I think I've Overdosed on Music

I've gone to KTV four nights in a row now. I can't remember the last time I got a full night of sleep.

For those of you who have never been to KTV, it's karaoke. You go with some friends, and rent a private room to sing in. They have nice big screens, tambourines, and plenty of snacks. It's a blast.

But going four nights in a row is too much. Especially when you don't get back till 6 AM.

It's really taken time out of our plans for visiting things around the city.

Since I'm flying back to Xi'an tomorrow, here's another quick update before I can put some pictures on here.

Day Three and a Half: CNY Eve

The Chinese New Year is simply spectacular. In America we set off lots of little fireworks, and go see some bigger ones at shows done by professionals. It doesn't work that way here. As soon midnight hit, the streets lit up with people setting off firecrackers, sparklers, and anything else that went boom. At times I saw people place big red boxes the size of a computer case in the road and proceed to blast large rockets into the sky. For almost an hour there was a constant din of explosions and bangs. There's no way half the things we lit on fire would have been legal to blow up in the US. 

After that we went to the first KTV with a couple Chinese backpackers. That was a lot of fun. Little did I know it was the first night of many.

Day Four: Mexican Food

We spent most of the New Years day recovering from the night before, This would become a common practice for the next couple days. The only interesting event today was that we went to a nice Mexican Restaurant. More KTV followed that night. We went with a Dutch guy we met at the Hostel along with two girls from Australia. Saffron got very drunk.

Day Five: The Sichuan Opera

Once again, we spent most of the morning recovering from the previous night. That evening Saffron and I went to see the Sichuan Opera with Robert. It was more like a variety show than an opera. It started off with some instrumental music, then went to singing, comedic acting, acrobatics, and finally the famous face changing. The face changing was probably one of the coolest things I've ever seen on stage. The performers come out wearing bright outfits and a mask. What's amazing though is that with a simple wave of the hand, their masks change faster than the eye can see. Sometimes they don't even move. You can see any motion at all. The mask is just different. Or gone all together. They let people take photos and videos, so I'll be sure to put small video of it up. It really has to be seen.

More KTV that night. This time Robert came as well as our friends form the previous night. Saffron got very drunk again and tried to drag us to ANOTHER KTV after the one we were at closed for the night. (Or morning since it was 5 AM.)

Day Six: Rest and Net Bars

Slept in. Got to tell Saffron about the previous night. (It's always fun being the most sober.) She promised we wouldn't go to KTV again that night and that we would just rest at the hostel. I went to the Net Bar down the street to have a bit better Internet access. When I came back to the hostel, Saffron introduced me to two Dutch girls and informed me that her earlier statement had been a complete and utter lie.

We went to KTV again that night. We decided to go to a new KTV this time, to give the people at the first one a break from us, and because this one was open 24/7. I left at about 6AM with the Dutch girls because I needed to sleep, and they had to go to see the pandas later.

Day Seven: Today

Saffron woke me up at about noon. Apparently she hadn't slept and had made a new friend when she got back to the hostel. Saffron and Helen (Our new friend for the day) were getting ready to go to a local temple, and decided that I had had enough sleep.

The temple was pretty, but was very touristy. Nothing like what I expected from a Buddhist temple. They had a vegetarian restaurant and tea house, along with a little souvenir stand by the entrance. Oh well. I guess they have to get their funding somehow. For as many people were in their walking around, it was fairly quite and peaceful. I'd like to see one of the temples in Xi'an to see how they differ.

Once I'm done writing this post, I'll be going with Saffron and Helen to see a lantern festival at a nearby park. I hear some of the lanterns are as big as a car.

We'll see how this goes.

Chengdu: Three Days In

Saffron are in Chengdu. Right now we're just chilling out at a net bar. Heaven forbid we spend more than a day without Internet access. I don't have a card reader to post pictures, so that will have to wait till Friday.

Friday, Day One:

We left the apartment at about 1:30 and took a taxi to the airport bus stop, hoping to make it there before the bus left at 2:00. We didn't. It worked out though. We found a very enthusiastic taxi driver who took us and a Chinese man to the airport for 30 kuai each. It was only 4 kuai more than the bus, and we probably got there faster. We ate some snacks at the airport and went to the flight gate. This is the first time I've gotten on a plane that wasn't loading from the actual terminal. We had to get on a little shuttle buss and drive all of 100 feet to the plane. Safety issues, I know, but it was still funny that we needed to drive that far to the plane.

The plane ride was was. I love short rides, because I can sleep most of the way. I think I only woke up long enough to groggily eat the in-flight peanuts and take a sip of water.

Although the directions to the hostel from the airport were very good, we managed to get lost about three times. The people at the hostel were very patient with us whenever we called and asked for help getting there. When we got there at about 9:00 we checked in, put our stuff in our room, and had our dinner around some cozy fires and chatted with some of the other travelers.

Saturday, Day Two:

We met a cool guy from England around the "campfires" the night before. Robert, said guy, came with us to wander around Chengdu. We started off with a nice walk to see the statue of Chairman Mao. It was quite impressive. I wish This computer had a card reader, because I would love to post pictures now. They'll have to wait till Friday night when I get home.

After we saw the Mao Statue, it was off to the Mao Museum. It was hardly a museum, but in it's own way that made it even more impressive. It was located down a back alley street, and we actually walked past it once thinking it was just some guys house. Which it was. The Mao Museum is what you get if you take all the old nicknacks and junk out of your grandmothers house and put them into a small shack the size of my living room. (Not you Grandmom. Your house is very clean.) The Mao Museum is run by an old man who simply likes to show off his collection of old Mao badges and communist paraphernalia. He was quite friendly, and was more than happy to let us wander around while he sat in his little wooden chair by the door. It cost us 5 kuai to get in, and another 5 to take pictures, though I think he made up the price on the spot. Just when we left his weird friend showed up, sporting no less than 5 Mao badges himself. They were quite nice, and were very happy to get their pictures taken as well. The whole place had a very cozy feel to it, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to go to Chengdu.

We didn't have any specific destination in mind when we wandered around and ended up at The People's Park. I'm always amazed when people can put a park in the middle of the city, and design it so well, you forget you're actually IN a city. The Peoples park does a great job of this. It's mostly a lot of stone paths and tea houses, but there's a nice lake in the middle and we were able to rent a boat for only 20 kuai. We spent about an hour rowing around the central area and the smaller canals on the edge.

After the People's Park, we were dead tired, and went back to the hostel for a nap and some more food. We tried to find a club later that night, but because of the Spring Festival coming up, it closed early, and we weren't able to find it.

Sunday, Day Three:

PANDAS ARE SO CUTE! We had to wake up early to take the tour, and it was colder than a freezer outside, but it was worth it. We went with Robert, and a couple other people from the hostel to the Chengdu Panda Base. I had heard complaints from some people that the pandas were quite lazy, and were often sleeping when they went to see them, but we must have been lucky today, because almost all of them were up and about. Well, up and eating at least. They're still quite lazy. We saw some of the young pandas. Four of them were sitting on a large wooden platform munching away at bamboo. They moved as little as possible, but unlike a sloth, they were simply lazy and didn't feel like putting the effort into getting more food.

We only got a glimpse of the giant pandas, but what really made the day worth it was the baby pandas. The tour guide said they were about five months old, and they were adorable. There were two wooden cages for the baby pandas to climb around and play in, and the made the most of it. There were four in each cage and one off in a pen by himself. Words can hardly describe how great they were so I'll leave that for the pictures later.

Now that we've returned from the pandas, we've showered, napped, and gone to this net bar. In a minute, we will return to the hostel for a dumpling party. Good Times. Good Times.

Away I Go!

For the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) Saffron and I will be going down to Chengdu. We'll be there a week, staying at a hostel, doing tourist things, and having fun.

I'm not taking my computer, but there should be one at the hostel, so I'll keep you updated. I promise to take lots of pictures.

Not Sure How This Happened

Nobody drinks the tap water here. Everyone has one of these little water coolers (that heats the water instead). Whenever you run out, you just call the number on the jug, and a guy will come and deliver a new bottle. When he comes, he puts these little plastic wraps over his feet, comes inside, wipes off the nozzle of the new bottle, wipes off the hole it goes into, and just generally wipes down the entire thing. He puts the new jug in, and you pay him. Normally it costs about 6 or 7 kuai for a bottle, you can buy cheaper tickets in bulk, and just use them instead of the kuai.

Normally, when you call for more water, they just use your phone number to tell where you live, but it doesn't work that well for us. Saffron ordered water today, and left me to make sure someone was home when it arrived. Normally, it will arrive here after a couple hours, depending on when you order.

For some reason, however, our water always ends up going to Dane's place. Twice now that we've ordered more it has been delivered to him. I was actually on the phone with him when it got there.

Me: I'll take you to the package place later. It's easy to give directions there, but hard to find.

Dane: Ok. Hold on, there's someone coming up the stairs. I just buzzed them in.

Me: It's probably my water. Saffron ordered some today. I bet it got delivered to your place by accident.

Dane: Yeah. It's a guy with water. I'll try and direct him to your place. *Inaudible Chinese* There. Hopefully he'll be at your place in a bit.

He got here about 15 minutes later, looking somewhat annoyed. Probably from climbing up and down the six flights of stairs to Danes place. That's twice now that this has happened. I think I'll start keeping count until it stops.

Not Such a Superstar

I didn't get to sing yesterday. But I did get some free food.

Eric came to pick up Saffron and myself at about nine in the morning. From there we went to the Jin Du School to pick up Maya, a Chinese teacher for Jin Yuan and Sara's school. After that it was about a 30 minute car ride to get to the north part of inside the walls.

On the way, we were finally told that we would be singing for the awards ceremony to some "Oral English" contest. When we arrived it was freezing cold out, so we ran inside the auditorium... Where the heating was turned off... We stood around for a couple minutes and were then told that we would only be singing Tian Mi Mi, because they weren't able to find something they needed for us to sing Country Roads. I know it wasn't the music they couldn't get because we were practicing it on the car ride over.

In the middle of my pacing to keep warm, Maya got Saffron and I and took us on stage so we could practice Tian Mi Mi. It didn't go that well. At the time I still needed to look at the lyrics every other line. which I still do for the most part.) Saffron sang this song at the Christmas production for Sara's school so she already knew the words. The sound system kept giving us bad feedback, and they ended up cutting us off half way through. I guess they knew what they needed and didn't want to listen to the noise anymore. As far as the singing went, I'd say it was decent.

Once we were done, Eric had disappeared and Maya told us that he had given her money  for us to go out to eat lunch. For the reason that it was close by, and that Eric had given her plenty of money, we went to Pizza Hut. 

Pizza Hut here is nothing like in the US. It's actually considered a fancy restaurant. And in  weird way it is. It's nothing like the ones back home. In the US Pizza Hut is considered to be fast food. Higher quality fast food, but fast food all the same. Here, it's a full blown restaurant. Nice jazz music playing, menus with more than just pizza, real cheese on the pizza, and a large bill. Did I mention that I didn't have to pay for any of it?

We ate our lunch and sat around at the table for a while because we didn't want to go back out in the cold. When we were all finished with all the food we could pretend to finish eating, we decided to go for a walk around the Parkson. This could just be my country folk upbringing, but I've never seen a Parkson before, much less heard of it. Whether it's an expensive Chinese store with an English name, or a foreign store that has high prices in China, it's a fancy place that normally requires a membership card to enter. (Which Maya had.) We walked around and stared at the clothes with the expensive price tags. I'll never understand why you buy a more expensive brand when you can get the same quality for less than half the price somewhere else.

That was when Maya got a call from Eric. It turned out that the actual awards presentation would take to long, that we wouldn't have time to sing. Oh well. I didn't know the words that well anyway. Maya had to go back to the auditorium to return some things, so Saffron went home, and I went to walk around the Muslim Quarter before I returned home.

It was a nice day.  I didn't have to teach any classes, and I got free pizza. Always nice.

What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

When I was called to Eric's office today during break I thought it was to discuss how I have a short CNY vacation than the other teachers.

It wasn't.

Somehow I was asked to (and agreed to) sing two songs for some regional government education people on Friday with Saffron. (Who hasn't been asked yet.) One of them is in Chinese! I can barely order apple juice at a fast food restaurant, and they want me to learn an entire sing in Chinese. In less than three days!

Saffron and Chris had to learn this song for their Christmas play last month, but they had a lot more time to practice. I'm on my break right now, and one of the receptionists put Tian Mi Mi, the song, on the computer next o me to help me learn it.

If you can't tell by my rambling text here, I'm kinda nervous.

For the English song, I'm thinking of singing Country Roads. Mostly because it's a song that seems to be known world-round. And it's easy.

One of my Greatest Fears

It almost happened yesterday, and I'm even more nervous about it because of that.

It's a common occurrence. At the beginning or end of a class, a bunch of the kids will occasionally rush up and start grabbing/hugging/punching me. When this happens I have to be very careful not to fall on them. With that many five-year-olds latched on to you, it's very easy to lose your balance.

That's what happened yesterday. At beginning of class, practically as soon as I walk in the room, I'm swarmed by half the kids in the room. They quickly formed a little circular mob around me, and almost every one had a vice grip hold on me. Two or three kids is normally no problem, but this many caused a bit of trouble With that many kids all moving around and jostling me, I lost my balance and fell.

I was lucky that I saw it coming. Having all the kids holding on to me helped slow the fall enough that I was able to catch myself in a sort of push-up position, keeping me up enough that I didn't land on any of the kids. I'm a pretty tall person, so landing on a kid is probably a good way of sending someone to the nurses office at the very least.

I did catch myself though, and it ended up with all of us in a pile on the floor by the door. They all thought it was funny, but the teacher was a bit nervous. (Probably more for me than for the kids.) I was paranoid the rest of the class, and would crouch down to brace myself if any of the  kids even looked like they want to so much as touch me.

I've been afraid of falling on the kids since Day One. Hopefully if this happens again, which I'm sure it will, I'll be able to prevent any injuries.

Different Schools

One of the other teachers has been away getting married over the holidays, so I've been covering his classes at Sara's school to pick up a bit of extra spending money. This has been my irst time teachign at one of the evening schools, and it's very different from what I'm used to.

1. The classes are longer. Instead of the 20-25~ minute race of a class at the kindergartens, the evening schools have nice 45 minute classes, so I actually have time to teach a bit more than just a couple flash cards. Sometimes it's a bit difficult trying to make a 45 minute class for three words and a little poem, but once it get's going it's a lot of fun. I really have time to interact with the kids too.

2. The kids are older. The age of the kindergaten students is anywhere from 2-7. At the evening school, it's more of 6-11. I can actually comunicate with the kids on a regular level. I love it.  I got to talk to one of the smarter kids for about 10 minutes about a cartoon we had both seen. While we couldn't go into great detail, we were able to gether enough of what the other was talking about from both having a good knowledge of the show.

3. There are less classes, and less kids per class. The Greenland school has about nine classes with anywhere from 10 kids in the baby class, to 30 in the senior class. At last count, there's around 170 kids in that school, and I teach all of them. At Keji, there are usually only 8 to 14 kids, and much less classes. And with the extra time, I can actually remember a lot of their names.

It's a large difference between the two types of schools. I've still got till November before my contract ends, and I'll probably stay longer, so I wonder how many more times I'll end up teaching there.

Happy New Year

My New Years Resolutions (In no particular order):

1. Grow back my goatee. I gave into peer pressure last night and shaved it at midnight. The only reason I agreed is so that once it grows back I can say exactly to the minute, how long I've had it.

2. Become better at Chinese. Saffron's Chinese is getting better at an amazing rate. I'm jealous. She is able to practice a lot more than me, but I'm still not putting enough effort into it. I resolve to change this.

3. Be more proactive. I need to go out and meet more people. I want to make some Chinese friends on my own instead of just waiting for Saffron or Dane to introduce me to one of theirs. (Although this HAS worked out fine so far.)

4. Clean more. I do my share of the cleaning, but every once in a while Saffron just goes on a cleaning binge and I feel like I don't do enough to help. I'm going to clean more and make sure that I don't cause all the mess in the first place.

5. Study. I'm saving up for some online college classes so that I can finally get my degree. Buckling down and studying is something that I've always had trouble doing, so I resolve to study more. I love China, but I do intend to go to another country eventually, so I'll need a BA degree. I need to study more.

People always make resolutions that they know they'll never keep, but I think that these are both possible, and accomplishable. I hope everyone has a good new year and makes some resolutions that they can follow through with.