Almost Vacation Time!!

This will likely be my last entry before I write from my 20 day
vacation! I will try to blog and post pictures as I go along the best
that I can. Here is my itinerary:
Feb 2nd- Leave Guiyang for one night in Hong Kong
Feb 3rd- Fly to Singapore
Feb 6th- Fly to Kuala Lumpur
Feb 10th- Fly to Phillipines! Boracay
Feb 21st- Head home (3 flights later...)

In the meantime, testing went pretty smoothly last week. This week is
a bit stressful because it's open classes, where the parents watch. It
can be good because the kids will at least behave (usually), but I am
so excited for Sunday night, when I will finish the semester.

We've had a couple of sunny days lately and I've been doing a bit of
exploring of around where I live. I realized I just always go to the
same places and don't do enough exploring. For example, there is a
mall nearby where I live. I found that it has lots of great places in
it, but I always just passed it assuming it was just a boring mall.
Also, I'm learning that there are many places that people speak a bit
of English or I can get by with a tiny bit of my Chinese. I discovered
a ripoff of the mango dessert and drink place (Hui Lau Shan), that I
love so much in Hong Kong. My mango drink was pretty good- not as
fresh mangoes but definitely delicious.

I don't really know why I didn't go into coffee shops much before, but
I discovered that Createa is the Starbucks of Guiyang (there's no
Starbucks in Guiyang, fun fact!). It has lots of tea and coffee
drinks. Also, mocha in Chinese is mo ka. And coffee is ka fei. So that
make things pretty easy. In the same mall there is a chain cafe/coffee
place called Rbt with a rabbit logo. I randomly ordered something
called "French toast" off the English menu, guessing it would be
something weird. But it was a big piece of real French toast! So
delicious when you haven't had Western breakfast food in months.

I've decided when I get back I will try to go to some new places and
find some new hangouts for when I'm by myself and looking for food or
drinks. But until then, I'll write again from somewhere tropical and
warm!

Hot Springs

Well, first, before I talk about going to the hot springs, a former
teacher came back to visit on Sunday. Nathan, from Montana, has been
in the US for about 7 months now and is on vacation here. He's a
really fun and friendly guy, and it was sort of nice to see things
from his perspective- he really misses it here, the food and
everything. A big group of our Chinese staff, friends, and foreign
teachers all went out to hot pot together and had a lot of fun. I
teach a lot of Nathan's classes- my students all told me that Nathan
was a really good teacher. And he named some of the students from my
favorite class: Montana, Dale, Ramon. He's doing some trips around the
province and then hopefully can come back to visit some of my classes.

On Tuesday, one of my days off this week, I went with Julian and his
Peace Corps friend Jenine to the hot springs. Jenine did Peace Corps
in Bulgaria for 2 years and then transferred to Guiyang for a year, so
she is interesting. The hot springs aren't too far away- you can take
a city bus there. It's like a resort/spa- very nice but sort of
weirdly not Chinese or Guiyang-ish. It's by these sort of
Mediterranean looking buildings and apartment complexes in the hills.
There are both indoor and outdoor pools, with different themes and
temperatures. It's nice in the very cold weather. Some of the pools
have herbs- sort of like a giant teabag, to make the pool smell like
whatever. There's also one that has these little fish in it that eat
your dead skin. It' s a totally bizarre experience- you have to try to
hold still and it's very ticklish.

It was pretty relaxing and quite beautiful to sit outside in the hot
spring pools. If anyone comes to visit I'll bring you there, it's
nice!

Okay, back to lesson planning now. I have three 12-hour work days in a
row ahead of me....

A Guiyang Christmas-Silly String and Devil Horns

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while- I've been having some
computer/internet problems.

We didn't get Christmas Day off of work, only Christmas Eve- and I
always have Thursdays off. So it wasn't much of a special holiday for
me. I did a lot of Christmas activities in class though- Christmas
vocabulary, coloring, word searches, songs.

On Christmas Eve, I went to a buffet dinner at the Sheraton Hotel. It
was very expensive, but I decided it was my Christmas gift to myself.
And they had all of the hard to find Western foods and lots of
delicacies- turkey, ham, duck, goose, steak, mashed potatoes. It was
delicious. And there was unlimited imported wine. I sat at a table
with Chris from my school, and our friend Julian, who is an English
teacher at another school. The other people at the table were in the
symphony orchestra, and from all over- New Zealand, Austria, Italy,
Bulgaria. It's unusual because it's one of the few privately funded
and run orchestras in China. It was really fun to hang out with the
musicians.

I can only describe Christmas here as bizarre. It's like they want to
celebrate it but don't really get it. Chinese friends kept asking me
if I went to church- apparently it's popular to go to church on
Christmas, which is weird because a lot of the people who go aren't
religious. On Christmas Eve, everyone was out on the streets at night.
They sell fancy-wrapped apples to give as gifts, and lots of light up
stuff to wear. Most popular are the devil-horn headbands that light
up. Then everyone sprays silly string everywhere and on everyone-
especially foreigners.

So at the end of my Christmas Eve night I was covered in silly string,
including having tons in my hair. Definitely a unique Christmas.

New Year's was not too crazy, since I had to work on Friday. I just
went out with my friends from school, and we only barely realized it
was past midnight. No countdown, they're not really into Western New
Year's here.

And now it's January 2010, crazy. This month is going to be crazy- we
got an extended vacation for Spring Festival but we have to make up
the classes. So the next few weeks we will work from 8:20 am- 8:50 pm
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It's going to be exhausting, and require
a lot of extra planning.

But then, I will be on vacation for about 20 days! I will fly from
here to Hong Kong on February 2nd, then fly to Singapore and spend 8
days in Singapore/Malaysia. Then I am meeting Kate and Siggy in
Boracay, Phillipines. It is a white sand beach. I am really excited
for warm, tropical weather- I'm sick of the cold here.

So if I don't update a lot in January, it's because I don't have much
to say besides I am teaching all the time. But expect lots in February
for my big vacation!

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.