Mike In China

2007-04-28T22:35:00.001-07:00

I next hopped on a night bus (which was blasting obnoxious Vietnamese music videos for the first hour of the ride) to my next destination:HoiAn. The bus dropped us off at a hotel and I was a little hesitant to stay there initially. I had read some precautions about these bus tours and that in return for having a really cheap bus fair you would be shoved to all these expensive touristy places. After checking it out, I could get my own, nice quality hotel room with bathroom and everything for $7USD a night which is what I spent on my hostel in Hanoi. I'm sure I could have searched and found a nice hostel or guest house for $3 per night but I realized that when I'm only spending a day or two in a town its not worth it to spend half the day carrying around my backpack searching to save $4. I spent my first afternoon/evening walking around. The older part ofHoiAn is filled with little restaurants and tailor shops. The tailor shops were crazy. They had tons of recent catalogs and any fabric you could imagine. All you had to do was pick out something from a book, pick a cloth and get sized, come back the next day and pick up your clothes for 1/8 the price you would normally pay. I ended up getting a swimsuit and a shirt made and they both turned out pretty well. While wandering around I stumbled upon a sign offering Vietnamese cooking classes and that was something I had read about and was interested so I went in to ask. For $9 she would take me to the market and teach me about some of the things they sell, pick up a couple of ingredients and then teach me how to make three different Vietnamese dishes. I said sure and we headed off to the market! I learned how to make Vietnamese spring rolls, lemon grass and chili fish and Vietnamese curry chicken. The girl was really nice and a good teacher. I wrote down the recipes and everything so I will have to see if I can successfully make the dishes back home (assuming I can find all the ingredients). After dinner I went back to the hotel and realized what the disadvantage of staying in a hotel was, there wasn't a good way to meet people! It was ok though because I decided to call it an early night due to the fact that I got very little sleep on the bus and I had already made reservations for a day trip to My Son the next morning. The next morning I took atour of the My Son which is the ruins of temples made by the Chang people. They were pretty cool to see out in the jungle but someone what depressing. During the Vietnam War theVietnamese troops used the ruins as a base in hopes that the Americans wouldn't bomb it. Well, we did and as a result the largest, best structure was destroyed and the ruins are scattered with large bomb craters. This was really my first experience with anti-American feelings in Vietnam, but by no means the worst (just wait to you hear about my "feel bad for being an American" day in HoChiMinh City). After the ruins we took a boat cruise back to HoiAn stopping at a "local" island to look at how they make "local" crafts, aka tourist trap to try to get you to buy stuff. That evening I went to a tailor shop and went to bed early again. My last day inHoiAn I walked around a little further trying to see some more temples and sights in the Lonely Planet. I ended up getting talked into taking a boat ride with this old woman paddling me around the river for an hour. It was nice to see a little bit of the town from a different angle and the woman was very nice. I really likedHoiAn, it was a very laid back and relaxing stop on my tour. That evening I hopped back onto an overnight bus to head to Dalat. I definitely spent my fair share of time on buses during my travel (more than I want to add up) and it took quite a while to get used to sleeping on them. I found the best way to go was an all out offensive of ear plugs, eye mask, sleeping pills and complete disregard for the person sitting next to you. It sounds kind of mean but I realized after my first couple of bus trips that unless you stand your ground on what is your part of the seat you will be taken over by greedyaggressors . But if you initially take a stand and make the person realize that they are invading your space by sitting next to you then they feel lucky to be left with their fair share of the seats and arm rest. Thebuses also stop every two or three hours all night long because there is no bathroom on the bus. I'm also pretty sure its because they get paid little incentives by the restaurants and snack bars they stop at because the places are always packed with tourists waiting around to get back on the bus. I would try my hardest not to buy anything as a form of protest against the commercialization but after staring at a can ofpringles for 15 minutes I would eventually cave and feast. To get to Dalat I had to switch buses at NaTrang and hastily pushed on a bus and assigned a seat. I ended up sitting next to a girl from D.C. and we became friends and talked the whole three hour bus ride toDalat. Upon arrival we decided to continue hanging out because travelling is better with someone else.

2007-04-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

The next day I got up early and hopped on the minibus that would take me to Ha Long Bay. Ha Long Bay was actually one of the main reasons why I wanted to come to Vietnam (I had seen pictures of it online and they were amazing). The minibus trekked around Hanoi until we had picked up all the people that would be on our little two day boat tour, a total of 14 people. I slept most of the three hour ride there because I had been up late the night before. However, while fading in and out of sleep I realized that the two people sitting next to me were my age (everyone else on the trip was older), that they were also English teachers but in Korea, and that one of them went to Knox which is a small liberal arts school in Illinois and is where my friend from high school KatieHarring went. We actually talked about it later and sure enough he knew who she was. I thought that was pretty crazy meeting someone on a 14 person boat in Vietnam that went to college with one of my good friends. When we got to the bay we were dropped off at a marina that was jam packed with "junk" boats and tourists. A junk is the type of boat we traveled on. They are the boats you always see pictured in Asia with the sails that look like fish fins. We got on our boat and headed out. The beautiful thing about Ha Long Bay is that it is made up of hundreds of tiny islands that spring out of the sea as rocky cliffs. As we started reaching all the islands it was absolutely beautiful. At first I was a little upset because it was a foggy day and I didn't think all the islands would be as beautiful. But as the day went on I realized that I actually really liked the fact that it was a foggy day because it made the bay seem even more mysterious. We had a seafood lunch on the boat and headed toward a giant cave that is on one of the islands. We were told that this cave was once used by the Vietnamese people to hide weapons during the war with China. The cave was pretty cool and it was nice to see all the other junks with their sails up waiting outside. After the cave we did some sea kayaking for sunset. It was beautiful but very frustrating. In our group of 14 there were two older French couples who had to be at least in their late 60's. One of these pairs decided to go kayaking and they were MACHINES!? It drove me crazy?!?!! They were just easing along the water at a lightning pace and taking breaks all the time to look at the scenery while I paddled with all my energy (and all my limited knowledge of how to paddle) and was left in their wake. And the woman was clearly doing nothing, so it was all just the old man?! I don't get it... So in short, the scenery was beautiful but I could hardly enjoy it because I felt my dignity be stripped away by an old man in a kayak. That night we had another sea food dinner on the boat and it was very good again. Unfortunately this time it was crab and I clearly had no idea how to eat it. I guess it was very apparently clear that I was struggling so our guide had to show me how to do it/do it for me like I was a little kid. I've decided I don't care much for crab. Waaaaaay too much work for far too little food. After dinner we sat around waiting for what had been promised to be the highlight of our trip, our guide Din singing Vietnamese karaoke. He and the crew all came up and sang (I guess you could call it singing...) Vietnamese songs and tried to get us to sing too. After a whole lot of pestering they finally got me to get up and sing (mainly because most people had gone to bed by that time) and I knocked them out with some Copacabana (including some hot dance moves). Of course for some reason when I woke up the next morning everyone said that they could all hear me from their rooms (and only me) but they said I did a pretty good job so I guess that'sok . The second day on the boat was mainly just a ride back to the marina while weaving through the many islands. I spent most of it sitting on the deck and reading in the sun. The trip was a lot of fun and I'm very glad I did it. Unfortunately, I was trying to make plans with my new friends when they were abruptly kicked out of the van and were told to hurry by the driver (and the hoard of honking cars and mopeds as we blocked traffic at their hostel) so I never got to meet up with them again. Back at the hostel I asked the people in charge if they had any suggestions on areas to go to meet other backpackers and there happened to be another guy sitting there who was also travelling alone and looking for someone to hang out with. We got some pizza and had some beers and then headed back to the place with the really cheap beer and plastic seats. He was from Australia and was telling me all about the horrible drought they are having. If you haven't heard about it, look it up, but there are water usage restrictions on almost EVERYTHING. The next day was my last in Hanoi because I had already booked a bus ticket to head on down to HoChi Minh City. There is actually a really great system set up where you can buy a bus ticket (about $26 USD ) from one to the other and then there are five cities that the bus stops at along the way. You can get off at any of those cities and stay for as long as you want. When you are ready to go to the next city, you simply call a number and the bus will pick you up the next day. The buses also served as a great way to meet people, as I will describe in the future. So on my last day in Hanoi I wanted to go see the pickled remains of HoChi Minh and visit some museum that was supposed to be really good. Of course I got there and and you can only see the pickled communist leader very early in the morning and I was too late and for some reason the museum was closed all day. While trying to take some pictures in front of a pagoda I met two Vietnamese girls who wanted to show me around Hanoi for a little bit in exchange for being able to practice their English. They took me to a temple and it was nice having someone that could explain what the temple was for and what Vietnamese people do in temples. They actually even invited me to their home town for Tet (Vietnamese New Year) but it wasn't for a couple of weeks and I obviously wouldn't be around anymore. I also came to find out that they were only 16 and then I felt very sketchy and decided that it was time to go back to the hostel and wait for my bus to come. Once again, it is IMPOSSIBLE to judge the age of Asian women (or girls I guess...) and they all look the same between 16 and 40. I really liked Hanoi even though it was crazy busy and loud. It was a great introduction to Vietnam and I highly recommend going there someday. OH... on a side note... I recently was made aware of a website:hugeinasia .com and it is about a couple guys that just graduated that are trying to become celebrities in Asia. Its pretty funny and they start off in Vietnam and I think just got to Thailand and have lots of videos so if you want to check that out to get more of a feel for Vietnam I recommend it. And don't forget to check my picture page to see all the pictures that go along with my posts!

2007-04-04T06:28:00.001-07:00

Upon my arrival to the Hanoi airport I quickly realized, I was alone. It was actually not as big of a deal as I had thought but there were definitely moments when I would sit back and think, wow, I'm alone in Vietnam, to my parents generation that must sound like suicide! After I got my bag I started searching around the luggage area for a person holding a sign with my name. One of the reasons why I picked the hostel I did was because it warned you about all the ripoffs at the airport and said that they would pick you up if you let them know. So after searching for a half hour I decided something was wrong and I would call them. After figuring out where I could use a phone I was told that the number I had was wrong. I decided I was going to have brave the taxi system but then realized all I had was the name of the hostel (because I had depended on the phone number!) and the taxi driver had no idea where some English named hostel was. We began driving into the city anyway as I panicked to myself wondering how I was ever going to find this hostel. I remembered reading something about it being by a church so I busted out my lonely planet and found the giant church in the area and had him take me there. It happened to be my lucky day because I chose the right church and there was a big sign for the hostel right next to the church. So I made it! I threw my bag in my lock box (I had opted for the cheapest room which meant I was sharing it with 11 other travelers) and wandered around to get some food and check out the local lake. I went to bed early because I was tired from the day of traveling but also because I didn't have much else to do. I woke up early the next morning and after getting some breakfast I decided to go on the recommended walking tour of the Old Quarter of Hanoi. It was amazing. Markets, shops, and HOLY MOPEDS. The amount of mopeds in Hanoi was insane. Not even that many cars, just mopeds, and tons of them, a consistent flow. Crossing the street was like playing frogger even more so than it is here in China. After the walking tour I bought tickets to go see the famous Water Puppets. It was pretty cool, but I must say I was quite disappointed. The first thing that disappointed me was that when I returned to the theater for the show to start I was greeted by an armada of tour buses from which flowed a river of elderly Caucasian tourists. I guess I was disappointed because this was supposed to be my big thrilling adventure, Vietnam! Not everyone goes to Vietnam! I am special! This trip is special! Oh wait, no, you aren't that special and this isn't that big of an adventure, everybody does it. DOH! I guess I don't know what I expected. The show itself was cool just because it was puppets in water, but that lost its appeal very quickly and I think I might have actually dozed off a little bit during one of the many small acts. The second major reason why I had chosen my hostel was because they advertised a BBQ every other night with beer specials to help promote the meeting of other travelers. I made my way up to the rooftop terrace and had a blast! Once again I was reminded of actually how non-adventurous I am. Everyone else had been so many more places and had so many more stories! That was the largest danger I found with backpacking, that you would constantly meet people that had been more places than you that would have cool stories and cool suggestions and it would just make you want to travel more! Even though I spent a month travelling Vietnam and Thailand I felt like I was just another one of those people on the tour buses because I didn't go see Laos and Cambodia?! At the BBQ I made a couple of friends and we decided to head to one of the famous "Beer Hoi" spots. Beer hoi translates to fresh beer and these little bars are nothing more than an old man with a home made keg and some child size plastic stools sitting on the sidewalk. The best part is the price, about 13 US cents for a big glass! We enjoyed ourselves there for awhile but unfortunately the fun police come around midnight and break everything so we went to another bar for awhile but didn't stay long because we were tired. I also wanted to get home because I had already booked a trip for the next two days to go see Halong Bay!

2007-03-27T04:52:00.001-07:00

Before I go on about my trip I will give a quick update about my life in China. I am pretty sure that I announced that I will be coming home on July 19th. However, the ever so difficult airlines made it so that I could only fly back on the 18th (and could not fly out of Shanghai, but will have to get a separate flight down to Hong Kong to fly home). So I am coming home one day earlier than planned. Classes have been ok. The kids have been misbehaving a lot lately which is very frustrating. And what is more frustrating is that when they misbehave they don't learn as much, and then when your boss comes and they don't know as much you get yelled at which is EXTREMELY frustrating when you are already upset from having to yell at the kids all the time and then you get told you are doing a bad job on top of that. Not cool. But so is life. Take a power walk around the block during lunch time to cool off, come back a little more relaxed, and get back to work. Sometimes I wish the kids weren't so darn cute because then I could just flat out declare war on them and be evil and not care. List of things I still can't quite get over about China: 1) General rudeness and pushy-ness involved with subway system and any kind of line waiting 2) Constant spitting, and not just a little spit here and there into the grass. I am talking major lugy hacking, inside and outside, and including full volume sound effects 3) Children who, with the aid of their parents, pull down their pants in broad daylight, in the middle of the sidewalk and pee. Yup, I think that's the big three. Lastly, I will leave you with some new videos. The first is of one of my first grade classes doing their daily classroom exercises that happen to last five minutes and fall in the middle of my lesson for some reason....
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The next is of my second graders doing their five minutes of daily eye exercises which is basically just rubbing their eyes for five minutes (the point of this one is beyond me)....
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The third video is simply just some of my first grade students (Richard, Wendy, Baker and Jack) at another school. They come to class a few minutes early every day so we talk and play around a little. Enjoy!
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2007-03-26T06:55:00.001-07:00

The next day we got up and hopped back into the car for another full day excursion. We started out by going to see the first bend of the Yangtze River in Stone Drum Town. We walked a little through the town and up to an area with amazing views of the town, river and surrounding mountains and valleys. Mom got a history lesson about the importance of the town (something about how it was an important area because during some war a bunch of troops crossed the river here or something like that) while I once again opted out for self exploration and picture taking. From there we drove to the Tiger Leaping Gorge which was absolutely beautiful. We hiked along the gorge for awhile taking many pictures while talking with our guide. I actually took a turn talking with him because he found out that I had majored in Real Estate in college and had a bunch of questions about investing in real estate. I answered them to the best of my ability but it was pretty hard without any knowledge of how the real estate system and laws are set up in communist China. The gorge got its name from a legend of a tiger trying to escape and, what asurprise, he leaped across the gorge. Seeing as how the gorge was decently wide and the river cutting through it looked like a whitewater rafters heaven, I don't think there is much truth to the story. More interestingly though (or depressingly) is the fact that it probably won't exist in ten years! The area is high up on the Chinese government's list of places to build another gargantuan damn slash hydroelectric power plant. I don't think plans have officially been cemented yet but by the way our guide was talking things don't sound to hopeful. It really isa shame because it really is a beautiful area. That night for dinner Mom and I went a restaurant in Lijiang and had a great time. In addition to the dinner, we once again had a fair number of beers (more of the Dali beers) and had a great time talking about anything and everything. In addition to our conversation the local waitresses danced and sang around a fire in the middle of the room most of the night. Upon leaving we came to find that the streets ofLijiang are even more busy at night than they are during the day (or at least they are on the bar streets). Lit only by red Chinese lanterns hanging from the various pubs the streets are packed with tourists as the workers at the pubs have singing contests with the pubs across the street/stream. It was quite a site to see (but unfortunately I couldn't manage a good picture of it) and is another reason as to why I really likedLijaing. The next day was a free day so we slept in and then hit to the streets to do the last of our souvenir and gift shopping. In the afternoon we also got massages. I ended up getting a massage from a blind man, which is fairly popular in China. I think the theory is that since they are blind they have a better sense of touch and are able to tell better where you are tense and such. In all truthfulness it seemed just like any other massage. We went out to dinner again at the same place andreminisced of our trip and what a great time we had. The next day we got up really early to go catch a flight back to Kunming. Upon arrival at the airport Mom was hurried inside to her connecting flight to Shanghai as I was whisked out the door to wait two hours before I could re-check in for my flight to Hanoi. The abrupt goodbye made things short, yet sweet (thank god, I believe a long goodbye would have been awkward with Mom crying everywhere and attracting a crowd of staring Chinese people). Our original guide in Kunming picked me up and we spent two hours chatting inKFC about everything from education and politics to music and movies. I really had an absolutely wonderful time with my mom and am very glad she was able to come. I would like to thank her once again for taking me on such a great trip down to Yunnan and I hope that she enjoyed it as much as I did! The plane ride to Vietnam was very nice (I have found that thus far every airline has better food than the ones in the US) and things seemed to get off to a great start. However, fate would not let it be so and things began going wrong as soon as I got my bags from the terminal, that I will save for the next trip post.

2007-03-24T06:05:00.001-07:00

DOH! I apologize for leaving you hanging in suspense about my trip but my internet is currently out! I went to Chinatelecom to get it fixed today and apparently we have three months of unpaid bills so they turned if off (I leave the country and everything goes wrong). But it should be back in 24 hours. Currently I am sitting at an Iranian restaurant (I think I've mentioned it before) watching the belly dancers (but I am here purely because of the freewifi ). Tomorrow I will try to write a couple of posts to make up for lost time. I also have taken some more video of my students that is pretty cool.

2007-03-08T05:45:00.001-08:00

Just a side note about how things are currently going in Shanghai. I jinxed things by bragging to people back home about how warm it was here right when I got back. Now its freezing. I was told that Shanghai just broke a 50 year record for the coldest its been at this time of year. There was actually light flurries of snow seen at various places in Shanghai a few days ago (it almost never snows in Shanghai). Hopefully things will change soon. Also, my friend Jamie (was on the team with me) recently decided that she is going to come visit in me in May so I'm pretty pumped. I actually feel kind of bad because she was going to go visit my old roommate Clayton in Spain (he is teaching English in Spain) but I (with the help of her co-worker) convinced her that she can go to Spain anytime and when again will she ever have the chance to go to China and have a local guide? My other friend who is coming to visit, John, has recently figured somethings out about his visit in July and now I have an official date that I am coming home (although I still have to change my flight), July 19th, so mark your calendars! And finally, I hope you all remember that I have a picture site where I am posting all the pictures that go with the stories (blogger stopped letting me post pictures and I really have a lot so it works better with a separate site). So check keep checking that!

2007-03-08T05:35:00.001-08:00

Lijiang was amazing. This time our hotel was actually in the Old Town part of the city, which was really nice. The Old Town in Lijiang is a maze of cobble stone streets, small stone bridges and alleys with a zig-zagging stream system running along side most of the streets. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site in which you still see many local (but usually older) women and men walking around in traditional costumes doing the same chores and jobs their families have done for generations. Unfortunately it is starting to get somewhat touristy and I heard that UNESCO has been threatening to take away the World Heritage status so hopefully the commercialism will halt and even degrees. After dropping off our bags in our hotel we walked around the tangled streets while making our way to the Black Dragon Spring which is a spring fed lake just outside the Old Town. The water was crystal clear and there was a great view of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. It was kind of cloudy the first day we went there and unfortunately didn't make it back on more clear days, but you could see what it looked like with no clouds on all the postcards! Also in the park was a history museum for the Naxi people, the major minority group in Lijiang. While doing all this we got to know our guide for the next couple of days. A very nice man, who always had plenty to say about everything and spoke very good English, but (and you knew there was a but coming) somehow, someone in his life decided to tell him that to be really good at English like a native speaker, you have to master all the sayings and idioms (I think I'm saying this right, unfortunately my English ability has plummeted in China due to the constant surrounding of horrible, horrible English). Knowing "Don't count your chickens before they hatch" and that I am the "Apple of my mother's eye" is great, and does show that you know a lot about the English language. However, using one of such phrases in every THIRD SENTENCE is English abuse and, quite frankly, really, ridiculously obnoxious after a day or so. At first I thought it was somewhat funny (as did he because he would follow each phrase with a hearty laugh). But it god old REAL fast. Other than that he was a great guide. He would even try to help prevent us from getting ripped off by locals trying to barter with us (of course he would ALWAYS refer to it as "highway robbery," another one of his favorite sayings). The second day in Lijiang we hopped in our car and were taken to the Yak Meadow which is at the foot of the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Oh wait, I mean we were taken to the "cable car" that would take us to the Yak Meadow. Being China and everything, of course this "cable car" was more like a chair lift and the simple thought of such struck fear in to the heart of Mom. In fact, after seeing this day on the itinerary I'm pretty sure she mentioned the "cable car" at least three times a day. Well, judgement day had come. Mom summoned her inner strength and got on! Of course she had her eyes shut and a death grip on the railing the entire 15 minute ride, but she did it. I also was barely allowed to talk. At one point the children in the car in front of us were trying to make echos and Mom muttered, "well at least someone is having fun." I thought, "I would be too, IF YOU WEREN'T FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW!?" We safely arrived at the top to find that once again it was a cloudy up by the mountain and we couldn't see it at all. We walked to a Buddhist temple and Mom (I spaced out and stopped listening) got a long history/question and answer session with our guide about Buddhism. The cable ride down was equally as frightful for Mom, which is unfortunate because the views were beautiful. During the drive back to Lijiang we got a flat tire and had to stop by a touristy bus area. It was actually a very beautiful place to stop and I got to ride a yak! By ride, I mean pay money, sit on and have my picture taken, but it was still cool. After lunch we saw the old residence of Rock Joseph, a biologist who lived in a small village outside of Lijiang for several years studying plants. That night we saw another show of local dances and music but it was nothing compared to the one we saw in Kunming (except for the fact that it was still filled with a ridiculously rude Chinese audience).

2007-03-04T04:35:00.001-08:00

Upon arriving at the Dali airport we were once again greeted by our new personal tour guide and driver. First they took us to a local village to observe a three tea ceremony. Each of the three teas represents something different and I think there was something about getting married involved. Unfortunately I don't remember the details but it was nice. I think I remember one of the three teas not tasting so good, but the other two tasted all right. From there we went to the morning market to check out how the locals shop. Then we went to a local tiedye house. Apparently Dali is know for its tiedye so we observed how that is made. Basically the oldest women do all the hard work of stitching together these very intricate patterns and the young people sit around waiting for the dye to dry and try to sell you stuff. Next we had lunch and then headed to the Three Pagodas. The whole complex was very beautiful. Let me tell you a little about Dali itself. Dali is sandwiched between Er Hai Lake and a mountain range so the scenery is beautiful on both sides. The Three Pagodas complex works its way up one of the mountains so you take a golf cart to the top and then walk down. Our tour guide was great at telling us all about the temples and monuments. It was REALLY great having our tour guide there because I know that if she wasn't there Mom would have been asking me all the questions she had about everything thinking that I, for some unknown reason, now know every detail about every aspect of every area of China after living in Shanghai for six months. So that was very nice. If you look at the Three Pagodas themselves, the two smaller ones are actually leaning somewhat due to earthquakes. We then checked into our hotel and napped a little before heading to the old city portion of Dali. The old city is still surrounded by its original walls and cars are not allowed except on a few cross streets. We walked around for awhile until we found ourselves at foreigner street which is a street made up of pubs and restaurants aimed at backpackers and tourists. Mom ordered some Chinese food and I was able to get a good cheeseburger. We also had a beer, which turned into two and so on and so on and had a great time sitting there talking about random things and catching up. Nothing like getting wasted with your mom in China... The beer we had was actually Dali beer which is apparently pretty well known throughout southern China. It is made only in Dali (we were shown the brewery one day while driving by) and is actually quite good. The guy who waited on us was very nice and spoke very good English. He informed us that someday he wants to move to Beijing to become a pop star. I thought that was pretty funny. The next day we woke up, hopped in the car and had a four hour drive up to Lijiang. Our tour guide was only for Dali so she stayed there because we were getting a new guide in Lijiang. That made the car ride a little interesting because our driver didn't speak a word of English. We got the important stuff down like "bathroom" so it worked out pretty well. And here I will take a second to insert a story about Mom. Somewhere in the course of being in China, Mom decided that she was going to learn how to speak and read Chinese during her two week stay in China. I attempted to help at first with words like hello, "ni hao" (pronounced: knee how) but somehow it would come out of her mouth something like "pee cow" or "tea gao" or anything really ridiculously wrong. I love my mom and she is a very brilliant woman, but by no means a linguist. I quickly got frustrated and gave up, although she did not. She soon moved on to insisting that she was starting to recognize certain characters from trying to read all the Chinese signs and would ask me things such as, "what does the little pan shaped one mean?" Mind you that with Chinese there are thousands of Chinese characters and many of the more complex ones contain many of the more simple ones, so asking about the "pan shaped one" is probably referring to about one hundred different characters. Sensing my frustration with her efforts she eventually wrote down a character asking our tour guide what in meant. He (unlike I) was glad to help and explain. To ADD to her language quest she felt the need to read OUT LOUD every single English word on any sign. We would be in an elevator in Shanghai and there would be a Chinese add with everything in Chinese except the website and she would read it out loud and ask if I knew what it was. RIDICULOUS?! I think that it was just that it was something familiar for her but it drove me nuts! Hahaha, well what can say, she's Mom and you gotta love her. Upon arriving in Lijiang we met our new tour guide who would be with us for the next couple of days. HE is a whole nother story which I will save for the next post.

2007-03-01T19:01:00.001-08:00

The following night we went and saw the Shanghai acrobats. They were very good and the show was reminded me a lot of Cirque De Solie. The only bad part was the other Chinese people watching the show. The entire audience was beyond ridiculously rude. Talking loudly the ENTIRE show, taking flash pictures even though there were multiple warnings and signs not to, never clapped for anything. It was very depressing. It made you feel bad for the performers. It must be a cultural thing but I can't imagine how no one has picked up on the fact that you shouldn't be talking loudly while someone is performing. Ridiculous. The rest of the time that Mom was in Shanghai we spent seeing the Bund and Nanjing Road. Mom had some little problems adjusting to the time change and I had a few last errands to run with my job so it was pretty relaxed. That is, up until the big grand finale of Shanghai! Mom and I met up with one of my friends, Michelle and we went to dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant that she knew of by her apartment. It was nice because as I've mentioned before Michelle can speak and read Chinese pretty well so that really helped in finding good food at a good restaurant. After dinner we did the one thing I think Mom was really excited about doing in Shanghai, we went to a KTV (karaoke) Bar. Michelle's roommate Chi met us there and so the four of us had our own little room and sang our hearts out for a couple of hours. Highlights include my mom signing "My Humps" by the Black Eyed Peas and then teaching Chi and Michelle the choreography for "Stop in the Name of Love" that her, Gail and Teri used to do. Chi and Michelle thought it was pretty funny and definitely had a great time (as did my mom and I). Unfortunately I didn't have my camera that night and so all the pictures that were taken are on my mom's camera (and I understand she might have already deleted them on accident) so I don't know if those will ever be seen! I even took some video of my singing "My Humps!" The next morning we had to wake up very early to take a taxi to the airport and then fly down to the Yunnan province of China. Our first stop was in Kunming. We were met at the airport by our tour guide and personal driver for the city. They took us to our hotel and the tour guide told us about the city and answered all the random questions Mom had about everything. Because we had been up so late packing and then had to get up so early to leave I had barely slept and immediately about arriving at the hotel decided that I needed a nap. I took a nap while Mom walked down to the lake and nearby park. She came back tired and wanting to take a nap just as I woke up and was ready to go! So basically we switched spots and she napped and I walked down to the park. Mom said she thought the park was dirty and depressing. I agree parts of it were a little dirty, but that was also because they were draining parts of the lake to clean it, but in no way did I think it was depressing. Maybe it was because we went at different times, but when I was there the park was filled with people walking around listening to tons of different local people just sitting in the park playing local music for people to listen. It was a lot of fun to see the different little bands people had and listen to the music while walking around the park looking at all the people and little Chinese buildings. That night for dinner our guide picked us back up and took us to dinner at some kind of dinner theater where we were served a FEAST of traditional dishes. We were told we were going to eat the local "Crossing Bridge Rice Noodle" and when we got there we simply had a bowl of noodles and I thought, no way is this going to fill me up. But then the dishes kept coming, and coming and coming. All the food was very good and it was great to try to local food. While we were eating there was some kind of strange show going on about the local cultures but we didn't pay all too much attention because we were going to a better show after dinner. The show we went to after dinner was recommended to us by our tour guide. The vast majority of Chinese people are of the Han ethnic group but there are something around 46 (I can't remember for sure) other ethnic groups in China and something around 42 of them live in the Yunnan province. The show we went to was a showcase of the music, dance, and traditional costumes of some of these other minority groups. The show was amazing. A lot of drumming and dancing. It was very well choreographed and very interesting to see. Our tour guide actually told us that the main cast is now on tour and is going to be doing the majority of their shows somewhere on Broadway. The only bad part about the show was once again a rude Chinese audience. This time we had a couple sitting next to us that talked over the music and singing of the show the whole time. And we were in the FIFTH ROW?! At one point the man even took out his CELLPHONE and made a telephone call!?! I was trying to give them rude looks and even gave a couple of shhh's during the show but they were completely oblivious. After the show we went back to the hotel and went to bed because the next morning we had to wake up and fly to Dali.

2007-02-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

I'm officially back in Shanghai and had my first day back at work. Immediately upon arriving at the Shanghai airport I was reminded of all the things that make China so different from the rest of the world (including Vietnam and Thailand) as all the Chinese people on the flight tried to get up and run to the front of the plane the second we landed. The flight attendants had to unbuckle and go yell at them because they wouldn't sit down. Crazy. Then I was repeatedly budged by little old ladies in every line to get through customs. Insane. Sadly, after one day all the loudness and rudeness seems normal again already. As for teaching, I still teach at the two schools I taught at last semester so that makes me happy because I liked the schools and the kids. Unfortunately, both schools cut back on the number of classes so my schedule has three new schools in it and crazy random times. One good thing is that my two first grade classes got turned into only one, and its mostly just the good kids from the two old classes! I think maybe the parents of kids that got bad grades didn't want to spend the money because they didn't think the class is worth it due to their children's ' bad grades. I wish I could just go up and say, it is worth it, but your kid is a stupid brat. Oh well. Not everything is for sure yet with my schedule, so I will let you know when I know more. Let's see, what else is new... oh yeah! I went on a five week vacation of AWESOMENESS!?! Hahaha . I apologize for not updating my blog at all while traveling but I was busy enjoying things and thought it would be better if I posted all the pictures at the same time (which by the way I took over 700 of including video). I also realized that since I am going to be doing a lot of studying for the LSAT that my life won't be quite as interesting back in China and I won't have as much to post on my blog. So I will slowly give you detailed accounts of my vacation (and that way I can relive it to). In retrospect, it really was a crazy, awesome time filled with new people and new experiences. I will start the posting tomorrow, so be prepared! And also be warned, because things get crazier as the trip goes on!

2007-01-20T07:29:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay in the posting. We went to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City the next day. It is INSANE how big the Forbidden City is. We started at the south entrance and would walk through a gate and there would be a huge, beautiful building that we would take pictures of and then we would walk through a little gate on the side and then there would be another even bigger one, and then we would take pictures of that and walk through the little gate on the side, and then there would be another one! It just kept going and going and going. It was really cool though. I will now educate you on a common scam to get you to buy things. If I have already told you, then skip this part. Two college age Chinese people will come up and start a conversation with you in English, ask you were you are from, through in some compliments. After a nice conversation and you thinking, wow, Chinese people are nice, they inform you that they are art students from a local University. You think, wow, that's cool. Then they ask you to come see their exhibit, NO. They are not real art students, it is not a real art exhibit, it is all the same junk you find in all the same stores, they just want you to come shop in theirs. Now back to the trip. The next day we had a private driver take us to the Great Wall. I fell asleep the whole ride there and back and Barone told me the ride was absolutely horrific. On top of already crazing driving in China, apparently our driver was insane running tractors off the road and passing semis on curves of hilly, curvy, two lane roads. Too make things worse, I guess our driver was falling asleep the whole drive back. Good thing I was sleeping too! The Great Wall was amazing though. Because we went to the furthest of the three spots to climb the wall and the fact that it was freezing in the winter we had the Wall to ourselves. Well, that is except for the Chinese man and woman that followed us around for the entire two hour hike being nice and telling us information just so that we would buy something from them at the end. I wasn't going to give in, but they had a really cool t-shirt I wanted and I caved. I apologize to all white travelers visiting the Great Wall for perpetuating the stereotype that white people will buy anything you put in front of them. DOH?! Barone was mentally exhausted from the car ride so that was all we did that day. For our last day in Beijing we had lunch again at the hot pot restaurant and then checked out the Temple of Heaven before packing our bags and jumping on the train back to Shanghai. Luckily, for this train ride we had a soft sleeper room so we had plenty of room to sit, talk and sleep comfortably. Our time in Shanghai was a lot more laid back. I still had some teaching and grading to finish up and Barone came with me to my classes to see me teach. We did most of the touristy things in Shanghai although there are not as many because Shanghai is more of a modern city than Beijing is. One day we went to the Science and Technology Museum which was pretty cool. I hope the museum is still under construction because it was enormous but had very few exhibits. The ones that where there though we very cool. However, I did feel like I was just reading out of a sixth grade science book. As in, I feel like I should be learning something when going to a museum but all the information was very basic stuff that everyone learns early on in middle school. I think China has a pretty good education system too so I was confused as to why everything seemed so dumbed down. Perhaps something was lost in the English translations to the exhibits. I would say the highlight of our time in Shanghai however was the night we went to the sushi restaurant. I took Barone to the all you can eat sushi restaurant because she said she really likes sushi. We got there and the place was packed so they ended up seating us at some tiny table in the back room. We realized that we were actually in a private room and that the 30 other people in the room were all a private party! They were all business men and women from a Chinese paper company that were having an office party. They were clearly not there for the sushi and were only there to get very drunk and were playing drinking games and such. Of course we had to watch and after awhile they had us join in! The people were very nice and we had a ton of fun. They even ended up paying for our dinner and drinks all night! I think it was also good for Barone to spend some time with local Chinese people. It was a blast, we got really ridiculously wasted and Barone actually ended up puking during the cab ride home. I was super excited because she started not feeling well and told me she was going to throw up and then I summonned my inner Chinese language master and remembered the word for vomit and started yelling it at the cab driver until he gave me a bag for her to puke in. "OUTU! OUTU!" My foreign language skill definitely improves after I've been drinking. Then Barone left and now my mom is here. Today was our first day and we went to Old Town, then Walked to the French Concession. After that we came home and then went to dinner at a steak house that had an awesome view of the Bund from across the river. Then we went up the Pearl TV Tower and now we are home resting up for tomorrow. So far, she hasn't driven me crazy yet, let's hope things stay this way! I will hopefully have the time to update again before we head down to Yunnan. Make sure you keep checking my picture site also because I am putting up pictures that go along with all the stories I tell on my blog!

2007-01-07T06:53:00.001-08:00

On Thursday night I finished work and took a cab out to the Pudong airport, picked up Barone and we hopped on the train to Beijing. The train ride was interesting. I was only able to get us tickets in a "hard sleeper" and on the top bunk of three high bunk beds. Climbing up with our bags was a little difficult and once we got up there we couldn't sit up but it wasn't too bad. Because it was late (and Barone had been traveling for almost 24 hours) we just talked for awhile and slept the rest of the train ride. Barone and I arrived, took a taxi to Nathan's apartment and let ourselves in. We hunted down a spot for lunch while waiting for Nathan to get off of work. We stumbled upon a local "hot pot" restaurant. At a hot pot restuarant they give you a pot of boiling water with spices and herbs and then you order plates of uncooked meat and vegetables. It tastes really good and is also alot of fun. After lunch Nathan met up with us and we took Barone to her first Chinese market. She was a little overwhelmed at first but was able to pull herself together and purchase a scarf. For dinner we went to a restaurant and had some of the famous Peking Duck. It was really good. After dinner we stopped by a couple local bars for drinks before heading to Party World with a group of Nathan's friends. Party World is a giant KTV Bar (karaoke bare). We had a blast! Its crazy how seriously they take their kareoke bars here. The next morning we woke up and headed to the Arts District. Its an old warehouse/industrial area that has been converted into tons of different contemporary art galleries. It was a really cool area. Then we headed to Hohai which is an area surrounding a lake that is mostly a Hutong area (tradional style Chinese buildings). It was fun just walking around looking at the different shops. Out on the ice the people were flying kites and ice skating. It was funny though because they weren't all on skates but rather they mostly used little sleds that had to seats on long blades that they pushed themselves around with ski poles. They looked pretty fun. It was pretty cold so instead of walking around we decided to stop and get foot message at a local shop. It was ok but it tickled alot. After that we met up with some more of Nathan's friends and had dinner at an Indian restaurant. The food was really good. One of Nathan's friends was a Chinese woman who owned a bar nearby so we went there to hangout and have a few drinks for awhile. We had fun playing Jenga and the tradional Chinese drinking dice game. After that we headed to a club, MIX. We had fun dancing until about 2am but then headed out because Nathan had to run into work to finish a project in the morning. Today we woke up and went to the Lama Temple and saw the giant Budda. Then we got lunch at a local, hole in the wall restaurant for lunch and then got another massage. We got free dinner with the massages and then headed to the night market where Nathan and I ate scorpion on a stick. It wasn't too bad. Its time to head to bed because tomorrow we are going to go to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Don't worry I've already taken over 100 pictures and will post them when I get back to Shanghai.

2007-01-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not writing for awhile and I actually have been not the least bit busy lately. But, in case you haven't heard there was a big earthquake in Taiwan and apparently it messed up some Internet cables that connect China to the Internet back in America. So basically, its been impossible to get to most websites and those that I could get to would take forever to load and I just decided to wait to update my blog until they fixed things. Things still aren't perfect but I'm able to get to most websites now, things are just a little slow (so I won't attempt uploading pictures for a little while still). The holidays here went well. I spent Christmas Eve having an all day Prison Break marathon. Its a pretty good show so I'm glad I watched it. My mom called and freaked out because I was spending Christmas Eve alone. I'm pretty sure she immediately called my dad because minutes after I got off the phone with her Dad, Lisa and Grandma called. It was actually kind of funny because they were concerned that I'm watching my money too carefully and that I should be doing something fun for the holidays. Can you believe that?! My dad telling me I'm not spending enough money! I will remember that day forever... Christmas day was also a lot of fun. One of my fellow teachers had a bunch of us over and they all cooked a traditional western Christmas dinner. The food was really good and it was great to eat western food. I was not on cooking patrol but was instead on "beverage duty" with a couple others and our job was making sure the beverages got drank. It was a very fun afternoon and evening even though things ended up getting a little crazy for the beverage patrol. The worst part was that after drinking all afternoon we had the great idea to start a century club at 10pm. I ended up being that wasted guy in a Santa hat. The security gaurd of my building litterally had to walk me up to my door and now everytime I see him he laughs at me, says something in Chinese and makes a drinking gesture with his hands. Just great. Work is winding down for break so it has been testing and grading season. I have a new found appreciation for teachers and grading. It has taken me forever to grade simple little circle the correct answer tests. I can't even imaging grading hundreds of 15 page papers like professors do?! New Years Eve was also a blast. The same group of us got together and paid for a table at one of the best hip hop clubs in Shanghai. The club had a big New Year's Eve party going on and there were a ton of people there. Having a table was nice because it was a good "home base" to have away from the craziness of the dance floor. At midnight they had Las Vegas style scantily clad go-go dancers on the speakers, did the whole countdown and then they had fake snow fall for awhile so that was really cool. In general it was just a really fun night with friends, great way to bring in the new year. I didn't get too wasted but after the club I did hop in a cab by myself and demanded that the cab driver find a 24 hour McDonalds. This consisted of me continually yelling MAIDONGLAO at him as he would yell things back at me in Chinese and point to his watch trying to say it was too late (it was only like 3:30am). After driving all over Shanghai we finally found one and it was GREAT. Then I went home and passed out. Well, I'm about to head to bed because tomorrow is my LAST day of work before my big two month break! Tomorrow night I will pick up a friend from high school at the airport and then the two of us will hop on the overnight train to Beijing to meet Nathan. We will spend a week there and then take the train back down to Shanghai were we will spend another week of me showing her around and just hanging out. She flies out on the 18th and my mom flies in on the 19th. I will then show my mom around Shanghai until the 24th and then the two of us will fly down to the Yunnan province of China (which is supposed to be the most beautiful). We will spend a week there and then she is going to fly home and I am going to fly to Vietnam! I am then spending 11 days backpacking Vietnam by myself. I fly into Hanoi and fly out of Saigon, somewhere in there taking the two day train between the two. I will then fly from Saigon to Bangkok and meet up with Nathan. Then the two of us are going to spend two weeks backpacking Thailand making sure to hit up the rainforests and the beaches. Basically I am BEYOND excited and its going to be the trip of a life time. As I've said before, one of the major reasons I did this whole coming to China thing was to travel and I'm sooo glad that everything worked out to allow me to travel (and have the means to do so, thanks again Mom, Dad, Lisa and Grandma)! I will be sure to take hundreds of pictures and hopefully will be able to stop by Internet cafes to update everyone while I'm traveling and to let everyone know I'm safe.

2006-12-21T07:23:00.000-08:00

I set up my picture site: www.dropshots.com/mikeboneuw Let me know what you think.

2006-12-21T05:56:00.001-08:00

As Barone said, "What is with China?" Just when you think you have everything figured out, China decides to throw you a curve ball. My vacation planning was going very well and then Nathan informed me his boss decided to send him on a business trip exactly when Barone and I were supposed to come up. Since then I have been frantically trying to find someone that can cover my classes so Barone and I can go up to Beijing earlier so that Nathan is actually there. Once again as soon as I find people that can cover my classes my supervisor told me that she heard that the Chinese government changed it's mind about what days the country is going to get off for New Years. Now instead of getting Saturday, Sunday and Monday (New Years Day) off, now the whole country is going to have Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off for new years and work Saturday and Sunday instead. This means that now my classes will be pushed back further and I have to find more subs. AAAAAHHHH! My mother was getting mad at me earlier because I couldn't give her exact dates or times for when I would have time for her to come visit and now hopefully everyone can understand a little better what I'm dealing with here! I find it hard to understand how a country of a billion people sit and wait up until a week before a holiday to actually find out when they have off of work. Don't people make plans?! Its frustrating, but sadly I am getting used to it. Barone also keeps asking me about buying our train tickets for Beijing and I keep explaining that it is done the week you are leaving. This is also very different from back home where if you are planning a trip you try to do it as far in advance as possible. Not China, everything here is last minute. Now to change the subject. The most awkward thing in China is seeing another white person. For some reason there is "obligation" to acknowledge the fact that you are both white and not Chinese. The casual head nod, an awkward, "Hey," its all a part of seeing another white person. The worst is when you get stuck in an elevator. You thought elevator silence was awkward in America! There is this strange need to say hello, but then you really have nothing else to say because the only thing you have in common is the color of your skin. I don't know how to explain it but you will have to trust me, its weird. I hope everyone was able to see the video of my 1st Graders singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas. As soon as I publish this I am going to go back to that website and upload more pictures for everyone to see. I think it will work very well. Have a Merry Christmas and I will be sure to update you on how I spend my holidays here.

2006-12-15T02:40:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

2006-12-12T06:09:00.001-08:00

This past weekend I spent Sunday running around Shanghai shopping for things to finally "winterize" myself. Yes, no more bragging from me, its finally bone numbing cold here. Well, actually its probably not even that cold, its just that you can't escape it. My classes leave the doors and windows open and don't turn on the heat. I was making fun of how many layers the children wear and now I find myself teaching with long underwear, a shirt, a hardcore winter jacket with a fleece lining, a hat and gloves. It is really hard writing with chalk while wearing gloves! None of the kids or other teachers wear gloves?! HOW?! I don't get it. Especially since the kids are all learning how to write and it is very hard to hold a pencil and write well when your hands are so cold. I just think about my upcoming trip and realize that I can make it until then... Back to the weekend. During my trips to various stores and markets around Shanghai I realized something: the Chinese are OBSESSED with Christmas. The Christmas decorations they have at some of the malls here could easily be comparable to those in Chicago and would put the ones in Madison to shame. Bright lights, Christmas trees, poorly put together English phrases, its all part of the season here. There was even an ice skating rink on the top floor of one of the malls! The funniest part is that they just don't quite get it. They are very close to what it should be like, but they are just a little off. For example, there were a ton of little Chinese men dressed up in Santa outfits at the mall. One outside most of the stores. It was hilarious to see a 5 foot 7, scrawny Chinese man with a horribly fake white beard in a Santa costume. I actually took a picture with one so hopefully I can get you to see it soon. If you are going to have a Santa, at least find a fat, old Chinese man or stuff a pillow under his coat or something! It was very funny because I actually saw one that was a white guy probably in his 20's and he saw that I saw him and quickly looked away and walked off fast because he was so embarrassed. That's when you know you are really struggling for money, when you have to take a job dressing up like Santa Claus in China. OH! And it was also great hearing Christmas carols being blasted in all the stores that have been absolutely mutilated by Chinese singers. It was kind of like that scene in A Christmas Story when they go to the Chinese restaurant for Christmas dinner and the Chinese people sing "Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra" but just over and over and over again. I would find myself stopping dead in my tracks in a store just to listen to how badly they killed some of the classic Christmas songs. Insane. And they are trying soooo hard to do everything exactly the same, just a lot gets lost on it's way over here from America. They also have no idea that it is actually supposed to be a religious holiday. The whole baby Jesus thing, not a clue. Oh, but they will sing all the songs talking about the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus. I wonder sometimes what they think the songs are about? Now I'm off to bed. Next time I will try to figure out a way to show some of these pictures.

2006-12-05T04:50:00.001-08:00

Not much has happened in the past few days but I do have an interesting fact to share. The building that I am taking my Chinese classes in is the same building that Tom Cruise jumps from in Mission Impossible 3. So if you've seen the movie that's where I go twice a week for class and I live a 20 minute walk away. Someone in my class told me that so I bought the movie today to check it out to see if it was true. Unfortunately, while at the DVD stand looking for Mission Impossible 3 I also stumbled across the 3rd Season of Lost on DVD (as in the episodes that were just on TV back home) so of course I had to buy it. This means that I will be stuck back being unproductive until I have finished watching them all. In fact you are lucky I have taken the time to update my blog. And on that note I am going to go watch.

2006-12-03T05:05:00.000-08:00

I had some interesting adventures this weekend. On Friday night I went go karting with a bunch of people from work. It was a ton of fun. The place was kind of crazy though. First of all the karts go really fast, way faster than any go karts I've ever been on, so that was really cool. It was crazy though because half of the place was the go kart track and the other half of the place was a bar. You could drink as much as you want and basically just set your beer down while you hop in the kart and zoom around in a death machine for eight minutes, and then come back and finish it before go karting again. And of course no waiver to sign. It was also inside and poorly ventilated (if at all) so you were just breathing in the gasoline and exhaust fumes. All in all a lot of fun. Saturday night I went out to the bars with a bunch of people from work and one of the girls really wanted to hear hip hop music. We went to a hip hop club someone had heard of and low and behold this time I found myself in the middle of not only a dj spinning battle but also a DANCE OFF! You know all those crazy Asian breakdancers you see videos of online? Well, it was a bunch of them right there in front of me! It was awesome to watch and the dancing was amazing. It was really funny too because the guy who was the MC was talking in both Chinese and English and some how he had down all the English hip hop slang with a perfect accent and sounded like he was from downtown Chicago or something. It really is funny how much American culture is worshipped here. Oh, a funny story from my classes. I was playing hangman with a class of fourth graders and it had to be medical/disease/hospital words and even though I usually let the kids come up with the words I decided that I had a good one; bird flu. The kids finally got it and said, "Teacher, teacher! What is bird flu?" So I don't know if they don't know what it is because the communist government isn't telling their people that the street chickens every in this country are about to cause a worldwide flu pandemic or if they just are too young, but either way I thought it was funny that they had no idea and that's all you hear about back home is China and the bird flu. That's all I have for now. I should probably go and do some more studying for the LSAT or my Chinese class....

2006-11-30T02:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm going to try this again and see if blogger pisses me off enough so that I have to start a new blog on some other site... WOW. It's been over a month since I lasted posted (mainly because my post was shot down everytime for some trouble connecting reason). It sucks to because there have been plenty of small interesting stories I felt I should be sharing with the world! I will try to quickly catch you up on everything that has been happening here (or maybe not so quickly). The Halloween party was actually a blast! We mostly just played drinking games in the school with Halloween decorations all around us. It was pretty funny because all the Chinese women that work in the office got really wasted. It was really good to see them doing something other than telling us what we are doing wrong teaching our own language! I took a "diagnostic" LSAT test to see how I would score on the LSAT. I didn't do too hot, but I also accidentally skipped one of the sections. Ooops. I have been a huge bum lately so I haven't gotten myself to do much other studying yet but I hope to kick back into action here soon. The weather finally changed away from hot everyday. It was cool for two weeks and now its starting to get pretty cold and it rains almost every other day. It still isn't quite Wisconsin cold, but it is hillarious how many layers the Chinese parents put on their children!? We were talking about clothes in my first grade class and every student has on long underwear, a shirt, a sweater, a vest, a sweatshirt and then a winter coat! I don't understand how they can put on any more clothes and I'm assuming its going to still get colder. Nathan came down from Beijing on business a couple weekends back and so we hung out a bunch. It was GREAT to see a friend from home. One night we went out with a friend of his who is from Shanghai and after getting pretty drunk we were walking down the street and they were having me say things in Chinese. I'm pretty sure they were having me ask homeless women if I could touch their boobs, but seeing as how I don't speak Chinese I can't say for sure... On top of that we got to sit down and discuss our AMAZING TRIP OF A LIFETIME that we are going to go on in Februrary. I won't give out the details yet because we are still talking about exactly were to go, but lets just say that while you are all freezing your asses off in the fridgid Midwest Februrary I will be relaxing and seeing the sights somewhere in balmy Southeast Asia! I got completely addicted to LOST for awhile. It was actually quite sad. I bought the 1st and 2nd season on DVD and pretty much spent two weeks doing nothing in my spare time but watching episodes. I've cut myself off for awhile so that I can be productive again but the next TV show on my list is Prison Break. Very exciting news; I started taking a Chinese class. I realized I wasn't picking up on the language as much as I had hoped and I don't want to walk away from living here for a year barely speaking anything. Because I'm in Shanghai its decently easy to get through life speaking only English. The class is somewhat expensive because most of the people that take them are businessmen with big salaries but so far I think its really worth it. Once I learn all the basics I feel like I will pick up on the language must faster. Thanksgiving here was ok. I went to an American Sportsbar with some friends and their friends from their work. I got the whole turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy meal so that was AWESOME. I haven't really been eating all too much western food but for the time around Thanksgiving I decided to indulge on everything American eating most of my meals at McDonalds, KFC and PizzaHut. Now I've been back on the Chinese but on Monday night this week I'm pretty sure I got food poisoning, FROM THE NOODLES GUYS!? I'm really depressed because I eat there at least 5 times a week and now I don't want to go back because I got so sick. I have to completely re-arrange my eating habbits now and I don't know what to do. Other good news; Barone (a friend from highschool) is coming to visit in early January. The plan is to spend sometime here and then hopefully I will be off of work so the two of us can take a train up to Beijing to visit Nathan. Then right after that my mom is coming to visit for the end of January. She is coming for two weeks and after spending a week showing her around Shanghai we are going to head down to the Yunnan province of China to escape the cold. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful provinces in China. From there she is going to fly back home and I am going to hop on a plane to meet Nathan for our trip. If you've been doing the math (or just in case you haven't), that's right, I have at least 6 AWESOME WEEKS planned (and most if not all of them off of work) of train riding and jet setting all over China and Southeast Asia. All my time here I've been trying to live cheap and find jobs/activities that will set me up for some amazing traveling and its finnally going to happen! I think that is all the big news. Hopefully this works and I can start posting more little stories of living in China because I can never think of them off the top of my head and when I want to write them down I can't. Also feel free to post questions. I hope everyone hasn't given up on checking my blog so that someone actually reads this!

2006-10-25T05:21:00.000-07:00

Wow. Sorry I haven't updated my blog for such a long time. I took my camera to my classes one day and have been trying to make a post of my day in pictures but for some reason blogger just hasn't been letting me. Basically I would try every other night or so, get frustrated and give up. So now I will just leave you with some typing instead. Apparently Shanghai is experiencing a really warm fall. In fact, I can still walk around at night with shorts and a t-shirt on. I wore a long-sleeve t-shirt the other day and it was just a little too warm while I was walking around. Its pretty crazy. I hear that back home there has already been some snow. Its really funny because even the locals talk about how warm it still is. I want to grad one of them and say, "LISTEN HERE CHINAMAN, do you see the thick, intense layer of smog over your city? Here's a hint: don't expect the following falls to be any cooler." It really is crazy how bad the smog is some days. Some mornings I wake up and looking out our balcony on the 27th floor we can barely see the buildings two blocks away. Its gross. All the busses, cars and trucks just have the worst exhaust ever, it makes you choke. On a brighter note, the fact that it has been so warm has helped me avoid the fact that I packed clothes planning on living in a tropical climate for a year. Luckily my wonderful parents and grandma have came to the rescue and gave me money to get warm clothes. I was very worried about finding clothes that fit, especially jeans. I finally went on a hunt yesterday and it was quite the process but I came out victorious. And WOW am I fashionable now. Diesel, Dolce & Gabana and some other designer I haven't heard of jeans. Its funny because the cheapest jeans you can find here are all "designer" jeans, aka really good ripoffs. So I got three pairs of really nice jeans for under $50 US. It took awhile to find ones that fit, but I managed to. It was funny because I went with Chi who is Chinese but has lived in Canada and the US all her life and the woman kept asking if we were married. Chi thinks she might have told her yes on accident and then the woman kept telling her how rich she must be because she is married to a white man. That cracked me up. Today was parent's day at one of my school so I had 20 to 30 parents sitting in most of my classes today. It was a little stressful because there was a lot of pressure to do a good job but I got a lot of good feedback and that made it worth it. OH! This Friday our company is having an office Halloween Party! Its crazy because all these Chinese women are trying to plan a Halloween Party but they have no idea what Halloween is and keep asking us for ideas. We don't really know what to say because basically little kids put on costumes and go get candy and grownups put on costumes and go get drunk. I think it is a booze free party and they are trying to come up with a lot of games so we will see how things turn out. I'm having problems finding a costume because obviously its not exactly a big holiday here. I will keep you posted on how things turn out. I will post more often to make sure to not confuse people on whether or not I am still alive.

2006-10-10T04:27:00.000-07:00

The rest of my week off was actually pretty boring. I'm trying really hard to budget my money to travel and that doesn't leave much for eating out or going out. My break was thus comprised mostly of sleeping and DVD watching now that we have a DVD player. I do have a couple interesting moments however. So first, Will and I went to get our haircut and I thought, why not a shampoo also, together they still cost less than three US dollars. Then I thought, why not get a shave too. ABSOLUTELY NOT. Do not hire someone to shave your face in a country where no one has facial hair. Literally I sat there for 45 minutes while the top layers of my skin were scraped away by some Chinese girl. And she could tell I was in pain so eventually the whole staff (which consisted of 9 people on a Tuesday night at 9pm at a very small barber shop: Communism) was standing over me trying to help as I got every hair ripped from my two day old facial hair. It was seriously horrible. They realized that they couldn't handle it and asked to shave my upper lip and I said no because I know its sensitive and would just bleed so I had to walk home with a two day old mustache. Good thing I'm in China and no one knew the difference. Later that night, Will and I went out and got directed to some random bar on the Bund (which should have been a sign because that is the rich area). We walked in as they were about to close in an hour and it was the type of place where everyone immediately looked at me, analyzed how much my clothes cost and then chose to ignore me or not. Then I got the eyes from older women who were making out with their rich older husbands that they hate and were entranced by the young poor kid and the older gay men who were also entranced by the younger poor kid. I felt dirty. Too bad the bar was closed otherwise maybe I would have gotten a drink bought for me! Then the next day I almost spent the night in Chinese jail. Will and I hung out with on of the Chinese girls in our company and on the way home we walked through some street vendors. There was some granola nut thing that I have been seeing around that I ask to check out and Susy (the Chinese girl) got us a sample and then helped us buy some, which ended up being ridiculously expensive. We tell the man that it is too expensive and try to leave. The guy doesn't give it up and starts yelling at Susy in Chinese and starts getting up in her face. He tells us she has to buy blah blah blah we go get the police involved but they don't care because as we were informed later, they don't want problems and don't care who's right. The man was being very aggressive and would only get in Susy's face and try to talk to her, WHICH IS NOT COOL Picking on girls is not ok with Americans. So we were getting right back in his face yelling profanity at him in English. Things escalated and a fist fight almost broke out in some Chinese square with cops right there. Susy ended up just paying because she was afraid and I was not happy with that but I guess I didn't go to jail for punching some Chinese man. We came to find out later that it is a really good thing a fight didn't occur because all the other vendors around him would have joined in and they are notorious for carrying knifes. I guess in hind site it's not worth getting stabbed for less than 5 US dollars (which is a lot of money here). And for those of you that are wondering, yes I bought a large belt buckle that is an American flag in the shape of the United States. Don't worry there is also a bald eagle on it. Just making sure to represent.

2006-10-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

Happy Chinese National Day! Or week. Or something like that... All I know is that I have a week off of work and there are big fireworks shows every other night. Two of our co-workers that live together had us over on Saturday night to watch the big fireworks show from their balcony that over looks Century Park where the fireworks were. It was a pretty good show (it lasted an hour) and there were some fireworks I hadn't seen before. There were crazy amounts of people everywhere and cab drivers were basically ignoring everyone that wasn't Chinese so that was frustrating. It is really great to have some time off to relax and explore Shanghai some more. We were talking and it is crazy because after this, we won't have two days off in a row until mid January which is a crazy long time from now. People keep asking about teaching and I don't know what else to say!? I go to class, teach the kids a couple new words or a song, act like a clown, bribe the children to behave with games involving candy, get fed a lunch which I rarely eat much of other than the rice, and then teach some more kids the same thing. I really like the kids and try to play around with them as much as I can between classes. They like running up to me and calling me monkey teacher because Chinese men don't have hair on their arms. We got paid on Friday and I was told I'm doing really well for a new teacher and that my boss was actually surprised with how well my reviews were, so that's good. We went back to the sushi place again and this time we ordered something that came to the table still flopping, literally the fish had just been killed and they placed the pieces of sushi on top of him and he would still flop his tail and open and close his mouth for awhile as we ate him. I'm starting to get nervous about the fact that I brought no winter clothes. I hope to have my mom send me some of mine but it might be expensive to have her ship a ton of jeans, sweatshirts and winter coats. So I'm not sure what I'm going to do. It's not cold yet but some nights you can tell that it is going to be. Hopefully I will have some exciting adventure to share to get more than one post in this week.

2006-09-26T05:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am not currently being as diligent with updating my blog as some people have requested. SORRY. However, I also know for a fact that many people aren't being very diligent with reading my blog so I don't want to overwhelm them (plus I'm a working man now and I'm busy). I am currently looking for another part time job to earn some more money so I can live it up and travel while I'm here. This past weekend was fun, we were much more successful finding a place where there were actually people. We went to a bar named Windows to meet some of our fellow teachers and it was decent. They played hip hop music and it was a mix of locals and foreigners. The initial plan was to go to a club that had a 70 kuai cover charge and then drinks were a max of 3 kuai. Pablo and I decided to go check that out with a guy Craig from Canada (fellow teacher). We went and it was down these stairs on an empty street and if there wasn't another cab of foreigners getting out in front of us we probably would have gone back to Windows. It ended up being a really cool place. Same thing with a mix of foreigners and locals but the place seemed much more "classy." It is hard to describe the difference between the two but I liked the second place much more. While sipping on a beer we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of an MC BATTLE?! It was some special night with two MC's that started battling on stage in English. I'm talking mother fuckin' 8 Mile style! It was definitely not what I expected to be doing on a Saturday night in Shanghai. The place was pretty cool and I hope we go back. My weeks are pretty much the same but I will share some funny stories and post some funny pictures. So, everyday in my 1st Grade class I start by saying, my name is Michael, what is your name? And the students look like they are having spaz attacks raising their hands for me to call on them. I called on one of the boys who always is SUPER excited about getting to say, my name is, and then his name and waited to hear his normal correct response. However, in their other English class they must have learned the words "I like" that day and the poor boy confused "my name is" with "I like." Because I knew the boys name I knew where this was going.... The young boy yelled out, with a big shit grin on his face while jumping up and down "I LIKE DICK." I had to pause class for awhile to laugh by myself. Another story, my cab driver today found out I was American and made me change to the front seat so I could have a Chinese lesson. It was a lot of fun and he did a great job teaching me some very useful Chinese words to use while in a cab. He didn't speak English very well but got his point across. While trying to come up with different words he knew in English he got very excited that he could say to me "big breasts" and while driving did made the motions with his hands on his chest imitating "big breasts." Good for you Chinaman, go get an American woman with your vast knowledge of the language. Announcement: Although these trends my not be making a resurgence in the US, China is doing its best to bring them back; the fannypack, little boys with rat tails, and anything NSYNC or Backstreet Boys from the late 90's. Finally I will leave you with some funny signs.

2006-09-18T20:28:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a lot of fun. On Thursday night we went to Barbarosa which is a huka bar in the middle of People's Park (in the middle of downtown Shanghai). We went because the DJ told us Thursdays are ladies night. It was a lot of fun. The place is amazing. Four levels with balconies and decks overlooking the park and skyline of the city. Drinks are a little spendy so we would have the girls go get free drinks and give the to us. We got there early but the place got pretty packed after awhile. Mostly expats but it was funny because there were a lot of male expats in their 40s or 50s in groups followed by groups of female Chinese girls in their 20s and 30s. I wonder what those girls are in it for... Friday we stayed in and hung out to save some money, plus Pablo and I teach on Saturdays. Saturday night we went out to eat with Phoebe's dad because he was in town. He took us to M on the Bund and the food was very very good. We ate outside on the roof and there was an incredible view of the river and the skyline of Pudong on the other side. The food selection was basically everything except Chinese so it was nice to eat something other than noodles for once. After dinner we went to the Jin Mao tower to try and have a drink at the Cloud 9 bar on the top floor (the tallest building in China). It was too full so we had drinks at the piano bar on the 53rd floor instead. The view was still amazing. After that we called it a night. On Sunday we went to some breakfast for a group Phoebe joined that helps find homes for abandoned animals. It was ok. Of course though on our way there, we had our usual time with Phoebe being in charge, we got lost. Then we went to go check out the Yu Gardens and Bazaar. There was a charge to go into the gardens so we just walked around the bazaar. Hello, hello! Watch? DVD? Shoes? Ridiculous. Chinese lesson: Bu yao = I don't want, a very important phrase to have down if you ever come to China. Then we took a cab to go to Century Park which is the biggest park in Shanghai and is located close to us in Pudong. You have to pay to get in?! It's a fricken park?! We didn't go in because it was getting late and instead went to go check out Carrefour to see if they had American foods if we ever have the craving. We got dinner at the Moon Light Diner which is the first place we have been to that has actually gotten American food right. I had a blue cheese burger and that made my weekend. Things are still going well with teaching, I will have to take some pictures of my kids soon to post. Right now we are looking into taking a big vacation during our winter break. I won't say where yet because I don't want to jinx things. Either way I need more money! Special announcement: I will be in a car accident before I leave China. It is absolutely inevitable. My taxi ride home during rush hour. Insane. Cabs, busses, cars, people, bikes, mopeds everywhere and almost no rules for right of way. Lanes, optional. Side of street to drive on, optional. Ridiculous.

2006-09-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

By the way, I think I fixed it so that anyone can post a comment so feel free to comment and ask me questions about stuff.

2006-09-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

Things are going pretty well in Shanghai. I have spent the time trying to get a schedule down for teaching, sleeping, eating and having free time. Teaching is going really well. We all keep getting weird calls "recommending" us to go observe other teachers and we couldn't tell for a long time if it was required, or it was a hint that we were doing a bad job. We finally asked someone that wasn't our boss (who never gives a straight up answer, apparently that is how things are done in China) and found out that they usually have people observe so its not just us. In fact, I had the head Chinese lady in the office of our company come observe me today and said that I had an excellent lesson and she even thanked me for working so hard! I was really pumped because everyone else has been getting really weird sketchy compliments/criticism so I was excited that I got a straight up answer that I am doing a good job. Most of my kids are absolutely adorable. I'm talking I wish I could adopt them and bring them back to the states with me. They get soo excited about everything and during breaks they just attack me to play with them in the hallway. Its great. It just sucks that I don't speak their language and they speak very very little of mine! There has been some sketchy things going on with our company with changing schedules and whether or not we are all actually full time teachers. Either way we are all going to be paid full time but we might not be teaching enough hours to receive the end of the year bonus. Its sketchy and I intend to ask more at the meeting on Friday. No matter what, I am looking for another part time teaching or tutoring job so I can have some more money to travel and live it up in Shanghai. Speaking of, last Saturday we tried to go out in Shanghai. Phoebe had some magazine with clubs listed in it so we let her take charge. Complete wild goose chase. We would get dropped off at these clubs (yes we tried multiple) in the middle of nowhere that sounded hopping only to walk in, buy a drink and see that literally we were the only people there. WHERE IN THE HELL WAS EVERYONE?! It was a Saturday night in the second biggest city on the planet and we saw NO ONE ANYWHERE. We obviously went to the wrong spots, but still. Hopefully the quest will go better this weekend.

2006-09-07T20:10:00.000-07:00

I'm alive! Don't worry I didn't get killed, I just haven't had the internet. I did write though and have posted the three letters I wrote while I didn't have any internet. This is the most recent one so I reccommend starting down two posts. Enjoy.

It’s Monday night in Shanghai. I’m sitting on my balcony on the 27^th floor overlooking Time Square and most of the skyline of Pudong. I would be sitting in the nook in Pablo’s room that looks at the two famous towers of Shanghai but he has crap there because he hasn’t finished unpacking yet. Everyone else went to go get dinner from street vendors but I did that earlier today. So far Shanghai is pretty sweet. I was slightly worried about living downtown and having it not feel like China but there are still plenty of side streets, alleys, street vendors and people you need to talk to that only speak Chinese. The funny part is that I’m trying to learn Chinese and starting out with basics at restaurants and shopping but the people that work here get really exited to see an American so the can practice their English and speak to you in broken English the whole time?! Bastards. I took the smallest room in the apartment so I could pay less, I’ve never really cared about how big my room is as long as I have a bed and a place to put my clothes. I don’t really need a desk because I just have my laptop and in all honesty I prefer typing out on the balcony. Hopefully tomorrow we can get internet so I can actually send some of these emails. Pablo didn’t work this morning and was supposed to take care of it but didn’t so now myself and Phoebe are going to go tomorrow with the “girlfriend” of one of the high up guys in the company. She is super nice and is the one that helped us out finding the apartment, which we got for a steal. I’m paying $250 U.S. a month in rent. Absolutely ridiculous how cheap living here is. Today was my first day of teaching. Phoebe and I teach at the same school on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings so its nice to have a friend to ride the train and take cabs with. I teach four 40 minute English classes to 2^nd Graders, have a lunch break and then teach one class of 3^rd graders. Next week I will start having two more classes of 1^st graders at a different school on Monday through Thursday. That’s right, no Fridays. However, we have lame ass staff meetings Friday afternoons so its not even a full day off. Then, because we are contracted to work five days a week I have to teach a 3 hour block in the afternoon on Saturdays. Apparently it is more of a students sign up and pay for it separately thing so hopefully no one will sign up and I will only work 4 days a week. The training for this company sucked. They didn’t really tell us a whole lot about what they wanted. Basically they told us that they wanted us to be clowns and give out a lot of candy to the kids. I think it’s going to take me a week or two to get used to that teaching method and I’m supposed to go watch one of my fellow teachers who has been here for awhile to get a better feeling for things. I do enjoy teaching. I liked the 2^nd graders more than the 3^rd graders because they were better behaved. The kids are at the stage where they love their teachers and since I’m foreign that makes me even cooler. I’m still waiting for a real bed to come. Right now I have a jenky ass futon that we are going to try to keep somewhere for guests (hint hint). I really just want to finish moving in. It’s crazy when I think that I’ve already been here for more than a month. Then it’s even crazier to think I will be here for another ten maybe more. We had to sign a lease for 12 months so we don’t know what we are going to do with the extra time but I know I’m not staying here until next September. Did you know this is going to be the longest held job I have ever had? Kind of scary. It sucks right now too because we have to slum it for awhile because we had to pay a month advanced rent and a two month security deposit. I had to borrow money from my parents for that one and I still don’t have that much to live off of this month. I will just have to make it work. Stay in touch.

2006-09-07T20:08:00.000-07:00

Today was ridiculous. Absolutely a nightmare. We spent the day looking at apartments. Last night we looked at all the cheaper places further down the subway, and they were a ton nicer than what we expected and what we lived in in Zhuhai. Then Phoebe convinced us to look at more places today on a further up subway stop just to look. Ridiculous. These places were amazing, very western, super pimp and deece views. Funniest part was that we had multiple real estate agents following us around all day trying to show off their own apartments in different complexes. We had a fuckin Asian Team of people finding us apartments. So we found one that we wanted that was a price that we could afford with pretty sweet views. Will was still hesitant about paying so much and he wanted the places we found before so there was some discussion, but we decided to go for it. The discussions started with the real estate agent and somehow something came up about not having the right papers… SKETHCY. We said that’s not ok, we are not doing anything that might be slightly illegal blah blah blah fake papers are not ok, we heard stories about Americans being put in jail for that shit, we are not signing contracts with out the right papers. Then Phoebe mentions, oh by the way, the apartment on the 27 floor of the building that you guys fell in love with and was your first choice but didn’t want to pay that high of a price for, oh they offered it to me for your price. SO NOW, we have the mother fucking penthouse for the price of the place without papers. 6,500 RMB per month = $812 USD per month aka $270 per person per month for our own bedroom downtown with views of the buildings you see on postcards. Any friend I have ever had that doesn’t come visit should kill themselves. And can I quickly mention the fact that everyone here smokes like chimneys. It’s disgusting. I have had to wear my glasses these past two days because my eyes hurt. And I have so much more to tell about how teaching is going to be. Not to mention I start teaching on Monday morning, five classes of 2^nd grade students. I plan to take a video tour or the apt and posting it, so let me know what you think. After everything we went back to the all you can eat sushi and all you can drink beer and sake place. Still absolutely amazing.

2006-09-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

So I officially made it to Shanghai. The train ride was actually really cool. Our top of the line soft sleeper was more like a closet and definitely not intended for people with baggage so we got really close during the train ride. We tried to take a lot of video with our cameras to explain the situation so I will have to try and post that somehow, but either way it ended up being a lot of fun. The scenery was the absolute best just at sunset and I got some amazing pictures of the sun setting over lakes with mountains in the background that were along the train tracks. We got to Shanghai, have a hotel for two nights and still don't have an apartment. We have to wake up and have training for teaching tomorrow starting at 8:30 am and then tour apartments in the afternoon and evening. Supposedly we start teaching on Monday. The big story though is that tonight was the staff party for the company. Our boss rented out a bar where it was all you could drink from 7 to 11. Of course he rents out the sketchy prostitute bar he took us to the night we came up to Shanghai to interview. We go there and started drinking and it took a while to have enough of a buzz to be social but it happened eventually. After awhile I go to get another drink and low and behold, one of our co-worker girls comes up to me and starts talking to me at the bar. Mind you, earlier will and Pablo were calling girls and Will called this girl earlier and then proceeded to fall on his face tripping over something on his way to the bathroom and then took back his previous claim. Anyway, myself and this girl (who's name I do not know because she is somewhat of a soft talker and is originally from Columbia and has a little bit of an accent) talk for quite awhile at the bar. We make plans of her showing me local restaurants and making a deal to go to

Tibet

sometime and then go play darts with Pablo (worst dart game of my life). Short end to a long story, she was cool, I planted the seed and then let it breathe. Sad thing is that as the night went on, the atmosphere turned from work party to more and more "working girls" being there. I couldn't take it. It is the most depressing thing in the word having a very attractive girl come up to you, say all the right things, seem very interested, be a hell of a flirt in her non-native language and the whole goddamn time you know that she is working you for cash. Ridiculous. I couldn't take it. I had to leave. Luckily Phoebe wanted to go so we left. We got back and got some amazing street vendor food for very cheap, rolled back to the hotel and ate it all. Now I'm sitting here writing this "post" (because I don't have any internet) purely because I need to share my experiences.

2006-08-28T06:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been a while since a post but I've been pretty busy with this teaching thing. The whole thing has gone very well. I've heard only positive things from my advisors and then just some new ideas for other activities to try. However, I am still very excited that tomorrow is my last day. Crazy isn't it? I've already been gone over a month. This past Friday was a blast! We ended up putting off going to Macau until Saturday because the rest of the class was going to a KTV (a karaoke bar) so we wanted to go with them. Ridiculous amounts of fun. First of all the security was crazy, metal detectors and everything. We had a private room (that's how they do karaoke here) for the 20 of us and sand and played dice games for awhile. A bunch of us pooled our money together and bought bottles of Chivas Scotch. We ended up getting a bottle for free because we bought so many! And the best part is that it wasn't even that much money and it was really good scotch. While trying to find the bathroom we stumbled across the fact that not only was it a kick ass karaoke bar, but also a GIGANTIC dance club. After we got good and tanked we headed out there and it was crazy disco music and lights and everyone watching the foreigners dance funny. Chinese people just kind of sway and call that dancing. They were quite entranced by the Americans and Brits that pushed their way up to the front of the stage and started grinding. It was seriously a two story club of Chinese people just staring at us and then trying to do whatever we did. Fricken awesome. The cops started warning us that people were going to start trying to take our wallets soon so we decided to head back up to the room where I continued to drink scotch until I blacked out. Good thing Michele got me a cab home. Saturday we rolled out of bed and headed to Macau and we were pumped about that. We finally got there after ridiculous lines and waiting to cross the border and customs even though, oh don't wait, its still officially China. We went to go into the first casino, and we couldn't because Pablo and I wore sandals (even though we had collared shirts on) and that apparently wasn't allowed. So we spent more of the day walking around trying to find cheap shoes. We eventually gave up because we didn't want to spend more on shoes than we had planned spending in the casinos in the first place. It was cool just walking around though because it sort of felt like you were in Europe with some of the architecture but then you would look around and all you could see were Chinese people. Unfortunately we had to teach on Sunday so that made the weekend over. Tomorrow is our last day teaching and then Wednesday night we hop on the 24 hour train that will take us up to Shanghai. We are pretty excited but sad to be leaving Michele and Chi. Sidenote funny story. I was teaching at the middle school for the first time and I walked in and the students kept telling me that I was "fit" and then would flex. Then the a couple of the boys started calling me superman (I was wearing a red polo). At the end of class a couple of the girls came up giggling and asked if they could call me superman also, I said it was ok.

2006-08-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

This week has been our first week teaching students. Its not too bad. I think I will like it more when I have a text book to teach out of instead of having to go home and make pictures every night. It is also pretty difficult becuase we always teach different students and its hard to know the level of the students before you actually teach them. For example we are told to teach animals. The know many animals and its pretty hard to randomly find the few animal words they don't know. Apparently tomorrow I go to the school where all the boys are obnoxious, so I'm not too excited about that. I guess I will just have to show them who's boss! Our first visa expires on Sunday so we are going to Macau on Friday. Macau used to be owned by Portugal but they just gave it back to China and so it is sort of part of China and sort of it's own thing. Either way it counts as leaving the country. We hope to tour the city, hit up the dog track and the casinos. I'm excited to learn how to play craps and Phoebe says she will teach me so that should be cool. As my days are coming to an end in Zhuhai I feel like I should give a more accurate description of how it contrasts with the U.S. Here is a picture of the chickens for sale outside when I leave my building. Can you say bird flu? Zhuhai is apparently one of the cleanest cities in China, however people still feel it is perfectly find to piss or crap anywhere there is grass. Infact, infants pants have slits in the crotch so all the have to do is squat when they need to go to the bathroom. We have seen many a child with their pants down at a bus stop and many a strange old lady coming out of the bushes along a busy street and don't worry when we walk past the area smells like poop. The city itself would be really pretty except for one thing. There are bars on all the windows of all the apartments. We have yet to figure out why they need bars on the balconies and windows of a 20 story building. The main thing that screams communism is the fact that everywhere you go there are TONS of people "working" in a store but none of them are doing anything. Communism gaurantees everyone a job, that doesn't mean they have to actually be useful. There is an electronics store we past most days and the store itself is maybe the size of a living room and dining room put together. Our record number of people we've seen working in that tiny space is 11. Can you believe that?! Here is a picture in a department store we were in one day. Try to count the number of workers standing around. I was sort of mad becuase two of them starting putzing with that sign as soon as I took the picture, but I think there are still nine women in the picture. Time for bed.

2006-08-20T18:39:00.000-07:00

The rest of last week was pretty boring, however, this past weekend myself, Pablo and Phoebe flew to Shanghai to look at some schools and have some job interviews. Shanghai is amazing! I am really excited to live in Shanghai and I am a little nervous that there will be too much to do there?! So here is what happened... Friday night we went out to dinner with the boss from ESL (English as a Second Language) and that was pretty interesting. Lorne (the boss) is a 40something Canadian who has lived here for quite some time and intends living here permanently. He smoked an entire pack of cigarettes during dinner and smoked another pack at the bar he took us to afterwards. He made ridiculously vulgar jokes and passes at phoebe even though we only met him that night. After many beers we talked about the job and it pays the best and when it came down to it he is really serious about teaching. It was kind of weird because all the sudden he got really serious and told us that its all about the kids and explained that each kid in China is the only hope of four grandparents. It made us feel a lot better once he got serious because up until that point he was pretty sketchy. He then took us to a bar that he used to manage. Apparently all the girls that were there actually "work" there. Their job is to flirt and get white guys to buy more drinks all night. They have to stay until bar time and then if the girls want they are prostitutes to the men buying them drinks all night. I couldn't believe this guy took us there and was then telling us all this stuff. I'm still not 100% sure I like/trust the guy but I don't think he was lying at all or would ever cheat us, not to mention we don't have a whole lot to lose, all he can do is not pay us and if he does we can easily get out of the contract. He told us to come over the next day and sing contracts and we told him we would call him. However, we had plans the next day to visit two other schools. We canceled one because we really weren't interested but called the other and they offered to come pick us up and show us around Shanghai all day. We felt bad because this school paid considerably less than the other one and the only reason why we were interested was because it sounded like a lot of fun and the people sounded really nice. Oh, but wait, our hotel kicked us out for the second night and we had no place to stay, so in the process of trying to swindle our way into having other plans (to go back to talk more to Lorne at ESL) we told them we had to find a hotel and they found one for us and paid for it. After touring the school, asking some more questions and finding out more about the contract we realized we were going to sign with Lorne at ESL because it was more money and the contract was shorter. But we felt HORRIBLE because the people at the this school (New Beat) were ridiculously nice and their school sounded amazing but we just needed the money and to be home earlier. BUT IT DIDN'T STOP THERE. The people at New Beat wanted to take us out to dinner and we couldn't refuse. Then they also wanted to pick us up to go to the airport and we couldn't refuse. And they brought us gifts in the morning and the whole time they kept talking about their nice little school and dropping all this cash on us and we new we weren't going to sign but didn't know how to get out of everything. We felt like the devil. I really wish I could teach at New Beat but the salary was sooo much lower and the whole point of me coming here is to earn money to travel as much as I can. We also didn't get as much vacation with New Beat. We still feel bad and have to tell them no in the next couple of days. So I now have an official job teaching English to first and second graders in Shanghai. My contract ends June 30th, I have around a 4 week break some where in January/Februrary, a week in either March or May (I can't remember), a day off for Christmas and maybe a week off in October. Now we just need a place to live?! I will keep everyone updated...

2006-08-15T04:00:00.000-07:00

The Thai restaurant was pretty good Sunday night and not too spicy, so that was nice. The sad part is that it gave me a little "rumbly in my tumbly" and I had to break my streak of never having to use a squatty potty. Will and Pablo were pretty happy but I felt really sad... The funniest thing walking down the street this really cute little girl came up to Will and started tugging on his shirt asking him for money and then rubbing his stomach (trying to say she was hungry). At first we all thought it was cute and funny but didn't want to give her any money because once you give one beggar money they all see it and can sense it and they swarm you. So we started to keep walking, and she wouldn't let go of him! Michele asked her where her mother was and told she had to let go. We were physically trying to tear her away from Will but she had a death grip on his shirt! We had to drag her to a police officer where he had to physically rip her off of Will's shirt and hold her arms while we walked down the street because she kept trying to get away to come chase us! That little girl definitely knew how to work it! Happened on our walk around town later that night. We decided that we knew where we were and we could walk to a bus stop that would take us home instead of taking a cab. So we started walking and decided to walk down the street that we had gone down on our field trip a while ago (the street where we saw the prostitutes) and it was pretty crazy at night. As we were The even funnier part is that the next night we went back down to Gong Bei to eat (will be discussed soon) and while in the underground market we took some random exit and ended back up on the same street and the little girl was there?! Luckily she didn't see us but Will was freaking out. A 200 some pound black ducking in fear of a 40 pound Asian girl. Hillarious. So dinner on Monday we decided to go to the "Indian" Restaurant in Gong Bei. Don't worry, it wasn't Indian food as in curry and rice from India. No, it was Indian food as in headdress wearing Native American food which equaled steaks. The most politically incorrect restaurant I have ever seen. All the waitresses wore t-shirts that said "Indian" and had on short jean skirts and wore feathers in their hair. It was pretty funny. I was good to finally get some good meat though. Tonight is going to be pretty chill, catching up on emails, blogging and homework. Hopefully more adventures will occur soon.

2006-08-13T02:14:00.000-07:00

Friday night was a lot of fun. We played some drinking games in Will and Pablo's room and then the six of us went down to bar street. I was sober enough to remember and did take some pictures. We hung out at a couple of different bars and had some drinks. We played the dice game a little more and I was excited because I could now understand it and play well. We were going to sit inside one of the clubs but it was crazy loud pumping Chinese techno beats so we opted for the calmer outside sitting. We ran into some of the other people from our class and luckily it was the ones we like and not the smelling or annoying ones so that was nice. We had a lot of fun and got pretty drunk so it was all in all a good night. Saturday was a lazy day. I ended up sleeping until 2pm and missed going to lunch with everyone because I ignored my phone. Then I woke up and everyone went to take a nap so I watched some of my James Bond movies and played a computer game. For dinner we took a bus over to the "night market" and got some pizza at place near by. The pizza was actually pretty good but they don't really use pizza sauce so it was kind of weird. The night market was pretty lame. We all thought it would be more like the underground market but it was very small and all it was was a bunch of really cheap cheap crap. The only good thing about the experience was that we got beer bottle openers for 1 kuai each so we no longer have to use our teeth and ledges. Sunday I woke up and went to go get some of my drying laundry from off the balcony and realized that I could see mountains from my balcony. I didn't know those were there?! I decided that it was a really clear day out and we had to take the cable car up the mountain so I made the E.D. (executive decision) for the day and said we were going. Chi ended up not coming because she is pretty sick and Will decided not to go for some other reason. Holy shit did they miss out. The view was amazing! Just insane views of the ocean and the city and everything. At the top there was also some guy with a giant snake that we got to put around us and take pictures (of course it cost money though and we kind of got ripped off). That was pretty cool. It kept moving for all of us and we were freaking out and then Pablo put it on and the damn thing didn't move a muscle. We were pissed. We hiked around the top a little bit (or I should say I made everyone) and that was nice. It was really hot out though so we all got kind of gross. The best part though was on the way down! You got to ride this cart on a track and we were watching people do it and it looked pretty lame but we thought what the hell. Apparently because we wanted to go on all four of us at the same time we had to go in pairs in these carts and then they put an Asian guy in the front cart to control the ride. I guess he thought, wow, look at these big Americans, I bet we can go pretty fast. WE FLEW DOWN THE HILL. Everyone we watched went creeping down but because we had so much weight on the carts he wouldn't let us put on the breaks the whole time?! We definitely came off the tracks a couple times and I thought we were going to tip over, or fly off and die on the side of some mountain in China. Looking back it was crazy fun and crazy worth it but pretty fucking scary. As Pablo put it, it was one of those things were if something were to happen, you would just have to hope you completely died because you would be so fucked up afterwards and would have to go to Chinese hospitals that it would probably be better to just end it in a flash. Tonight we are going to go to dinner at a Thai restaurant. I'm a little nervous because I am pretty big wuss when it comes to spicy food but we will see how things go. OH. I almost forgot. At lunch we ate some "beef" dish and Michele didn't understand what the waitress was saying when she was describing the type of meat, only that it was some kind of beef. We definitely decided that it was intestines. It didn't taste too bad but had a gross texture. I was pretty happy though because I've been wanting to try new things and no one else ever would so I'm glad we got tricked into it. Ok, its time to go to dinner. I will talk to you all soon.

2006-08-11T04:54:00.000-07:00

I now have a picture of a squatty potty thanks to Will. Mind you this is also the squatty potty in their room which Will bleaches practically everyday (and also know that their shower is just behind you with no tub, no curtain, just a drain in the floor next to the sink). Just imagine how nasty the public toilets are. Now before I propose the question of the night I need to give everyone a little more background. First of all, to expand on the Indian girl with the worst body odor ever. Her name is Renu, and by the end of the day the entire classroom smells so bad it makes you want to puke. When we leave for breaks and then come back it is like walking into a brick wall of B.O. And it is all her smell because if you walk by her you can smell her. Second of all, today in class was horrible. My presentation went very well and I went fourth, but that made the rest of the day literally painfully boring (our teacher really liked my lesson though). We had to learn introductions to 11 different languages. Will's was absolutely hilarious. He did the "Southside Chicago" language so it was all intense slang. Hearing these little Asian girls saying "Whatz up shortay" is pretty fuckin funny. On top of that, the annoying guy that stalks us, Jesse, made some comment to will about how Will's term for house "Tip" should be "Crib." Mind you Jesse is 20 years old and has been living in China for the past 8 years of his life being home schooled. Will would not have that so he said no, it's tip as in "Just the tip." Chi and I almost died laughing. Then he made some comment about how "He could feel" what Will was saying or something along those lines and it was "Noted" which is what we say to each other whenever he says something ridiculously annoying. The best part was that Jesse thought Will was being his "boy" or something and started laughing even though we were laughing at him. I feel kinda mean talking about this kid behind his back so much but he is that annoying. The point of this whole story about the day though is the question of the day that was asked at dinner: Would you rather have sex with (smelly, smelly, smelly, body odor of death) Renu, or shit in a squatty potty. The obvious answer is squatty potty because Renu smells that bad and there is no way you could hold an erection with that pungent of an odor around. But Will and Pablo have such horrifying experiences with the squatty potties that they almost picked sex with Renu. Now I have to go because we are going to continue drinking (drinking games my favorite) and then plan on heading to bar street again. Hopefully I will be sober enough to remember it this time but the way things are going its not looking so good.

2006-08-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

It is Thursday night, tomorrow I have to peer teach a lesson in Spanish. All 20 students give 15 minute lessons all day tomorrow in foreign languages and we are supposed to be attentive students all day. FUCK THAT! Pablo and I decided that we are going to try and going early on, buy a bottle of vodka at lunch and then pour it into water bottles and drink all afternoon! How clever is that. I bet though we will be much more attentive listeners and participate more after the booze. The point is that I stayed up late working on pictures for my lesson, drank a redbull and now I can't fall asleep. Because of that you are going to get some comments on Chinese plumbing. First of all, toilets and plumbing systems are not built to handle the flushing of toilet paper. That means every 6 sheets of paper you use, you have to flush. Its crazy. Who in the hell designs a toilet and plumbing for it that can not handle toilet paper. As Pheobe likes to point out "THAT'S ITS JOB?!" I however can not complain to much because I am lucky enough to have a western style toilet in my bathroom. The vast majority of toilets are the "Squatty Potty" type of toilet where it is literally a hole in the ground with two places to put your feet on each side as you squat and do your business. Pablo and Will have a squatty potty and I told them I intend to never have to shit in one the whole time I'm in China. That pissed them off because that's all the ever shit in! I really have problems comprehending the physics/body mechanics of making that work. Not to mention that in public restrooms the floors are completely covered in piss and are often quite slippery. Pablo and Will said they might try to sneak laxatives in my drink someday and I told them that if they did they will die. I will try to take a picture of a squatty potty tomorrow to post but until then, appreciate modern plumbing.

2006-08-09T04:41:00.000-07:00

It is currently Wednesday night in Zhuhai and I have had three days of TEFL classes. So here's the deal. I'm being taught English Phonology (kind of like phonetics but an international system) by an Asian woman. What you're thinking is right, HOW IN THE HELL IS SOME WOMAN BORN IN CHINA AND LIVED IN CHINA HER WHOLE LIFE SUPPOSED TO BE TELLING ME HOW TO PRONOUNCE WORDS IN MY LANGUAGE?! Don't worry that's the battle we go through every day. For example: country is pronounced countr i (the i being the i sound in ship). BULLSHIT. And there is no "r" sound at the end of ladder, your or neighbor. Oh, and by the way Nigeria has only 3 syllables. No wonder why all these little Chinese people speak crappy English. She was claiming it was British English but even the British people in the class didn't say stuff the way she said. She is the most stubborn woman in the world, I speak native English, you don't. Another part of class that is pretty frustrating is that to show us how our students will feel learning a foreign language we are learning Tagalo, the language they speak in the Philippines. I must say, it makes sense, but when I am already trying my hardest to learn Chinese the last thing I need is to throw another language in the mix. I try to zone out as much as I can during that part of class. I think now would be an excellent time to discuss "Engrish." Engrish is defined as the language created by poor Chinese pronunciation or translation of the English language. It is pretty funny the stuff you see on "English" menus here. For example:That is our favorite one thus far but another good menu item (on the same menu) was: The Cheese, Seafood Bakes the Spaghetti and don't worry it was a rice dish. Back to class. There is a girl in the class from India and she has THE WORST BODY ODOR EVER. We pick our seats in class every day as far away from her as possible. She sat by us the first day and Chi got a really bad headache from the smell. I just want to buy her some goddamn deodorant. We start grammar tomorrow so that should be interesting and on Friday we have to teach a lesson to the class in a foreign language. I guess I have to brush up on some Spanish but it is supposed to be an elementary lesson so I won't need to remember too much. One of the new TEFL students stalks us. He is really weird and very full of himself so we don't like going out to eat with him but after every class he comes up (specifically to me because I think he senses I am the weakest at being mean) and asks, "So what's the plan for lunch?" We have started making tactical plans every meal of how we are going to split up and re-group and our restaurant of choice. Other than class taking up most of my day things are going very well. Four of us (myself, Pablo, Phoebe and Will) are talking pretty seriously about getting jobs in Shanghai and getting an apartment together. Currently we are all applying to as many places as possible to see if we get offers (so far things are looking pretty good) and are planning on taking a trip there next weekend to check out the jobs, the city and places to live. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of staying with some people from my class because I figure I already came to China for an adventure to make new friends, I succeeded, no need to have to start all over again. I hear Shanghai can be pretty western but I don't feel like I am quite ready (or have anywhere near good enough Chinese) to be by myself in bumfuck nowhere China. I will also be centrally located so I can travel more and also will be closer to Nathan in Beijing. I haven't ruled out anything yet though and am still weighing all options. Well its about time for me to hit the books and make some lesson plans. Hope things are going well back in the states and its always good to hear from everyone.

2006-08-06T02:44:00.000-07:00

Saturday we woke up and went to Chi's dad's house outside the city. He and his brothers own a shipyard in Hong Kong and it used to be where they built the new Disneyland so because of some deal with the government they got some space outside of Zhuhai also so he has a house there. I was a really nice place and it was a good day for all of us to just hang out inside in air conditioning and watch all our pirated movies. It was cool driving through the countryside again and seeing how rural Chinese people live. I guess that in the area we were in there were a lot of shrimp farms and that was interesting to see. Saturday night we had dinner with all the TEFL people in our program. The difference between them and us is that they are just here for the TEFL program and found it on their own through the internet or something so they will be with us for the remaining four weeks of training. The original six of us are also here for the TEFL program but we got to this TEFL program through the LanguageCorps and that included our first week of Chinese and field trips and then extra support services and guaranteed job placement (TEFL people have to find their own job). I am really glad I did the whole LanguageCorps thing for the main reason that we got to spend the first week becoming friends and having adventures. The six of us have a lot in common, we are all from the states, recently out of college, just here for a year to avoid getting a real job and have a fun adventure in the process. The plain TEFL people are a little "different" (as are most of the other teachers at our school). Most of them are older, at least in their 30's and all the way through I'd say their 50's. Its the kind of of thing where you ask yourself, what are they doing here? Shouldn't they have lives back home by now? They seem like very nice people but just the type of people that would be your "Crazy Uncle Larry." Its funny because when I saw my eye doctor before I came he made a comment to me about how he was glad I was going because everyone he knows that went to China for a year was kind of "weird" and he is worried that the Chinese are going to start getting the wrong impression about Americans! I didn't understand him at first, but now I definitely do! Saturday night we just went to a tea house and played some cards. Today we got lunch together and then decided to check out a massage parlor. It was only 20 kuai for an hour massage (about $2.5o US). I know what you are thinking, and the answer is no, there was no "Happy Ending." We were all in the same room with five beds (Will wanted to have no part in it and just sat in a chair watching the whole time) and it was funny because afterwards Michele started laughing and we asked her why. I guess in the middle of the massage the woman that was massaging me said to the other women, "I don't know what to do, I've never done someone this big before." And then I guess all the women started talking about how they were having the same problem. I got a kick out of that and I could definitely feel that she couldn't push hard enough. At one point in time she got up and was standing on my back (and butt) walking around. The funny part is that Will said her head didn't even touch the ceiling. Mind you the ceilings in this room were maybe 7 feet tall, tops, and I was on a waist high table and she could stand on me and not touch her head on the ceiling. I believe I am now caught up on my blog and I will try to update it more frequently (I already got some nasty emails about not writing often enough). Keep in touch and keep the emails flowing.

2006-08-06T02:18:00.000-07:00

Friday was the last day of Chinese class. We mostly reviewed and then learned family members. Family members in Chinese is very funny because they all sound like baby sounds: ba ba = father, ma ma = mother, etc. Everything is the same one syllable repeated twice. Because it was still raining we didn't go to Blue Lotus Cave (and apparently there is absolutely nothing about Blue Lotus Cave that is a cave, its just a park, but something obviously got lost in the translation...). Instead we went to a big book store and then walked around Gong Bei (kind of the shopping district of Zhuhai). Gong Bei is also the sketchy district of Zhuhai (especially at night) and we definitely saw some prostitutes. At first you couldn't tell, but I accidentally made eye contact and then they changed to a seductive stance and followed us down the street for awhile. It was funny and at first Will didn't believe me, but after they were walking circles around us and following us down the street looking at us funny he agreed with me. Friday night we decided to break the cycle of doing nothing and going to bed early so myself, Pablo and Will got an assortment of Chinese beers to try. Phoebe did a little drinking also (some pineapple beer that was quite interesting). The Chinese beer wasn't too bad (but don't worry I also got one Pabst) and it was all sold in single cans or kind of like 40's but I think they were more like 30's. We also got a little bottle of bai jiu which is a Chinese alcohol that is apparently really nasty. We drank the bottle between the three of us and it was pretty gross stuff, but it was weird because it didn't burn going down, it just tasted like skunky, skunky wine or something, but it was clear. Then Will and Pablo's roommate Nick had a bunch of friends over also and it turned into a mini-party. They were all teachers at the school and very "interesting" people. For example, Nick and his one friend started do some weird kung fu stuff at one point in time. The girls ended up going to bed and we went down to "Bar Street" with Nick and his friends. Unfortunately I was pretty wasted by that time seeing as how I haven't drank for awhile and all I ever eat is noodles, eggplant and cabbage, so going down to Bar Street wasn't all too clear. It was a really cool street though and we sat outside a bar and played a dice game. The whole street was all lit up in neon lights so that was pretty sweet. I think everyone thought I was even more wasted than I was because I was concentrating really hard on learning the dice game and figuring out the strategy so I was doing a lot of staring at nothing. Either way I ended up getting a hamburger made for me to try and sober me up. It wasn't too bad. We are definitely going to have to go back to Bar Street again sometime, but next time we will go before we finish a bottle of Stoli (which we got for $10 US) and a bottle of Absolute by taking group shots so I can remember better.

2006-08-05T02:40:00.000-07:00

Its a typhoon?! Definitely just had my first experience in a tropical storm. We were supposed to be going to a park on Thursday afternoon but because a typhoon hit Zhuhai we went to a Japanese grocery store. The typhoon was insane! Chi said that the storm in Zhuhai was only a level 3 out of 10 and we found out later that in Macau (20 minute bus ride to the coast and right by where we go on a lot of our field trips) it was a level 7! The rain and wind were crazy. I could barely sleep the night before because of all the noise but I just thought it was a little storm. On the walk from the bus stop to the grocery store we got absolutely soaked, not to mention the fact that I, weighing in at 190 lbs. Almost go blown away at times. Cheap little umbrellas are completely useless when the rain is going sideways. We saw sheets of metal flying around and downed trees everywhere. Looking back we probably should have just stayed inside! We also found out that three people actually died in Zhuhai during the storm because of getting hit with stuff in the wind. And the grocery store, not at all worth it. There was a McDonald's inside though so we had some western food while we were there. Grocery stores here are pretty crazy though. The best is the meat section. All the meat is just sitting out in coolers, unwrapped and you just pick up what you want. Some of my favorite staple items in the meat section are chicken feet, pig noses and pig tongues. YUMMY.

2006-08-05T02:35:00.000-07:00

It is Tuesday night here in China and things are going pretty well. Our adventure on Sunday went pretty well, we just walked up and down the main street we live on and looked in different shops. Chinese classes started on Monday and holy cow did I feel stupid! Two of the people in the program missed their ferry and were not in class on Monday so it was myself, Michele, Chi and Will (a large black guy from Chicago who also just graduated college) and all three of them have already taken Chinese?! I was so far behind and really frustrated. Things went better the second day when Pablo and Pheobe came because they have never taken Chinese before either. Pablo and Pheobe both went to school together at Hamilton which is somewhere on the east coast. Pheobe is also from Chicago and is a tall blonde. People always say the Asians will stare at Americans walking down the street but now with the six of us as a group we have a large black man (probably the only one any of these people will ever see in their lives) and a tall blonde girl (which people assume she is famous or a super model). WOW do people stare. It is actually kind of creepy sometimes. Yesterday in class we learned how to count and general greetings. Then we took the bus to a beautiful public park with a large statue in the sea called "The Fish Lady". There were amazing views of the sea and surrounding mountains/city/park/everything! Unfortunately I am having problems figuring out how to put pictures up on this blog so I might just have to put them on a general photo service for people to see. Today we learned how to bargain and then went to the market. INSANE!? I was picturing some guys with towels laid out on the concrete with some DVDs and cheap necklaces. No. Its insane. Its like a ridiculously intense mall the size of Camp Randall Stadium, with hallways the size of grocery store isles, and millions of tiny shops all selling really, really, really good rip-offs of clothes, electronics, watches, you name it, you can buy it. I bought X-Men 3 for 5 kuai. Do you know what that is in American? About 63 cents. Its a good copy and the movie isn't even out on DVD in the states yet?! I also got Nike rip-off running watch for about $6.25 American and the ENTIRE COLLECTION of James Bond DVDs (20 movies) for about 14 us dollars. ISN'T THAT INSANE?!?! Oh, and they are mostly recent movies. I'm talking came out in theaters last Friday. Pablo bought Miami Vice, I saw Pirates 2 and a whole bunch of other movies that are only in theaters. It was crazy. And sweet rip off watches. Will got a rip off Rolex for $20 US. And its a NICE rip off, it has running gears, a nice crank and the whole deal. I guess none of us are watch conesures (horrible spelling) but all the tell tale sings of a fake were not present. I think I'm going to go back and get the same watch he got and a couple others for myself. $20?!? That was the dangerous part though, even though its really cheap in US dollars, you can still add up a bill fast. And you have to barter! I'm really not that good at it but I tried and got some stuff knocked down from original asking price. I think that's it for today. Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions. Otherwise I hope to hear from everyone soon.

2006-08-05T02:31:00.000-07:00

Today I had my orientation sessions and moved into my apartment I will be staying in for the next five weeks and luckily, I have internet! I found out later that the only reason I have internet is because my roommate is a teacher at the school, so I scored pretty big with that one. My roommate is 32 and is a teacher at the school and he is originally from Ohio. He is very nice and very willing to help me out with any questions I have or anything I need. The apartment itself isn't too bad. Not super nice, but I have a/c and an internet connection in my bedroom so that’s all I need to be happy. I decided that I will be eating out all meals because David (my roommate) informed me that the roaches only come if you cook stuff. Seeing as how prices here are RIDICULOUSLY cheap, I think I will just eat out. The first week of my program is simply Mandarin Chinese lessons, which I am pretty excited about. We spend the morning learning Chinese and then the afternoons on "fieldtrips" to local sites to use the stuff we learned in the morning. It seems like a great way to learn and experience some of the city. By the way I am staying in Zhuhai (pronounced Jew-High). It is a "small" city in China of about 1 million people, that I guess was only a small fishing village ten years ago. There are going to be six people here in my program through the LanguageCorps. Two of the girls I have met already and the other girl and two other guys are coming tomorrow. After the first week we will be joined by about 12 others who are just here to get the TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certificate and they will be in our class for the remaining four weeks. So far everyone has been very nice and extremely helpful. The girl I met at the airport, Michele, happens to have been to China twice already and speaks decent Chinese so it is great "exploring" with her because she can do some of the talking. We have a free day tomorrow so myself, Michele and Chi (born in Hong Kong, raised in Canada, went to school in Boston) are going to explore the city some on our own. Hopefully tomorrow night I will have some pictures to post. Please email me when you have the time, I always love to get emails.

2006-08-05T02:26:00.000-07:00

Well, I made it. I’m sitting in a pretty nice hotel room waiting for the air conditioner to kick it up so I can fall asleep. Its only 9:10 here but I’m spent. I definitely wish I had internet access so I could write everyone to tell them I’m here safe and sound but it seems like that is going to have to wait until tomorrow. The day started off not too bad, my parents and grandma kept the awkward, emotional goodbyes to a minimum. At the airport I found out that my bag weighed 83 pounds and if I wanted to fly with it that way I would have to pay $300 (the fact that it took both John and I to carry it downstairs and put it in my car should have been a sign). They gave me a giant plastic bag and I took out 13 pounds to make it down to 170 and then there was only a $50 fine. Then a pretty sweet thing happened and they offered to bump me up to business class for $500 (which is a retail price flight of $6,000), I of course didn’t have the money and didn’t want to pay but good old grandma wouldn’t say no. Business class is P.I.M.P.! I couldn’t touch the seat in front of me if I tried! My seat was like a reclining leather chair that went almost all the way back and legs almost all the way up! I ate like a king! I even got a little pouch with earplugs and one of those masks to wear over your eyes. I was definitely spoiled on the way over but considering that it was a 14 and a half hour flight it was worth it. Going through customs really wasn’t bad at all. I was pretty nervous because they had made some comment in Chicago about whether or not I had the right visa. Everything went fine, that is until the driver to pick me up was 45 minutes late! Lucky, Michele, another girl in the program, was meeting to ride with me also so we talked and worked out the situation together. She is pretty nice, graduated a year or two ago and is from Philadelphia. We got a cab ride to the ferry station and it was pretty cool to see Hong Kong. I think because of visa reasons I won’t get to go back until I leave unless I pay for some special visa but we’ll see. The ferry ride was crazy?! EVERYONE was puking, it was ridiculous?! There was a young boy on the left of me that had his head in a bag the whole ride and then an older woman on the right side of Michele that was dry heaving obnoxiously loud (it reminded me of a Solberg puke or that one time John was dry heaving at Toppers) and every time I almost fell asleep she would start back up again. We took another crazy cab ride from the ferry station to the hotel. By the way, if you think Asians drive crazy in the U.S., wait until you are in Asia!! They are pretty bad, and also, trunks don’t really need to close. They just shove all your stuff in and jiggle it around to “check” if its going to fall out. No casualties on our two cab rides today but it made me nervous. Now I’m in my hotel room for the night (we move in someplace tomorrow). Its really weird because the toilet is in the shower. Its just one big poop and shower room… kind of weird. And the bed I am currently sitting on and will be sleeping on tonight, definitely feels like a board. Well I am pretty tired and have to wake up for training lunch at 11. Hopefully I can find a way to email this to everyone tomorrow because I definitely already miss everyone.

Hell Yes!

2006-08-03T21:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome friends! Sorry for the confusion with the second blog, but I think you can understand why. Don't forget that if your parents want to see what I'm up to, send them to my other blog: mikesadventuresinchina.blogspot.com. So anyway, I'm starting to finally get the hang of speaking Chinese and picking it up in class, just as we are finished?! I really hope that where ever I end up teaching I can take a Chinese class while I'm there so I can learn more. On Wednesday we took a class field trip to a waterfall. It was an hour bus ride outside of the city (we even had to change busses once). The ride there was pretty cool because we got to drive through a lot of Zhuhai and then outside of the city some. As we got further and further out we were all thinking, "Where in the hell are we going?" We were definitely out in the middle of nowhere. I'm talking rice paddies and banana fields. It was actually very cool though to see rural China. It is amazing how some people can live on these little farms in wood shanties with pretty much nothing around them. Our bus dropped us off at a dirt road along the sketchy two lane road we were already on. It was funny because walking down the road to get to the waterfall there was a shanty with a bunch of dogs outside and at first we were joking about eating them. Then we started to get afraid of them attacking us and getting rabies. Because Michele had gotten the rabies shot and none of the rest of us had (she was attacked by viscous monkeys last time she was in China) we were trying to make her go first. The dogs didn't move a muscle and it was all just us being afraid for no reason. When we got to the waterfall park it was amazing! It wasn't just a waterfall, it was a waterfall the fed a miniature water park! It was absolutely beautiful. A swimming area made out of stone, fed by a waterfall with bamboo surrounding the whole thing. We then hiked up the waterfall and the view of the valley from the top was ridiculous. Its kind of funny in China because it seems like everything is a mountain or a valley, nothing in between. No hills. Flat, or mountain, that's it. It started pouring rain and we were told our bus wasn't coming to pick us up until 4 so we hid under a shelter. Michele thought we should start walking back at 3:30 so we did and luckily we did because we had to run down the road to catch the bus because it actually came at 3:40 and another one wouldn't be coming for an hour. That is the story of waterfall field trip adventure. (Picture below is of Pablo and Chi at the top)