The Scandalous and Daring Adventures of Rusty Childers

New Website

2010-04-27T10:41:00.002+08:00

I've got a new author website here, with a weekly serial-format story!

Goddard MFA in Writing

2010-02-16T03:47:00.003+08:00

So it's done, my first residency as a graduate student. All I can say is wow. I knew what to expect; I knew how amazing it would be, and how crazy. But actually doing it, participating as a student is so much more powerful than working for it behind the scenes.

Goddard has it's shit together. It has great faculty, and a great student body. Pacific University will always be my first MFA (with my first group of graduate peers, even if I was only an honorary member), but Goddard is my MFA program and a completely different experience.

And my brain feels like porridge. Too much input. But the rest of me feels ready to go; whereas the Pacific MFA left me so physically exhausted (because my purpose there was not as a student, but as a gopher) that I could barely walk afterward.

Now I wait for Andy to pick me up from Port Townsend, so I can have a little vacation within a vacation before heading back to Korea and the next 4 months. My first packet is due March 8th. I've got a good start on the creative bits already, and I'll hit Powell's tomorrow and get started on the 15 books I need to read this term. I can't wait.

Tis the Season; Oh Blog How I Missed Thee, Etc.

2009-12-17T13:39:00.003+08:00

So my mother says I should blog more. And not about music or movies or anything like that. She wants to hear about adventures and my kids and coworkers. Well, since this does have "Scandalous and Daring Adventures" in the title, she has a point.

The reason I've not been blogging lately is because I have been extremely busy. I've written quite a bit on the fantasy novel, got some short story work going, and I've been working off-an-on on Matrika. I'm going to Goddard's low-residency MFA in Writing in Port Townsend, WA in February. While I'm back, I'll visit folks in Oregon and be sociable too.

I also scored a really cool gig being a freelance writer for Catalyst Game Labs, working on their Shadowrun team. No assignments yet, but I'm really looking forward to working on such an awesome game.

I've also set my last bit of vacation for the beginning of July. My last work day will be July 2nd, and then I leave Korea (perhaps for good!) and travel to Japan for a week so I can climb Mt. Fuji before heading back to the States. I'll arrive just in time for my residency, then settle in Portland for what I hope to be a long, long time of drinking good beer, savoring good coffee, and eating good Mexican food with my lovely peeps back home.

Tomorrow, my best buddy Andy is coming for a week long visit, which is going to be OMGAwesome. So all, in all, things are grand. So grand, I'll probably spend another month or two not blogging. But I'll try. Really.

The List

2009-09-30T10:36:00.004+08:00

I saw on NPR's website today that Rosanne Cash, the daughter of the late music legend Johnny Cash, is releasing a new album called "The List"--covers of 12 (13 if you order off of iTunes) classic songs in the country/folk genre. The name refers to the list of 100 songs that her father told her she needed to listen to in order to become a proper country artist. The album includes "Motherless Children" and "500 Miles" as well as renditions of "Sea of Heartbreak" (featuring Bruce Springsteen) and "Long Black Veil"(featuring Jeff Tweedy). You can hear all of the tracks, even the bonus iTunes track ("Satisfied Mind" featuring Neko Case) on NPR's website until October 6th, when the album releases.

I really like the idea of the album, and Rosanne Cash is a solid, classic country artist that gets the feel of things right. But I can't get over that her voice is just a little too clear, sounds too good. I keep wanting a little more soulfulness, a little more imperfection in it. That was one of the things that made her father's music so great: his voice was rough and lived in.

One of the great moments of living in a foreign country is the connection expats can make through music. It seems like everyone in the world knows the words to "Hotel California" by the Eagles and "Country Road" by John Denver. People who don't speak a word of actual English can sing those songs by heart, especially in an expat bar, especially after a few drinks. It doesn't matter if you are in China, Korea, or Thailand, when one of these or a select list of similar classic songs comes on, the entire bar stands and sings, straining their lungs. It doesn't matter if they can sing: these few songs, sung together, transcend music.

There was a party at some friends' apartment a couple of weeks ago, and when the Chieftain's rendition (with Mike Jagger) of "Long Black Veil" came on the iPod that served for the stereo, every got up and started singing along. It was one of my better experiences in Korea. It creates a moment of togetherness in what otherwise is a very strange place. So even though I think Rosanne Cash's new album doesn't quite hit the right sound as I imagine most of these songs, I'm buying it anyway. The idea is just too good to pass up.

I HEART Korean TV

2009-08-03T10:47:00.009+08:00

The following video is of a Korean TV commercial for what appears to be something that reduces stress, increases sperm count and sex drive, shrinks your prostate, and cleans out your urinary track by turning your penis into a howitzer. The full thing was nearly five minutes long, and somehow involved teepees and Chief Sitting Bull at one point. Ah, Korea.

I have mentioned this before, I think, but there are also TWO television stations that show video game competitions of Starcraft, a computer game that is well over 10 years old. People can win up to $10,000 playing in these competitions, with live studio audiences, giggling fan-girls, and the biggest names in Korean pop stars performing between matches. Cra-zy. They also show other games, such as first-person shooter Sudden Attack hints and industry news similar to the station G4 in the States, but mostly it is Starcraft 24-7.

Koreans, as far as I can tell, do not play football as we Americans think of it; but they do seem to have a fascination with it. This is especially true since the Steelers were in the Super Bowl. Hines Ward is half-Korean, and he has captured the imagination of Koreans in a strange, new way.

Daegu

2009-07-13T14:34:00.004+08:00

Made it in last night. The flight itself wasn't too bad. Just long, and coupled with the lack of sleep from the night before, very tiring.

Looks like I'm in a nice neighborhood. I arrived to a clean apartment with fresh milk, OJ, a bottle of water, and Korean frosted flakes waiting for me. All new pots, pans, and dishes. My old stuff I left in storage when I left Gwangju. And best of all, a nice bed.

Today I walked around the area a bit, got to know it. Bought soap, shampoo, toothpaste. Found a coffee shop where I could swipe some free wifi. Chatted with a good friend from home. Sent my mom and email.

I start training tomorrow. So far, so good, it seems. People around here seem nice. They don't stare at foreigners.

Not the best day ever

2009-06-07T16:07:00.003+08:00

No grad school. The US Department of Education doesn't allow Stafford loans for programs at foreign schools unless it is full-time on campus. I can't get a private loan. No funding means no school. Basically I'm fucked.

China Trip, Continued

2009-06-07T15:57:00.004+08:00

After Wenzhou, I went to Hangzhou and visited my friend Penny. I had a wonderful time, easily the best of my trip in China.

Then it was off to Beijing, where I did the typical touristy things--the Great Wall and the Forbidden City--but I also relaxed a bit too, since I was starting to run short on cash and Beijing was much more expensive than I was expecting. I did take an overnight jaunt to Tai Shan, the holiest mountain in Taoism, but otherwise spent my time at Happy Dragon Hostel. This is easily the coolest hostel in the world, with great staff and comfortable rooms. Food was pretty good too.

Tai Shan is quite a climb: 11 kilometers of stairs straight up the mountain. I did it though! It took 8 hours, and I was exhausted, but it was worth it. Not because of the temples at the top (which were staffed with bored government employees), but because the effort of the climb was satisfying.

Then it was back to Beijing for a couple of days before traveling to Nehe for Jorge and Jessie's wedding. I went up with one of Jessie's childhood friends, a lawyer named Rose. She was really nice, and helpful too. But it was 24 hours on a train. That was less than fun.

The wedding was great. Jessie and Jorge have great families, and experiencing Catholic mass in Chinese was interesting. Also, since I was one of Jorge's best men (his younger brother also shared this role), it was my first wedding to actually be a part of the ceremony.

Then it was back to Beijing with Jorge and Jessie (and about half of Jessie's family, who got off on stops along the way) before catching a plane back to Portland... damn it was good to be back in the States after I arrived at Seatac airport in Seattle. The air is so clear in the Pacific NW, and so fresh. Sigh. It's been good seeing old friends too.

Portland's Greatness

2009-05-11T17:07:00.002+08:00

If there ever was a better advertisement for Portland, I've never seen it.

Check out the Frugal Traveler article from the New York Times. Yeah, I'm homesick, but it's still a great article.

Wenzhou: May 3-May 10

2009-05-05T11:34:00.003+08:00

I'm back in Wenzhou, spending a week with George and Jessie. It's been good seeing them again, and today I will venture out to Wenzhou Medical College to visit some of my former students (and again on Thursday). Looking forward to that.

I'll be heading to Hangzhou on Sunday, spending a few days there with another friend. I'm going to try to make those days heavy on relaxing and writing--I have 20 pages to write by June 12th for my upcoming residency at UBC! Ahhh!

Baxian

2009-04-26T01:54:00.006+08:00

Weird findings while researching Taoist Immortals: ancient trees, venerable clams, a Leonizing bird, and truly immortal creatures (and their cousins).

Ah, Wiki, how much I love you and your distractions.

Tree in Lung

2009-04-18T21:25:00.001+08:00

OK, this is fucking weird.

In News...

2009-04-06T00:24:00.004+08:00

Someone recently asked me if I was out of blogposts. I know it has been a while. But I was never particularly good maintaining a schedule.

Lots of things in the pipeline though: I am leaving Korea at the end of this month, and will be in China for May. I will hit Wenzhou for a week or so before moving on to see friends in Hangzhou, and then off to Beijing. I'll complete the trip by attending my good friends' George and Jessie's wedding outside of Harbin.

June will see me in Portland and environs. Got a lot of catching up to do in a short amount of time. July 5-15 I will be in Vancouver, BC for my residency. I got into University of British Columbia's low-residency MFA in Writing program!

Sometime the end of July I'll be back to Korea--this time in Daegu, South Korea's 3rd largest city. The new company I'm going to be working for sounds awesome (and pays more, better benefits, etc.), and I've already got a friend. One of Priya's good friends works for the school.

So that's what's going on. I've got a couple of posts I need to get together about kindergarten graduation, etc., so keep checking. I'll try to be a little more diligent about updating.

Cannibals and Splintered Languages

2009-02-10T23:19:00.003+08:00

OK, in a case of WTF?!, this news article from CNN. Amazonian Indians lured a local farmer back to his camp and ate him in a cannibalistic ritual. Then gloated about it. Of course, this could be told through the lens of the Brazilian villagers, but it certainly sounds fucked up.

Secondly, the Kulina Indians have an interesting language: the men and women speak different ones. The men are able to understand the women, but not communicate back to them in the "woman's language" (and I assume vice versa). Um, WTF? Why would a culture evolve that way? I can understand having a secret language known only to women (such as the Nushu language of Hunan, China), but not speaking the main language at all? Fucked up.

All the Colors of the Rainbow... and Then Some

2009-02-03T22:15:00.002+08:00

Interesting article about a pair of researches at the University of Rochester, who have developed a laser that can permanently change the color of a metal that is exposed to it by using a laser that "unleashes as much power as the entire electric grid of North America does, all focused onto a spot the size of a needlepoint." They can make gold aluminum, blue silver, pitch black whatever, and pretty much anything else. Since it changes the actual surface of the metal, it apparently won't ever fade either.

His Majesty's Dragon

2009-02-02T02:04:00.004+08:00

I find this book, by Naomi Novik, delightfully entertaining, even if at times it bears strange hints of gay inter-species erotica.

The story is of William Laurence, a minor English aristocrat and third son, who has become a captain in His Majesty's Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, aboard the Reliant. After taking a French frigate in battle, the captain discovers a dragon egg in its hold, and while unusual, bears no particular distinction other than a great bit of booty on the part of the English.

This version of history has Romans being the first power outside of Asia to "domesticate" dragons. I use the quotes here because dragons are presented as intelligent as people, so being domesticated isn't quite the right term. But in any case, any respectable nation of the world has an Aerial Corps of dragons and their riders.

A uniqueness to this book in the whole "dragon rider" concept is that the dragons are treated more like naval vessels than anything else. There are a myriad of breeds--some natural and some deliberately bred for certain traits (the book notes at one point that the Chinese have been breeding their dragons for deftness and intelligence for thousands of years, at the expense of powerful offensive abilities like breathing fire or acidic sprays)--and seem to correspond to equivalent 19th century navies. There are small, fast dragons that carry one or two riders, adept at relaying messages or scouting, and there are "heavy battle dragons" which more easily fit with ships-of-the-line and dreadnoughts, which carry a handler (read: captain), various lieutenants (they are British, so would they really be leftenants?) and midshipmen.

The dragon that is most central to the story is Temeraire, and fits into this "dreadnought" category of beast, with a squad of riflemen, bombers, and assorted folk attached to it. Obviously, he is a quite large dragon, of the Chinese Imperial breed, and without giving too much away, paired with Laurence. The bond between the two is a strangely intimate--although some of that could be period British language as much as anything.

In any case, it is an interesting book. I am a huge fan of historical fiction, and the book keeps true to a period piece. I also love fantasy, although for the most part, I would say His Majesty's Dragon borders on magical realism (the blurring of this line has long been a personal fascination for me; I think seeing fantasy written with the sensibility of magical realism is a brilliant idea and I have projects in the works attempting this very thing).

New Year's Adventures in Thailand

2009-01-03T05:28:00.004+08:00

I spent the transition from 2008 to 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Despite being a bit skeptical that it was as cool as everyone said it was, I actually enjoyed myself in Thailand, but I do admit to a certain lack of preparedness in dealing with my trip, both in terms of logistics and Thai culture.

I ended up coming home early because of my slow learning-curve dealing with the Thai baht, both in terms of how much things should cost as well as how to haggle in the ridiculous tourist economy. I also simply didn't bring enough cash, which changed some of my plans.

I arrived in Thailand just past 11pm on the 27th, took the last bus into the city, straight into downtown Bangkok. I stepped off the bus in the heart of the business and entertainment district known as Sukhumvit, at what turns out to be ground zero for one of the city's notorious Red Light Districts, Nana Plaza. And here I thought it was convenient because of quality shopping and easy access to the embassies.

Seconds after I step off the bus, I am inundated with Bangkok's life-force. Even at 12:30 at night, the city is more alive than many places I've been, with restaurants and clubs and merchants hawking every knick-knack known to man. I'm wandering around, trying to find a hotel, listening to the calls of, "Lebanese food!" and "Eat a falafel here, man! Very good!" because Nana Plaza also happens to be in the middle of the Muslim--or at least Middle Eastern quarter. Swarthy Persian, Indian, and Arab men with tailor shops (still open!) and restaurants mix in with call-girls and (despite the rumors of a tourist slowdown due to the troubles a few weeks ago) backpackers and other traveling folk. Just as I catch all of this and begin to process it, still trudging along with my backpack, a timid tap on the shoulder turns me around. It is my first encounter with a Ladyboy, who wants me to buy something. Namely it. What have I gotten myself into?!

I do make it shortly there after to a hotel, helped out by a Thai taxi driver who pointed me the right direction, and wasn't offended at all when I told him I'd like to walk there (I only had big bills, and I had heard that change was not easy to procure from cabbies). The Nana Hotel was several stories and seedy, but clean and had a functioning shower. I had my first bellboy experience (that I remember at any rate, maybe one when I was in Vegas as a child), and was more than a little annoyed that I had someone expecting a tip for not really doing anything, since I only had my backpack with me. Still, better a happy bellboy than an angry one, I figured and tipped him 20 baht, the smallest bill I had (and, it turns out, the smallest bill there is).

After sleeping, I decided to wander around the city and visit the famous Weekend Market. The hotel where I stayed was too expensive and I'd try something else too. So I used the Skytrain to get to the market, which I regret to say I didn't spend much time in because it was packed hip to hip with humanity. Instead, I opted to get the hell out of the city and begin my ruin-gazing in Ayutthaya, about an hour or so north of Bangkok, and the previous capital of the country. The North Bus Station happened to be close to the Weekend Market (relatively speaking), so I wandered over.

ASIDE: Thailand has the most convoluted transportation system I have ever seen. It is amazing that people can get anywhere at all. It twists and curves in 20 different directions and when it makes most sense to go in a straight line you must turn around for two miles and take a left before you can go four blocks in the direction you want. The bus station is no exception.

Up in Ayutthaya, I happened into a woman from NYC, a real-estate investment something or other, whose work closes down for a couple of weeks at Christmas. She decided to take an extra week on top of that and come to Ayutthaya to teach English in an orphanage. Wow. And she was cute. And she helped me find a hostel that was 1/3 the price of the seedy hotel in Bangkok (and, seemingly without Ladyboys, thank god!).

The hostel was nice, and it was in my Frommer's guide I borrowed from work. Teak floors, private room with my own bathroom and shower for 300 baht a night. Great price. Air conditioning and ceiling fan, no bugs. Cold shower. Sad. But nice.

In fact, Ayutthaya was really cool in general. Small-townish, despite the fact it is pretty damn big, but where I was on the central island, it felt positively rural. The city is really strange, with temple, monument, and palace ruins several centuries old, dating to the fall of the city to the Burmese in 1767. Many of these temples and such had been built during the 1300s, and when the Burmese tried to melt the gold gilt and items from them, merely caused the buildings to catch on fire instead. What is left is still very impressive, and the modern city has grown up around them. Instead of carting off the stones and bricks, like most places in the world might have, the people of Ayutthaya still respect and revere these places, preserving them (and making a killing off the tourism). At one giant, reclining Buddha (draped in a scale saffron robe), I saw a Thai couple ride by full tilt on a moped, and the woman who wasn't driving gave a prayer to Buddha as she whizzed past.

The community was interesting too. There was a giant mall, complete with KFC and a pizza parlor. The Thai massage parlors and obvious sex selling were largely absent (although I didn't see much of the rest of the city off the island, it could be they were simply located elsewhere). Best of all though, the pubs and restaurants along the street with most of the hostels were amazing. Great food, an impressive selection of drinks, including imported ciders and beers, as well as awesome live music.

ASIDE: The best part of Thailand was the food. Curry, pad thai, fried rice, steaks, hamburgers, bangers and mash. I would return to the country simply for the amazing diversity in its palate. Bangkok in particular is a multi-cultural city unlike anything I have seen elsewhere, even in the more diverse cities of the States. Not that Oregon is all that diverse, but compared to China or Korea, Portland is amazingly cosmopolitan. Thai Airways, by the way, is the way to go. The flight was a little over 2.5 hours from Incheon-Seoul to Taipei, Taiwain for the first leg of my journey. I ate real steak. I got free mixed drinks, wine, AND cognac. And peanuts and a coke. Then, on the 3 hour flight from Taipei to Bangkok, I had another awesome meal with more free drinks. The trip back was the same.

The temples themselves all pretty much look alike after a certain point. They were really cool though. This is when the failure of my decision making capabilities regarding my planning became clear. My next leg of the journey was supposed to be to Sukothai, the birthplace of Thai culture and the Thai kingdom some odd millennia ago, when the Buddhist Thai people declared themselves free of the Hindu Khmer from what is now Cambodia. The problem, however, is I didn't bring enough money to take the 1 hour flight from Bangkok to Sukothai and back, so I would instead have to take a 8 hour bus ride--one way--to see the ancient ruins there (which are said to be on a level approaching Angkor Wat).

Instead, I decided to return to Bangkok. This time, I went to Khaosan Rd, a place I researched a little while in Ayutthaya. It is near the old part of the city, a tourist and backpacker hangout near the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace. I returned, got a room at New Joe Guesthouse in one of the back-alley warrens behind Khaosan Rd, and discovered that because of the New Year holiday, a number of things I wanted to see where closed. Had I stayed in Bangkok instead of immediately going to Ayutthaya, I could have seen them.

Not that I had a bad time of it. Despite those places being closed, two other temples normally off-limits to the public were open. They were very beautiful. I took pictures of the 2nd temple, although there were prayer services going on at the first, and I didn't want to disturb them (although I was assured it as OK). I also did a little shopping, gathering some gifts for my kindergartners and some close friends here in Korea. I even did a little Rusty shopping, and picked up 3 tailored shirts, some sandals, and a couple of pairs of light pants that were infinitely more comfortable in the heat than the cargo pants I had been wearing (and at this point, much cleaner).

My second experience with Bangkok was much less overwhelming than the first, although I did get annoyed after a while with people trying to hawk their wares at me, or the tuk-tuk (motorized rickshaw) drivers yelling at me, "You want tuk-tuk? Ping pong show! Cheap! Lady massage! I take you there!"

I enjoyed more food, and had a lovely time waiting for the New Year to begin at one of the pubs on Khaosan Road. And it was a fantastic event, complete with fireworks, elephants, and all manner of people. It was also a little lonely. There were plenty of folks, but I was desperately missing my boon companions.

Sleep did not come for me that night, as it was freakishly hot and the fan in my room did little to ease it. Also, there were ants. Ants that bit and made life generally unpleasant, especially combined with mosquitos.

By morning (and another cold shower) I discovered that I was dangerously low on cash. So I decided to call it an event, and headed off toward the airport where I secured a stand-by ticket and came home a day early. Met a really cool German woman whose teaching at a German school in Seoul too.

I left Bangkok in 90+ degrees (at 6am, when I bought my bus ticket to the airport), and arrived in Korea to snow on the ground. So go check out my Flickr page, the link is on the right side of the screen (normally within easy view, but this is a silly-long post, so you might have to scroll around a bit).

Winter Vacation

2008-11-17T18:37:00.004+08:00

So my highly anticipated trip to Tibet will have to be postponed... it turns out getting the necessary permits to enter that region is more difficult than I thought. So I've decided to go to Thailand--the flight is cheaper, and the expenses while I'm there will be relatively small. I'm not planning heavily at this point (still researching the sights), but I will probably stay in Bangkok a couple of days and then move out to somewhere more scenic. I've got several friends who have been to Thailand, and they recommended that approach.

I bought a new camera, a nice Sony Cybercam. Lovely photos, and really good night/low-light settings too. The old camera was OK (thanks Andy!), but it was starting to show its age.

Thanksgiving is around the corner, and I think there will be some small celebrations of it among the various groups of foreigners at our school. Mom was thoughtful enough to send some Stove Top, so stuffing won't be a problem! ;) Apparently Costco has turkeys. Yes, there are Costco stores even here.

Went on a hike to a local scenic area, Naejongsam, which is breathtakingly beautiful. A little parkish, but hey, whatever. On our way up the path, there were vendors selling boiled silk worm larva (yuck!--and the smell!) and mokli (bamboo wine... haven't tried it, but I gather that it will grow enough hair on your ch

est to collapse your lungs and continue to grow hair on your grave). It was so amazing to see the fall foliage, even if we did get up at sunup to grab a bus out to the mountain.

There was a temple at the base of the mountain too, and several more up the path further (although we didn't head that far up). Very beautiful, and there were monks wandering around, singing and such. Lots of kitch stuff for sale too, like bamboo snakes. We went up a gondola to the top of one of the ridges (after waiting in a mile-long line), and there was this really cool monk that was playing a wooden drum/bell thing. A chime? I don't know. It had something to do with a fish. He spoke broken English, and tried to explain it to Lisa, whom he bonded with (and shared tea!).

Mini Reactors

2008-11-11T21:09:00.001+08:00

Interesting article about the folks at Los Alamos labs/Hyperion and Toshiba, who are getting ready to mass produce mini-reactors for a town near you.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos

Status Update

2008-11-02T23:26:00.005+08:00

I've been told people have been missing blogs, so I suppose I should add one.

A lot has happened since my last post of import, so prepare yourselves.

September saw the return of my BFFK, Priya, from her 2 1/2 month trip around the world. It is good to have her back.

Work-wise, my boss had her baby and was off for a month on maternity leave, which left pretty much everything going crazy. We took a field trip to the local TV station, KBS, which is a few blocks from the school. Boring. Very boring. But the kids did get to record themselves in a sound studio, so that was kinda nice.

As we entered into October, Mom and Thomas came for a visit. It was great seeing them, but I don't think we'd spent that much time together since I was living with them for the few months right after I moved to Portland some 12 years ago or so. It was fun, but a bit stressful and tiring--personalties aside, I'm not used to doing so much for a week straight! I usually get a break in-between adventures!

Shortly after my parents left, I received word that my sister, Missy, had died. She fell from horseback and cracked her skull. My niece said she died instantly, so at least there was no suffering involved. Missy and I weren't close; we hadn't seen each other in about 20 years. But we had started to reconnect via email right before I moved to Korea, and were planning on getting together after I got back. This hit me harder than I expected it to...

Work hasn't been so fun lately. The bosses came up with this idea for an "English Village" which would be better named "Global Village" because the idea is to teach students about the rest of the world. Great idea in theory. The problem: it is done with a very Korean sensibility, which pretty much means haphazardly and with little concern over the details of the culture/country in question. It has been a major source of headache and annoyance for all of us. Koreans are a little ignorant of the rest of the world (OK a lot), and while the average American is pretty stupid in regards to the rest of the world too, our culture (unless you live in the middle of nowhere USA) is cosmopolitan on a scale that Koreans can't even imagine. Not that I wish to belittle Koreans; but when your culture is 99% one value system and one ethnic group, your world view can easily skew toward rather narrow.

Halloween was a blast this year. I dressed up as Kung Fu Panda, which was easy to do because I already had the Chinese jacket. I found a panda hat downtown and voila! The kids dressed up for the occasion and we spent the morning trick or treating from class to class. Even some of the afternoon kids dressed up to one degree or another.

My afternoon schedule is different (we changed at the beginning of October), and I enjoy it a whole lot less. My 3pm class stayed the same, but my awesome 4:30 class switched. On MWF I teach a class to 13/14-year-olds on reading scientific essays. I teach the same kids a writing class at 6pm on Friday. Boring. Boring. Boring. Also, while these kids are pretty talented in general, they are not up to writing college level essays or exploring some pretty advanced scientific concepts.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I tutor at 4:30. On Tuesday I have a hour with Rocky, a 6-year-old kid who will no doubt grow up to be an evil genius. He is quite spoiled, and ridiculously smart. Priya has him in the morning for kindergarten, and my tutoring is more about baby-sitting than really teaching him anything. We are reading the first Harry Potter book together, and he can read all the words. I basically provide more detailed explanations of some of the expressions and cultural points. The kid is smart, smart enough to need to watch what you say around him. After Rocky, I get a short break and then tutor Chris for an hour. Boring. Boring. Boring. He understands pretty well, but doesn't really want to be there. And his handwriting is wretched. On Thursday, I have Charles for an hour, and he is a pretty good kid. He understands well and is entertaining most days.

Got my grad school app off to UBC's low-residency MFA program. Hoping to get in there and d grad school from Korea or wherever, since I only need to be on campus once a year. I'm also getting an app together for Pacific's MFA, although it would take twice as long for me to get the degree through there because of the two residencies per year (assuming I only attend summer residencies).

Trying to decide where to go for my Xmas break. I get the week after Christmas off, and while I'm finally saving cash, I also want to make the most of my time here. I was thinking for Tibet, but I'm uncertain if I can get the additional visa to go there with the recent troubles. Other peeps from work are hitting the Philippines, which could be cool I guess. No real interest or disinterest there. Lately I've been thinking Cambodia, so I can see Angkor Wat.

Well, that's the nutshell. I'll try to keep a more regular post.

Bones

2008-09-18T07:39:00.002+08:00

I've been watching a lot of TV shows since arriving in Korea. The stations here play many older seasons of American shows, especially the whole CSI franchise. I don't really like those, but I do like Bones, which is similar in that it is about solving crimes through forensic study, but which has much more interesting, character-driven stories.

One of the reasons I really like the show is the interaction between the two lead characters, FBI special agent Seeley Booth and Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan. I like that neither of them really fit their roles the way you expect them too, and the chemistry between the two actors is great.

In the most recent episode I watched, "The Man in the Cell" (season 2, episode 12), you get a scene where the recurring serial killer has tried to escape off Brennan's balcony and Booth makes a grab at him. Booth ends up catching the villain, but the resulting scuffle puts the killer dangling from the balcony with Booth holding his wrist.

This is a common scenario in movies and TV shows. The hero tries to save the villain, while the bad guy shouts, "You'll never take me alive, etc." The way this scene is handled is one of the reasons I love the show.

Predictably, the killer falls to his death, fifty feet on the pavement below. But in the aftermath of the episode, you learn that Booth let the bad guy go. He could have pulled him up, could have saved him, and he chose not to. This killer had murdered dozens of young women, and personally put the threat on the people that Booth cared for: Brennan and the other members of the team at the Jeffersonian. Booth grabbed the guy to make it look like he was going to save him (there were FBI snipers on the opposite roof, we find out), but decides to let the bastard fall. He decides to kill the bad guy. No, "You must meet justice" (the killer had already escaped from jail) speeches. It is a grand thing to see that sort of action on the part of the hero, a hero who is scarred from his time as a sniper in the Rangers.

Shopping for Veggies

2008-08-19T19:22:00.004+08:00

Living in Korea is wonderful. You can buy a billion kinds of peppers at the store. Really. And you can even get Western things from time to time, like the occasional bag of tortilla chips and salsa. But it also makes me appreciate how awesome America is too, because we have such a wide variety of climates and a year-round growing season in the southern areas of the country that we can produce anything we want in terms of vegetables and fruit. Korea is much more limited in both land mass and climate, so there isn't much available most of the time for veggies. Today it was broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, pineapple, mushrooms (a billion varieties), garlic (a staple food here), and sprouts. And of course, peppers.

I can, however, find eggs from chickens fed only garlic, or mushrooms, or corn. And I can get quail eggs on the cheap. Radness!

Drop Croc

2008-08-17T21:17:00.002+08:00

Ok, I find it slightly disturbing that there ever was a species of crocodile that climbed trees and dropped on its prey. I don't care if it is extinct. Not right. Damn Wikipedia.

China 2008

2008-08-06T18:42:00.009+08:00

I'm back from vacation! It was a whirlwind tour, but I managed to get pretty much everything I wanted done while I was in China. Andy met me in Shanghai (he'd been in China with our friend Bob in Guangzhou for a week already). We discovered we were too late for the buses to Hangzhou, so we managed to get a "taxi" to take us on the 4 hour or so trip. I'm pretty sure we were swindled, but we weren't looking forward to doing anything in Shanghai, really, and we wanted to get on the road. We ended up paying $57 each.

In Hangzhou, we stayed right on West Lake (although there was a little SNAFU with Andy's reservation). The next day we visited the famous Silk Market to buy loads of presents, then met with an old student of mine, Saber. We had a good four-hour long Starbucks conversation. It was awesome.

Something not so awesome was that I developed gigantic blisters and the ball of each foot because apparently I'm an idiot and cannot walk.

Then we were off to Wenzhou. I was actually pretty impressed by how the Olympic fever that China has been sporting has improved the overall level of pollution. When I left Wenzhou a little over a year ago, it was a nasty, smog-laden city with befouled canals. While it certainly isn't clean, I didn't notice people spitting nearly as much, and the general cleanliness was much better.

We arrived in the middle of a typhoon--Typhoon Phoenix to be exact--and hurried to Xia Lv Pu, the district I lived in before. We checked into the only hotel we could find on short notice, where they were a little confused about "sleeping" in it. We got it across

though, but soon figured out that the confusion had nothing to do with my Chinese being bad--it was a short-time hotel. The room itself was clean, but the bathroom was so caked in rust that it was not usable. But hey, the streets were flooded, so what were you going to do? We didn't have phones or access to internet, but we eventually managed to get in touch with George and Jessie. It was so good to see them again! I got to see many of my other best friends from China: Vivi, Ivy, Tara, Wesley...

We had lunch with several of my students a couple of days later when the typhoon was on wane. Leaven invited us over to her house, where her mom (her family owns a restaurant) cooked up the best 24-course Chinese meal I have ever eaten. Wow! Then they took us shopping at Wu Ma Jia, or Five Horses Street, the major shopping district of Wenzhou.

My favorite noodle shop was no longer there. But I did eat Indian food.

Andy and I eventually moved to the newest, classiest hotel in Wenzhou for our

last couple of nights. It was being built when I lived there, and it had only been open a couple of months. Everything from the marble to the fixtures on the toilets had been imported from Italy, and the menu in the restaurant included a gourmet buffet that encompassed the best of East and West, all for less than $14 per person. The food was so good!

The second night I invited my old student and good friend Michelle to the hotel for the buffet, and we had a lovely time of it. Michelle had always been one of my favorites. She is the most organized Chinese person I know, with a heart of gold and a spirit of steel. The last day I was in

Wenzhou, I visited Michelle at her job, where she teaches English to elementary and middle school students. Her kids were great, and Michelle is an amazing teacher.

And then sadly I was off. I left for Shanghai by bus, while George sent Andy off to Guangzhou by plane. Too short a visit.

By the way, don't go to Shanghai by bus. The plane is not much more expensive, 4.5 hours shorter, and you won't get ripped off by damn Shanghainese taxi drivers. Also, you might not spend all night in the Shanghai Pudong airport sleeping on benches because your flight is at O-dark-thirty. All-in-all though, it was a great trip!

Vacation!

2008-07-24T22:21:00.003+08:00

It is time for vacation. In a couple of days I will be flapping my way to China for a week to hang with Andy and all of my old Chinese friends and several former students. Heading from Shanghai to Hangzhou for a couple of days, then off to Wenzhou for most of the rest of it. I can't wait! Expect pictures, etc.

Here's a few of the local bar scene: this one is Chocolate Bar, a favorite hangout. Yes: Jeremy, Brandon, and I drank all of those. And it wasn't the first bar we went to. But since the bars don't close until, oh... 5am or later, it isn't as scary as it sounds. We were drinking over hours.

Check out my Flickr page for a few more from that night.

Movies

2008-07-07T20:11:00.002+08:00

This has been an awesome year for movies. I've been particularly pleased that I can still see all of the big screen debuts I want in Korea.

SPOILERS, watch it.

Obviously first on the list was Indiana Jones 4--the first movie I saw in the theater was Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it remains one of my favorites of all time. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a nice addition to the franchise, keeping the story updated (Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones now being the same age) and keeping most of the Lucas shlock out of it. There were a couple of moments, but overall I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk: these two movies were awesome. Iron Man had the adult sensibility that I always felt went with Iron Man as a character, and kept the story humorous without pandering to the kiddy pool. The Big Green guy's appearance this time around was immensely better, darker, and simply cooler than the previous movie, Hulk. There was a grittiness to the movie that made it perfect for me. I pair these two movies together for two reasons. The first is that they are both Marvel films. The second is the tie-in. After the credits roll in Iron Man, there is an extra scene where Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) comes home to find Nick Fury (Samuel Jackson, this cameo is the only scene in the movie), the leader of SHIELD waiting for him, to talk about the "Avenger Initiative". Follow on to The Incredible Hulk with a similar after-scene, and you have General Ross (William Hurt) getting a visit from Tony Stark (in Robert Downey Jr.'s only cameo in the movie) to talk about "the team" being set up. Great way to tie it in, and interesting to see what comes down the line from Marvel. Obviously an Avengers movie at some point, but what in the interim? Rumors abound of Ant-man movies, Captain America movies, and Thor movies. Hmm... well, if they are as good as IA and TIH, then it should be a fun next few years.

While You Were Away...

2008-07-06T18:19:00.004+08:00

Haven't been posting a lot of updates lately, sorry about that. It's been crazy around here.

First, we had a teacher decide he didn't want to do parent-teacher conferences, so he just didn't show up. This understandably got him fired (especially combined with his poor performance overall) so we were short a teacher. Then Priya left for her Grand Tour of the world. We had two brand new teachers arrive the week before she left though, so we thought it was OK. But the little bastards decided to get jobs in Seoul and simply left one Thursday night without telling anyone, after getting a pay advance from the bosses. Our bosses are so nice too, it is a damn shame they've been taken advantage of in this way. And the poor students are confused...

So we've been busy covering up for three of the slimiest, lousiest jackasses around. I have, of course, also been lazy. :P

But I haven't been lazy living, just blogging. In addition to teaching a few replacement classes (a task that I share with the other teachers), I've been having a pretty good time of it.

Parent-teacher conferences were awesome. About half of my parents showed up, and almost all of them spoke excellent English. It was really fun getting to know the other side of my students. For example, one of my most rowdy students is terribly shy at home. His parents look like they are models or actors too... damn fine looking couple.

Ella's mom and dad were very nice too. In fact, they invited Matt and I (since each of us teaches one of their daughters) to dinner. The dad ended up taking Matt and I without the family to the best Korean BBQ in town. It was this cool, whole-in-the-wall place with secret ingredients. Or at least controlled ingredients: they get a special leaf from a special mountain in January that no other place in the city can get for some reason. It was amazing. The three of us got quite drunk off of soju toasting. Let's just say that it was an interesting night. Ask me about the details in person.

Other than that, I'm getting ready to head back to China for a week at the end of July. Summer vacation is almost here! I'll be in Hangzhou for a couple of days and then Wenzhou for the rest of it. I'm looking forward to seeing some of my old students and other friends like George and Jessie.

Dance Machines

2008-06-10T22:03:00.002+08:00

Last weekend was the bomb. Long weekend, so Priya, Lisa, and I go downtown. Dancing. Drinking. Ultimate radness. Priya and I tore up the dance floor at Speakeasy. People were gawking at us. It felt great.

Also, this is my 101st blog posting! Way to go me! Dance machine AND blog machine.

Brooke's Birthday

2008-06-01T12:05:00.005+08:00

Had a blast last night. It was Brooke's birthday, so we went over to Friday's to eat Americanish cuisine. They gave her a little birthday cap and brought out a full band complete with guitar, tambourines and bongo drums. We overworked the poor waitstaff so much, although it was made easier because a couple of them spoke English (and a couple of us spoke some Korean).

After that we went to a soju room, where we had two pitchers of flavored soju (made more potent by adding to bottles of extra soju to them). Kiwi and mango. The kiwi tasted like shampoo, but the mango was awesome. The staff there, when they learned it was Brooke's birthday, turned out all the lights, spun up the disco strobe, and brought a dozen sparklers to the table before singing to us. We caught the table on fire and ended up drinking a lot of ash residue.

Then downtown: Vanilla Club, Speakeasy, and some random soju room where Lisa, Priya, and I had another pitcher of peach soju and watched Korean karaoke. Some really good singers, actually. One of them was an English literature teacher from a local university.

The Land of Morning Calm

2008-05-26T18:30:00.005+08:00

My Lonely Planet phrasebook lists Korea as the "Land of Morning Calm", and this is true, because everyone in Korea stays up late and gets blasted. Even children are running around the streets after 10:00 pm. Sunday mornings are deathly quiet as people go to church or sleep off hangovers from Saturday night partying to the Whenever Hour. Weekday mornings are quiet too, and the bars still receive a lot of traffic over the weeknights.

I've gone clubbing in Korea twice now, both of which ended in 4:30 am drunk-dialing of Andy over Skype. Hee. Many of the bar folk speak at least a little English, so ordering drinks hasn't been much of an issue. Here's a run-down of the bars and clubs I've seen thus far:

Chocolate Bar: Run by an old friend of Jeremy's, this place has a cool atmosphere and friendly staff. There is one guy working here and the rest are hot girls (seems to be a pretty common personnel layout, actually). One of the girls that works there has a really hot body, but a weird gleam in her eye--like she plans on ax-murdering you. Gives me the heebie-jeebies. My one and only time here was with Jeremy, and there was an incident:

A very drunk Korean couple came into the bar. The woman decides to sit next to Jeremy when her date goes to the bathroom. She begins to fondle him. When he doesn't respond, she decides to take my hand and kiss it. This is about the time her date comes back and he gets in her face. They start arguing. His arguing involves pushing his back into Jeremy, who is losing patience a little with it, but wants to stay out of a fight between a Korean couple. Finally, the guy hits his date, at which Jeremy is about to stand up and intervene... but finds he doesn't need to. The woman who runs the bar is fragile-looking. Pretty, extremely thin, and without any muscle. But she gets in the guy's face and tells him what for, then has the man who works for her escort him away. Somehow (I was a little drunk) the Korean guy is hugging Jeremy next, and then leaves. The drunken woman leaves a little later.

Vanilla Club: A Korean nightclub. Pretty big place. Bar in front, large dance floor in the back, and something that seems to be standard here: an area behind a fence on either side of the dance floor where people can sit. So this place is packed with people. $10 cover, but you get unlimited beer once inside. After a while, the DJ mentions something about "S-e-x-y Dance Contest" and everyone sits down cross-legged on the dance floor. Then an announcer comes out on a stage behind the bar and asks for volunteers to show their s-e-x-y stuff. Men and women come up, some do OK, some are clueless, and some...

The two best dancers decide "S-e-x-y" is a little more than dancing. The first takes off her top and bra, but the second goes all the way. Birthday suit for the win, I guess. And she was really hot. Weird thing was, they were the two best dancers in the bunch and probably could have won based on that alone. Not sure what the prize was.

Speakeasy: Cool little place that is a major foreign hang-out. Run by a couple of guys, David and Derrick. Not sure where David is from, but Derrick is from Scotland I think. Has live music sometimes (the first time I as there, they had a punk-ska Korean band that was on the Korean version of MTV). Other nights just a DJ. Doesn't seem to pick up until midnight. Great staff, fun and lively. Only weirdness is the bathroom... you have to go through the men's bathroom to get to the women's bathroom, and the only sink is right next to the urinal in the men's portion. Hee. Makes for some interesting conversations.

Soultrain: Nice bar, also with cool staff. Owned by a cool Korean guy whose name escapes me. Bar staff are a bunch of cute girls. Go figure. They speak pretty good English, and this is another common foreigner hangout. Free pool (billiards of several varieties are big in Korea). Comfortable and surprisingly big place.

W Club: Small but cool nightclub. Fog machine, $10 cover gets you a free drink of your choice. Weird but fun catwalk. No naked people, or at least I didn't see any.

Crazy Horse: Awesome and very large bar with more cool staff. Giant wooden Indian in the front hallway. One of the bartenders looks like she could be a Korean Suicide Girl.

When the sun goes down, the neon comes on. Turns the entire city into a different place, as if you just crossed over into Fairy. Downtown during the day looks nothing at all like it does at night, and you can get lost easily if you're only familiar with one or the other. At night there are all manner of vendors and food stalls open. There are people with giant Hello Kitty plush dolls who want you to break ceramic roofing tiles to get a prize. Coffee girls and food delivery drivers whiz past on scooters. Businessmen pass out in doorways, still in their suits and ties.

In short, it is f'ing awesome!

Rusty Teacher Goes to the Milk Factory

2008-05-20T19:13:00.003+08:00

Yes, that is "milk factory" not "dairy" that you are reading. I didn't see any cows, just a bunch of large vats and conveyer belts. Now imagine adding 150 kindergarten kids, ages 3-5. Then, imagine me going crazy.

OK, it wasn't as bad as all that. The trip was mostly just boring. We all bused it over to the milk factory on the edge of town, then watched a film clearly not designed for this target audience (it lasted a good thirty minutes) and then bused over to a park for lunch. We had sushi rolls and some of the students brought special things for their teachers. Like Starbucks coffee.

Also, it was Teacher's Day last week. This means loads of gifts

for teachers, even a newbie like me. I got a $50 gift certificate, two bottles of Chilean wine (a merlot and a cabernet sauvignon), a few hundred ginseng tablets (Korean ginseng is apparently the best in the world), vitamin C powder, a set of Salvatore Ferragamo cologne and shower gel, two pairs of dress socks, and a Ralph Loren polo shirt.

All in all, teaching is pretty cool so far. I'm a little frustrated with discipline issues, but then again, my students are kindergarten and early elementary school. What could I expect? I working on that though.

Bamboo Festival

2008-05-04T23:34:00.004+08:00

I arrived at a good time: at the end of my first week is a three day weekend, and so is the end of my 2nd week. The first week is Children's Day, and the 2nd week is Buddha's Birthday.

On Saturday, I went with Brooke and Pria to

the Bamboo Festival in a nearby town, although it is technically still part of the G

wanju metro area. It was a pretty cool day. The trip was organized by a foreigner-Korean

friendship network of sorts. Several Korean girls and another foreigner, a Canadian named Marc, went with us.

We took the subway downtown, which was my first sub

way ride ever. It was awesome! The Gwangju subway i

s brand ne

w, so it is really nice. Digital TV in each compartment, AC, the works. In fact, the station was so intensely air conditioned that it was like wa

lking into a freezer.

After meeting up with the others, we hit the bus for the festival. I hate to say it, but the it was a little disappointing. It was done up like a county fair, which was kind of cool, but the bamboo part was really cultivated and

underachieving. Still, I had a good time. We ate din

ner at a restaurant that cooks and serves its dishes inside bamboo shoots.

On Sunday, I spent a good chunk of the day wandering aro

und my neighborhood. I did go see Iron Man, which opened in Korea two days before it opened in the USA. Hah! That's to you guys back home (ahem, Scott) who were teasing me about not being able to see movies right away. Indiana Jones 4 opens the same day here as in the States, so theoretically, I may even see it before you do, since the day starts here first. :P

Later I ran into Pria while wandering about and we had

dinner at a local restaurant. Korean eateries tend not to serve people unless there are at least two of you, so this was good fortune. So far a great weekend, and I have another day to go!

Week One, Conclusion

2008-05-04T22:58:00.005+08:00

This week has been a crazy one. I spent most of it in training with Jim, the teacher whom I am taking over for starting Tuesday. I hope I can hit the ground running and live up to my duties next week! The job isn't that hard, really, but it can be draining, and there is a lot of paperwork to get done at the right time, etc. I'm sure I'll do fine, but there might be a couple of weeks of snafus before I get it right.

My mornings are full of wee little ones, and they are so damn adorable. Some of them can speak English really well too, considering they are all of 6. Afternoons are with a little older students, who are adorable in their own way. On Tuesday I tutor an older student (whom I haven't met yet), and Fridays I have a late writing class with middle school students.

On Friday night there was a work party, welcoming Brooke and myself as new teachers and saying farewell to Katie and Jim, who were leaving. The party was at the school, on the rooftop garden outside of the teachers' office. Beer flowed a

nd people cooked a variety of dishes. It was great fun. Jim fire danced, and I got to know my fellow teachers a bit better. I like the crew. It looks like there is a lot of sass am

ong them, and sass is rad. I haven't spent much time with the Korean teachers yet, but they seem pretty nice thus far. During the fire dance, Jim's grip slipped on one of the poi, and he nearly hit one of our bosses. Damn she moved fast! All ended well though. I wish I had remembered my camera, but alas I forgot it at home.

After the party ended, I went with Jeremy and Brandon downtown, where I was given the official bar tour. On the way, Jeremy asked the cabbie to take us by the Gwanju red light district. It was definitely something to see. Apparently, all of the brothels are on a series of streets have glass fronts where the girls sit and primp. Tonight though, they were out in force at the edge of the street, scores of them, standing in the heat (90 degrees F or so). They called out to us in Korean, saying the customary hello. One of them even ran alongside the taxi for a ways, yelling at us to stop (apparentl

y it was a slow night). Of course, these streets are normally closed to foreigners, so had they gotten a good look inside of the cab it probably would have held a different reaction. It was a weird sight, so standardized.

Downtown is full of bars. The previous night I had gone downtown with Katie and Jim, to a theme bar (pictured). Hookah joint, done up all Arabian-style. It was a really cool place, and I hope to go back soon. This night, however, we started out at Soultrain, a posh place with a pool table and really cool bartenders. Several sambuca shots and bottles of beer later, Jeremy and I moved on to a bar run by a friend of his, Chocolate Bar (;P natch). Boy was that the start of an interesting night.

We chatted with the bartenders, a group of women expertly trained in chatting with men. The owner, this miniature girl with a really pretty face, chatted with Jeremy while her "sister" chatted with me. There also was a rather freaky looking woman who, although not unattractive (in fact she was quite the opposite) had the misfortune of having crazy in abundance. I'm not sure what it was, but something in the way she looked at you made you feel like she was going to murder you and try to make you enjoy it. Yeech.

Anyway, after a while, a Korean couple came into the bar, both of them quite smashed, although the woman seemed to be dangerously so. She also thought it was a grand idea to come over and sit next to Jeremy and man-handle his manhood. When he didn't reciprocate, she kissed my hand. This, of course, is when the guy came over and started yelling at her, getting all flail-y with his arms into Jeremy's personal space. He hit her. Jeremy and I thought we were going to have a fight on our hands (which was not going to end pretty, no matter the result), but the owner of the bar and the "bouncer" (this really slight Korean fellow who was really cool) took care of the situation and tossed the guy out. The woman soon followed. At the end though, Jeremy was getting hugs from the drunk boyfriend, so I guess there wasn't a lasting issue. It was really impressive how the owner, as small as she was, got in the guy's face and told him off.

After that (and after scoring some free deodorant from some beer promotion), we headed over to Crazyhorse, another cool bar done up in Native American motif. Really nice place too, with a cool owner and a bartender that is the Korean version of a Suicide Girl.

Day 2, Part 1

2008-04-28T18:49:00.001+08:00

Jeremy graciously took me to shabu-shabu, a type of hotpot, for lunch, and then drove me around town to the store to get an alarm clock. Things are more expensive than I thought they would be here, but then again, I’ve only scraped the surface of the city, so perhaps I just haven’t gone shopping and eating at the right place yet.

Things (at least on Sunday) do not seem to open up until late afternoon/early evening, and even those places that open early do not pick up until later. Of course, it was a weekend. We will see what happens today. There are a lot of things open 24-hours as well, which is nice.

The gas in my apartment was turned off when I arrived, so yesterday I had to use Jeremy’s shower, but today the gas was back on—although my shower was still rather chill. Not exactly cold… but certainly not warm, I clenched my teeth through it. I might just not know how to work the water heater. It seems crazy to me to not have hot water on demand at the faucet.

As I was wandering around yesterday afternoon, looking for a place to eat lunch, a Korean man rushed up to me.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“Um, no. I’m just looking around.”

“You don’t need something specific?”

“No, I just moved here.”

His eyes lit up. “Are you a teacher?”

This is where in China someone would want to have me do some English corner or take on private students. I sighed.

“Yes.”

“Ah! Me too. I teach at high school.”

Turns out he is not only a high school English teacher, but is studying to become a lawyer so that he can help those suffering from human rights abuses. Pretty cool guy. He wanted to show me the local park, which has a Buddhist temple, and I talked briefly to an extremely embarrassed 6-year-old who was there with her parents. She spoke some English, even at that age, and quite well, actually.

The park also is where the May 18^th Memorial is located. On May 18^th, 1980 a hundred high school students and hundreds more adults were massacred by the military during a protest. They were protesting a military coup that had seized control of South Korea. The USA turned a blind eye to the coup because of concern that North Korea would launch an attack if the South appeared weak. Ironically, the dictator was originally from Gwangju. This event sparked the turning point for that regime and ultimately he was removed from power. It is a big deal here too. The memorial consists of two Vietnam War Memorial-style walls listing the names of the protesters who were killed that day, as well as a museum. Apparently, somewhere nearby is a National Cemetery where the dead were laid to rest.

After parting with the teacher, I resumed my search for food. Things were still not fully open it seemed. I settled on a Japanese-style restaurant (or so it claimed). The food wasn’t bad. I had some pork ribs with a nice, spicy sauce and cheap beer. The startling part of the meal was the appetizer tray the staff brought out. It consisted of some sort of biscuits; something that looked and tasted like barely cooked French fries, and boiled silkworm larvae. Apparently, silkworm larvae are a great treat for students. I passed. I draw the line at insects.

I finished the night watching TV. There are a lot of English language movies and TV shows here. Apparently the movie theatre down the street from my school is really nice—and (the best part) the upcoming movies I was so disappointed about missing are not going to be delayed very long from their release in the USA. In fact, Iron Man is supposed to be coming out in Korea before it opens in the States (at least according to Jeremy). I’m guessing that is only because it is May 2^nd here before it is May 2^nd in the US, but I’ll reserve judgment until it happens. I am excited at the possibilities though.

Anyway, it is almost time for my first day at the school. Jeremy is going to walk over with me so that I do not lose my way. I think I can manage, actually, but it is cool of him anyway.

This first week sounds like it will be training and observing or assisting classes rather than full-on teaching. There is another brand-new teacher, Brooke, who will be joining me in this. Anyway, more later!

Good Morning Korea!

2008-04-28T18:40:00.004+08:00

The apartment is smaller than I was expecting, but it has a hominess that my place in China didn’t have. It is basically a super-small studio not much bigger than my bedroom back at Andy’s house. There is a separate bathroom with Western-style toilet and a sink/shower (no stall, and I

can’t figure out the hot water yet despite instructions last night). The

re is an entry alcove where you can take off your shoes before deciding to enter the apartment proper or the bathroom. The main room has a small glass table with two chairs, an ar

mchair, a small bed (which is long enough, but very narrow; still, it is a real bed, and although firm, very comfortable), a small fridge/freezer with my TV on top, and a bureau.

In through a sliding door is my kitchen, whic

h has a large window along the back wall that looks out onto the street. From right to left, I have my washing machine (and clothesline—no dryer again for a year, dammit!), my microwave, sink, and gas stovetop. No oven, but I was expecting that. There are also a couple of small cupboards.

Walking around my neighborhood at 7 this morning, I get the impression that Koreans are night folk. People are up (and it is Sunday, so maybe they are at church), but last night at midnight it was packed. I was told that Korea never sleeps, and it certainly seems so. Still, there are a few places open, such as the 8 or so 7-11s within walking distance. There are a number of convenience stores in general, and I hit up a one at the end o

f my block for some coffee-flavored drink. The girl behind the counter couldn’t speak English but was quite nice, but the owner of the place, Lee, spoke pretty decent English and chatted me up some. He teased me for not knowing the name of my school off the top of my head.

Lots of Internet cafes too. There is one directly across from my apartment, and dozens more down the street. It looks like there are many restaurants, bars, and even a really cool looking coffee house as well.

It doesn’t look like there are trash bins, as it was piled around specific points on the side of the road instead. I’m meeting with Jeremy, the head foreign teache

r at my school for lunch in a couple of hours, so I’m sure I will learn more about the workings of the place then. But that’s all for now!

Annyong Haseyo!

2008-04-28T18:29:00.002+08:00

One shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but already my experience with Korea is much more positive than my year in China. My flights were perfectly on time, and immigration/customs were so smooth and efficient (they actually queue!) that I was disembarked, through the red tape, had my luggage, and was bus-bound toward Gwangju within an hour of my arrival. Mike, the fellow who recruited me, met

me at the designated meeting area with bus ticket in hand and arranged for the director of the school to pic

k me up from the bus station in Gwangju. It is a high-end coach, with satellite TV playing Korean news and local martial arts soaps, and plenty of legroom.

There are a lot of similarities to China, but so far (I write this on the bus from the airport) Korea looks like a cleaner, saner version of China. People are very respectful (and quiet!), plants are green and healthy, and there are wild animal crossing signs. The only wild animals I saw in China were insect

s. The block housing is uninspiring and utilitarian, but even that looks better made and cleaner than its counterpart in China. They also have art on these concrete megaliths, with everything from traditional-looking calligraphy and geometeric designs to characters that would be at home in video games and anime. Too, the presence of religion is much more obvious

, with neon-lit crosses highlighting churches on the side of the road. Pets are common, especially miniature dogs. I look out the window of the bus and find dogs leaning out of car windows, enjoying the wind on their heads.

Although I can’t read Korean yet, there are enough Chinese characters that I know and English words that I can figure out some basic things, at least at the airport. Even the road signs are familiar, using the same shield and chevron design for their highway system as we use in the States.

So I am well, a little stiff from a day of solid travel, a little congested from hours spent in recycled air, and tired from the going away festivities and the trip itself. But I’m here, and I’m looking forward to the stay.

Just to check in...

2008-04-27T18:24:00.002+08:00

I've got a more official blog posting (or rather, a series of them) already written, but since I don't have access to the Internet from my apartment yet, I'm saving them for later. Complete with pictures, etc. But I thought I would post this note from the Internet cafe down the street just to let you all know I made it safely through. Now I'm going to go find some dinner.

Best wishes and love,
Rusty

Off to Korea!

2008-04-24T06:03:00.002+08:00

I head to Korea early Friday morning, so get prepared for a new year of adventures! Goodbye and have a great year everyone.

And It's Never Too Late...

2008-04-01T17:06:00.004+08:00

As I was packing up for Korea today, I discovered a couple of CDs that had China photos on them. Photos that I have not uploaded or talked about! The scandal! They are all up on my Flickr page (see the links on the sidebar), but here are a few as well.

When I went to the Nanxi River with several members of the school, we stopped by the Chen Historical Village. This is a sort of "living museum" set up to showcase the Chen family's traditional lifestyle (as in, anyone with the surname, only about 400 million people, yo). There are a set number of family names in China, almost all of them tied to a specific area and language group (one of the variations of Chinese).

The rain was essential a wall of water when we arrived at the village, although there were 1-2 minute breaks between wettings. The "living" part of the village was that people do really live here, mostly within the constrains of the museum's purpose, but there are some modern additions too. This photo of the bicycle rickshaw is one of my favorites. I was surprised that I had any photos turn out at all, given the rain and the cheapo film camera I bought to replace my broken digital. That shouldn't be a problem in Korea (knock on wood), as Andy has given me a replacement digital camera.

This is another shot from the Chen Village. I love the feeling of these streets, especially after the madness of Wenzhou. These are much more intimate in every positive meaning of the word, while the streets of the modern city are negative meanings of the word. True, the Chen Village is fake--as much as Disneyland is--but it still has a good feel to it. And, for once, only a little kitsch.

This next photo is from earlier in the same trip, after our hike around the river. We had lunch in a village which was seated on the flank of the mountain. They had terraces all up the slope, and a river separated the village from the road, which was spanned by a footbridge. We ate at the village inn, which had pretty good food. There were a ton of us crowded around the table, and I had to suffer through another Chinese meal where I didn't get enough of what I preferred to eat because 40 other people were hogging it at the other end of the table. But it was fun, and it got us out of the rain.

Other photos on the CDs included a visit to my apartment by several of my Class 1 students. They showed up for food and chatting, and Leaven even ordered some food from her family restaurant. It was delicious! My students were the best. Anyway, we watched some TV (they loved Avatar: the Last Airbender), the boys played around on the computer, and had a good time. This photo here has them going in several directions at once (the other three are watching TV on the couch as well).

Also, a few pictures from down at the bar (imagine that!). Here is one of George/Jorge Saldana, the proprietor of La Luna Bar and Grill, where I spent most of my evenings. He's a Texan/Mexican that went to culinary school in Portland and wound up in Wenzhou. Go figure. He was a lifesaver.

More Scandalous and Daring Adventures...

2008-03-19T18:19:00.003+08:00

This is a blog about adventure, and so I must go forth and find some more. In pursuit of this goal, I have secured a position teaching in South Korea, in the city of Gwangju on the southwestern region of the peninsula. There, I shall instruct small children in the nature of English, and also math, science, and interpretive dance. I will do this and get paid well.

I leave sometime in mid-April. So much to do, so little time!

VH1

2008-03-02T18:27:00.003+08:00

Being unemployed, I have (unfortunately) fallen into the habit of late-night TV and channel surfing. This is strange for me, since I had so little TV access for so many years (none for five straight!). I dodge the bullet on the craze of American Idol and Survivor, although I did catch the best of those years when shows like The West Wing, 24, Firefly, and Dead Like Me came to DVD.

I most stick to Discovery, Sci-fi, The History Channel, and Food Network, although I occasionally foray into network TV or other random shows. Tonight, for instance, VH1's The Salt N Pepa Show caught my eye. They were fun in the '90s, so why not take a look? At least they've aged well. On the commercial break, however, VH1 advertised The Salt N Pepa Show and Flava of Love (with former star rapper Flava Flav) with a song that repeated the words "You are watching American TV" over and over. It was horrid. If the horn that signals the apocalypse ever gets a chance to sound, it is going to be playing that song.

Indiana Jones, Star Trek Reborn, and Elegance in Love

2008-01-21T19:00:00.000+08:00

Twenty-eight years after I saw my first film in the theater, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the man with the whip and fedora is returning to the screen with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I remember being terrified as a child of Raiders, especially the penultimate scene, where the Nazis open the Ark and melt for their hubris and wicked ways. But I loved every minute, and this movie has earned a place among my favorite movies of all time. It is also most probably the root of my fear of spiders (remember the tarantulas at the beginning in the cave?), although I could have inherited this fear from my mother as well.

2008 is going to be a year of nostalgia, it seems. We have the new Indiana Jones movie, of course, but we also have Star Trek 11--which is not a continuing adventure of the time-honored actors which have become icons to the science fiction community, but rather a new beginning, recasting the old characters of the original Star Trek series with new actors, bringing youth and vitality to even a doctor as old as Bones. I've seen only a single teaser trailer for it so far (which supposedly debuts with Cloverfield, itself a re-imagining of Godzilla), but it looks pretty fucking cool--a trailer done correctly.

If we count this year from my birthday, which I have a tendency to do, this year has been one of reflecting for me. Turning 30, a friend that betrayed, a lost business, and missed chances. New opportunities.

Speaking of nostalgia, I watched another of my favorite movies this evening. Unable to sleep, I've been devoting my time to reading and watching movies. Writing has been difficult to concentrate on since I lost my employment, so I'm taking the hint and recharging my batteries. The favorite movie I watched was Only You, a romantic comedy starring Marissa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. It's ages old now, from 1994. I remember watching it for the first time in the theater; it came out the week after my birthday, and a bunch of friends of mine and I went to see it in celebration. It was my senior year of high school. I remember that I was the only person out of all my friends to enjoy the movie, which confuses me completely. Both Marissa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr. are in rare form in this movie, which brings to mind (rather deliberately) the grace and elegance of Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. This movie chokes me up and makes me think that there is something like love. Thanks movie. I needed that.

Why Anime Is Good:

2007-12-22T15:14:00.000+08:00

Because it causes me to look up the credits for Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex on the Internet, which in turn causes me to look up what the hell "Ship of Theseus" is. Good ol' anime. Good ol' Internet. Good ol' Wikipedia.

What NOT to Recycle

2007-11-18T12:18:00.000+08:00

This is disturbing and wrong--and all too believable.

Chinese Recycles Used Condoms Into Hair Bands

Face in China

2007-11-02T18:14:00.001+08:00

Thought I wouldn't be posting too much about China again, but I had to share this video. Pretty much sums up a lot of what I saw.

The Real China

:D

2007-10-09T19:39:00.000+08:00

Writing is good. Life is good. Got some internal editing and two new pages done on project B, which is currently titled with the somewhat stupid "Monks on the Mountain". Got lots of research to do for Matrika before I can get her down on paper it seems, but it is progressing. Going earlier in her career, before her personae as Matrika is fully developed.

I need her to make a Greek dish. Anyone have any good recipes to suggest?

George Eliot

2007-09-17T17:45:00.000+08:00

In two weeks, I turn 30. Can I be thirty already? It seems too sudden. In the hours that mark my life, where does that put me? Is it noon? Or is it 13:00? Did I have my first kiss in the outfields of Oak Elementary at 8am or 9?

I have been growing increasingly dissatisfied lately. It could be chalked up to reentry into American life. It could be that my writing is going slower than expected. It could be simple lack of money. But I think, while all of those factors are certainly important, it is my approaching birthday that is bringing me down.

Not that I normally consider myself old. Most days, I feel as youthful as ever. But there are days that I feel quite un-lived. Days when I think about how little I have accomplished in 30 years. How, if I had forced myself to be just a little more ambitious, a little more brave, a little more disciplined--I could have really done something. I could have not wasted so much time.

After high school, I drifted for almost a decade. Doing what? Certainly, I did not accomplish any dramatic feats of picture framing or quick printing. Prints Plus, Aaron Brothers, and Lazerquick didn't depend on me for their success or failure. I was just existing, day to day. What a waste.

Even in college, when I finally got back to my dream, I could have done better. I should have had the dedication to get scholarships, to fight through a double major, to learn Chinese, Japanese, French. To get involved. To not sink into the hole of myself and refuse to exercise my personality among my classmates. To fear.

Even going to China was an excuse to run away. Run away from the pain of that last semester of school. Run away from knowing I wasn't up to snuff at work. Run away from complications.

China was a place where I could lose myself. And I nearly did. But even in China, I wasted time. I could have spent weeks studying the Forbidden Palace or the Great Wall. I could have visited Tibet, the roof of the world. Instead, I squandered my money and my time on transient things, on epherma. I left China in a state very close to that in which I arrived.

Now what? I am joining a friend in a business venture. I am applying for graduate school. Things I should have done a decade earlier. Things that I am only now getting around to. For what? Do I have another two decades? Three?

If this all sounds like self-pity, then you're right. I hate it. And I condemn it in myself even more than I condemn it in others. If you've already turned 30, you are no doubt thinking that I am foolish as well. So be it.

Perhaps sharing this will help. I have tried everything else I can think of.

I make no vows, for I know the easy cadence to which they are broken. What I make instead is a simple realization. I can turn those years believed wasted into something useful, and make every effort to live my future.

I can also remember the words of George Eliot: "The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men."

My Last China Adventure

2007-07-24T16:58:00.000+08:00

So here I am, back where it all started a little over a year ago. I'm home, safe (if a little late). Yes, United was running a few hours late on the trip from San Francisco to Portland, but at least it was in the States so I could be sure to understand why I wasn't boarding my plane on time. All in all, the trip was pretty uneventful. I sat. I walked. I sat some more. Wrote a little. Sat. Walked. Fell asleep.

Immediately upon arriving in Portland, Andy, Alex, Robert, and I went to Mazatlan so I could eat mole enchiladas. That's not the animal living in the ground, that's a type of sauce.

I'm staying with Andy. In my old room. Weird. But cool. It is good to be home.

The Restless (2006)

2007-07-02T20:11:00.000+08:00

South Korea is turning out some of the coolest movies lately. They have taken the epic martial arts film to levels that are much higher than even the best mainland or Hong Kong films (although Taiwan has some really interesting, cutting-edge stuff too). Because of the seriousness that South Korean film makers put in the art of the film (much like the best Taiwanese and Japanese films), they are advancing the craft in ways that mainland Chinese can't.

Plot Synopsis (Spoilers)
The Restless is about a demon-hunter named Yi Gwok (Woo-sung Jung). He is a knight-errant (a classic archetype of the martial art movie), and was once the champion of an order of demon-slaying knights. After the order undertook a mission of revenge against corrupt government officials (who had raped the pregnant wife of the order's leader--she committed suicide in shame), the order was destroyed. All except Yi Gwok were slaughtered (revenge incomplete), and a bounty was put on Yi Gwok's head.

The film begins with Yi Gwok defeating three demons that are terrorizing a town. The town elder welcomes the demon-hunter, giving him food and wine, and apologizes that he is too poor to give a proper monetary reward. Yi Gwok replies that "he just came for the wine anyway." They laugh. Then the village magistrate and the guards try to collect the bounty on Yi Gwok's head, despite the protests of the elder and the rest of the villagers. Yi Gwok escapes, but the magistrate put a sleeping poison in the wine. Delirious, Yi Gwok struggles through the rain-soaked forest outside of the village until he comes upon an empty shrine, where he seeks shelter. The poison takes him, and although he does not die, the gods take him to Midheaven, where spirits must wait for 49 days before they can achieve enlightenment or be reborn again into the mortal world.

Yi Gwok was brought to Midheaven for a reason. A spirit uprising, led by the souls of his former order, are trying to reforge heaven and earth in a twisted plan to save the world. Yi Gwok has great power in the afterlife as a mortal, but there are also great dangers as well: if he dies in the afterlife, he cannot be reborn, and will be lost to the cycle of reincarnation and lost to Heaven.

In addition to fighting his former brothers-in-arms, Yi Gwok must also protect his former love, who was killed years before. Yon-hwa (Tae-hee Kim) was burned alive by a mob of superstitious villagers. The spirit of a child killed by a plague, who lingered on because he was concerned for his mother, was the start of this tragedy. Yi Gwok has the ability to see spirits ("I see dead people!") and he told Yon-hwa about the spirit of the child. She told the child's mother, and although the mother and the deceased child were able to be at peace, the rest of the village found out and became scared, thinking Yon-hwa was a witch.

In Midheaven, however, the dead do not remember their past lives (or at least, they are not supposed to). Yon-hwa has become an angelic protector of Midheaven, and goes by the name of So-hwa. She remembers nothing of Yi Gwok or her promise to him, that she will remember him forever. Regardless, Yi Gwok remains faithful to her, and over the course of the movie, she falls in love with him again despite her lack of memories.

The movie ends with Yi Gwok defeating Ban-chu (Jun-ho Heo), the former leader of the demon-slayers, with So-hwa's help. But the victory is bittersweet. During the course of the movie, Yi Gwok suffers so many injuries that the negative energy of the dead, which infuses Midheaven, begins to kill him. So-hwa decides to use the holy energy that has been entrusted to her to save his life, even though she knows that she is breaking the laws of heaven to do so, and her punishment will be a billion years of suffering and denial of enlightenment. After the battle with Ban-chu, So-hwa leaves Midheaven. It is uncertain if she is journeying to heaven for her sacrifices, or if she is being reborn as a mortal to begin her billion years of suffering. Or if she is going to hell. It is also uncertain if Yi Gwok dies, for the movie ends with him laying on the rooftop of a Midheaven temple, once again severely injured.

Thoughts
I love the premise of the movie. A mortal travels to heaven to save it? Cool. That is very different. The acting is good throughout the movie too, without much of the typical melodrama that so dominates most epic movies (especially the martial arts epic). I mean, it is there, but the melodrama is tasteful rather than tacky.

I also like the ambiguousness of the ending. We get the feeling that So-hwa did the right thing, the thing that the gods desired when they brought Yi Gwok to Midheaven, but rules are rules sometimes too. Yi Gwok's fate is also pleasantly without hearts and smiles so typical of Hollywood fair (which seems to err this way or err on the side of dark and brooding). The lack of clear resolution while actually providing resolution (as opposed to vague, empty endings which are a trend of a poorly done art film) is refreshing.

The special effects are also brilliant, as is the cinematography. Midheaven looks really cool, a mix of great vistas that could not occur in nature and celestial towns and cities which defy mundane physics in pleasantly subtle ways. Not one shot in the movie is cheesy, despite the wire-fu martial arts. In fact, the fight scenes are well-thought and well-acted. There is a scene at the end of the movie where Yi Gwok is fighting through hordes of Ban-chu's minions (spirits who have decided to side with him, and demons who seek to destroy the world with his help) that is truly impressive. There is a realness to the special effects, from the dusty slide and impact of Yi Gwok's martial leaps (he can't fly like the spirits can, but he uses his magical sword, which is tied to him by a rope, to grappling hook and make assisted jumps) to the simpleness of a weed. It is this weight to the special effects that impresses me most about the technical aspects of the movie.

One of my favorite scenes--for its simpleness--involves the weed I mentioned. Yi Gwok and So-hwa are walking through a celestial prairie, and they come upon a common weed. So-hwa remarks that it is a rare flower in Midheaven, where everything is the perfected form, the most beautiful and paragon example of a thing. I love this idea. In heaven, a single weed is surely an example of perfection, when it is the prize among flowers. And So-hwa recognizes this, picking the weed's blossom and giving it to Yi Gwok. When rosebuds are the norm, the truly special gift is a weed.

My only complaint is there is one scene where the transition isn't super-smooth. I only mention it to have something to criticize though, for this fault is so minor that I would not normally notice it.

The Restless gets a 10 for me. Artistic, enjoyable, and good translations on the subtitles. This is what movies should be. It isn't the best movie of all time (actually most of my favorites are heavily flawed in some way), but I'd probably place it in my top 50.

Pathfinder (2007) -- 7 out of 10

2007-07-02T13:36:00.000+08:00

**Warning: Spoilers**

Pathfinder is about a fictional encounter between the early Viking raiders and settlers that sailed to North America and their encounter with the People of the Dawn, the Abenaki, the traditional Amerindian adversaries of the Iroquois and indigenous peoples of New England.

Ghost (Karl Urban) is the son of a Viking chieftain, who doesn't seem to have a taste for wholesale slaughter of innocents (damn him, anyway). His father essentially disowns him and whips him for his compassion. On the way back to Iceland, however, the longship that Ghost and his father are on is savaged in a storm and is wrecked upon the New England shore. Ghost is the only survivor; he is taken in by a Abenaki woman and raised as her own.

Flash forward 15 years. While away on a hunting trip, the Vikings (the Abenaki call them "Dragon-men" after the prow design on the wrecked longship) return to burn Ghost's village and kill all the people. Ghost arrives just in time to see his adopted father, the village chief, being forced to fight in a traditional Viking arena (and with a sword, no less) before being killed. To be fair, Gunnar (Clancy Brown), the leader of the Vikings, gives the village chief a hero's death (by the sword, rather than simply being slaughtered while running away), although I'm not clear if non-Vikings get to go to Valhalla. Ghost gives the Vikings a good run for their money (since he actually knows how to use a sword, unlike his adopted father), but is eventually shot in the back with an arrow and dropped into a ravine.

Members of the neighboring Abenaki village, led by the Abenaki tribe's Pathfinder (or shaman, played by Russell Means) and the Pathfinder's daughter, Starfire (Moon Bloodgold), find Ghost hiding in a cave. They take him in and heal him.

The rest of the Abenaki flee while Ghost seeks revenge for the destruction of his village. The Abenaki "Jester" (Kevin Loring) follows him and aids him. Starfire (who loves Ghost) follows as well, as does her father.

Needless to say, there's a lot of hacking and slaying and trickery, trickery played on the Vikings before a happy ending.

I highly anticipated this movie, for several reasons. First, the concept is cool and unusual (I can't think of another movie that is going for this particular period). Viking settlements have been discovered in New Foundland, abandoned for some reason. This is as plausible as any other reason. Second, the trailer looked damn cool. Well done on that account. All too often, people forget there is an art to producing a proper movie trailer. Third: dude, Vikings.

The movie itself, however, was a mixed bag. Karl Urban is cool, and in fact the overall acting was really good. The costumes and cinematography were both nice (the Vikings look fucking badass, actually). Casting was great (I mean, Clancy Brown as a Viking warlord? Hell yeah!). But overall, the movie lacked the punch I craved. I was expecting a little more The 13th Warrior, I think.

Good Points
Other than what I mentioned in brief above, the individual characters were pretty interesting. Not only was the acting good, but in general the writing was nice as well. Sure, I'd seen the "Vikings fall through the frozen lake" routine in King Arthur, but this was still cool. I like the fact that Gunnar is pretty smart for a sword-totting mass-murderer. I really like Moon Bloodgood--she is a good actress and a damn fine-looking woman to boot.

The Jester character is interesting. He seems to be a mute, but other than a tendency to play a flute and be a little fun, doesn't seem very Jesterish. I think the script writers intended for him to be simple, but he doesn't really appear that way (he certainly is capable of helping Ghost kill a few Vikings with booby-traps, although he does stupidly try to stab an armor-clad Norseman with a stone spear, when he knows it won't work).

The scene in the cave with the enraged grizzly bear is pretty cool--the bear looks like it is dangerous, as it should be. It shatters the spears the Abenaki warriors are carrying like twigs--cause to the bear, they are twigs. Still not sure how the Pathfinder has a metal staff/spear/medicine stick, but hey, whatever works. Maybe it's Amerindian magic.

I do like the one plot point that was unexpected: Ghost does not become the Pathfinder after the old man dies. This position goes to Starfire, which is kind of cool.

Bad Points
A little corny. Some of the special effects look like special effects. Here I'm mostly talking about some of the blood/gore and the avalanche scene toward the end of the movie (where characters are interacting with the avalanche). Other times, it looks really good, so I'm a little confused.

The editing is wretched. The story feels really choppy, with scenes seemingly cut short or rushed together without adequate transitions. It is possible that my copy is missing scenes, but the movie doesn't seem that disjointed. Just sloppy editing.

There is a trifle amount of "hate whitey" and "glorify Native Americans" going on, which is a little annoying as well. It is true that the Vikings were rat bastards. But Amerindian cultures had their problems too (like, quite often the place of women in society). And yet for all of the pro-Native sentiment in the movie, Pathfinder is, in some ways, still a colonial movie. The hero is a white guy, the only guy who wields a sword in defense of the Abenaki (in fact, other than Jester, Pathfinder, and Starfire, the Abenaki warriors are idiots) and who is capable of brilliant strategies. Somehow, after 15 years, Ghost remembers enough of the Norse tongue to converse fluently, and is able to do just fine with sword, sword and shield, and horseback riding (hmm... horses in the New World before colonization? Horses left as humans were arriving in North America) against veteran Viking warriors. Stretching logic pretty thin, people.

The whole bowing of the tribe to Starfire at the end when she becomes Pathfinder is sort of silly too. But hey, she's hot, so I'd bow to her.

All in all, I'd give this movie a 7 of 10. It is a solid, entertaining film with some really strong points that looks really cool. But it is missing some of the art that makes a Great Movie.

Mr Rusty and Aloha

2007-06-27T19:00:00.000+08:00

Today my students from Renji 1 took Sherry and I to a karaoke parlor near the college. It was a grand time, full of singing (yes, I sang), some pretty damn spiffy dancing on the part of one of my students, and gift-giving. Also a lot of tearful farewells.

Let me first explain that karaoke or (KTV) in Wenzhou is not the same as the pass-time we are familiar with back in the States. In the US, a group of drunken people go to a bar (or become drunk there), and sing along to the music of a popular country western, rock ballad, or other good, ol' American song while words scroll across an otherwise blank screen.

In Wenzhou, KTV is miles above this in social class. Although in other parts of China, karaoke is a common man's recreation, in Wenzhou, the KTV parlors are expensive, private rooms where you can gorge yourself on overpriced beer (60 RMB for something that costs 3 RMB in the store) and local delicacies, shouting your heart's content along with Chinese pop music videos and a smattering of English songs (Westlife is extremely popular these days; many 0f the other English songs are oldies redone by Chinese artists in a slower, more mellow fashion so that the Chinese can understand them better). Also, there are usually Japanese and South Korean music videos, and a section for songs from Taiwan (which is where most of the really popular Chinese-language music originates these days, although Hong Kong has its fair share as well). These private rooms are expensive, and boast plasma screen TVs, touch-screen displays for song selections, plush sofas, glass tabletops, and static-y microphones.

My students were wonderful, and gave each of us several gifts. I received a bamboo leaf hat (which sadly is a little small), a calligraphy set, a couple of mini-pillows that two of the students embroidered, a box of wooden, miniature Chinese chairs, a cloth fan, and a wonderful artbook with each student's personal message of farewell inside.

Several of the students really got into the show. Andy, one of the few guys in the class, did some awesome dancing, including breakdancing. Where he picked it up, I don't know, but he'd give anyone a run for their money. He also was really into the singing on several songs, and isn't half-bad. Two other students, Becky and Sophia, sang a Chinese rap song--they were cranking those words out extremely fast, following along with the rapper on the music video. It was impressive. The only thing that brought me back to reality--that these were not "hardcore" Taiwanese rappers--were that their voices are a little too high-pitched and girlie yet to pull that off. But they have the speed and the attitude.

Emotions ran high as we left. Several students broke into tears, and so, I must admit, did I. I'm going to miss them greatly.

Last Friday, Class 1 took me to dinner for a similar farewell party. They took me to a reserved room in Wenzhou University (the neighboring college--our university didn't have anything suitable) and bought a traditional Chinese dinner for all of us. They also sang songs to me, put on an original play (several of my students are born actors--Lucy totally becomes the character she's playing). We also played an English game. The premise was that everyone at the table had to think of an English word that started with such and such a letter in 3 seconds, then tap the table X number of times with their chopstick. Then the person X spaces away from you had to repeat the process. If you didn't do it quickly enough, then Emily, Della, or Megan (depending on which round of the game) would smack you several times with a cardboard fan. It was pretty funny. Megan really got into smacking people, so much that Della got annoyed with her and tried to get good-natured revenge when it was her turn to be the controller of the fan.

I got plenty of presents at this party too--plus a wonderful photo album with photos the students had taken around the school especially for me. It was moving, and I cried that time too.

I taught my students in both classes the word "aloha" at the parties, explained that it meant both hello and goodbye, and that I would use that word instead of farewell. They really liked the concept, and wished me pleasant travels, good luck, and swift returns.

Mr. Rusty Goes to a Fashion Show

2007-06-18T00:37:00.000+08:00

My new friend Penny invited me to a fashion show held for the Fashion Design majors from Wenzhou University. I got dressed up for only the second time in my year in China, complete with slacks, shirt, silk tie, and Italian leather shoes.

Amelia I met tonight, and she seemed pretty cool, although her English is limited, so I didn't get a chance to talk to her directly too much. She had wanted Penny and I to wear sunglasses and act all snobby (and for me to act gay), but that sort of fell through, mostly because we both forgot sunglasses and were too tired from the freakishly late night we were still recovering from.

Penny is the roommate of Elisabetta, a good friend of mine here. She was born in Wenzhou, but immigrated to Australia, and has been all over the world. She is a brand consultant here in China, and it is unfortunate that we are only now getting to know each other, because she's quite interesting to talk to.

I met Penny and her business partner/friend Amelia at the New South Asian Hotel, a rather nice establishment erected in the middle of what otherwise appears to be a slum. Such is the way of things in China. To my surprise, when we stepped into the banquet hall where the fashion show was being held, I was the only foreigner in there. This caused a little stir, and because we sat near the runway where the models come onto stage, I could see the graduating students who had designed the clothes as they helped the models prepare to strut their stuff. These same students couldn't resist waving hello to me in the frantic way that students here do.

This was my first fashion show, and I it was certainly an experience. Everything hit the stage, from ridiculous "street wear" with cardboard and papermache wings to a few denim items that could fit in on any real street; from frilly, lacy, Umpaloompa costumes to 19th century hoop-skirts and Royal Navy-inspired costumes. Penny said she thought the students had no creative talent, although one of them cuts fabric well.

After the show, we went to a really nice coffee house, where we chatted and sipped real coffee. Then we hopped a rickshaw to a local eatery where we had fishball noodles, which were quite tasty. Not really balls, more like fish glops, but who's keeping track anyway? Add a little rice vinegar and some pepper, mmm-mmm.

His name writ on water...

2007-05-24T12:03:00.000+08:00

According to this article, scientists are now capable of writing on water using wave generators. Now Keats really could write his name in water!

"Therefore, women's reputation is at utmost impotence"

2007-05-20T14:40:00.000+08:00

I'm grudgingly taking a look at 28 theses from this year's class of seniors. Yes, you are not mistaken, you heard me groan from the opposite side of the world.

Academic papers can be a bore in the best of times (although a really good one is great fun), but these are barely recognizable as English words most of the time, let alone in sentences or a treatise. They are 10 pages long, a pretty even mix of literary theory, translation-related issues, and other random topics whose only connection to English is that they are (theoretically) written in the language.

For example, take this paper, from which the title of this edition of the blog derives. The paper is called "The Re-examination of Miss Lucas in Pride and Prejudice from the Existential Feminist's Point of View." It is less an exercise in "re-examination" of the character and more a glorification of Simone de Beauvoir, a feminist critic and a confirmation of the pragmatic approaches of the Chinese cultural tendency to marry for money and security over things like compatibility of spirit and love. One of my favorite quotes is (speaking of de Beauvoir), "Her insight might be a direct result of the mental stimulation she and her contemporaries provided to each other." So? Who cares? What about Miss Lucas?

Another one has to do with feminist literature as well. "A Comparative Study on Lin Daiyu and Jane Eyre: The Thoroughness of Feminism" sounded interesting to me. Lin Daiyu is a central character in one of the most famous Chinese novels, A Dream of Red Mansions, which is the Chinese equivalent of the 19th century English woman's novel. I admit, going into the paper, I was worried about the "thoroughness" of feminism. What does that mean? I'm still mystified, as the student never explains it. I can only assume it is a phrase directly translated from Chinese into English. The student is very adamant that all feminist theory ends up either Marxist or materialist, and that Marxist is naturally the better of the two. There is also a constant repetition of "Jane, the immortal female image" in the draft, which seems to be used both as a noun phrase and a verb phrase, and the same stock recommendation of A Dream of Red Mansions that I see in every printed reference to the book (it must be on a dust jacket somewhere), "A Dream of Red Mansions is famous for the fluent and precise language, well-organized structure and distinctive image of the characters." Maybe in the original Chinese it had such things (although the "fluent" comment is amusing to me), but the translation of the book I picked up is anything but--there are about 50,000 characters and even the flowchart provided at the beginning of the book for the genealogy of the characters is confusing. The conclusion omits Lin Daiyu entirely, instead focusing on Jane Eyre.

These are two of the better ones. Some are so horrific that I can't really make a meaningful comment on them other than, "Please do something else with your life" or "You should have paid attention in class."

Spilled H2O

2007-05-18T17:52:00.000+08:00

I just had the tank on my water cooler replaced. Unfortuantely, about 2 minutes after the guy left, I noticed it was leaking. Now, the entire contents of the 18.9 liters have pooled over my living room floor. Great fun.

The Daring Adventures of Andreas Gionis, Part One

2007-05-16T22:31:00.000+08:00

My best bud, Andy Gionis, joined me here in China a few weeks ago. He stayed 14 days, and man was he a sight for sore eyes.

Andy arrived in Wenzhou a little later than expected, coming in at 10:30pm. He had told me that when he arrived, he expected the fridge to be stocked with beer, and while I obliged him, we instead went straight to George's bar. George always gets excited for new foreigners to come into town, and I'd been talking Andy up quite a bit.

Needless to say, I didn't get any sleep that night. Andy was a hit on his first night in town though, so it all worked out. There was much drunkenness involved, much dancing on the top of the bar (by everyone present), and Andy even bit (playfully), one of the expat girls on the ass. She thought it was quite amusing. When we were getting down off the bar, Andy fell and scraped and bruised himself quite severely.

It was a fun time though. Two of the PA students from Pacific University were there, Lynne and Ken. They are a riot, and I hope to hang with them more when I get back to the States.

Andy was so gone that when I left for work the next morning (note me being responsible, sorta. I remained more sober, and while I was dog-tired from not sleeping, I was capable of teaching class), he was passed out in front of the plastic god that passes for a Chinese, Western-style toilet.

The next day was spent recuperating, but for nearly all of Andy's visit, we spent our evenings at George's bar: the cultural hub of Wenzhou.

Ughn

2007-05-11T06:45:00.000+08:00

I've been really depressed lately. A number of contributing factors, most likely. Hopefully I will be able to shake it soon, and get back to being excited (I am returning home, after all).

I bought several complete TV series on DVD recently: Scrubs, Monk, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My students LOVE Buffy. It's all they talk about now, and they constantly pester me to watch another episode.

I'm taking in 4 rolls of film to get developed into a photo CD today, after my class. This means I should have plenty more to talk about on my blog: Andy's visit, several student-related activities (such as when 10 of them came to my house!), and some general Wenzhou stuff.

The Prodigal Son?

2007-05-03T22:32:00.000+08:00

Well, it is official. I leave China and return to the Pacific NW sometime in mid-July. I've spent the last week or so looking for jobs in Seattle and Portland, and trying to figure out how I'm getting things home.

Dream Therapy

2007-04-08T17:42:00.000+08:00

A few days ago, I dreamed that I was Chinese. I was taking it all in too, including the spit-cannon. This so thoroughly revolted me, even in my sleep, that I woke myself up. Then, to my sheer horror, I discovered upon waking that I was sleep spitting. Yes, that's right. When I came to consciousness, I was in the middle of hawking a huge ass luggie onto my pillow.

[Pause for effect]

That's when I decided no more China.

Coco Pops

2007-03-21T19:34:00.000+08:00

In a misguided attempt to have something Western--yes, I was craving today--I went to the foreign goods store down the street called "More Tastes World" and bought a box of Coco Pops. 35 kuai for 275 grams... it looks like 2/3 of a normal cereal box. I opened it up, and it smelled like a box of rancid plastic. 'Course, now that I look at the "best used by" date, it is 9 months past its prime. Not that those dates matter much in China. They stock 'em and sell 'em anyway. I don't think a single thing on the shelf in the supermarket is before the date on the label.

They still taste like Coco Pops. Lord help me.

A Backlog of Photos, Two Birthdays, and a Ridiculous Amount of "Cake"

2007-03-14T18:55:00.000+08:00

I've been meaning to post sooner, but I wanted to wait until I got my photos developed. Not having a digicam is really a pain in the keister. Anyway, the photos are now in my hot little hands.

The first group are from Xi'an. Yeah, way back then. Some of these photos are really poor quality, because I sort of exposed a bunch of the film on accident. Aiya.

Here you can see me riding around on the city walls. This was a really good time, partly because of the fact I was in Xi'an, on an honest-to-god city wall, and partly because it was the first time I'd ridden a bike since I was like 15. We took our time for the first 1/4 of it, but then realized we would be very late in getting the bikes back. So then it turned into a race, with Linda and myself in the winner's circle, Italo, Ahkmed, and the others in the middle of the pack, and Adam lagging behind with Niki (whispering sweet nothings to each other no doubt). It was right before Spring Festival, if you recall, so there were preparations for the fireworks and what not being done. We had to dodge around workers and entertainers.

There are a lot of photos from the hostel here too. Hanging out with the other foreigners. We've got Chelsea, the ab-fab Canadian from BC (trained in Traditional Chinese Medicine) with one of the hostel cats, and Italo and the quiet German (as opposed to the other 5 who were C-R-A-Z-Y!).

The it is off to Rose's birthday party. It was pretty cool. The party was at a swank restaurant across the river from downtown Wenzhou, and hosted by Enren (pronounced Un-run), the elder brother of one of Rose's good friends and students, Lexi. Lexi's family is totally trying to get Enren and Rose together, and things were heating up between them at the party. I barely got a chance to speak to Enren. He's a pretty cool dude though. Going to college to be some sort of electrical or civil engineer.

The meal started out typically, with tea-soaked peanuts, duck tongue, and the normal "cold dishes"--although there was one new addition: unagi. That's right folks, Japanese style eel, like you'd find in sushi. Yum.

Fast on the heals of these was an egg-drop soup. I love this stuff. First had it this way at Ze Ya, and this was a good example as well (although I had to share it--bastards!). Then came blood clams. You know why they call them that? Because they are literally filled with blood. I had one, so be proud. But just one. They didn't taste so bad once all the blood was gone (just like a normal clam), but I'm not really into vampires these days. It was messy too, pouring all over the plate, me, and the table--especially since I had a difficult time opening the damn things up.

There was a tasty ginger and sea cucumber soup though, the obligatory fried fish, half-of-hairy crab (which I politely refused, then vehemently refused as Lexi tried to give one to me anyway).

Aside: I really hate the Chinese tendency to throw things on your plate if they feel you aren't eating enough of their favorite nasty food, eating it fast enough, or if you are looking the other direction.

There was a combination dish that was sort of a soup and sort of a... salad?... made of squid, jellyfish, mushrooms, and ginger. Not bad, although weird. Pig stomach with peppers and Sichuan pickles. I hate Sichuan pickles (oddly, they aren't spicy), but the pig stomach was surprisingly tasty. Chinese sandwich rolls: Peking duck (mostly skin, but a few strips of meat as well), cucumber, lettuce (real lettuce!), ginger, and some sort of teriyaki sauce. These are great.

There were mini lamb ribs, beef and peppers with a tangy sauce, and of course, plenty of beer. To top it off, there was a ridiculous cake, the kind you can only find in China. Enren got Rose a three-layer cake. The thing was huge. She had to use a broadsword to cut the damn thing, and the pieces were larger than the entire meal we just spent the previous two hours eating. There was also one of those oh-so-fun firework candle/music boxes for it too, plus a bunch of the cheapy wax candles that are so common here in China. They don't so much burn as sort of just instantly melt. We finally got rid of the music box after another hour--the thing keeps playing and playing "Happy Birthday" over and over--when the foreigners present finally complained enough. The Chinese have an amazing ability to ignore sound (and if you ever come here, you will understand why).

All told, it was a good party. Rose got to hang with Lexi and Enren and their family (and heavily flirt with Enren), as well as her best friend from the States (along with said friend's boyfriend and his sister), me, Xiaohong, and another Chinese friend, Telepathy. Yes, his name is Telepathy, and he was a child chess prodigy.

A week passes. It is Lele's birthday. I picked up a pink heart-shaped cake with peaches, kiwis, and strawberries. The cake had some sort of dates or something in it too. I would have loved to get a real cake, not one of these fakealloo things that pass for cakes in China, with the fruity attachments, the dangerous/annoying music box, and the frosting that tastes like somebody thought about adding sugar, but then decided against it. I want a German Chocolate Suicide Cake, dammit! 'Course if a Chinese person actually ate one of those, they would probably implode from the calorie and sugar intake.

I also got her a silver bracelet with a heart on it for her actual birthday present, but I had sort of been giving her the twelve (OK, four) days of Lele's birthday. She received an anklet the previous day, I gave her 11 red roses (they wouldn't give me a dozen for some reason) the day before that, and a silk scarf the day before that. Score points for the Rusty. She loved them, naturally.

Lele also did one of those really cool things that makes me like her so much--she is the only Chinese person I know to actually get annoyed with the music box on the cake. Le sigh. Then I cooked her dinner--wasn't exactly high dinning, but it was something she'd never tried before (Kraft Mac & Cheese and instant mashed potatoes, sans gravy). She really enjoyed it, but told me that she got full easily off of it because it had so much "cow oil" in it.

Cow oil?! I told her I didn't have a clue. She looked it up in her cell phone's dictionary. Chinese characters on one side, "cow oil" on the other. No help there. Finally, she pointed out one of the ingredients, whose wrapper was sticking out of the trash can. She meant butter. Apparently, that translates literally from Chinese as "cow oil". Hehe.

After dinner, we stopped in at George's bar. Lele really likes the bar, even though she doesn't really get into drinking, because of an old Chinese myth. It goes something like this:

There lives an old man under the moon, one of the many Chinese deities. Every so often, he looks down into the world of mortals, and picks up two red threads. There is one of these attached to the back of every human. Then, the old man ties the threads together, binding the two people's destinies. George's bar is named La Luna. George is the old man under the moon. Causes big, big fun in the Chinese love of symbols and references.

So Lele had a free drink on the house, since it was her birthday and George is my buddy. She had George's own version of a Buttery Nipple, which she sipped instead of shooting it down, but it was a good time.One other tid-bit of gossip. On the 15th day of the lunar New Year, there is a famous festival called the Lantern Festival. You're supposed to eat these gluttonous rice balls filled with either meat or dark sesame oil (which is actually sweet). Anyway, we went to Lele's sister's (cousin's?) home down on the waterfront to do this. Turns out, her Lele's mom was there, making the rice balls. Ack! I did a good thing though, and said, "Nin hao" to her, which is the ultra polite, formal way of saying it, which was the right thing to do. She liked me.

Lele

2007-02-28T02:24:00.000+08:00

I know I said I wouldn't do it again, but I have a bad habit of doing things I say I'm not going to do. I started dating a Chinese woman named Lele, that I met at George's bar. She turns 29 (by Western reckoning) on the 5th of March, she's a nurse in charge of training at the hospital about 50 feet from my apartment (which is affiliated with my school, so technically we are coworkers), she lives at home with Mama and Baba (pretty common for China), is an only child, doesn't smoke (gasp--in China even!), likes spicy food (a rarity in Wenzhou), is really funny, cute, and speaks very little English.

In fact, she just started learning last month. Despite that, something clicked. She was at the bar because a friend of hers was having a birthday celebration. One of the foreigners at the bar introduced us (he could speak Chinese) and wed decided to set up lessons for each other: I would teach her English, and she would teach me Mandarin and Wenzhou dialect. One thing led to another, and now we are an item.

Her lack of English actually isn't as hard of an issue as it would seem. First, she's freakin' smart. She's picking up English faster than anyone I've ever seen, and she's excited about it. In fact, that's one of the things I like about her. Second, she's not stereotypical Chinese; she reacts as a Westerner to a lot of things. She doesn't spit, she doesn't make a mess when she's eating, and she doesn't shout at all times. She even didn't answer her cellphone when she was talking to me! If you've never been to China, you have no idea how important that last little bit is. Third, she's got personality that shines through any language barrier. She's one of the funniest people I've ever met.

For example:

We walked down to the museum, talking along the way, with each of us learning words and forgetting words. Near the museum is the city library and a government plaza that includes a small grove of trees.

"You want to set?" Lele asked.

"Sit. 'S-I-T.' Sure," I said. We walked over to the trees. It was starting to turn toward evening, and some of the older Chinese were out exercising, walking backwards, or just sitting around. Younger people rode bikes and skating around on Rollerblades.

As we approached the trees, she said, "We set--sit--the desk? At the desk?"

"No, a desk is for school. It's a bench." I spelled it for her, and she looked it up in her cellphone's Chinese-English dictionary.

"Ah, I see," she said. She looked around. There were no benches in sight. "Where bench? Look, look, look. Look, looking for bench," she said to herself, quickly scanning the area.

See how cute that is? As you can tell, I really like this girl. There's just something about her that strikes me. Plus, she's insisted on paying for all but one of the dates we went on. We'll see how it goes. Pictures to come when I get the camera fixed or I get the film developed from the backup camera I bought.

She's also really considerate. We had tadpoles the other day (not really unpleasant, but definitely not high on my choices either. The meat tastes like nothing in particular, and it sort of melts into your mouth. Gotta watch out for the spine and a couple of ribs though. Anyway, after I inexpertly spat out some of the bones, I explained to her that in America, we don't have bones in most of our food, and I had to practice more to get it right. She thought about that for a moment and then started taking several of the tadpoles and deftly used her chopsticks to remove all the bones. Then she put the meat on my plate. I was amused, a little embarrassed, and amazed. She doesn't make fun of me for not using chopsticks the right way either. She either helps me out or ignores the fact that I'm making a slob out of myself.

Happy Year of the Golden Pig

2007-02-18T00:10:00.000+08:00

So tonight is Chinese New Year, the official passing of the Year of the Dog into the Year of the Golden Pig. Normally this would just be the Year of the Pig (aspected to fire), but apparently one year in antiquity, a Chinese emperor had a really good Year of the Fire Pig, so whenever the Fire Pig rolls around again in the cycle of years, they call it the Golden Pig, in the hopes that it will be a repeat of that one magical year where China prospered beyond count.

Outside my door is an orchestra of fireworks. Image the 4th of July, Christmas, and New Year's Eve all rolled into one (and apparently strung out into about 10 days). Now imagine a country where the regulations on fireworks are best described as "loose." Since sundown there has been a continuous barrage of noise and light from the city, as practically every resident takes the day off and lights up firecrackers, mortar batteries, and spinning discs of flaming doom. The skyline is glowing. It looks and feels like I'm in a warzone. The air outside appears to be thick with fog--but it is actually the smoke leftover from fireworks. People are shooting things off in the street, in what pass for parking lots here, in parks, on sidewalks, rooftops; they even shoot rockets from the windows of their high-rise apartments. Five-year-old children do it. Grannies do it while holding onto a loved-one for support. Everyone has gone mad with fireworks.

Curse Sickness Induced Memory Loss!

2007-02-09T21:24:00.000+08:00

There was also a great thing that happened in the Muslim Quarter! We stumbled upon a local artisan who carved olive wood and other things, usually making them into traditional Chinese figures, such as the 18 Buddhas or carp. These would then be turned into bracelets or mobile phone danglies. Linda helped Adam and I talk to him, and eventually he wanted to show us his workshop, which was right around the corner. This guy was even featured in the newspaper (which he was very proud of) as a master craftsman. His brother, father, and him have been trained by a venerable guru/master craftsman for for the last couple of generations. In his workshop, we met his brother, and we were shown his finest work: three five-inch statues made of tea wood, with a knot of unfinished tea wood as the base. These statues are of the Goddess of Compassion (one in male form, one in female form), and a hero from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, an ancient Chinese story. These were so intricately carved, they looked life-like. He wanted 6000 kuai for them ($750) and they were so worth every cent. Eventually he said he would go down to 2000 kuai, but even then I couldn't afford one of them.

Vacation

2007-02-09T09:37:00.000+08:00

The train ride from Wenzhou to Shanghai was gruelling. 11 hours in a slightly padded chair, with Chinese people packed in every available place around us. I came out of it OK, but poor Adam had to sit with his face near a baby's gooey behind. He nearly got vomitted on by another baby as its mother walked back and forth down the isle. So no sleep that night.

We arrived in Shanghai at about 5am, so we kicked around the waiting room in the train station for a couple of hours until our connection left. This one was a hard sleeper, and Adam and I had the top bunks (out of three possible levels). Even though this was a 30-hour ride, it was much more comfortable to lay down. There were a bunch of girls coming home for the holidays from college, where they were training to be doctors and nurses. The knew some English, so we chatted a bit. I didn't get much sleep that trip either--the girl in the bunk underneath me snored like a demon. I also had some of the best food I've had in China in the train's dinning car, which is a rarity, apparently, since every one else I've talked to said to avoid the dinning car. We had beef with peppers, lamb with peppers and other veggies, and some sort of fried and salted bread, which was great.

We got to Xi'an around 4am. We were greated by an astonished kid who yelled weiguoren (foreigner). Oddly enough, this was practically the only person shocked that we were foreigners. The rest of the population in Xi'an didn't care, wanted us to buy their goods, or wanted to cheat us.

Xi'an is what I expected from China before I came here. It is a vibrant, modern city (an industrial center even), but it is also saturated in history. Sure, a lot of it has been converted into tourist attractions; but there is enough there that it almost doesn't matter. The people here are a lot different in attitude from the people in Wenzhou. Almost none of the people I met were concerned about conserving power--which may be due to the two nuclear reactors I saw outside of town.

The Bell Tower Youth Hostel is located in the center of Xi'an, overlooking the Bell Tower, an old watch tower that is now a museum for Chinese bells. The tower itself is in the middle of a traffic roundabout, in one of the busiest intersections in the city, so the only access point is underground, through a network of tunnels that connect each of the four streets that meet at the tower. There are also restaurants and a department store underground.

Down West Street from the Bell Tower is the Drum Tower, which holds a museum on Chinese drums and furniture. The Drum Tower also marks the entrance to the Muslim Quarter, which is a maze of artisan stalls, restaurants, and junk vendors. It also holds the Great Mosque, a Chinese-style mosque that is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city (most of the other buildings have been reconstructed a few hundred years ago). Sadly, although it was one of the coolest places in the city, with a real feeling of peace and history, it needs some repairs.

I met Linda, a Chinese broadcasting student, my first day in Xi'an, and she offered to be my guide. She recommended a local Xi'an delicacy, "mutton with pancake" (which is really more like mutton soup with tiny bread chunks). Whatever you want to call it, it was really tasty. We wandered around the Muslim quarter, buying things. I made friends with the vendors at one of the local art shops, where I got really good deals.

The next day we headed over to the Terracotta Warriors, which are about an hour from the city by bus. After we arrived, we wandered through a half-deserted maze of vendors' stalls selling Terracotta Warrior-related items and assorted kitch. The museum (when we finally got to it) was pretty cool. One building held two chariots that had been reconstructed from the site, along with some explanations of the technilogical marvels associated with them. The warriors are a UNESCO World Heritage site, which probably makes Qin Shi Huang (the first emperor who had the warriors built for his grave) dance with delight from whichever hell he ended up in (he was a right bastard), and makes generations of his enemies roll over in their graves. It was pretty impressive that despite vandals and the elements that the warriors remained in as good a condition as they are. They were all geared for war and each has unique facial features. Originally each was also painted, so they probably appeared very life-like, but exposure to air caused the paint to oxidize and vanish in just three days. For this reason, most of the warriors remain underground until they can find better ways to preserve the original color (right now they can do it on a small scale, but it is costly). The weapons have been removed too. They were coated in chromium, a technology that was lost sometime after the Qin Dynasty ended in 206 BC, and was not recovered until the 20th century. One of the swords was underneath one of the massive statues (at life size, with their legs and lower torso solid and their upper bodies hollow, they are quite heavy), bent all out of proportion. When they lifted the statue off the sword, it sprang back into its intended shape. We were going to go to actual tomb of Qin Shi Huang, but it really is just a mound of dirt, so we didn't bother paying the probably ridiculous sum of money to do it. They haven't excavated the site yet (of which the Terracotta Warriors are just part--the whole thing is 52 square kilometers), and legends say that it is booby trapped. This alone warmed both Adam and I to the idea, but when we learned we couldn't dare any of the traps, we were sorely disappointed.

I also did a trip around the city walls on a bike. The original walls were partially destroyed, but the government rebuilt the destroyed sections a few years ago, so you can rent a bicycle and ride it around the walls. It is a long ride though, and bumpy! My hands and ass were sore from gripping and bouncing across the uneven bricks.

The other really cool thing about Xi'an was the people that we met at the hostel. There were six really cool Germans, several Canadians, a pair of Danes, an American (from Colorado!), and two cool Swedes (one of which was actually born Peruvian, but moved to Sweden when he was 7). We went partying at the MGM, a club near the hostel, which was really fun. Unlike most bars or clubs, the MGM doesn't have a bartender. Instead, you buy bottles and mixers from a store inside the club, then take them to your table. The club provides glasses and ice. The music was even pretty good, and a cute Chinese girl invited me to dance with her. I also hung out with a fellow American (from Jersey!) and several house dancers from a club that isn't actually open yet) in one of the private KTV rooms for a while. That was pretty interesting. Those girls could really drink! Karaoke gets boring though, so I returned to the main area of the club, which was pretty empty by that time. The security guards were having fun and dancing though. Poor guys work 10-hour shifts, having to be all stiff and rigid while other people are dancing around and getting drunk. Rough work.

We loved Xi'an so much we didn't really want to leave, but Adam had some visa problems and had to get back to Wenzhou. So we took a soft-sleeper to Hangzhou. The rooms were pretty nice, with comfy beds and only four beds to a room with a locking door. The people we shared the room with were a married couple who were quite amused that they had two foreigners as roommates. They were pretty cool people, sharing food and beer with us. They were also two of the most affectionate people I've ever seen in China. Public displays of affection are pretty uncommon here, although some of the younger couples are starting to show it a bit more. These two were absolutely lovey-dovey. It was so cute.

The ride from Xi'an to Hangzhou would logically be shorter than from Shanghai to Xi'an, since there is something like 100 miles difference, right? Not so. 24 hours of meandering through random back-country towns, three provinces, stopping for several hours inexplicably. To top it off, Adam was in his sickness at this point, which I should have taken as an omen.

We got to Hangzhou finally, and I drove off to the hostel while Adam tried to get same-night train tickets to Wenzhou. The hostel was cozy and warm as ever (but not nearly as comfy as the beds in Xi'an), and who is there waiting for me, fresh from the bus station? Jorge! A few minutes later Adam rolled in as well, and had to stay the night and get a bus in the morning, because in the approach to Spring Festival, all the trains were full. So we headed over to the Maya bar for tacos and nachos.

The next day, after Adam left, I ran into Jackie, Leon, and Jessica; the friends I had first gone to Hangzhou with. Jess and Leon were heading back to Lishui, where they teach, while Jackie was in town waiting for her mother and a friend from the States to get into town. Cool times all around. I spent most of the morning doing some editing on a couple of short stories, then flashed over to the Maya Bar (again) for tacos and chili that evening with Ken (from Maryland) and Monica (from Australia) and Jorge. By this time I was just beginning to feel sickness digging its tendrils into me. The next day saw me in full sick-mode, progressively become worse. I slept most of the day, then went with everyone to the Shamrock, and Irish bar, where I had a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwhich and french fries. Problem was, I was having trouble swallowing at this point.

I began to think I had strep. I called my boss at the college, since her husband is a traditional medicine guru, and asked if they had any suggestions. She said I should immediately go to the hospital, so I did the next morning when normal business hours resumed (they don't have a 24-hour emergency room like we are used to). It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The people were really friendly (maybe because I looked like death-warmed-over) and helped me get the necessary paperwork. They did a blood test, and then I waited for about on hour. Then the doctor did a quick throat and ear exam (like an after thought), and wrote me a prescription. One bottle of Robituson, two packs of what I think is antiboidics, and something that may or may not be a antihystamine. The whole trip to the hospital only cost me a little over 200 kuai (roughly $25). I had the girl at the hostel translate the instructions for me. By this time, I could neither talk nor swallow. I decided to join Jorge and Andy (another Wenzhou friend that came up for a couple of days) when they returned home that night. By then, thanks to the meds, I was feeling much better, and this morning, I feel really good (although still not tip-top).

Even though sickness cut my vacation short (I really couldn't afford staying in Hangzhou the extra time anyway), I had a great time. I've experience China by rail, seen one of the wonders of the world, and met new and interesting people. That's how vacations are supposed to be. Oh, one other note: the day after the Terracotta Warriors, my digital camera finally went bust. So I bought a cheap film-based camera. I think I promptly exposed a bunch of the film, so hopefully I have pictures of the city-walls and the like. If not, it's another excuse to go back to Xi'an (although by plane next time!).

Off to Xi'an

2007-01-27T19:33:00.000+08:00

I'll be out of contact for a while. I head to Xi'an tomorrow evening, and it's a 30-hour train ride. I'll be in Shanghai for a few hours switching trains, but other than that, unless the hostel has internet access, I'm in blackout mode for a week. Once we get to Hangzhou, I know that hostel has access, and I'll try to put up something.

I'm so excited!

Sick

2007-01-25T17:49:00.000+08:00

I have spent the last few days in various stages of agony as I wrestled with disease. Better now, although still a little weak, I had the entire gamut of body pains and functions going haywire. I consoled myself with two things--well three, but the third (grading) wasn't much of a consolation--the first eleven episodes of Heroes (recently acquired from the DVD store for 40 kuai) and a book my mom sent me, Eragon. You know, the one written by the kid, and now it's going to be a major motion picture?

Heroes was as good as I was told, better actually, since I was told the first few episodes were kinda shitty. I didn't find it that way at all, although perhaps my expectations were lower and that helped. The show isn't expertly crafted, but there is a charm to it that really works. Part of this charm, I think, falls into the actors and the characters they play more than into the plot (which is essentially your standard X-men knock-off). The two Japanese characters, Hiro and Ando, as well as the indestructible teen cheerleader, are particularly nice. I like the Indian geneticist following in his father's footsteps too, and the cop in a troubled marriage who can read minds. Anyway, 11 episodes down, and I want to see more, dammit.

Eragon was hard to get into. The book has been praised as wonderful, but from the first page I was grinding my teeth: please without the adjectives already! Make some of the sentences active! Argh!

Despite this, I plunged on through. Mostly, this was because I knew my mother had sent it to me because she liked it, and she knows I am interested in fantasy. And because I was sick with no other new material in the house, although I contemplated reading Glen Cook's Black Company for the 30th time. But, even as painful as it was, there is something to like about Eragon. Sure, it has errors. The author was a kid when he wrote it! It might have never gotten past the standard publishing screeners if his parents hadn't self-published the book and if it hadn't been so well promoted. The point is, it was picked up eventually, and the kid has a trilogy in the works. Cool for him. Sure, the characters are cliche, the dialogue is a little trite, and the writing could be stronger; but it is obvious the Christopher Paolini loves what he's doing, and he has a chance to do something great with it. Go for it. Hopefully the spark that caught the publisher's eye will mature, and he can work on improving the writing.

Two Weddings (Receptions) and a Dinner

2007-01-21T03:21:00.000+08:00

Was invited out by James and Connie the other night. Their new apartment is close by, and man is it nice! Simple and elegant for the most part, although the giant plasma screen TV in the living room and the additional ones in the bedrooms might be a bit much, but I certainly wouldn't be complaining if I had one either. They had their wedding albums and photos from the wedding photographer on the walls (they got married on the 9th of December). Cute, just too cute. We had apples and green tea while the wedding DVD played and we looked at the pictures. A bunch of other people from the English department came too, including the former dean, a nice old man who told me stories about Chinese customs and how it was time (this was echoed by the current dean and associated others present) that I should be considering a Chinese girlfriend (and, given the topic at hand, my future wedding to her). I sort of just coughed and remained silent on that one. Sheesh.

The apartment itself was spacious by Chinese standards. They measure in meters and I'm not good at that sort of thing anyway, but I'd say it would be comparable to a large two-bedroom or a small three-bedroom apartment in Oregon. Marble floors (faux, I'm guessing, but it looked good), a sizable kitchen, hers and his laptops on a single large desk in the study, a kids bedroom (in anticipation of the future already), a master bedroom, and a really nice bathroom with a real shower. They even had a camera and monitor attached to the downstairs apartment gate so they can be sure of whom they are buzzing in.

Then we went to Kaiyue Hotel, to the restaurant there (posh!). We had the normal assortment of "cold dish" appetizers: duck tongue, beef jerky, and firm tofu. They also had honey & sesame glazed cashews instead of the normal tea-soaked peanuts, and cubes of a jello-like substance made from coconut milk (which they insist on calling "coconut juice"--which is, by the way, the official drink of conferences and meetings in China). All was tasty.

The various main courses consisted of noodles that were kind of like pad Thai, a slightly spicy fish and potato soup, cubed squid served in its own ink (which was quite tasty, actually. It looked like a bowl of India ink), lobster, sea snails with a sauce kind of like sarrachi (but definitely not hot, which was unfortunate), steamed bok choy, juvenile hairy crabs, and sweet and sour spareribs (a very light sweet and sour). No shrimp, surprisingly.

After dinner--which consisted of continuous rounds of toasting from the hosts, James and Connie--we all went to another teacher's home in New Wenzhou (which is so new that it is still under construction). They had also gotten married recently (on the 12th of December) and had just moved into a new apartment on the 8th floor of a 30 story high-rise. The woman had just received a promotion at the school, and they were already well on their way to expecting their first child, so the entire affair was quadruply joyous.

Similar scene to the first apartment. This one was really cool though, because the wall in the living room (with the identical widescreen plasma TV on it) had a concealed door that led to the kitchen. If they hadn't opened it, I would have never figured out that it was there. Tres cool.

Eating on the Run

2007-01-07T02:40:00.000+08:00

I'm restarting a little writing exercise I attempted a couple of years ago on my LJ. I'm going to be posting a short snippet of writing each week, a serial story set in the Shadowrun universe. Basically, I'm doing it to get the juices flowing and to have a good time. So if you're interested, stop on by Eating on the Run. Two posts are up now, and I'm going to try to post one per day for the rest of January, moving on to one per week perhaps after that.

Happy Holidays

2007-01-03T21:11:00.000+08:00

Tis the Season and all that, even in China. I had a pretty merry Holiday actually, considering I am seperated from most of my friends and family by the world's largest ocean.

On the first day of Christmas (in this case known as Thursday the 21st), I went with the Wenzhou Medical College International Department to a gala that the city holds every year in honor of Christmas and the foreign community. It was in a hotel not far from where I live, called the Wenzhou Dynasty. Rose, Sherry, and I were there of course, along with assorted members of the college adminstration and most of the foreign medical students. We were seated in three large, round tables just behind the table where all of the city officials and honored guests were sitting, so we had a pretty good view. Dinner was Chinese-style on a lazy Susan: assorted cold foods followed by various local dishes, including white fish, hairy crab, duck tongue, and shrimp.

The table where all the important people sat had a statue of a peacock that looked like it had been carved from a potato the size of a VW Beetle. The foreign students were in their best clothes, especially the girls, whom looked lovely. A number of them are from India, and there are a couple others from South Africa that are Hindus originally from India, so they were wearing sari and other traditional garb. Four of them, however, were not wearing this costume, but matching jeans and black shirts. They were one of the performers that evening, dancing a traditional Hindu dance. Another of the foreign students, this a guy from Pakistan named Cha-cha, sang a song in Chinese. He actually won a singing contest a few days before, where foreigners were required to sing in English and Chinese. Other entertainers were acrobats from primary schools, a martial arts school, Chinese rap from one of the hosts (a African-Canadian), and some Zhejiang Opera. The martial artists were particularly cool.

One of my good friends, Canadian Adam (to distinguish him from Shanghai and Australian Adams), won an award for best teacher. He teaches at the best middle school in Wenzhou, which is run under a partnership with the Canadian government.

On the second day of Christmas (Friday the 22nd), I went to the Wang residence for a Christmas party. John and Amy, my hosts, were very gracious. They live in a posh apartment downtown on the top floor of a high-rise. The other guests were all children: three girls (some were friends' kids and one was a niece), two boys (one is theirs; he is an adorable 3), and the nanny they have for their son. Amy cooked--for the first time in 10 years, she said--and it was a great feast. Afterward, Amy gave the kids lessons in Chinese and English while John and I chatted, listened to classical music, and then watched the Discovery Channel. They're cool people.

On Christmas Eve, I went to Jorge's for a grand party. Allistar, a new Scotsman in town (he is a shipbuilder) was there, as was a really cute Chinese chick named Helen. She works in security devices. The party was fierce; a good number of foreigners and Chinese showed up, although many of them not until late. That was OK, because I was still at the bar having fun until the wee hours of the morning.

I taught classes on Christmas Day. I had promised my freshmen a party. I brought Monopoly, UNO, and several decks of cards; plus I brought some snacks. My first class of the day, Renji 1, surprised me though. They pulled out all the stops. They bought two enourmous cakes, Coke, Sprite, red wine, and a gift for me: a shadowbox of butterflies with their Chinese and scientific names written underneath. Very cool. Also, each of the dorm rooms (4-6 people per dorm) sang a song for me (some got me to join in). The four boys all wore matching light-up Santa hats that were identical to mine, and helped me pack in stuff for the party. They also showed movie of their trip to the local amusement park, which looks rad. I want to go there now. Lastly, the entire class got together and gave me a 10 minute performance in fast-forward of the Monkey King story (part of the Journey into the West, a Chinese classic). It was awesome.

The other two classes were less involved, but they all got me gifts: a new beannie, a pair of gloves, a scarf, and another light-up Santa hat. They had a blast playing UNO and Monopoly, and several of them played some sort of strange Chinese game with the mundane playing cards. One bit of nastiness though: I dropped my camera and broke the LCD display. I'm going to try to fix it, but for right now, it's busted.

Christmas Day also saw me going on a date with Helen. We went to QuChaQu ("Go Tea Go") and had a marvelous time.

Had another party Thursday. That one was for the sophomores that I took over from Lillian. I had intended to cook for them, but transporting and keeping food at the school was difficult, so I just brought snacks. We finished watching movies: Lillian had shown them Raiders of the Lost Ark, and they desperately wanted to finish it. Also, I had shown them The Family Stone the previous week, so we finished up the last few minutes of that. The sophomores liked both movies a lot, mostly because they understood more than most of the freshmen. I got another couple of gifts from the sophomores. One of the classes gave me another scarf, and then Sarah, one of my favorite students, gave me a really sweet Christmas card. She's cool; Sarah is learning French from Rose, so I occassionally bust out some of the old Francophone lingo. She doesn't know much yet (she's having trouble with some of the French sounds), but she's learning.

New Year's Eve was another party at La Luna. This one was a little more low-key for me, since I had hit the Christmas Eve party pretty hard. Spent most of the night talking with Adam (Canadian) and chilling. Allister wore a kilt though, which was pretty badass. Helen danced around, and it was all good.

Next day, for reasons resulting from cultural miscommunication, Helen and I stopped dating. She had called early New Year's morning, wanting to come over. I actually left the party around 2:30, but she had stayed until 5 or 6 when Jorge finally closed shop. So she came over for the rest of the morning. I was meeting with Adam at 2pm, so I told her I wanted to get some things done before he came over, and I asked if she could head off around noon. Apparently, this was the worst possible thing to say, because she freaked out on me, started talking about how I was so selfish, foreigners were crap, and she never wanted to have another foreign friend. Sheesh! I tried to calm her down for the next hour, but she wouldn't have any of it. Oh well. For the best, really, since early that morning she had totally said, "I love you," which is far more emotion than I was willing to direct toward her after a week of dating.

The Mistress of Spices -- 2005

2006-12-22T15:23:00.000+08:00

This is another movie from the minds behind Bride and Prejudice and Bend It Like Beckham (which, mind you, I've never seen, but Lillian raved about the later).

The basic premise of the movie is that Tilo (Aishwarya Rai), a young Indian woman with Second Sight, has been trained by an ancient, secret Indian sect to ustilize the magic of spices. Once trained, the young women in the sect are magically transported all over the world, to wherever they are needed most. Here, the set up shops selling spices, kind of like culinary apothocaries. They use the magic of the spices to help people solve problems and live better lives, but there are three rules that the women must follow:

They must never use the magic of the spices for personal desires.
They must never leave their store.
They must never touch the skin of another person.

Pretty tall order to follow, but the spices give Tilo and the other woman trained in their magic amazing powers. Problems arise, naturally, when these three rules are tested in the form of Doug (Dylan McDermott), an architect working on a building near Tilo's shop. When Doug crashes his motorcycle in front of her shop, Tilo uses the spices to heal his injuries. He begins to fall in love with her, and she with him, which leads to a spiral of chaos in Tilo's previously harmonious life. The spices start having the opposite effect on her clients, finally leaving her with a choice: life with the spices or life with Doug.

This movie is visually electric, with a wonderful intensity of color. Since most of the film takes place in Tilo's spice shop in San Fransico, the colors are provided by the lush and interesting assortment of peppers, cumin, saffron, and other plants produced as if by magic in Tilo's garden. The beautiful Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World, should not be dismissed either, as she adds a great deal to the gorgeous texture of the movie as well.

The Mistress of Spices is a little slow, but highly enjoyable. The acting is good, especially in the supporting characters (mostly clients of the store). It makes me wish I had thought of it first, because it goes extremely well with the Matrika Devaki character in my novel. Ah well, I guess she just has to love cooking and talk with the ghost of her grandfather.

Haircut

2006-12-22T15:11:00.000+08:00

I got my first Chinese haircut recently. I was a little worried because some of my friends had less than satisfactory experiences, but I really needed a trim.

I went to a place George recommended down the street from his bar. The haircut started with a shampoo. A lovely Chinese attendant took me back to a chair and began the scrub. It was accompanied with a head massage, which was awesome. She used her fingers to massage my temples and then her nails to scratch along my scalp, which hurt a little, but not enough for me to ask her to stop. She would also periodically drum her fingers on the top of my head, which was really cool--until I realized that my head sounded hollow. I suppose some of you already knew this.

After the srub, she took me to another chair with a basin to rinse and continue the massage. She also cleaned my ears, which was really strange. Not something I'm normally into--having other people inserting things into my ears--but it was interesting. After the rinse, I was taken to the actual hair stylist, a young man with a techno-punk hairdo. He asked me what I wanted, and I replied "yi dian dian" (a little) so he began to work. Used the scissors, sent me for another scrub and rinse, then used the razor to do some more. All in all, not a bad way to spend 40 kuai, and a pretty decent haircut.

Mr. Rusty Goes to the Children's Palace

2006-12-20T16:59:00.000+08:00

Last weekend I was a judge for a Wenzhou-wide English contest for grades K-6. Actually, the preliminaries were on Thursday and Friday evening, but the final competition was on Sunday morning. I met "Jinglebell" at one of the local coffee shops near my place and she procured a cab for us on Thursday and Friday, but one of the other judges had her husband pick me up for Sunday morning.

The event was hosted in the "Children's Palace" downtown, near some park I've never seen before. I'm going to have to make a trip down there though (it's just off of bus route 5), because there park looks really cool. There's a mountain (think of it this way: take a random, single mountain from the Coast Range in Oregon, then plop that mountain in the middle of a metropolitan area of 5-7 million people), a pagoda, and a bunch of statues.

Anyway, the Children's Palace is kind of a combination school and Boy's and Girl's Club. There are classrooms as well as a largish theatre. It shares the common problem with all Chinese buildings, however; there is no heat. The temperture here has fallen to somewhere in the single digits on the Celcius scale (approaching 32 degrees F), making it 'effing cold here. It really is no colder than Oregon at this time of year--except that because there is never any heat in the buildings (including my own apartment right now!) you are always cold. I've managed to get my bedroom warmed up because I bought a space-heater, but the rest of my apartment is freezing and I have to bundle up with heavy clothing, covers, and bring the space-heater in to watch a movie or TV (or to use my laptop).

Thursday saw 78 contestants, so it took about three hours to get through the preliminaries. These were mostly grades 3-6. Some of them were so small though, that I thought they were in Kindergarden. They were really adorable, singing songs and telling a lot of hodge-podge Aesop's fables and some traditional Chinese folk lore. A few of them talked about themselves, their school library, their parents, or something similar. And they all called me "Mr. Rusty."

I thought there would be older students Friday night, but it turned out I was wrong--they were younger. K-3 students singing and dancing, telling Aesop's fables, and the rest--they are even cuter than the 3-6 kids. The youngest contestant was 6 years old. OMG she was so cute! And she spoke better English than most of my freshmen. Granted, her topics of conversation would be pretty limited, but when I talked to her directly, she had a good grasp of listening, wasn't intimidated by my "strong" (read, fat--especially by Chinese standards) weiguoren self. She answered questions accurately, said thank you enthusiastically when I presented her award to her (she made it to the finals, but didn't place in the top bracket), and was in general probably the most interesting 6-year-old I've seen in a long time. She had spirit, which a lot of people around here seem to lack in their rush to keep up with the Lees. Anyway, only 58 students in the Friday prelims, so it took a lot less time.

Sunday morning was especially cold, but I only had to sit through the final contestants. The previous two days had been judged based solely on an English speech (which includes a story or song/dance). If there was a tie in the score among the top contenders, I would ask a question (which Mrs. Wang, one of the other judges, said I was speaking too quickly for, and using too complicated sentences and words). Sunday consisted of two parts for the youngest kids (speech + performance) and three parts for the older kids (speech + performance + question). Some of the children got confused and did it all at once, and then had to come back out to do the performance section again, but in general things went OK. There was one poor girl in 6th grade who was so nervous she flubbed the speech and question, but she got really good points for me on the performance even though most of her words were drowned out by Whitney Houston on the karaoke CD she had accompanying her. It wasn't a sympathy vote either--I gave her high marks because I could actually read her lips for every word. That is impressive in my book. Especially among the Chinese in Wenzhou, who seem to never put their lips together when they talk. Very strange.

One of the older boys did an improved story that he wrote himself rather than a memorized routine. It was a little rough, but so few people here prize creativity that it was a nice, refreshing change from the fables and "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands" that I had been subjected to by all the other students. This boy did a one-kid play involving a bank robber and a police man. It was pretty cool.

A lot of the kids, particularly the girls, were dressed in their finest, cutest clothing to impress us. The parents all wanted pictures of their children, and so did the contest organizers, so we (the judges) posed with the students. On Thursday, one of the parents came up to me after the event was over and gave me a solemn, traditional, Chinese gesture of respect. That was so cool. I had seen him before the prelim started, and heard him mention something in English about giving the contest some fairness. Apparently (and this doesn't surprise me) there had been some controversy in his eyes about last year's contest. His daughter had flubbed the question I gave her for the tie-breaker, but when asked about her performance afterword, I disagreed with my other judges. They thought she had done poorly, whereas I qualified my assessment with, a comment about nervousness. I thought she had been nervous, that her English skills were fine, and that her poor performance with the question involved being asked the question on stage by a waiguoren who talks too fast.

The other judges for the first two nights were Mrs. Wang (a teacher herself, and quite friendly. Her husband John works with the local government, I think. Both have been abroad to the USA and England, I think, and speak excellent English) and Mrs. Gao (a educational researcher). Mrs. Wang judged for Sunday as well, but Mrs. Gao was replaced by Mrs. Lu from Wenzhou Medical College. She's one of the deans for the college, and I had met her once before, the first day I arrived in China. She was pretty cool to talk to as well.

On Thursday and Friday nights, John Wang gave me a ride home, as well as Mrs. Gao. On Friday, when she found out I hadn't eaten dinner yet, Mrs. Gao asked me to join her, her sister, and her neice for a local Wenzhou delicacy, hairy crab. So I went up the elevator to her flat, which is downtown somewhere, and on the 9th floor or something. Huge building. On one side is her flat, and the other side is a classroom she uses for studying the concepts and techniques of teaching English to Chinese students. She designed the flat and the classroom herself, and it is huge, especially for just one person. Her sister didn't speak much English, but her niece (who was maybe 6) spoke a little. She was a little shy though. She did call me "uncle" (a term of respect for someone older here), which was kinda cool.

The hairy crab is a freshwater variety, and a signature Wenzhou dish. Like other crab, you steam or boil the little guys alive. They start out a sort of gray color, but when you cook them they turn orange. Their bodies are about the size of a saucer, although when you include the legs they reach the size of a dinner plate. They are called "hairy" crabs because they actually do have hair. Each leg has a few bristly stranges of hair coming off of it, while the claws are actually surrounded by a ring of thick, water-matted hair. You eat them by pulling the top of the shell off the body, remove the gills, then munch right down into the guts. You eat the legs too, using just your teeth to break the exoskeleton, and you're supposed to pretend that the hair isn't there. I managed two, since Mrs. Gao cooked them two different ways, but they were not my favorite thing in the world. Too messy, and although I like crab meat (and the legs and claws tasted like crab meat from other species), the bodies were not exactly tasty. The consistency was like caramelized sugar, and it tasted like a lake bottom. Mmm. I was very polite though, and said they were delicious.

I'm going Friday to the Wang residence, where I will have a Christmas party with them. They said it was simple and informal, and that there will be 5 little kids. I have a feeling I will be entertainment. That's OK, I'm good at that.

In other news: I thought I would miss the traditional Christmas frenzy that accompanies the holiday in the States. I was only partially correct. The other day I rode the department store escalator to take a look at a new wok and price out the space heaters. As I crested the 2nd floor of Century Mart, I was greated by the smiling, jovial face of Santa Claus and a whole gaggle of Christmas tree ornaments. You may remember me mentioning that Wenzhou has a large Christian population. Well, the rest of the group gets into the act too. Stores are covered in "Merry Christmas" signs, Christmas lights, electronic trees that light up, and life-sized Santas that rock and bop around to Oldies Christmas tunes. Granted, I see "Christmas Merry" almost as much as "Merry Christmas," but they got it mostly right. Mostly. The really odd thing is that they have just as many Easter decorations up as Christmas ones, like they know the holidays are connected to Jesus in some way, but not sure exactly why or when they both happen. So I see Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, and the like all over the place. So very strange.

I'm cooking for my freshmen and sophomore classes next week. I teach fresmen on Christmas Day, so I'm going to throw a party. Mom sent me a ton of candy canes, so I'll be handing those out, and I'll be bringing Christmas music and the like to class too. They all want me to cook something American, and while they asked for turkey, I told them that was out of the question. So I may try to make Spanish rice, since I can get all the ingredients except the cheese really easily here, and I can get enough cheese for the two days. George said he'd let me use his oven to bake them, so I'll put several batches together at my apartment and then take them to George's bar to cook them. Then, I'll have to take my microwave to the school to reheat them. The unheated classrooms are actually a blessing in this case, since I won't have to worry too much about spoilage. Jeez.

When Flat Means Steep

2006-12-10T19:44:00.000+08:00

Aiya! I am so tired. I just got back from another day-long hike. Marshal (one of Rose's students) told us it would be "a flat hike to a garden." But this was the Chinese definition for "flat": any place that does not have (or again, by the Chinese definition of "not have") "sticky, dangerous, or sheer" surfaces. As in, no brambles, cliffs, or vorpal bunnies. Also, if "garden" means "place created by God and/or the natural powers of universe and never before touched by the hand of man" then that's where we hiked. If it instead means "place created by people to look nice and to stroll around in" then that is not where we were.

It was a cool experience, but again, we climbed a 500 meter staircase. It was easier going this time around, partly because I was feeling better (and I've lost tons of excess weight in China), partly because it was freezing, and partly because it simply wasn't as steep. But if "steep" means "1) at least a 45 degree incline, 2) not flat" then that is the word to use. It also had tons of brambles (we actually had to trailblaze for a while after our guides got us lost), sheer drop-offs (which I gleefully tumbled down on more than one occassion, nearly missing certain doom and death by inches and the helping--and laughing--Chinese person behind me), and the last, which is my person favorite. Most of the trails we followed--once we got beyond the steps--were animal trails. Specifically this means wild boars. I don't know if you've ever seen a wild boar, but by all accounts they are big and mean. No visitations from one this day though.

The coolest part of the trip was simply the people we climbed with. Marshal is Marshal, of course, and he's a good guy (even if I was a little annoyed at his use of the word "flat"). There was also three of the international students from Pakistan--unfortuantely I can only remember one of their names, Chacha, pictured above. There was also a guide named PC-something-or-other. I couldn't remember the numbers after "PC" so I just refered to him as PC. It was some sort of Chinese joke. A lot of our numbers sound like Chinese words. There is a brand of Chinese cigarette, for example (521 or something like that), that sounds like "I love you" in Chinese, so they all call it the "I love you" brand. The cigarettes even have heart-shaped centers (don't worry, Ma, I'm not smoking them, just looking!). There was another Chinese guide who was really cool (and cute!). Her name was "Samantha" Wang Jufong. Not exactly sure on the pinyin for her Chinese name. She's a swimming instructor or something, and although her English wasn't very good, she was enthusiastic about speaking what she knew! She is one of the few Chinese I've met who seems to be a geniunely happy person too, eager to express her emotions. 'Course, I may have just liked her 'cause she was flirting with me all day too, but hey, that's just something I'll have to live with. Here's a picture of her that she wanted me to take. Not sure why, but she was all excited over this one.

There was another interesting bit toward the end of the day too. We stopped for a rest at the top of a dam. Several of the guides decided to test their manhood and go swimming in the icy water below the dam. They said it was good for you, but I didn't feel like freezing to death. It was too cold as it was. Other people decided to rappel down the front of the dam to a concrete staircase below. The first couple were OK, but then one woman didn't fasten the harness correctly or something. I was never clear about what went wrong. She fell about 20 feet, partially controlled by the line, and landed on the stairs. Fortunately, her legs were bent beneath her when she hit, and although she rolled enough to deflect most of the initial shock, she didn't roll enough to go tumbling another 30 feet to the bottom of the staircase. She managed to get off with some serious bruises and some scraped knees. Still, the guides weren't going to take chances. They made a travoy with some bamboo and some blankets and three of them carried her down the mountain the rest of the way.

Classes have been going pretty good. Or I think they have. We'll see. I picked up Lillian's listening classes with the sophomores on Thursdays, and they seem to be a cool bunch. I made some of them sing. That was fun. 'Course, they conned me into singing too, so I belted out an old krooner tune.

For their final grade, I'm making my freshmen write a short story. I was going to make them write an essay, but frankly I think they will do better at creative writing. I figure that I can at least get them to enjoy writing a little, since most of them didn't want to be English majors to begin with (and a few are still struggling with that issue). The students think I'm being very harsh by making them write a 10-page, double-spaced story. Maybe. But the only way I can really test how well they write is by having them write, and I'd rather read a short story than a research paper or something like that.

I give the freshmen vocabularly quizes. It is quite frustrating though, because several of them just can't keep their lips shut and their eyes on their own papers, so I had to give a few zeros. Sigh. It isn't strictly their fault. Most of the Chinese teachers don't really care about cheating. The point of college, after all, is to graduate students, not for them to learn anything.

In one class the four boys claimed they hadn't prepared for the quiz because they didn't know about it.

"Then why are all of the girls sitting with their pen and paper out and ready to go? Why do they know what is going on and you don't?"

No answer.

"You've had two weeks to prepare for this. If you didn't talk to a single classmate or to me, then it is your own fault you don't know what is going on."

Rage. So much rage. Pushing it away...

All-in-all though, I like the students. I wish I taught them more often. Teaching 500 or so students once a week is not very fun, and I can't really develop relationships with any of the students. Hell, other than a few, I don't know them by name, and many I don't know by sight! It sounds like next term is more of the same, although I'm going to push for teaching the same students more often.

This is me exploring Asian cinema

2006-12-02T00:13:00.000+08:00

George down at the bar introduced me to a bunch of new movies. One of those that he let me borrow was a Japanese movie called Swing Girls. I was a little dubious when he said I should watch it, because it looked more like some sort of strange, soft-core porn than a real movie by the picture on the DVD, but he assured me it was worth my time. Against my better judgement (you've gotta know George), I went ahead and watched the movie.

Wow. This movie is rad.

Swing Girls begins with a group of high school girls stuck in a hot, summer class room where they are making up a math class. One of the girls, Tomoko, watches the brass band preparing for a baseball game, and is envious that they get to go on a road trip while she remains stuck in the class room. Just after the bus leaves, however, the caterer shows up with the lunches for the band. The girls convince their teacher to let them take the train to the next town to deliver the lunches. Excited to be on a road trip of their own, Tomoko gets hungry and shares one of the bento boxes with her friends. Unfortunately, they get all fall asleep and miss their train stop, so they get off at the next station and begin to walk back to the baseball stadium along the train tracks. The forget that trains actually use those tracks though, and have to dive off the tracks into a rice paddy. Eventually, tired, dirty, and disgruntled, they make it to the baseball game and hand out the lunches. Unfortuantely, the cymbals player (and the worst member of the brass band, because he hates playing them), Nakamuro, goes without a lunch. As it turns out though, because of the little stop-over in the rice paddy, all the lunches are contaminated, and the entire band except Nakamuro gets severly ill and has to be rushed to the hospital.

OK, that seems a lot of setup for the movie, but it is kind of important. Nakamuro needs replacements for the band for the next game, so he blackmails the math-class girls into stepping up to the challenge (he realizes that since he was the only one without a lunch and the girls probably ate one before they delivered them, that is was their fault people got sick). Anyway, he gets them into shape. His call for band members also drafts in a girl who plays the recorder and two other girls--a bassist and a guitar player who are a little more rock than brass. Anyway, since they don't have enough people for a brass band, Nakamuro decides to try a Big Band ensemble. After a week or two practicing, the girls are starting to get the hang of it and enjoy it (only the bassist, the guitarist, the recorder player--she switches to trombone--and Nakamuro know how to play music, and only Nakamuro knows how to read music). Nakamuro learns his true calling too: piano.

The unfortunate thing is that the brass band members get better before the girls can play in front of an audience. They become obsessed with playing music, and Tomoko even hawks her iMac and her little sister's PS2 to buy a second-hand sax. The girls and Nakamuro, going under the name Swing Girls (and a guy) attempt to learn how to play jazz, while having a number of misadventures as they try to purchase their instruments and find a place to practice. Eventually they discover that their math teacher is actually a jazzophile, and he teaches them how to get into the rythym they need to really swing (although as a muscian himself, he fails).

The girls eventually get the chance to attend a regional high school student band competition (while having further misadventures), and perform in front of hundreds of people.

This movie does really swing. Funny, touching story without being sappy; great music and good acting. It also is filmed beautifully. There is one scene where the girls and Nakamuro are hunting for truffles in the wilderness so that they can sell them and get money for instruments. Then they discover a wild boar. This scene is so artfully done and so funny that I had to pause I was laughing so hard.

Next post: my really strange experience exploring some cutting-edge Taiwanese art-house cinema.

SMERSH plot

2006-12-01T01:02:00.000+08:00

I have a new blog, designed so that I can discuss and explore my interest in spy fiction and film without spoiling it for anyone who doesn't want to read about such things. With my recent acquisition of all 21 official Bond films (minus the two other version of Casino Royale--the 1950s B&W TV movie and the Woody Allen spoof, which I already owned and the unofficial remake of Thunderball: Never Say Never Again) I figured it would be a good time to take a serious look at the art and style of the genre. So if your interested, click on by and check it out. Feel free to post comments, disagree with my findings, and otherwise help me research my way to a better novel of my own.

SMERSH plot begins here.

Wenzhou Museum and Coffee

2006-11-29T17:44:00.000+08:00

Week before last (between the two trips to Hangzhou), I went to the Wenzhou Museum. My guide was the lovely Elisabetta, an Italian woman who is a manager at a high-end clothing manufacturer here in Wenzhou, and Jessie's boss (Jess is the girlfriend of George, who owns the La Luna bar).

We met up at SPD, a Starbucks knock-off on Wendi Lu, one of the better shopping streets and just down the road from my apartment. We had coffee and lunch. We each had curried beef, which come out in such a honorable presentation that I had to snap a photo of it. Notice the fried egg on top of the steamed rice. There was a little straw to suck up the egg yolk, but since I find that terribly disguisting to even contemplate, I didn't use it for such a purpose. I just ate the egg.

After coffee we walked over to the badmitten courts to see if we could book a spot. They were full up, which was unfortunate, because Elisabetta likes to play and I could have used the workout. Foiled there, we walked over to the Wenzhou Museum which was far enough away to provide adequate exercise anyway.

We had to pay to get in (10 kuai). The main entrance to the museum was really impressive. It is a large, round room with a giant palace made entirely of jade tiles. The thing must weigh a ton or two. Around the palace were partitions made of wood and carved jade in various colors and designs. It really was quite beautiful, although we could only see one side of the partitions, which was unfortunate. Despite the fact that Elisabetta speaks and reads Chinese very well, she couldn't figure out why the palace was there or which building it was supposed to represent.

Around the walls of the room were enormous bas-relief images of Chinese folklore. One depicted Archer Yi, another Chang'an and the rabbit in the moon. The others I wasn't sure about, since my Chinese mythology is spotty. But they were really cool. There was a guy who looked like he was diving headfirst from the sky, with a crane coming out of his neck. There was another one of a man wreathed in flames. Another was a taoist monk of some sort, and there was another of a kung fu bad-ass. The entrance room was my favorite in the entire museum.

We wandered around the museum, but most of it was empty. Typical of China, it seems. We did find a section of natural history, starting with dinosaurs, traveling to contemporary animals of Asia and North America (I loved the opposom and bobcats in the tropical forest and the tigers in a Pacific Northwest pine forest). They also had a section on sealife, with hanging sharks, mantas, and other fish. The exibits were taxidermy, so these were all life-sized (except, naturally for the dinosaurs, which were rather weak tea). There was also a section of fish, mollusks, and the like in sealed containers preserved in some sort of fluid. I think I had eaten many types of the various nasties in those containers since I arrived in Wenzhou. There was also this type of crab or sea spider that was vicious looking. Instead of pinchers, it had these two nasty spikes for front legs. It looked like a giant tick, about the size of a minidisc.

There was a section on the history of Wenzhou. The funniest thing was walking into the section on the area's prehistory and finding three bronze statues in diarama. These represented the earliest Neolithic people in southwest Zhejiang province. There was an old Chinese man, a young Chinese man, and a clearly Caucasion woman.

The story of Wenzhou progressed from Neolithic to the modern day, mostly focusing on the economic growth of the region. There was a very frightening display of a Chinese restaurant in London, which showed to Chinese men waiting on a family of weiguoren (easily identified by their white hair--even on the little boy and young woman--and by their ridiculously large noses). For those of you not savvy on the Chinese, this word means "foreigner" and we are thought to have very large noses. There is even some slang, which translates to "big nose".

There was another display about traditional festivals in Wenzhou for Mid-Autumn Day, Spring Festival, and other holidays. When Lillian and I returned to the museum the following week, she commented on the fact that we hadn't seen anything remotely like the display. She's right; such events no longer are among Wenzhou's attractions.

There was an exibit of ancient pottery, jade, traditional painting, and calligraphy. All in all, it was an interesting experience, but not one of the better museums I've been to.

After the museum, Elisabetta and I traveled downtown to a really cool coffee shop, where we drank Irish coffees (that's with Bailey's, don't you know), and chit-chatted. Then we tried to get George and Jess and get some dinner, but they weren't answering their phones. So we just went to La Luna and waited for them there, drank beer, and had some french fries (which Elisabetta is addicted to). All in all, a good day.

Bond, James Bond

2006-11-29T15:18:00.000+08:00

Guess who owns every single James Bond movie ever made, including the brand new Casino Royale? Hmm? And it only cost $20.

Hangzhou: Adventures in the Silk Museum, Tea Museum, on and Around West Lake, and Shopping for Silk

2006-11-28T15:56:00.000+08:00

Lillian and I trumped around Hangzhou last weekend. We wandered around West Lake for a while before heading down to the Silk Museum. It was a decent walk, but we managed. The museum was free, which was great, especially considering the exibits were pretty small. What was there was interesting though. The information was in both English and Chinese, providing us with a history of Chinese silk production and the life cycle of the silk moth. Exibits included silk cloth and garments that were hundreds of years old, and there was a gift shop selling fairly expensive (by Chinese standards) silk products, from bedding to suits. Lillian bought a gift there, but it was fortunate that she waited for the rest of the gifts until later, when we hit the hundreds of shops on Silk Street.

Hangzhou was one of the places during the Ming and Qing Dynasties where silk production was concentrated. That means for the better part of a thousand years, this city has been the location to get silk from.

The most interesting part of the museum was this bit of information: a single silk worm cocoon (about the size of a peanut) produces 1000 meters of silk!

After the longish walk to the Silk Museum, we decided we were going to get a cab to the Tea Museum. We were also getting hungry, and figured a long walk would only heighten that feeling. Fortunately, a taxi arrived just as we were ready to leave the Silk Museum. Such convienence!

Problem though: the taxi driver wasn't sure where the Tea Museum was. He had to stop and ask directions. What's worse, it was a very good thing we didn't walk, because the distance was much greater than we anticipated. It would have taken most of the day to get there!

The Tea Museum is located to the southwest of West Lake. Even though it is only a kilometer from the lake, it looks like it is in the middle of rural China, except the few houses in the neighborhood are all upper middle-class and quite nice. Fields of tea shrubs surround the museum, and mist had settled over the valley from the nearby mountains, contrasting nicely with the autumn foilage. Lillian got better pictures of this than I did, so go check her blog out when she puts them up.

The museum itself was thankfully free again. This was nice not only because of the somewhat expensive cab ride to and from the museum, but also because the museum's exhibits were, like the Silk Museum, somewhat lacking. Interesting for what they did have though. There was all manner of tea pots, tea cups, and tea-making devices from the last couple of thousand years, as well as a pretty good explaination of green, black, white, and red teas and all of their various subtypes. The descriptions were mostly in both English and Chinese, although the guided tour was Chinese only. The woman at the front desk seemed slightly embarrased over this.

They had an ancient tea-shaping device you could actually operate, which was pretty fun. They also had various disks, flags, glyphs, and other shapes of tea. The gift shop was fabulous with tons of tea and tea sets, but also extremely expensive. 12000 kuai for a tea set (granted it did look amazing!) is a little beyond my price range (that's 3 months salary!).

Like with silk, Hangzhou is famous for its tea. It is also famous for being a stop along the Grand Canal (the largest man-made waterway in the world), and for being the birthplace of traditional Chinese medicine. We didn't make it to those museums though.

Seeing the sights put Lillian in a better mood, and we walked a while along the rode and across some beautiful waterways before we picked up a taxi. We were so tired that we just went back to the hostel for lunch.

While I took a nap, Lillian talked with some of the people in the hostel, including one cool woman from New York that was attending the art school down the street. We actually ended up playing Chinese checkers and eating dinner at the hostel too.

The next day saw us taking a boat ride across West Lake. We went from island to island. The first island was kind of dull, with a lot of touristy things. You could even pay a few yuan to dress up in ethnic costume and take your picture. We didn't do that, although we thought about it.

The second island was pretty interesting. It is called Santan Yingyue, or Three Pools Mirroring the Moon. The pools on the island are home to thousands of red carp, although we saw very few because of the gloomy weather. We could see them just under the surface though--man they are big! Apparently during the full moon, such as Mid-Autumn Day (a traditional Chinese holiday), the moon reflects in such a way here so that there appears to be 32 moons. I've been told it is quite amazing to see. So amazing, in fact, that Chinese die every year because they get to close to the water when they swarm here to see the event. The nearby river that feeds West Lake has an extremely strong tidal pull, and the surge causes floods of a sort--which catch unwary people near the water and carry them to their dooms.

After Santan Yinyue, we took another boat over to Sun Yat-Sen Park, which is on an island close to the shore of West Lake, and which connects to the mainland via the Broken Bridge (from the famous story). Hmm. Not exactly what I thought it would be. It is a wide, paved avenue that you can drive cars down. Oh well, we did run into the Zhejiang Art Museum, which was cool. It was also free. The current exhibit was showcasing the painting of an old woman named Fang Zuoli, who had some amazing stuff. Her artwork is like the traditional Chinese paintings of mountains, bamboo, and the like; but it has a playfulness and fun that most Chinese art lacks. There were a lot of nude images too, in her work. Lillian compared it to Picasso's renditions of nudes. They weren't selling anything of hers in the gift shop though, which was disappointing. Around the gift shop were some sculptures that were really cool too. One was of Archer Yi, and another was a fierce martial artist. They were done by different people, and I only got one name, Tangshou-ren, who did the martial artist. These bronze statues had a playfulness like Fang Zuoli that made them stand out.

After this we walked down to Silk Street. Actually an entire city block, it is filled with a hundred little shops selling all manner of silk products, from fans to shoes to suits and dresses. Amazing! Lillian and I both did some shopping here, and I wanted to do more, but my funds were running short. Lillian did a much better job of haggling than I did. That woman is a natural!

Last trip, I spent some time around West Lake on my own, seeing the sights along the eastern edge of the lake near the hostel. The park is done very well, although it does have something of an artificial quality to it. I guess that's kind of the point, since the lake was originally a marsh that was drained a thousand years ago or more. So the fact that the PRC revamped the area and turned it into a theme park type "nature" attraction in 2000 doesn't really make it any less interesting. They even moved cultural artifacts, like a stone bridge and a Hong merchant house, to the area.

Hangzhou and the Food of Extraordinary Taste

2006-11-27T18:10:00.000+08:00

I apologize, but I must take you, dear readers, from the comfortable meadows of chronological development and bring you to the treacherous sealanes of circular time. I was lazy in getting the previous trip to Hangzhou fully blogged, and since I have returned to said city on another occassion in the meantime, I am going to compress the two events into a single chapter of this blog.

I have eaten until stuffed in Hangzhou, something which I have not done elsewhere since coming to China. The portions, the nature of the Chinese cuisine, leave me without satisfaction; but in Hangzhou, the foreign bars and restaurants, even the local diners, are capable of delivering food in taste and quantity that rewards someone who really enjoys eating. The Wenzhou cuisine seems really bland to me, or as one cool woman that Lillian met at the hostel said, "It all tastes as if it was cooked with the same dirty wok." The Wenzhou dishes are supposedly sweet, but I can't really taste it except in the bread. To me, it just tastes bland and dull.

The reason that I took the 4.5 hour bus ride to Hangzhou this time was purely for food. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day for all of you Americans out there, brought Lillian, Rose, and I (along with Lexi and Lincoln, students at the college), to Kana's, a foreign-owned bar for a thanksgiving dinner buffet. It was 100 kuai (about $12) per person for all-you-can-eat turkey, mashed potatos (blended more than mashed), assorted pasta, chef's, and macaroni salads (all hard to find in China), and gravy. Endless beer, wine, or soda was also included in that price. Lexi and Lincoln had their first bite of turkey, and liked it. Most of the food in China is cooked quickly over high heat. The idea of slow-roasting is virtually unknown. Kana turned out to be from Barundi, so we were eating an American meal cooked by an African man in a bar in China. Heh.

Last time I was in Hangzhou, Jackie, Megan, Jessica, and I went to a going away/birthday party for a foreigner who was departing China for good. Somehow he managed to rent out the roof of a small hydroelectric plant on West Lake. There were hundreds of foreigners there, and we had an amazing time overall. The best part though, was the food: someone had brought in two BBQ grills and they were grillin' steaks, dogs, and burgers American style. So awesome!

My favorite place to eat in Hangzhou was the Maya Bar. Lillian, Rose, and I took the trip out to this place, which is a little off the main area where we were staying. Great atmosphere, like something you would find back home. The menu wasn't extravegant, but it did have something approaching Mexican food. For 38 kuai we each had two "chicken burritos" which really were chicken soft tacos. Chicken, rice, fresh salsa!, cheese. So yummy. They also serve nachos and chili (but this last only on Wednesdays).

Coming back to the hostel via taxi from the Maya Bar, I saw my favorite place to eat that I haven't actually eaten at. It is called Sovereign Shark Restaurant, and the sign next to the sidewalk actually is a giant aquarium... with real, live sharks swimming around in it! I had flashbacks to James Bond. Maybe next time I'm in town I'll head there.

The first trip to Hangzhou landed Jackie, Jessica, Megan, one of Megan's friends, and myself at an Italian restuarant. The building was just down from the hostel and was itself very cool. When we entered, the staff escorted us up stairs, down stairs, across a room, up some more stairs, down some more stairs, and up another half-flight of stairs to our table. Mind you, there are only two stories to the entire building. The place was nice though, and the food, although expensive, was worth it. I paid 98 kuai for a thick salmon steak in garlic butter sauce. Mmm.

Lillian and I had lunch at the Banana Leaf, a Southeast Asian restuarant with a heavy Thai and Indian feel. We had samosas, fried carp in sweet & sour sauce, curried mutton, and fruit tea. We wanted tangerine tea, but they said they didn't have it. So instead, we had tea made from watermelons, mandarin oranges, apples, and cherry tomatos. The tomatos were in there purely for visual appeal, since they were whole and don't have the kind of skin that would really allow their juices to seep into the water. They also said they didn't have nan, which was annoying. We get this a great deal: "Duibuqi, meiyou." This means, "Sorry, we don't have it," even though it is on the menu. Lillian and I also got fortunes from these egg-shaped machines at the tables. You put in one yuan, turn the dial on top to your zodiac sign (Western, not Chinese), and then pull the lever. It spits out this little mini-gumball of plastic with a tightly folded paper inside. On one side is a "famous cartoon" (or so Lexi said later). On the other is a horoscope. Lexi said mine translated something as follows:

North, South, East, West: You have friends in all directions. But beware of the friend from the South.

There was some more, but I don't remember the rest.

I should mention now that the food at the hostel was great. They have amazing breakfasts (well, maybe not exactly amazing, but amazing for China), and my favorite was the "American" which consisted of: Bacon or sausage (more like two thin strips of ham or a sweet sausage), sliced and lightly fried potatoes, toast with either waxberry jam or butter, OJ or a fruit bowel (banana, watermelon, oranges--sometimes with mayo and sometimes without), and tea, coffee, or milk. All for 20 kuai.

The hostel also made burgers, pizzas, and the like, but the only other things I tried there were a lunch of ham fried rice and boiled dumplings, a lunch of curried beef (which included rice, minced pork, and a broth soup), and cheesy potatos with meat (pretty much a shepherd's pie). Prices from 18 to 30. All in all, reasonable and tasty.

The first trip (while, I must admit, quite drunk on mojitos after a night of dancing), Jackie, Jessica, Megan, and I had street food, or xiaochi (小吃). Noodles, chow mein, BBQ sticks. Usually, I consider this a bad idea, but the girls love it. I find it translates to too much time spent in the bathroom. I didn't care though, and they were all digging in, so I had some too. As it turns out, I did spend some time in the bathroom that night, but it had much more to do with my drinking than my stomach. Sigh. I rarely overdo it, but I did it that night. Had a blast though. Sometimes, you just have to go with it; the stress of being in China needed some release.

There was a type of xiaochi that was being sold off the main shopping streets during the day that looked like some sort of strange, wax-coated fruit on a stick. None of us bought any though.

How can I mention my trips to Hangzhou without mentioning Starbucks and DQ? That's right, Dairy Queen. In China. There are two Starbucks near the hostel on West Lake. One of them is just off the water and is probably the nicest such coffee house that the company owns in the world. Free WiFi, two stories, glass windows all around, and the coffee is even pretty good, in normal sizes instead of the Barbie teacup sizes that most coffee houses in China have. Not Venti size though. Too extravagant for them, I guess. The other one is just up the street at a major corner in the upscale shopping area, across the street from the water. Also two stories, but smaller and more typical Starbucks in feel. Again, free WiFi. Next door is Dairy Queen/Orange Julius. Lillian got a classic Orange Julius and a pineapple sundae; I got a green tea and chocolate chunk Blizzard. The OJ looked more like an Italian soda. Lillian said it was like a cup full of the dregs of an Orange Julius rather than the OJ itself. She liked the sundae though. My Blizzard was odd, but not entirely without merit. I like green tea ice cream, and I like dark chocolate (about 80% dark in this case), but not really in that format.

On last Saturday, Lillian and I decided to get lunch at Kungfu. Yes, the one with the Bruce Lee staring at you from every angle in larger-than-life-sized yellow and black. I desperately want a Kungfu windbreaker or t-shirt like all the employees wear. Kungfu is a popular Chinese fast-food chain. The food comes to you in the same plastic ware that it was cooked in. Lillian had some sort of boney chicken thing, while I had stewed beef with Sichuan pickles (which are sadly not spicy). Both our meals came with steamed rice, boiled cabbage, and some sort of scary chicken and egg flower soup that neither of us would touch.

Another interesting moment was on the way up via bus. One of the in-transit movies this time was a comic/action love story set in Hong Kong, and one of the central characters is obsessed with mojitos. I know it was a mojito because there would be a string of Chinese characters in the subtitles, followed by "mojito". Kind of like this: 爱这份饮料, 它是好的。Mojito 是伟大的!

Anyway, I really like mojitos. But Lillian and I were talking about the movie and the strange obsession with the drink (which is also prominant in the new Miami Vice) and she made the remark, "Mojitos are so two years ago." I busted a gut laughing at that one.

Well, folks, that's all for the moment. Next blog will be about my adventure with Lil to the Silk Museum, the Tea Museum, and onto West Lake by boat!

Hangzhou, part 2

2006-11-18T15:32:00.000+08:00

Once I got to Hangzhou, Kaven helped me buy the return ticket to Wenzhou, and then he and the friend that was meeting him made sure I got into a taxi without any fuss. The taxi drivers in Hangzhou, I was to learn later, are required to take classes in conversational English, so they can at least understand simple directions. But I also had the address of the hostel in Chinese characters.

When I had gotten off the bus, I was a little concerned for my stay; Hangzhou didn't look all that much different at first glance from Wenzhou. The architecture was a little more interesting and colorful, but there was a thick fog over the city when I arrived.

The ride from the bus station to the hostel took about twenty minutes. The area immediately around the hostel is populated by nightclubs, fine restaurants (many of them foreign-themed), the China Academy of Art, galleries, and West Lake itself. It was so clean! After spending a little over two months in Wenzhou, where the average street is caked in excrement and phlem, this was a dream come true. The traffic was much better too. Although there are just as many cars, the traffic laws are enforced and people don't drive erratically on the sidewalk. Hangzhou has normal big city traffic, comparable to Portland (and even though it is much bigger than Portland at just over 6 million people, Hangzhou has about the same number of cars).

The hostel itself took me a minute or two to find. It is located in an alley between two nightclubs, and then around a corner. One of the local restaurants had its back to the alley too, and a group of men were busy fabricated a boiler from scratch, sawing strips of metal and then welding them together. Dodging past the sparks from that, I walked into the hostel.

Simply beautiful. The Hangzhou International Youth Hostel has a courtyard with several tables so you can hang out and drink from the in-house bar or eat from the hostel's restaurant. There is an artificial stream with dozens of goldfish and a few koi. Bamboo surronds the courtyard. The owners of the hostel have two white cats and two very well-behaved collies! It was so nice to see a real dog and some pet cats (with collars even!) after the wild cats and miniature dogs of Wenzhou. The people actually seemed to like pets too, which most people in Wenzhou seem to hate.

On Saturday morning I explored the east side of West Lake. It is right behind the back wall of the hostel. The lake is really big; it'd probably take a good three or four hours to walk around it, and a whole day if you wanted to see all the sights along the way. West Lake is one of the most famous attractions in China (especially to Chinese tourists), as it is famous for an ancient Chinese legend which has turned into a traditional opera and even a TV show--sort of like a kung fu soap opera. It is one of the most popular TV shows in China, apparently.

The story involves a young apothocary/doctor (Hangzhou is known as the birthplace of traditional Chinese medicine) who meets a young woman and her "sister" on a bridge in West Lake known as Broken Bridge ('cause it's broken). The young woman falls in love with the handsome doctor, who falls in love with her too, and eventually they marry. Turns out the young woman is really an ancient monster, a snake that has managed to live so long that she can take the form of a human being. She's also magical and has amazing kung fu. The woman's name is Lady White, and her "sister" (really another, younger magical snake that is unrelated to her) is Miss Blue or Green, depending on the version of the story (the colors correspond to the colors of their scales in snake form). Anyway, the couple are happy, and Lady White helps her young husband start an apothocary shop, where she helps him with the secret aid of her magic, curing people and doing general good works.

Unfortunately, a Buddhist monk comes along one day. He has dedicated himself to vanquishing and destroying all monsters, and he has set his eyes on Lady White. How he figures out she is a monster is a little uncertain. But he comes to the doctor and tells him that his wife is a monster. The doctor laughs at him. The monk says to slip a little of a special herb into his wife's wine during Spring Festival, which will force her to reveal her true form. The husband thinks the monk is crazy. During Spring Festival, he slips some of the herb into Lady White's drink anyway, just to prove how foolish it all is.

Naturally, since she is a monster, Lady White reveals her true form as a big-ass snake. Her husband is so shocked that he dies on the spot. Grief-stricken, Lady White flies to one of the holy mountains of China to get a special lotus flower that will ressurect her husband. Just as she gets the flower and begins to leave the mountain, the god that guards the mountain challenges her. There is a horrific battle. Eventually the battle catches the attention of the Celestial Emperor, the ruler of the gods, who makes it quite clear that Lady White has stepped out of bounds. Lady White breaks down, pleading with the gods, until they are moved by her story and allow her to leave with the lotus, even though it is not meant for mortals. Lady White returns to her husband's body, puts the lotus in his mouth, and he lives again.

The doctor is so overjoyed about his wife's love for him that he decides to make a special pilgrimage to a temple to give honor to the gods. But the monk is at the temple, and tricks the doctor into staying away from his wife (and son; they had a kid who is like 5 years old by now). Hearing that the doctor isn't leaving the temple, Lady White because extremely pissed off. I mean, she just defied the gods to save the guy, and now he's being ungrateful! She demands that the monk release the doctor (who at this point has realized that the monk is tricking him and holding him hostage). Lady White and Green raise a powerful army of supernatural creatures to fight an epic kung fu battle with the monk and his allies. Sometime during this battle, the doctor escapes and rejoins his wife, but the monks are tricky and win the battle, capturing Lady White and forcing Green to flee with the doctor (who has no kung fu, or at least, not enough to be worth a damn in a battle of supernatural might).

The monk binds Lady White into a tower on West Lake, where she remained for many years, until her son and Green managed to break her out. The son went on to become a powerful politician in the Chinese government.

Hangzhou, Part 1: The Bus Ride

2006-11-13T19:56:00.000+08:00

There is a city on this planet where the pillars of heaven touch the ground and nectar springs from the earth instead of water. Or at least, Hangzhou is such a place when compared to Wenzhou.

Jackie, a giant lass from Minnesota and a fellow teacher (although in Lishui, about 100km northwest of Wenzhou) invited me to hang out last weekend with her and a couple of her friends in Hangzhou. Hangzhou is the capital of Zhejiang Province, and the third most visited city in China, after Beijing and Shanghai (and not counting Hong Kong). It boasts one of the wonders of the country, the fabled West Lake, which the setting of one of China's most famous love stories, which has spawned a Chinese opera and a kungfu soap on TV. It is also the mythical birthplace of Traditional Chinese Medicine (from the same famous love story).

Kaven, the cook from La Luna, the bar I frequent her in Wenzhou (see the Halloween post), happened to be travelling to Hangzhou the same weekend. I was planning to travel by train, which is half as expensive, but takes twice as long. I told him that if he helped me get the tickets for the bus, I'd pay his fare and we could go together. He readily agreed, so on Thursday morning at 10:00am, we boarded the bus. Cost 140 kuai per person, not a bad price at all, considering it is a 4.5 hour trip, and the bus was really nice. The leg room was better than any Western bus I've seen (although perhaps it has been a long time since I traveled anywhere near a Greyhound), we received a Wenzhou newspaper, a complimentary snack of crackers and water, and two in-transit movies. There was even a water closet (bathroom) in front and in the middle of the bus.

The movies on the way up were interesting. The first was a Hong Kong romantic comedy/spy story. Two female spies, whom I think were working for the Chinese government or maybe freelance (it was in Cantonese with Chinese subtitles), were assigned a job to infiltrate the American Investment Corporation in Hong Kong. The person that hired them was a former spy from the same team, and the central character's initial love interest, turns out to be actually an agent of the CIA. He's setting the girls up to rob the CIA and thus somehow put them into jail or kill them (remember, I'm totally interpolating the plot from the action, not the dialogue). Complicating matters is a Hong Kong movie director and his two friends/coworkers. The director sees the main character on the street and falls in love with her at first sight. After he runs into her again at a restaurant. He finds her apartment and tries to ask her out. When his two bumbling friends see the other spy (a buxom, perky beauty; much is made of her having 36E breasts, although that seems exaggerated to me. Maybe it is a UK measurement, not an American one) they go crazy over her. The put a remote camera in a tree that has a view of the girls' apartment window, and then project the movie on the wall of an apartment they rent down the street. Later, they put microphones inside the girls' apartment, although they get caught doing this (although the spies miss one), and get some just rewards for it (one is doused with itching powder and the other is given a massive amount of laxative). Later, when the evil, ex-boyfriend, turncoat, double-agent comes by to kill the two girls, they figure out what is up and the stalking director saves the day. Turns out the badguy actually is double-crossed by his superiors in China, who want the data they stole from the CIA for the profit of it, and the real Chinese government spies come in to save the day and sneak the good guys out. And the director and the main spy get together at the end.

The second movie was The Killers by John Woo starring Chow Yun Fat. It was in Cantonese with Chinese subtitles too, but I had seen it before, so I knew the story. Assassin with a heart protects girl and tries to get paid, but pretty much everyone dies anyway. Good, fun flick.

There were also a couple of music videos. One of them was by the girl-band S.H.E., a Taiwanese pop band that was uber popular a couple of months ago. But then they said something about being for Taiwanese independence, which pretty much killed their popularity (at least in the stores) over night. Went from having dozens of S.H.E. CDs in the stores to only one. This video looked like an ad council commercial for milk. Very strange.

There were the same seven commercials for the whole trip too. One was for men's clothing, another was for cell phones, another was for cars, another for a hospital, and one was for Salami brand snack foods. These snack foods are everywhere here, and they are all some form of processed, preserved jerky or similar meat product, often on a stick and identifiable as something you probably shouldn't eat.

The bus ride back had the same commericals too. Also the same music videos, and same romantic/spy movie. The second movie on the way back was Rat Race, a really bad American movie that had been dubbed into Chinese. With Chinese subtitles. They subtitle almost everything here, even the TV shows on the air.

Technical Difficulties

2006-11-08T12:12:00.000+08:00

I sort of didn't get around to planning my speaking and listening classes this week, so I decided to show them a movie. Lillian suggested Elisabethtown, because it deals with death and dating, and her classes loved the movie. Unfortuantely, I forgot to go get it from Rose.

Searching through my movie collection, I decided to snag Sideways. Surely that would be a good movie to show them. It is about a couple of friends, it's romantic, and it shows some nice California wine country.

One problem. The movie won't play correctly. I put the DVD in the drive (there's no DVD player in this classroom), and it starts playing the scenes in the wrong order. The instructions are in Chinese, and none of my students are a help. Also, it won't play the subtitles. Frustrated, I finally decide to try other movies until I get one that works.

The one that works is an odd choice, but I go with it anyway. Moulin Rouge. Not exactly the ideal choice for these people. Their English is not great, and that movie is fast and just a tad bit scandalous for my students. But it works, and the subtitles automatically pop up on the screen.

My three classes are divided pretty evenly among those who liked it and didn't like it. We only got through about the first third of it. I had each class vote on whether or not to continue watching it next week, and they all agreed to watch it. We'll see how it shapes up.

This weekend: Trip to Hangzhou!

Halloween!

2006-11-02T09:46:00.000+08:00

Halloween was great this year! Rose and Lillian dressed up as cockroaches, and I must say that their costumes were badass. We got a ton of photos at Rose's apartment in various sorts of action shots.

I went as Chuck Norris. As you can see, I had to defend myself against the nasty (but strangely cute) cockroaches that were infesting the apartment.

We also took some photos at a little extermination store near Rose's apartment. You should have seen the Chinese reaction to Rose and Lillian! It was hilarious. Halloween isn't a holiday that is celebrated in China, and most Chinese people haven't even heard of it unless they spend a lot of time studying English or Western culture. Lots of people just gave the girls looks that said, "What the hell are these stupid foreigners doing now?" while others just stared in amazement and probably thought we had gone insane. A few understood at least a little bit, and tried to figure out what Rose and Lil were dressed as. They got a good chuckle when they figured it out.

We also got a few action shots of me in my snazzy duds. There really is a fist under my beard. Honest. But I can't fire 5 Uzis at the same time.

After pictures at Rose's place, I went over to La Luna for the Halloween party. La Luna is the foreigner bar we like. Serves good burgers, cheese-steak sandwhiches, tuna melts, and hot dogs. Good fries too. Anyway, the bar was slammed. There were more foreigners (and Chinese that like to talk to foreigners) than I had seen in any one place since we came to Wenzhou. It was crazy. Crazy fun!

Adam came as Che. Well, pirate Che, anyway. His girlfriend Ivy had this black sheet and a really creepy white mask. George was an alchoholic clown (is he in costume? Just kidding George!), and his girlfriend Jess was a witch. There were mini-pumpkins to carve, drinks to be quaffed, and fun conversation. I admit that I got pretty toasted.

The only real downside of Halloween was that Lillian was sick, so she didn't come. Lament.

Confusion in Socio-Economic Groups

2006-10-26T21:27:00.000+08:00

I think I mentioned before that Lillian and I were discussing how hard it is to judge someone's socio-economic group in China. This was driven forcibly home to me as I returned to my apartment this evening.

The people on the first floor, to the left of the landing, have about 8 people living in one apartment. It is a little larger than most, I think, but the floor is made of concrete and the walls are old and in serious need of repair. The people to the left of my apartment on the 2nd floor had their door open this evening. They live right above the large family. Their apartment has white linolium tile floors, a good paint job, stylish furniture, what looked like an electric range, and a widescreen plasma TV hanging on the wall.

Crazy.

Tribute

2006-10-24T18:45:00.000+08:00

There are two people that I want to give tribute to right now. Yesterday, I received a care package from my friends Brad and Robin.

You cannot imagine what it feels like to get such a package while you are living so far from home. When our handler in the Office of International Cooperation told me I had a package from America, it was like I'd won the lottery. Not the small one either--we're talking Power Ball. When I picked it up, Brad's name was scribbled all over the front along with his return address.

Brad and Robin sent me cheese: Velvetta and some Handisnacks, as well as two boxes of Kraft Mac & Cheese. They also sent an assortment of candy bars and a summer sausage. Some awesome. But the best parts were the card (with some written lovin' inside from both of them) and a tie-dyed pencil with the words "Trusty Rusty" attached. *Sniff*

You guys rock.

So this post is a tribute to them, for making me a little homesick for them, and giving me a bit of a cry at how wonderful my friends are. And for cheese and candy.

Good Day

2006-10-17T22:10:00.000+08:00

This morning's post-grad speaking and listening class was rad. Large, unfortunately, at 50 students, but they seemed a little more aware of the world and a little (even if marginally) less afriad of the big, scary American. Such as befitting people that have gone through 5 years of college. They are all preparing for some Chinese version of the GRE so they can become neurosurgeons or whatever. A couple of them were really cool. Maggie and Jack were from Hubei, and had great English. They were also uber friendly and interesting to talk to. There was another guy with really good oral English, but I don't remember his name--he didn't have an English name. He was from Inner Mongolia though, and was fun to talk to. Most of this class appears to be from other parts of China, which is a nice change since all my freshmen are pretty much from Wenzhou or Zhejiang province at large. Even the faculty class I have been teaching consists of mostly locals. The post-grads seem to be mostly from Hubei and Shaanxi in the north. Shaanxi is the birthplace of China--the ancient capital of Xi'an (think Qin, the first dynasty ala the movie Hero or the less pro-government movie The Emperor and the Assassin). Xi'an was the capital for most of China's history, and the place where all those nifty terracotta warriors are, guarding the tomb of Qin Huangdi, the first soverign emperor of China.

Anyway. I also spent a good chunk of my hard-earned, small-by-American-standards, large-by-Chinese-standards pay. I bought X-mas gifts for my friends and family, but since most of them read this, I will not go into more details than that. Suffice it to say that there are several people that will be recieving a nifty little care package from China in the not so... OK, it might be a while. Post from China to the USA can take a month or more. I'm going to see what it costs UPS, but I might not be able to afford it. If I can, you'll get it in a little over a week, most like. At least, my parents will. I'm sending it to them and then having them resend stuff domestic to all of my lovely friends, since that will be way cheaper. Unless it isn't. I'm gonna check.

Then ChinaRose, AdventureLil, and I spent the dinner hour at George's bar eating burgers and chillin'. Pretty good day, across the board.

I Wanna Wiki!

2006-10-16T19:18:00.000+08:00

I have regained access to Wikipedia. Joyous of joys! It has been blocked ever since I arrived in China. In honor of this event, the eight points of the Atlantic Charter, issued as a joint declaration of the United Kingdom and the United States, 14 August 1941.

1. no territorial gains sought by the United States or the United Kingdom;
2. territorial adjustments must be in accord with wishes of the peoples concerned;
3. the right to self-determination of peoples;
4. trade barriers lowered;
5. global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare;
6. freedom from want and fear;
7. freedom of the seas;
8. disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament
(from Wikipedia)

Now, wouldn't that be a nice list of things for the world to actually work toward?

Chinese Television

2006-10-14T13:29:00.000+08:00

I'm laying on the couch, trying to get over being sick, and watching Chinese TV. There's a dating game on, which involves a lot of dance and karaoke. It is so funny! 5 guys are paired against 3 women, and they try to impress each other with their outfits, performances, and humor. I can't stop laughing--so hard it hurts.

All My Classes

2006-10-12T23:56:00.000+08:00

I got the skinny on the rest of my classes today. I teach freshmen all day Monday, a post-grad class Tuesday mornings, three post-grad classes Wednesday morning, and faculty Thursday evenings. That means that I have Friday-Sunday to do whatever I want. I'm going to take a number of long weekends to take trips around province and maybe into the neighboring provinces. Yay!

Weary of Wenzhou

2006-10-10T22:59:00.000+08:00

Today marked a particularly low point in my stay here. Nothing special, just a "man, I wish I was hanging with the gang back in the States, drinking a good brew, and eating tots," sort of day. I'm tired of trying to hold conversations in Chinese, I'm tired of the food, the spitting, the throat clearing that accompanies the spitting (it sounds like a cannon firing), and I'm tired of not sleeping well. To top it off, my writing hasn't been great either.

That was this morning. Still got some of that going on, but I got in a better mood after Lillian and I joined the Brits for a stroll down to 5 Horses Street and the uber Xinhua bookstore. This store has a small but classic-heavy selection of English texts, often with Chinese accompanying them on the opposite page. Robinson Crusoe or The Portrait of Dorian Grey anyone? I didn't pick up Crusoe (which I hate), but I did pick up the Oscar Wilde story as well as two Sherlock Holmes mysteries. The bookstore had a music department and a number of little stalls selling jewelry and other sorts of things. About the closest thing to a Powell's that I've seen in China (and still way smaller, although it was three stories high).

After the bookstore, we had tea and a light dinner at a Western restuarant. We sat on a balcony that overlooked the shopping district, had Chrysanthimum tea and "Special Fruit" tea (was a mixture of apple, orange, and a few other things) and a chicken curry pizza which was actually quite tasty, if small. Mmm. Cheese. Real cheese.

One note about tea in China (if you've read my earlier posting, you'll know about this already): it involves plants floating in hot water. Normally, this is consists of just the tea leaves; but today there were actual flowers floating in the water, and actual fruit slices in the other tea.

That balcony is where I want to go to write from now on. It overlooks an extremely busy street, yet has clean enough air to not get the gritty, dirty smells of Wenzhou in your nostrils. Also, the food was pretty good and the service was nice. "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" so to speak.

A Moment of Remembrance

2006-10-07T23:08:00.000+08:00

Right now, my iPod is on pause. A few hours ago, the latest episode of the kids animated TV show, Avatar: The Last Windbender finished downloading from iTunes, and when I got home, I began watching it.

Despite being a children's show, this series by Nickelodeon is well-drawn and superbly written. It doesn't dumb a lot of the material down, so it can appeal to a wide audience. I like that. Also, one of my favorite actors, Mako, had one of the major supporting roles in the voice acting.

The most recent episode is a collection of short stories detailing a single day, each happening simultaneously, in the lives of the major characters of the show. The second short story is called "Iroh's Tale", about the character that Mako has acted for the last two seasons. The short story deals with the birthday of Iroh's son, who died in a war, and the preparations that the character goes through before finally finding some time to honor his dead son. It is a touching story. With it is an epithet: "In honor of Mako."

I immediately looked online. It appears that Mako died July 21st of this year. Somehow, in the preparations for coming to China, I missed this fact. So I'm having my own moment of remembrance now. God speed, sir.

Mid-Autumn Day Adventure

2006-10-07T13:18:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Day, one of the most auspicious holidays on the Chinese lunar calendar. The moon was fullest at 11pm last night, and Lillian and I were invited over to Wenzhou University (the college next door to ours) to spend the evening on the roof watching the stars and bull-shitting with some other foreign teachers, two Americans and two Brits. Duncan is in his late 40s or 50s and is from Denver. Alex is from Seattle, but he went to college at Lillian's alma mater, Linfield. And he gives bad directions, but more on that later. The Brits are a couple, John and Karen. All four are pretty good fun and great conversation.

Lillian and I hit the bus stop around 7:30. She had spent the day running errands, and I had spent the day with a couple of new friends that were in town for the day: Jackie and Marcie from Minnesota. They had gone to college together and ended up in China teaching English; Jackie in Liushu 100k inland in Zhejiang province, and Marcie in the province south of here, near Hong Kong. Anyway, Lillian and I are waiting for bus 53... and waiting... and waiting...

No bus after almost 30 minutes. Hmm. Well, let's go get a taxi. Cabbies don't like going out to Chashan where the universities are located, because it is hard for them to get a fare back to Wenzhou proper. But we finally managed to get one to take us. His taxi smelled horrible; in Lillian's words, like "smoke and rotten fish heads." He also didn't have a taxi driver's permit on the dash, so I think he was probably illegal. He wanted 50 RMB to go to Chashan, but I convinced him to go with 30, which is what it should cost.

Next problem. We get let out in front of Wenzhou University's main gate. Our instructions from Alex said it was in Section C, Building 12. Across from a park, with a big round thing in the middle, big grey building in the back corner.

1st: It is DARK. Grey? Everything is grey. In daylight it is grey, and in the dark it is more grey. And all the buildings are big.

2nd: Do you have any idea how many things look like a park in University Town?

3rd: Round thing?

OK. We wandered down to where we thought it might be. Asked the guard where building 12 was (this is quite difficult mind you). We attract a crowd. The guard gets one of the teachers to escort us to where they think we want to go. We walk back to the main gate of the university and inside to building 12. It appears I stopped the taxi outside of the Wenzhou Technical College main gate, not Wenzhou University main gate. Oops. Of course, we don't find this out until we walk up to the top floor of building 12. Doh!

Walking back past our helpful guard, we find the main gate of Wenzhou University. We walk past, over to a largish building where it appears there are dorms. The guard here nods and motions to the back when we ask him about the building 12. Problem: the buildings do not have numbers on them as far as we can tell. We ask some students hanging out in the bottom of one of the buildings. Turns out it was right behind us.

Up to the roof, and viola! There they are, staring at the moon and sharing stories. Sheesh.

It was fun though. Talked some politics, some about teaching. I even talked until I lost all track of my point and had to stop and say, "I have no idea what I'm talking about do I?" to a resounding "Yup!" from Lillian. Good ol' Lillian, always watching my back like that.

We went downstairs after a bit and listened to music and chatted for a bit more. Lillian had a early day this morning, so we left as it approached 11:30. Problem: no buses and no taxis. John was cool and showed us the way to Chashan proper, where we could get a taxi. Fortunately, we didn't have to walk all the way, as a taxi pulled up and we zoomed back home for 20 yuan.

All in all, a pretty good day.

Meanwhile, Back in the Secret Lair of Writers Known as Pacific University...

2006-10-05T10:52:00.000+08:00

Lisa Galloway and Gwendolyn Cash have been nomiated for a Pushcart by Perigee. Both poets were published in issue 13 of Perigee; Gwen's poem "Choosing Berries and Onions" and Lisa's poem "She was a Chagall" will be posted on Perigee's weblog along with several other nominations. Congrats girls, and good luck in the final selection for the Pushcart!

That puts the total number of MFA students to receive Pushcart nominations to three, including another dear friend, Jeannine Hall Gailey. :D

Plus, check out the rest of issue 13, wherein you can find many more MFA students: Susan Reese with her poem "First Post-Mastectomy Appointment", J. S. Fourmy with the poems "Sweetness" and "A Green Sestina", Kitty Evers with "Soft Stone" and "Gifts", and Lisa and Gwen each have an additional poem, "Fireflies" and "Underworld" respectively. Way to hit hard and heavy with the poetry, guys!

Birthday

2006-10-03T00:33:00.000+08:00

Had a fun birthday. Went down to the bar with Lillian, Rose, and Xiaohong. Xiaohong had her first cheeseburger. She liked it! We talked and played Clue with George. Then Xiaohong left to go help her sister with something so Rose, Lillian, and I played trivia. Despite an early, ginormous lead by Lillian, I came back to win. Yippie.

Lillian and Rose gave me a bag of Wasabi patato chips, sunscreen, lip balm, a packet of napkins, a pack of Trident gum, some coupons to KFC, a pack of Chinese flashcards, and a new manpurse (really a carrying case for my camera). And a cake. It was really tasty, kind of like an icecream cake with all manner of fruit involved: peaches, pinnapple, chocolate (that's a fruit, right?), and dates. Xiaohong gave me a really nice 4-piece tea set. I felt so loved tonight.

After we left the bar, Lillian went to bed so she can be taken to the beach tomorrow by one of the kids she is tutoring. Lucky! So Rose and I dropped off my newly acquired gear and then headed over to a massage parlor for a full body massage. It was an interesting experience, and after the weekend trip up the mountain, a nice one. It was 11:30pm at this point, so we didn't go to my usual crew at the mall, but rather a small place next to Rose's apartment.

All in all, a pretty good day.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

2006-10-01T12:47:00.000+08:00

Actually, more like mosquitos, rats, and praying mantis. Lexi and her boyfriend Lincoln took us to Ze Ya, a famous scenic area. Dear god, am I so tired.

We took a taxi from Rose's apartment early Saturday morning up into the mountains. The cabbie was strange... he thought us Americans were hilarious, and he drove erraticly (but all taxi drivers do that). He also kept doing this weird arm exercises in the car, nearly punching me in the face twice. Lincoln and the girls crammed into the back while I sat next to the driver. The trip took about an hour, and as we neared our destination, the cabbie got hostile and a little freaky. He desposited us in a small town still a way off from our final destination, in front of startled locals. He nearly took off with our backpacks in the trunk, but we managed to stop him. As I understood it, he wanted more money that what Lexi was willing to give him for the trip. They had agreed to 60 kuai in town, but he wanted more. The locals all said that the cabbie was being ridiculously bad-mannered, and one of them gave us a ride up to the first hiking trail for 25 kuai. He also gave Lexi his cell number in case we had trouble getting a bus back to town.

Part of the trip out of Wenzhou into the mountains involved a really long tunnel, in two sections. The first section took us about a minute to drive through, while the second section took about two minutes (remember that both of these times are calculated with us driving at speeds considered reckless in the States). Both sections of the tunnel were practically unlit, and bicycles, trikes, and cars without headlights zipping to and fro around us. Can we say passing in a tunnel? Oh yes, we can. Passing around corners too. Sheesh.

The first set of stairs (yeah, stairs up a mountain, imagine that) took us up a little gorge filled with waterfalls, lush seas of bamboo, and all manner of insect life. I saw more praying mantis in one day than I've seen in my entire life elsewhere. Most were green (and seemed to be committing suicide by drowning themselves in the river), but we saw a brown one too. There were unusual spiders, assorted frogs, beetles, dragonflies, and of course the ever present mosquitoes. Thankfully we had some bug repellent. I escaped being eaten for the most part, just a couple of them, but some of my companions were getting it pretty bad. We also saw gargantuan butterflies, so big that at first I thought they were bats. None of them would sit still long enough to get a picture, and I didn't think about trying to get a movie of one until it was too late.

These stairs were pretty easy to climb, and although the trip was tiring, I held together really well. A few flights up the mountain, there was a water wheel connected to an ancient "factory" built for the production of bean curd. Lincoln is a history major, so we got snippets of background info as we climbed. His English is limited (although he does pretty well) so Lexi did a lot of translating. Turns out the area that we are in is also famous for making paper, and produced some of the first paper in China, from bamboo. They still do, although the stuff we saw was poor quality material they make for their own use. It's a smelly process too. Growing up in Albany, I knew the stink of the papermill, but I thought it was chemicals that caused the odor. This ancient method for making paper is just as wretched smelling, like making fertilizer.

In one section there is a cave, and Lexi told us the legend of the cave: about how a mortal man spied three fairies bathing in the nearby pool. Two of the fairies fled, but one remained, and they fell in love. Like most stories of this nature, there is tragedy involved. Lincoln kept asking Lexi to stop telling us stories like this, because they were sad, and he wanted us to have positive feelings about China. Lexi ignored him though. Anyway, in the story, the King of Heaven forces the nymph to return to the sky, allowing her to see her mortal love only on one day a year, the 7th of July, which is the equivalent of Valentine's Day in China. Apparently they could send messages to each other through the help of a magpie, which is considered the symbol of luck in China, while crows are considered unlucky. Poor Crow. He gets a pretty bad rap all over the world, except in Native American culture, where he's usually considered a helpful (if somewhat mischievious) spirit. There was also a section of natural tunnel that we walked through, which was quite cool.

There was one section where we had to walk on a gangway of bamboo bound tightly together. That was pretty fun. We had lunch near the top of the trail, well up into the mountain. An old stonework bridge crossed the river, and we decided to walk down the bank to the river and camp out. We shared some snacks, such as banana-filled cakes similar to Twinkies, some peanuts, almond crackers, peanut butter and saltines (crackers that don't taste like vegetables!), and curried beef patato chips (very tasty!). We also played around on the rocks, and rested up for an hour or so. Lillian had noticed some animal spoor when we arrived on the bridge, and during our lunch we saw the creatures that created it. A shepherd was driving some goats along the trail toward the village on the mountain top.

We hiked up a little further through bamboo to the mountain village. Most of the structures were old, but a few looked pretty modern. We stopped at a home near the trail and had green tea with some of the locals. There was one little boy that Lexi gave a handful of candy to (she is so very generous) but he wouldn't be in a picture with us. The rest of them agreed to be photographed (Lincoln is going to email us the photo). They were such nice people. The grandparents grew up in the house, which was over 70 years old. They looked to be mostly subsitence farmers. They have chickens and geese aplenty, and grow rice, make their own tea (they sold us a huge bag full!), and several other vegetable crops (mostly cabbage, patato, and squash I think). On our way out of the village, one of the old men insisted he guide us to the trail, so we wouldn't get lost. So friendly!

The hike down the mountain was very steep. The stairs were small too, which didn't help. Our legs felt like Jello by the time we hit the bottom. While we descended, cicada thrummed in the bamboo, and we could see the stairs we had climbed earlier on the opposite side of the gorge. It was a truly beautiful hike.

We walked from the base of the trail on up to our lodgings for the night. Although we had hiked all day, we steeled ourselves and walked the 10 minutes or so to the hotel. The hotel is a collection of bamboo huts and a restaurant at the base of a magnicient waterfall and deep pool. Another stream runs through the area too.

After resting for a little bit, we went into the restaurant to get something to eat. We were famished! Because three of us couldn't read the menu, the owners offered to take us into the kitchen where we could see the raw ingredients and select that way. We ordered several dishes and recieved a private dining room to eat in. The staff brought in gree tea, and we ordered some Coca-Cola.

Of course I'm going to describe the meal! Don't fret Michaela! Lillian said this morning that this is the best food she's had since we came into China, and I totally agree. Our dinner consisted of the following: white rice (of course), scrambled eggs with garlic and chives, fried bean curd with chives, egg flower soup with some sort of green light-green squash (the best egg flower soup I've ever had!), thin noodles with egg, pork, onion, garlic, and a few other veggies, rabbit with peppers, garlic, and onion (I was a little cranky and wanted some meat), and a fresh fish (literally--they had Lillian and Rose select one from a tank of live fish, eels, and shrimp). It was so wonderful, and we all felt stuffed.

After the meal, we went back to the girls' room and played Uno for a couple of hours. We taught Lexi and Lincoln the game, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot. Lillian totally kicked our asses though. Ah well.

We had planned on getting up before sunrise so we could watch it from the mountain top, but we didn't wake up until 6:30; by then it was quite bright out. We had a delicious breakfast: noodle soup with a fried egg on top. My new favorite meal in the morning. Then we hit the next trail. Can we say steep? This one was much more difficult than the previous day's hike, although the fact that we were dead tired from the first one probably didn't help either. This route was less scenic and more commerical. Also, because October 1st is not only National Day, but also the official start of the week-long National Day vacation, there were more people on trail. We still got started early enough to avoid most of the traffic (the roads were packed on our bus ride back). There were also tea houses and vendors set up along the trail. Because the trail is so steep, everything has to be packed in, so the goods were expensive. We saw some of the vendors setting up for the flood of tourists later in the day.

The weather kept cool and mostly cloudy, like the previous day, so it wasn't too strenous on that level. I got some sun on my face and back of my neck, but nothing like my seared flesh from Daluo Shan. Also, I brought enough water this trip, although the vendors sold it on the second trail.

Although Ze Ya is famous, it isn't as popular as some of the other scenic hikes. Still, there was more than enough pollution, especially on the second day. It is so horrifying to me, considering the obessesiveness that Oregonians have about environment concerns. There is just only the beginnings of an awareness about it in China though. At least it was better than Daluo Shan, which was really gross near where we had lunch (from countless others camping there, no doubt).

By the end of the second trail, my camera battery started to fade out, so I stopped being as picture obsessive. Still, I took almost 140 photos. It was a great trip, and divided 5 ways, it only cost us 121 yuan in total. That's like $15!

Teaching is Good, Teaching is Bad, Teaching is Falling on My Head

2006-09-30T12:46:00.000+08:00

That title is for you, Andy.

Haven't updated for a few days. Partly, this was because I have been pretty busy, and partly because I have been dead tired.

Sunday, the three of us went to a foreigner party. The party was hosted by some long-time resident foreigners, and there were many people there. Some of them were pretty cool.

I entered class Monday morning, excited to actually receive my students' first writing assignments, and to give them a creative exercise. But none of them actually wrote their journals. Damn. Still, they brought the photos I had asked them to bring in. And the other classes completed their journals.

The assignment I gave them was this: take the photo and write a brief character sketch of who the person in the photo is. What's their job, hobbies, dislikes, etc. If they didn't know it, make it up. They did pretty good on this. A lot of actors, pop stars and the like, but several wrote about people they knew. A couple even made stuff up. Then I had the students get together in groups of four or so and choose one of the following topics:

A) Your characters have crashed onto a deserted island. They are the only survivors.

B) Your characters meet in a hospital waiting room.

C) Your characters are stuck in an elevator when the power goes out. It is out for at least two hours.

Most of them chose option A. They have a definate flair for the dramatic. Some of them actually performed skits, while others just got up and read. I recorded them, except for the last two--my battery ran out. I tried to upload one to this blog, but although I got it to upload to Google Video, turns out I can't blog it or play it back because it isn't allowed in China yet. Lame. So here's the link.

Tuesday saw Lillian and I meet Rose near one of the temples that we pass on our way to school every day. We explored around quite a bit, and got some good sight-seeing in, but it appears as if the temples were abandoned. They are maintained, it seems, but we didn't see any monks at all. We think these are all Daoist temples, or perhaps Tibetan Buddhism. They emphasized a lot of the more magical and martial aspects of Asian culture and religion. There was a collection of weapons in one of them! In the last temple, there was also a series of candles about 3 feet wide and 5 feet tall! They showed evidence of burning down too, so at one time they were probably taller.

Tuesday night, I had my first faculty-teaching session at the Old Campus. Sigh. It went OK, I guess, but it could have gone better. I had them read some of Zhang Er's poetry, and then asked them to check the translation. In class they said it was a perfect translation, but after class a couple of them came up to me and had a bunch of questions and criticisms. Turns out, they don't talk much more than their students to the big, scary, foreign teacher. Bah. I also talked about American college life, shocked them with my student debt, and answered some random questions I had to practically beat out of them. This will last until December. Argh. A bunch of them now call out to me by name when I see them around campus though, so that's kind of cool.

Wednesday, I did another editing project, this time for an article about a piece of software that one of the biology profs is publishing. I also edited the website for the software. Basically, it is a database that catalogues all instances of a specific type of amino acid for a particular family of bacteria. It was pretty well written, so I didn't need to do a lot of work on it. Mostly adding or subtracting "a" and "the" and the occassional moving of a word or short phrase from the end of the sentence (where it should go in Chinese) to just before the verb (where it should go in English). I am getting paid for this one--in the form of a dinner sometime in the near future.

After the editing job, I went to get my foot massage. I had missed the previous week because I injured my foot somehow either on Duluo Shan or the following day, and didn't feel that the ladies in the health spa needed to be bled on. They were quite agitated that I hadn't come back in too--when I saw them the previous Thursday, they were all worried about me. Aw, shucks. Anyway, I got my massage, learned a new word--tong, for hurt--and amused some of the girls endlessly. This is because Wen Zen, the girl that always performs the massage, was getting teased pretty hardcore by the other girls. They asked if I had a wife, they asked if I had kids, they asked if I liked "mei gui" (roses). Wen Zen was blushing. As I left, their boss asked if I liked dancing. I said I did, so she told me to sit down in their lobby. Then pretty much the entire staff took off their blue lab coats (so that they were in street clothes--nothing indecent) and performed a choreographed dance routine there in the lobby! They turned on a karaoke DVD and cranked it to full volume and then proceeded to get their grove on. It was during this little spectacle (very entertaining, I must admit), that I noticed Wen Zen has a tattoo of a rose on her arm. Oooh... After the dance routine, I "chatted" (after all, she speaks about two words of English and I speak only slightly more Chinese) with Wen Zen for a couple of more minutes and went home. Next week's massage should be interesting...

Thursday saw me at school again. Normal office hours, plus we were invited to the neighboring Wenzhou University to participate in an "Olympic Spirit" ceremony. We signed our names to a banner that students are going to take to a poor, remote region of China to "bolster interest in the Olympics" and we were interviewed by CCTV, the state-run television agency. The interviews were supposed to run that night on CCTV channels 4 and 9 (the ones dealing with international events). My interview was pretty lame because I was nervous and kept repeating the same word like four times in a single sentence. Lillian and Rose fared better, and actually sounded like intelligent people. Also, there was my weekly lesson with Lexi and Sophia, two of Rose's students. They are practicing their English skills on me, and teaching me a word or two of Chinese in the process. After that, Rose, Lillian, Sherry, and I were judges at the all-school English speech competition. There were 18 contestants, many of whom were medical students of some variety. Their performances were in three parts: a prepared speech on "Unity and Diversity," a topic of their choice from a list provided to them 30 mins before the competition, and an impromptu question given by one of the judges. Each of us gave three impromptu questions (to different people; there were other judges too: Wan Dan, Xiaohong, and another teacher with an English name of Elaine. I think here Chinese name is either Yi Ying or Yi Ling... it sounded vaguely similar to Elaine.).

Sigh. Unity and Diversity. Not a great topic for these kids. A few of them stood out, gave some interesting points, and some valid commentary; but most of them used nearly identical examples to prove they really have no idea what they are talking about. Most of them just don't get it, because they have been brought up not to see these things clearly. Their English speaking ability and understanding was across the board too, although some of that may have been nerves. One guy was so hopelessly petrified of being in front of people that he stuttered through the entire speech. One girl shouted the entire thing, either because she was trying to give it a dramatic, emotional context or because she was terrified, I'm not sure. Rose thinks drama; I think terrified. Anyway. The winners had something that made them stand out: a bit of humor, a smart-ass attitude, confidence, and/or provided some actual thought-provoking points and/or criticism. One of Rose's students, English name of Tracy, won the prize. Two of my freshmen were in the competition too; one got honorable mention (simply because she participated), while the other actually tied for second place. Ahem. I edited her prepared speech. Natch.

Today, Xiaohong took us to the Old Campus, where we swam around for an hour or so. Oh my god, my limbs are going to fall off. I was tired after Daluo Shan, but an hour of swimming nearly crippled me. Definately need to work off some pounds, work up my strength, and get with it. I need to hit Taishan in Feburary!

Tomorrow begins that National Day Holiday. In the morning, we're going to go with Lexi and her boyfriend to some scenic area. I thought it was a beach, but apparently it's a waterfall. Whatever. It is time away from the city, having yet more adventures. On Monday, we're all going out with Xiaohong to celebrate my 29th (yikes!) birthday. We might hit La Luna, the foreigner bar, or we might head down to one of the dance clubs and do some drunken karaoke. Hehehhe. I so can't wait.

Chapter the Third: In Which Islands Are Explored and Canadians Are Drunk

2006-09-24T01:49:00.000+08:00

Friday Lillian and I went down to the island (finally!). You can read all about that on her blog.

Saturday night Adam and I went over to La Luna, an ex-pat bar just down the street. I must say, it was a pretty cool time. We met these crazy, cool Belgians that were in town for the shoe business, another Canadian teacher, some Brits. Also hung out with these three teachers from a little town upriver that were in town for the night. Lian (as in Jullian) was a Brit, his girlfriend Jessica was French, and their companion was Jackie, a tall (cute!) blonde from Minnesota.

I'm officially a beer drinker now. Had many Tsingdaos and even a Belgian beer, Duvel (which is hefty on the alchy). Also, I had cheesburger, and while it wasn't Cornerstone caliber, it was still damn tasty. Somehow the owner of this bar, George, gets hard-to-find things. He uses gouda for the cheese, instead of that nasty singles stuff you can find in the stores here.

Anyway, had a blast. Probably a little too much of a blast, actually, but it was cool.

Chapter the Second: In Which I Explore the Temple Island... or Instead the Day I Don't

2006-09-20T15:35:00.000+08:00

I'm in a city of 7.5 million people, don't speak the language, and I have no idea where I am.

I pay the cabby and look around. I'm thinking, "I hope the bastard chokes on his ten yuan." It was an odd series of events: hailing a taxi after lunch, pulling out my map and pointing to the island, having the taxi driver go about a block, where he transfered me to a different taxi driver, who then wandered around the city for a few minutes, tried to get me to pay 500 yuan to take me to the island, and finally letting me out in an unknown section of the city.

Logically, this intersection can't be very far from my home. We didn't drive that long. But a map of Wenzhou clearly shows that the city is a maze of streets, allyways, and canals. The looming buildings all around don't help, and the streets curve as much as they go straight.

Immediately around me is the ubiquitus convienence stand, selling water, Coke, Sprite, and beer. This one also has cigarettes, condoms, and toothpaste. Next door is an equally common noodle stand, looking a little more seedy than most. I try to gather my bearings; I usually command a pretty good sense of direction. I start walking down the side street, past the noodle shop. The next store is a porn shop, the explicit covers of DVDs and videos displayed prominently in the window. As I pass, I glance at the open door, see a woman probably in her early thirties sitting behind the counter, playing with a four or five-year-old in front of dildos and other sex toys. They probably live in the apartments above the shop, but it still jars me.

I continue on. The sidewalks aren't complete here, and there is another oddity for Wenzhou: a real parking lot. Small to be sure, only about eight cars can fit in it, but most people park on the sidewalk in this town. Only big shopping centers and hotels like Times Square or the Olympic Hotel normally have parking lots.

The first interesting shop I see has a collection of what at first appear to be antique curios in the window. The shop itself is also nicer than most of the others on this street, with polished wood walls and shelves. The counters are made of glass. Turns out the shop sells knick-knacks and booze. Pretty good selection though. Most of the knick-knacks are beverage-related: tea sets, glasses, flasks. The liquor selection is mostly foreign, although there are some local wines and some sort of clear liquor that might be the bigger brother of that stuff I got the bad hangover from the other day with the Canadians.

The people in the shop are very nice. I pull out the map and try to ask them where I am. They look and finally point to one of the streets. Excellent. I am a little less than half-way to the island. I even buy the cheapest thing in there I can find--a 40 yuan bottle of Johnny Walker whiskey. Here's looking to you Johnny Walker. Hope the family is doing well.

I wander down to the main road. Turn left, walk several blocks. I pass a bunch more porn shops--seems like every other store is selling adult DVDs. This must be the red-light district, although the rest of the shops seem pretty tame. I wander the city some more, periodically checking my map.

To my right is a cinema. I think the sign says there are three theatres, but I'm not sure. They're playing X-men 3, The Banquet, what appears to be a B-rate action movie dredged out of the American 1980s, Cars, Open Season, and a couple of other random Chinese movies I don't have a clue about. As I'm contemplating catching The Banquet (I really want to see that movie), I catch sight of trees--lots of trees--on the next street over.

determined it needed to become a park or similar creation with far too many steep stairs. Glutton for punishment that I am, I had to take a look. Pretty nice place, actually. Lots of shade trees, as well as plenty of benches and stone ledges. Even a couple of one-story pagoda-likeTurns out there is a park. Apparently, whenever the Chinese city-planners had a hill, the structures to rest in. At the beginning of the park there is a statue of what appear to be soldiers. At several points in the park there are stone memorials. There is some sort of house or similar building half-way to the top, and the very top has a small pagoda-ish structure where several old men and women were relaxing, doing taichi, and sleeping. In fact, all over the park men and women are curled up on marble slabs or benches. At the top, an old man comes over to ask me something, but I can't understand him. Then he says something like, "ah-hah!" and nods, then wanders over to another man. They talk for a while, and when I leave I wave to them. They say, "bye," which is half of what most Chinese know in English (the other being "hello").

On the way down from the top, I ask a couple of off-duty policemen if I can take their picture and they oblige. Also, there I can see a stadium. There are a ton of these all over the city. Some are part of schools, but others are just randomly set down it seems. This one has a bunch of middle or high school kids in it.

There are cards all over Wenzhou. Everywhere I go in this city, I find playing cards scattered around on the ground. Sometimes it's just a few: the 4 of spades, the King of hearts, the two of diamonds. Other times it's the entire deck. Old men are playing cards under a partial enclosure at the bottom of the trail leaving the park. A couple of younger men, although still probably in their thirties, are having an argument over something, and cards are splayed all around them on the pavement. I can't tell if the argument is friendly or hostile.

On the map, it appears that Five Horses Street is a block or two behind me, and the other shopping street is a block in front of me. I decide to forgo the island, since by now it will be dark in a couple of hours, and I'd rather see the island in the day. I walk down to the shopping street (not sure the name of this one) and wander around. Like Five Horses Street (see Lillian's Blog), this is closed (theoretically) to cars. It looks like many of the shops are under construction here, and it isn't very crowded.

I do find something of interest though. There is a small art shop, selling framed artwork. Most of the stuff has a distinctly western flair in style, and a number of the paintings have an African-American feel. There is some stuff that is Chinese though--not traditional Chinese artwork, but Chinese nevertheless--and I pick up two paintings for a 100 kuai each.

All in all, not a bad day's work. Didn't do what I planned on doing, but then again, when do I?

Daluo Shan

2006-09-17T20:46:00.000+08:00

A cute girl, one of the KFC employees, coordinated some sort of quiz game for middle schoolers in the restaurant's play area. She has thick yet trendy glasses, and must be a supervisor or manager, because she wears a scarlet vest, a white blouse, a black skirt, high heels (although all women in China seem to wear high heels, regardless of circumstances), and a sort of fish-tail bow tie. I am waiting for Lillian to get done in Century Mart, where she is buying candy as a prize for some contest in one of her classes. Rose has just left, going home to work on lesson plans for tomorrow.

We chose KFC because we were exhausted, and didn't want to deal with anything else. Picture menus--especially of somewhat familiar items--are wonderful. I had popcorn chicken (I actually figured out which menu item it was before the picture menu: there are only two non-beverage items on a KFC menu that come in three sizes, popcorn chicken and chicken strips. I had seen popcorn chicken boxes thrown on the street outside, and there is only one item listed in three sizes on the menu. Booyah!), Rose had a kids meal with a chicken sandwich (monster amount of mayo, yuck!) with fries and a Pepsi, and Lillian had a Mexican chicken wrap. Which had salsa! Joyous! The chicken sandwich was generic chicken sandwich, but the fries were perfect. The popcorn chicken was spicier than normal, and the pieces of chicken were less chicken skin and more chicken, which rocked. The fact that chicken strips aren't on the menu here makes sense--the Chinese seem to love meat with bones, unless it is a particularly small, generally round dollop of meat, such as popcorn chicken, meat-filled dumplings, and fish balls.

Why were we exhausted? Daluo Shan. Daluo Mountain. The 1000-step stairway. Heaven Lake.

Rose has a student, a non-standard student (very rare here) who is older and has experience doing things like being a radio DJ. His English name is Marshall (his Chinese surname is Huang, but I don't remember his first name). Really cool guy. Turns out, he works as an advertising agent for Outlanders, an outdoor recreation company that sells all manner of REI-style gear... and takes people on tours through China's countryside every week.

I was notified the night before, that is to say, last night. The price was a reasonable 80 yuan, and I would finally get out of the city and see some of China's great beauty. Turns out, we didn't have to pay (although I think we will be used in an advertising campaign, so no guilt here), and the 80 yuan price was actually the member price; the normal price is 150!

We left the "Times Square" shopping mall around 9 am. The drive to the south side of Dashou Shan was about an hour through Wenzhou's suburbs. Wenzhou is surrounded by a crescent of mountains, and the open side is the ocean and boggy rice paddies and other regions unsuitable for landing boats, unless you travel up river into the city itself. This defensibility enabled Wenzhou to deny the Japanese the city during WWII. Also, it turns out, Wenzhou in ancient times had dealings with pirates, trading with them and making alliances with them.

We got out of the bus excited. Even the so-called 1000-step staircase didn't deter me from the bottom of the mountain. Dashou Shan is 600 meters tall. The path from the base of the mountain to the summit is comprised by easily more than 1000 narrow stairs at an average angle of 70 degrees. The mountain was also covered in scores of traditional grave memorials. Each generation adds another step to the memorial site. These are apparently from 1950 onward. Some were even being built as we climbed. More graves were up top--a task that can only be completed by climbing as we were doing.

Dear God what a climb! I was so exhausted at the half-way point (which is just beyond what appears to be the top of the stairs in the photo. I was a half-hour behind the main group, including Lillian and Rose. I think some of the Chinese were making some good-natured fun of me, although a few of them were having a hard time too. I could do the staircase--just not in the time frame scheduled. If I had another hour, I'd have been set. But it was not to be. I was so unprepared for this climb on many levels. First, I'm a bit fat and out of shape. Certainly worked on that one today. Second, I wore shoes with good walking soles, but which were not very lightweight, which caused every footfall to be ten times the chore it should have been. Third, two water bottles was not enough. I also forgot sunscreen, although Rose saved me there.

On top of the mountain is a resevoir which feeds Wenzhou's water supply. Numerous stone dams sectioned the resevoir off into a number of smaller lakes. The largest of these, Tianhe, or Heaven's Lake, is where we stopped to have lunch: BBQ and an assortment of boiled objects which include fish balls, beef dumplings, Chinese marigolds (yes, the flower, and it is quite tasty), some sort of sausages, tofu, some other starchy thing, and what looked kind of like Spinach, but which was probably bok choy, a nasty cabbage-related plant. Then a bunch of people, including Lillian and Rose, went swimming in Heaven Lake. The water was really nice and fresh, cold but not freezing, and it looked quite nice and blue-green. However, I didn't remember to pack a towel, swimming wear, and the like, so I didn't swim. *NOTE: don't drink the water!*

After swimming and lunch, all of which took a couple of hours, we hit the trail again. On our way out of Heaven Lake, we passed another group from the same company which included two cute girls (one redhead, one blonde) from Oakland. They so ignored us and sort of avoided talking to us. Wenches. Our little troop of almost thirty people now headed toward Chashan and the college on the other side of the mountain, crossing bridges, up MORE steps, and through a village abandoned and thrashed during the typhoon a month ago. The weeds had already sprung up two feet high in some spots--if this village was abandoned only four weeks ago, the mountain wanted its acreage back in a bad way.

We also passed through a village which dated from the Qing Dynasty. Apparently, one can tell this by the style of the architecture. They certainly had an antique feel. Two extremely old men allowed us to rest in their "town square," a 10-foot x 10-foot earthen patch between a storm thrashed building and the one being used by them. There were several dogs, including this adorable looking minature chow or collie, which some of the other people in the party gave food too. Also, there were tons of large, fat chickens. The old men were so nice, offering stools for us to sit on, and refused help putting them back in the places they originated from as we prepared to leave.

The mountain was green and lush. Bamboo, ferns, various Asian versions of pine and fir, creepers with suspicious leaves (but apparently there isn't any poison oak or ivy in this part of China, thank god), tall and gorgeous flowers which are apparently edible, with a sweet nectar, and flowering shrubs whose small flowers produce a wonderful aroma. Marshall said that at the height of summer, poisonous snakes are a hazard on the mountain, and that rabbits and wolves live there, but all we saw were mosquitos. Damn nasty bastards too, although it looks like Rose was hit the worst, and I barely got bit at all.

Finally, we reached the opposite side of the mountain. Looking down, at the magnicient view of the college, the entirety of University Town, and Chashan (a little village of dull, grey-brick opposite the college at the foot of the mountain), I noticed the steps. There were even more on this side, just as steep, all the way to the bottom. Going down was certainly easier than up, but by the time we reached Chashan, my legs were gelatinous and my feet were blistered. I also had a killer suburn on the back of my neck, where I naturally forgot to put sunscreen. For some reason, my hands were also badly burned, even though they were covered in SPF 30. At least I was wearing jeans, so my legs are safe.

We arrived in Chashan thirsty, tired, and so ready for bed. At the terminous of the path down the mountain, there was this really cool, old tree. As it turns out, such trees were common in Chashan, and this was the least impressive. A ride on bus #40 home, a short stop in KFC, some printing for class tomorrow, and this blog--and I'm turning the lights out.

Goodnight.