Not a lot to report...

It was a pretty calm week. Nothing very big to report. In addition, I came to the realization that I am not nearly as much as a tourist anymore. For instance, I visited probably the largest shopping area in Xi'an that is not a mall (if you catch my drift... market style), and I didn't even have the heart to take out my camera. I'll try and be better in the future for my friends and family back home, but it's not seeming as "wild and crazy" after 3 months; it feels much more normal now.

It's Getting COLD!

As far as big updates go, it has began to cool off here in Xi'an. We've had a couple days below freezing, but since we are a desert city, no snow yet. I hear it's pretty common to have snow here in Xi'an and I think it stays for awhile.

Just in time for the cold weather, my students made me a scarf!! They are making scarfs to raise money for a nearby orphanage. It's a really nice scarf and I love wearing it around! I also made my largest purchase in Xi'an since my washing machine- I bought a classy (or at least I think so) coat! This was a big deal for me for me, as many of you know, because I have a very difficult time buying clothing. It took several baby steps: first I bought some of those cool fingerless gloves/mittens, then a beanie and finally the coat. Anyways- like I said, not a lot going on here in Xi'an...

But, this week: Thanksgiving! Don't worry, I have plans and I will be eating an authentic Thanksgiving dinner with friends here in Xi'an (even though we don't get a day off!). And, even bigger news:

T.J. IS ARRIVING IN 7 DAYS!!!!!

Stay posted for more exciting updates- Thanks for reading!

TV, Movies and Plays- Oh my!

A pretty standard week and an exciting weekend! First highlight, I'm not sick anymore! Here are the other big events of the week:

The Office

Cari and I have been watching The Office. Cari had never seen it, so I'm catching her up because every week my principal downloads the newest episode and we've been watching them off his computer. Watching episode after episode with no commercial interruptions takes me back to college and rooming with Jake. We've made it through 2 seasons in a week (although, Season 1 hardly counts... only having 6 episodes).


Parent-Teacher Conferences

This school week was the norm- nothing too exciting. I'm healthy again, so that's nice. Thursday and Friday were my first Parent-Teacher conferences! Having only 6 students, I was able to have all my conferences on Thursday, the half-day. This meant Friday I had all day to relax and plan in my classroom. That actually turned into playing cards and Blockus with other teachers who were finished.

Aida

Friday night was a night on the town. After conferences were over, I got ready to go downtown with Cari, Carrie and Vicki. We headed to a really fancy hotel in downtown Xi'an named the Sofitel. This hotel has many restaurants and a theater. It's very beautiful and you can't help but feel like a celebrity walking around inside. Our first stop was dinner. We ate at one of the restaurants that offered an incredible buffet. I was in heaven!

After dinner, we made our way to the theater in the center of the hotel to watch the Broadway production Aida. It was really fun! The play wasn't anything spectacular, but it was really nice to go see something like that. It was in English, but the voices were a little quiet- or the music was too loud, one of the two. Their were subtitles being projected on the walls for the Chinese audience to read. It was a very fun experience.

007

And, as if seeing a Broadway musical in English wasn't enough, Saturday Cari, my principal, his wife and I all went to see the new 007 movie that was playing at a mall in Xi'an. It was so fun! I haven't been to a movie theater in a long time and this one was gorgeous! The movie was in English, so it felt like we were watching at home. And the new Bond movie was GREAT! It had everything you'd expect from Bond- fast car chases, loads of action, a tuxedo party and beautiful locations from around the world. After, to top-off the "Western"experience, we went to Dairy Queen. This mall has one of the two Dairy Queens in Xi'an.

It was a very fun weekend full of entertainment. I have a bit of a long stretch before another break, but the other big news...

MY BROTHER TJ IS COMING TO VISIT DECEMBER 2nd!!!
...yeah, I'm excited! Hope all is going well back home. This weekend reminded me a lot of life in the states, miss you all!

Thanks for reading!


(not this week, but I did eat ice cream this week!)

Happy 3-Month Anniversary!

I feel that I have been doing a pretty good job of keeping everyone in the states updated on my life here in Xi'an with colorful pictures and exciting stories. Unfortunately, this blog will not contain such luxuries because our school's quarter just ended and I have a serious pile of papers to grade (and because this week was rather dull). Plus, I figure I'll reward myself by using this much easier to produce layout. What follows are the highlights of my week in bullet form; efficient and neat.

*English Corner: This is the second week I've attended English Corner. On Tuesdays, our staff takes an approximately 15 minute car ride to a nearby university to speak English with some of the students there. Because there are some many students and so few English speakers, there is normally a crowd of 15-30 students around each teacher. It is so much fun and the students are very excited to practice with us. I love the atmosphere and hope to return often.

*Sick, again: It has been 3 months since I arrived in Beijing for the Olympics and I've only been sick twice; I consider that a victory. None-the-less, I was incredibly disappointed and irritated to be sick this weekend and I spent most of it sleeping or visiting the toilet. Lovely, I know.

*Cell Phone Down: In my attempt to be productive while stuck in my apartment this weekend, I did some laundry. Unfortunately, in my ill state of mind, I threw my cell phone in the washing machine. Pretty lame. I have been having a bad run with these electronics.

Here is a great quote from one of my students about the recent elections I forgot to include last week while I was watching the coverage on my computer. We've been learning about cells in class and in response to one clip about Barak Obama my student stated: "Why do they care about black and white? They are just dead cells." Well put Tommy, well put.

Thanks for reading

(O.K., so I had to put one picture in! Cari snapped this when I fell asleep at a nearby cafe after drinking some of the best Hot Chocolate I've ever had. Let's just say if the Hot Chocolate got me sick, I'll just have to learn to live being sick.)

CONGRATULATIONS BARACK OBAMA!

I spent the day watching the polls here in China while trying to teach; it was quite exciting! As much as I am sad to have missed the excitement and coverage of this historical election, now when everyone asks "Where were you when the first African American became president of the United State?" I'll be able to say "China"- how patriotic!

It was a pretty calm week, but a wild weekend! Here's the update:

Halloween?!

I've been getting a lot of questions from friends and family about Halloween in China. From what I observed, it is not celebrated here in China. I saw a couple western style cafes/bars/restaurants advertising Halloween functions, but you definitely did not see a bunch of Chinese children trick-or-treating in costumes. And no stores carried any special candy.

Despite the lack of celebration, I had a unique opportunity get into a costume. In honor of the elections this week, our school spent Friday afternoon (Oct. 31st) discussing elections and holding a fake election. Since the students would read the book "Duck For President," the candidates for the election were our principal, Mr. Brinegar, and a duck. For some reason, my staff thought I would enjoy being the duck (I've only been here 3 months and they already got me figured out!). The principal and I gave speeches. My speech was delivered in "duck," so I would quack and then my fellow teacher would translate. And the results: DUCK WINS by 8!! Unfortunately the children were upset to hear Mr. Duck had migrated South by Monday...

The other Halloween related event took place Friday night. Several of the teachers and I got together Friday night to watch "Arsenic and Old Lace." I was pleasantly surprised by this edgy, dark and very humorous film adapted stage-play from over 60 years ago! Check it out if you haven't! Got to love those crazy aunts...

To the Mountains!

I know I've made mention of it in the past, but Xi'an often has some poor weather conditions caused by the large amounts of pollution. There will be days went visibility may be less than 50 yards. On top of that, the weather has been getting cold. When you age several cold days that you can't see farther than 50 yards, it begins to weigh on you.

Thankfully, this city has so much to offer that the remedy for SAD is an adventure waiting just around the corner! This weekend, we took one such adventure. About an hour south of Xi'an is a large mountain range that separates North China from South China. Our entire staff took a trip to go hike the mountains! It was the PERFECT day! So beautiful and the air was so clear! I took a ton of pictures, because I knew my words would be inadequate. On returning, I found the pictures were also inadequate. In an effort to better share the beauty of the trip, I will provide the following descriptive narrative accompanied by pictures:

The sun reaches closer to the bottom of the valleys that cut deep into the mountains, brightly coloring the tree tops of green and orange. A warm gust of wind pushes through the narrow separation of rock, bringing with it hundreds of beautiful yellow leaves that shine in the sun's light and dance through the sky as if nature itself was creating a ticker-tape parade for our walk. The rushing river provides an ever constant rhythm that urges you forward. As you watch the dark but clear water racing pass and wonder what it would feel like to wade in the icy liquid, a chill runs through your body...

OK, that's about as poetic as my mind will allow me to be right now. I hope you enjoyed. It truly was the most beautiful thing I've seen here in China (that's right, better than the Summer Palace and Tang Paradise!).

As if Paintball wasn't cool enough...

On our way back from the mountains, we stopped at a place that offered Laser Tag. My previous experience with Laser Tag has been Laser Quest, or something like that: running around inside a dark room with black lights, shooting like a mad-man and screaming like a 6-year-old. This was far from that! Much like paintball, this laser tag was outdoors and performed in full camouflage. Also, like paintball, our guns were made to look like replicas of real weapons: the AK 47 and M4 (and you had to pull the chambers to reload... so cool!). You wore a vest that had sensors on it to for your opponents to shoot at and you had a small speaker that would tell you when you shot someone and when you had been hit (accompanied by vibrating).

It was so fun!!! For all of you concerned that I have joined the military from the pictures that I've had in my last couple blogs, fear not. China just knows how to make things a little more crazy!

Thanks for reading!