Cunjin Park

Click the pix for larger picture.

Today Brian and I went to Cunjin Park. This is the park that I have the pleasure of walking through in my daily commute to school. It's a wonderful oasis in the middle of a busy Chinese city. One of the great things about living in the tropics is the lushness of the parks. A guy was doing some tumbling and martial arts moves, and gave us a little show. We walked up to the school so Brian could see where I work, and we ran into a few students who were impressed with the handsome, towering, manly young man.

The bus ride home was more fun than usual since we had a Chinese Ricky Bobby doing his NASCAR thing with our bus. Pedal to the metal, constant horn, and lots of vehicle passing. He occasionally stopped for for passengers, but with great reluctance. I swear he had a wife in labor he was trying to get home to.

We are pondering where we want to go for the upcoming National Day holiday. We get a week off to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Wahoo! Of course, Yali has to work this weekend, and lots of kids have school on Sunday, but it will still be a week off.

We are considering a return to Guangxi province and the Guilin area.

Outwitting the Dream Police

Yay! I found a great service that allows me total internet access. Back to blogging here. I like this site better, so I will be using it. There are a few entries here from livejournal, so read that stuff first.

The tropical storm/wannabe typhoon ended up hitting us squarely, but with virtually no wind. Just lots of rain. School ran as usual. Now we are back to sweat inducing steamy weather.

This week began the Great Leap Forward To Be Able to Pronounce "R". It doesn't exist in the Cantonese language, so the students have varying degrees of ablility with this tricky sound. After showing them with scientific cartoonish drawings of a tongue pointing up, I've gotten aboout a 90% success rate at the basic "aaarh" sound. Just in time for "Talk like a Pirate Day"! This week I got them eased into it with the "air" sound. As in Mary and Karen flew to Paris with their parents, where they met their Aunt Clair at the airport and stared at an Arab eating a pear.

They also showed great musical talent singing "Country Roads", or at least the chorus part. I also gave them a lesson in the nuances of the word "dude".

The school likes me and I like it. The only problem is that there just isn't enough of me to meet the demands of 2000 kids. They all want my phone number, but I would never have a moments rest if they got hold of that. My little apartment at the school is great for showers, air conditioning and napping. I have internet and a kitchen too. I stay there one night every two weeks when I have an early class the next day, since the buses don't start early enough for me to make on time.

Tonight is go out with the Brits and Chinese for BBQ night. It's a great way to spend a steamy Saturday night.

Proxy fun

Well now this is tedious. Posting on this site requires massive internet trickeries due to scaredy cat government blockage.

Early travelers to China endured months at sea in cramped, filthy wooden ships. They ate worm infested food, drank stale water, suffered scurvy, and often died painful, terrifying deaths.

Nothing like this happened to us. Our flight from Seattle to Beijing was on time, and our seats comfy. The first hardship we faced was the same selection of movies that we had on our trip to the States 6 weeks earlier. Not “Little Miss Sunshine” again! It was also time for the beverage cart, and being the seasoned Hainan Airline passenger, I opted for the red wine, since they don’t understand the concept of cold beer. Cocktails are not offered at any price, but the wine is free. Two glasses is all I have ever managed to get from the crew, although since it is a Chinese airline, I am sure something could be arranged with a surreptitious bribe.

We then were served airplane food. Their airplane food is a few steps better than the swill served on United, and it is weevil free, however, it is airplane food. It fills the stomach, and dealing with the different packaging gives you some diversion from the fact that nobody in their right mind would actually order this in a restaurant. We did get a little cheese and cracker packet with Tillamook cheddar, and I told Brian to enjoy it since we wouldn’t be seeing any of that again for a while.

Somewhere near Beijing the attendants went around with these little guns that took your temperature remotely. Just aim the red dot at your forehead and read. The purpose was to pre select people for H1N1 quarantine. Looks like everyone was OK.

Beijing airport sucks. Our plane to Guangzhou was almost 3 hours late and WAAAAAH!

We eventually got back with no scurvy, pirates, typhoons, or mutinies. I suffered a painful back which was fixed by a very traditional method which I will relate soon.

Engrish

Here was a deserted department store with some really great Chinglish signs. I have no idea why they went out of business.

6 American Weeks

AAAAAAAARGH!
The Chinese government got into some annoying internet meddling recently which included blocking most free blogging sites like blogspot. I managed to make a few entries with a lot of proxy noodling, but couldn't do photos or video. So I will do a bunch of makeup stuff now that I am back in the land of the free internet access.
We are just completing our first full day in Seattle. The day has been sunny and in the 80's. If you had never been here, you would want to move here. If you did this based on today's weather, you would be feeling grimly surprised by Christmas. This is so unlike most of the days here in that it isn't gray, damp and dreary.
Walking down the sidewalk in Jesse's neighbor hood gave me the strange feeling that the place was deserted. Where are the teeming masses? Nobody is staring at me! The cars aren't honking and stay in their lanes and off the sidewalks!
So far I have eaten two hamburgers, pizza and guacamole. I feel fat already.

US checklist

Things to do when in the US:
Eat cheese, drink micro brews, eat Mexican food, eat pizza, eat rare beef, have cocktails with tonic, watch Youtube, pet dogs and cats, drive, look at fat people, play golf, swim in cold water, camp, watch bad American TV, use a knife and fork, eat dill pickles, raft, cross streets in an orderly manner, and marvel at all the efficiency and waste.
Of course spend tons of time loving loving all my relatives and friends.

Rainy thoughts

Loves me some tropical rain. It has been a hot and muggy day today, but it has been raining like the proverbial cow for the last hour with lots of close by lightening.
We should be coming back to the US for a few weeks at the end of the month. My employer wants me back teaching next year, and since the economy in Oregon is what economists refer to as "really shitty", it will be back to the PRC in August.
I have really enjoyed my time here. There are some annoying things, mostly related to the internet, and the fact that my laptop has Windows Vista, which has to be the Chevy Vega of operating systems.
There are so many things here that are alien. Things happen in a way that can only be described as organized chaos. The years I spent trying to figure out efficient ways of doing stuff have all been for naught. Stores and restaurants have zillions of employees. Tardiness is the norm. Trying to organize an event involving a number of people feels like herding cats. Self policing makes up most of the policing that happens here. Something surprising happens almost every day.
A lot has happened in the US in the last six months, not a lot of it good. A lot of bad things are happening to good people. I feel lucky to have made an unconventional move that actually seems to have worked.