Taste of Amherst

Hitchcock Dorm sure is pretty at sunset/dusk.

All of the tents that had been patiently awaiting our money were finally opened after the long wait. 

There were so many people it was hard to believe. 

They had tons of great live music with quite the crowd gathering in front to dance and generally enjoy themselves.

Kinjal was on the prowl for something tasty, which was damn near everything from what I saw.

Nothing could cost more than $4.00. Atkin's Farms made an appearance with 50 cent cider donuts/doughnuts, 

Ah the happy times were had.

Within Domestic Lands

This past school year I realized that I had not made the most of my time here at my alma mater. I have hardly given a second thought to calling Amherst my home but I have also barely given back to my second home anything it gave to me.

With that in mind I began researching on campus internships and elected to apply for the Pioneer Valley Citizen Summer (PVCS) run out of the Center for Community Engagement (CCE). Through this program I was able to apply to particular internships related to community development and engagement.

The internship site that I now call home is based in Holyoke, MA. CONNECTIONS After-school and Out-of-school programs offer a sort of after school activity program for the youth of Holyoke.

PVCS offered us a chance to explore Holyoke as a part of our orientation week. We visited the Flats and made our way up hill.


This was near one of our first stops. A mural painted by the kids of that building. This was across the street from the newly dedicated Carlos Vega park. The park needs work but it was still inviting.

The mural has a bit of an interesting story behind itself. While it may be difficult to see in the photo the Puerto Rican flag seems discolored and rather long. As it turns out there is flag etiquette requiring the US flag to be above any other flag. The kids weren't aware of this but a city official (or horrid woman who was running) threatened to vandalize the mural if the Puerto Rican flag was not fixed/removed. In order to avoid conflict the kids ended up extending the Puerto Rican flag.

We then visited a community garden run by Nuestras Raices. The lot is beautiful with tons of vegetables sprouting or in full growth. It was sad to know however that the organization did not actually own the lot they were growing on as indicated by a lot for sale sign that hung on the side. Nonetheless their efforts are admirable and I wish them the best of luck.

What'd you say about my mama?

On another note we went to City Hall and awaited our public Zumba lesson in the middle of the farmer's market. We stopped in a little shop that had a ton of breakfast and sandwich type food. The spice was the highlight for me.


We then hit up Fernandez's Family Restaurant and got a hearty helping of what would appear to be deliciousness in a couple of crazy forms.

 They had fried platanos, stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon, platanos lasagna, and all sorts of awesome Puerto Rican cuisine. I can't say any of it was very healthy.

After our meal we tried to meet up with the mayor at City Hall but ended up missing him just barely. We ended up walking to Heritage Historic Park and passed the carousel. We didn't get a chance to explore it beyond the outside.

We then hit up the renovated canal/riverside walk. The view was amazing despite the dilapidated mills, factories, and other such buildings. 

After this it was time to bid adieu to Holyoke and head back to Amherst where we shared our adventures with our Amherst halves.

Amherst presented a stark contrast to Holyoke. The community efforts seem more effective and the differences in the youth populations are astounding. The racial makeup of Amherst is not as diverse as Holyoke in any sense.

In other words, Holyoke was a breath of reality fresh air while Amherst kept us swaddled tightly in our safe bubble.

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 14th - 18th

Day 17 – June 14^th

Um, nothing new. Rainy days ahead. Did a little grocery shopping… Failed at that actually. I forgot I don’t have gas for the stove… Efff… So here’s to hoping I don’t get sick from thawed out and supposed to be fried (I think) but were microwaved  dumplings. 

The only class I was supposed to have no one signed up for so I’ve spent my day playing Pokemon and Harvest Moon

Day 18 – June 15^th

Spa classes cancelled once again. Or no one signed up therefore free day.

Day 19 – June 16^th

Apparently the college wants us to reformat our class. The topic Summer Fun is simply not serious enough. Fuuu-

The internet has been slowly failing me when it comes to  communicating with anyone. Matt has a rough time responding with work and figuring out such a shit connection. Same goes for me. Though it’s more the inconvenience of work preventing me from being able to relax fully.

Lately my body has been refusing to sleep even remotely normally. Augh.

Day 20 – June 17^th

Met my roommate Sarah, who went to Ohio University. She seems pretty cool. She just got here and immediately had to teach classes. I think she was with little kids, which can be hell. But she had Joy so that makes things better.

Wanted to go to the street food lanes but turns out they didn’t open shop today. Sadness. Ended up stopping at a little shop that had dumplings on some sort of plant. They were really good though small and not extremely filling. For 2 platters of it to feed 2 people only cost us 6 kuai. Holy shet. Damn that’s cheap. We paid less than 50 cents for two people to eat. I feel like that’s insane.

Day 21 – June 18^th

Well after teaching a few new classes (J.C.’s), I took Sarah out to the city. We hit up the Foreign Language Bookstore and gnabbed a map. Before we got to the maps though we found an English class right in front of the escalators. Two … Foreign native English speakers were teaching. It was kind of interesting to see. We both gawked for a bit and tried to discern their particular accents. We came to no conclusion and settled for UK or another European country.

After the bookstore we made our way to a bakery called 85. They have legit garlic bread and their French toast bread corner block thing was really good. After we had left the bookstore it had also started pouring. Augh, this rain hasn’t let up in a while and when it does it does so for a few hours of the day. Usually when I’m inside already. 

Pictured: Not so legit bread D:

Before we got to our destination however, we ended up walking/riding a walkway through a fashion show. There were even little kids posing in these odd like squares that you’d see at a museum where they showcase different aspects of insert some sort of memorable event here. It was really crazy but awesome. I regret not taking photos of people taking photos.

At Hangzhou Tower, Sarah marveled at all of the imports and Chinese oddities. I grabbed my boxes of cereal and shampoo/conditioner and we set off once again. Oh, I had also found Kikkoman soy sauce! :D Too bad butter seems kind of expensive…

We wandered around trying to figure out how to get back and discovered we were pretty hungry. After negotiating my silly notes on various stops (thank god  I wrote down the pinyin and the characters) we made it back to Jiefang street and wandered the block to discover that most of the area was closing/closed up for the night. I think it was 10. We walked around a block then went to a place that turned out to be a hot pot restaurant. We didn’t order a whole lot considering we couldn’t understand more than half of the menu. Settled for some suspicious looking white meat and beef as well as potatoes and seaweed. Then we grabbed a cab and headed out to Xiaoshan for the night.

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 9th-10th

Day 12 – June 9^th

So, woke up at 6 am again. Why do I keep doing this? Sat around and finally decided to say good morning to A Yi. I assumed she had gotten the call from Jim about me moving out so I just got ready and started reading Path of Daggers. Unfortunately I’m seriously losing my wits end over not having more to read. I’m going to have to make a run for the city and check the foreign language bookstore. Hopefully they’ll have something for me. Who knows?

So I sat around then A Yi brought me an unwrapped Zhong Zi…? The triangle of glutinous rice and pork. I swear that stuff that makes it slimey must be the fat. I read somewhere that these are boiled for a long time so I can only assume that causes it. I’m no cook but I’m pretty sure there’s no liquid out there as comparable to that.

A Yi left about half an hour later. I guess Jim didn’t give her a call. I sat around for a while since I only had once class and it being at 6:30 felt no rush to head over to the High Long Plaza. Turns out I was wrong, it started thunderstorming or threatening to do so as I worked on a thank you post it note collection for A Yi. I wrote a message in English, Pinyin, then in Simplified Chinese characters. God that is difficult. Augh. Anyway got that going and hurried my way out of A Yi’s. I’m going to miss her. I saw her at the office once so maybe I’ll see her every now and then. :D Here’s to hoping!

After I arrived I saw Jim and he handed me the keys and gave me instructions for the apartment. Looks like I’ll need to figure out the internet after I figure out just what the hell I’ll need for this place. I wish the rain would let up though, it’s annoying carrying around an umbrella when it’s so windy and thus useless.

Two workers took me to the apartment and helped me set it up like seting out the sheets and such. I honestly can’t remember their names for crap but they’re sweet. We went to Lotte Mart right afterwards and we bought a ton of noodles. One even came with Tupperware. I then bought myself the same old delicious and sweet fruit cup I had discovered just recently and then we made our way out of the store. Just as we got to the ground level, one of the workers’ bag had broken. We piled their stuff into mine and then each took a handle as we walked back to the plaza.

I ended up getting duck and rice, figured I would maybe get enough meat off of the damn bird this time. The workers had bought a vegetarian dish and offered to share with me. It had all kinds of veggies, some I was familiar with and others I don’t know but equally delicious. It was really good.

It turns out that my class was cancelled.. sort of? Maybe the student forgot… Oh well. 

Day 13 – June 10^th

Woke up several times this morning. MY body is not happy with me right now for whatever reason when it comes to sleeping. Remembered I had classes at 1 so I decided I would get a shower and grab stuff for the apartment. I checked through the kitchen and noted that there were bowls and some potentially useable cookware. Grabbed a bowl to discover it was covered in some kind of brown sticky grime. Oh god. Tried to wash my hands and maybe the bowl and found sticky stuff on the sink faucet too. WHAT IS GOING ON?! I splashed and rubbed the faucet down with some water then checked the stove. It’s gas, easy enough right? Wrong, I don’t apparently know how to start a gas stove.

The microwave played a bit of a game of peekaboo with me before I got it working. The fridge has a really funny smell, not like just food that is different from even Korean fridges, just… funny. I’m a little worried about using the thing. I’ve kept it off/unplugged for now.

I’ve made two trips to Lotte mart today. I’ve spent about 300 RMB altogether. I still need more stuff. Augh. At least the rice cooker seems to work.

Taught 2 out of 4 classes. Students just don’t seem to care to sign up for SPA classes… Taught Della and Gemma as well as Steven’s class. Steven can do the English pretty well as well as John. I’m a little confused as to why they act out wait.. damnit.

J.C. and Zack took me out to the street food street. Got to meet their favorite vendor and we got some rice dumpling type thing covered in spicy spices and a fried pumpkin thing. They’re so good. 

This humid weather is not pleasant please go away or at least just give us rain.

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 6th

Day 9 – June 6^th

Happy Duan wu day! Dragon Boat festival is today but I did not get a chance to go out to XiXi Wetlands to watch any of the races nor did I eat any Zhong Zhu..? But since I ate some the day before I think that makes up for it. 

Spent the day with Drew and Yasmina. Raining again. But at least we got to the National Tea Museum of China. It was really fascinating. Seeing all of the pottery/ceramic work really made me miss my time in the ceramics room back in high school. I need to go visit Mabes Babe when I return to Ohio. Whenver that is…

Anyway when we were in this one room we played with an interactive camera that would take pictures of you in front of a green screen (of tea fields in the spring, summer, fall, winter, or random other tea related scenery). While we were doing this one of the information/museum ladies/attendees asked if we would like to try some tea for free. Clearly there’s a catch at the end of this tasting but we figured why not. She ran us through the rest of the museum and then up some stairs. On the stair well we saw a massive tea cake (compressed tea leaves to make shapes or other such sometimes with Chinese printed onto them) it covered the wall and was probably about 8 feet long. Or the diameter may have been about 8 feet at the most 12… My sense of feet is terrible… Anyway it was huge.

After our little rush we stopped to a small room with a long dark mahogany? Table and a lot of chairs around it with a lady sitting on one side. She had a pretty fascinating set of stuff set in front of her, fairly small tea pots, glass and ceramic, little animal things that were a dark almost forest green color, and tiny tea cups. The tiny tea cups were the 3^rd best thing in this array of stuff. Oh and tea canisters duuuuh, 

We first tried green tea of the local area, then black or pu’er tea, jasmine, and finally ginseng oolong. /////watching the flower bloom in the jasmine was awesome and the sweet after taste of the ginseng oolong was amazing. I quickly learned that the latter is my favorite. The little animal things turned out to be color-changing pets when you pour hot water on em. I think they were the coolest. The second coolest was the cup/pot (served as both?) that as all white except for two animals, a dragon and a phoenix, that also changed color like the pets. They turned into these brilliant green and orange. Ah I couldn’t resist buying a set when we were shown the shop nearby. Drew also got a color changing cup. I think they might be called Don su…? Augh need to check/verify this. Yasmina bought a tiny cup set thing. One small like what we used and then long and cylindrical. They had very pretty floral designs on them.

We left the museum to check out the Green Tea Restaurant as recommended by Annika. Ended up seeing her there later on as well. We had crab and (fowl?) egg, fried cabbage and pork, drunken soybean (I think it was just slightly salted water), pumpkin and shrimp (more like krill… Shrimpy shrimp as Yasmina called it), a very dry brownie, a pretty tasty peanut butter ice the sand (….something along the lines of shaved ice with peanut butter… As we ate we saw a lot of food go by ( we sat next to a windowed wall), in particular, we saw bread boxes with ice cream on top. It turned out the boxes were completely hollow but still looked really good. Baked anything and ice cream are kind of difficult finds. I plan on stopping by a bakery to see what they have instead of living off of lame choco pies as delicious as these little bastards are.

We returned to Ling Yin kinda damp from the rain and took an hr break to figure out how I was supposed to get back to Xiaoshan that night and for a rest. Decided to try to find the night market of Nanshan road but I think we ended up at the Wushan one. I’m still unsure.

The first shop we actually walked into and checked out was something akin to Nirvana or any of the shops in Yellow Springs. Very heavy scented with incense and oil cones with tons of patchwork or brightly colored (perhaps Tinker :P) clothing. Lots of little knick knacks. We even saw a postercard? Of Chairman Mao that said Chairman Mao is a red fucker in our hearts. I have no idea what that was supposed to mean but it was kind of hilarious to see.

We stopped at a little snack stand with a guy who knew some English. He pointed to the right and said sweet and pointed to the left saying salty. They were 5 yuan and I figured why not? And grabbed a sweet disc. They were like these odd cookies we tried thanks to Travis but I can’t really describe em. They had sesame seeds on top. It was sweet and tasty. We ended up getting a crowd around us as we waited for the vendor to heat up the little baked disc. I’m not sure if they were expecting fireworks to shoot out from the disc, were fascinated by foreigners, or what… It was kind of awkward being surrounded by people with no clear reason for such a gathering. Not quite like a flash mob.

I rushed off though because I had to find my bus back to Xiaoshan. I’m not sure if it’s just me but I really have a terrible time with buses. Even the small bus routes in the PTVA. Gah. I am doomed even more so here. I’ve taken up writing down … attempting to write down the characters for the bus stops. We’ll see if that’ll do me any good. Hopefully I’ll figure it out soon before I run out of cash thanks to cabs…

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 5th

Day 8 – June 5^th

Woke up at 6 for some ungodly reason… Began working on the powerpoint presentation for our class on American Summer Fun, Got a text from Yasmina for breakfast. We hit up the noodle shop from before and got the same thing. It was delicious. I really wish this rain would go away but apparently it’s been like a drought lately so the rain is welcomed at the same time.

My new teaching partner for the summer vacation class, Brandon, came by around noon. I learned that he is Jason’s older brother who also went to our school. He studied Economics and ASLC, an interesting combination to say the least. He also reads manga, which is really interesting, I certainly didn’t expect that to be a common interest but then again I hardly expect much from people besides decency. At least I try to.

Anyway we finished up the powerpoint with minutes to spare when we realized we probably can’t use some of the videos. The videos would have just been a nice extra to add onto the lecture but everyone seemed at the least vaguely interested. I may have talked too quickly again but this was in excitement to talk about vacationing. People seemed interested in the wooden roller coaster the Beast. I think they were really concerned for their safety on such a ride.

We had to switch classes with Drew who was also switched up/left on his own because Yasmina had to go to her job stuff. Apparently it went okay, which is better than nothing. 

After the classes we answered a few questions about ourselves then we were let out early enough to catch some of Drew’s class. He ended up teaching about drugs, going by definition included coffee. The students seemed really interested and surprised. They brought up some questions about just how accurate some movie depictions/stereotypes are of the drug culture like alcohol and also asked what the best tasting drug is. I have to say hands down would be alcohol and the effects so long as you aren’t abusing it can be made minor. 

We then went out for a hot pot dinner at the Little Sheep. We had chicken feet, duck intestines/sausage, bean sprouts, noodles, spinach, collard greens, fried corn and sprinkles, and numerous other things. We drank sprite, coke, and plum juice, which was all really delicious. Plum is now a favorite juice of mine.

The hot pot was split into 2 parts: a spicy and a non-spicy part. I think it was towards the end that I could feel the spicy. It was really good. We also had like… these krill/shrimp burgers? In the sense that you mash something together and then cook it up. We dumped bits of the shrimp stuff into the hot pot andthen we were able to eat some within seconds.

We also had a lot of beef and some other meat, which was all just great. I don’t think I have eaten that much meat before coming to China. Honestly that was more meat than I have had in a week. Can’t say that the chicken feet had much meat too it. The duck intestines were really chewy and when you nomm’d on ‘em it sounded really crunchy in your mouth. It was really odd for me so I didn’t eat too much of it.

Another part of the restaurant is to make your own sauces. I put chives, kawemisaky sauce, spicy beef sauce, and garlic into mine. I should have added more of the spicy sauce but oh well. In general it was similar to Fire and Ice.

After we finished eating we began playing a number game. The point of the game was to not guess the actual number. Guessing the number landed you a punishment. It is similar to truth or dare. I had to go sing Row Your Boat to a random couple in the restaurant and take a picture with someone like they were family. Drew was asked personal questions by the entire group (10 people total), some were innocent fun and the others were … fun and hilarious. Like which girl do you like the most for ____. He ended up using it for study partner.

After doing a couple of rounds of this we played Sheep! Everyone’s faces are really sore I am sure. The game went on for a long time and I decided to cut it to the mini game we would play at the end of Waah!

After finishing that game we exchanged emails and took tons of pictures. It was so nice.

Catching Up in Xiaoshan- June 3rd

Day 6 – June 3^rd

I think I ate fried chicken today. I also butchered the word for eggplant but I got some in the end. 

:D 

I later hit up the Lotte Mart, which I first got lost in before I managed to find my way upstairs. I bought a fruit cup, peppero, and chips ahoy with raisins in ‘em. The fruit cup was actually pretty good, something I may not be able to say of the questionable meat/tofu thing I got at SWJ (another fast food place). The texture is beyond words for me right now. I honestly have a suspicion that I may have been eating intestines/nut sack filled with the grease and sauces covering the outsides and some other unexplainable edibles.

Blargh, I must venture out but sometimes I am very terrified to do so. Now I at least know I don’t care for whatever that meat was. I asked one of the Chinese teachers and she said we had a similar dish though she had made hers/brought it from home. She first said it was meat then said it was like tofu or something. I think she may have been lying or just plain confused as well. Kind of concerns me but oh well.

Taught Sunny’s class for about 40 ish minutes. The girls Gemma and Della are very quick on their feet though I believe Della really preferred to speak in Chinese/English through her friend to me. Sometimes she would talk on her own but usually relied on the other.

No one seems to understand the words understand and questions. Just blank stares. I really need to work on that.

But the girls were great. We sprinted through the material and I didn’t really know what else to do with them because I still wasn’t sure of their ability. They may have thought I was talking down to them, which I really hope I didn’t come off that way. Ended up talking at length about animals, particularly pets. This eventually got them asking questions about my cat as Della really likes cats but Gemma really likes dogs. It was nice to make them smile. Though I think they were more than aware that I was unsure of myself after we went through the exercises. Gah.

Later on I taught Susan’s class with 6 kids. I think they were at least 4^th grade. One was a Korean boy named John. This class also had the odd little humping boy Steven. I learned about him from J.C. and Zack. Apparently he really likes the boys. Really took a liking to Zack, though it seems everyone likes him. My first meeting with Steven was with J.C. in the teacher’s offices. Steven came in with my awareness but not J.C.’s so Steven sneakily stuck his finger in J.C.’s crack. Not that it was showing (though of this I’m not sure I was facing J.C. and figured he was aware of Steven poking his head in and out of the door). Yea… He’s definitely an odd one. He certainly behaved better than I expected. Though that expectation was that he would be humping things or legs. Ugh.

The Korean boy John was a sweetheart. I think the other kids may have tormented him, likely because he’s Korean. I’ve learned that the Chinese really hate the Japanese but are seemingly okay with Koreans. I can’t say for sure but I guess it’s not exactly the case. Once you know someone’s different it just sticks. I wish I could help him. I didn’t really get to introduce myself to the class nor did we have much time to chat for fun. Most of the class was spent doing the work which took a while because everyone was so loud and rambunctious that I couldn’t really hear everything going on. I ended up just asking them to repeat one by one. I know that likely wasted time but it was easier to manage that way. The two girls in the class seemed sweet as well. Always the girls are so well mannered. Hmm…. Gender role socialization at work? Pfft.

Dear god I would kill for some cereal. Like Captain Crunch. I’m going to go apeshit on some frosted flakes when I get back home. I might be able to find some in grocery stores/supermarkets in Hangzhou but we’ll see.

When I first walked into the class everyone kept saying WOOOOOOOOOAAAAH, OH MY LADY GAGA! That has to be the best catch phrase I have ever heard. I am totally taking that back to the states. :D I certainly stand out, even more so when I take pride in my poof. One boy said I have very pretty hair, then continued to say oh my lady gaga about it/me. It was really cute. A lot of the kids kept saying woooooow over and over. I don’t know if they ever met/seen a mixed person such as myself. I always figured I was different. I guess I’m more different than the other foreign teachers who are white. I wonder how they would react if they got a black male for a teacher. Or anyone darker than me at least.

Oh and the hamster isn’t dead yet. When I left it seemed to be still kicking/breathing. Yaay for it not being dead. Boo for it being left to die in the office.

I showed a cab driver the address and didn’t need to say a thing. He dropped me off waaaay too early though seeing as he left me off a little after exiting the tunnels. I wasn’t thinking when I said okay and nodded after he gestured and said something signaling he was letting me off unless I said otherwise. Thank god I had walked around the whole block and then some of the area because for about 10 mins I was really confused as to where the hell I was. I eventually found a familiar corner store (isn’t that a shocker seeing as they all look very similar) and managed to speed walk my way back to A Yi’s. Upon getting to the door I also managed to open it quite successfully and before A Yi came running over to let me in. She’s watching t.v. on the computer now.