For Those About to Rock

I've had a couple people ask me what my lessons are like, so I got one of the Chinese teachers at the Greenland school to record some parts of one of my classes.

So without further ado, here's part one of the videos.

Merry Christmas! I'm Going Back to Sleep.

Saffron and I threw a little Christmas party last night, which I must say was a huge success.

We met Sean and Dane at the gates found Daphney and Nancy on the way to the restaurant. We've been to this Hunan restaurant a couple times now, and it continues to impress. The food is fairly cheap and delicious as well. Good food and drinks were had and all was merry. Tertius showed up at the end with just enough time to order a beer before we left.

Tertius came straight from teaching, so he had a guitar with him and serenaded us with his rendition of the Barney song. Nancy and Sean traded off riding his bike. The ability to ride side-saddle on the back of a bike seems to come naturally to people who have lived in China long enough, because Nancy was able to do it easily, despite not being on a bike in years.

The actual party at the apartment went great. We all exchanged some small gifts and talked for a while. Then Daphney and Nancy taught us some Chinese drinking games. How they know these games while claiming to rarely drink is beyond me. *wink wink*

We played a couple Western games like Pass the Parcel and Ring of Fire. Eventually half of us turned in for the night, while the rest stayed up watching movies.

I woke up at 8:00 to find Nancy and Daphney getting ready to leave, Saffron still half passed out in her bed, Dane still watching a movie, Tertius asleep in the same seat he had been in the night before, and Sean already gone. Got to work at 9:00, did my classes, got home just after 11:00, and have been hanging out since then.

Despite being half way around the world, I had a great Christmas, and I can't wait till the new year.

I'm going back to sleep now.

Christmas season in China

Sorry for lack of updates. Prepare for a veritable barrage of them now.

There's always lot's going on here. I really only work about 18 hours a week (26 if you count the time I have to sit around at Greenland in between classes.) but there's almost always something that I'm running off too.

Sara's school had a Christmas performance on Sunday, and since Saffron and Chris were in it, I came along to watch. It was about a 50/50 mixture of cliche and cute. Each of the classes came on stage to perform a song or small play. Despite most of it being pantomimed to either music or the children's prerecorded words, the parents loved it. These are, I must remind myself, only 6~ year old kids, and just remembering their places on stage is a big task for them. They did a very good job.

Chris and Saffron went on about two thirds through and sang a song called Tian Mi Mi. Apparently it's a very popular song here, because everyone in the audience sang along.


They both got to wear traditional Chinese outfits for the song.


I also ran into one of my own students while I was there. I guess he goes to the elementary school as well as the evening classes at Saras school.


V


After the performance was over Saffron and Chris put on Santa outfits and handed out presents.


Thug life, yo!

Puppy: November 2008-December 2008

Puppy died today. I'm not going to go into details. He's had a cold for the past week, but it took a turn for the worse last night. Today, he died.

We barely had him for two weeks, but I still feel really depressed. I'm just going to lie in bed today. I had a post ready, but I'll save that for another time.

Hurry Everyone! Smell Teacher Jenny!

Normally when I get to the Jin Yuan school, I head straight upstairs to get the flashcards for whatever class I happen to be teaching first. Imagine my surprise when in the main upstairs hallway is packed with kids and teachers... From other schools.

It's common to see a teacher with her class out in that hallway, since that part is more like a large room than a hallway, but when I bumped into Eric, my brain must have misfired, because all I could do was stare for a bit at all the people. I figured out fairly quickly what was going on.

A couple weeks ago (I forget if I mentioned it) I had to sit through the Chinese teachers at the different schools giving special classes for a teaching contest. Today they were having the finals, and the winners from each school were at Jin Yuan to give their best lessons. (I was wondering why Lucky had called me the night before to ask about some pronunciations.) Some of it was boring, but once I fought off the sleep (It was still morning, and I was sitting down. Normally I'm running around with the kids by this point.) I was able to enjoy the theatrics.

Nobody can make a lesson as dramatic as a Chinese English teacher. I swear they treat it like a broadway production. though I wasn't expecting it, I wasn't that surprised when Jenny came out coved in brown paint to help with the phrases "wash your hands," "wash your face," "brush your hair." She even took off her shoes to do "wash your feet." Then she would run to the kids so they could smell how clean she was. Before this, they even went so far as to show a video of the other teachers not wanting to play with Jenny because she was a "dirty baby." Their exact words. Dirty baby.

I love my job.

Getting Lost is Even More Fun When You Know Where You Are

I was able to cram all the exploration I need into Today. I went out, and when I returned, I came back with plunder and spoils.

I love sleeping in on weekends. I was up until 2AM watching movies on my laptop, so that also played a factor in it. I left the apartment at about 12, and took the bus to Computer City. I had seen the building before, and had suspected it was Computer City beforehand, but until today I had never gone in to confirm. It was beautiful. Three floors of computers, cameras, and game systems. I came here to find a new external case for my a terabyte hard drive I brought with me. The old one was broken before I even came here, so having all the files back would have made my day great on that alone. It took a while to find what I was looking for. There were plenty of external hard drives, but I only needed a case, and finding a part that specifically works with another part is one of the hardest parts of computers.

I had forgotten my smaller map, so when I got out of computer city I didn't know what to tell the taxi driver for directions. I called Dane, and got the words I needed. From Computer City, I went to the South Gate and walked around the center of the city for a while. I knew what I was looking for, but it was being strangely elusive. You'd think it would be easy to find a Walmart, but for once the stupid store was being discreet. Normally Walmarts love to put a big Walmart sign on the front of their building, but I actually walked past the place and didn't even notice it. It was actually on the basement floor of a small mall. The only sign I saw outside was the size of a sheet of notebook paper. Even when I went inside the mall, I ended up getting lost a couple times looking for it.

In typical convenience store fashion, I went in for one thing, and walked out with a dozen other things without even finding what I originally went in for. I don't regret it though. I found some root beer (Sarsparilla technically) and hot chocolate, so it was worth it. All I wanted was a lamp for my plants, but I didn't see a single lamp for sale in the entire place. I'll probably just go to Lotus to get one later.

This was my first time on my own inside the city walls, so I didn't know what buses came by, or where they stopped. My original plan was to save some money by only taking a taxi to Xiaozhai and then take a bus home. I didn't see any empty taxis where I was though, so I ended up walking outside the walls looking for one. I guess I got lucky because the first bus stop I wandered by just happen to have a bus that also stops directly outside of Gaoke.

Good day today. I got my 500+ gigabytes of files back. I got some crappy root beer. (It's still tastes a little bit like root beer, so I'm drinking it anyway.) I got home in one piece.

Weekend of Exploration: Part One - Planning

When you live in a back area of West Virginia, you get to know the area very well. During the Summer, it wasn't uncommon for me to grab my sleeping bag some nights, wander around in the woods till I found a good spot and just go to sleep there. In the morning, I'd just pick my stuff up and come home. I new the area near my house very well.

Slowly but surely I'm trying to get that same way with Xi'an. I know this is a huge difference. The city is miles wide, and filled with side streets and back alleys. But I hate the idea of being lost, and I want to be able to make it home even if I'm on the other side of the city and can't afford a cab.

I'm starting slow. I've been using Google Earth to locate areas I know, and get a general feeling for what direction things are in relation to everything else. Soon, I'm going to start making an encyclopedia of sorts for what buses stop where. I've got a couple ideas for how that will work, but I haven't tried any of them yet.

So far I've mostly been in the Southwest part of the city where I live, and the Southern part of the city where most of the shops are. There are still some places that I want to find and add to my growing mental database of the city. Tomorrow, I plan on going out to find Computer City. I keep hearing this place mentioned, and the idea of a whole building of computer parts makes me rather giddy.

With Google Earths view of the city, I can see a lot of cool things that I used to think were highly ordinary. There's a park that I go by on my way to Jin Yuan. Normally I only take not of this place because it has an interesting wall going around it, and there are usually people practicing Tai Chi, Badminton, and what appears to be a combination of the two. After looking at at Google Earth, I now know that there is a good sized lake inside that park, along with a couple other interesting buildings that I want to get a look at.

I know it will take a long time (if I ever) to get to know the layout of the city well. But with the weekend off, I'm going to get to know it at least a little better.

Crappy Weekend

Don't want to talk about it... But I will anyway.

Friday- Dropped my phone on one of the school buses. Didn't get it back till today. The weather has given my a runny nose.

Saturday- I went out with Saffron too get a puppy. She wanted one and I had no problem with sharing the apartment, so I agreed. "Puppy" as she insists on naming it is very cute, so I enjoy his company as well. This was the only good thing that happened that day. Why? My wallet and camera were both stolen. My wallet wasn't a big deal. It had my bank cards in it, but they can't be used without the PIN numbers. I've already gone to the bank about it too. My drivers license was in there, but it expires in February, so it was no big deal. I lost about 200 kuai, wich is annoying but not the end of the world. Losing my camera is what really pissed me off. It cost more than the money I had in my wallet, and it had some pictures from that day on it. Now I need to buy a new camera. It was Daphney's last night working at a hostel, so Saffron, Dane and I went there to eat and hang out with her a bit. It was fairly entertaining. My runny nose has developed into a bit of a cough, but no big deal.

Sunday- The origional plan on Saturday had been to go out and find a place to get massages. Instead we went to the Wild Goose Pagoda and took some pictures. They were really cool ones too. But my camera got stolen after we got Puppy. So later Sunday we went to a small place near Saras school. The massages were cheap. 40 kuai for (I'm assuming since I don't know much about massages) full body massage. It started with a basic neck massage. Then we layed down on padded tables, where they worked their way down from out necks to our feet. Then we turned over and they gout our arms, and out scalps. I walked out of there feeling slightly mangled, but very relaxed. By the end of the night, however my back felt like it had been repeatedly jabbed wit ha metal bar. Speaking of that night, we went to KTV (Karaoke). Dane, Saffron, me, and our Chinese tutors (Daphney and them are all friends) went to the 512 KTV neat Xiaozhai. KTV seems entertaining, but not my thing. For one, I'm a rappy singer. I know that doesn't count though. About a quarter of the songs were English. This is fine, but I don't listen to the type of music that gets made into karaoke. Third, they made me start off the night by singing Country Roads. I have no love for this song, but everyone in West Virginia (and apparently the entire world) freaking love it. The night ended with me sleepyand Saffron kinda pissed because nobody wanted to go clubbing. By now my cough is a problem, and I'm sure the singing didn't help.

Monday- This is the first time I've had to call in sick so far. I wouldn't use the word sick to describe my condition. "Incapacitaded" is much more appropriate. My congestion was horrible, and my back was killing me from that massage. Even now it's still a bit achey. My day consisted of somehow sleeping in till two in the afternoon, and watching movies from the couch. My cough is killing me, and it seems that Saffron is hacking a bit as well.

Teusday- Went to work today. I had 3 kuai. Enough money left for three bus rides. I used two. One there, and one back. During break I went with Lucky (a teacher) to the bank to get my new Bank card. It should get here on Teusday of next week, and I can't withdrawl any money till then. Summer called Eric about that, and I should be getting a small advance on my sallary tomorrow. Hopefully. I slept during the rest of the break. Something I'm usually unable to do. Mostly because I really hate taking naps. The rest of today has been alright. My cough isn't as bad as Monday, but it's still annoying. Saffron seems to be having it rough though. She's been in her room trying to sleep for almost an hour, but I hear her coughing almost every five minutes or so.

So yeah. Crappy weekend. Puppy was the only good thing that happened.

Thanksgiving in China

To start the day well, I had the day off work. They forgot to tell me, but I'm getting used to that. So far I'm not having many problems with being the last person to know what my schedule is. Graeme is awesome, and I'll miss him, but I can't wait till he leaves and I get to have a more consistent schedule.

My mom sent me a package a while ago. It arrived last week, but since nobody was at the apartment at the time of arrival, it was taken back to a post office. After a couple days of asking the Chinese teachers, I finally managed to get a general location of a post office near the apartment. The trip out on Wednesday was unsuccessful at finding it, but I spotted it on a bus ride home later that night.

Yesterday morning I made my way over there and was able to get the words "home" and "afternoon" out of them. So I went home and watched some TV and movies with Saffron. By about eight, I figured that the package wasn't going to get here, but it was only a minor thing and didn't throw off the night.

Since the two main people I hang out with here are from England and Australia, I've been explaining how Thanksgiving works a lot. A lot. Our family usually has dinner much earlier than normal. Usually at about one or two in the afternoon. My mom spends most of the morning in the kitchen, and my brother and I help out just enough to make us feel a little less guilty. (Though my brother is usually there for the entire pie baking phase.)

Our dinner usually consists of Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, mixed vegetables, (lots of) stuffing, a cylindrical red cranberry sauce, and occasionally some other foods depending on what is available at the time. For desert is always apple pie, and pumpkin pie. Occasionally some other kind as well.

For thanksgiving at the apartment, I made spaghetti.

Dane, Saffron, and I watched a movie (the usual night) and ate spaghetti on Thanksgiving. It makes me kind of depressed if I linger on that thought, but we had a great night, and it contained everything that was actually important about thanksgiving. Being with friends and family and being thankful for what we have. Sure it was lacking a Bird, but It was still a great Thanksgiving.

I can't wait till Christmas.

My First (Real) Chinese Lesson

I figured this needed it's own post.

I went out and had my first real Chinese lesson yersterday. Somewhere along the line I got confused about where the lesson would be and ended up back at the bookstore from earlier. I tried to find the book that Saffron has, but it was to no avail. I swear I saw it in there jsut the other day too. After a quick call to Nancy, we located each other and the lesson began.

Pinyin. Whoever invented pinyin should be beaten on the head with a large stick. Even though it uses basically the same alphabet as the English a large persentage of the letters don't make the same sound as any of the other languages that use it. How does a "c" make a "ts" noise? I'm sure it will get easier once I use it more. But for now I find it strange and... weird.

Tones. The tones are going to take some getting used to. I have to really concentrate to get the tones right when I speak them, and they are very hard to hear.

There are a lot of things I could probably complain about the Chinese language, but as a native English speaker, anything I caomplain abouit with the language probably has an equivilkent and then some for English.

Grammar. I've only made a couple simple sentances, but so far the grammar seems to be very easy. I don't think I'll have much trouble mixing around words once I get some vocabulary down.

The characters. I love the asthetic appeal of the Chinese characters. I know it will be hard, but they'rte much less daunting now that I see them on a regular basis. I can already recognize some of the ones I see on the bus signs.

The class was a lot of fun, and I think I learned a good bit. I don't really remember much of it at the moment, but I'll be practicing for the next class, and I'll do better then.

Sunday Nights, and Drunken English

I think that it will be a running thing that I get very little sleep on Sunday Nights. I'm lucky, however, in that I function better on four hours of sleep than on six or seven. For me, very little is better than just not enough.

When the original plan of "coming over to my apartment and having some drinks while we watch a movie" fell through, we all went out to an Indian restaurant for food. I'm no connoisseur, so I can't really describe how great the chicken here was. It was obvious from the beginning that this wouldn't be our first stop. We ate at the restaurant for a while and headed over to the hostel we were at last Sunday.  On the way we called Nate and Daphney, and had them meet us there. We had a couple drinks and played a bit of pool. I don't know if I was lucky or what, but I did much better than I've ever done before. 

Once again, I limited myself to two drinks, and no beer. (I needed to be sober for work the next day, and I hate beer.) After we had all had a game of pool, we all piled into two taxis and went to 1 + 1, a dance club on the south (I think) side of the city. This club was packed with a lot more people than Salsa had. The dance floor was so crowded that you really had to squeeze to get onto it. I liked the music at Salsa better, but the lights and smoke at 1 + 1 were much better. Also, with so many people crammed onto the floor, people are less likely to notice if you're dancing badly. Usually, I don't care where we go, and I'll just travel along with the group, but I definitely plan on coming back here again.

Apparently Daphney hadn't been to a club for almost a year, so by the end of the night it was very noticeable that she had had to much to drink. What's funny though, is that her English was actually better than her Chinese at this point. And she used it. Normally she's fairly quite, but once she had that much in her, she couldn't stay quite. She even went so far as to swear (in English) at a security guard who told Saffron not to take pictures in the club.

When we left the club, Daphney was in no state to get a taxi, and make it home on her own. So after a brief deliberation with the other guys, it was decided that she would come home with me and Saffron. She put up a small argument, but it consisted primarily of talking about how much of a bitch her boss was, so we decided to ignore it.

The taxi ride back to the apartment consisted of Saffron doing a great job of telling the driver where to go, and me doing a great job of preventing Daphney from sticking her feet out the window and kicking the back of the drivers seat. Daphney continued to cheerily swear away about how hard it was for a girl to be raised in the conservative Chinese lifestyle. All the while, she never once spoke a word that wasn't English.

Somehow Graeme and Dane made it back to Gao Ke before us, and helped us to get Daphney to the apartment. Somehow she noticed and pointed out that there were actually stars in the sky.  And there were. After four weeks, this is the first time I've seen the stars here.

We practically carried Daphney up the stairs to the apartment and got some water in her. I don't know what her schedule today is, but I doubt she'll be going anywhere with the hangover she'll have. I think it's a miracle that she wasn't spilling her stomach all over the cab. I fell asleep last night to the sound of her giggling a room over. I hope Saffron didn't have any problems sleeping.

Overall, Sunday nights will probably end with me getting very little sleep. 1+1 is a cool club that I'd liek to go back too.  I get the feeling that the apartment will become a starndard place for our Chinese friends to crash if they're too drunk to make it home.

I'm on my break right now, still about 3 and a half hours before I start teaching my next class. I've got the internet and a cup of hot chocolate that I brought with me. My day is looking good. Maybe I can take a quick nap before I have to teach again today.

My Chinese Name

I had my first Chinese lesson today. Well. It wasn't really a lesson. Mostly, it was just a meeting to set things up for future lessons. I bought a textbook and a dictionary for the future lessons. I also bought a book of quotes from Laozi for some light reading. I've always found books of ancient philosophy to be very interesting.

I'll be meeting my teacher Nessy on Sunday to have my first real lesson. Today consisted mostly of me meeting my teacher, buying books and eating some cheap, but delicious, noodles.

The biggest thing that happened was Daphney and Nessy gave me a Chinese name. Sòng Yuān Bó (宋 渊博). I haven't started on grammar, so there's a good chance that I butchered where the spaces should (if at all) be. From what I was told, and with a bit of help from Google Translate, Sòng (宋) is a family name from the ruling dynasty some 800 years ago. Yuān (渊) means deep, or profound. Daphney had a bit of trouble explaining Bó (博), but Google translate had the fitting definition of "broadly knowledgeable; erudite". They didn't tell me till the end of the day, but said that my name was very fitting when I was buying the book of Laozi quotes. I love the name. I really do. I'm going to spend quite a bit of time memorizing how to write the (what I consider) very complex characters.

Tomorrow I'm thinking of going back to the bookstore and finding a simpler book to start off on. The one they recommended I buy has barely any English in it and I find it rather intimidating. Saffron says hers has a lot less. Since she has also started lessons, I can look at her book a bit too and we can practice with each other.

Chinese Lessons

This Friday, I'll be taking my first lessons in Chinese. Dane's tutor Daphney has a friend that will be my teacher. Learning the language is one of the main reasons I came here. I want to get at least some basic useful words in quick. Left, right, forward, there. Things I can use in a taxi, mostly.

I took about four years of Spanish in high school, but I really don't remember any of it. I was surprised at how much was still in me subconciously when I went to Costa Rica. I'm hoping that I'll be able to retain the Chinese here since I'll be using it more often.

I'm still very nervous about learning the characters. I can remember some of them from sight because of the buses, but I probably couldn't tell you what sound they made, or what they meant.

Oomph Boomph Oomph Boomph!

Yesterday started off as a normally good day, and quickly escalated into freaking awesome.

Once Saffron and Dane got off work, we went and ate at a Taiwanese restaurant with his Chinese tutor, Daphney. Her English was very good, and she agreed to help Saffron and I find some tutors ourselves. It was a nice dinner and fairly relaxing.

After dinner we (minus the tutor) went to a hostel near the city wall to meet up with Graeme and two of his Chinese friends, Nate and Lion. Nate's English is amazing. He has very little accent, and he says its from watching so many American movies. He's moving to the US soon to get his masters degree. Lion was a riot. He was very talkative, and knows a lot about music. Aside from my brother, I've never seen an ipod with such a wide variety of music. After a couple drinks we decided to go to a club. Since I had work the next day I barely drank anything at the hostel, and was the most sober person on the way to the club.

Salsa (The club) was awesome. The music was loud and had a heavy techno feel. The lights were great too. Bright in the right places,and they didn't get in your eyes and blind you. This was my first time going dancing and I had a blast. It took the guys a while to finally get me on the dance floor, but I think I did better than I expected. I almost had a heart attack when I was suddenly surrounded by 7 dancing Chinese girls. I'm not used to the attention. Staring, I've adjusted to, but this was completely different. Lion was a great dancer, and loved to be in the middle of everything.

I was once again reminded that I hate the taste of beer, and will at most pretend to drink it so I don't drain the fun from the others. Seriously, how can people stand that? Acquired taste maybe?

After the club, we went to McDonalds so we could get something to eat and help the rest of them sober up. From there we we all piled into cabs, and headed home. All night the others would ask me if I wanted to go home and get some sleep, but I function better on three or four hours of sleep than I do on five or six, so I was out with them till about 4aM. I was probably up till about 4:45 though what with a spree of text messages between Saffron and myself and getting a shower then, so I wouldn't have to in the morning.

It's just now noon, and I'm at work feeling fine. I'll probably end up taking a nap in a bit here though. There's a 4 hour break in my teaching in the middle of the day, and I can't get home from this school during that time, so I'll probably just find a chair in a corner to fall asleep in. I wish my work schedule wasn't so different from everyone else's, but I have to admit that it has its benefits.

Last night really was amazing. I can't wait for next time.

There and Back Again

Two days ago I made my first solo trip to Xiaozhai. Since I have a little card with the apartments address on it, I'm much less nervous about going out on my own some where.

There's a bus stop right outside the main gate of Gao Ke. A couple of the buses that stop there go through Xaozhai. After a couple minutes of waiting I got on the 34 bus, because it was the only one I knew for sure went where I wanted. I had no idea how many stops it was, but I figured I'd recognize the area when I saw it.

I knew it would take a bit so I grabbed a seat once one was available. After nine stops the area looked framiliar, but I didn't see the big steps that let me know I'm in the right place. After another two stops I knew I had missed it. It was still early , and it was a one way road, so I didn't want to get offthe bus and track down the other stop. I think this was a good idea, because afer a couple more stops the bus went by some tourist areas that I'll want to go to later. Now I know how t get there.

After a little longer the bus doors opened and everyone got off. End of the line. The buses goign the other way picked people up across the street, but I didn't want to sit on the bus for who knows how long and risk missing the stop again, so I grabbed a cab, and was lucky enough that she could understand me when I asked to go to Xiaozhai.

She drove quickly (like all taxi drivers do) and I got to right where I needed to go. It was cheaper than I expected at only 10.5 kuai. I headed straight for the place where the expats at Gao Ke go to buy DVDs. I only bought a couple and used a bit more of the time too look around. The whole area is an interesting place. I may go there one day I get off early and just wander around for a while.

When I was done I had to go and find where the 34 picked people up. I needed to make sure I would remember it when I came back again. I found it whith only a little bit of walking. It was actually easy to spot what with all the people standing on the side of (and in) the road, all looking in generally the same direction. I checked the signs and found the characters for Xiaozhai. I took a picture to remember them easier, but it's the only stop on the 34 that only has two characters so it's fairly easy to spot. I feel like I'm playing a weird version of Pokemon, but instead of collecting little monsters, I'm going around the city looking for bus stops. Whenever I see a place that has a bus I recognize, I take a picture and write down a note about where it is.

Finding the 34 was easy. Getting on it was vastly more difficult. I guess the 34 is a popular bus going the direction it was, because a small crowd of people would start running whenever one came around. The first one to stop, I quickly gave up getting on. The sudden aggressiveness of the Chinese people around me was startling. My failure forced me to wait another 10 minutes or so for another 34 to come around. This one stopped earlier on the street than I expected, so I was near the back of the mob, and failed once again at getting a place on the bus.

Third time is the charm though, and I was prepared. I started on the edge of the crowd where the bus would go by first. As it approached, I ran alongside it so I was near the front when the doors opened. Amid the beeps and clunks of bus cards and change going to pay for the ride, I managed to get my one kuai into the slot. Everyone was putting there hands for the machine as well, because if they've paid for their ride, then they're getting on that bus even if they have to be tied to it. Once I made it on, I was crammed into an awkward standing position. It was difficult because my right foot only had about an inch of space on one of the steps, and all of my weight was on that leg.

A stop later though, a couple people got off the bus, and the crowd at the front was able to move back on the bus. By four stops I was able to get a nice position near the middle of the bus, and off to the side, so I wouldn't have to move out of the way for other people. After the initial boarding process, the ride went fairly smoothly. I made it back to the apartment, and we celbrated my victory over the Chinese Public Transportation System by watching some of the movies I had so bravely traveled to acquire.

I went back to Xiaozhai yesterday. One of the movies we were watching (Aliens 2. You can't buy all four Aliens movies and skip the last half of the second one. It's unthinkable!) stopped playing correctly half way through. So I braved the buses again, this time paying a bit more attention to what buses stopped where, and found a couple more ways to get wherever I need to go. I wasn't able to exchange the movie, but I can come back in a couple days, and he'll have a new copy. That's the main reason we get DVDs from these guys. They speak a bit of English, and will replace DVDs if they don't work.

I looked around and bought a couple more DVDs that I had been looking for the other day. I also got a couple cups that I had been looking at in another store. I was in a good mood, and splurged a bit by eating at McDonalds. I also ate there because I was getting a bit cold and the building is warm.

Once again I was prepared for the battle that is getting on the 34. I made it on on my first try, and quickly made my way to the middle area where I'm not in anyone's way. I was a little nervous though. It was dark out and with it being only my second time coming back on my own I didn't want to miss my stop. Gau Ke is fairly distinctive though, and I got a bit lucky and made it back all right.

I had heard about the buses here being crazy at times, but all of the ones I had ridden on before were fairly clear and I was usually able to get a seat if I wanted. So far I haven't had to ride many different buses, but I'll have to start thinking a bit more agressively when I need to ride a new one. Jsut to be sure.

The Setting

This post willbe updated as needed. It's a list of places I may refer to on a regular basis. Think of it as a glossary of places.

Important Places:

China: Come on. Do you really need me to explain this one?

Shaanxi Province: This is the province I live in. Not to be confused with the Shanxi Province Next to it. It's about the size of Kansas.

Xi'an: This is where I live. It's a large city near the center of China, and is over 3,000 years old. It has a large wall a bit over eight and a half miles around that encircles the center of the city. Most of the buildings with the old Chinese architectural styles can be found inside the wall.

Kid Castle: A chain of elementary and middle schools that specialize in teaching English. I work for a small group of privately owned ones in southwest Xi'an.

-Jin Du: A Kid Castle School I worked at for about a week. Saffron has been doing some extra classes there recently.

-Jin Yuan: One of the schools I work at. It's about two miles from my house. I could walk there, but it's faster to just take the bus.

-Green Land: Eric's school on the edge of the city. I work there twice a week. It's a nice school, and the kids are great, but I hate working there because I can't come home during my break. it's a 4 hour break in classes and I'm stuck ing the computer room!

-Sara's School: The School Saffron works at. None of us really know what it's called, so we call it Sara's School. It operates in the evenings and on weekends. Think of it as extracurricular study.

-Micheal's School: Once again, We don't know if it even actually has a name, so we call it Micheal's School. Dane works here.

Gauke Hua Yuan (Gaoke Garden): The apartment complex I live at. It looks fairly rusty from the outside, but the apartments are cleaner and much bigger than I expected. It has a small pond area in the middle of it, a little convenience store at the front gate, and a tiny produce stand hidden under a glass canopy near the playground in the middle. The security guards here are nice too.

Lotus Supercenter: A large Walmart-like store about half a mile from my apartment. It's where I go to get most of my food, appliances, and other stuff. This is where I've seen the majority of non-teacher foreigners.

Places of Note That I may Occasionally Mention

Xiaozhai: The downtown area where we go to buy DVDs and cheap clothes. It's also got a McDonalds. There's a bus that goes there from Gaoke, so it's easy to get to. Watch you wallet when it's crouded. There are lots of pickpockets and beggars here.

The Village (Vilages): The village is what the teachers at Gaoke call a back alley market street near oen of the bus stops. It's got cheap restraunts, and looks like what a lot of people think of when someone mentions a Chinese market street. Food there is cheap and good. The number of stares you get will increase tenfold the moment you step in there. Villages are when we call other streets like it.

Computer City: Place to buy cheap computer parts and other electronics.

The Bell Tower: Tourist attraction in the middle of Xi'an It's a really old building with a nice view of the surrounding area. Every hour or so, there's a performance in the center of the building. The music is nice, but the interesting part is that they use bells that are over 500 years old. 27 kuai admission, definitely worth going to see. I plan on going again.

The Drumtower: Tourist attraction in the middle of Xi'an, just down the road from the Bell Tower. I haven't been ther yet, but I plan to.

The Cast

This post will be updated as needed. It's a list of places I may refer to on a regular basis. Think of it as a glossary of places.

Nolan/Tripfriend: That's me. I'm from West Virginia in the US, and I currently live in Xi'an China. I work for Kid Castle teaching at two of their elementary schools.

Friends and Teachers

Saffron: My roommate from England. Together we are masters of disaster.

Graeme: Foreign teacher from South Africa. He played the "older brother" role while he was here and really helped me get started teaching at the schools. He's left for the US to see his girlfriend, and is doing some more world traveling as well.

Dane: Foreign Teacher from Australia. Saffron and I usually call him over to have dinner and watch movies with us. He's very laid back. He used to live in Saffron and my's apartment, but moved to a different one a month or so before we got here.

Chris: The only other American at Gaoke. He's from Florida. Him and his girlfriend live in the same apartment as Graeme. He has a very pessimistic view of his job, and considers himself to be a puppet for the school. Which we are. I'm pretty sure the only reason he's still in China is so he can be with Jeniffer, but I think they're both going to the US in the summer.

Jennifer: Chris's Girlfriend. She's a tour guide in Xi'an.

Mimi: Saffrons friend. She's from the US, but lives on the other side of the city. She works for Kid Castle as well as a University.

The Bosses
Though Kid Castle is a chain of schools, I work for two that are privately owned. The three people that own them are all from Taiwan. Those people are...

Sara: The main person of the three people I consider my bosses. She's the one who organized me getting to China.

Eric: He's a nice guy, but he speaks very little English. A lot gets lost in translation when I have to talk to a Chinese teacher, and she translates for him.

Micheal: Third of the bosses. Very nice guy. He studied in America for a couple years, so his English is very good.

Other

Jonna: Fellow blogger from Sweden. I usually email (bug) her when I have a question about China that the other guys can't answer. I read her blog a lot to help prepare for moving over here.

Summer: She's like a manager for Jin Du and Jin Yuan. She helped me get set up when I first moved here.

Jin Du Teachers:

Jin Yuan Teachers:

Green Land Teachers:

I Swear These People are Trying to Kill Me

It's lunchtime at Green Land. I feel like I'm about to drop. That's exagerating, but I'm still tired.

I guess it was decided somewhere that I would be working occasionally at the Green Land school until Graeme leaves. Hopefully at that time I will go back to being only at Jin Du and Jin Yuan. Green Land is a large (for Kid Castle) school on the edge of the city. With all the haze today, it makes the school look like the one source of life in a post appocolyptic city. As far as I can see (not that far) there are only run down buildings and large piles of earth.

I got a message just before 8:30 today, telling me that they would be a bit late picking me up. When I got a call telling me they were there, I went out to the gate, and got another experience with the driving in China. I had a death grip on the arm rest.

When I arrived at Green Land, I had enough time to say hello to a couple people who's names I have already forgotten. I was promptly ushered upstairs to give my first class. It didn't go well, but it didn't suck. I can at least say that. I walked into the class, and the teacher handed me some flash cards of what to teach.

I'm beginning to understand how Graeme feels. I walk into the class, say hello, get handed some cards, and then I'm thrown to the sharks. The first thing I look for when I walk into the room is the clock. I'm trying to work on how long each ofmy classes takes. Depending on the age group it can be longer or shorter. The number of flash cards I get handed can also effect how esay those minutes go. I've been here about two hours, and I've already given classes, give or take. I'm being moved around so fast here that I quickly lost track.

At all the schools, from 11:00 to 3:00 is lunch/break/nap time. I get my lunch in a little bit here, but for the next three and a half hours, I'm on my own for entertainment. At Jin Du and Jin Yuan I could get back home in fifteen minutes. So I usually had plenty of time to have a bite to eat, grab something at the lotus, watch a movie at home, or even just take a nap in my own bed. It was about a fifteen minute ride from Gao Ke Hua Yuan to here, so don't think that is an option today.

I should be going to Jin Yuan tomorrow, so compared to today it will be a walk in the park. No matter how many classes I have to teach.

I'm enjoying the job, and I'll do it wherever they want me to. But I still will like it better once I can get a nice steady schedule.

My Schools, and Their Schools

Before I get this post started, I need to explain a bit about Kid Castle. Kid Castle is a chain company of private schools that specialize in teaching English. There are more than ten of these schools in Xi'an, and even more in the rest of China, Taiwan, and possibly other countries. Like some china companies, some of them can be privately owned. My head bosses, Sara, Micheal, and Eric are all from Taiwan, and together they own somewhere between four to six schools here in Xi'an. The rest are part of the regular corporation, and are run by a woman named Lancome. Apparently she's a fan of the perfume or something.

A few weeks before I came here, my mom found this forum post. I was fairly nervous about coming to work for Kid Castle because of it, but I was still optimistic that it wouldn't be as bad as they guy made things out to be. If you didn't read the post, the guy basically says that the school didn't pay him according to contract, attacked him, and even tried to have him arrested when he tried to leave. A while ago when some of the other teachers cam over to my place to hang out, this guy somehow came up in conversation. From what a guy who knew a guy who new this guy says, he was actually a real ass and had a lot of it coming to him, but working at the schools he worked for can be fairly crappy. that was when I remembered that I signed two different contracts with Kid Castle. The first one was for one of these schools owned by the Lancome woman. I'm still not sure how it happened, probably due to them being fairly crappy, I stopped getting emails from them and started getting emails from a woman named Sara. I signed a different contract with her and now work at the privately owned Kid Castles in a different part of the city than the Lancome ones. I've talked to a Lancome school teacher and she says that things can get kind of crappy some times, but they've never been near as bad as the forum poster makes them out to be. Since I live next to other teachers for the private school, I've talked to them plenty, and while they say that there have been the occasional hang-ups, things have always been resolved fairly easily.

So far everything has gone fairly well for me, and I haven't had anything to complain about. I probably used a good bit of luck to get to where I am, but it doesn't look like I'll need much more to keep things going at an even pace.

Not Dead, Just Sleeping

Internet's been out for most of the weekend. I'm not sure if it was due to a bit of construction going on near my apartment building or if it's just that unreliable. Either way, it caused me more stress than it should. I don't feel cut off from things at all, but I do feel cut off when the internet goes out. No matter where I am. I've never been much of a social person. More often than not, I end up going to do things with other people. Not the other way around. Jusst having a means of communication with other people is enough. Actually using it is rarely necessary.

My weekend was great, though. Saffron and I went over to Shoujai (I need to learn how these places are actually spelled) and bought some DVDs. Because they're pirated copies, which almost all DVDs and games here are, they were very cheap. Between the two of us, we purchased over 25 DVDs containing probably more than 40 movies. Most of our free time the past couple days has been spent watching movies and old episodes of South Park.

Dane took me to a store called the Metro on Sunday. It's a but like the Lotus, but it has a lot more imported items, and things are a bit more expensive. It took a while to get there by bus, so I'll probably be limiting the amount of times I make the trip there. This has, however, once again showed that I need to learn my way around the city a bit more.

Today, I tought my first classes at Jun Yuan. It cought me off guard, but luckily I (the Chinese teachers) was able to get together the things I needed to survive the ordeal. The foreign teachers before me have all mentioned how they were practically thrown into the teaching, so I consider myself lucky that I was able to observe a lot of classes before I had to do it myself. Tomorrow I'm going to Jin Du to watch Graeme for the first half of the day, and then (probably with his help) give some classes on my own.

Wednesday, I may be going to a school I haven't been to before. Graeme leaves at the end of November. He's basically been working two jobs for Kid Castle to save up some money beforehe leaves. Saffron and I were hired to replace him once he finishes. Until he finishes I may be working at this other school. I like Jin Du and Jin Yuan, and I don't really want to go tot this other school that much. Once I get into a habit or schedule that I feel comfortable with I don't like to change it. Going to this school, however temporary it may be, is really throwing a wrench into the gears of the mechanism that is my routine. Also, I'm finally beginning to learn the names of most of the teachers at the two schools I already go to.

My Lucky Nose

When I was getting my lunch at school yesterday, one of the cooks (through translation by a teacher) told me that because me nose was shaped like a hawks/eagle it would bring me good luck. I've always considered myself lucky when it counts. Maybe now I know the reason. I've never paid much attention to my nose, much less other peoples, but today I've been looking at any that get close enough to me. I have noticed that a lot of Chinese people's noses have a bit more of a "concave" ridge than people back home.

This is one of the things that you have to be here to really think about. Travel guides and tourist books never get into the little cultural bits like this. It's these pieces of culture that make coming here so interesting.

Week One: Over

It's been a whole week already. Wow. I didn't really realize untill I typed that that it's actually been a whole week. It doesn't feel like it. Three or four days, maybe, but not a week.

My roommate arrived from England last night. Her name is Saffron and, while we haven't had much chance to talk, she seems pretty cool. I can't tell yet how well we'll get along, but I doubt there will be any butting heads. She's a vegetarian, but considering how hard/costly it is to find meat-less food here, we'll see how long that lasts.

Update on my phone friend. I mentioned that I went to the doctor for my medical examination and (s)he suddenly became terrified that I was grievously injured. I consider text based instant messaging shoddy communication at best. But when you mix in different languages, it probably won't end well. It took about four more messages on my end to convince him that I was bleeding on the side of the road or something.

My View on Things Now:

• I'm living in one of the better parts of the city, so while foreigners are uncommon, I haven't been stared at as much as I expected. There are a couple palces that someone would have to be on fire before people looked at him instead of me. I've found that it's easier to ignore (pretend they're not) the staring if I listen to music while I walk around. If they can see that I have my headphones on, salespeople, people handing out fliers, and assorted curious people are also less likely to approach me. Once I start learning a bit of Mandarin, I'll do this less often, but for now it's like my little safety bubble.
• I still don't understand the corn thing. I don't think I ever will. he other day I saw corn mixed into a fruit salad. I don't know who created such an unholy abomination, but I can only wish them bad luck.
• I'm going to have to experiment on my own with a lot of things. This means walking around on my own and hoping I don't get lost. This also means that when I get cold enough to try and turn the heating on, that I'll need to make sure I don't blow anything up.
• My internet isn't as slow as I expected. Now that I've got the land line working it's going about twice as fast, or twice as not so slow, as it was when I was leaching off some guys unprotected wifi. This means that I can still spend some of my free time on 4chan and other websites that provide absolutely no benefit to society or my social life.
• I really want to start learning Mandarin. I really wish I hadn't forgotten that copy of Rosetta Stone that I downloaded. Maybe I can get my mom to mail it to me once I figure out my address.
• China is just a weird place compared to my old home. It can't fully be explained in words why it's different, but it is. It's going to take a bit of getting used too, but I'm lovign every minute of it.
  

Oh Shi-!

Cherry and another teacher just came by the apartment. (If you haven't guessed, all the teachers at school go by English names during work and with each other.) Apparently my roommate is arriving later today. That means I have to clean up the place fast! It wasn't messy, but the floor in the living room is still covered in a small layer of brown. I took a glance into the other room and it looks like they've got her set up a bit better than I was. Whether this is because it was a different person who bought the stuff or because the new teacher is supposed to be a girl, I dunno. She's lucky I got here first. Now she doesn't have to go and buy all the food and dishes on her own. I don't mind that I had to buy it. This is my first time truly living on my own, so I get to kind of show off that I was self sufficient and was able to get things ready on my own.

Today has already been busy. Today, Nikki, her boyfriend, and I went to the bell tower at the center of the city. It's an interesting tourist spot. It's almost like an island in the middle of a sea of cars and stores, completely separate from the surrounding area.

We stuck around there fore a while and got to see a quick performance with some of the old bells. It was really interesting. I may go back again some time because it was definitely worth seeing twice.

Day Five: Saturday

Someone near my apartment left their wifi unprotected, so I'm able to update from home for now. Picture time!

First up: My apartment. I've unpacked now so it's cleaner/messier than some of these look.

My room during the unpacking process. Note the penguin covers. Aside from the little shelf on the left, my bedroom is a lot cleaner now.

The living room is still fairly empty. I don't use it much since the neither the TV nor the wired internet work. Graeme told me the TV didn't work even when the person before me was in here. I'm still working on cleaning the dirt off the floor.

Dining room with a little view of the Kitchen. Aside from my room, I'm in here the most either eating, or trying to figure out when else I need to buy. Apparently that computer monitor has been here ages. I'll probably just throw it out since it's in the way of more food.

These greeted me when I opened the fridge on arrival. they're in one of the lower drawers right now. I'm not much one for beer. There's milk/juice/other stuff in there now too.

This is the bathroom. I took the picture through the mirror to get all of it in one shot. The round thing on the wall is the water heater. The switch to turn it on is by the lights outside the door. The thing below it is the washer, which I still have to figure out. Maybe I can get Graeme or Chris to explain it to me.

There are a lot of little parks in Xi'an. I pass by two or three depending on what school I'm going to at the time. Even the apartment complex has some trees in it. You can still hear the outside, but they do a great job cutting down the noise. There are a bunch more trees out of the frame on the bottom left.

There are a lot of these security guards throughout the city. Probably about 8 at the complex alone. As of yet I have no idea what the difference in uniform is between them and actual police.

Friday: Halloween in China
Because Kid Castle focuses on American English, they had a big Halloween party at the Jin Du school yesterday. My job for the day was just be there so they could parade the foreigner around for the parents. I don't really mind though, because I still got some free candy.

It started at 8:00, and they had me stand at the entrance with some of the other teachers to greet te parents. This would have been pretty boring, but I got to see all the kids with their costumes. Chinese have absolutly no idea how Halloween works. Half the kid's costumes were a collage of different things. A pirate shirt with a wizard hat and a pitchfork, or a monster mask with angel wings. Only a handful of them were anything that made sence. I saw a lot of Spidermans, and Batmans. One girl was Snow White. They all had fun though, and the attitude was infectious. The parents loved it too, and there were plenty taking pictures or even videos of their precious little children.

After all the kids had arrived, they divided into classes and went out on the town. Accompanied by an entourage of teachers and a couple parents who stuck around the kids walked a couple blocks to sing some songs to delighted onlookers. Honestly, they were so cute if you hugged any of them hard enough they probably would have exploded into candy. No lie.

Once they sang their songs the teachers passed out candy to them. I got a handful too, but half of it was flavors I've never seen or heard of. Or corn. There was a gummy corn in there too. They went to about four places. Despite the insanity that is an intersection at a Chinese city, I've never seen traffic come to more of a stop than when those kids were crossing the streets. It was a very reassuring sight. During all this, my job was to carry around a sign with a big ghost and pumpkin on it. If it weren't for the kids, I'd of had even more people starring at me than usual.

When we got back it was lunch/nap time, so I had a bit to eat and went back to my apartment for a nap of my own. I wouldn't say I have jet lag, but I am fairly sleepy lately.

When I got back to Jin Du, the teachers were beginning to set up for the big snack buffet thing. All the candy and treats that the parents had brought with their kids were laid out on some tables and everyone got some to eat. I have seen the dark side of China now, and it is that the will put corn with anything! Corn is not meant to be in the same dish as grapes! I will eat any of the noodles and meats I see here. But I have never been a fan of corn. In Lotus, I saw what I'm pretty sure was either a roast cat or a dog, next to a roast duck. I would eat that before some of the things they make out of corn. That rant over, some of the food was really good. They had some grapes that remindedme of the wild grapes that used to grow along the road by my house in the states.

After the lunch wasfarily relaxing. I wasn't sure where to go after that, so I stuck with Julia, the teacher of the class that I had gone around the city with earlier that day. We basically set up the TV and I watched Cartoons with the class. I wasn't till the Parents arrived to pick up their kids that that they realized I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing that day and sent me on my way. I can't wait till I get an actual work schedule and can know ahead of time where I'm supposed to be.

On my way back I stopped off at Lotus again and picked up some more stuff. I needed another pillow because the one I have is hard as a rock. It took me a couple minutes to find one that was actually soft, and even that had a section on one side that was just as rock-like as the others. I bought some shampoo too. At least I hope it was shampoo. It looks and smells like shampoo, but there were so many bottles in that section that can't be sure. My hair feels clean though so I think I got it right.

And that was my Halloween.

Today
Today is my first day off since I got here. And by day off, I mean, I wasn't told that I have to be anywhere. I'm using the opportunity, along with my newly discoverd wifi, to catch up on cleaning, blog updates, and general relaxation. I've got the hot water heater on, and in a little bit I can take a nice, hot, but short shower.

My plans for today include:

1. RELAXING shower.
2. Clean the mud off the floor in the living room.
3. Eat any of the poptarts that survived the flight over.
4. Try to find out Graeme and Chris's home number.
5. Figure out how the laundy works.
6. Maybe wander around Lotus, and see if there's any more food (snacks) I want.
   

Sunday:
Tomorrow, I'm going on a tour of the city with Nikki, a teacher at Jin Du school. I've been wantint to do this for a while, and Nikki is attractive as well, so this is a double bonus for me.

Monday:
On Monday I'm going to get the requored health examination. I'm hoping that it will beno more complicated than getting a shot or four and peeing in a cup. I don't know what else they really could do, but I have a strong imagination.

Other Notes:
Somehow, a person in Xi'an found my cellphone number on the internet and messaged me looking for an English speaking friend. I have no idea how this happened, seeing as I don't even have my number memorized, and have just now been on the internet long enough to do more than copypaste some blog posts.

Got my first telemarketing call a today. I was almost releived when I realized it wasn't someone telling me I had to be somewhere today.

Day Two: Wednesday

Yesterday did not go according to planned. Nothing went wrong, but very little that was scheduled to happen actually happened when it was supposed to.

Summer came and got me at about nine~ish. We walked to the bus stop and rode it to another one of the schools. She showed me how to take the bus there on my own, but so far I haven't gone anywhere on my own. The first time I do go solo is bound to be interesting. I think it will take another week before I know where everything is in relation to everything else.

We took the bus to one of the schools, and I got to sit in the back and watch how one of the English lessons are given. It seems pretty easy, but as of yet, I'm not the one giving them. After watching two different classes, we went to the first school from the day before. There I watched Grahme give a class. He's one of the foreign teachers who's been here for a while. From what I can tell of his schedule, mine will be pretty crazy as well. Kid Castle seems to be a bit low on foreign teachers right now, so I may end up teaching more classes than I expected.

Once he was done with his morning classes we walked back to our apartments. I got to go up to his and meet his roommate Chris and Chris's girlfriend Jennifer. After a bit of chit-chat Grahme went with my to the Lotus Supercenter and helped me get a few more things that I hadn't thought of earlier. There are still some things I need to get today.

At about 3:00 we started walking to one of the schools so I could shadow some of Grahmes afternoon classes. We ran into some of the other teachers from Kid Castle on the way, and they told him that he didn't have any classes then because there was a Halloween party for the kids that evening. So we ended up walking back to our apartments. Oh well. It gave me more time to unpack and clean up the apartment.

We left for the school again at about 6:00, this time with Chris. The party was entertaining enough. Not so much party as I would expect though. Mostly it was just a bunch of learning games with a Halloween theme. For most of it the three of us just sat in the teachers lounge and they told me what to expect in some cases, and some tips for teaching and getting along with the rest of Kid Castle.

When we left the party, Chris headed back to his apartment to cook his dinner, while Grahme and I went to the Village to eat. The Village is what the expat teachers here call one of the local side alley marketplaces. I had caught a glimpse of it earlier, but this was my first chance to go into it. It's everything I expected and more. Along the main city streets I had notice some people glancing at me, but in the Village, two tall white guys are like the main attraction in a three ring circus. We ate at a nice little noodle place, and got our meals for a total of 15 yuan. That's about a dollar per person. That's also including the pop Grahme bought us from a different vendor. While he was getting the drinks I had my first experience with a Chinese person randomly coming up to talk to me. He didn't speak any English though, so I think it was mostly for the amusement of him and his friends than an actual attempt to converse. They were very friendly though, so aside from being awkward, it was entertaining for me too.

I woke up at about seven, and was running around doing things till about nine at night. By the time I got home I was to tired to do anything but fall into bed. I'm quickly getting over the jet lag. Aside from getting tired a bit earlier, I haven't had any real effects from it.

Things I Noticed on Wednesday:
1. I saw people burning fame money along the rods in some places. I remember hearing that they do it for good luck when they open a business, but there were little piles of ash all over the place last night. Anyone know what they're doing it for?
2. There was something that resembled a pizza at Lotus. It had corn on it. What is it with Chinese people and corn?
3. Grahme helped me find cereal. I think it's German. It wasn't very good. I probably shouldn't have bought two boxes. Dang. I'll finish them either way, but I'll probably try another kind next time I buy.
4. Drank some Jujube milk. It tastes like something I've had before, but I still can't think of what it is. It tasted fine at first, but after the first couple sips, it was just kind of nasty. Grahme seemed to like it fine, so maybe I'm just weird.
5. I want a map of Xi'an. I'm sure I could find my way around easier if I had a map in my room to look at.

Summer just called. We're going to Jin Yuan today. I have no idea what I'll be doing there so today will probably be as varied as yesterday.

Day One: Teusday

I'm in China! Maybe I just adjust easily, but it doesn't feel like I'm that far from home, or that I've even left. It's like a birthday. Up until the day, you think that you actually think and feel different once your age changes. It doesn't. I guess I thought the same way about coming here. I'm still the same person I was before I got on the plane, and aside from only seeing one non-Asian since I got off, people are generally the same here too. Yes, there are a massive amount of cultural differences, but they're still normal people.

Plane Rides (aka The Sitting Marathon)
Sunday October 26, I didn't sleep the night before so I could more easily sleep on the plane. Instead I sat in the bathtub for about 7 hours reading a book. I didn't expect to have a bathtub in China, so I wanted to get one last good use out of it.

My mom knocked on the door at 2:30M and told me it was her turn, so we could leave at 3:30. For once I was ready before she was. I slept most of the two hour drive from our home to the Pittsburgh airport. That was probably a good thing since I had to be semi functional enough to find my gate. Everyone at the airport was surprisingly nice for it being so early. The baggage check-in people even started early. I had been to this airport a couple times before so I was able to find my gate pretty easily. From there, I had an unremarkable flight to Newark.

The staff at the Newark airport were just as helpful as the ones in Pitt. I guess I kept expecting a repeat of the Georgia airport when I went to Costa Rica where everyone seemed to be very angry with everything they could. My time at the Newark airport consisted of a bathroom break and getting a fruit salad at McDonalds. (Is that an oxymoron?) While waiting at the gate for my flight to Beijing, I turned on my laptop and called my mom on Skype. I think some of the people around me may have been wondering what I was doing talking to my computer.

The flight to Beijing went about as well as it could have. For a fourteen hour flight, it didn't completely suck. The seats had the little screens on the back, so I was able to entertain myself with a couple movies I haven't seen before. Unlike what I expected, we flew in a generally northern direction over the Arctic and Russia. I managed to sleep for a couple hours. How many? I don't know. Like I said, there was nothing wrong with the flight, but it's hard to say good things about something that made you sit down for 14 hours. The best thing I can say is that I had an aisle seat, and the the people I sat next to were nice.

The Beijing was a jumble of terrifying relief. Relief, because I wouldn't have to sit down for a while, and terrifying because I was on my own in a non-English speaking country. Things went about as smoothly as the could Customs was easy. My belt buckle set off the beeper, so I got patted down by a good looking Chinese girl. I can only hope she enjoyed it as much as I did. I quickly learned that the signs at the airport, though in English as well as Chinese, can only give you a vague idea of where you need to be going. Luckily for me, people told me I was going the wrong direction before I could actually get lost. Once I found my gate I got out my laptop to see if I could email or Skype my mom again. Unfortunately I couldn't read the greeting page, so I wasn't able to figure out how to get to their internet.

I slept for the entire flight from Beijing to Xi'an, so there's really nothing to say about this. I only woke up long enough to let the flight attendant know I didn't want any food. Two our flights are easy now.

By the time I finally got to Xi'an I was mostly in a sleep deprived daze. From the arrival gate it was a generally straight walk to baggage pickup and the exit. It took a little bit to find the people who were there to pick me up. I was even beginning to worry that they either had the wrong time (not my fault) or hadn't shown up. It turns out that there was another baggage pickup farther down the airport and out of sight and they had been looking for me there. Once they (Sara and Summer) found me they took me to the Kid Castle bus (van) and we drove to my apartment. I don't know what it was, but the highway into Xi'an just looked so strangely foreign. Maybe it was all the street lights or just the way people outside of America drive, but it just felt weird. Or it might have just been the fact that I had less than eight hours total sleep in the past three days.

My apartment is nicer than I expected. It's on the fifth floor and has a nice view of the other apartment buildings. There is actually some greenery if you look down from my bedroom window, so that's a bonus I wasn't expecting. I don't think it's been in use for a while, so there's a lot of dust on the floor in the living room. I'm told that my roommate moves in next week. I'm hoping to have enough time to clean up a bit so it looks nicer for her (I think it's a girl) arrival. I don't have internet access or television yet, but hopefully that will get fixed soon. I was right about the bathtub. The shower is connected right onto the bathroom wall. Like Costa Rica the water is electrically heated, but it's in a separate heater so it's not going to zap anyone. We got my bed set up. I love it because it's bigger than my bed at home. It's hard as a rock, but my bed at home was too so I like it.

Day One
Summer came and got me at about 10:30. BUSY DAY AHEAD! First we walked to the nearest Kid Castle (There are four in Xi'an apparently.) This place is awesome! I wish my kindergarten could have been as cool. I can tell already that I'm going to love this. For about two hours I was given a tour of the building and had a chance to email my mom. The kids seem to be happy, and my arm was tired from waving to them so much by the second classroom.

After the tour, Summer and I went to open up my bank account. It went pretty well, but I wasn't able to deposit $60 because the bills had some tiny tears, or were too folded. They didn't want to risk the machine not taking them or something. I dunno. We ended up having to walk about 3 blocks to another branch of the bank just to get the currency exchanged. I got my bank card though. Really quickly actually. So that's nice. It can be used anywhere too, so I can hold onto it once (if) I return to the U.S..

During the walk to the second bank, I had my picture taken. I guess I needed more face photos for the residence permit. Cost of photos... About $1.50

After the bank and the photos, we grabbed a cab and went to get me a cell phone. So far this is the most expensive thing I've bought while here. I can tell already that Chinese people love their cells. While she was helping me choose one, it took her a while to realize that I didn't want a supergreat phone, but wanted something better than a 200 yuan ($30) phone. I finally settled on a 698 yuan (Bit over $100) phone. I was nervous about how much the plan would cost, but it wasn't that much. The SIM chip was 100 yuan, and the plan is only 15 yuan a month .10 yuan per minute. They were able to switch it over to English which is nice, since I don't speak or read any Chinese at this point.

On the way back to my apartment, we stopped off at the Lotus Supercenter. I didn't get to see all of it, but it looks like a mall and a Walmart rolled into one. There we picked up some basic things I'd need. Food, plates/bowls/cups and basic silverware. There are a couple things I forgot, but I can get those today.

We took the stuff back to my place and then we went to dinner. I have come to realize that food here is spicy, and I'll need to get used to it. Jonna, if you read this, I know how much you like spicy food. You need to come up to Xi'an some time. Everything here is hot. They even serve the water hot! I can't tell how much hot you think is hot, but I think you would love the food here.

After the long day I was happy to get back to my apartment (I love saying that. MY apartment.) and take a hot shower. I was sleepy by that point and just went to sleep. Today sounds like more of the same, but I can't wait.

Observations, Mundane and Otherwise:
1. They have corn flavored candy here. not Candy corn like back home that tastes nothing like corn. this stuff is in the shape of corn, and it tastes like corn. I don't get it. Why corn? WHY?!
2. The pollution here is bad. It's one thing to expect it and another thing to see it. From my bedroom window, I can't see more than four blocks or so. After that it's a foggy wall of gray. Also, almost everything outside is dusty. There's little to no trash on the ground, and everything is very neat, but it's almost all dusty.
3. All of the police and security people I've seen have about the same uniform. It will take a while before I can tell the difference between one and the other.
4. In Jonna's blog, I've seen her mention how many excess employees stores and restaurants have. She was underexaggerating. At the phone place, there were about 3 people per phone brand. At the restaurant, there were three (I saw a fourth show up later) women at the door to greet us. Just that. Their jobs were to all stand there and great people. Walmarts back in the U.S. had a person to do this, but they were also partial security. We also had three waitresses. Lots of overkill.
5. I've been told that Nolan is hard to pronounce. (The trick to saying it correctly is not caring how the "an" part sounds.) I told Summer that she can just call me James (My middle name.) since that's easier to say. I'll tell other people, but I have no idea how it will go.
6. I wasn't able to find any cereal at the grocery store. No Trix. No Captain Crunch. Not even Frosted Flakes. This could be very bad. Summer didn't know what cereal was either, so my my looking for something other than oatmeal could be in vain.
7. Milk comes in bags. I had milk bags back in grade school, but I haven't had any for a while. Later today I'll find out what Jujube milk tasted like. It has some sort of fruit on the bag, so maybe it will be like a cherry or something.
8. I was tall before, but now I'm a freaking giant. I'll have to get used to bending over to listen to people. Summer, at least, is a very quite talker.

Today:
Today, Sarah (I think) will soon be coming to get me. We're going to a different one of the Kid Castle schools. There I'll get to sit in on a class given by one of the other foreign teachers. After that we'll go and get my residence permit, and pick up a couple more things for my apartment.

The Moment of Reckoning is at Hand!

This Sunday I leave for Xi'an It is now a race against time to get my room cleaned out, and my things packed up. I can't take much with me, but I still don't want to leave my mom with more of a mess than usual.

Despite the fact that I've been waiting for this for almost a year now, I'm pretty much speechless. have no idea what to say. I may make an update if I can get wi-fi in the airport, but aside from that, my next post might very well be made from China.

Wish me luck.

Back to packing and cleaning.

Hooray! Hooray! It's Update Day!

Visa Status! I had to go to the post office to get my work permit and letter of invitation. (This is basically my part of the paperwork for the visa) DHL doesn't actually deliver out to the middle of nowhere that is my home. They handed the package (It was really just a big cardboard envelope) over the the regular post office to deliver. It would have arrived last Saturday (The 4th), but because the Saturday drivers are usually lazy temps, they didn't feel it was necessary to leave a note saying that they were to lazy to walk the 50 feet to our house to delive the very important papers. It took a bit of internet searching, and a couple phone calls (Mostly on my moms part. Thanks Mom!) to find all this out. So Thursday I went out in the morning to pick up the papers from the post office. After that comes going to the Embassy in D.C. to turn in the papers and get the actual visa. (I'm not sure what it will look like. I'm assuming it will jsut be a fancy stamp in my passport like my Costa Rica tourist visa was.)

So later Thursday, I booked a hotel room and drove the 4-5 hours to just outside D.C. The reason I spent the night is that I had to get the papers in to the embassy by 12:30 on Friday, in order for them to get all the papers and bureaucratic stuff done and get it back to me on Friday. So I spent the night in a Motel 6 outside of D.C. I should have picked a different one, because there was a freaking train that went by the place five times that night! FIVE ****ing times! I did not sleep well. I gave myself an extra hour of sleep-in time to make up for the train's rude awakenings. This was a bad move on my part, but it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.

I got up on Friday at about 9:00. This is really early for me. After the UHC work ended, I immediately reverted back to my old sleep schedule of 4am to noon. So I woke up 9, got a shower/dressed/etc. Google Maps had done fine getting me to the hotel, but they didn't work in the least at getting me to the embassy. they didn't even get me into the city. By 11:30 I had made it into the city but was completely lost. I ended up parking in a random public garage and taking a taxi. I managed to get to the embassy in time, but I hadn't counted on the two hour wait before I could turn in my papers. From what I've read in other blogs, I'll be doing a lot of waiting in lines in China. I hope they aren't as bad as this. The Chinese embassy made a trip to the DMV seem pleasant. Luckily my mp3 player has a long battery, and I was able to fall asleep in my chair for a good portion of the wait. Waiting is actually very easy if you have some music and it's long enough for you to get in a quick nap. Once my number was called, I went up and turned in my papers. This took all of 3 minutes. I can only imaging what everyone in front of me was doing that took them so long.

Because I wasn't able to turn them in, I have to wait till Wednesday to pick up my visa. Why do I have to wait five days? Embassy is closed on weekends. The nit's closed Monday for Columbus Day, because we all know how important Columbus was to the Chinese. I have a dentist appointment on Tuesday. And so I'm going to drive for about 10 hours on Wednesday to D.C. and back to get what will hopefully be the last thing I need to finish before I can finally leave.

Seperate post to keep it away from the geekiness.

I got an email from Kid Castle last night. It turns out the reason my visa hasn't arrived yet is because DHL can't find my house. I wasn't really expecting something that simple(stupid) from holding everything back. I guess I just need to remind myself that if something can happen, it will happen.

I'm not too surprised though. DHL doesn't usually come around here. It's mostly UPS and FedEx.

Very Lucky Geek

They actually came! I was laughing hysterically for moment there. I really did expect them to come, but to see them in reality is a whole 'nother thing. And I didn't even have to pay a cent!



What you are looking at is over $400 worth of miniatures, that I got for free because the company that made them put the wrong price on the website.

Oh happy day!

I'm Such a Freaking Nerd

Someone posted this image on a certain forum I go to.



I bought two.

The chances of bringing one of these to China with me is slim to none, but still... Opportunities like this don't come around every day. I just hope they ship it out before they notice the price on it.

For those of you who see sunlight enough not to know what this is, Warhammer 40,000 is is a tabletop miniatures futuristic combat game. (Feel free to arange all those adjectives to whatever order makes most sense for you.) Remember those little green army men you had as a child? It's like that but with actual rules instead of just throwing rocks at your friends line of men.

So yeah. I'm a real geek. Anime. D&D. Warhammer. I have all the bases covered.

People tell me that I'm good with kids. I think it's just that I never grew up too begin with.

In which I Ramble on the Topic of Books

Since most of my friends have gone off to college, back to school, or just away, I've been at home bored a lot. Most of this time I've spent watching anime and reading. But mostly reading. I read a lot as it is, but I've really been burning through them since August. I started up the Wheel of Time series last month, and I'm about to finish book eleven. I'm sort of racing myself to see how fast I can get through the series. I've been reading them so much I've often gone to sleep and dreamed that I was still reading the book. I usually wake up right after that dream, fumbling around for the book in the dark. Then I realize it was a dream and I go back to sleep.

My boss from the hospital job lent me an interesting book last week, that I finished today. (Gotta have some light reading to take your mind of the heavier stuff. :D) The book was Mustang Man. Normally I'm not one for westerns, but I was actually named for the main character of this book, Nolan Sackett. My brother was even named after his brother, Logan Sackett. This is the first time I've gotten a chance to read it and I rather enjoyed it. I doubt that I'll read any other L'Amour books, but this was sort of a necessity. What's funny is that Jim (My boss) accidentally called me Logan once, because he got my name mixed up with my brother's. The funny part is that he didn't even know I had a brother. It just kind of snuck in there because he liked the Sackett books. So far he's the only one I've met who's known about them.

I'm kind of bummed. I've been a big fan of R. A. Salvatore's Drizzt series for a good many years now. I've read one of the books so many times the cover has fallen off. Others I've had to replace entirely from the amount of wear. The thing that's driving me crazy, is that the next book in the current series comes out in October. Just a week or two after I leave for China. The idea of leaving a series unfinished is quite atrocious to me. I can't do it. I wont. Either I'm going to have to find a good foreign book store in Xi'an, or my mom is going to have to mail me a copy. I'm not waiting till next summer to read that book. I've already waited a year. Another is too much.

Once I start packing I'm going to have to think of what to do with all my books. I've got entire bookcase for my manga (Japanese comics/graphic novels) alone. I need to start getting some boxes. Big ones.

Finally

Five months after I got my certification, things are finally coming together. I just got an email saying that the school received my Z Visa (Chinese working visa) and they'll be sending it to me right away. This is good timing because my temp work at the hospital ends tomorrow. Now if I can sell my car soon, everything will be just peachy.

This picture most acurately describes how I feel right now.

Soon Soon Soon

So here's what's been going on for me in the whole visa thing.

It seems that the main office of the school kept having trouble reaching me. Now the branch school in Xi'an is working on it themselves. They've been great about it, and I've been getting emails from them about every other day. They always seem to need me to scan a new paper or send them another one of my documents. But this is good. It means they're doing things. Today I got a message saying that they should have my visa within 10-15 days. That's farther away than I expected, but it's still pretty close. Now I can give my two weeks notice and maybe sell my car too. One of my friends has already offered to buy it, so that makes it a lot easier for me.

Blog Updates are Good Luck

Just got back from work. One of the first things I do anymore is check my email for any news about my visa and the job. Today I got an email from the manager (Principal? Vice Principal?) at Kid Castle, the school I'll be teaching at. She also gave me the email address of a guy from South Africa who has been teaching there for a year now. Now I can ask someone some actual questions about the school. The school has been very brief in the answers they've given me before. I'm sure their English is better in person, but the emails they send me look like they were typed by a 14 year old on AIM.

Either way, Blogger is good luck for me some how. It seems like I usually get an email or news within a day or so of posting an entry or leaving a comment. If this keeps up, I'll be posting every day. :P

Emofriend's Emo Post About How Emo He Is.

I'm lonely.

Everything is changing, but I'm at a standstill. Like the wait at the beginning of a roller coaster before it makes the first plunge. My brother left for college last week. Tomorrow, my best friend is going back to college. My mom just sold our main television.

And I still haven't gotten word about my work visa. I'm hoping that I'll get a phone call or email or anything over the weekend. I'm going to send them an email either way. I want out of here.

Work has taken up most of the time, but it really drains my energy. I've been falling asleep at about 9:30 lately. Nine freaking thirty! I used to stay up past midnight on a regular basis! Other than that I've been reading through the Wheel of Time series so fast I'm surprised I haven't gotten paper cuts. That and massive amounts of anime. Eitehr way I'm mostly confining myself to my room. My mom used to tell me to get out more often, but she has come to realize how little there is to actually do around here. The highlight of my week is when I go to Denny's with some of my friends.

Ok.

Being emo sucks, but I had to get that out.

Feel free to return to whatever it was that you were doing.