Thankful for Thanksgiving

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since I have posted anything new on the page and there has been a lot of things happening. I will try and keep it as short as possible, but this one might be a bit long. So, find yourself a warm cup of coffee (preferably Stump town) and make yourself comfortable. Here's the news from China.


Well, the most important thing that has happened would have to be the celebration of Thanksgiving. As those who know me best can attest, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. There is no worrying about buying the perfect present or finding the perfect tree. There is no need to stress about finding the clothes to make your costume only to find out that the guy next door is dressing up as the same thing and his costume is much better. All you have to do is show up to your family's house--or in the case for those of us abroad friend's house--with an empty stomach and an appetite.

This year was the first year that I was out of the country for this most special of holidays and that meant that things were changed a little bit. Because the holiday is the only uniquely American holiday--that is a lot of countries have an independence day celebration and most have things like Christmas, but no other country has Thanksgiving--there were things that had to be amended because it was either not available or because it was too hard to make. The first thing, and perhaps the most important difference, was that there was no turkey. I mean, when you think of Thanksgiving you think of turkey, but that is not the easiest thing to get in China. Instead we made due with a few chickens and ducks. At least there were a few pieces of fowl on the table. The other thing that was missing from the table was the cranberry sauce. This may not be a big deal to some people in the States, but to me Thanksgiving is just not the same without the cranberry sauce. There was no alternative for it either, so we had to do without. It was a sad thing, but we got over it.

There were also things added to the table that one usually doesn't see at Thanksgiving, at least not until the day after, like sandwich making supplies. This was to appease the taste of those Chinese friends who did not like the taste of western foods. For the most part the things that were made were well received by the Chinese friends at the table, but some are more picky than others. Oh well, it was a fun time anyway. In the true spirit of things there were multiple bottles of wine as well as a crate of beer that was completely consumed by the end of the night. All in all it was a wonderful celebration and it satisfied that need for a ridiculously large meal and friends around a table.

By the end of the night we had finished seven bottles of wine, twenty four beers (which doesn't sound like much, but you have to see the size of the beers before judging) and a massive amount of food. We also were lucky enough to have musically talented friends to play the guitar and violin for us which was a wonderful way to wind down after stuffing ourselves silly of mashed potatoes and gravy. The pictures I have included were just a few of the ones taken from that night. If you want to see more you can check them out on my Facebook page.

Well, I have a lot more to write about, but unfortunately I don't have the time. I will try and have the rest of it put up soon so keep checking back. I miss everyone and I wish you all Happy Holidays.
Always,
Henry (Hank) Young

FAME

Hello Friends,
Well, it has been another exciting week here in China. The weather has taken a turn for the worse. It seems that winter is upon us now and the gods are eager for us to know it. The past couple of days have not only been in the negatives as far as temperature, but there has also been a few snow flurries. Last night was a real snow storm. It was actually pretty nice. I have always liked snow and it is nice to know that people around the world share in an experience very similar to the ones we know from the U.S. That is, when it snows the roads become treacherous! Not only was the road extremely slippery, but the taxi driver could barely see out of his windshield because it was so foggy. I'm not sure whether or not they have snowplows or things like that to take care of the the snow, but it should be interesting when the snow starts to stick.
More exciting news from the front, I have now been in two Chinese television commercials. It seems that I am starting a side career of being a Chinese television star. It's actually not a very big deal, but it is kind of fun to be filmed doing silly stuff. The first one was about traveling to the city I'm living in, Dandong, and they wanted it to look like an international city. The second one was for rice...go figure. It was pretty funny. They just wanted to film some foreigners eating rice so it was me and two of my friends who are from England. They told us that they weren't going to use the audio from the filming so we decided to play a game. The winner was the person who could string the most swear words together. The most embarrassing part about it was the girl won. Oh well, I guess I can take comfort in the idea that I don't have the dirtiest mind out of the foreigners in Dandong.
I have also started giving speeches. Last Friday I gave a speech to a local high school. It was actually a lot of fun. I did everything from give them a little history lesson on the U.S.A. to sing and dance for them. The children in China take studying very seriously. The high school students have a very hard time. They start school at six thirty in the morning and finish at ten o'clock at night. They study a lot and they seem to have very little time for fun. Because of this I decided that I should try and make it as fun as possible for them. I tried to make them laugh as much as possible and actually have fun in class for once. I think that they enjoyed it very much because a lot of them have started to email me and ask questions. Some just email me to say hello, which is pretty cool.
Well, that is the story from this side of the world. I hope that everyone reading this is well. Thanks again to all of you that have been checking in on me. I miss you all and I hope that we will get the opportunity to see each other soon.
-Henry (Hank) Young

And We're Back

Well, it has been a while ladies and gentleman, but I am back. It looks like we have found a way around the infamous Great Chinese Firewall that will remain available to us at all times. By “us” I mean the foreign teachers at the school that I work at. We are constantly trying to find ways around the firewall so that we can visit are favorite sites. Apparently a couple months before I arrived you were still able to access Facebook and YouTube freely from within China, but that is not the case anymore. The controlling arm of the government has reached out and closed the doors on these and other sites like it, but fortunately we have found a way to get through and find out what is going on in other social circles in the world.
Anyway, enough blabbing about how excited I am to be back on, it’s time to tell the people what I have been up to for the past couple of weeks. It hasn’t actually been all that exciting. The weather over here in China is changing rapidly. A week ago I could run around outside in shorts and a T-shirt and today I woke up to find ice had formed on the ground where puddles had been from the rain a day earlier. Today isn’t one of the chilly November days I remember from back in the states where you could sit outside with a warm cup of tea and a pair of gloves and enjoy the nice sunshine. Today is a cloudless, blue sky day with the wind whipping down from Siberia and let me tell you…IT IS FREEZING. I’m told that it is going to get even colder, but the difference between one day and the next is perhaps the reason why I feel the cold so much today. The buildings have yet to turn on the heating for us—I hope that this sudden burst of cold will be a prompt for them to do that—so getting out of bed this morning was particularly hard. It is quite nice under the comforter when it is warm out, but it is really nice under there when it is cold out. I guess that is one thing that stays constant no matter what country you are in…
Besides the cold weather setting in life goes on here in China. Yesterday was that old favorite holiday of mine where you get to pretend you are something else all day, Halloween. Of course, they do not celebrate such silly things over here in the Communist State, but being an English school we had ourselves a little party. It was actually more of a babysitting job than a party. I think many of the parents took advantage of the opportunity to drop their kids off for someone else to watch on a Saturday night so that they could have some alone time. Oh well, I can’t say that I blame them. I suppose if I had a kid and was given the opportunity to have a free babysitter for a Saturday night I would jump at the chance as well. We did all the silly games that we played when we were younger—wrapping students up as mummies with toilet paper, cutting jack’o’lanterns and giving them candy. I suppose it was fun, but it was also a bit overwhelming.
Luckily before the weather changed too much I was able to get out of the city and see some of the local countryside. I got to climb some of the mountains around the city and that was quite fun. They are very different from the mountains that we are used to in the good old U.S. of A., but that was part of the fun. I remember looking at the classical paintings from China in classes and on my own when I was younger and thinking that the depiction of the mountains was a bit cartoony, but that is not the case. The mountains actually have the rounded off characteristic that you see in the paintings. This was a bit shocking to see from the bottom, but the view from the top was even more astonishing. Hiking up the crest of the mountain was sometimes very dangerous, but it was a lot of fun to do. Often there were points were you would be climbing almost vertically up steps carved into the rock face itself. There were also tight squeezes through narrow passages in caves through the mountain and times where you were walking along the edge of a cliff with barely any support at all. It took us almost five hours to summit the mountain from the bottom, but it only took about an hour and a half to get down. It’s always strange to me the difference between a summit and a descent.
Well, that is the news from afar. It looks like, as I said, this is going to be a reliable source of being able to post to my blog so I hope that I will be able to keep this up a little better. Thanks to anyone who keeps checking in on my through this website. It means a lot to me to get any feedback on the posts.
Always,
Henry (Hank) Young

The Lack of Control

Hello there readers,
Well, it looks like things have really gotten out of my control as far as the blog is concerned. I had, for a little while, found a way to access it without a problem from my apartment so that I could post consistently. However, it seems as though the people who are in charge of monitoring the internet found me out and have blocked my IP address completely. Right now I am using a computer at work during my break to let those of you who are still interested in what I am up to know the circumstances as to why I have not been posting. I am on the hunt for a new way to get online from my apartment, but I do not think that it will be any time too soon that I find a way. I will, instead, start to post more often from work when I have the time. The only down side to this is that I will not be able to include the pictures that I have been taking. So, for the meantime I will have to use my words to paint a picture of what this strange and exciting land is like. Wish me luck...

Well, the past couple of weeks sense my last post have been pretty exciting ones. Not only in my life, but the lives of the people of Dandong (the city I call home for now) and all of the people of China. This past October 1 was a celebration of the P.R.C. turning 60 years old. This is a very big date in the Chinese tradition because of the way that their calender is oriented. Much of our lives in the West revolve around factors of ten. In China, however, much of their traditions revolve around factors of twelve. This is why sixty has particular importance. It is the fifth cylce of twelve to be completed and this is equivalent to something turning fifty in the West. It was a very large celebration and you could see how proud the people were. The parade that was held in Beijing was very large and I would suggest to anyone who has the time to take a look to find some clips of the procession. It was very impressive, if not a bit intimidating.

As well as it being National Day (October 1) it was also the Mid-Autumn festival. This is a celebration dating back thousands of years that coincides with the autumnal equinox. It, I think, is mostly a harvest celebration, but because of its position in the lunar calender it might have some other significance as well. Most people celebrate by spending time with their families and eating a traditional cake called a "Moon Cake." I tried one, and I must say that, at least the type that I tried, were just awful.

Dandong also had its own celebration during the past couple of weeks. They had what they call the "Tourism Festival" in town which didn't really attract too many tourist as far as I could tell. However, there was a parade full of Russians so it was a bit strange to walk down the street and see a group of lao wai (foreigners) walking down the street. I have only been here a couple of months and I have already fallen into the habit that it seems most Chinese people have. When they see a foreigner they are shocked and just stare at them. I guess that it one thing I truly have in common with the people of Dandong. Anyway, the tourism festival also brought a number of different minority people from China to the city to sell their wares and food. One particular street was closed off to traffic and opened to those trying to sell things. Most were food vendors thus the name became "fan jie" or "food street." I frequented this street a lot because it was very cheep and you could try a number of different cuisines within a couple of blocks.

Because it was a national holiday the school that I work for, Dandong Aston English School, was closed for ten whole days. I took this opportunity to travel around China for the first time sense arriving here. A group of us, foreign teachers as well as a couple of Chinese friends that we have, took a trip to Inner Mongolia to visit the deserts and grasslands of Northern China. It was a fun trip because I got to know some of the people who I depend on for friendship and an understanding ear a little better as well as seeing a part of the world that few I know have ever considered visiting. The first night that we spent in Inner Mongolia was a bit disappointing because we were staying in a, for lack of a better description, ghost town that had been created to attract tourists. That meant that much of it was given over to cheesy attractions and shows. It was fun to see and we capped off the night by going to a "traditional Mongolian show" that had a bonfire, singers, dancers and other performers that was quite cool. Somehow at the end of the performance the whole thing turned into a big dance party complete with thumping music and flashing lights and everyone dancing around the fire following the lead of the lao wai (aka us). I don't know if that was really the plan or if they did it just because we were there, but whatever the case it was fun because now I can say I have been to a dance party in Inner Mongolia.
The second day was a bit more of an adventure. We started the day by finishing off our ghost town visit with a trip to the local zip-line and then a walk in the "Prime-Evil Forest." Both were a bit cheesy, but the forest was quite lovely because the trees were starting to change colors. After that we left for a horse trek through the desert which was pretty cool. Even though it was not much of a trek--you were merely placed on top of a horse and then their owners led them out into the desert--it was cool to see the sand dunes and run down them and what not. After that we headed out to the grasslands and our yurt which we stayed in for the night. It was pretty cool being out on the grasslands were you could see for miles and the only thing that would brake your line of sight was an occasional tree or the wind farm that had been built to harvest the most abundant natural recourse of the grasslands. We arrived pretty late so we settled on having a quick futball match on a pitch that was both very small and full of obstacles (aka holes, mounds and lots of horse shit). Afterwards we had a lovely dinner and retired to the yurt where we played drinking games with our driver. It was very fun.
The next day we had a better horse back riding experience as we convinced the people to let us just ride out onto the grasslands without guides. This was a lot of fun because we could actually get the horses running a little bit, although I'm convinced now that horses in Inner Mongolia actually don't know how to canter. I never once saw one get going faster than a trot, even when the people who owned them were using them to coral the other horses. After the horse trek we got into the car for a twelve hour trip back to Dandong. This was the worst part of the trip and we were all relieved when when finally saw the lights of our familiar city on the horizon. In the end I would not have traded the experience for anything. There were some bad times, but there was also a lot of laughter and sharing past experiences. I learned a lot, even though no one was trying to teach me and I can only hope that this is the constant in my life while I'm in China.

Well, that is the long and short of what I have been up to the past couple of weeks. I'm, again, very sorry that it has taken me so long to add anything to my blog. It has become increasingly difficult to access the site from places in China, but I hope to resolve that problem very shortly. I miss you all very much and I thank you for those of you who have continued to check up on me.
Always,
Henry (Hank) Young

New City

Hello readers,

To those who have been checking in on me and noticing a lack of new posts, I am sorry. It is not easy to get online in my new home, but I have made progress and I hope to be up and running soon.

Anyway, I have made it to my final destination...finally! Dandong, Liaoning, China. It is strange to think that I am halfway around the world from everyone I have held close for my entire life. Every morning when I wake up there is still a moment where I think that I am just in another apartment in some US city. Then the sounds and smells of China remind me that I am, in fact, a stranger in a strange land.

The past couple of days have been spent getting to know my surroundings a little bit. The first day I was here I spent a majority of my time walking around the city. Most of my time was spent on the water front, peering across the river into North Korea. It is strange to think that I am so close to a country that is completely closed to me. If I wanted to, and I don't, I could easily swim across, but somehow I don't think it would be very easy for me to blend in with the locals.

After about an hour of walking along the river front I took a turn into the city at a random cross street. Needless to say, I got myself good and lost a couple times. Fortunately the city is relatively small and I found my way back to the school with little problem.

My apartment is nice. I thought that I would be sharing it with a roomate, but I come to find out that that is not the case. I don't know whether I am relieved or bummed about not having a roomate, but it is what it is and I suppose it doesn't really matter.

Well, I am tying up the computer in the teachers' lounge so I am going to keep this post short. I will write again soon with some pictures and videos of my first couple days in China.

Keep checking in,
Henry (Hank) Young

A New Day Cambodia

Hello readers,

 

As promised, here is a little bit more about the school where I work and the students that I’m teaching.  Even though I have only been with them for a week and I will only be with them for a week more I have grown fond of them.  They are very charismatic and easy to smile, even though they come from what I can only assume is a very hard family life.

 

The school that I am working at, New Day Cambodia, is actually an NGO sponsored in part by the Chicago Bulls.  This has resulted in some pretty funny conversations with the students as when we were learning about traveling arrangements they frequently answer the question “Where do you want to go on holiday,” by saying they wish to visit Chicago.  I have tried to explain that there are better places in the U.S. to visit, but they still insist that they want to visit The Windy City.

 

Perhaps the most difficult part of teaching these students, actually without a doubt the hardest part, has been learning their names.  I thought that the students in America had some difficult names, but teachers have it easy there.  It seems that every female student I have is named Srey Neat, Srey Neang, Srey Neath…etc.  Most of the boys’ names are easy enough (Nas, Barek, Chon), but I often get a laugh because of my pronunciation.

 

All of the students that I teach are children of families that work the local dump yard.  What I mean by this is that they shift through the garbage for anything useful.  Anything they can use themselves or that they can turn into a profit.  They, and the families like them, are actually the only form of recycling that this country has.  They search for anything that they can possibly fix and resell and it is common to see old bottles, both glass and plastic, refilled with gasoline being sold at roadside gas vendors.  During the week the children stay at the center (New Day Cambodia) but during the weekends they return to their families in the dump and many do not have an actual home.  Instead they have temporary shelters set up because the families are usually moving from dump-site to dump-site.  New Day Cambodia has helped some children escape this life, but there are still many more that live their lives shifting through garbage.

 

Despite this difficult living situation the students have a generally happy disposition.  Always laughing, poking fun and playing games they are a joy to teach.  Not a day goes by that I don’t marvel at the steps that they take in class.  They are dedicated to learning English and it shows in their devotion to studying the material, however limited it is, that they have.  I will miss these students and I can only hope that their behavior is reflective of what I will experience in China.

 

Thanks for checking in.  Keep your eye out for more posts.

 

            Henry (Hank) Young

Temporary Home

The Royal Palace

Hello readers,

           

Well, I have been hounded to post a few pictures of the city that has been my temporary home for the past three weeks and I figured that it would be a good idea to give a brief description of what life is like in the city of Phnom Penh.

My Room

            

Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and is home to over two million people.  The cultural majority is the local Khmer people but there is also a strong Chinese population in the city.  Another cultural group that has seemed to make a home for itself here are the Russians, but it is harder to find the influence they have (at least in the open).  There are also ex-pats from almost everywhere, but the majority are from English speaking countries (U.K., Australia, New Zealand). 

 

The architecture of Phnom Penh has a large French influence due to the imperial colonization, which they did not win their independence from until the 1950s.  From that time on there were various changes in government, but perhaps the most notorious is the Khmer Rouge.

           

The Khmer Rouge is the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea.  They were a brutal government who were set on returning the country to an agrarian-based culture.  To do this they committed one of the worst genocides in recent history.  An estimated 1.5 million Cambodians died from starvation, torture or murder and the area just outside of the city has been given the ominous name of “The Killing Fields.”  They say that on days when it rains particularly hard you can still find bones sticking up out of the ground.  The Khmer Rouge took power in 1975 and then was driven out in 1979 with help from the Vietnamese.  Because of this there is a large memorial to Vietnam in one of the central parks.  One of the more disturbing points of the ousting of the Khmer Rouge is that the U.S. government opposed it because of deep anti-Vietnam sentiments of the time.  Not one of our prouder moments.

Memorial to Vietnam

Despite this and other setbacks, the Cambodian people are incredibly friendly and helpful to everyone.  They are excited to talk to anyone in English and the government is taking a very aggressive position on education.  Students start taking English classes at a very early age and it is regular for families to devote a large part of their income to sending their children to private language schools.  Their culture is a rich one and the people are very proud of their heritage.  They may be pushing their population to learn English, but it is never at the expense of their identity.

           

Well, that is a brief description of the city I have called home for the past three weeks or so.  I will talk a little bit more about the education system after I get a few pictures of the class that I am teaching right now.  They are adorable and I am grateful to have been their teacher, even if it was for only a few weeks.  I will miss them in China.

           

Keep checking in and I’ll have more from Cambodia soon.

 

            -Henry (Hank) Young