The coolest family ever!

This is my family. These are our Jack O'lanterns. I have no idea how Kristin got a hold of a pumpkin like that. That is too cool. My family was nice enough to put my face on a pumpkin (at least for the email, I can't figure out if it is really there.) That is, however, the Dawson Fern. My family is taking care of it as a symbol of taking care of me while I am in China. I have been told that the Dawson Fern sits at the table during special dinners and holidays. I am jealous of it.

The Sports Meeting

So, I have had the privelege to view a sports meeting for the first time today. It was so nice to have classes canceled so my students could play sports. I now know how all my teachers felt when classes were canceled or I missed class because of sports. But unlike them, I don't feel bad. I enjoyed my day off.

I didn't watch much of the sports meeting today because of everything that I had to to. I will say that the opening ceremonies were akin to the Olympic Opening Ceremonies. (At least, that is what they were shooting for. It didn't exactly remind me of the olympics.) I watched a few of the students run. It was quite humorous. These students just get out there and compete in Track & Field Events with only a months training. It isn't like these events are what the students live for. The way it works over here is interesting. It is the equivalent of me asking you to just go teach Chinese to someone. You, like the students, would just go do it as if you had always taught Chinese. My point is that technique and skill is certainly missing from this Sports Meeting. These kids will start a 400 or 800 at a dead spring without thinking that, "Shoot, when I turn the first corner I will want to puke my guts out AND I HAVE 2 LAPS LEFT!" It is quite interesting. I WAS telling everyone that the high jump is humorous because they kind of hurdle the high jump. Well, it turns out that only the students I was watching practice a few weeks ago were doing that. Today, they tried to at least mimic normal form. The students have 2 more days of this. Pray for them.

Here is a pic of 2 of my French students. Felix is in the middle. We are good friends. David is on the right. We are still getting to know each other. I teach them English but they are French Majors. Why can't America make us learn more than one language? I am jealous of them.

Oh you may have noticed that I am missing my beard. I had to shave it off because I plugged my beard trimmer into the electric socket here and fried it. Apparently, 120V appliances do not work here in China in a 220V environment. Plus, check out my hair cut. It was done by a Chinese person. Not bad, eh?

The Westernization of Yichang

A few weeks ago, one of the largest and most expensive shopping malls in Yichang opened up. This place is called JuneYao. The Yichang 4 actually went to the opening. It was the right thing to do since Brad and Beth were confused for investors. (They went to the construction sight weeks earlier and the people there handed them information packets and other knick-knacks because, we think, the workers confused them for investors.) The grand opening was quite a spectacle. There was a ribbon, dragons, and among other things. My favorite had to be the male and female models who were all dressed alike and had that "What am I doing here?" attitude written across their faces.

Besides all the bacchanalia, the greatest thing about this open was the newly constructed PIZZA HUT on the 1st floor!!!! It opened while we were in Beijing but we came back to enjoy the wonderful, greasy, fried, cheesy, fattening taste of the Pizza Hut pizza. You can see the ecstasy on my face. So far, I can find everything in China that I want. (Of course, I am not really searching for all things western.) Yichang will truly be westernized when they get a TacoBell. Next time you eat at TacoBell, eat for me a grilled stuft burrito with no onions, a beef chalupa supreme, and a been burrito with no onions.

The Infinite Game of Uno...

Today started out like any other day. I got up at the crack of dawn - 6 a.m. I hate getting up early on Saturday. As foreignors, we are considered foreign experts. Because of this fact, people want us to make special appearances, teach at elementary schools in our free time, and tutor children. Teaching at an elementary school was the event du jour.

I, along with some of my friends, went to an elementary school with no preparation. I walked in and they handed me a book. I was supposed to come up with a 45 lesson plan in 10 minutes. Needless to say, I winged all 3 classes they had me teach. Did I tell you I was teaching elementary today? Do you remember the last time I tought elementary kids? I made many of the students cry. 1st graders are not my specialty. Luckily, today I was assigned to teach several grades - it was mostly colors, numbers, and directions, not reading. I had fun. It was draining though. I am not an expert elementary teaching. I am only an expert English speaker - that fact seems to mean that I am an expert teaching. I wish sometimes people would just sit down and think about their assumptions/beliefs sometimes. I shall not complain -500 yuan for 4 hours of my Saturday was worth it. I think I will do it next week.

After returning home, Brad and I joined Travis and the Kung Fu 4 for shopping. The KF4 are Chinese students who are now are really good friends. We all went shopping for food today so that we Americans could learn how to cook Chinese food. I watched and learned how to cook rice in a rice cooker, eggplant, peanuts, pumpkin, and dumplings. Most of it was easy. I have 2 choices when I want to cook food - steam it or stir fry it. It is so simple. The only thing that is difficult is seasonings and preparations. There is a lot of washing and cutting. I suppose it is worth it. Dinner was fabulous. The KF4 created a wonderful meal which 7 of us sat down and ate together. Then we played a marvelous game of Uno. It took 1 hour and 4 reshufflings of the deck to finish one round. This was a time that tried men's souls.

Well, I know how to cook a variety of Chinese dishes now. Maybe I will get the chance to cook for you in the future.

On to bigger and better things now - Disc 2 of the West Wing.

Beijing Series Part 8 (Final)

The train ride home was great. It was so weird because the same 2 little girls who rode to Beijing with me rode back with me in the same train car. We weren't in the same little room but we were in the same train car. It was strange. We all had a very good time catching up - though none of us understood each other because of the language barrier.

Amy was in my cabin with me. The 2 little girls pretended to put make-up on Amy's face 5 times. Each time, they made Amy marry me. I felt bad. I didn't want to marry her but they married us several times in this elaborate ceremony that I didn't understand. My gift to them was 2 pieces of chocolate each. The night before I gave one of them chocolate and found out that Hershey chocolate is too sweet for them; they don't like it. So, I gave each of them 2 pieces and they accepted it after 3 offers. They had to. 3 was the magic number. Then they felt like they had to eat it in front of me. It was hilarious watching 4 little kids choke down 2 pieces of Hershey chocolate. You might say that I was evil, but they made me and Amy get married 5 times.

You might notice in the above pictures a lady who is eating nuts. I decided to document her in my journey because she is the only living human chipmunk I have ever seen. Click on the pics to enlarge them. You will see her scarfing down seed after seed after seed. Then you can see the piles of seeds she left. She ate them in maybe 30 seconds. Hundreds of seeds in seconds. I started laughing and couldn't stop. Ask Amy, I was crying because I was laughing so hard. (Just remember those times where I start laughing for no reason and I tell you why I was laughing and you didn't think it was funny but you started laughing because I was so rediculous. That is what it was like.)

Beijing Series - over.

Beijing Series Part 7

In these pictures, Brad and I are touching the Bronze Wonder Donkey. This donkey has the head of a horse, the body of a donkey, the tail of a mule, and the split hoof of the bull. Both Brad and I rubbed it for healing. Who knows from what we were cured but at least we touched the Bronze Wonder Donkey.

Here is another monument in Tian'anmen Square. Look close to see if you can recognize it. If you guessed Lhasa, then you are correct. This is a monument to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. This giant monastary was the home to the Dalai Lama for many years before China took over Tibet. Look closer at the picture. Do you see that big white protrusion behind the monastary? That is probably Mt. Everest. Isn't she beautiful? Somehow, this monement doesn't quite do her justice. What about the building in the background? That is the Northeast corner of the Hall of the People. (The Hall of the People is pretty much the capitol building of China.)

The Chinese have a knack for creating some of the funniest signs, especially when it comes to signs in English. This sign is probably the funniest I have seen to date. What exactly does it mean? It could mean "No bombs in your car." "Don't carry thick clouds of yellow shards on your roof while driving. After seconds of contemplation, the best one I could come up with was "Don't drive with a bonfire on the roof of your car!" Who, mind you, has ever driven with a bonfire on the roof of his car and are there that many of these mentally unstable people that they had to post signs for them all over the city? What in the world? My fears were put at ease later that evening when we crossed a major road and saw a car on fire.

Beijing Series Part 6

Here are some more random pictures. I am sorry for not having any of the scenery in Beijing. A lot of the places were obstructed by scaffolding or positioned awkwardly so the camara angle and/or the composition of the picture would have been bad. At least you get commentary with these pics.

One day we tried to get close to the flag pole while the guard was removing it before sunset. As we were walking, we were stopped by a row of guards blocking the way. Apparently, too many people were too close so they were inhibiting the flow of traffic towards the flag. We were pretty respectful of the guards but many of the Chinese would create diversions and let their families sneak across this mysterious boundary. It is equivalent to tapping someone on the shoulder farthest from where you are standing so they turn the wrong way - and then you dash across the line. We just laughed. We also took our pictures with the guards. The one below on the left is me and Mr. Guard (who happened to be duped a million times). The way some of these Chinese people were acting you would think that they were trying to escape from Bosnia.















The picture on above on the right is the countdown clock for the Olympics. I tried to take a picture of it everytime I saw it. The ones I took at night were the coolest but they were very blurry. At least you can tell how much time was left until the Olympics when I snapped the picture. (Click on it to enlarge it.)

Below are some other random pictures. The one on the left is the room the Yichang 4 lived in at the You Yi Hostel in Beijing. 2 bunkbeds. It wasn't glamorous but it was fun. I love hostels - though this one wasn't the best. It didn't have a common room where we could meet other travellers. The best we could do was catch people in the hall. There was a bar connected to the Hostel but we only ate b-fast there. The picture on the right is of me and Amy in a rickshaw in the hutongs. (A hutong is kind of like a shanty town but generally nicer. The houses aren't shacks just little concrete buildings connected to each other in such a random way that the walkways tend to be mazelike.) We took a ride in one for 30 minutes. We bargained with the guy who would peddle the bike - 30 kuai for 2 people for 30 minutes. He dropped us off at a tea place in the middle of the hutongs. I asked how much for the tea - they said something that I thought meant free. After enjoying 30 minutes of tea they told us we must pay up. 25 dollars apiece. I had feeling cheated but whatever. Then the rickshaw driver peddled past our time and demanded we pay more. Heck no! It wasn't our fault he peddled too much. All he had to do was stop and drop us off at the road. It was fun seeing the hutongs though. No one knows how much longer they will be there since Beijing is becoming more and more modern and all the hutongs are being replaced with skyrise apartments/condos/buildings.

Beijing Series Part 5

Here is a series of pictures that I wanted you to see. Check them out. I know you can recognize the Yichang 4 but who exactly are the other people? Your guess is as good as mine. The Chinese people like to have their picture taken with foreignors. I am not sure if it is because they have never seen a foreignor before or because they want to show it off to their friends. Maybe the Chinese people have placed bets with each other on who can take the most pictures with a foreignor. Why not? They gamble on everything else. They probably place bets on who is going to lose their job first because all they do it sit around and place bets.

Beijing Series Part 4

On Wednesday, we made it to the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is the former Imperial Palace for many of China's great emperors. For more on the layout of this great Palace, visit: http://www.thebeijingguide.com/forbidden_city/index.html. This place is filled with great architecture. The City is surrounded by a huge mote and an area that holds many other parks and buildings. This area is surrounded by an even larger wall. I would talk about the architecture and many of the buildings but I don't know much about it. I think the Chinese government just wants people to enjoy the architecture not the history. The only thing I know after spending a whole day there is that the most powerful person in China once lived there.














The pic on the right is of the Hall of Complete Harmony and the Hall of Preserving Harmony. I wish I could show you a pic of the glorious Hall of Supreme Harmony but that building, like many others in Beijing, was covered by scaffolding for renovations. The picture on the left is of me and Chairman Mao. The building that his picture is hanging on is the Gate of Heavenly Peace. This is the entrance to the city inside a city that contains another city - the Forbidden City.

During our tour of the Forbidden City, we ran into the most rediculous thing of that day. We found Starbucks. Starbucks!!!! There was a Starbucks in the Forbidden City. For hundreds of years, people weren't allowed in, people couldn't desecrate the home of the conduit of the heavens. Now there is a Starbucks there? Whose idea was that? The commercialization of the Forbidden City is sad; however, I do know that without such amenities and little random shops, no one would really enjoy the Forbidden City - unless you are like me. I loved looking at the architecture even if I didn't know what any of it meant. Maybe it was fun to dream about living there.













On Thursday, we headed out to the Great Wall at Mu Tian Yu. This section of the GW is not a very busy tourist spot. We liked it very much because it wasn't jam-packed with people. Amy and I rode up to the Wall in a cable car (a sky lift). It tooked less than 5 minutes. When we got up there we turned to the left and explored that side of the GW. Most people went right. Brad and Beth climbed up to the GW so we never saw them. Amy and I enjoyed ourselves and took many artistic photos - none of them will be included in this post. They say you can see the GW from space. I don't believe that. If you can't see my house, then you can't see the GW. The GW was no taller than a 2 story house. It was no wider than 2 cars. Some say that you can see it because it is long. I think some astronaut in space thought he saw it and that has been the belief since. The wall is impressive but I hear that it never kept out invaders. Also, I can't think of any army that would want to climb up the mountain anyway. It looks too steep for an army to take together. It was neat and I am glad that I saw it.

Click on the pictures to enlarge them. Check back soon for Part 5.

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Beijing Series Part 3

Ah, a night on the town in Beijing. Actually, there were many nights on the town but usually only until 10 or so. We never styaed out too late because of the amount of walking and sightseeing that we did.

This picture is of Tian'anmen Square at night. On the left side of the pic is a neat temple. I am not quite sure what it was for or how old it was. On the left is Chairman Mao's Mausoleum. That was weird. People would being lining up at the wee hours in the morning. Eleventy-billion people were there each day to look at his dead body. First, Mao's body was 77 years old when it stopped working. Second, Mao's body has been stuck in the casket for the last 30. His face was glowy orange. I wish I had a picture to show you.


These two pictures are of the 2008 Olympic Mascots. It was a neat spectacle but the mascots are just weird. Speaking of the Olympics, I didn't get to see Olympic Park. We ran out of time. Unfortunately, it seemed that everything was under contruction in all the major tourist sights.
Here is a picture of a cool set of twin towers. The colors were neat. As you can tell, Beijing is not so Chinese. The traditional Chinese architecture is found at the tourist destinations. Beijing, the city, is very modern. It was everything. I could buy anything Western that I could want. Real good milk is hard to come by; Beijing has it. We all enjoyed that very much, though, Brad and Beth really enjoyed it - almost too much. We also indulgedin Mexican, Starbucks, Mom and Pop b-fast places, and McDonalds.

Keep checking in. Forbidden City and the Great Wall are next.

Beijing Series Part 2

Saturday was pretty eventful despite the fact that we got to Beijing in the late afternoon. It was good to finally be on vacation.

Sunday morning we woke up and had family time with a relatively small family of foreignors at a hotel they rent out. None of whom we knew. It was neat to hear about the work going on in Beijing. One family in this congregation runs a foster home for handicapped children. It was so sad to see these little kids in wheel chairs and to think about the tough times they have ahead of them in life. It was encouraging, however, to see the work this family was doing to bring joy to these children's lives. Most of them had cute little wheel chairs and everyone treated them well.

We also went to IKEA. This place is a Swedish furniture and home supply warehouse kind of like Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Brad and I bought good tupperware. Amy and Beth and our new friends went ballistic. Hundreds of dollars up in the air. All of us were sucked in by the ice cream shop. At this little shop in the IKEA, ice cream went for one yuan. One yuan!!! Brad ate 4. Beth ate several. And I bought 2 straight off the bat. Brad thinks they are the best. I still prefer McDonald's.

Monday, we went to the Temple of Heaven and the Pearl Market. The Temple of Heaven is where the emperor went to make sacrifices to the heavens for a good year of harvest. It was neat. The exhibit didn't explain much of the history but the architecture was beautiful and impressive.













This is the Temple of Heaven. It is enormous. The picture doesn't do it justice. The picture on the right is of Amy and I with a couple who have wanted to have their picture made with some foreignors. It was fun. People always want pictures with different ones of the Yichang 4. Brad is the the most popular. I think it is because he is a giant compared to them. Or maybe it is because they all think he is hunky.

After the Temple of Heaven. We went to the Pearl Market. This is the place to get all kinds of knock-offs and pearls. I saw iPod nanos, camaras, silk robes, silk everything, pipes, paintings, etc. You could find just about everything there. The secret to this place is being able to bargain. As soon as you walk in they want to sell you something. "Good price for you." "Friendly price for you." "Do you have girlfriend?" "How much?" I would ask how much and they would respond with some outrageous number - 480 yuan! Heck no. I would counter with 50 yuan. They would say, "You are stealing the rice from my children's mouths." I would bargain with them ruthlessly no matter what they said. People won't sell unless they are making money. So, we would come to an agreement. I found out, though, that I am not as good at bargaining as Amy. My best percentage off was 50%. Hers was more than 80% off. She was good.

Below the pearl market, there was a fresh food market. It had seafood and meat. Everything was alive except for the meat. I tried to take some good pictures but failed to get some good pictures of crabs and stuff. Brad got to hold little eels. They were still alive. People just show up and buy these things. It almost makes me want to think twice before I eat anything at a restaurant - but I won't. Here's a few heads:

Hey, if you have already seen Part 1 of the series. Check out the new pictures that I added to it.

Beijing Series Part 1

So after a long and crazy week I finally have something to say. Unfortunately, it will take more than one entry to describe my October Vacation. This is the first entry of the series. Check back in the future for more.

We finally got tickets after 4 days of searching. We were told that all tickets were sold out the Monday before we left. However, 2 days later, we heard they had tickets. Everything here in China seems to be based on who you know. My friends, Kim and Katie, were able to find us tickets. Maybe the travel agent liked them because they spoke a lot of Chinese.

We left of Friday evening by train for Beijing. My first experience on a train was horrific. It was the Amtrak ride from Orlando to D.C. with my classmates in 8th or 9th grade. (I can't remember.) I was in a cabin with several other Chinese travelers. There were 2 walls that had 3 beds on each wall. Mine was the very top. I really liked being up there. No, really, I did. The cabin was supposed to hold 6 but I am pretty sure there were 8 people in my cabin. I am glad no one slept with me in my bed. Those things were small.

My cabin mates were 2 little girls (7 and 9 years old). The other people were their many family members. Below is a pic of the 2 girls. We got along great. Unfortunately, we couldn't communicate because of the language barrier but we played and laughed and practiced Chinese and English. It was a blast. Also, let them play with my camara. I suppose the pic below is something they took while I was asleep. I should have concealed my camara better. They had fun though.We arrived in Beijing after 20 something hours of travel. Travelling by train is by far the coolest way to travel. Our train had beds, bathrooms, dining cars, psuedo-room service, and friendly people.
After our arrival, we set out for this cool restaurant in the hutongs. There we had Beijing Duck. It was mei wei (delicious)! We decided that if Beijing Duck wasn't so expensive we would eat it everyday. At this restaurant, you take your pieces of duck and wrap them in little tortillas and dip them in a strange sauce. It was perfect. Apparently, many other people think that too. We found a wall there with pictures of Al Gore, ambassadors from all over the place, and even prime ministers.

Oh, and I met my great Aunt Judi for the first time. She started off her vacation in China with a stop in Beijing. It was fun to meet her. I've never met her before but it wasn't awkward at all. Anyway, my mom sent a package of amazing goodies and a family photo album. I couldn't have felt any better that night.

Check in soon for the next part of the Beijing Series.