Road Trip to California

I went west to go east. Six days ago I flew to Denver and Charlie picked me up to drive an hour north to Loveland where we stayed with our aunt and uncle. The air was noticeably drier, the skies were clear and blue, and the front rage of the Rockies was always in sight. The backdrop of mountains got us excited to drive across them all the way to the Pacific.

The next morning from Loveland we drove back towards Denver and then took Interstate 70 through the mountains, by ski resorts like Copper and Vail and old mining towns such as Leadville. By late afternoon, we had reached Utah and took a small road off the interstate – a shortcut our aunt Sara told us about – towards Moab. We came across very few cars during that half hour drive, but we did see an old wood bridge where only the steel wires remained and a panoramic view of mesas and spires of red rock. In one beautiful spot with a parking area for photographs, we took some pictures of the landscape that turned out to be identical to that of postcards we saw later at the gas stations in town.

We spent just one night in Moab and both Charlie and I fell in love with the place. Unfortunately, we didn’t have two mountain bikes nor did we have much time, but we did take out our two bikes with skinny wheels out and went up and down a paved bike path that follows the Colorado River. We had crossed the Colorado River several times during our drive that day, and now it was our chance to cross it by bike on a rust-colored pedestrian and bicycle bridge. Moab was a fun Western town full of nice cafés, bars, bike shops, and tour companies and outfitters.

We ate breakfast early in Moab – Japanese style tofu and seaweed over brown rice, a breakfast burrito, and roasted potatoes – because we had a long drive to do that day. Utah was long and dry but had lots of beautiful red rocks and mesas. Nevada was even longer and just as hot, but it got a little greener and was a seemingly endless series of mountain ridges and valleys. We took US route 50, which is known as “The Loneliest Road in America.” It took six or seven hours to cross the state and we went through four towns. They were all Western towns no more than a few blocks long. Around dusk we got to Reno in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We had an awesome dinner of authentic Mexican food that tasted even better after a long day in the van and only snacking on packaged foods.

We spent the night in a motel room just outside Sacramento. After driving for about 12 hours through three states, we were exhausted and quickly fell asleep, but we arose early the next morning to see four cities that day. Over breakfast in Moab I read an article about “The Great California Garage Sale” taking place that weekend – an attempt by the state government to alleviate its massive debt by selling of cars, office furniture, computers, and other surplus state owned things. We happened to drive by the site of the garage sale so the next morning so we decided to stop and take a look. We considered picking up a computer for under $50, an old desk or some bright yellow pants with reflective stripes, but ended up leaving empty handed.

Not far west of Sacramento we reached Davis and spent a few hours there biking around campus, the university arboretum, and the “downtown,” making stops at the enology building, the math building, Charlie’s house, the farmer’s market, the Davis Co-op food store and a self-serve frozen yogurt shop (in all three of the latter places we indulged in some amazing food). It was a little like the near west side of Madison, a compact and green college town dominated by large university buildings and sports fields. There’s an excellent system of bike and pedestrian paths, complete with roundabouts and miniature traffic signs, and an endless rows of bike rakes outside of every campus building.

By now it was mid-day and we were ready to finally get to the Pacific coast, so we drove towards the Bay area and stopped in Berkeley for a couple hours, where we bike around campus (more like up and down campus, as it’s all on situated on a hill). There were some delicious looking restaurants in Berkeley, including Alice Water’s Chez Panisse and numerous Indian and Thai restaurants. We weren’t very hungry after eating our way through Davis so we just split a fruit and yogurt smoothie.

The trip across the Bay Bridge was really cool, once we finally got onto it after waiting in the severely backed up toll lines. We reached Sukey and Pat’s place around 4 p.m., which was the perfect destination. We could see the ocean and even feel it in the cool and damp breeze coming off the water – a palpable sign that the continent, and our road trip, had finally come to an end. I am sure Charlie was relieved to know that after three and half days of driving, there was no more land to drive across. And the van, with close to 160,000 miles on it and carrying a full load, had completed the trip without a problem.

Summer

Soon after arriving in Milwaukee, I saw the Big Bang fireworks show on July 3rd, followed by the fireworks at Atwater beach on the fourth. I spent a few days in Washington D.C., a weekend in northern Wisconsin, and lots of time seeing family and friends in Milwaukee and Oconomowoc. In August, Charlie and I spent a weekend in Chicago and saw a lot of music in Grant Park. When Martha returned home from camp, we skied on Lac La Belle and spent time at our grandparent's house.

I've posted some pictures from the summer on Flickr.

At the end of August lies one more trip, and this one will lead me eventually back to Nanjing, China. On the 26th I'll fly to Denver to meet Charlie and stay with out aunt Sara and uncle Glen in Loveland, CO. On the 27th we'll drive to Utah and camp for a night. On the 28th we'll be near Reno and Lake Tahoe. On the 29th we'll reach San Francisco and stay with our cousin Sukey in the Bay Area. On September 1st I'll catch a flight to Shanghai and from there a train to Nanjing. School starts on the 7th.

English mania

There is a brief video, titled “The world’s English mania,” in the TED talks online about how English has become the world’s second language and what purpose it serves. There are some clips of Chinese students studying for and taking the “gao kao” – the Chinese university entrance exam. The gao kao takes place every year for three days in early June. A few weeks ago, on two consecutive days I ran into a huge crowd of parents and grandparents huddling outside a school while I was on my way to teach English. When I returned a few hours the students had just finished and were heading home with their parents. Some were in tears, some looked exhausted, but most seemed happy just to be done.

The speaker in the video, Jay Walker, states that ¼ of the gao kao score is based on English. Several recent college grads and professors that I’ve asked all say that it changes every year, and recently nearly one of the three days of the exam is taken up by English. A large minority of students don’t not score high enough to enter any university – spots are limited – so they work, attend a private school or a technical school, or wait a year to take the exam again. The pressure to learn English is immense.

In the video there are some shots of English camps where thousands of students practice and recite English together. The largest class I’ve taught was about 100 students in a primary school gym, so it was a little bit like that. I’ve also gone to outdoor events where, on stage using a microphone, I say a few things, sing a Chinese song and an English song, or do tongue twisters, in front of 100+ people. The purpose of those classes at local schools or appearances at other events is to promote my school and get students to attend, where our classes have 5-10 students. Our classes meet several times a week with both Chinese and foreign teachers, and provide activities on weekends and holidays, and a language camp and trips in the summer. The tuition for an eight month long course is more than a semester’s tuition at a public university.

Pictures, videos, and more

Plenty of pictures from last month's trip have been posted.

You can view them as pictures.

Or view them as a slideshow.

There's also a compilation of short videos.

And an well written blog from Charlie.

The events that occurred 20 years ago still reverberate today, despite government efforts to whitewash the incident from history.

Scores of email, photography, and social networking sites are blocked (including blogspot, but there are ways around it).

The square is under tight security.

It's worth reading Nick Kristof's reflections on being an eyewitness 20 years later.

And going back to read his reporting at the time.

[UPDATE] There are some stunning pictures on the Boston Globe's photograph blog.

Family visit

Charlie wrote up a brief summary of the first half of our trip.

http://charliebrummitt.blogspot.com/

More details, including pictures and videos to come later.

New Ambassador to China

President Obama nominated Utah’s current governor, Jon Huntsman Jr., as the new ambassadorto China. Huntsman was a Mormon missionary in Taiwan in the 1980s before going into government service.

Last summer in Beijing there were four American students at my university who had similar stories as Gov. Huntsman . They all grew up in Mormon families in Utah or Idaho, graduated from high school, went through several months of intensive language training, and then were sent to Asia for two years. Two went to Taiwan and the other two went to Korea. All four were really nice people and sharp students. I got to know three of them really well and had no idea that they were Mormon and had already lived in Asia until it came up one day. I imagine schools like Brigham Young University must be long on mature and hardworking 20 or 21 year old freshman who speak a foreign language.

Some facts about Nanjing

I’ve been in Nanjing for nearly three full months now and have explored a good part of the city on my bike, but I haven’t visited any cultural sites during that time. In a trip to Nanjing last fall I hiked around Purple Mountain (it’s more like a big hill) and visited Sun Yatsen’s tomb (a massive set of stairs leading up to his mausoleum), an old temple that is now several touristy pedestrian streets, and the Nanjing Massacre Memorial and Museum.

Since I’m expecting visitors next week, I took out my copy of Lonely Planet China and went online to look up the points of interest in Nanjing and learned a few things about Nanjing. It has the longest city wall in the world and is believed to have been the largest city in the world in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, when the population was nearly half a million people. It was the capital of China under several dynasties and for a time served as the capital of the People’s Republic of China in the early 20th century. Now I know why there’s an area just north of my university that reminds me of the embassy district in Beijing, minus the guards on every corner; it used to be the place where many embassies were located.

Today Nanjing has 7.5 million people, which ranks 7th among Chinese cities. The city has the 10th tallest building in the world (free standing structures, which includes some TV towers); the nearly finished Zifeng tower is 450 meters tall and is only a few blocks away from my apartment.

Speaking of tall buildings, the Sears Tower (#4 on the same list) has new owners and hence a new name – it’s now called the Willis Tower. One Sunday last month a 50 story office tower in Nanjing caught on fire. I could see it from my English school on the 25th floor of another office building a couple kilometers away. It was a surreal sight to see flames leaping from a tall building.

See if you can find me among the pictures at my English school. There are lots of little kids and most of the pictures are from activities in and outside of school.

May Day weekend

Much of my birthday and the three day weekend was spent outside at a park, doing activities with little kids. A big event for kids was held there (and at a shopping mall Saturday morning) where my English school had activities with our regular students. In the park, we had a stage and microphones, and all I did was say a few words like “sweep the floor” and “wash the dishes” when we taught chores, and “apple” and “banana” when we made fruit salad. I get paid an insanely high wage (15-20 times the minimum wage) because it looks good to have a native English speaker on the staff (even though all I do is say a few words into a microphone and pose for lots of pictures).

The best part is the staff I work with and the fact that I was the only non-Chinese teacher all three days. About 20 assistant teachers from the school (where there are many, many more Chinese teachers) were there to set things up and help with all the songs, kite flying, food, games, etc. They’re all around my age, they’re really close with each other (kind of like camp counselors), and they all find me fascinating. We spent all of the down time chatting (they’ve all studied English extensively but find that it’s easier to talk to me in Chinese) and then I’d come home to an inbox full of pictures they took with me and friend requests on Xiaonei (a Chinese social networking site that is almost an exact copy of Facebook).

On Friday night, after we had packed everything up and took seven or eight taxis to get everything back to the school, three teachers took me out for dinner and surprised me with a birthday cake.

It was sunny and hot on both Friday and Sunday and I got a little sunburned. It rained all day on Saturday. That’s been the typical weather lately.

Finally, after discovering that the locals have no idea how to make a pizza (though they really try hard – for an activity making pizzas at school two weeks ago the Chinese teachers bought ketchup and white bread – they were convinced that’s how Americans make pizza), I decided to write a pizza recipe when our writing teacher assigned us a short essay describing how to make something.

做比萨

大家都吃过比萨，是世界上最有名的料理之一。有各种各样的比萨, 可以过过所有的口味。无论男女老少都喜欢吃比萨。虽然做比萨又容易又好玩，但是很少人会做比萨。
先准备比萨面。最简单的面是三个配料：面粉，水，与酵母。你可以加鸡蛋，盐，或玉米粉. 放热水在一个碗里面，加一点酵母，让溶一下，然后加面粉（大概3：2 面粉：水）。 等一个小时，面会大一点。把面揉五分钟。在桌子上，放一满手的面粉，然后把面弄平。
面准备好，放番茄将在上面。然后放蔬菜，奶酪，与肉。先要切蔬菜和肉成块儿。最流行的比萨配料是洋葱，青椒，蘑菇， 菠萝， 香肠，培根，等等。在中国，玉米，海鲜，与色拉将也很多。
最后，要把比萨放在烤箱里考八九分钟。