Showing posts with label Hohhot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hohhot. Show all posts
Chinese Fun Facts #4
Sarah

Baby Pants

Babies don’t wear diapers. The wear pants with a slit in them for easy use. It can be quite a surprise when all of the sudden you see a bare baby booty, or worse. I am quite interested though, to see what happens with the whole no diaper thing when it starts snowing outside.

Chinese Break dancing

Apparently, they love break dancing here. It is not something I really expected, but if you go to the clubs and bars, you can see em, spinning away. And they are actually quite good! They even have teams, and have dance-offs. I have yet to see one, but I am looking forward to it!

KTV

KTV is Chinese Karaoke. No idea what it stands for, but it is fun! You rent out little rooms by the hour, and just go nuts. The songs are mostly Chinese, but there are some classics and new songs to be found. The Chinese love Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson, so those are easy enough to find!

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Random Chinese Fun Facts #3
Sarah

Tissues

When traveling in China, you should always carry around tissues. Why? Because 8 times out of 10 wherever you are going won’t have toilet paper. I know, ew. But such is life. They sell packs in pretty much every store, so never to fear if you forget yours at home!

Seasonal Snacks

On the streets you can find vendors selling everything from tissues (see above!) to yoghurt to socks. My favorite things to find them selling so far, however, are the seasonal snacks. When I arrived in the summer months, they were selling cooked corn, and ear for 2 yuan (about 30 cents). Now in the autumn, it is cooked sweet potato, anywhere from 2-10 yuan, depending on the size of the tater. Pretty awesome. Can’t wait to see what the other seasons bring!

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More Random Things About Hohhot
Sarah

1) It can be spelled lots of different ways.

Hohhot. Huhhot. Haohuhate ( or something). These are all spellings you can expect to see for my city. All are correct. All are used. Weird, huh?

2) Not everyone in China is against the whole facebook-blocking thing,

I actually talked to one student who made a good argument for it! He told me that in China, a lot of people are not very well educated. This means that they will believe whatever people tell them. So, some people use sites like Facebook to push their ideals that are against the government, and they will probably be able to garner some backing because of the uneducated. How sad L

3) Pencils in china don’t have erasers.

Like, none of the pencils. You never really appreciate the ease of having your eraser attached to your writing instrument until it is not anymore. Maybe they realize they can make more money by selling the erasers separately, and making them look like Disney characters? Who knows? I do know, however, that not having an eraser on the pencil leads to the kids sharpening both ends of the pencil and little broken bits or eraser all over my classroom floor.

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China + Mongolia= Inner Mongolia, China
Sarah
So some people seem to be confused as to where I am haha. I am in Hohhot (or Huhhot, or Huhaote, etc..), which is the capital of the province of Inner Mongolia, China. It is definitely a Chinese city, but with lots of Mongolian influences. Most things around are written in Chinese, but there are Mongolian and English translations in some places ( the English is usually not correct!). You can tell the people walking around that are Mongolian, because they usually have longer hair and a less "city-like" appearance. Even the foods are different- while the Chinese eat lots of rice, the Mongolian are more about noodles (and onions-yuck!). Chinese food is about soups and such, while the Mongolians like to bake things into pancake-type breads. Both types are food are quite yummy though! From everything I have heard from native Chinese people, Hohhot is a very different city from the rest of China, and I am looking forward to experiencing more areas!

Language update: We had our first Chinese lesson at school today :-) So far, I can direct a taxi, ask how much something is and say "No, that's too expensive!".. More to come!
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Random Chinese Fun Facts
Sarah
#1: Everyone in China wants to as white as possible.
After living in Florida, land of sun tans and beaches, this came as quite a shock to me! We have to be careful when we are buying body wash and lotion, because some have whitening elements in them. On any given day, sunny or rainy, it is normal to see men and women carrying around parasols (some are quite lacy) of all colors. And women wear these weird semi-sleeve things (think leg warmers, for arms) to try to ward off a little more sun. I saw a lady yesterday using some vegetables she had just purchased as a visor!

#2 Milk does not need to be refrigerated here.
Somehow, this is true. Milk is often sold in things that can most easily be described as cardboard bags. And they sell them right on the streets. Very strange.

#3 Fireworks are set off day and night.
I mean, come on China, how stereotypical can we get?! Just cause you invented gunpowder doesn't mean that at 2 am on a random day you need to set em off! Hearing random "pop pop pops" at all hours is quite normal here.

#4 Prepare for the stare.
Westerners get stared at. All the time. Everywhere. At the stop lights, people turn around on their bikes, and gawk. In the gym locker rooms, ladies will stand at watch you- while they are completely naked! At the supermarket, they follow you up and down every aisle. Yeah. It is quite awkward.
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It's Quite Hot in Hohhot
Sarah

So when researching this city, it seemed that when I arrived, mid-July, it would be in the 80's (for use Fahrenheitians of America). It turns out, this year brought on quite a surprise heatwave, providing us with temperatures in the upper 90's, and none of the normal summer rain! Think Florida, but much, much more dry. Everyone who is used to the humidity of Florida is thinking "Dry, that's nice"... No. Not when it is so dry that every morning you wake up without a voice and with a hacking cough. This should soon be remedied, however, when I acquire a humidifier from the Spar*.

Winter will bring quite a different experience for me. When I told one of my students how cold it gets in Florida in winter, he told me that was spring here. I asked what the temperature would be in December, and he said "You don't want to know". Just what everyone from the Sunshine State dreads to hear! Turns out it will be below zero. Like mega below zero. Not gonna lie, I'm scared. I have already been given one coat from someone who is leaving (I am a size XXL in China? Ouch!), and will need some more, I am sure. I am taking up a collection for thermal underwear!


*Spar: Pretty much the Target of the city. They have almost everything (except white wine and parmesan cheese), and is quickly becoming one of my favorite places here.
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Greetings from Hohhot!
Sarah
Hey everyone!
Well, I have finally secured a way to sneak past China's blockage of all things fun on the internet*... and now can really begin my blog! So here goes..

I am living in the city of Hohhot, which is the capital of Inner Mongolia. Yes, it is in China, but has major Mongolian influences everywhere. It is a small city by Chinese standards, but very up and coming. Research on it will not yield much info. All I knew coming over where was what my contact at my school or Wikipedia told me. Needless to say, I was a little worried.

Hohhot is a pretty decent city. It is very large, though unlike major cities in the US, most of the city is not made of office buildings, but of apartments (usually only 4-6 stories tall). I am in a two bedroom apartment with one roommate, Kirsty (from England). We live about a mile from school, which translates to a 15 minute walk or 5-10 minute bike ride (depending on the biking traffic).

The school I am working for is a franchise, and I am one of 12 teachers at the moment- though only one of 3 from the US. At the moment, during the intensive period** I am teaching 6 days a week. When it is over, I will work 5 days a week. I will explain more about the actual school in another post.

Due to my being money and health conscious and cooking dinner at home, as well as the opening of a new chain restaurant that serves many western dishes, I have yet to eat much authentic food. What I have had, though, was quite good, and seeing I am going to be here for another 11 months and 3 weeks I am not too concerned about missing out on the local customs.

Well, more to come later.
Much love to all!



*Due to a still partly Communist government, and deadly riots about a year back, China has a block on websites whose main job is to share info with others in a casual media, i.e. Facebook, Youtube, blogs, etc.
**Intensive periods- times of the year that the kids are not in school, so there are more classes than usual.
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