Week 14 - Don't Have a Macau! or, Ahhhhhhh Venice

Happy Anniversary!

On the first day of week 14 (October 20th), Laura and I celebrated our 3rd full month in China. I cannot believe how fast time is going. As of the final day of week 14 (Sunday), we are now a quarter of the way through our time here already. Assuming we stay for just the one year, which at this point I am 80% sure is the plan, we will be in China for 56 weeks. All you math wizards out there will know that 14 is 1/4 of 56, thus making what I said true.

So before telling you all about the fun and adventures I had dealing with difficult children this week, let's look back on our first three months in China for a minute.

During the first three months, we experienced almost 100 days of greater-than-85 degree weather. We lived through smog that affected our vision and breathing, and thunderstorms that caused our school to flood. I have eaten snails and frogs and all sorts of animal heads/feet. I've sucked down caterpillar fungus soup and thrown up crappy Chinese liquor. I have a new favorite vegetable (Taro root!) and a new favorite snack (duck flavored potato chips!). I've had several dishes that I never want to try again (fish heads). I have eaten roughly 53 pounds of rice.

I've walked 979,674 steps, and I've climbed no fewer than three mountains.

I have seen some bizarre things, including more children pooping and peeing in the streets than I could have predicted. I have seen people wearing coats backwards, sweaters on 95 degree days, and jeans at the beach. I've been to more temples than I can remember.

I can now recognize nearly 250 Chinese words and characters, and can personally write and pronounce over 200 of them. I know how to order at a restaurant, ask for a bill, and ask how much something costs. I can buy a bus ticket and read the bus schedule. I even know how to read street signs, and have a pretty solid internal geography of the area surrounding my home and my work. Still, I do not feel like I have even a slight grasp of the language in terms of what the average Chinese person says to another average Chinese person. I cannot chit chat. Yet...

I have had good days and bad days. I've wanted to quit more than once, and I also decided on more than one occasion that I would like to live here for the rest of my life. I have said "I really love Chinese food" and "I really can't stand how awful Chinese food is" multiple times, often in the same day. I have thought negative and rude things about the Chinese language and culture more than once, but have also marveled at how incredible and amazingly efficient both of them are. I've decided I hate all of my coworkers, and then immediately changed my mind and decided that they're some of the best people I've ever met. I've spoken to people from England, Scotland, Ireland, India, China (obviously), Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Australia, Jamaica, and more.

I HELD A KOALA AND FED AN ELEPHANT.

When framed this way, it actually is quite incredible that we have only been here three months. I've crossed so many things off my bucket list in this short time that at first glance I feel like I've already done everything that there is to do in China.

But then I remember the thousands of other things I have yet to accomplish here.

I still want to go to Bejing, Shanhai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Yangshuo and Hainan, just to name a few! There are still a number of foods I have yet to taste and millions of characters to learn. When I think of things this way I start to think that I don't have nearly enough time to do it all. Nevertheless I must try!

This week at school saw a resurgence of Halloween festivities. I let some spooky fun creep into my normal lesson plans. I also kept things a lot more relaxed in the classrooms. We finished up a unit on amusement parks and carnivals with my third grade children, and they really enjoyed learning all of these words. I showed plenty of videos, including POV rides on all of the best rides at Cedar Point. Some of the kids loved it, while it may have been a bit much for the others. I capped the unit off with a Mr. Bean video where he goes to an amusement park and accidentally kidnaps a baby.

The children really loved Mr. Bean, and I think they appreciated that there was no dialog for them to wrestle with. They were able to just enjoy the show, and I was able to get them to shout out vocabulary words when they appeared on the screen ("balloon!" "Ferris wheel!", etc), so it was still a somewhat educational activity.

Maybe it's a coincidence or maybe they just grew tired of it, but I found that the increase of fun and videos in my classes correlated pretty strongly with a decrease in bad behavior. The children have all but stopped calling me mean names, which is good because I never did come up with a good way of handling that situation that didn't involve me yelling and kicking children out of their classes.

On Wednesday Laura and I left school during the lunch break and went to the bus station to get our tickets for Macau. I was a little bit nervous during this ordeal because, like the last time I bought a ticket, I did not really know all the proper words. Despite having succeeded the one time, there was an added difficulty this time around that I needed a ticket for two days in the future. This meant that I needed to communicate that I wanted the tickets on Friday, and also I needed to ask what the bus schedule was for Friday since I didn't know when would be a good time to leave!

We took the local city bus to the bus station and I managed to stumble through it without any major mishaps. I actually managed the first half of the conversation really well and got quite confident. My biggest mistake was that I forgot that China works on "military" time, and so when she was telling me that the busses leave at 15:30, 17:30, and 19:30 (in Chinese, mind you), I got very confused! After a bit of backtracking and some mathematical advice from Laura, we had the tickets in our hands!

Our excitement for Macau made the week go by very quickly. Even Thursday, which is often a nightmare of a 12 hour work day, went by in the blink of an eye. Before we knew it, it was time to go back to the bus station and head toward Macau.

The city bus to the bus station was a nightmare on Friday evening. It was one of the most packed bus rides that I have yet endured here. Shoulder to shoulder does not begin to describe it. On top of that, it was rush hour and we had to pass through the busiest part of the city to get to the station. Even though we had nearly 3 hours from the time work ended until our bus departed for Macau, I was worried we wouldn't make it. There was a point where the bus got stuck in a particularly bad bottleneck and I watched 10 minutes go by on the clock without us moving a solitary meter. Luckily, once we past entanglement the rest of the ride was not so bad.

We got to the station, found our terminal, and boarded the bus. The bus ride was a breezy 2-3 hours to the coast. We had to go to Zhuhai, the place that we visited a few weeks ago, in order to get to Macau.

Before going on, a little bit of history and a smattering of geography is necessary to describe our trip to Macau more properly. Macau is a series of 3 small islands just off the coast of the mainland. In fact, the main part of Macau is a peninsula that is a part of the mainland. Even though it's quite close, it is quite an ordeal to get there.

The Portuguese claimed Macau as their own in the early 1500s and, as such, it was not officially a part of china for almost 500 years. It was considered its own country, a colony of Portugal. In 1999 it was returned to China proper, and the Chinese government took it back over. Since it has enjoyed nearly half a millennium of independence from China, the government set up a somewhat unique system in Macau. If you are familiar with the history of Hong Kong, the story is very similar.

So, even though Macau is officially in China now, you still have to pass through customs to get there. Macau has its own mini-government (even though it is subservient to the main government of China), and even has its own currency (the Macanese Potaca!). Once we got to Zhuhai we had to walk about a kilometer, wait in line for about 40 minutes, go through Chinese customs, walk another kilometer, wait another 40 minutes, and then pass through Macanese customs.

We made a sort of friend during all this waiting and walking. I say "sort" of friend because he just started talking to us and created a rather awkward situation. This gentleman was from India and seemed quite friendly. We worked together to figure out which line we were supposed to wait in during the customs process. It was confusing because there were lines for Chinese citizens, Macau citizens, Hong Kong Citizens, 'foreigners', diplomats, elderly people, "visa holders", and "passport holders". We decided to go with the safe-seeming 'foreigner' line. After waiting for a few minutes, the guy left to go double check if we were in the right line, and he left his luggage with us! Now, as an American my government has filled me with all kinds of dead, fear, and apprehension about strangers leaving their bags with us. We didn't know what to do! He seemed like a nice guy, but we really didn't know anything about him. We didn't want to be rude, but we also didn't want to get in trouble. We sort of pulled his bags through the line with us as hundreds of people started queuing up behind us. We got all the way to the front before the dude came back, and then he started trying to cut in front of about 100 people! We were going through customs and we left his bags to the side for him to eventually get to, but the customs official saw us leaving the bags and he started yelling at us. It was a tense moment, but we managed to explain what was going on and we got through the board. I hope nothing bad happened to our "friend", but I don't know why he had to go and act so strange and unpredictably. Luckily, we didn't see him again for the whole weekend...

After crossing the border gate I was hit with my next big surprise: In Macau people drive on the left side of the road! This is the first time that I have ever been in a place where they drive on the left, and it was shocking just how shocking it was. It made crossing the street difficult the entire weekend, and I am ashamed to say that I never got used to it.

A cab was easily hailed, and we went to our hotel. We stayed in a quaint, quiet little hotel called the "East Asia Hotel". It didn't look like much from the outside, and in fact the entrance was in a kind of scummy looking alley, but I was very pleased with the overall experience. It was clean and pleasant on the inside, and our room had plenty of amenities such as a western toilet (thank god!). To top it all off, it was the cheapest hotel I could find on the island, so I would definitely recommend it to any friends who may go to Macau someday. I will say, however, that I think our hotel was near the Red Light District, or at least the Macanese equivalent of the RLD. We definitely saw some prostitutes walking around, which made things a little bit awkward. Luckily, nobody hassled us at all and we never felt like we were in an unsafe or unseemly area.

We finally settled in at around midnight; even though we were dead tired and were waking up very early to do all of the sightseeing we could, we were unable to resist going out to explore a little bit before bed!

Macau is an absolutely incredible place. Being a part of the Portuguese empire for nearly 500 years, and being a part of China for at least 2,000 years has led it to be a place unlike anywhere else in the world. From the food and the architecture to the language and the people, it is somehow 100% Chinese and also 100% Portuguese. Chinese and Portuguese are both the official languages in Macau, but English is used extremely widely for commerce and business. One of the official TV channels was in English too. In addition to those three languages, we heard a lot of Cantonese and even some "Macanese" which is a local dialect of Chinese that is as different from Cantonese as Cantonese is from Mandarin (so they're completely different languages). You would think that this would have made it much easier to get around and communicate, but it actually made things more complicated. We had no idea what language to expect when we approached someone, and there was no guarantee that they would understand any of what we tried to say to them. Regardless, Laura got to use some of her Portuguese and that was very cool.

The buildings are a smattering of classic grey/ugly/soviet Chinese apartment-type buildings mixed in with the most colorful European Deco-style Portuguese houses. On that first night we just went down the street a little bit to a place called Senado Square, and even though most of the populace was either in bed or gambling at the casinos (more on that later), the square took our breath away.

Senado Square is a place where the mix shifts abruptly from 50/50 to 100% European. I felt like I had been teleported to a place thousands of miles away. Suddenly I was in a vivacious European town, replete with a fountain, buildings with columns, and cobblestone streets. It was pretty quiet at the time, so we just wandered around and marveled. We happened upon an open McDonalds and, after realizing we hadn't eaten in 8 hours, popped in for a bite.

Here we were met with another surprise. As some of you more travel-hardened readers will know, McDonalds menus vary a lot from country to country. For example when I lived in Germany I saw that the McDonalds restaurants sold things like the "McRib" year round, and that you could actually get beer in the restaurants. Their McFlurries also had specially designed lids that were "Hedgehog safe", since apparently the traditional lids are harmful to the little spiky guys. I peeked into a McDonalds in France (when I was there for one day), and saw that they sold donuts.

Since moving to China, I have seen that the McDonalds restaurants here sell chicken wings and chicken legs in a very similar style to what you would expect to see at a KFC. Instead of the little apple pies, they sell little Taro root pies and little Pineapple pies. Bubble tea is a common drink choice at McD's here.

Now, since Macau is China, I expected them to have the same menu items, but I was wrong! They had a Honey Mustard Bacon and Chicken burger, which I have never seen before, and instead of French Fries you can get fried Macaroni and Cheese balls. These were actually really good.

I know that it may seem kind of gross and "stereotypical American" to go to a place like Macau and get McDonalds, but it is actually really fascinating for me to go to a place that is so familiar and to see the small differences all over the world. McDonalds especially, even though it is a big faceless mega-corporation, attempts to sell "home" as a product. The entire idea of McDonald's menu is to sell feel-good food that makes you think of home, family, and childhood. Whether or not they succeed at this is obviously up for debate, but it is absolutely fascinating to see how McDonald's attempts to interpret "home" in all of these different countries. It allows for a sort of sideways look at what separates different cultures, and also what makes us all the same.

Plus, quite a lot more simply, I get sick of eating Chinese food so much and McDonald's is often the only other option around. As a case-in-point, on that Friday night in Senado Square, it was the only thing open.

We munched our Macaroni balls and went back to our hotel room to go to bed. The beds were such a treat as well, since after 3 months sleeping on wooden planks, these beds were like 10% softer. It was like sleeping on wooden planks that someone had put some fluff down on top of. It made a big difference and I slept very well.

The next day was a big day of walking. We walked from about 10am until well after 10pm. We explored nearly the entirety of two of the three islands, and managed to see every single sight listed on the tourist map.

Before our trek truly began we went for breakfast. We managed to find a small cafe very near to Senado square that was fantastic. It was owned by a woman and her daughter, and they had a huge selection of breakfast items from around the Europe and Asia. They had a proper English breakfast, Eggs Benedict, and many more. The best part was that they actually had an espresso machine, and that they served real coffee. Coffee is one of the things that I miss the most about home (of the things I can eat and drink, anyway). The coffee we drink here is this instant powdery crap that is very sugary and milky and not very coffee-y. After not drinking real coffee for over 3 months, I was shocked at how bitter it tasted! I will apparently have to get used to the flavor of coffee again once I move home.

After breakfast we paid and headed out. I won't go into extreme detail here about everything that we saw, since the descriptions are not nearly half as good without pictures.

Oh! Before I go on I should mention the egg tarts. The "official food" of Macau are these little egg tart pastry things. I'm pretty sure it's just some flaky crust, some custard, and a little bit of burnt sugar on the top, but they are to die for. They sell them on every street corner and in most of the little shops around town. I won't tell you how many we ate this weekend, but I will tell you that I wish we had eaten more.

There are many churches all over Macau, and these make up the majority of the tourist sights on the island. We saw Catholic churches and Protestant churches. There was even a Jesuit church. The churches were all very old and in remarkably good condition for their age. The oldest church we found was from the early 1600s. In addition to all the Christian churches, there were many Buddhist temples around the island. At one point there was a temple that was kiddie-corner from a church. This sort of melding and mixing of religious holy sites was a very good visual metaphor for the cultural mixing that has been going on in Macau for hundreds of years.

The biggest tourist sight in Macau is the ruins of St. Paul. St. Paul's cathedral was built in 1602 and burned down in the mid-1800s. Everything but the front facade of the church went up in flames. The front of the church is perfectly preserved, however, and it makes for a very interesting sight. Approaching it from the front, it looks like a grand, classical cathedral, but then you pass through the gates and there is nothing there. It is like looking at a 3D image from the wrong angle and seeing that it is completely flat.

"Inside" the church there are several plaques noting what used to be standing in that location before the great fire. In the basement of the church there was an excavated crypt, which was amazing to walk through. We did not realize from reading the signs that the crypt still had remains in it, but once we got down there we were confronted with a number of human bones in glass cases. It was shocking to say the least!

Beyond the St. Paul cathedral, my favorite of the historical sites in Macau was probably the fortress at the top of the hill. The Monte Fortress used to be where the Portuguese military was stationed when they still controlled the island. It was a bit of a hike to the top, but it provided some excellent views of the city.

We spent the rest of the afternoon tracking down a few more churches, a few free museums, and a few historical libraries. Despite being physically tired, I never got tired of turning a corner and finding yet another culturally and historically significant building. Macau is just so rich in history that I really wish we could have spent more than just a short weekend there. We finished up the tour of the island with a 1800s Chinese mansion and some barracks owned by a military detachment of Indian Moors from the 1700s.

After this exhausting day we trekked back to the hotel and took a short nap before heading back out for some nightlife.

The other thing that Macau is known for is the Casinos. Gambling was legalized in Macau in the mid 1800s by the Portuguese, and it has since become the biggest industry for them. Now known as "the Las Vegas of the East", Macau has 33 casinos and has recently overtaken Vegas in terms of casino profits. I had little intention of gambling this weekend, but I really wanted to check out the lavish Casino grounds.

We left our hotel and the first thing we did  was find dinner. We peeked into a few of the casino restaurants that were close to our hotel, but the menus were absolutely outrageous. We eventually found a moderately upscale Chinese restaurant near a cluster of Casinos on the north island that had acceptable prices. We ate a delicious roast duck along with some spicy lotus root and a heaping bowl of fried rice and crab meat. It was one of the best meals I've had in China and it made me fall in love with Chinese food all over again.

After dinner we hit up the Grand Lisboa, The Wynn, and the MGM casinos. Each one of these was more outlandishly expensive than the next. The decorations on the inside were insane, and every casino also had a mall built into it that featured some of the most expensive stores in existence. We found a beautiful swimming pool in the Wynn, as well as a really cool room-sized globe that had all 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac on it. The room actually turned into a free show every 30 minutes, where the globe rotates and opens up and a dragon comes out.

I walked around and looked at all the gambling tables and decided I might play some hands of Blackjack. Unfortunately, I had a really hard time finding any blackjack tables. 99% of the tables in all of the casinos are Baccarat tables. Additionally, the minimum bets at the table were all way too high for me. The cheapest table I could find all night was 500, which is about $70 USD.

I decided to play some slots for a minute, just to say I did some gambling in Macau, but of course nothing ever goes as planned. I inserted a 20 MOP (Macau money) note into the machine and it took it, but then I couldn't get the machine to run. Eventually I called over an attendant, and the attendant informed me that all the casinos in Macau only use Hong Kong Dollars for gambling.

This still doesn't make any sense to me. If Macau and Hong Kong are officially a part of China, why do they have different currencies? More importantly, if the casinos are in Macau, and everywhere in Macau requires you to use MOP currency, then why do the casinos use HKD? Nobody could give me a very good answer, but I guess at the end of the day I saved some money.

Our final destination of the evening took us across the bridge to the other island where we visited the Venetian. Modeled after the one in Las Vegas, the Macau Venetian is the biggest casino in the entire world. We spent several hours in here just wandering around, both on the casino floor as well as in the mall on the second floor. Just like the one in Vegas, the mall was designed to look like the streets of Venice, including a canal in the middle. We had considered doing a gondola ride, but by the time we arrived at the mall there was only one more ride left in the evening, and tickets were over $40 US per person. We decided to wait until we go to the real Venice to do gondola rides, but we still enjoyed watching the gondoliers puttering tourists around for a while.

Laura discovered that China's first Bath and Body Works will be opening in the Venetian mall in a few weeks, and she is very excited about that. If we go back to Macau, she says, she will have to pick up some candles.

After getting lost and then eventually finding our way back out of the Venetian (seriously, it was unbelievably big), we headed back to the bus stop and ultimately to our hotel. After walking around for 12 hours, we both passed out.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the same little cafe because it was just so darn tasty. We savored our coffees, not knowing when the next time we will get a real cup will be, and then headed back to the city gate.

Customs went a lot faster the second time around, and before we knew it we were back in Foshan sitting on our couch wondering how the weekend passed by so fast.

And thus our week came to a satisfying if not all too brief conclusion.

I am excited for Halloween this week oh boy!