Random Events in No Particular Order

I realized that I have a lot of random photos of little events that have taken place during my time here. So I lumped them all together to make one blog and here it is.

First, dumpling making. A few weekends ago the ninth grade teachers were stuck at school on a Saturday for some unknown reason and had to teach. So along with some of the teachers we made dumplings for lunch at my apartment. We made about 250 dumplings to serve 7 people. It was very fun but I didn't learn how to make the filling so we will have to do it again in order to make them when I get home.

For New Year's Eve each class had a party. These are pictures from that night. Students gave speeches, read poem, sang songs, played instruments and more. They had oranges, apples, peanuts, and sunflower seeds to eat. Each of the classrooms was decorated with balloons, streamers, and posters. I went to most of the classrooms and had to sing a song for most of them (this was not enjoyable or fun!). I hate singing!!

Our new cafeteria. We finally got to move out of the small, dirty old cafeteria into our brand new, but still dirty, cafeteria. It has two floors, only one of which we are using now. It was painted a lovely shade of orange/red which makes it the most colorful thing around for miles.

Inside the cafeteria.

This is were we line up to get served our food.

This is were we wash our dishes after we are done eating.

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Eve. We had to teach that day so we wore our Santa hats which we bought in Hanzhong.

This is our FAO and his daughter

To celebrate our teachers took us out to dinner and KTV/Karaoke. These were the ladies working that night. They were wearing Santa hats too so we took a picture with them.

This is the travelling market which came to town for a couple of weeks. One part was shopping and the other was an amusement park of sorts. The shopping part was okay, mostly the same stuff over and over again. The amusement park on the other hand was quite a sight.

It had some of the usual carnival games: shoot the balloons, throw the ball into the bottles, etc.

The real entertainment of the park was a choice between a dance/music show or a motorcycle circle of doom thing. We choose the circle of doom thing. A couple of guys rode motorcycles and cars around this wooden circle. It was interesting.

I thought it was hilarious and the wobbly standing area about three stories up added to the fun. Michelle on the other hand did not enjoy this and promptly left the tent.

There was also a petting zoo of sorts. We found what we believe to be the only turkey in China. It was around Thanksgiving so we were very excited. They also had foxes, an ostrich, and lots of snakes.

This is the cute little monkey that was outside.

The shopping area did have one very interesting thing. I found the Chinese Dollar Store or in this case the Yuan Store. Similar to ours it was full of junk.

These are pictures from my birthday.This ridiculous hat came with my cake and so I had to wear it.

The cake we had was actually pretty good. Lots of frosting.

These are the flowers I got.

So there are my odds 'n' ends stories.

Chinese Weddings

Since being in China I have had the fortunate opportunity to attend two weddings. First, the wedding of one of the 9th grade English teachers, who is also my Chinese teacher, to one of the P.E. teachers at my school. The second was of another teacher at the school. I have no pictures from the second wedding but it was very similar to the first.



The wedding took place on a Friday, the second was on a Monday, so there is no set or regular day on which weddings are held. The date of the wedding is more important than the day. Chinese couples usually go to some shaman/witch doctor/fortune teller who tells them what day will be lucky/good for them to get married on.



The school rented a bus so take all of the teachers to the wedding. So at 8 am we piled in and started on our way.





Our first stop was at the bride's parents house. They served a ton of food and liquor. People just kept walking in and sitting down to eat.

We left the house following the bride and groom. The first car in the line set off firecrackers out of the trunk which was followed by the bride and groom's car.

We arrived at a restaurant in the home town of the groom. Prior to bride and groom's entrance they set off 2 minutes worth of firecrackers. The bride and groom entered, walking down the center of the tables and were sprayed with silly string and covered with confetti.

I don't think the bride was very happy to be covered in shit as she walked to the front of the room but it's what they do. The officiator of the ceremony was a friend of the family. There is no religious part of the ceremony. The symbol on the wall behind them is of double happiness.

They do repeat some kind of vows, present rings, and the officiator asks them questions.

The give each other wine to drink.

This was the weirdest part. When you would normal just kiss the bride they always seem to hesitate. I don't know if it's some kind of power struggle thing or what. So to bait them into kissing they dangle something, maybe candy, on a string in between them until they kiss.

The parents of the groom come up and the bride offers them wine to drink so that them will welcome her into their family. The parents sometimes are dressed up to look very funny. This day they were only made to put thick blush on their cheeks and forehead. After giving them wine the parents present the bride with envelopes with money in them.

The bride is accepted into the groom's family.

After the ceremony is over they walk out, change their clothes, and everyone starts eating/drinking. I, of course, was asked to give a toast at the wedding. So I stood up in front of a room filled with people and gave a toast, in English, which was translated to the guest. Hilarious and very easy but very it is very impressive to have a foreigner at your wedding. After we ate and drank ourselves silly we piled back on the bus and returned to the school.

A very enlightening experience.

Chinese New Year's Vacation

Chinese New Year's is a two week celebration of the new year based on the lunar cycle. It begins with the first new moon of the year. For my vacation I went to 5 cities. Starting in Wuhan, next to Guilin, then to Yangshuo, to Xi'an and finally to Beijing.

A request was made for me to put up more pictures of the trains I have taken, so here they are.

Since Beijing was the most exciting part of the trip I will talk about that first. While in Beijing I tried to hit most of the tourist spots. Great Wall, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, etc. I will start with the Great Wall. Absolutely amazing, breath taking, pictures can't do it justice. So we went on a tour to the Great Wall because the general consensus is that it's the best/easiest way. We went to the Badaling section of the wall which is more touristy which wasn't what we wanted but it was still good. Per the tour we were given two hours on the wall but in order to make it to the highest part of the wall (which is what this section is know for) we were told we would have to take a "motorized something" (which we had to of course pay extra for). So we paid our fee got in line and low and behold we were taking a "roller coaster" to get to the 4th of 8 towers.

Now the "roller coaster" was in constant motion. It did not stop for you to get on or off. To get on was easy. It was about knee high, so just plop your ass down and away you go. There was a "harness" which consisted of a bar that came over your shoulders but the only way to actually buckle yourself in you would have to reach down, on the side of the "car" and buckle yourself in. Now as scary as the "roller coaster" may seem there was no way in hell I was reaching my hand down by the rails to buckle myself in. I DON'T THINK SO!! The way up wasn't bad at all because it was exactly that, straight up. Now the tricky part was getting off at the top. Imagine sitting in a bucket chair with you legs straight out in front of you. Now while you are in motion and with the limited help of a Chinese man, hoist yourself up and out when the ground is 3 feet below you. Yeah, I scratched the shit out of the Chinese guy at the top trying to help me. But at last I was on the Wall.

Now there are stairs, extremely uneven stairs, but stairs nonetheless at some parts of the wall. Other parts are just ramps that follow the steepness of mountains the wall is on. This was a workout not an outing. I was sweating, taking off my coat and huffing all the way up. Well worth it!!

Before embarking on our journey up our tour guide said that if you make it to the top/8th tower you can call yourself a "Superwoman". Of course I am a "Superwoman"!!! And I think we were the only people on our tour that were. The pictures and my words can't do justice. Guess you'll have to go for yourself.

The Forbidden City or the Palace Museum was were the emperor, empress, and others lived. It is a maze of living quarter, temples, ceremonial buildings and artifacts. A lot of the same over and over again but very interesting. I probably saw about 1/3 of all the buildings. There is a wall all way around the city.

This is the entrance and main gate to the city.

The back side of the main gate.

The bridge you must cross to get to the first building. There were five bridges and only the emperor could use the center one.

At the back of the city there is a park which has this large rock formation with a temple at the top.

So I have been seeing these things all over, on every old style building in China and I finally figured out what they are for. The number of these "guardians" show the importance of the building. At a minimum there is the little one in front, the giant one in the back and one of other ones in the middle. You can see a building with the minimum right next to one like this with 7 "guardians".

These carvings were all over the city. Very cool looking.

This is the longest stone carving like this in China. They usually depict the heavens; with mountains at the bottom, clouds at the top and a mixture of dragons, birds, and more in the middle.

So we had the bright idea to get up at o'dark early and see the raising of the flag at Tienanmen Square. Now Tienanmen Square was not what I was expecting. It is basically a giant square of cement with one building in the middle. The pictures you see are actually pictures shot while standing in Tienanmen Square and facing the Forbidden City.

The flag raising was packed, we were about 4 rows back but nonetheless I saw them raise the flag at Tienanmen Square.

This is the Ming Tombs which we went to on our tour to the Great Wall. Not very exciting, we didn't even see the tombs, just the buildings on the top.

Two weeks after the new moon to start the new year there is the latern festival which officially ends the new year's celebration. We went down to a temple/bridge which was all lit up.

Since I was in Beijing it was only fitting to go and see the Olympic Park. I saw the Cube and the Bird's Nest and I took a piss in the port-a-potties. Now the port-a-potties were not portable, they were there for good, they were squat toilets, and they did not flush but they filled with suds after you were done. I will never understand.

Behind the Forbidden City is Beihai Park which has the Temple of Heaven and the Nine Dragon's Screen.

This is the Temple of Heaven.

This is Wang Fu Jing street which was blocks from our hostel. Good shopping and weird eating. When I say weird I mean fried bugs on a stick. No I didn't not try. I signed up to teach not to be on Fear Factor.

We also took in an acrobatics show which was really fun.

Wrapping up Beijing: So there are a few randoms stories to go with Beijing. First, during our tour to the Great Wall we stopped off at a Chinese Traditional Medicine facility where they feel 3 points on you forearm and tell you everything that is wrong with you and prescribe herbal medicine at a "reasonable" price. The 6 points represent your heart, lungs, liver, blood, intestines, and ?. I thought it was a total crock but then I went up there and she told me I was going to be getting my period which I got 2 days later I changed my mind. So I believe now.

I didn't take many pictures in Xi'an becasue we visited most of the places I have already seen and photographed and you don't need to see anymore photos of me eating Western Fast Food. But I forgot to put these up the last time. These are from the Terra Cotta Warriors.

This picture is for the Mystic Lake Girls who can appreciate a good horse's ass!!

The next pictures are from Guilin. We went to Seven Star Park which is a park with seven karst/mountains in it. It was okay. The park itself was boring but the caves which were inside the park were cool. You had to go with a guide and each section was lit up as you arrived. Now some people may not consider the chinese artistically creative but believe me they are. They came up with names for these cave formations and I only understood two of them. There were "trees", "rabbits", "dragons", and many more. Overall very interesting place to see.

This one was called "The Great Wall". This is one of the one's I understood!

This would be the other one that I understood. The "Tree"!

These are pictures of two pagodas in Guilin. They were close to our hostel and part of a park.

Back to the beginning of my adventure, these pictures are from Yangshuo. This is Moon Hill. We took a bike ride in the country with a hysterical guide named Rosie. She meet us our first day there and squated outside our hostel until we agreed to take a tour with her. Too funny, but a very good tour guide. Now remember this was a countryside tour meaning dirt roads, uneven terrain, and lots of rocks on a one-speed, Dorothy Gale bicycle. We barely moved the next day.

While in Guilin we attend a performance which had been choreographed by they same guy that did the Olympic Opening Ceremony. It was all in Chinese so we didn't understand any of it but it was still an amazing sight to see. The ability of the Chinese people to move in complete unison is astounding.

The last part of the blog and the first part of my trip is about Wuhan. This was like a real vacation. We sat around, read books, ate alot and generally relaxed. Partly because there wasn't much to do in Wuhan but nevertheless it was well deserved and needed.

These we found on the street near a temple we went to. They are potatoes, spiral cut, put on a stick, and fried. Absolutely fabulous!!

These pictures are from Yellow Crane Tower. Interesting place with great views of the city.

This is a statue from a temple in Wuhan. It was huge.

So that is the end of my Spring Festival vacation. Now I am back to teaching and counting the days until I get to return home. There are only a few more spots in China which I would like to see, whether I will get the chance I don't know. But I can confidently say I have seen some of the vast number of things China has to show.