"I'm getting too old for this..."

Another incredibly busy week here in China. This time, the business was the product of one event and one event only...

CULTURE DAY!!

Before we dive into Culture Day, I need to first clarify some things about my school because I have a feeling I have not been very clear about what I am doing here. My school is a private international school, meaning, that all the students speak English and, to the best of my knowledge, not a single student was born in China. Most students have come to China with parents that work here. The school is ran just like a western style school (except we have grades k-12 and we operate out of about 15 rooms...) and all our teacher are from the U.S. (with the exception of one brave Canadian).

Now that you know a little more about our school, we had our first big "education fair." This particular fair was called Culture Day. I've been hearing about Culture Day since the first day I've arrived in Xi'an. It's a big event where each class picks a culture, learns about that culture, decorates their rooms for that culture, brings in food from that culture and performs a presentation for that culture. Needless-to-say, it's a little overwhelming (hence, the early warning). This week, my classroom was transformed with the help of my fifth graders into an exciting experience of RUSSIA!

Although I only have a few pictures, I plan to hunt down more; it was a lot of fun but a ton of work, so I need lots of proof it happened! In our classroom, we made a huge time line from Imperial Russia to USSR to the current Russian Federation, we created a replica of Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square and we created a tundra and added snowflakes to the class (see below). The students even had the idea of turning the air conditioning way up to make it fell like winter (although, not quite the -34 degrees Celsius that Siberia experiences).

Each student did a project and we covered the subjects of Russian money, language, geography, architecture, art and dance (we even had the Nutcracker playing on DVD). The parents brought some amazing food: potato pancakes, apple cake, stuffed tomatoes, macaroni and some drinks. And this was only my room! We also had Thailand, Czech Republic, China (hosted by the Chinese teachers), Japan, Greece, Mexico, Canada (yep, the Canadian Teacher), Scotland and a couple others.

Then, for our performance, our class acted out the play Peter and the Wolf. Having only one Boy, Tommy was Peter. The other girls played the various animals and other characters while I was elected to be the wolf (and I gladly excepted!). There is video footage of this yet to be uploaded to the internet, so I will let you know as soon as it is!

Lethal Weapon

Due to the chaos of Culture Day, there was little time for other adventures. The other major highlight was a journey that Cari and I embarked on last Wednesday and finished just today. Due to some "flexibility" in the area of movie sales, you are able to buy DVDs in China that have up to 8 different full length movies on it. Because of this, whole box sets are sold on single disks.

Cari bought one such disk.

This disk is part of a series called "Hollywood Picture Collection" and this particular volume was titled "Bloody Fighting Man Mel Gibson." Here are some of the other volumes of the "Hollywood Picture Collection" with spelling as it appears on the DVD case:

Sexy Man Brad Pit
Bold and Passional Tom Cruise
Cafard and Wild Nicolas Cage

One evening, while I was borrowing Cari's computer (because of this), she decided to put in the film Lethal Weapon. It only took a minute of watching, and I was committed. We decide we would have to watch all 4, and we did! I think my favorite is either the second or the forth. I remember watching the fourth before, but I don't think I had ever seen any of the others. They were way better then I thought they would be. Ok, so, yes- the movies are incredibly cheesy, but that's what makes them so fun (Mel Gibson + Mullet = Awesome)! Plus- each movie carries a serious theme with it: LW1;Race Relations/Dealing with loss, LW2; International Affairs/Apartheid (don't believe me? watch it!), LW3; Gang Violence/Urban Sprawl (ok, urban sprawl was a stretch), LW4; illegal immigration... and China- what an appropriate way to end the series.

With all the stress of Culture Day, nothing could relieve the stress quite like Danny Glover and Mel Gibson taking out bad guys and muttering "I'm getting too old for this shit."

I'm not even sure if this happened in the last week, but here are some crazy pictures. The one on the left is of a dog Cari and I saw in downtown. We couldn't get a good picture of it, but yes- that is a full warm up suit for a dog! It was hilarious. It even had a hood! The picture on the right is of a man flying kites in downtown. Although it is very common to see these strings of kites as vendors try to sell them, I have never seen on this long. It was incredible!

There you go, a long blog for a pretty uneventful week.
Thanks for reading!


(old picture... too busy this week for Tang Paradise- only time for Lethal Weapon)

Long Overdue

Thanks to Cari, I was able to update my blog- finally! Unfortunately, it’s been two long, exciting weeks since my last post (except that “Unfortunate Update”) so there is a lot to catch you up on!

First, Ice Peak. This is the newest staple item in my refrigerator. It is a soda that is bottled locally here in Xi’an. It tastes like a watered-down Fanta and each bottle can sometimes taste a little different. The best part about Ice Peak is not the taste, but rather the process of obtaining it. One night, I struggled through a conversation with a shop owner and finally came to the conclusion that after finishing the the six drinks, I would need to return the empty bottles so they could be used again. I made a down payment of 12 kuai and he would return 6 kuai when I returned. This makes each bottle of Ice Peak a whopping 1 kuai (approximately $0.15- can’t beat that price!). I’ve made two trips back to this shop owner now with empty bottles and the last time he was ready for me with 12 bottles of Ice Peak and straws waiting! It’s so fun!

Wild Nights of Xi’an

During our evening wanderings, Cari and I have come across some interesting sights. One such sight was a group of women doing a choreographed fan dance. They also had a band of men with drums and percussion assisting. It was quite a sight and well rehearsed. Not what you would expect when exiting a mall at 11:00 pm.

Another scene that is very common here in Xi’an is large groups of people (mostly senior women) dancing to music. In front of the Wild Goose Pagoda one night, we saw several different dancing groups: one was your swing/ball room style couples dance and another one a strange cross between line dancing and the electric slide. It’s good to know that you can head out at night and find some solid dancing in China.

Finally, one night we came across a group of performers who’s acts were outstanding! I’ve seen some crazy street shows (Venice Beach, California…), but this was by far the most amazing act I’ve ever seen. Some of the stuns would have had these performers kicked off the streets in the states or maybe even arrested. Unfortunately, not all the acts were caught on camera and most are blurry due to the dark, but you’ll get the idea!

Cari's Celebrations!

Another big part of my last week was the celebration of Cari’s birthday. Since Cari’s birthday was on Monday, we used it as an excuse to party all week. The festivities started on Saturday when Cari, Carry J., Vicki and I went to a Haggen Daaz in downtown Xi’an. Like most western food chains in Xi’an, Haggen Daaz was incredible gourmet and posh. It was a very fun experience.

Monday, we used our new Tang Paradise Passes to go visit out favorite park in Xi'an! This time, the weather was amazing! I've added some new photos to the Tang Paradise Album. Check out the difference the smog in Xi'an can make:

After Tang Paradise, we had the standard Apartment party with cake and card games for the official birth date. Then, on this last Saturday, a big group went bowling! In a hotel located on the same street as our apartments, there is an eight lane bowling alley. It felt just like the states (expect there was no greasy food available) and a trip to the lanes will be a very good remedy for homesickness.

Paintball!!!

The men of our group planed a trip to go paintballing. We had no idea what to expect and we were not disappointed. This was unlike any paintball I’ve ever played. First, the setting was a small urban arena with a ran-down jeep, brick walls and close quarters combat. Secondly, we were decked out in full camouflage gear, knee pads, elbow pads and a vest. As if dressing up like this wasn’t fun enough, the guns were replicas of an assault rifle!! SO COOL! The paint balls were much smaller than normal and each gun had a magazine with paint balls in individual casings, meaning that when you shot, a metal shell would be ejected from your gun.

We were broken up into two teams, based on our camouflage color. The matches were quick and carefully monitored by several judges from overhead. For all my fellow gamers out there, this was like really-life CS! It was so fun. My only complaint would be the goofy, bubble shield face masks that were very prone to fogging up (and not nearly as safe as the masks in the states). I will definitely be making another trip to this place!

That should catch you up for the last couple weeks. I’ve been super busy at school with something called Culture Day- I have a feeling you’ll be hearing a lot about that next week! Also, there are plans for Laser Tag- let’s hope it’s as cool as paintball!

Thanks for reading!

An unfrotunate update...

1.) I've been super busy.

2.) My laptop fell off a table and won't turn on.

I still have more than enough ways to stay connected, but I just thought I ought to let you know what the holdup is all about. I have tons of new pictures and fun stories so keep posted for a new blog sometime this week (... I hope). Also, special thanks to Cari for letting me barrow her laptop.

Thanks for reading!

It is Known to Everybody

(If you would like to better understand the title of this blog, please visit the "rules" link in Adventure 3 about Xingqing Park... it is some of the worst English I've seen since I arrived in China!)

As I mentioned in my last blog, I spent the last week on VACATION! It was wonderful! Originally, I was trying to find some exciting trip to do during my week break, but I decided that there is plenty still to see in Xi'an, and, with everyone in a country of over 1 billion traveling, transportation can be a little crazy!

None-the-less, a relaxing break was needed and I enjoyed every minute of it. Here were some of the highlights:

Adventure 1: Because I was so busy and a little sick two weeks ago, it had been far too long since I went on a good bike ride. For this reason I decided to take off on the bike. My motivation was to visit the Subway in Xi'an; I figured I deserved some good, old-fashion Western food after getting sick last weekend. I ended up spending 5 hours 'out-and-about' on my bike in the city of Xi'an. I managed to visit the "Subway Temple," or an old Buddhist temple located right next to Subway, the Muslim Quarters, an area where tons of vendors sell all kind of goods from food to cheap souvenirs, and I visited some of the park that surrounds the city wall.

Adventure 2: There was a birthday party on Friday so I went shopping with, guess who? That's right, Cari! Anyways, we decided to try a new place for lunch- Joe's Cafe. This place does a great job creating the feel of a sports bar in the US. Not only was the atmosphere just like being in the states, but the food wasn't bad!

Next, we browsed the mall that surrounded Joe's. There two kinds of malls in China: there are the Western-style like you would see in the US with a food court or movie theater or pretty water fountain, then there are the ones that floors packed with row after row of small stores, back-to-back and no room wasted on those other luxury items. This mall was the later of the two. It's wild and it can be little overwhelming.

On our way out, we came across a show that was taking place outside the mall. Since this was Chinese Holiday, many stores had exciting things happening and everywhere was crowed. It was a martial arts demonstration with lots of sharp spears.



After the thrilling show, we made our way to a really cool smoothie place where all the seats are hanging from the ceiling! That was fun.


Adventure 3: As I said, traveling is crazy during Chinese holidays. Carrie and I decided we would try to go see the Terracotta Army, Xi'an's largest tourist attraction. To get to the Terracotta Warriors, you must first travel to the train station, then take a bus from the station to the site. Well, we when got to the station, we saw this:

This line was just to get on the bus! It's hard to tell from this picture, but it's at least 200 long... probably more like 400. We figured that if this was the line for the bus, it would be very crowded at the actual site. We decided, instead, to wander- my favorite activity in China (second only to riding my bike!).

First, we found a great video arcade and played one game with balls that you threw at the screen, one game that you used big sticks on a drum and Mario Kart. It was really fun and we always had an audience- one of the perks of being a 外国人 (foreigner).

Next, we found a nice park. It was named Xingqing Park and it was like a mini Tang Paradise (and free!). Cari and I spent a great deal of time trying to understand the rules at this park... very funny! Although similar to Tang Paradise, this park had it's own flavor as well: a ferris wheel, bird sanctuary, sea lion show and go karts. Please enjoy the following:

Getting a feel for my new set of wheels- Hello car #2	Being told to get into a different car by Chinese man...	Getting a feel for my newer set of wheels- Hello car #1!
...I have no idea what he's saying. He better not be bad-mouthing my man purse...	Eat my dust #4!	I totally won. Although I think I got cheated out of one lap...

So there is the excitement from my week. I'm been using the trail version of Arcsoft Panoramic Maker a lot lately and I really like the results! Below are some panoramics I've made.

Thanks for reading!