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.