So I seem to have neglected my blog quite badly this year. Sorry about that all. The problem just compounds. I don't write for awhile and then I'm not sure what to cover and then it doesn't happen again. I try and email those of you who email me but I know I need a more in-depth entry from time to time.
When I first got here it was easy to write because everything was new. Now I have to come up with individual experiences to write about although there are no shortage of those.
I guess I'll start with the first week of October. It's a week long holiday so I planned a trip to Dalian which is a city that's not overly far away but because of the water it's actually very far by land. Fortunately there is a direct flight from Dongying. It's the shortest flight I've ever been on at 40 mins. Dongying is also a very small airport. 1/2 hour before we were supposed to go everyone was on the plane so we left. We were in the AIR 15 minutes before we were supposed to depart. I love small airports.
Dalian is the polar opposite of DY. There are small mountains everywhere and a surprisingly high number of people spoke English to us. It also has nice beaches. I planned the trip and 5 others joined me for it. So we had 4 guys and 2 girls. They wanted to do it a little more high-end than I would have but it was nice to have actual hotel rooms. Also the hotel had an awesome Japanese/Korean buffet so we ate a massive meal there when we arrived.
We discovered quite quickly that it wasn't going to work for all 6 of us to stick together. WE wanted to head down to the water which was a ways a way. The girls wanted a taxi, the guys wanted to walk. The girls decided to walk with us but after about 1 minute when we were well ahead of them we could see how it was going to work. WE made it to the beach and found a wedding setup. Darryl and I couldn't resist the chance so we made it a theme to take as many crazy wedding-style pictures together as possible over the trip.
When we were walking back we saw the girls go flying past in a taxi. That was almost the last we saw of them for 4 days. That trip the guys walked pretty much everywhere. We climbed a mountain or 2 and went to the beach and a zoo. We also discovered a partially finished pagoda. Often these things are locked up but since it wasn't finished it was wise open so we climbed the whole thing.
We saw a cool mountain we wanted to climb but as we got closer some guards stopped us and said we needed tickets. There was a massive line of people waiting to take cable cars up. As we were walking away we discovered a hidden dirt path leading up a different mountain. We took it and ended up with some awesome views for no money. This is exploring that 99.9% of Chinese people would never find.
Moving on: classes are going fairly well here. I was really annoyed a few weeks ago. We're not supposed to do work outside the school even though everyone does. A teacher at my school asked me if I'd teach some classes here. I told her how much I'd expect to get paid. She agreed so I said ok. I didn't think anything of it since it's all at my school. One day my boss asked me what I was doing in the afternoon so I told him about the class and he got quite angry about it because the class isn't "connected" to the school. In the end all the chinese people talked about it together. I don't understand the politics at all. Came back that I had to do it for 1/2 of what I agreed to. When I asked why he said because they can't charge that much since they're "connected". So I can't do it because they're not connected but they can't charge more because they are connected. Go figure. I told him it wasn't worth my time for that price. He said that either I had to work it for that price or I might end up having to do more classes at the school for nothing. He could have handled this many different ways where we would have all been happy but that's not the Chinese way. Fortunately the class is actually a lot of fun. Probably the most fun class I've ever had since they are all adults and need to learn English so they try really hard and are quite funny.
Friday night a friend planned a bday party for me. Leading up to it quite a few people told me they'd be busy so I wasn't expecting too much but it turned out pretty much everyone was there. It was really cool. The cake even had real chocolate on it! Although it was hard chocolate which made it utterly impossible to cut.
On Saturday Reinout (the teacher who has been here for 7 years) had a halloween party planned for the students. It's the first time I've ever had a bday party before halloween. Reinout had planned to show a movie, have a dance, and lots of music and food. He asked a few students to help him set up. When he got there, there were about 30 students there and most of them were practicing a choreographed dance and singing love songs. They completely hijacked the party and turned it into a Chinese thing. It drives us crazy but this kind of thing happens a lot. Chinese people say they really want to experience a Western thing but then when it happens they say no, they want to do it their way. So the halloween party ended up being a bunch of people sitting in a room while a few people sang bad love songs badly. It may be the most bored I've ever been in China. I'd say at least others had fun but most of the Chinese students looked bored too. They also had largely terrible costumes. But it's really hard to find a good one here. I bought mine online.
I've started teaching private lessons at my place on Sunday. I'm having fun with it but it's hard to get the kids out consistently so some lessons I hardly get any kids which can be really frustrating. I hope I can get it more consistent as it goes longer. So far I taught them settlers of catan which I bought online here for about $4. They seemed to love it. I also bought Bang! which I've played with some friends.
ZZF has been helping me with the class since I can't really talk to the parents. Yesterday she stayed all day and made me a "bday" dinner. Really it wasn't different except that she made it but it was quite tasty. Food here is crazy. It costs almost the same to go to a reasonably priced restaurant as it does to buy supplies and make it yourself but obviously that wasn't the point.
I'm starting to think about my big break now. It's hard to plan until I actually know when I am free. I know I have at least 6 weeks off but I could have as many as 9. Last year Nathan came over so I always had a good idea of what I'd be doing but this year is wide open. I want to go somewhere warm, that's all I know. If anyone wants to join me let me know!
I've been playing badminton almost daily here. Sometimes I go in and wait around and no one asks to play so I leave but usually I can find a player.
That's a bit of a longish entry but I had a lot to catch up on. Tonight I'm going to Portia's house for another bday dinner. Last year when I didn't know many people yet she had me over too.
It's starting to get really cold here but the heat doesn't come on until November 15. Fortunately I have a heating unit in my place. Maybe that's why zzf comes over here more often now.
Thanks for keeping in touch with me! New pics are up on Picasa.
Wiseguy1
When I first got here it was easy to write because everything was new. Now I have to come up with individual experiences to write about although there are no shortage of those.
Dalian is the polar opposite of DY. There are small mountains everywhere and a surprisingly high number of people spoke English to us. It also has nice beaches. I planned the trip and 5 others joined me for it. So we had 4 guys and 2 girls. They wanted to do it a little more high-end than I would have but it was nice to have actual hotel rooms. Also the hotel had an awesome Japanese/Korean buffet so we ate a massive meal there when we arrived.
We discovered quite quickly that it wasn't going to work for all 6 of us to stick together. WE wanted to head down to the water which was a ways a way. The girls wanted a taxi, the guys wanted to walk. The girls decided to walk with us but after about 1 minute when we were well ahead of them we could see how it was going to work. WE made it to the beach and found a wedding setup. Darryl and I couldn't resist the chance so we made it a theme to take as many crazy wedding-style pictures together as possible over the trip.
When we were walking back we saw the girls go flying past in a taxi. That was almost the last we saw of them for 4 days. That trip the guys walked pretty much everywhere. We climbed a mountain or 2 and went to the beach and a zoo. We also discovered a partially finished pagoda. Often these things are locked up but since it wasn't finished it was wise open so we climbed the whole thing.
We saw a cool mountain we wanted to climb but as we got closer some guards stopped us and said we needed tickets. There was a massive line of people waiting to take cable cars up. As we were walking away we discovered a hidden dirt path leading up a different mountain. We took it and ended up with some awesome views for no money. This is exploring that 99.9% of Chinese people would never find.
Moving on: classes are going fairly well here. I was really annoyed a few weeks ago. We're not supposed to do work outside the school even though everyone does. A teacher at my school asked me if I'd teach some classes here. I told her how much I'd expect to get paid. She agreed so I said ok. I didn't think anything of it since it's all at my school. One day my boss asked me what I was doing in the afternoon so I told him about the class and he got quite angry about it because the class isn't "connected" to the school. In the end all the chinese people talked about it together. I don't understand the politics at all. Came back that I had to do it for 1/2 of what I agreed to. When I asked why he said because they can't charge that much since they're "connected". So I can't do it because they're not connected but they can't charge more because they are connected. Go figure. I told him it wasn't worth my time for that price. He said that either I had to work it for that price or I might end up having to do more classes at the school for nothing. He could have handled this many different ways where we would have all been happy but that's not the Chinese way. Fortunately the class is actually a lot of fun. Probably the most fun class I've ever had since they are all adults and need to learn English so they try really hard and are quite funny.
On Saturday Reinout (the teacher who has been here for 7 years) had a halloween party planned for the students. It's the first time I've ever had a bday party before halloween. Reinout had planned to show a movie, have a dance, and lots of music and food. He asked a few students to help him set up. When he got there, there were about 30 students there and most of them were practicing a choreographed dance and singing love songs. They completely hijacked the party and turned it into a Chinese thing. It drives us crazy but this kind of thing happens a lot. Chinese people say they really want to experience a Western thing but then when it happens they say no, they want to do it their way. So the halloween party ended up being a bunch of people sitting in a room while a few people sang bad love songs badly. It may be the most bored I've ever been in China. I'd say at least others had fun but most of the Chinese students looked bored too. They also had largely terrible costumes. But it's really hard to find a good one here. I bought mine online.
I've started teaching private lessons at my place on Sunday. I'm having fun with it but it's hard to get the kids out consistently so some lessons I hardly get any kids which can be really frustrating. I hope I can get it more consistent as it goes longer. So far I taught them settlers of catan which I bought online here for about $4. They seemed to love it. I also bought Bang! which I've played with some friends.
ZZF has been helping me with the class since I can't really talk to the parents. Yesterday she stayed all day and made me a "bday" dinner. Really it wasn't different except that she made it but it was quite tasty. Food here is crazy. It costs almost the same to go to a reasonably priced restaurant as it does to buy supplies and make it yourself but obviously that wasn't the point.
I'm starting to think about my big break now. It's hard to plan until I actually know when I am free. I know I have at least 6 weeks off but I could have as many as 9. Last year Nathan came over so I always had a good idea of what I'd be doing but this year is wide open. I want to go somewhere warm, that's all I know. If anyone wants to join me let me know!
I've been playing badminton almost daily here. Sometimes I go in and wait around and no one asks to play so I leave but usually I can find a player.
That's a bit of a longish entry but I had a lot to catch up on. Tonight I'm going to Portia's house for another bday dinner. Last year when I didn't know many people yet she had me over too.
It's starting to get really cold here but the heat doesn't come on until November 15. Fortunately I have a heating unit in my place. Maybe that's why zzf comes over here more often now.
Thanks for keeping in touch with me! New pics are up on Picasa.
Wiseguy1
'a friend'?
ReplyDeletethat's the only mention I get?
I thought calling you a friend was quite generous. What would you like to add?
DeleteIt was well-planned. Very kheth
DeleteDamn, Lunny... You've been demoted.
ReplyDeleteJosh, good to hear that you enjoyed your birthday. 9 weeks! That would be insane. You are almost off as much as you are working. You could come to our wedding in Cape Town near the end of Feb, you will prob still be off till then.
Keep up the good work buddy.
Take care.
I am off all of February but I'm guessing Cape Town is a little out of my price range for a Spring Festival trip. Would be fun though. Are all your plans pretty much coming together for it?
Delete