.

five of us at Selecta's gardens

After wandering around Selecta, we drove to a restaurant that lets you catch your own meal. We went fishing for about an hour, caught too many fish, threw a few back secretly, and then had the restaurant cook our meal. This is probably the freshest fish I have ever eaten. Also, I think I could recognize the fish that I caught when it came out covered in spices and lime. Anyway, the fish was delicious, and it came with some really spicy mango salad. I told everyone at the table that I would cry if I ate it, but that just made them want to see me eat it even more. I ate it, nearly cried, and they laughed. Why do I always go to countries where everyone has such strong spice tolerance? I look like a wimp!

fishing for our lunch

When I had to say goodbye to Ninga the next day, I cried. We had only known each other a few days, but we spent every waking hour together. I was with her when she went to the mosque to pray, when I tried (not very successfully) to teach kids how to sing “Twinkle Twinkle”, and when I watched “Angels and Demons” with Indonesian students at an English conversation club. I was very intrigued by the students’ choice to watch a movie about the Vatican in the largest Muslim country in the world. I admit I was surprised at the openness that came from the students as we discussed spirituality, extremism, and the search for truth. My time in Malang was my first time living with Muslims, and I think it was really valuable for me. It’s not that I didn’t respect the religion before; it’s that it felt very far away and strange to me as an American. Now, it just feels like another way of going about your day.

before digging into our fresh fish

Love to everyone in Malang. ♥ I will be back!

Bali part two: work and play

I was happy to play tourist for a couple days in Bali, but I was more excited about visiting some of Kasihani’s friends and leading a teacher training event afterwards. Bali is kind of shaped like a diamond, with the east and west ends sticking out longer. Our resort was at the southern tip, and Singaraja is at the northern tip. In central Bali, there are mountains and rice fields – but at no point is there really a break from people. The part of Bali I saw is very densely populated. Driving through the mountains is a slow task, and once in a while a bit nauseating. But we got to hang out with some monkeys!

feeding monkeys bananas and peanuts

First we went to Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, a beautiful school in the city of Singaraja. We were over an hour late, but all of the students were waiting patiently for us in their seminar room. When we arrived, Kasihani was greeted by old friends. I was greeted by new ones; it seemed like everyone in the room already knew my name as they shook my hand and introduced themselves in English. For the next two hours, Kasihani and I did training activities for elementary school English. Most of the participants were students at the university, but some were also already teachers. We practiced greetings, pronunciation, speaking drills, and songs. I helped with everything, but the songs were my main role. Singing with a microphone in front of 25 strangers is not so easy, but everyone was smiling, so I guess I did OK! We sang songs that little kids like, such as Twinkle Twinkle and the Hokey Pokey. I also told the story of The Tortoise and the Hare while Kasihani acted it out with big stuffed animals. The goal was to give them some tools to use in their EYL classrooms (which is the topic of the book we’re writing).

some students and professors at the training seminar

Over the training session, we had a lunch break and a tea break. I got my first chance to eat real Balinese food (the food at the hotel was not so genuine). Oh wow, it was spicy. Amazing, but spicy. As one woman told me, “If it’s not spicy, it’s not Balinese.” We had rice cooked in coconut leaves, sauteed green beans and spinach, and shrimp chips. The spicy part was the sauce: a yummy coconut and peanut sauce. My lips were numb. The tea that I have had in Indonesia has all been very sweet, but very good. The tea snacks were different fried things: fried bananas, fried tofu stuffed with veggies, and a fried veggie pancake. They love fried! At night we had another fantastic Balinese meal at a nice restaurant, where I tried fish lip soup. Mmm, chewy!

Ibu Titi and her husband, Eka, Ibu Kasihani and I at the restaurant

The next day we met with the chancellor of the university. Pretty cool, but I couldn’t follow most of the conversation because it was in Bahasa Indonesia. We had lunch at Ibu Titi’s house, a professor in the English department and a good friend of Kasihani’s. Her house was lovely and open like most of the big houses I have seen in Indonesia. The front of the house is used for entertaining, and it is usually surrounded by a garden. Since Titi’s family is Hindu, they also have a family temple in front of the house.

Driving around Singaraja was awesome. The streets are lined with lush trees, and every few blocks you see an old Hindu temple. Some of the temples we saw were having festivals, so there were baskets of fruit and huge decorated bamboo stalks (called penjor. google it. it’s pretty) out front. It is a much more residential and less touristy city than Denpasar. However, close to Singaraja is the famous Lovina beach, which seems to be much more of a backpacker destination than the rest of Singaraja. Whenever I make it back to Bali, the north will be my first stop, primarily to see the nice and welcoming people that I met.

(I have been trying to post more photos, but my blog is acting funky. More photos will be posted of Bali on Facebook…that is as soon as I get access to Facebook now that I am in CHINA!)