Check Out the Photos!

Life has been a little slow in China, but that's not to say we haven't had a good time! Our passports are still missing in action, so we still can't do any travelling. On the bright side, Suzhou has plenty to offer in the way of sights and entertainment, which means we have been enjoying our stay here, even without the means to travel!

I updated our Picasa account with many new albums, and I'd like you to check them out and let me know what you think! You can click on the link at the top of the page, or click here. Easy!

Aside from the previously mentioned scenic areas, we got free access to both the Humble Administrator's Garden and Panmen Gate thanks to our new friend, Mrs. Cheung. She's taking us to the Master of the Nets Garden this Saturday, which is said to be nice. It's nice to see these gardens and parks, but it's especially nice not to pay the entrance fees! Mrs. Cheung is able to swing us free admission because she used to work in these gardens, and she still has a lot friends who work there.

Recently, we were invited to Shangfang Hill, which is right next to our school, by a few senior students. I managed to get the Aqeels to go with us, but Melissa ducked out at the last minute to nurse her sore back. Overall, the park was much nicer than I expected. Of course, it helped that it was really warm that day! Check out the photo album!

The next day was Halloween, which was the day of the long-awaited Halloween Party. All four of us teachers had been preparing for this party for weeks. We decked out our apartments, bought lots of food and drink, and organised activities for the teachers and students. As you can see from the photo album, it was spooktacular (cringe)!

New Year's Day Parties Galore!

Apparently, New Year's Day is the time to party here, not New Year's Eve, so last night Cullen and I split up and visited various classrooms to observe and take part in class parties. I brought along my camera, and in the above photo you'll see one of my classes about to get down to some karaoke! The students really put a lot of effort into decorating the room, which is basically where they live anyway, so it would make sense!

The boys standing in the middle of the room were really into the song, and I have to say this class' boys are actually really into my lessons, too, which is more than I can say for most of my classes! Next I went to another one of my favorite (yes, I play favorites) classes and walked in on the middle of a Congo Line! This kid played the broom for us while we danced.

I stayed in the line for as long as my endurance would last me, and just as they were mobbing me to sing a song or "put on a show" for them, this adorable girl, the daughter of their math teacher, stepped up and danced the Cha Cha!





She's precious, I know. I managed to sneak away from this classroom and found my way to a few more. All the classes demanded that I sing a song, but I'm no one's monkey and stood my ground. My trip to the next class, coincided with the Cha Cha tour, so here's another video of the lovely dance, this time synchronized with pink jacket girl's sister, red jacket girl, because you loved the first one so much!





Such passion! Such grace. Here are a few more photos of the night, and then that's it for a month during our tour of Southeast Asia!

Happy Belated Halloween!

Hi all,

Melissa and I have successfully eaten our way through many kilos of chocolate, thus signifying the end to the Halloween season. We may have gained a few pant sizes, but we installed a plan to even everything out. You see, we shared the sugar rush with our students by making candy a part of our lessons. So, the students are now that much fatter, thus negating our relative augmentation. Yahoo!

Seriously though, we did feed our students candy last week. I know what you're thinking. You're probably thinking, 'These kids must need bribes to talk because you're such a bad teacher!' Well, you know what? You know what? Yeah? So???

Actually, it wasn't so easy for the students to get the candy. In order to receive candy, they had to:
a) Sit through a lengthy vocabulary presentation on Halloween-related things,
b) Watch the first five minutes of The Nightmare Before Christmas (you know, the part where they sing 'This is Halloween'?),
c) Stay awake as I read them 'The Yellow Ribbon' (a scary story)
d) Rack their brains and write a scary story, and
e) Tell their scary story to the class.

Most of the kids got into it, which was good to see. One of Melissa's students told a good scary story, which I will paraphrase here:

"There once was a little boy who could only say the word thirteen. His parents tried everything to get him to say anything else, but their child could only say, "thirteen, thirteen, thirteen..." They finally tried a psychiatrist, who dedicated much of his time with this interesting case. They worked together in his office, at a local playground and at a park. They had been working together for many months now, and the child could say nothing but the word thirteen. They took a seat by an old well in the park, and the man again said to the boy, "Why do you only say thirteen?" As an answer, the boy pushed him down the well. The boy watched the man hit the bottom of the well and said, "fourteen, fourteen, fourteen..."

After all of this Halloween goodness, we are rearing our heads over Alaska, as we prepare for America to once again disappoint us. I sent in my New Jersey absentee ballot about eight days ago in Yueyang. At least I know that I did everything that I possibly could have done to discontinue the Bush White House's policies. Melissa, on the other hand, did not even apply for an absentee ballot from her battleground state, Ohio. For shame.

Our fingers are crossed!

Phoenix Rocks!

Hi all,

I know we've been posting a crap-ton about Fenghuang, but I have to post this video shot by Melissa in a bar we visited on our last night in town. The bar has live music, and to be honest, they exceeded expectations. Anyways, enjoy the video!

Cullen

Celebrating 30 Years of Existence: Yueyang County No. 1 Middle School

October 3rd was our school's thirtieth anniversary, and to celebrate, the administration decked the entire school out in lots of red ornamentation. I don't know who these girls are in the above photo, but I think that both of us felt bad for them. Their job was to greet cars that came in through the school's main gate. Whoopee! (Side note: all of these photos were taken on October 2nd. We took a vacation from October 3rd - October 6th. So, we missed the October 3rd celebrations.)

Melissa is standing in front of the administration building, which is the first building you see when entering the campus. In the days leading up to the anniversary, there were Chinese announcements over the school's intercom system that told everyone of last minute changes to their class schedules. Two of my classes that week were cancelled without my knowing it. So, I showed up to class and looked like an idiot by trying to start a lesson while the students tried to tell me that class was cancelled. Overall, I was more surprised than upset in leaving the classes. 

Awkward! When Melissa and I came back from shopping, who did we find lining the only route to our apartment, but our loyal Senior 1 students. I said 'hi, hello, etc.' while walking, and Melissa got the brilliant idea of giving everyone high fives. Her hand hurt pretty bad after that.

The above photo is the new gym that the administration constructed for this occasion, which happens to be right outside of our apartment. I've heard a few people around campus say that this gym is a huge waste of money, as it is only a symbol of power, rather than a practical addition to the campus. In any case, the students were excited to be out of class for the celebration that marked the beginning of their first real break from school, but not as excited as us!

Cullen

Welcome to Rong Jai Won!

On the 20th, Melissa and I were swept off to Rong Jai Won by Rock Long, our Chinese liaison, and Erin Chen, the daughter of a teacher at Yueyang County No. 1 Middle School (which is where we now work). Rock (she said that she wanted a name that is strong, and a rock is indeed strong) is exceptionally helpful and fun. Sidetrack: Chinese English speakers make up their 'first' names, and most of the time, they don't even choose actual names. The other day we met an English teacher who we thought was named 'Chris'. We later had dinner with him and he had to openly correct me. It turns out that his name is 'Praise'.

Back on course: Erin (far right) will be leaving for university soon, so she has been marginally helping us. So, the burden of being our guide rests on Rock's (middle) sturdy shoulders, but she is getting some help from her boyfriend, William Long (not related to Rock). More about them later (I have no pictures to support my rantings!). Our first day in Rong Jai Won (RJW) consisted of Melissa and me cleaning the apartment and settling in a little bit. On the second day, Rock and Erin took us into town to show us some of the shops.

We shopped around the various lighting stores (successfully haggled!) and the bedding stores (too expensive! - tai gue le!). Then they took us to the Open Market, which is like a cross between a farm stand and a flea market. The Open Market resides in the center of RJW, and provides a lot of interesting sights.

The above shot is of the various vegetables on sale at just one of the many stands in the market. Notice the various hot peppers in the foreground. Believe me when I say that hot peppers are everywhere in Hunan and they are used in almost every dish. Hunanese food is not for the mild palatted. There were other sights that I dared not take pictures of, mostly out of courtesy. These sights were tubs of eels and fish (both alive and dead), full nets of large, jumping frogs, and cages of live rabbits and ducks. Melissa and I feel sad to see these animals on death row. Then again, I think of the various animals we have eaten (I've eaten frogs, eels and ducks, and Melissa has eaten all the above including pig intestines), and I realize that we are consumers of this sadness. That's deep, for reals.

Anyhoot, we grabbed a bunch of ingredients and brought them back for our first home-cooked meal! Yahooooooo! Actually, it was Rock and William who did all of the cooking, and I observed them from afar (and ate Oreos, which are nearing extinction in China thanks to me and Melissa).

Now, the Chinese love their MSG, and I must admit that it tastes absolutely delicious. However, our apartment is a No-MSG Zone. We don't want it, so don't bring it. The stuff being poured into the wok is good old salt and lots of it! Actually, that dish being prepared by Rock is hot peppers with pork. Notice I didn't say pork with hot peppers. One thing I learned about cooking hot peppers is that you should stand back or the hot pepper fumes will make you.

Pictured above is our authentic Hunanese meal, as prepared by Rock and William in our very own kitchen! It was pretty derrrn good, and I have been cooking with their techniques since.

Cullen

Zai Jian, Changsha!

So, our last full day in Changsha (and our last day of orientation) was Tuesday, the 19th. By the way, we are twelve hours ahead of you folks on the East Coast of the US. If you think about it after spinning around really fast and getting dizzy, we're in the future. Scary, huh? If your mind doesn't hurt too much, the above is a class photo of our absolute beginner Mandarin class.

The whole group got all gussied up and walked over to the finest Hunanese restaurant we could afford for our good-bye banquet.

We ate and drank much and thanked the Department of Education and our fearless orientation leaders for all of their hard work!

This little lady greeted us outside of our hotel every single day, and it was hard for us to say good-bye to her! OK, it was hard for Melissa. I think I said 'later, gator' or something like that.

Bye bye, Changsha!!

Cullen

Happy Birthday, Melissa!

Last night, more than fifty of us volunteers came out to help celebrate the birthdays of Melissa and Charlotte in downtown Changsha. Charlotte prodded one of the Chinese teachers into booking a nice Hunanese restaurant, got her to order all of the food and everybody chipped in. It was a blast!

The restaurant is located just off of Walking Street, which is the major metropolitan section of the city. Everybody met at the first large statue at the front of Walking Street, which is behind Melissa in the first photo. We then proceeded to make our way towards the restaurant as a group after everybody grabbed the cheap beer from the street vendors (one strange things about China is that the restaurants allow you to bring in outside drinks).

The food was plentiful and spicy, as it has always been here in Changsha, and everybody got into the partying mood. Melissa came around to all the tables and thanked them for coming out to help celebrate her birthday.

Charlotte even got a nice cake for the both of them at the local Western bakery.

Here's the birthday girl cutting her piece of cake. She didn't give me any cake, so I'll let her tell you how it tastes...

Actually, I think this picture says it all!

After dinner, the whole group went to a bar called SoHo, where we danced like idiots. The Chinese were very impressed by our moves, and we were impressed by the 30 kuai beers (not really). We ended the night by walking over to Haagen Dazs for some much needed chocolate ice cream. Melissa says that this has been one of the best birthdays she's ever had!

~ Cullen