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?"