Sorry Excuse for a Blogger

I really meant to post sooner, but I got caught up in the whole Christmas season (ie. eating and drinking lots). In addition, my computer, which has been slowly breaking down for a couple years, refuses to recognize the internet connection in my apartment, meaning I have to come to my (unheated) office to go online. Needless to say, my blog may become even more sporadic. What's more, I am hopelessly tech-un-savy, and I can't get any of my pictures to load onto this computer. So while I was going to treat you all to the tale of my Christmas adventures, it will have to wait until I can get my visual aids to work.

In more positive news, tonight I'll be ringing in 2008 China-style. No word yet on what that means, but I'm sure it will include (lots of) baijiu. My TV interview will also air tonight at 11:50 pm, so hopefully no one will be at home to watch.

Happy Birthday to my mom who turned an unspecified youthful age December 30th and is now officially engaged to a wonderful man. Congratulations to the both of them and Happy New Year to the rest of you! 新年快乐!

Obligatiory Political Rant

To be honest, I'm not really in the ranting mood, but I suggest you read this article about America's continued "War on Drugs".

To promulgate more of my personal ideology (just in time for the holiday season), I'd like to recommend this website where you can find locally produced foods in your area. Good for local farmers, the environment, and your conscience (which will make it taste better too)!

Check back tomorrow for more about the Christmas season in Xi'an, attempts at festivity and my apparent mission to spread Christmas cheer.

Too Much Recycling is a Bad Thing

A few weeks ago, I came across this article. It tells that certain ingenious entrepreneurs in China have been recycling used condoms into colorful hair bands resulting in a much cheaper product than the traditional methods. I forwarded the article to a few other foreign teachers in China, and we all had a good laugh. China's recycling system is above and beyond anything found in the States. Every trash bag is sorted to remove all plastics, papers, metals, and... condoms?

Today, while shopping for some Christmas gifts in an open market, I spotted a package of hair bands that looked suspiciously like those pictured in the online article.


My curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to buy them. When I got home, I took one of the hair ties and unwrapped the thread only to find this:


A further internet search revealed that "local entertainment venues" may contribute a large number of the condoms.
Gross.

I'm Much Too Turtle-y for the Turtle Club

The day after I got Doudou, it dawned on me that her cantankerous attitude may be due to the fact she was lonely. The turtle man did advise that two turtles were best, one male and one female, so that they could entertain each other or something. So I went back to the road-side stall and picked out a small male turtle and named him 小绿 (Xiao Lu or Little Green). Since then, Doudou and Xiao Lu have been getting along smashingly as evidenced by the picture below.

They're kissing! Okay, so they didn't do that themselves, but they have taken to sleeping in close contact. The other night I came home to find them holding hands, and yesterday I caught this moment on camera:

Doudou likes to be on top.

The Newest Member of the Family

Say hello to 豆豆! (pronounced do do, or just Beans)

She's not much bigger than my big toe and amazingly cute, despite her consistent grouchiness. When I asked the pet shop man (or more accurately, the guy who was selling plants, coffee mugs, and turtles at the side of the road) how long she would live, he answered "If you don't feed it, they can live up to a month." Don't worry, I plan on feeding her. I even bought some little turtle pellets, although Lily assured me that turtles can also live on rice.

Weekend Update

I'm still alive and as busy as ever.

The semester is starting to wind down which means exams to plan and plenty of things to grade. Three of my classes will finish in two weeks, and the other two will finish a couple weeks after that. Then, it's vacation! For a month! My plans are still up in the air (way, way up), but they'll definitely involve some warm weather. I'm thinking SE Asia, but I also hope to visit the family in Shanghai.

I had a very nice Thanksgiving here halfway across the world. I had to teach on Thursday, so we decided to celebrate on the Tuesday before. We had a pretty decent group, a few of the other foreign teachers at NPU and some other foreign and Chinese friends. There were only three Americans there, so it was really just an excuse to get together and eat massive amounts of food. We went to a restaurant that serves duck in the Beijing style (Peking duck), which is one of my favorite foods. We also wanted to keep in the whole roast bird theme for the holiday (no turkey in China). We ordered two whole ducks and some other dishes similar to traditional Thanksgiving foods (fried green beans, potatoes, something involving corn and pumpkin, and duck gut sandwiches-a Thanksgiving first!) The food was amazing, and the company was almost as good.

Here is Lily, our Chinese friend, with Ali in the traditional Scottish Thanksgiving dress.

In other news, I'll be on Chinese television sometime in the next few weeks to discuss how Americans give gifts. Random, I know. I'll let you all know how it goes. And yes, I'm getting a copy on DVD for us to watch later and laugh at.

Happy Birthday to my brother Jeremy who turned 27 on November 24th. He is now officially a grown up in my eyes.

Happy (Belated) Halloween!

Halloween is not even known about here in the far East, so I spent the whole week teaching about/celebrating it in my classes. That meant five Halloween parties altogether! Shelby and I combined our classes and showed them part of The Shining. They had to create skits to explain how the story would end. The results were, needless to say, pretty hilarious. Here is a journal entry from my student, Lionstrong, which really captures the whole atmosphere of the event:

"A Treat on Halloween"

Trick or Treat?
For the first time, my fellow classmates and I enjoyed this exotic festival. No trick, only treat from Kitty and Shalby!
Shalby showed her creativity in her super-teacher's costume, while Kitty hided her gentleness in her black cat-like dresses. To begin with, they shared their past photoes of Halloween and introduced some of the main customs.
Then, they gave away candies in a round box where a moving hand with a scary voice was trying to stop the approaching hand for candy. Very interestingly, some girls even not dare to put out their lovely hands. Maybe that's what the two teachers wanted.
After that came the most appealing part. Not knowing what to do next, we were completely buried in the scary movie. When it came to a very very attractive spot, Kitty stopped the film.
She asked us to perform the final episode in our own ways with our own ideas. One minute late, the groups were divided. It is never boring to discuss what will happen both in films and reality.
At the time when the performance were on, our group only got a brief design. Of course, our performance were the shortest, less than one minute and one minute shorter than the required time. Some other groups were very imaginative, expressive and attractive.
At last, two teachers gave out the number of groups with good performance. It was quite surprising! We were in them! As a reward, Kitty treated us with real American Candy. It was delicious!
What a Halloween night!

Here is a picture from the costume contest organized by one of the Chinese professors. Some of the costumes were really creative, especially considering their limited knowledge about the holiday and their limited resources for making costumes. Many were made with only paper, paint and bamboo. You can see one the winners in front wearing black and carrying a scythe.

Here is a skit from one of my classes. Enough said.

Puppies, puppies everywhere..

Much to my delight (and chagrin), there are often people sitting at the side of the road with a box of the most adorable puppies. Here's one I fell in love with on a shopping trip downtown.
The chagrin part comes from the fact that I can only cuddle with these precious balls of fluff for as long as I am willing to squat next to the puppy-selling man, which is usually not that long. I'm trying to convince one of my Chinese friends to get a puppy that I can play with.

We spotted this one on campus, probably a recent purchase by one of the graduate students.

On Saturday night we saw a man peddling tiny pets on the street downtown. He was selling gerbils, turtles, and little fish conveniently packaged in a key chain. I might just crack and get some kind of pet before my stay is up. How long do turtles live..?

My Week of Adventures, Part 7: 华山

The next day of our vacation (I've forgotten which day exactly) we decided to conquer Mount Hua (华山 Hua Shan, literally Flower Mountain). The mountain is a 2 hour bus ride from Xi'an and is described by many as "the most perilous mountain in China!" Find out more about its long history here.

All of our students suggested that we climb the mountain at night, because "you can't fear what you don't see!" Also, by starting the climb around 11pm, we would reach the eastern summit just in time for sunrise. My Frommer's China guide simply said "This is not sensible." Well, sorry Mr. Frommer but we had to experience it like the locals do, even if it meant accidentally stumbling off a cliff in the dark (which some of my students warned me had happened in the past).We arrived at the base of the mountain far around 8pm and far too early to start our ascent, so we enjoyed some dishes (and beer!) at one the many restaurants catering to the hikers. The whole street reminded me of some prospectors town from the gold rush. Everyone was selling last minute necessities to climbers, like maps, white gloves, and red ties emblazoned with the words 华山. (You can see one draped around David's neck - for only 2 kuai!)

We stopped in this park to play some charades before starting on our climb.

With our hiking shoes and bags filled with water and snacks, we looked about ready for a month-long excursion into the Amazon compared to the other climbers. Most of the Chinese people were wearing their normal, everyday clothes. We even saw one guy in dress shoes and a suit coat. Here is us and a few of our compatriots in front of the entrance to the mountain.

We must have looked pretty stupid for carrying our own water and food onto the mountain when we could have just bought it there. The path was lined with little shops selling beverages and snacks to tired climbers.

National Day vacation rears its ugly head again. The mountain was filled with like-minded tourists making their way to the top. Here is the line of people winding down the mountain behind us. At this point, we were literally at a stand-still, waiting in line to climb further up the slope.

In the end, it was well worth it. Here is the view from the eastern peak around 6:15 am, right before sunrise.

The red head ties everyone buys at the base of the mountain get clipped to the railings along with little locks inscribed with a few words (wishing good health for the family or to commemorate a romance). It makes for a beautiful picture with the mountains in the background.

A friendly reminder to step carefully.

The thought of climbing back down the mountain was too painful after a sleepless night and with very tired legs, so we decided to spring for the cable cars which took a cool 5 minutes to bring us to the bottom.

Thus concludes my blog about the National Day vacation (finally). Click here to see more pictures from the week.

In case you were confused...

Bowl-o-rama

This saturday we visited the (only) bowling alley in Xi'an, and it was amazing! It was like any other bowling alley I've ever been to, except that most of the bowlers were drinking tea (instead of drinking beer and eating cheesy fries) and the bowling balls were a lot lighter (12 lbs. was the heaviest I saw).
I actually bowled pretty well (for me), but I looked a lot better in comparison to Lily and Ali who have only gone bowling a few times in their lives.

That's me at the top, "Cameltoe" which is a bit of a running joke for all the foreign teachers in China.

Studentisms

From a student's journal entry:

"It's really normal to hear some words in the movies of Hollywood like f*** off, son of a b***h. Whether it is the reality in one's normal life? Whether NY is filled with dangers? Gunfights, drugs dealings are usually seen as the rappas describe? After seeing the movies of Hollywood, I feel it's very dangerous to live in the U.S.A. The opportunity to be shot is quite big. Is it true?"

My Week of Adventures, Part 6: Terracotta Warriors

The following day of our vacation we decided to visit the Terracotta Warriors. Before my trip to China, I was most excited to see this impressive collection, and I was happy to find out it's located less than an hour from Xi'an. Check out the Wikipedia article for more information here.

Everyone warned us to stay away from the tourist sites during the National Day break since thousands of Chinese would mobilize to visit the exact same places. Still, we all wanted to see the Terracotta Army, so we decided to brave the crowd nonetheless.

After an hour bus ride turned into a two and a half hour trip due to the amount of traffic on the small dirt road, we finally arrived at the site only to find this:

In this picture, probably a hundred people are crowded around a glass case containing something (I didn't bother to squeeze through the crowd to find out what). Most of these people couldn't even see it, but they were holding their cameras above their heads just to get a picture of whatever is inside.

Finally, we arrived at the main pit of the site, where the majority of the army is located. The sight of all these figures was extraordinary, although it required a lot more crowd-maneuvering just to get a clear view.

Here are some more warriors from close up. The really amazing thing about these figures is that fact that each one has different facial characteristics, which has led to the belief that they were modeled after the emperor's actual army.

In addition to the soldiers, we saw this cool hummingbird-like moth collecting nectar from these flowers. It was really cool and the only part of the exhibit that wasn't insanely crowded.

My Week of Adventures, Part 5: Cycling the city walls

National Week vacation was almost a month ago, and I'm still blogging about it. Hopefully it's worth the wait.

The next day of our vacation we went to visit the city walls of Xi'an. Xi'an has some of the oldest and best preserved city walls in all of China. There are only a handful of other cities in China with existing city walls, like Pingyao 平遥 and Nanjing 南京. The first city walls in Chang'an (the ancient name of Xi'an) were built starting in 194 BCE. The existing walls, however, were built during the Ming Dynasty in 1370. They encircle about 12 square kilometers, which is just the center of the modern-day Xi'an metropolis.

This is one of the gates near the south entrance on top of the wall. The height of the walls offers a pretty good view of Xi'an from above, but in all honesty there's not too much to see. The coolest part is that you can rent bikes and turn the 3-4 hours it takes to circle the walls by foot into an hour and a half pleasure cruise!

Here's the gang about halfway through our ride.

Shelby and I are looking fierce on a bicycle built for two.

My Week of Adventures, Part 4: Shaaanxi History Museum

First of all, I have to apologize for my highly sporadic updates. I'm still alive and well, just really busy. Secondly, I have to post this picture of my niece Brenna because it's absolutely the most adorable thing I've ever seen.
So, back to my week of vacation. Before we made our way to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, we stopped at the Shaanxi History Museum (陕西历史博物馆 Shaanxi Lishi Bowuguan), which I had heard from more than one source is the best museum in all of China. See below: That's quite a boast if you ask me, but it did not disappoint. It houses over 300,000 items in four galleries, including murals, paintings, pottery, coins, and silver objects.

It was all very nice but the best part by far was this picture below:
The gold piece on the right is explained as "Taxation gold in shape of a horse hoof", while the piece on the right is "Taxation gold in shape of a unicorn hoof".
How do they know what a unicorn hoof looks like? And why does it differ so drastically from the horse hoof? The world may never know...

My Week of Adventures, Part 3: 大雁塔 Revisited

The second day of our travels, we went to the Big Wild Goose Pagoda (大雁塔 Dayanta), but this time I actually paid the 40 yuan to get inside. Turns out, though, there is a separate ticket to get into the tower itself, so we just walked around the grounds.

The Big Pagoda in all its glory.

Elinor and David looking like all the Japanese tourists at the Pagoda that day (who just happened to be members of the Japanese Special Olympics team!)

I love the contrast between the serenity of the Buddhist temple and the numerous cranes lining the sky in the background.

A student recently told me that the Big Wild Goose Pagoda is the same building that is pictured on Chinese take-out cartons.
Do you see the resemblance?

My Week of Adventures, Part 2: 大清真寺

On the first day of our vacation, we headed to the Muslim district of Xi'an, located in the center of the city, just near the Drum Tower. After winding through streets lined with vendors selling all kinds of Chinese souvenirs (I picked up a Mao lighter for a reasonable price), we made our way to the Great Mosque (大清真寺 Da Qingzhensi). Here's some information courtesy of Archnet.com:

"The Great Mosque of Xian is the largest and best preserved of the early mosques of China. Built primarily in the Ming Dynasty when Chinese architectural elements were synthesized into mosque architecture, the mosque resembles a fifteenth century Buddhist temple with its single axis lined with courtyards and pavilions.

The Great Mosque of Xian is thought to have existed as early as the seventh century. The mosque that stands today, however, was begun in 1392 in the twenty-fifth year of the Ming Dynasty. It was ostensibly founded by naval admiral and hajji Cheng Ho, the son of a prestigious Muslim family and famous for clearing the China Sea of pirates. Since the fourteenth century, the mosque has undergone numerous reconstructions. Most of the buildings existing today are from the Ming and Qing Dynasties of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The mosque was constructed on Hua Jue Lane just outside the city walls built by the Ming Dynasty, in what was once the jiao-fang neighborhood for foreigners to the northwest of the city. Today, this neighborhood is part of Xian proper, with the city's famous Drum Tower a block away.

The mosque occupies a narrow lot about 48 meters by 248 meters, and the precinct walls enclose a total area of 12,000 square meters. Unlike many Chinese mosques, it has the layout of a Chinese temple: successive courtyards on a single axis with pavilions and pagodas adapted to suit Islamic function. Unlike a typical Buddhist temple, however, the grand axis of the Great Mosque of Xian is aligned from east to west, facing Mecca. Five successive courtyards, each with a signature pavilion, screen, or freestanding gateway, lead to the prayer hall located at the western end of the axis. "

The mosque provided an interesting mix of Chinese architecture and Muslim functionality.

The only worshipers in the mosque were men who wandered around the grounds wearing white linen caps.

Here we are situated in front of the prayer hall at the west end of the mosque (facing Mecca). We were lucky enough to arrive right before the Muslim prayer time (Salaah) began. There was a microphone in the hall so that worshipers could hear the prayer instructions, but whoever was nearest kept on coughing and burping, which was broadcast for the whole mosque to hear. It didn't quite facilitate a spiritually transcendent atmosphere.

My Week of Adventures, Part 1: 白酒

After a week of vacation, I'm back to the daily grind. Because of my busy schedule as of late, I'll slowly be catching up on all our amazing activities during the National Day holiday.

David and Elinor arrived Friday night in Xi'an where we greeted them with cheap beer and 白酒or Baijiu, a kind of Chinese alcohol. Baijiu, just like any other alcohol, runs the gambit on quality, from fancy and pretty delicious to cheap and smelling of formaldehyde. I'm sorry to say the particular kind we had that night was more of the latter, being that it only cost 3 yuan, or approximately 40 cents.

This picture captures the various reactions quite nicely, although this was even before we drank any.

Let's Beer!

Vacation! (And it's about time)

Tomorrow starts my week-long vacation in honor of National Day!
Although most Chinese spend their time off traveling around the country, I'll be staying put in Xi'an due to contractual obligations. Thankfully, some other Whitties in China, who are currently teaching in Shantou, are coming to Xi'an to crash on our couches and take advantage of our hospitality. Many adventures are in store for the week, including climbing a mountain, bathing in hot springs, and more KTV, of course.
I'll catch up with the blog in a week!

中秋快乐! (Happy Mid-Autumn Day!)

So it was actually two days ago (September 25) but I was up to my eyes in moon cakes and couldn't be bothered to post a blog.

So what exactly is Mid-Autumn Day?

"The custom of celebrating the moon for both the Han and minority nationalities, can be traced as far back as the ancient Xian Dynasty and Shang Dynasty of China (20th century BC-1060s BC). In the Zhou Dynasty (1066 BCE-221 BCE), the people celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival to worship the moon.

"The practice became very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) that people enjoyed and worshipped the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), however, people started making round moon cakes, as gifts to their relatives in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. At night, they came out to watch the full moon to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644), and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration has become unprecedentedly popular."

(Thanks Wikipedia, David)

In a perfect world, we would have spent the night watching the round moon while enjoying some delicious moon cakes with our loved ones. The foreign office even gave all the foreign teachers a box of moon cakes (complete with knife and fancy toothpicks) for the event.


In reality, the air in Xi'an was too polluted and we couldn't see the sky. So instead, Ali, Shelby and I played Moonopoly (get it?) while choking down 8 strangely flavored fruit cakes until we felt sick.