Dog Day

Today is December 22nd, the winter solstice, or Dog Day. This is when
people in China believe eating dog is lucky. Of course, this is
disturbing to many Westerners. Still, many people have dogs as pets
here that they dress up in little coats and shoes. It seems quite
strange.

Zunyi

Pictures to accompany this entry:
http://www.xoopit.com/s/2142bx0urqqiv7678tw5
Don't miss my ever witty captions at the bottom of each photo....

On Tuesday, one of our days off, a couple of our Chinese staff wanted
to take a day trip to Zunyi. Zunyi is a smaller city about 2 hours
away by bus, and it is where the other branch of our English school is
located. You may remember way back in September when the Zunyi staff
came to visit and we went to Huaxi Park, swimming in the river? Well,
it is the second biggest city in Guizhou after Guiyang (remember a
"small" city in China still has millions of people), and some Chinese
people know Zunyi and don't know Guiyang because Zunyi has a famous
Communist site- the meeting place where Mao Zedong was elected head of
the Communist party (um, I think that's what the meeting was- don't
quote me on that if I'm wrong). Anyways, it has historical
significance to Chinese people.

So Spring, Weiyi, Matt, Chris, Garry and I got on the bus on a cold
morning. Once we arrived, Weiyi's Aunt (who we were all told to call
Gugu, Chinese for Auntie) was our guide. When someone's Chinese
relative is hosting you in any form, you know they will insist on
paying for everything. Gugu took us to a restaurant since we were all
starving by the time we arrived. Really really good food. There was
lots of it too. Sweet and sour breaded fish, which was amazing. A hash
brown pie, pork and green peppers, green beans and pork, lamb soup and
soybeans, some kind of sweet rice cake. That definitely hit the spot.

Then we were off to see the famous Communist sites. The actual
building where the meeting took place was closed, which was kind of
lame. There were lots of buildings, a museum with photos, statues, and
"so and sos bedroom." Overall a bit boring. And not that old, since
this was in 1935. Next, we headed to see Zunyi Interlingua School.
Huang Min, our boss, was there, but none of the foreign staff were
working. We then toured the school. It's huge! Compared to our school.
It's 4 floors to themselves. Every teacher gets their own classroom
(here we all share and switch rooms depending on which age we teach).
They also run a "kindergarten," which is 2 and 3 year olds. Those kids
were there- they are so so cute! It's more like a daycare with half an
hour of English from a foreign teacher every day (can kids that young
learn English? dunno). Also, their teachers' office has couches. So
jealous.

Zunyi has a few streets built to look like the old style buildings,
with shopping. Of course, these buildings are rebuilt, but it's still
nice looking. On these streets you can buy a specialty- chicken cakes.
Yes, it's a small cake. That tastes like chicken. No actual chicken in
it. Why? I don't know. It's weird. We walked around a city square, fed
some koi fish in a pond, and then went to a Red Army memorial which
involved climbing a billion stairs. Of course, as always in China, I
was huffing and puffing while grandmas and small children ran past me.

After I almost died because apparently I'm in terrible shape, we
walked by the river. Then we saw a man down by the river. Stretching.
Then he took off his clothes. He was wearing a speedo. Then he put on
goggles. And jumped in the river. Did I mention it was freezing
outside? He proceeded to do laps while we gaped at the edge of the
river, along with other random passers by.

We ate a local specialty for dinner- lamb with rice noodles. At a
famous place- as with many famous restaurants in China, this was a
back alley with plastic stools. It's okay, I've had it before. Put
lots of chili and vinegar for flavor and you're good to go. After that
we headed back to the bus station, hugged Gugu goodbye, and went home.

I could have been placed at Zunyi. It's all American teachers and
mostly girls. Zunyi has some cute shopping areas and many of the same
stores and comforts of Guiyang. In the end I'm glad I'm at Guiyang. I
like it here, and I enjoy being friends with the guys- my crazy
British co-workers. Zunyi also looked a bit bleak, which to be fair
was probably due to the time of the year. Chris visited in summer and
said it seemed a lot nicer.

Speaking of bleak, it's freezing today. Literally. Cold, windy, and no
central heating. Luckily I can get my little room quite warm and cozy.
I have candles, Christmas music, and hot milk tea. and lesson planning
to do...

P.S. I will try to post some group pictures of this trip from a
friend's camera soon.

The Back of my New Moon DVD

English Competition

After my Thursday in Qing Yan Ancient Town (see last entry), that
weekend of work we had an English competition. It was on Saturday. We
choose our best 3 students from each class and they have to answer
some questions on stage. I still had to teach all day but it was so
exciting to see all my favorite students on Saturday! They all wanted
to say hi to me, and they were really cute. It was a bit unfair
though- like the categories were too broad. Some of my Starter class
(4 year olds) who just started English were in with Longman 2b level,
which could be up to 10 or 11 years old. Apparently this is just round
one, there is another competition with the winners in each category.

You might be surprised, or maybe not, but Twilight is very popular
with my students. Since I like it (the British guys aren't really into
the vampire trend), I talk to them about it lots. I bought a DVD copy
of New Moon, which I'm hoping is decent quality. It's so funny, they
all know Robert Pattinson and stuff.

Time seriously flies here. I can't believe I've been here for 4
months! It's ridiculous. I am trying to figure out some fun Christmas
activities for this month to do in my classes. They love Christmas
here. I will try to get some more pictures of my students. They are
really really cute. Of course, holiday time makes me miss my friends
and family lots. I'm hoping we can do something fun for Christmas here
(although I don't know if it can beat my Hong Kong Christmas- well,
you guys who were there know ;-). By now, I'm definitely close friends
with the guys and hopefully we can all find something cool to do
together.

Qing Yan Ancient Town

Last Thursday, my day off, Yang Haiyang (one of my Chinese teachers)
took me to Qing Yan ancient town. We went with one of her friends from
university, a girl named Jessica who is a Guiyang local. She is really
funny and speaks pretty good English.

Getting there was a bit of a trip. First we took a mini bus to Huaxi,
a park outside of the city. I haven't taken the minibus in Guiyang
before, so that was interesting. They try to cram as many people in as
possible. Also, whenever they pass a crossing with a cop they ask
everyone who's standing to duck. Oh man, one of those "only in China"
experiences. After that, we switched to a different minibus which
drove along slowly with a woman shouting "Qing Yan!" out the door,
trying to get people who want to go to the ancient town.

The ancient town itself has old style buildings and stairs, and nice
views of the mountains and a much more "countryside" feel. Check out
my pictures from the last entry! First them we did was try some
specialty foods. One is pig's feet. My Chinese friends were excited
for this treat. I'm, even now, not that used to eating things where
you have to pick off of the bone. The little bit of meat is good, and
there is some fatty skin. I also had something that's hard to
describe- it's rose flavored porridge with peanuts and other stuff.
That I really enjoyed, it was tasty and sweet and like eating a
flower.

The town is definitely touristy, although we didn't go on the weekend
so it wasn't so crowded and I was the only foreigner. The shopping was
quite fun, as there are a lot of Chinese crafts and especially crafts
of the minority people in Guiyang, and some Guizhou province
specialties, like the vats of chilies that you could sample. Also
cowboy hats- why? I don't know. I bought some earrings especially. The
shopping is a bit cheaper than in the city.

One specialty seems to be these rose flower flavored candies. I bought
some of those. There is also this candy they sell everywhere. They
flatten it with these giant mallets, and it is nutty- sort of an
inside-of-a-butterfingers texture. Kate, you know what I'm talking
about- I brought you some as a gift!

There was also archery everywhere. As you probably know, I taught
archery at summer camp for 3 summers so I was excited. I tried it out-
their equipment was sort of bad. But they could probably tell that I
knew what I was doing! After that, we went to the temple and the girls
showed me how to pray. Also, outside of the temple, random people took
pictures of me. This happens to me plenty, but my Chinese friends were
quite surprised (and maybe a little embarassed it).

There were a few wedding photos going on too, which was pretty. You'll
see in my photos the fields in the background around late afternoon.
Yang Haiyang and I ended our day back in the city eating Xinjiang
handmade noodles, which I always enjoy.

Qing Yan Ancient Town Photos

Here is the page with the photos:
http://www.xoopit.com/s/2142bx0urqqivpf5vvk7

blog entry to follow...