Bon Appetit!

Here is the picture of the ice cream I told you about below. Yes, tomatoes were used as garnish.

A Wednesday Night Affair...

This week was like last week except that it was different.

Wednesday night, the Yichang 4 and some friends (Chinese and Foreign) went to ShangKe. This restaurant is the 50's diner place that I have mentioned before. I ordered a Calzone. It was amazing. We also made friends with the owner so now she will order in Western food from Wuhan when we crave western food for our apartments. They have Metro in Wuhan. Metro is like Costco or Sam's. The Metro in Wuhan will ship us things that we want. How cool!

Here is a pic of Brad and I eating The Great Calzone. Also, Brad and I wore about the same things and ordered the exact same meal and drink. Our friends, Kim and Katie, did the exact same thing. So along with the Calzone pic, here is a pic of the roomies who live together, dress alike, and order the same food. Hopefully, this won't happen again. All four of us prefer individual tastes rather than group think. ;)

After Shangke, we went to see the fireworks. There were a million people there. The fireworks didn't compare to Thunder over Louisville, but they were still good. Beth has the really good pics that I took because my camara battery died. One day, I might post those.
After the fireworks, we went to West Street Coffee. This coffee joint was so cool. Some of the establishments here has the neatest architecture/decor. I ordered what I thought was fried chocolate ice cream. When it came, I was surprised. I got some vanilla ice cream thing on top of watermelon. If that wasn't surprising enough, it was decorated with tomato slices. I was so confused. After picking off the tomatoes, it wasn't so bad. I was a little sad that I didn't get friend ice cream. So, on closer inspection of the menu and after a conversation with the waitress, we cleared up the misunderstanding. It was all my fault. So here is some information:

1) The things about translated menu's is that you should have a chinese person tell you what the characters mean. Literal translations don't work sometimes.

2) Sometimes, it also helps to read the menu correctly. It said, "Friable Chocolate Ice Cream." It wasn't fried, but it was friable...I guess.

I don't have a pic because Brad has it on his camara. (Remember, my camara died.) I will post it next week.

Some random things...

I have been an advocate for many years to get rid of onions, mushrooms, and peppers (green, red, and yellow). However, since I have been in china, I have been in love with these three vegetables. I suppose it is a sort of forced love. These vegetables seem to be in everything. Maybe it is the oil. Maybe it is the rice. It doesn't matter - these vegetables tastes so good.


Mmm. Mmm. Good.

So, I thought that maybe I would have grown up a little over the last few months but I haven't. I am still a college student through and through. Below is the lastest thing that I found in my refrigerator. It is spaghetti with large chunks of mold all over the place. It was disgusting.


Oh, and here is a flower. (I'm trying to perfect my photography skills. Any thoughts?)

A long but exciting week...

It has been way too long since my last post. I apologize for that. This last week was very hectic.

Monday marked the beginning of the first full week of classes. Prior to that, I only had 1 class a week. That was a beautiful schedule. That 1 class was a sophomore oral English class made up of French majors. How about that? They are super cool! So, now my schedule is completely full. I have 8 classes. That brings my total hours per week to 16 hours. I have the most hours out of the Yichang 4. However, I can't complain too much. I only teach 3 different types of classes. The 1st one is the sophomore French majors. The 2nd one is 4 classes of freshmen oral English. The 3rd one is 2+2 oral English. These 2+2 students will study in Yichang 2 years and then go to Britain. My job is to meet with them 3 times a week and pretty much prepare them for travel abroad. Mind you, I know nothing about Britain. I guess we'll see how that goes.

This full schedule means that each week I need to do 3 class preps. I woke up this morning and planned the classes in my head. It took maybe 25 minutes. Now I just have to get comfortable with standing for 4 hours each day. That wouldn't be a problem except that all I do is walk. Everything I do requires that I walk long distances. Yes, they have taxi's and buses, but I have never walked so much in my life. I better come back to the states in the best shape of my life.

So, enough with the boring stuff (for now). This last week included a lot of work, but it also included a lot of fun things. We had a movie night on Wednesday. We watched Sabrina. I wanted to watch the Omen but one of the girls doesn't like scary movies (ahem, BETH). Thursday, I played ULTIMATE FRISBEE!!!! It was so awesome. Some of my Chinese students came and played. My friend Katie and I had been looking forward to this day for several weeks. We started playing and I realized that it was too early to play. I haven't run like that for years. I am so out of shape. Also, Thursday night brought us another English Corner. If you don't remember what that is, it is a time where all the English majors come and practice English. They love it when foreigners come and talk to them. I had a group of 15 around me for an hour and a half. It is so interesting trying to get them to practice their English when all they want to talk about is me. (I don't like that.)

This next thing deserves its own paragraph. Thursday night after English Corner, we went to Kim and Katie's for.......TIM TAMS!!! If you have never had a Tim Tam, you are missing out. However, even if you have had a Tim Tam you have never experienced goodness until you bite off little pieces from the opposite corners and suck coffee into it and then eat it. Oh....delicious. Delicious. Delicious. Delicious.

Friday, was an even neater day that Thursday. We went out for Indian food. Indian Food! In China! It was so good. The establishment was so cool. We then went to ShangKe. This little place is a 50's diner type coffee shop. I had a Reese's Shake. So good. We stayed there for hours playing games and listening to people play guitar. These 2 Chinese guys dueled and accompanied each other. They were awesome. The whole time, I was trying to find ways to make them famous. We left so late, that we got someone to bring us home. All 20 of us piled into this guys trip. (See picture below.) That was a fun ride home. (Mom, I made it home alive. Don't worry.)

Saturday was a fun day. I woke up at 6:30 to watch my students compete against each other in basketball. The girls were pretty funny. The referees barely enforce the rules because "they are girls." Maybe if the refs hold them to a higher standard they will learn the rules and become better. I don't know. The guys were really competitive. My 2+2 guys recruited some other kid to play for them. He scored all their points. I guess you have to do what you have to do.

Saturday night, I went dancing. Yep, we all went to the Indian students' dorms. They had music and lights. I learned the Cha Cha and some waltz moves. It was a blast. Brad and I did interpretive dancing. I hope none of those videos or pictures make their way into the world wide web.

That's all for now, folks. I'll do better next week.

The pic...

In order for me to post a picture in my profile, I have to post it in a blog. How inefficient.

The New Pina Colada

That's right. Just follow the old recipe but tweak it in the following ways:

1) Don't use crushed ice. Serve it warm.
2) Fill the whole glass with coconut milk.
3) Skip the pineapple.
4) Rum? Fuhgetabout it. Crack a raw egg in there instead. (Don't worry about the raw egg, the coconut milk is warm enough to cook the egg whites and poach the yolk.)

5) Stir with a stirring stick.
6) Make sure you don't forget to crack the yolk so it bleeds yellow into the white milk.

7) Oh, and watch out for cooked egg white. (It comes up the straw.)


Voila! There you have it. A new drink that can only make you smile.

A Little Bit of Chinglish...

Here on my coffee table is a copy of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I decided to peruse the DVD cover. I first noticed that the movie information at the bottom (you know, the stuff that says its rating, who is in the film, who directed it, who did the music) was incorrect. It was about Disney's The Kid with Bruce Willis. (How old is that movie?) I then noticed the translation of the movie's summary. It was a beautiful piece of Chinglish. Here we go:

"The Charlie is a little boy of docile, he was born in a large chocolate factory to attachNear the family that door is poor;A person with peculiar character of the Willy Wonka, own aAn equally peculiar chocolate factory.The Wonka of solitary one person held a the field draw prizes,Decide to choose for own chocolate factory an inherits the person.Include the Charlie at inside of5 child that are luckies take out medium aureate lottery ticket, and be visit this to be filled with the mysterious colorThe qualifications of the colourful chocolate factory.Hence, a few childs have arrived at this for 15 yearsNo one to the peculiar factory that lead, attend a mysterious unfathomable and risky ......."

English teachers of the world.....we've got a lot of work to do.

A Random Discovery...

So I gave my phone number out in class today. (I haven't been called yet. What does that mean?) As I was finishing the last 4 digits of my number, the class burst out laughing. I didn't know why at first but one of my students was willing to explain it after class.

You see, the last 4 digits are "7454". Apparently, they are bad luck. The chinese words for these numbers can mean different things depending on the tone. 7 is said "chi." If I don't use the right tone it could also mean wife. 4 is said "si." If I say this wrong, it could also mean death. 5 is said "wu." Again, if I say this one wrong, it could mean I.

So the last four digits mean (if mis-said) "Wife dead, I dead."

Why did they laugh?

Me and Bus #4...

There is no better way to start the day off than a good ol' fashioned breakfast - American style.

After having a nice breakfast with my friends, I set off on my journey. I explored Yichang by bus. I kind of felt like Mary Tyler Moore.

Just as there is an alley for everything else, there is also a Bar Alley. Here I also found the drink that makes Tennessee world renown - Jack Daniels.

I stayed on the bus all the way to one end of the route. Instead of making a U-turn and following the route back the other way, the bus driver and his friend looked at me strangely and got off. They went to have a drink, however, not at the place above. I found another #4 bus and got on it going the other way. I went all the way the other end. I saw this on the way:



The Yangtze River is beautiful and dirty. The Riverfront is neat. It had several parks. I walked through there and saw a set of parents let their little boy pee in public. Oh, the Chinese. They have no shame. And yet, they do. They don't like to "lose face" and yet letting little kids parade around and "mess" in the street isn't considered losing face. Hmm.

Well, what happened to me earlier happened again. I got to the end of the route and the guy kicked me off. But this time, he pulled ahead 10 feet and picked up another passenger. Why didn't he just tell me to pay another yuan.

I finally returned to my apartment and had a snack. There is no better way to end a day than by eating a mooncake and drinking a can of cold Pepsi. The guy on the can has it all: a mask, a pair of leather boots, fake leather clothes, and a whip.

Pepsi - the official sponsor of dungeon masters?

First Class Ever...

Today, I taught my first university class ever. It was such a neat experience. I had 28 students this morning. All of them French majors. This, of course, would pose no problem except that I am teaching Oral English!!! Actually, it wasn't too much of a problem. Most of them spoke English very well. English would be their 3rd language right after Chinese and French. Amazing. I wish language learning was stressed in America.

The students really enjoyed my dramatic reenactment of speechmakers who don't know how to give speeches. My first example was the really shaky speechmaker. My second example was the one who comes in and looks straight down at his notes. I didn't know that I could make people laugh that hard. I won't let it go to my head though. They were probably laughing out of embarrassment for me. That is why the classroom picture above has no students in it. They left after the first class period and never came back.

Just kidding. Class is two 45 minute periods with a 10 minute break. After the break, I had each one stand up and tell the class about themselves. They did pretty well. The students talked about everything from relationships and sports to dream jobs and summer vacations. This generation of Chinese is very open and talkative. I am glad. It makes my job a lot easier.

Until next time, long live San Xia Da Xue! Really? No, not really.

A What Massage?!?!?!

So, the gang and I went to get back massages at the Peninsula Hotel last Friday. That was quite an experience. For one, we didn't bring a translator. That was our first mistake. And two, we didn't heed the warnings from Shelly, the other experienced English teacher.

We walked in and Brad and I pointed at what we wanted (the back massage) and from that point on it was all a blur. All of a sudden, Brad and I were whisked away to the men's lockerroom. Before we knew it we were in a giant hot tub waiting for what we thought was going to be our back massages.

After our insides were boiled from the temp of the hot tub, some guy came and grabbed Brad for his "back massage." It turned out to be a back scrub. After they noticed that I was dousing my head with the ice water they were bringing me to drink, they came and got me.

This back massage turned out to be a full body scrub. So I am laying there in all my glory and this guy takes a scrub sponge to my whole body. Things that only I, my future wife, and my doctor can touch were touched and SCRUBBED. It was so weird! Then he flips me over and is scrubbing the other side of me. Let me tell you, the only thing you can do when someone else wipes your butt is giggle.

Soon, the artist was through. I was then forced to fill out some paperwork and give the artist his tip. Mind you, I am still naked. Could they not wait? Then 2 guys come and get me and throw me in the shower. It is so uncomfortable standing there showering while 2 people are watching. What is even more uncomfortable is standing there while they dry you off and then dress you.

I don't think I have ever been naked that long in front of that many people.

Next time I want a massage, I am going to the blind community. I hear it is cheap and good AND less embarrassing.

New Apartment!!!

So here is the new pad. Besides being on the 5th floor it is better than the previous one. Look at the size of that bathroom. The previous apartment's bathroom was about the size of that toilet. Oh and the ladder is not a permanent fixture. Brad vetoed that.

Old Apartment...

This apartment was little. It was livable though. It just wasn't conducive to social life.

End of Week 1....yeah?

3 showers in 7 days. Or maybe 3 showers in 9 days if you count the travelling days. Or 4 showers in 7 or 9 days depending on if I count that weird shower at the massage place where the guy dried me off. Yep, the servant dude took the towel to my naked body and dried most of me off. I will recount the massage story in a later blog.

Until then, Xyie Engineey Limieed. Huh?