July 27, Friday, GXUN, road to Guilin, Guilin
We woke up early, and loaded up on a bus and were on the road before 8am. It was about a 6 hour bus ride, so we got there around 2. The bus ride was full of fun times, movies*, and lot's of fellowship, which was really nice. The bus took us directly to this cave. And when I say cave, I mean this is one crazy cave. We all had to get on a boat (the word boat here is very loosely used), ride down the river a bit, and then climb a little bit to get to the cave. Inside was all walking, so it was not the crazy spelunking, but still so beautiful. It was cool, but I've been to caves before and this wasn't anything too special. And then it happened. We were ushered into a room, and inside this room was a giant natural underground waterfall. In this same room, there was a giant turtle with these wierd women rubbing coins on him promising wealth to anyone who buys and wears one. So I did. We continued on through the cave, saw many other wonderous sights, and then rolled out. We loaded up the bus, drove through the country** back to our hotel, got settled down, watched some wierd Chinese TV, and crashed for the night.
*China fact 128: Violence in movies is the norm. We watched some kung fu movie where a bus full of kids got blown up, people getting shot point blank, people getting appendages chopped off, and all the little innocent kids on the bus loved it. It was a little wierd, but I got over it and watched some kung fu amazingness.
**China fact 6: No matter where you are, there is also something to see. A typical drive from the middle of nowhere to our hotel let me witness rice farmers and water buffalo, amazing scenery, beautiful sunsets, crazy city life, and little kids peeing on the side of the road. China is one of those places where you can just sit around watching and never get bored. It's even better then people watching at the mall on black friday.
July 28, Saturday, Guilin, Merryland
We woke up early and were on the bus by 7:30. Today we are going to Merryland*. Not to be confused with Maryland, but Merryland is a crazy Chinese theme park. The rides here weren't that intense, but the kids were terrified of them. I guess since Americans are regulars to theme parks, rides don't scare us that much. But I still had a blast with everyone. So much fun. To many things to describe and I don't have alot of time, but it was one of the craziest theme parks I've ever been too.
*China fact 198: When in Guilin, go to Merryland. Nuff said.
July 29, Sunday, Guilin, road to Nanning, GXUN
Woke up really early, drove to the river in Guilin, hoped on a boat. Now, I know the English language very well, and I know many big words. There is no amount of words, or pictures, that can describe the beauty of this. It is single handedly the most beautiful place I've ever seen. I wish I could tell you more, but you'll just have to google it. Sorry. After the boat cruise, we did a little more shopping and then loaded up and came back to the middle school. I'd write more, but I'm wiped, and once again, words are useless.
*China fact: go to Guilin. Make it your goal in life. You will not regret it.
7.29.2007
7.26.2007
Thursdays
July 26, GXUN
Typical Thursday. Things were going slow this morning, but that's alright, everything worked out. Afternoon activities went very well. The kids seemed to love the game I played with them, so that was good, and I was able to grab a quick nap before AA, so that was also nice. Now today was also a culture night. Our event was an American Wedding. So I got married to another teammate. It was so much fun. The kids loved it, and a good time was had by all. We had a team meeting, and then I watched an American movie* and it made me feel a little more like I was at home. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Guilin, so I won't post for a while, but I will take lots of pics, and I'll be sure to take notes and write an update when I get back.
*China fact 5: Any movie you want to see, you can get. Piracy is like nothing over here. Tonight I watched Next on DVD. It's that new one with Nicholas Cage and Jessica Beil. It was alright. Crappy ending. But anyway, any movie you want you can buy on DVD for about 4 Yuan per DVD, which is roughly 53 cents. So when I need to feel a little more human, and a little more like at home, I just go buy a movie that's probably not in theaters yet in the states, and watch it when I have free time.
Typical Thursday. Things were going slow this morning, but that's alright, everything worked out. Afternoon activities went very well. The kids seemed to love the game I played with them, so that was good, and I was able to grab a quick nap before AA, so that was also nice. Now today was also a culture night. Our event was an American Wedding. So I got married to another teammate. It was so much fun. The kids loved it, and a good time was had by all. We had a team meeting, and then I watched an American movie* and it made me feel a little more like I was at home. Tomorrow morning I'm off to Guilin, so I won't post for a while, but I will take lots of pics, and I'll be sure to take notes and write an update when I get back.
*China fact 5: Any movie you want to see, you can get. Piracy is like nothing over here. Tonight I watched Next on DVD. It's that new one with Nicholas Cage and Jessica Beil. It was alright. Crappy ending. But anyway, any movie you want you can buy on DVD for about 4 Yuan per DVD, which is roughly 53 cents. So when I need to feel a little more human, and a little more like at home, I just go buy a movie that's probably not in theaters yet in the states, and watch it when I have free time.
7.25.2007
Updatesssssssssssssss
July 23, GXUN
Yeah Monday. Everyone's favorite holiday. Class went alright, and lunch was good. Afternoon activities were pretty good. But, dinner, was exceptional. In addition to many other things, I had pigs stomach* and snails. The snails were good, except too much effort for very little payoff. The pig stomach tasted like normal pork. That night was free, and by free I mean I didn't have to do an event, but still, twas busy with a million other things. All in all, it was your average everyday teaching English in China.
*China fact 15: No food is considered gross. Nothing. The population also doesn't mind the gore that goes into butchering. Like walking through the markets and seeing people point at a chicken in a cage, the shop owner grabbing said chicken, butchering it right there, and that's it. No PETA rights, no vegetarians, no one worried about the chickens feelings. Just some good ol' stirfry.
July 24, GXUN
Yeah Tuesday. Normal day, except we have both a culture night and afternoon activity. The afternoon activity was just playing games with the students, but the culture night was magnificant: it was Fairy Tales. Me and a teammate did the 3 little pigs. I was the big bad wolf, audience participation for the little pigs, and my teammate narrorated. It was alot of fun, and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Washed* up and went to bed, still exhausted from the weekend.
*China fact 3: Bathing and washing are very special words. The average population showers about twice maybe thrice a week. Here at camp, when you do take a shower, it's more (and by more, I mean is) like filling a bucket, dumping it on you, lathering while bucket is refilling, and dumping again.
July 25, GXUN
Wednesday. It was Olympics day, so that was fun. We did soccer activities, and my class, again, did not do so well. It's a combination of them being younger and smaller and not understanding, so it's alright. This afternoon is completely free, so that's why I am able to just sit and right an e-mail. We are having a culture night tonight, and that culture night is a MOVIE NIGHT! We are trying to find Narnia, but if we can't we plan on just showing Aladdin, Little Mermaid, and Cool Runnings (since we have so many students, we must break them up into 3 groups). I'm am going to sleep now, and will hopefully wake up from a long nap fully* rested.
*China fact 14: There are many strange, unexplanable sounds. And they seem to come when you are trying to sleep. For instance, the water pipes litterally sound like a yetti. Think of a lound yetti sound, and that's what the water pipes sound like when someone is turning on the water. It's pretty intense. Also, with so much construction, there is always construction noise. It's crazy. Oh well, I gots an iPod to help zone out.
Yeah Monday. Everyone's favorite holiday. Class went alright, and lunch was good. Afternoon activities were pretty good. But, dinner, was exceptional. In addition to many other things, I had pigs stomach* and snails. The snails were good, except too much effort for very little payoff. The pig stomach tasted like normal pork. That night was free, and by free I mean I didn't have to do an event, but still, twas busy with a million other things. All in all, it was your average everyday teaching English in China.
*China fact 15: No food is considered gross. Nothing. The population also doesn't mind the gore that goes into butchering. Like walking through the markets and seeing people point at a chicken in a cage, the shop owner grabbing said chicken, butchering it right there, and that's it. No PETA rights, no vegetarians, no one worried about the chickens feelings. Just some good ol' stirfry.
July 24, GXUN
Yeah Tuesday. Normal day, except we have both a culture night and afternoon activity. The afternoon activity was just playing games with the students, but the culture night was magnificant: it was Fairy Tales. Me and a teammate did the 3 little pigs. I was the big bad wolf, audience participation for the little pigs, and my teammate narrorated. It was alot of fun, and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Washed* up and went to bed, still exhausted from the weekend.
*China fact 3: Bathing and washing are very special words. The average population showers about twice maybe thrice a week. Here at camp, when you do take a shower, it's more (and by more, I mean is) like filling a bucket, dumping it on you, lathering while bucket is refilling, and dumping again.
July 25, GXUN
Wednesday. It was Olympics day, so that was fun. We did soccer activities, and my class, again, did not do so well. It's a combination of them being younger and smaller and not understanding, so it's alright. This afternoon is completely free, so that's why I am able to just sit and right an e-mail. We are having a culture night tonight, and that culture night is a MOVIE NIGHT! We are trying to find Narnia, but if we can't we plan on just showing Aladdin, Little Mermaid, and Cool Runnings (since we have so many students, we must break them up into 3 groups). I'm am going to sleep now, and will hopefully wake up from a long nap fully* rested.
*China fact 14: There are many strange, unexplanable sounds. And they seem to come when you are trying to sleep. For instance, the water pipes litterally sound like a yetti. Think of a lound yetti sound, and that's what the water pipes sound like when someone is turning on the water. It's pretty intense. Also, with so much construction, there is always construction noise. It's crazy. Oh well, I gots an iPod to help zone out.
7.23.2007
Big Update!
Hey guys. Sorry I haven't been able to update more regularly. This week/weekend has been crazy. Here's what's going on.
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July 19, GXUN
Thursday morning. Nothing to special. Taught class, had lunch, took a nap, and then a nice culture night: Talent Show. Oh yeah, that's right. We had a talent show. It was pretty much awesome. I only had 2 kids from my class doing something in it, but the one kid from class who is an amazing singer won first place. That's how Papa Steve* runs his class. A teammate and I sang L.O.V.E., and the crowd went crazy. They loved it. It was a fun night, and 1st place winner gets a paid dinner with a teacher of his choice. 2nd place gets ice cream with a teacher of their choice. Both 1st and 2nd place chose me. I laughed, but now I get to connect more with some students which is amazing.
*China fact 13: At a camp where you speak english, all the kids have english names. Seeing as they are chinese with english names, they decided to give me a chinese name. Now, at training, the team started calling me Papa Steve. Why? I don't know, but it stuck and I like it. But here at the school, we were talking and they name they came up with Xiao Xian, which means Little Mountain. Yeah, that's right. I'm a little mountain. That's my first name. My second name is Hao Ban, or Monkey King. I attribute that name to the carnival.
July 20, GXUN, City Center
Woot. It's Friday. Taught class, had afternoon activity, and then it's the weekend. Oh snap! Suprise! The school principal takes all of us teachers out for a Chinese massage. So we load up in some cars, drive to the City Center (roughly equivalent to Times Square, only imagine more people), and we get some massages*. We come back home, have a meeting, and go to sleep.
*China fact 148: When recieving a message in China, the following is considered common, and relaxing: sticking your feet in extremely hot water, getting punched in the calf, tickling your feet, finding every pressure point on your foot and pushing as hard as you can on it, digging your thumbs into your back and shoulder, and finally, trying to rip your head off. I have made no exagerations.
July 21, GXUN, Beihai
We wake up and load up a 15 passenger van and head over to the beach. It's about a 3 hour ride which was full of shenanagins; joking around; singing Eagle Eye Cherry, Arvil Lavigne (Same as Avril, but sounds cooler prounounced that way), Third Eye Blind, Dave Matthews, and some Tenacious D; and of course, a truck stop where we purchased several treasures (chinese equivalent of strawberry Little Debby cakes). We arrive at Beihai and go to this place to eat*. The food was good, and consisted of squid, chicken, whole shrimp, sea worms, beef, jiaozha, and some other deliciousness. After lunch, we rolled over to the beach and it was amazing. The waves were equivlant to O.C. on a typical Tuesday afternoon, but the water was honestly about 90 degrees. The only downside was the super salty water. After a couple hours there, we loaded up, hit up a place for dinner on the way home**, and had a quick meeting and went to bed.
*China fact 1: Expect nothing. Nothing is as it appears. I thought we were going into an aquarium due to the dozens of large tanks of various sea animals and the 2 giant sea turtles. Nope. That was just the menu.
**China fact 29: The roads suck. Think PEN-DOT in the 1800's. Yeah, it's like that. On our way home, we got a flat tire. It was fun because it gave for some interesting videos, but needless to say, the roads are no good.
July 22, GXUN
Sunday. Happy Birthday Grandmom! We took our time waking up, and had meetings all day. It was a good day. Also, we have a little apartment where we can meet, and it has a kitchen* so in the morning I made bacon, eggs, and french toast and for dinner I made some garlic chicken wings. Meetings took up the whole day, came home at night, and went to bed.
*China fact 31: The kitchen was a small sink, a heat thing, and a wok. I was able to use some chopsticks to cook with, and I picked up some ingredients at the market. P.S. The only herbs the chinese know about are anise, pepper, MSG, and salt, if you are lucky. As for other fresh ingredients, mucho garlic, so I was good.
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July 19, GXUN
Thursday morning. Nothing to special. Taught class, had lunch, took a nap, and then a nice culture night: Talent Show. Oh yeah, that's right. We had a talent show. It was pretty much awesome. I only had 2 kids from my class doing something in it, but the one kid from class who is an amazing singer won first place. That's how Papa Steve* runs his class. A teammate and I sang L.O.V.E., and the crowd went crazy. They loved it. It was a fun night, and 1st place winner gets a paid dinner with a teacher of his choice. 2nd place gets ice cream with a teacher of their choice. Both 1st and 2nd place chose me. I laughed, but now I get to connect more with some students which is amazing.
*China fact 13: At a camp where you speak english, all the kids have english names. Seeing as they are chinese with english names, they decided to give me a chinese name. Now, at training, the team started calling me Papa Steve. Why? I don't know, but it stuck and I like it. But here at the school, we were talking and they name they came up with Xiao Xian, which means Little Mountain. Yeah, that's right. I'm a little mountain. That's my first name. My second name is Hao Ban, or Monkey King. I attribute that name to the carnival.
July 20, GXUN, City Center
Woot. It's Friday. Taught class, had afternoon activity, and then it's the weekend. Oh snap! Suprise! The school principal takes all of us teachers out for a Chinese massage. So we load up in some cars, drive to the City Center (roughly equivalent to Times Square, only imagine more people), and we get some massages*. We come back home, have a meeting, and go to sleep.
*China fact 148: When recieving a message in China, the following is considered common, and relaxing: sticking your feet in extremely hot water, getting punched in the calf, tickling your feet, finding every pressure point on your foot and pushing as hard as you can on it, digging your thumbs into your back and shoulder, and finally, trying to rip your head off. I have made no exagerations.
July 21, GXUN, Beihai
We wake up and load up a 15 passenger van and head over to the beach. It's about a 3 hour ride which was full of shenanagins; joking around; singing Eagle Eye Cherry, Arvil Lavigne (Same as Avril, but sounds cooler prounounced that way), Third Eye Blind, Dave Matthews, and some Tenacious D; and of course, a truck stop where we purchased several treasures (chinese equivalent of strawberry Little Debby cakes). We arrive at Beihai and go to this place to eat*. The food was good, and consisted of squid, chicken, whole shrimp, sea worms, beef, jiaozha, and some other deliciousness. After lunch, we rolled over to the beach and it was amazing. The waves were equivlant to O.C. on a typical Tuesday afternoon, but the water was honestly about 90 degrees. The only downside was the super salty water. After a couple hours there, we loaded up, hit up a place for dinner on the way home**, and had a quick meeting and went to bed.
*China fact 1: Expect nothing. Nothing is as it appears. I thought we were going into an aquarium due to the dozens of large tanks of various sea animals and the 2 giant sea turtles. Nope. That was just the menu.
**China fact 29: The roads suck. Think PEN-DOT in the 1800's. Yeah, it's like that. On our way home, we got a flat tire. It was fun because it gave for some interesting videos, but needless to say, the roads are no good.
July 22, GXUN
Sunday. Happy Birthday Grandmom! We took our time waking up, and had meetings all day. It was a good day. Also, we have a little apartment where we can meet, and it has a kitchen* so in the morning I made bacon, eggs, and french toast and for dinner I made some garlic chicken wings. Meetings took up the whole day, came home at night, and went to bed.
*China fact 31: The kitchen was a small sink, a heat thing, and a wok. I was able to use some chopsticks to cook with, and I picked up some ingredients at the market. P.S. The only herbs the chinese know about are anise, pepper, MSG, and salt, if you are lucky. As for other fresh ingredients, mucho garlic, so I was good.
Pictures 2
pic 1: the cafeteria where we eat most our meals
pic 2: me and some students at the crazy park last saturday
pic 3: some old tall tower at the crazy park
pic 4: a teammate at the crazy park. you can see the old tower in the background
pic 5: lunch at beihai. these are squids
pic 6: clams
pic 7: sea worms, before being cooked
pic 8: sea worms, after being cooked
pic 9: the total beihai lunch spread
pic 10: beihai
pic 11: me and some teammates at beihai
pic 2: me and some students at the crazy park last saturday
pic 3: some old tall tower at the crazy park
pic 4: a teammate at the crazy park. you can see the old tower in the background
pic 5: lunch at beihai. these are squids
pic 6: clams
pic 7: sea worms, before being cooked
pic 8: sea worms, after being cooked
pic 9: the total beihai lunch spread
pic 10: beihai
pic 11: me and some teammates at beihai
Pictures 1
pic 1: the last thing I saw in LA before getting on the bus to leave. It's like a sign from someone.
pic 2: our giant table of food goodness when we arrived at Guangjo
pic 3: looking out the window on our last flight to Nanning
pic 4: my room.
pic 5: my class.
pic 6: my jiaozha
pic 2: our giant table of food goodness when we arrived at Guangjo
pic 3: looking out the window on our last flight to Nanning
pic 4: my room.
pic 5: my class.
pic 6: my jiaozha
7.19.2007
This is an update
July 17, GXUN
Mmmmmm... Wednesday. Olympics in the morning. It was alright. Not great, not horrible, but just alright. We should have planned better, but it's still ok. I was able to hang out with some students and then the afternoon was mine. It was great. I took a very needed nap, and woke up and planned a little bit for the next day. Then night time activity. We were doing an American birthday party. First we made birthday cards, then went outside and played Red Rover. My teammate brought the kids inside and began to sing happy birthday while I got a cake we had bought earlier. I put candles in it on a table outside and he brought the kids out in the courtyard. It was his classroom and mine, so there were about 40 kids. Needless to say, the same time we were having cake time* all the the other classes were having cake time outside. After the event, we had a meeting with the American from the organization, and she bestowed gifts upon us. Mine was SALTED pumpkin seeds. Emphasis on salted, because I have searched high and low for salted pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds and have not found either. We came back and went to bed.
*China Fact 32: When the Chinese celebrate a birthday, it is customary to smear the cake on whoevers birthday it is. Now, since it was no ones birthday, and everyones at the same time, imagine a cake fight, in a totally open courtyard (a little bigger than 2 basketball courts), with 200 chinese students verse 9 American teachers. Yeah, it was like that. And I wouldn't have traded it for the world. First was a cake fight, and pouring drinks (pepsi and cold green tea) on us, then just straight up buckets of water. It was intense.
July 18, GXUN
Woke up, got ready, held class. Our Olympic country today is U.S.A. so we had fun with that. Also, tonight's culture night is a talent show. Me and another teacher are singing L.O.V.E. (L is for the way you look at me (This one goes out to Brookie)), and a bunch of students doing stuff and other teachers doing things. It's gonna be pretty awesome. I also took another long nap this afternoon, and it's really throwing me off. I'm not normally a nap person, but I'm needing it more and more just from being so active*. Also, the girls are going over to the American's flat for a girls night, so the 3 of us guy teachers and our leader are having a dudes night. It's gonna be pretty amazing. Also, for Dad, this weekend we are going to Beihai and next to Guilin. Check them out. That's right. I'll be there.
*China fact 02: Everyone takes a nap from 1-3ish. Everyone. They're litterally people just taking naps on park bunches, but here on campus all the kids just go to their room. Not only is it bloody hot, but everyone's already tired. So it's like a ghost town. Kinda wierd.
Mmmmmm... Wednesday. Olympics in the morning. It was alright. Not great, not horrible, but just alright. We should have planned better, but it's still ok. I was able to hang out with some students and then the afternoon was mine. It was great. I took a very needed nap, and woke up and planned a little bit for the next day. Then night time activity. We were doing an American birthday party. First we made birthday cards, then went outside and played Red Rover. My teammate brought the kids inside and began to sing happy birthday while I got a cake we had bought earlier. I put candles in it on a table outside and he brought the kids out in the courtyard. It was his classroom and mine, so there were about 40 kids. Needless to say, the same time we were having cake time* all the the other classes were having cake time outside. After the event, we had a meeting with the American from the organization, and she bestowed gifts upon us. Mine was SALTED pumpkin seeds. Emphasis on salted, because I have searched high and low for salted pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds and have not found either. We came back and went to bed.
*China Fact 32: When the Chinese celebrate a birthday, it is customary to smear the cake on whoevers birthday it is. Now, since it was no ones birthday, and everyones at the same time, imagine a cake fight, in a totally open courtyard (a little bigger than 2 basketball courts), with 200 chinese students verse 9 American teachers. Yeah, it was like that. And I wouldn't have traded it for the world. First was a cake fight, and pouring drinks (pepsi and cold green tea) on us, then just straight up buckets of water. It was intense.
July 18, GXUN
Woke up, got ready, held class. Our Olympic country today is U.S.A. so we had fun with that. Also, tonight's culture night is a talent show. Me and another teacher are singing L.O.V.E. (L is for the way you look at me (This one goes out to Brookie)), and a bunch of students doing stuff and other teachers doing things. It's gonna be pretty awesome. I also took another long nap this afternoon, and it's really throwing me off. I'm not normally a nap person, but I'm needing it more and more just from being so active*. Also, the girls are going over to the American's flat for a girls night, so the 3 of us guy teachers and our leader are having a dudes night. It's gonna be pretty amazing. Also, for Dad, this weekend we are going to Beihai and next to Guilin. Check them out. That's right. I'll be there.
*China fact 02: Everyone takes a nap from 1-3ish. Everyone. They're litterally people just taking naps on park bunches, but here on campus all the kids just go to their room. Not only is it bloody hot, but everyone's already tired. So it's like a ghost town. Kinda wierd.
7.18.2007
Word Up
July 17, GXUN
After I woke up and got ready for the day, I taught my class. We discussed many different things and I can see their English improving. For afternoon activity, it was my turn to just monitor all the class rooms, which was nice. I got to spend alot of good time just talking to the team leader, and it was really dope. After the afternoon activity, I played badmittion* with a bunch of students. I was about to go to dinner, but was informed someone from America was coming for a couple days and we were having a big dinner around 8. So I waited. Our friend, a nurse from Cali, finally arrived and we went to dinner. Typical huge Chinese meal. Tonights specialty: duck**. It was amazing with this little sweet sauce they had next to it. After dinner our team and our friend went for a walk through the woods and went and just talked in this amazing little spot. On our walk back we walked along the lake. I had just grabbed a piece of bamboo to play with as we were walking, but on the path there was a snake. I courageously vanquished the snake with my bamboo, and all was well. Went back to the room, and quickly fell asleep.
*China fact 132: The Chinese LOVE badmittion, basketball, and ping pong, and they are amazing at them. I've really taken up badmittion and hope to play more back home. Such a sweet game
**China fact 83: When serving anything, it is already cut into bite size pieces, since they don't use any cutlery. So imagine taking half a cooked duck, then just cutting it by a 2"x2" grid. That's how you serve poultry: cut into squares, with the bones. So when you pick a piece, it will almost always have fun. You then just spit the bone out onto a plate, or if your feeling savy, pop your chopsticks into your mouth and pull the bone out.
After I woke up and got ready for the day, I taught my class. We discussed many different things and I can see their English improving. For afternoon activity, it was my turn to just monitor all the class rooms, which was nice. I got to spend alot of good time just talking to the team leader, and it was really dope. After the afternoon activity, I played badmittion* with a bunch of students. I was about to go to dinner, but was informed someone from America was coming for a couple days and we were having a big dinner around 8. So I waited. Our friend, a nurse from Cali, finally arrived and we went to dinner. Typical huge Chinese meal. Tonights specialty: duck**. It was amazing with this little sweet sauce they had next to it. After dinner our team and our friend went for a walk through the woods and went and just talked in this amazing little spot. On our walk back we walked along the lake. I had just grabbed a piece of bamboo to play with as we were walking, but on the path there was a snake. I courageously vanquished the snake with my bamboo, and all was well. Went back to the room, and quickly fell asleep.
*China fact 132: The Chinese LOVE badmittion, basketball, and ping pong, and they are amazing at them. I've really taken up badmittion and hope to play more back home. Such a sweet game
**China fact 83: When serving anything, it is already cut into bite size pieces, since they don't use any cutlery. So imagine taking half a cooked duck, then just cutting it by a 2"x2" grid. That's how you serve poultry: cut into squares, with the bones. So when you pick a piece, it will almost always have fun. You then just spit the bone out onto a plate, or if your feeling savy, pop your chopsticks into your mouth and pull the bone out.
7.16.2007
Holla
July 13, GXUN, Weird BBQ place across the street
Typical Friday: class went good in the morning, I ate some nice lunch, and then an afternoon activity. That night, all the teachers (us, and all the Chinese teachers) went out for a big dinner at a local place on campus. Holy crap. So much amazing food. But that was just the begining. Then they brought out what has been dubbed "the party killer". It's some type of rice wine/liquor that all the Chinese teachers were getting krunk off of. We, being the good American Teachers, did not drink anything, but instead drank the orange drink, my personal favorite beverage so far. We had about 20 different people come to our table and raise a glass, but thing is when you cheers someone, you're suppose to drain your cup all the way. They have little shot glasses of the party killer, and we have full cups of orange. We drank sooooo much orange it wasn't even cool. We learned some cool Chinese drinking games and hung out with alot of the schools high rollers, so it was pretty awesome. Tired, full bellied, and having to pee, we headed back to our rooms.
Oh wait. There's more. As soon as we get back and visit the squatty (the accurately named waste water reciprocals) we were asked out to a "secret place" with some of our students. So we said what the heck, and walked across the street to one of my now favorite parts of China. The Bar-B-Q. Now, you're thinking BBQ like chicken, ribs, burgers, all covered in some brown sugar and ketchup concoction. Oh no my friends, this was real BBQ. The BBQ of gods and men. Every kind of meat imagineable, flame grilled, with flame grilled veggies. And incase you were wondering, yes, everything was on a stick. The fish was amazing, and hands down, the best tofu I have ever had in my life. This tofu was meater and better than most steaks I've had. Now let me describe the layout of this place: 4 walls enclosing about 2 acres of land. No ceiling. Along the inside of the walls were giant grills and coolers, and the entire interior of the place was plastic chairs and tables. This place could easily seat 500 people without thinking twice. This place was also like a big bar, and had a bunch of new drinking games. If you've seen Pirates 2, that dice game they played is a huge drinking game in China. But being the good American Teachers that we are, we stuck to water. So here we are at this amazing place with all this amazing food infront of us, but we had just eaten, so we couldn't fully appreciate it. Shame. We got back and went to bed. Friday night - Check.
July 14, GXUN, Asian Expo Center, Some old park, some museum, Downtown Nanning
Saturday morning. Sleep in time. Not. We had to be on a bus by 7:30. When I say we, I mean the whole camp, so we had 5 full charter buses to take us around town. We went to this big Asian Expo Center. It was pretty cool looking. We were only there for about 30 minutes and it seemed like every student wanted to take there picture with me. It was cool. We rolled out from there and headed to this really awesome park. It was on the top of this mountain and there was this cool tower and zip line and all this different crazy stuff. I'll try to figure out the name of it and let you know. After chilling there for a couple hours we went to a nice museum in Nanning. Saw all these old Chinese things, and they even had a couple old chinese temples that we were able to walk through. After a bit in there we loaded up and came home.
But that wasn't the end of the day. Me, another teacher, and about 4 guy students caught a bus and went to the City Center. Best dude's night ever. Nanning is alot like a normal city, but a little bit more spread out, but at the same time more people. We walked around for a while, had some really good street vendor food, and had a great time with our students. We came back exhausted, and finally went to bed.
July 15, GXUN, City Center
For the first time since I left Salisbury, I've been able to sleep in. It was marvelous. Once the team woke up, we had a team meeting and then went our seperate ways. I hung out with a bunch of students and one other teacher. We went to McDonald's, Wal-mart, and just strolled through the city. It was weird. I was around things so familiar and at the same time, nothing was familiar. We get back to campus and as soon as we do, 2 girl teachers ask me to go to city center with them, so I dropped off my treasures from wal-mart, turned around, and headed back to city center with about 8 students, and a total of 4 teachers. Long story short, we went to Wal-Mart, girls took forever, and we got back late past curfew. I was not happy, but hey, I'll live. It was my choice to go. As soon as we got back, we went to bed. Woot.
July 16, GXUN
Woke up, got ready, did a little lesson planning, taught my class English, and then had lunch. Nothing eventful happened. Then around 2:45 we had our afternoon activity which was superhero themed. After that, had dinner with a bunch of students, came back, and we had a culture night. Superheros. Our goal was to watch the incredibles, so we broke the students into 3 groups, and used 3 computer labs. Needless to say, my computer lab had issues. We put the DVD in, and it started showing Pirates 2. In Chinese. It was wierd. After an hour and half of tinkering, we fixed it and began to watch the movie. We only got half way through before having to go to bed, but we should be able to finish it tonight.
July 17, GXUN
Woke up, got ready, did a little lesson planning, and came to the computer room to write some e-mails. Today should be a good day. I have alot I can teach today and the afternoon activity will be over by 4:15, so I should have some nice, needed down time tonight. Oh wait, I have to plan for the Olympics tomorrow, and the Culture Night on Thursday. So we'll see. I'm mentally exhausted, but I'm doing alright. I love it here, but it will be nice to come home. Hope all is well back in the states.
Typical Friday: class went good in the morning, I ate some nice lunch, and then an afternoon activity. That night, all the teachers (us, and all the Chinese teachers) went out for a big dinner at a local place on campus. Holy crap. So much amazing food. But that was just the begining. Then they brought out what has been dubbed "the party killer". It's some type of rice wine/liquor that all the Chinese teachers were getting krunk off of. We, being the good American Teachers, did not drink anything, but instead drank the orange drink, my personal favorite beverage so far. We had about 20 different people come to our table and raise a glass, but thing is when you cheers someone, you're suppose to drain your cup all the way. They have little shot glasses of the party killer, and we have full cups of orange. We drank sooooo much orange it wasn't even cool. We learned some cool Chinese drinking games and hung out with alot of the schools high rollers, so it was pretty awesome. Tired, full bellied, and having to pee, we headed back to our rooms.
Oh wait. There's more. As soon as we get back and visit the squatty (the accurately named waste water reciprocals) we were asked out to a "secret place" with some of our students. So we said what the heck, and walked across the street to one of my now favorite parts of China. The Bar-B-Q. Now, you're thinking BBQ like chicken, ribs, burgers, all covered in some brown sugar and ketchup concoction. Oh no my friends, this was real BBQ. The BBQ of gods and men. Every kind of meat imagineable, flame grilled, with flame grilled veggies. And incase you were wondering, yes, everything was on a stick. The fish was amazing, and hands down, the best tofu I have ever had in my life. This tofu was meater and better than most steaks I've had. Now let me describe the layout of this place: 4 walls enclosing about 2 acres of land. No ceiling. Along the inside of the walls were giant grills and coolers, and the entire interior of the place was plastic chairs and tables. This place could easily seat 500 people without thinking twice. This place was also like a big bar, and had a bunch of new drinking games. If you've seen Pirates 2, that dice game they played is a huge drinking game in China. But being the good American Teachers that we are, we stuck to water. So here we are at this amazing place with all this amazing food infront of us, but we had just eaten, so we couldn't fully appreciate it. Shame. We got back and went to bed. Friday night - Check.
July 14, GXUN, Asian Expo Center, Some old park, some museum, Downtown Nanning
Saturday morning. Sleep in time. Not. We had to be on a bus by 7:30. When I say we, I mean the whole camp, so we had 5 full charter buses to take us around town. We went to this big Asian Expo Center. It was pretty cool looking. We were only there for about 30 minutes and it seemed like every student wanted to take there picture with me. It was cool. We rolled out from there and headed to this really awesome park. It was on the top of this mountain and there was this cool tower and zip line and all this different crazy stuff. I'll try to figure out the name of it and let you know. After chilling there for a couple hours we went to a nice museum in Nanning. Saw all these old Chinese things, and they even had a couple old chinese temples that we were able to walk through. After a bit in there we loaded up and came home.
But that wasn't the end of the day. Me, another teacher, and about 4 guy students caught a bus and went to the City Center. Best dude's night ever. Nanning is alot like a normal city, but a little bit more spread out, but at the same time more people. We walked around for a while, had some really good street vendor food, and had a great time with our students. We came back exhausted, and finally went to bed.
July 15, GXUN, City Center
For the first time since I left Salisbury, I've been able to sleep in. It was marvelous. Once the team woke up, we had a team meeting and then went our seperate ways. I hung out with a bunch of students and one other teacher. We went to McDonald's, Wal-mart, and just strolled through the city. It was weird. I was around things so familiar and at the same time, nothing was familiar. We get back to campus and as soon as we do, 2 girl teachers ask me to go to city center with them, so I dropped off my treasures from wal-mart, turned around, and headed back to city center with about 8 students, and a total of 4 teachers. Long story short, we went to Wal-Mart, girls took forever, and we got back late past curfew. I was not happy, but hey, I'll live. It was my choice to go. As soon as we got back, we went to bed. Woot.
July 16, GXUN
Woke up, got ready, did a little lesson planning, taught my class English, and then had lunch. Nothing eventful happened. Then around 2:45 we had our afternoon activity which was superhero themed. After that, had dinner with a bunch of students, came back, and we had a culture night. Superheros. Our goal was to watch the incredibles, so we broke the students into 3 groups, and used 3 computer labs. Needless to say, my computer lab had issues. We put the DVD in, and it started showing Pirates 2. In Chinese. It was wierd. After an hour and half of tinkering, we fixed it and began to watch the movie. We only got half way through before having to go to bed, but we should be able to finish it tonight.
July 17, GXUN
Woke up, got ready, did a little lesson planning, and came to the computer room to write some e-mails. Today should be a good day. I have alot I can teach today and the afternoon activity will be over by 4:15, so I should have some nice, needed down time tonight. Oh wait, I have to plan for the Olympics tomorrow, and the Culture Night on Thursday. So we'll see. I'm mentally exhausted, but I'm doing alright. I love it here, but it will be nice to come home. Hope all is well back in the states.
7.12.2007
Updates
July 11, GXUN
Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you had a great day!
Today was the first day of the Weekly Olympic games. My class represented Italy, naturally, and did pretty good. We also had a sweet culture night that night. We do 3 culture nights a week to teach the students about the American culture and different stuff. What we did this time was have an American Carnival. It was majestic. We had clowns, a strong man, games, and of course, me and a teammate dressed as monkeys with a monkey trainer. We bought a bunch of bananas* and would eat half of one and through the rest at the audience. We stole waterballoons from the clowns and threw them at people, chased people around, "picked bugs" from peoples hair and ate them. It was alot of fun. Needless to say, I slept amazing that night. In terms of the world of food, my list is growing long with favorites. Right now, on the top, are jiaozha, super corn, and pork and potatos. I can't remember if I've described those all before or not, so let me know. I'll try to get some pics up on Friday.
*We bought about 5 pounds of bananas, and it costed 7 yiuan (about $0.93) just to give you an idea of the price. I've never eaten a meal over 15 yiuan, and I eat pretty darn good. FYI $1.00=7.5 Yiuan
July 12, GXUN
Today I had classroom time. Keeping with the Olympic theme, we talked about Germany. From there, we talked about Hitler, and hate. We discussed and drew pictures of things we hate, then we walked about love. Finally, we talked about romantic love, leading up to tonights activity: the Dating Game. It's gonna be sweet. I'll write more about it on Friday and hopefully will be able to put up some pictures. Food for the day: Chinese bakery stuff for breakfast (the thing I had today was wierd, but good. The easiest way to describe it is take a sheet cake, coat one side with lemon jelly, the other side with whipped cream, and roll it into a cone. Then sprinkle the cone with some coconut flakes.) The breakfast food is trippy here, but for lunch I had some jiazho and a big california roll. The students I ate with where so excited I got Japanese foood. It was pretty funny. Well, I've got to get rolling to team meeting. Hope everyone is doing well and safe. Make sure to leave me some comments and keep me in your thoughts. Sia xian
Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you had a great day!
Today was the first day of the Weekly Olympic games. My class represented Italy, naturally, and did pretty good. We also had a sweet culture night that night. We do 3 culture nights a week to teach the students about the American culture and different stuff. What we did this time was have an American Carnival. It was majestic. We had clowns, a strong man, games, and of course, me and a teammate dressed as monkeys with a monkey trainer. We bought a bunch of bananas* and would eat half of one and through the rest at the audience. We stole waterballoons from the clowns and threw them at people, chased people around, "picked bugs" from peoples hair and ate them. It was alot of fun. Needless to say, I slept amazing that night. In terms of the world of food, my list is growing long with favorites. Right now, on the top, are jiaozha, super corn, and pork and potatos. I can't remember if I've described those all before or not, so let me know. I'll try to get some pics up on Friday.
*We bought about 5 pounds of bananas, and it costed 7 yiuan (about $0.93) just to give you an idea of the price. I've never eaten a meal over 15 yiuan, and I eat pretty darn good. FYI $1.00=7.5 Yiuan
July 12, GXUN
Today I had classroom time. Keeping with the Olympic theme, we talked about Germany. From there, we talked about Hitler, and hate. We discussed and drew pictures of things we hate, then we walked about love. Finally, we talked about romantic love, leading up to tonights activity: the Dating Game. It's gonna be sweet. I'll write more about it on Friday and hopefully will be able to put up some pictures. Food for the day: Chinese bakery stuff for breakfast (the thing I had today was wierd, but good. The easiest way to describe it is take a sheet cake, coat one side with lemon jelly, the other side with whipped cream, and roll it into a cone. Then sprinkle the cone with some coconut flakes.) The breakfast food is trippy here, but for lunch I had some jiazho and a big california roll. The students I ate with where so excited I got Japanese foood. It was pretty funny. Well, I've got to get rolling to team meeting. Hope everyone is doing well and safe. Make sure to leave me some comments and keep me in your thoughts. Sia xian
7.10.2007
Updaters
July 10, GXUN
Woke up early, got showered, and got some breakfast. Today was the first class room day. I have 19 students. Most can't speak English. I was given the lowest level class because of my personality and ability to think outside of the box and on the fly. I'm not gonna lie, it's hard. Like, really hard. But it's very rewarding too. It's just something that I'm gonna have to think about and be ready for anything. Basically, all the curriculm is scraped for my class because they don't understand anything, so I'm making lesson plans on the fly. I finished in the class room, had a team meeting, grabbed lunch, and now I've got a little down time before the afternoon activitie I helped plan. The school also just unlocked a computer room right next to our dorm rooms, so I should be able to post more regulalry. Leave me some love.
Woke up early, got showered, and got some breakfast. Today was the first class room day. I have 19 students. Most can't speak English. I was given the lowest level class because of my personality and ability to think outside of the box and on the fly. I'm not gonna lie, it's hard. Like, really hard. But it's very rewarding too. It's just something that I'm gonna have to think about and be ready for anything. Basically, all the curriculm is scraped for my class because they don't understand anything, so I'm making lesson plans on the fly. I finished in the class room, had a team meeting, grabbed lunch, and now I've got a little down time before the afternoon activitie I helped plan. The school also just unlocked a computer room right next to our dorm rooms, so I should be able to post more regulalry. Leave me some love.
Update
I'm changing the format a little bit about the updates, simply because my time is really becoming precious, but I still want to update you.
July 7, GXUN
Shortly after lunch we did some prepatory work for my class. For dinner, me and another guy teacher were feeling adventurous, so in the cafeteria we asked one of the waiters* to bring us whatever she had in her hands at the time. It looked like some meat with pineapples, green peppers (not bell peppers, but they were green and very spicy), and tomatos. It was delicious, and deliciously spicy. After dinner we spent some more time in our class rooms preparing them and then had a team meeting at night.
*The cafeterias have waitresses that walk around and take orders. You are charged like at a normal food place per item, but it's a cafeteria setting. Also, try explaining you want something to someone who has no idea what you were saying. It took about 3 minutes to get mine, and then another 2 to get her to understand i wanted some for my friend.
July 8, GXUN, Wal-Mart, Downtown Nanning
We woke up, had a late breakfast (jiaozha, rice, water) and went immediatly into a team meeting. That ended, and we rested for a little before loading up a bus and heading down town. I was able to hit up an ATM and my money source is working. We get to this underground parking garage and in it there's an entrance to Wal-Mart. So we go in. Imagine your local Wal-Mart on a Saturday morning if they were giving 50% discounts on everything. Yeah, that crowded. It was pretty cool to see all the different fruits and stuff, and also they have these cool escaltors that can fit carts. It's like the people movers at the airport but on a hill at about a 30 degree angle. I bought some little stuff like candy for my students and other jazz, but me and the 2 other guy teachers headed out. We started walking around downtown Nanning. It was amazing. It's busy like a city, but also very rustic at the same time. We walked around for a bit in the city part, and they were having some kind of fashion show, but it revolved around some fruit drink. Like, the drink company was hosting it and they had models doing the whole runway bit while holding this juice. We found the juice peoples rival, a tea company, and decided to stick it to the man. We bought some tea. It was delicious.
We are also apparently rock stars. We were constantly swarmed by people wanting to take pictures with us, talk english to us, or people just stared. We started walking around the dark alleys and stumbled into a market, like with chickens in a cage, and on a butcher block. They had everykind of fruit, animal, and smell imagineable. It was pretty sweet. Near the market we found an arcade and decided to go in. I sat down to some game and put a coin in, and instantly was surrounded by like 6 people watching. I died, and then the owner of the store insisted I keep playing and opened up the machine and gave me a free game. I can't make this stuff up, and we got it all on film. After the arcade expedition, we got some ice cream and headed back to the Wal-Mart area to meet back up with team. On our way back we stopped at the juice fashion show and there was some muscle guy in a fishnet shirt flexing. We took a couple more pictures with people, talked some more English, and then filmed muscle guy. We got tired of muscle guy and as we were walking towards the walmart we met these girls who were go-go dancers for the juice fashion show and they wanted us to come back at night and spend more time with them. We bought some more iced tea. It was really delicious.
Back in the van, the team headed back to campus were the campers had been coming in all throughout the day. Ate dinner (I really don't remember. I was soo tired, but I think it was some kind of meat in a brown gravy sauce and mi fun (steamed sticky rice). We got back from dinner and hung out with the campers for a little before having a team meeting and then going to bed.
July 9, GXUN
What a crazy day so far. We had a rushed breakfast, and by that I mean all we had time to have was some pastries from a local bakery. We rushed back to the school and began the long process of assessing the students English and putting them into the right category. The way we were trained to do it involved a very detailed 4-step process. We have only 9 teachers, and were suppose to have only around 120 students. We have over 200 because of the reputation of the program. We scrapped the 4-step program after it failed horribly. We then went ahead and did individual interviews with every student to access their english. We finshed, and headed to lunch. 3 words: ni rho phun. It's basically this amazing beef, vegetables, rice, and broth all in seperate bowls. You can then mix and match whatever you want to put in your mouth. I mainly did the beef and veggies together, and then through the remaining beef and rice into the broth and drank the soup. Very very good. Lunch being over, me, 3 other teachers, and 1 student walked around campus picking up some supplies. I now have a rest until 7:30, where we have a night time activitie planned.
Take it easy guys
July 7, GXUN
Shortly after lunch we did some prepatory work for my class. For dinner, me and another guy teacher were feeling adventurous, so in the cafeteria we asked one of the waiters* to bring us whatever she had in her hands at the time. It looked like some meat with pineapples, green peppers (not bell peppers, but they were green and very spicy), and tomatos. It was delicious, and deliciously spicy. After dinner we spent some more time in our class rooms preparing them and then had a team meeting at night.
*The cafeterias have waitresses that walk around and take orders. You are charged like at a normal food place per item, but it's a cafeteria setting. Also, try explaining you want something to someone who has no idea what you were saying. It took about 3 minutes to get mine, and then another 2 to get her to understand i wanted some for my friend.
July 8, GXUN, Wal-Mart, Downtown Nanning
We woke up, had a late breakfast (jiaozha, rice, water) and went immediatly into a team meeting. That ended, and we rested for a little before loading up a bus and heading down town. I was able to hit up an ATM and my money source is working. We get to this underground parking garage and in it there's an entrance to Wal-Mart. So we go in. Imagine your local Wal-Mart on a Saturday morning if they were giving 50% discounts on everything. Yeah, that crowded. It was pretty cool to see all the different fruits and stuff, and also they have these cool escaltors that can fit carts. It's like the people movers at the airport but on a hill at about a 30 degree angle. I bought some little stuff like candy for my students and other jazz, but me and the 2 other guy teachers headed out. We started walking around downtown Nanning. It was amazing. It's busy like a city, but also very rustic at the same time. We walked around for a bit in the city part, and they were having some kind of fashion show, but it revolved around some fruit drink. Like, the drink company was hosting it and they had models doing the whole runway bit while holding this juice. We found the juice peoples rival, a tea company, and decided to stick it to the man. We bought some tea. It was delicious.
We are also apparently rock stars. We were constantly swarmed by people wanting to take pictures with us, talk english to us, or people just stared. We started walking around the dark alleys and stumbled into a market, like with chickens in a cage, and on a butcher block. They had everykind of fruit, animal, and smell imagineable. It was pretty sweet. Near the market we found an arcade and decided to go in. I sat down to some game and put a coin in, and instantly was surrounded by like 6 people watching. I died, and then the owner of the store insisted I keep playing and opened up the machine and gave me a free game. I can't make this stuff up, and we got it all on film. After the arcade expedition, we got some ice cream and headed back to the Wal-Mart area to meet back up with team. On our way back we stopped at the juice fashion show and there was some muscle guy in a fishnet shirt flexing. We took a couple more pictures with people, talked some more English, and then filmed muscle guy. We got tired of muscle guy and as we were walking towards the walmart we met these girls who were go-go dancers for the juice fashion show and they wanted us to come back at night and spend more time with them. We bought some more iced tea. It was really delicious.
Back in the van, the team headed back to campus were the campers had been coming in all throughout the day. Ate dinner (I really don't remember. I was soo tired, but I think it was some kind of meat in a brown gravy sauce and mi fun (steamed sticky rice). We got back from dinner and hung out with the campers for a little before having a team meeting and then going to bed.
July 9, GXUN
What a crazy day so far. We had a rushed breakfast, and by that I mean all we had time to have was some pastries from a local bakery. We rushed back to the school and began the long process of assessing the students English and putting them into the right category. The way we were trained to do it involved a very detailed 4-step process. We have only 9 teachers, and were suppose to have only around 120 students. We have over 200 because of the reputation of the program. We scrapped the 4-step program after it failed horribly. We then went ahead and did individual interviews with every student to access their english. We finshed, and headed to lunch. 3 words: ni rho phun. It's basically this amazing beef, vegetables, rice, and broth all in seperate bowls. You can then mix and match whatever you want to put in your mouth. I mainly did the beef and veggies together, and then through the remaining beef and rice into the broth and drank the soup. Very very good. Lunch being over, me, 3 other teachers, and 1 student walked around campus picking up some supplies. I now have a rest until 7:30, where we have a night time activitie planned.
Take it easy guys
7.07.2007
The Rest of The Story
6:00pm, AT, July 6, Guangzho Airport, China
We finally boarded our plane. The flight was nice, but nothing really eventful happened.
7:30pm, AT, July 6, Nanning Airport, China
Something eventful happened. *** Imagine the most beautiful painting of a Chinese mountain, river, rice field, etc. and then imagine flying over that. The view was absolutly amazing. Then it was like our pilot forgot we had to land, so we dove down quickly, hit the run way hard, at about midway, and then slammed on the brakes. I literally came up out of my seat. Had I not had my safety belt secured, I would have flown head first into my tray table, which was safely locked in the upright position. We pulled to the gate, and began getting off the plane. ***
8pm, AT, July 6, Nanning Airport, China
We proceed through the airport without incident, other than every single person is staring at us like we were made with eggplant. I don't really know where that came from, but anyway. We get to baggage claim, which was no easy task might I add. Had we not had our guides, it would have been very difficult to find it. So we get to baggage claim, and look just past the gate, and lo and behold, there's about 30 students and teachers waiting with flowers waving peace signs. We grab our stuff, and as soon was we get past the gate, we are swarmed by all these students grabbing our bags to carry them and handing us flowers in our now empty hands. We take a couple of group pictures and hop on a bus towards my new home for the next 4 weeks.
9pm, AT, July 6, Guangxi University for Nationalities Middle School
We arrive, and the students carry all our bags up to rooms for us. We get settled in a little bit and then go to a big dinner. Once again, typical Asian setup with the lazy susuanne in the middle, covered in tons of food. Interesting foods: skewered shrimp, with the shell still on, cooked in salt; mystery meat stick (stick on a meat. It was very good. I asked what it was, and they just asked if I liked it. I said yes, then they said "Well that's all that matters." I inquired more to no luck); fried pumpkin in a sweet glaze sauce; more un-translatable greens; some short bone with meat (very delicious); more jiaozha(it's absolutely amazing); and I think some more stuff. I've got some more funny stories from this evening I'll have to tell you when I get back.
After dinner, we had a quick team meeting, and then went to bed. P.S. Here's my bed: wooden board under a thick blanket under a sheet under a normal sized pillow. And I slept like a baby.
6am, AT, July 7, GXUN (Guangxi University for Nationalities)
Woke up from a great nights sleep. I went out on the balcony and chilled for a little watching the morning fog roll away. This is going to be an amazing summer. *** *** *** ***
9am, AT, July 7 GXUN
Breakfast: This meal was in a cafeteria. Our waiban (guide/translator) ordered our food: steamed bread, cinnamon roll things, jiaozha, green, yellow, gray, purple stripe (Green, yellow, gray, and purple stripe reffer to this substance. It's like a thick jello. We believe it's made from rice glucose and flavorings, but that's all theory. It's actually more like ballistics gel than jello. Also, try eating jello with chopsticks. It makes for a good time. The green had a green flavor (combine every green candy in the world. Yeah that flavor), the yellow had a yellow flavor (combine every yellow candy in the world. Yeah that flavor), the gray, gray. And the purple, purple. Needless to say, the gray was pretty bland, but still very satisfying), and last but certainly not the least, the bean paste treats (i don't know how they did it, but they have a bean paste that tastes just like chocolate spread. The made little pastries with it, little fried balls, and tons of other things centered around this chocolate bean paste). Breakfast was delicious
10am, AT, July 7, GXUN
Team meeting. We began discussing what needs to get done and how to do it. It was intense, but this summer is really starting to take shape.
12am, AT, July 7, GXUN
Lunch: "Old Friend Noodles" It was a spicy noodle soup with beef and tomatoes. Very delicious. After lunch, me, another teacher, our team leader, and 3 students walked around to look at where our class rooms are gonna be. It's pretty awesome. *** After walking for a bit, we came back and resumed our team meeting. That ended, and I have free time until 5. I have a fair amount of free time right now, but I garuntee next week will make up for my time that I've had to relax. The schedule is crazy, and I'm loving every minute of it.
Until next time, sia xian.
We finally boarded our plane. The flight was nice, but nothing really eventful happened.
7:30pm, AT, July 6, Nanning Airport, China
Something eventful happened. *** Imagine the most beautiful painting of a Chinese mountain, river, rice field, etc. and then imagine flying over that. The view was absolutly amazing. Then it was like our pilot forgot we had to land, so we dove down quickly, hit the run way hard, at about midway, and then slammed on the brakes. I literally came up out of my seat. Had I not had my safety belt secured, I would have flown head first into my tray table, which was safely locked in the upright position. We pulled to the gate, and began getting off the plane. ***
8pm, AT, July 6, Nanning Airport, China
We proceed through the airport without incident, other than every single person is staring at us like we were made with eggplant. I don't really know where that came from, but anyway. We get to baggage claim, which was no easy task might I add. Had we not had our guides, it would have been very difficult to find it. So we get to baggage claim, and look just past the gate, and lo and behold, there's about 30 students and teachers waiting with flowers waving peace signs. We grab our stuff, and as soon was we get past the gate, we are swarmed by all these students grabbing our bags to carry them and handing us flowers in our now empty hands. We take a couple of group pictures and hop on a bus towards my new home for the next 4 weeks.
9pm, AT, July 6, Guangxi University for Nationalities Middle School
We arrive, and the students carry all our bags up to rooms for us. We get settled in a little bit and then go to a big dinner. Once again, typical Asian setup with the lazy susuanne in the middle, covered in tons of food. Interesting foods: skewered shrimp, with the shell still on, cooked in salt; mystery meat stick (stick on a meat. It was very good. I asked what it was, and they just asked if I liked it. I said yes, then they said "Well that's all that matters." I inquired more to no luck); fried pumpkin in a sweet glaze sauce; more un-translatable greens; some short bone with meat (very delicious); more jiaozha(it's absolutely amazing); and I think some more stuff. I've got some more funny stories from this evening I'll have to tell you when I get back.
After dinner, we had a quick team meeting, and then went to bed. P.S. Here's my bed: wooden board under a thick blanket under a sheet under a normal sized pillow. And I slept like a baby.
6am, AT, July 7, GXUN (Guangxi University for Nationalities)
Woke up from a great nights sleep. I went out on the balcony and chilled for a little watching the morning fog roll away. This is going to be an amazing summer. *** *** *** ***
9am, AT, July 7 GXUN
Breakfast: This meal was in a cafeteria. Our waiban (guide/translator) ordered our food: steamed bread, cinnamon roll things, jiaozha, green, yellow, gray, purple stripe (Green, yellow, gray, and purple stripe reffer to this substance. It's like a thick jello. We believe it's made from rice glucose and flavorings, but that's all theory. It's actually more like ballistics gel than jello. Also, try eating jello with chopsticks. It makes for a good time. The green had a green flavor (combine every green candy in the world. Yeah that flavor), the yellow had a yellow flavor (combine every yellow candy in the world. Yeah that flavor), the gray, gray. And the purple, purple. Needless to say, the gray was pretty bland, but still very satisfying), and last but certainly not the least, the bean paste treats (i don't know how they did it, but they have a bean paste that tastes just like chocolate spread. The made little pastries with it, little fried balls, and tons of other things centered around this chocolate bean paste). Breakfast was delicious
10am, AT, July 7, GXUN
Team meeting. We began discussing what needs to get done and how to do it. It was intense, but this summer is really starting to take shape.
12am, AT, July 7, GXUN
Lunch: "Old Friend Noodles" It was a spicy noodle soup with beef and tomatoes. Very delicious. After lunch, me, another teacher, our team leader, and 3 students walked around to look at where our class rooms are gonna be. It's pretty awesome. *** After walking for a bit, we came back and resumed our team meeting. That ended, and I have free time until 5. I have a fair amount of free time right now, but I garuntee next week will make up for my time that I've had to relax. The schedule is crazy, and I'm loving every minute of it.
Until next time, sia xian.
From China With Love!
Well, I've finally made it to China! Here I am at the school using one in the computer lab and I figure I will update you about the last 48 hours. I have pictures, but don't know when I can post them, so until I figure that out, I'll put ***, and that's where a picture will go.
5pm, PT, July 4, LA, California
We left the university where we were training at and as we were packing the bus, I looked up and there was this beautiful rainbow in the sky right behind a palm tree. It's almost as like a good like sign. *** We hoped on the bus, got to the airport, chilled for a little bit, and got on the plane around 11:30pm.
2am, PT, July 5, Somewhere where the pacific meets the coast of Alaska, or Russia, or Canada
We've been on the plane for a while. I must say that the plane ride was amazing. Yeah, the chairs were a little small, but that's ok. I'm a big American. But anyway, the service was wonderful. They brought out tons of food, anything you wanted you could have, and they had little TV's to watch. I watched Troy about 3 times with Chinese subtitles, and about half of 2 Weeks Notice. I also was watching some Chinese soap opera that was pretty cool. I was dozing on and off the whole trip, trying not to stay too much in the Pacific Time Zone, and during on of those little sleeps, my chair decided to stop staying in it's position and swung back. I wake up to a man yelling in Chinese pushing on my chair to stop squishing him. So I did. I got it to a point where it wasn't going to break again, and dozed back to sleep. This happened again about 3 times.
5:30am, Asia Time (no idea what the time zone is, herein AT), July 6, Guangzho, China
Due to the plane traveling West, I got to see the sunrise twice in 14 hours***, and I lost one day of my life. But it's ok. We landed, Got through customs, and met up with our school officials. They took us to this little cafe and we got some coffee. ***, then went across the street to the a hotel***. This was one of the nicest/coolest hotels I've ever been too.*** They got 1 room, and first all the girls went up and got freshened up, then all they guys.
11am, AT, July 6, Guangzho, China
After getting cleaned up, the officials took us to this amazing room and we had lunch. In the center of a giant circular table is a giant lazy susanne. Basically, all the different foods are put on this, and you have a bowl of rice. If you wanted a bite of chicken, spin the lazy susanne to the chicken, grab 1 piece and eat it. If you want a second bite, just grab another piece. At this meal we had duck, chicken, jiaozi (the best dumplings i've ever had), these amazing greens (I asked for a translation on the vegetable, and all I could get was "green, hearless vegetable(the texture was like chives, but tasted like swisschard)), and a bunch of other foods. By the way, Chinese Coke-Cola is so much better than American because they use sugar instead of corn syrup.
I have more to post, but I gotta run. Take it easy and leave me some love
5pm, PT, July 4, LA, California
We left the university where we were training at and as we were packing the bus, I looked up and there was this beautiful rainbow in the sky right behind a palm tree. It's almost as like a good like sign. *** We hoped on the bus, got to the airport, chilled for a little bit, and got on the plane around 11:30pm.
2am, PT, July 5, Somewhere where the pacific meets the coast of Alaska, or Russia, or Canada
We've been on the plane for a while. I must say that the plane ride was amazing. Yeah, the chairs were a little small, but that's ok. I'm a big American. But anyway, the service was wonderful. They brought out tons of food, anything you wanted you could have, and they had little TV's to watch. I watched Troy about 3 times with Chinese subtitles, and about half of 2 Weeks Notice. I also was watching some Chinese soap opera that was pretty cool. I was dozing on and off the whole trip, trying not to stay too much in the Pacific Time Zone, and during on of those little sleeps, my chair decided to stop staying in it's position and swung back. I wake up to a man yelling in Chinese pushing on my chair to stop squishing him. So I did. I got it to a point where it wasn't going to break again, and dozed back to sleep. This happened again about 3 times.
5:30am, Asia Time (no idea what the time zone is, herein AT), July 6, Guangzho, China
Due to the plane traveling West, I got to see the sunrise twice in 14 hours***, and I lost one day of my life. But it's ok. We landed, Got through customs, and met up with our school officials. They took us to this little cafe and we got some coffee. ***, then went across the street to the a hotel***. This was one of the nicest/coolest hotels I've ever been too.*** They got 1 room, and first all the girls went up and got freshened up, then all they guys.
11am, AT, July 6, Guangzho, China
After getting cleaned up, the officials took us to this amazing room and we had lunch. In the center of a giant circular table is a giant lazy susanne. Basically, all the different foods are put on this, and you have a bowl of rice. If you wanted a bite of chicken, spin the lazy susanne to the chicken, grab 1 piece and eat it. If you want a second bite, just grab another piece. At this meal we had duck, chicken, jiaozi (the best dumplings i've ever had), these amazing greens (I asked for a translation on the vegetable, and all I could get was "green, hearless vegetable(the texture was like chives, but tasted like swisschard)), and a bunch of other foods. By the way, Chinese Coke-Cola is so much better than American because they use sugar instead of corn syrup.
I have more to post, but I gotta run. Take it easy and leave me some love
7.03.2007
Soon and very soon
Hey people.
I'm still in sunny LA. It's been so wonderful here for training, but man, I am worn out. We've been in classes all day from 8am till about 9pm. Just learning about the culture, what we're going to be teaching, and a bunch of other stuff.
I found out that I'm actually leaving on Wednesday, not Thursday. Also, It's a 14 hour plane ride, then we'll be on a 14 hour train ride. So, needless to say I'll have alot of travel time with my team. Speaking of, my teammates are awesome.
Anyway, leave something. Next blog post will be from Nanning, China.
Peas.
I'm still in sunny LA. It's been so wonderful here for training, but man, I am worn out. We've been in classes all day from 8am till about 9pm. Just learning about the culture, what we're going to be teaching, and a bunch of other stuff.
I found out that I'm actually leaving on Wednesday, not Thursday. Also, It's a 14 hour plane ride, then we'll be on a 14 hour train ride. So, needless to say I'll have alot of travel time with my team. Speaking of, my teammates are awesome.
Anyway, leave something. Next blog post will be from Nanning, China.
Peas.
7.02.2007
Sunny L.A.
Hey Everybody!
Just dropping you a line. I'm at training right now in beautiful Los Angeles, California. We've done a bunch of stuff like learning about culture, different team activities, and just meeting a bunch of people. My group is absolutely amazing. We're having so much fun and just from talking to other people, it seems like we're the tightest group. I gotta go get some sleep. I'll try to post again sometime before I leave on Thursday.
FYI
Thursday I'm on a plane for 14 hours, then on a train for 14 hours, so I'll be having fun with that.
Leave me some love.
Just dropping you a line. I'm at training right now in beautiful Los Angeles, California. We've done a bunch of stuff like learning about culture, different team activities, and just meeting a bunch of people. My group is absolutely amazing. We're having so much fun and just from talking to other people, it seems like we're the tightest group. I gotta go get some sleep. I'll try to post again sometime before I leave on Thursday.
FYI
Thursday I'm on a plane for 14 hours, then on a train for 14 hours, so I'll be having fun with that.
Leave me some love.
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