Back from China

Well, 6 weeks in China passed quickly in the end.  It was certainly the experience of a lifetime, and I spent a lot of time feeling either surrounded or lonely, or both.  But I learned a great deal about myself, about others, and generally what I have to be grateful for.  I had hoped to blog more while away, but the internet was slow, intermittent, and I had to keep setting up a virtual private network just to log in to blogger!

The food was amazing.  Mostly.  My favourite thing was the roasted tofu, which was served up pretty much anytime I sat down to eat.  Vegetarians the world over get the same comments,
"How do you not eat meat?  You are missing out on some good food."

Well, given how many wonderful vegetarian options are available in China, no one needs to eat meat if they don't want to.  I was served gorgeous dumplings and wonderful soups, as well as my favourite new meal, Hot Pot.

We were staying up in Changchun, which is in Northern China, up near Mongolia, Russia and Korea.  The food has influences from all these areas, and becomes really spicy.  The town is famous for ginseng, and they try to sell it to tourists.  Then we came down to Beijing which was a completely different lifestyle and food.  Finally, Guangzhou, where everything was again tropical, and much more like food I am familiar with while overseas.

Those of you who know my love for Blackmilk Clothing, well, I have never been so thankful for their leggings!  I wore them every day in sub-zero temperatures, kept warm, looked awesome, and they wash and dry by hand overnight!  So good. There will so be a series of travel tips for being overseas for extended time periods, as well as dealing with travel in China.

The worst experiences I had were in Chinese airports.  Here being different wasn't such a good thing.  Being drug swabbed, felt over for all sorts of things, removing shoes for scans, and being man-handled as no one spoke enough English to tell me what was going on.  I felt like crying going through this twice in one morning, so I went and found a European toilet and sobbed my eyes out, then put on my metaphorical big girl pants, and just got on with it.

Over the next week or so, I will write up my food experiences in China.  I will be sharing my food experiences on my other blog, "At Home with the Lunchbox Guru", so feel free to browse both.  And I'll be tagging the posts with "The China Experience" just to keep the series together.

Heading to China!

It's been a long time since I've updated "Beyond Island Hopping", and there really hasn't been much reason for it.... Except a lack do doing anything except working! However, this is set to change.

In a few weeks time I'll be jetting off to China! I'm of on a teaching exchange to Changchun, in Northern China. What is cook about this, is as a History teacher, I have taught about the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, which had the seat of government in Changchun. It's also super close to Mongolia and Russia, which makes it seem really exotic.

On the way there will be a stopover in Ghangzcho, just north of Hong Kong in Southern China. And after 4 weeks of teaching I'll be in Beijing for a week, where I plan to see the Great Wall of China, the Olympic buildings including swimming in the water cube, and I will find panda bears.

I'm a little apprehensive about being a vegetarian in a country where I can't read or speak the language, and quite worried about whether I will be a successful teacher there, but it will be a wonderful experience.

I'm hoping to be able to update the blog while in China, and I am thinking of posting similar content on "At home with the Lunchbox Guru".


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Oh the Excitement!

Well, I have returned from an interview....

And one that I hope like crazy will prove productive and highly successful... though I am sure that I'll get really nervous if that happens.

What for?  Well, a one month teaching exchange to China!  Yes, China!  If selected I'll get to teach English and Drama to school and university students in China, and to spend time in Beijing!  I know that is a lot of !!! marks!!!

But it is worth it.  Really.

Do I want this?  Yes!  It's China!  I cannot even stop to say how exciting even the opportunity is, because I am such a fan of Chinese Architecture... yes, that is the building nerd seeping out again.  And I read "Cradle to Cradle"... that is awesome.  Included are the ideas around building cities so that they have no negative carbon footprint.  And I want to see the Yellow River and the 3 Gorges Dam and the Terracotta Army and the Great Wall and to do Tai Chi in the park.... so many things!

But, we shall see how this goes.  I should know in a few days time.... which is nerve wracking in itself.