I just realized I haven't updated since we've been back to China.

As you can imagine, we did make it back. It's a new semester, and it's pretty much "same same but different". I am teaching 1st grade now, which is interesting - this is the first time some of them have ever been to school, so they don't really know how to be students yet. Things like lining up, raising their hand, etc. are foreign concepts, so it's taking me back to basics for teaching. Like, really basics. But overall, it's been a good experience. I started giving out small candies for each class, and man... I really like how much power that gives me over the students.

I promise I'm not a super villain. I just mean, that they will move heaven and earth for a small gummie. Some of the students that were really naughty the first week have become surprisingly eager to please when they realize their actions are making them lose a treat. And since they're in teams, the other teammates make their pleasure/displeasure with them very well known. I think this power is going to my head. As long as the gummie industry is running, I could command a very dysfunctional child army.

In other news, Ella and I started a DELTA. This is a big, three part teacher training course, and is the "next step" after the CELTA Ella and I did in Bangkok. I am hoping this will be the last ESL training thing I will ever have to do, because there isn't anything higher. It's on a similar level as a Master's Degree in the UK, so, fingers crossed. I wanted to do it at some point, but apparently now it's "sooner" rather than "later". We're about 3 weeks in now, and overall my feeling is "meh". It reminds me a lot of my other Master's and papers about ESL - 90% of the time, people sitting around using way too many words to appear smart, with 10% practical advice. If you want good teachers, tell them how to teach, not having them describe the differences in an "interlingual" and "intralingual" error. Maybe this is just the foundation level, but I almost want to get a PhD out of spite, just so I have the authority to say how ridiculous teacher training is.

Not Kaifu Temple, but it's more pretty.

For more interesting things, this past week was National Week. That's sort of like Chinese Independence Day, celebrating when the communists took over the country in 1949. Last year we went to Shangchuan, a nice little island to the south. This time we were looking to "get away" a bit more, and went to Changsha with our friend Alex. What is Changsha, you ask? It's the capital of Hunan province to the north, known for their stinky tofu (yes, seriously). Why would people want to eat stinky tofu?

I have no idea. But here we are.

Of course, travel during National Week, when pretty much the entire country of 1.3 billion people has time off of work is a bit much. Honestly we didn't have Changsha in mind as a destination, just anywhere not Guangzhou that had cheap flights. We did get one with a quick stopover in Baise, a small town near the Vietnam border, having an airport of just one room. Anyway, we arrived in Changsha pretty late, and went to check into our hostel - which did not exist. Like, we went to the building, and it was clearly an apartment building, not a hotel. And it looked like an abandoned apartment building at that. After multiple calls, emails, Wechats, etc., there was no response. We found another place nearby, also a "hostel" that is basically where someone put a couple of bunk beds into an apartment building.

We've stayed in these before in China, and honestly I don't like them. They're difficult to find because they don't put up any signs or markings - probably to avoid detection and have to register as a "real" hotel. And there's often no way to distinguish if they are a "real" hotel or not. Plus they don't have any common area, so there's none of that social hostel atmosphere that I love. Anyway, after multiple calls to booking.com and insisting "what you say is there is simply not there", they took care of things and we found another hotel.

So, what to do in Changsha? We had 3 days there, which is probably about or a little more than what you need. We started in Kaifu Temple, which is pretty standard for how temples go - nice, but you know, it's a Chinese temple. We took the metro down south to Pozi Street, stepped out, and oh my god.

It's a pedestrian street just stuffed to the brim of restaurants, street food, and shops. It's like Nanjing Lu in Shanghai, but twice as busy, if that were possible. It's actually an amazing part of this city, and probably the best. While sort of an assault on the senses, it's really interesting seeing all of the different food options as you walk past - like fried cheese on a stick! Oh yes! It's been so long since I've had even so-so quality cheese. But really, this is a food lovers paradise. As long as you can get over the retching when you walk by the places selling stinky tofu, it's a really cool area to get lost in. We first got "lost" in the Fire Temple, which I was disappointed to find is not a Zelda dungeon. It's actually a Chinese temple where Mao Tze Dong used to hang out. Oh yeah, he's from Changsha. More on that later.

So we walked around eating, drinking coffee, eating, coffee, for most of the day. Towards the evening we ended up at Dufu Pavilion. Sitting on the river, it's sort of like a tower with a tea shop at the top. We didn't get the tea, but we did walk around to get some great views of the city and riverside. They also had a small, not-very-interesting museum inside, so we quickly took a look before going to get a foot massage and calling it a day.

The next day was a day trip to Shaoshan (not to be confused with the district of Hangzhou I lived in, Xiaoshan). A small town with really nothing of importance, with one big exception - the birthplace of Chairman Mao. Basically just a small farmhouse, it's a bit of a trek to get there. You have to get to the town, then take multiple shuttles, walks past various "attractions", parks, etc.. to finally get to
the house itself. That didn't stop other people from coming though, and it was packed. We took a look at the outside, then got in line to look at the interior. Unfortunately this line turned out to be nearly two hours long. While I didn't mind it, if you've been in China you know people aren't exactly skilled at lining up. It's not so much waiting in line, but more like a wrestling match to advance forward. When we got to an exit, Alex bailed, and I knew Ella was not having a good time, so we gave up too. Anyway, it's just a small farmhouse, so to satiate our curiosity, here's what the inside looks like.

Wheeeee...

And I know this isn't really exciting at all, by itself. I don't think Alex and Ella even wanted to go there. But for me, there's something kind of special about being in the place where such a momentous thing happened. And I know people in the west would throw some criticism at Mao, and maybe justified. But it's a bit more nuanced than that. There are people here who really like him, and it sort of reminds me of visiting the "Hanoi Hilton" in Vietnam. Perspective matters. "He did what he had to do to greatly advance China", "But his actions led to a lot of suffering" both are valid viewpoints. Anyway, I'm not wanting to start an internal debate, I'm hardly well versed in both sides of the argument. But what I do know is that whether you like Mao or not, he was a very influential figure on the world stage. And to say I've been there, I don't know, it makes me sort of "specialer". Or at least that's how I feel. I got close enough, anyway. Front door counts. After getting back, we had a massive Korean BBQ feast, a sort of metal tray with tons of different food in sections. Apparently this is a thing in Seoul, according to the TV. I'm a fan.

We had one more big stop in Changsha, Orange Island. A long island in the middle of the river, it sort of reminds me of Roosevelt Island in New York - it has its own metro stop, and a tourist bus that goes around the perimeter. This one is definitely nicer than Roosevelt Island though, as basically the entire island is a park - and an amazingly clean park at that. It had lots of families having a picnic, flying kites, or just in general having a day out. Orange Island used to be a port for goods coming into the city, so it also has a bunch of old preserved buildings that served as customs offices and whatnot. Unfortunately you cannot go inside them, but a lot were designed by American architects, so they had a sort of "Washington DC"  or "Colonial" vibe to them. The big thing on Orange Island though, is the giant REMEMBER ME statue of a young Mao. It is impressive to say the least, and definitely worth the stop for the photo.

Hungry, we went back to the food street for some more snacking around. Ella and Alex wanted to get a pedicure, you know, for funsies. They said they couldn't do anything for me because my feet were too soft. I'll have you know madam, my feet are... yeah probably too soft. Instead the other two got foot massages while I relaxed. Then we ate, and ate, and ate some more. Oh god, Changsha, just your food is going to kill me. But it's all so good.

"My god, this is an outrage - I was going to eat that mummy!"

The last stop on our tour was the Hunan Provincial Museum. This is actually hard to get into, as you have to make a reservation in advance. Even that just guarantees you a chance to wait in line, not into the museum itself. We passed by it the first day we arrived, and saw the line go for blocks and blocks, so we decided to pass. This time we got up early, arriving about an hour before it opened. Apparently that's what you have to do, because even after opening we still had to wait another 30 minutes before getting in. It is a modern, well presented museum, but I don't find it's worth all the hype. They had an exhibit on Egypt, which we didn't have time to see nor did we want to pay the extra money. They loved to play it up though, and their gift shop was especially amusing. Keeping with the Egypt thing, their big todo is that they have a Chinese mummy, a woman who is remarkably well preserved. I saw her, but honestly I didn't take a photo because she creeped me the hell out and I don't want to see her again. She's sort of like, imagine if you took a overweight, superficial 70-year old woman who is fighting against time with makeup and botox. Then some of that face melty "Ark of the Covenant" bit in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Bam. Just typing it gives me the willies. If you want, Google "hunan provincial museum mummy" and you'll see it. I know, because I just did and I'm having nightmares all over again.

And that was it for Changsha. We took the maglev train to the airport (oooo!), which is one of 6 in the world - and arguably the only one that is actually useful, not just saying "Hey, look what I can do!" - looking at you, Shanghai. Though I hear Beijing has one on their metro now, so that's pretty cool. It goes without saying, I think maglevs are cool. It's like a train that floats. I recommend it, although it's maybe not worth the trip to Changsha.

Unless you like stinky tofu.